We all know about “Sharpiegate”, the bogus map Trump presented showing Hurricane Dorian heading towards Alabama, with that direction indicated by a Sharpie line. Somebody had drawn that line onto the map after it was made to vindicate Trump, who had predicted that Alabama would be in danger from the storm, even though it wasn’t.
Look in the photo below to see the added black line showing the storm moving into Alabama. What a crock! This is perhaps the most obvious example of how Trump tries to justify his lies, and although not nearly as serious as his other missteps, is the most graphic one—humorous in its pathetic attempt to rewrite history.
Now, according to several sites, Trump tweeted this bizarre cat video, without explanation, on September 7:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2019
The Cheezburger site, of all places, wrote about it, but linked to a related article in Slate.
From Slate:
In between a series of tweets about a canceled secret meeting with Taliban leaders and another about “Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey,” President Donald Trump sent out a tweet that baffled much of the internet. The commander in chief continued his obsession with the forecasts for Hurricane Dorian by sharing a bizarre cat video late Saturday night. The video makes it seem like it is Trump who is holding a laser pointer and distracting a cat labeled CNN in front of a Hurricane Dorian forecast map. Oh, and “Yakety Sax” is playing in the background.
The video appears to have originally been shared by an account that frequently shares Trump memes. Trump didn’t include a caption to the video, but the original caption read, “Live look at CNN.”
When the National Weather Service contradicted Trump’s “prediction”, he had the usual meltdown:
Trump’s bizarre tweet came almost a week after he made the now infamous claim that Alabama could see a significant impact from Hurricane Dorian. That led the National Weather Service’s Birmingham office to contradict the president, a conflict that subsequently descended into what has become known as Sharpiegate. Earlier, Trump criticized the New York Times for a story on the issue, saying he would love to stop talking about it but the media won’t let him. “I would like very much to stop referring to this ridiculous story, but the LameStream Media just won’t let it alone,” Trump wrote. “They always have to have the last word, even though they know they are defrauding & deceiving the public.”
And this, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, is who America chose to be our leader: the one person best qualified to run the country:
…FAKE NEWS. I would like very much to stop referring to this ridiculous story, but the LameStream Media just won’t let it alone. They always have to have the last word, even though they know they are defrauding & deceiving the public. The public knows that the Media is corrupt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
It’s one thing to post a cat video (was he making fun of himself? I doubt it), another to keep lambasting the media and having public tantrums. He must go, one way or the other. I’m heartened by recent polling data showing him behind any of the three Democratic frontrunners: Warren, Sanders, and Biden. Perhaps we can hope after all to elect a Democratic President next year.
h/t: Su
A memo NOAA Lab employees received from our leadership –
Dear Colleagues,
The fierce storm we know as Hurricane Dorian has concluded its ferocious path through the Bahamas and along the US East Coast. Many of you have contributed to the excellent science that has underpinned the forecasts and current understanding of storms such as this one, which accelerated quite rapidly in intensity. The storm also presented challenges in track which improved with enhanced observations. We know that our collective work, from the scientists in the aircraft penetrating the storm, to the scientists deploying the glider picket line, to the modelers and folks working the physics of the storms, across OAR and in our CI’s, and across all NOAA Lines, we are working the problem in order to give the NWS forecasters the best tools we possibly can to keep America and our neighbors safe. Thank you.
During the course of the storm, as I am sure you are aware, there were routine and exceptional expert forecasts, the best possible, issued by the NWS Forecasters. These are remarkable colleagues of ours, who receive our products, use them well, and provide the benefit of their own experience in announcing accurate forecasts accompanied by the distinction of all credible scientists — they sign their work. As I’m sure you also know, there was a complex issue involving the President commenting on the path of the hurricane. The NWS Forecaster(s) corrected any public misunderstanding in an expert and timely way, as they should. There followed, last Friday, an unsigned press release from “NOAA” that inappropriately and incorrectly contradicted the NWS forecaster. My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political. Our NOAA Scientific Integrity Policy and Code of Scientific Conduct make clear that all NOAA employees shall approach all scientific activities with honesty, objectively, and completely, without allegiance to individuals, organizations, or ideology. The content of this press release is very concerning as it compromises the ability of NOAA to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. If the public cannot trust our information, or we debase our forecaster’s warnings and products, that specific danger arises.
You know that the value of our science is in the complexity of our understanding, our ability to convey that understanding to a wide audience of users of this information, and to establish and sustain the public trust in the truth and legitimacy of that information. Unfortunately, the press release of last Friday violated this trust and violated NOAA’s policies of scientific integrity. In my role as Assistant Administrator for Research, and as I continue to administratively serve as Acting Chief Scientist, I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity. Thankfully, we have such policies that are independently cited as among the best in the federal community, if not the best. Your NOAA and OAR management and leadership team believes in these policies and principles. I have a responsibility to pursue these truths. I will.
Thank you for your continued excellent work, and your trust. Carry on.
Craig
—
Craig N. McLean
Assistant Administrator
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
Ken – you said “our leadership” – so does this mean you are employed at NOAA? If so, do you believe McLean when he said; “I have a responsibility to pursue these truths. I will”?
Will he do anything?
Yes, I’m a employee of NOAA. Yes, I believe he will. The issue for me is that the forecasters were not responding to Trump’s tweet. Rather the forecast office and forecasters were overwhelmed with phone calls from the public. They had no knowledge prior to their tweet regarding Trumps is my understanding. They were simply doing their job.
I know this memo has been published in the press already, but you should be careful what you personally publish on this – or any – website.
There are powerful people who are looking pretty embarrassed about this episode (as well as one who should be but isn’t, because he is a doofus). It would be terrible if they started looking to punish everybody who leaked the memo.
Would that this nation had more public servants with the character and integrity of Mr. McLean!
Right now it’s just words. Real integrity comes with a follow through.
It’s not “just” words, it’s a powerful repudiation of the policies of his political masters.
In this case, his words were his actions: he stood up for his people and for the principle of scientific integrity, and in doing so risked the wrath of the soi-disant leader of the free world. None should be surprised if it ends up costing him his job.
Well I do agree there (and with jeremy about the risk he has taken). But talk is cheap, especially from leadership. Unless something is actually done what he’s accomplished, apart from feeding the media, is shoring up the morale at NOAA – which is a VERY good thing and part of his job and he should be commended for that alone, if nothing else. We’ll see which way the apples go a’rolling
I suppose you didn’t read the entire message?:
How rude. I DID read it. In fact I quoted above from that very line.
I stand by what I wrote; real integrity comes with follow through.
How is that rude old fruit?
I supposed that you didn’t read the ENTIRE message EdwardM – I am quoting from the final para whereas “Leadership” also appears in the first line of Ken’s comment.
It was sent to all NOAA Research employees on the morning of Monday, September 9th & just to confirm the contents: HERE IS THE MESSAGE from Craig N. McLean that was posted to the NOAA “Research News” page on 10th Sept [identical to above Ken Copy/Paste]
“there was a complex issue involving the President commenting on the path of the hurricane”
I understand the need for careful phrasing in the memo, but seriously. The president could have said “Alabama is not threatened? That’s great news. I thought it was, and I’m glad to hear it isn’t.”
It was not really complex at all.
The man will never admit to being wrong about anything.
The Revised weather is just one of many many lies and distortions from this clown. The not so funny moments around this same time is the refusal to allow people from the Bahamas temporary asylum. This is despicable and matches up well with another really bad move attempting to throw out of this country, people who are here for lifesaving treatment. Deportation will most likely kill many of these people but there you go. His immigration racism and failing economic nonsense will kill him in the next election. His base, the 30 percent who manage to lower themselves to follow this garbage are going to lose. Those Iowa farmers are as bankrupt in ideas as they are in the dirt they farm.
As has been said from the beginning in regard to Trump’s lies that there could come a time when the public needs to know they can trust the words of the president because it will threaten their lives if they don’t. Here, he said Alabama was in trouble when they weren’t, so it was lucky.
But people in Alabama tend to believe the president and are more likely to believe him than NOAA. (It’s part of the Deep State!) Next time, if NOAA says, “evacuate,” and Trump says, “you’ll be fine,” people could die, because they will believe Trump and not NOAA.
A more disturbing interpretation of Trump’s cat video is that his behavior has distracted the cat (media) from covering important substantive problems with his presidency. This has certainly worked in the past.
The problem for all of us, but especially the media, is that, in the Trump administration, the substance and the nonsense are one and the same. Donald Trump has no overarching governing philosophy, or even a coherent set of policy positions, so much as a series of puerile, careening, ill-thought-out impulses. Take his recent, rescinded invitation for the Taliban to come visit Camp David (please). Or his last-minute decision to waddle across the Korean border on a visit to the DMZ.
The man is incapable of distinguishing strategic negotiations from a photo-op. And he thinks the right photo-op will score him a Nobel Peace Prize — a bigger, shinier one than Barack Obama ever got, of course.
The whole Nobel Peace Prize thing is amazing. They gave one to Obama solely for his positive message to the world it seems. It must have been a slow year in peacemaking, IMHO. But this is also why Trump will never win it.
He really wants to be on Mt Rushmore. Has mentioned it many times. Or rather, as he tells it ‘People have been saying I should be on Mt Rushmore… I don’t know… what do you think?’ Cue the cheers and thunderous applause.
I would be in favor of putting him on Mount Rushmore after he leaves office but only if his face is in the rubble pile at the bottom with perhaps his forehead and hair visible. I feel we have to do something to properly commemorate his historic presidency!
I’d be in favor of putting him on Mount Rushmore if we could do it right now, while he’s still alive, and if we could affix him there with pitons.
Just stage the photos, three maximum. Him posising in front before, a photo of a suitably biggly tractor (he gets to sit in it and wear the hard hat), and the finished one.
All we have to do is just go along with it.
@SAG
Maybe then he’d resign and go back to (scripted) reality tv, where he’s clearly more comfortable and competent.
I thought this, too, but remember, Trump has other people tweeting for him on occasion. Perhaps one of them is taunting the media.
He certainly does have other people tweeting on his behalf, although they could do with putting a bit more effort into disguising the fact. One of his tweets from the other day had the word ‘naivete’, with the accent aigu above the final e.
I saw that and immediately thought ‘nope, that’s not Trump’. They had remembered to add some Arbitrary Capitalisations, and there were a few incredibly stupid turns of phrase here and there, but they gave the game away with ‘naivete’.
His tweets are surprisingly hard to imitate if you’re a sane, intelligent person. You need to have his flowing, zen-like instinct for insane bullshit and if you’re just some rather dull WH aide you can’t really hope to mimic him convincingly.
I saw the naivete-containing tweet correctly spelled also, and was amazed anyone bothered with the diacritical marks. It didn’t occur to me in that moment that Trump wasn’t the author. Makes perfect sense, though.
It is hard to imitate another’s style, especially when the style is as erratic as Trump’s irrational trainwreck of thoughts. That’s what makes the parody DPRK News Service on Twitter so impressive. Many times real media outlets have fallen for their shtick.
This is an important substantive problem though.
Trump lied about a weather forecast potentially causing some panic in a state not affected by the hurricane.
He doubled down on his lying and brought ridicule on himself and the office of president.
He then pressured a scientific organisation to deny the science it produces. The history of politicians denying science is pretty bad and the deaths caused are measured in the millions.
That pen is the sharpest thing in the Oval Office.
They can’t give him sharper pens in case he hurts himself and they can’t give him crayons because he’ll eat them.
The KGB’s poisons department just pricked their ears up.
🤣
Well played.
Fake news! Trump is a dog person:
https://twitter.com/stonecold2050/status/1169822243846672384
Love that!
To my knowledge Donald Trump has never cared for a pet, or had any other interest in animals (not even in shooting endangered ones, like his doltish sons).
That alone, I think, provides insight into his noxious temperament and narcissism.
I believe Trump used to have a dog – unfortunately he bankrupted it.
Christ, the guy managed to bankrupt a half dozen casinos, the most foolproof money-making enterprises ever put on God’s green earth, this side of the US Bureau of Engraving & Printing.
Just crazy. He’s given a virtual license to print money and he somehow manages to fuck that up. It’s almost impressive, in a kind of ‘man who can kick his own arse’ kind of way.
I think he blamed the casino failures on “the Indians”.
Trump was using the casinos as a institutional financial device rather than a profit centre & in that respect it was successful for Trump since he had no personal money stake in them. It cost a lot of other people a lot of money & the livelihoods of a lot of ‘little people’ – some of whom would go on to vote for the blighter.
Guaranteed casino profitability is a myth. The high overheads in holiday resorts, spas, hotels & casinos can get one into real trouble very quickly – if your particular people attraction ploughs into an economic recession or becomes unfashionable the money river changes direction.
Gambling joints dip their nose into their enormous cash flow & extract a small percent from the common gambler with their polystyrene cups of tokens. Acres of gambling machines with pensioners on their scooters is the most reliably profitable [percentage terms] part of the biz if well managed. This part of the biz should cover most of your usual, everyday costs such as city taxes, salaries, maintenance & utilities, but you’ll not get rich.
A smart lowest risk move is to run an arcade of machines, but once you step up into the casino category the enterprise is far more unstable. Trump screwed up the casinos because he ‘bought’ them with leveraged loans at very high interest rates he couldn’t repay & he also moved personal debts over to his casino businesses & extracted a large salary & bonus payments.
He also didn’t have the right attitude to high rollers [called whales in the industry] who are the ones which generate the casino profits [or losses] for the year. He lost existing whale customers & failed to attract new victims because he wouldn’t spend ahead of time on the things you need to get these people through the door [up to $30M credit line per whale, free villa stay & free ‘extras’, pick up from anywhere in the world by small personal jet & door-to-door limo is just top of the long list of what these people expect].
TYPICAL WHALES OF RECENT TIMES [& good luck with getting these people to settle their credit line debt!]:
Terrance Watanabe, Sir Philip Green, Michael Jordan, Larry Flynt, Charles Barkley, Gladys Knight, Kerry Packer, Sultan of Brunei, sundry Hollywood royalty [Charlie Sheen, Don Johnson] & hip hop stars, arms dealers [Khashoggi], drug traffickers [Zhenli Ye Gon], warlords, Russian, Japanese, Ukrainian, & Chinese ‘mafia’
No, I wouldn’t have thought that the genuinely wealthy elites would want to associate themselves with Trump’s sordid, tacky brand. That’s partly why he’s such a bitter man. Even if he’d gone to the effort(and expense) of trying to reel them in I think a significant chunk of the world’s high rollers would have avoided his casinos in the same way that a Waitrose customer avoids Greggs.
“Trump was using the casinos as a institutional financial device rather than a profit centre & in that respect it was successful for Trump since he had no personal money stake in them. It cost a lot of other people a lot of money & the livelihoods of a lot of ‘little people’”
That almost goes without saying. He is the weasel’s weasel, the uber-weasel. Darth Weasel. There is not a fuck up in his history that he hasn’t walked away from, leaving other people to bear the brunt.
Incidentally, this should always be factored into any calculation about how his time as president will end. Even if a legal net closes around him I’m prepared to wager that he will wriggle out of it somehow.
Very well put – there will be a wide, long & sticky trail of slime left behind when he leaves office & settles back to ghost-write his $100M advance [my guess] memoires.
He’s Sir Harry Paget Flashman sans the education & superficial class of that great pretender.
Even if we get Trump out of office soon, he won’t become one of those mostly silent ex-presidents. He’s going to be insufferable until he dies. Unless he goes to prison of course.
30M in credit for the high-rollers too. That’s pretty revolting.
…I never read Flashman. Worth reading? Any specific recommendations? I fancy diving in.
Only 99p on Kindle!
Start with Book 1 & so onwards until you grow tired [or don’t] of the repeating themes. Bk 1 is marginally the best IMO
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9J2I/
Thanks for that. I’ve heard good things, and cheap is my kind of price.
Or, what’s known in Trumpworld as “the business model” — use other people’s money for acquisition, suck maximum profits out of the enterprise through inflated licensing and management fees for so long as it remains viable, let others hang around to deal with the cadaver left behind.
In the mob, they call that “a bust-out” operation.
Also the FBI & the IRS have become extra interested in money laundering these past 50 years [& especially post 9/11] & hold casinos to account as well as the actual launderers. Thus the casino hotspot has shifted to less regulated Macau & similar where you need only pay off your local gangster supremo don-type chap & various cops & government officials. All the biggest whales now hang out in the east – that’s where all the predatory pro gamblers have gone too of course.
Yeah, self-deprecating humor (which I’ve always seen as a sign of one’s mental balance) is not in Trump’s limited communicative skill set.
Our Stable Genius (who’s never been a paragon of equanimity even in the best of times) is losing his shit right before our eyes. And it’s like to get much, much worse before we’re finally rid of him.
The video is fake. The photograph of Mr Trump holding the sharpie map and a cat and laser pointer in front. That hand with the laserpointer, albeit not very large, isn’t Mr Trump’s.
As absurd as Sharpiegate was, the POTUS providing the wrong information about a deadly storm could have serious implications. I think we’ve been lucky so far that a conventional (vs trade) war or a nuclear mishap hasn’t yet occurred.
What is wrong information? NOAA and the NWS predicted the storm would hit Florida and that didn’t happen. Why is one worse than the other?
One is from the POTUS. The POTUS has a bigger influence and reach than any other government agency. One expects that if the POTUS says something, he has vetted it with not only these weather agencies, but many others.
And I should note that NOAA and other science based organizations make clearly provisional statements and update their information as they know more….the POTUS doubled down and insisted on incorrect information no matter what. That is very deadly. Wrong information is one thing — clinging to wrong information is another.
Trump is clinging to the belief that *at the time* (before the high pressure area weakened allowing Dorian to move North), there was a possibility that Dorian would continue West and threaten Alabama. Even if you ignore the black sharpie addition, that does not seem implausible given the predicted track in the NOAA map. Similarly, I would imagine NOAA would “cling to their belief” that, at the time, they thought Dorian would make landfall in Florida.
In my view, the media has been purposely trying to embarrass Trump on this. And I am certainly not a Trump supporter. I also think Trump’s cat video is a way of saying “lighten up.”
Now the matter of possible retaliation against NWS employees is another matter.
It may sound trivial but the media had a responsibility to point out Trump’s original mistake as Alabamians needed to know that they were not going to get hit by the storm. Maybe they had more glee in pointing this out than they would have if Obama had done it but, after all, Trump has made so many laughable statements, the media should be forgiven for laughing at this one.
As many in the media have said, if Trump had just admitted to the mistake it would have ended there. Instead, Trump insisted he was right and the issue spiralled out of control. This is definitely Trump’s fault.
At the time Trump tweeted about Hurricane Dorian and Alabama, the storm was already projected to turn north and pose no threat to Alabama.
As far as I can tell, it was a simple mistake on Trump’s part, and could have been rectified easily by a prompt correction and an acknowledgment (as the regulars at this website routinely acknowledge and apologize for an error when other commenters point one out).
But Donald Trump is incapable of ever admitting error and — much worse! — will seemingly go to any length, however deceitful and ridiculous, to cover them up. This bodes ill for the trust the nation will be able to place in representations from our president when we face an actual national crisis, as this nation most assuredly eventually will.
Imagine Donald Trump leading the nation after a 9/11-style attack or during the 2008 economic crisis.
Trump thinks admitting error is a sign of weakness especially if pointed out by someone “on the other side”. I know some died in the wool Trump supporters who show the same reluctance. Errors are met with doubling down or silence when a simple “oh, I was wrong” would put in an end to it.
“dyed in the wool”. I made a mistake.😀
Wool is so itchy I can see someone dying in it.
I don’t see it that way at all. The fact that he redraw the path on the map, then again and again, tweet after tweet reiterating that he was right when he could have said, “oh at the time it looked like this is where the storm was headed but now we have more information and it has changed it’s path.” It isn’t the media trying to embarrass Trump. It’s Trump embarrassing himself over and over and over and trying to blame others because he thinks if he is wrong it reflects badly on him somehow because he has a fixed mindset.
And no, NOAA and the other scientists never clung to outdated information. They made provisional statements. If you see that as clinging, then you must also see scientists agreeing that evolution is real is “clinging” to their idea of evolution instead of embracing the controversy.
Can you give a specific example of “the media” trying to embarrass Trump on this? Reporting that he showed an embellished map is certainly embarrassing for him, but it also is an objective fact, which is what we expect at minimum from our media.
The NOAA map of Thursday August 29 shows the estimated track of Dorian (based on the information available at the time) through Tuesday September 2 where it shows Dorian over central Florida. Given the estimated westward speed of Dorian, after September 2 it would have continued to a cone not unlike the one Trump drew on the map. Given that map, Trump’s “embellishment is what I and, I think, anyone not infected with TDS would expect after September 2 even if NOAA did not project that far. There was certainly no reason to expect Dorian would stall over Florida but there was plausible reason to believe it could affect Alabama based on the trajectory of the storm. Also remember, as clearly stated on the map, “Hazardous conditions can exist outside the cone.”
I’m afraid you have failed to give an example of the media trying to embarrass Trump, if indeed you were replying to me and not someone else.
As far as your concerns about the August 29 map, Ms. MacPherson, Mr. Kucek, and Mr. Topping have already addressed them quite nicely.
Furthermore, the NOAA predictions were based on accredited models whereas Trump’s statement was based on five-day-old information and a childish & narcissistic need to put himself in the center of things.
“NOAA and the NWS predicted the storm would hit Florida..”
Actually, that’s not true. They gave it a high probability of hitting Florida. I know that sounds like weaseling, but meteorologists only really work in probabilities and, of course, they have a responsibility to warn those who have a high probability of getting hit by a storm.
They gave it a zero probability of hitting Alabama.
Exactly – and they updated their predictions as they had more data instead of doubling down on an earlier prediction.
I’m not defending Trump here but I do think probability is implied in a weather prediction. This is so well known that “probability” needn’t be mentioned explicitly.
Also, if I recall correctly, the meteorologists did include Alabama in its threat zone but 3 or 4 days before Trump said it. By that time the meteorologists had updated their predictions and Alabama was no longer threatened. Trump didn’t completely fabricate the report.
This is like, when Obama made his slip about having visited “57 states,” if he had immediately gone to the Oval Office and signed an executive order purportedly granting statehood on seven US territories so he could deny having made an error. 🙂
+1
Yes, that last part is where the focus should be. Trump gets everyone consumed with his sharpie and a thousand other stupid things and we miss or drive by the important stuff. We pulled a high level spy out of Russia in 2017, probably because of Trump and now hide the family here in the states. With Trump, even the CIA cannot do their job, or the FBI. Meanwhile the military buys fuel for their planes in Ireland to provide money and assistance for his golf course.
Just for the record, the aircraft fuel purchases (and alleged golf resort discounts) take place in Scotland not Ireland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49621836
I’m sorry to nit pick, but details are important where Trump and his disregard for facts are concerned.
That emphasis pen really needs to be kept to-hand.
Yes, I lingered over that yet and that little word was very essential to the sentence. Sadly.
Perhaps drawing the Sharpie line does no harm but giving prioritizing covering Trump’s mistakes and lies over accurate weather forecasting, and threatening to fire federal employees who don’t agree, does a great deal of harm.
Yes, threatening govt. employees who do not lie for Trump is kind of important. Look what he did to the FBI and the Justice department.
I would vote for warm excrement in a shoe over that rusted dumpster of a human.
The sad thing about this newest tweetfart is that Trumpy is actually the cat, and the laser is golf, watching TV, eating burgers in bed, destroying what should be apolitical, and his pretending to profess Christianity to appease a base of ignorant theocrats.
The Commander-in-Idiocy made a mistake by referencing an outdated map that changed before he made the reference. But Trumpy doesn’t read, nor does he care, so he simply referenced what he saw that one time early on.
Rather than correct himself, which the Dear Leader is incapable of, reality is wrong.
As Hitchens said of Falwell, it’s a pity there isn’t a hell for him to go to.
I get the feeling he really wanted Dorian to hit Alabama. It’s a very red state (the reddest?) and he wanted the opportunity to show them how much he would help them recover from disaster. Of course, if he really cared about the people of Alabama, he wouldn’t want them to get hit at all but that’s Trumpian logic for you.
I might be suffering from TDS thinking this but I doubt it.
I get the feeling he saw “Bahamas” and misread it as “Alabama”
I bet drunks in Nassau sometimes call their country ‘Bama.
That’s my feeling also. And that is even more embarrassing.
Or misheard it.
Maybe reception was bad on his cell phone out on the back nine that day.
I think he misread them both as ‘Obama’. He just seems B.O.’s name everywhere he looks. Eventually they’re going to find him frozen to death in the Overlook’s hedge maze.
LOL but only after he went to the bar and had a drink with ghost Obama.
“All tweet and no work makes Donald a dull boy.”
I’m seeing that last scene with JN holding the axe, frozen w/ eyes open, and now it’s fucking Trump! Love it.
Make it your ‘happy place’ until he’s out of office
🤣
Just remember that in actuality, those with Trump Derangement Syndrome are really those who *support* him — not those who justifiably oppose him.
He’s a catatonic firehose of BS.
Totally agree.
Absolutely agree. It’s ironic that I can go online and be accused of ‘TDS’ by ‘libralsargay71’, who writes entirely in capitals and whose avatar is a picture of Donald Trump with a rifle in each hand, riding a tiger.
Don’t forget, Hitch also said he was so full of shit, if cremated he would fit in a match box.
Randall: Not cremated, but rather if he was given an enema! haha
Ah, correct. Well the full of shit issue still applies.
Only one way to find out.
Also as Hitchens said of Falwell, and also entirely appropriate regarding Trump, “If you gave him an enema you could bury him in a match box.”
Okay, what’s wrong with that Vid? I don’t know anything about photoshopping or fiddling around with videos, but clearly that vid is some sort of fun composite.
Frump’s hand is moving, bur the rest of him is a still picture. And the laser light is in front of both him and the cat.
Oh, and as for animals and Yakety Sax, this one is a hoot! One of my favorites! The dog is so disobedient, and the cat is so cool and laid back:
The kitty should be filing her nails. The pooch needs his cut: he sounded like a chain gang before he jumped on the bed.
Is it frump’s hand moving? The hand moves up and in tune with the laser spot.seems to be the hand of whoever made the cat video.
Maybe his unsecured phone got hacked and someone else inserted the cat video. Tend to doubt trump has that much technical savvy.Plus the video is not that pointed or mean.
Can we get a Yakety Sax trigger warning?
Sharpiegate ,for shame doc .
Reassessing provisional models of reality in the light of new data is, of course, the way both science and ordinary common sense work. People who are big cheeses, as they say in French, or who suppose themselves to be big cheeses, can’t manage this operation because it means admitting that their first assessment wasn’t perfect. Trump is far from alone in this behavior. Jeremy Corbyn in the DisUnited Kingdom, and several American Congresspersons much in the news, are like Trump among those whose every word is and always has been perfect. This property is also claimed for certain old books.
I just spent a half-hour making notes from a mailing list of astronomers (specifically, specialists in determining the orbits of solar system bodies), concerning the apparent second detection of an interstellar object, with a far higher chance of getting spectroscopy from it. A great example of the process in action.
I guess we do not know how many have access to Trump’s Twitter account, even “legitimacy”.
Legitimately, ahem.
Sharpiegate has just been discussed on BBC Radio 4’s main afternoon news and current affairs programme, PM. The presenter, the usually professional and respected Evan Davis, couldn’t outline the background to the issue without repeatedly bursting into laughter. Trump truly has turned the US into a laughing stock. Not that us Brits can gloat too much, now that we have our very own Trump-lite as prime minister (though perhaps not much longer, the way he’s going).
It’s available from BBC Sounds now, starting at about 41:22. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0008bb7
I was listening. It is a rare and special thing to get a BBC presenter struggling to control their reactions.
Remember Jim Naughtie “mispronouncing” Jeremy Hunt’s surname on the BBC Today news programme?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYwBHooA_M
One of my favourite compilations. All mispronunciations ‘unintentional’ of course.
Coughing fit – via a non-standard orifice.
There are several observations to be made:
1- Why this weird insistence on Alabama in the first place? It is not as if Florida and Georgia would not be hit.
2- why did the sharpie ‘correction’ only very marginally involve Alabama? If you’re going to make up things, why not do it ‘properly’.
3- Is it possible that he really thought a sharpie line on an elaborate map would fool anyone? Is the testing the gullibility, nay, faith of his flock?
4- Serious matters: the beloved Leader cannot, may not and shall not be found to have made even the slightest or most innocent mistake.
5- The really dark side: It appears Mr Ross threatened some in the NOAA with dismissal if no report contradicting the NWS were produced. That is what petty tin-pot dictators and more sinister despots do.
6- (I think) the cat video is an effort to turn the whole thing into a joke.
Billy was not impeached because of a BJ, but because of lying about it.
Trumpy should not be impeached because of the ‘creative’ use of a sharpie, or a cat video, but because of threatening those correctly contradicting his sharpie nonsense.
It’s something to do with USian politics, which I don’t get.
Wasn’t last year’s Alabama electoral race swung by the Trump putting his zombie-legion at the behest of a Republican candidate accused of molesting minor teenager boys, or something like that. And Trump tied him onto his political coat tails – which we all know fit so badly that Trump has to mention Alabama three times a week or the electorate will turn on him?
From which bi-directional abuse of power, all the rest of your points follow like the sun rising in the West. This being politics.
The Donald just grokked two things:
1. Cat videos are the most popular thing on the Intertoobz.
2. Benny Hill’s music was the funniest thing on TV.
Combine the two and you’ve got a sure-fire winner!
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So, to restore this discussion to it’s appropriate level, I can’t resist linking to a Benny Hill episode ending featuring (of course) Yakety Sax.
(Do I need a trigger warning? 😉
I think every discussion of Mr Trump from now on should feature a Benny Hill clip.