Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends
The title comes from the lyrics of a 70’s band called Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. The song is Karn Evil 9. The lyrics are worth looking up and reading through. It describes our situation with amazing insight from nearly a half-century ago. In my opinion, the Karn Evil is a metaphor for an evil carnival. The barker yelling out to the crowds, exaggerating everything to make it more exciting. Truth be damned.
Trump was talking to a Cincinnati group about the Democrats who did not clap for him, during his State of the Union speech. “Can we call that treason?” “Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.” He also added that the Democrats were “very selfish” in not clapping for him. “They would rather see Trump do badly, OK, than our country do well,” “They were like death and un-American. Un-American. Somebody said, ‘treasonous.’ I mean, Yeah, I guess why not? Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean they certainly didn’t seem to love our country that much.”
In the short clip of Trump’s speech, I heard him refer to the Democrats as treasonous four times. Let’s look at what the U. Legal code defines treason as:
U.S. Code › Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 115 › § 238
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.) This comes from The Legal Information Institute, Open Access to Law since 1992.
Can you imagine the blowback if President Obama had called the Republican’s who didn’t clap for him, as treasonous? Which by the way, they did not clap for his SOTU speech. The Trumpers are already saying, “Oh he was just kidding.” I don’t find it funny to label his political opponents with a crime that can carry the death penalty. Wouldn’t you find it hilarious for me to tell millions of people, “You are a pedophile and a child murderer.” Wow, what a knee slapper for the old folks, and LOL or ROTFLMAO for the younger crowd.
The truly terrifying aspect of this is that Trump is not kidding. He is doing everything he can to turn the DOJ into his attack dog for anyone who crosses him. He is trying to turn the FBI into his private federal police force. He regularly claims the courts have no right to rule his “decrees” against the law. This man is a wannabe despot, which Google defines as the exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way. a country or a political system where the ruler holds absolute power. He really makes no bones about it. He is not subtle, or a mastermind. He is a narcissistical buffoon, who thought that once he was President, he could do anything he wanted, and the entire government was his plaything. Trump has no concept of the checks and balances built into our democracy to stop power-hungry madmen. The jaws of our democracy have not closed in on him yet, but as we get ever closer to the day our legal system will rise up and hold him accountable. We must hold firm in our constant vigil to stop him from urinating on the Constitution by his actions. Before anything can ever really be done about this, some Republicans are going to have to “grow a pair” or find a backbone. At the current rate, I don’t see that happening. It will probably require the Democrats to regain a majority in one or both houses of Congress.
