How Does "Petty and Vindictive" Sound?

It's always been part of the acting president's make-up, but now it's out in the open. This time the target is Michigan:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suggested Friday that a growing rift with the White House is affecting shipments of medical supplies to Michigan amid exponential growth in confirmed coronavirus cases.

"When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on," Whitmer said Friday on WWJ 950AM. "What I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It's really concerning."

Whitmer didn't say who has told vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the state, but strongly implied the order came from President Donald Trump's administration.

If that seems a little circumstantial, how about this?

During a Friday evening press conference, Trump said he's instructed Vice President Mike Pence, "don't call the woman in Michigan."

"If they don't treat you right, I don't call," Trump said of Whitmer.

If you find this unbelievable, consider again what we're dealing with: a sociopath with severe ego problems whose only talent is duping the unwary. Who thinks he should be president for life.

Via Joe.My.God.

Is Anyone Surprised?

Trump seems to want the economy back on track in spite of the pandemic:

President Donald Trump made clear in an all-caps stroke of midnight tweet he’s done with sacrificing the economy to save millions of lives.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump tweeted at 11:50 PM Sunday night.

Now reports from several news organizations are giving that disturbing tweet even more disturbing context.

“President Trump and some of his senior officials are losing patience with the doctors’ orders,” Axios reports. “Senior Trump officials, including the president himself, have only limited patience for keeping the economy shut down. They are watching stocks tumble and unemployment skyrocket.”

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Maybe if the response had been other than a bunch of tweets downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic, the economy wouldn't be in trouble.

and of course, this just illustrates once again the priorities of Trump and the sociopaths he has surrounding him -- money first, people last.

Oops!

That's not what they were supposed to say:

"Fox & Friends” on Monday had a panel of independent voters to discuss the caravan of Central American immigrants heading through Mexico toward the United States — but it backfired hilariously after the guests expressed empathy for migrants.

Even though the show had spent the entire morning running scare-mongering segments about the caravan, the independent voters on the show said they were nonetheless supportive of helping the migrants.

“There’s a humanitarian crisis taking place in Central America,” said one independent voter interviewed by Fox News’ Steve Doocy. “And yet, this issue gets turned into a complete political football. There’s very little about what’s actually happening.”

A second guest quickly piped up to agree, while subtly knocking Fox for its efforts to frighten viewers about the migrants.

“Treating this as an ‘invasion’ is a bad idea and it’s going to end horribly,” he said. “People have to realize, yeah, these are human beings coming here, and there needs to be a real solution offered in dealing with it.”

American are better than what Trump wants us to believe. It occurs to me that the erosion of our standing in the world is not simply that our president is a joke. It wasn't based on money or military power (for those nations not led by people like Trump), but much more on our willingness to help. We took the lead in the fight against AIDS in Africa and Asia, we've always been there with relief for natural disasters, both at home and abroad, and -- well, remember the Peace Corps?

And, as it turns out, most Americans still believe in that. Which makes me wonder all the more how we put a bunch of sociopaths like Trump and the Republicans in charge.

It's All About Her

It turns out that Melania Trump is just as tone deaf as her husband:

The First Lady shocked many last June when she wore the boldly printed jacket as she visited a Texas holding center where undocumented children were temporarily placed after being separated from their parents.

Many interpreted the jacket as insensitive considering the outrage over her husband’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies.

Initially, the First Lady’s spokespeople said there was no message behind the jacket, but Melania revealed to ABC’s Tom Llamas, during an hour special “Being Melania- The First Lady” that aired Friday, that it was a direct message to her left-wing critics.

Melania Trump tells @TomLlamasABCshe wore the ‘I really don’t care’ jacket “for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me. And I want to show them that I don’t care.” #MelaniaTrumphttps://t.co/EqEyfZkJvZpic.twitter.com/2EWeCKB0de

— ABC News (@ABC) October 13, 2018

Somepone should explain to her the concept of "context". And I just noticed how she's dressed in her safari outfit for the interview. How raj of her.

Digby gets it, even if the First Plaything doesn't:

I'm pretty sure she's being honest about wearing that jacket. It's just that she and her staff are so mind-crushingly stupid that they didn't realize that wearing it to a detention center where her husband's government was holding children who had been forcibly removed from their parents would send a different message.

That's Trumpism. Owning the libs is truly their only motivation in life and it crowds out even the slightest bit of common sense.

Footnote: They make a perfect couple:

Trump defends holding his political rally in Erie last night despite Hurricane Michael.

"You know, when they get there that early and, you know, that area obviously is not affected at all by it... it would have been really unfair to the people." pic.twitter.com/fjTfXqdCDv

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 11, 2018

Note: If you're not getting the videos of Trump's interview and the one on Rupar's tweet, you can see them at the links. For some reason, they show up when I preview the post, but not when I publish it. Blogger strikes again. They show up fine on Microsoft Edge, so it's Chrome that's at fault.