You what pisses me off beyond belief?

[PCIntern]

No you don't: that's why I'm going to tell you...

When reporters on TeeVee start with the rational explanations of Trump and his cabal of insane, low IQ crooks who work for him (this week at least) as though these criminals are making decisions based upon some tenets of reality and with concepts of the ramifications and downstream effects of their policies or politics.

I have seen pets make more reasoned decisions than this crowd does and the reporters are not allowing for the idiocy, the mental illness, the criminality, the willful hatred. They pretend like it is the cabinet of a Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon but "just a little askew".

No. This is like rounding up the most ignorant, meanest, and violent people you have met in a lifetime, putting them in a boardroom, and having them decide the fate of the Earth. It is insanity beyond insanity. It reminds me of when the media used to report the goings on in Iraq which would be prefaced by the statement, "Today, Saddam Hussein said..." as though it was a legitimate statement. These are individuals who have never told the truth in their lives, to anyone including themselves.

...and talking to these people is like explaining alternate side of the street parking regulations to a cockroach.

[Duppers]

1. What you said!!

Hell yes!

[PatSeg]

2. You are not alone

It just adds to the ongoing anxiety.

[rusty quoin]

3. It took a long time to get here.

It really picked up speed in the 90s.

[sarge43]

4. Farther back

Ronnie Raygun, "Facts are pesky things."

[PCIntern]

12. Remember his "confession"

About Iran-Contra?

[sarge43]

13. Who can forget?

As long as we're skipping down Memory Lane, "I'm no crook."

[PCIntern]

39. Rethug Guilt-trips. Few and far between. nt

[True Blue American]

56. I don't remember?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. Lipstick on a Pig...

IMO, a huge problem we have in America is that corporations are beholden to, controlled by, and deeply embedded with Republicans. And, guess what? Our mainstream media companies are corporations. It's almost guaranteed their boards are loaded with Repugs and the board sets the tone for reporting. And, it's all done behind closed doors.

Few corporations give a tinker's dam about morality, our communities, the environment, or America's future. Their brains are driven by profit motives and nothing more. Hence, they will continue to put lipstick on this pig so long as the pig continues to weaken regulations and pass legislation in their favor.

Just look at where most lobbying money goes. They also care less about content of shows they're advertising with, so long as the show has good ratings.

Know what pisses me off (one of many)? It's the fact that almost every time I buy a product or pay for a service, part of that money from me goes into profit coffers of corporations that will used to stab me in my back via the Republican party.

Whew, rant over....... .....Thanks for your excellent post......

[yonder]

34. +1.

And thanks for yours, too.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

42. This should be an OP of its own!

And now, after reading PC_Intern’s and your posts..... I’m going to have to scream.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

58. Thanks, Blanch. Writing, I suppose is my form of screaming, or....

emotional release. I learned the power of "getting it out in the sunshine" many years ago in a recovery program. DU is an excellent platform for doing that and we have many smart and compassionate people here. I don't do this with the expectation that anyone will read it or even understand my feelings, but it's nice to connect with even one kind soul.

I think it's very healthy for us to discuss the root causes of the ills in our society. Trump and the Republican party are highly skilled at distracting us from those massive problems, and they are making them worse (particularly economic inequality).

I'm very shy and slow, and just getting started on doing OPs (I've only done one!). So, feel free to take any of those thoughts and run with them.

..........

[Achilleaze]

55. + 1

[FakeNoose]

6. There's a word for this behavior

It's called "normalizing." And you're absolutely right - it's not normal!

We aren't crazy either, we're the "normal" ones. We can see right through all of this,
and we will remember when this is over.

[VOX]

7. YES! These people are fucking FREAKS: Jared Kushner? Steve Bannon? Stephen Miller? Sarah H-S?

Betsy DeVos? Ben Carson? Mike "Don't Leave Me Alone With Anyone Except My Wife" Pence? Devin "Messenger Boy" Nunes? Not to mention the fat orange man himself? On and on the incredible list goes, one major misfit after another.

You're absolutely correct, PCIntern -- this is a group of marginal creatures who cannot make their own way in this world. They don't even act like humans. And yet, here they are, another day, busy as beavers, DESTROYING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT.

Bannon himself has even admitted to it:
http://fortune.com/2017/02/25/bannon-trump-cabinet-cpac/
Fortune, February 25, 2017
Steve Bannon Says Trump's Cabinet Picks Are Intended to ‘Deconstruct’ Regulation and Agencies
<snip>
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said that President Trump’s cabinet picks are aimed at “deconstruction of the administrative state,” meaning weakening regulatory agencies and other bureaucratic entities.

“The way the progressive left runs, is if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put in some sort of regulation in an agency,” Bannon continued. “That’s all going to be deconstructed and I think that’s why this regulatory thing is so important.”
<snip>

[BlancheSplanchnik]

43. +++ nt

[uponit7771]

8. K&R, They are still calling Trumps kidnapping of immigrant children "separated"

[harumph]

9. Yes to this!

The extent that the media goes to normalize this insane clown posse
beggars belief. For example, (THERE IS NO NEW NAFTA FUCKING TRADE DEAL FOLKS!) It's a SCAM! It's what we used to call in the
software biz "vaporware." They're just play pretending - it's just a con. Get it! Every time I hear Kudlow I'm like "Really? People buy this silly shit?" And the crazy thing is - some of the people that take this silliness seriously are ostensibly intelligent people like engineers, investment advisers, physicians, etc., which I guess speaks to the difference between being book smart and being wise.
I keep picturing Trump scribbling over and over again with a crayon "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy."

I sometimes think that we've reached our critical mass of gullibility in this country. People are slowly going crazy because their rational mind "understands" the intractability of our problems - it's dawning on them that there is no sky god coming to bail us out - and because of a sense of helplessness, people (even smart ones) have gone back to childlike state pretending as a coping mechanism.

Where are the adults? Please stand up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

33. Welcome to DU, harumph and thank you for your excellent post!

You've said some very intelligent things extremely well.

I hope you will continue to hold forth!

[bdamomma]

40. Welcome to DU

Yes these are no adults, they (trump regime) are all thugs.

Well the freaking repig congress are not adults, just cowards.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

44. Welcome, and excellent post.

[lunasun]

51. kudlow is one of the worst . I don't watch much TV but saw him 1st time today talking . What an

arrogant lying sack of shit . Sometimes when I read statements it at least is not as horrifying as actually listening to them spew this crazy crap and knowing there are people sucking it all up
Oh Hi Welcome

[mountain grammy]

10. It's maddening.

I can no longer watch the charade I lose it when I hear the words president and trump together. The so called news reports like the unimaginable isn’t happening.

[ailsagirl]

49. I lose it too whenever I hear those two words together

I don't watch MSNBC (excerpt through splayed fingers) because inevitably we'll see a photo/news conference/whatever of the orange dimwit dumdum and I-simply-can't-stomach-it

[2naSalit]

11. Can't argue with that!

[Initech]

14. It's like they wake up thinking about what could piss us off today.

Assuming that they sleep at all - Trump looks like he hasn't had a decent night's sleep in years.

[BSdetect]

15. drumph has never been held to account yet. Its disgraceful the way he was lauded by

much of the press for too long. And of course all that free cable TV coverage.

[maddiemom]

17. "Morning Joe"!!!

They can go on dissing Trump until the end of time (or at least the cancellation of the show), and NEVER make up for their jovial daily interaction with him before he "won" the nomination.

[The Liberal Lion]

16. It pisses me off too

the reporting on trump that both legitimizes and normalizes this absolute nightmare. We, who still have rational thought as a capacity, know this man is an absolute enemy of the state if not the freedom loving world. Yet he is reported on as though what he does is just the norm. It's disgusting.

[SCVDem]

18. We need a visual aid!

Perhaps the sight of a guillotine being erected on the mall will get their attention!

Sorry if this offends, but I feel the death penalty applies to treason and traitors.

Attitudes will change when the blade falls!

[OMGWTF]

31. Time to dust off your old copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" to get in the mood

[democratisphere]

19. You said it ALL for me.

Thanks!

Incidentally, MSNBC does not engage in minimizing the cabal insanity.

[geardaddy]

20. K&R

Righteous rant!

[c-rational]

21. Well said to all.

[dajoki]

22. I totally agree n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

23. Well said, PCIntern...

I especially liked:

This is like rounding up the most ignorant, meanest, and violent people you have met in a lifetime, putting them in a boardroom, and having them decide the fate of the Earth. It is insanity beyond insanity.

Amen!

[Oneironaut]

24. "He's not a bad guy, honestly!"

It reminds me of Tony Soprano’s wife talking to a psychiatrist about their marriage (summarized by me) - “He’s not a bad guy - he only kills people, cheats on me constantly, and is a career criminal.”

There becomes a point where defending the indefensible becomes an absurdity.

[drbtg1]

25. I hope you're not subjected to that crap with your patients (IIRC).

Not sure if you have TV's in the operatories, but if a patient requests Faux News, I just wait until the Pravda readers say something mind-numbingly stupid and then reply something that the patient has no choice but to agree.

[PCIntern]

27. No. No politics except with like-minded folk. Nt

[hunter]

26. My television is a movie player. That's all it does.

DVDs and Netflix, nothing else.

I remember my dad getting home from work and watching CBS News back in the days of Walter Cronkite.

Maybe the news had some decency then but I can't watch it now.

Television is the worst possible medium for covering news because it can't achieve any depth. It's just sound bites, dramatic video, corporate propaganda, and the scary-black-or-brown-man-of-the-day feature.

Years ago, during Reagan's second term as president, I attended an event he was speaking at. What I saw was a confused old man who didn't know where the hell he was or what he was doing there.

For a few brief moments Reagan's skills as an actor sputtered up and he was able to read a few sentences for the cameras, with the trademark Reagan "charm." Of course that's all they showed on television.

The local newspaper, which had a Republican bias, similarly covered this appearance by the president as if there was nothing at all disturbing about it, filling in the blanks with quotes from an anonymous White House spokesperson.

The show must go on...

[Initech]

28. I do love my HBO though.

Vice (more or less), Bill Maher, and John Oliver, along with Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert, have kept me from going insane the last two years.

[OMGWTF]

32. Me too! Samatha Bee's show is amazing as well.

[smirkymonkey]

29. It's like living in the Twilight Zone.

I keep having to remind myself that this is all complete insanity and not normal at all. If we get used to this and accept it as the status quo, we're as good as dead.

[bdamomma]

41. smirkymonkey

you have a way with words. Esp. your last sentence.

[smirkymonkey]

47. Thanks bdamomma!

It's just madness, and it's so hard to keep sane in the whirlwind.

[MarvinGardens]

30. This is my new favorite post! (nt)

[yonder]

35. Good thread, all around.

[LiberalLovinLug]

36. I think many networks, their execs, are just are waiting for the GOP to have a "moderate" leader

Even like Pence. So they can get back to the two equally bad, equally good, false equivalency method they have used for decades now. Getting back to normal. That is what is normal to them. They are forced to by sheer necessity almost, to cover the ineptitude bungling of the office, and the fact that Republicans hold all the power so there is no Democrat to blame or bestow equivalency to.

I think execs are pining for the day when the Republican candidate is at least smart enough to keep his racist or bigoted or 1% favoritism on the down low and at least APPEAR to be a moderate. Then they can finally return to the narrative that both sides are to blame. Both sides are corrupt to the same degree, and more importantly, Republicans are to be trusted completely again! They are back to being good patriotic Americans fighting the bad guys and doing what's best for the average Joe and Jane. And they aren't racist anymore. And what is predicably infuriating is that the next Republican running will APPEAR to be so much of an improvement on Trump that the news media will eagerly prop him up as the Great Hope. Someone that can rally the base. That its ok to come back as a Republican voter and they will do their part in equalizing the parties again, having on the usual two x more Republican guests on to "balance" it out. Once again pushing any new faux pas by Democrats up the mountain from the mole hill to make sure they are equally shocked at the two parties bad behavour. Like Hillary's emails vs. Trumps Hollywood insider tape, or alleged affairs, or Russian connections, or Trump University, or past racist behaviours, or white collar crime, not releasing his tax returns etc...

...same thing.

[thegoose]

37. And how they put question marks on things that are absolutely true

Is Trump a racist?
Did Russia sway the election?
Are his followers assholes?

Yes, yes and yes

[ProudProgressiveNow]

38. KR NT

[BlancheSplanchnik]

45. This is why I don't watch teevee!

I haven’t watched in years. It’s poison! ☠️

[sandensea]

46. or, 'Today, President Bush said...'

Followed by a clip of that half-baked idiot reciting some Orwellian nonsense that probably took Cheney and Dirty Rice all day to teach him.

Plus, it was always 'President' Bush - whereas with Clinton it was usually 'Mr.' Clinton.

[jimlup]

48. Here here!!!

Yes you've nailed it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

50. stop watching, stop paying

Stop watching TV 'news'. Stop subscribing. Tell 'em why.

Money talks.

[Awsi Dooger]

52. We never had a 50% liar in the White House

It went from the norm smack to Trump and his 80% lies, or however you want to define it. Consequently the networks maintained the same format and the same pundits but now those pundits are rationalizing and excusing an 80% liar instead of a 30% liar.

It would be like Golf Channel intentionally analyzing a competition between 36 handicappers the same way as a pro tournament. The audience would howl. It would be obvious parody. But somehow we are supposed to accept this crap about media being the enemy and truth isn't the truth as though it's merely a minor alteration.

The Republican base is the culprit because of the 90% approval rating and all the noise and threats. If they were non-deplorables then we could have an honest just conversation about Trump and Co. all day long, at work and everywhere else.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

53. What pisses me off are shoppers who park their carts in front of the restroom door.

I mean, they haven't paid for their crap yet, so what are they thinking? That somehow they will be able to watch their basket while sitting in their stall (this is a woman thing). In a place where the men's and women's restrooms are facing each other, their carts block access to both doors.

Before I die I am going to ask one of these shoppers WTF is she thinking?

[DFW]

54. You know what I do find good about being back in Europe? (Just got back Monday)

Not ONCE does the European news media consider these buffoons worthy of an interview. On occasion, they show a clip where some comedian goes out into the street and asks supposedly educated people to point out a country (ANY country) on a map of the world, and they can't even find the United States. But what Trumpanzees have to say for themselves is not considered newsworthy here. It is more informative to run an interview with a Dachshund.

[Nitram]

57. PCIntern, could you please add the missing "know" to your header?