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Bruce Bialosky

Sullivan and Frum Define Continued Trump Hysteria

Since Joe Biden was declared the 2020 winner, I have only written once about Trump. I have not changed my mind in that his policies were wonderful (particularly as contrasted with the disastrous Biden), but I think we should move on – there are better choices than Trump to move those policies forward without all the noise. Then Andrew Sullivan wrote his Weekly Dish defending a David Frum column but coming to a different conclusion, entitled It Wasn’t a Hoax, It was Media Overkill.

This comes at a time when John Durham has begun to charge people for providing manipulated information to the FBI regarding the Steele Dossier. It has become clearer that the Clinton campaign was behind the Russia, Russia, Russia allegations.

Sullivan starts his piece by lauding Frum as a man of clarity and truth by pointing out many aspects upon which the two agree. Sullivan writes that Trump had many conflicts of interest when it came to Russia. One could believe that to be true if he had initiated his business dealings in Russia with the idea it would catapult him toward a run for the U.S. presidency. There is little if any evidence ever presented about that. One must also say then that Trump had conflicts with many countries (30) where he had business dealings. That is the argument that the establishment employs to only have “Joe Biden types” in elected office — people who have zero experience in the private sector then tell you how much they feel your pain when their policies go sideways.

Sullivan goes on to say that for years Trump has been laundering money for Russian oligarchs. I was wondering where this charge came from, so I referred to Frum’s column. The charge stems from this assertion: one-fifth of all condominiums Trump sold were purchased in all-cash transactions on behalf of shell companies.

Since these condominiums were bought (supposedly) by shell companies, there would be no way to identify the name of the end purchaser. This method of purchase is extremely common in Los Angeles and other major metropolitan areas in buildings or with other housing that has nothing to do with Trump.

Celebrities do not want snoops digging into their lives and paparazzi standing in front of their homes, so they try to hide their purchases. For example, Bruno Mars purchased a home in my neighborhood. Soon after, the tourist buses were there “ad nauseum” with folks angling for a photo even with the house hidden behind tall gates. Bruno soon relocated to a nearby home, but in a protected community (guard gates). My long-time neighbor is a musician known worldwide, having moved in long before he became famous. Along came Google maps and sites like Virtual Globetrotting, and he had people knocking on his front door. He was forced to put up high gates to protect him and his family from these intrusions. I am sure he wished he owned the house in a shell company.

Many wealthy, hardworking Americans also use the same process – possibly someone like mega-businessman/philanthropist David Rubenstein (though we have no evidence he has) where the Biden family stayed for Thanksgiving. Not to mention people who came here from Hong Kong, Macau, China, Colombia, Venezuela and on and on.

Many homes sold today in an overheated market have a winning bid in all cash. One might think Russian oligarchs are buying up properties all over the country if you accept Frum’s logic.

The charge that Trump has been money laundering for Russian oligarchs has zero, zilch, none, absolutely no evidence nor validity.

One of Trump’s biggest problems is being a New York guy whose second language is sarcasm. The recipient of sarcasm must have a level of intelligence and a sense of humor. A sense of humor is apparently sucked out of journalists in journalism school, even if they have satisfactory level of intelligence. You combine that with their complete hatred of Trump, and he should have refrained from sarcastic comments. When the rest of us were getting the jokes, the press’s heads were exploding.

Sullivan writes Trump “was absolutely willing to accept Russia’s — or any country’s — illicit support, and no doubt he asked for it. I saw him do it on national television, in the campaign. We all did.” Let’s address this one.
First, Sullivan’s assertion Trump was willing to accept any country’s illicit support has zero, zilch, none, absolutely no evidence of validity. Let’s deal with Russia though.

Hillary Clinton had come out and stated 30,000 emails had been erased. Remember when she made the stupendously juvenile joke about wiping her computer with a cleaning cloth after she had it wiped professionally by tech heads. The story was huge though not as large as it should have been because something like 95% of the press was in confederacy with her election.

Trump held an extended press conference on July 27, 2016. Instead of focusing on the missing emails, the press focused on Trump and the fallacious Russian collusion story. There were significant assertions that the Russians were using the internet to spy on and steal information from candidates and news sources.

Near the end of the conference Trump, made the throw-off line: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” This tied together the two themes of the line of questioning. I too was watching and found the comment to be hilarious, a particularly brilliant sarcastic comment. Trump was saying he hoped the Russians had the 30,000 emails and would release them. If the charges against the Russians were accurate then why would they not already have them?

If you doubt this was a sarcastic comment, go back and read it. Trump says if they released the emails they would be rewarded mightily by our press. You would have to be a flat-out numbskull to believe Trump wasn’t joking. There is no way the press would have been delighted or would have properly treated the newly surfaced emails as a story. Trump and everyone else knew the press hated Trump and hated the Russians. Trump was never asking the Russians for help. The only mystery is how someone as smart as Andrew Sullivan could not get that. The only explanation is he is being blinded by his Trump hatred.

This is the exact reason that I believe we should move on and embrace some of the excellent candidates who support the policies Trump adopted, but without his baggage. We will be arguing the entire time about Trump and not the failings of Biden or the ineptitude of Harris or the unctuous naivete of Mayor Pete.

I could spend another day or more picking out the flaws of the two authors’ commentaries, but it would be more of the same — false charges, innuendos, and vile hatred of Trump.