Had to take a few days off from blogging due to a sinus infection, accompanied by a terrible sinus headache that wouldn’t quit. A trip to the doctor and meds have me back to feeling like I’ll survive:-)
The political situation continues the same gloomy trend. The Clinton/Obama/Democratic Party machines went full-throttle into Trump Derangement Syndrome, with endless liberal media collusion to hype Trump as evil incarnate. Most of this “news” coverage does more to expose the media’s corrupt collusion with liberal politicians and ideology than to does to expose actual Trump corruption. The media now moved past the “boy who cried wolf” one too many times and hardly anyone believes their histrionics and hysterical warnings anymore.
The above clip is liberal flamethrower, Bill Maher, admitting he went over the top demonizing GW Bush, Romney and McCain, but hey, trust him now on his demonizing Trump.
Facebook is on a new crusade to stamp out “fake” news, which should be interesting considering the “real” news media, through Wikileaks leaks, has been exposed actively colluding with the Clinton campaign repeatedly. CNN went so far as to doctor a photo of a Trump tweet on their broadcast media, removing the word “Crooked” from his tweet:
August 29, 2016: http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/08/29/watch-cnn-alters-trump-tweet-by-scrubbing-crooked-moniker-to-describe-hillary/
August 29, 2016: Then CNN online ran the unedited tweet, but never acknowledged they had doctored the Trump tweet during their broadcast: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/28/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-medical-records/index.html
Now, the hand-wringers on the left, trying to make sense of Trump’s win, have focused on “fake news” that was “pro-Trump” and “anti-Hillary” on facebook as a big part of the “problem”. Jennifer Palmeiri was on Twitter warning people not to trust Wikileaks, when the reality is because of decades of liberal media becoming a political tool of the Clinton “SPIN cycle”, many Americans would trust a Russian front over American news organizations. The mainstream media lost most of its credibility, because there wasn’t just “liberal bias”, there was corrupt, deliberate media collusion.
Irony knows no bounds these days, with President Obama, King of made-up NARRATIVES, waxing on about the dangers of “fake news” and “propaganda”:
“If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not — and particularly in an age of social media where so many people are getting their information in soundbites and snippets off their phones — if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems,” he said. “If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect. We won’t know what to fight for. And we can lose so much of what we’ve gained in terms of the kind of democratic freedoms and market-based economies and prosperity that we’ve come to take for granted.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/11/17/fake-news-threatens-democracy-obama-says/94045428/
Yes. Mr. President, I agree, “fake news” does threaten democracy! And you spent 8 years spreading your NARRATIVES!
The mainstream media bought into treating the Clinton”spin cycle” as legitimate political PR, in the 90s, rather than exposing it as:
Dangerous political propaganda that turned private news corporations into little more than party political tools to “saturate the media messaging with political talking points”.
Wikileaks, thus far, has over a decade record of reporting factual information (sure it’s stolen information, but so far they haven’t been caught doctoring the information).
The Clinton SPIN cycle advanced to the Obama NARRATIVES, where the Obama administration writes completely fabricated stories – like the obscure video causing the attack in Benghazi, like Bowe Bergdahl served with honor and distinction, like 50 military intelligence officials in Iraq complaining that higher-ups were doctoring their reports to fit the Obama narrative:
“Two senior analysts at CENTCOM signed a written complaint sent to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that the reports, some of which were briefed to President Obama, portrayed the terror groups as weaker than the analysts believe they are. The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS and al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the analysts claim.
That complaint was supported by 50 other analysts, some of whom have complained about politicizing of intelligence reports for months. That’s according to 11 individuals who are knowledgeable about the details of the report and who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.
The accusations suggest that a large number of people tracking the inner workings of the terror groups think that their reports are being manipulated to fit a public narrative. The allegations echoed charges that political appointees and senior officials cherry-picked intelligence about Iraq’s supposed weapons program in 2002 and 2003.”
President Obama still maintains high approval ratings and the liberal media establishment still loves him and works feverishly to paint any criticisms of his very corrupt administration as being racist attacks or coming from “haters”. The thing that alarmed me about President Obama is the same thing that alarms me about President-elect Trump -they both managed to defeat the Clinton SPIN cycle, with their own even more corrupt scorched earth campaigns.
With President Obama, the SPIN morphed into NARRATIVES, with the complete fawning adoration of the mainstream media, becoming willing fabulists selling the Obama administration fabricated stories.
Trump won his “GOP Insurgency” primary with billions of dollars in free media from the liberal media, who intended to help Hillary in the general, by promoting what the Clinton camp deemed the “Pied Piper” primary candidates. He won the general with savvy social media usage, large rally rabble-rousing, massive leaking from a Russian front organization and Hillary Clinton’s terrible campaign messaging. Where Trump goes from here remains to be seen, but I for one am not optimistic.
Trump and Obama beat the Clinton SPIN machine by being more corrupt and willing to wage no holds barred scorched earth campaigns. Trump was willing to say anything and throw and repeat any dirt, regardless if there was any truth to it, in fact he is very comfortable to ad lib, on the spot, and make up “facts” or to repeat internet “stories”, without any “fact-checking”. This bodes poorly for a US presidency and even more poorly for honest government. You can’t drain the swamp when you are a monster of that swamp. Trump has been an avid participant in public corruption for decades.
Sure, it’s fine to be optimistic and believe Trump’s going to be a transformative president, who will make America great again, but I believe that character defines each and every one of us. While many reporters were busily trying to pin down Trump’s political ideology when he entered the 2016 race, I was busily trying to pin down Trump’s character.
Immediately it became apparent that he and Hillary Clinton have much in common, just like Trump has much in common with Bill Clinton and President Obama. Their main common character trait is all of them are pathological liars, who will say and do anything to promote themselves. Lots of people get hostile when terms like “sociopath” get tossed out and attacks of how that’s so wrong to use that “clinical term” without being a mental health professional are sure to follow. Well, since this is a personal blog, not a news site, I am going to say that in my opinion, I believe that Obama is an extreme political ideologue, who will say or do anything to promote his political agenda and legacy, but I believe that the Clintons and Trump are extreme sociopaths, who will say or do anything to promote themselves.
I believe the problem with extreme sociopaths is it’s hard to predict what events and catalysts will push them over the edge to becoming uncontrolled psychopaths. That’s my opinion. Unchecked power is poisonous to people who do not believe rules apply to them.
Back in August 2015, I wrote:
Last week I bought one of Trump’s books, as I mentioned before, and I read it. Assuredly, Trump offered many interesting insights into, as the book’s title stated, “TRUMP: How to Get Rich”. The pride he takes in his children comes across and he offers some worthwhile advice on investing and negotiating, but trying to get to the character of who exactly is Donald Trump, well, he’s a man who has chapters in his book like “Be Strategically Dramatic”, “Sometimes You Still Have To Screw Them”, and “Sometimes You Have To Hold a Grudge”, replete with examples from his life and his guiding principles. Here are some quotes (page 138):
“When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can. Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.”
Be paranoid. I know this observation doesn’t make any of us sound very good, but let’s face the fact that it’s possible that even your best friend wants to steal your spouse and your money.”
The chapter on holding a grudge is even more interesting, because Trump relates how for years he had donated huge amounts of money to NY governor, Mario Cuomo and when he called Cuomo to ask for a favor from Cuomo’s son, Andrew, who was running the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mario Cuomo refused to do the favor (which Trump doesn’t explain in detail other than to say it was an appropriate favor involving attention to a detail). Trump blew up and for any who are confused with Trump’s vendetta against Megyn Kelly on Twitter, calling her a bimbo last night or his refusing to entertain a question by Jorge Ramos from Univision this evening, well, this chapter on holding a grudge (page 142) explains it. Trump called in a political favor believing it was owed to him, because he donated a lot of money to Mario Cuomo (crony capitalism is what most people call this greasing of palms). Here is how Trump describes the phone call:
“I did the only thing that felt right to me. I began screaming. “You son of a bitch! For years I’ve helped you and never asked for a thing, and when I finally need something, and a totally proper thing at that, you aren’t there for me. You’re no good. You’re one of the most disloyal people I’ve known and as far as I’m concerned, you can go to hell.”
My screaming was so loud that two or three people came in from adjoining offices and asked who I was screaming at. I told them it was Mario Cuomo., a total stiff, a lousy governor, and a disloyal former friend. Now whenever I see Mario at dinner, I refuse to acknowledge him, talk to him, or even look at him.”
When you hear Trump whining about being treated unfairly, here’s what I believe he means: If you agree with him, fawn over him and puff up his ego, that’s treating him fairly. If you disagree or criticize him, I believe, he will wage an all out campaign to destroy you. So, I keep wondering how his character will play in the long, arduous rough and tumble of presidential politics, where being ripped apart by opposition research, pundits and reporters only escalates as the campaign wears on. We’ve got plenty of rounds to go, so it’s certainly not going to be boring.
https://libertybellediaries.com/2015/08/25/trumps-his-own-bimbo-eruption/
For America’s sake, I hope Trump far exceeds my expectations. I hope I am wrong.
libertybelle diaries 
I am so sorry to hear about your sinus infection. My sister and niece, and my son and Daughter-in-law use the Neti pot. It feels to me a bit like water boarding, or how I imagine water-boarding would feel, but they swear by their little pots. My wife even had a doctor recommend it to her, but she is less likely than i am to go that route. Still, all the best, and better health this week. Prayers ascending for Susan. (After all, He knows the family names.).
Thanks Michael, Glad to be on the mend. Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!