Sometimes I wish Don Trump didn't exist. No, not for the reasons you think--well, okay those too--but because the vile fucker is the President of the United States and so mentally unbalanced it is incredibly hard not to write about him.
I search the internet far and wide five and six days a week searching for something, anything, besides Donald John Trump to write about. Sometimes I'm lucky, but more often than not I end up stuck with the son of a bitch. Hey, his lies, his overtly corrupt behavior, hell, his very being--it's all just too egregious to ignore.
The latest madness started innocently enough. On Sunday, September 1st at 10:51AM the President sent the second of two tweets concerning Hurricane Dorian. It read, "In addition to Florida--South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already a category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!"
Now, your average person would assume he has more information available to him than say, WRNX's Billy Barue, the local Eye on the Weather guy in Crab Claw Shoals. Let's face it, he is the President for God's sake and he just said, "...and Alabama will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated."
The people at the National Weather Service certainly understood the ramifications and they knew at the time of the tweet, Dorian had already turned northeast and was headed away from Alabama. Exactly 20 minutes after The Big Orange Guy's warning showed up on the internet, the NWS Birmingham office issued a tweet of their own. It read, "Alabama will NOT see any impact from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian across Alabama. The system will remain too far east. #alwx."
It was at this point that someone with a normal adult brain would have issued a statement saying something along the lines of either, "I misspoke," or even, "The information I received was out of date, don't worry Alabama you are in the clear." If he had this entire crazed affair would have disappeared.
However, despite the NWS tweet, Trump, proved once more he is utterly lacking a normal adult brain. Later in the day he went on television and repeated the dire warning that Alabama was one of the places in Dorian's cross hairs.
On Monday, ABC's, Jon Karl reported Trump's error in storm tracking, saying Mr. Trump had, "...misstated the storm's possible trajectory," then added, the National Weather Service, "had corrected the President." Karl continued by pointing out Trump had canceled a trip to Poland in order to monitor the storm, but still found time to put in a round of golf at one of his country clubs.
That evening our man in the Oval Office was back on Twitter. His run amok ego was in overdrive and among other things he called Karl a, "lightweight reporter." The LA Times noted it was the first of nine tweets over the next four days which lashed out at Karl and the media, while totally ignoring the National Weather Service's correction. One of the tweets, referencing his on air remarks, read, "It was in fact correct Alabama could have received some hurt. Always good to be prepared! But Fake News is only interested in demeaning and belittling. Didn't play my whole sentence and statement. Bad people!"
Then came the map fiasco. And as the Times pointed out, late night comics rejoiced. On Wednesday the White House released a video which featured a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map which forecasted the storm's projected track in white. It was dated, August 29th. Since it showed Dorian not quite reaching Alabama, someone, perhaps Trump himself, took what appeared to be a black Sharpie and expanded the possible path to include the southeastern corner of the state.
Trump told the cameras, "That was the original chart. It could've--was going toward the Gulf." The crudely drawn bubble extending the route into Alabama was impossible to miss.
Twitter went wild. #TrumpSharpie and #SharpieGate immediately exploded on the site. One of the hosts of television's "The View," Joy Behar wrote, "Just because Donald Trump slept with a porn star named Stormy doesn't mean he can predict the weather."
The administration responded with an even earlier map, one compiled in Dorian's infancy, which included dozens if not more computer projections of possible courses the storm might take. It was so old one of those strings included a track as far west as Louisiana.
Today is September 6th. Dorian has come ashore in North Carolina, yet the President of these United States still insists his warning to Alabama was valid and is claiming this entire affair is being kept alive only by the "fake news." Apparently he has no clue the real reason it won't go away is it's no longer about a minor and easily corrected mistake on Twitter. Now it is all about his refusal to admit he is capable of making one.
Ladies and gentlemen, is it any wonder the bar is now open? I didn't think so.
9-6-19
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