Search This Blog

Saturday, September 5, 2020

Today's Useful Idiots

 During the 1920s, Lenin who was then the head of the Soviet Union reputedly said that the people in the West who supported the Communists without really understanding what Communism entailed were "useful idiots".  Today, that term needs to be updated to include the people who believe obvious nonsense pushed by the media.

The phrase came to mind in connection with the latest bogus attack on President Trump.  The new assault was begun by the super leftist "journalist" Jeffrey Goldberg of the always-left Atlantic.  In Goldberg's article, he says that unnamed sources report that in 2018 when Trump was in France for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the end of WW I, he didn't want to go to the ceremony at the cemetery where thousands of American sevicemen  who were casualties of that war are buried.  Goldberg reports that Trump called these dead soldiers "losers".  Goldberg also reports that Trump said that the Vietnam War was "stupid" and those who went to fight it were "suckers".  Goldberg also reported that when Trump was trying to organize a national military parade for the 4th of July, he said that he didn't want wounded vets involved because no one wanted to see that.  Lastly, Goldberg reports that when John McCain died Trump didn't want to do anything like fly flags at half mast or otherwise honor McCain in any way.  Goldberg supplies no source for any of these stories.

There are people out there who have the intelligence to understand that these stories are not true, but who still take someone like Jeffrey Goldberg as accurately reporting the story.  These are the useful idiots of today.  These are the people that the left wing media rely on to give effect to their lies.

Think about it.  About five months ago, John Bolton published his book detailing his time as national security advisor for Trump.  Bolton was fired by Trump and is no fan of the President.  Nevertheless, in Bolton's book, he explains why Trump didn't go to the ceremony at the cemetery in France.  The weather was such that the President's helicopter couldn't make the trip in perfect safety, so the only way there was by motorcade across the French countryside, a two hour trip each way.  Bolton and the Secret Service thought that this would not allow the President to make a quick exit in the case of an emergency, so they recommended to him that he not go.  So a guy who doesn't like Trump reports what happened regarding the cemetery months before this was any sort of an issue, and he makes clear that Goldberg's unsourced story is NOT TRUE.  That ought to be the end of it, but it's worth noting that when I discussed this with one of the useful idiots, he told me that maybe Bolton just put this in his book to make Trump look good.  That's actually hysterical.  There's no reason Bolton's version makes Trump look good and Bolton had no motive to try to achieve that anyway.

And what about Trump calling soldiers "losers" or "suckers" or wondering why anyone would join the military.  This too is obviously phony.  Remember, Trump knew well why someone would join the military.  He attended a military academy for many years.  Believe me, he knew.  And Trump has always put military personnel, veterans and their families high up on the list of his priorities.  Unlike Obama/Biden who treated our servicemen like dirt, Trump always has treated them well.  He wouldn't call them suckers or losers in any case.

It is possible that Trump called the Vietnam War "stupid".  He certainly called the Iraq War (for which Biden voted) "stupid" and "unnecessary".  Remember 2008 when Biden justified his vote for the Iraq War on the basis that he had been fooled by lies from the Bush Administration.  Let's forget the truth or lack of truth regarding what Biden said in 2008.  Either way, Biden was basically calling the Iraq War stupid and unnecessary.  There are also huge numbers of Americans who would agree that Vietnam was a stupid and unnecessary war.

And what about McCain?  All the honors that Goldberg says Trump opposed were given to McCain.  And guess what?  The person who had to authorize those honors was President Trump.  If he truly wanted to deny honors to McCain, he easily could have done so.  It is a no-brainer.

But then the useful idiots step in once again.  Trump said about McCain that he (Trump) liked people who didn't get captured.  We all remember that.  For the useful idiot, this means that Trump didn't want to honor McCain when he passed away.  Except McCain got all those honors.

The useful idiot also rushed to tell me that other news agencies "confirmed" Goldberg's story.  It must be true, right?  But not a single other network named a single source who would say on the record that this was true.  For all we know, the people "confirming" the story were the same bogus sources that supposedly gave it to Goldberg in the first place.  And remember how the media works.  Think of Nick Sandman, the high school kid in the MAGA hat who was denounced as a racist and a white supremacist by large numbers of media outlets when all he had done was stand still as an Indian activist walked up to him and beat a drum in his face.  Oh, and Sandman smiled nervously.  The media labelled him a racist with no basis.  Sandman has since sued the worst offenders and gotten sizable settlements from outfits like CNN, Newsweek and the WaPo.

It's important to not permit yourself to become one of the useful idiots.  When you hear a story like this one from Goldberg, take a step back and think about it.  Does it sound correct?  Does it seem odd that a story about 2018 is only showing up now when we are two months from the election and Trump is rising rapidly in the polls?  Is there a sound evidentiary basis provided for the story (and unnamed sources are not a sound basis.)?  Are there people who contradict the story (like for Goldberg's story, nearly every person involved has come forward to denounce it as a lie.)  Apply reason to the facts of the story, and then and only then decide if you believe it.  Don't be a useful idiot.

No comments: