On the morning after the disgraceful sham of Donald Trump's "conviction" in Manhattan, it may seem odd to some readers that I would be pondering the career of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, but it's impossible for me to ignore the lessons we apparently failed to learn from that once-prosperous country's poisonous downfall. Maduro got his start in public life as a labor union leader. (Go figure.) By 2010 he had been elected to the National Assembly and quickly rose to a leadership position in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. He rapidly built a coalition of fellow travelers and in only at few years he was elevated to the presidency in 2013. Maduro immediately began moving to remove most of the members of the Supreme Court, replacing them with his own lackeys, knowing how important control of the judiciary is in a dictatorship. He proceeded to pillage the country's wealth to benefit himself and his cronies, virtually destroying the once-thriving agricultural and petroleum industries that had created prosperity for generations. In 2019, facing a public backlash, Maduro flatly stole an election to remain in power in a move that even the United States State Department described as "an illegal election." The actual winner, Juan Guaidó, was locked up and eventually driven into exile, despite being declared the "interim president" by many countries, including the United States. Maduro remains in power to this day.

That is how things operate in a banana republic. There are other examples that I won't bore you with here. But as I watched the events unfolding in Manhattan yesterday, I couldn't help but pause and think of Venezuela. This is how it begins. Any honest person watching what happened in New York City could see that this was a kangaroo court from day one. A corrupt judge who was a Biden donor somehow finagled his way into overseeing all three trials related to Donald Trump. He teamed up with a District Attorney who campaigned on a platform of promising to "Get Trump." (And an Attorney General as well.) They selected a venue where the jury pool would be comprised of people who voted for Biden at a rate of nearly 90%. The voir dire process was dubious at best. The judge overruled virtually every objection raised by the defense while allowing the prosecution to take outrageous liberties. Expert witnesses who were prepared to offer clearly exculpatory testimony were barred from the stand. An unconstitutional gag order was placed on Trump. Then, in less than two days while dealing with 34 complicated counts, the New York City jury came back and summarily declared the former President guilty on every phony-baloney count.

The aftermath has been predictable for the most part thus far. Even the Associated Press was forced to describe the outcome as having "profound implications for the justice system and perhaps U.S. democracy itself." But they couldn't resist detailing the limitations that will be put on Trump now that he is a "convicted felon." Most of the media has been drooling over the possibility of using that phrase to describe him.

Having been convicted of 34 felonies, Donald Trump cannot own a gun, hold public office or even vote in many states.

But in 158 days, voters across America will decide whether he will return to the White House to serve another four years as the nation’s president.

Trump’s conviction in his New York hush money trial on Thursday is a stunning development in an already unorthodox presidential election with profound implications for the justice system and perhaps U.S. democracy itself.

But in a deeply divided America, it’s unclear whether Trump’s status as someone with a felony conviction will have any impact at all on the 2024 election. Trump remains in a competitive position against President Joe Biden this fall, even as the Republican former president now faces the prospect of a prison sentence in the run-up to the November election.

We now face the question of what happens next, both in the short and long terms. Sentencing was conveniently set for the week before the GOP convention. Normally there would be no jail time for a first offender found "guilty" of falsifying business records, but this is Juan Merchan's court. This was never about justice, but only about keeping Trump off of the campaign trail. I will confidently predict that he will give Trump home detention at a minimum. I'm not an attorney and I don't know what options there are for the appeal process in a case like this. The conviction should obviously be overturned, but it would be good if there were some way to expedite the process and have the Supreme Court review the results immediately. I wouldn't trust any court in New York to handle the matter honestly and competently at this point.

Will this impact the results of the election? I dare say it already has. As I posted on Twitter last night, I have never in my life made a donation to a presidential campaign, largely because of my profession and a desire to stay somewhat independent. But last night I broke that rule and made a big, fat donation to Donald Trump. I had to try several times because the Trump donation site kept crashing under all of the traffic. 

So what happens after the dust settles? Polls suggest that Trump could still handily win the election despite Biden and the Democrats having gotten their wish to be able to label him as a "convicted felon." And if he does take office again, while it pains me to say it, I have to agree with David Strom. I still want to see the damage done to the country by Joe Biden corrected. But I no longer simply want a return to normalcy. I want revenge. We live in a banana republic now and we need to learn the lessons shown to us by Nicolas Maduro. District Attorneys from the reddest states should be at work today drawing up arrest warrants for members of Joe Biden's family, Alejandro Mayorkas, and plenty of others. There are plenty of potential charges to bring. And if you can't think of any, just make something up the same way Alvin Bragg did. After all, that's how the game is played in banana republics. You come at your enemies hard or you're the one who winds up being run over. The day after Biden leaves office, he should receive a summons as well. I don't care if he's too much of a "nice man with a failing memory." We can allow him to have an interpreter in the courtroom. 

Does all of that sound harsh and vindictive? Of course it does. But that's how things are going to have to roll in Venzuelamerica. If people don't like it they can take their complaints to the Democrats. They asked for this. Now they should get what they asked for good and hard.