Is he dying of AIDS or is it brain cancer?

Who will tell us the truth about Trump�s health?

We know it won�t be Trump.

Before he became president, Trump lied about everything from his personal
wealth to his TV ratings to the number of floors in his condo towers.
Once in the White House, he started out lying about the size of his
inauguration crowd, and super-sized his lies from there.

So now that Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, who are we
going to trust for information about the state of his health?

For the very near-term, we are triangulating: There are the official
pronouncements from Trump and his White House circle, and there are
reports from outlets with good access to Trump�s orbits. We can combine
the two � and add in what we know about Covid-19 � and get a decent idea
of what might actually be happening, for the moment.

Earlier Friday morning, NBC, the New York Times and other outlets
reported that Trump was experiencing �mild symptoms� from the disease;
shortly after that, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the same
thing, on the record. After Meadows spoke, Trump�s wife Melania tweeted
that she had the same symptoms.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk toward Marine One on
September 29.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk toward Marine One on
September 29. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

But that status � where we�re able to share a common reality, shaped by a
combination of official pronouncements melded with independent reporting
� won�t last long, if at all.

Part of it is because we haven�t had a common reality for some time now.
Americans who follow the news get their news from different sources,
which shapes their perception of basic facts. Most Americans don�t follow
the news at all, and an alarming number of people get their understanding
of the world from the internet, where very sharp armchair experts sit
side by side with deranged conspiracy theorists.

And some of it is because Trump himself has conditioned us not to believe
a single thing that he, or anyone in his orbit, says.

This is the scenario � a fast-moving, potential catastrophe where we need
real faith in federal leadership � that we�ve been worrying about since
the first days of the Trump presidency, when then-White House press
secretary Sean Spicer hectored reporters and insisted that they had
falsely reported on the size of the crowd at Trump�s inauguration.

It was a petty claim, and one that was chilling because it was so easy to
debunk. If you start your presidency lying about something so
transparently false, what does that mean when you talk about stuff we
can�t see with our own eyes?
Related:

And it has continued through then, at more or less a daily rate. Trump
and his circle lie reflexively. They lie about enormously consequential
stuff, like Trump�s repeated assurances that the coronavirus wasn�t
anything to worry about, though he was privately acknowledging that it
was �deadly stuff.� Most recently, the president has repeatedly lied
about the threat of election fraud in a transparent attempt to sow doubts
about the results of November�s election.

And they lie about the smallest things. This week, Trump�s press
secretary Kayleigh McEnany falsely claimed that Amy Coney Barrett,
Trump�s nominee for the Supreme Court, was a Rhodes scholar (she didn�t
receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, but instead graduated from
Rhodes College).
President Trump held a press conference addressing news that the New York
Times obtained years of his tax returns. Sitting alongside the president
were former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former New York City Mayor
Rudy Giuliani, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on
September 27.
President Trump held a press conference addressing news that the New York
Times obtained years of his tax returns. Sitting alongside the president
were former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former New York City Mayor
Rudy Giuliani, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on
September 27. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Getting accurate information about the health of the president of the
United States has always been a problem, both because presidents and
their advisers weren�t eager to tell anyone that America�s leader may be
unwell, and because reporters around them often kept quiet.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for instance, asked photographers not to
publish images of him struggling to walk because of polio-induced
paralysis. Reporters like Lesley Stahl kept concerns about Ronald
Reagan�s mental fitness to themselves; years after leaving office, Reagan
announced that he had Alzheimers, but he never indicated whether it
affected him at the time.

Those kinds of questions about a president�s health would be nearly
impossible to keep quiet today. We�re in a much different media
environment, with a much more aggressive press, and much more access to
information.

But even now, we know that we�ve known very little about Trump�s health.
Recall, for instance, the letter Trump�s private doctor released in 2015
announcing that if Trump was elected he would �be the healthiest
individual ever elected to the presidency� � which turned out to be
dictated, word for word, by Trump himself. Or more ominously, Trump�s
unplanned and still-unexplained visit to Walter Reed hospital nearly a
year ago.

But past presidential health concerns � including Trump�s dissembling
about his own status � were also long-term problems that didn�t
necessarily have to be grappled with immediately.

Now, though, we have a real-time crisis: We�re well aware that Trump has
a disease that is particularly deadly for older, overweight men, but we
have no reason to trust anything the White House says about the state of
his health. What happens if Trump is truly incapacitated, or worse? Who
will we trust to relay that information?
President Trump boards Air Force One on his way to Bedminster, New
Jersey, for a fundraising event on October 1.
President Trump boards Air Force One on his way to Bedminster, New
Jersey, for a fundraising event on October 1. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty
Images

The one saving grace about the Trump administration�s attempt to conceal
the truth from the world, about everything, is that it has been terrible
about it. Some of the lies, like Spicer�s crowd-size fiction, can be
debunked on the spot; others are quickly surfaced by the many leakers in
and around the White House, who relay different versions than the Trump-
dictated reality to reporters. And some become clearer over time, like
Bob Woodward�s recent book Rage, which meticulously details Trump�s lies
about the early months of the pandemic using taped, on-the-record
conversations with Trump himself as the primary source.

But even top medical professionals with state-of-the-art equipment and
unlimited resources � the ones who will be caring for Trump now � run up
against the limits of knowledge when trying to assess someone�s health.
And that�s even more true with a virus that we�re still learning about,
less than a year after it surfaced in China.

And it certainly isn�t something the general public can assess on its
own. Even if Trump appears in public at some point to assure us, we won�t
have any idea what�s actually happened or happening to him.

So we can only hope that Trump tells us the truth, but there�s no reason
to think that will happen. We can also hope that reporters in and around
the White House can provide a more accurate understanding of what people
in and around the White House think is happening. But fundamentally,
we�re going to be in a haze, hoping it all works out. It�s a terrible
place to be.

https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/3bae152/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2138x1425+1+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F9e%2F91%2Fff07560a4dc698bab62e32b733d6%2F091424-n-ff-moorheadshooting1.jpg
Idris Haji-Mohamed appears for sentencing in Clay County court on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. Chris Flynn / The Forum

MOORHEAD — A Rochester, Minnesota, man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for an “execution-style” murder in Moorhead "over a car."

Clay County District Judge Jade Rosenfeldt handed down the prison sentence on Friday, Sept. 13, to Idris Abdullahi Haji-Mohamed, 29. Prosecutors and Haji-Mohamed’s defense attorneys recommended the 30-year prison sentence as part of a plea deal.

Haji-Mohamed pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder for the Sept. 10, 2021, shooting death of 32-year-old Abdi Mohamed Abdi.

It was the first of two murders Haji-Mohamed committed in less than two years, Rosendfeldt said.

“What is clear to this court is that you have no regard for the law,” the judge said to Haji-Mohamed. “You have no regard for life. You have no regard for society.”

Prosecutors said Haji-Mohamed and Ibrahim Abdiaziz Isaac, 32, of St. Cloud, traveled Sept. 10, 2021, from St. Cloud to the Fargo area, where Isaac bought a black 2015 Chrysler 200 for Haji-Mohamed.

As Isaac drove back to St. Cloud, Haji-Mohamed drove the Chrysler to a Casey’s gas station at 1702 30th Ave. S., according to court documents. From there, Haji-Mohamed followed Abdi to the Griffin Court Apartments parking lot at 17th Street South and 30th Avenue South in Moorhead, court documents said.

Once there, Haji-Mohamed got out of his car and chased Abdi on foot while shooting at Abdi, court documents said. At one point, Abdi fell to the ground, but Haji-Mohamed continued to fire, prosecutors said.

https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/6d2d0ef/2147483647/strip/true/crop/480x600+0+0/resize/840x1050!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fe4%2Fcd%2F87826a9f42aab9394ea14c63b499%2Fibrahim-isaac.jpg
Ibrahim Isaac.Contributed / Minnesota Department of Corrections

“Mr. Haji-Mohamed is an assassin,” said Clay County Attorney Brian Melton, who prosecuted the case, adding that Haji-Mohamed killed Abdi in cold blood.

Haji-Mohamed was indicted on a first-degree murder charge, a crime that carried a maximum punishment of life in prison. That charge will be dismissed.

Isaac was found guilty of first-degree felony aiding and abetting murder after prosecutors said he helped Haji-Mohamed plan the shooting. The Minnesota Supreme Court overturned that conviction, saying prosecutors didn’t prove Isaac knew Haji-Mohamed planned to kill Abdi.

The release of Isaac deterred witnesses from wanting to testify against Haji-Mohamed, Melton said. He said the 30-year sentence was fair and proper for this case.

“Our client took responsibility officially,” Haji-Mohamed’s attorney Connor Cremens said.

Haji-Mohamed’s defense attorneys initially claimed another person, Abdi Omar Abukar, killed Abdi. The defense claimed Abdi set up a drug deal between Abukar and a person named “Lucky,” but Lucky stole Abukar’s car.

Abukar was fatally shot in Minneapolis on Dec. 13, 2022

Killing Abdi was part of Abukar’s plot for revenge, the defense said. The alternate suspect was the defense’s explanation since a motive on Haji-Mohamed’s part wasn’t revealed, at least until Friday.

Haji-Mohamed told those who conducted his presentence report that he killed Abdi “over a car,” Rosenfeldt said. Melton told The Forum Haji-Mohamed didn’t give further details about the motive.

“What you did was horrific in daylight or dusk,” Rosenfeldt said in calling the killing an "execution-style" shooting.

The sentence for the Moorhead shooting will be served at the same time as the 25 ½ years Haji-Mohamed got for the Dec. 30, 2022, shooting death of 26-year-old Jeremy Ellis near U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis during a drug deal. A jury found him guilty in April on two counts of second-degree murder for that shooting, and he was sentenced in May to 25½ years in prison.

Haji-Mohamed was out of jail for the Moorhead shooting after posting a $1 million bond when he killed Ellis.

Haji-Mohamed will get credit for almost a year and a half that he has already served. If he doesn’t commit any crimes or violate the terms of his probation, he could be released from prison in 20 years.

When asked if he had anything to say, Haji-Mohamed told the judge, “No, thank you, Your Honor.”

Rosenfeldt said he hopes Haji-Mohamed will reflect on his actions while in prison. There is no sentence that can make the family of his victims whole, she said.

“The victims in this case deserve something different if you are ever released,” she said.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/moorhead/rochester-man-sentenced-to-30-years-for-execution-style-murder-in-moorhead

>MOORH

Life in a Republican Red State.

Trumpers are obsessed with black people. Trump's erotic fantasies are well
known.

That's what happens when Trump accepts blacks into his party, it corrupts
them because all Trumpers are like that.

Must be some of the 25% of black men under 25 who support Trump. All of his
supporters are dirtbags.

Lesson learned: If you support Trump, you're a dirtbag.

--

"Trump was destroyed in the debate by a black woman.
He must be stupid as a stone!"
- Laura Loomer, Racist Jew