Every week, we deliver our picks for the most noteworthy hot air blowers, virtue signalers, and grandstanders in the news.
Grandclimber.
Patricia Okoumou is quite lithe.
On the Fourth of July she scaled the Statue of Liberty without getting caught (except for on numerous cellphone cameras). As a feat of human physical achievement and personal excellence, Okoumou’s ascent was certainly heroic. As a political statement… less so.
“I had thought, ‘It’s the Statue of Liberty, it’s the Fourth of July and there are children in cages, we are doing a protest but I want to send an even stronger message and this is the perfect day for it,'” Okoumou said, concluding with an homage to Michelle Obama, “when they go low, we go high. And I went as high as I could.”
This is precisely why performers should never be asked to explain their art.She was interviewed by MSNBC, the Guardian and a number of other outlets, all of whom failed to offer a statistic on exactly how many immigrant families were reunited, how many children were released from cage-hold, and how many Resisters were galvanized by Okoumou’s climb.
Grandbuilder.
Love him or hate him, President Donald Trump ushered a new style into American politics. You might think his style to be the amplification of public sentiment, or you might think it the horn-blow of xenophobia, cruelty and tackiness. Either way, that style is idiosyncratically Trump.
This is what makes the growing list of toady emulators so difficult to stomach. Just consider, how many times have you recently heard someone proclaiming to be a Trump by another name? Or to out-Trump Trump?
Latest knock-off to join this cringe-worthy crew is a GOP congressional candidate from Tennessee who released an ad this week of himself literally building a wall in his backyard.
Yes. You’re so Trump that you can Trump the most Trump there is to Trump since the birth of Trump. We get it.
Fawn No More.
Speaking of toads, swamp-monster Scott Pruitt resigned this week (under pressure) from his position as EPA boss. Notoriously close to Trump, Pruitt penned a goodbye letter that is less a resignation-notice than a soliloquy to his only other man-crush after Jesus:
Truly, your confidence in me has blessed me personally and enabled me to advance your agenda… Your courage, steadfastness and resolute commitment to get results for the American people […] is in fact occurring at an unprecedented pace and I thank you for the opportunity to serve you and the American people in helping achieve those ends.
One can almost see the stain of a single tear marking Pruitt’s original copy of the letter.
Brief though the missive is, the word “bless” appears in it 4 times. The word “serve” 3 times.
”Your Faithful Friend,” reads the closing line. Godspeed, Pruitt. We’ll always have lung diseases.
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