Look for the subject of Ketchup to be trending for the next few days.
The mental picture conjured when Chief of Staff aide Cassidy Hutchinson described the White House dining room valet’s cleaning this everyday condiment off the wall will be hard to expunge from our collective imaginations.
In a post from yesterday, Today’s Biggest Loser: Donald Trump, I noted that Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony made it far easier for others in similar positions to come forward on their own, which is important because staffers understand that crossing the former president comes at great cost in terms of their future career prospects.
I want to recant that last part. Telling the truth is always good policy, and especially in this case, where doing so actively helps to protect and defend the United States democracy.
During the Trump presidency, I wrote often that staffers should quit immediately, and that a resume that included four years working in the then-president’s White House would have less appeal to a future employer as an equivalent amount of time selling heroin or trafficking children.
Congressional Republicans want us to believe that we’re more concerned about gas prices than we are about the attempted coup and the abortion ban. While some voters feel that way, it’s a minority.
What happens in 2024 is anyone’s guess. Two and one half years is a great deal of time in which virtually anything can happen.
What looks most likely at this point is that the Democrats nominate some new, younger candidate. More interestingly, Trump and his coconspirators will be in prison or on their way, and will have no more relevance in U.S. politics than Mickey Mouse.
Today’s under-oath testimony from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson materially improved the condition of U.S. democracy. In particular, it:
Made it far easier for others in similar positions to come forward with testimony of their own. Staffers understand that crossing the former president comes at great cost in terms of their future career prospects, and perhaps their personal safety as well, but it’s possible that Hutchinson opened the flood gates.
Made it virtually impossible for Trump to survive politically and return in 2024. The world has stunning testimony to the effect that he is a lunatic who attempted to overthrow the U.S. government. He lost by seven million votes in 2020, and there seems to be no mechanism by which he can improve on that now.
Helped pave the way for the Justice Department to indict Trump, not to mention the others who conspired with him. The idea that a jury would not find criminal intent here is a joke.
Again, great day.
A few hours ago, the world watched White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson provide many examples in under-oath testimony to the effect that then-President Donald Trump behaved like an unhinged lunatic when he learned that he had lost the election, e.g., throwing his lunch across the dining room, smashing it against a wall. Earlier in the day, he had grabbed the wheel from his limousine driver, and assaulted one of his Secret Service agents when they refused to take him to the Capitol. (more…)
This is excellent. What a compelling and important message.
Having said that, it is incorrect to say that this “isn’t about guns.”
If these young psychopaths didn’t have access to assault rifles, they would not be able to kill dozens of little kids in a matter of a few minutes.
Now that the Supreme Court has allowed the individual states to ban abortion in all circumstances, we need to look at what would motivate such a state to force a woman to carry a baby to term that was conceived when her father raped her.
I can’t think of a reason other than fanatical Christianity.
If that’s the case, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution no longer has any meaning, and that would make our Founding Fathers extremely angry.
“The strangest transformation in human history?”
No.
Perverting the teachings of Christ has been a hallmark of Western civilization for at least a thousand years. Remember the Crusades? The Spanish Inquisition? The slaughter of the Native Americans?
What actually has happened recently is the exponential growth of ignorance in America.
Here’s a cute way of expressing a message that the not-too-bright segment of the libertarians is fond of.
Call me weird, but I believe in human rights, i.e., things to which everyone is entitled.
Now, of course, exactly what those actually are can be debated. Most of us would agree that freedom from slavery and torture should be on this list, but what about healthcare? This isn’t controversial elsewhere in the world, but in the United States, we have an entire political party completely devoted to ensuring that poor people suffer and die of treatable diseases. (more…)
With each new triumph of the ultra-far-right in the United States, the rest of the world finds a new way to respond in horror and disbelief.
