I'm reading "How the White House ruined the hero dog," an opinion piece by Molly Roberts in The Washington Post. It will have to stand in for all the other hero dog stories in the anti-Trump press. (I'm writing a blog here and can't survey everything. I have my instinct, based on looking around, and I'm going to pounce on this one thing.)
Paragraph #1 identifies the main screwup, confusion about the sex of the dog that has — as Roberts puts it "garnered praise and plenty of pets." (There's that word, "garnered," here, alongside wan alliteration. I wish Roberts had worked harder and done the alliteration with "g" — something like "garnered goodly gobs of 'good girl!' greetings." You've got to convince us you alliterated on purpose. Accidental alliteration at the 3-word level needs editing.)
Now, the best thing about Trump's dog photo op was his comic banter:
“This is Conan, right now probably the world’s most famous dog,” President Trump announced. “It’s trained that if you open your mouth, you will be attacked... They were going to put a muzzle on the dog... but then it gets even more violent.... Conan is a tough cookie, and nobody’s going to mess with Conan... You’re very lucky, because he’s not in a bad mood today."But Trump haters can fault that. The dog is a successful, trained killer, and it did something very serious. It's no joke. We should be somber about the killing we needed to do. It's not the time for a comedy routine. Maybe you could say that. But as a comedy routine, it was very funny. Trump's endless antagonism of the press took the form of suggesting that the dog — the trained dog — would attack them if he were simply "in a bad mood."
Roberts returns to the subject of the dog's sex. (Interestingly, the word "sex" does not appear in the article. To avoid that utterly apt but perhaps triggering word, Robert's sticks to the language of children: Is it a "boy" or a "girl," a "he" or a "she"?) The screwup is not even Trump's! You have to get to the 9th paragraph for the Trump-favoring concession: "President Trump, in other words, was right." Earlier the White House had communicated reporters that the dog was female, then, hours later, corrected it. The dog is male. After admitting that Trump was right all along, Roberts struggles to make it bad, conjuring up "plenty of people" to contain the feeling that there's still something wrong having to do with the sex... I mean boy-or-girlness of the dog:
Call them cynics, or call them skeptics, or call them everyday people stumbling around a landscape of dissimulation and conspiracy theories emitted from the highest echelons of government — but plenty of people didn’t really buy it.I note the alliteration — "plenty of people." And the poetic imagery — "a landscape of dissimulation." It's a bad image, because landscapes don't dissimulate. I guess she doesn't want to accuse the "everyday people" doing the dissimulation. They're just confused and trying to understand, so they are "stumbling." That puts them on a landscape. It's a stumble-producing landscape because "dissimulation and conspiracy theories" have been "emitted" onto it. Maybe what's been dropped from above — "from the highest echelons" — is like a heavy rain, gouging arroyos.
Was it really possible that an administration apparatchik had sent a girl dog into a memory hole from which it emerged a guy dog, purely to preserve the president’s ego? And should we freak out if the answer is yes?Great questions! There really is no reason to feel confident that the dog shown is the actual dog and not some doggy double. Maybe there were several model dogs brought to the White House and the one that reacted the best to Trump, Pence, and Melania was selected, and it turned out to be a male rather than, as expected, the female. Or maybe Trump got to pick his favorite, and he's a male supremacist and insisted on the male.
Roberts concludes by saying that a dog story really ought to have brought us all together, but it didn't. Isn't that terrible? Well, it's 100% predictable. Trump wanted to do his photo op and it should have been something that brought us together. But how can you blame Trump if it didn't work?
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112 comments:
I hate those people.
Good morning, everyone.
The photo op worked for me. Who cares what the media thinks.
The better question is "WHAT" don't they blame Trump for?? Propaganda media at it's finest....
I saw the hateful and insane Chris Hayes on MSNBC whine and bitch about the dog’s sex. He blamed the WH. It was pathetic.
The Fake News has no idea how much America despises them.
But how can you blame Trump if it didn't work?
For the same reason that abusive spouses blame their victims: "Why do you force me to keep hitting you all of the time?"
The dog is a successful, trained killer, and it did something very serious.
What exactly did the, er, dog do?
Killer dogs are trained in addition not to kill, depending on circumstances, which is left up to the dog. How that responsibility is trained is the key.
A protection dog will work off leash and attack without a command, if he's supposed to cover your rear in dark places. But he's got to be good at judging what's a threat and what isn't.
It's not a matter of mood, however. He'd be no good if it were.
Generally a dog is good at judging human activities where, for instance, a wolf is not. You can trust your dog around your friends but not your wolf, even if the wolf loves you.
They don't send in a wolf after the terrorists.
My Doberman's official sex is FS. Apparently there are four genders in dogs.
Trump's comments about the turkeys receiving subpoenas and at least they had met him was pure comedy gold and such a put down of Adam Schiff. Trump was funnier than anything Alec Baldwin has done.
Notice in the pic that the trainer is watching the dog. It's a new context so the trainer is ready to give a command if it's needed. Probably proof that it's the real dog.
A pet wouldn't need watching.
Hi Roughcoat. Good boy!!
I agree with you 100%, as usual.
I am so glad Althouse reads this stuff because I won't. The only thing better would be if rags like WaPoop were actual news organizations with news pages that more or less printed the facts and opinion pages that more or less offered sane editorials and think pieces offering both sober and amusing takes on the events of the day. Instead we get non-stop mean girl nonsense from emotional adolescents like "Molly" Roberts and the mulings of race-baiting male wannabes.
The 21st century isn't an improvement on the 20th century (which included the worst intentional mass killings in the history of mankind). We are reverting to the mean. Public discourse gets stupider every day.
The context isn't so much the president etc but the press out there seeming hostile. Not sure how the dog is going to judge the situation.
The Fake News has no idea how much America despises them.
It's as plain as the balls on a dog.
Obama would have served the dog in a BBQ for the press, and got raves for the sauce.
This Trump hating obsession is all consuming for the press. This was an ideal opportunity for the press to lighten up and show some semblance of reason and balance, even if just for show, but they can't manage even that.
The WaPo is so bad that I'm now advising people NOT to use it to line their birdcages.
Have a little consideration for our winged friends.
I would expect WaPo to write about Trump violating Conan's equal rights to be a Trans-cat. Are they still stuck on boy dogs and girl dogs being the only choices? That creates an unsafe space that garners hate speech.
If you’d like to heal the division start with your admission the impeachments were all made up BS, that you did it because you were butthurt Hillary didn’t win because you believed the polls you skewed to make it look like she was winning...then publicize the heart felt apologies to Justice Kavanaugh’s family for lying about the assaults...then have every leftie promise to keep their trap shut during Thanksgiving except to offer to do the dishes while everyone watches the football games...
That’d be a good start- Otherwise fuck off leftie asshats.
"We should be somber about the killing we needed to do."
You mean like "Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive?"
If yesterday never happened, then consistency is optional. The only constants in this shifting world are "R" and "D."
Why is the WaPo assuming this dog’s gender? Sounds rather binary and cis-hateful. They could have easily let the dog self identify. Bark once for boy, and twice for girl. ‘Woof, woof!’ See? He said ‘Boy, boy!’
You would think that there would be MANY "journalists" who would love to crack the biggest political scandal in USA history by digging into the coup attempt from the Left/Deep State/Globalists. You would be wrong.
Imagine a world with a million John and Yoko Lennons bitching at you!
It's easy if you try.
The attack dog press had already shot itself in all four paws over the callous shooting of an austere religious scholar, so you’d think it might just leave the issue alone; but the Trump-hate drive is strong, and the response Pavlovian.
"They were going to put a muzzle on the dog, and I thought that was a good idea, but then it gets even more violent," Trump said.
I was wondering what was in the ellipse just after the first part of the sentence. Nice. So funny.
Democracy Dies in Darkness!
Call them cynics, or call them skeptics, or call them everyday people stumbling around a landscape of dissimulation and conspiracy theories emitted from the highest echelons of government — but plenty of people didn’t really buy it.
How about if I call them fools and idiots? Conan is a male name (the person on late night TV notwithstanding). Are we to believe that the dog’s handlers can’t tell whether a puppy has a penis?
(@Althouse, please note the additional alliteration.)
The Secret Service was very nervous about the dog, and probably put everyone on edge.
The only takeaway I have, and the only thing worth commenting about: That dog really liked Pence!
"We came, we saw, he died" - another example of Democrats treating death with appropriate somberness
“But how can you blame Trump if it didn't work?”
Trump’s praise of Conan would have been more believable had he tried to pet the dog. Ooooo nice doggie, now go away.
Oh the contortions these folks will put themselves through in the service of Orange Man Bad.
I think it was Skylark on one of yesterday's posts that noted there was a bit of a hue and cry (from Vanity Fair) about the fact that Trump didn't physically interact with the dog. Haven't heard much about that since, this gender/sex controversy is much more interesting to the haters apparently.
How do the reporters know the dog's pronouns?
rhhardin: Notice in the pic that the trainer is watching the dog. It's a new context so the trainer is ready to give a command if it's needed. Probably proof that it's the real dog.
< devil's advocate >Proof that it's a trained dog, not really proof that it's the dog. And, actually, only proof that "they" want you to think it's a trained dog.< /devil's advocate >
Sounds like Molly Roberts needed to take the special bus to school.
"The only takeaway I have, and the only thing worth commenting about: That dog really liked Pence!"
I thought Pence looked dumb, petting the trained service dog. I would presume the rule is don't pet a service dog. It's a dopey idea: it's a dog, so I should pet it.
I agree with SeanF. If it's a doggy double, they specifically want you to think it's the actual dog trained to kill, the handler is also trained, trained to act like the handler of the killer dog -- or even to exaggerate his watchfulness so he looks like what people think a handler of a killer dog is.
Yo, Rinty!
Hard lefties like every journalist writing for the Times and the Post are so stupid that they fail to realize that their unrelenting criticism of Trump in every situation and at all times is actually making their criticism ineffective. If they would write nice things about him once in a while, then people would pay more attention.
Trump is fortunate in his enemies.
There was one guy in the photo op who has awesome responsibilities on his shoulders and who remains focused on his job. I am thinking of that scene in limitless where the drug has run out and they are in the bar and there is a TV on and the anti hero says “Are you one of those guys who can’t think when there is a TV on?"
Conan was off duty, no? He deserved a little scratch to the head. Pence overdid it.
Though I think Conan enjoys the lamentations of the women in the press.
The left's bark is worse than it's bite.
Writing a story like that should make a journalist re-examine their career choice.
But it won’t, for any of them, and that’s how we know they’re the worst.
it ruffs out there for a dog, did you see the ridiculous esquire piece, of the press including brian karem complaining about 'the reign of terror'
Oh, bite me !!!
....now they are bitching about dog gender.
Amen,roughcote.
Not much more to be said after that.
Although it would be interesting if the dog did identify as a "girl dog" and pdjt had spoken of her as a "bitch"
Oh, the vapors the press would have had.
Oh, the fun we would have had with their vapors.
John Henry
There ia an idiot here seriously arguing how much petting is too much petting. That's OK when you are talking about your adolescent daughters, but not your dogs.
I am a dog person. At that photo op, I would be more interested in petting the dog the in posing for the press.
Ironically, Trump is clearly not a dog person. Maybe it's his reported germophobia.
i believe analysts are missing the point about trump and the dog.
the president is fighting our enemies. he is clever and fights on many levels.
islamic cuuture loathes dogs. they are shamed by being defeated by a dog. trump has been pushing the dog aspect from the very first day the isis leader was killed.
In my perfect world, the press would be licking its balls like a Tourette Syndrome sufferer speaks.
isn't the Real Question: Which Gender does Conan Identify with?
Who Cares what zhe was born under
warning Boehner weasel, and possible anonymous candidate,
https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/11/26/joseph-distefano-long-before-hunters-ukraine-gig-joe-biden-used-legal-graft-to-enrich-his-family/
DC is Means girls with too much money and influence. DC needs to be decentralized.
With telecommunications, there’s no need to meet other that 2-3 times a year.
“Call them cynics, or call them skeptics, or call them everyday people”
You can call them Ray, or you can call them Jay, or you can call them Ray Jay, or you can call them R Jay, or ...
and don't get worked up about the petting--
....just imagine what Joe Sniffengroper would be doing once he found out it was female
If you’d like to heal the division start with your admission the impeachments were all made up BS, that you did it because you were butthurt Hillary didn’t win because you believed the polls you skewed to make it look like she was winning..
They’re buttheart because the retards didn’t choose the popular kids.
well they already do that to themselves, these books with titles like 'fire and fury' which will be given an cereal treatment by Austin power producer, jay roach, and fear, we don't have one reporter on a pike, what kind of fear is that,
"It's not the time for a comedy routine."
Actually, it is. We should us more laughter and ridicule agains the Muzzies, and Trump is right to laugh at the MSM,
"But how can you blame Trump if it didn't work?"
But how can you ask such a question after four years of anti-Trumpism? You can always blame Trump, regardless. Which is silly, which invites more ridicule, which helps Trump as long as there are enough non-progs left.
" Trump's endless antagonism of the press"
Um, it couldn't be the other way around, now, could it???
it's the actual dog trained to kill, the handler is also trained, trained to act like the handler of the killer dog
Do you have an actual example of a military or police dog actually killing anyone?
Dogs are pretty bad at killing people, even unarmed civilians not expecting to be attacked, and actual "killer dogs" like pit bulls very rarely kill anyone except kids and oldsters.
like mua'dib, his name is a killing word,
Or perhaps there is a prosthetic penis here. Hey, if they can fake a moon landing they can fake a doggy penis. And if Bush can serve troops a plastic turkey then Trump can strap a dildo on a dog.
i know Conan is probably a pussy cat - or a very Good Girl - with her handlers, but frankly she scares the hell out of me. If I had her coming after me, I'd just explode my suicide vest, or surrender. What a pair of choppers!
I know police dogs are just trained to take down people, not kill them. But military doggies?
tmi, I imagine they named him conan for a reason,
Inga said...
Trump’s praise of Conan would have been more believable had he tried to pet the dog. Ooooo nice doggie, now go away.
So Trump is bad because he didn't pet the dog, and Pence is bad because he petted the dog "too much"?
Actually, I would guess that the President got an explicit request not to pet the dog, because that's pretty much the rule with attack dogs: you want them to bond only with their "team".
And the dog didn't kill anyone. alB killed himself and his kids, because he couldn't escape the dog.
alB is the killer in this case, not the dog
Amadeus 48: Instead we get non-stop mean girl nonsense from emotional adolescents like "Molly" Roberts and the mulings of race-baiting male wannabes.
That pretty much covers it.
Is it really that hard for billionaires to find and hire propagandists that aren't complete shite at their jobs? I don't get it. I'm sure Bezos, Bloomberg, Slim, et al. didn't get where they are without knowing how to attract talent. Yet the quality of the political writing they publish has become so embarrassingly stupid that one wonders if these sub-mediocrities really are the cream of the currently-available talent pool.
No, that can't be, because there are writers, left-wing writers, who write worthwhile stuff - they just don't get published in the WaPo. Maybe the dim-witted wokesters in HR departments shut out their betters? (C'mon guys - are you missing out on some first-class propaganda-writing talent because the possessors are Flyoverian cis-het white Christian males?) It happens. But I assume these guys want their propaganda to actually work, which would require reaching more of the population than the gummint bureaucrats, pussy-hatters, and sub-literate Angry-Studies graduates who are already true-believers.
P.S. "Mewlings". "Mulings" could work, though, if you think about it.
IRC, Police dogs are trained to latch on to the arm with the weapon and pull the suspect to the ground. You really can't do much with a 100 lbs. German Shepard handing on your arm.
The photo op was fine. Only someone who pathologically hates Trump could find something to bitch about. I despise Obama but wouldn’t have bothered to bitch about him in this context. Leftists are sad and pathetic.
As for Pence petting the dog, service dogs like pets too. You need to ask their owner if that is ok. I’m sure the Vice President had been ok’d to pet the dog. They both seemed to have enjoyed it.
Mockturtle
I don’t think the press does antagonize Trump. They aren’t reflective enough, detached enough. But he antagonizes them as an effective tactic.
The Liberal Democrat Press has to attack Trump 24/7 because other-wise people would start liking him too much. Imagine if Trump was a Democrat. The NYT/WaPo would be writing articles about how funny Trump is, how he cares for the common soldier, how he's patriotic and looking out for the USA, how he's kept us at peace and with record low unemployment, and of course how beautiful and classy the 1st Lady is.
Instead, its attack/attack/attack and sneer/smear/lie 24/7/365.
I agree with SeanF. If it's a doggy double, they specifically want you to think it's the actual dog trained to kill, the handler is also trained, trained to act like the handler of the killer dog -- or even to exaggerate his watchfulness so he looks like what people think a handler of a killer dog is.
And there was a Pence double who didn't know enough not to pet the dog, and a Trump double who was so intent on learning his lines that he forgot the dog was female.
The real Trump and Pence were of course eating the turkeys they had just publicly pardoned...
Actually, I would guess that the President got an explicit request not to pet the dog, because that's pretty much the rule with attack dogs: you want them to bond only with their "team".
Actually, I would guess Trump petted the dog all he wanted in the Oval Office beforehand and didn't feel the need to do so at the press conference.
People not well acquainted with dogs tend to assume all large dogs, especially mostly black ones as male. I can't tell you how many people we have met on the beach that address my Siberian bitch as boy.
Impeach him!
Mulings? Mewlings!
I am an ass.
Mulings? Mewlings!
Meullings!!
WaPo - the shark jump ramp is that way.
Demoratic Newz is boring.
Obama and the designer of Obamacare Jonathan Gruber lied about Obamacare throughout their entire advocacy leading up to passing a massively expensive bill which accomplished none of its stated objectives. This will have long term impact on our economy. The left media covered for them.
Now they're pretending "lies" about a dog's sex matter. It's incredibly disappointing Americans allowed such fundamentally unserious people to control our major institutions.
DoggieGate! Schiff could pencil it in in the impeachment docs.
Newsflash. Not everyone is a dog lover.
This whole “controversy” sure did elevate the photo op in the nations mind didn’t it? Is it a boy a girl, is could they not know?!?
Meanwhile the story of the dog and who was killed resonates around the world. Trump continues to make the media bounce with cat laser tricks.
All the media content has to fill the allotted space, and not touch on the condintion of World politic generally, and the United States specifically.
The United States at this time, is the jewel, of government success.
The rest of the Globe? Bleak. EU, China, Central and South America. Their people are protesting, their economies going backward.
The United States? Peace, and a level prosperity that has been rare in the the last 150 years. President Trump is the reason why. President Trump has been pointing out for decades, the United States (it's Tax Payers) have been the worlds piggy bank, and it was past time for the rest of the world to take care of them selves. POTUS has put that plan in motion, and here we are. Wealth created in the United States is staying here. Those places that received those monies (This is all through trade) are suffering.
Yes lets spend a whole day attempting to make something of a dog visiting White House. History of gigantic importance is being made. The media is wholly ignorant of all of what is happening around them, because their only job is to get Democrats more power.
Trump honors hero dog. Democrats now must hate dogs.
I should hope most people know not to pet police dogs or guide dogs.
Don't misgender Conan. You wouldn't like what you garner when xe's misgendered!
This might sound crazy, but "Conan" sounds like a male dog name to me.
How insane have people gotten? I get what it's like to despise the president-- I often despised Obama. But you have to realize when you are just giving yourself thrills by coming up with absurd reasons to hate him. A dog photo op you didn't like is absurd. Have at it, but that's on you. You're scratching your own itch.
I love dogs. I have two. I love the neighbor's dogs and I love pictures of dogs. But I am a little afraid of big dogs. And my husband got bitten by a standard poodle at a client's house two years ago, so now even he- the dog lover forever- is apprehensive when unknown dogs come around.
People know this kind of thing, right? It doesn't make you a bad person to enjoy the idea of dogs more than your enjoy all interactions with dogs? It doesn't make you a bad person to be a little afraid of a big dog with big paws and strong jaws?
(btw, Bo Obama bit a reporter)
Of course, Trump's photo op with the hero dog was all wrong
Impooch!!
When I was a lad (I've since transitioned) I didn't know that "lassie" was Scotch for "girl". I think I knew that "lass" meant "girl", but I thought that "Lassie" was just the TV collie's name.
Anyway, turns out Lassie was played by a tranny.
ICTA on a roll this morning! :-D
Blogger Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...
Mulings? Mewlings!
Meullings!!
Muellerings!
ISWICTADT
I'm so old I remember when the press FALSELY accused Bush of using a plastic turkey during a photo op with the troops in Iraq.
The press so hate conservatives they just can't help themselves.
I loathed Obama while he was President. I never had to make up absurd reasons for it. None of the reasons for my loathing were ever disproved or even seriously contested, just ignored by the MSM. Hell, even my predictions about what he would do, before he did them, all came true except for one (I'm still shocked he didn't go after everyone's 401k).
There was never any real need to make up reasons to loathe Obama. You just had to not studiously ignore the near monthly scandals the way the MSM did.
With Trump it's the opposite. This insanely weak tea the media and Dems keep trying to inflate into somethingburgers is so pathetic that I'm seriously convinced Trump must be one of the most law abiding humans who ever lived.
Kit Carson: furthering your point someone in this appearance (Pence, I think) said that Al Baghdati had been “put down”.
Media will soon go after Pence for petting Conan because it could make the little people think that petting service dogs is a good idea. Kinda’ like when Trump set such a bad example by glancing up at the sun during an eclipse.
Like several others on here I thought the dog was male because I think of "Conan" as a male name, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Conan the Barbarian." Great name for a male Army dog, not so great for a female. However, I think it would have been very appropriate, given ISIS misogyny and mis-treatment of women, if the ISIS bad guy had been brought down by a dog named "Mollie" or "Peggy Sue."
Everybody would name a female dog Conan, sure.
I eagerly await Chuck's take on this latest scandal.
Mewling and puking!
The lives of today's college students.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
My granddaughter's dog is named Conan but he is a chihuahua.
My dogs all self-identify as bacon dumpsters.
Would they really name a female "Conan"? C'mon you guys. Try not to step on your dicks, especially you Ms. Maddow.
"I asked the dog how the mission was, and he said 'rough'."
"I asked the dog how the mission was, and he said 'rough'."
Good one, Tom. Wish Trump had thought of it.
"I would presume the rule is don't pet a service dog."
It's not a service dog, it's a working dog, and that's not the rule. The rule is don't pet them when they're working.
@mockturtle
Mock, U rock! Have a good Thanksgiving, pilgrim!
'Release my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast to me in the desert"" -- Gen 5
Unleash Hell!
Mock, U rock! Have a good Thanksgiving, pilgrim!
U2, ICTA!
Roberts concludes by saying that a dog story really ought to have brought us all together, but it didn't.
Snarling, leftist harpy laments division she continues to foment.
OK.
This whole episode sounds more like a parody than anything real.
Sometimes Trump makes me want to put my head in my hands. But then I look at the opposition, especially the media and academic pundits, and thank God for Trump, warts and all.
Bet that dog "OBEYS' better than few here could imagine. These animals socialize with the troops. Like any dog they crave attention. Their handler can turn them on and off quite effectively. As pointed out, bragging on Conan is great propaganda.
Even as the story was written, if the ceremony didn't "bring us together" that is the fault of people like the author. Trump did not say or do anything divisive (for a change) except he didn't choose that moment to resign, or maybe collapse and die.
As an arbiter of cruel neutrality, Althouse should not be allowed to pounce. Only Republicans are allowed to pounce!
> I would presume the rule is don't pet a service dog. It's a dopey idea: it's a dog, so I should pet it.
> If it's a doggy double, they specifically want you to think it's the actual dog trained
It's "Cynical Speculation" day at Althouse!
Did we take our mean pills this morning?
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