dagblog - Comments for "Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity"

I was delighted to see that

CVille Dem — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 16:04:43 +0000

I was delighted to see that General McMaster does not think it helps anything to refer to Radical Islamic Terrorism, and has instructed those who answer to him not to use the term.

I just love this! I guess trump really can't pick people very well. Never mind; he has plenty of other rats on his team.

oh my yes, brilliant

artappraiser — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 14:28:24 +0000

In reply to Maybe Trump is Col Kurtz and

oh my yes, brilliant comparison!

especially when Trump babbles about all the good people he met in the heartland on the campaign trail that he is going to save

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002962/quotes

Heart of Darkness, indeed.

The question then of course is: who would be the Willard character? The Intel community? Comes to mind that McCain usually has the same look on his face as Willard did in the movie.

I am having a hard time believing that the current chaotic state of affairs can continue once some of his cabinet officers get more up to speed. I mean the CEO types like Tillerson or Mnuchin. I just can't imagine them cowtowing to this level of bozo craziness forever. I can't imagine them even respecting him. And dissing a narcissist is dangerous.

Maybe Trump is Col Kurtz and

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 11:04:22 +0000

In reply to Stephens says

Maybe Trump is Col Kurtz and Spicer et al are that Dennis Hopper journalist character (Sean Flynn, Errol's son in real life)

Stephens says

artappraiser — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 05:26:08 +0000

In reply to Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity

Stephens says

I personally think we crossed a rubicon in the Clinton years, when three things happened: we decided that some types of presidential lies didn’t matter; we concluded that “character” was an over-rated consideration when it came to judging a president; and we allowed the lines between political culture and celebrity culture to become hopelessly blurred.

But whatever else one might say about President Clinton, what we have now is the crack-cocaine version of that.

and I agree in that Bill and the Clinton war room really popularized and were unashamedly proud of their "spin", and thereafter everyone wanted to be their own spinmeister (or worship one in contemporaneous phenomena like "Rush rooms"). But the point was that a good spinmeister and his/her team "stays on message".

We don't have this now, often, instead we have crack addled speech. You don't have to call it stupid if you don't want to, nor to call it truth if you don't want to.But there is no consistent message, it truly is almost like stream of consciousness. The spinner in chief's mixture of dog whistling and other mutterings and shouts vary from day to day and the minions are left to figure out "WHAT IS THE MESSAGE?" He's an oracle to them, but they can't really figure out what he means to say. So in the end, they just wing it and hope they don't have to do spin about spin about spin:

Sean Spicer once said that banning media outlets is something only dictatorships do

“That is what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”

By Naomi Klein @ Vox.com, Feb. 24

This one is extra rich; I swear, seems like it's meant to boggle our own minds. Yes, to "GASLIGHT" in effect. If you read about his real estate career, you start to see it, the outrageous things he did and said just to get the other side to say "uncle, I give, this guy's crazy." and thereafter the result is that they don't do business with him again. And he moves on to fiddle with a new victim.

Forget the thing about Saturday Night Live not being able to top reality. It's more like we are dealing with the main character of a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Who knew narcissism could get so incredibly weird?

White House hand-picks select

artappraiser — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 20:59:30 +0000

In reply to Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity

White House hand-picks select media outlets for briefing

by Jordan Fabian @ The Hill, Feb. 24 & THEY ARE POSTING MORE ON TOPIC FAST & FURIOUS...

Ex-press secretary defends WH media exclusions

Administration

— 0s ago
Social media users criticize Trump on anonymous sources

Administration

— 3m 7s ago
NYT editor slams hand-picked press: ‘Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House’

Administration

— 9m ago