Running For President, Regardless

WHEN YOU RUN FOR PRESIDENT, there are certain things you automatically know, or should know. Among them,you know that you will be getting a lot of attention, and, if you are not already famous, you will be. You know that your life, past and present, will be closely examined by legions of journalists and historians, among other people, and that whatever mistakes you have made, whatever bad choices you have made and nefarious actions you have commmitted; people, probably many people, are going to find out about them. This fact makes Donald Trump's entire political career since 2015 so spectacularly amazing, the mere fact that he did what he did, pursued power and even more fame, deliberately sought the power and fame and attention and scrutiny inherent in running for president. Donald Trump has been lying, cheating, and stealing his entire life. That fact was made obvious, demonstrated and confirmed over and over, by the end of his term as president, because of the dozens, seemingly hundreds, of books about him written and published by people who have been and in some cases still are very close to the Donald, and know him very well, and shared much in print, much of it damaging to Donald. There is a common theme to these revealing books; that Donald Trump is and always has been an entitled, privileged narcissist with absolutely no decent moral character whatsoever, who is willing to do anything to get what he wants, no matter how horrible, brutal, or illegal. Surely, in the name of common sense, when Trump was deciding whether to run for president, the thought came to his small mind that some, maybe much, maybe all of his shady deeds would probably come to light. It almost seems as if he knew, but didn't care. Why should he? All he has to do is deny, deny, and lie, and hit the accusors back with worse accusations - we all, by now, know Trump's methods. This civil lawsuit conviction in New York, while indeed civil and not criminal, nonetheless convicts Trump of a multitude of criminal acts, for which he will pay dearly, financially, but won't, sadly, be sent to prison. And of course he'll once again play the part of the poor mistreated victim, hounded by the forces of evil, liberals, democrats, trump haters who will do anything to bring Donald Trump down, so you, dear followers, must rally together behind your dear leader, to protect him from the forces of evil, aka, the American legal and criminal justice system. Very soon he'll spend more time with the UAW strikers talking about his mistreatment than about theirs; bank on it. Trump, over the next few months, will be spending more and more of his time in court, with the charges against him in full view, day after day. We will see how his political opponents as well as his supporters react to that. The evidence of Trump's financial crimes is so obvious that the judge ruled on it without bothering to have a trial, which is his perogative. According to New York law, Trump may appeal if and only if there was a demonstrable mistake made in applying the law in this case, which was brought by the Prosecutor on behalf of the people of New York. There was not; again, you can bank on it. Inflating the value of his properties and wealth to get favorable lender conditions is only half of the Trump criminal equation. Just as often he has lied about his wealth, deliberately, greatly underestimating it, for tax purposes. We will be hearing more about that, along with the rest of the vast and repidly expanding Trump criminal universe. But no matter how dire Trump's legal situation becomes - and its going to get a lot worse before it gets better for him - his loyal, sycophantic cult followers will indeed rally around him, and maybe, just maybe, elect him as president next year. That is not as improbable as it may seem; If the election were held today, he would win. That very thought is simultaneously horrific, and hilarious.