Monday, October 2, 2017

Trump's Puerto Rico tweets show we are heading away from who we are



     UTICA, Ill. — Sometimes people ask if I ever write columns in advance, to have one in the can. I tell them the truth: You really can't, because they go stale so quickly. Events have a way of hurtling past.
      For instance. Say so you hope to slip away for the weekend by tramping around Starved Rock State Park. So you write a column Friday morning, oh, suggesting that Donald Trump will be president for another seven years and change, so the best thing sentient people can do, rather than howling in horror at each new jaw-dropped lapse, is to tend your own garden, live your own rich life, baking English muffins and keeping track of the slow-motion train wreck in Washington only periodically, out of the corner of your eye, through latticed fingers. Otherwise it's just too disturbing.
     Then Saturday morning arrives to find our president lashing out at the beleaguered people of Puerto Rico, writing a sentence so freighted with racism that will go down in infamy, or should:
     "They want everything to be done for them," Trump wrote. "When it should be a community effort."
     Ignoring that isn't an option; being disturbed isn't a distraction, it's a patriotic duty.
     "They want everything to be done for them." Let's unpack that sentence. "They" are . . . who? Not hurricane survivors in general. Not the people in Houston and Florida. "They" are Puerto Ricans, 3.4 million American citizens, a status Trump no doubt discovered a few days ago.
     "Everything." That would be recovery efforts, restoring electricity and rebuilding infrastructure after Hurricane Maria ravaged their island Sept. 20. "Done" that would be their government snapping into action, instead of the president mocking them from his golf course in New Jersey. "For them" — these lazy, entitled brown folks, the ones he's been ridiculing since Day One of his camp...


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8 comments:

  1. I know you said not to reply, but I never listen to anybody. I thought when he said some of the white supremicists were good people, he had hit a low. Then this came along. What scares me is what is the next thing he'll say or do that's even lower than this. I can't even imagine. For a while, I had decided to find his administration and lack of skill and stupidity to be amusing. I think that worked for about a week. I'm firmly back to being horrified. Puero Rico is an island surrounded by water. Really? Who knew?

    By the way, can't John Kelly get him to stop referring to himself in the third person. It's really creepy.

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  2. I'm fascinated that the worst narcissist in American history actually has managed to become more narcissistic as the months have gone on.

    But In seeing his bizarre impromptu press conference a few days ago, where he talked about that they had the votes for the health care bill, but didn't have the one vote of a senator in the hospital & his constant repetition of there's a senator in the hospital, I'm now firmly convinced that Trump really does have some form of dementia & it's getting worse!
    I know he won't finish out four years & I think we will see him removed due to that dementia before next summer.

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  3. "Every day we get fresh evidence of just how lost we are"

    I wake up this morning with news from Las Vegas that confirms your thesis in the worst possible way. Making battlefield weaponry and munitions universally available - a relentless initiative of the political right - has born more fruit.

    The mad spin the NRA puts on this will be a sight to behold.

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    1. I just talked to a friend in Mesquite NV. That nut-job lived just a few blocks from her. People out there are pretty rattled, to say the least, but at the end of the day everyone will kowtow to the NRA and go on with their lives. Nothing will change. Disgusting.

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  4. I have a sister who excuses her "candor" with, "I'm just telling the truth." So far, she has alienated her children, made her vicious husband look saintly in comparison, lost all her friends and jobs, wore out her welcome even in my heart. She has paid for her sins dearly. When or when is Donald going to called to account? 50 years in the public eye and his every utterance is "locker room talk."

    john

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    1. I'm sorry to hear that about your sister, John. That must be very sad for you to have to deal with.

      The most infuriating thing about the folks who voted for ole Rumpy because "he's the only one who tells it like it is" is that there is, bar none, no more frequent or transparent of a public liar in American political history. He may tell it like they *want* to hear it, he may tell it like he and they *wish* it was, but he very, very seldom seems to tell it like it is. The only recent example of truth-telling on his part that comes to mind is: "This is an island, surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water." Ridiculous, trite, exasperating -- yes, but, hey, it's actually true -- heckuva job Trumpie! As Shari noted, "Who knew?"

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  5. President Trump cares about the people of Puerto Rico, as this story clearly illustrates. Now those who don't care for Trump's level of empathy, should adjust their attitude accordingly.

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  6. Read the article. I am dumbfounded. What is wrong with this man?

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