"Mad, bad and dangerous to know."

 (By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari)

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." - Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

It's one of those phrases that's been passed down in literary posterity. It was coined by Lady Caroline Lamb, the English novelist, and described the sixth Baron Byron, more popularly known as Lord Byron the Romantic poet. Lamb had had an extramarital affair with Byron in 1812 as we can assume she knew of what and whom she was speaking. Today, it lives out its posterity as one of those aphorisms that eviscerates its subject with a surgical use of a few spare words. Virtually all of its original punch has been leeched of its original power because Lord Byron died exactly 200 years ago on the 19th. Ergo, there's no one around to testify as to whether Caroline Lamb's appraisal was accurate or not. But there's no rule that says a good aphorism or insult can't be repurposed to fit more contemporary figures.

     Like Donald Trump, for instance.

    As far as recycled aphorisms go, we've, understandably, also seen this quote from the aforementioned Alexander Hamilton:

     "When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind'."

     Except, this is no directed whirlwind of anarchy but criminal court in Manhattan and the court is run by a judge named Juan Merchan who doesn't take shit from anyone. Not even "former presidents" incapable of understanding that he, too, is subject to the laws of the land and the fact that he's running for an office he never legitimately won does not inoculate him from legal comeuppance. During every trial both criminal and civil, Trump looks and acts like a seven year-old boy forced to go bra shopping with his mother.

     And, after just two weeks in court, for which he must appear or risk jail, Trump's worst character defects are magnified under the media microscope. As with his civil trial in the E. Jean Carroll and civil fraud cases, Trump has to settle for inveighing about his woes not to thousands of supporters who have entirely avoided the courthouse but to a handful of reporters waiting outside the courtroom.

     So, let's re-examine exactly how Trump is "mad, bad and dangerous to know."

Mad

Leave it to Trump to never let a single opportunity go to waste to try to wring sympathy out of anyone. This is why, since the Carroll trial, Trump had taken to randomly look right into the lens of any camera in the courtroom (and he always knows, with preternatural awareness, where they all are) so he can look into it with this put-upon "O woe is me!" face to show the American public about the torture to which this poor man is subjected.

     But once he walks outside the courtroom to hold his shrunken little rallies, he's a different person. There's no vulnerability, no hurt expression and, despite gag orders, he inveighs against anyone and everyone he perceives as victimizing him. Leona Helmsley, who's appropriately buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery,. once infamously said, "Taxes are for little people." Trump plainly feels the same way about the criminal justice system, that justice and legal comeuppance are only for the little people, especially if they're Democrats. Those people tend to be those who wound up in prison doing his bidding so he could keep his short fingers clean.

    But whether he's whining about the civil fraud case brought by Letitia James, the E. Jean Carroll defamation/rape trial, the documents case in Florida that, thanks to Aileen Cannon has gone nowhere at warp speed, the January 6 trial in Washington or the current hush money trial, Trump throws up a dizzying array of rationales as to why he shouldn't be at court, how he's not guilty, at how the bond laws don't apply to him or even why his supporters haven't shown up to commit mayhem on his behalf.

     He's going crazy because one prosecutor and judge after another is telling him what he can and can't do. And Trump has shown time and again that he doesn't thrive in environments that he can't control and that just makes him thrash around like a dying dinosaur. And his deepening dementia is no doubt exacerbated by his inability to sleep at night, which just makes his emerging psychosis even worse.

    There's also CNN's excellent analysis of how Trump's behavior has of late been "untethered to reality." To hear him talk, he's fighting the dragon of St. George, the lion of Hercules and the Kraken all at the same time. But the plain fact is, even though cameras are not allowed in the courtroom during the proceedings, eyewitnesses tell us he's nodding off. The one time he showed any actual defiance, Trump stood up and was ordered to take a seat by Judge Merchan.

     He also claims the NYPD is keeping his vast army of supporters away from the courthouse but file footage in the media shows traffic flowing freely around the courthouse. Maggie Haberman of the NY Times said there are no supporters because they're simply not showing up, a fact that resulted, of course, in Trump coining an idiotic nickname for her: Maggot Hagerman.

     The list goes on and on but I think you get the gist. At this point in every other household, the family would take the car keys away from him and maybe lock up the liquor cabinet for good measure.

Bad

 

Donald loves it when people go to prison for him. God forbid he should ever go away but, beyond that, Trump looks at people who go to prison for him as the ultimate loyalists. Many people have gone to prison for Trump and I'm not even including the J6 rioters but those in his inner circle. It's a quality prized in a subsection of American society- Organized crime.

      It's mystifying to me why so many people are willing to go to prison for Trump. His former CFO, Alan Weisselberg, is doing a second stretch in Rikers because he lied to investigators. Michael Cohen did three years in Otisville for committing crimes for Trump. Six years ago, George Papadopoulos spent 12 days in prison for Trump. Paul Manafort spent even more time in prison and he's the guy who knew where all the bodies were buried as far as the 2016 campaign's collusion with Russia was concerned. Steve Bannon is still running around free, at least inasfar as Bannon is capable of running.

     Trump wound up pardoning Manafort before he opened his big mouth. Same thing that same night with slope-headed, right wing rat fucker Roger Stone who was pardoned by Trump (It didn't hurt his chances that Stone released to the media something like, "Gee, it sure would be a shame if they forced me to sing like a canary...").

     And however many people who have already gone to prison for Trump, there will be others. As of now, Weisselberg and Peter Navarro are cooling their heels in prison. Now that Arizona has issued indictments in the fake elector scheme, we're likely to see more sanctions, disbarments and maybe even jail time. One of the most stunning falls from grace concern Trump's onetime lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb, and Boris Epshteyn. Add to that not so august list Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, Alina Habba and other assorted assholes, and you're seeing once-respected lawyers who willingly sacrificed their legal credibility on Trump's semen-spattered altar of selfishness.

     Some, like Michael Cohen, have already been disbarred or suspended and the only thing keeping Cohen safe from late night talk show fodder is the fact that he became one of Trump's biggest enemies and testified against him in Congress and what will surely be at least two criminal and civil trials. Giuliani's already gotten hit with a nearly $150,000,000 judgment for maligning two innocent poll workers in Georgia (He still insists they're guilty).

     And yet these idiots keep coming back for more in service to a guy who doesn't give a shit if they live or die. What keeps these aforementioned idiots in line is Trump's promise that he'll pardon them, which is what he's promised his body man, Walt Nauta, who's front and center in the documents case. Go down for me and I'll take care of you, is what he tells them, which is a very mafioso thing to say.

Dangerous to Know?

Despite his narcoleptic presence in Juan Merchan's courtroom, Trump is really a flared cobra in a basket that no one can seem to charm. But the more we see of Trump in courtrooms, especially when he has to be yelled at by judges refusing to put up with his puerile behavior, the more we get the impression that somewhere along the way, the cobra has been neatly defanged.

     Trump is still dangerous, don't get me wrong. After all, one of his followers shot up the Cincinnati FBI field office before he himself was gunned down. And, of course, there was January 6, 2021. But January 6, like September 11, was a singular moment in US history that's unlikely to be reprised. Not impossible but highly unlikely.

    Now, history teaches us power is acquired in three ways: It can be legitimately earned, it can be seized by force or it can be willingly conferred by others.

    Trump never legitimately earned power. Then, when the 2020 election didn't break his way, he had an epic, years-long shit fit and tried to seize it. Nowadays, the only power he has is that conferred on him by a supine Republican party that is at turns scared of him and, as with the Russians, cynically using him as a useful idiot who will help them achieve their goals.

     And Donald Trump is the only "ex president" who ever used mob rule or the threat of it to get his way. He's already said if and when he loses the 2024 election, it'll be a "bloodbath." And the people who give him what he wants, like the RNC in electing his Nazi daughter in law Lara as its co-chair or House Republicans who scuttled a broadly bipartisan border bill just because Trump told them to are simply giving him power he doesn't deserve.

     But it's obvious the crazies just aren't coming out for him any more. They're nowhere to be seen outside the courthouses at which he's being tried. They're certainly not in the courthouse where he lumbers out to deliver his piss and moan sessions (I don't think I'm the only one who fantasizes about him coming out and seeing no reporters waiting for him).

   What we're seeing, instead, is an aging Samson shorn of his locks, We're seeing a weirdly emasculated former Titan reduced to courthouse and Truth Social rants that change nothing, a petulant manchild forced to sit down by Judge Merchan when he inevitably begins acting out. What we're seeing is a man who controls no law enforcement, no military, nothing but a disaffected and disconnected mob of malcontents who are braver behind a keyboard than they are in the real world.

     What we're seeing, people, is an emperor that not only has no clothes but no Praetorian Guard.