Month: September 2020

We can all agree that when Donald Trump refers to something as “fake news,” he is referring to a story, or a news agency, that is not complimentary to him. I am bemused by the number of his base that have grabbed onto the term. However, I can understand how Trump was able to grab hold of that particular bit of cultural zeitgeist and manipulate it for his own purposes.

When the Reagan administration, and the FCC, eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, it released broadcast news agencies from rules that required them to present differing viewpoints. All four sitting FCC commissioners were Republican, three appointed by Reagan and one by Nixon. Many people consider this deregulation to be the start of true party polarization in the United States.

This is combined with news organizations shifting their business models, starting in the late 1970’s, from accepting that news bureaus will run at a loss for a network. The new model of ‘infotainment’ was created where news could be presented in such a manner as to be entertaining to non-news audiences. Basically, this is the time of shifting to the concept of, “if it bleeds, it leads.”

Fox News grew from the changes made during this era of change. By the early 90’s, the environment was ripe for ‘infotainment’ to become propaganda. Opinion shows, masquerading as the news, became far more popular than the news itself.

As well as opinion shows, the news started becoming opinionated. To draw an audience, news began to be presented from a liberal, or a conservative, viewpoint. News was no longer dry reporting. Network anchors became celebrities themselves. And with these changes, came profits.

How can news remain objective when it becomes profit-driven? Part of those profits come from the advertisement dollars that come with Nielsen ratings? When a corporation is a news sponsor, what happens to investigatory journalism into the workings of said corporation?

Finally, the news abrogated its responsibility to its audiences to gain access. The days of hard-hitting journalism that takes a deep-dive into politics is gone. Politicians began trading access for good reporting.

Corruption was allowed to grow, and run rampant, because bad actors in the political arena no longer feared investigative journalism. Now, we started living in the world of corporate journalism. The same corporations that owned the news needed friendly politicians to help further corporate interests.

The corruption we have today comes from that marriage of corporations and the news. Corrupt politicians gave news corporations the sweetheart deals they needed, and in return, the news gave politicians the positive press they needed to remain in power.

Americans see this happening. Faith in the news was at an all-time low long before Trump began manipulating opinion. In fact, Trump’s ability to manipulate these feelings in society is what allows him to maintain a base that will never deviate from their love of him. When half of Americans admit they trust the news they get from comedy shows, like The Daily Show, that is a problem.

I have said it time and time again. Removing Trump is only the first thing we need to do to fix our country. No, the news is not fake, but we need to end the marriage between corporate interests and information.

This will be short and sweet.

A few GOP Senators have come out and stated that they would not consider a Supreme Court nominee until after the general election. Many liberal friends of mine are celebrating these statements. Many liberal friends of mine are politically uneducated.

The proclamations are coming from Senators that know they are in danger of losing their seats in the general election. By making these statements, they are pandering to their electorates in hopes of garnering enough votes to stay in office.

We must remember that these people are professional politicians. They manipulate language for a living. When you listen to what a politician is saying, you must do so as if you are about to sign a contract with the devil. You never get what you are being promised, and it is never a good deal for anyone but the devil.

Even the news is being either willfully ignorant, or complicit, in the double speak. There have been several articles I have read that have stated that certain Senators won’t consider a nomination until after the inauguration. However, when you read the article, the statement is until after the election.

There is a difference. The election is Nov. 3, 2020. The inauguration is Jan. 20, 2021. That leaves a two-and-a-half month gap where a GOP-led Senate can still confirm a conservative judge, even if they lose the Senate in the general election.

When a GOP Senator says they will not consider a nomination until after the election, call them on the double-speak. They need to agree to not consider a nomination until after the inauguration. We know McConnell has no honor, so he needs to be forced to wait. Hopefully, it will also mean he is waiting to leave the Senate.

Today, September 18, 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away. I hope she rests in peace.

I have no doubt that her life will be judged well, according to the Jewish tradition. That she has passed on erev Rosh Hashanah does not make me feel better for a happy and lucky new year. But, this is not about me. Really, her life, and death, have now become about us, and the future of the United States.

Mitch McConnell, very infamously, denied President Obama his right to choose a Supreme Court Justice to replace the deceased Antonin Scalia. McConnell stated that, in an election year, the President and Congress have an obligation to wait to see the will of the people in the election. The Senate would not take up any debate on Obama’s pick, Merrick Garland, until after the election.

Once the election was over, they still would not take up debate because they declared, that since Trump had won the Presidency, Obama’s choice was rendered moot. Neil Gorsuch was appointed by Trump and confirmed by a GOP-led Senate. Merrick Garland was swept to the ash heap of history, even though he was actually a compromise choice to ensure Republicans would not fight the nomination tooth and nail as they did with everything else Obama did.

McConnell, also infamously, stated, when asked, that he would push through any Trump nomination in an election year. He even chuckled as he said it. So, for those who think that a nomination will wait, at least without a fight, this is pure delusion.

The Dems in the Senate can very probably delay the confirmation of any nominee until after the election, but I do not believe that a Biden win would prevent McConnell, and his cronies, from a post election confirmation. This is especially true if the GOP loses control of the Senate in this election.

It is my hope that there is some legal avenue that Senate Democrats can take that would use McConnell’s precedent against him in this case. I am not a legal scholar, so I do not know if this is even within the realm of possibility. I cannot imagine a filibuster is possible given the length of time between the election and the new administration taking office.

What worries me most of all is the effect this will have on the vote. Biden does not really inspire fervent support among likely voters, especially progressives. I know many people whose vote for Biden was predicated on his ability to choose RBG’s replacement on the SCOTUS. With that in jeopardy, to say the least, will they still vote?

Will her “premature” passing serve to suppress Democratic voting? I hope not. For those now, or still, on the fence, I would tell you that, yes, we are hurt by this. We are not, however, dead. It is now more important than ever to get out and vote for Biden. Vote for the Democratic down tickets in your elections.

We must maintain the House of Representatives. We must take back the Senate. Control of both legislative houses would give Dems control of the legislative agenda. It would then make it all the harder for the GOP to make their attempts to strip American citizens of their rights. These include abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and, I am sure, the right to assemble and protest those things we know to be bad for the United States.

VOTE. The future of our country, now more than ever, depends on it.

Edit: McConnell, less than an hour after her passing, stated that any Trump nominee would get a vote in the Senate, thus clarifying his hypocrisy.

A few months ago, former National Security Advisor John Bolton wrote a memoir, which—like literally every other memoir to come out of the White House—portrays Trump in an unflattering light.  Poor Donald Trump had to tweet a frowny-face emoji. But, every once in a while, someone special comes along in your life… someone so thoughtful, so supportive, so sycophantic, that she sees you for who you really are: a stepping stone to her own run at political office.  Pick up your copy of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ new book: Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of our Lives Inside the Trump White House It’s the heartwarming true story of how to flatter your boss so that he endorses your Arkansas gubernatorial bid. The first of its kind, this memoir tries hard to make Trump seem stable, focused, and anything other than a foreign asset.  But, trying not to come on too strong, too soon, Sarah admits that Trump failed to send a “clear message to Russia… not to interfere in our election.”  That’s okay, though, because Trump never admitted that Russia did actually interfere. Portraying her former boss as supportive and empathetic, she writes, “he defended me and reaffirmed me when the feminists and liberals were tearing me down with cruel and dehumanizing personal attacks.”  Elsewhere, she accidentally undercuts that entire claim by describing Trump’s degrading behavior and his offense to her Christian sensibilities.  For instance, when he goaded Sanders, a married mother of three, to have sex with Kim Jong Un.  “Sir, please stop,” she implored as Trump used an expletive in describing the North Korean dictator’s affections for her.  Trump continued and, in Sarah’s own words, “howled with laughter.” What a beautiful affirmation!  That’s how real men defend the women they love.  I bet those feminists are eating their words now. ‘Speaking for Myself’ by Sarah Huckabee Sanders—available at Hudson Booksellers, at any Airport terminal in the US, next to the Imodium, the tampons, and the inflatable neck pillows.

Today, I am not going to comment on anything in specific. There are times when even my brain needs a break, and apparently, other contributors to this blog feel the same way as I have not had any submissions for the day.

So… today, I am going to remind you that we ALL have to vote. If you are telling yourself your vote does not matter, I would remind you that Trump won in every swing state by a small percentage of the number of people who did not vote. Had all eligible voters gone to the polls, there is a very good chance that Trump would have been relegated to the trash heap of history, where he belongs.

All of this starts with ensuring that you are properly registered to vote. If you have not done this already with the primary elections, verify your voter status with your state’s election commission.

Ensure you are actually still registered, especially if you live in a Republican-controlled state. Next, make sure you are properly registered according to your party affiliation. This will not prevent you from voting in a general election, however, as long as you are there, you might as well tend to the details.

Finally, verify the location of your voting precinct. The location of where you vote can change with every election, so it is good to verify this before any election.

If you are not registered to vote, REGISTER. DO IT NOW. Deadlines are coming up in each state.

To make is easier for everyone, here is a link to a website created by ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ that is a clearinghouse of voting information for each state.

http://betterknowaballot.com

Remember: if you don’t vote against Trump, you don’t get to complain about what he does to you. And he will only get worse. In fact, if he gets bad enough, no one will be allowed to complain about him without worrying about arrest.

Attorney General William Barr has stated that prosecutors should charge protesters with sedition. For those that don’t know, sedition is defined as conduct of speech inciting people to rebel against the state or monarch. Proving sedition would be almost impossible, but conviction is not Barr’s intention.

His intention is to put fear into the population. If people are afraid of being federally charged with a felony, they may think twice about protesting in the first place. Barr does not believe in a democracy built on freedom of speech.

Barr has long believed that the President should be a monarch. He has, wrongfully, stated that the founding fathers intended for the President to have almost monarchical powers. This is so far from the truth to be laughable.

Our founding fathers had just fought a war of independence from a tyrannical monarch. The last thing they wanted was to establish another one on our own shores. The Constitution of the United States actually originally set up a far more weakened executive branch than what we are used to in modern times.

Over the decades, Presidents have asserted more and more authority. Congress, and the Supreme Court, has allowed it to happen. Barr would take it further.

The Constitution gives the power of the purse, and the power to wage war, to Congress. The belief is that a deliberative body made up of many minds would give the deep thought required before sending our nations sons, and now daughters, off to fight and die. Our budget is decided by Congress as well. The President is required to ask for what he wants. In William Barr’s America, the President would have the sole right to make all these decisions.

In Barr’s America, as well, there is the belief that antifa is a well-organized plot to overthrow America. This is the basis for his desire to have sedition charges filed against protesters. If antifa is a tight-knit organization, the Trump administration can try to justify the Gestapo tactics used by various local and federal police agencies against demonstrators.

What is scarier still, in Barr’s America, the DOJ’s function is to serve as the personal attorneys and police force of the President. This would include prosecuting (read: persecuting) Trump’s political enemies. Barr is currently trying to have his DOJ take over the defense of Donald Trump in a personal defamation suit filed by an alleged rape victim. Our tax dollars would be paying to defend the President in personal cases.

The GOP-led Senate seems to agree with Attorney General Barr. As we speak, Republicans in Congress are beginning to issue subpoenas to investigate the FBI probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign. Never mind that the probe has already been cleared of wrong doing.

But, if left unchecked, Trump, and his lickspittle William Barr, would make police protection conditional on the obedience of the local community. Trump, and Barr, would also take federal funds from any state he does not consider respectful to his presidency (read: voted for him).

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Years ago, when I was in my 20’s, I met Bob Woodward. I was living in Washington, DC. And I was riding down a bike path that followed the Potomac River. Mr. Woodward was sitting on a bench. I stopped to rest and just started some small talk with him.

I did not know who he was, but he was kind enough to engage in a few minutes of conversation with me. I introduced myself by my first name and he told me his name was Bob. It was then that I had my first inkling as to who he was. I asked and he just said yes. I thanked him for the courage of his work. We then both went on our individual ways. I was left with the impression that he was not entirely comfortable being thanked for his reporting.

Nowadays, he is both the reporter and the celebrity. His latest book is based on a series of interviews he did with Donald Trump before Covid-19 was officially a pandemic. I do not need to fill in what was said during those interviews. By now, if you do not know, your head is in the sand too deep to hear anyway.

But, one thing Bob Woodward said resonated with me. I have said it, and so have several pundits over the years. Somehow, to hear it repeated from Bob Woodward gives it the gravitas it needs to maybe get some traction with the average American.

Donald Trump lies as a strategy. To him, a lie is just as good as the truth as long as it helps him reach whatever goal he has set. Plus, as we are all aware of by now, if you tell a lie enough times, people will see it as the truth.

It is a familiarity bias. He says it. Then other members of his administration say it. Soon enough, many Americans hear it and say, “I’ve heard that before somewhere. It must be true.”

The average American is not going to fact check the lie. By the time the press fact checks it, part of it has sunk in. This is especially true when you are prone to want to believe the lie. If the lie is just confirmation bias for you, why even fact check it in the first place?

This takes me back to my post yesterday on Americans being a generally uninformed electorate. Yes, it is work. Yes, sometimes it takes time. However, we will never fix our system if we allow this to continue.

Do not let any politician lie to you, whether it is strategic or just a “campaign promise.”

BAJ

When you were a kid, did you ever stay up past your bedtime?  Eat all your Halloween candy in one night?  Chew gum in class when your teacher wasn’t looking? In high school, did you ever write your name on a desk?  Smoke cigarettes in the boy’s room?  Play hooky just to get out of a quiz? What about college?  Did you hang a poster of Che Guevara in your dorm room?  Smoke a joint at a party?  Go skinny dipping? You knew it was wrong, but it felt so right.  What a rush!  Your parents would never have approved of half the things you did, which is why you never told them. Now, you’re a grown-up yourself, and you understand the need to model good behavior for your own children—and grandchildren.  That’s why you’ve long been a family-values Republican.  Sometimes, though, you miss being a rebel: that feeling of defiance.  Finally, there’s a safe and effective way to regain that feeling—with Joe Biden. Your friends and neighbors are all voting for Trump because they think the Democrats are coming to take away your guns and raise your taxes.  That sounds a lot like how your parents said candy would rot your teeth. They’re voting for Trump because they say protesters are all bad people who want to burn your neighborhood down.  That sounds like the “scared straight” lecture you got during health class. They say the stock market is going to crash if Joe Biden gets elected.  That’s like how they said your music had hidden Satanic messages when you play it backwards.  Don’t you just want to tell them to chill out? Once again, it’s time to rebel. A vote for Joe Biden is a license to sit at the cool kids’ table, wear a leather jacket, drive a hot rod.  And, because it’s a secret ballot, none of those squares will ever know how you voted! Joe Biden—the rebellious choice for conservative adults.

I sometimes try to remind people that Donald Trump is a symptom of a broken system. His end will not, in any way, end the problems we see on a daily basis. Trump is a master manipulator. He understands, probably better than 95% of the population, how to use the system for his own ends. It is how he has survived over an entire, decades long career of corruption.

But, that is business. What about government? People pin the fall of our government into its current abyss to Ronald Reagan. He sped up the process, but he was a symptom every bit as much as much as Trump.

The downfall of our political system, in reality, dates back to the time after WWII when the military industrial complex began taking over the halls of Congress and the Oval Office. We have been fighting, and funding, war in Latin America since the latter half of the 20^th century.

The government has spent billions of dollars propping up often corrupt governments that were considered friendly to American business interests. It is why Iran hates us today. We helped overthrow a democratically-elected government to install a brutal dictator who was friendly to our interests in the middle-east. When his government was overthrown, it cost us dearly.

Of course, our foreign policy has always been myopic, concentrating on the immediate win over any long-term solution. The problem today is that most Americans don’t know about any of this. Why? There are several reasons.

One reason is that we stopped teaching civics in school, replacing it with social studies. Civics is designed to create politically active citizens. It teaches us about how our system of government operates. But, a politically active, educated electorate is a problem for a government corrupted by the military-industrial complex. Our law makers thrive on an electorate that is uneducated enough to believe the pablum and bullshit that is being fed to us.

Another reason is something that many people overlook when it comes to the political landscape today. Watergate helped burn out our political fervor. Watergate is what helped stop us from paying attention to politics, which allowed the government to end civics education and begin the true corruption of the United States government. In fact, many polls since the 80’s have shown that Americans actually expect a certain amount of corruption in their politicians.

How do we fix this…

We have to do the near impossible. We need to fight the massive mental inertia we are currently feeling towards politics. How many times have you, or your friends, said “politics are hard,” or “politics are boring.” Congratulations. Your elected representatives love your type of American.

You have no interest in politics. Thus, you have no interest in watching for, and diminishing, the corruption that has given birth to the greatest transfer of wealth in world history. In fact, the corruption, and our lack of interest, has become so great that politicians no longer feel it necessary to hide their disreputable dealings.

The only way to stop this is to become educated as to the dealings of our elected representatives. We must educate ourselves in the civics of our federal, state, and local, governments. Most of all, we must become politically active enough to bring pressure to bear on those same representatives when we find them acting out of sorts.

It is no longer enough to just vote. We must educate ourselves on the issues and the candidates. In other words, we must do some work and research.

If we just blindly vote, the corruption remains. We fall into the trap of believing that all of “them” must go, but I will still vote for “my guy.” Well, if everyone feels that way, none of the corruption is eliminated. This is how Mitch McConnell has maintained decades of manipulation and corruption.

It is my opinion that Biden must win the Presidency. No, I do not believe he will bring about any serious change. Biden has one job. That is to bring us back to the broken equilibrium our government is accustomed to. His job is to bring back a level of democracy.

Once that is done, the real work, and the real fight, must begin.

Written by: BAJ

The current President, Donald J Trump, called dead American soldiers “losers,” according to unnamed sources quoted by the Atlantic.  However, when the mainstream media quote anonymous aides critical of Trump, you always immediately discount everything they say because they are “unnamed” and, therefore, unreliable. When Donald Trump claims that mail-in ballots encourage voter fraud... that injecting bleach cures coronavirus... or that there were 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes cast for Hillary, do you ignore everything he says because he’s using “unnamed sources”? No?  Why not?  Does Trump have a solid history of telling the truth?  Is Trump noted for his bipartisanship and lack of political bias?  Do Trump’s statements typically align with what his own experts and agency heads are saying?  Does Trump retract his statements when they are proven false by fact checkers? No, no, no, and no. Even Trump’s supporters admit he is dishonest, but they support him anyway because of his conservative agenda.  If you’re going to support him no matter what, why do you refuse to accept a story that is critical of him?  Back in 2015, you already heard him disparage John McCain, claiming “he’s not a war hero….  I like people who weren’t captured.”  This didn’t come from an “unnamed source”, it came straight out of Trump’s mouth.  You can watch the video on YouTube. You voted for Trump anyway.  So, why do you now refuse to believe that he made other similar comments disparaging fallen soldiers and POW’s?  Would that really be out of character for Trump, who openly disparaged a Gold Star family in 2016?  Again, I’m not quoting “unnamed sources”, I’m quoting Trump’s own Twitter feed. You love Trump for his political incorrectness.  He says things that no one else would dare to say out loud.  Sometimes, he even says things that make his own supporters cringe.  If you’re cringing now, is it because The Atlantic used unreliable sources, or is it because in your heart, you know Trump probably did call dead soldiers “losers”? Is The Atlantic politically biased?  Maybe.  But, consider this: in their 163-year history, they have only endorsed 3 presidential candidates—one Republican and two Democrats.  Those candidates were Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and Hillary Clinton in 2016.  When a magazine is that reluctant to make an endorsement more than once every century, you should listen to them when they do. You didn’t, and you’re already going to vote for Trump again no matter what.  Just come out and admit that The Atlantic was right, that Trump insulted those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and that you simply don’t care.  If you won’t admit it to me, at least admit it to yourself when you look in the mirror.  I’m not trying to change your vote.  I just want you to be honest with yourself about why you are voting for Trump and what threshold of behavior you are willing to tolerate.  Don’t vote with your eyes closed, and don’t tell me a year from now that you had no idea what Trump was capable of.