Trump is heading full steam toward neoliberal corporate deregulation. This leads to a breakdown of democracy, to increasing fundamentalism and violence, and to the rise of far-right political leaders, worldwide.
It is important that we see the broader connections that mainstream analyses generally ignore.
The global political swing to the right over the past few years is deeply worrying. It has us asking ourselves, how did this happen? How did populism turn into such a divisive and destructive force? How did authoritarianism take over the political scene once again?
Helena Norberg-Hodge attempts to answer these questions:
Localization: A Strategic Alternative to Globalized Authoritarianism
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/07/18/localization-strategic-alternative-globalized-authoritarianism
A good read!
Trump
The Major Networks all start off their nightly broadcasts off by obsessively remarking about a recent Trump Tweeting Spree, when it should be referred to as a Trump’s personal Touting & Tooting of foul proportions of useless Verbal “D” refuse and hazardous waste products we have to be exposed to because he is somehow the president.
Donald needs to start wearing a monogrammed alt white turtleneck to reveal his true self with stiff cuffs and elbow pads to start skidding on the consequences of his daily habitual lying with every Toot as we throw him out of the white house for good. Clean House!
Amplification
If I ran the networks (all of them), I’d tell reporters to not report on any tweet. Only official announcements, questions at podiums, and in-person interviews.
Some ‘fake news’ is generated by Trumps fingers, then amplified by the major media.
I said early on that anyone here could do complete coverage of the president by reading his tweets and reporting on them. (No one took me up on it!) That’s a task for all us junior citizen reporters, but not for paid professionals.
In my media world, Trump’s tweets would be treated like a kid having a tantrum. I wouldn’t encourage it or feed it, but ignore it and demand better behavior. Or no dinner (ie, coverage).
The problem seems to be that no one is being the ‘grown up in the room’ at the moment. Major media is pavlovian in their response to tweets, which encourages more tweets. The more ‘out there’ the more coverage.
I’d tweet stupid things all day if the major media hung on my every typed character and then shared it far and wide. One would be dumb not to take advantage of the free publicity. How to get me to stop? Cut off that amplification.
The little man is nothing
The little man with the diabolically erratic and warped ego is nothing less than dangerous to all of us which becomes more apparent each and every day of his reign. His hap- hazard and toxic, juvenile gibberish should be censored from anyone with an once of intelligence who has to listen to it by immediately shutting down his twitter or tooter account as he is violating all forms of descent and respectful behavior beyond belief creating a permanent locker room stain on our countries reputation among others we’d rather not have to wear in front of the global community . He is clearly out of control and should also be detained from having any chance of reaching any control panel of any type (especially those with red buttons) or keyboard alike and locked in his own private MacDonald’s eatery to self implode .
I agree the news cycle has become a self destructive whirlwind of confusion and distrust egged on by Trump’s incessant instigation that it has an insatiable appetite for most of which should instead be rejected and be sent directly to the industrial strength garbage disposal he should have surgically installed just below his double chin and permanently switched on. He must go before it’s too late!
Wheee!
Remember when there was a Fairness Act that required stations to offer time for competing views? Back in the days of TV, there would suddenly come a break where they allowed someone to get on the air and express their view. I’d like to see rootrunner do one with the above as the script. : ) I appreciate your wording.
I’ve been working my way through Oliver Stone’s history on the US on Netflix. It’s a history of most of the last 100 years or so, looking fairly critically at the Cold War, rise of the right wing, and our interventions/wars during this time. Kind of the way Eyes on the Prize took a close look at Civil Rights, this series reminds and supplements what most of us over a certain age can recall. It also includes info that wasn’t available at the time the news happened, but was subsequently learned.
Such as: Gorbechev/Russia offered Reagan/US full denuclearization, but Reagan refused because he wanted his space missile defense system.
I mention it because we wouldn’t necessarily feel in such a bind right now if there were no red buttons or nuclear suitcases available to any leader, sane or not. But, that ain’t gonna happen, so…
… we look to the Democrats to come up with plans, and to take action. We look to non-profits and organizations to mount a campaign. We protest. We elect new. We have an investigation and hearings and lawsuits.
I’m going to guess that we survive Trump. We survived Bush/Cheney (and I was more freaked about them because they were shadowy and secretive.) But…. I also expect more crazy in the future. That’s worrisome, to me. If Trump is taken out of office, we get crazy Pence. I see no bottom to the level of craziness the GOP is willing to tolerate after this, either. On the other hand, I think Dems may stop thinking and simply decide “anyone but Trump” is good enough, and that’s an extremely low standard. And third parties will continue to be ignored.
But yeah, brace yourself. This ride isn’t over yet. And number of nuts and bolts might come flying off at any moment.
"and a number of nuts and bolt might come flying off a
“and a number of nuts and bolt might come flying off at any moment” that’s what happens when someone becomes unhinged!
ounce of intelligence
….not an intelligent typo before(miss that edit feature), see what he’s doing to scramble our minds. The sad thing is his presidency is wasting precious time we don’t have to correct things on this planet that have gone astray, left delinquent or have been abused to no end and we must drastically reverse course on unless it is peril we seek to be put out of our misery. Four years of this madness is killing the will of the people stuck in utter frustration to every bizarre release of twisted logic imbued in each episode of Trump’s relentless buffoonery or another attempt of his to coyly gain or steal center stage and have a chance to impose his presidential mockery dance before all onlookers to create an audience. All and all it is just disgusting and a direct perversion of democracy. Thank you for your comment, I do miss the old days of point counter point, like Oliver Stone, it seems some hostile country is always going want a nuke at hand to wield power rather than peace and the idea of no nukes seems very remote, but again who killed JFK?
" I do miss the old days of point counter point" now
” I do miss the old days of point counter point” now it’s more like “what’s the point” and how do you believe it anymore.
time wasting
is one of the more annoying things about this current crop of leadership. We’ve pretty much blown through the period where we could have made changes that might have limited climatic changes, not only ignoring the warnings and putting off hard decisions but also putting our foot on the gas. Then add in every other current issue we should be tackling but aren’t – inequality, fairness, racism, voting, unwarranted spying by the government, violence, and so on. It’s depressing to have to go back and re-fight previously won battles (Roe vs Wade).
(Though, if I’m being fair, previous leaders didn’t do enough to make some of the previously won battles permanent. Congress or states could pass a law so that Roe vs. Wade isn’t debatable; lots of Trumps’ rollbacks haven’t been of laws but previous executive orders.)
We were talking the other day about how both capitalism of the good ol’ US and socialism of bad ol’ Russia have both led to the same basic result – a bunch of rich folks at the top oppressing those below. Seems like another hidden economic law is really guiding things, and it doesn’t really matter who is in power.
I have noticed that Trump is inspiring some backlash in ways Obama and Bush never did. Bush got some world protests and such, Obama was heckled by the right and the left was relatively quiet, but Trump is inspiring quite a few citizens to take action… I think more people are running for office and low-level activism seems to be on the rise. Ie, it seems like a few more people are caring about things again, which I take as a good sign. I hope the concern and efforts carry on beyond the current presidency, regardless of our next option. (This is my delusional silver lining – that people are starting to be active again.)
(Re: comment below…) I’d watch a talk show called “What’s the Point?” : ) (Heck, it sound like the type of show I’d host….)
It would be a novel premise for a news show to air that
It would be a novel premise for a news show to air that would require opposing commentators to debate “What is the Point?” Where is this going with the prevailing hot wind charged from behind blowing our hair back and to what avail?, and what does it really mean for us and our chances to legitimize?, based on exactly what? and would it be too much to ask to maybe utilize some length of time to explain themselves beyond a reduced sound bite to accommodate those with little or no attention span? or is it as usual that the open discussion falters into just another futile attempt and free for all to purposely fumble the ball to extend and glorify the backward game into senseless yammering and posturing as each scrambles to gather up slippery facts to try and flex their weak hand and desperately latch on digging their nails in to try and discover some hope or appearance of credibility in lieu of solid, verifiable facts they are missing, but are absolutely needed to dissect and establish the underlying impact of a given current political affair with any certainty.
what was that?
..or in other words the commentator would have to prove his point with visual evidence (slide show behind) when she or he delivered their coverage and if it’s just based on a rumor or a second hand source( or the president himself), hearsay or just rattling about to gain traction for extra spin to leave us going in circles disoriented not knowing what to think, then it doesn’t pass airing standards and is eliminated. So what is the point of the net works carrying on like they do churning out half truths like an overflowing popcorn machine for some demented amusement scene . After a while, constantly crying wolf (or fake news) falls on dead ears and is just ambient noise and pollution with zero substance and credibility we can’t rely on, especially when it originally comes from a fake or phony president to begin with .
The new Sunday line-up
Tune in this week for What’s The Point? followed by our new show Prove It!
(It is amazing how many major pundits and commentators still have their jobs, despite being wrong on just about everything. And people still pay attention to them, despite being lied to in the past! )
....overflowing popcorn with way too much butter to try
….overflowing popcorn with way too much butter to try and make it go down, now the newspapers are calling Trump out when they are just as much to blame going for his juicy bait like a hungry 60 lb. Stripper (saltwater fish, not one of Trump’s girlfreinds). You said it best when you mentioned standards that no longer exist!
My coverage is short and sweet:
President continues to play with phone.