{"id":12329,"date":"2024-06-06T17:07:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=12329"},"modified":"2024-06-06T17:07:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:07:59","slug":"america-is-in-the-valley-of-decision-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/06\/america-is-in-the-valley-of-decision-turmoil\/","title":{"rendered":"America Is in the Valley of Decision (Turmoil?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1035\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1035\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1035\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Lafe-Tolliver.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Lafe-Tolliver.jpg 200w, http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Lafe-Tolliver-195x300.jpg 195w, http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Lafe-Tolliver-163x250.jpg 163w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1035\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lafe Tolliver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><strong>By Lafe Tolliver, Esq<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong>Guest Column<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The trial of the century is over, and a jury of 12 men and women heard the overwhelming evidence presented against Donald Trump and agreed with the position of the state prosecutor which is: Trump is a con artist of the first degree.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, the forever crybaby, went on a rant after the verdict and bemoaned the criminal justice system as being unfair and corrupt, knowing full well that if he were to have prevailed, he would be extolling how great things were and how there was no case to begin with.<\/p>\n<p>These are my takes from the trial and the aftermath of the trial and in no particular order:<\/p>\n<p>(1) Trump can now be called a convicted felon, a term that will drive him to distraction because his imperial armor has been pierced by a jury that was not in\u00a0awe of his money (?) or name power. The aura of the name Trump has been soiled beyond repair.<\/p>\n<p>(2) Alvin Bragg, the brilliant prosecutor of this case, and his highly skilled team of lawyers and paralegals brought the fight and won. And they won because these type of cases are the \u201cbread and butter\u201d of Bragg\u2019s public integrity department.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s mischief did not escape him, and he was not deferential to the name Trump and its vainglorious New York history.<\/p>\n<p>(3) If you peruse social media, the vile comments from MAGA world and others\u00a0encourage acts of violence against the judge, the jurors and anyone else connected to this case simply because their Dear Leader has been held accountable to a power that he could not control or influence\u2026a jury.<\/p>\n<p>(4) Be on the lookout for further and future articles from MAGA world and the\u00a0Steve Bannon\u2019s\u2019 and his ilk when they try to foment armed revolution against\u00a0the Capitol and the judicial system. For Steven Bannon, it is his mantra that it all must be destroyed and yet he daily enjoys the fruits of the very system he rants\u00a0against. Go figure! Hypocrisy, anyone?<\/p>\n<p>(5) Up and until the day of Trump\u2019s sentencing date (it could be changed due to\u00a0whatever motions may be filed by the defense team), Trump will engage in negative histrionics and bellicose behavior that will set your teeth on edge.<\/p>\n<p>(6) Don\u2019t you wonder why those who would rally <u>you<\/u> to engage in criminal or civil disobedience, never lead the charge of the light brigade? No, they are the\u00a0tin foil hat wearing generals who spout a lot of gibberish but when pushed to pick up a baton or a gun and say, \u201cCharge!,\u201d they are found shivering in a closet.<\/p>\n<p>(7) The MAGA base has been duped about the facts of the case because they were fed an anemic diet of lies and distortions by Fox News and other outlets that are known for their history of being the news organs of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>They were told that the defense was shredding the prosecution\u2019s weak case, and that Trump would win. Now, they are shell shocked that it was not true as repeatedly stated to them by their legal experts.<\/p>\n<p>(8) Sadly, Trump, at his presser the next day, railed against the judge and prosecutor and even his, not so swift son, Eric, reduced America to a third world \u201csh*thole\u201d country.<\/p>\n<p>Such nice language from a person, when given the chance to stay in this country or flee elsewhere, would fight you to the death to keep his Starbucks rewards card.<\/p>\n<p>(9) This trial revealed the soft underbelly of an America which is so polarized along political, economical and racial lines that one would despair to think that can such a Grand Canyon gap ever be reconciled.<\/p>\n<p>(10) The judicial system will have to be reexamined because if Trump is allowed to run for a federal office as a convicted felon, what do we do with the thousands of ex-cons who served time in a federal prison regarding their rights to enter\u00a0the federal civil service system seeking jobs.<\/p>\n<p>(11) Based upon Trump\u2019s 10 gag order violations and his demeaning conduct at his trial, will Judge Merchan, at his date of sentencing, dole out a judgment of\u00a0jail time? If not, why not? Trump more than deserves it and if he does not get some jail time (even suspended), Trump wins\u2026again.<\/p>\n<p>(12) Will Biden\u2019s re-election team use the moniker, \u2018convicted felon\u2019, as a tag for ads to run in the swing states? It is factual and they should not be scared of labeling Trump what a jury labeled him\u2026a criminal felon.<\/p>\n<p>(13) Some of the white evangelical churches soiled their righteous garments by\u00a0backing a man who committed adultery with a porn star and tried to buy her silence so as not to hurt his re-election chances.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those \u2018leaders\u2019 were issuing sham statements about the trial being a farce and a mockery of justice but they were clueless as to their positions being\u00a0a mockery of the Bible that they professed to believe in. Go figure.<\/p>\n<p>You would not find Jesus backing a porn star payment hustle and the constant lies from Trump about it and his acts of adultery. But, then again, some of the so-called religious leaders are simply hearers of the Word and not doers of the Word.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this national outcry regarding the trial results and the mean spiritedness of the upcoming election forebodes troubling times in America and coupled with a renegade Supreme Court that is beholden to no one, we can say that we are living in interesting times.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lafe Tolliver, Esq Guest Column The trial of the century is over, and a jury of 12 men and women heard the overwhelming evidence presented against Donald Trump and agreed with the position of the state prosecutor which is: Trump is a con artist of the first degree. Trump, the forever crybaby, went on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[233],"class_list":["post-12329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12331,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12329\/revisions\/12331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12329"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=12329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}