"I'll call Fox and Friends any time and sound off! I'm da Prez!"
One of the ongoing concerns of media and culture analysts (e.g. David Frum in 'Trumpocracy - The Corruption of the American Republic') is that the thing occupying the White House will have its behavior "normalized" and become more and more accepted. One of the first putative signs of this would be a steady diminution of outrage, people no longer willing or able to call this degenerate on anything - or even use epithets to describe him. That is a point many suspect we're rapidly reaching.
It doesn't help either to have Rightist, Trump ass- lickers like the WSJ's William McGurn ('The Elitists' Trump Excuse', yesterday, p. A 11) insisting it's all liberal and media "elitist" huff and puff because we disdain "Trump's brand of vituperation". In other words, we attack the Trump Thing because of its constant attacks on the values, virtues and norms that "democracy requires to survive."
Thus, like Jim Comey, we declare this maggot is "morally unfit" for the Oval Office. In fact, many of us go beyond Comey and declare this loathsome loser and con man is mentally unfit to hold office of any kind, even dog catcher in Podunk, Arkansas. As 'Exhibit A' you need look no further than the 31 minute insane rant Dotard unleashed yesterday morning on Fox and Friends, e.g.
But hell, don't just take my word, watch it and make up your own mind. At the end of it you tell me if you really, truly believe this type of unhinged behavior is presidential in any measure, or that it doesn't degrade the office as well as the person holding it - not to mention the country. Think before you answer! Can you really visualize a President Obama calling in to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to deliver such an extended rant, or a JFK or FDR? Let me back up, visualize any other president calling in an extended TV rant when he's supposed to be doing the work of the country? (As one former FBI agent put it on 'All In', "That's the time he's supposed to be going over the nation's security issues in the Presidential Daily Briefs!")
If you can imagine another president - even Gee Dumbya Bush- doing the same, then you inhabit a different universe from the one I'm in.
To put a perspective on it, even the illustrious Steve Doocy - main anchor of the FOX trio - and most famous for burning his hands while trying to roast marshmallows, actually trying to cut the Dotard off after 28 minutes, saying "Mr. President, we know you have a MILLION things to do...." Well, evidently not.
But the blowhard imbecile kept on ranting for another 3 minutes before the station had to pull the plug on the fool, with the Fox trio saying "Adios".
But why be surprised? We knew from this time last year the piece of waste occupying the office hates to work, he'd rather loaf, watch TV, tweet and rant. Recall 'the Donald' has never really worked at a real job outside of owning his family branding business (who could order anyone to do his bidding) and being a NY real estate weasel who used bankruptcy (of multiple casinos) to make more $$$. Hell, five days into his presidency he even bawled that the job had turned out to be too much for him to deal with. Too many details, too much stuff to master for an extensive government bureaucracy. Hence, his penchant for becoming a cable TV and tweet addict. See e.g.
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/donald-trump-stunned-to-learn-presidency-is-an-actual-j-1792215349
Excerpt:
“Being president is harder than Donald Trump thought,” begins the article, neatly capturing the blithe, criminal ignorance that characterizes both Trump himself and the many dozens of millions of morons who thought he should be the leader of the free world. Yes, being the president is a harder job than Donald Trump would expect, because Donald Trump had never previously held an actual job, because actually, spending your inheritance on a succession of failed cons is not an actual job."
But hey, if the job is too much maybe he ought to resign. It beats wasting time tweeting, watching TV for nine hours a day, and ranting like a nut railing about UFO "invasions" on talk radio. Or as one MSNBC guest put it on 'All In' last night: "The rant reminded me of my Uncle Willy who calls in to sports radio and unloads his bile every other day."
Anyway, McGurn asks in his op-ed piece:
"So which is more damaging to the American body politic - the schoolyard taunts and threats of Trump, or the anti-Trump opportunism of 'polite' society?"
But given the opposition of "polite society" - i.e. that which upholds and values norms, decency and decorum- is the only edifice standing against normalizing Trump, that's an easy call. As David Frum has put it in his book, the longer Trump remains in office the greater the corruption of our democracy. This is because his behavior becomes more and more accepted, as outrage is lessened ("too much to be outraged over")- until daily rants on FOX ("Trump TV") become a way of governing. This we cannot allow, whether McGurn and his ilk like it or not.
McGurn's other complaints - as if we "elites" are trying to impose fascism on the Trumpies, are all red herrings. Examples:
- "Good liberals once found the idea of spying on American citizens without just cause unconscionable... But when the target becomes a former Trump campaign associated, it becomes OK."
Hold strain there, Willy. Carter Page was ID'd as a suspected foreign (Russian-linked) agent long before U.S. FISA warrants were issued to monitor him. This was by way of foreign intercepts of his assorted meetings with Russian FSB, GRU etc. agents. For the U.S. then not to do anything would have made our own intel agencies appear slack and incompetent.
McGurn again:
"James Clapper revised procedures to make it easier to unmask Americans in intelligence reports, and share the information, making leaks all but inevitable. The illegal leak of Mike Flynn's name in connection with a phone conversation with Russia's ambassador was one result."
C'mon, Willy, pull your head out of your fat ass. Going after Flynn was perfectly justified given he was wheeling and dealing with the Russkies, via phone calls, and after Obama had imposed sanctions, and even before the Trump cabal had assumed office. Besides, Flynn's calls were again picked up via foreign intel intercepts which were forwarded to the CIA, NSA etc. For our intel agencies to do nothing while foreign agencies monitored Flynn, Carter Page and others would have been irresponsible.
McGurn ends by writing:
"The point to the double standard isn't in any way to justify Mr. Trump's more boorish displays. It is, however, to say that the standard ought to work both ways."
But by resorting to false analogy McGurn is indeed justifying Trump's more boorish ways. He's saying in effect we have no right to cast "stones' of opprobrium at this mental and moral misfit because we've allowed greater "sins" of omission and commission to go unanswered. Seeming to forget or dismiss the fact that Bill Clinton was impeached based on illegal wiretaps made by then Columbia, MD resident and Pentagon flunky, Linda Tripp - when MD law expressly made recording phone calls a felony without notifying the other person on the line (in this case one Monica Lewinsky). Ken Starr, then special prosecutor, used those illegal phone recordings to go after Clinton - with the Reepos jumping on the illegal wiretap bandwagon to hang him out to dry.
So don't hand me any BS about "double standards". Trump, by not only flouting standards but breaking laws as well (e.g. obstruction of justice) merits at least impeachment, and probably indictment as well.
See also:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/opinions/trump-fox-news-interview-dantonio-intl/index.html
And:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/78895/trumps-latest-meltdown
Excerpt:
"The NY Times' reporting, however, captured a president in mental and emotional free fall, such as, "Even the Fox hosts seemed concerned as the president railed at length about the 'fake news' media. 'I’m not your doctor, Mr. President, but I would recommend you watch less of them,' one of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade, told him.""
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