As a candidate, Trump’s gas lighting was manipulative, as President-elect it is a deliberate attempt to destabilize journalism as a check on the power of government. Many Republican members of Congress have made a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump. For they were thieves not only of wages but of honor. To their purpose they could quote not only Scripture but Jefferson.  Where are these references coming from?  What do they mean?  Who said them?  My head is swimming from the rhetoric that is pouring forth.  I love to search out literary quotes.  Historical references make my day.  Magnificent or horrid metaphors light my fire.  What meaning is hidden from me in today’s quizzical quotes and histrionic headlines?