July 9, 2024

Biden, barring unforeseen events, will be the nominee. He may have a few small warts, but I'll stop quibbling about them. Trump, by contrast, is a bleeding boil beloved by a  boisterous band of brigands. Biden can craft a scapel sharp strategy to pierce the boil that is Trump. By Hal Brown, MSW

 

A Medical Metaphor

The only way to effectively deal with an bad boil is to get rid of its core. Assume Trump is the boil that Biden has to get rid of. (The following information is from the website Healthline.)

 As a boil matures, it grows larger, and its center fills with pus. This pus-filled center is called the core. Eventually, the boil comes to a head, meaning a yellow-white tip develops on top of the core. The recommended way to properly and safely get the core out of a boil is by having it opened by a medical professional. This is called lancing the boil.

Continuing on with the metaphor: Trump is the boil and Biden is the medical professional....

These are the first four steps Biden will have to accomplish:

  1. First, Biden could treat the area around the boil, Trump, with antiseptic. This is optional since we really don't care if Trump gets an infection, but Biden is kind so he'd probably to this. Besides, being nice to Trump before he sticks the lance in can get him to lower his guard.
  2. Before Biden makes a cut, he'd numb the area around the boil, aka Trump. This is important since he wouldn't want Trump to get his guard up. The safer he feels the better. In fact, it's best he feels over-confident. This would be like a sneak attack. Biden would want to make the cut before Trump even knew he'd been cut. 
  3. Then Biden would open the boil Trump by making an incision with a sharp instrument, such as a needle, lancet, or scalpel. This technique is also known as lancing.
  4. Biden would drain the Trump pus through the surgical incision. Additional incisions over time would be necessary because Trump is, like I wrote is a boil of Brobdingnagian proportions. Once this is accomplished even though Trump would deny he smells like a cesspool pus often has a foul oder. In Trump's case it would stink to high Heaven. Enough voters hopefully would eventually smell it and be turned off and see him for what he's aways been.

Following this procedure for a real boil the doctor would clean the cavity by irrigating, or flushing, it with sterile saline solution and dress the area. There's no reason for Biden to do this. Trump would go back to Mar-a-Lago and try to rage tweet any the infection until his next encounter with Biden when he goes under the the 81 year old surgeon's scapel again.

The more often this happens the more unbalanced Trump will be. Because he's a grandiose narcissist he will keep denying Biden has bested him. Underestimating the strength of one's opponent whether in actual warfare or poltical combat is a recipe for defeat.

More unsolicited advice for Biden:

Stop saying "here's the deal."

Stop using the lame "I may look 40" joke.

Use a good joke only once. Let social media do the work to spread it. For example ""My name is Joe Biden — I work for Kamala Harris" was a pretty good joke he used but I think "My name is Joe Biden — some people say I work for Kamala Harris" is better.

Self-effacing humor is the most effective especially in contrast with Trump who is incabable of making fun of himself.

These are adapted from the Reader's Digest:

Now that I’ve gotten older, everything’s finally starting to click for me. My knees, my back, my neck …

 I called the incontinence hotline recently. They asked if I could hold.

You know you’re getting old when your birthday cake is a fire hazard.

I know I'm getting old because my doctor referred me to an archaeologist.

Aging gracefully is a nice way of saying I'm slowly looking worse.

There's nothing wrong with stealing a joke as long as he gives credit. For example:

"I'm at an age when my back goes out more than I do." — Phyllis Diller

"You know you're getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It's like, 'See if you can blow this out." — Jerry Seinfeld

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." — Mark Twain

"You know you're getting older when you're told to slow down by your doctor, instead of by the police." — Joan Rivers

"You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake." — Bob Hope

"I'm very pleased to be here. Let's face it, at my age I'm very pleased to be anywhere." — George Burns

Addendum:

If you have 17 minutes I recommend watching this Jon Stewart segment. 

This is what Jacques Berlinerblau, MSNBC Columnist and Georgetown University professor wrote about Jon Stewart's take on Biden running: Jon Stewart’s ‘told you so’ about Biden was the scolding we needed.

Biden has lost the NY Times and now he's lost Jon Stewart for the same reasons.  He's lost Bill Maher too. He's lost Michael Moore. He's going to be our candidate regardless of what celebrities say. Well, probably, I keep going back and forth on this. I rather doubt he'd watch the Stewart segment or pay attention to what Bill Maher or Michael Moore says but if he was more self-critical and self-aware he would. He's probably going to be our candidate regardless. Well, probably, I keep going back and forth on this. I rather doubt he'd watch the Stewart segment or pay attention to what Bill Maher says but if he was more self-critical and self-aware he would. 

I will be like all of his supporters and have to overlook his senior moments (in what I write unless there's a drastic decline) and stop pushing in my own small way for him to step down and hope his "senior moments" don't represent a clinical slide into dementia. All that has to happen is for him to win and then if he was unable to serve Kamala Harris would become presdient. I would hope he wouldn't deny his dysfunction (and he might) which would lead to the 25th Amendment being invoked.

I figure he's one major cognitive slip away from having to step down or an accumulation of minor slips like his reading the speaking instructions off the teleprompter: he accidentally said "end of quote, repeat the line" as he finished a sentence. (see article). I don't know how serious a cognitive slip would have to be to derail his candidacy. Perhaps introducing a well known person by the wrong name. What would happen if Taylor Swift decided to endorse him in person and he called her to the podium and then called her Beyoncé? 

If he froze for what would seem to viewers like an interminable seeming 10 or 15 seconds with a blank look on his face in the middle of sentence as he lost track of what he wanted to say that might be the major manifestion of a cognitive disconnect that would end his candidacy. How bad it was would be magnified if he then could pick up on his original train of thought.

You can read this and previous blogs on two websites and on Substack. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.

Read on the WordPress Stressline.org (you can subscrbe to this on the upper left)

or….

Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section which makes it easy to post links and images.

or… Hal’s Substack where you can sing up to get an email when I post a new blog.

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