Christmas in prison
Watching Lauren Boebert’s bizarre behavior at the Denver theatre production of “Beetlejuice” made graphically intuitive to me what I’ve always intellectually known about her. She is (as are most other Republicans these days) an immature bonehead with little or no concern about the health, quiet or comfort of others.
Watch it for yourselves and be convinced. Watch the full 7 minute video available on YouTube. Boebert is easy to spot. She’s the squirming, talking, singing, vaping, flailing, jiggling, writhing, sexually groping idiot in an ocean of calm, mature, well-behaved adults. This member of Congress is behaving like a teenager with ADHD who has just consumed a six pack of Red Bulls.
I hesitate to think of adults in these terms because it’s historically so uncommon, but “immature” is a word I was taught to reserve for children, and occasionally people under 25. Yet Boebert is no different from the man she prays to every night, Donald Trump. Trump has no discernible impulse control. It’s not a word I use often when describing Trump, in part because he’s a man of 77. But perhaps I should. Donald Trump is immature.
And, if you’ll pardon the expression, his immaturity is about to bite him on the ass. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has requested that Judge Tanya Chutkan silence Donald Trump with a gag order. But there’s more. Smith also wants Trump’s bail revoked should he fail to obey the gag order.
The request noted Trump’s “near-daily” disparaging posts on the social media site “Truth” Social, including his post after his arraignment six weeks ago that said, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU.” Trump’s claims that the justice system is “rigged” against him, his attacks on Washington DC as a “filthy and crime ridden” city where he says he will not get a fair trial, and direct attacks on Chutkan, including calling her “a fraud dressed up as a judge” and “radical Obama hack” were also cited.
What does it mean should Trump’s bail be revoked? First it’s important to recall he’s out on bail on four different felony charges in the first place. In other words, “out on bail” means he’s free and at liberty at the pleasure of four separate jurisdictions. If that bail is revoked in any of those jurisdictions, US marshals will be sent to wherever Trump is at the moment and summarily drag him out — in handcuffs — and take him to jail.
Remember, we’re dealing here with a man who has never faced any real consequences for anything he’s ever done since, possibly, the age of four. This is a man who’s never had a real job, never had any actual responsibility for anything. He’s left a trail of disaster in his path wherever he’s been. He’s left it to others to clean up his messes.
Suddenly, at the age of 77, someone is going to have to convince him that if he doesn’t radically change his ways RIGHT NOW then he’s going to go to jail immediately. Someone is going to have to sit him down and lay it on him.
On what basis will Trump be expected to believe such counterintuitive (to him) news? He’s been warned before, he’s been cajoled, he’s probably even been shouted at. It’s never worked before. How will next time be any different?
Trump won’t believe it. He will go right on insulting, threatening, belittling and stochastically terrorising anyone he wants. He will assume he will go right on getting away with it because that’s been the case for virtually every year of his life. He’s about to find out he’s wrong. He’s about to discover something he’s never had to face before.
I think Trump is going to spend Christmas in jail. I’ll take it a step further. I think, very soon now, Trump is going to go to jail for the rest of his life. He will go to jail until his trial in one of the jurisdictions he’s being tried in. He will be found guilty. He will be sentenced to more jail. And he will remain there.
I recently wrote that I thought this coming Christmas would be Trump’s last as a free man. I no longer think that. That job belonged to the Christmas of 2022, and that Christmas has come and gone. Trump’s immaturity is what is finally going to
bring him down, and it will be a shock to him and to us all. But I now believe it’s coming very soon. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.