Hump Day open thread: Some Wednesday schadenfreude

The above image is what greets you when you go to coup plotter John Eastman's State of California Bar page.

I have no idea who Eastman was before he got involved with his dark lord Donald Trump and became a Ringwraith. I have no idea if he was a good lawyer, a kind man, an ethical person. Perhaps he was. Perhaps he possessed many qualities which you and I would find admirable.

But here's the thing: anyone who gets involved with scum and villainy like Trump, no matter how well-intentioned they may have been in a previous life, goes down into the cesspit. They create their own personal Gehenna, a fiery pit which burns away any good nature they may have had. For to have any dealings with Trump which are not adversarial is to support and elevate him. Like Sauron, Trump will corrupt you, turning all of your virtues into vices.

It's hard to understand how this happens. How men and women who had respect and glittering careers were turned by this stupid evil lord. How they were conned by this grifter, this fraudster, this scammer. How you can eschew everything you may have grown up, have been taught about right and wrong, and throw it all away for this fat, sweaty, pustulent turd of a human being. Every pore of him oozes disease and decay. And yet people keep gravitating towards him. You have to remember that in his first term most of his cabinet secretaries were men and women with gravitas and good reputations. They were the type of people any Republican president would have in his employ. 

But now all that Trump attracts are the morally destitute. No one can work for Trump who is unaware  of who and what he is. A rapist. An insurrectionist. A putative dictator. A wannabe genocidaire. 

Again, I know nothing of what Eastman was like before gravitating into Trump's orbit toward the end of his regime. But I think it's safe to say he was no James Mattis. He was no John Kelly. Hell, he wasn't even Rex Tillerson. By the end, Trump was exposed for all to see. And Eastman hitched his wagon to the train, hoping to gain power and domination. 

Instead? His career is ruined. He's under indictment in Georgia. He will die a pauper, unloved, regarded as a handmaiden to treason. Again, and again, I don't know Eastman before Trump. But I can't imagine this is the future he had envisioned when he passed the bar. I would feel pity for him, were he to warrant it. But he doesn't. And forgiveness is not mine to give. He traduced this Republic. For that, he must bear the consequences.

Everything Trump touches dies.

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