Saturday, September 7, 2019

Map is hard!

This is not normal.

Here is our PseudoPresident on Sunday morning, September 1, making a slight error when describing Hurricane Dorian, which was coming in slow and strong.


The trouble is, Alabama was never in Dorian's sights.

Immediately after the erroneous tweet, the National Weather Service acted to correct the mistake, so as not to cause concern and panic in the state of Alabama.


Any other President:

"I mistakenly referred to Alabama in an earlier tweet. The great state of Alabama will not be affected by Dorian. Now, let's get to the business of governing and supporting the states that WILL be affected."


The Toddler-in-Chief:

"The hurricane will hit Alabama! I said so! You better believe me! Say it! SAY IT! Alabama! ALABAMA! ALABAMAAAAAAA!"



After the National Weather Service's correction on Sunday morning, he doubled down on Sunday afternoon during a FEMA briefing (below). At about 04:30 he says:
The federal government stands ready to assist their readiness, response, and recovery operations. And, I will say, the states — and it may get a little piece of a great place: It’s called Alabama.  And Alabama could even be in for at least some very strong winds and something more than that, it could be.  This just came up, unfortunately.  It’s the size of — the storm that we’re talking about.  So, for Alabama, just please be careful also.The federal government stands ready to assist their readiness, response, and recovery operations.

At about 10:46 in the breifing, he tries again, grasping for some validation of his error.





Monday afternoon he tripled down and called out Jonathan Karl at ABC News specifically.


By Wednesday afternoon, he went Full Toddler and triple-dog-dared down. He trotted out a map from August 29 (an already outdated map by several days even when he had made his original erroneous Alabama tweet). On the map, he had used a Sharpie to crudely draw an additional area to the forecast cone, jutting out into Alabama.

.
.
.

...I'm sorry, what?




What the actual fuck. This is pathological.

We seem to have reached a new low. (How deep does this pit go, exactly??)


But the tantrum doesn't end there!

 After Melania locked up the marker drawer, and the public picked up our collective jaw from the floor, he tweeted four more times.

On Wednesday night, he tweeted a spaghetti-line projection map from August 28, which included a couple outlier lines extending into extreme southeast Alabama. This map also showed a line going into Louisiana. Where the hell were his thoughts and prayers for New Orleans? Huh? Huh?



And hour later, he tried again.


The next morning, his face was turning red as he held his breath until we the people will believe him right now!

By that afternoon, he had dug up some early NOAA maps of wind-speed projections. These maps were from 2-3 days before his original erroneous tweet.


Notice these maps show Alabama having a 5-10% chance of experiencing tropical-storm-force winds (greater than 39 mph) during Dorian.


What is that now? <LSR counts the tweets 'n such> ...I think he has nonupled down this week?

And so, here we are a week later, and finally someone bends. We don't know who bent, because the following memo is unsigned.

Here is statement from your National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released yesterday. "Attributible to a NOAA spokesperson." WTF does that mean? Just who authorized this statement?



Who sent out this comm? Why did they throw their comrades in Birmingham NWS under the bus?

Edit to add:
On Saturday evening, The Washington Post reported that on September 1, the day the original erroneous tweet was made, NOAA scientists were directed not to contradict any statements made by the president*. It's unconscionable that again we see politicalizing and undermining objective scientific data. This shakes the public trust in the most trustable agency. What other world does this happen in?


There are multiple problems with this entire fiasco, of course.

First, what can we expect from a toddler in a high-stakes situation? He refuses to admit mistakes. He can't be wrong. Facts do not matter to him. Advisors cannot sway him. Today it's the weather. Tomorrow, what will it be? Do we want this person involved in making war decisions? Do we want him to have the nuclear codes?

Second. This week the weather, the most neutral, factual, and verifiable of all, has been falsified, politicized, and weaponized. This, my friends, is a dictatorship in action.

Third, our country is at a standstill because of a weather forecast. It wasn't the hurricane that screeched our collective attention. This issue isn't just about weather, it's about the deeply flawed brain of a con man. This inane mistake escalated into lies upon lies upon justifications upon tortured rationalizations. It's completely insane. With one senseless stroke of a Sharpie, we have another glaring illustration of why this pathological person is not fit to govern.

Fourth, how about the real Dorian? Homes in the Carolinas are underwater with trees in their living rooms. Alabama got a wind gust, but in communities on the Outer Banks, people are kayaking down the streets. What about our friends in the Bahamas? It's truly a humanitarian disaster there. 70,000 people are left homeless. Many islands have been flattened. The death toll is expected to be catastrophic.

As Jennifer Rubin from The Washington Post said, "It’s not simply that he is wrong, but pathetically laughable." And this is enough to make us cry.

We are in a sad, sad state of affairs, folks. The pit reveals no bottom.


And now, so that we may breathe again, Twitter tee-hees to the rescue. We gotta laugh to keep from crying.

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