You know...you're kept in the dark and fed a lot of bullshit. It's a little over 5 weeks since President Trump was inaugurated. He's had some successes and he's screwed some stuff up. I include his staff and his administration. They haven't been perfect. But think about coming into that job and that situation. Do you think you could do everything right? Especially when your political adversaries and much of the press are diametrically opposed to your Presidency? Don't think so.
There is also the little fact that it took inordinately long to get his appointees approved (and there are some who are still waiting). Without someone to run a department of government, what do you think happens. You might think that a Deputy would step in and take up the reins. And I'm sure in a few cases that might occur. But in many, many instances all of the political appointees are holdovers from Obama. And for the most part they hate Trump. So how do you think that's going? Until the cabinet posts get approved and the leaders can get on with choosing their senior staff, things will grind very slowly.
And then there is the media. I've made no bones about my disappointment in many of them. I'm talking about all of them. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the MSM, the major magazines, the major websites...all of them. It seems to that they have, quite simply, evolved into money making entities that put major emphasis and credence on getting a story first and ensuring it is as sensational as possible. How many times have we seen partial truths play out. Take the whole Russian thing. I will concede that Flynn had contact with his counterpart, although why that is bad as incoming National Security Advisor is beyond me. He screwed up by lying to Pence and the FBI about the substance of his conversations. Okay, so he's gone. What else? We know that the Russian bastards did some nefarious shenanigans by releasing embarrassing emails during the election. There was no impact on the outcome and Hillary and her tribe were mightily embarrassed. But there was no impact on the election. There is widespread agreement to that fact. These guys are underhanded dicks who are not to be trusted. That is a given. And that seems to be agreed to by everyone in the Administration. Doesn't mean you don't talk to them. Doesn't mean you don't see where there are areas of agreement and cooperation. But you keep both eyes open. What else? Oh yeah...how about "the press is the enemy of the people"? Heinous right? But here's what he said..."the fake news is the enemy of the people". Is there anyone in the universe that doesn't think that most of the press is out to get Trump and will present half-truths and fake news to bring him down?
Which brings me to my mushroom status. President Trump can be a dick. No doubt about that. His rhetoric during the campaign was sometimes tough. But the folks on the other side are routinely saying that he is racist, xenophobic, homophobic, hates Muslims, hates Latinos, hates women, etc, etc, etc. But I must be living in the dark. Where are the examples of this hate? Like I said, he has said tough things during the campaign. But where has he said things that are bad enough to stimulate all this anger and outrage in the last 5 weeks? I sincerely don't get it. The only thing I can think that these people don't believe we should be a sovereign country, or don't believe that people should be encouraged to become productive members of our society, or don't believe that the government should try and improve the current health care system that provides health care to a small number of Americans, or do believe that every issue is black and white and there is only one true answer to every question. There are so many issues that it seems to me there are ample areas to compromise on and get something done and yet everyone (both sides) seem so entrenched that it's incredibly disheartening. I hope it gets better. We'll see.
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