Rigged
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https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/05/yes-it-was-rigged/
Yes, It Was Rigged
By RICH LOWRY
The Alvin Bragg trial was everything that Trump warns about.
‘Rigged” is a favorite word of Donald Trump and his allies.
It describes how institutions and processes have been distorted by a progressive elite to tilt the playing field against Trump and his supporters.
For the former president, it’s an all-purpose charge lodged against anything he dislikes and is especially useful as applied to the 2020 election, since it can vaguely encompass everything from sharp practices by the other side to outright theft.
When Trump made his statement to reporters on Wednesday morning prior to the jury getting the Alvin Bragg case, he repeatedly used the word “rigged,” and, in this instance, he was absolutely right.
The charges were rigged, the prosecution’s presentation of the case was rigged, the judge’s management of the case was rigged, the gag order was rigged, and the instructions to the jury were rigged.
The whole thing was rigged from beginning to end, in the hopes of — to the extent this case and the guilty verdict will matter in November — rigging the presidential election.
If this had happened in an alderman race in Cook County, Ill., it’d be discomfiting enough, but it happened in what purports to be the greatest city in the world and involves the campaign to become the most powerful political leader in the free world.
The high stakes would, one hopes, compel the authorities to have the most exacting standard for their own conduct and put a premium on maintaining the perception and reality of fairness. The logic of rigging runs the opposite way, though — because it is considered so imperative to stop Donald Trump, any means of opposing him becomes acceptable, indeed necessary.
By any normal standard, Alvin Bragg failed in his duty as a prosecutor by flagrantly distorting the process to manufacture the 34 felonies he charged Trump with. Yet, by the prevailing standard on the left, he has faithfully fulfilled his duty by so effectively rigging the criminal-justice system against the man whom they hate and fear.
One possible reaction to Trump from his adversaries would have been to emphasize their commitment to rules and norms and to do everything they could to buttress them and make the case for them.
Instead, they threw out the rule book beginning in 2016 and have pursued Trump according to the ethic that the ends justify the means, and that consistency, reason, and fairness are for suckers.
To be sure, this approach has its temptations, especially for people who never particularly cared for process or rules to begin with. But their recklessness has further undermined faith in the system, while the alluring idea that there’s a shortcut to diminishing or defeating Trump has so far proved illusory.
Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan have set a new standard for rigging, and nothing good will come of it.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Trial by jury is only effective when it is fair.
And the jury bases its verdict on what it is allowed to see.
In this case it was the unspoken allegation of a campaign finance violation. Yet the defense's motion to seat an expert on campaign finance law (former FEC chair) was denied by the judge.
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And if this political tactic works, tit-for-tat will soon follow.
Will the GOP have the balls to do this? I am skeptical.
But, you can't put the shit back into the horse.
It’s not about lack of balls, it’s about about lack of capacity.
Dems don’t really have the exposure in Red jurisdictions the same way that Lame Donald has in New York. They live, work, and play in safely Dem controlled regions. That’s going to make it extraordinarily hard for a prosecutor in West Virginia to go after a Joe Biden or a Barack Obama. And going after political opponents at the Federal level is a completely different fish to fry and is much more difficult to pull off.
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Right now, I think the majority of the country that has paid much attention to this trial knows it was not conducted properly. And if this political tactic works, tit-for-tat will soon follow.
That will be the country your children will inherit.
Not sure... most of the country has not paid much attention tot this trial. Heck, a former president was just found guilty of a felony and the headline isn't even the lead on some of the websites I check each morning such as cnbc.com and wtop.com. I think most of the country knows Trump pushes the line legally with many things so they aren't surprised when one of the cases finds him guilty.
And honestly, if a president commits a felony.... go for it, charge them, find them guilty if they are. The dems and repubs have been doing this forever, I'm not too worried about the country. Maybe national debt, social security, war with China, and the damn cost of McDoubles.... but politically, I am hopeful in a few years we get past this battle of nursing home residents and restore some normalcy and energy to the white house to lead the executive branch against the above issues.
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I haven't followed every case but feel like it's pretty common sense Trump pushes the legal boundary wherever he can, so when I see cases against him I am completely unsurprised.
Whether it's being sloppy with handling classified records, or asking a state official to find votes in his favor, or allegedly sexually assaulting and defaming someone, or conspiracy to defraud the United States (subvert democracy), or to fraudulently report the value of properties in order to either lower his tax bill or improve the terms of his loans, or to falsify business records while paying hush money...
In other words, FAFO. I'd feel the same if Obama allegedly did all of those things and the justice system went after him.
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Say what you like, trial by jury is a sound system.
I am sure that Trump was gulity as hell and the verdict was correct. I don’t not think this was the trial that should have come first. The pending trials are the ones that would damage the Trump brand most. This one is the least damaging and will likely bolster his campaign.
Not much for anyone to rejoice about. Politically Trump is stronger today than he was before the jury read its verdict.
“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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I haven't followed every case but feel like it's pretty common sense Trump pushes the legal boundary wherever he can, so when I see cases against him I am completely unsurprised.
Whether it's being sloppy with handling classified records, or asking a state official to find votes in his favor, or allegedly sexually assaulting and defaming someone, or conspiracy to defraud the United States (subvert democracy), or to fraudulently report the value of properties in order to either lower his tax bill or improve the terms of his loans, or to falsify business records while paying hush money...
In other words, FAFO. I'd feel the same if Obama allegedly did all of those things and the justice system went after him.
If Obama had been convicted yesterday, your city would be burning...
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“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@xenon Yep. I was just listening to NPR on my way to haircut. They bemoaned the abandonment of long held norms - only by the GOP, of course. Either a complete lack of self-awareness or a deliberate descent into propaganda.
Propaganda.
They know exactly what they are doing. I used to listen to NPR 25 years ago. I never listen to them today. They no longer have anything my America wants to listen to...
