# Trump and his "Cat License" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713 "2019-09-05T00:17:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/41 "2019-09-05T18:15:28Z")
I am having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Magiver thinks that Trump’s projection is valid because he extended the hurricane’s path in a straight line from the official projection, completely ignoring the fact that all the official projections have the storm turning and going up the coast. Now admittedly I took one course called “weather” in college so I am infinitely more qualified to assess a hurricane path but it doesn’t take a genius to realize that a storm that travels straight in one direction over water will of necessity be affected by the topography of the land when it makes landfall and therefore should not be assumed to keep moving forward in a straight line. You know, that may be why meteorologists actually have degrees in the subject. So regardless of whether the official weather service had yet projected the storm’s course beyond Florida. Trump was completely unqualified to project the course further and the fact that every single prediction shows a turn to the North after landfall indicates that maybe the meteorologists know something that Trump and Magiver do not. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/42 "2019-09-05T18:16:28Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Trump was holding was a map of the current projection last Thursday and he projected a little further into Alabama. No he did not. Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1168174613827899393) on **Sunday (Sep. 1)** that Alabama “will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.” Then **yesterday (Wednesday, Sep. 4)**, he [showed a projected map](https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/04/president-trump-shows-doctored-hurricane-chart-was-it-cover-up-alabama-twitter-flub/) **from Aug. 29 (Thursday)**, with the Sharpie mark added, to try to justify his Sunday tweet. Also **yesterday (Wednesday, Sep. 4)**, he [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1169375550806351872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1169375550806351872&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2019%2F09%2F04%2F757586936%2Ftrump-displays-altered-map-of-hurricane-dorians-path-to-include-alabama) a “spaghetti” map **from Aug. 28 (Wednesday)** to try to justify his Sunday tweet. By the time Trump tweeted on Sunday, forecasts no longer showed Alabama in the path. Either he completely made it up, or he was basing his tweet on 4-day old information. All this after canceling his trip to Poland so he could focus on this hurricane. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/43 "2019-09-05T18:19:49Z")
Big snip. > [@psychobunny](#): > > Trump was completely unqualified to project the course further and the fact that every single prediction shows a turn to the North after landfall indicates that maybe the meteorologists know something that Trump and Magiver do not. He’s completely unqualified to hold a Sharpie. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/44 "2019-09-05T19:03:13Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Either he completely made it up, or he was basing his tweet on 4-day old information. Or, as speculated in at least one of the Pit threads, really meant “the Bahamas” instead of “Alabama”. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/45 "2019-09-05T20:05:49Z")
[Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/05/donald-trump-hurricane-dorian-alabama-1482815), within the past hour: > [@](#): > > Was Trump really wrong about Hurricane Dorian’s threat to Alabama? In short: yes. Yes he was. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/46 "2019-09-05T20:12:30Z")
CNN weighs in: > **[Donald Trump's Alabama obsession reveals a very deep flaw | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/05/politics/alabama-dorian-donald-trump/index.html)** > > As Hurricane Dorian strengthened over the Atlantic and spun toward the Carolinas on Thursday, the President of the United States took to Twitter with a message for Americans. The most disturbing thing isn’t that Trump is lying, because, sad and reprehensible as it is, we’re all used to it by now. The most disturbing thing is that he’s been totally obsessed for the past three days about proving that he was right, and that the “fake news” – every last one of them, every last member of the media – are the ones who have been lying. Left to his own devices without any checks and balances, he would create a regime of Orwellian revisionism that not even Orwell could have imagined – all to celebrate his own greatness and infallibility. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/47 "2019-09-05T20:26:19Z")
I’m really concerned about the tendency of some Trump supporters–and **Magiver** is clearly one–to dismiss yet another indication that Trump is suffering from some kind of cognitive decline. If they really care about the guy, they should be worried about Trump for his own sake, not scrambling to patch together far-fetched defenses. I know Reagan had dementia, and I’m not arguing he was a good president, but Reagan had puppeteers. Trump does not. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/48 "2019-09-05T20:59:13Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I’m really concerned about the tendency of some Trump supporters–and **Magiver** is clearly one–to dismiss yet another indication that Trump is suffering from some kind of cognitive decline. If they really care about the guy, they should be worried about Trump for his own sake, not scrambling to patch together far-fetched defenses. I know Reagan had dementia, and I’m not arguing he was a good president, but Reagan had puppeteers. Trump does not. This is clearly a situation that requires a 25th Amendment solution, or Trump’s resignation. The country has suffered enough. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/49 "2019-09-05T21:47:52Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Trump was holding was a map of the current projection last Thursday and he projected a little further into Alabama. It was hardly the end of the run or even another day’s worth of projection. The entire point of warning people about a hurricane is so they can prepare. It would be negligent to do otherwise. Then he was negligent in not extending the line even further into Mississippi and Louisiana. Surely those states would be affected by rain and wind. Where should we draw the line? Oh! How about where the NHC drew the line? Especially since it’s their map. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/50 "2019-09-05T21:59:20Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Also **yesterday (Wednesday, Sep. 4)**, he [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1169375550806351872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1169375550806351872&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2019%2F09%2F04%2F757586936%2Ftrump-displays-altered-map-of-hurricane-dorians-path-to-include-alabama) a “spaghetti” map **from Aug. 28 (Wednesday)** to try to justify his Sunday tweet. > > By the time Trump tweeted on Sunday, forecasts no longer showed Alabama in the path. Either he completely made it up, or he was basing his tweet on 4-day old information. All this after canceling his trip to Poland so he could focus on this hurricane. It worse than that. None of the models (the lines that actually have a symbol with them) show the hurricane hitting Alabama on the map he tweeted. It would be more obvious if he sent the [original image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDqakxTUEAAVPHu.jpg:large) instead of a doctored one. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/51 "2019-09-05T22:25:07Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Or, as speculated in at least one of the Pit threads, really meant “the Bahamas” instead of “Alabama”. That actually makes sense, especially if you factor auto-correct into it. Not just that, but he’d have an easy out by blaming it on his phone and if we bought that, he could use the same line for any of his tweets that get that much backlash. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/52 "2019-09-05T23:31:52Z")
Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. It’s standard practice for leaders to stress the need to be prepared. this s a mountain out of a no-hill driven by a need to demonize the President. Anybody with common sense could look at the projection and see a need for people in Alabama to be concerned. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/53 "2019-09-05T23:36:00Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. > > It’s standard practice for leaders to stress the need to be prepared. this s a mountain out of a no-hill driven by a need to demonize the President. > > Anybody with common sense could look at the projection and see a need for people in Alabama to be concerned. If this was true then he wouldn’t have needed to correct the chart. But it’s not true, so he did correct the chart, because the unaltered chart showed that he was wrong. The altered chart, on the other hand, shows that he was both wrong and a complete idiot. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/54 "2019-09-05T23:41:44Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. > > It’s standard practice for leaders to stress the need to be prepared. this s a mountain out of a no-hill driven by a need to demonize the President. > > Anybody with common sense could look at the projection and see a need for people in Alabama to be concerned. Wow. You _still_ think he’s wearing clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/55 "2019-09-05T23:41:58Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. > > It’s standard practice for leaders to stress the need to be prepared. this s a mountain out of a no-hill driven by a need to demonize the President. > > Anybody with common sense could look at the projection and see a need for people in Alabama to be concerned. This is just a fucking stupid hill to die on. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/56 "2019-09-05T23:42:46Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. And, AGAIN, the NHC forecast which he “projected” on was THREE DAYS OLD (issued on August 29) when he made his tweets on Sunday (September 1). By that time, the storm had moved, conditions had changed, and the NHC had repeatedly updated the forecast. As has been shown in several links in this thread, by Sunday morning, the NHC’s forecast storm track went nowhere near Alabama. And Trump’s “double down” evidence, the “spaghetti map” which he shared, was a day older still than the original NHC forecast that he doctored (it was from August 28). People in Alabama should rightfully have been at least somewhat concerned on August 29th, when the forecast DID say that the storm might head in their direction. By September 1, the storm was no longer going to be a concern to Alabamians, unless they were relying on Trump’s tweets for their hurricane preparedness. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/57 "2019-09-05T23:49:29Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. > > It’s standard practice for leaders to stress the need to be prepared. this s a mountain out of a no-hill driven by a need to demonize the President. > > Anybody with common sense could look at the projection and see a need for people in Alabama to be concerned. You must be fucking pissed that the weather service released an immediate correction stating that Alabama didn’t need to be concerned. Fucking. Pissed. Right? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/58 "2019-09-06T01:05:19Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > As there were a number of models showing it moving through Alabama and Georgia and they were all wrong then where is the lie in the prediction? Seriously. Where is the lie? If that’s the case then why didn’t he show a real map with a path through Alabama, instead of faking it? Faking it is the lie. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/59 "2019-09-06T01:15:11Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Again, he projected one of many forecasts a fraction further in the same direction which is just a common sense way of looking at it. . > [@](#): > > [Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/05/donald-trump-hurricane-dorian-alabama-1482815) > > **But computer models aren’t forecasts; they’re tools for forecasters.** > > No weather forecaster would take the output of a single computer model — or even multiple models — and portray it as a weather forecast. Experienced forecasters blend these models with other data and their own skills to produce the most accurate forecast. > > Two days before Trump’s first tweet mentioning a supposed threat to Alabama, it was clear — both from the models and the forecasts — that Dorian would turn north and northeastward either over Florida or before it reached Florida, meaning Alabama and the rest of the Gulf Coast would be spared. Skills which Trump does not possess. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713/60 "2019-09-06T01:35:43Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I absolutely believe that his comments about there never having been a cat 5 hurricane are somehow him bragging that he alone has had to deal with this and that his mismanagement of the mess in Puerto Rico can be blamed on the “fact” that there have never been cat 5 hurricanes ever in history. The “man” is a transparent fool. Even more so, because he promotes two opposing assertions without recognizing the inconsistency: 1. The hurricanes I deal with are YUUUGGEE! The biggest hurricanes in history. No one has ever had hurricanes like mine. I have the best hurricanes. 2. There is no such thing as climate change. There is no pattern of worsening weather extremes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-his-cat-license/839713.md?page=4)