The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Trump, two prophecies

    By jollyroger on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 7:40pm |

     

    Most of us, by now, are familiar with the (spine tingling) "Trackdown" episode that, beyond al plausible explanation, foretold the coming of our misery.

     

     

     

     

    Somehow, several millenia prior, King David (h/t Michaeel Moore...) seems also to have foreseen and cursed the usurper...

     

    "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity."

     

    It is worth the time to read the whole psalm, even for those of us who despise the persona being petitioned (Yahweh).

     

    Psalm 10 King James Version (KJV)

    10 Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

    2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

    3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.

    4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

    5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

    6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

    7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

    8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

    9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

    10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

    11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

    12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

    13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

    14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

    15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

    16 The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

    17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

    18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

     

    How did they know?

    Comments

    Re: "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity."

    Excerpts from The Rhetoric and Reality of Donald Trump’s Racism by Robin Wright @ NewYorker.com, July 31

    [....] On Tuesday, President Trump visited Jamestown, which is also marking four hundred years since settlers there founded the first representative assembly in the Western Hemisphere [....]

    In Jamestown, a different Trump said the right words on racism in a carefully scripted speech; the President, for once, did not deviate from the teleprompter. The arrival of those first slaves, he said, “was the beginning of a barbaric trade in human lives.” On this day, he said, the United States also remembers “every sacred soul who suffered the horrors of slavery and the anguish of bondage.” He acknowledged that after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it took another eighty-five years, and a civil war, to outlaw slavery, and then another century to “extend the blessings of freedom to all Americans.” He quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., and lauded African-Americans who “built, strengthened, inspired, uplifted, protected, defended, and sustained our nation from its earliest days.”

    The African-Americans in Virginia’s democracy today didn’t buy it [....]

    Trump’s hypocrisy about race was reflected when he returned to the White House from Jamestown, two hours later. Pressed by reporters about just who among the African-American community had called to express support for his badgering of Cummings and Baltimore, Trump replied, “A lot of people,” but offered no names. The President was then asked what was the driving strategy behind his recent rampage of Twitter attacks on members of Congress of color. In what may be the most telling indicator of his Presidency, he said, “I have no strategy. There’s zero strategy,” he said. “It’s very simple.” Or maybe simpleminded. And a tragic comment on the four hundredth anniversary of the most abominable practice in our democracy.


    by artappraiser on Wed, 07/31/2019 - 5:03pm

    It is just a detail in the larger horror, but I am always haunted by the question "how could a slave holder who had just ripped a child from it's parents and sold her into permanent exile wake up the next morning and look them in the eye, proceeding as if nothing had changed among them?"

     

    Trump is that guy.  The utter disconnect between reality and inner phenomenology...


    by jollyroger on Thu, 08/01/2019 - 1:49pm

     Trump replied, “A lot of people,” but offered no names.

     

    I live for the day that some brave kamikazi reporter says "A lot of people say you're a fuckin' liar, Mr. President.  Would  you like their names, its a long' list.?"


    by jollyroger on Thu, 08/01/2019 - 8:59pm

    it could be a real kamikaze mission, not just a metaphorical one about career, only because some of the more deranged fans really do seem to take the "enemy of the people" thing to heart...


    by artappraiser on Thu, 08/01/2019 - 10:19pm

    Or simply, "I'm sorry, but we can't report that unless we have an actual name or two"


    by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/02/2019 - 3:13am

    I am certain by now that anti-political correctness is the main source of his appeal to his diehard fans.They don't care about his facts nor his policies or positions as long as he continues to say outrageous things that fly against politically correct mores and set up politically correct straw men and women to knock down.  And that he knows this, he's always known it. The Art of The Deal and The Apprentice: break the behavior rules, go for getting things done however you can. Politically correct monsters can't even get a skating rink built, I will. Politically correct monsters let wolf packs roam Central Park: lock 'em up! Politically correct monsters let in Muslims that attack our country, I won't. Obama is a multi-culti elite foreigner beholden to political correctness and Hillary is the biggest politically correct monster of them all.

    From  ‘We’re All Tired of Being Called Racists’

    At Donald Trump’s rally in Cincinnati, droves of attendees made it clear that they stood with the president despite his recent comments.

    By Elaina Plott @ TheAtlantic.com, Aug. 2

    [....] And that’s what the rally-goers I spoke to last night seemed most nonplussed by—not so much that Trump had been roundly condemned in recent days as a racist, or a bigot, but that they, by virtue of association, had been as well. But rather than distancing them from Trump, the accusations have only seemed to strengthen their support of this president. To back down, they suggested, would be to bow down to the scourge of political correctness.

    “We’re all tired of being called racists,” a 74-year-old bespectacled white man named Richard Haines told me. “You open your mouth, you’re a racist. My daughter is a liberal, and she’s [using the word] all the time. We don’t talk politics; we can’t—all the time she always accuses me of hate.”

    Haines, who told me he had just returned to the United States from Thailand, where he had done missionary work for 15 years with impoverished children, said that he knew what real racism looked like—that his father was a “bigot” who “didn’t like black people.”

    “Donald is not racist, you know?” Haines said. “He makes a statement, and they take the words out of context and try to twist everything so that he’s a racist. And I think it’s gonna backfire.”

    Before the rally began, I sat down on the floor of the arena with two women—Roseanna, 50, and Amy, 48—who felt similarly. (Neither woman was comfortable providing her last name for this story.) Roseanna, who wore a red T-shirt, white shorts, and a MAGA hat adorned with multiple buttons, including one featuring the likeness of Hillary Clinton behind bars, had driven an hour and a half from Lexington, Kentucky. She defended Trump’s statements about Baltimore. “He didn’t say nothing about the color of somebody’s skin,” Roseanna said, yet it seemed like everyone was “wishing him toward ‘He’s a bigot.’

    “I’m sick to death of it. I have 13 grandchildren—13,” she continued. “Four of them are biracial, black and white; another two of them are black and white; and another two of them are Singapore and white. You think I’m a racist? I go and I give them kids kisses like nobody’s business.” [....]

    Now these diehard fan voters cannot be won over by the Dem party, no use in trying to get them, they've alreay got in their heads that liberals are the enemy. (The problem is really for the GOP, they don't cotton to establishment GOP mores.) But for the anger and divisiveness in society to end, their numbers need to be lessened by not having this narcissist around feeding the (delusional) sense of empowerment he gives them.

    And then, after that, like Obama suggests here, really listening to someone who doesn't think like you rather than name-calling will help some more. The name calling thing (i.e. "racist") works just like it does on the internet: attack the argument, not the person. You may not change minds but you get less hate and anger that way.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 08/02/2019 - 1:21pm

    see, some of his best friends are black, and he personally helps them out when he can:

    A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

    Socially, the whole racism accusation is just feeding the troll. This troll does have expertise in how to troll. Politically it might be a different game, depending on how well opponents play it. But socially, it's a real loser to feed him.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 08/02/2019 - 7:48pm

    Except he's not his way home - he has to wait in Sweden 2 weeks for some verdict, not cleared.

    Maybe Ecuadoran embassy's free.


    by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/02/2019 - 8:01pm

    I was wrong, people in the trial can leave Sweden, have to be back in two weeks for the verdict - presumably light.

    US pressuring court officials - that's a pretty shitty development. American exceptionalim at its best - U$ Prez A$AP, gangster hip hop in the (White) House

    https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49204862


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 08/03/2019 - 2:05am


    by artappraiser on Sat, 08/03/2019 - 11:55pm

    Sour grapes BS - of course Trump is a sinister genius - he's wrapped this country and the world around himself the last 4 years like nobody since Hitler, even though their body count is thankfully very different.

    But we've seen this crap meme before - Reagan's not that smart, Bush is just a chimp. They destroy our worlds but we can still feel a bit smug. Maybe that's how they do it - they encourage us to focus on the 3rd grade stuff while they walk away with the important things.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 08/04/2019 - 12:37am

     Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man:

     

    Sen. Mitch McConnell Fractures His Shoulder After A Fall

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-fracture-shoulder-fall

     

    Don't blame me, blame Yahweh...


    by jollyroger on Sun, 08/04/2019 - 7:33pm

    Of course he promises to break his arm then he breaks his shoulder. Reminds me of the bishop who was out golfing with an altar boy as caddy. Putting on the first hole he missed by just an inch. "Fuckin' god damn it, I missed again." The altar boy was all upset, "Father please, your language. Bishop apologizes. But the very next hole the putt just misses the hole again. "Fuckin' damn it, I missed again." "Father your language, You promised" Bishop is all apologetic and says, "If I use such language again may god strike me dead." Of course the next hole the ball rings the cup and rolls away. "Fuckin' damn it I missed again." Suddenly the sky darkens and out of a black cloud a bolt of lightning kills the altar boy dead on the spot. Out of the cloud a voice exclaims, "Fuckin' damn it. I missed again."


    by ocean-kat on Sun, 08/04/2019 - 8:31pm

    What to do, what to do, stay tuned, 10 am tomorrow. Another chapter in the saga of projection (mental illness?!) or something else? Are we just going to get teleprompter read talking points or the real deal Donald with a new con or an old one? Enquiring minds want to know....

    Trump tells reporters in New Jersey: “Hate has no place in our country. And we’re going to take care of it.”

    No mention of what he’ll do, or of motives or white nationalism, but he says “this is also a mental illness problem.”

    Says he’ll make a statement tomorrow around 10:00.

    — Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 5, 2019

    P.S. Just came to me: he's thinking of a way to blame it on the Dems. Maybe Fox News channel will come up with something he likes tonight.

     


    by artappraiser on Sun, 08/04/2019 - 8:47pm

    here's why I am certain he's going to try something: even he knows that the stream of  tweets on "here's another example of how America is great again because of me" just isn't going to play well with scores of people being shot at heartland Walmarts and the local pubs every day.


    by artappraiser on Sun, 08/04/2019 - 8:53pm

    I see I am not alone in my wondering, makes me feel a little less guilty about being interested in this:

    No One Knows Trump’s Next Move

    Part of a president’s job is to be a unifying figure in times of national crisis. This president could be past the point where he can take on that role.

    By PETER NICHOLAS @ TheAtlantic.com, AUG 4, 2019


    by artappraiser on Mon, 08/05/2019 - 3:06am