Where’s Hillary?

MIA: Hillary Clinton. MIA on January 21: Barack Obama.

Gary North - January 13, 2017

I am not one of those people who believes that a particular political party is at the end of the road. That's because I think both political parties are in the hip pocket of the Council on Foreign Relations, and have been since approximately 1932.

Political parties have periods in which they are dominant. Then the electorate swings back to the other party. There is not much difference between the two parties ideologically. There may be a difference of rhetoric, but when it comes time to voting for the welfare-warfare state, there is bipartisan support.

The Democrats are going to have a tough time until the economy reverses. I don't think any other issue matters in the lives of most Americans. All the issues that the mainstream media hyperventilate about are of virtually no interest to the people who elected Donald Trump. Trump knows this. So do the MSM.

He had his first press conference this week. The New York Times was apoplectic because Trump clearly has nothing but contempt for The New York Times and all of the New York Times wannabes. The Times ended its article on the press conference with this:

A man who prides himself on finding an opponent's weakness, Mr. Trump at one point zeroed in on an existential question that has lingered in many newsrooms since his surprise victory: How much does the traditional news media still matter in a polarized age?

When Hallie Jackson, an NBC News correspondent, asked the president-elect if he would finally release his tax returns, to verify his claim that he has no financial dealings in Russia, Mr. Trump scoffed.

"You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, O.K.?" the president-elect said. "They're the only ones who ask."

"You don't think the American public is concerned about it?" Ms. Jackson asked.

"I don't think so," Mr. Trump replied, before laying down the political equivalent of a mike-drop: "I won."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/business/media/donald-trump-buzzfeed-cnn.html

Trump won. That really is the bottom line. The mainstream media are liberal, and liberals honor only one thing: political power. All the rest of it is window dressing. This has been true ever since the French Revolution. Power is the only currency that has any value in the world of political liberalism. The mainstream media know it. The mainstream media also know that the public really doesn't pay any attention to them anymore. They can scream, yell, roll on the floor, and hold their breath until they turn blue; nobody in Trump's camp really cares what they do.

They scream from the sidelines in outraged impotence. They have not given Trump any consideration at all. Yet Trump is obviously popular with his base. The people who voted for him pay no attention to the mainstream media.

The mainstream media are visibly losers. They are losing market share. The newspapers are shrinking both physically (to save newsprint) and in circulation. In a decade, most of them will be gone. The cable TV networks are truly tiny affairs. CNN, MSNBC, CNBC: they only have a few hundred thousand viewers each. FOX News is overwhelmingly popular compared to these outfits.

The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times are no longer the sources of most people's news. I think they know this, but they simply cannot get over it. This fact enrages them. They are having a nonstop temper tantrum: 24×7. None of it is having any effect on Trump.

He understands reality. He's a multibillionaire. He has just been elected President of the United States. He defeated Hillary Clinton, who was the most hated Presidential candidate, other than Trump, in the last half-century. She has disappeared. There is no trace of her. Until November 8, she was on the front page of every newspaper. She was primetime news on every mainstream news media outlet. Literally within 24 hours, she disappeared.

She was the first Presidential candidate in modern history who did not call the victor and offer him some kind of belated congratulations. The word was that she was drunk and couldn't talk. I'll accept that. I'll also accept the fact that she is an arrogant woman who was convinced she was going to win, and she had her 69-year-old head handed to her. I don't really care why she didn't call Trump. She is a sore loser. Most of all, she is a loser.

She was discarded onto the ash heap of history on November 9. The MSM have no further use for her. She is no longer on anyone's radar.

Barack H. Obama has one week to go. Then he is going to be removed to the sidelines. Nobody is going to interview him. Nobody is going to care what he thinks. He will be out of power, and from a liberal's point of view, there is nothing more important to be out of.

I don't know if he's going to use his Teleprompter in the future or not. I do know that nobody is going to quote him. He is going to turn into Jimmy Carter. He is going to turn into George W. Bush.

He really never had anything significant to say. From now on, this will be his most quoted line:

Ray Stevens got him. When Ray gets you, you're got.

As far as I know, Ray is the only top-ten singer from 1962 who is still pulling in millions of viewers for his latest songs. Let's hear it for Clyde!.

SOUND BITES

The Democrats no longer have anybody significant to speak for them. Chuck Schumer is a New York City backroom hustler. Nancy Pelosi was the ramrod for ObamaCare. She is ancient history, and looks every minute of it. These people are not media worthy. If the mainstream media cannot see this, then they are really blind.

So, how does the MSM get front-page news or primetime news? Who do they go to for expert commentary on what Trump is doing? They really are stuck. They may be desperate enough so that they will be quoting John McCain. Where does that get them? He was the guy who lost to Barack Obama. He is a loser's loser.

I think the MSM will be scrambling to get anybody of significance to stand in front of the camera and provide a sound bite for beating up Donald Trump. Trump has Twitter. What does he care about primetime soundbites?

They can go to Pocahontas. So far, they haven't. She has been out of the limelight for months.

THE GRAND ILLUSION

The name of the American political game since 1932 has been to create the illusion that there is a war going on in Washington, DC. The media and the CFR want us to believe that fundamental issues are at stake, and that the future of the Republic is on the line. It never is. But the show must go on. How will the MSM keep the show going on if it cannot find good guys who are willing to stand up and criticize Trump? Who are the good guys of importance? That is, who are the good guys who have power? There aren't any. The MSM are out of good guys. For the MSM, the good guys have to possess some degree of power.

I suspect that the MSM will have to devote newsprint and video time to Paul Ryan and others in the Republican Party in Congress who drag their feet in implementing Trump's agenda. The MSM will have to elevate Republicans in Congress to official good guys. Won't that be fun? The MSM had spent years vilifying these people, and now these people are all the MSM have.

What amuses me most is this: Trump's son-in-law is an Orthodox Jew. He got Trump elected. He understood social media. He blindsided both political parties. This had never happened before in American history. Now he will advise Trump. The nonpracticing Jews and the circumcised atheists in the mainstream media will have to swallow hard. A Jew is providing advice to the President, but it's not their kind of Jew. It's the kind of Jew that they been spending their lives trying to get away from. Now what will they do? It's not a prime time news story, they think. Except, of course, it really is.

We have only one more week to put up with Barack Obama. Then he becomes yesterday's news. In terms of any significant piece of legislation, he has been yesterday's news since 2010. Frankly, that's the kind of Presidency I approve of: all rhetoric and no legislation. Or as they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle.

At noon one week from today, he must hand over his hat to Trump.