According to CNN,
It was Sarah Sanders herself who couldn't wait to comment to the whole world, via Twitter, that she had been denied service. She even broke the law by using her official public position to air a private grievance. But instigation is what she does. It runs in the family.The Secret Service declined to comment, telling CNN: "For operational security purposes the Secret Service does not comment on its protective operations."The news comes days after Sanders was asked to leave a small Lexington, Virginia, restaurant because of her role with the Trump administration, a move that has since sparked a national conversation on civility and public service in the age of Trump.NBC News first reported that Sanders would begin receiving protection.Sanders did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
So from now on, whenever Sarah and her family travel to an entertainment venue, men with guns will case the joint and make sure that there are no protesters or other foreign people lingering on the premises before she proceeds to indulge her appetites.
There is still no word whether the men with guns will also accompany her to her White House press briefings, where she has been assailed more than usual lately because of her serial lies and defense of her boss's corruption and inhumane policies.
Not that the press corps are that particularly adept at afflicting her, of course. They've been too used to groveling before power for too many years. Sarah is as serene as stone as the reporters ratchet it up for the cameras.
For her own part, Sarah Sanders is every inch the Nurse Ratched character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Her job is not to impart information and help, but to scold the inmates for selfishly wanting their five minutes of TV time and asking annoying questions which always veer off her chosen Trump-glorifying topic for that day's group session.
Granted, her stony stern visage does occasionally crack into something resembling a smile. But I can't figure out if it's a grimace or a rictus... or maybe it's nothing more than horrible postpriandial gas pains competing with the verbal effluent as, more often than not, she eats the press for dessert.
But usually it's more like this, the sociopathic version of an RBF:
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| Medication Time, Gentlemen |
This daily afternoon soap opera starring the chief White House propagandist and a revolving cast of caged corporate media personalities and stenographers (with the occasional rare walk-on by an actual journalist), thus becomes the Real Story. The inmates of the press room huddle together in the Occupational Therapy corner after each session to rehash the rudeness and the latest lies and personal insults that the starchy gatekeeper with the pearls has just imparted. Viewers and fans just can't help but feel the pain and the outrage.
But now that there will be orderlies with guns at Sarah's side at all times, the standard shock treatments which this presidency administers on a near-constant basis should probably be the least of our worries.
6 comments:
By now we know Democrats, judges and justices, soft liberals and the big press will do nothing for the rest of us being abused by all three branches of government. Miss Manners types like Steny Hoyer are as good as accomplices. It's down to the people themselves to practice direct action against their antagonists.
https://splinternews.com/fuck-decorum-1827041997
The patrons of the restaurant in Alexandria came up with a great idea. Hang on to it. Would it be a federal offense for restaurant patrons and theatre goers to hiss continuously when one of these Trumpsters appears in public to enjoy the good things of life? Would the SS plug you if you were one of many calm voices intoning the very pacific sound of "Oooommmmmm..." until Trump officials were driven away? Or how about everyone else in a restaurant going silent and tapping silverware against plates?
If all of us who say we're fed up could settle on one gesture or sound, a sound difficult to pin down to one or a few people in a crowd, that gesture or sound might go viral from coast to coast and be used unrelentingly at every subsequent appearance of Trump's henchmen and henchwomen, and against the Amazing Man Himself.
Unremitting open contempt between now and November might be one way to energize citizens while driving Trump and his implementers back under the rock from which they emerged. Point them out, as Nader just did. Then bug them.
https://mailchi.mp/nader/in-the-public-interestmugger-mick-mulvaneytrumps-sadist-in-chief?e=dac918192d
Irony is no longer an option; the Trump administration has passed the point of no return. They deserve expressions of open contempt and harassment until they leave.
As President of Mexico (1976-1982) Jose Lopez Portillo kept telling voters he would fight like a dog––with claws & teeth––against any attempt to devalue the peso. After he devalued the peso, people barked whenever he came around. It got so bad, he had to move to Europe for a few years after he finished his six-year term. The hillside where he built a fabulous mansion was renamed "Dog Hill."
I happen to like Sarah Sanders' toughness, grit, and control of the press hounds. So sue me. Who isn't used to press secretaries lying for their boss by now?
This is similar to the outrage over Trump lying, as if other Presidents haven't, although less boldly. Obama was best - smooth and sweet, his lies got swallowed like they were candy. His press secretaries weren't beacons of truth and light.
This attack against Sarah Sanders is a result of the Trump Derangement Syndrome and Russia-Russia-Russia losing it's punch, morphing and spreading. There's been a continuing vicious red baiting McCarthyism and now it's turning personal. Well, there could be serious unintended backlash. You can bet that it will be Liberals who will be blamed by both sides when this gets out of hand. Centrist Democrats are already hostile towards their left side. What better way to rid the Party of those pesky rabblerousers and make peace with the oligarchs and plutocrats?
Just remember that turning against each other is just what the plutocrats want and even the Democrats bow at their feet. Is everyone who works for the Trump regime, all employees of the Federal Gov't fair game? When do we get the pitchforks out for the real culprits?
I see Hillary Clinton as being the catalyst for all this, viciously blaming others for her loss. We all know that attacking people personally is the Clinton specialty - the politics of personal destruction. Their sordid history is long: Hillary lashing out at victims of Bill's sexual exploits as 'bimbo's', 'trailer trash', and 'narcissistic loony toons', then more subtle attacks against Obama - the Kenyan birth rumor originated with the Clintons and Bill dismissing Obama as a 'big fairy tale'.
Clinton's Bernie bashing and continuing hostility towards 'BernieBros' as misogynists, along with her inane Pied Piper strategy encouraging her media friends to elevate Trump so they could mock, ridicule, and bash him endlessly has been a total bust. Now Hillary and the Dems are running out of outrage against Trump himself so they have to find new targets like Sarah Sanders. It's pathetic. Will no one free us from this meddlesome woman?
Very often people will vote AGAINST unfairness more than FOR a candidate. That could be why Trump did so well. Dems and Independents either sat out, voted third party, or voted Trump because they were disgusted by her, and especially by her and the DNC cheating Bernie out of the nomination. Unfairness and dirty dealing are the Clinton's middle name. They're still in control of the party since Obama abdicated, probably for the same reason he had to name Hillary SoS - dirt held in reserve by the Clintons resulting from 2008 era oppo research.
In my opinion that we should stay civil and speak to people, not toss them out on their asses which will create backlash, escalate tensions, and foment hatred. That can only result in being great recruitment tool for Republicans as voters get disgusted by the Democrats getting so petty, mean, and vindictive.
We're not getting out of this hole that Hillary dug until we get rid of Hillary's influence and the whole Clinton machine's tentacles which are inserted everywhere and controls the Democratic Party. If we don't stay focused on the important issues and less on the personalities, we're all toast.
Pardon my rambling rant.
Anna,
Yes, all press secs lie for their bosses. But unless I am wrong, Sarah is the first one in American history to literally arm herself against her critics. That sends the very chilling message that the answer to the First Amendment is the Second Amendment.
I also think that whenever establishment politicians like Maxine Waters issue a call for protests against the opposite party, we should be very careful and be very aware what, exactly, we are protesting against, and in whose ultimate behalf (see my previous post.) It is entirely different when these protests are truly bottom-up, as the heckling of the Trumpies at least initially seemed to be. The corporate duopoly has this truly nasty habit of co-opting social movements and discontents for the ultimate benefit of themselves and the oligarchs who fund them.
I viscerally cannot stand Sarah Sanders. She is the ideological image of dear old Dad, Mike Huckabee, one of the vilest excuses for a human being ever to put his smirking mug on Fox News... all in the name of the Lord, of course. He just posted a racist tweet equating the refugees with MS-13 gang members. For her part, Sarah has refused to disavow Trump's racist statements and actions. When she says he doesn't make racist comments, she is lying.
If you watch her press conferences, you'll note she normally begins with a written laudatory statement about Trump, full of unabashed, unquestioning and authoritarian obedience to the man, not to the administration or its alleged policies. And then she acts personally miffed that the press doesn't automatically fall in line with the hero-worship. It's all a performance for the aggrieved citizenry watching on TV. I think if we had a true independent free press, they would simply boycott this charade and stop playing their designated parts. Sarah is right: yes, they are a bunch of phonies whose main function these days is preening for the camera and vying for first place as the Most Unfairly Maligned Reporter of that particular 24 hour news cycle.
Just for the record, I couldn't stand Robert Gibbs and Josh Earnest (what a name) either. Will never forget Gibbs saying that the Obama drone-assassinated teenage son of Anwar Al-Awlaki should have chosen a better parent.
The press had sickly cozy relationships with Obama's flacks and now they have a sickly fake-confrontational relationship with Trump's flack. I find it very possible and desirable to despise both Sarah Sanders and the washington press corpse at the exact same time.
I have over-the-air digital tv reception, so my channels are limited which is why I rarely watch it. I much prefer reading. I do watch the evening network broadcast news, occasional RT, and one sit-com. So what I see of Sarah Sanders are occasional brief snippets on the evening news in response to the press asking questions about the latest Trump outrage. I've never seen a whole press conference.
I admit I'm jaded and burned out with this gotcha/you lie game. I don't even have to mute the volume, my ears tune out almost everything related to Trump and politicians. I follow the issues but can't get riled up anymore about the despicable bunch of lying phonies involved.
They really should issue Lie Alert warnings whenever politics will be covered on the news. Yes, I admit I find Sarah Sanders entertaining with her bold, shameless lies. I prefer lies to be blatant and in your face, and she's quite talented and self-assured, rating star status in my book. However, I can't care about her as a real person - she's more like a character in some piece of bad fiction. Something is clearly wrong with me.
By the way, we don't always hear about all the threats which generate Secret Service protection. I bet she's getting some real doozies. I don't find it alarming, disturbing, or unfair that she's getting protection. It's getting ugly out there!
Maybe someday I might feel outrage about politicians lying, but I think I'm too old for that anymore. How can you tell when politicians are lying? Their lips are moving. I'm thrilled that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her primary and I hope she wins a seat in Congress, but I hope if she becomes a politician, she doesn't get corrupted too soon.
There are too many other outrages, particularly related to war and the environment, that really work me up to let myself get hung up on lying. I believe it's honesty that's rare, not lying. Actually, most people playing the Capitalist game traffic in lies for profit, one way or another, and they frequently target women, the elderly, disabled, and others who might not be naturally cunning and savvy.
Thanks for your great posts, Karen. I always enjoy them. You're holding up far better than I am.
Over the past 60 years how has civility--writing polite letters to the editor, your reps, the prez, then joining good government groups, complaining, debating, always acting with decorum, respectful of all (all) points of view (or just ignoring them)––worked out for you? At what point might it be time to stop being so civil to the controllers?
Reading Paul Street this morning, I learn that plutocrats are doing so well lately it takes only three of them to have as much money as the bottom 50% of the US population. Is there a connection between their getting richer and our getting poorer? The earnings gap ratio between workers and CEOs is in the neighborhood of 1 to 300+. The plutocrats, bankers and CEOs have not benefited from heaven-sent luck; they invented the whole damn economic machinery and work to maintain its dynamic, mind-boggling disparities.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/why-work-isnt-working-in-trumps-america/
Wake up, stand up. We happen to be caught in an all out, murderous class war. Poverty, as many close observers have told us, is slow death. When it is a deliberate policy by plutocrats, poverty becomes slow murder. I choose no longer to be civil to people who are killing me and other nobodies around me.
There should be no mistake about what is happening. We know who the agents of misery and death are. We are under obligation to stop them, and we need not resort to violence to rid ourselves of them and their system.
Tell me again why I should be civil to the few who keep killing millions of people fast and slow, who are dismantling our most humane institutions and are willing to go so far as to destroy life itself on the planet?
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