Vindication

This morning on Morning Joe I heard two statements vindicating what I’ve been saying for several years. Trump is seeing his prime device for dealing with life failing: bullying, lying and name calling. And, under the stress of the virus and the failure of his defense mechanism, he is decompensating. We can see it before our eyes and ears. The spread of the virus or threat thereof among conservatives at their gatherings forces them to recognize and take steps against the virus. This undermines everything Trump says and shows him before the world as a cunning fool. He cannot stand this much longer.

My question is, how much longer can Kelly Ann Conway keep it together – her marriage, I mean.

8 Comments

  1. 伟思礼 says:

    Steps against the virus are important, but even more valuable would be for the media to stop inflaming panic. http://HappyHobo.Groleau.Email/2020/03/10/the-real-problem/

    1. Pat Barrett says:

      I had this conversation with my friend of 56 years yesterday. Exactly who is doing the inflaming? This business about “The Media” drives me nuts. Who? Which? One talk show host, the entire staff? Granted, I watch almost solely MSNBC with a bit of CNN and I have heard neither host nor guest nor panel do any inflaming. If you are going to cite Fox, then I understand because I don’t include them in The Media. My wife watches ABC etc. sometimes and I don’t think what they do is actually substantial b/c they do what so many people say the news should do: just report. That’s fine, but I’ll stick to my commentators who have a staff to help them look at all the angles. If a reported says, “Heavy rains are reported in Lubbock,” that tells me nothing except it’s raining in Lubbock. How much? Is Lubbock prepared? Is it acid rain? What is going on? It’d be nice to know. I guess people who just want to hurry on to their sit-com, “It’s raining” suffices for “news.” A few days ago I happened to land on Fox for about 5 seconds before I could grab the control and in just that period, I heard the stupidest shit you can imagine. I don’t remember now what it was but if you reall doubt that Fox and MSNCB are on different planets, I’ll make a point of recording a half hour of Fox and a half hour of MSNBC and do a critique of each and put it on this blog. My grandson is on his way to bootcamp as of Sunday, so I’ll have time.

    2. Pat Barrett says:

      That same Dr. Leana Wen said today that this period is the calm before the storm. So is that inflammatory or a realistic extrapolation from exponential growth? We have 3 cases in our little corner of the East Valley of Maricopa County. I’m healthy but my wife’s system is compromised, so we are cancelling going to a concert tomorrow but it’s probably going to be closed anyway.
      Let’s monitor this jointly and see whether the predictions of serious disruption are overblown.

  2. Pat Barrett says:

    And sometimes my wife listens to The Young Turks. That is pure commentary and leftist. MSNBC is liberal, not leftist. I enjoy most of what I hear of the Young Turks b/c my politics lean left but I am not a leftist. It seems to me that anyone who supports the Democratic Party is considered a Socialist or Communist. That is a tremendous propaganda coup by Fox and Limbaugh. On flteach once I merely said I support the free enterprise system and Stillman wrote, “Why, Johnny, we hardly knew ye.” As if being open to focusing less on grammar in the classroom makes you a Commie.

  3. 伟思礼 says:

    I don’t watch much of either, but there seems to be a general panic while doctors and statisticians are suggesting to calm down.

    Maybe it’s not the media. Maybe it’s people hearing what the media isn’t saying.

  4. Pat Barrett says:

    Today Dr. Leana Wen from George Washington University Hospital (I think) said 80% of people who contract the Corona virus will have minor symptoms and will recover. Governor Howard Dean, a physician, also was on and cautioned against overreacting. These are examples just from MSNBC. Nothing inflammatory. I understand even Tucker Carlson on Fox said to take this disease seriously while other Fox commentators were still calling it a hoax.
    So that’s just a tiny sampling and I wonder if maybe you’re hearing local newscasters who are ramping it up in a sensational manner.

  5. 伟思礼 says:

    The media are erring (if at all) on the side of concern—which is probably better than erring on the side of dismissal. But I do think there is “too much coverage”—we fast forward through more than half of our local programs because they are just replaying the same recording four or five times. National isn’t quite as bad, but still overdoing it.

    And when they show images of empty paper products aisles in stores, they never bother to even hint that people are being ridiculous.

    When a 95-year-old woman recovered, by treating it as an incredible miracle, they reinforce people’s feelings that “we’re all gonna die!”

    Clearly, the overreactions are not entirely the media’s fault. But I do think they contribute by obsessing on it.

    I see two (one?) other unwanted side-effects from the overexposure: (1) I haven’t heard ANYTHING from or about Sanders or Biden for at least two weeks; yet (2) Trump has had an hour to brag on TV nearly every day.

    1. Pat Barrett says:

      If folks like you could be multiplied (duplicated, cloned, 3-D printed?), then the media would settle down to serious coverage. Most people want sensation, blood, screams, excitement, sex, car crashes, gore, sex, car chases, death, scary people jumping out at you, sex……… and did I mention sex?
      Those are the normals. What does that make us? (Although the other day I searched and searched on line for a particular Sandals resorts commercial that was especially juicy)
      Do you remember John Cameron Swayze? He made Walter Cronkite sound like Rush Limbaugh or Chris Matthews. Straight news. And then the networks discovered there was money in the news, so they built up big departments but demanded much of them, i.e. eyeballs. So they complied. That’s how I see it. If you watch the Young Turks or any commentary of your choice, you’ll see that not many people would hang in there with it. I don’t think viewers find Rachel Maddow too leftist; they find her uninteresting because she is a brunette, she doesn’t show her legs, and she wears the same outfit everyday. She just is very, very smart and knows a lot. B-O-R-I-N-G!

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