Wednesday August 26, 2020
67 Days until the election on November 3rd
147 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
The Hero’s Tale was described by Joseph Campbell and used so successfully by George Lucas in “Star Wars.” It is the classic outline of the protagonist who grows up and is forced to leave his village, who wanders in a place of danger where he is challenged and meets new friends that come to his aid. He returns to the village to save it or bring a gift that is either accepted or rejected. Ultimately, he or she overcomes the forces of evil and all is set right.
It is the story told in The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Moses, Joseph, Jesus, Buddha and so many others.
But what I asked myself if I applied this to Donald Trump? What if I ran The Hero’s Tale through The Trumpolator? What would come out? Fear not, I present to you:
THE DEMON’S TALE
There’s really nothing new here. It’s the tale of Hitler and every tin and crack pot dictator. Abused kid finds someone to blame, develops paranoid fantasies, learns how to use their charm and meanness to get whatever they want via bullying, guile, and deception. But hey, we kind of know the end result, but the final outcome is sixty seven days away … or is it?
Enough!
Without further adieu:
THE DEMON’S TALE
(Don’t you hear a trumpet voluntary for the second time? No? F. U.)
THE DEMON’S TALE – A true life story by Bryce Holliwell
This is the story of a little boy desperate for his father’s attention. His father was too busy to be bothered. Besides, the older brother was the one Fred Trump showered any praise or affection onto. At an early age our protagonist, the young Donald Trump, decided two things: he wasn’t going to drink, and he was going to be more like his dad than his dad was.
Fortunately, for Donald the older brother died early from alcoholism ( See Donald’s decision not to drink.) This meant he was next in line for Dad’s affection. Donald pretended to take an interest in his dad’s business. He liked the trappings of power and business, but had no real understanding or interest in running a business. He liked the openings and the glamor, the flash and the sizzle, but the real work was not for him.
He learned early on that he could intimidate others, and that by lying and cheating he could do most anything he wanted. Ignoring the rules and law became a way of life for the young Donald. He didn’t pay attention in class. Why bother? He told himself he was smart and so he came to believe that he was. In fact, he pretty much stopped going to class. He hired someone to take his college entrance exam and he enjoyed wandering around the campus, but the real work? Forget it. His big sister did what homework needed to be done. Thus Donald learned that you could get others to do what needed to be done. He could strut and puff. He could be the big man.
He learned from his old man many things. How to hide money from the government so it wouldn’t be taxed. The casual racism and anti-jewish sentiments were also impressed on him at an early age. Likewise a distaste for immigrants and people of any shade of skin except white. His father had been in the Klan and so young Donald learned the lessons of the segregationist and the racist at the knee of his father. It wasn’t so much learned as it was accepted as a fact.
Donald moved the family real estate business from building government backed housing for vets to prime real estate in Manhattan. From the outside all appeared glitzy, but on the inside the business was rotten. Donald bled cash and his father bailed him out year after year. In fact, Donald was the furthest in debt of any person in America for four years running. Quite a feat to lose almost a billion a year for four years.
After his father died or in his father’s last years Donald was desperate for cash. He connived a plan to cheat as many of his cousins out of their father’s inheritance as possible. He planned an audacious casino project in New Jersey, paying way too much and not understanding how business worked things fell apart quickly. He cut corners in the ways he had learned earlier by bullying and not paying people who had done work for him. He sued them if they objected. He learned to use the legal system as a bludgeon.
Meanwhile, he hobnobbed and promoted himself as a successful real estate developer. This was a gigantic lie that he was running from. During this time the international mobsters became aware of Donald and began funneling money to him via real estate deals. It was a classic money laundering scheme.
The banks in New York had caught onto Donald. They refused to loan him any more money. In fact, he was on the verge of bankruptcy, but the only thing that saved him from the abyss was that he owed so much money that he was in a sense too big to fail. The strategy for the banks was to put Donald on an allowance and use him as the front man to sell what he could in the hopes of reclaiming what money they could.
While this was happening Donald was dealing more and more with the Russian mob and with the Russian government. They were loaning him money via a German bank that was well known for money laundering and through various entities in the Cayman Islands and Cyprus, also known for moving money for mobsters and corrupt politicians.
There were shady deals. For instance why was someone paying many times more than a property was worth? Why were there so many Russians who had bought condos or space in Trump buildings?
Donald was saved by a television producer who saw an opportunity to promote Donald as a great businessman. It was the perfect show for Trump. He didn’t have to actually do the grubby details of business but rather pretend to be a great business person. The show was successful and the story went nationwide.
Donald then decided to run for president, more out of getting revenge on Obama who made fun of him at a dinner than for any other discernible reason. Trump found an audience in a pent up frustration with the current situation. He promised everything. He lied and lied and his followers didn’t care. This continues to this day. He fostered conspiracy theories and anything else as long as people pledged fealty to him. If they spoke against him or his policies they were fired and if possible in the most humiliating way conceivable.
Then a real tragedy struck. Donald was elected president. That wasn’t the tragedy. The tragedy was that the world faced a virus. Rather than helping to contain it at it’s source, he did nothing.
When it arrived in the U.S. He did nothing. He continues to do nothing.
The economy cratered. People died because he did nothing. His poll numbers for re-election sank. Realizing he couldn’t win fairly he began to game the system. With his stooges he started to cut voting rolls and polling times. Realizing that wasn’t enough he worked on destroying the post office so that mail in balloting would be a mess. His newly appointed post master general took hundreds of high speed sorting machines out of service. He even had them sabotaged so that a key part was broken. Just in case someone wanted to start them up again.
The Demon Tale is not over. Will it be on Election Day? Will it be on Inauguration Day?
We will have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, in other news:
First a correction, it was Don Jr. Who was high as F*ck, not his brother Eric. The author regrets that mistake. Bad sources.
The president used the White House for political purposes last night – a big no-no.
The Secretary of State in contradiction to law, specifically the Hatch Act, gave a speech at a political convention. Not only a no-no, but a violation of law. Look for William Barr to say, Well, he wasn’t really at the convention.
And then the president had a pardoning and naturalization ceremony in the middle of the convention. A big no-no, and deeply offensive to those who worked and sweated and waited to become citizens.
I’d say Trump figured out as many ways to commit crimes, insult people, destroy our institutions as he could for a day.
67 Days until the election on November 3rd
147 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS Rain. Painting delayed.
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