Tuesday, February 01, 2022

He Doesn't Even Have A Box Of Matches

"He's in, John, burn it all down mode and has been for some time," Haberman replied.

"It raises questions for me, candidly, about the vetting process around these statements going out because that was a jarring statement, I think not just for the Jan. 6th committee, but probably for lawyers involved in the civil suits against Donald Trump related to the riot of the Capitol on Jan. 6th," she warned.

"So you take all of that together and you see the portrait of somebody who really doesn't care anymore and wants to put it all on his terms and who knows he can keep pushing the bounds and there basically so far — other than losing the election, which is not nothing, but other than losing the election — there haven't been that many penalties," she explained. 

I will say, again, that Trump has never done anything to attract the attention of criminal prosecutors.  The comparison of Trump to a "mob boss" is disingenuous on this count.  Crime figures confront the criminal law system constantly.  Trump is a businessman.  He's been challenged in civil court by the government only a few times (the government always wins those encounters), and never faced criminal investigation/prosecution.

We don't jail people for being loudmouth assholes.

He won a political election he shouldn't have won (even he was surprised), and he never understand what government was for.  "Burn it all down mode"?  He's been that way since 2016, when he said he'd "have to see" if he lost to Hillary.  Trump has always reserved to himself the right to declare "fraud" when he doesn't like how things are going.  He hasn't changed now; if anything, he's remained consistent.

He still thinks his declaration of "election fraud" is the only one that matters, giving him free reign to, in Haberman's words, "burn it all down."  Because all he's burning are obstructions to his ego, things that aren't real and shouldn't be there in the first place; in his mind.  Trump has always wanted to put it all on his terms.  There was a recent report that Trump was told covid was going to explode into a pandemic.  He went directly from that meeting to face the cameras and said everything was under control and it would be over soon.  He wasn't going to accept reality then, and he never has.  The country's disastrous response to covid was and always has been on his shoulders; but he won't shoulder it.

Trump isn't "pushing bounds."  He doesn't see "bounds."  He only sees opposition to his ego.  Penalties won't change his mindset.  He'll insist on his innocence and the "perfection" of his actions (phone calls as always "perfect" to Trump) to his last breath.  This isn't a matter of reigning in a spoiled child.  This is a matter of investigating and, if the case can be made in court, prosecuting him for identifiable crimes.  Again:  making stupid statements about "overturning" an election is probably not a crime.  But it may show the necessary mens rea (what journalists call "intent") for a criminal prosecution, or at least help that prosecution along.  Promises to pardon people charged with crimes on January 6th aren't obstruction of justice because Trump has no power to pardon such people.  It could be said he's buying votes, but the pardon power is extensive (too extensive, it turns out) and Trump is not "dangling" pardons to Manafort & Co. this time to buy their silence and failure to cooperate with a criminal investigation.  Again:  reprehensible conduct which should bar him from holding office again, but not a criminal act.

The honest truth is, it's easier to convict a poor person of a heinous crime like assault, rape, or murder, than it is to convict a rich man of a white collar crime.  Trump finds himself, for the first time in his life, the object of attention by criminal prosecutors in two states and the federal government.  That's not a place I'd want to be in, either.  He sounds more and more like a cornered animal.  But he's only dangerous to himself.  Mob bosses, at least in the movies, know enough to shut up.  Trump only knows how to keep talking.  He's going to talk himself into a criminal conviction, or three.

And it's never about consequences.  This isn't about three-year olds who need a "time out."  This is about justice.  As a society, we execute justice with criminal penalties, which include fines and imprisonment.  If Trump is brought before the bar, may justice be done.  And frankly, at this point, if he isn't, it will be a grave injustice.

But it won't be about escaping, for finally facing, consequences.  Especially with Trump, he simply doesn't understand how the word can apply to him; and he never will.  We should look for justice.  Consequences are what parents teach their children about.  Trump is not our child, we are not his parents.

And no, I'm not just picking on Ms. Haberman: "Gave it away"? "Hinted"? Trump has been saying this since he came down the escalator ranting about people crossing the Rio Grande on a northward journey. He was acting this way when he was in office. The examples are too numerous to relate. The Mueller Report was full of documentation of them. Did we forget about that because Barr issued a heavily redacted copy first? Is it because Trump was finally so obvious a blind man could see it, a deaf one hear it? Everyone's acting like "YOU CAN'T DENY IT NOW!" Honestly, if you could before, you can now, too.

Nothing has changed because, expressly and fully and maybe finally, TRUMP HASN'T CHANGED!
 
Leave this to the courts.  Nobody who votes is paying attention to the pundits anyway.
And another thing: Trump doesn’t want to destroy democracy. He’s not that clever, he’s not that motivated, he’s not driven toward that end. He just wants what he wants, because his ego demands it. To him, democracy isn’t even a concept. When it comes down to it, most elected officials don’t care about democracy (Gohmert? Gym Jordan? McConnell? Cruz? MTG?). They just recognize the authority of government. Trump doesn’t. He’s what he’s always been: a toddler with a shotgun. We don’t have to fear for the future, or declare him Public Enemy No. 1.

We just have to take away his shotgun.
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