If you work in the business of blogging like Ursula and I and everyone else here does, there’s a phrase for it, maybe you know it. It’s called click bait. It means providing a salacious or provocative title, and then the actual content has nothing to do with the title. In this business, clicks mean money, and that kind of cheap shoddy trick is something all of us avoid like the plague. You deserve better than that, and we’re better than that.
Unfortunately you can’t always say the same tihng about the mainstream media, and I’m not just talking about FUX News and far right media. The major news networks as well as the major newspaper online platforms all live and thrive on clicks, just the same as we do. And the news networks still need scintillating, provocative headlines to keep eyes glued to the screen, even if they don’t deliver.
Here’s a perfect example. In order for the news networks to get eyes on the screen, and networks and newpapers to get clicks and sell papers, they desperately need for this to be a close race. If Harris starts leading in most reliable national polls by like nine points, and is crushing the Blue Wall states that hand her 270, especially if she’s leading in states like AZ and NV, where’s the suspense? The media needs a nailbiter, and if they don’t get it, then other measures must be taken.
The most obvious one would be The Ghost Of 2016. Just one problem. It’s a crock of sh*t. In 2016, reputable polls showed Clinton with a durable and lasting lead of 3.5 points. On election night, Clinton won by more than 3 million votes, a 3.7% margin. The difference was a handful of districts in critical swing states, which isn’t the polls’ job! And with our election security measures being redoubled, it’s unlikely to happen again. And if Harris is outside the margin of error, especially in the Blue Wall, it seems kind of silly.
What else? Well, of course with the media there’s always something else. And that’s The Ghost Of January 6th. And it pisses me off because it’s nothing more than empty sensationalism. And the part that really pisses me off is that at least two of the cable networks, CNN and MSNBC are already laying the groundwork for if the race gets dull.
Here’s the basic premise. Once again, just as in 2020, Traitor Tot is starting to smell a real sh*t pile on November 5th. And as a result, His Lowness is already predicting a bloodbath in the streets if Trump loses again in November. And that’s music to the networks ears, becausde it allows them to once again invoke The Ghost of January 6th.
Which is unutterable bullsh*t. Because El Pendejo ex Presidente has been predicting the End of Days if he lost since the fall of 2016. And just like his four hotel-casinos in Atlantic City, it turned out to be nothing more than schlock and glitz. His hotels went bankrupt and so did his civil war.
Let’s be clear, January 6th was a one time, perfect storm scenario. Trump, sensing imminent defeat, carefully sowed the field, telling the mobs in the debate, Proud boys, stand back and stand by. This was music to their ears, and they recruited off of it. But here’s a simple fact that nobody pays attention to. In November of 2020, 74 million people voted for Trump, but less than 10,000 showed up at the Ellipse and stormed the Capitol. There wasn’t even scattered violence anywhere else. Hell, more than 10,000 people show up to minor league ball games, only they don’t carry AR-15’s, metal tipped flag poles,or bear and pepper spray.
The Trump of 2024 is not the Trump of 2020, not in any way. He is still largely a social media pariah, counting on the app formerly known as Twitter, and his third rate Bullsh*t Social. All of the leaders of the domestic terrorist cells he leaned on in 2020 are in the crossbar Hilton, and he showed his true colors by not issuing blanket pardons for the insurrectionists in the 14 days before he left office. Trump is sh*t out of friends and soldiers.
- And still, even now, today, portions of the media are treating Traitor Tot’s hysterical, Armageddon prophesies as if they came from the Oracle of Delphi. Dark hints of mass protests and violence if Trump loses in November. That should keep the ratings up! But let’s just look at a little pure and unadulterated history of Il Douche’s track record here, shall we?
- Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC naiiled it on the head the day after the election was called for Biden when he said on The Last Word, The media really needs to take a reality check. They have been predicting for days widespread chaos and even violence if the election went against Trump. I never said that because I knew better. 74 million people voted for Trump, and this morning, they got up, took a shower, and went to work. Not one of them even showed up to protest, much less start a riot. It was never anything more than the delusional rants of a deranged mind
- Starting with his first indictment, Traitor Tot promised blood in the streets, calling for massive nationwide protests, especially in front of the courthouse for his arraigment. The authorities took full precautions, but they needn’t have bothered. No more than 100 protesters showed up, and they were as docile as a herd of polled Herefords
- That being said, every time Trump had a court appearance, or another arraignment, he kept screaming out the same frantic orders, like Hitler in the Chancellory bunker in April of 1945. And the media, desperate for a little mayhem and bloodshed, sent reporters and camera crews swarming to the courthouse. And you know what? When they got there the reporters and camera crews tended to outnumber the actual protesters by about 3 to 1.
- And here’s the lesson the media never learned through all of the false starts and stops. After the third miserable failure, The Cheeto Prophet himself stopped calling for mass protests, because he was too humiliated by the outcome of all of his previous efforts! Even Trump knew it was all lame bullsh*t
And now, staring down the barrel of the Harris movement juggernaut, with its enthusiasm, fundraising, populism, grassroots organizing, voter registration and volunteerism, Trump is staring at an electoral defeat too humiliating to be contemplated. And so once again he trots out the same old sh*t of massive protests and a second civil war, like an aged can-can dancer wrapping her moldy feather boa around her for some long lost dignity.
And once again the media click sluts are falling for the bait, bringing on alleged national security experts to darkly foretell the upcoming violent political nightmare to be brought on by yet another humiliating Trump defeat. The closer we get to election day, and the worse Trump’s electoral prospects start to look, he’s only going to ramp up the hysterical nihilist bullsh*t even more. And the media will be there to spin it into a frenzy.
So, please media. Let me make this as clear for you as I can, so you can save yourselves from another humiliation along the lines of your palsied coverage of Trump’s embarrassing , racist, sexist, misogynist campaign in 2016, from which you’ve yet to recover, and seem to have learned nothing from.
I’ve known this all along, and so has Lawrence O’Donnell. In fact, so have most people with perception above a third grade level. There will be no MAGA revolution. And there will be no second civil war, nor any widespread civil unrest or riot carnage. For one simple reason.
Trump’s rabid base of supporters, like Trump himself, are nothing more than a bunch or craven, cowardly chickensh*ts. They were attracted to him because he made them feel as brave, tough and fearless as he looked. But at the core they’re all just cowards. And if they honestly think that a poltroon dubbed President Bone spurs is going to risk his fat ass on the front lines of a civil war, they’re even dumber than they look. If Trump’s hold on his base was so strong, then why didn’t the southern and Great Plains MAGA heavy states not have mass protests and violence? Here’s why. If they get busted, then they lose their unemployment and welfare checks. Then how do their families survive?
I’ll close with this. If I’m getting through to any media people out there, please give me your address, and I’ll send you $20 bucks so you can get a clue. It never was anything more than bullsh*t, it is bullsh*t, and it will never be anything but bullsh*t. And the American people deserve better from the Fourth Estate chan craven, sensationalistic click bait just so you can make a buck. Here endeth the lesson.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
2016 was the weirdest election in my lifetime. I am a kind of idiot savant. I started predicting election outcomes in 1972, which was the first election I could vote in, due to the voting age being lowered to 18. I have correctly predicted the outcome of every single election — until 2016.
And the polling was nuts. I well remember the banner poll over at Daily Kos which had Hillary with a 96% chance of winning. BUT I also remember getting hysterical emails from the DNC demanding money because “Nate Silver says bla de bla.” So which is it, we’re in trouble or we have it made in the shade?
What you say is accurate. There was a 3.7 point differential and when all was said and done 77,000 votes in three states turned the tide. This time out things are very different.
I think Trumpty is going to go down in flames by more than he did in 2020. And I pray that’s the case so his *stollen election* B.S. will be recognized as being just that. B.S.
Whilst I love your absolute confidence that he won’t win again, I am still very nervous simply because he won *once*. He should never have seen the inside of the White House, much less do all the damage he did whilst he was there. The Tories (Boris Johnson aka Blow Job) also did much damage during the Pandemic (and Blow Job was personally convicted of flouting the lock down rules – utter b*stard: my colleagues and I were putting our lives at risk and some actually died whilst we continued to serve our patients in the hospitals and the community without proper PPE or vaccines; and he and his little sh*ts just ignored their own rules and had actual PARTIES on a weekly basis whilst the rest of the nation was dying…ugh!). I still worry that the majority of the US electorate has a short memory, and will believe (again – largely due to the MSM and their need to use click bait) that Traitor Tot is their saviour and is unbeatable, so they will just bow to the inevitable and make it happen. I won’t relax until Harris and Walz have been well and truly and unequivocally voted in, and he is convicted of his multiple crimes. I would dearly love to see him in jail (like Navarro and Bannon – btw why aren’t Alex Jones and Roger Stone in jail???), but I won’t hold my breath.
Murph: I love your optimism, and I can see your logic re click bait etc. so thank you for your efforts.
Ursula: I really really do hope you’re right and we don’t see that madman facilitated back into the WH.
Your descriptors, being “… click bait … scintillating, provocative headlines … a crock of sh*t … nothing more than empty sensationalism … starting to smell a real sh*t pile … media click sluts … a bunch or craven, cowardly chickensh*ts … going to ramp up the hysterical nihilist bullsh*t … save yourselves from another humiliation along the lines of your palsied coverage of Trump’s embarrassing , racist, sexist, misogynist campaign … “ are an apt and perfect discourse on the income generating behaviour of the select greedy; the blinkered spoon-fed, and the one-eyed wackos. Incisive and well written, sir!
CNN and FOX would love another J6, bet on it.