I don't know how Justin Trudeau managed to look so cool yesterday, when confronted with the madness of Donald Trump.
And the threat that could cost Canadians hundreds of thousands of jobs, and maybe even bring down the global economy.
Or what he must have thought when he heard this:
But then I read this tweet and it all became clear.
Donald Trump is unravelling, or losing his marbles, and we're all in terrible danger.
At first it sounded like hyperbole, the escalation of a Twitter war. But now it’s clear that Bob Corker’s remarkable New York Times interview—in which the Republican senator described the White House as “adult day care” and warned Trump could start World War III—was an inflection point in the Trump presidency. It brought into the open what several people close to the president have recently told me in private: that Trump is “unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.”
In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods.
I don't know whether it's early onset dementia, or tertiary syphilis, but there's a strange look in Trump's piggy eyes...
And one wonders how long his Chief of Staff John Kelly can control him.
Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision.
Or how long his generals can prevent him from starting World War III...
One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said.
And considering what's going on, and Trump's state of mind, the need for Congress to strip him of the power to kill us all in a twitter rage, seems only too obvious.
The broad debate over President Trump’s fitness for the difficult and demanding office he holds has recently been reframed in a more pointed and urgent way: Does he understand, and can he responsibly manage, the most destructive nuclear arsenal on earth?
As things stand now, the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, passed when there was more concern about trigger-happy generals than elected civilian leaders, gives the president sole control. He could unleash the apocalyptic force of the American nuclear arsenal by his word alone, and within minutes.
But even that won't be enough, and since we can't count on Bob Mueller to save us.
There’s no way of knowing how long his investigation will take and what it will turn up. It could be years before the probe is completed. It could be that Mueller’s team finds no evidence of criminal misconduct on the part of the president himself. And because the special counsel has no obligation to report his conclusions to the public — indeed, the special-counsel regulations do not give him the power to do so without the approval of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein — we may never know what he uncovers.
Let's hope that Trump's favourite Nazi Steve Bannon, is at least prophetic...
Several months ago, according to two sources with knowledge of the conversation, former chief strategist Steve Bannon told Trump that the risk to his presidency wasn’t impeachment, but the 25th Amendment—the provision by which a majority of the Cabinet can vote to remove the president.
When Bannon mentioned the 25th Amendment, Trump said, “What’s that?” According to a source, Bannon has told people he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term.
For anyone who thinks that we could survive a full term of this maniac...
Must be either an idiot, or a Jesus freak, or as deluded as he is.
And those who fail to stop him should do as Paul Krugman suggests.
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow God help us all...
8 comments:
Technically it isn't early onset, though the majority of cases occur older.
I remember one very sad case of a man with early onset at the Italian-language seniors' centre where I was doing research on migration histories. His began when he was only in his fifties. A skilled worker; perhaps an electrician? with a wife and kids in Cégep and university. At least that horrible disease took him fairly swiftly.
Trump does have that empty gaze.
Justin has a Zen air about him, and he and Sophie are yoga practitioners so it doesn't surprise me he's able to remain calm and collected in the face of this lunatic -- because he needs to. He obviously has some Jedi mind trick he's using -- first, on himself to avoid telling Dotard directly to his face what he must really think of him, and then, on Dotard too to fool him into thinking he's his only Tru friend in the world. (Apparently he's a much better actor than the cons ever give him credit for!)
The casual flirtation with Ivanka (which the salacious tabloid press and fake news on social media blew up into some prurient example of "international affairs") is icing on the cake. He's read enough tales of Highlanders and hobbits, and watched "Game of Thrones" enough times, to know that the way to appease a mad tyrant is to win the heart of his treasured daughter. Sophie has nothing to worry about, of course, as this is all just empty political flattery and snake-charming of a savage beast. He's only playing hard to get -- memes and fanfics notwithstanding, he's impossible to get.
If Trump does rip up NAFTA, I'm inclined to think that Canadians won't blame Justin for any negative economic effects that occur. A recent poll concluded that an abysmal 19 percent of Canadians approve of the psychopath to begin with. That's still surprisingly high, but understandable when one considers that fully a third think Scheer is the cat's meow (which in itself is disturbingly high). Still, Canadians as a society aren't as dumb and "poorly-educated" as the Americans, for whom a lobotomy is considered a cosmetic enhancement procedure, take pride in being. Canadians know it's all but impossible to reason with a man who appears to sincerely believe he is living in a television game show and who throws paper towels to suffering people desperate for aid to clean up from a flood, like it was a sponsored event from a paper towel company that advertised on his program. That Justin has even gotten this far is more than laudable. He should get a Nobel Peace Prize just for achieving the insurmountable task of getting Dotard to be (somewhat) nice.
Besides, practically since the minute Dotard was elected, Justin has already been hard at work dispatching his ministers to individual states to negotiate with governors and representatives in Congress. He and his cabinet members have been shoring up backup plans for trade policies with the wobbly but still-extant E.U. and the next world superpower of China. Elon Musk has reportedly expressed interest in building solar batteries and other cutting-edge ventures in Canada because he knows that the U.S. isn't interested, either in renewable energies, science, or the kind of global labor force that he wants to tap into in order to continue his work. Musk wants sunny ways; Xi wants sunny ways; Puerto Rico sure wants sunny ways. But Dotard is looking to bring back coal, drill for more oil, and probably even force Hollywood to produce silent movies sponsored by the Ford Model T, "because it's 1915."
None of these solutions will come to fruition overnight, and Rome wasn't built in a day. Which is why it is important for Canadians to wait patiently to see the results unfold. The seeds that Justin and the Liberals are planting will eventually grow into a bountiful maple harvest that bodes well for the future. It's understandably difficult not to be on edge and want answers RIGHT NOW because of the insane dotard to the south, who's making everyone bite their nails to the point of eating our hands off. But the "sunny ways" will come out tomorrow -- we just have to be a little more generous with the definition of "tomorrow" ever so slightly, and rethink things as basic as space and time.
That is, if we don't all end up getting high on that magic mushroom cloud in the sky... where we're gonna go when we die...
For once that fascist pig Bannon is right, the 25th Amendment is the way to go. We can't wait for Mueller, Trump needs to be strapped to a stretcher and sent to a mental hospital. Any Republican who doesn't support his removal from office, must be held responsible for what happens, and punished accordingly.
Whatever else is done the Congress must make sure that Trumpinski does not get to launch a nuclear attack all by himself. That dotard is clearly not playing with a full deck, and somebody needs to put a muzzle on him before he causes a human catastrophe.
Hi lagatta...it's true that the early onset Alzheimer's diagnosis is reserved for those under the age of 65, but what's six years between friends? Seriously though, According to the numbers released by Trump's "doctor" he is in good shape for a man his age. And his father Fred didn't come down with Alzheimer's until his mid-eighties. But still, I strongly suspect some kind of neurological disease, and I would recommend an MRI scan of his brain. But whatever the cause, his impulsive, child-like behaviour makes it imperative that he not be allowed complete control over nuclear launches....
Hi anon....yes, I don't know what the grubby boozer Bannon is drinking these days, but let's find out, and send him a case or two. As tantalizing and deserved as impeachment would be, it would be very difficult, unless he is found pulling a Weinstein with a five-year- old girl in a crack house. So the 25th Amendment is our best hope of removing Trump before he leads us to disaster...
Hi anon 6:01....yes, that should be a priority. If we can at kleast keep his short stubby fingers far away from the nuclear button, we just might survive this nightmare....
Hi anon....it will be a difficult choice, deciding whether to give Justin a Nobel prize or an Oscar. But I think we're lucky to he is the one who must deal with the raging dotard. Having to convince Trump that you're his BFF, while hating everything about him, can't be easy. Although there are some Canadians suggesting that Trudeau should be more aggressive, they are clearly not playing with a full deck. Trump is a dangerous unstable predator and must be handled like a ticking time bomb, or he could do serious damage to our economy. So you're right, patience has never been more of a virtue...
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