Where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns…

Isn’t it rich?

Forgive me for the theatricals. If after you read this diary that you feel cheated, just think of all the wasted time frittered away this week by the stalwart House Managers who fought the good fight and presented an iron-clad case against the twitterer-in-chief only to face jury nullification from Republican Senators incapable of courage, many of whom were complicit in the crime at hand. The Trump Impeachment sequel, The Art of the Steal II, confirmed what we already knew about them, their cowardice in defense of a seditionist regime intent on a coup was evidence that they had yet to get over their fear of a fearsome tweet that would summon a primary foe culled from the field of deplorables who were part of Trump’s cavalry.

Make no mistake, the army of insurrectionists comprised of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other assorted nutjobs, have no allegiance to party. They are neither Democrats nor Republicans — -they are simply evil. They don’t attach themselves to a principle or to a political cause, instead, they form a personality cult. Like their titular leader, they are nihilists whose cause is the protection of personal privilege. Had Trump run and won as a Whig or Socialist candidate, they would have pitched their tent there, Republicans were a convenient host. The party hollowed out by years of selling out to corporate interests and the monied class created the vacuum that the kooks rushed to fill. There is a lack of seriousness at the core of the party that attracted movements like the Tea Party, neo-cons, and trumpists, but at its core, the party has a racist core. At the current impeachment hearing, the Republican Senate was essentially being asked to defend the central grievance of the Trump insurgency-his need to disenfranchise black and other minority voters in and around major cities. Their whiteness and connections to an evangelical religious movement overtaken by “observant bigots” and their white-privileged groupies.

To that complex brew, the Trump defense team chose to make a point using the obvious and common misspelling of the word “cavalry”, as in “sending in the cavalry” as a phrase to describe a defense for those facing a daunting circumstance (think F-Troup.) As most of us have experienced in our lives, the word is often confused with another similarly spelled and pronounced word, Calvary, with its near sui generis connection to the crucifixion of Christ on Mount Calvary, the hill outside Jerusalem where Christ died. Simple error, common mistake to use one word in place of the other.

Isn’t it queer?

During the recent impeachment hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell quoted a MAGA admirer urging Trump on with a tweet for the ages, literally. Jennifer Lynn Lawrence posted the following tweet:

‘ We have been marching all around the country for you, Mr. President. Now, we will bring it to D.C. on January 6th and proudly stand beside you. Thank you for fighting for us.’ When President Trump reposted her tweet, she wrote back, ‘Best day ever. Thank you for the retweet. It has been an honor to stand up and fight for you in our nation. We will be standing strong on January 6th in D.C. with you. We are bringing the cavalry, Mr. President. We are bringing the calvary.’”

For comparison, on another tweet, the tweeter repeated her misspelling: “The calvary is coming, Mr. President! “ The booboo was noted and corrected by many of the Twitter literati who viewed the originals and correctly noted that “Calvary” is a mountain and only a tortuous definition of the word would allow it to be “sent” anywhere. In fact, and pardon the grammarian in me, the article “the” before the misspelling is a pretty good indication that the tweeter had meant to type the more appropriate “cavalry” as in reinforcements which we have over the years come to recognize as an idiom for sending help. Similarly, in her original tweet above, bringing Calvary would be a Herculean task even for a Harry Blackstone or David Copperfield. It would be quite a trick, indeed, and would surely outdo the illusions which make multi-ton elephants appear or disappear. Oh, yes, and generally Calvary would be capitalized as a proper noun. I offer a final proofreading trick to bring home the point, simply replace the word with its common definition and see if it completes the thought of the sentence, Which is more likely, sending and bringing help to D.C or dragging or mailing Golgotha?

Don’t you love farce?

Here is the disingenuous claim made by #45’s attorney, the non Philadelphian as they try to somehow fog the truth:

…according to Schoen, both Lawrence and Trump intentionally meant to use the latter word and definition.

“He expressly led you to believe that President Trump’s supporters believe that the president wanted armed supporters at the Jan. 6 speech, paramilitary groups, the cavalry ready for physical combat,” Schoen said. “The problem is, the actual text is exactly the opposite. The tweeter promised to bring the Calvary, public display of Christ’s crucifixion, a central symbol of our Christian faith with her to the president’s speech, a symbol of faith, love and peace. They just never want to see to read the text and believe what the text means.”

Lawrence on Thursday claimed to John Solomon that she was in fact referring to a supposed prayer vigil she planned to host while in Washington…

Yes, and pigs fly, and farts don’t smell. In any case, forget the cavalry or whatever, I suggest Sondheim’s response by those who asked him about the title of “ Send in the Clowns”: (Judy Collins version highlighted for your pleasure.)

It’s a theater reference meaning “if the show isn’t going well, let’s send in the clowns”; in other words, “let’s do the jokes.” I always want to know, when I’m writing a song, what the end is going to be, so “Send in the Clowns” didn’t settle in until I got the notion, “Don’t bother, they’re here”, which means that “We are the fools.”[2]

Prayer vigil or a simple misspelling? Do you believe Swalwell or Schoen? Should we send for help to decide?
I agree with Sondheim:

“Don’t bother, they’re here.”

Originally published at https://vincerizzo.substack.com.