Thursday, April 28, 2022

Staring Into The Abyss




[INSERT TWEET HERE]



 “It’s so important to have accountability and have that trust restored because otherwise you’re going to get more of it," [          ] told the group. "There’s no accountability? Yep. They’re gonna start arresting political opponents. They’re gonna start throwing political dissidents in jail. They’re going to parade people and interrogate you for your free speech... You really think if there’s no arrests made from 2020, if there’s no real exposing of it and getting these people and holding them accountable, you really think they won’t do it again?"

If I don't tell you who the speaker was, could you guess?  Pretty extreme stuff, huh?  Still, can't be from Twitter.  People on Twitter never speak, they just shout into the twittervoidverse.  Too many characters, too.  But it could as easily have come from some lame left wing twitter account as from some wacko Trump supporter.

No surprise it comes from a wacko Trump supporter. But it's the language of all the comments on Twitter (at least) that want Trump (and everybody else in the GOP) held "accountable."  "Accountable" is the new one-size-fits-all word that is what we get from our justice system. Hint: no, we don't. Because we don't have a "justice system," or an”accountability system,” we have a "carceral system," that is meant only to punish people who are easily punished (poor, non-white especially, charged with physical rather than fiscal crimes).  It's hard to punish someone for a fiscal crime because it's so inchoate, and there are so many people involved.  Martha Stewart going to prison for securities fraud was simple.  Martha Stewart is not the chair of a multi-national corporation that employs thousands.

And the actual securities fraud charge that started the investigation was dropped.  She was convicted on obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and lying to federal investigators.  From the time of the offense to her trial was roughly 3 years.  I happen to think that was using an atom bomb as a flyswatter to even investigate her, but it's proof that if they want to investigate you, they will find a reason to prosecute you, and likely convince a jury you deserve to go to jail.  Pay attention, kiddies:  you can't lie to federal investigators if your lawyer tells you to shut up on advice of counsel.  Investigators are not your friends.

I bring that up because NY City has been investigating Trump's company for 3 years.  They say it's taken that much time because the situation is that complex.  And they're only bringing civil charges, not criminal ones.  The bar for a judgment in a civil case is lower than in a criminal case.  The criminal case against Trump in New York seems to be dying on the vine, because the NY AG isn't convinced there's enough there, there.  Most people don't want to hear that, but what they hear on the internet/news/Twitter is not what a court of law calls "evidence."  And then, of course, unless that evidence puts Donald Trump in the Conservatory with the candlestick, which has blood on it and matches the dent in the corpse's skull, you probably won't get a conviction anyway.

Trump may run the company, but there's no "captain of the ship" doctrine in criminal law.

Better, as I've said many times before, to let the law take its course and quit worrying about why Trump is not in prison yet.

Besides, you really want to sound like Liz Harrington?  That shit is completely unhinged and not even grounded in the understanding of the law that exists in most low-rent TV cops 'n' robbers shows.

Do you want to stop Trump from "doing it again"?  Change the Electoral Count Act.  No, it won't put Trump behind bars, but it will stop him from trying to steal the election in 2024 (though how he does that if he needs the VP, as President of the Senate, to throw ballots back to the "right" states when the VP for the next count will still be Kamala Harris, is a point nobody can explain to me.  Anyway, it could be a more competently scurrilous incumbent next time, so still: change the law.)  Besides, even if you put Trump behind bars, there's no bar (sorry!) to him winning the election fair and square.  Locking him up won't provide much accountability if he runs for and wins the White House in 2024.  The only remedy there is impeachment, but that's never gonna happen (yes, he could be impeached, if only to bar him from holding federal office again, ever.  Yes, the Congress could do that just on the strength of the final report of the January 6th Committee.  No, the Senate would never vote for conviction, unless you get a Democratic majority that reaches above the 2/3rds threshold without Manchin or Sinema.  Or probably a number of other Democratic Senators currently in office.  It ain't gonna happen, IOW.)

So sure, it would make you happy to see Trump in prison orange.  It wouldn't be the closure you think it would be, though; or the "accountability."  You're gonna have to wait until about 50 years after Trump's last day in office, when the only person who still publicly thinks Trump did a good job is Roger Stone (like the cockroach, he will always be with us), for that "accountability."

Maybe take up a hobby instead.  It'll be better for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment