Why Are We Normalizing this Sociopath?
Almost a decade after Donald Trump entered the U.S. political scene, there are still people all around the world who wonder why the American media industry continues to provide oxygen to a criminal conman in his quest for re-election. The answer, of course, is money. Trump attracts attention, and attention attracts dollars.
In a similar vein, why was Tucker Carlson removed from Fox News? Yes, again, it’s money. This “news” giant lost its appetite for 9- or 10-figure civil litigation damages, as plaintiffs elbow each other out of the way to get in line to sue the bejesus out of billionaire Rupert Murdoch and his organization, whose only real strength resides in its capacity to lie to idiots.
A Fox News acolyte told me recently that, in the last few weeks, her favored channel has shifted noticeably to the political center, and that she wondered what could have prompted this abrupt change from reporting, month after month, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, that the radical left was “opening our country’s borders” and coming for her guns. Maybe Murdoch doesn’t welcome the prospect of being disemboweled financially.
His strategy was going strong, until Fox started naming names. He was all too quick to trust his people not to get him into civil litigation cases in which he stood no real chance, e.g., the catastrophic Dominion Voting Systems decision, and now, Smartmatic, that is currently poised to drive him into the pavement.
The news industry in the U.S. is the offspring of what was, just a few decades ago, a kind of public service. Until the late 20th Century, no one had realized that it could be omnipresent in our lives, serving up its vitriol 24 hours a day, simply to rake in obscene profits in ad revenues. It had its day.
But now, a cautionary note to late entrants: those windfall profits are no longer available. If your business model is to follow the Fox News case study and form a new channel that vomits up lies on the American nation, you may want to go back and reconsider your plan.
Upon my return from the 50th reunion of the William Penn Charter School class of 1973, my mother asked me if the institution’s Quaker tradition had changed over the years since I graduated.
I met some people from Sheffield in Northern England the other day who explained that British politics bears a striking resemblance to our own here in the U.S. It’s true that their leader is not a criminal buffoon who tried to overthrow their government, but:
It’s deeply regrettable that the fossil fuel industry owns America’s energy policy, and will make it impossible for us, for at least the foreseeable future, to make more than a small dent in decarbonizing our energy and transportation sectors.
The screen shot at left is taken from a pro-Trump ad. It certainly makes one wonder how many voters actually trust Trump at this point in any meaningful way, now that the criminal and civil justice system is taking him down at every turn.
The real issue, IMO, is that the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing cases that had significant consequences to the “mega-donor.” If that weren’t so, this misconduct may have been overlooked.
As historian Howard Zinn said, “If you’re Norway, or some other small country that does not represent a military threat, there is no harm in establishing a sense of national pride. That is not true of a military superpower that has the potential to annihilate this planet many times over.”
In my mind, this is further proof that the former President of the United States had thoroughly convinced them that they were the true patriots, and that history would remember them as heroes who saved the nation, just like we revere Lincoln today.
Whether Clarence Thomas is more afraid of liberals than bigots is immaterial. These are opinions, and having opinions, even grossly insincere ones, is not a crime.
The Equal Rights Amendment was conceived over 100 years ago, and has had some hard-won progress, as shown in the graphic here. To date, 38 states in green have ratified it, but other states have stalled.
