Another thing that Trump has done wrong that I haven’t seen yet in the brackets (or maybe it’s there?), but which I think is a good candidate for the lowest worst thing he’s done, is that for many decades he often chose (like the scofflaw that he is) selectively not to pay his bills. Now many might say this does not compete effectively with some of the other bracket ideas for the worst thing that he’s done, and it certainly does not sound very exotic or exciting as a candidate, but I’d like to make the case for a moment:
a) For many of us, in our daily lives, choosing to contract for services when we know that we do not intend to pay for them, and choosing not to pay our bills when we are capable of doing so, are some of the lowest things we can do. If others do these things, they are not well-regraded in our communities. .
b) Trump reportedly got away with this practice for years, prior to his political career. I recently met an architect who told me his own story of a firm he worked for having gone through Trump refusing to pay. Trump did in fact engage in this this practice.
c) during the 2016 and/or 2020 campaigns, my recollection is that there were some news and reporting interviews and accounts of people who had been ripped off by Trump and his organization in this way.
d) This is, to me, one of the “original crimes” that Trump was repeatedly guilty of, and the reason we have to deal with him now, and all of his other crimes since then, is that he was not prosecuted for these crimes, as he should have been…
During the Alvin Bragg discussions, I think there was an author who mentioned on the Rachel Maddow Show that in their opinion in theory Trump should have been prosecuted for such crimes, but that he was not prosecuted for them belatedly by Alvin Bragg because it takes quite a bit more resources than the Manhattan District Attorney possessed. Whatever the reason for the failure to prosecute (or win the cases?) back in the day, and whatever the reason for the failure to prosecute now, I think the failure to prosecute and imprison Trump for these repeated willful ripoffs of others in my opinion speaks to the failures in our legal system to really go after expeditiously the actual crimes that are committed every day. Also, the many crimes we now see Trump committing speaks to the consequences of failure to go after and prosecute and convict and punish earlier basic crimes.
So, I think one of the brackets should have included, or should include in the future, this very basic original type of crime that Trump used to commit in the old days, and may still commit. There are probably other crimes that went on in those days, but I am not as familiar.
Hundreds of Trump’s words and deeds were submitted to the competition. They were then narrowed down to 64, just like March Madness. Failure to pay his bills was definitely among them. It was featured in a matchup this past week, I believe. But the entries are seeded, again, just like March Madness. So when it comes up against trying to steal the 202 election, helping overturn Roe v Wade, etc…you get the picture. Trump has done so many cruel, dishonest and dangerous things, mostly without consequences!
As for Alvin Bragg, if memory serves, the case against Trump was investigated, prepared and ready to go when Bragg entered office. His decision not to pursue resulted in the resignation of the 2 top prosecutors assigned to the case. They seemed to think Bragg was just intimidated by the gravity of prosecuting a former President, especially during his first days on the job. And I suspect there was pressure from above as well. Most Dems in leadership seemed quite willing to let Trump slide for all of his crimes, hoping he would go away after losing the election. They didn’t undertake any efforts to prosecute him until he announced his 2024 candidacy. When they saw his poll numbers, they panicked and decided, way too late, to pursue all of those cases. That’s my take, anyway.
Thanks for the reply and filling me in on more of the information of how things were set up. I’m really glad to hear this issue was included in the brackets and given due consideration by the voting. I myself would not necessarily have made it my top vote, but I did want to be a bit puckish and make sure it was considered, because from some angles it is a legit awful thing.
With respect to Bragg, the comment that I heard that I think was really thought-provoking was this: One of the people who quit his office over the initial failure-to-prosecute wrote a book and was famously criticized for opening his mouth, but in effect one could argue that he and others helped provoke Bragg into finally prosecuting a case. The case that Bragg finally did bring did end up in felony convictions, but was regarded by some as prosecuting crimes that were not to the heart of the matter of some of the worst prosecutable crimes that Trump has committed. I’m not criticizing Bragg for prosecuting the case that he did, and I’m glad he won, but the author who wrote that book was interviewed on Rachel Maddow (If I recall she was a little wary of interviewing him because he was really catching a lot of heat for opening his mouth) and I seem to remember in the course of the interview he discussed this question of the day-to-day repeated refusals by the Trump organizations to obey the law on some points, and that in theory this was something that should be prosecuted, but it wasn’t something that the Manhattan DA’s office was really equipped to prosecute. I question if he was correct in his diagnosis of which office should have handled it, but I do know it got me thinking about the underlying basic refusal by Trump to observe and follow laws that the rest of us have to follow, and the consequences of failing to prosecute him for those things.