Return with me, friends, to those innocent, carefree days before the world was thrown into turmoil. Specifically, before the verdict in former and would-be future President Trump’s hush-money for election-interference trial was announced Thursday morning.
Before that fateful day, Trump had been campaigning, when able, on a platform of villainy.
He’d invited rappers and accused murderers Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow (out on bail) on stage with him at a campaign appearance in the Bronx. Speaking at a Libertarian Party gathering, he promised to commute the life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, thrown in prison for creating and operating an online illegal drug and hitman marketplace.
He’d also promised to pardon “a large portion” of the more than 600 violent Jan. 6 insurrections.
In addition, he’d repeatedly expressed his intention to weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies and secretly promised to hand our clean air and water over to polluting oil corporations for a $1 billion campaign donation. He’d praised evil characters like Hannibal Lector, Al Capone, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (and, reportedly, Adolf Hitler).
During the trial, he made a habit of bad-mouthing New York Judge Juan Merchan and lied that his daughter, Loren Merchan, had posted an unflattering image of him on the platform formerly known as Twitter. (Loren Merchan is a professional political fundraiser, sort of like Ginny Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, though there’s no evidence that Merchan ever suggested overthrowing the results of a free and fair election.)
He'd claimed, without evidence (as usual), that illegal immigrants were entering the U.S. and “building an army.”
And on Thursday morning, a former producer of “The Apprentice” revealed that Trump had used the N-word during the making of the series.
The last public lie Trump told before the verdict (as far as I know) was that Judge Merchan was so corrupt that he told the jury that they “do not need unanimity” to convict Trump. (Legitimate news organizations quickly examined the claim and found it to be incredibly false — and dangerous.)
This is the man Republicans chose as their standard bearer.
This is the man the evangelical world has put forward as their new savior.
This is the man who was convicted of 34 felony counts on Thursday.
I was stunned when I heard the verdict. For one thing, I didn’t expect it to arrive so quickly. Even though the evidence seemed clear to me, such a weighty and consequential matter would surely require weeks to resolve.
I’d also read the conjecture that one member of the jury was thought to be a Trump supporter. “My juror,” Trump called him. One dissenter was all it would take to lead to a mistrial.
I was prepared to be disappointed. It’s not like Trump has never skated before.
So when I heard the verdict, when it sunk in, the skies parted. Rays of light bounced off the wings of eagles and an angelic choir sang out to the universe: “Hallelujah!”
And though I know how serious a matter it is, and how sobering and solemn it should be for a former president to be convicted of felonies, I still couldn’t help thinking:
As for Trump’s supporters, those who have stood by him through previous controversies and crises:
They all doubled-down. Again.
Republican legislators rushed to criticize not only the verdict, but the judicial process, the court, the judge, the jury, the city of New York, President Biden — in essence, the rule of law. It’s everyone’s fault except that of the man who slept with the porn star and signed the checks to keep her quiet.
House Speaker and lickspittle Mike Johnson called the trial a “sham” — that’s a word we’re going to hear a lot — and suggested his buddies on the Supreme Court should intervene. “I know many of them personally,” he said. No, nothing rigged about having his good friends the Supremes, three of whom were appointed by Trump, bypass the appeal process and override 12 impartial jurors.
Ten U.S. senators announced that, in protest of the verdict, they’re going to stop doing their jobs. (Any excuse, I guess.)
Even former Vice President Mike Pence, thrown under the bus and tossed up toward the gallows by Trump, quickly came to his defense. “No one is above the law, but our courts must not become a tool to be used against political opponents,” said the man who used to nod approvingly as crowds chanted, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
And from the most unhinged segment of Trump world, as we should have expected, came calls for violence; insurrection; riots and lynchings. Trump’s armchair warriors are busy searching for the names and addresses of the jurists, so they can, at best, threaten them — at worst, murder them.
When I heard about Trump’s comfort with the N-word, I knew it wouldn’t change anything. If “grab ’em by the pussy” didn’t do it; if cheating on his first wife with his second, on his second with his third, on his third with a porn star didn’t do it; if stiffing the working people he’d hired on his building projects didn’t do it; if more than 1 million Americans dead on his watch didn’t do it; if putting our national security at risk by mishandling classified documents didn’t do it; a little racism wouldn’t change his supporters’ minds.
These 34 criminal convictions aren’t likely to change much, either. Before the verdict was announced Thursday morning, polls told us: “Overall, two-thirds (67%) said a guilty verdict would make no difference to their vote; three-quarters (76%) said the same of a not guilty verdict.”
It’s a sad realization, that some Americans are so far gone, so desperate, so detached from reality, so something beyond understanding, that they’ll vote for a man whose official biography now must include the term “convicted felon.”
They’re not all like that, of course. Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan responded thusly to the verdict: “Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
There was a time when that would have been the standard Republican response. Instead, Hogan was met with a firewall of vitriol.
He represents a distinct minority in his party.
It doesn’t have to be this way. As unlikely as it seems, wouldn’t it be refreshing if others joined Hogan? I imagine Sen. Marco Rubio standing before the press and announcing, “I looked in the mirror last night and realized that I was supporting the worst man in history for president. He’s a liar, a racist, a cheat, and I withdraw my support. I’ll be voting for President Biden.”
It would be so welcome to hear former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal say, “I told you once that we need to stop being the stupid party, and there you go nominating Trump. I’ll be voting for Biden.”
Come on, guys. If this isn’t the last straw, what could be? What is left? Would Trump actually have to kill someone on Fifth Avenue? Would even that do it?
When the shock dies down, perhaps more will wise up. Perhaps the weight of evidence of Trump’s unfitness for office just needed one more straw.
There’s still hope.
…..
Overflow:
Trump’s supporters are calling for violence:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-trial-live-closing-arguments-082011973.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-jurors-dox-miserable/
They’re encouraged, aided and abetted, by every single Republican official who attributes the trial and its verdict, the product of a state court system, to President Biden. There’s not one shred of evidence to link Biden to the process.
They know they’re lying. They’re doing so for political purposes, to try to salvage an electoral win, and in service to the worst, most corrupt and deceitful public figure of our times.
A Bible verse comes to mind: What does it a profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul?
One juror was believed to be a Trump supporter. Trump called him “my juror”:
He used the N-word:
https://deadline.com/2024/05/trump-the-apprentice-n-word-bill-pruitt-1235944516/
Trump either lied about his own defense or was too stupid to understand it:
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-brad-smith-testify-trump-trial-907236056289
False info was spread about jury instructions in Trump’s election-interference trial; imagine that:
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-trial-jury-unanimous-verdict-679053515836
No, the judge didn’t say that:
House Speaker Mike Johnson says his buddies on the Supreme Court should step in and overrule the 12 jurors who determined Trump’s guilt:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/speaker-mike-johnson-calls-supreme-161845245.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Trump’s supporters say that the result of the trial was the product of a “kangaroo court;” that charging Trump, putting him on trial, allowing him a defense and even the promised appeal is somehow an illegitimate process. They also say that when Trump is reelected, he should send police out to arrest Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and a host of other political foes.
“The trial was rigged” will join a long list of lies that have become the platform of the Republican Party: “The election was rigged”; “Biden tried to assassinate Trump”; “the Jan. 6 protesters weren’t violent”; “climate change isn’t real”; “Russia is our friend”; “whites are the real victims of racism”; “tax cuts for the rich trickle down to the middle class”; “public schools are swamped with communism and Marxism”; all designed to keep people misinformed, outraged and beholden to the GOP.
Very interesting that the publisher and distributor of the election-conspiracy fauxumentary “2000 Mules” has pulled it from distribution and apologized to one of the film’s subjects, who the film accused of ballot fraud. It seems like our court system is actually pretty effective.
https://www.boston25news.com/news/politics/publisher-2000-mules/4X75WNNBGHMMB4NYAIYB47SG6U/
Trump putting our national security at risk is just another day in Trump world:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65852286
Conservatives keep saying that liberals want to start a civil war. But conservatives are the only ones talking about it:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tower-protesters-warn-civil-war-compare-donald-trump-jesus-1906985
It’s hard to beat the original, but these three make it their own:
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Of course, do we even question that he uses the "N-word" on a regular basis, when considering his behavior with the Central Park Five and his racist real estate practices?