Are you feeling it in your living room? The seismic shift in network TV news viewership. For almost thirty years, since CNN veered Left, conservatives abandoned mainstream media for the mostly monetarily motivated, New York City version of counterfeit “conservative” media. The viewer shift to the Right culminated in the Left’s blatant, co-conspiracy with the Obama – Biden administrations to “fundamentally change America” and engage in insidious Deep State Lawfare against a sitting president of the United States.
Trump has been in office for only a little over six months. But he’s been campaigning for several years. Other than Putin, Trump appears to have two personal idols – figures he emulates: Midas who, legend has it, was granted his wish that everything he touched turned to gold; and P.T. Barnum the famous Master of Ceremonies for the Greatest Show on Earth – a traveling circus.
Both figures ended up badly. One a victim of his uncontrolled desires, the other a victim of his own hubris.
For the non-MAGA mystified, Trump’s lack of character and New York City Liberal genetic code were concerning. But, considering the alternative…well, there really was no sane alternative. A Harris presidency was almost unthinkable – apocalyptic in its consequences.
Trump’s ego and mono-syllabic vocabulary quickly wore thin for those who weren’t distracted by promises to make everything “GREAT” again. His reliance on “The Art of the Deal” is quickly being revealed as a one-trick pony in the ideological war being waged worldwide.
A monetarily-based “peace” is not real peace. It is bribery providing political and financial opportunism for both sides.
Like the boy that cried “Wolf!“, when Trump says everything is “GREAT!” nothing is great – especially when compounded by being untrue as in “Iran’s nuclear capability was obliterated!” That’s when hubris is unmasked as hypocrisy.
And, just like the Left media, MAGA media talking heads label anyone who disagrees with any, some or maybe even all of Trump’s policies as a “Leftist.” I’ve been a conservative all my life. I didn’t leave the Republican Party – they left me when I realized there really is no significant difference between Republicans and Democrats. All the budget-busting pork in Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” is just the latest in a long chain of evidence of the Uni-Party.
For this thrice Trump voting Independent, my recent, frequent reversion to mainstream media began with Trump’s pathological penchant for varnishing the Truth – and the MAGA media’s maniacal devotion to their “King.”
I became bored watching the sycophantic “Right” media mimicking the Left media’s reporting the “Line for today” hour after hour, day after day. The “Right” media is just as afraid of losing access with the current administration – more so considering his counter-sniping skills displayed against the “Fake Media” – as the Left media was fearful of losing access under the Democrats. And, like the mainstream media, it is inhibiting (or should I say “intimidating”?) them from asking deep, troubling questions.
As former newscaster Paul Harvey used to say “That’s the rest of the story” – found these days only in mainstream media.
MAGA media is Fake News by omission whereas Mainstream Media is Fake News by commission.
I first began noticing Trump dismissing legitimate reporters questions when he was asked about the substance of his “GREAT” phone conversation with Russian president Putin regarding his illegitimate invasion of Ukraine. I’ve never seen a previous president of the United States ever describe a phone conversation with a communist, murdering dictator as “GREAT!” That should send a five-alarm warning to the Free World that Trump and Putin have a “special” relationship.
I began seeing deception and dissembling in more and more of Trump’s responses to the media’s legitimate questions. One fact became crystal clear: when Trump’s veracity is questioned, when he has to consider things outside his very narrow comfort zone, he reacts angrily – emotionally. That indicates a low tolerance for stress – a dangerous trait for a man with his finger on the nuclear trigger to have.
Nothing bruises the ego of a megalomaniac more than having the “Word” from Mount Sinai questioned.
A few weeks ago, in desperation, I clicked to MSNBC to see if I could learn anything actually new – and, just out of curiosity, to see if it was asking things I had questions about concerning the current administration.
What I saw was shocking.
I’ve tuned into MSNBC four or five times in the last weeks and every time I saw a newscaster asking legitimate questions about Trump’s policies and peccadillos. I saw a person in the mainstream media being an actual journalist.
Of particular interest was their inquiry into how richer Trump is becoming by being the “Bitcoin President.” What’s the difference between Pelosi getting rich off her husband’s insider trading and Trump getting even richer off his son’s inside track on bitcoin investment?
I disregard the political diatribes of guest Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries, et al. I immediately tune to NYPD reruns. But, when the mainstream counterparts to MAGA media mouthpieces like Kilmead, “Beavis” Gutfeld, et al, conduct their monologues and inquiries they are actually asking legitimate questions and backing it up with evidence.
This is not “Fake News.” It is the type of journalism the MAGA media has auctioned its soul away. The identifying difference is the “mainstream media” is weighted toward being interrogatory versus declaratory – asking legitimate questions as opposed to the MAGA media personalities scoffing, dissembling and ignoring legitimate journalistic opportunities for inquiry.
Trump has secured the border. Hooray! But he’s a businessman and once the public furor is over he’s going to find a way to appease the National Chamber of Commerce with immigration “reform” – aka amnesty.
Trump’s abrasive approach to tariff’s is wrong on the historical evidence. Historically, tariffs have been avoided and exploited by corporate CEOs resulting in burdensome taxes on – and limited markets – for the consumer, farmers and manufacturers. How his clumsy, offensive, and tumultuous effort to equalize international trade turns out remains to be seen.
While his bombastic “Big, Beautiful Bill” delivers promised donatives to the taxpayers, it is at the cost of increasing the national debt by 3-5 trillion dollars – not only kicking the can down the road but turning the can into a fifty gallon drum of financial nitroglycerine.
Things Trump and the GOP did and said:
- “I know Putin. We’re friends. I’ve been doing business with him for a lot of years. He’s a nice guy.” – Trump
- Trump’s presidential pardons at the end of his first administration.
- Trump hosting China’s premier Xi at Mar a Lago to enable his daughter to have a sweetheart monopoly in China for her designer products.
- “When I’m in office I will stop this war [in Ukraine] in 24 hours. Anyone with half a brain could do it.” – Trump
- “Ukraine started this war – and they didn’t have to.” – Trump
- “I see you got dressed up in your best clothes to visit the White House.” – Trump
- “Tariffs were great before the IRS. We should go back to them.” – Trump
- “I’m going to walk away. They’re like children fighting on a playground.” – Trump
- “I can build Gaza into a big, beautiful place!” – Trump
- “I’m going to be the Bitcoin president!” – Trump
- “I’m going to let RFK, Jr. go wild on healthcare reform!” – Trump
- “Gold Card” selling (out) U.S. citizenship” for $5 million. – Trump
- “We’re going to put a ‘Golden Dome’ over America” – Trump
- “No harm no foul. No one got hurt.” – Trump on SecDef Hegseth’s Signal Gate OPSEC violation.
- “It’s not a gift!” – Trump on the Saudi’s 400 million dollar 747 aircraft.
- “It’s going to be a ‘Big, Beautiful Bill” – Trump increasing the National Debt by 5 trillion dollars.
- “We didn’t know about the wasteful spending.” – House Speaker Johnson
- “The economy and the debt will cross paths in a few years.” – House Speaker Johnson
- “We obliterated Iran’s nuclear program.” – Trump & Hegseth
- “They don’t know what the F#$k they’re doing!” – Trump complaining of the Israeli / Iran “ceasefire” – like the Israelis don’t know what they’re doing – and Trump does?
- “There is no Epstein ‘client list’ and Epstein committed suicide” by AG Bondi; FBI Director Kash Patel and Bongino after touting its existence “on her desk” for months.
- Trump interceding a reporter’s question to Bondi during a cabinet meeting yesterday regarding the Epstein file: “It’s a distraction” – Trump. Yeah. Right. In the words of Shakespeare in Hamlet “Methinks thou dost protest too much!” Trump was trying to clue Bondi into not answering the question.
I wonder what the Vegas odds are on Trump’s name being on that list? - The “Pardon Czar” president – Trump Undermining America’s criminal justice system by enabling legitimately convicted criminals to avoid the consequences of their crimes – none of which could be categorized as “lawfare” prosecutions by any stretch of the imagination. Trump’s equivalent to NYC’s “no cash bail” fiasco.
- (see: documentary film “Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump, 2020)
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.” – Matthew 13:13, Bible, KJV
