i understand we must keep an eye on this sociopathic monster ("keep your friends close, and your enemies closer") but i do not understand why we need to constantly be elevating this person in the media. just about everything he does is front page news -- why not relegate him to page 4 news instead?
Reagan was the start of all our problems. He was a puppet that said and did as he was told and controlled by the very people who put him in office with money.
Really? I lived through it. Stokely Carmichael, Jerry Rubin and others were at our family house in the 60s after speaking at the university in the late 60s early 70s.
now feel like researching the historical roots of journalism. when did it morph into a money making machine? when did it become a mouthpiece for the ruling class? was raygun's rescinding of the fairness doctrine the starting point, or just one of many small incremental steps towards what passes for nytimes journalism now?
Ronnie, God bless his General Electric (J.P. Morgan) and sleeping Bonzo soul! The 40th President of our country was just another parrot of the people and boards who own the place where we happen to have been born. We live in a Disneyland culture where entertainment and snake oil salesmen (like the Creep) are hailed as saviors of our adolescent sanity. Remember the "Dapper Dan"? He was the Creep's model and the "killer" of his father Fred Christ Trump's distorted thieving brain, and his son way superseded the goals of the minor cartoon mobster of his hometown Queens. Maybe, the bribed people prosecuting him will be able to prevent him from running again! Remember, besides the Creep, the super duper deadly dud in Florida is a Harvard trained lawyer in the coocoo wings who is ready to take advantage of any journalistic improprieties.
The only Bragg I know, are the Liquid Aminos I put onto my food! Sorry Paul, I'm ill-informed on the bribed Bragg you reference. The bribery that is most disturbing is that which allows our children to be gunned down; and the sacrifice of those poor Ukrainians for imperial geo-political goals and disgusting blood dividends.
The Fairness Doctrine only applies to Air Broadcast programs since the public own that communication channel. Cable and streams are privately owned, so the Fairness Doctrine cannot restrict free speech/lies on them.
William ; It should though, clearly have some guardrails. Years ago, Trump would have been shut down long ago. Privately owned media that misinforms the public and even helps incite seditious 'riots' is doing damage and threatens our very country! This is a real. existential threat. Robert Reich is correct in his analysis of Trump's worldview ; He thinks America is his to shape and define as he sees fit. Our media certainly does not illuminate the situation as it should, which is not surprising ; the owners of same are part of this significant problem. They profit from it in every way.
Coming very late to this conversation. What you say about the Fairness Doctrine not applying to cable news is an accurate portrayal of the USA Today article. But I do not have cable -- and I do sometimes watch sports on Fox. Thus the article is incorrect. They are a broadcast outlet. (In fact, I have a Fox broadcast antenna sitting a little way up the hill from my house). So again, they are a broadcast outlet. As such the Fairness Doctrine would apply to Fox -- if it were in effect.
Feel free to argue this in court. I merely reports that the Fairness Doctrine was ended when cable tv became popular. There are many articles online explaining the government (Reagan) actions.
i'm reading a book right now that makes some mention of when journalism got its start. the book, a poisoned chalice by jeffrey freedman (2002, princeton university press), is not only extremely interesting, beautifully written and meticulously researched, but it puts so many important historic events into context, including the invention of the printing press and the development of journalism (to reduce the fake news of the day, which was running rampant.). i'm not sure when journalism became a paid profession, though.
thank you so much! by the way, i'm eager read and see what the catholic church thought about the printing press, since it democratized the gospel. seems like there'd be a lot of woke people running around trying to act according to their tenets, which until then had mostly been, obey us or you're going to hell.
Inside information has been with since the beginning. And people with $$ who thought they could get a leg up on everyone were willing to pay for it, even if it was just a mug of lager.
GrrlScientist ; I thought the Chinese invented the printing press? Not as we knew it in modern times, though. Guess I should do some research. In the 15th century, Gutenberg refined it.
Paul Cesmat ; raygun welcomed Rupert Murdoch to America and Rupert enjoyed citizenship much faster than most immigrants do. His style of 'journalism' has enhanced the criminal elites' wealth for a long time in many countries. Rupert knows which side his bread is buttered on.
Laurie Blair - thanks! What's the timeline? do you know if murdoch came before or after the fairness doctrine elimination? could murdoch have influenced raygun to make that decision? or did murdoch come here specifically because he saw the marketing opportunity of spewing hate and disinformation? and they say there's no conspiracy! 😊
As the ruling class began to, and continues to topple the counter balances that would challenge them, if this were truly capitalism. Their money has enabled them to negate, obstacles like government, employees, consumers, competition, etc. We now practice Oligopoly (when a few companies exert significant control over a given market) where government, business and institutions are controlled by an Oligarchy (a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution) or Plutocracy (a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income).
My understanding is 60 minutes played a large roll in the transfer of national news being offered by the networks at a loss rather than a huge revenue producer.
I wouldn't know. CBS was always a leader in getting the news out to the average American. With its inception of 60 Minutes in 1968....the year King and Kennedy were assassinated ..... the network took a giant step forward. Not until the advent of cable and then CNN in 1980 was the news world shaken so much.
You stole my comment! Let me suggest the Columbia Journalism Review. They reported he got an estimated $5.4 billion in FREE COVERAGE. Nobody forces newspapers to report. on a story. The other candidates had to buy time.
If there is a reason it is, assuredly, because doing so serves the interests of the people who looked the other way in enabling & elevating such a person to (of all things) the presidency: what sort of standards would anyone - past or future - have to aspire to in light of his example?
The flip side is that the donors (not the media or advertisers) are his marks and IMHO it will be revealed to them that they will be members of class actions to reimburse them for Trump's theft by deception. Shades of Trump U, Trump Family Charity.
They will have to decide whether they want their money back.
Doesn't seem like a terribly good path to generating returns: how many pennies to the dollar should those donors expect, i.e. in light of the many liabilities & expenses such a prolific source of litigation entails? (Perhaps similar realizations account for some of the change in tone/tenor regarding Trump's campaign, etc.?)
I am truly shocked that the Trump Machine played clips of the Insurrection at Waco. One day, historians will remark about how we ignored the signs, which were unmistakable.
That's the thing. There is so much innuendo about Biden's health, which is surprising, since the man works out regularly and is not a bloated half-corpse like Donald. Why don't we talk about Trump in the same way? I would take a good bet that he'd have a health compromise before Biden. And maybe before 2024. The man has such a mean mind that it's going to eat him up.
Agree totally! I keep in mind that the last insufferable several years falls on the shoulders of our Media pool. Especially conglomerate news entertainment cable, both liberal & conservative. Our media here in the states is primarily atrocious in how it moves narrative!
GrrlScientist ; I agree ; already tired of hearing pundits say " Donald Trump Himself" ; like he is SO IMPORTANT. I guess it generates bucks. The 'people' who own the fourth estate are billionaires and have profited from his policies and tax breaks before. They seem to want more.
So true. Along came the internet and people stopped paying for newspapers. Obscene outrageous profitable Trump #MangoWanker #Turdking #Mobster #Traitor
I have been reading Plato's The Republic. One of his theories is that the majority of a society are metaphorically living in a cave where they are captivated by watching shadows on the wall cast by objects moving in front of a large fire that is behind them. These shadows are what most people presume to be the truth and encompasses all that is actually happening in the world.
Trump was/is the best possible example of this kind of distraction on the cave wall. The media and elite love him for this reason, and they don't care what the collateral damage would be of his continued publicity, because it can only benefit them. In fact, the worse for us, the better for them.
ah another platonic reader. i just restarted reading after freshman year philosophy (1970). amazing how fulfilling reading is with a mind not cluttered by sex, drugs, and rocknroll . in a similar vein, there was once a startrek from the same era, in which a recreational visual device was strapped a crewmember's head, and an arm projected something into their eyes. they quickly became addicted to it, to the exclusion of every other concern. so now we have all sorts of electronic gadgets and distractions, most of which are highly addictive for the majority of users.
And yes, always the better for the masters of the universe if their subjects are perpetually distracted, the easier to fleece them.
D'accord. All those Western Civ readings finally have some serious meaning. How I managed to pass the essay exams is beyond me. I don't believe I had any real understanding. Except maybe John Stuart Mill.
Yes, exactly. I'm impressed you were required to read Plato, must have been a good school or professor. I never had to growing up, so I am discovering it now for the first time. And thank you for the Star Trek suggestion, I will have to try to find that episode!
Thank you very much! This is very helpful, because I wouldn't have looked at TNG from 1991. I assumed it would be a 1960s episode because the gentleman that responded said it was from that era (perhaps confusing with another episode from season 1 called "Dagger of the Mind"?).
Girl Scientist, when I have asked this question and have heard others do so, the answer we get is that Trump is important and we have to keep an eye on him. When someone says, why does keeping an eye on him demand constant coverage of his insanity, the answer is rarely satisfactory. I think the real answer is that the media likes the eyes/ears such stories get. People are fascinated with the fact that someone so irreverent, so crazy, so uninformed, so mentally ill can keep the spotlight and influence so many people, so they believe they have to cover it all to satisfy their own curiosity. I like your 4th page idea for such tripe.
Indubitably, Trump suffers from narcisstic personality disorder, the malignant type. Daily publications about his toils and tribulations only fuels this disorder. Hence he believes exuding such a manipulative disorder is actually working for him.
..I still think about all the free media he received in 2016, good or bad he didn't mind as it kept his name in front of everyone. I even called for a one day moratorium on mentioning him on one blog and was totally shot down by other members.
BC Shelby ; He bragged that he did not have to spend anything on his campaigning. Free advertising was his, just for being so outrageous. He could take an idea that Bernie Sanders had ; being free from corporate donors and such. Now look how he games the small dollar donations! If only those suckers knew what they were 'buying'!!
Yes… and they need to make as much as possible now because authoritarian nations allow only state media and that will be owned by Trump and family… not FOX. These greedy media hucksters and politicians are going to greed themselves right out of existence.
Donna; With any luck Mr tRump will be indicted in more cases (more serious ones), and the civil ones will break his bank! Being broke might slow him down.
There are three political parties actively functioning in this country. Democrats, Republicans, and the Independents.
There aren't enough votes found in any of the three to elect anyone. Trump will probably receive the Republican nomination. But by no means does that get him elected. The votes found in the Independent camp will determine the winner and that group is decidedly against the former President. Trump doesn't have the votes to do anything but splash around in the political pool.
That's only partly right, Donald. Independents are a third force, but not an organized party. There is an emerging 3rd party though. It's the neo-fascist MAGA, the party Trump already leads and it already has elected representarives in Congress.
We've become so accustomed to our binary system of left-right, Democrat-Republican, liberal-conservative, that when a third force arises it slips in almost un-noticed. We want to fold it into one of our pre-existing categories.
As a consequence, liberal Democrats dismiss the far-right MAGA extremists as just extra-looney Republicans. And conservative Republicans talk about "the base", as though an armed assault on the Capitol and denying the legitimacy of elections, banning books and targeting Muslims, are all sort of like opposing a wealth tax or favoring individual retirement accounts over Social Security.
Both parties seem blissfully unaware that neofascists do not self-identify as such precisely because the term carries so much negative baggage. But you can be sure they are as contemptuous of the Republican party as they are of the Democrats. And while they have an alliance of convenience at the moment with Kevin McCarthy, there is not a shred of loyalty to him or his party.
Lest you think I'm being hyperbolic, note that the characteristics of neofascism are also characteristic of this still minority faction: authoritarianism, xenophobia and ultra-nationalism, hatred of marginalized groups, hostility to the press and denial of factual reality, contempt for democratic values (obstruction of legislative procedures and undermining democratic elections), willingness to resort to organized mob violence for political ends, and yes book-banning.
Again, these are not conservative or Republican values. This is something different. This is the cancer of neofascism. And it needs to be properly identified, named, isolated and disempowered so we can go back to arguing about taxes, defense spending and energy policy..
Jerry-- The group you refer to doesn't have the votes to do anything but make noise. It's Trump's base and it's shrinking every time the fool opens his mouth. As far as the nonfascist go, Hitler's ghost is still dead. Let's see what takes place when Boebert and Greene run for reelection. I'll start to worry if they win.
Donald, neofascism is not dead. It's been on the rise internationally for years. And MAGA forces are actively working with neofascist leaders like Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who delivered a speech at CPAC last summer.
The "group I refer to" conducted an armed assault on our Capitol on the day presidential election results were to be formally certified. They are not just making noise. They obviously don't care about voting and elections unless it serves their purposes. They care about violence, destruction and chaos. Their aim is to take over and install an authoritarian, Christian Nationalist (their words) government.
The congresswoman you refer to, Greene, has boasted that if she had been in charge on January 6, they "would have been better organized and better armed." That same congresswoman is today a leader of a faction in the House of Representatives that is committed to causing a US debt default that will destabilize the world economy.
We don't really have time to wait until November 2024 to start worrying. The damage is being done right now. Every day that we treat them as something like a normal presidential campaign organization is another day we're complicit in our own downfall.
Jerry-- I know it's not dead but the founder is. That was my point. It would take an idiot to follow the ideals of one so hated in our history. But then again we do have our fools. Neofascism is a MAGA based group that lives within our country. Like all other splinter groups their presents is only slightly disturbing. Michigan had Timothy McVeigh who we don't brag about for obvious reasons. There will always be small groups of disgruntled people that think they were dealt a bad hand and they want to fix things. The trouble with their line of thinking is they have to plan on how to do that.
It really is that dire of a situation Jerry! But how do we get it across to every day hard working republican men and women without going down the rabbit hole with them?
I will never do any more business with any of the criminal corporations that are financially supporting Trump and his attempt to violently overthrow the government of the United States.
These corporate CEOs and any and all of Trumps accomplices including members of the Congress of the United States who support Trumps violent insurrection attempt must be prosecuted.
What we need is a website clearly listing all corporate donations to Trump, or benefiting his PACs or scams. Updated weekly. Do you, Robert or anyone, know of anyone doing this now? I would like to support them. ❤️
That's really interesting. Thanks. There seems to be a real relationship between age and how deeply some conservatives can be culted. Makes me think of Jen Senko's father: "The Brainwashing of My Dad."
Very frustrating when it's so cluttered with ads, and, of course, no individuals are named, but it makes a great point by putting donors in categories with "retired people" at the top. And then there are the oil and gas, real estate, legal, at least two groups of medical interests and more. I couldn't find the source, could you?
I use two: Malwarebytes Browser Guard and IronVest. Together, they block all the ads on Daily Kos. By the way, the programs indicate that there are 10 different website tracking programs on Daily Kos. These hidden software programs spy on your actions when you are on Daily Kos, collecting data about you that they sell to others! They are blocked too. I really like that they block the short ad videos that run before you can see a video on YouTube.
Apple Reader View is a great help (I don't want to say that too loudly, for obvious reasons). Not sure I could abide the ad clutter if I didn't have it.
According to the website: "NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2020 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on 03/22/21"
Stacker appears to be relatively new, since mediabiasfactcheck lists its sources as "pending." I've included a link to the stacker site for you to assess for yourself.
Corporations aren't people - and can't operate without them (why do we elevate the people who would openly support him to positions of such importance to begin with?)...
The “corporations are people and can therefore donate unlimited amounts of money to candidates of their choosing,” came about from a U.S. Supreme Crt. decision on the “Citizens United” case. That decision then enabled vast sums of money to be
brought into our political system, which resulted in
the corruption of the republican party and the Supreme Crt. Now our government is teetering on the brink of total corruption as well.
For decades, corporations and the super-rich have warped the laws in their favour. Even with a Dem super-majority in DC, I'm not sure that will ever be fixable
The American people are ingenuous & industrious... constitutionally... but ever-increasing measures of inequality & multiple AUMF own-goals serve no one's interests.
An embrace of ESG could lead to better corporate governance overall (a "compensation scorecard" hasn't been forthcoming via "enlightened self-interest" despite a decade passing since IBM management suggested it!)...
William: I get lots of emails from various NGOs that mention a few major corporations, but I haven’t seen a complete list, if there is one.
I’ll be switching my cell service to CREDO as soon as my Verizon contract expires. And as a Toyota owner I have notified them that I will not be buying any more trucks from them if they don’t end their backsliding - even if the Tacoma is the favorite truck of guerrilla fighters around the world.
I actually bought the Tacoma because I was thinking about setting up a taco truck when I retired (and parking it in front of my former office). Only would have needed to add an "N" to be TacoMan.
It's called the Federal Elections Commission website where the candidates report income and expenses of their campaigns. Supposedly, at least. Also, try followthemoney.org.
Have you read “The Monkey Wrench Gang” by Edward Abbey? Speaking of billboards…
At one time there was a person in the Las Vegas area known as the “Billboard Bandit,” who reportedly cut down 27 billboards (by the time my friend and I wrote a song about them).
Greg - the YouTube is brilliant- loved it! Sadly, I can’t access the song without signing up for Amazon (a company I boycott). But what a wonderful campaign!
With a boycott, you are not just hurting Mike Lindell and his company, you are also hurting conservative media, such as FOX and NEWSMAX, where he is a huge (if not the top) advertiser and thus a big contributor to their bottom line profits!
To be fair, most large corporations play both sides... They want to curry favor with whomever ends up in charge and they don't always know who that's going to be... But if you find any who don't donate both ways and only to DJT then pass that along... They deserve our scorn...
Yes, Dale, that’s true. They probably think their donations will allow them to ultimately control the politicians. The big corporations thought that about Hitler, too.
We too easily conflate Nazism with almost everything that is in essence controlling...
What they do is based upon purely Capitalistic greed... Or even self-involvement... they aren't pushing an Ideology... We need to stop doing that, it only serves to water-down the term when its use is justified...
Sorry, Dale -- in this case I can't agree. If you study the development of German fascism in particular, the signs are there. As we know, the Trump legacy fell off that tree, and Donald's childhood programming is ever-present. I do agree that capitalistic greed is paramount in the extremists' enablers and that's who funds the extremists. Always, always, follow the money.
But there is something salient in the authoritarian evolution of fascism, and we have to learn to play close attention to the red flags. Some of the most extreme "leaders" we currently have in power are not entirely persuaded by money or the threat of withdrawal of money. They are singularly obsessed with their zealotry.
Likely you will find it next to impossible to keep your $$ out of corporate pockets as they have consolidated the markets to such a degree they step all over themselves.
There were also many corporations involved in funding Hitler. Fritz Thyssen’s book “I paid Hitler” should be a warning to us about how corporations can desire and fund fascism.
"The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al., also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War II. IG Farben was the private German chemicals company allied with the Nazis that manufactured the Zyklon B gas used to commit genocide against millions of European Jews in the Holocaust."
Too my knowledge there is no list. Look at Virginia Thomas and the hiding of her secret? company. There is no way that she never discussed any of the cases before SCOTUS. She made money from putting together people backing those cases and doners to fund their pet conservative causes.
I think this presidential run is going to prove to be bilking his faithful on steroids. Trump will raise hundreds of millions, then snub his nose at the FEC rules, pocket it all, then hop over to Hungary where a safe haven awaits with no extradition.
“I’ll be back when you’ve won the revolution,” he’ll say from a safe distance. But the reality is he’ll never come back, and his real message is:
I agree that Trump can’t win in 24 and he knows it.
What that essentially means is as you said--he’s not running to win. His campaign and the 2024 election
are his last chance at metaphorically binding his supporters to him emotionally to help propel him into a dictatorship. His campaign speeches now have a distinctly malevolent tone. I’ve had a sense that his supporters in Congress have recently ratcheted up their animosity and intensity as if they’re preparing for something.
I don’t remember where I read or heard this today,
but someone pointed out extremists on the right
are buying firearms as fast as they can, possibly in order to be prepared for a showdown of some sort & it chilled me to the bone. There’s no doubt in my mind that he intends to whip his supporters into a frenzy of hate & violence.
I don’t believe Trump can succeed with either votes or violence. What he can and will do is cause as much violence as he can. His mafia legacy and narcissistic personality disorder could fuse together to result in hurting as many people as he can and cause as cause as much destruction & chaos as he can. I can definitely envision Trump dying before he’ll go to prison. Narcissists are control freaks.
He won’t survive in prison and I think he knows that. That means in his mind he has nothing to lose.
Your last line says it all: "He won't survive in prison and...he knows that. In his mind he has nothing to lose." We, on the other hand, have everything to lose.
Yesterday I went to the dentist and across the parking lot a battered old pickup pulled up to the gun store. An angry acting raggedy older man got out slammed the pickup door twice, it wouldn’t shut so he left it open. He had a holster on his hip with a gun and he went into the gun store. I turned and looked at my husband and he said he needs to fix his door before he buys another gun or ammo. Because that’s where most peoples priority would be. But probably not this person. I realize this is judgemental and I know it’s not something to be proud of being. I could not get his face out of my mind and kept wondering if he had ever had anyone to love him, or did he become just a raggedy old man clinging to false promises and forgetting those people that once loved him enough to pull him aside and tell him, you are on the way to losing everything you have ever had!
I think it’s human nature to judge other people Nancy. If you think about it, when we’re vulnerable children we have to learn who to trust and not trust in order to survive because family members aren’t always with us, so survival requires judgment. It’s a skill that’s baked in for survival, we just need to be sure we aren’t being too harsh.
Anyway, when I was an RN at a charity hospital in Texas many, many years ago, we had patients I would describe similarly to the man you described.
It kind of breaks your heart when you see someone
like that, even if they’re a mean sob, especially when you’re pretty sure they’re being manipulated & used by the likes of Donald Trump. We can’t help people who voluntarily surrender their sanity, good sense and even their financial security to a charlatan con man. All we can do is prosecute the con man who’s taking advantage of them so they can’t victimize more people.
At last! You have put your finger on the issue. To treat him as a "candidate" for a recognized, constitutional "office" is to miss the main point of this delusional, mind-warping scam. It is as though a B-movie actor so inhabits a badly written part that he forgets it's a role and starts wearing the costumes, etc full time. But here, the actor is writing the role as he goes on.
I like GrrlScienti's term: sociopath monster. I can only add that he's an omni-directional sociopath. Somehow, this idea that his supporters "are" him in no way interferes with his willingness to rip them off at every turn.
"But his preferred term for an enemy was "spherical bastard", employing the language of physics to describe a person that, no matter what frame of reference you used, remained a bastard. Prominent among those enemies was Walter Baade, the German astronomer with whom he theorised neutron stars."
Absolutely correct; "Trump will never be president for those who did not vote for him". I addition he will never accept an election where he is not the winner.....People need to understand this before he is even considered a nominated candidate.... Once he is on the ballot, he cannot loose and will try to destroy democracy either as an elected candidate or as a bad looser.....
Have said it before and will keep saying it ! Until someone either the DOJ or Alvin Bragg has the Guts , the you know what to put this Severe Mentally Ill man in Prison showing not only our Country but the World that No one is above the law not even a former President then it will help regain order on all you spoke of especially those who are in The House Republicans who are Super MAGA and want or Country to have laws that Protect them forever cause they want to remain super Rich and continue their Love affair with the NRA funding them and Others to keep them that way ! They want the Poor and the rest of us as unable to survive as possible by letting Food Prices continue to climb and everything else so we are forever stuck haveing to Work or worse if unable stuck in a who gives a dam about you mentality so … We better make sure that doesn’t happen there is still Time but it’s seriously running out for those who seek Justice for Trump if those who can affect him directly don’t or choose to do the right thing and hold him accountable for the first time in his I think 75 years 🤡
I just heard mention on BBC World News this morning that there's a bi-partisan effort in Congress to repeal the law that permitted the Iraq invasion. I think it woke someone up in Congress when the Hague issued a warrant on Putin over war crimes. I just heard Milley declare the invasion of Ukraine itself is a war crime - invading a country that poses no threat in any way. Putin's claiming he's fighting Nazis. Compare that with Bush going after Saddam over WMDs. I have no doubt that there are wank-publicans in Congress that would give ol' Tweety the same kind of legal cover. They've been trying to do that in "red states" already, by passing restrictive election laws and electing nut-job MAGA secretaries of state.
Nobody's above the law, but law can be changed according to politics. That's been the basic Republican platform for decades with regard to corporations and monopolies - repealing the laws corporate criminals and monopolists intend to violate.
The war in Iraq had only one purpose: To keep Cheney-Bushlette in power. Americans don't like to switch presidents during war time, so they invented one.
Agree wholeheartedly Debby. Will believe no one is above the law until this person is actually indicted. All I see are people with power who seem afraid to hold him accountable. Wonder why they even talk about it.
This isn’t so much what the media doesn’t understand about Trump as what the media has ignored about him since he entered the race in 2016. All of his personal life, as well as his business life, had made it clear that the only thing he has ever cared about is himself, and that he was utterly unfit to serve in any public capacity. He has, in fact, no concept of service or of why anyone would think of serving others or their country. When he looked at the endless rows of graves at Arlington, he felt neither gratitude nor humility, just bafflement: “What was in it for them?” And so, once he occupied the White House, he and his family, from his sons and daughter to his current wife and his son-in-law, used the presidency for their own personal purposes, with no concern for the results for anyone else.
Having studied cult leaders, cults and the cultic mentality my whole adult life, along with helping a number of people leave cults, which is not an easy thing for them to do as certain cultic fears are deeply ingrained in their subconscious mind, there is little hope of Trump's followers ever truly understanding that they are destroying themselves, their families and our country with their anger, hate and fear. They are completely encapsulated in their bubble of perception. Arguing with them only drives them deeper into their position. The only possibility I know that works is to really listen to them, hear their fear and anger, and from a place of sincere compassion, ask them good questions about what they are believing, doing and why. We can't do this from a position of our being one-up and right, and their being one-down and wrong. That will only drive them deeper into their position. We have to sincerely hear them out and express our care for them. Asking them good questions can trigger their discernment and then there is a possibility of their putting down the barrier of their beliefs for a moment, looking around and seeing things more clearly. That is when they begin to shift and question what they are doing. Maybe.
And yes, the media loves hysteria and makes money from it. Talk about a cult.
From the article; "This is key. Trump views himself, his supporters (whom he calls “my people”), and their domains as one and the same. Anyone who opposes him is “them” — outside the universe of his identity, past the places that embrace him, beyond the borders of his pathological ego."
Trump looks at the world through the lens of his black, evil, fearful heart and sees all the evil and fear he has pent up inside himself reflected back at himself. His cult of followers, made up of authoritarian personality types, are more than happy to fall into lock step agreement with Trump's warped world view.
Excellent piece, Mr Dr Secretary Professor Robert Reich. Thank you for your (continuing) service.
I like all this intellectual approach. I'm all for law & order. But we are at war with Enemies Domestic (ED; Electile Dysfunctionists) and have been since 2015. Time to wake TF up.
At war.
Law & Order is not equipped for this. The Black Shirts, the Brown Shirts, and these scoundrels in the Red White & Blue Shirts...removing each of these by opinion AND law AND in some cases brute force is the step necessary to short-circuit disaster of this level of historical magnitude.
What would Eisenhower have done? What should Biden do? Giving up on the second Biden term and instead eliminating these crackhead zombies, resetting America at any cost, that is about all I can see that will save the world from this repeating pattern. And that includes all players in the business-as-usual corruption we've seen since January of 1981.
I rarely listen to trump speak. His voice makes me ill, but the other day I did hear him speaking at Waco for a few minutes and had to laugh! Everyone I know who supports him can't state any of his policies (that they LOVE), but they all say he's a STRONG president and a great businessman. As I was listened he was talking about all the people that were "picking on him". He whined about that for awhile, then tells the crowd "I am your warrior!" All the time he is saying this, he's still whining! That's what I want on my side - a whiny little man who fails at everything he does declaring himself my warrior!
i understand we must keep an eye on this sociopathic monster ("keep your friends close, and your enemies closer") but i do not understand why we need to constantly be elevating this person in the media. just about everything he does is front page news -- why not relegate him to page 4 news instead?
Remember: ...
The purpose of The Media is to MAKE MONEY.
Truth, not so much.
Mr. Reagan vetoed the media Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and the free-for-all of cock-a-doodle news exploded...https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/28/fact-check-fairness-doctrine-applied-broadcast-licenses-not-cable/6439197002/
Reagan was the start of all our problems. He was a puppet that said and did as he was told and controlled by the very people who put him in office with money.
As a child in the 50s Reagan peaked as host of Death Valley Days but was senile in the 80s.
Read A Time for Choosing, 1964. Politics is vastly different now. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganatimeforchoosing.htm
Really? I lived through it. Stokely Carmichael, Jerry Rubin and others were at our family house in the 60s after speaking at the university in the late 60s early 70s.
Actually sliding into seniltiy as Governor.....Ed Meese was pretty much calling the shots ....while Ronnie was nodding off.
I know what you mean. I'm getting close to "what day is it" Reagan's age, now.
now feel like researching the historical roots of journalism. when did it morph into a money making machine? when did it become a mouthpiece for the ruling class? was raygun's rescinding of the fairness doctrine the starting point, or just one of many small incremental steps towards what passes for nytimes journalism now?
Ronnie, God bless his General Electric (J.P. Morgan) and sleeping Bonzo soul! The 40th President of our country was just another parrot of the people and boards who own the place where we happen to have been born. We live in a Disneyland culture where entertainment and snake oil salesmen (like the Creep) are hailed as saviors of our adolescent sanity. Remember the "Dapper Dan"? He was the Creep's model and the "killer" of his father Fred Christ Trump's distorted thieving brain, and his son way superseded the goals of the minor cartoon mobster of his hometown Queens. Maybe, the bribed people prosecuting him will be able to prevent him from running again! Remember, besides the Creep, the super duper deadly dud in Florida is a Harvard trained lawyer in the coocoo wings who is ready to take advantage of any journalistic improprieties.
that's funny; thanks.
speaking of bribed prosecutors, what happened to the cases that Bragg canned when he became top dog?
The only Bragg I know, are the Liquid Aminos I put onto my food! Sorry Paul, I'm ill-informed on the bribed Bragg you reference. The bribery that is most disturbing is that which allows our children to be gunned down; and the sacrifice of those poor Ukrainians for imperial geo-political goals and disgusting blood dividends.
Alvin Bragg is the 37th District Attorney elected in Manhattan. Alvin – a lifelong Manhattanite who served as a state and federal prosecutor –...
Manhattan District Attorney’…
manhattanda.org
The Fairness Doctrine only applies to Air Broadcast programs since the public own that communication channel. Cable and streams are privately owned, so the Fairness Doctrine cannot restrict free speech/lies on them.
William ; It should though, clearly have some guardrails. Years ago, Trump would have been shut down long ago. Privately owned media that misinforms the public and even helps incite seditious 'riots' is doing damage and threatens our very country! This is a real. existential threat. Robert Reich is correct in his analysis of Trump's worldview ; He thinks America is his to shape and define as he sees fit. Our media certainly does not illuminate the situation as it should, which is not surprising ; the owners of same are part of this significant problem. They profit from it in every way.
Coming very late to this conversation. What you say about the Fairness Doctrine not applying to cable news is an accurate portrayal of the USA Today article. But I do not have cable -- and I do sometimes watch sports on Fox. Thus the article is incorrect. They are a broadcast outlet. (In fact, I have a Fox broadcast antenna sitting a little way up the hill from my house). So again, they are a broadcast outlet. As such the Fairness Doctrine would apply to Fox -- if it were in effect.
Feel free to argue this in court. I merely reports that the Fairness Doctrine was ended when cable tv became popular. There are many articles online explaining the government (Reagan) actions.
i'm reading a book right now that makes some mention of when journalism got its start. the book, a poisoned chalice by jeffrey freedman (2002, princeton university press), is not only extremely interesting, beautifully written and meticulously researched, but it puts so many important historic events into context, including the invention of the printing press and the development of journalism (to reduce the fake news of the day, which was running rampant.). i'm not sure when journalism became a paid profession, though.
here's the link: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691002330/a-poisoned-chalice
thank you so much! by the way, i'm eager read and see what the catholic church thought about the printing press, since it democratized the gospel. seems like there'd be a lot of woke people running around trying to act according to their tenets, which until then had mostly been, obey us or you're going to hell.
Inside information has been with since the beginning. And people with $$ who thought they could get a leg up on everyone were willing to pay for it, even if it was just a mug of lager.
GrrlScientist ; I thought the Chinese invented the printing press? Not as we knew it in modern times, though. Guess I should do some research. In the 15th century, Gutenberg refined it.
i read that too ... somewhere ... it's probably true ...
If you want to learn about the Press, there's a great biography of William Randolph Hearst on PBS. Not a saint
thank you! i will. but wait, that's not woke is it? i mean facts and history and stuff?
Did he claim to be a saint? Or like his twin brother DeSanctimonus of that state that takes any and all federal monies and hides it!
My 'saint' reference was to Hearst, not Trump.
Terry: Then watch "Citizen Kane."
Of course.....
Paul Cesmat ; raygun welcomed Rupert Murdoch to America and Rupert enjoyed citizenship much faster than most immigrants do. His style of 'journalism' has enhanced the criminal elites' wealth for a long time in many countries. Rupert knows which side his bread is buttered on.
Laurie Blair - thanks! What's the timeline? do you know if murdoch came before or after the fairness doctrine elimination? could murdoch have influenced raygun to make that decision? or did murdoch come here specifically because he saw the marketing opportunity of spewing hate and disinformation? and they say there's no conspiracy! 😊
https://www.mediareform.org.uk/murdochs-media-empire-timeline or Google Rupert+Murdoch+Timeline. Works like a champ.
Paul Cesmat ; I'm sure they loved each other and flocked together ❤.
As the ruling class began to, and continues to topple the counter balances that would challenge them, if this were truly capitalism. Their money has enabled them to negate, obstacles like government, employees, consumers, competition, etc. We now practice Oligopoly (when a few companies exert significant control over a given market) where government, business and institutions are controlled by an Oligarchy (a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution) or Plutocracy (a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income).
Perhaps the better questions are when was it not?
My understanding is 60 minutes played a large roll in the transfer of national news being offered by the networks at a loss rather than a huge revenue producer.
I wouldn't know. CBS was always a leader in getting the news out to the average American. With its inception of 60 Minutes in 1968....the year King and Kennedy were assassinated ..... the network took a giant step forward. Not until the advent of cable and then CNN in 1980 was the news world shaken so much.
Unfortunately, I have to agree!
You stole my comment! Let me suggest the Columbia Journalism Review. They reported he got an estimated $5.4 billion in FREE COVERAGE. Nobody forces newspapers to report. on a story. The other candidates had to buy time.
Major part of the problem. . . .
If there is a reason it is, assuredly, because doing so serves the interests of the people who looked the other way in enabling & elevating such a person to (of all things) the presidency: what sort of standards would anyone - past or future - have to aspire to in light of his example?
The flip side is that the donors (not the media or advertisers) are his marks and IMHO it will be revealed to them that they will be members of class actions to reimburse them for Trump's theft by deception. Shades of Trump U, Trump Family Charity.
They will have to decide whether they want their money back.
Doesn't seem like a terribly good path to generating returns: how many pennies to the dollar should those donors expect, i.e. in light of the many liabilities & expenses such a prolific source of litigation entails? (Perhaps similar realizations account for some of the change in tone/tenor regarding Trump's campaign, etc.?)
Rishi Chopra ; Certainly not the 'winners circle'!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zPlnhymCU
Indeed, more like the Wiener's circle...
Daniel Solomon: And 'good luck' to them if they do!
We have to hold each and everyone of us to higher standards!
I am truly shocked that the Trump Machine played clips of the Insurrection at Waco. One day, historians will remark about how we ignored the signs, which were unmistakable.
S. A. LINDEN ; I don't know about 'we', but our leaders and defenders shure missed the signs!. The fourth estate as well !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch
getting so sick of hearing about him. justice delayed is justice denied, and in this case democracy denied.
How about the back page in small letters?
Or better yet not at all.
Hoping to see him listed in the obituaries.......SOON.
That's the thing. There is so much innuendo about Biden's health, which is surprising, since the man works out regularly and is not a bloated half-corpse like Donald. Why don't we talk about Trump in the same way? I would take a good bet that he'd have a health compromise before Biden. And maybe before 2024. The man has such a mean mind that it's going to eat him up.
Fay: Got to give the parakeets something to 💩 on!
obituaries
Daniel Boone ; How about " wrap dead fish here, before discarding."
Agree totally! I keep in mind that the last insufferable several years falls on the shoulders of our Media pool. Especially conglomerate news entertainment cable, both liberal & conservative. Our media here in the states is primarily atrocious in how it moves narrative!
GrrlScientist ; I agree ; already tired of hearing pundits say " Donald Trump Himself" ; like he is SO IMPORTANT. I guess it generates bucks. The 'people' who own the fourth estate are billionaires and have profited from his policies and tax breaks before. They seem to want more.
So true. Along came the internet and people stopped paying for newspapers. Obscene outrageous profitable Trump #MangoWanker #Turdking #Mobster #Traitor
#GOPTraitors
I have been reading Plato's The Republic. One of his theories is that the majority of a society are metaphorically living in a cave where they are captivated by watching shadows on the wall cast by objects moving in front of a large fire that is behind them. These shadows are what most people presume to be the truth and encompasses all that is actually happening in the world.
Trump was/is the best possible example of this kind of distraction on the cave wall. The media and elite love him for this reason, and they don't care what the collateral damage would be of his continued publicity, because it can only benefit them. In fact, the worse for us, the better for them.
ah another platonic reader. i just restarted reading after freshman year philosophy (1970). amazing how fulfilling reading is with a mind not cluttered by sex, drugs, and rocknroll . in a similar vein, there was once a startrek from the same era, in which a recreational visual device was strapped a crewmember's head, and an arm projected something into their eyes. they quickly became addicted to it, to the exclusion of every other concern. so now we have all sorts of electronic gadgets and distractions, most of which are highly addictive for the majority of users.
And yes, always the better for the masters of the universe if their subjects are perpetually distracted, the easier to fleece them.
D'accord. All those Western Civ readings finally have some serious meaning. How I managed to pass the essay exams is beyond me. I don't believe I had any real understanding. Except maybe John Stuart Mill.
Yes, exactly. I'm impressed you were required to read Plato, must have been a good school or professor. I never had to growing up, so I am discovering it now for the first time. And thank you for the Star Trek suggestion, I will have to try to find that episode!
Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5 episode 6 "The Game" aired Oct 26, 1991 See the Wikipedia article here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(Star_Trek%3A_The_Next_Generation)
Thank you very much! This is very helpful, because I wouldn't have looked at TNG from 1991. I assumed it would be a 1960s episode because the gentleman that responded said it was from that era (perhaps confusing with another episode from season 1 called "Dagger of the Mind"?).
Girl Scientist, when I have asked this question and have heard others do so, the answer we get is that Trump is important and we have to keep an eye on him. When someone says, why does keeping an eye on him demand constant coverage of his insanity, the answer is rarely satisfactory. I think the real answer is that the media likes the eyes/ears such stories get. People are fascinated with the fact that someone so irreverent, so crazy, so uninformed, so mentally ill can keep the spotlight and influence so many people, so they believe they have to cover it all to satisfy their own curiosity. I like your 4th page idea for such tripe.
Indubitably, Trump suffers from narcisstic personality disorder, the malignant type. Daily publications about his toils and tribulations only fuels this disorder. Hence he believes exuding such a manipulative disorder is actually working for him.
Page 2 should be Humberto Eco, all the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
More like Echo, if you listen closely.....
..I still think about all the free media he received in 2016, good or bad he didn't mind as it kept his name in front of everyone. I even called for a one day moratorium on mentioning him on one blog and was totally shot down by other members.
BC Shelby ; He bragged that he did not have to spend anything on his campaigning. Free advertising was his, just for being so outrageous. He could take an idea that Bernie Sanders had ; being free from corporate donors and such. Now look how he games the small dollar donations! If only those suckers knew what they were 'buying'!!
Because it increases
Ratings and this more
Money. That’s all they care about. And I agree with you only Id say the last page!
well ... last page means people can still easily find it by turning over the newspaper. somewhere in the middle makes them dig for it.
Yes… and they need to make as much as possible now because authoritarian nations allow only state media and that will be owned by Trump and family… not FOX. These greedy media hucksters and politicians are going to greed themselves right out of existence.
One can only hope sooner rather than later!
Excellent viewpoint. If not ⸸rump, then one of his marionettes in training!
Donna; With any luck Mr tRump will be indicted in more cases (more serious ones), and the civil ones will break his bank! Being broke might slow him down.
Donald Hodgins
Writes Donald’s Substack
There are three political parties actively functioning in this country. Democrats, Republicans, and the Independents.
There aren't enough votes found in any of the three to elect anyone. Trump will probably receive the Republican nomination. But by no means does that get him elected. The votes found in the Independent camp will determine the winner and that group is decidedly against the former President. Trump doesn't have the votes to do anything but splash around in the political pool.
That's only partly right, Donald. Independents are a third force, but not an organized party. There is an emerging 3rd party though. It's the neo-fascist MAGA, the party Trump already leads and it already has elected representarives in Congress.
We've become so accustomed to our binary system of left-right, Democrat-Republican, liberal-conservative, that when a third force arises it slips in almost un-noticed. We want to fold it into one of our pre-existing categories.
As a consequence, liberal Democrats dismiss the far-right MAGA extremists as just extra-looney Republicans. And conservative Republicans talk about "the base", as though an armed assault on the Capitol and denying the legitimacy of elections, banning books and targeting Muslims, are all sort of like opposing a wealth tax or favoring individual retirement accounts over Social Security.
Both parties seem blissfully unaware that neofascists do not self-identify as such precisely because the term carries so much negative baggage. But you can be sure they are as contemptuous of the Republican party as they are of the Democrats. And while they have an alliance of convenience at the moment with Kevin McCarthy, there is not a shred of loyalty to him or his party.
Lest you think I'm being hyperbolic, note that the characteristics of neofascism are also characteristic of this still minority faction: authoritarianism, xenophobia and ultra-nationalism, hatred of marginalized groups, hostility to the press and denial of factual reality, contempt for democratic values (obstruction of legislative procedures and undermining democratic elections), willingness to resort to organized mob violence for political ends, and yes book-banning.
Again, these are not conservative or Republican values. This is something different. This is the cancer of neofascism. And it needs to be properly identified, named, isolated and disempowered so we can go back to arguing about taxes, defense spending and energy policy..
See: https://neofascism.substack.com/ --- https://lucid.substack.com/
and https://FeathersOfHope.net
.y
Jerry-- The group you refer to doesn't have the votes to do anything but make noise. It's Trump's base and it's shrinking every time the fool opens his mouth. As far as the nonfascist go, Hitler's ghost is still dead. Let's see what takes place when Boebert and Greene run for reelection. I'll start to worry if they win.
Common sense rarely prevails in red gerrymandered districts.
David--Point taken.
Donald, neofascism is not dead. It's been on the rise internationally for years. And MAGA forces are actively working with neofascist leaders like Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who delivered a speech at CPAC last summer.
The "group I refer to" conducted an armed assault on our Capitol on the day presidential election results were to be formally certified. They are not just making noise. They obviously don't care about voting and elections unless it serves their purposes. They care about violence, destruction and chaos. Their aim is to take over and install an authoritarian, Christian Nationalist (their words) government.
The congresswoman you refer to, Greene, has boasted that if she had been in charge on January 6, they "would have been better organized and better armed." That same congresswoman is today a leader of a faction in the House of Representatives that is committed to causing a US debt default that will destabilize the world economy.
We don't really have time to wait until November 2024 to start worrying. The damage is being done right now. Every day that we treat them as something like a normal presidential campaign organization is another day we're complicit in our own downfall.
.
Jerry-- I know it's not dead but the founder is. That was my point. It would take an idiot to follow the ideals of one so hated in our history. But then again we do have our fools. Neofascism is a MAGA based group that lives within our country. Like all other splinter groups their presents is only slightly disturbing. Michigan had Timothy McVeigh who we don't brag about for obvious reasons. There will always be small groups of disgruntled people that think they were dealt a bad hand and they want to fix things. The trouble with their line of thinking is they have to plan on how to do that.
Greene is an idiot. She didn't see the Black Helicopters circling DC on the 6th. Had she been in charge, she would probably be dead now.
It really is that dire of a situation Jerry! But how do we get it across to every day hard working republican men and women without going down the rabbit hole with them?
Donald:
“I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.“
— Will Rogers
Greg-- a rather long winded way of stating an opinion.
Greg-- It doesn't matter how many times the guy decides to run, he loses followers every time his name appears on a ballot.
Only hope that’s true. Not convinced yet!
I will never do any more business with any of the criminal corporations that are financially supporting Trump and his attempt to violently overthrow the government of the United States.
These corporate CEOs and any and all of Trumps accomplices including members of the Congress of the United States who support Trumps violent insurrection attempt must be prosecuted.
What we need is a website clearly listing all corporate donations to Trump, or benefiting his PACs or scams. Updated weekly. Do you, Robert or anyone, know of anyone doing this now? I would like to support them. ❤️
Here's a piece I came across yesterday. It's not the kind of list you're looking for, but it's closely related: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/people-with-these-20-jobs-donate-the-most-money-to-donald-trump/ss-AA19dHal
Here is a better link to the list: https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-trump/industries?id=N00023864. Note that "Retired" is by far the top donor industry to Trump.
That's really interesting. Thanks. There seems to be a real relationship between age and how deeply some conservatives can be culted. Makes me think of Jen Senko's father: "The Brainwashing of My Dad."
WOW! Just plain ole WOW! But I wonder if it's more wealthy retired or just getting by retired.
Beth: I am the latter, if that helps.
How many were listed as “Incarcerated” or “Fugitive”?
Good question.
Very frustrating when it's so cluttered with ads, and, of course, no individuals are named, but it makes a great point by putting donors in categories with "retired people" at the top. And then there are the oil and gas, real estate, legal, at least two groups of medical interests and more. I couldn't find the source, could you?
I use an ad blocker to eliminate the ad clutter!
Tim: Me too, but it doesn’t block Grunt Style with their Ranger Panties and other combat cosplay costumery.
I wonder if they are connected to the Village People: Don we now our gay apparel?
Anyway, they’re all over Daily Kos (!) and AP. If you have an adblocker that blocks those, please post it here.
I use two: Malwarebytes Browser Guard and IronVest. Together, they block all the ads on Daily Kos. By the way, the programs indicate that there are 10 different website tracking programs on Daily Kos. These hidden software programs spy on your actions when you are on Daily Kos, collecting data about you that they sell to others! They are blocked too. I really like that they block the short ad videos that run before you can see a video on YouTube.
Apple Reader View is a great help (I don't want to say that too loudly, for obvious reasons). Not sure I could abide the ad clutter if I didn't have it.
According to the website: "NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2020 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on 03/22/21"
Hope this helps:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/?s=STACKER
https://stacker.com/
Stacker appears to be relatively new, since mediabiasfactcheck lists its sources as "pending." I've included a link to the stacker site for you to assess for yourself.
Thank you but that page is too complicated to display on my iPhone
I just hate it when that happens!
Corporations aren't people - and can't operate without them (why do we elevate the people who would openly support him to positions of such importance to begin with?)...
The “corporations are people and can therefore donate unlimited amounts of money to candidates of their choosing,” came about from a U.S. Supreme Crt. decision on the “Citizens United” case. That decision then enabled vast sums of money to be
brought into our political system, which resulted in
the corruption of the republican party and the Supreme Crt. Now our government is teetering on the brink of total corruption as well.
For decades, corporations and the super-rich have warped the laws in their favour. Even with a Dem super-majority in DC, I'm not sure that will ever be fixable
The American people are ingenuous & industrious... constitutionally... but ever-increasing measures of inequality & multiple AUMF own-goals serve no one's interests.
Shareholders can file lawsuits against corporate management because contributions to Trump undermine the value of the company.
Goodwill is calculated by taking the purchase price of a company and subtracting the difference between the fair market value of the assets and liabilities. Companies are required to review the value of goodwill on their financial statements at least once a year and record any impairments. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/goodwill.asp#:~:text=Goodwill%20is%20calculated%20by%20taking,year%20and%20record%20any%20impairments.
An embrace of ESG could lead to better corporate governance overall (a "compensation scorecard" hasn't been forthcoming via "enlightened self-interest" despite a decade passing since IBM management suggested it!)...
Rishi: I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.
Corporate Death Penalty now!
If education is the lifeblood of a workforce then Texas has assured its companies a most anemic life (what will life on their knees be like?)...
PS: Clearly there are no rules against corporate suicide - note the administration of Silicon Valley Bank.
William: I get lots of emails from various NGOs that mention a few major corporations, but I haven’t seen a complete list, if there is one.
I’ll be switching my cell service to CREDO as soon as my Verizon contract expires. And as a Toyota owner I have notified them that I will not be buying any more trucks from them if they don’t end their backsliding - even if the Tacoma is the favorite truck of guerrilla fighters around the world.
Very honourable, Greg
William:
I actually bought the Tacoma because I was thinking about setting up a taco truck when I retired (and parking it in front of my former office). Only would have needed to add an "N" to be TacoMan.
Judd Legum does a lot of work like this…Substack
William: Here’s a start on that list of corporate sponsors of insurrectionists:
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/12/ultraviolet-publishes-list-top-corporate-donors-gop-members-congress
It's called the Federal Elections Commission website where the candidates report income and expenses of their campaigns. Supposedly, at least. Also, try followthemoney.org.
Yes yes. How hard can it be ? A domain name and a few retired folks to research and load. That tracking already exists for nra funding.
We retired folks arre far too busy for that!
Have you read “The Monkey Wrench Gang” by Edward Abbey? Speaking of billboards…
At one time there was a person in the Las Vegas area known as the “Billboard Bandit,” who reportedly cut down 27 billboards (by the time my friend and I wrote a song about them).
In Australia, they always take things one step further: https://youtu.be/gyT23gqjZLU
This campaign was instrumental in getting tobacco advertising banned!
“I would never recommend that anyone do anything illegal ar any time… except at night.” (Ed Abbey)
I found it! Sadly Vic, my co-author, passed away several years ago. Look for his music on line.
https://www.last.fm/music/Vic+Sadot/_/Billboard+Bandit/+wiki
Greg - the YouTube is brilliant- loved it! Sadly, I can’t access the song without signing up for Amazon (a company I boycott). But what a wonderful campaign!
It's on YouTube:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDZEuytp2_Y>
Marge: Let me see what I can do. Vic is dead so I own the song outright- listed under BMI. Last.fm may have it.
I don’t want to take up space here with the lyrics.
I’ll never,ever buy a “my pillow”
With a boycott, you are not just hurting Mike Lindell and his company, you are also hurting conservative media, such as FOX and NEWSMAX, where he is a huge (if not the top) advertiser and thus a big contributor to their bottom line profits!
To be fair, most large corporations play both sides... They want to curry favor with whomever ends up in charge and they don't always know who that's going to be... But if you find any who don't donate both ways and only to DJT then pass that along... They deserve our scorn...
Yes, Dale, that’s true. They probably think their donations will allow them to ultimately control the politicians. The big corporations thought that about Hitler, too.
I always thought there's a little Nazi (or a lot) in most corporations. You can tell by how deeply they disrespect us, the consumer.
We too easily conflate Nazism with almost everything that is in essence controlling...
What they do is based upon purely Capitalistic greed... Or even self-involvement... they aren't pushing an Ideology... We need to stop doing that, it only serves to water-down the term when its use is justified...
Sorry, Dale -- in this case I can't agree. If you study the development of German fascism in particular, the signs are there. As we know, the Trump legacy fell off that tree, and Donald's childhood programming is ever-present. I do agree that capitalistic greed is paramount in the extremists' enablers and that's who funds the extremists. Always, always, follow the money.
But there is something salient in the authoritarian evolution of fascism, and we have to learn to play close attention to the red flags. Some of the most extreme "leaders" we currently have in power are not entirely persuaded by money or the threat of withdrawal of money. They are singularly obsessed with their zealotry.
Hear! Hear! The reality of "hedge funding" politics!! Eyes Open!
To support criminals is not playing to "both sides."
One persons criminal is another's money maker...
BS. Aiding and abetting crime rises to become a crime.
Likely you will find it next to impossible to keep your $$ out of corporate pockets as they have consolidated the markets to such a degree they step all over themselves.
There were also many corporations involved in funding Hitler. Fritz Thyssen’s book “I paid Hitler” should be a warning to us about how corporations can desire and fund fascism.
And they do. Apparently GM funded Hitler as well.
As did Henry Ford et al.
IBM, Prescott Bush (father of president GB and grandfather of GWB).
Indeed, the list is long and enlightening.
I mentioned the IG Farben-DuPont connection the other day, but it may have been on a previous thread.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben_Trial
"The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al., also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War II. IG Farben was the private German chemicals company allied with the Nazis that manufactured the Zyklon B gas used to commit genocide against millions of European Jews in the Holocaust."
See Judd Legum’s “Popular Information on Substack. Among other things he reveals and then follows up on corps. which contribute to RW causes.
Too my knowledge there is no list. Look at Virginia Thomas and the hiding of her secret? company. There is no way that she never discussed any of the cases before SCOTUS. She made money from putting together people backing those cases and doners to fund their pet conservative causes.
Major corporations then, perhaps, who must list political donations?
I think this presidential run is going to prove to be bilking his faithful on steroids. Trump will raise hundreds of millions, then snub his nose at the FEC rules, pocket it all, then hop over to Hungary where a safe haven awaits with no extradition.
“I’ll be back when you’ve won the revolution,” he’ll say from a safe distance. But the reality is he’ll never come back, and his real message is:
“So long, suckers!”
If only!
I still think he's squireling away his money offshore and by November 2024 will be living in exile.
Daniel:
I hear Guantanamo is nice in November.
Thank you, Robert.
It's even more simple: For the last 40+ years, Trump's only goal is to evade Prison. He (and other GOP turds) are doing just that every day
With Garland's help.
I can’t get this out of my mind, is he just scared or is he like Bill Barr?
I agree that Trump can’t win in 24 and he knows it.
What that essentially means is as you said--he’s not running to win. His campaign and the 2024 election
are his last chance at metaphorically binding his supporters to him emotionally to help propel him into a dictatorship. His campaign speeches now have a distinctly malevolent tone. I’ve had a sense that his supporters in Congress have recently ratcheted up their animosity and intensity as if they’re preparing for something.
I don’t remember where I read or heard this today,
but someone pointed out extremists on the right
are buying firearms as fast as they can, possibly in order to be prepared for a showdown of some sort & it chilled me to the bone. There’s no doubt in my mind that he intends to whip his supporters into a frenzy of hate & violence.
I don’t believe Trump can succeed with either votes or violence. What he can and will do is cause as much violence as he can. His mafia legacy and narcissistic personality disorder could fuse together to result in hurting as many people as he can and cause as cause as much destruction & chaos as he can. I can definitely envision Trump dying before he’ll go to prison. Narcissists are control freaks.
He won’t survive in prison and I think he knows that. That means in his mind he has nothing to lose.
Your last line says it all: "He won't survive in prison and...he knows that. In his mind he has nothing to lose." We, on the other hand, have everything to lose.
Sad to say, prison for Trump (IF he goes at all) will consist of two years of house arrest at Mar-a-Lago wearing a velvet padded ankle bracelet.
"The Federal Correctional Facility at Mar-del-Loco" has a nice ring to it.
Missed opportunity: a few years ago the island of St. Helena was looking for someone to portray the exiled Napoleon for their 400th anniversary.
Mar-del-loco...I like it!
The firearm spending spree also took place when Obama was elected. Consider THAT!
Yesterday I went to the dentist and across the parking lot a battered old pickup pulled up to the gun store. An angry acting raggedy older man got out slammed the pickup door twice, it wouldn’t shut so he left it open. He had a holster on his hip with a gun and he went into the gun store. I turned and looked at my husband and he said he needs to fix his door before he buys another gun or ammo. Because that’s where most peoples priority would be. But probably not this person. I realize this is judgemental and I know it’s not something to be proud of being. I could not get his face out of my mind and kept wondering if he had ever had anyone to love him, or did he become just a raggedy old man clinging to false promises and forgetting those people that once loved him enough to pull him aside and tell him, you are on the way to losing everything you have ever had!
I think it’s human nature to judge other people Nancy. If you think about it, when we’re vulnerable children we have to learn who to trust and not trust in order to survive because family members aren’t always with us, so survival requires judgment. It’s a skill that’s baked in for survival, we just need to be sure we aren’t being too harsh.
Anyway, when I was an RN at a charity hospital in Texas many, many years ago, we had patients I would describe similarly to the man you described.
It kind of breaks your heart when you see someone
like that, even if they’re a mean sob, especially when you’re pretty sure they’re being manipulated & used by the likes of Donald Trump. We can’t help people who voluntarily surrender their sanity, good sense and even their financial security to a charlatan con man. All we can do is prosecute the con man who’s taking advantage of them so they can’t victimize more people.
At last! You have put your finger on the issue. To treat him as a "candidate" for a recognized, constitutional "office" is to miss the main point of this delusional, mind-warping scam. It is as though a B-movie actor so inhabits a badly written part that he forgets it's a role and starts wearing the costumes, etc full time. But here, the actor is writing the role as he goes on.
Nancy: I saw that movie. Ronald Reagan starred in it.
I like GrrlScienti's term: sociopath monster. I can only add that he's an omni-directional sociopath. Somehow, this idea that his supporters "are" him in no way interferes with his willingness to rip them off at every turn.
A variation of Fritz Zwiky's "spherical bastard!"
So odd I had to look it up:
"But his preferred term for an enemy was "spherical bastard", employing the language of physics to describe a person that, no matter what frame of reference you used, remained a bastard. Prominent among those enemies was Walter Baade, the German astronomer with whom he theorised neutron stars."
It fits.
If this wasn't part of your lookup, there's a whole website dedicated to the term you may enjoy:
https://www.sphericalbastards.com/
....or throw them under the bus when expedient.
Not for nothing has Legal Eagle has redefined MAGA as "Making Attorneys Get Attorneys!" LOL!
He's the Flim Flam man.
Absolutely correct; "Trump will never be president for those who did not vote for him". I addition he will never accept an election where he is not the winner.....People need to understand this before he is even considered a nominated candidate.... Once he is on the ballot, he cannot loose and will try to destroy democracy either as an elected candidate or as a bad looser.....
Have said it before and will keep saying it ! Until someone either the DOJ or Alvin Bragg has the Guts , the you know what to put this Severe Mentally Ill man in Prison showing not only our Country but the World that No one is above the law not even a former President then it will help regain order on all you spoke of especially those who are in The House Republicans who are Super MAGA and want or Country to have laws that Protect them forever cause they want to remain super Rich and continue their Love affair with the NRA funding them and Others to keep them that way ! They want the Poor and the rest of us as unable to survive as possible by letting Food Prices continue to climb and everything else so we are forever stuck haveing to Work or worse if unable stuck in a who gives a dam about you mentality so … We better make sure that doesn’t happen there is still Time but it’s seriously running out for those who seek Justice for Trump if those who can affect him directly don’t or choose to do the right thing and hold him accountable for the first time in his I think 75 years 🤡
I just heard mention on BBC World News this morning that there's a bi-partisan effort in Congress to repeal the law that permitted the Iraq invasion. I think it woke someone up in Congress when the Hague issued a warrant on Putin over war crimes. I just heard Milley declare the invasion of Ukraine itself is a war crime - invading a country that poses no threat in any way. Putin's claiming he's fighting Nazis. Compare that with Bush going after Saddam over WMDs. I have no doubt that there are wank-publicans in Congress that would give ol' Tweety the same kind of legal cover. They've been trying to do that in "red states" already, by passing restrictive election laws and electing nut-job MAGA secretaries of state.
Nobody's above the law, but law can be changed according to politics. That's been the basic Republican platform for decades with regard to corporations and monopolies - repealing the laws corporate criminals and monopolists intend to violate.
Just sayin'.
Indeed!
A little over 4 minutes in: https://youtu.be/mFEIgmp-GvY
The war in Iraq had only one purpose: To keep Cheney-Bushlette in power. Americans don't like to switch presidents during war time, so they invented one.
#MangoWanker #Turdking #Mobster #Traitor
#GOPtraitors
#Fascists
#Murdoch
Agree wholeheartedly Debby. Will believe no one is above the law until this person is actually indicted. All I see are people with power who seem afraid to hold him accountable. Wonder why they even talk about it.
Genocide by Neglect. Hiding behind a veil of Eugenics "belief systems". There, I've called it out again.
Mentally ill? Should he be in a mental hospital?
Before you answer this watch/read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Ken Kesey). tRump could out-McMurphy McMurphy.
BTW Jack Nicholson won an Oscar for Best Actor in that role.
All true and well diagnosed. Imagine if Trump were elected and then pardoned thousands of his supporters.
Don't laugh. Trump always gets worse. And he is now cornered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_granted_executive_clemency_by_Donald_Trump
... and yet "Sheriff Joe" & Michael Milken have never roamed more free (had to go there - sorry).
This isn’t so much what the media doesn’t understand about Trump as what the media has ignored about him since he entered the race in 2016. All of his personal life, as well as his business life, had made it clear that the only thing he has ever cared about is himself, and that he was utterly unfit to serve in any public capacity. He has, in fact, no concept of service or of why anyone would think of serving others or their country. When he looked at the endless rows of graves at Arlington, he felt neither gratitude nor humility, just bafflement: “What was in it for them?” And so, once he occupied the White House, he and his family, from his sons and daughter to his current wife and his son-in-law, used the presidency for their own personal purposes, with no concern for the results for anyone else.
#MangoWanker #Turdking's only goal for forty years has been to EVADE PRISON
#Mobster #Traitor
#GOPtraitors
#Fascists
#Murdoch
It's all about the money. He will say and do any thing to keep his base angry enough to keep the contributions coming in.
Having studied cult leaders, cults and the cultic mentality my whole adult life, along with helping a number of people leave cults, which is not an easy thing for them to do as certain cultic fears are deeply ingrained in their subconscious mind, there is little hope of Trump's followers ever truly understanding that they are destroying themselves, their families and our country with their anger, hate and fear. They are completely encapsulated in their bubble of perception. Arguing with them only drives them deeper into their position. The only possibility I know that works is to really listen to them, hear their fear and anger, and from a place of sincere compassion, ask them good questions about what they are believing, doing and why. We can't do this from a position of our being one-up and right, and their being one-down and wrong. That will only drive them deeper into their position. We have to sincerely hear them out and express our care for them. Asking them good questions can trigger their discernment and then there is a possibility of their putting down the barrier of their beliefs for a moment, looking around and seeing things more clearly. That is when they begin to shift and question what they are doing. Maybe.
And yes, the media loves hysteria and makes money from it. Talk about a cult.
From the article; "This is key. Trump views himself, his supporters (whom he calls “my people”), and their domains as one and the same. Anyone who opposes him is “them” — outside the universe of his identity, past the places that embrace him, beyond the borders of his pathological ego."
Trump looks at the world through the lens of his black, evil, fearful heart and sees all the evil and fear he has pent up inside himself reflected back at himself. His cult of followers, made up of authoritarian personality types, are more than happy to fall into lock step agreement with Trump's warped world view.
Excellent piece, Mr Dr Secretary Professor Robert Reich. Thank you for your (continuing) service.
I like all this intellectual approach. I'm all for law & order. But we are at war with Enemies Domestic (ED; Electile Dysfunctionists) and have been since 2015. Time to wake TF up.
At war.
Law & Order is not equipped for this. The Black Shirts, the Brown Shirts, and these scoundrels in the Red White & Blue Shirts...removing each of these by opinion AND law AND in some cases brute force is the step necessary to short-circuit disaster of this level of historical magnitude.
What would Eisenhower have done? What should Biden do? Giving up on the second Biden term and instead eliminating these crackhead zombies, resetting America at any cost, that is about all I can see that will save the world from this repeating pattern. And that includes all players in the business-as-usual corruption we've seen since January of 1981.
I rarely listen to trump speak. His voice makes me ill, but the other day I did hear him speaking at Waco for a few minutes and had to laugh! Everyone I know who supports him can't state any of his policies (that they LOVE), but they all say he's a STRONG president and a great businessman. As I was listened he was talking about all the people that were "picking on him". He whined about that for awhile, then tells the crowd "I am your warrior!" All the time he is saying this, he's still whining! That's what I want on my side - a whiny little man who fails at everything he does declaring himself my warrior!
I never listen to him speak