Yesterday I wrote about the statistical artifacts of being a congenital liar, which led to observations concerning how a congenital liar must still have integrity, just not the sort of integrity most of us share.
Lying is a species of corruption. Most of the time it’s unimportant or self-corrects, but when it, along with the other behaviors of corruption, become a determined part, a tool, of someone’s existence, corruption can force that person, a victim of its cruel requirements, into bad decisions. Take, for instance, President Trump and the conservative reactions, prior to and after, the commutation of Roger Stone:
Among those opposed to Trump’s decision to spare his longtime adviser from having to report to prison next week was White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to a person familiar with the situation. Multiple White House officials even advised the president against the commutation, according to a second source. …
Attorney General William Barr discussed Stone’s sentence with Trump and recommended clemency not be offered, according to multiple sources, and other White House officials, including Meadows, also advised the president against the commutation.
Trump was warned of these vulnerabilities, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions, who said the president was told “it was a big mistake.” [NBC News]
The President didn’t get the reaction he wanted from the conservative media, according to WaPo. So why did President Trump charge ahead? Stone has admitted – I won’t even say All but admitted – that he has some very important information that Trump didn’t want released, so he held a sword over Trump’s head. Trump had good reason to issue the commutation.
But one must keep in mind that corruption is rarely isolated. There are other actors holding important information on Trump, and he knows they’re watching his treatment of Trump. Corruption is a team sport, after all, and those out on the front lines, facing a prison term, will need reassurance that they, too, can be rescued.
Or they’ll drop their load into the FBI’s lap.
That Trump commuted Stone’s sentence is no surprise.
But notice how this just makes Trump even more visibly corrupt. Trump knows this, and thus the ceaseless yammer about how the Mueller investigation was a witch hunt. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that his base wasn’t going to go away because of the commutation – but this is another reason, among literally hundreds, for the independents, who hold his political fate in their hands, to vote against him and his enablers in Congress.
My point, though, is that corruption may seem like a way to game the system to those who consider themselves clever – but Trump is becoming an object lesson in how corruption can force its users into actions they’d rather not take.
What I find horrifically funny was this, also from the same NBC News report:
When asked about why the president would flout the advice of top advisers, one of the sources said the president believed Stone was treated unfairly by prosecutors and that the Russia investigation was an illegitimate “witch hunt.”
Trump’s decision to ignore the advice of those arounds [sic] him was also rooted in the president’s belief that his base would not disapprove of his decision to commute Stone.
Which suggests he’s either lying to his own advisors, or he’s demented. He knows the Mueller investigation was not a witch hunt – or, at least, he should. If he really, truly believes that all of the indictments and observations of obstruction of justice and straight out lying, as documented by Mueller, was not corruption, then once again he’s demented.
It’s really that simple.
