Even video evidence is not enough to change the cult's views

Lying has always been a go-to strategy in defending our actions and words. After all, everyone know that it's tough to discern the views of two people without additional witnesses. It's just one person's word against another's. 

But we now live in a world that features high-quality video cameras in almost everyone's hands (or purses or pockets or backpacks). In nearly every clash between, for instance, police or security guards with individuals, there is now a video that is easily shared. If we are in public, there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy.

But there are still bad actors and bad deeds, and the lying is not diminishing. The treatment of a U.S. senator by Noem's security detail is a case in point. There is clear video of him raising his voice to ask a question of this appalling woman (my view) during a press conference being held in his state (California) about the ICE crackdown on immigrants (or anyone maybe being in the country illegally). 

Tension must be high among the authorities because the senator was instantly hustled out of the room and soon thrown on the floor before being handcuffed. He identified himself but the excuse is that the officers did not recognize him. Noem claimed to not recognize a senator she had testified before just a few days prior. 

There have been no apologies... though he was soon released and was never charged with anything. That is hardly satisfying.

This is classic intimidation through force and that is now where we are as a country. 

Such actions flow down from the leader and that leader is a 79-year-old man who either can't read or refuses to read, who is increasingly befuddled and who any objective person would say has lost not just a step but dozens of steps. His default is cruelty and exuding power... facts be damned.

The emperor has no clothes (and it's not a pretty sight), but the members of his court will go to great lengths to rationalize anything that the boss says or does. Those groveling cult members are beneath contempt and a majority of the public disapproves of basically Trump's entire agenda.

But we passively await the courts restoring sanity. But courts are built on delay and precision of opinion and can't possibly keep up with the deluge of illegal actions by Trump's administration. 

I like the idea of the "No Kings" protests planned across the country for Saturday. It's a clean and clear message that Americans have a 250-year history of opposing a monarchy. Not everyone opposes that monarchy, of course, but we are now confronted by the reality of a wannabe dictator governing by fiat.

And we have lots of media hoping for photogenic confrontations and investing in spreading more lies. 

That dull ache in my stomach is not going away soon.