Here are my observations on items in the news.
MEDIA TIES TRUMP, GOP TO THE SHOOTING – CBS fired its top legal executive, Hayley Geftman-Gold, for her social media statement: “I’m actually not sympathetic because country music fans are Republican gun toters.” CNN’s Jeff Zeleny put in his two cents worth with this: “Las Vegas is a town that he (Trump) is connected to and knows well. His name is emblazoned on the top of the hotel there as well. He campaigned there a little. Something else I think to keep in mind. A lot of these country music supporters were likely Trump supporters. And this is something that of course is hitting the tapestry of all Americans and they’re going to be victims across the country here.” What?
MEDIA INSULTS OF TRUMP CONTINUE – The left-leaning duo on MSNBC’s Morning Joe just can’t help but beat up on President Trump. “It feels like a developing dictatorship,” says Mika Brzezinski, while her complicit fiancé, Joe Scarborough adds, “Nobody is saying that what Donald Trump is doing now is right. In fact, we think it’s extraordinarily dangerous … it’s Stalinist.”
Keith Olbermann … yes, he’s still hanging around … now spouting off from GQ’s The Resistance, said, “The Republican Party is now actively shielding this treasonous megalomaniac … accessories after the fact to the worst set of crimes in American history.”
Following President Trump’s “fire and fury” threat to North Korea, ABC’s Martha Raddatz commented that it was a “dramatic escalation of rhetoric … alarming,” while NBC’s Lester Holt referred to the president’s remark as a “chilling threat … provocative … painting a dark and ominous image.”
Of course, neither Raddatz or Holt referenced warnings by previous presidents, but history buffs will recall that in 1945 President Truman warned the Japanese to surrender or “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the likes of which has never been seen on this Earth.” In 1993, President Clinton said of North Korea, “We would quickly and overwhelmingly retaliate. It would mean the end of their country as they know it.”
AND IT CONTINUES WITH NETWORK GUESTS – Liberal pollster Stuart Rothenberg, who often appears as a guest contributor on CNN and MSNBC, blatantly insulted the people of West Virginia following the president’s August 3, rally there. “Lots of people in West Virginia can’t support themselves or speak English,” he tweeted, “(They’re) close-minded, provincial, angry & easily misled.” The Media Research Center reported that “not a single liberal media outlet or social justice warrior reported on his ugly, bigoted, and insulting comments with a demand for him to apologize.” It’s that double standard again.
THE SO-CALLED LATE-NIGHT “COMICS” provide the worst examples of disrespect for Trump and the presidency. Why anyone would watch their drivel is beyond me. Jimmy Kimmel’s rant over health insurance was shamefully uniformed, but many viewers were taken in. I was seriously disappointed that columnist Peggy Noonan was one of them, suggesting that any future Republican repeal and replace of ObamaCare would have to pass the Kimmel test, “the powerful showbiz bar such a bill must now clear.” However, Jay Caruso’s tongue-in-cheek comment in the Washington Examiner, “Behold, the nation’s new ‘authority on health-care policy – Jimmy Kimmel,” was a funny line.
Then, with the president and others asking for prayers for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, Kimmel felt a need to say that prayers are inadequate and that “they (the administration) should be praying to God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country.” His timing on political matters is as poor as his one-liners.
DON’T BE BAMBOOZLED by the official sounding name, Tax Policy Center. The Center is a joint project of the left-leaning Brookings Institute and the Urban Institute, that the media often labels “nonpartisan.”
I warned you in my September 30, post that the demagoguery on the tax cut had begun with a reference to a piece in The New York Times. It continues. With only a rough framework being announced, the Center released estimates indicating that the plan would decrease revenues and benefit the wealthy.
The media leaped on that report and published fake news with headlines like, “Republican Tax Cut Would Benefit Wealthy and Corporations Most, Report Finds,” the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal stated.
The Center said it based its guesses on assumptions derived from the House’s “Better Way” campaign document of 2016. The media’s lazy, fiscally-ignorant journalists, failed to ask the Center how it arrived at its figures, when the plan details have not been released. But, as the Journal commented, “Political mission accomplished,” they’ve planted the message that the wealthy will benefit most from the tax reform plan.
DISLOYALTY IN THE EPA – In a speech to oil industry executives last week, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said nearly a third of his agency’s 70,000 employees (that’s correct, 70,000) are disloyal to President Trump. “I got 30 percent of the crew that’s not loyal to the flag,” he said, complaining that federal employees are dragging their feet on issuing permits for mining and drilling on public lands. Zinke vows to make changes to circumvent the Obama Deep State activity.
During his tour of hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico, President Trump hugs a military worker as the First Lady (in cap) looks on. (conservativetreehouse.com)
AS A FOLLOW-UP TO MY PUERTO RICO PIECE of October 1, “Trump didn’t botch Puerto Rico,” I have learned from an article by Debra Heine in PJ Media that a distraught female Puerto Rican police officer managed to call into a Hispanic radio station in New York describing the gross incompetence and inaction she had been witnessing. She indicated her wish that the United States military take over disaster relief.
Fighting back tears, she said Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz was not allowing anyone to distribute the aid. On September 21, FEMA said it had commodities such as meals, water, cots and blankets already positioned and ready for distribution at its warehouse in San Juan. More had been shipped later, and as of September 30, at least 10,000 shipping containers of supplies were sitting on the docks at port in San Juan, but were not moving because, as I mentioned on October 1, there was a lack of drivers.
Despite the effort to make Puerto Rico’s devastation “Trump’s Katrina,” facts are surfacing that paints a picture of an ill-prepared government on the island. For example, while there have been pleas for electrical power, where were those officials last year, 10 months before Maria smashed into the island, when consultants hired by the PR Energy Commission wrote a scathing report. It stated that reliability was poor, with outages occurring four or five times more often than at mainland U.S. utilities, because of a history of neglecting maintenance?
