Politics

Trumpifier

If you’re like me, you just can’t enough listening/reading/seeing our current President speak. Well, today is your lucky day because I have found just the right browser extension for you, the Trump Alternative Reality Extension. Below is a copy of a paragraph from a Slate article entitled Hell Is High Water on New Orleans and the Mississippi River:

Crawford, the pilot, told me that taking a big ship down the Mississippi at high water around Algiers Point is like driving a truck down a road of ice. Taking it up the river might take twice as long as it did this time last year, when the river was 8 feet lower. Right now, everyday river operations are tense. One deckhand likened the situation to a five-alarm fire. There are no barges resting on the riverbanks, because there’s not much levee left above the waterline. Anchors won’t hold in the river bottom. On Wednesday morning, a barge hit the shore in Algiers, knocking over a utility pole and causing a power outage for 5,000 people. Then again, at least things are still moving here: Further north, the Arkansas and Illinois rivers have been closed to commercial traffic entirely due to high water, choking off shipments of corn and soybeans.

Now what it looks like using the Trumifier:

We’re doing very well on trade, we’re doing very well – our companies are very strong. Don’t forget, we’re still up from when I came in, 38 percent or something. I’m not playing by the same rules as Obama. Obama had zero interest to worry about; we’re paying interest, a lot of interest. He wasn’t paying down – we’re talking about $50 billion lots of different times, paying down and knocking out liquidity. Well, Obama didn’t do that. And just so you understand, I’m playing a normalization economy, whereas he’s playing a free economy. Wacky Omarosa You know, normally I could do other things tonight. I like you. I love this state. I figured, hey, it’s a Monday. Who the hell wants to sit around doing nothing on Monday night? Right? We fell in love. We are securing our Borders, making great new Trade Deals, and bringing our Troops Back Home.

A Few of My Favorites…

…of the 43 lines from 45’s Grand Rapids, Michigan campaign speech yesterday that caught the attention of CNN’s Political Reporter, Chris Cillizza. link

5. “This is the one we want. We want ourselves. We want us and that’s what we got.”

8. “They did it all because they refused to accept the results of one of the greatest presidential elections, probably number one, in our history.”

12. “Then it comes to a place called Michigan. Have you ever heard of Michigan?”

26. “China and by the way we are building that wall as you — we are building that wall. Build it.”

33. “You’d be doing wind, windmills. ‘Wind’. And if it doesn’t — if it doesn’t blow you can forget about television for that night. Darling I want to watch television. I’m sorry, the wind isn’t blowing. I know a lot about wind. I know a lot about wind.”

Previously on The West Wing

Just the title of this post has been sitting in the drafts folder since January 9th of this year. This not too long after Donna and I decided that maybe we should give one of our favorite TV shows a re-watch. The phrase comes from the intro of the show before it shows little snippets of past episodes to foreshadow what is coming up and to perhaps remind you of characters or events that will be featured in this show that you might have forgotten.

The phrase also perfectly fits our desire to go back to, even if fictional, a less calamitous presidential administration. We wanted a version of the goings on in The West Wing of the White House that seemed to be filled with smart caring people that selfishly wanted to serve in government to better the lives of everyone in the country, not just the top one percent.

We have been watching an episode a day, with the exception of a couple of two-part episodes we watched back to back, and are now two-thirds of the way through season 4. We are a little more than halfway through the, 155 episode, seven season run.

So, after gathering dust in the drafts folder for the last 2-1/2 months, why have I decided to flesh out the post you ask. Good question. I have been having trouble finding a book I want to read the whole way through and after my failed attempt at audio books I started to widen my passive entertainment search and opted to try some podcasts. Wow, there are as many of these things as there are books and finding one I’m interested in is actually harder than finding a book that works for me. For one here is the whole voice issue, with a book, it is my voice, which I really like1, while with a podcast not only does the subject have to be interesting, but the person(s) have to sound pleasant to me.

Sunday I found a perfect one that will keep myself (and Donna) entertained for a good while, it is called the The West Wing Weekly. Once a week the two hosts watch an episode of the TV show the West Wing and talk about it. One voice is Hrishikesh Hirway a musician and composer, and the second is Josh Molina who played the character Will Bailey on the show from 2002-2006. Because of the continued popularity of The West Wing and possibly because of Mr. Molina’s showbiz connections they will occasionally have actors from the show on as guests.

They are doing one episode per week and started doing the podcast 2 years ago. The trouble with this is that the latest show they did a podcast for, 4-17: Red Haven’s on Fire, is exactly the same episode as Donna and I watched last night2, so we are now perfectly in sync. But with the differing time tables we will be soon be long ahead of the podcast. By the time we have wrapped up watching the entire seven season run of the show the podcast will only five episodes into season five.

We have been going back through some of the earlier episodes of the podcast to listen to some of the TV show’s stars guest appearances and then binge listened to the first few of the first season’s shows. I think now we are at the point where we might just jump back to season one of the TV show, starting over, so we can watch an episode and then right afterwards listen to the relating podcast.

President Trump’s Aid to Puerto Rico

Several month’s ago I gave up the dueling tweet thing with my Bernie and Trump figures. It got old because nothing ever changed, Senator Sanders kept tweeting things that made sense and BOTUS (Buffoon of the United States) kept tweeting nonsense. Both 6″ “action” figures went into a drawer under my desk. But after seeing the coverage of the president’s Monday visit to hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico, I just had to bring the doll out of exile.

Possibly Profitable Shopping Trip

or Why Donna Could Never Be A Politician

Donna had to pick up a prescription at Kroger’s today and while she was there she also opted to pick up literally a couple other items, some bananas and some watermelon. You can pay for other stuff at the Pharmacy counter, but not anything that is sold by the pound – no scale. So after paying there she headed over to the self-checkout. The two purchases came to a whopping $2.75, so instead of check or debit card, cash was called for. She slipped a ten dollar bill into the slot and instead of the expected seven and a quarter, she got $22.25!

Donna called the attendant over and pointed out the error and told him maybe they should shut the machine down and check it out. He took her offered $20 bill and gave her a five back. She was raised right.

Me, I’d have slipped all the change in my pocket and walked slowly out the door, whistling softly to myself. Which makes me a perfect candidate to fill one of the 39 out of 46 top science posts in the Trump administration. I was in the Navy, maybe I could get one of those 48 of a possible 53 Pentagon openings. How about one of those 56 open Ambassadorships? But seriously, with that kind of shady ethics I think I’d be best suited for a job on the board of the Eric Trump Foundation.