The Verdict That Matters - Now What?
Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts stopped the clock yesterday, all over the world.
Most people in the US, who barely knew a trial was going on, suddenly got the headline: Guilty.
That’s who I want to talk about:
the people who didn’t know,
the people who don’t get polled, and,
the sentiments that don’t get attention.
It’s not too soon to talk about how this historic verdict will affect the election, like the lazy TV pundits claim. Not at all.
The most exciting part of Trump’s sentencing date is that it’s 4 days before the GOP convention where Trump is supposed to announce his VP pick. —Another one of his beauty pageants! But what, if like the Miss Congeniality movie, it all goes very wrong?
One can only hope.
I want to talk about the Trump verdict in the eyes of those we aren’t seeing much on TV:
The Rest of the World,
The American Working Class (Yes),
The Black community,
Muslims in America - and everyone else Trump claims “speak languages no one’s ever heard of,” and,
Sex Workers
The International Pulse
Yankees have little sense of international fragility or solidarity.
Here’s what the rest of the world already knows: We’re living in a galloping international fascist movement, whose greatest heroes are one-man dictatorships.
Don’t flinch at the word “fascist.” They don’t. They call for racial/ethnic purges and genocide, the end of elections, and using force to turn working people into serfs. It’s the “Slavery has its upside!” crowd. Women and children, of course, are destined to be property.
Take a look at the below Wikipedia picture of the world. Go ahead, feel small. In each of those “presidential or parliamentary democracies,” (the green and blue) there is a significant fascist movement.
If our country falls to Trump this year, Putin wins. Xi Jinping wins. Netanyahu wins.
The international fear is that ignorant Americans will ride Trump over the cliff, like lemmings, plunging the rest of the world into a strongman free-for-all.
When the verdict came in, it gave democracy-defenders a grain of hope. They looked at our jury system and were amazed.
Now they wait to see if the voters have a spine.
The American Working Class
Trump never met a worker he didn’t stiff. His class elitism is beyond the pale.
But “The Stiffed” are not well-organized. Precious few have labor unions. It isn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
Both GOP and DEM parties are laser-focussed on non-unionized blue-collar men— who probably didn’t know Trump was on trial.
What if, as my friend Jill says, “the election comes down to 10,000 guys in Michigan?” That’s how fucked-up our electoral college is.
Democratic Party organizers want to attract working class men who are anti-chaos. They want to push back against the idea that “Both sides are just as bad.” They want to say, “If the working class is going to get anywhere, they need leverage.”
That’s the theory. What’s the plan?
So far the refrain has been: Run on Bread and Butter.
But which bread and what butter will move these slim margins, when the GOP is running an “aggrieved victimized incel” campaign?
I believe there are cultural class issues to run on, that are the yeast in our bread and the fat in our butter. We have to tap into that vein:
No breaks for phony hustlers. No home detention, no instant parole. Real punishment is essential to the administration of justice.
Trump has to answer for his real sins: destroying American livelihoods. Call him out, on every one.
Name what Trump will take away: Bim Bam BOM.
Yes, voters think it’s “boring” to read Biden’s FDR-style accomplishments. But hold them up as something that will be taken away, and you’ve got juice.
The Black Community
The overwhelming response from the Black community to Trump’s guilty verdict was this:
The Central Park 5.
In case anyone wonders what NOT GUILTY looks like. ❤️
#exonerated5
#karma
#theywerealwaysinnocent
Trump is campaigning on “The Lost Cause.” Relitigating the Civil War. Everyone who stands against racism knows this. He personally tried to get these young men in Central Park hung, and he almost got away with it.
Black Americans applaud the leadership of the black men and women in the courts and admin, who pierced Trump’s hubris. They know it’s Bragg, James, and Willis who have led the charge. So will the all-black-women NY Appeals Court.
Common sentiment: No black presidential candidate would be allowed anywhere near future office, if convicted of felony. There is no justice, only “Just Us.”
This jury verdict was a rare piece of truth. Sure, beat Trump at the ballot box, too. Don’t flinch.
Muslims in America
A second-generation Muslim-American woman, wrote in the NYTimes comment section today.
She said, if I may paraphrase, “My community is in anguish and fury over Biden’s support of Bibi and the settlers. But if Trump wins in 2024, we will have a target on our backs in America. The Muslim scapegoating will be unparalleled. I fear the day Trump lets his goons loose on us — he already has, and next time will be his worst.”
To my surprise, nearly all the (white) Times comments replied to her: “You are so paranoid, stop catastrophizing.”
!!! Her critics are the ones dreaming.
The same realistic terror can be imagined by every “brown” immigrant Trump hoists on his campaign spear. He is running on googly-eyed racism. He is running on slavery and indentured servitude. He is running on human trafficking.
Everyone who has been caught in his net understands it, and if they don’t, they’re about to pulled over by his shock troops for a very nasty surprise.
Biden has been inadequate and hypocritical on every border, to say the least. So has every American president, every citizen who ignores what they don’t understand, and takes for granted what they enjoy.
The biggest issue ethnically-targetted families face in the Election, is being physically intimidated at the ballot box, and being zero’ed out by fatalist, racist propoganda.
What are we going to do to push back? Hide or fight? We have to be strategic.
VOTING RIGHTS ARE CIVIL RIGHTS.
Sex Workers
Stormy, Stormy, Stormy.
Our heroine. Unbowed. The feminist heroine we needed.
You want to know the sex worker’s response is to the verdict?
You WILL pay me.
You WILL respect me
Yesterday’s Price is Not Today’s Price.
And when it comes to American women and our bodies, our rights, this is our story too. We are not going to back down an inch.
Comments?
I have more to say, and I bet you do too . . . Rant on below.
More questions, too. I like questions the best.
Some other random remarks I didn’t want to pack into this story:
Trump will lose his appeal. No question.
On the merits of his behavior in this case, he will receive jail time. But he will not be asked to serve it before election, which is my mind, mistake. His constant evasion must end.
On his “boffo fundraising.” The press accepted his inane boast without any Verfication! None. I believe it is a complete lie. He pulls this shit out of thin air. Did his web site crash? Yes, but his web site crashes frequently bc he doesn’t PAY anyone to keep it running properly. Show us the money, Donnie. The fact is, if he receives any sum, it’s already spent. His debts far exceed what he’s fundraising.
About Wall Streett: The market shot up, DOW up 600 points, on the news of the verdict.
The world was holding its breath, as I wrote in my story. Furthermore, if the jury had been hung, the damage to the business world, to contracts and essential bookkeeping obligations, would have been catastrophic.
Do the 1% want a conservative in the White House who protects their profits and eschews regulations? Of course.
But Trump isn’t that man, and they found it out last time. He’s a vanity machine, a faux businessman, who isn’t content with big donations— he demands his supporters be humiliated while they kiss the ring. He brags like the ultimate capitalist, but it’s quite the opposite— everything he touches (i.e., corruption) falls apart.
So where does that leave “The Pillow Guy,” or that dude who today swore he would “never visit NYC again” and pledged a whopping $5k to Trump’s campaign? These guys are bog-level wannabe’s. Send them to Grand Central Landscaping.