We Stand On Hollow Ground

Today is September 11th. All day. Until midnight. I was acutely aware of what day it was from the moment I woke up and turned on the morning news show, just as I had 16 years ago. Only this time, I did not see the fire in the first tower and then the plane flying into the second. I was upstairs, but there was no one downstairs to whom I could call : PUT THE NEWS ON NOW. This morning, I just saw boats littering the streets of one of the Keys. I'm not sure which one. 

One aunt was still safely ensconced in a shelter in Orlando with her nephew, his fiance, and the dogs. The other aunt managed to make it to Connecticut thanks to my cousins, one of whom just happens to be a hurricane disaster mastermind. Really. Like a rocket scientist but for extreme conditions. (Not a joke.) And by nightfall tonight, the shelter aunt was back home, happy to be there, even if there's no electricity. 

Yes, there is a difference between the destruction of the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania and a couple of savage hurricanes. One is man made and the other....well, that's open to discussion. 

I was all prepared not to write about 9/11, and then I made the mistake of listening to the speeches at the Pentagon this afternoon. Clearly, it was not written by the toddler-in-chief because it had words he could not pronounce....like sanctified. It came out as sacrificed...which almost made sense but not quite. But the one that got me...the one that absolutely convinced me this jackass had done nothing more than glance at the damn speech before he gave it was 

Today, as we stand on this hollow ground, we are reminded of the timeless truth that when America is united, no force on Earth can break us apart -- no force...

It's supposed to be "hallowed" according to the White House transcript, which, by the way,  had acknowledged the other gaff : The sacrificed [sanctified] grounds...

Anyone who has ever been around actors knows what an actor who is unprepared sounds like. That speech was totally green. And don't tell me he's not an actor because you know damn well that's all he is. If I was the speechwriter on that, I woulda quit before the ceremony was over. This orange troll does not deserve to have good speech writers. With that stupid finger thing he does with his teeny-tiny hands....they should be just lopped off at the wrist.

For one of the most important, emotional speeches he will ever give, the first 9/11 speech should've been flawlessly delivered....and it came out sounding like a frickin' cold audition. I was so totally insulted by his lack of preparing....that I'm pounding this keyboard in absolute anger.

Folks, if you're not getting this, let me explain: he just told our nation he doesn't give a flying fart in space about We, the People. We, the People, are not worth preparing for. This troll cannot be bothered to, at the very least, read the speech before he delivered it. He read flat. He read disinterested. He read boring. What's worse, he read bored. 9/11 is not a national tragedy; it's an American family tragedy. It touched every one of us...except, apparently, the current occupant of the Oval Office.

His words are, just to be very clear, TOTALLY MEANINGLESS. They are meaningless to him, they are meaningless toward us.

Now, hold on to that thought for a moment while I go get a glass seltzer. Noch besser. 

Now, where was I going with this. Oh, yeah; I remember.

This has been a week of totally meaningless in the West Wing. He played the Dems like a violin section, wooing them in to cut a deal on the debt-ceiling, funding hurricane relief, and assorted other garbage. This scene was right outta some movie. Brings in the two schlubs, Pelosi and Schumer, throws them a bone, then sits back to bask in the good press, all the while, thumbing his bright orange na-na-na-boo-boo nose at the GOP. This was so badly staged I cannot believe anyone fell for it.... but the lame-brain media did, lock, stock, and trash barrel. You see, he did not ask for anything in return, and folks, that is not how that pig-in-pearls behaves. Nope. He will turn around and demand something onerous back for that little indulgence...because that is exactly what it was. I mean, how blind do you have to be not to see that one coming down the pike? 

When I think about the terrorists, the guys engaged by Osama bin Laden to bring down those planes, I'm not thinking they were rocket scientists. I don't associate any of them with advanced degrees in science or math. I think of them as brain-dead simpletons who believe they were gonna get virgins in paradise for committing heinous acts of murder. It wasn't that they were simpletons; they were uneducated. And if you have uneducated minions, you get murderous foot-soldiers who do stuff like that. 

If you bring on the likes of Scott Pruitt to head the EPA and Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) to head NASA, what message are you sending to the kids in school? That to head an august agency you have to be a moron? That having a degree in engineering or physics is a waste of time because racing model rockets will teach you everything you for running a space agency? When they say things like they don't think climate change is man-made, you have to wonder what century they're from...the 19th but certainly not the 21st. When the West Wing advisors cannot be bothered to present qualified candidates to the oval office, having done their jobs by vetting them before hand, what do you think is going to happen?

When We, the People, elect this level of stupidity (on BOTH SIDES, people; just to be very, very clear) al-Qaeda comes roaring back to life. And that's what they've done. For 16 years they have laid low, but now, fully aware of the powers of the brainiac occupying the Oval Office, they are back in action. If you believe for one New York minute that they are afraid of the toddler, or Mike Pompeo of the CIA and their ridiculous threats, guess again. They are not. Just read about Pakistan's clearing of Benazir Bhutto's assassins if you want to see just how scared they are. 

We make our own hell. We, the People, do it every day by wasting resources and tolerating a president who refuses to understand we do make our own hell. We enable the White House to hire the Pruitts, the Bridenstines, and the DeVoses who see only $$$$$ destined to line their own pockets instead of the children of this country. They never see We, the People. They never really look at what cutting funding to shoreline research really means, so when Houston is flooded and the water is full of toxins...they can't grok the idea that the poison is man-made.

You see, my cousins Arthur and Kenny Simon died in One World Trade. Father and son. And son was a new father. I remember them on a lot of days, not just 9/11. And I don't want to ever think that We, the People, allowed al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or North Korea to start a war because they knew the president was impotent. 

Yes, toddler-in-chief, you do stand on hollow ground. In fact, it's giving way beneath your feet with every wave or your teeny-tiny hands. Make all the speeches you want. But understand this, every time you appoint a know-nothing to an important post, you are aiding and abetting al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and North Korea. They already know you're atoothless troll, and they know just to play you. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If the government won't act responsibly, We, the People, must do what we can.

Start small. Clean up your own act first. 

Re-use, recycle, buy less packaging.