Every day I'm inundated with info from those on the left decrying Trump's behavior. Hell, even today he refused to wear a mask at the Ford plant. Tune in Rachel Maddow as she scowls at the insanity. She's positively right, but she cannot see the big picture. Trump ain't gonna change, if anything he's tightened the reins on his power. He beat impeachment, punished naysayers and eliminated checks and balances...and this is the guy you think is gonna suddenly wake up and do it your way, the right way? NO CHANCE!
Laurene Powell Jobs bought "The Atlantic." It's amazing what a bit of money can do. Kinda like Bezos's purchase of "The Washington Post." The D.C. paper was declining and now it's giving "The New York Times" a run for its money. Meanwhile, "The Wall Street Journal" is writing ever-shorter articles, dumbing itself down for consumption to the point it's alienating its core business customers. The NYT and WaPo have spent money to gain influence. And despite all the hoopla about "the failing 'New York Times," the truth is anything but. As evidenced by new media columnist Ben Smith's March 1st article:
"Why the Success of The New York Times May Be Bad News for Journalism: In his debut, our new media columnist says The Times has become like Facebook or Google - a digital behemoth crowding out the competition.": nyti.ms/2LKJxOC
The scuttlebutt is oftentimes wrong. The story has been about the death of newspapers, of the profit-draining distribution by Google and Facebook. Meanwhile, those left standing have only gained power, no news entity as much as "The New York Times." Hell, digital subscriptions grew by 600,000 in the first quarter of this year. For a total of 6 million. Yes, people are willing to pay for news, as "The Los Angeles Times" shrinks its news hole and heads for extinction. Hell, there's that hedge fund that buys newspapers like "The Denver Post" and then makes draconian cuts, trying to maintain profit margins and make big bucks before the outlets are worthless and then discarded.
So Laurene Powell Jobs bought a moniker, and built it into a monolith. "The Atlantic" is one of the most e-mailed publications these days, at least in my inbox. And it's not garbage, it's not clickbait, but deep thought pieces. And in the new issue, there's a doozy:
"Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election - RIP democracy": bit.ly/3cXzl16
You don't need to read every word. A quick scan will do the trick.
Bottom line, our voting infrastructure is full of holes, easy to penetrate by public citizens like the Stanford University hacker in the article, never mind big governments with big money with an investment in the outcome.
Once again, you must listen to the podcast "The Big Steal." As America circles the wagons, cutting ties with foreign countries, decimating treaties, the rest of the world is not only ignoring us, but some nations, like Russia, are actively penetrating us. You can stick your head in the sand, but that does not make you invisible.
"The Big Steal Podcast": bit.ly/2XgObcx
But as you read this "Atlantic" article, as you focus on Russia's hacking, you realize...
It really isn't about Russia at all.
Now one of the biggest stories of the last few weeks has been about voting by mail. Hell, Trump is in a war of words, planning to retaliate against Governor Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan because it's a swing state.
Yes, as we learned in 2016, the presidential vote of most people in this nation just doesn't count. But if you live in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Florida it does.
So the Republicans are trying to suppress the vote in those states.
They say it's to stop voter fraud, even though every study extant shows it's a non-issue. The truth is they just want to strip as many indigent and minority voters from the rolls as possible. If you moved, which the poor tend to do more than the wealthy, if you don't drive, if you can't provide the required identification...good luck getting to vote. And sure, many people will be able to cast their ballot, but it only takes a very few to change the outcome.
So most of the left believe Trump wants to eliminate voting by mail because he believes it will encourage Democratic voting.
WRONG!
Oh, right to a degree. But there's a bigger issue. PHYSICAL BALLOTS CAN'T BE HACKED!
Oh sure, there can be tons of fraud. Ballots can be lost. But a paper trail is harder to circumvent. Whereas if the voting is electronic...LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Trump planned to protest the 2016 results vociferously. He said the election was fixed. But he was surprised to win.
In 2020 one thing is for sure, Trump does what he says he's going to do.
So let's say the election utilizes machines/electronics. THE OUTCOME IS UP FOR GRABS!
Of course there are the bad actors, i.e. Russia, and the Republicans themselves. They could swing the outcome making it a done deal. But if the numbers say Trump lost, he'll never accept it. He already said he wasn't gonna do this back in 2016. He'll say it was fixed. And he's got plenty of people to blame it on. Enemies like Silicon Valley. China. The list goes on and on.
So, even if Trump loses, he wins.
Forget telling me about the inanities. How Trump voted by mail himself. Doesn't matter, don't you get it! It's not about truth, justice and the American Way, it's about perpetuating Trump's reign. Like Putin, he's running a kleptocracy. Forget his hotels and golf clubs, the head of vaccine development is a drug maker himself?! We see the movie again and again and again. Trump pushes the limits, installs loyalists, makes sure they make money, and life goes on, no matter how many complaints there are. People keep waiting for transparency and justice, but it never arrives. We still don't have the tax returns... He's in control of the government, they're still auditing? He beat impeachment. He installed right wing justices, but you expect to be saved?
Don't call me hysterical.
For over a year, Bill Maher has said Trump has no intention of leaving. And he posits this question to Democratic candidates and toadies ad infinitum and they laugh and brush it off. Cite nonsense like the law says otherwise, or they'll employ the military to remove him.
The Putin playbook is to muddy the water. To get you to doubt your beliefs, or become overwhelmed and stop paying attention all together. Ever notice that Trump does the same thing? Every day there's crazy behavior. But Trump's reign goes on.
And he wins.
Come on, would all these states be rushing to reopen if Trump didn't plead for his acolytes to protest? Furthermore, a lot of these protests were astroturfed. Funded by dark money. Protesters paid to do so, going from location to location. If Jane Roe can be paid to change her mind, do you think others are not open to the buck?
And it is all about bucks. The fat cats want those factories humming. Hell, the latest statistics say the workers, those who have to inhabit the offices, are reluctant to go. But, already they're being threatened. They won't get unemployment, there will be no choice. No one can predict the future of Covid-19, but one thing is for sure, the policy of Trump and the Fortune 500 is to open America for business and if some people die, so be it. Come on, you can see it already. All your friends who were locked down tight suddenly aren't. Trump shifted the wind of belief, and it wasn't that difficult.
I thought Trump's refusal to leave office was crazy until I started listening to Sarah Kendzior. Unlike those on the coasts, the talking heads who are part of the media-industrial complex, Sarah has her boots on the ground in the middle of the country and she is not climbing up the pundit ladder, it's not important to her. Meanwhile, "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" have refused to review her new book, "Hiding in Plain Sight," despite it being a best-seller, despite it being #1 in Amazon's Democracy category, despite it debuting at #14 on the aforementioned "Times"'s best seller list. And it's not like "Hiding in Plain Sight" is a vanity project, rather it was published by Macmillan.
Meanwhile, all we read about is Ronan Farrow's insistence upon Hachette canceling his father Woody Allen's book. Our priorities are screwed-up. We're more worried about ALLEGATIONS of Me Too as opposed to facts we can see with Trump every day.
But the media establishment does not want to piss off Trump. Or Jared or Ivanka, whose classmates and friends inhabit the ranks of the media.
I know, I know, it sounds like too much.
Keep telling yourself that. Keep watching MSNBC with your fist in the air. You're the same person who missed Trump in 2016, who thinks since some Democratic congresspeople won in 2018, it'll be no problem defeating Trump.
Hell, the Democrats argued for a year who was the best candidate to run. IT DOESN'T MATTER! Statistics say ALL of them would beat Trump, at least all those in contention at the end. But the left is busy triangulating, believing it's about issues when the truth is it's about mechanics.
If Democrats vote, Trump loses.
It's not about switching pro-Trump people back to the blue side, it's about getting out the vote of those already blue. Rachel Bitecofer goes on about this seemingly daily, but her words fall on deaf ears, because the DNC believes it knows better.
But it's really about the integrity of the vote.
Come on, do you believe it's been this long without the propping up of the Post Office? Public companies with CEOs that make millions can get government funds, the Fed rescues Wall Street, but there's no cash for the Post Office?
You keep telling yourself that someone will take care of it, that the Post Office can't fail. Who are these people again? The ones who've stopped Trump so far? The Republican senators who declined to convict him at the impeachment trial?
And Trump is working all avenues. No Post Office, no mail-in vote. Trump is establishing so many ways to make sure he wins in 2020. And only one or two have to work to tilt the election.
They should cancel MSNBC. All left wing outlets, all Democratic voters should be working 24/7 on the integrity of November's election. And making sure it happens. Jared Kushner wasn't convinced. Forget the law. Hell, Trump said government agencies could ignore regulations in an effort to reopen the economy:
"Trump orders agencies to cut regulations that 'inhibit economic recovery': bit.ly/3cSEFD5
Trump signed the order Tuesday, there was no debate, you probably aren't even aware of it.
You keep saying it can't happen here.
But it does.
And will continue to do so.
WAKE UP!
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