The Party's Over

Jah Him Ah Gonna Juke Dem Down!

The Independent is unsettled. Does Lumpy hire people he's seen on the telly because they're such good boot-lickers?

Trump was reading from a piece of paper in front of him for this entire appearance, but when he did attempt to go off-script, it went very quickly awry. This policy is for “the amazing veterans who are with the — with, with us — they’ve just been with us from the day they were born, I suspect,” he said, in a trailing aside.

It was pure nonsense, even by the standards of Trump. It was so weird that I had to listen to it back to make sure I'd heard what I thought I'd heard.

“American highways and roadways have been terrorized” by immigrant drivers, he continued, who were driving “big rigs. Rigs like that—” At this point, a large truck caught his eye and he continued, “—Wow, that sucker is a big one. That’s big stuff.”

Trump is known for peppering his speeches with such interruptions, but these had a low energy to them and an undercurrent of confusion. Sure, he could read out from the paper that “radical left maniacs” have given out commercial licenses to people here illegally, and claim that an immigrant from Haiti who caused the death of an American citizen was “let in by Joe Biden.” But when he needed to elaborate, he could only say that such aliens had caused “many, many deaths, too many to talk about.”

[...]

Luckily, transportation secretary Sean Duffy was there to add his own two cents. Jumping in with vigor, Duffy painted a suitably horrifying picture of the vulnerable American family being preyed upon by evil, English-eschewing migrants with designs on their two most sacred activities, Christian worship and mass consumption: “When these illegals were driving these big rigs, they were killing American citizens,” he yelled.

Whether you were “a family going to Walmart or going to church on a Sunday,” you were liable to be run down at every turn.

[...]

This extended show of fealty — which took up almost as much time as the talk about opportunities for veterans — earned Duffy a nod from the president, and presumably protected him from his ire. But this, combined with the frail delivery from Trump, pointed to something alarming: a president who increasingly loses his train of thought, who struggles to make the quick quips and connections he once did, and a surrounding team that is sycophantic to the point of absurdity.

It’s pretty obvious that there isn’t just a lack of pushing-back within the Trump cabinet; there’s a demand for time-wasting, toadying displays of OTT loyalty. There’s also clearly pressure to look the other way, to paper over the cracks when the president flounders.

The ‘Freedom Haulers’ thing, by the way, is nothing new. It’s simply an extension of an older policy, and there’s very little proof that it will do much for the economy, for immigration, or for veterans. But listen, the amazing veterans have been with us since the day they were born, and Donald Trump is a masterclass. Hand on heart, is there anything more you need to hear than that?

This?

Trump Hates Immigrants So Much He’s Going to Make Roads More Dangerous

Trump wants veterans to take immigrant truckers’ jobs—by letting them skip required steps for their license. What could go wrong?

Twilight of The Knobs:

NAKED EMPEROR

We’ve Officially Entered the Twilight of Late-Stage Trumpism

It’s all there in a new CNN poll, and it’s heartening to see: Large majorities are sick of Donald Trump’s vanity, venality, and megalomania.

Just as long as Nebuchadrezzar dies during the upcoming Democratic Socialist administration that will give him the funeral & day of national celebration/mourning he deserves.