EDITORIAL: The fix is in

Ever get the feeling that the fix is in? Like the deck is stacked, the outcome predetermined, the prophecies self-fulfilling?

From the sidelines, we’re watching presidential candidate Donald Trump slip one criminal trial after another — on technicalities, through delay tactics and other forms of lawyer bullshit. Sure, he’s got to sit through a few embarrassing weeks in New York for the current money-laundering trial — that’s the Stormy Daniels thing. But his criminal case in Georgia is not even on the calendar yet, slow-walked by appeals after Team Trump unearthed some mild dirt on prosecutor Fani Willis. This one probably won’t happen before the election. He lost his civil fraud case for inflating his wealth to obtain loans, but that, too, will languish in appeals while Trump coughed up just a fraction of the $454 million judgment. And then there are the two federal cases — one for stealing classified documents and another for inciting an insurrection on Jan, 6. But those are on hold, too, waiting for a Supreme Court ruling to decide whether Trump is immune from everything he did while president which would render both of those cases moot. A lot of us — a lot of us — believe the Supreme Court is bought and paid for these days. There is ample reporting to support this belief.

So he’ll skate to the election with a fraction of the  legal interference he’s due, getting softball coverage from a mainstream media that’s unwilling to articulate what’s at stake this year, but perfectly happy to ding Joe Biden every chance they get. Talking to you, New York Times.

If Trump wins, he’ll control the Justice Department that is levying these charges against him, with the authority to just… call everything off. And there is a plan afoot — Project 2025, brought to you by the Heritage Foundation — to usher in an era of American fascism through minority rule and a purge of government personnel.

The whole thing seems so absurd, and yet it’s playing out in slow motion, right in front of us. And all we can do about it is vote, which is currently still legal.