Hustle and flow

 

It's Tuesday afternoon and CNN has not put a countdown clock in the corner of the screen, as they do for scheduled events like State of the Union.  Does this mean they don't think The Debate will happen?

Trumpworld is definitely on edge and giving the convicted felon every possible excuse to wimp out.  Ronny Johnson/Jackson continues to demand a drug test based on nothing but his expertise in keeping the Trump White House on a four-year buzz.  Dare your opponent to disprove a lie, then jump on his refusal to do so -- it might impress Kennedy voters and other confused people.  Texas should follow the Navy's lead and bust him down to medical student.

Steve Bannon is doubling down on CNN's "insult" to Karoline Leavitt, the worst in the history of television according to Pigpen.  And she a "national press secretary" to a criminal!  Even if Kasie Hunt abased herself, the narrative has shifted slightly -- Trump has no chance because CNN itself is part of the Biden campaign.  When Trump gets clotheslined it will be because Biden got the questions in advance, just like Hillary Clinton in 2016, not because he spent the weekend preparing while Trump lumbered around making with the golf sticks.  Martyred again!  And Leavitt was only silenced because she accused Jake Tapper of comparing Trump to "Adolf Hilter."  Go back and listen.  

I remember the 2008 vice-presidential debate, when Joe Biden neutralized Sarah Palin by treating her like a not very bright granddaughter he was nevertheless fond of.  That Irish pol's smile is devastating.  All he has to do to drive Trump nuts is seem to be laughing at him.  Never mind asking if he brought his probation officer, just refuse to take him seriously. 

I now believe the show will go on, because Trump no longer has the mental capacity to understand the exits he is being offered and to choose one.  He demanded debates in the first place and his self-regard won't let him quit.  Textbook Dunning-Kruger.

The martyrology is now integral to the campaign.  Having convinced the Christonazis that he bears the wounds of defending their faith against a threatening world, he claims to have been "tortured" during the Fulton County Jail booking that yielded the lucrative "mug shot."  Since he was at all times surrounded by Secret Service, it isn't clear what abuse Inmate #01135809 endured.  (Surrounded by Black people, many with guns, who refused to call him "Sir" or take his lunch order, oh, the humanity.)  The begging email says, "I want you to remember what they did to me.  They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail and TOOK MY MUGSHOT."  For twenty minutes.  He is our Nelson Mandela, our Alexei Navalny, our Jean Moulin.  MAGA are sending him their last few dollars as I write because this shit works with them.

If Jack Smith has his way, the torture will continue in New Jersey.  The DOJ has evidence that before the FBI arrived at Motel a Lago to assassinate search the place, Trump ordered boxes of classified material moved to his Bedminster, New Jersey, putt-putt palace and ex-wife cemetery.  If Smith can get an indictment there or in Washington, he can sidestep the immovable object that is Aileen Cannon and put the gravest of the charges against Trump in front of a real judge.  If the charges now include dissemination and not just theft of top-secret papers, we're talking about die-in-prison time.  It's too much to hope for, especially since his lawyers are trying to get Cannon to rule some of the evidence inadmissible.  In my day, treason like this -- hell, possession of half a Jell-o box -- was enough to put you and your wife in the electric chair.  Never thought I'd miss the 1950s.

Everybody's coming to the self-pity party.  Vladimir Putin gathered his generals to pout that "we can only rely on ourselves" in the war he started against Ukraine.  "No one will come and give us anything with an outstretched hand."  That's no way to talk when the ink's not dry on the super-duper defense treaty with North Korea, sealed with a kiss and a shiny new car.  It sounds like China's not returning his calls.  Meanwhile Ukraine is negotiating in Luxemburg to join the European Union, one more threat to Russia.  And suddenly that song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" is in my head.