Thinking about Trump on the North Korean border
There are over 40,000 statues of Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Perhaps that explains Donald Trump’s affection for the murderous tyrant, who has enslaved his people in a prison of misery and subjugation. I thought about that looking over the DMZ at two North Korean soldiers on the other side.
Donald Trump is not above the law in America. No person is. The spasm of vituperation from MAGA members of Congress over Trump’s widely reported imminent arrest is appalling and corrupt. Members of Congress don’t have jurisdiction over the prosecutorial decisions of the New York City District Attorney.
Democracies are not utopian societies. Yet, they are superior to every other system of government ever designed in the history of mankind. Why? Because they uniquely place the individual human being above the power of the state. When basic human rights are granted at the whims of a dictator, party or totalitarian government the jack boot always comes down.
There are few Americans from this wretched era who have earned more ignominy than Kevin McCarthy, the simultaneously corrupt, buffoonish and utterly hobbled speaker in name only. When Trump incited the January 6 insurrection Kevin McCarthy was momentarily rattled, but it didn’t take him long to recover and sell out his country by shattering his oath. His decision to travel to Mar-a-Lago was a singularly disgusting act.
He yoked the future of his ambition to Donald Trump’s lies. They are two men who are utterly entwined and co-dependent.
Kevin McCarthy’s decrying the criminal consequences of Trump’s actions is a sickening act of demagoguery. The simple truth is that Kevin McCarthy and the antisemite Marjorie Taylor Greene are making the case that Donald Trump is above the law. He isn’t. We don’t live in North Korea.
Donald Trump is under multiple criminal investigations over a multitude of criminal conduct. Never once has Kevin McCarthy ever denounced the blatant criminality. His issue appears to be the pending accountability for Trump.
Here is what Donald Trump said when he tweeted that he would soon be arrested:
Where is the condemnation of that insanity? Once again, Kevin McCarthy and his team of weirdos, conspiracy theorists, liars, and cynics have remained utterly silent and willfully blind towards the obvious intimations towards violence. They have dug themselves a political grave with an embrace of insanity, delusion and the narcissism of an addled old man with profound mental illness. They have imprisoned themselves in an inescapable pit of malice where they will continue to defend the indefensible, while the American people move on.
There will be no mass protests in the name of Trump. Americans will not be conned into taking to the streets and committing the violence Trump craves. In some ways, Trump is like the boy who cried wolf one too many times. Thousands of people will ultimately be convicted of crimes that were incited by Trump and his legion of Fox News millionaire liars on January 6, 2021. Their lives are destroyed. I don’t think there are going to be many volunteers for MAGA martyrdom in the days ahead.
Donald Trump is the greatest conman who has ever lived. He is a wannabe tyrant who will be remembered as a living cancer who infected America. He was the worst president in American history, and soon he will likely be fingerprinted and photographed like the cheap thug he is.
Kevin McCarthy may fear Trump, but fewer and fewer Americans do. Donald Trump will spend the rest of his life in court. Despite what the polls indicate, his career is over. Today, he functions mostly as a mirror that reflects back the rottenness and decay of the weak-minded and cynical fools who lashed themselves to a man with no dignity, honor or patriotism. He reflects their shame and hollowness.
Today, I saw what Donald Trump admired so much. It made me detest him a bit more. Yet in this hour in which he will be brought low, it is important to remember that the justice system in America is not about vengeance, but rather the rule of law. It will be applied to Donald Trump.
When I was looking over the border into North Korea all I could think was “thank god I’m an American.” I realized in that moment that when Donald Trump stood near the same spot, he likely had a different thought. He likely believed he was unlucky and born in the wrong country. Trump craves power and lusts for tyranny imposed by his whims. The gig is up.
What amazes me, Steve, is that that orange traitor doesn't realize how lucky HE is to be an American. If this were the north korea he adores, he would already have been shot instead of receiving the fair trial that our great Democracy guarantees him. The lack of appreciation for all he has been lucky to have as an American makes me sick.
I get so much satisfaction reading your apt descriptions of Donald Trump & the GOP representatives who have morphed the Judicial, Oversight, & “Weaponization of the Fed Govt” committees into taxpayer-funded protection rackets for their Don. While the every day MAGAs have moved on to fighting wokeness, the inner circle of the Trump cult clings ever more tightly to him. McCarthy, Greene, Jordan & Comer remind me of the sparse group of NXIVM cult members who danced outside the Manhattan jail holding Keith Raniere.
I highly recommend watching Rachel Maddow’s A-block from her show last night. She meticulously laid out the crimes that Trump has committed throughout his life along with the myriad crimes of his lawyers, accountants, campaign managers & advisors. When you elect a criminal, expect him & his associates to commit more crimes. “Criming” is just Trump being Trump.