Whatever Ailes was, Rush Limbaugh, was, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump are - remember who helped enable them, empower them, and give them credibility. I certainly see Rupert Murdoch on the scene. I call him "the antichrist of journalism" and that's exactly what he was and is.
In Australia, a couple of our previous PM's (from each opposing party) are advocating for a Royal Commission into the practices of the Murdoch empire. Their insidiousness & rapacious appetite, represent the single most destructive threat to global democracy. Unfortunately, what they have done to the US, they have done in the UK & Australia, a literal wake of destruction, all in pursuit of a profit!
A Ellis-Dunn- what Ailes and those like him covet is the power to control people, and control of people makes for more power. It’s a circle of rapacious feeding that brings with it a false security. These are needy people who take what they believe they need by manipulation. He knew what brought people to heel as does Murdoch.
Profit is just a byproduct and an enablement for more power.
I agree. Because to the average Joe, money represents access to goods and services and can therefore be used as a leverage to get people to do whatever those dangling the dollars (or yen, or euros, or drachmas, or whatever) want them to do. It is called dollar dictatorship and it prevails throughout the world.
And the gullibility of the consumers who enable those. I originally thought of them as stupid, but they seem to be able to remember all of the wrong things, and they can recite them verbatim. They just need to vary their news sources.
I think the primal, simplistic, dichotomous, angry, vengeful sound bites coming from the right are much easier to remember and recite than are the more complex, nuanced, information and ideas coming from the pre-frontal-cortex of moderate and left leaning pundits.
I consider Murdoch to be 1 of the most destructive forces in the US & world. There are rivals like Trump, Koch & Putin, but Murdoch for sure is in the Top 2 or 3.
They are "insidious and rapacious." Well, to Mr Murdock in his own mind, he is just one individual person, no different from anyone else. He has his market, and he has a right to dominate it if he can. And he does well at this. You would re-invent the news industry? Good luck, then...
Technically, he is "retired" , and a son is actually running the business? And what is this age thing about being old and feeble? Rupert is in his 90's, and still can do his 😈 evil!
He should be in prisoner along with a whole host of his “Hosts”. Trump included. These people such be a called Terrorist along with their already tagged titles or Rapist, Fascists, and racist.
They should be up on RICO charges, for lying to the public , and then telling the Court that they are actually entertainment. Any judge allowing them to get away with this. should be kicked off the bench!
I would say we should do the same thing in The United Shtaysh to "Melanie," but her morbidly obese, literally demented hubby would ENJOY that too much!
Always follow the money. That’s where you’ll discern true motivation. The Murdochs must be disappointed that their henchmen were and are all such deeply flawed individuals who can’t keep their basest desires in check. But even the drive to accumulate vast wealth is a base desire, no? And it’s all in service of the ultimate vice, which is power.
Why restrict Murdock to the "antichrist of journalism"? With the power of the media these days, those controlling it have the power to work evil in every facet of our lives.
Speaking of Rupert Murdoch. This event by the Algemeiner, must pose a dilemma considering that Putin is now supporting and being supported by Iran, which is supporting and equipping HAMAS.
From the Observer, owned by Jared Kushner, The Power Jew organization, Algemeiner, feted Ivanka, Rupert Murdoch and Putin for having a positive influence on Jewish life. Murdoch , chastised powerful American Jews for not doing enough for Israel.
Robert Alies is Murdock Roy Cohen no h of these me (Ailes and Cohen) found their mini-me’s Murdock and Trump. And if that’s not enough, both of the minis, have a family and part to carry on their criminal organizations.
The character named 'Elliot Carver' (per the James Bond movie release in 1997); 'The Simpsons' are also partially to blame (as their success made Fox a serious contender)...
Janet, I agree, we are all taught our ways of discriminating and are often not even aware that we are being discriminatory, My latest cab driver, an older white male, was complaining about being vilified just for being male. I asked him if he abused women. He said he always had the highest respect for women, When I asked then why did he feel vilified instead of siding with women against abusive men, he didn’t have an answer. I think we have come some distance, but still have a ways to go so that men and women get equal opportunities , protection, compensation, justice under the law, and respect. Old stereotypes hurt everyone on the sex/gender spectrum. I don’t think this is isn’t male vs female, but predictor vs victim. We all deserve better.
An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021. This is nearly one in every 150 people in the world.
Janet I agree some men have done horrible things to women, and our main religions and often “science”:has taught misogyny. Yet many men have fought for equality and equality for the gender/ sex spectrum, The ERA is still waiting for Congress to put it into the Constitution. But that is just a piece of the story. These teachings have also denied many boys of the opportunity to develop their full potential. They have often been shamed into acceptimg stereotypical roles that shame them if they wear pink, eat quiche, want to be the stay at home dad, want to cry, wanted to play with all the toys not just the “boy”toys, and those are just the minor subtle ways boys are discriminated against. I am 72, grew up in JaneCrow America, survived date rape at 16 and a fathers attempt to disown me because somehow I should have been able to control things but now have brought shame on the family, and a cheating husband. But I also have had the good fortune to have had male friends who experienced rape, violence and denigration. From this I learned empathy and compassion. The cab driver felt defensive because he has to often had to hear comments that include all men as the problem. Of course this hurts him, and he feels defensive. I stand by my statement, this is not men vs women. this is predictors, men or women against victims, Hurt people can either hurt others or learn from the experience that no one has the right to hurt another,no matter what their gender is.
Much as it gives me heartburn at 4:30 in the morning, thank you dear Robert for that illuminating History lesson on the POS that was Roger Ailes and the History of Fox News and their cohorts of Rush, Glenn B. etc.
I despise them all with a passion I cant put into words for the damage they've done to the peoples and Democracies here and around the world. They've supported and enabled a tyrant and have helped bring America to her knees. The non-stop lies, the gaslighting, the mismanaged covid crisis, the "state-TV" during the Trump administration, the support of the "Big Lie", I could go on and on. And on. It is beyond shameful. It should be criminal. Yet Fox is still played on Military bases around the world. Excuse my language but W.T.F.?!!!
There is a special place is hell reserved for Rupert Murdoch. Roger Ailes is waiting for him I'm sure. I'm sorry you had to deal with him at all Professor Reich. You are way too good for them anyway. They don't even pretend to be "Fair and Balanced" anymore. They just keep spewing their garbage day after day after day.
We've got a lot of work to do dear friends before November but we CAN do this!! President Biden is on the offensive and Trump is losing ground daily. He is running on a losing platform and he goes to trial in less than 3 weeks. So keep the faith everyone!!! We will 🏆 this Battle once and for all come November 5th!!! ❤️🇺🇸💙
"I despise them all with a passion I cant put into words for the damage they've done to the peoples and Democracies here and around the world. They've supported and enabled a tyrant and have helped bring America to her knees" says Lisa above. Yes, for sure.
I've recently been reading The Open Society by Karl Popper. It makes me wonder...how long an 'open society', democracy, can prevail when openly assailed, without restrictions, by this kind of attack. What is the limit to 1st amendment free speech when it undercuts democracy itself? I'm noticing this more and more in the news -- everything that is alleged in Trump's trials is challenged by his attorneys as violations of HIS freedom of speech. But what about the integrity of our democratic norms? How long can this assault endure without authoritarianism taking advantage of the democratic norms of an 'open society'? And eventually supplanting them? It keeps me awake at night...
I hear you Jacquelyn. It keeps me awake almost every night. We must win in November. We must and we will!! I think that's the biggest lesson I've learned through all of this. Democracies must be cherished and nourished. Many, including myself, were asleep at the wheel. We allowed a Demagoue to slide in. Much of it was the backlash to President Obama but the corruption began long ago. We can never allow it to happen again and big structural changes are needed.
Me, too, Jacquelyn. The underhandedness of it all really offends me as well as deeply worries me. What right does a "candidate" like Trump have to run for an office, THE office, in a democracy - when he does not abide (nor clearly respect) the foundations of a democracy? It makes me feel as if I am losing my mind. What gives here?
Laurie, the corruption - at times - feels almost overwhelming. But I refuse to be overwhelmed! I want to believe in our country, and thus I want to support the voices and people who are working to steer us to a better future. It has to be possible.
Lark ; The corruption is so widespread with laws that should provide a remedy for each crime ,being erased by the corrupt 'justices'. as things get crazier! It is daunting, and overwhelming. The darkest hour is before the dawn ?! We've got this in spite of it all! We will prevail! President Biden said "I will not walk away!"
Nice! Well said. Wish I had an answer. When you read about the history of our nation, back to when it was founded, the media and lies and innuendo were present then, and caused much damage. John Adams even sought to put a lid on it I seem to recall, but failed. Free speech. I suppose a re-introduction of the fairness doctrine in some form would be helpful. That way, a Fox News and the like would not be able to broadcast lies with impunity without also broadcasting opposing points of view equally. While this does not eliminate false claims, at least those false claims are scrutinized alongside, and the voting public gets more balanced info. Right now, a large segment of otherwise nice folks are being brainwashed to the point where they are lining up behind some pretty "un-nice" points of view. And they never hear the other side.
Under the 1st Amendment, you can basically say whatever the hell you want in this country. There’s no law against it and we’ve been witnessing this for decades. The past 8+ years of Trump lying non-stop and Fox News amplifying it is where it has become a living nightmare that we cannot wake up from. The gaslighting, the overt lies is utterly astounding. I’m outraged by it every single day. Mainstream media gives Trump airtime too and he spews his lies once more. It’s beyond the pale. I wish mainstream media would STOP giving him any airtime whatsoever. Why do they do it? It’s not “news.” He’s not illuminating is with anything of value; he’s campaigning with his fascist lunacy and they just LET HIM DO IT. They’re contributing to the death of our democracy by doing so, too. I’m so, so tired of it. Nothing makes sense anywhere. Nothing. I feel defeated and appalled and infuriated. It’s utter madness. How did we become so weak? How did such monstrous TRASH take over like this? I’m so exhausted by how little impact the DOJ and courts have and how many of them are complicit in this nightmare
Jessie ; It is incredible to me when I read about a "law" that is not even a real law ; for instance ; We have been told that the Supreme Court appointment is for " life"! It is not actually! If spreading dangerous lies to harm people, and terrorize a population, how can that be 'legal'? If there is a will there is a way. We must hold those who move the 'goalposts' accountable! We had a remedy to remove traitors from government that was removed by 6 disqualified and disabled 'Judges'! They themselves know that the very same law that they removed could have been applied to them! They overturned Roe, which was legislating from the bench, and making a law concerning religion, against the Constitution! They removed or weakened the Voting rights act ; In a Democracy! they are all 6 of them traitors! How does the Federalist Society get away with taking dirty money to stack our highest Court?!?!? We must push back against this lawlessness! A giant class action suit against these traitors! RICO case to get all those complicit!
Thanks for the link. I'll try to get back to it later, it's too complex for a superficial skim reading. But from what I saw, the ideas and philosophical views are very important and relevant to our current social and governmental status. I hope to gain some positive insight.
Popular culture has demonized journalism over the past forty-five years or so. That and the attacks on education {reducing it to job training} create a society predisposed to reject the very information citizens need to maintain their democracy, unable to evaluate and process information about the state of our world, making us more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. Perfect foils for guys like Murdoch and Ailes. [Goebels would be proud of them.}
People like Profs Reich and Richardson {and certainly others, even conservative others} toil daily to give us information and analysis to think about and BE citizens who CAN ‘keep’ our democratic republic. But we’re 350-million people. That’s a lot of people to reach with information for them to consider and act on with good reason and care.
What is needed to rebuild a modicum of trust in SOME quarter of our press? How do we stress that our education system is NOT merely job training, but is a foundational aspect of our democracy, helping citizens to know about, understand, and employ the guarantees in our Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights?
If we are paying attention — our constitution itself is currently under what seems to me to be “sneak” attack.
The SCOTUS is “interpreting” it on some faux-originalist basis, giving rise to a lot of resentment among more rational scholars. Donald J. Trump tells us it has articles that give him as President the right to “do anything he pleases.” We have a movement afoot to call a new Constitutional Convention to “fix” it, but that COULD result in rewriting the whole damned thing, throwing baby out with bathwater. It needs work, but should we come to the table to do that work with the attitude that it is fatally flawed and we’re going to revamp the whole thing? [I worry about “revamping” it theocratically, myself.]
I’m not against the guarantees of free speech, and I don’t think we need to be convinced that our “freedoms” are threatened by one of the most important of those freedoms — the right to talk to each other and disagree openly, without fear or reprisal.
You’ll notice, that’s a freedom at great risk right now, not from our government, but from among ourselves. We demand “free speech,” and then threaten to kill each other over it … Something’s seriously wrong.
{Is it our now ubiquitous mass media — television, radio, THE INTERNET — so able to bring us information every minute of every day, but also SO able to misinform and mesmerize us with manipulative messaging …?}
Our founders praised and enshrined education, freedom of information {speech and press}, and even the Post Office, to promote the spread of knowledge and communication across the breadth of our land.
Pay attention, folks! Everyone one of those is under attack. Fragmenting us and keeping us ill-informed and out-of-touch and mistrusting everything we say to each other is how the Ailes tactics work best.
We need COMMUNICATION, and we need to be able to trust information.
As a society, working on THOSE aspects of our culture are absolutely critically important to maintaining a country that in any way resembles a free one.
We must put our skills to work promoting and supporting our ability to talk to each other — disagree with each other — trusting some aspect of our media to deliver good information and context, and developing our ability to recognize the difference between BS and legitimate discourse, so we can think about our world and be citizens in it.
We now have a ubiquitous electronic media talking to use every minute of everyday with good information and terrible information, quality thinking argumentation and foolish entertaining propaganda. It’s all out there.
The forces of chaos, who would use our disarray to convince us autocracy is better than democracy, use our ubiquitous media well.
It is a Golem of a media system — able to provide us with the connectivity we need, the information we need, the ability to discuss with each other we desperately need —AND, when it goes wrong, our broadcast and Internet media can be used to confuse the hell out of us, entertain us into a stupor, and propagandize us into the arms of the likes of Trump.
Communication and promoting our people’s ability to process what we see and hear about our world — those are the absolute necessities to keeping a democracy.
We’re on it right now — writing and reading.
It’s a powerful Golem.
We need it, if we can keep it from killing us. How do we keep it from killing us without killing IT?
{Maybe somebody should write us a book on this stuff. “A Republic,
If You Can Keep It: A Treatise on How!” Any takers?}
As Thom Hartmann says today — Fascism takes over less by force and more by rhetoric. {I figure the force comes later, when they have the “hearts and minds.”}
Pat Goudey OBrien : I tend to stay in touch with sources of information that I can trust. Who have a 'track record' . Like Robert Reich, and some online podcasts and other sources.. certain magazines wth a history of truthfulness.. Certain news shows. Authors. And their books. It takes effort. We must pay attention, like you said.
I have trusted sources, too, and Prof. Reich is certainly one, though I will double check even him. Just because, when talking to someone, I want to know I am not merely “in the bag” for the Left, but actually thinking about the events and trends in our country … {But, I am seriously on the Left.}
People who read Robert, and people who COMMENT, are already engaged. A great many of us have vetted our sources and can turn to places we trust.
Our country-folk, the great masses who are not all inclined to lengthy reading {OR writing — mea culpa} are being CONVINCED that no sources can be trusted. And that the press is ALL as venal as it’s presented in about every movie or TV show that includes a nosy, nasty, secret-revealing reporter … They are encouraged to believe one voice — and that voice becomes a cult leader, and that’s REALLY hard to counteract.
When Donald started in with his “fake news,” he built on an existing worry about the press to get us where we are now — massive distrust, coupled with a tendency to silo, AND for those who have not been encouraged to do critical thinking, into cult behavior.
It worries me that free and broad communication — the heart and soul of even BEING a society — is under attack. The more info we have, the narrower the band that some listen to.
Most people don’t want a lecture, anyway.
I tend to see how something is NOT working. Who has a skill for finding the fix?
How to build community again in America.
{I seriously don’t want to believe we are just too big. I f-ing don’t want to think we’re doomed.}
Pat Goudey O'Brien ; I am heartened when I see on You tube, Sheldon Whitehouse explaining to Lawrence O' Donnell his latest challenge to those who are rarely or never challenged in High Places ; like the Supreme Court!, I see that Fani Willis is going to continue the RICO prosecution in spite of the challenges thrown at her. I openly wished for the RICO case against the organized crime syndicate that is tRUMP and his mobster lawyers! It is happening! Some of them are Losing their law licenses! As our President has said "This is the United States of America!" We've got this!
Maybe the judge who recently placed a limited gag order will put him in jail before any harm comes to his daughter, who has been threatened. Threats are not free speech! Lies are not free speech either! Inciting violence is not free speech either! Nor is repeatedly defaming someone! He should not be out on bail! With a megaphone lying to the public!
BUT, all kinds of misinformation that is consequential and in some way actionable — libels and defamations and incitements and misdirecting people’s behaviors … there are caveats.
It’s so damned complicated …
Trump lying to the pubic to incite treason — !!!!!! — he needs to be locked up.
Freedom without responsibility is unsustainable. Roger Ailes is dead, but the Murdochs are still poisoning minds, and there are thousands like them on social media. Reason cannot for long withstand this on-slough of malice and fearmongering. Our Constitution, and freedom everywhere are in peril.
one would not need much proof to convince any old jury that a speech by some long haired hippie, troublesome talk show host, or candidate for Congress "undercuts democracy itself" --- and that is why their right to free speech had to be guarenteed in the Constitution.
I think comparisons with Goebbels are not terribly far off the mark. Poisoning a nation for profit is not much worse than ideological evil. But, as the Dude might say, that's just my opinion, man.
Ailes may be dead and gone, but IMHO Fox et al must be probed whether they knew or had reason to know there would be violence on Jan 6, 2021, and if so, why haven't they been joined for contributing to damages in the 5 civil suits?
Ailes sexually harassed my friend in High School. We hung out at KYW- TV at the Tom Synder Show - and it was in Philadelphia. My friend came forward to Gretchen’s lawyer, and one newspaper wrote of her horrible experience in Ailes office at KYW-TV. For years I have been exposing him. I called producers when he was interviewed on TV. I met with tv Pioneer Jack Rhodes who was well aware of what Roger Ailes had been up to for years. Many knew. What stills makes me sick is that Ailes was paid when he left FOX. It was wrong as is the arbitration clause in the contract that prevented the case from going to trial.
Thank you, Robert. The Republicans, GOP, MAGA, Conservatives - however they manifest around the world - are saturated with the worst of human behaviour and appetites. Ailes and Murdoch are two examples of the utterly despicable corruption that can be expressed in "human" beings.
The sick monster Rupert Murdoch (especially amplified by Ailes) has done more to destroy civilisation than anyone since Hitler and Stalin. All for money and ego.
Aides was nothing but a bully scumbag! A despicable disgusting deplorable and what he did to their viewers should have been criminal! Praying the next lawsuit will be the end of Faux News for ever! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 remember their FCC license is for ENTERTAINMENT, …not news! And should be revoked!
Amazing bit of history, Prof. Reich. Thank you. Let me pick one little bit of legume from your rich (reich?) plate. You say: "In the 1980s, Ailes’s politics grew more conservative, along with those of the Republican Party." I choose not to call the repugnicants 'conservative.' To me, conservative means people who want to keep things as they are. To me, the repugnicants and their magabrains and other camp followers are RADICALS, and dangerous at that. Nobody did more to harm the word 'liberal' than drug addict Rush Limbaugh (who admitted scouring the streets at night looking for another illegal Oxycontin fix when his drug dealers failed to come through). Rush Limbaugh turned 'liberal' into a hate word for simple magabrains, just as (actually the vast majority of US citizens) are trained to become violent when you even mention the word socialism. Civilized, humane health care is 'evil socialism.' Wrong, it is a basic human right. Our national corporate for profit wealth-care mafia is a crime against humanity. It's like slavery in the old South: most people seem to buy into it. We are the only industrialized nation where the wealth scare mafia robs millions of their pensions and savings, and bankrupts millions, while actually causing many thousands of bad medical outcomes including death (murder). The point of my comment ultimately is that words are what we make of them. Going back, as I often do, to the morays (morae) of the ancient Romans in their long-successful republic and (with some twists and turns) democracy... what counts is CENTRISM and MODERATION. A great example is that after the Romans expelled their last king (Tarquin the Arrogant) in 509 BCE, they set up a complex system that included magistrates and lesser civil servants. Every office but one had two men assigned, who had the power to veto each other. That meant theoretically that no man (it was all men, sorry ladies) could be utterly corrupt and run away with the show. Oops, except for one provision: the office of dictator. The city of Cincinnati, Ohio is named for the legendary Cincinnatus, a simple farmer who was ploughing his field, when a delegation from the Senate arrived and informed him that he had been chosen Dictator in a national emergency to defeat some of Rome's many deadly early enemies. Accordingly, Cincinnatus went to the city (Rome), put on his plumed helmet, and led an army out to defeat the enemy. He then immediately put his plumed hat aside, went back to his field, and resumed plowing as a simple and humble farmer. That is one example of many of the parables told by the early Romans to explain their morae (the ways of the ancestors) that drove their sense of morality. One can argue all day, but our Founding and Framing Fathers in the 1700s CE adored this stuff and made many of our institutions an echo of the world's longest-lasting democracy. Oh yes, and then doom struck. The office of dictator was supposed to be tightly controlled by the Senate, and not last more than six months at most, or as long as the job got done (see: Cincinnatus). But, as always, human corruption seeped in, including the greed and ruthlessness of the very wealthy, and in 46 BCE, a dictator was sworn in named Julius Caesar, who manipulated his allies to name him Dictator for life. The (ahem) conservatives in the Senate, led by Brutus and Cassius (see the play by Shakespeare) stabbed Julius Ceasar to death in the Senate (temporarily Theater of Pompey, because a mob of stupid, crazy magaheads burned the existing Curia of the Senate to the ground a few years earlier in a rage over a murder gone wrong between two mobs of gladiators on a nearby post road). By then the damage was done. Another in a series of civil wars ensued, and peace was restored (sort of) by the tyrant Octavian (Augustus Caesar, the nephew and adoptive son of Julius Caesar). The year 31 marks the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium and signals the start of more than half a millennium of 'empire.' So who were the conservatives in all that? The mob who burned down the Senate Curia? or the Senators who murdered Julius Caesar in an effort to end his dictator for life status and return to the annual (yes, every year!) elections for all the twosies (two guys on every job). That's from the top down, two consuls (like two U.S. Presidents), two praetors, two... you name it. Do you see the same echoes here that I do? LIke the burning of the Senate Curia (building) as compared with the attempt by maga-brains to destroy the U.S. Capitol building (named after the Capitolium in ancient Rome)? Ultimately, no radical can be called either conservative, or liberal, or socialist, or capitalist. In the middle (moderate center) is where we need to govern or be governed. That is why we have two senators from each state, I am sure. When I first learned the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' in high school, the context was about the U.S. Constitution, and those appointed to preserve. Conservatives were to be more about strict constructionism, whereas liberals could kinda, sorta stretch the words of 1787 a little bit (but never too much). The far right (far wrong) are so far to the right that they think the moderate center (reasonable people) are "far left." Let's get our words straight so that we can think straight. Sheep Heil! JTC
Exactly!! I've thought about that a lot over the last few years. When did "Liberal" get to be such an ugly word?! It actually means generous among other things. We have demonized each other so badly but Fox and the right have been the primary culprits. Your History lesson of the Roman Empire was fascinating too. Thanks!!
Thanks, Lisa. We should think of 'far right' as 'far wrong.' Please note: most of my history tends to be about the Roman Republic (not empire). Important distinction. Even through the empire, as we call it, 31BCE to about 476 CE, the Romans still thought of themselves as a republic. That's why the legions marched behind a banner that read SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus, or The Senate and the People of Rome. Sorry, I don't mean to lecture... it's fun. Imagine if they marched behind banners like Caligula or Nero or Elagabalus. Or, like in the two great movies (The Fall of the Roman Empire, 1974 and in 2000 Gladiator), Commodus became sole emperor in 180 CE which marks the end of the 'good emperors' as Edward Gibbon called them in his monumental 6 volume history "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (vol 1 in 1776, last volume in 1789). Some of us really enjoy this stuff, eh? Like sipping history, kind of ... thank you! John
Roger Ailes came up with the tactic of attacking strengths. He was beind the Swift Boat that took down John Kerry, behind the attack on Max Cleland who had lost legs and an arm in Vietnam, calling him a coward because he opposed Dubya's criminal invasion of Iraq.
Ilberal became an epithet and it started in the south after the Civil Rights and Voting rights act. Red necked racists considered themselves conservatives and wanted to preserve their "natural order of things" where darkies were kept in their place, and it was them trouble making Yankee liberals that were messing up everything "great about America", and so Trump promised to make America great again.
have mastered the Goebellian tactics of using Orwellian language, of turning a positive into a negative and it was picked up by right wing talk radio (Rush Limbaugh)and Fox (Hannity, Carlson, etc).
The fascists and communists of the 1930s hated liberals, because liberalism opposes violent revolution. Many of Trump's supporters despise liberals for the same reason.
Michael: Reagan was a conservative, and it is a logical progression from Reaganism to Trumpism. in fact the modern "Republican" (Trump party, still backs the same agenda as Reagan,only now it blatantly includes theocratic, racist, phobic, culture war.
Today's Republicans are the rightful heirs, children and grandchildren of Reagan.
What I have been advocating for quite a while is that the idea of a president with massive executive powers is very unwise. Most of the dictatorships in the world are "presidential republics."
Two models that are long in existence and may provide some ideas are the Swiss Federal Council (started in 1848 with democracy reforms) and the EU Commission (started in 1951). Switzerland has 7 on its Federal Council--probably a bit too few-- and the EU has 27 members--probably too many.
Both institutions have fairly frequent rotations of positions such as the president. They both thus avoid a dictatorial concentration of power with their structures.
The EU Commission model would be a good place to start and base the executive then on heads of multi-state regions rather than vest powers in a single person.
Mapping that to the U.S. might mean something like 13 regions (similar to the U.S. Courts of Appeal) that each elect a council member in time staggered periodic elections. Obviously some work to do to get to this type of shared governance model.
Thanks, Doug. Interesting idea; just a little dangerous in that for example Major Failure Neanderthal is one of many red staters once again (as always) advocating for splitting the USA up.... some good ideas have unintended consequences, so I'd be careful; as with my idea following: ... my biggest concern at this time is that the Supreme Court depends on a political process involving the other two branches. I have been wondering if (maybe?) it would be better to leave the Slimy Mitch types out (he rewrote the Constitution by denying Barack Obama his moderate nominee Merrick Garland based on dishonest nonsense favoring the corrupt corporate servants that got in). Rather, I wonder if the community of judges, various districts, should somehow create a regular, revolving list of top judges who sit for one year or two, and then fade back into the multitude. We are saddled with a system in which (a) the justices are elected by politicians and (b) the composition of the Supreme Court depends on which party happens to control Congress at the time and (c) we have the longevity issue; justices serving for 20 years or more. No human system is perfect, so we have to stick with centrism and moderation.//jtc
Germany has an interesting approach to its highest federal court. It has two "senates" of 8 members each. The would be called "panels" in U.S. speak. Getting to this type of number would require expanding the Court, which is a must.
The justices in Germany are appointed for 12 year terms without renewal. That could be done in the U.S. system as well with a statutory "term of office" where the time on the Supreme Court bench is limited. Afterwards, the lifetime appointment would be served elsewhere in the Federal system.
These reforms all are possible if we have a Congress and President willing to push them and take on the flack from the rightwing.
Dr. Doug: as I understand it from history, we (Allies) created a new constitution for the Germans after WW2, same as the Allies did after WW1 (Weimar). My point is that in effect, if we did it for the Germans, and it seems to work...why can't we brush up our 237 year old structure (carefully, with a cautious amendment or two). We must be careful! To wit: I wrote a political thriller in 1992 titled CON2: The Generals of October, which details a complex plot by cynical politicians, greedy billionaires, sinister generals, and other scary parties to take over the United States in a staged ploy involving a Second Constitutional Convention. Sound familiar? After the J6 as some now seem to be calling the insurrection of 06 Jan 2021, I immediately re-released it under a new title: Washington Under Siege: Autumn of the Republic. I had no idea in 1992 that I could well be foretelling a dark future event. My main inspirations at the time were (above all) Seven Days in May (novel by Knebel/Pratt; movie screenplay by Rod Serling); also The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, and a few other inspirations. Against a very complex, symphonic, dark story line, I wrote two strong protagonists (David Gordon and Victoria 'Tory' Breen) as two young Army officers solving the plot, plus their close friend, an at first addled-seeming Southern nurse (U.S. Army Captain Maxine Lee Bodley, or Maxie) who emerges at the end as the strongest of all characters in the novel. The novel is a possible scenario and should warn us against any radical adventures involving our national treasure. I think we avoided isolationism (a corporate republican village idiot impulse after WW1) and for a time became leaders (rulers, almost) of the Free World. The Reaganists have all but dismantled that by now after 44 years of privatization and anarchism designed to promote korporate profits ueber alles. JTC P.S. www.johntcullen.com read free chapters.
John—I absolutely agree that whatever is done to “Fix the Courts” should be incremental rather than revolutionary. The latter just plays into the hands of the Right-Wing think tanks, which have been cooking up ideas that work for the 0.01% but not the general public.
For that reason, everything I have proposed can be done by Congress. Of course, the first step in having a trifecta and the second step is removing the filibuster from governance bills.
Dr Doug, it would require not only a Democratic House, but 60 votes in the Senate. Each state has two senators
There are 26 Solid Red States there are five states with splits Republican/Democrat/Independent. So 57 Republicans in all.
There are 13Democratic Senatorial Seats up for re election and 20 Republican Unless a miracle occurs and the Democrats hold on to the 13 and pick up 9 seats from the Republicans ( 4 and a half states), the chance of getting 60 Democratic or Independent Caucus leaning Senators is slim
The Current make up is 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats and three independents that caucus with the Democrats.
We are losing two this year, Manchin and Sinema. West Virginia will go Republican making it 49/49, Arizona (Sinema) is up in the air
Testor of Montana is up for re election and Montana is red. We need a miracle to keep him, even though he is a red dog Democrat.
Tough hall, and it looks like a Trump wave. I sure hope the polls are wrong, they were wrong in 2016, 2020 and 2022.
I think we should have second thoughts about the complaint that Mitch denied Obama his SCOTUS nominee, considering that Garland is from his resume and his inactions and action (the documents trial), a fifth columnist, the fox in the henhouse.
Obama wanted a win so badly, that he asked Orrin Hatch R-UT, at the time the most right wing Senator, who he thought could get Republican votes in the Senate. Hatch recommended a man who had been a Federalist Society member, Merrick Garland.
Garland was not going to prosecute anyone for Jan 6 until embarrassed and prodded by his peers and media. Yet he only prosecute the pawns, and even then most got a slap on the wrist. The real conspirators in Congress have never been prosecuted (The Freedom Caucus), Matt Gaetz has been investigated by the FBI for breaking Federal Law, but Garland hasn't prosecuted him either.
Garland used a phony excuse to move the documents case to Florida, that is where the crime occurred, a lie, because it occurred in DC when Waltine Nauta loaded the documents onto a Van for transport to the airport. The moment the documents left the grounds of the White House, the crime occurred, want to quibble on that, then the moment the documents were loaded on the plane.
Then Garland fixed it for Trump by appointing Aileen Cannon as Judge, his excuse was the wheel (named for wheel of fortune), just an excuse,
He jumped at the chance to appoint a special counsel to prosecute Hunter Biden, but has ignored the greater crimes of Ivanka and Jr.
Now imagine this right winger sitting in SCOTUS, and how difficult it would be for the Democrats to take action or complain about an Obama appointee.
I recall Rupert Murdoch stating categorically that Donald Trump was absolutely unfit to be re elected POTUS again. I wonder where that voice is now, now that the American public could use hearing that?
also recall other conservative voices, such as Lindsey Graham saying they were all done with him and Mitch McConnell saying Trump was absolutely responsible for the attack on the Capital.
Voices strangely silent now.
Even more strange is the silence of Democrats who seem too gutless to seek to hold Republicans to their word. What a shame if the gutlessness of Democrats is what costs us our Democracy. Is this the best a two party system can offer us?
I think the Democrats are biding their time. We all know of at least a few hundred GOP politicians that were up to their necks in insurrection, and if we can pull off the trifecta in Novemeber, we may be able to rid ourself of at least half of them.
Agreed, but as it stands, all a third party will do is elect Republicans by taking votes from Democrats.
Third parties took enough votes to make Bush the winner, and to make Trump the winner.
Swing states are the key. Georgia is an anomaly, the Republican legislatures in GA, NC, and VA.. which were swing states, have enacted voter suppression laws and Gerrymandering that negate Democratic votes.
There are only five swing states, AZ, NV, PA, MI, WI
So that is another man I am learning is responsible for the crap the republicans are throwing in our faces now. This man obviously had some severe mental issues based on an abusive childhood. Hearst and Pulitzer started what back then was called yellow journalism by using sensationalized news and glaring features in a competition to sell more newspapers. Journalists discovered that the more brazen and horrific the story, the more papers they could sell. It continues today with Fox News, News Max, and others. "Normal" Americans call it alternative media which in essence are stories without evidence or facts. Many right-wing Americans view them as the gospel. I always put my faith in Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Harry Reasoner, and others like them. They simply reported the news the way it actually was. The fact that this man was a cruel, obnoxious bully isn't even what makes me the sickest. What makes me sick is that he touted being a conservative which tried to sell America on straight-laced ethics and morality while he sexually assaulted women in his glass tower!! Republicans honestly think that Americans can't see how debased their party has become!
Peggy, you’ve got what Prof. Reich is telling us. Underlying the Tragedy Prof Reich reveals as he peels back the tangled history of these powerful, destructive creatures, is the Real, driving unconscious motive, an All too common Pattern of Origin: rampant, Vicious Child Abuse. All too common in our society. “Spare the rod, spoil the child, proper male, female roles, being punished if you don’t obey….Much of these issues, are underlying all the political issues,
divisions, and prominent figures.
Roger Ailes’ Father Violently Beat him, emotionally & verbally abusing him and his cowering mother, a mere sex object. Treated more like slaves, than cherished wife and child. Traumatized, warped by fear into blind rage of hatred, he was a bloated cauldron of inner conflict projected onto his female hires, his male broadcasters. Preferred and promoted political candidates, for those with eyes that see, ears that hear, wisely. Naturally, voters aren’t psychiatrists, psychologists, nor should we expect, nor need to be, however here we are. Taking seriously those like Richard Reich, informing with truth.
Laurie, these so-called "boys" need to grow up and face reality. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever to justify the way these "boys" demean women!! This locker room talk they say is inconsequential will lead them to re-examine it after the elections. No woman in her right mind would vote for these "boys"; instead, they'll vote for a man that supports and defends their rights.
Peggy: yes! It's overdue! I remember early in tRump's term, when the "news" was actually printing exhortations made by idiots saying " come on : give him time!". 🙄 A president who is properly qualified /vetted should not need time to do the job the way it should be done! He had a cabinet and advisors who could guide him. Until he replaced them with idiots and criminals!
Exactly!! "Guy talk" my a@@!! My one and only remaining fairly modérate (If there is such a thing) family MAGA friend left tried to tell me that a couple of days ago. Just "Guy talk". Plus we shouldn't have been eavesdropping anyway. Right. So I asked him If it were Ok If I just come over there and grabbed his D@'€K?! Surely he wouldn't mind. It was just "talk right?! Everyone does it!! When you're a star they let you do it. They let you get away with anything". Guy Talk. BS!!
I'm sorry but I just don't believe all civilized men talk that way. And I KNOW women don't. Not crossing the line into assault. My point is friends they WILL keep making excuses for him for anything and everything all the up to the WSJ and beyond. W.T.F. ?!!!
"guy talk" knows few political persuasion/education level/professional lines. Former President Clinton had a "keep in his pants" problem or a "keep his hands off young interns" problem. Perhaps Prof. R (whom I appreciate & rely upon for accurate & thoughtful remarks on topics I'm trying to understand) will understand that some might call him to task - ?Did you mean to say that you wouldn't ctiticize your friend who gave you a job on that platform but knew how important it was to pull him aside privately? Did you mean to share that although many men & women wouldn't have spoken up in the day of "Bimbo Eruptions" because we knew no better - it's time to do so now? No leaders should be above reproach. Whether Bill & the crime bill or Obama & $$ or Joe & the supreme court (i refer to the "Clarence Thomas problem" or was it just guy talk yet again). How one thinks of & refers to half the population matters - indeed lays the foundation for a respectful education system & public discourse. If we are trying to communicate with #45ites, Republicans, conservatives, Democrats, liberals - whoever - it starts at how do we communicate with or neighbors, coworkers & family? What do we model for our kids? No Professor, Doing your brother a solid means pulling him up & helping him do better. And maybe publicly reaching out to the sister involved.
Your family friend would love it, if you grabbed his dick, and some women like it when a rich and famous man grab their pussy. Did you see the photo of that Trump humping woman, in a T shirt with an arrow pointing to her crotch and the words Trump can grab me here.
Look at all of the arm candy, this fat, balding, zero's like Trump have as wives and girlfriends. Melanie, Mnuchins wives, Melania, all of them. No different than a prostitute. A prostitute has sex with thousands of men, these women only have to have sex with one man, maybe a hundred times if that, and the job is safer, cleaner and they live in luxury, not street corners with a pimp or as a call girl showing up in strange hotel rooms.
I disagree with the first part Lee and agree with the second. 😆 I don't think Matt would like it if I did grab him. Because I would be forceful!! Plus we have known each other too long and it would ruin our friendship. But you're right in the second section. It's basically prostitution at the highest level. I just shiver at the thought of sex with the Orange souless blob. EWWWW. Least he's good for a laugh on this Good Friday. Forgive us Lord. 🙏🏻🌸 That's about all he's good for!! 😆 No redeeming qualities whatsoever. God knows I've spent 9 years trying to find some. Still looking. No, I gave up a long time ago.
Sing it, Lisa! Don't hold back! I can tell this is somewhat of a sore point with you and I understand it completely. The men I am acquainted with find that particular kind of talk repulsive. They do not denigrate women even in a "locker room" setting!! I appreciate them because they treat me with respect. Don't let these idiot "boys" make you think there are not really good men out there who believe women are their equals.
Peggy you have never been in a men's locker room, not when there are no women around.
Here is the real world. When in the field, on the field, jawboning, the conversation is about women and sex. As an Air Force loadmaster told me, when in the air it is all about women and sex, but on the ground and in the clubs it is all about the job.
Camaraderie requires a subject in which all can partake. That is sex, sports, the job. Religion, politics, philosphy are taboo or too highbrow and esoteric.
Women have an idealized, not realistic, idea of what men do and think, because that is what they hope and want their boyfriend, husband, father and son to do.
Thank you for your comment, Lee. No, I have never been in a men's locker room. If women are discussed, that type of conversation should stay in the locker room. When those comments and ideas about women come out of the locker room and are used on women, that is where the problem begins. Camaraderie is great and as you say, all can partake, but you also need to understand that people like trump and others that "partake" in that kind of talk don't understand that it should remain in the locker room! They bring it out and discuss openly and wonder why it is offensive to women! They have a perverse idea that women actually want to be treated that way. A woman's idea of what men do and think is her own personal ideas about the man she would like to spend her life with. I don't feel it is 'idealized', I feel it is exactly what they want from their boyfriend, husband, father or son.
Thank you Peggy. I appreciate that. As a sexual assault survivor myself I just believe there is a line you don't cross without consent. Period. Talk is one thing. And that was bad enough. Degrading even. Touching or grabbing without consent is not acceptable in any circumstance. Plus I had to get graphic with my friend to make my point. Sorry if that was TMI. 😆
Fox is worse now. I accidentally saw it on tv last night. Some woman was saying how disgusting that event was with Obama, Clinton and Biden had. Then she had Trump at the memorial for the slain policeman on Long Island. They invited him and he went. Fox had him on for a long time while he spouted how disgusting the USA had become and when he becomes president it won’t be like that anymore. It made me sick. The pro Palestinians outside Radio City also made me sick.
Yea that's quite nauseating. What else is new at Fox? The 3 of them together is so fabulous!! I got to see Biden, Obama and Nancy Pelosi on our first Democrat Organizing Call of the year when we celebrated 14 years of the ACA last Saturday. That was pretty cool!! 100s of 1000's of men and women from all over the Country Live chatting and then Streaming those 3 getting us Fired Up and ready to go for the next 7 months!! It was wonderful!!!
At least the Palestinians are fighting for a real Cause. Their very own State and Survival. I can understand that. They're in between a rock and a very hard place. My heart breaks for all of them. War is HELL. Pretty much. 💔😪 I do agree Bibi is a Mini-Trump and needs to Go. The sooner the better.
What Trump will never ever acknowledge is that America 🇺🇸 is already great!! Yes it has problems. Everyone does. But it is still the best place in the entire World. He is a loser with a losing message and he is going to LOSE big time in November!!! Right kids?!!!! Who's with me?!! 💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸
Trump went to the wake of that poor officer and I am sure that he was gracious and kind. What he said afterwards was his usual spiel on Fox and the wake became some political football. Neither gracious or kind. I was not at that affair that raised $25 million dollars but it must have been fascinating and involved months of planning. The Great World spins and 2 events collide and the protestors arrive with their single cause and we watch on TV. Will November ever arrive ?
Amen Robert. Great read. Your first paragraph… “Fox News has released more poison into the groundwater of the American mind than any other contaminator. Indeed, Donald Trump would be less toxic if his effluence weren’t leached through Fox’s cesspool before bubbling up in millions of American homes,” hits home hard. I routinely bring up The Fox (not news, for it is not) as the single most destructive force in the civilized history of humankind. It’s minute by minute toxic spew by one gaslit, gaslighting liar after another into America’s airwaves has exponentially dumbed down the IQ-challenged and spread an oily, black, sulfuric residue across our land. This residue of dis and misinformation, conspiracy as fact and hateful intolerance has rotted the collective mind of Americans. From overseas, we are seen with ever-deepening concern for our growing collective ignorance, heartlessness, intolerance, inequity and dumbed down embrace of authoritarianism.
Absent my Bluenami dream —giant crashing November blue wave— from “the secret Biden voter,” (the many who won’t engage with hate and stupidity, don’t don bumper stickers or yard signs and step away from loud Trumplers), without that Bluenami, lady liberty she sinks beneath the inky black waters lapping at her shores. For 10+ years, the ever-darkening and stronger waves overcoming her and our precious, imperfect experiment in democracy.
Am sorriest to our next gens for evil brew of humanity we pass to them - planet on fire, vivid intolerance and ignorance, goodness losing to evil, lies are truth, unconscionable debt levels thanks to borrow & spend GOP liars (contrast with Dems: tax the rich & spend), human rights in retreat, stunning wealth inequality, and a sociopathic billionaire donor class laser focused on their corrupt pursuit of power and money.
And then there’s Trumpler winking at fellow dictators, salivating for return to Oval; why are we still tolerating this oily-orange, pathologically lying sociopath?
Three traitors to American values, Trump, Ailes and Murdoch. Trump will hopefully go to jail with his wealth significantly reduced. Ailes is disgraced and dead. Although he has poisoned the press and the public in Australia, the UK and America Murdoch remains rich and safe. Let’s start thinking about how and where to give Murdoch his due. But first let’s take care of Trump.
A very gut wrenching piece to read, Robert. Having grown up in the area just south of Warren, Ohio, I understand what happened to him. Ailes was a product of cruelty and became cruel, and was further fueled by the unfettered greed of Murdoch and our truly runaway capitalism. I had forgotten he was from Ohio. Frankly, I had forgotten him. When I think about how a child, and probably one with a great future potential for good, came to become this bully, it makes me urge all the more that truly good hearted people run for office. You are needed for every office in our great land. Not just in foreign policy, but in the county offices where children are served, and empathy is so needed. These are where the safety nets exist, but somehow failed Roger Ailes, as did his parents.
And look at our President. He grew up in modest circumstances, but with love and no beatings. I’m incredibly grateful for Joe Biden, a decent, of course imperfect human.
I've lost 3 close friends who I knew since childhood thanks to Fox news. The all 3 got involved in the hate and vitriol that is Fox news and became people I no longer knew. I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to watch the documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad". It opened my eyes to what exactly happened to these now ex-friends.
Brainwashing of my Dad is on Youtube Pennie. I divorced my family for the same reason, bonus is I don't have to spend money, time and risk air travel for the holidays, not to mention the money I don't waste on presents and bail me out of my 2nd mortgage plea.
The Civil war was a brother war, WWIK was a cousin war (The Tsar, Kaiser and King all shared Victoria as a grandmother.
Whatever Ailes was, Rush Limbaugh, was, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump are - remember who helped enable them, empower them, and give them credibility. I certainly see Rupert Murdoch on the scene. I call him "the antichrist of journalism" and that's exactly what he was and is.
In Australia, a couple of our previous PM's (from each opposing party) are advocating for a Royal Commission into the practices of the Murdoch empire. Their insidiousness & rapacious appetite, represent the single most destructive threat to global democracy. Unfortunately, what they have done to the US, they have done in the UK & Australia, a literal wake of destruction, all in pursuit of a profit!
A Ellis-Dunn- what Ailes and those like him covet is the power to control people, and control of people makes for more power. It’s a circle of rapacious feeding that brings with it a false security. These are needy people who take what they believe they need by manipulation. He knew what brought people to heel as does Murdoch.
Profit is just a byproduct and an enablement for more power.
Which comes first money or power? My guess, they are inseparable.
I agree. Because to the average Joe, money represents access to goods and services and can therefore be used as a leverage to get people to do whatever those dangling the dollars (or yen, or euros, or drachmas, or whatever) want them to do. It is called dollar dictatorship and it prevails throughout the world.
And the gullibility of the consumers who enable those. I originally thought of them as stupid, but they seem to be able to remember all of the wrong things, and they can recite them verbatim. They just need to vary their news sources.
I think the primal, simplistic, dichotomous, angry, vengeful sound bites coming from the right are much easier to remember and recite than are the more complex, nuanced, information and ideas coming from the pre-frontal-cortex of moderate and left leaning pundits.
They, I.e. typical trump supporter feel in some way belittled and want revenge.
Judging from the many far right replies I've gotten over the last 2 days, they are also feral.
I consider Murdoch to be 1 of the most destructive forces in the US & world. There are rivals like Trump, Koch & Putin, but Murdoch for sure is in the Top 2 or 3.
Totally agree Jaime!
Include Newt Gingrich who started these the decline by use of schoolyard taunts and smears.
This sounds like: "paranoid"
They are "insidious and rapacious." Well, to Mr Murdock in his own mind, he is just one individual person, no different from anyone else. He has his market, and he has a right to dominate it if he can. And he does well at this. You would re-invent the news industry? Good luck, then...
I think he should be denaturalized and sent back to Australia. He is one immigrant we really don't need.
You're too kind, Carolyn. He should be boiled in oil.
Boiling in oil would make him a hero.
Besides, deportation avoids wasting a barrel of refined oil. Now...there's always crude oil... !
At least tarred and feathered.
Technically, he is "retired" , and a son is actually running the business? And what is this age thing about being old and feeble? Rupert is in his 90's, and still can do his 😈 evil!
The spawn of a pig-fucker . . .
Sadly, what remained of an abused child!
He should be in prisoner along with a whole host of his “Hosts”. Trump included. These people such be a called Terrorist along with their already tagged titles or Rapist, Fascists, and racist.
They should be up on RICO charges, for lying to the public , and then telling the Court that they are actually entertainment. Any judge allowing them to get away with this. should be kicked off the bench!
I would say we should do the same thing in The United Shtaysh to "Melanie," but her morbidly obese, literally demented hubby would ENJOY that too much!
The singer of "Lay Down, Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" & "Brand New Key" who recently passed away?
Oh, no, you mean Trump's current wife. For me, she's irrelevant. She does put the lie to Trump's hypocritical attacks on immigrants though.
🙋♂️ I'm in favor!
Yes: deport him!
Except the Australians don't want him, believe me! On the other hand, he has lots in common with Putin.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍👍😎
Always follow the money. That’s where you’ll discern true motivation. The Murdochs must be disappointed that their henchmen were and are all such deeply flawed individuals who can’t keep their basest desires in check. But even the drive to accumulate vast wealth is a base desire, no? And it’s all in service of the ultimate vice, which is power.
Agree..follow the money. But who hired such men? Who set the tone in the office?
It all comes down to Rupert Murdoch.
Not a reply. Just a bit of obliquely relevant fun:
- COMRADE TRUMPSKI REPORTS TO PUTIN:
https://youtu.be/0kAIEKBV5qQ?si=Z6GWxQmVIXGNDjF_
Why restrict Murdock to the "antichrist of journalism"? With the power of the media these days, those controlling it have the power to work evil in every facet of our lives.
Speaking of Rupert Murdoch. This event by the Algemeiner, must pose a dilemma considering that Putin is now supporting and being supported by Iran, which is supporting and equipping HAMAS.
From the Observer, owned by Jared Kushner, The Power Jew organization, Algemeiner, feted Ivanka, Rupert Murdoch and Putin for having a positive influence on Jewish life. Murdoch , chastised powerful American Jews for not doing enough for Israel.
Why Putin was feted is unknown,
https://observer.com/2016/03/algemeiner-celebrates-power-jews-at-packed-manhattan-gala/
With friends like these who needs enemies?
Robert Alies is Murdock Roy Cohen no h of these me (Ailes and Cohen) found their mini-me’s Murdock and Trump. And if that’s not enough, both of the minis, have a family and part to carry on their criminal organizations.
But you would consign all the conservatives to the outer realm or worse, that isn't practical at all. Not likely.
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/714-tomorrow-never-dies
The character named 'Elliot Carver' (per the James Bond movie release in 1997); 'The Simpsons' are also partially to blame (as their success made Fox a serious contender)...
Murdoch Murdoch Murdoch. Did I make my point!!!!
As burkas make driving difficult...how about a male version of a chastity belt. I envision a
re purposed dog choke chain.
But traits - look to his father - pass on and pass down
Janet, I agree, we are all taught our ways of discriminating and are often not even aware that we are being discriminatory, My latest cab driver, an older white male, was complaining about being vilified just for being male. I asked him if he abused women. He said he always had the highest respect for women, When I asked then why did he feel vilified instead of siding with women against abusive men, he didn’t have an answer. I think we have come some distance, but still have a ways to go so that men and women get equal opportunities , protection, compensation, justice under the law, and respect. Old stereotypes hurt everyone on the sex/gender spectrum. I don’t think this is isn’t male vs female, but predictor vs victim. We all deserve better.
https://mankind.org.uk/statistics/statistics-on-male-victims-of-domestic-abuse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_by_gender#:~:text=Rape%20of%20males,-Main%20article%3A%20Rape&text=A%20CDC%20study%20found%20that,an%20intimate%20partner%20or%20acquaintance.
An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021. This is nearly one in every 150 people in the world.
Janet I agree some men have done horrible things to women, and our main religions and often “science”:has taught misogyny. Yet many men have fought for equality and equality for the gender/ sex spectrum, The ERA is still waiting for Congress to put it into the Constitution. But that is just a piece of the story. These teachings have also denied many boys of the opportunity to develop their full potential. They have often been shamed into acceptimg stereotypical roles that shame them if they wear pink, eat quiche, want to be the stay at home dad, want to cry, wanted to play with all the toys not just the “boy”toys, and those are just the minor subtle ways boys are discriminated against. I am 72, grew up in JaneCrow America, survived date rape at 16 and a fathers attempt to disown me because somehow I should have been able to control things but now have brought shame on the family, and a cheating husband. But I also have had the good fortune to have had male friends who experienced rape, violence and denigration. From this I learned empathy and compassion. The cab driver felt defensive because he has to often had to hear comments that include all men as the problem. Of course this hurts him, and he feels defensive. I stand by my statement, this is not men vs women. this is predictors, men or women against victims, Hurt people can either hurt others or learn from the experience that no one has the right to hurt another,no matter what their gender is.
sorry you are so closed minded to the suffering of others
Much as it gives me heartburn at 4:30 in the morning, thank you dear Robert for that illuminating History lesson on the POS that was Roger Ailes and the History of Fox News and their cohorts of Rush, Glenn B. etc.
I despise them all with a passion I cant put into words for the damage they've done to the peoples and Democracies here and around the world. They've supported and enabled a tyrant and have helped bring America to her knees. The non-stop lies, the gaslighting, the mismanaged covid crisis, the "state-TV" during the Trump administration, the support of the "Big Lie", I could go on and on. And on. It is beyond shameful. It should be criminal. Yet Fox is still played on Military bases around the world. Excuse my language but W.T.F.?!!!
There is a special place is hell reserved for Rupert Murdoch. Roger Ailes is waiting for him I'm sure. I'm sorry you had to deal with him at all Professor Reich. You are way too good for them anyway. They don't even pretend to be "Fair and Balanced" anymore. They just keep spewing their garbage day after day after day.
We've got a lot of work to do dear friends before November but we CAN do this!! President Biden is on the offensive and Trump is losing ground daily. He is running on a losing platform and he goes to trial in less than 3 weeks. So keep the faith everyone!!! We will 🏆 this Battle once and for all come November 5th!!! ❤️🇺🇸💙
"I despise them all with a passion I cant put into words for the damage they've done to the peoples and Democracies here and around the world. They've supported and enabled a tyrant and have helped bring America to her knees" says Lisa above. Yes, for sure.
I've recently been reading The Open Society by Karl Popper. It makes me wonder...how long an 'open society', democracy, can prevail when openly assailed, without restrictions, by this kind of attack. What is the limit to 1st amendment free speech when it undercuts democracy itself? I'm noticing this more and more in the news -- everything that is alleged in Trump's trials is challenged by his attorneys as violations of HIS freedom of speech. But what about the integrity of our democratic norms? How long can this assault endure without authoritarianism taking advantage of the democratic norms of an 'open society'? And eventually supplanting them? It keeps me awake at night...
I hear you Jacquelyn. It keeps me awake almost every night. We must win in November. We must and we will!! I think that's the biggest lesson I've learned through all of this. Democracies must be cherished and nourished. Many, including myself, were asleep at the wheel. We allowed a Demagoue to slide in. Much of it was the backlash to President Obama but the corruption began long ago. We can never allow it to happen again and big structural changes are needed.
Me, too, Jacquelyn. The underhandedness of it all really offends me as well as deeply worries me. What right does a "candidate" like Trump have to run for an office, THE office, in a democracy - when he does not abide (nor clearly respect) the foundations of a democracy? It makes me feel as if I am losing my mind. What gives here?
Corruption of bought courts and justices. We should sue in a RICO CASE! They are criminals violating their oaths of office!
Laurie, the corruption - at times - feels almost overwhelming. But I refuse to be overwhelmed! I want to believe in our country, and thus I want to support the voices and people who are working to steer us to a better future. It has to be possible.
Lark ; The corruption is so widespread with laws that should provide a remedy for each crime ,being erased by the corrupt 'justices'. as things get crazier! It is daunting, and overwhelming. The darkest hour is before the dawn ?! We've got this in spite of it all! We will prevail! President Biden said "I will not walk away!"
Nice! Well said. Wish I had an answer. When you read about the history of our nation, back to when it was founded, the media and lies and innuendo were present then, and caused much damage. John Adams even sought to put a lid on it I seem to recall, but failed. Free speech. I suppose a re-introduction of the fairness doctrine in some form would be helpful. That way, a Fox News and the like would not be able to broadcast lies with impunity without also broadcasting opposing points of view equally. While this does not eliminate false claims, at least those false claims are scrutinized alongside, and the voting public gets more balanced info. Right now, a large segment of otherwise nice folks are being brainwashed to the point where they are lining up behind some pretty "un-nice" points of view. And they never hear the other side.
Jay : lies and threats are not free speech! There is no 'other side' of a lie. The truth is the truth. Facts are facts.
Under the 1st Amendment, you can basically say whatever the hell you want in this country. There’s no law against it and we’ve been witnessing this for decades. The past 8+ years of Trump lying non-stop and Fox News amplifying it is where it has become a living nightmare that we cannot wake up from. The gaslighting, the overt lies is utterly astounding. I’m outraged by it every single day. Mainstream media gives Trump airtime too and he spews his lies once more. It’s beyond the pale. I wish mainstream media would STOP giving him any airtime whatsoever. Why do they do it? It’s not “news.” He’s not illuminating is with anything of value; he’s campaigning with his fascist lunacy and they just LET HIM DO IT. They’re contributing to the death of our democracy by doing so, too. I’m so, so tired of it. Nothing makes sense anywhere. Nothing. I feel defeated and appalled and infuriated. It’s utter madness. How did we become so weak? How did such monstrous TRASH take over like this? I’m so exhausted by how little impact the DOJ and courts have and how many of them are complicit in this nightmare
Jessie ; It is incredible to me when I read about a "law" that is not even a real law ; for instance ; We have been told that the Supreme Court appointment is for " life"! It is not actually! If spreading dangerous lies to harm people, and terrorize a population, how can that be 'legal'? If there is a will there is a way. We must hold those who move the 'goalposts' accountable! We had a remedy to remove traitors from government that was removed by 6 disqualified and disabled 'Judges'! They themselves know that the very same law that they removed could have been applied to them! They overturned Roe, which was legislating from the bench, and making a law concerning religion, against the Constitution! They removed or weakened the Voting rights act ; In a Democracy! they are all 6 of them traitors! How does the Federalist Society get away with taking dirty money to stack our highest Court?!?!? We must push back against this lawlessness! A giant class action suit against these traitors! RICO case to get all those complicit!
One of the best expressions of the dystopia we've found ourselves in & the debilitating & deleterious effects it has had on our nation.
I agree. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
Every freedom is bounded by others, or should be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Society_and_Its_Enemies
George Soros took a course with Popper and reports it greatly influenced his thinking.
Thanks for the link. I'll try to get back to it later, it's too complex for a superficial skim reading. But from what I saw, the ideas and philosophical views are very important and relevant to our current social and governmental status. I hope to gain some positive insight.
Popular culture has demonized journalism over the past forty-five years or so. That and the attacks on education {reducing it to job training} create a society predisposed to reject the very information citizens need to maintain their democracy, unable to evaluate and process information about the state of our world, making us more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. Perfect foils for guys like Murdoch and Ailes. [Goebels would be proud of them.}
People like Profs Reich and Richardson {and certainly others, even conservative others} toil daily to give us information and analysis to think about and BE citizens who CAN ‘keep’ our democratic republic. But we’re 350-million people. That’s a lot of people to reach with information for them to consider and act on with good reason and care.
What is needed to rebuild a modicum of trust in SOME quarter of our press? How do we stress that our education system is NOT merely job training, but is a foundational aspect of our democracy, helping citizens to know about, understand, and employ the guarantees in our Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights?
If we are paying attention — our constitution itself is currently under what seems to me to be “sneak” attack.
The SCOTUS is “interpreting” it on some faux-originalist basis, giving rise to a lot of resentment among more rational scholars. Donald J. Trump tells us it has articles that give him as President the right to “do anything he pleases.” We have a movement afoot to call a new Constitutional Convention to “fix” it, but that COULD result in rewriting the whole damned thing, throwing baby out with bathwater. It needs work, but should we come to the table to do that work with the attitude that it is fatally flawed and we’re going to revamp the whole thing? [I worry about “revamping” it theocratically, myself.]
I’m not against the guarantees of free speech, and I don’t think we need to be convinced that our “freedoms” are threatened by one of the most important of those freedoms — the right to talk to each other and disagree openly, without fear or reprisal.
You’ll notice, that’s a freedom at great risk right now, not from our government, but from among ourselves. We demand “free speech,” and then threaten to kill each other over it … Something’s seriously wrong.
{Is it our now ubiquitous mass media — television, radio, THE INTERNET — so able to bring us information every minute of every day, but also SO able to misinform and mesmerize us with manipulative messaging …?}
Our founders praised and enshrined education, freedom of information {speech and press}, and even the Post Office, to promote the spread of knowledge and communication across the breadth of our land.
Pay attention, folks! Everyone one of those is under attack. Fragmenting us and keeping us ill-informed and out-of-touch and mistrusting everything we say to each other is how the Ailes tactics work best.
We need COMMUNICATION, and we need to be able to trust information.
As a society, working on THOSE aspects of our culture are absolutely critically important to maintaining a country that in any way resembles a free one.
We must put our skills to work promoting and supporting our ability to talk to each other — disagree with each other — trusting some aspect of our media to deliver good information and context, and developing our ability to recognize the difference between BS and legitimate discourse, so we can think about our world and be citizens in it.
We now have a ubiquitous electronic media talking to use every minute of everyday with good information and terrible information, quality thinking argumentation and foolish entertaining propaganda. It’s all out there.
The forces of chaos, who would use our disarray to convince us autocracy is better than democracy, use our ubiquitous media well.
It is a Golem of a media system — able to provide us with the connectivity we need, the information we need, the ability to discuss with each other we desperately need —AND, when it goes wrong, our broadcast and Internet media can be used to confuse the hell out of us, entertain us into a stupor, and propagandize us into the arms of the likes of Trump.
Communication and promoting our people’s ability to process what we see and hear about our world — those are the absolute necessities to keeping a democracy.
We’re on it right now — writing and reading.
It’s a powerful Golem.
We need it, if we can keep it from killing us. How do we keep it from killing us without killing IT?
{Maybe somebody should write us a book on this stuff. “A Republic,
If You Can Keep It: A Treatise on How!” Any takers?}
As Thom Hartmann says today — Fascism takes over less by force and more by rhetoric. {I figure the force comes later, when they have the “hearts and minds.”}
< https://hartmannreport.com/?utm_campaign=email-home&r=af6k6&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email>
Pat Goudey OBrien : I tend to stay in touch with sources of information that I can trust. Who have a 'track record' . Like Robert Reich, and some online podcasts and other sources.. certain magazines wth a history of truthfulness.. Certain news shows. Authors. And their books. It takes effort. We must pay attention, like you said.
I have trusted sources, too, and Prof. Reich is certainly one, though I will double check even him. Just because, when talking to someone, I want to know I am not merely “in the bag” for the Left, but actually thinking about the events and trends in our country … {But, I am seriously on the Left.}
People who read Robert, and people who COMMENT, are already engaged. A great many of us have vetted our sources and can turn to places we trust.
Our country-folk, the great masses who are not all inclined to lengthy reading {OR writing — mea culpa} are being CONVINCED that no sources can be trusted. And that the press is ALL as venal as it’s presented in about every movie or TV show that includes a nosy, nasty, secret-revealing reporter … They are encouraged to believe one voice — and that voice becomes a cult leader, and that’s REALLY hard to counteract.
When Donald started in with his “fake news,” he built on an existing worry about the press to get us where we are now — massive distrust, coupled with a tendency to silo, AND for those who have not been encouraged to do critical thinking, into cult behavior.
It worries me that free and broad communication — the heart and soul of even BEING a society — is under attack. The more info we have, the narrower the band that some listen to.
Most people don’t want a lecture, anyway.
I tend to see how something is NOT working. Who has a skill for finding the fix?
How to build community again in America.
{I seriously don’t want to believe we are just too big. I f-ing don’t want to think we’re doomed.}
Pat Goudey O'Brien ; I am heartened when I see on You tube, Sheldon Whitehouse explaining to Lawrence O' Donnell his latest challenge to those who are rarely or never challenged in High Places ; like the Supreme Court!, I see that Fani Willis is going to continue the RICO prosecution in spite of the challenges thrown at her. I openly wished for the RICO case against the organized crime syndicate that is tRUMP and his mobster lawyers! It is happening! Some of them are Losing their law licenses! As our President has said "This is the United States of America!" We've got this!
I love seeing what’s coming down the pike lately, too, Laurie.
The push-back gives me hope. The court cases {dragging out as they are …} still give me hope.
I believe it’s possible to prevail over these guys, if we don’t
“mis-underestimate” them!
Maybe the judge who recently placed a limited gag order will put him in jail before any harm comes to his daughter, who has been threatened. Threats are not free speech! Lies are not free speech either! Inciting violence is not free speech either! Nor is repeatedly defaming someone! He should not be out on bail! With a megaphone lying to the public!
mmmmmm, actually, in part, lies are part of free speech, perhaps not “per se,” but in practice … mmmmmm, see here: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12180#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20has%20said,without%20violating%20the%20First%20Amendment.
BUT, all kinds of misinformation that is consequential and in some way actionable — libels and defamations and incitements and misdirecting people’s behaviors … there are caveats.
It’s so damned complicated …
Trump lying to the pubic to incite treason — !!!!!! — he needs to be locked up.
Amen!!!
Freedom without responsibility is unsustainable. Roger Ailes is dead, but the Murdochs are still poisoning minds, and there are thousands like them on social media. Reason cannot for long withstand this on-slough of malice and fearmongering. Our Constitution, and freedom everywhere are in peril.
one would not need much proof to convince any old jury that a speech by some long haired hippie, troublesome talk show host, or candidate for Congress "undercuts democracy itself" --- and that is why their right to free speech had to be guarenteed in the Constitution.
Great questions! I wonder about that, too.
Lisa, this is what everyone needs to hear to get them charged up! Thanks!
*still played (correction)
Aww thanks. You're very welcome. You all help me too. So much!! ❤️
Thank you, Lisa. Much needed and helped after reading the ailes history.
You're welcome. I appreciate your comment very much. ❤️
I think comparisons with Goebbels are not terribly far off the mark. Poisoning a nation for profit is not much worse than ideological evil. But, as the Dude might say, that's just my opinion, man.
Some actually poison the minds of a nation with words and actions. Then claim others poison a nation just by existing.
Ah, but the dude abides...
Ailes may be dead and gone, but IMHO Fox et al must be probed whether they knew or had reason to know there would be violence on Jan 6, 2021, and if so, why haven't they been joined for contributing to damages in the 5 civil suits?
BTW, Trump has no immunity defense and wants to delay them. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-asks-pause-jan-6-lawsuits-criminal-case-lingers-rcna144318
You know, what the Dude is talking about in that movie is that the Dude abides by the law. I saw Jeff Bridges say it himself.
Ailes sexually harassed my friend in High School. We hung out at KYW- TV at the Tom Synder Show - and it was in Philadelphia. My friend came forward to Gretchen’s lawyer, and one newspaper wrote of her horrible experience in Ailes office at KYW-TV. For years I have been exposing him. I called producers when he was interviewed on TV. I met with tv Pioneer Jack Rhodes who was well aware of what Roger Ailes had been up to for years. Many knew. What stills makes me sick is that Ailes was paid when he left FOX. It was wrong as is the arbitration clause in the contract that prevented the case from going to trial.
The call letters KYW were in Cleveland, later transferred to Philly. Ailes was producer of the Mike Douglas Show -- took it national. https://www.yahoo.com/news/roger-ailes-spent-fox-money-wage-secret-campaigns-211653533.html Supposedly had a blackmail operation, inside Fox.
Not just ugly, but toxic!
Very interesting. All knew about Ailes and did Nothing.
Money is power, and the Constitution does not constrain it. It may be a fatal flaw.
Thank you, Robert. The Republicans, GOP, MAGA, Conservatives - however they manifest around the world - are saturated with the worst of human behaviour and appetites. Ailes and Murdoch are two examples of the utterly despicable corruption that can be expressed in "human" beings.
The sick monster Rupert Murdoch (especially amplified by Ailes) has done more to destroy civilisation than anyone since Hitler and Stalin. All for money and ego.
#MangoWanker #Mobster #Traitor #Rapist
#GOPtraitors #Trump #Putin
#Fascists
#Murdoch
#Reagan began the #CRIMINAL #GOP
"I remember large jowls hanging from fat cheeks, giving the overall impression of a giant bulldog" - priceless!!
The drawing of this is priceless too!
That image was exceptionally good!
Except most bulldogs are actually nice, I have read.
Thank you for this piece of history !
Aides was nothing but a bully scumbag! A despicable disgusting deplorable and what he did to their viewers should have been criminal! Praying the next lawsuit will be the end of Faux News for ever! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 remember their FCC license is for ENTERTAINMENT, …not news! And should be revoked!
Sad how tradition corporate environments reward these personalities.
Amazing bit of history, Prof. Reich. Thank you. Let me pick one little bit of legume from your rich (reich?) plate. You say: "In the 1980s, Ailes’s politics grew more conservative, along with those of the Republican Party." I choose not to call the repugnicants 'conservative.' To me, conservative means people who want to keep things as they are. To me, the repugnicants and their magabrains and other camp followers are RADICALS, and dangerous at that. Nobody did more to harm the word 'liberal' than drug addict Rush Limbaugh (who admitted scouring the streets at night looking for another illegal Oxycontin fix when his drug dealers failed to come through). Rush Limbaugh turned 'liberal' into a hate word for simple magabrains, just as (actually the vast majority of US citizens) are trained to become violent when you even mention the word socialism. Civilized, humane health care is 'evil socialism.' Wrong, it is a basic human right. Our national corporate for profit wealth-care mafia is a crime against humanity. It's like slavery in the old South: most people seem to buy into it. We are the only industrialized nation where the wealth scare mafia robs millions of their pensions and savings, and bankrupts millions, while actually causing many thousands of bad medical outcomes including death (murder). The point of my comment ultimately is that words are what we make of them. Going back, as I often do, to the morays (morae) of the ancient Romans in their long-successful republic and (with some twists and turns) democracy... what counts is CENTRISM and MODERATION. A great example is that after the Romans expelled their last king (Tarquin the Arrogant) in 509 BCE, they set up a complex system that included magistrates and lesser civil servants. Every office but one had two men assigned, who had the power to veto each other. That meant theoretically that no man (it was all men, sorry ladies) could be utterly corrupt and run away with the show. Oops, except for one provision: the office of dictator. The city of Cincinnati, Ohio is named for the legendary Cincinnatus, a simple farmer who was ploughing his field, when a delegation from the Senate arrived and informed him that he had been chosen Dictator in a national emergency to defeat some of Rome's many deadly early enemies. Accordingly, Cincinnatus went to the city (Rome), put on his plumed helmet, and led an army out to defeat the enemy. He then immediately put his plumed hat aside, went back to his field, and resumed plowing as a simple and humble farmer. That is one example of many of the parables told by the early Romans to explain their morae (the ways of the ancestors) that drove their sense of morality. One can argue all day, but our Founding and Framing Fathers in the 1700s CE adored this stuff and made many of our institutions an echo of the world's longest-lasting democracy. Oh yes, and then doom struck. The office of dictator was supposed to be tightly controlled by the Senate, and not last more than six months at most, or as long as the job got done (see: Cincinnatus). But, as always, human corruption seeped in, including the greed and ruthlessness of the very wealthy, and in 46 BCE, a dictator was sworn in named Julius Caesar, who manipulated his allies to name him Dictator for life. The (ahem) conservatives in the Senate, led by Brutus and Cassius (see the play by Shakespeare) stabbed Julius Ceasar to death in the Senate (temporarily Theater of Pompey, because a mob of stupid, crazy magaheads burned the existing Curia of the Senate to the ground a few years earlier in a rage over a murder gone wrong between two mobs of gladiators on a nearby post road). By then the damage was done. Another in a series of civil wars ensued, and peace was restored (sort of) by the tyrant Octavian (Augustus Caesar, the nephew and adoptive son of Julius Caesar). The year 31 marks the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium and signals the start of more than half a millennium of 'empire.' So who were the conservatives in all that? The mob who burned down the Senate Curia? or the Senators who murdered Julius Caesar in an effort to end his dictator for life status and return to the annual (yes, every year!) elections for all the twosies (two guys on every job). That's from the top down, two consuls (like two U.S. Presidents), two praetors, two... you name it. Do you see the same echoes here that I do? LIke the burning of the Senate Curia (building) as compared with the attempt by maga-brains to destroy the U.S. Capitol building (named after the Capitolium in ancient Rome)? Ultimately, no radical can be called either conservative, or liberal, or socialist, or capitalist. In the middle (moderate center) is where we need to govern or be governed. That is why we have two senators from each state, I am sure. When I first learned the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' in high school, the context was about the U.S. Constitution, and those appointed to preserve. Conservatives were to be more about strict constructionism, whereas liberals could kinda, sorta stretch the words of 1787 a little bit (but never too much). The far right (far wrong) are so far to the right that they think the moderate center (reasonable people) are "far left." Let's get our words straight so that we can think straight. Sheep Heil! JTC
Exactly!! I've thought about that a lot over the last few years. When did "Liberal" get to be such an ugly word?! It actually means generous among other things. We have demonized each other so badly but Fox and the right have been the primary culprits. Your History lesson of the Roman Empire was fascinating too. Thanks!!
Thanks, Lisa. We should think of 'far right' as 'far wrong.' Please note: most of my history tends to be about the Roman Republic (not empire). Important distinction. Even through the empire, as we call it, 31BCE to about 476 CE, the Romans still thought of themselves as a republic. That's why the legions marched behind a banner that read SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus, or The Senate and the People of Rome. Sorry, I don't mean to lecture... it's fun. Imagine if they marched behind banners like Caligula or Nero or Elagabalus. Or, like in the two great movies (The Fall of the Roman Empire, 1974 and in 2000 Gladiator), Commodus became sole emperor in 180 CE which marks the end of the 'good emperors' as Edward Gibbon called them in his monumental 6 volume history "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (vol 1 in 1776, last volume in 1789). Some of us really enjoy this stuff, eh? Like sipping history, kind of ... thank you! John
Roger Ailes came up with the tactic of attacking strengths. He was beind the Swift Boat that took down John Kerry, behind the attack on Max Cleland who had lost legs and an arm in Vietnam, calling him a coward because he opposed Dubya's criminal invasion of Iraq.
Ilberal became an epithet and it started in the south after the Civil Rights and Voting rights act. Red necked racists considered themselves conservatives and wanted to preserve their "natural order of things" where darkies were kept in their place, and it was them trouble making Yankee liberals that were messing up everything "great about America", and so Trump promised to make America great again.
Thom Hartmann in Cracking the code https://hartmannreport.com/p/sunday-excerpt-cracking-the-code?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fluntz&utm_medium=reader2 discusses how Frank Luntz, and Newt Gingrich, among others (like Roger Ailes and Karl Rove)
have mastered the Goebellian tactics of using Orwellian language, of turning a positive into a negative and it was picked up by right wing talk radio (Rush Limbaugh)and Fox (Hannity, Carlson, etc).
An interesting article from Jared Kushners paper, the Observer. "When did Liberal become a bad word and jus what is a conservative" https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article10359293.html
The fascists and communists of the 1930s hated liberals, because liberalism opposes violent revolution. Many of Trump's supporters despise liberals for the same reason.
Thank you Lee and Victor for your responses. I will read those articles too. Appreciate it. ❤️🇺🇸💙
agreed in no way are these scum Conservatives!
Michael: Reagan was a conservative, and it is a logical progression from Reaganism to Trumpism. in fact the modern "Republican" (Trump party, still backs the same agenda as Reagan,only now it blatantly includes theocratic, racist, phobic, culture war.
Today's Republicans are the rightful heirs, children and grandchildren of Reagan.
John--You hit on a great chord here.
What I have been advocating for quite a while is that the idea of a president with massive executive powers is very unwise. Most of the dictatorships in the world are "presidential republics."
Two models that are long in existence and may provide some ideas are the Swiss Federal Council (started in 1848 with democracy reforms) and the EU Commission (started in 1951). Switzerland has 7 on its Federal Council--probably a bit too few-- and the EU has 27 members--probably too many.
Both institutions have fairly frequent rotations of positions such as the president. They both thus avoid a dictatorial concentration of power with their structures.
The EU Commission model would be a good place to start and base the executive then on heads of multi-state regions rather than vest powers in a single person.
Mapping that to the U.S. might mean something like 13 regions (similar to the U.S. Courts of Appeal) that each elect a council member in time staggered periodic elections. Obviously some work to do to get to this type of shared governance model.
Thanks, Doug. Interesting idea; just a little dangerous in that for example Major Failure Neanderthal is one of many red staters once again (as always) advocating for splitting the USA up.... some good ideas have unintended consequences, so I'd be careful; as with my idea following: ... my biggest concern at this time is that the Supreme Court depends on a political process involving the other two branches. I have been wondering if (maybe?) it would be better to leave the Slimy Mitch types out (he rewrote the Constitution by denying Barack Obama his moderate nominee Merrick Garland based on dishonest nonsense favoring the corrupt corporate servants that got in). Rather, I wonder if the community of judges, various districts, should somehow create a regular, revolving list of top judges who sit for one year or two, and then fade back into the multitude. We are saddled with a system in which (a) the justices are elected by politicians and (b) the composition of the Supreme Court depends on which party happens to control Congress at the time and (c) we have the longevity issue; justices serving for 20 years or more. No human system is perfect, so we have to stick with centrism and moderation.//jtc
Germany has an interesting approach to its highest federal court. It has two "senates" of 8 members each. The would be called "panels" in U.S. speak. Getting to this type of number would require expanding the Court, which is a must.
The justices in Germany are appointed for 12 year terms without renewal. That could be done in the U.S. system as well with a statutory "term of office" where the time on the Supreme Court bench is limited. Afterwards, the lifetime appointment would be served elsewhere in the Federal system.
These reforms all are possible if we have a Congress and President willing to push them and take on the flack from the rightwing.
Dr. Doug: as I understand it from history, we (Allies) created a new constitution for the Germans after WW2, same as the Allies did after WW1 (Weimar). My point is that in effect, if we did it for the Germans, and it seems to work...why can't we brush up our 237 year old structure (carefully, with a cautious amendment or two). We must be careful! To wit: I wrote a political thriller in 1992 titled CON2: The Generals of October, which details a complex plot by cynical politicians, greedy billionaires, sinister generals, and other scary parties to take over the United States in a staged ploy involving a Second Constitutional Convention. Sound familiar? After the J6 as some now seem to be calling the insurrection of 06 Jan 2021, I immediately re-released it under a new title: Washington Under Siege: Autumn of the Republic. I had no idea in 1992 that I could well be foretelling a dark future event. My main inspirations at the time were (above all) Seven Days in May (novel by Knebel/Pratt; movie screenplay by Rod Serling); also The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, and a few other inspirations. Against a very complex, symphonic, dark story line, I wrote two strong protagonists (David Gordon and Victoria 'Tory' Breen) as two young Army officers solving the plot, plus their close friend, an at first addled-seeming Southern nurse (U.S. Army Captain Maxine Lee Bodley, or Maxie) who emerges at the end as the strongest of all characters in the novel. The novel is a possible scenario and should warn us against any radical adventures involving our national treasure. I think we avoided isolationism (a corporate republican village idiot impulse after WW1) and for a time became leaders (rulers, almost) of the Free World. The Reaganists have all but dismantled that by now after 44 years of privatization and anarchism designed to promote korporate profits ueber alles. JTC P.S. www.johntcullen.com read free chapters.
John—I absolutely agree that whatever is done to “Fix the Courts” should be incremental rather than revolutionary. The latter just plays into the hands of the Right-Wing think tanks, which have been cooking up ideas that work for the 0.01% but not the general public.
For that reason, everything I have proposed can be done by Congress. Of course, the first step in having a trifecta and the second step is removing the filibuster from governance bills.
Dr Doug, it would require not only a Democratic House, but 60 votes in the Senate. Each state has two senators
There are 26 Solid Red States there are five states with splits Republican/Democrat/Independent. So 57 Republicans in all.
There are 13Democratic Senatorial Seats up for re election and 20 Republican Unless a miracle occurs and the Democrats hold on to the 13 and pick up 9 seats from the Republicans ( 4 and a half states), the chance of getting 60 Democratic or Independent Caucus leaning Senators is slim
The Current make up is 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats and three independents that caucus with the Democrats.
We are losing two this year, Manchin and Sinema. West Virginia will go Republican making it 49/49, Arizona (Sinema) is up in the air
Testor of Montana is up for re election and Montana is red. We need a miracle to keep him, even though he is a red dog Democrat.
Tough hall, and it looks like a Trump wave. I sure hope the polls are wrong, they were wrong in 2016, 2020 and 2022.
I think we should have second thoughts about the complaint that Mitch denied Obama his SCOTUS nominee, considering that Garland is from his resume and his inactions and action (the documents trial), a fifth columnist, the fox in the henhouse.
Obama wanted a win so badly, that he asked Orrin Hatch R-UT, at the time the most right wing Senator, who he thought could get Republican votes in the Senate. Hatch recommended a man who had been a Federalist Society member, Merrick Garland.
Garland was not going to prosecute anyone for Jan 6 until embarrassed and prodded by his peers and media. Yet he only prosecute the pawns, and even then most got a slap on the wrist. The real conspirators in Congress have never been prosecuted (The Freedom Caucus), Matt Gaetz has been investigated by the FBI for breaking Federal Law, but Garland hasn't prosecuted him either.
Garland used a phony excuse to move the documents case to Florida, that is where the crime occurred, a lie, because it occurred in DC when Waltine Nauta loaded the documents onto a Van for transport to the airport. The moment the documents left the grounds of the White House, the crime occurred, want to quibble on that, then the moment the documents were loaded on the plane.
Then Garland fixed it for Trump by appointing Aileen Cannon as Judge, his excuse was the wheel (named for wheel of fortune), just an excuse,
He jumped at the chance to appoint a special counsel to prosecute Hunter Biden, but has ignored the greater crimes of Ivanka and Jr.
Now imagine this right winger sitting in SCOTUS, and how difficult it would be for the Democrats to take action or complain about an Obama appointee.
Wipes sweat off the brow.
I recall Rupert Murdoch stating categorically that Donald Trump was absolutely unfit to be re elected POTUS again. I wonder where that voice is now, now that the American public could use hearing that?
also recall other conservative voices, such as Lindsey Graham saying they were all done with him and Mitch McConnell saying Trump was absolutely responsible for the attack on the Capital.
Voices strangely silent now.
Even more strange is the silence of Democrats who seem too gutless to seek to hold Republicans to their word. What a shame if the gutlessness of Democrats is what costs us our Democracy. Is this the best a two party system can offer us?
I think the Democrats are biding their time. We all know of at least a few hundred GOP politicians that were up to their necks in insurrection, and if we can pull off the trifecta in Novemeber, we may be able to rid ourself of at least half of them.
The MAGA movement destroyed..the only way to save our democracy
I have to agree with you, William. There are many very capable and careful Democrats who are doing their best, minute to minute, right now.
No...a third party is needed
Agree but now it not the time.
Not feasible.
Agreed, but as it stands, all a third party will do is elect Republicans by taking votes from Democrats.
Third parties took enough votes to make Bush the winner, and to make Trump the winner.
Swing states are the key. Georgia is an anomaly, the Republican legislatures in GA, NC, and VA.. which were swing states, have enacted voter suppression laws and Gerrymandering that negate Democratic votes.
There are only five swing states, AZ, NV, PA, MI, WI
So that is another man I am learning is responsible for the crap the republicans are throwing in our faces now. This man obviously had some severe mental issues based on an abusive childhood. Hearst and Pulitzer started what back then was called yellow journalism by using sensationalized news and glaring features in a competition to sell more newspapers. Journalists discovered that the more brazen and horrific the story, the more papers they could sell. It continues today with Fox News, News Max, and others. "Normal" Americans call it alternative media which in essence are stories without evidence or facts. Many right-wing Americans view them as the gospel. I always put my faith in Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Harry Reasoner, and others like them. They simply reported the news the way it actually was. The fact that this man was a cruel, obnoxious bully isn't even what makes me the sickest. What makes me sick is that he touted being a conservative which tried to sell America on straight-laced ethics and morality while he sexually assaulted women in his glass tower!! Republicans honestly think that Americans can't see how debased their party has become!
Peggy, you’ve got what Prof. Reich is telling us. Underlying the Tragedy Prof Reich reveals as he peels back the tangled history of these powerful, destructive creatures, is the Real, driving unconscious motive, an All too common Pattern of Origin: rampant, Vicious Child Abuse. All too common in our society. “Spare the rod, spoil the child, proper male, female roles, being punished if you don’t obey….Much of these issues, are underlying all the political issues,
divisions, and prominent figures.
Roger Ailes’ Father Violently Beat him, emotionally & verbally abusing him and his cowering mother, a mere sex object. Treated more like slaves, than cherished wife and child. Traumatized, warped by fear into blind rage of hatred, he was a bloated cauldron of inner conflict projected onto his female hires, his male broadcasters. Preferred and promoted political candidates, for those with eyes that see, ears that hear, wisely. Naturally, voters aren’t psychiatrists, psychologists, nor should we expect, nor need to be, however here we are. Taking seriously those like Richard Reich, informing with truth.
Blind is he who does not want to see seems to be true in this instance.
"Boys will be boys" was the old rationalization! Melania referred to tRump's involvement with women and sexist remarks as "boy talk".
Laurie, these so-called "boys" need to grow up and face reality. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever to justify the way these "boys" demean women!! This locker room talk they say is inconsequential will lead them to re-examine it after the elections. No woman in her right mind would vote for these "boys"; instead, they'll vote for a man that supports and defends their rights.
Peggy: yes! It's overdue! I remember early in tRump's term, when the "news" was actually printing exhortations made by idiots saying " come on : give him time!". 🙄 A president who is properly qualified /vetted should not need time to do the job the way it should be done! He had a cabinet and advisors who could guide him. Until he replaced them with idiots and criminals!
Amen!
Exactly!! "Guy talk" my a@@!! My one and only remaining fairly modérate (If there is such a thing) family MAGA friend left tried to tell me that a couple of days ago. Just "Guy talk". Plus we shouldn't have been eavesdropping anyway. Right. So I asked him If it were Ok If I just come over there and grabbed his D@'€K?! Surely he wouldn't mind. It was just "talk right?! Everyone does it!! When you're a star they let you do it. They let you get away with anything". Guy Talk. BS!!
I'm sorry but I just don't believe all civilized men talk that way. And I KNOW women don't. Not crossing the line into assault. My point is friends they WILL keep making excuses for him for anything and everything all the up to the WSJ and beyond. W.T.F. ?!!!
"guy talk" knows few political persuasion/education level/professional lines. Former President Clinton had a "keep in his pants" problem or a "keep his hands off young interns" problem. Perhaps Prof. R (whom I appreciate & rely upon for accurate & thoughtful remarks on topics I'm trying to understand) will understand that some might call him to task - ?Did you mean to say that you wouldn't ctiticize your friend who gave you a job on that platform but knew how important it was to pull him aside privately? Did you mean to share that although many men & women wouldn't have spoken up in the day of "Bimbo Eruptions" because we knew no better - it's time to do so now? No leaders should be above reproach. Whether Bill & the crime bill or Obama & $$ or Joe & the supreme court (i refer to the "Clarence Thomas problem" or was it just guy talk yet again). How one thinks of & refers to half the population matters - indeed lays the foundation for a respectful education system & public discourse. If we are trying to communicate with #45ites, Republicans, conservatives, Democrats, liberals - whoever - it starts at how do we communicate with or neighbors, coworkers & family? What do we model for our kids? No Professor, Doing your brother a solid means pulling him up & helping him do better. And maybe publicly reaching out to the sister involved.
Your family friend would love it, if you grabbed his dick, and some women like it when a rich and famous man grab their pussy. Did you see the photo of that Trump humping woman, in a T shirt with an arrow pointing to her crotch and the words Trump can grab me here.
Look at all of the arm candy, this fat, balding, zero's like Trump have as wives and girlfriends. Melanie, Mnuchins wives, Melania, all of them. No different than a prostitute. A prostitute has sex with thousands of men, these women only have to have sex with one man, maybe a hundred times if that, and the job is safer, cleaner and they live in luxury, not street corners with a pimp or as a call girl showing up in strange hotel rooms.
I disagree with the first part Lee and agree with the second. 😆 I don't think Matt would like it if I did grab him. Because I would be forceful!! Plus we have known each other too long and it would ruin our friendship. But you're right in the second section. It's basically prostitution at the highest level. I just shiver at the thought of sex with the Orange souless blob. EWWWW. Least he's good for a laugh on this Good Friday. Forgive us Lord. 🙏🏻🌸 That's about all he's good for!! 😆 No redeeming qualities whatsoever. God knows I've spent 9 years trying to find some. Still looking. No, I gave up a long time ago.
Sing it, Lisa! Don't hold back! I can tell this is somewhat of a sore point with you and I understand it completely. The men I am acquainted with find that particular kind of talk repulsive. They do not denigrate women even in a "locker room" setting!! I appreciate them because they treat me with respect. Don't let these idiot "boys" make you think there are not really good men out there who believe women are their equals.
Peggy you have never been in a men's locker room, not when there are no women around.
Here is the real world. When in the field, on the field, jawboning, the conversation is about women and sex. As an Air Force loadmaster told me, when in the air it is all about women and sex, but on the ground and in the clubs it is all about the job.
Camaraderie requires a subject in which all can partake. That is sex, sports, the job. Religion, politics, philosphy are taboo or too highbrow and esoteric.
Women have an idealized, not realistic, idea of what men do and think, because that is what they hope and want their boyfriend, husband, father and son to do.
Thank you for your comment, Lee. No, I have never been in a men's locker room. If women are discussed, that type of conversation should stay in the locker room. When those comments and ideas about women come out of the locker room and are used on women, that is where the problem begins. Camaraderie is great and as you say, all can partake, but you also need to understand that people like trump and others that "partake" in that kind of talk don't understand that it should remain in the locker room! They bring it out and discuss openly and wonder why it is offensive to women! They have a perverse idea that women actually want to be treated that way. A woman's idea of what men do and think is her own personal ideas about the man she would like to spend her life with. I don't feel it is 'idealized', I feel it is exactly what they want from their boyfriend, husband, father or son.
Thank you Peggy. I appreciate that. As a sexual assault survivor myself I just believe there is a line you don't cross without consent. Period. Talk is one thing. And that was bad enough. Degrading even. Touching or grabbing without consent is not acceptable in any circumstance. Plus I had to get graphic with my friend to make my point. Sorry if that was TMI. 😆
“Locker room talk”
Fox is worse now. I accidentally saw it on tv last night. Some woman was saying how disgusting that event was with Obama, Clinton and Biden had. Then she had Trump at the memorial for the slain policeman on Long Island. They invited him and he went. Fox had him on for a long time while he spouted how disgusting the USA had become and when he becomes president it won’t be like that anymore. It made me sick. The pro Palestinians outside Radio City also made me sick.
Help get out the vote for Democrats.
One-THIRD of those eligible did not vote in 2020.
Vote BLUE as if your life depends on it.
Yea that's quite nauseating. What else is new at Fox? The 3 of them together is so fabulous!! I got to see Biden, Obama and Nancy Pelosi on our first Democrat Organizing Call of the year when we celebrated 14 years of the ACA last Saturday. That was pretty cool!! 100s of 1000's of men and women from all over the Country Live chatting and then Streaming those 3 getting us Fired Up and ready to go for the next 7 months!! It was wonderful!!!
At least the Palestinians are fighting for a real Cause. Their very own State and Survival. I can understand that. They're in between a rock and a very hard place. My heart breaks for all of them. War is HELL. Pretty much. 💔😪 I do agree Bibi is a Mini-Trump and needs to Go. The sooner the better.
What Trump will never ever acknowledge is that America 🇺🇸 is already great!! Yes it has problems. Everyone does. But it is still the best place in the entire World. He is a loser with a losing message and he is going to LOSE big time in November!!! Right kids?!!!! Who's with me?!! 💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸
"Trump at the memorial for the slain policeman on Long Island. They invited him and he went"
Thanks for pointing that out Elena. more proof that the Police are right wingers, I can forsee
a Myamar America, where the cops gleefully beat and kill anti Trump protesters.
Trump went to the wake of that poor officer and I am sure that he was gracious and kind. What he said afterwards was his usual spiel on Fox and the wake became some political football. Neither gracious or kind. I was not at that affair that raised $25 million dollars but it must have been fascinating and involved months of planning. The Great World spins and 2 events collide and the protestors arrive with their single cause and we watch on TV. Will November ever arrive ?
Amen Robert. Great read. Your first paragraph… “Fox News has released more poison into the groundwater of the American mind than any other contaminator. Indeed, Donald Trump would be less toxic if his effluence weren’t leached through Fox’s cesspool before bubbling up in millions of American homes,” hits home hard. I routinely bring up The Fox (not news, for it is not) as the single most destructive force in the civilized history of humankind. It’s minute by minute toxic spew by one gaslit, gaslighting liar after another into America’s airwaves has exponentially dumbed down the IQ-challenged and spread an oily, black, sulfuric residue across our land. This residue of dis and misinformation, conspiracy as fact and hateful intolerance has rotted the collective mind of Americans. From overseas, we are seen with ever-deepening concern for our growing collective ignorance, heartlessness, intolerance, inequity and dumbed down embrace of authoritarianism.
Absent my Bluenami dream —giant crashing November blue wave— from “the secret Biden voter,” (the many who won’t engage with hate and stupidity, don’t don bumper stickers or yard signs and step away from loud Trumplers), without that Bluenami, lady liberty she sinks beneath the inky black waters lapping at her shores. For 10+ years, the ever-darkening and stronger waves overcoming her and our precious, imperfect experiment in democracy.
Am sorriest to our next gens for evil brew of humanity we pass to them - planet on fire, vivid intolerance and ignorance, goodness losing to evil, lies are truth, unconscionable debt levels thanks to borrow & spend GOP liars (contrast with Dems: tax the rich & spend), human rights in retreat, stunning wealth inequality, and a sociopathic billionaire donor class laser focused on their corrupt pursuit of power and money.
And then there’s Trumpler winking at fellow dictators, salivating for return to Oval; why are we still tolerating this oily-orange, pathologically lying sociopath?
And here we are…
Very well said!! 👏👏👏
Three traitors to American values, Trump, Ailes and Murdoch. Trump will hopefully go to jail with his wealth significantly reduced. Ailes is disgraced and dead. Although he has poisoned the press and the public in Australia, the UK and America Murdoch remains rich and safe. Let’s start thinking about how and where to give Murdoch his due. But first let’s take care of Trump.
Let’s learn to juggle, and do both.
A very gut wrenching piece to read, Robert. Having grown up in the area just south of Warren, Ohio, I understand what happened to him. Ailes was a product of cruelty and became cruel, and was further fueled by the unfettered greed of Murdoch and our truly runaway capitalism. I had forgotten he was from Ohio. Frankly, I had forgotten him. When I think about how a child, and probably one with a great future potential for good, came to become this bully, it makes me urge all the more that truly good hearted people run for office. You are needed for every office in our great land. Not just in foreign policy, but in the county offices where children are served, and empathy is so needed. These are where the safety nets exist, but somehow failed Roger Ailes, as did his parents.
And look at our President. He grew up in modest circumstances, but with love and no beatings. I’m incredibly grateful for Joe Biden, a decent, of course imperfect human.
I've lost 3 close friends who I knew since childhood thanks to Fox news. The all 3 got involved in the hate and vitriol that is Fox news and became people I no longer knew. I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to watch the documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad". It opened my eyes to what exactly happened to these now ex-friends.
Brainwashing of my Dad is on Youtube Pennie. I divorced my family for the same reason, bonus is I don't have to spend money, time and risk air travel for the holidays, not to mention the money I don't waste on presents and bail me out of my 2nd mortgage plea.
The Civil war was a brother war, WWIK was a cousin war (The Tsar, Kaiser and King all shared Victoria as a grandmother.