July 4, 2017

Getting NYT readers up to speed on the pro wrestling milieu that, understood, makes Trump look far less psycho and weird.


I don't know if Trump deliberately sought to make this happen, but his tweeting of the wrestling-with-CNN video has caused the NYT to explain the context, which may be alien to its genteel readers. That little NYT video — it's only 2 minutes — tells us a lot about Trump's showmanship and how it has roots in the pro wrestling context and how Trump repurposed the pro wrestling style in politics. It says something about politics that the transplant worked.

I wonder how many people failed to realize that the wrestling-with-CNN video was real footage of Trump fighting a guy and the only "doctoring" of the video was to stick the CNN logo on the opponent's face.

"Doctoring" is the NYT word, and it makes it sound as though there were some deceptive manipulation. I think the most deceptive thing about the video is the extent to which it's not manipulated, if some people think the Trump head was faked.

By the way, I think if a politician the NYT liked — e.g., Obama — were depicted fighting his media opponent — e.g., Fox News — in a cartoonish, over-the-top video, the NYT would approve of the comic fun. Anyone who complained that the video encouraged violence would be deplored as not understanding humor and the difference between real and metaphorical fighting.

130 comments:

tim in vermont said...

It's funny that "liberals" hate Trump because, as one commenter said here a couple days ago "He is a poor person's idea of what a rich man should be," lecturing us as if we hadn't already gone over this territory with the posts about the hysterical paintings at Mar a Lago, and at the same time they are completely mystified by his common touch.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Leftists whine like little girls when anyone non-leftist fights them back.

Page 34E

rehajm said...

Hillary does it and its hip and edgy.

hawkeyedjb said...

I'm starting to come around to the whole 'President Trump' thing. I wasn't a fan, but I have to say it: he's a lot of fun. Much more enjoyable than the prospect of four or eight years of hectoring by another grim, soulless mediocrity.

Chuck said...

I am always open to the argument that, "...if Obama did the same, how would the left-leaning media react..."

Of course, it works both ways. If Obama had done half the things that Trump has done in terms of bizarre combative and/or antisocial behavior, how would the conservative media react?

I was thinking of that yesterday as I watched MSNBC do a retrospective of Trump video. Chris Matthews, in an old interview asked Trump about his claims concerning Obama's Hawaiian birth. Trump said that he wouldn't answer, because then nobody would want to talk about issues (as if Trump ever really wants to, or has the intellectual wherewithal to discuss the details of issues). It was the last question in the interview, when the interview was almost done. It wasn't the first question. And Trump just did this weird awful smile and asked if it had been a good interview, and veering off into how he watches Chris Matthews on television and he's good but he's not always nice and there are other good people and... It was just so horribly strange and awkward.

Can anybody imagine video of Obama being asked a hard question and saying "I don't want to answer that question. I decided a while back that I wasn't going to answer that question or talk about that anymore..."?

In other words, Althouse, if Obama did a wrestling video in which he went after the Fox News Channel, the New York Times might do an elaborate rationalization and favorable explanation. Of course Fox News and Rush and the Tea Party internet would savage it, too.

I don't think this is all that complicated.

bwebster said...

By the way, I think if a politician the NYT liked — e.g., Obama — were depicted fighting his media opponent — e.g., Fox News — in a cartoonish, over-the-top video, the NYT would approve of the comic fun.

Yes. Very much this, which is why I find much of the media profoundly intellectually dishonest. One could spend a full week finding examples where the media applauded or winked at comments and behavior from Obama that horrify them coming from Trump.

Personally, I think Trump has repeatedly damaged himself and his own agenda by his actions and words (and tweets). But the media's sanctimonious reaction has really exposed just how deep their own prejudices are.

Wince said...

By the way, I think if a politician the NYT liked — e.g., Obama — were depicted fighting his media opponent — e.g., Fox News — in a cartoonish, over-the-top video, the NYT would approve of the comic fun.

Not to mention he'd be fighting a corporation (logo) and, as we'd all be dutifully reminded, corporations aren't people.

Wilbur said...

I always thought of Hillary as a female Bobby Heenan. Except Heenan was funny.

clint said...

Chuck said...
"Can anybody imagine video of Obama being asked a hard question and saying "I don't want to answer that question. I decided a while back that I wasn't going to answer that question or talk about that anymore..."?"

That's above my pay grade, Chuck.

Chuck said...

By the way, I should have thought of this before; you can view the video for yourself on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mF2Ocn5EOw

gspencer said...

Your last paragraph captures rather nicely the naked hypocrisy of the left.

Expat(ish) said...

Yet another anthropological expedition from the NYT into the Zone of Deplorability.

But for WWF? Thought they did that at Madison from time-to-time. Surely there are people in NYC who have attended WWF in an un-ironical way....

-XC

Kylos said...

Clint, you win the thread.

Roy Lofquist said...

Trump is reputed to watch TV a lot. This can be very instructive. You find out what makes people laugh. Trump seems to have borrowed from some of the best.

Don Rickles comes to mind. Here is his classic roast of Ronald Reagan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblPwNLH6hg

And Groucho Marx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3FZ_jtDMVg

And Archie Bunker. The real joke with "All in the Family" is that most people thought Archie had the better of it.



Ann Althouse said...

Speaking of fighting media, in that still displayed in the video embed, one of those wrestlers posing with Trump is Hulk Hogan, the guy who brought down Gawker Media.

Browndog said...

Journolist-Americans are a protected class under the Constitution. The oppression they suffer at the hand of the Presidentiarchy is a clear and present threat to democracy.

Journolist-Americans will tell you of the personal anguish and torment of not being able to exercise their Constitutional rights of 'covering the policies and possibly accomplishments of this Administration' in lieu of these non-Presidential twitterings.

Will no one from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals grant them relief?

Lucien said...

Will we think back on the last few days as the week when it became obvious that Trump is actually having a whole lot of fun twisting the news media's tail?

Chuck said...

Well, to be clear, Hulk Hogan was the guy who was captured on a vile surreptitious sex video.

Peter Thiel is the guy, via $10 million in financing for Terry Bollea a/k/a Hulk Hogan's lawsuit, who brought down Gawker media. And not for defamation, not for publishing untrue information; but for invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. After, that is, Bollea sued unsuccessfully for copyright infringement.

Such a great group of guys, that President Trump has associated with.

Tarrou said...

If a politician the NYT liked (any Democrat or other aspiring communist dictator) went on national TV and called upon their supporters to rise up and murder every living thing on earth, they'd find a way to justify it.

gspencer said...

"The real joke with 'All in the Family' is that most people thought Archie had the better of it."

Well, didn't he?

The Magnificent 19's 9/11 attempt would have been answered by Archie's brilliant suggestion of "passing out the pistols" at the beginning of every flight.

Hagar said...

Um, no. Obama is kind of a cross between Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru. Very genteel and no physical rough stuff permitted.

tim in vermont said...

Hulk Hogan was the guy who was captured on a vile surreptitious sex video.

What was vile about consensual sex between two adults that Hogan had no idea was being filmed? I will tell you what was vile, releasing that to the internet, and Hogan had nothing to do with it.

Big Mike said...

By the way, I think if a politician the NYT liked — e.g., Obama — were depicted fighting his media opponent — e.g., Fox News — in a cartoonish, over-the-top video, the NYT would approve of the comic fun. Anyone who complained that the video encouraged violence would be deplored as not understanding humor and the difference between real and metaphorical fighting.

Ya think?!?

tim in vermont said...

I love the wording of that too "was captured" having sex, like it was some kind of crime! This is why I wouldn't vote for Chuck for dog catcher, though his prurient interests would probably make him good at that job.

traditionalguy said...

Using the WWF example spoofs Fraud Nes Media perfectly. TV runs WWF for ratings every week , but actual wrestling is on only carried ESPN 3 a few hours a year...thus the TV guys are creating a false belief that WWF is wrestling. All WWF is is a ballet of big men wearing ballet tights for sexual stimulation of the old ladies.

tim in vermont said...

The real joke with "All in the Family" is that most people thought Archie had the better of it.

Like Alex P. Keaton. The producers thought they had created a monster everybody could enjoy hating as much as they did. Thing was, he was the only non idiot on the show. They didn't make that mistake with Captain Fantastic, making the one right. wing kid by far the least physically attractive of the whole family, and making sure he didn't get very many good lines.

tim in vermont said...

"Modern Family" too, which I call "Modern Family Ties" since it seems so based on Family Ties, even having a kid called "Alex" didn't make the mistake with the conservative. They made him fat and awkward.

Laslo Spatula said...

Diary of a Conservative Trump Hater (excerpt)...

I did it again. I did not want to do it: I DID NOT WANT TO DO IT. But I did it.

I MASTURBATED TO GAY PORN AGAIN.

I know it is wrong, it is a SICKNESS. Sick. I HAVE A SICKNESS.

And after I masturbated I felt all those awful feelings again: SHAME. ANGER. SELF-LOATHING.

So I did what I always do after masturbating to Gay Porn: I went on the Internet and took out my SELF-LOATHING on TRUMP.

HE is the REAL SICKNESS.

I DESPISE the man, like I DESPISE THE SICKNESS IN MY SOUL: THE SICKNESS OF BEING COMPELLED TO WATCH GAY PORN AND MASTURBATE.

I try to STOP: Oh how I have TRIED. When the URGE strikes me I try to read the latest NATIONAL REVIEW, but that is no longer enough to quell the URGE.

After commenting on the Internet about how much I HATE TRUMP I feel better about myself, but the moment is FLEETING. It won't be long until the URGE returns, the URGE to watch a man fuck another man in the ass while I vigorously MASTURBATE.

Oh God, how I miss George Herbert Walker Bush! GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH WOULD NOT WANT ME TO MASTURBATE TO GAY PORN. I KNOW THIS.

I am Laslo.

Lyle Smith said...

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2013/02/12/abraham-lincoln-was-a-skilled-wrestler-and-world-class-trash-talker

Lincoln wrestled and trash talked his opponents.

Michael K said...

"I will tell you what was vile, releasing that to the internet, and Hogan had nothing to do with it."

Don't lecture chuck on vile things.

He has the market cornered.

Only Laslo understands.

David Begley said...

I have long thought that Trump's WWE experience was critical to him winning the campaign.

Mary Beth said...

Such a great group of guys, that President Trump has associated with.

The President associates with people who don't like their privacy invaded? Whatever will we do!

Francisco D said...

Chuck wrote: "I was thinking of that yesterday as I watched MSNBC do a retrospective of Trump video."

I wonder how many life long Republicans spend time watching MSNBC. Probably the same as the number of Michigan Republican election judges who play the Sgt. Schultz role when it comes to Detroit election fraud. "I see nothing, nothing."

Really Chuck, why do you continue with this nonsense?

I understand that you want to take every opportunity to bash Trump. That's fine. But, to pretend that you are conservative is insulting (and no longer amusing) to much of this audience.

Big Mike said...

Such a great group of guys, that President Trump has associated with.

Pence, Mattis, Price, his entire cabinet for that matter. Yep, an outstanding group of people.

Roger Sweeny said...

In the undoctored video, Trump is fighting the character "Mr. McMahon", the rich, evil owner of the World Wrestling Federation (played by Vince McMahon, the real owner of the WWF).

Fighting the rich and evil, how progressive.

roesch/voltaire said...

Gee Althouse Obama had eight years to make the video you speculate about, but never did. I wonder why, and why you make such over-the-top claims about how the NYT would treat this non-incident.

My name goes here. said...

"Can anybody imagine video of Obama being asked a hard question and saying 'I don't want to answer that question. I decided a while back that I wasn't going to answer that question or talk about that anymore...'?"

Like the time he said having an opinion on abortion was above his pay grade?

Like the time he said said there was a redline in syria and it was crossed and he did nothing?

Like the time he wrote a book with his pastor on the cover, attended the church for 20 years, and then when confronted with some of the actual preaching done in that church he said that he never heard that message.

Yes, Chuck Obama gave non-answers to questions all the time. Yes, the right-side media, that would be Rush and Fox pointed these things out. The larger issue that that the left-side media ABCNBCCBSNYTWPostBGlobeNPR lauded Obama at every turn. And unlike the right-side media the left-side has a critical mass of communication output.

So much so, a lifeline republican like you can not seem to remember all the times that Obama said the equivalent of "I decided a while back that I wasn't going to answer that question or talk about that anymore."

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant?

No, they make Drumpf look every bit as psycho and weird.

And anachronistic. Which is just as well for the Savior of the 19th Century Energy Industry that he purports to be.

Laslo Spatula said...

Diary of a Conservative Trump Hater (excerpt)...

People, come on: TRUMP and WRESTLERS? Big sweaty men sweating on each other as they GRAPPLE? Muscular thighs wrapped around another man's torso? FIRM BUTTOCKS? Can you not see how this leads to THE SICKNESS?

The country is SICK and covered in HOT MALE SWEAT. AND IT IS TRUMP'S FAULT.

Yes, I MASTURBATED TO GAY PORN AGAIN. And -- of course -- then came the SHAME. ANGER. SELF-LOATHING.

So I did what I always do after masturbating to Gay Porn: I went on the Internet and took out my SELF-LOATHING on TRUMP.

Dear God, how I wish I wasn't COMPELLED to watch BIG SWEATY MEN fuck other BIG SWEATY MEN in the ASS. COCKS COCKS COCKS, ASS ASS ASS: Damn you, TRUMP!

My HATE OF TRUMP feeds my URGE to see GAY PORN, and seeing GAY PORN makes me HATE TRUMP EVEN MORE. I see the ABYSS, and it looks like a MAN'S ASSHOLE.

Oh God, how I miss George Herbert Walker Bush! GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH WOULD NOT WANT ME TO MASTURBATE TO GAY PORN. I KNOW THIS.

I am Laslo.

My name goes here. said...

*lifetime republican

Michael K said...

"The real joke with 'All in the Family' is that most people thought Archie had the better of it."

Well, didn't he?


The brilliant Hollywood/TV crowd had the same astonished reaction to "Forrest Gump."

How could all those deplorables identify with a moron? Just because the leftist characters were all losers never occurred to them.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Such a great group of guys, that President Trump has associated with.

He started his career as a slumlord, if memory serves - hiring thugs to go into run-down buildings he owned to smash the only working available hall light, releasing rats to scare tenants out, and "earning" himself a cartoon cover that he treasured on a NY local paper that caricatured him as a physically repulsive ogre.

Later, he learned several tricks of the faux-trage grade from his mentor, the belligerently nasty Roy Cohn - to whom he owed much and repaid little, charging him high retail rates while he convalesced with end-stage AIDS in a Trump property.

Trump is every bit the thug that the right-wing cackling jabberers had always insisted on seeing Obama as.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Such a great group of guys, that President Trump has associated with.

Yeah! Wow you got 'em now Chuck. Not nearly as high class as the rappers and criminals that Obama has invited to the White House. AND such elegant refined lyrics to inspire the young blacks trapped in the white man's ghetto ...aka Detroit. gangster rapper in question, Rick Ross, who named himself after a former drug kingpin, has been wearing an ankle bracelet “since he was released from jail after posting a $2 million bond in July 2015” for having kidnapped and beaten up his groundskeeper.

How about that terrorist, , that Obama was "palling around with"? Nice people. Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the group the Weather Underground How bad can they be? I use their web weather forecasting site daily. Wait? Wut? Not the same//....nevermind.

Then of course we have the awe inspiring example of Bill Clinton, who is the eptiome of decorum and taste. Lewenski? Pedophile Island?

Don't lecture us when YOUR side has set the bar so low that a snail could race over it. And....don't bother denying what side you are on. We can read.

Browndog said...

Remember that video of Paul Ryan literally throwing Granny off a cliff?

Hilarious.

All in good fun.

Sebastian said...

"tells us a lot about Trump's showmanship and how it has roots in the pro wrestling context and how Trump repurposed the pro wrestling style in politics." See, this is where a lefty with a sense of humor who took Trump seriously but not literally would take it, as it provides excellent fodder for a Derrida/Baudrillard deconstruction. But most of the left now just fights, grimly and bitterly.

iowan2 said...

Chuck is picking up speed, descending into the pit along with ritmo on posters i just dont read. I read people I disagree with all the time, but when they have no core principles except the hate for (fill in the blank) its just meaningless word salad that lacks any ability to engage.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Not nearly as high class as the rappers and criminals that Obama has invited to the White House.

Depends whether you think organized white collar crime is better than low-level street crime. And from your paranoid, anti-black/anti-rap rantings, it appears you do.

Ayers was a former pipe-bomb making rehabilitated fixture of Hyde Park by the time Obama "knew" him. He was unavoidable in Chicago politics by that time. Nice try, though. Foaming at the mouth over Ayers is as silly as foaming at the mouth over former Hizb-ut-Tahrir terrorist and current major anti-jihad polemicist Majid Nawaz - although in that regard at least you and the Southern Poverty Law Center (which also targets Ayan Hirsi Ali) would have something in common.

Labeling people irredeemable is something Trump railed against mightily at that debate when defending his "deplorable" supporters, IIRC.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Remember that video of Paul Ryan literally throwing Granny off a cliff?

Hilarious.

All in good fun.


Good point. Republicans should be able to price people out of the insurance market (which NEVER leads to death by no medical access!) and be protected from criticism for that. Everyone knows that if you go the E.R. you will never die of an illness that you lack the coverage to have treated.

Pretty incredible how much the right reveals of what they don't know about this 1/6th of the American economy that they're poised to destroy and sell off to a very few and select set of rich donors in the form of tax breaks.

Birches said...

My spouse and I were talking about the WWE connection last night before we went to bed. Perhaps one big problem in all this brouhaha is that our Coastal Media Elite don't understand how pro wrestling works. Think back to how the media reacted to Trump's rallies when he'd rile the crowd up about the lyin' media. The reporters were terrified, but the crowd was actually harmless, because the crowd is just playing their part like a WWE show. The media is the villain. The CNN head video continues the theme. It's entertainment.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh don't be silly, iowan2. The most important core principle for you in a commenter is that they have no knowledge of that which they speak. That's what draws you in the most. Those are the commenters who enchant, charm, delight and enrapture you the most.

They're the ones you love. The ones you come here (or anywhere) for.

It's quite a quality.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Labeling people irredeemable is something Trump railed against mightily at that debate when defending his "deplorable" supporters

Well.....when your enemy, or even people who 'weren't' your enemy continually use that tactic to attack you, you are an idiot for not responding in kind. And an even bigger fool if you don't escalate the tactics. You remember...Obama "punch back twice as hard."? All we are doing is taking his advice.

You must live in a beautiful world with rainbows and sparkles in the sky.

You deny that Obama has given rappers and criminals (note....I didn't say they are exactly the same) access to the White House and that he was friendly with a known terrorist. Not just hanging out at an unavoidable function but close. That Ayers was/is a supporter of Obama and helped raise money for him?

Standing next to two giant wrestlers in the entertainment industry, in a photo op, is hardly the same.

Michael K said...

Ritmo is up early today.

Oh well.

Time to go elsewhere.

Michael said...

This Southern Poverty Law Center. LOL.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well.....when your enemy, or even people who 'weren't' your enemy continually use that tactic to attack you, you are an idiot for not responding in kind. And an even bigger fool if you don't escalate the tactics. You remember...Obama "punch back twice as hard."? All we are doing is taking his advice.

Whatever Obama said, he seems to have had his own internal, psychological set of limits. Trump has no such thing.

Obama also understood the importance of not relying on one, single tactic. Trump's coterie however has a hammer, you see. So every problem to them must apparently be a nail.

You must live in a beautiful world with rainbows and sparkles in the sky.

Well, I don't seek to leaden its run-off waters or coal-fire smokestack and blacken it like a Beijing skyline. ;-)

You deny that Obama has given rappers and criminals (note....I didn't say they are exactly the same) access to the White House...

Lol. Rappers. Look out, here comes Vanilla Ice! Look out, here comes Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber!

What a silly, racialized give-away into how you view criminality.

..and that he was friendly with a known terrorist.Everyone in Chicago was friendly with him - because he was unavoidable. Just as people in broadcast punditry don't see it as controversial to be friendly with a criminal like Oliver North. He's a part of the fixture and landscape.

Standing next to two giant wrestlers in the entertainment industry, in a photo op, is hardly the same.

Trump would stand next to Grimace if he could imagine himself as Ronald McDonald. Now that he's 71, he plays this late-life game of pretending whom he's too good for and who's just good enough for him. It's all a charade. Back in the day, he'd suck up to anyone who could get his worthless hide anywhere and glommed off of any appearance of fame or notoriety that he could scrap onto.

You Flyover People have a lot to learn about this phony guy.

n.n said...

This is NYT on rarefied air. This is the NYT explaining the stork, the Planner, and wrestling, too.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

We need to compare the characters and role model-worthiness of rappers to Trump/Palin fans Ted Nugent and Kid Rock.

Wonderful men that any decent Christian woman would love to have her daughter(s) cavorting/consorting with, I'm sure.

Hey, doesn't Kid Rock use rap "techniques" in his "music?"

Well, at least he's not black - they tell themselves.

traditionalguy said...

Trump is a great showman and a great belligerent brander of opponents. He is almost as good as Freddie Blassie was in his pro Wrestling day.

Michael said...

Flyover people. LOL. Written by the smartest guy in her high school class. Except for those who went on to be doctors and lawyers and engineers. But basing yourself on a coast enhances IQ. Science.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Flyover people. LOL. Written by the smartest guy in her high school class.

Hey - at least I'm not so sheltered to have no clue who Trump really is after 35 years of major media exposure. Why, did the New York media market finally penetrate your own geographically remote enclave as well, Michael?

Michael said...

Wonder if the Obamas are aware of the lyrics in their cultural,heroe's "music?" Do the daughters listen to 2Chainz? WARA from the NBHD.?
I certainly hope so.

Michael said...

New York media "penetrated" my remote geography before I lived in NY. City. Manhattan. Upper West Side.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Michale's enclave is as socially remote as it is geographically remote. Just to clarify.

But at least he's into crunk.

He has to be. How else to elevate the lyrics of Wam Bam Poontang Man and his sex-tape releasing cohort, Kid Rock?

Very elevated people, these white trash "culture" defenders of the Trump bandwagon.

They are literally the Honey Boo Boo of American political thought.

But at least they're not black and violent! Ted Nugent never says vile or violent things. Ever.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Yeah, I knew that. So then what's your excuse for not having a clue as to who Trump is? Or do you just like to promote people who don't?

Maybe it's like the not-wiping-your-own-butt thing. You have become lazy and don't even know what you're arguing about.

Francisco D said...

I think Ritmo took a double dose of meth today or he's really manic.

He does know how to destroy a thread.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well if that's how you view the saving of knowledge and rationality then woe unto you, Francisco.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

R.I.P. this thread and Althouse blog for today.

MayBee said...

Slum lord? Did someone say Tony Rezko?

MayBee said...

Yeah, what if say, someone asked Obama where he was during the Benghazi crisis and he just never answered? What would people say then if he just wouldn't answer a question anymore?????

readering said...

Althouse love affair with POTUS continues.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I know, DBQ. What a shame that someone thought you could have stood to (let alone enjoyed) actually learn a thing or two. How horrible! Every one of us needs our own corner of ignorance and bigotry to preserve, enjoy and wallow in! Curses to the enjoiners of informed discourse! If only the knowledgeable would just leave us alone! How else will our culture be preserved! This must be how cargo cults feel! Destroyed by civilization!

President-Mom-Jeans said...

The liberal idiots hyperventilating over this video are so amusing.

In Jim Ross voice "Good god, that's Donald Trump's Music!"

President-Mom-Jeans said...

"I think Ritmo took a double dose of meth today or he's really manic."

I think that since he hates America so much, it has trigged him.

Nothing that a steel chair to the face couldn't cure, while "Real American" played over the loudspeaker.

Or if he insisted, perhaps he could get the Iron Sheik treatment, and be made humble with the camel clutch.

roesch/voltaire said...

Meanwhile the right-wing death treats against Jared Yates Sexton a journalist who revealed the racist, anti-Semitic troll behind the CNN beat down continue to roll in warning of the day of the rope. Nothing to worry about here Althouse folks just keep on laughing.

Unknown said...

Death threats to journalists and steel chairs in the face, while Real American plays over the loudspeaker. The right must be feeling very patriotic today.

Mary Beth said...

Trumps Wrestling Tactics: Body Slams and Trash Talk

I don't know that much about pro wrestling, but didn't Trump clothesline the other guy, not body slam him?

Darrell said...

Lefties can off themselves and leave a letter saying "See?"

Darrell said...

Faux outrage on the Left.
What better way to celebrate the birth of our Nation?

Fen said...

1) losers like Jared Sexton always whine about death threats that they either distort or just make up to shield themselves from crticism. "Go play in traffics" omg death threat!

2) I have absolutely NO sympathy for a media who ginned up outrage and agitated violence. Several cops were assassinated in cold blood because of the media. And several congressmen were almost murdered at a baseball game because of the media. How dare the media whine about getting "death threats".




FullMoon said...

roesch/voltaire said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Meanwhile the right-wing death treats against Jared Yates Sexton a journalist who revealed the racist, anti-Semitic troll behind the CNN beat down continue to roll in warning of the day of the rope. Nothing to worry about here Althouse folks just keep on laughing.



As opposed to Democrat operatives actually shooting Republicans.

Your stupid

MayBee said...

Doesn't every prominent person on the internet receive death threats?

Fen said...

Scan of Jared Sefton - racist Marxist "community organizer" scum who has used race and class warfare to divide us. A Dr Frankenstein clutching his pearls because the Monster he created has come back home.

He's also knee deep in the fake civility bullshit. Pushing the disingenuous narrative that bodyslamming a CNN logo is going to lead to violence against "journalists"

What a putz.

Yancey Ward said...

Like another commenter above, I declare Clint the winner, though I doubt Chuck gets the reference at all.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Faux outrage on the Left.
What better way to celebrate the birth of our Nation?


With faux outrage on the Right!

FullMoon said...

Fake death threats, just like fake hate crimes.


I repeat, put a Trump bumper sticker on your car, see what happens.
Experience real world hate.

Floris said...

I hope that the NYTimes can make more informative videos for its readers explaining other foreign concepts with which they may not be familiar with. Here's a list to get them started: state universities, cheddar cheese, the post office, not having a house in the Hamptons.

eric said...

Two points I wanted to make.

1) Why do people read and respond to Chuck still? I'm pretty sure he is just trolling.

2) The New hotness concerning this video isn't the video itself. It's that the guy who made the video is evil incarnate. Therefore, since Trump shared a video made by someone evil, Trump is evil.

Darrell said...

With faux outrage on the Right!

Doesn't even make sense. Of course that's nothing new for you.

Unknown said...

Make America Great Again, new Christian worship song!

MayBee said...

Out: Trump spends too much time tweeting
In: Trump doesn't spend enough time researching the origins of memes and the past internet comments of their creators

FullMoon said...

Some Reddit users are interesting. Unlike prankster who self identifies as an asshole,
This woman exposed Hillarys IT guy asking Reddit for help to delete her email in an untracxeable way.

A “non-techie” Twitter sleuth with 3,000 followers has just caused Hillary Clinton’s campaign a new headache: According to screenshots she published Sunday — which are now reportedly under review in the House Oversight Committee — the IT specialist who deleted Clinton’s emails may first have turned to Reddit for advice on the technology.

The Reddit posts in question come from a user named stonetear, and were made in July and December 2014. @GOPPollAnalyst, the woman who unearthed the posts, claims stonetear is Paul Combetta, a computer specialist with Platte River Networks who worked with Clinton’s staff during her time as secretary of state.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/09/20/hillary-clintons-it-guy-asked-reddit-for-help-altering-emails-a-twitter-sleuth-claims/?utm_term=.12886df4056e

I'm Full of Soup said...

"Such a great group of guys, that President Trump has associated with."

What are you talking about Chuck? Most people can appreciated the schtick provided by wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant.

Yancey Ward said...

In honor of Andre the Giant, I would point out that Chuck reminds me of Vizzini, or maybe Humperdinck.

I'm Full of Soup said...

How can one claim to be well informed and not know of Trump's background in sports and pro wrestling? Oh I guess it is easy if you read the NY Times so you need it to give you this background info re Trump and wrestling.

And let's hear it for Ritmo who is despairing that we just refuse to learn stuff from him.

Fen said...

Why is the media doing another doxx of Joe the Plumber?

Josephbleau said...

Tony Rezko? In Chicago we know that Valeri Jarrett is the big time slumlord. Look up Grove Park Plaza, owned by her and her cronys. An unsafe unhealthy slum.

FullMoon said...

Worth repeating, daily

Laslo Spatula said...

Diary of a Conservative Trump Hater (excerpt)...

I CAN'T STOP. God, how I HATE myself. HATE.

NO. I don't hate myself. That is wrong. I hate the SICKNESS.

The Sickness. I MASTURBATED TO GAY PORN AGAIN. And -- of course -- then came the SHAME. ANGER. SELF-LOATHING.

So I did what I always do after masturbating to Gay Porn: I went on the Internet and took out my SELF-LOATHING on TRUMP.

TRUMP is VILE. AWFUL. DEBASED.

TRUMP is like watching a man suck another man's enormous cock, while simultaneously getting FUCKED IN THE ASS.

BY ANOTHER ENORMOUS COCK.

THAT IS TRUMP. How can people NOT SEE THIS?

HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT SEE THAT TRUMP IS FUCKING US IN THE ASS?

And I bet the ASS-CLOWNS who LOVE Trump WANT me to masturbate to Gay Porn. They WANT to see me give in to my WEAKNESS.

Oh God, how I miss George Herbert Walker Bush! GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH WOULD NOT WANT ME TO MASTURBATE TO GAY PORN. I KNOW THIS.

I am Laslo.
7/4/17, 8:41 AM

MayBee said...

Josephbleau- and Penny Pritzker's family as the sub-prime mortgage lenders!

Pianoman said...

sigh ... I *thought* Ritmo was doing better. Then he comes in and obliterates the thread.

Sorry Ritmo, looks like I need to killfile you again.

You might be intelligent, but you lack common sense. Do you really think you can persuade people to your side by hurling insults?

tchau ...

Bruce Hayden said...

Dems should have started panicking about the time Trump sewed up the Republican nomination. They assumed that the demographic that watches WWE wrestling was in the bag since they had essentially always been. Ditto too, probably for the demographic that watches Miss Universe. But, the Dem leaders and powerbrokers don't tend to know anyone who watches WWE wrestling, or at least anyone who would admit it in polite company, so had no idea of what they were facing.

Viejo Loco said...

What happened, Toothless, did the tenth ave homeless turn down your BJ's because of "potty mouth?" You and chuck should get married.

PB said...

It's "doctored" in the same way most modern movies are. Do you really think the get 10,000 extras for war scenes?

Jim at said...

"Trump is every bit the thug that the right-wing cackling jabberers had always insisted on seeing Obama as."

And yet he's STILL better than the bitch you voted for.

damikesc said...

"Doctoring" is the NYT word, and it makes it sound as though there were some deceptive manipulation. I think the most deceptive thing about the video is the extent to which it's not manipulated, if some people think the Trump head was faked.

It occurred at their most purchased pay-per-view show (back when they did those), bought by about 1.2M people and sold on DVD/Blu Ray pretty heavily and had over 60,000 in attendance. It wasn't exactly obscure and a sizable portion of attendance was there because of Trump's involvement.

Can anybody imagine video of Obama being asked a hard question and saying "I don't want to answer that question. I decided a while back that I wasn't going to answer that question or talk about that anymore..."?

His abortion answer with Rick Warren was about as bad.

In other words, Althouse, if Obama did a wrestling video in which he went after the Fox News Channel, the New York Times might do an elaborate rationalization and favorable explanation. Of course Fox News and Rush and the Tea Party internet would savage it, too.

Obama appeared on WWE TV in 2008 and was God awful.

And did FNC produce a children's choir to mock Obama? Because WaPo has done that for Trump.

Peter Thiel is the guy, via $10 million in financing for Terry Bollea a/k/a Hulk Hogan's lawsuit, who brought down Gawker media. And not for defamation, not for publishing untrue information; but for invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. After, that is, Bollea sued unsuccessfully for copyright infringement.

Media should be permitted to publish a sex video a participant was unaware was being made and ignore requests to remove it?

Mind you, the same site bent over backwards to remove photos involving nude female celebrities who, for their faults, were taken by the women in question. Hogan's video was not made by him nor known by him.

Good point. Republicans should be able to price people out of the insurance market (which NEVER leads to death by no medical access!) and be protected from criticism for that. Everyone knows that if you go the E.R. you will never die of an illness that you lack the coverage to have treated.

Ironically, Obamacare has done that.

Jim at said...

"Death threats to journalists and steel chairs in the face, while Real American plays over the loudspeaker. The right must be feeling very patriotic today."

Yeah. Almost patriotic enough to go out and shoot up a baseball practice or something.

Wait ...

Never mind.

Humperdink said...

Ynacey ward said: "In honor of Andre the Giant, I would point out that Chuck reminds me of Vizzini, or maybe Humperdinck."

Moi? You must be mistaken. I am the anti-LLR.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Can anybody imagine video of Obama being asked a hard question and saying "I don't want to answer that ..."?

His abortion answer with Rick Warren was about as bad.

They shoulda just let him eat his waffle! Why wouldn't you just let him eat his waffle?

Michael said...

Jared Sexton is not a "journalist" but if he were he would be able to use one of today's excellent recording devices or cameras to pick up the horrible things that Trump supporters were said to utter at not one but two rallies and to cut and paste the multiple "death threats" he has received for outing the maker of the offending video. Instead he summarizes them He is a creative writing instructor at a backwater state college in yahooville who is getting his few seconds of fame by becoming the truth to power guy of the moment. The Huffington Post article is worth reading for what it doesn't say.

Known Unknown said...

Professional wrestling just carries on the traditions of traveling theater troupes from as far back as the Middle Ages. It's hard to get a feel for it in the larger arenas, but I was with my kids at an NXT (WWE minor league, basically) show a few months ago at a smaller venue and the interplay between the performers (heroes and villains) and the crowd was pure timeless theatrics that would've not felt out of place in 1600s England.

eric said...

Blogger MayBee said...
Out: Trump spends too much time tweeting
In: Trump doesn't spend enough time researching the origins of memes and the past internet comments of their creators


Nailed it.

You know, I don't really know Ann Althouse. The only way we know each other is through interaction here on her website. And yet, a couple of times over the years, she has quoted me on her front page. She has done this for several of her commentators.

What if one of those she highlighted on her front page turned out to be a rapist, or a racist, or a murderer? Would Althouse be called to account for featuring their quote?

How dumb.

PWS said...

I lean left but don't agree with the hysteria of the Democrats. On the other hand, don't you think that if Obama had made the same video but substituted an NRA logo, that the right would have lost their mind? I guess the difference would be that we're supposed to understand that most of Trump's performance art is kabuki; but people on the left have emotions that may need to be fed too, not just the MAGA crowd.

John henry said...

That is kind of an amazing picture, size-wise. It really doesn't give much feel for how huge all three of these guys are.

In 1989, flying through LaGuardia, Hulk Hogan was in the waiting area. He was alone, just another poor schlub catching a flight. My son wanted to go over to meet him so we did. He was very nice, shook hands and said Hi.

I am 6'2" and he made me feel like a 6th grader in size. That guy is Huge! And he is not even the biggest guy in the pictures.

Now-President Trump is the smallest guy but he is not that much smaller than Hogan.

John Henry

Rusty said...

OK.
But you gotta admit. It was funny.

Michael said...

PWS

If Obama had made a similar video clotheslining the NRA I would have laughed my ass off and would have given him a much needed style point.

Static Ping said...

Blogger The Toothless Revolutionary said... Ayers was a former pipe-bomb making rehabilitated fixture of Hyde Park by the time Obama "knew" him. He was unavoidable in Chicago politics by that time.

I am not sure why you think this is at all persuasive. The fact that Ayers was unavoidable in Chicago politics is an indictment of Chicago politicians in general and, if anything, makes Obama seem like another cog in a corrupt Chicago machine, which in fact he was. There is a reason why "Chicago politician" is used as an insult.

Ayers was only rehabilitated in the Chicago sense that the Democratic Party has embraced the terrorism of the 1960s as a good thing.

Darrell said...

Everybody "steals" stuff on the internet. My quips and photoshops have made their way around, never with attribution. Nobody cares that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Socialist.

John henry said...

Why do people call wrestling fake? It is no more fake than any TV show, movie or broadway play. No more fake even that reality TV.

Yes, it is scripted, yes the outcome is predetermined, no it is not a sport the way NASCAR or the like is. But these wrestlers are incredible atheletes to do what they do, night after night. Getting slammed to the mat can ba made a bit easier if it is not done to harm or win. But they are still getting slammed to the mat, still getting hit with metal chairs (not hard and they are light aluminum, but still, still leaping off steel cages and so on.

And they do it night after night, year after year. Some of them have 25-35 year careers.

It has been a long time since I've been interested in the wrestling aspect of it. I still love the drama of the interviews and trash talking from time to time. The business model behind it is also fascinating.

You can make fun of it but WWE probably puts more asses in seats than NBA and NHL combines.

And the people that watch it and root for their favorite wrestler are no sillier, no less deserving of respect, than the folks that wear an NFL Jersey with their favorite player, go to college football games or have season tickets to the NBA.

Professional wrestling is certainly less fake than CNN.

John Henry

PWS said...

John Henry--that's the left's problem--they don't understand it's scripted and they don't understand it's purpose; though sometimes I wonder if Trump understands that policy, government, decisions about war, etc. have more consequences beyond their entertainment value.

Michael K said...

don't you think that if Obama had made the same video but substituted an NRA logo, that the right would have lost their mind?

Well, we had the left and Obama accuse Sarah Palin of inciting a psychotic murderer in Tucson.

Did we "go crazy?"

Remind me. There was a lot of pushback but nothing like the hysteria on the left since November 9.

John henry said...

Blogger Static Ping said...

I am not sure why you think this is at all persuasive. The fact that Ayers was unavoidable in Chicago politics is an indictment of Chicago politicians in general

Seven years ago Bill Clinto said something similar about Robert Byrd and his membership and position (grand Kleagle?) in the KKK. This is the same Robert who saw nothign wrong in talking about "White N|ggers" on CNN.


Former President Bill Clinton explained the late Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-W.V.) membership in the Ku Klux Klan Friday by claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected.

Speaking at Byrd's funeral in Charleston today, Clinton seemed to criticize newspaper eulogies that dwelled on Byrd's association with the Klan.

"They mention that he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, and what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means," Clinton said. "He was a country boy from the hills and hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There certainly are no perfect politicians."

Byrd joined the KKK in 1942 and was elected leader of his local chapter. Byrd later claimed to have become "disinterested" after about a year.

Byrd vigorously opposed the integration of the military, and wrote in 1946 that the KKK was "needed today as never before."


So it is OK to support bombers and lynchers if it helps someone get elected? I think Obama being in bed with Bill Ayers is no better than Byrd being in bed with the KKK.

You trying to excuse it on the grounds of political necessity is no less despicable than Clinton trying to excuse Byrd. Both are inexcusable.

Assuming I am reading you correctly and you did mean to excuse the Obama/Ayers relationship. If not, apologies.

John Henry

PWS said...

Michael K--look at what I proposed and what you wrote--they're not the same or even similar.

Be said...

This might sound kind of funny given that I'm one of those Cambridge, MA sorts, but - heck, I found the CNN clip *a hoot.*

Grew up in the Rust Belt watching pro-wrestling (have been to more WWF, back when it was still the WWF, matches than many here, most likely), Kung-Fu / chop-socky films, along with the crazy Monster features ... all pre-MST3K. There's an awful lot of subtext, visual language that one doesn't get if one's not grown up with the stuff ... and one is closed-minded enough to not be interested in looking into / unpacking / learning about it.

Will admit that I didn't vote for Trump, but I am warming up to him.

***

Read this a little while back. It's not, like, Pulitzer or Nobel-Laureate level writing, much less Major Media Bestseller list-making, but it has its moments.

Am sort of watching World Politics through filters of both "Max Headroom" and "Full Asylum" nowadays.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0087B5J4G/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Michael K said...

"Michael K--look at what I proposed and what you wrote--they're not the same or even similar."

No, Trump made a silly video and the left went nuts.

The left accused Sarah Palin of inciting multiple murders and what happened ?

Fill me in.

Delayna said...

"sometimes I wonder if Trump understands that policy, government, decisions about war, etc. have more consequences beyond their entertainment value."

PWS--Think of Trump as a stage magician. Tweets are the distraction. Rubes always think the hand obviously waving is the important one.

MayBee said...

that the right would have lost their mind?

Sure, the left and the right might go nuts for partisan reasons.

But CNN tried to get Trump kicked off Twitter for his video. Would that have happened with an NRA wrestling video?
I vote "not".

ccscientist said...

Attempts to portray Trump as sleazy are missing the point. Everyone knows he is a sleaze. However, he is trolling the media and doing some (enough) things people want, like creating jobs (or trying to) that people voted for him and support him. The more the left loses their minds, the more people support him. I don't think their support is naive, I think it is based on an assessment of getting something for their time/money/vote compared to their alternatives and having the media and academics lose their minds is totally worth it to a lot of people who are tired of being lied to and looked down on.

Francisco D said...

PWS wrote: "On the other hand, don't you think that if Obama had made the same video but substituted an NRA logo, that the right would have lost their mind? "

Yes. I do, but some of us would have laughed at the joke.

The leftist media has a much bigger megaphone and covers events that seem to support their narrative in an obsessive fashion (e.g., Sara Palin). They have brushed almost everything under the rug when it comes to fellow leftists.

This is pretty must the story of the last 50+ years. The MSM is not much different than Pravda and Tass.

Gk1 said...

Kurt Schlichter nails it per usual:

"In an ideal world, I would love to get back to presidency dominated by gentlemen like Ronald Reagan. But we don't live in an ideal world. Here's the ugly reality – there is a cultural war going on, one that could get worse. This isn’t a game; there are real stakes. If you volunteer to join conservatism’s enemies to allegedly protect an ideal of decorum that this culture has long since left behind, you’re being played for a sucker. You're either serious about winning, or you’re serious about losing."

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/07/03/heres-how-to-deal-with-trumps-tweets-stop-caring-about-them-n2349760

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"Again?"

Who the hell knows who Pianoman even is?

Michael K said...

having the media and academics lose their minds is totally worth it to a lot of people who are tired of being lied to and looked down on.

I don't think we agree on much but we agree on this.

Gk1 said...

So now CNN is threatening to doxx the guy that created the trump gif. Classy. This will blow up in their face like cheap ACME, rocket powered, bat suit. Idiots.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/kfile-reddit-user-trump-tweet/index.html