Donald Trump is a joke of a president. Except, he isn't a funny joke. He's pathetic. Which makes him eminently mockable, because he's clueless about his obvious weaknesses, failings, and insecurities.
If Trump had even a smidgen of self-awareness, if he showed even the slightest bit of compassion for other people, if he even occasionally manifested respect for truth -- then my compassionate Buddha-nature (slim though it is) would look upon Trump somewhat more favorably than I view him now.
But since Trump has never shown me anything but incessant narcissism, incompetence, and non-stop lying, I've concluded that mocking him is the best thing we all can do until he slinks out of the White House, covered in the cloud of crap that surrounds Trump wherever he goes.
I've gone back and forth as to whether I should follow Trump on Twitter. Which reflects the larger debate as to whether ignoring Trump's idiotic antics is preferable to giving him the attention that his insecure psyche demands 24/7.
Currently I'm following Trump, though some mornings (well, many mornings) it's painful to start the day by reading his latest inanities, insults, childish feuds, and nonsensical policy pronouncements. I've come to believe that it's my duty to stay informed about what he's doing on Twitter, in much the same way a puppy that isn't housebroken needs to be kept an eye on.
Since Trump is going to spread bullshit, I figure I should hold my nose and stay aware of it.
This afternoon, as I was driving into town, I heard Anderson Cooper discuss this general issue with a Republican guest on his show. That guy was criticizing the media for paying so much attention to Trump's stupid acts, the most recent being Sharpiegate, Trump clumsily using a black pen to make it look like a hurricane forecast threatened Alabama, which Trump wrongly claimed.
Cooper kept saying that it wasn't the media who made this into a story. It was the president of the United States refusing to admit that when he said last Sunday that Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama, this was utterly false, since the official forecasts were showing that Dorian was going to move northward along the east coast of Florida.
Geez, the non-genius in the White House couldn't even create a halfway believable forgery. Instead, Trump used a black pen to narrow the white cone of uncertainty that, as is known to anyone with an ounce of meteorological knowledge, always expands with time. So narrowing it added an extra dose of stupidity to what Trump did.
Washington Post opinion writer Eugene Robinson nailed it: "Trump's Sharpie-doctored hurricane map embodies the man."
We’re left with two disturbing possibilities. One is that Trump altered the map himself. In that case, we have a president too insecure to admit the slightest misstep and too incapable of logical thinking to do a plausible job of forgery. We also have a president who broke the law, since altering a National Weather Service forecast is a crime.
The other possibility is that someone on Trump’s staff used a Sharpie to fulfill the mission of “proving” Trump right even when he was wrong. That’s basically all the White House communications shop does these days, anyway.
I know it’s a minor episode, but I hope that doctored map makes its way into the Smithsonian someday. Like Washington’s uniform or Jefferson’s desk, Trump’s bogus map embodies the man.
The last I heard, White House officials were saying that Trump himself created the fake map. Which figures. Trump never stops lying, yet the whiny little bitch (as Bill Maher calls Trump) constantly cries fake news!
If he'd take a look in the mirror, Trump would realize that what's being reflected is the most fake president our country has ever endured. From now until Trump is kicked out of office, he deserves constant mockery. I'm pleased to do my patriotic part.
Sass away, brother.
Here's the good news:
5 more years of breathing the cool clean air of American freedom!
God bless America!
Posted by: Skyline | September 06, 2019 at 05:59 PM
Look at the cone of uncertainty and projected storm track. It sure doesn't look to be heading to Novia Scotia! At that time Alabama was as good a guess as any.
Amen Skyline. 5 more years.
Posted by: tucson | September 08, 2019 at 04:59 PM