A bad week in the U.S.

 

Yeah, it's "unprecedented." 

 

So was the 2016 presidential election of a lifelong con-man, grifter, and white collar criminal with zero experience in public office and a thermonuclear ego. And, that is what got us here.

…The indictment in New York will deepen the conviction among some loyalists that Trump is a victim of the “deep state” and even more deserving of their devotions than before. Trump, of course, does not care what bonfire he lights. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed,” he said recently, “I am your retribution.” Trump is practically promising trouble. Any judge who encounters him in court—in New York or beyond—will be hard-pressed to prevent the former President from issuing threats of violence.

So, yes, many of Trump’s most ardent supporters will be enraged by this indictment and any others. There is no telling if that will lead to trouble in the streets. But will it win Trump back the Presidency? Will his getting arrested in the middle of a national campaign really win back suburban voters and independents who voted for him in 2016 but abandoned him in 2020 for Joe Biden? How many voters will say, in effect, Yes, I was deeply embarrassed and ashamed by the spectacle of January 6th, but now having seen Donald Trump in the dock and hearing the resonant phrases “porn star,” “catch and kill,” and “hush money”—much less “incitement to insurrection” and “election fraud”—I am summoned back to the maga fold? Once more, the American political imagination reels and the stakes for American democracy could not be higher.  [ David Remnick ]

Right.
 

The escalating vituperative calls for lethal armed MAGA "civil war" violence are burning up the dark corners of the internet. And, also being (plausible deniability) dog-whistled by GOP members in Congress.

Arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday in NYC. It's gonna be a Level 5 shitshow. I hope no one is injured or killed, but I would hardly be surprised.

More David Remnick

Trump is, if anything, more unhinged than he was in his final days in the White House. At the recent CPAC convention his speech had a quality of wildness that made the ranting nativism of his 2016 inaugural seem as mild as the murmurings of Martin Van Buren or Warren G. Harding. As you read, remember this is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination:

The sinister forces trying to kill America have done everything they can to stop me, to silence you, and to turn this nation into a socialist dumping ground for criminals, junkies, Marxists, thugs, radicals, and dangerous refugees that no other country wants. No other country wants them. If those opposing us succeed, our once beautiful U.S.A. will be a failed country that no one will even recognize. A lawless, open borders, crime-ridden, filthy, communist nightmare. That’s what it’s going and that’s where it’s going. . . . That’s why I’m standing before you, because we are going to finish what we started. We started something that was a miracle. We’re going to complete the mission. We’re going to see this battle through to ultimate victory.

Another bad week may be drawing nigh. And, on top of all this, these tornadoes. Lordy mercy.

TRUMP AT HIS POTUS OUTSET

Addressing the CIA.

Addressing the Boy Scouts. 

"Only I Can Fix It!"

 

OH, ONE MORE THING:

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