He's out of his gourd, you know

We generally ignore the increasingly addled pronouncements of The Criminal, since literally all of this nation's news media from left, right, and center are all devoted to bringing you every last spittle-flecked word of it every day, all the time, but Donald Trump's "Christmas" messages are such a perfect example of the whole that it's worth delving into.

I'll tell you right off the bat: I just don't see how the man's staff props him up through an entire 4-year term. I don't see it happening. He is too inconsistent, too incoherent, too rage-filled, too mired in his own delusions for even the best aides to handle, and Trump has emphatically not surrounded himself with anything close to the "best" aides. There's talk Melania won't be joining him in the White House this time around. His daughter Ivanka, who was widely described as one of the few calming presences able to talk Donald down from his worst instincts and mental twitches, has largely abandoned him. There will be no Jared Kushner this time around.

The man is alone. The man is worse than alone; he now has Don Jr. attached to him. In place of Kushner he has the white nationalist-backing manipulator Elon Musk. And the theme of Trump's second term, for however long it lasts, is less likely to be focused on American "greatness" than it is to be one long exercise in elder abuse.

The man isn't right in the head. I'm not a doctor, but I know what the onset of dementia looks like and this man is already in it up to his hips. I don't know how dementia interacts with decompensating narcissism, and God help you if you do, but I suspect we're all going to get a big, greasy taste of it real soon now.

On that note: The Criminal's "Christmas" messages.

You don't have to read these. They just need to be kept around for posterity— as medical record, if nothing else. The Donald Trump that careened through various scandals, crimes, and near-crimes before the man's reelection loss broke him does not exist, at this point. The new version is something else. We can debate what, but it's plainly obvious the man is out of his gourd. No link to Truth Social, because screw him.

Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in “repair” money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about “anything.” Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World. Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the U.S. to be there, and we will!…

Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics, who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections, and are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the United States but, in particular, their Political Opponent, ME. They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing. Also, to the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden. I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky “souls” but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL! We had the Greatest Election in the History of our Country, a bright light is now shining over the U.S.A. and, in 26 days, we will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ah. I see.

Now, because our national political press is made up almost entirely of incompetent blunderers who believe their jobs to begin and end with Quoting What Some Asshole Said, there was precious little analysis of these supposed "Christmas" greetings; instead, sites like Axios slapped on headlines like "Trump and Biden share contrasting holiday messages"—headlines carefully tailored to bring you absolutely no news at all, by God, not if we have to blandify it all into the worst sort of headline slurry to dodge the task. "Trump and Biden share contrasting holiday messages" is the title you get when you're trying to hide news rather than admitting to it happening.

To actually read The Criminal's "Christmas" declarations, however, is to be confronted with the rantings of an emmeffer who is, to repeat, clearly out of his already-shattered gourd. The man is nothing but a ball of angry, random obsessions. As usual, it is all nearly in code, it is so distant from the world the rest of us are living in.

A better headline might be "Trump threatens American citizens and international allies in deluded Christmas ramblings"—but no. No, can't have that. The press made damn sure nobody in America would catch on to what Trump was actually promising through a whole year of campaigning, they're sure as hell not going to start now.

We'll skip with the Panama bit and single out Trump's apparent new interest in, ahem, annexing Canada.

Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World.

Who ... who the hell is this bizarre word-burp meant for? Is The Criminal of the opinion that Canadians want to shutter their government and become "our 51st State?" Is this his pitch? Does he have any actual interest in whether Canadians support this plan? Is this all just a decade-old grudge over Melania giving Trudeau doe-eyes during their first meeting? And the entire population of Canada only rates one new state, eh?

In any vaguely normal world this one sentence from a soon-to-be president would be considered a nasty diplomatic incident, and the only reason the press isn't taking it to be that is because it's widely understood that Donald Trump Is Mentally Ill and cannot control the words coming from his mouth and/or thumbs.

They all know it. We all know it. It is why Trump gets a pass for even violent attempted coup: He is too incompetent, too mentally incapacitated, and too mired in delusion to know any better. Perhaps it is the onset of dementia. Perhaps it is decompensation and narcissism. Perhaps the man has a swelling can of expired beans where his brain should be. It is, however, commonly accepted press wisdom: The man is too mentally ill to be judged by his own proclamations.

But when a past or future United States President proposes that some other nation be erased so that its citizens can enjoy the pageantry of life under Dear Leader, aka Himself, that is generally news right there. And it would be, if our national press did not already understand The Criminal to be mentally ill and not responsible for the bulk of his own words. I don't need to prove the statement, because it proves itself. Are journalists treating Trump's new string of international threats as news? No? There you go.

But it's going to come up. Trump has no aides around him who can cover for him this time—only sycophants, fellow criminals, and enablers.

Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the U.S. to be there, and we will!

The next Merry Christmas consists of a renewed threat to capture Greenland. Completeness requires us to note that Greenland's residents do not want the U.S. to be there, so Trump has already once again publicly proved himself to be delusional, something the New York Times and other dens of alleged journalism would be all over if any non-fascist non-Republican non-lunatic piped up with it.

It is not normal for any world leader to threaten a takeover of some other nation or territory as part of their holiday well-wishes. We generally consider such statements to be hostile; the "and we will" part can plausibly be taken by Denmark as a threat, and things would begin to get dicey very fast if, again, everyone involved didn't already understand that Trump probably has dementia and probably doesn't know what he's saying most of the time.

But it's still going to be dicey, because Trump has no aides who can or will block his delusions from being acted on. On the contrary, The Criminal has surrounded himself with a very large number of proudly pro-seditionist, pro-treason, pro-crime professional shiteaters whose livelihoods are dependent on the notion that Dear Leader makes no mistakes and can do no wrong, even when it quite obviously has or is.

So let's suppose Trump pipes up with these same sentiments next February, as ostensible "president." Let's suppose that The Criminal orders a partial military occupation of Greenland as a show of resolve, because eff us all, this is our lives now:

Does the military obey that order?

What do Trump's fascist enablers do to the military leaders who refuse?

Presuming his fascist enablers and Don Jr. egg him on, just how far down the chain of command do they need to get before they find military leaders willing to go along with this bizarre international crime—commanders who are not themselves quickly tied up and put into a sack by their own unwilling subordinates?

It's not an idle question. The Criminal is premising his desire to annex Greenland (???) on a supposed "National Security" need, a dodgy little statement that has become presidential shorthand for going around Congress to start new wars on personal presidential say-so. Trump could well believe that Greenland contains vast, rich deposits of fossilized leprechaun bones that must be acquired by the United States at all costs; if there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that Senate buffoons like Tom Cotton will scurry to write op-eds demanding Trump capture the leprechaun bones as strategic military asset, because they have already proven themselves to be exactly that craven. Trump aides will rush to produce PowerPoint slides showing that Denmark has been allegedly refining leprechaun bones in an increasingly sophisticated series of centrifuges—again, an already tested tactic—and no matter how stupid we out here recognize Trump's addled ramblings about needing to secure the leprechaun bones to be, Republicanism has now been reconstructed to sell the man's every burp and fart as something unassailable or even holy. Republicans will back Trump up on his insistence that his administration needs to capture Greenland, rather than admitting the man's straw has fallen out of his milkshake.

What happens then? We're going to find out, because the man has lost the inhibitions that Ivanka and his other handlers once managed to at least keep pinned to his coat. Now it's all violence, all vengeance, all the time.

Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics, who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections, and are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the United States but, in particular, their Political Opponent, ME. They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing.

"Survival" is a loaded word there, and the supposition that The Criminal's political opponents can only "survive" by "getting pardons" again shows The Criminal's sincerity in believing his enemies are about to be rounded up by his aides and their goon squads.

This is either very dire news for the republic, something that truly disqualifies from office and something he ought to be impeached for on day one if we were still a functional democracy, or it is just another demonstration of Trump's worsening mental illness; he truly does not understand anything about the nation he will once again supposedly be tasked with running.

His aides, though, are busy assembling their goon squads anyway. They do not have dementia; they are simply attempting to complete the coup attempt he started.

Whether it is a rush headlong into fascism or the ramblings of an abused elderly man is irrelevant, though, if you're willing to bundle it all in a "Trump and Biden share contrasting holiday messages" and pretend it is irrelevant.

The criminal had a number of other things to say, all vaguely premised around Merry Christmasing his way through this and that according to whatever neuron one of his brainworms happened to take a bite of. But the bulk of it was threats, pouting, and a new obsession with capturing whatever parts of North America have pissed him off lately.

Again, that's something new. He once mused idly about buying Greenland; now, a few consequential years later, it's rapidly becoming an obsession.

We don't know why Trump's latest fixation is on imperialist expansion, or more specifically with an American version of Lebensraum, the Nazi program to provide the nation with "living space" by invading other nations and simply taking it. We can only guess at it. It's possible that one of his new advisers is obsessed with the idea and The Criminal, who is so obviously teetering on the brink of dementia as to make his every speech and decree a pitched battle between past memories and new incoherences, seized on the idea as his own through the usual repetition. Perhaps he saw it on his television set. Perhaps one of his friends said it teasingly, as a joke, and Trump no longer has the mental ability to discern the real from the satiric.

But not a bit of this is normal, and not a bit of this is acceptable, not even if our billionaire-owned press is under explicit orders to pretend it is so that each billionaire's government contracts are left unthreatened. We can either assume that Donald Trump is an immediate threat to world peace and to domestic freedoms—or we can assume he is genuinely mentally ill, with little awareness about what he's ranting about and incapable of self-policing.

To his aides, it won't matter. But it's going to matter.

Again: I don't see how this obviously impaired bag of grievance manages to make it through a full four year term. He has been visibly unwell for the last year; it got worse the longer the campaign dragged on, and worse still when it ended. His only remaining allies either mean him harm or are indifferent to whether harm comes to him, so long as they get what they want out of him. There are going to be a great many people trying to use Trump, now that he has isolated himself from the family members and once-friends who could not stomach the violence of his attempted coup, and they will be successful; every cult indoctrination relies on cutting victims off from anyone who can tell them they are being scammed, and Trump has done it to himself willingly and with malice.

None of us know how this ends, but there are many, many outcomes somewhere between "Trump successfully overthrows democracy, imprisons political foes, invades most of North America" and "Trump declared clinically batshit, removed from office." Many of those outcomes are bloodier than either of those two edge cases, and all of them are more likely because there are a great many people in Trump's camp who see his second coming as a chance to achieve their every masturbatory dream.

But he's clearly not well, and he's clearly much, much less coherent and capable than he was back when he was voted out of office the first time. That's not even open for debate. The only question is the extent to which his advisers can prop him up, and what course of action they decide on when they no longer plausibly can.