What If Trump’s Not Lying?
It would mean he has cognitive issues too…
Apparently France recently had an election (and I say “apparently” because I can barely keep up with what’s going on here, much less France) and pollsters had predicted a strong showing by the far-right, but the country’s leftist and centrist parties have worked together to keep the far-right out of power and did it again, at least for now, which inspired the cartoon you just looked at.
But even though I depicted the United States asking France how to keep the far-right from taking over, the answer is obvious: everyone who isn’t part of the far-right needs to work together, but right now the Democrats are behaving like a bunch of frightened cockroaches after someone turns on a kitchen light.
According to the highly fallible internet, Julius Caesar said, “Divide and Conquer” and right now the Democrats are dividing themselves and making things easy for our own far-right and it seems like someone told Donald Trump now would be an excellent time to shut the fuck up because when your opponent is making a mess of things you want the media focused on that, so don’t distract them with your own mistakes.
(More on that shortly.)
The media – of which I’m still kinda sorta a member just like someone who’s been thrown overboard is still technically part of a ship’s crew – is not great at nuance or complexity (which is an odd observation coming from a political cartoonist who oversimplifies and exaggerates for a living, but is nonetheless accurate) and right now we’re focused on any mistakes Joe Biden makes and in last night’s press conference Biden referred to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” and called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”
So Biden is still making mental mistakes and the media is jumping all over them.
On The Other Hand…
Recently McClatchy’s Issac Bailey made a great point in an opinion piece in the Kansas City Star:
Donald Trump talked about the airports being taken over during the Revolutionary War.
Trump suggested nuclear bombs might be used to stop hurricanes.
Trump also suggested people inject their bodies with disinfectant to stop COVID.
Trump confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi.
Trump didn’t know the difference between Hungary’s prime minister and Turkey’s president.
Trump seemed to think you needed a photo ID to buy a loaf of bread.
The list of stuff Donald Trump got wrong is a long one and now let me add one of my own: Donald Trump claims not to know who’s behind Project 2025 (the Conservative’s radical plan to reorganize America along the lines of 1933 Germany), but according to CNN at least 140 people who used to work for Trump are involved in the project including, but not limited to:
Six former Cabinet secretaries
Four people Trump nominated as ambassadors
And his first deputy chief of staff.
Now imagine the media’s reaction if Joe Biden made any of those mistakes.
Trump has told so many obvious lies we assume that anytime he says something that’s wildly incorrect – and Trump recently claimed Biden has homes in four vacation destinations and has more homes than he does, both of which are untrue – we assume Trump’s just telling another outrageous lie and not having age-related issues.
Basically, we figure Trump is not suffering from dementia because he’s always been a liar, but if he isn’t lying Trump’s clearly got trouble comprehending and understanding reality and we shouldn’t ignore that.
The six conservative Supreme Court justices who have kept busy re-writing laws that we thought were settled decades ago and will eventually get around to editing the 10 Commandments, have now decided that presidents are immune from prosecution for “official” acts that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority.”
And right about here the correct question is what exactly is an “official” act and who decides if it falls within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority”?
As is so often the case, the devil is in the lack of details.
The three Liberal Judges – Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Jackson Brown and if I’m not mistaken, Joy Behar – said the ruling means presidents are immune from prosecution for things like ordering assassinations, organizing military coups, taking bribes in exchange for pardons and cutting in line at a movie theater.
All of which benefits Donald Trump because he’s up to his neck in enough legal hot water to boil a 215-lb. lobster.
Timeout for another one of my digressions:
That last joke was based on Donald Trump’s weight, which he has tried to keep a secret, but at least theoretically got revealed when he was booked in the Fulton County jail, although Trump supplied the weight and I’m guessing Donald Trump’s left butt cheek weighs more than 215 pounds.
I’ve included a link to an article about Trump’s stated height and weight and the author’s conclusion reminds me of a baseball story:
Cal Ripken is at the plate and everybody knows he’s headed to the Hall of Fame and the umpire calls a borderline pitch a strike and Cal turns around, looks at the umpire and says:
“Highly unlikely.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/08/donald-trump-prison-weight-lie.html
I trust the internet about as far as I could throw a Donald Trump-size lobster so take this with a grain of salt and dish of drawn butter, but according to the aforementioned internet, only about 15% of us are still denying climate change is real.
Which kind of surprised me because I’m pretty sure at least 16% of us would deny 2 plus 2 makes 4 if we found 4 to be an inconvenient number, so I started looking up what we do and don’t believe and:
34% of Americans don’t believe in evolution.
41% believe in ghosts.
69% believe in angels.
And…
Only two-thirds of American Millennials believe the world is round, but let’s face it, they’re goofy because they think liking food and calling themselves “foodies” makes them special, porkpie hats and horn rim glasses look cool as long as you’re being “ironic” and jumping on one of those electric scooters when you’re too drunk to drive is a good way to get home at 3 AM.
So a fair number of us believe some really goofy shit, but don’t believe some fairly solid facts and the 15% number surprised me, but here’s an article that says while climate change denial is becoming less common, the people who used to deny it was even happening have now switched tactics and are saying wind and solar energy don’t work, rising sea levels are good for coral reefs and are also claiming global warming will be beneficial or at least harmless which makes me think none of those people live in Texas.
And if you’re wondering if some people are really that dumb, here’s a story from July 8th about people still crowding into Death Valley during a heat wave because they wanted to take selfies while standing in front of a thermometer that read 120 degrees.
Right after getting those selfies in brain-damaging heat, they were headed for the edge of our flat Earth to take more selfies and I’m kinda hoping some of them back up a step too far and if you google “how many people fall” before you can finish writing, the internet will supply “into the Grand Canyon each year” and apparently the answer is an average of 12.
While I’m sure it’s a tragedy for their families, odds are we didn’t lose the cure for cancer and it’s probably one less vote for Donald Trump.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/16/climate/climate-denial-misinformation-youtube/index.html
BTW: If you believe the Earth is flat, what do you think is on the other side and the answer may include this next location…
Like a lot of you, I read John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air a book that explained in great detail all the reasons I don’t want to climb Mount Everest, but a lot of people disagree and try to climb it anyway.
According to the internet, about 800 people try to climb Everest each year and it turns out, a lot of those people left a lot of trash on the mountain they claim to revere.
Semi-recently a team of soldiers and Sherpas removed 11 tons of garbage and five bodies from the mountain, but it was estimated another 40 to 50 tons of trash remain at South Col, the last camp before people try to summit and here’s a story about that:
So when I read a headline that said “Mt. Everest is littered with garbage” here’s the cartoon image that occurred to me:
Today’s Lesson
If we want to stop the far-right the rest of us need to work together, the media is focusing on Joe Biden’s mistakes while ignoring Donald Trump’s, people believe some goofy shit and if some of that goofy shit includes believing Donald Trump needs another shot at running the country and they want a picture of themselves standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, they should give me their cell phones and I’ll take their picture right after advising them to back up at least one more step.
Biden reminds me of an honest, hard-working dotty grandpa who misspeaks often, but gets the job done. Compare to: a lying, very confused narcissist who claims not even to know the job his team has set for him (but still wants to round up all the immigrants and deport them, while getting rid of civil servants and replacing them wirh lackeys). Hmm. I know my choice.
Yeah, but are his lips moving? That's how we can tell. 😁