Hate to be a Debbie Downer asshole, but I think the line -- and a very credible one! -- is that Killer Donnie was enlightened that being murderously incompetent and callous in regard to deaths (not to mention the effects of the virus on the historically great (per Donnie) economy is not in fact a winning platform. Punchlines, though, is that much of what he should have been doing has been subsumed by local officials and little that he says or even does matters.
As for the media momentarily praising Donnie: A) they're essentially establishment propaganda outlets and B) and their shitty coverage of Donnie makes them complicit in the deaths directly resulting from the orange motherfucker's incompetence, ineptitude, etc. So, you know, who cares what they say? They can't quit the addiction to praising him in order to avoid his wrath and the pittance of an audience boost and resulting minuscule profits -- if any.
And don't get me started on the intel the other day that the PRC's numbers aren't kosher. Don't need the resources of the IC to know not to trust the PRC's numbers but to instead presume things are much worse than they claim.
1. More like a majority of people getting news. I’m sure a lot of people ignore it.
2. Makes the press that much more complicit in the deaths resulting from Donnie’s ineptitude. Is not just shitty reporting like normalizing Trump, it’s now literally causing deaths.
Sadly, America has the memory span of a goldfish. So the new propaganda campaign has the potential to be very effective.
I say "has the potential" because there's a better-than-even chance that Trump himself will completely undermine the whole thing by snapping right back to "this is no big deal, it's just like the flu." This becomes more likely to happen if anyone points out to him that he was wrong and Fauci was right.
I don’t know that there has been any crossing the Rubicon moment in Trump’s presidency, it’s been more of a slow erosion, but if such a moment existed it was probably his impeachment acquittal in the Senate. That was a clear statement that Trump could lie in the most obvious way and break the law, and his party would do nothing about it. And most Americans just moved on.
So now that they’ve learned over three plus years they can lie and won’t be called on it by journalists, and people haven’t descended on the White House with pitchforks and torches because they’ve become inured to Trump’s bullshit, what’s the downside to just lying about black being white and up being down? People will buy it or they won’t, and if they told the truth they’d have to admit “we fucked up” which Trump is incapable of doing.
So yes, let’s hang on to our sanity, friends. The entire nation is being gaslit by these incompetent thieves and half of our neighbors are nodding along.
(Increasingly convinced that Trump's fraudulent installation was the Rubicon moment, and the only thing left to determine is when civil war and dictatorship will follow.)
In any case the "new tone" lasted about 12 minutes before he started bragging on how he was building two hospital ships and he's "number one on Facebook" whatever that means, and ordering staff to spend more time attacking Biden and publicly admitting Republicans don't want everybody to vote because if that happened they'd never win an election.
Ford let Nixon slide. It was all downhill from there. I hope you're getting plenty of rest Roy, while you have the opportunity. It's going to be a loooong slog to November.
If we're going to treat this pandemic as a war (sorry, Susan Sontag), could we at least resurrect William Shirer and A.J. Liebling so we'll have some clear-eyed, honest reporting without the reflexive bowing and scraping before Trumpolini?
Besides everything else repulsive about the vile asshole, Trump is a fucking freak. He has his face spray-painted orange every day, and his lacquered hair helmet floats over his head like a model of the Starship Enterprise, and this is how he appears in public and it isn't the first thing mentioned in any news reports. We gaslight ourselves every time we just look at the fucking halfwit and listen to it speak as if it's an actual thinking person. Every time I see him at his press circus now, I imagine him with a big clown rictus -- sad Emmett Kelly if it's bad news, John Wayne Gacy for everything else. In fact, the media suckupery is so bad now I bet Trump could appear in full Pennywise makeup and the White House Press Corps would marvel at how serious Trump appeared when speaking about death.
I’m so glad you said this. I do forget, because he is vile in sooo many more important ways, if you sat a 10 year old child who had never seen Trump before down in front of the TV to watch a speech, one of the first things they’d say is “why is his face orange? What’s wrong with his hair? What is he talking about?”
Perhaps the funniest aspect of your observations is that what you're pointing out, the physical description, is factually accurate. How did this happen? How did this clown become the president? Then consider this is not such an anomaly actually. The previous world and our present have always had incompetent and foolish persons in positions of power and responsibility. Rarer is the instance when excellence occupies the position of authority.
Unfuckingbelieveable. Only of course it isn't, it's deja vu all over again.
Hate to be a Debbie Downer asshole, but I think the line -- and a very credible one! -- is that Killer Donnie was enlightened that being murderously incompetent and callous in regard to deaths (not to mention the effects of the virus on the historically great (per Donnie) economy is not in fact a winning platform. Punchlines, though, is that much of what he should have been doing has been subsumed by local officials and little that he says or even does matters.
As for the media momentarily praising Donnie: A) they're essentially establishment propaganda outlets and B) and their shitty coverage of Donnie makes them complicit in the deaths directly resulting from the orange motherfucker's incompetence, ineptitude, etc. So, you know, who cares what they say? They can't quit the addiction to praising him in order to avoid his wrath and the pittance of an audience boost and resulting minuscule profits -- if any.
And don't get me started on the intel the other day that the PRC's numbers aren't kosher. Don't need the resources of the IC to know not to trust the PRC's numbers but to instead presume things are much worse than they claim.
Unfortunately, a majority of Americans get their news from these sources.
1. More like a majority of people getting news. I’m sure a lot of people ignore it.
2. Makes the press that much more complicit in the deaths resulting from Donnie’s ineptitude. Is not just shitty reporting like normalizing Trump, it’s now literally causing deaths.
Sadly, America has the memory span of a goldfish. So the new propaganda campaign has the potential to be very effective.
I say "has the potential" because there's a better-than-even chance that Trump himself will completely undermine the whole thing by snapping right back to "this is no big deal, it's just like the flu." This becomes more likely to happen if anyone points out to him that he was wrong and Fauci was right.
I don’t know that there has been any crossing the Rubicon moment in Trump’s presidency, it’s been more of a slow erosion, but if such a moment existed it was probably his impeachment acquittal in the Senate. That was a clear statement that Trump could lie in the most obvious way and break the law, and his party would do nothing about it. And most Americans just moved on.
So now that they’ve learned over three plus years they can lie and won’t be called on it by journalists, and people haven’t descended on the White House with pitchforks and torches because they’ve become inured to Trump’s bullshit, what’s the downside to just lying about black being white and up being down? People will buy it or they won’t, and if they told the truth they’d have to admit “we fucked up” which Trump is incapable of doing.
So yes, let’s hang on to our sanity, friends. The entire nation is being gaslit by these incompetent thieves and half of our neighbors are nodding along.
(Increasingly convinced that Trump's fraudulent installation was the Rubicon moment, and the only thing left to determine is when civil war and dictatorship will follow.)
In any case the "new tone" lasted about 12 minutes before he started bragging on how he was building two hospital ships and he's "number one on Facebook" whatever that means, and ordering staff to spend more time attacking Biden and publicly admitting Republicans don't want everybody to vote because if that happened they'd never win an election.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world, and back in 2000 democracy got buried beneath a big W, and now here we are.
Ford let Nixon slide. It was all downhill from there. I hope you're getting plenty of rest Roy, while you have the opportunity. It's going to be a loooong slog to November.
Sadly I also have a God Damn Job! I mean fortunately, if they're reading. (Ha!)
We're all Winston Smith now.
....so I'm *supposed* to be so drunk I can't feel my face, right? Right?
If we're going to treat this pandemic as a war (sorry, Susan Sontag), could we at least resurrect William Shirer and A.J. Liebling so we'll have some clear-eyed, honest reporting without the reflexive bowing and scraping before Trumpolini?
Yeah, and Ernie Pyle!
Besides everything else repulsive about the vile asshole, Trump is a fucking freak. He has his face spray-painted orange every day, and his lacquered hair helmet floats over his head like a model of the Starship Enterprise, and this is how he appears in public and it isn't the first thing mentioned in any news reports. We gaslight ourselves every time we just look at the fucking halfwit and listen to it speak as if it's an actual thinking person. Every time I see him at his press circus now, I imagine him with a big clown rictus -- sad Emmett Kelly if it's bad news, John Wayne Gacy for everything else. In fact, the media suckupery is so bad now I bet Trump could appear in full Pennywise makeup and the White House Press Corps would marvel at how serious Trump appeared when speaking about death.
I’m so glad you said this. I do forget, because he is vile in sooo many more important ways, if you sat a 10 year old child who had never seen Trump before down in front of the TV to watch a speech, one of the first things they’d say is “why is his face orange? What’s wrong with his hair? What is he talking about?”
This is exactly what my girlfriend said last weekend, in that order, too. She's a 50-year-old woman, however.
Perhaps the funniest aspect of your observations is that what you're pointing out, the physical description, is factually accurate. How did this happen? How did this clown become the president? Then consider this is not such an anomaly actually. The previous world and our present have always had incompetent and foolish persons in positions of power and responsibility. Rarer is the instance when excellence occupies the position of authority.
Bulwark has a timeline
https://thebulwark.com/a-timeline-of-trumps-press-briefing-lies/