Freak Out Friday – December 6, 2019

It’s been quite the week as the Democrats have been doing what they swore that they would do:  uphold the Constitution.  I’m sure you remember the Constitution.  That’s the document with the emoluments (a word that, admit it, you never knew a year ago) clause that Trump dismissed as “phony.”  The document with Article II which specifies the duties of the President of the United States but nowhere asserts that he can do “whatever (he) wants,” as Trump claims it does.  The document that foresaw the eventual rise to power of a despot who could be removed from office when his crimes see the light of day.

Bolstered by three scholars who flat out said that Trump’s actions are impeachable, and one who was selected by the GOP to assert that they weren’t quite impeachable enough—hardly convincing—the Democrats are proceeding with impeaching Trump so that the trial can go and die in the Senate.  Indeed, Senate leader and Putin suck-up Mitch McConnell has even floated the idea of, with the approval of fifty-one senators, blocking the Democrats completely out of the impeachment trial.  For Trump the ideal scenario is that the GOP Senate subpoenas and grills Hunter and Joe Biden—what they say is irrelevant, all people will remember is that they were investigated—while the Trump-picked Supreme Court overturns the lower court rulings requiring that he turn over his financial records.  Then once the GOP clears him of the impeachment proceedings, he can go out on the road, talk about how Biden and Son were grilled for their connection to Ukraine who were the real villains in the 2016 election and how the Supreme Court said he was right about everything.  Meanwhile Biden will be scorched earth because of the Senate, Warren will get the nomination and Trump will likely beat her because, hey, no one objects to a woman president but, y’know, not THIS woman.   

Can you tell I’m not in the best of moods?

You think I might be because Trump left the country.  But no, no relief there, because he went to England and so embarrassed us in front of our allies that the leaders of several other countries bunched together like bored wives at a coffee klatch and gossiped about what an idiot he was.  And since nowadays it is literally impossible to speak in privacy pretty much anywhere, the conversation was broadcast.  Since Trump has the security level of a two year old, naturally he then bolted the country after pausing long enough to call the Canadian prime minister “two-faced.”  Right, because the guy who claims that he never met people who have been arrested even though there are pictures of him with them (he claims he doesn’t know Prince Andrew although there are pix of them together from June) really has the moral standing to claim that someone else is two faced.

Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi put noses out of joint when she acted like that thing that conservatives despise even more than liberals:  a strong woman. When a conservative journalist demanded to know if she hated Donald Trump, she slammed the lid down hard on him.  She asserted that her Christian upbringing precluded her from hating Trump, and claimed yet again that she prayed for him.  For what it’s worth, I pray for him, too.  I pray he’ll get hit by a bus or decides that he’s going to nuke Canada which will provoke a secret service agent to put a bullet in his brain.  I’m not expecting those prayers to be answered, but hey, you never know.

The bottom line is that Trump is a criminal. To anyone who believes in the Constitution, that much is indisputable.  Indeed, that is likely the bottom line reason why he pardoned several service men who were convicted of, or accused of, war crimes.  He feels that he’s sending a clear message as to who his sympathies are with:  those who believe that rules of behavior and. Laws do not apply to them. The tyrants and despots that he admires, he is endeavoring to emulate.  

Indeed, some are saying that Trumpism is, or is becoming, a cult. It’s an assertion that may not be too far off.  Whereas in previous administrations those who are a part of it are expected to swear fealty to the Constitution, in the world of Trump you are expected to be loyal, first and foremost, to Trump.  His will is not to be questioned and he is to be protected from all enemies great and small.  And in his world, an enemy is anyone who doesn’t want to let him do whatever he wishes.  Democrats, liberals, judges, they aren’t the opposition.  They are the enemy, and enemies must be crushed, period.  That is the lunatic to whom the Trumpies have sworn their allegiance.  

I know our country has been through difficult times before. Whether they were seeing Commies everywhere, or throwing native born Japanese-American citizens in prisons, or fighting brother against brother, the US has always managed to come through and grow stronger than it was before.  I’m reasonably sure I won’t still be around thirty years from now when the next generation is looking back on these times and trying to figure out how it all happened.  I just hope that the country will still be recognizable.

PAD