A Blue Tie!

Why no signature red tie expressing his angry aggression?

Instead, he wore a bright blue tie, complaining about “blue Manhattan.”  So-called Blue Democrats in New York and elsewhere are not legitimate Americans in his view.  He complained that the judge and jury were “rigged.”

“Everybody knows what happened here,” he whined. Indeed, they do.

He wasn’t able to install a MAGA judge and jury. Instead, he had to put up
with ordinary Americans in an ordinary trial. Unlike the rest of his privileged
past, expensive lawyers couldn’t get him out of it.

Be ye not deceived. Thirty-four counts of falsification of business records
and his tryst with Stormy aren’t the ultimate offense here. The real offense was
his lying to American voters in the 2016 election.  He hid who he is.

The Hollywood Access tapes had come out with his bragging about “grabbing them by the p***y.”  Yet it didn’t  undermine the adoration he gets from evangelicals. This new revelation would have added sleazy details of his”affair” (a flowery euphemism for a fuck) with a bosomy porn star while his pregnant wife rested nearby.  Perhaps it would have offended those evangelicals and Republicans whose morality wouldn’t ordinarily condone such
reprehensible acts.

If this story had come out then, we probably wouldn’t have had to put up
with his dangerous, divisive presidency. As is, this sordid episode will now
ride in American history as his story and regrettably, also ours.

Impeached twice, he was rescued and enabled by Republicans willing to ignore
their moral and political standards.  Imagine our country’s economic strength if his tax cuts – three thousand, two hundred million millions of dollars ($3.2T) – supported us rather than the already rich uber-rich.  Imagine what Republicans would have said and done if such a president was a black Democrat!  Imagine if armed, angry people weren’t trying to intimidate their way to unrestrained power.  Is this an unashamed coup in our face?  

The PEW Research study of the difference between Democrat and Republican
reactions to Trump’s words shows how dangerous the divide now is.  Eighty to ninety percent of Democrats are concerned, embarrassed, and frightened.  Meanwhile, about seventy to eighty percent of Republicans are inspired, proud, and entertained. 

Trump and the Republicans have wielded a more effective form of argumentation.  Argumentation used to mean logical reasoning in a mutually respectful dialog.  Alternatively, argumentation could mean argumentative, emotionalized shouting while insulting the other side.  The point isn’t to seek the truth, it’s winning no matter how.  Adamant opinion
trumps (to use a now tainted verb) thoughtful, respectful reasoning.  It’s shoddy, but it works. 

It helps to have “alternate facts” while directing the fires of hate on journalists, accusing them of “fake news” while substituting faker news, yet calling it Truth.  Worldwide, the
Committee to Protect Journalists documented over four hundred murders of journalists since 2016.  Authoritarians don’t want freedom of speech and the press. They don’t want free and fair elections. They want to spout whatever lie or view they want, free of facts and reasoned
rebuttal.  Trump put out 26,000 tweets, many denying or distorting news reports and putting forth slogans, lies, and insults instead.  He hasn’t killed journalists, just ridiculed, undermined, and replaced their function, feeding the frenzy of his eager supporters with tribal journalism. 

In this era of cynicism about politicians and journalists, appreciation for both is needed.  We will always have governments, politicians, and journalists.  The challenge, especially in self-run democratic societies, is having and supporting good ones.  In ours, we have the bizarre trend of electing a party that spouts slogans like “government is only bad for us,” only to have that be the case.  Then we gripe and repeat the cycle.

My gripe would go on too long if I were to track the entire phenomenon of him
and his. 

What leaped out at me was his shiny blue tie worn on the day he endured the bad news.  He and his used signature bright red ties showing how adamant they are.  I speculate he wore blue to distance the trouble in the red trend and put the loser vibe on things blue.  I usually and mostly support things blue. But the Blue Wave may or may not be forthcoming.  Biden’s warmongering undermines every other decent thing he’s done.  It props up our weapons-making economy but taunts horrid possibilities.  Firing into Russia coincides with Russia sending nuclear subs into the Atlantic. 

White ties, anyone?