Presidential Alert: “THIS IS A TEST”

Of course, there’s the obvious sentiment that at least 55% of us share in regard to how well he’s doing his job… (which, honestly, is it really only 55%?) but, also, it’s having to do with the negative character he’s portrayed within our media.

In the words of the great late Maya Angelou:

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Do we have the ability to turn this new “system alert” off? Or, does Trump just have unlimited access and ability to mass text all of us whenever he feels the need? Apparently, we don’t have the ability to turn off these notifications.

Which, let’s be honest here: Seeing his track record via Twitter and his erraticly unpredictable means of handling emergency situations without first briefing with staff… I’m unsure if I could trust Donald Trump with my personal contact number.

Although, Vox news reports that “…the national warning system predates Trump and has been under development for years, and officials say there are some pretty specific guardrails in place to make sure it’s always used correctly.”

And, Briefly skimming through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act of 2015, this alert system “shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.”

Which, speaking of trauma, remember when George W. Bush was POTUS?

The defining hallmarks of Bush’s presidency were the Patriot Act, the Iraq War, and fear-mongering.

And, apparently, I’m not alone in feeling this way as the Washington Post highlights the fact that “…Poll[s] finding 57 percent of Americans agreeing that George W. Bush ‘deliberately misled people to make the case for war with Iraq,” the president clearly needs to tend to his credibility problems. But his partisan attacks on the administration’s critics, in a Veterans Day speech last week and in Alaska yesterday, will only add to his troubles.'”

To avoid discussing “intention” here, what is clear is that Bush manipulated (read: leveraged) intelligence in order to mislead the American people.

During this election, I was young but, for some reason or another they had us as middle schoolers follow it, intently.

What they didn’t teach us or comment on, ironically, was the idea of “voter suppression” – e.g. confusing butterfly ballots, “voter fraud” (and/or turning away POC due to “ID issues”), and of course mass incarceration (thanks to Good ole Ronald f*%$ing Reagan).

George W. Bush’s administration re-wrote the manual on how to manipulatively coerce Congress… because, he did just that and, Congress wrote him a blank check to later invade Iraq.

Swinging it back around to how this relates to George W., case in point: