Trump claims he didn't know Category 5 hurricanes existed until Irma - Polidicks

[quote]President Trump said he wasn't aware "Category 5" hurricanes existed until Hurricane Irma. At the White House Historical Association dinner Thursday, Trump discussed his trip to Florida, which is facing massive power outages and is recovering from the destruction of Irma, which had been a Category 5 hurricane. "I never even knew a Category 5 existed," Trump said, according to a press pool report. Hurricanes are graded according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which the National Hurricane Center uses, on a 1-to-5 rating scale based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed. Category 5 is the strongest, boasting winds of 157 mph or higher.[/quote] [url=http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-claims-he-didnt-know-category-5-hurricanes-existed-until-irma/article/2634506]Source: The Washington Examiner[/url] Full quote according to the press pool: [quote]“And in Florida you got hit with the strongest winds ever recorded. It actually hit the Keys with a—it was a Category 5. I never even knew a Category 5 existed. And they suffered greatly..."[/quote] I can't believe we elected someone so downright [i]stupid[/i].

Yeah, as much as I despise Trump, this is a pretty weak thing to criticize him for. He says stupider shit than this every day on Twitter.

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales.[/QUOTE] What's petty about criticizing a president who hasn't taken 10 minutes to learn about one of the most destructive US natural disasters in recent memory? It's a little something called "Hurricane Katrina," which reached Category 5 before making landfall as a Category 3. It's basic US history of the first two decades of this millennia.

These kind of scales are what you learn in school... and these are not words he should have said.

Considering we've had them fairly frequently over the past few years, it really shows how good his memory really is

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] I learned all this shit in grade school.

I meannn... I can't say anything. I haven't noticed category 5s in the news and stuff (even though their was one last year and even with my own first name), though I wasn't 'surprised' that they existed? The way he phrased it sounds like he was taken aback by their existence. I was just sorta "huh". But still, nbd.

[QUOTE=Flicky;52684306]What's petty about criticizing a president who hasn't taken 10 minutes to learn about one of the most destructive US natural disasters in recent memory? It's a little something called "Hurricane Katrina," which reached Category 5 before making landfall as a Category 3. It's basic US history of the first two decades of this millennia.[/QUOTE] This is a fair point. Being in Australia we don't hear about this stuff as much; I s'pose being the president of the United States Trump ought to be held to a higher standard.

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] Richter scale goes on infinitely, just increasing in energy released and destruction, its logarithmic. F5 is the strongest tornado. No idea on the tsunamis. No google, just knowledge from school.

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] You're not the president of a country that gets hit by these things though, you'd probs need to google it if you were running. Being a beacon of strength in the event of a national disaster is just another important role of the president that Trump has failed. Why would you even admit this as president?

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684322]Weather scales aren't applicable to his job, he isn't a meteorologist.[/QUOTE] Weather prediction isn't part of his job description. Disaster management is. For all his criticisms of Obama after Sandy, the guy sure doesn't seem to know much about hurricanes himself.

[QUOTE=Flicky;52684306]What's petty about criticizing a president who hasn't taken 10 minutes to learn about one of the most destructive US natural disasters in recent memory? It's a little something called "Hurricane Katrina," which reached Category 5 before making landfall as a Category 3. It's basic US history of the first two decades of this millennia.[/QUOTE] Basic US history my ass. I bet you had to google to see if Katrina hit category 5. Do you think this was taught in US history classes? I barely remember learning about weather in my high school science classes let alone memorizing the richter scale and history of past US hurricanes.

[QUOTE=fredstin22;52684324]He probably said that to sound more sympathetic.[/QUOTE] Comes off as another rock to a mountain of proof that he isn't qualified for the job. Standards for the job that makes you the head of a nation makes everything amplified in terms of requirements as the individual is meant to be a keystone of a vast dome. It's what one should consider when they're gunning for what can possibly be a job that's 2 years off a decade of life. It's a choice that should be made by understanding our world's history and the many on going conflicts. You're putting yourself into a deadly chamber, but you could be a sculptor for our planet if you endure it.

[QUOTE=MrRalgoman;52684338]Basic US history my ass. I bet you had to google to see if Katrina hit category 5. Do you think this was taught in US history classes? I barely remember learning about weather in my high school science classes let alone memorizing the richter scale and history of past US hurricanes.[/QUOTE] I did have to Google it. In the years following Katrina. This is something that happened 12 years ago. If you're proactive about learning these things, it's not hard to find out. 9-year-old me found out because I was curious of the details of Katrina. My point is that Trump is a 71 year old man and [i]President of the United States of America,[/i] who should be held accountable for knowing about hurricanes in a country where responding to disastrous hurricanes is not uncommon. You can get a pretty good gist of how hurricanes are scaled within 1 minute of Googling it. You may not be required to learn it, but someone who is going to lead the country [b]needs to.[/b]

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] Yeah this is petty. Also I don't think the Richter scale is actually used much anymore. The values are pretty close to the new scale, but the unit isn't Richter anyway. Also I mean the Richter scale should go up indefinitely I guess? There's just a practical limit to how powerful an earthquake could get - I'm gonna say probably 10 Richter or so, but that's just a guess.

I concede that most people probably don't see this as as big of a deal as I do. But to me this isn't petty. This is basic responsibility of knowledge as a President.

[QUOTE=Flicky;52684347]I did have to Google it. In the years following Katrina. This is something that happened 12 years ago. If you're proactive about learning these things, it's not hard to find out. 9-year-old me found out because I was curious of the details of Katrina. My point is that Trump is a 71 year old man and [i]President of the United States of America,[/i] who should be held accountable for knowing about hurricanes in a country where responding to disastrous hurricanes is not uncommon. You can get a pretty good gist of how hurricanes are scaled within 1 minute of Googling it. You may not be required to learn it, but someone who is going to lead the country [b]needs to.[/b][/QUOTE] By not uncommon you mean the 3-4 disastrous hurricanes that have hit in the past 20-25 years? Katrina was the biggest in a long time wasn't it? I feel like it's such a hot topic right now because we just took it from behind. Shir, if it's such a big deal let's make it a debate question for the next elections so we know for sure our president is properly educated.

[QUOTE=MrRalgoman;52684379]By not uncommon you mean the 3-4 disastrous hurricanes that have hit in the past 20-25 years? Katrina was the biggest in a long time wasn't it? I feel like it's such a hot topic right now because we just took it from behind. Shir, if it's such a big deal let's make it a debate question for the next elections so we know for sure our president is properly educated.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry for being passionate about the mechanisms behind the uncontrollable loss of homes, work, and life wrought by hurricanes. I acknowledge that I'm more invested in this than most, but the best thing we can do if we can't control something is to at least learn how it works. I'm disappointed, shocked, and most importantly angry at Trump for not taking even a few minutes to learn this in the past, specifically given his criticisms on previous government response to hurricanes. This is first-paragraph-on-Wikipedia-level stuff, and if he really wanted to improve on previous government responses, he would have learned this. Clearly others don't see this as the big deal that I see it as. You're free to do that. But as just some average schmuck who learned about this out of curiosity, while our president who is responsible to at the very least be involved in disaster responses doesn't, my emotions on this matter are running high.

It's funny, having lived in Florida my entire life I hadn't considered that there are people who don't know the categories of a hurricane. But then after talking with people leading up to the storm I came to realize that there are a lot of things you're pretty much only taught about hurricanes if you live in the coastal south, like how storm surge works, etc.

[QUOTE=MrRalgoman;52684379]By not uncommon you mean the 3-4 disastrous hurricanes that have hit in the past 20-25 years? Katrina was the biggest in a long time wasn't it? I feel like it's such a hot topic right now because we just took it from behind. Shir, if it's such a big deal let's make it a debate question for the next elections so we know for sure our president is properly educated.[/QUOTE] [t]https://i.imgur.com/ByLL8wk.png[/t] Yeah, only 3-4. [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Category_5_Atlantic_hurricanes[/url] I don't even live in an area affected by the hurricane and I remember most of these. Surely El Trumpo with his Mar-A-Lago should be more aware of them happening, since they affect his precious assets.

even if most people would only find this kind of info relevant to look as the event approached, [i]the president having said this at all[/i] makes it sound like he didn't care to read into the impending disaster despite having an incredible responsibility to prepare a response to help the people it was headed for. as always it just seems like he's saying inconsequential shit to fluff a point but it'd be less painful if he just didn't open his mouth about it at all

[QUOTE=dai;52684435]even if most people would only find this kind of info relevant to look as the event approached, [i]the president having said this at all[/i] makes it sound like he didn't care to read into the impending disaster despite having an incredible responsibility to prepare a response to help the people it was headed for.[/QUOTE] Somehow I doubt he truly feels any sense of responsibility towards this considering he basically refused aid from Mexico for literally no other reason than to be an asshat.

[QUOTE=Cyanlime;52684300]Yeah, as much as I despise Trump, this is a pretty weak thing to criticize him for. He says stupider shit than this every day on Twitter.[/QUOTE] monday : "irma and harvey, both the worst storms this country has ever seen, the most powerful, nothing like it ever." tuesday:"we've had worse, go back to the teens we have had worse there is no global warming."

I didn't realize it was some obscure piece of knowledge that hurricanes and tornadoes both work on a scale that goes up to 5 like it really isn't that hard to remember

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] You're not in a position of power where you are required to be able to take rather swift action and react accordingly as the appointed head of an entire nation which also happens to be one of the geographically largest countries on the planet, [I]and[/I] one of the most subject to a variety of natural disasters if only due to the sheer variety of climates some of which are rather extreme.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;52684477]I didn't realize it was some obscure piece of knowledge that hurricanes and tornadoes both work on a scale that goes up to 5 like it really isn't that hard to remember[/QUOTE] the obscure part is its roughly a logarithmic scale, cat 4 is way less destructive than cat 5

When someone challenges scientific consensus about climate change and weather, I kind of expect them to know what the fuck they are talking about. He's not in a position where he can just dispense opinions without regard to facts and consequences.

What about lying to him and telling him that he's right, there where no such things as cat5 hurricanes, and it's because of global warming. :v:

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] He owns the mar-a-Lago on a coastal area of Florida. He goes there a lot. If he was a smart business man he would know what goes on in the surrounding areas and know what kind of dangers await his property so he would know resale value and other factors. He should know the category scale for hurricanes

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] Trump is 70 years old and the president and he doesn't know how to categorize hurricanes which afflict his nation yearly and have been getting worse as foretold by climate scientists? [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] The problem is far larger than just being ignorant of hurricane preparation and relief, it stems from his general incompetence and lack of curiosity.