Witch Hunt Season

We've all probably become numb to Trump's daily attacks on everyone and everything that doesn't feed and stroke his bloated ego: journalists, who do their job reporting facts instead of making stuff up and praising the beloved leader for his innumerable feats of supreme excellence; political opponents, real and imagined, who dare to call Trump to account for his "performance" as president of the United States instead of falling in love and in line with his magnificence; his own appointees and staff, who make the foolish mistake of occasionally following the law when carrying out their duties rather than blindly doing exactly--what--he--wants; and, of course, Trump's arch-nemesis, Robert Mueller, who may or may not be close to wrapping up with his investigation of the Trump campaign/administration and its shenanigans.

Today the New York Times published an exhaustive recounting, not only of what we have all seen and heard in these very public attacks but also those that are not so public and that have been carried out on the down-low.

It's well worth a read if only to help us appreciate one of the few areas where Trump and his merry band of slime-ball wannabe gangstas have shown a modicum of competency - going after and kneecapping people. You thought soon-to-be jailbird Michael "Stoolie" Cohen was the only "fixer" in Trump's inner circle? Evidently not. It's enough to make you rub your eyes and think you're watching a rerun of some forgettable episode of the Sopranos. But then you remember, "No, wait a sec. This is Trump. Tony and his crew were actually good at what they did." So, maybe a more apt comparison would be to characters in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

And given Trump's obsession with Mueller and his interminable "witch hunt" I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite episodes - "Wabbit Season." Seriously. Look at how Trump makes a big show of doing EXACTLY the very thing his lawyers (the good ones, the ones whom he fired or who fled the scene on their own volition) told him NOT to do. I'm no shrink, but this dude clearly has got some issues when he not only behaves in (borderline) criminal ways and then boasts that he did so AND that he'll get away with it. He's almost daring you to try to stop him.

And, so far, no one has. I don't have any great faith that the Mueller report, if it's ever actually made public, will include some smoking gun. Nor am I counting on the Democratic-controlled House to do the right thing and start impeachment proceedings. Instead, they're going about trying to stage a political death by a thousand committee hearings, which, as Yoni Appelbaum pointed out in the Atlantic, is far less likely to succeed. It's less likely to mitigate the damage Trump is currently wreaking on nation on a daily basis and it does nothing at all to safeguard our institutions in the medium-term from being thoroughly delegitimized by his constant trashing of our governing norms.

It's all enough to make me channel my inner Daffy Duck and insist, no, DEMAND, that someone shoot me now!