Day 573 Wednesday August 15, 2018 1,005 Days to Go
Let us look at the not so strange case of Omarosa.
The comments on the media are interesting and most are naive. Also, the president has tweeted calling her a low-life and a dog. Once again the media response is naive.
I am also reminded of what Samantha Bee did on her show with a graphic of Don Jr. She showed a three circle Venn diagram marked: Shady Business, Collusion, and Russians. They overlapped and intersected and Don Jr’s face was in the middle. Her point being that whatever Don Sr had been doing Don Jr was right in the middle of it. As I have pointed out in earlier screeds, Donnie Boy was not only in the middle of his dad’s shady stuff but he also propagated his own shady stuff, and pulled his sister in on it as well.
Perhaps, a more apt graphic would be the Olympic Rings, or how about looking down on a bunch of quoits around a peg? No matter how you look at it there is so much underhanded stuff that it’s easy to forget some or get lost or turn off from exhaustion. This must be their strategy; to do so many unethical, immoral, illegal, and just plain stupid things that you can’t believe any one could be that UIIJPS (Unethical, Immoral, Illegal, and Just Plain Stupid), but here’s the thing! They are!
Trump has made a career out of shafting people, denying it, and lying about it. He is now in the biggest con of his life – the American people. Will he pull it off? I give it pretty high odds. Polls show that the Republican party members are behind him 80-90%. WTF? But it’s true. Say what you will, there are a whole bunch of people who like what he is doing and or like who he is and like what he stands for.
This brings me to the question of “What does Donald Trump stand for?”
Well, himself – mainly. Maybe, his family members, notably Don Jr and Ivanka. From there it kind of thins out, but his first wife is in there as is his daughter Melanie and son Eric. Oh, and let’s not forget Jared. I’m not sure about Melania or Baron, but he has some regard for them as well. After that there might be some close associates, but as we have seen time and again, you can be “in” one day, and “out” the next. It’s not personal; it’s just the way it is. Trump demands loyalty, while giving none in return. Roger Stone was correct when he said that Trump treats Michael Cohen like a dog. Trump uses people. He manipulates them and when they are no longer useful – throws them away. If, all of a sudden, they might be useful again; he reaches out to them. It’s no wonder that Rick Wilson’s book is entitiled, “Everything Trump Touches Dies” because it’s true.
There is also another component. He’s a sociopath. Sociopaths don’t understand certain human emotions and interactive behaviors. Among them are humor and empathy. Have you ever seen Trump laugh or cry? I haven’t. I think that’s because he is incapable of either. He doesn’t understand, on a gut level, humor. Nor does he have feelings that normal people have, like: sadness, or joy. They are absent from his being. It’s as if, as some have described, “there’s a piece missing.” He relies on the reactions of others to see if something is funny. That’s classic psychopath. He’s a master at it. Remember the “Lock her Up” question he asked the audience during his campaign? Where he asked, “Do you like that?” The crowd roared their approval. His response was, “Okay, we’ll use it.”
There was no discussion about whether it was valid. The crowd liked it so he’d use it – simple as that.
In a similar way, the Clinton email stuff: it’s been called a scandal. It’s been said they were looking to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. In fact, there was no dirt. There was no scandal. They did get the emails and that’s illegal and that’s a scandal, but there was no crime by Hillary or her people; only by Trump, his associates, and the Russians.
So now we get to Omarosa. She says he knew about the emails before they came out. She says he used the “N-word.” She says she has tapes to back up her claims.
Many folks are asking, “What kind of person would do that?” (ie tape someone in these circumstances.) Then those same folks go on to say that Omarosa has a very untrustworthy reputation and if she didn’t have the tapes no one would believe her. So what kind of person would make recordings? Why a person like Omarosa that’s who! Of all the commentary I’ve heard about this woman the only thing that has really stuck in my mind is what someone who has seen her up close said. This person said he’s been on talk shows and panels with her and she is smart. Say what you will, but I’d have to say she is smart.
Is it terrible that a person would record such things? Naw. Look at Comey. What if he had recorded the conversation he “memoralized” in a memo after leaving the White House dinner he had with Trump. We wouldn’t be having this “he said/he said” conversation because we’d know.
Besides, as the person who said Omarosa was smart pointed out; she’s a reality TV star, who has managed to stay in the spotlight for 10 or 15 years.
Once again, Trump is in the unenviable spot of damned either way he goes. He called her a dog and a low life, yet he gave her a job; and not any job, a senior staff position. Why? Because, according to him, she said nice things about him. So why is he giving such a person a job? What about only hiring “the best”?
Another point, the term “dog” here is not referring to an animal, but to an ugly woman. I only mention this because some in the media have gone off saying he compared her to an animal and how could he do that? He didn’t. He called her ugly.
This is the first step, as many have pointed out, in dehumanizing a person. Of making them an object of scorn. From there you can move onto other bad behavior and if you take it far enough you can get to “the final solution.” Will we get there? No. This behavior and its trajectory and spread has given cover to a lot of people who harbored racial hatred and other egregious biases. It allows for it to flourish and grow. These people, who are racists and support Donald Trump were that way before he came along, but at least they kept a low profile. Now? Hey baby, it’s open season; go for it.
Trump has exposed our dark underbelly. He has brought it out in the open and said, “Hey, it’s fine.”
This is what the Republican party has always been about, and always counted on to win. Will they be able to keep doing it? There’s a good chance they will.
In other news:
– The Manafort defense rested without calling a single witness. Why? The only explanation is that whomever they put on the stand could make it worse for their client, and expose him to even more stuff. It seems obvious to me that Manafort is going for a pardon.
– An eleven year old hacked a replica of the Florida state voting system. It took him ten minutes. Yet, Florida says they are ready. No wait, Rick Scott said that. The officials in Florida have said they aren’t. What’s going to happen? I’m betting that some unusual wins will occur that no one can explain. (I love Stephanie Ruhl’s comment today which went something like this, “Hey, my kids are playing with Lincoln Logs. They’ve got to step up their game.”)
– Kris Kobach won the bid to represent the Republicans to become Governor of Kansas. He is the current Secretary of State for Kansas and was the one responsible for the biggest voter suppression effort in the country. Not only did he manage to kick thousands off the voter roles in Kansas but in other key states as well by exporting his hateful program to those states. With his winning the Republican nod the Democrats have a chance to win that seat. A chance, if only they could have all those voters back.
– In a shocking development, the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania has been found to have hidden the fact that priests abused children. This involves over 300 priests, thousands of children, both boys and girls, and the charges are abuse, oral sex, and rape. The cases go back to the 1950s. Why this kind of behavior first started in the church I’d guess slightly after St. Paul founded it. We can trace it back to the Middle Ages – easily. Earlier than that it’s hard to say. What this shows is that people in positions of power, when not watched, abuse that power.
– Let’s see, are their cases of people abusing their power in other areas? Why, yes. We have stock fraud right after Poppa Bush got rid of the 400 or so investigators in the SEC. And accounting fraud after his son told companies to monitor themselves. Fortunately, we don’t have any problems with violent crime or guns, in fact Kansas has led the way, by not requiring any kind of licensing or training to get a gun because their former Governor Sam Brownback got rid of any hint of that because in his words, “he trusted the good people of Kansas.”
– Trump continues to dump on Sessions, but as one person pointed out Sessions is carrying out most of what Trump wants done in Justice.
– To be clear Trump is a racist; so is Sessions; so is Stephen Miller. And in a related story Stephen Miller helped my Congressman David Brat beat Eric Cantor. Guess who cheered that upset? Stormfront.
Who is Stormfront? According to Wikipedia, “Stormfront is a Holocaust denying, white nationalist, white supremacist, antisemitic neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web’s first major racial hate site.“
Go David! So Miller and Stormfront must have really celebrated the fact that they got rid of a Jew. Nice work guys, you must be so proud. Why aren’t you crowing about this more David? Is this even a little too far for you? I doubt it. So own it. You are backed by Nazis.
btw The site is 21 years old and was founded by Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black. So is it too far to say the Klan backs Brat? Maybe so. But not the Nazis!
One of the things that came out about the Omarosa tape is that people are now talking about civility. The idea that the reason you are civil to people is that it makes the world a better place. It allows you to get along and to accomplish things even with people you may not like or agree with. What an idea?
Of course, the Republican party used to put on a mask of civility, but with Trump that has been dropped and it’s an “us against them”, “winner or loser” mentality.
How has this worked out? For Trump? For the United States?
In a nutshell – not well, not well at all. But that’s a topic for another screed.
1,005 Days to Go
PS Even the Buildings are Watching
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