Ten days before the fascist regime takes over America, its Führer was officially sentenced as a felon. According to the BBC, President-Elect Donald Trump will not be “allowed to own a gun,” and will “have to give a DNA sample for the New York state’s crime database.” But since the judge gave him an unconditional discharge on all 34 charges of committing business fraud, he will not face any jail time, nor will he have pay any fines or contend with any conditions of probation. In other words, he was in the same moment sentenced for his crimes and completed his sentence, which means he will be able to vote in his home state of Florida despite being a felon.
He immediately used his new status as a felon in a fundraising request. He showed absolutely no remorse either within the courtroom or without, insisting he is “completely innocent.” He is now the only person in the history of New York State to be convicted of these felonies and face no punishment. And the sentencing only went forward because the Supreme Court refused Trump’s appeal to stop it, but even that came with a split 5-4 ruling. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh all would have let Trump off completely, although they didn’t deign to explain their legal reasoning.
The complete failure to incarcerate Trump for his multitude of crimes, which led him to be arrested four separate times in 2023, is an embarrassment for the rule of law, but one which was ratified by the over 77 million members of the U.S. electorate who voted for his election to a second term as president. As someone who initiated an insurrection against the U.S. government, he should not have been allowed to hold any elected office in the country ever again, not even dog catcher. But rather than assure that a coup plotter would never be elected president again, the Supreme Court gave the office of the presidency permission to commit almost any crime with absolute immunity from prosecution. So, now we have an insurrectionist felon coming into power with no checks on his power. He can break all our laws. He can order others to break all our laws. And that is exactly what he will do, over and over again, in his bid to punish his enemies and enrich himself and his family.
Am I happy he was finally sentenced and forever branded a felon? Sure, it’s better than nothing. It won’t do me much good when they come to take me away though, will it?
Or did you think his digital and real-life brownshirt army was going to respect the rights of his critics in the media? Look around. The owners of our nation’s prestigious newspapers, like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times don’t think that. The owner of Facebook doesn’t think that. The owner of Twitter is the leader of the digital brownshirt army and he’s busy endorsing the new Nazi party in the upcoming German elections. The media won’t be a watchdog of this administration because it’s a fascist government restrained by no rules and respecting no norms. Congress wouldn’t impeach and convict him even for murder, and the Supreme Court is mostly supportive of his movement and goals.
Ten days left. Enjoy them. Let the taste of freedom waft over your tongue. It will be a long time before you’ll taste it again.
To be truthful, I’m not expecting I will ever taste it again. I don’t think the “opposition party” has a clue about how to oppose this. Who is there to lead any sort of opposition? Is anyone going to step up to marshal a true opposition? How soon will everyone in DC who is not already fanatically devoted to Trump decide it’s will just be easier to go along to get along? I have near zero confidence there is anyone currently in a leadership position in the Democratic Party who is up to the task, or even truly understands the situation. Those of us who are not in the Trump camp look around and know that we are going to be looked on as enemies of our country. Democrats are going to get steamrolled so fast they will have no clue it’s even coming. Those who think they are going to overcome and defeat this by using the standards and norms of a traditional democratic process are simply being foolish. Trump is already gloating and openly enjoying the fact that California is burning. He wants those who refuse to kneel and worship him to suffer, to lose everything they have. And if they happen to also die, well, more’s the better, right? He will get no less pleasure from initiating suffering on all the little people like you and I.
Time will tell what the future holds, or if we will even have a future in which to exist.