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Please stop making me defend Trump

Please stop making me defend Trump

Political media mouth-frothing has reached unbearable levels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsZpcCuXng

Regular readers are familiar with my disdain for Trump, having been a Never Trumper prior to the election. However, once he was elected, Trump became my president because that’s just how life works. (My thoughts on that here.)

I’m still skeptical of Trump’s ability to do the job well, but I grow increasingly aggravated with the collective political media set who seem to be doing everything in their power to destroy this presidency. We don’t have an opportunity to praise or criticize the administration and their efforts because the whole of our time is spent debunking misreported claims based on anonymous sources, none of which are favorable to Trump.

Trump often does himself no favors. But the current media state is the worst I’ve seen in my lifetime. The intended, healthy roles of government and media have flipped completely. News ought to be a rundown and sunlight disinfectant of the state and government goings on, but now, a small group of ideologically slanted political media is driving government, taking up a mantle once reserved for activists alone.

The media mouth-frothing has reached unbearable levels, and quickly.

Just this afternoon, the New York Times just happened to take up the task of exploring impeachment proceedings:

And CNN reported the White House was also concerned about impeachment:

Only for the White House to immediately refute the CNN story:

If the impeachment drums are beaten long and loud enough, then maybe the wishcasting will manifest.

This is not a new observation by any means. It was almost as bad in favor of candidate Obama in 2008, but a slobbering lovefest was far different than a media trying to bring down a presidency without a single shred of substantive evidence to date.

I’ve always enjoyed being a blogger and having a platform to tell the bits of a story or even just tell stories the mass media won’t, but as Professor Jacobson has discussed earlier this year, our purpose now is more clear than ever, and more vital. The truth demands we do our diligence in ensuring facts see the surface of the internet.

The events of this past week have birthed a new vigilance, not just within me, but in many who believe the truth a necessary commodity.

_______

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Comments

CNN is now reporting that the White House has begun researching impeachment procedures

They’d all die of conniption fits if they’d heard Patton say that he’d read Rommel’s book.

I’m still skeptical of Trump’s ability to do the job well….because you have experience in the position?

We don’t have an opportunity to praise or criticize the administration and their efforts because the whole of our time is spent debunking misreported claims based on anonymous sources, none of which are favorable to Trump….clearly, by design. Create unnecessary gridlock in Congrrss, nothing else gets done.

I’ll relate a vignette from Robert Caro’s excellent biography of the skunk, LBJ. It will become germane as we progress.

LBJ used to greet people less “significant” than himself as he was sitting on the shitter in his senate office with the door open. He’d conduct business in that “posture”.

Why? It was a dominance demonstration. It offended every moray of the time, and you either put up with it or you didn’t.

This is why the two scoops of ice cream is not just non-trivial, but very illustrative. The salad dressing, the ice cream, every-flucking-thing signaled that he was Der Donald, and everyone else was just dross. You or I would would be treated the same way, especially if I was critical of Der Donald at any time. Which I have been. And will be.

And you either ate it or you didn’t.

    Your LBJ reference was to his senate years – did he continue it when he became president? I know he was a bit crude during those years. But, I was still young, so my direct knowledge is limited.

    WRT the Trump food preferences, I never went to the source document for that story. I saw one reference to Pence having a preference for fruit for dessert. Based on the daily schedule, Trump has a lot of working lunches with the VP and various cabinet members. Could it be possible that the staff now knows the food and drink preferences of other recurring guests? And, I am sure that if someone wanted a different dressing, they could ask for it? The chef will develop a menu, but it is the White House and I am sure that requests can be made….

    I remember going to a small town in upstate NY to do a pre-audit review for a company. Only one place was open for breakfast. We went in the first day and sat in the only open booth. We gave our order. The next day, the same booth was open, we sat down and our drinks were brought out. By the third day, we sat in the same booth, the drinks were brought out and then our breakfasts. When we came back later in the year, the same booth was open and our drinks and breakfasts were brought out. And the same guys were at the counter, in the same place, eating the same breakfasts.

    We talked about the client in the car.

    Gotta love those small towns!

      Liz in reply to Liz. | May 19, 2017 at 10:47 pm

      Oh, we never complained or changed our breakfast order…we did not want to upset the town people since we were auditing a major employer. We knew that everyone knew someone at the company.

      Valerie in reply to Liz. | May 20, 2017 at 12:18 am

      I think you have it. My impression of the article is that it was written by someone who just does not know how things work, and wantes to be nasty, anyway.

    mailman in reply to Ragspierre. | May 20, 2017 at 3:08 am

    HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAA…NOW Ive heard it all. Two scoops of ice cream is a dominance thing…HAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAAA 🙂

    Mate, you need to pace yourself with your very buttery nuttery as you have 8 years of this to get through! HAHAHAHHAHAHAA 🙂

      I suspect that one scoop is the standard, and that Trump indicated he always wanted two. I also suspect that any guest that asked for two would get it. Naturally the MSM doesn’t really want to investigate because they like the original storyline.

    snopercod in reply to Ragspierre. | May 20, 2017 at 7:12 am

    You know it’s bad when even Karl Rove – the architect of Bush’s “turn the other cheek” policy – is urging Trump to fight back.

    Obie1 in reply to Ragspierre. | May 20, 2017 at 7:20 am

    “It offended every moray of the time” Are you suggesting LBJ was an eel? Or are you referring to the alleged origin of the use of the word “johnson” in reference to a certain body part?

“our purpose now is more clear than ever, and more vital. The truth demands we do our diligence in ensuring facts see the surface of the internet.”

Amen. I thought the media could not possibly drop lower in my estimation after watching the fawning and deference to Obama.

I was terribly mistaken.

I had thought that a non-fawning media would be a distinct advantage of a Trump presidency, and that they’d learn their lesson from what they did wrong with Obama, and hold him to account for his actions. Instead, by swinging the pendulum wildly in the other direction, they’ve lost all credibility.

And the sad part is that any real malfeasance is now going to be indistinguishable from the fake deep state hit pieces – the cry of “wolf” in this case is going to end poorly.

    One of my voting decision points was that the media would hold a R president to higher standards. I knew that they would be lenient with a D for a president.

    Like you, I didn’t realize that it would be to false standards. The media is turning off a lot of people. I hope that it turns people on to looking at the source documents, such as the Executive Actions and not just a media summary of that document.

      snopercod in reply to Liz. | May 20, 2017 at 7:14 am

      We just cancelled our subscription to the local newspaper. Sure, it was only $40, but every little bit helps.

“We don’t have an opportunity to praise or criticize the administration and their efforts…” and “News ought to be a rundown and sunlight [to] disinfectant the state and government goings on…”

Forget about listening to the MSM sites and go to the White House web site – https://www.whitehouse.gov/

If you want an easy way of seeing the daily schedule, links to key speeches, etc, sign up for 1600 Daily as an email or just visit it online – https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600daily

This link gets you into the “briefing room” and you can check out a variety of things before they summarize them into the daily blog post. And, it is faster to read the statement or press briefing than listening to it on the tv. Less stressful too….
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-and-remarks

The Obama website is archived, but it had much of the same things..

Get on the email list for your Rep and Senators – it’s interesting to see what they have to say about what is going or not going on. Write up that 30-sec elevator speech about how your positions and call your representatives on Monday.

I have found that my BP goes up reading the misinterpretations of an Executive Action. When I actually read the EA, I realize how much they bend the truth. Perhaps, “wordsmithing” is a better description – alternative facts – whatever. I find that the MSM no longer uses neutral terms to describe something, but aim for the term that will raise the temper of the reader.

I find that the occasional retreat from the internet, phone, email and news programs works wonders for the soul. However, I need to go back to the tv to watch/listen to the continuous weather warnings.

Ahh, it’s spring storm & tornado season….

Kemberlee, here, have a palate cleanser.

Time Magazine just stole their Kremlin-influenced White House cover from —

Mad Magazine!

http://archive.is/f6QYV

At the fear of going all Godwin early, this appears to be the Big Lie Theory applied from many angles.

http://etnk.co/articles/the-big-lie-theory-and-human-behaviour/

Possibly off topic, but the Trump subreddit has gone dark. Reddit has long been censoring any favorable news or opinions regarding Trump. Nothing favorable ever makes the front page.

    Valerie in reply to Petrushka. | May 20, 2017 at 12:34 am

    There may be a migration to VOAT

    https://voat.co/v/ThePedes

    It’s being heavily trolled by people who confuse vulgarity and antisemitism with free speech. Some have suggested it will take a week to settle down.

    Meanwhile. 4Chan got attacked very shortly after they had spun up new information on the Seth Rich murder, so they moved to The_Donald to converse. Then the mods at T_D got suspended amid an amazing amount of bot attacks.

    One might wonder if the whole mess, the recent silly, readily debunked articles from the Washington Post and New York Times, the attack on 4Chan,and the attack on T_D all had some relationship to the exuberant inquiry into the Seth Rich murder.

      Petrushka in reply to Valerie. | May 20, 2017 at 12:47 am

      I looked at VOAT, but it doesn’t seem ready to take the traffic. The Seth Rich murder, ironically, is one of those things that leads you to a conclusion by logic, but has no evidence. If that sounds familiar, it mirrors what the RussiaGate people say about collusion.

      But there are some indisputable facts about the murder. On is that the DNC failed to mourn or comment on the murder of one of their high level IT employees. I know it was a busy time, but I’ve never worked in any place that cold-hearted.

      The murder was never investigated. The police made no evidence public and made no public call for leads. No security camera video was released. The contents of Seth’s laptop were never described.

      If you discuss the case you get hit with cease and desist orders. (Okay, the guy who blabbed about WikiLeaks was actually working for the family, and they have a right to tell him not to theorize in public.) But why is there a professional DNC spin doctor hovering over the family?

      It sure looks like someone with a lot of time and money and connections is actively trying to discourage investigation of the case.

      mariner in reply to Valerie. | May 20, 2017 at 9:46 am

      https://voat.co/v/TheDonald/

      is the page for reddit refugees.

“Please stop making me defend Trump.”

“Regular readers are familiar with my disdain for Trump, having been a Never Trumper prior to the election. However, once he was elected, Trump became my president because that’s just how life works.”

I cannot “make you” do anything, Kemberlee – but you need to get your facts straight. You were never a “Never Trumper” for two important reasons – Never means never and nothing that you came to abhor about Donald Trump has changed over the past 35 years. He remains the same carny barker who tells his made-up stories with different words every day, contradicting himself and he is unrestricted by the rule of law and social decency. His adolescent mind is frozen in time and his misunderstanding of government interference in the economy, his failure to grasp less government and his obsession with personal wealth growth, public persona and self love dominates everything he does. Worse, he has no moral rudder.

Ross Douthat is on target.

” A child cannot be president. I love my children; they cannot have the nuclear codes.”

    Petrushka in reply to gad-fly. | May 19, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    Biggest pile of bloody bullshit I’ve seen in a long, long time. How about folks who assassinate foreign leaders by proxy? Can they be president?

The media is not totally stupid. Reality is just now beginning to seep in.

Up to about a month ago, the Media controlled the game. This changed when evidence surfaced that the Obama administration very likely violated the law by unmasking and disseminating the names of Americans caught up in surveillance in the US. The next question then becomes, was there any improper or illegal direct surveillance of these Americans. In relation to that, we have a confession from the Director of the FBI that members of the Trump campaign and the transition team were under investigation, and presumably surveillance, since July of 2016. We also have reports that no FISA warrant was issued until October of 2016. And, that this investigation was not brought to the attention of members of Congress as is normally the case. Now we have the former DNI claiming that he had NO knowledge of this investigation and surveillance, or maybe he did. Then again maybe not. So, it now becomes even more pressing to actually find out the type of surveillance, its extent and the targets of said surveillance. And, given the history of the Obama administration, with regard to surveilling people, including journalists, the probability that such illegal surveillance did, in fact, occur, is high. Can you hear the roar from the media about this? Wait, those are merely crickets. Never mind. nothing to see here. Move along to the graffiti “proving” that Trump colluded with the Russian Government.

Now we have a Special Prosecutor conducting an investigation which could expose the activities of the Obama administration in this area, If illegal surveillance is proven to have occurred, people could go to jail. If it can be proven that President Obama authorized this activity or even knew about it and allowed it to continue or, worse, sought to cover it up, he could be prosecuted as well.

So, watch the Dems and the Media do their darnedest to push impeachment. Impeachment might short circuit what may be found if the Russia investigation continues long enough. It is unlikely that the Republicans will go along with this, at least until after the midterms. But, watch the pressure to remove Trump ratchet up to insane levels. If you understand why it is happening, it is far less scary.

Pelosi Schmelosi | May 19, 2017 at 11:55 pm

Either you want a fairly elected POTUS, Law and Order and a functioning government or you don’t.
That’s what is at stake here.
Who the actual person who holds that duly elected office is irrelevant.
Geeeeeez….

inspectorudy | May 20, 2017 at 12:11 am

One of the things that most of the people fail to realize is that while the msm and the Dems are going after Trump and he is spending all of his time defending his silly statements and actions, guess what is not getting done? There is no investigation of the leakers in ALL of the agencies including the FBI. There is no investigation of Susan Rice and her pal obama for their misuse of government agencies. There is no investigation of Lois Lerner and the IRS. Most of the vacancies are not going filled to replace obama era people. The spineless Republicans are dithering instead of getting their work done, and the country is being held captive by a rogue media. Trump can’t stop it all but he can certainly help by putting down his cell phone and making sure that only his absolutely closest advisers are with him when he meets with Russians of any stripe. The fact that he met with the Russian ambassador and allowed all of his cabinet members to bring in their aides shows that he doesn’t understand the leak issue. He has to stop the leaks or take all of the doors off in the WH.

These idiots better be careful. There are rumblings about civil unrest in support of the Office of the President.

Maybe your “defense” of Trump would carry a *smidgen* more credibility if you would just please shut the f up about having been (and seem to still be, to one degree or another) a full-of-disdain-#NeverTrumper.

I don’t sense the *slightest* bit of contrition – much less sincerity – in your words in favor of President Trump.

    Ragspierre in reply to Kauf Buch. | May 20, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    See, Kemberlee, you REALLY have to do a MUCH better job of denouncing yourself and showing REALLY SINCERE self-loathing for the Orange Guard to grant you the least forgiveness for your ThoughtCrimes against The Great God Cheeto.

    Start with renouncing your use of history, reason, and psychology as applied to Der Donald. Those are sins in the brave now world of T-rumpian worship.

    Do NOT look at anything he does that is “uniquely Progrssive”, because that is also an offense against the masses.

    Or at least the fraction of the masses that support T-rump as their cult leader.

Today we have plentiful evidence that the Obama administration committed many sins ranging from illegal cover-ups (Benghazi, Fast and Furious), corruption (the list is almost endless), spying on American citizens, potential treason with the Iran deal, and so forth, to outright incompetence. Because these issues are not being dealt with and swept under the rug, we are watching our government turn into uncontrolled chaos especially by the Left.
>
This country is facing many existential threats. Our debt is unpayable with annual deficits threatening to exceed a trillion dollars annually unless something radical is done, we see our economy as unsustainable threatening us all with a crash far worse than the Great Depression, war drums are sounding all around us, terrorism continues unabated, illegal immigration and other internal problems (especially with the killings in our major cities) continue to be significant issues, Obamacare is collapsing around us, and so forth. (Notice how many of these issues all s tem from the last eight years of governing with a much smaller assist from the Bush years.)
>
Clearly we are at a point in time where we are facing many, many important issues that cannot be put off. They must be dealt with immediately. So what are we doing about these crises? Nothing. We are doing absolutely nothing because the Democrats are too busy rerunning the last election so they can point fingers while they are adamant in their refusal to do anything with the Republicans unless they get their entire way.
>
Worse still is how the MSM and the Democrats are teaming together to paralyze the government with ceaseless accusations concerning the Trump-Russia nonissue. While we watch this unbelievable insanity whereby we find no interest or reason to investigate the many and significant crimes of Hillary Clinton no matter how plentiful the evidence, we seem incapable of realizing that it is absurd to continue to investigate that which has been investigated for almost a year with no evidence found to date. Even more silly is how this entire investigation started from political statements made by the Clinton campaign in an effort to garner more votes despite how no evidence was present and how there was abundant evidence that the Clinton campaign and Democrats routinely made up stories for the press in their search for votes.
>
Being that we as a nation are facing so many existential threats today and being how the MSM/Democrats (they are no longer separate organizations) demands everyone focus every bit of energy on these claims of Trump’s collusion with the Russians (which shall remain without any evidence until such time that evidence can be manufactured), the question that begs to be asked is which side are the MSM/Democrats on? Clearly they are placing infinite more effort to find Trump guilty of anything than they are in doing their job of running the government. Clearly they are more interested in making the government not work at all instead of addressing these manifold and severe problems. Clearly they are placing the importance of their party far ahead of the needs of the nation.
>
The obvious questions that arise from all of this is that could this mass insanity by the MSM/democrat party be considered treason, what will happen if nothing is allowed to help this country in Congress, when will the public wake up and realize what the Democrats/MSM are doing to this country, and what will the public do about it?

    snopercod in reply to Cleetus. | May 20, 2017 at 7:24 am

    Excellent! Thank you.

    Close The Fed in reply to Cleetus. | May 20, 2017 at 7:47 am

    Re: Cleetus:

    The observations he’s made are the EXACT reason that I prefer Mark Finklestein (sp?) to not write about Scarborough (sp?) each morning, or any LI writer to cover the negatives, and instead start writing about what Trump and Congress are working on or should be working on.

    Why is every right outlet – including Breitbart – letting the tail wag the dog. To some extent, we are helping them feed their frenzy.

    Why?

    Are we battered wives?

      Close The Fed in reply to Close The Fed. | May 20, 2017 at 7:50 am

      Let me add: The right media on the net has the left taking notice. https://imgur.com/a/QDEgm That being the case, we should appreciate our own power and USE it to turn the tide.

      We forget our own power. We are no longer powerless. Let’s quit acting as though we are.

      Professor – how many views does your site receive each day/week/month? Those are people who talk with other people.

      USE IT.

The “impeach Trump” fever has done and will do more long term damage to the MSM than anything else. He won’t be impeached, much less removed. Trump might resign with a “who needs this” attitude and hand the wheel to VP Pence. The longer this goes on and the more insane the Dems and their media become, the angrier their opposition will become as well. After Trump it is not a matter of “who” comes next, it will be more of a “what” comes next. If insurrection is the favored response from the Left now, wait until it becomes the way forward from the Right.

It is simply impossible for you NeverTrumpers to admit that you just didn’t understand what was happening while it was happening isn’t it? Admit it! You were blind to the reality that 2016 was the last chance to get it right and ending up with either a Clinton or a Bush was the final defeat we would never recover from. End of game.

Trump was the ONLY candidate who read the Venn diagram to victory (drop the phony liberal v. conservative, Dem vs Rep, BS… it was about globalism vs nationalism, NWO vs a sovereign USA), had the resources, ego, determination and SMARTS to win. Like him or not, he upended the one-party system o please stop legitimizing NeverTrumpers!

The road to credibility begins with admitting you were dead wrong. We HAD to win this election. We were lucky to even have this one last chance. What do you think would have happened had Cruz won? Impossible! The primaries were rigged for Jeb!

Wake up already! You NeverTrumpers are the worst of the lot.

(Down twinkles welcome. Let’s go for the record!)

The problem with people like Rags and their Two Scoops analysis is that when a President Pence takes over and does the exact same thing, all you will hear from Rags is crickets chirping.

    Ragspierre in reply to Fen. | May 20, 2017 at 10:29 am

    Yah, no. You are a lying troll.

    We know this for two reasons…

    1. Pence is not the grotesque narcissist that T-rump is (imagine Reagan doing this to invited guests), and

    2. IF Pence DID, you’d have the same exact analysis from me.

      casualobserver in reply to Ragspierre. | May 20, 2017 at 10:49 am

      Trump is indeed a special narcissist. But his “level” is hardly unique in DC. His behavior may be. But I would put Bill Clinton or especially Obama up as measurement sticks for “levels” of narcissism at the presidential level. And the pool at the legislative level has no bottom. It is almost a defacto requirement not just for running for office, but for running the nth time.

      Barry in reply to Ragspierre. | May 20, 2017 at 2:09 pm

      You’re a kook and a liar.

      Two scoops or more were available to anyone that asked you sub moron.

      Please keep up with your kooky stuff. It allows everyone that reads here to know you for what you are,

      The progs best friend

Hang on Valerie, vulgarity and anti-semitism ARE free speech. I don’t like them any more than flag burning, but let’s not be careless with our basic principles.

On that same note, from last week: Millhouse, rubbing out someone’s chalking is not an expression of free speech, any more than tearing up a protectors sign. You want to counter their message, make your own dawn sign.

Kemberlee,

I’d really hate to see you do something so disgusting as defend Trump!

Here’s a thought: just play it straight, and quit worrying that playing it straight might mean saying things that seem favorable to Trump.

casualobserver | May 20, 2017 at 10:46 am

There is huge upside to the boorish behavior that Ragspierre brought up, claiming it is only a power play. No matter how trivial or simply distasteful it is (having to watch a man on the throne), it is still an everyday occurrence that we all probably witness. But those who react to men in power doing are showing they wear the scarlet letter ‘S’ for being special snowflakes. It would be one thing if the power play were truly aggressive and actively TOOK power from you, like, say, someone who speaks over you to never let you get your thoughts or comments out. But an extra scoop of ice cream on the plate next to you?

Snowflakey-ness has no party affiliation clearly.

Sorry Rags, but no one believes you anymore. Over the past year you have sacrificed every shred of intellectual integrity in your mad quest to spear that whale.

There is a consequence for that, Ahab. No one takes you seriously anymore. It’s too bad really, as I remember a different Rags from long ago who gave thoughtful and insightful analysis that was worth following and considering.

“Reason is the first victim of strong emotion” –

You might as well go back to taking cheap shots at my dead father. Because that’s all you are now.

“The writer stares with glassy eyes, defies the empty page.
His beard is white, his face is lined and streaked with years of rage.
Thirty years ago how the words would flow, with passion and precision.
But now his mind is dark and dulled by sickness and indecision.
And he stares out the kitchen door, where the sun will rise no more.

…for you the blind who once could see, the bell rolls for thee” – RUSH

Goodbye Rags. And remember, suicide is for cowards – try not to drink yourself to death.

    Ragspierre in reply to Fen. | May 21, 2017 at 4:41 am

    Spend a few minutes with the concept of “self-parody”.

    I’ll be here, thanks.

facebookisfacist | May 20, 2017 at 10:06 pm

Shut the hell up with “I was a Never Trump” or similar childishness. I’m tired of it. It is old. I’m going to become, as of today, a NEVER LEGALINSSURCTION person. Screw this site and those like it that allow this immaturity. Bye. I will never come back. Adios.

Kimberlee, at first glance, the goal of the disruptors– whether MSM, Democrat party, grievance groups, or SJWs running around in ISIS costumes– may appear to be influencing other Americans to reject the Nov ’16 election results. And the “mainstream media” certainly does its part, by staging a daily alternate reality sideshow, a ridiculous parody of a free press.

But the REAL purpose of all this chaos is to foster a war of attrition: to instill feelings of doubt, discouragement, defeat, cynicism, nihilism– in hopes that enough of us will actually reject the Constitution and rule of law, and abandon the Founders’ vision.

Sound unlikely? Not really. The opposition wants you to hate America as much as they do. Listen to what they are saying.

Actually, our opposition doesn’t care nearly as much about who won the election, as manipulating election results to achieve their aims. To this end, they will make use of both favorable results (Obama/Hillary: systemic corruption of the rule of law via over-regulation, favoritism, violating the separation of powers and undue influence) or “unfavorable”% outcomes (Trump: attacks on the rule of law via propaganda and social unrest).

A “free society” is unique, and that has always made America a target, from within as well as from without. Remember, only 1/3 of the colonists supported our Revolution and the cause of independence from England. And the progressive movement is now over 100 years old. We have a long battle road ahead.

As for Trump’s “suitability to govern”, please keep in mind that the Founders’ ideal candidate was one who would step away from a successful life in private enterprise to serve the country, complete a term of years in office… and then “return to his farm”. The Founders despised the hereditary aristocracy, and would have abhorred the idea that leaders must be chosen exclusively from among a career political “elite”.