Fourth Day of the Icon

 

A unanimous jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges against him in his porn-star, hush-money, election-fraud case. You've probably already heard - it sort of made the news.

As usual, the press coverage has been deplorable. I'm so fed up with the state of journalism. Most of the stories give lip service to a bland, vanilla press release by the White House saying it respects the legal process and rule of law, and then devote the other 90% of their coverage to Republican outrage, calling the trial everything from a third-world, banana-republic, witch hunt to a rigged, Democrat-controlled weaponization of the Justice Department. They're giving extensive coverage to inflammatory remarks by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senators Cruz and Rubio, and I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure Lindsey Graham (the South Carolina Senator who tried to have my Georgia vote nullified) said something asinine about the verdict in the angriest voice he could possible muster.

Very little of the coverage seems to address the possibility that the jury, having heard the evidence and the defense, correctly decided that Trump was indeed guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  

Is it really so difficult to agree with the jury that Trump is indeed guilty, that he conspired with his inner circle to cook the books and falsify records? This is a former New York businessman whose company violated discrimination laws, failed to repay debts, and flirted with bankruptcy. This is a former president who impeded investigations of his 2016 campaign, tried to overturn the result of his re-election defeat, and refused to return classified documents he took from the White House. 

This is a man who's role models included former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a man who pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to Nixon's re-election campaign and to a felony charge of obstruction of justice. He even stole his Apprentice "You're fired" tag line from Steinbrenner's t.v. commercials with Coach Billy Martin.

This is a man who's mentors included Nixon confidant Roger Stone, who traveled in business circles with Ivan Boesky and Jeffrey Epstein, and who's Trump Organization has been convicted of repeated fraud and has had its business certificate canceled and its entities put into receivership for dissolution (the "corporate death penalty").

Is is so outlandish to think a man like that might cook the books on a hush-money payment, especially in the wake of the Access Hollywood, "grab 'em by the pussy" scandal?

But the press insists on "both sides" coverage, giving scant attention to the one side that's the judicial process, the rule of law, and American democracy, and much more attention to lurid, tabloid claims of the "other side" that have little to no relation to the facts of the case. 

It's enough to make you sick.