Monday, July 9, 2018

The Real Media Bias


Trump and his supporters are constantly complaining about media bias against Trump in comparison to Obama's media coverage.

 

As to reporting on the economy however, the opposite in fact has been true. Sadly a large part of the blame can be attributed to Sanders/ Warrens and the Progressives.

 

By every measure - GDP, jobs created, unemployment, wages, and the stock  market - the Obama economy was at least comparable to what's been  happening since Trump took office.

 

Yet we are told that the economy is now at last roaring and that things have gotten so much better economically, all thanks to Trump.

 

Trump says it so, the GOP says "amen", and the media reports it as gospel.

 

Part of the blame belongs to Sanders, Warren and the other Progressives . Notwithstanding the strong recovery under Obama, they still focused on the fact that wages had not increased much. The media also  emphasized this one negative.

 

Well guess what, they haven't gone up much under Trump either, but that hasn't stopped the GOP from bragging the great economy.

 

Even Obama himself is partly to blame, at least when it came to the stock market. He refused to tout, let alone take credit for, the skyrocketing stock market under his tenure.

 He apparently bought into the Progressives' argument that the stock market only benefited rich people, and that it would unseemly to tout its success.

Trump and the GOP have no such inhibitions, and it turns out most Americans apparently agree with them given their 401k, pension funds, mutual funds etc. have done well.

Notwithstanding the real facts, the Trump and GOP narrative is that things are so much better now than under the disastrous Obama administration.

It's just not true, and the media has been relatively quiet about that. Now that's what I call media bias.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Lie-gate

Adam Schiff coined this perfect decription of everything Donald Trump.
Now the phrase Lie-gate needs to go viral.

Whoever may read this , pass it on.

Let’s hoist Trump on his own petard .

Monday, May 21, 2018

Russia Probe- Back to Basics

The Russian investigation is about Russian Illegal interference in our Presidential election.  

Let’s not forget that is the basic inquiry. 

Not collusion, not obstruction of justice - those are follow on matters. 

The basic Russian investigation therefore is not a witch hunt or a hoax.

Trump is trying to obfuscate this basic issue with this repeated assertions of “no collusion “.  That’s not the basic issue of the investigation. 

Trump objects to the entire Russian investigation in our election because it put the legitimacy of his election into doubt. 

He’s right; his election was not legitimate. 

Whatever happens with Mueller probe, that conclusion will not change no matter what Trump claims. 

Eric

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Words and Meanings - Korean Style

Once again I exam the differences in words and meanings - this time with respect to Korea and nuclear weapons.

US policy and President Trump demand that Korea give up its nuclear weapons .

Kim Jung Un is reported to say he’s in favor of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula .

According to Trump that was a big win for his aggressive, indeed bellicose , policies and rhetoric regarding North Korea. He touted that, at long last , North Korea was considering giving up its nuclear weapons program.

Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

What Kim means by denuclearization is not the removal of nuclear weapons from the entire Korean Peninsula, but also the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea and the end of the US South Korean alliance and protection of South Korea. His use of " denuclearization" is nothing new. His father and grandfather has called for that for decades.

Given that American support includes potential use our nuclear weapons in Korea ( our nuclear umbrella), that’s his definition of denuclearization.

Wow, talk about a big difference in words and meanings. Of course Trump doesn't care, and may not even know this, and his supporters think he's accomplishing great things. 


It will be interesting to see what,if anything,happens.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Korean War Peace Treaty- "Only Nixon Could Go To China"

 North Korea has played Trump beautifully, and could possibly end up with its ultimate goal of preserving  its regime and recognition of its legitimacy internationally, in exchange for freezing or even eliminating its nuclear weapons capacity through a peace treaty ending the Korean War.

 Remember, conveniently, we are still at war since hostilities have only ceased under an armistice. 

 Such a peace treaty is best choice for North Korea.  It doesn’t really care about attacking the US or even South Korea. What it really wants is its own security. What else would it want to do with its nuclear weapons ? North Korea doesn't want to conquer or attack the US or even South Korea.

 The “easy” way to do it is to end the Korean War with a formal internationally recognized peace treaty between US and South Korea and North Korea.

 No Democrat could ever even propose such a peace treaty. The Republicans and Conservatives would “crucify” a Democratic President as surrendering to evil North Korea.
 
 But,  just as “only Nixon could go to China”, so to  only Trump could agree to such a peace treaty with North Korea .

 He’d tout it as a win by eliminating the North Korean nuclear threat ( true enough, perhaps)  but in reality it would be the successful conclusion of North Korea’s existential goals; at a very acceptable cost.

 No regime change and international recognition of its legitimacy. This has been North Korea’s one and only goal.

 No Democrat could give it to them, but Trump could.

 Trump gets a win, the world breathes a sigh of relief , but North Korea is the real big winner.

 Mission Accomplished, Kim Jung-Un.

Observations

1. Why aren’t there any conservative, right wing or pro- Trump comedy or late night TV shows?

 No sense of humor?

2. Where are the great protest songs?

 I haven’t heard any during this Trump era.

3. After Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decision, I thought gun owners could relax and allow sensible reasonable gun reforms. Their guns were safe.

  The opposite happened. Why?

4. Don’t Republicans care about deficits and the national debt anymore?

Watch out for the Bond Vigilantes.

5. Contrary to what Trump and Fox News says , almost every country in the world , except those ruled by authoritarians, dictators, kings and thugs, and sadly Israel,
have lost respect for America and hate Trump.


How is it the Trumpkins believe the opposite is true?

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Guns, Patriotism and America

Reasonable , sensible restrictions on guns, and gun safety laws, are constitutionally permissible, even according to the late Justice Scalia.

Why then does the NRA , and their core supporters, so adamantly oppose virtually any such restrictions or reforms?

 Perhaps if the broader public understood the real reason behind the NRA’s opposition to any kind of reform or restrictions , Congress would take action.

 The real reason is they hate America and don’t trust our government.

They are actually unpatriotic. Ironically, they say they love America,  and that it’s the government they hate and don’t trust. However what is America if not our government based on our Constitution? Deep down they are in reality anti- American , at least the America most of us love and respect. The issues of personal protection from criminals , hunting and recreational gun use are not the real reasons they are against gun reforms.

They believe they need protection from government tyranny.  They are willing to let the slaughter of children in schools, and gangs and innocent bystanders in our cities, go on unabated all because of their paranoid obsession against our government.

Don't they realize their guns would not protect them from real government tyranny. No matter what kind of arsenal they might have, they'd be no match against  trained troops with tanks, artillery, combat weapons, mechanized armored personnel carriers, etc. ; let alone F-16s and  Hell Fire cruise  missiles and drones !! 

 If the general public understood what really motivates the NRA and their supporters maybe they would see the NRA as the unpatriotic UnAmerican organization that it is .  Only then would the NRA be discredited as unpatriotic , it’s grip on Congress released, and real reasonable gun safety reform  be enacted.