The President's a Dic(k)
He's disoriented, incoherent and combative and as pleased as a pig wallowing in shit.
The telltale signs of a brain injury, or so I was taught in a first aid class, is disorientation, incoherence and combativeness.
The president acts like someone who has had trauma to his noggin too many times to count.
Theories abound but most likely he is just a 70 something asshole with a touch of dementia. A 70 something asshole with a touch of dementia who cannot get enough attention to ever be satisfied. Don’t get hopeful however. His mental decline is not steep enough to drive him from office.
The Authoritarian Party will follow the Ronald Reagan game plan - you know, the one where Nancy Reagan basically did most of the deciding for the last two years of his term - and allow his daughter or son-in-law or both to be the de facto president. And, honestly, stealing elections as far into the future as possible is their only hope to escape prosecution once they are out of the White House. Either that or fleeing the country. So, they come by their dynastic ambitions honestly.
They have no choice.
In the run up to the election, they also are falling back on the tried and true method of amping up their base. Rallies reminiscent of Klan gatherings despite the pandemic waxing and not waning. Going to the mat over changing the names of military bases who were named after those who defended slavery and committed treason by seceding from the United States. Gleefully condoning and cheering chokeholds by the police as a means of maintaining ‘law and order’. Accusing a septuagenarian of being a member of an organization that does not exist after the septuagenarian was put into critical care by cops stoked about ‘breaking some heads’.
And, of course, gaslighting the public every chance they can get.
An overwhelming percentage of white voters continue to support the insufferable boor. In other words, an overwhelming percentage of white voters are blind to what he is up to, or are all on board with the race-baiting, xenophobia and nastiness. But his dickishness and assholery is meant for those of us who are paying attention and taking notes and writing these rants.
He’s trying to get a rise out of us when he claims chokeholds are “so innocent and so perfect”.
He’s trying to get a rise out of us by opposing any name changes of military bases that were named after Confederate sympathizers and generals.
He’s trying to get a rise out of us by holding up a Bible after tear gassing (a euphemism for ‘choke and vomit gassing’) peaceful protesters, including clergy, for a photo op.
He’s trying to get a rise out of us by saying he’s “done more for the black community than any other president.”
He’s trying to get a rise out of us by holding a Race and Policing summit meeting in Dallas and not inviting the Dallas police chiefs and local officials who are black.
He’s trying to get a rise out of us by scheduling his first rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the single largest massacre took place against the black community in our nation’s history. The significance of the date is not lost on the black community either because it is the date when the last slaves in our nation were told they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation - which had happened a year earlier.
I’ve seen white apologists for the race-baiter-in-chief comment that those of us disinclined to support the man who has used the excuse that he couldn’t have groped, raped or molested such and such woman because she was a ‘six’ would be unhappy regardless of the date chosen for his latest rally.
Fair enough.
But, you would think, if you wanted people to not think of you as racist you’d consider the optics and what kind of message you were trying to send. If you wanted to show the slightest bit of empathy or understanding of our nation’s racial divide, you would not elect to have a pep rally in a town where a race riot killed hundreds on the day commemorated for a racial injustice that happened in the 19th century.
This is not incompetence. It’s a cold-hearted calculation.
No matter what happens between now and November 3rd, when we reach November 3rd, Joe Biden, no matter what you think of his policies, competence or ‘je ne sais quoi’, he will still be a functional adult and a decent human being who stood by Barack Obama through two presidential terms of thick and thin.
The other guy will still be a dick.
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The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS) on Thursday evening spoke to a rise in COVID cases around the country following the Memorial Day Weekend festivities. Remember the scene from The Ozarks? The COVID swimming stew event? We need still be mindful, y’all.
Also, I loved this commencement address by Tim Minchin. Ed Abbey would have approved. If you want to read it, click here.
I’m not an inspirational speaker. I’ve never lost a limb on a mountainside, metaphorically or otherwise. And I’m certainly not here to give career advice, cos… well I’ve never really had what most would call a proper job.