Phillipe & Jorge

Phillipe & Jorge’s Cool, Cool World: Leader of the Free World … for Me to Poop On!

Trump, the Insult Dog

Every day, Phillipe and Jorge awaken in hopes that America and President Pussy-Grabber will have finally returned to sanity. (Well, in the frothing Orange Orangutan’s case, he may not have been sane to begin with.) Call us cock-eyed optimists, but we always look for the positive side of things. Unfortunately, in the case of our country’s leader, there is no up-side.

What have we become as a nation when the main channel of communication from the White House is a social media website that limits your post to 280 characters? And despite ourselves, and the grievous future implications, P&J couldn’t help but laugh ourselves sick when the president got angry with Iran, and really showed them by sending out a threatening tweet IN ALL CAPS. Wow! Bow-wow!

President Big Baby was in fine form recently when he spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention. He evidently received a warm and enthusiastic reception, which is necessary for The Donald to feed his ever-expanding ego and desperately insecure mindset. It turned out to be more of a Trump rally than a keynote speech.

Why veterans who admirably served their country would cotton up to a man who received five deferments from the draft during the Vietnam War due to bone spurs in his foot (that puts you in the category of draft dodger, along with Dick Cheney and Dubya Bush) is beyond us. What P&J used as a measure of how legit the bone spurs were came when The Donald was unable to say which foot they were in when asked by the press. As P&J and our contemporaries know, anything that got you out of the draft is burned into your memory, whether it was the number you got in the lottery or a physical defect. How much did Papa Trump give to a doctor to produce that bone spur diagnosis? Just asking.

In his wannabe dictator role, the president sicced the crowd on the media (well known in Trumpland as “enemies of the people”). Then, slipping into the delusional world he lives in, the professional a-hole and porn star banger said, “Just remember what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” Yeah, who are you going to believe, Donald Trump or your lying eyes? This, of course, ended up with some of the crowd, probably those with brain damage from their years in the service, booing and hissing at the reporters on hand. President Pussy, a real class act.

Kudos to the organizers for standing up for the media and saying they were welcome guests. They also pointed out that the VFW is non-partisan. As one said, “This was a political speech. This is not what you do at a VFW convention… He didn’t have to come out here and talk about how great he is. That’s not what you do here.” Beg to somewhat differ, but the narcissistic Trump must talk about himself due to deep insecurities that are evident in everything he does. Is that good enough, Daddy?

With displays of an addled and not too bright brain like this, it’s time America came to its senses before Benito Trump goes completely into faux dictator mode. So to make sure we get our point across, GO F—K YOURSELF, DONNIE AND INVANKA, DON JR. AND JARED, TOO. (That’s fewer than 280 characters, right?)

Now Is the Time for Real Change

The RI Hospital/Hasbro Children’s Hospital strike is yet another indication that capitalism is not the proper context for health care. As we have seen in recent years, half-measures don’t make it — we fully realize that President Obama did the best he could under the circumstances, but it is abundantly clear (to your superior correspondents, anyway) that we need socialized medicine in this country — a concept that has been floating around since the Truman Administration. Now is the time for all of us who believe in socialized medicine to push hard to make it happen. Phillipe & Jorge applaud the wonderful nursing staff for their commitment and priorities.

C’mon RIPTA

For his entire life, Jorge has eschewed driving an automobile. Walking is his preference, but when he needs to get to places in the Biggest Little, his main source of transportation is RIPTA buses. As such, he has strong ideas about public transportation. For many years P&J have clamored for a rather simple idea: There should be representation on the RIPTA board of directors by at least one person who frequently rides the buses and also by a representative from the bus drivers union. We have brought this to the attention of both the governor’s office and RIPTA, and the only reason we can figure this idea is ignored is that a large percentage of the riders are among our older, poorer and disabled citizens. Do we, as a state, really care about them? If we do, let’s just make this simple change to how the board is constituted.

Going Local

What a daily BlowJo headline described as a “strange arrangement” between city of Providence and the news website “GoLocalProv” is not so extraordinary when one looks at the both the current government and media landscapes that (to P&J’s thinking) are all strange in the age of social media. We would agree that the city council (or is it just former city council president, Luis Aponte) entering into a business contract to pay a website to publicize city council activities would not have made sense in the old world we lived in, but the new world is all about money, and those who have it call the shots (ed note – Motif has no money). The talk about metrics and algorithms is all babble to us. While we know the cool cool world is gone, we are having trouble transitioning into the cruel cruel world now in place. Sleep tight, Providence.

Good Man Gone

Rhode Island lost one of the true heavyweights in the local political arena — as well as many others — with the passing last week of Mike Doyle.

You probably don’t know his name, but that’s because he kept a very low profile while steering the direction a pol or project would go. If he didn’t have a hand in any major project or campaign’s strategy from the get-go, then he had his finger on its pulse. Think Providence Place Mall, the growth of gambling at Twin River, the airport expansion and the Central Landfill.

Phillipe and Jorge first met Mike when he was chief of staff for Governor Ed “Gerber Baby” DiPrete, and he wasn’t wild about our nickname for The Gerb. He came to that job after serving in the same powerful capacity for Little Rhody congresswoman Claudine “Schneidine” Schneider, and ended up sitting on, if not chairing, more boards and committees that we think actually existed. He was a hard charger and moderately conservative, but willing to sit down and share a drink or twain with P&J even if hours earlier all of us were informing the press that our adversary(s) were morons.

Doyle also co-founded and served as chair for the turbo-charged PR and communications outfit The RDW Group, which has helped influence and run interference on more key decisions for Little Rhody than you’ve had hot dinners.

Mike was a lot of fun, tough-minded and smart as a whip. He’ll be missed by many, including P&J.