Scaramucci, Scaramouche, something something fandango...

Scaramouche is a character in a comic Italian theater. literally it means 'little skirmisher' apparently.  And that was what Anthony Scaramucci was in president Trump's cabinet - a skirmisher.  In a matter of days he went from leak hunter to out the door himself.  From pit bull, to comic character.

It might look bad for president Trump, but there is a silver lining in the apparent disarray;

Mr. Scaramucci, who is nicknamed “The Mooch,” was removed at the urging of former Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, who was sworn in as White House chief of staff Monday morning. Mr. Kelly is seeking to impose more discipline in the White House, two administration officials said.

After the swearing-in ceremony—which Mr. Scaramucci attended—Mr. Kelly returned to his office, where he informed Mr. Scaramucci in a one-on-one meeting that he was being forced to resign, a White House official said.

The ouster signaled Mr. Kelly’s authority over a White House that has been plagued by competing factions in the first six months of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has told Mr. Kelly that all White House officials—including longtime advisers such as chief strategist Steve Bannon and family members such as son-in-law Jared Kushner —will report directly to the chief of staff, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Monday’s news briefing.

It looks like the remainder of the Trump presidency will develop some discipline inside the tent. That's a really good thing. President Trump needs to shake up Washington, but his administration has seemed like a group of loose cannons rolling around the ships deck. That's not to say he hasn't had some successes. But discipline and teamwork are what ensures victory in the long run. The Trump presidency will benefit from those things if John Kelly can bring that to the team.

After all, instead of a circular firing squad, that energy should right now be directed at milquetoast and traitorous Republicans like John McCain.

Sunday verse

Yesterday the Saturday Learning Series focused on quantum mechanics.  Here are a couple of Bible verses that relate to the notion of subatomic particles.

Saturday Learning Series - the many worlds theory

Somewhere out there is a universe in which Barack Obama lost his election and Hillary Clinton won hers.  Weird?  Yes.

Earlier today there was a Saturday Learning Series post about a theory explaining how multiple possibilities can co-exist.  Here's another theory:

Saturday Learning Series bonus - quantum mechanics & broken reality

Via PBS SpaceTime, an experiment that broke reality.

Saturday Learning Series - Exploring the Milky Way

A documentary on the Milky Way.

Too good to check Clooney double standard

Alert: Ad hominem attack photo

Liberals like George Clooney are perfectly willing (even eager) to call president Trump a racist for wanting a border wall.  But when someone climbs over his wall, it's war.

“Over the last week photographers from Voici magazine scaled our fence, climbed our tree and illegally took pictures of our infants inside our home," George Clooney said in a statement. "Make no mistake the photographers, the agency and the magazine will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The safety of our children demands it."

George: Listen. To. What. You. Are. Saying.

Now, do you see the double standard?

Friday Musical Interlude - Stand Back, remixed

If you lived through the 80's, this David Aude remix of Stevie Nicks' Stand Back should bring back some memories.

Suddenly Lindsey Graham has guts?

Useless Republican Lindsey Graham threatened 'holy hell' if president Trump fires Jeff Sessions.  What a time to grow a pair - standing athwart the president on this issue.  Why not have some guts on Obamacare or tax reform or the border wall?  No.  Just stand up to president Trump.  That's just great.  Graham represents everything wrong with senate Republicans in 2017.  There's no marriage to voters, only to a former senate colleague.  He's personifying the old boys club mentality that is what voters are sick of seeing.  Not just Trump voters, but voters in general.  It's seriously sickening.

Ironically this RINO represents the solidly conservative state of South Carolina.  He needs to be primaried ASAP, if ever there was a chance to make the senate more conservative.

President Trump, philanthropist

I saw this on Facebook in response to more negativity directed at the president and thought I'd share it. I did not know any of these and will do some research as a result.  Meanwhile on Facebook the reaction was predictable - "it's fake news".

You have to love how open-minded those on the left are.

Baby steps, right?

It was a nail biter, with vice president Pence needed to break the tie, but the Republicans in the Senate passed a measure to allow debate on the repeal of Obamacare.  

WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans overcame a range of internal fissures in narrowly voting on Tuesday to begin debate on their health-care overhaul, but GOP senators said they recognized they still must resolve the thorny policy disagreements that have stymied them for months.

Not exactly a full blown repeal and replace but baby steps are better than no steps. Right?  Right? Let's keep telling ourselves that.  But only for a week.  

What should come next is Mitch McConnell strong arming or offering deals to senators Collins and Murkowski.  The Democrats did it shamelessly with Obamacare and look what happened - it passed.  As disgusting as it is to reward the obstinate hold-outs, right now it has to be done to secure their votes. By all means they should be primaried but this is hard ball politics and you have to do what you need to do to win, and win now (not next year).  Make a deal with them and then cut them loose.

That's what Mitch McConnell needs to do. If he doesn't get this done, he's not leadership material because getting it done - now - is all that matters. Being a brilliant tactician is not what the senate needs or what America needs.  What America needs in the senate is someone who gets things done.  Maybe the senate needs a Donald Trump.  McConnell has made a baby step, let's hope he takes more steps right away.

Popular Mechanics, you're doing it wrong

I like reading Popular Mechanics - for the mechanics, not the politics.  There's an article there arguing - get this - in favor of foreign born recruits in the military in exchange for citizenship.  Setting aside the fact that a foreign militia is correlated to the downfall of the Roman empire, the case is pretty flimsy;

Let's make this very clear: Our nation has always needed foreign-born recruits. First, because we are an entire nation of immigrants, so much so that at some points in our history entire Corps of our armies (such as the XI-th in the American Civil War) barely spoke English. Second, because once we became a global power, we really had a deep need for cultural and language skills among our forces, not just in the Special Forces, but in Intelligence and other fields as well. We even made laws to entice recent immigrants into service specifically for their native-born skills, but also perhaps for some specialized skills like medicine and dentistry, that they bring with them. And lastly, because if there is a better way to introduce an immigrant to the range of the American melting-pot than service to the nation in uniform, I really don't know what that might be.

In summary (1) we're all immigrants (2) we need cultural and language skills from outside America and (3) it's a great way to integrate foreigners into the American melting pot.

Ridiculous.

(1) That's a social argument not one that helps the military. What the military needs it combat skills and fighting effectiveness. (2) any skills lacking in American born recruits is an indictment of America's schooling system. Intelligence is another matter - on the ground knowledge, or specialized skills and dialects are useful. But that's not a military issue. Remember president Trump recently had a 'secret meeting' with Vladimir Putin (in front of and among the rest of the G20 leaders) and the media went nuts because the interpreter was a Russian. Sooooo... double standard. And (3) that reason is not the job of the military.

And that's without moving on to other reasons outside of the stated rationale.

Look Popular Mechanics, stick to stories about new engines or advances in rocketry and such. Otherwise you will end up as the ESPN of science magazines/ezines. M'kay?

Sunday verse

Saturday Learning Series - Quantum computing's quantum leap.

Normally Saturday Learning Series items diverge somewhat from normal political topics into other realms such as science, geography and philosophy.  In each case those topics can trace a path back to politics because they have political implications to some degree.  Today's topic however affects everything, and the politics of it, need to be addressed.  I will not be doing so here however.  The purpose of this particular entry is simply to introduce the topic and lay the groundwork for everyone to start considering what it might mean for not just America, but for all of humanity.

Quantum computing is not just the advent of a better computer.  It's more akin to a leap from the harnessing fire to manned space flight.  It is represents the advent of a powerful paradigm shift for humanity, with the potential to impact everything from artificial intelligence to opening portals to a multiverse. It's not just change on a massive scale it's potentially the most revolutionary change in human history.

We are now faced with something that goes beyond science and begins to touch on ethics, morality, safety, security, and spirituality. That's just to mention a few of the considerations that are not exactly being considered enough, given the rapid pace of quantum computing development.  That's not to say that quantum computing is a bad thing, rather that the pace of discovery is simply outpacing the thinking about the implications of the development. We should be thinking about these things.  No generation is immune to the type of changes this might bring about.

First, here's a primer on quantum computing. It's pretty basic and is about 30 minutes long. However it's worth viewing if quantum computing is a new concept to you.

That video was produced in 2014.   So where are we at now?  The D Wave computer, one iteration of the quantum computer already exists.

And where is this going?  Watch this explanation in layman's terms covering the basics of how it works and what can be done with it. 

And what of the dangers of quantum computing? Many have not been considered, but here's one very tangible one.

More dangers will come, I am sure. But so too will more benefits.  Like all technologies from fire to splitting the atom, this new technology will prove to be a double edged sword - albeit this time, the biggest sword ever.

Friday Musical Interlude - The Slider

From 1972, the T Rex song The Slider from the album of the same name.

Mueller is fishing for Trump dirt

Special investigator is expanding the probe of the president into his business transactions - as far back as he feels like.  Now is the time for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself and cancel the probe.  This is nothing more than free opposition research of the president for the 2020 presidential election at this point.

Democrats will try to justify it as trying to determine if there were motives for collusion.  Donald Trump was an international businessman. He's had dealings with Russians as well as multiple other nations.  This is not just a witch hunt, it's tinfoil hat conspiracy theory fodder and people will see what they want.

President Trump said yesterday that had he known Sessions was going to recuse himself he would not have appointed him as attorney general. That may be a signal to Sessions to consider a reversal of the recusal.

Perhaps I was a bit cynical

Earlier this week I was speculating that the GOP were deliberately dragging their feet on the Obamacare repeal and replace legislation. I was, and am under the impression that the steps to the edge of doing something by the Senate were window dressing and they never had any intention of doing anything.  So far, I have no disagreement with my earlier assessment.

However, I did speculate that senator John McCain's sudden need to be hospitalized was also window dressing.  Today it was announced he's been diagnosed with brain cancer.  Clearly I was wrong.

I'm not a fan of McCain's even though back in 2008 I thought he would make a better president than would Barack Obama. Despite my issues with his weak-kneed politics, I do appreciate his service in the defense of freedom as well as his service in the Senate.

I wish him and his family well and hope this is a manageable or treatable condition.

That said, it does open some questions about his senate duties and his seat. I'll leave that political discussion for later, although I'm sure Democrats are full of ideas already.

But Chuck Schumer is worse

Liar. Hypocrite. 

I'm mad at Republicans in the Senate for doing nothing on Obamacare (and tax reform, and tax cuts, and the wall etc.). I just discussed it. But for all of that, Chuck Schumer is worse.  The guy who refused to work with Republicans on the passing of Obamacare is now saying that he's willing to work with Republicans to fix it, and that going it alone by the Republicans (the same way Democrats did in passing this boondoggle) is misguided and not reasonable.

Hypocrite. 

Hypocrite.

Hypocrite.

Chuck Schumer should be invited to nothing that has to do with anything.  Shut him out of everything.  That's something all Republicans should agree upon. And if there is a Republican who doesn't agree with that approach - they don't belong in the party.

GOP, Strike TWO

Let's not understate the size of the GOP failure to repeal and replace Obamacare. It's huuuuuggge! No one GOP senator has decided they are willing to bite the bullet on their principals or their re-election chances and vote to enact some sort of go forward legislation.  As a party the failure lies with everyone in the GOP who is in the senate.  The party whip. Mitch McConnell. The individual senators who are hold outs.  Each individual senator who is not forcing the issue with the holdouts. The former presidential candidates who ran against president Trump and are presenting wish-list roadblocks.  

President Trump too.

The danger of failure is seismic - a possible disenfranchisement of Republican voters, as well as the new Trump voter coalition and independents, leading to a loss of the house and Senate.  If that is not enough of a fire alarm, if that does not get all hands on deck for a 24-7 push until something gets done, I'm not sure what will.   Strike three will be a full-on disaster.  Meanwhile Republicans seem to be trying to draw a walk (to further the baseball analogy) as the strikes fly past.  They seem to be more content to wait it out than to try to do something.

You were elected to lead, not wait for a bigger majority.  Make no mistake - 60 Republican senators would solve the problem of the holdouts and allow for a passage of something, anything.  But you WILL NOT EARN A SUPERMAJORITY by not doing anything. You have to accomplish something if you want to get voter confidence.

Maybe the GOP are trying to wait out Trump's presidency.  Maybe they just cannot come up with a palatable compromise. But the fact that the GOP is waiting, deliberately, is starting take hold - at least with me.  Stepping up to the edge, twice before retreating at the last second seems suspect. First a McCain illness looked like a chance to stall.  Then two last minute change of minds seemed to ensure the second senate failure. It's too much of a coincidence to stomach.

Regardless of the reason the GOP leadership is stalling, time is running short.  There are other things that need to get done - tax reform, tax cuts, a border wall. All of these things are urgent. My simple reminder to the GOP is this:

Do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing.

Failure to act decisively will come back on you. Now is not the time for weakness or cowardice. To exhibit either will be to be revealed as a fraud. 

Hong Kong flummoxed by Kangaroo Court

If you are simply going to overrule election results that you don't like, why bother with the pretense of even having elections?  I'm looking at you communist China.  Hong Kong recently held local elections and the results were simply dismissed.

Activists accused Beijing of crippling Hong Kong's parliament Friday after four pro-democracy lawmakers were disqualified.

More than 1,000 people protested near the government offices Friday night in response to the decision.

The High Court judgement came as a massive blow for the democracy movement as it means the balance of power in the partially elected legislature swings further to the pro-China camp because opponents do not have enough seats to veto bills.

Former Umbrella Movement protest leader Nathan Law was among those barred in a case brought by the semi-autonomous city's Beijing-friendly government after the four changed their oaths of office to reflect frustrations with Chinese authorities.

Law was one of several rebel lawmakers to secure a foothold in parliament at citywide elections in September.

But that triumph was soon jeopardised [sic] after Beijing issued a special interpretation of Hong Kong's mini-constitution in November to insist oaths be taken in a "sincere and solemn" manner.

That's one way to run a kangaroo court; just be obvious about it.

Sunday Verse

Saturday Learning Series - Fake culture

Roger Scruton lectures on fake culture and the culture of fakes. Fake news is a subset of fake culture and this presents an interesting framework from which to view the corruption of culture and possibly the reason for the rise of fake news.

Become a patron

With Google's black box control of AdSense, being a conservative blogger with 8+ years of frequent posts, nearly 1.5 million page views as of today you'd think I'd have made more than $300 from this blog via AdSense. Nope.  There's no issues so far as AdSense has found. Granted I haven't invested in SEO optimization but with only $300 in revenue, why would I? It would remove eight years of paltry profits with one attempt.

So I've decided to try a different route.  Today I joined Patreon.  If you like my content you can donate at your leisure.  There's a link in the upper right of this blog. And of course don't forget to refer your friends.  If this goes reasonably well, I might try to purchase some production software and make the jump to a Youtube vlog and producing some videos.

Become a Patron!

A criticism of a criticism of Mark Dice

HighImpactFlix offers a criticism of a Mark Dice video that applauds conservatives who have sued liberals for similar reasons that liberals have sued conservatives in the past.

Let me preface my criticism of the criticism, by saying I am a fan of both HighImpactFlix and Mark Dice. And this is not exactly a criticism per se. It's more of a counter point to his point. I agree with his comment that this really is a respectful discussion among conservatives. This is simply a different take on the discussion.  For me it's about the importance of the moral high ground versus the importance of strategy and tactics.

Here's the video in question, by HighImpactFlix:

Here's the comment I just left on the Youtube video. I'll add more to it below.

I don't think Mark Dice's point is that the idea of lawsuits are good, he's talking tactics. He's talking about fighting fire with fire and using the tactics of the left to tie up the focus of the left the same way they do to conservatives. This is the playing field as it stands. The left is not above boycotts and shaming and lawsuits, so to stand back and take it while we wait for a more conservative judiciary is not an effective way to fight back. 

Changing the rules through legal reform is the right goal, but in the meantime, sitting back and playing by gentrified rules while progressive liberals play by no rules whatsoever, is self defeating. President Trump defeated Hillary Clinton precisely because he fought back. This is not a criticism of your viewpoint, just adding to the discussion. I agree that any business owner should be allowed to choose to serve (or not serve) whomever they wish. The free market will sort it out - eventually. 

But in the meantime fighting with one arm tied behind our back is not going to work. Maybe Mark Dice's solution is not the ideal one, but it's far better than doing nothing.

HighImpactFlix suggests we do not fall into the us versus them trap.  Ideally we should not. The problem with that is the same as it is with ISIS - they are already engaged in the us versus them fight. 

I'm also not sure of the link he suggests between statism and people using the courts to fight back against liberal injustices to conservatives.  The lack of clarity comes from him tying that part to president Trump.  My assumption (and I could be mistaken) is that his view is that using the courts to force business owners to serve conservatives whom they otherwise would refuse to serve is adding to the power of the state.

If that is the case, it's too late.  The courts have already begun the march towards state mandated customer service. As I mentioned in my comment, this is the playing field. If we don't like the rules of the playing field we should attempt to change them but that is a longer term goal.  Let me offer an analogy.

Suppose you are the coach of a football team and you don't like the idea of field goals being part of the game. So instead of trying a field goal every time you get the ball, you either get a touchdown or punt the ball.  Meanwhile the other team is not hamstrung by the same self-imposed limit. The other team has a higher percentage chance of winning the game because they have more possibilities (and likely opportunities) for putting points on the board. Especially when the referees tend to favor them. Imagine being down two points, in field goal range on the last play of the game and having to go for a touchdown for the sake of ideology.  If you want to change the rules of football to exclude field goals fine. But during the game you play to win. Sort out the rules committee stuff when you are not on the playing field.

Friday Musical Interlude - Bang the drum all day

I haven't posted much this week because I've been so busy at work.  So for today's Friday Musical Interlude this 1982 Todd Rundgren song seems perfect.

Another nothing burger

The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. was not associated with the Kremlin. She did not have info about Hillary Clinton.

Another nothing burger. This is the latest salvo from the New York Times and it's downright feeble.

DNC hack was an inside job

According to this report, the file transfers were done on site.

Dirty politics is not treason

More Russia, more Russia, more Russia. Eventually something will stick, right Dems? The latest revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton (and had absolutely nothing) is the latest 'nothing burger'  in a series of ongoing Democrat failures.  It's destined to be another failure because, as The Daily Caller points out this is nothing the Hillary Clinton camp didn't also do.

Politico revealed in January some of the Ukrainian government’s anti-Trump activities during the election.

A veteran DNC operative who previously worked in the Clinton White House, Alexandra Chalupa, worked with Ukrainian government officials and journalists from both Ukraine and America to dig up Russia-related opposition research on Trump and Manafort. She also shared her anti-Trump research with both the DNC and the Clinton campaign, according to the Politico report.

Cool your jets "the Left", this is another nothing burger.

Sunday verse

In these times, this one is hard.

Finally, U6.

During president Obama's tenure the mainstream media never reported on the U6 unemployment rate (which includes those who have given up looking for work as well as those who are 'underemployed' and spent several months at 17.1%) , preferring to make president Obama look good, so instead focused on U3 unemployment which peaked at 10%.

Meanwhile president Trump has been in charge of the executive branch for 6 months and U6 has already dropped from 9.4% to 8.6% (although it was as low as 8.4% in May).  At that pace, president will have U6 unemployment down to 3% by the end of his first term.  Impressive.  Nevertheless, the media has suddenly discovered U6 (because U3 remained flat month over month and could not give them the negative headline they needed to bash Trump. 

They've just used U6 as a cudgel to bash president Trump.

CNBC:

An alternative measure of unemployment that counts discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons — the underemployed — rose from 8.4 percent to 8.6 percent.

They were not done though.  They dug into wage growth, which was positive news, but not given this spin:

Wage growth, however, remained muted, with average hourly earnings rising 2.5 percent on an annualized basis, essentially unchanged from the previous month. On a monthly basis, the rise was 0.2 percent, which actually was a shade below the 0.2 percent expectation. The average work week edged higher, rising 0.1 hours to 34.5.

There's no bad news in that. 2.5% wage growth is reasonable and might help keep inflation low and therefore interest rates. Oh, and the number of employed in America is at a record high.  I guess the good news is that after nearly a decade of ignoring it, the mainstream media seems poised to acknowledge U6.

Friday Musical Interlude - Just What I Needed

The Cars, 1978 on The Midnight Special performing Just What I Needed.

Maybe president Trump should build the wall around California

California is looking at becoming a sanctuary state apparently;

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – Over objections from sheriffs’ unions and the California Police Chiefs Association, the California Assembly Judiciary Committee took a step forward in making the Golden State a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, said his measure, Senate Bill 54 or the “California Values Act,” is intended to prevent state and local law enforcement from cooperating with what he calls the “Trump Deportation Machine.”

Opponents call it a “sanctuary state measure” that goes against federal immigration law and obstructs the ability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to do their job.

How far this gets isn't clear, but if California policy becomes a threat to national security perhaps a border wall around the state becomes necessary.  A fence is only as good as it's weakest link and clearly California is trying to render the border wall pointless by subsuming federal immigration policy to California's state preferences. While a legal challenge might derail California's policy that could take years. Without an enforceable national policy, illegal immigrants to California could easily travel, restriction free to any other state.

The least Trusted Name in News.

That's CNN, in case you didn't know. Apparently CNN has created a meme war - against CNN. What's not to enjoy about that?

CNN, and on it goes.

Project Veritas continues it's investigative reporting on CNN.

CNN under fire (again) for bully tactics

The video of Donald Trump fighting Vince MacMahon in an old WWE wrestling show that had resurfaced with a CNN logo superimposed over Vince McMahon's face. President Trump retweeted the video clip and CNN and other media went ballistic claiming it was inciting violence against the media.  Clearly they don't understand what a metaphor is.  Even more clearly, CNN is not above bullying the video's creator.

Via Circa;

CNN made a move of their own during the Fourth of July, revealing that they had discovered the identity of the Reddit user responsible for the GIF's creation...

The user posted an apology to the network, saying that he mainly posted controversial images to get a rise out of other users. In a report on the user, CNN said that it had decided against publishing the user's identity, but should any more hateful content come from the account, that they reserved the right to do so in the future.

It's that last part that many online have an issue with. Twitter and Reddit users have criticized the company, saying that it is targeting a private citizen, leading #CNNBlackmail to trend on Twitter.

This is why CNN keeps losing - the don't get that everything they do is not only hypocritical and wrong, but that they are turning people against CNN by their own actions. If they keep it up, the backlash will continue.  And you know CNN is going to keep it up because they firmly believe that they are the good guys and the good guys are allowed to do anything.

On another front, CNN actually took issue with president Trump trying to help a terminally ill child in Great Britain. No, really.

Way to politicize the life of an infant CNN. That will help your cause.

Happy 4th of July

The power of the presidential tweet

The president can tweet for good, the problem is that the media will not mention it because it's not part of their narrative.

News of President Trump’s tweet in support of a brain-damaged baby sentenced to death by the United Kingdom was largely absent from the home page of establishment media sites early Monday.

Outlets including ABC, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post opted instead to feature continuing coverage of a day-old tweet from Trump Sunday morning that escalated his war with the media. These outlets, in particular CNN, have been providing wall to wall coverage of Trump’s recent tweets about the media, at the expense of other stories.

If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017

So there's that. But no Russia, no Trump is a monster. It won't get coverage, so like other conservative places on the web, I'm sharing because it is fair to know.  Additionally, the president is specifically offering to help. If the media were to pick up the story, maybe something could be done by medical personnel in America.

Woodward versus Bernstein, on president Trump

Yesterday Carl Bernstein (of Woodward and Bernstein fame). Called president Trump a 'malignant presidency'.

Conversely, and for contrast, while Bob Woodward is no fan of president Trump, at least he's willing to acknowledge what the resat of the media do not - that they are part of the problem:

Bob Woodward is no less a liberal than he ever was, but at least he is not blinded by partisanship and recognizes the truth.

Sunday verse

Poor poor pitiful me(dia)

Awwwww. The poor media is being beaten up by president Trump from his bully pulpit. We should all feel sorry for them because the president, unprovoked mind you, has relentlessly attacked them. Uh, yeah, that's the story.  The media has not only had a hate-on for the president since he became the Republican nominee, they have lied about him, they have colluded with Democrats to destroy first his candidacy and now his presidency.

What the media is not accustomed to facing, is a president who is not obsequiously knuckling under to them and kowtowing to their demands.  What they fail to realize, for the most part, is that they continue to chatter inside their own echo chamber and that the more they try to vilify the president the less harm they do him and the more harm they do themselves. The media is perceived as partisan and corrupt and with revelations by Project Veritas the suspicion continues to grow.

It's been argued by some pundits that president Trump is playing the media but I have not seen it explained.  Even media on the right often latch on to the president's tweets.  Therein lies the savvy; the president announces an energy independence strategy and then tweets something about some media personality (in this case the hosts of Morning Joe) and everyone says he's off message.  But the media take the bait and the policy announcement becomes page 35.  Regardless, the policy announcement does not go away. It just becomes less 'visible'.  That likely is the president's strategy.  If you know how the media is going to react, you can use it to your advantage.  Not only does president Trump distract the media from attacking his policies (which they would, were he say Jeb Bush), but he also keeps the media on the hot seat as an enemy of the people, which helps his voter coalition's focus on the need to turn out for 2018 and for 2020. 

President Trump is winning, and the media still don't get it.

Saturday Learning Series - a little What-If fun

Imagine if there were only 100 people on earth?



What if everyone on earth lived in the same one building?


Part 2: