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The Delusion Factor + Readers Responses • James Campion Or How to Get Out of a Political Impasse 101

Not that he is inclined to take any advice, quite obviously, but I have some for the president of the United States to get him out of this political corner he has painted himself into.

As discussed in this space a few weeks ago, Donald Trump’s insistence that the federal government, with our willing tax dollars, bankroll a fantasy he conjured during campaign rallies that was supposed to be paid for by Mexico and that no one involved on a professional level thinks we need or that will actually work is a dead end. His wholly manufactured border crisis, easily verified by merely asking people at the border, (for instance his 4,000 terrorists – there have been six – or “massive drug smuggling”, which is mostly done on airplanes and through legal entry in cars or vans) has also queered the deal considerably. And now that the purse strings in congress has been taken over by the opposition party with a mandate to put the brakes on foolish Trumpian bromides, there will be no funding for The Wall. And, unfortunately, since our game show president works most comfortably in a delusional construct – his reasoning, statistics, and overall dire depiction of issues all originate from a demonstrably false base – it therefore provides a flimsy foundation for any cogent argument. This has all led to this current impasse that resulted in the shutdown of a portion of the federal government for, at the time of this writing, 21 days.

Hence, political corner painted.

Now, Trump’s first mistake – and this has been repeated throughout his first two years in office – is he misunderstood the entire idea of a partial government shutdown, at first living under the other delusion that these 800,000 federal workers were somehow merely liberal democrats that can suck it, or part of the pork-fat, anti-government rhetoric the Right has depicted for a century, or that these jobs would not also affect key elements of national safety like Homeland Security, Air Traffic Control, farmers, and even people receiving tax refunds. He also miscalculated how much people would accept living without paychecks and working for free for what he deems patriotic reasons. This is an excellent symbol for his cracked ideas that somehow the American people would endure trade wars and pay more for products to save a couple of thousand jobs, or the kind of thing hippies believe, not purported titans of industry.

But alas, as is my wont, I digress.

Trump being an idiot is not what we’re about this week. It is what he has available to him as president to switch the narrative of this madness – and by available, I mean, not salient compromising points or even a modicum of mature meditation. He has shown a specular incapacity for any of that. What Trump can do, and must do, is declare a state of emergency and send the military down there to do “build a wall”, whatever the hell that is. There really is no other way for him to pull out of this and do what he does best, claim victory, whether its draped in ignominious embarrassment or not. Congress is not going to budge on this, nor should they, it is insane.

Now, I realize there are some constitutional purists who would bitch about this, but really there are copious examples of the commander-in-chief blowing past congress and ignoring facts to enact some crazy shit. For example, just in my lifetime we have Viet Nam, a completely made up crisis – the Gulf of Tonkin incident, emanating from a false narrative, the goofy “domino theory”. What was reported by the Pentagon never happened and whatever the LBJ administration thought about the spread of communism in Asia or Nixon’s “secret plan to end the war” no one after the initial advisor stage and troop build-up thought it was a sound move. Ten years, two administrations, and 60,000 American lives, including thousands mutilated and mentally destroyed, and millions of dead Vietnamese and Cambodians later, well you get the point. And we now know that there never were any weapons of mass destruction nor a scintilla of enriched uranium in Iraq, but well, the war, long after “Mission Accomplished”, is still going on, after hundreds of thousands dead and trillions of dollars wasted, blah blah blah.

There are certainly more of these throughout our history, proving without a doubt that Trump has every right to make something up and then use our money and kids to make it happen. Even if some judge sees it differently, because there will be lawsuits, Trump can claim he did everything he could to satiate the weirdly racist desires of his 35-percent base and whatever other delusions he has about how drugs and gangs get into this country.

Because Trump is a neophyte at this, he’s overplayed his hand. He was unaware that his minions and their radio and FOX News voices were going to hold him to this lunacy. He used to do things like claim the Central Park Five were guilty as sin, when they were not, or that he had evidence that the president of the United States was born in Kenya, he did not, but eventually he went back to mocking Rosie O’Donnell, cheating on all of his wives, or hosting game shows. Now, as president, his blurting of claptrap becomes reality for the great unwashed, and it comes with consequences. After blowing the House at the midterms, Trump has gone from “Maybe we’ll get to it” when the Republicans could have handed him funding (except many also thought this was goofy) to whatever nonsense he laid on the American people for ten excruciating network minutes this week, which I have to give an Associated Press colleague credit for describing as “something like watching a monkey trying to fuck a greased football.”

Trump is probably going to get impeached anyway. Things are looking grim. Yesterday his fixer decided he’ll go in front of the new congress and the American people and describe those crimes he helped Trump commit in NYC for years and the special counsel has evidence his campaign manager shared opposition stats with Russians. These are just the first of many dominoes to fall. My advice is take this last ditch effort to blow things up and go to the military. As Al Haig told Nixon in his final hours in the Oval Office when the beleaguered president was facing impeachment, “There’s always the army, Mr. President, Lincoln used it.”
Then send everyone back to work.
You’re welcome.


READERS RESPONSES 01:18:2019

I am shocked this has not gotten more traction than it has. (ALT RIGHT UNDERGROUND – A PERSPECTIVE – Issue: 10/31/18) To think random lunatics – even if it is one dumbass Trump guy in a propaganda van or not – can target members of congress or journalists this easily should be something we discuss and investigate further to the point of it being something of a national emergency. I am not saying I know how to police this and you point out rightly it is not fair to pin this directly on the president or the Alt Right spin machine that spews hate because one man’s hate is another’s sense of pride or patriotism and as much as that can be horrifying it is all part of the freedom train we’re on. But what I am saying is we need to look at how easily this was done by some idiot in a Trump van. This was not al qaeda or ISIS or a militia in the woods screaming about aliens coming to attack us. This could happen to any of us and it is appalling that in this day and age, in this country, we still have to fear opening our mail or expressing our opinions or standing up for our rights as citizens under the threat of death.

Alison Pierce

Here’s the thing that no one has pointed out about this fucking racist, violent, misogynist piece of shit president and this latest act of violence in his name with his leadership in tow: This is an offshoot of his inability to decry the Nazis and Klansman in Charlottesville. The echoes of that still haunt us and put in jeopardy people’s lives. These maniacs who listen to Trump act like a tough guy when he is a fucking silver-spoon, half-bright rich boy who got out of Viet Nam because daddy wanted him to run racist housing in Queens have become his minions. This is all about people feeling under siege from foreigners or anti-government nonsense and a constant attack on our law enforcement from the commander-in-chief. This guy is an abomination and his hatred for all of America’s greatest values in order to fulfill his fears and his insecurities and to feed his fucking ego is all you need to know about why these people come out of the woodwork thinking they are fighting for him and his right-wing view of America by threatening lives. David Duke is his biggest fan. I fear for us.

Anonymous – Cause I’m Scared


If you wrote about the leftist activist who actually shot Congressman Scalise last year and then blamed Obama and his rhetoric, or if you came out against Antifa or the people who have actually physically assaulted or attacked Republicans out of their unhinged hatred of Trump, I might be able to take some of what you wrote seriously. But I don’t remember you doing so, unless I missed it. In that case, apologies with the request that you republish it. If only for the sake of fairness and tolerance the left seems to be so fond of (albeit as long as you agree with them). NO ONE - including the president you hate so much - condones the bombs but it’s ironic that the very people targeted, e.g. Maxine Waters, Joe Biden and Eric Holder, actively and vociferously advocated physical violence against anyone supporting Trump. What? The shoe is on the other foot? How dare they! The depth of hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me. That being said, we still don’t know what the motive is. So, instead of the media (including this article) speculating and wreaking havoc on the collective psyche of the American public, why don’t we wait for some actual facts?

Elizabeth Vengen Esq.


You know what is insanely, completely wrong? This: "None of this is to say that Trump is directly responsible for these ‘bomb’ deliveries, any more than Martin Scorsese is responsible for the shooting of Ronald Reagan because some goofball decided he wanted to save Jodi Foster like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver." Saying a director depicting a crazy person in a movie has the same level of culpability as the President of the US standing on stages for three years inciting violence against his political enemies is a fucking bizarre take, even for you my dear friend.

Regards,
Peter Blasevick


Wow, what an ass kicking Trump received! (MID-TERM ROUNDUP – Issue: 11/14/18) I did not think there would be this level of Blue Wave, but every day we hear about another domino falling, another congressional seat, so many from Republican districts flipping. This is a complete rejection of his policies and of the man himself. It renews my faith in how the American people see their country and it is not this dark, angry, very dangerous and mostly stupid thing that Trump sees it as.

Dorie V.


Women! 2019! Rejection of the bully misogynist! Yeaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

People For the Women’s March 2016


Dude,

You somewhat got it right. The fact you seemed to overlook in your hatred of Trump was how successful he actually was. He won in 9 of 11 races he campaigned in and every GOP Never Trump candidate went down in flames. I would also mention that nearly every Red State Democrat Senator up for re-election who voted against Kavanaugh lost. A loss of 23 House seats in a midterm while picking up a potential of 4 Senate seats is hardly a loss for Trump.
I do agree that the ACA was on the ballot and I would say the lies and distortions made the difference. Despite the fact that there are no pending pieces of legislation removing Pre-X and despite the two-year majority of the GOP, the Dems successfully scared the sheep into thinking once again like in 1994 that the GOP wanted to starve kids and kill the elderly.
I will say this, I hope Nancy Pelosi receives the gavel once again and will not be able to hide her Trump Derangement Syndrome. Her TDS will ensure Trump is re-elected in landslide fashion.

Peace,
Bill Roberts
Conservatively Speaking

Remember this for 2020 – a lot of Republicans did come out, and they mostly got slaughtered. That is because a lot more Democrats than in 2016 came out and will come out again in two years – historically a bigger turnout for presidential election seasons. This is a harbinger for what is coming for our “game show president”. The question is will he quit before taking the beating or take it. He is gutless and has shown he can’t take the heat without whining on Twitter like a little bitch, so I say he quits. Unless as a result of this pummeling he gets impeached. But he is still amazingly popular with Republicans – how stupid are these people? – so he will still have a chance. But if this election was any indication it is slim and none, and slim may have just lost a seat in Arizona.

Bradley Warner

© James Campion Jan 18th 2019
realitycheck@jamescampion.com

James Campion is the Managing Editor of The Reality Check News & Information Desk and the author of “Deep Tank Jersey”, “Fear No Art”, “Trailing Jesus”, "Midnight For Cinderella" and “Y”. and his new book, “Shout It Out Loud – The Story of KISS’s Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon”.

** Published 06/16/2018 “Accidently Like a Martyr, The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon” Order the new book here.

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