At every step of the sad history of Trump in American politics the relationship is characterized by abuse.
The system that has functions designed to prevent & manage errors & problems is being abused to create them.
Essentially the problem is this:Trump(ism) is a vicious abuser.
The system that has functions designed to prevent & manage errors & problems is being abused to create them.
Essentially the problem is this:Trump(ism) is a vicious abuser.
This point could be annotated by a collection of examples. Most of them are well known.
Ponder that you have never seen Trump laugh. Never explain a policy or position in terms that reflected & incorporated different POV. That there has never been an example of graciousness.
Ponder that you have never seen Trump laugh. Never explain a policy or position in terms that reflected & incorporated different POV. That there has never been an example of graciousness.
The list of Trump's character flaws will fill a book someday. And they have been significant in the corrosive undoing of the country.
It seems the one powerful quality that underlies everything that is Trump & his septic influence on the country (& world) is the lying.
It seems the one powerful quality that underlies everything that is Trump & his septic influence on the country (& world) is the lying.
Everything that Trump and this administration does is infused with a lie. Sometimes it is bold and obvious, other times subtle and insidious, but never not present. Even a simple statement of fact, could one be found, is dipped in the acid of the overall lie.
How to describe
How to describe
How to describe what this foundational, axiomatic, level of the Trumpian lie is not easy. Like any seeming simple but foundational equation, E=mc2 for example, it rings true and is full of implication at every level.
Attempts to quantify it, to constrain it to a simple, single
Attempts to quantify it, to constrain it to a simple, single
aspect or function will not be sufficient.
We have not been subjected to this level of lying by this level of power/governance for a long time.
For sure there are lies that we live with. One of the remarkable aspects of the rise of Trump was his ability to publically call out
We have not been subjected to this level of lying by this level of power/governance for a long time.
For sure there are lies that we live with. One of the remarkable aspects of the rise of Trump was his ability to publically call out
some of those lies. Thinking of the various "truths" he silenced his Republican opponents with in the first debates.
But this example makes the point.
He unmasked and said what everyone "knew", but did so in a way that was self serving. Not a public service.
But this example makes the point.
He unmasked and said what everyone "knew", but did so in a way that was self serving. Not a public service.
Trump Rule #1: Something I synthesized a long while ago
"Trump is a Liar.
"He does not simply tell lies,he is, as a matter of axiomatic character, a Liar.
"From which everything he does & says is essentially a lie".
Corollary: If something is not a lie, it is in service to one.
"Trump is a Liar.
"He does not simply tell lies,he is, as a matter of axiomatic character, a Liar.
"From which everything he does & says is essentially a lie".
Corollary: If something is not a lie, it is in service to one.
This rule helps make sense out of the daily spew of nonsense that is emits from this source.
There are many great examples of liars in history. It seems to me Trump will go down as the leader in his own class. Unlike others, he managed to marry his lying with an astonishing degree of general incompetence, but a balancing ability to understand the mood & psyche of a
significant percentage of the population.
Using this ability to deceive, make promises that were at the time uttered, easily proved as false, they somehow rang true in the hearts of those hearers. Somehow this metamorphosized into a movement, that became tantamount to a religion.
Using this ability to deceive, make promises that were at the time uttered, easily proved as false, they somehow rang true in the hearts of those hearers. Somehow this metamorphosized into a movement, that became tantamount to a religion.
Think back to the beginning...
"I will restore Clean Coal Jobs
"Mexico will pay for the wall
"The emails!
"The promise to the Carrier company employees...
The list, like all Trump lists, is endless.
(ref @Amy_Siskind & the detailed collection of the @washingtonpost for starters)
"I will restore Clean Coal Jobs
"Mexico will pay for the wall
"The emails!
"The promise to the Carrier company employees...
The list, like all Trump lists, is endless.
(ref @Amy_Siskind & the detailed collection of the @washingtonpost for starters)
The point is much larger than simple policy differences. Those are the matters of politics.
But the political process itself has been contorted by this liar.
This is what is meant to call Trump an abuser.
A vicious abuser of the country.
But the political process itself has been contorted by this liar.
This is what is meant to call Trump an abuser.
A vicious abuser of the country.
And the capstone of this has been the [non]response to COVID.
Just cataloging the range & quantity of lying & incompetence will also occupy many hours, years even, & a stream of books and articles trying to understand what happened.
Just cataloging the range & quantity of lying & incompetence will also occupy many hours, years even, & a stream of books and articles trying to understand what happened.
There are historical parallels to trying to understand the confusion of a time. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did this for the Russian/Soviet era. Another time & place predicated upon a mirage of lies.
I appreciate the work of @TimothyDSnyder & @anneapplebaum along these lines.
I appreciate the work of @TimothyDSnyder & @anneapplebaum along these lines.
If we are to recover our own time and place it will begin by recanting this devotion to the lie that Trump has normalized.
He has insinuated we are divided along the lines of Pro-Trump and Against-Trump. And that this is a rational way to look at the country.
It is not.
He has insinuated we are divided along the lines of Pro-Trump and Against-Trump. And that this is a rational way to look at the country.
It is not.
But it is required that we disenthrall ourselves from this basic lie if we are to recover our country. If we are to indeed continue our quest of "Democracy Coming to the U.S.A." as Leonard Cohen told us about.
This thread/thought was provoked by reading a few "tweets". If this were a hearing at this point you would simply read into the record the entirety of Trump's twitter posts, his "speeches" such as they are, and the catalog of promises made at his "rallies".
Here are a few, perhaps to be appended going forward.
There is no point in pointing out each violation. We are now at the juncture of the ultimate choice as Trump has laid it out.
We either believe that everything concerning the election was a fraud. Or not.
There is no point in pointing out each violation. We are now at the juncture of the ultimate choice as Trump has laid it out.
We either believe that everything concerning the election was a fraud. Or not.
The distinction between the two is a simple one...as presented by the simpleton Mr.Trump...
If something is for him...it is good and true.
If something goes against him it is fake and a fraud.
If something is for him...it is good and true.
If something goes against him it is fake and a fraud.
It goes deeper even.
Mr. Trump has long attributed the bad consequences of his decisions and affects on the country to others. Anyone really will do. Just not him.
Such obvious & outright lying lead to another Trump Rule.
#3: "If Trump is accusing it, he is doing it."
Mr. Trump has long attributed the bad consequences of his decisions and affects on the country to others. Anyone really will do. Just not him.
Such obvious & outright lying lead to another Trump Rule.
#3: "If Trump is accusing it, he is doing it."
So we end up with nonsense from Mr.Trump and his compliant supporters that makes up our daily news feed.
A few examples.
A few examples.
A compelling thread by @TimothyDSnyder
https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1326319545427107840?s=20
A clear assessment of the moment.
(As always, it is the 'fool' who can often best tell the truth...)
(As always, it is the 'fool' who can often best tell the truth...)
https://twitter.com/mhbx/status/1324776044360986624?s=20
The Trump administration set the tone in the very beginning...
It started with a lie.
Has been layering on of lies every since.
Making claims that would boggle Orwell w his various Ministries. Esp "Ministry of Truth". (MiniTrue)
Ending up in a bunker.
It started with a lie.
Has been layering on of lies every since.
Making claims that would boggle Orwell w his various Ministries. Esp "Ministry of Truth". (MiniTrue)
Ending up in a bunker.
https://twitter.com/nickconfessore/status/1323648997039505408?s=20
Everything Tr is doing now is extreme abuse.
https://twitter.com/Scout_Finch/status/1336396074941100035?s=20
As if further evidence were necessary, this blatent attack on the nation for pure, rancid, power-grabbing is exposed. This is only one publically revealed example of what has been going on as a full court press for the last 2 months.
If/when this story
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-3-20…
If/when this story
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-3-20…
about what Trump has done in the shadows, as he has completely capitulated his duties as president, reducing his focus & efforts to this one thing: how to coopt the system that is rejecting him at every level, from voter, the courts, to the military and keep power.
The issues that are the real concern of the country, and the world, COVID, failing social contracts, economic instabilities, systemic difficulties in our core systems, including especially our political systems... All of this goes unattended by the president as he seeks to
figure out how to stage a coup & overthrow the entire system of Constitutional government.
Trump is exposed now. There is no place for Trump supporters to hide. Astonishingly this does not cause those elected leaders to recoil in shame at who they have been supporting and
Trump is exposed now. There is no place for Trump supporters to hide. Astonishingly this does not cause those elected leaders to recoil in shame at who they have been supporting and
enabling to continue this charade. This deadly and serious charade.
The Trump masses also have a choice. Though I expect the Trump Media that Donald spoke of will rally & do its best to obfusticate the facts. It will do so to its forever shame.
The Trump masses also have a choice. Though I expect the Trump Media that Donald spoke of will rally & do its best to obfusticate the facts. It will do so to its forever shame.
What happens in consequence of this disgusting example of who & what Trump is, and has always been will be an indicator of just how far gone we are. Or. How healthy and robust we are, sick but not terminal.
It is worth remembering that everything we are seeing about who Trump is, and his designs on the power of the Presidency, along w his utter incompetence and carelessness of actually being president, were put before the people, and the Congress, this time last year.
@RepAdamSchiff perfectly summed up the Impeachment trial with a clarity that seemed impossible to ignore. "He will not change...". And he has not. To the bitter end.
Our elected officials, sworn to protect the Constitution instead did, & continue, to protect their power to
Our elected officials, sworn to protect the Constitution instead did, & continue, to protect their power to
demise of the constitutional principles that underly whatever it is that makes America actually great. Trump has sullied that greatness. He would completely dismantle it if he could.
He should have been removed from office then. He will be torn from office now. But it will not
He should have been removed from office then. He will be torn from office now. But it will not
be a clean removal. More like shrapnel that has torn through the body, shredding the skin, leaving bits of steel embedded in the bones, difficult to excise.
This thread started w the assertion & exampling of the extraordinary abuse & suffering Trump has inflicted. The secret is out. The beatings can no longer be ignored. Trump is a malignant force. Trumpism is worse.
Time for the authorities to roll up and do their duty.
Time for the authorities to roll up and do their duty.
The system failed when it most was needed to succeed.
We are suffering from that failure.
We are suffering from that failure.
https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/1345821203278213120?s=20
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