The Swamp

Shirley wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:12 pm I gotta say, while it was weird of Trump to draw on the hurricane map, it was also unnecessary to make a big deal out of him saying Alabama. If that projection he drew on had held for another day, Alabama would have been in the predicted affected area. He wasn't wrong about that. Now, maybe he said it after the path had changed (I don't know), but in the range of Trump gaffes, this doesn't rate at all.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:50 amSeriously.

If it was the President of Turkmenistan or Fiji or wherever, that clip would have been aired on "The Daily Show" and people would have laughed over the two-bit cheesiness of it.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:25 am

Shirley wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:12 pm I gotta say, while it was weird of Trump to draw on the hurricane map, it was also unnecessary to make a big deal out of him saying Alabama. If that projection he drew on had held for another day, Alabama would have been in the predicted affected area. He wasn't wrong about that. Now, maybe he said it after the path had changed (I don't know), but in the range of Trump gaffes, this doesn't rate at all.

Dave. I am about to go weather nerd on you.

It was NEVER with Alabama in the cone. Never. The cone was not gonna extend that way - the storm was always a recurver - question was whether it would be over Florida before it recurved. He used a map from Aug. 29 YESTERDAY and drew additions to it that the NHC pros didn't put there BECAUSE IT WAS NOT A THREAT TO HEAD INLAND IN THAT DIRECTION.

He only did this because his tweet was ignorant as shit and for some reason actually seems to have some traction for a change.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:57 am

Shirley wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 1:39 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:25 am

Shirley wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:12 pm I gotta say, while it was weird of Trump to draw on the hurricane map, it was also unnecessary to make a big deal out of him saying Alabama. If that projection he drew on had held for another day, Alabama would have been in the predicted affected area. He wasn't wrong about that. Now, maybe he said it after the path had changed (I don't know), but in the range of Trump gaffes, this doesn't rate at all.

Dave. I am about to go weather nerd on you.

It was NEVER with Alabama in the cone. Never. The cone was not gonna extend that way - the storm was always a recurver - question was whether it would be over Florida before it recurved. He used a map from Aug. 29 YESTERDAY and drew additions to it that the NHC pros didn't put there BECAUSE IT WAS NOT A THREAT TO HEAD INLAND IN THAT DIRECTION.

He only did this because his tweet was ignorant as shit and for some reason actually seems to have some traction for a change.

Yeah, of course I remember the curve. I pointed the storm right at my condo (which it apparently decided it could just head straight for instead to save time). I thought it caught some Alabama down there as part of that path, because it would be hard not to.

Again, to me, that's a really trivia Trump gaffe. Not even top ten for the past month. Sometimes it's best not to cry wolf every time you see something that looks like a wolf when you know there are real wolves just out of sight.

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:46 pmSo basically you're asking the country to stop acting like the president is a complete dumbfuck who calls press conferences days after the fact to defend a mistake he made in a tweet by literally drawing with a sharpie a fake forecasted hurricane path? Come on, man.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:52 pm Without the initial "overreaction" to Trump contradicting the NWS, there's no sharpie incident. I'd argue more, not less, attempts at making him look and feel stupid are warranted.

...

Whether it matters to you or not that these projections had all “long been ruled out” by the time Trump was briefed on August 29 depends on a number of factors and your capacity for being outraged by the stupid things that one soggy old dullard does on the daily. That there is a law against lying about the weather under color of the National Weather Service—the penalty is a fine or 90 days in jail—clearly doesn’t matter at all, at least insofar as there are so many more significant crimes than Criminal Executive Storm Inflation on Trump’s docket and also because no one currently appears to be doing much about those. It is clear, though, that this all matters to Trump a great deal. More, certainly, than the progress of the storm itself, or any of the many other issues that might have attracted the attention of more distractible chief executive.

The extent to which this perseverating dovetails with any of Trump’s broader strategic goals—which it does, at least in the sense that he has lately leaned heavily on the idea that the Fake News is trying to convince you that he was wrong about the weather, when in point of fact he has never been wrong about the weather and has a lot of experience with it—is, as usual, purely incidental. The extent to which the fixation reflects a longstanding approach on Trump’s part, which it does in the sense that he has never admitted any error, is notable mostly because everything that Trump does “reflects a longstanding approach.”

Nothing about the man has changed since 1991 or so, but various aspects of his personality have grown, or metastasized. He has always had a taste for big things, and an irresistible urge to associate himself with them. In another universe, Trump would be online claiming to be “very close friends” with Dorian, or offering to broker a deal with the hurricane to prevent it from Doing Hurt to the southeast. In this one, he is just doing what he does—taking some foolish falsehood that he prefers to the truth and insisting upon it, over and over, until it is just him talking to himself, agreeing with himself, congratulating himself, and then waiting for someone to come along and make it true for him.

he is just doing what he does—taking some foolish falsehood that he prefers to the truth and insisting upon it, over and over, until it is just him talking to himself, agreeing with himself, congratulating himself, and then waiting for someone to come along and make it true for him.

It was initially reported that Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir would not be in town during Pence’s visit, sparking applause from critics of the administration who saw the move as a deliberate snub (Jakobsdottir said it was not, and wound up meeting him on Wednesday.) When the vice president, a conservative Christian and an opponent of same-sex marriage, arrived on the island, he was met with a flurry of rainbow flags, an oft-used symbol of LGBTQ pride.

Johannesson (Iceland's President) and his wife Eliza Reid also reportedly wore rainbow bracelets during their meeting with Pence.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 6:10 am Pence probably spent the flight home on his knees furiously emailing his brother after being in such a heathen land.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:20 pm Day 5 of Trump's Alabama obsession...

tennbengal wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:53 pm He’s still at it. He had NOAA disavow their Alabama office’s tweet. He’s insane.

EdRomero wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:46 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:21 pm

EdRomero wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:46 pm

Every few days something comes up that makes you say "How is this the new normal?"

Johnnie wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:54 am I know anyone who pays attention closely enough knew that we negotiate with terrorists, but I'd like to thank the president for declassifying it by tweet.

A_B wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:17 pm

Johnnie wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:54 am I know anyone who pays attention closely enough knew that we negotiate with terrorists, but I'd like to thank the president for declassifying it by tweet.

Inviting the fucking taliban to come the week of 9/11 is some tone deaf shit on a different level. Like, ultrasonic or something.

(Or course, inviting them at all is absurd and reeks of Nobel hunting.)

A_B wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:17 pm

Johnnie wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:54 am I know anyone who pays attention closely enough knew that we negotiate with terrorists, but I'd like to thank the president for declassifying it by tweet.

Inviting the fucking taliban to come the week of 9/11 is some tone deaf shit on a different level. Like, ultrasonic or something.

(Or course, inviting them at all is absurd and reeks of Nobel hunting.)

The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at the federal scientific agency responsible for weather forecasts last Friday after the agency’s Birmingham office contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, disavowing the National Weather Service’s position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew accusations from the scientific community that the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, had been bent to political purposes.

A_B wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:17 pm

Johnnie wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:54 am I know anyone who pays attention closely enough knew that we negotiate with terrorists, but I'd like to thank the president for declassifying it by tweet.

Inviting the fucking taliban to come the week of 9/11 is some tone deaf shit on a different level. Like, ultrasonic or something.

(Or course, inviting them at all is absurd and reeks of Nobel hunting.)