This is Not a Great Sign

 

Trump: "When you go to a voting booth, and you do it the right way, and you go to a state that runs it properly, you go in -- they even asked me, they asked me for my license plate. I said, 'I don't know if I have it.' They said, 'Sir, you have to have it.' I was very impressed… pic.twitter.com/SVP1xAsdH0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2025

I guess there are other things (many!) I could have to say about yesterday's events, but I'm just singling this out here: Trump's brain was trying to grope after the term "driver's license", but it came up with the entirely different "license plate." It's just a word substitution in one sense, a misspeaking, but it feels like a sign of senility, 

Well, to me anyway. It's like when he seems to have wires crossed regarding "political asylum" and "mental asylums". Or when he insists he has to show his ID to buy groceries. He may be losing his mind or, and this is also really quite terrible--he never had much of a mind to lose. 

He thinks solar energy doesn't work at night. He thinks magnets won't work when wet. You can look those things up. Trump has never looked up anything, ever and it shows.

Now MAGA being MAGA, they might just insist this is the strength of Trump: he so muscular he can just wrench his license plate off the car and fold it up in his wallet. Ignoring that Trump says batshit things in all seriousness is worrying as hell.

That's how we got here, and literally millions of lives at any time could depend on Trump not being full-blown delusional. Yet here he is, doing "peace negotiations" with a mental deficit and a florid personality disorder. 

Declaration of Incoherence

 

This guy just shut down the Department of Education. pic.twitter.com/SSwsrw7oll

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 1, 2025

I fully intend to add to this, but my word, it is made of stupid. The man literally seems to have no idea what the Declaration of Independence is. And he just says random things. 

 UPDATE: I do not know where his brain short-circuited, but Harvard went in one ear and Harlem came out of his mouth:

Smith asked Trump what he would say to those who view his attacks against the Ivy League school as “an attack on academic freedom, rather than a defense of fairness.”

“Well, I say this. We had riots in Harlem, in Harlem, and frankly if you look at what’s gone on—and people from Harlem went up and they protested, Stephen, and they protested very strongly against Harvard. They happened to be on my side,” Trump said.

“You know I got a very high Black vote. You know that? Very, very high Black vote. It was a very great compliment to me,” Trump continued.

You know what never happened? That. That never happened.  

Do They Just Not Tell Him Things?

 

this is an absolutely shocking statement from POTUS. Four US troops died in Lithuania, news of it was reported hours ago, and Trump is completely clueless pic.twitter.com/auvOq2TgXg

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2025

I know this is a bit late--but when Trump says he wasn't briefed on something (the Signal chat, the four deceased servicemembers) I'm beginning to wonder:

Does his staff simply not tell him things, or has his mind gotten to the point where they do tell him things, and if it isn't one of his already well-worn obsessions, it rolls off his smooth carnauba-waxed brain?

It's very disconcerting to think about either way. 

It's Weird, Right?

 

Trump staggered up the stairs of the helicopter on his way to go play his customary weekend golf with the omnipresent little Musk kid leading the way. This is after a weird speech at DOJ HQ (weird especially for being there, and breaking the illusion of agency independence), complete with his rally music set. The man who was facing federal charges for storing classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort/residence said he'd rather face jail than be seen as being old and mentally incompetent. 

And of course, Trump isn't facing prison because many people saw him as being fit to be President, instead, but you know, all of this weird, right? Like, I don't think this man is in his right mind, at all. But here he is.

This Man is Certifiable

 

Trump: "To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. We don't need anything they have. As a state it would be one of the great states. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it." pic.twitter.com/oxzF3jzLOC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2025

With respect to our neighbors to the north, my god. I am just so embarrassed and sorry about this delusional halfwit. I knew he was a halfwit, but he managed to keep the worst of it under his MAGA hat for the benefit of his true-believers. I hope they understand how extremely messed up this crap is now, though.

And if they don't, well, I guess I am sorry for them, too. Because that is just one hell of a low and dangerous level of stupid. 

Today. Trump made comments that NATO needs to help with the US acquiring Greenland, which is not going to happen and is profoundly ignorant, as well as having congratulated himself for filling Lake Tulare with reservoir water intended for future irrigation and fire-fighting. He describes this as "invading LA" which is not even remotely a description of how any of this profoundly stupid and useless event occurred. 

Comments by Trump and his cabinet suggest that his intentions with respects to Canada and Greenland are real, and also folks are charged with drafting a Panama Canal strategy. 

TWGB: Good Old Ronny Johnson

It's not a good sign, is it, when someone with the best memory ever forgets the name of his dealer doctor, the reverse-promoted Captain Jackson, right? Especially when he's challenging President Biden to dueling cognitive tests:

The former president and presumptive Republican nominee referred to Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was the White House physician for part of his presidency, as “Ronny Johnson.” The moment came as Trump was questioning Biden’s mental acuity, something he often does on the campaign trail and social media. 

“He doesn’t even know what the word ‘inflation’ means. I think he should take a cognitive test like I did,” the former president said of Biden during a speech at a convention of Turning Point Action in Detroit. 

Seconds later, he continued, “Doc Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history, so I liked him very much indeed immediately.”

This isn't like "Tim Apple." This is more like his conflation of Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi--these are people he knows, and their names escape him. But he made another gaffe along the same lines yesterday, failing to recognize the man he was just introduced to and was speaking about. 

TWGB: Aiding and Abetting

 

Trump salutes as the J6 Choir song plays pic.twitter.com/383RCt4TOT

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 16, 2024

Trump really loves his 1/6 convicted felons as if they were his very own co-conspirators, doesn't he? Some observers of today's Trump rally speech got exercised over his use of the term "bloodbath" as in, if he is not elected this year, there will be a bloodbath. Don't be stupid--this was just his usual hyperbole. It's his continued defense and support of his last bloodbath, where something like 140 law enforcement officers were pounded mercilessly by his little fan club, we should be looking at. 

It's a pity-looking at Trump's rallies these days is a little like returning to the scene of a crime where Father Time is stealing what insurers cannot replace and bankers cannot lend, and which, like any Trump property, might have been severely over-valued anyway--his fragile little mind. He thinks renaming Fort Bragg is somehow a repudiation of US successes, not a repudiation of Confederate failures. 

Nikki Haley and the Senile Racist

 

I was honestly just going to post about the weirdness of trying to pretend this is a not-racist country when one's former boss calls you out as "Nimrada" (is that an upgrade from "birdbrain"?) and for a second act, practices birtherism against you. She knows exactly what's up--he wants to disqualify her because of her race and gender because he's legit scared she actually is capable of challenging him. In fact, maybe her race and gender make him more afraid, because it challenges his entire world view. 

(Does that worldview, that by now so many on the right wing of the aisle have signed onto, have a name? Might it rhyme with "face-ism"--which is the thing of when other folks' faces just make you want to start a whole political movement against them? Is it just a "complexion problem" or something worse?)

He upgraded his play on her name to "Nimbra". It's not hard to see he avoided a nickname that ended in a hard "r". It could have easily been "Nimber". Just as with "Ron DeSanctimonious", he's losing his edge. He could have just called Ron, "Nose-Picker." He always seems to be digging in his faceholes. 

But just a minute ago, he forgot who his Ambassador to the UN and current primary opponent was and accused her of being the head of security during 1/6--the usual target for that still-wrong claim is Nancy Pelosi. He mixed up his Nancy Pelosi grievance for the new female threat to his supremacy?  Honestly, Haley should be flattered by the comparison, but I don't think it's that, any more than it's a metaphor of any kind when Trump mixes up Biden and Obama. 

You Really Can't Fake Smart

At the rape defamation trial today, Alina Habba demonstrated that you can't fake smart in front of actually smart people. This isn't to say that she's dumb, but she was just not ready for this trial. Now, maybe recently departed counsel Tacopina was supposed to take point on this and looking the whole thing over, realized there wasn't a great case when there was nothing left to do but try to mitigate harm to the client, and Trump insisted on showing his ass up and not being remotely helpful, but I think she is trying to help create the illusion of Trump as the victim here in a way that isn't especially sympathetic. 

The argument that the plaintiff is just a fame whore who wanted this attention might be what Trump wants to convey, but the "she wanted this" part is...fraught with the idea that she, as a victim of sexual assault, wanted something from her attacker. 

Juries sometimes surprise, though. I find the argument appalling, but then again, I'm a feminist with a real problem with rape culture. And yet, it is all around us. 

This is one of those moments where the idea that Trump makes good choices or picks the best people wears thin, though. He talked to no one in particular during the trial (where he is not compelled to attend, which is why he has no especial need to be there if he has a funeral or any other pressing matter to attend to) and was advised by the judge that he could be tossed from the proceedings because he couldn't control himself. 

Trump: Seriously or Literally, in a Nutshell

 

The Republican Party front runner for the 2024 Presidential elections. pic.twitter.com/IwYLqRt0Il

— David Weissman ✡️ (@davidmweissman) June 26, 2023

Yes, he seriously belongs in a literal nutshell.  

The Devil's Lettuce Made Them Do It!

 

Fox's Laura Ingraham blames mass shootings on “regular pot use”https://t.co/bDkOQVbxix

— Media Matters (@mmfa) July 6, 2022

I wonder a bit at Ingraham's rant that pot use is behind the mass shooting phenomenon in the US--is she trying to excuse mass murderers with moral trolling or will any opportunity to moral troll do? I'm skeptical that there's a path from Cheech and Chong to Klebold and Harris, myself. Also, I presume that Laura Ingraham does not herself partake of the jazz cigarettes, so what exactly accounts for her dead-eyed sociopathy?

Ha, I kid. (Do I?) Her fellow Fox News talker, Tucker Carlson. blames taking psychiatric meds and mean mommies, and the latter might be a bit of a personal issue. I have to question that, too--knowing how many mass shootings have begun with family abuse and violence against women, it seems to me Carlson is really just on-board with misogyny. Also, once again, just as with hosting COVID-19 disinfo, Carlson is making medical pronouncements he's highly unqualified to make. 

My own theory is that young men stew in a nihilistic environment in which they are baited into a vague sense of outrage and hopelessness by people who don't give a shit about right or wrong, whether in terms of truth and morality. They are told by soul-less media figures that they are put-upon, and that violence is a solution. They are even given plenty of hints at who to blame for their problems. 

It's just a theory.

Rage and Despair

 

Although the full picture has yet to emerge regarding yesterday's bomb threat, and while I don't know if the apparent detonator and other materials in Floyd Ray Roseberry's vehicle actually were rigged to do actual damage, what I'm seeing is a picture here of rage and despair. 

I know it sounds like an excuse to refer to Roseberry's medical and financial issues or his recent grief to explain what he'd done, especially when he broadcasted a political diatribe regarding the election lies of TrumpWorld and professed hatred for Democrats--especially when millions of people are going through difficult periods all the time and don't threaten to "revolution" and terror. It just that there's something really fucked up happened here that I keep seeing repeated--Andrew Joseph Stack, Anthony Quinn Warner, James Hodgkinson. Yeah, millions of people don't flame out with threats of violence--but then again not everyone seems to have left their brains soaking in kerosene waiting for a match. 

Rage, even profoundly misguided rage, is refuge from despair, even if it's no more healthy or effective. When people talk about "toxic masculinity", it's not about the men themselves being dangerous, but something about the way men are acculturated to make sense of things by finding rage easier to deal with than grief, finding and lashing out at targets more satisfying than even solving problems. 

Also, it seems to me that people use political views as a kind of escapism--they have their own issues, but focusing elsewhere makes the pain abstract, helps disassociate from it. This man didn't vote until Trump came along--a politician who encouraged rage, found targets to lash out at, encouraged grievance and conspiracy theories.

Of course, Trump isn't the only person doing that, let alone the first. The disturbing thing is that the dynamic has stopped being as fringe, has been mainstreamed. What Roseberry's Facebook commentary revealed was things you could hear not from folks who were sitting on an alleged truck bomb--but at CPAC. Or on cable news.  The rage and despair stem from real things, even though the stated stories are lies. But a lot of responsibility for channeling the rage this way is obviously at the feet of the liars--they provide accelerants to human timebombs. And are motivated by mere greed and attention-seeking, and a lack of any concern for the damage done.

And Now A Public Service Announcement....

Trump: I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. pic.twitter.com/rGv3tLru0d

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) May 26, 2020

This is Donny. He wonders if insulin, hydroxychloroquine, and Lysol can be used as recreational drugs. Don't be like Donny. Be smart. Not, you know (waves hands in his general area) like this.

(And yes, I guess this wasn't the most out-there thing he did on a day where he continued to claim that mail-in voting is cheating, that Joe Scarborough probably killed a lady, and thrashed about at the media--like always, but you know what? It's still pretty goddamn out there, isn't it?)

UPDATE: But regarding the disgusting and hurtful nature of Trump's claims, he is still at it:

Despite the pleas of the family of the deceased.

This does not look like the behavior of a healthy mind.

Stay Bull Jean Yuss 5: He Isn't, Though

Another Fake Book by two third rate Washington Post reporters, has already proven to be inaccurately reported, to their great embarrassment, all for the purpose of demeaning and belittling a President who is getting great things done for our Country, at a record clip. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2020

So, the President was just Tweeting about this book, right here, available on Amazon and just about wherever many fine books are sold, and it reminded me that I did four posts last year about Trump being a stable genius by his very own reckoning. Because if you are explaining, you are losing, and apparently, Trump has had to explain that he's a very stable genius more than once.

Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, told Gabe Sherman that he had recently asked Trump what his middle initial "J" stands for.

"Genius," Trump responded. https://t.co/4D7EFEiAat

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 11, 2020

You know, and I know, that just like Wile E. Coyote is a Supergenius, Donald J. Trump is a stable genius.  It's a pretense, an act, a reality show persona.  Trump's appearance of competency comes at a high price. That price has, so far, been damage to our European alliances, our diplomatic successes in the Middle East, our credibility, our readiness to face the future technologically, and support for labor, especially the working poor by elevating wages and shoring up the social safety net. Trump is a silver spoon dumbfuck who earned a degree by having a rich daddy and went out of his way to hide his school records.

Stay Bull Jean Yuss 2: Code Orange

Trump at NRCC dinner:
-vows to "take back the House"
-says “They say the noise [from wind farms] causes cancer”
-tells crowd he's just sure someone will leak "his whole damn speech" to the media while it's being broadcast on C-SPAN

But everyone just sits and grins cause money. pic.twitter.com/73yQXBEfjT

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) April 3, 2019

Donald Trump is having a bit of a "normal one" today, I'm afraid. I mentioned earlier that he was reprehensibly lying (as was his minion, Hogan Gidley) regarding Puerto Rico, but did not also mention that he was also going volte-face over his earlier claims that he was fully exonerated by the Mueller report. Now, he says Dems are crazy for wanting the full report that allegedly fully exonerates him, which does suggest that crowing over not-quite four pages of a summary of a summary might have been overselling things a bit. This was, sadly, not the entirety of Trump's dysfunction and incompetence on display.

In an event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump was simply bizarre. He was unable to say the word "origins", saying instead "oranges". He stated his own father was born in a nice place in Germany (he was born in the Bronx). He also seemed to indicate that part of the problem with immigration was judges.

Judges. Mkay.

I've joked recently about Trump being a "Stay Bull Jean Yuss" because of his quite obvious ignorance about how wind power even works and his own crowing about his supposed intelligence. Indicating that wind power causes cancer comes from the same place anti-vax bullshit does (oh, wait up, he's about that bullshit, too)--the fake news sewer of the internet.

I've also kidded that maybe some part of Trump's ignorance and apparent incapacity is a work, not a shoot, on the off chance that he needs an insanity plea for whatever shit he fears all the investigations surrounding him will eventually lead to.

Yeah. But it still isn't funny and needs to be looked into, though. There is something very not okay with this picture. It looks bad because it is bad, you guys.

I Know I've Been Here Before

Unbelievable as it seems, there has been 204 shootings in the last 204 days. That's an awful lot of pathology in our society to think about--and wouldn't you know it, a lot of people don't. But sometimes a certain glaring coincidence stares out at me during these different events--

John Russel "Rusty" Houser, aged 59, has been described as a drifter, former entrepreneur, mentally unstable, and was alleged to have engaged in domestic violence. He was also a fan of Hitler, the Tea Party, and Westboro Baptist Church.

But what stands out to me is that the guy was apparently an avowed anti-feminist, and was actually brought on tv to espouse his radical views because it was edgy and people would watch. And that might seem like entertainment, until our man decides to stand up in the middle of a feminist-themed rom com and shoot people, killing two women, and injuring nine other people. A movie where one would expect to see a number of women movie-goers?

So, he expressed anti-woman views, and then acted on them. Because those ideas were still considered in the realm of discussion. As if we can't separate violent or hateful words against women, with the idea that someone might carry through with them.

My thoughts are with the people in Louisiana and the families and loved ones of the victims. I just think someone should have had a closer eye on this angry man.