Tom Toles for July 24, 2020

If we take “president” off the list, we can probably take “dangerous” off at the same time.

One thing that will never come off the list is Buffoon. I’ll be happy to stop calling him the Orange Buffoon if I can change it to the Disgraced Defeated Stubby Fingered Shriveled Up Old Pruneface Big Bellied Buffoon.

Trump continues to be obsessed with this cognitive test he says he aced. He sounds like a parent trying to convince his kids not to move him into an assisted living facility. It came up in another Faux interview today. “They said, nobody gets it in order. It’s actually not that easy. But, for me, it was easy,” Trump said, referring to doctors. “They ask you to — they give you five names, and you have to repeat them. And that’s OK. If you repeat them out of order, it’s OK, but you know, it’s not as good. But then, when you go back, about 20, 25 minutes later, and they say, go back to that question — they don’t tell you this — go back to that question, and repeat them. Can you do it? And you go, person, woman, man, camera, TV.” I don’t think he’s changing anyone’s mind. Maybe he’s trying to convince himself?

We’ll add conviction to the list next year.

♦ More stable than “Stable Genius” (a low bar)

THese. Five. Words. Bet Joe Biden can’t do that.

{Off-topic:}

Where Find Solace? – {2 or 4 beats/line}

How find comfort and consolation{?}, -

- when Trump pulls the rug from under our nation,

when Trump pulls the plug,

when he acts like a thug,

when he sponsors our nation’s degradation?

Where find solace

when these troubles befall us?

How can we cope with our nation’s ruination?

… Coda:

We’d better revive that old-time religion,

where solace is ample {and not just a smidgen}.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chris Lu tweeted “Obama didn’t brag half as much about winning a Nobel Peace Prize as Trump is for passing a dementia test.”

Human drama in the struggle for justice is a basic theme in the literature of all countries and eras. And that surrounding national leaders will ever be noted and perhaps dramatized. The rise and fall of Donald Trump would someday make an interesting tragedy in ancient Greek style — it has elements of many of them.

An old proverb, echoed by many writers through the centuries, is often attributed to the Greek dramatist, Euripides: “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Trump’s present struggle against rumors of his mental decrepitude may signal his own fears of god-sent madness.

The life of Donald Trump (the surname in itself is ironic) has been that of disrespect toward principles of accepted ethics and mounting hubris toward whatever gods oversee us. Soon after his election to president, he announced intent to run for a second term. That must have provoked such gods to grim smiles and to plan retribution in his future. Is this present pandemic part of those plans? Does encouragement of Trump’s hubris by many followers invite collateral damage to them, and others as well?

From “Orestes”: “When one with honeyed words but evil mind / Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” From that Euripides play, a “deus ex machina” intervenes at the end to dispense justice with mercy. Can we expect that to occur at the end of the tragic play, “Trump”?

Mr. Toles you’ve outdone yourself.

biggly, super, greatest, highest, nasty. Five words Trump adores.

PINO. Narcissistic. Sociopathic. Coward. Tinhorn.

“Star. Man. Hat. Stripe. List.”

Neither he nor we know how he really did on that test.

“You talk too much, you worry me to death, / You talk too much, you even worry my pet. You just talk, talk too much.

You talk about people that you don’t know, / You talk about people wherever you go. / You just talk, talk too much.

You talk about people that you’ve never seen, / You talk about people, you can make me scream. / You just talk, you talk too much."

Thanks to Joe Jones, You Talk Too Much (1960).

 World Records in Ball Dropping

2001-08-06 • Presidential Daily Brief: “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US” • Bush did nothing.

2001-09-11 • 5 weeks after PDB • 9/11 attacks • Death toll: 2,977

2020-01-07 • Presidential Daily Brief: “Analysts concluded [coronavirus] could be a cataclysmic event.” • Trump did nothing.

2020-03-11 • WHO declared a global pandemic.

2020-04-15 • Trump suspended US funding of WHO.

2020-07-24 • 28 weeks after PDB • US death toll: 147,528

For comparison • Korean War (33,686) + Vietnam War (58,220) + Afghan War (7,970): 99,876

Now past • WW1: 116,516

Future targets • WW2 (418,500) • Civil War (~620,000) • Spanish flu (~675,000)

I feel America is going to “Ace” this test this time. Nobody is ‘putin’ faith in Donnie ever again.

“Virus” “contagion” “ignorance” “dead bodies”

Pongo enjoys his polsyllabophobia.

one has to hope we’ll take one off the list—but dare not be complacent or expectant

Lock him up!!!

Trump would repeat, “Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump”…

I don’t think narcissist or buffoon are going away.

{Off-topic:}

Trump is quite “…istic” – {limerick}

He’s malignantly narcissistic,

centered on “Self” {solipsistic}; -

- ergo hubristic

and hedonistic

and exhibitionistic.

… Coda: – {limerick}

Trump is highly “trumpistic”

{sadistically very fascistic}, -

- so to leave him in charge

is a peril quite large

{ tho’ his Base is willing to risk it }.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Don’t care what words you use as long as you can get Joe to take the test and publish the results.

As David Brooks, conservative pundit, pointed out last week, to him at least Joe Biden does NOT seem to have lost a step. Brooks has known Biden for over two decades. (Biden’s lifelong struggle with his stutter probably explains why some people are claiming that he has. That, and the dishonesty of so many Republicans.)

In any event, NO intelligent person can watch Li’l Donnie’s desperate thrashings around and losing battles with grammar, syntax, logic, and objective reality, and conclude that he is mentally fit to be the president of the United States. And, of course, intelligent people know that Trump always was MORALLY unfit to be the president: a career con artist, racist, bigot, misogynist, pervert, and coward. And you’ll notice I didn’t even list traitor!

{Off-topic:}

Fire ‘im – {3 beats/line}

re The Donald: – Our nation should fire ‘im

and never again rehire ‘im.

We will forever satire ‘im

and never ever admire ‘im.

… Coda:

How did we ever acquire ‘im?

What will it take to retire ‘im?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Most Excellent Tom ♥♥♥