Donald Trump, Hospitalized

Twitter induces headaches, but I can't look away.

The reactions to Donald Trump's hospitalization could have been written months in advance. A certain group expressed glee. A second group self-righteously chastised the first group for having expressed glee. ("When they go low...." etc.) A third group chastised the second group for being self-righteous, and the anti-self-righteousness platform began to take on its *own* self-righteous glow. ("My thoughts are with the service workers....")

I had two favorite responses to Trump's hospitalization.

One came from Michael Che, on "SNL." Che said, "It may not be MORALLY right to make a joke about this.....but this is like the classic example of a joke..." Che went on to give a brief and delightful speech about situational irony. This is when actions have an opposite effect from what is intended. A teacher fails her own test. The cobbler forgets to provide his own son with shoes. "You're giving a lecture about the uselessness of belts...and while you give this lecture.....your own pants fall down....."

The belts story is Che's--and it perfectly re-frames what happened to Trump this weekend. (Points, also, to Chris Rock: "Donald Trump has Covid....My thoughts and prayers are with Covid....")

My second-favorite response to the weekend.....Novelist Joyce Carol Oates, from her Olympian perch: "Loving your enemies is not a good idea if it encourages your enemies to behave badly....including behaving badly to innocent parties. There is much beauty in the idea of forgiving enemies....but society would collapse if there were no just punishment for real crimes....."

And the week begins....

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