Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman whose outsider campaign has both galvanized millions of voters and divided the Republican Party, is the 2016 GOP presidential nominee.
The New Yorker’s embrace by the Republican National Convention (RNC) marks a remarkable moment in U.S. political history and validates a campaign that shattered precedent, defied pundits and usurped the GOP establishment.
(CNN, July 19, 2016)
It has become as pointless as it is redundant to denounce the big lies that characterize Donald Trump’s black-swan presidential campaign. And denying the undeniable fact that his wife plagiarized Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech at the RNC’s Hate week on Monday night is the least of them.
His campaign motto seems to be: Deny, deny, deny until a lie becomes the truth!
Except that his campaign lies even when the truth is plain for all to see. Therefore, voters should consider what lies a Trump presidency would propagate when the cover-up would be virtually guaranteed behind closed doors at the White House.
Frankly, far from law and order, everything about Trump’s life and campaign portends fraud and disorder. More to the point, his “Make America Great Again” schtick suggests that he wants to emulate the halcyon presidency of Richard Milhous Nixon — complete with all of the petty slights and dirty tricks..
For now, though, the Orwellian way the RNC turned truth on its head last night warrants dishonorable mention. The highlight of this dystopian revelry came when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie blithely betrayed his bona fides as a former federal prosecutor.
Specifically, he framed his keynote address as a prosecutorial indictment against Hillary Clinton, and then whipped delegates into a frenzy, which had them baying for mob justice based on his recitation of trumped-up charges. Hell, the delirium in that convention hall was such that not even Christie seemed to appreciate the doublethink afoot.
Only this explains delegates for purported law-and-order party chanting, “Lock her up!” and “Hillary for Prison!” – without any regard for legal due process. (Send her to Room 101 in the Ministry of Love?)
Not to mention that this RNC show trial defied the inconvenient truth that no less a person than FBI Director James Comey had already given Hillary a get out of jail free card. Perhaps even you saw the famous press conference Comey held on July 5 to announce that, despite sensational allegations, the evidence is such that no reasonable prosecutor would even charge Hillary, let alone convict her.
But it’s a wonder this delirium did not inspire these Inner Party wannabes to start chanting the doublespeak slogans:
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Meanwhile, Big Brother Trump lorded over this consummation of mind control via a huge-screen video link, from atop his gilded tower in the New York metropolis – most of which he has these delegates convinced he built … from scratch.
Of course, he knew he had them months ago when he boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of famed 5th Avenue, and these gullible fools would still support him. Hence, this self-proclaimed champion of the common man could not have looked more proud of himself as he preened down on them from above.
Alas, no member of the Never-Trump Brotherhood ran in and hurled a hammer at the screen to short-circuit his bloviating duckspeak….
On the other hand, it was evidently too much for Garry Marshall to watch his beloved character “Chachi” headline this triumphal display of mediocrity, stupidity, and mendacity. He suffered a stroke yesterday.
Famed director and producer Garry Marshall has died. He was 81 years old.
Marshall, who created some of the most popular 1970’s TV shows — including Mork and Mindy and Happy Days, and directed hit films like Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries — died Tuesday in a Burbank hospital.
(CNN, July 20, 2016)
In any event, the resistance is preparing for battle:
The American Civil Liberties Union sees constitutional problems with Trump’s proposals on immigration, American Muslims, torture and freedom of speech. ‘If implemented, Donald Trump’s proposed policies will spark a constitutional and legal challenge that would require all hands on deck at the ACLU…
Taken together, his policies and positions, if put into place, would violate the Constitution and federal and international law,’ says ACLU executive director Anthony Romero.
(ABA Journal, July 14, 2016)
Long live the (DNC-led) resistance!
Trump’s role as a father
Whenever I hear any sane, non-partisan person say anything positive about Trump, it invariably pertains to his role as a father. But even this stems from his propagation of a big lie to further his presidential ambition; you know, like his big lie about opposing the war in Iraq.
Unsurprisingly, he has enlisted his kids to share idealized recollections of the role he played when they were growing up. Unfortunately, their scripted recollections are at odds with their mother’s more credible account:
Ivana Trump is taking credit for rearing her three children with ex-husband Donald Trump, saying ‘I really raised them’…
‘I decided on their schooling and everything they did,’ Trump, who was married to the GOP presidential front-runner from 1977 until the early ’90s, says…
But after her kids turned 21 and were done with college, Trump says she “gave them” to her ex, telling him, ‘This is the final product — now it’s your job.’
(The Hill, February 12, 2016)
This explains why their recollections invariably have more to do with Trump as a business mentor than a loving father. What’s more, Trump himself often boasted about being a lousy father.
Even I recall the chauvinistic pride he took in telling radio host Howard Stern (yes, I went through that phase) that he had no time for raising kids. The why, of course, was the kicker: He was spending too much time building his empire, chasing women, and getting married and divorced, time and again (and might again — given the terminal humiliation his careless campaign caused his wife with that plagiarism faux pas on Monday).
Most fathers would be all too happy to say that their greatest and most prized achievement in life was raising the best kids in the world. By contrast, Trump’s own words suggest that, for him, this achievement would be building the best skyscrapers and golf courses; and he would risk biting his tongue if he said otherwise. So bear this in mind the next time you hear pundits parroting spin about how well his kids reflect on him.
To be fair, Trump took the same pride in telling Stern about how notoriously generous he was when it came to alimony and child support. And he never hesitated to use pictures of himself as a family man to promote his businesses….
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* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Wednesday, at 12:07 p.m.