It’s Happening…
I am sitting in Eastern Tennessee in the heart of what surely is red America. We are wrapping up our trip here to Tennessee and the Deep South with some Smoky Mountain touring. We will go up on an aerial tramway to a wild animal sanctuary in Gatlinsburg and then come back here to Pidgeon Forge to end our visit with the Dollywood Stampede, whatever that is. It’s been an unusual and fun trip and its always good to spend time with the granddaughters. What’s also been interesting is that in listening to streaming MSNBC while driving and MSNBC on the Dollywood DreamMore Resort cable TV, we have heard some interesting political ads that I suspect are tailored to this region. The one that surprised us the most was one where some poor schnook explains why the Biden economy has been so bad for him and how disappointed he is since he voted for Biden. It goes on to explain how wrong it is to consider transgender freedoms. Clearly this is the Trump campaign’s effort to sway swing voters, which is certainly something they must do in big numbers if he is to regain the presidency.
Meanwhile, the substance of the current events situation is a considerably different tone regarding Trump’s prospects. While the economy continues to move forward from strength to strength, Trump is crumbling in a way that we had all hoped he would at some point. Specifically, and most prominently, Trump’s death grip on the House of Representatives and Speaker Mike Johnson gave way to rational national self-interest in the passage of the foreign aid funding legislation, which once it passed in the House, was quick to pass in the Senate and get signed by the President. Arms are literally in transit to Ukraine as I write this.This marks a clear and present break in the MAGA front that held the line on this legislation for over six months. And strangely enough, it passed WITHOUT the border security issues that House Republicans had insisted on…all because of the obvious efforts by Trump and his loyalists to put politics ahead of national interests. It is actually a testament to how self-centered Trump is that he let his number one issue, the border, go unattended not because it was being blocked by Democrats, but because he is forced to flip-flop on issues between his perverse base’s views and the diametrically opposed majority views. It happened in an embarrassing and all-too-visible fashion on border security and it is happening daily on the anti-abortion issue. Anyone who is paying any attention at all is forced to recognize that his is not an issue-based candidacy, but rather a win-at-all-costs candidacy.
We head into the third day of the first of what will be many Trump criminal trials and listening to the testimony of David Pecker about the 2016 electoral process where he admitted to helping Trump use fake news about himself (Catch and Kill strategies on bad news) and about his opponents (enhanced and embellished phony negative stories) and then listening to the crickets on Trump’s comments about Pecker, leaves us knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that Pecker has only told a small portion of what he knows about Trump that could hurt him. What he did know was that in both the Karen McDougall and Stormy Daniels sexual scandals, Pecker and his AMI assisted Trump in his payoff schemes in order to help Trump both avoid embarrassment and keep his electoral juggernaut going after the release of the eHollywood Bus scandal. There cannot be a soul left on the planet who does not know that Trump is a crude and degenerate man who whored around and then paid off his sexual partners as needed. Furthermore, what Pecker has also shown us is that these were not just ad hoc situations, but rather a part of a planned and systematic cleansing strategy that was undertaken to subvert the electoral process and lie to the public about who Trump was and is still. It seems increasingly unlikely that Trump will be able to avoid conviction in this trial as the facts will be pretty damn irrefutable.
And while the Supreme Court prepares to listen to arguments regarding the possible immunity by Trump in regard to his actions while President with the January 6th activities, something that most legal and constitutional scholars cannot fathom, SCOTUS is keeping the toxic abortion rights issue front and center with its consideration of the harsh and harmful Idaho law that forbids access to emergency health care in contradiction to federal law. This case brings front and center why Roe v. Wade is so necessary and how the Dobbs decision is leaving Americans at risk subject to the vagaries of state-driven legislation on an issue of fundamental health care for American women. That is causing Trump and hardliners like Kari Lake to turn themselves into abortion pretzels.
And then this morning, another thunderbolt to the Trump candidacy with the Arizona indictments of all the Trump acolytes who participated in the fake elector scheme in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. It once again names Trump as unindicted co-conspirator #1 and reminds us that everywhere we turn, Trump has done wrong and has willingly thrown his followers to the dogs to spend the rest of their days defending themselves in litigation or worse yet, in prison. This is yet another state-level indictment that will not go away even if Trump wins and tries to sweep all his wrong-doing under the rug.
It should be amazing to all of us that on so many fronts simultaneously, the man who sat in the oval office and aspires to sit there yet again, the man who for some strange reason gardeners 46% or more of the electorate’s vote, the man who’s closest supporters are indicted or convicted felons, should still be roaming the streets and airways, meeting with foreign dignitaries and talking about what he plans for his opponents and the country in the next phase of his ongoing scam.
But now, with all that is going on and for most of the next six months, we will see, repeated visions and evidence of his past present and future wrongdoings. Another words at long last we will all be forced to grapple with the understanding that we have seen fit to put a man of such low moral character into such an important position of leadership. in a nutshell, it’s happening. It’s finally true that we are getting past the fake news the Trump so assiduously put out into the media. The only people who won’t be able to see the truth. Are those who refuse to see it because they refused to admit how they have been entrusting our sacred nation to such a wild man. I have said for a long time, and sometimes felt like a lone voice in the wilderness that Trump would get his comeuppance in 2024 and that the ruse that is Donald Trump will fall apart before our very eyes and now at long last it’s happening.