Day: 3/30/2018

Trump Picks His Former Caddy to Replace Hope Hicks as White House Communications Director

Posted by on March 30, 2018 at 2:45 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump’s lack of any political experience or intelligence has manifested itself in a multitude of ways. Most troubling are those wherein he implements policies that are overtly idiotic and harmful. But he also demonstrates his inability to govern by his appointments to critical White House and cabinet positions. These include his daughter Ivanka, her husband Jared, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Scott Pruitt, etc.

Dan Scavino

Now CNN is reporting that Trump has found a replacement for his departing White House Communications Director Hope Hicks. And he has managed to select another person who completely lacks the requisite skills and experience to do the job. According to CNN Trump has answered the question of Hicks’ successor:

“The answer, at least in some capacity, will be Dan Scavino, the social media director who this week moved into the minuscule office a pace or two from Trump’s desk that Hicks spent the last week packing up. Described by aides as Trump’s “mini me,” who can channel his moods and voice as few others can, Scavino is the last remaining staffer from the launch of Trump’s presidential campaign still posted by the President’s side.”

Scavino is presently Trump’s Director of Social Media, a post where he was responsible for the President’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. In other words, his most trusted and important confidant. But he doesn’t have any experience with managing the press or developing the strategic media operations of a large enterprise.

This promotion may cheer Scavino up after the announcement yesterday that his wife has filed for divorce. But his personal problems will not likely be separated from his official duties. As Director of Social Media, Scavino was the identified as the person responsible for an anti-Semitic tweet that put Hillary Clinton inside a Jewish Star of David and called her corrupt. On another occasion he was reprimanded for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits electioneering by White House staffers.

But Scavino isn’t even very good at the job he has now. Being in charge of Trump’s Twitter account he shouldn’t be posting tweets that are flagrantly false (or considering who he works for, maybe he should). Such as the time he posted a video that he said was of the Miami International Airport during Hurricane Irma (it wasn’t). Or the posting that was supposed to be of a collapsing building in the Caribbean (it was in Tibet). Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly cited Scavino as a reason she received death threats during the campaign. And even though Scavino often advances conspiracy theories from sites like Alex Jones’ InfoWorld, he is still the person most retweeted by the President.

This is just the latest incompetent to get a big promotion from Trump. Earlier this week the President nominated his personal White House physician, Ronny Jackson, to be the Secretary of the Veterans Administration. Putting people like Jackson and Scavino in charge of agencies like the VA or the White House communications Office is like making a PC tech the CEO of IBM. Even a good PC tech cannot possibly do that job. But that’s what we’ve come to in the Era of Trump. He doesn’t actually know anyone with the requisite credentials to conduct the complex work of government. So he installs his friends and family from whom he can expect blind loyalty. And the nation is going to suffer as a result.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Donald Trump Actually Admitted He’s a Flaming Idiot Four Times Yesterday

Posted by on March 30, 2018 at 10:30 am. 3 Comments :

The past two years has been a veritable circus as Donald Trump clowned his way through the presidency. He’s proven beyond a shadow of doubt that he is utterly incapable of governing. His pathological lying and relentless boasting are the hallmarks of his oratory. And for some reason he insists demonstrating that he’s a complete imbecile who fails to understand the simplest concepts.

Donald Trump

However, even with that record of buffoonery, Trump outdid himself in his speech yesterday that was supposedly about infrastructure. He spent maybe two minutes out of more than sixty on that topic, squeezed in between embarrassing exaltations of himself and infantile insults of his perceived enemies. But what distinguished this speech more than anything else were his own admissions of stupidity. It was a startling thing to watch. Here are a few of the things that Trump needed to make sure that everyone knew he couldn’t grasp:

He Doesn’t Know What a Community College Is:

“I don’t know what that means, a community college. Call it vocational and technical. People know what that means. They don’t know what a community college means […] and I tell people, call it vocational from now on, it’s a great word, it’s a great word. Call it vocational and technical perhaps, but use vocational, because that’s what it’s all about. People know what that means, we don’t know what a community college means.”

Who doesn’t know what “community college” means? The phrase is its own definition. It’s a college that’s in the community. Is that so hard? What’s more, it is not the same as a vocational or technical school. Vocational schools generally focus on a specific skill such as nursing or mechanics. Community colleges are more like conventional four-year institutions with a broad range of study. They award Associates Degrees and are often starting points to pursue higher education. But Trump is fixated on the word “vocational” most likely because he just learned it. He has done the same thing with other words like “comprehensive” and “reciprocal” when those entered his vocabulary. He doesn’t realize that the rest of America already knows these words, or he assumes they’re as dumb as he is.

He Doesn’t Know That His Wall is Not Being Built:

“We’re getting that sucker built. That’s what I do. I build. I was always very good at building. It was my best thing. I think better than being president, I was always very good at building.”

Somebody showed Trump a picture of a wall under construction and told him it was the border wall that he has been yammering about for two years. It wasn’t. It was a part of a wall in California that was undergoing an upgrade that was approved by the Obama administration. However. Trump’s assessment of being better at building than being president is an easy call. Not because he was ever good at building, but because he’s better at anything than he is at being president.

He Doesn’t Know How Judges are Made:

“You know, when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed. I don’t know why Obama left that. It was like a big beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did he leave that? Maybe he got complacent?”

Why? Because the Republican Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, deliberately refused to hold hearings or confirmations for President Obama’s nominees. This wasn’t a secret tactic that might have eluded Trump’s attention. McConnell did it openly and was criticized harshly for his perversion of democracy. But Trump thinks the vacant seats were the result of that black president being lazy. Cause you know how “those” people are.

Finally, Trump took to Twitter for another display of ignorance wrapped in a critique of one of his favorite foils. His tweet accused Jeff Bezos, owner of both Amazon and the Washington Post, of failing to pay taxes and exploiting the Post Office:

Really? First of all, the Post Office is everyone’s “delivery boy.” It’s their whole purpose for being. And Amazon’s use of their services is actually a source of enormous revenue for them. Secondly, Amazon does collect sales taxes in every state in the country that imposes them. The fact that Trump doesn’t know this just shows that he has never bought anything from Amazon or bothered to ask anyone who has. His real target is Bezos, who he thinks is ordering the Washington Post to write critical stories about him. Also, it’s hypocrisy on a grand scale for Trump to criticize others for not paying taxes. He has bragged about not doing so and insisted that it was evidence of his genius as a businessman. At least Amazon’s tax releases are public information, unlike Trump’s.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

It’s one thing for Trump’s critics to lay into him whenever he does something foolish. But it’s another when he himself admits his foolishness and seems to revel in it. But what’s really frightening is that there are so many people who hear these admissions and don’t find anything troubling about them. His disciples are members of his cult and blindly believe whatever he tells them, no matter how obvious the truth is.