signalmankenneth
Verified User
I was asked a few times by people over Memorial Day weekend what I thought would happen in Donald Trump's criminal trial for fraud in Manhattan. I expressed cautious optimism that he would be convicted, pointing out that the prosecution presented an overwhelming amount of evidence while the defense acted like a bunch of clowns. Folks reacted with surprise to this prediction. They've been burned too many times, watching Trump wriggle away from consequences for a dizzying number of crimes, including his efforts to overthrow democracy. Thursday, however, a ray of hope opened up as Trump was found guilty on 34 state felony charges.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg and lead prosecutor Joshua Steinglass had two advantages over others who have tried to hold Trump accountable. First, there are no powerful Republicans swooping in to save Trump from consequences in New York. There are no corrupt Federalist judges, like Aileen Cannon or the Supreme Court Six, finding ways to delay Trump's federal trials indefinitely. No Senate Republicans to stop Trump from being rightfully convicted after his impeachment in the House of Representatives. No wealthy donors to step in and pay his civil judgments, whether for his extensive business fraud or his sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll. Second, Trump was facing a jury of his peers. I had some faith that ordinary people, when faced with inescapable evidence of Trump's criminality, would suck it up and do their civic duty. Unlike, say, all the people who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution but decided to protect the leader of the GOP instead.
There was one other reason I felt a thrum of hope, one I feared to say out loud even to my friends outside of the world of politics: It sure seemed like Trump and his people expected he'd get convicted.
As the trial progressed, Trump escalated far beyond his tired litany of claims that everything was "rigged" against him, though he kept that pattern up. He's been experimenting by trying to cast himself as a rakish outlaw. He wants voters to imagine his crimes are about standing up to a corrupt system. In reality, he is corruption embodied; a man who has never acted on anything but self-interest and who only evades justice by paying people off, usually in promised (if infrequently actualized) political favors.
"Trump Leans Into an Outlaw Image as His Criminal Trial Concludes," read a New York Times headline on Tuesday. In it, reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonah Bromwich outlined how Trump was laying the groundwork, pre-verdict, to spin a guilty verdict into what he hopes is an electoral asset.
He's "surrounding himself with accused criminals and convicts," they reported, even bringing the notorious Hell's Angel gangster, Chuck Zito, to trial with him. They note that Trump now valorizes "those prosecuted for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021," and that he has sold merchandise featuring his mug shot after his Georgia arrest for his coup efforts in that state. Trump's tendency to celebrate his own criminality is so extensive that Haberman and Bromwich overlook some important examples, like how Trump repeatedly compares himself to murderous gangster Al Capone or waxes poetic about how much he adores fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
No doubt there's a long history of Americans romanticizing criminals, going back at least to Jesse James or Billy the Kid, who became icons of the Wild West. In the early 20th century, bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde often became folk heroes. While Mafia movies like "Goodfellas" or "Scarface" usually conclude with the downfall of their criminal anti-heroes, all too often fans focus only on the early parts of the movies, when the bad guys are riding high, before the law and their own demons catch up with them. Most recently, we witnessed how all too many people thought Walter White was the hero of "Breaking Bad," instead of a character study condemning the darkness that lurks inside many otherwise "upstanding" citizens.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread...trump-is-no-outlaw-just-a-grubby-sad-criminal
District Attorney Alvin Bragg and lead prosecutor Joshua Steinglass had two advantages over others who have tried to hold Trump accountable. First, there are no powerful Republicans swooping in to save Trump from consequences in New York. There are no corrupt Federalist judges, like Aileen Cannon or the Supreme Court Six, finding ways to delay Trump's federal trials indefinitely. No Senate Republicans to stop Trump from being rightfully convicted after his impeachment in the House of Representatives. No wealthy donors to step in and pay his civil judgments, whether for his extensive business fraud or his sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll. Second, Trump was facing a jury of his peers. I had some faith that ordinary people, when faced with inescapable evidence of Trump's criminality, would suck it up and do their civic duty. Unlike, say, all the people who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution but decided to protect the leader of the GOP instead.
There was one other reason I felt a thrum of hope, one I feared to say out loud even to my friends outside of the world of politics: It sure seemed like Trump and his people expected he'd get convicted.
As the trial progressed, Trump escalated far beyond his tired litany of claims that everything was "rigged" against him, though he kept that pattern up. He's been experimenting by trying to cast himself as a rakish outlaw. He wants voters to imagine his crimes are about standing up to a corrupt system. In reality, he is corruption embodied; a man who has never acted on anything but self-interest and who only evades justice by paying people off, usually in promised (if infrequently actualized) political favors.
"Trump Leans Into an Outlaw Image as His Criminal Trial Concludes," read a New York Times headline on Tuesday. In it, reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonah Bromwich outlined how Trump was laying the groundwork, pre-verdict, to spin a guilty verdict into what he hopes is an electoral asset.
He's "surrounding himself with accused criminals and convicts," they reported, even bringing the notorious Hell's Angel gangster, Chuck Zito, to trial with him. They note that Trump now valorizes "those prosecuted for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021," and that he has sold merchandise featuring his mug shot after his Georgia arrest for his coup efforts in that state. Trump's tendency to celebrate his own criminality is so extensive that Haberman and Bromwich overlook some important examples, like how Trump repeatedly compares himself to murderous gangster Al Capone or waxes poetic about how much he adores fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
No doubt there's a long history of Americans romanticizing criminals, going back at least to Jesse James or Billy the Kid, who became icons of the Wild West. In the early 20th century, bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde often became folk heroes. While Mafia movies like "Goodfellas" or "Scarface" usually conclude with the downfall of their criminal anti-heroes, all too often fans focus only on the early parts of the movies, when the bad guys are riding high, before the law and their own demons catch up with them. Most recently, we witnessed how all too many people thought Walter White was the hero of "Breaking Bad," instead of a character study condemning the darkness that lurks inside many otherwise "upstanding" citizens.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread...trump-is-no-outlaw-just-a-grubby-sad-criminal