I have no clue how the GOP went this insane. Lindsay Graham was spot on in 2015 “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.”
Well, word has it that The Donald has some dirt on ol' Lindsey, which is why the senate's least closeted homo immediately kowtowed to him shortly thereafter.
If former presidents get lifetime protection from the Secret Service, how do they handle that if he's in jail temporarily? Or, longer if convicted? Can the DA's negotiate, that if he agrees not to run for president again they'll drop charges or reduce them?
Or, maybe that protection goes away if he's sent to jail? I don't really know the details of how protection is assigned.
It's not like jails are insecure places. I imagine they just chill outside his cell and read a book, like any other prison guard. Not a chance, for several reasons: There's no promise Trump can make that he can be trusted to keep. There's no way to enforce "you can't run for office," either in law or in realpolitik It would be an explicit admission that the prosecution was political, which is the exact opposite of the message they're trying to send.
I am pretty sure each jail or prison cell does not have a guard outside it. And, maybe I watch too many movies and TV, but I think lots of people are murdered in jail and prison every year? Well, I certainly don't trust Trump to keep promises, but aren't deals with prosecutors usually in writing? Or, are all the deals they normally make with only "trustworthy" criminals?
Well I don't think we should let Trump hang out in the yard or anything. Mexicans got on boots. He'll be perfectly safe in ad seg. Yeah, but those deals are backed by legal consequences for violating the terms. Not running for office isn't a term you can put in a plea deal, and even if you could, Trump's whole thing is undermining the rule of law and getting his lackeys to refuse to hold him accountable.
The volatility of this almost guarantees this gets some kind of pardon or suspended sentence. This isn't Napoleon, but its also not worth the headache. There is zero discussion of this impacting him running, or him not accepting the nomination. That is simply not a thing. Dems welcome it, and it would validate the allegations that it's political. Trumps running, and if he wins, he can worm his way out of it. If he doesnt....
Is that Melania? I can't really tell because of the glasses, and I thought she wasn't having anything to do with him since he lost the election. Remember when ex-presidents vanished after they were out of office? This guy is like a booger stuck to your finger, that you try to flick off, and he just gets stuck to another one. How many Americans do you think would REALLY care about all of Trump's alleged crimes if he'd just shut the fuck up and stayed in Mar a Lago? Really, even if the DOJ and all the others decided to just leave him alone, most of the Trump haters would probably have moved onto something else by now, like Greg Abbott or DeSantis.
The thing is....there's no successor to the MAGA movement. If he quietly retired, most of these investigations would conclude with a "yeah, and? so what?" And a pardon. We could all conclude justice was served, and move on, and whoever was the focal point of the GOP would consume all the attention. But, Trump has to be the center of it all, and we are seeing the consequences of that. These proceedings now take on a whole other level, because it involves a candidate. Trump is a movement, and the movement hijacks any infrastructure it finds useful. Punishing the folks responsible for that movement is in everyone's best interest, because by and large, the hijacking and crimes were egregious and cannot become normal. He keeps making things worse, because he eludes accountability and because he's painted himself into a corner. It's all about him, so there's no one he can hand the reins to, and there's no one he can throw under the various buses. His only chance is this election, and while the nomination is a lock, the election simply isn't. There is no way he beats Biden in the general, and I wouldn't like his odds of beating Harris. If he'd shut the fuck up, his math changes. He seems incapable of it, and of the four proceedings, at least one of those judges will add in witness intimidation, contempt, etc. And is daring him to try it. Also, the GA breach shit will have some of his minions go to jail. So, the warning is loud and clear: no future in working for him. I think with the billions he and his circle made, he sort of has to keep going. The investigations running now almost seem to be a hedge against some financial inquiries thst he would be truly fucked to confront. The DOJ seems content to pursue these inquires and let the statute of limitations ensure the financial crimes go unaddressed. I am sure, in part, because it would involve a LOT of elected officials who do not want those questions raised, and frankly, the DOJ would be outclassed and outgunned trying to pin financial crimes on any of them. The fear is that the GOP now views investigations into presidents as par for the course. The Hunter Biden shit is a good example: if there's something there, fine. Go for it, and fuck them. But the movement isn't one based on facts, rules, or norms. So we now live in a world where the WH is under constant threat of investigation. The point of those is to limit, restrict, block and consume precious time and resources. And largely, they are predicated on nonsense. The NY shit is pointless. The others need to proceed, but again....to what end? Normalizing the stupidity of "her emails" hearinfs is a huge impediment. The GA/Jan 6th stuff absolutely needs to happen, but just to arrive at a pardon....Biden and DOJ need to think hard about the repercussions.
It’s really sad I have been secretly hoping he has some major coronary event and has to back out or just croaks. There is no moving forward with him still capacitated.
The best result would have been him dying of COVID. We really missed a golden opportunity when Walter Reed pulled out all the stops to save him. Would have gotten him out of office, but killed in a kind of funny way that was entirely his own fault. The irony of it would have undermined his ability to be a martyr in death.
I think there has to be an accountability for what all he did with Jan 6th. As far as him going to prison? Meh. Just shut the fuck up and stay at MAL and stop riling shit up and I'm good imo. But the thing is, he won't stfu. He can't. It's not him that I hate so much it's what he does to America, what he stirs up with his supporters. Make that shit go away and I'm perfectly fine with him retiring on a golf course with a bucket of KFC. Except.... it won't go away.