JUST IN: Secret Service has reportedly met with local jail officials in New York

Your posts are filled with wishful, idealistic scenarios for your world view. We never see things as they are, only as we are.

^
“Trump says jail time to defend free speech is 'sacrifice' he's willing to make…”

:D

By the time appeals are finished, Trump might be subject to house arrest and not be allowed to leave the White House. Come on, Man!

Yaaawwwnnn...

I'm a Progressive, and politically very anti-Trump. But, I would prefer that he not be found guilty in the current case (Marchand's courtroom NYC, campaign-finance hush-money cover-up payment to Stormy Daniels). And if he is found guilty, I would prefer that he not be sentenced to jail time.

For the other cases, I have other preferences. But for this one, it seems too much a technicality.

He did it, but was it illegal? He admits to almost everything required for the crime. It's not that he denies doing it. He paid Cohen. Cohen paid Daniels / Clifford. Pecker knew of the payment and got his own payment and agreed with Trump to kill the story. They all together did it for the benefit of the campaign, to increase Trump's likelihood of getting elected. All of this is pretty much undisputed. On the other hand, it's up-in-the-air whether it was truly a quid-pro-quo arrangement, and whether there's really anything wrong with him managing potentially bad press during a campaign. So, the question, mostly, isn't, "did he do it?" The question is, rather, "is what he did illegal?" It sounds to me like he needed a better Campaign Treasurer, who knew how to fill out the bank books more carefully. I personally think that yes, it was illegal (I didn't watch the whole trial) but I also personally think it's way too nigglety-pigglety a technicality, all about which line-item in which ledger matches which other line-item, to put someone in jail. And I'm speaking as a hardcore Left winger. I would probably vote Trotsky if you gave me a chance.

Additionally, even if found guilty, I would prefer he not do jail time. I think doing "real hard time" for paperwork technicalities is generally an excessive punishment (except in cases like Madoff and other major swindlers who ruined lives). And I think former Presidents doing hard time for campaign finance fraud is simply a dangerous direction to go. For insurrection? Yes, full Federal prison. For treason? Of course, maybe even execution, depending. (I also don't think Trump's actions on January 6, 2021, rise to the level of treason, BTW.) But State campaign finance misdeeds? Too tenuous.

I choose most of this so as not to demean the potential crimes and the potential sentences. A place like Riker's needs to be used only for something major. The punishment needs to fit the crime, and a lesser punishment needs to be levied so that greater punishments can be reserved for greater actions. Thus we don't combine all crimes into one big bucket of "bad," but rather we continue to distinguish among them intelligently. For this reason I'm similarly against Civil-Rights-violation enhancements to longstanding criminal statutes. For example, I don't think the act of killing A BLACK MAN should be punished more stringently than the act of killing ANY human. But some places manage to do the former, including the Federal crime books, by adding on a Civil Rights violation to the murder. Seems to me, this devalues the murder of non-Black people somehow.

And remember, I say all this as a Left-wing voter. It's not that I'm apologizing for Trump. I hope that ultimately he gets what he deserves for his fomenting of an insurrection. That should be enough for twenty years in a Federal pen, IMO. I don't see that coming to pass, not in several decades but then again ... it would be nice to tie him up in litigation until he dies, too, now wouldn't it?

Bear in mind we also have plans for how to fight world war 4.

^ WWIII will end the world as we know it, WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones

Book guy… suck my dick bitch. Trump should go to prison. Stop being such a pussy