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"All Right, Mr. Smith, I'm Ready for My Close Up" — Donald Trump's Delusional Defense (Update x 10) [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-03
Yeah, Where Does One Get This Flag? LOLOLOL
Hillary: “Long Time No See, Donald!”
x Did you spot it?
Did you understand what this means?
I don't think you grasped WHY this was the worst day Trump has ever had in court
Let's examine what this ruling means in a mini-Thread, shall we?#Arrestmas #TrumpArraignment #TrumpIndictment
https://t.co/6WnWsBrMRo pic.twitter.com/sg54ws8lve — Tomi T Ahonen Is Not Being Arrested For You (@tomiahonen) August 3, 2023
The Candidate
In a recent New York magazine story , Olivia Nuzzi draws parallels between Norma Desmond and her ardent fan at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s lavish Palm Beach club and winter redoubt: “ A washed-up star locked away in a mansion from the 1920s, afraid of the world outside, afraid it will remind him that time has passed.” — “The Newly Relevant Relationship between Trump and ‘Sunset Blvd.,” Washington Post. This article states that Trump is a huge fan of the classic movie and held screenings at both the White House and Camp David. He described the movie as “one of the greatest of all time.”
Donald Trump and Actress Gloria Swanson (right) as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Attribution: Hawk Gates.
Sunset Boulevard is widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made in Hollywood. The story features an aging actress who was a huge star in silent movies. She lives in a large mansion in Hollywood, her life dominated by delusional fantasies of a triumphant comeback to the big screen.
Norma Desmond has the utmost confidence in her abilities and still believes in her stardom. Oblivious to the fact that her fame has evaporated, she clings to the delusional hope that her career can be resuscitated. The simple reality is that she will never, ever recapture her past glory. Hollywood has long since moved on.
In the last scene of the movie, she descends down the magnificent staircase in her house and moves towards what she thinks is a movie camera and says, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” Desmond is ecstatic about her return to movies, though unable to distinguish between illusion and reality. What she is completely unaware of is that it is not what she mistakenly believes it is. In fact, it’s a news camera and her mansion is brimming with news reporters and policemen.
She is about to be arrested for murder.
Norma Desmond. Attribution: Pinterest Do you remember how Sunset Boulevard ends? Norma Desmond shoots and kills the writer, a fraudster who has fallen under the spell of her charisma, just as he summons the courage to walk away. Her sycophantic butler flips. There are no enablers left to protect her. A final fantasy, a fake movie set, is staged in the mansion’s entryway. The lights go on, and she is lured before the cameras, where the police are waiting to haul her away.
The Proscecutor
An article in the Guardian (UK) newspaper also compared Norma Desmond’s delusional thinking with Donald Trump and his rabid MAGA supporters.
From the Guy Who Won the American Civil War x Prophetic? pic.twitter.com/QpySkaytEa — Jeffrey Levin 🇺🇦 (@jilevin) August 2, 2023 Sunset Boulevard at 70: We’re All Norma Desmond now For liberals, she epitomises super-rich self-delusion. Cocooned in privilege, she fancies herself a meritocratic success story. The fantasy of her self-made triumph is abetted by an information silo that she doesn’t even know she’s trapped in. Her sycophantic enabler — erstwhile director, ex-husband, and now butler, Max von Mayerling — showers her with forged fan letters, as though anticipating the echo chamber that would manifest under the banner of Fox News. “Without me there wouldn’t be any Paramount studios,” she imperiously declares, discounting the swarm of worker bees buzzing around the lot. When Gillis describes her as a has-been (“you were big”), she snaps back, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small,” capturing the toxic mix of arrogance, nostalgia, and resentment that feeds into the Maga battle cry. Trump’s ‘Delusion’ Defense “Former President Trump’s legal team is teasing a risky defense to his historic third indictment: that Trump genuinely believed his own lies about election fraud — despite being told by dozens of his closest advisers, allies and agencies that they were baseless,” Axios reports. “If they proceed to trial, Trump’s lawyers effectively could be asking a jury to believe that the former president was delusional — undermining special counsel Jack Smith’s core thesis that Trump ‘knowingly’ sought to defraud the country.” “Politically, however, the ‘delusion defense’ would force Republicans into the uncomfortable position of defending a candidate who can’t be trusted to distinguish reality from conspiracy — and who now wants to be president again.” The End x Mike Luckovich,
https://t.co/rncK7t503X (2022) @mluckovichajc pic.twitter.com/G8TM6Y7SNZ — Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) August 2, 2023
Updates Posted Here
As always, I will post additional editorial cartoons in the comments section and as updates to the diary right here in this section.
I expect that most editorial cartoonists will be working overtime and post their cartoons online throughout the day.
Here is the link to another recent diary of mine — For Trump, the Third Time's the Charm — The Week in Editorial Cartoons
Showing Their True Colors x REPUBLICAN INTEGRITY by Dale Cummings pic.twitter.com/cMcgp1Wrup — The Cagle Post (@CaglePost) August 3, 2023
So Damn Unfair
x Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe @ChristophWeyant pic.twitter.com/A5ge5rwjrt — Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) July 21, 2023
Donald Trump in Elementary School
He’s Better Than Norma Desmond
x Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency pic.twitter.com/bSPv0TcsSO — Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) August 2, 2023
Attribution for the above cartoon: Jack Ohman Editorial & Political Cartoons @EandPCartoons
Karma!
Just. Shut. Him. Up.
The Office — New Reality TV Series
The Trump Plea Deal
Trump’s a Born Winner
Watch Your Back, Jack!
Sleaziness Personified
One Needs More Than Lies to Survive Politically
Chaneling Johnnie Cochran
She is No Saddam Hussein!
x JAN. 6TH INDICTMENT by Adam Zyglis pic.twitter.com/fmFoAW75Oi — The Cagle Post (@CaglePost) August 3, 2023
Is Anyone Listening?
The Rest of the Trump Gang
x Memo to Jack Smith: Now go after the rest of the insurrectionists.
Ann Telnaes, The Washington Post@AnnTelnaes #TrumpArrestedAgainDay #Indictments pic.twitter.com/IIrJdIAxYx — Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) August 3, 2023
Do They Still Love Him?
x THE LAST TO FALL by Cagle Webmaster pic.twitter.com/0KtWgSGRQq — The Cagle Post (@CaglePost) August 3, 2023
Diary Poll
When will Donald Trump fade from the news? Take the diary poll.
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