Words of the Year 2019

When someone gets away with criminal activity,
it's always referred to as the perfect crime.
Will this hold true for Trump with his perfect phone call
and its perfect transcript?
Will perfect will end up being our 2019 Word of the Year?

Our annual countdown of Words of the Year for 2019, below,
provided the perfect ending to an imperfect year.

December 31

EXHAUSTED

The Word of the Year for 2019? A drum roll please.

EXHAUSTED!

We are all exhausted. The country is exhausted. The world is exhausted. The climate is exhausted.

We have a narcissistic sociopathic liar at the helm, and he’s committing crimes in real-time and on live TV, he’s rage-tweeting in the middle of the night from a gilded toilet, and he’s funding countless golf holidays and his family’s jaunts to Paris and safari with taxpayer dollars.

Neo-Nazis have infiltrated the White House, and hate crimes continue to be on the rise.

Pious white men in the GOP have forsworn their oaths of office, and they are firmly pressing a pillow over the face of Lady Liberty. Our constitutional checks and balances in place to fight tyranny struggle like a weak immune system, and resisters fight on – but the work is EXHAUSTING.

Perhaps a new year will re-energize everyone. TBH, 2020 is our only hope.

Above right and below left and right: Tweets of people who are EXHAUSTED. Search the word "Exhausted" on Twitter. There are many, many, many, many more.

December 30

WHISTLE BLOWER

From a global perspective, Greta Thunberg was certainly an excellent choice for Time's "Person of the Year; however purely from a national point of view, we would have liked to have seen the honor go to the Whistle Blower, the patriotic American who became aware of and who alerted the proper authorities of Donald Trump's criminal activity and abuse of power.

Trump's team has been in panic mode since the call to the Ukrainian president. They, too, recognized the seriousness of Trump's crime, and they immediately transferred the information to a secret server.

Were it not for the integrity and the patriotism of the Whistle Blower, he might have gotten away with it. He still might since Mitch McConnell is in cahoots with the White House counsel, and he has announced to the press that he ia planning a sham trial. Still, Trump has been impeached for the first time (we suspect it will likely happen again), and we all owe gratitude and respect to the Whistle Blower for coming forward.

Honorable Mentions:

TROUBLING: What was Mitt Romney's take on Trump's criminal activity?

"Troubling."

Troubling? NOT TREASONOUS? NOT CRIMINAL? NOT IMPEACHABLE TO THE POINT OF BEING REMOVED FROM OFFICE?

What is TROUBLING is the GOP's reaction (that is, INACTION) to all of this. Their enabling behaviors for this criminal-who-would-be-king is shocking and subversive. #RIPAmerica

DISTURBING: What was Sen. Lisa Murkowski's reaction to Mitch McConnell's announcement that he plans to work in cahoots with White House Counsel and conduct a sham trial.?

"Disturbing."

Disturbing? NOT SHOCKING? NOT TREASONOUS? NOT COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNACCEPATBLE?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!?!

PROFOUNDLY IMMORAL: Christianity Today ran an editorial stating that Trump should be removed from office. In the article, Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli noted (to no surprise) that Trump is "profoundly immoral." The complete article is HERE.

December 29

#IMPEACHTHEMF

Shortly after the swearing in ceremony for new reps in Congress, newly-elected Rashida Tlaib created quite a stir when she dropped the f-bomb and declared, “we’re going to impeach the MF-er” about Trump.

Speaking at a MoveOn event in Washington, DC, just hours after being sworn in, Tlaib said, “When your son looks at you and said ‘Mamma, look, you won — bullies don’t win.’ And I said, ‘Baby they don’t, because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!’” The moment went viral, and the hashtag #ImpeachTheMF caught fire!

That same day, in an Op-Ed for the Detroit Free-Press, Tlaib wrote, “President Donald Trump is a direct and serious threat to our country. On an almost daily basis, he attacks our Constitution, our democracy, the rule of law and the people who are in this country. His conduct has created a constitutional crisis that we must confront now.”

Honorable Mentions:

#ImpeachmentRally (Celebratory rallies sprang up in cities across the country when Trump was impeached)
#ImpeachmentEve
#ImpeaachmentDay
#MerryImpeachmas (or is it #HappyImpeachmas)
#MerryImpeachment
#IMPOTUS (Impeached President of the United States)
#Impeached45
QUID PRO QUO

December 28

CONCENTRATION CAMPS

In June 2019, @AOC (a.k.a Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) told her Instagram followers, “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it.”

Trump & the GOP – always terrified when the truth is spoken – panicked at the mention of “Concentration Camps.” They were desperate to call them Day Camps, Detention Centers, Tender Age Centers, and the like – but most scholars agreed with @AOC.

“We should call border detention centers ‘Concentration Camps,’” said Jewish historian Anna Lind-Guzik. “It isn’t just accurate. It’s necessary.” HERE. Others said, “She (AOC) is completely historically accurate.” HERE.

Below left: Concentration Camps in the Land of the Free. Below right: Melania Trump brought her "Be Best" campaign to a Tender Age Facility and cautioned the children to stand clear of the barbed wire.

December 27

GREEN NEW DEAL

From Wikipedia: The Green New Deal (GND) is proposed legislation in the US that aims to address climate change and economic inequality. The name refers to the Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” a set of social and economic reforms and public works projects in response to the Great Depression. The Green New Deal combines Roosevelt's economic approach with modern ideas such as renewable energy and resource efficiency.

Below left: Politicians promising a Green New Deal. Below right: We at the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum offer a Poetic New Deal. How can you support poetry? Click HERE.

Honorable Mention: CLIMATE

The OED Word of the Year “Climate Emergency.” The Word of the Year for Collins Dictionary is “Climate Strike.” Cambridge Dictionary chose “Upcycling.” Their editors said, “We think that our fans resonated with upcycling not as a word in itself but with the positive idea behind it. Stopping the progression of climate change, let alone reversing it, can seem impossible at times. Upcycling is a concrete action a single human being can take to make a difference.”

The word of the year for Dictionary.com is “Existential.” Their editors said the choice “speaks to a broader theme of threat and crisis reflected not only in culture and news, but also in our dictionary work throughout this year. High-stakes events around the world involving climate change, gun violence, and democratic institutions were some of the top news stories.

It seems as though the only people who are not interested in working to slow or reverse climate change are Republicans.

December 26

CAVE

After declaring he’d be proud to shut down the government and after vowing he would keep the government closed indefinitely unless he secured billions of US taxpayer dollars for a wall he said Mexico would pay for, Trump did what he said he would never do – he caved. Trump’s cave was a humiliating low-point of an already disastrous administration.

Honorable Mention: WINE CAVE
In the last Democrat debate, Elizabeth Warren went on the attack against Mayor Pete: “So the mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. Um, think about who comes to that,” she said. “We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States. Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”

Buttigieg calmly responded, “According to Forbes magazine, I am...the only person on this stage who's not a millionaire or a billionaire. This is the problem issuing purity tests you yourself cannot pass,” he said, noting that Warren's “net worth is 100 times mine.”

Of course, he could have just said, “Ok Boomer.”

Below: Mayor Pete's wine cave.

December 25

TRUMP SHUT DOWN

On December 22, 2018, Donald Trump had a live-on-camera tantrum because he could not get the Democrats to agree to use US taxpayers’ money to fund the border wall he could not get Mexico to pay for. File this under, “Duh!”

With the cameras running, Trump said he’d shut down the government "I'll be the one to shut it down. I will take the mantle. And I will shut it down."

The 35-day shutdown was the longest in US history. 380,000 federal workers were furloughed, and an additional 420,000 workers were required to work without any known payment dates during this period – all because of Trump’s hubris and his ludicrous promise that Mexico would pay for a border wall.

“I am proud to shut down the government,” he said – until it became obvious he’d made a colossal blunder. As the shutdown dragged on, he desperately tried to shake himself of the very mantle he’d accepted -- but to all but the poorly educated, this was and will always be known as the Trump Shut Down.

BREAKING NEWS:

Just before we posted today's word, "Trump Shut Down," we checked the mailbox at our corporate offices, and we found a Christmas card from the White House signed by both Donald Trump and Melania Trump.

Pictured at the right: The official card from the White House for Christmas 2019.

December 24

SEND HER BACK

Perhaps the most frightening night of the Trumpocene Era to date was July 17, 2019, when Trump held a rally in Greenville, NC. At that rally, Trump continued his racist attacks against four House representatives, and when he mentioned Representative Omar, the crowd started chanting “send her back.”

Trump stood there and basked in the warmth of some good ol’ North Carolina racism – and it became crystal clear that Trump rallies are nothing more than modern-day Klan rallies. It was completely unsettling and disturbing.

There stood the president of the United States – grinning in front of a mob of angry white racists who were shouting “send her back” about a duly elected representative of congress. It was nothing short of frightening.

Who were the people at that rally? Take a look at the pictures on the left (click to enlarge).

The people who attended Trump's rally in North Carolina are the children and grand children of the people in those photos.

We wrote about the hate-filled rally HERE.

December 23

PERFECT

There are certain things one can always expect from Donald Trump:

1. Lies: The man is INCAPABLE of telling the truth.
2. Projection: Whatever insults he hurls at others is really the projection of his own faults.
3. Superlative Language: His the healthiest human being ever. He is the smartest (he even knows more than the generals). He is least racist person on earth. Etc.

However, when Trump described his telephone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "perfect," and when he spoke of its "perfect" transcript, he wasn't using superlative language. Instead, he was revealing another of his traits -- his use of the language of the mob: When a criminal gets away with criminal activity, it's always referred to as "perfect" -- as in the "perfect crime."

Pictured at the right: @RWPUSA's tweet about "Trump's 'perfect' call" -- it was a perfect extortion racket."

Yes, Trump's "perfect" extortion ended up not being the "perfect" crime for -- thankfully -- there was a whistle blower in the room brave enough to report on his treasonous activity. To access the article referenced at the bottom of the tweet, click HERE.

Honorable Mention: COVER UP

Trump's staff knew immediately what he had done with the call to Zelensky, so they attempted a "perfect" cover-up by transferring the call information to a secret server. Again, though, there was a whistle blower in the room who was brave (and patriotic) enough to come forward to report the crime. However, this wasn't Trump's only cover-up attempt in 2019. There were many throughout the year: he wouldn't release the Mueller report; he won't let first-hand witnesses testify; he won't release his taxes; he won't release financial records; he won't let aides attend meetings when he talks with Putin and/or other Russian diplomats; he won't let his staff comply with subpoenas; and so on and on and on. It seems as though our "law and order president" could not care less about law and order. This would be laughable were it not so sad.

Below: The one thing Trump & the GOP fear most: THE TRUTH!

December 22

F-YOU CLAP

The sarcastic-rich slow clap has been around for years, but the sharp and scathing f-you clap was invented in 2019 by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Last February, Donald Trump stood before Congress to deliver his State of Disunion speech, and in a particularly spurious moment when Trump was talking about rejecting the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution and embracing the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good, Pelosi gave Trump the savage standing "clap back."

It was the highlight of Trump's boring and disingenuous speech.

Related: STINK EYE
At the right: Nancy Pelosi didn't invent the Stink Eye, but she employed it instantly and flawlessly when she communicated to her caucus immediately after announcing the House had impeached Trump and some of them were starting to cheer.

Honorable Mention: WHITE POWER SYMBOL

Another hand gesture that's gained prominence recently is the "A-OK" hand symbol that has now come to symbolize a "W" and a "P" for "white power." Cadets from West Point were flashing it on TV at the recent Army-Navy game, and soon afterward the Academy announced -- after a very hasty and cursory investigation -- that the cadets weren't flashing the "white power sign." No, they were merely playing common game, popular among teenagers today, known as the "circle game." Uh huh. And Trump's neo-Nazi advisor Stephen Miller's past white nationalist emails were just "pro-American." He said so himself, so it must be true.

By the way, the circle game is played when a person forms an "OK" with his hand below his waist to trick a second person into looking at it. If the second person is caught looking at the hand gesture, that person is then punched by the person who made the gesture.

December 21

OK BOOMER

Remember “Talk to the hand” and “Whatever”?

Well, the young whipper-snaps have a new cheeky phrase to put oldsters in their place – especially when they begin a patronizing talk with “back in my time….”

Below: The current "Top Definition" for "Ok boomer" on Urban Dictionary

December 20

SPYING

William Barr is not the US Attorney General. Instead, he is Trump’s hand-picked Abettor General. He is a sicko-phant willing to do Trump’s bidding, obfuscate facts, and generate and spread conspiracy theories.
At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee in April, Barr said, “I am going to be reviewing both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign during 2016. I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal.”

Pictured at the right: Trump and his toady, William Barr, the US Abettor General.

Barr’s use of the word “spying” was significant – it was a highly disputed term when it comes to what the FBI did relative to the Trump campaign in 2016. By using the word “spying,” Barr, Trump’s toady, was helping to destroy the public’s confidence in one of our own intelligence institutions. More info HERE.

Remember – Trump repeats and repeats often that he is a stable genius, that he knows more than the generals, that he alone can fix things, and that we should not believe what we see and hear. As he and Barr work together to damage and destroy our Justice Department and intelligence community, they hope that gullible MAGAts will not only accept their distortions and corruption – but that they do so without question.

Related: SPY

In September Trump lashed out angrily at whoever provided a truth-telling whistleblower with details of his treasonous phone call with the president of Ukraine, calling the source of the leak “almost a spy” and suggesting the person had committed treason (Trump always projects his faults and crimes on others).

“You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”

December 19

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

Are the Republicans still waiting for the “pivot”? “Pivot” made our annual countdown in 2016; click HERE and scroll down to the entry for December 21.

While the GOP and some pundits promised a pivot, it became painfully obvious that there would be no pivot.
On the other hand, many in the media and the political arena kept waiting for a “constitutional crisis” – even as Trump brought on crisis after crisis after crisis.

From The New Yorker, May 2019: “Washington has been bracing for a full-blown constitutional crisis since the first day of the Trump Presidency, and during the last two and a half years each new boundary-pushing move by the boundary-pushing President has been greeted with fresh warnings that this time is really it." The complete article is HERE.

TBH, as we all waited for a Trump constitutional crisis, it turns out that the entire tenure of Trump to date has been nothing but a constitutional crisis.

In October 2019, the New York Times finally declared, "This is a Constitutional Crisis. What Happens Next?" HERE.

Honorable Mention: IMPEACHABLE MOMENT

@DavidJollyFL, a Former U.S. Representative, said Trump’s comments that he’d accept political dirt from a foreign power in the next election are an “impeachable moment.”

BREAKING NEWS:

Just as we were posting tonight's word ("Constitutional Crisis") and honorable mention ("Impeachable Moment"), the House of Representatives voted -- and justifiably so -- to impeach Donald Trump!

We celebrated with "MmmPeachMint" sangria (pictured at the right).

IT. WAS. DELICIOUS!

For the recipe, click HERE.

December 18

SQUAD

Squad -- as in one's posse who share a common identity and a sense of solidarity -- dates back to the early 2000s in the Urban Dictionary. In 2015, it was nominated in the "Most Creative" category in the American Dialect Society's "Word of the Year Vote" (it lost to "ammosexual" in that group) -- and it also made our annual countdown too (HERE -- scroll down to the entry for December 4th).

The word took off again,this year, though, shortly after the Blue Wave, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted a photo of herself on Instagram with three other newly-elected representatives — Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). The caption read, "Squad.” The photo went viral -- and soon Donald Trump was on the attack by tweeting racist tweet after racist tweet about "the Squad" (if they were children, Trump would have demanded they be put in cages).

Honorable Mention: SELF-PARTNERED

"Self-Partnered" is an alternative for the word single as a relationship status. It was popularized by Emma Watson in a November 2019 interview with Vogue.

December 17

#LUMPOFMISERY

Our hashtag of the year is #LumpOfMisery -- a spot-on moniker bestowed on an indisputable lump of misery if there ever was one. Born to two truly horrid lumps of wretchedness, Sarah Huckabee Sanders proved what a miserable lump she is as she lied to the country day after day as Trump's Press Liar.

Honorable Mention: #UnwantedIvanka

Another spot-on hashtag for another miserable lump surfaced after liddle' Ivanka Trump hovered awkwardly around conversations with world leaders at the G20 summit in Osaka.

December 16

@DEVINCOW (DEVIN NUNES' COW)

Our name of the year is @DevinCow

From an article in the Los Angeles Times, "It’s been a big legal year for Republican U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare, who once co-sponsored the “Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act.”

Seems that Nunes has a beef with @DevinCow, a bovine that tweets on Twitter about the treasonous cowpoke — so Nunes has sued the parody account for hurting his liddle' feelings. Seems that Nunes is also quite the snowflake.

The complete LA Times article is HERE.

Honorable Mentions re: Other Names of the Year:

GEORGE WITH
A friend of a stable genius
(Not to be confused with George Wythe)

DONALD T. TUMP
info HERE.

MARIJUANA PEPSI
Google it.

PRINCE OF WHALES
Shown with a stable genius.
(Pic from The Cut, HERE)

ARCHIE
Possibly a future Prince of Whales?

EGG BOY
From Down Under

GREEN SHIRT MAN
Laughing at a MAGA fool.

TIM APPLE
Friend of a stable genius.

MOSCOW MITCH
A sinister politician with ties to Russia
who wants nothing but power to push a radical right-wing agenda.

December 15

BLACKFACE

In May 2019, a yearbook page from Vriginia's Governor Ralph Northam's college days included a picture of one person in blackface and one person in a KKK robe.

Oddly enough, Northam apologized for being in the picture, but then the very next day, he claimed that he was neither person in the offensive photograph.

Honorable Mention: BROWNFACE

Later in the year, a photograph surfaced of Justin Trudeau in brownface -- what those in Canada call "blackface."

Honorable Mention: WHITE

White was the color the newly elected women of congress wore to Trump's State of our Disunion address (below left) -- and white is the color of the old racist men who make up the bulk of the GOP (Gross Old Perverts) (below right).

December 14

PRIVILEGE

Privilege surfaced many times in 2019.

Back in March, there was a Twitter debate on how many syllables the word has – two? Or three? (I believe the question was first posed by someone who was writing a haiku.)

The concept of privilege also continued to reveal itself throughout the year in how mass murderers are classified: killers of color are still labeled “terrorists” while white gunmen are dubbed “lone wolves” – except when New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern quickly invoked the word “terrorist” for a white mass murderer in the city of Christchurch who killed fifty people in two mosques.

White privilege and hypocrisy took center stage in 2019, though, in the college admission scandal that revealed higher education as an out-of-control system for the wealthiest families in the US (and a whole host of B-list actors).

Below: An article by The Michigan Daily on white privilege and the college admission scandal includes a graphic on "The College Admissions Scandal by the Numbers." Click the graphic below to access the article.

December 13

ACTING

We’ll be honest – we’ve lost track of all the open and acting positions in the Trump administration, so just from a practical level, there is no way the government can run like a well-oiled machine. Oh, it’s well oiled in that this administration is the slipperiest & slimiest (and most corrupt) in our history, but more often than not, a department has no one in charge or it has an “acting” sycophant in place to do Trump’s bidding so he and his family can line their pockets.

The year opened with at least six “acting” cabinet members – Defense, Justice, EPA, UN Ambassador, Interior and Chief of Staff – and the revolving door has been spinning faster and faster that it’s hard to keep up. At one point, in addition to those positions already mentioned, Trump had no Homeland Security Director, no Secret Service Director, no ICE Director, no Secretary of Defense, no Air Force Secretary, no FEMA Director, no Secretary of the Interior – and/or he has filled various positions with “acting” directors. Of course, all of this underscores the fact that Trump has no clue and is an “acting” president himself.

Below: Click the pic below to access the article, "List of Trump administration dismissals and resignations."

Honorable Mention: IMPOSTER

In an interview on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Nancy Pelosi noted, “I think (Trump) knows full well that he’s in that office way over his head.” In discussing the president’s immature attacks on American citizens and government professionals, she added, “I think part of it is his own insecurity as an imposter. I think he knows full well that he’s in that office way over his head. And so he has to diminish everyone else.”

Honorable Mention: #FAKEMELANIA

A claim took Twitter by storm after a deadly tornado in Alabama when it seemed as though First Lady Melania Trump was replaced by another woman hidden behind large sunglasses and similar outfits.

December 12

TALIBAMA & HELLABAMA

In 2019, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey – whom many in the state call K-K-Kay Ivey -- signed the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country. The law was so restrictive to women and reproductive rights that even radical loon Pat Robertson spoke out against it -- and Alabama earned the nicknames "Talibama" (as in the Taliban) and "Hellabama."

Pictured at the right: K-K-Kay Ivey, Governor of Alabama

Honorable Mentions: FARMAGGEDON & GUNDAMENTALIST

Two other portmanteaus worthy of a mention on our list are "Farmaggedon," what many now call the destruction of American farmers as the result of Trump tariffs, and "Gundamentalist," a person who goes beyond the language of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and takes his or her unrestricted right to bear arms as a tenet of religious or quasi-religious faith.

December 11

3 MEXICAN COUNTRIES

As we have stated before, the GOP's racist dog whistles are gone. Trump and the GOP now use bullhorns to spread the language of white supremacy, racist imagery, and false evidence appearing real (FEAR). Remember the caravan? See our annual countdown for 2018 HERE, and scroll down to the entry dated December 23 for information on the caravan. Has it arrived yet?

Trump and the GOP prey upon the poorly educated who accept this FEAR hook, line, and sinker, and those poorly-educated-blinded-by-racist-perspectives are spouted by the talking heads at state run Fox News too. They actually reported, “Trump cuts U.S. aid to 3 Mexican countries.”

Yes. Three Mexican countries.

Let that sink in.

December 10

Our past annual Word of the Year countdowns have included punctuation marks, alpha-numeric abbreviations, emojis, silence, and other guttural sounds (see **cough** below in the entry for December 1); however, we think that this is the first time an actual inanimate, tangible object has been included – a Trump MAGA red hat.

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but in light of our most recent posts ( “infested” on December 8 and “racist” on December 9), the value of a Trump RED HAT boils down to just one word – a word for which RED HAT is an anagram: HATRED.

December 9

RACIST

Back in 2017, the word “lie” made our annual countdown of Words of the Year (HERE). The entry for December 17 begins, “In the pre-Trumpocene Era of the earth, most journalist and newspapers would give politicians a little leeway when it came to their promises, opinions, debates and disagreements. Everyone knew that politicians would tell tall tales and stretch the truth, but few if any actually called them out on their veracity.”

As of January 2017, though, newspapers began using the "L" word to keep the public abreast of one of Trump’s nasty habits – his habitual lying!

Surprise, surprise! Now many newspapers and journalists use the “R” word to describe Trump.

“Trump is racist and if what he’s saying doesn’t bother you or make you uncomfortable, you might want to ask yourself ‘why?’ We’ve stepped beyond politics here. There is not even a red or blue angle to this.” More HERE.

Of course, what does Trump say?

In response to his racist tweet telling duly elected members of congress to “go back” to their home countries, Trump said, “I don’t have a racist bone in my body.”

As suggested above from our 2017 countdown, that is a lie:

Birtherism
Housing Discrimination
The Central Park 5
“Mexicans are rapists.”
“Migrants are animals.”
We are “infested by immigrants.”
Shithole Countries
“Send her back.”
Democrat Savages
Very fine neo-Nazis in Charlottesville
Muslim Ban

Hmm. He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body? It seems as though his entire skeleton is racist.

Honorable Mention: SAVAGES

Trump repeatedly proves through his use of the language of white supremacy that his beliefs align with racist extremism. This past September he tweeted about Democrat “savages” and focused his hate-speech on four women of color as well as the two heads of committees helping to lead the impeachment inquiry.

December 8

INFESTED

When it comes to the ideology and language of white supremacy with Trump and the GOP, the dog whistles are gone. Now they just say it out loud and proud – and one of Trump’s favorite riffs is that our country is being infested with vermin (i.e., any non-white person).

“Infest” made our countdown last year (HERE – see the entry dated December 11), and it is on our list again due to Trump’s attack on the great American city of Baltimore. Let that sink in: A president ATTACKED an American City. He literally said, “NO HUMAN BEING WOULD WANT TO LIVE THERE.”

NO. HUMAN. BEING.

In response to Trump’s hate-speech, CNN’s Victor Blackwell reported, “Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times. He’s insulted thousands of people, many different types of people. But when he tweets about infestation, it’s about black and brown people.” HERE

NOTE: In response to Trump’s disgusting comments and in support of the city of Baltimore, members from the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum traveled to the city to visit sites over this past Labor Day Weekend. We had a great time! Read about it HERE.

December 7

BEDBUGS

This past October, the hashtag #BedBugSummit trended on Twitter due to allegations of past bedbug problems at Trump’s resort in Doral, Florida. The news resurfaced following the announcement that the U.S. was to host next year’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit at the Trump property (that plan has since changed following the outrage concerning Trump’s blatant profiteering).

Interestingly enough, just about a year ago, a list of White House work orders revealed a vermin problem at Trump’s current address with an infestation problem of mice, ants and roaches. Go figure.

Below left: A magnified pic of a bedbug found at Doral. Below right: A new species of leech discovered in Washington, DC.

Honorable Mention: LEECH

Anna Phillips, the curator of parasitic worms at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., led the team that recently discovered Macrobdella mimicus, a new species of bloodsucking leech in their own backyard. The leech is distinctive due to its orange face and uncanny ability to thrive in a swamp.

December 6

STRAWS

Flashback to 1967:
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

Back to the Future:
The OED’s Word of the Year for 2019 is “climate emergency,” and every word on their “short list” was related to eco-anxiety – including “eco-anxiety.” One possible response to combat climate change that resonated with the general public was the vilification of the plastic straw – although no one seemed to worry about place cups, plastic lids, plastic forks, plastic spoons, plastic knives, plastic sporks, plastic wrappers, plastic bottles, and so on and so on and so on. So for 2019 we'll post one word for you. Just one word. Straws.

More info on the banning of straws HERE. More in on the OED Word of the Year HERE.

December 5

WOW!

We live in dark times. The swamp has never been swampier, the filthy rich have never been filthier and the GOP – having long discarded its “family values” charade and their phony concern over “fiscal responsibility” – has never been slimier. However, there were some bright spots in the darkness this year, and one came from a little boy in Boston who was taken to a Handel and Haydn (H+H) Society concert by his grandfather. In the quiet of the concert hall just after the orchestra concluded Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music – and just before the audience applauded – the awe-struck boy shouted, “Wow!” The orchestra’s CEO David Snead described it as “one of the most wonderful moments I’ve experienced in the concert hall.”

December 4

WINDMILL CANCER

Donald Trump is quite the stable genius – he’d be the first one to let you know as stable geniuses always do, ya know – and that stable genius brain of his holds knowledge that the rest of us just don’t know anything about – like how we should all be raking forests to prevent forest fires, caging immigrant children for the good of the country, and investing in research to cure windmill cancer!

December 3

HAMBERDER

For being a stable genius, Donald Trump sure stumbles with the spellings and pronunciations of words. Two of our favorites this year were “oranges” for “origins,” and “anomasss,” “anomoanousss,” and “anamanous” for “anonymous”; however, the top Trumpism of the year was “hamberders,” the fast-food fodder he served to the Clemson football team at the White House.

Below: In support of the Liar-in-Chief, Sarah Huckster Sanders began to dress as the Hamberdler (although others say she was merely dressing as the redacted Mueller report).

December 2

' (the apostrophe)

Yes, we know that an apostrophe, like a cough (our inaugural entry below) is not a word, but punctuation marks have made it onto our past annual countdowns. The period was the first post on our list in 2013, HERE, and parentheses made our 2016 list HERE (scroll down to December 1).

The apostrophe is on our countdown this year not because stable-genius Donald Trump referred to one as a hyphen, but because he does not understand its use as a place holder for missing letters in a contraction. We assume he was thinking of something like “li’l” for “little” when he added an unnecessary apostrophe at the end of his immature name calling of Liddle’ Adam Schiff in yet another cyber-bullying rant.

Name-calling. Really? Isn’t he supposed to be the President of the United States? Where is Melania’s hollow “Be Best” campaign when you need it? The Trumps are all so d’spicable.

Oh, the apostrophe made additional news this year when, in October, the AP Stylebook tweeted that it was considering using ’s when making a name that ends in S possessive (like “James’s book” instead of “James’ book”). We have not heard the outcome of that decision yet. Anyone know the latest?

Read all about the possible change -- including the New Yorker's Mary Norris's take (or is is Mary Norris' take?) -- HERE.

December 1

**cough**

Okay, so a cough is not a word, but we have had other non-spoken communications on our list before. As a matter of fact, utter silence has made two of our past lists – see December 19 HERE and scroll down to December 26 HERE.
In this case, we’ve included Justin Trudeau’s cough because it communicated very blatant but cleverly subtle disdain for a play-actor on the world stage.

Here’s the story: In late June 2019 a video appeared online of germaphobe Donald Trump furiously ordering his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to leave the Oval Office because he was coughing. Later that week, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau sat with Trump in front of the press, and he coughed. Agent Orange had to sit there and bear it. The look on his face was priceless.