Here’s the scene:
Category: America
There’s a good chance you’ve seen this photo by now:
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Tap to view at full size.
It’s from the Instagram account of the Donald Trump’s second-most-favorite kid (and from all accounts, it’s a distant second), Donald Trump Jr.:
Here’s a close-up of the table. As you’ll notice, it’s all McDonalds food, even for RFK Jr.:
He doesn’t look all that happy about it:
For the benefit of those readers who’ve never seen someone die on the inside, here’s a zoomed-in version of RFK Jr.’s face:
Loyalty tests and ritual humiliation
RFK Jr. famously doesn’t eat processed food, and explained why in a video he posted barely a month ago:
Trump could have easily accommodated RFK Jr.’s dietary preferences: “not junk food.” But he didn’t, for two key reasons.
For starters, he looooves the stuff:
…but the more important reason is that he’s a bully, and bullies generally cycle between two modes with their allies: cruelty and disregard…
…and loyalty tests:
And a bully who has the opportunity combine the two — say by making someone eat something they don’t want to — can’t pass it up. So Trump did just that.
If he’s willing to do that to someone in his own inner circle, wait till you see what he’s got in store for you.
This is yesterday’s daily New Yorker cartoon, created by Brendan Loper.
C’mon, let it not be Asians this time. Last time was pretty bad.
Here’s the video from whence the screenshot above comes:
Jon Stewart’s right, and we’ve been here before. Where we are now, I’ve been before — and I’m still around.
And I will remain to be around, fighting the good fight, running the good run, standing for justice, and bringing the accordion-powered “golden retriever energy” that is my stock in trade.
Keep watching this blog!
And in the meantime, here’s where the Jon Stewart quote comes from: the New York Times Podcast episode titled Jon Stewart Looks Back With Sanity and/or Fear, posted last week. Enjoy!
In times of high dudgeon, there’s a tendency to throw integrity out the window. One particularly noteworthy example was the Marn’i Washington, a (now former) manager at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) who directed government relief workers to not assist people in hurricane-stricken houses with Trump campaign signs.
I’ll make my position clear on this, in case there’s any misunderstanding: As a public servant, you serve the public, and that means everyone.
It was wrong for now-former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and it was wrong for Marn’i Washington to declare that Trump voters were not worthy of FEMA aid.
We have to be better than this.