5812

The widow-applause was really, really gross. To the point that it became parodic, but then you felt bad because, you know, dead soldier.

5813

But then you’re reminded that Trump had a hand in getting that guy killed.

5814

As usual NPR does annotated transcripts with fact checking and further details in line.

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/28/516717981/watch-live-trump-addresses-joint-session-of-congress

5815

Thanks for posting that!

Starting out, remember when he thanked the first lady of the United States, and the assembled members of Congress went kind of bonkers with applause? That was so strange. It almost felt like the equivalent of a wolf whistle at first.

5816

That’s the exact thought I had this morning, minus the chocolate.

5817

Honestly I think they were ecstatic that he didn’t open by insulting her, like he did at the Governor’s Ball.

5818

The narrative created for the president by chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon and his deputy, Sean Miller (the two are reported to have written the speech) also squared nicely with Trump’s frequent demonization of Muslims, painting all with a terrorist brush. What Bannon and Miller lack in rhetorical artistry was matched for the speech’s sinister arrangement of words, as when the president said, “We cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists.”

5819

But the public use of a widow’s grief in this ceremony seemed all too close to the spectacle that was the heart of Ben Fountain’s unforgettable novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, or the phenomenon I called “Chickenhawk Nation” in my cover story two years ago. In that piece I defined a chickenhawk nation as one “willing to do anything for its military except take it seriously.” Raise military budgets, sure. “Salute the heros” at sporting events—and big presidential speeches—yes, as well. But thinking seriously about where and how Americans will be asked to risk their lives? About exactly how the defense budget will be spent? About how the burdens of service can be more fairly shared? These topics are not so interesting.

On the very same day in which Trump had tried to deflect blame for Ryan’s death and other problems of the Yemen raid, saying (incredibly) of military leaders “they lost Ryan”; on the very day after he said publicly that the nation’s military “doesn’t win any more” and “we don’t fight to win”—at that moment, Donald Trump thought it suitable to use a grieving widow in this way. And then to say, as the applause finally died down, that the cheers had “set a record.”

If you thought this “presidential,” fine.

For me, it was too easy.

The president I worked for, Jimmy Carter, forthrightly took personal responsibility after his administration’s most dramatic failure, the attempted rescue of American hostages from the embassy in Teheran. “It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation,” he said on national TV. “It was my decision to cancel it … The responsibility is fully my own.” The first president I remember, John F. Kennedy, took public responsibility early in his administration for the failed invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. Our most recent president, Barack Obama, said after an intelligence failure, “Ultimately, the buck stops with me.” This is, finally, what presidents do. As George W. Bush put it, each is “the decider.” They can accept credit for success, but they must take responsibility for failures.

I am not yet aware of the latest incumbent ever taking public responsibility for a mistake or a failure. That will be the next step in becoming presidential.

5820
5821

Well that’s unsettling.

5822

After watching a documentary on food safety in the US, that would be the only way I’d eat any meat.

5823

There is one portion of the speech that transcended the obvious prevarication and sent the speech spiraling into the near suburbs of outright fascism.

I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American Victims. The office is called VOICE—Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests.

What media ignored these crimes? What special interests silenced their families? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care.

Is it even necessary to outline how perilous to democracy this is? You can see it even without being reminded that, a) under Steve Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart inaugurated a section called “Black Crime,” or b) the Nazi regime constructed an elaborate bureaucratic mechanism to catalogue alleged Jewish crimes against innocent Aryan citizens, although you probably ought to keep those two precedents in mind. The Department of Homeland Security never has been a terrific idea, but to invest something like this new propaganda ministry with the power and influence of an actual Cabinet department is like giving Steve Bannon’s old news sewer its own Special Forces.

Do you trust this administration—or this president*, or the people around him—to work these numbers on the square? Does anybody believe that this administration—or this president*, or the people around him—won’t cook the books any time they need a boost in the polls, or any time they need to scare Congress into doing something? Does anybody believe these figures won’t be put to violent use out in the country by the people who firmly believe that ISIL has set up shop in a storefront down next to the Piggly Wiggly?

5824

Sliced tomatoes and steak go well together. But I do have to cook it enough to change the texture of the meat. My ancestors didn’ invent fire just for me to gorge on raw meat like those horse riding barbarians that know not grain.

5825

Thanks. Looking at the POTUS twitter account it looks like some other person beside Trump tweets on it. It only has some but not all of his cringe-worthy tweets.

5826

It’s probably Pence.

5827

When I watched this I was astonished, Trump takes in the moment where everyone clapping for the widow and then… talks about how proud the dead soldier would be about breaking the record for longest applause? Who says stuff like that seriously WTF?

5828

Someone very Presidential.
And now that donnie knows that dead soldiers make him look good, plan for more dead soldiers.

5829

Trump’s dream is to have unending applause at his funeral.

5830

I’ll bet that that dead guy is real proud that he traded away his life for two minutes of applause for the benefit of Donald Trump. Real fucking proud.

5831

While the media was quick to fawn all over this moment as the most bigly Presidential and terrific thing Donald Trump has done as President, actual veterans saw right through it.

It might have been a touching tribute moment had Trump simply thanked the widow and Chief Ryan’s family for his service and heroism, but the fact that he himself kept extending the applause out to an awkward (and obviously very uncomfortable for the widow) length of time, just to then be able to crack the joke about “breaking a record”…that was not gratitude for service, that was grandstanding for political gain, and service members (and anyone with a conscience) were outraged by it.