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Tag: trump

Donald Trump


Yes, I admit that I’m a sucker for good writing. I love it. Good wordsmithing can give me goosebumps like good music. Shakespeare and Mark Twain are two of my favorites. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is superb and considered by some to be the finest bit of wordsmithing in all the English language.

One fine example I ran across recently is an eloquent summation of my own sense and observations of Donald Trump and his followers. It’s so good I’ll just quote it (without permission) along with a link to where you can find more writings of this caliber.

Talented and well-practiced in every vice, a stranger to compassion or empathy, a liar and a cheat so complete in perfidy that he has elevated his dishonesty to hold it up as an ersatz oral principle, violent, so long as he can order someone else to do the dirty work, grotesque in body, graceless in action, in possession of a wounded self-regard so colossal as to smother any spark of grace, treasonous, not only to country, but to every ally he has ever had, the poisoned fruit and rankest flower of racism and contempt for women, and utterly devoid of shame for his oral and spiritual bankruptcy.

That is your leader. That is to whom you give your money. That is who you follow and laud. That is whose banner you willingly carry. Why? Because he is a mirror, not a lighthouse. You see yourselves in him. He is what you would be if you had inherited money and could shed the last vestiges of conscience and shame.

No, I do not “respect your choices,” nor do I admire your loyalty and dedication to this miserific, demoniac vision. You have demonstrated not only a lack of civic virtue, loyalty to the Republic and to the rule of law, but a willingness to engage in violence and sedition at his slightest expressed wish. And you will never, ever admit you were wrong. Because you see your dark, twisted, resentful dreams in him. And to renounce him is to renounce yourselves.

Advocatus Peregrini

More writings from the same pen, writings of many kinds, and from different authors can be found here:

WESTVIRGINIAVILLE.COM

Someday, I’ll Own This Boot

someday I'll own this boot

I like this meme because it captures something shocking that I learned here in West Virginia years ago. I learned a couple of shocking things, to me, anyway. Please pardon the generalizations I’m making here. Clearly, not every single West Virginian is like this. Note that this was before Trump ran for president.

I learned that in the years before the mortgage crisis / crash of 2008, West Virginians were victimized by unscrupulous lenders who convinced people to refinance, get cash out, and end up with a mortgage they ultimately couldn’t carry. Some of these mortgage salesmen came from out of state, which is illegal, but they did it anyway. I doubt any were ever prosecuted. West Virginians fell for this by the thousands and I wondered why they were such easy marks.

I learned that average West Virginians see anyone wearing a suit and driving a nice car as trustworthy and smart. They also assume that anyone who’s rich must be smart or they wouldn’t be rich. (Research shows that this is false. There’s no correlation between IQ and wealth. It’s random chance.)

So, I made it a point when out on the street, at the library, etc., to strike up conversations with random people and nudge the conversation over to this topic and a discussion of being rich. Naturally, everyone I spoke with wished they were rich. Don’t we all? The shocker to me was then asking why they wanted to be rich. Nice house? Nice car? Nice clothes? No. The answer was usually some form of, “So I can f*ck with people and do what I want.”  Of course, this doesn’t square with rich people being smart and trustworthy, but the cognitive dissonance is okay, I guess.

Now we come to Trump running for president and support for him here in West Virginia was virtually 100 percent, and is still heavily supportive of Trump. It all adds up in a sick kind of way, doesn’t it?

Trump Reaction Meme

Quote from Mueller's report

Quote from Mueller’s report. Click to view larger.

The above is a popular meme today. It’s a quote from Mueller’s report quoting Trump’s reaction to learning he was under investigation.

Loath as I am to defend Trump, I must point out there are two ways to interpret Trump’s comment. One is that he’s guilty of something and fears being found out. The other is an astute reaction to learning he’s under investigation.

In the past, presidents who are under investigation are hobbled and unable to get much done while the investigation is going on. The mere existence of an investigation hamstrings them, regardless of what the findings turn out to be. His reaction would be appropriate for any president, even one who’s completely innocent.

So, his reaction could mean, “Oh, crap, they’re onto me. I’ll get caught,” or it can mean “Crap, they just tied my hands and I can’t carry out my job as president until this is over.”

Which one is correct is an exercise for the reader. My guess is that it’s the former, for two reasons. 1.) Trump has a long history of shady / criminal behavior. 2.) He’s likely ignorant of the history of presidents who were under investigation.

Time may tell which is correct.

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