Trump brags about polar ice caps "breaking records."

[This has been in the posting queue since before the Nunes memo hit the fan, so it now feels dated.   But I still wanted to share it.]

Actually, president Trump didn't do too badly at the Davos summit of global elitists, given that he campaigned by demonizing them and their ideas.   He pretty much stuck to his teleprompter speech that sought to ease fears and reassure that "we are open for business."   He also softened his tag line to:  "Making American Great" does not mean "America Alone."

Yes, there were the minor gaffes here and there.   But, given Trump and his limitations of knowledge and exaggerations of style, it was an OK, even somewhat reassuring, performance -- if you were focused only on economics and not on humanitarian issues.

So it perhaps stuck out a little more by contrast then when he did a sit-down interview with Piers Morgan for British TV, which aired on Sunday night.   Morgan asked his thoughts about climate change.

Trump was a bit all over the place, putting out the confused talking point:  "There is cooling, and there's a heating.   I mean, look, it used to not be 'climate change,' it used to be 'global warming.'   Right?  That wasn't working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place."

And then he seized on the polar ice caps, which he claimed were "breaking records."    [They were saying]:   "The ice caps were going to melt.   They were going to be gone by now, but now they're setting records.   They're at a record level.

FACT  CHECK:   Yes, the ice caps are setting a new record . . . for melting.   Trump didn't seem to get that.  Not every "record" is something to brag about.

FURTHER FACT CHECKING:   On "too cold all over the place."   2017 was the second hottest year on record.   The oceans were the hottest ever recorded.   And there has not been a year since 1976 (forty-one years) in which the average earth temperature was below the average of 135 years of temperature records kept by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

So, Donald, your Friends on Fox may tell you all these fake facts that you prefer to believe.   But the world -- including your new "friends" at Davos -- still operates on science for understanding the physical world, at least.

You better get with it, Donald.   In Europe, they're laughing at you.

Ralph