There’s a certain frustration in being incredulous.
Or at least initially there is.
The trick is to turn that frustration into comedy by lampooning the people that generated the incredulity.
On Thursday, I was incredulous at attempts to spin James Comey’s testimony as something that “vindicated” Donald Trump.
I was especially appalled by the contention that Senator Jim Risch’s absurdly disingenuous line of questioning with regard to Donald Trump telling Comey he “hopes” the FBI will let the Flynn investigation drop, somehow “proved” that Trump didn’t obstruct justice. If you haven’t seen that clip, you really should watch it.
But circling back, you have to be able to turn incredulity into comedy. Because if you are incredulous about something, it necessarily means that you believe someone else has said something so stupid that it eludes attempts to explain it – “there are no words,” so to speak. But if you can find the words, the result is usually comedy gold.
If, on the other hand, you can’t find the words, it usually means that you were wrong to be incredulous and that you are in fact the stupid one. That’s why Donald Trump can’t turn his incredulity about separation of powers into tweets that are anything but angry-sounding – because separation of powers make sense. He’s the stupid one.
Well fortunately, we’ve been able to channel our incredulity about the reactions to Comey’s testimony into several humorous posts, the best of which is probably something we printed earlier today called “Trump Says “Totally Vindicated” By FBI Director Calling Him Unhinged Liar, Thanks Fox.”
One person who apparently isn’t incredulous when it comes to the Trump crowd’s penchant for persisting in the fantasy that they didn’t accidentally elect a man who was and still is involved in helping a hostile foreign power undercut Western democracy is former director of national intelligence James Clapper.
See, James is done with being incredulous. He’s accepted that people are stupid and unlike us, he doesn’t think there’s anything fucking funny about this anymore.
Watch below as Clapper delivers a sober assessment of what Comey’s testimony really revealed on the way to expressing a profound sense of concern about what it is that Trump is trying to do.
Funny take on incredulity. Nothing surprises me anymore. Yes, there are a lot of “stupid” people out there who don’t vote for people or policies that are in their own self-interest. That’s what politicians count on and try to exploit (or in this case, a demagogue non-politician). I don’t see how Trump makes it through 4 years, although I do hope it’s not because people like Jim Clapper. Let’s let the intelligentsia decide! No, I hope not. So, maybe people will come around and become “smarter” and sweep the Democrats into office in 2018 and 2020. Redistribute wealth. Fine, they should. Then more populist left policies sweep the land. Everyone will happy, birds will be chirping. I wonder what would happen to financial markets if that “smart” scenario plays out?
Although I am no fan of Trump, I don’t think that I would hold up Clapper as my touchstone of truth and accurate analysis.
Love the take that it all has to be left or right on the political and financial scale. We can be a little of both. If anyone besides the top 10-15% think the way to good governance and financial success is this one-sided printing orgy of debt going on now then I feel sorry for you. The “status quo” (who benefits) will lead to more debt and implosion of some or all of our markets with the end result of at least a recession (quite possibly a major one). We can’t continue printing and spending 3-4$’s for every ONE dollar of GDP, it already has created a multitude of problems. We are being manipulated into a very tight corner and when this implosion happens there will be a lot of unsuspecting people (who have been lied to) led like lambs to the slaughter. Who do you think they will blame? Republicans? Democrats? How about all government, how do you think we got a piece of sh*t like Trump?