Riding the Wave, 8 & 9. Funny, Not Funny.

Just when we thought the circus surrounding Trump couldn't get any more world-class comedy acts, we see Rudy Giuliani give another press conference. It was so much out of the Twilight Zone, that even the Spanish news carried it. It looked like his brain was melting.

Honestly, who is running that show? First, we see him standing in front of an entrance to a garage of sorts at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia, emphatically bellowing that there was fraud in the Pennsylvania vote count. It turns out someone made a boo-boo, and scheduled the press conference at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, next to a sex shop and a crematorium, rather fittingly. Looks like someone wasn't wearing their glasses when they looked up a phone number. Now, at a more common spot for giving a press conference, he stands bellowing that, it doesn't matter if there's evidence or not of fraud, they are going to impugn every single vote that went against Trump. And, while he bellows, rivulets of brown crawl down his face from his touched up sideburns. Look, Rudy, don't bother with the tint, everyone knows you're ancient. Accept facts, like you used to do.

What happened to the star prosecutor of the 70's and 80's? What happened to the mayor that held it all together when terrorist attacks destroyed the iconic Twin Towers and so many lives? From being a political hero, he's fallen to being a sad joke. 

He once followed the law, such as when, running for mayor of New York, he wouldn't allow Donald Trump to buy him breakfast because of a conflict of interest. And then, after 2001, slowly, he seemed to deflate like a balloon with a small leak. He divorced a wife and became estranged from his children. He married a rich jet-setter and was gradually manipulated by her to become what she wanted. He created a business, earned millions of dollars, and slowly let it all slide away when he got involved with Donald Trump. 

Though Rudy was already on his way out, Donald Trump seems to infect everything he touches with a virus that makes vaudeville look more believable. Rudy became Trump's lawyer and Man Friday. It seems Rudy became the comic relief in an administration that went from laughable to treasonable. When he appeared in the latest Borat comedy, sticking his hand in his pants in front of a young woman, it was something only to be expected from him. We laughed but we weren't surprised, much less shocked.

The worst part about all this is not that Rudy is Trump's buffoon, but that all these lawsuits filed, and thrown out, are not really about proving voter fraud. Trump and Rudy know he lost, and that there's nothing they can do about it. What they are doing is sowing doubt and division. Trump is doing all he can so that, once he is forced out, he can claim that Biden staged a coup against him, and has been illegally sworn in. They are creating a state of tension in the country that will erupt one way or another. If the run-off elections in Georgia are in favor of the Democratic candidates for the Senate, maybe the new administration can actually do something to help common Americans against the financial and health crisis that is raging. If not, Republicans in the Senate will stall absolutely everything in an attempt to give Trump's words weight. And a spark, rubbed by Trump and his sidekick, might start a fire that will end the Republic.

A civil war, albeit only in high circles at the moment, has begun. The contenders are Trump's lackeys, led by Rudy, and the rest of the American people. The American Republic will be touched by this, and may well be torn asunder. This is how it all ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. 

Life continues.