July 11-14, 2017: With Donald J. Trump Jr. You Get Hair Gel and Russians

 

7/11/17: The President of the United States rises early and starts his day by retweeting two stories from Fox & Friends. Another tweet, lamenting the deaths of 17 servicemen in a plane crash follows. 

The story of the meeting with Donald Jr. and – somebody – about something – is going to be cleared up, he insists: “My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country!” 

On Hannity, Jr. swears the whole tale has been revealed. Hannity and Jr. trade admiring glances. Both are huge fans of hair gel. The meeting was just Jr. and Jared and Paul and, okay, a Russian lawyer. (See 7/14/17.)

___ 

 

7/12/17: On the way to France for a meeting with President Macron, Trump sits down on Air Force One and chats with reporters. He hasn’t been talking much to the media, probably because when he does they report the stupid crap that spills from his lips like St. Bernard drool.  

__________ 

Beware the flying bales of marijuana.

__________ 

 

Now he explains his plans for the Great Wall of Trump. When the Mexicans pay, he is going to put in a special order. He elaborates: 

One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it.

 

In other words, if you can’t see through that wall—so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what’s on the other side of the wall.

 

And I’ll give you an example. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see them—they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It’s over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall.

 

Some presidents, like Woodrow Wilson, want to make the world safe for democracy. 

Others want to make Americans safe from flying bales of marijuana.

___ 

 

7/13/17: Glaciers around the world are still melting. Ocean temperatures are still rising. The president is still clueless. 

That is all.

___ 

 

7/14/17: The guest list for the meeting with Donald Jr. and the Russians continues to grow. In an interview with Fox News, where all Trumps go when sad, Jr. forgets who was there. 

Okay, he says. There were two Russians. That’s it. Two! A Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin is the second. NPR says he has been described “as a Russian ‘gun for hire’ and a former Soviet-era spy and has worked in the West for years as an advocate for Russian interests.” 

Okay. No more Russians! (See: 7/18/17.)

February 12-13, 2018: A Liberal Sees the Light on Walls

2/12/18: An entire day passes. Trump does not issue a single stupid tweet. This fuels rumors that he is being held hostage by Chief of Staff John Kelly, but appears to be “Fake News.” 

In the real world, I am thinking it might be fun to read the Democratic response to the half-assed Nunes Memo (see: 2/3/18). The House Judicial Committee has voted unanimously to release the rebuttal. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has said – like his tax returns – that the rebuttal will never see daylight.

 ____________________ 

A liberal sees the light on walls.

____________________

 

This means I have time to consider all the walls we need and all the illegal immigrants who want to kill me. (Also: opioids, as we shall see.) Let’s consider Trump’s new budget proposal which would balloon the federal deficit, but insure we had the cash to build a big, beautiful wall. 

As a patriotic America, I am going to capitulate and say, yes, we need lots of walls. The more walls the better. Since we have one of the highest murder rates of any advanced nation, here’s what we should focus on when we talk about infrastructure. Forget roads and bridges. Last week, down in Kentucky, a deranged gunman shot and killed his parents, girlfriend, her mother and himself. 

If you watch a lot of Fox News you probably assume the killer was a Mexican or a dark-skinned Muslim from Somalia. Joseph Nickell was not an illegal immigrant and was, in fact, blatantly white. He did own a lot of guns. I believe this proves the National Rifle Association’s argument that the more guns we own the safer we become. 

You know their motto: “A gun in every hand means we’re ready to fight Redcoats whenever they land.”

 

Anyway, Republicans are never going to do anything to improve gun safety in this country. That means we need walls. We need walls around our homes. Each home should have a wall twenty feet high, with only one opening for egress and exit. Forget windows. Windows are for liberal snowflakes. Also, we might want to add moats. This would protect us from being murdered by illegal immigrants and all the other heavily armed psychopaths roaming our streets. 

We will need to build individual walls around students’ desks in schools. Kentucky suffered another horrific school shooting last month. This time two students were killed and sixteen wounded. This proves, does it not, that more guns can only make us safer! If all those unarmed students had been carrying defensive weaponry and teachers had had AR-15’s and maybe bulletproof vests, they might have returned fire and then everything would have been great! 

We also need walls around our churches. I believe Jesus said that. Think of the slaughter of the innocents in Charleston, South Carolina and Sutherland Springs, Texas. We need to fear illegal immigrants who want to plunk down in our church pews and start illegally praying. Okay, true. Both those heinous crimes were the work of native-born Americans, armed to the teeth. 

Since our elected leaders will do nothing about gun violence, because even universal background checks would somehow spell the irrevocable demise of the Second Amendment, we’re going to need walls. Think of all the jobs a serious wall-building program would generate. 

The economy would boom.

 

The time for bipartisan action is at hand. Congress should appropriate all the necessary funds to build walls around concert venues. Of course, the Las Vegas killer was native-born, too. He also owned a shitload of guns. True enough, but I think this just proves that guns don’t kill people. 

Lack of walls does. 

We need walls. We need walls around movie theaters. We need walls to protect college campuses. We need walls at places where we work. We need walls at nightclubs and cafeterias. We need walls to protect us on baseball fields, in airports and at the hospital. We need walls to save us at malls. We need walls to surround Pike County in Ohio and Harris County in Texas. 

And don’t forget! We could use some moats.

___

2/13/18: Tuesday turns out to be a bad day for The Donald. Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer, admits he paid Stormy Daniels, the porn star, $130,000! Don’t worry, though. Cohen paid out of his own pocket. He was not reimbursed. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful,” he explains, “and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.” 

(Note to self: Find lawyer who will pay my legal expenses out of pocket, assuming I ever incur $130,000 in porn-star-payoff expenses.) 

If Cohen were telling the truth, that would mean no campaign finance laws were violated – which would be a good thing if you’re a lawyer and don’t want to be disbarred. Still, you paid a porn star for silence. This would not be good if you were President Buffoon and you were trying to convince the American people that you would never lie about dealing with Russians. 

Also, if you were the First Lady, you might not think who paid the porn star and how was the issue.

If true, what Cohen (left) says makes him the best lawyer ever!

 

You’d be thinking: Porn star! My husband’s lawyer paid off a porn star! 

WTF!!!!!

 

* 

MRS. TRUMP may stick by her man, at least for now. But one Michigan Republican has seen enough. Brandon DeFrain, the former chairman of the Bay County GOP explained his decision to resign: 

I can no longer remain silent about our president. I have not seen a leader, I’ve only seen more of the same. More racism in our streets, on social media and schools; more hatred between family members; more people feeling as if their human and civil rights are being violated; more drug overdoses; and more people feeling tormented and discriminated against because of who they worship and who they love. I’m tired of attempting to defend a machine that does not defend the people I love.

September 2, 2018: President Trump Goes Golfing - 497 Children Separated from Parents

 

9/2/18: The president spends the day at the White House, relaxing after a hard day of tweeting and golfing Saturday. 

He could get busy and try to speed the process of reuniting the 497 children separated from their parents along the border, some five years old and younger, many torn from mothers and fathers months ago. 

Nah. Too much effort. 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (October 2020): The Trump administration turns out to be not only cruel but inept. Having separated thousands of young children from their families, the Justice Department admits that the parents of 545 children have still not been found, and children not returned. This may be Stephen Miller’s cruel and enduring legacy.

You can justify stopping people at the border; you can't justify losing the parents.

October 30, 2018: Caravan Approaching Border Carrying Smallpox - Fox News Viewers Alarmed!

 

10/30/18: Fox News is running scary stories about the “migrant caravan” heading toward America. President Trump says the caravan includes “very scary people.” Also known to Fox News fans as: “non-white individuals.” 

There could be “Middle Eastern people” hiding among all the Spanish-speaking asylum seekers. 

Also known to Fox News viewers as Muslims – and, ipso facto, terrible people. 

 

The rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president. 

According to David Ward, some “expert” who appears in one Fox segment, these people are bringing diseases like leprosy and smallpox, and we can’t allow them to breach the border. 

Smallpox! I for one am suddenly scared and think I should go buy guns and head south to defend America. Then I remember. Smallpox was eradicated in 1980. So, I guess Fox is just running stupid, scary stories. 

And that would be “Fake News.”

Smallpox!

 

In related right-wing-nut news, three Kansas men are convicted in a plot to blow up mosques and the homes of Somali immigrants. Because Somali immigrants are just as scary as SMALLPOX! 

Their lawyers beg for leniency, basically arguing that Trump made their clients do it.  Trump, lawyers for one of the defendants insist, appealed to “lost and ignored white, working-class men” like the defendant, who was “an early and avid supporter [emphasis added here and throughout]” of the president.

“The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful and contentious presidential elections in modern history, driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president,” the lawyers wrote in their sentencing memorandum. 

Lawyers for a second defendant note that the president continues to stoke fear with his warnings about caravans filled with dangerous individuals. 

As long as the Executive Branch condemns Islam and commends and encourages violence against would-be enemies, then a sentence imposed by the Judicial Branch does little to deter people generally from engaging in such conduct if they believe they are protecting their countries from enemies identified by their own Commander-in-Chief.”

 

So, there’s that.

December 22, 2018: For a Third Time, Trump Shuts Down the Government He Is Supposed to Run

 

12/22/18: Americans wake to the realization that for a third time since reciting the oath of office, the Big Orange Buffoon is throwing a tantrum and the government is partially shuttered. Naturally, Trump blames the Democrats, even though days earlier he said he’d be “proud” to shut the show down if that’s what it took to get funding for his big, beautiful wall. 

Press Secretary Pinocchio is forced to go before reporters and say that anyone who doesn’t support building a wall really wants the Huns to invade Texas and march north to sack the nation’s capital and carry away all the virgins.

The Huns approach!

 

The rest of the day the bad news piles up for the embattled president. Brett McGurk, the top State Department envoy coordinating the fight against ISIS, quits in protest of the president’s spur-of-the-tweet-decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria. 

In an email to staff, McGurk explains: 

The recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy that had been articulated to us by [National Security Adviser John] Bolton and others. It left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered with no plan in place…

 

“ISIS is on the run, but it is not yet defeated,” McGurk adds. He had worked to “help manage some of the fallout” from Trump’s impulsive decision, but “ultimately concluded that I could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity at the same time.” (See: 12/23/18.)

January 19, 2019: Trump Offers to Release DACA Hostages

 

1/19/19: President Trump is floating a plan to get the government back up and running, now that he’s had it shuttered for almost a month. If the Democrats will ignore the fact that the U.S. Constitution leaves the power to appropriate money in the hands of the House of Representatives, and give him some dough, he will reinstitute DACA protection for the 800,000 Dreamers. 

Speaker Pelosi remembers who snatched away that protection – or tried to – until federal courts stopped him.   

That’s when Trump said the Dreamers “could rest easy.” (See: 1/10/18.) 

“No,” says Pelosi.

The parks are closed; the rangers can't guide anyone.

Trump wants to make sure they get paid. Trump's plan is a joke.

 

Meanwhile, the president has already agreed that workers not working will get back pay in the end. That means their financial pain is temporary. It also means, “We, the Taxpayers,” will foot the bill, even though the work we wanted government to do – for example, keep parks open and clean, check the safety of the meat we eat, and make sure psychos don’t board planes carrying Uzis – has not been done for a month. 

We of a liberal stripe support back pay for federal workers because we almost always support workers. 

It’s what liberals do. 

Still, shutting down the government, but paying the workers anyway, is really dumb GOP policy.

January 27, 2019: Trumps Are Cheap - So, They Hire the Undocumented

 

1/27/19: The president yaps about building a giant wall to keep us safe from killer immigrants. While he yaps, psychos already stalk the land. On January 23, a 21-year-old walks into a Florida bank and kills five women, execution-style. The next day, a Georgia man kills four and wounds a fifth, shooting his final victim in the face. Saturday morning a young Louisiana man murders his mother, father and three others, including a woman with whom he had been in a relationship. None of the killers were immigrants, legal or otherwise. 

At Trump properties, they definitely do!

____________________ 

Dangerous illegal immigrants with vacuum cleaners!

____________________ 

 

On the other hand, a dozen “dangerous” illegals were recently fired from jobs in New York. No word yet on how many were psychopaths, waiting for the right moment to murder and maim. They could have been plotting harm for years, to vacuum carpets, cut the grass and finally slit a few throats at Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, New York. 

Once again, we discover that Mr. Trump has been hiring the undocumented for years, because they work cheap. 

And he’s cheap.

 

The case of Margarita Cruz, who worked at the New York club for eight years, highlights the hypocrisy of the president’s anti-immigrant screeds. Cruz admits she bought false documents, including a green card and Social Security card long ago. It cost her $120. You might excuse Trump management, and say, “Well, how could they know?” The flaw in that argument is plain to see. Cruz was never provided health insurance or pension benefits, like co-workers. Anibal Romero, the lawyer who represents Cruz and other recently fired employees, including a head chef, is blunt. “I’m not buying they didn’t know. This was a two-tiered system. The people who were legal and the people who are undocumented.” One of the employees in question had worked for Trump for eighteen years. No healthcare or pension required. 

Eric Trump feigned shock. He promised the Trump Organization would redouble efforts to ferret out all the illegals clogging the payroll. 

And: working cheap. 

Because Trumps…are cheap.

April 15, 2019: Trump's Insane New Plan to Fix the Border Crisis

 

4/15/19: In recent days, the president has been floating all kinds of bizarre ideas, where illegal immigrants and refugees seeking asylum are involved. That includes attacking the federal judiciary every time he fails to get his way: “Even the Democrats now say that our Southern Border is a Crisis and a National Emergency. Hopefully, we will not be getting any more BAD (outrageous) court decisions!”

 

 

Once again, his unreasoning fans ignore his Orange Fuhrer instincts – as evidenced by the 77,000 “likes.” 

A one-branch form of government? Sure! How come the Founding Fathers never thought of that? 

There have been multiple reports that Trump has been telling border officials if they break the law and refuse to allow refugees to enter the U.S., he will pardon them. No sweat. According to CNN, two sources reported that Trump told border patrol agents to ignore any orders from judges. “Sorry, judge, I can’t do it,” he told them to say. “We don’t have the room.”

 

Even better is his “plan” to dump illegals who enter the U.S. in asylum cities, because why not screw citizens in parts of the country that didn’t vote for you and don’t support your every move. 

Consider how dumb this “plan” is. First, Trump would be asking Customs and Border Patrol to transport asylum seekers and others hundreds of miles north to cities like San Francisco, St. Paul, Minnesota and Newark, New Jersey. 

Second, local authorities might simply decide: “Hey, we’re sanctuary cities. We’re not going to lock these people up.” Presto, all the immigrants the president wants to block at the border – because he says they’re “animals” and MS-13 gang members – go free and scatter across the country.

 

Obviously, this is a stupid plan and would only encourage migrants to try to reach the border, get arrested, and receive transportation deep into the interior. Press Secretary Pinocchio insisted this morning that the president really “likes the idea,” and “we’re looking to see if there are options to make it possible.” 

So: If wages are miserable in Guatemala or gang violence threatens your family in El Salvador, pack your bags. The Trump Administration is going to send you to Boston, or Chicago, or Detroit or Washington D.C.  

 

POSTSCRIPT: On This Week, host George Stephanopoulos tried to pin Pinocchio (Sarah Sanders) down. He noted that when news of this plan first leaked a few days ago, the White House denied it. He added that the Department of Homeland Security had already announced that such a plan would be illegal.  

“Democrats have said they want these individuals into their communities,” Pinocchio responded, ignoring the question of legality, so “let’s see if it works, and everybody gets a win out of it.” 

This would seem to indicate that the Press Secretary has suffered brain damage as a result of shilling for Trump. You could point out that not all citizens of, say, Newark, are “Democrats.” 

You might mention that “independents” in politics, living in St. Paul, might not want dangerous individuals, as Trump portrays them, deposited on their doorsteps.

 

And you could highlight how petulant and insane Trump sounds, when he tweets this kind of message:

Democrats must change the Immigration Laws FAST. If not, Sanctuary Cities must immediately ACT to take care of the Illegal Immigrants – and this includes Gang Members, Drug Dealers, Human Traffickers, and Criminals of all shapes, sizes and kinds. CHANGE THE LAWS NOW!

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: To see just how insane Trump’s plan really is, see 4/16/19, 4/17/19 and 4/18/19, among other examples.

November 3, 2019: A "Virtually Impenetrable" Border Wall - And Trump's Twitter Obsessions

 

Twitter was perfect for Trump: posts had to be short and simple and go for the gut.

Way back in 2016, he claimed a Republican primary in Iowa was "rigged."

11/3/19: It turns out drug smugglers can use reciprocating saws to cut through the new bollard walls that the Trump administration is building on the southern border. Mexico, of course, is still not paying for the wall. 

Or repairs. 

Smugglers can purchase the necessary saws for $100 and in ten minutes cut a passage for their drugs and drug mules. 

Asked for comment, the president defends the Great Wall of Trump in exactly the way you’d expect. “We have a very powerful wall, but no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything, in all fairness,” he told reporters. “But we have a lot of people watching. Cutting is one thing, but it’s easily fixed. One of the reasons we did it the way we did it, it’s very easily fixed. You put the chunk back in,” he added. “But we have a very powerful wall. But you can cut through any wall.” 

(Why does this man repeat so often! It’s like he doesn’t even listen to his own jabbering spiels.) 

This is still a bummer, as even Fox News must admit. In a visit to the border in September, Trump bragged about his Great Wall, insisting, it was “virtually impenetrable.” 

Unless you stopped by the hardware store first.

In one case smugglers cut a garage-size hole in the wall.

 

*

____________________ 

“The idea is to stack up so much doubt, emotional appeals, and circumstantial evidence ON TOP of facts that we create a landslide of anti-Hill sentiment that permeates through society.” 

Anonymous

____________________

 

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES publishes a lengthy analysis of Trump’s Twitter obsessions. If you’ve never paid attention, the picture that emerges is one of a petty man-boy, prone to hate, prone to simplify, and happy to lie. 

First, the president tweets a lot. “He needs to tweet like we need to eat,” top White House aide Kellyanne Conway admits. 

 

The president likes to binge on junk language. 

Carrying the food analogy forward, you might say the president likes to binge on junk, with zero intellectual nutrition. More than 2,000 times, he has tweeted in praise of himself. “I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico,” he said. His hotel in New York City was voted “#1 ‘Best Hotel in the World.’” He has described himself multiple times as “your favorite president,” and even as “your all time favorite duly elected President, me!” Trump also likes to retweet praise from fans. 

The president often makes government policy via Twitter, then destroys the policy just made, all by tapping on his iPhone. Recently, the president of Turkey mocked our “favorite president” for posting a series of conflicting policy twists and turns regarding the Syrian Kurds. “When we take a look at Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts,” he laughed, “we cannot keep track.” 

Neither can the Pentagon.

 

* 

THE TIMES notes that the president “follows” only 47 other accounts. With one exception those accounts echo the hodgepodge of furies and goofy odds and ends of misinformation and conspiracy thinking that warp the president’s psyche. Seven accounts belong to family members. One is controlled by a member of Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan, a fellow traveler in hate and #1 defender of all things quintessentially Trump. 

Fox News hosts, former Fox News hosts, and Fox News shows are well represented. The president follows Maria Bartiromo – Tucker Carlson – Jesse Waters – Laura Ingraham – Geraldo Rivera – and the rotating cast of morning morons at Fox & Friends. He still follows Bill O’Reilly and Eric Bolling, which is telling, since both were axed in the wake of sexual harassment claims. Above all others, the president follows Sean Hannity slavishly. At least 258 times, he has tweeted links to Hannity’s show or thanked Hannity for his treacly support.

 

The president has a number of other Twitter fetishes. He has used more than 1,700 tweets to push conspiracy theories. He has used 1,400 to question the idea that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He has described the free press as the “enemy of the people,” or, when really angry, the “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” again and again. He has used 580 tweets to decry “Fake News” and mentioned “witch hunts” 334 times. Lately, as his paranoia deepens, the “Deep State” is out to get him too. 

Some of the Twitter accounts he follows are harmless, albeit telling. Of all the sources of insight he might choose, his select circle of 47 includes Diamond and Silk, two brainless African American buffoons. He follows Vince McMahon of fake wrestling fame and his own press secretary, Stephanie Grisham. White House banshee Kellyanne Conway is also part of the select circle. 

Conway’s main job on Twitter is to praise her boss.

 

* 

President Trump is a sucker for them all. 

THE PRESIDENT’S CARELESSNESS, when it comes to checking facts, gullibility, and penchant for hate, make for a toxic Twitter mix. Since he follows his eldest son’s account, if Don Jr. picks up a dose of racist poison, dear old dad is prone to spread the poison far and wide. 

Don Jr. follows Stefan Molyneau, a Canadian, who calls “white genocide” a worldwide threat. The president’s oldest child used to follow Lauren Southern, another white supremacist kook. Southern likes to boost the “great replacement” theory, which holds that white populations are being overrun by immigrants. And liberal “global elites” are supposedly pushing the scheme! The president and members of his inner Twitter circle have also retweeted QAnon conspiracy theories. QAnon believers warn that a liberal “deep state” exists and controls the world. It’s a variation of the old belief that Jews dominated international banking behind the scenes – often dripping with the same kind of anti-Semitism. According to QAnon, liberal elites are into Satanism, pedophilia, and cannibalism.

True believers: In utter nonsense.

 

That doesn’t stop members of Trump’s inner circle from following such accounts and feeding the president’s very worst appetites. Don Jr., Bartiromo, Ronna McDaniel (chair of the Republican National Committee) and Rep. Jordan follow at least 50 Twitter users that reference “QAnon” in their profiles. 

Bartiromo has retweeted posts from an account, @QBlueSkyQ, which claimed that top Democrats sexually tortured children to harvest their adrenochrome. If you’ve never heard of the substance, you’re not alone. Apparently, it can have hallucinogenic effects at high doses. But the QAnon folks believe it to be “a life-extending elixir.” Therefore: torture of children. 

Eric Bolling has retweeted political posts from @K12Lioness, another QAnon buff. In June, that Twitter user posted: “The Democrats have lost their minds (andrenochrome) eating baby parts. MY GOD Americans, WAKE UP!”

Yes, Americans, wake up. Because there are all kinds of fruit cakes and haters on Twitter, not to mention “bots” and even Russian intelligence agents, masquerading as Americans. Trump is a sucker for them all. Russian accounts have “tagged” him at least 30,000 times. That is, they link to his account, @realDonaldTrump, hoping he’ll notice their tweets and retweet what they say. This drives traffic in their direction and allows them to build presence and spread the kind of disinformation they like. 

On numerous occasions, Trump has fallen prey to, or retweeted the posts of others who have fallen prey to, Russian agents peddling lies. When a phony Russian account tweeted, “We love you, Mr. President!” he retweeted it with the joy of a simple child. Heavy traffic then flowed toward a phony Russian account.

 

* 

TRUMP first opened a Twitter account in 2009. But it was not till 2013 that he found his calling. And he found it by tweeting and retweeting birther smears aimed at President Obama. 

As the Times explains, 

After Mr. Trump started tweeting on his own in early 2013 – he previously had help from an assistant – he was soon recycling misinformation. He retweeted an anti-Obama account that had tweeted at him, “The birth certificate that you forced Obama to show is a computer generated forgery.” And he spun conspiracies within conspiracies, tweeting: “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived.”

 

According to the Times, it was clear even in 2013, that the worst elements on Twitter planned to twist the medium to suit their needs. Trump, in other words, had come to the right place. An on-line manual offered tips on how to use memes and tweets to batter the reputation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “The idea,” the anonymously-authored manual suggested, “is to stack up so much doubt, emotional appeals, and circumstantial evidence ON TOP of facts that we create a landslide of anti-Hill sentiment that permeates through society.” The Russians, if nothing else, were involved in the “anti-Hill” efforts. Trump himself often retweeted misleading information and came to favor hashtags like #CrookedHillary. 

Best of all, the limit of 140 characters per tweet, later doubled to 280, meant Trump’s posts had to be short and simplistic. You couldn’t explain complex policy. Indeed, your best bet was to keep posts even shorter (280 characters often proved too much for Twitter users to plow through) and reach for the lowest intellectual denominator. You had to go for the gut. 

At that, President Trump excels. 

 

FUN FACT: After defeating Mrs. Clinton, Trump promised during a 60 Minutes interview that he was going to be more careful as president. “I’m going to do very restrained, if I use [Twitter] at all. I’m going to do very restrained.” 

Not even close.

January 17, 2020: "The Arc of the Moral Universe" Can Be Bent Backward

 

1/17/20: Humanity alternately advances and retreats. With the governor’s house and legislature in Virginia controlled by Democrats for the first time in years, and new laws to restrict gun rights under consideration, a pro-gun rally is scheduled in Richmond on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

Leaving aside discussion of the Second Amendment, neo-Nazi groups are calling for their forces to converge on Richmond and stir up as much trouble as possible.

 

____________________ 

Bending the “arc of the moral universe” backward.

____________________

 

 

According to The New York Times extremists have been calling the planned gathering the “boogaloo.” In the white supremacist lexicon, that would be any event that might hasten the onset of a race war.

 

“The arc of the moral universe is long,” Dr. King once famously said, “but it bends toward justice.” Unfortunately, we need to remember that groups and individuals are often set on bending it backward. The F.B.I. recently arrested three members of a neo-Nazi group, The Base. The Times notes, “One of the men, Patrik J. Mathews, 27, a main recruiter for the group, entered the United States illegally from Canada….He was arrested along with Brian M. Lemley Jr., 33, and William G. Bilbrough IV, 19.” Mathews “was trained as a combat engineer and is considered an expert in explosives. The Canadian Army discharged him after his ties to white supremacists surfaced.” 

So, proof, I guess, that Trump is right. We do need a border wall. Then, again, Lemley is a U.S. Army veteran. So, forget the wall. 

And Mathews is Canadian, so, wrong border.

Mathews.

 

The F.B.I. also arrested Richard Tobin, a young New Jersey man, last November. Tobin was said to have been recruiting for The Base, luring recruits with promises they might get to kill black people with machetes.

 

* 

IN WORLD NEWS, bowing to climate change realities, the German government says it will phase out coal by 2038. A total of $44.5 billion will be set aside to compensate affected workers and companies.

BLOGGER’S NOTE (4/19/22): When I checked back for information, I learned that in November 2021, Tobin was sentenced to spend one year and one day in a federal prison for his plotting. I also discovered that he had hoped to kill Jews, as well as African Americans. 

Mathews and Lemley Jr. had already been sentenced, in October, to spend nine years in prison. In a separate trial, Bilbrough was sentenced to five years behind bars. One of their ideas had been to break Dylan Roof, the infamous Charleston, S.C. church shooter, out of jail. Now they can join him. In federal court, Mathews told the judge: 

“I’m not someone who hurts people. I’m not a mean person,” he said.

 

“I try to be people’s friends. I picked the wrong set of friends to do that. It’s one thing to be a friend, be a buddy. It’s another to get involved in illegal activity. It’s insane and all my fault.”

 

Moral of the story: Don’t pick neo-Nazis friends.