Hey Jessica, you’re so funny / You’ve got teeth just like Bugs Bunny / Oh, so you think you know me now / Have you forgotten how / You would make me feel / When you dragged my spirit down? / But thank you for the pain / It made me raise my game / And I’m still rising, I’m still rising – Jessie J, written by Abrahams Kyle James and Astasio George, 2011

Whenever Donald Trump, a.k.a. the John Wayne Gacy of American presidents, does something that “crosses the line” — and this only happens on days that end in “y” — I am reminded of a classic Bugs Bunny routine. I’ll bet most of you folks already know the bit.

Bugs is being chased (and vice versa) by Yosemite Sam. Bugs stops and draws a line in the ground. “I dare you to step over that line,” Bugs challenges Sam, who then crosses the line. “How about this line?” He crosses that line as well. Bugs continues drawing lines and Sam keeps on crossing them, now by rote. Eventually Bugs draws the last line, on the edge of a cliff, and Yosemite Sam crosses it and falls to his cartoon death.

Here on Earth-Trump, the one in which we are compelled to live, we have yet to see that final scene.

I won’t belabor the backstory. We all know that seventeen year-old Kyle Rittenhouse picked up a AR-15 assault rifle, got in his car, drove 30 minutes across a state line to southeast Wisconsin, and murdered two people and injured another, all of whom were standing up for their right to protest the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake seven times in the back while they were holding him by his shirt as he was entering his car where his three children were watching the whole affair. Some say he was going for a knife inside the car, but to date nobody has proven the offending criminal cops had X-Ray vision.

People got pissed at this sadly typical transgression and took to protesting, which is their right. A curfew was declared, but that curfew in and of itself was illegal: its sole intent was to stop protesting the immoral actions of the police, despite the bullshit conflation of Black protestors, looters and agents provocateurs. Kyle Rittenhouse arrived with his AR-15, walked right past the police and murdered two people. He then walked past the police, one of whom asked him for directions to the shootings. He drove home and was arrested for murder.

Donald J. Trump, along with his mindless, soulless pet toads like Tucker “Bow-Tie Daddy” Carlson and Ann “She-Wolf of the GOP” Coulter, issued statements of deep support for the accused murderer. “Self-defense,” Trump brayed, and his cult cheered him on. Of course, we’ve all seen the footage and we know that no such act of self-defense was committed. And, let me remind you, Mr. Rittenhouse was in Antioch, Illinois when he picked up his assault rifle, got his pathetic ass and the magnificent rifle into his car, drove some twenty miles and shot and killed two protesters.

If you were to look “premeditated murder” up in the dictionary, you should find the above sentence as its definition (with respect to Redd Foxx).

This would be reprehensible if you or I had condoned it. For the lawfully-appointed president of the United States to do so is beyond repulsive. It is criminal. He’s not simply throwing raw meat to his base of frightened imbeciles in order to keep himself out of prison. He’s throwing them bullets.

This is not simply the typical right wing political jive. This is the president of the United States declaring support and encouragement to those who chose to murder Americans who are, or they are in support of, Black people who stand up to defend themselves in the manner approved by our constitution.

My late friend, noted children’s rights attorney Larry Schlam, once said we only have rights once we have exercised them successfully. Otherwise, “rights” are nothing more than whitewash. At the time Larry said that, Donald J. Trump was paying students substantially smarter than him to take his college exams. He had the “right” to do that because he had the money. Every time he got away with such actions, he established his “right” to do that, at least in his own mind.

My Bugs Bunny v. Yosemite Sam scenario ends with this warning. As I noted, Sam dies a cartoon death. In Earth-Looney Tunes, cartoon deaths only last until the beginning of the next scene. Be it Wile E. Coyote or Yosemite Sam or Elmer Fudd, the big bad guy always returns — and he’s more angry than he was before.

When it comes to Donald J. Trump, let us remember that no matter what happens to him in the next several months, those hardcore supporters, his so-called “base,” the ones who believe Kyle Rittenhouse was an honorable man who did the right thing and that Black people who stand up for their rights as Americans are dangerous, dirty and violent and deserve what they get, those crawling pieces of shit aren’t going anywhere.

History is quite clear on this matter. Even when it’s over… it’s not over.