FLOTUS: Oh, how sad. A dead bird.
POTUS: Where??
As an isolated incident, it’s no big deal.
As another example of how this President doesn’t listen to other people and rushes into dangerous situations he doesn’t understand, it’s newsworthy. The guy that looked into sun is the same guy who’ll be deciding if we should send American troops into North Korea. We’d like to have some evidence he can make intelligent decisions in situations involving nuclear fusion.
If we’re lucky, he’ll look at the fireball.
My thoughts exactly.
It’s only a big deal because he does serve as an example. If kids see the President glancing up directly at the sun without glasses, they will think it is OK to not have their glasses on at all times. It’s OK if a 70 year old man loses some of his retina-he probably has cataracts and won’t notice but a kid may look for longer and also risks damaging their retina at an early age.
Actually, the pertinent question is why should Trump be the president?
And the answer is that he shouldn’t. Because he’s an America-hating fuckstick. It would cause me no pain if he were to be a blind America-hating fuckstick.
Exactly. My understanding is that, while you may sustain immediately apparent damage, you may instead sustain damage that won’t become apparent until years later.
So if he isn’t immediately blinded (and he likely won’t be) then the next time around there will be idiots shouting that the dangers are a lie because Trump did it with no effects.
vigorous golf clap
This might have been the reason for his awkward reading of the teleprompter in tonight’s speech.
That link goes to a non-existent page. Maybe they deleted it?
The link works for me. 
I’ve seen at least three different images of Trump looking up at the eclipse without the glasses—one in which he’s pointing up, one in which Melania is to his right, and one in which Melania is on his right and Barron is next to him on his left.
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I watched briefly, when the President came out. Watching the First Family, I imagined what they were thinking.
Trump: ‘So how long should we stay out here? I mean, I know we have to look like we’re excited, but come on!’
Barron: ‘Yeah, OK. I’ve seen it. Can I go in now?’
Reminds me of one of my favorite King of the Hill quotes:
People say he fried his brain one day staring at the sun. 'Course, he couldn’t have been too smart to do that in the first place. Kind of a chicken-egg thing.
In the interest of science, which I realize few in this thread want to hear, the “never look directly at the partial eclipse” is the same advice as Amazon’s “return all eclipse glasses because they aren’t certified safe”, even those that were documented.
One can look directly at the sun, partially eclipsed or not, without sustaining any vision damage. No one is going to advise you to do so, because while the safe duration is not only precisely known, it is known to be short. I live in an area that had 98.5% coverage. I also glanced up at the sun during the peak of the eclipse. I learned that 1.5% of the sun is still awfully damn bright, but suffered no damage. I may never experience this again, I’m not going to let it go without a quick glance.
From here:
and
Much ado about nothing.
While that’s all true, as a role model hes setting a bad example.
There are people who think that a cold winter disproves climate change. That same type of thinking may lead some people to believe that Trump’s few seconds disproves the claims of eye damage.
I wasn’t talking about Trump specifically, but all the “never look at an eclipse” people in general. More specifically, the “follow the rule at all costs without knowing why” crowd. It could be said that those who snuck a peek at the sun outside of totality were setting a good example - don’t take “rules” at face value, understand the risks and proceed accordingly.
Mark Twain said “If a cat sits on a hot stove, that cat won’t sit on a hot stove again. That cat won’t sit on a cold stove either. That cat just don’t like stoves.”
My rule: Don’t be that cat, and don’t adulate people who are.
Where does the job description mention “being an example for [your] children”? It’s the parents’ job to control their children’s behavior, not mine or the president’s
.
How and why are non-related adults under any responsibility to obey rules you have set for your underaged offspring? They’re your kids, you enforce your rules on them.
I mean, hell, I hate the guy too, but…yeeeeesh.
Maybe he can serve as a warning.
“Don’t look at the sun or you’ll turn orange just like the President.”