By eProf2, a Trail Mix Contributor
July 17th is “wrong way Corrigan” day in Texas. Douglas Corrigan crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Ireland although his flight plan had him scheduled to land in California. Roy “Wrong Way” Reigals picked up the loose football in the 1929 Rose Bowl and ran for all he was worth into the wrong end zone for a touchdown for the other team. Defensive end, Jim “Wrong Way” Marshall, of the Minnesota Vikings did the same thing in a professional football game in 1964.
Throughout their lives, these three men (and many more) were forever known as “wrong way.” Move over gentlemen, the USS Carl Vinson will be forever known as the “wrong way” aircraft carrier.
By now, just about everyone in the world has heard of Donald Trump’s message to North Korea about sending an “armada” to the Japanese Sea to threaten the Kim Jung Un regime should they continue developing nuclear weapons. The world held its breath as the president of the United States said he was sending an aircraft carrier with nuclear weapons, as well as nuclear armed submarines, to use if necessary in retaliation for a North Korean attack anywhere in the north Asian region.
Top Trump administration officials, including the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the National Security Council, and the White House spokesman, lent their voices to what sounded like an eminent military event; namely, the stationing of mobile nuclear weapons in the Sea of Japan. The armada would be there in two or three days to off-set the optics of military weapons of Kim Jung Un on parade that same weekend.
The problem, of course, was that the US Navy either didn’t get the word or Trump and his minions forgot to tell the carrier group to change course and go north immediately from their Singapore area position. Instead, the “armada” sailed the wrong way south toward Australia, for a joint sea operation with the Australian Navy.
South Koreans, Japanese, even the Chinese, were left bewildered and feeling that a key component of their security was not only missing but heading the wrong way.
The US Navy wasn’t very happy about this either. The whole affair left them looking like they, too, were just another part of the “keystone cops” in the White House. As of today, the carrier group, led by “wrong way” Carl Vinson, is still not stationed off the coast of North Korea. Ironically, it might arrive on station around the 100th day of the Trump administration.
The “wrong way” affair will have lasting implications for more than just sending an aircraft carrier in the wrong direction. Who will believe top officials when they say anything about any policy without asking themselves what is the truth? Only true believers and the gullible.
If there is a lasting image of the first 100 days of the Trump administration, it will be a photo of the USS Carl Vinson heading in the wrong direction.
The whole “wrong way” affair is an apt metaphor for the Trump administration thus far in the governance of the United States. Flip flops on promises, reversing long standing policies, the failure of the health care repeal and replace, the Muslim ban on travel to the U.S., will surely be remembered in the first 100 days of this administration.
But, will the “wrong way” USS Carl Vinson be soon forgotten? Not in the long pages of the history books. After all, they still celebrate “wrong way Corrigan” day in Texas more than 78 years later!
More Posts by eProf2
eprof, superb! thanks. now we need a catchy phrase that insures wrongway don is known as that thruout the ages.
bb, also thanks for putting us on to that ap interview transcript. wonder what the “morning joe” crowd today is saying about this part:
TRUMP: In fact, they also did. I never thought I had the ability to not watch. Like, people think I watch (MSNBC’s) “Morning Joe.” I don’t watch “Morning Joe.” I never thought I had the ability to, and who used to treat me great by the way, when I played the game. I never thought I had the ability to not watch what is unpleasant, if it’s about me. Or pleasant. But when I see it’s such false reporting and such bad reporting and false reporting that I’ve developed an ability that I never thought I had. I don’t watch things that are unpleasant. I just don’t watch them.
AP: And do you feel like that’s, that’s because of the office that you now occupy —
TRUMP: No.
AP: That you’ve made that change?
TRUMP: I don’t know why it is, but I’ve developed that ability, and it’s happened over the last, over the last year.
AP: That’s interesting.
TRUMP: And I don’t watch things that I know are going to be unpleasant. CNN has covered me unfairly and incorrectly and I don’t watch them anymore. A lot of people don’t watch them anymore, they’re now in third place. But I’ve created something where people are watching … but I don’t watch CNN anymore. I don’t watch MSNBC anymore. I don’t watch things, and I never thought I had that ability. I always thought I’d watch.
AP: Sure.
TRUMP: I just don’t. And that’s taken place over the last year. And you know what that is, that’s a great, it’s a great thing because you leave, you leave for work in the morning you know, you’re, you don’t watch this total negativity. I never thought I’d be able to do that and for me, it’s so easy to do now. Just don’t watch.
AP: That’s interesting.
TRUMP: Maybe it’s because I’m here. I don’t know.
eprof,
Thank You for a great Post. Please write more.
patd,
Nice to know we have a President who “doesn’t know.”
If that fact was ever in doubt.
sjwny, could it be, contrary to what he said, he does watch but he doesn’t know he’s watching? sounds like an addiction denial.
well, gotta hand it to him, he is consistent…. consistently saying or seeing one thing and then saying or seeing the opposite. prime example of alternative facts world.
https://youtu.be/AktoxHx3R-8
Published on Apr 23, 2017
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver S04E10 (HBO) April 23, 2017
It’s very calming to know that everyone agrees, the deadbeat is going to be the best president who ever lived. How clever of him to say that the carrier task force was headed to Korea, to get king kim upset and saying crazy things, like, “I am the greatest,” when in fact, everyone agrees that trump is the greatest. They all said so. In front of people. Ask anyone. That was the cleverest thing any president ever said, even more clever than “Poland is a free country.” You know, that was what made Poland a free country. It just took a while to happen. The same is true for the aircraft carrier. Some day it will get to Korea, because President trump said it would. You know, John Lennon said, “donald trump is bigger than Jesus,” and John was a very smart man.
Take that king kim !
more like Pinocchio than the various wrong-way runners
Trump lies about pretty much everything
Jim Marshall is a fine, decent, humble, man, who was also a great football player. He’s a credit to the States of Kentucky, Ohio, and Minnesota. The deadbeat could learn a B!LL!ON things from Jim Marshall about being a mensch.
Ms Cracker, is our Duce truly a grand champion liar, or is he merely a certifiable madman with an uncommonly long string of good luck ?
xr
why not both
EProf, thanks for the piece. I still think Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz is the drumpf model. They share one thing drumpf shares with none of the pilots and athletes you mentioned – they are both cartoon characters.
Patd< nice catch on the drumpf AP interview. the entire thing, annotated, is at WaPo today. The annotations are pretty good.
pogo, yeah, wapo did a good job. por ejemplo:
AP: You did put out though, as a candidate, you put out a 100-day plan. Do you feel like you should be held accountable to that plan?
TRUMP: Somebody, yeah, somebody put out the concept of a hundred-day plan. But yeah. Well, I’m mostly there on most items. Go over the items, and I’ll talk to you …
“Somebody put out the concept of a hundred-day plan” is a dishonest statement. Trump mentioned the 100-day plan dozens of times on the campaign trail, in addition to his “Contract with the American Voter” referenced here.
His supporters can give him a pass for this, but his effort to downplay the standard is laughable, given how much he used it.
earlier I mentioned addiction denial with regard to the many times in the interview he denies watching certain tv shows. he sounds like a really sad alcoholic/foodaholic/junkie denying he’s hooked. compounded with his narcissistic personality disorder, he really makes for a future great case study in political science classes… and of course med school psych studies.
looks like it’s Hannity’s time now in the barrel according to daily beast:
Sean Hannity Accused of Sexually Harassing Fox News Guest
Debbie Schlussel, a former Fox News on-air guest, says the anchor ‘tried to get me to go back with him to the hotel after the show.’
[actually, the best part of the article is that teaming up against a guest attempt discussion and whole piece worth a read]
and even half-gov was a faux sex target according to cnn
It doesn’t take much online research to find evidence of questionable comments by Fox News executives and personalities aimed at Palin.
There was the time in 2010 when Don Imus of Fox Business asked Fox News Chris Wallace about an upcoming interview.
“When you interview her, will she be sitting on your lap?” asked a laughing Imus.
“One can only hope,” said a laughing Chris Wallace.
Or, there are the comments of Roger Ailes, the Fox News godfather, who used this language in 2011 to describe why he brought her to the network:
“I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings.”
Or, there’s Tucker Carlson, who will replace Bill O’Reilly as the network’s anchor in the 8 p.m. timeslot. When he was a Fox contributor in 2011, Carlson drew criticism for tweeting in 2011, “Palin’s popularity falling in Iowa, but maintains lead to become supreme commander in Milfistan.”
“Milf” is Internet slang for sexually attractive mother.
Carlson later deleted the tweet and apologized.
Those are three public examples of how top executives and anchors at Fox viewed Palin. What happened in private is not clear. Palin’s comments speak for themselves.
On Friday, Wallace responded in a statement: “More than seven years ago, I engaged in a playful discussion with former FOX Business host Don Imus. Immediately, I realized it was an inappropriate comment and apologized to Gov. Palin. She accepted my apology and since then, we have done a number of interviews and had a respectful professional relationship.”
My favorite ship in the US Navy the Bonhomme Richard (nicknamed The Bonny Dick) completed its 7th fleet activities with the Vinson carrier group and has returned home to Japan. They won’t be going to Korea at least not yet.
This is the third ship named after John Paul Jones’ frigate and the one I sailed on for a day was the 1960 version.
1. It’s nice to know that ms-13 is even worse than isis and al qaeda. I was worried that American gangsters were losing their pre-eminence in the world of crime.
2. The Incredible Two-Headed Man : One Head Wants to Abuse, the Other Wants to PREEN !
how did we miss this story from npr…. oh yeah, armadas chugging toward no. korea via australia and other distractions:
The woman leading the Justice Department’s investigation of foreign meddling into the 2016 election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia has told staff members she will leave the department in May.
Mary B. McCord has served at the highest levels in the national security unit, either as its leader or chief deputy, for the past three years. A longtime federal prosecutor based in Washington, McCord easily won the confidence of both career lawyers and her supervisors inside the Justice Department.
McCord did not offer a public reason for her departure. In a message to her staff earlier this week, she wrote that she did not make the decision easily, but she concluded “the time is now right for me to pursue new career opportunities.”
Her exit leaves a huge vacancy at one of the Justice Department’s most important divisions, at a time when the Trump administration is struggling to fill the ranks. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the only leader so far in the building to have secured Senate confirmation. His picks for deputy and associate attorney general await votes by the full Senate. The administration has not yet announced political appointees for other top posts.
Protecting national security is the top Justice Department priority no matter which political party is in power. The National Security Division, created after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, has filed criminal charges against Chinese and Russian hackers, sent Americans inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaida to serve decades in prison and launched counterintelligence probes involving suspected spies.
The investigation into Russian election meddling is one of the highest profile matters in the division’s short history. It’s not clear whether the probe will result in criminal charges against anyone. But both the Justice Department and the FBI are taking it seriously.
Jamie – You might remember that USS Bonhomme Richard sailed during Seafair 2011. We got a good look at her from our office windows.
Full disclosure: As a Navy veteran and having served 36 months aboard two aircraft carriers, this story of the Vinson struck close to my own experience. I was on board the USS Essex for one year, all at sea. We were in the Mediterranean and was on the front line for a Marine landing on Lebanon in 1958. With that mission completed we thought we were going home to Florida by August. President Eisenhower had other ideas. He ordered the Essex to the Pacific by way of the Suez Canal to show the Chinese he meant business when they started shelling two small islands off of Taiwan (Formosa then). We got there straightaway. We returned home in November after almost one year at sea. I finished my four year stint on the USS Independence. When the Vinson story hit I couldn’t help but make it personal as a carrier sailor on a similar call fifty nine years ago. Time flies but memories must be forever!
From Ashley Parker and Robert Costa at WaPo today.
“During a small working lunch at the White House last month, the question of job security in President Trump’s tumultuous White House came up, and one of the attendees wondered whether press secretary Sean Spicer might be the first to go.
“The president’s response was swift and unequivocal. “I’m not firing Sean Spicer,” he said, according to someone familiar with the encounter. “That guy gets great ratings. Everyone tunes in.”
“Trump even likened Spicer’s daily news briefings to a daytime soap opera, noting proudly that his press secretary attracted nearly as many viewers. ”
Idiot so-called president thinks it’s about ratings.
Thanks for the analysis and perspective, eProf. Wish SNL would do something with this story.
eProf: Love your article. “The whole “wrong way” affair is an apt metaphor for the Trump administration thus far in the governance of the United States.” Just one more blip on the radar screen of trumplestiltskin’s addled brain!
Pat: new names for trump:
downside-up Donnie
topsy-turvy Trump
Also, if that AP interview doesn’t sound like the ramblings of a lunatic, then I need to check myself into a luney bin as I may be the crazy one for not being able to recognize true genius :O
Jace: Didn’t get to comment on Ella & Louis yesterday but it was very apropos and nostalgic at the same time. When I was a young teen I made a bit of a splash in the European press by running away from home and ending up in Paris (we lived in Germany at the time). It was early May and Paris was warm and beautiful. I had a lovely time until my father arrived 🙁
I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.
So do we follow the red or the black end of this thing?
Too bad Don Rickles died before giving Pussy Grabber a nickname that could be universally accepted —
where is the equivalent of Little Marco and Lyin Ted for Trump we need agreement on his most vulnerable trait and a common nickname for him
I could live with WrongwayDonnie
Although the carrier group was steaming one way while the loon said it was going the other could be construed as a serious tactical error I think it shows what the idiot has done to the chain of command. One reporter thought he could place a television story about the carrier and her escorts to the time the clown made his stupid statement. It was about the carrier and not her mission or location. The senile old man made up stuff and spoke it.
It seems that no one wanted to tell the fruitcake he made a mistake – again. So they let it ride knowing eventually he would find out, but by going along with him they would avoid telling the emperor that he was not wearing clothes. The sad thing is the Navy went along with it too.
Travis
That was a later edition than the one I was on for a day long dependents cruise in my teen years. It was before women were part of crew on ships and I managed to charm a young sailor into letting me make a radio announcement only to hear the Captain bellow: “Get that female off MY radio!”. It was a fun day.
A Little Humor brewed from The Bridges At Toko-Ri
The admiral wouldn’t have defied the president’s navigational orders when ronald reagan was serving on the bridge of the aircraft carrier. No, sirree. In fact, if reagan were still alive and on the bridge, he’d be able to hear the admiral mutter, “Where did we get such a president – russia ?”
There’s no way to know that there was such an order – I’m pretty sure the chain of command doesn’t include Fauxsnooze.
SNL : Dramas Ripped From the Headlines
EProf, thanks for the marvelous post and the amplification that followed. (fwiw, I believe Corrigan knew exactly where his aircraft was headed from the moment he climbed into it.)
I hope PacNav has used its time well in mapping out exactly where Vinson will sail in relation to available ASW assets. Air cover should be available from both South Korea and our bases in Japan.
And, thank you for your service.
We’ve had 3.89-inch of rain since early evening yesterday. On my land, there’s no run-off. We’re up to 6.96″ this month and 20.4″ for the year. That puts us within an inch of where we were for the first 6-months of last year. I’ve not yet picked-up the morning newspapers from the roadside.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/obamas-barrage-of-complete-sentences-seen-as-brutal-attack-on-trump
pogo, you have a soul mate
At Sea with Capt. ‘Wrong Way’ Trump
A rudderless ship of state creates chaos and erratically steers us into a feckless foreign policy.
By Michael Winship | April 21, 2017
You may particularly recall one Rocky and Bullwinkle character, Capt. Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz, an addled mariner so spectacular in his incompetence that even his toy boats sank in the bathtub.
At one point, Peachfuzz managed to steer his ship into New York’s financial district — and I mean into, so much so that it was given the permanent address of 17 ½ Wall Street. Now at the helm of an investment firm, his board of directors wanted to get Capt. Peachfuzz as far away as possible and found him a job counting penguin eggs in Antarctica. But a secretary mistyped the form and Peachfuzz was made head of the nation’s intelligence community.
You can see where I’m going with this. When life starts imitating cartoons you know you’re in trouble, except that Donald “Wrong Way” Trump isn’t accidentally head of central intelligence, he’s the president of the United States and may God have mercy on our souls.
The nautical reference is especially appropriate, of course, with “Wrong Way” Trump’s announcement last week that “an armada, very powerful” was headed toward North Korea in response to that nation’s growing nuclear threat. In fact, that “armada,” the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and a Navy strike group, was heading in the opposite direction, toward Australia —
[….]
Chaos worked for Capt. Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz — he always seemed to land on his sea legs. And in comparison to the cartoonish Trump, his fictional character was far more benign. At one point, when his ship’s crew was contemplating mutiny, they decided instead to build a fake command deck and let Peachfuzz stand at the phony controls, thinking his orders were being obeyed.
Would that we could build a duplicate fake Oval Office and have Donald “Wrong Way” Trump bark orders and push all the buttons he wants, believing his every wish was our command. Then maybe the rest of us could move on with the business of the republic, reestablish America’s place as a member of the world community and finally get a good night’s sleep.
from politicususa:
This Can’t Be Good: The Entire US Senate To Go To White House For Briefing On North Korea
By Jason Easley on Mon, Apr 24th, 2017 at 3:11 pm
The Trump administration has asked the entire US Senate to the White House for a briefing on North Korea that will take place on Wednesday afternoon. Could this administration be making a case for a war in North Korea?
Most wonderful post. In fact today I love the fact that our potus is lost at sea and in keeping with the water theme (wee-weeleaks, aside)….I have renamed trump — The Drain. And citizens needs to stay away from his whirlpool. He will suck-out the marrow of the US of AA and resell it in moscow. Draining the decency out-of-the-former great America and making a mockery of our solidarity.
the entire senate may go down the drain, patd.
all this international hocus-pocus to cover-up the corruption…things are moving very fast and keep the sunlight on these guys. As the noose tightens? The craze vibrates even faster.
Lyin’ Trump
that works well.
Donnie the Drain that sucking sound you hear…
Beware of donnie the drain. A nightmarish cartoon with a cotton candy-haired clown.
Donnie the drain certainly works on many levels –excellent work BW
drain baby drain
his faced looks drained in that meme
..
the whirlpool ends on the other side of the world in china! it is why ivanka is teaching her babies mandarin.
The plan was to choose a new president. We got a pool boy.
The plumbers did it.
the nixon wh plumbers never left.
Jamie – My sister and two of her friends went to Hawaii the summer after they graduated HS. This would have been 1986. She told me that they met some Sailors and actually made it onto one of the hangar decks of an aircraft carrier before Marines manning security check points escorted them off the ship. I don’t recall what ship it was, but I do recall that she scored a date for later in the week with one of the Marines.
no sunlight here…confederate monument removal.
carlos danger, wayne tracker and adrienne vittadini walk into a bar…
Drumpf do anything stupid today?
eprof2…thank you for your service…I read the 10:44 comment about the time at sea. You are a hero in my eyes and a stand-up human. It is a long time to give.
macaroons were never so sweet…the potential new leader of France and his menopausal wife. I hope he wipes out putins poison le pen.
Patd, I kinda like that Windship fella.
Travis
Back then girls could do that sort of thing. lol
EProf
Great column. We need you writing more often.
the giants suck and they still beat the dodgers