Pyry Luminen pokes fun at Donald Trumps suggestion of raking forests in Finland by pretending to hoover up leaves in Finland Picture: Twitter @pyryluminen
By Abby Zimet / Common Dreams
God bless the Finns. They’ve been there for us after the Idiot-In-Chief visited a ravaged California – the death count is now 80, with 993 feared dead – stood awkwardly in the rubble of what was once Paradise, which he called “Pleasure,” and spewed gibberish.
Because many, many people say he knows the best words about how to stop fires, he intoned, “You gotta take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important…”
He went on, I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘We have a much different – we’re a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem. And when they do, it’s a very small problem, and when it is…I know everyone is looking at that.”
Everyone was also looking at the trying-really-really-hard-not-to-snicker-or-punch-someone faces of Gov.- elect Gavin Newsom (who has called Trump “a joke and a racist”) and outgoing governor Jerry Brown (who called Trump’s fire-related comments “inane and un-informed”) as they stood with him.
People were also pretty busy on Twitter making Rake News and Rakes of Wrath and Rake America Great jokes – “Do I need voter ID to buy a rake for my forest floor?” “Rake against the machine,” “Fire hot. Hurricanes wet. Hair real. Rake more,” “I’ll take things that didn’t happen for 300, Alex – while trying to explain that California is not Finland: “Finland – VERY COLD. VERY WET. Fire not like very cold very wet. Make fire small and sad. California – VERY HOT. VERY DRY. Fire love very hot very dry. Make fire bigly and happy.”
In Finland, meanwhile, their president said he’d told Trump that Finland “takes care of our forests” but he has no friggin’ idea why little Donny thought he’d talked about raking.
Regular Finns likewise took to Twitter to explain they don’t rake their forests. They also boasted they don’t elect “racist morons” to their country’s highest elected office, complained that while they love Finland they don’t like the required military service of six months raking, suggested patenting a “Forest Roomba,” and posted photos of dutiful rakers, ranging from synchronized raking troupes to children “raking” in blizzards to a woman happily vacuuming the forest floor: “Just an ordinary day in the Finnish forest.”
Perhaps the crowning touch to the California debacle came as Trump left the scene of the crime. Asked by reporters if what he’d witnessed had changed his fatuous, obstinate climate change denial, he said, “No, no, I have very strong opinions on that. I want great climate.” Yeah, we do too.
But first we want a president who’s at least minimally coherent, occasionally morally accountable, and not barking mad.
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I have been a special educator for over 40 years. In my professional opinion, Donald Trump appears to fall into the category of multiply- handicapped: 1.) uneducated, completely 2.) learning handicapped – severely – it appears he cannot read well, has very limited vocabulary, and cannot learn at any level even close to average; possibly ADD (attention deficit disorder) 3.) emotionally disturbed 4.) has severe psychiatric problems 5.) is highly manipulative 6.) has a lower IQ than most in the workforce – I would estimate it to be at about 75-85 at most 7.) is antisocial and likely sociopathic – is driven by revenge and to intimidate and harm others, takes pleasure in this; lies constantly 8.) has been a behavior problem all his life, including being abusive to everyone around him 9.) highly resistant to receiving help of any kind 10.) completely insulated from the real world, from birth 11.) was raised to be a person who discriminates against other races and many other groups, by a father who consorted with the KKK. Many people like DT are hospitalized multiple times, may spend their entire time in school in special education classes if able to live at home, are later unable to work successfully, or may end up in jail. Many are medicated – unmanageable otherwise. He has definitely shown an inability to successfully work, and ultimately may be jailed – or could be, unless the GOP protects him like his parents did. I think as a result of being a spoiled rich kid whose parents paid DT’s way throughout his life, and now with the GOP filling in for them, he became even worse, as we now see him. It is an historic time in the USA, from which I hope we can emerge less damaged now that the House of Representatives will establish anew some semblance of the balance of power. I have likely told you nothing new.
our forests, and earth, need the same kind of “benign neglect” that our children do, kind of a “live and let live” formula for optimal development, limited, even if well-intentioned, interference…now is the winter of our discontent…