“Don’t take your own dear self too seriously.”
   Aphorism from Dr. Abraham Low’s “Recovery International.”

“Blame it on one culprit: self-cherishing.”
    From Point Three, The Seven Points of Mind Training.

“Maybe you’re playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”
   East of Eden (p. 295)
   John Steinbeck

“I’m the whole catastrophe.”  (As memory serves.)
   Zorba the Greek
   Nikos Kazantzakis

January 10, 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River and mounted an armed insurrection against the Roman Republic.  Winning the civil war, Caesar declared himself “emperor for life.”  After five centuries of being governed by political representation, Rome became ruled by an Emperor.

January 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump addressed MAGA Minions and mounted an armed insurrection against America’s Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.  Winning his civil war, Donald intended to declare himself President, probably for life.  Fortunately, sanity and Democracy carried the day!

Again, I take heart in Samwise Gamgee’s wisdom.
“By rights we shouldn’t even be here.  But we are.  It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.  The ones that really mattered.  Full of darkness and danger they were.  And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.  Because how could the end be happy?  How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened?  But in the end it’s only a passing thing this shadow.  Even darkness must pass.”

Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
J.R.R. Tolkien

Donald J. Trump is a cancer on the Republican party.  Allowed to metastasize he will kill America’s democracy.

Cancer is a parasite.  The body is its host.  Failing to identify a malignant tumor as “not-self,” the body supplies oxygen and nutrients for its growth. 

Donald J. Trump is a parasite.  Fearful, opportunist, politicians and MAGA minions are his host.  Failing to identify the Malignant Narcissist—whose sole focus is “itself”—as “not-self,” they applaud his egotistical rants and donate millions, suppling oxygen and nutrition for its growth. 

On Alex Wagner Tonight, former assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden employed in a graphic “wheel” summarizing potential “Racketeer and Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” (RICO) crimes related to the January 6 insurrection against the United States Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.

Titled “TRUMP OBSTRUCTIONS – RICO CONSPIRACY,” Donald Trump and ten alleged co-conspirators form the wheel’s hub.  Its spokes: “insurrections, witness tampering, fundraising fraud (2), felony murder, fake electors, money laundering, obstruction of congress, voting systems illegal access, murder conspiracy,” crimes for which the former president and cohort could be indicted.

Walden emphasizes that Attorney General Merrick Garland gets one shot here.  The Justice Department’s go-slow process in crafting an air-tight, bulletproof indictment is crucial! 

The crazy-making part: Anyone else suspected of Trump et al.’s RICO crimes, in addition to hauling truckloads of official government documents to his home/hotel, would have long since been cuffed and charged. 

Lady Justice is blindfolded!  No one is above the law!