Sick humor
As all the world knows, Trump can't read. He can pronounce many of the words Stephen Miller puts on his Teleprompter, but it's clear there is no comprehension. He has to rely on sycophantic underlings, propaganda television and the movies for his (let's say) understanding of the world. The rest is silence, apart from the voices in his head.
As we count down the days of our sentence, it is grimly amusing to guess which cinematic works now control government policy. The business of nuking hurricanes, for example, originated in one of the Sharknado movies, while the obsession with "duct taped" women being trafficked across the border was traced back to Sicario. The newest outrage -- though there may be others by now, it's after noon -- is a form letter US Citizenship and Immigration Services has sent to thousands of people who are legally in this country for medical treatment they cannot obtain at home (many of them children), advising that they are well enough to go home, goodbye and enjoy the rest of your brief life, next time have insurance, OK?
Where could this have come from? I thought of Jimmy Carter admitting the Shah of Iran for cancer treatment in 1979 and the world of trouble that followed, but that's history, another subject of which Trump knows nothing. The most likely cinematic candidate is The Godfather, Part Two. Ten-year-old Vito Andolini arrives at Ellis Island, where he is diagnosed with smallpox and placed in quarantine. Upon release he grows up to become Vito Corleone, a notorious gangster. This is what happens when you let sick kids into the United States. Next thing you know they're cutting off your prized racehorse's head and leaving it in your bed. Very unfair!
"Just when you think the administration can't sink any lower, it finds a new way to torture our immigrant children and families," said Ronnie Millar, who directs the Irish International Immigrant Center in Boston. Which is significant because if some of the victims of Trump's cruelty are little white Irish kids, the media and public outrage may turn these sadists around. Problem is, every poll shows Trump losing to any one of five Democrats, so everything he does is calibrated to appeal to the MAGAt base: Doubling down on xenophobic policies like this one, the frantic scramble to build WALL by means legal or illegal, defying public support for some kind of gun control, payoffs to some of the farmers whose livelihoods he has needlessly damaged, and the racist dog-whistles -- factory whistles? -- which periodically explode in violence. And always, abuse the media. NPR aside, the media have not exactly been all over this story, probably because they have another hurricane to froth about.
Over at Mr. Buckley's National Review, a writer called Katherine Timpf wants the liberals to stop taking everything so seriously and learn to appreciate Trump's impish sense of humor. He's a great kidder. He was kidding when he called himself "the chosen one" and self-nominated for a Medal of Honor. He was kidding when he said he and Kim Jong-un "fell in love." He was kidding when he called Nazis "very fine people," when he questioned Obama's citizenship, when he promised to forsake all others for Ivana/Marla/Melania. Kidding about windmills causing cancer and mass-produced burgers being safer than real food. He loves Colin Kaepernick! Pocahontas is a loving nickname, but that bitter old woman just doesn't get it. She should smile more. We all should. He's the man the people choose, loves the Irish and the Jews! Send sick kids home to die? Are you insane?
Maybe we've all been living in a cosmic joke since he made that escalator trip into the biggest reality show of all time. Maybe that's what he was signaling with "covfefe" and "wire tapps" and all the Q stuff. What a long, strange trip it's been. Are we there yet?
As we count down the days of our sentence, it is grimly amusing to guess which cinematic works now control government policy. The business of nuking hurricanes, for example, originated in one of the Sharknado movies, while the obsession with "duct taped" women being trafficked across the border was traced back to Sicario. The newest outrage -- though there may be others by now, it's after noon -- is a form letter US Citizenship and Immigration Services has sent to thousands of people who are legally in this country for medical treatment they cannot obtain at home (many of them children), advising that they are well enough to go home, goodbye and enjoy the rest of your brief life, next time have insurance, OK?
Where could this have come from? I thought of Jimmy Carter admitting the Shah of Iran for cancer treatment in 1979 and the world of trouble that followed, but that's history, another subject of which Trump knows nothing. The most likely cinematic candidate is The Godfather, Part Two. Ten-year-old Vito Andolini arrives at Ellis Island, where he is diagnosed with smallpox and placed in quarantine. Upon release he grows up to become Vito Corleone, a notorious gangster. This is what happens when you let sick kids into the United States. Next thing you know they're cutting off your prized racehorse's head and leaving it in your bed. Very unfair!
"Just when you think the administration can't sink any lower, it finds a new way to torture our immigrant children and families," said Ronnie Millar, who directs the Irish International Immigrant Center in Boston. Which is significant because if some of the victims of Trump's cruelty are little white Irish kids, the media and public outrage may turn these sadists around. Problem is, every poll shows Trump losing to any one of five Democrats, so everything he does is calibrated to appeal to the MAGAt base: Doubling down on xenophobic policies like this one, the frantic scramble to build WALL by means legal or illegal, defying public support for some kind of gun control, payoffs to some of the farmers whose livelihoods he has needlessly damaged, and the racist dog-whistles -- factory whistles? -- which periodically explode in violence. And always, abuse the media. NPR aside, the media have not exactly been all over this story, probably because they have another hurricane to froth about.
Over at Mr. Buckley's National Review, a writer called Katherine Timpf wants the liberals to stop taking everything so seriously and learn to appreciate Trump's impish sense of humor. He's a great kidder. He was kidding when he called himself "the chosen one" and self-nominated for a Medal of Honor. He was kidding when he said he and Kim Jong-un "fell in love." He was kidding when he called Nazis "very fine people," when he questioned Obama's citizenship, when he promised to forsake all others for Ivana/Marla/Melania. Kidding about windmills causing cancer and mass-produced burgers being safer than real food. He loves Colin Kaepernick! Pocahontas is a loving nickname, but that bitter old woman just doesn't get it. She should smile more. We all should. He's the man the people choose, loves the Irish and the Jews! Send sick kids home to die? Are you insane?
Maybe we've all been living in a cosmic joke since he made that escalator trip into the biggest reality show of all time. Maybe that's what he was signaling with "covfefe" and "wire tapps" and all the Q stuff. What a long, strange trip it's been. Are we there yet?
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 11:36 AM
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