Tuesday, October 24, 2017

It Fits



Donald Trump, Roger Cohen writes, likes to use epithets. During his campaign for the presidency, he coined several: "crooked Hillary," "lying Ted," "little Marco." His latest is directed at a Florida congress woman -- "wacky congress woman" Frederica Wilson. Cohen suggests that Trump's current spat with John McCain has generated an epithet which fits Trump like a glove -- "bone spur bozo:"

I’d like to suggest “bone-spur bozo” for the president, referring, of course, to the five military draft deferments Trump received during the Vietnam War, one of which was a medical deferment for bone spurs in his feet. (They never apparently affected his life, or golf swing, thereafter).

Repetition is part of Trump’s arsenal. The bone-spur bozo residing in the Oval Office, surrounded by terrified sycophants, has sinister talents. Turning the solemn rites of loss in the line of military duty into a squalid, race-tinged scandal is some achievement.

McCain recently reminded Americans just how unjust the draft was during the Vietnam War. He told an interviewer on C-SPAN: "We drafted the lowest income level of America, and the highest income level found a doctor that would say they had a bone spur."

 And consider all the nasty things Trump has said about McCain:

Trump has called McCain a “dummy.” He has called McCain a loser. He has said McCain was no hero because he was captured in war. The president warned McCain this month that, “I’m being very, very nice. But at some point I fight back, and it won’t be pretty.”

He has threatened to rain down "fire and fury" on North Korea and he has decertified the Iran nuclear deal.

Bone Spur Bozo. It fits.

Image: imgarcade

12 comments:

Toby said...

Trump makes so many threats that it is tempting to believe that he is only hot air. It is quite worrisome that he might actually decide to rain "fire and fury" on someone.

Owen Gray said...

Fareed Zakaria maintains, Toby, that Trump hasn't mastered the Art of the Deal. He's got to where he is because he's the King of the Bluff. The problem is that his kingdom is real estate. He hasn't figured out yet that he is in a brave new world, where the bluff doesn't work the way it used to.

the salamander said...

.. I'm sticking with 'President Pathetic' for now.. thanks..
Kinda works for the entire political scene down there ..
.. pathetic ..

Owen Gray said...

It's hard to be both idealistic and optimistic these days, salamander.

Steve said...

It fits but shoot the messenger. Everything wrong with America is wearing a Mc face.

Owen Gray said...

It's journalism -- good journalism -- which is getting to the bottom of who and what Trump is, Steve. It's Trump who wants to shoot the messenger.

Kim said...

May I just say that I have stopped reading many eastern blogs because you all seem so satisfied with Trudeau that you stopped writing and critiquing gov.ca. You ignored turmoil in BC and an election here. It does seem like we don't exist in your centric universe. There is about to be a war in the woods and on the ocean here and you couldn't give a damn.

Yes, Trump is horrible, but we still have Canadian issues.

*end rant*

Steve said...

I allege that John Mcain is the force behind most of America Military Industrial Complex triumphs. Its alleged that he was hot dogging and blew up an aircraft carrier. His military carreer was spotty to say the least.

From Iran Contra which has been brilliantly mocked in the new movie Made in America, to the over through of the elected goverment in Ukraine, John Mcain at the very least was a cheerleader.

When GWB hero of the Texas airwar against Vietnam, was swift boating John Kerry who was the mastermind?

His role in the infamous dossier is not looking kosher. Oh yeah turns out it was bought and paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign. Dont worry any investigation will prove it was over zealous incompetent volunteer staffers.

What ever happened to the woman who created the infamous butterfly ballots?

Chicken Hawks have been with us forever. One of the biggest is Rush. This kind of hypocracy is universal. In Korea where death from above is part of daily life, guess who avoids military service. Same goes for Israeli.

Owen Gray said...

That explains why I haven't heard from you in awhile, Kim. If you read Politics and Its Discontents and you go back a few posts in this blog, you'll see that some of us are losing faith in Mr. Trudeau. I've written three posts recently on Mr. Morneau's situation. And I've also written about Trudeau's failure to initiate electoral reform. The faces change but the agenda stays the same.

When I read The Disaffected Lib and some western commenters here, I get the impression that lots of BCers are unhappy.

Owen Gray said...

The North Vietnamese gave McCain a demonstrably hard time in Hanoi, Steve. He experienced what Dick Cheney called "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- something Trump says he supports. I was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina when the United States had 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Everyone on campus knew that the best way to defer your status was to go to graduate school or divinity school -- and that there were lots of ghetto kids who would never have that option.

Kerry went to Yale and Vietnam and received a purple heart. He knew how unfair things were. So did a vet I met on campus. He'd been a machine gunner on a Hughie helicopter. He echoed what Kerry said.

I disagree with McCain about many things. But I don't doubt his integrity.

Steve said...

Shirley your not serious when you say that man has any integrity. He and Lindsay have been the cheerleaders of stupidity for a generation,

Owen Gray said...

I'm absolutely serious, Steve. And, and Leslie Neilson famously said, don't call me Shirley.