PRESIDENT TRUMP ON THE CALIFORNIA FIRES

Last Friday President Trump marked "disaster Friday" by first visiting the North Carolina site of the carnage caused by Hurricane Helene, then flew directly to the Los Angeles area where he helicoptered over the Palisades Fire site, ignoring the larger and more destructive Eaton Fire site.  Following that flight he and his wife participated in a "round table" discussion with federal, state and local officials.  This was widely covered by local and national media.  I observed the entire session and wrote about it on my Facebook page.  The following is the text of what I wrote.

VIEWING TRUMP AND FOUR-LETTER WORDS...

Around 5 p.m. Friday afternoon I began watching television coverage of President Trump on his tour of the Palisades Fire site and the subsequent "round table" (even though the table was not "round" but in a "U" shape).

GRATEFUL... BUT

First, I'm very grateful to the President for taking the time to visit the sites of the Hurricane Helene disaster in North Carolina and then flying across the country to view our catastrophic site - or one of them.  I thought it was interesting that, for some reason, he chose to not fly 10 minutes away over to the Eaton Fire site - where more homes and businesses were destroyed - to give him a more complete perspective on the carnage caused two weeks ago.  The cynic in me thought he chose the Palisades site (including Malibu) because it was the location of much wealthier residents.  The Eaton Fire destroyed the homes of many more middle class families - and most of them were black.  Just a thought

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WATCHING AND LISTENING

During the press event a wide array of local, state and national politicians were present, along with many senior public safety leaders and a few "regular" people.  During the lead-in to the event he met many firefighters and was presented with a firefighter helmet with "47" emblazoned on it.  He lugged it around proudly (mentioning that firefighters must be in good shape because the helmet was very heavy) and displayed it on the table in front of him during the chat he held with those present.

PAINFUL, PAINFUL, PAINFUL!

As I watched him express concern for the devastation he'd just flown over, and the angst expressed to him by "several people" who lost their homes, I became very frustrated and disappointed as he devolved into a teenager in a 78 year-old man's body - his normal modus operandi when he's flying solo without a teleprompter.  I don't for one second doubt his sincere concern, but I just can't abide his juvenile presentation when he couldn't help but expose his inner-bully. 

 

INFANTILE, ILL-INFORMED

I found myself yelling many, many four-letter words at the TV screen as he presented "facts" that were falsehoods.  Somewhere in the recent past one of his salivating sycophants must have told him that "all they need to do to fight those kind of fires is just turn on the tap from the Pacific Northwest and Canada so they'd have plenty of water", because that's the bilge he spewed many times during the event.  Several news organizations "fact checked" him following this event, demonstrating the untruth of many of his pronouncements.

IT WAS ALL ABOUT HIM..

Throughout the event it was clear that he thought the whole thing was about him, and what a wonderful President he was (his words) for visiting and "helping".  Time after time he made that point - observing that "a previous President" wouldn't have done this.  I found myself yelling "WTF" and other epithets at the screen.

"CONDITIONING" THE HELP

Earlier in the day he had told the world that for California to receive federal aid in recovering from the fires it would have to meet certain conditions, including voter ID and cleaning the forests!

 

PERMITS

During one screed - several times, actually - he demanded that the permitting process be basically abandoned so people - apparently those wealthy folks who lost homes with whom he had just spoken - could "clean up their lots" and get started re-building "tomorrow"!  He showed no signs of actual knowledge about the process of remediation of those disaster sites.  He apparently was willing to let the property owners dive right into the toxic residue of the fires with a shovel and wheelbarrow, ignoring the danger involved.  State and local leaders had already laid the groundwork for streamlining the permitting process. 

ADIOS, FEMA

One of the more interesting pronouncements he made was to imply pretty clearly that he was going to shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA.  Apparently he heard horror stories in North Carolina earlier in the day about the "poor performance" of FEMA personnel at that disaster site.  So, he was considering shutting the whole thing down and just turn the keys to the recovery bank over to one person - maybe his pal, Rick Grenell, who was sitting beside him.  Yikes!

"LOOK AT ME!  I'M STUPID!"

 Again, our President is more than willing - yes even enthusiastic - to demonstrate his ignorance on important issues, and then compound the issue by jabbering juvenile stream-of-consciousness gibberish attempting to make his point. He does this time after time and it's terrifying to contemplate what kind of exchanges he must have with more mature, well-educated, intelligent heads of state.

THANKS, MR. PRESIDENT

So, I want to thank President Trump for coming out to see the devastation and helping folks understand the scope of the damage.  Now, please, Mr. President, just get out of the way, send us the money, let the professionals do their jobs and STFU!