Oh, The Inhumanity

 

Upon learning of the horrific fires in Los Angeles, death, destruction and suffering by his fellow human beings, President-elect Trump wrote, “What’s happening in Southern California is an indescribable tragedy. When in office, I will continue President Biden’s skillful efforts at guiding federal resources to their aid. My government will do everything possible to succor the suffering and rebuild that great city.”

This was in a parallel universe in which Donald Trump and his political party are known for their generosity and concern for those in need, and in which Schrodinger’s cats roam free while Newton’s apples rise into trees.

In ours, as is well-known, if under-repulsed, he and his sycophantic similars chose to attack and blame Gavin Newsom, DEI, liberals, Joe Biden, and Ukraine, expressing zero sympathy, affording no comfort. It’s consistent with previously withholding aid for places where he thought people hadn’t satisfactorily kissed an anatomic ring, the location of which we care not to mention.

Across America, decent people are offering help and sympathy. Not Trump. Because it’s who he is: nasty, brutish, and short. On humanity. For which MAGA loves him all the more.

Trump’s nastiness has been accompanied by his signature disinterest in facts, and lies. Falling in line, avoiding any mention of climate change as a factor, his team piled lies upon lies. It’s worth noting how many Republicans offering effortless thoughts and prayers for LA residents and meaningless praise for the firefighters voted against a bill addressing wildfire prevention just months ago. 

Except for providing help or not, Trump’s lies are of little importance to people affected by the fires. But they reveal what’s to come for the next four years. People suffering from the true “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” MAGAs who believe that, like Jesus, he can do no wrong, will forever fail to see that, for Trump, it’s never about the people he’s sworn to serve: it’s about him, always and only. And his fragile ego, need for praise, resentment of those who fail to provide it, and his desire for vengeance against them. If his reaction to the fires hasn’t convinced his supporters, nothing will. Assuming they care.

And why is that? A tsunami of bad information and outright lies consumed online have made it impossible for reality to find a way in. Even someone with resources the rest of us don’t have has given up trying: outgoing HHS Secretary, Xavier Becerra, said, in describing the impossible task of providing accurate information and having it accepted, “I can’t go toe to toe with social media.” In addition to which, Republican leaders like Holy Mike Johnson and hole-y Ron Johnson threaten to withhold aid until California Democrats change those policies about which R Congress-dwellers, holding their Johnsons dear, continue to lie.

Social media misinformation targets voters ill-equipped to recognize lies and uninterested in dispelling them. It’s unlikely, though, that Mike and Ron and their fellow spouters are too dull to know the facts. (Hannity, Waters, Ingraham, et al., on the other hand, do seem too dumb to know, and definitely don’t care.) Which makes the battle against willfully dishonest social media and rightwing propagandists even more difficult, as they force their knowing untruths into their listeners like an un-lubed colonoscope.

And so it is that MAGAs soak up Trump’s lies ever more eagerly, even as he breaks one promise after another. He’d build an impenetrable wall and Mexico will pay for it; balance the budget; wipe out the national debt. Promises forgotten or denied. This time it was ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of inauguration. Now it’s “try for 100 days.” Bringing down prices will be easy and immediate, he said. Now it’s “very difficult.” "Temper your expectations," said his incoming border czar, about "mass deportation of millions." But it got him elected.

Elon Musk said trimming “at least two trillion dollars” from the annual budget would be no problem. Now, “there might be a good shot at one trillion.” He’s lying about the LA fires, too. Steve Bannon hates him and, for once, is right. Poor Elon had no idea how the federal budget works and he’s beginning to realize it. Expect he’ll find a few billion; then see how he manages to get it through Congress.

Trump, though, deserves no such deference. He never fulfilled his false promises, but, because his acolytes have no memory and will believe anything, keeps making them. Annexing Canada and Greenland is purely performative (though many MAGAs are taking it seriously), distracting from the impact of tariffs and deportations, assuming he follows through. Retaking the Panama Canal, though, is about revenge for refusing his planned hotel there, accusing him of money laundering and fraud. Business as usual, in other words.

Comments on Jack Smith’s report just released and, more importantly, the one not, wait for another time. And the hearings. The ridiculous, embarrassing hearings.