“And the most glorious episodes do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
“Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
Those needing a modern demonstration of this truth need only turn to the story now igniting the Internet—especially X: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s proud confession of shooting her 14-month-old wirehair pointer named “Cricket.”
Kristi Noem
The confession (“I hated that dog”)comes in her new book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, which will be published in May.
The British newspaper, The Guardian, obtained an advance copy and published excerpts from it. And that’s when the firestorm erupted.
Cricket’s “crimes”: Being disobedient, being a poor hunter during a pheasant hunting trip and later attacking and killing a neighbor’s chickens.
According to Noem, she hoped to calm the young dog down. But Cricket had other ideas, ruining the hunt and “going out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.”
Cricket
Noem called Cricket, which didn’t lead to the desired response. So she tried an electronic “shock” collar. That didn’t work, either.
Then, on the way home after the hunt, Noem stopped to talk to a local family. And that was when Cricket became the hunter Noem wanted her to be.
She leaped out of Noem’s truck and attacked the farmer’s chickens—“grabbing one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”
For Noem, Cricket—who didn’t want to kill pheasants—now behaved like “a trained assassin.” Noem grabbed Cricket, but the dog “whipped around to bite me.”
As the chickens’ owner wept, Noem apologized and wrote the family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them disposes of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime.”
Through it all, writes Noem, Cricket was “the picture of pure joy.”
For Noem, Cricket’s “crimes” were unforgivable—and utterly deserving of the death penalty: She was
“untrainable”
“dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and
“less than worthless…as a hunting dog.”
So Noem got her shotgun and led Cricket to a gravel pit.
“It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
Her family also owned a male goat—unnamed in the book—that was “nasty and mean”because it hadn’t been castrated. Worse, it smelled “disgusting, musty, rancid” and “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and ruining their clothing.
She dragged the goat to the same gravel pit. But just as she pulled the trigger on her shotgun the animal jumped and was only wounded. Noem went back to her truck, got another shell, then “hurried back to the gravel pit and put him down.”
At that point a school bus dropped off Noem’s children. “Hey, where’s Cricket?” her seven-year-old daughter, Kennedy, asked.
Most responses to the slaughters were furious and unforgiving:
Rick Wilson, a member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, called Noem “deliberately cruel” and “trash.”
Ryan Busse, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Montana, said: “Anyone who has ever owned a birddog knows how disgusting, lazy and evil this is. Damn.”
Meghan McCain, daughter of former U.S. Senator John McCain: “You can recover from a lot of things in politics, change the narrative etc – but not from killing a dog.”
Podcaster Tommy Vietor called Noem “Jeffrey Dahmer with veneers”, a reference to a famous serial killer and a recent scandal over Noem’s cosmetic dentistry treatment.
In March, she posted a laudatory video about cosmetic dental surgery that she had received in Texas. She claimed that a team of cosmetic dentists had given her a smile she can be proud of.
She’s being sued for not stating she had a financial interest in the product she was hustling.
In a post to X (formerly Twitter) Noem wrote: “What I learned from my years of public service, especially leading South Dakota through Covid, is people are looking for leaders who are authentic, willing to learn from the past, and don’t shy away from tough challenges.
“My hope is anyone reading this book will have an understanding that I always work to make the best decisions I can for the people in my life.”
Among the “tough challenges” Noem wants to take on is becoming Vice President nominee to Donald Trump. Trump has already wrapped up the Republican nomination for President. And this has set off a scramble among Republican politicians to become his running mate.
It may be that Noem expected her admission of killing a defenseless dog and goat as the best way to prove to Trump that she can be as ruthless as himself. She might even be hinting that she would be willing to attack his opponents as brutally as she dealt with Cricket.
“And the most glorious episodes do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
“Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
So warned the ancient historian, Plutarch, in the introduction to his biography of Alexander the Great.
It’s well to keep this warning in mind when recalling the story of 17-year-old Tyler Linfesty, now known as “Plaid Shirt Guy.”
On September 6, 2018, Linfesty, a high school senior, attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Billings, Montana. He had wanted to see the President of the United States speak in his home state.
And, much to his surprise, he was randomly chosen by the Trump campaign for “VIP status.” He would be seated directly behind Trump.
But this came with a warning: “You have to be enthusiastic, you have to be clapping, you have to be cheering for Donald Trump.”
Before he attended the rally, Trump staffers urged him to wear a “Make America Great Again” cap, but he refused.
Owing to his varied facial expressions and his plaid shirt, he quickly became known on the Internet as “Plaid-Shirt Guy.”
Tyler Linfesty
Then, while the rally was still going, Linfesty was approached by a Trump minion who said: “I’m gonna replace you.”
He hadn’t been heckling Trump. Nor had he held up an anti-Trump sign.
So why was he suddenly ejected?
Without being given a reason, Linfesty was forced to come up with one himself. And his best guess: He didn’t cheer when Trump made statements he disagreed with.
He had applauded those parts of Trump’s speech he did agree with—such as opposition to NAFTA. He also agreed with Trump’s claim that the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination was stolen from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
But there were parts of Trump’s speech he disagreed with—such as Trump’s claim that his “tax reform law” benefits the middle class.
(It doesn’t—its foremost beneficiaries comprise the top 1%.)
Thus, Linfesty looked skeptical when Trump said it was harder to win the Electoral College than the popular vote.
(It isn’t. A candidate need only win those states with the most electoral votes. He needn’t win the popular vote—just as Trump failed to win it against Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes.)
Donald Trump
And when Trump said he could have won the popular vote, Linfesty turned to several people near him and mouthed “What?”
As Linfesty explained to CNN’s Don Lemon: “I had to be real with myself. I’m not going to pretend to support something I don’t support.”
Apparently this was too much for those staging the rally.
“I saw this woman walking toward me on the left,” Linfesty told the BillingsGazette. “She just said to me, ‘I’m going to replace you.’ I just walked off. I knew I was getting out for not being enthusiastic enough, but I decided not to fight it.”
But being removed from the Trump speech was not the end for Linfesty.
He was then detained by the United States Secret Service.
“Some Secret Service guys escorted me into this backroom area, and they just sat me down for 10 minutes,” said Linfesty. The agents looked at his ID, then released him—and told him not to return.
The Secret Service is charged with protecting the President (and, in a lesser-known duty, protecting the national currency). It is not charged with regulating the free speech rights of Americans.
It is, in short, not supposed to operate as the dreaded, black-uniformed SS of Nazi Germany.
Ironically, earlier that morning, Trump had tweeted a thank-you to North Korea’s brutal dictator Kim Jong-Un.
The reason: Kim had said he had “unwavering faith in President Trump.”
Thus, a dictator who flatters Trump gets treated to praise, while an American exercising his right to free speech faces possible arrest.
Speaking to the Gazette, Linfesty said: “I didn’t really have a plan. I was just going to clap for things I agreed with and not clap for things I didn’t agree with.”
And he insisted to CNN’s Don Lemon that his facial expressions had been honest: “I would have made those faces if anyone were to say that to me. I was not trying to protest, those were just my actual, honest reactions.
“Each time I see one of these rallies I see somebody behind Donald Trump clapping and cheering and being super enthusiastic and I’ve always wondered myself, ‘Are those people being really genuine?’”
Two months to the day after Linfesty’s ordeal, Democrats recaptured the House of Representatives, but failed to win a majority in the Senate.
The next day, Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Since May, 2017, Trump had brutally insulted Sessions for refusing to suppress Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election.
It is no accident that Donald Trump praises brutal dictators like Kim Jong-Un, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. They embody the type of all-powerful strongman that he aspires to be.
In a closed-door speech to Republican donors on March 3, 2018, President Donald Trump revealed his ultimate intention: To overthrow America’s constitutional government.
He praised China’s President, Xi Jinping, for recently assuming full dictatorial powers: “He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
The statement was greeted with cheers and laughter by Republican donors.
Upon taking office as the Nation’s 45th President, Donald Trump attacked or undermined one public or private institution after another.
Donald Trump
Among these:
American Intelligence: Even before taking office, Trump refused to accept the findings of the FBI, CIA and NSA that Russian Intelligence agents had intervened in the 2016 election to ensure his victory.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it….No, I don’t believe it at all.”
And when FBI Director James Comey dared to pursue a probe into “the Russia thing,” Trump fired him without warning.
American law enforcement agencies: Trump repeatedly attacked his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for not “protecting” him from agents pursuing the Russia investigation.
On November 8, 2018, Trump abruptly fired him, following Democrats’ winning control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.
He threatened to fire Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who oversaw Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
He intended to fire Mueller during the summer of 2017, but was talked out of it by aides fearful that it would set off calls for his impeachment.
American military agencies:In 2020, Trump declined to visit an American cemetery near Paris in 2018, and referred to U.S. Marines buried there as “losers” and “suckers.”
While President, Trump regularly abused military officials, calling Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley a “dumbass” and former Secretary of Defense James Mattis “the world’s most overrated general.”
The press: On February 17, 2017, Trump tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing@nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Appearing before the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24, Trump said: “I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake, phony, fake….I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources. They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there.”
The judiciary: Trump repeatedly attacked Seattle US District Judge James Robart, who halted Trump’s first travel ban.
In one tweet, Trump claimed: “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!”
At Trump’s bidding, White House aide Stephen Miller attacked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: “We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become, in many cases, a supreme branch of government.”
President Barack Obama:For five years, Trump popularized the slander that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya—and was therefore not an American citizen or a legitimate President..
Even after Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate—on April 27, 2011—Trump tweeted, on August 6, 2012: “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.”
Trump was later forced to admit he had no evidence to back up his slanderous claims.
Barack Obama
* * * * *
Nor, since leaving the White House, has Trump stopped trying to undermine one American institution after another.
Facing 91 criminal counts in four cases, he has discredited the judicial system, attacking judges, prosecutors, witnesses—and even their family members.
He has attacked Independent Counsel Jack Smith as “deranged” and accused him of trying to invalidate his candidacy for President in 2024.
He has attacked retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley for calling him “a wannabe dictator,” and said that Milley deserved execution as a traitor.
Milley had successfully averted war with China by calling his Chinese military counterparts in the final weeks of Trump’s administration to assure them that Trump was not planning to attack China.
He claims voter fraud where none exists, casting doubt on the integrity of the electoral system.
He claims himself to be the victim of “the deep state” inside the federal bureaucracy.
He attacks the integrity of the FBI—causing previously “law and order” Republicans to demand its defunding.
Donald Trump isn’t crazy, as many of his critics charge. He knows exactly what he’s doing—and why.
He intends to strip every potential challenger to his authority—or his version of reality—of legitimacy with the public. If he succeeds, there will be:
No independent press to reveal his failures and crimes.
No independent law enforcement agencies to investigate his abuses of office.
No independent judiciary to hold him accountable.
No independent military to dissent as he recklessly hurtles toward a nuclear disaster.
No candidate—Democrat or Republican—to challenge him for re-election in 2028—or any other year..
No candidate—Democrat or Republican—to challenge his remaining in office as “President-for-Life.”
And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.
—Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”
In a closed-door speech to Republican donors on March 3, 2018, President Donald Trump proved the accuracy of Plutarch’s observation.
He praised China’s President, Xi Jinping, for recently assuming full dictatorial powers: “He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
The statement was greeted with cheers and laughter by Republican donors.
And, in making that unguarded statement, Trump revealed his ultimate intention: To overthrow America’s constitutional government.
Donald Trump
Since then, Trump continued to “joke” about serving more than the legal limit of eight years.
In April, 2019, at a White House event, he said he might remain in the Oval Office “at least for 10 or 14 years.”
In May, 2019, Trump retweeted Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s suggestion that he’s owed “2 yrs added to his 1st term” due to distractions caused by the Robert Mueller investigation.
Anyone who thought he was simply joking got a rude awakening on July 30, 2020, when Trump tweeted: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
Leaders of both Republican and Democratic parties quickly attacked Trump for suggesting that the election might be delayed.
With COVID-19 ravaging the nation and many economists predicting a coming Depression, Trump was desperate to reverse his falling poll numbers. But the election was now less than 100 days away and, short of a miracle—or indefinitely postponing the vote—he looked increasingly like a one-term President.
Coronavirus
Since taking office as the Nation’s 45th President, Donald Trump had attacked or undermined one public or private institution after another.
Among these:
American Intelligence: Even before taking office, Trump refused to accept the findings of the FBI, CIA and NSA that Russian Intelligence agents had intervened in the 2016 election to ensure his victory.
And when FBI Director James Comey dared to pursue a probe into “the Russia thing,” Trump fired him without warning.
American law enforcement agencies: Trump repeatedly attacked—and later fired—his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for not “protecting” him from agents pursuing the Russia investigation.
He repeatedly attacked the integrity of Deputy FBI Director Andrew G. McCabe until the latter resigned.
He threatened to fire Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversaw Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
The press: On February 17, 2017, Trump tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing@nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Seven days later, appearing before the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24, Trump said: “I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake, phony, fake….I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources. They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there.”
The judiciary: Trump repeatedly attacked Seattle U.S/ District Judge James Robart, who halted Trump’s first travel ban.
At Trump’s bidding, White House aide Stephen Miller attacked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: “We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become, in many cases, a supreme branch of government.”
President Barack Obama:For five years, Trump, more than anyone else, popularized the slander that Barack Obama was born in Kenya—and was therefore not an American citizen.
Even after Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate—on April 27, 2011—Trump tweeted, on August 6, 2012: “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.”
Barack Obama
On March 4, 2017, in a series of unhinged tweets, Trump accused Obama of tapping his Trump Tower phones prior to the election: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Trump was later forced to admit he had no evidence to back up his slanderous claims.
* * * * *
Donald Trump wasn’t crazy, as many of his critics charge. He knew what he was doing—and why.
He had tried to strip every potential challenger to his authority–and version of reality—of legitimacy. He intends there will be:
No independent press to reveal his failures and crimes.
No independent law enforcement agencies to investigate his abuses of office.
No independent judiciary to hold him accountable.
No independent military to dissent as he recklessly hurtles toward a nuclear disaster.
No candidate—Democrat or Republican—to challenge him for re-election in 2020.
In short: No one—ever—to challenge his remaining in office as “President-for-Life.”
And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men. Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.
—Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”
On January 6, 2021, Hope Hicks had a problem: She feared she might never work again.
She had served in President Donald Trump’s administration as White House Director of Strategic Communication from January to September, 2017.
From 2017 to 2018 she served as White House Communications Director. After leaving the White House, she returned to serve as Counselor to the President from 2020 to 2021.
Hope Hicks
And then came the Trump-inspired attack on Congress on January 6.
Among the infamies and crimes Trump committed—and Hicks witnessed—during his four years as President:
Repeatedly attacking the nation’s free press as “the enemy of the American people” for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters.
Publicly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—which unanimously agreed that Russia had interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
Giving highly classified CIA Intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Using his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
Attacking and alienating America’s oldest allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
Firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
Two Fuhrers: Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump
Shutting down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his useless “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay for 35 days.
Allowing the deadly COVID-19 virus to ravage the country, killing 400,000 Americans by the time he left office.
Attacking medical experts and governors who urged Americans to wear masks and socially distance to protect themselves against the deadly COVID-19 virus.
Urging his followers to illegally vote twice for him in the upcoming 2020 Presidential election.
Repeatedly lying—while still in office and afterward—that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him by massive voter fraud.
Illegally trying to pressure state legislatures and governors to stop the certification of the vote that had made Joe Biden the president-elect.
Inciting his followers to attack the Capitol Building where Senators and Representatives were meeting to count the Electoral Votes won by himself and Joe Biden. His objective: Stop the count, which he knew would prove him the loser.
So Hope had plenty to feel tormented about.
Yet it wasn’t any of these offenses that upset her.
It was something far more personal: She feared that the public’s association of her with Trump’s attack on Congress would doom her, at age 32, to permanent unemployment.
On January 6, 2021, she exchanged a series of texts with Julie Radford, First Daughter Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff.
HICKS: “In one day he [Trump] ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boys [sic] chapter
“And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed
“I’m so mad and upset
“We all look like domestic terrorists now”
RADFORD: “Oh yes I’ve been crying for an hour”
HICKS: “This made us all unemployable
“Like untouchable
“God I’m so fucking mad”
RADFORD: “I know there isn’t a chance of finding a job
“Visa also sent me a blow off email today
“Already”
HICKS: “Nope. Not being dramatic, but we are all fucked.
[Referring to Trump]: “Attacking the VP [Vice President Mike Pence]?
“Wtf is wrong with him”
Albert Speer, former architect and Minister of Armaments for his late Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, would have fully empathized.
With the collapse of the Third Reich, he found himself hurled from power and facing trial as a war criminal at Nuremberg.
His prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, said: “Speer joined in planning and executing the program to dragoon prisoners of war and foreign workers into German war industries, which waxed in output while the workers waned in starvation.”
Yet Speer falsely claimed he had simply been an apolitical architect who had been drafted into serving as Minister of Armaments—and hadn’t known about the Holocaust.
The prosecution couldn’t prove he had. So he escaped a death sentence—and was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.
Emerging from prison in 1966, Speer lamented that no architectural firm in postwar Germany would hire “Hitler’s architect.”
So he spent the rest of his life writing—at great profit—about his 12 years as a high-ranking official in the Third Reich. As “The Good Nazi,” he portrayed himself as a political innocent deceived into hell by a Mephistopheles-like Hitler.
Like Speer, Hope Hicks has repudiated her own former Fuhrer—after serving him during his worst infamies.
And, like Speer, she isn’t facing the dangers of poverty. Her net worth is estimated at $1 million, owing to her past work as a model and public relations agent.
And the most glorious episodes do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men. Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
—Plutarch, Alexander the Great
It’s all about him.
By March 27, more than 100,000 Americans had died of COVID-19.
According to sociology professor Kathleen Cagney, who directs the University of Chicago’s Population Research Center: “What is different about this is, it is affecting all of us in a variety of ways, even if some of us are able to social distance in more effective ways than others. But we all feel at risk.”
But Donald Trump, President of the United States, had a far bigger worry than a virus that had no vaccine or cure. While others worried about the lives of their fellow Americans, Trump was worried about his chances for re-election the coming November.
Donald Trump
On March 27, Trump spoke by phone with evangelical leaders and thanked them for their past political support. Then, instead of focusing on the pandemic that threatened their flocks as well as everyone else, he urged them to focus on his own re-election.
“It’s a big date, November 3,” Trump said. “That’s going to be one of the biggest dates in the history of religion, as far as I’m concerned. So, I want you to be, we have to keep aware of that, ‘cause as we fight this, people are forgetting about anything else.
“You turn on the news, and all you see is the Coronavirus or whatever. Some people call it the Chinese virus, they call it a lot of different things—but the virus, that’s all you see. You don’t see anything else.
“So people are forgetting we have the most important election that we’ve had, and I guess when I say the 2016 election, perhaps that’ll always be very special for all of us, but without this one, without a victory here, so much of that can disappear.”
The conference call was organized by the Family Research Council, which is identified as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate groups in America.
Tony Perkins, the group’s leader, tried—but failed—to direct Trump’s attention to COVID-19. He asked Trump how he wanted the assembled pastors to pray for him.
Trump replied: “Well, I think the health of our country, the strength of our country. We were doing something amazing and then one day, it just ended. So that would be it, and the fact that we make the right choice on November 3 is very important. Tony, you understand that better than most.”
Eight days earlier, on March 19, Trump had had a very different conversation with governors desperately seeking medical equipment to fight COVID-19.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told Trump during a video conference:
“I’m not quite sure what to do with this, so I’m just going to throw it out there for you. We took very seriously the push [from Trump]….that we should not just rely on the [Federal Government] stockpile, that we should go out there and buy stuff and put in orders and try to create pressure on manufacturers and distributors, and I gotta tell you that on three big orders, we lost to the feds.”
Charlie Baker
Baker, a moderate Republican, added, “I’ve got a feeling that if someone has the chance to sell to you and to sell to me, I am going to lose on every one of those.”
Trump chuckled at the remark, clearly finding mirth in the misfortune of not only the governor but his constituents.
Trump replied he still wanted governors to obtain their own medical equipment—such as respirators and protective gear for doctors and nurses.
“Prices are always a component of that also. And maybe that’s why you lost to the feds, OK, that’s probably why,” Trump said, admitting that the federal government has greater buying power than any state.
The conference was a made-for-TV event at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington.
Trump repeated his belief that the onus should be on the states—and not the federal government—to obtain needed equipment to combat the pandemic.
“The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” Trump had earlier said at a White House briefing. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”
By contrast, Presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson had seen it as the responsibility of the Federal Government to ensure that help was directed where most needed.
Roosevelt is still revered as the President who saw Americans through the Great Depression. And Johnson receives praise for his championing of civil rights for blacks and efforts to eliminate poverty.
On the same day as Trump’s conference call with American governors, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city—then the center of the worst Coronavirus outbreak in the country—was two to three weeks away from running out of crucial medical supplies.
And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.
—Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”
In a closed-door speech to Republican donors on March 3, 2018, President Donald Trump proved the accuracy of Plutarch’s observation.
He praised China’s President, Xi Jinping, for recently assuming full dictatorial powers: “He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
The statement was greeted with cheers and laughter by Republican donors.
And, in making that unguarded statement, Trump revealed his ultimate intention: To overthrow America’s constitutional government.
Donald Trump
Since then, Trump has continued to “joke” about serving more than the legal limit of eight years.
In April, 2019, at a White House event, he said he might remain in the Oval Office “at least for 10 or 14 years.”
In May, 2019, Trump retweeted Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s suggestion that he’s owed “2 yrs added to his 1st term” due to distractions caused by the Robert Mueller investigation.
Anyone who thought he was simply joking got a rude awakening on July 30, 2020, when Trump tweeted: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
Leaders of both Republican and Democratic parties quickly attacked Trump for suggesting that the election might be delayed.
With COVID-19 ravaging the nation and many economists predicting a coming Depression, Trump is desperate to reverse his falling poll numbers. But the election is now less than 100 days away and, short of a miracle—or indefinitely postponing the vote—he looks increasingly like a one-term President.
Coronavirus
Since taking office as the Nation’s 45th President, Donald Trump has attacked or undermined one public or private institution after another.
Among these:
American Intelligence: Even before taking office, Trump refused to accept the findings of the FBI, CIA and NSA that Russian Intelligence agents had intervened in the 2016 election to ensure his victory.
And when FBI Director James Comey dared to pursue a probe into “the Russia thing,” Trump fired him without warning.
American law enforcement agencies: Trump repeatedly attacked—and later fired—his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for not “protecting” him from agents pursuing the Russia investigation.
He repeatedly attacked the integrity of Deputy FBI Director Andrew G. McCabe until the latter resigned.
He threatened to fire Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversaw Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
The press: On February 17, 2017, Trump tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing@nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Seven days later, appearing before the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24, Trump said: “I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake, phony, fake….I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources. They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there.”
The judiciary: Trump repeatedly attacked Seattle U.S/ District Judge James Robart, who halted Trump’s first travel ban.
At Trump’s bidding, White House aide Stephen Miller attacked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: “We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become, in many cases, a supreme branch of government.”
President Barack Obama:For five years, Trump, more than anyone else, popularized the slander that Barack Obama was born in Kenya—and was therefore not an American citizen.
Even after Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate—on April 27, 2011—Trump tweeted, on August 6, 2012: “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.”
Barack Obama
On March 4, 2017, in a series of unhinged tweets, Trump accused Obama of tapping his Trump Tower phones prior to the election: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Trump was later forced to admit he had no evidence to back up his slanderous claims.
* * * * *
Donald Trump isn’t crazy, as many of his critics charge. He knows what he’s doing—and why.
He has tried to strip every potential challenger to his authority–and version of reality—of legitimacy. He intends there will be:
No independent press to reveal his failures and crimes.
No independent law enforcement agencies to investigate his abuses of office.
No independent judiciary to hold him accountable.
No independent military to dissent as he recklessly hurtles toward a nuclear disaster.
No candidate—Democrat or Republican—to challenge him for re-election in 2020.
In short: No one—ever—to challenge his remaining in office as “President-for-Life.”
From October 10 to 12, 2019, attendees of the American Priority Conference at the Trump National Doral Miami resort got a treat that was supposed to be kept secret.
They got to watch a series of Right-wing videos featuring graphic acts of violence against those President Donald Trump hates. One of these, “The Trumpsman,” featured a digitized Trump shooting, stabbing and setting fire to such liberals as:
Former President Bill Clinton
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Former Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Former President Barack Obama
Vermont United States Senator Bernie Sanders
Even Republicans who have dared to disagree with Trump—such as Utah Senator Mitt Romney and the late Arizona Senator John McCain—met a brutal end.
Legitimate news media—such as CBS, BBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post—were also depicted as among Trump’s victims.
The New York Times broke the news of the video’s showing. Since then, the American Priority Conference has rushed to disavow it—and the firestorm of outrage it set off.
So has the Trump White House.
And America’s major news media have demanded that Trump strongly condemn the video.
If Donald Trump had a history of truthfulness and humanity, his denouncing the video would prove highly believable. But he has neither.
He is a serial liar—TheWashington Post noted on August 12, 2019 that, since taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump had made more than 12,000 false or misleading claims.
As for his reputation as a humanitarian:
As a Presidential candidate, Trump repeatedly used Twitter to attack hundreds of real and imagined enemies in politics, journalism, TV and films.
From June 15, 2015, when he launched his Presidential campaign, until October 24, 2016, Trump fired almost 4,000 angry, insulting tweets at 281 people and institutions that had somehow offended him.
And he has continued to do so. Since taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump had insulted hundreds of people (including private citizens), places, and institutions on Twitter, ranging from politicians to journalists and news outlets to entire countries.
Donald Trump
Summing up Trump’s legacy of hatred, longtime Republican Presidential adviser David Gergen said:
“Trump unleashed the dogs of hatred in this country from the day he declared he was running for president, and they’ve been snarling and barking at each other ever since. It’s just inevitable there are going to be acts of violence that grow out of that.”
So any Trump statement claiming that he strongly condemns the video should rightly be discounted as mere propaganda.
The video was first uploaded on YouTube in 2018 by a account named TheGeekzTeam. The GeekzTeam is a frequent contributor to MemeWorld, a pro-Trump website. Its creator was prominent Twitter user Carpe Donktum.
MemeWorld, embarrassed that its Right-wing porn has become a national scandal, now claims:
“The Kingsman video is CLEARLY satirical and the violence depicted is metaphoric. No reasonable person would believe that this video was a call to action or an endorsement of violence towards the media. The only person that could potentially be ‘incited’ by this video is Donald Trump himself, as the main character of the video is him. THERE IS NO CALL TO ACTION.”
Of course, that was not how the Right reacted in 2017 when comedian Kathy Griffin posed for a photograph holding up what was meant to look like Trump’s bloody, severed head.
A furious Right-wing backlash cost her gigs as a comedian and made her the target of a Secret Service investigation into whether she was a credible threat. She even had to buy metal detectors to post at her appearances at comedy clubs: “There were all kinds of incidents. A guy came at me with a knife in Houston.”
Cindy McCain, widow of Senator John McCain, wasn’t buying the Right’s disavowals, tweeting: “Reports describing a violent video played at a Trump Campaign event in which images of reporters & @John McCain are being slain by Pres Trump violate every norm our society expects from its leaders & the institutions that bare their names. I stand w/ @whca in registering my outrage”.
Nor was Democratic Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke: “This video isn’t funny. It will get people killed.”
* * * * *
The video was produced by Rightists who believed it reflected what Donald Trump would do to his enemies if only he could get away with it. And given his near-constant calls for violence against his critics, they were absolutely correct.
But the video’s critics are wrong to call for its suppression.
On the contrary—it should be seen for what it is: The Mein Kampf of Donald Trump and his fanatical followers, in and outside the Republican party.
Like Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, it depicts the future America can expect if the Right gains the power to live out its murderous fantasies.
And the fantasy Right-wingers prize most: The brutal extermination of everyone who refuses to submit to their Fascistic tyranny.
The hour is late and the clock is ticking as the Right conspires to give Trump this power as “President-for-Life.”
It now remains to be seen if enough Americans are willing to stand fast against the brutal intentions of these specialists in evil.
And the most glorious episodes do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
—Plutarch, Alexander the Great
It’s in “The Church of Fake News” that President Donald Trump finally revenges himself upon his many enemies.
He walks down an aisle, reaches into his suit jacket pocket, pulls out a .45 automatic—which seems to have an endless magazine—and opens fire on:
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
Former President Bill Clinton
Democratic Representative Maxine Waters
Utah United States Senator Mitt Romney
Black Lives Matter
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Liberal activist George Soros
Former Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and
Former President Barack Obama.
Nor does he spare his longtime “enemies” in the legitimate news media, such as:
CNN
The Washington Post
BBC
ABC
MSNBC Anchor Rachel Maddow
The New York Times
PBS
NBC
and Politico
Trump has, after all, slandered journalists as “the enemy of the American people.” And he has called news stories documenting his crimes and follies “fake news.”
Nor in the video is he limited to using a firearm.
He lights the head of Vermont United States Senator Bernie Sanders on fire.
He stabs to death the late Arizona Senator John McCain.
He stabs TV personality Rosie O’Connell in the face.
The clip ends with Trump driving a stake into the head of someone whose face bears the CNN logo. Then he stands and smiles as he looks around.
This video carnage was made possible by TheGeekzTeam, which digitally placed Trump’s head over the main character (played by Colin Firth) in the 2015 spy thriller The Kingsman: The Secret Service as he shoots his way through a crowd of possessed churchgoers.
“The Trumpsman” was shown along with other videos at the Trump National Doral Miami resort as part of the American Priority Conference, held from October 10-12, 2019.
It’s part of a growing genre of pro-Trump memes that routinely earn thousands of views on sites like YouTube and Twitter. Many superimpose the faces of Trump and his chief supporters slaughtering Democrats, liberal celebrities and/or members of the media.
Once The New York Times broke the story, the event’s organizer, Alex Phillips, sought to avoid responsibility for the showing. He hurriedly claimed that the “unauthorized video” was shown “in a side room.”
“Content was submitted by third parties and was not associated with or endorsed by the conference in any official capacity,” Phillips told the Times.
“American Priority rejects all political violence and aims to promote a healthy dialogue about the preservation of free speech. This matter is under review.”
The organization issued a statement calling it “shocking” that the Times didn’t cover any of the sanctioned events at the conference.
In other words, public relations events that were meant to be seen by the press, as opposed to events that were not meant to be seen.
Yet this was only one of several Right-wing videos screened at the event. C.J. Ciaramella, a journalist for Reason magazine, filmed a room where these were being screened.
Among the speakers at the conference:
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz
Donald Trump, Jr.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski
Professional Right-wing dirty-trickster Roger Stone
Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch
Reaction from the legitimate news media was immediate.
CNN: “The president and his family, the White House, and the Trump campaign need to denounce it immediately in the strongest possible terms. Anything less equates to a tacit endorsement of violence and should not be tolerated by anyone.”
White House Correspondents Association:“All Americans should condemn this depiction of violence directed toward journalists and the President’s political opponents. We have previously told the President his rhetoric could incite violence. Now we call on him and everybody associated with this conference to denounce this video and affirm that violence has no place in our society.””
CBS News: “This video, and the rhetoric increasingly used against the media, puts journalists in danger, prevents open and honest debate about the issues, and undermines democracy.”
If Donald Trump had a history of truthfulness and humanity, his denouncing the video would prove highly believable.
But Trump has neither.
An August 12, 2019 Washington Post story noted that, since taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump had made more than 12,000 false or misleading claims.
Among his lies: Accusing former President Barack Obama of illegally wiretapping him—without offering a shred of evidence to back up that accusation.
Even worse: On July 25, 2019, Trump tried to coerce the president of Ukraine to manufacture “evidence” to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic rival for the Presidency in 2020. And shortly after that revelation became public, he publicly invited China to “investigate the Bidens”—Biden and his son, Hunter, for the same reason.
So much for his trustworthiness.
We’ll examine his reputation as a humanitarian in Part Two.
For Donald Trump, becoming America’s “President-for-Life” is no joke—although he has often “joked” about doing just that. For example:
In March 2018, he told Republican donors during a closed-door speech at Mar-a-Lago:[Chinese President Xi Jinping] “is now President for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”
In May, 2019, Trump retweeted Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s suggestion that he’s owed “2 yrs added to his 1st term” due to distractions caused by the Robert Mueller investigation.
The ancient historian, Plutarch, warned in his biography of Alexander the Great:
“And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.”
And, in making these repeated statements, Trump has revealed his ultimate intention: To overthrow America’s constitutional government.
Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks offered a disturbing analysis of Trump’s character on the March 25, 2016 edition of The PBS Newshour:
“And so you really are seeing someone who just has an odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity, but where it’s all winners and losers, beating and being beat. And that’s part of the authoritarian personality, but it comes out in his attitude toward women.”
Brooks’ analysis has been proven brilliantly accurate during the two years of Trump’s Presidency. He has attacked one person or institution after another—including officials within his own administration.
For example:
Repeatedly and viciously attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
Publicly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, National Security Agency) which unanimously agreed that Russia had subverted the 2016 Presidential election.
Firing FBI Director James Comey for investigating that subversion.
Shutting down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018—because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay. This lasted until January 25, 2019, when Trump caved to public pressure.
* * * * *
Since childhood, Trump has had an overwhelming sense of entitlement and his own importance.
Donald Trump
As a businessman, he demanded that his employees sign Non-Disclosure Agreements to prevent the outside world from learning of his crimes and follies. He has tried to continue that practice in the White House, even though it is flagrantly illegal.
More ominously, he identifies himself with the State—and thus deems anyone who disagrees with or opposes him as guilty of treason. And the penalty for treason has traditionally been death.
Furious that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) mocked him during a session of the House Intelligence Committee, Trump tweeted:
“His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber. He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason…..”
He judged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “every bit as guilty as Liddle’ Adam Schiff for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, and even Treason.”
But now Trump faces a far greater threat than mere disagreement or criticism.
On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives voted for two Articles of Impeachment to remove Trump from office: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The case has not yet been sent to the Senate, but that there will be a trial is a certainty.
Whenever Trump has been unable to buy or intimidate his way out of trouble, he has lashed out. And in Nancy Pelosi he faces an implacable foe and a master legislative tactician.
Desperate to avoid impeachment and the cascade of damning news as more of his crimes are revealed almost daily, he has hit upon the most powerful “remedy” of all: War.
What can be even more attention-grabbing than an expected trial of the President of the United States? A fullscale war between the United States and Iran, a country America has been at odds with since 1979.
Moreover, by going this route, he can take revenge, Matt Bevin-style, on those Americans who dared elect Democratic members of Congress to oppose him.
An all-out war between nuclear-armed America and an Iran now coming into its own as a nuclear power will last for years and leave untold numbers of hated “liberals” as incinerated or blasted corpses.
And just as he dodged the draft during the Vietnam war, Trump expects to dodge the calamity he is trying to unleash.
Surrounded by Secret Service agents, able to be whisked into heavily-fortified bunkers or onto a high-tech Air Force One, he stands an excellent chance of doing so.
With enough national carnage and confusion, he might live out his dream to become “President-for-Life”—simply because there won’t be any opposition capable of challenging him.
Steffen White’s Email: Sparta480@aol.com Former reporter, legal investigator and troubleshooter. Columnist at Bureaucracybuster.com. Fighting political and bureaucratic arrogance, incompetence and/or indifference.
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GOVERNOR KRISTI NOEM TELLS HER DOG STORY
In History, Politics, Social commentary on April 30, 2024 at 12:11 amThe ancient historian Plutarch warned:
“And the most glorious episodes do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
“Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
Those needing a modern demonstration of this truth need only turn to the story now igniting the Internet—especially X: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s proud confession of shooting her 14-month-old wirehair pointer named “Cricket.”
Kristi Noem
The confession (“I hated that dog”) comes in her new book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, which will be published in May.
The British newspaper, The Guardian, obtained an advance copy and published excerpts from it. And that’s when the firestorm erupted.
Cricket’s “crimes”: Being disobedient, being a poor hunter during a pheasant hunting trip and later attacking and killing a neighbor’s chickens.
According to Noem, she hoped to calm the young dog down. But Cricket had other ideas, ruining the hunt and “going out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.”
Cricket
Noem called Cricket, which didn’t lead to the desired response. So she tried an electronic “shock” collar. That didn’t work, either.
Then, on the way home after the hunt, Noem stopped to talk to a local family. And that was when Cricket became the hunter Noem wanted her to be.
She leaped out of Noem’s truck and attacked the farmer’s chickens—“grabbing one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”
For Noem, Cricket—who didn’t want to kill pheasants—now behaved like “a trained assassin.” Noem grabbed Cricket, but the dog “whipped around to bite me.”
As the chickens’ owner wept, Noem apologized and wrote the family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them disposes of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime.”
Through it all, writes Noem, Cricket was “the picture of pure joy.”
For Noem, Cricket’s “crimes” were unforgivable—and utterly deserving of the death penalty: She was
So Noem got her shotgun and led Cricket to a gravel pit.
“It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
Her family also owned a male goat—unnamed in the book—that was “nasty and mean” because it hadn’t been castrated. Worse, it smelled “disgusting, musty, rancid” and “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and ruining their clothing.
She dragged the goat to the same gravel pit. But just as she pulled the trigger on her shotgun the animal jumped and was only wounded. Noem went back to her truck, got another shell, then “hurried back to the gravel pit and put him down.”
At that point a school bus dropped off Noem’s children. “Hey, where’s Cricket?” her seven-year-old daughter, Kennedy, asked.
Most responses to the slaughters were furious and unforgiving:
In March, she posted a laudatory video about cosmetic dental surgery that she had received in Texas. She claimed that a team of cosmetic dentists had given her a smile she can be proud of.
She’s being sued for not stating she had a financial interest in the product she was hustling.
In a post to X (formerly Twitter) Noem wrote: “What I learned from my years of public service, especially leading South Dakota through Covid, is people are looking for leaders who are authentic, willing to learn from the past, and don’t shy away from tough challenges.
“My hope is anyone reading this book will have an understanding that I always work to make the best decisions I can for the people in my life.”
Among the “tough challenges” Noem wants to take on is becoming Vice President nominee to Donald Trump. Trump has already wrapped up the Republican nomination for President. And this has set off a scramble among Republican politicians to become his running mate.
It may be that Noem expected her admission of killing a defenseless dog and goat as the best way to prove to Trump that she can be as ruthless as himself. She might even be hinting that she would be willing to attack his opponents as brutally as she dealt with Cricket.
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