Questions about a dark figure

 

The tranquility trump has stolen from our lives.

Why is everyone afraid of trump, handling him with kid gloves? He truly is the Teflon® man on whom nothing sticks. It’s beginning to look like even the 91 indictments won’t stick. Right now, I am indignant and furious over the image he posted of a hog-tied President Biden in the bed of a pickup. It is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen in a long time. Contrary to what trump spokesman Stephen Cheung claims, it was not just a pickup going down the road somewhere. It was an image posted by trump on his Truth Social network—and that makes him directly responsible for not only disrespecting the office of U. S. President but for threatening the current occupant. And that, my friends, is illegal, according to the constitution. Why is the country, at least the sane half of it, not up at arms, angrily calling for action? Has trump so blinded us to his violence and outrageous lies that we simply shrug and go on?

Cheung, in a kind of “All’s fair in love and war” aboutism, said that Biden has weaponized the DOJ against trump. We all know that’s not true. President Biden has deliberately distanced himself from any of the litigation involving the former president. If a sitting president did use the DOJ against a political rival, I doubt they would do so with an unbelievable 91 indictments, many of them felony. One or two strong cases should do the trick. trump earned every one of those indictments over a long career of grifting, cheating, and lying for personal gain.

Last night, I saw a clip on FB of a pickup truck with the entire back gate an image of trump—in an orange jumpsuit, clutching prison bars and staring angrily out at the world. For a millisecond, I thought about fair play, and I wished some anti-trump patriot hadn’t sunk so low (I still wish that). But I realized there’s no comparison—the image of Biden threatens unlawful violence, and it was posted by one person to threaten the duly elected president; the image of trump behind bars hopes for justice and Biden had nothing to do with it. In fact, we don’t know whose truck that was on or anything about it, but I assume the trump people haven’t found it yet or they’d be crowing about it.

One thing about this pickup controversy: it shows the power of AI and social media. Frightening.

This morning, Heather Cox Richardson’s perceptive column, Letters from an American, details how trump is conducting shadow foreign policy. He is pulling the strings behind Mike Johnson’s refusal to bring aid to Ukraine to the House, presumably because trump wants to weaken Ukraine to please Putin. The former president also has an “envoy” traveling the world on his behalf, meeting with dictators that trump wants to court because once in office, he intends to ally himself with Putin, Erdogan, and others—and break our alliances with democratic countries. This too is against the law, specified in the constitution. (Read Richardson’s column here for the extent of trump’s treason: (55) April 2, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson )(substack.com)

Last week, trump was under deadline and court to come up with $470-plus million in bond money or foreclosure on some of his property would begin while he appeals his gigantic fraud conviction. We all know what happened—the braggart billionaire couldn’t come up with the cash (no bank trusts him anymore). But the courts gave him grace and lowered the amount drastically. Would that have happened to any other billionaire? I doubt it. Why does he get special treatment? He’s not some saintly figure—he’s been convicted of fraud, he escaped conviction of sexual assault but was convicted of defamation, he was twice impeached, once for trying to blackmail a foreign leader, most of his cohorts have served or are serving prison time—and so much more.

Judge Juan Merchan has extended the boundaries of his gag order after trump threatened him and his daughter. Will the judge enforce that order? Will the threat to President Biden fall under it?

Then there’s the question of trump’s mental health. Is he sane? Is he suffering from progressive dementia as many health professionals claim? Senile? Psychopathic? I have never seen a man so full of anger and hate, so ready to lash out, at the same time he grossly twists facts, lies, and rants and raves—it’s all part of his threatening demeanor. Consider his impulsive behavior, his out-of-control mouth—do we want a man like that leading our country, making decisions about our welfare, negotiating with other countries. Is no one going to demand extensive testing? Are we all going to sit back and shrug and say we can do nothing about it while a severely disturbed (mild interpretation) man gets the nuclear codes again? We lucked out last time, but I have no confidence that we will again.

Where is America? Donald trump is playing America for the fool, and we are letting him do it. Why aren’t we speaking out? The world we leave for our grandchildren is at stake as it’s never been before.