Saturday, September 02, 2017                                          1:09 AM

Harvey Fail (Among Others)   (2017Sep01)

We’re getting a broader picture of Trump every day—last week’s failure to condemn hate groups was followed by this week’s failure to achieve the proper tone at a disaster-site photo-op. His loyal Kellyanne Conway is back with her special brand of neuroti-spin. First she claimed that Climate Change was too broad a subject to focus on, while Texas was still mid-disaster—then she claimed the Trump’s tax-returns were too narrow a subject to focus on, while Americans wanted their own taxes lowered.

I suppose that’s a step up from her early work, when she would simply accuse interviewers of asking stupid questions and go on to verbally dog-paddle until her mic was turned off. Nevertheless, her footwork in the face of reality is unerring—like a little child who blurts out, “It wasn’t me!” before anyone even accuses her of something. She starts from the premise that anyone who asks her a question is a bad person—which makes it okay for her to respond with venom rather than reasoned rebuttal. But she does do a great imitation of reasoning. It’s a shame, really—she’s that close to actually making sense, while still missing it by a mile.

She used to be one of a crowd—we don’t see that crowd of apologists for Trump anymore—just the beleaguered few remain—Kellyanne and Sarah Huckabee, maybe one or two others—those whose connection to reality has never been as strong as their drive to win the PR contest. Americans, take note—those best able to win a popularity contest aren’t going to be the best at running the Administration.

But that stop in Corpus Christi was pretty chilling wasn’t it? That clown waddled around, trying to rev up his ‘audience’ for a rally—completely overlooking any mention of the deaths of Harvey’s victims, completely forgetting that it’s a good idea for the president to reassure a disaster zone that the whole country is behind them. Then he had his Phoenix rally the next day—what a schmuck.

And I think there’s a popular meme in our culture—the strong, silent male (like Gary Cooper or John Wayne, for example) that provides cover for other types of men. Some men aren’t ‘strong and silent’ because they repress their manly feelings—they’re ‘strong and silent’ because they’re cold and uncaring. Trump doesn’t look embarrassed when he’s caught in a traditional touchy-feely moment—he looks annoyed, as if wondering how long he has to pretend to be a caring human being until he can go back to his self-absorbed ego trip.

With the Trump/Russia scandal spilling over into New York State and the IRS, one gets the feeling that a tumor is growing under Trump’s façade. And with Trump still believing that he can zig-zag his way through legal troubles, just as he’s always done, ignoring the fact that the presidency is different—well, he should ask Bill Clinton about that, is all I’m saying.

I mean, look how clueless this rube is—by donating $1,000,000 of his personal fortune to Harvey victims, he makes two mistakes for the price of one. Firstly, he’s reminded everyone that he has not put his assets in a blind trust, as real presidents do—and, secondly, he’s trying to make the sun shine out of his personal ass when what he should be doing is preparing the billions in federal relief planning that he’s in charge of.

But that is something only a person who gave a shit about the Harvey victims would do.