ABSURDARAMA!

Tales of the Absurd in this Mad, Mad World

Trump appoints elephant to Supreme Court

During the reign of Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41 A.D.), according to myth and legend, the Emperor appointed his favorite horse, Incitatus, to be Consul and preside over the Senate. The Senate, at the time, was among other things a kind of a Supreme Court that could review criminal and other court decisions. Historians, however, cast doubt on the idea that Incitatus was ever actually appointed Consul.

But for President Donald Trump, these subtleties of historical fact were of little interest.

On September 22, 2020, it had become clear that Senate Republicans comprising a majority of the Senate would vote for President Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, whoever that nominee might turn out to be.

As noted, according to legend, the Emperor Caligula appointed his favorite horse, Incitatus, to be Consul, and to lead the Roman Senate. Not to be outdone by Emperor Caligula, on Semptember 26, 2020, President Trump appointed an elephant to the Supreme Court of the United States. There is no provision in the Constitution prohibiting him from doing so.

Republican Senators defended the choice, pointing out that elephants are extraordinarily intelligent creatures. While Madame Dumbina, the new nominee, does not have judicial or legal experience, Republican Senadors defended her selection pointing out that she would bring broader experience to the Court, and that her appointment would help redress the gender imbalance on the Court.

Moreover, Madame Dumbina had long served as the leader of her herd of elephants, who were renowned throughout the world for their peaceful relations among themselves, and their progressive social policies in areas such as childcare and protection of the rights of the elderly.

While Madame Dumbina is not a lawyer or a member of the bar, neither of these qualifications is necessary to sit on the Supreme Court. President Trump declared at the nomination ceremony , on September 26, 2020, that “Some people are saying she can read, and has been studying previous Supreme Court decisions.”

Republican Senators defending the President’s choice stressed that Madame Dumbina, in various moot court trials, had voted with the other Justices, after seeing how the conservative majority was going to vote, by raising her trunk. In a close case where she could be the deciding vote, Republican Senators said that when she casts the deciding vote they expected that she would loudly trumpet the victory of the Republican majority on the Court.

Architects have already begun remodeling the Supreme Court’s main hall and the Justices’s chambers and restrooms in order to accomodate Madame Dumbina’s special needs.

Absurdo

Exponential Absurdity in the Covid-19 World

The need for humor in the face of the exponentially Absurd

Who would have thought that Absurdity could increase exponentially in a world already marked by Absurdity?

But it has.

We live in the Exponentially Absurd World of Covid-19 now.

Above all, we mustn’t lose our sense of humor. The Moderator of the Absurd urgently requests submissions of examples, links, and stories of the Absurd in this new Absurd Covid-19 world.

We are looking for absurd quotes, anecdotes, and stories that make you laugh.

Tragic Absurdities

Unfortunately, there are also absurd things going on that make you want to cry.

For example, what is more absurd than a staff member in an assisted-care facility not wearing a mask, or not wearing it properly to cover both the mouth and the nose?

What is more absurd than people congregating in public and not observing physical-distancing rules or recommendations?

What is more absurd than younger people who ignore stay-at-home and physical-distancing rules, believing they are bullet-proof, when in fact they can get infected and become asymptomatic spreaders of the coronavirus germ?

What is more absurd than young people who don’t care if their rule-breaking behavior maintains and increases the spread of the virus in the community, and endangers the lives of their parents, grandparents, spouses or companions, and children? What kind of moral universe are they living in?

What is more absurd than a president, like President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who flouts social-distancing rules while failing to take urgent action at the federal level necessary to slow the spread of the disease?

What, indeed, is more absurd than government leaders too quickly easing social restrictions when the data and the science show the infection rate is rising, and that similar easing of restrictions in other countries has produced, after the two-three week incubation period, a significant increase in the rate of infection?

What is more absurd than political leaders saying we are going to have to accept a lot of deaths in order to get the economy going?

These questions are absurdly depressing.

Humorous Absurdities

Let us turn our attention to the kinds of absurd actions that might make you laugh.

What could be more absurd than the visit by President Donald Trump on May 5 to a factory in Arizona making masks, without him and company officials wearing masks–in flagrant violation of the company’s own policies?

There is obviously a huge number of absurd activities and actions that are taking place.

We need to find and report on the humorous absurdities that we read about and see, so that we can at least laugh and smile in the face of the tragic absurdities we observe every day.

The Moderator of the Absurd