Banking on Short Term Memories

The Trump administration isn't dumb. They're smart at disseminating curated information to appeal to their voter base. They're also banking on the average Republican voter getting tired with the constant barrage of negative press.

Eventually, if you ignore it long enough, people tend to forget how bad the accusations are. Wait long enough, they may completely forget why they're angry in the first place. The general public has a knack for moving on to the next scandal (and it doesn't help the President constantly deflects to complete non-squitur like Hillary....)

 Here's some reporting (definitely anti-Trump) that's worth a follow and a read.

(THREAD) If you or someone you know suffers from Trump-Russia exhaustion, please read and RT this. Trump's strategy is to get us to cease caring about his coordination with Russia because investigating it takes too long. A long thread may seem an unusual antidote, but try it out. pic.twitter.com/TIRiU1wJG1

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) 1 April 2018

Pandering to a Base that Loves Lies - How Trump Gets Away With it

Lies.

It's one of the critical pieces to the Trump administration.

I'm thinking of people give the administration enough credit for answering to their bees. After all, he was the winner in the hotly contested election. You don't get there by being a complete moron. Rather, it takes careful strategy.

Let's ignore the Russian manipulation part, which seems to be an incredible expose ready to take the country over by storm. Let's look instead and why supposed patriots, and ardent Trump supporters, would never believe the press, and instead believe every Tweet the President mumbles.

It's what they want to hear.

The President knows this.

It is completely unlikely the Republicans are going to win any political battle in the foreseeable future. What they know now, they can stay above water if they continue feeding their base what they want to hear.

That base by the way is about 30% (or just under) of Americans. If they are continually fed the storyline they want to hear, regardless of truth, they'll be content.

Trump knows this. That's why he's been on record numerous times saying he flat out lies in his public releases. Everyone knows about it, except his voter base.

So it will be business as usual until mid-term and Presidential elections. Until then, there's really nothing that can be done other than to grin and bear the constant barrage of nonsensical misinformation coming from the White House.

Indictments

It's hard to follow the news these days. When the indictments of Manafort hit the news, Fox NEWS refused to cover it. They had a bogus coverage on emjoiis. Yes, the hamburger emoji. Can you believe it? I can, and the worst part is, apart from the sheeple who only consume the news that makes them feel good, it makes people distrust media as a whole. That's how Donnie's 'Fake News' caught momentum. He's right in a way. What he's not right in, and what's so blatantly obvious, is how much he's trying to deflect Russia attention to the Democrats. Wow, you'd think Hillary is President given the stuff he says. No matter. The FBI is conducting their methodical investigation and the pieces are starting to fall. Great news if you're a patriot. If you're having trouble following the events here is a Twitter summary worth checking out.

(THREAD) Paul Manafort and Rick Gates are now indicted. This thread analyzes legal and political aspects of their indictment and surrender. pic.twitter.com/Ir8zKaA1F2

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) October 30, 2017

Another Tour for Ajit at FCC

FCC is supposed to be regulator agency that protects consumer interests. After former Verizon CEO, and staunch Republican Ajit Pai took over, it;'s been a gongshow. If it's not the threat on the free press, it's net neutrality. Remember when the net neutrality debate first emerged and Republicans were either silent on the issue or threw their support behind telecom? Corporate giant Comcast has only Republicans in their back pocket (and the odd Democrat) that they almost snuck through a net neutrality bill two years ago. Obama in support of net neutrality and the push to turn the Internet into the public utility.
THe fight against net neutrality basically says if you pay more money you can get an unobscured and faster Internet connection. And the providers are trying to choke data through their cables. Because in most cities and places where Internet is provided there is only one provider, the essential monopoly has enabled some large corporations to do as he please and transmitters they want, and now they want to restrict access.

This is why reclassifying Internet cables as a public utility will prevent any attempts to restrict web access. This particularly relevant because the same contribution corporations that are trying to usher in the bill against net neutrality are also losing millions with lost cable revenues as people turn to online sources to view entertainment.

Now, with a President that's a loose cannon, fighting the media on one hand, and largely unconcerned about net-neutrality, there's no stopping repeated efforts to jam through a bill that will cripple the average consumer, make big telecom richer, and slow innovation in the country as a whole.

100 days and?

What has the President done, legitimately, at a macro scale, other than repeal numerous bills? I'm genuinely interested in now what policy initiative or successful change has happened in the past 100 days, and pissing off liberals doesn't count.

Deflect Attention, Quick! It's a trap!

If you have some of the lowest approval ratings ever for a President, what do you do? Well your advisors will tell you to brew up some deflection. What better way to appeal to the hungry American masses then a sensational story? Well rightly or wrongly, Trump quickly intervened in Syria after a devastating chemical attack by the Russian supported Asad regime. Rockets destroyed an airstrip/airbase in retaliation. Not to be outdone, the rhetoric with North Korea, and their race to become nuclear capable, is also taking away attention from the problems at home. Trump can do well to focus attention away from his Russian ties with wars on two fronts. North Korea would be an easy win. Not sure if the country wants to do it though. Any notion that war is better for the economy isn't an economist. Billions in war tools is better spent at home in domestic consumption.

Moderate Trump?

New President Trump is definitely showing his lack of experience as a politician with a number of his retractions and some ridiculous attempts at bypassing both the legislation and the judiciary with his executive orders. Although a President certainly has the power to enact executive orders, the level of sweeping changes he's attempting to implement are exceptional. His attempted ban on immigration won't meet the test of the courts; he certainly won't waste time complaining on twitter like a petulant child. If there was an attempt to actually unfold some of his promises that will stick he would, a) try to attend a band that included the states and countries that were actually launching point for terrorists that attacked America. Saudi Arabia being chief among them. Instead he's trying to deflect attention ran. and b) what try to unroll executive orders that were in the very least stand some on the challenge rather than being so far out in right-field that they have trouble sticking. That's just the thing, you wonder if this is just a test to see how far you can go before dialing back and rolling out sweeping changes that, in comparison, don't seem as harsh.