FRIDAY 'ROUND-THE-HORN: NO, *YOU* SHUT UP EDITION.

My phlebotomist was singing along to this.

One of the key features of the second Trump administration (or, as I like to call it, Tubby II) is the elevation of hypocrisy to a strategy. Normal political hypocrisy involves saying one thing while doing another and (this is crucial) hoping nobody notices. Its purpose is simply the having and eating of one’s own cake -- winning voter approval with their words while winning donor approval with their actions.

But while traditional hypocrisy relies on obfuscation, the Trumpkin variety relies on obviousness. They clearly want you to see them saying one thing and doing another because it demonstrates the limitlessness of their impunity -- that they’re not only beyond the reach of laws and norms, but also beyond the reach of logic, cause and effect, and the voters, whose disgust with all this Trump simply brushes off as if it doesn’t matter, either because he’s confident the vote is rigged or because his nihilism extends even further than his hypocrisy.

We saw that for sure with the White House Correspondents Dinner almost-assassination -- after years of Trump calling for violence against his opponents, he and his propagandists insisted that it was Democrats who had made our politics a shooting gallery and demanded “lowering the temperature” by firing Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about Trump’s decrepitude, indicting James Comey for a restaurant reference, and everybody shutting up about our Beloved President unless they came with words of praise such as his cabinet lavishes on him in their Daily Affirmations in the Oval Office. 

Our first ROY EDROSO BREAKS IT DOWN freebie, released to non-subscribers today, is about why that’s a lot of hooey and how a much earlier and better (like that’s tough) but still thin-skinned President tried it on his subjects and got his ass kicked. (Note to Secret Service: Figurative language.) 

Our second freebie is an assessment of the Roberts’ Court’s latest outrage, Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively killed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act -- and, since Shelby County v. Holder had already invalidated preclearance, pretty much killed the Voting Rights Act itself, though the conservatives’ cowardice kept them from admitting it. The Republicans are not fooled, and are racing the write black districts out of their voter maps.

It’s a shame, but we can hope (and cajole, and threaten) (Note to Secret Service: Figurative -- oh, who am I kidding, they don’t care about Democrats) our party leaders and politicians into fighting fire with fire and redistricting them right back. Though I usually counsel against counting on the GOP to make mistakes, I also think under the present conditions the GOP will probably dummymander themselves in several states. The rest we must trust to the righteous fury of the electorate, and there we have an advantage over our opponents, because that we need only the truth to stoke.