(NB: In the first version of this, I forgot to mention the heroes and victims of Trump's rampage -- the police officers who were left to fight it out, without adequate weapons or backup, by that murderous thug of a President. Some of them were present in the front row, mute and injured witnesses to the massive evidence being presented. There were also two guys who just happened to get caught up in the rampage, now professing sorrow, without a trace of remorse or wisdom. One couldn't even find a jacket and tie to appear before Congress. The other guy tried to apologize to Harry Dunn, the brother who had to swat vermin with his bare hands that day. Dunn is a wonderful person. To his credit, he gave the man a blank stare and let him go his way. The witness still has to answer to his wife, who was present on Tuesday. Good luck with that. My belated thanks to the officers who were set up to fail and be injured, by the President of the United States. GV)
I have become addicted to the Jan. 6 committee hearings – hanging on every response, every nuance, every face in the audience. I have not been this involved in any television spectacle since The Sopranos, all those years ago. In fact, I am deeply afraid this series will end the same way The Sopranos did – by going dark, with no final conclusion for the chief character. Tony Soprano and Donald Trump. Guy from Jersey, guy from Queens. When the Sopranos series ended so abruptly – with Tony, Carmela and A.J. eating onion rings while waiting for Meadow to park the car – I understood what author David Chase had done. He let all of us construct our own ending. Okay. Deep down, it was only a TV series, and in some strange way I saw Tony as a family man (as well as a bully and a murderer and gangster), so I concocted my alternate coda for the family – new identities and fingerprints, a swanky home in Boca Raton, the kids in college. Another chance. I could concoct another persona for Tony but I cannot imagine another life for Trump--or his admirers. As of now, I bet there might even be six or seven middle-of-the-road Republican voters around the country who have bothered to watch or read the hearings and have decided Trump is a vile criminal, after all. I have the terrible feeling that AG Merrick Garland will sleepwalk through the final Biden years, and Trump will talk his way out of everything, the way he did starting near the family bunker in Jamaica Estates. In the meantime, I watch these hearings the way I watched the Sopranos. Don’t call me. Don’t text me. I’m a total Fan Boy for Liz Cheney the way I once was for Edie Falco, and I hang on the patriotic history lessons from Rep. Jamie Raskin the way I did on the scowling gangland sagacity of Steven Van Zandt, Tony’s consigliere. This current series is the best education in civics I have ever seen on TV. Every member of the panel reminds those of us who are listening what democracy means, or should mean. I have tried not to rage at the revelations in each of these made-for-TV “hearings,” keeping my cool as people revealed the ways Trump garroted and knifed and shot democracy. I held back my rage on Tuesday watching a weasel lawyer named Cipollone try to suggest he had undergone a miracle cure – seen the light, praise the Lord – although it was clear the committee’s lawyers had suggested he might want to testify, or else. The weasel was 18 months late. However, there are still surprises, particularly last week from Cassidy Hutchinson, the 26-year-old aide to another weasel, Mark Meadows. (What is it with people like Mark Meadows, Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy and the aforementioned Cipollone – they need a strong Fuhrer type to make them feel whole?) Anyway, Miss Hutchinson was still young enough, had not been around politics long enough to have her heart corrupted, and she had the visceral understanding that bad things were going on down the hallway and she shamed the weasel Meadows into at least acknowledging the dark intentions of Trump. Cassidy Hutchinson has taken on the aura of a latter-day Paul Revere, sloshing through the slimy bogs of Washington, shouting, “The weasels are coming! The weasels are coming!” Someday there may be a Cassidy Hutchinson stamp – put me in for a 100-pack. I did lose it on Tuesday, however. My position watching this horror show has come from the Iris DeMent song – “No Time to Cry.” “Working overtime to make sure that I don’t come unglued.” But then Rep. Stephanie Murphy from Florida, one of the panel members I knew least, gave her short summation of the day. She is, she revealed, from a family that escaped by boat from Vietnam. She praised the United States of America, and she linked the committee’s work with the ideals of truth and democracy….and to my amazement I started to weep, great big salty tears rolling down my face, and I turned to my wife (who does not hold back her rage at these thugs) and I found myself blubbering, “They don’t get any of this, do they?” I was referring to the enablers and hustlers and explainers and deniers and downright racists who supported, and continue to support, Donald J. Trump, who is worse than anybody in “The Sopranos.” The Sopranos merely murdered and stole. These people are worse. Unless the Justice Department steps up, I can foresee another show going dark.
Ed Martin
7/12/2022 07:43:31 pm
It was a powerful expose, to be continued. To me the Committee is trying to build a very strong case on trumps criminal behavior, for the public understanding, Justice is a more difficult challenge.
bruce
7/13/2022 01:23:19 am
ed, non attorney,
Randolph
7/12/2022 08:18:05 pm
George,
George
7/13/2022 09:11:46 am
Thanks to everybody who responds here. I'm still quivering with rage -- updating the top of this essay, honoring the officers. And I haven't even mentioned Trump apparently trying to lean on a potential witness. Classic Soprano: "It would be a shame if a nice store like this had a fire." GV
George
7/13/2022 09:13:16 am
Randy, jealous because you can grow tomatoes, and I cannot. I've finally found a store with tomatoes that smell like tomatoes, with the vines still attached. Not cardboard. Enjoy. GV
Andy Tansey
7/12/2022 09:29:44 pm
"The January 6 Hearings are a politically motivated witch-hunt conducted primarily by liberals who promote socialism in our country and who are led by a Chief Executive whose administration has presided over a period of inflation, probable economic recession and attempts to infringe on the right to life, prayer and constitutional right to bear arms."
bruce
7/13/2022 01:28:10 am
andy,
bruce
7/13/2022 11:14:32 am
andy,
Darrell Berger
7/12/2022 09:58:46 pm
Tony soprano was one of the great artistic creations in the history of the United States. Donald Trump is one of the great accidents of history for the United States. It must be corrected and it is up to the citizens of the United States to do it, and yes the minority of well-intentioned and knowledgeable citizens can do it.
Altenir Silva
7/12/2022 10:17:30 pm
George: Great analogy. We hope for another ending to this political show with all villains arrested. America reverberates for the universe. What happens in America does not stay there, but it has an echo on the entire planet. The happy ending will be meaningful here in Brazil.
George
7/13/2022 09:15:38 am
Dear Altenir: quite right. Our Trump gives hope to your Bolsonaro, destroyer of rain forests, and Hungary's Orban, and other wannabe Trumps. GV
Ina Selden
7/12/2022 11:40:28 pm
The second Trump follower who testified reminded me of the Trintignant character in The Conformist. Ordinary guy leading a coless life. finds himself recruited by the Fascists. He’s clueless but whatever’s going on it is better than the dullness of his life. Gets in deeper, then deeper and suddenly finds himself in an alternative universe that, in our era, resembles an exciting, violent video game where there are guns and blood. (how did he miss this on the way into the Capitol?) Then someone says game paused. A Disembodied voice tells him to go home for now, and he obeys. Two years later he has yet to figure out why his life has been destroyed. Meanwhile the Mrs. seated one row back and constantly on camera, her mouth gradually turns down at the edges. She’s probably already got her bags packed.
George
7/13/2022 09:18:43 am
Hi, Ina, I don't know the movie, but I can see Trintignant in it. Good point about The Missus. I think it was Raskin who said hello to her. She has a classic mask-face of grief, as she soaks up the immensity of what the man has done. Job. House. Etc. Merci, GV
John McDermott
7/13/2022 12:29:43 am
Thanks for this, George. So many good comments here. I agree with Randolph, You hit it out of the park. And Trump is the worst kind of thug: one who cons others into doing his dirty work and then plays the victim when he gets caught red-handed. He might yet get away with it. But he will never hold public office again. The committee is clearly preparing a case to deliver on a platter to DOJ. What Garland does with it is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, if you loved The Sopranos you will also love Bosch with the always impressive Titus Welliver as the righteous single-father, wound-too-tight LA homicide detective. We have been binge watching the whole series on Amazon here in Italy. And RIP, Tony Sirico. Best Tony and Pauley scenes ever were actually real-life friends James Gandolfini and Tony Sirico visiting troops in Iraq. Bad guys-or were they Goodfellas?-on the screen but good guys in real life.
John McDermott
7/13/2022 01:05:48 am
Can't wait to see the execrable Bannon squirming before the committee. Probably the only one I want to see behind bars more than Trump in this sad American nightmare is the evil, detestable and obsequious Rudolph Giuliani who has done more to give Italian-Americans a bad name than any David Chase or Martin Scorsese villains ever did.
George
7/13/2022 09:24:36 am
John: I don't know Bosch....I binge-watch the Mets. For me, the Sopranos were a one-off. I've never watched even one episode of series our kids love. One was choosing Better Call Saul Monday night rather than Max Scherzer and the Mets -- quite a statement.
Randolph
7/13/2022 09:41:43 am
John and George,
bruce picken
7/13/2022 01:32:53 am
george,
Randolph
7/13/2022 08:53:51 am
Bruce,
bruce
7/13/2022 08:57:24 am
randolph,
Jean Grenning
7/13/2022 07:02:15 am
Well done !
George
7/13/2022 09:27:33 am
Madame President: thanks for the note. Who woulda thought? Best, G 7/13/2022 10:38:40 am
Not enough can be said about the courage and patriotism of Cassidy Hutchinson. That is some innate which cannot be taught and is remarkable in someone so young.
bruce
7/13/2022 11:21:16 am
alan,
Gene Palumbo
7/14/2022 03:58:32 pm
George -
George
7/14/2022 05:13:19 pm
Gene: diminishing number of old fans remember -- but what a memory. Nice to get a passing reference to the Duke and Dem Bums. Thanks. GV
Angela R McKenize
7/18/2022 05:19:12 pm
Dear George, Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
|