Alternative Facts

[de officiis]

Trump had a winning hand at FIFTH largest attendance ever, but instead counters a lie with a lie. Trump may know how to work his base but I'm never going to get used to propaganda vs. propaganda debates.

He should take the high road with the press and not allow himself to be baited into doing dumb things like this.

[Smitty-48]

"FIFTH largest attendance" is not a win, they only moved the ceremony to the west side of the building in 1981, before that, the crowds were much smaller, so "FIFTH largest" would actually be one of the worst attended since Reagan moved it, that's George H. W. Bush territory. Obama, Obama, Clinton are one two and three, then Bush jr, then Bush sr.

[StCapps]

I don't think they are helping him at this point. They convey the appearance of someone who is petty, vindictive and most importantly, distracted--even if he is not. Also, caring about economic growth means caring about policy, the two go hand in hand.

His twitter usage keeps the spotlight on him, and away from things that help him less than having the spotlight focused on things that make him look worse then when they are focused on his tweeting. The negative publicity he receives from his tweets is dwarfed by the positives of having the media focused on him all day, everyday and having a platform that his supporters can get information from without having to deal with the mainstream media. It's not even close, if you can't see that you aren't paying attention or your anti-Trump bias is preventing you from seeing it.

[ssu]

Trump just needs to get on with the business of governing and stop farting around with this sort of thing and that dumb Twitter feed.

Smart people and even the media should stop following Trump's tweets and focus on what the Trump administration actually does and will do. (Which even I have posted here, but then again I'm not so smart)

The campaign's over. Nobody gives a damn how many people showed up on the mall. What we're looking for are intelligent policy changes what will stimulate economic growth and create jobs for more Americans. He needs to focus on that like a laser and never lose sight of it.

Put it around. The campaign is never over.

Less than four years to go. And what better thing to focus on the damning media, if the ability to truly create economic growth is in the end quite minimal for any President? You can pass laws, throw those government subsidies or tax breaks around, but that doesn't make a huge impact in the economy, which in the end is more attached to the global economy. And Trump just loves campaigning. He's good at it and he likes it. The administration will have difficulties to put Trump to work and not letting him off to and go hit the campaign trail. Think about it, what does it tell if Trump is now thinking about the campaign slogan of the next election?

[jbird4049]

Right. So, instead of trying to positively spin this, he deflects, because reasons. Which reasons are those? He has an actual thing he can spin. That's the Press Secretary's job. To put positive spin on stuff.

That story is showing up on my FB wall, with peeps saying WTF? And he's worried about crowd size? He clearly isn't taking his job seriously.

That's my take as well.

Positively spin what?

Here's a list of all actions he's taken so far:

• Issued an executive order aimed at rolling back former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.
• Halted a reduction to the annual mortgage insurance premiums borrowers pay when taking out government-backed home loans.
• Ordered agencies to freeze new regulations, giving the new administration time to review them.
• Received a key legal OK from the Justice Department for Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to take on a role in the White House.
• Met with the CIA, where he addressed employees. Trump also took over the nuclear codes
• Spoke to the Mexican president and said the two will meet at the end of January.
• Spoke to the Canadian prime minister about the two nations' economic relationship.
• Announced he has meetings with leaders in Mexico and Canada to begin re-negotiating NAFTA.
• Announced his first foreign leader meeting will be Friday with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May.
• Signaled a shift in the Justice Department's civil rights efforts when it requested a delay in the lawsuit over a Texas law requiring voters to present certain types of government-issued IDs.
• Told the National Park Service not to tweet after it retweeted side-by-side images showing the crowd at former President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration and Trump's inauguration.
• Began discussions about moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
• Confronted his first national disaster as President, deadly tornadoes in Georgia.

The goal of starting this unimportant fight with the media is to cement the media as the enemy, and to keep control of where the headlines are. They don't want the headlines about dramatic shifts in Israeli foreign policy, or a transition that is missing thousands of employees in key positions across the government, including the non-confirmation positions.

Acting, and worse, believing that one can manipulate reality by omitting, distorting, and lying the facts is doable, and profitable. However, while you may think you can ignore life, life will eventually not ignore you. As with Baghdad Bob in the 2nd Gulf War, or Big Finance in 2008, or with our changing climate, it will not be denied forever.

The big mainstream media conglomerates do not want to do serious, truthful, and detailed political coverage for two reasons. First, it's more profitable to get a few "reporters" to attract viewers with clickbait, instead of using expensive full size news crews to do real investigations, and second, reporting real news would embarrassed the powerful. With the clownification of the news business, it's easier than every to do just this.

Because these are minor issues, it doesn't matter as much, but what happens when the lie is 'China has attacked us'? We're at war with China, we've always been at war with China.

No one is making convincing and entertaining lies of that magnitude. As long as the beefs with the "facts" are limited to minor issues that serve as clever distraction I don't see the need to be overly concerned.

Yet.
We are being primed for the big con.

Trump just needs to get on with the business of governing and stop farting around with this sort of thing and that dumb Twitter feed. The campaign's over. Nobody gives a damn how many people showed up on the mall. What we're looking for are intelligent policy changes what will stimulate economic growth and create jobs for more Americans. He needs to focus on that like a laser and never lose sight of it.

One can hope.

[clubgop]

Trump just needs to get on with the business of governing and stop farting around with this sort of thing and that dumb Twitter feed. The campaign's over. Nobody gives a damn how many people showed up on the mall. What we're looking for are intelligent policy changes what will stimulate economic growth and create jobs for more Americans. He needs to focus on that like a laser and never lose sight of it.

Stop doing the things that help him win because de officiis doesn't like it. I'm sure Trump will get right on that. The electorate doesn't care about policy but they do care about jobs and economic growth, they don't care which economic policies achieve these results, they only care about the results. Using twitter and attacking the media doesn't harm his ability to focus on creating jobs and economic growth, so why would he stop when it clearly benefits him?

I don't think they are helping him at this point. They convey the appearance of someone who is petty, vindictive and most importantly, distracted--even if he is not. Also, caring about economic growth means caring about policy, the two go hand in hand.

That is the media at this point. Congress is doing all the heavy lifting. The left can keep thier cult of personality when the midterm rolls around and Trump nor Clinton is on a ballot, we'll win on the issues.

[skankhunt42]

Happy Days Are Here Again!

I do own that book. It's a fun read, I recommend it.

[C-Mag]

I don't think they are helping him at this point. They convey the appearance of someone who is petty, vindictive and most importantly, distracted--even if he is not.

Yep, while the corporate media is whining about this, Trump has ended TPP and starting to re-work NAFTA.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Trump- ... l-from-TPP

[Penner]

Trump just needs to get on with the business of governing and stop farting around with this sort of thing and that dumb Twitter feed. The campaign's over. Nobody gives a damn how many people showed up on the mall. What we're looking for are intelligent policy changes what will stimulate economic growth and create jobs for more Americans. He needs to focus on that like a laser and never lose sight of it.

Stop doing the things that help him win because de officiis doesn't like it. I'm sure Trump will get right on that. The electorate doesn't care about policy but they do care about jobs and economic growth, they don't care which economic policies achieve these results, they only care about the results. Using twitter and attacking the media doesn't harm his ability to focus on creating jobs and economic growth, so why would he stop when it clearly benefits him?

Trump is the president now and he should just get over things like, crowd size (and SNL making fun of him) and just focus on actually what he was elected to office to do- which was to bring the jobs back (although, I have already expressed my skepticism on that as well, in another thread here).

[Martin Hash]

"FIFTH largest attendance" is not a win, they only moved the ceremony to the west side of the building in 1981, before that, the crowds were much smaller, so "FIFTH largest" would actually be one of the worst attended since Reagan moved it, that's George H. W. Bush territory. Obama, Obama, Clinton are one two and three, then Bush jr, then Bush sr.

Something is going on the newsfeeds since yesterday! I read a ranking on USA Today (anti-Trump) that had Reagan first, Obama second, Bush Jr. third,(Clinton?), Trump 5th, (can't remember), Carter, Ford, all 2nd terms, in that order. I should have linked it because today, after 30 minutes of Google, I can't find it! In fact, lots of new hits come up from anti-Trump news organs with really negative slants on attendance. I DID find this however.
Third Highest Viewship

Better read it now because it will probably be gone tomorrow.

p.s. That's FIFTH largest with a fucking boycott going on. Count the "100 Billion Women March" in the turnout, and Trump wins HAND'S DOWN!