Friday 29th of March 2024

the turkey was a fox in disguise....

turkey-fox

When the 1974 impeachment hearings turned south for former US president Richard Nixon, his aides blamed the media.

Frustrated with the dire relationship the president had with the television news, they drafted a 15-page memo titled: "A Plan for Putting the GOP [Republican party] on TV News."

"People are lazy," they wrote. "With television, you just sit — watch — listen. The thinking is done for you."

The plan didn't come to fruition before Mr Nixon resigned.

But the handwritten notes scrawled on the plan ("basically a very good idea. It should be expanded") belonged Nixon aide Roger Ailes — the man who proved instrumental to Rupert Murdoch's decision to launch Fox News two decades later.

Today, the right-leaning, round-the-clock network has covered Donald Trump's impeachment hearings in a way not dissimilar to the plan Ailes himself helped shape.

But it's also done something Mr Nixon's aides might not have expected — experts say the President needs Fox News more than Fox News needs the President.

In today's impeachment battle, the stakes are higher than ever

The difference in how America's news networks framed the first day of the public Trump impeachment hearings was stark.

Buzzfeed's Ryan Broderick explained how the Republican strategy to defend Mr Trump at the hearings worked:


"Each round of GOP questioning is not meant to interrogate the witnesses, which today included (Gordon) Sondland, but instead to create moments that can be flipped into Fox News segments, shared as bite-size Facebook posts, or dropped into 4chan threads."


After more than two weeks of hearings that included "bombshell" revelations, American voters remain almost evenly split — along party lines — on the question of impeaching Mr Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight.

At a time when Fox News' public defence of Mr Trump will be crucial in the battle to convince voters that impeachment is unfair, the network's ratings have never looked more dominant.

Fox is king of US cable news 

Every year, Fox News generates more than $US2.7 billion ($4 billion) in revenue and two million primetime viewers — more than the other news networks combined

A study in 2014 found that 84 per cent of consistently conservative Americans said they got their news primarily from Fox. 

The network has been called everything from America's "State TV" to "the President's personal propaganda machine".

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/fox-news-donald-trump-and-impeach...

 

I borrowed the cartoon to make it trump's...

obama's turkey

 

 


and you should see his arse!...

fit like a boofhead...

Donald Trump has sent Twitter into chaos after tweeting a doctored photo of himself as boxing movie character Rocky Balboa.

There was no caption. Perhaps he thought it needed no explanation, but it’s sent social media into a spin and left many of his 67 million followers baffled.

The topless photo of himself showing off his washboard abs has already attracted more than 53,000 retweets and 200,000 likes since it was first shared on Thursday morning (Australian time).

...

Mr Trump is known to boast about his “very good” health, even promising in the election campaign that he would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

So when reports emerged that the 73-year-old paid an unexpected visit to the Walter Reed Medical Center last weekend, speculation arose about the state of Mr Trump’s health as the stop wasn’t public scheduled for that day.

There were reports that Mr Trump had suffered a heart attack.

On Tuesday, the president used a Florida campaign rally to shut down such speculation.

He said “nothing happened” during the hospital visit, slamming the media for suggesting he had a “massive heart attack”.

“They said, he wasn’t wearing a tie. Which is pretty unusual for me honestly. I should have wore the tie. Maybe it wasn’t their fault. They never apologise. They said he wasn’t wearing a tie. This is a sign of a massive heart attack,” he said during the rally.

The White House later confirmed that Mr Trump decided to get a health check because he wouldn’t have had the time on his hands to do so next year while campaigning for re-election.

Mr Trump bragged about how the doctors praised his physique.

“The first thing they do is say, “Take off your shirt, sir, and show us that gorgeous chest. So we want to see. We’ve never seen a chest quite like it.” No but seriously,’ he said.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2019/11/28/donald-trump-rocky-balboa/

 

 

the puny democrats pick a fight with a bum...

 

Glaring anomalies in the Trump impeachment


by General Vinod Saighal


The drama of the removal of President Donald Trump continues. After the first series "The Russian Affair", the second "The Ukrainian Affair" does not seem better written. Above all, it shows the inability of the Democrats to criticize the president for his policies and could turn against them.


The Democrats in the House have made an impressive showing in the impeachment hearings so far. They have made known that they have several more star witnesses. On their part a few of the Republicans in the House did put the two diplomats off kilter for a few embarrassing minutes when they posed the question whether any of them had personally seen any written Trump missive to the Ukrainian President which could be construed as quid pro quo. Another aspect they repeated frequently was that while the Obama Administration had dithered on providing lethal arms the Donald Trump administration had done so including the supply of Javelin anti tank missiles that the Ukrainians were demanding. From the hearings so far most Democrats would have realized that from what had transpired so far, impeachment was a charge that might not hold water; Rejection by the Republican majority in the Senate becoming a later development, should it come to that. Therefore it appears that the Democrats would generally be satisfied were the proceedings to expose Trump and the manner in which foreign policy was being run during his watch. They hope that it would make a dent in his vote bank. What then are the anomalies that the Democrats would be loath to touch upon and the Republicans to date have failed to highlight? The most glaring ones are summarized in the ensuing paragraphs.


The matter raised by the diplomats who kept returning to it during their deposition related to the informal channels that were working simultaneously. Without saying it in so many words they opined that these undermined the formal channels and by implication were irregular and were being used to further the President’s agenda. It would have been known to such seasoned diplomats that what they term irregular diplomacy and what countries around the world term back channel diplomacy, is fairly common. Heads of state often conduct the same through their National Security Advisers and very often through special representatives in whose discretion they have full confidence to deliver sealed missives directly to the head of state being contacted. There are so many examples of past Presidents of the United States doing the same. The most important one was during the Cuban Missile Crisis when President Kennedy used his brother Robert Kennedy for back channel diplomacy with his Russian counterpart. The back channel diplomacy succeeded. The Russians agreed to withdraw their missiles from Cuba and the world released its breath. The quid pro quo was the withdrawal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Several examples can be cited from actions by other countries in the two World Wars and throughout the Cold War. These often avoided more serious outcomes. The practice was followed by the adversaries in the Cold War. After the War years many heads of state and their governments started using these for what has been termed as parallel diplomacy or quiet diplomacy far removed from the media and prying eyes. India and Pakistan have been using the same for decades. It has more often than not dampened situations that could have become explosive.


Clandestine actions by former US presidents to further their agenda have taken place in the past from time to time. Many never came to light while others were revealed or unearthed well after the events. The most questionable and controversial one took place during the Ronald Reagan presidency. It related to what became known as the Iran Contra Affair. It seems to have been directly conducted from the White House under the aegis of the President. In the Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran to bring about the release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Money from the Iran weapons-sale was then used to fund the Contras, a group of guerrilla “freedom fighters” opposed to the Marxist government of Nicaragua. Col. Oliver North who met President Reagan on several occasions was chosen to carry out the negotiations. It was also known in Iran as the McFarlane Affair. Oliver North was indicted on sixteen charges in the Iran–Contra affair and found guilty of three—aiding and abetting obstruction of Congress, shredding or altering official documents and accepting a gratuity. His convictions were later overturned on the grounds that his immunized testimony had tainted his trial.


The most glaring omission in the impeachment trial on the part of Nancy Pelosi and the House democrats was not to have discussed the Vice President Biden and his son’s dealings in Ukraine thoroughly prior to commencement of the impeachment hearings, in closed-door discussions if they felt that was necessary. Had they done so many questions that should have been thrashed threadbare might either not have arisen or if they arose they would have done their home work in advance and would have had answers ready. It was not the case. Vice President Biden was heading to become the leading democrat contender to take on Trump in the forthcoming 2020 elections. His chances were considered bright. Due diligence required that the former Vice President’s and his son’s involvement that many today would term questionable be thoroughly gone into by face-to-face interactions. Should doubts have arisen they might have decided to delay the impeachment hearings till all matters had been clarified to their satisfaction.


It is only a matter of time that Republican senators in the House bring it up as the hearings proceed. Or they might decide to turn the tables decisively in the Senate when the time came were the matter to reach the Senate. So far from what is known the Trump quid pro quo was related to the Ukrainian government investigating the Biden father and son’s dealings. In recent weeks, Trump has relentlessly mocked Hunter Biden, to the point that his presidential campaign began selling shirts that say, “Where’s Hunter?” highlighting that the former vice president’s son had been out of the public spotlight for weeks. At a recent political rally, Trump noted that Hunter Biden had been thrown out of the Navy. Hunter Biden was discharged from the Navy Reserve in 2014 after failing a drug test and has struggled with alcohol and drug abuse. He told ABC News that, “like every single person that I’ve ever known, I have fallen and I’ve gotten up.”


The House Democrats should realize that were the hearings to go deeper towards indicting Trump the tables might be turned on them. Were Mr. Biden to become or have become the Democrat presidential nominee sooner or later the people, the media and even representatives on the Capitol Hill would have raised the question as to whether former Vice President’s dealings in Ukraine were questionable or not as these had started directly or by proxy while he was still in government. Further, was the involvement so deep that were he to ascend to the White House the Ukrainian government would be in a position to demand quid pro quo from time to time.

 

General Vinod Saighal

 

Read more:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article208361.html

the turkey tradition...

US President Donald Trump has emerged from self-imposed isolation to show that at least one thing in Washington will run according to tradition: The pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey.

In the Rose Garden on Tuesday (Washington time), Mr Trump stuck to the script, pardoning a 19-kilogram turkey named Corn from appearing on an American dinner table.

“Corn, I hereby grant you a full pardon,” Mr Trump said, raising a hand over the white bird to applause from White House staffers.

Eating turkey on Thanksgiving is an American tradition, with the official pardoning part of an annual presidential ritual.

Tweet from @WhiteHouse

Before the pardoning, the two turkeys – named Corn and Cob – apparently spent a luxurious night in the Willard hotel in Washington DC, with the National Turkey Federation tweeting:

“What, you haven’t jumped on the bed before? Getting cozy for the night – gotta get that beauty sleep.”

Tweet from @natlturkeyfed

One Twitter user quickly pointed out that the presidential turkeys spent the night at a hotel not owned by Mr Trump.

Since losing the election to Democrat Joe Biden three weeks ago, Mr Trump has defied custom. There’s been no concession speech and no phone call to Mr Biden. He has largely remained out of sight.

Even the arrival of the official White House Christmas tree did not draw him out, with first lady Melania Trump welcoming the tree alone on Monday afternoon.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/us-news/trump-news/2020/11/25/lame-duck-pardons-turkey/

 

 

Read from top....