Happy happy fun times
There’s a feeling that maybe maybe maybe just possibly when you go to visit people injured in a mass shooting you shouldn’t pose for photos grinning broadly and making “yeeeha!” gestures. Maybe.
A backlash is building over a picture posted by Melania Trump on Twitter that showed her and Donald Trump smiling broadly while holding a baby who was orphaned in the mass shooting in El Paso.
On a visit to El Paso this week, the president flashed a thumbs-up when posing with the two-month-old, whose parents Andre and Jordan Anchondo were shot dead last Saturday. When the picture was posted on the first lady’s Twitter account on Thursday, it prompted outrage.
What, because it was crass and tasteless and staggeringly unfeeling? But this is Donald Trump and the woman who is still married to him.
The orphaned child, named Paul, had been brought back to the hospital – reportedly at the request of White House during the visit by the Trumps on Wednesday. The baby’s uncle, standing next to Donald Trump, is reportedly a Trump supporter, as was the deceased father.
The baby was injured, breaking his fingers, in the shooting, after his mother died trying to protect him and her body fell on him. His father had dived to try to shield her as bullets flew.
I’m sure the baby enjoyed the outing very much.
Doctors at the Del Sol medical center in El Paso, where some of the survivors are still being treated, later said the president appeared to “lack empathy” after he boasted during the visit that he drew a larger crowd at a January rally in the city than one held by “crazy” Beto O’Rourke.
Yes, that does seem like an appearance of lacking empathy.
Every photo with him in it is about him. There is no other context. Anyone else who happens to be there is a prop, or filler, or background. They might be a fan or a supporter, but he’s the subject; they’re vwallpaper. “I’m Great. I Make America Great. I am talent and confidence personofied. That’s why I’m smiling. Everything’s Great, ’cause I’m in charge. My Reign makes everyone happy! I’m a Rock Star! Everyone loves me! I have the biggest crowds! I’m a winner! Why shouldn’t I smile? My presence makes the picture Great and Important.”
There’s a certain amount of justice in a PoC Trump cultist getting gunned down by a Nazi… But no kid deserves that…
Seeing that bastard grinning with an orphan he helped make…
My blood, it boils.
Presidential candidates and babies go together like peas in a pod. My suspicion is that this is a campaign opener for the upcoming presidential election, (Nov 3, 2020). Not only that, it positions either Melania or Ivanka well for the election after that, which will be in November 2024.
I think that if I was an American, I would rather have Prince Charles. Surely it is not too late for Congress to declare that in the light of subsequent events, the 1776 Declaration of Independence was clearly a terrible mistake, and could we all just please forget the whole sorry business?
It seems that Trump is not the only one lacking empathy: what about that grinning brother or brother-in-law (I suspect the latter, given his wife’s ambiguous expression), not to mention Melania?
I have just checked the Guardian story: it seems that the grinner to Trump’s right is the dead father’s brother. Diawl! (Welsh for ‘the devil’.)
Political loves certainly seem to Trump ordinary, and boringly natural feelings, just as positivist dogma did in the case of Nil deGrasse Tyson. As for Melania, she has of course been trained as model to flash a lovely smile whatever the circumstances, and cannot, it seems, refrain here. A true professional!
You dump too much of this on Trump himself.
Face it: The US has become a nation of assholes. Only assholes vote for assholes.
Brace yourself for the crash.
They’ll have to amend the Constitution before Melania can run, since she is not a natural born citizen; I do think getting the requisite number of states for that would be difficult. Though they haven’t bothered about the Constitution yet, why should now be different?
To be fair, the US voted for Hillary, with an enormous number of votes over Trump. The Electoral College elected Trump. Only about 20% of the nation’s people voted for him. Of course, if people refuse to show to vote when an asshole is on the ballot, or vote for someone who will throw the election to said asshole, the argument can be made that they are no better than those who voted for him.
Still, I think we ought to give Hillary voters some credit. We could tell the difference, and we could tell he stinks. We didn’t insist on perfection.