Encore of Revival: America, July 23, 2018

The daily morning quest to prove, “Trump really stepped in it this time. Today, it’s all over,” has reached a point of certifiability. Recordings of Trump saying nothing wrong shouldn’t even make news, let alone headlines. And, just the fact that Helsinki happened—not to mention that it won’t be the last Putin-Trump summit—is good news, not bad. But, the anti-Trump press just doesn’t see this.

The larger should-be piece of news with Helsinki would recall Trump’s campaign statement that the US needed to get Edward Snowden back from Russia. But, Snowden didn’t come up, spare a pre-summit article in the Politico. The most likely reason Snowden has fallen down on Trump’s list of priorities is that Snowden blew the whistle on some sloppiness in the NSA. Trump’s original statement against Snowden came about the same time Trump spoke in agreement with then FBI Director James Comey’s desire to have Apple write a backdoor hack for their iPhones, another topic of technology that quietly disappeared. Whatever was going on in the Obama NSA and FBI has probably been fixed and bringing Snowden back into the limelight would show how sloppy inside baseball had gotten. It’s probably best for everyone to just leave it alone.

If the press really wanted to injure Trump, they would have spun Snowden’s situation as some kind of “failure”, but they didn’t. Instead, they are still stuck in their Russianewsgategate conspiracy kookery. By pushing as far as they did this past week, they are truly making themselves irrelevant. This week crossed a new line of crazy for the press.

The most important development this week was not that the queen appointed Charles her successor nor that the new American president met with Russia’s president for the first time nor that Hillary gave a sit-down talk in a moo-moo, but that the press is going insane in public view and doesn’t care. This could shift the balance in the mass media market. Watch for trending changes around the start of August 2018.

Kavanaugh’s lengthy paper trail becomes flashpoint | AP

US fighter jet intercepts small plane near Trump golf resort | Sacramento Bee

What is She Wearing? Hillary Clinton Looks Like Hell at OzyFest – Wrapped in a Drape (VIDEO) | GP

The End of an Era: Queen Elizabeth Names Her Successor | Pure Wow

Helsinki

Trump meeting with Putin is the right thing for America | The Hill

Trump Calls Media ‘Real Enemy of the People’ While Revealing ‘Second Meeting’ With Putin | Mediaite

Trump: news media wants confrontation, even war, with Russia | AP

Trump on whether he holds Putin responsible for election meddling: “I would, because he’s in charge of the country” | CBS News

White House struggles to contain political outcry over Trump-Putin summit | Yahoo – Reuters

Trump Wanted a Summit With Putin. He Got Way More Than He Bargained For | TIME

Trump’s Botched Putin Summit May Help Protect the Russia Probe | Bloomberg Quint

Trump Aides Did Damage Control on Air Force One After Putin Meeting | WSJ

Trump-Putin summit mystery: What about Snowden? | Politico

Russianewsgategate

Trump was taped talking of paying for Playboy model’s story | AP

International

Iran Says Trump Sought Meeting With President 8 Times at U.N. Last Year | MNS News – NY Times

Israel adopts divisive Jewish nation-state law | Yahoo – Reuters

Splitting up California: State Supreme Court takes initiative off ballot | San Francisco  Chronicle