Trump Guilty!
Please Ignore the Genocide in Progress in Gaza
Trump guilty! A convicted felon! “No one is above the law” in America! Hooray!
Sorry, I can’t join the celebration. I’m not a Donald Trump fan and I wouldn’t vote for him as the neighborhood dogcatcher (Trump is no fan of pets), let alone as POTUS, but everyone knew Trump was guilty of paying off Stormy Daniels. The “very stable genius” was just too dumb to do it openly. Just pay her $130K to keep her mouth shut. Why the (illegal) machinations to hide the money?
I very much doubt Trump enthusiasts will love their man less because he’s a convicted felon. A few may love him more. Perhaps a few fence-straddlers may choose another candidate (RFK Jr or maybe Jill Stein) if they’re really disturbed by this conviction. Yet Trump remains in the lead in critical swing states that will decide this year’s election.
Meanwhile, as the system spends millions to prosecute Trump for bribing a porn star, President Joe Biden and his administration is enabling a genocide in Gaza. Which crime is bigger?
In prosecuting and convicting an ex-president, the system has created a new precedent. Which ex-president will be prosecuted next, and for what crimes? Probably petty ones like bribing a porn star. It certainly won’t be for crimes against humanity, like enabling a genocide.
Readers, what do you think? Did Trump get his just deserts? Or was it all just a sham, a show trial, injustice instead of justice?
Certainly, Trump won’t do prison time. As an ex-president, he’s entitled to 24/7/365 protection by the Secret Service, which isn’t going to happen in a jail cell. House arrest at Mar-a-Lago? Ankle bracelet?
Once again, America is all circus, no bread. In that sense, perhaps Trump really is qualified to be POTUS, convicted criminal or not.
There are so many laws on the books because they are the toolkit that those in power use as needed against perceived enemies. Trump got busted in a Blue Team state, and if the same trial had been held in Texas he would have been acquitted. Sufficient scrutiny of any wealthy person in the country would reveal illegalities, but that almost never happens to people with lots of money and good lawyers unless they cross other, richer people. It is not a justice system, it is a system of selective prosecution. Ask the peaceful protesters who got thrown in jail recently.
Both candidates are a blight on humanity, and either one will exacerbate the ongoing disasters. But since the initial selection process for candidates is out of the hands of voters, we are only going to get horrible choices (a choice between Cholera or Gonorrhea, in Julian Assange's words).
It's difficult to care at this point - the decision was inevitable from the outset. Likely the same as the inevitable appeal based on trial irregularities, the court's instruction to the jury, and so on. The goal of getting a conviction is both for the campaign season and for stopping him, if elected, via the 14th amendment - no matter the decision inevitably overturned on an appeal (delayed until after January 2024).
What I am concerned about is the international response to this circus. The U.S. has now shown itself capable of seizing foreign assets held in U.S. banks, supporting genocide, and now using its legal system against its political opponents. We are a rogue nation - and a foreign leader (e.g., Putin, Xi), in a moment of grave crisis, could not and would not believe anything a US diplomat or president told them. That is terrifying.