Land of the Free, Home of the Dumb

Sign posted not at the White House.

Today, a Wall Street Journal/Washington Post poll revealed that President Trump has a worst-in-history-of-polling-for-early-administrations 40% approval rating. Considering all of the inanity and insanity over the last 90 days, this level of approbation is not surprising. However, what is amazing is that 96% of those who voted for him would do so again. 96%!!! This includes 85% of all Republicans.

While I can understand, sadly, how a large portion of partisan voters would remain loyal to their party, no matter what, it does boggle the mind that such an overwhelming group can remain steadfast. (When Nixon resigned, more than 50% of Republicans were still supporting him.)

When one cannot rationally explain why something is happening, the answer is usually something having to do with Money. That may be true to some degree here. People have been promised a Return to Greatness, with better paying jobs and, implicitly for some, a smackdown of those who are perceived to be grifting the system (hello, people of color!)

But why do so many people who ought to know better continue to coalesce around our Tweeter-in-Chief? Certainly he had no demonstrable track record of fighting for The Little Guy throughout his lifetime. In fact, he has a history of actively screwing them over! So why does he still have such strong support? Are his voters willfully ignorant? In determined denial? Are they simply trolling the country? Are they being Ginormously Ironic?

This Cult of Personality that seems to hold his supporters in sway developed over the years with "The Apprentice", the Reality TV show on Fox that served to save Trump's bacon and establish a generation of true believers. In a TV Nation such as ours, the influence of this consistently top-rated program should not be discounted. It really promoted Trump as a business leader supreme, whose incredible skills were never to be questioned. Interestingly, behind the scenes, Trump was teetering towards bankruptcy when he signed on for this gig. Its success jump-started his failing brand name and the rest is history.

So 96% of his supporters continue to drink his kool-aid and would vote for him again. Here is what he wrote this morning on a Tweet:

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

Not exactly words that evoke the literary tradition of Reagan, Kennedy, Roosevelt or Lincoln. But it does serve to remind us of the famous adage, "He says what we are thinking". And this week presented numerous examples of this kind of stinkin' thinkin'. For example, on Thursday evening, the President invited Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock to join him for dinner at the White House. They spent FOUR HOURS with him. Palin, the dim and defeated VP candidate and resigned governor (for whom Steve Bannon produced the hilariously titled vanity documentary The Undefeated). Ted Nugent, who called Barack Obama a "subhuman mongrel" who should "suck on my machine gun" and "be tried for treason and hung." Kid Rock, the obnoxious white people's rapper and southern rocker, who grew up a rich kid outside of Detroit. This, ladies and gentlemen, is American Carnage, Trump Style:

The painting frame has more class than these three clowns.

Oh, Ha Ha. They were going to pose flipping off ol' Hillary, but according to the NY Times, Nugent, of all people, demurred at the last moment. The nuclear throw-weight of Stupid at that dinner is hard to measure.

Well, at least the Trumps didn't mess up the Easter Egg Roll, a fun event for kids and a 138 year tradition. Vendors for the Roll were panicking last month because no one at the White House seemed to be in charge of it and things looked dicey. At the last minute they pulled it off! 18,000 participants and hardly any kids of color, unlike the previous decades. But who was in the bunny suit? Sean Spicer? (has experience) Jared Kushner (he does everything else), Steve Bannon (looking for other things to do within the WH)?

A White Rabbit at an Easter Egg Whites event, indeed. Maybe he was this mysterious guy:

Fake CENTCOM spokesperson

Yep, just another weird, dopey and deeply unsettling example of The Amateur Hour that runs 24/7 at the White House. But wait, you want some more? Well, here's some more:

When Aya Hijazi, the Egyptian-American charity worker was returned after 3 years in a Cairo jail, there was much justifiable celebration.  Then it was learned that she was released after Trump had publicly embraced Egyptian autocrat President Sissi, calling him "fantastic" and offered him "strong backing". Then, the White House put this out on their website, juiced it up with the go-to anthem, "Proud to be an American",  and Trump tweeted it:

Trump's Twitter of Aya at WH, 39 Star Flag

Check out the flag at the 1:50 mark. Is there a hidden message here? Did you know our country has only 39 states? I'm not even sure the hardest of hard-core Trumpenproleteriats know this.  Do the 39 starred states represent Trump's electoral college firewall?

Attorney General Jefferson Davis Sessions claimed incredulity that a judge "on a Pacific island" could stop Trump's travel ban. He later claimed to be joking, knowing full well that Hawaii, a chain of Pacific islands, is in fact a state. Then he got all testy about New York City, a "sanctuary city", saying that it is "soft on crime." NYC's crime rate is historically low, and compares favorably to cities in Sessions' home state of Alabama:

http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/crime1.aspx

A couple of days ago, Trump fired the U.S. Surgeon General and replaced him with a Registered Nurse. OK, she is also a Rear Admiral, but it does demonstrate that the only surgeon in the Trump Administration is in charge of Housing, when he's not stuck in an elevator.

Ben Carson gets stuck in an elevator

Well, there is one person in the White House who is supposed to have a couple of IQ points in her noggin. Let's take a look at what she might write to the babysitter when she and Ruler of the Universe Jared go out:

Ivanka Trump's note to the babysitter

Also, in case anyone may have forgotten during all the excitement, April is National Sexual Assault and Prevention Month. It's true! Our President proclaimed it so himself. In a statement, he declared that his administration would raise awareness of the issue, supporting and serving victims here and worldwide. These are welcome words from the Grabber-in-Chief.

But then within a few days, all was apparently forgotten. Trump publicly supported his friend Bill O'Reilly, saying "I don't think he did anything wrong." Fox News disagreed, having paid out over $13 Million in settlements to in-house accusers of his sexual predatory behavior. Then, after paying Bill $25 Million in severance, they fired him. Add this to the debit column where Fox paid its founder, former Nixon Director of Communications Roger Ailes, $40 Million severance after paying his own in-house accusers over $20 Million.

But Trump says it's OK, whether or not it's Sexual Assault and Prevention Month. Is this what his 96% fan base thinks, too? If so, we've got a looong way to go.

Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes (right)

On the other hand, Bill and Roger are both gone, so there is that. Our old friends at The Onion take a poignant look at O'Reilly's last day at work:

http://www.theonion.com/article/bill-oreilly-tearfully-packs-framed-skirt-photos-d-55818

It may be a slower-than-desired process, but one by one these jerks find a way to step on their own hubris.  There is going to be an enormous amount of cleanup in Aisle Seven after this administration goes away. In the meantime, let's remember these paraphrased words from the great American author: