Another Friday Rant

Every time I edit together a podcast it seems to take forever - even when the main segments were recorded days ago, so it really is just a case of ordering them and sticking them together.  So, several hours after starting the task, I can finally get around to writing today's post.  Well, there really is only one topic of discussion today, isn't there?  Yep, Donald Trump has finally been found guilty of something and is now a convicted felon.  Now, in any sane, civilised country, this conviction would automatically bar him from standing for elected office.  But not in the good old US of A - the land of opportunity, even for, or maybe especially for, crooks.  I mean, it just seems decidedly bizarre that someone awaiting sentencing after a criminal conviction, (on 34 charges related to election interference, let's not forget), can still campaign to be elected president.  Indeed, even if he receives a custodial sentence, that apparently still won't be enough to disbar him from the ballot or from actually serving as president if elected.  Don't forget, all of this is happening in a country that likes to hold itself up as some kind of exemplar of freedom and democracy and which likes to lecture the rest of the world on such things.  But I guess that their conception of freedom encompasses the notion that even criminals who have demonstrated a remarked disregard for the constitution and just about every civilised democratic value known to man, can legitimately hold office if they can bribe or brainwash enough idiots and lunatics into voting for them.

Not that I expect this conviction to stick - unfortunately, as history has taught us multiple times - in the US, if you have sufficient money and influence, you can worm, bully and bribe your way out of such things.  Doubtless, Trump and his buddies on the Supreme Court will manage to find some way to rig the court that hears his appeal against this conviction.  Sorry to sound so pessimistic about this, but it's just the way things are - the US is a country that worships money, its acquisition is seen as the ultimate measure of success or failure, so it should be no surprise that their institutions are so easily corrupted.  To be fair, this isn't unique to the US - fourteen years of the Tories trying to remould the UK into a similar temple to wealth has resulted in the outrageous levels of corruption we now see here.  Getting back to the US, if Trump's term in office taught us anything, it is that he corrupts and degrades everything he touches, yet there are people there apparently crazy enough to want a re-run of that most shameful episode of recent US history, that saw democracy brought to the brink with his refusal to accept any result unless it showed that he won and the US presidency itself was brought into disrepute.  Is it really any wonder that the US is rapidly becoming the laughing stock of the free world?   But hey, until the fat bastard manages to overturn his convictions, we might as well enjoy the moment and rejoice.  So that's what I'll do and get back to dancing around the room in joyful delirium.