People of the Lie

It’s days like these that I miss having my therapist. Oh fuck. Look at that. That’s got to be a record. One sentence in and I’m already in tears. The good that lady did for me. Holy shit. The kids have a dad. I’m alive. And beyond that, she instilled in me an actual belief that I’m a great writer.

She started by having me write my story. The toxic Christianity. The home life. All of it. and it felt great to express that. So, I kept writing. And most weeks, I’d give her whatever I’d written that week. And there’s something supernatural about the way I can be a complete fucking mess, but the written word unfucks me. It has been life changing.

We all have bull shit to deal with. And come up with different ways to cope. Writing has become my out. And for me, I think the hardest thing to write my way through/make sense of and/or get over is when other people’s chaos affects me. So, at some point my therapist gave me a book to read on the subject. “People of the Lie” by M Scott Peck.

Amazon’s description of it is pretty spot on, “People who are evil attack others instead of facing their own failures”. The fascinating thing about the book is that it’s not talking about the Hitlers of the world necessarily. Peck’s examples are from patients he’s treated.

I actually need to go back and reread it, because it’s been a few years, but if memory serves these are the type of people who might look like fantastic human beings on the outside. But, upon further review. They never. Ever. Eveh eveh. Do anything wrong. If there is the slightest hint of them getting called on some of their bullshit, their immediate response is to blame someone else.

And Peck concludes that those people are evil.

I have had the misfortune of getting to deal with those types over the years. And had a run in this week that got me spinning out mentally. It’s not a surprise with these types of people. But, it’s always tough to right the ship when their undealt with chaos blasts through everything that dares get in their way.

Perfect example. A person I know ran into a parked car. And blamed the parked car. Which would be funny if it wasn’t the default response to any other transgression in this person’s life (blame something or someone else). Dr Peck sees that as evil. Obviously an inanimate, stationary object cannot be to blame. “but there was a no parking sign,” said the guilty party. Literally nothing can ever be this person’s fault.

And so I got all riled up today and wonder if the timing of it wasn’t a way to get me back out to blogging. I turned off the blog for a few weeks. Not just stopped writing, but set it to private. And I’ll get into that in a minute, but what got me today is the idea of blaming a parked car for an accident.

That’s what we’re seeing in the House of Representatives today and over these last few weeks. Trump is guilty. All the witnesses have proven that. Trump himself admitted to the quid pro quo. Sondland confirmed that there was quid pro quo and it was ordered by Trump.

So, what do you do when you don’t have the facts on your side? Blame someone else. You argue process. You say the democrats aren’t fighting fair. But you be sure to call them “dems” or “libs” to rally your base. Clearly trump can’t possibly be a bad guy and can never be guilty of anything. Oh shit. He admitted it. and sondland confirmed it. what do we do?

Well, here’s one idea. Say a bunch of crazy shit to muddy the waters. “Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this President in this process,” said Republican Barry Laudermilk today.

Insane. Obviously. Don’t need to further explain that. But, it’s the constant “democrats are the real enemy” narrative. It’s a flawed formula. Those awful dems are pontius pilate and our lord and savior is Donald j trump.

Thing is jesus grabbed people by the heart, not the pussy. He cared about truth. And respected the law. He was there for the broken hearted and the less thans. The people Jesus had the biggest problem with?

The self-righteous. The Donald Trumps of that time. But, to Trump and the rest of the republican leadership, the truth is irrelevant.

Lindsey graham said he won’t be an impartial juror. McConnell said he’s coordinating with the trump lawyers.

We have a juror saying he’s not going to listen to the evidence. And a jury foreman saying he’s working with defense team. What trial on planet earth would continue under those circumstances? It’s a mockery of the rule of law and a mockery of checks and balances, the constitution and those lawmakers' oaths.

The truth is in the testimony. Trump = guilty.

Republicans. “We give zero shits about the truth. We were going to vote not to impeach before any of this started. Also, Trump is Jesus and the Democrats are to blame for crucifying him unjustly.”

Evil.

Democracy is the parked car that Trump and the other Republicans are running into repeatedly this week. And they’re going to get away with it.

So, why would they all be coordinated in their effort to defend Trump? There have been multiple times when any Republican with any moral compass whatsoever should have cut bait on Trump, moved on to Pence and I wouldn’t need to constantly be explaining to my kids things like Twitter rants are beneath the office of the president.

But, Trump is here. And as long as McConnell and Barr are protecting him, he truly is above the law.

Let’s think about other world leaders who are above the law. Putin. Jong Un. Erdogan. And that one guy who got away with murdering a journalist with a bonesaw.

Does Trump hang around with our allies or these nefarious dictators?

Okay.

So, is it possible that Trump aspires to rule the way those dictators do?

He’s against the free press. Against the rule of law. Against democracy. Against the truth. Who am I talking about? Trump or the aforementioned dictators?

And who’s worse? The dictators or the guy who stole from a kids cancer charity, has lied 15,000 times since taking office, has multiple former associates serving time in federal prison and has 20 plus credible sexual assault allegations against him?

He doesn’t look a thing like Jesus. So, how are there more than like 5 people who are on his side?

Who does he benefit? Billionaires. Big Business. Racists. And Russia.

The sweeping misinformation campaign worked. The Russian bots. The billionaires tricking hard-working, conservative Americans into believing this con.

For example, you hear the word “socialism” being thrown about by Republicans and the connotation is bad. Bernie = bad. Because socialism.

But, what do we really have in this country? “Socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise for the poor” as MLK put it.

Jeff Bezos’s company which has made him the richest man in the world paid zero federal taxes last year. Trump’s tax cut was a handout to billionaires. Meanwhile, at the bottom of those corporations are the people making $7.25 an hour even though the "raise the wage act", which would make it $15, passed in the House. It's dead on McConnell's desk.

Capitalism where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer = bad. Democratic Socialism, like Bernie practices, and like most Scandanavian countries do = good. The happiest countries in the world include Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland where Democratic Socialism is a big deal.

And I guess this is a good time to remind our viewers that dictatorships…also bad.

The Republican party that your grandparents believed in no longer exists. This is the Trump party. It divides. It is racist. It is above the law. And when it gets caught, it blames someone else.

The Mueller probe should have been enough. Trump’s response, “This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.” Even he was apparently surprised by the power of the Trump army, masquerading as law-abiding Republican leadership. Mueller made the mistake of playing by the rules, not charging a sitting president, which left it up to McConnell and Barr to spin into oblivion.

Grab the law by the pussy. Don’t even ask. Lady Liberty is getting assaulted by the Republicans in broad daylight. And they’ve made their rape of our justice system the democrats fault.

The Senate impeachment trial will be a joke. Graham, McConnell and company have made that clear. Trump won’t be impeached or removed.

McConnell isn’t going to bring the election security bill up for vote. The election will be hacked again. Trump will win again. It’s like the Twilight Zone version of every Harrison Ford/Jack Ryan movie.

All Donald J Trump aka Keyser Soze had to do was put a comma and “republican” at the end of his name and he went from someone Lindsey Graham called “race-baiting” and “xenophobic” to Jesus Christ Jr, the savior of Republicans from our real enemy…no not Russia you dummy…the Democrats.

Jesus Christ is right. Write it out. Spell it out. And it reads like a bad Steven Segall plot. The movie wouldn’t get made because no one is dumb enough to believe the premise of how our democracy is being phased out. Truth is stranger than fiction.

A FUCKING KIDS CANCER CHARITY, MAN!!!! Trump stole from kids with cancer. And is today being compared to Jesus. There is no “the democrats are the bad guy” in that scenario.

When we look back on this dark time in American history and someone asks “whose side were you on”? Are you seriously going to say you sided with the guy who stole from kids with cancer? There is no worse guy.

And that’s honestly why I took the blog down. With the constant attacks on the free press. And Trump Jr outing the whistle blower. There is an ugly reality that it doesn’t pay to speak out. Isn’t the next potential whistle blower going to think twice? Because, what’s going to come from those who are/were brave enough to speak out against Trump? Trouble. A good way to silence the opposition is to make an example out of the whistle blower or out that person so that the Trump army will make their life hell.

And if the President is willing to bully 16 year old female climate activists on Twitter, no one is safe. So, I…no shit…took the blog down out of a hopefully unreasonable fear that anyone who talks badly about our Dictator in training will end up regretting that choice. And actually I’m glad I wrote this, because as I wrote that sentence it dawned on me…no one reads your blog. You’re safe, matt. Whew.

But, these truly are scary times. I can’t imagine that the whistle blowers life is comfortable right now. And Trump is going to beat the rap, because it’s a rigged system. So, in the alternate reality that is Trump’s America, the law-abiding whistle blower is the traitor and the real traitor is defended to the death by “conservatives”.

Everything is a witch hunt. And a sham or a hoax. And fake news.

Each time Trump uses one of those phrases, he is talking about the truth. And that…is evil. People call him out on his nonsense. He blames the accusers and never admits fault.

Again. Billionaires. Big Business. Racists. Russia. Those are your bad guys. And those are who Trump protects/acts in the best interest of daily.

But, God have mercy on you if you’re an immigrant, woman, or a person of color. Immigrants are “not people, they’re animals”. Women? He “grab(s) them by the pussy.” NFL players not standing for the anthem are “sons of bitches”.

Hate and division is the vehicle that Trump is driving that is running over America. And it is not too late to take away his keys. We can’t just keep sitting here like a parked car and not take action. It would take a literal miracle, but impeach and remove is still on the table.

New year’s resolution idea. Read “People of the Lie” to understand Trump and his followers better. And let your voice be heard. Maybe people have just forgotten that stealing from kids cancer charities is bad, so gently remind them. If we could get back to a reality where evil isn’t a positive thing, that’d be great.