How Do You Like Your Strawberries?

For those of you who remember the movie
The Caine Mutiny, there is a parallel to what is
happening with Alabama and hurricane  Dorian.
For those of you who are too young to remember,
let me explain.  My humble attempts would be
foreshadowed if you would do an internet search
for 'Caine mutiny strawberries', there you can play
back the portion of the film detailing the
strawberry incident.

The film, which came out in 1954, was adapted
from the book of the same name by Herman Wouk.
It is a fictitious account of a paranoid ship's
captain, and the resulting mutiny.  The movie
was nominated for seven Academy Awards,
including Best Picture.  It had an all-star cast
including Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred
MacMurray, and Lee Marvin to name just a
few.  The film has since become a classic.

The incident concerning the strawberries
is as follows:   The ship's captain - played
impeccably by Bogart - calls the ship's officers
down to the wardroom because he feels that
someone from the kitchen staff has stolen
the remaining frozen strawberries leftover
from that night's dinner.  To prove his point,
he has a sailor from mess ladle out the amount
of strawberries - using a one-gallon can and
sand as a substitute for the berries - that would
have been consumed for dessert.  There was almost
a quart of sand left in the can at the end of the
experiment.  Thus proving to his mind, that some-
one had stolen the leftover berries.

The Captain then orders the officers to conduct
an investigation of the missing berries, immediately,
even though it is 0130 hours, and to report back to
him at 0800.  The written report, submitted by his
lieutenant, says the finding were inconclusive.
Convinced that there is a thief on board, the Captain
concocts an elaborative scheme to find the guilty
person.  The Captain refuses to let the incident
die even though the thief is never found.

Prior to the strawberry incident, there were other
incidents of errors in judgement that the Captain
tries to cover up and he demands that the officers
back him.  The officers are conflicted, knowing
how serious a charge of incompetence against a
ship's Captain is, and they are reluctant to use
Article 184 of the Navy Regs to relieve the Captain
of his duties.  The final straw comes when a storm
puts the ship and crew in peril and the lieutenant
takes over to save all.  He is rewarded with a Court
Marshal.

If any of this sounds familiar, it is because we are
living the plot in real time, only today's 'Captain' is
the President of the United States and not just a
lowly Captain of a fictitious minesweeper in the Pacific.
But the parallels are too similar to ignore.  In the latest
saga of 'who stole the strawberries' the President took
to Twitter to announce, erroneously, that Alabama was
in the path of hurricane Dorian.  To back up his mis-
statement he showed a weather map that was crudely
altered with a black magic marker.  Alabama's weather
service immediately corrected the President's
communique.

What would have been just another 'confeve' moment to
be forgotten by the next morning, was to grow into an
incident of massive proportion.  It appears that the
President did not take lightly being corrected by a lowly
local weatherman.  Our 'Captain', directed NOAA - the
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration - and the
US Weather Service, a branch of NOAA, to order the
regional weather services to back the President in his
erroneous statement.  A US Coast Guard rear-admiral
was also enlisted to corroborate the story (anyone here
looking for a star or two to pin on his epaulets).  And so,
what should have been a non-story, or just another
Trump laugh line, went on for six painful days of who
was right and who was wrong.

The crux of this hullabaloo, is that lives depend on the
warnings issued by the National Weather Service, be they
hurricane, flood, or tornado.  To cast aspersions on their
credibility is to put millions of Americans in imminent
danger at a time when time is of the essence. The men and
women who work at NOAA are science professionals, they
deserve our respect, and thanks, for working tirelessly to
interpret the signs of impending storms.  What Trump did
was a slap in their collective faces.

But this latest incident, as inflammatory as it was, is not
the first, but merely one of a long line of suspect behavior.
How much longer does the country have to endure the
erratic behavior of this president?  The powerful inner
circle that at one time deflected the president's actions,
has grown smaller with defections.  His entourage now
consists, mainly, of sycophants who encourage such
errant behavior as an end to their own agenda.  We see
how easily the president's attention span can be diverted
by those who curry his favor.  It is so apparent, that fawning
and flattery was used to control him at the G7 meetings,
by members of the EU.

Is this what it has come to, a buffoon, a figurehead, influenced
by the latest proclamations from FOX News, and the war hawks
who have his ear?  Where is the outcry, have we become so
desensitized by Trump's out bursts that we simply tune them
out, or laugh at them over morning coffee?  This man has the
nuclear button, for God's sake!!  If that doesn't scare you,
read the commentaries in the newspapers from other countries.
They are very worried.

When will the members of the Republican party stop apologizing
away the craziness from this administration?  When will the
Democratic party stand up and say enough?  Are you all so afraid
of losing positions that you refuse to call out this madman?  Do
you really believe that you will be able to control him and his
sociopathic advisors when they take us to war?  Donald Trump
is unfit to govern as president; it will only get worse as the
pressures of the reelection begin to mount.  He has not fulfilled
his campaign promises yet, and he will have to do something
spectacular to draw the attention away from the hue and cry
coming from the other side.  People are beginning to pay
attention to the candidates running for the Democratic
nomination.  They are drawing huge crowds, that used to be
the purview of the Trump rallies.

It is time, it is past time, while the damage done to our country's
reputation is still repairable.  At one time I thought, like you, that
we can defeat him in the next election, so why bother to take him
on now?  Because he is becoming more erratic with each passing
day.  Call it mutiny, call it whatever you wish, it is time for all
patriots to come to the defense of their country, to put America
first, if you won't or don't you are cowards!

I'm just sayin'.