I am so proud of my people today, and I don’t mean Americans. I’m talking about my ancestral people, the Irish, who laid waste to Donald Trump on the first day of a two day visit to the Emerald Isle, in the VIP lounge of Shannon Airport, using the tools of which they are supreme masters: language, humor, and truth; all focused and aimed with laser-like precision. Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, made orange moss pudding out of Trump and the book makers aren’t even bothering to lay odds whether he’s oblivious to it or not. They already know the score.
As you know, Trump first wanted to have a meeting with the Irish PM at his golf course in Doonbeg. The PM declined, not wanting to make the official visit to Ireland an infomercial for a Trump property. So, after dickering back and forth, the VIP Lounge at Shannon Airport was decided upon — which to any normal sensibility is a slap in the face. Do you know of any other honored guest, let alone American president, who was met by a head of state in an airport lounge? No, and that’s because Trump is neither honored nor a guest. Meeting him was strictly a perfunctory gesture on Varadkar’s part — but it was not without comedy, especially when Trump made an analogy between the Troubles between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and the immigration issue with Mexico, and suggested that Varadkar needed a wall of his own to keep out the Protestants. Irish Times:
As for the Border: “I think it will work out and it will all work out very well. Also, for you, with your wall, your border. . .”
There was a quiet gasp from the Irish.
“We have a border situation in the United States and you have one over here, but it’s going to work out very well. I think it’s both going to work out very well.”
And that strange noise heard above the Burren Suite was not the sound of an overflying aircraft, but the whoop of joy from Simon Coveney [Minister For Foreign Affairs, who deliberately avoided meeting Trump because of his Brexit views] in Belfast who was thanking his lucky stars that he didn’t have to listen to such twaddle. As Trump went on to declare that Brexit could ultimately be “very, very good” for us, Leo maintained that placid smile but his eyes started darting about in his head.
This was after he felt compelled to make a respectful intervention after the Brexit-border talk became too much to take.
“The main thing we want to avoid of course,” stammered Leo, with a non-threatening laugh in his voice, “is putting a border or wall between. . . ”
“Oh, I think you do. I think you do,” interrupted president Trump.
“Both sides,” continued Leo, his voice trailing off.
Trump blathered a bit more about climate change and the environment, assuring Varadkar that on his watch, America had the best air and water in the world — the water was “crystal clear.” I guess we’re all getting Rocky Mountain Spring water out of the tap these days. Maybe we can make Coors beer.
Then as the Irish Times put it, “the circus moved on to Doonbeg,” in four limousines rented from an Irish funeral home at the cost of $116,879 a mile. Hand to God, this is accurate. You can’t make this s*it up.
Here’s what was said by Varadkar after Trump’s departure for Doonbeg in plain English and I’ll translate it into Irish-speak for you.
“You know, he is president of America and there are nearly 200 countries in the world. So I don’t think it’s possible for him to have an in depth and detailed understanding of issues in every single country.” Translation: “The man doesn’t have the slightest fooking clue what the hell he’s talking about. He’s a blithering arse.”
The Taoiseach ended his day with a Trumpian flourish, making sure to tell everyone that Fine Gael [Varadkar’s political party, currently in power] had done very well in the European elections.
“I’ve got the best elections. Tremendous election. Crystal clear result.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! This seemingly-polite back-handed yet open slap of Trump is the essence of Irish wit, and believe me, thousands of toasts will be drunk to the Taoiseach tonight as the be-diapered Trump blimp wends it’s way across the Irish sea for a demonstration in Dublin Thursday. Whatever their historical differences, the Brits and the Irish are seeing eye to eye on this one.
And my personal fantasy? I see all the great departed Irish literary minds and comic geniuses up in the big shebeen** in the sky toasting the Taoiseach as well. I see Oscar Wilde clinking a pint with George Carlin, while George Bernard Shaw lifts one to Jimmy Breslin, as Robin Williams and William Butler Yates wipe their eyes, moist from laughter. As do I, believe me, as do I. Slainte!*
*Irish toast, pronounced “slan-shaa” meaning “to your health”
**A disreputable pub
As someone with a few Irish roots himself, I got nothing but pride for the Taoseiach myself. Hell, if Trump were the chief cause of Brexit, I dare the issue would have been sorted out by now.
If you have Irish roots, then you must be one of the “millions” of Irish that Trump knows and is friends with. Right? He loves us all and we’re collectively thrilled to know that. Twitter was buzzing last night with people saying things like, “I’m Irish and he’s no friend of mine,” and “count me out, too.” Probably an entertaining thread will appear today — if not on this site, then elsewhere, certainly.
I loved this Irish put down. I don’t know if you read the Guardian link about the limos, but when Obama was there in 2014, I believe it was, he rented limos for three days, from the same company, and the entire cost for Obama was less than the cost for one mile when Trump is the customer. The man is not liked.
I’ve seen the photo ops of Eric and Donald being good ole boys in the pubs and I would love to hear the whispers in the corners, I’ll bet some good one liners were getting off.
He may love me, Ursula, but I’ve no love for him. And no Irishman worth his name would do anything but two things to Trump: ridicule him in a way they could get away with or go to war with him. Every once in a while, as in the case of ruthless English landlord Charles Boyington Boycott (yes, that’s where the term comes from), they get to do both.
I read a twitter exchange between Charlie Pierce and some people in Ireland and they said Mike Pence was the reincarnation of an English landlord/overseer type. HA! They also said Pence’s ancestors stole sheep. And here’s one you’ll love, are you sitting down? Pence’s great grandfather married his great grandmother four days before Pence’s grandfather was born. That’s in the church records. Do you love it?
Troubles between Northern and Southern Ireland”, except there is no “Southern Ireland” there is Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.
There is a song I was taught by my grandmother and I always loved the chorus
“They say that the lakes of Kilarney are fair
No stream like the Liffy can ever compare.
But if it’s water you want, you’ll find nothing so rare
As the stuff that flows down by the ocean.
Chorus:
The sea o the sea, it’s geal grá mo chroí*,
Long may it roll between England and me.
‘Tis a sure guarantee that somehow we’ll be free
Thank God we’re surrounded by water.
2. The Danes came to our land with nothing to do
But dream of the plunder, all Irish they slew.
You will or you won’t boys with Brian Boru
And drove them all into the ocean.
Chorus:
3. The Scots have their whiskey, the Welsh have their leeks,
Their poets are paid about ten pence a week
Providing no harsh words gainst England they speak
O Lord! What a price for devotion!
Chorus:
4. Two foreign old monarchs in battle did join,
Each wanted his head on the back of a coin.
If the Irish had sense they’d throw both in the Boyne,
And Partition back into the ocean.
Chorus:”
You are correct, Tex. The point I was trying to make, and obviously did so clumsily, is that there is a northern/southern conflict, as we have seen so many times in history, (or east/west, same difference) and Trump suggested solving it with a wall — and the Irish groaned and then howled with laughter.
He knows he is despised. He tries to gaslight, and say it is fake news, but he knows. And I love it.
Agree in part. On some small level, he knows. But in the main, his personality is warped in such a way that he has to believe he is a Master of the Universe to keep functioning. The self honesty is not strong with this one.
I don’t think he would try to convince people otherwise, if he believed his own bulls#It, or maybe it is a little bit of both, as you say.
It’s going to be an absolute pleasure watching all that collapse before his eyes and if not him, his children’s.
I pray to God we watch him collapse before we watch the country collapse. The first article I read this morning was on the farmers getting another $16Billion in bailouts, because of his eff up with China, and the second article I read said that job creation was slowing. And the THIRD article I read was a news release of a poll of people saying how life was getting harder, increasing fuel costs, bla bla — and then I stopped reading and came over here to check comments. But this is what I see every day — and then of course some MAGA a$$hole will always post on Twitter how Trump is so great for the economy and security.
Oh, let me get started on security, briefly. Raytheon is making high tech bomb parts in Saudi Arabia, that makes me feel secure. And Russia was intercepting American aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea — that makes me sleep better as well.
The horror of our age is that we live with two narratives of news, real physical reality and wingnut spin, designed to manipulate the masses of asses. And I fear the latter is winning — which is why I bust it with these articles, hoping that maybe the truth will leak out from here or from Twitter or somehow.
The wingnut spin has been on my radar since W, Ursula. Yeah, not as crazy back then but where we are now is always where that initial push was going. All we can do is all we can do…keep on pushing.
I have two questions.Who is paying that $116,879 per mile for Trump to go play golf? And how do you pronounce “Taoiseach”?
The American taxpayers are paying for every bit of the Trump family European vacation. His children had not been invited but we paid for all of their luxury accommodations. Trump used to piss & moan about the Obama trips but their daughters were children, not adults! Besides, Trump only goes to his own properties to play golf. Obama played the military courses!
Apparently, somehow, it is perfectly legal for DJT to pour thousands of dollars into his own pocket by using his golf facilities as landing points on weekends or any other day he takes off for, “executive time”, seemingly, more time than he spends supposedly doing his voted into office job …. oops, he left his businesses to his children to manage as soon as he was elected, and has not fed money into the Trump cult by skimming/scamming WE THE PEOPLE …. oh well …
The frail, failing, loser Trump, has been in a lot of places at our costs, and leaves a stink behind him that smells of the hog confinement buildings under water in the USA, along with the total slide of our country’s international respect and our former beacon of hope and peace for those unfortunate families struggling to arrive here and faced with their babies being ripped from their arms to be lost to them forever … Trump’s stupidity is already known in Ireland, this dog and pony show, shitty photo ops crap, has to stop … he rolls into town in Ireland and shows HE REALLY IS the buffoon they have called him, you’ve got to love their portrayal of him using those skills of language un-tethered ….
I think Varadkar aping Trump about his “tremendous” elections is stellar. That is Shavian wit. George Bernard Shaw was looking down from the Big Shebeen in the Sky and howling, even as you and I do. And the account in the Irish Times that I copied from was a scream. My God, I may subscribe to that newspaper.
We need to get some reimbursement. This is psychotic expense. The funeral home clearly didn’t want to do business with him and quoted an exorbitant price and he just okayed it — because you and I are paying the freight. On the facts of financial malfeasance alone, we need to get this schmuck out of office.
“The established anglicisation for the word Taoiseach is TEE-shock (-ee as in meet, -sh as in ship). The deputy prime minister is referred to as Tánaiste,pronounced TAW-nuh-stuh. Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar’s party, is pronounced FIN-uh GAYL”
You are a wonder in this thread this morning. Thank you for dropping by.