Sunday, February 14, 2021

What punishment does Trump deserve?

Now that Trump has been acquited in the Senate trial, we'd all love to see him in an orange jumpsuit picking up trash beside the highway but what is the appropriate punishment for his crimes? He has done immense harm in many ways, 400,000 excess deaths from COVID being only one example. He should certainly be concerned about the possibility of there being a literal Hell. All that said, simply being convicted and losing his ability to run for office, hold insurrection rallies and strike fear into the hearts of cowardly Republicans would be a major humiliation, an inescapable "narcissistic injury." Losing his money and business empire after being convicted of tax fraud seems to be a realistic probability that would certainly put the hurt on him. If those things along with being a pariah and object of scorn in the media and by stand-up comedians worldwide resulted from his being convicted, I'd probably be OK with him getting to serve on probation with appropriate restrictions on his activities like no internet usage. I doubt Melania would stick around for the sex. Showing mercy would be a gesture to his diehard red hat base supporters.

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