Song of the Day 1/18: The Bee Gees, “Words”

Every MAGA accusation is a confession – why do you think they keep talking about mental health when we bring up gun violence? – which is why Fux News et al like to harp on Joe Biden’s mental acuity. It deflects from Donald’s.

Trump has long gotten a pass because he’s been a logorrheic rambler for decades. But I flagged signs of his slipping memory – I’m not a doctor, I can’t say definitively that it’s dementia – back when he first took office, citing an interview with Bob Woodward:

Well, I think Lincoln succeeded for numerous reasons. He was a man who was of great intelligence, which most presidents would be. But he was a man of great intelligence, but he was also a man that did something that was a very vital thing to do at that time. Ten years before or 20 years before, what he was doing would never have even been thought possible. So he did something that was a very important thing to do, and especially at that time.

This tendency to lose his train of thought has gotten progressively worse over the years, but, crucially, he’s not on TV nearly so much since he’s been out of office, so most people haven’t seen examples of the deterioration. But here’s a doozy from a speech last night in New Hampshire.

As a skilled carnival barker, Trump just switched to another mental tape as the brain skittered from one sound bite to another until one stuck. If Biden did it House mouthbreathers would invoke the 25th Amendment. But what do Trump’s supporters care? They’re only words, amirite?

The Bee Gees wrote and released this in early 1968, during their first run of popularity. It made it to No. 15 on the Hot 100, their fifth straight single to reach the top 20 in the U.S., but it didn’t appear on an LP until their 1969 greatest hits album. Though credited to all three brothers, it was written mainly by Barry after a fight with the group’s manager and svengali, Robert Stigwood.