Blame

Anytime things go wrong, it seems that human nature requires us to heap blame on someone or some ones? Thus, who is to blame for all the death and suffering arising from the COVID-19 pandemic?

Is President Trump to be the scapegoat for not shutting down our country? What about the Chinese Communist bureaucracy and their costly misleading lies? The World Health Organization and its being a Chinese lapdog? Pelosi, Schiff and the Democrats in Congress who diverted our attention with Trump’s impeachment? The open-border globalists? Our Center for Disease Control which fumbled the virus-testing ball and forgot to prepare us for the next pandemic? Our national media for their constant negativity? President Trump’s task force for their questionable analyses and missteps? Some state governors? Mayor De Blasio?

Answer: All of these to various degrees ... the emphasis on which clearly depends on your politics. If you disagree, you need to take a deep breath and add yourself to the above list.

Hostile Media

President Trump gripes that the fake-news’ constant nipping at his heels is impeding what he can get done. This may or may not be the case. And by this I mean just the “nipping” not the “fake news.”

Let’s be real ... the deep state and most of the hostile media hate Trump with a white-hot passion. Although this makes his job much more difficult ... in a way, it is a good thing ... for it requires him to perform well in every situation .... like in the current COVID-19  outbreak.

In the heat of the moment, it is difficult to gauge how well he is handling this health crisis, but, to me, I think he is managing this crisis almost as well as possible. Sure, he has made a few missteps. But, like any good manager, he is driven not by ideology, but to produce results and can pivot on a dime to do so.

When the national media is in love with a president, like with our former “chosen one,” gigantic mistakes are not focused on nor corrected ... in fact they are résumé enhancers ... such as Obamacare, the rise of “ISIL,” the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Climate Accord, the swine flu response, TARP and the Afghanistan “surge” among many other Obama boners.

So, dear reader, although our national media is grossly biased and dishonest, they may be performing a useful purpose ... keeping Trump walking the line ... and will likely give themselves lots of kudos for such.

Obvious Truth

Truth is too often the abused stepchild of a self-absorbed national media.

Apt Analogy

Laser pointer = Trump's tweets.        

Cat = National media

Collusion Illusion

The Democrat party is colluding with a sympathetic national media to suggest that Donald Trump and his campaign operatives were somehow colluding with Russia to steal the presidential election last November ... or to some other unspecified nefarious end. One of these collisions ... the Democrat/media one or the Trump one ... is an illusion.

Can you guess which one?

Where's the Beef?

The FBI has been investigating Russian hacking of the Democrats since last July and this story morphed into Trump-Russia "collusion" after Hillary lost her shoe-in election in November. Now there are at least three venues for investigating this trumped-up conspiracy theory that somehow the Trump organization has colluded with Russia to do something bad. Exactly what this bad thing is is not quite clear. But nevertheless Trump is covering up this investigation and obstructing justice which proves that he is clearly guilty of something. And Michael Flynn, Obama's former National Security Advisor, somehow ingratiated himself into this same post with Trump before being found to be of questionable moral standing ... and was booted out. But the media is sure that he was a dastardly Trump operative in the "Russian connection."

There is but one small problem with this narrative ... after all this time there has yet to surface one solid fact that supports this frenetic innuendo ... nothing. Nothing in writing. Nothing on tape. No incriminating wiretap intercepts. No testimony by Obama's former intelligence operatives that categorically state that Trump or his campaign staff was is any way "colluding" with Russia to do anything illegal or immoral. Nothing. Yet Trump has been covering up this nothingness. And he has been dismissing this nothingness as nothingness ... and this must mean he has something to hide. What it is we don't know. But all this scandalous behavior will be revealed after the Democrats have retaken the House in 2018 ... "we promise" ... Just be patient Americans. Where there is smoke, there will be lots more smoke.

Unfortunately for the reputation of the Democrats and the national media, at some point we, the unwashed, are going to ask, "Where's the beef?" And, if there is none, Trump's cover-up evaporates as just an expression of his frustration at these roadblocks to moving his legislative agenda ... the agenda he promised the American people. And the agenda that the Democrats and the national media would rather stifle with lots of Russian conspiracy theory distractions ... so far somewhat successfully.

Tending Trump

When Donald Trump skipped the Iowa Republican debate, he held a rally which collected money pledged to support our veterans ... something like $6 million. These pledges went into a Trump personal foundation and were slowly distributed to various veterans' groups. I have said I was going to monitor the progress of these donations previously in this post: Unvetting. Now it seems all of these contributions have been properly dispersed with the addition of an extra one million dollar personal donation from Trump ... but it took a fine follow-up story by the AP for this to be done ... see: AP Story.

Now Donald Trump is a fast and loose operator and doesn't always cross the "T" in Trump. But the good news is that, with media follow-up, he does what he promises ... as opposed to that pretender in the pink pants suit. If Trump is elected president, will he still be so diligent? Hopefully, but clearly only if our national media keeps him honest through good reporting ... which would be out of character for them. As Ben Rhodes recently pointed out in his disclosures of how he hoodwinked the media about the Iran nuclear deal, our media tends toward lassitude and often just copies White House press releases. They are, in essence, just stenographers (as Rush Limbaugh used to say.)

So, given that Trump might be elected in the Fall, our national media will have their work cut out for them. They will have to tend Trump's promises to make sure he delivers ... and, given their natural animosity for The Donald, this might just energize them to the point where they will do their jobs. Of course this will be an adversarial relationship and Trump will do a lot of griping ... but it might just work for getting more of the right things done.

If Hellery is elected, the media would obviously be a lot happier. Then they could go back to sleep.

Fish Bones

I think most of us have encountered a few bones in a delicious piece of fish … not enough to spoil the meal, but still a small blot on our prandial perfection.  This irritation also occurs in politics. Often, someone running for political office, who espouses views that are mostly congruent with our value system, still may have a few quirks that cause us to think twice.  He doesn’t believe in evolution.  She, on religious grounds, opposes abortion or gay marriage.  He once smoked marijuana or used cocaine.

The question then becomes … do we let perfection become the enemy of the good?  I believe too often we do … particularly if this political-office aspirant's quirk is belittled in the media. Isn’t it funny?  Pope Francis can be against abortion but he is for income redistribution … so he is an OK fellow.  Whereas a Tea Party member, who wants to rein in big government, yet mimics Pope Francis on this social issue, is castigated by the national media and then by the voters.

It constantly amazes me how much influence the media can have in public opinion formation.  We are witnessing this dynamic at work today in the brouhaha surrounding Governor Chris Christie.  He has a very strong personality and likes to have his political way … often the conservative way.  And yet he still won an overwhelming re-election victory in a deep blue state, New Jersey.  But, as soon as he starts edging out Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential polls, these assets are suddenly turned into liabilities.  I am fascinated watching how the media is trying to pull off this legerdemain.

We voters certainly are a fickled bunch … that’s why we too often stick with fish-fillet candidates.

Afterthought: Actually there are people who won't eat fish at all because of the bones.  The analog in this context is the single-issue voter.  ("if you don't pay for my birth control, you won'y get my vote!")  Such are the bane of the democratic process.

Hanging Threads

I believe that the national media (including Fox) is too often derelict in their duties when it comes to following-up on significant news stories. Too too often the American public is left hanging to discover the real story behind the story … or what occurred as a consequence of what was once front-page headlines. Let me offer a few glaring examples:

- What has happened to the implementation details of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill? This law was passed over two years ago to remedy the excesses that caused the financial meltdown of 2008 … and left many important details to be determined by this Administration. Most of these details are still hanging … why?.

- Exactly who made the decision that there would be no rescue mission sent to Benghazi during the six-hour siege of our Consulate there … where four Americans were killed including our Ambassador to Libya. It is crystal clear that our administration at all levels was aware (in real time, including pictures) of what was occurring there, but no rescue reaction was tripped. In addition to the who, why was such malfeasance displayed in this matter?

- What rationale did President Obama have in totally ignoring the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Commission to reduce our annual federal deficits?

- Who was responsible for leaking the details of the Osama ben Laden raid in Pakistan and his killing? The President has “launched an internal investigation” into this matter … exactly who is leading this probe and what progress has been made to date?

- Shortly after Obama was inaugurated, he formed the Middle-Class Task Force with VP Joe Biden as its Chairman. This task force was purposed with the duty of “raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America.” How many times did this commission meet and what were its recommendations … and have any of these recommendations been implemented?

- What were the exact terms of the Chicago teachers’s strike settlement? Did Chicago or the teachers’s union benefit most?

- Why was Anthony Wiener never charged with any crime as a result of his exhibitionist peccadilloes?

- How many entities (businesses, unions, etc.) are still receiving wavers to the implementation requirements of Obamacare?

- What are the minute details behind what the Public Broadcasting System receives and spends every year? It is a public entity after all and, one would think, that these financial details (including Big Bird's take-home) would be readily available and aired by the media on a regular basis.  Afterward: I just discovered that Big Bird makes over $341,000 per year (see: IB Times Story ).  Yipes!!

- Exactly how much voter fraud is known to take place? (This is a tricky one since it is so bound up in the agendas of each political party.)

- How many times have President Obama and Bibi Netanyahu actually talk in the last six months?

There are tons more of these media lapses, but I think this is enough for now … and easily makes my point.