Trump’s power comes from the pro-fascists who want him to do what they so far haven’t been able to accomplish: weaken, then destroy our Democracy . They were powerful during the 1920s, 30s and 50s. In fact, they came close to pulling off a coup against FDR in 1934. Now they are being aided by Putin, Orban and Netanyahu. We are in for rough times as November gets closer.
That's the time between Election Day in Nov and Inauguration Day Jan 20. If Trump loses, it's during this period a lot of election overthrow activity may occur.
That's the time between Election Day in Nov and Inauguration Day Jan 20. If Trump loses, it's during this period a lot of election overthrow activity may occur.
Trump is using the same tactics Hitler used scapegoating and fear but has total allegiance from the Republican Party and Right Wing Media & the Supreme Court It’s a scary scenario
Yep. Ding ding ding. You won the answer I think. Very very scary. When I send my weekly letter to the White House. For what good it will do, I'm including this column!! Doubt they'll read it though.
The Democrats are not speaking up with clarity or rigor against Trump Rev Sharpton said on Morning Joe “ This is a Street Fight with Trump u have to use broken bottles “ to fight Trumps supporters facts and logic moral character doesn’t matter
MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, which is owned by (right wing) Comcast, and the majority shareholders are Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, Capital International Investors, Capital World Investors, Fmr Llc, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Jpmorgan Chase & Co, and AWSHX - WASHINGTON MUTUAL
Vanguard, BlackRock, State street are majority shareholders in all electronic media, pharmaceuticals, health care, and so on. They are in fact USA, Inc,
Relevance do a deep dive into the ownership and board of directors of those there, and corporations.
Google board of directors and you get Leadership team members which are hired and fired by the CEO. So google Comcast Board of Directors and check their Bio's, Brian L. Roberts is the majority individual shareholder and also it's CEO. Roberts founded Comcast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_L._Roberts
CBS is owned by Paramount, which is owned National Amusements,. National Amusements is now owned by Michael Redstone's son, Sumner Redstone, who holds 80% of the company, and Sumner's daughter, Shari Redstone, who owns the remaining 20%. Sumner died in 2020 at age 97, but his family inherited his empire https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Redstone
Paramount Globals: Largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, UBS Group AG, Invesco Ltd., VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, Contrarius Investment Management Ltd, Morgan Stanley, Geode Capital Management, Llc, and Ariel Investments, Llc .
ABC is owned by the Walt Disney. Company Disney's largest individual shareholders are the company's insiders, including the current CEO, Robert Iger, and top managers, such as Brent A. Woodford, Maria Elena Lagomasino, and Mary Barra. The largest institutional investors include the Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street.
CNN is Warner Brothers Discovery: Which is owned by Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc. is a privately held American media company owned by the families of Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the sons of company founder Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including American City Business Journals and Condé Nast, and is a major shareholder in Charter Communications, Reddit and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Brothers Discovery's Largest shareholders largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, Harris Associates L P, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Geode Capital Management, Llc, VIMSX - Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Investor Shares, XL.
All organizations are managed by a Board of Directors, except for privately owned corporations,
If one is really interested, they will check out the BoD of News Organizations, and learn who it is that hires and fires CEO's, who hire and fire editors, producers, reporters, journalists and talking heads.
For instance when Tucker Carlson was on MSNBC, he had a piss boy name of Wllie Geist, Tucker was let loose, Geist stayed and became a piss boy for Joe Scarborough, and now his his own show. He is someones son, cousin or nephew.
Gratefully most Gen Z and a lot of others do not rely on MSM for the news. I'm in a DNC veterans group. 4 million people on Facebook are veterans or active duty members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members.
I've been trying to get DNC REACH to establish a veterans' group to send Biden VA and related info social media like Facebook just like DNC sends press releases and other info.
"Not suckers or losers" are magic words that flip some 2 time Trump voters. Go to veterans and military sites and see for yourselves.
A tour de force of research! I wonder if there is some root in there of my observation that the MSNBC hosts seem to be avoiding the identification of the actual yard sign that Alito SAYS was "personally insulting?" I've seen multiple sources: one Laurence Tribe in an interview with Meidas Touch: identify the sign as saying "F... Trump." Not "personal" to either Alito, but certainly revealing a bias in favor of/in defense of a party in cases before the Court!
Joyce Reid, on the Reidout, mentioned Alito's flags, there were two of them, the upside down American flag in front of his Viriginia home and an Appeal to Heaven flag in front of his Summer home, thus blowing away his lame excuse of blaming his wife. Whichis the sign of a guilty man, because Sen Menendez also blames his wife for the hidden gold bars., but you are al most right nobody mentions the yard sign, except I saw it mentioned once, and only once on TV and it was on the Colbert Show, IIRC.maybe Jimmy Kimmel.
Colbert, and Kimmel are the only ones to have the guts to take on Trump, Bill Maher does it but takes swipes at Biden, as does even the Tonight show. Jimmy Fallon stays away from Trump mostly, and when he does he is lame, it as if his writers are in the tank with Trump.
William, I thought John Malone called the shots at CNN. Do you have any info. on him? Zaslov-CEO and Licht got their jobs because of John Malone. I have not kept up with the latest on these characters. Have you? John Malone, I believe, is a member of the Federalist Society and right wing politics.
John Malone, or whoever is CEO of CNN, and this is true for almost all corporations, save perhaps those that are family or privately owned, and were the Chairman of the Board and the CEO are one and the same., answers to the board of directors.
CEO's, like Malone, are hired and fired by the board of directors for one purpose and one purpose only, to ensure that the corporation produces as large a return on investment as possible for the investors (owners)
Basically he is a hired gun, and he or she,in turn hires and fires subordinates, middle managers, like editors, whose job is to keep the reporters and journalists in line. thus maintaining profitability.
Corporations operate like a mafia, there is a culture and each manager from the CEO on down, knows, instinctively, what is expected of them, and like with Trump's cult, they don't need orders.
I don't know anything about him and the Federalist Society, I don't have access to it's membership list, but the Society does list, on the net, it's contributors, lawyers and fellows.
Google provides info about him being fined1.4 million for violating anti trust merger laws
Dr. John C. Malone is Chairman of the Board of Liberty Media Corporation, Liberty Broadband Corporation and Liberty Global plc. From 1996 to March 1999, when Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) merged with AT&T Corp., he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TCI. Previous to that, from 1973 to 1996, Dr. Malone served as President and Chief Executive Officer of TCI. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Qurate Retail, Inc., Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications, Inc. Additionally, Dr. Malone is Chairman Emeritus of the Board for Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.
Liberty Media Corporation, commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty, is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in Formula One Group, Sirius XM, Live Nation Entertainment, and by the end of 2024, Dorna Sports.
CNN is a part of WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T Inc.3 (NYSE: T).
Apparently Malone is not only the CEO of CNN but is Chairman of the Board of corporations that own CNN.
I don't know anything about him and the Federalist Society but I would not be surprised.
has done a deep dive on Malone: Malone’s links to politics include being an active supporter — he’s currently a board member — of the Cato Institute, the Washington-based libertarian think tank that espouses the privatization of numerous US government agencies and programs, including Social Security and the Postal Service.
His Liberty Media empire was among the big contributors to Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration festivities in Washington, DC, with personal and corporate contributions adding up to $1 million.
What surprises me is the characterization of CNN as liberal, unless liberal means anything that is not fascist. I have always considered CNN to be Corporate Media and Corporate is conservative, by nature.
One thing for sure, to be a CEO of a Corporation one HAS to be a sociopath, being a restrained psychopath only burnishes your credentials. Altruists need not apply.
The democrats share the spoils and blame here. They are not speaking the language of the working class nor asking the right questions. As many here have pointed out education is at the heart of the problem. The ahistorical generations that have not been taught civics, the bill of rights, or how to disagree without verbally and physically murdering anyone who isn’t into herd mentality while our democracy is hanging by a frayed thread.
Tom fingers the dark money driving the media. Moguls driving this toxic ideology that has saddled we the people with a puppet Supreme Court, MAGA dominated house and Senate that manipulates the system and gins up division and hate when bribery won’t support what the corrupt billionaires want. This applies to both parties but the democrats are the slow train to hell while the GOP is the bullet train. At this juncture most decent people have no idea how to turn this country around given the players. The system is so gamed that ordinary people do not stand much of a chance nor do they want to get into the toxic mix that is politics because of the sacrifices required. Perhaps Tom could offer some insights into how we get out of this quick sand when we can’t get decent candidates to vote for even on a local level and voters who clamor for change to show up to vote.
There is one pool of money Takeaway, that Republicans and Dems chase, it is the big fat pockets of corporate America and Billionaires, who run and own corporate America.
Democrats don't want to alienate this pool of money, and if you look at Congress and the influential and dominate members of the party, you will see that their own wealth and status are dependent on corporate America.
Bernie Sanders showed the Democratic party that, at least for campaign financing, corporate America was not needed, and doing so he posed a threat to the social status and wealth of the makers and shakers in the Democratic Party, so they put their thumb on the scale in the Primary of 2015-2016.
Depending on contributions from the voters, means advancing socio economic policies that favor the commons, and that which favors the commons has an adverse affect on the elite.
A living wage, tax policy, universal health care, free higher education, health and safety regulation (effective monitoring and serious penalties), labor laws, all cut into return on share holder investment
What value is there in being the (neo) nobility, if you can't differentiate from the commoner.
Thus Henry VIII issued Sumptuary Laws that forbade commoners from wearing materials like fur, silk, and fine linen and dressing like the nobility.
The nobility these days sequester themselves behind gated estates in exclusive neighborhoods, and allow peeks from the commons who salivate when they see them on red carpet events, or in glossy magazines.
And like the Brits who worship their overlords, fete them as superior and even elect them President.
It is more complicated than that Sue, but from the point of view who perceives a boot on their neck, all they see is the boot and the foot that is wearing it.
It is a great list, but an important thing left out is that public education has been coopted.
civics, history, and critical thinking have been intentionally left out. I was told that employers want compliance, not critical thinking. It has become more like "training" than "educationing.
One example that kept one of my sons from graduating from high school because he failed a required English class was that on the final exam, the teacher asked, "What is your interpretation of Steinbeck's novella, The Pearl. The Pearl is about "a pearl diver who explores man's purpose as well as greed, defiance of societal norm, and evil" (Wikepedia}.
My son failed because he wrote HIS interpretation and was failed because the teacher wanted the interpretation she taught the class. He took the course again and failed again for the same reason. I read the story and thought my son's interpretation showed he had read and thought about it, but disagreed with part of the teacher's interpretatiion. He dropped out rather than go another year. He now has two grad degrees and a high paying job. But he is the exception.
That is one example of the terror the district put me through in trying to keep five boys in school. It was a daily nightmare. At the least, it damages the self-esteem of our young people and at most turns out little, compliant soldiers who follow and vote for the likes of Trump, an evil, narcissistic, opportunistic leader who spits out key phrases he knows will keep the thoughts of his followers emotionally spinning without a trajectory that leads to reason.
I totally agtee about the dumbing down of our educational system. Free and critical thinkers are a death knell to fascist regimes. Easier to be told what to think than figure it out for yourself. Thoms list proves that.
There has been a big change in our society since I was a young person.
I earned enough money as a child, much less a teen, to buy my own radio, bike mom a necklace of pink, fake pearls and a bisque doll, by the time I was 9 years old, by the time I was 17 I was earning more than Mom as a caddy, setting pins in a bowling alley, cutting lawns, selling tin, lead and paper to a junk yard, and three paper routes.
Kicked out of HS for truancy, I never the less have earned a Masters Degree and a comfortable retirement.
I got paid $.25 for shoveling snow in front of a store when I was 7, $.50 for mowing lawns when I was 12, $2.00 for cutting grass and trimming shrubs when I was 21, and an E-3, and today it costs $20 to pay a dude to mow your lawn.
And if you don't have a HS Diploma you can't even join the Army, or get a job as a fry cook at McDonald's., well maybe that.
I went to an Engineering school because I wanted to be graded on being right rather than someone’s opinion if I was right or wrong with my answers. HATED English class.
your list is right. But there is a reason underlying much of it: a deep seated dismay about and fear of the "coastal elites," those who graduate from prestigious colleges and have advanced degrees, those who are perceived as "looking down" on the Trumpers. They feel insecure, left out, misunderstood. And hurt and angry. They want to punish and "get even."
Trump is a mentally ill, husk of a man. A psychopath who has no filter for his Congenital Racism — a poor man's John Gotti or Carlo Gambino. A real Jew hater, ever since one stole the love of his life.
So, that's why 74,200,000, Nihilistic, Useful Moron, 2020 Voters wanted him to march America over a cliff.
He mirrors their own sociopathic, self-indulgent, authentic selves back to themselves; except, unlike the portrait of a fading, decrepit, orange Dorian Gray, it's the portrait of a vigorous [albeit ultra racist] Tony Soprano, whom they see.
Agree with all of Thom’s surmises, and the great comments here, save for one: tfg is NOT brilliant. He has seen the obvious, knows the media, our foreign enemies, the deplorables, and especially the morbidly rich, are behind him, delight in him, see him as the instrument of chaos and the destruction of all that is good in this country. He knows he is Teflon, that nothing bad sticks to him or matters to his cultists. Which is why our country will die innNovember, along with millions of Americans, most of them his supporters, who will lose their social safety nets while “owning the libs”, and will still support the grotesque faux orange flatulent toadstool even as he kills them. They will deserve their fates. The rest of us will not. We on the left have been gulled since Nixon into relying on the essential goodness of our fellow citizens and humanity in general. Our species is not good. It is greedy, selfish, rapacious, angry, bitter, hateful, envious. There are many among us who are indeed good, decent, noble, kind, compassionate. But not nearly enough. I will soon be in the grave, and glad of it.
I hope there is a God, in whom I have come to believe late in life. In part because my only belief about humans is that we can be counted on, especially males, to do the worst things, and revel in doing them. Maybe life is a portent of hell. I hope I am not consigned to that fate if God is watching. But at this point, oblivion will be heaven enough. And I say that having, aside from health issues, lived a life to all appearances successful and privileged by the materialistic standards that rule us. It has not been enough. And I have not done enough to fight against the dark tide that is rising to destroy us. Remember, remember, vote blue in November. It will at least postpone the day of reckoning I feel is upon us.
Con artists and grifters are not book smart, but street smart, they may not know the name of the street they live on,or the capital of the state they live in, because they don't care Roy.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had his Sherlock Holmes say something to the effect, that he doesn't fill his head with trivia of no consequence.
Trump is as dumb as sack of rocks, but he is crafty and smart and knows how to woo, bamboozle, lie, cheat, intimidate people and the system, and hires people who have the smarts and skills that he lacks, but are hungry for money, position and fame, and lack the same moral compass that he lacks, and they are legion.
Trump's skills & cleverness are honed from decades of corruption. When Trump 1st met with Vladimir Putin, they discovered soul mates and a mutual admiration corruption society, steeped profound narcissism and unmatched greed. They've been comparing fascist notes ever since and boosting each other while converting most of the republican party to fascism.
The wealthy in our country have become it's greatest internal threat, their greed has become so great, that love of country and allegiance has been replaced by a boundless narcissism. Donald Trump & Vladimir Putin, true to the fraudulent conmen that they are, are taking full advantage of free speech and decades of conditioning towards political ignorance.
The GOP built a corruption machine much in the form of college fraternities that make sure everyone in it can blackmail everyone else, and then that corruption machine got hijacked by Russia. Trump swoons like a schoolgirl over strongman dictators like Putin so the whole system works to protect him.
Really interesting point, but I don't think any fraternity ever wanted Trump. (?) But if we loosely describe the circle of special friends of Jeffrey Epstein as "fraternal?"
It's been said nobody ever saw Trump on his college campus, but even if they did I'd think it likely the frats wouldn't be interested in him. When Putins people hacked the DNC server it also hacked the GOP, I imagine that's where it got the "dirt" to blackmail the GOP and assist Putins little fan boy. Epsteins people never chose to be a group, he just delivered a desirable service and then never let them stop paying, until it all crumbled.
I am sure that the reason the FBI raided pedo island, and why Epstein committed suicide is that he had the goods, including video's on the most powerful people in the US and Britain
"Maybe Trump’s popularity comes from all of us underestimating how much racial and gender hatred has been simmering below the surface of America, just waiting for a politician who’d proudly go farther than Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” or Reagan’s “young bucks” and “monkeys” rhetoric?"
Holy moly, yikes and gadzooks, Mr. Hartmann! Congratulations for answering your own question!
It is what it is, because it was what it was and will continue to be what it was until it no longer is what it is.
And negative: "all of us" did not underestimate which is why I predicted his election, on your air, the day he announced.
Race and gender are not the problem, but a subset of the problem. Which admittedly is not easy to discern, when they are one's personal cross to carry, and the reason there is a boot on the neck., but there are boots on other necks as well
In the crowds watching Jews being rounded up and loaded into cattle cars, where people some of whom were even cheering, that were next.
I think ALL of those things contribute to some extent, but I see the primary factor as he is white (and looks so 'Aryan' to boot), male, straight and rich. He is a weakling's image of a powerful man and an ignorant poor person's image of what a rich man is. He is what each of those types want to be.
Dorchw Weil, I think it is environmental. We can only teach what we know. Crazy parents can't teach their children to be sane, dishonest parents can't keep their children to be honest...
Only when all the children are raised together from conception in order to end all child abuse in agnostic Kibutzes, can we end drug babies, crime, racism, religious hatred, wars, dictators...
The cycle of life is to play, then learn, then teach. We are on earth to have fun! Not to be stressed out! Some people are stupid, but they are not harmful and others are intelligent and are harmful.
If the reason we are stupid is genetic, we are doomed! We have no choice but to pursue raising open minded, rational thinking humans, with a conscience. Otherwise the children will inherit the sins of their elders!
America’s enemies have banded together, lead by Russia and China, to knock us out of contention in the 21st Century. This has been going on gradually since WWII. We have always known them to play a long game, economically, so why not politically, too? We are getting close to the end game.
I think the GOP organized Russia and China and Saudi Arabia and probably more to destroy us with Ronald Reagan's blessings. Free trade, tear down the wall, denying global warming, deficit spending, obstruction, lying, buying up all the news sources....
This was no accident. I can't blame the Russians in Chinese only the greedy GOP.
Why? It's money from the billionaire class who want more money, help from the Russians who want to dominate eastern Europe, help from the Chinese who want to dominate east Asia, racists who want to roll back civil rights in the US, christian nationalists who want to make America a "christian" country, and a media that wants access, clicks, and are afraid that that an elected tRump will use the the FCC and the DOJ to go after them. And, of course, the stupidest most gullible electorate in history. Sounds like a helluva coalition tRump has built.
Thom, all of your reasons are factors. But, straight up, it's the media. I do not even care what their motives are. I just know they are complicit, with a few exceptions. If we lose our country, it is on them. One would think they had studied world history in college.
True dat Keith, the media is complicit. They created Trump and they are keeping him alive, in fact they created the whole movement, that started with Goldwater, if nothing else, subscriptions and clicks. the profit motive.
Lenin was correct, they will line up to sell the rope used to hang them.
The media has the key to sustain democracy, or install fascism. Rupert Murdock has known this for a long time, he took ethics out of journalism & made it highly profitable; others in media later followed his lead. Other nations had the good sense to deport him and his fascist government model. The same model of mob thinking has infected the US electorate, thanks to Trump, Fox and Putin.
Many comments explain his ridiculous popularity, but the problem really is the lack of media coverage in the right places, the places his followers trust for their information. That, and the toxic masculinity that exists on the right without challenge from the Democrat party. We are not doing enough to expose and combat the bullies.
The lack of media coverage on Bidens accomplishments is tragic. Every time t-rump sneezes its front page news. If Biden had done even one of the things on Thoms list the R’s would be howling. Unfair and twisted?? Yes!! However i do believe there are more of us who want to do the right thing to save our democracy. Get folks to vote!!!
Kate: The voting public doesn't know what and could care less about Statistics, especially the DOW, GDP, unemployment rate (when they have a job, they aren't interested, when they are unemployed, they say so what not me.) or even the rate of inflation, those who live pay check to pay check, only notice the price of food.
But one thing that grabs everyone's attention is the culture war. The Dem's pretend that it doesn't exist, the Republicans base their campaign around it.
The Corporate media owned by billionaires, only care about regulations and taxes the Republicans court them by promising to reduce both, and the Democrats promise to increase both. Guess who the corporate media favors?
The slide into fascism is greased by greedy self interest, and only too late will the malefactors who have greased the slide realize that they chose the wrong horse to bet on.
The same is true of Executives and Boards of Directors of the Chemical Petroleum complex
I would say those that enabled, and financed the rise of Adolph, were among it's ultimate victims, but that would only be partly true, because many not only prospered but survived the war, with the help of American Corporations and financiers.
David de Jong. His new book, Nazi Billionaires, follows the story of men who became part of the Third Reich’s business and financial elite, making their fortunes by stealing Jewish-owned firms, banks, and other assets, as well as exploiting forced and slave labor in concentration camps during World War II. Companies like Siemens, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler-Benz, Dr. Oetker, Porsche, Krupp, IG Farben, and many more cooperated with the SS, which built “satellite concentration camps” near these private companies’ factories and mines where slave laborers toiled in the most appalling conditions. While, after 1945, legal proceedings were launched against Nazi businessmen, almost none would be punished. Industrialists like Günther Quandt, Friedrich Flick, and Ferdinand Porsche were even allowed to keep their assets and continue business as usual. During the “economic miracle” of the 1950s in Germany, they made even bigger fortunes, and their family businesses remain among the most powerful in Germany. Some have even continued to support far-right political parties.
There was a meeting between American and German corporations in Switzerland after D Day as to how to save the German corporations, especially those in which American corporations held shares.
Thom, your listing of Trump's mal deeds is extensive and impressive. But I keep telling similar brilliant writers that there is a huge need to compliment Joe Biden as our Democratic candidate for President on the highlights of his CHARACTER. 90% of the media/blogs are about Trump. We need to emphasize "goodness and respect" for each other. We can all be on a downward trek of pessimism in dreading Trump being in office again. How can you mobilize "interest groups" to viably campaign favorably for Biden?
David, in reality, How many news stories have you seen that say, Flight 101 landed safely?
You see pessimism as "BAD"
Pessimism is reason to fight. The MAGAt cause has been seething, building steam, for decades over a century, pessimistically pissed off with every civil rights gain. The preachers and teachers have been angrily and pessimistically gathering steam.
While the optimists have sat back and rested comfortably on their laurels, only to find that someone has lit a match under those laurels.
Optimists enabled the pessimists that we now call MAGAts, and unlike optimists they are not going to rest on their laurels until they bend all of society to their will.
Pessimism enrages and brings out the fighter, optimism is like opium and they have in common is"op"
An optimist can only be disappointed and depressed, when his optimism is refuted
a pessimist can only be elated when his pessimism is refuted.
I am not coming from an Optimistic place. If pessimism can drive you, let's fight FOR Biden instead of giving all the attention pessimistically given to Trump.
Agreed, William, and there some voices sounding off lately. But the majority of press outlets are mostly Conservative Republican favored. Yes, there needs to be a backlash of Democratic fighters. "Morning Joe" is fighting back. But there needs to be a hell of a lot more. Keep fighting.
And to think that Joe Scarborough was a Republican congressman from Florida. He is still a conservative though but now a never Trumper. I wonder how he will change his tune if Trump steals the election. That's the only way he can win, well there are the Muslims and blacks in the Swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsyltucky, they have threatened to sit out the election or vote third party,like for Cornell West, if they do that I hope they enjoy being rounded up and deported or stripped of whatever rights they think that they didn't enjoy.
Get real, William, Joe Scarborough will be a life-long anti Trumper. Like you have said, "don't give up, fight to win. The way that our political culture changes, it will all work even IF Trump won. But he won't!
Trump’s power comes from the pro-fascists who want him to do what they so far haven’t been able to accomplish: weaken, then destroy our Democracy . They were powerful during the 1920s, 30s and 50s. In fact, they came close to pulling off a coup against FDR in 1934. Now they are being aided by Putin, Orban and Netanyahu. We are in for rough times as November gets closer.
And during the Interregnum as well.
What's that?
That's the time between Election Day in Nov and Inauguration Day Jan 20. If Trump loses, it's during this period a lot of election overthrow activity may occur.
Ah, thank you!
What is that?
That's the time between Election Day in Nov and Inauguration Day Jan 20. If Trump loses, it's during this period a lot of election overthrow activity may occur.
Trump is using the same tactics Hitler used scapegoating and fear but has total allegiance from the Republican Party and Right Wing Media & the Supreme Court It’s a scary scenario
Yep. Ding ding ding. You won the answer I think. Very very scary. When I send my weekly letter to the White House. For what good it will do, I'm including this column!! Doubt they'll read it though.
The Democrats are not speaking up with clarity or rigor against Trump Rev Sharpton said on Morning Joe “ This is a Street Fight with Trump u have to use broken bottles “ to fight Trumps supporters facts and logic moral character doesn’t matter
That's what I have been saying. Dem's bring a pillow to a knife fight.
Michelles's We go high when they go low, is a sorry excuse for defeat, and a recipe for disaster.
They go low we kick them in the balls.
I'm all for that, LOL!
Democrats don't control the media. Even MSNBC leaves a lot to be desired.
If you check out DNC REACH, there is a lot of good stuff from the DNC that is not published by MSM. https://democrats.org/reach/
MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, which is owned by (right wing) Comcast, and the majority shareholders are Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, Capital International Investors, Capital World Investors, Fmr Llc, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Jpmorgan Chase & Co, and AWSHX - WASHINGTON MUTUAL
Vanguard, BlackRock, State street are majority shareholders in all electronic media, pharmaceuticals, health care, and so on. They are in fact USA, Inc,
Relevance do a deep dive into the ownership and board of directors of those there, and corporations.
Google board of directors and you get Leadership team members which are hired and fired by the CEO. So google Comcast Board of Directors and check their Bio's, Brian L. Roberts is the majority individual shareholder and also it's CEO. Roberts founded Comcast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_L._Roberts
CBS is owned by Paramount, which is owned National Amusements,. National Amusements is now owned by Michael Redstone's son, Sumner Redstone, who holds 80% of the company, and Sumner's daughter, Shari Redstone, who owns the remaining 20%. Sumner died in 2020 at age 97, but his family inherited his empire https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Redstone
Paramount Globals: Largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, UBS Group AG, Invesco Ltd., VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, Contrarius Investment Management Ltd, Morgan Stanley, Geode Capital Management, Llc, and Ariel Investments, Llc .
ABC is owned by the Walt Disney. Company Disney's largest individual shareholders are the company's insiders, including the current CEO, Robert Iger, and top managers, such as Brent A. Woodford, Maria Elena Lagomasino, and Mary Barra. The largest institutional investors include the Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street.
Robert Iger's Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Iger
CNN is Warner Brothers Discovery: Which is owned by Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc. is a privately held American media company owned by the families of Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the sons of company founder Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including American City Business Journals and Condé Nast, and is a major shareholder in Charter Communications, Reddit and Warner Bros. Discovery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Irving_Newhouse_Sr.
Warner Brothers Discovery's Largest shareholders largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, Harris Associates L P, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Geode Capital Management, Llc, VIMSX - Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Investor Shares, XL.
All organizations are managed by a Board of Directors, except for privately owned corporations,
If one is really interested, they will check out the BoD of News Organizations, and learn who it is that hires and fires CEO's, who hire and fire editors, producers, reporters, journalists and talking heads.
For instance when Tucker Carlson was on MSNBC, he had a piss boy name of Wllie Geist, Tucker was let loose, Geist stayed and became a piss boy for Joe Scarborough, and now his his own show. He is someones son, cousin or nephew.
Gratefully most Gen Z and a lot of others do not rely on MSM for the news. I'm in a DNC veterans group. 4 million people on Facebook are veterans or active duty members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members.
I've been trying to get DNC REACH to establish a veterans' group to send Biden VA and related info social media like Facebook just like DNC sends press releases and other info.
"Not suckers or losers" are magic words that flip some 2 time Trump voters. Go to veterans and military sites and see for yourselves.
As of today, this is the no one influencer. https://votevets.org/videos/brig-gen-ret-steven-anderson-discusses-wapo-op-ed-regarding-new-capitol-insurrection-threat-on-cnn
A tour de force of research! I wonder if there is some root in there of my observation that the MSNBC hosts seem to be avoiding the identification of the actual yard sign that Alito SAYS was "personally insulting?" I've seen multiple sources: one Laurence Tribe in an interview with Meidas Touch: identify the sign as saying "F... Trump." Not "personal" to either Alito, but certainly revealing a bias in favor of/in defense of a party in cases before the Court!
Joyce Reid, on the Reidout, mentioned Alito's flags, there were two of them, the upside down American flag in front of his Viriginia home and an Appeal to Heaven flag in front of his Summer home, thus blowing away his lame excuse of blaming his wife. Whichis the sign of a guilty man, because Sen Menendez also blames his wife for the hidden gold bars., but you are al most right nobody mentions the yard sign, except I saw it mentioned once, and only once on TV and it was on the Colbert Show, IIRC.maybe Jimmy Kimmel.
Colbert, and Kimmel are the only ones to have the guts to take on Trump, Bill Maher does it but takes swipes at Biden, as does even the Tonight show. Jimmy Fallon stays away from Trump mostly, and when he does he is lame, it as if his writers are in the tank with Trump.
Cowards all.
William, I thought John Malone called the shots at CNN. Do you have any info. on him? Zaslov-CEO and Licht got their jobs because of John Malone. I have not kept up with the latest on these characters. Have you? John Malone, I believe, is a member of the Federalist Society and right wing politics.
John Malone, or whoever is CEO of CNN, and this is true for almost all corporations, save perhaps those that are family or privately owned, and were the Chairman of the Board and the CEO are one and the same., answers to the board of directors.
CEO's, like Malone, are hired and fired by the board of directors for one purpose and one purpose only, to ensure that the corporation produces as large a return on investment as possible for the investors (owners)
Basically he is a hired gun, and he or she,in turn hires and fires subordinates, middle managers, like editors, whose job is to keep the reporters and journalists in line. thus maintaining profitability.
Corporations operate like a mafia, there is a culture and each manager from the CEO on down, knows, instinctively, what is expected of them, and like with Trump's cult, they don't need orders.
I don't know anything about him and the Federalist Society, I don't have access to it's membership list, but the Society does list, on the net, it's contributors, lawyers and fellows.
Google provides info about him being fined1.4 million for violating anti trust merger laws
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/media-executive-john-malone-pay-14-million-civil-penalty-violating-antitrust-premerger
Dr. John C. Malone is Chairman of the Board of Liberty Media Corporation, Liberty Broadband Corporation and Liberty Global plc. From 1996 to March 1999, when Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) merged with AT&T Corp., he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TCI. Previous to that, from 1973 to 1996, Dr. Malone served as President and Chief Executive Officer of TCI. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Qurate Retail, Inc., Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications, Inc. Additionally, Dr. Malone is Chairman Emeritus of the Board for Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.
Liberty Media Corporation, commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty, is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in Formula One Group, Sirius XM, Live Nation Entertainment, and by the end of 2024, Dorna Sports.
CNN is a part of WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T Inc.3 (NYSE: T).
Apparently Malone is not only the CEO of CNN but is Chairman of the Board of corporations that own CNN.
I don't know anything about him and the Federalist Society but I would not be surprised.
https://truthout.org/articles/billionaire-trump-donor-john-malone-could-soon-be-calling-shots-at-cnn/ has done a deep dive on Malone has done a deep dive on Malone
has done a deep dive on Malone: Malone’s links to politics include being an active supporter — he’s currently a board member — of the Cato Institute, the Washington-based libertarian think tank that espouses the privatization of numerous US government agencies and programs, including Social Security and the Postal Service.
His Liberty Media empire was among the big contributors to Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration festivities in Washington, DC, with personal and corporate contributions adding up to $1 million.
What surprises me is the characterization of CNN as liberal, unless liberal means anything that is not fascist. I have always considered CNN to be Corporate Media and Corporate is conservative, by nature.
One thing for sure, to be a CEO of a Corporation one HAS to be a sociopath, being a restrained psychopath only burnishes your credentials. Altruists need not apply.
The democrats share the spoils and blame here. They are not speaking the language of the working class nor asking the right questions. As many here have pointed out education is at the heart of the problem. The ahistorical generations that have not been taught civics, the bill of rights, or how to disagree without verbally and physically murdering anyone who isn’t into herd mentality while our democracy is hanging by a frayed thread.
Tom fingers the dark money driving the media. Moguls driving this toxic ideology that has saddled we the people with a puppet Supreme Court, MAGA dominated house and Senate that manipulates the system and gins up division and hate when bribery won’t support what the corrupt billionaires want. This applies to both parties but the democrats are the slow train to hell while the GOP is the bullet train. At this juncture most decent people have no idea how to turn this country around given the players. The system is so gamed that ordinary people do not stand much of a chance nor do they want to get into the toxic mix that is politics because of the sacrifices required. Perhaps Tom could offer some insights into how we get out of this quick sand when we can’t get decent candidates to vote for even on a local level and voters who clamor for change to show up to vote.
We've got good candidates just vote for the. Btw, the thing about voting for the lesser of two evils is less evil.
Alas, no choice.
There is one pool of money Takeaway, that Republicans and Dems chase, it is the big fat pockets of corporate America and Billionaires, who run and own corporate America.
Democrats don't want to alienate this pool of money, and if you look at Congress and the influential and dominate members of the party, you will see that their own wealth and status are dependent on corporate America.
Bernie Sanders showed the Democratic party that, at least for campaign financing, corporate America was not needed, and doing so he posed a threat to the social status and wealth of the makers and shakers in the Democratic Party, so they put their thumb on the scale in the Primary of 2015-2016.
Depending on contributions from the voters, means advancing socio economic policies that favor the commons, and that which favors the commons has an adverse affect on the elite.
A living wage, tax policy, universal health care, free higher education, health and safety regulation (effective monitoring and serious penalties), labor laws, all cut into return on share holder investment
What value is there in being the (neo) nobility, if you can't differentiate from the commoner.
Thus Henry VIII issued Sumptuary Laws that forbade commoners from wearing materials like fur, silk, and fine linen and dressing like the nobility.
The nobility these days sequester themselves behind gated estates in exclusive neighborhoods, and allow peeks from the commons who salivate when they see them on red carpet events, or in glossy magazines.
And like the Brits who worship their overlords, fete them as superior and even elect them President.
It ALL boils down to white supremacy. period.
It is more complicated than that Sue, but from the point of view who perceives a boot on their neck, all they see is the boot and the foot that is wearing it.
Lisa.... ya think thry know how to read?... remember dumb it down!
Great list...will save it and share with those that have drunk the KoolAid. Hard to believe that those folks walk among us...
It is a great list, but an important thing left out is that public education has been coopted.
civics, history, and critical thinking have been intentionally left out. I was told that employers want compliance, not critical thinking. It has become more like "training" than "educationing.
One example that kept one of my sons from graduating from high school because he failed a required English class was that on the final exam, the teacher asked, "What is your interpretation of Steinbeck's novella, The Pearl. The Pearl is about "a pearl diver who explores man's purpose as well as greed, defiance of societal norm, and evil" (Wikepedia}.
My son failed because he wrote HIS interpretation and was failed because the teacher wanted the interpretation she taught the class. He took the course again and failed again for the same reason. I read the story and thought my son's interpretation showed he had read and thought about it, but disagreed with part of the teacher's interpretatiion. He dropped out rather than go another year. He now has two grad degrees and a high paying job. But he is the exception.
That is one example of the terror the district put me through in trying to keep five boys in school. It was a daily nightmare. At the least, it damages the self-esteem of our young people and at most turns out little, compliant soldiers who follow and vote for the likes of Trump, an evil, narcissistic, opportunistic leader who spits out key phrases he knows will keep the thoughts of his followers emotionally spinning without a trajectory that leads to reason.
Thanks Thom, for compiling that list.
I totally agtee about the dumbing down of our educational system. Free and critical thinkers are a death knell to fascist regimes. Easier to be told what to think than figure it out for yourself. Thoms list proves that.
Kate, if one is truly a free thinker, then they wind up on the shit list of idiots and ideologues, left and right.
Wow! Tell me about that!
There has been a big change in our society since I was a young person.
I earned enough money as a child, much less a teen, to buy my own radio, bike mom a necklace of pink, fake pearls and a bisque doll, by the time I was 9 years old, by the time I was 17 I was earning more than Mom as a caddy, setting pins in a bowling alley, cutting lawns, selling tin, lead and paper to a junk yard, and three paper routes.
Kicked out of HS for truancy, I never the less have earned a Masters Degree and a comfortable retirement.
I got paid $.25 for shoveling snow in front of a store when I was 7, $.50 for mowing lawns when I was 12, $2.00 for cutting grass and trimming shrubs when I was 21, and an E-3, and today it costs $20 to pay a dude to mow your lawn.
And if you don't have a HS Diploma you can't even join the Army, or get a job as a fry cook at McDonald's., well maybe that.
I went to an Engineering school because I wanted to be graded on being right rather than someone’s opinion if I was right or wrong with my answers. HATED English class.
School boards are your first recourse in situations like that. If they are doing their job
In our district, the tail was wagging the dog.
Might be a good list for post cards.
your list is right. But there is a reason underlying much of it: a deep seated dismay about and fear of the "coastal elites," those who graduate from prestigious colleges and have advanced degrees, those who are perceived as "looking down" on the Trumpers. They feel insecure, left out, misunderstood. And hurt and angry. They want to punish and "get even."
Yes, they want to blame the left for Reaganomics, totally insane but logical for them.
That too!!
Many educated people support trump. That makes it even worse.
Trump is a mentally ill, husk of a man. A psychopath who has no filter for his Congenital Racism — a poor man's John Gotti or Carlo Gambino. A real Jew hater, ever since one stole the love of his life.
So, that's why 74,200,000, Nihilistic, Useful Moron, 2020 Voters wanted him to march America over a cliff.
He mirrors their own sociopathic, self-indulgent, authentic selves back to themselves; except, unlike the portrait of a fading, decrepit, orange Dorian Gray, it's the portrait of a vigorous [albeit ultra racist] Tony Soprano, whom they see.
Agree with all of Thom’s surmises, and the great comments here, save for one: tfg is NOT brilliant. He has seen the obvious, knows the media, our foreign enemies, the deplorables, and especially the morbidly rich, are behind him, delight in him, see him as the instrument of chaos and the destruction of all that is good in this country. He knows he is Teflon, that nothing bad sticks to him or matters to his cultists. Which is why our country will die innNovember, along with millions of Americans, most of them his supporters, who will lose their social safety nets while “owning the libs”, and will still support the grotesque faux orange flatulent toadstool even as he kills them. They will deserve their fates. The rest of us will not. We on the left have been gulled since Nixon into relying on the essential goodness of our fellow citizens and humanity in general. Our species is not good. It is greedy, selfish, rapacious, angry, bitter, hateful, envious. There are many among us who are indeed good, decent, noble, kind, compassionate. But not nearly enough. I will soon be in the grave, and glad of it.
I hope there is a God, in whom I have come to believe late in life. In part because my only belief about humans is that we can be counted on, especially males, to do the worst things, and revel in doing them. Maybe life is a portent of hell. I hope I am not consigned to that fate if God is watching. But at this point, oblivion will be heaven enough. And I say that having, aside from health issues, lived a life to all appearances successful and privileged by the materialistic standards that rule us. It has not been enough. And I have not done enough to fight against the dark tide that is rising to destroy us. Remember, remember, vote blue in November. It will at least postpone the day of reckoning I feel is upon us.
Con artists and grifters are not book smart, but street smart, they may not know the name of the street they live on,or the capital of the state they live in, because they don't care Roy.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had his Sherlock Holmes say something to the effect, that he doesn't fill his head with trivia of no consequence.
Trump is as dumb as sack of rocks, but he is crafty and smart and knows how to woo, bamboozle, lie, cheat, intimidate people and the system, and hires people who have the smarts and skills that he lacks, but are hungry for money, position and fame, and lack the same moral compass that he lacks, and they are legion.
Anybody can be bought.
Trump's skills & cleverness are honed from decades of corruption. When Trump 1st met with Vladimir Putin, they discovered soul mates and a mutual admiration corruption society, steeped profound narcissism and unmatched greed. They've been comparing fascist notes ever since and boosting each other while converting most of the republican party to fascism.
The wealthy in our country have become it's greatest internal threat, their greed has become so great, that love of country and allegiance has been replaced by a boundless narcissism. Donald Trump & Vladimir Putin, true to the fraudulent conmen that they are, are taking full advantage of free speech and decades of conditioning towards political ignorance.
The GOP built a corruption machine much in the form of college fraternities that make sure everyone in it can blackmail everyone else, and then that corruption machine got hijacked by Russia. Trump swoons like a schoolgirl over strongman dictators like Putin so the whole system works to protect him.
That is my thought too,. Putin has the goods on Trump and Trump has the goods on Sen Ms Ladybug.
Really interesting point, but I don't think any fraternity ever wanted Trump. (?) But if we loosely describe the circle of special friends of Jeffrey Epstein as "fraternal?"
It's been said nobody ever saw Trump on his college campus, but even if they did I'd think it likely the frats wouldn't be interested in him. When Putins people hacked the DNC server it also hacked the GOP, I imagine that's where it got the "dirt" to blackmail the GOP and assist Putins little fan boy. Epsteins people never chose to be a group, he just delivered a desirable service and then never let them stop paying, until it all crumbled.
I am sure that the reason the FBI raided pedo island, and why Epstein committed suicide is that he had the goods, including video's on the most powerful people in the US and Britain
"Maybe Trump’s popularity comes from all of us underestimating how much racial and gender hatred has been simmering below the surface of America, just waiting for a politician who’d proudly go farther than Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” or Reagan’s “young bucks” and “monkeys” rhetoric?"
Holy moly, yikes and gadzooks, Mr. Hartmann! Congratulations for answering your own question!
It is what it is, because it was what it was and will continue to be what it was until it no longer is what it is.
And negative: "all of us" did not underestimate which is why I predicted his election, on your air, the day he announced.
Race and gender are not the problem, but a subset of the problem. Which admittedly is not easy to discern, when they are one's personal cross to carry, and the reason there is a boot on the neck., but there are boots on other necks as well
In the crowds watching Jews being rounded up and loaded into cattle cars, where people some of whom were even cheering, that were next.
I think ALL of those things contribute to some extent, but I see the primary factor as he is white (and looks so 'Aryan' to boot), male, straight and rich. He is a weakling's image of a powerful man and an ignorant poor person's image of what a rich man is. He is what each of those types want to be.
Or it could be what my mother (1913-2012) said whenever I brought up awful things happening in the world, "People are stupid."
Dorchw Weil, I think it is environmental. We can only teach what we know. Crazy parents can't teach their children to be sane, dishonest parents can't keep their children to be honest...
Only when all the children are raised together from conception in order to end all child abuse in agnostic Kibutzes, can we end drug babies, crime, racism, religious hatred, wars, dictators...
The cycle of life is to play, then learn, then teach. We are on earth to have fun! Not to be stressed out! Some people are stupid, but they are not harmful and others are intelligent and are harmful.
If the reason we are stupid is genetic, we are doomed! We have no choice but to pursue raising open minded, rational thinking humans, with a conscience. Otherwise the children will inherit the sins of their elders!
That too. Indeed, that could well be the 'overarching' reason for all this!
Wasn't it John Wayne who said, "Life is hard, and it's harder if you're stupid." ? (-:
America’s enemies have banded together, lead by Russia and China, to knock us out of contention in the 21st Century. This has been going on gradually since WWII. We have always known them to play a long game, economically, so why not politically, too? We are getting close to the end game.
I think the GOP organized Russia and China and Saudi Arabia and probably more to destroy us with Ronald Reagan's blessings. Free trade, tear down the wall, denying global warming, deficit spending, obstruction, lying, buying up all the news sources....
This was no accident. I can't blame the Russians in Chinese only the greedy GOP.
Why? It's money from the billionaire class who want more money, help from the Russians who want to dominate eastern Europe, help from the Chinese who want to dominate east Asia, racists who want to roll back civil rights in the US, christian nationalists who want to make America a "christian" country, and a media that wants access, clicks, and are afraid that that an elected tRump will use the the FCC and the DOJ to go after them. And, of course, the stupidest most gullible electorate in history. Sounds like a helluva coalition tRump has built.
Thom, all of your reasons are factors. But, straight up, it's the media. I do not even care what their motives are. I just know they are complicit, with a few exceptions. If we lose our country, it is on them. One would think they had studied world history in college.
True dat Keith, the media is complicit. They created Trump and they are keeping him alive, in fact they created the whole movement, that started with Goldwater, if nothing else, subscriptions and clicks. the profit motive.
Lenin was correct, they will line up to sell the rope used to hang them.
I was trying to remember that quote the other day!
The media has the key to sustain democracy, or install fascism. Rupert Murdock has known this for a long time, he took ethics out of journalism & made it highly profitable; others in media later followed his lead. Other nations had the good sense to deport him and his fascist government model. The same model of mob thinking has infected the US electorate, thanks to Trump, Fox and Putin.
Many comments explain his ridiculous popularity, but the problem really is the lack of media coverage in the right places, the places his followers trust for their information. That, and the toxic masculinity that exists on the right without challenge from the Democrat party. We are not doing enough to expose and combat the bullies.
The lack of media coverage on Bidens accomplishments is tragic. Every time t-rump sneezes its front page news. If Biden had done even one of the things on Thoms list the R’s would be howling. Unfair and twisted?? Yes!! However i do believe there are more of us who want to do the right thing to save our democracy. Get folks to vote!!!
Kate: The voting public doesn't know what and could care less about Statistics, especially the DOW, GDP, unemployment rate (when they have a job, they aren't interested, when they are unemployed, they say so what not me.) or even the rate of inflation, those who live pay check to pay check, only notice the price of food.
But one thing that grabs everyone's attention is the culture war. The Dem's pretend that it doesn't exist, the Republicans base their campaign around it.
The Corporate media owned by billionaires, only care about regulations and taxes the Republicans court them by promising to reduce both, and the Democrats promise to increase both. Guess who the corporate media favors?
The slide into fascism is greased by greedy self interest, and only too late will the malefactors who have greased the slide realize that they chose the wrong horse to bet on.
The same is true of Executives and Boards of Directors of the Chemical Petroleum complex
I would say those that enabled, and financed the rise of Adolph, were among it's ultimate victims, but that would only be partly true, because many not only prospered but survived the war, with the help of American Corporations and financiers.
Fritz Thyssen for example: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nazi-Party
David de Jong. His new book, Nazi Billionaires, follows the story of men who became part of the Third Reich’s business and financial elite, making their fortunes by stealing Jewish-owned firms, banks, and other assets, as well as exploiting forced and slave labor in concentration camps during World War II. Companies like Siemens, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler-Benz, Dr. Oetker, Porsche, Krupp, IG Farben, and many more cooperated with the SS, which built “satellite concentration camps” near these private companies’ factories and mines where slave laborers toiled in the most appalling conditions. While, after 1945, legal proceedings were launched against Nazi businessmen, almost none would be punished. Industrialists like Günther Quandt, Friedrich Flick, and Ferdinand Porsche were even allowed to keep their assets and continue business as usual. During the “economic miracle” of the 1950s in Germany, they made even bigger fortunes, and their family businesses remain among the most powerful in Germany. Some have even continued to support far-right political parties.
See also free on the internet: https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmento0000bork
There was a meeting between American and German corporations in Switzerland after D Day as to how to save the German corporations, especially those in which American corporations held shares.
Donna: See my comment above about who owns and controls the media.
Thom, your listing of Trump's mal deeds is extensive and impressive. But I keep telling similar brilliant writers that there is a huge need to compliment Joe Biden as our Democratic candidate for President on the highlights of his CHARACTER. 90% of the media/blogs are about Trump. We need to emphasize "goodness and respect" for each other. We can all be on a downward trek of pessimism in dreading Trump being in office again. How can you mobilize "interest groups" to viably campaign favorably for Biden?
David, in reality, How many news stories have you seen that say, Flight 101 landed safely?
You see pessimism as "BAD"
Pessimism is reason to fight. The MAGAt cause has been seething, building steam, for decades over a century, pessimistically pissed off with every civil rights gain. The preachers and teachers have been angrily and pessimistically gathering steam.
While the optimists have sat back and rested comfortably on their laurels, only to find that someone has lit a match under those laurels.
Optimists enabled the pessimists that we now call MAGAts, and unlike optimists they are not going to rest on their laurels until they bend all of society to their will.
Pessimism enrages and brings out the fighter, optimism is like opium and they have in common is"op"
An optimist can only be disappointed and depressed, when his optimism is refuted
a pessimist can only be elated when his pessimism is refuted.
I am not coming from an Optimistic place. If pessimism can drive you, let's fight FOR Biden instead of giving all the attention pessimistically given to Trump.
That is what I have been saying. The Democrats aren't street fighters like the Republicans and that is why they are always on the back foot.
Agreed, William, and there some voices sounding off lately. But the majority of press outlets are mostly Conservative Republican favored. Yes, there needs to be a backlash of Democratic fighters. "Morning Joe" is fighting back. But there needs to be a hell of a lot more. Keep fighting.
And to think that Joe Scarborough was a Republican congressman from Florida. He is still a conservative though but now a never Trumper. I wonder how he will change his tune if Trump steals the election. That's the only way he can win, well there are the Muslims and blacks in the Swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsyltucky, they have threatened to sit out the election or vote third party,like for Cornell West, if they do that I hope they enjoy being rounded up and deported or stripped of whatever rights they think that they didn't enjoy.
Get real, William, Joe Scarborough will be a life-long anti Trumper. Like you have said, "don't give up, fight to win. The way that our political culture changes, it will all work even IF Trump won. But he won't!
Why is Garland looking the other way?
He is complicit Bob.
Democratic “leaders” should be on blast 24/7, and should have been for the last eight years.