THE UNMERITED DEFERENCE TO TRUMP REMAINS ASTOUNDING
Will future historians only shake their heads in disbelief?
I started the following verse prior to MSNBC going to the courthouse in Fulton County Georgia. While writing it the news came out about the large number of defendants and charges all under RICO. Reportedly Donald Trump’s name appears well over 100 times in this 90 page indictment. The same people coming to the defense of Trump can be found on X (Twitter) this early morning. The same talking points are being repeated, the outrage seems intense. It is still astonishing to me the behavior of many grown adult Americans, and we can only hope we can pry ourselves away from all this madness sooner rather than later.
My verse as follows:
My X (Twitter) search of the landscape, only familiarity within sight:
“Men who are self - willed are in their demeanor perverse and forward, stiff and stubborn, with much inconvenience to others, and commonly with more to themselves.”
— I. Barrow.
BARROW, ISAAC, D.D., F.R.S., ( Prebendary of Salisbury) born in London, October 1630; an eminent English mathematician, and a distinguished divine and pulpit orator; he was the author of many works in mathematics; as a theologian, his fame rests on his sermons, which have never been equalled for strength and fertility of thought. His personal character was of the noblest and best; died in London, May 4, 1677.
“Some men use no other means to acquire respect than by insisting on it; and it sometimes answers their purpose, as it does a highwayman's in regard to money.”
— Shenstone.
SHENSTONE, WILLIAM, born in Hales Owen, Shropshire, 1714; an eminent English pastoral poet and author; died, 1763.
“When a decent man lowers his standard of respectability so far that he can consort with a foe to society and morality, he damages himself beyond cure, in most instances; a respectable man who comes to look with a degree of complacency upon one who has no title to respectability, is morally damaged.”
— J. G. Holland
HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT, M.D., born at Belchertown, Massachusetts, July 24, 1819; a popular American writer, journalist, and poet. In 1870, he became editor of "Scribner's Monthly," which position he ably filled until his death; died in New York, October 11, 1881.
Donald Trump in his insatiable efforts to remain in power, and avoid any possibility of accountability brings to my mind the term below. Unfortunately we see the same mindset among many others these days expressing the same sentiment.
by hook or crook
By any means possible, in one way or another. For example, The car broke down, but I'll get there by hook or crook. This term has a disputed origin. A widely held theory is that it comes from the custom of allowing commoners to take as much wood from royal forests as they could reach with a shepherd's crook and cut down with a billhook. [1300s]
crook (noun)
Meaning "swindler" is American English, 1879, from crooked in figurative sense of "dishonest, crooked in conduct" (1708). Crook "dishonest trick" was in Middle English, especially in reference to the wiles of the Devil.
From the Oxford Dictionary
Middle English (in the sense ‘hooked tool or weapon’): from Old Norse krókr ‘hook’. A noun sense ‘deceit, guile, trickery’ (compare with crooked) was recorded in Middle English but was obsolete by the 17th century. The Australian senses are abbreviations of crooked.
And bringing it into focus in these times, and from 1973 as well.
“These Fake Indictments against me didn’t come down from heaven, they came from the most corrupt President in the history of the United States, Crooked Joe Biden, in order to Rig & Steal another Election. They shouldn’t even be allowed to go forward. They are all about Election Interference and getting even with the Republicans for the Congressional Hearings currently taking place that show Joe Biden is a CROOK!”
— Donald Trump, August 10, 2023 from Truth Social
From NPR
November 17, 2013 3:00 PM ET
Forty years ago Sunday [nearly 50 years ago now], then-President Richard Nixon first uttered the now infamous phrase, "I am not a crook." Nixon made the declaration during a press conference in Orlando, Fla., amid charges related to the Watergate break-in and subsequent scandal.
Oh my, what can one even say anymore? Seems I can’t think of anything else at this time. Thanks for reading.
75th posting, August 15, 2023