NATO allies honor 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion of Normandy

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

Former President of the United States of America, Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of felony in the recently concluded hush money case in the district court of Manhattan, New York. Trump has gone down in history as the only convicted felon who has served as the President of the United States. He is currently on bail on his own recognizance, until the date of sentencing, July 11, 2024.

Trump’s only chance of avoiding imprisonment is to win re-election in November. As president, the pending cases against him, indeed all punishments currently imposed on him, will be dismissed. If not, he will probably be jailed for life. He is literally fighting for his life. And losing.

The range of the sentence for the Class E felonies committed by Trump – falsifying business records in the first degree – is a maximum of four years of imprisonment for each count, to be served concurrently, plus a fine of $5,000 for each felony, The minimum for a first offender is probation.

Judge Merchan is expected to take into account the convict’s attitude, remorse for the crimes he has committed and his general behavior after conviction, as criteria for the severity of the sentence. On that basis, Trump should have the book thrown at him, as minutes after the judgment at the courthouse, he was railing about “a trial rigged by the most crooked president in history”, “a weaponized Justice Department” and “a corrupt and certified Trump-hating judge”. He said that if “they could do this to me, they could do it to anyone”.

Of course they could, but no “anyone” would be stupid enough pay a porn star $130,000 as hush money for a 90 second sexual encounter, while his wife was pregnant with his son. “Anyone” but Trump.

Judge Merchan could sentence Trump to a variety of terms of imprisonment, from the maximum of four years in jail to probation. He could sentence him to serve extended periods of time in prison, where he spends only weekends in jail and the rest of the time on probation, or he could sentence him to probation alone, with no jail time. House arrest was also considered, but dismissed as it was deemed too cruel and unusual a punishment – for Melania, who has already informed the authorities that she will not agree to conjugal visits in the event Trump is imprisoned for an extended sentence.

My choice for a totally appropriate sentence for Trump would be four days of community service, to be served during July 15 to July 18, the scheduled dates of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Party extravaganza, the climax of which will be Trump’s formal acceptance of the 2024 presidential nomination of the Republican Party.

His sentence would require Trump to present himself in the attire of a convicted felon – an orange jumpsuit – ready to rake leaves on Central Park for eight hours. An image that will be captured by the world’s media, and will be the laughing stock of the world and define Trump’s presidency for future generations.

Trump’s reaction to the possibility of being sentenced to imprisonment on July 11, was to say that the “public won’t stand for it”, a veiled threat that there will be violence if he is incarcerated.

Trump has been threatening violence ever since he lost the election in 2020. His incitement to violence resulted in the insurrection and the storming of the Capitol by his domestic terrorist supporters on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power. An attempt at a treasonous coup which nearly succeeded, but for the bravery of the Capitol and Washington DC police, who quelled the violence themselves, in spite of Trump’s refusal to call the National Guard for assistance. Trump merely watched the violence on TV at the White House for 187 minutes, while people were dying, before he was compelled to call the National Guard.

Trump has warned that his supporters are standing by if he was arrested or anything bad happened to him. Since then, he has been convicted on two civil cases in New York on sexual assault, defamation and financial fraud; convicted and found guilty on 34 counts of felony; and arrested on three other cases and released on bail.

Each of these events where he was arrested required him to present himself at the courthouses of Manhattan, New York, (the recently concluded hush money case), Miami, Florida (stealing government top-secret documents, espionage) Washington DC (inciting an insurrection, sedition) and Atlanta, Georgia (election interference). He had threatened that his supporters will wreak death and destruction that there will be a bloodbath, if he is subjected to the humiliation of an arrest like a common criminal, which, without a semblance of a doubt, he is.

Alas, not a drop of blood was to be seen, and the media and law enforcement officers present at these arrests outnumbered his supporters. In fact, at the recently concluded New York hush money trial, only his son, Eric was with him in the courthouse the day the verdict was delivered.

Trump may still be able to attract large crowds at his rallies, where his radical red, white supremacist supporters will gather around him to show their devotion. However, they may be attending these rallies also for the entertainment. No one can deny that Trump, with his vulgarity and buffoonery – we all remember how he regularly makes love to the American flag – provides entertainment, behaving in a way only a half-wit can.

While his supporters will continue to finance him and show their vociferous devotion at his rallies, while they are still committed to his fascist, white supremacist agenda, I don’t think they will be prepared to suffer the risk of imprisonment or sacrifice their lives for him. After his recent conviction of felony charges in New York, many of his supporters are having second thoughts about even voting for him in November.

Whatever the polls predict, America will never elect a convicted felon to the presidency.

That does not rule out the possibility of individual domestic terrorists carrying out sporadic acts of violence, like the brutal attack by radical right Trump supporter, David DePape, on 84-year-old Paul Pelosi, husband of former Democratic Speaker, Nancy Pelosi in October 2022.

It is also likely that radical-red Trump supporters keep Republicans, who may be beginning to see through Trump’s lies and are fearful of the path he is leading the nation towards authoritarianism, in line with death threats to themselves and their families.

While there will be Trump-incited violence when he refuses to concede defeat in November, local law enforcement forces and the National Guard will be on full alert to deal with such an insurrection. Unlike In 2020, when the mob was incited to violence by the Commander-in-Chief himself, who refused to call the National Guard to stop the rioting for over three hours.

Trump and the leaders of the Republican Party are already preparing for their defeat in November, by refusing to answer a simple yes/no question: whether they will accept the results of the 2024 election. They all prevaricate, leaving the door open for resorting to lies and inciting violence based on these lies when they lose the election. Just as they prepared for their defeat in 2020 election, long before November 2020, when they were certain they were going to lose.

There’s another challenging event just two weeks short of the scheduled sentencing date. The first Presidential Debate between President Biden and convicted felon Donald Trump is scheduled to be held on June 28, at the CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia. CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will serve as moderators at the debate which will probably break all media viewing records.

Trump will be required to obtain permission from his probation officer to remove his ankle monitor bracelet, worn by all convicted felons on bail or parole, to enable him to attend the debate. Permission which may be withheld unless Trump acts strictly according to his probationary conditions. Hopefully, President Biden will weave this interesting fact into the fabric of his opening statement.

After his conviction last Thursday, Trump resorted to his favorite action – Retribution. His first impulse was to pressure his subservient Supreme Court to do “something” to overturn his conviction. An act constitutionally impossible even for the most corrupt Supreme Court in history. The Supreme Court is only required to hear cases where charges are deemed to be either federal or illegal. The New York hush money case is neither.

So what to do? Try to find dirt of President Biden, of course.

The Republicans persuaded a Trump appointed judge in Wilmington, Delaware, District Court judge Maryellen Noreika, to bring gun-related charges and federal tax violations against Hunter Biden. The panel of 12 jurors and four alternates have already been seated for this case, and opening statements were heard on Tuesday. The trial is in progress.

Hunter Biden is the only remaining son of President Biden. He has never been a federal employee or represented the government of the United States in any capacity. He has admitted to committing most of the crimes of which he has been accused, during a dark period of his life five years ago. But he has done so as a private citizen. President Biden has never been involved with any of Hunter’s activities.

So where then is the dirt on Biden? The answer, my Republican friends, is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin’ in the wind. (with apologies to Bob Dylan).

Another subject that is gaining national currency is who will be Trump’s Vice-President in 2024, a post that went extinct with Mike Pence on January 6, 2021, when he refused to obey the illegal orders of the Fuhrer.

Presently, there are seven candidates vying for this pie in the sky: two African-Americans, who have publicly professed the preposterous view that Blacks were better off during the Jim Crow, pre-1960s segregation era (rather like some Sri Lankan, wannabe white colonials, who still think we were better off being enslaved and robbed blind by the British rather than being robbed blind by our own compatriots); and five white supremacist Christians, whose noses are brown, who believe the earth is flat and the sun orbits around Trump’s ass, which emanates that radiant shade of orange.

I will end with news that is breaking as I write, the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the largest sea, air and land operation in military history. More than 150,000 troops from the United States, Britain and Canada landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, on June 6, 1944, beginning a battle that eventually defeated the Nazis and liberated Europe. And ended the war which stopped, perhaps temporarily, the spread of fascism in the world. Presidents Biden and Macron were present at the ceremonies to honor nearly a dozen D-day and other World War II survivors, in a setting dripping with history, before an enormous crowd, including world leaders, US officials, servicemen and members of Congress.

In a stirring speech President Biden thanked the “Greatest Generation” for saving the world from the horrors of Nazism. He said “isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and its not the answer today”.

“We know the dark forces these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade – aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force”, a direct reference to Putin.

Referring to the heroes, the veterans of World War II, Biden said “what they did that day does not absolve us from what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. We have to fight for it”. A snide reference to the action necessary against convicted felon, Donald Trump?