Michelle Fields, WaPo's Ben Terris hoax Trump
Now hoist on their own tangled web

Politico back on 3/10 posted a Hadas Gold article, "Exclusive: Transcript of Breitbart reporter allegedly being roughed up by Trump campaign manager." 

It presented a transcript of an audio tape of the now-infamous Corey Lewandowski/Michelle Fields incident after a Donald Trump event. And rereading it, in light of a newly-released videotape, does prompt some conclusions.

According to the transcript Gold/Politico offer, Washington Post writer Ben Terris joins in Fields' account. He confirms Lewandowski's identity, and is quoted as saying, "Yea he just threw you." 

Later in that transcript, Fields exclaims, "That was insane. You should have felt how hard he grabbed me. That's insane. I never had anyone do that to me from a campaign."

Terris later adds, "He really almost just threw you on the ground."

Linked below is a video of the incident they're discussing. Contrary to their hyper-ventilated retellings, at no time was she 'almost thrown to the ground.' Not even close. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLmQtOvU4Bc

Fields was briefly yanked by her upper jacket sleeve. Which makes puzzling her later claim to police that bruises on her forearm resulted. 

I've never heard of bruises migrating.

Now, this is about much more than a single incident, significant in its own right though it is. I would argue that, by pursuing legal action over a contrived complaint made for ulterior reasons, Michelle Fields has an apposite precendent in Scottsboro-hoaxer Victoria Price.

(Notable here, too, is her record of lodging assault accusations against newsmakers and even police. This is not her first 'I've been victimized' rodeo.)

The Price comparison is indeed damning criticism. But Ben Terris has committed a far greater wrong, one with considerable ramifications.

As now evident in the above video, he automatically offered a 'threw down' canard plainly not borne out by viewing. (In fact, so stilted is the dialogue exchanged by Terris and Fields that they sound very much like middle schoolers practicing scripted lines for a class play.)

After this very public exposure, any event characterizations offered by reporter Ben Terris will be of dubious credibility. By eagerly participating in this fraud, Terris has greatly damaged his own professional reputation.

If Fields and assault-hoax cohort Terris had any integrity, they would confess their deceit and ask forgiveness.

I do not expect such to be forthcoming.  

How Democrat is that?

Hulk smash state!

During a 3/14 appearance on CNN's Berman and Bolduin, actor Mark Ruffalo held forth in great, noxious spectacle.

Of the violently rioting George Soros/MoveOn.org-sponsored disrupters hungering for news camera notice at Donald Trump's Chicago rally, the Bernie-pledged actor gave his foul foolishness free rein: "The protesters should be able to protest anywhere they want!"

HR347 enjoyed nearly universal bipartisan support, and was in 2011 signed into law by President Obama. Subject to arrest under it are persons disrupting events within buildings protected by the Secret Service. 

And Secret Service safeguarding is enjoyed by presidential candidates, including Trump. Including at that Chicago rally.

Again, outside, on public properties -- open to protesters, as should be. But inside areas actively protected by the Secret Service -- not open to thuggish disrupters.

Add to that the not inconsequential point that these rallies are private events, often held in areas paid for by the campaign. They aren't public squares.

Despite those tremendous legal and circumstantial distinctions, Ruffalo ranted to the contrary on national television. (Can't let mere reality obstruct Bernie's revolution.)

Now, I am hardly an opponent of political protest. My shoe sole-eroding, sign-hefting resume includes numerous actions on behalf of Ralph Nader, the Green Party, and the original Occupy Wall Street (before it devolved from principled expression into socially trendy, anarchic mishegas with casual toilet habits.) 

The largest mass protest in which I took part was a 2003, half-million strong procession through Washington, DC. We urged against the George W. Bush administration's Iraq invasion. (Trump and Sanders opposed that invasion. Hillary Clinton helped enable it.)

So, I am a firm believer in marching for principle, that mass actions effected in the cause of ideas can educate and inspire greater justice. Strong strides toward fulfillment of the American ideals of equality and fairness were made by grassroots protest leaders.

But Ruffalo is apparently endorsing something quite different: an illicit counterfeit of legitimate American political protest, an ugly sham that would claim philosophical relation to past, noble civil rights and anti-war actions while jeeringly stomping on laws, private property, and opposing views.

He is joined in that disgraceful ambition by Bernie Sanders, George Soros, Black Lives Matter, MoveOn.org, self-designated "anti-imperialist" umbrella group International A.N.S.W.E.R., and a host of smaller-pond anti-American instigators.

The faith article lovingly embraced by these anti-freedom forces is that, as they are themselves convinced of the ethical and moral superiority of their ideas, no contrary ones have legitimate claims to visibilty. 

Of course, one fine test for any idea's worth is contrast with opposing ones. Where there is no competition, any notion can seem sound.

Hollywood Bernie-backer Mark Ruffalo endorsing ideologically churned lawlessness on CNN? 

Bernie's revolution is televised.


(I will admit to a non-political Ruffalo cavil: I feel Edward Norton was vastly superior in the role of Bruce Banner/the Hulk. Norton brought a genuinely affecting, poetically-tenored quality to his dramatic characterization. As Banner, he offered interesting visual contrast to the brobdingnagian Hulk. Ruffalo, though he perhaps makes his best efforts, is merely a lantern jaw of prosaic theatrical capacity. Those who would argue that Ruffalo's box-office receipts demonstrate otherwise confuse commercial viabilty with artistic worth, a not uncommon error.)

Bernie's bum #1

Below is Tom Dimassimo. He attends Wright State University, in Ohio.

Earlier today, at Donald Trump's Dayton rally, Dimassimo attempted to storm the stage, and assault the candidate. The Secret Service intervened. At this writing. Tom Dimassimo sits behind bars.

He has a history of disruptive misbehavior, including dragging and standing on the American flag. He is also a Bernie Sanders loyalist.

Do not expect the mainstream media to report Dimassimo's flag burning. And certainly, do not expect Bernie Sanders or his supporters to renounce Tom Dimassimo.

Daily Beast: US campaign rhetoric 'terrorism,' but not radical Islamic murders

In a 3/8 essay, "Trump Rants Terrorize U.S. Muslim Capitol," Daily Beast Senior Correspondent Tim Mak redefines 'terrorism' to mean political speech that onlookers find disquieting.

"Muslim Americans have already felt persecuted and targeted since 9/11," agonizes Mak, his priorities a mess. He does not bother with the 3000 American casualties of that real terrorist attack. Or victims of the more recent Paris and San Bernadino ones.

The pictures below are horrifying. This is what real terrorism looks like. Its evil name should not be twisted by irresponsible partisans into a gimmicky device for campaign-year rhetorical marginalization.

Donald Trump is right: It is a vile, globe-imperiling assault that champions of freedom must crush.

Lying scandal builders disserve calling

In the 1980s, Israeli singer Arik Einstein released "My Little Journalist." It quickly became popular among those disgusted by unaccountable gossip purveyors utterly unconcerned by the harm they engendered.

This song seems of particular timeliness, given mainstream media's often ideologically bigoted, factually wanting treatment of Donald Trump and his supporters.

Reporters, columnists, and on-air personalities frequently repeat character-assassinating charges already disproved numerous times over. Their ambition is not to enlighten, not to reveal truth, but simply to destroy.

I take a backseat to no one in supporting a free and independent press, one that can expose wrongdoing, advocate for the public interest, challenge the powerful, and speak forcefully with neither fear nor favor. 

Far too often, though, that is an ideal unrealized. Unscrupulous corporate overlords, constantly seeking to lard their plates with new and greater profits -- truth be damned -- encourage sensationalism and cultivate controversy. 

(Years ago, Professor Michael Parenti told lecture audiences that the most foolish claim he'd ever heard a reporter make was that, 'Nobody tells me what to write! I write what I like!' Of course they were allowed to write what they liked, Parenti explained, because their bosses liked what they wrote. Those journalists had been allowed professional comforts because they had proved willing to reinforce prejudices and values harbored by powers-that-be.)

Sadly, the lyrics to Einstein's 1980s "My Little Journalist" apply to a host of 2016 microphoned miscreants. 

"My little journalist" 

They write in the papers
What they want,
Castrate, derogatory 
and make a mess
No mercy.
get in to your bed,
Peep holes,
And what to do
There's no mercy for you

causing shame,
Hurting family,
If today was my turn
So tomorrow will be your turn,
The king has no clothes
We are all 
see him naked
but we are silent and don't get up

So how do you sleep at night
My little journalist?
How do you sleep?
What do you dream about at night?
After the shedding of blood
How do you sleep?
Man, how do you sleep?

They kill with words…
playing with your soul,
Where I ask
is the love?
They broke his heart!
So there will be a fight!

They write in the papers
Castrate derogatory 
and make a mess
No mercy.

Once more, the match is rigged

A child of the '60s, I was a fervent pro-wrestling afficianado. Those were pre-WWE days. No nationally ballyhooed, pay cable TV spectaculars, no music video celebrities. 

Pro-wrestling was a lowbrow, blue-collar diversion. Its best-two-out-of-three-falls matches and hulking vaudevillian characters were of limited, regional quality, sometimes reflecting WWII sensibilities.

Heroes waged roaring battles against villains. Torment twisted the faces of ponderous grapplers, as they collided, tossed, flopped, and wrenched. All the while, bellowing top-of-lung fury. 

Surely, no more intense adversaries existed. The hatred they felt toward one another also spewed forth in uber aggressive between-match interviews.

So, imagine my surprise when a schoolmate told me the obvious enemies shared beers in the bar across from the TV studio, slapping one another on the back. Buddies, all along.

Welcome to show biz. Or, as carnies called the pretense, "eyewash for the rubes."

I was reminded of those youthful times of naivete when, recently, political forces usually battling one another eagerly locked shoulders.

Karl Rove, Huffington Post, National Review, MoveOn.org, Daily Caller, NPR, George Will, Lawrence O'Donnell -- and a host of others -- have clasped hands in concert against Donald Trump. 

'Protect the establishment' is their unifying cause, the banner 'neath which they rally, these otherwise-pretended combatants.

Genuine philosophical differences doubtless exist. But any such are of less import than safeguarding the shared castle against revolutionary over-throwers.

Indeed, no better evidence of guiding establishmentarian preservation impulse exists than heart-loyal donkey soldiers hefting court trumpets for Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. 

On 3/4, CNN's Gloria Borger interviewed Romney for The Lead With Jake Tapper. Romney, smiling disquietingly at his unfolding dirty deed, misrepresented several Trump stances. Borger tossed journalistic neutrality to the margin, chiming, "Well, the birther thing was offensive," moving smarmily from reporter's chair to story participant. 

So much for the mythical 'adversarial political press.'

The establishment and its detestable ways has meant considerable riches and power for a relative few. And they are exactly small-charactered enough to fight with big-money tooth and claw all who would threaten it, and who dare to think the people should chart the course of their own government.

The old saw had it wrong. Because for-profit liberals and conservatives never were strange bedfellows. Not for one true moment.

(I believe I hear guillotines being raised.)

Meet John Doe, 2016

Donald Trump is not a hardscrabble every man plucked from on-the-road poverty. He is instead a celebrity-level, world-class businessman, a billionaire.

But he does offer the same inspirational quality as the Doe character, played by Gary Cooper in Frank Capra's 1941 classic. Trump evokes similarly stirring calls to national pride, to new unity of citizens in common struggles. 

We are Americans. We don't take orders from foreign interests. We aren't impressed when rumbling Vincente Fox curses at us, outraged at the concept of Americans actually standing up. Nor do the ominous economic threats made by Chinese leaders give us pause.

As the old song advised, "You run your mouth, and I'll run my business, brother!"

Trump events across America are packed by laughing, roaring, defiantly exuberant tens of thousands. Feeling proud and beholden to no one is liberating. It feels good again to be an American.

Fire marshals turn away thousands more eager to hear the candidate's rousing message of resurgent national strength and aspiration. 

It would not surprise me if, like the citizen-led John Doe Clubs of the film, Donald Trump Clubs sprang up. And, like those in Capra's movie, they would be open to only regular, working Americans. No calculating politicians allowed. 

I'm hardly naive, and I'll consider for a moment the worst possible scenario (which I do not believe real): Suppose Donald Trump is only a captivating showman adept at exploiting popular angst and ambition. An opportunistic "Music Man," if you will.

Again, I do not believe that to be the case.

But even if it were, what is evident, given the tremendous nation-wide outpouring of feverish, grassroots support for the idea of a people-vs-indifferent-establishment movement is that the vital spirit of American individuality and independence breathes, still.

That spirit is what first raised our nation to global pre-eminence. 

The political status quo didn't make America exceptional. Nor did its studiously groomed, deceitful toadies in the corporate media. 

We the people did that. And we can do it, again.

On Super Tuesday, in state after state, primary participation records were shattered. The people spoke, loudly and clearly, raising Trump and their remarkable popular movement to jaw-gaping heights.  

At a press conference following that day's voting reassertion of American spirit, Trump reminded of Cooper's Doe character testifying to the power of the people.

"I think we've done something that, honestly, almost nobody thought could be done," Trump told reporters. "And I'm very proud of it. I am a unifier. And I would love to see the Republican Party, and everybody, get together and unify. When we unify, there's nobody -- nobody -- that's going to beat us!"

In 2016, America has its John Doe.