Tags

, , , , ,

credit: nationalreview.com

I stopped reading Time Magazine at least two decades ago (I may be a bit off on the date) when it announced the issues revolving around guns were so important, they were no longer going to attempt to be professional and unbiased and would henceforth become advocates against the Second Amendment. While one might appreciate such unusual honesty from the media, one cannot appreciate any media outlet working against a fundamental, unalienable American right. A recent article reaffirms my choice to avoid Time was right, then and now, for whenever I begin to think the media could not sink any lower in its blatantly biased, false and utterly underhanded attempts to destroy Donald Trump…well, read on Gentle readers.

The Venue is the White House. One Zeke Miller, a Time reporter, visited Mr. Trump and was given the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with him. Miller was even invited to dinner. The result was a lengthy article, which spent quite a bit of time comparing Mr. Trump, unfavorably, to Barack Obama in their working habits and use of the White House. I’m sure you can imagine the tone: Obama beyond good, even saintly; Trump, bad, bad, bad. Here’s an example:

Trump has lived most of these first months alone in his upstairs palace, inhabiting 20,000 square feet of the residence by himself most weeknights, catered to by a household staff that totals nearly 100, including a couple of valets and a handful of butlers. During the Obama years, the second and third floors of the executive mansion were treated as private housing, not a governing space. Obama’s daughters and mother-in-law lived in a few of the extra bedrooms. The first time most staff ever got to see the place was the night Obamacare passed in March 2010, when the Obamas decided to throw a party.

That maniac Trump! “Alone in his upstairs palace!” Miller omits the fact that Mrs. Trump is living in New York so their ten year-old son can finish this school year without disruption. And “palace?” It’s the White House. Mr. Trump didn’t build it. He lives in the same spaces every other president occupied. I don’t recall Miller, or any other reporter, characterizing the White House, or its previous occupants, that way.

And he is “catered to by a household staff that totals nearly 100, including a couple of valets and a handful of butlers!” Hmm. Again, I believe this is the same staff that “catered to” Barack Obama and every other president. Notice Miller’s characterization of Obama’s living habits. Obviously, he intends Mr. Trump to seem churlish by comparison, but in reality, he inadvertently reveals that Mr. Trump is a hard worker-–Obama was anything but–and is in awe of the White House and its history. He very much sees it as the People’s House, and treats it, and his visitors, accordingly. The article reveals that Mr. Trump has replaced the “modern art” Mr. Obama favored with historic oil paintings, and often shows visitors around the building. Miller continues:

The current President has taken a different tack, inviting staff up regularly for meetings; hosting dinners for old friends, staff and supporters; giving tours; calling foreign leaders from Lincoln’s old desk in the Treaty Room, where he will also stay late into the night doing work with his longtime personal aide and bodyguard Keith Schiller. ‘The phone system is so amazing here,’ Trump confides as he enters the space. ‘This one phone, it splits the words’—a reference to scrambling technology meant to disrupt eavesdropping.

Miller doubtless intends his audience to think Trump strange. Who stays up late working and making phone calls from “Lincoln’s old desk in the Treaty Room?” Obama certainly didn’t do that.

Does Miller’s reference to phone technology seem odd, gentle readers? It’s reminiscent of the media lie about George H.W. Bush’s encounter with a grocery scanner  during the 1992 campaign. The media reported that Mr. Bush was amazed by grocery scanning technology and implied he was so rich and separated from daily reality he had never seen a grocery scanner. As it turns out–take the link–the scanner in question was actually then-new technology capable of scanning torn or otherwise damaged bar codes. It was that to which Mr. Bush referred. He was at a trade fair, and was merely being polite.

Here, Miller obviously seeks to portray President Trump as a simpleton, unacquainted with and amazed by scrambling technology. I’m sure Miller’s usual audience is more than pleased to take his hint. As for the rest of America, Miller merely confirms why Mr. Trump was elected, and why the Media is less trusted than Congress–which is quite a feat. I suspect Mr. Trump also leaves the Oval Office at a reasonable hour so his support staff can go home to their families. This is doubtless a common practice for him, thus his repairing to other rooms to conduct late night business without making them feel badly. And yes, Mr. Trump does treat his employees considerately and well; the media just doesn’t tell anyone about that.

But here’s my favorite:

The waiters know well Trump’s personal preferences. As he settles down, they bring him a Diet Coke, while the rest of us are served water, with the Vice President sitting at one end of the table. With the salad course, Trump is served what appears to be Thousand Island dressing instead of the creamy vinaigrette for his guests. When the chicken arrives, he is the only one given an extra dish of sauce. At the dessert course, he gets two scoops of vanilla ice cream with his chocolate cream pie, instead of the single scoop for everyone else. The tastes of Pence are also tended to. Instead of the pie, he gets a fruit plate.

Remember that Miller was invited to dinner–in the White House–and this is how he repays that kindness. Mr. Trump did not need to extend that courtesy. He didn’t need to indulge Miller at all, and would be wise not to do so in the future. Again, Miller’s audience doubtless sees his snarky observations as proof of Trump’s uncouthness and fascism. The rest of America understands Mr. Trump is the President of the United States. His staff knows his preferences and is there to provide them–that’s their job regardless of who is in the White House. For the next 4-8 years, it’s his home, and he’s entitled to eat as he pleases. It’s not like his guests are being served half a moldy bologna sandwich with a piece of limp, brown lettuce while he’s eating filet mignon. Does any sentient being imagine that if a guest asked for additional sauce, a different dressing, or a different beverage, they’d be refused? Miller suggests it.

With all that is going on in the world, this is what Time considers newsworthy, and not to better inform us about Mr. Trump, but to try to ridicule and belittle him. If you can stand it, gentle readers, take the link and read the rest. Remember: these are the people who think they’re smarter and better than we deplorables, who think themselves uniquely qualified to tell us what to think and how to live.

They really can’t imagine why fewer and fewer Americans are willing to believe anything they have to say.