What a Disgrace
What happened at our nation’s Capitol the other day was a disgrace – both what happened outside, when Trump incited a riot, and what happened inside, when leaders of the Senate sedition caucus (Hawley and Cruz) continued to spew lies about the election that Joe Biden clearly and decisively won, and when rioters tried to sack the place.
Even Mitch McConnell called it a “failed insurrection.”
Rudy Guiliani fired up the Trump crowd with such lines as, “Let’s have a trial by combat.” Then Trump announced, “We’re gong to walk to the Capitol.” He didn’t, of course. He watched TV coverage of the mayhem he’d created from the safety of the White House.
Already the right-wing media (the true purveyors of fake news) are saying that the rioters weren’t Trump supporters at all. Why, they were all antifa! Betcha the arrest records will show otherwise. But better to blame a largely mythical organization than to admit that it was a Trump mob that tried to sack the Capitol building.
These were not “demonstrators.” Demonstrators don’t show up at a rally with firearms, clear plastic shields and ropes with grappling hooks. These people were looking to create trouble.
These terrorists achieved what the Confederacy never could – raising the flag of sedition inside the Capitol. Meanwhile, there were lots of American flags with the name “Trump” pasted onto them. That’s a clear violation of the flag code. But these phony patriots don’t care about things like that. Like their TV reality show master, to them it’s all about the show.
Trump still has two weeks to achieve his goal of making America a shithole nation. God helps us in the meantime.
He won’t disappear, alas. So maybe it’s time to look at some Trump “tells.”
I have no idea how good a poker player he is, but he has several “tells” that you can see all the time.
For example, you can tell if he’s lying: he’s either speaking or Twittering. He appears to be incapable of speaking the truth about almost everything.
More tells: If he calls something “fake news,” that means it’s 100% accurate but he won’t admit it because it exposes his lies.
“Deep state” is a funny one. Supposedly it’s nefarious people buried deep in government who don’t want him to succeed. But when Pfizer didn’t announce its vaccine breakthrough until after the election, Trump said Pfizer was part of “deep state.” In other words, “deep state” is anyone who doesn’t follow Trump’s orders or displeases him in some way. If you show any sign of honesty or integrity or independence of Trump, you’re part of “deep state.”
“Witch hunt” is another Trump favorite. All the investigations into his various shady dealings are “witch hunts.” Of course, that’s because they’re hunting him, and he’s the witch. One of these days, maybe somebody will catch him.
You may note that Trump loves to fire people. Makes you wonder why he hired them in the first place. Usually they show some sign of independence or integrity, and out they go. Trump’s presidency follows the pattern of his TV show, when he fired everybody who was smarter than he was. Eventually, of course, that meant he had to fire everyone else, lest they accidentally reveal how shallow he is.
Trump is an outlaw. He does not believe in the rule of law. He believes only in using the law against others and for himself. His favorite tactic is the lawsuit. Because he has deep pockets, he can keep a case dragging through the courts until his adversaries run out of money. If he threatens to sue you, that means you have done something that cuts close to his chicanery, and he must silence you by falling back on his favorite first- and last-resort tactic: send in the crooked lawyers.
When Trump and his allies talk about election fraud and illegal voting and ballot stuffing and a stolen election, what they really mean is that people of color were allowed to vote. In Trump’s world, black people and Hispanics would not be allowed near the polls.
These are just a few of the Trump “tells.” To parody an old tagline from “The Naked City” TV series: “There are six million lies in Trumpland. These are some of them.”
It’s all about creating a false reality, an information bubble that people can’t break out of once they’re trapped in it. Hawley captured it perfectly when he claimed that he was only trying to answer an outcry from his constituents. But who kept telling the lies that created the outcry? It’s a monster that feeds on its own depravity.
I hope this is the last I have to say about this wretch man. (Trump, I mean. Hawley, sadly, is likely to be around for a long time.)
