I did once catch my dad, when I was about 6, maybe, practising his Robert Mitchum expression in the mirror, cheeks sucked in, eyes half closed. He stopped pretty quickly, of course, and pretended he was checking a pimple on his nose, but I saw it, and I didn't forget. Very odd - after all these years it makes me laugh, but it was very odd.
There is something uncomfortably familiar about a photo I saw yesterday on the internet. What, in God's name, is this?
I guess this man is not actually weeping. More likely the picture is supposed to be intimidating. The teams of image manipulators and psychologists behind the throne have obviously decided this is The Look, and these are, let's face it, very clever people,
Fair enough. One way or another, I suppose I am impressed. I leave you to make up your own mind about this, and about what it is intended to achieve. Do you think the pedal-bin hair adds much to the overall impact?
There should be an upside down cross on that bible.
ReplyDeleteThe man knows his Bible - have you seen this interview on Bloomberg?
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERUngQUCsyE
Not yet. I’ll have to fortify myself with a surfeit of brandy before even contemplating it. Someone famous once said that when fascism came to America it’d be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. I think it has arrived.
DeleteWell it's unbelievable such a .............. words fail me is the President.
DeleteI doubt he's ever opened the book.
He's done more damage to America than any enemy could do
To be fair to the man (?), he may have been struggling with the tear gas - apparently they get a lot of that in Washington DC this time of year. How much fun would you say he's getting out of his job right now? I wonder what are the chances that he might spontaneously combust? - I would believe on the spot for a miracle like that.
DeleteI’ll save you the bother JBM so you can enjoy the brandy without the suffering to follow.
DeleteWiggy is asked which part of the Bible is his favourite. Does he have a favourite verse? He declines to offer an example on the grounds that it’s a personal thing, and presumably not at all because he knows nothing about the Bible. It does leave the little problem of why if it’s such a personal thing he deemed it OK to tell everyone he thinks the Bible is great in the first place.
The fact that the bible is wrong side up and showing the back cover spoils the effect (and being held by a moron)
ReplyDeleteA good point... how do we know it’s actually a bible?
DeleteThere are a number of variants of this photo around, so there must have been a serious photo-shoot. "No, Mr President, that's the wrong way up, no - no - yes that's better - and can you try to look a little more threatening, like you and God were plotting an apocalypse? - yes, that's better - could you button your fly?..."
DeleteSomeone, please help us!
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
Stokes - we are a bit busy sorting ourselves out at the moment. All the best, my friend. At least we won't have to wonder who will win the election in November, because there won't be one. Either the postal votes will be corrupted and unacceptable, or the Democrats will have fabricated a fake epidemic, or the failed Impeachment will cause a mysterious delay, or the wind will be blowing the wrong way, or the Russian phone number will be busy. It won't happen - like Franco, Stalin, Mugabe and a few others, el Trumpo is here to stay. He has redefined democracy. All hail.
DeleteWe live in 'interesting' times, but - if it provides any comfort at all - so has every other generation who ever lived!
ReplyDeleteH
Hugh - I guess that's true to an extent, but the US has never before deliberately elected someone who had no political skills, no talent for diplomacy, below average intelligence and zero integrity to be the President. That is just a little exceptional, I would say. No - no comfort - sorry.
DeleteI’m sure we’ve got one of those too, though less tidy.
DeleteI didn't think it would, but I thought I'd try! Objectively; we aren't in a much better place, I don't know if you've caught the speech Boris delivered to the UN recently, but it was scary in it's cod-intellectualism! He goes off on some tangent about Prometheus 9or someone?), while the leaders of the world either look rather bemused at what they are getting translated into their headphones, or laugh, as if Trump were talking....meanwhile, here at home we have 64,000+ deaths over & above the seasonal average, or which even the administration is admitting to 39k of! Scary.
DeleteH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=_qkLXExBU5Q&feature=emb_title
DeleteH
I think that he had trouble holding it .... because it kept burning his flesh.
ReplyDeleteAll the best. Aly
It is unbelievable - I spend so much time shaking my head that I am needing a neck massage.
DeleteHe admits he doesn't read. I suspect the expression is meant to convey "I can't find the 'on' switch on this thing. It must be broken."
ReplyDeleteHe may have been expecting the Quick Start-Up Guide rather than the full manual.
DeleteDT - The POTUS who has managed to put the US on level pegging with Russia, China and NK if asked the question 'which country do you trust least'
ReplyDeleteMaking America Grate, as it says on the hats. I am still wondering what the POTUS will turn our NHS into.
DeleteThe mans a complete arse, exactly the same as Boris!
ReplyDeleteHere here!
DeleteWell said Ray, that at least made me smile :)
DeleteI was slightly worried when he quoted 'Fire and Fury' the other year, and I know he was sent to a military academy as a boy - do you think he might have dabbled in our hobby? If so, probably not to be trusted with the tape measure when checking the range, and possibly given to turning the table over when losing..
ReplyDeleteIn-game chat snippet: "You are firing on me with your batteries on the hill? - you have no batteries on the hill - they are fake batteries. I am doing an absolutely brilliant job of running this game - I think the other players are not giving me sufficient adulation, so let's take 10 minutes while I talk about myself."
DeleteVery good! And I am sure we have all met such opponents.. Thing is, googling the 'Fire and Fury' quote gets me no further than articles saying 'Trump made it up himself' , but we know it's a set of ACW rules. Can anyone enlighten me as to the origin of the phrase - presumably from the 1860s - or is he an ACW Wargamer?
DeleteI think the "Fire and Fury" thing has been a bit overplayed now. It is potentially not so remarkable that the President managed an alliteration containing two words (though it would not be much of a challenge to add another F to the same quote). It is likely that he was quoting someone else, or he never said it all (what's the time, Mr Wolff?), or it was accidental, or was misheard - or even that no-one could actually give a tinker's cuss about the whole issue. The important point is that it was part of a world-class diplomacy clanger, when tweeted at the leader of North Korea (Tweedledee?). I would have thought that not even an idiot would do this - obviously I was mistaken.
DeleteDefinitely practicing his Tough Guy look. We're doing our best to pull the curtains and hope the neighbours think we're away on vacation.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that, even by the normal standards of elderly bags of lard, he still doesn't make it.
DeleteThe curtain ploy is good - go with it.
We all know that Donald Trump is nothing more than a ventriloquist's dummy, strung along by the so-called Deep State. It could be Joe Biden there, or Hillary Clinton - the faces change, and even the political hue as it is understood in the US - but the narrative would be the same, and so the game.
ReplyDeleteYou may not be able to see this outside the UK, but here is reassurance that he is not in fact an arse at all, but another Winston Churchill:
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-52915972/white-house-likens-trump-to-churchill-in-ww2
Like me, you may feel that Churchill had had other jobs and been an actual soldier, and was fighting something he could understand, but they were certainly both overweight.
Churchill the nodding dog off the insurance ads is more statesman-like.
DeleteAs for Dubya - not exactly a great example of leadership in a crisis. That draft dodger hid in a bunker for two days after 9/11.
At least DT had a good reason for being in the bunker. After all, inspecting bunkers is a very important and necessary part of his job.
DeleteVery true Rob - he owns quite a few bunkers over here in Scotland, so perhaps he'll visit soon, to inspect them? We'll look forward to it.
DeleteA bigly awesome post Tony, just terrific, everyone agrees all other blog-posts are total losers!
ReplyDeleteWhat, everyone?
DeleteWell, thank y'all, but we may have to fact-check that one.
DeleteI'd like to offer some observations as one who has watched this appalling spectacle at close range over the years (surely its decades?) of the Mad King's administration.
ReplyDeleteI read a fascinating article a while back by a journalist who traveled to Germany in the wake of WW2, to attempt to learn through interviews with educated professionals, how a democratic nation could sink so far, and permit so much. They spoke of how each day brought some new shock, some fresh outrage, until they reached a sort of punch-drunk numbness. I was astounded by how deeply that resonated.
Trump's actual supporters are a small minority of small minded people. The remainder of those who voted for him did so either because they hated Hillary Clinton, or were angry at the status quo, and were naive enough to believe that this "maverick outsider" could deliver even one of the positive changes he promised (or would even try). A key group that elected him were the 43% of eligible voters who were too disgusted or busy to fill out a ballot. But the votes that mattered most were cast in the Kremlin. And of course, despite all of that, he did not receive the majority of the popular vote.
For the majority of Americans, his time in office has been a tragic ordeal, that we struggle to endure with political humor. Doctors have seen "HUGE" increases in patients complaining of depression, anxiety, and insomnia, and that was before Covid-19!
I have disagreed with the positions of the Republican Party on many issues over the years, but I thought I understood them. But in this extremity, the Republican leadership have abandoned any shred of moral courage and formed ranks around him, out of what appears to be a contradictory mix of fearing the man, and believing he is simple-minded enough to be manipulated.
If anyone ever tries to tell you that one man cannot make a difference, assure them they are wrong. It will take America decades to repair the harm done to her democracy, and her reputation in the world by this single tiny man.
Joseph - thank you for taking the time to comment - I think this is a useful summary of where we have got to, though I have some private reservations about the "Kremlin vote" theories - since each side accuses the other of this, it smells a bit. I fear this is a "foreign bogey-man" story which is right out of Trump's Book of Logic (though, interestingly, there is also a theory that somehow the Martians are involved in our own UK government) - I guess the truth is that the US (and the UK) have done this to themselves. It would be unsound to suggest that all of Trump's followers are wingnuts, but it is probably nearer the truth to suggest that the vast majority of the wingnuts are followers of Trump. Whatever, my sympathies are with the US public - perhaps some lessons will be learned?
DeleteThis is clearly a Spitting Image construct.
ReplyDeleteFake News. Move on.
Because the planet I live cannot surely be this bad? Please?
I'm with you Matt - Amen.
DeleteMy initial reaction was to suggest Trumpy has probably never read the Bible; e.g. citing "Two Corinthians" instead of Second Corinthians which caused his audience at Liberty University (not a bastion of liberalism by any stretch) to snicker. But instead I'd rather raise the key question of the current day:
ReplyDeleteQ. What is the difference between Donald Trump and the von Hindenburg?
A. One is a flaming Nazi gasbag. The other is a dirigible.
Informationally yours,
Chris Johnson
Well played Chris - loved it!
DeleteI hope the protests calm down a bit, for everyone's sake, or their good message will get lost in the steam. All the best to everyone over there.
Late to the party, but this has to be one of the more appalling moments for man who has NO business occupying the office he does, and seems more determined to prove it with each passing day.
ReplyDeleteSad times, in so many ways. I was thinking briefly about his CV for the job.
DeleteOutstanding academic record - NO
Experience in local government - NO
State Governor - NO
Senator - NO
Congress - NO
Secretarial Role connected with White House - NO
Diplomatic Experience - NO
Managed a Major Business - YES - HAS NOT LOST ALL OF WHAT HE INHERITED FROM HIS FATHER
Host of Reality TV Show - YES
War Record - NO
Delivered Newspapers as a Kid - NO
[I got bored at this point - you probably got bored a while ago.]