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The Screaming Moderate

An open letter to President Trump

6/30/2017

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Dear President Trump,

By now, you’ve been criticized by just about everyone for yesterday’s immature, sexist tweets directed at Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” And, deservedly so.

In my childhood, my schoolyard bully said nicer things about me.

Most of us long ago gave up our hope/wish/prayer that you would all of a sudden kick into “presidential gear” and begin to be above the fray as you lead the U.S. and the world to a higher place. Okay, I never thought that you could lead us well but I did pray you did.

Yesterday, still, there were people hoping/wishing/praying that you could give up tweeting and become presidential. I have lower expectations, sir. I want you just to act like an adult human being – one who can disagree with but respect other views, even if those views are not complimentary to you. Someone who can put aside personal feelings and work beyond those for the benefit of the American people who elected you to be a different kind of leader, but not operate in a childish, impulse-driven way. (And, no, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, he was not chosen because of all his faults he was chosen because of all Hillary Clinton's faults.)

I hate to lower my expectations at all because I have huge respect for the Office of the President. You’ll note that I always refer to you as “the President” and even call you sir now and again – out of respect for the office.

I gave up on you a long time ago, however, and even gave up my registration as a Republican because you were the straw that broke that camel’s back. You, for me, were a step way too far.

Your tweets did distract attention from a few things that would have been -- and should have been -- better covered yesterday. Among them:


  • A meeting you held with senior advisors during which you reportedly decided to levy heavy tariffs on imported steel, which likely will start a trade war,  which will damage the world and U.S. economy, but keep your base happy because they don't think in macroeconomic terms. And reports are that a majority of your Cabinet is against those tariffs but your  close White House advisors -- who are bent are destroying the government -- are for it
  • Your travel ban initially was put in to give you time to figure out the right way to handle blocking immigration to this country. You said you wanted 90 days. Well, it’s been 90 days and we haven’t heard a word about your review or plans
  • And this morning you tweeted that if the  Congress can’t repeal and replace Obamacare it should just repeal it. Think about those ramifications on your base for a minute, if you have a minute to take your eyes off cable news and think about other peoples' needs and wants and not your own
Believe it or not, as much of a political addict as I have been my entire adult life, I had never watched “Morning Joe,” until this morning.  I find such shows pretentious and tell me little that I can’t figure out on my own. Not that I’m so smart, Mr. President but I learn little from those shows because their talking heads simply take the positions they are paid to echo and easy to anticipate. I know what Jeffrey Lord is going to say as much as I know what ex-Clinton staff will say.

I know, though, that you learn from the Sunday shows because you've said you learn all you need to know about foreign policy from watching them. By the way, how’s that working out for you?

On the other hand, not many others watch “Morning Joe” either. They average a little under one million viewers a day – that’s .03% of the viewing public. So count me among the hundreds of millions of people who do not watch that show and still seem to live fruitful lives.

You might try it.

I watched this morning because Joe and Mika delayed their vacation to appear to respond to your childish, name-calling tweets. Even at that, I could only take about 10 minutes of it because – while what they said about you is important and news this morning – to me it became a calling out for help with you as President and for ratings for their own show. I’m a cynic like that.

I do agree with what they said, though, about you. You scare them, and me. As you prepared this morning (I hope you prepared anyway) to meet with the president of South Korea, who is under imminent threat from the nuclear-armed North Korea, you too were probably watching “Morning Joe,” despite you saying you no longer watch it. Time better spent on preparing for statesmanship and avoiding an international conflict that endangers millions in Asia, and possibly millions here too.

My mind sped to the Constitution which allows your Cabinet and Vice President to bench you if they believe you can’t handle capably and competently the duties of your position – and wishing/hoping/praying that they did that. But they won’t. These are the same men, and a couple of women, who attended a Cabinet meeting a couple of weeks ago and went around the table praising you and your leadership, like sycophants hoping their rich uncle won’t write them out of his will.

I pictured you sitting there with mirrored sunglasses and in military garb like any other two-bit dictator.  But you actually let in the media so they could record the praise, so I know you just wore your standard suit and too-long red tie.

And you are the President of the United States, a duly elected (not overwhelmingly as your press spokesmen and you like to say) official of the United States who in fewer than six months has given away the title of Most Powerful Person in the World to Angela Merkel, ironically, a woman.

I have little left to say. I’ve given up wishing and hoping you’ll step up and be an adult human being, not a baby-man, but I’ll keep praying.       
                                                                                    Sincerely,
 
                                                                                    B. Jay Cooper

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The media hold the President accountable..that's their job

6/29/2017

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It’s funny (interesting funny, not haha funny) that the other day the first question to Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was a setup for her to go on a five-minute harangue against the media for its “fake news” and unfairness to the President.

It’s also funny (interesting funny, not haha funny) that it was the first televised White House press briefing in a while. My guess is that first question/setup was pre-arranged by the press office so she could go on her harangue and my guess is it’s no coincidence that this particular briefing was on camera.

The expected adversarial relationship between the media and the White House is a full-blown war. A reporter in the briefing called Ms. Sanders tirade “inflammatory” and clearly aimed at those Trump supporters viewing the briefing. It’s funny (maybe haha this time) that the White House accuses reporters of using on-camera briefings to pump up their “brand” on YouTube and other places when that is exactly what Ms. Sanders did the other day. Her aim clearly was for that harangue to be used on every right-wing media outlet in the country. And I’m sure it was it went viral in those outlets.

This while there is a huge battle going on over health care and the millions who could lose insurance with the Republican Senate’s bill, the continuing investigations into Russia mucking with our election and the President's reported refusal to accept that and a couple of potential real wars percolating, with the heat turned up by the President himself. Forget the rest of Trump’s campaign agenda. I’d be happy if he focused on those matters alone right now.

No wonder he wants to make the press the issue.

Some are calling for a “truce” between the media and the White House and if the President really meant it if he signed on to a truce, I wouldn’t believe him. Besides I don’t think we need a truce.  I think the White House should start answering reporters’ questions instead of dodging them. I think rather than a truce reporters should do their job even more diligently.

The White House, after all, works for us. And we deserve answers to these questions. And the media are the institution we’ve delegated the right to ask those questions. The Constitution in effect says so.

Trump didn’t get the White House in a hostile financial takeover, he won an election. He works for you and me.

Ms Sanders, in particular, is who it appears Trump likes to have brief because she is so automatically defensive of what he does. Hey, we all expect the spokesmen to take the President’s side, and that’s cool, but they also need to tell the American people why they do what they do and how they’re doing it. We pay them for that.

The media, if you don’t like the way they cover the news, can be turned off. You can change the channel or not buy that newspaper. Personally, I depend on the media to tell me what’s going on. I, obviously, do not believe, as the President instructs us to, that the New York Times, Washington Post, the broadcast networks, CNN or MSNBC are “fake news". I think they make mistakes, of course. But they fess up to them when they are   wrong and move on. I’d rather have a press that occasionally makes mistakes than no press at all. Unlike this White House who refuses to fess up to anything and who clearly would prefer no media watch over their shoulders. All the better to do only what you want and not be held accountable.

It’s funny (haha not interesting…well interesting too) that Trump yells “fake news” when he doesn’t like a story. That big piece the Post ran the other day, reporting President Obama’s failures to act when he learned Russia was messing with our elections, apparently wasn’t “fake,” because Trump kept pointing to it and calling for an investigation into Obama and the former president’s “collusion” with the Democratic Party to steer the nomination to Hillary Clinton. Lord, really, Mr. Trump? I wish you'd put your creative thinking to work on health care.

When the Post aims its guns at him, it is “fake,” he says. Make up your mind Mr. President.

You can’t have it both ways. Your credibility with most of the country is under water, and that includes a lot of your base. When you yell “fire” I’m not sure if I should run toward the exits or go hunting for the flames myself. I just find it hard to believe you because of all your lies, deceptions and whining.

You may be worse than the boy who cried wolf.

In fact, you are. That was a fairy tale. This is reality.

And that too is funny – and not haha funny in the least.


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When you're free to lie, 'spin' is easy

6/26/2017

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This, according to the Washington Post, is what White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway had to say about remarks made recently:

“The joke is no laughing matter …These things are real… (the comments could) easily inflame lunatics who wish to bring harm.”

No, she was not criticizing (Lord forbid) her current boss, she was responding to questions about comments actor Johnny Depp made about President Trump. Depp said about Trump: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”

For the record Depp quickly apologized and he was certainly wrong to say what he did. But this is about Ms. Conway.

Conway called Depp a “nut job” and said his statement was “not a slip of the tongue” but rather a deliberate attempt to spread “vile” ideas that could “easily inflame lunatics who wish to bring harm.”

This from a front-line, non-apologetic defender of a man (Trump) who on his campaign:
  • Said: “I’ll beat the crap out of you” to a  rally attendee
  • Said about a tussle at one of his rallies: “The audience hit back. That’s what we need a little bit more of.”
  • Said to supporters roughing up protestors at a Trump rally: “Try not to hurt them. If you do, I’ll defend you in court, don’t worry about it.”
And more.

Hypocritical? To say the least. The only thing that approaches the crazy things and lies that President Trump utters are the comments made by his staff and supporters to defend his childish insults and lies.. Poor Sean Spicer has twisted himself into knots defending what Trump has said only hours later to be contradicted by Trump

Conway though may just take the prize for hypocrisy. Here is a woman who it seems would say anything to defend her boss, who that boss may be. Before she signed on as Trump’s campaign manager, Conway was a senior person on the presidential primary campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz, a Trump opponent then.

In that guise, Conway said things about Trump such as:
  • You’re (Trump) for the little guy, but you’ve built your business on the backs of the little guy,'” Conway told CNN.
  • She urged Trump to release his tax returns. And now she supports his refusal to release them.
And more.

For a candidate who claimed on the campaign not to be a politician, Trump as president is the biggest pol of them all, and has hired on pols who belong in the Hypocrite Hall of Fame and/or the Turncoat Hall of Fame. Trump drops promises like you’d drop a hot poker.

And his people have taken the word “spin” to a new never-before-seen-from-the-White- House level.

He said he’d never touch Medicaid or Medicare and now is supporting a Senate health care bill that does just that. He was against trade with China before he was for it. He promised “insurance for everyone” but now is taking insurance away from people.
And more.

Trump, therefore, i guess is a leader. He leads the way for his followers to lie just like he does.


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Hail Trump on the squashing the media? You could be next

6/21/2017

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I had planned today to write about the Trump White House’s attitude and approach to the media, and how it is slowly shutting down any access the media has to information from his Administration, how it attacks the media to hide the Administration’s own mistakes or failures.

But in writing down my thoughts it occurred to me: Those who support this Administration love it when the media is under attack and when folks like me defend it. So, I’m not going to do that, today.

Today I want to talk to whoever among you is a Trump supporter and/or an opponent of the so-called “mainstream media.” Those of you who love it when Trump attacks them, as if they truly are the enemy of the people. Even if I agreed with that view, I would not cheer him on in those efforts. His efforts would scare me.

So, for whatever his reasons – political positioning, honest disregard for the mainstream media or whatever – he is simply posturing and, even if he’s not, watch out, because you could be next.

If you don’t like the mainstream media you probably are a fan either of conservative/right wing media sites or liberal/progressive sites. Sites who, left and right, really do twist the news for either own purposes.

Let me tell you something: If you let Trump get away with what he’s trying to do to the mainstream media, your media will be next.

I don’t think Trump has an idealistic bone in his body. I don’t think he pledges allegiance to any political ideology. I think he pledges allegiance only to himself -- either what makes him money or makes him popular. And in his twisted-when-it-comes-to-the-truth mind, he only believes things that reinforce those two goals.

He attacks the mainstream media because that is popular with many of those who elected him, and it diverts from the truth of what he is doing, or not doing. If he ever should accomplish what I consider the impossible and “defeats” the mainstream media, he’s coming next after your media, “believe me.”

Trump wants only what’s good for Trump. Take the alleged collusion with the Russians to put a finger on the election results. Do I think they colluded? No, I’ve seen no evidence of that to this point and, since it would be treason, I have trouble accepting that there was collusion.  But there is smoke so we should investigate to see if there is fire just to be sure. It's too important a possibility not to be sure. Not to "get Trump" but to protect our democracy from other countries.

But look at how the President is handling that investigation. He calls it false. He says the Democrats made it up because they lost the election (even though his own party controls the Congress and he controls the Executive, which are the branches of government investigating him). He says the media is quoting anonymous sources who shouldn’t be given credibility (even though his own White House, and he, have and are giving information out anonymously themselves).

If he is not guilty of anything, then why not let the investigation go unimpeded and let the investigators find what he already knows – that there was no collusion.  

Why? Because either there was collusion or it fits his belief that attacking anyone who questions him is the best policy. And if that includes trampling on the First Amendment, then so be it.

And, if the investigations are allowed to proceed and he is right – that there was no collusion – then it only would serve to make him credible and probably boost his sagging popularity.  For him, a terrific result.

At the moment, he doth protest too much.

But if he succeeds in his efforts to “beat” the mainstream media, he has more rights to trample on – any rights that he feels get in the way of his being lauded as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

You want an example of the kind of leadership he has shown he respects? Look to North Korea or other despot-led countries who control any news its citizens see and holds back any human rights they deserve.

So my message here, to those who don’t support the  mainstream media, which has its flaws,  or who are still supporting a clearly unqualified man for whom the stars aligned and he was elected, think hard about how you’ll feel when he comes after what you believe in. Because he will.

Watch as he who demands “loyalty” to Trump from whomever works for him (including the former FBI director) yet tosses his loyalists under the bus when it serves his purpose. Don’t believe me?  Ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The then-senator who put his reputation on the line by being the first Republican Senator to endorse Trump, received his reward being named Attorney General, and then was thrown under the bus because he didn’t stay in charge of the Russia investigation so he could protect the President – even though duty to country demanded he recuse himself. The oath of office is not to any person … it is to the Constitution.  

Trump is not a conservative, look at his life record, his donations and his public comments, from abortion to human rights to foreign policy. And, he’s no liberal because he abandoned those beliefs as soon as it fit his purpose.  

He is a man who believes in only himself and who believes you must too – at all costs. The costs though are far too high.

So if you smile as he attacks the media for being “dishonest” or “out to get him” or whatever other narcissistic acting out he does, remember…you can, and likely will, be next.

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Trump Cabinet meeting: Much ado about nothing

6/13/2017

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Yesterday, as anyone who is paying attention knows by now, the President held his “first” Cabinet meeting – and by “first” he means his first where he had a full complement of Cabinet members – and that meeting opened with each Cabinet member singing President Trump’s praises. And ended with him singing his own.

More than a few things come to mind in reaction but let me focus on just two:
  • The President doesn’t have anywhere near the successes he claims to have in his first few months in office
  • The Cabinet includes billionaires and men and women who have earned great success in their careers and they, now, are relegated to the Greek chorus in a Shakespeare play.
What happened in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting was what happens in two-bit dictatorships all the time – the leader’s underlings tell him what he wants to hear or suffer the consequences.

Chief of Staff Reince Priebus went so far as to say it was a “blessing” that he and the others were given the opportunity to serve Trump. Priebus has been rumored to be on his way out of the White House since the day he arrived. You just can't suck up enough.

All this praise came from the same seats that once were filled by people like Howard Baker, Harold Ickes, Robert Gates, Condi Rice and others. These were not yes men or women. They gave their honest advice to the President, as they were hired to do. But not this crowd.

Many in the Cabinet are also billionaires, men and women who have enjoyed huge success in their careers. And we now see the proof of what being a billionaire tells us about people…nothing. They still don’t stand up to Donald Trump.

The only exception yesterday was Defense Secretary Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis – a career military man who was the only one reported who did not bow down to Trump but spoke of the “honor” he had to serve the men and women of our military. So the only one who didn’t join the chorus publicly was a career “bureaucrat” and a man who lived by “rank order” his whole career. He broke ranks yesterday. The billionaires held firm.

Interesting that those “successful” men and women who sat in chairs of servants yesterday, were men and women used to being “the leader.” Now they are “the sycophants.”

In reality, the President’s “successes,” are difficult to identify. He did secure approval of his first nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court – but only because the Senate changed its rules to approve by a simple majority (the Republican Party has a majority of 52-48 in the Senate). If the old rule (60 votes) held, we would still be short one Court member.

And while a few dozen pieces of legislation have passed the Congress, none is one of Trump’s key desires – repeal and replacement of Obamacare and a big tax bill.

Among the bills he has signed so far, according to the Washington Post: “two name Veterans Affairs clinics in honor of people, one adds National Vietnam War Veterans Day to the list of days people and businesses are encouraged to fly American flags, five are related to personnel matters (including the waiver allowing James Mattis to become secretary of defense), and one extends an Obama-era policy allowing veterans in some circumstances to get health care outside of the VA system.” Many others reverse federal rules-set in prior years.

Of the President’s “Contract with the American Voter,” promised during his campaign, only one, the American Health Care Act, made it through the House and is, so far, dead in the Senate.

That makes up pretty much all of his accomplishments so far, what he called a “record-setting” pace for a new Administration.

Meanwhile, the fact that the Russians messed with our elections last year is still being investigated and all 17 intelligence agencies agree that they did. This is a scary fact. Whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians or not, we can’t forget that the Russians messed with our country.

But there seems to be no concern about that from the White House. Since everything is about himself, Trump views the investigations as aimed at him, when they are first aimed at the Russians. Today there is a report that the Russians hacked into the voting records of 39 states!

But the President has yet to mention the Russian intrusion which, whether aided at all by people who work for Trump, is a very big thing.

No shocks here. President Trump is running his presidency much as he ran his business – with marketing more than substance. Focused on himself more than anyone else.

 The name alone doesn’t carry much weight when you’re the President. It’s what you do that matters.

There hasn’t been much “do” so far but, much like Trump’s Cabinet being the Shakespearean Greek chorus, so far there has been much ado about nothing.


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We gotta hear Rod Serling's voice soon

6/5/2017

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Donald Trump says he wasn’t elected president of Paris but president of Pittsburg.

Apparently, though, he was elected mayor of London because he keeps telling us what he’d do after the most recent terrorist attack there.
It also was learned that the White House was looking into a Trump visit to the London Bridge. Can't imagine why he'd do that but, then again, he is mayor of London. My estimation would be the crowds would be, uh, non-existent but Sean Spicer would tell us they were the biggest ever in London.

He also used the opportunity of the latest London horror to tell us that we (the U.S.) need that travel ban he proposed a few months ago but can’t get the courts to say is legal.

Let’s see, he proposed the travel ban for three months so his administration would have time to develop new, tougher vetting procedures. It’s been more than three months. Where are those procedures? Or did he just figure since it was hung up in the courts, he needn’t do what he said he’d do because it was hung up in the courts. Or something.

 I keep waiting to hear Rod Serling's voice in the background telling us to suspend belief. But that was for just a half hour.

Truly, we have walked through the looking glass.

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'Covfefe,' just sayin'

6/1/2017

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 The Monmouth College Polling Institute  issued its latest poll the other day which shows that rather than being his own best spokesman, as his press guy Sean Spicer says, President Trump is probably his worst.  

The poll found that 61 percent of Americans say Trump does more to hurt his presidency when he speaks and just 33 percent say he helps it.

Spicer, rumored forever to be on his way out of the White House, gets 42 percent saying he hurts Trump more than helps and 28 percent saying he helps.

Kellyanne Conway, seen as maybe having the second largest pair of pants-on-fire in the White House, actually polls best of the three at 40 percent saying she hurts and 28 percent saying she helps. This may be because she isn't seen as often on TV lately (just sayin').

So, the rumored new strategy of the White House – getting Trump out there more and surrogates out there less – may be another doomed strategy for this White House. Then again, I’ve determined that when, say, Spicer says something and Trump says the opposite on  Twitter a few hours later, that may be driving Sean’s numbers down (or up) so his 47-28 rating may be better than it appears. Or something.

 Oddly, the most sane thing that came out of the White House in the last couple of days may be the happy times Americans are having over the President’s tweeting, or semi-tweeting, this:

“Despite the constant negative press covfefe…”

One thing everyone can agree with is that tweet was unfinished. I think.

Comedians, average folks and politicians are having fun with “covfefe” and even the President hours later tweeted that he hoped everyone is having fun defining what “covfefe” means. (He just may have a sense of humor after all, but I’d like to see it appear more than once every five months.)

This may be the least-most controversial thing the President has ever tweeted! Then again, maybe not since, when asked, what Trump meant, Spicer said, apparently seriously: “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.” Which may be a statement on Trump's presidency.

At least everyone (except that small group of people) is having fun trying to interpret what he meant  and it's being tweeted, uh, treated, as a joke, except by Spicer who I assume is so shell-shocked in his job that he has learned to say nothing, even in jest, that will -- maybe, possibly or probably - insult or make fun of his boss.

Kellyanne Conway so far has had no public comment I’ve seen on the convfefe kerfuffle , which may be why she is the most-least believable Trump spokesman.

Just sayin’.
 

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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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