ROLE OF A LIFETIME

 Donald Trump is either a lying scumbag or he plays one on TV.

It's a bit hard to be sure which it is, but if it's the second one, we need to ask why he would do such a thing. Is Ivanka being held prisoner in some dungeon, a gun to her head? (Seriously, when was the last time you saw the woman?)

But if it's not a matter of duress, what does Trump gain by portraying such a massively defective character?

I'm kidding. The answer is obvious: It gets the job done. Trump's wounded warrior impersonation is taken at face value by his supporters.

(Also, maybe he's not pretending. Maybe he actually believes this nonsense. But dig it: "I won by a landslide and everybody knows it." That's two outrageous statements stuffed up each other's butt.)

I guess there's no reason in asking why his people behave the way they do. I think we have to accept that they (at least) are being sincere.

They really and truly love this man.

(Stupid, crazy, and unaware of it—that's our natural state of affairs, and it will launch you to hell faster than any devil.)

Some of his followers even risk prison time by threatening to murder anybody who dares interfere with Trump's fortune or freedom. Try bringing charges against Trump or ruling against him from the bench, see what you get.

Prosecutors and judges are being SWAT'd and harassed, their children presented with the specter of Oliver Twistian lives in orphanages and foster homes after their folks have been found strung up from municipal lamp posts.

I don't believe Donald Trump has been charged as the obvious inciter in these matters, though his one-time personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has suffered a $148,000,000 judgment in the case of the two Georgia election workers he maligned, claiming they committed criminal fraud.

Adhering to the Trump World script, Giuliani maintains their guilt to this day.

(Trump may himself catch a corner of this action stemming from his RICO case in Georgia.)

Still, violent acts against Trump's enemies are inevitable, given the grievous attacks he has suffered at their hands. According to Trump.

All of his legal woes constitute election interference orchestrated by Joe Biden, the most corrupt president in the history of this country. According to Trump.

On the other hand, Trump's fever-dream stories do fit together nicely: Election theft by the Deep State, followed by bogus prosecution from a weaponized DOJ, led by the doddering fool who stole the election in the first place.

It's positively demonic!

Fortunately, Trump's allies have reams of proof, mountains of proof, far too much proof, apparently, to haul into even the most voluminous courtroom.

Or maybe the Deep State's Dog ate it.

Doesn't matter. Trump's people are on board with all this stuff.

During the 2016 campaign Trump famously said he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and lose no support. Now his lawyers are arguing he could, as President, order Seal Team Six to take out a political rival and walk away with immunity from prosecution, as long as he is not impeached and found guilty first.

(It's a neat flip-flop. During Trump's Jan Six impeachment trial, his lawyer argued conviction by the Senate was unnecessary, because the man could face prosecution after he left office. Senate leader Mitch McConnell made the same point, saying: "He hasn't gotten away with anything, yet. Yet.")

Lately Donald Trump has been referring to convicted Jan Six prisoners as "hostages." Fortunately, actual hostages held by Hamas and other radical Islamic groups in Gaza  are likely not to be aware of Trump's self-aggrandizing degradation of the term.

But it all makes sense in Trump World. American patriots stormed the Capitol to claw back legitimate power stolen from an understandably enraged president.

That's what heroes do, right? They follow their Commander-in-Chief's orders into harm's way. Theirs not to reason why.

Now Speaker Mike Johnson is diligently blurring the faces of those patriots captured on video about to be released by the House. But don't think for a moment the man is interfering with the legal process. No, sir! He's simply trying to avoid a miscarriage of justice. Right?

It's all starting to make sense: Up is down and black is white and bloodhounds fly out of my butt.

Or maybe this is just a show we're all watching on TV.

Tune in November Fifth to see how it turns out. Might be time to start a whole new season of Must See TV: IS AMERICA BURNING?