Of "Presidents" And Pigs

Item: Flying high at around 30,000 feet last week, Trump said to a woman reporter who dared ask a non-fawning question, “Quiet, piggy.” She’s hardly the first lady reporter he’s insulted, but this was the most contemptible example of his sadistic misogyny. 

Item: The White House quietly replaced suspiciously identical signatures on several of Trump’s recent pardons, after being busted by alert internet sleuths. This, after harping on the rumor that President Joe Biden used autopens in signing some of his pardons, and going so far as to replace Biden’s picture in the White House with one of an autopen. 

Item: When President Barack Obama gave a halting bow to Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and when President Joe Biden fist-bumped Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump, along with every rightwing media screamer, went nuts. As predictable as MAGA hypocrisy, there came no such outrage for the next item:

Item: After lavishly welcoming MBS with a red carpet, flyovers, and other grovelsome behaviors, Trump, asked about MBS’s role in the gruesome murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence has tied directly to MBS, Trump all but excused it, saying, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman... Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” THINGS HAPPEN! Unbelievable. He went on to give away our most sophisticated military technology in exchange for vague investment promises and not-vaguely enriching Trump’s family businesses. 

Item: Several members of Congress, all of them having served in the military or CIA, created a video reminding current service members that not only are they not required to follow illegal orders, it’s their duty by law and oath to refuse. Because it is, indeed, the law, this ought to have been non-controversial. Trump, because of what he is, called it sedition punishable by death. One or two Republican senators pushed back, mildly, while MAGA media echoed Trump vociferously, because of course they did.

Item: After months of fish-flopping, Trump swallowed the hook and officially threw Ukraine into the hands of Putin, the man holding the pole. Why? Because, according to Trump, Ukraine’s President Zelensky hasn’t shown proper gratitude. Which is Trump-speak for failing to blandish, not to enrich him. For lack of insincere but predictably successful fluffery offered by world leaders Trump envies, he will abandon a gallant democracy fighting for its life against a war criminal’s invasion. According to several senators, Marko Rubio admitted Russia wrote the terms of the “peace” deal. 

This recent deluge of disgust brought to mind the most applicable word, about which an entire book has been written, a scholarly treatise by a professor of philosophy, highly relevant to the times. It’s safe to assume the word held purchase with nearly all Americans and, perhaps even more so, people paying attention across the globe. It need not be said, of course, that the itemized behaviors caused not a ripple of revulsion among the dwindling number of his supporters.

Because the book is public, published, and cited by others, and because it was made into a documentary film by the same name, I present its title, unexpurgated.

The book is “Assholes: A Theory.” 

I’ll not further test readers’ nor this newspaper’s tolerance by using the word so nakedly again. Out of consideration, it’ll appear, henceforth, as “a$$#ole.” And if that isn’t nice enough to pass muster, I invite substituting the word with “orifice” as you read. Because, as if it hadn’t been obvious since well before he entered politics (it most certainly was), the “president” of The United States of America is one.

I feel sure I’m not alone in saying, out loud, after seeing the “Quiet, piggy” clip, “What a total a$$#ole!” What Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography applies also to a$$#ole. Hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.” A$$#oles are arrogant, pushy, condescending, undeservedly self-important, bullies, and hold high opinions of themselves. They have low opinions of everyone else and treat them that way. It fits to a DJT.

My unbiased observation, along with those of mental and behavioral health professionals, political scientists, historians, and non-propagandized ordinary people, is that Trump has always fit the descriptions of sociopath, pathological narcissist and liar; a dangerous adorer of tyrants who feels entitled to ignore the law and decency. But, acknowledging my memory ain’t what it used to, this may be the first time I’ve added “a$$#ole” to the list.

Some observers, even some non-Foxified ones, might find one or more of the preceding descriptors controversial. But “a$$#ole” is inclusive and, for Trump, glove-like. It’s the face of America, or other body part, that Trump presents to the world, and us along with it. For love of country, we should all feel ashamed.

I’ve said enough. But it’s been an honest reaction to recent events and, perhaps, an explanation for my TDS, as in Trump Descriptive Syndrome.

Filed Under

Now what? For months, calling it a hoax, his word for facts, Trump did everything he could to prevent release of the Epstein files. Yet suddenly he asked Congress to vote to release them, which it did, 427–1. The Senate did, too, unanimously. Realizing it was going to happen regardless, was he trying to make it look like his idea? Have they been edited to his satisfaction, parts mysteriously missing?

The Platonic ideal of kind-heartedness, Trump is thinking only of innocents whose names might be found there. That's why he ordered Attorney Private, Pam of the dangerous diamond, to investigate Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and others. To clear their names, reconfirming previous FBI investigations that found no chargeable offenses. Not adding himself to the target list was the unintentional omission of a busy man. He has history and buildings to remake and arches to build, bitcoin and watches to sell.

Previous Attorneys General, the rank when deserved, would have demurred, saying, "I demur." But that's the stuff pipes dream of. For Trump, his word is his Bondi. Unlike Jim Jordan's and James Comer's accusations against President Joe Biden (they just forgot to bring charges for the ghastly crimes they uncovered), rumors of Trump's weaponization are meritless. If you see it, your eyes are lying. "You got it, Boss," said Pam. "Also, sorry about that ring thing."

I'm not one for conspiracy theories. I doubt Hillary Clinton operated a child sex trafficking operation in the basement of a pizza joint that didn't have a basement, even though Q said so. I'm pretty sure Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, although, admittedly, I wasn't there. I try to reject theories presented without evidence, which is why I suspect nothing nefarious in the timing of Jeffrey Epstein's suicide in prison. Not even after reading his words: "I am the one who can take him down." Or reading his brother's statement that Brother Jeff "had the goods" on Trump.

Notice I didn't put the s-word in quotation marks. That wouldn't be right. Reading those emails and texts from Mr. Epstein and contemplating his subsequent "suicide" triggers no alarms, not even learning that it occurred while two guards happened to be on break and that three minutes of the security tapes from that time are missing. Just one of those things. Innocent coincidence. Stiff happens.

Likewise, I harbor no suspicion about Ivana, Trump's first of several wives, falling down stairs to her death right before her scheduled testimony about his finances. I get it. She was nervous. It makes a person clumsy. Same with the suicide of Virginia Giuffre, who, as stated in recently released emails, spent hours at Chez Epstein with Trump. Nothing to do with her testimony about seeing Trump, or not, with Mister E, doing things, or not. Conspiracies aren't me. I went to medical school. You'll never catch me impugning a "president's" integrity or honesty.

There. I was trying out niceness, as suggested ever so gently by certain readers. If Trump participated in Epstein's pedophilia, would it matter? Not to them. After all, his amorality and sociopathy, the rape charges, his scams and cheating workers and alleged money laundering for Mafiosi were well-known before his first election. Before the second, his incompetent management of the pandemic, his self-dealing and racism and divisive nastiness, his pathological lust for vengeance for perceived wrongs, were unambiguous. MAGA didn't care. It can't be ignored, so it must be those things that earned their votes. Holy Mike Johnson, on a first-name basis with God, said it's a hoax, that questioning Trump's morality is just Democrats' nasty politics.

Houses are burning, fire is spreading, about to destroy the whole village. Awoke people bang on neighbors' doors, trying to rouse the occupants. From their windows, a few old men shout, "Hey, we're trying to sleep here. Stop banging. Sing us a lullaby." It's a brilliant analogy, right? Trumpists accuse truth-tellers of derangement-based, unwarranted alarmism. Smelling smoke, seeing their clothes smoldering, they don them anyway.

Apt or not, the point is that, even in this exceptionally enlightened corner of our variably-hued country, there are people who are unconstitutionally unable to acknowledge the corruption, the anti-American implications of the Trump regime, even as it incinerates the parchment on which we were founded. It worries me. Doors will require banging for decades, as occupants refuse to awaken.

Democrats SNAP To It

 

I have mixed feelings about the seven Senate Democrats and one Independent who gave in to pressure to reopen the government. It’s always Democrats who do it, and Republicans count on it. Because when people are hurting, Democrats care. In the case of SNAP, aka “food stamps,” Republican Congress-squatters not only didn’t care but delighted in knowing “moochers” weren’t getting them. How they see suffering of ordinary people is the most reliable way to predict a legislator’s party affiliation: If they care, D. If they don’t, R. Maybe some readers can think of exceptions.

The votes happened just as courts had ordered Trump to fully fund SNAP, and while he was trying hard not to, including threatening states that were providing their own funding. This, after the cerulean outcomes of last week’s elections ought to have made those senators realize they had leverage: voters turning against Trump. Including football fans. Had he continued to deny funding despite court orders, millions more would regret and reverse their prior votes.

So, considering future outcomes, Democrats’ capitulation was a self-inflicted foot-shot, a case of premature retraculation. And it allowed Republicans to pretend Democrats were the problem all along. Because lying is what he does, Holy Mike Johnson, in constant contact with God, was quick to say so.

The more blatant the lie, the more Trump and his abettors know it’ll be believed by MAGAs and promoted by their media cartel. The truth about Democrats’ till-now refusal to flinch is the opposite of what Trump and his cadre would have you believe. The loss of SNAP benefits seems to have been what broke backbones, despite rightwing lies.

Here’s a typical one, from Newsmax: “Fifty-nine percent of all illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer are not even Americans.” That grotesquely false statement flooded MAGA media.

The truth, as reported in an excellent, receipts-bringing NYT article, which I have munificently gifted to readers, is that “nearly 90 percent of SNAP recipients are native-born American citizens and 96 percent were citizens.” Of those that were neither, nearly all were included under rules extant both under Biden and Trump. Adding homeless people, certain veterans, and young people aging out of foster care happened under Biden, following the above-mentioned “D if they care” rule. Even so, the numbers are small.

And here’s Trump, speaking in tongues to Republican senators, as reported in the linked NYT article: “I will say about SNAP benefits, so when I was president, we had $7 billion worth and now they have many times that because these benefits were given to anybody that asked. And they’re up to, I hear, just many times, $47 billion ... Biden went totally crazy, gave it to anybody that would ask, gave it to people that were able-bodied, had no problem.” Those statements, the numbers he spouted, are 99% false. The 1% truth consists of the words “to” and “so.”

Wise people, non-FoxoMAGAified ones, know that anything Trump says is a lie unless proved true. Which might have happened, once or twice.

I sympathize with those eight senators who joined the Republicans. There was suffering out there and they could end it. But, assuming their concerns were for the effects on food and travel, among others, the deal they agreed to is vaporous. A dubious promise from Republicans to allow a vote on continuing the expiring ACA tax credits, which, if it happens, is unlikely to get R votes, because there’s nothing they hate more than Obamacare. And it’d die in the House.

The agreement reopens the government for two-and-a-half months, restores full funding for SNAP, and reverses Trump’s layoffs of government employees. So it’s not nothing. It is, in fact, good. But, for the issue over which Democrats stood firm for weeks, maintaining ACA subsidies, they got only an empty promise. However -- and maybe it’s the point – ballooning premiums will be a powerful campaign issue. That seems like a Republican foot-shot. As will voters remembering how cruelly Trump fought against funding SNAP. We’ll see. Dishonest spin, like vote suppression and not caring, is an enterprise in which MAGA excels.

Another important revelation, though obvious since Day One of Day One Two, is the message Trump sent to his supporters this week: “Lie for me and join in my criminal activities, political or otherwise, and I’ll take care of you. More elections are coming. So go forth and subvert.” The latest example is pardoning everyone who abetted his fake-elector scheme and other transgressions in trying to overturn a fraud-free, decisive election defeat. Like he did for January 6 criminals, too, many of whom, because they’re criminals, have continued to crime.  To his corrupt DOJ, Trump added, as “senior advisor,” one who called on rioters to “kill cops.”

This is Trump, and those are his people. Consider it when next you vote.

Corrupted Absolutely

 

It was inevitable. Once Trump realized he had our Republican-led Congress underthumbed, that six servile Supremes would give him a double-oh license to abuse power any way he chose, and that our helplessly MAGAfied co-citizens would weep with joy as he stuck it to the libs, he abandoned yet another campaign lie: namely, that he’d be a “Peace President.”

Why stop at impoverishing the poor and indicting truth-tellers? Or, based on lies, sending troops to American cities to create violence that hadn’t existed till then? For Trump, unchecked abuse at home evolved to threatening Venezuela, and to extra-judicial maritime murder, about which he said, in his uniquely presidential phrasing, “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be, like, dead. OK.”

Trump has provided no evidence that the people he’s killing were smuggling drugs or headed to America, and, since he knew where they were, he could have captured them. Yet, when two unexpectedly survived, they were sent home immediately. Why? Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA) said she was told in a Pentagon briefing “that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes” and that was part of the reason why the administration has not sought to detain or prosecute survivors, “because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.” Meanwhile, corpses are washing up on Trinidad’s beaches. 

It’s unlikely that the Venezuelan boats were carrying fentanyl. What decent American can countenance their country becoming an outlaw nation, flouting our own and international laws? Or, in the case of MAGA, thrill to it?

Reviled in NYC in his younger years, for his corruption, amorality, and ostentatious preening, mocked by social elites into whose circles he so desperately wanted to be received, ridiculed in the tabloids, and, reportedly, having complicated relationships with his parents, the roots of his psychopathy are evident; assuming his kind is made, not born. Unrestrained by laws created to protect against it, cheered on by Republicans who know better and MAGAs who don’t, Trump’s autocratic “presidency” will only get more damaging.

Occupying the Oval Office, which, as of this writing, is defiled but not yet demolished, is a dangerous man behaving dangerously. And whereas it’s unsurprising that, among several billion humans, there are some such men, it’s incomprehensible that there are millions of Americans who are blind to the harm that's sure to affect them, too.

My Christian friends find it inexplicable that anyone who calls themself Christian can continue to support Trump. Likewise, anyone who considers themself a patriotic American, which, at minimum, ought to mean people who value our Constitution and the rule of law. Who think free and fair elections and democracy are worth protecting; who know lies when they see them.

And so it is that Trump, who knows nothing of history nor cares to learn, has ordered the resumption of nuclear testing, undoing decades of disaster-averting, diplomatic achievement. It will restart an expensive and dangerous arms race, a fact understood by everyone but Trump, who longs to be seen as the potential destroyer of worlds, before whom the world shudders in fear. 

Also the destroyer of truth. And decency. No president in our history has said anything about a predecessor comparable to what Trump has about President Joe Biden: “He is a CRIMINAL AND SHOULD BE IN JAIL. A MAJOR LOWLIFE AND FAILURE. An ugly person, both inside and out! I beat him badly, and love watching him squirm now.” The first three sentences were spoken while looking into a mirror. The last is the lie he tells himself – a defining MAGA belief -- followed by the only truth he’s ever revealed.

The “president” of what was once the greatest and closest to honorable country on Earth, is a hateful, dishonest, rapacious man; a nascent dictator, embarrassing us in the eyes of the world; incapable of empathy for any but himself; a man who, while ignoring people out of work and a court order to fund SNAP benefits, flaunts an ostentatiously remodeled bathroom and hosts a gilded-age party for his wealthy pals at his “you’ll never belong” club. That’s who he is.

Consider this a plea to honorable people who voted for Trump thinking they’d be getting some sort of greatness and not just his promised retribution, to recall that, in a democracy, leadership requires far more than what they’re getting. Honesty, for one, and respectability, generosity, inclusion. A plea to demand more of their party – and of themselves – than defending the indefensible. Surely there are enough of them to vote America back to pre-Trump greatness.

In Tuesday’s elections, in which Democrats won up and down ballots everywhere, hope glimmers. Republican ventriloquist dummies with Trump’s hand up ... there, are claiming election fraud. Maybe, though, the less-dummied will sense that challenging him now requires less courage than before.