This Just In — Suddenly, it’s not September anymore and we are in the countdown to Santa. After an action-packed Turkey week (hope yours was wonderful) we are now in the leftover cycle and the Black Friday emails blasts that might just break the Internet.
The leftovers are the best kind … at least in the food department. Turkey sandwiches and stuffing and my daughter-in-law’s Thanksgiving pizza — a treasure. (The pizza is Brie, cranberry sauce and gravy – insanely delicious)
The leftovers in the news cycle are of a different variety. Stories that, like that last serving of a vegetable casserole that’s good for you, just won’t go away. Examples:
The Epstein files — still a thing. Now seemingly innocuous photos and videos taken years ago at Epstein’s island are chilling and creepy and remind all of us of the nightmares these abused children must still be having as adults.
The U.S. attack on a fishing boat in September has slowly but surely been reported on with increasing detail. The descriptors are binary — war crime or straight up murder. There’s no “America Defending itself” angle on this story. That boat was never getting to Miami across the open sea. High ranking military officials have resigned their career positions over this and will testify publicly as to why. This will not go away.
Too much turkey for the president, it seems. Trump seems to have a tryptophan patch or some other means of constant dosing that is causing him to frequently fall asleep sitting up in the middle of the day. I’m not the first to observe that he has many symptoms of age-related dementia (sleepy, increasingly belligerent, confused over simple things, slurred speech) and I scratch my head at the White House staff putting him in front of cameras almost daily.
For my two cents, I think that they put the president in front of cameras to document him falling asleep (while the Secretary of State is speaking directly to him) and throughout a cabinet meeting and for various other situations because it’s their best chance to focus his attention and keep him calm. They’re managing him as one does with a dementia patient.
That’s not terribly unusual, except playing along with Grandpa when he declares that John Wayne is currently the most famous movie star or that the computer fad will never catch on is a harmless way to engage a confused person in a conversation to pass the time. This doesn’t work with the President of the United States, who is reality-checked and quizzed by reporters constantly about things he’s doing or has just done.
While Trump is trying to justify blowing a fishing boat out of the open ocean waters, he uses the “narco-terrorism” predicate to explain that we must do absolutely everything to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the country. When the follow-up question is about his pardon of a duly tried and convicted notorious drug trafficker, he responds with a blank stare.
He was asked by former Honduras President Hernandez for a pardon, so he granted it, he said. Indeed, he received a fawning letter from Hernandez referring to Trump as “Your excellency” and asking to be excused from the little problem of bringing hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US.
Too bad those fishermen didn’t take the time to look skyward to the US drone and and say “Please, your excellency, no!”
So, let’s get real here. Donald Trump is not running this government. He is handed his giant Sharpie to squiggle out his name on executive orders periodically after a staffer explains to him what’s in the document. If you asked him three minutes later what he just signed, he would make clear that he has no idea.
What’s going on with Trump is barely less than elder abuse. He has an MRI and claims he has no idea what part of his body is being evaluated, but he’s sure that his brain is fine because he “aced” a cognitive screening exam. These stories are not going to go away and the fire hose of distraction will continue its spray.
As Americans continue to heroically push back on baseless ICE raids and cruel, illegal cuts to federal programs, we all need to take time out for kids and recitals and the elf on the shelf. Celebrate. It’s important.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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