Feb.10

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

The Cheese Is Slipping off the Cracker, Part 322

On one hand, this is getting close to dog-bites-man territory these days. On the other hand, the man is the sitting president of the United States, and theoretically has his finger on the nuclear button. So, when one of his performances is extra shocking, even by his (current) standards, we think we have to pass it along.

Here is one of the messages he posted to his Looney Tunes social media platform yesterday. In case readers don't want to try to parse an only semi-comprehensible stream-of-consciousness wall of text, we bolded the REALLY crazypants parts:

As everyone knows, the Country of Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades. Now, things are turning around for the U.S.A., and FAST! But imagine, Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canada and the United States side and, of course, built it with virtually no U.S. content. President Barack Hussein Obama stupidly gave them a waiver so they could get around the BUY AMERICAN Act, and not use any American products, including our Steel. Now, the Canadian Government expects me, as President of the United States, to PERMIT them to just "take advantage of America!" What does the United States of America get—Absolutely NOTHING! Ontario won't even put U.S. spirits, beverages, and other alcoholic products, on their shelves, they are absolutely prohibited from doing so and now, on top of everything else, Prime Minister Carney wants to make a deal with China—which will eat Canada alive. We'll just get the leftovers! I don't think so. The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup. The Tariffs Canada charges us for our Dairy products have, for many years, been unacceptable, putting our Farmers at great financial risk. I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve. We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset. The revenues generated because of the U.S. Market will be astronomical. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

We have four questions:

1. What the hell is he talking about? What, exactly, is the mechanism of action by which China, which is just a trading partner of Canada, can shut down "ALL Ice Hockey" and get rid of the Stanley Cup?
   
   
2. Who, exactly, is the audience for this? Does he think Canadians/Mark Carney will be cowed into submission by his unhinged ramblings? Is he trying to make nice with the small group of Canada MAGA separatists, in hopes they'll try to break free, and maybe make Alberta the 51st state? Does he think there are Americans who are reading this and saying, "Now THAT is what leadership looks like!"
   
   
3. Is there any explanation for a screed like this that does not involve, on some level, the conclusion that his brain is diseased, or damaged, or both? Could a person with all their faculties actually crank messages like this out, on a near daily basis?
   
   
4. What, exactly, would the response have been if Joe Biden had issued forth with even ONE message like this? Much less a message (or two, or three) like this NEARLY EVERY DAY?

Oh, and since he's prattling on about steel, we might as well pass along this crime against statistics that the White House posted to its official eX-Twitter account last week, with the note "American steel is BACK!":

That looks very impressive, unless you actually examine the y-axis, and figure out that the increase was about 1 Mt, which, on a year-by-year basis, is just a rounding error. It's also an increase of about 1.3%, despite the fact that the bar chart makes it looks like the increase was closer to 100%. Perhaps this is the same "math" that allows Trump to claim that he's going to cut prescription prices by 500%?

You know, we bet that even some MAGA folks are secretly looking forward to a day when there's a normal president who is not surrounded by a constant whirlwind of lunacy. (Z)