IT'S NOT OVER - HEADS MUST ROLL AT NBC
Just when you think the dust was beginning to settle on what will, no doubt, go down as one of the most galactically stupid moves in the history of journalism, Puck News breaks the story that both, NBC News Chief Cesar Conde, as well as SVP, Carrie Budoff Brown, coordinated w/ a GOP operative to throw their own Jen Psaki under the bus in an attempt to save Ronna McDaniel. If this is true, both Conde, as well as Brown, and anyone else who might’ve been involved, need to resign, yesterday, or face removal. Until they do, NBC will have zero credibility. As it stands, even if they resign, NBC’s trust amongst its viewers is now shot, due to reports of Republican sympathizers at the highest levels of power. Listen to Keith Olberman destroying them on the latest podcast.
What this situation does is make you wonder what’s going on at CBS, ABC, Yahoo News, and other supposed trusted sources for facts in the age of Orwellian propaganda? CNN’s Chris Licht was recently eviscerated and shown the door for giving Donald Trump an ‘open mic’ platform on its network to spew his unchecked lies, and Yahoo News continues to allow the 24/7 spigot of lies that is Fox News to propagate its front page on a daily basis, unchecked. Even after its top executives admitted lying to their viewers about pretty much everything. This recent scandal at NBC does nothing to change the opinion of those of us who believe the media isn’t just part of the problem, it is the problem.
But, as the Ronna McDaniel fiasco continues to worsen, let’s take a step back and pose the question: Who thought this was a good idea to being with? Who at NBC Universal looked in the mirror and thought, given where we are, given how fragile the public trust is in its news media at this crucial moment, giving safe harbor, and $300k, to a voracious election denier, was a good idea? As it stands now, that answer is most likely Cesar Conde and Carrie Budoff Brown. And possibly Rebecca Blumenstein.
Should the Ronna McDaniel hiring have been allowed to move forward, NBC News would've positioned itself as the journalistic "Argentina" - sending a message to every lying, democracy-destroying sycophant out there, you will always have a home with the peacock. No matter what.
Defend an insurrection? No problem. Get caught on the phone pressuring state officials to submit fake electors? We got cho' back. Spend every waking moment for the past six years working to undermine facts and the Truth? Reach out, anytime. We love gaslighters!
Hiring the female Joseph Goebbels to provide a 'diverse viewpoint', is like hiring Hannibal Lecter to create the menu at your wedding. And, while it's great to see NBC reverse course and admit their mistake; while it shows an angry public - along with a few high-profile advocates, can right a wrong, the damage has been done. Firing McDaniel after you're outed, is like a thief putting the money back after he's caught.
This disaster is far from over. There were/are too many "higher-ups" at the network who approved this move. They are, as previously mentioned, Cesar Conde, NBC Universal News Chairman; Rebecca Blumenstein - President NBC News; Carrie Budoff Brown - SVP Meet the Press. Unfortunately, for Ms. Brown, she was the one put forth to offer what will surely be remembered as one of the most historically tone deaf statements on behalf of a news division, ever -- “It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team.” Translation: “We know how much damage the MAGA movement’s done to facts, the Truth, the rule of law, etc. Now, pardon us, as we throw some more gasoline on the fire." We now know, not only is Budoff Brown beyond obtuse when it comes to her responsibility to her viewers, she made the situation ten times worse by trying to throw one of her own under the bus to save her own skin. This would be an epic betrayal for anyone in an executive role, let alone the field of journalism in 2024 ‘Amerika’.
In the film The Insider, in which whistleblower, Jeffrey Wigand, takes on big tobacco, the producers of 60 Minutes are accused of betraying the legacy of Edward R. Murrow. You can add NBC News and its executives to that list. Not only did they betray their viewership, as well as their staff -including the late Tim Russert (who's most likely projectile vomiting in his grave just knowing the network he called home for so long even considered pulling such a stentorianly ignorant stunt), they've further damaged the already broken public trust, beyond repair. Who's next, NBC? Mike Lindell as CEO? Jim Jordan as Head of PR? The flames of 'public paranoia' have been fanned.
Whether there are some sympathetic ears to the MAGA movement at 30 Rock, or not, at the end of the day, the judgement of the executives at NBC News can no longer be trusted. You can't put this horse back in the barn. There needs to be accountability for such an egregious violation of the journalistic code and the complete failure towards its viewership. Getting paid millions of dollars means the buck stops with you. Time for a reckoning. Somebody call Brian Roberts. Heads need to roll. A lot of ‘em.
RUPERT MURDOCH: THE MOST VILE MAN IN AMERICA LAID WASTE TO THE SOUL OF DEMOCRACY
Rupert Murdoch, the naturalized U.S media mogul and owner of right-wing outlets like Fox News and The New York Post, is the most vile man in America.
While he cavorts with supermodels like his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, and hangs out with Mick Jagger in the tony Hamptons, the onslaught of fake news and misinformation fulminating from his media empire, News Corp., is killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Murdoch is the man behind the curtain of a decaying bog, covered in moss and pond scum, overrun by a disgusting array of insects that swarm the fetid corpses of hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 victims.
It’s the kind of scene you’d expect to see in a Tim Burton movie. But it’s real, fomented nightly by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo and other Fox News talking heads.
The media empire he founded–purportedly to present a “conservative view” of events–long ago went off the tracks and is the biggest threat to American democracy since Hitler and Stalin.
But Murdoch is even worse. He’s the enemy within, the Fifth Column. He’s not out to attack democracy, just undermine and subvert it around the world.
Murdoch is like Osama Bin Laden only his weapon is misinformation, not hijacked airliners.
Bin Laden’s goal was to destroy America using terror. Murdoch has the same goal. Only, he uses news anchors to do his dirty work.
Bin Laden never flew a plane and Murdoch never did a newscast. One wore an Arabic thawb, the other wears custom-made suits. Yet, they are both inextricably tied to the blistering decay of normalcy our country’s suffered the past two-plus decades.
He is the mastermind of a network designed to destroy the fabric, confidence and soul of our democracy. The damage done from this one-two punch of anti-American vermin will take generations to recover from.
The catastrophe of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection “could not have occurred without the hatred, division and madness Murdoch’s media have promoted for years within the United States and beyond,” according to former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who knows Murdoch well.
During Trump’s four years in office, Fox News “was like that of a state-owned broadcaster in a dictatorship: flattering the great leader, supporting his friends, denouncing his enemies, covering up his failures,” Turnbull recently wrote in an Australian magazine.
“Murdoch did not directly dispatch the mob as Trump did, but his media, more than any other, amplified the narratives of hatred, division and denial that made the mob possible.”
Murdoch began building his media empire in the ’50s and ’60s, following the death of his father. His formula was simple– print the most salacious, scandal-ridden gossip his reporters could dig up.
Later he moved to the United Kingdom and in 1974, Murdoch landed in New York City to begin building his media empire here. Two years later, he established a foothold. He bought the failing, low-brow tabloid New York Post.
Murdoch became a naturalized American citizen in 1986 so he could expand his empire beyond newspapers into television, which led to the launch of the Fox Television Network.
Far from lauding his entrepreneurship, the billionaire media mogul should have his citizenship revoked, and he should be deported immediately to Australia, or anywhere else that will take him.
The Chairman of Fox Corp. is probably more responsible for the current irreparable social and political divide we’re experiencing as a nation than all other humans on earth, combined.
Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones and a host of fellow travelers, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, are all manifestations of his twisted, foreign world view, which is antithetical to American democracy.
Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson, Pirro, Bartiromo have been his acolytes, exacerbating America’s deep social and racial divisions and supporting Trump’s exploitation of them at every turn.
Only this week, Carlson traveled to Hungary to laud the avowedly fascist dictator Viktor Orban. Carlson sees Orban’s authoritarian, race-based regime as a model for the United States.
“If you care about Western civilization and democracy and families, and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions, you should know what is happening here right now,” Carlson gushed to his Fox News viewers.
Even hard-right Americans, who claim to support the U.S. Constitution, should be repulsed by Carlson’s sycophancy.
Many of Murdoch’s papers and television channels have been accused of biased and misleading coverage over the years to support his business interests and political allies, but Fox News has devolved into something far worse than cronyism and nepotism.
On its own, it has been the source of more scandals, harassment allegations, misogyny, homophobia, racism and straight-up lies than any other network in American history. And it shows.
When Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the Kremlin’s goal was to foment division between Americans, mostly on racial lines, and to undermine trust in the US electoral system.
Donald Trump is a threat to democracy on par with dictators past and present. (Photo: NYI Collage)
“Those objectives have been achieved, spectacularly, but it’s hard to give the Russians much credit for it,” Turnbull writes.
“The heavy lifting was done by Americans — Murdoch above all, followed by other right-wing media and of course the craziness on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms favored by the lunatic right, like Parler and Gab.”
Our nation is in the throes of a “War on Facts,” dangerously divided at a point not seen since the Civil War, and 90% of the reason we’re here is because of Murdoch.
There’ve always been “evil billionaires” – the Carnegies, the Hearsts–but there’s never been one who’s profited off the destruction of the very country that welcomed him with open arms the way Murdoch has.
Every single cent the Murdoch family makes off the advertisers, who shamelessly pedal their products on this despicable purveyor of racist rants and untruths, takes us one step farther down the rabbit hole.
Case in point are Ingraham, Carlson, and other talking heads. They betrayed every principle of decency and decorum by mocking, trashing and lambasting the officers who testified about their life-altering experiences on January 6th. To call the commentators “cockroaches” would be an insult to cockroaches.
The disconnect between the hideous nature of Murdoch’s personality and his gleeful circle of social friends is sickening.
Seeing Jagger, one of my musical heroes, happily partying at Murdoch’s home last week, nearly caused me to projectile vomit.
A lifetime of respect for the legendary singer was lost in an instant.
Maybe you can say, well, “Jagger really hates Murdoch;” maybe you can say, “It was his son’s wedding, what do you expect him to do?”
But for a celebrity of Jagger’s status/notoriety to know that his photo would be plastered on every tabloid site, including Fox News, and to not release any kind of statement denouncing the man, or at least offering some explanation, leaves me to believe Jagger thought it was no big deal.
You could even say he has Sympathy for The Devil. (Jagger’s publicists didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did Yahoo Music)
To make matters worse, Fox News’ success with hard-right, over 45-viewers, has spawned competitors like OANN and Newsmax. Both go even deeper into the cesspool of misinformation and right-wing media manipulation.
How far do we let these merchants of lies stray? Where do we draw the line?
Murdoch turned 90 in March, yet shows few signs of slowing down. He married Hall, a mere 25 years younger, in 2016. He has two sons standing in the wings, Lachlan, and James. Whether the sins of the father will be borne by the sons remains to be seen.
Beyond that, and probably more importantly, when are we going to hold the companies accountable that continue to spend millions of dollars in adverting and prop up these deplorable networks? The Toyotas, the Overstocks, The Home Depots and others.
After all, as Eddie Murphy once said, “The best way to hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.”
And while that may never happen to the Murdoch family, a nationwide boycott of a dozen of Fox News’ most loyal companies and advertisers might get the ball rolling.
OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS FAILED US
I don’t know about you, but I passed my “Howard Beale Moment” well over a year ago. Let’s face it, at this point in time, it’s pretty clear, no matter how far you stick your head out the window, no matter how loud you scream... no one’s listening. No one who matters, that is.
Before we address the shameful display put on by our Republican Senators who happily disgraced the memory of every soldier who gave his/her life defending the document/principles they chose to use as toilet paper, let’s take a brief step back. After all, the main reason we’re in this shit show to begin with is the archaically obsolete Electoral College.
This ancient, futile system of letting six states decide an election for the entire country is so beyond broken, it’s laughable. Yet, since the orange idiot’s “election”, have we done anything to remedy it? Sure, a few Left-leaning states have implemented a few new twists and turns, i.e. pledging to give their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. However, the sad reality is the Electoral College will, once again, play a front and center role in the election of our next President, as well. And then some.
Where else - besides Russia, Syria, and other fascist States - do you see a contest in which the “loser” wins? Imagine if the 49ers scored more points than the Chiefs, but the Chiefs were presented with the Lombardi trophy, anyway? That’s our presidential election, kids. And it’s simply FUBAR. But what’s worse? The fact that this mind-bogglingly stupid policy’s been wreaking havoc with our democracy for centuries, or that we still don’t seem to feel the need to change it?
Odds are, given how slow this Congress moves on calling for desperately needed change of any kind, i.e. gun control, oversight of the social media behemoths, etc., it will be years - possibly decades, before this obsolete process is put out to pasture. Thank you, sir, may I have another?
Jumping back to the present, witnessing the capitulation/betrayal of our elected officials to the most criminally corrupt POTUS to ever hold office shines a glaring light in one, specific area: The Constitution is a sacred document, but it’s like a hundred year-old bridge in downtown Newark - full of outdated, rust-covered sections in desperate need of repair.
Again, what’s worse? That half our Congress just openly betrayed their oaths to defend The Constitution, or that there’s nothing in the Constitution to stop them from doing it?
There’s absolutely nothing in there, not a single paragraph, phrase, or amendment, calling for any congressman found to be guilty of betraying his/her sworn oath to face criminal penalties/prosecution. Rather, the “punishment” for these cowardly cockroaches who dared swear an oath in front of the entire world, then proceeded to happily rub their wanton hypocrisy in our faces, will be a golden parachute and free health care for life, on us. Beyond disgusting.
But, hey, we have bigger fish to fry, right? Our prisons are overflowing and disgusting. Corporations are legally people now - at least according to our Supreme Court (which currently boasts, not one, but two sexual predators) - of course, they can’t be prosecuted as one when they commit crimes though, and our kids’ schools set aside time to practice ‘active shooter’ drills. But, I digress.
If I were the Dems, and I just saw my country betrayed in such fashion by my fellow Americans, I would be filing new articles of impeachment, every week, until each of the 33,889 crimes committed by this reprehensible administration are called out. After all, if this entire circus was created by just focusing on one of the president’s actions, imagine how many we don’t know about?
As we move forward from this national disgrace, the real scary thing is, now that we have a president who’s above the Law, a Congress that’s openly aiding and abetting, and an Attorney General who’s all too happy to help, you know damn well the next item of business for these soulless miscreants is to figure out how to hold onto power. Thus, the rigging of our next election. You think we saw some fucked up shit in the past? Something tells me 2020 will make 2000 look like a walk in the park. These treasonous sycophants just showed their willingness to brazenly ignore the voice of The People on the world stage. Now that they know they can get away with it, get ready for gerrymandering, ballot tampering, corrupt-judge appointing, legalizing voter suppression, misinformation, disinformation the likes of which we’ve never seen. If reading this makes you want to vomit, I apologize. Imagine what writing it does.
I don’t know about you, but at this point it definitely appears as if our Constitution needs to be torn apart and rewritten from scratch. Not to mention, we need to figure out a way to rise above all the vote tampering/election interference and reshape our entire system of government. Starting with who we nominate for president and how it’s done. The money in politics is obviously the main issue, but that’s a whole other can o’ worms.
As we speak, the Dems are still seriously considering nominating another old, rich white guy. Not that Bernie or Biden would do a bad job, Lord knows, we’d probably be better off with a serial killer in the oval, but after what we’ve been through -and are going through - it seems a complete and total shake-up is in order. Gay, female, tranny, whatever. Get some new fucking blood in there, asap. After all, can it be any worse?
As far as our criminal Congress goes, talking about simply “voting them out,” after this level of betrayal is unfortunately nowhere near anything remotely resembling Justice. Nor can it stand if our society is to recover/repair itself. It’s like telling the Manson family they need to move out.
Our Constitution was just murdered. If we parole the murderers, what kind of message does that send, to those both for and against these crimes? If, going forward, we wind up letting these depraved individuals off the hook, isn’t that the real end right there?
The Accountability Problem
Let’s pretend our democracy is a human body. What do you do when it seems as if your body’s first, second, third, fourth, fifth - okay, every single line of defense, fails you? What do you do when all forms of treatment, no matter how high the hopes of the doctors, fall short, leaving the tumor to continue growing, unabated.
Don’t look now, but our ‘body’ is in danger of falling into sepsis shock. To some, it may feel like a cold - nothing to worry about. Until you wake up in the ER, your arms and legs black from the flesh-eating parasites that have made their way into your circulatory system. At the risk of using another anatomical metaphor, our Justice system is the heart of our democracy. And the prognosis isn’t good.
When the ‘antibodies’ of our system, the judges, prosecutors, Attorneys General, elected officials, the media, law enforcement, as well as the highest court in the land, fail to hold the most stentorian traitor to ever come down the pike, accountable for ANY of his deplorable actions, it threatens every cell in our ‘body.’ And, it’s contagious. Don’t think for a minute we’re the only ones who’ll suffer if our democracy dies. The disease that is Trumpism will spread like wildfire around the world. The political version of Covid-19.
Before you say, “Well, Trump’s being forced to pay $400 million in civil judgements,” has he paid a dime, yet? Sure, the clock on the interest is ticking, but has he paid? Anyone with an IQ over five knows Trump is going to do everything he can to try and figure out a way to avoid civil accountability, just like he’s always done. Be it through his usual delay tactics, finding an appellate judge(s) sympathetic to his cause, a willing foreign government happy to give him the money for 'favors later on', turning to his millions of dim-witted followers, or all of the above, to bail him out. But, I digress, as we’re not talking about civil penalties, here. Compared to this incurable cancer of a man, the civil cases are just the sniffles.
Call it what you want; due process, the slow turning wheels of Justice, etc. At the end of the day, when it comes to the problem of Donald J. Trump, why does it seem as if We The People are getting the shaft every time we turn around? Sure, there might be a lone, courageous official, or court, here and there doing their best to uphold their oath(s), but, with each passing day, it appears as if nearly every time we get close, our bubble bursts. Every time we focus on a person(s) in a position to hold Trump criminally accountable for his innumeralbe crimes against the Constitution, they’re either bending over backwards at every turn to make sure he gets away with it, or watching helplessly as their hands are tied behind their backs by the grinding garbage disposal of Justice.
Be it a Department of Justice, led by a meek Attorney General, who sat on their hands for more than a year after an attempted violent coup - only to move after a Congressional committee, one with no prosecutorial authority, made it all-but-impossible for them to continue to ignore - (for what it’s worth, I still say appointing Merrick Garland Attorney General was the biggest mistake Joe Biden ever made); A Congress so beyond broken, so full of cowards and stone-cold traitors, half of them should be prosecuted, themselves, for aiding/abetting insurrection - amongst other things. But, they won’t be.
And, of course, our irreproachable, infallible SCOTUS. These arrogant, dystopian hacks seem to be doing everything they can to afford the most treasonous president in history, by a landslide, every possible accommodation, in the hopes he ends up back in the oval before he can be held accountable for his actions. If anyone really is above the Law in this Republic, it’s our Supreme Court. Even the scandalous appearance of a sitting Justice about to hear a case in which his wife is a co-conspirator, doesn’t move the needle an inch. Zero accountability. Zero concern.
Jack Smith, the ‘Lancelot’ of this saga. Even the unflappable patriot that is Mr. Smith didn’t feel he had the cards - or the stones - to charge the architect of the coup, a coup that saw thousands sentenced to prison and several officers die, with insurrection.
For Goodness sake, there were calls to execute the Vice President of the United States, as well as the Speaker of the House, and now, it’s all but forgotten. A blip on the radar. Now, they’re the victims. At least, as far as an appeals court that just ruled against Smith and his team, are concerned. The ruling, which will, no doubt, see hundreds of sentences reduced/commuted, will do nothing but aid the toxic, carcinogenic narrative of the wannabe (soon to be?) fascist and his cronies.
Poor Fani Willis. She went on a date with someone in her office, and suddenly, she’s as corrupt as Trump? One minute, all the cards in the deck are finally looking like they’re stacking against him, then, Poof! Suddenly, she’s the one on trial? WTF is wrong with this picture? Reminds one of former Senator Al Franken’s scandal that was only a scandal because his own colleagues in the Senate climbed over themselves to prove to everyone watching they could eviscerate their own, better than anyone on the Right. This unjust, relentless persecution of a champion of democracy illustrates what we’re really best at: Attacking the righteous from all sides, like wild hyenas, while letting the real bad guys off the hook.
Then, there’s Aileen “MAGA” Canon. If she were any more pro-Trump, she’d don a pair of Ivanka’s red lingerie behind the bench. Although, it’s quite possible she may wear it underneath. Of course, there are still members of the media, like respected MSNBC pundit, Ali Velshi, who refuse to see the galactically obvious evidence all around us, and continue to utter incomprehensibly obtuse phrases such as, “It appears Trump is receiving ‘somewhat preferable’ treatment from Judge Canon.” That’s like saying, “It appears Hannibal Lecter is somewhat preferable towards meat.” The odds of this beyond corrupt jurist being held accountable and removed, are less than zero.
What about the antithesis to Elliot Richardson? Former AG, Bill Barr, single-handedly derailed years of investigations into the Trump/Russia connection - then, in an effort to avoid any/all accountability, goes on a whirlwind media tour ranting against his former boss. So far, it’s worked.
Bob Mueller’s not free from blame, either. He could’ve chose to be more forceful, to rise to the call, to see where we were heading. One simple sentence could’ve changed the course of history - and save he, and his colleagues, years of wasted effort: “It is our finding the president of the United States acted criminally.” Boom. Instead, as the late great Sean Connery said, the former director of the FBI brought a knife to a gun fight.
Let’s not forget the man of the hour. The one who, with one vote, with one flick of his pen, made all this suffering possible: The insatiably power-hungry, anti-democratic lap dog, Moscow Mitch McConnell. He could’ve seen to it Trump was held accountable. Once again, he failed us. History will not be kind, but as far as any real repercussions for a lifetime of treachery and corruption, don’t hold your breath.
Fox News: They were forced to fork over nearly $1 billion, yet, the network of lies continues to operate with impunity, as if nothing happened.
All of this should come as no surprise, however. Because, if there’s one area of criminality our Justice system has a hard time with, it’s scammers. Be it identity thieves who make millions stealing from insurance companies, retail stores, etc., and who never do a day in jail, or if they do, it’s a token sentence, then, they’re back on the streets doing it again.
Financial scammers using burner phones and phony gmail addresses to trick millions, especially the elderly, into giving up their passwords, thus draining their bank accounts; only to have law enforcement tell you it’s virtually impossible to track them down; translation; zero accountability.
Heck, even the recent Amazon documentary Operation Landslide, detailing the downfall of the Net’s biggest kiddie porn king, ends by reminding us over four thousand members of this disgusting, illegal site have yet to be questioned, let alone, arrested/prosecuted.
One just needs to look around to see the side effects of this ‘treatment’ by our crack team of judicial ‘quacks.’ It infects our everyday lives everywhere we go. Where we work, how we work, where we eat, how we treat one another, etc.
Poll workers, nationwide, resigning due to threats and stress; State/local congressmen abandoning ship every time you turn around; Teachers telling anyone/everyone thinking of getting into the noblest of professions to ‘run in the other direction’, due to the erosion of reverence/respect, as well as zero accountability on the part of parents who, instead of listening to an educated professional, point fingers at everyone but themselves for their child’s problems.
The gold standard of customer service - Restaurant owners - refusing to take responsibility/ownership of an issue, and instead, boldly taking to social media to lambast/attack their customers in grandiose fashion;
Heck, just today I went to my local market to return a simple bad piece of meat, and, instead of simply apologizing and offering me a credit, the owner accused me of ‘not cooking it properly.’
We can’t capitalist corporations, can we? The ‘life’s blood’ of this democracy; UPS breaks kids’ Xmas presents, ruining their holiday, forever, and, instead of simply crediting the parents for their irreplaceable loses, tells them they’re ‘shit out of luck’ and ‘there’s nothing we can do.’
Frontier Airlines, the company that makes the cable companies look like humanitarians, leaves a mother and her kids stranded for two days after closing all counters over an hour before take-off, costing them close to $2000 in additional expenses, not to mention untold stress/heartache, and responds with $135 in travel credits; credits that expire in three months.
Even Amazon, the bastion of amazing customer service/accountability, rather than simply crediting you the difference on a product that you find cheaper at Costco, Target, etc, refuses to price match any of its competitors; instead, daring you to take the time to box it back up and deliver it to a drop, yourself. After all, what are you gonna do about it? Not shop there anymore? Ha!
And now, as we speak, for the pièce de résistance,
the cherry on top of this ‘zero accountability’ sandwich, we get to have a front row seat as our bumbling, stumbling judicial system flails about like the Keystone Cops after a few beers, chasing the biggest scammer and con-artist in the history of history down the rabbit hole of legal loopholes, false narratives, glaringly obvious guilt, an apathetic public, an obtuse media, and massive inexplicable inaction.
If Justice is blind, there is no doubt, our Justice System is Helen Keller. If one didn’t know better, you’d think we are intentionally protecting one man’s interests over an entire nation.
Hear that sound? That’s us, flatlining.
THE MEDIA ISN'T PART OF THE PROBLEM - IT IS THE PROBLEM
Let’s face it, at this point, it’s a safe bet that 99 percent of the MAGA cult is gone, lost, unreachable because they’ve bought into the lies of Donald Trump and hard-right pols.
The classic propaganda tactic was first espoused by Adolf Hitler in his book, “Mein Kampf” and used effectively by Joseph Goebbels, during the rise of Nazism.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it, ” Hitler wrote.
But there is a corollary to that infamous adage that rarely gets repeated. “The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie,” Hitler noted.
America is not Nazi Germany — yet. It has always had a safety valve to deflate demagogues — a free press and protected speech. But what about self-censorship?
As powerful as the mainstream media may be, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other traditional media outlets have been shackled by a long-standing institutional bias against taking sides.
It was born out of the days of “yellow journalism” when media barons like William Randolph Hearst used his newspapers to start wars and sink political careers.
“Balanced” coverage may have tempered some of yellow journalism’s worst excesses, but it also has a downside. It’s easily exploited by politicians and demagogues intent on pushing the “big lie.”
It’s happened time and time again., during the “Red Scare” in the ’50s, the Vietnam War in the ’60s, the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003 … and now.
The mainstream media has fallen into the same trap. It feels an obligation to repeat lies, misinformation and propaganda in the interest of maintaining “balance” in their coverage.
But the effect is just the opposite. The media adds legitimacy to false claims and fosters the “big lie” simply by reporting it over and over.
Sure, fact checkers set in soon after to correct the record. But by then, it’s too late. The news cycle has moved on. The lie has been propagated and spread.
Rudy Giuliani: Truth isn’t truth!”
Today, balance is no longer enough. Journalism needs a new paradigm. It needs to become the mortal enemy of the big lie.
During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, government lying was so pervasive, it gave rise to what became known as “interpretive journalism.” It wasn’t enough to take statements at face value and recite them; journalists began adding interpretation and context to news reporting.
The trend peaked with coverage of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate in the 1970s. But the media fell back on its old ways and failed to meet the challenge of Ronald Reagan’s post-truth politics in the 1980s.
It should come as no surprise that Reagan repealed the Fairness Doctrine in broadcast media and ended the prohibition on news media monopolies, which gave rise to Rupert Murdoch and his truth-bending media empire.
It’s been a slippery slope for journalism ever since. The Internet and social media fed the trend, shattering the truth in thousands of echo chambers.
During World War II, the allies conducted a psychological profile of Hitler to establish how he was able to manipulate so many people and promote his own big lie. These were his principles:
“Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
Donald Trump’s Fascist Tendencies and Tactics Revealed (Getty/NYI Collage)
Trump, is using the same principles, today, along with a right-wing media co-opted by Murdoch, and fellow travelers like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn and a coterie of other sycophantic hangers-on.
Nothing will change the minds of this “Earth 2” – Lauren Boebert, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Tailor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Tommy Tuberville, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Kari Lake, Ron DeSantis, Lindsey Graham, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ginni Thomas and the like; sadly, the list could go on for miles.
Trump’s followers could smear feces on the walls of the Capitol, shatter its windows, deface its offices, threaten the life of Trump’s own vice president and injure police officers, and the MAGA base won’t budge. Because, they’re dug in too deep — past the point of no return.
To change tracks now would mean the “libs” were right. That’s a fate worse than death.
Perhaps, even more implausible, listening to what’s left of their conscience, and admitting they were wrong, would require summoning the one thing virtually no MAGA Republican has: Character.
If you think a concerted misinformation campaign isn’t underway, you may recall this 2018 conversation between Giuliani and “moderator” Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Giuliani: And when you tell me that, you know, he [Trump] should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well that’s so silly because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth …
Todd: Truth is truth. I don’t mean to go like…
Giuliani: No, it isn’t truth. Truth isn’t truth.”
A year earlier, Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway echoed the same refrain on “Meet the Press” when she pronounced that Donald Trump had “alternative facts.”
In one of the few times, to his credit, Todd pushed back, he schooled her: “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods,” he said.
In the age of alternative facts, here is one fact that is all too true. Stories don’t need to contain a shred of truth to be widely disseminated. Trump knows better than anyone.
Just saying it, just putting it out there, does the job. Facts? Proof? Nah. “Just say we won and leave the rest to me and the Republicans in Congress.” Trump infamously told his Justice Department after his 2020 election loss.
Just sending a barrage of disparaging headlines into the void is all the far-Right needs to achieve its goal of swaying a few thousand voters here and there. And, it’s working.
Plenty of Americans are still undecided and/or on the fence about the 2024 election.
Case in point, a good friend of mine, whom I love very much, recently said to me, “I can’t stand Trump – but I may vote Republican, because… Biden stutters.”
Yep. As dumbfounding as it is, these are the voters who are most vulnerable to misinformation, disinformation and irresponsible “click bait” journalism.
It’s not the far corners of the Dark Web — the Four Chans, the Telegrams — doing the most damage. There’s no place better for misinformation/disinformation than the mainstream media.
It’s one thing for some right-wing scandal sheet to spread a lie, but when The New York Times repeats the same lie in the interest of “balance,” the impact is amplified ten-fold.
When an Internet search engine does the same thing, it’s even worse. Yahoo News, the third largest search engine in the world, has a black belt in propagating false and misleading headlines.
The news site continues to allow the cesspool that is Fox News dominate its front page, every hour on the hour, day-after-day, month-after-month, to millions of views, with zero guilt or conscience, just like “The Matrix.”
Fox paid close to $1 billion – and was forced to admit it lied to its viewers — for years — about Trump’s election lies. But did Yahoo’s execs freak out, order their coders to change their algorithm, and kick the 24/7 spigot of lies to the curb?
LOL. The very next day, it was business as usual on their front page. Fox News, Newsmax, OANN, The Washington Times, and other right-wing entities continued to be featured, front-and-center, on its site, garnering tens of millions of views per day.
If you asked its editors — not that they return calls — they would invariably reply they are trying to provide “balance.”
That’s the fallacy: Propaganda is not truth and does not balance the truth. But that’s how it’s treated.
Then, there’s Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg‘s unmatched arrogance and greed saw the social media giant play a vital role in helping Trump get elected in 2016.
Facebook continues to spew fake news like a busted New York City fire hydrant.
And now that pro-Trump, pro-Putin puppet, Elon Musk, owns “X,” formerly Twitter, the sky’s the limit. Musk relishes insulting his own users by amplifying anti-Semitic, white supremacist views and arrogantly calling it “free speech.”
As if he had any idea of what free speech is all about.
Musk, easily the stupidest smart person on earth, is in a class by himself. He denied Ukraine access to SpaceX satellites in the thick of battle, like he was some all knowing savior out to prevent what he thought was another “Pearl Harbor” and World War III.
Note to Musk: Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack; the Russian war in Ukraine has been going on for nearly two years.
Thanks to Musk’s actions, untold numbers of Ukrainian civilians are being killed daily by preserving Russia’s ability to launch missile strikes from the Black Sea.
On the idiot box, both CNN’s “Town Hall” and NBC’s “Meet the Press” had no issue “normalizing a maniac” in the interest of journalism.
Both networks gave Trump, the Human Chernobyl, virtually uninterrupted access to millions of Americans, for sixty excruciating minutes, with virtually zero push back.
Trump bullied and pushed around “Meet the Press’s new host,” Kristen Welker, like she was one of his 25 alleged assault victims. Trump was right about one thing… She let him! She let him do it!
Even hit shows that have nothing to do with politics aren’t immune from wading into the mire. ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” welcomed Trump’s first spineless sycophant, Sean Spicer, with open arms.
Fox’s “The Masked Singer” thought it would be a good idea to openly mock the depravity of an attempted coup by featuring its main mouthpiece, Rudy Giuliani, as a surprise guest.
Right here in the Big Apple -the Big “Blue” Apple, we have WABC radio. These rocket scientists gave Giuliani, “Mayor Hair Dye” his own show. The guy is a human tragedy.
Frequently drunk, millions of dollars in debt, accused of sexual harassment, and admitted defamer who destroyed the lives of two private citizens, the man is a walking advertisement for “How to Trash Your Legacy in Five Easy Steps.”
Yet, these clowns give him a megaphone in the greatest city on earth? You can’t make this stuff up.
We are living in a time where the media has made the conscience decision to treat those who tried, and are STILL trying, to destroy our democracy like everyday politicians, and not criminals who needed to be arrested yesterday.
if cable companies would let viewers choose which networks they want on their system, Fox, OANN and Newsmax would be dropped in droves. Sure, some would also likely drop CNN and MSNBC.
But it’s too unprofitable for the companies to give their viewers a choice. Instead, they force them to involuntarily underwrite the very networks that are undermining democracy.
But don’t think they started this trend toward normalizing fascists. Back in the 1930s, the Associated Press agreed to avoid criticizing Hitler to gain uninterrupted access to his regime. So, there’s that.
All this is just the tip of the iceberg.
An argument can be made the reason so many Americans are still undecided — in spite of the high treason on full display on an hourly basis, in spite of one party trying to make it legal to override the will of voters in dozens of states — is specifically due to the myriad news outlets constantly airing or printing propaganda pushed by these power-hungry, anti-democratic sycophants.
And it’s not just influence they’re peddling; they are inciting violence. Why do you think the threats to officials have tripled in recent months? It’s more than the orange dumpster fire posting on “Truth Social.”
“Threats of violence have become commonplace among a significant part of the party, as historians and those who study democracy warn of a dark shift in American politics,” The Times reported in June.
Trump has repeatedly used the language of violence without repercussions. He has encouraged rally attendees to “knock the hell” out of protesters, praised a lawmaker who body-slammed a reporter, and in a recent interview defended rioters who clamored to “hang Mike Pence,” according to the Times.
Lindsey Graham said last August if the Justice Department prosecutes former president Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, there will be “riots in the street.”
The nutjobs threatening the judges, the lawyers, the election workers, even the folks at the National Archives, get the news that spawn their actions from these galactically irresponsible outlets and the politicians they feature. NICE
The mainstream media needs to get a spine and call out Trump for what he is, a lying demagogue, in the same league as Andrew Jackson, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Richard Nixon and, yes, Hitler.
“The threat of demagoguery is bigger than Donald Trump. If we treat him as exceptional, we will learn none of the important lessons about the dangers that demagoguery poses to our democracy,” wrote Emily Pears recently in National Affairs.
Her observation is prescient. Donald Trump is already spawning a host of wannabes like Kari Lake, Josh Hawley, Ron DeSantis, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and other back-benchers who mimic his mendacity.
If he succeeds, they succeed and a host of others will follow. Then, truth won’t be truth. It will be whatever these demagogues command it to be.
DANCING WITH THE STARS REWARDS PROLIFIC LIAR SEAN SPICER WITH T.V. APPEARANCE
Imagine, if you will, it’s 1943. The Nazis are at the height of their power. The Nuremberg trials are nothing but a pipe dream, and the National Broadcasting Co. announces Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich, will be the special guest on the next episode of The Texaco Star Theater - one of the most popular variety shows of the thirties and forties.
Now, imagine it’s 2019. The most criminally corrupt president in the history of this Republic is knee deep into his third, horrific year in office; separating families, deporting terminally ill children, rolling back environmental protections, using the Treasury as his personal piggy bank, funding his failing resorts with taxpayer dollars, stealing from the kids of our servicemen and women to construct an obsolete wall, pulling us out of every potential peace-keeping treaty there is, habitually siding with dictators over his own country/citizens, lying about national disasters, forcing us to the brink of war just to deflect from possible impeachment/whistleblower hearings, putting us on the verge of destroying our Democracy as we know it - and, in the midst of all this, Disney/ABC decides it would be a Great Idea! to put the original, spineless mouthpiece of this racist, ignorant, misogynistic, megalomaniac on television, on one of their highest rated shows, in effect making a mockery of every lie told. Every family destroyed. Every hurricane victim ignored. Every female accuser discredited.
As a business decision, it’s about as deft a move as Daffy Duck swallowing a match after drinking all that kerosene (The hashtag #BoycottABC and #BoycottDWTS has been trending for months since the story broke, and will hopefully continue to do so, forever). On a human/patriotic level, it’s about as bewildering a turn as any I can recall whilst breathing.
Why on earth would any citizen of this country, even the lowest of the low, run-of-the-mill, sleaze bag T.V. producer-type, presumably watching the same shit show we all are, decide to potentially flush his/her show - and network, as well as their career down the toilet just for a shameless ratings grab? Isn’t he/she aware of the fierce opposition/Resistance currently being put forth by ninety-nine percent of Hollywood? James Woods, Scott Baio, and Jon Voight, notwithstanding. With the exception of Roger Ailes, are T.V. producers really that much worse than their legendary, morally bankrupt cousins, the movie producers?
We are smack in the midst of a Constitutional crisis. There is literally a scandal an hour. As we speak, the President is directing everyone under the sun to ignore Congressional subpoenas, the Attorney General is his personal bidet, the Dept. of Justice is bowing to his every wish as if it was his private security force, so is the Pentagon, the Republican Senate is perfectly fine with this, and a few, inexplicably misguided, tone deaf television execs think it’s a good idea to add insult to injury and put the first, pathetic sycophant - in what would turn out to be a never-ending line of pathetic sycophants -, on television, as if what’s been happening all around us the past three years is fodder for a Mel Brooks movie?
There’s a reason the formula for comedy is “Tragedy+Time.” Looks like ABC thinks they can do comedy while the tragedy is still playing out right before our eyes. What’s next? The El Paso shooter joins the cast of The View? Stephen Miller does a Ted Talk? Sarah Sanders gets her own show? She what? Jesus.
It took years for Watergate burglar Gordon Liddy to begin making the talk show circuit. He definitely didn’t do it on the heels of Woodward and Bernstein breaking their story. Oh, right. He went to prison, because that was when Congress actually did its job.
And, please don’t talk about Spicer on the Emmys. First, it was 2017. Only nine months into this nightmare, and, as bad as it was then, it was nowhere near where we are now. Babies had yet to be caged. Sexually assaulting Supreme Court Justices had yet to be appointed. American citizens weren’t being tortured/murdered by foreign dictators, only to see those nations rewarded in the form of State visits/weapons sales, etc. etc. Makes you long for the days of inaugural crowd lies and stolen Obama Twitter pics. Second, its the Emmys.
What do we tell our kids when they say they want to be like Sean Spicer when they grow up and dance on television? Judging by how things are going, I guess we can tell them, if they put their minds to it, and hitch their wagon to the most dishonest, corrupt, deplorable human being they can find, bury their conscience and do exactly what they’re told, the sky’s the limit.
Republicans Cross the Rubicon Into Full Blown Treason Because There’s Nothing to Stop Them.
According to Wikipedia, the textbook definition of “Treason” is criminal disloyalty to the State. Treason, by definition, does not need to be aiding a foreign power with information that would be detrimental to our national security - although there’s plenty of evidence of that, too. There’s treason happening in front of our eyes and ears on a daily basis. For years now.
If you swear an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States, and, with each subsequent breath, spend every waking moment either looking the other way while others seek to undermine every principle contained within that document, or worse, play an active role in obstructing those seeking to uphold those principles, is that not treason? Is that not a blatant disregard of your sworn duties? Shouldn’t the punishment for our highest elected officials who knowingly and willfully violate their oaths of office, to such an obscene extreme, be something other than free healthcare for life and a golden parachute?
Every Republican lawmaker currently in office who fits the above description needs to be held accountable for their betrayal of their oath to defend the Constitution. Otherwise, what’s the point of any of this? And why isn’t there any remedy in our founding document calling for criminal penalties for those found guilty of violating their official duties? There’s penalties in almost every other area of our society for betraying your official duty, i.e. if you’re a cop and you violate your oath to serve and protect, you’re terminated almost immediately - sometimes, even imprisoned. Why shouldn’t our top lawmakers be held to the same, if not higher, standards? If you said, it’s because they write the laws that govern them, you’d be correct.
The Constitution is not up for debate. You’re not allowed to decide which side of it you come down on. Any elected official, Republican or Democrat, who bases his/her willingness to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution on the shameless, self-serving position of whether or not he/she is up for re-election, should be stripped of their citizenship and shipped off to a Siberian prison, last week. However, if that were the case, McConnell, Gaetz, McCarthy, Graham, Nunes, Meadows, Collins, Jordan, etc. would be on their fortieth case of hand warmers by now.
Not for nothing, but the fact that, in close to two and a half centuries, Mitt Romney became the first Senator to vote to remove a president from his/her party in the history of our Democracy, says something about our judgement as a nation with regards to the leaders we elect to govern us.
Republicans swore an oath to defend and protect the principles contained in that document - be it convenient or inconvenient - and by pretending the facts are not real, or they’re all a smoke screen by the “Deep State Conspiracy,” you’re not only making yourselves out to be pathetic fools, you're betraying your country with every passing second. And for what? To defend the self-serving criminal acts of an ignorant, sociopathic, misogynistic, megalomaniacal reality TV has-been? One who would happily throw you, your constituents, and the rest of us under the bus in the blink of an eye without a second thought if it meant saving himself?
Is this the way Republicans want to be remembered by their grandkids? A cult-like mob of spineless cowards, happily ready to abandon their oaths in blind servitude to a hapless Russian asset? The GOP have made it clear, they are more interested in avoiding a “mean tweet” from the orange emperor, than upholding the Laws of the land they swore to defend.
And what will happen to them for this utter betrayal? After working tirelessly, day in, day out, to weaken the fabric of our Democracy, after choosing a “scorched earth” policy rather than let the Dems get the “upper hand,” will these deplorable traitors be held accountable? Will they be put on trial, themselves? Nope. Nada. There simply doesn’t seem to be any remedy in The Constitution for this kind of brazen betrayal on such a grand scale. The House can’t even enforce a subpoena, as they know the president’s ‘human bidet”, bloated sycophant William Barr, would laugh in their faces.
Ask the German People what happened when their Parliament caved to the whims of an unhinged lunatic. If you think it can’t happen again, you must’ve missed the DOJ memo immediately following Trump’s acquittal addressed to every State AG, forbidding them to open ANY investigation into presidential candidates w/out his sole approval.
After all this - after disgracing the memory of every soldier who fought to defend the principles held within the document these traitors chose to use as toilet paper, after ignoring the most crushing/damning evidence ever put forth against a president in history; after turning a political no-brainer into a three-ring circus, the epic cowards who make up the House and Senate will simply sail off into the sunset, unscathed, with the aforementioned golden parachute of free healthcare for life and full pensions all around - on us. A nice reward for playing a starring role in the destruction of the institutions they’re entrusted with protecting.
FYI, those of us out there still relying on the theory of ‘voting them out,” it’s time to get with the program. Even if we succeed in ousting some of these miscreants, we won’t accomplish anywhere near the amount needed to restore decorum/sanity to our State/Federal offices- nor is voting them out enough; considering the level and extent of such an egregious abandonment of duty. Letting these cockroaches off the hook simply by voting them out is like asking the Manson family to move.
Not to mention, after appointing an illegitimate, sex-assaulting SCOTUS judge, after blocking bills to protect us from election interference, and now the crowning of their idiot King, there’s no way in Hell we will see a fair and balanced election. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to have their heads examined. Get ready for election interference the likes of which we’ve never seen; i.e., rampant voter fraud, voter suppression, gerrymandering, ballot stuffing, ballot losing, ballot fixing, voting machine tampering, misinformation, disinformation, help from foreign governments, etc. etc. etc.
For a bunch of self-professed “truth seekers,” and “Defenders of the Realm” Republicans sure have hitched their wagon to the wrong horse. Not only do they not see the storm brewing on the horizon, but if you’re going to hang your reputations, and what’s left of your honor, out to dry, as well as decimate your centuries-old party for generations to come, at least do it with a POTUS who has a modicum of class, dignity, and Statesmanship. Not the Chernobyl of American Democracy.
As crazy as it may be, as we speak, Republicans continue to try and get the American People to believe that every witness who’s testified to date is a liar, and the only one we can trust is a lying, thieving, charity-bilking, bank-swindling, tax-cheating, draft-dodging, environment-killing, Justice-obstructing, pornstar-bribing, student-defrauding, Russia-colluding, war-mongering, pussy-grabbing, megalomaniacal sociopath.
Sad as it is to look back on this inexplicably insane shit show, was it that hard to predict a lifelong grifter who defrauded banks, partners, wives, mistresses, cities and students out of billions, who bribed porn stars then lied about it, who happily abandoned our sworn allies in the Middle East after just a five minute phone call; is it that hard to imagine this shameless putz would do the same to the nation he swore to protect and defend?
If there’s one thing Republicans will never be accused of, it’s good judgement. They’re so blind with hatred for the left, they’d rather see their kids grow up speaking Russian and their country torn apart than admit their boy is a colossal failure. That would require character. Something only Mitt Romney appears to possess.
The president of the United States abused the power of his office and attempted to leverage a foreign government’s congressionally approved aid in exchange for dirt on his political rival. Yet, in spite of the truckload of evidence, “Moscow” Mitch McConnell just etched in stone why he is the worst Senator in American history, by a landslide. No doubt he’s earned a spot in Letterman's top ten of the Worst Americans of All-Time, as well. Yet, ask yourself, with things being as they are, i.e., no legal consequences for their actions, why would any of these low-lifes feel the sudden urge to break precedent and, for once, uphold his/her vow? After all, who’s afraid of a golden parachute?
Raise your hand if you’ll vote for the first candidate who makes prosecuting these cockroaches their first official act of office.
OUR SPORTS STARS SEE NOTHING WRONG WITH CONDONING FASCISM
Like many others around the nation this past October, I was thrilled to see the Washington Nationals’ capture their first world series title in their history. Down three games to two and heading back to Houston, they showed amazing grit and character in taking both games six and seven in incredibly dramatic fashion.
My admiration didn’t last long. Seeing the Nats become the latest in a long line of championship teams to visit the White House made me want to vomit. My first question was, who the heck in the team’s executive offices thought this would be a good idea? Especially after management apparently made it clear the president wasn’t welcome at game five. Someone must’ve undergone some serious pressing to cave to this type of hypocritical behavior. IMO, their legacy reads as:
“We are America’s underdogs! We came all the way back from an awful start and wound up winning our first world championship! A testament to grit, hard work and determination! Now, let’s cap it off by being honored by the most dishonorable man to ever occupy the oval office!” WTF???
Newsflash: This is not your normal White House. These are not normal times.
To see team after championship team standing up there with the hapless fool, who thinks, amongst other things, there are “good” nazis, and who just repealed Michelle Obama’s school lunch program simply because he hates everything Obama, is to betray every principle playing sports, and being decent human beings, is supposed to teach us. After all, has there ever been a bigger sore loser born than Donald J. Trump? Isn’t this man the antithesis of what losing and winning is supposed to teach us? If you answered, “yes,” you’d be correct.
Donald Trump is a bully. Full stop. Donald Trump only wins when everyone else loses. After which, he proceeds to gloat and prance around like some spoiled kindergartener, while berating and cutting you down further for all to see. If these are the values you agree with, Washington Nationals, then bon voyage. If not, what the fuck are you thinking, LSU?
And whether it’s the Astros and Cubs before them, or now the Nationals, this is not just a baseball problem. It’s an entire professional sports problem.
The Penguins and Capitals paid homage. So did the Patriots. So do players on the PGA tour. So do NASCAR winners (I guess that one’s to be expected). Occasionally, there are teams who know the deal and refuse to go - or are uninvited (Go, Eagles! Go, Warriors!), as well as players who individually opt out, but the fact Major League Baseball, as an organization, thinks they can justify these pathetically obtuse visits by saying “We’re not political”, makes it even worse.
Newsflash #2: You may not want to be political, but you have-no-choice.
You are Americans, first, are you not? Beside that small fact, you are looked up to by millions of impressionable, young boys and girls the world over. Being paid millions upon millions of dollars means you are saddled with the responsibility of being role models and setting the right example. Not to mention, you are playing a game which supposedly teaches us character, honor, and dignity. All things void in this petulant man-child, whose praise you now inexplicably seek in order to validate your already validated victory.
Beyond that, many of you are minorities. Some may even have family members who’ve been directly impacted by the horrific policies implemented by this shit show of an administration. Some may know families who’ve been impacted and yet, still, will happily board the bus to Sore Loser Central.
Every mother and father I’ve spoken to about this is appalled nearly all of our championship sports teams see no issue with celebrating with this national embarrassment.
What are we teaching America’s kids when we tell them it doesn’t matter if our president is a crook? Doesn’t matter that he lies with every breath he takes. Doesn’t matter he spends every waking moment working to undermine every principle of fair play and decency this country was founded on. After all, It’s just a photo-op.
Odds are, the Nationals will not be the last clueless bunch of athletes to condone what feels like a thousand-year nightmare of ours. However, it’s one thing for a professional sports franchise to allow its players to embarrass themselves on the world stage. It’s another when our universities do it.
Take the recent visit by the national champs, LSU Tigers. How in the world our EDUCATORS allow their players to participate in the normalization of a child-caging, STUDENT-DEFRAUDING, pornstar-bribing, Justice-Obstructing, Russia-colluding, ambassador-stalking, medical expert-shaming, global pandemic ignorning administration is beyond me.
Colleges like LSU, Clemson, Alabama, and - gasp - Baylor (women, no less), are sending a message to our future stars that it’s perfectly fine to ignore indecency, vulgarity, and intolerance - on all levels - for a polaroid with a paper mache president. Thanks to these obtuse athletes and their superiors, we should see a steady supply of ignorant role models for years to come. Go Tigers!
THE LEGACY OF AMY CONEY BARRETT IS ALREADY SET IN STONE
By all accounts, a sitting Justice on the United States Supreme Court, or any court for that matter, is supposed to be above suspicion - above politics, above influence, basically, above all human trappings that could compromise his/her ability to be impartial. He/she is supposed to represent the best in us; impeccable honor, unimpeachable integrity/decency, unwavering character, and fearless impartiality - no matter their personal beliefs. So much for appearances.
President Trump’s nominee to fill the seat of the iconic RBG, Amy Coney Barrett, has only been in the national spotlight a short time, yet her legacy is already set in stone: That of a federal judge whose ambition is so all-consuming, it outweighs the appearance of a jurist, a female one nonetheless, accepting the nomination from an impeached, sex-assaulting, Justice-obstructing, pandemic-ignoring, election-tampering president.
A woman who appears to have no issue marrying herself to a shamelessly corrupt, morally bankrupt Republican-controlled Senate and their sham hearings. A woman who “innocently overlooked” submitting an anti-abortion letter to which she signed her name (Yet, we’re still supposed to believe she’s impartial). A woman who is so uninterested in convincing us she is someone worthy of being called ‘honorable,' her blatant evasiveness is evidenced by her refusal to state directly whether or not she believes voter suppression is a crime. Instead, sidestepping to claim the need to “consult her interns."
A nominee who intentionally turns the simplest question into national headlines knows exactly what she’s doing. If Ms. Barrett possessed any of the previously mentioned qualities, not the least of which is Patriotism, she’d recognize that, by forcing this process down the throats of the American People, the president and the Senate have made it impossible for her, or any nominee for that matter, to ascend to the Court, unscathed. Thus, she should’ve therefore stepped aside on day one.
Instead, by sitting there, day after day, playing cat and mouse with the Dems on the Judiciary Committee, by willfully ignoring that the process, itself, is tearing our already torn apart nation farther apart, by putting her own, personal goals/aspirations above the Peoples’, she has shown herself to be anything but qualified. Anything but honorable. And anything but patriotic. This judge’s judgement is already unquestionably in doubt. And what other factor is there for any judge, let alone a SCOTUS Justice?
Seeing as we have a reality show president, it almost makes you want to see this entire process as a “test” to see what kind of character this nominee really possesses, i.e., if a SCOTUS nominee stood before the world and announced she was withdrawing her name from consideration, specifically due to the fact she doesn’t want to further divide an already hopelessly divided nation, liberal or conservative, she’d get my vote. How great a display of character would that be? Someone who puts the well-being of her country above herself. Sadly, this is not an episode of “Punk’d - Capitol Hill”, still, the test results are real. One that Amy Coney Barrett has failed on every front. That of character, class, honor, and integrity.
The Republicans knew they had the votes to confirm - so much so, Sen. Graham introduced the dog and pony show as a "process of confirmation," not "evaluation for confirmation" - and so did Ms. Barrett. Thus, her obvious lack of interest in the entire process. Another “F-you” to the American People and respect for its processes.
Our SCOTUS already boasts one Justice credibly accused of sexual harassment, one credibly accused of rape, and one put there due to the Republicans screaming from the rafters how “The American People deserve a voice!” Adding a female misogynist to this hallowed body, one confirmed in such a hopelessly undemocratic manner, will now most certainly be a death blow to the Court’s ever-increasing impartiality problem. In fact, we may as well put a giant “T-R-U-M-P” Sign above the Court, as he’s done with his other properties.
More than anything, however, the Republican hypocrisy perpetrating this charade, that this nominee - now Justice- is blind to discrimination, bias, etc., all while denying the plain fact that her mere participation in the process so blatantly exposed how willfully blind she, herself, is to Justice, is tragic on all accounts. 'ACB' is clearly no RBG. And We, the People, are clearly SOL.
WHY CAN'T THE PRESIDENT BE INDICTED?
If I had a dime for every time a cable news pundit’s used the 1973 memo sent by the OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) as the excuse for why a shamelessly corrupt president like Donald Trump can’t be indicted, I’d have a lot of dimes. Even more, if you add the amount of attorneys, including Special Counsel Mueller’s deputy, Andrew Weissman, who claimed they used the memo as the sole reason for why charging Trump wasn’t directly recommended in Mueller’s Report.
Yet, in spite of everything we’ve seen, in spite of all the crimes against The Constitution committed by this president, so far, he’s been proven right. He is above the law. Thanks, solely, to the above mentioned memo. Yet, the memo, itself, isn’t even a law. Nor does it appear to be an official DOJ mandate. In fact, no one seems to be sure what is. One things for sure, whatever it is, it certainly appears to be a paper tiger. Fake news. A faux premise, given more weight/credence over the years every time it’s mentioned in print.
As Harvard’s SCOTUS expert Walter Dellinger points out in his brilliant 2018 article, Indicting a President Is Not Foreclosed, the memo, sent by OLC head, Robert Dixon, is a procedural anomaly, rife with inconsistencies. Not only was the memo not addressed to anyone specific, or refer to any specific situation, and most likely not even made public, it wasn’t even mentioned by any of the attorneys during the Watergate hearings. Even though those hearings took place just two weeks after the memo was written. Nor does The Constitution ever mention anything remotely resembling conferring immunity upon the president.
Add to that the small fact that Nixon, himself, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, a charge upheld by a federal judge and defended by United States attorneys, and there’s no basis not to indict this president. Or any other. Yet, Bill Barr’s epically inappropriate and misleading framing notwithstanding, the reason a good portion of the American People think president Trump was innocent is due in no small part to the fact, after years of investigating, the special counsel did not recommend an indictment.
Moments after Trump pardoned confessed traitor, Gen. Mike Flynn, Joe Scarborough exclaimed, “Why can’t a president be indicted?” Well, why can’t he? Why do we keep referring to a memorandum as if it’s the final word? It’s just an opinion. It wasn’t written by the founding fathers, it’s not a Constitutional amendment, it’s not included in any historical document. At best, it’s just a well-worded suggestion. A suggestion offered up by one guy in 1973 - a time when the world was unrecognizable compared to today.
How different were the times back then? Republicans actually chose country over party. Yet, here we are, fifty years later, and this mysteriously vague, unsubstantiated memo is still being referred to and revered by lawyers, government officials, and talking heads on both sides as the End All, Be All in Constitutional Guidance. Seriously, WTF is wrong with us? You’d think if this was such an important subject, which it is, there’d at least be congressional hearings debating its merits/legality. Instead, we take it as gospel.
We appear to have the same dilemma re: Trump’s desperate quest to pardon himself. A Constitutional crisis is most likely just around the corner with this president, yet, thanks to the fact there’s nothing in our most sacred of documents specifically addressing this matter, either, we’re left to once again twist in the wind as we try to interpret what our forefathers meant.
Like crack addicts hoping to find that last bit of rock in the rug, here we sit. A confused, lost nation, desperately searching for anything resembling an official document in the hopes it will guide us through these uncharted waters. No matter how flimsy, flawed or minuscule the 'rock’ might be, we’ll take it. “If it was written by a lawyer, has a lot of pages, and cites a lot of examples, it must be true.” If the greatest country in the world basing some of its most important/Democracy-defining decisions on the equivalent of laws/policies written on the back of a cocktail napkin weren’t so tragic, it’d be funny.
What’s not funny is a criminal president laying waste to our longstanding norms and policies like a prehistoric monster trashing the countryside. As we scramble about trying to stop the thing with our tiny bullets, it crushes everything in sight.
One can’t help but wonder what would happen if a current, sitting DOJ attorney simply sat down and wrote another memo stating a sitting president can be indicted? More importantly, why hasn’t one done so, or at least challenged it, in the nearly fifty years since the original? Why couldn’t Mueller have indicted Trump and, when asked about the conflict that might arise given the 1973 memo, said, “I’m basing my recommendation on the actual law. Or, the lack thereof.”
But, who are we kidding? From what we’ve seen the past four-plus years, even if Congress were to put fourth an amendment updating the inexplicably absent, undefined guidelines relating to such an important part of our Democracy, our spineless Republican leaders wouldn’t even put it up for a vote.
As we now know, a Democracy isn’t good at preparing for something that hasn’t happened yet. Be it Watergate, 9/11, or a Russian asset POTUS. Now that we’ve experienced, firsthand, the damage an unhinged, unchallenged president can do to the fabric of our Democracy, including scaring the very people investigating him into not investigating him too much, perhaps our new president, along with a surprisingly repentant, suddenly patriotic Congress, will make it a priority to update our Constitution to back up the obviously inaccurate claim, “No one is above the Law,” with muscle. However, given our obvious propensity for ignoring sections of our Constitution in dire need of repair, i.e. the obsolete mess that is the Electoral College, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
THOMAS MUST RESIGN, YESTERDAY
Is it me, or is our Supreme Court beginning to resemble a chapter of the Proud Boys?
It's bad enough Amy Coney Barrett was just filmed at a GOP mega-conference completely dismissing the implications of a SCOTUS judge's wife doing everything she can to help to overthrow our Democracy, but what does it say about us as a nation when a Hollywood actor has the ability to ‘read the room’ and resign, but a sitting Supreme Court Justice defiantly refuses?
In the wake of CNN and the Washington Post breaking the shocking news that Virgina "Ginni" Thomas, wife of conservative SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, was caught doing everything she could to assist in overturning the 2020 election, legendary CBS anchor Dan Rather tweeted "What did Clarence Thomas know? And when did he know it?"
With all due respect to Mr. Rather, it matters not what or when Thomas knew. The revelation that his spouse was/is working in lockstep with conspiracy-pushing crackpots has all but eviscerated whatever modicum of impartiality remained with regards to a Supreme Court Justice who happened to be the lone dissenting vote against turning over Trumps records to the January 6 committee. And that's the ballgame.
In what world can a sitting SCOTUS justice continue to preside over cases with the air of impartiality while his wife is running around seeking to undermine the very Democracy on which he sits atop?
Keep in mind, it's not like Thomas hasn't been leaning to the Right a bit in his career. In his entire tenure on the bench, Thomas hasn't come down on the side of Democracy, or the Constitution, once. He has proven himself a rock-steady beacon of corporate conservative ideology - going as far as to dissent when the court invalidated the conviction of a black man tried six times for the same crime by the same prosecutor with juries that were either all white or nearly all white. Perhaps Thomas grew up in a house without mirrors? That would be the only rational explanation for his seemingly anti-black, bordering on racist, judgements. Nonetheless, it's now known that his wife has been caught red handed using her position to help coordinate the insurrection. And, beyond that, it’s now known she played a major role in advising the president as to which pro-fascist individuals to appoint to his administration. Some of whom were even too crazy for Trump. Let that sink in. We're not talking about a potentially illegal campaign contribution. The fact that the wife of a sitting United States Supreme Court Justice is a conspiracy-pushing zealot means that the career of her husband is all but over. The question now is, what happens next? Sadly, it appears only a small handful of Dems, AOC, Omar, etc., have shown they possess the guts to call for Thomas to resign, and last I checked, Speaker Pelosi isn’t one of them. This is beyond pathetic. Anyone not having the guts to call for Thomas to resign should resign, themselves. Not to mention, when your Congress has to pass a law forcing Supreme Court judges to "behave ethically," you know we're not in Kansas anymore.
Besides, Thomas retiring/resigning isn’t nearly enough. How many decisions has he weighed in on, including his lone dissent re: January 6, either with the influence of his wife and/or behind the scenes influence of Right-wing super PACs? Thomas needs to be impeached and an investigation into his conduct needs to be opened.
But, who are we kidding? This is “Amerika.” The land of zero accountability. The land where Senators who attempted to overturn an election are allowed to sit in judgement of the next SCOTUS nominee, as if it’s business as usual. The land where a Manchurian president can appoint three illegitimate hacks to the highest court in our land, attempt a coup, and, so far, get away with it. If you're thinking Merrick Garland will come to our rescue, think again. If he hasn’t yet held a small fish like Mark Meadows in contempt, we’re probably not going to see an investigation of a sitting SCOTUS judge on the part of DOJ. After all, the stack of contempt charges in Garland’s “subpoenas closet” are basically on the verge of busting its screws. To the point, even the folks on the January 6 committee have taken to breaking protocol and publicly calling for Garland to “Do his job.”
However, considering where we are at this point, does Thomas resigning even matter? We have a Supreme Court that's already tainted beyond repair, i.e., Mitch McConnell's stonewalling of a nominee for more than a year gave way to the subsequent stacking of Trump lackeys Kavanaugh and Barret - both of whom are superbly unqualified to sit on a park bench, let alone the highest court in our nation. As we watch a "supremely" qualified nominee in Ketanji Brown Jackson sit and endure a barrage of lunacy from this clown car of Republican Senators - many of of whom, themselves, are still hard at work trying to stop the Jan. 6 committee from getting to the truth - one can't help but feel embarrassed for our children and the world we're going to leave them.
Hopefully, Democracy/decency will prevail, but, given what we're bearing witness to on an hourly basis, it's not looking good. Especially, when you consider a Hollywood actor had the sense to resign, but a sitting SCOTUS judge continues to thumb his nose at us, as if he’s King Thomas. All this, in spite of knowing, full well, the damage his presence is doing to the Court, as well as our nation. That should tell you all you need to know about the character of Clarence Thomas. I would like to take this moment to apologize to Anita Hill. You were right all along.