The Criminal Always Returns to the Scene of the Crime

    

 

     Whenever a politician, or a wannabe like Trump, visits a natural disaster site, like, say,. Bush visiting NOLA after Katrina, I think of that old Barry Goldwater quote about Richard Nixon being the type of politician who would cut down a redwood then stand on its stump preaching about conservation.

     Well, Donnie Dumbo satisfied that definition and then some by his whistle stop campaign event in East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a 150 car derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border on February 3rd. Trump, who's not exactly infamous for empathy, made sure he was swaddled with human scenery that he himself had handpicked, including the press, babbled about college football and Trump Water, that hasn't been bottled since 2010, meaning the people of East Palestine got thousands of bottles of brackish, unpotable water that had been sitting around in a warehouse for 13 years while Trump waited for a disaster that would enable him to finally unload it.

     He slammed President Biden for not being there sooner, he slammed the Transportation Secretary, basically everyone but himself and his thoroughly rotten administration for setting the stage for this horrible accident by deregulating the rail industry five years ago in response to a flood of bribes lavishly handed out by the rail lobby to, natch, Republicans like Ohio's Governor, Mike DeWine, who got a nice $10,000 check just a month before the disaster from Norfolk Southern to help with his inauguration. Yes, Mike DeWine sold out Ohio for ten large.

     He babbled for about 10 minutes, then left without taking any questions before stopping off at, of course, the local McDonald's and, once again, playing the victim- “Every time I see something, I say, when will they blame Trump?” In the third person, as usual.

     Essentially, he was acting like he was the president, something he never legitimately was, which can't be anything but good for the people of Ohio since Trump essentially brought this all about the last time he pretended to be president.

     And, as usual, all Trump left in his wake was some horrible fast food, equally horrible water and a bunch of even staler insults lobbed Biden's way while preemptively taking credit for anything they'll get from the Biden administration.

 

     In other words, typical right wing disaster porn- Don't talk to the actual victims, stay clear of the danger, offer no solutions but plenty of insults, just like Trump in his first visit to Houston after Hurricane Harvey when he held court, at a great distance, from a loading dock. And don't think for a minute that Trump would've put in even this minimal amount of effort if Biden had gotten there first.