By Daniel M. Ryan
web posted February 27, 2017
As many expected, this last week of the Trump Presidency was another instalment of the President Trump Reality Show. As fewer expected, President Trump has not been the buffoon. No, that role is willingly filled by the goofier sort of prog – and the liberal media. Case in point: last Friday at whenever, witches around the world were to gather forth and cast a binding spell on Donald Trump. Despite being pushed by the likes of Lana del Ray, the New York Covenella in front of Trump Tower was a bust. The witches have learned that social-media hashtag magic doesn’t have much of an effect on dowdy ol’ meatspace. Sorry, Elle; witchcraft ain’t the new Thing after all.
The more serious ructions of last week, plus the tragic downfall of Milo, have show in real time that American politics is thoroughly partisanized. Anyone here remember the old days when the theories about the liberal academy, liberal media, liberal Hollywood, etc., were smugly dismissed out of hand as conspiracy theories? How times have changed! All of these sectors are not only obviously liberal, but are also mobilizing against Donald Trump - openly. An old cops’ saw says that the best confession comes when the perp brags about his crime. The open partisanship we’re seeing is about as close as one can get. Any muffin who claims today that talk about the liberal media, etc. is a “conspiracy theory� is going to invite the response, “What universe are you living in?�
To top it off, the Establishment candidate for the DNC chair won last Saturday: 235-220. To his credit, Tom Perez nominated the Sanders-backed runner-up Keith Ellison to the vice-chairship. Interestingly, the Dems might as well have borrowed this technique from the much more partisanized parties in Parliamentary democracies. It’s an old custom for the runner-up in a party leadership race to be given a senior slot in the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet. In Canada it’s such an ingrained tradition, knowing political commentators often observe that a long-shot for the win is really running for a Cabinet slot. Another ingrained tradition, just so y’all know, is voting the party line unless the party leader specifically gives permission not to. If you remember the Obamacare vote, not to mention at least one Trump confirmation, the Dems are imbibing this Parliamentary tradition too.
Underneath the reality show, President Trump is still seeing to the nation’s business. Last week, DHS solicited preliminary tenders for The Wall. Deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes are continuing apace, and sanctuary cities are eye-openingly unpopular. One of the more heart-warming changes is a crackdown on sex trafficking. Liz Crokin, who called attention to this salutary change, also complained that the MSM has largely ignored it. Not to detract from her writing, but the MSM ignoring it has a definite upside. It reminds us that we have to look elsewhere for news of this sort: that we have to “change the channel� from time to time to get the truth. We are living in the age of alternative facts, something that Thomas-Sowell Conservatives have become quite used to. Women as a whole differing in their career priorities: that’s been an alternative fact we’ve known for a long time. Yet another alternative fact, which the Trump Administration is doing something about, is the burden of regulatory compliance and the consequent draining of jobs. At CPAC, Steve Bannon laid out the three foundations of the Trump Administration in his CPAC speech: homeland security, economic nationalism and “Deconstruction of the Administrative State..� Liberal comedian Bill Maher had some fun with the last one:
The scariest thing at CPAC was President Steve Bannon saying... Trump’s cabinet was selected for a reason, and that is the 'deconstruction of the administrative state.' Wow. I’m not sure the word for that is 'conservative.' I think it’s 'terrorist.' … You can’t impeach a guy for, my plan is to wreck everything. What if you tried this at Quiznos? I intend to spit in this sandwich, steal all the money from the register, and burn the place down. What do you think?"These wiseacre remarks did cause controversy, which is exactly what Maher was looking for. It’s useful to remember that what he said was mere words. One of the noteworthy aspects of Milo’s tragic downfall was that it was caused by mere words he said, words that can be forgiven when we remember that he himself was sexually abused.
Tragic Downfall, Encouraging Support
We now have a real litmus test to see who belongs to the so-called Alt-Lite: if you forgave Milo or stuck up for him, you’re in. His New-Right compadres, like Mike Cernovich, have stuck up for him.
To be clear, CPAC disinviting Milo was the right decision. That organization caters to all conservatives, not just to the edgy New Right. Any organization named the Conservative Political Action Conference has to take social-conservative views into consideration. Having a keynote speaker who ostensibly had good things to say about pederasty is not the way to do it.
That noted, the pile-on on Milo as if he were a stereotypical morals-crusader caught in a honeypot is not appropriate. Milo never made any secret about his homosexuality: he flaunted it. During the time when he was riding high, the times when he said those things on the Joe Rogan and Drunken Peasants podcasts, he was very explicitly referring to not only his homosexuality but also his predilection for black partners. Openly broadcasting his preferences – which have not included any hint of pederasty - were very much part of his shtick. He was very far from a morals crusader, and it’s baffling as to why he’s being treated like one. Who in his right mind saw Milo as a paladin? His supporters looked up to him because he’s been a top-gun rogue.
Moreover, his remarks are easy to categorize as the blowharding of an abused boy who couldn’t face the fact that he was sexually abused. The bravado in his remarks are consistent with a wounded boy trying to make the best of his trauma. A similar bravado by a normal person about, say, losing his legs is easily pegged as gallows humour. Imagine a double amputee making jokes about losing his legs: “Well if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have built up my pile-drive pecs!� Now imagine that a group of people are raising up a howl about that double amputee saying that boys should have their legs amputated! “He’s a Wounded Warrior, so he’ll convince a bunch of boys that they should have their legs sawed off!!� Wouldn’t you feel that you had been teleported to the Nutso Zone?
There have been warnings after warnings after warnings about predators, and Milo’s remarks are very easy to peg as a thinly-disguised cry of pain – the pain of a now-grown boy who was wounded by two of those predators. His words are easy to peg as symptomatic. How on Earth could he be held up as a leader for pederasts?
As noted above, Milo’s dis-invitation was appropriate for the CPAC venue. There’s a case to be made that he shouldn’t have been invited in the first place. But given his service, albeit as a champeen rogue, wouldn’t it be better to let the poor fellow lick his wounds and be a bit thankful for his bravery? At the very least, there’s a pragmatic case to be made for not burying him and pretending he was never an ally. He was never anything like Jimmy Bakker.
Of course, the fecal cake would not be complete without double standards at Milo’s expense. One of them, a grating one, pertains to his words about Hollywood parties that he attended in which drug-fueled pederasty was a part. He said he witnessed them several years ago, when he was an unknown in a town that’s not kind to nobodies. His tone when disclosing this dark secret very clearly indicated that he was warning people about the dark side of Hollywood. He did not name any names.
I’m old enough to remember Corey Feldman doing essentially the same thing: saying that there were dark pedophile rings in Hollywood, and not naming any names. He too was warning people about that abuse. Mr. Feldman was lionized for his bravery.
But Milo? No: he was lambasted as a coward for refraining from what Mr. Feldman refrained from. Milo, a man who was sexually abused as a boy and who carries the resultant wounds, was condemned for not naming names. Mr. Feldman, who himself said he was abused, was praised and admired even though he named no names.. If you’re someone who believes that Mr. Feldman did us a huge service by speaking out, this double standard is particularly molar-grinding.
The other double standard is of course political. Allow your humble scribe to name the name George Takei.
Double-Standard Weakness
To move away from the tragedy of Milo, President Trump’s bashing away at the liberal media is continuing. He caught a lot of howls for not allowing CNN, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, the BBC and the Guardian into an off-camera White House briefing held in Sean Spicer's office. Reporters from the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, USA Today and Time did not attend in sympathy, which did not deter President Trump a whit. Last Saturday, he tweeted that he will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The Trump Train’s still a’ rollin’.
Have you ever wondered why the liberal media makes such a serviceable LOLcow? It’s because their partisanship, now blatant, has gotten to the point where the MSM worthies have become weakened by it.
How? The answer’s in the favouritism accorded to the Obama Administration. The leak-loving liberal media showed no such liking when Obama was President. Allow your scrivener to names names, courtesy of Glenn Greenwald: James Rosen, Jim Risen, Mr. Greenwald himself. And of course, we can’t forget Sharyl Atkisson.
From one angle, this double standard is the usual: another day at the fertilizer office. But from another angle, it says that the MSM liberals place ideological conformity above group loyalty.
In other words: they’re like a herd of caribou that don’t mind one of their own being snatched by the wolves, provided that the wolves have the right ideological coat. Regardless of what you think of wolves, those caribou make for a weak herd.
Yep: placing ideology about group loyalty is precisely the weakness that makes the media easy for Trump to turn into LOLcows. It leaves something to think about for the Progressive professor who feels no qualm about shafting an ideologically impure colleague, or a Progressive mogul who isn’t bothered by making sure a righty A-list actor never works in Hollywood again.
Daniel M. Ryan, as Nxtblg, is shepherding the independently-run Open Audi Initiative Prediction Market Shadowing Project. He has stubbornly assumed all the responsibility and blame for the workings and outcome of the project.