CSotD: It’s A Good Day To Swear
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Walt Handelsman sums it up: The demolition crew is here to begin taking apart America.
It may be metaphorical, but it’s not theoretical: Trump has already begun spinning and, to use an old phrase from Jonathan Swift’s era, “to say the thing that is not.”
To accuse him of lying requires reading his mind. But his nonsensical statements about Tik Tok are beyond just being “incorrect.” They’re both incorrect and, as a preview of coming attractions, frightening.
Biden said he wouldn’t enforce the Tik Tok law, but he had one foot out the door, which gave him the latitude to stall enforcement for 24 hours until the new administration took over. Trump’s announcement that he is going to overturn the law with an executive order is absolute nonsense. He might as well announce that he’s going to lift the Washington Monument over his head.
He can’t legally revoke a law with an executive order, and he especially can’t revoke a law that the Supreme Court has declared valid and ordered to be carried out. And his proposal to have the government buy half the company is — wait for it — communism. Plus leaving half the company in Chinese hands runs counter to the law, which does not allow for more that 20% foreign ownership.
If he gets away with this, we’re truly screwed. It is so off-the-wall, so completely moronic on its face that to let it go forward would mean there truly are no restraints on Dear Leader.
Fortunately, he has a record of making stupid, impossible promises, and this stupid, impossible promise may fall into the oubliette along with his promise to lower grocery prices.
Anyway, it really doesn’t matter if he is a deliberate liar or a gaping simpleton: He has said the thing that is not.
And the fact that he instigated the ban before he rescued the app doesn’t matter because he assumes voters have short memories and can be easily manipulated.
So far, his theory appears to hold.
Garth German points out that the die-hard true believers are so deeply imbedded in the mythology that they can’t be persuaded out of it. But they’re not the only ones who voted for him.
What we’re going to have to figure out between now and the 2026 midterms is how many Trump voters are genuine die-hards, as well as how many wishy-washy voters will either change allegiance or show up the next time around.
But let’s focus on this morning’s event, or, if you’re a TV network, the all-day wall-to-wall extravaganza. They’re covering this thing like the Super Bowl or the Kentucky Derby: Four hours of inane chitchat for every half hour of action.
Not watching it won’t change the ratings unless you are a Nielsen family keeping a diary. But not watching it might save your sanity, and it’s not like you won’t get to see how it comes out anyway.
Barry Blitt offers a view in which the sponsors of the event get to hoist their banners. Obviously, he drew this before Dear Leader decided to dump the peasants and make the inauguration a billionaires-only event.
But Trump’s amassed some $170 million from sponsorships, and they’ll be expecting more than a logo patch on the presidential jacket in exchange for their baksheesh.
Ann Telnaes provides us commoners with a glimpse of Mango Mussolini’s new outfit. Note that she shows not only restraint in not comparing him to That German Fellow, but insight as well, since Mussolini played second fiddle to the more accomplished dictator, just as Dear Leader is an imitator of his heroes in Moscow, Beijing and Budapest.
Besides, that fellow who said “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes” was a weirdo who lived in the woods instead of like sensible people, in a mansion decorated to look like a Byzantine bordello.
Trump is not without his own groupies, and Pat Bagley singles out Utah governor Spencer Cox, but Cox is only one of several Republican governors who have decided against the tradition of keeping flags at half-staff following the death of a president but are, instead, pledging their allegiance to the new administration.
Juxtaposition of Contradiction
Steve Kelley (Creators) joins those governors in casting tradition to the wind and not just raising the flag to full-staff despite the official period of mourning, but gloriously celebrating the insult to the memory of the late president.
Days earlier, he had somehow been a strict believer in protocol, attacking Michelle Obama for doing in 2025 exactly what Melania Trump did in 2021, and throwing in a bonus cheap shot at Hillary Clinton, who had committed the unpardonable sin of running against Dear Leader eight years ago.
Two blatantly contradictory beliefs, however, is hardly a record. The White Queen could believe six impossible things before breakfast.
In any case, as Matt Pritchett‘s announcer says, the fan base may accept the concept of situational protocol, but Dear Leader remains confident that his coming out party will be a massive success with everyone.
Though Nick Newman points out a public-relations advantage of limiting the visible attendees.
It would, BTW, be interesting to see how these nice folks might respond if they don’t get the pardons they’ve all but been promised on Day One, though that seems unlikely.
Juxtaposition of the Day
If you were hoping to see some dissension from the throng, you may take some pleasure in seeing how Snoop Dogg is being dragged for his appearance — along with Nelly — at Inauguration events.
Obviously, Trump’s fans don’t care what Alcaraz or Jones think, and probably wouldn’t see their commentary anyway, but there are rumblings from deeper in the Black community about sell-outs.
Though, as Jones notes in his essay, Snoop is on record as having never met a sponsorship he wouldn’t embrace.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Somewhat in the order of my preference: Luckovich makes his point clearly, but his words-to-graphics balance seems off, while Boris boils it down to a pun and a more direct statement of intent, and German makes a joke in which we have to imagine Dear Leader being predictably evasive but uncommonly frank with the Chief Justice and the American people.
Matt Davies, meanwhile, explains the difference between the 2020 elections and this one.
And Prickly City (AMS), which both-sized its way through the election, caps things off with a reasonable caution about what you’ll be seeing, or missing, today.
For further reading and more incisive, in-depth viewpoints, see what Charlie Sykes has to say about the time ahead, and how Matthew Rozsa explains how it was when tariffs were in bloom and a president last skipped four years before his second term.
And if that doesn’t scare you, have a deep immersion in this long, terrifying, but darkly amusing look at what’s happening right now to your country. Use it to assure yourself that you’re not crazy, that it’s really happening.
Then pick yourself up. Don’t give in, don’t cave in, don’t freak out.
Just keep the faith, baby.
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