Be Afraid. 😱 Be VERY Afraid!😱 Or, Not.

Desperate Trump's 'final battle' is to destroy America — and that's not an exaggeration

Uh,  yeah, it is.

I remember a”Fantastic Four” comic book that ended with Dr. Doom defeated (of course) and returning to Latveria, the country he ruled. As he left, Ben Grimm lamented the escape, but father-figure Reed Richards said trying to take over the world was not a crime, and Doom had diplomatic immunity, so nothing could be done.

Of course, it’s a comic book; Doom must escape to reappear again and again, year after year. It’s also a child’s understanding of law and diplomatic immunity (Doom always claims that as protection against the mayhem he personally unleashes on New York City at least once a year). Doom is a super-villain. Unless he tries to take over the world, he’s not really trying.

Comic book villains are always trying to take over the world. In comic book movies they do this through magic (a/k/a technology, which just points up the fatuousness of Arthur Clarke’s famous statement on the subject), or pure fantasy. And they are stopped by heroes who are also creatures of fantasy (or magical technology).

But Trump has the power to destroy the United States? I’m pretty sure that was tried in the Civil War, and that wasn’t done single-handed by Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee. The destruction of America again might have been the result of the Great Depression, but for the FDR administrations. But Trump alone can do it?

Isn’t that what he says? Do I have to accept Trump’s argument, in order to defeat Trump? Is that how this works?

Trump is a rambling old fool with delusions of grandeur. I just heard his lawyer try to defend his impossible position on being a criminal defendant and a candidate for the nomination of the GOP. The appellate panel was having none of it. Away from the fever swamps of Twitter and the horse race punditry of cable news, two hothouses that raise strange blossoms that wither with the next poll or election, and which can’t exist outside the environment where they are created and tended, Trump is a ranting old man, not a clear and present danger. ⛔️ 

Trump wants absolute authority, and he wants it absolutely everywhere. But he’s not getting it. I don’t know if the judge who administratively stayed Chutkan’s order was on the panel today, but that panel was concerned with the law and how to apply it. Repeatedly Sauer was asked for the test he would have the court apply, one that would work for all persons similarly situated. And repeatedly, Sauer argued Trump was sui generis and must be given special treatment unavailable to mere mortals. No, he wasn’t that blatant, but he might as well have been. And the panel grew frustrated with his argument, which was clearly meant to establish special conditions for Trump because: Trump.

Yeah, it doesn’t work that way; and it’s not going to.

Polls show Trump tied or ahead (within MOE) of Biden. Well, the latest NBC poll does. Which means people are cursing the devil they know and wondering if the devil they don’t know is all that bad. Status quo for a year before a Presidential election, IOW. By next November voters will once again favor the devil they know, which is why incumbents almost always win re-election (and why the President was limited to two terms after four terms of FDR). It’s also why Trump won more votes in 2020 than he got in 2016.

So is he going to win again, this time destroy America? Not unless he has done magical or fantasy powers. And not unless he wins in November. Remembering that if he doesn’t, he can’t “cling to power” this time. And if that NYT/Siena poll is any guide, his support craters with just one felony conviction.

He’s facing 91. And given the quality of legal representation he’s been showing in New York and D.C., in trial and on appeal, Trump has much more reason to worry than the country does.