Herd mentality

Most people made up their minds about Trump on January 21, 2017, when Sean Spicer announced that the sparse crowd on the Mall the day before was "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period."  Twenty-four hours later Kellyanne Conway declared Spicer's obvious lie to be an "alternative fact."  We knew what we were in for.  Incredibly, after nearly four years of this (not counting the preceding four decades or so), there were still enough Pennsylvanians undecided about Trump to fill a studio for what ABC billed as a "Town Hall" last night.  And not all of them were amnesiacs or idiots.

After George Stephanopoulos asked some questions and mostly gave Trump a pass on his incoherent and dishonest answers, Nemesis arose in the person of Ellesia Blaque, a professor of English at Kutztown  University.  She had a question about the Affordable Care Act and pre-existing conditions because she was born with sarcoidosis and is considered uninsurable.  To his credit, Trump did not rage or mock her like some Yamiche Alcindor or April Ryan, but he did interrupt, prompting Dr. Blaque to say, "Please stop and let me finish my question, sir."  No one has ever said that.  When she was done he recited the usual crap about "doing a healthcare plan very strongly," the same one he's been promising since 2017, and protecting pre-existing conditions, even as his lawyers argue in the Supreme Court for destroying the ACA.  Undecided no more, Dr. Blaque says she's sidin' with Biden.
I anticipate no more "town halls" where just anybody without a MAGA hat can walk in off the street, or as Laura Ingraham calls it, an "ambush."  No doubt Trump yelled all the way home about the "fucking idiot" who set that up (Jared?).

I hope I can find this on YouTube because it sounds like the funniest ABC show since the first season of Modern Family.  Trump blamed Biden for failing to order a "national mandate on masks" in his official capacity as former vice-president, and told a puzzling anecdote about seeing a waiter touch his mask (has he eaten in a restaurant this year?).  Again he promised the magic vaccine which is hardly even needed because we will all develop something he calls "herd mentality."  (Was it Keats who wrote "Herd mentality is sweet, but unherd mentality is so great you can't believe it"?)   Then he recited the Churchill story that went over so well at the virus rally and proved he loves the suckers troops:   "You know, I go to Dover and I greet, oftentimes, soldiers coming in, and they're dead."  Oftentimes?  If it happened even once I think the Lying Media would have covered it.  He claimed responsibility for the Veterans Choice Act, which he signed in 2014 using the clever pseudonym "Barack Obama."  He attacked John Bolton, currently being investigated by the Barr Department (let's retire the word "justice" for now).  He attacked James Mattis ("a highly overrated general...he didn't do good on ISIS").  He attacked John McCain just for the hell of it.  Stephanopoulos never observed that the "best people" Trump continually hires either quit or get indicted, so I will.

Yeah, I have a question.  Millions of low-information Americans, you know, your people, have created small epidemics of measles and other childhood diseases, easily preventable diseases, because they believe bullshit about the vaccines.  Vaccines which have been in use for decades.  Why should they rush to get a covid-19 shot when corners are obviously being cut with the consent of the  highly politicized -- shut up, Donzo, I'm talking -- highly politicized FDA and CDC?  Now you can babble.

Yeah, me again.  We all know you're a yuge fan of the Second Amendment, but do you know about the Fifth?  Basically it says you have a right not to incriminate yourself by talking to a writer with a tape recorder.  Did you think your charm would work on the guy who helped bring down Nixon, or are you just incredibly stupid?  And why would you bother to lie about reading Woodward's book when everyone knows you have never read anything longer than a menu?  With pictures.

Over here.  Boris Johnson may be your biggest fan who isn't actually a dictator, and he's in so far over his head they have to lower his lunch to him in a basket.  Seriously, he's even being compared unfavorably to Ed Milliband.  Not surprisingly, he also thinks he's the reincarnation of Churchill.  Why don't the two of you just knock it off?  Racism and obesity aside, there's just no resemblance there.  Millions of Americans are dangerously ignorant about the twentieth century, but millions of us are not, so zip it.

Just one more thing, Trumbert Trumbert.  If you're going to accuse Biden of pedophilia, know that we have pictures like this:




And so does Putin.