Crash Course subscribers can now join the conversation — click the speech bubble icon to leave a comment or click the heart to like this post.

Sometimes a cancer is just a cancer…

Former President Joe Biden revealed over the weekend that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a fairly straightforward event that has nevertheless been hammered and molded into any number of exciting shapes on America’s anvil of atomization.

To the conspiracy theorists, the reveal was further proof that the ever-capitalized “They” would hide anything from the American people. It was a limited hangout of Biden’s medical information. The glimpse of looming mortality was meant, in its frankness and novelty, to convey that the man behind the curtain had not been rushing headlong toward death for years.

To the Democratic Party’s most devout left-wing critics, it was a chance to revel in the downfall of Biden, perhaps the most-visible conservative Democrat in a post-Joe Manchin age. Seeing the man who helped hamstring Medicare for All laid low was a moment to celebrate and commentators like Taylor Lorenz did little to hide their glee.

“Hopefully he rots in hell and rests in piss,” she wrote on X.

The current president saw the same thing he always sees in every stimulus that gets past his nose: himself. Donald Trump wondered how long Biden had hid his cancer diagnosis from the world before taking a moment to crow about his own “excellent” health.

“I did a very complete physical, including cognitive tests. I’m proud to announce I aced it. I got them all right,” Trump said on Monday.

A deeper dive…

Dr. John Gartner on our aging presidency

"Biden's brain is aging. Trump's brain is dementing." Read more.

Speaking of brains …

RFK Jr. is laundering Christian right views as MAHA

Department of Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has yet to meet a mostly eradicated disease he didn’t want to give a leg up. But brain worms and measles are far from the only dangerous things he’s reintroducing to the American bloodstream. Read more.

Support our bold journalism: Become a Salon member today.

Before you go …

How the Supreme Court enabled Donald Trump’s mile high bribe

The Supreme Court has set the stage for much of Trump’s lawlessness, and his recent acceptance of an obvious bribe is no exception. Read more.