What fantasy was that of which he spoke?

Esquire reports: President* Trump’s first State of the Union laid bare a government in delusion.

It was the most elaborate of charades, the most sophisticated of masquerades, that played itself out in the chamber of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night. The amount of pretense required to keep all sensible people—which is to say, any person who was not a Republican—in their chairs must have been heroic.

 

All involved had to pretend that Donald Trump makes sense as a president, that his administration makes sense as a government, and that his first State of the Union address made sense as either a description of national policy, or as a rhetorical summons to national unity. All involved had to pretend that his thoughts were coherent, that his words made sense, and that the complete and universal collapse of civic responsibility that propelled him onto the podium was not the most singularly destructive event in the history of American democracy since the Civil War. Everyone had to pretend that a freak show was Shakespeare, and that a rumbling, stumbling geek was Lincoln, and that the whole tableau unfolding before the Congress was somehow made noble despite the obvious fact that the whole event was an endless procession of lies and half-truths, and that the only truly remarkable thing about the speech was that it was such a perfectly round and complete crock of shit.

 

Continue reading …
I Watched a Ghoulish Masquerade in Washington

 


 

What fantasy was that of which he spoke
concerning all the greatness he has wrought
in only one short year…a cruel joke
or machinations Machiavelli taught?
Because he read the teleprompter well
and mostly stuck to script his lackey writ,
that means he’s acting presidential? Hell
will freeze to solid ice before he’s fit
to lead a nation born of great ideals.
Someday let’s hope he knows how losing feels.

Susan Eckenrode, 1/31/18

 

The media should be much nicer

In Friday’s briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied that a tweet from President Trump threatening former FBI director James B. Comey was a threat, insisted that the president maintained a busy schedule and therefore it was hard to be accurate all the time, dodged a question about whether the president tapes White House meetings, boasted about how hard his people work, uttered the mantra “the tweet speaks for itself,” maintained that his shop didn’t, in fact, mislead the public about the rationale for Comey’s firing, even though it clearly did, and lamented how the media is obsessed with small things.

 

Another day at the office, in other words.

 

The Daily Spicer: ‘He’s a nice man’
Eric Wemple, Opinion, The Washington Post

 


 

The media should be much nicer
to me and to you, my dear Spicer.
Because you stayed hidden,
that isn’t forbidden!
Next time, just tell ‘em “Aye aye, sir.”

Eric Linden, 5/11/17

 

Now the Spice man is hiding in bushes

“Whatever Spicer’s fate, the scrambled effort to address Comey’s firing has revealed something significant about this White House, which is that its press secretary is growing increasingly irrelevant.

 

“Already beset by critics who say he has lost his credibility, Spicer may now be losing his authority. His charge is to tell the media, and the public, what the president is thinking. And yet it is becoming increasingly clear that he is either not able to fulfill that task, or choosing not to.”

 

Sean Spicer under fire during crucial week for Trump
CNN Media

 


 

Now the Spice man is hiding in bushes
And he’ll answer all queries with shushes.
At the end of his rope
And unable to cope,
Does he even know where is own tush is?

Lily Beth Baker, 5/12/17

An incompetence crisis is coming

“The normal incompetent person flails and stammers and is embarrassed about it. But the true genius at incompetence like our president flails and founders and is too incompetent to recognize his own incompetence. He mistakes his catastrophes for successes and so accelerates his pace toward oblivion. Those who ignore history are condemned to retweet it.”

 

The Coming Incompetence Crisis
David Brooks, Opinion, The New York Times

 


 

An incompetence crisis is coming,
a notable prospect that’s numbing;
’cause it seems there are still
key positions to fill
just to keep their ineptitude humming.

© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode

 


Forty-five hugged the wheel while he grinned

“You’re just careering around on your own, crashing into buildings and losing altitude, growling at the cameras and spewing nasty conspiracy theories, instead of offering a sunny smile, bipartisanship, optimism and professionalism.”

Donald, This I Will Tell You
-Maureen Dowd, Opinion, New York Times


Forty-five hugged the wheel while he grinned
And growled in a game of pretend.
“Vroom, vroom, I’m a trucker
like a real workin’ sucker!
Watch me drive my big rig ‘round the bend!”

© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode


With the White House a rolling disaster (3 link limerick chain)

“When Republicans imagined having a president of their own and control of Congress, they thought it would be a nonstop string of legislative achievements and improvements to government, bringing an inspiring new era of efficiency and effectiveness that showed Americans what the GOP was really capable of.

That is not quite how things are working out.”

Why is the Trump presidency such a rolling disaster?
-Paul Waldman, Opinion, The Washington Post


 

With the White House a rolling disaster,
each policy more horse’s-assed-er,
Republicans worry
and frantically scurry
to cling to a crumbling pilaster.

© 2017 Mary Boren

As they cling to a crumbling pilaster,
our Ms. Liberty wishes they’d asked her
to reiterate
how this country was great
up until oligarchists sneaked past her.

© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode

Long before oligarchists sneaked past her,
claiming power and wealth as their master
she stood for us all
to answer her call
and no other republic surpassed her.

© 2017 Lily Beth Baker