DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: We have entered the Twilight Zone with faux verdicts, possible wars, Americans voting for a felon in November

The twilight zone where nothing is the same as it was before.

You know – May 30, 2024 – the day that will go down in history: the Trump trial verdict.

Former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis explained, “What happened today was offensive to the Constitution.

“Every single American who loves our founding document, which was passed, by the way not to restrain American the individual, it was passed to restrain the government, to keep the government from acting out of bounds.”

A big day I’d say.

However, that was not all the shenanigans that day. 

While Americans were distracted, Joe Joe gave the green light for the Ukrainian military to start firing American, British, and German missiles into civilian cities inside Russia (www.politico.com/news/2024/05/30/biden-ukraine-weapons-strike-russia-00160731).

There’s a stench to the trial either way.

One of former President Donald Trump’s attorney’s, Will Scharf, said this “hush money” case has been sitting since 2020 and was not brought up until Trump announced his campaign for election.

Anybody disagree that’s a fact?

Another fact – until now, politicization of the legal system has been unprecedented in America.

I’m not attempting to side with Republicans or Democrats – but sometimes facts form without attempt.

I do know after the charges last week there are a lot of people proclaiming they’ll be voting for a felon in November for President.

That is obviously unprecedented too.

Well, so is the fact that Joe Joe, who was deemed by Special Counsel Robert Hur to be “an elderly man with a poor memory and thus shouldn’t be charged” with mishandling of classified documents – has decided to invoke an Executive Order to prevent the American people from hearing the audio recordings of his testimony with Hur.

AND, said elderly man is running for President again – of the United States.

Let that sink into your psyche.

Of course, there’s no way he will win now unless…

New York union leader Bob Bartels said Democrats in his union are planning to vote for Trump in a poll 3-1 out of 9000 members (www.foxnews.com/media/nyc-union-leader-says-members-support-trump-biden-3-1-see-wave-coming).

Does anyone find it egregious that Trump was convicted of 34 counts of whatever, before anyone on Epstein’s client list has even been looked at or questioned?

Does anyone find it strange politicians go into office worth about $10 and come out with millions?

What about the fact Trump’s felony charges have always been treated as a misdemeanor in the past.

And, it should have been a federal case and not a state case.

And Judge Juan Merchan changed the meaning of unanimous – requiring only four jurors to need to agree to convict. Merchan knows this whole thing is reversible.

Think Ramos v. Louisiana, 2020 – stated every element of the crime must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and that court case held the Fourteenth Amendment fully incorporates the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a unanimous verdict.

Merchan apparently told the jury they didn’t need to reach a unanimous verdict. 

One commentator said, “This is the first time in the history of this Republic a jury of piers do not have to agree – and they can still find him collectively guilty.”

Someone compared what happened to Trump last week to what Stalin’s Soviet Secret Police Chief Lavrentiy Beria said: “Give me the man and I will find the crime.”

The 34 charges Trump was handed served to help him raise $39 million in 10 hours the night he was charged. In fact, he raised so much it crashed the website.

While I know many Democrats are laughing at the Republicans because of the charges Trump received, I don’t think they are looking very future forward. 

Remember, what happened last week was against the constitution and it could just as easily happen to a Democrat as a Republican.

Some facts, did you know Merchan was not on the list of 24 rotating judges that should have been given the random assignment of the Trump case.

He was also not on the rotation for the Steve Bannon or  Allen Weisselberg cases, but somehow he seemed to be selected to manage all three trials.

There was also a reporter who connected the dots between Merchan and the DOJ.

Merchan’s bio at a New York Courts website noted he is a fellow in the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource and Center (ASTAR), 2012 to present. 

ASTAR was funded by a grant from the DOJ – seems a bit conflict of interest to me.

Republican Senator from Ohio J.D. Vance said he believed the judge committed multiple elements of reversible error “and he did it while his daughter has made a ton of money off democratic candidates and while he himself donated to the Biden campaign”

The words politics masquerading as justice came out of someone’s mouth.

Regarding Merchan’s daughter Loren (wasn’t that part of the gag order) – reportedly she was sent money by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, yes, HER!

Oh, and also New York Dem/House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries to the tune of $1.5 million (reportedly) in payments (www.newsweek.com/who-loren-merchan-juan-merchan-daughter-donald-trump-judge-1884557).

Is it not true if we allow the standard of throwing political opponents in jail because they are doing better than you in the election it will end this country?

And if you’re not sure what Trump was on trial for, apparently he wasn’t either – nor were his attorneys.

The bottom line of it was Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to shut up, and she did not.

Hush money payments are legal (remember Clinton), and Trump’s accountants paid Cohen back and classified it as a legal expense versus a campaign expense. 

Those are the charges, yes, and the 34 charges included 12 charges of leger entries for a crime.

Obama (www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/07/obama-campaign-fined-big-for-hid...) was only fined for hiding donors and keeping illegal donations. Didn’t Bill Clinton and John Edwards do the same thing aka hush money (abcnews.go.com/Politics/comparing-donald-trumps-hush-money-trial-john-edwards/story?id=109506871)? Research that one.

After the trial, a reporter at ABC made (what many think was) a false remark that New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg had nothing to do with the DOJ.

Dumb move buddy.

Trump’s attorney Scharf disagreed. 

The ABC reporter said there was zero evidence, and Scharf scratched it again asking then why did the former number three man under DOJ Attorney General Merrick Garland suddenly became Bragg’s Assistant DA as the Trump trial began?

Now that is one heck of a demotion. Again, highly unprecedented.

Trump doesn’t even have to campaign since mainstream media/social media is giving him 24/7 coverage, and it turns out Democrats and Republicans are swinging their vote red because they do still believe in the Constitution and a fair trial.

There was one Democrat weighing in why he didn’t want Trump to win president. 

He said, “Trump will stiff you if you work for him as a contractor, if you lend him money he may declare bankruptcy and cheat you, if you donate to his foundation he will steal it, if you donate to his campaign he will spend it on himself, if you work for him in government he probably turned on you, if you commit a crime for him and get caught he will disown you, if you married him he cheated on you, if you participated in the insurrection (that’s a good one) he hasn’t given a dime to help you, so if he is so disloyal to everyone else why are you so loyal to him?”

Then a Trump supporter mentioned the diary Biden’s daughter wrote about and the showers with her dad. 

What about the part where his wifey Jill and him were having an affair. But that’s just heresy from her ex-hubby, and what does he know (www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1241905/jill-bidens-ex-husband-accuses-her-and-joe-biden-of-affair-that-broke-up-marriage)?

And  Joe Joe lying at least 16 times about his family’s business schemes to the house oversight committee? 

Now, I’m just trying to figure out why U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in Kyiv a few weeks ago during this cruel war laughing and playing guitar at a bar (www.bbc.com/news/av/world-69013071).

Rita Cook is a freelance writer for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.