Jim Geraghty - Don't Be Obnoxious, 'k?

Jim Geraghty is a perfect example of why I don't merely dislike the National Review and its collection of vapid pundits. I loathe them. Yesterday he posted an article with a title dripping foul contempt across my computer screen: 'Trump Supporters Are Foolish Idiots on the Titanic'.

That's the problem with giving the punchline away at the outset, Jim. No one reads past the title.

As a Trump supporter, I'm not going to waste time reading that article, or any other by him. I don't need some asphyxiated pinhead telling me that I'm wrong. Why I'm wrong doesn't even enter into it - he hasn't a clue why I think as I do.

For Trump haters, it's validation. Still, it's probably a pointless read since he's preaching to the choir. He probably hasn't even made the tiniest effort to discover why so many people across the board want to have Trump as president. Without that, he can't add anything new or interesting to the theme. It's just that he's got his idea and he's convinced it's right so he's going to bloviate on it. Probably to meet a deadline.

It's why I call them asphyxiated pinheads. They have no capacity for at least trying to see the other perspective. They are too unimaginative for that. Without trying to learn what it is that makes people who support Trump tick, they sit in front of their keyboard, breathe deeply in their rarefied atmosphere, exchange more CO2 for O to get that rush of superiority and then start writing.

It's plain as day that in their opinion if we do not fall in precise lock-step with their view of the world and how things should be, we're a moron or a passenger on a political Titanic or both.

Now he's just as entitled to have his opinion as you or I, but to sit in judgement of a broad base of the American public - no.

I ask you, who died and gave him that right? I'll say it flat out right here so there is no mistake: I do not give him that right. And I do not like being mocked or insulted - and he and his cohorts at the National Review and Weekly Standard keep doing it.

Let's see if this works: Hey! Geraghty! Spend a dime and pick up a copy of:

It's available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and I think you should probably spend some quality time studying it. Somehow I doubt that Dale recommended insulting your way into popularity.

Whatever.

I saw on Twitter yesterday that the GOP and Trump are trying to mend fences. Again. At this point that fence is probably more wire than wood and I don't know if it's going to hold. Probably a week or so, at best, until something else blows up - real or manufactured.

As for Trump, what needs to happen is he has got to get his points in order. He has got to stop shooting from the lip.

Just a few hours a day with his team of political advisors would be time well spent. Practice how to present ideas in as few words as possible. Learn to side-step the questions you don't want to answer in a way that doesn't make you look foolish. Grasp the fact and hold it tight that you do not have to answer every question put to you. Think before speaking. BE HONEST - which is something I know Trump well knows how to do.

Not answering a question is easy. Just say, "You know, I'd rather not answer that in detail right now. I have a plan but it's still early stages because so much can change between here and there, but here's the broad outline..." Then outline it - in broad enough strokes that there's some form but no detail. Like the nukes for Japan - that should have been easy.

"Well, Anderson / Chris, I think that having a line of defense between us and North Korea seems like a good thing. Japan is an ally - we've been friends for decades. We do business with them. We trust them, right? So why not? Same with South Korea."

On nuclear proliferation and the difference between 'need' and 'want' - sometimes we need things that we don't want. Make it a joke - "you know, Anderson / Chris, I don't like going to the doctor for my annual exams. I don't want to do it but it's something I know I need to do, so I do it."

Just slowing down and deliberating on what to say would go a long way toward making what he says more palatable, less off the wall.

It won't shut the pinheads up, but that's okay. The nattering-class can go on nattering and the rest of us will go on ignoring.

So, that's my take and I wish the pinheads well. I won't be reading a word that they write and they won't read what I write, but I do wish them well.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Paul Ryan - The Fluffy Optimist

I was browsing the 'net today, looking at the headlines, reading the stories I found interesting, and I came across part of a speech given to Washington interns by Paul Ryan. I started reading and... my eyes glazed, refused to focus.

It was classic Ryan - idealistic and barely in touch with reality. Just more of what I've come to expect from him - fluff without a shred of substance that can hold up under pressure without putting people to sleep. What's encouraging is that I'm not the only one who thinks it's a load of crap. So do most other media outlets - Google it: paul ryan speech to interns.

Don't get me wrong - he's a very smart guy. Really smart. But he would make an excellent accountant someplace. He's too detaily and weedy and he's a blathering bore - even when he's trying to sound optimistic.

It's a lot like the Republican Establishment. Blather empty phrases and emptier promises and hope no one notices. They do it among themselves so much they've lost sight of the fact that we're smarter than that. There are only so many lies and fabrications we'll swallow and, for now, we're full up.

The lack of attention being paid to their cries and screams of derision regarding this election cycle - widely ignored by real people - led them to hold their Pinhead Confab last Thursday. The result? Well...

Kasich doesn't stand a chance - even if he gets to the convention. He's desperate and weak and the people will not vote for him in the general. Election to Hilliary.

Cruz is a sleaze, but he's an owned sleaze. He's as much in bed with the lobbyists and the people who run Washington as anyone else. Hell! $40M and counting owned - so he's distasteful but at least they can control him. 'Cross your fingers, boys, maybe he can beat Hilliary.'

Trump is a non-starter for them. He's challenging them at every turn, calling them out, speaking what's on his mind, taking no prisoners. And, despite what all of the chattering class are saying, I think when the general comes around and Trump is the nominee, he will have no trouble with Hilliary. After all, the woman is a walking baggage carousel. Pick a subject, there's a scandal and you can bet that Trump will go after all of them in one way or another.

So the Pinhead Confab concluded that their only possible hope is Cruz. Being desperate to keep the Barbarian from the Citadel, they've decided to make an uneasy truce with Cruz. He's not palatable because he's too rigid and intractable, but at least he's one of them - owned as they are by the Donor Class. So, they hold their noses as they gather 'round their... candidate.

What Ryan and the others don't get is that politics as usual - no matter how they sugarcoat the turd - is not doing it this year. We're not biting.

Trump correctly said on more than one occasion that Cruz has no friends in the Senate - that no one of his Senate colleagues was stepping up to endorse him. And it was true. Otherwise, where was all of the clamor to be first in line? He's been in the race for a full year - since March 23, 2015 when he announced his candidacy at Liberty University. Yet no one got on his bandwagon in all that time?

In what I suspect was a move of uneasy resignation, a toe in the water, Lindsey Graham came forward last week. The lamb to the slaughter no doubt sent by his Donor Class betters.

After all, he had already endorsed Jeb! who failed in spectacular fashion so, with his endorsement sitting on the shelf, he picked Cruz. Somehow, I just don't think his heart is in this. Today, during an interview on MSNBC, he waffled and said that Kasich would make a better president.

What!? He's endorsed Cruz, but... Well there's confidence for you.

And this is a major part of the problem in Washington. Instead of our employees - and they are supposed to be our employees (public servants) since we hire them through the election process and pay their salaries and benefits through taxation (theft worthy of another post all on its own) - standing for what's right, they run for what's expedient. In this case, they see the writing on the wall.

As much as they detest Cruz, they despise Trump more. Which means they will each sell another chunk of their souls and character to rally behind a man they wouldn't go to lunch with a month ago, even if Cruz was buying.





It was during last week's Pinhead Confab that they even tried to refloat the Hindenburg. There was chatter over the weekend suggesting that Paul Ryan could be 'floated' into the convention mix as the alternate candidate. That sugarcoated turd was ignored. The Hindenburg didn't rekindle, it just crashed.

Naturally, because of the deafening silence, Ryan 'declined'. Although I would wager my life that if anyone outside the Beltway had sat up, taken notice and shouted a resounding yeah!, he would now be in the headlines.

As a result, for better or for worse, Cruz is now their guy. But hey! At least a goodly part of his soul and character are owned. He will be taking calls from the K Street lobbyists and doing their bidding. At least that should make the Pinheads happy. It would be no change from what's been - we would still have a sugarcoated turd shoved down our throats if the Pinheads have their way.

So I'm back to watching the polls with fluttering nerves. I really do not want another interchangeable part to take the big chair in the Oval Office. I want a Trump presidency because I think he's going to shake things up, knock a few heads, and get us back on better footing than we've been.

As for you, if you're worried about the intestinal fortitude of your Congressman or woman backing a man who's got a tenuous attachment to truth, might I suggest you send along a few of these:

That would at least free up their hands.

Have a wonderful day.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Pinheads On Parade – What is the National Review up to?

Good grief, what a joke and what a lot of fuss about nothing. How many ‘real’ people really read the National Review, anyway? It’s for political junkies and their ilk and I can’t remember the last time, except on television recently since it’s in the news, that I’ve even seen a copy of it anywhere.

They wrote a hit piece about Donald Trump. They got a lot of press and publicity, and a lot of people like me are offended by just what I’ve heard about it.

I haven’t read it. I won’t read it because I know all it will do is make me want to do something bad to this group of arrogant pinheads.

What they don’t ‘get’ is that Trump is speaking to the American people in a way that’s got a lot of us sitting up and listening to what he has to say.

Our household is paying closer attention to the news – and not just one channel or two, but we’re even watching MSNBC which is disgusting television on its best night. Hell, every time I see Chris Matthews (he of the ‘thrill up my leg’) he looks like an escapee from a lunatic asylum, and Rachel Maddow (Madcow in our household) is a flagrant, unapologetic socialist fishwife of the worst sort. Nonetheless, we scan all of the channels because we’re interested in ‘what did he say today.’

Before this election cycle, I never looked for or watched videos of political rallies on YouTube. We’ve already done it several times this election cycle.

Never before have I looked forward to watching political debates.

I am doing all of these things now and it’s solely because of what Donald Trump is speaking to in me.

Even hubby, who swears there is no political solution to anything in this country, and who hasn’t voted in I can’t remember how long is sounding hopeful again.

In the past six months Trump has been leading in virtually all of the various polls all of the various polling organizations take. It’s unheard of for one candidate to get the lead, take the lead, stay in the lead and expand on the lead, but he’s done it because he has got at least grudging interest from a wide spectrum of possible voters.

Now, though, the pointy-pinheads from inside the Washington Beltway have their knickers not just bunched or twisted or wadded. They have them so tightly wound that the wearers of them are squeaking in an undignified manner. Case in point, the National Review, an allegedly conservative newsmagazine, is scared stiff that someone from outside the Beltway might win the day. Gathering together, these oligarchs have put together a hit piece to try to slow if not derail Trump’s momentum.

Apparently they know better than we the people know what we want and what’s good for us.  That, at least, is what I gather is the tone of their hit piece. Seems they would far rather apply insanity again with Ted Cruz or Jeb Bush or another political insider rather than try to strike a new course.

What is the word for arrogance beyond arrogance?

Who on Earth are these people to have the temerity to tell me and others like me how we’re supposed to think and what values we should hold dear?

Who the hell are these people to tell me and others like me who we should or should not vote for?

Didn’t this kind of political posturing and mind-bending go out of style in the 1980's with Pravda's make-over under Gorby?

In all the years I’ve watched politics, a prominent conservative newsmagazine has never before, in my memory, come out and attacked the front-running candidate on the right side. They’ve gone hard against the left-wing candidate, but they’ve either supported or kept silent about the right-wing guy.

Not this time, though.

OMG!! The man changed his mind! He used to agree with things when he was younger, but then he matured, gained more life experience and realized those things weren’t necessarily good.

Newsflash, Rich Lowry, et al! People grow up, they learn, they see life and living and they change their view of things. It isn’t unusual. A lot of smart people grow up and change their minds, why can’t Trump? Personally, I think the ability to think outside the box, to consider one’s position on a subject, learn and decide to change position is a good thing.

It seems, listening to these pinheads, Ted Cruz has changed his underwear but not his mind, same with Hilliary and Berns. Does this rigidity in thought make them a better candidate? I don’t think so.

In order to lead successfully you have to be able to adapt to changing situations. World politics is highly fluid and we have been stuck in one gear for the past fifteen years. Look how well that’s done for us and for our standing in the world.

Or… could it be that they built this hit piece to deliberately make Trump seem more palatable to the undecided middle-of-the-road voters? Could it be that they’re laying down a scent trail of “Hey, if the Washington Elites don’t like him, maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all…”? Is it possible?

Yeah. After all, in that Doritos ad out there, a pig flew.

I think I'm going to look for another Trump rally on YouTube. I suggest you make up your own mind and do as you see fit when the time comes.

Best~

Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories