Pierce: I Watched a Ghoulish Masquerade in Washington
Last edited Wed Jan 31, 2018, 05:35 PM - Edit history (1)
President* Trump's first State of the Union laid bare a government in delusion.
WASHINGTON—It was the most elaborate of charades, the most sophisticated of masquerades, that played itself out in the chamber of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night. The amount of pretense required to keep all sensible people—which is to say, any person who was not a Republican—in their chairs must have been heroic.
All involved had to pretend that Donald Trump makes sense as a president, that his administration makes sense as a government, and that his first State of the Union address made sense as either a description of national policy, or as a rhetorical summons to national unity. All involved had to pretend that his thoughts were coherent, that his words made sense, and that the complete and universal collapse of civic responsibility that propelled him onto the podium was not the most singularly destructive event in the history of American democracy since the Civil War. Everyone had to pretend that a freak show was Shakespeare, and that a rumbling, stumbling geek was Lincoln, and that the whole tableau unfolding before the Congress was somehow made noble despite the obvious fact that the whole event was an endless procession of lies and half-truths, and that the only truly remarkable thing about the speech was that it was such a perfectly round and complete crock of shit.
I don’t know how long the institutions of the republic can sustain this much pretense. Over my lifetime, the American presidency has tested what were believed to be the outer limits of counterfeit grandeur, but now we see that there is a vast universe of untruth and malignant fantasy of which we were painfully unaware. It is a burden to maintain the masquerade. It is beyond the strength even of the sturdiest democracy to be led by such a vanguard of unreality. Why anyone showed up on Tuesday night is a mystery to me.
Did he “call for bipartisanship”? Of course he did, the way a carny barker calls for suckers. Did he call for “unity”? Of course he did, the way a tent-show preacher howls for Jesus with a statue bleeding glycerine from its eyes. Are we supposed to pretend that we believe him, that we have faith in his desire to lead the entire nation, that he won’t be acting like a jackass on Twitter again by Valentine’s Day? Are we supposed to compliment the White House medical staff for finally getting the dosage right? How much pretending can we do before the national psyche, bloated on pretense, finally collapses of its own weight? How big a crock can be fashioned out of the ruins of the American experiment?
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15940724/trump-state-of-the-union/
= new reply since forum marked as read
did you even bother to read it? Not nice to distract. 
Especially liked this passage:
"Everyone had to pretend that a freak show was Shakespeare, and that a rumbling, stumbling geek was Lincoln, and that the whole tableau unfolding before the Congress was somehow made noble despite the obvious fact that the whole event was an endless procession of lies and half-truths, and that the only truly remarkable thing about the speech was that it was such a perfectly round and complete crock of shit. "
Sometimes, I step back and look at all of this and feel like I am going mad. Am I the only one who sees this shit show for what it is? How can other people not see the total insanity in this situation? How are we going about our daily lives pretending that our country isn't falling apart and completely under the control of domestic and Russian oligarchs?
So you arent wrong. 
and welcome!
saw a recent comparison to H L Mencken, who, I think, would not be displeased. I'll leave you with a quote which seems apropos:
"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
to a pair of masters
From what I read about his Teleprompter performance.. they could have done a better job.
Mahalo, mcar
