Monday, June 22, 2020

Behold the Real Trump


This as tout le on-line monde (I know it's bad French, go with it!) is inflamed that Trump is gonna cry "FOUL!" and burrow into the White House like a chigger (it's a Southern thing), or like a tick's head when you pull the tick off.

Why are we so determined to make Trump scarier than his own speeches try to make America?

Behold the real Trump:

Among a series of other complaints, Trump went on a 16-minute (yes, 16-minute) diatribe about the way the media covered his speech at West Point. This soliloquy included a harangue about how tiring it was for him to salute 600 cadets. At this point he mimed the hand gesture several times to demonstrate how much it would tire one’s arm.

He went on to relay the extended back and forth he had with a nameless general plotting the best route for him to descend the stage. After describing the limitations he faced from the soles of his shoes, he repeatedly expressed a significant rampophobia. Here he pantomimed the hunched posture that he felt had been required to safely descend the modest slope. At the conclusion of this—what is one to even call it?—he dedicated several more minutes to explaining that he used two hands to hold a very small cup of water only because of how tired all the saluting had made him.

Put aside the question about whether any of this sounds like a man in control of his faculties. And put aside how anyone could see this sad, elderly fellow as a model of strength.

Just as a political matter: What exactly is the angle here?

To me, the obvious answer is: There isn’t one.

Donald Trump doesn’t know how to manage a global pandemic. He doesn’t understand how said crisis intersects with our economic decline or what to do about it. He is fundamentally incapable of being a uniter or a salve for a country that is raw with pain over police violence and racial tensions. And he doesn’t know what to do about the fact that Joe Biden is schlonging him in the polls.

Even the 6000 who showed up were bored before it was over.  Many started leaving at the 90 minute mark, and Trump went only for 101 minutes (by one count, anyway).  What Donald Trump has proven is not that he's a powerful instigator who can bring out crowds to goosestep to his marching tune.  He's proven he's a fake, a fluke, a one-off who ran at just the right time against just the right person, and then got into a position from which no one has been involuntarily removed in the history of the republic.  From there he was considered invisible and bullet-proof by all the "right" people, when his every move was a mistake and a disaster (hello, North Korea!  Enjoying all those nukes?  Gonna attack South Korea soon, are we?  Donald says "Love you, Un!  Call me!").  Now that disaster has actually struck, as it was inevitable it would, he's proven to be as empty a suit as ever held public office, and that includes Steve King and Louie Gohmert (among the living).

And what is the political angle here?  16 minutes on ramp?  Drinking water to prove he doesn't dribble like a toddler not used to the concept?  How hard it is to salute 600 people you demanded return for another ceremony because Pence looked so good doing it in Colorado months ago?  Does the POTUS realize he's not in uniform and is not required (indeed, shouldn't) return a military salute? Does "saluting made me tired" sound like a campaign slogan to anyone?

So Trump didn’t go to Tulsa with a strategic communications goal that would help him address any of these problems. And he didn’t go there to demonstrate that he was a deal-maker, a businessman, who is ready to lead a fractured country into a glorious transition back to—or maybe onward to?—greatness.

No. He went to Tulsa because he had gone almost four months without the mass adulation to which he had grown accustomed. And it made him grumpy.
This is somewhere well south of pathetic.  And the fact that 6000 of our fellow citizens wanted to wait for 3 days to be first in to see this, is just as sad.  But it's hardly a sign of a populist prairie fire.  It's not even indicative of the support he supposedly has in approval polls.  More and more even those polls seem to indicate "Meh, he's the President, I guess...." is the 40% response.


Biden may never be a great candidate; but Trump is a terrible one.  Which is not to say the GOP isn't still defending the indefensible:

“If the president were to call you today and say, ‘What happened in Tulsa?’ What would you say?” Fox News host Ed Henry asked McDaniel.

“I think the enthusiasm we saw online with the million sign-ups is very real,” McDaniel insisted. “And we weed out the bots and we weed out the fake TikTok things. None of that was factored in.”

What proof do we have that "million sign ups" ever existed, except they keep insisting against reality that it was so?  Is that proof in the same place as Parscale's e-mails?

Co-host Sandra Smith pressed McDaniel: “Just looking at the numbers, I guess the tickets scanned amounted to 6,200, Ronna. The campaign had touted that there were a million ticket requests going into this. We knew the arena’s capacity was 19,000.”

“So what are you saying was the real reason why the turnout was much less than anticipated?” Smith wondered.

“I’m going to dispute the ticket scans because I talked to the campaign this morning and they said it was double that at least,” McDaniel replied. “I do think there was a little chaos in Tulsa as they dispersed the crowds early. The people — the front-row Joes — who were camping out were forced to leave early.”

What "ticket scans" are we talking about?  And again, we're accepting the numbers from a campaign that predicted so large a turnout an overflow stage was needed?

The chairwoman went on to blame Father’s Day weekend and “people who were scared about violence and coronavirus” for the low turnout.

So Trump supporters are scaredy cats and crybabies and selifshly put their families before cheering Trump?  "Just as a political matter: What exactly is the angle here?"

“But people showed up,” she added. “And having 11 million people watch online shows that that enthusiasm exists.”

Again, statistics courtesy of Professor Otto Yerass.

Yeah, most people are more concerned about their health than seeing the country "re-open."  The staggeringly small numbers of people attending those "rallies" across the country should have been a clue.  Or polls; polls, too.

And speaking of political angles, what is this?

I'm old, and I don't remember the world wars, except as historical events.  I read somewhere today that as many as 6 states use mail-in ballots only.  If the Republicans in those states want to refuse to vote because of mail-in ballots, it's fine with me.

What is the political angle here?


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