One of my favorite movies of all time is Inherit The Wind. If you’ve never seen that movie, you are missing something. It’s the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Spencer Tracy and Frederic March give bravura performances as Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. Gene Kelly was cast in a non-musical role as the reporter, most likely based upon H.L. Mencken, who had a great deal to say about the case back in the day. Mencken, if the name is ringing a bell, is the man who said, ““As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
We have all lived to see Mencken’s prophecy fulfilled. The man was considered quite the cynic in his day. I believe he was an astute judge of human nature and far ahead of his time. Back to my original train of thought: Clarence Darrow, the foremost lawyer of his day and considered a great and progressive thinker as well, defended John Scopes, the Tennessee teacher who taught evolution, arguing words that sound remarkably similar to what Donald Trump, Jr. is arguing here. Friends: we have seen many remarkable things come to pass in the Era of Trump. But if the “mind” who is going to defend the former president is what’s left of Don Junior’s, we are truly in for hilarity of a sort that I would not have thought possible.
They need to work with him on his dosage. Clearly took about 7x the recommended amount for an adult male.
— Crazy Fenak (@CrazyFenaker) January 10, 2024
“Journalism is dead, it has been for a while. They are simple regime propagandists,” — whereas Junior is a man who knows the truth. “They feel like Trump is going to act like they would act — if they were back in power.” Um…Junior? Scuse me. Last I knew Joe Biden was in the White House and the Democrats ran the Senate and were only a few seats away from control of the House. So, who’s in power now, exactly?
I like the end, where the host is trying to squeeze in a word edgewise. And I like the J6 rioters who are presently incarcerated going from being characterized as “hostages” to “political opposition.” These were people who broke into government buildings, made caa caa on the floor, trashed the personal property of elected officials, trashed government property and threatened bodily harm to the then-Speaker of the House, and the then-Vice President of the United States. This is lawbreaking, Junior. But you believe that in “law, logic and reason, the facts are on YOUR side.” I think I need to lie down with an ice pack.
He’s not a nobody on right-wing media, he’s a mainstay. That’s the problem right there. We’ve got two versions of reality and Junior’s is the chemically fueled version.
Let’s see how law, logic and reason all factor in to what happens to Daddy Trump. And we’ll continue to keep an eye on Junior. The irony here is that Junior reportedly hates his father and certainly that’s understandable. Yet, his current life’s “work” is to get loaded and defend Dad on podcasts and right-wing media.
That’s got to involve some kind of a mind spin. I have problems even imagining that. Mary Trump says that her cousin, Don Junior, just didn’t have the strength of character to break away from his father and build his own life. The siren call of money and power was too great. Well, Junior may have some money. I’m not sure what his “power” is in this day and age, other than to publicly disgrace himself. I hope that at the end of the day he decides it was worth it to sell his soul to his degenerate father. Everything Trump Touches Dies, including his own childrens’ spirits.
He told a story, picked up during an interview, about receiving a monogrammed sweater one Christmas from his dad. They have the same initials. He laughed,(instead of crying), that it was the same sweater he’d given his dad previously. That speaks volumes about how valued he is and the kind of father Trump is. My own father was a tortured man, who joined the Air Force by getting my grandmother to sign papers saying he was 18 when he was several years younger. She lived on a farm in Virginia in one of the hollers with her other four boys and a daughter. Hardscrabble folks and with wild boys, as he was. He was a Korean war vet, and became violent when he drank. His demons were let loose. When he didn’t he was a good father with a lot of friends. Even though there were plenty of ugly scenes, he always tried to show us he was there if and when we needed him. I always knew he loved us…it was himself he didn’t love. I wouldn’t trade places with Don Jr, no matter what I went through. I can’t imagine having Trump for a father. It must be hell, worse than the violence I survived. I probably would use whatever he uses to numb my pain of being meaningless to my dad. It doesn’t excuse him, but I think I understand why.
There is much about Mencken to criticize but you’re right – he was often a keen, accurate observer of the country and the American people. One of his quotes is “Democracy is the theory that the common man knows what he wants, and deserves to get it good and hard.” Think about that for a second folks because it’s another way of saying be careful what you wish for because you’re not going to like it if you get what you want sometimes.
When it comes to Trump, Mencken was prescient and the tragic fact is that for FAR too many people they got what they wanted (and got fucked though they refuse to believe it) and so have the rest of us had to live with the consequences. Mencken in his prime would have written commentary that would proverbially cut out Trump’s heart and he’d eat in in front of Trump – while cutting off his “junk” and stuffing those little family jewels down Trump’s throat!
I would love to have three people still with us today to comment on our present situation; Hunter S. Thompson, Mencken, and George Carlin. It may not change the madness but the dark humor would be wind beneath my wings.
Cheerful French tourists, just like the J6 gang.
Actually, it appears to me that Junior is channeling the March/Bryan character Henry Drummond. He did not take care of his health, was always ingesting too much food, and worked himself into such apoplexy about how right he was that he collapsed and died! Junior’s food is cocaine and his over-eating is gonna catch up with him! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!! Sing it, Junior!
Holy Mother of Gahd! I haven’t heard speed-rapping like that since the 80’s! If he could focus he could be an auctioneer, but…
The guy is bat-shit bonkers!
You stick with what you are good at. Since Junior isn’t very smart and does not have great contacts (Warren Buffett surely laughs at him), and is a talentless thug bit good enough at leg breaking for the mob to.hire him, he has to.go with his sole ability: kissing Daddy’s \diapered ass.