The two main words in the title are new to some as they seemingly didn’t exist before they were “discovered” by Donald Trump. He declared them to be beautiful words and thus they became part of the lexicon of American life. These words were certainly unfamiliar to King Trump as it is doubtful he ever set foot in a grocery store before he needed to pose in one for a photo op. Trump even explained his newfound word to the United Arab Emirates president saying, "We have a term 'groceries.' It's an old term but it means basically what you're buying, food, it's a pretty accurate term but it's an old-fashioned sound but groceries are down, costs are down, eggs are down..."
After finding his new beautiful word “groceries” and getting the desired interested but incredulous stares from his audience, he later mused, "Likewise, an old-fashioned term that we use -- groceries. I used it on the campaign— It's such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It sort of says 'a bag with different things in it.' Groceries went through the roof and I campaigned on that, I talked about the word groceries for a lot." Like a kid with a new toy, his new word got much attention.
Trump’s musing about “groceries” was like he had just triggered a sensory perception of something from his childhood. It would be like Marcel Proust’s novel, In Search of Time, where the taste of a madeleine cake dipped in tea triggers a powerful memory. Groceries in this moment were his Proust madeleine. Perhaps he envisioned one of his father’s servants returning from one of those “grocery places” with paper sacks filled with treats for him.
Oh, to be a “fantastic voyager” like those in the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage who were miniaturized and traveled inside a scientist’s bloodstream. Oh, if only we could see what is happening inside that self-described big, beautiful brain of his. Words like “groceries” and “affordability” would be floating around like ghosts waiting to be discovered by their master.
Another of his discoveries is the word affordability. This too would be a foreign term for a billionaire born with a gold spoon in his mouth who eats off the finest china and defecates in a gold toilet. He recently said of his fellow Republicans, “You know, they have this new word called ‘affordability’ and they don’t talk about it enough.”
The term affordable is foreign because, to him, everything is affordable. Take his new White House ballroom. It is especially affordable when you don’t pay your contractors. Trump learned this early on in his days in New York real estate. Don’t pay and everything is affordable.
Hearing that people are complaining that things aren’t as “affordable” as he has been claiming, he tells them on November 6, “Every price is down.” He brings up the example of a Thanksgiving dinner at Walmart being less expensive while failing to point out that it is only less expensive because the dinner is smaller than the previous year and now uses generic Walmart items instead of name brands. He claims that gas prices are down to $3 a gallon now. That may be true, but gas was at $3.08 in January when he took office, hardly cause for celebration.
Don’t tell Trump, but utility costs have jumped 12% in the past year. Grocery prices have risen 3% with meat prices up 8% and coffee is up 19%. If you are a CEO billionaire whose income who has seen triple digit percentage increases, this is not a problem. If you are a full-time worker living paycheck to paycheck on wages that haven’t had a raise since 2009, problem.
Affordable is a relative term. If you and your relatives have always been wealthy, the word affordable is not in your vocabulary. Likewise, if you are poor, the term affordable has an entirely different meaning with consequences.
In a typo-ridden social media post during the recent November election Trump stated, “If affordability is you issue, VOTE REPUBLICAN! Energy costs, as and example, are plummeting - Getting close to 2 Dollar a gallon gasoline. When energy goes down, everything else follows, and it has!!!”
When all else fails, lie. As stated earlier, the national average cost of gas per gallon is $3.08. A month ago it was $3.13. A year ago at this time it was nearly $3.11. If you spend your earthbound travel time in the backseat of a limo, the price of gas is as affordable as a bag of groceries. Remember, the word groceries means, 'a bag with different things in it.' So says our "very stable genius" who claims to have aced his cognitive test for dementia.
No comments:
Post a Comment