Tag: Press Briefing

Another Brick in The Wall

I could be offering up my review of a tune the I enjoy from Pink Floyd or I could be writing about the ‘wall’ of exclusion on the Southern border…..but I am not at this time…..I am talking about the wall the Trump is building around himself w2hich is also a ‘wall’ of exclusion…..if you are not on-board with the whole MAGA BS then you will be excluded.

He is slowly trying to exclude anyone from government that could possibly stand in his ascension to deity.

The newest attack is on the press….

The White House said Tuesday that its officials “will decide” which news outlets can regularly cover President Trump up close—a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services, the AP reports. She cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore “access back to the American people” who elected Trump.

  • “Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing. “A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”
  • Critics of the move included Peter Baker, the New York Times‘ chief White House correspondent, the Hill reports. “Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access,” Baker said in a post on X.
  • Leavitt spoke a day after a federal judge refused to immediately order the White House to restore the APs’ access to many presidential events. The news outlet, citing the First Amendment, sued Leavitt and two other White House officials for barring the AP from some presidential events over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” as Trump ordered.

He has already banned some so-called ‘liberal’ press but not called so by me) as PBS, AP, Reuters, etc.  And now the rest of the story….

This is just another page from the authoritarian handbook…..control what is reported and eliminate any opposition press, if possible.

Whatcha wanna bet that OAN, FOX, and other right wing echo chambers will have full access?

What do you see in this move?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden’s Presser

Last night Biden went on TV for a long over due press conference….and as usual it was mostly….blah….blah….blah…..

But if that does not help your understanding then here are a few of the topics he covered…..

  • Build Back Better: The president said he’ll probably have to divide his social spending measure into smaller pieces to get anything through Congress, per the Hill. “I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now, come back and fight for the rest later,” Biden said.
  • Inflation: The administration is going after rising prices by trying to solve the problems in the supply chain, Biden said, per the Washington Post. “We’ve been able to make progress on speeding up the access to materials,” he said.
  • The pandemic: Biden conceded testing capacity should’ve been increased sooner but expressed satisfaction with adult vaccination rates, now close to 75%. Overall on the pandemic, he said, “I think we’ve done remarkably well.”
  • GOP congressional opposition: “What are Republicans for?” Biden asked in saying they only want to prevent him from accomplishing his goals. “Name me one thing that they are for.” The president said he won’t abandon his legislative agenda. “We just have to make the case what we’re for and what the other team’s not.”
  • Getting out more: Biden said he intends to leave Washington more often to hear from Americans, as well as outside experts, per ABC News. His travels will include becoming “deeply involved” in the midterm campaigns, Biden said.

Bitching about the GOP gets nothing accomplished……there is an answer to rising prices….but NO one in DC will even offer the solution…..voting rights is dead…..infrastructure is a drop in the bucket and well do little to solve the problem…..

None of his solutions will do anything to help end the slide of the Dems into obscurity….and getting out more and ‘listening’ to Americans gives me such a chuckle….when was the last tine a elected official really listened to the American people……those slugs only hear money and not the problems.

More promises and more disappointment….are all we have to look forward to in the near future.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump Has A Brand New Bag (Strategy)

Apologizes…..Had to show some love to James Brown…..

Donald the Orange has had some really bad weeks lately with his constant babbling during the virus update briefings….drinking bleach was just the last screw up……and that was covered here on IST…..https://lobotero.com/2020/04/26/a-really-bad-week/ (for those that missed my analysis)……

Finally it appears as if there is a muzzle for Donald after all….and it is his chances in 2020…..the new plan …..

After two months of frantic response to the coronavirus, the White House is planning to shift President Trump’s public focus to the burgeoning efforts aimed at easing the economic devastation caused by the pandemic, the AP reports. Days after he publicly mused that scientists should explore the injection of toxic disinfectants as a potential virus cure, Trump has now rejected the utility of his daily task force briefings, where he has time and again clashed with scientific experts. Trump’s aides are aiming to move the president onto more familiar—and safer, they hope—ground: talking up the economy, in tighter controlled settings. It’s a political imperative as allies have seen an erosion in support for the president.

His ability to blanket news headlines with freewheeling performances, has seemingly turned from a strength to a daily liability. At the same time, new GOP polling shows Trump’s path to a second term depends on the public’s perception of how quickly the economy rebounds from state-by-state lockdowns. Aides said the president would hold more frequent roundtables with CEOs, business owners, and beneficiaries of the trillions of dollars in federal aid already approved by Congress, and begin to outline what he hopes to see in a future recovery package. Trump last left the White House grounds a month ago, and plans are being drawn up for a limited schedule of travel within the next few weeks, aide said. It would be a symbolic show that the nation is beginning to reopen.

He should have been talking the economy up a lot sooner….kinda hard to convince people how good they are doing when 20 million are unemployed…..but I am sure he can spin this into something the loyal batcrap moron will embrace.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Really Bad Week

Donald the Orange has a truly terribly bad week last week…..his rambling nonsensical bullshit he calls a virus briefing finally caught up with his ass…..and the nail that was the last in the coffin of his immature rantings at the press conferences was the drink bleach silliness.

In case you missed it….the person that put this damn stupid idea in that small Trumpian head was one Mark Grenon…..

Dear Mr President, I am praying you read this letter and intervene.” That’s how Mark Grenon says he began a letter to President Trump proclaiming the alleged curative power of industrial bleach—right before Trump went on TV and supported disinfectant as a treatment for the coronavirus, the Guardian reports. Grenon, whose Genesis II Church of Health and Healing peddles bleach as a health cure, said Sunday on his radio show that he and 30 supporters had recently written Trump at the White House. They sought protection from the Food and Drug Administration, which has acquired a court order stopping the Florida-based group from selling a bleach product to treat the coronavirus.

“Despite a previous warning, the Genesis II Church of Healing has continued to actively place consumers at risk by peddling potentially dangerous and unapproved chlorine dioxide products,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in a statement. “We will not stand for this.” The FDA said the Genesis product, called “Miracle Mineral Solution,” is “an unproven and potentially harmful treatment” that “has a chlorine dioxide equivalent to industrial bleach.” In Trump’s statement about the coronavirus, he surprised medical experts by saying disinfectant “knocks it out in a minute. One minute!” Grenon and the White House have not responded to requests for comment, the New York Times reports.

Now he has the bright idea of cutting the pressers in an attempt to avoid putting the small foot in that large mouth…..after all there is not much time before we mortals go to the polls and Trump’s mouth keeps losing him points…..it has NOTHING to do with safety.

A day after a virus press briefing in which President Trump set off a firestorm with his supposedly sarcastic disinfectant comments, buzz began that we soon may not see too many of these briefings. Axios reports that Trump is said to be mulling having the pressers decrease in both frequency and duration, the latter mainly because the president himself would cut his time at the podium. One source notes it appears to have hit Trump that the briefings may be hurting him, which some of his advisers apparently agree with, believing he’s appearing before the American people way too much in an often contentious environment—and that these appearances may be helping political rival and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

“I told him it’s not helping him,” one adviser tells the outlet. “Seniors are scared. And the spectacle of him fighting with the press isn’t what people want to see.” Forbes notes that his Friday press conference, the day after the disinfectant hubbub, “ended abruptly,” and without the usual reporter Q&A. Per CNN, the presser, at 22 minutes, was the shortest of the pandemic (they sometimes stretch for more than two hours), with a source close to the coronavirus task force saying Trump had been bothered by all the “flak” he got over his disinfectant comments the previous day. The Hill reports neither Dr. Anthony Fauci nor Dr. Deborah Birx appeared at Friday’s briefing, noting the briefings “have proven to be minefields” for medical experts like them as they try to deliver accurate, science-based info to the American public without getting Trump riled up

Now he decides to do the right thing?

His ego has putting millions in jeopardy.

Image

Hopefully there will be a price for that carelessness.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–15Apr20

Those Silly Daily Covid-19 Pressers

Our leader spends about 2+ hours a day railing about his accomplishments and blaming the person/organization du jour…..

First, it was the media that was at fault. Then, Democratic governors came under fire. China, President Barack Obama and federal watchdogs have all had a turn in the crosshairs. And now it’s the World Health Organization that’s to blame.

President Donald Trump is falling back on a familiar political strategy as he grapples with the coronavirus pandemic: deflect, deny and direct blame elsewhere.

As he tries to distance his White House from the mounting death toll, Trump has cycled through a long list of possible scapegoats in an attempt to distract from what critics say were his own administration’s missteps in slowing the spread of the coronavirus on American shores.

https://apnews.com/58f1b869354970689d55ccae37c540f3

His response have been pathetic, petty and juvenile…..and is absolutely what we do NOT need in this time of national need.  He needs to act like the president and not some spoiled brat in the playground.

Even some of his allies see his useless efforts in these pressers….

It’s no big surprise President Trump’s critics don’t like his daily briefings on the coronavirus outbreak. (See this scathing op-ed by a member of the New York Times editorial board.) But now a number of stories suggest that some of the president’s political allies aren’t fans, either. The sentiment from them is that Trump might be hurting himself, and thus his chances for reelection, with his lengthy, wide-ranging comments. Coverage:

  • From Nikki Haley: The former UN ambassador gave the president credit for his willingness to “over-communicate” about the outbreak. “But I also think he needs to let his experts speak,” she told Fox News, per Politico. She said those experts should be the ones to answer questions, not Trump. “I don’t think he needs to feel like he needs to answer everything.” She also warned about the briefings going on “too long.”
  • Graham, others: The New York Times has a lengthy news story about the issue, concluding that “White House allies and Republican lawmakers increasingly believe the briefings are hurting the president more than helping him.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, for instance, worries that Trump “sometimes drowns out his own message” and has advised him to cut back on his comments. Others quoted with similar sentiments include Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. “Let the health professionals guide where we’re going to go,” suggested Capito, who said the briefings were “going off the rails a little bit.” Advisers quoted anonymously were more critical, voicing worries that Trump was giving daily ammunition to Joe Biden by making errors.
  • ‘Journal’ sniping: The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal faulted Trump for his “outbursts” against political opponents during the briefings and offered ways to improve them, including a 45-minute cap. Trump responded via tweet: “The Wall Street Journal always ‘forgets’ to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are ‘through the roof,'” and the “only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across.” The Journal responded in kind Thursday evening, noting that if ratings are high, it’s only because this is life and death, “not because people enjoy Donald Trump sparring with the White House press corps like a Packers-Bears game.”
  • Polls: A new CBS News poll finds that public support for Trump’s handling of the crisis has declined in two consecutive weeks. The survey found that 47% think Trump is doing a good job on the outbreak, down from 51% last week and 53% the week before that. That jibes with the results of six separate polls out Wednesday, reports Politico. Its headline: “The briefings aren’t working: Trump’s approval rating takes a dip.” A Fox News poll out Thursday night, however, found that approval of Trump’s coronavirus management held steady at 51% from last month. Other figures got higher marks in the Fox poll, including Anthony Fauci (80%) and Deborah Birx (62%).
  • In defense: Democrats should fear the briefings, writes Liz Peek in an op-ed at the Hill. “For all the flaws, the public sees a man unquestionably engaged and energized, relentless in his push for solutions.”
  • On Friday: The criticism noted above didn’t seem to affect the president much on Friday, as he took questions at great length in the afternoon briefing. The event stretched more than two hours. As for his main message: “We’re going to go back to work and we’re going to stay healthy,” Trump said, per NPR. “We are looking at a date. We are hoping to fulfill a certain date. But we aren’t going to do anything unless we know we can be healthy.”

What can we say…..this says it best…..

Trump is playing president on television instead of doing the job.

In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, our federal government, led by Donald Trump, has essentially abdicated its traditional role of spearheading a coordinated response.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/4/3/21204489/coronavirus-response-chris-murphy

Donald the Orange has shown the world how NOT to respond to this pandemic…..and the world chuckles…..

To get a sense of just how much damage Donald Trump is doing each day, by making the daily White House briefings on the coronavirus pandemic mostly about himself, and distracting attention from vital updates on the public health emergency delivered by scientists, it helps to look at how very differently this is handled in other democracies.

In Greece, for example, the nation is briefed at 6 p.m. each evening by Dr. Sotirios Tsiodras, an unassuming professor of medicine who studied infectious diseases at Harvard and now leads the Greek government’s coronavirus task force. Tsiodras, often reading from his notes, has been credited with helping to rally the nation to quickly accept a national lockdown that has, so far, been more successful than most, largely by presenting the science in a calm, rational voice of authority. On the rare occasions when his level-headed facade has cracked — like a moment last month when he appealed to Greeks to protect their elderly relatives by staying at home — the impact has been all the more powerful.

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/10/trumps-ridiculously-political-briefings-pandemic-unique-democratic-world/

The experts and pros in health care should be handling all pressers around this pandemic…..we do not need more Trump rallies.

Watch This Blog!

Be Calm…….Avoid Crowds….Wash Hands Often…..Stay Prepared

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Cabinet Meeting From Political Hell

I remember one of Trump’s first cabinet meetings when they all got together and spent their allotted time massaging Trump’s genitals….it was embarrassing to anyone that holds our system in awe.

But Trump has topped that embarrassing moment with a further and more embarrassing moment……Trump wet on an hour plus rant against the Dems and the media…..

This is 6 of the most bonkers statements in the meeting….

President Donald Trump held a press availability during a Cabinet meeting on Monday, during which he went on a number of tangents and rants. Here are six of the wildest moments:

Schiff Is The Whistleblower’s Informant

6 Bonkers Moments From Trump’s Cabinet Meeting

The time was a rambling ranting mess….I wish that the above 6 were the only falsehoods spoken by our Dear Supreme Monarch…..but they were not…..

President Donald Trump delivered a blistering and rambling monologue to the journalists he allowed into his Cabinet meeting for more than 70 minutes on Monday. His press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, later tweeted, “I hope we see honest reporting from today’s mtg.”

We can honestly tell you that Trump’s remarks were highly dishonest.
We’re still looking into some of the President’s claims. We can report that at least 20 of them were false:
 
I wish that I could say that there was anything accurate in the words thrown out by the president…..I wish I could but alas I cannot….
 
But for doubters….please watch all 1 hour and 12 minutes of this presser……and then make up your own mind….it is a long video but illustrates just how badly Trump is going off the rails……
 
 
Yet more proof…..if you do not see his delusion then you do not want to see it for whatever reason…..and yes it is a long one but the rambling is very telling……
 
 
They say, the MSM, that the country is getting weary of all this silliness by our president and his toadies…..

You know, I’m old enough to remember when Republicans in Congress called down fire and brimstone on the Obama administration for not cooperating with Congressional oversight in the Benghazi probe. Here’s a 2012 clip of Congressman Trey Gowdy blasting executive branch members at an oversight hearing. Gowdy has just joined Team Trump, to help Build The Stonewall.

This ought to be a big deal to conservatives: to protect the right of Congress to do oversight on the imperial executive. I don’t respect the administration’s contempt for Congress. We all know Adam Schiff gonna Adam Schiff, but Trump brought this entire mess onto himself, and he can’t bluster his way out of it.

People — including Republican voters — are getting fed up with it. These numbers are not moving in the way the president needs them to:

Trump Fatigue

Personally I think that is good news….but sadly I am not buying it at all……I think that his falsehoods and BS is just making him stronger with the Alt Right and the bigots in our nation.

I mean I have a problem with our representatives that should be above reproach should ever use the language this president does…..

President Trump turned his fire on members of his own party Wednesday—and they did not take kindly to being called “human scum.” “The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats,” the president tweeted. “Watch out for them, they are human scum!” Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger said it was time for lawmakers to talk to each other “as grownups,” the Hill reports. “To call anybody human scum is beneath the office of the presidency. You can’t say that, right? You’re the president,” he told CNN. “You have different standards.”

Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who served in the previous three Republican administrations, said he considers the insult a “badge of honor,” USA Today reports. “What those of us who are ‘human scum’ … particularly appreciate is how you’ve more than validated our concerns about you-psychologically, morally/ethically and in terms of temperament/judgment,” he tweeted. “You turned out to be at least as bad as we warned you’d be.” Trump, in other tweets,criticized William Taylor, the former top diplomat to Ukraine who testified at an impeachment hearing this week. “It would be really great,” Trump said, if people in his administration “could stop hiring Never Trumpers.”

Never thought I would live to see the day when an American would be called an enemy for disagreeing with another American….is this what you Americans really want?

That is NOT the nation I took an oath to protect.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–28Aug18

Bad Lip Reading!

I do enjoy good humor.  And the guys at Bad Lip Reading do humor so well.

We all have heard the MSM go on and on about the Press Briefings….all the antics and all the drama behind them….so the guys at BLR had to do a video on that very subject…..

If you cannot appreciate good humor than I suggest that you turn your boob tube to A&E and watch the latest BS on “Naked and Afraid”…..

See you guys later……be well, be safe…..chuq