The Courage of Twelve Versus

the Pathetic Weakness of the MAGA/GOP

At the end of the day twelve courageous citizens of New York did what an entire major political party refused to do. They carefully parsed the facts, evidence, and testimony, followed the instructions provided by Judge Juan Merchan, an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court, and unanimously determined that a corrupt former President of the United States is not above the law, returning guilty verdicts on all 34 felony charges.

Judge Merchan (L), Jury box (R)

While even today major news outlets continue to trivialize Trump’s crimes as a “Hush Money” case. The reality is that when the 34 felony criminal indictments are properly weighed together the case was a criminal conspiracy and scheme to illegally influence the 2016 U.S. elections.

Nevertheless, the media prefers the sensationalism of porn star witnesses, “catch and kill” headlines, and acting as public relations damage control for the Trump campaign instead of living up to their responsibility to America.

While my initial reaction from the jury verdict was relief, that finally this incompetent, criminally-corrupt fraud would be held accountable for his pathetic behavior, the relief is fleeting.

The ethical thing for the MAGA-controlled GOP to do now would be to distance themselves from this cretin who does not even possess the resolve to testify as he had the opportunity to do. Remember, when confronted by Robert Mueller, Trump, the so-called leader of the GOP refused to face the Mueller investigators. Similarly, he shrank and hid from the House Investigation into the insurrection and events of January 6, 2021.

https://apnews.com/article/elections-donald-trump-russia-ap-top-news-robert-mueller-98f22511be924ced895ce5c0bfedfe37

https://www.axios.com/2022/11/15/donald-trump-jan-6-panel-testimony-failure-to-comply

Any honorable person anxious to declare their innocence would sit through questioning and testify on their own behalf, as Hillary Clinton did during hours of a Congressional inquiry.

Instead, this so-called leader of the MAGA-GOP is continually too weak and pathetic to testify on his own behalf. His own counsel is likely advising him to not testify and then cause additional charges of perjury simply because Trump cannot stop lying. During a deposition related to the fraud charges against the Trump Organization, Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment almost 450 times. As a reminder to people who believe the Constitutional Amendments begin and end at the Second, the Fifth Amendment is the right to remain silent and not incriminate yourself.

So yes, MAGA/GOP by all means, rally behind “your man” -a now formally disgraced rapist and felon. You call him a ‘successful businessman’ and yet he has left a financially toxic pile of bankruptcies behind such as Trump’s Taj Mahal, Trump Hotels & Casinos Resorts, Trump Entertainment Resorts, and more. Should we talk about Trump University? Trump Steaks?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/06/trump-university-court-upholds-25m-settlement-to-give-students-money-back

In the meantime many powerful actors in the MAGA/GOP are rushing to his side. Speaker of the House and religious zealot Mike Johnson called this “A shameful day in American history.” You know what a shameful day was Mike? When your candidate had sex with a Porn star (while his third or fourth or whatever wife was home pregnant). Another ‘shameful day’ might be when he conspired with a so-called news outlet to acquire negative stories about him that could sway voters and bury the stories. This preventing voters in 2016 to gain actual insight into his character (or to more accurate, his complete lack of character). MAGA/GOP Rep. Scalise said the decision rendered the United States “a banana republic”. MAGA/GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who with MAGA/GOP Rep. James Comer (“Comer Pyle”) called the New York State Supreme Court a “Kangaroo court”.

The reason my relief is fleeting is that the United States Congress continues to be well-occupied by members who have either acted as Trump’s co-conspirators in the January 6^th, 2021 insurrection and/or in Trump’s attempts to deploy a false elector scheme in battleground states to subvert the 2020 election, or they have acted as his accessories after the fact, working to undermine State investigations, grand jury indictments, and obstruct justice.

My rapidly diminishing feeling of relief is accelerated by Merrick Garland (or “Mr. Rogers” as I tend to think of him) and the DOJ.

The events that occurred after the 2020 election exploded in violence on January 6^th, 2021 and the insidious attacks have continued unabated since then. Whether the attacks are GOP officials trying to defund investigations, taking time away from their elected responsibilities to subvert Trump’s gag order by garnering press attention on Trump’s behalf, and by misdirecting attention from Trump’s crimes by starting their own “impeachment inquiry” without any facts or evidence other than those gleefully provided by Russian spies.

Rep. Jim “Locker Room” Jordan and Rep. James Comer (-Pyle)

Collectively, these attacks by MAGA/GOP cultists represent serious crimes against the United States of America. Crimes intended to subvert the results of a free and fair election and establishing a precedent of a violent disruption of what historically has been a peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of the often otherwise imperfect American system.

While it’s just great that the “Q Shaman” (or whatever the f*ck he is) was convicted, there are far too many that worked behind the scenes in a profoundly more sinister and powerful manner attacking the system. As they have not been held to account by the DOJ, they are free to try again, this time having the experience of their initial attempt in 2020, and with a full understanding that they can act above the law and without consequence.

And not only does this include Congressional members, it includes State and Local MAGA sycophants who can disrupt the election process. And because of the clear corruption of the U.S. Supreme Court, ‘Justice’ Thomas and ‘Justice’ Alito -both unchallenged in their view that they are not only above the law, they are above any ethical guidelines, or ethics of impartiality. When considering them together with Trump’s appointments to the court, you have two of the three branches of Federal government readily available for the MAGA/GOP to destroy the American experiment and replace it with their dystopian ideas of what will be the former America.

1st Row: 'Justice' Thomas and insurrectionist/lobbyist wife, 'Justice' Alito, 'Justice' BeerMe. Row 2: 'Justice' Gorsuch, 'Judge' Kaczmarek, and 'Judge' Aileen Cannon-Trump, Roe3: 'Justice' Coathanger Barrett

So again, while I initially experienced relief -the feeling quickly passed because:

Journalism has been buried under the weight of the profit motive and has been replaced by “Entertainment Tonight” or worse, an outlet calling themselves “News”, presumably because “Lies, Propaganda, and Disinformation” is too long.

The Trump indictments in Florida, related to his theft of a massive trove of highly-sensitive documents, some which put our defense capabilities, and that of our allies at grave risk -are in front of a Trump-appointed Judge who continues to act as an unofficial member of Trump’s defense team.

The Trump indictments in Washington DC are on hold while a clearly unethical and corrupt Supreme Court weighs in on Presidential Immunity in a manner that is intentionally too late for justice to be served.

The Trump indictments in Georgia are delayed, not due to criminal procedure (in the very limited manner in which I understand it), however, due to whether or not a District Attorney’s personal relationship should have any bearing on Trump’s guilt or innocence -while a preposterous claim inspired by defense counsel, providing the delay that Trump needs to effectively obstruct and preclude justice.

And finally my feeling of relief shifts to fueling my own continuing efforts to write, speak out, and work toward democracy, justice, and equality -because regardless of this verdict, the delay in the other criminal cases, and other factors -if America is to preserve our imperfect Union we must defend it now, vote for candidates who will uphold their oath and responsibility to America, and together we must drive rapid and sweeping changes to strengthen protections. This is the only way to honor the sacrifices of past generations, and to honor a path forward for the future.