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The chances of Mr Trump standing for election in 2024, are becoming less and less by the day. mainly because of the court cases, which are about to hit him.He has far less chance than 50% of ever seeing public office again, already, by February of 2021, the chances have dropped to around 10%Being led into court, humbled, with his cap off in respect, may well be a future photograph of the former president.Below is just an inkling of what will be happening over the course of the next couple of years. He might have the intention of returning, either as a republican, or the leader of a new political party, possibly named “MAGGA PATRIOTS”. His followers, of who there are still many, may wish to see him return, like a “Second coming”. People who find politics incredibly boring, and see him as entertainment value, to keep them amused, will be looking forward to it. But the reality is, that he only needs to lose one major court case, and he won’t be allowed to run for office again.This of course, will allow the Republican Party to side step the problem of his controlling them, in two or four years time. They will be able to blame the Democrats, for the court proceedings, whilst hopefully maintaining their membership.The following legal events have taken place through January, and February, There will be many more to follow.The legal use of his tax returns seal his fate. Which explains why he has been so desperate to keep them private. It may result in his becoming a virtual prisoner of Mar-A-Lago, where he won’t be allowed to be arrested by another State, until of course the Governor of Florida, who is massively pro Trump, is replaced.Below is just the start of legal proceedings against him, There will be a lot more to follow.Future “court proceedings so far?”…1=“During Mr Trumps second impeachment…They played a tape of Mr Trump’s call asking Georgia’s secretary of state to find “11,780 votes, which is one more than we have”, in an attempt to flip its election results. The call is now the subject of a criminal investigation in Georgia, to name one.”2=Trump and Giuliani Sued by NAACP and Congressman Over Capitol Riot…Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, have been accused of conspiring to incite the violent riot at the US Capitol, in a legal action filed under a historic law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act.The lawsuit was brought on Tuesday 16th February 2021, by Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and the eminent civil rights organization the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).It comes three days after Trump was acquitted by the US Senate, on a charge of inciting the 6th January insurrection, only for the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who voted to acquit, to point out that presidents are “not immune” to being held accountable by criminal or civil litigation.The lawsuit by Rep. Bennie Thompson and the NAACP against Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers is a civil lawsuit that the plaintiffs say needs to happen to make the defendants responsible for the insurrection and keep it from happening again.The suit alleges…That Trump, Giuliani and the extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, conspired to incite the attack on the Capitol with the goal of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election.It argues that they therefore violated a law often referred to as the Ku Klux Klan Act, passed in 1871, in response to Klan violence and intimidation preventing members of Congress in the Reconstruction south from carrying out their constitutional duties. The NAACP, founded in 1909, says the statute was designed to protect against conspiracies.3=The Supreme Court declined a request from the former president, to withhold his tax records from the Manhattan district attorney after New York state prosecutors sought his personal and corporate tax returns.The move serves a post-presidency defeat to Mr Trump, who has for years battled to keep his tax records private, and paves the way for a New York grand jury to review his long-sought financial records. This may well lead to court action being taken against him with regard to excess tax avoidance.Trumps tax records are now in the possession of New York prosecutors after a years-long battle by the former president to keep them secret.The District Attorney’s office obtained the records and a number of other documents, on Monday 22nd February, only hours after the Supreme Court denied a move by Trump attorneys to keep them private.A source explains, that there are millions of pages of documents from January 2011 to August 2019 including tax filings, financial statements, work papers, and contracts relating to the preparation of the tax returns.The documents won't be limited to just tax returns, but also, the accountants work papers and engagement letters.New York DA Cyrus Vance, is investigating if the former president, or the Trump Organization, engaged in tax fraud, insurance fraud, or other schemes.The documents were handed over by accounting firm Mazars USA which has a longstanding working relationship with Donald Trump.They will not be made public as they are subject to grand jury secrecy rules, but if criminal charges are filed then relevant portions will be included in court documents as evidence.The future legal actions against him, will shatter his hopes of returning to his re-election dream.HIs taxation problems…The legal investigation…Investigating potential financial fraud, and whether Trump and the Trump Organization manipulated property values in order to receive loans and reduce property taxes,The accusation…Basically, that his tax returns show that with his properties, he was either claiming that they were of lower value than they actually were, Allowing him to pay less tax than he should have. Also, he was claiming that the properties were of far higher value, than they actually are, to gain excessive tax aid. Raising and lowering property value to suit his tax needs, is a form of tax avoidance, and the legal authorities of Cities such as New York, see it as a federal crime.

There’s only 6 of 51 that have reported so far, which is a bit premature with 45 outstanding. Some aren’t for a while, for example California has a deadline that’s not until 11 Dec, and 4 don’t even have a specific deadline.Even then, the electors don’t vote until 14 Dec.As of today 13 Nov this is how it stands, which 28 out of of 538 seems insufficient for conceding on an elector basis.Trump 22South Carolina Trump 1,385,103 Biden 1,091,541 (9 electoral votes)Oklahoma Trump 1,020,280 Biden 503,890 (7 electoral votes)South Dakota Trump 261,043 (Biden 150,471 (3 electoral votes)Wyoming Trump 193,559 (Biden 73,491) (3 electoral votes)Biden 6Delaware Biden 296,268 Trump 200,603 (3 electoral votes)Vermont Biden 242,820 Trump 112,704 (3 electoral votes)For the above deadlinesSouth Carolina 11 Nov State Board of Canvassers meets to canvass votes, certify results and order any necessary recounts for state-level offices.Oklahoma 10 Nov The State Election Board shall use such county returns to certify the results of such election for all state officers and questions after 5 p.m. on Tuesday next succeeding the election.South Dakota 10 Nov Last day for convening the state board of canvassers.Wyoming 11 Nov State Canvassing Board meets to certify state abstract.Delaware 10 Nov At 10:00 a.m. all canvassing committees (statewide, county, senatorial, and representative) must meet to tally returns.Vermont 5 Nov Board of Canvass meets in Superior Court to certify the results of the November 3, 2020 General Election.Other example deadlines in the futureNew Jersey 8 Dec Deadline for Meeting of Board of State Canvassers to Certify General Election Results.California: 11 Dec Last day for the Secretary of State to prepare, certify, declare, and file a statement of the vote from the compiled election returns and post to the Secretary of State's website.Rhode Island n/a The state board shall immediately, after the result has been ascertained, furnish to each candidate elected a certificate of that candidate's electionLouisiana apparently has missed its date of 10 Nov The secretary of state shall verify and compile the results of the election for all candidates, proposed constitutional amendments, and recall elections based upon the compilation of the votes transmitted to him by the clerks of court from the compiled statements by the parish boards of election supervisors. ... The compilation and verification shall be completed and the results thereof shall be announced on the secretary of state's website not later than 12:00 noon on the seventh day after the election.Next up is Mississippi 13 Nov Deadline for County Election Commissions to transmit to the Secretary of State their counties’ General Election returns, including their certified recap sheets and the total number of votes cast in the county for each candidate.

The usual answers you'll see here are all good options.Gettysburg marked the end of the Army of Northern Virginia's ability to take the strategic offensive. From that loss to the very end, Lee was limited to reacting to the operations of his Union counterparts. The Army of Northern Virginia never recovered from the losses suffered there.Vicksburg marked the successful conquest of the entire Mississippi River, and consequently the severing of the trans-Mississippi Confederacy (Arkansas, Texas) from the eastern Confederacy.Antietam, although a tactical draw on the battlefield, resulted in a sea change to Union war policy. Before Antietam, the war was about restoration of the federal Union, plain and simple. After Antietam, the Union war effort included the emancipation of nearly four million slaves held in bondage throughout the Confederacy.But I'm not going to pick one of those. I am going with one of the dark horse candidates. The most important battle of the Civil War was...The Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, fought in February of 1862.In order to get a complete understanding of Fort Donelson and the impact it had on the Civil War, you need to understand the strategic picture in the Western Theater of the war towards the end of 1861 and into early 1862.The strategic picture in the West on the eve of the Fort Donelson Campaign, early February 1862Specifically, the role of Kentucky is critical. Kentucky, as a slave state, began the Civil War by officially declaring neutrality in the conflict. Governor Beriah Magoffin was a slaveholder with deep Southern sympathies, and he responded to Lincoln's call for volunteers in the wake of Fort Sumter with a curt, "No deal." Kentucky's legislature was solidly Unionist, so the state itself would not be seceding.From April until early September 1861, this tenuous neutrality was preserved. For the Confederates, you need only look at a map to see why this stance was advantageous to them. Kentucky being neutral essentially foreclosed a wide swath of territory from being used as an avenue for invasion down the Mississippi River and/or into middle Tennessee. For the Federals, they deemed Kentucky's staying in the Union to be of paramount importance. If Kentucky seceded, that would allow the Rebels to occupy the south shore, and essentially close off to commercial shipping, the Ohio River.Unlike in the East, where railroad lines dominated strategy, out West it was the vast river networks that dictated strategic considerations.The situation of military command and organization at this time is also important to consider.On the Confederate side, the military situation was difficult. In command of all Confederate forces west of the Appalachians was Albert Sidney Johnston, himself a Kentuckian by birth. Johnston had adopted Texas as his home state, and had recently made a harrowing trek across the Southwest to return to the east to take up a role in the Confederate army. An old West Point buddy of Jefferson Davis, there was never any real doubt that Johnston would be given one of the toughest assignments in the new Confederate army.Specifically, Johnston was tasked with defending the vast frontier between West Virginia and Missouri for the Confederacy. This included preventing the Federals from using their "brown water" naval forces to take control of the Mississippi and other major waterways of the area under his command. To complete this tall task, Johnston had command of less than 50,000 men. His advantages, at least to start, was the unity of his command over the whole theater, the interior lines his forces enjoyed, the good lateral railroads in the region which could facilitate quick reinforcement of pressure points, and, most importantly, Kentucky neutrality, which foreclosed many logical avenues of approach by Union forces in his sector.On the Union side, the advantages were, of course, numbers and the aforementioned "brown water" navy, the Western Gunboat Flotilla(s) which could be used to raid up and down the waterways of the West, once those waterways were opened to such raids. Their command situation, on the other hand, was a jumbled mess.In the Ohio River area was the command of Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell, and to the west of that, around the area of the Mississippi and the Missouri, was Brigadier General Henry W. Halleck's department. Both of these officers were overly cautious, pretentious, and jealous of their own command prerogatives. The disunity in the command structure and the jealous and ambitious nature of the two men made cooperation between them unlikely, at best. Fortunately for the Union cause, one of Halleck's chief subordinate officers was a man by the name of Ulysses S. Grant, who was neither cautious nor prone to jealousy and connivance.In September 1861, a small change in the military situation resulted in enormous political and strategic changes in the theater. Specifically, Confederate Major General Leonidas Polk, in command of Johnston's left flank over by the Mississippi River, made the momentous decision to send some of his troops across the Kentucky border in order to occupy and fortify a strong position at Columbus. The bluffs at that place rose 180 feet above the river, offering a nearly impregnable platform from which to prevent any incursion down the river. The Tennessee and Arkansas shorelines offered nothing of the sort, which Polk considered as leaving Memphis, Tennessee exposed to a quick naval thrust.Once Columbus, Kentucky was occupied by Confederate troops, events moved quickly. The Kentucky legislature immediately demanded the evacuation of Columbus, which Polk failed to comply with. Ulysses Grant, then posted at the small river town of Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, moved immediately to occupy Paducah, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Tennessee River. The Kentucky legislature then demanded that Grant leave the state. He did not.Seeing that their neutrality had been violated, and a return to the status quo likely impossible, the Kentucky legislature ordered the American flag run up the state capital as a pledge of loyalty to the Union. In one fell swoop, the Confederates had turned Kentucky from an unwitting ally (insofar as their neutrality prevented the Federals from using Kentucky territory to invade Tennessee) to an enemy. All kinds of strategic options opened up to the Yankees, including the operations that would eventually come to pass. All for a bastion on the Mississippi that would never be tested in combat, and only be in Rebel hands for a matter of months. Johnston, who in all likelihood was in the dark as to Polk's decision to violate Kentucky neutrality, nevertheless had to accept the new strategic picture and adapt to it.His response was a general advance into southern Kentucky in order to occupy the strongest points available and create as large a buffer zone as possible to prevent Union incursions into Tennessee. His left (western) flank was secure enough, about 12,000 men posted on the bluffs of Columbus overlooking the Mississippi, along with nearly 130 cannon. He posted his center, about 22,000 men under Simon Bolivar Buckner, at Bowling Green, which Buckner immediately began to fortify. In the east, the security of the Cumberland Gap and the east-west railroad that ran through it was paramount, so he posted 4,000 men under George B. Crittenden along the winding Cumberland River in eastern Kentucky. Finally, he posted another 4,000 men under Lloyd Tilghman to defend the two fortifications the Confederacy had constructed along the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers where they wound their way into Tennessee.These fortifications were Forts Henry and Donelson. Both were begun after the start of hostilities but before the violation of Kentucky's neutrality. This meant that some more favorable positions in southern Kentucky had to be ruled out of consideration at the time. Fort Henry, in particular, suffered from that fact. It was situated on a low plain that was subject to floodwaters, and was designed purely to defend the river against naval attack, not to defend against a joint army-navy operation. Donelson, by contrast, was sited on a high bluff overlooking the Cumberland, and could be fortified on the land side in case of an infantry attack.It is clear, both from Johnston's initial deployment of his forces in the theater and the way he responded to Grant's operation against those forts, that he woefully misjudged the threat presented by the rivers. Shelby Foote has described the presence of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers as "a double-barrel shotgun pointed right at his (Johnston's) chest," yet it seems clear from the above that Johnston did not identify them as such. For most of his time occupying the Kentucky line, he never stationed more than 4,000 troops in the vicinity of the forts, and even when it became clear that they were the target of a major Federal operation, he neglected to send more than 8,000 men as reinforcements.By contrast, Grant immediately seized upon the opportunity afforded by the river approach. By successfully taking or reducing Henry and Donelson, Grant could effectively bypass the strongest points of Johnston's line, at Columbus and Bowling Green. The fall of Donelson and Henry would render the defense of almost all of central Tennessee untenable, and result in the evacuation of Nashville. Grant began agitating against Halleck to let him try that very thing as soon as he identified the weakness.Halleck, always mindful of his position and loathe to put his reputation at risk, regularly stymied Grant's request. He saw himself as being in competition with Buell for overall command in the West, once Washington woke up to the reality that a unified command structure in that theater was needed. He was inclined to take very few risks that might jeopardize his chances at getting that command. This changed when troops under George H. Thomas, one of Buell's subordinates, won the relatively minor battle at Mill Springs in the middle of January 1862. Suddenly, to Halleck, it appeared that Buell might have the better record, and have the edge in obtaining overall command of the West. Halleck needed a success of his own, so he finally gave the nod to Grant to begin his operation against Fort Henry.Grant moved quickly and decisively, as would become his custom. Taking two divisions of about 17,000 men, he moved by river down the Tennessee to begin the reduction of Fort Henry. Grant had planned for the operation to include a naval attack by the gunboats of Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, supported by an infantry assault down both banks of the river. As things turned out, the river was in flood stage and several parts of Fort Henry were under water. Tilghman, the Confederate commander, sent away most of his infantry to Fort Donelson and put up only a halfhearted defense with the heavy guns on hand. The Union gunboats were more than capable of dealing with them, and Tilghman surrendered to Grant after only a few hours resistance on February 6, 1862.Almost immediately, Grant commenced in demonstrating to Johnston his shortsightedness on the importance of the forts. Grant ordered Foote to send a force of gunboats down the Tennessee River, destroying shipping and railroad bridges as they went, as far as they could. As events played out, this impromptu naval force was able to steam all the way to the headwaters of the Tennessee, at Florence in northern Alabama, where the river was not deep enough to navigate. In the process, they demolished several Rebel steamships and railroad bridges.On February 7, Johnston (who was at Bowling Green with the bulk of his command) realized belatedly what the loss of Fort Henry meant to his defensive line. He realized that if Grant was able to capture Fort Donelson and open up the Cumberland River, his position at Bowling Green would not just be untenable, it would be cut off entirely. Despite all the work put into fortifying Bowling Green, Johnston ordered 12,000 men to Fort Donelson for the defense of that point, and moved the remainder back to Nashville. Knowing that the loss of Fort Henry and the Tennessee River meant that Columbus would be outflanked, he ordered the abandonment of that place as well.And so, in short order and with the loss of only 21 men killed and wounded and fewer than 100 men captured at Fort Henry, Johnston's entire Kentucky line, manned by a sum total of 42,000 men, had to be given up. Johnston, in fairness, accepted this blow with grace. He ordered the aforementioned reinforcements to Fort Donelson, an odd move considering he believed the fort would fall to Union gunboats as had Henry, and made sure to tell his subordinates in command to abandon the fort rather than get caught within it.This begs other questions of Johnston's leadership. Firstly, if he believed that Donelson would fall simply from Federal naval bombardment alone, why did he reinforce Donelson with so much of his infantry? And if he sent that infantry to contain Grant's own infantry to give Donelson's gunners a fighting chance against the Union gunboats, why did he not send more? Lastly, why did he deem it more important to command the retreat from Bowling Green to Nashville in person, but not the impending fight at Fort Donelson? The officers who he had sent to Donelson would put in one of the all-time worst performances by commanders of either side during the war, which of course Johnston couldn't have known beforehand. Even so, his choice to leave the fight at Donelson to subordinates is perplexing.On the Union side, Grant faced similar tough decisions, but he faced them with has characteristic calm and determination. At the time Fort Henry fell, Grant had about 17,000 infantry with him, as well as Foote's gunboat squadron. Fort Donelson was about a dozen miles to the east, on the west bank of the Cumberland River, with about 5,000 men as its garrison. Grant expected Johnston to reinforce Donelson, well aware that its loss would mean the evacuation of Nashville and most of central Tennessee. In spite of the fact that he would need to approach and reduce a strong position against perhaps even numbers, or more men than he had with him, Grant decided to move against Donelson. On the 6th of February, the same day that Henry fell, he wired Halleck (who was at St. Louis) and told him he was moving on Donelson. His message gave the impression that he had already begun the operation so as to prevent Halleck's natural caution from leading him to prevent the move.Between February 6 and 12, when Grant's forces arrived opposite the fort, Donelson received the reinforcements that Johnston had sent, bringing the garrison up to about 15,000 men. Also during that time, the fort underwent no less than FIVE command changes as officers of various rank and seniority took command in their steads. The overall commander at the time combat operations commenced was Brigadier General John B. Floyd, a native Virginian politician who had served as Secretary of War under President James Buchanan. Floyd had performed poorly in western Virginia in 1861, and Jeff Davis had sent him west to serve under Johnston. Preparations to meet Grant on the land side of the fort were made, but by this time it was woefully late for such efforts. Grant, for his part, endeavored to better his own odds of success by having Foote ferry another division of his from Cairo to the Donelson area. This brought his strength to over 25,000 men. The stage was set for the Battle of Fort Donelson.The battle itself is less important than the run up to it and the consequences from it. Suffice it to say, Floyd did exactly what Johnston had told him NOT to do, and got bottled up against the Cumberland River. He sent his second-in-command, Gideon Pillow, to lead an attack against Grant's right wing in order to open up the main road leading south in order to gain an escape route. Pillow caught Grant napping and actually accomplished that goal, but at the height of success, he made the gobsmackingly stupid decision to retire to the Confederate works. Having lost the possibility of escape, Floyd's thoughts turned to self-preservation. He turned over command to Pillow and caught a steamship to Nashville. Pillow followed suit. Nathan Bedford Forrest said, "To hell with this" and led his cavalry on a daring ride out of the fort along the flooded river road. Simon Bolivar Buckner was left holding the bag, and had to accept the terms of unconditional surrender from his old pal Grant.By any definition, Donelson was a catastrophe for the Confederacy. In a single blow, the Confederacy lost southern Kentucky and central Tennessee, including Nashville. Federal gunboats could raid as far south as Alabama. Johnston's army began a long retreat that didn't stop until it reached Corinth, Mississippi. 15,000 Confederate troops were lost to imprisonment and parole that would possibly have made the difference a few months later, along the banks of the Tennessee at a place called Shiloh Church.That whole swath of Tennessee in between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers was lost to the Confederacy at Fort Donelson. They spent much of the next two years trying to get it back.Never before or after would so much territory be lost from a single battle, nor so much strategic initiative be gained. Fort Donelson secured Ulysses S. Grant's reputation, which was a damned good thing, considering what came next. Namely, Henry Halleck was promoted to command of the entire Western Theater and realized that Grant, not Buell, was his most dangerous rival. In March 1862, Halleck tried to get Grant removed from command based upon trumped up charges of insubordination and a healthy dose of rumor about Grant's drinking, and it almost worked. It was Grant's reputation as a fighting general, won so dearly at Fort Donelson, that convinced Abraham Lincoln, "I cannot spare this man; he fights!"