TWGB: Canute and the Tide

My report from the hearing room: Republicans spent the first day of impeachment hearings in an alternate reality. (Please read, RT, and share.) https://t.co/sMYu36PQTD via @MotherJones

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) November 13, 2019

The thing that House Republicans have yet to observe is that, while much power has been invested in President Trump, and even though he enforces that power on Twitter and in his extraordinary public rallies through what might be termed the "bullying pulpit", there is an extent to which he has no influence--his word does not, actually, change facts. In this way, he is like an unwitting King Canute, demonstrating to his courtiers that he does not, in fact, have power over the tides. The GOP House members have not actually altogether realized this yet, anymore than they have discovered that the emperor is not clothed. One of the things thus far demonstrated is that Trump's "tide" hasn't risen the boats of Bevin (an incumbent governor in Kentucky) nor Rispone (a challenger for governor in Louisiana). His efforts have not elevated Republicans--he is only, at best, able to promote himself.

He appears to be a reflection of a kind of personality cult, but not a political movement. His coattails are those of a bolero jacket. If I were in the business of letting the GOP know that is a good look for them, I would endorse hanging Trump out to dry by fomenting a mass repudiation of his tactics and ethos, letting a political cycle go by as a "rebuilding year", and then putting up very young and untainted people to try to do some "new ideas and new faces" promoting of the party as under new management. (Please view The Bulwark as a kind of Never Trumper and Once Trumper, Twice Shy version of what conservative politics could actually look like. I am going to be the nice leftist person who presumes that intellectually, they are not full of shit but had a dream that life could be much different from this hell they're living)

Anyway, this week was probably hell for Trump, who totally went on an unannounced visit to Walter Reed Medical Center for regular check-up stuff. PSSSSHAWW! Because like Stephanie Grisham says:

White House Press Secretary says Trump has "more energy than anybody else in the White House" and Jeanine Pirro says "he's almost superhuman" pic.twitter.com/i5hUOuqAFU

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) November 17, 2019

Our Fearless Leader has only grown in his advancing years and is very much in his prime. He is now six feet five inches in height and a trim 229 pounds, which only appears more robust due to his incandescent energy. He wrestles bears for breakfast and pisses soma. Many patriots have fought amongst themselves for the glory of bathing in his piss. He has the energy of a teenager, but his skin is much better and naturally self-tanning even when ensconced in a bunker with only Fox News for solace. He is a unique physical specimen as he has weight and mass and three actual dimensions not counting his transit through observable time. We are at a loss for words to describe all the many faceted dimensions of the health of Dear Leader.





I'm thinking angina or kidney stones or maybe a good old fashioned panic attack because of bad press and legal culpability. Something so basic we'd all sympathize, but in TrumpWorld, has to be denied because Dear Leader can't have normal folk flaws. Because nobody wants to whisper that King Midas has Donkey's Ears.


FUCK Y'ALL--KING MIDAS HAS DONKEY'S EARS!!!!!! Donald Trump is mortal. Is mortal. As the auriga at every parade of Mars told any General, "You are mortal". He is. And yet don't sympathize. Hell no. Not yet.


Anyway, in the real world, Trump is extra fucked because all roads regarding the ouster of Yovanovitch or the negotiation of funding for investigations leads back to "Yep--Trump did that thing." Like, Taylor and Kent agreed, and Fiona Hill and Yovanovitch and Holmes and Williams and....it really starts to look like people who cared thought there was definitely something amiss. It would actually be really weird if, when Gordon Sondland gives up his testimony in public, he does not follow the word of the underlings who went before him to try and avoid the charge of perjury (since the Stone trial reminded us this was very much a thing). But anyway, we know who really needs to testify in all of this. And it looks bad.

Now we know the bribe almost came off. We know Giuliani is as fucked as a very fucked thing. We know the DOJ might excuse Trump for anything at all, including for incoherent principles we don't even truly understand.

But are stalwarts prepared to understand that there has been a secret mission going on all along? Or that Giuliani was doing some of what he did for the fossil fuels, and for whatever fueled his fossil forebrain? Can they appreciate all the subterfuge for allegedly the behalf of the regular folk?

I think maybe not. That's part of the problem. The coupons of grace in Trumpworld are only refundable to a limited crowd. And many venues are finding them not redeemable, but deplorable. But here's a thing--Ukraine's president almost did the "favor" that was requested. The bribe only fell through because Trump was busted.

Busted. Busted. Busted.

Trump has no more control over being busted than he does the tide. It can't be reversed.