5 IX 2022: Cartoons of truth

MAGA Republicans or, rather, Trump cultists, are calling on all the resources of their imaginations to denounce Biden’s criticism of their bogus movement. They, like Trump, project their own vices on to others, and so they declare that Biden is the real fascist. Rep. Ronny Jackson, from Texas, don’t you know, rants that “He had his secret police kick in Trump’s door,” turning reality into a cartoon. 

Another cartoon is Federal Judge Aileen Cannon who has granted the Trump Team’s request for a special master. Was Judge Cannon guided by her deep devotion to the man who made her, Donald Trump, or by a generosity unchecked by utter lack of experience. She has proven the American Bar Association correct in its evaluation of her and given herself a shame she won’t be able to outlive.

3 IX 2022: Justice delayed in brier-patch of the law

Of course, Trump is entitled to postpone prosecution by having his “legal team” file endless documents and appeals. And it is quite legal for Lindsey Graham to keep on using the same legal dodge to avoid the grand jury. If you have enough money and are willing to lie, you can legally delay being brought to justice almost indefinitely.

However, justice delayed is justice denied. I read of the legal shenanigans of Trump, Graham, and countless other criminal fat cats. I read in the paper of two- or three-year delays between apprehension of perpetrator and trial. I read of prosecutions indefinitely suspended by screw-up district attorneys. If the law is not enforced, and promptly, the law is brought into disrepute, and criminals have no fear of getting caught because the consequences will be trivial or nil.

1 IX 2022: Decline in elementary education, already far advanced, now plummeting

The National Center for Education Statistics has reported a dramatic drop in the reading and math scores of 9-year-old students. This is not surprising.

We can surely blame this decline on school closings due to COVID19, but I am inclined to think that COVID is only a part of the problem. This Fall very many states report a virtually desperate shortage of teachers. Some states are even reducing required credentials for teaching just to get some warm bodies into their classrooms. So we have to ask why the pool of well-prepared teachers has dried up.

Who would want to be a teacher? Interference by mindless education bureaucracies and by special interest groups; the lack of cooperation and even antagonism of parents; indifferent students, undisciplined students, violent students; growing national anti-intellectualism and hostility towards learning and expertise; popular view of teachers as, to use Trump’s word, suckers and losers.

Why take on a job that society does not really want to have done, or, at least, to have done properly? Idealism, also an object of contempt in our society, can carry one only so far before constant frustration and obstruction drain away all enthusiasm.

Our society depends on two groups to fulfill two of its paramount needs, on teachers for education and on police for law enforcement. Both groups are targets of contempt, both groups are badly underpaid. Both groups contain some incompetents who cannot be removed because there is no one to take their places.

It’s time for us to provide greatly increased support, financial and moral, for teachers and policemen, or America will slide more quickly into decrepitude.

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.