Let's start with the rank narcissism. At this point, to call Trump "narcissistic" is like calling the Catholic Church "a child-raping ring pretending to be a religion." We know. All you gotta say is the name and we get it. So it's not surprising that Trump makes everything about himself. True to form, he wished the Marine Corps a "Happy Birthday" on the 243rd anniversary of its creation and he did it with a picture of himself speaking to some Marines at an air base in Florida. Then, for Veterans Day, he tweeted a picture of himself hugging a vet. He celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Poland with a picture of himself speaking in that country. Then fuckin' Melania posted a photo of both her and her lump of a husband at an event in Paris for the end of World War I as a way to "remember the brave actions of our troops."
In France on Saturday, Trump wouldn't leave his hotel to go out in a slight drizzle to honor those troops, including over 1000 Marines, whose "birthday" he had just tweet-celebrated, at an event at the Aisne-Marne Cemetery 30 miles outside Paris. The White House gave various excuses, like that the weather was too bad for his helicopter (which, as Malcolm Nance said this morning, was designed to track ships in monsoons and can land on the ocean, if needed). They said that a motorcade would have been disruptive, although it wasn't for the president of, you know, France. Let's be real: Trump was going to have walk more than a few steps and he can barely get his lardass up the stairs to Air Force One without looking like he's gonna vomit on himself from the effort. His only movement is swinging a golf club before getting back into the cart.
For extra head-smackingly sad hilarity, here's what Trump actually said in a speech the next day in France: "Through rain, hail, snow, mud, poisonous gas, bullets and mortar, they held the line, and pushed onward to victory — it was a great, great victory; costly victory but a great victory." That's right. The soldiers walked through shit pits with Hell raining down around them, but President Sugartits can't handle a little moisture.
Oh, and then, today, when Veterans Day is being observed, Trump is doing not a goddamn thing to honor the dead. He's not going to Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath. Why? Fuckin' rain, man. (Note: It didn't rain.)
This is all symbolic stuff, even if the actual symbolism is Trump shitting on a grave and wiping his ass on the marble cross that marks it. But there is something that directly affects the lives of living veterans going on that the Trump administration is responsible for. His Veterans Day Proclamation is filled with self-praise about how awesome he has deluded himself into thinking he's been for vets. It says, "My Administration is also processing veteran claims and appeals more quickly than ever before, and veterans can now use their GI Bill benefits at any point in their lives." Funny thing about that is it's a lie.
Yeah, thanks to the clusterfuck of incompetence and apathy that is the hallmark of the Trump presidency, payments to vets from the GI Bill have been delayed "for months," according to NBC News. Indeed, the housing stipend that vets are supposed to receive has been delayed so much that some vets may have become or are about to become homeless because they can't afford their rent. The big reason is that Trump signed some mighty bill that accelerated vets getting benefits, but the bill didn't provide for updating the computers and software that would help process all the claims. And we're talking hundreds of thousands of vets being affected by this, unable to pay for their homes and their education.
So, you know, maybe instead of letting him get away with hiding and hunching over his phone, tweeting while watching Fox "news," someone can actually get this fuckin' fraud of a man to pretend he gives a shit about something other than himself. Hell, by this point in his presidency, Barack Obama had visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, actual war zones.
Trump can't even take a limo ride to a graveyard.
One last thing: This doesn't even get into Trump's call for Florida to ignore the votes of active troops in the midterm count. Not the recount. The count. Yeah, overseas ballots can come in until Friday. Man, those soldiers make awesome props.
In France on Saturday, Trump wouldn't leave his hotel to go out in a slight drizzle to honor those troops, including over 1000 Marines, whose "birthday" he had just tweet-celebrated, at an event at the Aisne-Marne Cemetery 30 miles outside Paris. The White House gave various excuses, like that the weather was too bad for his helicopter (which, as Malcolm Nance said this morning, was designed to track ships in monsoons and can land on the ocean, if needed). They said that a motorcade would have been disruptive, although it wasn't for the president of, you know, France. Let's be real: Trump was going to have walk more than a few steps and he can barely get his lardass up the stairs to Air Force One without looking like he's gonna vomit on himself from the effort. His only movement is swinging a golf club before getting back into the cart.
For extra head-smackingly sad hilarity, here's what Trump actually said in a speech the next day in France: "Through rain, hail, snow, mud, poisonous gas, bullets and mortar, they held the line, and pushed onward to victory — it was a great, great victory; costly victory but a great victory." That's right. The soldiers walked through shit pits with Hell raining down around them, but President Sugartits can't handle a little moisture.
Oh, and then, today, when Veterans Day is being observed, Trump is doing not a goddamn thing to honor the dead. He's not going to Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath. Why? Fuckin' rain, man. (Note: It didn't rain.)
This is all symbolic stuff, even if the actual symbolism is Trump shitting on a grave and wiping his ass on the marble cross that marks it. But there is something that directly affects the lives of living veterans going on that the Trump administration is responsible for. His Veterans Day Proclamation is filled with self-praise about how awesome he has deluded himself into thinking he's been for vets. It says, "My Administration is also processing veteran claims and appeals more quickly than ever before, and veterans can now use their GI Bill benefits at any point in their lives." Funny thing about that is it's a lie.
Yeah, thanks to the clusterfuck of incompetence and apathy that is the hallmark of the Trump presidency, payments to vets from the GI Bill have been delayed "for months," according to NBC News. Indeed, the housing stipend that vets are supposed to receive has been delayed so much that some vets may have become or are about to become homeless because they can't afford their rent. The big reason is that Trump signed some mighty bill that accelerated vets getting benefits, but the bill didn't provide for updating the computers and software that would help process all the claims. And we're talking hundreds of thousands of vets being affected by this, unable to pay for their homes and their education.
So, you know, maybe instead of letting him get away with hiding and hunching over his phone, tweeting while watching Fox "news," someone can actually get this fuckin' fraud of a man to pretend he gives a shit about something other than himself. Hell, by this point in his presidency, Barack Obama had visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, actual war zones.
Trump can't even take a limo ride to a graveyard.
One last thing: This doesn't even get into Trump's call for Florida to ignore the votes of active troops in the midterm count. Not the recount. The count. Yeah, overseas ballots can come in until Friday. Man, those soldiers make awesome props.
