I wonder how many Republicans are realizing that by their frightened fealty to Donald Trump their party is tied to a corpse that had begun decomposing some time ago. It only remains to be seen whether Donald Trump will be committed to a prison or to a mental institution.
29 VIII 2022: Lindsey leaks
Headline today on Huffpost: “Lindsey Graham Warns Of ‘Riots In Streets’ If Trump Is Charged Over Classified Docs.” I think Mr. Graham slipped in an interview of Fox and leaked the game plan of the Trump Gang. It will be a retry of Jan. 6.
26 VIII 2022: Trump the magician
Trump seems to be claiming that he could declassify documents by thinking they were declassified. He wants us to share his belief that by merely wanting them declassified, even retrospectively, he could declassify any number of documents, even though he might be the only one who knew that they were magically declassified.
This sort of magical thinking works well for Trump, for it is simply delusional, thus appropriate for a man who could make believe that he won the election and that all the world admires him.
21 VIII 2022: Alvin Bragg, disastrous D.A.
Been reading about the Solomonic discretion of Mr. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney. He decided, evidently without much reflection, to shut down the investigation of Trump’s thieveries and give Donald a walk. But then, more recently, he made one bad call after another in an over-eager prosecution of Mr. Jose Alba. Mr. Bragg has a lot of explaining to do already, and he’s barely begun his term in office. Maybe early retirement is in order.
20 VIII 2022: Honor among thieves?
A report by Mary Papenfuss on Huffpost entitled “Republicans Demand to Know What Happened to Vanishing GOP Millions” reports the disappearance of very considerable funds from the budget of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The NRSC’s treasury started this election period with $173 million, but by the end of June was down to $28.4 million, and has for this reason reduced its support of some candidates just as the campaign season is entering its home stretch. Where did all the money go?
It is reported that $12 million went to American Express as credit card payments and $13 million to consultants. That’s a lot of three-martini lunches and a lot of unneeded advice, but even so, that would leave some $90 million to be accounted for. Could all that have been spent so soon on campaigns that are far from completed. Has Trumpism so pervaded the Republican Party that it is stealing from itself?
15 VIII 2022: Trump a flight risk?
On Politico, Jennifer Bendery quoted Trump’s whine about his passports: “In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”
She goes on to report: “It’s not clear why the FBI may have taken his passports or why he apparently has three of them. Trump said one was expired; it’s possible that he has a regular non-expired passport in addition to a second special issuance passport as a former U.S. president.” (emphasis added)
No, it’s not clear why the FBI took Trump’s passports — however many. But if the Bureau were investigating ordinary criminal activity, they might take care to keep the subject of the investigation from leaving the country, especially if he had considerable assets and property overseas. One can imagine that, if worse came to worst, the subject of the investigation may be facing time in prison. And one can imagine that if it comes to that, the subject of the investigation might consider departing the United States for a foreign country made hospitable by his gift of stolen U.S. government documents.
15 VIII 2022: Awash with unconditional love
Trumpworld is awash in unconditional love. Makes no difference what Donny does, we love him just the same! The font of this unconditional love seems to be Trump’s love for himself. Self-satisfied is too limp a term to describe Donald. He has a love of self so obsessive that it denies existence to anything that might trouble another, less focused person. The rest of Trumpworld may not be so adept at manipulating reality, but their love is ready to ignore his imperfections, and the elite are quick to attack anyone who points them out. Indeed, truculent assertion of Trump’s impeccability is the mark of Trumpworld’s virtuosos.
Trump shows unconditional love for his followers in his perennial refusal to criticize any of them for anything, however loony or criminal, and especially in his moving declaration to the insurrectionists of Jan 6th, “we love you, you’re very special.”
In short, Trump is infatuated with himself, and infatuated with any who are infatuated with him. This love is religious in its intensity.
12 VIII 2022: He’s a hoax, he is sleazy, and he’s a bitch
A headline on CNN reports Trump again charging his critics with behavior more characteristic of him. “Trump Calls Nuclear Documents Claim a ‘Hoax,’ Describes FBI as “Sleazy.” Now we all know that Trump is a lifelong hoax. “Sleazy” is a good enough description of Trump, though he is, in fact, far beyond sleazy.
Trump is misusing language in another of his ringing denunciations when he calls this FBI investigation a “witchhunt,” a paranoic term he always uses to describe any inquiry into his behavior. Accuracy, however, requires that an enquiry into Trump be called a “bitchhunt.”
The news is full of reports of Republicans instigating to violence (just like Jan 6) and of far-right advocacy of violence against the FBI and the government generally. Though the violent fringe of the neo-fascists often lurk behind pseudonyms or codewords, every effort must be made to identify these sociopaths so that they can be prosecuted for their advocacy of violence.
Americans often confuse “free speech” with unregulated speech, unregulated by truth, reason, or law. But any authentic idea of a right to freedom of speech must include some limitations. The right must be balanced by associated duties, among them the duty that we not abuse the right. Otherwise, “right” just means license.
11 VI 2022: Rant Paul, again
Sen. Rand Paul has denounced the search warrant at Mar a Lago as “an attack on the rule of law.” This is the same irrational slogan we’ve been hearing from other Republicans and neo-fascist media people. I am surprised to see Rand Paul only repeating what other Republican apologists are saying, for he is usually a bit more eccentric about everything. I predict that the Republican mouthpieces will ditch this line of apology so they won’t be saying the same thing as Rand Paul.
12 VIII 2022: Trump a stand-up guy, for now
Donald Trump showed the stuff he’s made of when questioned at New York. Most guys would take the Fifth three, maybe four times, but Trump, always the biggest and best, took the Fifth four hundred times. No one told him there would be so many questions on the quiz, so he copied and multiplied the answers of other gangsters. And he’ll never rat out anybody — at least for the time being. He is saving inside information about his co-conspirators for his plea bargaining.