Amanda Marcotte on the whiner-in-chief:
As anyone who listens to him can attest, Donald Trump may be the most self-pitying person on planet Earth. Pretty much all the man does is whine and cry about how he’s the victim of an imaginary “witch hunt.” In reality, his list of transgressions is staggering. If he were any other person, he would have been sentenced to prison many times over with no real hope of release: Sexual assault. Decades of fraud. Attempted extortation of a foreign leader. Stealing classified documents. Flagrant acceptance of what very much looks like bribes. Attempting to overthrow democracy. Inciting a violent riot that got people killed. I’m sure readers can list a dozen more, but let’s get to the point: It’s absolutely bananas that Trump isn’t in prison yet.
On Monday, right before Trump finally got the tiniest taste of the justice he deserves for committing decades of criminal fraud in New York, he got bailed out by the state’s appeals court.
The concept of “privilege” is treated with great skepticism in conservative circles, and regarded by MAGA types like a made-up hoax. But no one alive proves the truth of the concept more than Donald Trump. He’s proudly ignorant. The only talent he bothered to learn is cheating the system so that you “win” without ever having to be good at stuff. The only real skill he’s developed in his 77 years is utter shamelessness, and frankly, it seems that might be more of a genetic defect than anything he’s worked at. The man can’t even bother to get good at golf, a sport he does seem to like, because he prefers to lie about it instead.
And yet, simply because he was born a white guy with inherited wealth, the world conspires to endlessly provide Trump with all the breaks. Not only is this spoiled brat shielded from the consequences of his actions, but his privilege continues to catapult him into a world of luxury and flattery, even as all he does is leave a trail of ruin in his wake.
The latest “are you kidding me” example: On Monday, right before Trump finally got the tiniest taste of the justice he deserves for committing decades of criminal fraud in New York, he got bailed out by the state’s appeals court. The judgment against Trump was nearly half a billion, due to a court case that demonstrated he wouldn’t have two nickels to rub together but for his lifetime of fraud. In order to appeal the case, Trump had to first put up the full amount as a bond, which is standard. So Trump went on Truth Social to petulantly claim he had $500 million in cash (even though his legal filings said otherwise). Then in a stunningly undeserved act of mercy, the appeals court reduced the amount of his bond to $175 million and gave Trump 10 more days to find a benefactor to pay it for him.
Once again, Trump gets bailed out by people he would happily feed to a pack of ravenous wolves for a penny. The unfairness of it is staggering. He’s not repentant. On the contrary, Trump famously spent the entire trial throwing childish tantrums in court, outraged at the very idea that he should be treated like ordinary people, who tend to face punishment when caught committing crimes. He was already let off easy for that, as well. Most people who make scenes and unsubtly threaten court staff would find themselves cooling off in jail for contempt, but the judge backed off in the face of the force field of rich white boy protection that has surrounded Trump his whole life.
Read the rest. It’s infuriating.
He’s a very, very lucky guy but he did lose the 2020 election and he have to ensure that he loses the 2024 election as well. Whether he’s ever held accountable beyond that gets more unlikely every day.