The Pulitzer winner founded the Intercept to challenge official narratives and protect editorial freedom. When editors abandoned those principles, spiking a controversial story, he was forced to quit
I disagree with Greenwald on many, many things. But I have always, always admired his willingness to call out the hypocrites, the panderers, the bullshitters — regardless of their status, their connections, and most importantly their party affiliation. He gives no fucks, and I adore him for that. And I will support him, with money made working for someone who I imagine he despises with the energy of a thousand suns. And that’s awesome, and it’s why I love Substack and independent press.
Another informative and insightful work from Matt Taibbi. I still fail to understand the need to include anti-Trump aspersions such as, "It’s a difficult time for reporters, with an unstable and potentially dangerous president," presented as apparently unassailable facts. The central fact to me is illustrated by the central premise of this article and the anti-journalism represented by this latest leftist crash-and-burn by the Intercept: The Left destroys everything it touches and Trump is simply the best tool normal people have to reintroduce sanity to our institutions and society.
"It’s a difficult time for reporters, with an unstable and potentially dangerous president,"
I too noticed that line. It's like some people just cannot help themselves, even when they are almost gagging on the red pill they just refuse to finally let it go.
What you fail to see is that you’re no different from fevered Biden loyalists. You’re pleased by the conclusions in this piece but can’t help commenting on the one line about Trump, an atrocious president who’s about to be replaced by a differently atrocious president. The beauty of Taibbi’s work is not that it absolves Trump of his countless failures and grotesque self-interest. It’s that Taibbi refuses to let anyone off the hook. The moment I get a whiff of him being “red pilled” is the moment I know he’s no longer a reliable information source. No journalist worth his or her salt is “pilled” at all.
Totally agree. Doug's post perfectly reflects the binary/ partisan/tribal mentality so apparent in both Trump supporters and detractors, each looking for and accepting only that which pleases them, that somehow the obvious mendacity and corruption of the one, validates their hero. I don't know about any of them, but I've seen way more than one bar fight where both drunks were total assholes, and deserved each blow they got.
This I will say about Trump, fake both in his anti war and populist messages; he correctly identified the problems of the ingrown elite establishment, though insincerely, but perhaps even more importantly, like Luminol draws out unseen blood at a crime scene, Trump's mere presence has shown that the supposed high minded liberal press, which is in no way left, regardless of what Doug thinks, is in fact every bit as partisan and intellectually dishonest as anything from Fox, Breitbart, Limbaugh etc., and that liberal politicians are flag waving mindless yahoos when it suits their purposes, supposedly a preserve of the right.
Once again, I will vote third party, because, like you, I'm not tabulating which would be the lesser evil, as that seems a pointless task designed to keep us locked into the duopoly's rigged game, but prefer to see them as they are; just different evils over whom people needlessly squabble.
"Nothing will fundamentally change". Finally, some truth.
I disagree with the characterization of Trump detractors. I consider myself to be a Trump detractor because of obvious reasons (no, not fake news about Russia) and I would never vote for him. But that doesn't mean I'm going to go out and cheerlead or vote for Biden. There are more people in my group than you might think. The only difference between me and a lot of them is that they WILL vote for Biden. Thing is, none of them LIKE Biden because he's a corrupt, phony old asshole. But they'll vote for him anyway because not only is Trump a phony, corrupt old asshole too, but a much bigger jerk and a LOT of his supporters wield his being in office like a cudgel to friends and family on social media and in bars. Tell me this: how many times has a video gone viral where someone gets in another person's face and screams "BIDEN!!!" - Never. Didn't happen with Obama either.
But I'm with you on the last two paragraphs. Trump and his supporters have no idea what the actual left even is. They think it's only antifa and college professors and the mainstream corporate media (the last one is a laugh, but they all think it).
Wait, what? Have you somehow missed all the vicious anti-Trump vitriol spewed by lefties, on social media and otherwise? Not seen people's careers "canceled" for supporting Trump, or even just questioning the left-wing narrative?
And how many times has a Biden supporter been executed in the street over his political beliefs, as happened to a Trump supporter in Portland?
Please. Criticize Trump supporters for being obnoxious if you wish, that is your right, and I don't even necessarily disagree with you. But don't try to paint the other side as a bunch of peaceful angels, because they are not.
I should have been more clear when I said Trump detractors, as I meant to refer to those in the elite, both political and media, and not all those who dislike Trump, which includes me. These elites have no only made it possible for Trump to gain power with their horrible policies on war, trade, WS bailouts, etc. but their continued impersonations of Joe McCarthy and far fetched, fact free beliefs Trump is in the pocket of Putin, would have reelected him had there been no pandemic, as I'm assuming Biden will win this Tuesday.
Well said. I would only add that the ruling class doesn't like Trump because he is an embarrassment to them, not that they disagree with him on anything. He has exposed their game because he is such a buffoon and doesn't do it politely like the rest of them.
Correct. Trump is the political equivalent of the Picture of Dorian Gray, revealing all the corruption, sordidness and bullying that characterizes our elites, something the fake sophistication of Obama or even the fake country boy charm of W helped to gloss over. It amazes me to this day that people still believe both meant well; Obama only done in by those horrible Repubs, while W's intentions were good, he was just too gullible and led astray by Cheney. Truly evil people always leave an out and find the fall guy to excuse their behavior.
W's entire family is as corrupt as any other American "royalty" currently being utilized to cover up the ongoing criminal empire. What's amazing is how easily these thugs can be reinvented and resold to the Yankee doodle dumbf*cks who believe voting changes the empire's goals.
Yeah, Matt has destroyed Trump already - he's proven that point. He's reported those facts. He doesn't need to constantly berate every Trump move; he told you Trump would be the result of our problems. He knew Trump was always a problem.
This is exactly it. The truth has no political affiliation. That's what journalism at its very core is supposed to be striving for - finding the truth and sharing it with the public so that the public can make up their own mind.
So many people (including within journalist circles) seem to have forgotten this.
Wow. With such an unstable and potentially dangerous president, I haven't noticed any journalists being jailed, beaten or repressed. Or have I missed all the news about journalist purges? Please educate us on how widespread this is under the trump terror.
Or perhaps Trump may not be worst unstable dictator ever?
In other words you don't know what the term "straw man" even means. And in other words, no one ever claimed Trump was "the worst unstable dictator ever", genius. Congrats on "disproving" a statement no one ever made.
Matt called trump an unstable and potentially dangerous president. I merely pointed out how that is incorrect. You don't know sarcasm when you read it.
LOL. The article admits the police identified a problem area and arrested everyone in the area. So the journalists were not specifically targeted. Is that all you have? An incident from the inauguration? C'mon you can do better than that - or perhaps you can't. Got anything more recent, you know from the past year? Every day for the past 4 years the mainstream press pushed anti-trump stories. Surely this most unstable of dictators has put a few of them in concentration camps.
The man throws tantrums whenever anyone criticizes him or asks him a mildly challenging question. When that man happens to be the president, yeah, it means he's potentially dangerous.
You ain't enlightened, dude, you're just another tribalist making excuses for your in group.
I think you are missing his point. The consolidation of the media combined with the rise of our new tech overlords who openly censor stories or hide them is far more dangerous than a senile sociopath or even possibly an idiot in the White House. Yes, Trump is dangerous, but primary because he is so easy to manipulate by the real crazies, and better prepared sociopaths. In any extent I personally believe he is history, due to his mishandling of the two most important issues to the American people, the economy and the plague, which i think is now endemic due to his actions. I live in the heart of the Republicans, many are not voting, and want him to go away.
Yeah, that war mongering, rampaging military industrial complex manipulated him right out of any wars for the first time in decades! And talk about being manipulated by sociopaths regrading a virus that 99% of everyone recovers from and you have to get a test for in order to find out if you actually have it! Guess you bought in on that scam, genius.
He's still a war criminal just like the rest. Guess you fell for that scam since he's been using his butt buddy in ISISrael as well as the Saudi's to commit his war crimes for him.
^^^textbook Trump fan fragility, aka the (real) Trump Derangement Syndrome^^^
Do you trust Taibbi's reporting and analysis? How about Glenn Greenwald's? Guess what - They both agree that Trump is potentially very dangerous to journalists and that he has behaved and spoken/tweeted in an unstable manner in the past, including while in office.
If I had to guess or make a bet, I would say you probably think that EVERYTHING the corporate mainstream media says about Trump is a lie. Like literally everything. Am I wrong and would I have lost any money on that bet?
And yet, neither has delineated exactly what danger he posits. I can respect their independence and professionalism - and back it up with a paid subscription for both - and still disagree with unsubstantiated claims.
Well he poses a real danger to all of the grey wolves in America he opened hunting season on yesterday. How about the danger to the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in Alaska he's giving away to oil interests? It always floors me how no one ever mentions the systematic environmental destruction his busy bee scum appointees have been working on the last four years. Every problem the US faces today will be magnified 100 fold when the real destruction starts kicking in.
I gave you a link to an article in The Independent (UK) below. Check it out. The situation is more complex than "curtailing press freedoms." Trump's rhetoric has gone as far as to say that the MSM (including MSNBC, NYT, CBS, etc.) are an enemy of the state and of the American people. Now - given my own knowledge on how each of those outlets helps war mongers and human rights violations by the U.S. and Israel go un-criticized, I would agree that they are enemies of the people, but that's me agreeing with Trump, it's me disagreeing.
Trump's rhetoric is definitely over the top, and in some cases, you could make a fair argument that it is dangerous (if it inspired acts of violence, for example). He's bombastic, he exaggerates, he makes shit up on the fly. But he has a point about the MSM, even if over-stated. As a group they have sold themselves to the Democrat party and become in effect a propaganda arm of the Democrats. That does make them an enemy of our system of self-government. It's sad that so few journalists, like Matt and Greenwald, can see this and have the courage to speak out.
Given Trump's experience with the "MSM" one could argue that they are an "enemy" or at least a tool of the enemy - how dare a sitting President criticize the CIA and FBI - outrageous!! Almost 4 years of non stop Russia, Russia, Russia and impeachment would rattle anyone's cage. Trump, with all of his flaws, is not going down without a fight. It's how he got elected. He's also vain and was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The sword cuts both ways. Dangerous? Sure. To himself? Sure. To the deplorables, no. And the circus continues. The MSM is helping, even feeding Trump's cause if you ask me. If you want to kill a fire, you have to start by not pouring gasoline on the fire.
I think the danger of Trump is obvious -- he's random, a loose cannot. The US ruling class may be evil, but it knows it has to take care of _some_ business to keep the proles from resistance and revolt. Trump will keep pushing until he gets a civil war or some other disaster going because he doesn't know what he's doing, or he doesn't care. What he knows is show biz, and that's it.
He TALKS randomly, and comes across as a loose cannon. But it’s all bluster and conflict-evoking (which is precisely what he likes). The world sees him, or should by now, for what he is — and acts/reacts accordingly. Detail: he gets stuff done in spite of everything put in his way by the Resistance or whatever they’re called these days — the ones Trump calls out as scum. We can probably survive another 4 years of Trump now that we realized who he is and what we’re dealing with. And there will never be another very much like him. OTOH, not sure how/if we could deal with Harris & Company and their likely successors as they lock in Socialist/Democratic rule long term. Don’t want to find out, thank you.
Are we done with the TDS projectile vomiting and attacking for this segment? So tiresome and reveals way more about the attackers than they are ever so obviously capable of comprehending.
Let's play a little game. I provide a quote, you guess who wrote it.
"Instead, Democrats were urged, imagine that a right-wing authoritarian, or a lawless demagogue, or a petty, vindictive tyrant won the presidency and inherited the framework of unrestrained, unchecked powers that Republicans implemented and Democrats expanded.
Agree with you 100%. I have commented on Matt's previous columns where he feels the need to bash trump first before making a pointed comment about the insanity of the left. It's as if he needs to establish anti-trump "bona fides" before criticizing the obvious insanity of the mainstream press which is now fully invested in anti-trump hate. I can kinda sorta understand it as a means of demonstrating he's not a shill for trump but in reality his opinion on trump is completely IRRELEVANT. The sickness and corruption on the left is the real story and it would be the case regardless of who occupied the white house. The leftists in academia and the mainstream press have (irony of ironies) made Trump into something like the last bastion of sanity before we all go over the precipice into total chaos. Greenwalds's resignation is a clear demarcation line that we have entered very, very dangerous times where intelligence propaganda is actively being used against american citizens. I consider myself a conservative republican but I came to the conclusion about a year ago that the CIA and FBI need to be disbanded completely and a complete overhaul of the DOJ is absolutely necessary before we can have any confidence in our federal government. Strange, scary and crazy times we live in.
So having been a conservative Republican growing up and into my early thirties I see where you see the left us bad. I don't disagree, they are bad. Problem is the Conservative Republicans are just as bad without the, "I'm smarter than you snear." Though the Republicans have the, "jesus loves me and I am morally holier than though." attitude. So looking to disband the CIA is a great start. Keep digging deeper on your side and you'll discover what a POS Gingrich, Delay, Bush Sr., Hastert, Limbaugh, Adelson, the Kochs, McConnell, and the very long list of Republicans. I k ow because I thought they were better till I stopped listening to the clips of W. and the right wong commentary that went with it and watched him for myself. He was a total buffoon. Gingerich was cheating on wife 2 with wife three while he was impeaching Clinton for Lying under oath. Which ironically is why he was kicked out of the Speakership for that exact same reason. There is no difference between the ruthless psychopaths at the top other than ones used degrees and "sophistication " for their identity and the other side uses Jesus and Morality. They are all the same.
The vast majority of conservatives I know actually aren't religious. But most of them like American flags. Just an observation.
Also, keeping digging and you'll find out what POSes literally EVERYBODY is, especially anybody in power in government, media, or industry. Humans!
I'm more interested in outcomes. If I wanted our political leaders to be good people or moral or, you know, not pathological narcissists, I would be forever disappointed. I'm much better with Trump than I am with the outcome records of either the Democrats or the Republicans, historically. Recent peace deals and relationship normalizations--that stuff is great. Not supporting Endless War is great (something I thought was not going to be the case, when Trump nominated Bolton). So . . . I'm fine with Trump. Would have preferred Tulsi Gabbard but I'm fine with Trump.
That's always a question. And I can't see the future, I just know the general state of the party could use adjustment--and that would be people like Tulsi and to a lesser extent Bernie Sanders. It's the ossified establishment types that need to get removed. Much prefer Tulsi as she wants to work with whoever to accomplish goals--actual goals, not political ones. Of course, that doesn't work with the Democrats and really doesn't work with the GOP, except Trump went around the system.
Do I wish it had been someone other than Trump? Yes. But we get what we get.
Don’t confuse the neocons with the conservatives. Not wasting money on useless wars is a conservative value. The neocons are all war, war, war. The Dems can have ‘em. If you’re voting along the side with warmongering neocon Colin Powell, you’ve lost what it meant to be left leaning for the last 20 years.
The Dems and the GOP have both had the neocons for year. And years. And years. Perhaps since WWII.
In some form or fashion. Although they wouldn't have been called neocons until more recently.
The main difference is the Dem neocons slapped on a peace symbol instead of an American flag. Can't seem to clean them out of the Democrats, maybe we can with the Republicans? Not holding my breath, though.
Take a breath, junior. With nearly 4 years under his belt, and with not only no wars started, Trump has withdrawn from most all the sites of conflict that his predecessors established, it is tough to see the delusions you clearly suffer under.
Speaking of never admitting error, you show up weekly to comment on Taibbi's pieces and in each such appearance demonstrate not merely your ignorance, but your failure to see the mirror in front of your own face.
Check that Obamacare plan you claim to love -- I am sure there is treatment for mental illness and for delusional thinking.
You used to be better at insulting me. What happened?
My final salvo:
Trumpers all say the same thing - or a version of it. Which is, that the arsonist is best to put out fire.
They have this view that Trump is going to find moral ground, and start running the country with blue states in mind. Never gonna happen.
Trump rules for them, and only them. And their view is that if we don't like it, move to another country. That ain't gonna fly.
If Trump wins, we'll never recover. We'll never get along. Or the only way we'd get along is if we give up. Which we'll never do.
I'll give 'em this. The Trump Crime Family is the payoff for a plan the right put in place years ago, going back to the early 1900's. It was all about the long game, how to rule from a minority position. They did it. They executed to near perfection.
Now, they're all about keeping people from voting. Because voting and elections were the centerpiece of their plan. The more Americans that vote, less chance they have at staying in power.
And yes, Democrats are at fault. They didn't vote in every neighborhood, town, city, state, and federal election. They forgot about civics class. People see that now.
Now, albeit too little too late, people are waking up. Just like Trumpers (the Tea Party) woke up when Obama was elected.
But if they think we're gonna put up with any more of this BS, they'd be wrong. We're Americans too (I know that's hard for them to say). We'll stand for our rights. And if we have to, we'll go toe-to-toe for them. Because we're Americans. That's what we do. What we won't do, is let them or anyone else keep trampling over us.
Do I want it to come to this? No fing way. Never in my weirdest dreams, did I think we'd be here. But here we are. And BTW, this is all part of their plan - turn us against each other. The coup de grace is when Trump declares martial law.
I want our country back. I want the Republican Party I once voted for back. I want a two party system. I wish Trumpers could understand. But they don't. I don't know why they defend a monster.
No one I know believes in socialism. Everyone I know wants lowest taxes. We love our country. Everyone I know is ready, willing, and able to to compromise. So is Biden.
The first step towards healing our country is to fire the Trump Crime Family.
Please. Get out there and vote on Tuesday as if your life depends on it.
I really don't expect him to start a war. If he wins and then does--then 100% I'll admit I was wrong. I have no problem admitting I was wrong. I voted for W. Bush. When I should have voted 3rd party or write-in. Iraq War--boy that was wrong. Even so, I was more hopeful that I was the one out of synch at the time and not Dubya . . . but nope. I was wrong.
I didn't vote for Trump. Not voting for Trump this time. Also not voting for Biden, so there's that.
As an observation, you seem to read a lot of things into what people don't actually write.
Hopefully you'll stop legitimizing the system all together at some point. They'll never admit to being an oligarchy as long as people continue to feed demand more bread and circus.
I disagree. Republican psychopaths want to enrich themselves while claiming the high ground. Democrat psychopaths want to tell you how to live, eat and breathe. There is a difference.
They both want your money. They push different sets of buttons but both have the same goal.
"The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles."-- Eugene Debs. Sept 1, 1904
And it has become more true in in the intervening 100+ years.
I have to disagree. Your saying high ground. I come from the religious right and they definitely want to tell you how to live, eat and breathe. Especially when your a child and if your female that is for a lifetime.
The claim of high ground by the religious right is not shared by me. In this country it would seem it is easy to leave the religious right especially if you relocate. In my opinion it is getting harder to leave the religious left. It's practically impossible to dissent from liberal orthodoxy regarding leftist positions on marriage, gender or race without being branded a backwards troglodyte no matter where one resides.
Trumpers all say the same thing - or a version of it. Which is, that the arsonist is best to put out fire.
They have this view that Trump is going to find moral ground, and start running the country with blue states in mind. Never gonna happen.
Trump rules for them, and only them. And their view is that if we don't like it, move to another country. That ain't gonna fly.
If Trump wins, we'll never recover. We'll never get along. Or the only way we'd get along is if we give up. Which we'll never do.
I'll give 'em this. The Trump Crime Family is the payoff for a plan the right put in place years ago, going back to the early 1900's. It was all about the long game, how to rule from a minority position. They did it. They executed to near perfection.
Now, they're all about keeping people from voting. Because voting and elections were the centerpiece of their plan. The more Americans that vote, less chance they have at staying in power.
And yes, Democrats are at fault. They didn't vote in every neighborhood, town, city, state, and federal election. They forgot about civics class. People see that now.
Now, albeit too little too late, people are waking up. Just like Trumpers (the Tea Party) woke up when Obama was elected.
But if they think we're gonna put up with any more of this BS, they'd be wrong. We're Americans too (I know that's hard for them to say). We'll stand for our rights. And if we have to, we'll go toe-to-toe for them. Because we're Americans. That's what we do. What we won't do, is let them or anyone else keep trampling over us.
Do I want it to come to this? No fing way. Never in my weirdest dreams, did I think we'd be here. But here we are. And BTW, this is all part of their plan - turn us against each other. The coup de grace is when Trump declares martial law.
I want our country back. I want the Republican Party I once voted for back. I want a two party system. I wish Trumpers could understand. But they don't. I don't know why they defend a monster.
No one I know believes in socialism. Everyone I know wants lowest taxes. We love our country. Everyone I know is ready, willing, and able to to compromise. So is Biden.
The first step towards healing our country is to fire the Trump Crime Family.
Please. Get out there and vote on Tuesday as if your life depends on it.
We all voted to end the idiotic bipartisan illegal wars, war crimes, fraud and exploitation of this empire which proves that voting doesn't change anything that actually matters.
You're either very naive or paid to spread propaganda.
One of the dumbest comments I've ever seen on a Taibbi article, and that includes at Rolling Stone, which is really saying something.
Trump has made numerous overtures and veiled threats against the media at large. If you don't think that the most powerful man in the world claiming EVERYTHING that doesn't paint him in a good light is "fake news" or telling Bob Woodward one thing about COVID-19 and hiding it from the public constitutes unstable dangerous behavior, I don't know what to tell you. Granted a whole sidebar could be had about whether Woodward should have shared that info, but that's not important to my points.
But to the most laughable part of your comment, would you mind please explaining how you can equate "the Left" (why is it always capitalized when used by Trump supporters) has anything at all to do with mainstream corporate media, which in case you happened to miss Matt Taibbi's piece about how CNN (and CBS and NBC) really don't mind and in fact think Trump is great for business. Who all is part of this "the Left" and what, exactly, have they destroyed - within the scope of journalism or anything else?
I think the "left" that is objected to is crediting the CRT crazy and insane therapeutic approach to public life approach that has led to cancel culture and whatnot.
Don Lemon announces he had to cull his friends over their Trump support. hahahahaha
words are violence but violence is speech.
Christina Blasey-Ford or whatever her name was and Fienstein's revelation with subsequent character assasination of Kavanaugh was "credible". IDK but me and Cletus think you have to prove you were actually in the same location at the same time at least once in your life before you can credibly accuse a man of attempted rape.
it's all crazy and all being attributed correctly or incorrectly to the "left"
For starters the left has destroyed the Intercept, which is why Matt wrote this article. Or do you consider the editors there to be mainstream corporate media?
I agree. In 2016 I think it was reasonable to imagine that Trump was "unstable and potentially dangerous", but now we've seen how he actually conducts himself in office. And yeah, he has a big mouth, but in terms of actual actions, he's been bringing the troops home, avoided any new foreign wars, and spearheaded historic peace agreements in the Middle East. At home he's presided over the best economy possibly in our nation's history, and refused to behave like a fascist dictator as so many feared, even when the COVID crisis presented a golden opportunity.
I think the "unstable and potentially dangerous" criticism is outdated.
What troops has he brought home ? Do you actually believe this shit ? Not one war ended and let's not forget he increased the violence and committed war crimes in Syria.
Which of these wars is ended ? I haven't heard of any peace treaties or an end to the war of terror. Is having other countries and private mercenaries do the killing any different ?
Formal recognition of and diplomatic ties with Israel by UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan, so far. First time anything like that has happened since Jordan in 1994.
I said he's avoided *new* wars. First President to do that since, what, Carter?
He's also put Iran back in its box, and supported the new Iraqi prime minister who appears to be the first to actually take his job seriously.
In Syria, he put down IS and ended Baghdadi. You'll have to elaborate on his "war crimes".
After he increased troops and bombed more then Obomber. They all bring troops back home for a minute or two right before the election. Is this your first election cycle ? Why did you leave out his war crimes in Syria ?
I been watching Skutch, wondering when he/she/it was going to chime in.
According to my scorecard, he/she/it has never lost an argument. Instead, comments just stop. You Trumpers better start doin' pushups if you're gonna throw down with Skutch.
People like Doug are my favorite part of reading Taibbi comments. Matt has written about 87000000 words about how shitty Republicans and Trump are over the last 15 years; in no way does he think the republicans are victims, or correct in their ignorant thoughts. In no way does he support Trump or any Trump narratives. Matt is an independent journalist who reports without bias; it so happens that both sides, in a broken injust system, have serious issues. It also happens that one side still has significantly more (trump/right) which is why Matt has written significantly more words of disdain towards that side. I know the right wants to claim a side here, and you think he's on your team, but he has already destroyed the credibility and legitimacy of your team over the past 15 years. Thanks for reading.
Yeah well if that’s the case, he has manifested a whole new audience regardless. Looks like he will need to “re-educate” us on how ignorant we are in light of a slew of new political developments on all sides. Who knows, time has a way of shedding new light. However, many of his new subscribers aren’t gonna be as lay down easy as you are. The times, they are a changing.
What does this even mean? Yes, I can tell you just started reading Matt. Maybe go read a book or two he's written and check back in on your "Matt's on our team" nonsense.
I'm OK that Matt still thinks Trump is "dangerous". Personally, I would not vote for a Trump in 2016 (I did in 2020) - he appeared a bit crazy and was going to be trusted with nuclear buttons.
After 4 years Trump has proven to me he is anything but dangerous and crazy (he just knows how to sell himself to a crowd, as Matt has pointed out,.) Anyway...if 4 years are not enough to prove to Matt that Trump is not dangerous I still salute Matt for all his great work and don't mind skepticism in a great journalist. And hope he come around someday :) (Or...heck..maybe Trump was dangerous - - but if he was, we had a heck of a great, non-dangerous four years - - except Covid which was not Trump's fault.)
I can't speak for everybody, and I can't and didn't vote for Trump, but in my mind the best thing about Trump these last few years is that he's exposed our national politic for what it is. A corporate shell game that has sold our country out to anybody that has a check book.
We used to think the concept of a Deep State was just tin foil, but if you still believe the concept is BS, then I have some land to sell you. Can I get your Venmo information?
Yep! If anything the media will at least keep Trump honest because one whiff of scandal and it will be all over the place. Put Joe in and they will censor all negative press about him. It’s much safer to know than to not know. A vote for Joe Biden is a wish for America to go back to sleep as the elites and Deep State rob us blind.
But Trump is immune to it all. Since he blusters rather than act like it matters, he can basically get away with anything.
We have been through four years of constant scandal, and none of it has meant a damn thing. Why are you settling for, "this guy is honest about the fact that he's constantly fucking us over?" He's still fucking us over!
Four?!?! Four?!?! We've been through almost 50 years of scandals. Each administration worse than the one before it. Some admins were better at controlling the flow of leaked information than others.
I mean, I didn't think it would be remotely possible for any administration to be more corrupt than a Cheney administration, and then we get the Chicago clan come to town. If anything, Trump is just far more transparent because he's pissed off the back alley dwellars and they are coming to the forefront to scream about what's behind the curtain.
You are foolish if you think it's ever been better at any time in the modern era.
Yah but if they’re both fucking us over, I’ll still take the guy that believes in the Constitution than the psycho liberals who hate it. I’m all for reform, not a collapse of the best parts of America. I’m NOT throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I find it funny that anyone seriously maintains that there is not a deep state, because its existence has been jokingly acknowledged by government employees in just about every federal agency for just decades and decades. I don't mean that the deep state is some kind of sinister conspiracy, just that there is an actual reality to the fact that the bureaucrats have their own agenda and their permanence is a source of power just as significant as the titular power of the political appointees that supposedly run these agencies. Ask any SEC Associate Director who runs the SEC and the answer you are likely to get is "it's complicated." The Commissioners can and do drive certain changes but they can also be stymied and - more importantly - there are significant controversies that the staff actively seek to handle without elevating it to the Commission. Nothing I am saying here is remotely controversial among the professionals that work for, with and against these agencies. While I have no personal experience with the State Department or the intelligence services, I think there is just zero chance that they don't have the same dynamics that play out in the DoJ, FBI, the CFTC, the SEC, the OCC and even the FRB.
Exactly-- the veneer of the "good presidents (sic) " is off. It is laughable how many Americans care more that he is "the orange man" or they are embarrassed by his language and actions, than the fact that the US is a war mongering out of control dying empire which is spewing destruction and venom everywhere , even to its supposed allies.
I'm sure you've noticed, but Trump doesn't really have supporters (except maybe those on Wall Street). He has fans. Literally, they are fans like the fans of any sports team. Some, many really, rise to the level of "fanatic." Obama is the only recent president in my recollection who had anything approaching casual fandom, which was to be expected given that he replaced Bush/Cheney and that his campaign used a very PR-based marketing campaign and distinctive branding (Hope logo, for example). But Trump's fans put a whole lot more of their own identity into him than supporters of any politician in the US that I can recall. It's a brand too, just one that seems to inspire as much unquestioning, belligerent support from his fans as it does fake outrage and psuedo "resistance" from the corporate media and "intelligence" community.
Trump has supporters. I did not vote for him in 2016 but I am now a supporter, not a "fan". Here are some reasons:
Energy Independence for United States
Peace in Middle East - Israel, UAE, Bahrain
Pollution in US lower now than in Obama years
Does not take bribes ("contributions") from tech companies
Began ending reliance on China
Immense, proven improvement in wages/jobs of working class.
A better deal than NAFTA, the USMC agreement
Caliphate defeated, Al-Baghdadi eliminated
Corporate tax at 21% - creating jobs
Re-built military and VA
Price transparency for medical procedures
School choice - so strongly supported by inner-city families.
Jerusalem capital
Peace negotiations in Balkans (2nd Nobel Prize nomination.)
Lowest African American Hispanic and Asian unemployment ever
Opportunity zones
Historically Black Collage & Univ. funding
Criminal justice reform
Alliance with India as counterbalance to China
Right to try potential life-saving non-FDA approved drugs - many saved
Gave university males the right to defense against accusations
Korea negotiations (not great, but better than Obama admin.)
No Sanctuary Cities - support for ending this (so convicted criminals will leave)
1st Pres. in 39 years not to embroil U.S. in war
Yep - I made this list when carefully considering my vote.
If you consume only mainstream media (CNN/MSNBC/NYT et al) then you probably never heard of any of it. If you think any of it is false, look up the facts - the accomplishments here are true.
You didn't research any of these things. You just copy and pasted them off of the list of what he claims he did.
Since I doubt you'll listen to anything else, I'm going to speak to the thing I have direct experience with, as the wife of a veteran: things have gotten /worse/ for veterans under him. My husband was approved for Voc Rehab, but then there was Trump, and suddenly, it couldn't be justified, so it got revoked. He has a /harder/ time getting medical care now, because the Trump admin believes it isn't the responsibility of the VA, and he can no longer transfer his GI benefits to our child because the Trump admin changed the rules.
I don't have to look up that "accomplishment" because I know from direct experience that it isn't true. I know from watching my husband get his schooling taken away, getting his PTSD treatment taken away, having him almost die from cancer because of the state of the VA under Trump, (who by the way thinks my husband is a loser) -- it's a grift. Our government in general doesn't care about those who give the most for it, but my gods, at least most of them have the decency not to say it out loud.
Sounds like you’ve had an isolated bad experience and should speak to a patient advocate, they may be able to help. Veteran confidence in VA healthcare is at an all time high and clinical outcomes are outperforming the private sector. I’m certain there are many in VA who will help your family. All the best...
Sorry but I did. I created this list myself. I did not copy and paste one item. I do know surveys show approval from Vets on subject of VA is over 90% but I am sorry for what you are going through. Please know that a large number of people who were with Trump on the day an anonymous person made the "loser" statement claim said he did not say that. I would research what you are saying and perhaps will at sometime. At the moment I am a little hurt by what felt like hate toward me (you didn't research..you just copied and pasted).
Good to know I'm not the only mental one here. Whew. I was worried.
Any particular reason why you leave Fox out of the mainstream media list? They're #1 in just about every category. They own a bunch of media properties.
Yes - Fox while is "high" in ratings, get something like 2 or 3 million people watching - that is all. CNN and MSNBC together total about another 4 million watching each night. Cable news is just not that big anymore. Meanwhile the total watching all mainstream media (network news, PBS, programs like 60 minutes), plus reading the false information that is posted on the internet, is many, many more millions.
I am aware of all of this, but I would like to hear and engage with how the fans perceive things, rather than with how others perceive the fans. I don't think there's any way forward that doesn't involve that.
lol the internet... so believe it or don't I wrote this back in 2016, and never mailed it to the paper I was going to. It's my take on his "fans".
The Out of Touch and Trump's Junk March 8, 2016
In the media the question “Who can support Donald Trump?” is most often asked as a statement. The premise to a monologue about the idiocy of Americans. Idiocy brought on by underfunded schools, overfunded religion, talk radio, extreme individualism and racism. This monologue reflects the lack of experience of the speaker. Because the people who's opinions blanket the media consumed by the $80k and up demographic simply have zero frame of reference. Like asking a New York socialite for the torque value on a shovelhead. Torque? Shovelhead? Huh?
So their answers are all over the map. Usually missing the mark, always condescending in the way that an intelligent person condescends when they're expected to give an answer to something they know nothing about.
The latest puzzlement and faux shock is the reaction to Trump's response to the small fingers joke/meme that made its way into the press. That he responded at all obviously took some aback, the tone and content “shocked” them. (I say faux because as a society we revel in everything from Game of Thrones (violence) to Naked Dating (lust) to Piss Christ (irreverence) and more; commentators know this, nothing actually shocks them.)
I'm not puzzled.
In the early 80s I worked at an all night gas station in a bad area south of Seattle. Very bad – robberies, assaults, prostitution, drugs, murder. Contrary to popular opinion most people who live/work in such areas don't end up permanently scarred or dead. But they do see things. Late one night a customer pulled in to gas up his motorcycle. A biker straight out of central casting – on a chopped Harley, he was squat, big and dirty, full beard, black leather with club emblems, and a girl no older than 16 on the back. I was behind glass, and as he looked at me I was tamping a non-filter cigarette, getting ready to smoke. (For the uninitiated, that means holding the cig between your thumb and index finger and lightly tapping one end on a surface. That packs it tighter so the tobacco doesn't fall out when you puff.) He got done and came up to the booth.
“You jacking off in there?”
I looked at my cigarette and knew what he was saying, the motion of tamping and all.
“Nah... if I was it'd be a lot bigger than this.” Bravado, and it came out as dumb as it reads.
He laughed, not pleasantly. “Yeah, sure, lets see it!”
I was speechless at first, then made a lame remark about “not in front of your girl”. He laughs again and says “Don't worry about her, she's seen more dick than you know.”
I rolled over with “Hey man, umm... well... I'm not going to... hell, nobody would... hahahah... you first!”
And he did. Right there undid his jeans, pulled out and displayed his unerect wedding tackle.
“OK. Now you.”
My defeat was complete. “Man you got me...” and I rambled on like a complete dork.
“Hahahahahah, yeah, fucking chickenshit. Don't say shit you won't back up.”
Don't say shit you won't back up – that sums up perhaps THE request from much of the electorate this year. Our elected representatives have spent decades now not backing up what they say. Because reasons. Oh, and electorate, you're too stupid to truly comprehend the reasons, so just take our word for it. And here, listen to me say more shit, and vote for me!
Trump's rhetoric pours gasoline on that story line and sets it on fire. You want to dance around and play politics? Play the whisper campaign game about someone's penis size? (Cynically, I notice that though the story is “Trump talks about his junk” the truth is he didn't bring it up. His opponents, with allies in the press, did.) No need to whisper, here it is!
Trump will say shit and back it up. It's not possible? Who cares. How things work in Washington is such a black box, thanks to our current political class and their industry, activist and media supporters, that claims of “that's not possible” are met with cat calls. They have no credibility when they're so out of touch that they don't know that when someone insults your junk the only appropriate response is to whip it out and say put up or shut up. He's a narcissist? That's a hoot – Washington is Hollywood for ugly people; you cannot make it there now unless you are a narcissist so how is voting for someone already there voting against a narcissist? He's dishonest and money grubbing? When his probable general election opponent trades on her name and position for more money for one speech than many will see in their lifetime?
Who can support Donald Trump? At least some of them are people who are both dumber and smarter than their betters. They're truly stupid in the ways of politics, the nuts and bolts, the signaling and wheeling and dealing. But they're much more experienced, smarter, in the ways of real life, in their real life. They think they see someone they know, someone who will back up what he says. The media, and the rest of their betters, can't comprehend that because they've never had to live there.
“ Because the people who's opinions blanket the media consumed by the $80k and up demographic simply have zero frame of reference. Like asking a New York socialite for the torque value on a shovelhead. Torque? Shovelhead? Huh?”
This part is still so true. For all the talk of representation, the working class has none, regardless of race or color. And people of color fall into that group at a higher proportion than at any higher income level.
Over and over, the well off white people who purport to represent them (in dominant fashion on Twitter etc) say one thing while actual people of color, when polled, say something else.
Many years ago I was a union organizer and then did work for other lefty groups/causes. I used to abhor how the right wing used race to divide broke people who should be building coalitions. I probably don’t have to tell this group who does that now.
White people and people of color with a household income of 50K or less have infinitely more in common with one another than they do with people of any color who are in a higher income bracket.
I’m still hoping to have a major party leader who gets this, and fights for them. I think they could be elected easily if they could get out of their primary.
But I’m 46 years old, have been hoping for this for a quarter century, and will probably die hoping for it. It feels so close, but so far away.
See, this all makes sense to me when it comes to 2016. It doesn't make sense to me /now/, when as far as I can tell, he's demonstrated that he's nothing more than a grifter.
I am at the point where I'm honestly having trouble understanding anyone doing anything other than "protest" voting. Which, well...I suppose that's the answer, at least when it comes to your perspective, right? For a lot of people, Trump /is/ the protest vote.
But what if it doesn't blow it all up in the right way? What if it just makes it worse for everyone who's suffering? What is actually the way out of this, the way between acquiescence and a nuke?
Let's just talk about the first Covid relief bill.
Fancy Nancy announced the House were going home and would reconvene if needed.
Trump announced HE wanted an aid package and HE wanted it to be big to help Americans.
Fancy Nancy calls em back and now acts like she and the Dems and their MSM ghouls are the compassionate ones that had Americans best interest at heart all along.
And it is Ghoulish the way Dems and the Media are waiting with baited breath to be able to announce another death by Covid.
Yup, now. I really did write that in 2016, way before he was even nominated. And I neither voted for him nor thought he'd win; I'm smart, I knew Clinton would win. lol I was just so sick of hearing my workmates (I worked in education) and the press ramble about him and how stupid people are, and memories came flashing back when the little dick jokes started, that I... wrote.
I agree, but it strikes me as though you don't have any real life engagement opportunities with them? I do, in droves. I have Trump supporting friends, family and in-laws, not to mention co-workers. My statement is the product of 3-4 years of conversations and observations. So maybe I can help, maybe not - but I can probably fill you in on how many of his fans see things if you want.
I honestly wish I did have more Trump supporters in real life to engage with. It's turned out, much to my dismay, that my ties to conservative friends weren't as strong as I'd thought; they all jumped ship rather quickly when they found out I wasn't on the Trump train. Family members aren't forthcoming because they don't want to cause strife (which I can understand).
So, as it stands, most of my understanding comes from observation rather than actual conversation. And that leaves something to be desired.
I hope you can find some conversation from both perspectives. My brain feels better when pressed and my normal viewpoint is questioned. Echo chambers are cancerous. This place offers me different opinions and some balance.
Yeah makes sense. I'm sure you're also familiar with Qanon Casualties. If not it's basically a big subreddit for people who have lost friends or had their relationships with family members ruined by Qanon. In that case it may be more the other way around - i.e., the NON-believers unfriending the believers, but it's the same kind of deal. I definitely know Trump supporters who identify so deeply with Trump the brand that they basically told me to unfriend them or not to talk politics when I tried to have reasonable discussions about Trump's policies and statements. (never mind that they have no problem trolling other non-Trump supporters with memes and tweets) The majority of them cannot differentiate "fake" news from real news and have totally written off ALL mainstream media as 100% fake, which is actually understandable from my own left-leaning civil libertarian perspective after, well the last 60 years really. Iraq was the worst, and their total abandonment of Julian Assange comes pretty close.
Never thought about it like sports but that makes total sense. They literally believe he hasn't done any of the shit he has done or if they admit, say he did bankrupt 3 casinos, it wasn't his fault it was the economy or he declared bankruptcy and it was smart business. Not understanding how horrifyingly stupid or corrupt you have to be to bankrupt a casino, let alone 3. Anyway, good analogy.
Wall St. Big Tech and Big Pharma and big corporations are the big donors to Biden NOT TRUMP. Biden is outspending Trump at least 2 to 1. Wall St. are globalists looking for a quick buck with cheap labor outsourced.
Thanks. I agree that Democrats mostly have no idea why Trump's fans are so devoted to him and what they THINK he stands for. Nor do they really have any messaging that works to counter it left in their arsenals because 1) the corporate neoliberal Democrats stand for the exact same things as the corporate neoconservative Republicans and 2) they've wasted all that was left of their credibility post-Iraq war for the past 3 1/2 years.
The people that I know are for sure or I suspect will likely vote for Trump aren't what I would characterize as huge fans of his. None have any clue what Qanon is either judging from conversations I've had with them. Why they are going to vote Trump is simply because they are disgusted by the sanctimonious self righteous liberals that NEVER stop whining about him and they see as having thrown a non stop tantrum for the past 4 years. They are crystal clear about their disdain with the way the riots and lockdown measures have been handled with blatant hypocrisy in Democratically controlled cities and in my State. In short a HUGE reason many people are voting for Trump is simply because of the behavior of the Left and for some reason Democrats just can't grasp this. It's not that these people love Trump they just hate the people who they see as far more hysterical, annoying and dangerous.
Count me as one of those. The moral/cultural authoritarianism of the left, as embodied by CRT and "cancel culture", must be stopped. Trump has many faults, but at least he stands against those things. There are other reasons I support Trump this time (I did not in 2016), but this is the one that's driving me to vote straight-ticket 'R' for the first time in my life.
Great comment-and completely true. Someone like Mitt Romney would never have a chance against Hillary or Biden. Why-b/c they refuse to directly call out their bs. Trump does that-and did that in his first term. Why are the rappers giving him respect-b/c he honestly interacted with them, on their level, with their issues. Most GOP types wold have brushed off Ice Cube like the Ds did-while doing ridiculous kente cloth photo ops when the media was in peak hysteria mode. Trump hasn’t changed who is he is-for good or for bad, but his policy outcomes, on the whole, have been great. You would have to have a degree from Trump University to believe one thing out of Biden/Harris’ mouth regarding Covid, Russia, Ukraine, or China.
Well said. Also, what politician actually tries to implement his crazy "promises"? That alone suggest he is unstable. Build a wall? Cut taxes to the middle class? Negotiate with rocket boy? Slap tariffs on countries like China? Strike peace deals? Repeal ACA? Get out of paying for that cold war relic NATO? The angry power structures prefer malleable politicians, swayed by campaign contributions. He's a loose cannon! Deplorables vote for him because he actually tries or make the appearance of trying. How did a billionaire become a populist rock star? Worth studying for anyone that gets into politics. I predict the next finalists in the circus will be Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson vs. Kanye West. I'm guessing the Rock will be the Democrat and Kanye the Republican. The war of the media elite.
Trump voters don't really care what he stands for - they care that he's a useful symbol they can use to send a "Can you hear me now" message to the corporate, academic and media elites.
He is, as one wag recently put it, the "last middle finger left for them to wave."
There are many reasons people vote for the "disturber" and yes I agree that is one, but there are many real solid reasons the "deplorables" (she might as well said off with their heads 🙄) vote for Trump.
That was Michael Moore. This is a flawed analysis because the finger that Trump gives them is just political theater. I'm sure Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald would agree. Yes, Trump's fanatics believe that him being in office is a finger to the elites, but what does a finger get you in real life? Into a fist fight or ignored like a pariah. That's what's driving the record numbers of voting in Democrat areas - they are sick of the constant posturing and flipping of fingers and don't want to see 4 more years of it. In that manner, it worked for him in 2016 because people thought he would actually do some of the things he talked so much about. At the end of 4 years with COVID, the economy tanked and nothing to show for all the showmanship other than a few miles of new border wall in remote areas. I don't think that's enough to get him re-elected.
Thank-you! Read Chris Hedges America the Farewell Tour-- lots of reasons why Trump was elected. I remember telling my US colleagues that I thought Trump would be elected and I have NEVER received so much vitriol in response. Oh I am Canadian I don't know our system 🙄, SO much anger and bullying in response to my statement. Same when I said Obama won't change anything. Sigh--this is clearly what 75 yrs plus of obvious propaganda passing as education results in.
He's not the best - he's just what we've got. The last resort. The nuclear option against a world gone mad.
You can't express the "wrong" politics in the work place, or on TV, or on Facebook, or around friends and family, or...
So what's left but the anonymous ballot?
If the DNC is a violent street gang, Trump is the well dressed man from the Mafia politely but firmly suggesting that you pay your protection money to keep the gangs at bay. I'd obviously prefer to have neither, but gun to my head, I'd rather deal with the Mafia guy.
As I've written to one of the other Trumpers here, I was gonna get some help. Really I was. I was gonna go next week.
But then Trump told me he's not gonna lose. Which means for me, I lose our insurance that covers pre-existing conditions - "gone mad". So now I'm hosed.
See what you've done? Now you're going to have deal with all us crazies.
Well, you know, it seems to me it's ending up that way no matter what -- I can't say what I want today, but I'm pretty sure that tomorrow, I also won't be able to, whether it's street gang or mafia man.
There was a Biden rally in my area recently. Trump supporters showed up with bullhorns to drown out the speakers.
In the meantime, rights narrow, our sense of community flounders, healthcare grows more expensive, the pool of decent jobs shrinks, and we become ever more enraged. Is the nuclear option better, or does it just feel good, in the moment?
After 4 years of the insults, unsubstantiated demonizing and false accusations launched at Trump supporters daily on CNN, MSNBC, Twitter, through the young and inexperienced to the old and cynical (waving at Cher, et al)... that's a quite reasonable reaction.
I admire Trump's ability to restrain himself actually.
He's correct. No President has ever had the assault upon his person and family like Trump has - Clapper, Brennen, McCabe, Comey and all their high priced hypocrites in MSM personality pretending to be a Journalist collaborators have never sunk to this level of depraved personal attacks before.
I'm not exaggerating. Clapper, I believe it was, called Trump a traitor on CNN at the same time his private testimony to Congressional committees was that there was no evidence of collusion at the same time Schiff was repeatedly lying on those fake news shows and saying he had seen the evidence himself.
it's outrageous. Trump and his supporters are actually very very decent people or there would be way violence
well, I'm not a historian but certainly in my lifetime.
I think it's because the other Presidents' folded.
I think they sent Obama veiled threats; a couple from a reality show get past the Secret Service and attend a party they weren't invited to and I seem to remember thinking they were passive threatening him when they let a crazy jump the fence and get in the White House before apprehending him.
Also I think the rumors they gave him the coordinates to drone a doctors without borders clinic are plausible. Obama wanted reset with Russia, the spooks do not.
Trump hasn't folded. With the exception of not withdrawing troops which Trump has confirmed outright that the Generals were arrayed against him on that decision. The so called Fascist had mustache man in his cadre and didn't start a war.
but like Deco said better below, the coordination of the attacks with the spooks and MSM, the White House press corps, the overtly hostile social attacks on his cabinet and inner circle, the overtly hostile lies from the spooks, the overtly protective behavior for his opponents by the MSM and the spooks, the soft ball questions afforded Dem candidates, the daily misrepresentations and collective dishonesties... it's crazy.
it is off the chain crazy. There is no way in hell I could support the Dems in these crazy, anti-American, insane provocations.
The Swat FBI arrest of the absurd Roger Stone coordinated with CNN.
The Spooks set up, intimidation to plead guilty and bullshit charges of Gen Flynn.
The pretense that Mueller did anything of any merit - charging Russians that will never be brought to court to defend themselves and process crimes that arose from the harrassment of Americans that worked for Trump.
It is off the chain crazy. Chuckie Shumer told Trump the spooks have 7 ways to mess with him to Sunday. Interesting comment by an insider leading up to the election. I believe he told Trump exactly what he was in for.
I believe that other presidents have endured worse attacks. We've had war time and civil war era presidents, and assassinated presidents. That's as severe as an attack can get. But in terms of the coordinated and collusive wall of attacks by factions that have never been so allied, together with novel institutions and players wielding enormous power in support of that collusion, the attacks on Trump are unprecedented.
I'm for sure that Melania has looked at him and thought, wtf was so bad about living in Trump towers and minding our own business? but I'm also for sure, that's the point to the incessant harrassment - never about serious policy considerations but always on the level of a 3rd grade playground as if we're idiots.
Nobody knows what Pelosi et al want an extra trillion dollars for - the media couches it in simplistic terms of empathetic vs cold hearted and we are subjected to endless "American stories" of gloom and doom designed to make us support a policy whose slogan doesn't begin to explain the actual beneficiaries to the transfer of taxpayer dollars. Bail out the NY City DiBlasio decisions like not enforcing transit users to pay at the turnstile? Offering free healthcare and housing for illegals? Call us racists when we oppose those decisions as fiscally unsound and then hold us hostage to pay for the stupidity. Seriously. That is in itself enough to make one vote for Trump.
Then these arrogant career bureaucrats, politicians, spooks and media personnel that all believe they are better positioned to impose their viewpoints than a duly elected POTUS. Oh. and federal judges. Like the one from Hawaii who felt better positioned to design American immigration policy despite that being one of the areas implicitly assigned to POTUS.
Really. The arrogance is overwhelming. Then Trump comes along with his gold plated toilets, dumping ketchup on his ribeye and... hahaha the arrogant elites heads explode.
If only he were Indian American like Harris' mother that penchant for gold plated ostentatious decorating would be a virtue and ketchup on a ribeye would be folksy.
Let's not avoid the serious Cultural issues accompanying race relations either.
Take a President they have misconstrued what he said from the beginning regarding race and oppose his efforts to make successful inroads to lowering a wealth gap, unemployment number and income inequality. Then when the Democrats, whose bread and butter is keeping minority populations convinced that while they do nothing to help when they have the opportunity, they are still the ONLY option up next to dog whistling Klansmen dressed in business suits.
When those Democrats deliver nothing we are forced to continue to pretend that it's racism keeping incomes low and not the wholesale takeover of what used to pay well - construction, food processing - yes, chicken plants - by illegal immigrants willing to work long hours, live in cramped quarters and shop Walmart in order to send as much of that money as is possible outside the country.
You guys don't know any Trump supporters? Do you know any construction crews? Do you know illegals have no interest in unions, have no interest in better benefits, make no issues about their working conditions and have been known to work from day light to well after dark - doing roofing for instance, all day every day when the work is available? But "illegals" as a term is offensive! haha what a racket.
Yeah. There is an unholy alliance amongst Dems pretending to want open borders for humanitarian reasons. And it's hurting American wages. it's Econ 101.
And it's that fundamental dishonesty - pretending to be the party of unions and working class while really undermining working Americans all the way up through the middle class that adds rage.
And it's CRT, globalism, the incessant nonsense disputing America's exceptionalism, the 1619 project, stupid memes about how wonderful the African continent's cultural wisdom is (it takes a village) and Obama's apology tour - the Dems mostly take any rising issue that has grassroots support and some authenticity, monetize it, weaponize it and destroy it. :::shrugs::::
As long as McConnell keeps the senate the faux warfare waged by Democrats for America's under-served will continue!
They're creating a permanent underclass while they pretend to advance liberal goals and funnel money at their friends fake companies with ineffectual efforts to alleviate the conditions they themselves create.
And I voted for Obama twice and defended him against those who I arrogantly assumed opposed him because of Faux news.
Then, I retired and had time to watch those hearings I had never watched for myself while working and haphazardly catching the news.
Obama had no drama - he likes to say. Except he did. Lots and lots of controversy. It was just squelched.
Still there was a visceral dislike for him that made me uncomfortable. Endless email chains of Obama jokes and stories. McConnell refusing to work with him. I get it, it all bothered me at the time as well.
But the movement of wealth from the middle class home owners to the investor class under Obama should have been criminal.
The republicans prosecuted their own during the S&L crisis. Obama let everyone off the hook, torture, financial crimes, IRS destruction of evidence, Spooks fast and furious.
it's a giant mess. the political's class center hasn't held - the center has sold out and is one giant party waging faux wars against one another and exchanging power amongst themselves while funneling money to each other.
Trump is fringe. that's no longer an insult politically. haha
I hate to break your Dem hate up, but you do know all those businesses in the south with all those illegal aliens ain't a bunch of Dems right? They're God fearing, Murica first Republicans. They love the illegals because they get to pay shit wages and not treat them worth a shit. I agree the Dems are frauds, but let's stop with the one sided thing. I lived and worked among those honest, Jesus lovers and it ain't white folk mowing their lawns in Texas in August. It ain't illegals owning the construction companies or chicken plants or car washes or restaurants that use them. Those white Republicans that want all the illegals gone sure like to pick them up for work at Home Depot. Just be fair about the blatant lying and hypocrisy. There is plenty on the Jesus, libertarian side.
You said that "[n]obody knows what Pelosi et al want an extra trillion dollars for..." I'm not sure if you are saying you don't know or just that the public generally is not familiar, but in case it's the former, it's pretty straightforward and its crazy how little reporting it has gotten. The Dems are holding another covid-relief package hostage to Federal handouts to states. You can defend that as crucial support for governments on the front lines of covid if you like - others will argue that it is a blue state pension bail-out - but there is no denying that this is the main difference, measured by dollars to be spent. Trump is pushing checks to citizens and the Dems are insisting that unless some money is provided to the states as well, no one gets anything.
She’s amazing! I love that she’s so prepared. Reminds me of how I was in high school and college. Always had binder tabs and everything lol. She’s the best! She truly fights the propaganda with truth and even their own words!
Disagree. If you see a nail and you need a hammer, you get the hammer. If it's a screw, you get Joe. He's not a hammer. He's a screwdriver. Trump supporters think we need a hammer. Biden supporters think we need a screwdriver. LOL...or something like that. And I haven't even started drinking!
He isn't the best tool to reintroduce sanity. Insanity is guaranteed. At least with Trump I get someone that doesn't want to destroy our energy infrastructure like we have with Newsome here in California. That is the one thing that is not negotiable for me. I want natural gas and I want fossil fuel based transportation. Anyone that is not for that is out for me. I don't trust Biden or Harris on this. I could care less about all of the other stuff. But destroying our energy infrastructure and transportation systems is a bridge too far to me, and a lot of other people as well.
It doesn't need to be fossil fuel. But it needs to be a baseload energy source. A baseload energy source never stops producing energy. Nuclear, Geothermal, Tidal, Fussion, Fossil fuels. Wind and solar do not provide baseload energy and must be backed up by baseload energy sources. As a Californian when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, we have to import energy from other states. This results in rolling blackouts, which I don't like.
I would be fine with renewables if they provided constant baseload energy. right now they do not. So making fossil fuels illegal or cost prohibitive through legislation is not a wise thing right now.
He's not. Because no one is. This is magical thinking. Sanity will either come or it won't--it has to be cultural and via osmosis and organically at this point. It's not coming from a politician or a political office.
LOL? Very well thought out reply. It was the UN that opposed Bush's invasion of Iraq. Is that something you're against? Please try to articulate at least one area of disagreement with the UN. Because in my experience it's mainly neocons who hate it.
Okay: The U.N. regularly puts grotesque violators of human rights on its human rights panel: Cuba, Venezuela, China. Yeah, I have lots of disagreement with the U.N.
And as much as Trump rails against the media, he has done nothing to curtail press freedoms. A lot of morally bankrupt activists posing as journalists are making a good living attacking Trump on air and in print.
Obama prosecuted more reporters for violating state secrets acts than Trump has, even though career bureaucrats have been violating public disclosure laws at a far, far higher rate under Trump than under Obama.
TDS is all too real, and even Matt seems to have a mild case of it.
"The U.N. regularly puts grotesque violators of human rights on its human rights panel: Cuba, Venezuela, China. Yeah, I have lots of disagreement with the U.N."
Psst....you forgot a few MAJOR human rights violators. Namely, the USA and Israel.
Julian Assange would disagree with you. Not even Obama (who Trump supporters cannot help but to bring up in ANY conversation about Trump) indicted Assange and subjected him to solitary confinement and torture. That is 100% on Trump.
You do know that Assange is being held in the UK, not the US, right? I do wish Trump had a better stance with regards to Assange, but up to this point his treatment is 100% on the UK government, regardless of who else has tried to influence their decisions.
P.S. Venezeula is not a "grotesque human rights violator" - that's absolute horseshit, especially compared to any single American war, let alone the aggregate.
"curtail press freedoms" is only part of the issue. It's not just the UN. Numerous journalism advocacy groups have said Trump is potentially dangerous to journalists/journalism.
"Its report, titled “The Trump Administration and the Media,” documents such Trump administration practices as using US Customs and Border Protection to question journalists and search their electronic devices at border crossings; Mr Trump's calls for boycotts of news organisations and for changes in libel laws to punish reporting he doesn't like; the ending of formal White House press briefings for more than a year; and Trump's repeated lies to discredit accurate reporting."
Or it "unstable and dangerous president" applies to Obama, to the extent he knew about the spying on Trump's campaign both before and after the 2016 election. Obama totally undermined the idea of a peaceful transition. Obama and Susan Rice and Jim Comey and the DOJ....and Clapper and despised Brennan at CIA. These people were all in the Obama administration. How dangerous is that? How can anyone have any faith in these institutions? Or faith in the next transition whenever it occurs?
I agree. "..unstable and potentially dangerous president" applies more to a potential Joe Biden. Trump has not started any wars. He has been getting us out of the Mideast. So I don't understand how the evidence supports that Trump is the problem....when the actual evidence supports that Joe Biden and the Democrats have dangerously entangled the CIA and FBI in a fake Russia story for the sole purpose of gaining power by lying. How is that not dangerous no matter what Trump says. Democrats impeached Trump while the FBI had the Hunter Biden laptop and never revealed anything. Forget being Republican or Democrat--doesn't it concern any rational American that our institutions are being undermined internally? That our media is a propaganda operation? That our best and most honest reporters are "stooges." Even the few that exist? Doesn't that weaken us as a country?
Thank you for this. There really are no Dems or Reps anymore; no Conservatives or Liberals or Libertarians. There really are only Populists (that Trump and Bernie represent) and Establishment boosters (every institution with power - media, federal and congressional bureaucracy, corporations, big tech - who are using BLM, antifa types as their shock troops, even tho they have limited control over them). I think we need to realize that's where the lines are now. Everything has been disrupted and shifted and it wasn't just because of Trump. This started during GHWB and the Clinton administration when both parties glommed together for the corporate good.
Have you followed the FIRE movement? Interesting twist on top vs bottom. For those that haven't heard of it, "Financial Independence, retire early" - Live a simple life, avoid excessive consumerism and save $ - having more people check out of materialism to gain independence from consumerism (the American way) is a trend worth watching because it changes your world view (and probably your political affiliation).
You'll go broke saving money, the interest rate isn't even keeping up with inflation.
Kill capitalism and you kill the need for constant growth and the usury of the elite with one stone.
Unity is key, checking out of the facade that is the government in every 5 eyes country is the only way of stopping the elite from bringing back slavery.
The prison industrial complex is the working model. People who can't leave, feed themselves, call in sick or retire. Meanwhile, wealth continues to concentrate almost as fast as control is.
It's his opinion. He's also making a point as to where is argument lies, as nobody in the MSM or on the left generally seems to perceive it: he is not defending Trump. He doesn't like Trump. He doesn't like Trump as president. He doesn't want Trump to win the election. Which is fine. That's a perfectly legitimate opinion, just as seeing Biden as dangerous or a poor candidate and not wanting him to win is.
Taibbi is primarily a media critic in his new reporting. This isn't about supporting Trump (what others say to the contrary) but critiquing the media's new approach to framing and shaping "news", rather than reportage. And how the MSM refuses to let ideas compete in full public view, but attempts to pick winners ahead of time based on their own biases and political or ideological orientations.
I watched the clip of his Joe Rogen chat. I have to say I stopped giving money to the Intercept because I felt it was becoming a Democratic cheer leader. I am so glad to see that Greenwald didn't drink the Kool-Aid (and was fighting the editorial expansion of power). Great integrity!!
Looking forward to seeing more from him with the Intercept chains gone.
Peak 2020 is listening to those stooges because they're being paid by CNN etc. to render their opinions on Foreign Policy. "Next on CNN, Jeffrey Dahmer will join us on how to meal prep for summer barbecues"
Comey, too. And, of course, the Bushes, the Clintons, Obama and most before them...war crimes, you know. Those same people gave us Trump. If Obama had done his job, we would have universal healtcare and education, have all our troops home and NATO disbanded, and no Trump.
Glenn and Matt are two of the best and will always be my first go-to reporters. Those others like them (and we all know who they are) also must report outside of mainstream. I took the New Yorker for years, famous for its fact-checking. Since they fell for the Russiagate lies and the Syria lies, and all the other lies (they hired Masha Gessen who is changing the quality even more), no longer. Some days I am disgusted by the Internet, yet it's the place to get real news, so am grateful for that. Thanks, Matt, for this writing. Way to go, Glenn.
"These fragments I have shored against my ruins." The fourth estate is a wasteland and our only resort is seek out individual truth seekers and ignore the rubble.
Matt...once again you stated the obvious with devastating clarity resulting in many needing access to the fainting couch. You may want to consider some kind of trigger warning. I am thinking something along the lines of " the following article may express opinions that deviate from accepted orthodoxy and as such readers may want to sit down before reading". In the alternative how about "go f*#k yourself if you cannot deal with an opinion that differs from what you have been told is your opinion".
Based on some of the earlier comments below I'd say that you are spot on. Nothing exemplifies triggered like the dullest tools running out of shed screaming "conspiracy!", working in overdrive to discredit any person or outlet which threatens their fragile yet absolutely certain cocoon of orthodoxy.
Too many important issues that, for a variety of reasons, reporters at major institutions wont report on or won’t do so accurately.
Just last night a major reporter for NYT seemed to question basic reporting on the riots and looting in Philadelphia. Hard to even believe. But they do this with issue after issue- just look at how dishonest they’ve been with the police shootings over the last few months. They won’t even state the facts clearly. And very few besides Matt has taken on this insane critical race theory and I’m sure after he wrote his great article- many would have cancelled him if they could..
There are journalists (and outlets) who attempt to report the truth as best they can. Then there are the ideological (and/or financial) puppets who are nothing more than water carriers for those in power. Not much gray area in between.
As Jigsaw always told his victims, "The choice is yours".
Another example; During the nightly protests in Portland - I found that the coverage in the Daily Caller was more accurate and honest than that of the Times’, whose correspondent, for whatever reason, didn’t rise to the moment.
It was a microcosm of the problems facing legacy media; pressure from social media not to cover certain stories, pressure from woke colleagues to conform to be racist, etc
It’s all very disturbing because at the end of the day I couldn’t trust the paper of record to tell me what was happening.
"Protesters" (lol) here in PDX can and do drive press away, with threats of violence and sometimes violence, from their gatherings to ensure nothing is documented. The latest:
No question it’s become dangerous. These lunatics threaten and attack and bully reporters. I’m sure it’s not easy being a reporter covering these situations. That said, it must be covered. I don’t mean to single out the Times’ reporter but if you’re working for the paper of record I think you need to find a way to get it done or transfer to a doctor beat. Reporters for the Daily Caller managed to do an excellent job apprising readers of what was actually happening in Portland.
An update, from the 11/6 Oregonian, referring to activity the night of 11/5-6. A "small group" (nothing specific, but later in the 'reporting' it mentions a "few dozen" going somewhere else after the group dispersed. lol... "small"...) went to the same commissioner's house:
"The demonstration followed a City Council vote against a proposal that would have cut millions of dollars from the Portland police budget. For months, demonstrators have demanded steep cuts to end the disproportionate policing of Black Portlanders.
Ryan, who joined the council in September, was viewed as a crucial third vote for the $18 million in proposed cuts. He voted no.
The commissioner’s house was dark when protesters arrived around 9 p.m. Some people lit flares near his house and shattered some glass on the property. Other people threw objects at the house and smashed a large flower pot."
They vandalized his empty home - breaking at least one window, were driven off by police (3 arrests). Lucky he wasn't home eh?
So, timeline. Newly elected counselor. Contentious vote coming up. Visited at night by people concealing their identities (it's the fundamental purpose of black block). Meet with them, prohibit the press from documenting the meeting; deny they knew the press were even there when the press later tells the story. Vote happens. Home visited again, this time attacked, because he didn't vote the way they wanted.
Wow. Makes the chants "Whose street? Our street!" and "This is what democracy look like!" really come to life!
Thanks for the update Eric. I heard that Ryan voted against the police budget cut and I was pleasantly surprised. By your original post I thought he was with the protesters, I didn't know the protesters targeted him. Good for him. That budget cut would have been bad news, IMO. Glad he voted against it. Also really glad that Eudaly is out and Mapps is in. Gives me a bit of hope for our city.
Thank you for this. Cheers to GG for standing by his ethics. I gave up on the intercept a year ago. It was obviously becoming another echo chamber. When did it become so egregious to allow readers the option to read and critically think on their own!?
I won't be able to afford 100x individual subscriptions. As more and more principled journalists stand up for free speech, I won't be subscribing to many individuals. I would like Substack to work with a group of free-speech journalists, or otherwise, those journalists are going to need to band together and create a new media organisation (while it's still legal).
Agreed. Greenwald mentioned a new venture. I would bet a pretty penny Taibbi will be involved. There are only so many civil libertarian journalists left.
I get what Taibbi and Greenwald are saying, but dying on this hill in the service of another four years of a guy who is openly saying he wants to be a dictator is a choice that I'm having trouble understanding. Like would they have wanted to be the guys in Germany yelling about how unfair the media was being to Hitler (yeah yeah...)? I dunno, maybe they're right, and losing trust in our media outlets has driven us into our media bubbles and made everything worse, but I think the media (old-school and social) is just trying to figure out how to deal with a bad actor who is happy to lie at scale, with a huge ecosystem of leeches, grifters, and conspiracy-peddling enablers happy to keep the lies rolling. I don't think that Greenwald or Taibbi has the answer to this crisis, and it seems like they are focusing more on an effect of Trumpism rather than a cause, much as they'd like to think it was the reverse.
I wrote a statement talking about my conflicted feelings about trying to pin our whole shitty situation on the media. Gotta say, it's sad to see most of you have no such conflicts. I don't think punting on a poorly-sourced Hunter Biden hit job a week before the election is some conspiracy by a neoliberal warmongering media (at the Intercept!) to install Biden so we can march into Iran. And as much as GG and MT can call what they are doing noble, it ALSO happens to help Trump, and there is a whole ecosystem of bad-faith media ready to twist and amplify their message in support of Trump.
I would also be shocked if Taibbi wasn't also having some conflicted thoughts about this new career turn, especially given the new crop of red hat commentators he seems to be picking up.
And for those of you who truly think Biden is more of a liar or more dangerous than Trump, let's just say we disagree.
"I would also be shocked if Taibbi wasn't also having some conflicted thoughts about this new career turn, especially given the new crop of red hat commentators he seems to be picking up."
Guilt-by-association is the most loathsome form of criticism, IMO. It also demonstrates a weakness in the arguments about whatever the author is asserting--otherwise there would be no need to evoke the deplorables who read and comment on the article as a critique.
That being said, I don't know if Biden is more of a liar or more dangerous than Trump. But I'm pretty sure the mainstream media is. I don't care for the new media landscape of narrative shaping, redfining the meanings of words, truth-over-facts, reporting on Tweets being considered news, etc. Trump might be the ideal president for our current cultural state of affairs but he's hardly the only offender.
Also, if Greenwald and Taibbi "ALSO happen to help Trump", that's not on them. That's far more on the media generally, as their transformation from reporters to 100% opinion "journalists" is what creates an ecosystem for folks like Matt and Greenwald at all.
"I don't care for the new media landscape of narrative shaping, redefining the meanings of words, truth-over-facts, reporting on Tweets being considered news, etc. "
Amen! I totally agree. And you can say it's not on them if their arguments get twisted by others, but they are the ones who bit on this stupid Hunter Biden bait! Are we supposed to forget that the whole reason Trump was impeached was because he was trying to strongarm the leader of the Ukraine into digging up this crap?
Are you seriously unaware that the rightwing media ran with the NY Post story the second it came out, and that the only big boost it got after that was because of the efforts by FB, twitter and the liberal press to censor the Post article? Seriously?? All of that happened before GG, Taibbi, or any other progressive said a word about the subject, and when they did comment, one of their main points was that the effort to censor the story gave it fresh legs - how do you keep missing this?
As for "digging up this crap", do you honestly not know that even James Risen was digging into it for the NY Times before the 2016 campaign ever got going, and that progressives shouted throughout this primary season that the story was a time bomb waiting to go off that was bound to make Biden vulnerable? Risen did try and put lipstick on the pig, but it was hopeless even for him; the cat was already out of the bag on this 5 years ago! If you are actually unaware of these things you have no business commenting on the actions of Greenwald and Taibbi. What you are doing amounts to nothing more serious than shooting the messenger, while ignoring the main point of the message. Because claiming that something is "Russian disinformation" when there is NO evidence of Russian involvement and no one even denying that the information in question is genuine is a very dangerous game for many reasons. Russia is not just some kind of piñata for partisan political hacks to kick around, maybe you didn't know that? And more to the point, as I already said, calling it "Russian disinformation" just adds fuel to the rightwingers' fire - Taibbi and GG are TRYING to point that detail out, and you keep refusing to listen to what they are telling you.
Shokin was doing his job in investigating Burisma/Hunter BIden-and the targets didn’t like it. Was Shokin suspect in other investigations.......that’s beside the point........
"Guilt-by-association is the most loathsome form of criticism, IMO. It also demonstrates a weakness in the arguments about whatever the author is asserting--otherwise there would be no need to evoke the deplorables who read and comment on the article as a critique."
In this passage David was not presenting an argument. He was speculating on Taibbi's feelings--submitting the possibility that he might be experiencing internal conflict. It seems likely that the man who wrote Insane Clown President could have complex feelings about some of his Substack readers imploring him to take the final step to being "red-pilled," a sentiment expressed in this very article's comments section.
I can't see why anyone making the completely rational point that both sides should be held to the same level of press scrutiny should be worried if that is misinterpreted by people on either side as a lean to the right. It just isn't. I recently finished Insane Clown President and nothing in this article strikes me as inconsistent with the tone of the chapters criticising the Dems / Dem-supporting sections of the media.
Here’s the thing, and others made reference to it: if Twitter and Facebook hadn’t blocked this, it would barely have registered. Another story about Ukraine or Russia that’s too complex or boring, with a bunch of unpronounceable names, for most people to make note of. Part of the daily scandal churn. Same thing with censoring Greenwald. If they print his story, a bunch of liberals call him a Russian asset again, and everyone goes about their business. How many people do you suppose read the Intercept? How many of them are undecided voters?
I’m a longtime liberal, I’ve been an organizer for Pete’s sake. But most of the left has such a mania for suppressing speech that it’s impossible to help them see their own Streisand effect. If you really don’t want this story to influence voting, then don’t give it a signal boost.
Greenwald is now on Tucker Carlson talking about anti-Biden stories being spiked. Completely a self-own by the Intercept. If this ends up finding any undecided (typically low information) voters, it will be because the neoliberal left believe they can stop everyone, everywhere from encountering information that they find unfortunate or distasteful.
I feel zero conflict. It’s never defensible, ethical, or wise to push untruth in this business. Focusing on that and ignoring the politics is what protects people like me. If I cared about who was and was not “helped” by facts - and I really don’t, in fact I care a lot less than Glenn probably - I would say the people who push Russia conspiracies and cover up things like this Hunter business are/were Trump’s biggest allies. Their incompetence and dishonesty were Trump’s best argument.
By their own claims, Democrats and their base are better educated, more inclusive, more aware, more engaged, and more representative of the needs of constituents than their opponents. In my opinion, their actions and their failure to act to alleviate the massive inequalities in their society or to end the American role in destabilizing sovereign countries must be held to a higher standard. They know better than to countenance the disparity of wealth and income, the unequal provision of education and other social resources, the illegal and therefore murderous continuance of foreign aggression against mostly non-white less prosperous (but resource-rich) populations. Biden has been complicit and has either been active in the continuation of all of these, or has stood by and let it happen.
And having done that, you now feel like you have enough cred as a progressive to shill for the "centrist" faction now, and join in the attempts to stifle discussion of their counterproductive tactics?
Ugh... Bernie was such a wasted vote. I voted for him instead of Tulsi in the primaries bc I didn’t want Biden to win. I should have just voted Tulsi like I wanted to.
Also him shilling for the candidate that takes all the donations from Wall Street is so gross. Sad to see him lose his principles in his old age. At this point, I think he’s controlled opposition.
And China's Belt and Road is the real colonialism. Biden and China make a good pair. So how could anyone imagine this guy as President? If that isn't obvious---then they are brainwashed. Nothing excuses the left or the Democrats. Biden is incapable of leading this country in any way, shape or form. Ditto K. Harris.
Good Lord, asking which is worse of Trump vs. Biden is like asking who is more morally/ethically reprobate-the WWE or the Vladimir Putin regime. The neo-lib Ds/Deep State play well meaning “progressives” for moral suckers.........
Please. This is chess, not checkers. And you're asking the wrong question.
The more relevant question is "of these two candidates, whose ill-conceived policies would be easier to effectively oppose, once inaugurated President?" Real world, real time.
And don't even fall for the fallacy of two-valued logic that a vote for a presidential candidate signifies that the voter has pledged their troth to them forevermore (or whatever the numbskull take is on that, I've heard it so many times...) The Democratic Party has made a lot of ambitious proposals in the course of this campaign. If the Democrats win the Presidency and the Senate (required), there's enough free-floating discontent in this country that the people who voted for them will notice any sign of wavering or dissembling on their part. And if the Dems do pull the football away, there will be hell to pay for the Democrats. If they don't follow through, it will polarize the country worse than anything that's happened in the last four years, because the Dems will have sold out their own base of popular support, while clutching levers of power that they plainly don't deserve.
If the Republicans retain a majority in the Senate and the Democrats remain functionally disabled in that house of Congress, a lot depends on the ability of the Democrats to expose GOP obstructions (inevitable, as long as Mitch McConnell or someone like him is Senate Majority leader) and make the case that they'll only be able to accomplish their goals if they obtain a Democratic majority Senate in the 2022 midterms. This should be obvious. Unfortunately, the Establishment Democrats don't have much of a track record of fortitude on that score, and that's a big enough problem to lead to doubts as to whether the leadership cadre of the Democratic Party cares more about pursuing the goals touted in their campaign, or about keeping a ready excuse for their failures on hand.
As long as it's too early to tell, I recommend voting to permit the Democrats to take back the Senate. Just as I recommend voting for the Democratic Party candidate, despite the fact that Joe Biden would not be my top choice if we had ranked-choice voting.
So much is conditioned by the ballot system, don't you see? I learned about ranked-choice voting in 1998, and this is the 5th Presidential election I've had to suffer through, knowing that there's a way out of this rigged, bogus, stagnant status quo of two thoroughly entrenched parties and their media-reified "Red/Blue meme" offal. To speak of Polarization.
How much of the useless chatter in discussions of American Presidential elections would be totally nullified and mooted, if only voters had the ability to rank (as few as two) choices, allowing them to vote FOR the candidate they most want, instead of the current situation for most of us, of being cornered into voting AGAINST the candidate that they've concluded is the worst of two choices? Speaking from extensive personal observation: almost all of it. Which is a telling indication of how much improvement would be effected by a ranked-choice ballot reform.
I’ll be honest-I knew going in that neither Trump nor the Ds gives a rat’s ass about fiscal sanity, so I have to look at other things. I’ll take four more years of the pre-Covid economy, the post 16’ foreign policy, the Justice/Education depts acting as bulwarks against CRT, and judicial nominations going in the direction I prefer.
I’ll take 4 more years of the districts giving the finger to Panem, I’m old enough to realize that my preferred ideological revolution isn’t around the corner-and that’s OK. I’m a libertarian and I believe the US Constitution, strictly followed, is still the most libertarian plan of government developed in history. I want to see it’s specific governmental directives/strictures followed(hint-they aren’t, by all sides of the system), and the Bill of Rights honored and embraced as a national ethos.
"I’ll take four more years of the pre-Covid economy"
By most measures, that economy was around the same one as the 2015-16 economy. It's gains have largely been due to a continuation of the recovery that was already well underway.
But the other flaw in that framing is that it doesn't account for the possibility that fast, dramatic intervention at the national level might potentially have had the ability to stop the spread of the epidemic in its tracks.
From the April 13, 2020 New Yorker:
"...Emboldened by vindication, the Australian, walking through the countryside, laid out his prognosis for the United States and the world. America needed to “rip off the Band-Aid,” he said. The federal government should close the borders, shut off all international commerce, declare martial law, deploy the military to build field hospitals and isolation wards, and arrest or even fire on anyone who didn’t abide by a stay-in-place protocol. (“In 1918, in San Francisco, a cop shot someone in broad daylight for being outside without a face mask, and the cop was celebrated for it!”) Or perhaps the government should reward each citizen who strictly observed the quarantine with fifty thousand dollars. “The virus would burn out after four weeks,” he said. The U.S. had all the food and water and fuel it would need to survive months, if not years, of total isolation from the world. “If you don’t trade with China, they’re screwed,” he said. “You’d win this war. Let the rest of the world burn.” The problem, he said, was that, perhaps more now than ever, Americans lack what he called “social cohesion,” and thus the collective will, to commit to such a path. “Plus, you have guns. Lots of guns. And all the base materials for your drugs, like ninety-seven per cent, come from China.” He predicted that any less stringent measures—the slow removal of the Band-Aid that we are experiencing now—would result in social unrest bordering on civil war, and the decimation of our medical ranks. “So suddenly everyone who’s seen ‘House’ would be a doctor,” he said. Politically, the Australian considered himself well right of center, yet he thought it ridiculous that the United States doesn’t have nationalized health care..."
The person quoted- an unnamed Australian, wealthy young hedge fund dude- went on to elaborate on his dour opinion of the c.2020 American body politic, and to make some decidedly cynical predictions that I hope will not be proven correct. But some of his predictions have been borne out, as illustrated by the quote above. And he evidently shares my own inclination to view economics and social phenomena pragmatically and empirically, rather than choosing to be blinkered by ideological rigidity. As an American, I can't endorse his more Draconian recommendations- martial law, forcible lockdown under threat of death. I think a sufficiently forceful message could have been sent without the necessity for drastic measures like those. But the fact remains that a consistent message backed up with a decisive national strategy was what was required, and we didn't get anything remotely resembling that response from the Trump administration.
We are still not getting it. Trump apparently thinks that the epidemic can be reversed by the force of rhetoric, employing denials that continue to break barriers of logic and reason with every new pronouncement (although as with most other topics, Trump has always been careful to insert some statements that completely contradict his other statements, for the purpose of constructing an official record.) At this point, Trump can't even point to his earlier record of backing up medical support systems with Federal emergency deployments of Army medical personnel and equipment, the way his did in New York State in the spring of the year- ICUs are hitting capacity all over the heartland and intermountain West as I write this, and I haven't noticed any deployments of Army medical personnel or hospital bed units to any of those states. The DoD and National Guard are heavily involved in testing and preparation for vaccine distribution, yes- but I've heard nothing about support for the looming crisis in hospital beds and ICU facilities in recent months. That support surged, and for the most part turned out not to be needed in regions like the New York City metropolitian area, which had ample hospital beds and equipment. But now, cases are surging in more thinly populated parts of the country, and the implications of that for hospitalized patients in parts of the country that lack the care facilities of densely populated states don't appear to be receiving much attention at the Federal level. Other than statements from the incumbent President that the threat from the virus has been wildly and unethically exaggerated by both the news media and medical professionals.
"the post 16’ foreign policy"
I only wish I knew what that policy was. I've witnessed four years of decidedly mixed messages in terms of both rhetoric and action.
For what it's worth, I'm of the mind that a prospective Joe Biden administration will need to tread very lightly in terms of the future prospects of American military intervention- particularly in regard to initiating new foreign adventures or escalations, a path he had better not tread at all. If Biden makes that mistake, he'll doom his Presidency as surely as LBJ did. Only it won't be as pretty.
The neocons are still around, of course, and still as detached from the ghastly consequences of the militarism that they tout as they ever were. In my opinion, once your supposed comrades-in-arms in the local population start targeting your own forces in suicide attacks, that means it's time to pack up and leave it to the people who live there. To speak only of Afghanistan. But I have no assurance that a second Trump term will keep us out of War with Iran- a possibility I rarely hear addressed by Trump acolytes, many of whom give me the impression that they're cool either way with whatever course the Leader charts in that regard. (Whereas whatever liabilities a Joe Biden Presidency might possibly carry, the likelihood of a Cult of Personality forming around him is remote.)
I remember when I used to be a Libertarian Ideologue. But I found out that Practical Reality imposed overriding performance constraints on all idealized mind-maps. All of them are grossly oversimplified models. The more thoroughly worked out ideologies have an internal logical consistency that appears to work fine in theory- as long as the hypothetical examples don't stray too close to an honest and complete accounting of conditions on the ground. None of them scale up as intended in theory.
That consideration alone was sufficient to be a deal-breaker. But as if that wasn't enough, I've never encountered an Ideology that didn't eventually end up demanding that I choose between the dictates of its precepts and my personal moral and ethical principles.
I haven't dispensed with Ideologies entirely. The well-thought out ones are useful maps, and make useful points. They work well for the purposes of synthesis. But an insistence on relying on a single ideological gloss as the answer to every problem of politics, economics, and law is like someone insisting that the only tool required to build a house is a set of screwdrivers.
(To say nothing of what happens when someone comes along to insist on the superiority of philips-head screwdrivers over flat-blades, or vice versa...but it doesn't matter, because once the debate revolves around that question, the discussion is already so off-track that it's doomed to futility. Meanwhile, without that realization, the debate can continue indefinitely....)
Wrong Wrong Wrong. The Dems had control of the House and used it for impeachment instead of policy. Trump wanted to make deals. The Dems didn't want him to get credit. Country be damned. Can't you see where this is going? Cancel culture. Ends justify the means. The Dems aren't progressive at all. It's a game and Big Business, Big Tech and Wall Street are all supporting Dems. How much more info do you need?
Your problem is that censorship is self-reinforcing. You are sure that Trump "lies at scale" and is basically Hitler, but as we see repeatedly via Matt's reporting, anything that makes the Democrats look bad has been systematically suppressed for the past 4 years and anything that makes Trump sound like a liar is blasted out at full volume, usually manipulated in ways to make it look worse. Often claims about Trump are just made up out of whole cloth.
As a consequence you actually have no idea how much lying Biden engages in, literally no idea at all. You're comparing him to Trump but what evidence base are you using to make that comparison? Your impression derived from reading news reports? Biden could lie every day, far more than Trump, and you'd never know. I'm not saying he *does* do this, because I - like you - haven't the foggiest clue either. To be able to accurately weigh up the candidates at this point we'd need an unbiased stream of information about both, which is the opposite of what we have.
As for your claims that Trump "wants to be a dictator", the same claims were made in 2016. He's had two golden opportunities this year in the form of COVID and mass rioting, yet he's been the model of federalism throughout. State governorship never seemed so important, did it? Trump says a lot of stuff but when weighed by his actual actions, these claims don't match the reality of his presidency so far.
Trump is a liar. There's no "sounds like" to this. His entire career is based on lying.
Trump lies like a rug to cover up his incompetence and his real motives. Ask anyone he has ever owed money to. He'll sue you in a heartbeat and or screw you out of you money however he can.
Please don't try to lie everyone into believing he's a victim. Everything being done to him he has already done to someone.
You weren't bawling about the press spreading lies when Trump and faux news where smearing Obomber about his birth certificate, or the fear mongering narrative about being a secret Muslim implementing Sharia law, or having 27 social security numbers,or his secret plan to get Ebola to somehow kill only conservatives or whatever else hair on fire bullshit.
Trying to claim this as being a one sided affair when it's been going on for the entire history of politics is just getting nauseating.
Trump is getting exactly what he put out, so get over it.
Er, I'm not American and so only pay attention to stuff that's the top of the priority pile. When Trump was an "Obama birther" this was well before he was on the radar of people outside the USA, and the US media were doing their job of attacking such claims anyway, so what was there to say? I realise that you're using "you" to mean "generic American conservative", but there are lots of us out here affected by US politics for various reasons that don't follow every twist and turn of everything any presidential candidate does.
Does Trump lie a lot? For sure he does. Does he lie a lot more than other politicians? We can't tell because your press exaggerates everything bad about Trump 10x and - as we're seeing here - sinks stories that are bad about left wing candidates. So none of us can actually make a fair comparison, regardless of how strongly you feel it's clear or obvious. Biden could be talking total nonsense every day and maybe we'd hear about 1% of it.
And there we see how Trump manipulates people into thinking he's a victim despite the fact he would and has done everything that's being done to him.
The fact you actually believe the press only lies one way and just started lying when Trump took office just shows you buy into the fantasy that Trump is an honest player in crooked game that he's been contributing to his entire career.
Anyone that thinks the press hasn't been burying stories for decades now shouldn't bother commenting about American politics.
How many war crimes and scandals has the press covered up in the history of the United States ?
Did the same press not cover up the war crimes of the Bush administration ? How about Ronny Ray-gun and his war crimes or the fact he was just as bad as or worse than Biden by the end of his last term ?
Trump is getting what every president gets. The elite will pay most of his asking price in the end, and he's already told them what that is or he'd be dead already.
Yes, the only change has been the amount and effectiveness. Only a total fool who has never read history or done any research believes the press hasn't always been pushing the agenda of the empire.
What you have now is a camera on almost every citizen and the internet as competition.
Once again. Trump is a lifelong liar and megalomaniac who never would have gotten into the GOP primaries if not for his hypocritical use of the press and his devotion to PR and propaganda.
Trying to portray him as a victim only proves your own naivete.
If you for one minute think he wouldn't do to any of his opponents what is being done to him you are the biggest fool in the universe.
"You weren't bawling about the press spreading lies when Trump and faux news where smearing Obomber about his birth certificate, or the fear mongering narrative about being a secret Muslim implementing Sharia law, or having 27 social security numbers,or his secret plan to get Ebola to somehow kill only conservatives or whatever else hair on fire bullshit."
I don't remember any of those but the birth certificate one and that wasn't widely embraced by republicans.
Taibbi warned everyone about someone like Trump coming to power. He warned about Obama and Bush expanding presidential authority and taking away peoples rights. He said someone like Trump would abuse those powers for true evil.
Never once has he said Trump should be the guy to continue on. What he's saying is electing Biden isn't going to fix decades long issues. By protecting Joe we're just moving further and further away from the place we need to get to. That's the problem. I voted for Joe and I can't stand him, but I did it because Trump is truly an evil man to another level... but Joe is no saint, and people like Joe need to change the way the system works, or get the fuck out the way and let people who are willing to step in place. Otherwise, it won't matter what side you are - there won't be sides soon enough. It'll simply be those with money and power vs everyone else; even moreso than it already is.
Personally or the Trump name name in general ? Once again, we are dealing with the turd sandwich scenario due to our fake two party system.
Trump's dad was arrested at a KKK meeting and that doesn't generally happen on accident. Not to mention the Trump family red lining fortune our little trust fund baby president fell into along with all of daddies lawyers and mob connections.
I mean individually, not for the 'sins of their fathers". In the 1920s... the KKK had a LOT of membership. Look it up. They were actually very popular. It's disgusting -but not my point.
My point is that on each of their own merits, nobody can say seriously that Biden hasn't been right there helping the New World Order brand of global imperialism and tyranny.
Just one his voting record alone we can see he was responsible for everything people are fed the fuck up with from shitty banking regulation to constant war all over the world. Tens of millions killed or displaced.
Taking money from China itself and businesses that rely on china's concentration camps and slave labor. I'm not talking neck ties... that's child's play.
I'm talking Nike, Reebok, Apple, Google, Disney... Big name donors. Shall we go into Jeffrey Epstein's alleged child prostitution ring?
I mean, they're all compromised and one of them is running for the office of president.
So you're saying Trump being a small time thug makes him a "better" choice. We're still getting served a shit sandwich no matter what condiment you put on it.
I can see by your insane responses that you are SO conditioned that all you see is the muck on the inside of your mental fish tank.
You really believe that if ANYONE naysays the DNC or Republican narratives that they are automatically crazed lunatics.
Get some help.
Look outside the matrix for reality; it's there, but nobody can make you see it -you have to see past it and see for yourself. THEN you can start contributing what we all REALLY want: your OWN perspective.
I'd value that over your conditioned and programmed bullshit any day. I'm interested in the REAL you; not what the construct told you to think.
You certainly would have nothing to fear about a Democrat shooting you, as none even know which end of an "assault weapon" to point. They just want to ban all guns anyway.
OK then... let's add more to Joe's fucking stack then, shall we?
How about the US government's reign of imperialistic terror all over the globe deposing or toppling foreign governments so their friends can move in and generate HUGE profits while killing or displacing tens of millions since Biden has been in "public service"?
Did TRUMP'S family have a hand in Iraq 1 or 2? Afghanistan? Yemen? Ukraine? Egypt? an attempt at Syria? No. That was Biden and the NeoCon/NeoLib New World Order cunts.
Wake the fuck up asshole... you're cheering for warmongering slavers.
Sure, it's OK to have double standards with our highest ideals of freedom like speech and the press because "Muh Orange Man bad!!!!"
The resistance my old hippy ass....
Go fuck yourself -oh wait... if you voted for Biden, global imperialism and the people who rely on China's fucking concentration camps and slave labor, you already HAVE fucked yourself.
You are a bit off in your criticism, Scott. The US government's anti-communist, pro-imperial, pro-capital policies run very deep in American society, and due to relentless propaganda, deep in the culture as well. Biden is no more a product of this delusion than is Trump. You are as well, as seen by your idiotic "China's fucking concentration camps and slave labor" remark. The only reason you think that is because of the same relentless propaganda.
Um... did I ever say the Us government was pro-communism?
No.
China IS operating concentration camps RIGHT NOW and relies on massive slave labor markets to increase the profits of big business.
To deny that the CCP is actively engaged in slavery and human trafficking AND forced slave labor shows how clueless you really are.
But please, DO call me a "Trump supporter" -even though I don't like the guy and never voted for him. Please. If it makes you feel better about your cheap goods and fancy sneakers.
And here is an excellent example of the problems with modern reportage. Context: we don't know that Trump's father was a Klansman. Or much of anything about his relationship to the Klan. Who knows, he might have been trying to make some headway with Democratic bigwigs in 1920s New York at the time his only known association with the Klan took place:
"News reports from the day show a Fred Trump was detained at a KKK rally in 1927. But there is no evidence that Trump, father to the president, was a member or supporter of the KKK. Posts that discuss simply the detention — for which there are no existing arrest records — without context are misleading."
Might have thought it might be an avenue to get some business or maybe get to meet Woodrow Wilson. Who knows. Might have been a Grand Wizard or Cyclops or whatever stupid name they gave themselves.
But we actually don't know he was a member--or anything about his association with the KKK. Not even sure he was there in support of the KKK--might have been there in opposition. I mean, this was 1927--and he got arrested.
Just saying. Just like Biden's speaking at Strom Thurmond's funeral--or any former KKKers funeral--would have been purely political, not a statement of solidarity with the KKK.
Arcodouche ... this, “ Context: we don't know that Trump's father was a Klansman. Or much of anything about his relationship to the Klan” is just idiocy. There is no evidence whatsoever that Fred was in the Klan or had any “relationship” with it. The “story” is w/o any evidence. He wasn’t charged with association. Repeating the lie doesn’t make it anything other than a lie. BTW it was fucking meeting, it was a fucking Memorial Day parade. He was a spectator to the parade. He was watching the parade. Don’t be a douche bags and repeat stupidity. You are as clueless as spinbackwards. Get a clue.
You really think a career politician whose nearly 80 is going to change the system? That's on the same level of delusion as people who think a billionaire like Trump is a political outsider who's going to shake up the system. It seems you sort of understand the problem, but then you vote for Joe? Why not just write in Mickey Mouse if you don't like the 3rd party candidates? A vote for Joe will be read by Washington as a mandate for more of the last 30 years, but now with a twist of toxic identity politics and one-party media to silence dissenters. What evil do you fear from Donald that is worse than that? After 4 or 8 more years of declining living standards and even greater income inequality that people will be even more dissatisfied than they were after Obama. The next Trump might really be the strongman you fear.
Vote have nothing to do with policy. Think tanks funded by billionaires decide policy and sometimes they let us choose from a stacked ballet which horrible actor will rubber stamp the white page instructions sent them via K-street.
In short, this is a plutocracy and elections are a psyop.
It is not quite "rubber stamp" and "elections are a psyop": the story is indeed that the elites run the show, but they give the majority a limited power of veto, to ensure that they don't do too-unpopular policies that might result in real riots, and the ability to sort of choose which elite factions is in control of the government.
What the majority are not allowed to do is to push for policies not approved by the elites, or to choose to put in control of the government those that don't belong to an approved faction of the elites (e.g. D Trump or J Corbyn at two opposite ends).
This is the "we nominate, you elect" system and sort of balances the actual power of the elites, and the lesser power of the majority.
The current elites however have been significantly rebalancing in their own favour and narrowing the scope of the choices that they allow the majority to endorse.
Okay, given that scenario we would need to account for some really unpopular policies like the current police state, war OF terror, massive fraud during the economic meltdown committed with absolute impunity, and countless war crimes before this where regime change capitalism has been practiced in order to exploit labor and expand the wealth and ego of less than 2500 people.
After quadrupling their share of wealth and power, trying to say the elite are interested in any sort of balance is just magical thinking.
We elect MISleaders, not leaders. Any leaders are quickly eliminated through assassination or propaganda attacks.
If you threaten the elite you'll end up like the Kennedy's or Assange. Either way the only way I can agree with you is perhaps the elite use the government to figure out how to sell their policy without causing a riot that they didn't plan to have happen.
«perhaps the elite use the government to figure out how to sell their policy without causing a riot that they didn't plan to have happen.»
That is part of what I think "representative democracy" is about, and it is mostly about turning violent fights for power into "symbolic" ones, at least within a state:
* During the "Ancient Regime" of feudalism, which lasted 1,000 years in Europe, politics was simply the politics of the protection racket, where gangster families, known as "the aristocracy", fought turf wars with other ganster families, and sent enforcers, called "noble knights", to threaten the populace with burning their villages if they did not pay "protection" money in their turf. The history of the "Ancient Regime" is almost entirely the history of gangster families fighting turf wars or each other within a "family", with the "king" as the "boss of bosses" and "dukes" being the bosses of each ganster family, etc.; in the system there were occasional violent rebellions of the populace against the protection racket gansters.
* That system was based on a huge advantage of cavalry over infantry, which disappeared with the invention of firearms, and the rise of mass armies, including the populace, and a switch to industrial wars with a national, no longer dynastic, base.
* This also resulted in a switch of politics from those of the gangster protection racket and violent gang wars and rebellions to "symbolic" ones, where the populace can veto a faction of the elites instead of rebelling, and fights among elite factions go instead of to the strongest in violence, to the strongest in propaganda.
So the twin purposes of democracy have been to make voters accountable for their choice of which elite faction to endorse, and to turn intra-elite fights into (mostly) non-violent ones.
Quite short of democracy as self-rule by the masses, the usual myth, but a lot better than an endless cycle of turf wars among gangs (the Tudors, the Valois, the Habsburg, etc...) and of rebellions against those gangs.
In the new system the role of the politicians is, as politologists say, to "wangle consensus", that is their role is similar to that of the mercenary leaders who helped the gangs fight their turf wars during the "Ancien Regime": find out what policies and propaganda can win the election battles for the elite faction that has hired them.
The role of journalists and intellectuals is similar to that of parish priests and theologians during the "Ancient Regime"...
Love Tulsi. She’s the most reasonable Dem bc she’s not partisan. Willing to work with the GOP to get things done and people slams her for that. It’s crazy how much the DNC and media smeared her. I hope she stays in politics.
Tulsi's the best. It would be perfect if she were Sec. of State, which the DNC would never allow. I almost respect the RNC more than the DNC because the Republicans outright run on hate and show it and don't care who knows it, unlike the DNC who pretend to be good but aren't.
Voting for Joe, who is clearly incapable of being President, is dangerous and dumb. And Matt's failure to see this is just as dumb. China is far more dangerous than Trump and has hoodwinked too many prior Presidents. Does anyone think Joe is capable of standing up to China or Iran or Russia? He can't even complete a sentence on his own. So is everyone counting on an untested Kamala Harris who got into politics by having an affair with Willie Brown? She's only been on the public payroll...locking up journalists she didn't agree with. Where are people's common sense?
How is calling out the danger of the the efforts of the MSM to squash the Post story and even label it as Russian disinformation dying in the service of Trump? Are you tripping?
Many of us are here as we see through the fallacy of thinking that any comment that questions Trump's enemies means one is pro-Trump. It's kind of the point of most of Taibbi's writing the past couple of years, and he himself is being accused of being a Trumpista with no merit to the accusation. I invite you to stop now lest you make a fool of yourself here.
Oh no...please, not another Hitler comparison. You do your comment a major disservice. Next he'll be rounding up his own family (jewish relatives) and putting them on trains. Why is everyone so quick to leap on the Hitler analogy when suppression of the press is more likely to come from the "left" these days? Strange times. Seriously, the kid gloves for Joe are obvious to anyone paying attention. That strategy is driving votes to Trump. Time for a third party.
Hillary Clinton literally corralled the Press up like ponies behind ropes and refused to take live questions for 9 months of a Presidential campaign and they all kissed her butt for treating them that way.
It is insane. President Obama got deflections like people really cared if he wore a tan suit instead of being upset that he sent a planeful of cash to Iran on his way out the door.
Freaking crazy making, gas lighting, ass kissing poseurs pretending to Journalism
Trump is the third party. The Republicans didn't want him. But they didn't cheat in their primaries....so there he was...on their ticket. Why would anyone imagine a lightweight could stand up to the worst dictators in the world? Trump is unpredictable, as asset in foreign policy. And he's a fighter....not a quality in big supply. He's fighting the entire Washington establishment. Who else has done that?
You have the chronology all wrong. Trump was elected because of loss of faith in media and other institutions. Media has been on this downhill slide, where their aim has been to shape and control the masses and bend them to the will of the DNC, not inform them. This corruption is not new. When you do this, you get Trump. When you scream “Hitler, Hitler, Hitler” at people giving the middle finger to failed and corrupted institutions, you’ll get more Trump.
On scale ? Why is it Trump's lies only count during his presidency and Biden's lies cover his entire career ? Trump is a notorious liar and he sues folks to get out of paying off his debts. So in effect, he's been stealing money his entire career. Not to mention all his business failings that cost folks their livelihood.
You keep forgetting Trump is counting on cashing in just like everyone before him has. That means selling out to the same old money thugs and thieves that got us into this mess to begin with.
Neither one of these mobster bastards is going to reform the mob, and neither one gives a flying fuck about you, me, or anyone else that doesn't have something they want.
David—Telling the truth about Biden is not going into service for Trump. It’s doing your duty as an ethical, honest journalist. You clearly do not get what they are saying.
You do get that the same people who told us about Saddam's WMD's are now telling us that the Post article is Russian disinformation, right? Literally the SAME PEOPLE.
Even if I accepted your premises which I don't, I still can't construct a self consistent interpretation of the universe where Joe Biden constitutes some kind of antidote to lying..
Seriously? Wow, more of the same. Perhaps you can provide all of us rubes clear and direct evidence of Trump “openly saying he wants to be a dictator....” and not just proof that you are just another hater who can’t comprehend sarcasm. Again....wow.
Ok so all the chants of lock her up (about the Gov of MI) and 12-more-years are just hilarious jokes that I'm not getting? I guess when your whole platform is lib-triggering it's hard to tell the jokes from the threats.
Yes, exactly this: Play-acting Hitler is what Hitler did also. No excuses for only pretending to be an openly fascist dictator as a professional wresting script.
It is categorically impossible to describe Trump as aspiring to be a dictator in a post-COVID world. If Trump was going to seize power, he could not have asked for a better scenario than a global pandemic. And Trump's reaction was instead "it's the states job, not mine."
Liberal media has plenty of horrible things to report about Trump without having to make shit up. They chose instead to spend most of their time spreading a completely false narrative about Russia. Mainstream media rarely ever talked about the reasons Trump was elected in the first place. Why should Taibbi or Greenwald report about Trump, when almost every media outlet on the planet is already doing so 24/7? You seem to be ignoring all of the lies, grifters and conspiracy-peddling enablers in the DNC and Intelligence community that the liberal media is almost completely ignoring.
Trump is not Hitler. It is hard to read on for a comment that compares Trump to Hitler. The reason why Hitler came to power was a compliant set of people. People who didn't reject the common theme of the media and those in power is what allowed Nazi Germany to spread. We certainly don't have a compliant media behind Trump, so no danger there. What we do have is a media that is compliant with one set of beliefs. That is the danger, not Trump.
Democrats needs to win elections. How do you win elections when the Democrats have such bad ideas for how to proceed? I am destroying energy intensive jobs is not a winning strategy.
No one is Hitler, but from the start Trump has been playing a modern American version of him on TV, in the manner of a scripted professional wrestling character. It works, it feeds a base, and as you know, Trump declared himself the de facto leader of the fascist movement. I don't care that it's a show. Given what his regime has achieved so far and, more importantly, given that they are promising you openly to steal the election by voter suppression, violent intimidation on the streets, and rigged courts, why do you want to see how much longer it takes before play-acting Hitler becomes more like the real thing? (Note: This is not a defense of Biden!)
I must have missed his declaration of being the de facto leader of the fascist movement. Can you please reply with the clip or text of when he said that. I missed it. Also must have missed the part where "they" are promising to openly steal the election and rigging the courts illegally. Who is "they" and can you forward us all the clips and text of when "they" said that? That would be helpful. And please don't send us the texts of "they" if "they" are Trumps opponents. Because "they" don't count. Only an actual statement by Trump declaring that he will lead the fascist movement will get me to believe it.
You are clearly living in a CNN MSNBC bubble. You need to get out of your bubble and start paying attention to what is really happening.
Asshole, I have not watched two minutes of either network in more than 10 years. What he said is, "proud Boys, stand back and stand by," thus at least affecting to be their leader. Which of course you know, and requires no clip. What his family and crew furthermore said is that armed fascists should show up at the polls to intimidate voters, which they call a "Trump Army," but everyone else in the world who isn't in a FOX or Q bubble understands fascism. It doesn't matter how many fat fucks follow this order, it's an order. What he also did is order lot of deskbound fat fucks from DHS etc., who are organized as paramilitary reserves (already by the prior right-wing governments of Obama, Bush, etc.) into the field to attack assembly by U.S. citizens. What he also did is repeatedly offer to use these forces in imposing martial law on American cities. And this is just the start. You're going to affect more ignorance, and pretend it's "anger" or some such because I'm speaking frankly about fucking fascists, so fuck off forever, you can write another sixteen moron comments here. All this you know, and you don't need no goddamn clips. Now fuck the fuck off.
The media made him say that? I would never say he "failed to condemn white supremacy." That's the corporate media line. As usual, they are coddling their property (Trump the reality tv star) and distracting from the essence.
In that moment, and not only then, he EMBRACED white supremacy, as he has from his first speech about Mexican rapists in 2015 (back when the corporate media was fashioning him into the Republican candidate for you dumb fucks).
Now you want to be in denial, I'll leave you to it.I won't say you're brainwashed - conditioned from childhood, perhaps, but not brainwashed. You can read, you can think, and you choose to deny and defend fascism.
(Well, okay, you are stupid since you're incapable of thinking past the binary. Anyone who sees the monstrosity of Trump must be a Democrat, watching CNN, etc. Since no one is capable of just listening to this motherfucker with their own ears and hearing what he's actually saying, right?)
I would say you have some anger issues NEL. I am not sure Proud Boys would claim they are a fascist group. I don't remember the Trump family stating they are going to have armed fascists showing up to prevent people from voting. But if that is the fantasy you want to believe, I guess that is your right. Fantasize well my friend. You might want to tone down the cursing. It doesn't help you make your case. It actually makes you just look weak.
Oh noes! The fascist street fighters don't claim they're a fascist group! It's defamation! The "Trump Army" is just helping the vote, what's fascist about that? Etc. etc., thank you for illustrating what a whore you are. I don't think you're stupid or brainwashed. You're just happy to front the fascist propaganda. Maybe you think this is team sports, maybe you're more committed and think you're fooling anyone. Now kindly fuck the fuck off. Go bother someone else. You can call it anger issues, I call it righteous anger. Anyone who isn't angry about the declared intent of a fascist takeover has suppression issues. Go work it out with your own therapist.
Did you forget about BLM and all the rioting...and the Democrats kneeling.....and never mentioning "super spreader." The Dems gave us BLM riots which are real not rhetoric.
«No one is Hitler, but from the start Trump has been playing a modern American version of him on TV, in the manner of a scripted professional wrestling character. It works, it feeds a base, and as you know, Trump declared himself the de facto leader of the fascist movement. [...] before play-acting Hitler becomes more like the real thing?»
The hallucinations induced by TDS are tiresome. Consider far worse things like McCarthysm or the extensive bipartisan support for mass murdering tyrants for decades in central and south America (and many other places), and then electoral boasts by GW Bush, BH Obama (and D Trump himself) as to making extensive use of death squads to abduct, torture, and eliminate hundreds or thousands of "enemies of the state" by executive decree. D Trump has been no more fascist than any post-WW2 president, and if anything he is the only recent president not to have started a major war of aggression.
To gain historical context, Alexis de Toqueville's famous "Democracy in America" book of 1834 has this quote (my usual):
«The first newspaper over which I cast my eyes, after my arrival in America, contained the following article:
"In all this affair, the language of Jackson has been that of a heartless despot, solely occupied with the preservation of his own authority. Ambition is his crime, and it will be his punishment too: intrigue is his native element, and intrigue will confound his tricks, and will deprive him of his power; he governs by means of corruption, and his immoral practices will redound to his shame and confusion. His conduct in the political arena has been that of a shameless and lawless gamester. He succeeded at the time, but the hour of retribution approaches, and he will be obliged to disgorge his winnings, to throw aside his false dice, and to end his days in some retirement where he may curse his madness at his leisure; for repentance is a virtue with which his heart is likely to remain for ever unacquainted."»
You are missing the point and not actually reading what I wrote. Especially if you project any kind of defense on the rest of those war criminals on me. None of them played Hitler on TV, which is Trump's main schtick and thus a whole new level of danger. I stand by it.
Read much Orwell? I only ask because the double-speak is strong within you. Trump the de facto leader of the fascist movement? Yes, of course, and Antifa is anti-fascist as well, right? It’d be almost humorous, but your predictability is wearing thin. Don’t forget.....Google is a pawn of Trump’s as well. Oh....wait.
(Looks like my comment failed to post. If it's a double, sorry.) Orwell went to Spain to shoot at fascists, genius, he wasn't their spokesperson. Rather than affecting to be speaking for him, maybe you should learn to read English and correctly understand the meaning of what was written before wasting our time with a stupid reply.
"but dying on this hill in the service of another four years of a guy who is openly saying he wants to be a dictator is a choice that I'm having trouble understanding"
If you've ever read anything by Taibbi, you'd know that story selection is one way the media expresses their biases. By choosing to focus on this stupid Hunter Biden story (which apparently even Tucker Carlson is backing away from: https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-suddenly-says-its-time-to-leave-hunter-biden-alone), Matt has decided it is worth caring about, which is what everyone pushing the story would like us to do.
Perhaps a refresher course on interpretation & analysis are in order for you good sir. Matt's words are not about caring or not caring about the story. It is about suppressing the story. I can read a story and determine whether I care about it or not. I have a brain. I just don't want stories suppressed so that I can't even make up my own mind.
But in the end, suppressing this story actually makes Biden look guilty in my opinion. Otherwise, why suppress it? If there is nothing to the story, then run with it and people will decide there is nothing there. I got the story anyway because I (unlike probably 80% of the people that read Matt) actually read CNN, MSNBC, Fox and multiple news sources so that I can see the BS that is actually being fed to us on a daily basis. Anyone that doesn't realize that both the news on the left and the right is basically propaganda is a buffoon.
I took Carlson's comments differently. I understood he believes Hunter Biden has demons that he needs to deal with and there is no good reason to pile anything on HB. Do you think Carlson believes this story is false?
I just fired off an email to Ms Reed. I suggest others do as well. Also lets encourage Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras to resign. All the writers and journalists with Integrity as well. Its seems like Aaron Mate has been having the same problems as Glenn Greenwald
Well done. By sound of things here, The Intercept will be losing a fair amount of income as a result of this.
Anyone else notice that 'liberals' attack Glenn's sexuality when he stops towing the party line? That's not a group that respects you, but uses it as shameful ammo to get you to shut up. Glenn, if you're reading this, please stay strong and carry on. You're getting flak when you're over the target.
Yeah, how can anyone even pretending to be progressive take that tack? I'm not even sure that the NY Post itself would go after someone in this way in this day and age. Though I do admit to not being a regular reader of that outlet...
Disgusting!! I have such a problem that it seems that comments on sexuality are fine, but mention the two areas that are verboten and yup--its a problem. Infuriating!
Yeah, cancelling my subscription immediately. I was hesitant to read the detail, but to see how many of these mainstream fucking hacks are crawling all over this, it's plain to see that when they're flaunting this "Greenwald is throwing a tantrum" e-mail, what Matt says is plain to see - they've been warped by this trump-distortion field.
They can sit there and circle jerk all they want -it's not fooling the majority of this country though. They will see though... and their heads will probably explode on Nov 5th.
Cancelled my monthly donation. I didn't want them to fuck with my cancellation so I didn't mention a specific reason, although I'm guessing they'll get the clue if many people cancel. Regardless, just waiting for the confirmation and I'll fire another one telling them I'm out because they've become a joke.
Tbh I have to say I was getting annoyed by even their coverage lately. Greenwald walking out on them over this is, in my estimation, a good sign that I was right about them.
I just withdrew my recurring donation and subscription to the newsletter Indicating it was in solidarity with Greenwald. Agree, Poitras and Scahill should join Greenwald, tho that’s their business. Most important is not to support this morphed news service and support Greenwald wherever he chooses to go. He is a jewel.
the "writing" has been on the wall for some time, even for those plebs who merely followed TI from its early years. anyone who remains is well aware of the circumstances.
So depressing. I've been donating to the Intercept for 3 years now and just stopped today- my money is going to Greenwald's substack now. I'm a college professor and regularly used their articles in my classroom and would always tell my students it was a safe place to get their news. I'm not so sure anymore.
Very sad, I had focused so much on Greenwald, I didn't see the rot seeping into the rest of the Intercept. It's fine to oppose Trump and want an end to that regime, but, it's also a complete disaster when you allow that to infect even the pretense of some kind of objectivity.
The fact they had absolutely no criticisms of the factuality of his article is very telling.
This is so critical. Thank you Matt. I wasn't shocked when Glenn resigned but I was by the asinine response of the editors and some of his peers (esp. Naomi Klein)
It is disappointing to see the current state of adversarial journalism. Thank God for the likes of you, Glenn, and the Grayzone.
(on that, be great to get your voices on the OPCW scandle!)
Hear Hear!!! agreed. Naomi Klein lost me a few years back. She almost at the Cancel Culture level. Sad because I have admired her work (No Logo especially), but over the years seeing her at various venues she has been pulled in by her hate of the right. So sad. Everyone needs to be heard, she is getting more orthodox--sad. Happens to the best of lefties!!
Yeah, I gave up on Klein for a reason most will consider odd, which was her reporting on the Scottish independence vote. It was not that she came down on the wrong side particularly, just obvious that she did not understand the complexities involved and had not spent time there.
Not understanding the complexities NEVER stops her from commenting. Her husband Avi Lewis (son of Canadian royalty) and her researchers fill in the gaps.
The main reason I subbed to the Intercept was because of GG's principles and now I subbed to his substack. Dropped NYT for MT; Dropped WaPo for Sirota; dropping Tampa Bay Times for Greenwald. Have only so much $ and it's going to Substack journalists looks like.
I used to read both and when the Tampa Tribune folded all objectivity disappeared from what is now the TBT. They just echo the MSM now. Except they have good Tampa Bay Rays coverage, so I guess with Dodger win there isn't a reason to sub anymore.
I had a recent revelation that if I wanted any good data, I was going to have to pay for it (thank you Jaron Lanier). Hence, paying (the pittance) for Matt's work and those of a few others who have the ethics and courage to write things that aren't necessarily popular, but stick to facts. Critical thinking, kids--it's good for ya!
Lanier is great but his politics are, how should I say, not exactly of emancipation through solidarity. Evgeny Morozov wrote some great stuff in The Baffler 5-7 years ago (back when that publication was still really good) about separating tech criticism from politics is insufficient. Tech as currently constituted is power.
Matt and Glen are two of the best reporters working and I’m thankful that they’re able to go direct with Substack.
Agree!!
100% with you!
facts
I disagree with Greenwald on many, many things. But I have always, always admired his willingness to call out the hypocrites, the panderers, the bullshitters — regardless of their status, their connections, and most importantly their party affiliation. He gives no fucks, and I adore him for that. And I will support him, with money made working for someone who I imagine he despises with the energy of a thousand suns. And that’s awesome, and it’s why I love Substack and independent press.
Such a truly beautiful sentiment. When I think of those dollars provided by your employer going to Glenn and Matt I get giddy hahha
Another informative and insightful work from Matt Taibbi. I still fail to understand the need to include anti-Trump aspersions such as, "It’s a difficult time for reporters, with an unstable and potentially dangerous president," presented as apparently unassailable facts. The central fact to me is illustrated by the central premise of this article and the anti-journalism represented by this latest leftist crash-and-burn by the Intercept: The Left destroys everything it touches and Trump is simply the best tool normal people have to reintroduce sanity to our institutions and society.
"It’s a difficult time for reporters, with an unstable and potentially dangerous president,"
I too noticed that line. It's like some people just cannot help themselves, even when they are almost gagging on the red pill they just refuse to finally let it go.
Re: “almost gagging on the red pill...”
What you fail to see is that you’re no different from fevered Biden loyalists. You’re pleased by the conclusions in this piece but can’t help commenting on the one line about Trump, an atrocious president who’s about to be replaced by a differently atrocious president. The beauty of Taibbi’s work is not that it absolves Trump of his countless failures and grotesque self-interest. It’s that Taibbi refuses to let anyone off the hook. The moment I get a whiff of him being “red pilled” is the moment I know he’s no longer a reliable information source. No journalist worth his or her salt is “pilled” at all.
Totally agree. Doug's post perfectly reflects the binary/ partisan/tribal mentality so apparent in both Trump supporters and detractors, each looking for and accepting only that which pleases them, that somehow the obvious mendacity and corruption of the one, validates their hero. I don't know about any of them, but I've seen way more than one bar fight where both drunks were total assholes, and deserved each blow they got.
This I will say about Trump, fake both in his anti war and populist messages; he correctly identified the problems of the ingrown elite establishment, though insincerely, but perhaps even more importantly, like Luminol draws out unseen blood at a crime scene, Trump's mere presence has shown that the supposed high minded liberal press, which is in no way left, regardless of what Doug thinks, is in fact every bit as partisan and intellectually dishonest as anything from Fox, Breitbart, Limbaugh etc., and that liberal politicians are flag waving mindless yahoos when it suits their purposes, supposedly a preserve of the right.
Once again, I will vote third party, because, like you, I'm not tabulating which would be the lesser evil, as that seems a pointless task designed to keep us locked into the duopoly's rigged game, but prefer to see them as they are; just different evils over whom people needlessly squabble.
"Nothing will fundamentally change". Finally, some truth.
I disagree with the characterization of Trump detractors. I consider myself to be a Trump detractor because of obvious reasons (no, not fake news about Russia) and I would never vote for him. But that doesn't mean I'm going to go out and cheerlead or vote for Biden. There are more people in my group than you might think. The only difference between me and a lot of them is that they WILL vote for Biden. Thing is, none of them LIKE Biden because he's a corrupt, phony old asshole. But they'll vote for him anyway because not only is Trump a phony, corrupt old asshole too, but a much bigger jerk and a LOT of his supporters wield his being in office like a cudgel to friends and family on social media and in bars. Tell me this: how many times has a video gone viral where someone gets in another person's face and screams "BIDEN!!!" - Never. Didn't happen with Obama either.
But I'm with you on the last two paragraphs. Trump and his supporters have no idea what the actual left even is. They think it's only antifa and college professors and the mainstream corporate media (the last one is a laugh, but they all think it).
I voted for Howie Hawkins yesterday.
Wait, what? Have you somehow missed all the vicious anti-Trump vitriol spewed by lefties, on social media and otherwise? Not seen people's careers "canceled" for supporting Trump, or even just questioning the left-wing narrative?
And how many times has a Biden supporter been executed in the street over his political beliefs, as happened to a Trump supporter in Portland?
Please. Criticize Trump supporters for being obnoxious if you wish, that is your right, and I don't even necessarily disagree with you. But don't try to paint the other side as a bunch of peaceful angels, because they are not.
I should have been more clear when I said Trump detractors, as I meant to refer to those in the elite, both political and media, and not all those who dislike Trump, which includes me. These elites have no only made it possible for Trump to gain power with their horrible policies on war, trade, WS bailouts, etc. but their continued impersonations of Joe McCarthy and far fetched, fact free beliefs Trump is in the pocket of Putin, would have reelected him had there been no pandemic, as I'm assuming Biden will win this Tuesday.
Ditto on your vote for president.
Agree and I also voted Hawkins.
Well said. I would only add that the ruling class doesn't like Trump because he is an embarrassment to them, not that they disagree with him on anything. He has exposed their game because he is such a buffoon and doesn't do it politely like the rest of them.
Correct. Trump is the political equivalent of the Picture of Dorian Gray, revealing all the corruption, sordidness and bullying that characterizes our elites, something the fake sophistication of Obama or even the fake country boy charm of W helped to gloss over. It amazes me to this day that people still believe both meant well; Obama only done in by those horrible Repubs, while W's intentions were good, he was just too gullible and led astray by Cheney. Truly evil people always leave an out and find the fall guy to excuse their behavior.
W's entire family is as corrupt as any other American "royalty" currently being utilized to cover up the ongoing criminal empire. What's amazing is how easily these thugs can be reinvented and resold to the Yankee doodle dumbf*cks who believe voting changes the empire's goals.
Spot on. Trump is the elite without the sugar coating. He's seeking power and doesn't give a warm runny shit about anyone but his self and his legacy.
If that. He might be just gaming from one day to the next.
Yeah, Matt has destroyed Trump already - he's proven that point. He's reported those facts. He doesn't need to constantly berate every Trump move; he told you Trump would be the result of our problems. He knew Trump was always a problem.
What a cop out.
So to Trump fans, the unvarnished truth == cop out. Good to be reminded.
This is exactly it. The truth has no political affiliation. That's what journalism at its very core is supposed to be striving for - finding the truth and sharing it with the public so that the public can make up their own mind.
So many people (including within journalist circles) seem to have forgotten this.
Wow. With such an unstable and potentially dangerous president, I haven't noticed any journalists being jailed, beaten or repressed. Or have I missed all the news about journalist purges? Please educate us on how widespread this is under the trump terror.
Or perhaps Trump may not be worst unstable dictator ever?
How big a field did it take to provide the straw for THAT straw man? 50 acres? 100?
In other words trump is not an unstable dictator.
In other words you don't know what the term "straw man" even means. And in other words, no one ever claimed Trump was "the worst unstable dictator ever", genius. Congrats on "disproving" a statement no one ever made.
"Dazed and Confused" is right.
Matt called trump an unstable and potentially dangerous president. I merely pointed out how that is incorrect. You don't know sarcasm when you read it.
You may have missed this? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/business/media/journalists-arrested-trump-inauguration.html
LOL. The article admits the police identified a problem area and arrested everyone in the area. So the journalists were not specifically targeted. Is that all you have? An incident from the inauguration? C'mon you can do better than that - or perhaps you can't. Got anything more recent, you know from the past year? Every day for the past 4 years the mainstream press pushed anti-trump stories. Surely this most unstable of dictators has put a few of them in concentration camps.
The man throws tantrums whenever anyone criticizes him or asks him a mildly challenging question. When that man happens to be the president, yeah, it means he's potentially dangerous.
You ain't enlightened, dude, you're just another tribalist making excuses for your in group.
I think you are missing his point. The consolidation of the media combined with the rise of our new tech overlords who openly censor stories or hide them is far more dangerous than a senile sociopath or even possibly an idiot in the White House. Yes, Trump is dangerous, but primary because he is so easy to manipulate by the real crazies, and better prepared sociopaths. In any extent I personally believe he is history, due to his mishandling of the two most important issues to the American people, the economy and the plague, which i think is now endemic due to his actions. I live in the heart of the Republicans, many are not voting, and want him to go away.
Yeah, that war mongering, rampaging military industrial complex manipulated him right out of any wars for the first time in decades! And talk about being manipulated by sociopaths regrading a virus that 99% of everyone recovers from and you have to get a test for in order to find out if you actually have it! Guess you bought in on that scam, genius.
He's still a war criminal just like the rest. Guess you fell for that scam since he's been using his butt buddy in ISISrael as well as the Saudi's to commit his war crimes for him.
Passed the largest defense budget increase in US history so thinking he isn't some Quaker pacifist. Just wanted to make sure the boys got paid.
^^^textbook Trump fan fragility, aka the (real) Trump Derangement Syndrome^^^
Do you trust Taibbi's reporting and analysis? How about Glenn Greenwald's? Guess what - They both agree that Trump is potentially very dangerous to journalists and that he has behaved and spoken/tweeted in an unstable manner in the past, including while in office.
If I had to guess or make a bet, I would say you probably think that EVERYTHING the corporate mainstream media says about Trump is a lie. Like literally everything. Am I wrong and would I have lost any money on that bet?
And yet, neither has delineated exactly what danger he posits. I can respect their independence and professionalism - and back it up with a paid subscription for both - and still disagree with unsubstantiated claims.
Well he poses a real danger to all of the grey wolves in America he opened hunting season on yesterday. How about the danger to the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in Alaska he's giving away to oil interests? It always floors me how no one ever mentions the systematic environmental destruction his busy bee scum appointees have been working on the last four years. Every problem the US faces today will be magnified 100 fold when the real destruction starts kicking in.
The ANWR drilling zone is the size of a large airport, in an area-ANWR , the size of South Carolina.
I gave you a link to an article in The Independent (UK) below. Check it out. The situation is more complex than "curtailing press freedoms." Trump's rhetoric has gone as far as to say that the MSM (including MSNBC, NYT, CBS, etc.) are an enemy of the state and of the American people. Now - given my own knowledge on how each of those outlets helps war mongers and human rights violations by the U.S. and Israel go un-criticized, I would agree that they are enemies of the people, but that's me agreeing with Trump, it's me disagreeing.
Are you agreeing or disagreeing?
Trump's rhetoric is definitely over the top, and in some cases, you could make a fair argument that it is dangerous (if it inspired acts of violence, for example). He's bombastic, he exaggerates, he makes shit up on the fly. But he has a point about the MSM, even if over-stated. As a group they have sold themselves to the Democrat party and become in effect a propaganda arm of the Democrats. That does make them an enemy of our system of self-government. It's sad that so few journalists, like Matt and Greenwald, can see this and have the courage to speak out.
Given Trump's experience with the "MSM" one could argue that they are an "enemy" or at least a tool of the enemy - how dare a sitting President criticize the CIA and FBI - outrageous!! Almost 4 years of non stop Russia, Russia, Russia and impeachment would rattle anyone's cage. Trump, with all of his flaws, is not going down without a fight. It's how he got elected. He's also vain and was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The sword cuts both ways. Dangerous? Sure. To himself? Sure. To the deplorables, no. And the circus continues. The MSM is helping, even feeding Trump's cause if you ask me. If you want to kill a fire, you have to start by not pouring gasoline on the fire.
I think the danger of Trump is obvious -- he's random, a loose cannot. The US ruling class may be evil, but it knows it has to take care of _some_ business to keep the proles from resistance and revolt. Trump will keep pushing until he gets a civil war or some other disaster going because he doesn't know what he's doing, or he doesn't care. What he knows is show biz, and that's it.
He TALKS randomly, and comes across as a loose cannon. But it’s all bluster and conflict-evoking (which is precisely what he likes). The world sees him, or should by now, for what he is — and acts/reacts accordingly. Detail: he gets stuff done in spite of everything put in his way by the Resistance or whatever they’re called these days — the ones Trump calls out as scum. We can probably survive another 4 years of Trump now that we realized who he is and what we’re dealing with. And there will never be another very much like him. OTOH, not sure how/if we could deal with Harris & Company and their likely successors as they lock in Socialist/Democratic rule long term. Don’t want to find out, thank you.
Thank you! Well said.
LOL you haven't backed up a single one of your drive-by one liner comments yet. Just cheerleading and baseless insults, huh?
Are we done with the TDS projectile vomiting and attacking for this segment? So tiresome and reveals way more about the attackers than they are ever so obviously capable of comprehending.
I agree. It’s so tiring.
Let's play a little game. I provide a quote, you guess who wrote it.
"Instead, Democrats were urged, imagine that a right-wing authoritarian, or a lawless demagogue, or a petty, vindictive tyrant won the presidency and inherited the framework of unrestrained, unchecked powers that Republicans implemented and Democrats expanded.
That day has arrived. " (November 11, 2016)
That is no better than the woke MO. Any sentence, any parenthetical clause, that isn't woke disqualifies. That's his opinion. It's his right.
Meant to add that your comments are what free speech is about; you are expressing your opinions, not advocating censorship.
Matt was THIS close to put "potentionally" in front of "unstable" as well.
Agree with you 100%. I have commented on Matt's previous columns where he feels the need to bash trump first before making a pointed comment about the insanity of the left. It's as if he needs to establish anti-trump "bona fides" before criticizing the obvious insanity of the mainstream press which is now fully invested in anti-trump hate. I can kinda sorta understand it as a means of demonstrating he's not a shill for trump but in reality his opinion on trump is completely IRRELEVANT. The sickness and corruption on the left is the real story and it would be the case regardless of who occupied the white house. The leftists in academia and the mainstream press have (irony of ironies) made Trump into something like the last bastion of sanity before we all go over the precipice into total chaos. Greenwalds's resignation is a clear demarcation line that we have entered very, very dangerous times where intelligence propaganda is actively being used against american citizens. I consider myself a conservative republican but I came to the conclusion about a year ago that the CIA and FBI need to be disbanded completely and a complete overhaul of the DOJ is absolutely necessary before we can have any confidence in our federal government. Strange, scary and crazy times we live in.
So having been a conservative Republican growing up and into my early thirties I see where you see the left us bad. I don't disagree, they are bad. Problem is the Conservative Republicans are just as bad without the, "I'm smarter than you snear." Though the Republicans have the, "jesus loves me and I am morally holier than though." attitude. So looking to disband the CIA is a great start. Keep digging deeper on your side and you'll discover what a POS Gingrich, Delay, Bush Sr., Hastert, Limbaugh, Adelson, the Kochs, McConnell, and the very long list of Republicans. I k ow because I thought they were better till I stopped listening to the clips of W. and the right wong commentary that went with it and watched him for myself. He was a total buffoon. Gingerich was cheating on wife 2 with wife three while he was impeaching Clinton for Lying under oath. Which ironically is why he was kicked out of the Speakership for that exact same reason. There is no difference between the ruthless psychopaths at the top other than ones used degrees and "sophistication " for their identity and the other side uses Jesus and Morality. They are all the same.
The vast majority of conservatives I know actually aren't religious. But most of them like American flags. Just an observation.
Also, keeping digging and you'll find out what POSes literally EVERYBODY is, especially anybody in power in government, media, or industry. Humans!
I'm more interested in outcomes. If I wanted our political leaders to be good people or moral or, you know, not pathological narcissists, I would be forever disappointed. I'm much better with Trump than I am with the outcome records of either the Democrats or the Republicans, historically. Recent peace deals and relationship normalizations--that stuff is great. Not supporting Endless War is great (something I thought was not going to be the case, when Trump nominated Bolton). So . . . I'm fine with Trump. Would have preferred Tulsi Gabbard but I'm fine with Trump.
I agree except I question the ability of Gabbard or any Democrat to stand against the absolute poison that party is planning for the United States.
That's always a question. And I can't see the future, I just know the general state of the party could use adjustment--and that would be people like Tulsi and to a lesser extent Bernie Sanders. It's the ossified establishment types that need to get removed. Much prefer Tulsi as she wants to work with whoever to accomplish goals--actual goals, not political ones. Of course, that doesn't work with the Democrats and really doesn't work with the GOP, except Trump went around the system.
Do I wish it had been someone other than Trump? Yes. But we get what we get.
You're fine with with the establishment being offended. Nothing will change due to the fact the system cannot change policy goals.
Yeah right. If Trump started a war, he will if the wins (read about Iran), you'll then just make up some excuse that makes you feel good.
What you'll never do, is admit you were wrong. That just doesn't happen in Trumper land.
Don’t confuse the neocons with the conservatives. Not wasting money on useless wars is a conservative value. The neocons are all war, war, war. The Dems can have ‘em. If you’re voting along the side with warmongering neocon Colin Powell, you’ve lost what it meant to be left leaning for the last 20 years.
The Dems and the GOP have both had the neocons for year. And years. And years. Perhaps since WWII.
In some form or fashion. Although they wouldn't have been called neocons until more recently.
The main difference is the Dem neocons slapped on a peace symbol instead of an American flag. Can't seem to clean them out of the Democrats, maybe we can with the Republicans? Not holding my breath, though.
Take a breath, junior. With nearly 4 years under his belt, and with not only no wars started, Trump has withdrawn from most all the sites of conflict that his predecessors established, it is tough to see the delusions you clearly suffer under.
Speaking of never admitting error, you show up weekly to comment on Taibbi's pieces and in each such appearance demonstrate not merely your ignorance, but your failure to see the mirror in front of your own face.
Check that Obamacare plan you claim to love -- I am sure there is treatment for mental illness and for delusional thinking.
You used to be better at insulting me. What happened?
My final salvo:
Trumpers all say the same thing - or a version of it. Which is, that the arsonist is best to put out fire.
They have this view that Trump is going to find moral ground, and start running the country with blue states in mind. Never gonna happen.
Trump rules for them, and only them. And their view is that if we don't like it, move to another country. That ain't gonna fly.
If Trump wins, we'll never recover. We'll never get along. Or the only way we'd get along is if we give up. Which we'll never do.
I'll give 'em this. The Trump Crime Family is the payoff for a plan the right put in place years ago, going back to the early 1900's. It was all about the long game, how to rule from a minority position. They did it. They executed to near perfection.
Now, they're all about keeping people from voting. Because voting and elections were the centerpiece of their plan. The more Americans that vote, less chance they have at staying in power.
And yes, Democrats are at fault. They didn't vote in every neighborhood, town, city, state, and federal election. They forgot about civics class. People see that now.
Now, albeit too little too late, people are waking up. Just like Trumpers (the Tea Party) woke up when Obama was elected.
But if they think we're gonna put up with any more of this BS, they'd be wrong. We're Americans too (I know that's hard for them to say). We'll stand for our rights. And if we have to, we'll go toe-to-toe for them. Because we're Americans. That's what we do. What we won't do, is let them or anyone else keep trampling over us.
Do I want it to come to this? No fing way. Never in my weirdest dreams, did I think we'd be here. But here we are. And BTW, this is all part of their plan - turn us against each other. The coup de grace is when Trump declares martial law.
I want our country back. I want the Republican Party I once voted for back. I want a two party system. I wish Trumpers could understand. But they don't. I don't know why they defend a monster.
No one I know believes in socialism. Everyone I know wants lowest taxes. We love our country. Everyone I know is ready, willing, and able to to compromise. So is Biden.
The first step towards healing our country is to fire the Trump Crime Family.
Please. Get out there and vote on Tuesday as if your life depends on it.
I really don't expect him to start a war. If he wins and then does--then 100% I'll admit I was wrong. I have no problem admitting I was wrong. I voted for W. Bush. When I should have voted 3rd party or write-in. Iraq War--boy that was wrong. Even so, I was more hopeful that I was the one out of synch at the time and not Dubya . . . but nope. I was wrong.
I didn't vote for Trump. Not voting for Trump this time. Also not voting for Biden, so there's that.
As an observation, you seem to read a lot of things into what people don't actually write.
Hopefully you'll stop legitimizing the system all together at some point. They'll never admit to being an oligarchy as long as people continue to feed demand more bread and circus.
I disagree. Republican psychopaths want to enrich themselves while claiming the high ground. Democrat psychopaths want to tell you how to live, eat and breathe. There is a difference.
They both want your money. They push different sets of buttons but both have the same goal.
"The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles."-- Eugene Debs. Sept 1, 1904
And it has become more true in in the intervening 100+ years.
I have to disagree. Your saying high ground. I come from the religious right and they definitely want to tell you how to live, eat and breathe. Especially when your a child and if your female that is for a lifetime.
The claim of high ground by the religious right is not shared by me. In this country it would seem it is easy to leave the religious right especially if you relocate. In my opinion it is getting harder to leave the religious left. It's practically impossible to dissent from liberal orthodoxy regarding leftist positions on marriage, gender or race without being branded a backwards troglodyte no matter where one resides.
If you dissent from right-wing positions in the wrong place, they'll try to kill you. Ask me how I know.
I love the word “troglodyte”. I always lol when it’s used. Cheers!
Also, completely agree with your statement!
Conservative 'Holier than Though' == Liberal 'Woke'. The difference is I'm not getting voluntold to attend trainings on Christian ideals at work.
Voluntold-first time I’ve heard that term. I like it!!
Depends on where you live but I agree with what your saying on the whole.
Trumpers all say the same thing - or a version of it. Which is, that the arsonist is best to put out fire.
They have this view that Trump is going to find moral ground, and start running the country with blue states in mind. Never gonna happen.
Trump rules for them, and only them. And their view is that if we don't like it, move to another country. That ain't gonna fly.
If Trump wins, we'll never recover. We'll never get along. Or the only way we'd get along is if we give up. Which we'll never do.
I'll give 'em this. The Trump Crime Family is the payoff for a plan the right put in place years ago, going back to the early 1900's. It was all about the long game, how to rule from a minority position. They did it. They executed to near perfection.
Now, they're all about keeping people from voting. Because voting and elections were the centerpiece of their plan. The more Americans that vote, less chance they have at staying in power.
And yes, Democrats are at fault. They didn't vote in every neighborhood, town, city, state, and federal election. They forgot about civics class. People see that now.
Now, albeit too little too late, people are waking up. Just like Trumpers (the Tea Party) woke up when Obama was elected.
But if they think we're gonna put up with any more of this BS, they'd be wrong. We're Americans too (I know that's hard for them to say). We'll stand for our rights. And if we have to, we'll go toe-to-toe for them. Because we're Americans. That's what we do. What we won't do, is let them or anyone else keep trampling over us.
Do I want it to come to this? No fing way. Never in my weirdest dreams, did I think we'd be here. But here we are. And BTW, this is all part of their plan - turn us against each other. The coup de grace is when Trump declares martial law.
I want our country back. I want the Republican Party I once voted for back. I want a two party system. I wish Trumpers could understand. But they don't. I don't know why they defend a monster.
No one I know believes in socialism. Everyone I know wants lowest taxes. We love our country. Everyone I know is ready, willing, and able to to compromise. So is Biden.
The first step towards healing our country is to fire the Trump Crime Family.
Please. Get out there and vote on Tuesday as if your life depends on it.
We all voted to end the idiotic bipartisan illegal wars, war crimes, fraud and exploitation of this empire which proves that voting doesn't change anything that actually matters.
You're either very naive or paid to spread propaganda.
Do you think, junior, that if you repeat a post, that makes it the thoughts of a sentient being?
One of the dumbest comments I've ever seen on a Taibbi article, and that includes at Rolling Stone, which is really saying something.
Trump has made numerous overtures and veiled threats against the media at large. If you don't think that the most powerful man in the world claiming EVERYTHING that doesn't paint him in a good light is "fake news" or telling Bob Woodward one thing about COVID-19 and hiding it from the public constitutes unstable dangerous behavior, I don't know what to tell you. Granted a whole sidebar could be had about whether Woodward should have shared that info, but that's not important to my points.
But to the most laughable part of your comment, would you mind please explaining how you can equate "the Left" (why is it always capitalized when used by Trump supporters) has anything at all to do with mainstream corporate media, which in case you happened to miss Matt Taibbi's piece about how CNN (and CBS and NBC) really don't mind and in fact think Trump is great for business. Who all is part of this "the Left" and what, exactly, have they destroyed - within the scope of journalism or anything else?
TL:DR: I found this article to be UNBiden and so will discount it in favor of news that makes me glad I'm not someone else and even tells me so!
I think the "left" that is objected to is crediting the CRT crazy and insane therapeutic approach to public life approach that has led to cancel culture and whatnot.
Don Lemon announces he had to cull his friends over their Trump support. hahahahaha
words are violence but violence is speech.
Christina Blasey-Ford or whatever her name was and Fienstein's revelation with subsequent character assasination of Kavanaugh was "credible". IDK but me and Cletus think you have to prove you were actually in the same location at the same time at least once in your life before you can credibly accuse a man of attempted rape.
it's all crazy and all being attributed correctly or incorrectly to the "left"
Christine Blasey-Ford's talk would have been appropriately taken at face value by a therapist in a private session.
As testimony against a Supreme Court nominee - that was crazy.
For starters the left has destroyed the Intercept, which is why Matt wrote this article. Or do you consider the editors there to be mainstream corporate media?
Got any proof the "left" destroyed it ? The elite funded it and that's who destroyed it. Why can't people think outside of the tribal partisan box. ?
I agree. In 2016 I think it was reasonable to imagine that Trump was "unstable and potentially dangerous", but now we've seen how he actually conducts himself in office. And yeah, he has a big mouth, but in terms of actual actions, he's been bringing the troops home, avoided any new foreign wars, and spearheaded historic peace agreements in the Middle East. At home he's presided over the best economy possibly in our nation's history, and refused to behave like a fascist dictator as so many feared, even when the COVID crisis presented a golden opportunity.
I think the "unstable and potentially dangerous" criticism is outdated.
What troops has he brought home ? Do you actually believe this shit ? Not one war ended and let's not forget he increased the violence and committed war crimes in Syria.
In Iraq, from around 7,000 in December 2016 to 3000 by year's end.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2017/11/27/26000-us-troops-total-in-iraq-afghanistan-and-syria-dod-reports/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/us/politics/iraq-troops-trump.html
In Afghanistan, from over 10,000 when he took office to 2,500 by year's end.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/us/politics/us-troops-afghanistan.html
Which of these wars is ended ? I haven't heard of any peace treaties or an end to the war of terror. Is having other countries and private mercenaries do the killing any different ?
Formal recognition of and diplomatic ties with Israel by UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan, so far. First time anything like that has happened since Jordan in 1994.
I said he's avoided *new* wars. First President to do that since, what, Carter?
He's also put Iran back in its box, and supported the new Iraqi prime minister who appears to be the first to actually take his job seriously.
In Syria, he put down IS and ended Baghdadi. You'll have to elaborate on his "war crimes".
Syria, the assassination of an Iranian general, etc, etc. Why can't Trump "fans" admit to his war crimes ?
After he increased troops and bombed more then Obomber. They all bring troops back home for a minute or two right before the election. Is this your first election cycle ? Why did you leave out his war crimes in Syria ?
I been watching Skutch, wondering when he/she/it was going to chime in.
According to my scorecard, he/she/it has never lost an argument. Instead, comments just stop. You Trumpers better start doin' pushups if you're gonna throw down with Skutch.
That's because I have a job. You should try it some time.
People like Doug are my favorite part of reading Taibbi comments. Matt has written about 87000000 words about how shitty Republicans and Trump are over the last 15 years; in no way does he think the republicans are victims, or correct in their ignorant thoughts. In no way does he support Trump or any Trump narratives. Matt is an independent journalist who reports without bias; it so happens that both sides, in a broken injust system, have serious issues. It also happens that one side still has significantly more (trump/right) which is why Matt has written significantly more words of disdain towards that side. I know the right wants to claim a side here, and you think he's on your team, but he has already destroyed the credibility and legitimacy of your team over the past 15 years. Thanks for reading.
Yeah well if that’s the case, he has manifested a whole new audience regardless. Looks like he will need to “re-educate” us on how ignorant we are in light of a slew of new political developments on all sides. Who knows, time has a way of shedding new light. However, many of his new subscribers aren’t gonna be as lay down easy as you are. The times, they are a changing.
What does this even mean? Yes, I can tell you just started reading Matt. Maybe go read a book or two he's written and check back in on your "Matt's on our team" nonsense.
You're putting words in my mouth that I didn't say. What's wrong with you? It's like you're terrified.
"The Left"? Meaning what? You think anyone who opposes Trump is a Trotskyite?
I'm OK that Matt still thinks Trump is "dangerous". Personally, I would not vote for a Trump in 2016 (I did in 2020) - he appeared a bit crazy and was going to be trusted with nuclear buttons.
After 4 years Trump has proven to me he is anything but dangerous and crazy (he just knows how to sell himself to a crowd, as Matt has pointed out,.) Anyway...if 4 years are not enough to prove to Matt that Trump is not dangerous I still salute Matt for all his great work and don't mind skepticism in a great journalist. And hope he come around someday :) (Or...heck..maybe Trump was dangerous - - but if he was, we had a heck of a great, non-dangerous four years - - except Covid which was not Trump's fault.)
Why in the world do you think that Trump of all people is the best tool to reintroduce sanity?
I can't speak for everybody, and I can't and didn't vote for Trump, but in my mind the best thing about Trump these last few years is that he's exposed our national politic for what it is. A corporate shell game that has sold our country out to anybody that has a check book.
We used to think the concept of a Deep State was just tin foil, but if you still believe the concept is BS, then I have some land to sell you. Can I get your Venmo information?
Those are good enough reasons to give the guy your vote.
Yep! If anything the media will at least keep Trump honest because one whiff of scandal and it will be all over the place. Put Joe in and they will censor all negative press about him. It’s much safer to know than to not know. A vote for Joe Biden is a wish for America to go back to sleep as the elites and Deep State rob us blind.
But Trump is immune to it all. Since he blusters rather than act like it matters, he can basically get away with anything.
We have been through four years of constant scandal, and none of it has meant a damn thing. Why are you settling for, "this guy is honest about the fact that he's constantly fucking us over?" He's still fucking us over!
Four?!?! Four?!?! We've been through almost 50 years of scandals. Each administration worse than the one before it. Some admins were better at controlling the flow of leaked information than others.
I mean, I didn't think it would be remotely possible for any administration to be more corrupt than a Cheney administration, and then we get the Chicago clan come to town. If anything, Trump is just far more transparent because he's pissed off the back alley dwellars and they are coming to the forefront to scream about what's behind the curtain.
You are foolish if you think it's ever been better at any time in the modern era.
So Don Jr could profit from deals with Chinese or Ukrainian energy companies and get away with it right? Shoe on the other foot check.
Yah but if they’re both fucking us over, I’ll still take the guy that believes in the Constitution than the psycho liberals who hate it. I’m all for reform, not a collapse of the best parts of America. I’m NOT throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Why? He's one of the guys with a check book.
I find it funny that anyone seriously maintains that there is not a deep state, because its existence has been jokingly acknowledged by government employees in just about every federal agency for just decades and decades. I don't mean that the deep state is some kind of sinister conspiracy, just that there is an actual reality to the fact that the bureaucrats have their own agenda and their permanence is a source of power just as significant as the titular power of the political appointees that supposedly run these agencies. Ask any SEC Associate Director who runs the SEC and the answer you are likely to get is "it's complicated." The Commissioners can and do drive certain changes but they can also be stymied and - more importantly - there are significant controversies that the staff actively seek to handle without elevating it to the Commission. Nothing I am saying here is remotely controversial among the professionals that work for, with and against these agencies. While I have no personal experience with the State Department or the intelligence services, I think there is just zero chance that they don't have the same dynamics that play out in the DoJ, FBI, the CFTC, the SEC, the OCC and even the FRB.
Exactly-- the veneer of the "good presidents (sic) " is off. It is laughable how many Americans care more that he is "the orange man" or they are embarrassed by his language and actions, than the fact that the US is a war mongering out of control dying empire which is spewing destruction and venom everywhere , even to its supposed allies.
I'm sure you've noticed, but Trump doesn't really have supporters (except maybe those on Wall Street). He has fans. Literally, they are fans like the fans of any sports team. Some, many really, rise to the level of "fanatic." Obama is the only recent president in my recollection who had anything approaching casual fandom, which was to be expected given that he replaced Bush/Cheney and that his campaign used a very PR-based marketing campaign and distinctive branding (Hope logo, for example). But Trump's fans put a whole lot more of their own identity into him than supporters of any politician in the US that I can recall. It's a brand too, just one that seems to inspire as much unquestioning, belligerent support from his fans as it does fake outrage and psuedo "resistance" from the corporate media and "intelligence" community.
Trump has supporters. I did not vote for him in 2016 but I am now a supporter, not a "fan". Here are some reasons:
Energy Independence for United States
Peace in Middle East - Israel, UAE, Bahrain
Pollution in US lower now than in Obama years
Does not take bribes ("contributions") from tech companies
Began ending reliance on China
Immense, proven improvement in wages/jobs of working class.
A better deal than NAFTA, the USMC agreement
Caliphate defeated, Al-Baghdadi eliminated
Corporate tax at 21% - creating jobs
Re-built military and VA
Price transparency for medical procedures
School choice - so strongly supported by inner-city families.
Jerusalem capital
Peace negotiations in Balkans (2nd Nobel Prize nomination.)
Lowest African American Hispanic and Asian unemployment ever
Opportunity zones
Historically Black Collage & Univ. funding
Criminal justice reform
Alliance with India as counterbalance to China
Right to try potential life-saving non-FDA approved drugs - many saved
Gave university males the right to defense against accusations
Korea negotiations (not great, but better than Obama admin.)
No Sanctuary Cities - support for ending this (so convicted criminals will leave)
1st Pres. in 39 years not to embroil U.S. in war
Yep - I made this list when carefully considering my vote.
If you consume only mainstream media (CNN/MSNBC/NYT et al) then you probably never heard of any of it. If you think any of it is false, look up the facts - the accomplishments here are true.
Good list, but you left out getting the US out of that obscene arraignment with Iran.
“Arrangement”
You didn't research any of these things. You just copy and pasted them off of the list of what he claims he did.
Since I doubt you'll listen to anything else, I'm going to speak to the thing I have direct experience with, as the wife of a veteran: things have gotten /worse/ for veterans under him. My husband was approved for Voc Rehab, but then there was Trump, and suddenly, it couldn't be justified, so it got revoked. He has a /harder/ time getting medical care now, because the Trump admin believes it isn't the responsibility of the VA, and he can no longer transfer his GI benefits to our child because the Trump admin changed the rules.
I don't have to look up that "accomplishment" because I know from direct experience that it isn't true. I know from watching my husband get his schooling taken away, getting his PTSD treatment taken away, having him almost die from cancer because of the state of the VA under Trump, (who by the way thinks my husband is a loser) -- it's a grift. Our government in general doesn't care about those who give the most for it, but my gods, at least most of them have the decency not to say it out loud.
Sounds like you’ve had an isolated bad experience and should speak to a patient advocate, they may be able to help. Veteran confidence in VA healthcare is at an all time high and clinical outcomes are outperforming the private sector. I’m certain there are many in VA who will help your family. All the best...
You can always trust government to give accurate assessments when grading their own homework.
It stands to reason the outcomes would get better if you kicked off a bunch of "losers" from your case load.
All the best...
Sorry but I did. I created this list myself. I did not copy and paste one item. I do know surveys show approval from Vets on subject of VA is over 90% but I am sorry for what you are going through. Please know that a large number of people who were with Trump on the day an anonymous person made the "loser" statement claim said he did not say that. I would research what you are saying and perhaps will at sometime. At the moment I am a little hurt by what felt like hate toward me (you didn't research..you just copied and pasted).
Good to know I'm not the only mental one here. Whew. I was worried.
Any particular reason why you leave Fox out of the mainstream media list? They're #1 in just about every category. They own a bunch of media properties.
Yes - Fox while is "high" in ratings, get something like 2 or 3 million people watching - that is all. CNN and MSNBC together total about another 4 million watching each night. Cable news is just not that big anymore. Meanwhile the total watching all mainstream media (network news, PBS, programs like 60 minutes), plus reading the false information that is posted on the internet, is many, many more millions.
I am aware of all of this, but I would like to hear and engage with how the fans perceive things, rather than with how others perceive the fans. I don't think there's any way forward that doesn't involve that.
lol the internet... so believe it or don't I wrote this back in 2016, and never mailed it to the paper I was going to. It's my take on his "fans".
The Out of Touch and Trump's Junk March 8, 2016
In the media the question “Who can support Donald Trump?” is most often asked as a statement. The premise to a monologue about the idiocy of Americans. Idiocy brought on by underfunded schools, overfunded religion, talk radio, extreme individualism and racism. This monologue reflects the lack of experience of the speaker. Because the people who's opinions blanket the media consumed by the $80k and up demographic simply have zero frame of reference. Like asking a New York socialite for the torque value on a shovelhead. Torque? Shovelhead? Huh?
So their answers are all over the map. Usually missing the mark, always condescending in the way that an intelligent person condescends when they're expected to give an answer to something they know nothing about.
The latest puzzlement and faux shock is the reaction to Trump's response to the small fingers joke/meme that made its way into the press. That he responded at all obviously took some aback, the tone and content “shocked” them. (I say faux because as a society we revel in everything from Game of Thrones (violence) to Naked Dating (lust) to Piss Christ (irreverence) and more; commentators know this, nothing actually shocks them.)
I'm not puzzled.
In the early 80s I worked at an all night gas station in a bad area south of Seattle. Very bad – robberies, assaults, prostitution, drugs, murder. Contrary to popular opinion most people who live/work in such areas don't end up permanently scarred or dead. But they do see things. Late one night a customer pulled in to gas up his motorcycle. A biker straight out of central casting – on a chopped Harley, he was squat, big and dirty, full beard, black leather with club emblems, and a girl no older than 16 on the back. I was behind glass, and as he looked at me I was tamping a non-filter cigarette, getting ready to smoke. (For the uninitiated, that means holding the cig between your thumb and index finger and lightly tapping one end on a surface. That packs it tighter so the tobacco doesn't fall out when you puff.) He got done and came up to the booth.
“You jacking off in there?”
I looked at my cigarette and knew what he was saying, the motion of tamping and all.
“Nah... if I was it'd be a lot bigger than this.” Bravado, and it came out as dumb as it reads.
He laughed, not pleasantly. “Yeah, sure, lets see it!”
I was speechless at first, then made a lame remark about “not in front of your girl”. He laughs again and says “Don't worry about her, she's seen more dick than you know.”
I rolled over with “Hey man, umm... well... I'm not going to... hell, nobody would... hahahah... you first!”
And he did. Right there undid his jeans, pulled out and displayed his unerect wedding tackle.
“OK. Now you.”
My defeat was complete. “Man you got me...” and I rambled on like a complete dork.
“Hahahahahah, yeah, fucking chickenshit. Don't say shit you won't back up.”
Don't say shit you won't back up – that sums up perhaps THE request from much of the electorate this year. Our elected representatives have spent decades now not backing up what they say. Because reasons. Oh, and electorate, you're too stupid to truly comprehend the reasons, so just take our word for it. And here, listen to me say more shit, and vote for me!
Trump's rhetoric pours gasoline on that story line and sets it on fire. You want to dance around and play politics? Play the whisper campaign game about someone's penis size? (Cynically, I notice that though the story is “Trump talks about his junk” the truth is he didn't bring it up. His opponents, with allies in the press, did.) No need to whisper, here it is!
Trump will say shit and back it up. It's not possible? Who cares. How things work in Washington is such a black box, thanks to our current political class and their industry, activist and media supporters, that claims of “that's not possible” are met with cat calls. They have no credibility when they're so out of touch that they don't know that when someone insults your junk the only appropriate response is to whip it out and say put up or shut up. He's a narcissist? That's a hoot – Washington is Hollywood for ugly people; you cannot make it there now unless you are a narcissist so how is voting for someone already there voting against a narcissist? He's dishonest and money grubbing? When his probable general election opponent trades on her name and position for more money for one speech than many will see in their lifetime?
Who can support Donald Trump? At least some of them are people who are both dumber and smarter than their betters. They're truly stupid in the ways of politics, the nuts and bolts, the signaling and wheeling and dealing. But they're much more experienced, smarter, in the ways of real life, in their real life. They think they see someone they know, someone who will back up what he says. The media, and the rest of their betters, can't comprehend that because they've never had to live there.
Haha, that was an awesome read. Thank you.
“ Because the people who's opinions blanket the media consumed by the $80k and up demographic simply have zero frame of reference. Like asking a New York socialite for the torque value on a shovelhead. Torque? Shovelhead? Huh?”
This part is still so true. For all the talk of representation, the working class has none, regardless of race or color. And people of color fall into that group at a higher proportion than at any higher income level.
Over and over, the well off white people who purport to represent them (in dominant fashion on Twitter etc) say one thing while actual people of color, when polled, say something else.
Many years ago I was a union organizer and then did work for other lefty groups/causes. I used to abhor how the right wing used race to divide broke people who should be building coalitions. I probably don’t have to tell this group who does that now.
White people and people of color with a household income of 50K or less have infinitely more in common with one another than they do with people of any color who are in a higher income bracket.
I’m still hoping to have a major party leader who gets this, and fights for them. I think they could be elected easily if they could get out of their primary.
But I’m 46 years old, have been hoping for this for a quarter century, and will probably die hoping for it. It feels so close, but so far away.
See, this all makes sense to me when it comes to 2016. It doesn't make sense to me /now/, when as far as I can tell, he's demonstrated that he's nothing more than a grifter.
I am at the point where I'm honestly having trouble understanding anyone doing anything other than "protest" voting. Which, well...I suppose that's the answer, at least when it comes to your perspective, right? For a lot of people, Trump /is/ the protest vote.
But what if it doesn't blow it all up in the right way? What if it just makes it worse for everyone who's suffering? What is actually the way out of this, the way between acquiescence and a nuke?
Let's just talk about the first Covid relief bill.
Fancy Nancy announced the House were going home and would reconvene if needed.
Trump announced HE wanted an aid package and HE wanted it to be big to help Americans.
Fancy Nancy calls em back and now acts like she and the Dems and their MSM ghouls are the compassionate ones that had Americans best interest at heart all along.
And it is Ghoulish the way Dems and the Media are waiting with baited breath to be able to announce another death by Covid.
Some good points, but you do know that Trump's voters in 2016 were, on average, higher income earners than Hillary's right?
Yup, now. I really did write that in 2016, way before he was even nominated. And I neither voted for him nor thought he'd win; I'm smart, I knew Clinton would win. lol I was just so sick of hearing my workmates (I worked in education) and the press ramble about him and how stupid people are, and memories came flashing back when the little dick jokes started, that I... wrote.
I agree, but it strikes me as though you don't have any real life engagement opportunities with them? I do, in droves. I have Trump supporting friends, family and in-laws, not to mention co-workers. My statement is the product of 3-4 years of conversations and observations. So maybe I can help, maybe not - but I can probably fill you in on how many of his fans see things if you want.
I honestly wish I did have more Trump supporters in real life to engage with. It's turned out, much to my dismay, that my ties to conservative friends weren't as strong as I'd thought; they all jumped ship rather quickly when they found out I wasn't on the Trump train. Family members aren't forthcoming because they don't want to cause strife (which I can understand).
So, as it stands, most of my understanding comes from observation rather than actual conversation. And that leaves something to be desired.
I hope you can find some conversation from both perspectives. My brain feels better when pressed and my normal viewpoint is questioned. Echo chambers are cancerous. This place offers me different opinions and some balance.
Yeah makes sense. I'm sure you're also familiar with Qanon Casualties. If not it's basically a big subreddit for people who have lost friends or had their relationships with family members ruined by Qanon. In that case it may be more the other way around - i.e., the NON-believers unfriending the believers, but it's the same kind of deal. I definitely know Trump supporters who identify so deeply with Trump the brand that they basically told me to unfriend them or not to talk politics when I tried to have reasonable discussions about Trump's policies and statements. (never mind that they have no problem trolling other non-Trump supporters with memes and tweets) The majority of them cannot differentiate "fake" news from real news and have totally written off ALL mainstream media as 100% fake, which is actually understandable from my own left-leaning civil libertarian perspective after, well the last 60 years really. Iraq was the worst, and their total abandonment of Julian Assange comes pretty close.
Never thought about it like sports but that makes total sense. They literally believe he hasn't done any of the shit he has done or if they admit, say he did bankrupt 3 casinos, it wasn't his fault it was the economy or he declared bankruptcy and it was smart business. Not understanding how horrifyingly stupid or corrupt you have to be to bankrupt a casino, let alone 3. Anyway, good analogy.
Wall St. Big Tech and Big Pharma and big corporations are the big donors to Biden NOT TRUMP. Biden is outspending Trump at least 2 to 1. Wall St. are globalists looking for a quick buck with cheap labor outsourced.
Really what about sax playing, skirt chasing Bill Clinton?
Thanks. I agree that Democrats mostly have no idea why Trump's fans are so devoted to him and what they THINK he stands for. Nor do they really have any messaging that works to counter it left in their arsenals because 1) the corporate neoliberal Democrats stand for the exact same things as the corporate neoconservative Republicans and 2) they've wasted all that was left of their credibility post-Iraq war for the past 3 1/2 years.
The people that I know are for sure or I suspect will likely vote for Trump aren't what I would characterize as huge fans of his. None have any clue what Qanon is either judging from conversations I've had with them. Why they are going to vote Trump is simply because they are disgusted by the sanctimonious self righteous liberals that NEVER stop whining about him and they see as having thrown a non stop tantrum for the past 4 years. They are crystal clear about their disdain with the way the riots and lockdown measures have been handled with blatant hypocrisy in Democratically controlled cities and in my State. In short a HUGE reason many people are voting for Trump is simply because of the behavior of the Left and for some reason Democrats just can't grasp this. It's not that these people love Trump they just hate the people who they see as far more hysterical, annoying and dangerous.
Though I couldn't vote Trump I don't blame someone that votes for him for those reasons. I agree with the reasons.
Count me as one of those. The moral/cultural authoritarianism of the left, as embodied by CRT and "cancel culture", must be stopped. Trump has many faults, but at least he stands against those things. There are other reasons I support Trump this time (I did not in 2016), but this is the one that's driving me to vote straight-ticket 'R' for the first time in my life.
Great comment-and completely true. Someone like Mitt Romney would never have a chance against Hillary or Biden. Why-b/c they refuse to directly call out their bs. Trump does that-and did that in his first term. Why are the rappers giving him respect-b/c he honestly interacted with them, on their level, with their issues. Most GOP types wold have brushed off Ice Cube like the Ds did-while doing ridiculous kente cloth photo ops when the media was in peak hysteria mode. Trump hasn’t changed who is he is-for good or for bad, but his policy outcomes, on the whole, have been great. You would have to have a degree from Trump University to believe one thing out of Biden/Harris’ mouth regarding Covid, Russia, Ukraine, or China.
Well said. Also, what politician actually tries to implement his crazy "promises"? That alone suggest he is unstable. Build a wall? Cut taxes to the middle class? Negotiate with rocket boy? Slap tariffs on countries like China? Strike peace deals? Repeal ACA? Get out of paying for that cold war relic NATO? The angry power structures prefer malleable politicians, swayed by campaign contributions. He's a loose cannon! Deplorables vote for him because he actually tries or make the appearance of trying. How did a billionaire become a populist rock star? Worth studying for anyone that gets into politics. I predict the next finalists in the circus will be Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson vs. Kanye West. I'm guessing the Rock will be the Democrat and Kanye the Republican. The war of the media elite.
Trump voters don't really care what he stands for - they care that he's a useful symbol they can use to send a "Can you hear me now" message to the corporate, academic and media elites.
He is, as one wag recently put it, the "last middle finger left for them to wave."
There are many reasons people vote for the "disturber" and yes I agree that is one, but there are many real solid reasons the "deplorables" (she might as well said off with their heads 🙄) vote for Trump.
That was Michael Moore. This is a flawed analysis because the finger that Trump gives them is just political theater. I'm sure Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald would agree. Yes, Trump's fanatics believe that him being in office is a finger to the elites, but what does a finger get you in real life? Into a fist fight or ignored like a pariah. That's what's driving the record numbers of voting in Democrat areas - they are sick of the constant posturing and flipping of fingers and don't want to see 4 more years of it. In that manner, it worked for him in 2016 because people thought he would actually do some of the things he talked so much about. At the end of 4 years with COVID, the economy tanked and nothing to show for all the showmanship other than a few miles of new border wall in remote areas. I don't think that's enough to get him re-elected.
Thank-you! Read Chris Hedges America the Farewell Tour-- lots of reasons why Trump was elected. I remember telling my US colleagues that I thought Trump would be elected and I have NEVER received so much vitriol in response. Oh I am Canadian I don't know our system 🙄, SO much anger and bullying in response to my statement. Same when I said Obama won't change anything. Sigh--this is clearly what 75 yrs plus of obvious propaganda passing as education results in.
He's not the best - he's just what we've got. The last resort. The nuclear option against a world gone mad.
You can't express the "wrong" politics in the work place, or on TV, or on Facebook, or around friends and family, or...
So what's left but the anonymous ballot?
If the DNC is a violent street gang, Trump is the well dressed man from the Mafia politely but firmly suggesting that you pay your protection money to keep the gangs at bay. I'd obviously prefer to have neither, but gun to my head, I'd rather deal with the Mafia guy.
"gone mad".
Zactly!
As I've written to one of the other Trumpers here, I was gonna get some help. Really I was. I was gonna go next week.
But then Trump told me he's not gonna lose. Which means for me, I lose our insurance that covers pre-existing conditions - "gone mad". So now I'm hosed.
See what you've done? Now you're going to have deal with all us crazies.
Well, you know, it seems to me it's ending up that way no matter what -- I can't say what I want today, but I'm pretty sure that tomorrow, I also won't be able to, whether it's street gang or mafia man.
There was a Biden rally in my area recently. Trump supporters showed up with bullhorns to drown out the speakers.
In the meantime, rights narrow, our sense of community flounders, healthcare grows more expensive, the pool of decent jobs shrinks, and we become ever more enraged. Is the nuclear option better, or does it just feel good, in the moment?
After 4 years of the insults, unsubstantiated demonizing and false accusations launched at Trump supporters daily on CNN, MSNBC, Twitter, through the young and inexperienced to the old and cynical (waving at Cher, et al)... that's a quite reasonable reaction.
I admire Trump's ability to restrain himself actually.
He's correct. No President has ever had the assault upon his person and family like Trump has - Clapper, Brennen, McCabe, Comey and all their high priced hypocrites in MSM personality pretending to be a Journalist collaborators have never sunk to this level of depraved personal attacks before.
I'm not exaggerating. Clapper, I believe it was, called Trump a traitor on CNN at the same time his private testimony to Congressional committees was that there was no evidence of collusion at the same time Schiff was repeatedly lying on those fake news shows and saying he had seen the evidence himself.
it's outrageous. Trump and his supporters are actually very very decent people or there would be way violence
Given how things have been at other points in our history, I continue not to buy the notion that the attacks on him have been the worst ever.
well, I'm not a historian but certainly in my lifetime.
I think it's because the other Presidents' folded.
I think they sent Obama veiled threats; a couple from a reality show get past the Secret Service and attend a party they weren't invited to and I seem to remember thinking they were passive threatening him when they let a crazy jump the fence and get in the White House before apprehending him.
Also I think the rumors they gave him the coordinates to drone a doctors without borders clinic are plausible. Obama wanted reset with Russia, the spooks do not.
Trump hasn't folded. With the exception of not withdrawing troops which Trump has confirmed outright that the Generals were arrayed against him on that decision. The so called Fascist had mustache man in his cadre and didn't start a war.
but like Deco said better below, the coordination of the attacks with the spooks and MSM, the White House press corps, the overtly hostile social attacks on his cabinet and inner circle, the overtly hostile lies from the spooks, the overtly protective behavior for his opponents by the MSM and the spooks, the soft ball questions afforded Dem candidates, the daily misrepresentations and collective dishonesties... it's crazy.
it is off the chain crazy. There is no way in hell I could support the Dems in these crazy, anti-American, insane provocations.
The Swat FBI arrest of the absurd Roger Stone coordinated with CNN.
The Spooks set up, intimidation to plead guilty and bullshit charges of Gen Flynn.
The pretense that Mueller did anything of any merit - charging Russians that will never be brought to court to defend themselves and process crimes that arose from the harrassment of Americans that worked for Trump.
It is off the chain crazy. Chuckie Shumer told Trump the spooks have 7 ways to mess with him to Sunday. Interesting comment by an insider leading up to the election. I believe he told Trump exactly what he was in for.
I believe that other presidents have endured worse attacks. We've had war time and civil war era presidents, and assassinated presidents. That's as severe as an attack can get. But in terms of the coordinated and collusive wall of attacks by factions that have never been so allied, together with novel institutions and players wielding enormous power in support of that collusion, the attacks on Trump are unprecedented.
Because he’s the only one we have right now as crazy as he is.
Yep. He’s the only one who’s crazy enough to stand up against all the madness. I think it’s admirable.
I'm for sure that Melania has looked at him and thought, wtf was so bad about living in Trump towers and minding our own business? but I'm also for sure, that's the point to the incessant harrassment - never about serious policy considerations but always on the level of a 3rd grade playground as if we're idiots.
Nobody knows what Pelosi et al want an extra trillion dollars for - the media couches it in simplistic terms of empathetic vs cold hearted and we are subjected to endless "American stories" of gloom and doom designed to make us support a policy whose slogan doesn't begin to explain the actual beneficiaries to the transfer of taxpayer dollars. Bail out the NY City DiBlasio decisions like not enforcing transit users to pay at the turnstile? Offering free healthcare and housing for illegals? Call us racists when we oppose those decisions as fiscally unsound and then hold us hostage to pay for the stupidity. Seriously. That is in itself enough to make one vote for Trump.
Then these arrogant career bureaucrats, politicians, spooks and media personnel that all believe they are better positioned to impose their viewpoints than a duly elected POTUS. Oh. and federal judges. Like the one from Hawaii who felt better positioned to design American immigration policy despite that being one of the areas implicitly assigned to POTUS.
Really. The arrogance is overwhelming. Then Trump comes along with his gold plated toilets, dumping ketchup on his ribeye and... hahaha the arrogant elites heads explode.
If only he were Indian American like Harris' mother that penchant for gold plated ostentatious decorating would be a virtue and ketchup on a ribeye would be folksy.
Let's not avoid the serious Cultural issues accompanying race relations either.
Take a President they have misconstrued what he said from the beginning regarding race and oppose his efforts to make successful inroads to lowering a wealth gap, unemployment number and income inequality. Then when the Democrats, whose bread and butter is keeping minority populations convinced that while they do nothing to help when they have the opportunity, they are still the ONLY option up next to dog whistling Klansmen dressed in business suits.
When those Democrats deliver nothing we are forced to continue to pretend that it's racism keeping incomes low and not the wholesale takeover of what used to pay well - construction, food processing - yes, chicken plants - by illegal immigrants willing to work long hours, live in cramped quarters and shop Walmart in order to send as much of that money as is possible outside the country.
You guys don't know any Trump supporters? Do you know any construction crews? Do you know illegals have no interest in unions, have no interest in better benefits, make no issues about their working conditions and have been known to work from day light to well after dark - doing roofing for instance, all day every day when the work is available? But "illegals" as a term is offensive! haha what a racket.
Yeah. There is an unholy alliance amongst Dems pretending to want open borders for humanitarian reasons. And it's hurting American wages. it's Econ 101.
And it's that fundamental dishonesty - pretending to be the party of unions and working class while really undermining working Americans all the way up through the middle class that adds rage.
And it's CRT, globalism, the incessant nonsense disputing America's exceptionalism, the 1619 project, stupid memes about how wonderful the African continent's cultural wisdom is (it takes a village) and Obama's apology tour - the Dems mostly take any rising issue that has grassroots support and some authenticity, monetize it, weaponize it and destroy it. :::shrugs::::
As long as McConnell keeps the senate the faux warfare waged by Democrats for America's under-served will continue!
They're creating a permanent underclass while they pretend to advance liberal goals and funnel money at their friends fake companies with ineffectual efforts to alleviate the conditions they themselves create.
And I voted for Obama twice and defended him against those who I arrogantly assumed opposed him because of Faux news.
Then, I retired and had time to watch those hearings I had never watched for myself while working and haphazardly catching the news.
Obama had no drama - he likes to say. Except he did. Lots and lots of controversy. It was just squelched.
Still there was a visceral dislike for him that made me uncomfortable. Endless email chains of Obama jokes and stories. McConnell refusing to work with him. I get it, it all bothered me at the time as well.
But the movement of wealth from the middle class home owners to the investor class under Obama should have been criminal.
The republicans prosecuted their own during the S&L crisis. Obama let everyone off the hook, torture, financial crimes, IRS destruction of evidence, Spooks fast and furious.
it's a giant mess. the political's class center hasn't held - the center has sold out and is one giant party waging faux wars against one another and exchanging power amongst themselves while funneling money to each other.
Trump is fringe. that's no longer an insult politically. haha
I hate to break your Dem hate up, but you do know all those businesses in the south with all those illegal aliens ain't a bunch of Dems right? They're God fearing, Murica first Republicans. They love the illegals because they get to pay shit wages and not treat them worth a shit. I agree the Dems are frauds, but let's stop with the one sided thing. I lived and worked among those honest, Jesus lovers and it ain't white folk mowing their lawns in Texas in August. It ain't illegals owning the construction companies or chicken plants or car washes or restaurants that use them. Those white Republicans that want all the illegals gone sure like to pick them up for work at Home Depot. Just be fair about the blatant lying and hypocrisy. There is plenty on the Jesus, libertarian side.
You said that "[n]obody knows what Pelosi et al want an extra trillion dollars for..." I'm not sure if you are saying you don't know or just that the public generally is not familiar, but in case it's the former, it's pretty straightforward and its crazy how little reporting it has gotten. The Dems are holding another covid-relief package hostage to Federal handouts to states. You can defend that as crucial support for governments on the front lines of covid if you like - others will argue that it is a blue state pension bail-out - but there is no denying that this is the main difference, measured by dollars to be spent. Trump is pushing checks to citizens and the Dems are insisting that unless some money is provided to the states as well, no one gets anything.
His press secretary is better at standing up to the madness than he is. But he picked her so . . . there you go.
She’s amazing! I love that she’s so prepared. Reminds me of how I was in high school and college. Always had binder tabs and everything lol. She’s the best! She truly fights the propaganda with truth and even their own words!
The fact that something is the only tool available does not mean that it will accomplish the job.
Disagree. If you see a nail and you need a hammer, you get the hammer. If it's a screw, you get Joe. He's not a hammer. He's a screwdriver. Trump supporters think we need a hammer. Biden supporters think we need a screwdriver. LOL...or something like that. And I haven't even started drinking!
He isn't the best tool to reintroduce sanity. Insanity is guaranteed. At least with Trump I get someone that doesn't want to destroy our energy infrastructure like we have with Newsome here in California. That is the one thing that is not negotiable for me. I want natural gas and I want fossil fuel based transportation. Anyone that is not for that is out for me. I don't trust Biden or Harris on this. I could care less about all of the other stuff. But destroying our energy infrastructure and transportation systems is a bridge too far to me, and a lot of other people as well.
Why does it need to be fossil fuels?
It doesn't need to be fossil fuel. But it needs to be a baseload energy source. A baseload energy source never stops producing energy. Nuclear, Geothermal, Tidal, Fussion, Fossil fuels. Wind and solar do not provide baseload energy and must be backed up by baseload energy sources. As a Californian when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, we have to import energy from other states. This results in rolling blackouts, which I don't like.
I would be fine with renewables if they provided constant baseload energy. right now they do not. So making fossil fuels illegal or cost prohibitive through legislation is not a wise thing right now.
He's not. Because no one is. This is magical thinking. Sanity will either come or it won't--it has to be cultural and via osmosis and organically at this point. It's not coming from a politician or a political office.
The UN has gone on record to say that Donald Trump and his rhetoric are potentially dangerous to the media.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/02/donald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger
Lol. The UN. Lol.
LOL? Very well thought out reply. It was the UN that opposed Bush's invasion of Iraq. Is that something you're against? Please try to articulate at least one area of disagreement with the UN. Because in my experience it's mainly neocons who hate it.
Okay: The U.N. regularly puts grotesque violators of human rights on its human rights panel: Cuba, Venezuela, China. Yeah, I have lots of disagreement with the U.N.
And as much as Trump rails against the media, he has done nothing to curtail press freedoms. A lot of morally bankrupt activists posing as journalists are making a good living attacking Trump on air and in print.
Obama prosecuted more reporters for violating state secrets acts than Trump has, even though career bureaucrats have been violating public disclosure laws at a far, far higher rate under Trump than under Obama.
TDS is all too real, and even Matt seems to have a mild case of it.
"The U.N. regularly puts grotesque violators of human rights on its human rights panel: Cuba, Venezuela, China. Yeah, I have lots of disagreement with the U.N."
Psst....you forgot a few MAJOR human rights violators. Namely, the USA and Israel.
Come on that doesn't count when it is in foreign countries does it?
"has done nothing to curtail press freedoms"...
Julian Assange would disagree with you. Not even Obama (who Trump supporters cannot help but to bring up in ANY conversation about Trump) indicted Assange and subjected him to solitary confinement and torture. That is 100% on Trump.
You do know that Assange is being held in the UK, not the US, right? I do wish Trump had a better stance with regards to Assange, but up to this point his treatment is 100% on the UK government, regardless of who else has tried to influence their decisions.
P.S. Venezeula is not a "grotesque human rights violator" - that's absolute horseshit, especially compared to any single American war, let alone the aggregate.
"curtail press freedoms" is only part of the issue. It's not just the UN. Numerous journalism advocacy groups have said Trump is potentially dangerous to journalists/journalism.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-journalists-media-democracy-fake-news-white-house-cpj-a9469586.html
From the article:
"Its report, titled “The Trump Administration and the Media,” documents such Trump administration practices as using US Customs and Border Protection to question journalists and search their electronic devices at border crossings; Mr Trump's calls for boycotts of news organisations and for changes in libel laws to punish reporting he doesn't like; the ending of formal White House press briefings for more than a year; and Trump's repeated lies to discredit accurate reporting."
How did I forget...France and the UK. Usually as part of American led wars.
Chill. We haven't initiated any wars for what...4 years now? Turn the page.
The same UN that allows Cuba and Sudan on the Human Rights Commission.......
Or it "unstable and dangerous president" applies to Obama, to the extent he knew about the spying on Trump's campaign both before and after the 2016 election. Obama totally undermined the idea of a peaceful transition. Obama and Susan Rice and Jim Comey and the DOJ....and Clapper and despised Brennan at CIA. These people were all in the Obama administration. How dangerous is that? How can anyone have any faith in these institutions? Or faith in the next transition whenever it occurs?
It's no different than Ronny Ray gun did to Carter with the October surprise.
Why are you still stuck on Obomber anyway ? This has gone on far longer than Obomber and goes clear back to at least the Kennedy's.
The elite have always ran this country and this world. Stop trying to blame it all on the Wall Street shill Obomber.
I agree. "..unstable and potentially dangerous president" applies more to a potential Joe Biden. Trump has not started any wars. He has been getting us out of the Mideast. So I don't understand how the evidence supports that Trump is the problem....when the actual evidence supports that Joe Biden and the Democrats have dangerously entangled the CIA and FBI in a fake Russia story for the sole purpose of gaining power by lying. How is that not dangerous no matter what Trump says. Democrats impeached Trump while the FBI had the Hunter Biden laptop and never revealed anything. Forget being Republican or Democrat--doesn't it concern any rational American that our institutions are being undermined internally? That our media is a propaganda operation? That our best and most honest reporters are "stooges." Even the few that exist? Doesn't that weaken us as a country?
So as long as we just maintain the seven we are already in we have a "stable" president ? Ha !
Thank you for this. There really are no Dems or Reps anymore; no Conservatives or Liberals or Libertarians. There really are only Populists (that Trump and Bernie represent) and Establishment boosters (every institution with power - media, federal and congressional bureaucracy, corporations, big tech - who are using BLM, antifa types as their shock troops, even tho they have limited control over them). I think we need to realize that's where the lines are now. Everything has been disrupted and shifted and it wasn't just because of Trump. This started during GHWB and the Clinton administration when both parties glommed together for the corporate good.
Wrong, there's just top and bottom going back centuries. Everything else has been a propaganda construct in order to keep those on top on top.
Have you followed the FIRE movement? Interesting twist on top vs bottom. For those that haven't heard of it, "Financial Independence, retire early" - Live a simple life, avoid excessive consumerism and save $ - having more people check out of materialism to gain independence from consumerism (the American way) is a trend worth watching because it changes your world view (and probably your political affiliation).
Common sense is now a movement!?!?
If it isn't already it needs to be a movement.
You'll go broke saving money, the interest rate isn't even keeping up with inflation.
Kill capitalism and you kill the need for constant growth and the usury of the elite with one stone.
Unity is key, checking out of the facade that is the government in every 5 eyes country is the only way of stopping the elite from bringing back slavery.
The prison industrial complex is the working model. People who can't leave, feed themselves, call in sick or retire. Meanwhile, wealth continues to concentrate almost as fast as control is.
Good luck everyone.
It's his opinion. He's also making a point as to where is argument lies, as nobody in the MSM or on the left generally seems to perceive it: he is not defending Trump. He doesn't like Trump. He doesn't like Trump as president. He doesn't want Trump to win the election. Which is fine. That's a perfectly legitimate opinion, just as seeing Biden as dangerous or a poor candidate and not wanting him to win is.
Taibbi is primarily a media critic in his new reporting. This isn't about supporting Trump (what others say to the contrary) but critiquing the media's new approach to framing and shaping "news", rather than reportage. And how the MSM refuses to let ideas compete in full public view, but attempts to pick winners ahead of time based on their own biases and political or ideological orientations.
Right you are sir!
I watched the clip of his Joe Rogen chat. I have to say I stopped giving money to the Intercept because I felt it was becoming a Democratic cheer leader. I am so glad to see that Greenwald didn't drink the Kool-Aid (and was fighting the editorial expansion of power). Great integrity!!
Looking forward to seeing more from him with the Intercept chains gone.
Why does anybody listen to Clapper and Brennan? They are the jerks who lied about “yellow cake uranium”. Didn’t anybody learn anything from that?
There are absolutely zero reasons why Clapper is not currently in prison.
(See above) Comey, too.
Peak 2020 is listening to those stooges because they're being paid by CNN etc. to render their opinions on Foreign Policy. "Next on CNN, Jeffrey Dahmer will join us on how to meal prep for summer barbecues"
nope
Because they say things that are useful to certain agendas with such glorious **gravitas**.
Comey, too. And, of course, the Bushes, the Clintons, Obama and most before them...war crimes, you know. Those same people gave us Trump. If Obama had done his job, we would have universal healtcare and education, have all our troops home and NATO disbanded, and no Trump.
They can't remember it is more than likely the case. On top of that, the same liars keep failing back into key positions.
Glenn and Matt are two of the best and will always be my first go-to reporters. Those others like them (and we all know who they are) also must report outside of mainstream. I took the New Yorker for years, famous for its fact-checking. Since they fell for the Russiagate lies and the Syria lies, and all the other lies (they hired Masha Gessen who is changing the quality even more), no longer. Some days I am disgusted by the Internet, yet it's the place to get real news, so am grateful for that. Thanks, Matt, for this writing. Way to go, Glenn.
"These fragments I have shored against my ruins." The fourth estate is a wasteland and our only resort is seek out individual truth seekers and ignore the rubble.
Add Scahill and The Gray Zone-- Max Blumenthal et al
Of course, and Aaron Mate, and those who write for ConsortiumNews, CounterPunch, MintPress, moonofalabama, Mondoweiss, electronic intifada...
And Yves Smith et al. I'm glad Matt linked nakedcapitalism.com in the above. Daily reading for me.
Thanks, Tom.
Rob Roy
Here here!
Greenwald and Taibbi, Kings of Journalism!
Matt...once again you stated the obvious with devastating clarity resulting in many needing access to the fainting couch. You may want to consider some kind of trigger warning. I am thinking something along the lines of " the following article may express opinions that deviate from accepted orthodoxy and as such readers may want to sit down before reading". In the alternative how about "go f*#k yourself if you cannot deal with an opinion that differs from what you have been told is your opinion".
Based on some of the earlier comments below I'd say that you are spot on. Nothing exemplifies triggered like the dullest tools running out of shed screaming "conspiracy!", working in overdrive to discredit any person or outlet which threatens their fragile yet absolutely certain cocoon of orthodoxy.
Or immediately branding anyone who dares have a close look at the DNC's candidate as being a "Trumper" whatever that means.
Sticks and stones... whoopety doo
Too many important issues that, for a variety of reasons, reporters at major institutions wont report on or won’t do so accurately.
Just last night a major reporter for NYT seemed to question basic reporting on the riots and looting in Philadelphia. Hard to even believe. But they do this with issue after issue- just look at how dishonest they’ve been with the police shootings over the last few months. They won’t even state the facts clearly. And very few besides Matt has taken on this insane critical race theory and I’m sure after he wrote his great article- many would have cancelled him if they could..
There are journalists (and outlets) who attempt to report the truth as best they can. Then there are the ideological (and/or financial) puppets who are nothing more than water carriers for those in power. Not much gray area in between.
As Jigsaw always told his victims, "The choice is yours".
Another example; During the nightly protests in Portland - I found that the coverage in the Daily Caller was more accurate and honest than that of the Times’, whose correspondent, for whatever reason, didn’t rise to the moment.
It was a microcosm of the problems facing legacy media; pressure from social media not to cover certain stories, pressure from woke colleagues to conform to be racist, etc
It’s all very disturbing because at the end of the day I couldn’t trust the paper of record to tell me what was happening.
"Protesters" (lol) here in PDX can and do drive press away, with threats of violence and sometimes violence, from their gatherings to ensure nothing is documented. The latest:
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2020/10/portland-commissioner-dan-ryan-promised-protesters-he-would-meet-with-them-if-they-didnt-record-demonstrators-confronted-journalists-who-did.html
Extra ordinary about this time a couple of nights ago is our city commissioner helped them do it.
No question it’s become dangerous. These lunatics threaten and attack and bully reporters. I’m sure it’s not easy being a reporter covering these situations. That said, it must be covered. I don’t mean to single out the Times’ reporter but if you’re working for the paper of record I think you need to find a way to get it done or transfer to a doctor beat. Reporters for the Daily Caller managed to do an excellent job apprising readers of what was actually happening in Portland.
Should read “Different” beat
An update, from the 11/6 Oregonian, referring to activity the night of 11/5-6. A "small group" (nothing specific, but later in the 'reporting' it mentions a "few dozen" going somewhere else after the group dispersed. lol... "small"...) went to the same commissioner's house:
"The demonstration followed a City Council vote against a proposal that would have cut millions of dollars from the Portland police budget. For months, demonstrators have demanded steep cuts to end the disproportionate policing of Black Portlanders.
Ryan, who joined the council in September, was viewed as a crucial third vote for the $18 million in proposed cuts. He voted no.
The commissioner’s house was dark when protesters arrived around 9 p.m. Some people lit flares near his house and shattered some glass on the property. Other people threw objects at the house and smashed a large flower pot."
They vandalized his empty home - breaking at least one window, were driven off by police (3 arrests). Lucky he wasn't home eh?
So, timeline. Newly elected counselor. Contentious vote coming up. Visited at night by people concealing their identities (it's the fundamental purpose of black block). Meet with them, prohibit the press from documenting the meeting; deny they knew the press were even there when the press later tells the story. Vote happens. Home visited again, this time attacked, because he didn't vote the way they wanted.
Wow. Makes the chants "Whose street? Our street!" and "This is what democracy look like!" really come to life!
Thanks for the update Eric. I heard that Ryan voted against the police budget cut and I was pleasantly surprised. By your original post I thought he was with the protesters, I didn't know the protesters targeted him. Good for him. That budget cut would have been bad news, IMO. Glad he voted against it. Also really glad that Eudaly is out and Mapps is in. Gives me a bit of hope for our city.
I'm in PDX too. Which commissioner? Hardesty probably. Although Eudaly would be my second pick.
Was actually Dan Ryan.
Newsnation with WGN seems a good summary of the day's news so far.
Thank you for this. Cheers to GG for standing by his ethics. I gave up on the intercept a year ago. It was obviously becoming another echo chamber. When did it become so egregious to allow readers the option to read and critically think on their own!?
They think there is a cool kids room and want to be in it.
I won't be able to afford 100x individual subscriptions. As more and more principled journalists stand up for free speech, I won't be subscribing to many individuals. I would like Substack to work with a group of free-speech journalists, or otherwise, those journalists are going to need to band together and create a new media organisation (while it's still legal).
Agreed. Greenwald mentioned a new venture. I would bet a pretty penny Taibbi will be involved. There are only so many civil libertarian journalists left.
Agreed x2
As I was subscribing to Greenwald and Taibbi on substack I was thinking the same thing. Thank you.
The problem has already been solved. Crypto. When you see a piece you like, smash the crypto button.
I get what Taibbi and Greenwald are saying, but dying on this hill in the service of another four years of a guy who is openly saying he wants to be a dictator is a choice that I'm having trouble understanding. Like would they have wanted to be the guys in Germany yelling about how unfair the media was being to Hitler (yeah yeah...)? I dunno, maybe they're right, and losing trust in our media outlets has driven us into our media bubbles and made everything worse, but I think the media (old-school and social) is just trying to figure out how to deal with a bad actor who is happy to lie at scale, with a huge ecosystem of leeches, grifters, and conspiracy-peddling enablers happy to keep the lies rolling. I don't think that Greenwald or Taibbi has the answer to this crisis, and it seems like they are focusing more on an effect of Trumpism rather than a cause, much as they'd like to think it was the reverse.
‘I get what Taibbi is saying’ then goes on to write a statement which shows he doesn’t get it at all.
How often does that happen with a Taibbi article?.. it's become like the standard intro for the "whataboutism" crowd
I wrote a statement talking about my conflicted feelings about trying to pin our whole shitty situation on the media. Gotta say, it's sad to see most of you have no such conflicts. I don't think punting on a poorly-sourced Hunter Biden hit job a week before the election is some conspiracy by a neoliberal warmongering media (at the Intercept!) to install Biden so we can march into Iran. And as much as GG and MT can call what they are doing noble, it ALSO happens to help Trump, and there is a whole ecosystem of bad-faith media ready to twist and amplify their message in support of Trump.
I would also be shocked if Taibbi wasn't also having some conflicted thoughts about this new career turn, especially given the new crop of red hat commentators he seems to be picking up.
And for those of you who truly think Biden is more of a liar or more dangerous than Trump, let's just say we disagree.
"I would also be shocked if Taibbi wasn't also having some conflicted thoughts about this new career turn, especially given the new crop of red hat commentators he seems to be picking up."
Guilt-by-association is the most loathsome form of criticism, IMO. It also demonstrates a weakness in the arguments about whatever the author is asserting--otherwise there would be no need to evoke the deplorables who read and comment on the article as a critique.
That being said, I don't know if Biden is more of a liar or more dangerous than Trump. But I'm pretty sure the mainstream media is. I don't care for the new media landscape of narrative shaping, redfining the meanings of words, truth-over-facts, reporting on Tweets being considered news, etc. Trump might be the ideal president for our current cultural state of affairs but he's hardly the only offender.
Also, if Greenwald and Taibbi "ALSO happen to help Trump", that's not on them. That's far more on the media generally, as their transformation from reporters to 100% opinion "journalists" is what creates an ecosystem for folks like Matt and Greenwald at all.
"I don't care for the new media landscape of narrative shaping, redefining the meanings of words, truth-over-facts, reporting on Tweets being considered news, etc. "
Amen! I totally agree. And you can say it's not on them if their arguments get twisted by others, but they are the ones who bit on this stupid Hunter Biden bait! Are we supposed to forget that the whole reason Trump was impeached was because he was trying to strongarm the leader of the Ukraine into digging up this crap?
Are you seriously unaware that the rightwing media ran with the NY Post story the second it came out, and that the only big boost it got after that was because of the efforts by FB, twitter and the liberal press to censor the Post article? Seriously?? All of that happened before GG, Taibbi, or any other progressive said a word about the subject, and when they did comment, one of their main points was that the effort to censor the story gave it fresh legs - how do you keep missing this?
As for "digging up this crap", do you honestly not know that even James Risen was digging into it for the NY Times before the 2016 campaign ever got going, and that progressives shouted throughout this primary season that the story was a time bomb waiting to go off that was bound to make Biden vulnerable? Risen did try and put lipstick on the pig, but it was hopeless even for him; the cat was already out of the bag on this 5 years ago! If you are actually unaware of these things you have no business commenting on the actions of Greenwald and Taibbi. What you are doing amounts to nothing more serious than shooting the messenger, while ignoring the main point of the message. Because claiming that something is "Russian disinformation" when there is NO evidence of Russian involvement and no one even denying that the information in question is genuine is a very dangerous game for many reasons. Russia is not just some kind of piñata for partisan political hacks to kick around, maybe you didn't know that? And more to the point, as I already said, calling it "Russian disinformation" just adds fuel to the rightwingers' fire - Taibbi and GG are TRYING to point that detail out, and you keep refusing to listen to what they are telling you.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html
Where did I mention "Russian disinformation?" Don't put quotes around things I didn't say!
Shokin was doing his job in investigating Burisma/Hunter BIden-and the targets didn’t like it. Was Shokin suspect in other investigations.......that’s beside the point........
"Guilt-by-association is the most loathsome form of criticism, IMO. It also demonstrates a weakness in the arguments about whatever the author is asserting--otherwise there would be no need to evoke the deplorables who read and comment on the article as a critique."
In this passage David was not presenting an argument. He was speculating on Taibbi's feelings--submitting the possibility that he might be experiencing internal conflict. It seems likely that the man who wrote Insane Clown President could have complex feelings about some of his Substack readers imploring him to take the final step to being "red-pilled," a sentiment expressed in this very article's comments section.
I can't see why anyone making the completely rational point that both sides should be held to the same level of press scrutiny should be worried if that is misinterpreted by people on either side as a lean to the right. It just isn't. I recently finished Insane Clown President and nothing in this article strikes me as inconsistent with the tone of the chapters criticising the Dems / Dem-supporting sections of the media.
Here’s the thing, and others made reference to it: if Twitter and Facebook hadn’t blocked this, it would barely have registered. Another story about Ukraine or Russia that’s too complex or boring, with a bunch of unpronounceable names, for most people to make note of. Part of the daily scandal churn. Same thing with censoring Greenwald. If they print his story, a bunch of liberals call him a Russian asset again, and everyone goes about their business. How many people do you suppose read the Intercept? How many of them are undecided voters?
I’m a longtime liberal, I’ve been an organizer for Pete’s sake. But most of the left has such a mania for suppressing speech that it’s impossible to help them see their own Streisand effect. If you really don’t want this story to influence voting, then don’t give it a signal boost.
Greenwald is now on Tucker Carlson talking about anti-Biden stories being spiked. Completely a self-own by the Intercept. If this ends up finding any undecided (typically low information) voters, it will be because the neoliberal left believe they can stop everyone, everywhere from encountering information that they find unfortunate or distasteful.
David Bromwich's pointed criticism of the contemporary American media in the November 2020 issue of Harper's arrives at much the same conclusion https://harpers.org/archive/2020/11/is-america-ungovernable/
yes, this.
I feel zero conflict. It’s never defensible, ethical, or wise to push untruth in this business. Focusing on that and ignoring the politics is what protects people like me. If I cared about who was and was not “helped” by facts - and I really don’t, in fact I care a lot less than Glenn probably - I would say the people who push Russia conspiracies and cover up things like this Hunter business are/were Trump’s biggest allies. Their incompetence and dishonesty were Trump’s best argument.
It's more about which facts one focuses on. Which facts are most relevant to our most pressing existential dilemmas.
By their own claims, Democrats and their base are better educated, more inclusive, more aware, more engaged, and more representative of the needs of constituents than their opponents. In my opinion, their actions and their failure to act to alleviate the massive inequalities in their society or to end the American role in destabilizing sovereign countries must be held to a higher standard. They know better than to countenance the disparity of wealth and income, the unequal provision of education and other social resources, the illegal and therefore murderous continuance of foreign aggression against mostly non-white less prosperous (but resource-rich) populations. Biden has been complicit and has either been active in the continuation of all of these, or has stood by and let it happen.
Totally, which is why I voted for Bernie.
And having done that, you now feel like you have enough cred as a progressive to shill for the "centrist" faction now, and join in the attempts to stifle discussion of their counterproductive tactics?
Ugh... Bernie was such a wasted vote. I voted for him instead of Tulsi in the primaries bc I didn’t want Biden to win. I should have just voted Tulsi like I wanted to.
Also him shilling for the candidate that takes all the donations from Wall Street is so gross. Sad to see him lose his principles in his old age. At this point, I think he’s controlled opposition.
I guess so? Keep circling the wagons, dude.
I as well...as a write-in.
And China's Belt and Road is the real colonialism. Biden and China make a good pair. So how could anyone imagine this guy as President? If that isn't obvious---then they are brainwashed. Nothing excuses the left or the Democrats. Biden is incapable of leading this country in any way, shape or form. Ditto K. Harris.
Good Lord, asking which is worse of Trump vs. Biden is like asking who is more morally/ethically reprobate-the WWE or the Vladimir Putin regime. The neo-lib Ds/Deep State play well meaning “progressives” for moral suckers.........
Please. This is chess, not checkers. And you're asking the wrong question.
The more relevant question is "of these two candidates, whose ill-conceived policies would be easier to effectively oppose, once inaugurated President?" Real world, real time.
And don't even fall for the fallacy of two-valued logic that a vote for a presidential candidate signifies that the voter has pledged their troth to them forevermore (or whatever the numbskull take is on that, I've heard it so many times...) The Democratic Party has made a lot of ambitious proposals in the course of this campaign. If the Democrats win the Presidency and the Senate (required), there's enough free-floating discontent in this country that the people who voted for them will notice any sign of wavering or dissembling on their part. And if the Dems do pull the football away, there will be hell to pay for the Democrats. If they don't follow through, it will polarize the country worse than anything that's happened in the last four years, because the Dems will have sold out their own base of popular support, while clutching levers of power that they plainly don't deserve.
If the Republicans retain a majority in the Senate and the Democrats remain functionally disabled in that house of Congress, a lot depends on the ability of the Democrats to expose GOP obstructions (inevitable, as long as Mitch McConnell or someone like him is Senate Majority leader) and make the case that they'll only be able to accomplish their goals if they obtain a Democratic majority Senate in the 2022 midterms. This should be obvious. Unfortunately, the Establishment Democrats don't have much of a track record of fortitude on that score, and that's a big enough problem to lead to doubts as to whether the leadership cadre of the Democratic Party cares more about pursuing the goals touted in their campaign, or about keeping a ready excuse for their failures on hand.
As long as it's too early to tell, I recommend voting to permit the Democrats to take back the Senate. Just as I recommend voting for the Democratic Party candidate, despite the fact that Joe Biden would not be my top choice if we had ranked-choice voting.
So much is conditioned by the ballot system, don't you see? I learned about ranked-choice voting in 1998, and this is the 5th Presidential election I've had to suffer through, knowing that there's a way out of this rigged, bogus, stagnant status quo of two thoroughly entrenched parties and their media-reified "Red/Blue meme" offal. To speak of Polarization.
How much of the useless chatter in discussions of American Presidential elections would be totally nullified and mooted, if only voters had the ability to rank (as few as two) choices, allowing them to vote FOR the candidate they most want, instead of the current situation for most of us, of being cornered into voting AGAINST the candidate that they've concluded is the worst of two choices? Speaking from extensive personal observation: almost all of it. Which is a telling indication of how much improvement would be effected by a ranked-choice ballot reform.
I’ll be honest-I knew going in that neither Trump nor the Ds gives a rat’s ass about fiscal sanity, so I have to look at other things. I’ll take four more years of the pre-Covid economy, the post 16’ foreign policy, the Justice/Education depts acting as bulwarks against CRT, and judicial nominations going in the direction I prefer.
I’ll take 4 more years of the districts giving the finger to Panem, I’m old enough to realize that my preferred ideological revolution isn’t around the corner-and that’s OK. I’m a libertarian and I believe the US Constitution, strictly followed, is still the most libertarian plan of government developed in history. I want to see it’s specific governmental directives/strictures followed(hint-they aren’t, by all sides of the system), and the Bill of Rights honored and embraced as a national ethos.
Agree
"I’ll take four more years of the pre-Covid economy"
By most measures, that economy was around the same one as the 2015-16 economy. It's gains have largely been due to a continuation of the recovery that was already well underway.
But the other flaw in that framing is that it doesn't account for the possibility that fast, dramatic intervention at the national level might potentially have had the ability to stop the spread of the epidemic in its tracks.
From the April 13, 2020 New Yorker:
"...Emboldened by vindication, the Australian, walking through the countryside, laid out his prognosis for the United States and the world. America needed to “rip off the Band-Aid,” he said. The federal government should close the borders, shut off all international commerce, declare martial law, deploy the military to build field hospitals and isolation wards, and arrest or even fire on anyone who didn’t abide by a stay-in-place protocol. (“In 1918, in San Francisco, a cop shot someone in broad daylight for being outside without a face mask, and the cop was celebrated for it!”) Or perhaps the government should reward each citizen who strictly observed the quarantine with fifty thousand dollars. “The virus would burn out after four weeks,” he said. The U.S. had all the food and water and fuel it would need to survive months, if not years, of total isolation from the world. “If you don’t trade with China, they’re screwed,” he said. “You’d win this war. Let the rest of the world burn.” The problem, he said, was that, perhaps more now than ever, Americans lack what he called “social cohesion,” and thus the collective will, to commit to such a path. “Plus, you have guns. Lots of guns. And all the base materials for your drugs, like ninety-seven per cent, come from China.” He predicted that any less stringent measures—the slow removal of the Band-Aid that we are experiencing now—would result in social unrest bordering on civil war, and the decimation of our medical ranks. “So suddenly everyone who’s seen ‘House’ would be a doctor,” he said. Politically, the Australian considered himself well right of center, yet he thought it ridiculous that the United States doesn’t have nationalized health care..."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/the-price-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic
The person quoted- an unnamed Australian, wealthy young hedge fund dude- went on to elaborate on his dour opinion of the c.2020 American body politic, and to make some decidedly cynical predictions that I hope will not be proven correct. But some of his predictions have been borne out, as illustrated by the quote above. And he evidently shares my own inclination to view economics and social phenomena pragmatically and empirically, rather than choosing to be blinkered by ideological rigidity. As an American, I can't endorse his more Draconian recommendations- martial law, forcible lockdown under threat of death. I think a sufficiently forceful message could have been sent without the necessity for drastic measures like those. But the fact remains that a consistent message backed up with a decisive national strategy was what was required, and we didn't get anything remotely resembling that response from the Trump administration.
We are still not getting it. Trump apparently thinks that the epidemic can be reversed by the force of rhetoric, employing denials that continue to break barriers of logic and reason with every new pronouncement (although as with most other topics, Trump has always been careful to insert some statements that completely contradict his other statements, for the purpose of constructing an official record.) At this point, Trump can't even point to his earlier record of backing up medical support systems with Federal emergency deployments of Army medical personnel and equipment, the way his did in New York State in the spring of the year- ICUs are hitting capacity all over the heartland and intermountain West as I write this, and I haven't noticed any deployments of Army medical personnel or hospital bed units to any of those states. The DoD and National Guard are heavily involved in testing and preparation for vaccine distribution, yes- but I've heard nothing about support for the looming crisis in hospital beds and ICU facilities in recent months. That support surged, and for the most part turned out not to be needed in regions like the New York City metropolitian area, which had ample hospital beds and equipment. But now, cases are surging in more thinly populated parts of the country, and the implications of that for hospitalized patients in parts of the country that lack the care facilities of densely populated states don't appear to be receiving much attention at the Federal level. Other than statements from the incumbent President that the threat from the virus has been wildly and unethically exaggerated by both the news media and medical professionals.
"the post 16’ foreign policy"
I only wish I knew what that policy was. I've witnessed four years of decidedly mixed messages in terms of both rhetoric and action.
For what it's worth, I'm of the mind that a prospective Joe Biden administration will need to tread very lightly in terms of the future prospects of American military intervention- particularly in regard to initiating new foreign adventures or escalations, a path he had better not tread at all. If Biden makes that mistake, he'll doom his Presidency as surely as LBJ did. Only it won't be as pretty.
The neocons are still around, of course, and still as detached from the ghastly consequences of the militarism that they tout as they ever were. In my opinion, once your supposed comrades-in-arms in the local population start targeting your own forces in suicide attacks, that means it's time to pack up and leave it to the people who live there. To speak only of Afghanistan. But I have no assurance that a second Trump term will keep us out of War with Iran- a possibility I rarely hear addressed by Trump acolytes, many of whom give me the impression that they're cool either way with whatever course the Leader charts in that regard. (Whereas whatever liabilities a Joe Biden Presidency might possibly carry, the likelihood of a Cult of Personality forming around him is remote.)
I remember when I used to be a Libertarian Ideologue. But I found out that Practical Reality imposed overriding performance constraints on all idealized mind-maps. All of them are grossly oversimplified models. The more thoroughly worked out ideologies have an internal logical consistency that appears to work fine in theory- as long as the hypothetical examples don't stray too close to an honest and complete accounting of conditions on the ground. None of them scale up as intended in theory.
That consideration alone was sufficient to be a deal-breaker. But as if that wasn't enough, I've never encountered an Ideology that didn't eventually end up demanding that I choose between the dictates of its precepts and my personal moral and ethical principles.
I haven't dispensed with Ideologies entirely. The well-thought out ones are useful maps, and make useful points. They work well for the purposes of synthesis. But an insistence on relying on a single ideological gloss as the answer to every problem of politics, economics, and law is like someone insisting that the only tool required to build a house is a set of screwdrivers.
(To say nothing of what happens when someone comes along to insist on the superiority of philips-head screwdrivers over flat-blades, or vice versa...but it doesn't matter, because once the debate revolves around that question, the discussion is already so off-track that it's doomed to futility. Meanwhile, without that realization, the debate can continue indefinitely....)
Wrong Wrong Wrong. The Dems had control of the House and used it for impeachment instead of policy. Trump wanted to make deals. The Dems didn't want him to get credit. Country be damned. Can't you see where this is going? Cancel culture. Ends justify the means. The Dems aren't progressive at all. It's a game and Big Business, Big Tech and Wall Street are all supporting Dems. How much more info do you need?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/noam-chomsky-believes-trump-is-the-worst-criminal-in-human-history?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_103020&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd671322ddf9c619438fc6f&cndid=24278960&hasha=7d8ad0fda519b9b8585e02f385348a5f&hashb=9c52d86f5153366b965fcda04506280590253260&hashc=8f92ddff50df3a53edcc90367150c5edbf23b453c3d64b1d9f445d52126760ca&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Daily
Your problem is that censorship is self-reinforcing. You are sure that Trump "lies at scale" and is basically Hitler, but as we see repeatedly via Matt's reporting, anything that makes the Democrats look bad has been systematically suppressed for the past 4 years and anything that makes Trump sound like a liar is blasted out at full volume, usually manipulated in ways to make it look worse. Often claims about Trump are just made up out of whole cloth.
As a consequence you actually have no idea how much lying Biden engages in, literally no idea at all. You're comparing him to Trump but what evidence base are you using to make that comparison? Your impression derived from reading news reports? Biden could lie every day, far more than Trump, and you'd never know. I'm not saying he *does* do this, because I - like you - haven't the foggiest clue either. To be able to accurately weigh up the candidates at this point we'd need an unbiased stream of information about both, which is the opposite of what we have.
As for your claims that Trump "wants to be a dictator", the same claims were made in 2016. He's had two golden opportunities this year in the form of COVID and mass rioting, yet he's been the model of federalism throughout. State governorship never seemed so important, did it? Trump says a lot of stuff but when weighed by his actual actions, these claims don't match the reality of his presidency so far.
Trump is a liar. There's no "sounds like" to this. His entire career is based on lying.
Trump lies like a rug to cover up his incompetence and his real motives. Ask anyone he has ever owed money to. He'll sue you in a heartbeat and or screw you out of you money however he can.
Please don't try to lie everyone into believing he's a victim. Everything being done to him he has already done to someone.
You weren't bawling about the press spreading lies when Trump and faux news where smearing Obomber about his birth certificate, or the fear mongering narrative about being a secret Muslim implementing Sharia law, or having 27 social security numbers,or his secret plan to get Ebola to somehow kill only conservatives or whatever else hair on fire bullshit.
Trying to claim this as being a one sided affair when it's been going on for the entire history of politics is just getting nauseating.
Trump is getting exactly what he put out, so get over it.
Er, I'm not American and so only pay attention to stuff that's the top of the priority pile. When Trump was an "Obama birther" this was well before he was on the radar of people outside the USA, and the US media were doing their job of attacking such claims anyway, so what was there to say? I realise that you're using "you" to mean "generic American conservative", but there are lots of us out here affected by US politics for various reasons that don't follow every twist and turn of everything any presidential candidate does.
Does Trump lie a lot? For sure he does. Does he lie a lot more than other politicians? We can't tell because your press exaggerates everything bad about Trump 10x and - as we're seeing here - sinks stories that are bad about left wing candidates. So none of us can actually make a fair comparison, regardless of how strongly you feel it's clear or obvious. Biden could be talking total nonsense every day and maybe we'd hear about 1% of it.
And there we see how Trump manipulates people into thinking he's a victim despite the fact he would and has done everything that's being done to him.
The fact you actually believe the press only lies one way and just started lying when Trump took office just shows you buy into the fantasy that Trump is an honest player in crooked game that he's been contributing to his entire career.
Anyone that thinks the press hasn't been burying stories for decades now shouldn't bother commenting about American politics.
How many war crimes and scandals has the press covered up in the history of the United States ?
Did the same press not cover up the war crimes of the Bush administration ? How about Ronny Ray-gun and his war crimes or the fact he was just as bad as or worse than Biden by the end of his last term ?
Trump is getting what every president gets. The elite will pay most of his asking price in the end, and he's already told them what that is or he'd be dead already.
Yes, the only change has been the amount and effectiveness. Only a total fool who has never read history or done any research believes the press hasn't always been pushing the agenda of the empire.
What you have now is a camera on almost every citizen and the internet as competition.
Once again. Trump is a lifelong liar and megalomaniac who never would have gotten into the GOP primaries if not for his hypocritical use of the press and his devotion to PR and propaganda.
Trying to portray him as a victim only proves your own naivete.
If you for one minute think he wouldn't do to any of his opponents what is being done to him you are the biggest fool in the universe.
"You weren't bawling about the press spreading lies when Trump and faux news where smearing Obomber about his birth certificate, or the fear mongering narrative about being a secret Muslim implementing Sharia law, or having 27 social security numbers,or his secret plan to get Ebola to somehow kill only conservatives or whatever else hair on fire bullshit."
I don't remember any of those but the birth certificate one and that wasn't widely embraced by republicans.
Bullshit, stop lying please.
hahahaha what a piece of work.
Exactly what I was thinking when I read your BS comment about not remembering Trumps own propaganda attacks.
Once again proof that TDS works on both sides of the orange turd phenomena.
It was all over Faux news and Trump was blowing that horn all over town. They only did 50 segments on it.
So funny how the TDS is denied on either side of the orange turd !
There were stories on every network because Trump is a megalomaniac who lives to be in front of a camera in order to get more famous.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mediA+coverage+of+trump+on+obama+birth+certificate&t=ffnt&ia=web
Ok, I'll bite. Please provide a link where trump openly said he wants to be a dictator. My money says you can't.
Dictators never say that until much, much later.
Are you relying on "sources familiar with his thinking"?
He's too lazy to be a dictator.
Taibbi warned everyone about someone like Trump coming to power. He warned about Obama and Bush expanding presidential authority and taking away peoples rights. He said someone like Trump would abuse those powers for true evil.
Never once has he said Trump should be the guy to continue on. What he's saying is electing Biden isn't going to fix decades long issues. By protecting Joe we're just moving further and further away from the place we need to get to. That's the problem. I voted for Joe and I can't stand him, but I did it because Trump is truly an evil man to another level... but Joe is no saint, and people like Joe need to change the way the system works, or get the fuck out the way and let people who are willing to step in place. Otherwise, it won't matter what side you are - there won't be sides soon enough. It'll simply be those with money and power vs everyone else; even moreso than it already is.
Meh, if you stacked them up side by side I bet Biden has committed or helped to commit way more inhumanity than Drumpf -and that's saying a lot.
I don't recall Trump ever supporting segregation, or speaking at a known Klansman senator's funeral like Biden did, (Strom Thurmond! WTF? VILE!)
Personally or the Trump name name in general ? Once again, we are dealing with the turd sandwich scenario due to our fake two party system.
Trump's dad was arrested at a KKK meeting and that doesn't generally happen on accident. Not to mention the Trump family red lining fortune our little trust fund baby president fell into along with all of daddies lawyers and mob connections.
Jesus, what a shit show !
I mean individually, not for the 'sins of their fathers". In the 1920s... the KKK had a LOT of membership. Look it up. They were actually very popular. It's disgusting -but not my point.
My point is that on each of their own merits, nobody can say seriously that Biden hasn't been right there helping the New World Order brand of global imperialism and tyranny.
Just one his voting record alone we can see he was responsible for everything people are fed the fuck up with from shitty banking regulation to constant war all over the world. Tens of millions killed or displaced.
Taking money from China itself and businesses that rely on china's concentration camps and slave labor. I'm not talking neck ties... that's child's play.
I'm talking Nike, Reebok, Apple, Google, Disney... Big name donors. Shall we go into Jeffrey Epstein's alleged child prostitution ring?
I mean, they're all compromised and one of them is running for the office of president.
Would you just please tell me who Joe Jorgenson is?
Duckduckgo her name.
So you're saying Trump being a small time thug makes him a "better" choice. We're still getting served a shit sandwich no matter what condiment you put on it.
Riddle me this, angry dude.
Whadda gonna do if Trump loses next week? Are you gonna start shooting us? Is this why ammon is in short supply?
Wow, you are insane.
I voted for Jo Jorgensen, asshole.
I can see by your insane responses that you are SO conditioned that all you see is the muck on the inside of your mental fish tank.
You really believe that if ANYONE naysays the DNC or Republican narratives that they are automatically crazed lunatics.
Get some help.
Look outside the matrix for reality; it's there, but nobody can make you see it -you have to see past it and see for yourself. THEN you can start contributing what we all REALLY want: your OWN perspective.
I'd value that over your conditioned and programmed bullshit any day. I'm interested in the REAL you; not what the construct told you to think.
You're worth more than you have been told.
You certainly would have nothing to fear about a Democrat shooting you, as none even know which end of an "assault weapon" to point. They just want to ban all guns anyway.
over the line, bro
Joe Kennedy?
Trumps father was a Klansman; lol you guys are rich and so ignorant. Trump segregated his own apartment complexes.
OK then... let's add more to Joe's fucking stack then, shall we?
How about the US government's reign of imperialistic terror all over the globe deposing or toppling foreign governments so their friends can move in and generate HUGE profits while killing or displacing tens of millions since Biden has been in "public service"?
Did TRUMP'S family have a hand in Iraq 1 or 2? Afghanistan? Yemen? Ukraine? Egypt? an attempt at Syria? No. That was Biden and the NeoCon/NeoLib New World Order cunts.
Wake the fuck up asshole... you're cheering for warmongering slavers.
Sure, it's OK to have double standards with our highest ideals of freedom like speech and the press because "Muh Orange Man bad!!!!"
The resistance my old hippy ass....
Go fuck yourself -oh wait... if you voted for Biden, global imperialism and the people who rely on China's fucking concentration camps and slave labor, you already HAVE fucked yourself.
Dumb cunt.
You are a bit off in your criticism, Scott. The US government's anti-communist, pro-imperial, pro-capital policies run very deep in American society, and due to relentless propaganda, deep in the culture as well. Biden is no more a product of this delusion than is Trump. You are as well, as seen by your idiotic "China's fucking concentration camps and slave labor" remark. The only reason you think that is because of the same relentless propaganda.
Um... did I ever say the Us government was pro-communism?
No.
China IS operating concentration camps RIGHT NOW and relies on massive slave labor markets to increase the profits of big business.
To deny that the CCP is actively engaged in slavery and human trafficking AND forced slave labor shows how clueless you really are.
But please, DO call me a "Trump supporter" -even though I don't like the guy and never voted for him. Please. If it makes you feel better about your cheap goods and fancy sneakers.
You spelled hippie wrong.
Which totally ruins the feelings I had for you.
You're a douchebag. If you're gonna go off on someone, keep it above the belt. Be clever.
Anyone can tell dick jokes.
Nah, I may be a douchebag, but I really dislike you. You're a cunt and I don't care who hears me say it.
CUNT.
hmmm.. filed under "surprised by the ignorant name calling utilized by old hippy asses"
I voted Democrat my whole life until 2016. I protested the first Gulf War and saw it as an oil scheme -even though I was a high school student.
It's a scam, and people who show up to White Knight for the DNC or RNC are tools.
Those are the people who have kept us in constant war since 9/11 and I despise them.
"spinbackwards" seems like someone sent in to counter a narrative the Managers don't like, so I can call them a dumb cunt.
Spinbackwards is a stupid cunt. Easy, see?
And here is an excellent example of the problems with modern reportage. Context: we don't know that Trump's father was a Klansman. Or much of anything about his relationship to the Klan. Who knows, he might have been trying to make some headway with Democratic bigwigs in 1920s New York at the time his only known association with the Klan took place:
"News reports from the day show a Fred Trump was detained at a KKK rally in 1927. But there is no evidence that Trump, father to the president, was a member or supporter of the KKK. Posts that discuss simply the detention — for which there are no existing arrest records — without context are misleading."
Might have thought it might be an avenue to get some business or maybe get to meet Woodrow Wilson. Who knows. Might have been a Grand Wizard or Cyclops or whatever stupid name they gave themselves.
But we actually don't know he was a member--or anything about his association with the KKK. Not even sure he was there in support of the KKK--might have been there in opposition. I mean, this was 1927--and he got arrested.
Just saying. Just like Biden's speaking at Strom Thurmond's funeral--or any former KKKers funeral--would have been purely political, not a statement of solidarity with the KKK.
Arcodouche ... this, “ Context: we don't know that Trump's father was a Klansman. Or much of anything about his relationship to the Klan” is just idiocy. There is no evidence whatsoever that Fred was in the Klan or had any “relationship” with it. The “story” is w/o any evidence. He wasn’t charged with association. Repeating the lie doesn’t make it anything other than a lie. BTW it was fucking meeting, it was a fucking Memorial Day parade. He was a spectator to the parade. He was watching the parade. Don’t be a douche bags and repeat stupidity. You are as clueless as spinbackwards. Get a clue.
How many other people have "accidentally" got arrested at an official clan function after making millions red lining ?
No basis to assert Trump segregated anything...unless you are relying on the MSM stories. That is a nothingburger.
He accidentally got arrested at a Klan march because it happens all the time ! Really ? How many other people has this happened to ?
You really think a career politician whose nearly 80 is going to change the system? That's on the same level of delusion as people who think a billionaire like Trump is a political outsider who's going to shake up the system. It seems you sort of understand the problem, but then you vote for Joe? Why not just write in Mickey Mouse if you don't like the 3rd party candidates? A vote for Joe will be read by Washington as a mandate for more of the last 30 years, but now with a twist of toxic identity politics and one-party media to silence dissenters. What evil do you fear from Donald that is worse than that? After 4 or 8 more years of declining living standards and even greater income inequality that people will be even more dissatisfied than they were after Obama. The next Trump might really be the strongman you fear.
Vote have nothing to do with policy. Think tanks funded by billionaires decide policy and sometimes they let us choose from a stacked ballet which horrible actor will rubber stamp the white page instructions sent them via K-street.
In short, this is a plutocracy and elections are a psyop.
It is not quite "rubber stamp" and "elections are a psyop": the story is indeed that the elites run the show, but they give the majority a limited power of veto, to ensure that they don't do too-unpopular policies that might result in real riots, and the ability to sort of choose which elite factions is in control of the government.
What the majority are not allowed to do is to push for policies not approved by the elites, or to choose to put in control of the government those that don't belong to an approved faction of the elites (e.g. D Trump or J Corbyn at two opposite ends).
This is the "we nominate, you elect" system and sort of balances the actual power of the elites, and the lesser power of the majority.
The current elites however have been significantly rebalancing in their own favour and narrowing the scope of the choices that they allow the majority to endorse.
Okay, given that scenario we would need to account for some really unpopular policies like the current police state, war OF terror, massive fraud during the economic meltdown committed with absolute impunity, and countless war crimes before this where regime change capitalism has been practiced in order to exploit labor and expand the wealth and ego of less than 2500 people.
After quadrupling their share of wealth and power, trying to say the elite are interested in any sort of balance is just magical thinking.
We elect MISleaders, not leaders. Any leaders are quickly eliminated through assassination or propaganda attacks.
If you threaten the elite you'll end up like the Kennedy's or Assange. Either way the only way I can agree with you is perhaps the elite use the government to figure out how to sell their policy without causing a riot that they didn't plan to have happen.
«perhaps the elite use the government to figure out how to sell their policy without causing a riot that they didn't plan to have happen.»
That is part of what I think "representative democracy" is about, and it is mostly about turning violent fights for power into "symbolic" ones, at least within a state:
* During the "Ancient Regime" of feudalism, which lasted 1,000 years in Europe, politics was simply the politics of the protection racket, where gangster families, known as "the aristocracy", fought turf wars with other ganster families, and sent enforcers, called "noble knights", to threaten the populace with burning their villages if they did not pay "protection" money in their turf. The history of the "Ancient Regime" is almost entirely the history of gangster families fighting turf wars or each other within a "family", with the "king" as the "boss of bosses" and "dukes" being the bosses of each ganster family, etc.; in the system there were occasional violent rebellions of the populace against the protection racket gansters.
* That system was based on a huge advantage of cavalry over infantry, which disappeared with the invention of firearms, and the rise of mass armies, including the populace, and a switch to industrial wars with a national, no longer dynastic, base.
* This also resulted in a switch of politics from those of the gangster protection racket and violent gang wars and rebellions to "symbolic" ones, where the populace can veto a faction of the elites instead of rebelling, and fights among elite factions go instead of to the strongest in violence, to the strongest in propaganda.
So the twin purposes of democracy have been to make voters accountable for their choice of which elite faction to endorse, and to turn intra-elite fights into (mostly) non-violent ones.
Quite short of democracy as self-rule by the masses, the usual myth, but a lot better than an endless cycle of turf wars among gangs (the Tudors, the Valois, the Habsburg, etc...) and of rebellions against those gangs.
In the new system the role of the politicians is, as politologists say, to "wangle consensus", that is their role is similar to that of the mercenary leaders who helped the gangs fight their turf wars during the "Ancien Regime": find out what policies and propaganda can win the election battles for the elite faction that has hired them.
The role of journalists and intellectuals is similar to that of parish priests and theologians during the "Ancient Regime"...
I wrote in Tulsi Gabbard. Not voting for Trump or Joe--although if I had to pick between the two, I'd have picked Trump.
God bless the write-in candidate. Even if it's a protest vote.
Love Tulsi. She’s the most reasonable Dem bc she’s not partisan. Willing to work with the GOP to get things done and people slams her for that. It’s crazy how much the DNC and media smeared her. I hope she stays in politics.
Tulsi's the best. It would be perfect if she were Sec. of State, which the DNC would never allow. I almost respect the RNC more than the DNC because the Republicans outright run on hate and show it and don't care who knows it, unlike the DNC who pretend to be good but aren't.
Love your thinking outside the box-- making lemonade out of lemons!
Voting for Joe, who is clearly incapable of being President, is dangerous and dumb. And Matt's failure to see this is just as dumb. China is far more dangerous than Trump and has hoodwinked too many prior Presidents. Does anyone think Joe is capable of standing up to China or Iran or Russia? He can't even complete a sentence on his own. So is everyone counting on an untested Kamala Harris who got into politics by having an affair with Willie Brown? She's only been on the public payroll...locking up journalists she didn't agree with. Where are people's common sense?
How is calling out the danger of the the efforts of the MSM to squash the Post story and even label it as Russian disinformation dying in the service of Trump? Are you tripping?
Yes..I believe this is part of the problem. People are definitely tripping
They're tripping alright.... and when they come down they'll see that they don't have as many people fooled as they think -just like 2016.
Fucking global imperialist crooks.
Are you the cat who goes around keying Tesla's? Is that your thing? Seems like it is.
Are you the cat going around in comment sections counteracting anything that goes against the programming of your groupthink?
Seems like you are and cunt bag and a shill.
groupthink is right. til that the orange man, he is bad. thanks spinny.
"today i learned". i hope he posts it again and again!
So far Scott gets my vote in this thread for Trump guy most destined to hurt someone.
Scott. You're #1!
I'm not a "Trump guy".
I have never voted for him. I don't like his style and don't believe for a second that he's "capable".
You're a dimwitted tool. For something to fit inside the construct in your stupid and UNwoke head, it HAS to be definable for you.
News flash: Even the most predictable idiots are still complicated beings.
But if you have to tell yourself lies to reinforce your programming, that's cool.
Many of us are here as we see through the fallacy of thinking that any comment that questions Trump's enemies means one is pro-Trump. It's kind of the point of most of Taibbi's writing the past couple of years, and he himself is being accused of being a Trumpista with no merit to the accusation. I invite you to stop now lest you make a fool of yourself here.
You don't get it. Taibbi and Greenwald are ready to die on the hill of independent journalism, not of Trump.
Oh no...please, not another Hitler comparison. You do your comment a major disservice. Next he'll be rounding up his own family (jewish relatives) and putting them on trains. Why is everyone so quick to leap on the Hitler analogy when suppression of the press is more likely to come from the "left" these days? Strange times. Seriously, the kid gloves for Joe are obvious to anyone paying attention. That strategy is driving votes to Trump. Time for a third party.
I know right!!!
Hillary Clinton literally corralled the Press up like ponies behind ropes and refused to take live questions for 9 months of a Presidential campaign and they all kissed her butt for treating them that way.
It is insane. President Obama got deflections like people really cared if he wore a tan suit instead of being upset that he sent a planeful of cash to Iran on his way out the door.
Freaking crazy making, gas lighting, ass kissing poseurs pretending to Journalism
Galleta,
Obama, even worse, gave Israel (which he didn't even like) $38billion when he was "on his way out the door."
How is that worse?
I really don't believe any approval from Congress occurred with Iran. If we did that with Israel I have not heard that.
Trump is the third party. The Republicans didn't want him. But they didn't cheat in their primaries....so there he was...on their ticket. Why would anyone imagine a lightweight could stand up to the worst dictators in the world? Trump is unpredictable, as asset in foreign policy. And he's a fighter....not a quality in big supply. He's fighting the entire Washington establishment. Who else has done that?
You have the chronology all wrong. Trump was elected because of loss of faith in media and other institutions. Media has been on this downhill slide, where their aim has been to shape and control the masses and bend them to the will of the DNC, not inform them. This corruption is not new. When you do this, you get Trump. When you scream “Hitler, Hitler, Hitler” at people giving the middle finger to failed and corrupted institutions, you’ll get more Trump.
Especially when it's combined with the adoration and cult-like news conferences afforded Obama, Clinton and now Biden
Kinda like they did with Ronny Raygun isn't it ? Wake up please.
To the DNC ? You don't get it at all do you ?
"but I think the media (old-school and social) is just trying to figure out how to deal with a bad actor who is happy to lie at scale"
Maybe you slept through the Bush/Cheney years?
Biden is a worse liar than Trump. His lies have killed lots of people for decades. Trumps are just a child trying to impress people.
Wait, Trump's a war criminal too. He's "bombing the shit out of 'em" and has been since he took office. Remember Syria ?
True. I was thinking on scale. Every President is a murderous war criminal. Biden's votes in 47 years in office have killed more.
On scale ? Why is it Trump's lies only count during his presidency and Biden's lies cover his entire career ? Trump is a notorious liar and he sues folks to get out of paying off his debts. So in effect, he's been stealing money his entire career. Not to mention all his business failings that cost folks their livelihood.
You keep forgetting Trump is counting on cashing in just like everyone before him has. That means selling out to the same old money thugs and thieves that got us into this mess to begin with.
Neither one of these mobster bastards is going to reform the mob, and neither one gives a flying fuck about you, me, or anyone else that doesn't have something they want.
I think it's WAY crazier now than it was then. But sure, there was plenty of lying and printing of lies happening in the Bush years.
David—Telling the truth about Biden is not going into service for Trump. It’s doing your duty as an ethical, honest journalist. You clearly do not get what they are saying.
You do get that the same people who told us about Saddam's WMD's are now telling us that the Post article is Russian disinformation, right? Literally the SAME PEOPLE.
It’s crazy. It’s like people have the memory of goldfish. Or maybe TDS propaganda is just THAT strong.
Even if I accepted your premises which I don't, I still can't construct a self consistent interpretation of the universe where Joe Biden constitutes some kind of antidote to lying..
Seriously? Wow, more of the same. Perhaps you can provide all of us rubes clear and direct evidence of Trump “openly saying he wants to be a dictator....” and not just proof that you are just another hater who can’t comprehend sarcasm. Again....wow.
Ok so all the chants of lock her up (about the Gov of MI) and 12-more-years are just hilarious jokes that I'm not getting? I guess when your whole platform is lib-triggering it's hard to tell the jokes from the threats.
Yes, exactly this: Play-acting Hitler is what Hitler did also. No excuses for only pretending to be an openly fascist dictator as a professional wresting script.
Were those chants from the "deplorables" (sic)?
It is categorically impossible to describe Trump as aspiring to be a dictator in a post-COVID world. If Trump was going to seize power, he could not have asked for a better scenario than a global pandemic. And Trump's reaction was instead "it's the states job, not mine."
Liberal media has plenty of horrible things to report about Trump without having to make shit up. They chose instead to spend most of their time spreading a completely false narrative about Russia. Mainstream media rarely ever talked about the reasons Trump was elected in the first place. Why should Taibbi or Greenwald report about Trump, when almost every media outlet on the planet is already doing so 24/7? You seem to be ignoring all of the lies, grifters and conspiracy-peddling enablers in the DNC and Intelligence community that the liberal media is almost completely ignoring.
Sorta like Trump "investigating" Obomber's birth certificate for Faux news isn't it ?
Trump is not Hitler. It is hard to read on for a comment that compares Trump to Hitler. The reason why Hitler came to power was a compliant set of people. People who didn't reject the common theme of the media and those in power is what allowed Nazi Germany to spread. We certainly don't have a compliant media behind Trump, so no danger there. What we do have is a media that is compliant with one set of beliefs. That is the danger, not Trump.
Democrats needs to win elections. How do you win elections when the Democrats have such bad ideas for how to proceed? I am destroying energy intensive jobs is not a winning strategy.
No one is Hitler, but from the start Trump has been playing a modern American version of him on TV, in the manner of a scripted professional wrestling character. It works, it feeds a base, and as you know, Trump declared himself the de facto leader of the fascist movement. I don't care that it's a show. Given what his regime has achieved so far and, more importantly, given that they are promising you openly to steal the election by voter suppression, violent intimidation on the streets, and rigged courts, why do you want to see how much longer it takes before play-acting Hitler becomes more like the real thing? (Note: This is not a defense of Biden!)
I must have missed his declaration of being the de facto leader of the fascist movement. Can you please reply with the clip or text of when he said that. I missed it. Also must have missed the part where "they" are promising to openly steal the election and rigging the courts illegally. Who is "they" and can you forward us all the clips and text of when "they" said that? That would be helpful. And please don't send us the texts of "they" if "they" are Trumps opponents. Because "they" don't count. Only an actual statement by Trump declaring that he will lead the fascist movement will get me to believe it.
You are clearly living in a CNN MSNBC bubble. You need to get out of your bubble and start paying attention to what is really happening.
Asshole, I have not watched two minutes of either network in more than 10 years. What he said is, "proud Boys, stand back and stand by," thus at least affecting to be their leader. Which of course you know, and requires no clip. What his family and crew furthermore said is that armed fascists should show up at the polls to intimidate voters, which they call a "Trump Army," but everyone else in the world who isn't in a FOX or Q bubble understands fascism. It doesn't matter how many fat fucks follow this order, it's an order. What he also did is order lot of deskbound fat fucks from DHS etc., who are organized as paramilitary reserves (already by the prior right-wing governments of Obama, Bush, etc.) into the field to attack assembly by U.S. citizens. What he also did is repeatedly offer to use these forces in imposing martial law on American cities. And this is just the start. You're going to affect more ignorance, and pretend it's "anger" or some such because I'm speaking frankly about fucking fascists, so fuck off forever, you can write another sixteen moron comments here. All this you know, and you don't need no goddamn clips. Now fuck the fuck off.
“ What he said is, "proud Boys, stand back and stand by," thus at least affecting to be their leader.”
I know, I know, he STILL hasn’t condemned White supremacy, and ANTIFA is truly anti-fascist.
LOL, You are the perfect dupe the media strives to affect.....ignorant and pliable.
Congratulations moron.
The media made him say that? I would never say he "failed to condemn white supremacy." That's the corporate media line. As usual, they are coddling their property (Trump the reality tv star) and distracting from the essence.
In that moment, and not only then, he EMBRACED white supremacy, as he has from his first speech about Mexican rapists in 2015 (back when the corporate media was fashioning him into the Republican candidate for you dumb fucks).
Now you want to be in denial, I'll leave you to it.I won't say you're brainwashed - conditioned from childhood, perhaps, but not brainwashed. You can read, you can think, and you choose to deny and defend fascism.
(Well, okay, you are stupid since you're incapable of thinking past the binary. Anyone who sees the monstrosity of Trump must be a Democrat, watching CNN, etc. Since no one is capable of just listening to this motherfucker with their own ears and hearing what he's actually saying, right?)
I would say you have some anger issues NEL. I am not sure Proud Boys would claim they are a fascist group. I don't remember the Trump family stating they are going to have armed fascists showing up to prevent people from voting. But if that is the fantasy you want to believe, I guess that is your right. Fantasize well my friend. You might want to tone down the cursing. It doesn't help you make your case. It actually makes you just look weak.
Oh noes! The fascist street fighters don't claim they're a fascist group! It's defamation! The "Trump Army" is just helping the vote, what's fascist about that? Etc. etc., thank you for illustrating what a whore you are. I don't think you're stupid or brainwashed. You're just happy to front the fascist propaganda. Maybe you think this is team sports, maybe you're more committed and think you're fooling anyone. Now kindly fuck the fuck off. Go bother someone else. You can call it anger issues, I call it righteous anger. Anyone who isn't angry about the declared intent of a fascist takeover has suppression issues. Go work it out with your own therapist.
Did you forget about BLM and all the rioting...and the Democrats kneeling.....and never mentioning "super spreader." The Dems gave us BLM riots which are real not rhetoric.
«No one is Hitler, but from the start Trump has been playing a modern American version of him on TV, in the manner of a scripted professional wrestling character. It works, it feeds a base, and as you know, Trump declared himself the de facto leader of the fascist movement. [...] before play-acting Hitler becomes more like the real thing?»
The hallucinations induced by TDS are tiresome. Consider far worse things like McCarthysm or the extensive bipartisan support for mass murdering tyrants for decades in central and south America (and many other places), and then electoral boasts by GW Bush, BH Obama (and D Trump himself) as to making extensive use of death squads to abduct, torture, and eliminate hundreds or thousands of "enemies of the state" by executive decree. D Trump has been no more fascist than any post-WW2 president, and if anything he is the only recent president not to have started a major war of aggression.
To gain historical context, Alexis de Toqueville's famous "Democracy in America" book of 1834 has this quote (my usual):
«The first newspaper over which I cast my eyes, after my arrival in America, contained the following article:
"In all this affair, the language of Jackson has been that of a heartless despot, solely occupied with the preservation of his own authority. Ambition is his crime, and it will be his punishment too: intrigue is his native element, and intrigue will confound his tricks, and will deprive him of his power; he governs by means of corruption, and his immoral practices will redound to his shame and confusion. His conduct in the political arena has been that of a shameless and lawless gamester. He succeeded at the time, but the hour of retribution approaches, and he will be obliged to disgorge his winnings, to throw aside his false dice, and to end his days in some retirement where he may curse his madness at his leisure; for repentance is a virtue with which his heart is likely to remain for ever unacquainted."»
You are missing the point and not actually reading what I wrote. Especially if you project any kind of defense on the rest of those war criminals on me. None of them played Hitler on TV, which is Trump's main schtick and thus a whole new level of danger. I stand by it.
Read much Orwell? I only ask because the double-speak is strong within you. Trump the de facto leader of the fascist movement? Yes, of course, and Antifa is anti-fascist as well, right? It’d be almost humorous, but your predictability is wearing thin. Don’t forget.....Google is a pawn of Trump’s as well. Oh....wait.
Agree with you here sabasarge. NEL needs to be ignored. His is filled with rage and hate and cannot control his temper. Very Orwellian type of person.
(Looks like my comment failed to post. If it's a double, sorry.) Orwell went to Spain to shoot at fascists, genius, he wasn't their spokesperson. Rather than affecting to be speaking for him, maybe you should learn to read English and correctly understand the meaning of what was written before wasting our time with a stupid reply.
NEL should be kicked off substack. His is pure Hate Speech and doesn't add anything to the discussion. I will ignore this human from now on...
Snowflake.
"but dying on this hill in the service of another four years of a guy who is openly saying he wants to be a dictator is a choice that I'm having trouble understanding"
They're not in service of anybody but the truth.
If you've ever read anything by Taibbi, you'd know that story selection is one way the media expresses their biases. By choosing to focus on this stupid Hunter Biden story (which apparently even Tucker Carlson is backing away from: https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-suddenly-says-its-time-to-leave-hunter-biden-alone), Matt has decided it is worth caring about, which is what everyone pushing the story would like us to do.
But Taibbi isn't focusing on the Hunter Biden story here... he's focusing on the media reaction to the story.
Perhaps a refresher course on interpretation & analysis are in order for you good sir. Matt's words are not about caring or not caring about the story. It is about suppressing the story. I can read a story and determine whether I care about it or not. I have a brain. I just don't want stories suppressed so that I can't even make up my own mind.
But in the end, suppressing this story actually makes Biden look guilty in my opinion. Otherwise, why suppress it? If there is nothing to the story, then run with it and people will decide there is nothing there. I got the story anyway because I (unlike probably 80% of the people that read Matt) actually read CNN, MSNBC, Fox and multiple news sources so that I can see the BS that is actually being fed to us on a daily basis. Anyone that doesn't realize that both the news on the left and the right is basically propaganda is a buffoon.
Oh my, you actually believe you're completely immune to propaganda ? That explains quite a bit.
If it's so suppressed than how come everyone knows about it ?
I took Carlson's comments differently. I understood he believes Hunter Biden has demons that he needs to deal with and there is no good reason to pile anything on HB. Do you think Carlson believes this story is false?
"openly saying he wants to be a dictator"
Can you please provide an example? If it's openly stated I'm sure you can share a YouTube link to prove it? Surely.
I just fired off an email to Ms Reed. I suggest others do as well. Also lets encourage Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras to resign. All the writers and journalists with Integrity as well. Its seems like Aaron Mate has been having the same problems as Glenn Greenwald
Well done. By sound of things here, The Intercept will be losing a fair amount of income as a result of this.
Anyone else notice that 'liberals' attack Glenn's sexuality when he stops towing the party line? That's not a group that respects you, but uses it as shameful ammo to get you to shut up. Glenn, if you're reading this, please stay strong and carry on. You're getting flak when you're over the target.
Yeah, how can anyone even pretending to be progressive take that tack? I'm not even sure that the NY Post itself would go after someone in this way in this day and age. Though I do admit to not being a regular reader of that outlet...
Disgusting!! I have such a problem that it seems that comments on sexuality are fine, but mention the two areas that are verboten and yup--its a problem. Infuriating!
Yeah, cancelling my subscription immediately. I was hesitant to read the detail, but to see how many of these mainstream fucking hacks are crawling all over this, it's plain to see that when they're flaunting this "Greenwald is throwing a tantrum" e-mail, what Matt says is plain to see - they've been warped by this trump-distortion field.
They can sit there and circle jerk all they want -it's not fooling the majority of this country though. They will see though... and their heads will probably explode on Nov 5th.
Cancelled my monthly donation. I didn't want them to fuck with my cancellation so I didn't mention a specific reason, although I'm guessing they'll get the clue if many people cancel. Regardless, just waiting for the confirmation and I'll fire another one telling them I'm out because they've become a joke.
Tbh I have to say I was getting annoyed by even their coverage lately. Greenwald walking out on them over this is, in my estimation, a good sign that I was right about them.
I just withdrew my recurring donation and subscription to the newsletter Indicating it was in solidarity with Greenwald. Agree, Poitras and Scahill should join Greenwald, tho that’s their business. Most important is not to support this morphed news service and support Greenwald wherever he chooses to go. He is a jewel.
the "writing" has been on the wall for some time, even for those plebs who merely followed TI from its early years. anyone who remains is well aware of the circumstances.
So depressing. I've been donating to the Intercept for 3 years now and just stopped today- my money is going to Greenwald's substack now. I'm a college professor and regularly used their articles in my classroom and would always tell my students it was a safe place to get their news. I'm not so sure anymore.
Better to tell your students to ALWAYS question and to ALWAYS follow the money and to ALWAYS ask themselves 'who benefits".
Very sad, I had focused so much on Greenwald, I didn't see the rot seeping into the rest of the Intercept. It's fine to oppose Trump and want an end to that regime, but, it's also a complete disaster when you allow that to infect even the pretense of some kind of objectivity.
The fact they had absolutely no criticisms of the factuality of his article is very telling.
Christ, you didnt read Risen? (shivers)
Risen has lost his mind...seriously
too right. talk about writing on the wall - that mf was 5' high letters in dayglo spray paint.
Indeed. I could hardly believe that invited that snake to the dinner table!
This is so critical. Thank you Matt. I wasn't shocked when Glenn resigned but I was by the asinine response of the editors and some of his peers (esp. Naomi Klein)
It is disappointing to see the current state of adversarial journalism. Thank God for the likes of you, Glenn, and the Grayzone.
(on that, be great to get your voices on the OPCW scandle!)
Hear Hear!!! agreed. Naomi Klein lost me a few years back. She almost at the Cancel Culture level. Sad because I have admired her work (No Logo especially), but over the years seeing her at various venues she has been pulled in by her hate of the right. So sad. Everyone needs to be heard, she is getting more orthodox--sad. Happens to the best of lefties!!
Yeah, I gave up on Klein for a reason most will consider odd, which was her reporting on the Scottish independence vote. It was not that she came down on the wrong side particularly, just obvious that she did not understand the complexities involved and had not spent time there.
Not understanding the complexities NEVER stops her from commenting. Her husband Avi Lewis (son of Canadian royalty) and her researchers fill in the gaps.
I just subscribed to Glenn's new substack account. I pay or three news sources now;, Matt, Glenn and the WSJ, but only for the WSJ Op Ed.
The main reason I subbed to the Intercept was because of GG's principles and now I subbed to his substack. Dropped NYT for MT; Dropped WaPo for Sirota; dropping Tampa Bay Times for Greenwald. Have only so much $ and it's going to Substack journalists looks like.
Same here for the most part. It’s an interesting development, isn’t it?
Fight the power!! You are what a librarian should aspire to be!
Lol St. Pete Times... I used to live there and read that rag for far too long.
I used to read both and when the Tampa Tribune folded all objectivity disappeared from what is now the TBT. They just echo the MSM now. Except they have good Tampa Bay Rays coverage, so I guess with Dodger win there isn't a reason to sub anymore.
I had a recent revelation that if I wanted any good data, I was going to have to pay for it (thank you Jaron Lanier). Hence, paying (the pittance) for Matt's work and those of a few others who have the ethics and courage to write things that aren't necessarily popular, but stick to facts. Critical thinking, kids--it's good for ya!
Lanier is great but his politics are, how should I say, not exactly of emancipation through solidarity. Evgeny Morozov wrote some great stuff in The Baffler 5-7 years ago (back when that publication was still really good) about separating tech criticism from politics is insufficient. Tech as currently constituted is power.
I’m reading Lanier’s book right now. It’s infuriating but great, a real eye opener.
Quillette is also worth a look if you're interested in essays and opinions.
So true.
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
I've posted that line many times over the past few years. These are the Orwellian years.