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And right on cue this morning Trump is tweeting we might have to postpone the election because it may not be safe to vote because of the pandemic. Wait, the same pandemic he said is going to go away? The pandemic that he's claiming yet again that can be cured by hydroxychloroquine? Trump is already and predictably sewing the seeds to stay in power. Perhaps that was the reason for the "change of tone" the media was so excited about. Can you just imagine the fallout from the press had Obama attempted to stop the 2014 midterms because of Ebola? Of course that's an absurd similarity since there were only four cases in the US as you point out but this much is clear- A narcissistic sociopath, clearly unfit to be dog catcher is getting away with shredding our democracy while the press is duped into breathing a sigh of relief when he changes his tone! The destruction of the United States is happening right before our eyes and the media is an active participant. What happened to the story of Russian bounty on American soldiers? Now Trump is pulling 12000 troops out of Germany. How much is the media going to let President Putin... er Trump get away with?

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Trump wants to delay election ...and not one newspaper will demand he resign

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The newspapers are in a symbiotic relationship with trump. Their agenda aligns with his. They have theatric play fights for tv while they give him billions of dollars worth of exposure as well as engaging in the most heightened severity softening Kim pain of all times. No matter what atrocities he does the word play to make it seem normal

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That’s straight from Putin’s playbook. 8 calls where they spoke about other things like the disinformation campaign to keep the virus spread to use it as an excuse for elections cancelling. We can’t vote for a couple hours in line but kids are green lighted for school? Yeah ok how convenient!

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What frightens me is how a president can allow a pandemic to spread under their watch and still be eligible for re-election.

The institutional failures in this country right now run so deep.

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How about allowing a secret force to brutally “control” riots by maiming, and killing citizens with rubber bullets? They warned to deploy our boys of the 82nd airborne against us. The deadliest force known to man, on OUR OWN NEIGHBORS. Well it is a known fact that those who create the violence or white supremacist infiltrated in the protesters groups. This is publicized by the FBI and other intelligence agencies. Who have called them terrorist groups. But the media fold it’s hands and does not blow up that’s the part of the story. And allowing this information relative to those riots to ramp up and anger the research lazy public. That to me is very frightening. Because there is no limit to what he can do by creating the agitation with his white supremacists allies and pretend to quality in our streets with the military and the guidance of Putin.

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Thank you Eric, as always.

Your post today cites so many examples of beltway failure. I often think that given the complete lack of actual drama, and failure, during the Obama years that the press just created stuff to attract and/or keep viewers and readers. The Daily Show's Trevor Noah commentary on the "tan-suit" controversy comes to mind.

BTW: I have been quoting Eric Alterman's 2003 book since it came out. To anyone who would listen.

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yes, Alterman’s been such a great voice!

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Yes he has. He's been sounding the alarm a long time. I loved his blog.

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The First Amendment cannot survive a second term. The interesting part is how much the press has done to destroy it.

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Minor point/question-Did you mean USA Today's Susan Page, and not Rice?

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Literally, the dual hysteria of the Republicans and their establishment media echoes ended the day after the election. One of the great electoral coincidences (kidding about that). Never ceases to amuse me.

And anyone who thinks the media treat both parties the same, well, that hasn’t been true for over forty years. Of course, how the media reconcile their biased reportage with the idea of objectivity beats me. Then again, the media’s idea of objectivity accommodates lies.

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