Not really. That Donald Trump was arrested again, charged a zilion times more, isn’t a cause for celebration. Armistice Day, yes! Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, yes! The end of the Third Reich, yes! The first presidential mug shot from Fulton County, no!
For a $47 pledge you can get a t-shirt with this photo on it. Subjoined are the words “Never Surrender!”, although he had already surrendered four times. He was surrendering when they took this photograph.
Trump and his advisors planned and practiced the look they wanted for this image. Stanley Kubrick, the film director, had employed it a number of times on the faces of the deranged villains in his movies. Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” is an example. You tilt your head downward, look at the lens from this head lowered position, adopt a facial expression that suggests an attitude of anger, retribution, seriousness, determination, and above all menace. And the unmistakable look of a psychopath. Let’s not forget that. “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.”
Coink-a-dink?
I had to add this from Twitter, er “X”, as memes are a wonderful cultural phenomenon. When Biden was asked about Trump’s mugshot he replied, "Handsome guy," Biden said. "Wonderful guy." Sarcasm, meme’s twin.
Two can play the same game. Trump is using his mugshot as a fund-raiser. Joe Biden took the less than flattering nickname “Brandon” and turned it into a promising campaign ad. “Dark Brandon” is a Republican nightmare.
After his twenty minute stint at the jail Trump spoke to reporters briefly before climbing back on his jet. “What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. And everybody knows it. I’ve never had such support.”
No Donnie, not everybody thinks that way. According to US News, “Three-fourths of Americans in the poll say Trump did something wrong. That includes 46% who believe the former president has broken the law, and another 29% who think Trump did something unethical but not illegal.”
So why wasn’t this a happy day? For some (me) it was, at least for a moment. Sarah Palin was asked in an interview, “Do you have concerns for the country?” She replied, "Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I think those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them: What the heck? Do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen."
Granted, Ms. Palin isn’t one of the Republican intellectual heavyweights, but if not Sarah, then who? Lauren ‘dancing in the sunflowers” Boebert?, Marjorie “should I choose a cabinet position of just settle on VP,? Greene” Andy, “I introduced a bill that will cut federal funds to the district attorney’s office in Fulton County and require the office to repay any funds granted after Jan 1, 2021, Biggs? Or Vivek, “I’m louder, more obnoxious, and more annoying than the man I worship” Ramaswamy? Or Ron, “Select all the photos with a bus in them…Captcha…I' am not a robot” DeSantis?” Or Mike, featured in the revised version of the New Testament, somewhere between Matthew and Mark in “The Gospel of Mike Pence” Pence? Or more to the point, “For four years minus one day I was a lapdog, but for one day, I’m a hero?” Nominations are open.
Hey, Mike, what would Jesus do?
Nothing that can’t be solved with Kyle Rittenhouse’s AR-15.