I saw the coverage of this on MSNBC and thought it was ridiculous but didn’t think I’d end up writing about it at the time.
Officials in Citrus County, Florida, heard the public library system's request for a digital New York Times subscription and denied it, citing President Trump's belief that the nationally acclaimed paper is "fake news."
"Do we really need to subscribe to The New York Times?" one county commissioner asked after a vote on the motion during a public meeting. The other commissioners laughed, video from the meeting shows.
"I actually was going to say that. I'm going to be a 'no' for this. Fake news. I agree with President Trump," another commissioner, identified as Scott Carnahan by the Citrus County Chronicle, said. "I will not vote for this. I do not want The New York Times in this county," he continued, going on to say he does like agree with or like the paper.
I have a special affinity for librarians and libraries considering that my late wife was a reference librarian in public libraries. Even so, as annoyed as I was with the story I didn’t plan to write about it.
Here’s how the American Librarian Association responded. What more could I say?
Then I discovered that of one of my friends since we were toddlers when we lived in the same neighborhood had it on her Facebook page. She happens to be a best selling author who as you’d expect is passionate about libraries, and she lives in the now infamous Citrus County where the commissioners are intent on turning paradise into an idiocracy.
Citrus County is known as the “One Place in the United States Where It’s Legal to Swim With Wild Manatees.” The county has the largest concentration of manatees in a natural spring ... specifically for the protection of the endangered West Indian Manatee.
Through her Facebook page I also discovered that Trump was obsessed on his Twitter page with what he considered a flattering story. Anywhere, anytime, Trump will find and reward his sycophants.
If you follow my Daily Kos stories you will know that I sometimes start with making a photoshop to tweet and end up posting a story about it.
That’s what happened here. My first photoshop tweet was this:
But then when I discovered Trump was tweeting about this I embellished my tweet and added this to the comments to his tweets.
I have been closely monitoring my unofficial patient Donald Trump for signs that he is in the throes of a full-blown psychotic episode caused by a sudden realization that he may be removed from office.
Trump’s has the ability to delude himself, to distort reality, to engage in what most people call wishful thinking. This can move towards what mental health professionals call magical thinking. This is the belief that one's beliefs, wishes or desires can influence the external world. It is common in very young children.
When thoughts and beliefs have no connection at all with reality this is delusional and a hallmark of many psychotic disorders.
Trump is fixated on finding anything that massages his ego from the cheers of crowds for his ridiculous self-aggrandizing insult-humor performances to a story about a county library being punished by Trump worshiping commissioners.
Meanwhile in Citrus County it is possible smart people are as in need of protection as the federally protected manatee.
Above: Video by Phillip Courter, Manatees in shallow waters of Kings Bay, Crystal River, Florida