And what is this base? It certainly isn’t the people who voted for Trump. They’re just the rubes in this carny con. It’s the alt. right media…and I include Fox News in that designation…that sold him to them.
Of course it is a given that the so-called “Mainstream Media”…the keepers of the neocon/neolib centrist con job’s flame…share one, unified voice in opposition to Donald Trump. But…they opposed him from the get-go, from the moment that he became a real threat to win the Republican nomination to the evening when it became clear that he had won the presidency despite…or more likely because of…their opposition.
And they have kept that opposition up for the duration of his presidency. Ramped it up, actually. “Trump This”, “Russia That”, “Sources Say…” (Always unnamed, of course.) and so on. A symphonic drumbeat, the wail of a Mighty Wurlitzer about what a rotten soul he is, how dangerous he is to our precious “democracy,” how he wants to sell the U.S.A. out to Putin and the Russian oligarchy.
Through all of that elitist wailing and gnashing of teeth, his approval mubers remained at pretty much the same level. Who knew? Who understood the simple fact that some 48% of the voting population…and a higher percentage of the non-voting population, I would wager…so distrusted the mainstream media and political parties that it would reflexively support any charismatic huckster that lit their fires?
Fox News and The Drudge Report knew.
That’s who.
Roger Ailes and Matt Drudge.
They were Trump’s real movers and shakers.
Now…I don’t watch Fox News…ever…nor do I pay much attention to the drivel that trickles down the screen from the other TV newsmedia. It’s too time consuming; most of it happens at the wrong time of day for my working life and the advertising is toxic, potentially trance-inducing bullshit. I get my news online and in print. It has much less trancing potential, number one, and since it is in print I can save it and consider it at my leisure. I skim Google News, the Drudge Report and a couple of other leftiness sites for my daily dose of where the U.S. is really at and where it’s headed, save what interests me and read it in depth when I feel like doing so.
The Drudge Report is especially enlightening in terms of the alt. right as a popular movement. Drudge skews his aggregated news items in a very clever manner, and if a reader is not aware of how and where the skew is headed, an overall trance effect is quite possible.
For over a year now the Drudge Report has been…sometimes quite plainly and other times more subtly…skewing for Trump. Its hits-per-day/market share has gone way, way up during that time. Matt Drudge is a very astute businessman if nothing else. He knows his core audience and he clickbaits them like a skilled fly fisherman enticing his prey.
But over the last week or two I have seen a new skew start to develop. An anti-Trump/pro-Pence skew. At first I thought I was imagining things, so I didn’t post about it. But today? Today the skew came out of the closet.
Read on for more.
The main Drudge headline this morning? (5/18/17 about 10AM EDT) Almost like an omen of things to follow. One of the chief Trump necromancers gone to meet his fate.
At the important top left of the aggregated headlines:
The equally important top middle headlines:
And at the top right? The place where most eyes travel first after opening his site, it seems to me?
HMMMMMmmmm…!!!
Now…is it just me or do these headlines and visuals all sound and look a great deal like the MSM headlines that one might encounter in the quite obviously anti-Trump Google News site?
It ain’t just me.
Bet on it.
Drudge just threw in the towel.
He’s gonna hype Pence. For starters. After that? It depends on which ways the winds are blowing.
Without Drudge, Trump is already half-dead in the water and listing seriously to starboard.
Watch.
AG
P.S. Time Mag is on it, too.
Republicans Might Actually Be Turning Against President Trump
For months, Republicans on Capitol Hill have stood by President Donald Trump despite damaging revelations surrounding the Russia investigation.
There was an incendiary dossier, the firing of a top adviser, and this week, reports that Trump asked FBI Director James Comey to end the investigation into his associate Michael Flynn. Then, on Wednesday evening, the Justice Department announced it was appointing a special counsel to investigate possible ties between Trump associates and Russia.
Two questions have loomed over the latest reports: Will Republicans turn against Trump? And if so, when?
Doubts about the President have grown among Republicans lawmakers. As the White House careens from one scandal to another, Republicans on Capitol Hill have become increasingly frustrated with their party’s leader, and in private, they say that are concerned that more serious revelations about wrongdoing by Trump will emerge.
“They are distraught by what he’s doing and continues to do,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber’s second-ranking Democrat, said in an interview.
Recently, more Republicans have been willing to speak out publicly. Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker said this week that the White House is in a “downward spiral,” and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said the White House revelations were reaching “Watergate size and scale.” Others have kept quiet or suggested that the President is the target of a determined campaign to undermine him.
At stake is nothing less than the Republican agenda in Congress. Some on Capitol Hill are even whispering about the viability of Trump’s presidency; a couple Republicans have joined Democrats in openly discussing impeachment.
After this week’s revelations, Republicans took an increasingly aggressive tack. Demands for Comey to testify are coming from all corners of Congress. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a conservative Republican and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was the first to officially request that the FBI turn over Comey’s memos of his conversations with Trump, and on Wednesday, he invited Comey to testify before the committee.
The Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee have also both asked for the FBI to turn over Comey’s memos. The Intelligence Committee has renewed its invitation to have Comey brief its members.
And while Republican leaders have mostly avoided discussing Trump’s travails, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that Congress “need[s] the facts.” Ryan supported Chaffetz’s request for more information about Comey’s claims from the FBI. It is the most intense activity surrounding the Russia investigation to date.
Still, many Republicans are not ready to fling themselves into opening new investigations into connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia.—snip—
“As long as this continues, it’s hard to stand behind it. I’ll tell you in all honesty,” said Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, where Trump won by more than 30 points. “Maybe there’s nothing there, but the problem is that [the White House] keeps stepping in it every day.”
“What we’re hearing is very concerning, very frightening,” Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger told CNN. “I think the American people deserve answers.”
There have been muted calls of rebellion in Republican ranks: Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a member of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Wednesday morning that if Comey’s memo was true, it could merit impeachment proceedings.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a moderate Republican from Florida, said in a CNN interview on Tuesday night that “obstruction of justice” has “been considered an impeachable defense,” and he called on Comey to testify before Congress.
And across the Hill, Republicans in both the Senate and the House were virtually united in saying investigators should chase the new leads and talk to Comey.
“I wanna know what happened,” said South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Judiciary Committee. “I’m not worried about political damage, I want to know what the Hell happened.”—snip—
Mark this date-May 18, 2017.
I think the worm done finally turned.
Watch.