;)
The Commentariat -- August 30, 2017
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "President Trump landed in storm-brushed Corpus Christi on Tuesday morning to see for himself some of the damage caused by Tropical Storm Harvey and demonstrate his personal commitment to a region still in the grips of a historic natural disaster. Mr. Trump ... pushed aides to schedule a visit to Texas as early as possible after Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, on Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane.... 'It's a real team, and we want to do it better than ever before,' Mr. Trump said of the response effort during a meeting with officials from local, state and federal agencies in a Corpus Christi firehouse." ...
... But, Really, It's All about Trump. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "As rescuers continued their exhausting and heartbreaking work in southeastern Texas on Tuesday afternoon, as the rain continued to fall and a reservoir near Houston spilled over, President Trump grabbed a microphone to address hundreds of supporters who had gathered outside a firehouse near Corpus Christi and were chanting: 'USA! USA! USA!' 'Thank you, everybody,' the president said, sporting one of the white 'USA' caps that are being sold on his campaign website for $40. 'I just want to say: We love you. You are special.... What a crowd. What a turnout.' Yet again, Trump managed to turn attention on himself. His responses to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey have been more focused on the power of the storm and his administration's response than on the millions of Texans whose lives have been dramatically altered by the floodwaters. He has talked favorably about the higher television ratings that come with hurricane coverage, predicted that he will soon be congratulating himself and used 16 exclamation points in 22 often breathless tweets about the storm. But as of late Tuesday afternoon, the president had yet to mention those killed, call on other Americans to help or directly encourage donations to relief organizations.... At a news conference Monday, Trump continued to gush over the storm. 'I've heard the words, "epic." I've heard "historic." That's what it is,' he said, adding that the hurricane will make Texas stronger and the rebuilding effort 'will be something very special.' By focusing on the historic epicness of the hurricane, Trump has repeatedly turned attention to his role in confronting the disaster -- a message reinforced by comments and tweets praising members of his administration.... The president's comments, which lasted mere minutes, angered many of those who served in President Barack Obama's administration and could not imagine their former boss ever acting like this. 'It's not a time for crowing about crowds,' said Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former deputy chief of staff of operations for Obama." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Diane & MAG both make excellent comments on Trump's response to the storm crisis in Texas at the top of today's Comments. (Although, in fairness, Medlar said you all should have given John Kelly some credit for talking Trump out of his original plan, which was to go down there & sell #MAGA inflatable boats, #MAGA waders & #MAGA ponchos, $10 discounts for anyone wearing other #MAGA gear.) ...
... David Axelrod, in a CNN opinion piece: "Hurricane Harvey was Donald Trump's first major test in [the] role [of consoler-in-chief]. Trump flew to Texas on Tuesday to meet with state officials and disaster response coordinators.... [for] another dispiriting display of obtuse self-puffery. Seated at a table between Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and first lady Melania Trump, the President launched into a monologue about the epic nature of Harvey ... with hosannas to his team -- and by extension, himself -- for the job they're doing in meeting it.Turning to FEMA Director Brock Long, Trump gushed, 'a man who's really become very famous on television over the last couple of days.' And in wrapping up his remarks, he started to congratulate the group for their proficient handling of the storm, even as Houston and the surrounding region continued to be pounded by rain and floods. Glimpsing the awkward reaction on the faces around him, the President quickly caught himself, adding, 'We'll congratulate each other when it's all finished,' but leaving little doubt that mutual congratulations eventually would be due.The President then got a short, pro forma briefing for the benefit of the cameras and the group adjourned.... Startlingly, he did not utter one syllable about those who have lost their lives, their homes or businesses in the floods that are still swelling over southeast Texas, overwhelming the heroic first responders and volunteers who are straining to meet its demands. He had no solace for the tens of thousands of evacuees, some of whom were separated from their families in the storm and are now warehoused in arenas...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie cautionary note to Brock Long: That "become very famous on television" is a kiss-off. You could ask Jim Comey. ...
... Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... not too long ago, the president proposed a budget calling for cuts to some of the federal government's most consequential efforts to prepare states and local communities and help them recover from catastrophic events such as Harvey. Congress is likely to approve a Harvey recovery bill, as it has after past disasters, to cover the huge cost of storm damages. The cuts proposed by the Trump administration would slice away funding for long-term preparedness efforts, many of them put in place to address the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The proposed cuts would include programs run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose new administrator was praised by Trump in a tweet last weekend for 'doing a great job'; the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which helps rebuild homes, parks, hospitals and community centers; the National Weather Service, which forecasts extreme storms; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose research and community engagement help coastal residents prepare for disaster. 'The president has definitely sent a signal with his budget that emergency management is not of interest,' said Scott Knowles, a historian at Drexel University...." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "PRESIDENT TRUMP assured the nation over the weekend that he is 'closely monitoring' the disaster in Texas. 'We have an all out effort going, and going well!' he tweeted. No, the president and his administration do not. Since they entered office, they have tried to enhance the risk of the sort of devastation on display in Texas.... Houston is an example of what happens when public officials ignore experts and refuse to take natural risks seriously. As the country's fourth-largest city expanded, replacing prairie with impermeable surfaces such as pavement and concrete, the land was rendered less and less capable of absorbing floodwater. Without proper adaptive measures, this made an already flood-prone place more vulnerable.... A ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation found last year that those who have overseen Houston's flooding issues discounted scientists' warnings as 'anti-development.' In the coming months and years, the city may pay a high price for such shortsightedness. Those officials had the fate of only one city in their hands. Mr. Trump has the fate of the whole world." ...
... Greg Sargent: Hopes that his Hurricane Harvey response will allow Trump to "reset" his presidency have been greatly exaggerated. "Just yesterday, Trump reaffirmed his pardon o Joe Arpaio.... Trump effusively praised Arpaio.... This is an implicit endorsement of the very conduct for which Arpaio was held in criminal contempt of court (defying a judge's command that he remain constrained by the Constitution from violating the rights of Latino immigrants)..... Incredibly, Trump also defended the pardon by recalling that the crowd at his rally in Arizona 'went absolutely crazy' when he spoke up for Arpaio. Trump has now essentially confirmed that he pardoned Arpaio, at least in part, because he agreed with the goals of Arpaio's abuses and flouting of the Constitution and because his base cheered him over it.... Whatever Trump achieves in the way of a reset, it will soon come under immense strain from the same old megalomaniacal and racially divisive impulses that have rotted away at his presidency all along." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Even before the devastation from Harvey, southeastern Texas was enduring a year unlike any before. The daily surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico last winter never dropped below 73 degrees.... How many previous times that had happened: Zero. This sort of heat has a specific effect on storms: Warmer weather causes heavier rainfall.... When the seas warm, more moisture evaporates into the air, and when the air warms -- which has also been happening in Texas -- it can carry more moisture. The severity of Harvey, in other words, is almost certainly related to climate change.... In Houston's particular case, a lack of zoning laws has led to an explosion of building, which further worsens flooding. The city added 24 percent more pavement between 1996 and 2011.... Add up the evidence, and it overwhelmingly suggests that human activity has helped create the ferocity of Harvey." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday claimed the U.S. had been paying 'extortion money' to North Korea. 'The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,' Trump tweeted. 'Talking is not the answer!'... North Korean state media on Tuesday called its recent missile launch over Japan a 'prelude' to military operations directed at Guam." Mrs. McC: Hard to tell, but I guess Trump means talk = extortion. ...
... Max Greenwood of the Hill: "A U.S. warship successfully shot down a medium-range ballistic missile in a test launch off the coast of Hawaii Wednesday, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said. The USS John Paul Jones detected and tracked the missile, which had been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, before firing SM-6 guided missiles to intercept it, the agency said."
Tuomas Forsell of Reuters: Finland's "President Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday denied that Finland was buying new fighter jets from American planemaker Boeing, following remarks by ... Donald Trump.... 'One of the things that is happening is you're purchasing large amounts of our great F-18 aircraft from Boeing and it's one of the great planes, the great fighter jets,' Trump said on Monday at a news conference with his Finnish counterpart in the White House. Niinisto, who was standing next to Trump, looked surprised but did not follow up on the comment. He later denied the deal with Boeing on his Twitter account and on Tuesday in Washington." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "Large amounts of ... aircraft"? No, Donald, nobody buys "large amounts" of planes. They may buy large amounts of sugar or fuel, but they buy large numbers of planes. Can't you at least make your lies grammatical?
It's really quite amazing when you think that freedom of the press, not only sort of a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution but very much something that the United States defended over the years is now itself under attack from the President. It's sort of a stunning turnaround. And ultimately the sequence is a dangerous one.... To call [the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN] 'fake' does tremendous damage and to refer to individual journalists in this way, I have to ask the question is this not an incitement for others to attack journalists? -- Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, today ...
... Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters: "... Donald Trump[s criticism of journalists amounts to an attack on the freedom of the press and could provoke violence against reporters, the United Nations' human rights chief said on Wednesday. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Trump had also made worrying remarks about women, Mexicans and Muslims and went on to question the president's approach to immigration and decision to pardon former Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio." ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "For now, Trump TV is a small operation, cheaply produced and disseminated through Facebook. But the creation of an official broadcast in which Trump mouthpieces repeat the Trumpian line is just one of several developments that suggest the Trump era has brought conservative media to its evolutionary endpoint: sheer propaganda, stripped even of the veneer of professional journalism that traditional Republican Party organs like Fox News ('Fair and Balanced') have cultivated since the end of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. It can be seen in the National Rifle Association's new video channel, where the conservative provocateur Dana Loesch calls on followers to come together in a 'clenched fist of truth' to defeat America's liberal enemies. It can be seen in the growing Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose viewers are breathlessly updated about threats to the homeland through its 'Terrorism Alert Desk.' And it can be seen in a constellation of right-wing websites -- Breitbart, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Townhall — that traffic in xenophobia, homophobia, racism, and social Darwinism. Most influentially, it is evident in the way the White House uses the bully pulpit and social media to make direct appeals to supporters.... All of this has contributed to an environment that bears the hallmarks of a budding propaganda state...."
Sam Thielman of TPM: "... Donald Trump's erstwhile lawyer, Michael Cohen, said this week in a statement provided to congressional investigators that Trump signed a letter of intent during the campaign to develop a tower in Moscow with a firm that appears to have partnered with two Russian banks under U.S. sanctions. Real estate news outlet The Real Deal was first to surface news of the apparent associations between the Moscow-based firm, I.C. Expert Investment, and VTB and Sberbank. The firm's website lists both VTB and Sberbank as partner banks.... [Felix] Sater told Cohen that he'd arranged financing for the project with VTB, according to emails that were provided to the House Intelligence Committee and reviewed by the New York Times. Sberbank and VTB were both sanctioned in the wake of Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and the U.S. Treasury specifically disallows them from issuing the kinds of financing used in real estate transactions to 'U.S. persons or within the United States.'... The day before Trump's inauguration, the president of VTB called on Trump to lift those same sanctions." ...
... Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "President Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has agreed to sit down for a transcribed interview with the Senate judiciary committee, as investigators continue to dig into his attendance at a 2016 meeting where he was promised Russian dirt on the Clinton campaign.The committee and Trump Jr. have agreed on a date to be interviewed by the panel in private, according to Taylor Foy, spokesman for committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, after Trump Jr.'s lawyers have been in discussions with the panel and turned over documents. Trump Jr. will be interviewed by senior committee staff, and senators could also attend, Foy said. After the Senate judiciary committee invited him to attend a July hearing to testify in public, Trump Jr. instead cut a deal with the committee to avoid that session. It's unclear if he will eventually testify publicly, but committee leaders have said an open session with Trump Jr. is still on the table." ...
... Evan Perez of CNN: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued subpoenas to a former lawyer for Paul Manafort and to Manafort's current spokesman, an aggressive tactic that suggests an effort to add pressure on the former Trump campaign chairman. The subpoenas seeking documents and testimony were sent to Melissa Laurenza, an attorney with the Akin Gump law firm who until recently represented Manafort, and to Jason Maloni, who is Manafort's spokesman, according to people familiar with the matter. Manafort is under investigation for possible tax and financial crimes, according to US officials briefed on the investigation."
Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late Tuesday announced that transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military pending the results of a study by experts. The announcement follows an order from President Trump -- first announced in a tweet -- declaring that transgender service members can no longer serve in the military, effectively reversing an Obama administration policy. The order also affects the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Coast Guard. 'Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction,' Mattis said in the statement. 'In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place.'" ...
... Mark Stern of Slate: "Mattis did not 'freeze' the trans ban, and he is not 'buy[ing] time' in some potentially insubordinate effort to buck Trump. In reality, the secretary is doing exactly what Trump directed him to do in a recent memo.... Reports of a 'freeze' on the ban ... serve the administration's narrative in two ways: They legitimize a 'study' that is designed to reach a foregone conclusion, and they falsely portray the ban as more lenient or unsettled than it really is. Absent court intervention, the trans ban will take effect next year. And unless Trump changes his mind, there is virtually nothing Mattis can do to stop it."
Rene Marsh of CNN: "The EPA's Office of Inspector General announced Monday it is beginning a 'preliminary investigation' into Administrator Scott Pruitt's travel after a hotline complaint and congressional requests which 'expressed concerns' about frequent travel to Oklahoma -- his home state -- 'at taxpayer expense.'... In late July, the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project said travel records from a Freedom of Information Act request show that Pruitt spent 48 of 92 days in March, April and May traveling -- including 43 days on trips that included stops in his home state of Oklahoma." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
An Imposter Did It! Another Loony Right-Wing Trump Appointee. Andrew Kaczynski & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "... Donald Trump's appointee to a Department of Energy post says inflammatory comments that appeared to have been made by him online were the result of 'cyber attacks and Internet crimes' committed against him over the past several years by 'imposters in social media.' William C. Bradford, Trump's appointee to head the Energy Department's Office of Indian Energy, made the claim in response to significant evidence uncovered by CNN's KFile that suggests an account on the online commenting service Disqus belongs to him.... In the comments section of a September 2016 article on the conservative new site Daily Wire, the Disqus user wrote: 'Well, it is a fact: Obama is the son of a fourth-rate p[orn]n actress and w[hor]re." The comment is an apparent reference to an unfounded right-wing conspiracy that Obama's mother posed for nude photos.... In another comment from January 2016, the Disqus account propagated the debunked claim that Obama's birth certificate was a fake and included a photoshopped picture of the former president's birth certificate.... As recently as this January, Bradford himself said in a radio interview that he was 'agnostic' on whether Obama was an American citizen and repeated the claim that his birth certificate was a fake."
Tara Pameri of Politico: "Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally got an audience with the pope, after being cut out of a White House delegation with the Holy Father in May [Mrs. McC: by the cruelest, most vindictive president* in recent U.S. history]. Spicer returned to Rome over the weekend as part of a group of legislators and politicians affiliated with the International Catholic Legislators Network who met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Spicer, who resigned on July 21, has remained in the White House to help with the transition for his successor.... His last day is slated for August 31." Mrs. McC: Good thing Spicer didn't schedule his papal visit for a weekday. Trump would never have given him the day off.
Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The White House will shut down an Obama-era rule that would have required businesses to track how much they pay workers of varying genders, races and ethnicities according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Trump officials will stay the rule, which would have gone into effect in the spring, because it created a burden for employers. 'It's enormously burdensome,' Neomi Rao, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, told The Journal. 'We don't believe it would actually help us gather information about wage and employment discrimination.' The Obama rule would have required employers with 100 or more employees to hand over data on wages to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the goal of preventing pay discrimination. Ivanka Trump, who ... has pushed for equal pay for women, said in a statement that the 'policy would not yield the intended results.'" Mrs. McC: Quite right, Ivanka, dear. Since Daddy-O & his administration will ignore the results, which certainly will demonstrate pay inequities, why the hell keep incriminating records? Which brings us to ...
... Today in More Republican Racism
Michael Kiefer & Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton canceled former Sheriff Joe Arpaio's upcoming sentencing hearing for his criminal contempt-of-court conviction, telling attorneys not to file replies to motions that were pending before his recent presidential pardon. However, Bolton on Tuesday stopped short of throwing out the conviction based solely on Arpaio's request. Instead she ordered Arpaio and the U.S. Department of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, to file briefs on why she should or shouldn't grant Arpaio's request. Arpaio's attorneys asked Bolton on Monday to vacate Arpaio's conviction in light of ... Donald Trump's Friday pardon. Bolton has scheduled oral arguments on the matter for Oct. 4, the day before Arpaio was supposed to be sentenced. There is case law that says a pardon implies an admission of guilt, and that will have to be argued in open court." ...
... Rebecca Savransky: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he would not have pardoned Former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio. During an interview on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' Christie called the pardon power an 'extraordinary power' for any executive. 'My understanding has always been that one of the prerequisites you look for in giving a pardon is contrition for what you were convicted of,' he said. 'I didn't see that in Sheriff Arpaio.' When pressed on whether he would have pardoned Arpaio, Christie said: 'This is not one that I would have done.'" Mrs. McC: Christie is a former (controversial) U.S. Attorney.
Jorge Rivas of Splinter: "Immigration officials have received preliminary approval to destroy detainee records, including evidence that relates to in-custody deaths and sexual assault cases after a 20 year period. A July 14, 2017 notice published by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) -- the agency in charge of archiving materials created by the federal government -- states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking permission to destroy 'records related to detainees, including incidents of sexual abuse and assault, escapes, deaths while in agency custody, telephone rates charged to detainees, alternatives to detention, logs and reports on status of detainees and detention facilities, and location and segregation of detainees.'... NARA['s] ... preliminary approval ... comes during an era when ICE has abruptly stopped sharing data with researchers and limited information available to attorneys -- all while the administration has increased enforcement and detained more undocumented immigrants than ever before."
Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "A Georgia Republican lawmaker warned a Democratic former colleague who criticized his support for Civil War monuments on Facebook that she won't be 'met with torches but something a lot more definitive' if she continues to call for the removal of statues in south Georgia. State Rep. Jason Spencer, a Woodbine Republican, also wrote former state Rep. LaDawn Jones that 'people in South Georgia are people of action, not drama' and suggested some who don't understand that 'will go missing in the Okefenokee.' 'Too many necks they are red around here,' he wrote. 'Don't say I didn't warn you about 'em.' Jones, who represented an Atlanta-based district from 2012 to 2016, responded that she saw his remarks as a 'threat of physical violence' but said she was confident that future generations will abandon a 'we are better than them' mentality." Jones is black. Spencer is a fat white guy.
Jonathan Chait: "Republicans confuse the Electoral College with 'the American people.'... 2.9 million more American people voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. The Electoral College has turned two of the last five Republican national-vote defeats into victories. The Republican Party has developed a very convoluted way of suppressing this strange reality. The larger part of their response consists of constant implicit or explicit equations of the election result with the will of the voting public.... States that benefit from the Electoral College are whiter than average, which means the system gives white voters more influence over presidential elections. As Andrew Gelman and Pierre-Antoine Kremp calculate, 'whites have 16 percent more power than blacks once the Electoral College is taken into consideration, 28 percent more power than Latinos, and 57 percent more power than those who fall into the "other" category.'" Mrs. McC: You'll have to you read Chait's piece to see why this fits into the "Republican Racism" category.
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has tossed out Sarah Palin's lawsuit against the [New York Times] for claiming in an editorial that her political action committee was connected to the murderous 2011 rampage of Jared Lee Loughner near Tucson, Ariz. 'Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not,' wrote Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Tuesday's ruling.... The newspaper issued corrections and an apology to readers, though it failed to apologize directly to Palin. She sued just weeks after the editorial was published. From the beginning, Palin faced a high bar in her civil action. As a public figure, she needs to prove 'actual malice' on [the] part of the New York Times, meaning that it acted with knowledge of the falsity of its claims, or at least with reckless disregard thereof.... In his ruling, Rakoff said that Palin and her lawyers had failed to show evidence that they could ever meet the 'actual malice' standard. 'The complaint fails on its face to adequately allege actual malice, because it fails to identify any individual who possessed the requisite knowledge and intent and, instead, attributes it to the Times in general. This will not suffice,' wrote Rakoff."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Emergency workers rescued many more soaked and frightened people in southeast Texas on Tuesday as floodwaters continued to rise and officials counseled patience, warning that conditions would not improve soon. The slow-moving, record-shattering tropical storm Harvey battered the region for a sixth straight day and began to move into southwest Louisiana, where it made its second landfall early Wednesday morning. With hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders, shelters in Houston filled to bursting.... Local officials in Texas have reported at least 30 confirmed and suspected flood-related deaths. [Houston Mayor Sylvester] Turner imposed a curfew in Houston from midnight to 5 a.m. until further notice." ...
... Washington Post: "The devastating path of Harvey made landfall Wednesday for a second time since it roared ashore last week, as the biggest rainstorm in the history of the continental United States finally began to move away from Houston and carried its fury to Louisiana. Now a tropical storm, Harvey's immediate effects are not expected as devastating as a Category 4 hurricane that first blasted Houston and other parts of Texas beginning last Friday. But it still packed potentially deadly and disastrous torrents of rain that have left Texas with a punishing toll: at least 22 people known dead and possibly more, tens of thousands left homeless and storm-ravaged areas that could take months or longer to bounce back." ...
... Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Harvey made its final landfall, but its swath of torrential rain has triggered more massive flooding in east Texas, and will continue to produce torrential rain the next few days from Louisiana to parts of the Ohio Valley, while record-breaking, catastrophic river flooding continues in southeast Texas. Harvey made its third and final landfall around 3:30 a.m. CDT Wednesday morning near Cameron, Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. While the heaviest rain had ended in flood-plagued Houston, Harvey's most torrential rain turned its sights on areas near Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. With rain rates as high as 3.87 inches per hour, inundating rain immediately to the west of Harvey's center of circulation crushed the southeast Texas counties near the Louisiana border Tuesday into early Wednesday." ...
...New York Times: "If you're outside the affected area, here are options to help. (If you're in Texas and displaced by the storm, here's how to get help.)"
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Reader Comments (13)
As Trump walks over the misery, loss and fear of Houston area victims of Harvey, it seems as if he is taking credit for the enormity of the hurricane itself. Like, somehow, he had willed it to break all records for damage, rain levels and loss. In his mind, it's an indication of his own magnificence. He is unable to separate the enormity of the hurricane and its effects from himself. Empathy and sympathy are emotions he is unable to experience. Insane and criminal.
Where are those touchy/feel-lie photo ops that usually follow a disaster visit? Let's see, so far the only things I've seen are...images of DJT and the stiletto-heeled Melanie boarding the helicopter. The couple seated at a table in a firehouse in a remove area from the major storm impact. Where are the pictures of DJT comforting victims in a shelter? Did I miss them? Let's see we got the one where he's waving the Texas flag and extolling his 'love.' and there's the "..what a great crowd?" that evidently showed up to applaud.
Dd he go out in a boat to assess any of the damage?
Did he even fly over the disaster area like George Bush?
Diane, you are right. The hurricane's job is to make Trump important. The POTUS with the worst hurricane ever. In his mind, an honor. Is his mind, Hurricane Trump!!
How quickly one is forgotten. In today's NYTimes, an article that could be written with fill-in the blanks! In Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, "“a vast generational divide" Add your own well known, famous person name from your past and ask around to see who does remember.
Has it happened to you? It's been happening to me! A lot. Me! Once so aware of the who's hot or not, the ins or outs, who is who, et al. I read of scandalous Hollywood breakups and haven't any idea who these stars of 15-minutes fame are.
Reading the daily obituaries is often revealing as well. It isn't just the generational divide, as we exclaim: Ohmigosh, (fill-in the blank) died! Translation: Ohmigosh, I hadn't even remembered he/she was still living!
Mention in passing some once top-rated TV show, its featured actors, the music from the 60's (caveat here: the Rolling Stones keep rolling....ever on! Mick is amazing. As for Keith Richards, or as Charles Pierce once noted: ...the most mysteriously surviving human in history.) and anyone between late teens and early twenties hasn't a clue about who most of us commenting here do remember.
Optimistically, looking to the future, as my own memories fade...and for those wee ones just being born, think of the day when an obit appears and everyone will say, "Trump? He's gone? Hah! I didn't even know he was still around."
Whoever thinks don the con would give a 10% discount to anyone for anything is living in an alt-fact world.
@MAG: Not sure, but I think the kidz are more clued-in than you think. A lot of people in their forties (I don't know about the 20-somethings, only because I've never hung out with people of that generation) listen to 60s rock-'n-roll. Moreover, because of all the oldies TV shows that air constantly, younger people also know quite a bit about 20th-century pop culture.
As for your comment about "I didn't know he was still living," I was listening to the news in 1965 when the announcer said that Somerset Maugham had died. Sure enough, I immediately said to myself, "Oh, I didn't know he was still alive." At the end of the announcer's brief bio of Maugham, he quoted Maugham: "When I die, people will say, 'I thought he died a long time ago.'" (paraphrase)
When one is naturally narcissistic everything including hurricanes and floods are about you. I have no doubt that Obama, Clinton, and even Bush were sincere in their behavior towards the victims of catastrophes. Yes, a president's appearance is a photo/op but how they deal with that obligation is that proof in the pudding thing. It's called empathy–-it's called having a real sense of how these disasters effect the lives of the victims. After Sandy Hook Obama's tears at the podium and his big bear hugs for those parents meant so much. He later said it was the hardest thing he'd ever done.
@MAG: I hear you. I can run down a list of those old movie stars–-Burt Lancaster, Susan Hayward, Margaret O'Brien–––but stumble and fumble with the newer twinklers. But keep in mind our memories of the past grow more lucid so depending on that past we only gain what we lost. I guess.
Best news of the day: Fox news has been pulled off the air in the UK because––––NO ONE WATCHES IT.
@Mrs. McC: Always exceptions! So true.
@PDPepe: The Good News or the Bad News? There have been occasional claims that "...that Sky News may be inherently biased due to the fact that it is majority-owned by 21st Century Fox; most of 21st Century Fox's (and News Corp, in which Rupert Murdoch also has an ownership interest) news outlets have an openly conservative or right-wing outlook..." (Source: Wikipedia) Looks like Rupert remains in the mix. He's invasive, like Kudzu.
Cutting through the irony of Christie and Cruz squaring off in a contest of despicables would require a chain saw.
MAG,
An even better fate for King I Am, upon news of his going to whatever vulgar fate awaits him in the great beyond, would be "Donald Trump's dead? Who's Donald Trump?"
@AK: Rats! Wish I had said that. Who's DT? Oh, snap!
A sign that Trump may actually be in trouble!
Scarlett Conlon, the Vogue Daily editor of Vogue.co.uk reminds us that ”while Melania and her shoes may be taking the lion's share of the headlines today, let's not forget the attack on the civil rights and freedom of US citizens who are willing to give their lives for their country; the serious threat of global warming; and the people who have lost everything because of Hurricane Harvey, and not allow for photo-opportunities to shroud the show.”
Conlon mentions the ban on transgender people serving in the US military, the Arpaio pardon and an OMB memo on the administration’s R&D priorities for 2019 (that has) almost no mention of environmental research. AND she ties the retreat from the Paris climate agreement to “the current situation in Houston which will inevitably lead to questions about the part rising temperatures have played in the scale of the storm.”
http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/melania-donald-trump-arrive-texas-hurricane-harvey
As President*, you may have a problem when the editor of a UK fashion mag calls you out and cautions her readers to keep their eye on the ball.
I often wonder if we are preaching to the choir here in our own echo chamber. That too many others fail to see what we see so clearly - the disaster that occupies the White House.
It’s good to see more diverse mainstream journalists holding up a light to expose the SCROTUS.
Still having a hard time connecting the king's self-serving, self-aggrandizing statements with those of a real president. "Self-aggrandizing" because, as Diane suggests, somehow Trumpy conflates the size and ferocity of the storm with his own manly strength and power. It's a big storm, biggest ever. That's all because of me, folks. Believe me! Hillary couldn't have done a storm like this."
And what about that crowd of hundreds who showed up out of nowhere in the middle of a natural disaster to applaud the Glorious Leader? How did that happen? Coincidence? I don't think so.
After the small crowd at Phoenix, and his fury at having the press take pictures of the paucity of attendees (less than half of the king's claims of 15,000--actually more like 6,000, not to mention all the bored listeners who left while he was still yapping about his wonderfulness), he probably didn't want TV visuals to show his highness on the back of a pickup truck talking to 15 people, ten of them rescue workers. I'm sure his courtiers spent time--in the middle of a disaster zone--rounding up Trumpbots to cheer on the king and his queen in her stiletto heels (what all the fashion conscious disaster-chic beautiful people are wearing this year). He would have nothing less.
Just listen to his words. He sounded like a second rate stand up comedian warming up the audience for the main event. "Hey, would you look at this crowd! Is this great or what? Thank you, thank you. Hey and what about that Harvey? Is that a great storm? I'm tellin' ya. Biggest ever they tell me. Epic. Great. All those things. But enough, about Harvey, what about me? I'm here to take care of everything. It's all going great! Thank you all for coming out on this rainy day."
He actually did say. "It's all going great", as search and rescue efforts were still in full swing and no one knew how many more bodies would surface, bodies about which he made no mention. "Dead people? Hey, don't be a buzzkill. Don't I look great though?"
Then he added this uber weird thing. He took time to wonder how a storm with a boring little name like Harvey could do so much damage. "It sounds like such an innocent name. Ben, right? but it's not innocent."
Right? No, Donnie, not innocent at all. Really, amazing how that works, in'it? Who'da thunk it?
These are the confused musings of a drunk guy or some disturbed person, it sounds much more like the guy on the subway mumbling to himself, the guy no one wants to sit next to, than the leader of the free world.
But that's our president*. Ho-hum. Okay. We did the disaster thing. What's next? Oh yeah. On to Missouri. Gotta talk about BIG tax breaks for ME.
Jesus.