We’ve always been at war with afghanistan.
By using the word “new”, the implication is that Trump,in fact, is somehow reformed. Especially given the historical context of talking heads trotting out the “this is when he became president” line any time he successfully read from a teleprompter.
If Rucker had chosen the word “different” instead of “new” then I would agree with you and there wouldn’t be the same backslash.
Actually the real lede should be “military asserts control over disordered Executive - Bannon out, troop deployments increase.”
Look, I detest Trump more than the lot of you put together*, but bagging on Rucker because of the semantic nuance between “new” and “different” is a stretch (not to mention a losing battle, given that they’re effectively synonyms). Before you lump him in with the yahoo’s in the mainstream media playing into Trump tiny hands, maybe you should read Rucker’s work in the Post. He’s one of the handful of people over there doing a great job covering the Trump administration. The Post is a model for how the administration should be written about and dismissing one of its best reporters because of a Tweet is a bit much.
-Tom
* We should have a contest!
His Orangeness has a campaign rally in Phoenix tonight or tomorrow, so I expect we’ll get all the crazy that he’s stored up over the last couple days spewing outwards then.
Also, I will actually halfway defend the stupid shown in those eclipse pics above:
The DC area had big, fluffy cumulus clouds covering about 70% of the sky yesterday and during the eclipse the sun was was constantly slipping behind them during the peak period. Since you couldn’t see anything through the viewing-glasses, you’d look upwards without them to try and judge when the sun would peek back out through a gap in the clouds. So in the bottom two pics where it’s darker, the shade is not from the eclipse (there was always 20% sun up here), but rather from the clouds hiding the sun entirely.
I can’t defend the top picture; that’s just dumb any way you cut it.
Pence, not Trump, but he just said this while arguing against taking down Confederate memorials:
Yup, that’s totally what the leaders of a secessionist movement were doing.
Sorry, it won’t wash.
Rucker screwed up. His tweet is the perfect example of how poorly our media deals with Trump. It tries so hard to be “even handed” it skips over the things that are truly newsworthy.
First, it grades Trump on a huge curve for no reason other than trying to sound “fair.” For any other President, the tweet would be “President offers few specifics in vague Afghanistan speech, increases troops without clarifying victory criteria” But because Trump is a serial fuckup who showed up on time and didn’t shit his pants, for some reason we’re supposed to concentrate on that and not the substance of what he said.
Second, it completely ignores the context. This was not a primetime-worthy announcement. The real news - what actually drove the speech - was “President schedules primetime address to change media coverage away from Nazis and his own plummeting popularity.”
What Rucker wrote isn’t the news; it’s what the Trump Administration wanted the media to report when it set up the speech. I’m not sure why I gave my money to WaPo to hear that.*
*Mind you, WaPo does many other worthy things. On net, I’m quite happy with subscribing. But that doesn’t mean they get a pass when they do screw up, any more than Trump does.
Well… umm… err… you could argue that the secessionist leaders hastened emancipation by fighting so tenaciously that the Union’s initial goal of a limited war became untenable.
Man, twisting oneself into pretzels is painful.
It was less than a week ago that Trump told the world that Nazis were good people. But that was last week amirite? Now we’re talking about Afghanistan!
By saying “new,” Rucker was saying Trump hadn’t acknowledged flip flips or spoken about the gravity of the office, history or substance before. That’s not exactly being overly kind, but I agree that addressing it at all does take some of the spotlight off last week’s news.
And yeah, I’d agree we’re getting a “new” Trump - one who sticks to the script for a change and therefore doesn’t sound entirely like a rambling idiot in way over his head (which is what he actually seems to be). My real guess is someone had a “Come to Jesus” talk with Trump and rattled him enough to at least get this much of an attitude change. Heaven only knows how long it will last.
As long as it ever does when he makes a speech like this (cf State of the Union, the second Charlottesville remarks). Less than a day.
My thoughts exactly. “Different” would be perfectly reasonable. It would also be perfectly reasonable to think we’d be back to “same old” by the rally tonight. “New” would require a hell of a lot more evidence.
And to be perfectly fair, I think the questions Trump asked back in July about why more troops would make a difference this time when they hadn’t before are also perfectly reasonable.
Apparently, it’s perfectly reasonable day.
I love how all it takes to be ‘presidential’ is to be able to stand still for half an hour and read shit off a teleprompter.
Yeah, this is not a new phenomenon. There’s no reason to think it will last, and plenty of evidence to say it won’t.
It’s like having a tweet saying, “It’s sunny today. Clearly this means the start of a new, substantial weather era.”
Hey, now: be fair. That word was not part of his tweet.
That said, I’ve long thought that a good part of Trump’s appeal is that he comes off more ignorant and incapable than the average person, so some people who sometimes feel “lesser” can almost relate. They search for things to like about him, because it’s almost as if they’re looking for ways to like themselves. Then when people justifiably bash him, they get instinctively defensive for the same reason. Just a theory, of course.
Yeah, again, the bizarro world where expertise and intelligence don’t count in politics.
“I like this pilot! He’s dumber than me and I can relate to him! I’m sure he’ll get me safely to Wichita.”
“I like this surgeon! He’s not so clever and I can relate to him. I’m sure the appendectomy will go smoothly.”
“I like this architect” … etc.
You have to look at the unspoken message there. By the same logic, those who now resist the current administration are helping the nation towards something better. And that makes sense, doesn’t it?
Well, it’s not totally crazy to expect elected politicians to resemble their constituents, since they act as representatives. Pilots, etc, don’t really have that responsibility. The only thing pilots need to know about their passengers is their weight.
Still, I think their job demands a lot more than just “relatability”.
The best people.
Though to be fair, it’s his wife. It still reflects pretty badly on everyone, you know, unlike most wives that get targeted by people because they didn’t wear sleeves or something.
Other than Kelly, and I am not sure he could do it, I doubt there is anyone who could have that kind of talk to Trump. And I also doubt he will stay “on point” very long.