Friday, June 17, 2022

HST Fridays...Will The Real Grendel Please Stand Up?


Beowulf
UberAllesVille


"Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing -- a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family...

{snip}

...He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning...


Thompson wrote the words above almost 28 years ago to the day, in the wake of the death of Richard Nixon. It was a time when Rush Limbaugh's and Newt Gingrich's comets were just starting to rise high over US Republican Land, their tails of depravity and destruction paving the way for the coronation of an authoritarian despot bent on destroying American democracy two decades hence.

How much did things change between the death of Nixon and the coronation of Trump?

Well.

Not even Mr. Nixon and his  bagmen at their CREEPiest could have envisaged how the great un-uniting of the American citizenry would ultimately make it possible for Donald Trump to raise $250 million dollars on the back of the biggest lie ever told for a 'fund' that does not even exist:
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack appeared to make the case at its second hearing that Donald Trump and his campaign engaged in potential fundraising fraud, raising $250m for a Trump “election defense fund” that did not actually exist....

{snip}

....(T)he “Official Election Defense Fund”, as it was billed on fundraising emails that were repeatedly sent up until 30 minutes before the (January 6th, 2021 U.S.) Capitol attack, did not formally exist, according to Trump campaign aides Hannah Allred and Gary Coby, who testified to the (January 6th Congressional) panel...

Imagine that!


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4 comments:

Graham said...

Wow! I just read the Hunter piece upon Nixon’s death you linked to. He doesn’t mince words or hold back in any way. He also had something to say on those who helped Nixon along the way and particularly when as president. Of course it’s in Hunter’s somewhat over the top style but still, I found it rather refreshing. Too often not great people are made to sound more than they were upon their death which we all should have to some extent but… not if none of it’s true.

RossK said...

Graham--

Ya - Thompson always paid extra attention to the enablers.

I often wonder what it would be like if he were around today...I like to think that he wouldn't have become a full on sh*t poster given that is where his over-the-top thing has steered so many too in the end.

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Keith said...

What trump has shown to republicans and others – including Canada, is they don’t need to rely on big donors to drop a ton of money on them. Create a divisive issue, true or not doesn’t matter, send out e-mails to the rubes and the said rubes come through in spades.

In some ways with the lax donation laws in the states, I don’t blame trump et. al. for sending the requests for other peoples money to do whatever suits at the time. If after these past years of grift on top of grift the rubes are to clueless to catch on, they deserve being fleeced, with the added bonus of the rube donations are to small to expect consideration for services rendered unlike the big donators.

e.a.f. said...

Loved the picture of trump and nixon. Hadn't seen it before. How interesting with where we are today. Perhaps an omen