Today’s news is evidence that Trump has crossed a couple of subtle red lines.
First red line: lying. For most of us, lying is about trying to make someone believe something false. However, for others, it’s a means of exerting power over someone. In this type of lie, you are not even expected to believe it. I have had bosses who tell the most blatant and obvious lies to my face, and I know that they know that I know that they are lying. But they know that I would not call them a liar to their face. This is a form of power trip over me.
When Trump claims that the price of gasoline has fallen below $2, that’s the first kind of lie, which can be fact-checked to see whether we should believe him or not. But when he claims that the price of eggs has fallen 1500%, any fourth grader can instantly see that this is impossible. Still, you can’t just point out the idiocy of the statement directly to Trump. You might end up in jail. This is the second kind of lie.
Trump has now crossed that red line into the second kind of lie. He doesn’t care whether you fact-check him or not, because everyone knows he is lying.
Now today, Ghislaine Maxwell told the second kind of lie. She doesn’t expect anyone to believe her, but she knows that Trump has made a deal with her – possibly a pardon. All her fawning superlatives about Trump and Epstein are stomach-turning, but the media report it and let it stand as fact, because if they challenge it, they may wind up in jail. She will wind up a free woman.
Second red line: ‘investigating’ and arresting your enemies without evidence. Go back to Hunter Biden. They got him for buying a gun and ticking the box stating that he wasn’t addicted to drugs. Horror of horrors! Worth years in jail, but at least they got him for SOMETHING and had the evidence to prove it.
Now consider the search of John Bolton’s house and probable arrest, reportedly for including classified material in his book. You can be sure that he double and triple checked with lawyers and legal experts, who assured him that his material was not classified. However, that no longer matters. Trump will find (i.e. bribe or intimidate) a judge who will convict Bolton and send him to jail, because TRUMP has declared the material as classified. Evidence no longer matters; whatever Trump says is fact. This crosses a red line from the Hunter Biden case, because this time there is no legal case against Bolton.
Trump is also going after Obama for something-or-other. The media report that legal experts say the charges are ridiculous and frivolous. They’re missing the point. Trump can now invent any charges he wishes and convict Obama of any crime he wishes. He has crossed the line of evidence-based arrest.
I also notice that Trump is going to ‘investigate’ Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., for publishing statistics that crime has decreased over the past few years. Since her data don’t corroborate his own claims that crime has increased, he’s going to indict her and put her in jail for disagreeing with him.
These two red lines are related. For the arrest of political enemies entails false and evidence-free statements that everyone can see are ridiculous, but that no judge will contradict, for fear of Trump’s retribution.
Relate this to the kidnapping of innocent brown-skinned Americans and deportation to torture prisons. First, if Trump, with no evidence, declares them terrorists or M-13 gang members or invaders from Venezuela, no one, including the Supreme Court will contradict him. Second, Trump no longer needs evidence or courts to deport his victims. Therefore, the simultaneous breach of the two red lines of 1) non-questionable lies, and 2) arrest, conviction, and sentencing without evidence, poses a double-barreled threat to the entire justice system. Trump can go after you or anyone else he chooses by inventing some lie and then arresting you based on that lie.
P.S. As a post-script, I just saw that Trump has stated that he knew nothing about the raid of Bolton’s house. That’s a clear example of a Type II lie. Of course he ordered it, and doesn’t expect anyone to believe otherwise, but he lies anyway, just because he can.