Civil Commotion

Donald Trump’s awful inauguration speech was followed by a weekend that put the frosting on the national disgrace of his election.

The news began to spread Friday afternoon that the Department of the Interior had been forbidden to use any of its Twitter accounts because one of the National Park Service’s employees had published photographs showing sparse attendance at the inauguration. Naturally, reporters wondered what that was all about.

That set the stage.

Though the adult thing would have been for the new administration to ignore the pictures and carry-on, what happened instead is that, the next day, Press Secretary Sean Spicer called a press conference and baldly lied about the crowd size, then stormed from the podium without taking any questions. With reporters still wide-eyed and gasping at the effrontery of it the next morning, spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was asked about Spicer’s behavior; she helpfully explained that he was offering ‘alternative facts.’

Alternative facts?

At very nearly the same time, The Orange One himself was in the lobby of CIA headquarters — and using the CIA as a prop to peddle a lie to the American public worried about his conspicuous contempt for America’s intelligence agencies.

Authorities are also pushing back against the perception that the CIA workforce was cheering for the president. They say the first three rows in front of the president were largely made up of supporters of Mr. Trump’s campaign.

An official with knowledge of the make-up of the crowd says that there were about 40 people who’d been invited by the Trump, Mike Pence and Rep. Mike Pompeo teams. The Trump team expected Rep. Pompeo, R-Kansas, to be sworn in during the event as the next CIA director, but the vote to confirm him was delayed on Friday by Senate Democrats. Also sitting in the first several rows in front of the president was the CIA’s senior leadership, which was not cheering the remarks.

These people are not spinning, attempting to portray facts in their best light; they are lying, creating ‘facts’ out of thin air and attempting to gaslight everybody into accepting them.

This is the moral– and intellectual-rot of decadence.

All of which is why it is good to know that Trump lost the popular vote, why it was good to watch those millions of marchers on Saturday, why I was so pleased to hear the crowd roar when Senator Elizabeth Warren declared, “We believe in science.” Trump has enchanted a lot of people with his overt malice for minorities and disdain for expertise — but he has alarmed far more people.

Good. America is still sound.

Just so’s y’all know, the public areas of the Capital are administered by the National Park Service; there was nothing inappropriate about tweeting pictures of the crowd size.

It’s a good thing, I guess, that The Orange One didn’t get the tanks and rocket launchers that he wanted in his inaugural parade — the Interior Department might be rubble now.

The Interior Department was ordered Friday to shut down its official Twitter accounts — indefinitely — after a National Park Service employee shared two tweets that noted President Donald Trump’s relatively small inaugural crowds compared to the numbers former president Barack Obama drew in 2009.

“All bureaus and the department have been directed by incoming administration to shut down Twitter platforms immediately until further notice,” said an email circulated to Park Service employees Friday afternoon.

Some tweets with attached images about the crowd:

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H.L. Mencken