Category Archives: Politics
Free Press Group-Think
The Boston Globe organized an editorial writing campaign last week. The idea was for independent newspapers to tell Trump to stop calling them “the enemy of the people.” All on the same day.
Three hundred plus papers including the New York Times obliged.
Some of the editorials also complained about Trump calling the media an “opposition party.” But here’s Jim Rutenberg in the NY Times two years ago:
If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional.
Free Press Group-Think
Others like the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post took a pass on the campaign. Carl Cannon in Real Clear Politics called the joint effort “group-think.” And he recalled H.L. Menken’s journalistic advice to “be a party of one.”
Jack Shafer in Politico added this bit of advice:
Editorial pages of America, don’t unite! Think for yourselves! Reject this stupid pro-press assignment!
He also agreed with Cannon that the whole scheme played into Trump’s tiny hands. (Okay, he didn’t really say “tiny.”)
All Tweet No Action
Former CIA Director and cable tv personality John Brennan has tweeted that Trump is a traitor and a danger to our nation. So the president took away his security clearance. Now Brennan says Trump is punishing a critic and suppressing free speech.
All Tweet No Action
Earlier this week WSJ columnist William McGurn complained that Trump is “all tweet and no action”. McGurn feels the FBI is slow walking documents Congress has subpoenaed. So he wants Trump to declassify them.
Strzok Strikes Out
Peter Strzok was the lead FBI investigator of both the Hillary Clinton email caper and Russian 2016 election meddling. His own text messages showed his bias in favor of Clinton and against Trump. He claimed he could smell Trump supporters at Walmart. But he insisted he was too professional to allow his opinions to affect his work.
Strzok Strikes Out
Deputy Director David Bowdich wasn’t buying it . He fired Strzok on Monday. So Strzok responded with a link to a GoFundMe account. By Tuesday it was worth $325,000.
Here’s a Washington Post story about the Steele dossier funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign .
Antifa Hate Warriors
There was an alt-right white supremacist rally in Washington over the weekend. But only twenty people showed up. Without their tiki torches.
White supremacists aren’t what they used to be.
Still a couple hundred Antifa were on hand to battle the hate. Mostly they did that by threatening cops, journalists and President Trump.
Venal Traitor Trump
Rand Paul doesn’t like former CIA Director John Brennan. And John Brennan doesn’t like a lot people. Especially Donald Trump.
Here’s Brennan letting us know how he feels about the Venal Traitor Trump in his own tweets:
The “dustbin of history” crack is kind of interesting because Brennan wasn’t always opposed to Russian meddling. In fact, in a youthful indiscretion at the height of the cold war in 1974, he voted for the Soviet funded American Communist Gus Hall for president.
Rand Paul thinks it’s time to yank Brennan’s national security clearance. I didn’t even know he had one. But it turns out it’s a common professional courtesy given to ex spooks.
Here’s George W. Bush’s former assistant national security advisor Elliot Abrams explaining why he kept his clearance:
Why? Because the incoming Obama White House thought that in the early months of a new administration, we might have some useful insights to impart—information about how past events had developed, or impressions of top people in foreign governments—and our successors wanted to be able to discuss classified information with us and elicit our views.
It doesn’t seem likely Brennan will be doing much consulting with the Venal Traitor Trump.
