Bullshit Detector

Now that we peons have been permitted by His Travesty and his dogsbody to view the "real" report, I don't feel the need to say too much beyond pointing out that everything I said two weeks ago holds. It's impossible for me to comprehend how anyone can look at the evidence, look at everything that's transpired and is still yet to come -- hell, just look at the behavior -- and not see the clear pattern of criminality.

I mean, seriously -- this report prepared by people who are out to get me totally clears me, but I can't show it to you -- how many fucking clues do doubters need to see that those are not the things an innocent person does and says? It's like watching O.J. Simpson in court a quarter-century ago, stretching his hand so that the glove won't go on. It's so obvious, you kind of feel a bit sheepish even pointing it out. Just like the tax returns. It's one thing to hide behind the "make libturd cry" tactic, but how much of a chump do you have to be to believe the guy?

I honestly don't know what sort of drooling moron can't see Trump for what he is. I wish I had more ruthlessness and time on my hands, because I'd have a hell of a bridge to sell them, and apparently they'd give me every dime they had. I thought most people had figured out these things back in fourth grade or so.

But like everything else about this fucking criminal scumbag, this latest episode says more about everyone else -- the worthless minions he attracts to lie for him; the mediots who disgrace their profession by gaslighting the nation, because they're too fucking lazy to actually do their jobs; the Dummycrats who can't get back into their default circular-firing-squad position quickly enough; the dopes who would still worship him and deep-throat his tiny mushroom even if Trump had flat-out confessed to everything -- than it says about Trump.

There's nothing new to learn about Trump. This is what he's always been -- lazy, stupid, deeply corrupt, and contagious in all those things. He makes the people around him worse people, just by association. One of the salient details from the report is how many instances there were of people in Trump's orbit actively ignoring or circumventing his direct orders. And yet none of them had the nerve to step up and say something.

Look at Rod Rosenstein standing behind that fucking pig Barr, like a good German. Fuck them both. Barr is a known quantity, a lifelong fixer of elite political inconveniences. But Rosenstein strikes this pose of integrity, and he has clearly sacrificed it, but it's unclear for what. That's why he looked like a hostage standing behind Barr, because he knows that his silence is a betrayal of everything he thought he stood for, of every pretense he thought he had of working in his country's best interests. Hope that pension's fat enough to make it worthwhile, kid.

You can see both sides of the Democrats' impeachment dilemma, and neither one is good. Rule of thumb when you only have sub-optimal choices:  Fortune favors the bold. If you're going down, go down swinging hard. They really botched their response to the rollout, gutless and diffident per usual. They need to use their Easter recess to get their ducks in a row, and come back ready to drop the hammer. I actually think they will; they have to see that there's really no other choice for them now. I'm not one to ankle-bite my congressional reps over every little thing, but if they pass on this one, I'm done and I have no trouble calling their offices and telling them so. I have a feeling I'm not alone on this.

I don't know how other people go about assessing people and situations and figuring them out, seeing where things aren't as they seem, spotting the bullshit. To give an innocuous example, I recall back in 1998, being on Slate's original Fray chat forum, arguing with the writer David Ehrenstein over whether Ricky Martin and Kevin Spacey were gay. I was sure that they were (not that I give a shit), and yet Ehrenstein, who not only is gay but wrote a very good book about closeted Hollywood actors back in the day (and so knows well how gay performers who are not ready to go public will try to keep that aspect of their lives hidden), didn't think so.

Recall that at that time, neither Spacey nor Martin were the least bit open about their private lives, so it was pure conjecture on my part. But I have a pretty good bullshit detector, and I think the fifteen years of archived posts on the right sidebar attest to that.

(To give a little more context, Ehrenstein was not shy about calling Ace of Spades, another Fray denizen, a "power bottom." Ace is not gay, nor even homophobic, but Ehrenstein correctly understood this as one way to push Ace's buttons. So there was a lot of back-and-forth on that particular subject, most of it pretty good-natured, certainly none of it hurtful or judgmental. I guess the point is that sometimes things that seem pretty obvious to you, are just no there for someone else. They don't see it. Like that stupid dress where no one could decide what colors it was, or the Laurel/Yanni thing.)

A more recent example would be the Jussie Smollett hoax. I mean, Jesus, right out of the gate, the first few details you heard about it sounded way too on-the-nose. A couple of randos beat him down in a heavily CCTV area of Chicago, using racial and homophobic slurs the entire time, along with some MAGA slogans for good measure, tie a noose around his neck because they just happened to have one handy, and Smollett crawls back to his hotel room leaving the noose on? Come on.

Anyway, the point is that we are in the midst of a very dangerous trend in American politics, one that actually predates Trump, but that he has been able to take great advantage of. The power of the unitary executive has been ramped up steadily since 9/11, while simultaneously the electorate has become much more polarized and cemented in their respective outlooks.

Trump did not invent this scenario, but he has figured out how to weaponize it, and he understands intrinsically that no one -- not his party, not the media, not anyone -- has the balls to challenge him on it. Everyone still thinks the "institutions will hold" or some shit like that, and that's simply not true, whether or not Trump gets re-elected. This is important to understand. Things are about to get worse either way.

Let's look at it in strictly binary terms -- he gets re-elected or he doesn't. Can you imagine if this asshole wins again? At least two more SCOTUS appointments, probably three (in addition to Ginsburg and Breyer, Thomas is also apparently on the verge of retirement), and an undeniable legitimization of the damage he's already done. He'd be off the fucking chain, with a whole new roster of fresh scumbags to do his bidding, and he'd double or triple down on everything he's already been doing. You think it's a box of turds now, you wait and see what it's like if he wins again.

But even if he gets thrown out of office, it won't mean much if there's not a real landslide at the congressional and even state levels. These people are bad losers, they obviously have no scruples, and the psychotic billionaires who really own this country and all the propaganda networks will shift into overdrive. Without an overwhelming win and majority, it will just be like the last six years of Obama -- gridlock and bullshit and conspiracy theories and legislative inertia, only this time you'll have King Shitposter and his cult of sociopathic halfwits full steam ahead with him, ankle-biting full-tilt all the fucking time. It will be nothing but hate and retribution.

People need to have their bullshit detectors on all the time with everyone. When a career turd like Steny Hoyer gets in front of the cameras and punts on first down, just a couple hours after Bill Barr harrumphs and tells everyone to go fuck themselves, Democratic voters have to call bullshit. Maryland voters need to tell that tired cocksucker to get with it or get gone. Fuck or walk, pops. There is no room for maybe on this train anymore, it left the station two years ago.

That's not to say that ultimately, impeachment might not be a viable option. But only a fucking moron makes that call a couple hours after the report is released, before you've even had time to review the fucking thing. Say what you want about the cultists, they at least know that their boy is going to make a show of fighting. Fucking Steny Hoyer doesn't even want to try. Who wants to break it to him that people don't usually vote for someone they can't even respect?

It's true that the Democrats have to focus on a lot of other issues as well, but one assumes they can multitask. The fact of the matter is that this transcends the Mueller Report that everyone puts their eggs into.

Let's say for the sake of argument that Trump had never fired Comey, that there was no action for which to appoint a special counsel -- in short, that the investigation had never taken place, and Robert Mueller was not a household name, none of it had ever happened. Trump has still shown conclusively, many times and in many ways, that he is manifestly unfit for any office, much less the office he has.

In terms of intelligence, ability, temperament, discretion, all those qualities people across the spectrum tend to value in a chief executive, he has none of those things. His incompetence, laziness, and behavior would have gotten him fired from stocking shelves at Wal-Mart within the first six weeks.

Think about all the various things he promised to fix, from immigration to opioids to foreign policy to trade policy. Every one of them is measurably worse:  trade deficits are at record highs; the immigration crisis has been exacerbated by his actions toward the "three Mexican countries"; infrastructure still decaying; wages still stagnant despite very low unemployment levels; North Korea is right where it's always been; our allies are sick of our shit and are not going to be there when we need another favor from them; and the worst problems facing this country -- wealth inequality and climate change -- are completely ignored and have gotten steadily worse.

Forget the Mueller report, and what you think you know or think about it:  this guy sucks, and he's a fucking asshole to boot. Bring that into the mix with all the lying and corruption, and you have a had enough? argument that should win.

And if not? Well, again, whichever way this shakes out, we will get the government we deserve.