I give up. I’m sorry, but I giv e up/ We have passed the point of a normal political campaign, we have even passed beyond a non traditional, dysfunctional campaign. We have now entered the realm of an alternative universe, one totally bereft of logic and any rational thought process.
This first came to my attention last night on MSNBC. I don’t remember which host it was, but the broke the story that the Donald Trump campaign forces volunteers to sign long term “non disclosure” agreements. I have confirmed this both HERE and HERE . Please, escusez moi Francais, but what the fuck is going on here?!?
These are not paid staffers. These are not paid media shills, they are not surrogates or high up muckey-mucks in the Trump campaign. These are people who believe in the candidate, they go out and knock on doors, they call you on the phone during dinner. they pester you in mall of food store parking lots with clipboards and questions. If they’re lucky, and they perform well, and for long enough, they get a ticket to the district “vote counting party” on election night. In other words, to paraphrase Sargeant Schultz from Hogans Heroes, “They no NUTting”!
But apparently this is not quite enough for a paranoid narcissist like Trump. He needs to secure their secrecy forever, however he has to do it, and no matter what they actually know. Can we please go back to George Orwell’s classic 1984 now? What in the world does Trump think he needs to hide from people who know nothing at all about him or his campaign, other than they love and support him?
The non disclosure agreement itself is absurd, it is such a small font that it is almost completely unreadable unless you happen to have a jewelers loupe with you. It consumes almost a whole page of ant sized type, but the real meat and pototoes are in paragraph two;
2. No Disparagement. During the term of your service and at all times thereafter you hereby promise and agree not to demean or disparage publicly the Company, Mr. Trump, any Trump Company, any Family Member, or any Family Member Company or any asset any of the foregoing own, or product or service any of the foregoing offer, in each case by or in any of the Restricted Means and Contexts and to prevent your employees from doing so.
What a piece of shit! If you decide to knock on a few doors for Trump, you are forbidden for the rest of your life from ever saying anything negative about Trump, any member of his family, the campaign, or any of his companies. If you do, you run the risk of Mein Furor unleashing his legal dogs of war on you! Trump is famous for his love of the Constitution, what about the first amendment buddy?
Everything I have heard so far from legal “experts” say that this agreement isn’t even worth the paper that it is printed on, these people are receiving absolutely no financial compensation from the campaign, they can speak their minds when and where they like. But more importantly to my mind is the question of who the hell goes to these lengths to ensure privacy, even when there is absolutely no possibility of privacy being breaches? Ladies and gentlemen, this man is seriously sick.
Thanks as always for reading!