CSotD: We’re Selling Postcards of the Hanging

Ah, trust David Rowe to capture the grotesque, self-centered ignorance that would lead Donald Trump to describe the investigations of his self-dealing corruption as a “lynching.”

It is part of the “poor pitiful me” rightwing snowflakery we hear whenever someone is caught doing something wrong.

As noted before, the Trump loyalists are protesting the fact that material requiring a high security clearance is not being discussed in an open forum, and behaving as if they’d never been aware of a grand jury procedure.

Which I suppose could be because, when they charged Ken Starr with examining the Clinton’s real estate deal to see if it included consensual fellatio, the leaks from his office were plentiful enough that it was hard to bear in mind that his work was ostensibly confidential.

Trump did offer a moment of unintentional comedy by saying that, if this impeachment investigation is permitted to go forward,

… some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights.

Oh, I can’t imagine a world in which a GOP Congress would press trivial charges against a Democratic president.

All that weeping about fairness being what you’d expect from a six-year-old sitting in the corner, not regretting what he did but indignant over being held accountable for it.

It’s just not fair. Everybody’s always picking on me. I’m going to run away. Then they’re be sorry!

 

Bill Bramhall suggests that perhaps a guilty conscience clouds the judgment.

But, for whatever reason he thought normal rules are being unfairly applied, the brat stepped over the line when he called it a “lynching,” and now he’s having his mouth washed out with soap.

A generation ago, I suppose it was okay to invoke the concept of a “lynching” when people were bringing forth embarrassing material you’d prefer not to address directly.

Can’t find a picture of the guy …

… oh wait, here’s one.

I was actually thinking the other day of the hearings to replace Thurgood Marshall with someone color-coordinated but otherwise unrelated, because of a story I’d heard of a witness in those hearings who found himself looking out at the head of his tenure committee, seated front and center in the audience,  wearing a pro-Clarence pin.

Which may explain why the Republicans want open hearings: So they can invite special guests.

Meanwhile, just as we could tell “Long Dong Silver” jokes back before #MeToo, when sexual harassment was still viewed as something that sometimes just happened, Thomas’s throwing around of the term “lynching” fell upon a less woke nation.

Dear Leader’s has not, and there seems to be a general consensus that, if this man is genuinely being hanged before his trial, it is by nobody but himself:

(Clay Bennett)

 

(Ann Telnaes)

 

(Andy Marlette)

I agree with each of these that Trump is his own worst enemy, and note that they were apparently drawn before yesterday’s astonishing, lie-deflating testimony, of which we only saw the public statement, not the classified portion that was reportedly even more damning.

The walls are certainly closing in.

But we may find ourselves moving beyond the point of mockery in all this.

 

I have to give Ed Hall credit for employing more sarcasm than humor in discussing Trump’s evocation of the term, and for calling him out for his hateful insensitivity.

There is some bona fide strategy in mocking Dear Leader, because he has a notoriously thin skin and reportedly hates being depicted as a baby or toddler.

Still, Hall’s approach brings this absurd misuse of the phrase in line with the fact that Trump’s insensitivity to the phenomenon of random murder of black people — which has been, in very recent years, the focus of much scholarship, public discussion, new museums and monuments — is of a piece with his ability to glibly throw the lives of Kurds away, and with his repeated dismissal of Latinos as murderers and rapists and with his expressed opinion that majority-black countries are “shithole nations.”

But here’s something else: If you are not a minority, and you feel that his attitude is degrading to black people, to Kurds, to Latinos, etc., you are still standing on your pedestal graciously looking down.

His attitude degrades us all.

It’s true that no self-respecting minority should support him, but this isn’t “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner,” which was 10 years behind the times in 1967 and is sure as hell too late now.

There is no “us” and “them.” It’s all us.

And it’s not just that Trump said it. It’s that he has been put in a position to say it.

When Mel Gibson or Franklin Graham or some other oft-quoted, well-known bigot is quoted, you can dismiss it as the words of fools.

But this fool represents us all.

Yeah, I know: “He’s not my president,” but look again because he sure as hell is.

You don’t have to like the Electoral College or the overall system or the way Clinton failed to carry states she should have paid more attention to, and you can weep about how close it was and who won the popular vote.

But the fact is, if you’re an American, that’s your president. And how nice it would be if his only flaw were poor judgment in use of the term “lynching.”

The damage is deeper and more long-lasting.

 

Patrick Chappatte notes that the abandonment of the Kurds sends a message to the world that Donald Trump cannot be trusted, but, moreover, that the United States cannot be trusted.

Whatever happens with impeachment or in the next election, I’m not convinced that the rest of the world is going to accept, “Come on, baby, I’m sorry. It’ll never happen again.”

Mostly because I’m not sure I will.

In any case, I’ll spare you the postcard itself, but you’ll find it here, along with the assurance that Dylan was not the type to choose his lyrics at random.