President Dwight D. Eisenhower is alleged to have said, “Things are more like they are now than they ever have been.” *
That was probably true then. Sadly, it seems even more so now.
This could lead one to conclude that our ancestors never knew how good they had it. That’s a risky line of thought, though. Not to suggest that these things are in any way equal, but back in Ike’s day, in certain parts of the country, drinking from the wrong water fountain could get a person killed, single women could not get a credit card, and sidewalks were minefields of dog waste.
What you most emphatically did not have then, though, was a televised cabinet meeting like the one on Tuesday, during which the president rambled on for nearly a minute, about how someone could “become very wealthy” if they developed a paint which looks like gold. This was followed by a poll of cabinet members, on whether the moldings in the cabinet room should be painted or gold-leafed.
Such moments are familiar, of course, to anyone who has listened to an senile family member ruminating about some peculiar life-long obsession. The responses of others to these episodes typically will depend on the internal dynamics of the family.
If, through a lifetime of thoughtful personal behavior, the elderly party has built up a reserve of good will among the family, they’ll be coddled and gently accomodated. Others, sad to say, will have tyrannically lorded over less-powerful members of the family unit. Sometimes, in such cases, karma does its job. For the sordid-yet-hilarious details, see the film, “The Death of Stalin.”
Fortunately, your run-of-the-mill grandpa lacks the power to single-handedly start a nuclear war and thus end our alleged civilization as we know it. This grandpa, on the other hand—a “mentally deranged dotard,” according to North Korean head of state Kim Jong Un—always has that power, instantly available at the tip of his short fingers.
That is why it was so disconcerting when the president himself blew up at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
New York Post reporter Steve Nelson lit the fuse when he tried to ask Attorney General Pam Bondi about “lingering mysteries” surrounding the late pedophile and friend of the president, Jeffrey Epstein.
Bondi began to reply, only to be rudely interrupted by her boss. The New Republic transcribed his fulminations:
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump replied angrily. “This guy has been talked about for years. You’re asking—we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And, are people still talking about this guy? This creep?
“That is unbelievable. Do you wanna waste the time?” he said, gesturing to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Do you wanna waste the time? I mean I can’t believe you’re asking a question about Epstein at a time like this, when we’re having some of the greatest success, and also tragedy, with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”
Seems like a touchy subject. Can’t imagine why.
Perhaps it’s because former First Buddy Elon Musk tweeted late last week, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
About the time the president had his Cabinet Room Chernobyl, Musk alleged in another tweet, “Bannon is in the Epstein files.” Musk was replying to Roger Stone, who was making his own insinuations about Bannon’s connections with the 21st century’s most infamous pervert.
There does come a point at which all of this devolves into an infinite number of monkeys banging away on typewriters. Right Wing Watch found a clip of QAnon conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin arguing that the president’s attempt to sweep Epstein’s corpse under the rug of the Oval Office is “5D chess… a brilliant way to get the mainstream media to cover Jeffrey Epstein.”
Perhaps we’re grasping at straws, but it does seem like the Trump cult is devoting a lot of its bandwith to fighting among themselves. In that battle, wish them all the success in the world.
They can’t destroy each other fast enough to suit us, because the damage they’re doing elsewhere is mounting by the minute.
In one particularly galling development, in late June a notice warned that the National Archives in College Park, Md., would, on July 7th, “become a restricted-access federal facility with access only for visitors with a legitimate business need.” We can see it now: re-branded as The Trump Memory Hole, with authorization to be granted, no doubt, by MAGA theocrats.
OK, we exaggerate. But only by a little. The official notice did appear, but now has—oh, the irony—disappeared itself. As is the norm these days, no one can get an anwer as to what this was all about. We suspect a phalanx of stern librarians stood up and faced down the bullies.
If they can do it, so can we. We can, and we must.
* According to a reliable authority, quoteinvestigator.com, if Ike ever did say that, he was not the first to do so.