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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's Atrocious Bible Stunt Might Be The Beginning Of The End
The entire affair was a disaster of epic proportions.
https://thebanter.substack.com/p/trumps-atrocious-bible-stunt-might
WASHINGTON, DC -- Donald Trumps presidency has always been propped up with Tinker Toys and spit. Which is to say: this president is so grotesquely out of his depth that he requires copious backstopping in order to artificially appear as if hes not quite as incompetent as he actually is. It started, more or less, when Sean Spicer was shoved into the press room to awkwardly explain how Trumps sparsely attended inauguration was actually the most populated inaugural ever, and the same kind of frantic clean-up effort continues today as Fox News, AM talk radio, Russian trolls and scores of Red Hat fanboys desperately attempt to cover for his total inability to handle the gig. Think of it as an extension of his hideous physical appearance, necessitating that insane comb-over, the slathered on makeup, the billowy suits, the lifts in the shoes, and so on -- all required to at least make him presentable.
How often have we watched in shocked horror as Republican members of Congress or White House staffers scramble to triage his ongoing disaster porn. How often have we seen an entire party of apparatchiks whitewash his ludicrous tweets, or cover-up disastrous public appearances? By now, its too often to count. You know those guys in a parade who follow behind the horses and elephants, scooping up their droppings as they go? Trump is surrounded by guys like that. His presidency couldnt survive without them. Left to his own devices, Trump never wouldve made it to the White House much less remained in office this long. He needed all varieties of propaganda and voter suppression tactics to get elected in the first place, not to mention a Russian intelligence-led cyber-attack on that election with the express intent to help Trump win. And to remain in office, he needed to scramble the Department of Justice until Bill Barr arrived to flush the entire Russia investigation down the golden crapper. Then he needed Rudy Giulianis cockamamy plot to extort Ukraine into helping Trump cheat in this election. And then he required a flock of GOP dodos in the Senate to stop him from being removed from office for the aforementioned cheating. Today, he requires all of the above players to spin his disastrous and deadly response to the coronavirus outbreak in order to keep his poll numbers from descending into Nixon-resignation territory.
I cant recall another presidency glued together with this much titanium scaffolding to maintain even this level of frighteningly rickety instability. Today in the same White House press room where Sean Spicer said Trumps inauguration featured record attendance, Kayleigh McEnany compared Trumps unforgivable photo-op outside St. Johns Church to Winston Churchill surveying the Nazi-inflicted damage in London during World War II. Sure, okay. This is sort of like saying your offices victory in that after-work softball game was just like the famous Giants won the pennant! moment. But that wasnt enough to cover-up for such a shitty, shitty stunt. McEnany wasnt finished. She went on to compare her bosss Bible photo-op to when George W. Bush visited Ground Zero after 9/11; she compared it to Jimmy Carter during the energy crisis; George H.W. Bushs signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and so on. Thats a lot of heavy lifting, commensurate with the degree of the atrocity. And so its no wonder McEnany spread it on so thick. Trump stood in the Rose Garden moments before the photo-op and told the nation on live television that he supported peaceful protesters. While he spoke those words, law enforcement thugs fired flash-bangs and gas grenades into the crowd of, yeah, peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park. All so Donald Trump could haul his ponderous bulk over to St. Johns Church to stand out front, holding a Bible he neither reads nor understands as if to say, Im strong and this is a Bible!
This had to have been a Trump idea. I cant imagine a professional political consultant who would instruct the president to engage in such an ungainly piece of amateur optics. Any actual practicing Christians who watched the scene had to have resented their Bible being exploited as a prop to augment the stature of a man who bragged about grabbing women by the pussies. Any Christians who were okay with it were probably Trump disciples in the first place -- and by elevating Trump over the exploitation of the Bible, theyre not only endorsing a sacrilege, theyre violating the first commandment: I am the Lord thy God, you shall have no other gods before Me. The entire affair was a disaster of epic proportions. Not only did it contradict his televised remarks moments earlier, but it ultimately made him look like a small, petty, clown dictator who cant even get a photo-op right. So small, in fact, that it required all the kings horses and all the kings men to rush into position to help put President Humpty together again. My sincere hope, representing perhaps the silver lining in this crisis, is that Trumps Bible stunt will signify the beginning of his final self-destruction. Trump always makes things worse for Trump, and this was a doozy. The question now is: whats next? What else will he do in the face of the protests, and all the rest of the simultaneous disasters, to backstop his failing presidency? Everything is on the table because hes capable of anything, and Election Day cant come soon enough.
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CatWoman
(79,302 posts)Turbineguy
(37,374 posts)the Rude Pundit's polite twin.
malaise
(269,219 posts)Celerity
(43,589 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,097 posts)I especially like Tuesdays with Buzz Burbank. They have some really interesting conversations.
yellowdogintexas
(22,280 posts)When I read the line "Trump always makes things worse for Trump" I knew it was him. I was hearing his voice all the way through it. I listen to his podcast regularly.
Wednesday is my favorite Stephanie Miller day because both Cesca and Malcolm Nance call in. He has the best laugh!!!
Fridays with Frangela is almost tied.
niyad
(113,615 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Clash City Rocker
(3,402 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Celerity
(43,589 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)but the past two weeks they've been mercilessly mocking both idiot-trump and his idiot base. It's weird/fun/sad/funny to see these usually politically apathetic people suddenly get a bee in their bonnet.
He's not looking too good these days. His brand has soured, and his hair-dye is way past its Best Used By date.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)dalton99a
(81,636 posts)SharonClark
(10,014 posts)mopinko
(70,268 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,664 posts)Buns_of_Fire
(17,201 posts)damned if it doesn't appear that he's holding it right-side-up after all.
Just setting my own record straight. It was still a stupid stunt, and he's still (now and forever) Lord of the Assholes.
yonder
(9,682 posts)maxrandb
(15,364 posts)See, Happy Days was this pretty good Gary Marshall show back in the day.
Good writing and a great cast. Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, Henry Wrinkler, Ron Howard...
So, towards the end it started getting kinda stale.
They decided that what they needed was this dramatic scene where Fonzie would jump over a shark on water skis.
Turns out that was pretty fucking stupid, and it started a rather fast descent to getting ridiculed and crashing and burning.
It's where we got the term "Jumped the Shark".
This was Donnie Dollhands Jump the Shark moment.
It's pretty fucking unrecoverable. Kinda like Mavericks flat spin.
All we can hope for now is that Stephen Miller hits the canopy upon ejection.
RambleTamble
(28 posts)Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)Once their 401ks keep going up in value
rocktivity
(44,580 posts)Last edited Sun Jun 7, 2020, 12:15 PM - Edit history (2)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213528851
rocktivity
Ohioboy
(3,248 posts)Ohioboy
(3,248 posts)Cha
(297,801 posts)yaesu
(8,020 posts)Ohioboy
(3,248 posts)So true.