Yesterday I talked about how Trumpists flocked to their latest article of faith that Trump isn’t really impeached because the House hasn’t transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate.  There is no basis in law or fact for that belief, but it’s there anyway, virally spreading throughout Trumpland.  During our Trumpist infestation we experienced yesterday that was the recurring theme.  These trends often start as a joke or a hoax, sometimes on satire sites, but quickly morph into viral proliferation by those who desperately cling to anything that supports their predisposed beliefs.  Here’s the Google trend line for searches this week on “Trump not impeached”:

And, as you would imagine, the regions that have the most searches are the red states.  There’s new viral rumor now growing in Trumpland and that is, now that Trump is impeached, he’s automatically eligible to run 2 more times.  That is REALLY stupid, and is completely unsupported both in the Constitution including the 22nd Amendment.  It started as a “joke” in October, but really took off this week, spreading across right wing pages by Trumpists.  Here’s the Google trend line for “Trump can run for third time”:

This kind of proliferation is what makes brainwashing so nefarious.  Many of the Trumpists’ comments during our infestation yesterday were repeating absolute nonsense, Russian propaganda, boasting, taunting, and personal insults.  None of the dozens of comments we received were based in any kind of fact; all taunted; none were even reasonable.

With rampant propaganda proliferated over social media facts or truth no longer matter.  Worse, Trump’s Twitter account amplifies these lies.  Every time he tweets one of his insults, childish taunts, threats, or lies,  it goes out to millions or users, retweeted thousands of times.  In the hands of an immoral politician like Trump, social media is weaponized for the dark side.  You can see it, but can also measure it.  Here’s the search terms “Burisma” and “Hunter Biden”:

These trends follow Trump’s twitter feed and those who support him.  Nobody ever even heard of Burisma, and few were even aware of Hunter Biden until Trump, Giuliani, and the Noise Machine started repeating it.  And, they almost got away with it; were it not for the whistleblower, Ukraine would have announced an investigation of the fabricated Russian story that Ukraine was the bad actor in 2016, and Biden’s chance to become the Democratic presidential nominee would have been destroyed.

Integrity matters, but evil can easily run over integrity because brainwashing works really well.  And THAT threatens our republic more than any outside force.

We know the conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his henchman, Rudy Giuliani is nonsensical.  Every intelligence agency says it’s nonsensical.  During House impeachment hearings, former US intelligence officer and Russian specialist implored Republican congressmen to stop repeating Russian propaganda that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who interfered in the 2016 election.  The entire story is bullshit, and we KNOW it’s bullshit.

Ever wonder where the story came from and why Trump repeats it ad nauseam?  Well, the Washington Post dropped the bombshell this week that Putin himself planted the story in a private meeting during the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg, when he began publicly repeating the story.  The meeting, and the subsequent meeting in Helsinki had NO US OFFICIALS PRESENT and there are no notes of the meetings.  We all knew it was stupid for Trump to meet with Putin alone, now we’re beginning to understand the depth of that stupidity.  The Post used interviews with former WH officials to confirm the story.

Let’s recap.  Trump withheld Congressionally appropriated funds to Ukraine to extort the announcement of an “investigation” into Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election using the fabricated story that Joe Biden and his son hunter were somehow involved in Ukrainian corruption.  When caught, he immediately released the funds and claimed what dozens of people saw didn’t really happen.  Then he defied all subpoenas for documents, ordered current and former officials to not testify, and repeatedly lied to the public about what is really going on.  The narrative he uses on a daily basis likely came directly from Putin, a former KGB officer.

Christ on a Crutch.  This is about as bad as it gets while Trumpists scream there is no evidence, no wrongdoing, and all of this is just made up by Democrats.  Sheesh.

This morning we’re experiencing an infestation of Trumpists who apparently don’t like our new MAGA hat design.  We’re fumigating the Salon right now.  The comments are the usual, with childish name calling, baseless boasting, and the occasional threat of violence because they disagree with us.  One of the recurring themes of these comments was “Trump isn’t impeached because Pelosi hasn’t sent the articles to the Senate”.  This talking point started in the last day or so, fueled by Harvard law professor Noah Feldman (yes, the same Noah Feldman who testified in favor of impeachment a couple of weeks ago) making the argument that Trump’s not impeached until the Senate gets the articles.  Almost every other legal scholar disagrees, including Jonathan Turley, the only legal expert to testify against impeaching Trump during the House investigation.  Even Feldman admitted that the issue is more “symbolic than practical”.  The Constitution says that the House has the “sole power to impeach”.  It doesn’t say anything about it having to go to the Senate to be an impeachment.  The Senate has the “sole power” to hold the trial.  I wouldn’t count on McConnell doing anything legal or Constitutional.  After all, he sat on Obama’s SCOTUS nominee for a year, never holding one single hearing or even meeting the nominee.

That doesn’t matter to Trumpists and the talking point has taken off in the echo chamber, as most RW bullshit does, proliferating on websites, and, of course, Fox Noise.  Like all other of their memes and silly arguments their false indignation has nothing to do with the law, Constitution, or even basic morals, but all about tribe.  Their spray painted, bad combed over cheesy reality television star is not a felon who pays bribes to porn stars and extorts foreign leaders for self gain, he’s “a real person”, “salt of the earth”, and even…wait for it…”sent by God.”  Statements that make normal people slack jawed are articles of faith for Teabaggers-cum-Trumpists.  It’s weird, but very consistent.

Anyhoo, back to fumigating.

Decades ago, I worked in NY City, an experience burned into my memory that I’ll never forget.  During that time, I became very familiar with Trump, his egomaniac behavior, and how he was viewed by others.  When I was there, Ed Koch was mayor of NY who served from 1978 to 1989.  I knew that Koch was a very popular mayor even after several scandals consumed his last term.  I also knew that Trump was hated in NY, especially by the business community who mocked his cheesy business tactics and tacky taste in his buildings.  What I didn’t know was that  he and Koch feuded regularly during that time.  There were several occasions where Trump offered to finish city construction projects or waive his real estate fees.  He reneged on all of those offers when Koch refused to put Trump’s name on the projects including the skating rink in Central Park.

The depth of Koch’s hatred of Trump wasn’t really known until a number of papers, including essays written by him in the 80s and early 90s surfaced in 2017.  Here are some sweet tidbits:

“I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized.”

“Donald Trump is one of the least likable people I have met during the 12 years that I served as mayor.  It is incomprehensible to me that for some people he has become a folk hero.”

“Trump obviously considered himself to be my friend at one time, and because of that, or because he gave or raised $70,000 for one of my mayoral campaigns, he expected something in return. He never got it. And he thought that was disloyal.”

Koch also recounted an experience of a friend who was going to have a meeting with Trump.  A London merchant who knew Trump predicted what would happen:

“Ten minutes into the meeting the phone on Trump’s desk will ring. He will answer it and say, ‘You offered them $40 million and they turned it down? Offer them $60 million.’ He will then hang up and resume his meeting with you.”

“That is exactly what happened.”

I have known what a horrible human being Trump was and is.  It is incomprehensible to me why ANY person would believe any words coming out of his mouth, much less do business with him.

Trump sent a wild six page screed to Nancy Pelosi today raging about his well deserved impeachment, accusing her and the Dems of everything from treason to shredding the Constitution.  It’s all 100% bullshit, of course, the ravings of a guilty criminal.  Factcheck has posted an annotated copy of the letter, outlining all of his lies.  You have to hold your nose to read the letter.  The smell is overwhelmingly revolting.

We often focus on the obvious about Trump: Thin-skinned narcissist, cheesy reality television star, criminal, schoolyard bully, prolific liar, lazy spray painted hair-weaved fake, skirt chasing philanderer, welsher, and pretty much all-round shitbag.  But that’s not all.  Except for disassembling our government and packing the courts with incompetent ideologues, Trump really doesn’t do anything.  His trade wars are circular and have only accomplished 3 things – bankrupting US farmers and businesses, costing the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, and finally, handing global trade dominance to the Chinese.

But there is something else he does that almost no one focuses on; he roils the markets with his sudden proclamations.  It goes something like this:

Trump runs a never ending cycle in almost everything he does while never really accomplishing anything.  Without warning, he slaps tariffs on selected imports, crashing the markets, then he starts making off the cuff comments about some kind of “deal” that increases with time.  The market rallies, nothing with trade changes, then he attacks China (or whatever country du jour), crashes the markets again.  Rinse and repeat.  He uses the same tactic with not only trade talks, but in negotiations with allies, foes, and actually dangerous countries like North Korea.  Part of his tactic includes spouting bullshit on national television while standing in front of his helicopter with turbine engines screaming in the background, called by Stephen Colbert “Chopper Talk”.

But it’s more nefarious than that.  Every time Trump shoots off his mouth and moves the markets, somebody makes a lot of money while somebody else loses a lot of money.  I have always believe he does this on purpose, especially when markets are sagging due to his trade wars or other idiocy.  In fact, one of his buddies, aging corporate raider Carl Icahn, saved millions when he dumped $31 million in shares of steel industry stocks just days before Trump announced steep China import tariffs.  But it gets worse – in October, Vanity Fair published an article documenting very suspicious trades in the S&P futures markets timed precisely to make hundreds of millions of dollars when a Trump proclamation moves the markets.  We know Trump intentionally manipulates markets with lies.   One well documented case was last August when Trump blatantly lied at the G7 summit that he was talking to top officials in China when there were no talks occurring.  The markets rallied at the lie, only to trade off when nothing happened – again.

Trump has always gotten away with questionable, if not outright illegal activity.  It’s engrained in his DNA.  He’s not constrained by rules and laws normal people follow, and it would not be in the slightest bit surprising that, in addition to his random lying, he (or someone close to him) was actually signaling to associates when he was going to make some big proclamation so they could get on the right side of a particular trade to rake in cash.  It certainly looks like it.  As one of Vanity Fair’s trading sources said, “There is definitely some hanky panky going on.”