Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 24

[shemp]

He doesn't understand anything other than his fat bloated pasty stupid self!

 

[The Man]

Trump Retweeted

Trump Retweeted
One America News
@OANN
According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganized. However, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President.
Tune in Saturday, August 29th at 10 p.m. EST / 7 p.m. PST!

Organized anarchists!?! They should have to turn in their Guy Fawkes masks*.



Heck, much like theprestige's 'middle finger' vote explanation up thread, many of the people I know who have and likely will vote for Trump say the same. They are just deathly afraid of the Democratic party and vote for Trump to shake things up. So other than simply not (now) supporting the Democratic Party, some Tumpain anarchy is explicitly his appeal.




*The typical gaiter I wear for mask requirements around town has the Guy Fawkes mask image, as an expression of the anarchy of my conformity.

 

[Bob001]

I'm not sure how you would test that, since I don't think Republicans get separate briefings. You can correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's one:

The White House briefed eight House Republicans on intelligence that Russia offered bounties to Afghan militants who targeted U.S. troops for assassination, according to Trump administration officials and congressional sources.
....
Noticeably absent from the briefing, which are traditionally bipartisan affairs, were any Democrats, despite controlling both House panels. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is expected to bring a group of Democratic members to the White House for a briefing Tuesday at 8 a.m.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/nancy-pelosi-demands-briefing-russian-bounties-344219

 

[pgwenthold]

I might add that it might be difficult for him to understand that students might choose not to play. And virtually impossible to get him to understand that students might stop playing because they value things like society and its safety more than they value football.

After all, he has demonstrated time and time again that he doesn’t understand the the concept of sacrifice.

Make no mistake, the players WANT to play. It's just that a lot of them think it's not a good idea.

And I have to say that, as a fan who works on campus and is a around during football season, I absolutely can't understand why any other fan want them to play. To me, college football is so much more than the game on TV - it's about the the excitement of being on campus on a crisp fall afternoon, with people all over doing things like going to the bars and tailgating, and parties in frat houses and pep rallies and the marching band. Even if they do play, they are going to limited to mostly empty stadiums (with 1/4 of the fans) and none of the pomp and circumstance that goes with it.

Oh sure, it will be great for those who care about their Vegas bets, but football without a stadium full of fans is going to be about as low-energy as you can get. Is that what college players want? To play in front of empty seats?

Let's get over this and get back to a situation where they can play and we can enjoy it.

 

[Bob001]

Sure they can, just not in real time. Members of Congress ask the executive questions in writing all the time, and the executive answers in writing all the time, it's quite common.

The White House responds only when and if they feel like it, and only in the manner that suits them. They routinely ignore Congressional inquiries, and even subpoenas.

 

[Dr.Sid]

You need to get out more.

Or at the very least expand the media sources you consume.

Quite possible. I mostly follow MSNBC, CNN and Fox internatinal sites. MSNBC and Fox are not even news really. It's just propaganda. CNN, while being clearly left, still seem to has some decency left. But I don't have any source I would call unbiased. I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Dr.Sid]

Yeah, no Democrats are condemning the violence. None.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Thursday evening condemned the actions of rioters who attempted to set fire to a police precinct and blocked the exits while officers were inside.
“When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder," Wheeler said in a news conference with Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell.

"Don’t think for a moment that you are if you are participating in this activity, you are not being a prop for the reelection campaign of Donald Trump — because you absolutely are," he said. "You are creating the B-roll film that will be used in ads nationally to help Donald Trump during this campaign. If you don’t want to be part of that, then don’t show up.”

That's well said actually. Trump seems to gain because of the "violent protests". Distinguishing between protests, and violence should take the wind from his sails. And he really doesn't have much else at this point.

 

[JeanTate]

Quite possible. I mostly follow MSNBC, CNN and Fox internatinal sites. MSNBC and Fox are not even news really. It's just propaganda. CNN, while being clearly left, still seem to has some decency left. But I don't have any source I would call unbiased. I'm open to suggestions.

What do you think of NPR?

IMHO, FiveThirtyEight has some very insightful articles (not exactly “reporting”), particularly as they seem to try hard to analyze and make sense of polling results. OTOH, I can’t stand their videos, and don’t get why they don’t write instead of podcasting ...

 

[Bob001]

Quite possible. I mostly follow MSNBC, CNN and Fox internatinal sites. MSNBC and Fox are not even news really. It's just propaganda. CNN, while being clearly left, still seem to has some decency left. But I don't have any source I would call unbiased. I'm open to suggestions.

What's your idea of "left?" It is a tragic Trumper error to imagine that facts have a political bias. CNN reports facts. MSNBC's commentaries are fact-based. The network news broadcasts are facts, and may even lean too far toward appearing even-handed when the facts are on one side. The Fox primetime lineup actively promotes lies, and has even been in conflict with its own news division. If you think the NY Times, the Washington Post and the news networks are biased, you need to define bias.

 

[JoeMorgue]

What's your idea of "left?" It is a tragic Trumper error to imagine that facts have a political bias. CNN reports facts.

"Man I miss the days when everything wasn't so political and you could find non-biased sources of information!"
"Yeah well I miss the days when the existence of actual object facts wasn't considered a political issue, so suck it up."

 

[Armitage72]

President Trump has been doing this technique of having separate meeting with GoP and then Dems. Any magicians here will recognize this technique. If you notice, whenever they talk about what was said at the briefings, the Dems and the GoP have very different take aways. While that always happens to some extent but when they have separate briefings, there isn't even agreement on what was actually the point of the briefing.

It's probably because I just read some historical fiction about him, but I'm reminded of Bismarck's intentional distortion of diplomatic messages when communicating with the press and foreign embassies, stirring up the negative attitudes that contributed to the Franco-Prussian War.

 

[Dr.Sid]

What's your idea of "left?" It is a tragic Trumper error to imagine that facts have a political bias. CNN reports facts. MSNBC's commentaries are fact-based. The network news broadcasts are facts, and may even lean too far toward appearing even-handed when the facts are on one side. The Fox primetime lineup actively promotes lies, and has even been in conflict with its own news division. If you think the NY Times, the Washington Post and the news networks are biased, you need to define bias.

Don't know man, I certainly get anti-Trump feeling from CNN. It might be because Trump is an idiot and he generates so much crap just reporting on it straight will end up looking like campaign.
As for NY Times and WP I'll report later, didn't follow them so far.

 

[Dr.Sid]

What do you think of NPR?

IMHO, FiveThirtyEight has some very insightful articles (not exactly “reporting”), particularly as they seem to try hard to analyze and make sense of polling results. OTOH, I can’t stand their videos, and don’t get why they don’t write instead of podcasting ...

Thanks for tips !

 

[TragicMonkey]

It's probably because I just read some historical fiction about him, but I'm reminded of Bismarck's intentional distortion of diplomatic messages when communicating with the press and foreign embassies, stirring up the negative attitudes that contributed to the Franco-Prussian War.

Bismarck: "And then His Majesty said that you don't know one single fact about bears!"
Dwight: "No! Tell him that bears can climb faster than they can run!"

 

[thaiboxerken]

Don't know man, I certainly get anti-Trump feeling from CNN. It might be because Trump is an idiot and he generates so much crap just reporting on it straight will end up looking like campaign.
As for NY Times and WP I'll report later, didn't follow them so far.

There is no "might be" to it. Straight news of what Trump says and does is not flattering at all. He is exactly what he appears to be, a would-be dictator that is racist, narcissistic and dangerous to democracy.

 

[Ladewig]

There is no "might be" to it. Straight news of what Trump says and does is not flattering at all. He is exactly what he appears to be, a would-be dictator that is racist, narcissistic and dangerous to democracy.

The entire list would make the sentence unwieldy.
dim-witted
emotionally-crippled
corrupt
unteachable
delusional
Incompetent

An objective reporting of facts would show all these things.



..........
I deleted this sentence in my repeated editing:
see him more as an dim-witted, emotionally-crippled, experienced grifter who flouts the laws he understands and ignores the laws he doesn’t in his sociopathic pursuit of power and money.

 

[Paul2]

Don't know man, I certainly get anti-Trump feeling from CNN. It might be because Trump is an idiot and he generates so much crap just reporting on it straight will end up looking like campaign.

Not quite. The media, in addition to just telling the public what is happening, also holds government accountable. So,

Media = the prosecution
The Administration = the defendant
The voters = the jury

So if the media, by presenting facts, gives the impression that the defendant is guilty, they are doing their jobs when the defendant is actually guilty.

Note that actual prosecutors must not lie and must present only the facts, and they must be devoted to justice. They can't prosecute when they know the defendant is innocent. However some media (you know whom I'm talking about) present outright lies. This is prosecutorial/media improper behavior.

Also, prosecutors and the media will put spin on bare facts. Nuttin' wrong with that, especially since there are multiple media sources that can spin in different ways. The jury decides. But spin≠ lying like we've seen you-know-where.

 

[Paul2]

There is no "might be" to it. Straight news of what Trump says and does is not flattering at all. He is exactly what he appears to be, a would-be dictator that is racist, narcissistic and dangerous to democracy.

I see him more as an dim-witted, emotionally-crippled, experienced grifter who flouts the laws he understands and ignores the laws he doesn’t in his sociopathic pursuit of power and money.

It's a pretty thin line between the two.

 

[Ladewig]

He doesn't understand anything other than his fat bloated pasty stupid self!

I disagree. I don’t think he has enough self-awareness to understand himself.

I would phrase it as
He doesn’t care about anything other than his fat bloated pasty, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid self.

 

[Garrison]

It's not rocket science. Trump continually lies, CNN, MSNBC etal. reporting he's lying is not political bias.