Let’s make sure we all know where we stand at this moment, because it truly is extraordinary:
The president of the United States has been accused by his longtime personal attorney -- in open court and under oath -- of directing the attorney to commit felonies to which the attorney has himself pleaded guilty.
The chief financial officer of the president’s company has been given criminal immunity for his testimony. The chairman of a tabloid newspaper long supportive of the president has also been given immunity in exchange for his testimony. The president’s personal charity is under investigation for possible tax fraud and other crimes, which may drag his children into legal jeopardy.
And while the president angrily denies that he had fired a previous FBI director for refusing to drop an investigation into his administration, he goes on legendary public Twitter rants against current FBI and Justice Department leadership for not dropping investigations into his administration. He has even attacked the manhood of the attorney general whom he himself appointed, and he openly mutters about seizing personal control of those investigations so he can shut them down.
In addition, that same president is demanding that the Justice Department -- HIS Justice Department -- prosecute a whole list of his real and perceived political opponents, citing baseless, fact-free conspiracy theories that are as twisted, convoluted and mysterious as the hair upon said president’s head.
This week, as a reward for continued silence, he is openly dangling a pardon to his former campaign manager, a man who has just been convicted of eight felonies and who may be guilty of far more important crimes as well, including selling out the country to a foreign power. He is praising the character and courage of this convicted criminal, using laudatory terms previously reserved only for Vladimir Putin, even speaking in the man’s defense as a jury met to decide his guilt or innocence.
The president also warns us all that if we make the mistake of impeaching him, the stock market would crash and “everybody would be very poor” because -- here he points to his head -- “without this thinking, you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse." He actually seems to believe that.
Yet this same president has no understanding of international trade or economic theory. He cannot spell even the basic words in his limited vocabulary, and also has no Understanding of Capitalization or punctuation. Among other things, he says his opponents will “loose,” that campaign money played no “roll” in his payoffs to porn stars, that China took “unpresidented” action, that he is “honered” to serve as president, that we need to “heel” the divisions between us and that the special “councel” is out to get him.
Oh, and this president lies, constantly and without shame, and when one series of lies is exposed he simply pulls more lies out of his inexhaustible arsenal of lies, leaving his staff and supporters in nervous confusion about which lies they ought to be repeating and which should be abandoned. He will tell his side of the story constantly, endlessly, but just not in front of a grand jury under oath, where he can be held accountable.
His assemblage of dim grifters and sycophants -- his “best people” -- is shrinking almost daily, some because their personal corruption has become too evident to deny, and others because even they now recognize that the water swirling around them has begun to take the form of a whirlpool, and it is pulling them down.
As I said, it is extraordinary, like nothing ever before seen in our nation’s history. And honestly, the weird stuff hasn’t even started yet.
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