Friday, September 6, 2019

He Isn't Alone

So the latest story about the President is his tripling down on a mistake that Hurricane Dorian would threaten Alabama after it was clear that the storm would turn north eliminating the potential of crossing of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.  Over the last several days President Trump has tried to make it sound like he was right about Alabama, up to and including alerting a chart with the cone of uncertainty with a sharpie.  I mean it is on brand for him to make something phallic appear to be bigger than it is but this is a dangerous thing.  When the President tweeted that Alabama was in the path of the storm when it wasn't that could have caused confusion in that state as no local or national forecasts were suggesting a concern.  The National Weather Service has to send out a message refuting the President's tweet.  This is clearly not the first time the President was wrong about something.  He lies regularly on many issues.  He lied about Chinese trade envoys calling him during the G-7, they didn't.  He lied about changing policy on separation of children and parents at the border.  Now he is lying about the weather. 

President Trump's inability to live in a world not of his making is troubling.  That is true.  His words change markets world-wide, focus policy and of course challenge democratic principles.  Everyone knows this.  But there are those who allow it to continue.

In an interview with Stuart Varney of Fox Business, Joe Walsh was being pushed for calling the President a liar.  Joe, a conservative former member of Congress who has tons of baggage, is challenging the President because he feels he has gone too far.  He finally asked Varney if Trump has ever lied to the American people, Varney said no.  That is false on its face, but that is how so many on the right react to this President.

While some have stepped up from the outside of power in the Republican party most are allowing the President to simply create a fantasy world where his statements are seen as truth when they are objectively not at all.   Some seem to do as part of their job, Rear Admiral Peter Brown, a homeland security adviser, suggested that it was he who told the President Alabama was in danger.  If he did then he should be fired because his information was not based on the science we understand, if he didn't and is lying to cover the President he should face a court martial. 

What is even more amazing are the everyday people defend this President in the face of facts.  It is not an opinion that the storm was not headed for Alabama on September 1.  It certainly was never going to be bad.  There was never a 95% chance that Dorian would hit Alabama as the President also said.  But there are people on social media, interviewed by TV and radio shows and in the right wing noise machine who are trying to square the circle of that simple mistake the President made.  That is what is dangerous.  We can dismiss the President on many things he says and probably should.  Especially when there is a reputable organization that can follow up.  But when people ignore the truth, repeat the nonsense and try to make it look like everyone is wrong but the President that is the start of a dictatorship.  I never believed and still don't that this President and the array of sycophants around him could pull off destroying democracy on their own.  He isn't Darth Sidious or Adolph Hitler, he is Esposito from Bananas.  But even a mad dictator can do things if the people are willing to turn away from reality and support him or her.  I hope that with the latest crazy that we see from the White House there are some in the GOP leadership to stand up and that people who support this man will see that it is not good for the party or the country in the long run.  But my hope is all but gone.  

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