The WAWG Blog

In our Constitution, our democratic political system includes a division of responsibilities to enable a means of checks and balances. Each of the three branches of government is responsible for keeping the others in proper bounds.

In Capitalism, this authoritarian economic system has a division of power that despises checks and balances. And the oligarchs are working hard to grow their power to include a veto over the checks and balances of our political system through a Constitutional Convention.

Our authoritarian economic system needs democratization so we can save our democratic political system for the long-term.

What’s required to activate and unify voters on the left?

Kochkash Increases Inequality:

America’s political and economic policies have moved from greater equality after WWII and through the 70s to massive inequality in the decades since. This has happened surreptitiously without the backing of a majority of America’s citizens. Fear mongering, mass misinformation, and voter suppression funded by billions of Kochkash dollars have foisted this shift upon America.

The laws passed under FDR and LBJ, and improvements for people of color and women since, helped advance our political and economic equality. Since then, neoliberal economists, corporate boards, and SCOTUS have reduced equality by empowering and protecting the oligarchy.

Scale of Equality/Inequality:

Imagine an economic/political equality scale of +10 for maximized equality to -10 for maximized inequality. The +10 end of the scale is not absolute equality and still has some inequality – limited mostly to the oligarchs. The zero point is where instances of inequality and equality are equal – they exist in equal portions but not necessarily equally distributed. The -10 end of the spectrum, maximum inequality, includes some equality – limited mostly to the right-wing authoritarians.

The +10 end of the scale also correlates to left-wing communalism and the -10 correlates to right-wing authoritarianism. This communal/authoritarian nature of this equality scale takes us from maximized democracy and individual freedom in both our economic and political systems to minimized democracy and individual freedoms in both systems.

For reference, Scandinavian countries like Denmark might rate a +5 and Nazi Germany would rate a -10.

Democracy at Work:

To maximize democracy and individual freedom for the +10 POLITICAL system, one requirement would be a law that makes voting a right, registration automatic at birth, and voting without arbitrary, fear/hate-based, restrictions like voter IDs. To maximize democracy and individual freedom in the +10 ECONOMIC system would require employee owned/run corporations as has been done in Mondragon, Spain, since the end of WWII. This is in contrast to -10 society where both economic and political systems favor a minority, purist, group of oligarchs that have enslaved all others.

History Against The Scale:

Assume that in 2019, under the current right-wing authoritarian Administration, that America is approaching a -7. Maybe after WWII, we were at +2 and after LBJ’s civil and voting rights acts, and Nixon’s clean air and water acts, we made it to +3. Then Bush II took the scale to -3 and gutting the VRA by SCOTUS took it to -4 under Obama while the Republican Congress kept Obama from pushing back.

2020 Goal:

Relative to this equality/inequalityscale and where America stands in it, what should our goals be for the 2020 election? How hard should voters push back in order to lay a certain foundation that moves our democracy and individual freedom back to at least a +3? What kind of voter turnout could help move us higher on the equality side of the scale? What message will inspire that kind of voter turnout? What will bring back the base that dropped out of the 2016 election? What will bring back those who, in even larger numbers than the disinterested base, went to a third party in 2016? The losses from our base that either stayed home or voted third parties was seen nationally.

Reaching The Goal:

Based on the detailed analyses of the election and re-election of President Obama, and subsequent post analyses of the 2016 and 2018 elections, part of the answers to the questions above for maximizing our political and economic success in 2020 is to:

• invest significantly in the ground (GOTV) game,
• select a candidate who will:
  • hasten a return to more equality, democracy and individual freedom,
  • ignore the never ending distractions which hide growing inequality, and
  • address and propose solutions to America’s inequalities caused by excessive economic, social, racial, and environmental injustices driven by right-wing authoritarians.

What Say You?

Based on the equality/inequality scale above, what should our goal be to politically and economically maximize equality, democracy, and individual freedom?

I think our goal should be +7.

Decisions by oligarchs only benefit oligarchs whether they control our economic or political systems. We need more democracy in both systems.

Political Decisions

Economic systems controlled by oligarchs benefits only the oligarchs. For example, as worker productivity increases, the oligarchs fire employees and put the savings in employee cost in their own pockets while keeping production constant. Thus the oligarchs enrich themselves, unemployment increases and the oligarchs have divided the workforce to use one group against the other. Employees learn to fear productivity gains.

On the other hand, economic systems controlled by the citizens benefit the citizens. For example, as worker productivity increases, the workers decide to keep everyone employed by decreasing hours worked while keeping production constant. Thus increasing leisure time and minimizing citizen division. Employees now favor productivity gains.

Economic Decisions

Political systems controlled by oligarchs will reward oligarchs for success and protect them from failure. For example, increasing defense spending, bailing out failed banks, and massive tax cuts will benefit the oligarchs by promoting war, forcing foreclosures and creating depressed property values for mass purchase, putting our children in harm’s way, and increasing the tax burden on everyone else.

On the other hand, political systems controlled by voters, benefit the voters. For example, increasing subsidies for green energy while decreasing subsidies for dirty energy, breaking up banks to big to fail, removing the salary cap on Social Security contributions, minimizing the middleman in and expanding healthcare, funding public education, taxing the oligarchs as needed to reduce the threat of inflation, replacing the reward/welfare system for non-productive oligarchs with a living wage for all, and fixing our failing infrastructure will benefit the voter by promoting employment at a living wage, freeing families from medical bankruptcy, preventing the 6th great extinction, making voters smarter, and keeping seniors out of poverty.

More Democracy

In other words, maximizing the principles of democracy in the political system through increased participation can lead to applying the principles of democracy in the workplace thus benefiting all citizens, minimizing the influence of oligarchs and removing the divisions promoted by the authoritarian oligarchs.

The distinct strategies of fascist politics include: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, and victimhood. Other strategies also included are law and order, sexual anxiety, appealing to the heartland, and dismantling public welfare and unity. Below is summary of those strategies from How Fascism Works – The Politics of US and Them by Jason Stanley.

As you read, note the correlations with the blog categories listed to the right under Strict Father State. These categories came from a short paper on Fascism.

Mythic Past of Fascist Politics:

Fascist politics invokes a purist, conquering, mythical past that others, who deny the myth, supposedly destroyed. This mythical past presents a glorious, patriarchal time that still survives in rural America and ignores the nation’s darker moments that dilute its purity. It blames others in urban America for destroying this purist past and creating the dysfunctional present where the authoritarian patriarchs are no longer in control.

The function of the mythcal past is to “harness the emotion of nostalgia to the central tenets of fascist ideology – authoritarianism, hierarchy, purity, and struggle” against the less pure others.

Propaganda:

Fascist politics “uses the language of virtuous ideals to unite a purest people behind otherwise objectionable ends.” This virtuous language magnifies the glories and purity of the mythical past and uses the media to call out the impurities that threaten the myth. These impurities are corrupting and propaganda mocks them.

A key intent of fascist propaganda is to replace rule of law with the rule of a patriachal leader, like a CEO. Laws that prevent rule by a dictator, are declared corrupt and ignored. This includes the laws of checks and balances and freedom of the press.

Anti-intellectualism:

All liberal institutions threaten the fascist mythical past with the darker elements of that past and expose the lies of the patriarchal fascist leader. The fascist leader must compromise or discredited these institutions. They will become part of the fascist propaganda machine to promote the mythical past, elevate the pure and patriarchal leaders of that past, and obliterate the redeeming contributions from the impure elements of society.

Fascist politics undermines public discourse by attacking and devaluing liberal education, knowledgable expertise, and complex language. In addition, they make extensive use of false equivalences. As a result, unchecked power, suppressed reality, and a herd mentality guided by simple slogans control the dominant race and suppress everyone else.

Unreality:

Fascist politics grants excessive time to the alternate realities of conspiracy theorists and a wide-ranging gaggle of ‘flat-earthers.‘ The fake realities obsure a broad, long-held, set of sacrosanct political values and decades of scientific research with the use of the false equivalences. In addition, these unrealities transform information and reasoned debate into an emotional spectacle with a demagogue as the star performer.

Hierarchy:

Right-wing authoritarians, America’s fascists, are self-empowering through their belief that everyone else is inferior. As a result, these chosen hold on to a comforting illusion of control over and a justification of a social hierarchy. This heirarchy ranks heterosexual, wealthy, white, Christianist, men just below God and above all else. Any threat by those promoting equal empowerment and protection of all citizens results in feelings of victimization.

Victimization:

There are victims of economic, social, racial, or environmental abuse from those who can’t self-limit their privilege of self-claimed superiority. Then there are victims who suffer the loss of privilege through government intervention and forced equality, rebellion of the abused, or both. In one case, victimization comes from the enforcement of hierarchical inequality. In the other, it comes from equality forced on those atop this mythical hierarchy.

Victimhood results from domination-driven movements or from equality-driven movements. We all feel victimized whether it is from “a struggle for equal respect” or “a struggle for dominance.”

Law and Order:

In fascist politics, the patriarchal demagogue classifies who is lawful or who is an “illegal immigrant.” In other words, it defines who is a threat to it’s law and order. The law and order which protects it’s position of privilege. So, law and order that equally protects all citizens becomes demagoguery of protecting the purity of the chosen.

Sexual Anxiety:

The most useful threats of a patriarchal hierarchy are based on sexual anxiety. The patriarchal leaders accuse those lower on the hierarchy of raping the pure. The rapists threaten the purity of the chosen race. In addition, sexual anxiety also enables subjugation of homesexuals and transgender people. They threaten the purity of men. Both are threats to both toxic masculinity and social hierarchy of fascist politics.

A Nation’s Purist Heartland:

Fascist politics must locate, propagandize, and isolate its base. In addition, it must make sure the base knows where the enemy resides. Primarily, this is a rural vs urban identification. Fascist politics delineates small towns and farms controlled by hardworking, individuals from sanctuary cities, Hollywood, and slums controlled by the impure. The Heartland is pure while the surrounding city centers are overflowing with disease, pestilence. The Heartland is self-sufficient and self-made while the cities are full of parasites dependent on the state.

Basically, America’s Heartland is our majority white counties as opposed to counties that are minority majority.

Knowing where your base is located aids in distributing the propaganda of fascist politics: promoting their mythical past, advancing their superiority in their social hierarchy, devaluing of science with false equivalencies, amplifying the threat of equality and sexual identity to their purity, and using law and order to suppress the others.

Fox News, as part of basic cable, is the propaganda machine for fascist politics. Other news sources are only available with cable or satellite for an additional fee. In addition, purifying the mythical fascist state requires elimination of progressive news sources.

The Enemy – Identify, Blame, and Prevent Unity

Propaganda is a means to an end. It manufactures a mythical past and identities an enemy for fascist supporters to blame for their ills. The belief in a social hierarchy and inequality justifies placing blame. Fascist politics uses law and order to write new laws that prevent unity of those lower on the hierarchy. In addtion, the new laws punish the others and subjugates them to keep them from contradicting the hierarchy and inequality of fascist politics. In addition, the new laws keep the enemy isolated and unable to unite for their own protection through unions or other social means.

The belief in a social hierarchy means fascist politics has great admiration for the authoritarian structure of corporations. Putting a CEO at the head of a fascist political party, like the current Republican Party, is idyllic for fascist ideology.

The law and order strategy of fascist politics favors laws that keep individuals from uniting, such as the Right to Work (ie. Defund Unions) laws. The other side of the unity busting coin is preventing or eliminating existing social protection laws which “unites a community in mutual bonds of care.” This explains the resistance to Medicare for All and the desire to end Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. They create caring social bonds.

Replacing the Authoritarian with the Democratic

An authoritarian economic system, like capitalism, will always be in opposition to a democratic political system. Authoritarians prefer to resolve this political/economic conflict by forcing the democratic political system into an authoritarian system. However, those who believe in a democratic political system prefer to resolve this political/economic conflict by expanding the economic system to maximize social freedom and democracy.

(A cycle of building, destroying, and now renewing/expanding)

Even before FDR’s socially responsible New Deal and laws passed since, corporations and excessively wealthy individuals have been stealthily working to put our democracy in chains by neutering the Federal government, eliminating majority rule, and defunding our social programs.

American Socialism Advances:

In 1935, FDR brought us Social Security, which initially did not include domestic and farm workers, but was eventually expanded to all workers. Now it just needs removal of the income cap to keep it funded.

In 1965, LBJ amended the Social Security Act to add Medicare and Medicaid, which now needs expansion to cover all citizens. LBJ also signed The Civil Rights Act and The Voting Rights Acts, which have been under attack ever since.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the Federal government forced corporations to start cleanup of the environment with the Clear Air and Clean Water Acts. This created the EPA. There was also the Job Safety law of 1970 that created OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). These agencies need increased funding and pro-citizen management.

Corporations Taking Our Empowerment and Protection:

These efforts by the Federal government to empower and protect citizens were met with well organized resistance and lots of Kochkash.

Through several SCOTUS rulings, constitutional right have been extended to man-made corporations. With those undeserved rights, corporations are economically starving the government of we the people and replacing it with a corporate rubber stamp. Corporations are robbing and pillaging America’s common wealth and destroying the public infrastructure to equally empower and protect all citizens. Corporations are replacing the social contract with an individual contract to empower and protect themselves.

In the 50’s, James Buchanan started work immediately to resist Brown v BofE in Virginia. As detailed in Democracy In Chains, the works of Buchanan were eventually melded with Kochkash to stealthily plan the destruction of American socialism through messaging, defunding social programs, and privatization of public resources to enrich those responsible for this destruction.

In 1970, Congress passed the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 and opened up all their committees to the public and, incidentally, corporate lobbyists.

In 1971, the US Chamber of Commerce contracted with future SCOTUS justice, Lewis Powell to detail ideas for how corporations could respond to the recent laws that reduced their corporate gains. The Powell Memo provided another means for investing Kochkash by funding ALEC and numerous anti-government think tanks like The Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation.

Since the 70’s corporations have kept the rewards of our increased productivity for themselves by keeping wage growth stagnant. They have reduced benefits and left workers to fend for themselves as independent contractors with absolutely no bargaining power.

The infrastructure created during the recovery from the Great Depression is on the verge of collapse. Public roads and public water supply systems need upgrading. Some publicly funded services, prisons for example, have been privatized for the wealthy. Public education is failing due to defunding. Other publicly funded earned benefits like Social Security and Medicare are a top priority for privatization.

Expanding American Socialism

We need to regain control of our government so it will empower and protect all human citizens equally. This is American socialism that was significantly enhanced under FDR, Eisenhower, LBJ, and Nixon. American socialism maximizes individual freedom while regulating those who take their freedoms to excess and abuse citizens.

Empowering citizens requires a Federal government that maximizes one’s ability to succeed. The ability to succeed is maximized through adequately funded public education, properly maintained public roads, public transportation, clear air, clean public water and sewage treatment, a mandated living wage, and healthcare for all.

Protecting citizens requires a Federal government that maximizes one’s freedom to succeed. This started with our Bill of Rights and has been expanded with other constitutional amendments. We now need protection from man-made corporations by ending corporate personhood and declaring free speech can only come from human beings. We also need the act of voting to be declared a right and to maximize all citizens’ freedom to exercise that right.

Balancing the freedoms of users and abusers requires a balanced national economy and elected federal officials who understand deficits which equally empower and protect citizens are sometimes necessary. This balanced economy promotes full employment at a livable wage while preserving public services, infrastructure, and lands needed for the “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” of all citizens.

Controlling inflation in a balanced economy requires a progressive revenue system which increases contributions to replensish the common wealth based on one’s ability to pay and one’s use of the common wealth. In other words, the more you gain from the commons, the more you pay in citizenship dues to maintain the commons for the social welfare of all.

American socialism equally empowers and protects citizens through a balanced national economy that uses both deficit spending only for the common good and progressive citizenship dues as necessary to keep that economy balanced.

The professional messengers of Nazi Germany and the Republican Party know there are two key factors for turning a lie into accepted fact over the long term:

– Exaggerate the situation or issue beyond the pale
– Get everyone on the team, and even your opponents, to repeat the exaggeration endlessly for years.

The exaggeration gets your attention and the repetition reinforces the neural connections in your brain to increase you retention of the lie and deminish other neural connections that contradict the lie. Eventually the contradictions are forgotten and only the lie remains as accepted fact.

The endless repetition of a lie first made by a president from the 80s is now known by almost everyone and accepted fact. (I think you know the lie and who said it, and I’m not repeating it. Though doing this is like saying “Don’t Think of An Elephant.” What are you now thinking about.)

I’ve heard many, who strongly support public infrastructure, in its broadest sense, which is created and maintained by the government, repeat the lie in casual conversation. It’s automatic, the lie gets blurted out as if it’s fact.

Opponents of Nazis, Neonazis, Altright, or any right-wing authoritarian must avoid helping these extremists spread their lies and turn them into accepted fact.

Please, don’t repeat their Noble Lies. And while you’re at it, don’t repeat their names.

Leo Strauss re-introduced the Noble Lie to pro-war neocons.

Bill Kristol, the son of Irving Kristol uses Noble Lies

Instead, repeat the names and truths you know and bolster them with your moral values that are the foundation of your truth.

A federal government with a sovereign currency has a unique responsibility/capability – A Balanced Economy.

Unlike the federal government, you and I, our local governments, our county governments, and our state governments all have to live within a balanced budget, which may include borrowing and paying back the debt, using dollars from the federal government. We all need dollars, coming and going, to balance our budget.

Not so for the federal government. Their job is to maintain a balance economy where they must balance inflation against unemployment. They use the creation and deletion of dollars to manage this balancing act and that can only happen using a federal deficit (good or bad).

The unique capability of the federal government to create every dollar of America’s currency out of thin air is what allows the rest of us to function within the economy and balance our budgets.

This unique capability of the federal government means that, unlike you or I or lower level governments, the federal government doesn’t technically need to borrow. It just uses a computer keyboard to pump dollars into the economy. It also means it doesn’t need to tax anyone to pay its bills. It will just create dollars as needed to make payments. More on this below.

This unique Federal ability to create money to inflate a deflated economy, means the federal government can pay for wars without increasing taxes like GWB. It also means the federal government can increase the the largest defense budget in the world while providing enormous tax cuts for billionaires and corporations as DJT has done. The government just adds dollars to the defense bank accounts and leaves more dollars in the economy through less taxation to keep the economy growing, sort of. And all without inflation because the economy is not balanced.

Unfortunately, these GWB and DJT deficita are bad for the economy because it doesn’t cause widespread, democratic, economic growth. The money from this bad deficit is focused on just a few citizens who work for defense contractors and an even smaller number of billionaires like DJT and his owners. These few citizens can’t buy a lot of stuff with those trillions and everyone else suffers because they got nothing from this national deficit spending spree.

On the other hand, a good deficit would make sure the money pumped into the economy is more democratically distributed. For example, rebuilding our aging national infrastructure, funding a green new deal, raising the minimum wage to a living wage, wiping out student debt, and providing medicare for all. This will affect hundreds of millions of citizens who will buy stuff and pay taxes.

Yes, both the bad and good deficits increase the number of dollars in the economy and inflation can be a consequence. However, when the current economy isn’t at full capacity this won’t happen. Currently, inflation isn’t happening and interest rates have been historically low and sometimes negative to try and stimulate the economy.

So at the federal level, more dollars can be pumped into the economy without inflation as long as the economy is operating at less than full capacity and full employment. And as we have experienced, an inflationary economy and full employment aren’t likely with the bad deficits we are currently suffering from.

Now imagine a good deficit like the one described above. It would lead to full employment at a living wage and eventual inflationary pressures. At some point after this stimulation kicks in, the federal government must put on the economic breaks by removing dollars from the economy and/or slowing their creation for buying stuff.

Since the federal government controls the dollar pump to fuel the economy, it can also slow down the dollar pump and consider consuming/disappearing dollars when inflation becomes a problem.

To slow down the pump, they will raise interest rates to discourage the need to create dollars. On the other end, they will, as needed, increase income taxes and promote ‘government borrowing’ – a misnomer.

To be effective at slowing down the economy, tax revenues represent dollars that must be removed not only from your bank account but also from the economy. Just like these dollars were created from thin air on a computer balance sheet, they will disappear from that same balance sheet and are no longer part of the economy. They can no longer be used to buy stuff and thus cut inflationary pressures.

‘Government borrowing’ is another tool to remove dollars from the economy. When we buy stuff, many of those dollars end up leaving the country and are now held by others, like China. To get those dollars back from others and disappeare them from the economy like tax revenues, the federal government makes an agreement with those dollar hoarders to take them back with a promise of small, periodic, periodic income until they need those dollars again at some later time. Hopefully, that will be when the economy has slowed down and needs a boost. In the mean time, there are fewer dollars in the economy and less inflationary pressure.

If you’d like to know more, this all comes under the heading of Modern Monetary Theory/Practice.

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will unabashedly speak out against all forms of economic injustice spawned by right-wing extremists and their belief that only the wealthy deserve government aid?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will unabashedly speak out against all forms of social injustice spawned by right-wing extremists and their denial of sexual diversity?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will unabashedly speak out against all forms of racial injustice spawned by right-wing extremists and their arrogant belief in white supremacy?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will unabashedly speak out against all forms of environmental injustice spawned by right-wing extremists and their desire for the end times or getting filthy rich in case they are not among the chosen?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will make a moral commitment to equally protect all living and breathing citizens from the economic, social, racial, and environmental injustices committed by man-made, heartless, and greedy entities with their immoral, excessive, power and pursuit of profit without regard to harming citizens?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will make a moral commitment to equally empower living and breathing citizens such that their freedoms to choose, like voting and medical procedures, are maximized?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will make a moral commitment to equally empower living and breathing citizens such that their abilities, like critical thinking, are maximized?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will make a moral commitment to equally protect living and breathing citizens such that they are free from medical bankruptcy caused by death panels protecting health insurance profits?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will make a moral commitment to equally protect living and breathing citizens such that they are free from sacrifice in never-ending wars for corporate enrichment?

Am I too extreme to want today’s version of FDR’s second bill of rights written into law?

If you answered, “No”, to most of these questions, then maybe I’m not that extreme. We just want what is just.

If you answered, “Yes, you’re too extreme,” to some, but not all, of these questions, then we have some common ground.

The left must unite with all who have suffered the injustices of right-wing extremists who support protecting and empowering a greedy minority just as the right unites against the majority who would equally protect and empower all Americans.

All of us must unite over any common ground or the right, who unite in spite of their diverse extremist views, will continue to win.

RE: Democracy In Chains by Nancy MacLean and Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean …

Since
– Brown v Board of Education in 1954 that caused Virginia to shut down all public education for a short time and initiated a Libertarian school of propaganda,
– the sexual revolution of the 60s that scared the religious right,
– the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1971 that increased corporate lobbyists by thousands,
– the facilitation of the 1971 Powell Memo by billionaires like the Koch brothers that laid the foundation for corporations to control our government,
– the Presidency of Ronald Reagan that advanced union busting and the austerity of economic neoliberalism and trickle-down BS that enriches the excessively wealthy,
– the various telecommunication acts of 90s that turned news into entertainment for profit and allowed vast consolidation/homogenization across the nation, and
– SCOTUS’ decisions like Citizens United,

the right-wing authoritarian extremists have advanced their agenda to
– neuter the federal government,
– end majority rule,
– give veto power to the 1%, and
– advance their personal “economic liberty” without regard to the resulting economic, social, racial, and environmental injustices inflicted upon both the people of America and the nations of the world with resources to steal.

Act now and get politically active. Support your local party, volunteer for a candidate, donate to either or both, learn what it takes to be a candidate, register to vote, help register voters, become a precinct chair, join a movement, etc.

Instead of sharing instances of what we all know is a new era of escalating injustice, share ideas of what others are doing to end this era like:

– Poor People’s Campaign
– March for Our Lives
– Popular Resistance

Professor Phillip Zimbardo, who conducted the Stanford Prison experiment in his younger days and has since written about what he’s learned, The Lucifer Effect – Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, coined the phrase “bad barrel.” A bad barrel is an authoritarian system, in which the participants are coerced into doing bad things – think Abu Ghraib in Iraq. This reality was also demonstrated by the Milgram Obedience Study.

In an email exchange with professor Zimbardo, I suggested a national bad barrel and he agreed to the concept. That bad barrel is what has led to the growing support of DJT. It’s composed of individuals chosing to surround themselves with just two news sources: Fox News, which is the only ‘news’ source that is part of basic cable – no extra fees like for CNN or MSNBC, and the ubiquitous Hate Radio.

To expand on that, I suggest that most who oppose DJT are in our own, not as bad, bad barrel. It’s consists of NPR, PBS, CNN and MSNBC, that we have to pay extra for, and some of the ‘left’-leaning print media that is mostly controlled by right-wing executives. I’ve gradually stepped outside of that bad barrel to see what’s coming.

For decades, I was a loyal, annual contributor/supporter, of NPR, almost $6,000 over the decades. This lasted until 2013 when I finally tired of the conservative worldview creeping into their national and local programs. I complained often, to no avail. That recognition of the red-shift came from the books and other news sources which are not funded in any way by corporate donors/influencers.

What really cinched my divorce from NPR was when they changed how they raised funds. What I noticed first was a drop in their fund-raising goals. This contrasted to previous decades of continuously increasing fund-raising goals associated with increasing numbers of listeners. To replace the reduced income from local listeners, they contracted with a third-party to reach out to large donors. Large/corporate/Koch donors who will probably want to influence programming in a way that would increase the red shift.

This national, slow, move to the right (as the right becomes more extreme and draws the rest of the country with it – and this includes profit-centric media that must grow its annual revenue to maximize the wealth of its right-wing authoritarian CEOs) reminds me of the parable about the frog in boiling water. If you change one’s environment slowly enough, it will be too late to reverse the end of the good that was. Until that frog gets out of the slowly warming water, it can’t see what’s coming.

And that’s why I prefer nonprofit left/progressive media. It gets me out of the fast/slow, red-shifting, media bad barrels.

I remember back before Reagan’s FCC killed the Fairness Doctrine when the news was non-profit and legally required to support the common good. The situation worsened in 1996 when Clinton and Gingrich passed a new telecommunications law that enabled the new right-wing authoritarian and left-leaning, but red-shifting, bad barrels.

Yes, the less bad, bad barrel of the left-leaning profit-centric media provides useful information. However the nonprofit media is necessary for what the profit-centric media will NOT cover in any great detail without creating a false equivalency. For example, Comcast owns MSNBC. Comcast has recently gotten its wish to end Net Neutrality. When has MSNBC ever gone into detail about the value of Net Neutrality. And if they have, did they create a false equivalency by giving equal time to the profit masters who put profit before fully informing citizens so they can make better decisions.

What MSM coverage is there of the ongoing poisoning of citizens in Flint, MI? How about the devastation being ignored in Puerto Rico? Or the decades-long GOP efforts to suppress the vote of people of color – far more massive than Russiagate? What about the privatization/destruction of Social Security and Medicate that Congress is pushing hard now as we are all in shock of immigrant abuse by ICE? How about the recent lynching of two black men in OK. What coverage was there of the massive, and uniting, efforts of the Water Protectors in ND and their abuse by local authorities and vigilantes following the orders of the corporation and committing injustices in the name of that corporation?

The public good far outweighs the need to enrich the one percent. America’s MSM is more and more putting profit before people as it continues its red-shift – in our bad, and not so bad, bad barrels.

Profit alone is not the problem. Putting it before all else is the problem. I grew up when profit had limits. People were protected, more then than now, from corporations externalizing their costs to maximize profit and abuse citizens. Nixon signed the clear air and clean water acts into law and created the EPA and OSHA. Now that’s all a facade controlled by corporate hacks and MSM is not reporting on this destruction in any meaningful way.

The people in the streets today, who feel the impact of America’s growing inequality, are there in spite of profit-centric MSM, not because of it, and I don’t think that’s why the free press has its position of high regard in our Constitution. Overall, MSM is shirking it’s responsibility to adequately inform citizens. They are more into entertaining than informing.

——–

“There will come a time in your life when you have the power within you, as an ordinary person, as a person who is willing to take a decision, to blow the whistle, to take action, to go the other direction and do the heroic thing.” Professor Phillip Zimbaardo