Final Word from Monday, May 30, 2016
Political comedian Bill Maher says that if Donald Trump can create nicknames like Crooked Hillary Clinton, Crazy Bernie Sanders, Low Energy Jeb Bush and Lyin' Ted Cruz, Trump should be branded the Whiny Little Bitch. Behind this funny if slightly vulgar nickname stands an admitted frustration with Trump's continued success at denigrating his opponents by pigeonholing them. Andrej Babiš does the same thing, although not quite as consistently or effectively as Trump. As Babiš sees it, Topolánek and Kalousek are the symbols of corruption, Klaus is the biggest evil-doer since Nov. 1989, and everyone who disagrees with him (Babiš) is a liar. The last one to be on the receiving end of the liar epithet was PM Bohuslav Sobotka, who warranted it for blaming ANO for killing the anti-smoking bill and thereby playing into the hands of the tobacco lobby. Babiš hit back that 39 of ČSSD's own MPs supported what had been turned into a pro-smoking bill. Babiš won the exchange. Sobotka tried hard to whine, but he just can't hold a candle to the country's champion whiner. [Czech Republic no-smoking Miroslav Mirek]
Glossary of difficult words
whiner - a person who complains in an unconvincing or childish way;
to brand - to label as having a particular bad or shameful quality;
to denigrate - to criticize unfairly; to disparage;
to pigeonhole - to assign someone to a particular category, typically one that is overly restrictive;
epithet - an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned;
to warrant - to deserve or be justified by;
to hold a candle to - to be nearly as good as.