CSotD: Forthcoming Election Special
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Lady Justice is getting a workout on editorial pages in the wake of the E. Jean Carroll verdict, and I particularly like Bill Bramhall’s take, because he repeats Trump’s claim in a new context.
He is obviously, clearly lying when he continues to claim not knowing Carroll, and he’s certainly getting to know Justice, if his experience with Trump University and skimming cash from his charity didn’t already make him aware of her.
Mrs. Betty Bowers may have the most concise analysis of the civil trial, and if it’s becoming difficult for satirists to come up with anything more ridiculous than the actual news, it’s also hard to come up with anything more ludicrous than Trump’s actions and statements throughout his presidency and continuing on to the moment.
Perhaps the best way to counter outrageous activity is with quiet subtlety, and Ann Telnaes does just that:
What is the sound of one shoe falling?
Note that she doesn’t have it hit him in the head. He hears it, but it’s behind him, and there’s a question as to whether he’ll turn around or even look over his shoulder. And, after all, a $5 million verdict — even if it isn’t lowered upon appeal — is chicken feed to a conman who can appeal to his flock and collect 50 times that much for a bogus “election fraud defense effort” and channel it instead to a PAC that feeds various pro-Trump groups.
But she’s right in that this is the first trial that has ended with a jury verdict rather than an agreement, or an order, to give back the money. And there are more shoes waiting to be dropped.
Juxtaposition of the Day
This truly is a Juxtaposition, with Lady Justice dragging him right to left in Luckovich’s cartoon and left to right in Britt’s.
Luckovich offers a pun on a rightwing obsession, which not only puns on the action but on Justice’s pre-eminence even over ex-presidents, while Britt engages in some visual humor with a reversal of who grabbed who by the what. Britt loses half a letter grade for an unnecessary label, but both cartoonists make good use of Herself.
I particularly like that she remains blindfolded and expressionless. I wish I could believe that American Justice was blind to wealth and status, and took no more pleasure nor experienced no more sorrow in dealing with rich folks and poor folks.
But it is kind of a John Gotti moment, when you see a guy who thought he was Teflon caught and dragged, and it sets a healthy precedent by which to judge those additional shoes as they drop.
And then Clay Bennett (CTFP) brings up the idea that maybe Trump — that other “Teflon Don” — will have to live with the results of this verdict on a true ground-level basis.
Florida does not have a statewide law requiring these signs, but similar signs are going up in one county south of Jacksonville and there’s a fair amount of support for the concept, in a state where the governor wants to execute child molesters.
Which ought to make kids reluctant to tell on relatives and favorite teachers, coaches or pastors. You might want him punished, and maybe put in jail, but maybe not executed.
Anyway, in Bradford County, only sexual predators, not sexual offenders, have to put up those signs. Howsoever, Bradford County is nearly 300 miles from Mar A Lago, and I’m not sure being found at fault even makes Trump an offender, much less a predator, which he would be if he’d been convicted in a criminal court.
Still, it’s a lovely thought, and, after all, the people who would believe the sign don’t need the sign, and the people who wouldn’t believe it wouldn’t believe it no matter how tall it was and how large the letters.
As Boss Tweed famously said, “my constituents don’t know how to read.”
Meanwhile, in the Peanut Gallery
Tweed also said “I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating,” and it’s true that getting on the ballot gets you halfway there, even in a clean election.
I tend to agree with others who suggest that most of Bobby Jr’s support comes from people who recognize the name, loved his father and haven’t heard the stunning nonsense that comes out of his mouth.
The apple may not fall far from the tree, but sometimes it lands on its head.
Simonelli is right that he has no qualifications beyond his name, and the fact that, as Margulies notes, he is a vax denier doesn’t necessarily kill his chances with a substantial base of potential voters.
But he’s either illiterate, paranoid or a simpleton — or some combination of the three — based on this utterly asinine declaration:
It’s been a long time since I’ve worked the media end of an election, so I had to look it up to find out what he was talking about. Here it is, and it’s hard to believe that anyone who grew up in such a politically active family could be so completely wrong.
What it says is that, if you give one candidate air time to do whatever he wants, you have to give his opponents an equal chance to do whatever they want, without censorship or editing. This includes both paid advertising and “guest editorials.”
It does not apply to situations in which they aren’t in control of the content, such as news coverage and interviews.
Which is to say, however long tonight’s CNN town hall goes, if Kaitlin Collins is asking questions and generally directing things, it’s not Trump’s time and his opponents don’t get an hour of free time.
And I’m pretty sure that nobody — except maybe the Comedy Channel — is going to hand over free time to a screwball who not only denies that vaccines are helpful but believes his father was not shot by the guy holding the pistol whom everyone in the kitchen saw fire the shots.
If you’d like to find out WTF that’s all about, here’s a good substack column by Jonathan Alter, who has known Bobby Jr since college days. But bear in mind that there really are people who think he should be president.
And, BTW, Marianne Williamson is back in the race this year, and she’s also got a following.
Set your TIVO!
Tonight is the CNN Town Hall, in which Kaitlin Collins will grab chair and whip and attempt to keep Donald Trump on topic for 60 minutes, in front of an audience of Republican Primary voters. Reliable Sources and NPR both have some good previews.
I’d be surprised if we learned anything, but it could be entertaining. I recommend recording it so you can go back to the “Wait, what?” moments to see if you heard it right.
Though, speaking of recording things, I remember when we thought this was wildly entertaining, rather than grimly prophetic:
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