zbouillabiase: Political Natterings

I haven't posted anything in a long time and I don't have anything particular cogent to say, although I've seen a few interesting pieces of political news recently.

First, the New York Times and other major media outlets reported that a parasitic worm ate a portion of RFK Jr.'s brain and then died there.  Lest you assert "this is lamestream media bias against the antivaxx crowd!!" I direct you to the portion of the article that quotes deposition testimony given by RFK Jr. in which he said that doctors determined than an abnormality seen in his brain scan "was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died."  More succinctly, he testified under oath that he had a dead worm in his brain.  He further testified "I have cognitive problems, clearly," and "I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me."  In response to the article, RFK Jr. twat (xeeted?) "I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate."  So he admits the whole worm thing.  And he had mercury poisoning too, which also doesn't bode well for his overall health or his cognition.

Apparently you get worms in your brain by eating undercooked pork, which can carry tapeworms.  Typically the tapeworm larvae wind up in your intestines but sometimes they get lost and wind up in your brain.

Once there, they eat your brain but I guess that isn't what they're supposed to nosh on so they die and your body naturally walls them off, forming cysts.  Like this.

Just to be clear, you don't want that.  All this tapeworm talk reminds me of Irvine Welsh's novel Filth which is partially narrated by the main character's tapeworm.  I've been reading more of his stuff lately (once I get used to reading in a Scottish accent I keep going so I don't have to reacclimatize) and it's all good.  My two favorite recent passages are "I was differently made: at his age I had testicles as vicious and hairy as the heads of two ferrets" (from Dead Men's Trousers) and "Terry gave thanks for all those years of excessive beer-drinking and takeaways.  Without them he would have fallen to certain death.  A lesser man, body honed on exercise and diet rather than sloth, indolence and abuse would be dead by now, he reflected.  A lesser man." (from Glue).

Second, Donald Trump is running his reelection campaign like a goddamned gangster.  And I don't mean "gangster" euphemistically, I mean it literally.  He has family all over "this thing of ours."  First he installed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair of the RNC.  This makes it easier for him to divert super PAC money to his pay legal bills.  Second, he plans on making Uday and Qusay Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump "loyalty czars" in his next administration.  This means he will only appoint and hire people who pledge complete fealty to DJ Trump.  Third, he got 18-year-old Barron Trump named as an at-large delegate for Florida in the Republican national convention.  

What do all of these people have in common?  They're family, which means they will always be loyal.  You can never lose your family.

Finally, Trump's Veepstakes competition is well underway.  All sorts of seemingly important people are willing to debase themselves on national television for a shot at being on the ticket.  Kristi Noem shot her way out of contention, but there's still plenty of chatter around JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Doug Burgum, and Tim Scott.  Like I said in 2016, "he's running his campaign on some next-level reality TV competition three-steps-ahead shit."  So it won't be any of those jackals.

Trump needs to win this thing to stay out of jail, and he needs to stay in office for the full four years so he can run again in 2028.  There's only one way out of office once he's in (assuming the Big Macs don't get him in his sleep).  He's clearly unimpeachable--he literally staged a coup and suffered no consequences in the Senate.  All he has to worry about is section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which says in part:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

The key here is that the 25th Amendment can only be triggered if the VP signs on.  In order to boot the Prez, you need the Veep.  There is absolutely positively no fucking way in hell that Donald Trump is going to give anyone the opportunity to shiv him in the back unless that person is a rock-solid reliable supplicant.  And that has to be family.  Maybe Tomax or Xamot Junior or Eric, but they're both morons and The Don knows it.  I think that means Ivanka, Jared, or Kimberly Guilfoyle.  

You're probably saying "No way! No one go for want this!" to which I reply "Oh really?"  Think about all the shit DJ Trump pulled over the past 77 years.  You think the people who are willing to tolerate that won't tolerate some nepotism on the bottom of the ticket?

via GIPHY

You don't think DJT would love to roll out "TRUMP/TRUMP" campaign signs?

You heard it here first.  Trump/Trump or Trump/Guilfoyle 2024.