By my count this has been our seventh straight 24-hour period of relentless rain. All night long rain drums on the roof. All day long torrents wriggle down my windows. Birch leaves float deceptively on a deep puddle as I dash to check the mailbox at suppertime. It’s a wonder I’m not depressed.
But as I see what’s happening around the province I have a lot to be thankful for. My basement isn’t flooding. No lake is rising at my doorstep requiring the help of volunteers to sandbag. Kids aren’t walking home from school detouring through a mayor’s front yard because a washout has made the road impassable as happened in Haida Gwaii.
So far my power is on. I have lights, heat, TV, internet. Even U.S. political news has been fun to watch today.
Two senators, Corker from Tennessee and Flake from Arizona, called out President Trump for his habitual lying, making it plain the man is no role model for American kids, and a problem to world leaders who don’t know who speaks for America and who to believe. As quickly as his state department spokesperson Rex Tillerson makes a pronouncement, Trump undercuts it.
Late night comedians are having a field day. Last night Seth Meyer remarked about the five former presidents – Jimmy Carter, both George Bushes, Clinton and Obama – attending a fundraiser for hurricane survivors. “The only way it could have been better,” Meyers said, “is if it had been six former presidents.”
His words took a minute to sink in but once the audience caught on, they heartily approved.
The New Yorker magazine features short satirical articles by Andy Borowitz. Often his pieces read close to the truth with headings such as yesterday’s, “Trump Says He Is Only President in History With Courage to Stand Up to War Widows”. Or today’s, “Trump Cancels Entire Schedule to Focus on Choosing Insulting Nickname for Bob Corker”.
I have to believe Trump must devote some time to devising these insulting nicknames, though he should have given up the practice 60 years ago. He prides himself on inventing these nicknames himself, claiming, “I have an instinct for it; I just feel it”. Though he might be lying about that too.
Suppose one of the president’s staff members is charged with presenting him daily with a list of proposed names from which he can choose, leaving him more time to compose his presidential tweets.
If he receives a list of possible nicknames, are they arranged in categories such as by a person’s height, (he hates short people, dropped one contender for a White House position because the man was too short), weight, behaviour, and more.
Believe it or not, you can Google “Trump’s nicknames for people he despises” and find a lengthy list. Nicknames like Rocket Man for North Korea’s president. Lyin’ Ted for Ted Cruz, Crazy Bernie for Bernie Sanders, Crooked Hillary for Hillary Clinton, Little Marco for Marco Rubio and Pocahontas for Elizabeth Warren, “a jab at her Native American ancestry”.
The Toronto Star newspaper has been fact-checking Trump’s lies since his inauguration, is up to a record-shattering 57 falsehoods this week so far and the week is only half over.
One analyst says Trump is less a liar, more a BSer. He tells falsehoods easily checked on Google. Asked which heel had had bone spurs, a condition that medically excused him from serving during the Vietnam war, Trump didn’t know, said, “It’s in the medical record”.
He can’t remember which foot hurt so much a doctor let him skip army duty?