Jun 9th, 2023 | In the News

It just doesn't seem to end with Trump. I've never remember in my life living at a scarier time in this country. Trump and his cronies. It's his fault, it's him. Im so angry im so mad tom. The racism, lies, corruption, shootings, violence, murder, hate. It's every day every day. The religious nut jobs so called evangelical Trump supporters, enough. One just dropped dead. This Trump he is a cancer, I don't pretend to know what will happen. But I agree with you. Or maybe Biden will lose the election and one of the other dopey republican gop nut job hopefuls will fill the vacuum and pardon that idiot. I mean for f@cks sake this jack ass committed so many crimes time and time again and nothing. Not even a night in jail. Raped a woman in a department store in broad daylight. Phones an election official, I need you to find me 11000 more votes. No punishment, this emboldens the stupid Trump supporters. My eyes tear up as I write this. Our country, my goodness what the hell. Our country is divided we are hurting. He will not go to jail but maybe get disqualified i don't know. So. What have I learned from being a hard-core subscriber of you tom. Always tell the truth. This would have never happened had the truth been told no matter what! But Americans are stupid, uneducated, and the lies and lies Fox News no back bone CNN news . It's so crazy it's everywhere what happened to the news? Let's see what happens next I guess.

You may very well be right, Tom. But, with all the childish meltdown's coming from Trump on his "truth" social, it does make believe he knows the trouble he faces. Plus, I don't think he is a realistic presidential candidate, so no pardon will be needed to keep him from running. The media, including MSNBC, keeps telling us he is viable candidate because it generates viewers, in my opinion, but I don't buy it. He's too far gone and burdened with too many legal troubles and counting to be a serious candidate. Prison is unlikely, but I could see home confinement. Cheers.

At my last workplace, a defense contractor, there were "loose lips sink ships" style posters all over the place, constant reminders that all of us were responsible for national security. Some of those were mugshots of people who had been convicted of espionage, and a little "where are they now" blurb, "...died in prison 1983, died in prison 1997, executed 1964, currently serving life sentence, currently serving 218-year sentence..."

But Trump goes to his hearing, pleads not guilty to multiple counts of espionage and mishandling of classified information (mishandling--understatement of the year.) and the judge, basically says, "have a nice day! Don't call us, we'll call you". You know the deal is in the works. But the problem in comparing this to Agnew-Nixon-Ford, is Agnew quickly faded from public life. Even if Trump agrees to not run for president, you also must know that Trump--being Trump--will violate the agreement the moment his phone has 4 bars. And just like every time before, nothing will happen except some folks over at MSNBC getting a little agitated.

No matter what happens to Trump nothing will change with his cult, they will continue to insist he is the real president, and he will continue to hold rallies. If he is in prison, "FREE TRUMP!!" will be their mantra and fundraising cry. When he finally dies, he will become the world's greatest martyr. Like COVID, he is here to stay, we just have to get used to working around it.

The real problem is his cult is not a group of nutjobs who will run off into the desert to die from exposure while waiting for the mothership. They are a third of the population, hold many powerful positions in government, law enforcement, and control major media platforms. We run a very real risk of losing what little semblance of democracy and freedom we have left. (I follow the Carlin doctrine on US democracy, but I still enjoy the illusion.)

This whole thing has made a complete mockery of one of the most bedrock of American values, equality under the law. It makes me very sad to watch this happening.

I cannot fathom Joe Biden's ever pardoning Trump. Ford had a a lot more incentive to pardon Nixon than Biden does Trump. Pardoning Nixon would help take the heat off the Republican party. I think it would be political suicide for Biden to pardon Trump, especially after Trump screwed him so royally. Pardoning Trump would not enable "healing". Anti-Trump voters would be furious. And don't forget that some of Trump's more egregious alleged crimes occurred under state jurisdiction, where the president has no authority to issue pardons.
I do think there is some possibility that Trump will go to prison. If so the question will be whether he can be president from jail. The constitution allows it, even if Trump would not be allowed to vote for himself!. I can see Trump running the executive branch of the US government from prison. He would be the man behind the curtain, just like the Wizard of Oz.