Another takeaway here is no one cares about "journalists" who withhold important information in order to sell books. Woodward will always top this list, recording Trump at the onset of a pandemic on target to kill 1 million Americans, but the list is disgustingly long.
Dr David Reiss, Psychiatrist, is an expert in mental fitness evaluations and a contributor to "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump." This is a quote from an article in "Raw Story"
"I am totally unsurprised. But vindication does not soothe the national tragedy or my personal frustration and even bitterness (which are of much less significance) at having been ignored by those who had power to intervene.
No one could have predicted Trump's specific actions while in office or now: His specific behaviors are inherently unpredictable. But the nature of his behaviors, the irrationality of his behaviors, the immaturity of his behaviors and the dangers brought about those behaviors were all quite predictable and in fact, were predicted.
You asked: What do I think will happen to America if Trump runs for office and wins in 2024?
In my opinion, the even more frightening question is this: "What would it mean had happened to the American people and American society if Trump were returned to office in 2024?"
It would mean there had been: 1) a complete breakdown of rationality within the social order; 2) the destruction of our democratic system of elections and government; or 3) that something so horrible had transpired that all hope was lost and, due to fear and desperation, totalitarianism or fascism had been embraced.
As to what would happen afterward, it would depend upon who was actually "pulling the strings" of the totalitarian/fascist regime for which Trump was the figurehead. Trump himself, at age 78 certainly would not actually be in command. I cannot begin to predict the exact manner or type of dystopia that would be enacted. I can predict that it would be beyond our current worst nightmares."
Trump was certainly enabled by power hungry politicians and operatives, but without ladder climbing "journalists" and money obsessed broadcast executives (Les Moonves and Jeff Zucker) Trump would have remained in NYC running his deeply corrupt family business. Woodward sitting on the story that Trump knew CV-19 was deadly doesn't bother me as much as Jonathan Karl and Maggie Haberman withholding legitimate news because those two are active reporters. Woodward has a title with WaPo, and his bosses know he is writing books. Karl and Haberman are, in effect, stealing from their employers by not doing their jobs.
The Times on a Friday ran a piece on the Congressional 1/6 committee having trouble getting Trump’s call logs (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/us/politics/jan-6-trump-calls.html) and somehow four reporters including Haberman and the disgraceful Jonathan Martin fail or choose not to note that what Trump is doing there is illegal.
The American mainstream media establishment rightly deserves to be scorned and dragged through the mud for failing to do their job.
As I've written before in my previous posts, my country (the Philippines) paid dearly for electing an authoritarian misogynist thug whose horrible & vulgar behavior was covered by the Filipino media establishment with very little pushback, and later normalized with his endless stream of obscenties made within the halls of government.
Your country's profit-driven media establishment doesn't even realize that the supposedly-treasured press freedom that they taken for granted for many years will surely be taken away by Trump & the GOP if and when they establish a minority-white run authoritarian government.
Seriously, both Trump & Duterte have brought out the worst in Americans & Filipinos.
Right now, my country will be holding its national elections on May 9, 2022.
Volunteers are campaigning their butts off to put a competent & capable person to the presidency in the form of Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo.
Her biggest opponent is Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.,the son of the dictator, thief & human rights violator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who is somehow the frontrunner in the surveys.
Saving democracy here in my country is a matter of life & death. It's disappointing & frustrating that your mainstream media doesn't seem that alarmed and believes it's "business as usual."
The enabling of Trump by the MSM and the DOJ is simply mind boggling. The message it sends is that no matter how criminal, how corrupt, you will get away with the most outlandish crimes as long as you have the money. Just imagine where Barack Obama would be if he committed the transgressions of Trump. Would the press have looked away then and made absurd excuses for him? We all know the answer and the fact is, we don't have to imagine. Just look at what the MSM did to Hillary Clinton. They prevented perhaps the most prepared candidate in American history from becoming president in favor of a narcissistic sociopath by chasing her email stories that ultimately and predictably proved to be nothing. The United States is very ill, on life support. The family has gathered around the bed, the priest is about to give her last rights. The DOJ better be working on the case of the century to put these criminals in prison otherwise we are toast.
Trump stealing classified information as he fled the White House is being normalized by our Failed Political Press ™, and Maggie Haberman withholding crucial information about document destruction to further her book sales, so nothing to see here.
I repeat my demand: journalists need something akin to the American Bar Association to accredit and license reporters, and periodically re-certify them to practice. There needs to be professional conduct.
There stories are huge ethical breaches and journalism malpractice.
So once again, WE get to figure out whether Donald Trump is an active criminal or he was too stupid to know what the law is. And once again, if WE can’t figure out which it was, we’re expected to pretend it’s neither.
Of course, this dynamic goes back to Reagan, so whole generations of reporters have grown up on it.
The story about Trump tearing up documents was first reported in 2018, but of course, the media has a short memory.
In reading about this arrogant attempt to steal 15 boxes of documents, I noticed that the Washington Post went out of its way to make the same claims as the NY Times, that the theft was unintentional and resulted from the last-minute frenzy to vacate the WH. I thought, OK, now we see how utterly convinced the core group of acolytes was that Trump actually won the election and would refuse to leave when the time came. This could also explain why he refused to hand over 15 boxes of official papers, including the letter from Obama and the "love letters" from Kim Jong Un.
And I wondered why nobody cared, that more of a fuss could be made over Hillary's emails than the fact that Trump, as a private citizen, filched a shitload of official government documents, some of which were top secret. The fact is, it's obvious that he had no intention of returning them after a year had passed and he made no effort to do so. It also begs the question of whether he destroyed or kept more than he's letting on. But it's all good because Trump trained the press to report only what he wants them to report, and in the proper deferential tones.
More to the point of this thread, here's another quote from the same article in "Raw Story" by Psychotherapist Elizabeth Mika, also a contributor to the best-selling book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump"
"The "revelations" really just confirm what we have known about Trump for years, long before he was elected. People with his character defect, malignant narcissism, are sadly predictable: They are driven by insatiable drives for adulation and power, and an unceasing desire for revenge on those who may interfere (or be perceived as interfering) with the realization of those drives.
It is really too bad that our media, broadly speaking, has remained in the dark about Trump's well-defined character pathology. Therefore, many journalists, mostly among the mainstream news media, continue to be shocked by these "revelations" as if unable and/or unwilling to finally arrive at an understanding of Trump's disordered character.
If Trump runs and wins in 2024, we will see an accelerated continuation of our demise. Every negative trend we are experiencing now will be augmented, especially our polarization, inequality and violence.
As of now, 21 million Americans believe that Trump, whose presidency was stolen from him, should be restored by violent force — and they are ready to make it happen."
I think the media is missing what most people are seeing: Republicans look crazier than ever. Every night I see something on network or cable news that is damaging to their party. The media give the disgraced ex-president and his anonymous sources a pass but are the people who are reading and watching this play out? Removal of classified information from the White House is so serious a crime that most cannot even begin to unravel the legal ramifications.* But everyone understands the following: TFG flushed "top secret" info down the toilet. It's nice, it's neat and it will stick. Republicans are scared. Mitch McConnell looks as if he is having a slow motion stroke. (*Yes, I think at the right time Merrick Garland and DOJ are going to pull the string. Be patient.)
Honestly, I find incredible that we're even discussing this latest Trump scandal. Endless news cycles have been spent analyzing the minutia of Trump's 'intent' in destroying/removing classified information. This is typical Haberman crap of distracting from criminal action with tidbits of scandal. Trump invited a violent mob that tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Trump admitted to the world that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Of course he committed endless other crimes that legal analysts will spend endless news cycles explaining can't be prosecuted because [fill in the blank]. I never again want to hear the phrase that 'no one is above the law'. It's a lie. Mueller did everything in his power to avoid charging Trump with a crime. The Senate twice refused to impeach Trump for his crimes. The endlessly-lauded 'brave cowboys' of the SDNY have been in hiding for 5 years, allowing statutes of limitations for Trump crimes to expire (never mind 40 years of averting their gaze from money-laundering and fraud by the Trump family). Cy Vance ran out the Manhattan DA's clock without prosecuting Trump (walking away with an almost perfect record of allowing white collar criminals to skate). Now we arrive at AG Garland, who clearly has adopted the stance that he will not prosecute crimes detailed by Mueller, or investigate the unfathomable of levels of criminality stating him in the face (complete with confessions of criminal intent). With those in power refusing to hold Trump to account, the Democrats refusing to explain to the country the dangers of Trumpism, we're left with idiotic stories about Trump eating/tearing/flushing classified information.
Thank you, Eric. I appreciate you mentioning the foolishness of Trump people saying it was all inadvertent and the result of "a 'frenzied packing process' in the wake of Trump’s defeat." Puhleeze - the frighteningly long transition period we have is supposedly to give the outgoing Prez time to pack and go and help the next Administration get set up.
We'll probably find out (in the distant future) that Haberman told the FBI while researching her book and that the FBI simply added the nugget to the evidence being gathered in any one of the myriad cases against TFG. At that point, Haberman was probably asked not to tell The Public what she knew (because of all of those ongoing investigations) but negotiated a date after which she could allow that particular tidbit to be excerpted from her book. That way, all the blame will be placed on the FBI or various Congressional committees doing the investigating.
Thanks Eric.
Another takeaway here is no one cares about "journalists" who withhold important information in order to sell books. Woodward will always top this list, recording Trump at the onset of a pandemic on target to kill 1 million Americans, but the list is disgustingly long.
Dr David Reiss, Psychiatrist, is an expert in mental fitness evaluations and a contributor to "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump." This is a quote from an article in "Raw Story"
"I am totally unsurprised. But vindication does not soothe the national tragedy or my personal frustration and even bitterness (which are of much less significance) at having been ignored by those who had power to intervene.
No one could have predicted Trump's specific actions while in office or now: His specific behaviors are inherently unpredictable. But the nature of his behaviors, the irrationality of his behaviors, the immaturity of his behaviors and the dangers brought about those behaviors were all quite predictable and in fact, were predicted.
You asked: What do I think will happen to America if Trump runs for office and wins in 2024?
In my opinion, the even more frightening question is this: "What would it mean had happened to the American people and American society if Trump were returned to office in 2024?"
It would mean there had been: 1) a complete breakdown of rationality within the social order; 2) the destruction of our democratic system of elections and government; or 3) that something so horrible had transpired that all hope was lost and, due to fear and desperation, totalitarianism or fascism had been embraced.
As to what would happen afterward, it would depend upon who was actually "pulling the strings" of the totalitarian/fascist regime for which Trump was the figurehead. Trump himself, at age 78 certainly would not actually be in command. I cannot begin to predict the exact manner or type of dystopia that would be enacted. I can predict that it would be beyond our current worst nightmares."
Trump was certainly enabled by power hungry politicians and operatives, but without ladder climbing "journalists" and money obsessed broadcast executives (Les Moonves and Jeff Zucker) Trump would have remained in NYC running his deeply corrupt family business. Woodward sitting on the story that Trump knew CV-19 was deadly doesn't bother me as much as Jonathan Karl and Maggie Haberman withholding legitimate news because those two are active reporters. Woodward has a title with WaPo, and his bosses know he is writing books. Karl and Haberman are, in effect, stealing from their employers by not doing their jobs.
Re the Good Stuff: WaPo expands coverage of a couple of issues to attract subscribers, the Times does so by buying The Athletic and Wordle.
Anyway.
Why Haberman not telling us about Trump’s use of the toilet not mattering:
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2022/02/elite-journalism-is-broken-but-so-is.html
The Times on a Friday ran a piece on the Congressional 1/6 committee having trouble getting Trump’s call logs (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/us/politics/jan-6-trump-calls.html) and somehow four reporters including Haberman and the disgraceful Jonathan Martin fail or choose not to note that what Trump is doing there is illegal.
And that’s exactly how we got to this point.
The American mainstream media establishment rightly deserves to be scorned and dragged through the mud for failing to do their job.
As I've written before in my previous posts, my country (the Philippines) paid dearly for electing an authoritarian misogynist thug whose horrible & vulgar behavior was covered by the Filipino media establishment with very little pushback, and later normalized with his endless stream of obscenties made within the halls of government.
Your country's profit-driven media establishment doesn't even realize that the supposedly-treasured press freedom that they taken for granted for many years will surely be taken away by Trump & the GOP if and when they establish a minority-white run authoritarian government.
Seriously, both Trump & Duterte have brought out the worst in Americans & Filipinos.
Right now, my country will be holding its national elections on May 9, 2022.
Volunteers are campaigning their butts off to put a competent & capable person to the presidency in the form of Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo.
Her biggest opponent is Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.,the son of the dictator, thief & human rights violator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who is somehow the frontrunner in the surveys.
Saving democracy here in my country is a matter of life & death. It's disappointing & frustrating that your mainstream media doesn't seem that alarmed and believes it's "business as usual."
The enabling of Trump by the MSM and the DOJ is simply mind boggling. The message it sends is that no matter how criminal, how corrupt, you will get away with the most outlandish crimes as long as you have the money. Just imagine where Barack Obama would be if he committed the transgressions of Trump. Would the press have looked away then and made absurd excuses for him? We all know the answer and the fact is, we don't have to imagine. Just look at what the MSM did to Hillary Clinton. They prevented perhaps the most prepared candidate in American history from becoming president in favor of a narcissistic sociopath by chasing her email stories that ultimately and predictably proved to be nothing. The United States is very ill, on life support. The family has gathered around the bed, the priest is about to give her last rights. The DOJ better be working on the case of the century to put these criminals in prison otherwise we are toast.
Trump stealing classified information as he fled the White House is being normalized by our Failed Political Press ™, and Maggie Haberman withholding crucial information about document destruction to further her book sales, so nothing to see here.
I repeat my demand: journalists need something akin to the American Bar Association to accredit and license reporters, and periodically re-certify them to practice. There needs to be professional conduct.
There stories are huge ethical breaches and journalism malpractice.
So once again, WE get to figure out whether Donald Trump is an active criminal or he was too stupid to know what the law is. And once again, if WE can’t figure out which it was, we’re expected to pretend it’s neither.
Of course, this dynamic goes back to Reagan, so whole generations of reporters have grown up on it.
The story about Trump tearing up documents was first reported in 2018, but of course, the media has a short memory.
In reading about this arrogant attempt to steal 15 boxes of documents, I noticed that the Washington Post went out of its way to make the same claims as the NY Times, that the theft was unintentional and resulted from the last-minute frenzy to vacate the WH. I thought, OK, now we see how utterly convinced the core group of acolytes was that Trump actually won the election and would refuse to leave when the time came. This could also explain why he refused to hand over 15 boxes of official papers, including the letter from Obama and the "love letters" from Kim Jong Un.
And I wondered why nobody cared, that more of a fuss could be made over Hillary's emails than the fact that Trump, as a private citizen, filched a shitload of official government documents, some of which were top secret. The fact is, it's obvious that he had no intention of returning them after a year had passed and he made no effort to do so. It also begs the question of whether he destroyed or kept more than he's letting on. But it's all good because Trump trained the press to report only what he wants them to report, and in the proper deferential tones.
More to the point of this thread, here's another quote from the same article in "Raw Story" by Psychotherapist Elizabeth Mika, also a contributor to the best-selling book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump"
"The "revelations" really just confirm what we have known about Trump for years, long before he was elected. People with his character defect, malignant narcissism, are sadly predictable: They are driven by insatiable drives for adulation and power, and an unceasing desire for revenge on those who may interfere (or be perceived as interfering) with the realization of those drives.
It is really too bad that our media, broadly speaking, has remained in the dark about Trump's well-defined character pathology. Therefore, many journalists, mostly among the mainstream news media, continue to be shocked by these "revelations" as if unable and/or unwilling to finally arrive at an understanding of Trump's disordered character.
If Trump runs and wins in 2024, we will see an accelerated continuation of our demise. Every negative trend we are experiencing now will be augmented, especially our polarization, inequality and violence.
As of now, 21 million Americans believe that Trump, whose presidency was stolen from him, should be restored by violent force — and they are ready to make it happen."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2024-2655269936/?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1634142769&fbclid=IwAR3KOKGXQJr252f_fisQ0Qfnhj2heHLYsgiLkS-XlDnacdSDIc80uNODGhM#comments_section_start
I think the media is missing what most people are seeing: Republicans look crazier than ever. Every night I see something on network or cable news that is damaging to their party. The media give the disgraced ex-president and his anonymous sources a pass but are the people who are reading and watching this play out? Removal of classified information from the White House is so serious a crime that most cannot even begin to unravel the legal ramifications.* But everyone understands the following: TFG flushed "top secret" info down the toilet. It's nice, it's neat and it will stick. Republicans are scared. Mitch McConnell looks as if he is having a slow motion stroke. (*Yes, I think at the right time Merrick Garland and DOJ are going to pull the string. Be patient.)
Honestly, I find incredible that we're even discussing this latest Trump scandal. Endless news cycles have been spent analyzing the minutia of Trump's 'intent' in destroying/removing classified information. This is typical Haberman crap of distracting from criminal action with tidbits of scandal. Trump invited a violent mob that tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Trump admitted to the world that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Of course he committed endless other crimes that legal analysts will spend endless news cycles explaining can't be prosecuted because [fill in the blank]. I never again want to hear the phrase that 'no one is above the law'. It's a lie. Mueller did everything in his power to avoid charging Trump with a crime. The Senate twice refused to impeach Trump for his crimes. The endlessly-lauded 'brave cowboys' of the SDNY have been in hiding for 5 years, allowing statutes of limitations for Trump crimes to expire (never mind 40 years of averting their gaze from money-laundering and fraud by the Trump family). Cy Vance ran out the Manhattan DA's clock without prosecuting Trump (walking away with an almost perfect record of allowing white collar criminals to skate). Now we arrive at AG Garland, who clearly has adopted the stance that he will not prosecute crimes detailed by Mueller, or investigate the unfathomable of levels of criminality stating him in the face (complete with confessions of criminal intent). With those in power refusing to hold Trump to account, the Democrats refusing to explain to the country the dangers of Trumpism, we're left with idiotic stories about Trump eating/tearing/flushing classified information.
NYT is basically establishment Breitbart.
Thank you, Eric. I appreciate you mentioning the foolishness of Trump people saying it was all inadvertent and the result of "a 'frenzied packing process' in the wake of Trump’s defeat." Puhleeze - the frighteningly long transition period we have is supposedly to give the outgoing Prez time to pack and go and help the next Administration get set up.
We'll probably find out (in the distant future) that Haberman told the FBI while researching her book and that the FBI simply added the nugget to the evidence being gathered in any one of the myriad cases against TFG. At that point, Haberman was probably asked not to tell The Public what she knew (because of all of those ongoing investigations) but negotiated a date after which she could allow that particular tidbit to be excerpted from her book. That way, all the blame will be placed on the FBI or various Congressional committees doing the investigating.
Well just take a look at The Washington Post with another puff piece on DeSadist...