Beware, beyond here there be rants (and darned fine use of thesaurus):

On Saturday night February 10, 2024, the presumed GOP presidential candidate spoke in South Carolina and suggested that Russia should just have their way with NATO nations who don’t pay their dues. (NATO nations don’t pay dues, though the NATO charter does suggest that each member nation allocate around 2% of their GDP to defense (some aren’t allocating that much of their budget)).

I’m not going to pull the actual quote and post it here. It’s not because I can’t find it. It’s not because I can’t take (literally) one minute to google the quote, copy the quote, paste the quote, proof the quote, and be sure that the quote is suitable to present. I’m not going to pull and post the quote because it doesn’t make any difference, so let me cite the quote in the style that the GOP presidential candidate has cited information for the last eight plus years: “Everybody knows it”.

Here is a quote that I will pull:

“Donald Trump is not a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, He doesn’t talk like a traditional politician, and we’ve already been through this. You would think people would’ve figured it out by now.” Marco Rubio, On CNN ‘State of the Union’, February 11, 2024. ( https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/11/politics/rubio-trump-nato-haley-husband-national-guard-cnntv/index.html )

No. Just no.

I’m tired of this. For the last 8 years we have had sycophants around our nation apologizing for an incorrigible, spoiled, preschooler, wearing a poorly kept up 77 year old body.

Seriously.

How many times do we need to hear a Trump acolyte tell us that what he says doesn’t matter? How many times do we need to shake our heads, and let out our collective breath while softly muttering “illiterate idiot”?

I have no snark left for this man and I have no patience left for his toadies who are more than ready to explain away cruel behavior, full frontal ignorance, and contempt for all who aren’t him.

Here are a few of the excuses given by his lickspittle legion:

“He’s not a politician. He doesn’t really mean everything that he says.” So we take his offensive language about Muslims, and “It will be wild” texts with a grain of salt until, as president, he tries to close the borders to all Muslims and shut down Congress.

“He’s a businessman. He doesn’t understand politics” after he has built up the biggest national deficit in the history of our nation.

“Mexico sends us their murderers and rapists” is explained away by his flunkies as simple misspeak, even though he has been corrected over and over again, and yet, he still says it over and over and over again.

“We will release the greatest (health plan, infrastructure plan, economic plan, etc.) in the next couple of weeks, until those couple of weeks have passed us by several times.

“The 2020 election was rigged”, he spouts to his kowtow followers, despite producing no tangible evidence, except for those who have been arrested in the plot to overturn a free, fair, election (including himself).

“As a businessman he understands the importance of being a job creator”, all the while he was the first president in generations to actually see an overall loss of jobs in his single term.

“We need to build a wall across our entire southern border”, and are told by his lackeys that “Well, he doesn’t mean a literal wall”, until he makes it clear that he means a literal wall. No electronics, no cameras. Just a whole lot of steel and concrete from sea to shining gulf. Oh, and Mexico will pay for it.

I have no attributions to the quotes listed above. They are a sort of composite of comments made through the years. I’m sure that If I took a little time I would be able to give attributes to every single quote listed above. But I’m tired of the nonsense. So, let’s assume the quotes are real until you can prove to us that it’s not. For right now, I’ll just cite it as “people have told me” (wow, that really does make it a lot easier).

Here are a few more unattributed statements (though I’m more than happy to take credit for them)-

We have a 77 year old traitor-insurrectionist, lying, rapist, who soils himself if he doesn’t get his way (one of these five character faults isn’t true. I’ll let you guess which one, but please feel free to spread all of them amongst yourselves).

We have a 77 year old man-child who is certain that 77 is dozens of years younger than the age of the current president who the man-child says is too old for the job. (Spoiler: They are actually less than 4 years apart in age)

We have a 77 year old snowflake who lashes out at anyone who speaks poorly of him, and promises that, when elected, he will punish all of his political enemies (heck, he may even execute a few of them).

We have a 77 year old former president of the United States who can’t present an extended idea without talking the danger of windmills (both for birds and whales), who can’t clearly express his thoughts, and depends on his minions not caring about what he says (covefe’ everyone!).

We have a 77 year old Excitable Boy, with sniveling Yes-Men who tell us to give him a pass because “he’s just an excitable boy” (I will cite my apologies to Warren Zevon for that last bit. If you don’t know the reference, just google it. I will say that it is a great tune from a wonderful album).

And, finally, I give you an actual quote, complete with attribution (wow, I feel better now):

“You have to pay. You have to pay your bills.” Donald Trump, February 10, 2024.

The sad irony is strong with this one…

(Special thanks to Oxford Languages thesaurus on Google)

Thus endeth the rant…