Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Laughing with Tears in My Eyes

For a while there, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and the rest of Team Trump rode a wave of hagiography that cast them as paradigm-destroying, swamp-draining geniuses. The left added 'evil' to that description, but in general, a credulous media gave the new administration a great deal of credit for a systematic approach to dismantling the foundations of the modern American state.

That edifice crumbled pretty quickly, no? From a disastrous ban on foreign travel from Muslim-heavy countries, to a nearly-as-disastrous attempt to resuscitate it, to support of a widely panned healthcare bill, to a budget proposal that would be crippling in its breadth  if it weren't literally illegal to pass, the Trump brain trust seems to resemble nothing so much as the Really Rottens of Laff-a-Lympics fame. Their cruelty and bad intent is routinely scuttled by their incompetence.

It would be laughable, if it weren't so consequential.

It's still laughable, actually. Case in point, last week, the White House either completely failed to understand obvious satire and mockery, or never read past the headline of an article by Washington Post writer Alexandria Petri. That headline, "Trump’s budget makes perfect sense and will fix America, and I will tell you why", was followed by an obvious and over the top (so, really, quite Trumpy) sendup of the folks that are running our country at the moment, including such gems as:

The piece continued on to describe in ridiculous detail some of the specific cuts President* Trump's budget proposal (which, as I may have mentioned, is cruel and incompetent) suggests:

 Petri closes with a flourish, and a literal LOL line to boot:

The article was amusing, an obvious (to most) cathartic salve to the liberal soul. To at least one person who works in the White House (it's Trump, isn't it?), it was something different entirely.

Here's a screenshot of the White House Daily Newsletter from March 16, which includes the President's daily schedule, as well as links to a couple of articles the White House thinks are important for the public to read. One's a Politico piece about Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny's visit to Washington. The other, Petri's budget-praising snarkfest.


As Petri herself put it in a follow-up article/facepalm explaining how it feels to become part of the story, "This is 2017 in a nutshell: You start with what you think is obviously a joke, and then a few days later it is being sent out from the White House."

The stock market's just started to figure out that maybe Trump is full of shit and genuinely incapable of understanding or keeping his campaign promises. FBI Director Jim Comey (Go Tribe! If we're claiming him. Given the fact that there's a strong argument all of this is his fault, maybe we shouldn't.) confirmed D.C.'s worst-kept secret, telling Congress that the Bureau is investigating the Trump campaign's ties to the Russian government. We're basically all fucked.

At least we'll die laughing.

28 comments:

TR said...

Just literally walked into Patrick Duffy in a cafe at the posh Crescent Court complex. In Dallas. Bobby Ewing still representing!

The early 30's barista was star-struck, and said after the fact: "That's the guy from Step by Step!" Made me laugh.

T.J. said...

can't even link back to the GTB Laff-a-lympics post? for shame, rob. for shame.

T.J. said...

also, can't think of Patrick Duffy without thinking of South Park's Scuzzlebutt:

Scuzzlebutt is a basket-weaving monster who lives on top of a mountain in South Park. He has a piece of celery as an arm and Patrick Duffy as a leg.

Danimal said...

TR, I'm guessing you flew United out of Newark this morning. I had an early one also, out of JFK back home after a 1-nigher outside of the NYC.

TR said...

I did, Danimal. 15-min wait at TSA at 435 AM. Was pretty glorious.

On the flip side, Dallas women still bring the goods.

rob said...

devin nunes seems smart

Shlara said...

Some good advice for those of you considering this procedure for the 2018 NCAA tourney first weekend:

“I’ve had patients show up wearing a Duke shirt not knowing where I’ve trained,” Richman, a devoted Tar Heels fan, said. “I laugh and tell them, ‘I can’t believe you wore that while I’m holding a sharp object next to your testicles.’”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/03/17/the-other-march-madness-a-rush-for-vasectomies-during-the-ncaa-tournament/?utm_term=.c352a2117907&wpisrc=nl_break&wpmm=1

zman said...

Precisely why I waited for the US Open.

TR said...

Pantera's Vinnie Paul owns a strip club in Dallas, and there are Pantera gold albums all over the wall. So I've heard.

Shlara said...

Also, if you haven't read Tom's latest NBA technology piece, here it is
The Tinder-ization of the league
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/presents18969358/tinderization-today-nba

Enjoy

TR said...

Tonight we are all UT Arlington fans.

TR said...

Tonight we are all Marcus Stroman fans.

rob said...

pour some out for jt3's tenure on the hilltop. this doesn't happen unless big john gets approval rights to the next coach. so patrick ewing, come on down!

Whitney said...

Afternoon, everybody

Mark said...

I enjoyed the technology/tinder/NBA article but the enjoyed the PB&J/NBA piece by Baxter Holmes even more.

Squeaky said...

I'm no NBA fan, I know shocker, but that PB&J piece was pretty damn good.

Whitney said...

"I know shocker"

--Squeaky, out of context

Squeaky said...

Right up there with "Yeeeeehawwww!". -Squeaky circa 1992ish

Whitney said...

Aren't you glad those weren't reversed, leading us to call you Shockery all these years...

Dave said...

anyone else have gonzaga winning it all? this game is high stress . . .

Dave said...

patrick duffy is no billy duffy

rob said...

i have $2000 on west virginia - in a manner of speaking - so, yes, it's stressful. i'm also torn, because i'd love to see gonzaga win it all.

Dave said...

but you'd love $2000 dollars more, right? you're not crazy . . .

Whitney said...

If only there were a symbol so you didn't have to type out "dollars." Hey, English teacher, work in that.

Dave said...

the winner of this game is not going to recover from it in time.

Dave said...

just trying to be safe. karnowski uses the zloty.

rob said...

crap. cool!

Mark said...

Some pretty shitty final possessions last night. Do better, college basketball coaches.