Corporate Media Elected Trump And Apparently Intend For Him To Stay In Office No Matter What Happens Nov 3

 

I used to write this blog to keep my head from exploding over current events and I have really missed it while running for the US Senate in Maine under ranked choice voting.

Running for federal office is a bully pulpit but also constrains the topics one speaks out about if the intent is to stay on message and reach prospective voters.

So, this is off topic for my campaign. But as a participant in this quasi-democracy I would be remiss not to point out that:

• Corporate media elevated the current occupant of the White House to prominence and eventually to the highest office in the land by featuring his not-very-attractive face on every outlet they controlled i.e. nearly all of the outlets for several months before election day 2016.

 

How much is all that free media Donald Trump gets worth? We think we know. https://t.co/Gu6wvmpikV pic.twitter.com/QOLuMWYXkL

— The Upshot (@UpshotNYT) March 15, 2016

• This was hardly limited to conservative publications. Even allegedly liberal publications like the New Yorker contained a glut of articles, cover stories, jokes, references and so forth to keep his name constantly in our minds and on our lips. 

 

• They are doing it again now in the run-up to election day 2020 but are promoting an even more dangerous idea: that the election does not matter and that he will retain power whether or not it is the will of voters.

• Since this idea is being universally shared and amplified over corporate media outlets, it's clear that this outcome is desirable to our corporate overlords.

• The power of propaganda is not so much telling people what to believe, but rather telling people what and what not to pay attention to. As in relentless messaging directing information consumers to "look at this" while pretending that other information is not worthy of being acknowledged.

As I've noted here before, when I was a young history major in the mid 20th century THE essential question was: How could the German people have allowed fascists to take over their government and commit genocide on 6 million mostly Jewish people?

I think we all understand now how fascism, that is, a system where commercial interests entirely control government to their benefit, has taken hold in the USA. We've watched it happen. Some of us have spoken out about it. 

But children still suffer in concentration camps our taxes fund, and white supremacist police are constantly stoking the fires of an incipient civil war -- while the media shore up the mad emperor as Rome burns.