Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Pages
▼
Thursday, September 14, 2017
No, he's just crazy
This is why I like Keith Olbermann.
Donald Trump isn't going to change. He's just crazy. He's a narcissist who cares about nothing but himself. He treats his allies as badly as he does his political enemies, because while he requires their slavish devotion, he also despises them for it.
Of course, if you object even slightly to anything he says or does, you're instantly on his shit list no matter how much you kowtowed previously. Trump demands loyalty, but he doesn't give it. He cares nothing about anything or anyone but himself.
And he has zero impulse control. Sometimes, his minders can get him, grudgingly, to read something moderately rational off the teleprompter, but it's never going to last. That always pisses him off (because the rest of the world should see how wonderful he is without all that, right?), and he's only as disciplined as a three-year-old, anyway.
It seems like most journalists either don't see that or else want to pretend that they don't. Of course, recognizing the truth about our president would be 'biased,' huh? Not that his supporters - or any Republican, really - will believe anything but what they want to believe, anyway.
That's the crazy thing. Even if a journalist bends over backward giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, that's never going to be enough. For narcissists and their supporters, it's slavish devotion or nothing.
And you can't be subtle about it, either. Remember when Trump got his cabinet together - on camera - so that each could give a little speech about how wonderful he is? Bizarre, wasn't it? But that's what Trump wants from everyone.
"He would make a drum out of the skin of his mother in order to sound his own praises." --David Lloyd George (about Winston Churchill)
ReplyDeleteIn the way they cover Trump, the media is acting like the woman who is about to marry the asshole drunk everyone warned her about. Her reply to them is always the same..."I'm going to change him." One of my sisters made that same mistake.
Unfortunately, the media isn't going to change, either. They've discovered the mathematical equation of "Trump = Ratings = $$$$." But this is nothing new, since the major networks turned the "nightly news" from a service into a for-profit revenue stream back in the 1970s.
Change of subject....Have you ever had hernia surgery, Bill? Not fun. I "went under the knife" last Friday, so I'm going to be out of commission for a few weeks. Now I get to wait for the fun part.....the BILL. Even though I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield, I'm "guess-timating" I'm going to have to cough up at least $3,000 to cover the rest of it. (Could somebody please tell me again why 'Murics'a healthcare system is SOOOO superior to the rest of the civilized world?)
No, Jeff, that's one... experience I've missed, thankfully. I'm sorry to hear about it - and about the bill. Good luck with the recovery!
ReplyDeleteThe good(?) thing about Trump is that he's so very, very unpopular. Remember, after 9/11, how the media treated George W. Bush? He changed from being a complete joke to being 'Commander-in-Chief,' and the media became terrified of criticizing him.
Hmm,... that's actually rather frightening right now, since Republicans know that even invading a completely innocent country can be a good way to push the *PATRIOTISM* angle which says that no one can criticize a president during wartime (unless that president is a Democrat, of course).
Anyway, my point is that for-profit businesses - including the media - are far less worried about offending a very unpopular president than they would be at offending a popular one. They're still cowardly, often enough, but not quite as timid as they'd be otherwise.
And note that political comedians are making a killing here. Their businesses are making lots of money by criticizing Trump. Don't think that the media can't see that. So as long as Trump remains unpopular, I'm not too worried. (Well, I'm very, very worried, just not about that.)
And given that it's Trump, who can't even keep from ridiculing his own supporters, I don't see any big changes coming in that respect. Unless he decides to start World War III or something...