Tom Toles for January 20, 2020

Uh oh, is Toles offering a premonition that we should be watching out for a modern version of a fire in the Reichstag that could be used to justify declaring martial law and claiming dictatorial powers?

Hey, it worked for Hitler (who also never got the most votes in an election) in 1933, and Trump’s Minister of Propaganda, Stephen Miller, the reincarnation of Joseph Goebbels (look at their pictures side-by-side) is sure it would work again.

We already know Trump is willing to cheat to win elections, having previously used massive voter suppression in key states and Russian hacking to squeak out an extremely narrow win (77,000 votes across three major industrial states) and now caught with his fingers in the cookie jar of demanding foreign intervention for the coming election, so why not just dispense with those pesky elections altogether, FIBricate a “national emergency,” declare martial law and make yourself a dictator?

He’s encouraging the pouring of CO₂ (and other pollutants) into our atmosphere. Not to mention all the jet flights which do that directly. And of course, he’s burning down our belief that the government can and will work for good. I’m really sort of glad to be entering what is pretty likely my last decade of life. Sort of.

He’s going to create a scene that makes Australia seem but a match stick.

Toles may be referring to the fact that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia has been trying to shift the blame from the conservative climate deniers in the government to unnamed “greenies” using the fires to discuss climate change. According to Murdoch, the fires are not due to climate change, but solely to arsonists.

Extensive surveys have shown that 85% of brush fires in the US and in Australia come from careless or deliberate human set fires. About 15% come from natural causes such as lightning. But the extent and the strength of the fires have been assisted by the widespread drought brought by climate change.

That Trump would be willing to do just about anything to cover up his extortions and corruption appears to any one reading the news. That the GOP would do just about anything to assist Trump also seems to be true. That this assistance destroys the separation of powers in the constitution means nothing to them (unless the president is a democrat).

Fire Brigade – {4 beats/line}

The acrid smoke from this conflagration

hampers us Democrats’ fire brigade, -

- as we seek to slow our nation’s ruination

by the lunatic madness of The Donald’s crusade.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Premonition?

Forgone conclusion, even his sycophants see it coming, but in a good way his judges will approve of.

Tell me again how our impeachment process works for We The People in our deeply partisan mutually exclusive opposing party political "system”. We’re watching the Senate do the same thing with impeachment evidence that Boeing did with 737 MAX evidence.

He’s channeling his slum lord days.

And remember, he fought AGAINST installing STATE REQUIRED SPRINKLERS in chump tower in N.Y., leading to a fire that had Fatalities, just so he could save money on the contractor’s bills, WHICH HE NEVER PAID!

{Off-topic:}

Malignant Pimple – {4 beats/line}

Here’s an account our nation’s chagrin,

a picture of putridity pure and simple: -

- the Right spreads cancers under our skin,

while we scratch at Trump, – a malignant pimple

which festers from cancers deeply within.

… Coda:

Our nation will rot on morticians’ slabs

altho’ we’ve picked off the Trumpism scabs.

. . . . . . . . . .

PяesiDuиce Moloch really doesn’t care that he’s sacrificing all children to a hellish future.

It’s going to take more than 3 million difference in votes to put out THIS FLAMING IDIOTS FIRE!

“Self-Immolation of the Nation”

.

By stoking the flames of fear and suspicion,

The Trump Imperium has obscured the remission

Of many laws against water and air pollution,

Up to symbolic burning of our Constitution.

.

Incendiary words as matches lit enmasse

Began igniting first the tinder in the grass.

Prairie fires burn quick and hot, but deep roots remain

To sprout anew, though dried in drought may burn again.

.

Political pyromaniacs get contentment

To see what they’ve sparked in undergrowth of resentment.

Then all the scrub growth on sides of the hills catches fire,

Until huge swathes of forest trees are burned entire.

.

Encouragement from these horrific burn successes

Leads to a bigger firestorm of hellish excesses,

Until a social volcano erupts, poison gas

And then red-hot destructive MAGA flows come to pass.

.

The things once thought safe from fires, locked in deep vaults —

Like ancient texts and documents — are laid to assaults.

Beyond all shame, the vandals use flame throwers

To melt locked doors and burn all papers stored in drawers.

.

And from this blazing metaphoric pyre, a huge form

In monstrous silhouette stretches forth to transform

The death of America’s moral dominance

To victory toward evil forces’ omnipotence.

It saddens me to think that there actually are enough utterly ignorant people in America that this TRAITOR and CRIMINAL could realistically have a chance of being re-elected once Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey, along with the other TRAITORS in the Republiklan Party, let him get away with his MULTIPLE, PROVABLE CRIMES, crimes which he not only has admitted to, but actually BRAGGED ABOUT!

I weep for the future of the country…

Republicans get more vicious, stupid, racist and unfair with each passing day.

Doing what the Brits couldn’t during the 1812 war.

To be fair, trump didn’t start the fire, but he did pour gasoline on it at a critical time.

What the Iran thing didn’t work out the way you wanted? Take out Kim and see if that works for a better distraction.

My dad was in the dime store business. One of his favorite retail have was, “Nothing a nice little fire wouldn’t fix.” He knew it was a joke.

To put in perspective how far the GOP has fallen, remember that Their Guy 40 years ago won a large, admiring following with his claim that it was morning in America, whereas the current resident has a mass of foaming-at-the-mouth cult believers who’ve completely fallen for his attitude that it’s really midnight in America.

One would be wise not to discount any crime at the hands of the Weasel and his Republican McMafia to maintain their money flow and power. (<: V O T E 2 0 2 0.

In the great American Tradition, it’s the Cover Up, not the Crime that gets him sent to Jail.

Moscow Mitch is fighting as hard as he can to keep crooked liar Trump’s many crimes covered up as much as possible.

I bet he used his black marker, hoping it would accelerate the fire.