I checked in on The Daily Beast a few days ago and read an article by a well-known conservative political strategist and media consultant, Rick Wilson, based in Florida. It was titled “Donald Trump cracks the seal on talk of treason,” and you can verify my remarks by Googling that title.
Wilson wrote: “Trump might not be able to see where this slippery slope leads, but the political arsonists around him do. Prepare to reap the whirlwind.” Readers who feel I come on too strong with my criticism of Demented Donald should take note of Wilson’s comments. He continued, “I’m not one to pull any punches on Donald Trump. As a conservative, I see him as a statist abomination, a plump be-wattled authoritarian-wannabe man-baby with the intellectual horsepower of a toaster oven.”
This all stems, of course, from Feb. 5th’s event in Ohio when the self-styled master of the universe again opened his motor mouth without the blessings of his speech-writers, attorneys or advisors. His paranoia-tinged, narcissism-engorged ego took command.
I don’t believe it’s all coincidence that Donald described as “treasonous” the “dead silence” of Democratic members of Congress who had chosen not to applaud the pumped-up arrogance of his “State of the Union” address. “Treason” is a word that kicks in now and then during discussion of the ongoing investigation by Special Investigation Mueller into possible Russian connection by those involved during Trump’s election campaign. An investigation to which Donald seems to be over-reacting at every opportunity.
“Treason” is one of those words Donald wants to shoo away from himself into the direction of others. His biggest worry, however, is “obstruction of justice.” He’s trying to deflect that phrase back onto the FBI.
Donald’s mind always seems to stonewall well short of reason as he claims credit for everything back to the invention of the wheel. In his speech he tried to make points with the minorities he has continually denigrated by referring to positive numbers for Black and Hispanic employment. Democrats who chose not to applaud such things are “un-American” he said during his follow-up pep rally in Ohio.
“Even on positive news like that, really positive news like that, they were like death and un-American,” he said of the Democratic side of the aisle during his national address. Somebody said “treasonous,” he commented (and I figure that would have been the little voice inside him that inspires his tweets). “I mean, yeah, I guess, why not ? Shall we call it treasonous? Why not? I mean they certainly didn’t seem to love the country very much.”
The wayward remarks came in the middle of a speech during which Donald was trying to convince listeners that the recent tax cut was turning the country into a land flowing with milk and honey. However, anyone who’s read Exodus will realize just where a similar paradisiacal promise took Abraham and his followers in ancient times. Canaan turned out to be pretty much of a hell-hole rather than a “good and spacious land . . . flowing with milk and honey.”
Trump said Democrats had decided in advance not to applaud during his State of the Union speech. “It was a game, you know they play games,” he said. “They were told, don’t even make a facial movement.” If that’s not an example of a man drowning in his own ego clutching at straws, I don’t know what would be. He complained that Democrats “would rather see Trump do badly, OK, than our country do well . . . it’s very selfish.”
That’s right, Donald stood there with his brass appendages dangling and accused other people of being selfish.
The more you talk, Donald, the faster we count our spoons. (An old saying about home-owners checking out their silver on the departure of suspicious slick-talking guests. Boy, does that ever apply to such things as Donald’s tax plan and his continual pot calling the kettle black.)
Further comment by Wilson: “One thing we’ve learned in the last two years is that no legal, moral, or cultural strictures bind Trump and that he is immune to the better angels of human nature. The moral event horizon around him consumes the good in anyone who becomes one of his vassals. There is no better version of Trump, ever. He can only degrade and destroy everything he touches, but Monday [the tirade at the Ohio pep rally] was remarkable, even for him . . .”
On the matter of being treasonable: “If you’re looking for someone in the act of betraying the glorious vision of our Founders and our Constitution, look no further than the vulgar, prancing, reality-show clown who holds the presidency. Look no further than the man who swore to uphold the Constitution and obey the laws of this land, yet ignores them, and attacks those who would carry them out.
“We have had presidents in living memory who failed, who strayed from the righteous path, who were venal or paranoid or who fell victim to their lusts and weaknesses. But none came so close to treason as this president . . .
“He will tear down the United States government around him to hide from accountability. He will wreck alliances, compromise intelligence sources, and endanger our troops to please Putin. There’s a word for that.”
MEANWHILE: One of Donald’s latest proposed propaganda ploys is to stage a grandiose parade of military might down the streets of the nation’s capitol. Many millions would be spent transporting tanks, troops, trailered missiles, maybe a jet plane or two, from wherever—for a two-hour spectacle presided over by a beaming Donald Trump flanked by a few of “his” generals.
One almost can visualize him now in the other universe to which he would be mentally transported, spotlighted against a background of aircraft contrails, martial music playing, wearing a military cap with “scrambled eggs” on the bill, gaudy epaulets, wearing his “bone-spur” medals from the Vietnam War. A “my gun’s bigger than your gun” spectacle, more typical of some place such as Moscow’s Red Square, which he will later boast of having been “the greatest in the history of the world.”
Struggling average Americans lining the streets, while receiving no actual sustenance, presumably would be reassured in some way by the mere awe of the spectacle. And a few of them actually might later get temporary employment in the required repaving of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Coming next: Donald Trump’s countenance, as the latest heroic figure, on a box of Wheaties.
