Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was…in a previous life because I have never…and these are my sins.
I have rooted for Donald Trump to fail. Not only that, but I have rooted so seriously for him to fail, that I know his failures would hurt more than just his re-election prospects. And they are. I have grown so sick of Trump claiming to have created a great economy, (which he hasn’t), that I had hoped for a recession in order to teach him a lesson…as if that were possible. I know that a recession could hurt my fellow countrymen, and I have had to remind myself not to root for such failures on behalf of the worst thing to happen to this country since the mullet.
Also, as the death toll from Coronavirus has climbed, I have had to tell myself that these are actual people suffering and dying, and not a bad scorecard for the worst American to ever wear pants. I confess that the actual subject of death is the border that keeps me from rooting for Trump’s failure, and that it should not take such a drastic threshold. I do loathe the man so. So, Father, it concerns me that rooting for his failures would be borne on the backs of millions, and least of all him. It is evil, and I recognize it. And regret it.
Until now.
Trump has a new thing. Now he has said that he wants to “strongly regulate” or shut down social media. Now, I found myself hoping for him to fail again. It feels different this time though. This time, I want the make-up wearing, fat bastard to succeed. I want Donald Trump to take a big step toward totalitarianism just to see how the goofy apologists react. Camo wearing Daryls in Michigan seized the state house when the Governor tried to keep the state in a mild form of quarantine in order to protect its citizens from the Coronavirus. The Trump loving cultists took exception to the protections, presumably to be allowed to risk illness for themselves and others. Rooting against them there was actually rooting against the criminally stupid, and the innocent and vulnerable. It would have been evil.
But, if Trump wants to shut down Twitter because Twitter has decided to call out his blatant lies, will his camo wearing cultists applaud actual censorship? Cries of censorship are often heard when businesses regulate how someone may use their private property, and these cries are always wrong. This, however, would be actual censorship. This would be the real thing. What will Trump cultists say when the President of the United States, the head of an actual branch of the government, takes steps to shut down free speech? In this context, it actually would be a violation of the US Constitution. Father, I am positively giddy at the prospect. God help me, I hope he succeeds. It will be his greatest failure yet.
05/27/2020 @ 4:00 pm
Wouldn’t calling out two Tweets out of about 52,000 as needing fact checking, imply that 51,998 or so of them were accurate? Bold move Twitter.
He is like a child with soiled diapers throwing a tantrum because he thinks one of the other toddlers at the birthday party got more sprinkles on their cupcake.
05/27/2020 @ 5:58 pm
You know, Rage Apricot once remarked during dessert at the White House how every guest got one scoop of ice cream, but he received two because he’s the President. The only part I’m making up is his nickname.
05/27/2020 @ 4:34 pm
The thing about Trump failing is it probably saves more lives than his succeeding. Aside from Twitter. And he can’t shut down Twitter; he lives on Twitter.
05/28/2020 @ 9:28 am
Not offended. Curious.
05/27/2020 @ 5:56 pm
Rabbi, you make a very good, and perfectly defensible point. He’s a double helix of incompetence and malfeasance. Trump failing would be like removing a tumor to prevent metastasis. Seriously though, I would love to know how those mental little people will react to Trump’s threats to shut down a communications company because someone on it said something he did not like. Oh, I know. They’ll probably say Joe Biden has gray hair. Too bad we don’t actually have one of those tool boxes on BS though. It sure would be good for a laugh.
05/27/2020 @ 9:58 pm
Rabbi?
Some of them would favor shutting down Twitter. Do not make the mistake of thinking Trump’s followers value logical consistency. They couldn’t support Trump in the first place and value logical consistency (or logic at all). These are “I know it when I see it” people, not standards people. They don’t care if the rules are different for us and them; in fact, they favor it, because they’ve shown themselves to be competent and good citizens by supporting Trump and we’ve shown ourselves to be neither by refusing to, so we shouldn’t have the same rights they do any more than criminals should.
You and I both know where this kind of thinking leads but they neither know nor care. Understand that they’ve taken a country founded on principle and transformed it into a sort of ethnically-based country like most countries on the globe. The Constitution is something to be revered like the flag is, and for the same reason, but aside from that it’s there to protect them, mainly in the forms of free speech and free press to criticize liberals and the right to bear arms in a state capital to protest making it illegal to go around infecting other Americans with what can for many of them be a fatal disease.
This Is also why conspiracy theories are so rampant with this population. Such theories are out there to justify whatever they want justified, sense be damned. What this President taught a lot of them is that even though you could already get away with ignoring logic, you can also get away with ignoring truth. And the national media won’t call you on it, even the mainstream media. This is what the New York Times means by (and I’m not making this up, this came from a senior editor) “sophisticated objectivity.” It isn’t objectivity at all, of course; it’s impartiality, which under current circumstances has nothing to do with objectivity because objectivity would lead inevitably to partisanship in the current climate because what’s sensible and decent has just become to asymmetrical. The New York Times in editorial policy has adopted Newspeak.
Why do you think they’re so anti-education?
05/27/2020 @ 10:35 pm
Rabbi because you’re a scholar. I hope I didn’t offend. It was a variation on a theme from the post.
As for the critical thinking, I suppose it is sort of like listening for a radio signal from deep space. I keep waiting for a pattern that represents genuine thought or principle gained from life experience, rather than the Dud Swallow’s imitation nonsense.
The interesting thing about science denial coming up against a pandemic is that the returns are fairly immediate. When the right wing denied climate change, they could count on slow change to buttress plausible deniability. Conversely, when family, friends, and neighbors get ill or die in May, after Trump said the virus would go away in April, it is hard to deny that he was wrong.
Free speech is somewhere in the middle. They screamed when Don Imus got fired, claiming that it was a first amendment issue…when it wasn’t. They confuse their poorly educated following. But, if Trump shuts down Twitter, or whatever he does tomorrow in his executive order, they will have some difficulty denying that Trump is suppressing our Constitutional rights.
05/27/2020 @ 11:37 pm
One of the key insights I picked up and developed over the course of my time in and around the various poker rooms I’ve played in is never teach the opposition how to beat you…
In my view, there’s nothing wrong with rooting against Trump re his political fortunes…
However, I wish people would stop trying to tell/show him how to be a better President…
His inability to do better as President is a function of his inability to be better as a human being…
Most people need to see and feel that for themselves before they can be dissuaded re any rectitude in following or voting for him…
As Koshersalaami has pointed out:
“These are “I know it when I see it” people, not standards people”.
05/28/2020 @ 5:25 am
George Washington opposed political parties for exactly this reason. He said, essentially, that the parties would become involved with their own interests over the interests of the people. Today, when people address problems with the party system, they typically suggest the addition of at least one more party, rather than the elimination of political parties.
Washington may be right. When I oppose Donald Trump, his Dud Swallow supporters will say, you just oppose him because you’re a “Never Trumper”, which is both a ridiculous charge, and impossible to disprove. Indeed, I would not hire Donald Trump to do anything more important than the job of boat anchor, and some of that is based upon how I feel about him. My feelings about him are based upon his low character, and low intellect. If an armed intruder broke into my home, and I got to him first and put two pieces of lead in the center of his chest, and one in the center of his forehead, a Dud Swallow could say, you just oppose the armed intruder because you’re a Never Get Murdered. I’d have to agree. I also don’t see that as a flaw.
Obviously, being opposed to Trump’s party does not preclude one from opposing his personal ethics. Demonstration of that point usually involves showing the members of Trump’s party who oppose him on ethical grounds. The Dud Swallow lumps them all in as “Never Trumpers”, and satisfies himself with not requiring proper ethical conduct from the public servant in question. It is a nihilistic process which eventually deprives everyone of the civilization that we depend upon. While we may be opposed politically, we are not as it applies to ethical conduct. Being joined on ethics allows us to require that cops not murder black citizens by kneeling on their necks. We can assume that the many cases that we see involving the murder of young black men is the result of a shared value, if not actually coordinated case by case. The only hope of civilization is that we can remain on the same side ethically, while we may still be opposed politically.
05/28/2020 @ 6:15 am
While all politics is local, all voting is personal.
Left to his own devices, Trump will eventually succeed in alienating the very people who put him where he is…
His personal attacks against Biden will be seen as disparagement of senior citizens who are a major cohort of the electoral support he received in 2016.
His refusal to adhere to legitimate medical advice re the COVID19 pandemic and lying about the effect and impact of the disease will come back to haunt him as thousands of working class white folks suffer and die due to his incompetence and/or lack of his administration’s response…
The people who switched from Obama to Trump are poised to switch back to Obama’s VP…
Trump is a panicked drowning man flailing in three feet of water because he can’t swim…
Let’s not help him out by telling him that all he needs to do to keep from drowning is stand up…
05/28/2020 @ 9:31 am
I’m definitely a Never Get Murdered. That was really good.
05/28/2020 @ 11:13 am
I really wish you would use a real name, even a fake real name. I can’t stand acronymiic pseudonyms, but I l really like your writing and your follow-up. You must type as fast as I do. Keep it up., I like having you around. BTW, do you post links from your Bindle posts elsewhere? It would help if you did.
05/28/2020 @ 11:23 am
It is a fake real name. It was a nickname that my wife and I gave to a beloved, and dearly departed Jack Russell terrier who lived to 17 years of age. He died a year ago this month. His given name was Barkley, and we would say while playing with him, “he’s getting a little Bitey…”.
I don’t know how the name William came to be by some English person, however many centuries ago, and though I know my father, my grandfather, and myself, they are no more “real” than Bitey. I have the scars and the undying love to prove it.
Thanks, Alan.