About the Trump University fraud case -- while on the one hand I would like to see Trump disgraced by a huge scandal, on the other hand, plaintiffs are saying that Trump University promised to turn them into real-estate moguls, and turned out to be just a useless presentation in a hotel ballroom for which they were charged thousands of dollars, and since when has anything which cost thousands of dollars and promised to turn anyone into a real-estate mogul turned out to be more than a useless presentation in a hotel ballroom?
Then again, if this suit against Trump succeeds, and opens a huge door for litigation against a whole huge and well-known American industry of crooks -- great! About friggin' time somebody got serious about shutting these thieves down.
Another thing occurs to me: the sort of chump who would shell out much more than he or she can afford for an allegedly foolproof scheme for getting rich quickly, seems very much like the sort of chump who has been supporting Trump's Presidential campaign. People have been astounded by how one loathesome comment after another has not seemed to shake Trump's support. Maybe if he loses big in an extremely well-publicized lawsuit for fraud, for a "university" which had sounded really good to many of Trumps supporters, in which, perhaps, many of them have "enrolled" -- maybe that will finally get some of them to see that they've been supporting a thief and con man.
I don't know. Stupidity is tenacious. And widespread.
And it needs to be confronted with any and all means at hand. The other day I watched Chris Matthews and his guests on "Hardball" shake their heads and cluck in disapproval at how Marco Rubio was saying things like "Trump won't make America great, he'll turn it orange!" and "He's got really small hands." (Rubio waited for laughter to build) "And you know what they say about men with small hands." (He waited for the laughter to build more.) "They can't be trusted!"
My reaction to that "Hardball" segment was, Good for Rubio! and Shame on Matthews and his colleagues for not giving Trump even worse! What are they waiting for -- for Trump administration goons to start breaking down the doors of his enemies and dragging then off into the night, never to be seen again? Good for Rubio for TRYING something! Manners have their time and place -- and fighting fascists is neither that time nor that place. You have to actually fight. And if you fight with words and contempt and ridicule early enough, you won't have to fight with bullets and bombs later on.
It is way past time for the press to cover that orange, sprayed-tanned-with-goggles-on, combed-over, small-handed, over-compensating, thieving, lying monster with the ridicule and contempt he has EARNED.
It's okay for political cartoonists to get real. If you see a political cartoon, chances are you get a vivid impression of how the cartoonist actually feels about things. Why don't their colleagues down the hall share with us the benefit of their knowledge and experience as well? For no good reason. And for some very bad reasons, like this nonsense about "objective journalism."
“As for mine ... well, my doctor says it swole up and busted about ten years ago. The only thing I ever saw that came close to Objective Journalism was the closed-circuit TV that watched shoplifters in the General Store at Woody Creek, Colorado. I always admired that machine, but I noticed that nobody paid much attention to it until one of those known, heavy, out-front shoplifters came into the place ... but when that happened, everybody got so excited that the thief had to do something quick, like buy a green popsicle or a can of Coors and get out of the place immediately.
"So much for Objective Journalism. Don't bother to look for it here--not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.” -- Hunter S Thompson
We need more Thompsons, but unfortuntely, I don't think we're going to get any more exactly like him. Even Thompson was no longer exactly like Thompson anymore by the mid-80's at the latest. I'm not going to say that we need fewer Matthews', but Matthews needs to stand up to Trump. This is important.
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