When it comes to news, on any given story, I have this habit of trying to read multiple sources to try and get a clearer picture of how things may have happened. Because it’s easy enough to make small gaffes or misspoken moments into bigger issues than they actually are. And as someone whose job it is to exaggerate things for comedic effect, I’d start from as neutral a place as I can. I say all that to talk about Ted Nugent. I saw several headlines over the weekend talking about Ted, known Gun advocate, and board member of the NRA. Now, he can be a bit…out there, but when it was suggested by headlines that he openly advocated for out and out shooting people, I thought to myself “well, obviously there is some context missing here. Then I listened to the clip and read the quote word for word and…yeah, no, he just told people to shoot liberals, democrats and half of the government. Seriously. “Don’t ask why. Just know that evil, dishonesty, and scam artists have always been around and that right now they’re liberal, they’re Democrat, they’re RINOs, they’re Hollywood, they’re fake news, they’re media, they’re academia, and they’re half of our government, at least, so come to that realization. There are rabid coyotes running around. You don’t wait till you see one to go get your gun. Keep your gun handy, and every time you see one, you shoot one.” Those are his words. One could reasonable call that an incitement to violence.
I don’t know how true this claim is, but that new book by Ronald Kessler is allegedly claiming that Trump is once again posing as an anonymous source within the White House to leak favorable information. It’s one of those insane things where I can totally imagine it being true, but it would still be totally flabbergasting. He’s the President of the United States. He can organize legit, clandestine information campaigns without having to call Maggie Haberman of the New York Times by himself. It’s just bizarre.
I seriously feel bad for Hillary. Even if you weren’t a supporter of her campaign, the fact that she continues to be this punching bag for Trump and his followers to hit upon every time they need some kind of distraction is just unfortunate. I’m sure it has to sting for a seasoned politician like her to have lost to Donald Trump, but for her to constantly be beat upon after the fact is something no other candidate after the fact has had to deal with, at least not to my knowledge. Take this last week. Hillary mentioned in an appearance that every time something goes wrong, or there is nothing to talk about, Trump or Fox News will take a whack at the ol’ Hillary bag, and how in an ideal world, she’d just like that part to stop. Which is a reasonable thing to say. So what does Fox News do? Well naturally they put her on blast for being full of herself and being awful, then go on to mention her name with some mean comment a full 60+ times this week. It’s weird and underhanded, and really unfortunate.
I have to wonder how Shepard Smith still finds himself employed at Fox News. Maybe he’s their diversity hire? Because he is just 100% against the general narrative of the network. This week, he took on Trump’s erroneous/untrue claims against Amazon, especially the claim that they in some way negatively impact the USPS. It’s become kind of his role on the network to buzzkill the editorials by…you know…giving out the facts. And he kind of famously rankles the feathers of the other personalities on Fox News because he calls them out without actually calling them out. It’s a sort of passive aggressive “Screw You” to the rest of the network, which gives him value. Maybe that’s why Fox keeps him around? To draw in those more left of center viewers who would otherwise avoid Fox News like the plague.
It was a full 9 months ago that John Oliver warned the country about Sinclair Broadcast Group. Since that feature, I was curious how long it would be before their brand of right wing, conspiracy style rhetoric infecting local news channels would bleed out into the wider news spectrum. It turns out it was this week that Sinclair finally drew it’s line in the sand, going to war against “fake news”, drawing criticisms not just from the mainstream media it was attacking, but from some of the anchors Sinclair now employs. It’s certainly concerning that a right wing media group is gobbling up local news to sell rhetoric and editorials, but more than that I lament the loss of genuine, beating heart stories that local news was famous for. I don’t know what a fight against Sinclair looks like, but I hope it’s a winnable one.
So there is now a new tell-all book from inside the White House coming out by a guy named Ronald Kessler. Among his explosive allegations, he’s claiming that Kellyanne Conway was responsible for a fair share of the devastating leaks that have come from the White House, whether intentional or seemingly through incompetence, she seemed to be the person Trump’s team has long sought for releasing sordid details from inside the West Wing. I have to wonder if this will affect Kellyanne’s future with the Trump Team…
During an infrastructure speech in Ohio, Trump joked that he might have been better at his old job. I mean, we say “he joked” but I think most of us are really hoping that Trump was having an aggressive moment of introspection in front of a big crowd of people. I sometimes wonder if he really believes his own propaganda about how great he’s doing, or, if like the rest of us, realizes how much of a catastrophe things have been. It used to be that we didn’t praise a President for acting at least competently, but Trump’s approval rating shoot up when he doesn’t actively cause an international incident. So was he better at his old job? Well seeing as his old job was sitting at the head of a company, doing nothing but being a personality, being his “brand” and letting other more suited people make the day to day decisions…yeah, I think it’s fair to say he did his other job with a little more aplomb.
So, there had been some rumbling around the newsblogs about David Shulkin, VA Secretary, getting ousted from his position. It didn’t seem too out of the blue. I mean, honestly, at this point, no one getting canned is. When your Secretary of State gets put on the chopping block, no position seems safe. But the person that Trump is nominating to replace him feels kind of interesting. Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, on the face of it, might not seem like such a weird choice. But considering how disingenuous RA Jackson’s medical diagnosis of Trump was earlier in the year was…well I can’t be the only one making the connection between his sweet new gig. Am I saying Trump is paying Jackson off with a promotion? No. But it makes for a good joke.
The Border Wall might be concept I want to just go away the most. It’s an entirely pointless, useless construct that will do almost nothing to curb undocumented immigration, because as anyone with a cursory understanding of the subject will tell you, the VAST majority of people here illegally didn’t cross the border in the dead of night, they came over perfectly legally and didn’t leave when they were supposed to. If built, it’s a symbol of our dedication to Security Theater, or providing the visual appearance of impressive security, but lacking any real teeth to do the job. Of course the big selling point Trump originally had was that Mexico would in fact be paying for this massively expensive project. Mexico in laughed in Trump’s face, and now keeps trying to weasel the US and it’s citizens into paying for it. Now he wants the military to pay for it. Not only that, but he thinks having the Military build the damn thing falls well within the purview of national defense. I think any normal person would feel that nagging sensation of embarrassment and shame creeping over them. I have to give it to Trump that he seems unable to feel shame for anything.
So General John Hyten, of course, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that we aren’t doing a Space Military. I mean, he was a bit nicer about it then I would have been. Namely in him not mentioning that the tech to have some kind of military presence in space is non-existent, and that Star Wars, Star Trek, and Buck Rogers all either take place in galaxies far, far away or in the far future. But the general diplomatically said that it just wasn’t the time, that the military has more taxing concerns in front of it and that maybe in the future it would be a possibility (bless him and his optimism).
Mind the Exit 