You don't need a weatherman to know which way the Sharpie writes

By adamg on Sat, 09/07/2019 - 2:40pm

A viewer in the Boston-area media market asked three TV meteorologists their thoughts on Sharpiegate. Two answered:

I support the NWS. To some, it may be seen as a small infraction on the part of POTUS, but in this age, science is under fire, and we must do everything in our power to defend it.

— Pete Bouchard NBC10 Boston (@PeteNBCBoston) September 7, 2019

Massive waste of time, energy, and reputation for ego

— Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) September 7, 2019

Topics:

Weather

Free tagging:

Hurricane Dorian

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Comments

This is just as ridiculous

By anon
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 3:40pm

As the two scoops of ice cream BS. Get a grip people.

Yeah, who cares if the

By Kinopio
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 12:27am

Yeah, who cares if the president constantly lies and denies science? It's not like he has an important job or anything.

We're talking about a historically deadly storm, not dessert

By anon
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 4:03am

Good grief, get a grip indeed.

Trump could be talking about the aid that the Bahamas and North Carolina need. Trying to raise awareness for the severity of this storm and how it's affected our fellow citizens and close neighbors.

At the least, he could do that with a goddamn tweet at 4 in the morning.

Nope. he's too small and petty of a man.

There is no grip.

By dmcboston
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 11:27am

Not since the Mueller Russia thing went down the toilet faster a sudden right on red (after stop) pulled by the hurricane as it neared Florida.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/tZ25ZVu.jpg[/img]

NOTE: This image might be photoshopped.

Dangerous is what it is.

By Omri
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 4:37pm

The NWS has to walk a delicate line between crying wolf and causing people to ignore warnings, and failing to alert people in a hurricane's path. Both mistakes can and do cause deaths.

And our senile, demented president thinks his ego is more important than that.

Everybody has met someone like Trump at least

By MC Slim JB
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 6:07pm

once in their lives, the person who can never, ever admit to a mistake, no matter how blindingly obvious is it to everyone else that they were dead-wrong and simply can't acknowledge it, even it it's over some trivial matter that no one really gives a damn about.

It's an obvious sign of massive ego combined with crippling insecurity, a deadly character flaw. We call such a person an annoying giant baby and an insufferable effing a-hole, and we generally cut them out of our lives if we can.

What a sorry excuse for a human being he is. what a national embarrassment as a leader, how pitiful for you if you followed this staggering bout of idiocy and still support him.

Trump was right. Early model

By Donnie Boston
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 6:57pm

Trump was right. Early model forecasts included Alabama. In fact, NOAA backed the president on his forecast at the time. People who choose to come down on a president for a pen mark on a map are ignorant. Meteorologist Donald Trump - always right on everything.

Early Model

By Stevil
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 7:49pm

Everyone with a brain knows that those early cones of uncertainty are highly unreliable. Kinda explains the name "Cone of Uncertainty". Note also, I said everyone with a brain.

Yeah, but "used to be right"

By baustin
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 7:50pm

Yeah, but "used to be right" doesn't equal "still right." Like, I can't use a sharpie to say I'm 25, even though there was a time that was true. Plus, early models are the least accurate. Why would anyone keep working from old data?

No, he's an idiot who was wrong

By adamg
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 8:02pm

Early models had eastern Massachusetts within the "cone of uncertainty" as well (heck, I even wrote about it). Were we ever really threatened? No, because five-day hurricane forecasts are notoriously unreliable for places at the end of the forecast (like us, or at the time, Alabama).

In fact, the map he edited with a Sharpie has a very long note at the bottom explaining just how wrong it can be: "Historical data indicate that the entire 5-day path of the center of the tropical cyclone will remain within the cone about 60-70% of the time."

Dear Leader made a mistake. Whether it's because somebody who should know better gave him bad advice or he misheard or some combination, he got it wrong - especially since by the time he first mentioned Alabama, the NWS had already removed Alabama from its "cone" maps.

But that's not what makes him an idiot. People make mistakes, eh, it happens.

Normal people would go "Oops, sorry!" and move on. But he's not a normal person. He's the God Emperor who Never Makes Mistakes. And he's surrounded by toadies who are desperate to keep him happy (remember the White House doctor who said he'd live to 200 if only he put more lettuce on his Big Macs?)

So somebody looking to keep the emperor happy dredges up an even older "spaghetti map" that shows a few lines over Alabama, which is even stupider to cite because they're even more unreliable than the "cone" that the National Hurricane Center puts out and most people know you try to look at where most of the lines are and most of the lines were NOT over Alabama and never were (the computer programs that help forecasters, well, forecast, take weather data and run them through lots and lots of permutations; the result is a map that looks like somebody dropped spaghetti on it).

And somebody else dredged up a map showing possible areas that could be hit by "tropical-storm force" winds. That's not even a hurricane prediction map! Parts of eastern Massachusetts got hit by "tropical-storm force" winds last night or early this morning. Do you feel hurricaned? No, of course not, because Dorian missed us.

His doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on his mistake is what makes him an idiot.

Black Mark

By Terrapin
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 9:47pm

Who really gives a shit? The bigger black mark today is the one Dear Leader Mr. Kraft and HOF Bill put on the Patriots by signing AB. Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown. Together. Yes, they are the true representation of the Patriot Way. Sad. I think Ray Rice is still unsigned.
Kraft probably celebrated with a 5 minute "massage" on a Fung Wah bus. No worries. It's really just his girlfriend. The hundies are just him showing his love.
For some strange reason I'd love to see Mr. boogieman Tom Coughlin kick their ass again.

Antonio Brown is the best

By Kinopio
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 12:31am

Antonio Brown is the best person in the world at his job. What is Trump the best at? Blowing his dads money? Getting divorced?

I must respectfully disagree with you...

By dmcboston
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 11:17am

...shelled one. Let Albert Breer have a say in the matter, for he has much more football wisdom than I. From the Globe:

"Breer, a Sports Illustrated reporter, put the move into perspective, highlighting the past work of Josh Gordon, Brown, Demaryius Thomas, and Edelman.

In 2013, Josh Gordon led the NFL in receiving yards, Antonio Brown was second, and Demaryius Thomas was fourth. That same year, Brown was second in catches and Julian Edelman was fourth.

All four of these guys are now Patriots.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 7, 2019"

If Tom Brady stays healthy...

I can find stats to make my case too

By anon
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 7:06pm

From Brown's Wikipedia page:

A sixth round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010, no player has amassed more receptions and receiving yards than Brown since he entered the league.

And, from the year you're referring to:

In 2013, Brown became the only receiver in NFL history to record five receptions and at least 50 yards in every single game of an NFL season.

He should have admitted his mistake and moved on

By Waquiot
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 11:05pm

But as others have noted, one of his many character flaws is the inability to do that.

Meanwhile, there sure are plenty of other people who are gung ho about making this nothing story a major story, so he's in good company with obsessing about this very minor thing. For example, there's a guy in Boston who aggregates news and, well, he just can't let this go.

At the end of the day, I do prefer to get my weather warnings from the well trained career staff at the National Weather Service over anyone who works at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and that includes all previous employees in said building.

That's nice

By adamg
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 5:41pm

You'd think this is all I'm writing about.

Yeah, I'll stick with the NWS as well. Including the forecasters in Birmingham. But do cite other instances of past presidents making a mistake about the weather and then going on and on about it for several days.

He's the damn president

By anon
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 7:16pm

He should be saying and doing presidential stuff, like working to help the Bahamas and north Carolina after this killer storm.

Equating his disturbing inability to move on from this with the journalists covering the insanity is balderdash.

This is exactly correct. Good

By anon
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 12:00am

This is exactly correct. Good leaders admit when they're wrong and move on. Wannabe dictators try to change the entire context and bend over backwards to explain how they were right all along.

The correct response was simply, "Early models showed a potential to move west to up through Alabama. As we know weather is notoriously hard to predict and the updated models show its likely to move up the east coast and is no longer a threat to Alabama. Next question."

Except

By Kaz
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 10:58pm

Nobody at NOAA would put their name on that release, the head of NOAA is a Trump fanboy who owns AccuWeather and wants to make people not trust NOAA so they turn to his paid product instead, and the statement made the mealiest-mouthed statement about how Alabama was inside "tropical storm wind predictions", of which the smallest corner of Alabama had less than a 20% chance of 40 mph winds the entire time...just nothing like what Trump said about Alabama's storm impact.

So, yeah, except for all of that, it totally backed him up.

But that amount of information floats freely above the heads of Trump supporters...which they know when they put shit like this out to impress simps like you.

Not when he said it

By tachometer
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 10:50am

One would think that with an impending natural disaster the president would want to be kept up to date and would be able to make statements reflecting knowledge of that information. When he said that Alabama was at risk it was completely out of the picture that government scientists were putting out. The NOAA official who backed the president was a political appointee so his word means nothing compared to the scientists who interpret the models and make the forecasts.

Trump tried to admit his mistake but failed, Here is the footage of it happening when he was speaking to the press.

If early models showed that Dorian would

By roadman
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 1:58pm

possibly hit Alabama, then why didn't Trump just show the maps and plots of THOSE models to prove his point?

It's not so much a massive

By Brent Jeffries
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 9:19pm

It's not so much a massive ego as it is a defense against an incredibly fragile one. There's a name for it.

Magoo Sez

By MisterMagooForYoo
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 8:18pm

But who asks Magoo made the sharpie looop. Magoo.

Old Orangestain

By MrZip
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 8:46pm

Caine Mutiny all the way baby, from the strawberry ice cream (Clinton's emails) to releasing the yellow dye too early (bone spurs), to dumping on any subordinate gutsy enough to point out his many errors, all he needs is a pair of ball bearings to rattle and he'd be Cap'n Queeg. Decades from now they'll be teaching his case study in ego/insecurity in public policy and management school just like they do the Bay of Pigs (bad model) and the Missile Crisis (good model) now.

The Caine Munity remains one of my

By roadman
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 2:11pm

favorite movies. Your analogy is excellent, but I would add this:

The Sharpie Incident (please don't call it Sharpiegate) is akin to the incident where Queeg was disciplining Seamen Gluglash, Ensign Keefe, and Major Keefer about Gluglash having his shirttail out. By focusing on the minor detail, a bigger problem ensued (running over the tow line and setting their target adrift).

Pete Bouchard is a gem -- we

By anon
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 8:55pm

Pete Bouchard is a gem -- we're fortunate to have local meteorologists who do not suffer climate change-denying fools gladly.

Yes, every inch a gem.

By Irma la Douce
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 1:10pm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9IkuV-_PWBM

All Bahamas?

By Make Boston Bus...
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 9:58pm

The only thing I've heard that makes any sense is that he heard (read?) a warning about the hurricane hitting "All Bahamas", translated that in his mind to "Alabama", tweeted it as such, secure in the knowledge of what he heard, and ever since then is trying to retrofit the facts to his misinterpretation.

Most likely we'll never know. He may not know. I mean he's never heard of a Category 5 hurricane every time he hears of one. The brain worms may not have much left to work on at this point.

Occam's Razor

By Kaz
Sat, 09/07/2019 - 11:00pm

The simplest answer is that he thought Georgia was Alabama.

I disagree

By perruptor
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 8:35am

The simplest answer is that he just made some shit up, and presented it as reality. It's the simplest because that's what he does ALL THE TIME. He's been doing it since at least as far back as his awful TV show, and being President hasn't made him any better at trying to tell the truth.

To reply to a different comment, no -- I haven't met anyone like Trump. Sure, I've met people who won't ever admit to being wrong, but I have never met anyone with his constellation of awful characteristics. Lying, cheating, bigotry, misogyny, greed, ineptitude, vindictiveness, egotism, sense of entitlement, abuse of subordinates -- the list of his character flaws goes on and on and on. He may be the worst person on the planet, and I hope I never do meet anyone even a little like him.

Occam's fingernail file..

By dmcboston
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 11:22am

The simplest answer is that CNN COMES TO THE RESCUE BY MOVING ALABAMA OUT OF THE WAY!!

[img]https://i.imgur.com/KXUVF4D.jpg[/img]

Thank you, CNN.

Big difference

By Kaz
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 12:19am

They aired a correction 30 seconds later.

30 seconds later, Trump was still fat fingering his iPhone about Alabama.

30 days later, he'll still be talking about how he saved Alabama from the storm.

But which Georgia?

By Daan
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 4:13pm

Can the orange wonder even tell the difference?

Weather

By Bugs Bunny
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 9:04am

Weathermen calling others out for being wrong? I’ll remember that when Bouchard predicts 2” in December and we end up with a foot.

he's laughing at how we chase his distractions

By JJ
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 10:46am

Last night he posted a tweet (I'm not gonna link to it - you can find it if you want) with a GIF that took the picture of him with the doctored map and added a cat chasing a laser light that he's holding in his other hand.

Translation: He's amused at how easily he can get the media to talk about whatever he wants them to.

Meanwhile, his DOJ this week said THEY get to decide what Congress can subpoena, among other more serious stories.

I don't diminish the effect of the original tweet about Alabama - NWS Birmingham HAD to respond because they were getting panic calls. They did the right thing. But when Dear Leader sees a chance to control the news cycle, he does so.

You're right

By perruptor
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 11:37am

And this is important. Trump's tweets and other bizarre pronouncements are a smokescreen to divert attention from the major damage he's doing to the government and the social contract. It's so easy for the media and the public to react to the smoke that they spend huge amounts of energy doing it, and lots of stories about real horrors go hidden.

I don’t totally buy this. The

By berkleealum
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 3:13pm

I don’t totally buy this. The media covers this administration’s every move ad nauseam. This is something that conservatives love and hate simultaneously.

It is true that #sharpiegate is easier for the general population to digest than the inner workings of congress, but I don’t buy that Trump understands that on some fourth dimensional level. I think it is easier for Trump himself to fixate on that stuff because it’s what gets him more attention. That’s his singular focus.

The President altering an official document to settle a vain dispute from 7 days prior is no small deal. If the legal system weren’t broken, it would actually carry a penalty of 90 days imprisonment. But that’s the entire point — he’s trivialized every aspect of governance to the point where holding him accountable seems petty.

Did you know ...

By perruptor
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 6:44pm

The media do not cover the administration's every move at all, let alone ad nauseum. For instance did you know about these:

* He hasn't replaced any of the Federal Election Commission members, who oversee our elections. There is now less than a quorum of commissioners, which means they can't take any official action at all. Which leaves trump and his friends free to do all sorts of cheating.

* He is the first President to open a National Park to mining and oil drilling, after he removed a major part of Grand Staircase Escalante NP from the Parks system.

* He has rolled back all sorts of environmental standards, from arsenic in water supplies, to pesticide use, to car-fleet gas-mileage requirements, and many more.

* His budget director announced last year that he's going to work to reduce funding for Social Security and Medicare. This complements his efforts to push millions of people out of assistance programs for the poor.

* He's cut funding for renewable energy research.

There's lots more, but most of it is obscured behind endless stories about his idiotic tweets.

I am aware of all of that

By berkleealum
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 7:31pm

I am aware of all of that because primetime CNN is not the only mainstream news outlet. Honestly, even CNN will cover that stuff if you watch at the right times. MSNBC does a better job of covering those types of things though.

Regardless, the internet is vast. Politico and The Hill are two examples of online outlets that cover the inner workings of our government.

Sure

By perruptor
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 8:01am

None of that rises to the level of ad nauseum, though. You have to check multiple outlets.

disagree

By berkleealum
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 10:44am

But does extensively work better for you? My point is twofold: the information is out there and easily accessible; things like #sharpiegate are not actually insignificant, but Trump's contempt for the office of President makes pursuing his wrongdoing seem petulant.

Cats and lasers

By Jon Carry
Sun, 09/08/2019 - 1:23pm

Trump with a laser pointer, Liberals as cats. I would think the Left would feel too foolish to chase this, but Trump is a master at this. He may even achieve a 50 state sweep in 2020.

Keep smoking whatever you're smoking

By lbb
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 10:03am

He may even achieve a 50 state sweep in 2020.

You from 'bama, bro?

I think it's adorable that you

By MC Slim JB
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 11:24am

think the President is some kind of mastermind when something like this happens.

He's just an asshole who can't admit a mistake. Turning it into a seven-day media circus -- when it would have gone away after one news cycle had he just said, "My bad" -- is not some stroke of media-manipulation genius.

It's just a colossal jerk of a boss creating a giant headache for his entire staff while the rest of the world looks on and shakes its collective head at what a stubbornly obnoxious fool he is.

Americans with a shred of critical thinking skills are left to fret about how sinister and destructive is his ongoing attack on science, the free press, and the kind of shared set of common facts that is essential to sane political discourse.

That some Trumpies swallow the "Brilliant owning of da libs" narrative merely shows what a bunch of dangerously gullible simpletons they are.

All the Trump apologists should consider this:

By anon
Mon, 09/09/2019 - 2:41am

Actions (and in-actions) have consequences:

Thousands of Bahamians with family in the US are trying to get here to stay with thier family in a time of desperate need.

FLA lawmakers (including Marc Rubio, for god's sake,) are pleading with Trump to waive visa requirements on humanitarian grounds.

Seems Trump is to busy on the Twitter machine arguing over this forecast bullshit and now picking a fight with Chrissy Tiegen and John Legend.

I can't believe I wrote that last sentence.

Then man is a disgrace to the office and, honestly, to humanity.

What kind of country have we become where we can't offer humanitarian assistance to one of our closest neighbors in their darkest most dire time of need?

It's barbaric.