The Russians are coming.... Why Hillary, why Trump or even Sanders? Would it matter? I think many Americans refuse, or are unaware of the powers that manage the American political landscape today. Two books and a fascinating article for these who want to understand a bit. Enjoy.
Big American Money, Not Russia, Put Trump in the White House: Reflections on a Recent Report
Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan by Kim Phillips-Fein
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
"In the end, FJC* note, the billionaire Trump’s ironic, fake-populist “outreach to blue collar workers” would help him win “more than half of all voters with a high school education or less (including 61% of white women with no college), almost two thirds of those who believed life for the next generation of Americans would be worse than now, and seventy-seven percent of voters who reported their personal financial situation had worsened since four years ago.”"
"By 2016, the Republican right had developed internet outreach and political advertising into a fine art and on a massive scale quite on its own. Large numbers of conservative websites, including many that that tolerated or actively encouraged white supremacy and contempt for immigrants, African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, or the aspirations of women had been hard at work for years stoking up ‘tensions between groups already wary of one another.’ Breitbart and other organizations were in fact going global, opening offices abroad and establishing contacts with like-minded groups elsewhere. Whatever the Russians were up to, they could hardly hope to add much value to the vast Made in America bombardment already underway. Nobody sows chaos like Breitbart or the Drudge Report….”"
Noam Chomsky on the Populist Groundswell, U.S. Elections, the Future of Humanity, and More
"“the powerful do what they wish and the weak suffer what they must” [from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War”]. It’s often disguised in humanitarian terms. The modalities and the context change. The situations change but the message stays the same." [from above link]
"Meanwhile, back in real history, we have the remarkable continuation of a bizarre right-wing, pre-fascist presidency not in normal ruling-class hands, subject to the weird whims and tweets of a malignant narcissist who doesn’t read memorandums or intelligence briefings. Wild policy zig-zags and record-setting White House personnel turnover are par for the course under the dodgy reign of the orange-tinted beast’s latest brain spasms. Orange Caligula spends his mornings getting his information from FOX News and his evenings complaining to and seeking advice from a small club of right-wing American oligarchs."
*Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen
Big American Money, Not Russia, Put Trump in the White House: Reflections on a Recent Report
Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan by Kim Phillips-Fein
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
"In the end, FJC* note, the billionaire Trump’s ironic, fake-populist “outreach to blue collar workers” would help him win “more than half of all voters with a high school education or less (including 61% of white women with no college), almost two thirds of those who believed life for the next generation of Americans would be worse than now, and seventy-seven percent of voters who reported their personal financial situation had worsened since four years ago.”"
"By 2016, the Republican right had developed internet outreach and political advertising into a fine art and on a massive scale quite on its own. Large numbers of conservative websites, including many that that tolerated or actively encouraged white supremacy and contempt for immigrants, African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, or the aspirations of women had been hard at work for years stoking up ‘tensions between groups already wary of one another.’ Breitbart and other organizations were in fact going global, opening offices abroad and establishing contacts with like-minded groups elsewhere. Whatever the Russians were up to, they could hardly hope to add much value to the vast Made in America bombardment already underway. Nobody sows chaos like Breitbart or the Drudge Report….”"
Noam Chomsky on the Populist Groundswell, U.S. Elections, the Future of Humanity, and More
"“the powerful do what they wish and the weak suffer what they must” [from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War”]. It’s often disguised in humanitarian terms. The modalities and the context change. The situations change but the message stays the same." [from above link]
"Meanwhile, back in real history, we have the remarkable continuation of a bizarre right-wing, pre-fascist presidency not in normal ruling-class hands, subject to the weird whims and tweets of a malignant narcissist who doesn’t read memorandums or intelligence briefings. Wild policy zig-zags and record-setting White House personnel turnover are par for the course under the dodgy reign of the orange-tinted beast’s latest brain spasms. Orange Caligula spends his mornings getting his information from FOX News and his evenings complaining to and seeking advice from a small club of right-wing American oligarchs."
*Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen
