Donald Trump will take the oath of office today to become the 47th President of the United States of America, conclusively proving Mencken right. According to Fox News, he will take “more than 200 executive actions” today. Some are intended to fulfill campaign promises, such as ending undocumented immigrants from entering the country, even if they’re more rhetorical than practical. Some are the sort one would expect of a petty, little person, such as revoking the security clearances of 51 people who said Hunter Biden’s laptop had the earmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.
And then there’s pure Trump, changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America (despite Elon Musk’s request that it be changed to the Gulf of X).
Remember those masses of hard-working, ordinary Americans demanding that the Gulf of Mexico’s name be changed, so they can enjoy a better life? Surely the cost of all the new maps needed to reflect the change is worth it, because whose chest won’t swell with pride as they tell their kids, “yup, Junior, it’s the Gulf of ‘Merica now, just like God and Trump said it should be.”
As past and future prisoner Steve Bannon, argues, the scheme is to “flood the zone,” to do so many wild and crazy things that no one will have the time and attention to process it. The media won’t be able to report it. The critics won’t be able to explain why it’s dangerously batshit crazy. The public won’t have any deeper knowledge than the cool name by which Trump calls it, or the mean name if it’s about one of his enemies until they skin their knees becoming his friend again.
This isn’t to say that everything Trump plans to do is wrong or bad, even if the way in which he plans to do things is generally unlawful or unconstitutional. And the Democrats having grossly oversold, or mis-sold to be more accurate, the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision to cause people to believe that Trump can do whatever he pleases with immunity, there will be neither surprise nor serious resistance when Trump regularly ignores the law and processes that constrain lesser presidents.
There is an old saying that the devil is in the details. It is a good saying. And it applies just as well when there is a devil in the White House, or as Trump plans to rename it, the House of $Trump. May God have mercy on our souls.
Mencken? I was thinking P.T. Barnum…
I would hardly call revoking the clearance of people who lied about national security issues and possible (since substantiated) corruption and foreign influence in the highest levels of our government petty. I would instead ask why are they not being investigated and potentially referred for prosecution.
This is all MAGA fantasy. It’s not that there aren’t questions, but none of this has been proven except in the heads of true believers.
If memory serves—and please correct me if I’m wrong—President Trump (45), refused to attend the inauguration of President Biden. Now don’t get me wrong, because there is a lot, and I mean a lot, to criticize about President 46, but at least he is attending the inauguration of President 47. The peaceful transfer of power is important for the entire world to see. I think President Biden should get some credit for recognizing this responsibility as the final act of his presidency. Now on to the bigger question: does the 22nd Amendment prevent an individual from being President more than two terms, or is it merely a prohibition against two consecutive terms? Pam Bondi stated her view that it is the former rather than the later. How long will she remain as Attorney General if confirmed?
Few people are aware that Trump took his first of four trips to Russia less than two months before placing a full-page ad criticizing NATO. He traveled to Moscow at the invitation of Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin, in a private jet accompanied by “two Russian colonels”. Disbelievers need to google “Trump’s 1990 interview in Playboy”. There’s plenty of reasons to believe that Russia has kompromat on Trump and would act to help him become president.
The conversation is stupid, and will get stupider by the day. God help people that can’t think.
People are always “who” and never “that”. (Former composition instructor)
House of $Trump Coin? The Gold House? Bring it one. Buy the ticket, take the ride–HST.
$Trump, Bibles, Guitars, Sneakers, Watches, NFTs, Perfume, Coins. And then there are the intangibles that Trump is selling (and the tech billionaires and corporations are happily buying). After all, isn’t making money what the presidency is really all about, while telling the poor shmuck groundlings that he loves them?
It will be interesting to see if he keeps his word to pardon Ross Ulbricht on day one.
What is this Constitution that you speak of?
I don’t remember a hue and cry when Lyndon Johnson changed Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy on the maps (not just the Space Center). But, I guess it depends on who is doing the renaming.
If you try really, really hard, you might be able to grasp why the two are nothing alike. On second thought, you probably can’t.
I think the above referenced “tree of liberty” quote from the Jefferson letter is apropos. Elsewhere (in the same letter) Jefferson wrote: “The people can not be all, and always, well informed…If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.” Like tens of millions of other citizens, four years ago, I felt insulted by liberal-biased, patronizing, disingenuous narratives about the 2020 election results. Yet I remained quiet and practiced lethargy.