We're heading into the end of 2017 and we have seen some incredible things happen over the course of the year, so many that a dozen or more "Top Ten" lists could be created, and are being created, but most of what I am seeing in those lists does not delve into how it benefits the country.
For example, Time Magazine has a list of the top ten viral moments in 2017, highlighting everything from Beyonce's pregnancy to the NFL Kneelers, one of which never even made my radar and the other is number 10 on my list, but for a whole different reason, one TIME doesn't even bother to enlighten their readers about.
10. PATRIOTS UNITED TO PROTEST NFL KNEELERS
According to TIME "the most striking responses took place on the field where many players, some complete teams and even owners, made a show of peacefully demonstrating or protesting by either kneeling, linking arms, or raising their fists. Not all players and owners kneeled for the same reasons as Kaepernick, but after the President’s divisive statements, many were compelled to demonstrate to support for freedom of speech."
Absolutely no mention at all from TIME about the true "viral" events surrounding the issue, which was that patriots all across America united to protest the NFL kneelers.
9. KATHY GRIFFIN'S FALL
To me watching the fall of Kathy Griffin, after acting like some ISIS wannabe, holding a mock head of a bloody President Trump, makes the list because she is representative of the far left progressive liberals. Everything offends them, yet they believe they can be as offensive as they want with no ramifications. They do something stupid, suffer for it, then scream about how they are the victim when public backlash hits them. They apologize and then take their apology back, proving they never meant it in the first place.
Kathy Griffin is on this list as the poster child for liberal stupidity throughout 2017.
8. SUPREME COURT BACKS TRUMP AGAINST LOWER COURTS' ACTIVISM
From President Trump's initial travel pause EO to his rescinding DACA, lower courts have attempted judicial activism rather than following the law and over the course of the last year, the Supreme Court has sided with the President in a manner consistent with the law, especially noting at times when the lower courts decisions were "seriously flawed."
NeverTrumpers and the media are being forced to admit he is 1) Keeping his promises and 2) Winning - The bonus here is that during this last year we have seen RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) expose themselves for what they truly are.
National Review became known before the 2016 presidential election as virulently anti-Trump, yet by the years end, we now see that same publication, while still snarky about the president, admit that "he is compiling a solid record of accomplishment." While naming just a handful of those accomplishments, the writer, Rich Lowry, also admits "It’s hard to see how a conventional Republican president would have done much better, except if he had managed to get Obamacare repealed, which was always going to be a dicey proposition given the narrow Republican majority in the Senate."
High praise from a publication that "synonymous with the Never Trump movement," as The Daily Caller states.
UC Berkeley professor Steven F. Hayward was among the conservatives featured in National Review’s “Against Trump” issue. But his stance on Trump appears to have softened since then.
“In assessing Trump’s accomplishments, let’s not get too distracted by his unconventional conduct. This hitherto ideologically unmoored man has set in motion an administration arguably more conservative than Ronald Reagan’s,” Hayward wrote in a column for the Los Angeles Times last month.
“While the Congress controlled by his adopted party remains gridlocked, Trump is rolling back regulations and a number of the Obama administration’s most controversial achievements, including the internal structure of Obamacare and the Clean Power Plan. His foreign policy resets look increasingly sure-footed. His judicial nominees are uniformly conservative,” Hayward continued.
“It is inconceivable that any of the other leading Republican candidates from the 2016 cycle would have governed as boldly as Trump has.”
Trump haters at the NYT and HuffPost decry that Trump is "winning" and even CNN somehow managed not to choke while declaring Trump is keeping his promises, stating "A politician who actually does what he told voters he would do seems almost unfathomable in Washington, a town of broken promises."
Even among Trump haters, we are now seeing RINOs being called out for becoming "Trump-obsessed zealots who add nothing to our discourse." That is what Charles Cooke over at National Review said about the so-called "conservative" Jennifer Rubin from Washington Post.
Cooke highlights multiple instances where President Trump has done something that aligned 100 percent with what Rubin had previously been in support of, to her now opposing it for no other reason that it was Trump that did it, his examples show the overwhelming hatred being spewed from Rubin with no thought to her previous positions.
The illustrations are endless. In two years, Rubin has gone from arguing that the “ludicrous,” “absurd” Iran deal “has to go” — and, indeed, that John Kasich was a fool for contending otherwise – to praising those who believe it must remain in place as “reasonable” “experts,” and predicting that even to decertify would put “American credibility” at “risk.” In 2015, she wrote that “if you examine the Iran deal in any detail, you will be horrified as to what is in there.” In 2017, she characterizes this position as the “emotional” “temper tantrum” of an “unhinged president.” A similar metamorphosis has sullied her views on tax cuts, welfare, energy, and gun control (before, after), as well as her attitude toward Jews and anti-intellectuals, which once led her to defend Sarah Palin, but which now leads her to condemn Trump on almost all of the grounds she once dismissed.
As the Never Trumpers "crash and burn," while liberals attempt to spin it as a GOP "civil war," we note that they were a small segment of the GOP party, with some willing to look at presidential actions and be objective in their analysis even while disliking the "man" behind the presidency, while others have totally exposed themselves as nothing more than hacks, willing to betray their own principles just so they can oppose anything president Trump does.
Weeding out people like Rubin, Bill Kristol, David Frum, and others who are blinded to everything but their own hatred, is a major win for conservatives across the board.
5. #METOO MOVEMENT KNOCKS CELEBRITIES, MEDIA OFF THEIR HIGH HORSE
The #MeToo movement is also listed on the TIME's list of viral things in 2017, but it makes my list for a very different reason.
Celebrities that attempt to use their "fame" to control the public, thinking because people like their acting, or singing, and are entertained by them, they somehow have the right to tell others what to do, who to vote for, push gun control (while they act in some of the most violent movies), and generally act like they are morally superior to everyone else just because they get huge paychecks, have literally been roiled by the fall of Harvey Weinstein for sexually assaulting women for decades, and the subsequent #MeToo movement.
Not only have dozens of actors been embroiled in sex scandals, but the women who have been in the entertainment industry for decades are being called out for being silent about it for so many years. On one hand actors and actresses, one after another, claim that "everybody knew," yet the main chorus is "but not me, 'I' didn't personally know." Right everyone "else" knew. Ok, gotcha!
Media personalities and politicians have all become engulfed in the #MeToo movement, and while I am on record as thinking the movement has dishonestly and destructively conflated typical flirting behaviors with actual rape and assault, the benefit to the country in the movement, aside from removing those that actually committed crimes from the public sphere, is has knocked them all off their high horses.
The media who openly admits they think they have the right to "control exactly what the public thinks," to politicians that once elected do not even attempt to keep their campaign promises, thinking they somehow know what is best for their voters instead of listening to said voters, to celebrities that can no longer even attempt to claim a moral high ground, have all seen their influence greatly diminished in 2017.
I know, right about now many ANP readers are face-palming me over this making the list, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion... including me!
Many see President Trump's Twitter activity as a fault or in a negative light, but I look at how one tweet from the president can send liberals and the media into complete meltdown mode, dominating headlines for a day, sometimes two and in some cases a whole week, as a great thing. As liberals "scream at the sky" over something the president said, and as the media goes on all day rampages over white box trucks, President Trump is busy accomplishing many of the things he said he would, and the media's slight mention of them before going off on their unhinged tangents over his tweets, is why so much has been done without major opposition.
Politico highlights "138 things Trump did this year while you weren't looking," which is a tad misleading since the things listed are not things done while "we" weren't looking, they were done while the media was distracted by other things President Trump said, did or, yes... tweeted.
The Washington Examiner has compiled a list of 81 major achievements, and 11 Obama legacy items that have been repealed.
Real Clear Politics highlights Trump's 2017 Top 10 Achievements, compiled by Steve Cortes, a contributor to RealClearPolitics and Fox News, is the national spokesman for the Hispanic 100, an organization that promotes Latino leadership by advancing free enterprise principles.
Some of the items were highly publicized, others I would bet not many people even knew of because the media, meant to inform them, was too busy chasing their tails every time President Trump says "Boo" or better yet, "covfefe" on Twitter.
As a side bonus, President Trump often gives us hints of something big that is coming, as he did before the Uranium One story broke, as he did months before it became national news that Trump Tower was under surveillance by the Obama administration, and a number of other things.
Best for me....... is watching how easy it is to troll the media. He says jump and all of a sudden they race to see who can jump the highest.
3. MAINSTREAM MEDIA IMPLODES
Much like the NeverTrumpers, the mainstream media is in the midst of totally imploding. The MSM has abandoned even the pretense of objectivity, and all regard for facts and truth during the Trump presidency, going as far as blatantly becoming part of the opposition party. The sheer number of actual "fake news," mistakes, misrepresentations, and outright lies that have later had to be corrected, edited, while changing entire articles and headlines, in some cases leading to forced resignations and suspensions, has been overwhelming.
This article would be multiple pages long if I tried to list each example, but in June 2017, the Intercept did compile a good list which provides ample evidence that the media has become completely reckless in their mindless Trump hatred and rage. Since June, things have only gotten worse.
While conservatives have long said the mainstream media has a liberal bias, news outlets claimed that was some type of "conspiracy" theory, yet now, even the majority of the public sees it, with many even now saying the MSM has become the "enemy of the people," in polling conducted. Interesting, while 60 percent of "Trump Approvers" think the media is the enemy of the people, even 15 percent of "Trump Disapprovers" agree with that statement.
Seeing the media expose themselves to the general public most definitely has been one of the best things to happen to America in 2017.
ANP readers have seen us document every one of CNN's lies, rants, manufactured outrages, and fake news stories during 2017, so 'nuff said.
1. LIBERAL MELTDOWNS
The very short video below from January 20, 2016 takes the top spot, because it was 100 predictive of the year-long constant meltdown of liberals with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Throughout the year, what you see below is what the country and the world has witnessed liberals doing in 2017.
For anybody that thinks I am exaggerating in any way, please remember that in November 2017, liberals planned a "scream helplessly at the sky" event to protest an election that was held a whole year before.
So, liberal meltdowns and the way they, including the liberal media, completely lost their minds in 2017, simply had to top the list.
