Line in the Sand

 Like I said in my post from June 29, I will never understand the unfaltering support from most US citizens of the nation's armed forces, in particular when it comes to personal communication. Anyone posting a comment in an online forum and stating that they are a current or former member of the US armed forces, several people pile on with nothing more to say than "thank you for your service". They do not know anything about what that person did, or how well they did their job, it's just a reflex action to say it. Veterans are close to untouchable, and to disrespect American troops is a carreer ending move for any politician from either party.

So, of course, this is what asshat crazypants Trump does. He has been quoted as saying that a cemetery-full of people who died in service during WWI were "losers" and "suckers", and bragging about how he cheated his way out of being drafted for Vietnam. Several sources have confirmed this, but the White House is panicking to kill the story. Their reaction means two things: it's true, and they know how damaging it is.

I can't understand why this would be the straw that finally broke the camel's back, but sure, I'll welcome anything that can make the average American wake up, realize what a truly horrible person they have elected and get off their ass and vote him out in November.

Reckoning

The train wreck that is Donald Trump's presidency gets ever more horrific with each passing day, and what little remains of his support is dwindling by the hour. Mainstream media outlets are now finally starting to report on the obvious criminal and corrupt behavior from Trump and his minions, and we even see his lies being correctly called out as such, instead of being described as merely "contested statements", or the cowardly euphemism "non-factual statements".

It is now, finally, looking like truth and compassion will prevail, and that intelligence and skill will once again be merits for serving in either of the three branches of US government.

It is no longer a distant dream that Trump and his evil cabal of grifters, cheaters, fascists and thugs will be brought to justice. Several of them have in fact already been convicted, more are facing charges, and still more are being investigated - among them Donald Trump himself.

However, now that the day of reckoning is coming for the Trump administration, rhe United States must reflect on the sad fact that President Trump was even allowed to happen. It was blindingly obvious even four years ago that Trump was a liar, a cheater, a racist, a sexual predator with a sickening taste for underage girls, a malignant narcissist and an absolute moron. It is very disturbing that the political system was unable to prevent a person so obviously unfit for the presidency, and so unworthy of it, from getting all the way to the top and making a huge mess of everything.

The United States will not survive another mistake like this, and the world is facing other, real problems that need our full attention. Having an evil clown in the White House, throwing a childish tantrum at every perceived enemy, never even trying to do his job, makes it hard to focus on important matters. Donald Trump must go, his entire gang of thugs must go, and people like them must never again be allowed to take the country hostage.

The United States has quite a lot of self reflection to do before it can show its face in the international arena again.

"Person, woman, man, camera, TV"

Donald Trump does not understand that a Montreal Cognitive Assessment is only ever administered to a patient when doctors have reason to suspect cognitive impairment for some reason, be it dementia, stroke or head trauma. He also fails to understand that the test is designed to be very easy for someone with normal brain function, and that any wrong answers count towards a confirmation of a problem and warrants further testing. Bragging about that he "aced the test" and did "amazingly well" is preposterous, as a perfect score is the norm for an entirely average person without brain damage.

Instructions for the person administering the test is also to provide positive feedback regardless of how the patient is actually performing ("good, this is going well"), and not to reveal the score to the subject ("you did great"). He obviously thinks the test was difficult, and he says that he doubts that his opponent Joe Biden would do well on the test. Given Trump's well known propensity for obvious projection, this tells us that he did not, in fact, do so well himself.

A telling sign that he does not even understand what the test is all about is his story about "one very tough question" where you are given five random words and are asked to repeat them. This is an extremely easy task, but the process of repeating them makes them enter the mid-term memory, which means that a normal person should be able to remember the words well enough to repeat them a few minutes later, after having answered some other easy questions. Donald Trump speaks of this as a Herculean feat requiring superhuman intelligence and focus, while in actuality it is a simple and straightforward thing to do for a person with a normal brain putting some effort and focus into the task.

Last, but not least, his mind failed to register that the words he were given were a deliberately unrelated mix, in order not to make the task trivial. One version of the test has the words "face, velvet, church, daisy, red". Donald Trump's addled and slow mind exemplified the question by naming strongly related and very concrete nouns he could spot in his surroundings: "person, woman, man, camera, TV". Still, even when he picked the words himself, he could repeat them five seconds later, but clearly stumbled and struggled with repeating them thirty seconds later.

Donald Trump was never intelligent, but now his mind is leaving him. He is not only stupid, evil and compromised by a number of serious psychological disorders rooted in his broken childhood and pampered life, he is now also suffering from dementia. A person in that condition absolutely cannot meet the requirements for serving as the President of the United States of America, and should be removed by invoking the procedures described in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

Lolwut?

Today's feeble and failed attempt at holding a "press conference" by the President-in-name-only was a full frontal display of Donald Trump's total inability to perform even the most basic cognitive tasks, like reading from a script, forming at least somewhat complete sentences, and appearing alive. Nobody with any brain at all could have watched that and thought "yeah, that's the guy I want in charge".

As a special bonus treat in the Q&A section at the end, he said about Ghislaine Maxwell that he "wishes her well". The woman is arrested on charges of trafficking of underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein. The charges are serious and credible, she is kept in custody with no bail, about to spend the rest of her life in prison for acts so heinous that normal people are revolted by even hearing about them, and the supposed President of the United states... wishes her well?

A serial rapist of underage girls is illegitimately holding the office of the President of the United States. He needs to go. Now.

Pooping His Pants

I am not going to claim that Donald Trump literally has lost control of his body to the point where he needs to wear diapers. There are some indications that this might be the case, but I am not going there, because it really doesn't matter other than as a possible secondary sign that his decline is partly due to dementia and not just psychosis and outright stupidity. No, the headline is figurative. Let me explain.

Today, Donald Trump tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask, after months of refusing to wear one, and tried in a pathetic manner to claim this as proof that "your favorite President" is more patriotic than anyone. Sorry, Donald Trump, you get zero points for coming this late to the party. In fact, we think you should have a few points deducted, but you are already at zero, so we'll award you nothing and call it even.

Lindsey Graham, one of the most sleazy of the Republican scum in the Senate, tweeted "Well done, Mr. President", as if praising a toddler for finally pooping in the toilet. However, the picture was from Trump's previous visit to the Walter Reed hospital, where he was required to wear a mask to gain entry. What's more, minutes after the tweet he went ahead and held a meeting where nobody had a mask on. Therefore, Graham's tweet was more akin to congratulating a nine year old for finally having been forced to use the toilet once a few days ago, but now continuing to poop his pants just like before.

Whether Donald Trump actually poops his pants is largely irrelevant, but metaphorically speaking, he does nothing but soil himself in public these days. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to praise anything he does.

We Can't Breathe

Joe Biden made a public appearance today, and managed to say more comforting and reassuring things in 50 minutes than Trump has done in his entire time in office. When Joe Biden wins the election, we can all breathe esier. He is smart, kind, humble, well informed and well prepared, and he is determined to change the tone from sowing discord to unifying people.
I usually don't link to videos, but this one is worth your time. I was breathing easier after watching it.

Joe Biden has a plan, while Trump shows dereliction of duty

The Nerve

What does it take for a very demonstrably incompetent, corrupt, criminal, hateful and traitorous president to be forcibly removed from office?
Is it enough that he openly breaks several laws regulating the appropriate conduct of a US president, and even brags about it? Apparently not. Does it matter to his enablers that he tells childish, transparent lies every time he speaks? No. Is it a problem that the supposedly "Christian" president is a sexual predator who has had numerous extramarital affairs during all of his marriages, and has been accused of rape by several credible witnesses, including minors? Sadly, no. Is he in trouble because he separates children from their asylum-seeking parents at the Mexican border, places them in concentration camps under inhumane conditions and "loses" track of who their parents are? Apparently not.
Do people care that he tanked the US economy by overspending on tax reliefs for those who dont need it, and that he is trying to dismantle the best attempt the country has ever seen to create some kind of universal health care insurance? Not by the look of it.
Is it bothering his voters that he is a racist? No. That he sucks up to foreign dictators and compares domestic political opponents to terrorists? Again, no. Is there any sign of Republicans maybe not wanting a president who is an illiterate complete idiot, one who believes his own "hunches" over expert advice based on scientific evidence? No. They seem to be just fine with that.
Do people want him out of office for his catastrophic and lethal mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic? It doesn't seem that way.
How about if it becomes known that Russia has offered a bounty on US troops in Afghanistan, that Trump and his administration knew about it since March but kept silent about it, and that he then still decided to try to convince other countries to once again include Russia in the G7 meetings?
For some reason, that appears to have struck a nerve.
I will never quite understand what makes Republican-voting Americans tick, and why this particular story may be what swings the opinion irrevocably in Trump's opponents' favor. It's weird that this kind of situation could even occur, but I won't look a a given horse in the mouth. Keep up the work, Donald Trump, and you will be out of office soon! I'd rather have you thrown out forcibly by impeachment or by an invocation of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, landing in utter humiliation on your ass on the way out, but I can wait a few months to see you voted into oblivion. Let's just hope that the United States will survive the blows until you are gone. This is a gauntlet for democracy, and even though it now finally seems like the good guys are winning, every good person in the United States needs to stay vigilant, oppose all the stupidity, and vote.