A wise man considers a fool

Speaking of longtime Oregon bloggers, the Portland commentator who goes by the psuedonym Isaac Laquedem celebrated 20 years in the blogosphere earlier this month. He or she is resolving to post more often in the year ahead, which is great news for readers. The writing there is eminently civilized, often quite amusing, and always smart as a whip.

Currently, Laquedem has a nice analysis of the New York judge's opinion in the civil fraud case against Orange Caligula and his evil spawn. Executive summary: The decision seems unlikely to be reversed on appeal.

The judge turned to Eric Trump, whose "credibility was severely damaged when he repeatedly denied knowing that his father ever even compiled a [statement of financial condition] that valued his assets and showed his net worth 'until this case came into fruition.'" (Page 32.)  And the court kept firing salvos in his direction: "When the documentary evidence against him became overwhelming, Eric Trump reversed his previous testimony."  (Page 32.)  "Eric Trump's testimony [about appraisals] was shown to be false when he was confronted with the ample contemporaneous documentary evidence demonstrating otherwise." (Page 33.)

And then there was Donald Trump himself, whom Judge Engoron deflated in a footnote.  On page 36, the judge wrote, "Nonetheless, Donald Trump insisted that he believed Mar-a-Lago is worth 'between a billion and a billion five' today, which would require not only valuing it as a private residence, which the deed prohibits, (footnote 19), but as more than the most expensive private residence listed in the country by approximately 400%."  Footnote 19 reads, "A fact of which he is well aware, having signed the deed himself."  He concluded with this politely damning description of the former president's time on the stand: "Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial.  His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility."  (Page 37.) 

Meanwhile, Donnie is having trouble raising a bond for his appeal of the $500 million judgment against him in that case, which means that the New York attorney general may start collecting soon. It seems the insurance companies who write the bonds don't take real estate as collateral, nor are any of them buying the dictator wannabe's claims that his hideous trademark is worth billions. 

The mud-faced menace does have millions in stocks in a Charles Schwab account, but those are apparently all pledged as collateral now for an appeal bond, issued by Chubb, in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. Ms. Carroll has a judgment against the Trumpster for more than $90 million.

The Trump financial empire has always been nearly as fake as his hair and his tan, and it is under enormous strain now. Not to mention possible off-the-books debts to Russian mobsters and others that would be making matters even worse. The most dangerous man in America is desperate. He and his minor league lawyers would be fun to watch if the whole situation weren't so scary.