Patterns & Grifters

Patterns are intrinsic to our lives. They’re evident in our behaviors, thoughts, desires and beliefs, our perceptions, relationships, the foods we like and the foods we can’t stomach. They’re also intrinsic to synchronicity.

I think it was a college professor who once remarked that if I wanted to be a writer, my first job was to grasp the patterns. Once you see the patterns in anything – person, situation, actions – then you can put together the larger truth.

For most of the time that trump has been in the public eye – as a former reality TV star, a real estate guy, a citizen, husband, father, and prez, the same patterns are evident:
When he’s confronted with something he doesnt want to hear – like a criticism, an opponent, an accusation – he spews distractions. By now, we recognize the usual distractions: it’s a lie, it didn’t happen, I hardly know her (or him), that’s deep state stuff, it’s outrageous…

He doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions. He points the finger at someone else and that person or those people take the fall for him. Michael Cohen, for instance. Or trump’s generals, or Allen Weisselberg, Mark Meadows, Rudy Gulliani, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham…

Liar. When he called on his fans to march on the capitol, said he would be marching with them. Many of those rioters have been charged and sentence. Has trump? Nope. Not yet.

He doesn’t pay his employees… I’d heard this for a long time by friends who lived in NY and had worked for trump in some capacity. But perhaps the best witness to this pattern of his is trump attorney John Eastman. From the NY Times: On the day of President Biden’s inauguration, John Eastman suggested looking for voting irregularities in Georgia — and asked for help in getting paid the $270,000 he had billed the Trump campaign.

From what I’ve read, Eastman still hasn’t been paid.

Use the press for any possibility of making money. Otherwise known as grifter. With the FBI search of Mar a Lago, all legal and court-ordered, Trump saw an opportunity to make money. So he made the announcement that the FBI had raided his home, planted documents, weaponized the DOJ. He fired up his hardcore, armed base with posts on his personal version of twitter.  And, oh yeah, he would announce his 2024 presidential candidacy soon – i.e. send donations.

All this stuff – the facts, the fiction – is online. But whether you get the facts or the fiction depends on your own emotional and intellectual patterns. What’s your primary source of information? One devoted trump fan told me he depends on “citizen journalists” for his news. I’m not even sure what that means. Bloggers? Facebook posts? Dark web apps?

When I remarked to a religious neighbor that I didn’t understand her admiration of trump, that he was the most unchristian politician I’d ever seen, she said he prayed with Pence and that was enough for her. But trump wasn’t praying with Pence on January 6. He supported the chants of “Hang Pence.” Supported that makeshift gallows that was erected with a noose hanging from it.

So, patterns. And right now, the prevailing patterns don’t look so good for trump, the guy who has never been held accountable for anything. Facing legal challenges from every side, what are trump’s patterns screaming at him now?

Find your fall guy.

Announce your presidency.

Garland’s DOJ won’t indict a presidential candidate.

Uh, well, time to bargain. 20 years instead of life  – this one is doubtful.