Neatly capturing the blithe, criminal ignorance
Albert Burneko translates Politico’s somewhat tactful language about Trump’s surprise and distress about realizing being president is a hard job into language that is less tactful and more honest.
“Being president is harder than Donald Trump thought,” begins the article, neatly capturing the blithe, criminal ignorance that characterizes both Trump himself and the many dozens of millions of morons who thought he should be the leader of the free world.
Exactly what I thought. How could he not know it’s a hard job? How dare he go for it without knowing? How dare he be so reckless and so lazy and so entitled?
Our new president occupies a wild outer range of blundering, arrogant stupidity, far beyond that typically euphemized in newspaper-ese, and the effort to describe the former truthfully and accurately—but without using such frank and impolite words as “stupid” and “ignoramus” and “spray-tanned fart balloon”—very nearly breaks the latter.
It’s one of the joys of blogging, that you don’t have to euphemize such things if you don’t choose to.
I love this article so much. Nearly every sentence contains some marvel of delicacy. The new president “often asks simple questions about policies, proposals and personnel.” When confronted with details, he “has been known to quickly change the subject” or direct questions to one of his chief advisers. His aides “joke that they wish their boss would spend more time at his Mar-A-Lago estate.” How many ways can you avoid saying that the president is a bumbling, pillow-fisted shit-for-brains, in a story about that exact fact?
Here’s the most incredible example. We learn that after unflattering details (what other kind could there be? He’s Donald Trump!) of his phone conversations with other foreign leaders were leaked to the press, Trump grew paranoid about National Security Council staffers and launched an investigation into the source of the leaks. We also learn this (emphasis added):
In turn, some NSC staff believe Trump does not possess the capacity for detail and nuance required to handle the sensitive issues discussed on the calls, and that he has politicized their agency by appointing chief strategist Bannon to the council.
The President of the United States of America is too stupid to participate in discussions held expressly for his benefit. That is what “some NSC staff” have said, here. Talking to him is a waste of time, because he’s literally incapable of grasping what is being talked about, and he just gets mad, like a baby. Like a big red baby with a sensitive heinie.
It’s a doozy all right. Oh, he lacks the capacity for detail and nuance? Yet he’s the president? Oh. Uh…oops.
The ‘Murican people – the real ones, not those coastal elites with their majority of votes cast – are tired of the same old, business-as-usual, details and nuance. Details, nuance, competence, patience, care, thought, are all known to have a treasonous, liberal bias. The swamp is being drained of such things, just like he promised!
For those who can get to it BBC has an hour long documentary based on study of the private papers of George III, currently on iPlayer.
Now he was mad at times yet his papers show the amount of effort he put into understanding what was happening and the amazing number of things he was interested in, studied in some depth.
Oh, look! It’s on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wkUdIYRMds – and that’s how you do being a king, let alone a president in the twenty-first century.
Oh, that sounds fascinating – thank you Maureen.
Poor George III is remembered for losing the American colonies and for being mad, but was a conscientious, well-meaning guy who would have made a good farmer.
I watched the King George III documentary last week. It’s a fascinating and highly informative programme well worth taking the time to watch.
As for Trump; way back when I was seven or eight years old my teacher had the class describe what they’d do if they were the Prime Minister. I’m sure most of you also did a similar exercise and remember how simplistic a view of the powers of a nation’s leader we had back then, but while most of us now have a far more refined understanding of power, Trump is still that seven-year old boy who thinks that he can do, change, obtain or destroy anything he wants merely by ordering it.
It’s a shame he didn’t listen to what Miss America contestants said on stage, rather than merely ogling and planning the next pussy-grab. He’d still be a disaster, but at least he’d only be failing to understand why he can’t simply order-up world peace.
I haven’t seen the documentary, but I guess if I’d thought about it I should have been more aware that George III was a bit different than he’s usually portrayed in American history, since I’ve visited these several times:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about-us/working-in-partnership/touring-exhibitions/king-george
Trump wants to think that he’s above the details of policy and how things work when in actuality it’s all beyond him. Big difference.
I’ve now watched the documentary & it’s very good. George a real Enlightenment king in his interest in science & his notions of a constitutional monarchy.
Queen is looking bored stiff at being shown a bunch of historical documents.
If only we’d had a candidate who was fully informed and understood the nuances required for the position.
Oh, wait.
This was all very clearly in evidence before the election. #BUT HER EMAILS!