Waaay back in 1989, Trump was calling out Donald Trump for the criminal he has always so very proudly been. In Crumb’s comic book world of wish-fulfilment Trump is literally flushed down the toilet.
I’m not usually one to wish ill on anyone. Well, I didn’t used to be. But several extremely unpleasant experiences in the last few years have changed that.
I’m 100% with Crumb in wishing and hoping fervently that Trump and his ilk be publicly punished, and indeed humiliated, and that their disgustingly venal self-serving ways be fully exposed for what they are.
I’ve read that Trump has been found guilty of all 36 charges against him, in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case. Excellent. Let’s hope this is just the first in a tidal wave of successful prosecutions.
And let’s hope he spends the remainder of his life in jail. Sadly I suspect his hyper-wealth will protect him from such an outcome. I hope I’m proven wrong.
Trump is allegedly a great businessman. Well, he’s certainly very rich. But according to hundreds of former ‘business associates’, or more plainly victims of his ‘sharp practices’, he’s just a non-paying bully and criminal.
As Adam Gabbatt tartly observes, in a piece on Trump’s recent Bible sales gambit, for The Guardian ‘Trump owes more than $500m as a result of civil court convictions. He is facing 88 felony charges, in five different jurisdictions, and lawyers cost money (unless you don’t pay them).’
Just as Crumb saw Trump clearly for the criminal he is, so too did Joni Mitchell understand where we’ve all been headed, as the 1985 lyrics to ‘Dog Eat Dog’ testify:
It's dog eat dog, I'm just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And the white washed hawks pedal hate and call it love
Dog Eat Dog
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
Dog eat dog
On prime time crime the victim begs
Money is the road to justice
And power walks it on crooked legs
Primetime, Crime
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
Where the wealth's displayed
Thieves and sycophants parade
And where it's made
The slaves will be taken
Some are treated well
In these games of buy and sell
And some like poor beast
Are burdened down to breaking
Dog eat dog
It's dog eat dog, ain't it Flim Flam man
Dog eat dog, you can lie, cheat, skim, scam
Beat'em any way you can
Dog eat Dog
You'll do well in this land of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
You could get to be
A big wig financier
Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away
Dog eat dog
People looking, seeing nothing
Dog eat dog
People listening, hearing nothing
Dog eat dog
People lusting, loving nothing
Dog eat dog
People stroking, touching nothing
Dog eat dog
Knowing nothing
Dog eat dog