Me Worthies
Me Worthies
by
Ken Melvin
If 40% of Americans think like Trump thinks, is America worth saving? At his rallies, we see C-SPAN shots of mostly overweight middle-aged and somewhat older whites; so we certainly can’t blame his ascendancy on recent immigrants. As Walt’s Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pretty good bet that Trump is both a narcissist and a sociopath. And his supporters, they too? No doubt some of his supporters care more about the stock market than they do about America or Trump, but what about the rest? What do they care about?
Since when did middle-aged bikers, those who watch reality TV shows like The Apprentice, and those who watch Professional Wrestling, represent the best in America? And, why do biker gang members look just like the armed right-wing, white-supremacist, militia members? And how is it that today’s bikers look just like those from the 70s? — Those brave road marauders who, in bunches of 7, 8, 9, 10, -20 rode alongside our cars and ogled our wives? How is that this lot, too, is mostly overweight middle-aged whites. These are not Baby Boomers. These are the children of the Baby Boomers! Is there something going on in the US gene pool that we don’t know about? This definitely something science and journalism need to look into. If JFK inspired the best and the brightest, who are these that Trump has inspired?
What did Steve Bannon see in Trump that most of us don’t? What did Donald Trump see in Steve Bannon that most of us don’t? By the bye Steve, we still eagerly await that ‘Churchillian Moment’. And, Robert, and Rebekah, Mercer, for the sake of the nation, can you please tell us what it was that you saw in Donald J. Trump? Now take Mr and Mrs. Stephen Miller; what a field day for the psychiatrists, and historians; those two. Kellyanne and Donald, he was fat and she was thin, are obviously of like minds. Out of the woodwork? All this???
What is heaven’s name have we done?
In his book, The Power Broker, about Robert Moses, Robert Caro describes how Moses owned the New York State Assembly by having something on every member or on a member of the member’s family. What has Trump got on Mitch McConnell? On Lindsey Graham? Like his mentor Roy Cohn, Trump represents all that is bad about New York City Politics. He’s a bully, a liar, and a cheat, and corrupt, and those are just for starters.
Fetch aft the rum.
The White House Called a News Conference
NY Times – July 14
The president spoke in the Rose Garden for 63 minutes. He spent only six of those minutes answering questions from reporters.
WASHINGTON — In theory, President Trump summoned television cameras to the heat-baked Rose Garden early Tuesday evening to announce new measures against China to punish it for its oppression of Hong Kong. But that did not last long.
What followed instead was an hour of presidential stream of consciousness as Mr. Trump drifted seemingly at random from one topic to another, often in the same run-on sentence. Even for a president who rarely sticks to the script and wanders from thought to thought, it was one of the most rambling performances of his presidency.
He weighed in on China and the coronavirus and the Paris climate change accord and crumbling highways. And then China again and military spending and then China again and then the coronavirus again. And the economy and energy taxes and trade with Europe and illegal immigration and his friendship with Mexico’s president. And the coronavirus again and then immigration again and crime in Chicago and the death penalty and back to climate change and education and historical statues. And more.
“We could go on for days,” he said at one point, and it sounded plausible.
At times, it was hard to understand what he meant. He seemed to suggest that his presumptive Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., would get rid of windows if elected and later said that Mr. Biden would “abolish the suburbs.” He complained that Mr. Biden had “gone so far right.” (He meant left.)
Even for those who follow Mr. Trump regularly and understand his shorthand, it became challenging to follow his train of thought.
For instance, in discussing cooperation agreements with Central American countries to stop illegal immigration, he had this to say: “We have great agreements where when Biden and Obama used to bring killers out, they would say don’t bring them back to our country, we don’t want them. Well, we have to, we don’t want them. They wouldn’t take them. Now with us, they take them. Someday, I’ll tell you why. Someday, I’ll tell you why. But they take them and they take them very gladly. They used to bring them out and they wouldn’t even let the airplanes land if they brought them back by airplanes. They wouldn’t let the buses into their country. They said we don’t want them. Said no, but they entered our country illegally and they’re murderers, they’re killers in some cases.” ….
Assholes. A certain fraction of the population are assholes. Lacking in empathy. The people who torture cats. Pull the wings off of flies. The people who think its funny when an old person falls down in the store and has a seizure. Assholes. The people who think it “serves them right” when you lock kids in cages because their parents tried to come to this country to find a better life. Assholes. The kind of people who think that race is more important than character. Assholes.
Donald Trump and Steve Bannon figured out that you can play identity police with assholes. Because assholes are a fixed percentage of the electorate and they vote. Direct appeals to assholes work. They respond. They are flattered that you care. No one ever explicitly reached out to them before. The assholes. Donald Trump did. “You can’t say that Donald” Oh yes he could because he wasn’t talking to you. He was talking to the assholes. And all of that crazy shit just proved to the assholes that he was one of them.
No, if you want to understand this, there is just one word that you need to understand. Assholes.