... and how he acts in office. Sometimes I think we give him too much credit for his calculated distractions and Machiavellian methods. Other times I fear we may not be giving him credit enough. So, what is he? A putz, or a prodigy? Brilliant, or a buffoon?
At times, it seems pretty clear that he is a bloviating fool who has lied, bullied and grifted his way through life, and knows no other way to get what he wants or to create the illusion that he has power and respect. He became, really, a two bit reality TV personality who was famous only because he was famous. He was best known in the real world for failed business dealings and cheating at ... well, everything, and he has brought that low intellect, systemic corruption and abject incompetence to the political arena. He's a cut-rate con man who, surely any day now, is going to be brought down by the sheer volume and audacity of his crimes/stupidity. He’s a racist, misogynistic, narcissistic asshole – no doubt. But if it walks like stupid Hitler, and talks like stupid Hitler …
But …. sometimes his moves and counter moves DO seem too coordinated and too effective to just be a side show in his personal circus. Is his trumpyness really calculated and shrewd? Is he trolling us and gas-lighting the narrative with a purpose? Really? I just don't think he is in any way an intelligent man, and I don't think he cares about anything except himself. The concept that he is actually a master strategist working on some kind of grand plan to destroy democracy in this country in favor of a Russian style oligarchy is simply too hard to rationalize. Look at him and listen to him. Stupid is normally either funny or sad. He mixes stupid with evil. I don’t think you can “act” that combination. He IS stupid, and he IS evil. He's not pretending.
Well – then, … is there a group of highly competent and well financed handlers that are directing this shit show down to the last detail? Are they so smart and skilled that they realize they should stay well behind the scenes and out of the light? Is trump the “useful idiot” they chose to be their tool to accomplish their goals? The “shadow government” conspiracy theory for the left? That’s a pretty thick tin foil hat, right?
So, the truth is probably some kind of mixture of it all. trump is a tool, and is clearly screwed up with no redeeming qualities, but he is actually pretty accomplished at gas lighting and at denying the truth despite readily observable facts. He's a bullshitter who has bullshat his way through life, and completely believes his own bullshit (any half ass bullshitter will tell you that is KEY to a life of bullshit). If you've known someone like this in your life (as I have), you know that it really doesn't matter if you call out their bullshit, because they have already moved on to the next line of bullshit. You're tied to reason and facts and investigative norms, while they are running circles around you spewing bullshit, covering the walls with it, and blaming you for the mess. And, damn-it, eventually you DO clean up the mess because someone has to, and they NEVER will.
And his circus-like administration has attracted ALL the clowns. People who could never be taken seriously by a serious leader, but who can impress the bullshitter with their own bullshit, and insert themselves into his circle for power, fame, money, etc... These people take a lot of the attention off of him because they are clowns, and they are full of bullshit, and we can't look away because, damn ... it's a bunch of clowns spewing bullshit. And sometimes they fling it on each other - but who cares? It's literally a shit show and we love it, or love to hate it. And before long we’re rooting for Pennywise because he’s started flinging poo on Bozo, and we sooooo hate Bozo, and Pennywise is married to Clara Bell – and we don’t understand how that can be since she’s one of the worst clowns, and we ponder this and argue with each other about it because we’ve forgotten THAT THEY’RE ALL FUCKING CLOWNS!!!
But then there likely IS a pretty opportunistic group of reasonably smart people who are taking advantage of all of this. Putin, McConnell, the Kochs and their cabal? You can count on it. And they are doing real damage. Not by "handling" or "manipulating" trump, but by quietly pushing their own agenda while the rest of the country is trumping out over outrage after outrage after outrage. They’re not “in league” with trump because he’s a narcissist and you can’t conspire with a narcissist almost by definition. But the opportunity is there and they are skilled enough to use it under the radar of the shit show.
So - I really don't think any of it is necessarily by design. I think it's more like a house infested with rats. They are destroying everything, fighting each other, shitting all over the place. Some of them are chewing through the electrical wiring. They are in the cupboards and the linen closet. They have built nests in the drain pipes. They are spreading disease and pestilence. And they're breeding like rats. And then you notice that your neighbor on one side has a grossly unkempt yard, and that is surely where the rats have been coming from. You’ll have to start hearings at the Home Owner’s Association to investigate that. And then you find evidence that your other neighbor - who has hated you for decades because he blames you for making him tear down his wall in 1989 - secretly put out food to lure the rats into your home in the first place, and he purposefully lured in the big orange rat with a yellow head (who seems to be the lead rat because the other rats follow him) and now you want to kick that neighbors ass, but you can’t because all your friends in the neighborhood won’t have your back anymore because you’re surrounded by rats, and the rats mock them and threaten them, and generally act disrespectful – like rats.
You call the exterminator, and he sets out a couple of rat traps because, he says, "no one has ever invented a better way to kill rats than a rat trap", and he claims this is sacred exterminator law that is written in some important document that is 200 years old or something, and can’t be changed. And he catches some rats, and they plead guilty to cheese fraud. But not enough. They're are more and more rats, and shit – it looks like now some of them are armed.
You bring in some cats, but the rats ridicule the cats mercilessly on the MSM, and accuse them of being corrupt and having their own pro-cat agenda. Some members of your family – especially the dogs - start to not trust the cats. Some of the cats quit because they’re close to retirement anyway and just can't handle all the drama. Now half your family wants to get more cats, some want to call the exterminator back, Aunt Martha says we should wait on the HOA’s report, and cousin Jed says just be patient and it’ll all go away probably. Meanwhile, more and more rats. It's overwhelming. You want to burn them out, but that will destroy the house. But they're destroying the house anyway... Maybe snakes? But then you'd have a house full of large, well fed snakes. Are snakes better than rats?
I don’t have an answer. It seems hopeless. But - the rats are not out smarting us. They aren’t coordinating their takeover of our house. They’re not conspiring with each other in some secret plan to make rats great again. They are just being rats. And that instinctive ratness is making them very, very successful rats.
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