At first Trump might have thought the Hurricane Dorian thing was a lucky break, since it gave him an excuse to cancel a boring trip to Poland. It was doubly lucky because Trump was also supposed to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine. Trump might have had to explain why he is holding up military aid meant to help Ukraine confront Russia. This was just a week after National Security Nutjob John Bolton assured Ukraine that U.S. aid would “intensify.” Oops! Trump sent Mike “the Weasel” Pence to bullshit on behalf of the administration instead.
So that business dispatched, Trump retreated to Camp David to monitor the hurricane. But Camp David is so boring. Nothing there but a driving range and a one-hole putting green. So on Saturday he took one of his taxpayer-funded helicopters to Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, to play 18 holes.
Still, there was that pesky hurricane thing going on he was supposed to be monitoring. On Sunday he had to sit through a boring FEMA briefing on the hurrican’s progress. Here he is attempting to pay attention.
I mean, the only part of the briefing that appeared to interest him was whether the hurricane would likely make landfall on one of his properties in south Florida.
“Let me just ask you,” the president said, showing an unusual interest. “Two days ago we were given a really comprehensive briefing and they seemed to think, almost every prediction was that [the storm] was going to go right through Florida and into the Gulf — actually right across Florida.”
“Does that not have a chance of happening now?” he asked. “What do you think the chances that it goes directly straight as the original predictions were?”
When assured that most of the models showed the hurricane staying in the Atlantic and moving further north up the east coast, Trump went back to trying to fake attention. After the briefing he spoke some words in a bored monotone about people keeping safe. However, more than once yesterday he said that the hurricane could strike Alabama, which indicates he either doesn’t know where Alabama is or he still wasn’t grasping where the hurricane might actually go.
Trump also was baffled by the designation “category 5,” saying he’d never heard of such a thing, which is the same thing he said about Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Michael. Boring science stuff is boring.
Trump’s twitter feed today is full of National Weather Service hurricane projections, probably posted by White House staff. But over the weekend Trump let us know what was really on his mind, which was mostly a lot of petty grievances. For example —
I have not forgotten that when it was announced that I was going to do The Apprentice, and when it then became a big hit, helping NBC’s failed lineup greatly, @DebraMessing came up to me at an Upfront & profusely thanked me, even calling me “Sir.” How times have changed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2019
If you actually care why Trump is mad at Debra Messing, or if you can’t remember who Debra Messing is, here is the background.
But now Trump is supposed to pretend he cares about a monster hurricane that will impact a lot of little people he doesn’t know. So boring. However, it’s not 100 percent certain south Florida is out of harm’s way, in which case he might pay attention.
Very soon after the election I remember reading an article predicting some of the things we could expect from Trump as viewed by a woman who had lived under authoritarian governments. She wrote about the constant lies, the whataboutism, the bothsiderism, etc. One related phenomenon was the extent to which people simply run out of energy, sapped by the requirements of dealing with so many lies and outrages. Trump is a master of that sort of multiplicity. The only thing that might save us is that he really does seem to be a rather dim bulb.
I'm sure that we all felt as if we were trapped in some different reality, like an old "B" movie, but, we're not sure whether its "Invasion of the body Snatchers" or "Idiocracy."
As for the former, I find that the most disturbing because I know some fairly normal, well-intentioned people who have gone to the dark side. That reminds me of a snippet of "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
"Are there not fascists in your country?"
"There are those who do not know the are fascists, but will find out when the time comes."
One related phenomenon was the extent to which people simply run out of energy, sapped by the requirements of dealing with so many lies and outrages.
I think I'm coming down with that bug. I find myself saying, "Holy Shit what's it gonna take before the powers that be pulls the plug on this fucking clown."
Pence is creepy. I've been trying to identify what exactly the characteristic is that makes Pence so creepy. And the best I can come up with is that he radiates a moral void in his persona. A vacancy of the qualities that make people human. He can't even be evil, he can only be a reflection of evil. Evil without substance is the worst kind of evil there is.
Something about Pence makes me suspect that if you pried his face off you'd find wires and sensors.
Yeah, like an andriod. That would explain my perceptions of Pence. He's lacking that crucial element of humanness. Now I can understand why Trump picked him for VP. Psychopaths must have a sixth sense in identifying like minded sickos.
Gee, Mike. Tell us about how much you love Jesus you effing ghoul!
I have always felt that a serial rapist/killer lurks inside that shell of Christianity Pence wraps himself in.
You'll note the Trump tweet about Debra Messing has his "Sir" tell, which indicates he's lying (of course) about the conversation.
The best response to that tweet was "Thanks for admitting that the more people find out about you the less they like you."
If he's so bored, surely be can afford to quit.
Pence, who should be known only as "Igor", is a complete toad. That beatific look on his face when he gazes upon Mahster couldn't be creepier. His hobbies, along with self-scourging and spittle licking, include paying tribute to Mahster with taxpayer dollars:
https://www.apnews.com/0604821ef5cb478eb0eaaa0212bb5fcd
I'd be careful peeling back Pence's face.
Because rather than finding circuits, the creature from "Alien" might leap out!!!!!
I could go with Pence the automaton. It would not be hard to imagine him backing into a docking station after a hard day of lackey. Now the Alien notion has good appeal also. Pence as a failed cloning experiment from area 51, now that could rise to viral with the conspiracy theory crowd, or just make a hell of a sci-fi thriller. Is it possible that beneath that thin veneer and religious façade there is just nothingness. No one seems to suggest any inkling of humanity or even plant characteristics though it is hard to rule out some genetic link to the fly-catcher.