Today a bridge was crossed. Although there’s been a decade’s worth of shitty shit happening lately, an incident in T-Rump’s off-the-rails, unhinged work in making the world is a bit more ominous, chillingly predictable and immensely dangerous for everyone.
And really, extremely obvious:
Views like a movie screened in real time. And one thing is for shity-sure: JD Vance is one arrogant asshole. In the late afternoon’s news cycle as the event caught up with the InterWebs, award for best headline, I figure, goes to Huff Post‘s “Putin On A Show: W.H. Meltdown.”
Shameful shit, and so ironically super sanctimonious:
Trump and Vance showed a level of crassness and vulgarity never seen before in the White House with a foreign leader and guest. They were the worst kind of ignorant disgusting bully. They’ve turned our nation into a global embarrassment. And a global threat.
— Jamie Schler (@lifesafeast.bsky.social) 2025-02-28T18:26:21.067Z
And dangerous.
The new WH Press Corps allowed to ask questions of Trump & Zelensky.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-02-28T20:13:57.982Z
In coincidence, earlier this week, T-Rump’s powers that be announced that the White House Correspondents’ Association will no longer determine who covers press events/speeches/etc. — that power is now with T-Rump’s people. A major journalistic line was crossed there and into state media country (BBC):
“Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join – fear not,” Leavitt said from the White House lectern. “We will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.” The television pool will not be affected, despite the president’s differences with many major networks; before entering electoral politics, Trump was a frequent subject of tabloid and television attention and then a reality TV star.
Press outlets “pool” their resources when coverage by all would be impractical; a selection of print, video, radio, online and photo news organizations alternate in doing the reporting. The Trump administration already has barred The Associated Press, a mainstay of those pools, from covering major events because it has not changed its guidance for calling the body of water between Mexico and Florida the Gulf of America, rather than the Gulf of Mexico.
“In free countries, like the United States is, leaders don’t get to pick who covers them day in and day out,” Politico reporter Eugene Daniels, the head of the White House Correspondents Association, told NPR’s Ari Shapiro Tuesday evening on All Things Considered.
[…]
“It’s surreal to watch these so-called new media people asking softball, ludicrous questions to Trump and Leavitt,” another White House reporter said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from a boss or the administration. “I never thought I’d see plants in press briefings of the highest seat of American power.”
This entire shitshow is ‘surreal.’ And what makes it worse, of course, is the sad, depressing knowledge that it’s only been five weeks and four days worth of clusterfucking. WTF!
And at an American news tradition (the New York Times this afternoon):
And on Friday, the Agency for Global Media informed one of Voice of America’s highest-profile journalists, Steven Herman, that he was being placed on an extended “excused absence” pending a human resources investigation, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Herman confirmed receiving the letter, which said the investigation was into whether his “social media activity has undermined V.O.A.’s audiences’ perceptions of the objectivity and/or credibility of V.O.A. and its news operations.”
Weeks earlier, Mr. Herman came under fire from the Trump administration when he cited a quote on social media from an anticorruption watchdog group criticizing cutbacks at the United States Agency for International Development.
Richard Grenell, Mr. Trump’s envoy for “special missions,” wrote on X that Mr. Herman’s comments were “treasonous.”
“You don’t get to work against the official U.S. government policies while being paid by US taxpayers,” Mr. Grenell continued. “You should be immediately fired.”
Also on Friday, Voice of America officials informed Patsy Widakuswara, the broadcaster’s longtime White House bureau chief, that she was being involuntarily reassigned to another beat, employees said. Some Voice of America journalists suspected the move was part of an effort to reduce friction with the Trump administration, although an official at the broadcaster, who wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, denied that.
We’re on a special train heading into a tunnel.
Closing out:
Invisible not at all, yet here we are once again …
(Illustration out front: Salvador Dalí’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres,’ found here.)