"Context Is All."

#URGENT: The US just surpassed 16 million Covid-19 cases. It only took 4 days to go from 15 million to 16 million cases, marking the fastest the US has ever reached a million milestone.

— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) December 12, 2020

Seeing people I knew personally use their public platforms to participate in Trump cult stuff like today’s rally will never not be unsettling. I’ve asked myself, “Was the wool pulled over my eyes back then, or have they gone off the deep end?” I think it’s a combination of both.

— Lucy Caldwell (@lucymcaldwell) December 12, 2020

The Lovely Wife and I were having this exact conversation the other night:  has Rudy always been a dick, or did he become one?  I contend people, especially in the public eye, just become who they always were, especially in advancing years as the effort to maintain another persona becomes too much effort (or they just suffer too much exposure).  Rudy was a brilliant prosecutor in his youth; just ask him!  I've known a number of brilliant lawyers, but they never had to brag about their accomplishments or make sure the press spelled their name right.  Their work was their reputation, not their talent for self-promotion.  Rudy was labeled "America's Mayor" by a bunch of airheads in the NYC-based national media.  Nobody I knew ever thought of him that way, anymore than we thought the Dallas Cowboy's were "America's Team" (and I was  a Cowboys fan at the time).  Such labels always hide a multitude of sins; they never reveal truth.  Time, I find, does.  Slowly, relentlessly, surely.  Rudy is who he has always been.  It's just obvious, now.  QED.

I’m telling you there is going to be a Trump Party https://t.co/NOUqJWnQWO

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) December 12, 2020

Whatever happened to Ross Perot's party? Same thing. Trump didn't even show up for this; and he never will.  (For those of you who don't remember, Perot actually started a third-party so he could run against Poppy and Clinton.  The party fell apart as Perot's candidacy did, and he ignored it as it collapsed without him.  History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.)

Opinion: Cults of personality in American politics are quite common. But they never live long, and Trump has offered no reason to suppose he will be an exception. https://t.co/eyK0ccxcEw

— POLITICO (@politico) December 10, 2020

That one is pretty much dead on.