what worries me, which i don't think that we, collectively, really know how to deal with, is the absolutely confounding reality that soooooo many millions of americans WANT to vote for this man (if we can call him a man; in my view, he is truly a monster) ...
i think everything in your piece exposes the fundamental problem in america : billionaires control the destiny for all of us and are so self-consumed by their own blood-thirsty greed that they are willing to literally destroy the planet simply to further their own obnoxious amount of wealth and power ...
when and how do we start to deal with the fact that our country is nearly evenly split, where nearly half of us actually WANT the country to fall towards becoming a fascist dictatorship ???
Part of that problem is that there are so many of them that also think the climate problem is a hoax. I can never understand how these people - most of who are grandparents- can so willingly throw away the planet in the face of their own family.
This article is clearly who Trump is. History will not look kindly on our country if he is allowed to get back in the office. Shame on all that help him - especially the ones that are willing to further destroy the planet for a quick buck.
They have to pay the reporters, and all the expenses incurred, to investigate and write the stories. A subscription to the Washington Post is modestly priced, and for me well worth it.
I understand. I read the post for 30 years .When It went to subscription. I decided I just didn’t need to read it anymore. Plus which I can’t stand, Jeff Bezos
Yes, but....subscriptions and pay walls are the smallest part of the media revenue stream. The real money is in advertising dollars. As was pointed out above, it's all about hyping everything they can hype: horse-race politics, lurid headlines, misleading teasers, and so on, all to pull in clicks and eyes. The more attention that's paid, the more advertisers are willing to spend. With only a few exceptions, all media outlets of all types trade in such practices. The NY Times, even, is getting worse with that every day. There's no incentive to report factually and objectively. Spin is everywhere, and is ramping up constantly.
THAT is crucial, Carolyn. Advertising has changed so drastically since the Internet came on the scene, first slowly, and now EXPLOSIVELY. The news has always been supported by advertising that wanted a vehicle to carry it to the people. Journalism strove to keep a wall between advertisers and news editors and reporters {and I know they did, in the greater part, because I come from a journalism family working in those trenches for more than seventy years all together …}
But ads now go to so many other venues to find the eyes they used to find on the brooadsheet page … People getting their news online do not want it broken up with “commercials” that remind them of TV — neither do they want web sites tracking their interests and directing “targeted” ads at them, nor do they want to access their news by “subscription” to get past a paywall.
Now that we’re not looking at newspapers, we don’t seem ready t accept ANY mode for getting the news-gathering-and-writing business a pay check.
I personally think the paywall method is the toughest, providing abundant and quality information only to those who can afford to subscribe to a ton of sources, news gathering, commentary, analysis …
I actually don’t mind a few ads, if a site will let me read and watch…
What do people propose we replace those newspapers with, so the reporting and editing and presenting can happen?
There are some benefits to being forced to being more sceptical given the garbage that's out there. But it takes more effort to reach a level of trust in the information you read, for sure.
It seems like much else anything free is so diluted with ads and "garbage" that you have to pay for quality. And thus you get a 2 tiered society where those who have less ability to pay are subjected to the garbage, can't cross the toll bridge to get to point X, world view made smaller, etc. Fortunately PBS is widely available. 4 different channels over the air - the regular, the international?, the kids, and the creative channel.
Steve, a subscription to WaPo costs only $4 every 4 weeks, or $40 a year, and you can unsubscribe at any time. They have been sending me hundreds of articles for at least a year, you just don't get to read all of the contents. I have been putting off subscribing, but am taking the plunge because I want to read the full article(s). And I think the really great part about it is that there is no commenting, and thus no trolls! It's not a social media website. I started with them because I wanted to read the Sunday special column about the Trump Trials. They even do daily coverage now of all the proceedings. I think I've gotten a pretty good deal already, for not paying anything! :-)
That's fine. I'm not trying to encourage or discourage anyone from reading WaPo. It's a good paper. I'm just speaking for myself. I don't subscribe to much though I did to The Atlantic a few months ago.
I've noticed our St louis paper the Post Dispatch which I subscribe to recently got rid of the ability of readers to post comments on articles and LTEs. Just as well IMO.
Too much of the press is despicable. Instead of giving us the Event X, they will lead off with Trump says this about Event X, letting him define the event. I don't care much what Trump or Musk etc have to say.
If we demonize ALL media as though it were a giant monolith, we would have to believe there is NO way to hear the truth, and we might as well pull the turf over our heads.
I think totally and absolutely talking about media as a lost cause completely plays into the hands of the fascists -- it is THEIR mantra, pushed by the ultimate fascists, the Nazis.
Thanks for the graph William. There are only 5 owners of the corporate media. I've dug into the five and ultimately the major shareholders are Vanguard, Black Rock and State Street, and they also are majority shareholders in everything from Banks, Manufacturing and Petro Chemical industry.. In other words USA Inc.
Pat, I am not being argumentative, but could you give a couple examples of Trustworthy Media.
For instance the NYT is called liberal, because it's reporters and journalists actually do their job and report facts, However it's editorial board is ultra conservative to Trump humping,
And editors kill stories or have them rewritten to reflect their "bias"
By bias I mean the slant of the Ochs Sulzberger Family, which owns the Times, and although they aren't a Murdoch family, they are a leading member of the establishment.
Magazines have a limited readership and most genereally with people who share their interest. Like Cat or Dog Magazines or car and driver, even People Magazine (the fav or folk with empty lives)
As of May 2024, 15,290 people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for The New Yorker. On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Left bias.
Here is what Google sez about American Prospect
nitially called The Liberal Prospect, was founded in 1990 by Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich, and Paul Starr as a response to the perceived ascendancy of conservatism in the 1980s. Kuttner and Starr currently serve as co-editors.
Yo could add The Nation and Mother Jones, but again they are limited subscription and not the media.
I maintain that the "liberal media" is a fiction cooked up by the likes of Frank Luntz or Roger Ailes, or even Karl Rove.
The same people that tried to brand Democrats as communists via the word socialist which they use as a synonym.
Sadly, it seems more and more people don't read newspapers. I think conservatives care less and less about what newspapers say. They go straight to Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites with no rules about having multiple sources confirm a story. They just tell any half-truth or outrageous lie all showing up equally on the same page. The most emotional content is given priority by the social media programming as it provides more clicks and advertising revenue. In social media, the system may be free but the product is 'us', we are the content providers, and we are the product being sold to the highest bidder.
The problem with social media is the LYING- everyone acts as if they are experts with 50 years of research - that is what Trump did for the planet - made iit extinct
That's not where my Millennials get their news. Neither of my kids are even on social media. The couple of social media sites my son is on is for gamers and game designers. Nothing political.
We have always had media that was skewed — not all media, but a lot of it.
For awhile, we had news outlets that knew the difference between “news” and “commentary.”
A lot still do, but people don’t trust it any more and that is what DJT WANTS — zero trust in media, so everything he does will be deniable …
That’s the fascist “fake” appellation at work. ..
Then we see some slanted media sources, and we think everything they report is slanted, instead of that their COMMENTARIES take a left or rihgt view.
Actually, all this past winter, I was amazed at how the Wall Street Journal was providing some REALLY stellar reporting on their news pages, even while their editorials and op-eds were egregiously RIGHT wing.
THAT is what news reporting is about. Factual with context in the news — opinions and analysis going the way of interpretation, typically but not always with a distinctive slant. But commentary IS opinion, so …. Get used to it!
I think there’s more good reporting going on than people either know or admit, but it’s so much more appealing to discredit anything we would rather NOT believe … That way, we can nurse our favorite prejudices and feel sanctimonious about it.
I should amend what I said above. When I said you were lucky to have rules about speech I didn't mean it was good that you can't criticize your leaders. What I meant was that you're lucky that violent people are not allowed to threaten people.
I am aware of British Liable laws, and Trump wants the same laws here in the U.S,. Because he wants to sue anyone who speaks Truth about him.
OT: I am a, by avocation, a genetic genealogist, and I've traced my surname (originally Ferror) to Halifax Parish, West Yorkshire, 1440 CE.
As a consequence I am probably as familiar with the British Isles, including their speechways and particularly England as I am with the American continent, maybe even more so.
At this point sub stack and it's offering of the expertise of folks like professor Riech, Heather Cox Richardson , Asha Rangappa ,Paul kobaugh etc could now be considered awesome journalism. These folks are the ones studying at the ground level and then offering us their expertise and information. It's too bad the readership of the experts will dwarf in comparison of the random outraged influencer
While I love the substacks I subscribe to, the writers are free to state their biases either explicitily or implicitly. HCR for example, if read by a new non-biased reader, chould easily be made out to be a liberal. Same with Dr. Reich. But that's the thing. Truth has a liberal bias. Thank you Repubicans for making true and false a political thing. It is they with the obsolete and heartless world view who have to lie about it to be relevant.
I think we need to take a look at who can own what. It’s horrifying that Vanguard, BR and SS are allowed to own so much of our country. Hedge funds and Wall Street money management firms should not be owning things like media outlets, hospitals, even fire departments. The Republicans as well, over the years have undermined so much of the public good, a good example is that Medicare for years hasn’t paid for interfacility medically supervised transfers ie taking a bed ridden patient to their Dr.’s appts/minor medical procedures. That’s a big deal. Families are left to take them themselves or pay out of pocket and where does that leave those without families to foot the bill. It’s insidious how they’ve picked apart good legislation in every facet of society. Trump and those like him would probably sell the planet to some passing aliens intent on invading. It reeks of cynicism and a performative nihilism.
What lol, Hillary and the Clinton foundation are some of the biggest criminals in history of American government. Your minds are warped. Try researching both sides independently on your own and see what you find. And don't just use conventional news, use both conventional, independent, and foreign points of view
How confident are you that there will be persons/humans who will survive, such that they will have a history to look back and comment on? We have a lot of things boiling up around the world that are a major threats to our very existence and that of the planet.
Climate is a problem, and a lot of starvation is in order. Denial won't help.
But sooner than that is the election. More than half of all Americans aren't going to vote. Maybe 70M will vote for Trump, and 80M will vote for Biden. Then the SCOTUS will put Trump in office. Last night's nightmare showed me pieces of the Civil war to ensue. Could our military be convinced to shoot us, even in the legs (when Trump runs over to hold up his Bible). I might have to take sides, but I'm not trained to kill people. I might feel more comfortable with grenades over guns. That ruined my nights sleep, but it coming right up - 6 months. Americans don't seem to be getting any wiser. Can you imagine 100M people dead in the US.
I see your reasoning but I think that the abortion issues and the misbehavior of SCOTUS may increase the turnout certainly among the youth and female vote. The on the fence will account for a fair number and the disgusted Republicans will account for more votes than in 2020.. I think the biggest issues to deal with are last minute voter intimidation tactic utilizing AI, and SCOTUS along with the corruption of the legal system in regards to delays and budget strangulation/restrictions which will drag on all sorts of legal conflict filings.
I sense that the Trump crew knows they are going to lose on both the electoral and volume count...and they are going to go all out on the legal challenges and stirring up their gun toting militias along with violent protests leading to more political confusion and prosecutions and police corruption related incidences. They have been planning for all the contingencies.
I think law enforcement is just waiting in the wings to do stuff they really do wish they could everyday...as we saw in the violent assaults on the latest campus protests. This is scary stuff when there are fewer enforcement persons that feel they need to serve and protect the public, children, teens and students. Violently attacking 70 year old male and female professors with 5 or 6) 200 pound plus police officers, hell bent on delivering painful damage....No, this is not according to oaths of public service or protection.
It is classic brown shirt behavior. Their physical appearance and violent behavior is painfully telling.
I know that the media will cherry pick for effect and to sell advertising and generate viewership but when researching incidents all around the country...there is way too much with little control or accountability. Recruiting police officers is a difficult task and much easier to get violent types than thoughtful concerned individuals...for too many reasons...this is what concerns me most of all when it comes down to the protection of voters rights and the aftermath.
Thanks Henry. That is a thoughtful comment. The elements of danger are all over these issues. We've been lucky to have lived in as peaceful times, relatively speaking. Wishing you (and everyone really) the best.
If this latest stunt by Trump - bribing Big Oil directy - can be front page news for a while, and on Tik-Tok and other social media, it will make it to young folks. The most concerned of all our citizens about climate change are the young, for it is them who will be most affected. That would improve those numbers alot methinks. But I do not think this will boil to the top. Glad Dr. Reich dedicated a posting to it.
I agree. It's just another con by the supreme grifter. He's just trying to show the public how trivial the whole trial process is to him by pretending to be bored by it.
I am under no illusion that they think climate change is a hoax. They know it is real and simply don’t care. They want what they want and believe that they, with their money, are beyond destruction.
I see them as quite sad and desperate people. And desperate people are dangerous people.
Amen, I often ponder the same, it's so uncaring about the younger generation and the planets habitability, the world of nature on the chopping block of total destruction. Trump, the GOP or Mitch McConnell's, the "Grand OIe Poo Party" it's all about power, money and most certainly those they can hurt and the " other " and that it sees they value that above all else....I call it EVIL
What is even more interesting/disturbing is that even if the change in climate isn't human caused, that planet is warming. By taking steps to help it we can reduce that warming and make it a better planet to occupy. By moving to a more sustainable model, jobs will be created, technology will advance and we will have nicer weather. A win win!
@ VT Coletti. "when and how do we start to deal with the fact that our country is nearly evenly split," is BS brought to you by the media that craves a horserace. Get a dose of Hopium.
To make sure we cand expand. 70 million registered voters, who trend Democratic didn't show up the last time. Plus, To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
Simon says there are six things beyond 2020 that mitigate against Trump:
• That he raped E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room
• That he oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in American history, and owes hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and penalties
• That he stole America’s secrets, lied to the FBI about it all and shared those secrets with others. It was without question among the most grave security breaches in our history, and an extraordinary betrayal of the country by a former President
• That he tried to overturn an American election, led an armed insurrection against the Congress, fought to end American democracy for all time and has promised to finish the job if he somehow gets into the Oval Office next year
• That he and his family have, corruptly, taken more money from foreign governments than any political family in our history
• That he was singularly responsible for ending Roe and stripping the rights and freedoms away from the women of America; and last week confirmed, by embracing the states’ rights position, that he supports the most extreme abortion bans in the nation - this making him without question the most dangerous abortion extremist America has ever seen.
You have pointed out my talking points in discussing the candidate for president in 2024.
I also point out trump university and how even after he paid the fines involved still walked away with a million dollars.
This news about his meeting with top oil executives seems to be a solicitation for a billion dollar bribe. Is there in your opinion a way to bring charges against him for this activity?
The fact that Trump humpers still support him after years of picking their pockets, tells you all you need to know. Hillary was spot on when she called them a basket of deplorables, and that get outraged just like racists, sexist, fasicsts , homophobes get outraged when you call them out
Don't leave out that he is taking the first (or next?) steps in trying to establish a new monarchy. His followers read tabloids. As the Windsors fade, he is tapping Baron, poor kid, as his heir apparent.. to be presented at the GOP convention in Milwaukee. Baron von Trump? HRH? This isn't subtle folks.
But how can he be considered a commander and chief while still maintaining a closet full of top secret documents to use as leverage with other countries and saying …
-Trumps 2015 attack on McCain, in which he said the senator was “not a war hero” and declared, “I like people who weren’t captured”
- Trump had a long track record of incendiary and disparaging remarks about veterans and military service.
- Trumps history is filled with contradictions, of a man who denigrates his handpicked generals while saying no one supports the military more than he does, and of a commander in chief who questions the bravery of some soldiers even as he reversed disciplinary action against a Navy SEAL over the objections of Pentagon officials.
-Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018. Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
- there are too many insulting, unsupportive remarks by DT regarding our military to list. Why does any service person or veteran support him?
I think the potential loss of financial & health security from Republican attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid & ACA is underestimated as an issue against Trump & Republicans. It should be 1 of the major campaign issues of Biden & the Democrats, along with the environment/climate, civil rights (including access to abortion, contraception, marriage equality, etc.), & the existential threat to democracy that Trump, the GOP, Putin, etc. pose to the US & world.
All these issues have in common maintaining or improving conditions for the vast majority of Americans (Biden & the Democrats) vs. worsening conditions & denying benefits Americans are used to (Trump & the GOP).
Barron has been banned by his mother Melania from attending that convention. HE HASN'T EVEN GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL YET. They were trying to recruit him as a delegate. This was reported on NPR yesterday, 5/10. He is only 18 years old. God, there is NOTHING the Trump defamed and depraved won't do to destroy yet another young life, especially their own. I say, score one for Melania!
Daniel Solomon, there are more than six things mitigating against Trump but his followers don't believe any of them. There isn't a critical thinker amongst them.
Also Trump is known to have passed on US classified intelligence on Israeli military operations to Russian Ambassador to the US Kislyak & Foreign Minister Lavrov, which I believe was eventually passed onto Hamas to use for their attack on Israel on Putin's birthday with savagery reminiscent of Russian atrocities against Ukraine. No one benefited as much from that act as Putin (less global attention on his war on Ukraine, which turned in his favor), followed by Trump (dissension in US over Israeli-Palestinian conflict, weakening Biden & helping Trump's electoral chances) &, for the time being, Netanyahu (suspension of his criminal trials, & lengthening & empowering his presidency).
Hi Tom—I read the article in Counterpunch. It has great points. We do live in a dystopian world—and it is hard to see what one can do to change things….I didn’t see constructive steps to make progress against the current f**ked up situation. I will need to further research the publication to learn what they feel the solution is.
In the meantime I am supporting Biden. I do believe the man has done what he can with what he’s been dealt to improve the lives of all Americans while also confronting bullies around the world.
Please. The man has aided and abetted a genocide, provoked a disastrous war in Ukraine, and claims to support climate action while refusing to declare an emergency and continuing to push fracked gas to the world.
The best thing you can say about Genocide Joe is that he isn’t Trump, and is better than Clinton/Obama. But that’s a mighty, mighty low bar to clear.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine was totally unprovoked, & simply an attempt to grab land, kill Ukrainians & replace with Russians, part of their multi-century insatiable obsession to expand empire.
Almost certainly Putin was in on, if not the mastermind of, the plan for Hamas to attack Israel on his birthday, with the same level of barbarity as Russia's war on Ukraine. It took away global attention on his war on Ukraine, lessened international support for Ukraine, turned the tide of war in his favor, caused internal dissension in the US, reduced support for Biden & enhanced Trump's chances of getting back in power, all of which benefited Putin & some of which benefited his puppet Trump.
It's not Genocide Joe at all, but Genocide Vlad & possibly Genocide Bibi.
You’re delusional. And a fool. And blind. And an empire simp.
Caitlin Johnstone lays out your propagandized mindset in this section from her latest post:
“It’s hard to understand the tyranny of a system that relies on propaganda and manipulation as opposed to overt totalitarianism, in the same way it can be harder to recognize a psychologically abusive relationship than a physically abusive one.
You grow up learning that if a man puts his hands on a woman she needs to get the hell out of there, but you can live your entire adult life in a relationship where your partner twists your mind into knots to bend you to his will without recognizing what’s happening. In exactly the same way, we grow up learning about Evil Dictatorships in other countries where dissent is banned and the government controls the populace with an iron fist, but we can go our entire lives without recognizing that we are ruled by powerful people who use mass-scale psychological manipulation to exert an even greater degree of control over us.
The truth is we live in a highly abusive mind-controlled dystopia where people’s thoughts, words and actions are largely predetermined by an information system controlled by powerful plutocrats and empire managers, and the genius of it is that it controls us to a greater degree than overt tyranny ever could while at the same time giving us the collective delusion that we are free.
We are indoctrinated from childhood by corrupt education systems which construct the mainstream empire-authorized worldview inside our skulls, and that worldview is continually bolstered, steered, and added onto throughout adulthood from every direction we’ve been trained to get our information from. The news media are controlled by wealthy oligarchs with a vested interest in preserving the political status quo upon which their wealth is premised. Silicon Valley tech plutocrats quickly learn that living the high life is a lot easier for them if they collaborate with US government agencies and help protect the information interests of the US-centralized empire. Wealthy elites control mainstream culture by restricting which people and what ideas are given a platform in the culture-manufacturing centers of New York and Los Angeles.
We grow up thinking we are free, but in a very real sense people are less free in our society than they are under a proper dictatorship: under a standard dictatorship people’s minds are freer, because people know they are not free. In our society people think, speak, vote, shop, work and behave exactly how the powerful want them to, mindlessly regurgitating political opinions that were inserted into their brains by their rulers and sincerely believing they came up with it themselves.
A quote from Chomsky:
“Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.”
Another quote from Chomsky:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
Another:
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.””
No. But nice try. It applies especially to Clinton, Bush, and Biden. Less so to Obama and Trump. None of the presidents before Clinton. He is the one who put NATO expansion into hyperdrive, and also turned it from a defensive alliance into an offensive war agent, see Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, etc.
Tom, I read the article, some valid points, many unsubstantiated rants with no discussion of Biden/harris achievements , or recommendations for bettering the government, At this point in history we have to deal with what we have. No administration is perfect. Biden/Harris had to come into a complete shit show left by Trump who did nothing to acknowledge or help with the transition, and try and govern. Here is a list of some of their accomplishments
What it comes down to is, who are you going to vote for in the next Presidential election? How are you going to use all of the tools in your citizens civil toolbox to help make this a better government?
Please do not insult my intelligence by attempting to make the case for the current administration’s accomplishments by linking a white house website. Pravda much?
Deal with what we have. No administration is perfect. Blah, blah, blah.
Joe Biden aided and abetted a genocide, and continues to do so. That alone should disqualify him from receiving a single vote from anyone other than a racist Zionist.
As of now, I will be casting my vote for Jill Stein, the only candidate with a viable electoral map path to the presidency who isn’t a warmonger, and the only one who is willing to confront the evil that is the American Empire, and actually relishes the thought of taking on the oligarchs who currently run our government. Biden is in bed with them, Trump wants to be them, and RFK, Jr has sold his soul to the Israeli lobby.
Please don’t talk to me about better government if you mean voting for a Democrat in an electoral system rigged to protect monied interests by the duopoly. There are three ways we will get better government: Voting against the duopoly, general strikes by workers, mass nonviolent civil disobedience.
I can’t strike because I’m retired, but do support striking workers when I have the opportunity. Have voted write in/independent/third party in every presidential election save one since 1984. Been arrested for CD several times, and probably will be again. What’s in your toolbox?
"Democracy Doesn't Exist, but We'll Miss it When it's Gone," (Astra Taylor). Actually, I think the counterpunch article by Street is off. The repression that would come down on climate activists and others would make it impossible to make a revolution. Kind of like asking for your house to be burned down, with you in it. At least the house has been destroyed. Great.
Your comment is what is off. Revolutions are always impossible to make, until they happen.
Were every liberal who claims to be antiwar actually voted for Jill Stein, an actual peace candidate, instead of casting a cowardly vote for a corporate-owned empire manager, that revolution might be sparked, difficult as it might be to win.
Your house-burning metaphor is flawed. Think of it this way. The plumbing system in your house is compromised; the copper piping is weak from continued exposure to hard water, and regularly springs a leak from pinhole leaks. Your response is to call a plumber and patch/replace the leaking section instead of accepting the fact that the reasonable (and revolutionary) path is to replace the entire system, difficult as that might be financially.
We have been in a 50-year cycle of the ratchet effect driving the country further and further to the right. We elect a Democrat to fix the GOP leaks, but they can’t fix the real problem, because their corporate owners won’t allow it, so the leaks not only continue (Bush), they get worse (Trump).
You do what you will. My moral compass won’t allow me to vote for anyone complicit in the perpetuation of a genocide. Ever.
And bless your propagandized American, zero comprehension, tribal liberal lemming, just here to kiss the Genocide Joe Lie’n Biden ring, ignorant and foolish heart.
No, they were just run of the mill war criminals in pursuit of American hegemony, at the behest of the people who really run the country.
That’s different from genocide, one of the its features being intent. The presidents you named killed to control resources and markets, not to completely eliminate/ethically cleanse a people.
It’s not evenly split. Polls are not reliable. It’s about 18-28% that are die hard Trump. The rest are still deciding and it is part of our responsibility to have dialogue with others, listen respectfully, and find common ground. MTG and the other hard right have abdicated their responsibility to do this in Congress.
It's a loaded word but we have had to "deprogram" people with hateful views before. "Don't Be a Sucker" - US National Archives - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAqYNFQdZ4
Thank you, Sam, for the YouTube link, which I watched, and then subscribed to the National Archives site. ‘Don’t be a sucker’ will now on be my advice to the Trumpers.
Thank you for the link to the Department of the Army’s ‘Sucker’ film. It should be required watching in high school Civics or 20th Century History. Many have commented on various SubStacks the former is no longer taught in many school districts.
A good read from the same time period is the War Department’s 1945 pamphlet Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet 64 ‘Fascism!’. My understanding is it was required reading during basic training for soldiers being sent to Europe to better understand what had happened and why. Essentially, why the United States fought Germany and Italy. It happened once and it can happen again.
As long as we’re talking suckers here, might as well put the cards on the table: Americans are some of the biggest suckers on earth when it comes to propaganda, and liberals are just as susceptible as the average Trumper.
When you say liberals are just as susceptible as the average Trumper are you including atheists/agnostics, as most of us are liberal/progressive. The only way this country will be truly great for all is when the non-believers [humanists] are a super majority.
DJT would welcome the Anthropocene extinction if he’s elected again. He is a small fish in so far as his wealth and power are concerned in relation to, say, the top twenty-five individuals, their families, or their corporations that own and control much of the planet. It is not unrealistic to think that a very small number of entities don’t already control and own perhaps half of everything in some way. It is entirely possible, probable, and perhaps inevitable that if we as humans keep allowing a handful of entities with so much power over billions of fellow humans and the ability to do in the environment to the point that we, as a species, do go extinct, that we should please consider who to vote for in November. Some say we are already on the road to nowhere regarding our longevity as humans. Thanks for pointing out the ongoing destruction of the environment. In the battle of Earth vs. humans, it’s clear who will win.
Do you really think Musk is thinking of terraforming Mars? Far simpler and more cost-effective to terraform - well - Terra, or at least something much more local to Terra and built from the "ground up." Months back, I speculated he might be toying with the idea of developing orbital "mansions" and other support facilities, like orbital factories and farming facilities that serve as private prisons holding a captive slave labor force, to which convicts can be deported outside considerations of national citizenship or law. Mind you, that's just speculation - but I have no doubt such a thing has crossed someone's mind. My point is that Musk can see what's happening and his whole "heroic" enterprise in developing space travel is an attempt to get away from what he considers inevitable.
DZK, sadly, who knows what may happen in the future. I don’t know. What you wrote may or may not happen; unfortunately, as history has shown, we humans seem to have the propensity to abuse many things when wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a small number of beings. Today’s letter warned of possibilities that could happen if Donald Trump is elected to be the president again. Covid-19, for many, was nature’s way of warning humanity of our folly with the environment since the start of the industrial age. In November, voters have to decide who they want to be president. According to our understanding of the Earth through science, it is perhaps not infinite but has a known long history. Surely, history has shown us species have come and gone over time. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have grandiose ideas about things. For many of us who labored for our existence, and there are billions of us on the planet, capitalism has been both a curse for many and a blessing for a small percentage of humanity. All of us, however, as a species, are guilty (directly or indirectly) of extrapolating non-renewable resources from the environment, which is unstainable. Donald Trump and Elon Musk may be many things to many people. Still, neither is a savior to the United States nor Earth regarding their continued support for the further depletion of a livable environment in favor of earth-bound and pie-in-the-sky nonsense by both gentlemen.
As I say in the comment: "Mind you, that's just speculation - but I have no doubt such a thing has crossed someone's mind." Indeed, it >has< crossed someone's mind - in old Science Fiction. And make no mistake, scientists and entrepreneurs - like Musk - have openly discussed getting ideas from Sci-Fi. Take the first "flip phones," the RAZR in particular, that was inspired by the Start Trek communicator. It has now developed into a fully functional simulacrum, within the scope of current technology. Apparently, even NASA consulted with J. Michael Straczynski to discuss his vision of the space station support technology he presents in the Babylon 5 series. The "rail gun" is part of the Babylon 5 space station's armament, that the Navy has been developing and testing. The movie "Screamers" is another example that speculates on autonomous drone-like military weapons:
And trying to mine asteroid resources are a topic of serious discussion at this moment, as well as the notion of space mining platforms, processing plants, and even factories in service to serving some kind of space borne launch platforms for planetary exploration.
(And let's not forget space-based, space tourist hotels that have been in the wind for some time, now. It's a simple step to orbital mansions, from there.)
Fact is, much of this stuff is feasible within the constraints of current technology, and future developments in AI may likely make some of the spookier stuff even more so.
Now, don't get me wrong!
I say stay skeptical but keep your mind open to speculation. It may not come to pass in either of our lifetimes, but as I make clear at the outset of this response: ". . . I have no doubt such a thing has crossed someone's mind."
(And they could conceivably pull such things off!)
“Concerning the Earth” itself, there is some evidence that the earth ‘ s natural meteorological propensity to maintain its normal stability or homeostasis is as if Mother Nature is fighting back. There are, of course several people in several fields around the world that also are trying with some success to basicly aid in that fight.
Thanks for the feedback. Some scientific and actual event documentaries in the hands of responsible media and journalists reporting on homeostasis is much appreciated. Some of the more obscure plans for things like solar shields inhabited floating space arcs, etc., all seem like a waste of resources concerning earth-bound things. The problem with both inner and outer space is we as a species don’t agree on a common approach to change our consumption habits from now on to reduce our depletion of raw materials we can’t readily replace at the rate we’re gobbling them up at.
I concur and share your fear...too many people and too much divisiveness but one driving factor in common perhaps... the need for $'s so as to have control over one's survival/destiny in today's world. That control... is the key.
vr colleti ; the last 7 elections have been won by blue voters. I don't believe that our nation is split evenly. There may be some cheating. In a free and fair election, tRUMP is a loser!
True, but in the last 15 Congresses, the Democrats controlled both chambers in only 3. It's very hard for Biden or any Democratic president to accomplish worthwhile things when the Republicans control one or both chambers of Congress. I read somewhere that the blue voters are concentrated into fewer Congressional districts than red voters. Also, the Republicans are good at gerrymandering the Congressional map to favor them!
Tim : yes, they are good at cheating! Look at Bush v Gore. Look at what we have for a DOJ! See the topic of today's forum! It is a fact that new laws are being made in many states to further corrupt our voting system! "Justice" cannot keep up with them! To think that we were all upset when McConnell et al denied Merrick Garland a Supreme Court position! Now Look at it! Tfg boasts about stacking the Court and giving US Reversal of " settled" law!! They don't even allow a debate on voting rights! While the DOJ is asleep at the wheel! Tfg is going to be a dictator on day one! And the partisan "Supreme" Court is having a hard time deciding whether he should have or could have Immunity from being held accountable for even murder! A guy who has shown who he really is, over and over again!
Tim; Yes. It looks like slow walking. Threats and intimidation can be effective. If there is just one win in this election interference/ "Hush money" case, it could hurt his chances with some of his voters. It makes me sick to hear the media drumbeat that this "may be the only case" to be prosecuted fully with a verdict before the election. It is going well. And should be resolved before the election. Frustrating that the billionaire owned media controls and defines the message.they don't really ask the hard hitting questions. Like who will ask if the Supreme Court had the right to remove the 14th amendment section 3 disqualification clause.? Especially when a Lot of those in Congress and the courts have violated their oaths of office. And should have been removed long ago! They are disabled and disqualified! This is a huge flaw in our governing and justice system placing US at the mercy of criminals!
But it still won’t be fair. GOP in red states and swing states have not only gerrymandered, they dis-enroll voters for signature “mismatches,” install election officials who are ready to disavow results, and recruited armed volunteers to harass people at the polls. I despair.
Republicans are helped by the Electoral College, allowing this mess to develop over time, with the gross imbalance and corruption we see today. Ethics,& Honor, along with the will to support the Common Good, have gone out of fashion It's now rapidly Fascist! At least at the top!
And let's not forget our fine Supreme Court which in 2000 decided that they should give the vote to Republican by the name of bush. Yeah the inferior Catholic upper Court has been added for some time.
Vr, I couldn’t have said it better myself. It really amazes me that so many millions are ready to give up our democracy for this terrible person. I worry every day.
And the horrible fact of Gaza and AIPAC pouring billions into political campaigns and exploiting USA. We give them money and they lobbying our politicians to work for them
vr colletti - i do believe we are in fascist lite, that is, when corporations and oligarchs collude with gov't institutions to pre-empt democratic laws and norms. We have a corrupt supreme court, a corrupt right half of the congress, and an administration (like many others) that flouts or ignores the rule of law (in biden's case, international law). fascist complete will occur soon, i fear. elon musk with is starlink satellites is particularly frightening, as our military apparently makes use of them. that's right, a private citizen sells satellite time to the military. also, i just read that an american "private contractor" will be awarded a contract to run the rafah border crossing with egypt. i guess they underbid the wagner group?
The issue is that the other 50% cannot or will not see the pattern and where it is leading. They think Trump will not hurt them, ever. What they fail to foresee, is that if you end up disagreeing with a certain policy he proposes as he gets even more unbridled, that he will eat his own and at that point, no one will be safe. Those who were not Jews in Hitler’s Germany, at first thought they were safe. How well did that go for the general public? The same pattern is forming here. Too many let him get away with ever increasing acts or language. It will not end until he’s started to attack his own in mass, either figuratively or literally.
And not only do we need to fear the oligarchs, but the GOP in red states is kicking millions of BIPOC and other likely Democrats off the voting rolls. They are enlisting armed volunteers to harass voters of color and others at the polls. They have installed MAGAs in key positions that enable them to refuse to accept voting results.
I think we could win on the basis of pure votes. Maybe barely. But with all of this?
I get your post. And it certainly would be nice to be able to just overcome our amygdala’s freeze/fear/anger via our prefrontal cortex. Oh wait, our PFC isn’t the leader in our devastated brains! 🤪
If we were not already at the top of the outrage scale, this breathless essay is giving us a boost over it. It almost goes without saying that Trump and his greedy, blood-thirsty executive acolytes must be declared traitors to the United States and have their vast wealth confiscated to support the common good. They must be cancelled from social media and prosecuted to the full extent of the law which they happily flout. For Trump himself, solitary confinement sans technology is the optimal punishment; death would be too good for him.
Prof. Reich, please re-post ths essay as often as possible up until November concluding with a big, bold VOTE BLUE!
I always wonder, do these execs have any kids? Do they care for their future? I ascribe their actions to wilful ignorance- they don't stop to think what longer term consequences to the Earth their actions have. They are undoubtedly a group pre-selected for their single minded pursuit of profit. And that might be okay if we had a government of, by, and for the people and not for vested interests. Deepest kimshi here folks.
This guy's name is really Mad Max and he wants to destroy not only America but the rest of the world and bring it to its knees. Let's face it this is Hitler number two coming our way quickly.
We are NOT evenly split! The right wing owns the media. Stop repeating that!
A deadly seditionist, rapist, womens rights violator, LGBTQIA hater, dog hater, psychopath is evenly split with Biden who gave us $1.2 infrastructure pkg that has been astounding, 500 mil Covid shots at no expense, cut child poverty in half (Amer Rescue Plan) $369B fir Climate Change issues, respect for Marriage Act on & on
How many women & LGBTQIA are out there! Biden has made some bad delayed calks on GAZA IMO and the way he addressed student protest wasn’t done well, MAGAs aren’t nearly as large as Dems. Not even close. The Rt wing media is pushing this. Refute it!
Trump is de-funding his own party member campaigns for himself! He’s a convicted rapist and deadly seditionist inciter who insults Vets. All of these groups hate Trump and way more in his party than will admit they won’t vote for sleepyhead diaper pants to sit in the oval office.
The media and judges are the places to pour on pressure.
My mother (deceased at age 90, ten years ago) used to say 3 things: 1) Education, education, education, 2) Gross money is always behind every gross injustice, and 3) Never trust anyone who hasn’t loved a dog. Now, doesn’t that explain pretty much everything right now? (She’s turning in her grave.)
When this mess he created is all over trumpet 🎺 will Declare Victory By Claiming “Look At All The Money I Made Marketing My Brand Millions and Millions of Dollars That Grateful Citizens have Given Me “ …
YES, it does. I should find my fabric markers to write this on a t-shirt. On second thought, "no", it would be better to reuse some ugly red hats. May your beloved mother rest in peace.
The fact that delay tactics have allowed justice to be denied before the upcoming election is very troubling. Why is the open and shut documents case being sat upon by the newbie judge/sycophant of the accused!? Installed by him!
Absolutely maddening! There should be large font headlines and protests coast to coast!
They say her assignment to the case was random, but I have my doubts. How is it she has presided over both stages of this case? Especially why was she allowed to take this 2nd stage after having flubbed up the first stage, even reprimanded. And shouldn't there be some prohibition against a judge presiding over a case involving someone who appointed her, especially since the case could determine whether he becomes President again, where he'll be I'm position to promote her? Such a flagrant conflict of interest, just like the conflict of interest Clarence Thomas has judging a case over matters in which his wife was involved. Recusal for such cases should be mandatory, not voluntary. Our justice system is really screwed.
trumps psychological issues aren't as well-known as you think. Not seeing how they can & are being used against him reveals you don't understand the psych as well as you think either.
I agree with you, Sam. Trump’s dementia is escalating and stress will only increase his obvious cognitive decline. Keep the pressure on! The court cases are the best pressure of all.
Much better for us to turn up the pressure now, before the election. Once he’s in the WH, his dementia could lead to even more catastrophic damage.
Oddly, his delay tactics are effectively doing just that - keeping the pressure on. Consider being securely bound to railroad tracks in front of an oncoming train. Does slowing the train down a bit relieve the pressure to escape?
You said Trump's psychological issues aren't as well known as I think and I don't understand "the psych"? You have zero basis for making those assertions. None.
Trump's psychological issues *are* well known. Just ask his niece Mary Trump, who knows him. She has been on TV may times talking about her uncle's psychological problems. She knows him, and is herself a psychologist.
Perhaps we as consumers (money supplying public) can do something about that? Get back to basics. Money, supply and demand. They want our money...and we can demand better behavior?
Unfortunately I somewhat agree with that assessment. Somehow the government with a majority of the populations help has to find a way to take back control of the country and I am not certain that is any longer an possibility. "Don't ask what your country can do for you..."
100 - The reason they attack, fear & try to take over gov is it's the only thing powerful enough to stop them or even make them behave in a civilized way.
>Exactly!< And >that's< been the Republican platform for at least half a century. "Government is not the solution; it's the problem." (Ronald McReagan, 1980 or therabout)
Yes...I agree...but Gov't doesn't have the resources to effectively deal with these individuals/problems in a timely manner. And, there is the Republican messaging that constantly says that "Gov't is too big..." When in fact, you and I know that isn't true as clearly evidenced by the reality that is in front of us every day.
And they may have won... now that they have the Supreme Court, the Republican party, and a radical contingent of law enforcement, military, and gun owing followers, who have been manipulated into demonizing all those that are perceived/messaged, to be a threat?
It could start with the good folks at A.G Edwards no longer donating to my Republican representative who votes to destroy the planet. They brag about their last 100 years. What about the next 100?
It is in fact a quid pro quo, and one would think highly illegal given the terms. However as per usual nobody does anything.
Same as with Canon remaining on the stolen documents case despite her blatant favoritism for the defendant.
Lest we not forget what’s happening in Gaza, yes Hamas needs to be held accountable for the October 7th attacks. But not at the expense of thousands of innocent civilians.
It’s all just another day in this broken world we inhabit.
Make no mistake there is still plenty of good to be found, but as each day passes it gets buried beneath the slew of injustices.
I only hope that at some point the scales will be put back into balance, preferably before I’ve passed on from this earth.
If the former guy isn't openly soliciting a bribe, he's certainly walking right up to 18 USC 201 and poking it with a stick and taunting it.
Hey, just for fun, let's call John Roberts, of Citizens United infamy, and see what his thoughts are about campaign contributions for explicit actions by an elected official.
John Roberts answer? Corporations are people. People are simply surfs that's why we need to take this country back to 1600 so we can reinstitute surfdom again. John Roberts is the answer to the question- who's the stupidest of them all?
"But isn’t this an out-and-out bribe? And aren’t bribes illegal? Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet." Bribery is very much alive and well.: look at the "Supreme" Court! : Citizens United! We are already well down that slippery slope!
Marge: makes "The perils of Pauline" look like a girl scout picnic! If I don't laugh, I could cry! I think my blood pressure is up! But I'm hoping we will beat stupid!! 💓 We outnumber them! I don't even need an AR-15 to kick their asses! Knowledge is power! And a LOT of US 🇺🇸 vote! 🗳
“But isn’t this an out-and-out bribe? And aren’t bribes illegal? Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet.”
It’s a pact with the devil! The world’s worst polluters, collaborating with the man who is destroying our republic from within. What could possibly go wrong? It’s a rhetorical question, no need to answer.
Stephen Miller recently said, “Trump is a fashion icon!” I couldn’t agree more: No one would look as “fabulous” in a new orange jumper than Trump!”
And no man more deserving a jail cell, than Trump, and his minions….:)
He won that long ago. At least in the US. Putin still has him beat on the international stage. But if we give him another chance, Trump will surely give it a good try.
It is more like a crime against humanity when factoring in the scientific proven danger to human existence and destruction of the earths basic ecosystem. There are international courts that would better deal with this type of behavior and they could rightfully open a very extensive and costly (to the accused) if they wanted...we will see if they are up to it or just not interested in doing the job. These are very real threats against humanity and should be taken seriously as all the proof is in the public domain.
I wrote to my congresswoman about Trump's violation of the Logan Act and got back a mealy-mouthed answer. (She's a Democrat too.) We need Jack Smith to get on this issue.
There is not an inch, an ounce, a particle of anything good about trump. He is the most despicle so called human on this planet. He’s a repulse rapist. How could any female find him attractive? Not even one member of his family goes to his trial. God help us.
Thank God Trumplestiltskin's sealed his own defeat, according to my calculation by 11 million votes. Last time he was in power we witnessed 1 million MAGA-deaths due to his stupid refusal to listen to solid scientific advice about Covid-19. This time if he's "re-elected" it'll be 1 billion MAGA-deaths all over planet Earth due to his stupid refusal to listen to solid scientific advice about climate change.
He was defeated once and...he is still not gone. He and his crew will not be defeated...they will have to be de-fanged... but will always exist. It's just something we need to deal with...which we aren't doing so well, at this present time.
AND, he abolished the pandemic planning office at a time when more and more pathogens are in the rise. Among the millions who didn’t die from Trump’s covid mismanagement are millions with long covid, many disabled.
60 years ago during the Cuban missile crisis my scientist father reassured me that humanity would not end with a nuclear war. He said it would be some virus that mutated into something that was highly contagious and couldn’t be prevented or cured.
Trump has so many options to end humanity - war, environmental destruction and/or disease. And he’s working on all three.
Trump promises to abolish all planning & preparation for the next pandemic, too, which could come quite soon, considering how the latest bird flu has been behaving.
When Deep Throat said, "Follow the money", he paved a path for every investigative reporter on the planet. You don't have to investigate Trump to deeply, he follows the money to corporate headquarters, then sells his "leadership" to the highest bidder. They need to remember, liars don't have terms, they just say what is needed to get what they want, then do what they want to anyway. The rotten orange one smells bad, but if the stench is in the money pile, people will follow, even as the flood waters rise.
NPD is not treatable, which is characteristic of inherited traits. This does not imply that his parents had NPD any more than in the case other inherited conditions. The haplogroups all came together in Donald, so he has the condition. In the context of evolution, he is a highly evolved social predator. If not highly evolved, how come no one seems able to stop him?
Here's the bottom line. It's not a hard problem. We need a Constitutional amendment to screen and bar social predators like Trump, Hitler, Stalin, you name it from public office. That's it. Just one more bar to the Presidency for a total of 3.
And to undo the damage he's already done, expand the SCOTUS bench. And to undo the damage the GOP has done, overturn Citizens United.
These are not hard problems. The only difficulty lies in bringing them into the conversation and planning a strategy to get them done. They absolutely, positively must get done to save democracy.
Speaking of Hitler, i keep hoping that slimy, vile, corrupt psychopath Donald TUMP meets the same fate that Hitler did. That seems to be the only solution to stop the horrible SOB. He is much worse threat than a rabid animal is.
We must find a way to identify sociopaths & psychopaths early on & prevent them from getting into executive positions in government, corporations, military, clergy, etc.
Bingo! There are brain scans that reveal distinct differences between typical and psychopathic individuals. Put these together with Dr. Robert Hare's "Psychopathy Checklist" (PCL) and we would have a good redundant test suite. According to his colleague Dr. Paul Babiak, however, the PCL is currently approved only for use during the sentencing phase of a criminal trial -- far too late in the game for preventive applications.
The outcry, of course, will be sympathetic to psychopaths and call out invasion of privacy, intrusive government, etc. as the millions -- more likely billions -- of daily suffering victims of psychopaths look on in hopeful suspense.
He will sell America for parts. See Gaslit nation, thanks Andrea Chalupa and Sarah Kendizor for clearly spelling this out since 2016. He will then stop all aid to Ukraine and give extra aid to Netanyahu and Putine, effectively selling off Europe too…
Why not? If you own nothing - sell it - Right? In some ways (not good ones) trump is the reincarnation of PT Barnum, 'There's a sucker born every minute!' He promised to build a fence along our southern border and get Mexico to pay for it (He had 40 miles of ~3500 mile built and he stole that money [15 billion in part from the military) He promised a return of jobs for his MAGA cult (Biden supplied those jobs - not Trump)
When you have no intention of delivering anything promises are easy. He rarely paid sub contractors who worked on his hotels and casinos. He declared bankruptcy 6 times. But he is such a slick blue suede shoes salesman the suckers will believe anything.
Sociopaths and other deviants exist and always will. The program should be to accept that fact and find an effective way to render them somewhat harmless. But due to the lack of quality education of the masses and the training to be a critical thinkers, the masses can be easily manipulated...thus we have to deal with this nonsense until we either fix the education issue or...
Yours was one of the most cogent comments I've seen in a long time.
Your use of the word "deviants" made me smile. And to "render them somewhat harmless" was a more diplomatic way of saying what I would have said more crudely, and less effectively.
As you said, "The lack of education, especially in critical thinking leads people to be easily manipulated" (I'm paraphrasing) is a profound concept. Trump manipulates, exploits and takes advantage of such people. I've seen TV reporters interview some Trump supporters on the streets, and they often mangle the English language and speak provable nonsense.
I can't think of a word horrific enough to describe Trump and his exploitation of vulnerable people.
I suppose there has always been deviants and uneducated people, but what is different these days is how one sociopath, Trump, manipulates them, thus creating a massive cult. Almost like a religious cult. Maybe not even "almost". I think it is a cult.
I better stop before I say something so bad about Trump I will later regret.
This is beyond frightening….. it seems that every time a post is written about what Trump said or what he plans to do, the world becomes a scarier place. And, there are too many that worship him. And, the only way he will win is to cheat the system, which he will (is) do(ing). And, he won’t accept a loss (should that happen) anyway! So here we are…..
what worries me, which i don't think that we, collectively, really know how to deal with, is the absolutely confounding reality that soooooo many millions of americans WANT to vote for this man (if we can call him a man; in my view, he is truly a monster) ...
i think everything in your piece exposes the fundamental problem in america : billionaires control the destiny for all of us and are so self-consumed by their own blood-thirsty greed that they are willing to literally destroy the planet simply to further their own obnoxious amount of wealth and power ...
when and how do we start to deal with the fact that our country is nearly evenly split, where nearly half of us actually WANT the country to fall towards becoming a fascist dictatorship ???
Part of that problem is that there are so many of them that also think the climate problem is a hoax. I can never understand how these people - most of who are grandparents- can so willingly throw away the planet in the face of their own family.
This article is clearly who Trump is. History will not look kindly on our country if he is allowed to get back in the office. Shame on all that help him - especially the ones that are willing to further destroy the planet for a quick buck.
Remember: ...
The purpose of The #Media is to MAKE MONEY. And close political races make by far the most.
So the media MAKE THEM CLOSE ARTIFICIALLY, e.g. 2016, protecting scumbag Trump and relentlessly attacking Hillary.
Truth rarely makes a profit. And the Media are destroying the planet just as surely as Big Oil, just for money
Except, give the Washington Post credit for reporting this. What we voters do with the information is up to us.
Democracy dies behind a paywall.
They have to pay the reporters, and all the expenses incurred, to investigate and write the stories. A subscription to the Washington Post is modestly priced, and for me well worth it.
Yes, legitimate journalism isn’t free, but it’s our most-trustworthy source of news.
I understand. I read the post for 30 years .When It went to subscription. I decided I just didn’t need to read it anymore. Plus which I can’t stand, Jeff Bezos
Yes, but....subscriptions and pay walls are the smallest part of the media revenue stream. The real money is in advertising dollars. As was pointed out above, it's all about hyping everything they can hype: horse-race politics, lurid headlines, misleading teasers, and so on, all to pull in clicks and eyes. The more attention that's paid, the more advertisers are willing to spend. With only a few exceptions, all media outlets of all types trade in such practices. The NY Times, even, is getting worse with that every day. There's no incentive to report factually and objectively. Spin is everywhere, and is ramping up constantly.
I consider it a donation to protect America
THAT is crucial, Carolyn. Advertising has changed so drastically since the Internet came on the scene, first slowly, and now EXPLOSIVELY. The news has always been supported by advertising that wanted a vehicle to carry it to the people. Journalism strove to keep a wall between advertisers and news editors and reporters {and I know they did, in the greater part, because I come from a journalism family working in those trenches for more than seventy years all together …}
But ads now go to so many other venues to find the eyes they used to find on the brooadsheet page … People getting their news online do not want it broken up with “commercials” that remind them of TV — neither do they want web sites tracking their interests and directing “targeted” ads at them, nor do they want to access their news by “subscription” to get past a paywall.
Now that we’re not looking at newspapers, we don’t seem ready t accept ANY mode for getting the news-gathering-and-writing business a pay check.
I personally think the paywall method is the toughest, providing abundant and quality information only to those who can afford to subscribe to a ton of sources, news gathering, commentary, analysis …
I actually don’t mind a few ads, if a site will let me read and watch…
What do people propose we replace those newspapers with, so the reporting and editing and presenting can happen?
We've ALWAYS paid for News but we had the Fairness Doctrine so you weren't forced to hunt down 20 versions of a story to see which facts line up.
There are some benefits to being forced to being more sceptical given the garbage that's out there. But it takes more effort to reach a level of trust in the information you read, for sure.
It seems like much else anything free is so diluted with ads and "garbage" that you have to pay for quality. And thus you get a 2 tiered society where those who have less ability to pay are subjected to the garbage, can't cross the toll bridge to get to point X, world view made smaller, etc. Fortunately PBS is widely available. 4 different channels over the air - the regular, the international?, the kids, and the creative channel.
Steve, a subscription to WaPo costs only $4 every 4 weeks, or $40 a year, and you can unsubscribe at any time. They have been sending me hundreds of articles for at least a year, you just don't get to read all of the contents. I have been putting off subscribing, but am taking the plunge because I want to read the full article(s). And I think the really great part about it is that there is no commenting, and thus no trolls! It's not a social media website. I started with them because I wanted to read the Sunday special column about the Trump Trials. They even do daily coverage now of all the proceedings. I think I've gotten a pretty good deal already, for not paying anything! :-)
That's fine. I'm not trying to encourage or discourage anyone from reading WaPo. It's a good paper. I'm just speaking for myself. I don't subscribe to much though I did to The Atlantic a few months ago.
I've noticed our St louis paper the Post Dispatch which I subscribe to recently got rid of the ability of readers to post comments on articles and LTEs. Just as well IMO.
Trump only won for media profit. Obscene
Yes---they gave him at least tens of millions in free publicity in 2016, and continue to do so constantly.
Too much of the press is despicable. Instead of giving us the Event X, they will lead off with Trump says this about Event X, letting him define the event. I don't care much what Trump or Musk etc have to say.
Like what? Vote? That doesn't seem to be nearly enough apparently.
We DO have trustworthy media.
If we demonize ALL media as though it were a giant monolith, we would have to believe there is NO way to hear the truth, and we might as well pull the turf over our heads.
I think totally and absolutely talking about media as a lost cause completely plays into the hands of the fascists -- it is THEIR mantra, pushed by the ultimate fascists, the Nazis.
I think we need to knock it off.
I respectfully disagree. Especially after the super-rich reduced the number of mass media news owners from 50 in 1980 to 5 now.
And then the internet started killing the the profits of those same conglomerates after 2000, they were screaming desperate.
https://gyazo.com/f7a3622d86e42fabf9f03f46f5b3dd56
The Guardian is independent global news that is free to read. And a donation helps keep them thriving.
I have had a paid susbscription to the Guardian for years now. A truly great newspaper for both UK and USA.
Thanks for the graph William. There are only 5 owners of the corporate media. I've dug into the five and ultimately the major shareholders are Vanguard, Black Rock and State Street, and they also are majority shareholders in everything from Banks, Manufacturing and Petro Chemical industry.. In other words USA Inc.
You can’t cut off your nose to spite your face - climate change is real and coming at a fierce rate - these same media, bank and oil
Companies have families - the air will be rotten for them just like us.
Pat, I am not being argumentative, but could you give a couple examples of Trustworthy Media.
For instance the NYT is called liberal, because it's reporters and journalists actually do their job and report facts, However it's editorial board is ultra conservative to Trump humping,
And editors kill stories or have them rewritten to reflect their "bias"
By bias I mean the slant of the Ochs Sulzberger Family, which owns the Times, and although they aren't a Murdoch family, they are a leading member of the establishment.
I can give you some examples but they're not mass media: The New Yorker and The American Prospect.
Magazines have a limited readership and most genereally with people who share their interest. Like Cat or Dog Magazines or car and driver, even People Magazine (the fav or folk with empty lives)
As of May 2024, 15,290 people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for The New Yorker. On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Left bias.
Here is what Google sez about American Prospect
nitially called The Liberal Prospect, was founded in 1990 by Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich, and Paul Starr as a response to the perceived ascendancy of conservatism in the 1980s. Kuttner and Starr currently serve as co-editors.
Yo could add The Nation and Mother Jones, but again they are limited subscription and not the media.
I maintain that the "liberal media" is a fiction cooked up by the likes of Frank Luntz or Roger Ailes, or even Karl Rove.
The same people that tried to brand Democrats as communists via the word socialist which they use as a synonym.
Sadly, it seems more and more people don't read newspapers. I think conservatives care less and less about what newspapers say. They go straight to Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites with no rules about having multiple sources confirm a story. They just tell any half-truth or outrageous lie all showing up equally on the same page. The most emotional content is given priority by the social media programming as it provides more clicks and advertising revenue. In social media, the system may be free but the product is 'us', we are the content providers, and we are the product being sold to the highest bidder.
The problem with social media is the LYING- everyone acts as if they are experts with 50 years of research - that is what Trump did for the planet - made iit extinct
Social media is where Millennials, Gens X-Z get their news.
It’s not really news though - it’s just people with opinions most of which cannot be verified
That's not where my Millennials get their news. Neither of my kids are even on social media. The couple of social media sites my son is on is for gamers and game designers. Nothing political.
This is a very good point. Thank you.
Thanks
Unfortunately, we now have media that are merely propaganda machines for the political leanings of the owners, mostly conservative but not all.
We have always had media that was skewed — not all media, but a lot of it.
For awhile, we had news outlets that knew the difference between “news” and “commentary.”
A lot still do, but people don’t trust it any more and that is what DJT WANTS — zero trust in media, so everything he does will be deniable …
That’s the fascist “fake” appellation at work. ..
Then we see some slanted media sources, and we think everything they report is slanted, instead of that their COMMENTARIES take a left or rihgt view.
Actually, all this past winter, I was amazed at how the Wall Street Journal was providing some REALLY stellar reporting on their news pages, even while their editorials and op-eds were egregiously RIGHT wing.
THAT is what news reporting is about. Factual with context in the news — opinions and analysis going the way of interpretation, typically but not always with a distinctive slant. But commentary IS opinion, so …. Get used to it!
I think there’s more good reporting going on than people either know or admit, but it’s so much more appealing to discredit anything we would rather NOT believe … That way, we can nurse our favorite prejudices and feel sanctimonious about it.
You have identified the fuel..."Money". We just need to control the flow and direction.
In my country you cannot say your adversary is crooked or corrupt. Then you have to appear before a judge.
Thank you for reminding us of how fortunate we are here in the US to descent without fear of political reprisal. ❤️
The downside is lots of disinformation, but with the right attention it becomes easier to spot and check.
Really? That's amazing. I'll bet you can't get away with making death threats either. You're very lucky.
I would say Britain, but your name says Netherlands.
That right William: i'm not a friend of our PM, but saying he is corrupt means defend myself in court.
I should amend what I said above. When I said you were lucky to have rules about speech I didn't mean it was good that you can't criticize your leaders. What I meant was that you're lucky that violent people are not allowed to threaten people.
I am aware of British Liable laws, and Trump wants the same laws here in the U.S,. Because he wants to sue anyone who speaks Truth about him.
OT: I am a, by avocation, a genetic genealogist, and I've traced my surname (originally Ferror) to Halifax Parish, West Yorkshire, 1440 CE.
As a consequence I am probably as familiar with the British Isles, including their speechways and particularly England as I am with the American continent, maybe even more so.
That was my guess, as well.
At this point sub stack and it's offering of the expertise of folks like professor Riech, Heather Cox Richardson , Asha Rangappa ,Paul kobaugh etc could now be considered awesome journalism. These folks are the ones studying at the ground level and then offering us their expertise and information. It's too bad the readership of the experts will dwarf in comparison of the random outraged influencer
While I love the substacks I subscribe to, the writers are free to state their biases either explicitily or implicitly. HCR for example, if read by a new non-biased reader, chould easily be made out to be a liberal. Same with Dr. Reich. But that's the thing. Truth has a liberal bias. Thank you Repubicans for making true and false a political thing. It is they with the obsolete and heartless world view who have to lie about it to be relevant.
Great response!
I think we need to take a look at who can own what. It’s horrifying that Vanguard, BR and SS are allowed to own so much of our country. Hedge funds and Wall Street money management firms should not be owning things like media outlets, hospitals, even fire departments. The Republicans as well, over the years have undermined so much of the public good, a good example is that Medicare for years hasn’t paid for interfacility medically supervised transfers ie taking a bed ridden patient to their Dr.’s appts/minor medical procedures. That’s a big deal. Families are left to take them themselves or pay out of pocket and where does that leave those without families to foot the bill. It’s insidious how they’ve picked apart good legislation in every facet of society. Trump and those like him would probably sell the planet to some passing aliens intent on invading. It reeks of cynicism and a performative nihilism.
Here is just one example of what the super-rich have done in 100 different ways
https://gyazo.com/8fc5e2478dd5ea02228a67a84871b44b
What lol, Hillary and the Clinton foundation are some of the biggest criminals in history of American government. Your minds are warped. Try researching both sides independently on your own and see what you find. And don't just use conventional news, use both conventional, independent, and foreign points of view
Kathy,
How confident are you that there will be persons/humans who will survive, such that they will have a history to look back and comment on? We have a lot of things boiling up around the world that are a major threats to our very existence and that of the planet.
The history in our country is already tainted going back to the beginning.
Robert Kagan's new book Rebellion supports what you are saying and explains how it happened.
I read some excerpts from that book - interesting
I've never been a Robert Kagan fan but this book is great.
Climate is a problem, and a lot of starvation is in order. Denial won't help.
But sooner than that is the election. More than half of all Americans aren't going to vote. Maybe 70M will vote for Trump, and 80M will vote for Biden. Then the SCOTUS will put Trump in office. Last night's nightmare showed me pieces of the Civil war to ensue. Could our military be convinced to shoot us, even in the legs (when Trump runs over to hold up his Bible). I might have to take sides, but I'm not trained to kill people. I might feel more comfortable with grenades over guns. That ruined my nights sleep, but it coming right up - 6 months. Americans don't seem to be getting any wiser. Can you imagine 100M people dead in the US.
Then it's back to the climate disruption.
Gordon,
I see your reasoning but I think that the abortion issues and the misbehavior of SCOTUS may increase the turnout certainly among the youth and female vote. The on the fence will account for a fair number and the disgusted Republicans will account for more votes than in 2020.. I think the biggest issues to deal with are last minute voter intimidation tactic utilizing AI, and SCOTUS along with the corruption of the legal system in regards to delays and budget strangulation/restrictions which will drag on all sorts of legal conflict filings.
I sense that the Trump crew knows they are going to lose on both the electoral and volume count...and they are going to go all out on the legal challenges and stirring up their gun toting militias along with violent protests leading to more political confusion and prosecutions and police corruption related incidences. They have been planning for all the contingencies.
I think law enforcement is just waiting in the wings to do stuff they really do wish they could everyday...as we saw in the violent assaults on the latest campus protests. This is scary stuff when there are fewer enforcement persons that feel they need to serve and protect the public, children, teens and students. Violently attacking 70 year old male and female professors with 5 or 6) 200 pound plus police officers, hell bent on delivering painful damage....No, this is not according to oaths of public service or protection.
It is classic brown shirt behavior. Their physical appearance and violent behavior is painfully telling.
I know that the media will cherry pick for effect and to sell advertising and generate viewership but when researching incidents all around the country...there is way too much with little control or accountability. Recruiting police officers is a difficult task and much easier to get violent types than thoughtful concerned individuals...for too many reasons...this is what concerns me most of all when it comes down to the protection of voters rights and the aftermath.
Thanks Henry. That is a thoughtful comment. The elements of danger are all over these issues. We've been lucky to have lived in as peaceful times, relatively speaking. Wishing you (and everyone really) the best.
If this latest stunt by Trump - bribing Big Oil directy - can be front page news for a while, and on Tik-Tok and other social media, it will make it to young folks. The most concerned of all our citizens about climate change are the young, for it is them who will be most affected. That would improve those numbers alot methinks. But I do not think this will boil to the top. Glad Dr. Reich dedicated a posting to it.
☠️I think donnys naps during the trial were a HOAX!👺🤮
He's been napping, and now he's trying to pretend he just closes his eyes to think. A little of his revised history, more of the same for this guy.
He was napping. And passing gas.
I agree. It's just another con by the supreme grifter. He's just trying to show the public how trivial the whole trial process is to him by pretending to be bored by it.
I am under no illusion that they think climate change is a hoax. They know it is real and simply don’t care. They want what they want and believe that they, with their money, are beyond destruction.
I see them as quite sad and desperate people. And desperate people are dangerous people.
What gets me is that they seem to think climate change won't affect them, just like pollution won't affect them.
Me too!
Sharon, I'm really sorry to do this but you aren't the English actress who plays Barbara Havers, are you?
No :) Although she’s made it terribly hard to get a url using my name … lol
Amen, I often ponder the same, it's so uncaring about the younger generation and the planets habitability, the world of nature on the chopping block of total destruction. Trump, the GOP or Mitch McConnell's, the "Grand OIe Poo Party" it's all about power, money and most certainly those they can hurt and the " other " and that it sees they value that above all else....I call it EVIL
What is even more interesting/disturbing is that even if the change in climate isn't human caused, that planet is warming. By taking steps to help it we can reduce that warming and make it a better planet to occupy. By moving to a more sustainable model, jobs will be created, technology will advance and we will have nicer weather. A win win!
Most of them won't make a dime off the billions trump will grift. Only his rich supporters will get a payback.
@ VT Coletti. "when and how do we start to deal with the fact that our country is nearly evenly split," is BS brought to you by the media that craves a horserace. Get a dose of Hopium.
To make sure we cand expand. 70 million registered voters, who trend Democratic didn't show up the last time. Plus, To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
Channel Taylor Swift. https://danielsolomon.substack.com/p/is-there-a-swiftie-in-the-house?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=742145&post_id=144468457&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=zc69i&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Simon says there are six things beyond 2020 that mitigate against Trump:
• That he raped E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room
• That he oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in American history, and owes hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and penalties
• That he stole America’s secrets, lied to the FBI about it all and shared those secrets with others. It was without question among the most grave security breaches in our history, and an extraordinary betrayal of the country by a former President
• That he tried to overturn an American election, led an armed insurrection against the Congress, fought to end American democracy for all time and has promised to finish the job if he somehow gets into the Oval Office next year
• That he and his family have, corruptly, taken more money from foreign governments than any political family in our history
• That he was singularly responsible for ending Roe and stripping the rights and freedoms away from the women of America; and last week confirmed, by embracing the states’ rights position, that he supports the most extreme abortion bans in the nation - this making him without question the most dangerous abortion extremist America has ever seen.
D. Solomon
You have pointed out my talking points in discussing the candidate for president in 2024.
I also point out trump university and how even after he paid the fines involved still walked away with a million dollars.
This news about his meeting with top oil executives seems to be a solicitation for a billion dollar bribe. Is there in your opinion a way to bring charges against him for this activity?
Thanks for your reply.
The fact that Trump humpers still support him after years of picking their pockets, tells you all you need to know. Hillary was spot on when she called them a basket of deplorables, and that get outraged just like racists, sexist, fasicsts , homophobes get outraged when you call them out
Basket of Deplorables was far too kind. Yet she back-peddled. Dems need to stand by the TRUTH!!! And quit apologizing for saying the truth out loud.
Maybe. Did he offer them positions in government? Needs development.
Don't leave out that he is taking the first (or next?) steps in trying to establish a new monarchy. His followers read tabloids. As the Windsors fade, he is tapping Baron, poor kid, as his heir apparent.. to be presented at the GOP convention in Milwaukee. Baron von Trump? HRH? This isn't subtle folks.
I'm working on flipping 2 X Trump voters:
1. Trump hates dogs.
2. Stole from kids with cancer.
3. Amish.
4. Veterans and their friends, family and supporters "Not suckers or losers."
5. SSI recipients, their families, and those who rely on their income, like grocers and landlords "Don't slit your own throat."
6. Anyone who needs government benefits, "Say no to the Republican sunset."
Proof. https://rvat.org/
There are so many things to mention
But how can he be considered a commander and chief while still maintaining a closet full of top secret documents to use as leverage with other countries and saying …
-Trumps 2015 attack on McCain, in which he said the senator was “not a war hero” and declared, “I like people who weren’t captured”
- Trump had a long track record of incendiary and disparaging remarks about veterans and military service.
- Trumps history is filled with contradictions, of a man who denigrates his handpicked generals while saying no one supports the military more than he does, and of a commander in chief who questions the bravery of some soldiers even as he reversed disciplinary action against a Navy SEAL over the objections of Pentagon officials.
-Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018. Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
- there are too many insulting, unsupportive remarks by DT regarding our military to list. Why does any service person or veteran support him?
You're absolutely right, Linda. When someone insults you you have to be a masochist to support them.
Yeah, I don't think most younger people are too keen on the prospect of having to support their parents in their old age. That's a very good argument.
I think the potential loss of financial & health security from Republican attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid & ACA is underestimated as an issue against Trump & Republicans. It should be 1 of the major campaign issues of Biden & the Democrats, along with the environment/climate, civil rights (including access to abortion, contraception, marriage equality, etc.), & the existential threat to democracy that Trump, the GOP, Putin, etc. pose to the US & world.
All these issues have in common maintaining or improving conditions for the vast majority of Americans (Biden & the Democrats) vs. worsening conditions & denying benefits Americans are used to (Trump & the GOP).
Just read where Barron declined his nomination as a delegate to the convention from Florida. Maybe he has some good sense or a mind of his own.
See my comment above yours, Jaime. :-)
I wondered if it was Melania putting her foot down. Good for her!
Barron has been banned by his mother Melania from attending that convention. HE HASN'T EVEN GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL YET. They were trying to recruit him as a delegate. This was reported on NPR yesterday, 5/10. He is only 18 years old. God, there is NOTHING the Trump defamed and depraved won't do to destroy yet another young life, especially their own. I say, score one for Melania!
Daniel Solomon, there are more than six things mitigating against Trump but his followers don't believe any of them. There isn't a critical thinker amongst them.
The visceral stuff works some of the time. You can see it in their demeanor.
Only need to flip a small percentage.
True. That's why I keep trying.
Just keep
Hitting them with facts they can’t dispute
Truth...all of what you wrote. Thank you.
Don't forget that after trump took those top secret papers, CIA agents started getting outed and were killed or recalled.
Also after he asked US intelligence for names of agents
Also Trump is known to have passed on US classified intelligence on Israeli military operations to Russian Ambassador to the US Kislyak & Foreign Minister Lavrov, which I believe was eventually passed onto Hamas to use for their attack on Israel on Putin's birthday with savagery reminiscent of Russian atrocities against Ukraine. No one benefited as much from that act as Putin (less global attention on his war on Ukraine, which turned in his favor), followed by Trump (dissension in US over Israeli-Palestinian conflict, weakening Biden & helping Trump's electoral chances) &, for the time being, Netanyahu (suspension of his criminal trials, & lengthening & empowering his presidency).
Don’t forget he stole money from a children’s charity
We know; he was the worst President ever: hardly anything on his credit...
I've been mulling over your question. The only good thing he did was to move out of the
White house at the end of his term.
Very reluctantly
True. Sadly true.
But people are starting to remember his presidency fondly. Very confounding.
Ask them what Trump did for the poor or disadvantaged?
It's because of propaganda.
Dis-remember.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Protect American democracy? Hard to protect what you don’t actually have.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/10/a-sick-dystopian-system-worth-overthrowing/
Hi Tom—I read the article in Counterpunch. It has great points. We do live in a dystopian world—and it is hard to see what one can do to change things….I didn’t see constructive steps to make progress against the current f**ked up situation. I will need to further research the publication to learn what they feel the solution is.
In the meantime I am supporting Biden. I do believe the man has done what he can with what he’s been dealt to improve the lives of all Americans while also confronting bullies around the world.
Please. The man has aided and abetted a genocide, provoked a disastrous war in Ukraine, and claims to support climate action while refusing to declare an emergency and continuing to push fracked gas to the world.
The best thing you can say about Genocide Joe is that he isn’t Trump, and is better than Clinton/Obama. But that’s a mighty, mighty low bar to clear.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine was totally unprovoked, & simply an attempt to grab land, kill Ukrainians & replace with Russians, part of their multi-century insatiable obsession to expand empire.
Almost certainly Putin was in on, if not the mastermind of, the plan for Hamas to attack Israel on his birthday, with the same level of barbarity as Russia's war on Ukraine. It took away global attention on his war on Ukraine, lessened international support for Ukraine, turned the tide of war in his favor, caused internal dissension in the US, reduced support for Biden & enhanced Trump's chances of getting back in power, all of which benefited Putin & some of which benefited his puppet Trump.
It's not Genocide Joe at all, but Genocide Vlad & possibly Genocide Bibi.
You’re delusional. And a fool. And blind. And an empire simp.
Caitlin Johnstone lays out your propagandized mindset in this section from her latest post:
“It’s hard to understand the tyranny of a system that relies on propaganda and manipulation as opposed to overt totalitarianism, in the same way it can be harder to recognize a psychologically abusive relationship than a physically abusive one.
You grow up learning that if a man puts his hands on a woman she needs to get the hell out of there, but you can live your entire adult life in a relationship where your partner twists your mind into knots to bend you to his will without recognizing what’s happening. In exactly the same way, we grow up learning about Evil Dictatorships in other countries where dissent is banned and the government controls the populace with an iron fist, but we can go our entire lives without recognizing that we are ruled by powerful people who use mass-scale psychological manipulation to exert an even greater degree of control over us.
The truth is we live in a highly abusive mind-controlled dystopia where people’s thoughts, words and actions are largely predetermined by an information system controlled by powerful plutocrats and empire managers, and the genius of it is that it controls us to a greater degree than overt tyranny ever could while at the same time giving us the collective delusion that we are free.
We are indoctrinated from childhood by corrupt education systems which construct the mainstream empire-authorized worldview inside our skulls, and that worldview is continually bolstered, steered, and added onto throughout adulthood from every direction we’ve been trained to get our information from. The news media are controlled by wealthy oligarchs with a vested interest in preserving the political status quo upon which their wealth is premised. Silicon Valley tech plutocrats quickly learn that living the high life is a lot easier for them if they collaborate with US government agencies and help protect the information interests of the US-centralized empire. Wealthy elites control mainstream culture by restricting which people and what ideas are given a platform in the culture-manufacturing centers of New York and Los Angeles.
We grow up thinking we are free, but in a very real sense people are less free in our society than they are under a proper dictatorship: under a standard dictatorship people’s minds are freer, because people know they are not free. In our society people think, speak, vote, shop, work and behave exactly how the powerful want them to, mindlessly regurgitating political opinions that were inserted into their brains by their rulers and sincerely believing they came up with it themselves.
A quote from Chomsky:
“Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.”
Another quote from Chomsky:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
Another:
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.””
Your statement would need to be applied to all presidents since nato was created
No. But nice try. It applies especially to Clinton, Bush, and Biden. Less so to Obama and Trump. None of the presidents before Clinton. He is the one who put NATO expansion into hyperdrive, and also turned it from a defensive alliance into an offensive war agent, see Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, etc.
Tom, I read the article, some valid points, many unsubstantiated rants with no discussion of Biden/harris achievements , or recommendations for bettering the government, At this point in history we have to deal with what we have. No administration is perfect. Biden/Harris had to come into a complete shit show left by Trump who did nothing to acknowledge or help with the transition, and try and govern. Here is a list of some of their accomplishments
https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
What it comes down to is, who are you going to vote for in the next Presidential election? How are you going to use all of the tools in your citizens civil toolbox to help make this a better government?
Please do not insult my intelligence by attempting to make the case for the current administration’s accomplishments by linking a white house website. Pravda much?
Deal with what we have. No administration is perfect. Blah, blah, blah.
Joe Biden aided and abetted a genocide, and continues to do so. That alone should disqualify him from receiving a single vote from anyone other than a racist Zionist.
As of now, I will be casting my vote for Jill Stein, the only candidate with a viable electoral map path to the presidency who isn’t a warmonger, and the only one who is willing to confront the evil that is the American Empire, and actually relishes the thought of taking on the oligarchs who currently run our government. Biden is in bed with them, Trump wants to be them, and RFK, Jr has sold his soul to the Israeli lobby.
Please don’t talk to me about better government if you mean voting for a Democrat in an electoral system rigged to protect monied interests by the duopoly. There are three ways we will get better government: Voting against the duopoly, general strikes by workers, mass nonviolent civil disobedience.
I can’t strike because I’m retired, but do support striking workers when I have the opportunity. Have voted write in/independent/third party in every presidential election save one since 1984. Been arrested for CD several times, and probably will be again. What’s in your toolbox?
"Democracy Doesn't Exist, but We'll Miss it When it's Gone," (Astra Taylor). Actually, I think the counterpunch article by Street is off. The repression that would come down on climate activists and others would make it impossible to make a revolution. Kind of like asking for your house to be burned down, with you in it. At least the house has been destroyed. Great.
Your comment is what is off. Revolutions are always impossible to make, until they happen.
Were every liberal who claims to be antiwar actually voted for Jill Stein, an actual peace candidate, instead of casting a cowardly vote for a corporate-owned empire manager, that revolution might be sparked, difficult as it might be to win.
Your house-burning metaphor is flawed. Think of it this way. The plumbing system in your house is compromised; the copper piping is weak from continued exposure to hard water, and regularly springs a leak from pinhole leaks. Your response is to call a plumber and patch/replace the leaking section instead of accepting the fact that the reasonable (and revolutionary) path is to replace the entire system, difficult as that might be financially.
We have been in a 50-year cycle of the ratchet effect driving the country further and further to the right. We elect a Democrat to fix the GOP leaks, but they can’t fix the real problem, because their corporate owners won’t allow it, so the leaks not only continue (Bush), they get worse (Trump).
You do what you will. My moral compass won’t allow me to vote for anyone complicit in the perpetuation of a genocide. Ever.
Bless your Putin apologist, low comprehension, right wing, climate change denialist, just here to attack the left, condescending heart.
And bless your propagandized American, zero comprehension, tribal liberal lemming, just here to kiss the Genocide Joe Lie’n Biden ring, ignorant and foolish heart.
So you would say Eisenhower and Reagan and Bush are genocide lovers too - they supported Israel
No, they were just run of the mill war criminals in pursuit of American hegemony, at the behest of the people who really run the country.
That’s different from genocide, one of the its features being intent. The presidents you named killed to control resources and markets, not to completely eliminate/ethically cleanse a people.
It’s not evenly split. Polls are not reliable. It’s about 18-28% that are die hard Trump. The rest are still deciding and it is part of our responsibility to have dialogue with others, listen respectfully, and find common ground. MTG and the other hard right have abdicated their responsibility to do this in Congress.
It's a loaded word but we have had to "deprogram" people with hateful views before. "Don't Be a Sucker" - US National Archives - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAqYNFQdZ4
Thank you, Sam, for the YouTube link, which I watched, and then subscribed to the National Archives site. ‘Don’t be a sucker’ will now on be my advice to the Trumpers.
Sounds like a good plan Joe. Glad CNI could be of service in sharing useful info.
Thanks Sam for the link to this very timely film. 👍🙏
Most welcome James. What's old is new again.
Thanks for the link. What’s old is new again, unfortunately.
Wow. Thank you, Sam
Thank you for the link to the Department of the Army’s ‘Sucker’ film. It should be required watching in high school Civics or 20th Century History. Many have commented on various SubStacks the former is no longer taught in many school districts.
A good read from the same time period is the War Department’s 1945 pamphlet Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet 64 ‘Fascism!’. My understanding is it was required reading during basic training for soldiers being sent to Europe to better understand what had happened and why. Essentially, why the United States fought Germany and Italy. It happened once and it can happen again.
https://archive.org/details/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism/mode/2up?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Don't be a sucker!
😀🙂😀🙂😀🙂😀🙂😀
Very good!
I'm surprised that Trump & MAGA don't refer to themselves as "American American" (I'm sure they think it.)
Good old basic military training film. I remember it well! 👍👍
As long as we’re talking suckers here, might as well put the cards on the table: Americans are some of the biggest suckers on earth when it comes to propaganda, and liberals are just as susceptible as the average Trumper.
Propaganda -
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/05/28/most-propaganda-looks-nothing-like-this/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/06/16/why-propaganda-works/
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-a-world-ruled-by-propaganda-a?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-illusory-truth-effect-and-the?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
When you say liberals are just as susceptible as the average Trumper are you including atheists/agnostics, as most of us are liberal/progressive. The only way this country will be truly great for all is when the non-believers [humanists] are a super majority.
Yes. I have many agnostic friends who think funding the proxy war in Ukraine is a worthwhile endeavor.
You should listen to them.
And be a mindless empire simp like you? No thanks.
DJT would welcome the Anthropocene extinction if he’s elected again. He is a small fish in so far as his wealth and power are concerned in relation to, say, the top twenty-five individuals, their families, or their corporations that own and control much of the planet. It is not unrealistic to think that a very small number of entities don’t already control and own perhaps half of everything in some way. It is entirely possible, probable, and perhaps inevitable that if we as humans keep allowing a handful of entities with so much power over billions of fellow humans and the ability to do in the environment to the point that we, as a species, do go extinct, that we should please consider who to vote for in November. Some say we are already on the road to nowhere regarding our longevity as humans. Thanks for pointing out the ongoing destruction of the environment. In the battle of Earth vs. humans, it’s clear who will win.
Do you really think Musk is thinking of terraforming Mars? Far simpler and more cost-effective to terraform - well - Terra, or at least something much more local to Terra and built from the "ground up." Months back, I speculated he might be toying with the idea of developing orbital "mansions" and other support facilities, like orbital factories and farming facilities that serve as private prisons holding a captive slave labor force, to which convicts can be deported outside considerations of national citizenship or law. Mind you, that's just speculation - but I have no doubt such a thing has crossed someone's mind. My point is that Musk can see what's happening and his whole "heroic" enterprise in developing space travel is an attempt to get away from what he considers inevitable.
DZK, sadly, who knows what may happen in the future. I don’t know. What you wrote may or may not happen; unfortunately, as history has shown, we humans seem to have the propensity to abuse many things when wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a small number of beings. Today’s letter warned of possibilities that could happen if Donald Trump is elected to be the president again. Covid-19, for many, was nature’s way of warning humanity of our folly with the environment since the start of the industrial age. In November, voters have to decide who they want to be president. According to our understanding of the Earth through science, it is perhaps not infinite but has a known long history. Surely, history has shown us species have come and gone over time. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have grandiose ideas about things. For many of us who labored for our existence, and there are billions of us on the planet, capitalism has been both a curse for many and a blessing for a small percentage of humanity. All of us, however, as a species, are guilty (directly or indirectly) of extrapolating non-renewable resources from the environment, which is unstainable. Donald Trump and Elon Musk may be many things to many people. Still, neither is a savior to the United States nor Earth regarding their continued support for the further depletion of a livable environment in favor of earth-bound and pie-in-the-sky nonsense by both gentlemen.
As I say in the comment: "Mind you, that's just speculation - but I have no doubt such a thing has crossed someone's mind." Indeed, it >has< crossed someone's mind - in old Science Fiction. And make no mistake, scientists and entrepreneurs - like Musk - have openly discussed getting ideas from Sci-Fi. Take the first "flip phones," the RAZR in particular, that was inspired by the Start Trek communicator. It has now developed into a fully functional simulacrum, within the scope of current technology. Apparently, even NASA consulted with J. Michael Straczynski to discuss his vision of the space station support technology he presents in the Babylon 5 series. The "rail gun" is part of the Babylon 5 space station's armament, that the Navy has been developing and testing. The movie "Screamers" is another example that speculates on autonomous drone-like military weapons:
Screamers, 1995: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/
Screamers - The Hunting, 2009: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1214983/
The second is particularly unnerving, suggesting that the AI involved was capable of evolving into what we saw first in "Terminator."
As for the space prison scenario I mention:
Fortress 2, 1999: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179183/
Lockout, 2012: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592525/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
And the notion of space mining has been around forever:
Saturn 3, 1980: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079285/
And trying to mine asteroid resources are a topic of serious discussion at this moment, as well as the notion of space mining platforms, processing plants, and even factories in service to serving some kind of space borne launch platforms for planetary exploration.
(And let's not forget space-based, space tourist hotels that have been in the wind for some time, now. It's a simple step to orbital mansions, from there.)
Fact is, much of this stuff is feasible within the constraints of current technology, and future developments in AI may likely make some of the spookier stuff even more so.
Now, don't get me wrong!
I say stay skeptical but keep your mind open to speculation. It may not come to pass in either of our lifetimes, but as I make clear at the outset of this response: ". . . I have no doubt such a thing has crossed someone's mind."
(And they could conceivably pull such things off!)
Is this very long “spacey,” fantasy of yours based in science fiction, conspiracy, or just that, fantasy? (Certainly not fact.)
What part of the word "speculation" do you fail to understand?
“Concerning the Earth” itself, there is some evidence that the earth ‘ s natural meteorological propensity to maintain its normal stability or homeostasis is as if Mother Nature is fighting back. There are, of course several people in several fields around the world that also are trying with some success to basicly aid in that fight.
Thanks for the feedback. Some scientific and actual event documentaries in the hands of responsible media and journalists reporting on homeostasis is much appreciated. Some of the more obscure plans for things like solar shields inhabited floating space arcs, etc., all seem like a waste of resources concerning earth-bound things. The problem with both inner and outer space is we as a species don’t agree on a common approach to change our consumption habits from now on to reduce our depletion of raw materials we can’t readily replace at the rate we’re gobbling them up at.
I concur and share your fear...too many people and too much divisiveness but one driving factor in common perhaps... the need for $'s so as to have control over one's survival/destiny in today's world. That control... is the key.
vr colleti ; the last 7 elections have been won by blue voters. I don't believe that our nation is split evenly. There may be some cheating. In a free and fair election, tRUMP is a loser!
True, but in the last 15 Congresses, the Democrats controlled both chambers in only 3. It's very hard for Biden or any Democratic president to accomplish worthwhile things when the Republicans control one or both chambers of Congress. I read somewhere that the blue voters are concentrated into fewer Congressional districts than red voters. Also, the Republicans are good at gerrymandering the Congressional map to favor them!
Tim : yes, they are good at cheating! Look at Bush v Gore. Look at what we have for a DOJ! See the topic of today's forum! It is a fact that new laws are being made in many states to further corrupt our voting system! "Justice" cannot keep up with them! To think that we were all upset when McConnell et al denied Merrick Garland a Supreme Court position! Now Look at it! Tfg boasts about stacking the Court and giving US Reversal of " settled" law!! They don't even allow a debate on voting rights! While the DOJ is asleep at the wheel! Tfg is going to be a dictator on day one! And the partisan "Supreme" Court is having a hard time deciding whether he should have or could have Immunity from being held accountable for even murder! A guy who has shown who he really is, over and over again!
None of the criminal cases against Trump have gone as well as they should have!
Tim; Yes. It looks like slow walking. Threats and intimidation can be effective. If there is just one win in this election interference/ "Hush money" case, it could hurt his chances with some of his voters. It makes me sick to hear the media drumbeat that this "may be the only case" to be prosecuted fully with a verdict before the election. It is going well. And should be resolved before the election. Frustrating that the billionaire owned media controls and defines the message.they don't really ask the hard hitting questions. Like who will ask if the Supreme Court had the right to remove the 14th amendment section 3 disqualification clause.? Especially when a Lot of those in Congress and the courts have violated their oaths of office. And should have been removed long ago! They are disabled and disqualified! This is a huge flaw in our governing and justice system placing US at the mercy of criminals!
Yes, they are good at being bad!
But it still won’t be fair. GOP in red states and swing states have not only gerrymandered, they dis-enroll voters for signature “mismatches,” install election officials who are ready to disavow results, and recruited armed volunteers to harass people at the polls. I despair.
That is why they have had so much control for so long.
That plus the electoral college
Republicans are helped by the Electoral College, allowing this mess to develop over time, with the gross imbalance and corruption we see today. Ethics,& Honor, along with the will to support the Common Good, have gone out of fashion It's now rapidly Fascist! At least at the top!
And let's not forget our fine Supreme Court which in 2000 decided that they should give the vote to Republican by the name of bush. Yeah the inferior Catholic upper Court has been added for some time.
Vr, I couldn’t have said it better myself. It really amazes me that so many millions are ready to give up our democracy for this terrible person. I worry every day.
Okay. Stop worrying about it so much. Do something about it
And the horrible fact of Gaza and AIPAC pouring billions into political campaigns and exploiting USA. We give them money and they lobbying our politicians to work for them
vr colletti - i do believe we are in fascist lite, that is, when corporations and oligarchs collude with gov't institutions to pre-empt democratic laws and norms. We have a corrupt supreme court, a corrupt right half of the congress, and an administration (like many others) that flouts or ignores the rule of law (in biden's case, international law). fascist complete will occur soon, i fear. elon musk with is starlink satellites is particularly frightening, as our military apparently makes use of them. that's right, a private citizen sells satellite time to the military. also, i just read that an american "private contractor" will be awarded a contract to run the rafah border crossing with egypt. i guess they underbid the wagner group?
The issue is that the other 50% cannot or will not see the pattern and where it is leading. They think Trump will not hurt them, ever. What they fail to foresee, is that if you end up disagreeing with a certain policy he proposes as he gets even more unbridled, that he will eat his own and at that point, no one will be safe. Those who were not Jews in Hitler’s Germany, at first thought they were safe. How well did that go for the general public? The same pattern is forming here. Too many let him get away with ever increasing acts or language. It will not end until he’s started to attack his own in mass, either figuratively or literally.
And not only do we need to fear the oligarchs, but the GOP in red states is kicking millions of BIPOC and other likely Democrats off the voting rolls. They are enlisting armed volunteers to harass voters of color and others at the polls. They have installed MAGAs in key positions that enable them to refuse to accept voting results.
I think we could win on the basis of pure votes. Maybe barely. But with all of this?
I am devastated.
Okay. Stop being devastated. We all need to get together and DO something about it.
I get your post. And it certainly would be nice to be able to just overcome our amygdala’s freeze/fear/anger via our prefrontal cortex. Oh wait, our PFC isn’t the leader in our devastated brains! 🤪
If we were not already at the top of the outrage scale, this breathless essay is giving us a boost over it. It almost goes without saying that Trump and his greedy, blood-thirsty executive acolytes must be declared traitors to the United States and have their vast wealth confiscated to support the common good. They must be cancelled from social media and prosecuted to the full extent of the law which they happily flout. For Trump himself, solitary confinement sans technology is the optimal punishment; death would be too good for him.
Prof. Reich, please re-post ths essay as often as possible up until November concluding with a big, bold VOTE BLUE!
Trump is a heavy psychiatric patiënt, but yes, why he is a political figure and why the following?
"I think it's something in the water they drink!" (Old US aphorism)
(Consider Flint, Michigan).
Because their pastors tell them to do it and they are afraid of burning eternally in hell
I always wonder, do these execs have any kids? Do they care for their future? I ascribe their actions to wilful ignorance- they don't stop to think what longer term consequences to the Earth their actions have. They are undoubtedly a group pre-selected for their single minded pursuit of profit. And that might be okay if we had a government of, by, and for the people and not for vested interests. Deepest kimshi here folks.
They obviously care for their kids as much as Trump does for his.
This guy's name is really Mad Max and he wants to destroy not only America but the rest of the world and bring it to its knees. Let's face it this is Hitler number two coming our way quickly.
We are NOT evenly split! The right wing owns the media. Stop repeating that!
A deadly seditionist, rapist, womens rights violator, LGBTQIA hater, dog hater, psychopath is evenly split with Biden who gave us $1.2 infrastructure pkg that has been astounding, 500 mil Covid shots at no expense, cut child poverty in half (Amer Rescue Plan) $369B fir Climate Change issues, respect for Marriage Act on & on
How many women & LGBTQIA are out there! Biden has made some bad delayed calks on GAZA IMO and the way he addressed student protest wasn’t done well, MAGAs aren’t nearly as large as Dems. Not even close. The Rt wing media is pushing this. Refute it!
Trump is de-funding his own party member campaigns for himself! He’s a convicted rapist and deadly seditionist inciter who insults Vets. All of these groups hate Trump and way more in his party than will admit they won’t vote for sleepyhead diaper pants to sit in the oval office.
The media and judges are the places to pour on pressure.
My mother (deceased at age 90, ten years ago) used to say 3 things: 1) Education, education, education, 2) Gross money is always behind every gross injustice, and 3) Never trust anyone who hasn’t loved a dog. Now, doesn’t that explain pretty much everything right now? (She’s turning in her grave.)
I like what your mother said about loving dogs. Beautiful.
What else is new ?
Trumpet 🎺 is a transaction based person .
He Keeps Score With His Wallet…
When this mess he created is all over trumpet 🎺 will Declare Victory By Claiming “Look At All The Money I Made Marketing My Brand Millions and Millions of Dollars That Grateful Citizens have Given Me “ …
YES, it does. I should find my fabric markers to write this on a t-shirt. On second thought, "no", it would be better to reuse some ugly red hats. May your beloved mother rest in peace.
Everything is transactional in the malignant narcissist, sociopath & psychopath worldview.
That has long been known. The problem now is how to get rid of him.
The CNI philosophy is to take trump apart piece by piece psychologically. https://samray.substack.com/p/the-trump-playbook-is-an-illusion
The link you provided clearly sates the well-known problems with Trump, but not how to get rid of him.
Psychologically dismembering him seems like an appropriate approach but I don't see that happening, or having any affect on him.
The fact that delay tactics have allowed justice to be denied before the upcoming election is very troubling. Why is the open and shut documents case being sat upon by the newbie judge/sycophant of the accused!? Installed by him!
Absolutely maddening! There should be large font headlines and protests coast to coast!
They say her assignment to the case was random, but I have my doubts. How is it she has presided over both stages of this case? Especially why was she allowed to take this 2nd stage after having flubbed up the first stage, even reprimanded. And shouldn't there be some prohibition against a judge presiding over a case involving someone who appointed her, especially since the case could determine whether he becomes President again, where he'll be I'm position to promote her? Such a flagrant conflict of interest, just like the conflict of interest Clarence Thomas has judging a case over matters in which his wife was involved. Recusal for such cases should be mandatory, not voluntary. Our justice system is really screwed.
trumps psychological issues aren't as well-known as you think. Not seeing how they can & are being used against him reveals you don't understand the psych as well as you think either.
I agree with you, Sam. Trump’s dementia is escalating and stress will only increase his obvious cognitive decline. Keep the pressure on! The court cases are the best pressure of all.
Much better for us to turn up the pressure now, before the election. Once he’s in the WH, his dementia could lead to even more catastrophic damage.
Oddly, his delay tactics are effectively doing just that - keeping the pressure on. Consider being securely bound to railroad tracks in front of an oncoming train. Does slowing the train down a bit relieve the pressure to escape?
You said Trump's psychological issues aren't as well known as I think and I don't understand "the psych"? You have zero basis for making those assertions. None.
Trump's psychological issues *are* well known. Just ask his niece Mary Trump, who knows him. She has been on TV may times talking about her uncle's psychological problems. She knows him, and is herself a psychologist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_L._Trump
I get her newsletter and have seen her videos about her uncle. Just from that alone I understand "the psych" at least as well as the average person.
Perhaps we as consumers (money supplying public) can do something about that? Get back to basics. Money, supply and demand. They want our money...and we can demand better behavior?
I think that ship has mostly sailed with the rise of rwnj billionaires who don't care.
Sam,
Unfortunately I somewhat agree with that assessment. Somehow the government with a majority of the populations help has to find a way to take back control of the country and I am not certain that is any longer an possibility. "Don't ask what your country can do for you..."
100 - The reason they attack, fear & try to take over gov is it's the only thing powerful enough to stop them or even make them behave in a civilized way.
>Exactly!< And >that's< been the Republican platform for at least half a century. "Government is not the solution; it's the problem." (Ronald McReagan, 1980 or therabout)
Yes...I agree...but Gov't doesn't have the resources to effectively deal with these individuals/problems in a timely manner. And, there is the Republican messaging that constantly says that "Gov't is too big..." When in fact, you and I know that isn't true as clearly evidenced by the reality that is in front of us every day.
And they may have won... now that they have the Supreme Court, the Republican party, and a radical contingent of law enforcement, military, and gun owing followers, who have been manipulated into demonizing all those that are perceived/messaged, to be a threat?
It could start with the good folks at A.G Edwards no longer donating to my Republican representative who votes to destroy the planet. They brag about their last 100 years. What about the next 100?
It is in fact a quid pro quo, and one would think highly illegal given the terms. However as per usual nobody does anything.
Same as with Canon remaining on the stolen documents case despite her blatant favoritism for the defendant.
Lest we not forget what’s happening in Gaza, yes Hamas needs to be held accountable for the October 7th attacks. But not at the expense of thousands of innocent civilians.
It’s all just another day in this broken world we inhabit.
Make no mistake there is still plenty of good to be found, but as each day passes it gets buried beneath the slew of injustices.
I only hope that at some point the scales will be put back into balance, preferably before I’ve passed on from this earth.
Trumpet 🎺 is the P T Barnum of present day…
There is another Sucker ( baby or FNG) Born Every Minute …
We are not Fellow Citizens We are just “Rubes”. Trumpet has been running a Con Game his entire Adult Life …
“ Scams have been part of America from the beginning “ Warren Buffett
👍
Free STORMY Daniel’s !!!
If the former guy isn't openly soliciting a bribe, he's certainly walking right up to 18 USC 201 and poking it with a stick and taunting it.
Hey, just for fun, let's call John Roberts, of Citizens United infamy, and see what his thoughts are about campaign contributions for explicit actions by an elected official.
John Roberts answer? Corporations are people. People are simply surfs that's why we need to take this country back to 1600 so we can reinstitute surfdom again. John Roberts is the answer to the question- who's the stupidest of them all?
"But isn’t this an out-and-out bribe? And aren’t bribes illegal? Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet." Bribery is very much alive and well.: look at the "Supreme" Court! : Citizens United! We are already well down that slippery slope!
Oh, Laurie, we’re in big trouble.
Marge: makes "The perils of Pauline" look like a girl scout picnic! If I don't laugh, I could cry! I think my blood pressure is up! But I'm hoping we will beat stupid!! 💓 We outnumber them! I don't even need an AR-15 to kick their asses! Knowledge is power! And a LOT of US 🇺🇸 vote! 🗳
You are a treasure
Marge ; Thank you!
“But isn’t this an out-and-out bribe? And aren’t bribes illegal? Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet.”
It’s a pact with the devil! The world’s worst polluters, collaborating with the man who is destroying our republic from within. What could possibly go wrong? It’s a rhetorical question, no need to answer.
Stephen Miller recently said, “Trump is a fashion icon!” I couldn’t agree more: No one would look as “fabulous” in a new orange jumper than Trump!”
And no man more deserving a jail cell, than Trump, and his minions….:)
Wow. I read that, “Trump is a fascist icon.”
That certainly is a more accurate term for what he is.
Ah Jamie but who's the most evil of them all? Is Trump trying to win that contest?
He won that long ago. At least in the US. Putin still has him beat on the international stage. But if we give him another chance, Trump will surely give it a good try.
Robert,
It is more like a crime against humanity when factoring in the scientific proven danger to human existence and destruction of the earths basic ecosystem. There are international courts that would better deal with this type of behavior and they could rightfully open a very extensive and costly (to the accused) if they wanted...we will see if they are up to it or just not interested in doing the job. These are very real threats against humanity and should be taken seriously as all the proof is in the public domain.
If RFK Jr. were really an environmental lawyer he'd be doing something about this.
But . . . she said . . . in wonder . . . "the orange of garb and skin . . . CLASH." So much for Stephen Miller's assessment of a fashion icon.
Not to mention the godawful hairdo.
Not to mention the deals he’s made with every foreign dictator he’s met quietly with during his ‘interregnum ‘ !
I wrote to my congresswoman about Trump's violation of the Logan Act and got back a mealy-mouthed answer. (She's a Democrat too.) We need Jack Smith to get on this issue.
Frankly, Paula, we need Jack to get on SOME issue !!
🙄
Yes. I will bet that there are a lot more waiting in the wings.
There is not an inch, an ounce, a particle of anything good about trump. He is the most despicle so called human on this planet. He’s a repulse rapist. How could any female find him attractive? Not even one member of his family goes to his trial. God help us.
Women vote.
Women are the key to this election. I am their biggest cheerleader.
God, please make this a T-shirt.
Free STORMY DANIELS !!!
I like what you are saying. Keep going and tell us more.
I don't think they do find him attractive. I think they like his money.
Thank God Trumplestiltskin's sealed his own defeat, according to my calculation by 11 million votes. Last time he was in power we witnessed 1 million MAGA-deaths due to his stupid refusal to listen to solid scientific advice about Covid-19. This time if he's "re-elected" it'll be 1 billion MAGA-deaths all over planet Earth due to his stupid refusal to listen to solid scientific advice about climate change.
Anthony,
He was defeated once and...he is still not gone. He and his crew will not be defeated...they will have to be de-fanged... but will always exist. It's just something we need to deal with...which we aren't doing so well, at this present time.
Sort of like the IRA.
AND, he abolished the pandemic planning office at a time when more and more pathogens are in the rise. Among the millions who didn’t die from Trump’s covid mismanagement are millions with long covid, many disabled.
60 years ago during the Cuban missile crisis my scientist father reassured me that humanity would not end with a nuclear war. He said it would be some virus that mutated into something that was highly contagious and couldn’t be prevented or cured.
Trump has so many options to end humanity - war, environmental destruction and/or disease. And he’s working on all three.
Pure evil.
Trump promises to abolish all planning & preparation for the next pandemic, too, which could come quite soon, considering how the latest bird flu has been behaving.
Thank jefferson, think washington, thank Madison. Thank all those people who had something to do with it.
Thanks Jefferson, thank Washington, thank Madison, thank a hell of a lot of people that had something to do with it.
I hope Robert Reich can purge this scam plaguing our emails and comments. It is not his fault, it is the danger of this kind of technology.
When Deep Throat said, "Follow the money", he paved a path for every investigative reporter on the planet. You don't have to investigate Trump to deeply, he follows the money to corporate headquarters, then sells his "leadership" to the highest bidder. They need to remember, liars don't have terms, they just say what is needed to get what they want, then do what they want to anyway. The rotten orange one smells bad, but if the stench is in the money pile, people will follow, even as the flood waters rise.
Trump's condition is not unique. It's called Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is a fairly common psychopathy spectrum disorder.
https://wayofages.wayofages.org/fishheadmovie/
NPD is not treatable, which is characteristic of inherited traits. This does not imply that his parents had NPD any more than in the case other inherited conditions. The haplogroups all came together in Donald, so he has the condition. In the context of evolution, he is a highly evolved social predator. If not highly evolved, how come no one seems able to stop him?
https://wayofages.wayofages.org/granfalloons-and-cognotypes/
Here's the bottom line. It's not a hard problem. We need a Constitutional amendment to screen and bar social predators like Trump, Hitler, Stalin, you name it from public office. That's it. Just one more bar to the Presidency for a total of 3.
And to undo the damage he's already done, expand the SCOTUS bench. And to undo the damage the GOP has done, overturn Citizens United.
These are not hard problems. The only difficulty lies in bringing them into the conversation and planning a strategy to get them done. They absolutely, positively must get done to save democracy.
Speaking of Hitler, i keep hoping that slimy, vile, corrupt psychopath Donald TUMP meets the same fate that Hitler did. That seems to be the only solution to stop the horrible SOB. He is much worse threat than a rabid animal is.
The constitution should have been amended so that he could not ever run for office again as well. Unbelievable!
It doesn't need to be amended, Betty. Only followed. Fourteenth Amendment.
We must find a way to identify sociopaths & psychopaths early on & prevent them from getting into executive positions in government, corporations, military, clergy, etc.
Bingo! There are brain scans that reveal distinct differences between typical and psychopathic individuals. Put these together with Dr. Robert Hare's "Psychopathy Checklist" (PCL) and we would have a good redundant test suite. According to his colleague Dr. Paul Babiak, however, the PCL is currently approved only for use during the sentencing phase of a criminal trial -- far too late in the game for preventive applications.
The outcry, of course, will be sympathetic to psychopaths and call out invasion of privacy, intrusive government, etc. as the millions -- more likely billions -- of daily suffering victims of psychopaths look on in hopeful suspense.
Can this be done without Congressional support and approval?
No, they are very hard problems.
He will sell America for parts. See Gaslit nation, thanks Andrea Chalupa and Sarah Kendizor for clearly spelling this out since 2016. He will then stop all aid to Ukraine and give extra aid to Netanyahu and Putine, effectively selling off Europe too…
Now that really scares me. It all scares me but the thought of Putin running riot over Ukraine and Europe terrifies me.
Why not? If you own nothing - sell it - Right? In some ways (not good ones) trump is the reincarnation of PT Barnum, 'There's a sucker born every minute!' He promised to build a fence along our southern border and get Mexico to pay for it (He had 40 miles of ~3500 mile built and he stole that money [15 billion in part from the military) He promised a return of jobs for his MAGA cult (Biden supplied those jobs - not Trump)
When you have no intention of delivering anything promises are easy. He rarely paid sub contractors who worked on his hotels and casinos. He declared bankruptcy 6 times. But he is such a slick blue suede shoes salesman the suckers will believe anything.
Inside his abused subconscious, Trump has always been desperately afraid he's not wonderful and powerful, or good enough for his daddy's praise
He cannot bear criticism of any sort, even constructive. To save face, he destroys anyone who challenges him
He is a true sociopath
A true sociopath with worshipers. How does that happen?
Decades of religious indoctrination that teaches people to believe what they are told while ignoring the evidence of their eyes and ears
(paraphrasing Orwell).
Since Trump is their "God", then religion does come into play. I have't thought of it that way. Thanks.
And the people bowed & prayed to the Orange Antichrist.
I'm percolating an article on this very issue, having been a part of that problem and now deconstructed.
👍
Dr.
Sociopaths and other deviants exist and always will. The program should be to accept that fact and find an effective way to render them somewhat harmless. But due to the lack of quality education of the masses and the training to be a critical thinkers, the masses can be easily manipulated...thus we have to deal with this nonsense until we either fix the education issue or...
Yours was one of the most cogent comments I've seen in a long time.
Your use of the word "deviants" made me smile. And to "render them somewhat harmless" was a more diplomatic way of saying what I would have said more crudely, and less effectively.
As you said, "The lack of education, especially in critical thinking leads people to be easily manipulated" (I'm paraphrasing) is a profound concept. Trump manipulates, exploits and takes advantage of such people. I've seen TV reporters interview some Trump supporters on the streets, and they often mangle the English language and speak provable nonsense.
I can't think of a word horrific enough to describe Trump and his exploitation of vulnerable people.
I suppose there has always been deviants and uneducated people, but what is different these days is how one sociopath, Trump, manipulates them, thus creating a massive cult. Almost like a religious cult. Maybe not even "almost". I think it is a cult.
I better stop before I say something so bad about Trump I will later regret.
Thank you for your comments.
#MAGA LOVES that Trump is a bully and gets away with it.
MAGA knowns that #Trump is their ONLY CHANCE for bullies to take over the country.
They are NEVER going to give up that chance.
They will happily destroy anyone who gets in their way.
I guess you are right them liking a bully. Even a wooly bully.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XcgHos6_VC0
Mary Trump confirms that. This is all down to his father.
This is beyond frightening….. it seems that every time a post is written about what Trump said or what he plans to do, the world becomes a scarier place. And, there are too many that worship him. And, the only way he will win is to cheat the system, which he will (is) do(ing). And, he won’t accept a loss (should that happen) anyway! So here we are…..
Sadly, this is one for the history books; plus permutations far into the future.