Patient Zero

What to say, what to say? The quasi-fascist Trump presidency has become an act of high surrealism. Since I love surrealism but hate fascism, I don't know how to respond.

 

Actually, there has long been a link between surrealism and fascism. The German director Hans-Juergen Syberberg has explored this overlap at, er, some length. Someone in this country should mount a response: Our Trump, a Film From America. 

Regarding the president's health: It's easy to guess what has happened, at least some of it. Trump, the living superspreader, refused to be tested until the symptoms hit hard. The test is uncomfortable, and he doesn't do uncomfortable. 

 

Update: Kurt Eichenwald's reporting confirms my suspicions: "He found them [Covid tests] uncomfortable, so stopped tests weeks ago."

Even Trump doesn't know when he caught the bug. Has he told his doctors about his long history of amphetamine abuse? Probably not. The treatments he is taking have never been tried before and may worsen his heart condition. He's sicker than he pretends. He's literally risking his life. 

 

His judgment is clearly scrambled. Moreso than usual. Consider this observation from Nate Silver:

Wait, so Trump not only rejects stimulus funds that would probably have helped his re-election chances, but *also* does so in a way to make sure that he personally will take blame for it?

Just days ago, he was begging for a stim bill, was he not? This is what a Hunter S. Thompson presidency would look like if Thompson liked Hitler. 

 

Trump even did the balcony thing! American leaders just don't do the balcony thing. The Pope does that, the British royal family does that, all sorts of tinpot dictators do that. But not American presidents; our traditions are different. Only one thing was missing: Melania should have rushed out and thrust her arms in the air. 

That reminds me. I couldn't quite pinpoint who Kimberly Guilfoyle reminds me of, and then it hit me. There's a longstanding rumor that Eva Peron and real-life Nazi supervillain Otto "Scarface" Skorzeny had an affair. Now, if they had a child...

What's happening now...it's all too much. I can write no more about current events. I'm going to immerse myself in something that makes a little more sense, like the last two episodes of Twin Peaks Season 3. 

 

Here is D-Jay...

*  *  *

Trump - Patient Zero. 

The patient with zero understanding of his disease who spreads it far and wide without a care.

With zero concern for the suffering – and even death - his thoughtless narcissism is causing to others.

With zero thought about the unprecedented – and wholly unpresidential – mistakes he makes every single day, and how he might have done better.

With zero willingness to take responsibility for even the most obvious and monumental of his failures.

With zero interest in any topic not called Donald Trump.

If you haven’t already done so, put on your lifejacket now.  The ship of state is well and truly headed for the rocks - full speed ahead without a lookout in the crows-nest or a competent captain at the helm.

Consider for a minute what we’ve seen in just the last few weeks:

Trump confirmed, reconfirmed and reconfirmed again that he has every intention of turning the upcoming election into a hot mess, then refusing to accept any result that doesn’t leave him in the White House. It’s like the arsonist who asks for handouts because he burned down his house and is now homeless.  Or the murderer of his parents who throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.  Trump complains that the election is illegitimate…because he himself has delegitimized it.  Zero concern for our democracy.

We learned that Trump has paid a mere $750 in federal income tax in the two most recent years we know about and – you guessed it - zero in most of the earlier ones. The only real question is if this was because he has zero skill in business or zero love of America and zero sense of responsibility to pay his fair share of the money needed to keep the country going.

We were hit over the head with his toxic, loudmouth obnoxiousness in his debate performance.  Zero information for the voters.  Zero understanding of how repulsive his childish alpha monkey attempt at dominance would be to anyone not already a card-carrying (or is it hat-wearing) member of the MAGA cult.

Several days later we learned that Trump – along with a growing list of his sycophants – has contracted Covid-19 himself, an entirely predictable occurrence, given that he has made zero effort to have basic public health measures followed at the White House and anywhere else he goes.  Of course, even though he was rushed off to the hospital with what looks very much like serious, potentially life-threatening symptoms, zero information has been provided about some of the most serious questions.  When was his last negative test?  Zero info.  What exactly is the condition of his lungs?  Zero info.  You get the picture.

And now…now…we see that even his team of once respected doctors now have zero credibility left as well.  Not only did they allow him to check himself out of the hospital way too early (according to most experts interviewed in the media at any rate), they stood up in front of the cameras and did their best to help Trump sell the story that any of this is in any way normal. 

It’s come to this – even the doctors who fall into Trump’s orbit find themselves inevitably sucked into the black hole of his toxic idiocracy.

So how should we rate Trump’s presidential performance on a scale of one to ten?

Zero.

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P.S. – Special kudos to my lovely and brilliant wife – and often editor, critic and provider of some of my best ideas, Dr. Lynette Adams, Ph.D., who set me going on this post when she told me first thing this morning, “I’ve got a great title for your next article – Patient Zero!”