Attaboys and Aw Shits

There is a comic adage about relationships and life that claims, “Fifteen Attaboys can be wiped out with one Aw shit.” The inference is that you need to do a great deal of good because it will be offset by just one screwup. The Attaboys here refer to the pat on the back and the encouragement slang term for, “That’s my boy.” The number of Attaboys that can be negated with just one Aw shit varies, and I’ve seen numbers as low as five and as high as a thousand. It seems to get adjusted by the level of offense referenced by the Aw shit.

In current political parlance, it can be used to evaluate the performance of anyone responsible for governing decisions. In that context I maintain that our president is in a deep hole. By whatever ratio of Attaboys to Aw shits you might use, our lumbering orange-faced leader is way behind in the count.

First let’s give credit where credit is due. Since we are very early in his second term it is only fair to include his first term in office. Using that reference along with his first hundred-plus days of his current term, we can find a few bright spots.

First, we can give him credit for not nuking any of our neighbors. This may seem like a simple task but, given his temperament, it was not a foregone conclusion. So, Attaboy Donny-John.

Secondly, we have Operation Warp Speed that enabled the quick development of an MRNA vaccine that brought an end to the pandemic. We will overlook the fact that he had eliminated the team of scientists who were tasked to monitor the progression of pandemics and recommend a course of action to mitigate such damage as we can’t know if they would have been effective.

We will also overlook the comments of bleach injections and shining bright lights inside our lungs as offhand remarks by someone with limited knowledge of medicine and anatomy. The look of horror on the face of Dr. Deborah Birx at that press conference was enough to know this was not to be taken seriously. So, Operation Warp Speed, Attaboy Donny-John.

In more modern times, the president has made significant progress ending the immigrant migration at our southern border. Not only do immigrants not want to come here anymore, we've gotten those pesky tourists with their wallets full of cash to reconsider their travel plans. Who knew all it would take to accomplish this would be to break a few dozen laws, shred the U.S. Constitution, ignore the judiciary including the Supreme Court, and institute a police-state with marauding gangs of secret police units. No president before Donald Trump even considered dong this after taking their oath of office to uphold our laws and constitution. Now that’s thinking outside the box. So, kudos once again, here’s your Attaboy.

So, we have seen where Trump earned three Attaboys in four years and one hundred days. Sorry, no Attaboys for predictions of good things to come as we find those are often figments of a wild imagination. For example, you can’t yet claim a reduction of fentanyl-related deaths due to a few drug seizures. Opiod deaths were already down 24% since September of 2024, much of which was the result of the widespread distribution of naloxone. This distribution was coordinated by the CDC during that period. Drastic cuts and massive layoffs of CDC personnel will certainly have an influence here. On the bright side, data collection is being severely impacted so Trump can just make up whatever numbers he wants. But, still no Attaboys here.

That brings us to the Aw shit side of the ledger. OMG, will you look at that. Attaboys all gone.