Freak Out Friday – March 3, 2017

So it was a busy week for the future ex-President. Let’s see what he was up to:

1) He finally made a correct decision: Trump decided to pass on the White House correspondents dinner. Thank freaking God. I don’t know which would have been worse: watching him sitting there trying to take jokes made about him in stride, or attempting to make jokes himself. First of all, all the best joke writers are Jewish, gays, Democrats or all three, and I very much doubt any of them would take the gig. And second, Donald Trump has the comedy timing of the Interrupting Cow. Indeed, considering the incessant anti-press attitude of pretty much his entire administration, one almost wonders if they should even bother having it over the next four years. Zach Braff, as it turns out, has put forward the ideal compromise: have Alec Baldwin host AS Trump. With the SNL staff as part of this, it could be the best press dinner in ages. Certainly it would be up there with Luther, Obama’s anger translator.

2) The Blame Game: Well, thank God Trump has taken a break from blaming Hillary Clinton for everything that’s been going wrong with his “presidency.” Instead he’s now pointing the finger at Barack Obama. Yes, that’s right, while Obama has been off swimming with his family, he has also—according to Trump on “Fox and Friends”—been behind the many leaks in his administration and also has his people helping to organize protests at various Town Halls. Because after being insanely courteous to Trump upon his arrival (even taking the time to welcome Trump’s wife after he sprinted ahead of her, abandoning her) and urging the American people to accept the transition of power, the former president is now causing leaks and setting up protests. Since the American people cannot, on their own, decide to protest without Obama being behind it. Oh, and he was also blaming Obama and the military for the military mission he launched a week into his term that resulted in the death of a Navy seal, various children, the escape of who they were going after, and no usable intel. His claim was that the mission concept had been around before he came on board and therefore it’s Obama’s fault for going badly. Of course, if the mission had gone great, who thinks that he’d be saying, “Obama should really get the credit.” I mean, I get that Trump is all about blaming everyone other than himself. He also palmed off blame on the military, stating “They lost Ryan.” This prompted one newspaper to cover the blame fest with the following first line: “In the Trump administration, the buck apparently stops anywhere but the Oval Office,” and went on to point out Obama asserting, “”I’m the president. And I’m always responsible,” in referencing Benghazi. The newspaper that did so? The New York Post. First Fox News, now the ultra right Post. But really, when Sean Spicer organizes a meeting about stopping leaks, strictly instructs that no one leaks news of the meeting, and then it gets leaked, it’s obviously time to think outside the box of blaming and finger the guy whose behavior is totally contrary to that of a rabble rouser. George W. Bush has been far more critical than Obama; I wonder if Trump will blame him next.

3) He seems so presidential! : That was the constant refrain from the news media after Trump addressed Congress. Because apparently they seem to have developed amnesia over all the other times in the past year that they’ve declared he seemed more presidential, right before he then turned around and acted like an asshole. The reason is simple: Trump has set the bar so low with all his other behavior that when he just stands there and reads off a teleprompter without going off topic or insulting people, that is all that the news requires to declare that he’s presidential. Which they do time and again while ignoring what he’s actually saying. His recent speech to Congress was no exception. From taking credit for things that happened before he assumed office to flat out falsehoods and contradictions, his speech was vintage Trump. According to the Center for American Progress Action, he spoke fifty-one lies in sixty-one minutes. Review it for yourself: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/.... Yet Trump continues to be graded on a curve, simply standing there and reading off a teleprompter. But he slammed Hillary repeatedly for using a teleprompter, and even said, “You know the problem is, it’s too easy. We have a president who uses teleprompters, it’s too easy. We should have non-teleprompter speeches only when you’re running for president, you find out about people. The other way you don’t find out about anybody.” So he doesn’t hesitate to condemn others for using that device which allows people to declare him presidential. You know what? Here’s the definition of Presidential: Acting like the damned president 24/7, not just when it’s on television.

4) There’s no “I” in “ethics”…oh, wait…: So it turns out that there may well be a reason that the Trump transition team has walked into so many ethical blunders over the past few months. It seems that the previous two administrations took an ethics course that was offered, but the Trump team couldn’t be bothered. Which is why Kellyanne Conway didn’t realize she was breaking the law in suggesting people buy Trump’s daughter’s goods, and various other ethical goofs that they’ve committed. You have to love the notion that Trump and his people are doing whatever they can to make sure that George W. will not go down in history as the worst American president of all time.

Did he do anything right? Well, his supporters adored his congressional address. While they would have had no hesitation to whiff on Hillary if she’d read it off a teleprompter, they declared that their guy was unquestionably presidential, apparently because he finally proved that he was capable of reading. So for his supporters, the fact that he didn’t stop and say “What’s that word?” or drool or try to grab Nancy Pelosi’s vagina made it a flat out win. For those of us who actually listened to what he said and demand something more than a performance that a capable fifth grader could have turned in, it was more of the same.

PAD