Sunday, December 24, 2017

Tooting His Own Horn - and Well.

End of Trump's first term and he is completely in charge of his own narrative.  Brilliant.

He's tooting his own horn and people are hearing it. No President I remember has been able to play the media like Trump. They hate him, yet he uses them. They lie about him, yet he goes around them and delivers the truth. They try to shut him out, but he completely overwhelms them.

I don't know how he came up with his list of 81 accomplishments, but I'm not going to grade him. He impresses me most because he's mastered the mindless American media. He's much better at reaching heartland America than his predecessor.

I believe the Republican Congress is feeling endangered, and they should be, as the mid-terms will likely wash some of them away. Their only hope is to get onboard with Trump's agenda, because Trump can toot a horn louder than anyone.

Naratives are important. Trump's "Make America Great" is much more popular than Obama's, "Hope and Change", "Yes We Can". Americans like a President that puts America first.

I'm still not sure whether or not Trump is a good President. But I gotta give him credit for mastering the forces that ham-strung his predecessors.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Fake News

There once was a time when fake news was relegated to the checkout line tabaloids. Headlines such as "Elvis back from the dead with amazing new UFO sex diet"*, told you that what you were about to read, was fake. Everbody knew it, yet those over-priced newspapers sold (and still do).

Fake news is like a Peanut Buster Parfait to a diabetic. The smell of a cigarette to someone struggling to quit. A Crispy Creme to a person on a diet.

Fake news fans the flames of polarization.  I.e. Fake News couldn't survive if we didn't have a desire for it. If we dislike Trump, we're vunerable to Fake News. If we dislike Hillary we're vulnerable to Fake News. If we're struggling with our weight we're vunerable to diet gimmicks.

So how does a person protect themselves from fake news today?  The answer lies in maturity, balance, and biology. Maturity in recognizing our biases and knowing that there are always many sides to a story. Balance by seeking out multiple sources - not just those that fit our bias. Biology in understanding that our minds abhor a vacuum, and our brain will catalog away a lie just as easily the truth to fill the void (doubt it? Ask people what Sara Palin said about seeing Russia and see if they don't repeat Tina Fey's lines from SNL).

The media has largely abdicated their fiduciary responsibility to the public.  Whether this new form of journalism is a protected by the 1st amendment is subject to debate as you could make the argument that it is akin to yelling "FIRE!" in a theater or "ALLAH AKBAR!" aboard a plane. But my point here is that thinking people don't explicitly trust the media.


* Dave Barry, Miami Herald.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Liberal Idiocy and the NFL

I just love how Trump is able to lead the media around by the nose. Political Science students are going to study this for years to come......

The NFL is suffering a ratings slump, an attendance slump and a general interest slump. Along comes an angry black quarterback, (Collin Kapernick), who decides to diss America as a form of protest over a social issue. As of this writing  that angry QB is out of a job, probably a combination of mediocre skills and  image liability.

Once again Trump says what heartland America believes - kneeling for the national anthem is extremely disrespectful.  And professional athletes should behave better. And as if on command by Trump, the media circus begins.

My guess is that pro sports needs a reminder that they are entertainment.  The kind of entertainment that gives the viewer an escape from the soggy-brained programming that fills the airwaves. Dragging divisive, (and mostly mindless ), "Black Lives Matter" into a competition is a downer.

So once again Trump is right. Once again liberals are writhing like vampires in sunlight with disgust.  Once again Trump is leading the media by the nose.

The Trump presidency is on track to be the most interesting ever.



Saturday, August 19, 2017

Trump was right - again

Donald Trump had the nerve to say what everybody already knew - the extreme left was also to blame for the violence in Charlottesville.

And of course the liberal darkness took this as an opportunity to attack the President.

Nobody with a working brain, especially not those in Seattle,  Portland, and Berkeley,  would deny the violence perpetrated against free speech by the alt-left and antifa.

Slow summer news cycle for sure. The seething liberal darkness has been unable to wound Trump with the Russian investigations.

I wonder if the left realizes how damaging this is to their causes?

Sunday, June 11, 2017

The Empire Almost Strikes Back

It has been 7 months since Hillary was defeated yet the sore-losers have yet to get on with life. Trump has had his wins and losses as he conducts the Presidency, while the seething liberal darkness attacks him at every turn.

The Media has been trying to make a sinister Trump-Russian relationship appear by chanting "conspiracy"  while standing around a pentagram of candles. The Media even created a giant circus of non-speak and non-think around the forthcoming testimony of the former FBI director Comey (that Trump sacked). Comey testified, said nothing useful to liberals and the seething liberals slithered back into the shadows.

At some point a rational person has got to ask - "why can't we all just get along?".

The sore-loserman liberals in America slipped a cog when Hillary was defeated. Personally, I think this was worse than when Bush the younger defeated Al Gore in 2000. The media is fast becoming irrelevant and I don't think they get it. After all, they didn't get the 2016 election either.

We have real issues that need addressing. ObamaCare has been repealed by the House, who is working on it's replacement. We need somebody other than those who caused the run-away health-care cost to be working on this. There's a lot of work to do, and Trump is trying to get it done - despite the seething liberal darkness.