With each passing day, hell, each passing utterance from the festering fascist, it has become more than obvious our once venerable institutions in the Fourth Estate have given up being nonpartisan. Frankly, they have given up reporting the news, straight, no chaser or twist.
We watched as one less-than-stellar debate performance by President Biden begat a relentless torrent of articles, opinion pieces, doomsdaying, and naysaying from every side of the news gathering/disseminating industry. Everything from his age to his pallor was dissected and used against him. The onslaught was so complete that party leaders had no choice but to respond and force the contrived issue with the President. In the end, he chose to pass the top of the ticket to his VP, country over party.
The "news" machine won. Or so they thought. The overlords at the top purveyors - Washington Post, New York Times, etc - owned and slanted by GOP donors and billionaires - stand to make far more with the Trump shitshow reinstated to the Oval. Not just in the personal of tax breaks for their wallets, but in profits for their holdings and shareholders. With Joe Biden out of the way, they thought the path to endle$$ riches was guaranteed.
But then along came a wave they did not see coming. A level of enthusiasm, true patriotism, and deep gra$$root pockets to fund Kamala Harris. The joyful uprising on the left has left the press scrambling as she and her VP running mate have all but told legacy media to get stuffed. What they have been left with is running severe and obvious interference for a decrepit felon, adjudicated rapist, and staggeringly stupid conman with rapidly diminishing mental capacity.
Age? That factor so hugely important when Joe Biden was in the running? Poof. Mental sharpness? So important in the President that his every utterance was given an autopsy? Gone. Physical steadiness and health? President Biden's every step was subjected to rumor - Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and on and on. Trump and his magically regenerating ear? Pfft.
So on we have gone. Daily more people are turning away from legacy media, dropping subscriptions, and turning towards independent sources for news. There is a reason Harris/Walz gave credentials to over 200 digital content creators for the DNC. Aside from connecting to the youth vote, more news came forth that was not scripted by a corporate billionaire. I personally did not give MSNBC my eyeballs during the DNC, choosing instead to tune into MeidasTouch on their Youtube channel. (Sorry, but save Rachel, Lawrence and Nicole, MSNBC has lost me. And DGMS on Ari. I cannot with his constant cringefest of trying to be cool by cramming rap references into his every sentence.)
It has been comical and somewhat satisfying to watch Trump and his clown car of advisors scramble to figure out how to combat what they are seeing on the left.
They see Harris and Walz have both stopped speaking at rallies to point out someone in the crowd who needs aid, so Trump attempted to show concern and tried it. Once. It was like watching Vance attempt to converse with the donut shop employees, which was like watching a robot attempt to follow a program labeled "human interaction and connection." There was nothing sincere in either effort, and it only served to highlight how poor both men are at relating, even on a minimal level, to regular people.
"Press conferences." Couched in quotes because what Trump does is ramble, not thoughtfully and articulately, answer questions. The first one held at Mar-a-Lago was Festivus held in dumpster fire. Just an airing of his grievances, his fever dreams, and his mania. The "press" - again couched in quotes - because let's be real... All were handpicked and invited the day before. Chosen specifically because they would not ask anything hard hitting much less follow up.
He railed and rambled and talked out his ass for an hour. Creating "facts" out of thin air. Making sweeping generalizations, lying outright, knowing no one would press him on any of it.
And they didn't.
His rallies are hilarious. Any transcript of his meandering mental choo choo constantly jumping the tracks reveals there is no there there. How anyone can sit and listen to him and follow along is beyond me. Try this one on for size. Pop a few aspirin first.
“The fake news will say, ‘Oh, he goes from subject to subject.’ No, you have to be very smart to do that. You got to be very smart. You know what it is? It’s called spot-checking. You’re thinking about something when you’re talking about something else, and then you get back to the original. And they go, ‘Holy shit. Did you see what he did?’ It’s called intelligence.”
No, it's called the batshit incoherence of an ageing bigot with the intelligence of a fifth grader.
Yet the mainstream media let it slide. His interviews are prerecorded and shaped to cut out the worst of his stupidity and inability to address any topic. He calls into friendly outlets like FOX and Newsmax where anchors steer the conversations in the hope they can lasso his free flowing verbal largesse before he goes completely off the rails.
And now, with the PR stunt and literal law breaking at Arlington, which is not disappearing despite his and his campaign's deepest wishes it would, he is now desperately spouting anything, ANYTHING to appeal to voters. As my husband put it, there's spaghetti all over the floor as he flings it against the wall in the hopes something, anything will stick.
In the space of 24 hours last week he addressed the proposed amendment in his home state of Florida that would expand access to abortion from the current 6 weeks up to 24 weeks. He said in an NBC interview, “So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it.”
“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
That sound you heard was the entire GOP, evangelicals, and MAGA one-issue cultists gasping. Wait, what?!?!?! Like Trump's bullshit pretend religion and his sudden conversion to conservative politics, his stance on abortion has been one of political convenience, not belief. The hew and cry went up across the internet and within a day, he was changing his tune. Again.
"All of that stuff is unacceptable so I will be voting no for that reason."
Spaghetti meet floor.
He talked about IVF - which all but two Senate Republicans voted against when the Right To IVF Act came up in June - now he is saying the government will pay for it or make insurance companies pay for it, whichever, whatever. Fling that pasta!
And then there was this:
Not a single member of the media will make him address this further. It’s insane. But they’ll likely just let it slide. https://t.co/VVI7k2PD0L
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 2, 2024
Nowhere has this ever happened. Nowhere is this ever happening. Yet there he is pulling the most farfetched, ridiculous, easily disproved bullshit from his facial rectum and it goes unchallenged. Parents, your children are not going to school, disappearing for days, being subjected to gender reassignment surgeries, and then showing up at home. It's just more of his tactic to say the most outlandish shit possible, knowing his cultists will believe anything. Look, stay stupid if that's your choice. But do not weaponize your stupidity against subjects and people you do not understand and that do not, in any way, affect your life. Like the bullshit talking point of abortions after birth, this one is also pure fantasy.
The reality is this. His position is he has no true positions. On anything. Except him being Supreme Leader and staying out of prison. And with Labor Day now upon us and the election coming into the homestretch, he is the John Cusack of candidates - he will say anything he thinks will sway a few votes more his direction.
Social Security? Medicare? Safe and safe! Even though Project 2025 clearly spells out their eradication.
You know, once upon a time, campaign verbiage like "A chicken in every pot!" was headline making. But it was also basically benign. Nowadays, the things being campaigned on have much more dire consequences for the electorate. And words matter. Or they should.
Unfortunately, when it comes to Trump, the media has zero desire to even point out the floor covered in spaghetti, let alone make him own his mess. He is flailing and falling apart in front of our eyes and the media simply will no longer do their job. It's up to us to pay attention, stay the course, and adhere to the biggest assignment we have: All gas, no brakes.
And no spaghetti.
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