COVID-19 Deaths
2/06/2020 — U.S.: 1 | World: 620
3/05/2020 — U.S.: 12 | World: 3,293
4/02/2020 — U.S.: 5,137 | World: 48,284
5/07/2020 — U.S.: 73,431 | World: 264,189
6/04/2020 — U.S.: 107,175 | World: 386,464
7/02/2020 — U.S.: 128,062 | World: 516,726
8/06/2020 — U.S.: 158,268 | World: 708,278
9/03/2020 — U.S.: 185,752 | World: 863,577
10/1/2020 — U.S.: 206,963 | World: 1,014,958
- Conservatively estimated Trump malfeasance deaths: 103,483
- U.S.: 4.3% of Earth’s population, 21% of its pandemic deaths
(Ibid.; Glanz & Robertson; 5/20/2020.)
(Ibid.; Gupta, MD; 9/18/2020.)
(as conservatively extrapolated from COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; 10/1/2020.)
Debate
There was a presidential debate Tuesday night. It was a once-in-a-lifetime rhetorical political event. I won’t go into detail here because historians and pundits already are flooding the airwaves and will be writing books about it.
Let me just say, the word logorrhea underwent a 56,000% increase in lookups Sept. 29, 2020. Describing the president’s debate performance Rachel Maddow said this:
“A monstrous unintelligible display of logorrhea that has nothing to do with any idea of civic discourse.”
(Maddow, Rachel, Ph.D., news anchor; MSNBC’s Debate Analysis; 9/29/2020.)
“logorrhea: excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness”
(“logorrhea”; Merriam-Webster.com; retrieved 10/1/2020.)
Linguistic enthusiasts might notice the suffix “-rhea,” as in “diarrhea.” My ninth grade gym teacher would characterize it as: Trump had a bad case of “diarrhea of the mouth.”
Logorrhea.
You could also call it “circumlocution, diffuseness, diffusion, garrulity, garrulousness, long-windedness, periphrasis, prolixity, redundancy, verbalism, verboseness, verbosity, windiness,” or any of the other synonyms listed in Merriam-Webster’s thesaurus.
Or bullsh*t. You could call it bullsh*t. From a quintessential a**hole.
Oh, hell, I’ve got to mention some observations:
— The vast majority of political experts have determined Donald’s performance was the most egregious display of presidential (anti-)decorum in U.S. history on a debate stage or elsewhere. It brought monumental shame and embarrassment to America on the world stage.
— President Trump grotesquely abused the debate format, moderator, and his opponent. He refused to debate within the common understanding of the term, choosing not to follow agreed-upon rules and chronically interrupting Joe Biden and the moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace. He talked over both and rarely addressed the topic at hand. He reiterated his greatest (fallacious) hits with the force of a vein-busting, hellfire-threatening preacher at a megachurch.
— His behavior was so disturbing that fact-checking this colossal fabulist took a backseat to a national discussion of how he’s broken the presidential election process, the presidency, and America’s world standing.
— Trump mocked Joe Biden again for wearing a mask and role-modeling pandemic guidelines, then mocked the way Biden looked in a mask.
— Trump exhorted his supporters to overwhelm polling places, ostensibly as “poll-watchers” for fairness but in reality to intimidate voters and suppress the minority vote. He again refused to say he would accept the election results, instead averring his clear intention to use the Supreme Court — including his pending illegitimate nominee — to disqualify millions of legal ballots, thereby ensuring his victory.
— When asked by the moderator if he would “here and now” denounce white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys, Trump hesitated, stumbled, and finally said, “[They should] stand back and stand by … but antifa!” He would not denounce white supremacy. And he clearly threatened violence upon the country to be perpetrated by his gun-toting white supremacist followers if he lost the election through legitimate means, i.e., the vote.
— The day after the debate, a Proud Boys leader wrote on the group’s websites: “That’s my president!” The organization immediately began using Trump’s slogan, “Stand back and stand by,” as a recruiting tool and merchandizing opportunity. At a day-after-the-debate news conference, given a chance to clarify his debate remarks, Donald again refused to condemn white supremacist groups and denied knowing who the Proud Boys are.
For more information on how the debate went down, see every newspaper and media site on Earth.
Presidential Advantage
President Trump has created for himself an advantage that almost no one else in politics can match (though he has spawned acolytes): his ability to abandon ethics and morality completely. This is not hyperbole. It’s an exclusive advantage he maintains because almost all other human beings who aren’t ax-murderers have some rhetorical bottom below which they will not sink.
Donald has no such limitations. Even Newt Gingrich says he’s a liar. Even Mitt Romney says Trump is an inveterate and invertebrate flip-flopper. Even Ted Cruz says he’s dishonest and ought to leave Ted’s wife alone. Even Lindsey Graham has called The Donald “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot … a nut … a kook … unfit for office.” Even Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog says Trump uses too many school-yard insults and demeaning nicknames.
Cornered Rat
We all know about the dangers of a cornered rat. Currently this orange rodent (of the class: Manhattan Mammalia; order: Mar-a-Lago Rodentia) has had his taxes exposed to show he’s a failed businessman who has paid $0 in federal taxes for 10 of the past 15 years, paid (exactly) $750.00 federal tax in 2016 and 2017, and incurred over $400 million in personal debt coming due within the next four years. He’s been exposed — on tape — as having known in January that the coronavirus would be staggeringly deadly. But he chose to take grossly inadequate actions to protect the country because he feared too much acknowledgement, let alone life-saving precautions, would harm the economy and hurt his reelection chances.
He’s disparaged numerous U.S. military leaders and heroes in despicable terms. He’s been exposed as having characterized fighting men and women killed or injured in battle as “losers” and “suckers.” He sought, encouraged, accepted, and used Russian influence and other help to beat a presidential rival and then obstructed justice to cover it up, as confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee. He extorted Ukraine for dirt on a presidential rival as most of the GOP has conceded. He’s under multiple criminal investigations that will turn into indictments once he’s out of office, hence the cornered-rat efforts to remain in office.
And he’s got the worst comb-over in celebrity cosmetic history. Who does he think he’s kidding? It’s insulting.
Debate Advice
The Biden presidential campaign has not sought my advice for debate prep. If they do I will tell Joe to rotate these responses every time Donald tries to make a mendacious, disgusting point:
“I don’t kill Americans with pandemic inaction. $750.”
“Veterans’ cemeteries: Not suckers and losers. $750.”
“I don’t kill children by forcing them to school during a pandemic. $750.”
“Failed businessman. $400 million in debt. Show us your taxes. $750.”
“I’m not trying to take away health care for millions during a pandemic. $750.”
“Do we really want another four years of this? Oh, by the way: $750.”
Pandemic Note
Perhaps the most telling quote we have from Donald is this revealing aside:
“Maybe this virus is a good thing. I don’t have to shake hands with those disgusting people [who attend my rallies].”
(Trump, Donald, R-Fla., U.S. president; White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting; spring 2020; as cited by Troye, Olivia, R-Texas, former White House Coronavirus Task Force aide; Republican Voters Against Trump video; 9/18/2020.)
This was reported by former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence and White House Coronavirus Task Force member Olivia Troye. Ms. Troye is a lifelong Republican whose conscience forced her to resign the task force in July and go public with this information: President Trump has based every task force-related decision on ensuring his reelection rather than saving American lives.
The cult members are the last ones to know their leader despises them, looks down on them. Radio host and Trump friend Howard Stern famously tried to alert Trump supporters, MAGA cult members:
“The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most. The people who are voting for Trump for the most part … he wouldn’t even let them in [his] f***ing hotel. He’d be disgusted by them. [Trump supporters, g]o to Mar-a-Lago, see if there’s any people who look like you. I’m talking to you in the audience. … I don’t hate Donald. I hate you for voting for him, for not having intelligence.”
(Stern, Howard; SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show; 5/12/2020.)
C’mon, man. One of VP Pence’s top aides, a lifelong Republican, says the president is killing Americans needlessly so he can be reelected. It’s possible Olivia Troye could be one more GOP member who’s had her leg grabbed by the submerged swamp monster and hauled in. Yeah, she could be a deep-stater willing to destroy her career to keep the Democrat child-sex ring operating.
But this is Howard Stern telling you. No swamp monster here. No deep-stater here.
“Stand back and stand by.”
“That’s my president.”■
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