Living in Northwest Florida for 38 years, presently land of Rep. Spoiled Brat Gaetz, the ultra-conservative Republicans have been under my study for a long time. I remember back in my early computer days, I got very curious about the Project For A New American Century and opened up their website. I spent some time letting the language flow over me, and suddenly felt the horror of a proposed 21st Century of unbridled capitalism, sans governmental controls, worldwide. I practically slammed the pc shut, and ever since those Newt Gingrich days have watched a steady march toward those objectives, first in secret, now plainly out in the open. I'll cut to the chase.
Look at Trump's constant contradictory, confounding political moves, choices in "leadership", malignant narcissism and cruelty. Put that together with other likely FSB psyops, and the shift from democracy to dictatorship becomes clear. In this Covid 19 mess, look at the central actions-
obstruction of proven procedures, shifting IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS suddenly to commercial market procedures, presenting nothing but manipulation, obfuscation and pushback to the needs of governmental entities all over the country. Secrecy in the allocation of funds and materials and unwillingness to publish information could very well be a screen for looting and likely other levels of criminal activity by his inner circle. It's clear, living outside the politics and journalism world, these patterns of behavior. We started getting conditioned, as have other
societies, with the "unlikely, goofy, clownish" leadership figures, for the chaos to come. Get a
grip, people. Journalists must start asking the ugly, baldfaced questions and give up the self-righteous veneer of denial about these activities.
Access. To. What? Compulsive lying? He's nothing but a rumor-monger for his base, why can't our journalists all turn investigative? Pick a thread and pull it, he's been making a tapestry of corruption (sorry for the lame metaphor). This could be the biggest multi-continent real-time conspiracy the world has ever seen. Thank you Internet, Russian servers for U.S. congressmen, encrypted comms apps, gifted security clearances, the list goes on....
It isn’t just access to Trump that journalists want. For example most journalists have refused to report the fact that agents in the NY FBI interfered in 2016 to help elect Trump by leaking information to the media to damage Hillary. They not only broke FBI rules they likely violated the Hatch Act. In December the Justice Department IG. Michael Horowitz, told the Senate that he is still investigating those leaks. This should have been a much bigger story than the story about Peter Strzok’s and Lisa Page’s private emails dissing Trump but the media has buried it.
From what I have read the NY FBI office is notorious for leaking to the media. It makes sense that reporters are keeping mum because they don’t want to anger those sources in the NY office even though reporters know those sources are badly damaging our democracy and likely breaking the law. It is frightening that reporters are more concerned with protecting their access than giving the public vital information that they have a right to know.
I think I have to assume that as split as our country is ideologically, that the working people in the institutions we want to come save "us" are split as well, so whichever folks have possession of information will treat it according to their preferences/agenda, no matter the "face" of a particular unit--does that make sense? It could explain some of the actions we find harmonious or likewise extremely counter to our objectives. People in the government's employ can be pretty cynical about outside "idealistic" views of government, since they're inside and see the internal politics, and hypocrisy, and inertia. I've known (and lived with) many military, and the cynicism is as intrinsic as the use of alcohol (a subject in itself I won't even approach here). Our institutions are suffering the same kinds of frustrations and will to power as its individuals, and so those frustrations will "squirt out the sides"....
And what about ignoring the Big Liars and looking to peripheral sources to piece together the "Story"? So the rest of us won't have to follow our favorite heroes and their likes and retweets on Twitter to ferret out some truth?
I was beyond furious when I read the Project for a New American Century’s radical manifesto in 2000. It was mind boggling. But even more mind boggling was the fact that the media completely ignored it even though PNAC was created and run by prominent Republicans like John Bolton, Richard Peale, Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan. The manifesto was signed by a long list of powerful Republicans including Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, Donald Kagan, Frank Gaffney, Eliot Abrams - a who’s who of the Bush II adminstration- as well as Jeb Bush, Dan Quayle, Norman Podhoretz and other. .
Despite that the media refused to inform the public about this. Had people read it they would have seen a blueprint for the reckless actions that the Bush administration took. PNAC was dissolved in 2006, probably because they controlled our government by then. Trump has lately fulfilled their dream of creating a Space Force.
Today all of this information is available on Wikipedia but when the public really needed to know about this the media stayed mum. Back in 2000 no one I knew had heard about it and I would bet that most of the ones I told thought I was paranoid.
agreed. press has been turning willful blind eye to GOP radicalism for years, bc if they acknowledge it they can no longer peddle Both Sides narrative about how D’s are center-left, and R’s merely center-right
(The Republicans called out the liberals' "objectivity" position as power bias, and the liberals have been embarassed and guilty about it ever since. Hence the shame and capitulation of a good value system. Notice how djt has called out "unfair!" so often--he knows how to get the goat.)
These are good questions but they could also be asked about many of the decisions that Trump has made in the past. For example it made no sense for him to overspend on his casino to the point of bankruptcy. He was unable to pay back loans not long after the Taj opened and this was at a time when casinos were thriving. Clearly Trump has never listened to people around him who could see an inevitable coming disaster. It is hard to believe that his multiple business failures were deliberate and based in some kind of rational strategy.
Trump is a magical thinker who lives in a world he creates in his fevered brain. Unfortunately the vast majority of Republicans are also magical thinkers. The Christian Right is all about a magical belief system. And “mainstream” Republicans bought into an economic ideology based on magical thinking when Reagan was president. Supply-side economics is an economic “theory” that claims that tax cuts on the wealthy will magically pay for themselves because rich people are inherently smarter and able to solve all of our problems. All available evidence contradicts that fairytale but for decades top Republicans as well as the rank and file have refused to give up on it.
He's a (tax fraud) trust fund kid who has never seriously accomplished anything other than conning and swindling. He doesn't know the first thing about (legitimate) business. He fabricated an image of himself as a genius businessman playboy and the press ate it up (this was the good 'ol cocaine-fueled Reaganite '80s after all). Based on that he got banks to lend him huge amounts for his casino business (because he's a real estate genius!). But he's, uh, not, so all he did was use his casinos to embezzle and launder money. The fact that he was able to do this, get away scot-free, and still maintain his image says a lot about U.S. society, none of it good.
Concerning the latter, some Republicans are true believers in the supply-side stuff, but others know it's total bullshit to con the gullible. An example of the latter is Paul Ryan. What they really believe is they should be rich, rich people are rich because they're superior, and hence the rich should rule with absolute power. If you don't like it, fuck you, peasant, now get back to slaving away to make me richer or I'll have you shot. Their vision of society is feudalism with modern technology and them as part of the aristocracy.
"One month into this nationwide emergency, the press has done an excellent job documenting the almost unimaginable failures of the federal government to protects its population from a slow-moving medical risk that appeared half way around the world four months ago."
But have they though? To date, not one question at these daily briefings about the fact that it certainly appears that the Trump Admin is directing the federal government to steal PPE on route to first responders and states and then...giving? selling?...them to private brokers who then make states bid against each other for this critical and tax-payer funded equipment. That's an insane and totally illegal act that apparently not one member of the WHCA seems to think is worth raising.
The NYT and most MSM have normalized the ever-loving fuck out new outrages daily. Rachel Martin and many NPR journalists have a polite laugh at just bug-fuck statements by the POTUS but cannot and will not call these obvious lies, "lies."
Lastly, we go on and on about Trump and his Z-list political grift circus WHILE ALSO never pointing out that the entire GOP is one criminal organization focused on stripping this country for parts before demographic destiny relegates them to the ash bin of history.
At this point, there is no going back. The country will either burn our current political system to the ground (literally or figuratively), or the corporate take over of this country will be 100% complete. We haven't been a democracy for a hot minute, and we may never be again.
(ERIC Boehlert, ref., article)'One example of a major Democrat who took this seriously would be Joe Biden, who, as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is arguably the major Democrat. Biden wrote an op-ed on January 27 warning that Trump had left the country unprepared to handle the coronavirus outbreak, and proposing steps to counter it. One of his main advisers, Ron Klain, wrote an op-ed making similar points five days before that.(Johnathan Chait, Integencier, April 1, 2020)'
In yesterday's Youtube video blog by former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, he read tweets from a nurse in South Dakota who talks of Covid patients that scream at the nurses and doctors that they don't have the disease, that it's a hoax, that they want the magic medicine they gave to Trump. The nurse went on to say the only thing that stops their illogical rants is intubation. An article in the WPO on Saturday highlighted (or low lighted) the Million (thousand) Maga march on Washington that virtually stated both sides can't seem to break away from their beliefs about the election, as if there are two sides to it. This is how broken we've become. The Republicans are playing a very dangerous game of coddling the toddler and chief, not to piss him off and somehow derail efforts to gain two Senate seats in Georgia. This is the work of evil Mitch McConnell who loses not an ounce of sleep every evening while there are over a 150k new Covid cases and around a thousand Americans that are dying each day. The idea expressed by CNN that we can somehow have a kumbaya moment as a nation is as foolish as thinking aliens will land on earth and solve all of our problems. Come to think of it, odds makers might make that the more plausible possibility.
Trump is correct, we are at war. And Putin is winning. His orange puppet has spent the last three years destroying this country. Stealing from us. Poisoning us. Dividing us. And now killing us. Putin must sleep with a smile.
Trump's behavior makes sense from the standpoint of what Putin would like to see America become: a failed state run by gangsters whom he controls. And if you're wondering why Trump would sacrifice his re-election, as he seems to be doing, it's because McConnell and the GOP will steal the election. It's already happening right in front of us, with the voter roll purges, the flawed voting machines, the refusal of Mitch to allow any election-protection legislation -- and now, Trump's new Postmaster General.
It seems the odds of so many mistakes exposed by a WH dealing with a pandemic are astronomical, even if Trump is incompetent. I have never seen things through the eyes of a conspiracy nut, but it is hard to believe there wasn't some intention on his part. These glaring errors and subsequent attempts to blame, excuse and deny are always his way of dealing. But the media could have been much more forceful instead of worrying about being perceived as creating hysteria. There will be books written about this for many years to come.
Great song choice. Might be my 2nd favorite of theirs after "The Kid Next Door," which has a similarly fatalistic and poetic line at its core: "We keep on living while we keep on dying."
It seems (to me) tRump is both covering for the absolute failure to have 300 million tests available today, plus obeying instructions from his industry supporters and donors not to force them to do it (because that’s not, er, freedom). All of this is theater without a virus AND antibody test for every American (and probably at least 2 of each to make sure). 40 years of offshoring our manufacturing has guaranteed this failure, but those who owned the factories, distribution and sales of cheaper imported products sure have done well, so no one dare suggest that was a huge mistake. As we speak, Japan is pouring billions into bringing manufacturing back to Japan; it may cost more in the short term, but they won’t get their other leg caught in the same trap. We will have to do the same, after we’ve exhausted every other option.
and in this case, the pass comes in the form of refusing to ask obvious, albeit disturbing questions, abt a president who refuses to protect the population
Eric, does this all boil down to that the journalist today is still traveling the trail of "report the happenings/facts" from a previous-to-Trump world? (I refuse to call it an "era" yet.) Are we headed towards a paradigm shift about the role of the journalist in an always shifting, Putinesque environment? Will journalists save us? Or will we become helpless random investigators. or worse, rubes? Whichever way it goes, the status quo will not return. Thanks to all for this conversation. And best to PressRun!
Our Corporate Controlled Conservative Press only cares about maximizing revenue. Trump is their goose that continually lays lots of golden eggs for them. It's in their self interest to keep Trump in the Presidency which is why they endlessly kiss his ass!
Living in Northwest Florida for 38 years, presently land of Rep. Spoiled Brat Gaetz, the ultra-conservative Republicans have been under my study for a long time. I remember back in my early computer days, I got very curious about the Project For A New American Century and opened up their website. I spent some time letting the language flow over me, and suddenly felt the horror of a proposed 21st Century of unbridled capitalism, sans governmental controls, worldwide. I practically slammed the pc shut, and ever since those Newt Gingrich days have watched a steady march toward those objectives, first in secret, now plainly out in the open. I'll cut to the chase.
Look at Trump's constant contradictory, confounding political moves, choices in "leadership", malignant narcissism and cruelty. Put that together with other likely FSB psyops, and the shift from democracy to dictatorship becomes clear. In this Covid 19 mess, look at the central actions-
obstruction of proven procedures, shifting IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS suddenly to commercial market procedures, presenting nothing but manipulation, obfuscation and pushback to the needs of governmental entities all over the country. Secrecy in the allocation of funds and materials and unwillingness to publish information could very well be a screen for looting and likely other levels of criminal activity by his inner circle. It's clear, living outside the politics and journalism world, these patterns of behavior. We started getting conditioned, as have other
societies, with the "unlikely, goofy, clownish" leadership figures, for the chaos to come. Get a
grip, people. Journalists must start asking the ugly, baldfaced questions and give up the self-righteous veneer of denial about these activities.
yep, press remains in denial, a lot of which I think is driven by fear of losing access etc
Also because the press is owned by very wealthy people who are in favour of ending democracy to their own benefit, they believe.
Access. To. What? Compulsive lying? He's nothing but a rumor-monger for his base, why can't our journalists all turn investigative? Pick a thread and pull it, he's been making a tapestry of corruption (sorry for the lame metaphor). This could be the biggest multi-continent real-time conspiracy the world has ever seen. Thank you Internet, Russian servers for U.S. congressmen, encrypted comms apps, gifted security clearances, the list goes on....
It isn’t just access to Trump that journalists want. For example most journalists have refused to report the fact that agents in the NY FBI interfered in 2016 to help elect Trump by leaking information to the media to damage Hillary. They not only broke FBI rules they likely violated the Hatch Act. In December the Justice Department IG. Michael Horowitz, told the Senate that he is still investigating those leaks. This should have been a much bigger story than the story about Peter Strzok’s and Lisa Page’s private emails dissing Trump but the media has buried it.
From what I have read the NY FBI office is notorious for leaking to the media. It makes sense that reporters are keeping mum because they don’t want to anger those sources in the NY office even though reporters know those sources are badly damaging our democracy and likely breaking the law. It is frightening that reporters are more concerned with protecting their access than giving the public vital information that they have a right to know.
I think I have to assume that as split as our country is ideologically, that the working people in the institutions we want to come save "us" are split as well, so whichever folks have possession of information will treat it according to their preferences/agenda, no matter the "face" of a particular unit--does that make sense? It could explain some of the actions we find harmonious or likewise extremely counter to our objectives. People in the government's employ can be pretty cynical about outside "idealistic" views of government, since they're inside and see the internal politics, and hypocrisy, and inertia. I've known (and lived with) many military, and the cynicism is as intrinsic as the use of alcohol (a subject in itself I won't even approach here). Our institutions are suffering the same kinds of frustrations and will to power as its individuals, and so those frustrations will "squirt out the sides"....
And what about ignoring the Big Liars and looking to peripheral sources to piece together the "Story"? So the rest of us won't have to follow our favorite heroes and their likes and retweets on Twitter to ferret out some truth?
Now I’m terrified, I dare to open my mind to these deeper questions. It’s so much easier to just call him an idiot and a buffoon.
I was beyond furious when I read the Project for a New American Century’s radical manifesto in 2000. It was mind boggling. But even more mind boggling was the fact that the media completely ignored it even though PNAC was created and run by prominent Republicans like John Bolton, Richard Peale, Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan. The manifesto was signed by a long list of powerful Republicans including Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, Donald Kagan, Frank Gaffney, Eliot Abrams - a who’s who of the Bush II adminstration- as well as Jeb Bush, Dan Quayle, Norman Podhoretz and other. .
Despite that the media refused to inform the public about this. Had people read it they would have seen a blueprint for the reckless actions that the Bush administration took. PNAC was dissolved in 2006, probably because they controlled our government by then. Trump has lately fulfilled their dream of creating a Space Force.
Today all of this information is available on Wikipedia but when the public really needed to know about this the media stayed mum. Back in 2000 no one I knew had heard about it and I would bet that most of the ones I told thought I was paranoid.
agreed. press has been turning willful blind eye to GOP radicalism for years, bc if they acknowledge it they can no longer peddle Both Sides narrative about how D’s are center-left, and R’s merely center-right
(The Republicans called out the liberals' "objectivity" position as power bias, and the liberals have been embarassed and guilty about it ever since. Hence the shame and capitulation of a good value system. Notice how djt has called out "unfair!" so often--he knows how to get the goat.)
ha! I don’t disagree on that point
I honestly think this is an attempt to kill off the baby boomers
These are good questions but they could also be asked about many of the decisions that Trump has made in the past. For example it made no sense for him to overspend on his casino to the point of bankruptcy. He was unable to pay back loans not long after the Taj opened and this was at a time when casinos were thriving. Clearly Trump has never listened to people around him who could see an inevitable coming disaster. It is hard to believe that his multiple business failures were deliberate and based in some kind of rational strategy.
Trump is a magical thinker who lives in a world he creates in his fevered brain. Unfortunately the vast majority of Republicans are also magical thinkers. The Christian Right is all about a magical belief system. And “mainstream” Republicans bought into an economic ideology based on magical thinking when Reagan was president. Supply-side economics is an economic “theory” that claims that tax cuts on the wealthy will magically pay for themselves because rich people are inherently smarter and able to solve all of our problems. All available evidence contradicts that fairytale but for decades top Republicans as well as the rank and file have refused to give up on it.
ha. magical thinker is a good/sad way of putting it
He's a (tax fraud) trust fund kid who has never seriously accomplished anything other than conning and swindling. He doesn't know the first thing about (legitimate) business. He fabricated an image of himself as a genius businessman playboy and the press ate it up (this was the good 'ol cocaine-fueled Reaganite '80s after all). Based on that he got banks to lend him huge amounts for his casino business (because he's a real estate genius!). But he's, uh, not, so all he did was use his casinos to embezzle and launder money. The fact that he was able to do this, get away scot-free, and still maintain his image says a lot about U.S. society, none of it good.
Concerning the latter, some Republicans are true believers in the supply-side stuff, but others know it's total bullshit to con the gullible. An example of the latter is Paul Ryan. What they really believe is they should be rich, rich people are rich because they're superior, and hence the rich should rule with absolute power. If you don't like it, fuck you, peasant, now get back to slaving away to make me richer or I'll have you shot. Their vision of society is feudalism with modern technology and them as part of the aristocracy.
Sums it up perfectly. Glad to have found this blog!
"One month into this nationwide emergency, the press has done an excellent job documenting the almost unimaginable failures of the federal government to protects its population from a slow-moving medical risk that appeared half way around the world four months ago."
But have they though? To date, not one question at these daily briefings about the fact that it certainly appears that the Trump Admin is directing the federal government to steal PPE on route to first responders and states and then...giving? selling?...them to private brokers who then make states bid against each other for this critical and tax-payer funded equipment. That's an insane and totally illegal act that apparently not one member of the WHCA seems to think is worth raising.
The NYT and most MSM have normalized the ever-loving fuck out new outrages daily. Rachel Martin and many NPR journalists have a polite laugh at just bug-fuck statements by the POTUS but cannot and will not call these obvious lies, "lies."
Lastly, we go on and on about Trump and his Z-list political grift circus WHILE ALSO never pointing out that the entire GOP is one criminal organization focused on stripping this country for parts before demographic destiny relegates them to the ash bin of history.
At this point, there is no going back. The country will either burn our current political system to the ground (literally or figuratively), or the corporate take over of this country will be 100% complete. We haven't been a democracy for a hot minute, and we may never be again.
(ERIC Boehlert, ref., article)'One example of a major Democrat who took this seriously would be Joe Biden, who, as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is arguably the major Democrat. Biden wrote an op-ed on January 27 warning that Trump had left the country unprepared to handle the coronavirus outbreak, and proposing steps to counter it. One of his main advisers, Ron Klain, wrote an op-ed making similar points five days before that.(Johnathan Chait, Integencier, April 1, 2020)'
In yesterday's Youtube video blog by former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, he read tweets from a nurse in South Dakota who talks of Covid patients that scream at the nurses and doctors that they don't have the disease, that it's a hoax, that they want the magic medicine they gave to Trump. The nurse went on to say the only thing that stops their illogical rants is intubation. An article in the WPO on Saturday highlighted (or low lighted) the Million (thousand) Maga march on Washington that virtually stated both sides can't seem to break away from their beliefs about the election, as if there are two sides to it. This is how broken we've become. The Republicans are playing a very dangerous game of coddling the toddler and chief, not to piss him off and somehow derail efforts to gain two Senate seats in Georgia. This is the work of evil Mitch McConnell who loses not an ounce of sleep every evening while there are over a 150k new Covid cases and around a thousand Americans that are dying each day. The idea expressed by CNN that we can somehow have a kumbaya moment as a nation is as foolish as thinking aliens will land on earth and solve all of our problems. Come to think of it, odds makers might make that the more plausible possibility.
Trump is correct, we are at war. And Putin is winning. His orange puppet has spent the last three years destroying this country. Stealing from us. Poisoning us. Dividing us. And now killing us. Putin must sleep with a smile.
Trump's behavior makes sense from the standpoint of what Putin would like to see America become: a failed state run by gangsters whom he controls. And if you're wondering why Trump would sacrifice his re-election, as he seems to be doing, it's because McConnell and the GOP will steal the election. It's already happening right in front of us, with the voter roll purges, the flawed voting machines, the refusal of Mitch to allow any election-protection legislation -- and now, Trump's new Postmaster General.
all very disturbing. and all plausible
It seems the odds of so many mistakes exposed by a WH dealing with a pandemic are astronomical, even if Trump is incompetent. I have never seen things through the eyes of a conspiracy nut, but it is hard to believe there wasn't some intention on his part. These glaring errors and subsequent attempts to blame, excuse and deny are always his way of dealing. But the media could have been much more forceful instead of worrying about being perceived as creating hysteria. There will be books written about this for many years to come.
Great song choice. Might be my 2nd favorite of theirs after "The Kid Next Door," which has a similarly fatalistic and poetic line at its core: "We keep on living while we keep on dying."
It seems (to me) tRump is both covering for the absolute failure to have 300 million tests available today, plus obeying instructions from his industry supporters and donors not to force them to do it (because that’s not, er, freedom). All of this is theater without a virus AND antibody test for every American (and probably at least 2 of each to make sure). 40 years of offshoring our manufacturing has guaranteed this failure, but those who owned the factories, distribution and sales of cheaper imported products sure have done well, so no one dare suggest that was a huge mistake. As we speak, Japan is pouring billions into bringing manufacturing back to Japan; it may cost more in the short term, but they won’t get their other leg caught in the same trap. We will have to do the same, after we’ve exhausted every other option.
And Eric Ambel produced it. Great album. Forgot about this gem.
The DC Press Corpse endlessly gives Trump pass after pass.
and in this case, the pass comes in the form of refusing to ask obvious, albeit disturbing questions, abt a president who refuses to protect the population
Eric, does this all boil down to that the journalist today is still traveling the trail of "report the happenings/facts" from a previous-to-Trump world? (I refuse to call it an "era" yet.) Are we headed towards a paradigm shift about the role of the journalist in an always shifting, Putinesque environment? Will journalists save us? Or will we become helpless random investigators. or worse, rubes? Whichever way it goes, the status quo will not return. Thanks to all for this conversation. And best to PressRun!
Our Corporate Controlled Conservative Press only cares about maximizing revenue. Trump is their goose that continually lays lots of golden eggs for them. It's in their self interest to keep Trump in the Presidency which is why they endlessly kiss his ass!