In the two videos below we see evidence of neurological dysfunction that’s ceased being funny. The bottom one, assembled by the Daily Show, is the usual parade of verbal screw-ups and mangled syntax, scary enough, and it’s getting worse. Even more disturbing, look at what happens at the 22 second mark of the top one. We’re used to him slurring, losing the thread, using inappropriate words, and being confused, but this is something new. There’s an involuntary spasm that causes his shoulders to jerk, and stops him in his tracks mid-utterance.
What does that indicate?
Rumours have been circulating for years that Donald is on meds we know nothing about, and is addicted to dangerous amounts of Sudafed, which, when abused, can lead to heightened alertness but also paranoia, delusions and dangerously high blood pressure. There are even stories circulating that he’s a “speed freak” who snorts Adderall, a stimulant used often in the treatment of AD-HD. All just rumours, of course, but not entirely unsupported – you can read about it here:
That sort of drug use, stories of which have dogged Donald literally for decades, might explain some aspects of his character, but clearly something else is going on. Sometimes it looks like he’s having transient ischemic attacks, AKA “mini-strokes”, and sometimes it looks and sounds like progressive dementia. The man needs a full neurological work-up, pronto, and for all we know he’s had one and the results are being kept quiet. If so, those responsible for the cover-up should be drawn and quartered.
In the long run – or the not so very long run, more likely – this means we may finally be rid of Trump simply because he can’t function, and it’s too crippling to hide any longer. It’s a measure of my antipathy for the monster that such a fate for Donald suits me right down to the ground, if that’s what it takes when the rule of law has failed us. Until then, though, we’re all in danger. So far, what seems to have saved us is the passive refusal to carry out Trump’s orders, with officials in the Pentagon and State Department repeatedly ignoring his diktats, apparently hoping he’ll forget about them. A startling example is revealed in Peter Bergen’s new book The Cost of Chaos, which includes an account of Trump’s behaviour when tensions with North Korea were at a peak, back before Kim and Donald became lovers at their rendezvous in Singapore. Trump was shown a satellite image of the Korean Peninsula taken at night, examples of which have circulated widely on the internet for years, like this one:
Except for the small oasis of Pyongyang, the North is so dark that Trump thought it must be ocean. When informed that no, that bright line of demarkation was the DMZ, and the ocean was North Korea, Trump wanted to know what the huge splash of light just south of the border could be. This, of course, is the capital of South Korea, Seoul, a metropolis of something like 26 million people. Donald was taken aback – why was it so close to the border!? That’s dangerous! “They have to move!” he exclaimed. He wasn’t joking.
They have to move.
Oh, OK. Look, long as we’re at it, let’s move it to somewhere more sensible, like Utah, where’s there’s plenty of space.
At another point, Trump ordered the evacuation of all non-military U.S. personnel from the South, a move that would surely be interpreted by Kim as a prelude to war. The Pentagon simply ignored this order too.
So here we are, alive and well so far because people keep refusing to follow the President’s orders. How long can that go on, if it still is? Bergen’s reporting covers the period when Jim Mattis was Secretary of Defence, and we know Mattis refused to do all sorts of stupid things Trump wanted, but what about his successor, Mark Esper, a former lobbyist for defence contractor Raytheon? Are we literally betting our lives that this guy, a non-entity unfit to polish the gold buttons on Jim Mattis’s dress blues, will have the mettle to stop Trump the next time he commands something catastrophic?
You know, I can get pretty glib about Trump’s mental unfitness, cracking wise about his dementia and joking about the launch codes (see my most recent post!), but maybe it’s time to get serious here. The Commander-in-Chief of the United States thinks you can move a city of 26 million people. Pick it up and plonk it down somewhere better. He not only thinks it’s possible, he thinks he has the authority to order it done. That’s not just moronic. That’s impaired. Meanwhile, we keep dodging bullets – right this minute, Kim is apparently sparing us the crisis that might ensue were he to deliver on his promised “Christmas surprise” for Donald, which was probably going to involve something to do with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, and for some reason (fingers crossed) hasn’t arrived. Maybe we’ll keep being lucky.
I don’t know, do you feel lucky?
the needlefish 