A few years ago I somehow got myself involuntarily added to the distribution list for a Washington Post email brief called PowerPost: The Daily 202 (byline: “Morning intelligence for leaders.” LOL.)
I used to scan the thing along with my other daily updates, but I rarely found content interesting enough to think about (much less write about). See, these 202 peeps are the embodiment of modern corporate “journalism” in the 21st century US of A. They seem to fancy themselves “objective”—you know, all fair-n-balanced like—which is to say they are so far up the ass of the status quo they can see Chuck Schumer’s tonsils.
Over the course of 2016 these 202 missives became increasingly tedious and irritating, framing the major party primaries and then the general election as little more than an amusing horse race, the kind upon which gentlemen might have a friendly wager and follow up with a round of cocktails at the club. Why, it’s almost as if these 202 people are mostly a bunch of relatively wealthy, educated, native-born, able, cis, straight white d00ds who like to sneer at identity politics* and personally have almost nothing on the line in an election except a few percentage points in their marginal tax rates. Unlike pretty much literally everybody else. Anyway, eventually I’d just delete these 202 emails without reading anything more than the subject line, and that only for good snicker.
And then along comes today’s missive:
From: The Washington Post <email@e.washingtonpost.com>
Subject: The Daily 202: Even when Trump shows backbone, his haters refuse to give him any credit
Date: January 4, 2017 at 10:11:53 AM EST
OMFG. Has anyone, anywhere, ever accused the Trumpster of not showing backbone? Jeezus fucking Christ the Donald consists of nothing but a blowy skull form connected to a rock solid spine. For himself as well as his fellow conservative authoritarians, it makes no difference whatsoever whether he’s spouting anything even remotely connected to reality; it only matters whether he’s rock solid certain of it.
The rest of the 202 brief is just as revolting as it is embarrassing. It’s all about the optics:
[T]he Carrier deal, while problematic for a myriad of reasons, was such a political coup for Trump. Same with the attacks on Boeing and all the jobs announcements. Regardless of whether he deserves credit – in many cases he does not — he looks like a man of action.
He LOOKS LIKE a man of action, people! What more would you ever want in a US president? Also, “political coup” now means “getting corporate media to uncritically broadcast your false narrative 24/7.” Please make a note of it.
Yes, Trump technically criticized the timing of the House GOP’s move [to gut the House Ethics Committee]– not the substance of it.
Backbone, everyone! He’s a goddamn hero statesman standing up for Ethics in Government™ for a few minutes, that’s what he is. You goddamn lefties should be grateful.
Even two months after the election, neutral stories about the president-elect can still provoke hundreds of liberal activists to email that we are “normalizing” Trump.
Wait, hundreds of liberal activists read the Post? Huh. Well I suppose their emailing these 202 assholes is one piece of good news. Not that the Post editors see it that way. Engaged readers? Concerned about democracy? The fucking First Amendment? Pffft. NEWSFLASH: (<-hahaha see what I did there?) “neutral” stories about the president-elect are not A Thing That Exists In The World. Normalizing a Trump presidency is not neutral. Status-quo affirming propaganda is not neutral. Lefty scolding is not neutral. Jeezus.
For the record, this hater hates Donald Trump because HE IS THE FUCKING WORST. Seriously: he is the absolute worst of every single thing that he is:
- the worst of white people
- the worst of masculine people
- the worst of straight people
- the worst of wealthy people
- the worst of business people
- the worst of famous people
- the worst of religious people
- the worst of conservative people
- the worst of powerful people—and he’s about to become the most powerful person in the history of the world, ever.
By the way, that was hardly an exhaustive list.
__________
* Some people inexplicably remain under the impression that wealthy, well-educated, native-born, able, cis-, straight, white and male are somehow not identities, and that the unearned privileges that adhere like wads of well-masticated chewing gum thereto are actually meted out fairly in our meritocratic society. Hahaha.
I wonder what Trump would have to do to trigger a Nixon/Watergate-type event.
cannibalism?
on TV?
Superbowl commercial?
Hey! Don’t forget the performance of their investment portfolios!
Something that seriously affected the performance of said investment portfolios.
chigau: Prosecute the criminal banksters, big polluters, big military and surveillance contractors, or the war criminals from previous administrations.
Action for the sake of action. That is a good definition of fascism.
These guys would probably have approved of Lex Luthor’s Presidency in DC Comics. After all he was a man of action. The fact he went after Superman as one of his main goals as President probably would just be a minor flaw to them.
@1 chigau
Obama’s nice guy stances on minorities, LGBT, gun rights and women, even without much action to speak of, was enough to get a most democrats to turn a blind eye on his expansionist actions, bringing war to 7 countries, giving cruel and unusual punishment to whistleblowers, bombing hospitals, doing extra-judicial executions via drones, advancing Bush’s tax policies, and giving the president greater power to spy, execute, and silence people outside and in the United States, not once considering that a total asshole like Trump could possibly inherit those powers.
Clinton’s racist statements, warmongering, cruel treatment of latin american refugees, advancement of crony capitalism and violent neo-liberal policies were similarly given a pass by alleged lefties in the Democratic Party because, I don’t know, she’s like super feminist and such? (She supported the Saudi regime, silenced her husband’s sexual harassment victims and the gender wage gap was pretty big within her campaign, but don’t mind that).
If republicans are anything like democrats, all Trump has to do is throw a bone or two at white supremacists every once in a while (nothing fancy, they’ll be content with a clever speech or tweet), maintain the facade of being a national-protectionist (real action is optional), complain about the media and an uncooperative congress if people start doubting his achievements, and he’s golden, republicans will love him. He won’t get indicted with a friendly house, senate and voter base.
So does a GI Joe doll or a waxwork sculpture of Arnie, Van Damme or Vin Disel. Appreaances can be mighty misleading.
As you note in the OP Trump is indeed The Worst.
Intelligent and compassionate policies that make the nation and world overall happier, fairer, kinder and generally well better? That improve (almost) everyone’s quality of lives and opportunities for the future and make the world safer and more environmentally sustainable long-term and seriously tackle the biggest threats and challenges to the afore-mentioned things? Nah! Surely not!