Making a list, checking it twice

According to the New York Times, Donald Trump has now given pardons to four Blackwater operatives convicted in connection with killing Iraqi civilians, three corrupt former Republican members of Congress, two people who pled guilty during the Russia investigation and a partridge in a pear tree.

OK, I totally made that last part up because Trump would never give a pardon to a partridge in a pear tree unless the pear tree was owned by a Republican ally or the partridge made a significant donation to Trump’s campaign which may or may not have included five golden rings.

On Wednesday Trump followed up those pardons by pardoning a bunch more people including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner who is the father of Trump’s son-in-law who I once accused of having rat DNA as a joke and now seems somewhat possible.

Charles Kushner pled guilty to tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions and now here’s a quote from an AP article that will clue you in as to just what kind of guy Trump finds worthy of a pardon:

“Prosecutors allege that after Kushner discovered that his brother-in-law was cooperating with authorities, he hatched a revenge and intimidation scheme. They say he hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have a secret recording of the encounter in a New Jersey motel room sent to his own sister, the man’s wife.”

As the day swindle down to a precious few (and, no, that wasn’t a typo although it started out as one until I realized its accuracy) Trump is once again showing why some people loathe him and think he should never have been president, a job he desperately wants to keep even though he doesn’t have much interest in actually doing it.

Amateur psychologists think Trump wants to be president because that means he isn’t a loser and he’s so anxious to avoid that label Trump and the GOP have now withdrawn or lost over 50 election-related lawsuits.

And speaking of losing…

Apparently Trump’s pretty much lost interest in the coronavirus crisis – assuming he ever had any – and all he wants to talk about is some scheme that will overturn the election results and has surrounded himself with the only people nuts enough or conniving enough to encourage Trump’s fantasies.

Which led to the following cartoon:

While Trump’s sits in the Oval Office and listens to Sidney Powell talk about the time she got picked up by a UFO piloted by Amelia Earhart, he’s pretty much ignoring every other problem we have like the coronavirus eating us alive and Russian cyberattacks.

A while back – in an uncharacteristic bout of generosity and understanding – I said there were reasons to vote for Donald Trump that had nothing to do with racism or stupidity and I stand by that, but anyone who still supports Trump after all the crap he’s pulled since losing the election gets no sympathy from me at all.

If someone still supports Trump it means they’re OK with trying to steal an election, making accusations without evidence, ruining innocent people’s reputations, giving pardons to crooks and scumbags as long as they have the right connections and ignoring real problems in favor of focusing on ones that are fabricated.

We look back at the people who enabled Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism and shake our heads and while I’m not one for predictions because I’ve been wrong so often, it wouldn’t surprise me if future generations – assuming we have some of those – will look back at Donald Trump and the zealots who enabled him and wonder: “Just what the hell were those people thinking?”

And on that cheery note…Merry Christmas, everybody.

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