Joe Biden, who thinks he understands what America wants from its presidential candidates, said at high school he'd have taken Trump out back and "beat the hell" out of him for the things he's done to women. Trump retorted on Twitter: Biden "would go down fast and hard, crying all the way"

"Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn't know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don't threaten people Joe!"

Cue all the "is this reality?" quips, again. The reality is that violent talk is not only this pig's favorite mud, he smashes any careful framing ("at high school") that idiots like Biden try to contain it with. This way, violence becomes an imminent spectacle, full of potential, a perfect reinforcement to Trump's image of himself. As Jeet Heer wrote, the traditional literary place to flee from this sort of mess is Gibbon, but the parallels between the Roman and American republics leave little space for escapism.