Devolving

There's an obvious pattern to the way Cult45 operates.

First, always always always remember that no matter what else, putting money in Trump's pocket while ducking his responsibility is the whole fucking point of the exercise.

So the tactical distractions are becoming epic, and I think the level of the weirdness of those distractions is proportional to the panic 45* feels as we accelerate towards the revelation of damning and (hopefully irrefutable) evidence of depravities that make Dorian Grey look like Jefferson Smith.

Three things popped up in the last few days - the first of which is kind of a redux of an old scandal.

Forbes:

Like autumn leaves, sponsored Cadillacs, Ferraris and Maseratis descend on the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, in September for the Eric Trump Foundation golf invitational. Year after year, the formula is consistent: 18 holes of perfectly trimmed fairways with a dose of Trumpian tackiness, including Hooters waitresses and cigar spreads, followed by a clubhouse dinner, dates encouraged. The crowd leans toward real estate insiders, family friends and C-list celebrities, such as former baseball slugger Darryl Strawberry and reality housewife (and bankruptcy-fraud felon) Teresa Giudice.

The real star of the day is Eric Trump, the president's second son and now the co-head of the Trump Organization, who has hosted this event for ten years on behalf of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He's done a ton of good: To date, he's directed more than $11 million there, the vast majority of it via this annual golf event. He has also helped raise another $5 million through events with other organizations.

The best part about all this, according to Eric Trump, is the charity's efficiency: Because he can get his family's golf course for free and have most of the other costs donated, virtually all the money contributed will go toward helping kids with cancer. "We get to use our assets 100% free of charge," Trump tells Forbes.

That's not the case. In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it's clear that the course wasn't free--that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.

So we're right back to playing the donors for suckers - or worse, enlisting those "donors" in service of the scam that easily could include kickbacks and influence peddling.

Eric Trump is in the running for top honors in the Douche Nozzle Of The Year awards every fucking year. 

And then there's this one via WaPo:

Children born overseas to some American parents serving in the military or working for the federal government may no longer automatically claim U.S. citizenship if their parents had lived in the United States for less than five years, according to a new federal policy issued Wednesday. 

Instead, officials said, those parents must apply for citizenship on behalf of their children before they turn 18 years old.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes citizenship applications, said it rescinded a policy that had allowed some members of the military and government employees to easily transmit citizenship to children born overseas, because it conflicted with other policies and federal law.

Now, they do tell us they're not out to fuck people over with this, and that the change in policy doesn't affect anyone who's already a citizen, or people born before the effective date of the new policy.

So, you might ask, what's the point? Why change the policy?

Good questions. Especially when we know Cult45 lies all fucking day every fucking day.

Other good questions: 

Seein' as how the mother of my kids was born in Germany when her dad was active duty Air Force, and that she had to get some special declaration from the State Department to establish her citizenship (as an adult), could she be stripped of that citizenship?

Would my children then be considered anchor babies?

Are they subject to being rounded up and deported?

And now this, from VICE:

Families of kids receiving medical care in the U.S. got letters saying they have to leave within 33 days or face deportation and a temporary ban on returning

ICE will now be able to decide whether undocumented immigrants getting treatment for serious medical conditions can stay in the country, WBUR and the Associated Press reported Monday.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that handles matters like naturalization and adjustment of status, had previously handled cases through the "medical deferred action" program. But these requests — essentially a form of short-term deportation relief for people getting treated for conditions like cancer, cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy — are now being referred to ICE for “consideration,” a USCIS spokesperson told VICE News.

Massachusetts politicians slammed the recent change. “By no longer considering medical deferred action requests for immigrants, the Trump administration is now literally deporting kids with cancer,” Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said on Facebook.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh called the decision “absurd and inhumane.”

Under acting director Ken Cuccinelli, USCIS has become increasingly politicized. Cuccinelli recently defended the Trump administration’s“public charge” rule, which intends to deny visas or green cards to immigrants who may rely on government assistance, by providing a reinterpretation of the famous poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

All of this weird shit - especially the weird shit they're doing with immigrants - has purpose.

They told us over a year ago. John Kelly mentioned it at least once when he was Sec'y of DHS, and I think again when he went to work as 45*'s Chief of Staff, that we were taking these actions as a means to deter immigration from Hispanic countries to our south.

We might as well be saying, "We will treat you like you're dog shit on the soles of our shoes - and we have no qualms about fucking up your kids in order to get what we want."

So the original point of the cruelty was to warn people away. But as is always the case with such things, the point of the cruelty became cruelty for its own sake, and the whole mess escalates practically all by itself.

Most people can be talked into the notion that it's OK to do bad things for good reasons. But good people won't go along with it for long. So eventually, you have to replace all those good people.

Inevitably, all you have left is a group of people who're not only willing to do those shitty things, but who want to do those shitty things because they like to do shitty things.

We've seen it before - we're now entering the phase where the point of the cruelty is cruelty - the point of bullying is bullying - the act of torturing people is the point of torturing people.

The kicker is that we have a "POTUS" who stokes the drive to abandon our sense of honor - our very humanity - by floating a presidential pardon in front of anyone willing to step up and do his dirty work.

All of which, while not part of some elaborate strategically-plotted 4-dimensional chess, is in fact deliberate, in that it's calculated to spread wave after wave after wave of bullshit across the media spectrum in order to: a) create opportunities to steal money, and b) provide cover for the crimes.

This is not a government - this is a fucking robbery. And it's 39 kinds of fucked up.