Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Anyone NOT Indicted?

News that Steve Bannon was arrested for fraud related to building the wall is really a perfect exemplar of life in Trumpistan. You have someone involved with Trump's 2016 campaign (like Manafort, Page, Flynn, Papadopolous, Gates and others) grifting off of xenophobia and defrauding a non-profit (like Trump charities. 

Meanwhile, Trump's financial records have - once again - been ruled admissible to Manhattan's DA over, you guessed it, fraud. It's still unlikely that these records will be released before the election and less likely still that it will be leaked or lead to indictments before the first week of November. It's also unlikely that any of this will make a damned bit of difference for the 40% of Americans who seem to support Trump no matter what.

It's fascinating looking at the dynamics in both parties. Biden is trying to assemble a coalition that stretches from John Kasich and Charlie Dent to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren. That leads to fractious and bullshit arguments over how much speaking time AOC gets. Or whether Biden's aggressive climate plan is aggressive enough. Meanwhile, over in Republican land they are completely committed to this criminal conman and whatever bullshit comes out of his puckered piehole. 

The Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Russian investigation clearly shows that there was coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia. And these same GOP Senators who knew the information in their own report voted NOT to call witness in the impeachment trial last January. 

Back in 2016, it was said that not all Trump voters were racists, but for every Trump voter, racism was not a dealbreaker. In 2020, we can add to that (because the racism is still self-evident) that not every Trump voter is a criminal, but every Trump voter is okay with criminality in the highest office in the land.

Jesus, take the loss and look towards 2024.

No comments: