Squat and Squabble

Conflicting viewpoints on topical subjects

  • Latest Posts
  • USA Politics
  • Other Stuff
  • Pop’s Pearls of Wisdom
  • Southpaw’s Ramblings
  • About Us

Trump’s Lob Job

June 30, 2017 by Pops 1 Comment

When we were kids growing up the northeast, winter was a special time, because it brought the snow.

For the adults, snow was a burden to be cleared from sidewalks and driveways, but for youngsters, snow was magic. Snow was the universal building material for childhood fantasies, and the universal weapon for warfighting. Snowdrifts became warrens of tunnels, and snow forts built with care by runny-nosed kids in scarves and mittens popped up like mushrooms in every yard. The petty summer rivalries of neighbor children morphed into all-out winter warfare. Preparations were hastily made, and piles of snowballs were staged behind hand-made frozen ramparts. Miniature combatants shivered silently in their own trenches waiting for the inevitable onslaught from the enemy that lived next door.

It was very real to us, outdoors in the cold, little warriors steeling ourselves for the pain of being struck by a hard-packed snowball to the body or the occasional fatal hit to the face. During those winter campaigns, we learned logistics, strategy, and tactics, long before the age of commercial electronic entertainment. It was figuratively life and death, with our pre-pubescent honor to be won or lost each grey afternoon before we were called in for dinner.

Success in a snowball fight required overwhelming firepower, accuracy, and sustained aggression. And diversion. A favored tactic was the “lob,” which was our artillery. Snowballs thrown fast and level, like baseballs, were our direct fire and were how most hits were obtained. The “lob” was the snowball thrown high, in a lofty arch, to rain down on the enemy from above.

The “lob”

The “lob” was the distraction, used to draw the enemy’s attention away for a few moments, as they tried to guess where it would impact. And while the enemy was looking up, he was not throwing at us, and that is when we always scored our best kills.


Donald Trump grew up in the northeast, and he likely had his own winter snow fighting experiences. He probably was familiar with the tactic of the “lob,” because we all used it.

As President, Trump apparently uses a “lob” strategy, in the form of a “tweet,” to some advantage. His media adversaries, cowering behind their fixed fortifications of news bureaus and TV studios, haphazardly throw barbs and insults, but while the media may share a common enemy, they lack a common strategy. Sometimes they score hits on the President, most times they miss.  The media is routinely smug in its assault, right up until the “lob.”

“Look! Up in the sky! Its a tweet!”

Out of the blue, without warning, comes a Presidential tweet or two, ranging high and arching over the normal line of fire. The media is distracted, they look up for a few moments, and a news cycle is wasted.

If the “lob” tweets thrown by the President are a calculated tactic
, it is a brilliant and effective strategy. Under the cover of his occasional “lob” to distract the media, an opportunistic Trump can maneuver into a more advantageous position, gather more ammunition, and consolidate his forces.  While they look away, he gets things done.

But if those Trump “lobs” are simply errant snowballs that are being thrown wildly in the heat of battle, without a supporting strategy, the President is wasting his ammunition and depleting his forces.

Is President Trump a political General Patton, or is he marching on to Waterloo?

We will see which side wears the laurels when they get called back home for dinner.

Tweet

Filed Under: USA Politics

Comments

  1. Southpaw says

    June 30, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    The notion that Trump’s errant Tweets are being used ass some sort of tactical distraction seems pretty farfetched. I’m saying this based on the fact that he’s a thin skinned, egocentric, goon. If anything, Trump is being distracted by each individual lob he sees. While he’s concerned about being trolled by SNL or criticized by CNN, the real assault (actually running the country) is coming at him in full force. I think it’s time that he focused on what’s important.

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Log In

Please log into the site.

Search

RSS Fox News

  • President Biden to visit Mississippi after tornadoes ravage state, leaving 25 dead
    President Biden will visit Mississippi on Friday, almost one week after devastating tornadoes hit portions of the state leaving 25 people dead.
  • Biden 'strongly opposes' resolution ending COVID-19 national emergency, but won't veto it after Senate vote
    President Biden will not veto a resolution ending the COVID-19 national emergency that the U.S. Senate passed on a 68-23 vote on Wednesday, A White House spokesperson said.
  • First on Fox: McCarthy hauls in a record $35 million in fundraising since becoming House Speaker
    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s off to a fast start in building a formidable war chest as he aims to expand the Republican majority in the chamber in next year’s elections.
  • Nashville school shooting: Republican congressmen demand AG Garland launch hate crime investigation
    Two Republican congressmen sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that the DOJ open a hate crime investigation into the Nashville private Christian School shooting.
  • Ohio lawmaker moves to force vote on constitutional amendment rules
    GOP Ohio state Rep. Susan Manchester pulled a discharge position that, if successful, would allow a proposal to make amending the state constitution harder to bypass via normal processes.
  • Minneapolis City Council to discuss potential settlement in major Floyd lawsuit
    The Minneapolis City Council will hold a special meeting to discuss a potential settlement in a suit by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights over George Floyd's police-involved death.
  • DOJ charges two more people for attacks against Florida pro-life pregnancy center
    The Justice Department charged two more people on Wednesday for carrying out a targeted attack on a pro-life pregnancy center in Winter Haven, Florida
  • Mel King, Boston civil rights figurehead and former mayoral candidate, dead at 94
    Mel King, a prominent civil rights figurehead in Boston credited with much of the city's progress on integration in the 1970s and 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 94.

RSS CNN International

  • Wagner chief admits battle for Bakhmut has 'battered' private military group
  • India welcomes its first newborn cheetahs in over 7 decades
    More than 70 years after cheetahs were declared officially extinct in India, the country is now home to four newborn cheetahs, India's Environment Minister announced Wednesday.
  • Beijing warns of 'severe impact' on US-China relations as Taiwan's leader lands in New York
    Taiwan's relationship with the United States has "never been closer," its President Tsai Ing-wen said after arriving in New York City Wednesday, as Beijing warned her visit could lead to "serious confrontation" between China and the US.
  • FIFA strips Indonesia of U-20 World Cup after calls for Israel ban
    Soccer's world governing body FIFA has stripped Indonesia of its right to host the Under-20 Men's World Cup later this year after an Indonesian official objected to the participation of Israel.
  • 'Companies are holding out': Global IPO market slump endures
    A slowdown in global initial public offerings continued in the first quarter of 2023 and is likely to endure in the coming months, as companies wait out the effects of volatile stock markets, higher interest rates and inflation, and uncertainty around the banking crisis.
  • Extraordinary video shows officers racing to confront Nashville shooter
  • 'Calculated' attack: New details on Nashville shooter
    A college art instructor who taught the Nashville school shooter told CNN the attacker once had an outburst in class and appeared to be "suffering" in social media posts over the past year.
  • Russia's nuclear blackmail is a spectacular success for Putin

Archives

  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in