Drinking From a Fire Hose

"Some men improve the world only by leaving it" - Oscar Wilde

Now, don't get me wrong with that quote leading my piece this week. I don't want Kash Patel at my door asking about a threat to the President. After all, he has eyes everywhere.

No, I subscribe to the sentiment expressed by the great American lawyer Clarence Darrow...

"I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."

First off, I apologize for missing last week as I was one of those poor souls who lost power during the big freeze here in Texas, and were it not for the kindness of my brother-in-law with whom we bunked, I'd be typing this with frost-bitten fingers.

But it's been two weeks now since I sat down and looked at the news of this administration and what a two weeks it's been. Jon Sopel, the BBC White House correspondent for the first Trump term said that outrageous things happen so frequently that when something you are sure is earthshattering occurs, by tomorrow something else will happen so that you forget what the original event or utterance was.

And the secret to good messaging, or distracting the public if you will, involves these things...

• Immersion and Subtlety
• Constant Repetition
• Creating "Events"
• Emotional Appeal Over Intellect
• Entertainment and Distraction
• Identifying a "Special Enemy"
• Uniformity of Message

One word for this is propaganda. And this list, incidentally, was part of a summary of techniques for swaying the public assembled by a guy named Goebbels. Now, look, I'm not saying what you may think.

But I am saying that this stuff works, at least, up to a point. And, I have had a bit of a revelation about Make America Great Again. When exactly was that greatness? And then it hit me.

Trump and I are both early boomers. He was born in 1946, and I in 1949. What kind of world was he born into?

The war had ended in '45, and the world was still recovering.

Europe and Asia were in a shambles while America was untouched and reigned supreme on the globe.

There was no Marshall Plan yet, so no real foreign aid.

There was no international organization to debate and hopefully resolve disputes.

Russia had been an ally in the war, albeit a tense one, so Roosevelt and Truman had to make nice to Stalin.

Equal rights for black and female citizens was still not the norm no matter how important both were in the war effort.

We never thought about Mexican migrants as long as the crops got picked.

No one cared about pollution, much less changes in the overall climate, so we happily kept burning lots of coal.

There were no vaccines for polio or measles, so we all just had to tough it out and hope we dodged a bullet.

So, what kind of world is the President envisioning for us now? It sounds a lot like that one.

He has denigrated our allies, making fun of their sacrifices fighting with us in the war on terror after 9/11. He has abandoned a European democracy besieged by his good friend Vladimir Putin. General William McRaven put it this way...

“Anyone who would denigrate the service of our NATO allies clearly never spent a day in uniform,” and “if we continue to show disdain for our allies … we may find ourselves fighting alone someday.” -William H. McRaven

He has used tariffs as a weapon which has resulted in a record trade deficit, impoverished farmers, higher prices, a weakening dollar and other countries establishing trade with nations like China, which had a record trade surplus this year, by the way.

And of course, those countries are facing new tariffs for doing those deals. He even claimed he can de-certify any aircraft manufactured in Canada as a part of his vengeance, though he doesn't really have the power to do that. Many of those planes are used for firefighting in the US, by the way,sown and have facilities and jobs in this country.

His head of the Department of Health and Human Services has sownhas doubt about vaccines, and just this past week said the polio vaccine should be voluntary, not mandatory.

That sound you hear is Dr. Salk spinning in his grave.

He has made an estimated $4 billion personally since taking office this time and has ,even been given a Boeing 747 as a gift. He plans to sue his own Internal Revenue Service, you know the one he runs, for $10 billion for a guy who leaked his old tax returns years ago. That guy, by the way, was tried and is serving 5 years in prison.

When asked about that suit by a reporter at an Oval Office press gaggle, he didn't answer and resorted to the tried and true technique of insulting her, yes a woman naturally, and moving on to another friendlier question.

He has ordered Kash's FBI to raid the election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, looking for something, anything to support his fiction that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

That, he compared to his other claim that Russian interference in the 2016 election was a hoax. Again, from Jon Sopel's book...

“When Sessions (the Attorney General) told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.’ The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, ‘How could you let this happen, Jeff?”

To summarize, a former head of the Trump campaign, his deputy, a foreign policy advisor, the national security advisor and Trump’s personal lawyer had all been found guilty. And that is not to mention the pile of indictments against various Russians who had sought to interfere in the election.”
― Jon Sopel, A Year At The Circus: Inside Trump's White House

But, again, keep saying it over and over until it becomes the perceived truth.

And then there was Jeffrey Epstein. More files have been released and before Attorney General Pam Bondi took them down, they included lots of references to Trump, unproven,, of course, but damning nonetheless. for example...

In the Epstein files document, the woman’s lawyer describes how the woman was allegedly enticed to New York City in the summer of 1994 on the pretence of kickstarting her modelling career but was sexually abused by Trump and Epstein at a number of parties.“During the first party, Doe was asked to strip down to her underwear and give a massage to Epstein,” the account says. “Doe was asked by Epstein to do sexual acts, but she refused.

Doe was later asked to massage the penis of Epstein’s guest, Trump, with her hands. Doe was told that this was what she had to do in order to get a job, and Doe complied.“During the second party, Doe was asked to perform oral sex on Trump and complied. During the third party, Doe was made to perform oral sex on Trump with another young girl named [redacted]. During the fourth visit, Doe was raped by Trump …“Epstein was angry that Trump was the one to take Doe’s virginity and then went on to rape Doe … Doe struggled and was struck by both men during the assault. Doe was then threatened with violence by both men to not make any report of what happened: ‘We’ll make you disappear like [redacted].’”

Those claims included rape and sex with underaged girls, again just claims. But we have seen these claims before. This video was part of a story by my Outlaw colleague Jim Moore a while back. Her name, at least for this interview, is Katie Johnson and she initially sued Trump for the events she described. That suit was withdrawn, and in the new Epstein files release, it is claimed victims were threatened with their lives if they talked. It is a little long, but is worth listening to...

But, it should be said the photo of the former Prince Andrew on all fours over a young woman is worth the price of admission.

And then there's this...

And of course, the ICE outrages in Minneapolis that have so far killed two people. Now, why they are even there for the 130,000 illegals in Minnesota when Texas has 2.1 million is curious. I'm sure politics is not involved.

Ah, but maybe it's the rampant Medicaid fraud, eh?  In a recent review, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) found Minnesota's official Medicaid improper payment rate was slightly over 2.1%, significantly below the national average of 6.1%.

Yeah, but he still doesn't like Ilhan Omar.

But, OK, enough of this. Let me end with a bittersweet note. The marvelous comedienne Catherine O'Hara died this week. And while many talked about her work in movies, which was wonderful, her work on the SCTV series in the 70's and 80's was simply insane genius. Her comedic timing and subtlety, though she could be sometimes outrageous, was sublime. Watch and remember...

I'd rather watch this on an endless loop than watch "Melania."