President Trump on Tuesday told Puerto Rico officials they should feel “very proud” they haven’t lost thousands of lives like in “a real catastrophe like Katrina,” while adding that the devastated island territory has thrown the nation’s budget “a little out of whack.”
Trump’s remarks came as he touched down in San Juan amid harsh criticism that the administration was slow to respond to the natural disaster and after he praised himself earlier in the day for the “great job” and “A-plus” performance he said the administration deserved for its response to Hurricane Maria….
I expect that Rex Tillerson should be boxing up his desk-bling about now. He’s waxing up on lip-gloss in order to attempt to make amends for making the perfectly accurate observation that trump is a “moron”. I would have added a few adjectives, inevitably including “fcking”, but Rex got the gist of it right.
The ego-maniacal collection of raw nerve-endings that is Trump don’t take that kind of dissing without retribution. Rex will be spending more time with the family, soon, and I suspect he’s just fine with that. Rex isn’t denying he said it, and there is no doubt that it is fact, so Rex’s ways have been greased.
Meanwhile, Trump shows up in Puerto Rico and demonstrates all of the compassion of a cinder-block. First, he complains about how PR is going to mess up the budget, and so (by implication) will imperil his precious tax breaks. Then he starts pegging rolls of paper towels into the crowd, like he was feeding pigeons popcorn in the park, just so he could enjoy the feeding frenzy. It is impossible to ignore the utter contempt that he has for the citizens of PR. He does not even try to hide it. He got out a San Juan an hour before schedule, mercifully cutting short the time to demonstrate even more what a colossal dick he is.
Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope of re-establishing fair elections in this country. The SCotUS heard the Wisco-World Gerrymandering case yesterday. The Federalist Society frat-boyz saw no problem with Gerrymandering, and thought repealing it would just result in them having to work harder. Kennedy, the swinger on this, seemed pretty unimpressed with the state’s case. He is the only vote that matters. We’ll see where this goes…
Funny, but Tillerson calling Trump stupid is the first time I’ve ever thought well of Tillerson. (When I saw your comment, I had not yet seen reports of Tillerson’s private views of Trump. A few accounts have now brought me up to speed.)
Hard to see that Tillerson will last, but he’s done little (and most of that to acquiesce in gutting his own department). Perhaps Hatch Act violator Nikki Haley’s warming up on deck even now. (Tillerson seems to have a low opinion of her, too, so that’s truly twice I’ve thought well of Tillerson.)
Trump threw needed supplies to Puerto Ricans the way someone would throw promotional items to fans at a minor league ballgame. His worst offenses are political, to be sure, but beyond all that he’s a repulsive, unacculturated man, more vulgar child than adult, to be blunt.
I’m not sure what to make of Gill v. Whitford. Nearly commentator thinks that it’s likely to be a 4-4 case with Kennedy deciding. I’ll not venture disagreement, but to side with the liberal wing of the court, Kenendy will have to have some reassurance that a decision has a workable remedy. They’ll need to attract him, and that’s all about how they approach a possible remedy.
There’s one outside possibility – although Chief Justice Roberts plainly opposes overturning the districting in Wisconsin, he could side with the majority (if he saw a majority in favor of overturning the current Wisconsin districting) so that he could assign the opinion (as he would have the power to do as chief justice while in the majority). A more narrowly-drawn opinion might be more to his liking than majority opinion in which he played no part.
That’s unlikely, but if it’s 5-4 against the existing districting in any event, he might hope for a less expansive remedy by forming part of a 6-3 opinion over much he would have more influence (by assignment to himself or someone else). (It’s worth noting that he did not take this approach in Obergefell v. Hodges, where there was a 5-4 decision that he made no effort to join for purposes crafting. He chose, then, simply to oppose outright, in a case that had more than one dissenting opinion.)
I’d like to see the Wisconsin redistricting scheme ruled unconstitutional, but that requires a confidence in the Roberts Court that’s hard to maintain in a case with such value to those who now benefit from gerrymandering.
Let them eat Bounty Towels!
Yes, that’s the size of it. No one before, of either party, would have been half so unfit to the occasion as Trump was in Puerto Rico.