Here we go again
by Tom Sullivan
One of two rescued manatees stranded by receding water during Hurricane Irma.
While Hurricane Irma slammed Florida, the president spent the weekend at Camp David. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., he showed off his emotional intelligence:
President Trump said Sunday that the major hurricanes hitting the U.S. are improving the “brand” of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Trump told a reporter that the country has “great people” responding to the massive storms and that “a group that really deserves tremendous credit is the United States Coast Guard,” according to a White House pool report.
“What they’ve done — I mean, they’ve gone right into that, and you never know. When you go in there, you don’t know if you’re going to come out. They are really — if you talk about branding, no brand has improved more than the United States Coast Guard,” Trump said.
He knows jack about leadership or governing a democratic republic. But branding? The reality show star with the steaks and the fake university knows something about branding, since his brand is his livelihood. Even if it’s going into the toilet.
But while the president talked about branding and Floridians stood up to Hurricane Irma, three time zones west Portland Stands United Against Hate was standing up once again to white nationalists:
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Chaos erupted quickly when opposing groups faced off over differing views on white nationalism in downtown Portland, prompting at least 7 arrests, confrontations, a change in the permitted march route and violent actions that resulted in at least 2 officers being injured.
Then the protest that began in Portland moved across the river into Vancouver, where Joey Gibson’s Patriot Prayer group gathered.
Owing to past violence between the groups, police presence keeping the two groups separated was more robust. Once again, counterprotesters seemed to outnumber Gibson’s supporters.
It’s hard to make out exactly what went down from tweets and limited reporting, but it seems the antifas this time brought more silly string than sticks and pepper spray. Nevertheless, punches were thrown. Confederate flags were flown.
The stark difference in the Portland weather and the counterprotester chants of “Nazis, go home!” brought to mind a line from Casablanca:
Strasser: Oh, we Germans must get used to all climates, from Russia to the Sahara.
Perhaps they’d enjoy south Florida?
From my brother's Univision colleagues in downtown Miami pic.twitter.com/ADJlO5R6tR— Paul Adams (@BBCPaulAdams) September 10, 2017
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