Up until 2014 basketball star LeBron James, before tip-off routinely cupped his hand, filled his palm with chalk and tossed it in the air after greeting the scorer’s table personnel. James wears number 23 just like another legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan, who also used chalk as part of his pregame ritual. James is creating his own legacy, not to spite Michael Jordan but to honor him and the game. That is what great men do. Donald Trump has recently taken to soliciting crowds to cheer his latest growing preoccupation, the Noble Peace Prize. He is envious of his predecessor’s [Barack Obama] high approval numbers, intellect, and aptitude, (by the way, Obama won the Noble Peace Prize). Trump is so agitated by the Presidential ghost of Barack Obama he has not returned to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner since 2011.
Former President Obama officially left office just past noon on January 20th, 2017, but if you listen to the current President you would think he is still behind the desk in the Oval Office. Today Rudy Giuliani touted the impending release of three Americans held captive by the North Koreans. Of course, Mr. Trump chimed in with his usual wrong-headed braggadocio about how Obama was unable to free the three men. In actuality, only one of the three were jailed during the Obama administration. Two of the men, Tony Kim, 59, was detained at the Pyongyang airport in April 2017 as he was set to depart the country and subsequently accused of "hostile acts." Kim Hak-Song, 55, was accused of "hostile acts" in May 2017. The third man, Kim Dong-Chul, 64, of Fairfax, Va., was arrested in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in April 2016 on charges of spying and other offenses.
Of course, Trump could not acknowledge that Kim and Hak-Song were captured during his time in office, as if it makes a difference because he could not miss an opportunity to blame Mr. Obama. If the moniker ‘thin-skinned’ comes to mind, join me in the condemnation. The literal volumes of negative literature written about President Trump must be setting records. The unfortunate part is that the majority of it is not only true but deserved. I found myself watching reruns of vintage sixties TV today just to escape the news of porn stars, disparaging name calling and lying by both Trump and Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. A litany of Trump surrogates tap dancing their way from green rooms to news sets all over the dial conclude every day. I ask myself what must it be like to be so dismissive of truth that you end every day reliving and regretting a new set of lies you have told.
I have heard fewer voices than before expressing sorrow for the people who carry the leaky Trump bucket of water. For the few of you still uttering words like, “I feel sorry for…” remember these are grown men and women who are fully capable of saying “I quit.” Save your sorrow for those who deserve your empathy.
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