via Disaster Economics: Part 1
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The more useless the corporate news media becomes, the more essential it is to find good, informative podcasts.
Today, I listened to a podcast from Pitchfork Economics called “Disaster Economics.” It’s worth 100 hours of listening to the gossip of Nicolle Wallace, the geek coronavirus obsession of Rachael Maddow, or the endless inspirational anecdotes of CNN.
Discussion notes:
The hope is that this crisis will force a reexamination of forty years of neoliberal policies. Republicans and libertarians have fought for years to make government small enough to (as Grover Norquist once said) strangle in a bathtub. Well, now that’s what we’ve got, and it’s ill equipped to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Even knowing that this type of pandemic was possible, the government scaled down and down government agencies like the CDC and failed to adequately prepare for a crisis. Trump eliminated pandemic planning units of the government and trivialized the problem even when he was repeatedly warned about it.
Neoliberal policies have led to a situation where, for example, this country has the lowest per capita percentage of hospital beds in the advanced industrialized world. The massive hospital consolidation which has been allowed to occur, may have made running particular hospitals more “efficient.” Hospitals, for example, make more money when they have 70% to 80% of their hospital beds full all the time. And, this makes private equity guys happy, but when there is a crisis, the country is not prepared.
We must use this crisis to make regular people more empowered. For 40 years, capitalists have used disasters to disempower people. We must use them to seize back the power we have to determine our own futures.
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I can’t see that there’s anything in this stimulus bill that prevents it being a slush fund give-away for big business. Because of objections, there is now talk of an Inspector General and a panel to over see the distribution of the funds, but no assurance that these funds, for example, won’t to directly into the Trump properties and businesses.
This is outrageous. What I am expecting is to see somebody like the snake-in-the-grass Chris Coons to come out with some kind of watered-down, meaningless “compromise” that will allow Republicans to steal billions.
I’m disgusted with the Democratic Party, as usual.
On top of everything else, why isn’t somebody from the Democratic Party, somebody who has some moral authority, somebody who is willing to fight for regular people, not out in public every day, explaining how this crisis is being used as a giant rip-off for the 1%?
This is a country that has degenerated into a situation where it is considered a serious proposal to allow poor, working class and elderly people to die in order to protect the stock market for the wealthy.
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Trump says: “What do we have to lose? I feel very good about it.”
This is just one of several statements Trump has made over the past few days, trying to convince the American people that he has some wonder drug that is going to combat the virus.
In one instance, he’s talking about using two drugs together to combat the corona virus, not approved by the FDA, that (when used together) have been linked with sudden death.
In another instance, he touted using two drugs that have been used for decades to treat malaria. There is no scientific testing (as stated by Fauci) that supports their use with the Coronavirus. And, these drugs are also used by people with lupus and chronic arthritis. Because of Trump’s idiotic ranting about these drugs and implications that they are a wonder drug, there are already shortages for people who need these drugs for their own medical problems.
What do we have to lose?
But, when a reporter (Kelly O’Donnell) on Saturday during a PRESS CONFERENCE, pressed Trump and tried to get some answers from him, some facts, besides this “I feel good about it” crap, Trump responded by telling O’Donnell that she was “an adult” and to stop asking questions.
When O’Donnell explained to Trump that it was the job of the media to try to establish if what the Trump administration was telling people was true, she was criticized as being “hostile.”
Well, I want reporters who are “hostile,” who do their jobs and ask the tough questions to prevent unnecessary deaths sparked by a moron who doesn’t know anything about medicine.
After explaining my concerns to one woman who posted on Facebook, she responded: “Why do you care?”
Why do I care? Why do I care?
Well, let’s see, because people could die because the moron in the White House is disseminating misinformation? Is that maybe enough reason to care?
I guess not because according to the thinking of some people the truth isn’t important, reporters are “making themselves the story.” We must listen to and believe every word of the King, bow down, and for God’s sake women can’t be “hostile,” by asking pointed questions.
This kind of thinking is one reason why we are in the situation we are in.
This is a cult and they are evidently willing to follow it to the death. This is dangerous.
And, yes, I care.
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Interviewed on CNN today, a Republican member of congress dismissed the widespread alarm among the medical profession about the shortage of masks and other protective equipment for use combating the corona virus. “Capitalism,” he said “will handle it.”
But, the corona virus crisis is a textbook example of the failure of capitalism to handle the corona virus crisis and the other underlying crises that have plagued this society for decades.
Republicans are illustrating hourly exactly what is wrong with free-market capitalist solutions to problems created by free-market capitalism.
Let’s just look at one example.
PROFITEERING
- On 20 March 2020, it was reported that four senators (Burr, Leoffler, Inhofe and Feinstein) were selling off stock after receiving briefings about how serious the impact of the corona virus was going to be.
- Burr and Loeffler went public with statements seeking to calm the populace about the threat of the pandemic while they were busily selling stock to cushion the blow for themselves.
- Burr’s case was especially egregious. Burr, as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, received briefings that included the country’s most classified information about the security threat of the virus.
- And, Burr (in a recorded talk to his wealthy donors on February 27, 2020) warned of the serious implications of the outbreak at a time when he was seeking to calm the fears of the general population by telling them that the Trump administration had everything in hand. While reassuring the general public, to his wealthy donors, Burr was comparing the corona virus to the “1918 pandemic.”
- Burr maintained that he was using only publicly available information, but he would, wouldn’t he? He also claimed that the event at which he informed party insiders was not an event for his wealthy donors.
- NPR, however, reported that it had obtained a copy of the RSVP list for the event and that it included dozens of invited guests representing companies and organizations from North Carolina. The companies or their political committees donated more than $100,000 to Burr’s election campaign in 2015 and 2016 (NBC News)
- The same day Burr was giving this speech, Trump was telling reporters that the corona virus was “going to disappear.” (NBC News)
- In early February, Burr, co-wrote an op-ed for Fox News in which he said “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.” In mid-February he started to unload the stocks. The unloading was about a week before the markets started to plunge (NBC News 3/20/20).
- One of the stocks Burr unloaded was shares in Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which has now lost two-thirds of its value according to ProPublica. Burr dumped shares of another hotel chain, Extended Stay America. (NBC News 3/20/20)
- It is Democrats who are calling for investigations, and also a Democrat (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) who is calling for Burr’s resignation and a law preventing legislators from owning stock.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter that as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Burr “got private briefings about Coronavirus weeks ago. Burr knew how bad it would be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that we were fine. THEN he sold off $1.6 million in stock before the fall. He needs to resign.” (NBC News 3/20/20)
- We know about these stock sell-offs only because of a law requiring the legislators to report their stock dealings. Why not a law prohibiting them from owning stock while serving?
Sources
Gregorian, Dareh (3/20/20) “Burr, other senators…” NBC News.
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The Ezra Klein Show
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
Ezra Klein interviews Ron Klain, the head of the Ebola response under Obama. This is a thoughtful and useful discussion of the Corona virus response. Just don’t listen to the final campaign ad for Joe Biden.
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Media–Entertainment-Podcasts/The-Ezra-Klein-Show-p832209/
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This afternoon, Jason Easley (3/19/20) at Politicsusa reported that Sen. Richard Burr, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was dumping $1.6 million in his own personal stock at the same time he was publicly reassuring the American people that their government had the coronavirus well in hand.
Burr was also warning his rich donors that this virus was likely to rival the 1918 flu virus that caused widespread devastation, thereby alerting them that they should scurry like rats leaving a sinking ship. Burr, as head of the Intelligence Committee, was receiving daily updates (which included some of the nation’s most highly classified information) on the status of the virus and the extent of the threat to US security.
If the American people aren’t not furious about this, they should be. They are losing their jobs, their financial security, and their retirement investments while a Republican member of Congress trades off his position to evade something like a 30% loss on his stocks.
As Miriame Kaba, an organizer recently interviewed on “The Intercept” stated, “capitalism is the crisis.”
This country has been thrown into social and economic turmoil by a group of people who have been telling the rest of us that the markets would take care of everything and that the individual pursuit of profit would make us free. Meanwhile, they are busily trying to make money off the crisis.
If there is anything positive to be gleaned out of this crisis, it is the hope that people will finally realize that we are under the rule of what Sarah Kenzior calls a crime syndicate posing as a government. This includes not just Trump and his family. This includes most of the members of the Congress as well.
I would be willing to bet that none of the corporate news media outlets will cover this story. They will, instead, run video after video of reporters walking backward in grocery stores telling us that the shelves are empty as if this was edifying in any way.
Trump said today that the federal government was not a “shipping clerk.” What he meant was that people were on their own, they couldn’t count of the federal government, their government, the government that they fund, to help them out.
We have no reason to be surprised. Anyone could have seen this crisis coming. It was never a question of whether, it was a question of when. Experts in the field warned of the likelihood of a pandemic and people lived through an ebola crisis.
But for decades, the Republican party has been paving the way for just such a crisis. They are the party that denigrates and ridicules science, reason, government, and expertise. Why would anyone voting Republican expect anything different?
We are told we live in the richest, best country in the world, but we can’t afford testing kits to establish the severity of a pandemic.
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I have tried my best not to look at the television today. Last night was just so infuriating. The celebratory champagne-uncorking of MSNBC pundits over their chosen candidate, Joe Biden, finally, finally winning a primary, was just revolting. Above you can see the facial expressions that characterized the coverage when Bernie won.
I was, however, pleased to see that Chris Matthews was not included in the coverage last night. I thought that perhaps (oh how naïve I am) that Matthews had been left out because of his outrageous attacks on Bernie Sanders. But, evidently, even though similar attacks were enough to get the pundit Jason Johnson fired, they were not enough to get the serial offender Chris Matthews fired. This is a true tragedy for all of us.
Matthews managed to escape being called to task over 1) likening Bernie’s win in Nevada to the Nazis invading France, 2) saying that Bernie would happily preside over Matthews being shot in Times Square, and 3) that Bernie would be the last person to stop and help if you were stranded on the side of the road. But, he has been removed from the air temporarily because he has been accused of inappropriate behavior with yet another woman.
According to the Hill, GQ columnist Laura Bassett accused Matthews of sexual harassment. In an opinion piece published Friday, Bassett claimed that Matthews told a network makeup artist to “keep putting makeup on her” and asked “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”
Bassett evidently wrote about the behavior, which occurred four years ago, previously but wasn’t confident enough to mention Matthews’ name. She said, however, that a number of women knew immediately who she was talking about.
Bassett wrote:
“In 2016, right before I had to go on his show and talk about sexual-assault allegations against Donald Trump, Matthews looked over at me in the makeup chair next to him and said, ‘Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet,’” Bassett wrote. “When I laughed nervously and said nothing, he followed up to the makeup artist. ‘Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.”
“Another time, he stood between me and the mirror and complimented the red dress I was wearing for the segment. ‘You going out tonight?’ he asked. I said I didn’t know, and he said — again to the makeup artist — ‘Make sure you wipe this off her face after the show. We don’t make her up so some guy at a bar can look at her like this,’” Bassett also wrote.
Any woman who has even casually watched Matthews’ show recognizes this behavior. I try to avoid Matthews, but I can remember him conducting a weird voyeuristic and coercive direction of the camera on a woman one night. He kept telling the cameraman to come in closer and closer on the woman’s face. This started while the woman was talking. He finally made it into some joke, like they all do, but it was creepy, just creepy, disrespectful and juvenile.
According to Antony Leonardi and Mike Brest in the Examiner (2/2920), Matthews:
- has been known to “rate female guests on a numerical scale based on appearance;
- has been reprimanded for comments directed to a subordinate that led to a separation-related payment;
- was caught on camera joking about a “Bill cosby pill” which was a reference to a date rape drug.
Matthews also referred to Sarah Palin and Salley Yates as “attractive.”
At this point in time, I don’t particularly care what’s gotten him off the air. I’m just grateful, but his behavior especially towards Sanders is just part of a larger network wide attempt to destroy one of the candidates for the Democratic nomination.
Also participating in this campaign have been Chuck Todd, Brian Williams, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid (who has been carrying this on since at least 2016) and now Rachael Maddow who participated in the general laughter of the panel when Brian Williams mocked the Sanders campaign last night. All of these people are complicit. Chris Hayes and Maddow have for the most part stayed out of the overt attacks indulged in by the likes of Joy Reid, but Maddow, as I said joined in the contempt for Sanders expressed by the panel last night and Chris Hayes has spent time repeating every negative trope about Sanders saying that this is what “people are saying.” People may be saying a lot of things but that doesn’t mean you have to repeat them on your television program.
But, I have no doubt that Chris Matthews will be at it again tomorrow night. He will perhaps apologize AGAIN, for his behavior, but I doubt they will fire him.
MSNBC has shown its true colors since Bernie Sanders demonstrated he was a viable candidate. The anchors mentioned above plus innumerable guests have slandered, mocked, distorted, ridiculed and generally propagandized in an effort to destroy Sanders’ campaign.
I am 69 years old and I have never, ever seen an entire news network participate in such an overt effort to distort the political process. If we survive as a democratic country, something I rather doubt at this point, this course of coverage engaged in by MSNBC will be studied and written about as a deplorable exercise in media interference in an election.
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Last night, in a CNN townhall, Joe Biden once again gave a response to a question about the Clarence Thomas hearings that was untruthful, evasive, and incoherent.
I sat in front of my television and played it back over and over again to make sure I got every word right.
I’m going to post the entire quote just so you can see how deceitful and incoherent it is.
““I opposed Clarence Thomas (unintelligible) beginning. I believed Anita Hill from the beginning. And I tried to control the questions under the laws that exist for the Senate. And I was unable to do it. Just like the last hearing…they were unable to control, keep people from being able to ask questions. What I did was I made a commitment; I made a commitment never again would the Judiciary Committee only have men on that committee. So, I went out and I campaigned for two people, Carol Mosley Brawn, an African American senator from the state of Illinois and Diane Feinstein…on the condition that if they won they would join the committee….I kept that commitment.
And secondly I made another commitment, that I was going to get the Violence Against Women Act passed which…I wrote myself, the Violence Against Woman Act. Number three, I’ve spoken with Anita Hill and I apologized for not being able to protect her more. I’m trying to think, and I raised the question for example, I raised the question, should we in fact have those hearings in camera….when, because you’re gonna always be subject to being vilified no matter who comes and says he said she said this happened, and so here’s the deal….and she said, and I think she’s right, she said No, it’s better not to do that.
We should have it in the open, so we gotta find a way to change the rules as to what can be asked, but in a hearing….it’s impossible to say you can’t ask the question…I won’t go into more detail…I wish I could have protected her more. I publicly apologized, apologized then and I was able to…we owe her…a lot…because what she did by coming forward, she gave me the ability to pass the violence against women act. We owe her a great deal of credit.”
Now, to take it apart.
Biden first starts with an irrelevancy.
“I opposed Clarence Thomas (unintelligible) beginning. I believed Anita Hill from the beginning.”
Then, he continues:
“And I tried to control the questions under the laws that exist for the Senate. And I was unable to do it.”
What questions is he talking about? What questions would he have controlled? What questions were determined “under the laws that exist for the Senate.” How would questions have changed the outcome of the hearing?
“Just like the last hearing…they were unable to control, keep people from being able to ask questions.”
What hearing is he talking about? I assume he’s talking about the Kavanuagh hearing. Well, again, the problem in the Kavanaugh hearing was not “controlling” the questions. The problem was in adequately investigating the claims.
The allegations were not investigated, and like in the Clarence Thomas hearing, women who could have corroborated the testimony of Blasey Ford were not called.
Democrat Chris Coons did his usual holier-than-thou “bipartisan” deal with Jeff Flake and provided cover for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh. They arranged an “investigation” that didn’t investigate. The FBI investigation was severely curtailed, so severely curtailed they didn’t even interview some of the women who claimed to have been abused by Kavanaugh.
This is a common tactic in Washington. If there’s a problem, if people like Susan Collins are whining that they are going to look bad if they vote to put a rapist on the Supreme Court, legislators like Chris Coons help arrange for a sham investigation. This looks “bipartisan.” And, the bipartisanship is presented as if it were a end unto itself.
The “bipartisanship” looks reasonable, but it is just a way of placating opposition. The “investigation” finds nothing, but it’s not intended to find anything. And, then, people like Collins can say, see we had an investigation there’s nothing there. In the Clarence Thomas hearing it was having the hearing itself. We had a hearing, it was pubic, you can’t keep people from asking questions, we did what we could.
Then, comes an incoherent irrelevant distraction.
“What I did was I made a commitment; I made a commitment never again would the Judiciary Committee only have men on that committee. So, I went out and I campaigned for two people, Carol Moseley Braun, an African American senator from the state of Illinois and Diane Feinstein…on the condition that if they won they would join the committee….I kept that commitment.”
So, Biden’s arguing that having women on the Clarence Thomas Judiciary Committee would have changed everything. It might have changed some things, but there were women on the Judiciary Committee when the Kavanaugh hearings took place. And, the main problem was not that there were no women on the committee. It was that Joe Biden refused to call the other women who could have corroborated Anita Hill. So, once again, a distraction, an evasion, essentially a lie. And, why does it absolve Joe Biden for what he did in the Clarence Thomas hearing that he later, after getting the backlash, went out and supported some women for Congress?
Biden goes on:
“And secondly I made another commitment, that I was going to get the Violence Against Women Act passed which…I wrote myself, the Violence Against Woman Act.”
Again, what does this have to do with his behavior and actions during the Clarence Thomas hearings?
Biden continues:
Number three, I’ve spoken with Anita Hill and I apologized for not being able to protect her more. I’m trying to think, and I raised the question for example, I raised the question, should we in fact have those hearings in camera….when, because you’re gonna always be subject to being vilified no matter who comes and says he said she said this happened, and so here’s the deal….and she said, and I think she’s right, she said no, it’s better not to do that.”
He says “I apologized.” What more can I do? Well, as I find myself repeatedly pointing out these days (Chris Matthews, MSNBC) there are things you can’t apologize for. Michael Bloomberg evidently thinks that it’s sufficient that he apologized for ruining thousands of lives with Stop and Frisk. And, he, like Biden, is irritated that somehow people don’t think that’s enough. It’s like they are saying: Jeeeeze, I apologized, what more do you want? You’re just harassing me.
There are things you can’t apologize for.
Then, after some incoherent faffing around, Biden actually BLAMES ANITA HILL for how the hearing came out. He says that he offered to do the hearing in private and she said no. So, she was to blame because she wanted a public hearing, not some kind of behind-closed-doors dirty little boys backroom session. Again, Joe Biden refused to call the corroborating women for their testimony. That has nothing to do with whether the hearing was public or private.
Biden continues (yes, I know but it will be over soon).
“We should have it in the open, so we gotta find a way to change the rules as to what can be asked…”
Changing what could be asked is not the issue, the failure, the refusal to include the testimony of the corroborating witnesses is the problem. Distraction, obfuscation, evasion.
“but in a hearing….it’s impossible to say you can’t ask the question…”
Nobody ever suggested changing the rules so that people couldn’t ask certain questions although judges makes this determination in trials every day. There are questions that are relevant to the issue at hand and questions that aren’t, questions that are designed to inflame and prejudice. But, that is again not the issue. The issue is how Biden chose to act when he had power. He chose to bury the truth, to subject Anita Hill and the rest of us to that humiliating process without providing the witnesses who could have supported her.
O.K. Here he goes again.
“I won’t go into more detail…I wish I could have protected her more.
Yes, I am sure Joe Biden doesn’t want to go into more detail because the details are damning. Read Jane Mayer’s book about the Clarence Thomas hearings.
And, the “I wish I could have protected her more,” is just my favorite. How much more paternalistic, patriarchal and sexist can you be? Anita Hill didn’t ask for protection. She didn’t need protection at the hearing. She needed protection and support to oppose the blatantly sexist, aggressive, abusive and coercive nature of Clarence Thomas’ weirdo sick toxic male behavior. She didn’t get it and the rest of us didn’t get it. Clarence Thomas got a seat on the Supreme Court. Joe Biden is largely responsible for that fact, and he paved the way for Brett Kavanaugh to take his seat beside Thomas.
“…I publicly apologized, apologized then and I was able to…we owe her…a lot…because what she did by coming forward, she gave me the ability to pass the violence against women act. We owe her a great deal of credit.
Here, Biden finishes up by trying to placate us, and portraying himself (as he always does) as Mr. Nice Guy. He says we owe Anita Hill a lot.
Perhaps so, but, we owe Joe Biden a lot more. We owe it to him to get him out of public life along with the rest of the men who have openly, brazenly flouted their power over women and used that power to the detriment of all of us. We owe it to ourselves to stop people like Joe Biden lying and covering up their abusive behavior.
Get them out. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg, Chris Coons, Bret Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas. The list goes on.
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I am still watching the Biden town hall on CNN, but I just want people to hear the bullshit answer Biden just gave to a woman in the audience. She made the statement that times had changed since the Clarence Thomas hearings, and asked Biden how he had changed and how he would answer people who were still unsatisfied with how he handled the hearing.
I just want you to read the answer he gave.
- “I opposed Clarence Thomas (unintelligible) beginning. I believed Anita Hill from the beginning. And I tried to control the questions under the laws that exist for the Senate. And I was unable to do it. Just like the last hearing…they were unable to control, keep people from being able to ask questions. What I did was I made a commitment; I made a commitment never again would the Judiciary Committee only have men on that committee. So, I went out and I campaigned for two people, Carol Mosley Brawn, an African American senator from the state of Illinois and Diane Feinstein…on the condition that if they won they would join the committee….I kept that commitment. And secondly I made another commitment, that I was going to get the Violence Against Women Act passed which…I wrote myself, the Violence Against Woman Act. Number three, I’ve spoken with Anita Hill and I apologized for not being able to protect her more. I’m trying to think, and I raised the question for example, I raised the question, should we in fact have those hearings in camera….when, because you’re gonna always be subject to being vilified no matter who comes and says he said she said this happened, and so here’s the deal….and she said, and I think she’s right, she said No, it’s better not to do that. We should have it in the open, so we gotta find a way to change the rules as to what can be asked, but in a hearing….it’s impossible to say you can’t ask the question…I won’t go into more detail…I wish I could have protected her more. I publicly apologized, apologized then and I was able to…we owe her…a lot…because what she did by coming forward, she gave me the ability to pass the violence against women act. We owe her a great deal of credit.”
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- When I turned on the television this morning, the first thing I saw on Morning Joe was a clip of Sanders explaining to CNN that he couldn’t say exactly what Medicare for All would cost. Scarborough, of course, played this clip as an excuse to mock Sanders. When the camera came back to Scarborough, he had on what can only be described (by my partner) as a “shit eating grin.” Scarborough then started to repeat phrases like: “radically change the economy,” “radically overturn” and create a revolution.
- Scarborough made the ridiculous statement that Sanders would “radically change the economy in a way that it hasn’t been changed since the republic was formed…”
- The dreadful, opportunistic bobble headed Mika said that Sanders was “threatening to tear the party apart.”
- Journalism my ass. This is not journalism. It is propaganda designed to promote favored candidates and destroy others.
- In 2016, Morning Joe started almost every program with a clip of Donald Trump on the campaign trail. They gave him millions (billions?) in free advertising. Joe Scarborough and the dreadful Mika helped Trump get elected and they were at Mara-shitgo after the election. They asked his permission to use certain questions in an interview (we know this only because they were taped doing so) and only broke with Trump because he threatened and then outed their adulterous affair.
- Joe Scarborough, like Jennifer Rubin and other former Republicans have destroyed their own party. They willingly helped build a structure that launched an administration hell bent toward establishing authoritarianism in this country. Now they are telling the Democrats what to do and who to nominate.
- But, it’s not just Joe and the dreadful Mika.
- MSNBC has conducted an all-out campaign against Bernie Sanders. The coverage took a downward dive and a more overtly contemptuous and attacking tone in the past couple of months as they saw that Sanders was indeed viable.
- MSNBC’s coverage of the results of the Nevada caucuses on Saturday was an outrageous point in that downward spiral.
- On Saturday night, I sincerely thought Nicolle Wallace and Joy Reid were going to start crying.
- The only reason I now watch MSNBC is to document the outrageous campaign against Sanders. In 69 years of living, I have never, never, seen a news organization put on such an overtly expressed attack on one candidate.
- The day before the Nevada caucases, one of the MSNBC commentators, Jason Johnson, who has had on every panel, 24/7, for weeks, did a radio interview in which he called the black women who work for Sanders an “island of misplaced black girls.” None of these people would say anything, anything like this about the women who worked for any other candidate.
- Then, that same night, Chris Matthews likened the Sanders victory to the invasion by the Nazis of France. But, this was just the latest comment by Matthews smearing Bernie Sanders. He has been doing it for at least a year.
- Tonight, Matthews apologized, APOLOGIZED, for his “misplaced analogy.” As I say over and over again, there are things you cannot apologize for. Saying what you mean is not something you can apologize for, and Matthews has meant every mean, contemptuous, slanderous thing he has ever said about Sanders.
- Matthews earlier this year implied that Sanders would stand and watch Matthews be executed in Times Square. I hate to clue him in, but Matthews isn’t important enough to execute. But anyway, Matthews also pulled out of his ass a statement that Sanders would be the last person to stop for someone who was in distress by the roadside. This is journalism? What kind of journalism? These are the kinds of things that idiots say in a bar.
- Why, why do we have to listen to people like this? Matthews in 2016 made a joke with Clinton about “roofies.”
- Matthews interrupts, talks down, and generally treats with contempt most of the women on his show. But, MSNBC continues to employ him.
- MSNBC cannot apologize for their coverage of Sanders over the past four years, especially the past few months and especially Saturday night.
- MSNBC came out tonight with a statement saying they were going to look for more progressives to put on their shows. Really? It must be hard to find them while they have under contract so many overpaid and ignorant circle-jerk “strategists” and Clinton mean-girls like Adrienne Elrod and Neera Tandem.
Enough of that. Another thing:
- Everybody seems to be going wild because Sanders said that not everything about Cuba is negative. Well, duh? DUH? Can people use their brains here?
- Cuba has the highest rate of literacy in Latin America.
- At least when I was there, everybody had access to free education and health care. The government subsidized books and they cost almost nothing. Everyone had access to language training. Everybody had shoes, jobs, an income. They had a thriving, fascinating theatre culture. Musicians got a salary. No, not everything about Cuba is negative.
- But, the elite would rather live in a bubble. And the corporate media, part of that elite, refuses to cover reality.
- I was contracted to write a freelance article years ago when I went to Cuba. When I wrote an article talking about the advances in education in Cuba, the Times Educational Supplement said that it was “too positive.” They would not print the article. This was almost 40 years ago. The slander against Cuba has been going on for a long time. The coverage of Cuba is characterized by the same kind of distortion that goes on about Bernie and about Democratic Socialism.
- I am sick of the corporate media and I’m sick of MSNBC. They are terrified of a Sanders victory. The “progressive” MSNBC is more hateful about Sanders because MSNBC is full of people who will never be able to get near the White House if Sanders is elected.
- The DNC “strategist”/pundit class would rather help Trump win four more years than risk their cushy jobs and privileged positions.
- I am sick of them and of mealy-mouthed commentators (Chuck Rosenberg, Joyce (even though I love her) Vance. At least Rachal Maddow has started to tell people that this is a crisis. We are not on the edge of a crisis. We not in a situation of concern. We are in a red alarm, democracy going down the drain crisis.
- If you are not setting your hair on fire, you don’t understand what is going on.
A final comment:
Biden is running an ad campaign asking why Bernie Sanders wanted to primary Obama. Biden is trying to imply that Sanders “didn’t have the back of the first African American” president. Biden is blatantly trying to call Sanders a racist. Well, let’s see why Sanders might, just might have thought about a challenge to Obama. Maybe because Obama richly deserved to be challenged? Maybe because it’s a democracy? But, no, it must be racism. I can’t even come up with one reason to challenge Obama except, oh yeah, how about stumbling all over himself putting Wall Street in his cabinet and then refusing to prosecute those responsible for the financial crisis? But, then again, I’m one of those “vicious” Bernie Bros. (Adrienne Elrod actually accused me of that and then blocked me.) I’m proud, proud of that.
Night.
Law, Power, and Justice 