When I was a kid there was a deodorant brand called Secret. Their commercials were always tagged with “Secret Super Spray… Helps You Feel Cool, Calm, Collected,” or its variation that ended with “Protected.” In an election where I daily feel the need for a shower after the latest barrage of filth from Donald Trump, he may as well put out Trump Deodorant, “Helps You Feel Hot, Bothered, Dissembled.”
This is a famous quote from Chicago Mayor and Obama confidant Rahm Emanuel:
You never let a serious crisis go to waste.
Conservatives have criticized it as a super-cynical Machiavellian use of others’ misfortune for your gain. And that’s a nice way of characterizing the misuse of the that quote, because the full phrase is this:
You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
Politicians are expected to and have always weighed in on ongoing calamities. But as with everything else in 2016, we’re in a whole new Zone of Inappropriate Political Expediency. Am I paranoid? Why is it that I think a President Donald J Trump would attempt to commandeer the entire cellphone alert system?… not just of the NY metro area…. but everywhere… on a whim… to attack and insult anyone who did not salute and agree with him? Why would I think that? Is it possibly because of his real behavior forever…. and his Twitter behavior going back to 2009 all the way to today, where he puts out dissembled, contradictory messages, injecting himself into the NY area bombing story.
1: “We might see more terror strikes around the country; our leaders are “stupid“………. why the word “stupid” in quotes? Does that mean you DON’T think they’re stupid, or do you not know what putting a word in quotes does to its meaning?
2. That remarkable prediction came more than a day after he’d initially said this Saturday evening as the story was breaking and no one knew any real details: “Just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in New York and nobody knows exactly what’s going on,” Trump said that at a campaign rally in Colorado Springs. Two hours after he spoke, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the explosion “was an intentional act.” That, of course, doesn’t meet Trump’s immediate standard of shooting his mouth off first on a high probability event, where responsible people in this country have learned over the years to wait for law enforcement to gather enough real information to speak and react. No loss in screaming he “knew” it was a bomb when others investigate and analyze, because if he’s right he declares himself a genius who’s been deprived of the credit due; if he’s wrong, he’ll just deny and lie about what he said.
3. Then comes this tweet Monday morning: “Great job once again by law enforcement! We are proud of them and should embrace them – without them, we don’t have a country!” Hey, Trump, do you realize (or care) that you were, in effect, attacking the NYPD for not being as brilliant and quick to use the “bomb” or “terrorism” label as quickly as you did?
4. He then follows immediately with another tweet: “Once again someone we were told is ok turns out to be a terrorist who wants to destroy our country & its people- how did he get thru system?” That’s another attack on law enforcement… right at the NYPD & FBI for not preventing an apparent lone wolf terrorist who was an American Citizen from going off the rails. It is reasonable to ask the question. But not with the implications Trump carries to the discussion.
5. Monday afternoon he posts this on FB: “Hillary Clinton’s weakness while she was Secretary of State, has emboldened terrorists all over the world to attack the U.S., even on our own soil. They are hoping and praying that Hillary Clinton becomes President – so that they can continue their savagery and murder” As always, everything he says is a lie and is a 100% turnaround from the truth. It is the Trump War on American Muslims and the religion, in general, that is being used in ISIS recruiting propaganda, not Hillary Clinton. Anybody think terrorists of any stripe will be intimidated…. or emboldened to poke the beast… by a President Trump and his bragging to “bomb the shit out of them?” I didn’t think so.
“campaign” for a job he never really wanted, never dreamed he might actually attain, and knew all along he was unqualified for–President of the United States. A body of thought has been emerging that Trump is tanking the election….