While doing some gardening, I listened to MSNBC Host and Police Target Ali Veshi read the entire Trump indictment as part of the NBC podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump.

What can I say, I like to multitask.

It has a good beat and is fun to dance to, Mr. Clark. Not really, but it was a compelling and disturbing listen. Each indictment is horrifying, and even if a third of it is true, then Trump should be in prison for the rest of his life. If you are not a podcast person, Adrastos breaks down the whole situation quite well here, here, and here.

Of course, most of the GOP is circling the wagons around their Orange Infection, with some notable exceptions. Those exceptions include Turtle Impersonator and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is remaining quiet, along with other Senate GOP leaders. Not sure if this is Super Ninja wisdom to handle it this way, but my thought is Mitch figures Trump hates him no matter what, and maybe the best thing to do is just remain mum.

The GOP primary candidates are of course supporting Trump. Milquetoast for Jesus Mike Pence is demanding that Attorney General Merrick Garland and Special Counsel/Tom Clancy Novel Character Jack Smith spill the beans on why they brought the indictment against Trump. Which is a little like asking why murder charges were brought against John Wayne Gacy. Others are talking about pardoning Trump if they win.

Only Mediocre Republican Asa Hutchinson and Master of Low Approval Chris Christie are daring to question Dear Leader’s innocence/victimhood. But really, the best word to describe those two is irrelevant. Even if Trump is convicted and out of the race, do they really think they can win the nomination by telling 80 percent of likely GOP primary voters that they are wrong for thinking Trump should not be president if he is convicted?

Speaking of those voters, they are really not worth arguing with over the indictment. I have seen a lot of people online try. For starters, they struggle with concepts beyond eight-syllable sentences, and the indictment is a little long. Reading is hard and anti-American, especially if it is a well-support list of charges against their Orange Lord and Savior.

Second, when Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose supporters, probably the most astute thing he has said in his life. The basis around this is something that has a long history in the Republican Party and predates Trump. A key aspect of Republicanism in 2023 is the desire to be able to hurt and rule over people they choose as targets, while people they support have free rein. Think of it as law and order for thee, but not for me.

This is not really hypocrisy, despite what some people with good intentions will say. This is a worldview, a dogma, part of a belief system, and one that has been in the GOP going back to Barry Goldwater. Unfortunately, now it has become a primary view within the Republican Party.

All this makes them completely impossible to argue with because this view frees them of needing to have facts to back up opinions, basic values and morals, and the ability to create an argument that makes sense. In this worldview, nothing really matters unless they say it does.

You cannot debate with someone like this, and it is a waste of time to try. What you can push back on is some of the more ridiculous ideas coming from the so-called center, including some in the media.

One might think that having the frontrunner arrested would be a problem for Republicans, but no way, it is really a problem for BIDEN, so sayeth our DC press corps.

The always shrewd writer AR Moxon Tweeted this:

Apparently prosecuting a flagrantly criminal ex-president and current presidential candidate is dangerous, and inherently political, and unprecedented, in ways that running a criminal as a candidate for president isn’t.

— A.R. Moxon (@JuliusGoat) June 11, 2023

As Moxon adds later in that Twitter thread, the idea that avoiding any talk of the GOP lurching toward criminal anti-democratic behavior that endangers national security is less biased than claiming that prosecuting an ex-president over extremely serious crimes is divisive and destabilizing is really quite a leap. And good Lord, if this was any Democratic politician, not to mention an ex-president, the drumbeat for the entire party to denounce them would be deafening.

This kind of coverage may make some of your more “independent” or moderate friends start to wonder if Trump should be prosecuted. Those folks, I think, can be reasoned with.

But the MAGAs? Don’t bother. You cannot argue with delusion.

The last word goes to Michal Leah.