HOLE IN THE OUTHOUSE

President Trump apparently called Haiti and African countries "S@@thole Countries.   Remarkably a couple of Senators say they don't remember him saying that.    The White House finally decided he didn't say that, he said s@@thouse countries as if that would make Haiti and African countries feel better.  Then to top things off the blond Secretary of Homeland Security says she doesn't remember the president say that but that a Senator said that to which the interrogator replied that the Senator was just repeating what the president said and telling him it was not appropriate.  Are these guys for real?

For good measure, the Blond Secretary said she didn't know that Norway was almost entirely a white-person country.*  Now her name is Kirstjen Michele Nielsen (45) that is about as Scandinavian as you can get.  For her to say she didn't know that Norway was predominately white just perpetuates the dumb blond stereotype."

Kirstjen Nielsen grew up in Clearwater, FL.  Curiously, there seems to be no word about her parents for some reason.  I have not made a paid search, but even her Wikipedia item starts with her colleges (Georgetown and Virginia) after mention of where she grew up and her birthday.  Apparently she isn't married or have a live-in.  Her early life seems to be a secret, but maybe we will learn someday more about the mysterious woman.

That Trump will use vulgar language about counties should come as no surprise:

But the political foundation of Donald Trump's presidency was racial grievance.

Trump has repeatedly appealed to unhappy whites with his denunciation of Mexican immigrants, his defense of white supremacist protesters, and his attacks on black athletes protesting for racial justice.**

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Emily Ekins, director of polling at the libertarian Cato Institute, identified five groups of Trump voters as part of a broader Democracy Fund study of the 2016 election. Key to his emergence, she concluded, was the 20 percent segment she called "preservationists," who stood out for their "nativist and ethno-cultural conception of American identity."

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She characterized them as having low levels of education, income and political information, watching lots of television, and offering strong professions of Christian faith combined with infrequent church attendance. With many of them disabled and on Medicaid, they display hostility toward Wall Street, support for redistribution of wealth, and concern about their government retirement benefits.

Their economic views help explain Trump's pledge not to touch Social Security and Medicare benefits. Their social views explain where they found kinship with him.

"They are far more likely to have a strong sense of their own racial identity," Ekins wrote. "They take the most restrictionist approach to immigration – staunchly opposing not just illegal but legal immigration as well, and intensely supporting a temporary Muslim travel ban.

"They feel the greatest amount of angst over race relations. They believe that anti-white discrimination is as pervasive as other forms of discrimination."

I am hardly a Trump supporter, but my own feeling is that it would have been better if the vulgar language used in this private meeting had been kept quiet.  President Trump is hardly the only president to be vulgar in private.  A better approach was made by the ambassador to Panama who has resigned because he can no longer abide by Trump's policies, some of which are hostile to Latin American issues.***

* https://thinkprogress.org/kirstjen-nielsen-norway-white-trump-racist-comment-1c8673b23c0b/
** https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/12/trumps-racial-provocations-helped-to-vault-him-to-the-white-house.html
*** https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/u-s-ambassador-to-panama-resigns-says-cannot-serve-trump/ar-AAuBpNe