Archive for August 24, 2023

Five Quick Tucker Carlson Donald Trump Interview Thoughts Under the Fedora: TV Guru, Tucker Comfort, Two great lines, Biden the case against and Covid? Fauci? Never heard of ’em

Posted: August 24, 2023 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, elections, entertainment, politics, primaries, special events, under the fedora
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Yesterday I watched the GOP debate till 3 am (my rundown here) and after getting my 1999 LeSabre inspected by a kid younger than the car and having lunch with DaWife got home with just enough time to watch the Tucker Carlson interview with Trump. Here are my thoughts:

The opening question concerning skipping the debate was a tad obvious but what was less obvious and less expected was his question about the decline of TV in general. This is a subject that has large cultural significance and it reminds one that Trump was very popular on TV for many years and is a expert on the subject. His commentary there had little to do with the election 2024 but was very fascinating concerning how the medium works.

It didn’t take long for me to conclude that Trump was exactly right strategically in skipping the debate and doing this interview instead. Not only for the sake of avoiding questions and attacks that he might not want to deal with but because of how comfortable he was in the format. I thought it was much better than a rally speech in the sense that he was in the position to expand on some subject and give some excellent insights on several subjects. It’s an appealing side of Trump that he would be wise to use more often.

I think the single biggest moment from the interview was Trump explaining to Tucker why the the indictments have not hurt and in fact have helped his poll ratings, noting that “The American people get it”. One does not have to have Trump as their first choice for the nomination to notice that the prosecutions of him are prosecution, particularly compared to how the Biden’s are treated.

A close second was his line about the Biden admin going after gas stoves etc etc. The “Let people buy everything.” should be adopted by every GOP candidate running for any national office there is. It’s a landslide maker that perfectly encapsulates the frustration folks have with the appliance Nazis out there

If I had to name the single biggest contrast between this interview and the debate it’s that Tucker gave Trump had a chance to hit Biden in detail while the Fox team seemed to do their best to shield him. Trump went in heavy on the corruption of the Biden while the GOP candidates strained to get in a few words on a subject ignored by the hosts.

His case against Biden and his noting of little things that give the game away were very significant and that’s why I suspect there is no way Joe Biden will debate him or any GOP candidate in a general election race.

All in all I think it was a good exercise for Trump but about 5 minutes after it was done something hit me square in the face. Tucker Carlson gave him time to answer and the conversation was good but there were two words that I didn’t recall hearing in those 45 minutes:

“COVID” and “FAUCI”

It would seem inconceivable to me that a subject that took up a full quarter of his term as president was ignored by Tucker Carlson and didn’t rate a question. I suspect this was not an accident and might have even been a condition of the him getting the interview.

I found the omission glaring because sooner or later he’s going to have to answer questions on that subject and I also suspect it’s one of the reasons why the administration would prefer to run against Trump because neither COVID nor Fauci are subjects that the left in general and Joe Biden in particular want to talk about and as long as Trump is the guy he’s running against he won’t have to .

Update: Played the interview again for DaWife and she says she heard Trump say the word COVID in reference to Biden having an excuse to stay in the basement so I stand corrected but again there was no conversation about the COVID response of the Trump administration

All in all I’d still say it was a good job by and for Trump and a smart move, but I think in the end he ends up in a GOP debate, perhaps not the next one or the one after that but when there are only two or three opponents left I don’t think the “duck and cover” will work in the long term for him, but we will see.

The American Medical System makes it difficult to get help

Posted: August 24, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Over the past two months I’ve been struggling with a couple of medical issues.  Neither issue is serious.   These are issues that in the past were resolved quickly.  Not anymore.  It took weeks to figure what the cause was of one of my issues, and I had to do that myself.

I remember in the good old days, if you had issues that were at the level of issues I was experiencing they would check you into the hospital for a couple of days.  There they would run a lot of tests and consult specialists.  A diagnosis usually came quick along with the treatments.

Today it is much harder to get admitted to the hospital.  At the Emergency Room they run you through a standard battery of tests.  If the results are not life threatening they send you home, even if you are in bad shape. 

Instead of a quick diagnosis and treatment you are given referrals to specialists on an outpatient basis.  The waiting time to get to see a specialist for the first time is usually several weeks.  It usually takes a couple of visits with a specialist to get a diagnosis and treatment pinned down.  If you are suffering like I was, that delay can seem like an eternity. 

One condition I am suffering from is painful.  In the good old days, they prescribed a pain medication that actually worked.  Thanks to war on opiates, the vast majority of pain medications they prescribe now don’t really work and have a long list of side effects.  I have been informed by more than one doctor that the reason they no longer prescribe opiate pain medications to patients that need them is because if they did, they would be arrested. 

The opiate crisis was not caused by patients that really needed opiate pain medication.  It was caused by open borders and an abundant supply of illegal narcotics.  Politicians panicked.  They stepped in between doctors and patients.  Now patients are suffering,

Thankfully I am on the mend.  The pain I’m suffering with now can be treated with over-the-counter pain medications.  I feal sorry for all of the countless individuals that are suffering and cannot get the pain medication they need.   

Five Quick GOP Debate Thoughts Under the Fedora, Nikki you’re so fine, DeSantis slow and steady, Christie v Ramaswary undercard, Invisible men , In Summation

Posted: August 24, 2023 by datechguy in election 2024, elections, elections, politics, primaries
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Yesterday I had expected to be home in time to watch the GOP debate live because thanks to BidenomicsTM there has not been enough work at work for full 8 hour days but as two people were on vacation and two more had left finding other jobs I ended up working a full shift and getting home at 1:00 am after dropping off my car at the garage for a pre-inspection checkup didn’t get to see the GOP debate till 1:05 which meant a long night and given the repairs and inspection this morning for my 1999 LeSabre (it passed) I’ve not had time to comment till now.

The first thing that jumped out at me was Nikki Haley who much to my surprise sounded like the credible presidential candidate and make several excellent points, particularly on the fact that there was absolutely no chance of passing a national abortion ban. She seemed ready to showcase herself as a credible alternative to Donald Trump and without a question accomplished that mission. The proof will be if Trump comes after her.

There was a lot of speculation that everyone would be targeting Ron DeSantis but that wasn’t the case. DeSantis made his points very well and seemed to spend his time focusing on the failures of the Biden administration (something that it seemed to me the moderators were doing all they could to avoid dealing with that subject). While Haley was the star there is no question DeSantis did what he wanted to do which was make the case that he had produced and would continue to do so. Ed Morrissey put it best:

This reality is likely why the Trump campaign has apparently invested plenty of time claiming this was all bad news for the Florida governor. The facts alas don’t match with that rethoric.

In terms of entertainment Chris Christie was the primary source of it spending all his time throwing punches at Ramaswamy as there was no Trump to attack while occasionally touting his record as a conservative governing a deep blue state (a record that wasn’t as bad as people remember it to be) Ramaswamy handled it well and make me smile by forthrightly calling climate change BS and speaking truths concerning Ukraine and other subjects that were being dodged. I thought he acquitted himself well.

Most of the rest of the field was invisible, Tim Scott particularly, although he did better than Hutchinson & Bergum who showed they didn’t belong on that stage. As for Mike Pence he kept talking about the achievements of the Trump/Pence admin which is a legit move and was rather adamant that despite the Biden admin making a point to pass a law preventing a VP to reject electors after the fact (a point he never mentioned btw) he in his opinion had no authority to reject the electors in 2020. I think he’s dead wrong but I also think he actually believes he believes that

Finally several quick thoughts:

  • I think the debate moderation demonstrated little difference between Fox & the rest of the MSM
  • It’s apparently still possible to have an actual debate about substance, at least without Trump
  • The whole Trump “counter programing” plan really doesn’t work when in a streaming era
  • It seemed to me Youtube did all it could to steer people to the spin rather than the debate
  • When the first round of debate cuts come half of those candidates should be gone
  • I’ve yet to watch the Trump interview I’ll do so tonight when I get home from work
  • I suspect Trump will reverse his no debate position once the field is down to 3 or 4 but we’ll see