Mug Shot Open Thread: Who Scowled Better?

Disgraced Former President Donald Trump has finally submitted his entry in the “People Who Tried to Ignite a Race War” League’s competition for Best Scowl in a Mug Shot. How does he stand up to the reigning champion for over five decades, California’s own Charles Manson?

First, for younger readers, we offer a reminder that yes, Charles Manson did try to ignite a race war. That was the point of the Tate-LaBianca murders that he directed: to get the public to blame the mass murder of Hollywood celebrities on Blacks. He called this plan “Helter Skelter,” after the then-contemporary Beatles song, which he thought was acknowledging his long-standing plans, conveyed to the cult her called “The Family,” to start such a war. (The song actually uses a famous British amusement park ride “Helter Skelter,” a spiral slide track built around a tower containing stairs to the top, to create some sort of metaphor for confusing romantic relationship. The word “skelter” is related to “kilter,” which remains in our language in the phrase “off-kilter,” which Manson floridly was.) The song — to which Manson listened obsessively in the wake of devising his Book of Revelation-based theory of an apocalyptic race war, was on what was called “The White Album,” so I’m sure that we can all agree that this would be an easy mistake to make. The Wikipedia page on the Helter Skelter scenario describes Manson being obsessed with many songs from both the White Album (technically entitled “The Beatles” on a pure white cover) and its successor, Abbey Road. For me the most surprising revelation from that page was that the song “Sexy Sadie” coincidentally (or by cosmic irony) mentioned a nickname of Manson Family member Susan Atkins, which … is odd, but odd things do sometimes happen by chance.)

Manson’s theory that following lurid murders of wealthy people in an epic war would break out between racist whites and anti-racist whites, who would all but annihilate each other while the Manson Family would wait out the war safely in an underground city in Death Valley. Blacks would then rise up and finish off the victors. But this would be a temporary victory, because all of this his would trigger the events foretold in the Book of Revelation, from which Manson (and the Beatles) would emerge supreme.

Helter Skelter was designed to set this process in motion. A release of a record album by Manson was also a key part of the scheme; the first set of murders occurred at a home in Benedict Canyon, north of Beverly Hills, that had previously been leased by a Columbia Records executive; Sharon Tate was unfortunately the new lessee. The second set targeted Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, in Los Angeles’s Los Feliz district, just northwest of Silverlake. {Los Feliz means “The Family.”)

I’m not going to review Trump’s attempts to ignite a race war, including by deflecting the violent actions of whites onto Blacks. It’s gotten enough coverage.

So, back to the topic at hand, Who Wore It Better? (“It” in this case being a scowl on the face of a booking photo. (As I write that, I realize that I only have some website’s assurance that Manson’s image really comes from a booking photo, but just work with my premise here.)

Trump’s power pose comes off as cartoonish. I’ve already seen it in a meme where he’s telling some attendant that his diaper is full, but I find that unkind. Not unkind enough for me not to mention it here, obviously, but still … unkind.) It comes off as meticulously posed and staged. I’d be afraid of this person if it were my boss in a workplace situation, but as for physical menace — not really. At least not for me, as I am not am attractive woman under 50, as E. Jean Carroll was when Trump raped her.

Manson, one the other hand, comes off as imminently dangerous and batshit insane. I’m guessing that even attractive women under 50 would agree that their odds of remaining safe were better with the guy with the yellow pouf than the one with a swastika carved into his forehead. Trump can take some consolation that he was much better when it came to trying to overthrow the American system of government, of course, but Manson could take consolation in being more serious in his religious beliefs. (Such as they were.) Manson clearly wore the scowl better and more believably than Trump. Trump is both a poser and a poseur — but he is the only person

Not that many people are, of course, eligible in the category of “Mug Shot after trying to instigate a race war.” (If you’re wondering about Adolf Hitler, yes he was arrested after the Beer Hall Putsch in which he tried to take control over Bavaria, but I don’t find evidence of a mug shot. And before anyone mentions the Symbionese Liberation Army, they were trying to instigate a race war, and the closest anyone came to scowling in a mug shot was Patty Hearst, and she was clearly an amateur. We won’t review her story here, but happily she has been doing quite well now for decades, though we can’t speak to any recurrent nightmares of her abuse.)

This is another Open Thread?

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)