I love maps, but just let me say that the Trump Administration has once again acted loose and fast with the facts.
We all remember when Trump took a Sharpie pen and altered a NOAA hurricane prediction map to show Hurricane Dorian taking aim at Alabama.
The latest in White House-issued maps was apparently intended to substantiate Trump’s threat to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America and to remind us that, in Trump’s mind, the Gulf of Mexico is the Gulf of America. Trump believes he has the authority to do whatever strange thought crosses his mind. He believes if he says it, it is true. He believes if he does it, it is legal.
That latest White House-issued map is a Lego map. Perhaps it was AI-generated. If so, it stands as a prime example of why AI cannot be trusted. Regardless of who or what created the map, it was the White House that proudly issued the map on the internet for all the world to see.
I preface the following paragraph by reminding you that I have lived in North Carolina my entire life. I have visited Washington, DC several times. I visited the Great Dismal Swamp two years ago.
You see, in addition to proudly displaying “Lake America” and the “Gulf of America,” this week’s Trump map places Washington, DC smack in the middle of the Great Dismal Swamp in northeastern North Carolina.
It is ironic that Trump campaigned promising to “drain the swamp,” but now he has apparently moved our nation’s capital 200 miles south to real one.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
P.S. I didn’t even mention the social media post that the U.S. Department of Education had to take down this week when it was brought to their attention that it equated the Trump Administration with Nazi Germany.
Perhaps someone in the Department of Education needs to study World War II. Or… could it be that someone inside the Administration was trying to tell us something?
Cracks in the armor?
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 
Totally agree with you Janet. All the best to you and I hope this unbearable heat that is affecting us here in Europe treats you better. We have been in the high 30’s for several weeks now and it continues, even though August is not supposed to be this hot 🥵.
Wow, after Iran’s use of Lego videos to ridicule our president, I’d think our administration would steer clear. So funny that the map most likely generated by AI is wrong.
Being disconnected from reality and surrounded by people who say, “yes,” is not the basis for good leadership and coherent decision-making. Include the fog of war and the possibilities are dire.
Yes, Rebecca, I would have thought so, too!
Good one, Rebecca.
Uhhhh, what was the point of the White House’s posting a Lego map of the United States? I’m not very good in geography, but I do know that Washington, DC isn’t in the Great Dismal Swamp! As for the whole “Lake of America” thing, the deluded ravings of a megalomaniac.
I know! And when he signed the Lake America Executive Order today, he said the Atlantic or the Pacific is next! Too bad there’s not a single brain cell in the Cabinet to put the 25th Amendment in motion! How for the love of God does anyone still worship Trump? They think this is funny. I don’t have that kind of a sense of humor.
Our country is in a precarious place. I pray common sense will prevail on election day. I shudder to think how much worse things will be by then.
Thank you, Francis. We’ve had several days this week in the upper 80s instead of the upper 90s. Storms predicted for Friday. Back to the mid-90s next week. We’ve been fortunate this summer, although it has been hotter than normal. We are gradually coming out of the spring drought and we’ve had no flooding or wildfires in this area. Some days it seems that the entire northern hemisphere is on fire… and then the tragic avalanche and flood in Nepal. I simply cannot imagine a flood of that magnitude. I hope you get some relief from the extreme heat soon. I noticed today that the berries on our dogwood trees are beginning to turn red. That’s a sign that fall is coming. I don’t think they usually turn red in August. The weather everywhere seems in a state of flux. Went outside at midnight tonight to see the beautiful lunar eclipse. It’s reassuring to know that God is in control. Take care.
It is very reassuring to know and to be reminded that God is in control Janet, you are so right. We have been having extra hot day in this Aegean region but being in contact with the sea keeps things a little bit fresher than inland, so we have been fortunate. Back home in Spain things have been disastrous on many fronts. The weather is absolutely crazy: horrible heat waves (there were 5), then storms on the coast of the Mediterranean, with hail and winds up to 130 km.hr and flooding, add to that the forest fires and the earthquakes in Granada in the south. In the coast of Valencia there were 3 meteotsunamis that affected three important summer/beach cities destroying just about everything that was not tied down on the waterfront, and there were a lot of bars, restaurants and terrace cafes on the waterfront. It has been truly awful, I do not know what can be next, hopefully calm and peace and autumn… But we are still enjoying the summer. Take good care. I hope you have advanced much with your re-reading/revising reference your manuscript. I am also working diligently on my manuscript and still polishing the poetry book. Poetry books are very difficult to compose, each poem must be brilliant, so I will just keep polishing. They are not like the poems on WP. Anyways, wishing you a great weekend ahead and peace in the world and at home.
Oh, it stopped being funny when people started dying. You’re right about the lack of a brain cell in the Cabinet. It’s criminal.
Spain has certainly had more than its share of traumatic weather events this summer. Surely, things will calm down with the coming autumn. The level of destruction is hard to fathom. I am making good progress with revisions in my manuscript. Writing is definitely my happy place. Even if my novel is never published, I have had hundreds of hours of enjoyment in creating the story in my head and on paper. I was never any good at writing poetry. I much admire those of you who can master the art. Enjoy your remaining time on the Aegean coast.
Thank you so much Janet. Surprisingly, and gratefully, today is a cool, breezy day! A great day for sitting next to the window writing and re-writing while looking at the Aegean Sea. All the best to you.
The orange plague is worse than Hitler because like a scarecrow, he has no brains, and stupidity is oh so dangerous! 😍
I agree. He is evil personified. I trust all Canadians know that all Americans will continue to call it by its rightful name: Lake Ontario. I’m appalled that Google Maps apparently changed it to Lake America on the orange one’s childish whim.
So am I! I’m tired of watching the world suck up to his maniacal, narcissistic, petulant whims. Incidentally, Mapquest refuses to change the name.
I’m sooooo tired of all of it, Debby. Glad Canada is standing up to him and not caving in to his juvenile antics. Yea for Mapquest! I don’t understand why anyone map-related companies are changing it to Lake America. It is beyond ridiculous that he thinks by the stroke of a Sharpie pen he can change the name of anything! He is a narcissistic human wrecking ball. The framers of the U.S. Constitution could never foresee that such a evil person would ever be elected president. At least when Nixon was going off the rails there were enough Republicans in Congress with some backbone to go to him and tell him the gig was up. The Republican Party today is a pitiful joke. Heaven help us if the Democrats don’t win a majority in the House and Senate in November! Unfortunately, it will take decades to un-do much of the damage he has done — and some of it, like cutting down the 114-year-old cherry trees from Japan, cannot be undone. Or the logging and drilling in our national parks. Or his giving part of Yosemite National Park away to a developer in trade for “comparable land somewhere in California. There is no “comparable land” to anything that’s in a national park. Pardon my rant, but I’m getting angrier by the day — which I didn’t think was possible.
Lest we forget the demolition of the Whitehouse! Please, you don’t have to tell me. I keep my eye and ears on that ferret head excuse of a human. And no worries about Dems winning, the worry is how badly that regime will cheat, snatch voters by ICE, gerrymandering, whatever it takes to keep the felon out of jail they will do. But if you ask me, if that happens, I know America or the world couldn’t take another ounce of him and it would promote civil war if he won I think.
I agree. He will do anything he has to do to throw the mid-term elections. Anything. Everything he does is appalling but no longer shocking. I worry about the young people — say early 20s and younger, for they have no personal frame of reference for what this country is supposed to be — how the federal government is supposed to operate. They have come of age with Trump being front and center every single day. They have no memory of September 11th. Some of them have no memory of January 6th.
So sadly true. That’s why history is important!