Thoughts of a retired physician

  I hate to debase my own blog but this is the infamous mugshot of Donald Trump. It is the first mugshot ever of a former president. Please note the hard-edged scowl and the glaring stare. Word is that Trump did not want his mugshot done but the indicted criminal had no choice in Fulton County, Georgia. That probably helps account for the look but I think it isn’t the total story. Trump is rarely seen smiling and his smiles have always been totally fake when he does smile. He prefers to be seen as the ultimate tough guy so photos of him usually show what is more easily interpreted as a man pissed off with the world who wants others to believe he is really intimidating.  However, he has already profited from this photo. CBS News says as of this morning Trump and his campaign have raked in $7.1 million from the merchandising of the mug’s mug on a mug. Of course, that is what Trump does and has always done – grifting off his faithful cult. Nowadays the money is probably going to multip

  “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Joan Didion, The White Album , 1979. Eight words that hold a real truth. They apply to each of us as a person but they also apply to us as a nation. In 441 days we will have a general election in which 1/3 of the Senate, all of the House of Representatives, and the next President will be selected. The coup that Donald Trump attempted in 2020 did not culminate in January 2021. It is a slow coup that has festered since then with Trump and his cult of MAGA followers (including what used to be known as the Republican Party) has kept alive and which still threatens our country.  David French has a sobering analysis in the New York Times today. He references a 126-page paper in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review by William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen entitled The Sweep and Force of Section Three . Baude and Stokes, two conservative law professors who are members of the Federalist Society (and by no means partisan) make the point