Friday 25 August 2023

Trump: Is America edging towards civil war?

The Donald Trump saga is gathering pace. He’s already been indicted three times and yesterday in Georgia was the fourth. His mugshot (see below) appeared on social media pretty well immediately after the shutter clicked. The day before, there was a televised debate with the potential Republican candidates for next year’s presidential election. Trump didn’t turn up and instead gave an interview with Tucker Carlson which was broadcast at the same time. The two events coming so close together seem absolutely crazy but that’s what happened.

Here is Trump’s motorcade arriving at Fulton County jail to be arrested:

I seem to remember during the inquiry into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, counsel for the prosecution described Vladimir Putin as a ‘common criminal masquerading as head of state.’ Now the Americans have their own.

We were reminded on Wednesday about Putin, as if we needed it, by seeing the plane carrying Prigozhin, the man who led the attempted coup against the Kremlin in June, plunging in flames just north of Moscow, killing all ten people on board. At least Trump isn't murdering his rivals - but I wouldn't bet against it.

Here’s the mugshot, with Trump trying to keep up his image as a hardman:


On the Carlson interview, remember he is on record when at Fox News saying, “I hate him [Trump] passionately” but that didn't come across on Wednesday. Perhaps the most troubling is this bit where he's asked if he thinks America is "moving towards civil war."

If you listen to the clip, in a long rambling answer he almost appears to justify violence and it’s clear he wouldn’t lift a finger to prevent civil war from starting to break out if it helped his case. It would be a rerun of 1861 but with the sheer amount of firearms in private hands you can easily imagine widespread violence and deaths. But it would bother Trump in the same way it bothers Putin, i.e. not at all.

I follow several people on Twitter who report on Trump and I must say it’s hard to understand the mindset of his MAGA supporters. He is obviously the moron that his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was, but his followers think he’s some kind of saviour. It’s cult-like.

The Republican Party has created a monster that they cannot control.

Whether or not the party will select him as their candidate remains to be seen, he’s the front runner and way ahead of his nearest rival, Ron de Santis, also a man you wouldn’t want in the White House under any circumstances. If Trump is chosen, the chances of him winning in 2024 are slim. I read some polling that indicated well over 60% of Americans wouldn't vote for him if he's convicted. It still means there are 50-60 million who would and that's stunning.

There are so many alarm bells ringing on this whole thing that it’s hard to know where to start.

What about this one? The Senate Judiciary Committee has started an investigation into Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis who is prosecuting Trump under America’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organisations) Act for his attempt to get Georgia governor Brad Raffensperge to illegally fix the 2016 election result in Trump’s favour:

Imagine that. It’s like a parliamentary committee investigating a prosecutor working for the CPS for having the temerity to charge a Tory MP or even a former prime minister. This is unthinkable in Britain, or is it? 

Trump is raising millions of dollars for his campaign by winding up his base, accusing the entire federal government and states like Georgia and Florida of engaging in a witch (or a warlock) hunt against him. Michigan and Arizona are preparing to indict him as well.

This would be great if it were true, but the truth is that all, ALL, without exception, the two hundred or more witnesses against Trump are Republicans! Nearly all of them either worked for Trump, were appointed or approved by him in some way.

Instead of spending the money raised on the campaign, he’s using it to pay his own massive legal bills which were running at $6 million a month even before the last couple of indictments. But he’s refusing to pay the lawyers of his co-conspirators like Rudy Giuliani who claims he’s bankrupt!

Hours before arriving in Georgia, Trump sacked his lawyer (not unusual, he's done this umpteen times before) Drew Findling. As several people have pointed out, this usually follows Trump asking or telling his lawyer to do something illegal. Watch out for Findling testifying against Trump sometime in the future.

The evidence against him - in all of the cases -is overwhelming. The American method of offering plea bargains to potential conspirators to reduce or avoid prison sentences is very effective.

When presented with every damning piece of evidence the authorities have, virtually everybody who has been offered immunity has taken it and flipped, or turned King’s evidence as we would say.

There is no doubt he’s going to be convicted, even if the cases go to the Supreme Court. I doubt he’ll spend time in jail although he might. More likely he’ll be held under house arrest or something, but you never know. He won't be playing much golf anyway.

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