I, too, think we are watching life in America on a split screen. But what seems so weird to me is how the media splits the screen with the negative Trumpism part being 80% and the positive Biden part as only 20%. No wonder people don't appreciate all the good things that are geared to help the middle and lower groups live better! It is so disheartening!
I, too, think we are watching life in America on a split screen. But what seems so weird to me is how the media splits the screen with the negative Trumpism part being 80% and the positive Biden part as only 20%. No wonder people don't appreciate all the good things that are geared to help the middle and lower groups live better! It is so disheartening!
Funny thing is, many on the liberal left look at MSNBC as the counterweight to FOX, but both are equally obsessed with Trump. You’d think that a real counterweight would be focused on Biden’s successes, but even though I bailed on cable news entirely after Russiagate, I’ll occasionally check in on MSNBC during a commercial during whatever sporting event I happen to be watching, and you know what story inevitably is being discussed? Trump’s legal shenanigans. It’s like the epitome of an own goal. Ratings, baby!
The U.S. is at a tipping point: either retain a democratic republic or lose it to an autocratic mad man. The forces that motivate the white Christian nationalists were researched and published in Feb. 2018 by two Univ. of Kansas professors, the study entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615
One has to wonder, why would anyone vote for one who is obviously a cheat, a tax fraud, a rapist, a grifter, a criminal, an insurrectionist and a serial liar? It's because he represents their obsession with crushing their hated foes: women's rights advocates, immigrants, gays, Jews, Muslims, Blacks and other "undesirables." Their hate is stronger than their desire for a free society. The mistake that they make is that they think that an autocratic state would not, at some point, come after them, too.
I don’t think it’s that simple. I think it’s far more a case of frustration in experiencing economic anxiety from flat wages and skyrocketing costs since the late 70s, which then lends itself to the ‘hate’ you describe.
To me, Trump is a reflection of a broken system, a symptom of a broken promise. Americans in the post-WWII period were led to believe that government would, not provide, but continually look to improve the lot of working people. That was shattered by the implementation of neoliberal economics, by both parties, to varying degrees.
Tipping point or not, until the cause of the frustration/hate is rooted out, we will continue to slide towards authoritarianism. The GOP as presently constituted welcomes this; the Dems, especially the Party establishment, seems to want to just prune the dead branches of the rotting tree instead of cutting it down. And on we go.
You make many valid points. But you are naive. Richard is right.
Please get in your car and drive the back roads of America. Stop at local diners, look at the signs on people's lawns, talk to guys at gas stations. There are states that are still fighting the Civil War. And sadly, they aren't all in the South. Millions of us have been encouraged to hate. Instead of pushing evil thinking under a rock where it belongs, the Oligarchs have fed the hungry and struggling poor with lies and hate. Millions of puppets who do their bidding.
THE driving force (and tool of the puppeteers) in the destruction of our nation right now is fascism/white nationalism. Hate of the "other". All those Americans that Richard listed are targets. And so are you and me when they get enough power. We are close to being Italy in pre-WWII. We have our Mussolinis. The new version is Mike Johnson. He wants to impose his magic man in the sky on me. That, sir, makes me more furious than anything else I have read this year. And it should terrify all of us. Mike Johnson is the main character in a real life version of "The Handmaids Tale". Compare that with the mistakes of some Democrats, please.
There is no question that the policies of both parties have fed this hate. I like to point to Bill Clinton and NAFTA. Now we have a president that is reversing that huge mistake. And why wouldn't you want to celebrate that? Talking about "neo-liberal" policies will cause folks to glaze over. Let's talk about who is really pulling the strings and sucking the life out of a shrinking middle class.
The venomous hate which drives the attitudes of Republicans has been preached in churches across America for 100's of years. Those rotten souls have always existed. The problem is that the morbidly rich have added gasoline to those fires instead of smothering that hate.
The difference now is that an entire political party has embraced that hate. Has embraced bigotry as a platform. Has become the American Taliban.
Of course some Democrats have messed up. Name a perfect person or organization.
So now we are at war, Tom. We have to pick a side. There is no middle. The people who embrace democracy and a level playing field - or the Oligarchs? The vast diversity of a wonderful national experiment or the American Taliban?
You echo my sentiments and it’s why I don’t like hearing democrats talking about Biden’s age when it’s really not an issue. Republicans have absolutely NOTHING on Biden. Biden is clean and this is all they can come up with. We need to stand together and remove all doubt. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes but I would wager that Biden would be the first to admit his mistakes. In my book that’s a worthy human.
Right on! We hit the road often and I have come face to face with MAGAQ bullies. Nebraska is still fighting the Civil War. I dred driving through that state. My Mexican-American nephew was refused service for hair cut in Indiana last month visiting his in-laws. He was also refused service at a public golf club. He did ask were the colored bathrooms were before he left. The bigots aren't hiding it anymore. Like a neighbor said, "we just didn't say it out loud like they do now." Wow.
Excellent summary of the conundrum our nationalist culture has created. I suspect the haters just needed a messiah to represent their supremacist beliefs.
Barry GoldWater nearly did and Reagan emerged as a possible. But the cultists needed a wealthy TV Celebrity to fill their needs and Trump surely filled their dream.
But it’s not he or abortion or even race as problems as much as it is the vision of a comfortable, entirely white society with air conditioning.
And research has shown time and again J6 and trumpster voters are not our economically impoverished citizens. That’s a load of crap. They are the entitled citizens who are looking for scapegoats to problems that were sold to them by master propagandists
So true for the Florida perspective. Even the cable and airwaves limit access to strong right wing media outlets. The balance is buried deep in the playlist IF it is even made available. Here is St Petersburg, FOX et all are in the low "double number" station choices, MSNBC has a four didget location. The university public broadcast bandwidth does not reach the rural areas due to limited infrastructure. This is likely the case throughout the less progressive states.
I see the duopoly, under the grip of oligarchy, as the enemy. I have picked a side in that war. You think one part of the captured duopoly can save us, and you are willing to cozy up to it in the face of mendacious policy choices, from Ukraine to Gaza to innumerable fealty to capital on the domestic front, from health care to housing to student debt. I refuse to do so.
Lots of ways to define naive, I guess.
Edited to add, from Caitlin Johnstone: “You want to know how morally bankrupt Democrats are? Democrats are so morally bankrupt that right now they are angrier at people who say they refuse to vote for Biden because of his support for the Gaza massacre than they are at Biden for supporting the Gaza massacre.”
I think we agree on a lot. I am just confused about your version of a solution. Let's say we are standing on a hill. We look down and see two armies. One is horrific. It works for the nobles. The other is far from perfect but it actually wants to improve the lot of the peasants.
Now the armies are climbing the hill. We have to decide which one to join. Or do we stand there and whine about how horrible they both are? I'm with the peasants. You?
Yes, I am mad at people who say they oppose Biden because of his support of Israel, because I support Israel. We cannot have a ceasefire and establish peace with a terrorist group like Hamas. Hamas must be destroyed. Are all you ‘Free Palestine’ supporters embracing Sharia law? You are if you give Hamas a pass. Women can start wearing burkas and anyone gay can be executed. How’s that work for you? I support democracy and democratic nations; Hamas must go! And there is no genocide. That’s ridiculous. Gaza has 2.5 million people. Hamas says 10,000 have died. That count includes their soldiers, and is probably exaggerated. The total is a tiny fraction of the whole population. It’s terrible, but it’s not genocide.
These things are not incompatible, esp. if you focus on the "white" and "nationalism" parts. Misogyny and racism are part of the mix: the widespread perception is that those government elites are behind the "great replacement" of native-born white Christian USians with non-white, often non-Christian immigrants. (White Evangelicals tend to have doubts that Catholics are real Christians.) And as soon as anyone starts railing about "elites," global or otherwise, it's a good guess that antisemitism is part of their agenda.
It's worth remembering that most of the people who supported Hitler at the beginning weren't card-carrying Nazis.
"Institutional failures" are probably a concern across the political spectrum. They're motivating union resurgence and the interrelated fights for an equitable health care system, environmental justice, and sane gun laws, among other things. The question is whether you're willing to try to improve things yourself or you want to put your faith in someone who's going to fix it for you. And just in general the right has been better at this than the left for decades, especially when it comes to abortion, gun rights, and, more recently, school curriculum. Fortunately we're getting better at it.
Susanna, you write: " And just in general the right has been better at this than the left for decades, especially when it comes to abortion, gun rights, and, more recently, school curriculum. Fortunately we're getting better at it." Thomas Frank treats this in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" published in 2004. The wealthy paid for propaganda to entice the white Christians to vote against their own best social and economic interests, using abortion, women's rights, immigration, etc. to dupe them. It's a sad case brought on by the lack of critical thinking skills among tens of millions of Americans, IMO.
Susanna, you make a point about Catholics and fundamentalists. Once when I was teaching, i heard one of my students refer to Christians and Catholics. I thought this was a teachable moment, so I asked what the essence of Christianity is and after they answered, I pointed out that every Mass a Catholic recites this belief in the Creed. This school is in a very Catholic community with fundamentalists up the canyon and some within the towns. It was and still is an interesting place. I have friends there who lament what death star has caused among the people they know.
I’m not speculating, I’m just quibbling with the assertion that Christian Nationalism is THE driving force. Is it the main driver? Perhaps. I’ve talked to far too many Trump voters who don’t belong in that bucket to accept any monolithic descriptor of their mindset being ‘crushing their hated foes/undesirables’, unless you expand that list to include government elites and the establishments of both political parties, and institutional failures across the spectrum.
Edited to add - When the minority voters who are duopoly voters vote for Trump because Biden reneged on an HBCU student debt promise, or the Muslim voters, and there will be some, vote similarly because of Biden’s absurd handling of Gaza, will those votes be due to Christian Nationalism and hate?
Again, I just don’t think it’s that simple, and that mindset is counterproductive to building the coalitions necessary to get us out of this downward spiral.
'What History Tells Us About the Feel-Bad Economy' (NYTimes, Opinion, Paul Krugman)
'Start with the state of the economy. The simple reality of the past year or so is that America has accomplished what many, perhaps most, economists considered impossible: a large fall in inflation without a recession or even a big rise in unemployment. If you don’t trust me, listen to Goldman Sachs, which on Wednesday issued a report titled “The Hard Part Is Over,” noting that we’re managing to combine rapid disinflation with solid growth, and that it expects this happy combination — the opposite of stagflation — to continue.
What went right? Back in 2021, Biden administration economists published an essay on historical inflation episodes, arguing that the closest parallel to current events was the inflation surge after World War II, which subsided after the economy resolved wartime disruptions and readjusted to peacetime production. That analysis looked much too optimistic for a while, as inflation went much higher for much longer than the Council of Economic Advisers expected.
At this point, however, with a soft landing looking ever more plausible, it seems as if the council, while it underestimated the size and duration of the shock, got the basic story right.
'Yet voters aren’t happy. The most widespread story I’ve been hearing is that people don’t care about the fact that prices have been leveling off; they’re angry that prices haven’t gone back down to their prepandemic levels.'
'This makes some psychological sense. As of September, consumer prices were about 19 percent higher than they were on the eve of the pandemic. Average wages were also up, by about the same amount, and wages for nonsupervisory workers (the great bulk of the work force) were up considerably more. But human nature being what it is, it’s natural for people to feel that they earned their higher incomes, only to have inflation snatch away their gains. And lecturing voters about why that’s the wrong way to think about it is not, shall we say, a promising political strategy.'
'But here’s where my historical doubts come in.'
'This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a temporary surge in prices that leveled off but never went back down. The same thing happened after World War II and again during the Korean War, the latter surge being roughly the same size as what we’ve seen since 2020.'
'Unfortunately, we don’t have consumer sentiment data for the 1940s, although some political scientists believe that the economy actually helped Harry Truman win his upset election victory in 1948. But we do have such data for the early 1950s, and it suggests that people were relatively upbeat on the economy despite higher prices. Why should this time be different?'
'Also, it seems worth noting that many voters have demonstrably false views about the current economy — believing, in particular, that unemployment, which is near a 50-year low, is actually near a 50-year high.'
'Whatever is really going on, was there something Biden or the Federal Reserve could have done that would have mollified voters?'
'Here’s how I think about it: The supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic made it inevitable that prices of some goods would rise sharply. The only way to have avoided overall inflation would have been to force major price cuts for other goods and services.'
'And everything we know from history suggests that trying to impose deflation — falling prices — on large parts of the economy would have had disastrous effects on employment and output, something like the quiet depression Britain inflicted on itself after World War I when it tried to go back to the prewar gold standard.'
'So what’s actually going to happen in the next election? I have no idea, and neither do you. What I can say is that if you believe that Biden made huge, obvious economic policy mistakes and could easily have put himself in a much better position, you probably haven’t thought this thing through. (NYTimes, Opinion: Paul Krugman) See gifted link.
Tom, google and read "The Anger Games . . ." and then come back on. What is your explanation as to why Christian evangelicals support Trump? What is it about him that they like?
Tom, please, the Biden/Harris administration has forgiven over $125 billion in student debt, for millions of Americans. And I believe additional loan forgiveness has been approved under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs. Have they forgiven every penny of every students' debt? No, however they never promised to do so.
Anyone that has decided to vote for Trump because Biden didn't forgive their student loan debt, either was never going to vote for Biden to begin with, or they haven't been paying attention to what has been forgiven. How much student loan debt has Trump promised to forgive? Or any of the other Presidential candidates for that matter? They would be voting to cut of their nose despite their face.
At no point in my lifetime has the Middle East lacked for strife with no obvious path to solution. Biden is a politician, he has said what he has said about the current Israel/Palestine conflict. Maybe he's wrong in what he says, but is there such a thing as right he could say?
I agree it’s not that simple and white Christian nationalism is not the core belief. This is a continuation of the civil war, which never ended in the south. I grew up in the South. Not everyone went to church, but everyone was racist. Everyone agreed that ‘colored s’ should ride in the back of the bus, use separate water fountains and bathrooms, have their own restaurants. It wasn’t proper for colored folks to eat in white establishments. The dream of being a plantation owner has never died. And the actual plantation owners figured out long ago that the way for the (vast) minority to control the masses was to pit folks against each other. That’s where religion comes in; it’s the perfect tool to put man against man. It’s a tool being used by the oligarchs to get us to fight each other and not take them out. It’s just a tool.
This is the email that I received today from Donald Trump:
Patriot,
I’m writing to you from Trump Force One as I fly to New Hampshire – home of the FIRST-IN-THE-NATION primary.
After public surveys show that I won the THIRD GOP Debate (despite not even attending), I think we can all agree that the primary is effectively over.
Sadly, a few stubborn RINOs simply won’t accept reality just yet.
These self-interested RINOs have deluded themselves into believing they can win the nomination despite being 50 points behind.
And, in some cases, they’re actually hoping that I get convicted as an innocent man so they can use my injustice and persecution to jump in and take the nomination.
But I have disappointing news for them… The more I am targeted in these despicable witch hunts, the more our support in the polls skyrockets.
As I fly to New Hampshire to wrap up this primary ASAP so that we can FIRE the crooked man in the White House who is trying to turn America into a dictatorship, let’s show these RINOs that they have ZERO CHANCE of taking the nomination with a surge of grassroots contributions before Trump Force One touches down!
But, if you’re doing poorly right now due to the disastrous policies pushed by Crooked Joe, don’t even think about donating!
Please make a contribution to our Primary Victory Fund to WRAP UP the primary ASAP so that we can turn 100% of our attention to the REAL mission of firing Crooked Joe and winning back the White House.
Along with corporate greed and biased media. Economic global awareness has been neglected in the the presentation of targeted issues. General population is vastly unaware or uneducated and seem to lack executive functioning level for comprehension and application of facts.
The income frustration you express has not been experienced by the *leaders* of the MAGA movement. They are simply distorting and exploiting, aided by shallow newscasting that does not pointout that inflation has arisen primarily from increased profits and exporting labor opportunities to other countries. If those leaders provided a different message to their followers, there would be a different tone to our country's differences. If, for example, MAGA leaders supported better education, fair taxation, etc., then those feeling the economic pinch would be filled with enthusiasm, not hatred. When MAGA leaders convince their followers there is no way to improve their lot, then the frustration erupts, especially when they see the excesses of the rich.
MAGA adherents are not the only ones experiencing frustration. Frustrations from those whose rights are being violated, whose votes are being diluted by gerrymandering and restrictions, whose educations are being stunted by inadequate offerings--those angers will erupt, too. Fighting back against invasions is not only happening in Ukraine and Gaza, it is happening here as well. Recent elections and judicial progress prove the point, even though the battles are being fought in legislatures, courts, and voting booths. Iwo Jima was a hard, uphill battle, but the flag of democracy was finally raised there. So too here the battle is uphill against the top.
It is that simple. How do you explain 95% of Republicans are White? Surely other groups (especially Black people) have experienced economic woes and they’re not running to Trump.
White “Christians” justified slavery and Jim Crow. They’re trying to “take their country back” from what they perceive to be an invasion by inferior and unworthy people (judging people by skin color).
Republicans are not poor people frustrated about economics. They’re people who hate others thinking they’re the righteous people…along with greedy elites who want to keep the divides going so they can conquer the masses and profit from their manipulation.
White supremacy and misogyny are what need to be rooted out.
No Tom, I don't believe Trumpism is a matter of broken promises. The appeal of an authoritarian leadership is more complex. For some it is just a simple way to deal with the complexity of democracy and an inability or unwillingness for critical thinking. Others are confident, strong and do not want a government that meddles in their lives, they distrust science, suspicious of experts. Then others are insecure in a changing society, a shift in racial and cultural citizenry, they can be classed as the white Christian nationalists. Partisanship destroys the very basis of democracy and opens the door to the power of money. Money protects the elite, corrupts everything and everyone who might challenge their privilege. Trump managed to appeal to all these factions.
Jeramey Powell has it wrong on inflation, it is not all inflation it is the gouging by the conglomerate corrupt corporation that drive the prices up. Couldn't Biden put a stop to it?
Able. Not willing. It has been done before; successfully I might add. But government just has to be willing (that word again) to counter the ‘holy hell’ it would receive from the capitalists by looking them in the eye, and saying, as FDR did, ‘I welcome your hatred’.
The venomous hate gets pumped out every day by Fox. While not the only driver of the negativity in our political life, the incessant lies spread hate to a substantial degree, for profit. It is hard to counteract those daily lies.
I was in rural Georgia when Sinclair bought up a bunch of stations, fired all the staff and just used the towers to transmit a central narrative, and that was in 2001, I think.
Hate seizes the reptilian part of our brains and doesn't let go. It's also death salience: surrounded by reminders of death and used as a cudgel by Republicans, we fall victim to death salience, which becomes a powerful weapon for authoritarians. See https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/asap.12143
Richard, you make an excellent point in your last sentence. People assume that they are home free when some autocrat comes along and they kowtow to him. We once had a principal who was very adept at stirring the pot. So staff members with long held grievances about other staff members were busy kissing his rear and filling his ears full of complaints about anybody who they thought stood in their way. I think most of this came from the coaching corner. I knew he was keeping a file on them too just in case he needed to use it. Then we all found out that he had a file beyond the files that all principals keep and everyone was upset. After he left, I had staff members tell me that they were happy to come to work again. The tension before that was so thick, you could cut it.
KAaa-Blammo!! Dead on, Richard :)) "It's because he represents their obsession".!! THEY... had had it with "equal opportunity"; "BLM"; gay "Rights"; same sex "Marriage"; trans-gender (boys) on the "Girls Team"; uni-sex rest-rooms in their "Daughter(s)" dormitory; immigrant "Free Healthcare, babies, etc"; and, let's not forget assault weapon "Bans". All things which THEY swear by.
I think that those are definitely some of the issues, but to my mind, down deep inside, it's the race issue that dominates all the others, followed by the misogyny. What is it that causes the Muslims and the Christian Taliban to hate and disrespect the female sex so? Of course, the Roman Catholics have been doing it for two millennia now, but why the Protestants, the Evangelicals? Ironically, the last group of Americans to finally garner the right to vote (Black females) are leading the charge to save our right to vote.
Goebbels demonstrated hate was the best unifier and most potent motivation in a society in the 1930s. It would be nice to believe Americans aren’t like that, but they are just as human.
And if you watch how Trump is now ranting and raging at how cruelly he will treat the immigrants, you will see that the two professors who authored "The Anger Games" hit the nail on the head. Trump understands that it is hate that motivates his followers. Well, so much for the Evangelicals and their love of Jesus. They love Trump more.
"The Anger Games" article has a paywall for the full article but I think the free abstract pretty much summarizes the authors' points. So you don't have to back up for the link, here it is again.
Thank you for this info regarding "The Anger Games" Judith. I downloaded the article before the paywall was erected. I have forwarded that to those whose email addresses I have. I think that the demand for it turned out to be greater than the publisher originally anticipated.
There are people on the left who say, there’s nothing I can do about it, when it comes to trump and his acolytes. But there is something we all can do. We can write letters or email the big three television networks, the cable news networks and demand less trump and more Biden. We can write directly to anchors and hosts. The President’s accomplishments are not getting through to people which is why we saw that upsetting poll the other week.
That’s a fair point. However we are talking about our freedoms. Do they think that under trump that they would be allowed to exist? Trust me, under him and Project 2025, any media source that opposes them will be shut down. Only government run media will be allowed.
Project 2025 is frightening! Every issue erodes the 3 tier balance of power and the rule of law. Long in the making and only recently revealed to the public.
I think this will not happen without a wild uproar.
I am afraid that the polls reflect how knee-jerk vacuous and self centered the voter is (or can be if it's a good sampling and the questions are not spoon fed). The journalists of corporate media, to an extent, take advantage of this state of mind for profit and ratings. Trump all the time. But we do need to know some of that. I think righteousness, appealing to people's sense of right and wrong, works somewhat too. Lazy and/or hardworking people turn on the TV and are ready for entertainment( which they get in the commercials) but they perhaps feel the need to know what is going on in the world. They are ripe for feeding> Thank goodness for NPR and PBS though they too are (or have been) somewhat constrained, funding threatened in the past by the Right.
I don't think many people want to go and sift through various venues. So they tune in to MSNBC or FOX or CNN and ingest.
People are getting weary of all the negative, bad events news. We need some positive, uplifting news once in awhile. Here’s an example. On the Boston NBC News was the story about a traffic problem as a result of a roundabout. The story went on how straightening it out could improve traffic. A concern was funding for it. The reporter credited President Biden’s Infrastructure bill with providing funding for the project.
People in that community will now know that an improvement in their quality of life is because an action by President Biden. Hopefully there will be a temporary sign during the project indicating where the money for it came from.
I got an email yesterday from Indivisible. They’re starting a book club and the first book is by an author whose unusual name I can’t recall (Anand something?) but if you join the club you get the book free. It’s about how to talk persuasively to MAGAs and such. I joined
Thanks Tom. You easily put into words what I have been struggling to say for ages. And I am sad to say I think your view on why MSNBC, NPR, and others do this is for ratings, plain and simple.
Once, on the basis of a Chris Hedges recommendation targeted at every American, I read Sheldon Wolin’s book Democracy Incorporated, and fully grasped the concept of inverted (corporate) totalitarianism, there was no turning back. We do live in the Matrix, and most are clueless about it; they might feel it, but don’t understand it enough to coalesce to fight it. It’s what makes the blame game so successful for the oligarchs.
Why the focus on ratings? In the paraphrased language of the Ned Beatty character (Jensen) in the film Network, ‘That’s where the money is, dummy!’
Another comment, Tom. First of all thant you for your comment. I think it is spot on. I also think we, as people fed up with this idiocy need to send notes or make calls to media outlets and tell them they are losing our viewership because of their incessant coverage of everything dRumpf or the crazy clown congress. We need to encourage our representatives to keep highlighting the good things that are happening and perhaps the most important thing is to tell advertisers that we aren't going to shop at their stores or buy their products if they continue to advertise on these news "outlets". Money talks and BS walks.
All pieces of a puzzle. The main thing is to be aware (that takes time/energy that many don’t have) and spread that awareness to others. Another piece is active engagement, as you note, beyond just the simple act of casting a ballot in an election. Until we overrule the SCOTUS on corporate personhood, we’re spitting into the wind, imo.
THAT is the core problem. Romney was right in a perverted sort of way. "Corporations are people". Yes. Morbidly rich people using corporations to suck the national treasure from the common person.
I believe 'telling' advertisers that we aren't going to shop at their stores or buy their products is less effective than actually stopping subscriptions and sales of whatever it is they are selling.
I miss my NYT subscription and stand firm. I cancelled cable tv years ago. I need product to run my business and refuse to shop at ULINE. Hit their bottom lines and they will get the message loud and clear.
The Lincoln Project had a truck with signage calling out advertisers parked in front of Fox headquarters on the day they were meeting with Fox executives.
I keep MSNBC on most of the day with the sound off and captions on, and while they do of course cover Trump and all the insanity of MAGA world, they also cover many other important stories, such as the Israel/Hamas debacle and Biden’s successes. Their political commentary consistently debunks the criticisms about Biden’s age. And personally, I think the clearest path to saving our democracy is not by getting into the policy weeds (think Dukakis) but by constantly pointing out the dangers of a Trump Presidency, exposing his lies and criminality. Nobody wants to vote for a loser.
I agree Maureen. MSNBC has very good coverage about Biden’s accomplishments, and also Trump’s travails and travesties which we need to be aware of. And the GOP’s complete surrender to Trump.
Don't think MSNBC is getting GOP/Trump any votes! I usually change the speaker during Morning Joe's rants, but i tuned into his over the top rant after Tuesday's Dem successes just to feel more of the warm glow of victory!
Half the country is in support of the Trumpublican Party and it's because of the propaganda envelope we live in. One basic aspect of propaganda is: the more successful the propaganda, the less likely the target is aware of it. And even though the Koch Kleptocrats have poured over 13 Billion into psy ops games, like creating the Tea Party in the shadows, it is the business model of media that has done the most... they make money from provoking their audience, and that lines up with pushing attention to Trump and his chaos clowns. If we fall into totalitarianism, it will be because of our brand of capitalism.
It has hurt, because I so admired her, but I have even walked away from Rachel Maddow. She has twice now turned me off. First time was when she stated that she has exclusive information that Merrick Garland was somehow carrying water for Trump by putting out a DOJ memo that any new investigations in the last couple of months before the election, into someone running for office in 2022 in needed to be run past the upper powers of DOJ first. She spoke as if this was remarkable and unusual. It has been SOP for quite a while. I was quite taken aback.
Last time I turned her on, a few weeks ago, she was waving her new book around, letting us all know we needed to read it. I have read some of her books, and her podcasts. They are very interesting, particularly Bag Man and Ultra, which were interesting history lessons. But she was using her show to sell her book.
I haven’t bothered to look for her since. I have no plans to watch her anymore routinely.
Saying the Russians were hacking into the Vermont energy grid to her audience, specifically, but latching onto and trumpeting every Trump/Russia collusion propaganda story that came down the pike, from every magazine and government ‘intelligence expert’ pundit guest on her show. Without hard evidence. It was journalistic malpractice worthy of the Hannity crowd on the network that shall not be named.
The most valuable part of MSNBC is the "print" commentary by Steve Benen, Ja'han Jones, Jessica Levinson, and others. I don't have a TV, so I only see some of the broadcast material, usually a day late, but the written stuff is excellent.
I think it depends on which show you watch. Rachel certainly talks about more than trump and always has. Unfortunately she is only on mondays now. But there is also Nicole Wallace, Joy Reid, Lawrence O’Donnell and Alex Wagner all of whom discuss more things than trump.
"Decrepit" is the word being lightly tossed around the world's headlines. And is he not supposed to notice that? His courage and strength are amazing. And the new 4-hour daily Gaza truce to get people out - who engineered that? Certainly not Bibi. Doesn't rate a mention.
Sad? it's outrageous. It moves me to anger, rather than sorrow. Do you remember the day we heard he'd won? Kamala Harris was out in the open somewhere (golf course?) and she had him on her cellphone, radiant with joy for him. "Joe! You did it! You've won!"
It makes me angry too but, sad that people buy into the narrative. Joe Biden could be 100 and he would still be better than ANY republican out there! I guess as I see the "dumbing down" of America, that is what makes me sad. There are so many people who are willing to go down that rabbit hole!
Thom Hartman did a piece on media ownership recently… most of the media has been purchased by right-wing billionaires since the advent of Rush Limbaugh. Just one of the reasons coverage is so stilted.
The corporate side of Repubs (which wants tax cuts & zero regulations) has roped in the despairing millions to believe Repubs need to have the “freedom to create jobs” & not be exposed to redistributive taxes that only help welfare cheats. The poor believe that, while they’re doing their best without any government help (!), “THOSE” people are living high off the hog on welfare benefits & food stamps & that liberals want to let more immigrants in so they can vote Dem. (It doesn’t all make sense, but they’ve been so brainwashed by FOX as well as CNN even (among other corporate media outlets) that they don’t have time yo think it through.
Need to add another screen for the growing numbers who are shunning politics all together, assuming they can’t possibly make a difference. They’ve had it with candidates, media, and the seemingly rabid, current-events ranters within their own social groups. It’s gotten too tiresome and ridiculous for them. I fear the lost votes….
I, too, think we are watching life in America on a split screen. But what seems so weird to me is how the media splits the screen with the negative Trumpism part being 80% and the positive Biden part as only 20%. No wonder people don't appreciate all the good things that are geared to help the middle and lower groups live better! It is so disheartening!
Funny thing is, many on the liberal left look at MSNBC as the counterweight to FOX, but both are equally obsessed with Trump. You’d think that a real counterweight would be focused on Biden’s successes, but even though I bailed on cable news entirely after Russiagate, I’ll occasionally check in on MSNBC during a commercial during whatever sporting event I happen to be watching, and you know what story inevitably is being discussed? Trump’s legal shenanigans. It’s like the epitome of an own goal. Ratings, baby!
The U.S. is at a tipping point: either retain a democratic republic or lose it to an autocratic mad man. The forces that motivate the white Christian nationalists were researched and published in Feb. 2018 by two Univ. of Kansas professors, the study entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615
One has to wonder, why would anyone vote for one who is obviously a cheat, a tax fraud, a rapist, a grifter, a criminal, an insurrectionist and a serial liar? It's because he represents their obsession with crushing their hated foes: women's rights advocates, immigrants, gays, Jews, Muslims, Blacks and other "undesirables." Their hate is stronger than their desire for a free society. The mistake that they make is that they think that an autocratic state would not, at some point, come after them, too.
I don’t think it’s that simple. I think it’s far more a case of frustration in experiencing economic anxiety from flat wages and skyrocketing costs since the late 70s, which then lends itself to the ‘hate’ you describe.
To me, Trump is a reflection of a broken system, a symptom of a broken promise. Americans in the post-WWII period were led to believe that government would, not provide, but continually look to improve the lot of working people. That was shattered by the implementation of neoliberal economics, by both parties, to varying degrees.
Tipping point or not, until the cause of the frustration/hate is rooted out, we will continue to slide towards authoritarianism. The GOP as presently constituted welcomes this; the Dems, especially the Party establishment, seems to want to just prune the dead branches of the rotting tree instead of cutting it down. And on we go.
Tom,
You make many valid points. But you are naive. Richard is right.
Please get in your car and drive the back roads of America. Stop at local diners, look at the signs on people's lawns, talk to guys at gas stations. There are states that are still fighting the Civil War. And sadly, they aren't all in the South. Millions of us have been encouraged to hate. Instead of pushing evil thinking under a rock where it belongs, the Oligarchs have fed the hungry and struggling poor with lies and hate. Millions of puppets who do their bidding.
THE driving force (and tool of the puppeteers) in the destruction of our nation right now is fascism/white nationalism. Hate of the "other". All those Americans that Richard listed are targets. And so are you and me when they get enough power. We are close to being Italy in pre-WWII. We have our Mussolinis. The new version is Mike Johnson. He wants to impose his magic man in the sky on me. That, sir, makes me more furious than anything else I have read this year. And it should terrify all of us. Mike Johnson is the main character in a real life version of "The Handmaids Tale". Compare that with the mistakes of some Democrats, please.
There is no question that the policies of both parties have fed this hate. I like to point to Bill Clinton and NAFTA. Now we have a president that is reversing that huge mistake. And why wouldn't you want to celebrate that? Talking about "neo-liberal" policies will cause folks to glaze over. Let's talk about who is really pulling the strings and sucking the life out of a shrinking middle class.
The venomous hate which drives the attitudes of Republicans has been preached in churches across America for 100's of years. Those rotten souls have always existed. The problem is that the morbidly rich have added gasoline to those fires instead of smothering that hate.
The difference now is that an entire political party has embraced that hate. Has embraced bigotry as a platform. Has become the American Taliban.
Of course some Democrats have messed up. Name a perfect person or organization.
So now we are at war, Tom. We have to pick a side. There is no middle. The people who embrace democracy and a level playing field - or the Oligarchs? The vast diversity of a wonderful national experiment or the American Taliban?
You echo my sentiments and it’s why I don’t like hearing democrats talking about Biden’s age when it’s really not an issue. Republicans have absolutely NOTHING on Biden. Biden is clean and this is all they can come up with. We need to stand together and remove all doubt. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes but I would wager that Biden would be the first to admit his mistakes. In my book that’s a worthy human.
Right on! We hit the road often and I have come face to face with MAGAQ bullies. Nebraska is still fighting the Civil War. I dred driving through that state. My Mexican-American nephew was refused service for hair cut in Indiana last month visiting his in-laws. He was also refused service at a public golf club. He did ask were the colored bathrooms were before he left. The bigots aren't hiding it anymore. Like a neighbor said, "we just didn't say it out loud like they do now." Wow.
Wow indeed.
Excellent summary of the conundrum our nationalist culture has created. I suspect the haters just needed a messiah to represent their supremacist beliefs.
Barry GoldWater nearly did and Reagan emerged as a possible. But the cultists needed a wealthy TV Celebrity to fill their needs and Trump surely filled their dream.
But it’s not he or abortion or even race as problems as much as it is the vision of a comfortable, entirely white society with air conditioning.
And research has shown time and again J6 and trumpster voters are not our economically impoverished citizens. That’s a load of crap. They are the entitled citizens who are looking for scapegoats to problems that were sold to them by master propagandists
So true for the Florida perspective. Even the cable and airwaves limit access to strong right wing media outlets. The balance is buried deep in the playlist IF it is even made available. Here is St Petersburg, FOX et all are in the low "double number" station choices, MSNBC has a four didget location. The university public broadcast bandwidth does not reach the rural areas due to limited infrastructure. This is likely the case throughout the less progressive states.
Naive? We define this war differently.
I see the duopoly, under the grip of oligarchy, as the enemy. I have picked a side in that war. You think one part of the captured duopoly can save us, and you are willing to cozy up to it in the face of mendacious policy choices, from Ukraine to Gaza to innumerable fealty to capital on the domestic front, from health care to housing to student debt. I refuse to do so.
Lots of ways to define naive, I guess.
Edited to add, from Caitlin Johnstone: “You want to know how morally bankrupt Democrats are? Democrats are so morally bankrupt that right now they are angrier at people who say they refuse to vote for Biden because of his support for the Gaza massacre than they are at Biden for supporting the Gaza massacre.”
I think we agree on a lot. I am just confused about your version of a solution. Let's say we are standing on a hill. We look down and see two armies. One is horrific. It works for the nobles. The other is far from perfect but it actually wants to improve the lot of the peasants.
Now the armies are climbing the hill. We have to decide which one to join. Or do we stand there and whine about how horrible they both are? I'm with the peasants. You?
I divide my anger at the uninformed, naive, and gullible voters and the tfg and his cronies now.
Yes, I am mad at people who say they oppose Biden because of his support of Israel, because I support Israel. We cannot have a ceasefire and establish peace with a terrorist group like Hamas. Hamas must be destroyed. Are all you ‘Free Palestine’ supporters embracing Sharia law? You are if you give Hamas a pass. Women can start wearing burkas and anyone gay can be executed. How’s that work for you? I support democracy and democratic nations; Hamas must go! And there is no genocide. That’s ridiculous. Gaza has 2.5 million people. Hamas says 10,000 have died. That count includes their soldiers, and is probably exaggerated. The total is a tiny fraction of the whole population. It’s terrible, but it’s not genocide.
So will you vote?
George HW Bush began NAFTA. Ross Perot ran against Bush/both on NAFTA. Clinton signed it.
or the Oligarchs? I would add the corporations.
Bill Alstrom, You are exactly right.
Tom, you are speculating about a topic that has been researched and published. White Christian nationalism is the driving force.
These things are not incompatible, esp. if you focus on the "white" and "nationalism" parts. Misogyny and racism are part of the mix: the widespread perception is that those government elites are behind the "great replacement" of native-born white Christian USians with non-white, often non-Christian immigrants. (White Evangelicals tend to have doubts that Catholics are real Christians.) And as soon as anyone starts railing about "elites," global or otherwise, it's a good guess that antisemitism is part of their agenda.
It's worth remembering that most of the people who supported Hitler at the beginning weren't card-carrying Nazis.
"Institutional failures" are probably a concern across the political spectrum. They're motivating union resurgence and the interrelated fights for an equitable health care system, environmental justice, and sane gun laws, among other things. The question is whether you're willing to try to improve things yourself or you want to put your faith in someone who's going to fix it for you. And just in general the right has been better at this than the left for decades, especially when it comes to abortion, gun rights, and, more recently, school curriculum. Fortunately we're getting better at it.
Susanna, you write: " And just in general the right has been better at this than the left for decades, especially when it comes to abortion, gun rights, and, more recently, school curriculum. Fortunately we're getting better at it." Thomas Frank treats this in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" published in 2004. The wealthy paid for propaganda to entice the white Christians to vote against their own best social and economic interests, using abortion, women's rights, immigration, etc. to dupe them. It's a sad case brought on by the lack of critical thinking skills among tens of millions of Americans, IMO.
Susanna, you make a point about Catholics and fundamentalists. Once when I was teaching, i heard one of my students refer to Christians and Catholics. I thought this was a teachable moment, so I asked what the essence of Christianity is and after they answered, I pointed out that every Mass a Catholic recites this belief in the Creed. This school is in a very Catholic community with fundamentalists up the canyon and some within the towns. It was and still is an interesting place. I have friends there who lament what death star has caused among the people they know.
I’m not speculating, I’m just quibbling with the assertion that Christian Nationalism is THE driving force. Is it the main driver? Perhaps. I’ve talked to far too many Trump voters who don’t belong in that bucket to accept any monolithic descriptor of their mindset being ‘crushing their hated foes/undesirables’, unless you expand that list to include government elites and the establishments of both political parties, and institutional failures across the spectrum.
Edited to add - When the minority voters who are duopoly voters vote for Trump because Biden reneged on an HBCU student debt promise, or the Muslim voters, and there will be some, vote similarly because of Biden’s absurd handling of Gaza, will those votes be due to Christian Nationalism and hate?
Again, I just don’t think it’s that simple, and that mindset is counterproductive to building the coalitions necessary to get us out of this downward spiral.
'What History Tells Us About the Feel-Bad Economy' (NYTimes, Opinion, Paul Krugman)
'Start with the state of the economy. The simple reality of the past year or so is that America has accomplished what many, perhaps most, economists considered impossible: a large fall in inflation without a recession or even a big rise in unemployment. If you don’t trust me, listen to Goldman Sachs, which on Wednesday issued a report titled “The Hard Part Is Over,” noting that we’re managing to combine rapid disinflation with solid growth, and that it expects this happy combination — the opposite of stagflation — to continue.
What went right? Back in 2021, Biden administration economists published an essay on historical inflation episodes, arguing that the closest parallel to current events was the inflation surge after World War II, which subsided after the economy resolved wartime disruptions and readjusted to peacetime production. That analysis looked much too optimistic for a while, as inflation went much higher for much longer than the Council of Economic Advisers expected.
At this point, however, with a soft landing looking ever more plausible, it seems as if the council, while it underestimated the size and duration of the shock, got the basic story right.
'Yet voters aren’t happy. The most widespread story I’ve been hearing is that people don’t care about the fact that prices have been leveling off; they’re angry that prices haven’t gone back down to their prepandemic levels.'
'This makes some psychological sense. As of September, consumer prices were about 19 percent higher than they were on the eve of the pandemic. Average wages were also up, by about the same amount, and wages for nonsupervisory workers (the great bulk of the work force) were up considerably more. But human nature being what it is, it’s natural for people to feel that they earned their higher incomes, only to have inflation snatch away their gains. And lecturing voters about why that’s the wrong way to think about it is not, shall we say, a promising political strategy.'
'But here’s where my historical doubts come in.'
'This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a temporary surge in prices that leveled off but never went back down. The same thing happened after World War II and again during the Korean War, the latter surge being roughly the same size as what we’ve seen since 2020.'
'Unfortunately, we don’t have consumer sentiment data for the 1940s, although some political scientists believe that the economy actually helped Harry Truman win his upset election victory in 1948. But we do have such data for the early 1950s, and it suggests that people were relatively upbeat on the economy despite higher prices. Why should this time be different?'
'Also, it seems worth noting that many voters have demonstrably false views about the current economy — believing, in particular, that unemployment, which is near a 50-year low, is actually near a 50-year high.'
'Whatever is really going on, was there something Biden or the Federal Reserve could have done that would have mollified voters?'
'Here’s how I think about it: The supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic made it inevitable that prices of some goods would rise sharply. The only way to have avoided overall inflation would have been to force major price cuts for other goods and services.'
'And everything we know from history suggests that trying to impose deflation — falling prices — on large parts of the economy would have had disastrous effects on employment and output, something like the quiet depression Britain inflicted on itself after World War I when it tried to go back to the prewar gold standard.'
'So what’s actually going to happen in the next election? I have no idea, and neither do you. What I can say is that if you believe that Biden made huge, obvious economic policy mistakes and could easily have put himself in a much better position, you probably haven’t thought this thing through. (NYTimes, Opinion: Paul Krugman) See gifted link.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/opinion/biden-economy-unemployment-history.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9kw.pHeM.bRYqnLIzCjgH&smid=url-share
Christian Nationalism is the vehicle the GOP is using to drive class hierarchy. It’s ultimately all about money and power.
Tom, google and read "The Anger Games . . ." and then come back on. What is your explanation as to why Christian evangelicals support Trump? What is it about him that they like?
Tom, please, the Biden/Harris administration has forgiven over $125 billion in student debt, for millions of Americans. And I believe additional loan forgiveness has been approved under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs. Have they forgiven every penny of every students' debt? No, however they never promised to do so.
Anyone that has decided to vote for Trump because Biden didn't forgive their student loan debt, either was never going to vote for Biden to begin with, or they haven't been paying attention to what has been forgiven. How much student loan debt has Trump promised to forgive? Or any of the other Presidential candidates for that matter? They would be voting to cut of their nose despite their face.
At no point in my lifetime has the Middle East lacked for strife with no obvious path to solution. Biden is a politician, he has said what he has said about the current Israel/Palestine conflict. Maybe he's wrong in what he says, but is there such a thing as right he could say?
I agree it’s not that simple and white Christian nationalism is not the core belief. This is a continuation of the civil war, which never ended in the south. I grew up in the South. Not everyone went to church, but everyone was racist. Everyone agreed that ‘colored s’ should ride in the back of the bus, use separate water fountains and bathrooms, have their own restaurants. It wasn’t proper for colored folks to eat in white establishments. The dream of being a plantation owner has never died. And the actual plantation owners figured out long ago that the way for the (vast) minority to control the masses was to pit folks against each other. That’s where religion comes in; it’s the perfect tool to put man against man. It’s a tool being used by the oligarchs to get us to fight each other and not take them out. It’s just a tool.
This is the email that I received today from Donald Trump:
Patriot,
I’m writing to you from Trump Force One as I fly to New Hampshire – home of the FIRST-IN-THE-NATION primary.
After public surveys show that I won the THIRD GOP Debate (despite not even attending), I think we can all agree that the primary is effectively over.
Sadly, a few stubborn RINOs simply won’t accept reality just yet.
These self-interested RINOs have deluded themselves into believing they can win the nomination despite being 50 points behind.
And, in some cases, they’re actually hoping that I get convicted as an innocent man so they can use my injustice and persecution to jump in and take the nomination.
But I have disappointing news for them… The more I am targeted in these despicable witch hunts, the more our support in the polls skyrockets.
As I fly to New Hampshire to wrap up this primary ASAP so that we can FIRE the crooked man in the White House who is trying to turn America into a dictatorship, let’s show these RINOs that they have ZERO CHANCE of taking the nomination with a surge of grassroots contributions before Trump Force One touches down!
But, if you’re doing poorly right now due to the disastrous policies pushed by Crooked Joe, don’t even think about donating!
Please make a contribution to our Primary Victory Fund to WRAP UP the primary ASAP so that we can turn 100% of our attention to the REAL mission of firing Crooked Joe and winning back the White House.
CONTRIBUTE $24 >>
CONTRIBUTE $47 >>
CONTRIBUTE $75 >>
CONTRIBUTE $100 >>
CONTRIBUTE $250 >>
CONTRIBUTE OTHER AMOUNT >>
Thank you,
Donald J. Trump
45th President of the United States
Along with corporate greed and biased media. Economic global awareness has been neglected in the the presentation of targeted issues. General population is vastly unaware or uneducated and seem to lack executive functioning level for comprehension and application of facts.
The income frustration you express has not been experienced by the *leaders* of the MAGA movement. They are simply distorting and exploiting, aided by shallow newscasting that does not pointout that inflation has arisen primarily from increased profits and exporting labor opportunities to other countries. If those leaders provided a different message to their followers, there would be a different tone to our country's differences. If, for example, MAGA leaders supported better education, fair taxation, etc., then those feeling the economic pinch would be filled with enthusiasm, not hatred. When MAGA leaders convince their followers there is no way to improve their lot, then the frustration erupts, especially when they see the excesses of the rich.
MAGA adherents are not the only ones experiencing frustration. Frustrations from those whose rights are being violated, whose votes are being diluted by gerrymandering and restrictions, whose educations are being stunted by inadequate offerings--those angers will erupt, too. Fighting back against invasions is not only happening in Ukraine and Gaza, it is happening here as well. Recent elections and judicial progress prove the point, even though the battles are being fought in legislatures, courts, and voting booths. Iwo Jima was a hard, uphill battle, but the flag of democracy was finally raised there. So too here the battle is uphill against the top.
It is that simple. How do you explain 95% of Republicans are White? Surely other groups (especially Black people) have experienced economic woes and they’re not running to Trump.
White “Christians” justified slavery and Jim Crow. They’re trying to “take their country back” from what they perceive to be an invasion by inferior and unworthy people (judging people by skin color).
Republicans are not poor people frustrated about economics. They’re people who hate others thinking they’re the righteous people…along with greedy elites who want to keep the divides going so they can conquer the masses and profit from their manipulation.
White supremacy and misogyny are what need to be rooted out.
Yes!
Go Team Blue! You shore do stereotypes good!
Taken a look at minority support for Trump lately? No? Buckle up.
No Tom, I don't believe Trumpism is a matter of broken promises. The appeal of an authoritarian leadership is more complex. For some it is just a simple way to deal with the complexity of democracy and an inability or unwillingness for critical thinking. Others are confident, strong and do not want a government that meddles in their lives, they distrust science, suspicious of experts. Then others are insecure in a changing society, a shift in racial and cultural citizenry, they can be classed as the white Christian nationalists. Partisanship destroys the very basis of democracy and opens the door to the power of money. Money protects the elite, corrupts everything and everyone who might challenge their privilege. Trump managed to appeal to all these factions.
Jeramey Powell has it wrong on inflation, it is not all inflation it is the gouging by the conglomerate corrupt corporation that drive the prices up. Couldn't Biden put a stop to it?
It’s a capitalist country. I don’t think the government is able or willing to control prices. There would holy hell if they tried, I’m sure!
Able. Not willing. It has been done before; successfully I might add. But government just has to be willing (that word again) to counter the ‘holy hell’ it would receive from the capitalists by looking them in the eye, and saying, as FDR did, ‘I welcome your hatred’.
The Democrats tried to pass an ‘excess wealth’ tax to discourage price gouging, but the Rs voted it down.
The venomous hate gets pumped out every day by Fox. While not the only driver of the negativity in our political life, the incessant lies spread hate to a substantial degree, for profit. It is hard to counteract those daily lies.
Talk radio in rural areas spread the same lies and hate.
I was in rural Georgia when Sinclair bought up a bunch of stations, fired all the staff and just used the towers to transmit a central narrative, and that was in 2001, I think.
Hate seizes the reptilian part of our brains and doesn't let go. It's also death salience: surrounded by reminders of death and used as a cudgel by Republicans, we fall victim to death salience, which becomes a powerful weapon for authoritarians. See https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/asap.12143
Richard, you make an excellent point in your last sentence. People assume that they are home free when some autocrat comes along and they kowtow to him. We once had a principal who was very adept at stirring the pot. So staff members with long held grievances about other staff members were busy kissing his rear and filling his ears full of complaints about anybody who they thought stood in their way. I think most of this came from the coaching corner. I knew he was keeping a file on them too just in case he needed to use it. Then we all found out that he had a file beyond the files that all principals keep and everyone was upset. After he left, I had staff members tell me that they were happy to come to work again. The tension before that was so thick, you could cut it.
Reminds me of Republicans in the House.
KAaa-Blammo!! Dead on, Richard :)) "It's because he represents their obsession".!! THEY... had had it with "equal opportunity"; "BLM"; gay "Rights"; same sex "Marriage"; trans-gender (boys) on the "Girls Team"; uni-sex rest-rooms in their "Daughter(s)" dormitory; immigrant "Free Healthcare, babies, etc"; and, let's not forget assault weapon "Bans". All things which THEY swear by.
I think that those are definitely some of the issues, but to my mind, down deep inside, it's the race issue that dominates all the others, followed by the misogyny. What is it that causes the Muslims and the Christian Taliban to hate and disrespect the female sex so? Of course, the Roman Catholics have been doing it for two millennia now, but why the Protestants, the Evangelicals? Ironically, the last group of Americans to finally garner the right to vote (Black females) are leading the charge to save our right to vote.
Goebbels demonstrated hate was the best unifier and most potent motivation in a society in the 1930s. It would be nice to believe Americans aren’t like that, but they are just as human.
And if you watch how Trump is now ranting and raging at how cruelly he will treat the immigrants, you will see that the two professors who authored "The Anger Games" hit the nail on the head. Trump understands that it is hate that motivates his followers. Well, so much for the Evangelicals and their love of Jesus. They love Trump more.
"The Anger Games" article has a paywall for the full article but I think the free abstract pretty much summarizes the authors' points. So you don't have to back up for the link, here it is again.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615
Thank you for this info regarding "The Anger Games" Judith. I downloaded the article before the paywall was erected. I have forwarded that to those whose email addresses I have. I think that the demand for it turned out to be greater than the publisher originally anticipated.
There are people on the left who say, there’s nothing I can do about it, when it comes to trump and his acolytes. But there is something we all can do. We can write letters or email the big three television networks, the cable news networks and demand less trump and more Biden. We can write directly to anchors and hosts. The President’s accomplishments are not getting through to people which is why we saw that upsetting poll the other week.
Good news does not sell, never has. Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
That’s a fair point. However we are talking about our freedoms. Do they think that under trump that they would be allowed to exist? Trust me, under him and Project 2025, any media source that opposes them will be shut down. Only government run media will be allowed.
Project 2025 is frightening! Every issue erodes the 3 tier balance of power and the rule of law. Long in the making and only recently revealed to the public.
I think this will not happen without a wild uproar.
I am afraid that the polls reflect how knee-jerk vacuous and self centered the voter is (or can be if it's a good sampling and the questions are not spoon fed). The journalists of corporate media, to an extent, take advantage of this state of mind for profit and ratings. Trump all the time. But we do need to know some of that. I think righteousness, appealing to people's sense of right and wrong, works somewhat too. Lazy and/or hardworking people turn on the TV and are ready for entertainment( which they get in the commercials) but they perhaps feel the need to know what is going on in the world. They are ripe for feeding> Thank goodness for NPR and PBS though they too are (or have been) somewhat constrained, funding threatened in the past by the Right.
I don't think many people want to go and sift through various venues. So they tune in to MSNBC or FOX or CNN and ingest.
People are getting weary of all the negative, bad events news. We need some positive, uplifting news once in awhile. Here’s an example. On the Boston NBC News was the story about a traffic problem as a result of a roundabout. The story went on how straightening it out could improve traffic. A concern was funding for it. The reporter credited President Biden’s Infrastructure bill with providing funding for the project.
People in that community will now know that an improvement in their quality of life is because an action by President Biden. Hopefully there will be a temporary sign during the project indicating where the money for it came from.
They don't think. This is the problem.
They don’t want the citizenry to think. “I alone can fix all the problems” is the motto of authoritarians everywhere.
I got an email yesterday from Indivisible. They’re starting a book club and the first book is by an author whose unusual name I can’t recall (Anand something?) but if you join the club you get the book free. It’s about how to talk persuasively to MAGAs and such. I joined
I got the same email. As it pointed out, we have to avoid it with the more aggressive MAGAs. I’m paraphrasing.
Hit them in the wallet if you want to get their attention! Cancel subscriptions!
Those of us who have cable television and are required to have Fox News as part of the subscription should demand that it be removed.
Polls can no longer suffice, they have proven that. Biden can make himself a powerful voice, I imagine.
He can and I believe his campaign has not started in earnest.
Thanks Tom. You easily put into words what I have been struggling to say for ages. And I am sad to say I think your view on why MSNBC, NPR, and others do this is for ratings, plain and simple.
Once, on the basis of a Chris Hedges recommendation targeted at every American, I read Sheldon Wolin’s book Democracy Incorporated, and fully grasped the concept of inverted (corporate) totalitarianism, there was no turning back. We do live in the Matrix, and most are clueless about it; they might feel it, but don’t understand it enough to coalesce to fight it. It’s what makes the blame game so successful for the oligarchs.
Why the focus on ratings? In the paraphrased language of the Ned Beatty character (Jensen) in the film Network, ‘That’s where the money is, dummy!’
Still a classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35DSdw7dHjs
Read the new book out by Joan Walsh, Nick Hanauer, and Donald Cohen, called Corporate Bullsh*t.
Check out ‘Silent Coup’, by Provost & Kennard
Will do. btw I couldn't recall ever watching Network (1976), so I watch the movie last night. Fox Entertainment.
People are in business to make money. Period.
Another comment, Tom. First of all thant you for your comment. I think it is spot on. I also think we, as people fed up with this idiocy need to send notes or make calls to media outlets and tell them they are losing our viewership because of their incessant coverage of everything dRumpf or the crazy clown congress. We need to encourage our representatives to keep highlighting the good things that are happening and perhaps the most important thing is to tell advertisers that we aren't going to shop at their stores or buy their products if they continue to advertise on these news "outlets". Money talks and BS walks.
All pieces of a puzzle. The main thing is to be aware (that takes time/energy that many don’t have) and spread that awareness to others. Another piece is active engagement, as you note, beyond just the simple act of casting a ballot in an election. Until we overrule the SCOTUS on corporate personhood, we’re spitting into the wind, imo.
MoveToAmend.org
Agree!
THAT is the core problem. Romney was right in a perverted sort of way. "Corporations are people". Yes. Morbidly rich people using corporations to suck the national treasure from the common person.
How are you suggesting that SCOTUS be "dealt with" if people don't vote?
Agreed!
I believe 'telling' advertisers that we aren't going to shop at their stores or buy their products is less effective than actually stopping subscriptions and sales of whatever it is they are selling.
I miss my NYT subscription and stand firm. I cancelled cable tv years ago. I need product to run my business and refuse to shop at ULINE. Hit their bottom lines and they will get the message loud and clear.
Unfortunately most of MSM is funded by cable subscriptions, not advertising. Cut the cable.
The Lincoln Project had a truck with signage calling out advertisers parked in front of Fox headquarters on the day they were meeting with Fox executives.
I keep MSNBC on most of the day with the sound off and captions on, and while they do of course cover Trump and all the insanity of MAGA world, they also cover many other important stories, such as the Israel/Hamas debacle and Biden’s successes. Their political commentary consistently debunks the criticisms about Biden’s age. And personally, I think the clearest path to saving our democracy is not by getting into the policy weeds (think Dukakis) but by constantly pointing out the dangers of a Trump Presidency, exposing his lies and criminality. Nobody wants to vote for a loser.
I agree Maureen. MSNBC has very good coverage about Biden’s accomplishments, and also Trump’s travails and travesties which we need to be aware of. And the GOP’s complete surrender to Trump.
You have a good point.
Don't think MSNBC is getting GOP/Trump any votes! I usually change the speaker during Morning Joe's rants, but i tuned into his over the top rant after Tuesday's Dem successes just to feel more of the warm glow of victory!
Half the country is in support of the Trumpublican Party and it's because of the propaganda envelope we live in. One basic aspect of propaganda is: the more successful the propaganda, the less likely the target is aware of it. And even though the Koch Kleptocrats have poured over 13 Billion into psy ops games, like creating the Tea Party in the shadows, it is the business model of media that has done the most... they make money from provoking their audience, and that lines up with pushing attention to Trump and his chaos clowns. If we fall into totalitarianism, it will be because of our brand of capitalism.
Half???
"The 2024 Polls Agree: Trump Has a Significant Lead Over Biden"
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/11/polls-trump-leads-biden.html
It has hurt, because I so admired her, but I have even walked away from Rachel Maddow. She has twice now turned me off. First time was when she stated that she has exclusive information that Merrick Garland was somehow carrying water for Trump by putting out a DOJ memo that any new investigations in the last couple of months before the election, into someone running for office in 2022 in needed to be run past the upper powers of DOJ first. She spoke as if this was remarkable and unusual. It has been SOP for quite a while. I was quite taken aback.
Last time I turned her on, a few weeks ago, she was waving her new book around, letting us all know we needed to read it. I have read some of her books, and her podcasts. They are very interesting, particularly Bag Man and Ultra, which were interesting history lessons. But she was using her show to sell her book.
I haven’t bothered to look for her since. I have no plans to watch her anymore routinely.
May I recommend this Substack piece by Teri Kanefield, if you haven’t found it yet? It is a good summary of this whole issue of what I think is best described as “Angertainment”. https://open.substack.com/pub/terikanefield/p/the-misinformation-outrage-cycle?r=1m7r2k&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Nicole Wallace is the best thing about MSNBC.
Teri is a measured treasure and keeps me from being “hair on fire”. Her 5 points writing is gold.
Thanks for the link. I quit Maddow when she lost her mind during Russiagate.
Your loss
Okay, what does "she lost her mind" mean in this context?
Saying the Russians were hacking into the Vermont energy grid to her audience, specifically, but latching onto and trumpeting every Trump/Russia collusion propaganda story that came down the pike, from every magazine and government ‘intelligence expert’ pundit guest on her show. Without hard evidence. It was journalistic malpractice worthy of the Hannity crowd on the network that shall not be named.
Thanks for answering.
The most valuable part of MSNBC is the "print" commentary by Steve Benen, Ja'han Jones, Jessica Levinson, and others. I don't have a TV, so I only see some of the broadcast material, usually a day late, but the written stuff is excellent.
Yep! And we all hate own goals!
I think it depends on which show you watch. Rachel certainly talks about more than trump and always has. Unfortunately she is only on mondays now. But there is also Nicole Wallace, Joy Reid, Lawrence O’Donnell and Alex Wagner all of whom discuss more things than trump.
I spend very little time on corporate run network TV.
Follow The Money
"...epitome of an own goal." So accurate!!
"Decrepit" is the word being lightly tossed around the world's headlines. And is he not supposed to notice that? His courage and strength are amazing. And the new 4-hour daily Gaza truce to get people out - who engineered that? Certainly not Bibi. Doesn't rate a mention.
I wish EVERY project funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and others had a prominent sign saying so.
Stating clearly which congressional reps in that district voted for/against it!
On a recent trip through CO we DID see such a sign...something to read while we slowed down through construction!
SO incredibly sad, isn't it!?!
Sad? it's outrageous. It moves me to anger, rather than sorrow. Do you remember the day we heard he'd won? Kamala Harris was out in the open somewhere (golf course?) and she had him on her cellphone, radiant with joy for him. "Joe! You did it! You've won!"
It makes me angry too but, sad that people buy into the narrative. Joe Biden could be 100 and he would still be better than ANY republican out there! I guess as I see the "dumbing down" of America, that is what makes me sad. There are so many people who are willing to go down that rabbit hole!
Thom Hartman did a piece on media ownership recently… most of the media has been purchased by right-wing billionaires since the advent of Rush Limbaugh. Just one of the reasons coverage is so stilted.
Driving on a highway in New Mexico, I saw the first sign identifying the road construction as a project funded by the infrastructure funds. I cheered!
That what you get when the majority of the media in the USA is owned by very few people.
The corporate side of Repubs (which wants tax cuts & zero regulations) has roped in the despairing millions to believe Repubs need to have the “freedom to create jobs” & not be exposed to redistributive taxes that only help welfare cheats. The poor believe that, while they’re doing their best without any government help (!), “THOSE” people are living high off the hog on welfare benefits & food stamps & that liberals want to let more immigrants in so they can vote Dem. (It doesn’t all make sense, but they’ve been so brainwashed by FOX as well as CNN even (among other corporate media outlets) that they don’t have time yo think it through.
The media helped elect Trump in 2016, and they’re doing so again.
For those who believe ending the Fairness Doctrine changed the meadow: it never applied to cable channels —only the public airwaves.
Need to add another screen for the growing numbers who are shunning politics all together, assuming they can’t possibly make a difference. They’ve had it with candidates, media, and the seemingly rabid, current-events ranters within their own social groups. It’s gotten too tiresome and ridiculous for them. I fear the lost votes….
It’s more like 90% Trump / GOP - 10% Biden / DEMS.
We’ll said!