"The Post strongly suggested that these emails, in conjunction with the well-known tale of Joe Biden demanding the ouster of then-General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, represented a misuse of influence".
It wasn't a tale, there's video of it. And he brags about it.
A couple of points. First, is anyone else just disgusted with the intersection of the mainstream media, politics and big tech? Orwell is smiling, we "walked right on the boat" to quote a great Key and Peele skit. This perversity, all of it, has me terribly down and I find myself more and more nostalgic for the innocence of the mid-80's when CNN was actually good, 60 Minutes was worth watching and Geraldo Rivera's big scoop was not finding any of Al Capone's money in a vault. Can't get Van Halen off the playlist either, Roth VH to boot.
Second, and I write this to you anti-Trumpers. Caveat, I'm no fan of Trump personally but I think the Administration is doing some great things. And, as a parent of three children, let me tell you that the #1 reason for me to vote for Trump is that he hasn't gotten this country caught-up in any new wars and he's reduced our military footprint throughout the world. That alone is worthy of my vote. To you anti-Trumpers, imagine if these files and videos were of Eric, Don Jr, Ivanka or Tiffany Trump. Can you imagine the 24x7 coverage it would be getting? Can you imagine FB and Twitter censoring it? Zero chance. If this had happened in 2016 at this time is there any chance at all that this wouldn't have exploded on screen and print as a barrage of corruption and immorality? Zero chance. Zero.
I've been in business for decades and at senior levels. The odds that a crack-addict goof ball like Hunter Biden doing what he has done are zero. You don't get paid that kind of money without it buying something, people aren't stupid. That money bought access and that access was sold by Joe Biden. Biden is corrupt and, in my mind, should be completely ineligible to be POTUS. He's not getting my vote.
And last, by the comments I read here I can see there are many thoughtful, intelligent and talented people who read Matt. It's nice to read your comments and know that there are a broad range of thinkers left in this country who don't allow themselves to be labeled by the Left and the Right. And aside from some people who fall into the insult trap, the discourse is mature. Thank you. But aren't we all just sick of this nonsense?
Who gives a shit? Hunter Biden isn’t running for president. And he’s not even going to “work” in the White House, unlike trump’s corrupt-ass family. Additionally, Donald trump is a fucking moron. He’s an idiot who can’t even spit out a single coherent sentence. I’ve listened to him speak, way more than I ever thought I would. He’s dumb as a fucking rock. And I’ve had it with his fear-mongering. “Joe Biden’s gonna cancel Christmas.” “Joe Biden’s just a tool of left-wing socialists!” (would that it were so....).
And enough with making elections about the media. Yeah, MSNBC is a joke. Fox is pathetic. CNN is full of shit. Facebook censored a story. Who cares? Why do the actions of news networks influence who you’re voting for? Listen to the words coming out of the candidate’s mouths. I’m not gonna vote for trump because MSNBC likes Biden, even though I despise MSNBC. I’m not gonna vote for Biden because Fox likes trump, despite the fact that my hatred for Fox runs deep. “The Media” is not running to be president. I’m gonna vote AGAINST trump because he’s a complete and total moron and corrupt as shit to boot. If that means I have to vote for Biden, so be it. I guess that’s what I have to do. But, I mean, gimme a break. Trump’s gotta be one of the stupidest people I’ve ever heard speak. He’s a moron.
The bar I getting lower it seems and the yearning for the old days—you mean those were any more civil (see Iran Contra, Anita Hill, Drug Wars) in the 80s seems misplaced here. Correct, there is a doble standard today and the conservative circles are not getting a fair shake. Trump is purely at fault for his own stupidity and let’s be honest, the bad things this admins has done outweigh any good. For example, what happened to the candidate who said we would drain the swap. How about the candidate who railed against huge deficits. I mean this man is steering the USA right into the iceberg at full speed and nothing anyone does now will change things. Follow the money and it leads right to the doors of the Federal Reserve. The left is eating itself up with Trump hysteria while the right aligns itself with religious fanatics who still cling to a 2000 myth.
"the bad things this admins has done outweigh any good"
See, that is what is so strange to me. The totalitarian slave state of the CCP was set to eclipse the USA fueled by American and Western investment dollars. Everyone could see rise of China over the past five decades yet no one had the courage to stop their roll and reverse it. Until Trump.
That alone should lead you to fall on your knees and thank him.
Now look at his project to resurrect the US Economy into a global producer again with the added advantage of an independent American natural gas and oil supply.
Huzzah! If the USA sticks to its use of Tariffs, this resurrection will happen.
Finally, the confrontation of the Trump administration against the Open Borders and Leninist crowd is a long overdue battle over American Culture and nationhood. Are you blind to this? The CCP is the NAZI party of our era. How could the world confront such a unified and determined opponent when its citizens are taught to hate themselves and their own nation?
David, wake up. This is not even a close call for me. I voted Democrat for 30 years with my last vote for BHO in 2008. Open your eyes and recognize that Trump is the only game in town. (Or do something to root out the creeps and Leninists in the DNC).
Sigh it just never ends the stupidity. "creeps and Leninists in the DNC", sound like a troll or bot to me. Don’t suppose you could alter your program to least try to stay on topic.
Democrats and Republicans are now one in the same. Together, their economic policies fueled the rise of China under the umbrella of free markets. However, in general, this has been a net positive for the average Chinese citizen—even I think you can agree on this point. Yes, we turned a blind eye to the rising threat of the CCP, but you ask the average mainlander, they will deal with the overreaching arms of their government in exchange for a basic living standard. This topic alone calls for more discussion and deviates from the article at hand.
Still, I have to challenge you on the resurrection of the US Economy. The boom in oil and natural gas has now gone bust. Many of those companies benefited from higher oil prices; now they are going bankrupt and what’s worse in that Fed (the tax payer) is bailing them out. Hardly and independent industry. Outside of this, what other industries are in the rise because of economic protectionism? The trade deficit with China is still at record highs despite the tariffs. Long term, macroeconomic policies will determine if an American made product can compete against a Chinese product. On price alone, it can’t and won’t. So you build back US manufacturing (a good thing yes) but when that product is sold around the world the Chinese equivalent product will be purchased because it’s cheaper. Now what?
If the CCP is the Nazi party of our era, the only way it’s defeated is by going to war. I really hope you are wrong about this.
Perhaps I am asleep here—you haven’t convinced me that I am though.
"Democrats and Republicans are now one in the same."
Obviously, that is not true. And even the Republican party is not just the Republican Party but has factions who occasionally work together. The Uniparty idea has truth to it but Trump is the opposite pole to the Uniparty and yet he is ostensibly "Republican". Too much nuance?
But yes, the treason ideology that favours China over the USA does unify the Democrats with the Never Trumper Republicans. Certainly.
Regarding US oil going bust, they said that in the 1970s as well when prices cratered. But in noting the economics causing certain oil fields to go fallow, you overlook the cost benefit to US industry. RIGHT? Oil fields do not cease to exist. They just halt operations until the price rises. So it is not here nor there that such has happened. The conditions for industry are preserved.
Finally, you ask me IF the CCP is our days NAZI party? Do you doubt that? It is a Han supremacist operation running a National Socialist system with a Fuhrer and a One Party State. Tell be the difference? Genocide is their state policy. Do I need to outline the ways that is true?
Can we defeat the CCP by not going to war? We do not control whether the CCP will launch a Pearl Harbor against us as the SARS-CoV-2 virus demonstrates. But we can stop trading with them along with our allies and we can prosecute our political leaders when they conspire with the CCP just as we did with NAZI collaborators.
Prosecuting China Joe is a good starting place for this policy roll out.
Two points here. First on the oil conversation. You say oil producers will manage their business and, “They just halt operations until the price rises.” Finance doesn’t work this way. When you stop operations debts must still be repaid. If you stop things long enough, equity holders get wiped out while bond holders will have to take a haircut. All these investments were made with an oil price hovering at the low 40’s just to break even. Only reason this industry hasn’t cratered since March is because the Fed decided to bailout the junk bond market. An economic embargo against China is only going to accelerate the next world war. The CCP won’t allow the US and or the world decide its fate.
You are posting a lot of good points with respect to the macroeconomic problem the US has if it pursues a manufacturing economy, or one based on fossil fuels.
The attachment to 1950’s industries baffles me. Even if the efficiency of those industries could be made world class, that would mean less workers as production increases. Trump empathized with workers losing their jobs in declining outsourced industries, but he can’t repeal the laws of economics. Unless he can convince other countries to join him in a protectionist world, all that will happen is trapping some Americans in protected and uncompetitive industries through increasing subsidies paid by other Americans. Just look at the farmers who now receive around $50B per year in welfare to bail them out of the trade war.
If we want to counter balance China, we need to appeal to our natural allies like Europe and other democracies, not authoritarian countries like Russia or Turkey.
What is china using to produce its power? Mostly coal. Same for India. Alternative nuclear is an option but the Greens oppose it.
" losing their jobs in declining outsourced industries,"
Are these industries declining? Or are they just outsourced? It is the latter in most cases. Technology changes but the industrial niche does not go away since it creates the demand regardless of what technology meets that demand.
Tariffs have been the mainstay of US Industry since the founding of the USA. It was when we did away with those tariffs (do you remember Tip O'Neil arguing for those tariffs Democrats??) and put China into the position of pulling the rug out from US Labour that this great nation entered into our current decline.
So we have no choice if we want to remain strong and independent but to do what we used to, employ protectionism for key and necessary industrial elements.
I will add that if you want to envy the behavior of China and India, you should realize that the standard of living of their citizens is considerably below that of Americans. Those coal-fired jobs in old industries are not going to buy a 21st Century standard of living by American standards.
The world market is much different than it was in Tip’s time. Most sales of industrial goods occur outside the US. If you try to protect US manufacturing at high wages, who is going to buy the products other than the Americans forced to buy them?
Furthermore, more good jobs are created now in renewable energy than in coal. If you want jobs, you should be looking for creating a new economy. Coal-fired power plants are disappearing because they are too expensive to build.
The energy independence Trump touts, while not quite what it seems, is a result of US shale production which was about 63% of US oil last year. Shale oil has become the marginal barrel in the world oil market, and its burgeoning supply is what broke the high price of world crude, $100+, in 2015. It is, by its nature, very high priced oil, and shale wells deplete at a ferocious rate, something in excess of 40% per year. OPEC+, as a by product of the struggle between Russia and KSA, or perhaps because they do understand that high cost oil will be hurt most in a oil war, flooded the market and drove the price to well below the point where shale companies could hope to remain profitable, or replace their quickly dwindling production. Then came the whammy of the Covid demand loss. The result is an ongoing waterfall of bankruptcies and cheap buy outs in the shale patch. And of course, given the decline rate of these wells, plummeting oil production in both the US and around the world. (So where is this special bail out specifically for oil companies, you suggest is happening? Cause if it exists, it sure isn't working.) As Wall Street likes to say "the cure for low prices, is low prices". Demand seems to be resurging and the world is woefully short of supply. While the shale patch still has plenty of expensive oil, even if fracking is not band on federal land, the infrastructure has been junked and abandoned. As always, it will take several years to build it back. Nor do I think the bank loans and stock investors who propped up the industry after the 2015 price drop, will be back anytime soon. I am looking at you ESG investors. So we will be right back where we were, fighting with other countries for Middle East oil, and all the wars and death that has caused.
You probably need to make a distinction between bailing out the shale industry and bailing out the junk bond investors who loaned them money. The federal reserve has been propping up the junk bond market and much of that debt is in the shale sector.
I’d much prefer we just stand back and let the fossil fuel sector boom and bust on its own instead of providing generous tax subsidies and bond bailouts. If “investors” really want to gamble on that market, be my guest, but why should I pay for it and bail it out.
Renewables and more efficient energy usage will replace the need for much of the fossil fuel production. Let’s just let the market work.
I think we can all agree that Renewable sources of energy alone cannot replace fossil fuels unless nuclear is added to the mix. Market forces alone will keep fossil fuels going even with more expensive extraction techniques like fracking. Am I wrong here?
According to an article in the NY Times, with the exception of AIG temporarily pushing the insurance group higher, big energy is the most taxed group in the US. Google "Across U.S. Companies, Tax Rates Vary Greatly" Some comments do not allow links. I will put them in a separate comment.
You may also be interested in the Forbes article. Google "Oil And Gas Tax Provisions Are Not Subsidies For "Big Oil"
That is the big lie. Mussolini get's his start in the Italian Communist party. And Socialism/Communism are treated by Marx as essentially synonymous. Hence the USSR. Hence the National Socialsit German Workers Party. Hence these socialists can conspire together against their common enemy, the Right which represents Capitalism and Liberal Democracy such as existed in Poland. Hence the Ribentrop-Molotov pact.
Why did Communists and NAZIs/SA fight on the streets of Berlin in the 1930s? Because the greatest hatred is reserved for the apostate, not the outsider.
Being different in a mere singular dogmatic element is seen as the greatest threat to a totalitarian ideology. You must take it all in its completeness - without exception - or be the "devil" to the true believers. This is human nature.
"And Socialism/Communism are treated by Marx as essentially synonymous" Marx died in 1883. Fascism is a method of rule. It can and does exist in both right wing and left wing governments. To present it as a hallmark of either side, is to suggest that many leaders of all stripes are not happy to exert the power of the state to insure their dominance. To equate it to one side or the other is simply conflation for propaganda purposes.
It's always funny to me when free market nutters get all twisted because another country is surpassing the U.S. in the world marketplace. So in essence, you're advocating that the U.S. remain the number one economy even if it takes sanctions, tariffs, and war. That's not exactly free market is it? The muddled interpretation of the "CCP" is just outright silly. Especially with actual Nazi's roaming the streets and shooting people.
I don't really see how Trump has "reduced our military footprint". He's increased the military budget, sold massive quantities of arms to Saudi Arabia (in spite of the fact that they were likely involved in the killing of Khashoggi) which are used to decimate Yemen, killed an Iranian general, walked out of the Iran deal with nothing in its place, placed sanctions on Iran and Venezuela which do nothing but harm citizens of those countries and is now looking at selling arms to Taiwan. I would not be surprised if the US was involved in the coup in Bolivia and he cheered the extrajudicial killing of a US citizen in Washington State. Biden is no doubt corrupt (has anyone ever reached a high position in government and gotten poorer?) but hopefully he will bring in some competence at least as far as the pandemic goes and put the brakes on some of the environmental destruction we're seeing. Trump is corrupt, incompetent and is tearing the country apart with his rhetoric. I was determined not to vote for Biden but this administration needs to go. Biden is not a good choice and nothing to be excited about but we need to put a stop to what's happening right now in my opinion. The amount of anger combined with the number of guns in our society is a scary combination even without Trump working up his 'base'. I have kids too and I worry every single day..
You held senior positions? BS I say, you say: "crack-addict goof ball" god, your a kind and compassionate person aren’t you. So how many for profit prisons did you run? Oh, our world wide military foot print hasn’t gone done an inch. In fact we now have the "space corp".
You know the military has increased in both parties right? They both support giving it mountains of money all the time. I mean it has shelved projects that cost more than stuff like ending homelessness or hungry kids in American slums.
Matt, I knew you were going to respond to this. It was very third-world dictator move ont he part of the Silicon Valley tech overlords. People know better and can call BS. Wisdom of the crowd. Sad to think so many have been brainwashed by the lazy “journalists” who occupy the air at Comcast MSDNC, CNN, The NY Times, and the Amazon Post. May their businesses fail and hopefully Section 230 will be addressed by the Trump admin. A Biden admin will NEVER do that!
Matt, I have to really commend you. I know you are no Donald Trump fan. He's been horribly screwed by the establishment, but that isn't the thing at stake here. Or whether you like him or not. It's about a free press and decent journalism. The first amendment. And it's huge. These people need to be reined in here and fast. If Twitter and Facebook are private, that's fine. We should privately disconnect from them and everybody should know the danger they pose to a free society, every bit as much as this biased press.
It's clear that Biden has engaged in a corrupt mess that is a huge conflict of interest best case, and is at least compromising our national interests if not committing treason, worst case. And there is plenty of evidence now. He should never be elected president and probably should face much worse.
But still the thing that is most egregious is how the press and big tech have behaved here, especially in the last four years. This is a huge threat to our freedom and if not for Fox News, we'd be in an authoritarian nightmare. And of course, journalists like you. Thank you.
Great assessment. Thank you for having the courage to address a situation that is likely much more important than any Trump administration. I would love to know how many people, including the author and other journalists, view the behavior of Twitter and Facebook as a bigger threat than a second Trump administration. Moreover, I am curious how many journalists find it plausible that a foreign power had compromising video of Hunter and then created fictional emails to accompany the film.
I believe the issue is not just censorship, but its' broad scope. Hunter Biden's story is not the only one that has been purposefully withheld or downplayed in hopes of influencing the election, even before Twitter and Facebook's involvement. The aftermath of "peaceful protests", rising crime and the economic pain suffered by those unable to labor remotely, have all been whitewashed. The results of unchecked progressive policies in California have also been greatly under reported, as have the long term economic ramifications of perpetual lock downs.
Trump, by law, has an expiration date, in the not too distant future. One way or another he is gone Jan 2021 or four short years thereafter. We will survive either scenario. The question is, can the nation endure with a press so consumed by loathing they embrace censorship? If Democrats team with tech titans to recreate California's one party rule, nationwide, permanently, this country is going to be vastly different, very quickly. In California, single party rule has resulted in some of the world's worst economic inequality and produced the largest group of impoverished people ever assembled in a single state, but few in fly over country realize it because it is rarely reported. Before they cast a ballot. voters should be entitled to unvarnished reporting regarding both the candidates and the ramifications of their policies. If no one in the press is willing to provide that service, we have much bigger problems than a second Trump administration.
Agreed. The dangers posed by big technomedia far exceed those posed by another four years of Donald Trump (or anyone else). This isn't about Covid or racism or sexism or the Supreme Court, and it certainly isn't about Donald Trump. This is about the successful establishment of a Huxleyan fascist society whose citizens are controlled by state-sanctioned addiction to all things media and all things digital (see my essay, "The Rise of Fascism in a Brave New Digital World" at https://jeffeinstein.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-fascism-in-a-brave-new).
The real danger comes not from the things we fear, but from the things we love, the things we invite en masse into our homes and communities. Donald Trump, Hunter Biden, the Supreme Court and BLM are all immensely profitable sideshows for the benefit of Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, Comcast and AT&T. Our addiction to all things digital and all things media, unlike the faux science they peddle ad nauseum between commercials, is utterly incontestable. Be warned: the first freedom stolen from us by any addiction, regardless of the narcotic, is the freedom to walk away.
Twitter and Facebook are simple-minded & convenient, but many people are turning to alternative platforms like the ecosystems of Voat, Rumble, Parler, or Right Side Broadcasting. When people do leave FB & Twitter they won't see the standard outlets being tweeted or shared as much. So throttling of content by Twitter & FB actually diminishes the audience for the MSM and what they have decided is truth. I teach about social media and find the alternative systems are growing. They are nowhere as large as FB & Twitter, but they do provide other ways to view content. So, the censorship by FB & Twitter may mean the very audience they want to suppress is no longer making them the first stop on the Internet.
On the facts described in the article, Matt clearly shows how the “confederation of news outlets”, all Dems leaning, are into corruption, by hiding facts, twisting events, omitting context and the history and sequence of events. Sons of US oligarchies, be it Junior or Hunter, are criminally involved in colluding w global Oligarchs to enrich themselves. US elections should be about POLICIES not PERSONALITIES. Thanks again Matt for elevating our understanding of the deep corruption that has engulfed out main media outlets.
Biden isn’t an oligarchy. Minimum investment $1billion, of which there are 337 in the USA at the moment. Biden is part of the PMC, professional management class, that does the heavy lifting for the oligarchs. As long as neoliberalism is the only game in town, it comes down to personality. Trump is annoying, thus he’s got to go.
I've worked in tech and in the last 10 years or so there's been an unfortunate cross pollination of tech execs/mgmt and politicians.
When Obama came in I know some folks who made their way to DC. They were not the best and brightest, but the most connected. They were the types that could get favors at other companies, and would wine/dine in return.
In more recent years, people who work in politics have migrated to legal/policy roles in tech. There's also been an influx of international "think tank" types to tech boards of companies.
I recently left SV, around 2014/15 it felt like the "eclectic technologist" vibe was waning, and it was more a mix of career academics, politicals, and I don't know, more people that "know what's best" for everyone else. More than ever these people could be easily swayed by small, but noisy activists.
So when I see things like this happen it's not surprising. It's a bubble of people trying to fix things for their desired outcome. This censorship may be hurting more than helping, but the mindset of Silicon Valley leans toward needing to do something bold and fast. Because of hubris, there's rarely the thought that taking no action can lead to a better/desired outcome.
There's also the dynamic in which "no action" leads to "no increase in political power", and is to be avoided on that very basis. Sounds like something the kind of people you describe would consider.
Terrific article, Matt. I remember discussions with the Young Turks of the dot com era in the late 90s. I remember how self-assured they were that digital media would introduce a new golden era of media accountability. It was the height of arrogance from a class of twenty-something entitled MBAs with no real-life experience in failure. No one, I assured them, aspires to become wealthy and powerful just to be held more accountable.
Contrary to the canon of the Digital Church, the relationship between wealth/power and accountability is inverse: The wealthier and more powerful you are, the less accountable you are. More so now than ever before, because the true bias of digital technology is the accelerated consolidation of power and wealth among institutions -- private and public alike -- already far too powerful and far too wealthy.
The technomedia drug cartel is utterly unaccountable because its charter members are wealthy and powerful beyond measure. As a collective, they own our government. Worse yet, they are staffed by a generation of entitled employees who all graduated cum laude from an equally entitled academia that champions the cosmetics of equality over the hard work of freedom. See my essay, The Adults in the Room (https://jeffeinstein.substack.com/p/the-adults-in-the-room), about the partisan battle between equality and freedom. There is no diversity of thought among the technomedia giants because they simply don't care about freedom -- and have no incentive whatsoever to start now. For this generation of journalists and lawyers and technologists, freedom is far too expensive, far too time-consuming and far too unprofitable.
You’ve hit it right on the head, “ The technomedia drug cartel is utterly unaccountable because its charter members are wealthy and powerful beyond measure.” Matt knows how this plays out. Just look at the Financial Industry. Any attempt to regulate them have failed.
Exactly. Matt's horror story of a birthday party for AIG being hosted in the very hearing room where AIG execs should have faced impending criminal charges is the perfect illustration.
Social media censorship will only get worse and will someday apply to anyone voicing dissent for all issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree... like war and corporate power for instance. The most insane part of this story is that the DOJ's efforts against Assange are infinitely worse, yet ironically gets almost no play, unlike this Hunter Biden story. Too bad the Assange extradition hearing hasn't been censored like this... that's an event that could truly use some of that sweet, sweet Streisand Effect.
Why does anyone think either of these two utterly despicable candidates will be
"good for the country?"
The only sane vote would be "none of the above."
1/2 the country is already there.
The other half of the country bickers about which sociopath is marginally better than the other sociopath.
Roughly a quarter of the country gave us Trump.
If Biden wins it will be a shit gift from their mirror images in the other quarter.
And the cycle will begin again.
Saying that Biden's corruption is less important than Trump's corruption because covering Biden's corruption will give us 4 more years of Trump is fucking lunacy.
It's like watching a nation of abused women arguing over whether the fist or the fucking belt is preferable.
I just watched a women on CNN say that the Hunter Biden story "is total BS."
Without a shred of proof.
Oh wait, her proof was the fact that "everyone knows that Rudy Giuliani is a Russian agent."
I don't like Trump either but I haven't played this "marginally lesser of two evils" American election game of chicken in decades.
It's fucking pointless & I realized that no matter which of these corrupt parties wins I will fucking lose.
The good of the country is the working class. The people who repair the roads, who pull you from the brink of death, fetch your mail, make your food, drive your Uber, the people who make society work - the people who purport to represent them are the scum of the earth.
Whores of all kinds who enrich themselves on one “side”, or worse, enrich themselves while wagging their finger at working class people who are disgusted with their empty moral posturing and disinterested dismissals of their legitimate, essentially socialist concerns.
"no matter which of these corrupt parties wins I will fucking lose". -- True. But with Biden, you'll just lose regular. With Trump, you lose, and then he laughs at you, "SUCKER!" Take your pick.
«The other half of the country bickers about which sociopath is marginally better than the other sociopath.
The "Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy" has this passage, clearly inspired by the english politics of Conservatives vs. New Labour, but the same with Republicans vs. Democrats:
«"On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."»
Hmmmm....goes to show that I should listen to my 16 year old and make time to read that book. I do wonder if David Icke borrowed his reptilians from Doug Adams.
Sadly, in reality, they're not lizards they're just people.
And many people are driven solely by self interest & are easily corrupted.
My wife used to work with a woman who was a staunch anti-labor Republican who thought unions were filled with whiners not winners.
She, of course, was a winner.
Then the company outsourced her shit to India & sent her packing.
My wife ran into her a few years later.
Since she was never been able to get back to the paycheck she was making as an overpaid middle manager, (I guess that the job force at that time was overflowing with middle managers looking for someone to manage), she was now a "union activist" fighting against outsourcing.
"A secondary problem involves the Hunter Biden/Ukraine story itself, which from the start teetered on conflicting narratives."
What conflicting narratives? The Biden's used their authority to enrich themselves at the certain expense and MILITARY HARM (eg Biden was tasked with stopping the CCP in the South China Sea) to the American people.
There is not doubt over this. The evidence of office selling from the Beau Biden Foundation laptop is corroborated by Bevan Cooney's emails. This growing pile of evidence can be hidden from easy access but what it has to say is indisputable.
On media dishonesty you say “The public can’t help but see this”. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. I’m exasperated with family, friends and business associates who are blind to the fact that virtually all the corporate media complex is simply a platform for DNC talking points and spin. The recent revelations regarding Brennan’s notes and this Hunter hard drive are examples of HUGE stories the press simply refuses to cover or if they do they try to spin everything as Republican dirty tricks it “foreign” intervention. America is in a dire information crisis and no one seems to care outside of a scant few remaining honest journalists. The ironic tag line of the WaPo is true while they are a main cause of the “darkness” in which democracy dies.
The right likes to believe the "silent majority" are those who are witnessing the growing chaos and are willing to have none of it, come election day. I, on the other hand, fear the "silent majority" is actually comprised of "normies" - working people who don't really care about politics, but on those rare occasions when they do, they tune in to CNN.
Absolutely insane. Let's first look at the most obvious conclusion from all of this: Big Tech censors. At same point, someone will deem facebook, instagram, twitter, etc., enemies of the state. Using this logic; they will systematically and unlawfully, take matter into their own hands and start assassinating employees of these companies, citing the constitution, which broadly states that we must defend our country from enemies externally and internally.
Of course, this is our government's fault. They allow this to happen. And it shouldn't be a surprise. Our government is run by corporations. Even the Senator Jim Jordan, took contributions from Google, for all of his posturing with the judicial committee. Nothing is going to change and sometime in the future, we will look back on the great American experiment, and those alive today won't have to wonder what happened. We will know that capitalism, unchecked, with greed in its heart, will eat anything in its way. Greed is Good, will be the swan song of our Republic.
On the micro level, the individual level, people intuitively accept free market principles, etc.
When they're expanded into CORPORATE Capitalism, the results are invariably bad.
This is not dissimilar to people intuitively feeling enough altruism to want to help those least fortunate in our societies...but expanded into a centralized government that will ENFORCE purported altruism...the results are also invariably bad. With well-connected Party apparatchiks playing the roles of the capitalist 1%ers.
You're in a difficult position Matt. Bringing awareness in our country locked into cognitive dissonance to the degree that anything challenging the set prejudicial opinion brings on rage. You only have to read a few of the comments to this post to see that. It may be necessary to keep your platform afloat, but I wondered why the comparison between the Post story and the Steele dossier. The former has strong provenance, despite the now hysterical claims of ruskie disinformation, while the latter is a proven fake. By putting both stories in a suggested similar category aren't you halfway to the technocracy ban? Twitter and FB didn't ban the Post story because it was fake, but because it undermined their candidate. Isn't that clear, and isn't that the essential in the freedom of speech argument? Keep fighting the good fight Matt.
«wondered why the comparison between the Post story and the Steele dossier. The former has strong provenance, despite the now hysterical claims of ruskie disinformation, while the latter is a proven fake.»
Indeed by reading his article you would have discovered that Taibbi compared them precisely to make that point: that a "proven fake" is widely circulated, while something with a somewhat better credibility is being suppressed, the main difference being who benefits from the story.
Because every day there is a new "bombshell" against Trump. It is difficult to keep count never mind track of every single act of "treason" committed by Trump and his people. :-).
I did not vote for Trump in 2016 so I am no harsh partisan. I do have a Ph.D.
Matt, I am hoping your next story will address the "secondary problem involves the Hunter Biden/Ukraine story itself" and its conflicting narratives. "Rudy is a Russian agent" witting or unwitting has zero evidence - its just the only hope of denying this story. Giuliani stated, in interviews, "If the FBI suspected that I was being fed Russian disinformation all along, and then giving it to the president, why didn't they tell me? They never said anything to me."
Others in the comment section are buying major lies. Three major lies
(a) "Republicans won't cover pre-existing conditions" is a lie. All Republicans have promised in the very unlikely event the ACA is ended that pre-existing conditions will be covered.
(b) "Trump said to inject bleach" is a lie. Watch the tape. He said "Bleach disinfects surfaces, killing virus" then turned to doctors and asked "Could we inject something like bleach". In other words, he asked a question - didn't tell people to do something - and asked about something that could kill virus being injected - "something like bleach" is not bleach.
(c) "Trump does not condemn White Supremacy" is a lie. He has dozens of times. He did in the debate - he said "Sure, but what about Antifa?" when the moderator asked him to denounce. Someone talked over him on the "sure" can be heard if you replay. He said "good people" were on both sides of the taking down confederate monuments question and added that those good people did not include Neo-Nazis and other groups like that. Listen to or read his comments - what I am saying is true in each case.
There are so many more lies I could detail for those of you who only watch CNN/MSNBC and read Times/Post, etc. plus left-leaning websites. It's a giant echo chamber full of lies and reporters who believe whatever they hear from the original liars. These lies from the left-aligned media are one of the things that is going to drive me to voting for Trump this time, though I did not last time.
Why should Matt combat censorship even if he sometimes helps Trump? Here's one good reason: I can no longer believe the left-aligned media....at this point, if they said something true, I would not believe without irrefutable proof. Unlike 2016, I will vote for Trump in 2020, in part because I no longer believe the left-media. I have many other reasons, good reasons, but no longer reading the lying Post/Times could have helped with my decision, I have to admit.
What you call "left-aligned media" are nowhere near the left, they right-wing media, just of a "liberist" (whig) rather than "conservative" (tory) right. Essentially all the media support right-wing, reaganite/thatcherite style policies for lower wages and higher rents and profits, they differ in whether they are more globalist or more nationalist, more socially liberal or repressive. The vast majority of the BLM/queer/... politicians are right-wing liberists (or far-right libertarians).
Put another way, there are two right-wing types of politics, and the conservative/tory side describes wrongly the liberist/whig side as "the left".
Quibbling over labels has been refined to a sophisticated form of lying. Oh, that isn't "cultural Marxism", Marxism is...blah de blah. Those people aren't "commies" you ignorant Truptard, they're New Socialists and blah de blah. The left isn't left because I have a complex definition of "left" herpdedurrr...
While I technically agree that the powers-that-be in the DNC don't really have "beliefs" (as principles or articles of faith), they are *using* various components of different left ideologies to obtain and hold power. The perfect accuracy of terminology when referring to them is irrelevant.
>>(a) "Republicans won't cover pre-existing conditions" is a lie. All Republicans have promised in the very unlikely event the ACA is ended that pre-existing conditions will be covered.»
I think it's worse than that. My understanding is that insurance companies were unable to drop insureds simply because they had a preexisting condition, and a new insurer couldn't deny a person with a preexisting condition, so long as they were maintaining health insurance at the time they came down with the condition. So, they are scaring people about losing their insurance if they get a condition, even though that's been against the law for decades.
The ACA went further and allowed people to avoid getting insurance, wait until they have a preexisting condition (eg, cancer) and then buy "insurance." Imagine if you could go without owning home insurance and then, if your house burns down, buy "insurance" to protect you from the "risk" of a fire -- not really a "risk" as it's already happened, a preexisting condition! This was the free rider problem that required the tax/penalty against those who refuse to buy insurance.
«(a) "Republicans won't cover pre-existing conditions" is a lie. All Republicans have promised in the very unlikely event the ACA is ended that pre-existing conditions will be covered.»
While almost every "bombshell" about Trump is bullshit, this point is both true and irrelevant: the Republicans and Trump both want to abolish mandatory healthcare insurance, and that is pretty much equivalent to stop covering pre-existing conditions, because without mandatory insurance the costs for pre-existing conditions will be enormous, or insurance policies for pre-existing conditions will simply not be available, because pretty much only people with pre-existing conditions will buy healthcare insurance.
Not only that, but I recall listening to the Congressional hearings on repealing the ACA back in the Obama era. I don't recall the name of the witness, but he handed the Republicans their ass on their record of failure on the issue of guaranteeing affordable coverage for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. And he obviously knew what he was talking about.
" he obviously knew what he was talking about"- how did I know that, just from listening to his testimony? For one thing, he shut up the people questioning him.
"The Post strongly suggested that these emails, in conjunction with the well-known tale of Joe Biden demanding the ouster of then-General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, represented a misuse of influence".
It wasn't a tale, there's video of it. And he brags about it.
A couple of points. First, is anyone else just disgusted with the intersection of the mainstream media, politics and big tech? Orwell is smiling, we "walked right on the boat" to quote a great Key and Peele skit. This perversity, all of it, has me terribly down and I find myself more and more nostalgic for the innocence of the mid-80's when CNN was actually good, 60 Minutes was worth watching and Geraldo Rivera's big scoop was not finding any of Al Capone's money in a vault. Can't get Van Halen off the playlist either, Roth VH to boot.
Second, and I write this to you anti-Trumpers. Caveat, I'm no fan of Trump personally but I think the Administration is doing some great things. And, as a parent of three children, let me tell you that the #1 reason for me to vote for Trump is that he hasn't gotten this country caught-up in any new wars and he's reduced our military footprint throughout the world. That alone is worthy of my vote. To you anti-Trumpers, imagine if these files and videos were of Eric, Don Jr, Ivanka or Tiffany Trump. Can you imagine the 24x7 coverage it would be getting? Can you imagine FB and Twitter censoring it? Zero chance. If this had happened in 2016 at this time is there any chance at all that this wouldn't have exploded on screen and print as a barrage of corruption and immorality? Zero chance. Zero.
I've been in business for decades and at senior levels. The odds that a crack-addict goof ball like Hunter Biden doing what he has done are zero. You don't get paid that kind of money without it buying something, people aren't stupid. That money bought access and that access was sold by Joe Biden. Biden is corrupt and, in my mind, should be completely ineligible to be POTUS. He's not getting my vote.
And last, by the comments I read here I can see there are many thoughtful, intelligent and talented people who read Matt. It's nice to read your comments and know that there are a broad range of thinkers left in this country who don't allow themselves to be labeled by the Left and the Right. And aside from some people who fall into the insult trap, the discourse is mature. Thank you. But aren't we all just sick of this nonsense?
Who gives a shit? Hunter Biden isn’t running for president. And he’s not even going to “work” in the White House, unlike trump’s corrupt-ass family. Additionally, Donald trump is a fucking moron. He’s an idiot who can’t even spit out a single coherent sentence. I’ve listened to him speak, way more than I ever thought I would. He’s dumb as a fucking rock. And I’ve had it with his fear-mongering. “Joe Biden’s gonna cancel Christmas.” “Joe Biden’s just a tool of left-wing socialists!” (would that it were so....).
And enough with making elections about the media. Yeah, MSNBC is a joke. Fox is pathetic. CNN is full of shit. Facebook censored a story. Who cares? Why do the actions of news networks influence who you’re voting for? Listen to the words coming out of the candidate’s mouths. I’m not gonna vote for trump because MSNBC likes Biden, even though I despise MSNBC. I’m not gonna vote for Biden because Fox likes trump, despite the fact that my hatred for Fox runs deep. “The Media” is not running to be president. I’m gonna vote AGAINST trump because he’s a complete and total moron and corrupt as shit to boot. If that means I have to vote for Biden, so be it. I guess that’s what I have to do. But, I mean, gimme a break. Trump’s gotta be one of the stupidest people I’ve ever heard speak. He’s a moron.
The bar I getting lower it seems and the yearning for the old days—you mean those were any more civil (see Iran Contra, Anita Hill, Drug Wars) in the 80s seems misplaced here. Correct, there is a doble standard today and the conservative circles are not getting a fair shake. Trump is purely at fault for his own stupidity and let’s be honest, the bad things this admins has done outweigh any good. For example, what happened to the candidate who said we would drain the swap. How about the candidate who railed against huge deficits. I mean this man is steering the USA right into the iceberg at full speed and nothing anyone does now will change things. Follow the money and it leads right to the doors of the Federal Reserve. The left is eating itself up with Trump hysteria while the right aligns itself with religious fanatics who still cling to a 2000 myth.
"the bad things this admins has done outweigh any good"
See, that is what is so strange to me. The totalitarian slave state of the CCP was set to eclipse the USA fueled by American and Western investment dollars. Everyone could see rise of China over the past five decades yet no one had the courage to stop their roll and reverse it. Until Trump.
That alone should lead you to fall on your knees and thank him.
Now look at his project to resurrect the US Economy into a global producer again with the added advantage of an independent American natural gas and oil supply.
Huzzah! If the USA sticks to its use of Tariffs, this resurrection will happen.
Finally, the confrontation of the Trump administration against the Open Borders and Leninist crowd is a long overdue battle over American Culture and nationhood. Are you blind to this? The CCP is the NAZI party of our era. How could the world confront such a unified and determined opponent when its citizens are taught to hate themselves and their own nation?
David, wake up. This is not even a close call for me. I voted Democrat for 30 years with my last vote for BHO in 2008. Open your eyes and recognize that Trump is the only game in town. (Or do something to root out the creeps and Leninists in the DNC).
Sigh it just never ends the stupidity. "creeps and Leninists in the DNC", sound like a troll or bot to me. Don’t suppose you could alter your program to least try to stay on topic.
I see you post as an expression of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Democrats and Republicans are now one in the same. Together, their economic policies fueled the rise of China under the umbrella of free markets. However, in general, this has been a net positive for the average Chinese citizen—even I think you can agree on this point. Yes, we turned a blind eye to the rising threat of the CCP, but you ask the average mainlander, they will deal with the overreaching arms of their government in exchange for a basic living standard. This topic alone calls for more discussion and deviates from the article at hand.
Still, I have to challenge you on the resurrection of the US Economy. The boom in oil and natural gas has now gone bust. Many of those companies benefited from higher oil prices; now they are going bankrupt and what’s worse in that Fed (the tax payer) is bailing them out. Hardly and independent industry. Outside of this, what other industries are in the rise because of economic protectionism? The trade deficit with China is still at record highs despite the tariffs. Long term, macroeconomic policies will determine if an American made product can compete against a Chinese product. On price alone, it can’t and won’t. So you build back US manufacturing (a good thing yes) but when that product is sold around the world the Chinese equivalent product will be purchased because it’s cheaper. Now what?
If the CCP is the Nazi party of our era, the only way it’s defeated is by going to war. I really hope you are wrong about this.
Perhaps I am asleep here—you haven’t convinced me that I am though.
"Democrats and Republicans are now one in the same."
Obviously, that is not true. And even the Republican party is not just the Republican Party but has factions who occasionally work together. The Uniparty idea has truth to it but Trump is the opposite pole to the Uniparty and yet he is ostensibly "Republican". Too much nuance?
But yes, the treason ideology that favours China over the USA does unify the Democrats with the Never Trumper Republicans. Certainly.
Regarding US oil going bust, they said that in the 1970s as well when prices cratered. But in noting the economics causing certain oil fields to go fallow, you overlook the cost benefit to US industry. RIGHT? Oil fields do not cease to exist. They just halt operations until the price rises. So it is not here nor there that such has happened. The conditions for industry are preserved.
Finally, you ask me IF the CCP is our days NAZI party? Do you doubt that? It is a Han supremacist operation running a National Socialist system with a Fuhrer and a One Party State. Tell be the difference? Genocide is their state policy. Do I need to outline the ways that is true?
Can we defeat the CCP by not going to war? We do not control whether the CCP will launch a Pearl Harbor against us as the SARS-CoV-2 virus demonstrates. But we can stop trading with them along with our allies and we can prosecute our political leaders when they conspire with the CCP just as we did with NAZI collaborators.
Prosecuting China Joe is a good starting place for this policy roll out.
Two points here. First on the oil conversation. You say oil producers will manage their business and, “They just halt operations until the price rises.” Finance doesn’t work this way. When you stop operations debts must still be repaid. If you stop things long enough, equity holders get wiped out while bond holders will have to take a haircut. All these investments were made with an oil price hovering at the low 40’s just to break even. Only reason this industry hasn’t cratered since March is because the Fed decided to bailout the junk bond market. An economic embargo against China is only going to accelerate the next world war. The CCP won’t allow the US and or the world decide its fate.
I guess you may not have noticed, but it has and is cratering. You may wipe out the companies, you do not wipe out the reserves in the ground.
No Democrat I know would take away our son’s insurance.
In fact here in CO, Governor Polis lowered our premiums.
You are posting a lot of good points with respect to the macroeconomic problem the US has if it pursues a manufacturing economy, or one based on fossil fuels.
The attachment to 1950’s industries baffles me. Even if the efficiency of those industries could be made world class, that would mean less workers as production increases. Trump empathized with workers losing their jobs in declining outsourced industries, but he can’t repeal the laws of economics. Unless he can convince other countries to join him in a protectionist world, all that will happen is trapping some Americans in protected and uncompetitive industries through increasing subsidies paid by other Americans. Just look at the farmers who now receive around $50B per year in welfare to bail them out of the trade war.
If we want to counter balance China, we need to appeal to our natural allies like Europe and other democracies, not authoritarian countries like Russia or Turkey.
What is china using to produce its power? Mostly coal. Same for India. Alternative nuclear is an option but the Greens oppose it.
" losing their jobs in declining outsourced industries,"
Are these industries declining? Or are they just outsourced? It is the latter in most cases. Technology changes but the industrial niche does not go away since it creates the demand regardless of what technology meets that demand.
Tariffs have been the mainstay of US Industry since the founding of the USA. It was when we did away with those tariffs (do you remember Tip O'Neil arguing for those tariffs Democrats??) and put China into the position of pulling the rug out from US Labour that this great nation entered into our current decline.
So we have no choice if we want to remain strong and independent but to do what we used to, employ protectionism for key and necessary industrial elements.
I will add that if you want to envy the behavior of China and India, you should realize that the standard of living of their citizens is considerably below that of Americans. Those coal-fired jobs in old industries are not going to buy a 21st Century standard of living by American standards.
The world market is much different than it was in Tip’s time. Most sales of industrial goods occur outside the US. If you try to protect US manufacturing at high wages, who is going to buy the products other than the Americans forced to buy them?
Furthermore, more good jobs are created now in renewable energy than in coal. If you want jobs, you should be looking for creating a new economy. Coal-fired power plants are disappearing because they are too expensive to build.
The energy independence Trump touts, while not quite what it seems, is a result of US shale production which was about 63% of US oil last year. Shale oil has become the marginal barrel in the world oil market, and its burgeoning supply is what broke the high price of world crude, $100+, in 2015. It is, by its nature, very high priced oil, and shale wells deplete at a ferocious rate, something in excess of 40% per year. OPEC+, as a by product of the struggle between Russia and KSA, or perhaps because they do understand that high cost oil will be hurt most in a oil war, flooded the market and drove the price to well below the point where shale companies could hope to remain profitable, or replace their quickly dwindling production. Then came the whammy of the Covid demand loss. The result is an ongoing waterfall of bankruptcies and cheap buy outs in the shale patch. And of course, given the decline rate of these wells, plummeting oil production in both the US and around the world. (So where is this special bail out specifically for oil companies, you suggest is happening? Cause if it exists, it sure isn't working.) As Wall Street likes to say "the cure for low prices, is low prices". Demand seems to be resurging and the world is woefully short of supply. While the shale patch still has plenty of expensive oil, even if fracking is not band on federal land, the infrastructure has been junked and abandoned. As always, it will take several years to build it back. Nor do I think the bank loans and stock investors who propped up the industry after the 2015 price drop, will be back anytime soon. I am looking at you ESG investors. So we will be right back where we were, fighting with other countries for Middle East oil, and all the wars and death that has caused.
You probably need to make a distinction between bailing out the shale industry and bailing out the junk bond investors who loaned them money. The federal reserve has been propping up the junk bond market and much of that debt is in the shale sector.
I’d much prefer we just stand back and let the fossil fuel sector boom and bust on its own instead of providing generous tax subsidies and bond bailouts. If “investors” really want to gamble on that market, be my guest, but why should I pay for it and bail it out.
Renewables and more efficient energy usage will replace the need for much of the fossil fuel production. Let’s just let the market work.
I think we can all agree that Renewable sources of energy alone cannot replace fossil fuels unless nuclear is added to the mix. Market forces alone will keep fossil fuels going even with more expensive extraction techniques like fracking. Am I wrong here?
According to an article in the NY Times, with the exception of AIG temporarily pushing the insurance group higher, big energy is the most taxed group in the US. Google "Across U.S. Companies, Tax Rates Vary Greatly" Some comments do not allow links. I will put them in a separate comment.
You may also be interested in the Forbes article. Google "Oil And Gas Tax Provisions Are Not Subsidies For "Big Oil"
Try to get it right. Nazi’s are fascists, communists are not. Read Thomas Frank and Matt Stoller before you mouth off.
"Nazi’s are fascists, communists are not."
That is the big lie. Mussolini get's his start in the Italian Communist party. And Socialism/Communism are treated by Marx as essentially synonymous. Hence the USSR. Hence the National Socialsit German Workers Party. Hence these socialists can conspire together against their common enemy, the Right which represents Capitalism and Liberal Democracy such as existed in Poland. Hence the Ribentrop-Molotov pact.
Why did Communists and NAZIs/SA fight on the streets of Berlin in the 1930s? Because the greatest hatred is reserved for the apostate, not the outsider.
Being different in a mere singular dogmatic element is seen as the greatest threat to a totalitarian ideology. You must take it all in its completeness - without exception - or be the "devil" to the true believers. This is human nature.
"And Socialism/Communism are treated by Marx as essentially synonymous" Marx died in 1883. Fascism is a method of rule. It can and does exist in both right wing and left wing governments. To present it as a hallmark of either side, is to suggest that many leaders of all stripes are not happy to exert the power of the state to insure their dominance. To equate it to one side or the other is simply conflation for propaganda purposes.
It's always funny to me when free market nutters get all twisted because another country is surpassing the U.S. in the world marketplace. So in essence, you're advocating that the U.S. remain the number one economy even if it takes sanctions, tariffs, and war. That's not exactly free market is it? The muddled interpretation of the "CCP" is just outright silly. Especially with actual Nazi's roaming the streets and shooting people.
I hate to break it to you but the USA was hurtling toward an iceberg long before Trump.
Amen brother. Maybe erm, slavery and Jim Crow and segregation in the very recent past escapes your mind quickly if you don’t inherit its legacy 🤷♂️
Actually you made me want to amend my comment. Here goes,
I hate to break it to you but the USA has been building its own icebergs & then gleefully hurtling into them long before Trump.
I don't really see how Trump has "reduced our military footprint". He's increased the military budget, sold massive quantities of arms to Saudi Arabia (in spite of the fact that they were likely involved in the killing of Khashoggi) which are used to decimate Yemen, killed an Iranian general, walked out of the Iran deal with nothing in its place, placed sanctions on Iran and Venezuela which do nothing but harm citizens of those countries and is now looking at selling arms to Taiwan. I would not be surprised if the US was involved in the coup in Bolivia and he cheered the extrajudicial killing of a US citizen in Washington State. Biden is no doubt corrupt (has anyone ever reached a high position in government and gotten poorer?) but hopefully he will bring in some competence at least as far as the pandemic goes and put the brakes on some of the environmental destruction we're seeing. Trump is corrupt, incompetent and is tearing the country apart with his rhetoric. I was determined not to vote for Biden but this administration needs to go. Biden is not a good choice and nothing to be excited about but we need to put a stop to what's happening right now in my opinion. The amount of anger combined with the number of guns in our society is a scary combination even without Trump working up his 'base'. I have kids too and I worry every single day..
You held senior positions? BS I say, you say: "crack-addict goof ball" god, your a kind and compassionate person aren’t you. So how many for profit prisons did you run? Oh, our world wide military foot print hasn’t gone done an inch. In fact we now have the "space corp".
What part of “crack-addict goof ball” is incorrect? Hunter Biden is a crack addict goof ball.
You know the military has increased in both parties right? They both support giving it mountains of money all the time. I mean it has shelved projects that cost more than stuff like ending homelessness or hungry kids in American slums.
Both parties preside over this 🤷♂️
Matt, I knew you were going to respond to this. It was very third-world dictator move ont he part of the Silicon Valley tech overlords. People know better and can call BS. Wisdom of the crowd. Sad to think so many have been brainwashed by the lazy “journalists” who occupy the air at Comcast MSDNC, CNN, The NY Times, and the Amazon Post. May their businesses fail and hopefully Section 230 will be addressed by the Trump admin. A Biden admin will NEVER do that!
They’re not overlords. All people need to do is walk away - stop using them
Prove it, very few have been brainwashed, or maybe you missed Black Lives Matter.
Matt, I have to really commend you. I know you are no Donald Trump fan. He's been horribly screwed by the establishment, but that isn't the thing at stake here. Or whether you like him or not. It's about a free press and decent journalism. The first amendment. And it's huge. These people need to be reined in here and fast. If Twitter and Facebook are private, that's fine. We should privately disconnect from them and everybody should know the danger they pose to a free society, every bit as much as this biased press.
It's clear that Biden has engaged in a corrupt mess that is a huge conflict of interest best case, and is at least compromising our national interests if not committing treason, worst case. And there is plenty of evidence now. He should never be elected president and probably should face much worse.
But still the thing that is most egregious is how the press and big tech have behaved here, especially in the last four years. This is a huge threat to our freedom and if not for Fox News, we'd be in an authoritarian nightmare. And of course, journalists like you. Thank you.
How can you read about Matt’s posts, to think critically, and bring up Fox News?
Why stop at ridiculing Fox News? They’re all garbage.
Great assessment. Thank you for having the courage to address a situation that is likely much more important than any Trump administration. I would love to know how many people, including the author and other journalists, view the behavior of Twitter and Facebook as a bigger threat than a second Trump administration. Moreover, I am curious how many journalists find it plausible that a foreign power had compromising video of Hunter and then created fictional emails to accompany the film.
I believe the issue is not just censorship, but its' broad scope. Hunter Biden's story is not the only one that has been purposefully withheld or downplayed in hopes of influencing the election, even before Twitter and Facebook's involvement. The aftermath of "peaceful protests", rising crime and the economic pain suffered by those unable to labor remotely, have all been whitewashed. The results of unchecked progressive policies in California have also been greatly under reported, as have the long term economic ramifications of perpetual lock downs.
Trump, by law, has an expiration date, in the not too distant future. One way or another he is gone Jan 2021 or four short years thereafter. We will survive either scenario. The question is, can the nation endure with a press so consumed by loathing they embrace censorship? If Democrats team with tech titans to recreate California's one party rule, nationwide, permanently, this country is going to be vastly different, very quickly. In California, single party rule has resulted in some of the world's worst economic inequality and produced the largest group of impoverished people ever assembled in a single state, but few in fly over country realize it because it is rarely reported. Before they cast a ballot. voters should be entitled to unvarnished reporting regarding both the candidates and the ramifications of their policies. If no one in the press is willing to provide that service, we have much bigger problems than a second Trump administration.
Agreed. The dangers posed by big technomedia far exceed those posed by another four years of Donald Trump (or anyone else). This isn't about Covid or racism or sexism or the Supreme Court, and it certainly isn't about Donald Trump. This is about the successful establishment of a Huxleyan fascist society whose citizens are controlled by state-sanctioned addiction to all things media and all things digital (see my essay, "The Rise of Fascism in a Brave New Digital World" at https://jeffeinstein.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-fascism-in-a-brave-new).
The real danger comes not from the things we fear, but from the things we love, the things we invite en masse into our homes and communities. Donald Trump, Hunter Biden, the Supreme Court and BLM are all immensely profitable sideshows for the benefit of Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, Comcast and AT&T. Our addiction to all things digital and all things media, unlike the faux science they peddle ad nauseum between commercials, is utterly incontestable. Be warned: the first freedom stolen from us by any addiction, regardless of the narcotic, is the freedom to walk away.
Well said. This is not complicated, Mascot, spinebackwards, etc.
Yeah, that Obamacare talking point is beaut.
Twitter and Facebook are simple-minded & convenient, but many people are turning to alternative platforms like the ecosystems of Voat, Rumble, Parler, or Right Side Broadcasting. When people do leave FB & Twitter they won't see the standard outlets being tweeted or shared as much. So throttling of content by Twitter & FB actually diminishes the audience for the MSM and what they have decided is truth. I teach about social media and find the alternative systems are growing. They are nowhere as large as FB & Twitter, but they do provide other ways to view content. So, the censorship by FB & Twitter may mean the very audience they want to suppress is no longer making them the first stop on the Internet.
I love that “disinformation” is information that is true that makes you look bad.
On the facts described in the article, Matt clearly shows how the “confederation of news outlets”, all Dems leaning, are into corruption, by hiding facts, twisting events, omitting context and the history and sequence of events. Sons of US oligarchies, be it Junior or Hunter, are criminally involved in colluding w global Oligarchs to enrich themselves. US elections should be about POLICIES not PERSONALITIES. Thanks again Matt for elevating our understanding of the deep corruption that has engulfed out main media outlets.
Biden isn’t an oligarchy. Minimum investment $1billion, of which there are 337 in the USA at the moment. Biden is part of the PMC, professional management class, that does the heavy lifting for the oligarchs. As long as neoliberalism is the only game in town, it comes down to personality. Trump is annoying, thus he’s got to go.
I've worked in tech and in the last 10 years or so there's been an unfortunate cross pollination of tech execs/mgmt and politicians.
When Obama came in I know some folks who made their way to DC. They were not the best and brightest, but the most connected. They were the types that could get favors at other companies, and would wine/dine in return.
In more recent years, people who work in politics have migrated to legal/policy roles in tech. There's also been an influx of international "think tank" types to tech boards of companies.
I recently left SV, around 2014/15 it felt like the "eclectic technologist" vibe was waning, and it was more a mix of career academics, politicals, and I don't know, more people that "know what's best" for everyone else. More than ever these people could be easily swayed by small, but noisy activists.
So when I see things like this happen it's not surprising. It's a bubble of people trying to fix things for their desired outcome. This censorship may be hurting more than helping, but the mindset of Silicon Valley leans toward needing to do something bold and fast. Because of hubris, there's rarely the thought that taking no action can lead to a better/desired outcome.
And hubris begets nemesis...
"hubris begets nemesis..."
It can take quite a long time, even centuries.
There's also the dynamic in which "no action" leads to "no increase in political power", and is to be avoided on that very basis. Sounds like something the kind of people you describe would consider.
Terrific article, Matt. I remember discussions with the Young Turks of the dot com era in the late 90s. I remember how self-assured they were that digital media would introduce a new golden era of media accountability. It was the height of arrogance from a class of twenty-something entitled MBAs with no real-life experience in failure. No one, I assured them, aspires to become wealthy and powerful just to be held more accountable.
Contrary to the canon of the Digital Church, the relationship between wealth/power and accountability is inverse: The wealthier and more powerful you are, the less accountable you are. More so now than ever before, because the true bias of digital technology is the accelerated consolidation of power and wealth among institutions -- private and public alike -- already far too powerful and far too wealthy.
The technomedia drug cartel is utterly unaccountable because its charter members are wealthy and powerful beyond measure. As a collective, they own our government. Worse yet, they are staffed by a generation of entitled employees who all graduated cum laude from an equally entitled academia that champions the cosmetics of equality over the hard work of freedom. See my essay, The Adults in the Room (https://jeffeinstein.substack.com/p/the-adults-in-the-room), about the partisan battle between equality and freedom. There is no diversity of thought among the technomedia giants because they simply don't care about freedom -- and have no incentive whatsoever to start now. For this generation of journalists and lawyers and technologists, freedom is far too expensive, far too time-consuming and far too unprofitable.
You’ve hit it right on the head, “ The technomedia drug cartel is utterly unaccountable because its charter members are wealthy and powerful beyond measure.” Matt knows how this plays out. Just look at the Financial Industry. Any attempt to regulate them have failed.
Exactly. Matt's horror story of a birthday party for AIG being hosted in the very hearing room where AIG execs should have faced impending criminal charges is the perfect illustration.
Social media censorship will only get worse and will someday apply to anyone voicing dissent for all issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree... like war and corporate power for instance. The most insane part of this story is that the DOJ's efforts against Assange are infinitely worse, yet ironically gets almost no play, unlike this Hunter Biden story. Too bad the Assange extradition hearing hasn't been censored like this... that's an event that could truly use some of that sweet, sweet Streisand Effect.
Why does anyone think either of these two utterly despicable candidates will be
"good for the country?"
The only sane vote would be "none of the above."
1/2 the country is already there.
The other half of the country bickers about which sociopath is marginally better than the other sociopath.
Roughly a quarter of the country gave us Trump.
If Biden wins it will be a shit gift from their mirror images in the other quarter.
And the cycle will begin again.
Saying that Biden's corruption is less important than Trump's corruption because covering Biden's corruption will give us 4 more years of Trump is fucking lunacy.
It's like watching a nation of abused women arguing over whether the fist or the fucking belt is preferable.
I just watched a women on CNN say that the Hunter Biden story "is total BS."
Without a shred of proof.
Oh wait, her proof was the fact that "everyone knows that Rudy Giuliani is a Russian agent."
I don't like Trump either but I haven't played this "marginally lesser of two evils" American election game of chicken in decades.
It's fucking pointless & I realized that no matter which of these corrupt parties wins I will fucking lose.
The good of the country is the working class. The people who repair the roads, who pull you from the brink of death, fetch your mail, make your food, drive your Uber, the people who make society work - the people who purport to represent them are the scum of the earth.
Whores of all kinds who enrich themselves on one “side”, or worse, enrich themselves while wagging their finger at working class people who are disgusted with their empty moral posturing and disinterested dismissals of their legitimate, essentially socialist concerns.
But according to Joe's ads he'll be "laser focused on the working class."
I think supporters take this to mean he'll assist us.
I think it just means he'll be buying a better sniper scope for his rifle.
"no matter which of these corrupt parties wins I will fucking lose". -- True. But with Biden, you'll just lose regular. With Trump, you lose, and then he laughs at you, "SUCKER!" Take your pick.
«The other half of the country bickers about which sociopath is marginally better than the other sociopath.
The "Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy" has this passage, clearly inspired by the english politics of Conservatives vs. New Labour, but the same with Republicans vs. Democrats:
«"On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."»
Hmmmm....goes to show that I should listen to my 16 year old and make time to read that book. I do wonder if David Icke borrowed his reptilians from Doug Adams.
Sadly, in reality, they're not lizards they're just people.
And many people are driven solely by self interest & are easily corrupted.
My wife used to work with a woman who was a staunch anti-labor Republican who thought unions were filled with whiners not winners.
She, of course, was a winner.
Then the company outsourced her shit to India & sent her packing.
My wife ran into her a few years later.
Since she was never been able to get back to the paycheck she was making as an overpaid middle manager, (I guess that the job force at that time was overflowing with middle managers looking for someone to manage), she was now a "union activist" fighting against outsourcing.
It was quite a metamorphosis.
Great article up to the very last sentence:
"A secondary problem involves the Hunter Biden/Ukraine story itself, which from the start teetered on conflicting narratives."
What conflicting narratives? The Biden's used their authority to enrich themselves at the certain expense and MILITARY HARM (eg Biden was tasked with stopping the CCP in the South China Sea) to the American people.
There is not doubt over this. The evidence of office selling from the Beau Biden Foundation laptop is corroborated by Bevan Cooney's emails. This growing pile of evidence can be hidden from easy access but what it has to say is indisputable.
On media dishonesty you say “The public can’t help but see this”. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. I’m exasperated with family, friends and business associates who are blind to the fact that virtually all the corporate media complex is simply a platform for DNC talking points and spin. The recent revelations regarding Brennan’s notes and this Hunter hard drive are examples of HUGE stories the press simply refuses to cover or if they do they try to spin everything as Republican dirty tricks it “foreign” intervention. America is in a dire information crisis and no one seems to care outside of a scant few remaining honest journalists. The ironic tag line of the WaPo is true while they are a main cause of the “darkness” in which democracy dies.
The right likes to believe the "silent majority" are those who are witnessing the growing chaos and are willing to have none of it, come election day. I, on the other hand, fear the "silent majority" is actually comprised of "normies" - working people who don't really care about politics, but on those rare occasions when they do, they tune in to CNN.
+1, depressing
Absolutely insane. Let's first look at the most obvious conclusion from all of this: Big Tech censors. At same point, someone will deem facebook, instagram, twitter, etc., enemies of the state. Using this logic; they will systematically and unlawfully, take matter into their own hands and start assassinating employees of these companies, citing the constitution, which broadly states that we must defend our country from enemies externally and internally.
Of course, this is our government's fault. They allow this to happen. And it shouldn't be a surprise. Our government is run by corporations. Even the Senator Jim Jordan, took contributions from Google, for all of his posturing with the judicial committee. Nothing is going to change and sometime in the future, we will look back on the great American experiment, and those alive today won't have to wonder what happened. We will know that capitalism, unchecked, with greed in its heart, will eat anything in its way. Greed is Good, will be the swan song of our Republic.
On the micro level, the individual level, people intuitively accept free market principles, etc.
When they're expanded into CORPORATE Capitalism, the results are invariably bad.
This is not dissimilar to people intuitively feeling enough altruism to want to help those least fortunate in our societies...but expanded into a centralized government that will ENFORCE purported altruism...the results are also invariably bad. With well-connected Party apparatchiks playing the roles of the capitalist 1%ers.
As long as you keep the average American above water corporations won’t blink an eye except when their greed is threatened.
yeah. just give us enough.
You're in a difficult position Matt. Bringing awareness in our country locked into cognitive dissonance to the degree that anything challenging the set prejudicial opinion brings on rage. You only have to read a few of the comments to this post to see that. It may be necessary to keep your platform afloat, but I wondered why the comparison between the Post story and the Steele dossier. The former has strong provenance, despite the now hysterical claims of ruskie disinformation, while the latter is a proven fake. By putting both stories in a suggested similar category aren't you halfway to the technocracy ban? Twitter and FB didn't ban the Post story because it was fake, but because it undermined their candidate. Isn't that clear, and isn't that the essential in the freedom of speech argument? Keep fighting the good fight Matt.
«wondered why the comparison between the Post story and the Steele dossier. The former has strong provenance, despite the now hysterical claims of ruskie disinformation, while the latter is a proven fake.»
Indeed by reading his article you would have discovered that Taibbi compared them precisely to make that point: that a "proven fake" is widely circulated, while something with a somewhat better credibility is being suppressed, the main difference being who benefits from the story.
" The [Hunter Biden allegation] has strong provenance"
I think that your notion of "strong provenance" may differ from mine. Outline the evidence in its favor.
Why doesn’t Matt write about this?
https://theintercept.com/2020/10/15/eric-branstad-trump-china-ambassador/
Because then all the Trump trolls that hang out here would have a fit.
Because every day there is a new "bombshell" against Trump. It is difficult to keep count never mind track of every single act of "treason" committed by Trump and his people. :-).
I stopped covering my ears after the 100th "bombshell" quietly dissipated.
At least none of the bombshell purveryors are ever harmed, nor their reputations as credible "journalists".
I did not vote for Trump in 2016 so I am no harsh partisan. I do have a Ph.D.
Matt, I am hoping your next story will address the "secondary problem involves the Hunter Biden/Ukraine story itself" and its conflicting narratives. "Rudy is a Russian agent" witting or unwitting has zero evidence - its just the only hope of denying this story. Giuliani stated, in interviews, "If the FBI suspected that I was being fed Russian disinformation all along, and then giving it to the president, why didn't they tell me? They never said anything to me."
Others in the comment section are buying major lies. Three major lies
(a) "Republicans won't cover pre-existing conditions" is a lie. All Republicans have promised in the very unlikely event the ACA is ended that pre-existing conditions will be covered.
(b) "Trump said to inject bleach" is a lie. Watch the tape. He said "Bleach disinfects surfaces, killing virus" then turned to doctors and asked "Could we inject something like bleach". In other words, he asked a question - didn't tell people to do something - and asked about something that could kill virus being injected - "something like bleach" is not bleach.
(c) "Trump does not condemn White Supremacy" is a lie. He has dozens of times. He did in the debate - he said "Sure, but what about Antifa?" when the moderator asked him to denounce. Someone talked over him on the "sure" can be heard if you replay. He said "good people" were on both sides of the taking down confederate monuments question and added that those good people did not include Neo-Nazis and other groups like that. Listen to or read his comments - what I am saying is true in each case.
There are so many more lies I could detail for those of you who only watch CNN/MSNBC and read Times/Post, etc. plus left-leaning websites. It's a giant echo chamber full of lies and reporters who believe whatever they hear from the original liars. These lies from the left-aligned media are one of the things that is going to drive me to voting for Trump this time, though I did not last time.
Why should Matt combat censorship even if he sometimes helps Trump? Here's one good reason: I can no longer believe the left-aligned media....at this point, if they said something true, I would not believe without irrefutable proof. Unlike 2016, I will vote for Trump in 2020, in part because I no longer believe the left-media. I have many other reasons, good reasons, but no longer reading the lying Post/Times could have helped with my decision, I have to admit.
«I can no longer believe the left-aligned media»
What you call "left-aligned media" are nowhere near the left, they right-wing media, just of a "liberist" (whig) rather than "conservative" (tory) right. Essentially all the media support right-wing, reaganite/thatcherite style policies for lower wages and higher rents and profits, they differ in whether they are more globalist or more nationalist, more socially liberal or repressive. The vast majority of the BLM/queer/... politicians are right-wing liberists (or far-right libertarians).
Put another way, there are two right-wing types of politics, and the conservative/tory side describes wrongly the liberist/whig side as "the left".
Quibbling over labels has been refined to a sophisticated form of lying. Oh, that isn't "cultural Marxism", Marxism is...blah de blah. Those people aren't "commies" you ignorant Truptard, they're New Socialists and blah de blah. The left isn't left because I have a complex definition of "left" herpdedurrr...
While I technically agree that the powers-that-be in the DNC don't really have "beliefs" (as principles or articles of faith), they are *using* various components of different left ideologies to obtain and hold power. The perfect accuracy of terminology when referring to them is irrelevant.
>>(a) "Republicans won't cover pre-existing conditions" is a lie. All Republicans have promised in the very unlikely event the ACA is ended that pre-existing conditions will be covered.»
I think it's worse than that. My understanding is that insurance companies were unable to drop insureds simply because they had a preexisting condition, and a new insurer couldn't deny a person with a preexisting condition, so long as they were maintaining health insurance at the time they came down with the condition. So, they are scaring people about losing their insurance if they get a condition, even though that's been against the law for decades.
The ACA went further and allowed people to avoid getting insurance, wait until they have a preexisting condition (eg, cancer) and then buy "insurance." Imagine if you could go without owning home insurance and then, if your house burns down, buy "insurance" to protect you from the "risk" of a fire -- not really a "risk" as it's already happened, a preexisting condition! This was the free rider problem that required the tax/penalty against those who refuse to buy insurance.
«(a) "Republicans won't cover pre-existing conditions" is a lie. All Republicans have promised in the very unlikely event the ACA is ended that pre-existing conditions will be covered.»
While almost every "bombshell" about Trump is bullshit, this point is both true and irrelevant: the Republicans and Trump both want to abolish mandatory healthcare insurance, and that is pretty much equivalent to stop covering pre-existing conditions, because without mandatory insurance the costs for pre-existing conditions will be enormous, or insurance policies for pre-existing conditions will simply not be available, because pretty much only people with pre-existing conditions will buy healthcare insurance.
Not only that, but I recall listening to the Congressional hearings on repealing the ACA back in the Obama era. I don't recall the name of the witness, but he handed the Republicans their ass on their record of failure on the issue of guaranteeing affordable coverage for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. And he obviously knew what he was talking about.
" he obviously knew what he was talking about"- how did I know that, just from listening to his testimony? For one thing, he shut up the people questioning him.