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The Screaming Moderate

Ignor(e) are the first letters of ignorance

3/29/2017

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 I haven’t posted in more than a week. There’s a reason. I’m really tired of writing about President Trump and his team.

Little, if anything, they do pleases me. Little, if anything, they do helps the very voters who elected him. So I decided, for my own peace of mind, or at least a piece of peace of mind, I don’t want to contribute to Trump being the new normal. So here I am, with him the topic … again.

Those of us who oppose the way he wants to do things or his immature behavior in office should not ignore him or tire of him. That’s what will “normalize” him.

This presidency is not “normal,” and not even revolutionary in the sense that things are getting accomplished along the lines of the agenda he preached on his campaign. He constantly yells “fake news” when he doesn’t like what’s being said about him – and the more he gets away with that the more people really think the mainstream media makes things up.

Oh, sure, he’s going ahead with his border wall – but Mexico isn’t paying for it, we are. He has come back with the second iteration of his promised travel ban on Muslims (call it what he will) and that is under legal challenge too. Jobs are not “coming back” because of him but he is taking credit for every additional job – even those announced a year or more ago, before even he thought he'd be President some day. Yesterday, he took away some of our privacy rights on the Internet, allowing internet providers now to comb our search records and sell them to the highest bidders. I guess that could create jobs in other countries for scam callers to follow up on what they learned.

He continues his attacks on the media, which I know pleases many people who hate the media – but, folks, wait until that media isn’t tracking his every deed and utterance. See what surprises are in store for you then. And you won’t notice them right away. A couple of the above examples are proof. These things did not get widespread coverage in local media, I’m sure, and they aren't what his voters expected.

Do journalists make mistakes? Yes. Are some people who call themselves journalists just flacks for a certain ideology? Yes. Are the cable networks airing too much opinion and not enough fact? Yes.

But the vast majority of mainstream journalists are just doing their job as best they can. If they weren’t, this Administration wouldn’t oppose them at every turn crying “fake news” when they don’t like a story. Problem is, many people in this country are willing to buy that.

He and his whole administration is boycotting the coming White House Correspondents dinner, an event that grew beyond its purpose years ago but was and should be an opportunity for sources and reporters to get together for a night of fun and off-the-job getting to know you. It should be a celebration of the First Amendment not of any Administration or Hollywood celebrity. But even that has become a battlefield for Mr. Trump. His press secretary will not only not sit at the head table, as is tradition, but won’t attend. Nor will the President of any member of his administration.

Sean Spicer, his press secretary, yesterday got after April Ryan, a long time White House correspondent, and chastised her in a live TV broadcast briefing (chastise being the nicest word I can think of) because he attacked a legitimate question she asked and when she shook her head in a “no” pattern, Spicer then told her to “…stop shaking your head..” I guess implying that this grown woman's recess rights would be taken away.

 This is not normal -- old or new. Despite owning the White House and both houses of Congress, Trump could not come close to getting enough votes for his health care “repeal and replace.” This bill would have thrown 24 million people off health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office which is headed by a Republican. The supporters of the bill argue that point. But, okay, let’s say it just took health insurance away from a million people, is that okay?

Now his next big promise is tax reform but without health care reform, he loses the billions of dollars in savings that were to pay for his tax cuts. Still, he is going ahead with it, without the dollars to offset any cuts.

And we haven’t hit his 100th day yet.

Each day is a merry-go-round full of charges, counter charges and lies. Even the Congressional investigations Trump requested, he now is trying to block at each turn. Nothing to hide? Then what is the problem, let them investigate.

Several former top officials and friends of Trump’s have volunteered to testify, including his son-in-law. That demonstrates openness, they say, but I suspect at least one will lie, one will claim executive privilege and one likely has stayed within legal boundaries in his business of lobbying for Eastern European clients. The thing is, you can stay within the legal bounds but sell your morals and country down the river. I know, I’ve been in that business.

I don’t dispute Trump’s election. But I do not like the way he is “governing” which really is just signing executive orders, cutting back regulations that will harm the environment and workers’ rights, and holding rallies for his supporters. His governing thus far helps business, not workers. And even the coal miners don't believe their industry is coming back as Trump promises.

To employ people they did to be trained for today's jobs, not yesterday's. And he's cutting programs that go to that end.

I also don’t like the millions it’s costing to give him security when he goes to his playground in Florida. I know a president works 24 hours a day, but he doesn’t have to do it at such a monetary cost to us all and a quality of life cost to those who live around his Mar-a-Lago club where I know that people don’t leave the area for dinner with friends because of all the blocked streets.
And I don’t like that he has ticked off more of our allies than our enemies
.
We just cannot ignore this.
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Promises, promises

3/14/2017

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During his campaign, President Trump, according to trumptracker.github.io, made 179 promises ranging from not taking a salary if elected to having a secret plan to defeat ISIS.

Of those 179, the web site says, he has achieved nine, has 17 in process, broken 13, compromised on two and not started 138.

Today is his 53rd day in office. Now, it’s not a surprise that a politician doesn’t keep his promises and he has kept some (mostly those he could complete with an executive orderl). Those include a hiring freeze, a requirement to eliminate two regulations for every one new one (of course, that’s a very tough one to carry out which we will see over the course of his presidency), and withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

I raise this not just to point out his record on promise-keeping (I’m guessing previous presidents’ records were not any better) but because of the braggadocio and bravado with which he announced some – like saying he had a secret plan to defeat ISIS but he really didn’t. And the naiveté he had regarding how much power a president really does have in a democracy.

As Jennifer Rubin pointed out in today’s Washington Post he is running the Administration like he ran his business – by his gut and with few employees. This is one reason I never thought a businessman was the right choice to run the government – each has different “rules,” require different skills and the bottom line is not about making a profit in the government. The President of the United States can’t just say “it will be thus” and it is thus. There are those pesky courts to keep a President true to the laws and the Constitution. There’s that pesky Congress that has an equal say in how most important things get done. And there's that pesky media that keeps an eye on your every move and utterance.

You don’t just issue an edict and a deadline and get the job done like you can in a family business, as Trump had (or, actually, still has).

It was like him promising to repeal and replace Obamacare quickly and then he learned that health care is “complicated,” something everyone else knew.

That promise to “deport criminal illegal immigrants within an hour of being sworn in” proved impossible

Or his promise to release his tax returns, which he never will, we’ve learned.

One would hope the President is learning lessons from his first 53 days in office but it’s hard to tell. Since being President he has said up to five million illegal votes were cast which is why he lost the popular vote. He has produced no evidence to support that.

He also accused his predecessor of “wiretapping” Trump Tower during the campaign. A conspiracy theory he could subscribe to when he was “just” a wealthy business man but an accusation he has to prove when he accuses his predecessor of doing it. And we have seen no proof thus far because it never happened.

He went too far with that one. That one will not be forgotten because he tweets some absurd other thing. If it really did occur, Barack Obama should be brought up on charges. If it didn’t occur…well, we’ll see what the consequences are for Mr. Trump.

Oh and there is that media thing – what he calls the “enemy of the people.” He can pronounce it and repeat it every day and some in this country will buy it. But most will not. Without the media all we’d know about what is allegedly happening in our government is what the President tells us.

And his telling hasn’t been the truth and nothing but yet.

Importantly, what happens when we face a real crisis? Maybe that nut in North Korea starts arming his test missiles, for example. What do we do, and who do we believe?
Several reporters asked that question in the White House press briefing yesterday, “when should we believe the president,” Sean Spicer was asked.

I don't recall ever hearing that question having been asked before. Maybe during Richard Nixon, but I don't think that's true either.  Spicer said, you can believe the president all the time, “unless he’s joking.”

The joke apparently is on us.


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 Cue Patsy Cline

3/7/2017

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Picture
Is President Trump crazy like a fox, or just crazy?

I can’t make the clinical judgment but he’s no fox. He’s playing checkers, not chess. He’s a real estate guy, a transaction-guy. Get this deal done today and/or move on to the next one.  

While he’s accusing President Obama of wire tapping his gold-plated building, that guy who is crazy over in North Korea is “sending messages” and missiles. So we may see played out very soon, Lord forbid, the consequences of Trump’s behavior on the world stage. His first real "crisis" is here and he doesn't seem to be paying close attention, though our military is moving anti-missile systems into the area.

Trump is eating away at his, and the country’s credibility. That means he’s eating away at the country’s leadership. And if Kim Jong-un keeps seeing what he can get away with, those test missiles he’s sending will no longer be tests. That, people, is reality not “narrative.”

That is what the lack-of-leadership ability that Trump is showing is all about. It’s not about keeping anyone who is Islamic or any other religion out of our country, it’s about controlling a despot like Kim. And shooting over a nuke isn’t the answer, Mr. President. Might isn’t always the right answer, Mr. President, it’s the easy answer.

Trump has put himself in a box on the allegations of Obama ordering wiretaps. If, as Trump claims, Obama went to court to get the approval needed, it means the judge was given sufficient evidence that Trump is acting on behalf of a foreign agent, thus making him a potential traitor. If Obama didn’t “order” (which he legally cannot do) the wiretap, it means Trump will be a proven (again) liar.

No, I don’t offer up the third option that Obama had anything to do with wire tapping Trump because he just didn’t. And that’s not me believing the “fake news” that’s me listening to the people who were actually there on Obama’s watch and believing them, because they earned my trust when they were in office. Yes, trust is something you earn, it isn't given freely. Plus everyone assumed Hillary Clinton was going to win anyway, so why would Obama risk prison and his legacy over wire tapping Trump?

This whole episode is showing us what is wrong with this White House, not just the President but folks who work for him.

That Sarah Huckabee Sanders has no place being on the White House staff until she at least understands that she speaks for the President, not herself, which flabbergasted poor Martha Radatz on television the other day. We really don’t care what Ms Sanders or Sean Spicer thinks, we want them to explain what the President thinks to us. Which, obviously, they are unable to do.

The best Spicer could do was “the President’s tweet speaks for itself.” Please, Sean, say it isn’t so that his tweet speaks for itself because it’s just too crazy to imagine. And, Sean, is the best you can do after the President makes up what is his biggest whopper so far, is to say the Congress ought to investigate it. Really, Sean? The President makes up something and, with all that’s going on in the world and our country, the Congress should stop cold and spend time looking into his imaginary wire tapping rather than doing things to solve problems for our people?

While the President worries about “changing the narrative” every day (or at least the early mornings of every day) the world may be going to hell in a hand basket because of him – allies not knowing if they should listen to his more reasonable Cabinet members or the President himself.

So, it’s not all about his Twitter tirades, those are a symptom of the bigger problem -- that while our President focuses on the little things he asked all of us to leave behind last week, the bigger things can be taking on, literally, nuclear proportions.

 


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Warning: Self-Promotion contained within

3/1/2017

1 Comment

 
I did an interview with the BBC today on press relations and the Trump Administration. It's here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g2trm.

I'm about 15 minutes in.
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Is this the beginning of a new relationship, or just a one-night stand?

3/1/2017

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When Democratic talking heads on cable news give President Trump positive reviews, is that when we’ll see him turn the corner and be less combative? Well, we’re about to see.

Trump’s performance last night in his non-State of the Union address was as close to presidential and cordial as we have seen him. He reached out to Democrats in the hall to join him, and make progress for the American people. In one segment he did criticize harshly the Obama Administration and then asked Democrats to work with him. A slap and a smooch. But at least there was a peck on the cheek. Then again yesterday morning he basically called Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi incompetent,  but at night sought her support.

So, which is the real Donald Trump? Well, I think we’ve seen that answer, that the tweeting, combative Trump is the true personality. But did he learn last night that he might see his poll numbers reverse themselves if he tried the charming, reach-across the-aisle Trump for a while?

Maybe it was the change in ties. Each man on the podium – Trump, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House – wore blue ties. Which I guess means blue is the new red.

Then again, Trump wore a striped tie, maybe to show he can change stripes when he chooses?

He did fall back on “radical Islamic terrorism,” a phrase his new NSC advisor, and most in the diplomatic world,  thinks should be scrapped. Then again he owed his base some red meat too, so he threw that in and  the great wall on our southern border to boot.

He didn’t offer any specifics. Of course, few presidents in such a speech offer any specifics so he shouldn’t be marked down for that. But as he hits the trail to reinforce his speech messages, let’s hope he offers some specifics and sticks to his more presidential personality.

And so far this morning, no nasty tweats from the Tweeter-in-Chief. But he has tweeted an all-capital letters “THANK YOU.”

Scotty Pelly on CBS said after the speech that it was a speech “about we, not me.” And that was the key difference.  

This morning there is a parade of politicians and pundits running to catch up to the Trump bandwagon. That isn’t atypical after a decent speech but we must remember the bar was as low as it’s ever been for the President.

The question is: Can he maintain last night’s posture or will it, too, be treated as just one more transaction to him?


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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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