Opposition Media Grades on a Strange Curve

Don’t you hate it when your optimism proves unfounded?

He entered the New Year riding a wave of what appeared to be unprecedented political support — the most for a Republican in quite a few years. And what happened? Legislative fumbles in the first 100 days, and the second 100 days for that matter, produced story after story in the Opposition Media claiming the legislative honeymoon was over before it began.

Then there was the unseemly internal bickering with other Republican leaders, again extensively covered by the OpMedia. Externally, there were high–profile failures to honor major campaign promises.

And don’t forget the politically tin–eared statements to the media that alienated independent voters and kept critical news coverage going during any lulls between major upsets. This resulted in a collapse in his approval rating with both base and swing voters — possibly a crucial setback to any chance of re–election.

Analyzing this collapse is where the OpMedia’s grading on a strange curve comes into play. This master of political disaster who’s frittered away a huge opportunity is not Donald Trump. It’s the Curator of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, currently a political dead man walking. And still the OpMedia treats McConnell like he’s the politician completely in tune with the electorate.

A recent Public Policy Polling survey discovered that McConnell’s strategy of keeping Senate rules dusted, lubricated and running smoothly until the Democrats take control again is a loser with voters that expected results. McConnell’s approval rating is a laughable 18 percent, while his disapproval rating is a stunning 74 percent.  And this isn’t a nationwide poll where voters know little regarding McConnell other than the fact he’s chairman of the Can’t Do Caucus.

This is a Kentucky poll in his home state!

Among GOP voters McConnell’s approval is underwater at 28 percent approve and 64 percent disapprove. Independent voters are even more disdainful. Only 4 percent approve and 81 percent disapprove of McConnell’s lack of performance.

Compare McConnell’s pathetic home state numbers with Trump’s Kentucky numbers. Overall 60 percent approve of Trump’s performance and 36 percent disapprove. Among Republicans Trump’s support is almost four times that of McConnell, 86 to 28 percent. Independents favor Trump over McConnell by a factor of 14: 56 percent for Trump and 4 percent for Mitch.

The news hook here should be McConnell blocks Trump agenda and his support collapses at home. Instead, we get warnings that it’s a dangerous strategy for Trump to confront McConnell and the establishment GOP in the Senate and House.

National Review, which remains a hotbed of Never Trumpers, contends that instead of making senators who oppose him pay a price politically, Trump should be grateful for any crumbs that fall from legislative pygmy McConnell’s table.

Both the National Review and the Washington Post have identified the problem, but refuse to consider any remedy that doesn’t involve appeasement. The WaPost says, “For some time, it has been apparent that members of Congress do not fear the president” and NR writes, senators “not sufficiently scared of the White House.” That lack of respect, combined with the political classes’ disdain and personal contempt for Trump, means the usual hearts–and–minds strategy won’t produce the results Trump promised his voters.

That’s why his visit to Arizona was so encouraging. Arizona is home to the serial betraying RINO Sen. John McCain and the disrespectful Sen. Jeff Flake, who is up for re–election in 2018. Prior to his visit Trump tweeted an almost endorsement of Flake’s primary challenger Kelli Ward. On the ground Trump met with two other potential Flake challengers.

That’s a great start, but if Trump really wants to defeat Flake and send an unmistakable message he needs to take two more steps. First he needs to fund his own political action committee and fund it with $50 to 75 million of his own money. Second, he needs to persuade Arizona conservatives to settle on a single Flake challenger. Once that’s done he can conduct an independent expenditure campaign on the challenger’s behalf.

Trump can consider adding Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Tennessee’s Bob Coker to the target list. Nothing motivates senate slugs like a threat to their self–interest. As on again, off again Trump advisor Roger Stone told the New York Times, “the GOP will fall in line once Trump has “taken a scalp” and starts “bumping off Republican members of Congress in primaries.”

Playing nice didn’t win the presidential primary for Trump and playing nice with a GOP senate, that holds him in as much contempt as Jeb Bush did, won’t either. Harry Truman ran against a “Do Nothing” Republican Congress and won. Donald Trump can run and win against another GOP Congress. Only now he demands it “Do Something!”

Temple to Journalist’s Self–Regard Falls on Hard Times

Evidently, America just wasn’t that in to you.

The Newseum, a 250,000–square–foot Nexus of Narcissism for America’s journalists is in danger of closing. Originally opened 20 years ago, the Newseum is journalism’s valentine to itself. A museum designed to tell a breathless public everything it could possibly want to know about all that’s warm and wonderful about reporters.

That’s a tough sell when journalists are tied with lawyers in the public’s disdain ranking.

A better way to think of the Newseum is as a celebration of the interpreters of an event rather than the event itself.

I’m sure if historians were mentioned in the Constitution, that profession might have tried the same gambit. Fortunately we’ve been spared the “Histeum.”

The media, as it never tires of telling us, is mentioned in the Constitution and to prove it the Newseum has the First Amendment etched on the front of this Pennsylvania Avenue Preening Palace, but that’s only window dressing.

It would have been more fitting to simply install the world’s largest mirror so the Opposition Media could admire itself as members of the profession entered the building.

This tangible demonstration of the journalistic ego contains 250,000 square feet of exhibit space, PLUS 15 theaters, a conference center, parking garage, apartments AND a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

For comparison purposes we have two other museums dedicated to the 2^nd Amendment — also in the Constitution although journalists often pretend otherwise. The NRA National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, VA is only 15,000–square–feet and the J. M. Davis Arms Museum in Claremore, OK totals another 40,000–square–feet. This makes the combined total less than 20 percent of Battleship News.

The Newseum was originally founded in Arlington, VA but as far was the sophisticates who ran the place were concerned they may as well have been in Claremore. They longed for the bright lights. So in 2008 the facility moved to Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol.

Timing couldn’t have been worse. The Newseum greatly increased its expenses just when the journalism profession was beginning its long slow decline. A mausoleum would have made more sense.

Newseum marketers had as much trouble convincing tourists to visit as journalists had convincing those same Middle Americans to vote for Hillary. Adult tickets costing $24.95 didn’t help either. While the National Air and Space Museum had 7 million visitors in 2016 the Newseum had a mere 800,000, which according to the Washington Post, brought in $7.5 million in revenue.

Even hijacking captive audiences of school children on field trips, PR events trying to buy journo good will and industry confabs weren’t enough to cover the operating nut. To keep the Newseum from closing like a suburban newspaper, the Freedom Forum, formerly the Gannett Foundation, has been pumping approximately $20 million a year into the budget for a total of $500 million.

That’s a lot of money for a vanity project.

I’m a journalist myself and I never had any interest in visiting “my” museum.

In WaPost coverage of the Newseum’s problems mention is made of some of the more interesting exhibits, like the “interactive displays and exhibitions on 9/11, the FBI and the Unabomber, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Newer exhibitions include one on the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement and ‘First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Pets.’”

But the exhibits are all derivative. Journalists didn’t accomplish any of those events. They observed those events. Heck, they didn’t even clean up after the presidential dogs!

Visiting the Newseum and expecting a firsthand experience is like going to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant and instead of being allowed to eat, they hand you a copy of the food critic’s review.

I’ve been trying to think about what would get me to visit and I came up with a list of journalistically–related exhibits that have real tourist interest:

• An animatronic display with a copy editor — like Lincoln at Disneyland — explaing the proper usage of “fewer” versus “less” and why beer doesn’t need an ‘s’ to be plural
• A small, tasteful display with the last vestige of CNN’s credibility
• Brian William’s bullet–holed Katrina ballistic vest
• Hillary’s 35,000 email messages
• Katie Couric’s before and after facelift photos
• The last offering envelope used by a major network anchor
• And the biggest attraction of all: The Ark of Political Correctness

If the staff wants to adopt any of my ideas, they’re going to have to move fast. The Freedom Forum is getting ready to turn off the subsidy spigot. As Wayne Reynolds, a former Newseum board member put it, “Who would give them money when they were losing $30 million a year? People typically don’t want to salvage a sinking ship.”

Let’s Revive Extreme Vetting for Politicians

It’s amazing the American public can be so right in general and so wrong in particular when it comes to evaluating Congress. The Gallup survey found the approval rating for Congress as a whole is currently a dismal 20 percent. This means our DC swamp denizens are tied with members of the opposition media, lawyers and car salesmen when it comes to the public’s general distaste.

But at the same time, when rating their individual member of Congress, the public gives that representative a much better grade of nearly 50 percent. Somehow the fact their representative is part and parcel of the entire wretched institution escapes voters.

On Election Day the situation is even worse.

We’re told in most cases familiarity breeds contempt. In politics familiarity evidently stupefies, because an absolutely stunning 98 percent of the incumbents up for re–election in 2016 were returned to office.

Members of Congress are evidently as hard to fire as employees of the Veterans Administration.

Re–elect numbers at the sure thing level only serve to make Republican cowardice when faced with the daunting prospect of keeping their promises that much more repugnant. Sending the same people back election after election only guarantees voters will get the same lack of results election after election.

What’s the solution? Strange as it may seem Mexico may have a suggestion and I don’t mean revolution or cartel government. Find out by clicking the link below and finish the column at Newsmax:

https://www.newsmax.com/MichaelShannon/constitution-military-tlaxcallan/2017/08/15/id/807832/

 

DACA: Delayed Accountability for Contemptuous Aliens

Remember when candidate Donald Trump promised when he was president, “We’re going to win so much. You’re going to get tired of winning.”?

Evidently, the president pooped out before we did.

The latest issue where President Trump is too tired to win is DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival. This unconstitutional Obama fatwa ordered immigration authorities to give work permits, green cards, implied future citizenship and a stolen identity to illegal alien children brought here by their equally illegal parents.

The fact this particular subset of the illegal alien invasion is composed of children is supposed to make normally clear–thinking conservatives all dewy–eyed and sympathetic.

And I am sympathetic. I think it would be cruel to make these illegals fly back to their own country on Spirit Air, so taxpayers should be willing to spring for a ticket on United.

But there ends my sympathy.

Adhering to the rule of law is a difficult topic for leftists to grasp since race, class and ideology take priority and their law enforcement is subject to outside circumstance and political popularity. For those who think laws should apply equally to everyone, the concept of “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” is relevant here.

Cornell defines it as, “A doctrine that extends the exclusionary rule to make evidence inadmissible in court if it was derived from evidence that was illegally obtained. As the metaphor suggests, if the evidential “tree” is tainted, so is its “fruit.”

The same rule should apply to DACA. When the parents cross the border and break the law the children shouldn’t benefit from their crime.

The left’s response is always “they were children and didn’t know the law was being broken.” Fine, the kids didn’t know dad shoplifted the Xbox either, but they don’t get to continue playing Grand Theft Auto when the cops arrive.

So if those kids forfeit an Xbox worth under $500, why should illegals be allowed to keep benefits worth vastly more?

[Curious note: Both the shoplifter parent and the illegal parent claimed they broke the law because they “wanted to give their families a better life.”]

We owe nothing to DACA participants wrapped in Mexican flags and burning US flags, while demonstrating the aggressive dependency that characterizes much of the immigration controversy. Their beef is with lousy parents who took a gamble and lost.

The issue shouldn’t really be this difficult for Republicans to understand either. We had a referendum! Out of the 14 serious candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, nine were in favor of giving DACA participants US citizenship or some form of amnesty. And guess what? Not one of the nine gained the nomination or won the presidency.

The guy that won promised to end DACA on Day One.

Ending DACA won’t lose votes for President Trump. Ninty–nine percent of the DACA supporters who could legally vote, voted for Hillary.

Waffling on DACA is the vote loser because it betrays Trump’s base.

Republican appeasers are recycling the same arguments voters soundly rejected 2016. They fear applying the law equally will ruin Republicans with Hispaniards for generations. What else is new? Ethnic supremacy groups have been holding funerals for the GOP since the turn of this century and the corpse keeps leaping up from the grave.

When Republicans do cave in to illegal alien demands, the party realizes no benefit. Ronald Reagan signed the bill that granted citizenship to 3 million illegals and they rewarded him by voting Democrat.

In this week’s frenzy to cater to minor criminals two polls supposedly show overwhelming support, but the data, like GOP open border sellouts, can’t be trusted.

The questions are misleading. In the Politico poll, supposedly proving “overwhelming” support for DACA, there are no specific conditions listed, only “certain requirements,” which is polling fantasy.

That’s like asking if the Cleveland Browns will win the Super Bowl if the team “meets certain requirements.”

The NBC poll is equally doctored. DACA delinquents are termed “undocumented immigrants” instead of the understandable “illegal alien” in a sleazy attempt to boost support.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–Appeasement) claims the decision on DACA is a “defining moment” for Republicans. He’s right, but not in the way he thinks. Fact is these moochers had quite a run in the US. They attended schools they didn’t pay for, demanded green cards they didn’t merit and took welfare benefits they didn’t deserve. Now it’s time to say thanks go home.

Graham, and now Trump, appear to be embracing a DACA “fix” that keeps illegals in the US while causing a mass exodus of conservatives from the GOP. It’s a victory for the left, parasitic businesses and Republican swamp leeches.

There’s already a “fix” that keeps a Trump campaign promise and begins solving our immigration problem. That “fix” is ending DACA.

Is a Shortage of Brownies Next?

What a man considers a crisis tells us a lot about his character. In the past governors have declared a state of emergency for hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, riots, epidemics, crime waves, Trump rallies and earthquakes.

Evidently in Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval thinks those problems are too 20^th Century for him. He’s declared a state of emergency because Nevada is running out of marijuana! Maybe Sandoval had a severe case of the munchies that clouded his thinking or maybe his priorities are just different, but mobilizing the state government because of a “wacky tobaccy” shortage breaks new ground in emphasizing trivialities.

Nevada has legalized the sale of mota for “recreational” uses (are there truthfully any other?) and just two weeks after the chronic crop went on sale retailers began warning their supply is almost down to seeds and stems.

Personally I question the need for a state of emergency. I was under the impression maryjane users were a calm, mellow lot more prone to expressing outrage if stores ran low on Cheetos after a “bake sale.”

While it was the sellers who were more prone to violence.

Yet blaming the governor for the laughing grass shortage is probably unfair, since he didn’t support dope legalization in the first place. The blame rests on a supposedly “conservative” Republican legislature that let crony capitalism get in the way of the competition they allegedly support.

So what did the legislature do? How could it foul up something as simple as legalization? Why do I feel strangely lethargic and uncompelled to post the Newsmax link?

Okay, I’m better now. Complete details available at:

https://www.newsmax.com/MichaelShannon/marijuana-mary-jane-yerba/2017/08/08/id/806537/

 

Discovery of Trumpophobia Would Help Deplorables

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This was a singularly unpopular column. Only one of the subscribing news outlets of the Cagle Syndicate chose to run it. See if you can guess why.)

The last couple of weeks have been so stressful for Trump voters that conversion to Islam is looking increasingly attractive as a means of avoiding media scrutiny.

The fact is both Trumpistas and the Umma bear a certain similarity. Trump voters and Moslems both adhere to the instruction of man whose example, in at least some instances, is wildly out of sync with contemporary mores — even if specifics differ.

[Note on “Moslem.” Muslim is an Arabic word. I’m not an Arab so I use the English term Moslem. Do we call the Germans the Deutschen? Are the Hindus the Hindoos? Of course not. Enforcing Muslim instead of the perfectly good Moslem is another example of the cultural coddling extended to Islam that is found nowhere else and is the basis of this column.]

Take women for instance. Both had multiple wives, Mohammed simultaneously and Trump consecutively. In parts of the Islamic world the attraction of women is viewed as so powerful they are hidden in gunnysacks. Trump is in agreement, but he paraded women in bikinis down a runway.

Trump speculated regarding the results of groping women, while Islamic scholars have rules for beating women. Islam is plagued by female honor killings, while Trump’s tweets claim some females are dishonorable. And both groups must contend with fallout from the more zealous adherents.

In the Moslem case it’s jihadis and in the Deplorables case it’s Trump.

Yet the aftermath after major Religion of Peace incident is the complete opposite of the recriminations that ensue after a major Trump incident.

In Barcelona jihadis attacked a crowd of pedestrians with a rented van. The resulting toll was 15 dead and 120 wounded. This attack was actually the second of three that began with the explosion of a bomb manufacturing operation and ended with another vehicle attack that saw five jihadis shot dead.

In Charlottesville, VA there was only one event, a Nazi and bigots protest in favor of retaining statues of Civil War heroes who also happened to be slave owners. Counter protesters appeared on the scene and in the resulting violence a woman that was part of the mob protesting the protesters was killed by one of the bigots.

In Spain, even before the last jihadi was caught, the media herd feared a potential outbreak of “Islamophobia.” Yahoo News warned, “Muslims Fear Anti–Islam backlash in Tolerant Barcelona.” While area hospitals were still treating victims in critical condition, one Moslem woman griped, “In the end Muslims are the main victims, for the deaths as well as for the social pressure.”

And the media doesn’t contact a single one of the real victims for a word in response.

Here in the US not only is there no concern regarding an outbreak of Trumpophobia after an incident, the Opposition Media is handing out infected blankets.

It didn’t help that Trumps thumbs are no more articulate than his lips. A tweet that was supposed to condemn ALL the violence in Charlottesville doesn’t measure up to the OpMedia’s content standards. Trump is therefore accused of giving aid and comfort to Nazis and bigots.

Trump wasn’t even part of the Charlottesville march, but the OpMedia contends he bears responsibility because the bigots were white and presumably some were Trump voters.

Naturally this means all Trump supporters are equally guilty.

Corporate CEOs on Trump advisory boards smell the tar bubbling and they begin to resign in a huff. A pastor on a religious advisory board can’t stand to associate with a man who tweets so poorly and he resigns.

The trickle–down opprobrium continues.

There’s a rally in Boston a few days later and one of the signs reads, “White Silence Is Violence.” What are the chances of ever seeing a sign that reads, “Moslem Silence Is Violence”?

Lest someone get the idea there is a nexus between terrorism and Islam, the Washington Post assures readers there is no fallout in Barcelona businesses run by Moslems. A computer storeowner is immune to bombing backlash, as is a nearby grocery store owner. I’m sure customers would be happy to step over the debris to shop if it meant staving off an outbreak of the dreaded Islamophobia.

Meanwhile here in the US the CEO of Camping World has told customers who agree with Trump to shop somewhere else. The guilt by association even extends to pre–Charlottesville bumper stickers. A week ago my wife made the mistake of driving down the road in Virginia with a Trump/Pence sticker on her car.

A tolerant advocate of peace and love began honking at her and making obscene gestures before she cut my wife off.

While Spain is avoiding “a post attack culture war” the opposition media and the commentariat here appear to be doing their best to fan the flames. Trump voters who own a business should be bankrupted. Trump voters who own a checkbook should shop elsewhere. Trump voters who attend college should take a vow of silence.

I suppose the only hope for relief is for Trumpistas to convince the OpMedia there are “moderate Trump voters” worth cultivating. It worked for the mullahs in Iran, maybe it will work here.