PART TWO: THE SWAMP — The Weekly Opine

Will MAGAs reject sleeping in the bed they made? (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Look who’s soft on crime

For decades, Republicans have pushed the false narrative Democrats are the party that is soft on crime. Democrats’ best intentions, when enacting legislation designed to create more fairness, are often undone by Republicans creating a perception that becomes, in voter’s minds, reality. As they often do, Republicans dishonestly twist issues to create negative public opinion toward Democrats. The result is Americans become frightened into believing crime is surging unabated when data proves there has been a reduction in violent crime.

It’s been more than a year since Illinois became the first state in the nation to do away with cash bail. The Pretrial Fairness Act caused an earthquake reaction across Illinois and effectively ended the career of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. The legislation was birthed by Black legislators in Illinois whose goal was to level the playing field by ending situations whereby Blacks charged with low-level offenses were jailed because they could not pay cash bail. While many White defendants paid bail and were released, often Black defendants languished in jail waiting for their day in court.

In Illinois, and a growing number of states, a defendant’s ability to pay cash bail is no longer the determining factor as to whether they will be held in jail until trial. Although judges still have the latitude to incarcerate defendants under certain conditions (defendants who are a flight risk or danger to the community), the Pretrial Fairness Act allows many criminal defendants to go free while awaiting trial.

To be clear, offenders are still detained for violent crimes involving guns or other weapons. Domestic abuse defendants are also detained. For many other crimes defendants are no longer detained simply because they cannot pay bail. Correspondingly, data shows the number of people in Illinois jails has dropped. What about crime rates?

Data from the Loyola Center for Criminal Justice shows a reduction in Illinois crime since the Pretrial Fairness Act took effect. Researchers point out they cannot correlate less crime with the legislation but simply acknowledge that crime has not gone up – as was widely feared and promoted by Republicans like former Illinois gubernatorial candidate and MAGA fearmonger Darren Bailey.

Now that multiple states and metro jurisdictions have eliminated, nearly eliminated or otherwise adjusted cash bail laws, a perennial refrain from the right is that shoplifters are emboldened to steal away, knowing they will not face immediate jail time if apprehended. (Republicans play the boogeyman card as casually as you and I brush our teeth at bedtime).

Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr and Merrick Garland, America’s last three attorney generals, have been underwhelming at best. (Photos credit Vanity Fair, Fox News, Yahoo Sports)

Buyer’s remorse?

Meanwhile, conservatives such as Darren Bailey remain silent as the Republican Party disintegrates into a crime-infested labyrinth, cheered on by Fox News, the network of lies that paid $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit.

So much for Trump and GOPers being the party of law and order. Just in the past week, Trump has nominated for his cabinet a gang that exhibits criminal behavior unmatched in 248 years of American record-keeping related to nominees for presidential administrations.

Trump bragging that he will bring in the best and the brightest, which he disproved last time around with an administration that saw a handful of Trump inner-circle associates serve prison time, is already faltering this time around, even before he officially assumes the presidency.

And on social media, evidence of buyer’s remorse seeps through the cracks.

Some Muslims who absent-mindedly voted for Trump, in protest of the Biden administration, now express regrets as the realization settles in that Trump will likely enable Netanyahu to go ahead and destroy Gaza. Ditto for Latinos who fell for Trump’s false bravado and now fear losing their comparative comfy lives via deportation. Black folks hoodwinked by Trump need only count the number of Blacks nominated for cabinet positions (none so far) to see the foolishness of supporting Trump. And women who experience the trauma associated with difficult pregnancies can thank their White sisters for choosing submission over equality.

Trump’s proposed cabinet includes a list of scandalous actors that boggles the mind.

Matt Gaetz, an abuser of illegal drugs who has been credibly accused of committing statutory rape (verified by a witness), now nominated to be U.S. Attorney General.
Pete Hegseth, a credibly alleged rapist nominated to be Secretary of Defense (he paid a financial settlement and made the woman sign a non-disclosure agreement related to the rape allegation).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaxxer and admitted abuser of illegal drugs, who was credibly accused of sexually assaulting his nanny, nominated to be Director of Health and Human Services.
Tulsi Gabbard, nominated to be Director of National Intelligence, flaunts treasonous behavior while parroting Vladimir Putin’s talking points.
Kristi Noem, nominated for Director of Homeland Security, admitted she shot and killed her puppy.
Elon Musk, Trump’s current BFF (remember when Kanye West briefly held that title?) assigned to co-lead the non-cabinet Department of Government Efficiency, has been credibly accused of exposing himself to a flight attendant and attempting to bribe her with gifts to perform sex acts. Musk’s company Space X paid, dare I say it, $250,000 hush money to the woman.

It’s no surprise, since they support convicted felon Trump: Republicans back four men who are credibly accused sexual predators, a woman who displays treasonous instincts and a woman who shot her puppy. (Photos credit New Yorker, Al Jazeera, PBS, Scripps News, The Hill, Forbes)

Considering Trump is a 4-times indicted, 34-times convicted felon, we shouldn’t be surprised he’s nominated a coterie of people who practice criminal behavior unseen in a U.S. presidential administration since, well, the first Trump administration. Ladies and gentlemen, the party of law and order is truly the party of miscreants and abhorrent behavior.

Now the question is, will the U.S. Senate, as many in the mainstream media still do regarding Trump’s obscene behavior, normalize unfit cabinet nominees by soft-peddling and accommodating? Or will senators display common sense and reject these unqualified, corrupt misfits?

Let the circus begin.