Judi for Concord City Council
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The Purpose of Donald Trump's Tweets

2/15/2018

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Donald Trump’s first week of the new year was spent antagonizing friend and foe alike on Twitter.  No matter how dignified and “Presidential” president Trump’s speeches may become, his tweets continue unabated. He conducts foreign policy 280 characters at a time. (I think twitter changed their character limit to 280 so Trump can engage in more sophisticated foreign policy debates.) His tweets seem to come out of nowhere as if he is watching TV at 3 in the morning and decides to tweet something. Instead, Trump is purposeful in his tweeting. George Lakoff, a neurolinguistic professor at UC Berkley and best-selling author, tells us that Trump demonstrates four purposes in his tweeting: pre-emptive framing, deflection, diversion, and trial balloon. Let’s look at these tweet goals and where the tweet war with Ms. Yulin Cruz fits into those goals. His twitter war with the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carman Yulin Cruz over the Summer perfectly demonstrates these four goals.
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Pre-emptive Framing: He frames first. If the President can define the problem for us, he gets to decide how much aid to Puerto Rico is too much. If Houston loses power, residents can just drive to Austin, or some other cities and they are good. They still have their lives to rebuild, but they have access to food, clean water, shelter, and healthcare. Texas and Florida are also not facing bankruptcy because of inconsistent US economic policy in those states. Particular economic policies had been created for Puerto Rico to encourage investment and job creation on the island. Those plans changed. They were then made subject to bankruptcy laws that prevented them from resolving the debt they incurred providing infrastructure for the businesses that came to Puerto Rico and have since left. Those companies include a Trump golf club that filed for bankruptcy. So, you take a situation that is an act of God and dump it on a people with few options since they live on an island. Finally, they are in an economic condition that the President assisted to create. The people need a lot of help and will need help for many years to come to recover from this disaster. Trump conveniently frames the whole situation 280 characters at a time. Puerto Ricans need to take more responsibility for themselves. He has done so much for Puerto Rico; he just has not gotten proper credit. Puerto Rico has poor leadership. 

Deflection: Here Trump is deflecting blame for the problems in Puerto Rico to Puerto Rican leadership. Trump likes to blame previous Presidents, especially Barack Obama. In discussing issues related to Puerto Rico, blaming Puerto Rico leadership is secure. He does not have to worry about them as voters. Puerto Rico has no vote in the general election for President. When Trump is blaming Carman Yulin Cruz and other leaders, he takes no responsibility himself. He can praise his response. He can talk about what a great job he is doing, even while at this late date, 50% of Puerto Rico is without electricity. Blaming other leaders allows Trump to take credit for doing an excellent job, even as Puerto Rico prepares for a humanitarian crisis because they lack access to clean water.

Diversion: The third thing Trump tried to accomplish with his tweet storm on Puerto Rico was to divert people from thinking about the Russian scandal. His latest tweet storm has been timed and designed to divert people from thinking about Fire and Fury, the Trump expose written by Micheal Wolff released this week. It is scary that this man will risk thermonuclear war to keep us from thinking about what his staff is saying about him. His tweet war with Ms. Yulan Cruz seems more timed to distract from the Russian investigation, the failure of the Senate to pass Trump-no-care, and the discussion of the “we don’t care what the American people want, our big donors need a break” tax reform. And, ultimately, the fact that while millions of tax dollars may have been spent, Puerto Rico remains in desperation.

Trial Balloon: Trump’s tweets give him a sense of how the public might respond to any public announcement or policy direction. He does not care much for polls if they are not favorable to him. He tends to play them down. He does care about how his base is going to react to his message and how he needs to craft his message to reach them. His language is not sophisticated. Others do not see him as smart or intellectual. DO NOT BE FOOLED. He has some skills he brings to the table, or he would not be president. He is a conman who can read a room. He knows how to craft a message for a crowd. The problem with the election was not that Trump had the support of the majority of Americans. The problem was that his supporters went to the polls. Election is not about how many people like or dislike a candidate, they are about who goes to the polls. Trump’s voters went to the polls. He may only have the approval of 35 percent of Americans, but if they are the only ones going to the polls, he will win another term. He tweets. He sees what happens. He does not much care how most people respond. He cares about his base. If he can continue to convince them that he did a fantastic job in Puerto Rico, the rest does not matter. If telling Kim Jung Il that he has a bigger button makes him sound like a strong leader to his base, it doesn’t matter if it scares the rest of us.

We have a tough road ahead of us in 2018. Understanding Trump and his tweets will help us have the conversations we need to have to get through the family parties. It will also help us to get through the next election.

I am delighted to be back with you. I am working on NOT apologizing for so many things that do not require an apology. Women do that far too often. I am just going to say that I have been away from writing as I have been busy with family. I have been sick and busy with the holidays. I am delighted to be back. I hope you are delighted as well.

Happy new year.

1 "Trump’s Twitter Distraction « George Lakoff." N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2017 <https://georgelakoff.com/2017/03/07/trumps-twitter-distraction/>.
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What is wrong with Puerto Rico?

2/7/2018

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PictureEl Yunque National Forest by Donald Herman
A few years ago, my husband, my youngest son, and I went to Puerto Rico. My husband hates to travel. He loves Puerto Rico, though. He traveled there for work many times. He loved the beautiful beaches, the rainforest, and the native coqui frog. So, he was glad to have the opportunity to share the experience with our son and me. The island is spectacular. The weather started out iffy, with storm warnings. By the end of the trip, it was fabulous. The architecture, the rainforest, and the food were all wonderful. The people we met were friendly and hospitable. I did have one rather strange experience while at the El Yunque National Forest Visitor’s Center, a woman asked me something. I don’t even remember what it was. She might have asked where I was from. She then said to me how nice it was to see an American face. Since it was early on a rainy day, we were the only visitors there. I told her all the faces around were American faces. I can only assume she meant white faces. I’m from California, so to me, American faces are all shades. Puerto Rico is a US territory. It has been since 1898. People born in Puerto Rico are US citizens. They can move to the mainland and back freely. No passport is required for travel to Puerto Rico from the mainland or any other part of the US. So why is a hurricane in Puerto Rico more their problem than a hurricane in Texas or Florida?

We have several possible answers. First, as illustrated by the woman in the introduction. Somehow, either out of ignorance or racism, Puerto Ricans are not seen as part of “us.” So, they are not so much our responsibility. They do not have American faces. You also have the problem of empathy exhaustion. Maria is the third hurricane to hit a US land mass in just a few weeks. Harvey was formed August 17, 2017, and dissipated September 3, 2017. Irma, a category five hurricane formed August 30, 2017, and dissipated September 16, 2017. Hurricane Maria, another category five hurricane formed September 16, 2017, and dissipated October 3, 2017. By the time Maria hit Puerto Rico, Trump was bored of hurricanes and was ready to move on to other issues, like athletes’ position during the national anthem. The really important stuff.  In fact, I must say I have been impressed with American’s ability to continue to care and give to causes to support hurricane victims and victims of the Las Vegas shooting. I can only hope that more voters will see that this President does not reflect their values. 

We have many ways to look at hurricane Maria as somehow different from Harrold and Irma. I’m not sure that Americans see them as different in quite the same way our president sees them as different. We are down to a reason that I think applies only to him. In what way is caring about this going to benefit me? The fact that Puerto Rico is a territory, not a state with the ability to vote for president, is going to affect Trump’s approach their problems. Texas and Florida both voted for Trump in the 2016 election. He would probably like their votes again. He never really stopped running for president. President Trump only knows what he is told. He knows how many troops have been sent to help with hurricane relief. It seems like a big number to him; it should be enough. He has no idea how many are needed to provide the kind of relief that Puerto Rico needs. Puerto Rico is also going to need more federal aid, because, as you said, Mr. President, it is an island. It does not have access to aid from National Guard troops. There are no local agencies from unaffected areas available to help. It all seems great on paper. It is not great on the ground. If Houston needed that kind of aid, would the same questions have been asked? I don’t think so. ​
PictureEl Yunque National Forest by Donald Herman
Fortunately, I have not heard many people expressing the contempt for the victims of Hurricane Maria that our president has expressed. I have heard the same concern for the victims of Maria that of victims of Irma and Harrold. While Trump complains about the state of the budget due to Puerto Rico, American’s drive to help Puerto Ricans to have clean water, food, shelter, medication, and electricity is unabated. So, what is up with this guy. Why is he picking fights with the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico? Why is he dedicating golf trophies to people without food? Clearly something is wrong. But, he is goal-directed in his off the wall arguments. They seem to come from nowhere, yet they always come from something.

We will look more closely at Trump’s Twitter war with San Juan’s mayor next time.
Comment to join the conversation. Also, share or friend me on Facebook and follow me on Instagram. ​
Picture
Castillo de San Cristobal by Donald Herman
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