Things are getting weird.

There has been some weird stuff going on the last couple of days.






First of all, the New York Times - The NEW YORK TIMES!-- ran a column asking their readers to say something positive about Trump. Seriously:

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Sunday Review

By MICHAEL KINSLEY

April 29, 2017

Opinion | Say Something Nice About Donald Trump

The establishment press has been vicious about Donald Trump. He’s portrayed, day after day, as a narcissist, personally obnoxious, with a policy agenda to match. He deserves most of this criticism.

If, as you acknowledge, he deserves this criticism, how is the press being "vicious?"
And tRump is a personally obnoxious narcissist. Pointing this out doesn't really count as criticism, let alone vicious criticism. I mean, it wouldn't be particularly vicious to point out that he is a racist, a failed businessman, and a conman who has bragged about committing sexual assault. If all they're doing is pointing out that he's obnoxious, I'd say they're letting him off pretty easy.
Also, I can't really recall any instances of the "establishment press" even doing that. I do remember much of the media spending the campaign season fluffing him like a gay-for-pay pornstar, but maybe I missed something.

But does he deserve all of it? Does he never do anything right? Say anything wise? Are all his schemes to reform this agency and abolish that regulation utterly misguided? Can “President Trump’s America” really be compared to Vladimir Putin’s Russia?

Well, to be fair, no, his America can't really compare to Putin's Russia. Mainly because Il Douche has only been in office about 20 weeks, and Putin is just a lot better at doing, um, everything really.

Surely, if there is a “party line” among the establishment media in the United States, it is anti-Trump, not pro. That doesn’t make it wrong. In fact, it’s largely right. But the venom, the obsession, the knife-twisting are hard to understand.

   SERIOUSLY?

You don't get why someone would have a visceral reaction tn unhinged, juvenile narcissist who has brought neo-Nazis into the goddamm White House and wants to take away people's ability to see a doctor? You seriously don't understand why people might feel venomously towards someone who wants to deport millions of our friends and neighbors while turning refugees away at the border? What's not to understand?

It must be partly a matter of bad timing. Mr. Trump came along just as the mainstream media, especially newspapers, were trying to come to terms with the internet. Hoary concepts like “objectivity” and “balance” were giving way. This was a good thing, believe it or not. Reporters no longer had to pretend that after spending weeks or months on a story, they had emerged with no opinion about it. The word “I” could now be used to refer to oneself, rather than “a reporter.” Mr. Trump, already dislikable, became the first test case of the new mind-set.

WHAT?!?!?!? Like we haven't had an entire cable "news" network and nearly all of talk radio dedicated to trashing the last two Democratic presidents? You think the Obamas and the Clintons have been treated "objectively" and with "balance" by the FOX-Limbaugh-WSJ matrix? What rock have you been living under?

But yeah, obviously bad timing. If only the internet hadn't been invented, the American public would welcome an incompetent, childish sociopath who sees the presidency as just another long con. Oh, we'd have welcomed him with open arms! We'd have strewn flowers in his path while singing songs of praise about his shady ties to Russia, his use of the office to enrich himself, and his encouragement of violence against his detractors.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, though, and even Donald Trump can’t be wrong all the time.

With that in mind, we’re looking for a few positive words about the president, and we’re asking for your help. This is not about Trump the family man. It’s not another forum for debating the issues. It is a place to point out positive things Mr. Trump has said or done from the viewpoint of The New York Times and its readers.

Um, okay. Let's see. . . As far as we know, he has never acted on his sexual attraction to his daughter.
Um. . . he hasn't nuked anyone yet.
And, uh, he hasn't ridiculed a disabled person for a while now.
And I'm out of ideas.

Anyway, the column goes on a bit but I've already spent too much time on it. I will leave you, though with the last sentence of the column: We’ll be revisiting this theme regularly in Sunday Review.

Yeah, because this is gold! You want to milk this theme for all it's worth!


Another weird thing

On Tuesday, Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media, celebrated the six-month anniversary of the election by tweeting a screen grab of the late night phone call in which Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton called to concede to Republican candidate Donald Trump. Scavino promised to share video of the conversation, which he said came via a Nov. 9 phone call at 2:30 a.m. from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin to Trump’s then-campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.

"I have on video & will share that in the near future."

 

What would be the point of that? Why would anyone want to hear a recording of a concession call. Does he think that this will embarrass Hillary Clinton? Probably. That is exactly the type of petty, spiteful petulance we've come to expect from this administration. You would think if anything, they'd want to try and embarrass any potential 2020 opponents, or maybe someone in the House or Senate who is opposing his agenda, but no. Hillary had the temerity to run against him, he "won" and her4 face must be rubbed in it at any opportunity. 

The best part is, he's not releasing it now. He's waiting. Like this recording is some sort of Ace up his sleeve. Like when the Russia/Comey?Flynn news gets bad enough, they'll be able to whip this out for some sort of positive publicity. Because, like a schoolyard bully, he thinks that humiliating someone else makes him look stronger.

And maybe the weirdest thing yet:

Trump to send senator a letter asserting no business connections to Russia

 

Okay, so apparently Lindsey Graham has gotten the vapors over all this Trump-Russia stuff going on and he does declay-uh that we all ought to have just a tiny little ol' peek at Trump's business dealings, bless his heart.

Trump's response?

Spicer said Trump has "charged a leading law firm in Washington, D.C." with preparing a certified letter to Graham saying he has "no connections" to Russia.

Okay, why a law firm? If you want to say "I have no connection to Russia," that's something you can do in 140 characters. Then you just send it here:

Lindsey GrahamVerified account

@LindseyGrahamSC

The official Twitter feed for United States Senator Lindsey Graham.

I know you're capable of that. You do this all day long when you're supposed to be presidenting.
And what is the point of this letter. Do you think that just saying "I'm not beholden to Putin" (or as you so eloquently put it, "No puppet. No puppet.") isn't going to convince the wily Graham, but a letter! On legal firm letterhead! There's no way he could not believe that!
Oh, and be sure to make a point of sending it certified so he can't pretend like he didn't get it. It's not like you could have someone walk a mile tp the Capitol building and fucking hand it to him or something.

Yessirree, things are getting weird. There are strange things happening every day in DC