As we all know Donald Trump is growing more unhinged with every passing day. And has been stepping up his deranged attacks on the media.
Like this one he tweeted or excreted early this morning.
In his never ending attempt to try to get the media to give him the coverage he believes he deserves.
And the love expects from his employees.
Even though he sometimes calls his former employees dogs.
And when people like the former CIA director John O. Brennan call him out...
Trump strips him of his security clearance for no good reason.
And the good news?
Hundreds of newspapers big and small have faded together to fight back.
Answering a call last week from The Boston Globe, The Times is joining hundreds of newspapers, from large metro-area dailies to small local weeklies, to remind readers of the value of America’s free press. These editorials, some of which we’ve excerpted, together affirm a fundamental American institution.
Support them if you can, help spread the word.
Let Trump know that they are not alone,
Until the day the beast is defeated, and sent to the place where he belongs...
A free press is also one that isn't forced to bow to the whims of corporate masterhood. Oligopolies like Sinclair, Tronc, the Murdoch monster, the Koch Kleptokrat Klan, and Canada's Postmedia swill farm (which ended up "trickling down" into the national broadcaster) cannot in good faith be considered truly free. But it's only thanks to conservatives that the free press has been reduced to little more than a mouthpiece for the C-suite, the war machine and the old (white) boys' power network. Add the disingenuous "libertarian" hive mind of Silicon Valley that prioritizes ad revenue over human decency (and hides behind the thin shield of "free speech" even for outright liars and white-nationalist terrorism-enablers like Alex Jones and Ezra Levant) to that list.
ReplyDeleteTo borrow a line from Peter Parker's uncle Ben, with great freedom comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, since "corporate responsibility" is the oxymoron of the century, more must be done to not only protect the press from the fascist tyrants holding all forms of "executive office." That goes for Trump, for Putin, and for Rupert Murdoch and Paul Godfrey as well.
Politically the free press was never truly free. However when a political story line was presented the political forces lived or died based on the outcome. The commies are coming so its better to fight them on their own turf, weapons of mass destruction, kill the dictator and bless the people with democracy were unwavering story lines that ultimately sealed the fate of the political machinery behind them. Trump and his media sponsors have changed the game. Similar to a reality show or a sports game the media story line is constantly evolving. Its only a transitionary play designed to entertain or add a point to the scoreboard for team Trump. The players are no longer judged on honesty or the original story but whether or not the play added a point. The game is played in a virtual space but what the fans do not realize is that instead of retiring to the bar or McDonalds afterwards to celebrate or bemoan the loss the reality component of the game will demand payment. The virtual game is free to enter but not to leave, settlement in the real world will be traumatic and painful to most regardless of who won the virtual game.
DeleteRT
Hi Jackie...the media in the U.S. have for the most part acted in a far more noble way than our crappy scribblers. It helps of course to have a president like Trump to motivate you, but when Harper ruled this country they were the same kind of stooges they are today. Their bosses want them to support anyone who promises to cut their taxes, and the scribblers want the Cons to win so they can kill the CBC and use their advertising money to help keep their jobs. You can’t get more grubby than that, and the idiots at the CBC play right into their hands...
DeleteHi RT...It’s funny but we seem to be going back to the days when newspapers were openly associated with one political party or the other. Take the Toronto Sun for example, it’s little more than a Con propaganda sheet these days, owned by Americans to help spread the gospel of Trump. It’s blatant, they don’t even try to conceal their ghastly agenda. The main reason I keep writing this blog, rather than concentrate on writing fiction which I truly enjoy, is because I believe that every little voice counts if we are to have any chance of overcoming or at least neutralizing that Con narrative. It’s not much but there it is...
DeleteStupid Fat Nixon's first tweet sounds eerily familiar to Comical Ali's statement to the media oh so many years ago in Iraq: We are winning! The Amercans are being burned out of their tanks as we speak!
ReplyDeleteHi anon...I see the resemblance, the need to keep bullshitting in the hope that it will change reality. But from a clinical point of view I see it as something far more serious. Three disconnected lines that make absolutely no sense. I believe Trump is in the first stages of dementia, and if the U.S. ever encounters a major military crisis, we’ll be lucky to get out alive...
DeleteThe employee called a dog happened to be a Black woman. Turd has shown his contempt for Black - and Brown - people and for women throughout his career. His first public act as a young man was denying a Black woman who happened to be a registered nurse an apartment in daddy's buildings. We know the hideous language he has used over and over to demean people of colour and women.
ReplyDeleteSimon, I don't recall any anti-gay slurs on his part, but have a very hard time thinking that he has never insulted LGBTQ+ people. Knowledge?
He made a joke at one of those fanatical right-wing convention rallies that Mike Pence was the "go-to guy on gay stuff" because "hey, he wants to hang 'em all." His ban on transgender people serving openly in the military and receiving healthcare specific to their needs from the VA is tied up in the courts. He's expressed support for those wingnut cake bakers who file nuisance "religious freedom" lawsuits arguing that they're being persecuted by not having the license to persecute. LGBTQ+ refugees are being deported, and Sessions' idiotic "religious liberty task force" (operating at the pleasure of the executive, of course) wants to eliminate LGBTQ+ persecution as a legitimate reason to claim asylum in the U.S. The list goes on.
DeleteHe's also basically the world's #1 poster child for toxic masculinity in general (well, second only to his boss Putin). Consider his "meek and mild" insult toward Justin Trudeau after he shit in Trudeau's backyard at that disastrous G7 summit. It wasn't per se verbatim homophobia, but the same kind of dog-whistle sissifying that cons of all stripes fling at him on a daily basis (like Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun, who is getting ratioed on Twitter for making fun of him crying at his father's funeral). Tie that in with the stupid "fake eyebrow" conspiracy theory that popped up out of nowhere shortly thereafter, and was most likely a Russian-sponsored troll blip meant to make Trump somehow look good by embarrassing the conference's host. For all intents and purposes, Trump and his acolytes basically gay-bashed Trudeau.
And then there's the mutant offspring: Junior joined in with the manufactured "peoplekind" outrage on Twitter by saying Justin's chosen pronoun was "he/she/it/shit." So, yeah. Trump hates LGBTQ+ people too, and people who he thinks "might be" LGBTQ+ because they're not chest-thumping macho morons. He hates anyone who isn't him, and isn't like him, and doesn't like him.
Hi lagatta...Jackie has done a fine job of answering your question, far better than I could have done. All I would have said is that I have never known a racist and a misogynist or sexist pig who wasn’t also a homophobe...
DeleteHi Jackie...thanks for that great answer. The depth of your knowledge never ceases to amaze me. And yes, Lorrie Goldstein mocking Trudeau for crying at his father’s funeral and Auschwitz or during his apology to the LGBT community was one of the most disgusting things I have ever read, and reinforced my hatred of the toxic masculinity that I despise so much, for it is truly the source of all evil...
DeleteTrump is either on drugs or going nuts. No normal person would tweet stuff like that. Good for John Brennan for telling it like it is and shaming the dictator. His tweet was perfect.
ReplyDeleteHi anon@6:’29PM....one day this nightmare will end and those who refused to lower their standards like John Brennan will be able to hold their heads high. Others who went along will be seen as collaborators and will live in infamy forever...
DeleteWTF is wrong with the GOP for accepting this kind of behaviour for "their President". Not the "GOP" anymore, is it.
ReplyDeleteUU
Hi UU...The GOP died long ago on the day they accepted a man like Trump as a candidate for president. They knew he was rotten, they knew that he would make an awful president, but in the pursuit of power they sold their souls to the orange devil, and there will be a day of reckoning...
DeleteNone of what trump says or does surprises me. He is simply this century's version of Hitler, when he was on the rise. He is simply vilifying his opposition and his base believes it. Hitler gained power with some thing in the 30s% and trump, well it isn't much different.
ReplyDeleteThe press has seen now, that Trump wants them gone. Even the large corporate press. Perhaps Americans ought to ensure their local publicans continue in business by purchasing newspapers, because in this day and age of electronics its very, very easy to get rid of the electrontic media, bloggers, etc. just disconnect the Web and he will do it if he has the numbers.
taking away the security clearance, has once again demonstrated how petty he is and how well he deflects from what else is going on. It has also demonstrated how spineless the GOP is. remind me of all the "good Germans during Hitler's rise to power.
Hi e.a.f....Once upon a time those who compared Trump to Hitler were scorned or laughed at. But today it’s more and move obvious where he is getting his inspiration from. The other day somebody ran something Trump said about the media, next to something Hitler said, and it might have well have been a direct translation. We are living in dangerous times and history is repeating itself...
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