How corporate media has normalized Trump to the point of absurdity

I want to get a few things out of the way this morning, before really digging in and mining the anger inside me about the Democratic Party’s approach to the second Trump regime, which is aimed at finishing off America for good.

One of these things is the method in which our disintegrating mainstream media is framing this truly appalling chapter in American history. It’s as if they have completely given up and aren’t in the least bit interested in offering us the complete story of the madness playing out right in front of our tired eyes.

They’ve normalized it to the point of absurdity. AI would do a better job.

For example … It’s one thing to report:

“The president took issue with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.”

But it’s quite another, and far more accurate to report:

“The president, who has relentlessly stood with Russian President Vladimir Putin, since the murderous dictator helped him into office in 2016, took issue with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.”

See the difference?

Context, and facts used to be important vehicles on the road toward accuracy in prosecuting good journalism. It is in large part due to the shoddy work of too many in our media, that we are in this terrible mess.

Mayhem has been completely sterilized.

Worse, much worse, too many in the tone-deaf Democratic Party seem to be dancing right along to our media’s off-key delivery of the news. They are dealing with things as they wish they would be, instead of how they actually are.

So let’s shovel out some facts here, for some more much-needed context, as a setup for the trump cards I will be dealing next.

FACTS:

-Trump is a wannabe fascist who has horrible things to say about literally everybody except … Putin.

-Trump is a 34-count convicted felon.

-Trump has taken six businesses to bankruptcy.

-Trump is a twice-impeached, America-attacking goon who only by the grace of an incompetent and/or bought-off attorney general would be in jail right now.

-Trump is a raging bigot, who sees good people on both sides of a KKK rally, and once again referred to Elizabeth Warren at his slobbery address to Congress on Tuesday night as Pocahontas.

-Trump has hired a billionaire — or the billionaire has put the proverbial gun to Trump’s head — and is now laying off tens of thousands of workers in places like our veterans affairs offices. He is defunding things like cancer research, and has his drooling sights set on killing Medicaid, and potentially social security and Medicare.

-Trump is a self-admitted and convicted vile, and repeated woman-abuser.

-Trump believes our air and water should be just as dirty as he is.

-Trump is completely incapable of steering the passage of any helpful legislation through Congress and to the American public, and instead rewards billionaires with tax cuts, who are lining his bottomless pockets.

I’ll mercifully stop there, because the list really is close to endless, and you have better things to do than sweat in anger while reading this piece.

With that gory detail as a backdrop, I want to let you in a very brief conversation I had with my sister-in-law, Patty, Thursday night. When I got to the, “How are you doing” part of the discussion, she answered, “I’m scared.”

She’s scared because she’s normal, and has the audacity to pay attention. She’s scared because she depends on the benefits that Trump is threatening to take away. Patty’s husband was a Marine who came out of Vietnam a broken man. She spent the majority of her life taking care of him, while also working a full-time job and raising four kids.

The fact is she’d be in the street if not for the benefits she has earned.

She has served her country honorably for 75 years, and just wants assurances that her damn country will honor that service and their promises.

Instead, she’s “scared.”

This is appalling, but mostly sad. I mean, REALLY-FUCKING-SAD.

Anybody with a functioning brain and heart knows this.

We are in deep, deep trouble right now, and every minute we dither, play stupid political games, and wait to answer this attack on everything good in America we will fall deeper into the well.

I made this case relentlessly in a column that got a lot of eyes earlier this week, when I asked among other things:

What would you do if everything you had and everyone you loved was threatened? Would you act like Volodymyr Zelenskyy or Chuck Schumer?

So far the answer from our Democratic leadership has been: “Basically nothing.”

By now most of you have heard that Texas Congressman Al Green took issue with Trump directly during his gory address, when he lied that he “had been delivered a governing mandate not seen for many decades.”

This is nuclear-powered bullshit of course, and Green stood up and shouted back, “You have no mandate!”

And with that he was escorted out of the chamber.

Green later said: “I did disrupt and I did so because the president indicated he had a mandate and I wanted him to know he didn’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid.”

He also said:

“Friends, I would do it again.”

I say:

“God bless, Al Green.”

So what was Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ response to this, despite the fact Republicans have literally made a living out of disrupting (and far more rudely) these speeches?

This was:Dems privately confront Trump speech disruptors

Democrats like Green who were not submissive to the fascist, obnoxious, race-baiting, women-abusing, America-attacking slob were called to the mat by their OWN party.

Instead of going after the monster and his Republican Party who are provably abusing us, Jeffries and Democratic leadership went after their own. Instead of going after the 10 pathetic Democrats who went along with Republicans’ efforts to censure Green, they went after the Democrat who was censured.This is an untenable situation.

And I’d like to add (for context) that up until the disastrous November 5th election, I have been a supporter of Jeffries. But if this is how he is going to conduct business, then he needs to go.

Let me try putting it this way: Start fighting back now, or quit, Jeffries. I will not defend you or your cowardice “leadership” any longer.

I (we) don’t have time for this. Every day things get worse. Literally the entire world is looking on in disbelief while the orange monster sides with Russia and against patriots like my sister-in-law, Patty.

THIS ISN’T NORMAL, DAMMIT.

When a guy like Al Green stands up and says what everybody is thinking, and DEFENDS us and Patty, it’s not cause for censure or condemnation, it’s cause for celebration.

Because if we are STILL operating under some warped, bankrupt notion that this lewd, abusive wannabe-fascist deserves even a shred of our respect, then America isn’t dying …

It is already dead.

NOW READ: Even amid Trump administration dysfunction, Democrats are noticeably flailing

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.