One piece of good news is that the progressive media has become energized and is preparing for the Trump presidency.
Every cloud has a silver lining, and presidency of Dubya launched many liberal news organizations, such as The Young Turks, Air America (which shuttered in 2010 after Obama became president), and Talking Points Memo joined longer term progressive organizations, like Mother Jones and the Huffington Post. But things fell off during the Obama presidency.
But now, they are all hiring staff. The best news is that they are particularly beefing up their investigative reporting staff. They have been able to do this because donations and subscriptions are up sharply, and they have not fallen off since the election. In fact, they are still increasing.
It is vital that we have a strong media to hold Trump accountable. If you have thought about supporting these organizations in the past, do it again. We need this now more than ever.
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I’ve been reading TPM for years and highly recommend them. I especially like Josh Marshall’s editorials and commentary. He’s very rational and even handed. Unsolicited advice from someone on the internet you don’t know. I swear I don’t work for them.
To what point? Those of us who can see what’s happening don’t need to be told what’s happening. Those of us who know what’s happening can not change it. Those of us who voted for him will not change regardless of the truth. I don’t need to know what terrible things are going to be done because there is nothing I or anyone else can do to make things different. Right now I’m clinging to a remote hope that I will have decent health care and a continuation of my Social Security for the rest of my life.
Wildwood, and you think that nothing you can do can change what happens to health care or social security? Think again.
Investigative journalism brought down Richard Nixon. It also caught Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra scandal.
It did bring Nixon down, but he was generally disliked to begin with and there were different rules then and a different society. Also the majority in both the house and the senate were Dems. Reagan didn’t get brought down, just got his hand slapped. It didn’t change much of anything except for those who ended up taking the blame and even they ended up on their feet as far as I remember. Reagan is still considered by the right to be one of the worlds great leaders of all time. (gag!) We are playing now with a very stacked deck. The intent of the right, since passage, has been to destroy social security, medicare, medicaid and the ACA. They now have the power to do that unless there are a few Republicans left with a conscience and the will to commit what might be political suicide, which is looking doubtful after seeing the house votes the other night. They are like kids in the candy shop after having not seen a chocolate bar in an eon.
Forgive me a dumb question, but isn’t there some hope still that 48 Senate Democrats can manage to limit the damage through continual filibusters if they choose to do so? I’ve been terrified for the last two months like everyone else, but always fell back on the fact that the Senate Democrats are going to be able to stall and/or block some of the worst of it.
ANONYMOUS, there was some amendment sponsored by Bernie, something about importing Canadian drugs. 13 democrats voted against it, and 12 Republicans voted for it. If all democrats had stuck together, it would have passed easily.
I was Anon by mistake. Sorry.
Hassan – I understand that Democrats are generally not the rock solid party of a-holes that the Republicans have proven themselves to be but Senate rules do still require 60 votes to end a filibuster, correct? So for the big issues like dismantling the ACA and Social Security the 48 Senate Democrats can still prevent or postpone and gain some concessions on, correct? Republicans lately are talking as if the ACA is all but gone already, so I’m just making sure.
Its important that they try to be as balanced as possible. If they go out of their way to portray Trump the wrong way people in the middle will stop trying to get the news from them. Be less opinionated and deal with facts. For issues such as climate change and income inequality that shouldn’t be too hard.
It’s not only progressive media in this country being energized. Came across this recent editorial cartoon out of Germany weighing in on Herr Gropenfuhrer and a take on who’s really being groped. http://bit.ly/2iJfol2 He won’t be getting a free pass over there and we certainly shouldn’t be giving him one here by being passive and retreating to some liberal bubble.
Speaking of which, this grandson of German immigrants, in a recent interview with The London Sunday Times, was asked what is typically German about his character and replied, “I like order. I like things done in an orderly manner. And certainly the Germans, that’s something that they’re rather well known for. But I do, I like order and I like strength.” Sound like anyone familiar from recent German history?
Sure, order and strength are fine attributes as such, even invaluable when skillfully applied, but it’s no great surprise that he would associate first and foremost with those particular Germanic stereotypes.
It’s also no surprise when later in the interview, asked if he has any heroes from the past he looks up to, he goes into a rambling diatribe dismissing heroes outright and, beyond a brief mention of his father (what, no mother?), he just can’t come up with anything beyond his own natural born greatness. Yep, throughout all of recorded history there are no role models and no figure DJT looks up to more than…who else? DJT!
To nitwit: “Well, I don’t like heroes, I don’t like the concept of heroes, the concept of heroes is never great, but certainly you can respect certain people and certainly there are certain people — but I’ve learnt a lot from my father — my father was a builder in Brooklyn and Queens — he did houses and housing and I learnt a lot about negotiation from my father — although I also think negotiation is a natural trait, I don’t think you can, you either have it or you don’t, you get better at it but basically, the people that I know who are great negotiators or great salesmen or great politicians, it’s very natural, very natural . . . I got a letter from somebody, their congressman, they said what you’ve done is amazing because you were never a politician and you beat all the politicians. He said they added it up — when I was three months into the campaign, they added it up — I had three months of experience and the 17 guys I was running against, the Republicans, had 236 years – ya know when you add 20 years and 30 years — so I was three months they were 236 years — so it’s sort of a funny article but I believe it’s like hitting a baseball or being a good golfer — natural ability, to me, is much more important to me than experience and experience is a great thing — I think it’s a great thing — but I learnt a lot from my father in terms of leadership.”
Yep, nobody compares to the inherent greatness he sees in his gilded mirror, not even from his own German heritage. Not even their greatest scientists, engineers, or inventors (Einstein, von Braun, Copernicus, Gutenberg). Not the artistic geniuses (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Mendelssohn, Rubens). Not the great scholars or philosophers (Nietzsche, Kant, Schweitzer). Not even the courage, resilience and empathy of the countless victims and resistance fighters who stood up to the Great Dictator or later tracked down his henchmen (Anne Frank, Schindler, Wiesenthal) shows up on his radar. Say it with me now – Sad!
I did so you don’t have to but if you wish and have the stomach for it, you can read the entire interview transcript here. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/full-transcript-of-interview-with-donald-trump-5d39sr09d