An American Story

 What if Trump is being set-up as a patsy, like Lee Harvey Oswald or the more recent, Thomas Matthew Crooks? 

If you don't recognize the "Crooks" name, you are not alone, as he is the least famous assassin, you'll probably never hear much about in history. Whatever this 20-year-old kid did that day he died, he'll never be as famous for it as Lee Harvey Oswald. And it's not because he didn't succeed. He did his job.

Trump himself talks more about low-flow showers than he does about his alleged assassin or any of the events of that day in Butler, Pa. at a Trump rally. Of all the things this ramblin' wreck of a disaster won't shut up about, day in/day out, the attempt on his life is one he barely mentions. I'm guesstimating that a Trump news cycle is about 4 days at best. That's what the incident seemed to be in the news. The guy is always saying and doing ridiculous things and there is a lot of overlap in his chicanery, so stories come and go quickly. I'm told this is because he wrote "The Art of the Deal" and he's a fvcking brilliant genius. Personally, I don't believe this because, if you can't read a book, you sure can't write a book. Come on now. Plus, he had a co-author- Tony Schwartz- a journalist who does write books. Seems a little suspect, ya know. Maybe Schwartz was hired for his typing skills. 

Trump rarely mentions the attempt to kill him. When he does it always seems to be in passing, like an afterthought. Oh yeah, that happened. The hand of God intervened that day and misdirected the bullet fired to thwart him from making America great- again, Recall the AR-15 round nicked his ear and Trump emerged from the dogpile of Secret Service agents to stand (exposed) pump his fist and vaingloriously declare, "Fight, fight, FIGHT!" Yada, yada, yada.

It was the phoniest photo-op since the Marines recreated the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. Great visual that the flag raising was, it just wasn't exactly as in the moment as we were led to believe. That's no secret. It was for the purpose of good, not evil. It was wartime. Good propaganda.

Not the next day, but the day after that, Trump was sporting a big, square bandage on the damaged ear, and for several days after, maga wore similar bandages. Trump was golfing the day after the assassination attempt, because that's what tough guys do. 

The bandage seemed like an afterthought, didn't it? His ear was shown on the golf course, remarkably undamaged. The bandage came the next day. Talk about a cover up...

An aside here. I've long suspected Trump is a bigly fan of "The Sopranos". ME TOO! In one episode a couple of guys tried to whack Tony and he got shot in the ear, survived and sported such a bandage. for the duration of the episode and never again. And Tony's ear was fine for the rest of the series, so there is precedent for Trump's own miracle ear. You watch Sopranos and you might notice it was Bobby Bacala who came up with the idea to build a wall to thwart illegal immigration, long before Trump. Our current POTUS, I suspect, was taking contemporaneous notes while he viewed this great series. Or someone was taking notes for him. Life, also imitates art.

What was accomplished that day? Well, aside from the deaths of two people, not much. An assassination attempt on a presidential candidate should yield serious capital to be spent for months and years to come, but not this one. Trump rarely talks about it, never points to his (non)mangled ear and talks about that day. He really didn't get much mileage out of it. Most people probably forgot about it and their memories only get jogged when he mentions it, or someone on the internet brings it up to remind folks of how awful libs are and how chosen by God Trump is. Just really bizarre how the incident went away so quietly even though it happened to the loudest guy in the country.

Maybe it's just part of the storyline of Trump, his arc. or just a plot point that may or may not be used again as the Trump saga marches on. Perhaps Trump, like Tony Soprano, views "remember when" as the lowest form of conversation. 

Trump's handlers have his minions and the media believing that he is the toughest, most feared man who ever walked the earth, and if God is for Trump, who could be against him? They want you to believe that everything Trump says and does is not only brilliant, but also ALL Trump and cannot be stopped. The glory of whatever nefarious things that happen to America in the days to come, is completely the will of Trump- no one else!

And that's the way they want it. There are many authors in this American Story, but Trump isn't one of them. He'll get the credit for the dismantling of democracy, but maybe he's just the fall guy? Somebody has to be blamed to wrap the story up. Perhaps more important is closure. Oswald did it. We'll never know for sure why because he was killed the next day. Crooks did it too, but we'll never know why because he got killed moments after missing his shot. Darn it! It is what it is, isn't it?

American democracy will be destroyed, and our new Lords will tell us, "Trump did it." Who could stop him? No one. By God- he was Trump! He single-handedly orchestrated the whole thing. We didn't have a chance. Oh well, LONG LIVE the OLIGARCHY! America is great again, in his image. As sure as Trump wrote the book.