Friday will be a banner day for Very Civil People, who will insist you say nice things about the billionaire guy who funded denial of the climate crisis for decades in order to stuff even more cash in his pockets, then died while both the Amazon and the Arctic were on fire. Meanwhile, the same Greenland you've heard so much about this week lost 11 billion tons of ice in one day earlier this month. How many human beings bear more responsibility than the Kochs for imperiling the planet as a habitat for human civilization as we know it? Have a nice trip south, David.

Many of those same Very Civil People will express concern today about the Amazon—and with good reason, according to The Intercept: "Scientists warn that losing another fifth of Brazil’s rainforest will trigger the feedback loop known as dieback, in which the forest begins to dry out and burn in a cascading system collapse, beyond the reach of any subsequent human intervention or regret." Considering the Amazon produces 20 percent of the world's oxygen, and functions as a giant carbon sink, that sounds pretty bad!

Brazil and its authoritarian leader, who has an explicit program of exploiting the Amazon, deserve our attention. Jair Bolsonaro can fuck right off as well. But don't lose sight of what the authoritarian leader we call our very own was up to this week. It might be a banner day for people who think it's rude to tell the truth about the dead assholes who will miss the worst consequences of what they wrought on the world. But it's been a banner week for Donald Trump, American president, and his brain.

Just this morning, the president delivered a proclamation stating that, "Our great American companies are hereby ordered" to stop dealing with China (!). He also declared the chairman of the Federal Reserve, whom he himself appointed, was an enemy of the state.

But remember when the president endorsed the idea he is King of Israel and the Second Coming of God? And then he said Jewish people who vote for Democrats—that is, the 70-to-80 percent of American Jews who don't support him—are guilty of "disloyalty" to Israel? And then he accused Rashida Tlaib of anti-Semitism? And then he started screaming, "WHERE IS THE FEDERAL RESERVE?" And then he canceled a diplomatic trip to Denmark because the prime minister was rude in saying she wouldn't sell him Greenland? And then he demanded Russia be reinstated in the G8, and said they were only thrown out because they "outsmarted" Obama, when in fact it was because they'd invaded Ukraine? And then he declared he was The Chosen One, looking to the heavens as he said it, who'd been tapped by the almighty to launch a trade war against China?

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TRUMP: "The fake news, of which many of you are members, is trying to convince the public to have a recession. 'Let's have a recession!' ... I am the chosen one. Somebody had to do it. So I'm taking on China." pic.twitter.com/OHmXOzoO7I — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2019

And then he joked, again, about serving more than the constitutionally mandated two terms in office? And then he threatened to release detained ISIS fighters into Europe? And then he talked about how much the El Paso and Dayton shooting victims loved him? And then he responded to a question on gun control by saying, among other things, that, "We have great mental illness?" And then he trollishly suggested he'd revoke birthright citizenship—a constitutional mandate—via executive order?

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Trump says he's "very seriously" looking at trying to change the Constitution by executive order.



"We're looking at that very seriously -- birthright citizenship. Where you have a baby on our land ... 'congratulations the baby is now a US citizen' ... it's, frankly, ridiculous." pic.twitter.com/5IBNOcMXE9 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2019

It's here where you might insert the snipe about how Republicans shit their pants about Obama's executive orders, but what's even the point anymore? No one, except a few highly credulous media types, even entertains the pretense that the Republican Party is a group of principled actors who value small government or limits to executive power or fiscal responsibility anymore. It's about power, and Trump has it, so they're all in line behind him. Senator Tom Cotton, who's sniffing around the authoritarian throne for when Trump someday abdicates, actually tried to claim credit for the national embarrassment that was The Greenland Episode. Shame is dead.

It's all that much more alarming because, beyond the narcissistic spasms above, our fearless leader seems to be having trouble pronouncing even basic words.

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"Ubsurd," "Armed Forca," Appliculble," "Obstulcles" -- Trump had a hard time pronouncing a number of words on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/1HLRO1i5Xd — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2019

The brain is doing fuckin' swell. But no need to worry. While the world's most powerful man is thrashing about on the White House lawn, the same parasites who thrived in conservative politics during David Koch's Obama-era glory days are slithering through the Executive Branch. They're pursuing the same scorched-earth campaign of deregulation they always have—regardless of what scientists or other experts in the field have to say, and regardless of the consequences for human health—while a deranged Fox News Grandpa rants and raves through yet another ChopperTalk. And few of these people will have to deal with the worst consequences of it all. They'll be dead, like David.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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