Category Archives: Newpapers
Deep State Is No Deep Throat
Deep Throat was the secret source who led Woodward and Bernstein to break the Watergate story that brought down Richard Nixon.
I never heard of Deep State until a few weeks ago. That’s when quotes from unnamed sources started turning up in news stories about alleged connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The anonymous sources came from intelligence in the permanent government known as the “Deep State.” That would be the state previously known as “the bureaucracy”.
The Resist Trump crowd is hoping Deep State will work some Deep Throat magic on Donald Trump
Deep State is no Deep Throat
Anyway, none of the Russian allegations were proven but they still managed to bring down National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Now the Deep State is following the same playbook to go after Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Rush Limbaugh thinks the Deep State is conspiring with the Mainstream Media to sabotage the Trump presidency. The muckraking investigative news website Consortiumnews.com seems to agree with Rush. Writing for Consortiumnews.com, Daniel Lazar quotes NYT reporters Glenn Thrush and Michale Grynbaum bragging that,”Trump is being force-fed lessons all presidents eventually learn – that the iron triangle of the Washington press corps, West Wing staff and federal bureaucracy is simply too powerful to bully.” Lazare – no fan of Trump – is skeptical:
Iron triangle? Permanent government? In its tale of how Trump went from being a favorite of the New York Post and Daily News to fodder for the big-time Washington news media, the Times seems to be going out of its way to confirm dark paranoid fears of a “deep state” lurking behind the scenes and dictating what political leaders can and cannot do.
…Entrenched interests are nothing new, of course. But a major news outlet bragging about collaborating with such elements in order to cripple a legally established government is.
…So if the conflict between president and the deep state ever comes down to a question of legitimacy, there is no doubt who will come out ahead: The Donald.
Trump Media Relations
Media relations with President Trump hit a new low when he dubbed the press the enemy of the American People. Last August The Atlantic compared Trump’s authoritarian tendencies to the rise of Mussolini. And two days after the election in November the New Republic claimed Trump was already acting like an authoritarian.
But National Review says he’s less authoritarian than Obama.
Media Relations
Vox says authoritarian states ain’t so bad.
Resist The Vote
What the people carrying “Resist” signs really don’t like are the Deplorables who voted for Trump.
An October Huffington Post headline read “Trump’s Refusal to Accept Election Results has Americans fuming.” And Hillary called Trump a “threat to Democracy” for refusing to say in advance he’d accept the results of the election.
Resist
But Trump won and now the shoe’s on the other foot. A Reason headline about protesters at Berkley says, “Thugs indulge their Weimar Dreams and Become the Totalitarians They Claim to Hate.”
Bannon Calls Media Opposition Party
Trump’s top adviser Steve Bannon told the press it should shut up and listen. The media took offense. Their right to not shut up is protected by the first amendment.
Media Opposition Party
But they don’t seem to have taken the listen part to heart. Bannon also said that the media had become the opposition party. On August 8 Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times agreed.
Eviscerating ObamaCare
When President Obama met with party leaders in 2009 Eric Cantor pitched some ideas for the stimulus bill. The president responded, “Elections have consequences and, at the end of the day, I won.” The 800 billion dollar stimulus went on to pass with three Republican votes. And ObamaCare rammed its way through Congress without any Republican support. At the time Democrats controlled the White House, Senate, and House.
Eviscerating ObamaCare
Now that the worm has turned Republicans are committed to eviscerating ObamaCare. But they’re divided over how to do the deed.
The program has never been popular with voters. A new Rasmussen survey finds that only 12% of voters want to keep it as it is. However 56% want the law improved piece by piece. Only 30% want to see the program immediately brought to room temperature.
