Dr. Strange Test: Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV

Or: How our White House correspondent realized he would never learn to stop worrying and love Trump

There’s something new at the White House.

At least the president and some in the press say there’s a new “tone” at the White House, where things are, as usual, in a constant state of flux.

Don’t be fooled.

Once the center of the civilized world and a symbol of democracy, the White House now resembles a basement flood of fetid sewage where the brave, the foolish and the incompetent go to slowly drown.

The members of the White House press pool enjoy the perceived privilege of witnessing this crap on a daily basis, but it’s like watching Slim Pickens ride a nuclear bomb to its detonation in Dr. Strangelove. Most of the reporters who didn’t get to ask Trump questions before the pandemic put them center stage certainly seem as enthusiastic as Major T.J. Kong, Pickens’s character—although many of their questions are tepid. But the results for the Republic could be just as dire as Kong’s finish.

In this time of supposedly changing tone, the shock troops sent by Trump to defend federal property have been recorded shooting rubber bullets at protesting mothers, pushing people to the ground and tear-gassing protesters for no discernible reason. The videos and images have been widely shared. As several congressmen said Tuesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr, it is apparent the federal government is putting property ahead of people.

Thus, the violence increases. Trump seems to enjoy the talking points about defending buildings while beating the populace into submission.

The thought is sickening. It shows the president’s tone hasn’t changed; now he’s trying to change the tone of the nation to one of submissive fealty.