(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fake firefighters for Trump fool no one in Scranton... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-10-12 liar, liar, pants on fire Donald Trump held a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania this week, a few blocks from where Joe Biden was born. Scranton is where I grew up, raised a family, and spent more than a few days engaged in politics. Scranton’s citizens are relatively savvy when it comes to politics and they don’t suffer fools gladly. Every Saturday in my neighborhood, spirited political discussions were held at Catalano’s Italian market. Paul was the local Republican chairman but Democrats and Republicans all shopped there. He made the best hoagies in town and his Italian sausage was in every grandmother’s Sunday gravy. Scranton is also “home” to the NBC sitcom The Office, now a streaming juggernaut that features the irrepressible Michael Scott and his Dunder-Mifflin sidekicks. Scranton was not chosen as the site for The Office by chance— Scranton represents the best of America, warts and all. Scranton is not the political backwaters and Scrantonians are more than astute when it comes to electioneering. How many cities have 2 roads named after a favorite son who became president? Scranton celebrates Election Day like High Holy Days, almost as popular as Christmas and St. Patty’s Day. The Trump rally featured the former Liar-in-Chief bobbin’ and weavin’ much to the delight of some locals. Behind Trump was a sea of hand-held signs touting the GOP ticket. Ordinary citizens including a good number of what seemed to be Scranton firefighters were cheering Trump on. Or were they? If you look at the photo above you would think that Scranton firefighters, some wearing what looked like official uniforms, were out in force supporting the man who has turned the children’s taunt “liar, liar, pants on fire” into a four-alarm trouser blaze. Scranton firefighters Local 60 was-- well-- afire to learn that they had endorsed a candidate in the presidential race because the union hadn’t. A close inspection revealed that the uniforms were bogus and none of the firemen holding signs were actually Scranton firemen. The SFD local #60 union chief responded with a firehose of truth to try to put out the fire: “Local 60 would like to address the rally held earlier today in Scranton for former President Trump and the Office of President of the United States. This is not a political post, rather a clarification post for anyone who sees or may see the event. Multiple CITIZENS were seen with “Scranton Firefighters for Trump” signs at today’s rally. It is noted that no member of Local 60 were carrying those signs as the IAFF has chosen not to endorse a candidate this election. We honor and respect each and every person’s political opinions as well as our members own opinions on what they believe is the right choice for them. We just want to clarify that Local 60 has not endorsed a candidate for the Office of President following the path of the IAFF. The signs seen were not a representation of SFD Local 60 nor an endorsement of any candidate.” — Allen Lucas, Scranton Forefighters Local 60 Union President The ruse would be funny if it weren’t so subversive. Trump campaign spokesman, Kush Desai, responded to a Scranton Times-Tribune reporter and then added to the original lie with the candidate’s singular diddle— the double down. Desai tells the reporter that the “campaign” had nothing to do with the signs and he had “no idea” where they came from, yet the signs were professionally printed and the men in uniform looked staged. The ex-president was well aware of the firefighters behind him and included them in his remarks: A little over an hour into the event, Trump references firefighters, according to a video of the event posted on YouTube. “We got the firefighters endorsed us, you probably heard,” Trump said. The crowd cheered and some of the attendants behind Trump held aloft the 'Scranton Firefighters for Trump' signs. “That's a very good looking group of human beings,” Trump said. He then went on to speak about the Teamsters and United Auto Workers unions, before coming back to firefighters. Looking off to his right and directly addressing some people in the crowd, Trump said, “Thank you fellas very much. It's great. Any fires lately? Have you put out any fires lately? Any big bad ones? You guys have a lot of guts doing what you do, let me tell you.” — The Scranton Times-Trinune, “Scranton firefighters were not holding pro-Trump signs at rally,” by Jim Lockwood The thing about lies is that they require willing dupes whose duty, from the liar’s perspective is not only to believe but to spread the lie. Well, Kush, the folks in Scranton may be spun from blue-collar stock, but they aren’t dupes. They smelled a rat. the naming of things The campaign's ruse is even more inflammatory, given the planning and execution of the fiction onstage. The authoritarian playbook is generally written with the arrogance of an egoist. Trump believing he can fool enough voters to win an election is the height of arrogance. The lies aren’t even good ones, they are simply pervasive. Trump lies so often that the truth itself appears unbelievable. The con man pretends to represent the American Everyman. In reality, Donald Trump has little resemblance to the common man he otherwise disdains. In other circumstances, he would be embarrassed to be mistaken for one. The rally crowd in Scranton has little in common with him but the attributes of wealth he represents are something they might aspire to. The reciprocal for Trump does not exist. That he is smarter than, richer than, and more famous than the rest of us is something he has to constantly reassure himself of. His vanity allows no less. He delights in naming others in order to demean them. Nomenclature is something that Trump uses to amuse himself and his followers-- “Lil Marco”, “Crooked Joe”, and “Lyin’ Kamala” are all part of an obsession to own their identities, to brand them. When he named his absurd rambling “The Weave” it was a sign that while others recognized his wandering attention as a sign of diminished mental acuity, giving it a name creates cover for his intellectual decline. “The Weave” gives others an explanation to dismiss graver alternatives. It also adds to his own god-delusion— those dark and troubling illusions of Trump as a man ordained by the gods to lead— Trump as Übermensch, like Adam at the creation: Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. — Genesis 2:19 Trump’s rally in Scranton satisfied the overblown image he has for himself— that on a given night he could pull the wool over our eyes long enough to get his act out of town. The phony firefighters he employed as pawns were a glum reminder of his own brand of cosplay as a middle-class everyman, a protector of women, and a defender of democracy. He is none of these. Stephen King once said, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” Trump has murdered trust with his shameless disregard for it. dunder Mifflin strikes back How befitting, then, that his latest scam was performed in the city home to the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc.. Trump shares much of the underlying insufficiencies that The Office’s lovable office manager Michael Scott was prone to. Steve Carell as Michael Scott created a character who was so unaware of his “simpleness”— his inner narcissism. Carell, as Scott, once suggested his mind was going “a mile an hour.” Perhaps that accounts for Trump’s wacky insensitivity in attempting to fool a crowd with fake firefighters as part of his middle-class, working-class charade. Among other misused banalities, Michael Scott once suggested, “Friends joke with one another. ‘Hey, you’re poor.’ ‘Hey, your mama’s dead.’ That’s what friends do.” Such simple misreadings or propriety reveal so much about a character. Trump bests Scott’s insensitivity with a smattering of his own: “Thank you fellas very much. It's great. Any fires lately? Have you put out any fires lately? Any big bad ones? Like most first responders they represent, Scranton firefighters don’t brag about their bravery in the face of danger. The citizens in Scranton that I knew were too smart to be easily fooled. Putting out fires is not a joke, it is a job that requires heroes— using fake stand-ins to misrepresent them is never OK. The following morning, The Scranton Times-Tribune headline revealed Trump’s duplicity in large bold print, “Scranton firefighters were not holding pro-Trump signs at rally.” By then the candidate was long gone but the voters he tried to deceive will cast their votes knowing he lied. Donald Trump always runs from the heat— he is feeling that four-alarm blaze lighting up his pants. 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