There’s (Almost) Nothing Normal About These Times: Stop the Pretense in the Press; Work to Stop the Destruction and Create Something Positive

Listening to news media can be a confusing act nowadays. There’s the political chaos caused deliberately by DT and company to shock us. Then there’s the reporting itself; for example, if a newscaster shows a clip of a speech by DT that’s totally filled with lies and threats to our lives⎼ and then, later the reporter shares that DT had no evidence for what he had said, the damage has already been done. People have already heard the lies spoken as truth. Or the reporter might describe an attempt to destroy the rule of law or invade an ally and then talk about a sporting event.

 

Or over the last few weeks, many commentators have shown a limited perspective on DT’s “shock and awe” campaign. Even on MSNBC, which often provides a needed perspective on events, provided examples of normalizing him. But there’s nothing normal about these last few weeks (or years). Ari Melber, who I normally like to listen to, called DT ’s cabinet picks “disruptors.” Disruptor, really? Destroyer, maybe? Violator? Disruptors is the same term used in a positive manner by DT insider Jason Miller, or GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson to describe nominees like Musk, RFK, Jr., or Vought.

 

Scott Dworkin pointed out the White House press office initiated a new strategy to help control news coverage and perspective. They’ve begun to feature the asking of pre-scripted questions to DT’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt by “new” MAGA media stars, like John Ashbrook or others from Breitbart, et al, in the White House briefings. At the same time, they’ve kicked the NY Times, NPR, and NBC News from their workspaces and replaced them with MAGA propaganda outlets like One America, Breitbart, the NY Post, etc. Yet, NBC ridiculously responded they were “disappointed.” And the NY Times called it a “concerning development.”

 

Jonathan Capeheart, on MSNBC, appropriately described several DT nominees, like Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard as grossly unqualified. Yet, that’s another understatement. What about their character and pledge of allegiance to DT? And add RFK, Jr, to run the Health Department and Pete Hegseth with the defense department⎼ and nearly the whole cabinet?

 

These nominees are not merely disruptors, unless you mean disrupting the rule of law, the economy, the healthcare for millions, the constitution, the rights of non-billionaire American citizens and certainly immigrants. And if a traitor is someone who deliberately acts to undermine or destroy our constitution and nation or make us more vulnerable to attack by foreign governments, are they traitors?

 

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has had a frightening influence on the new administration so far. During the campaign, Musk said, if given a chance to work for a President DT, he would crash the economy. Nothing about working for the greater good of all. Those who mistakenly link in their minds a DT economy with being “better off” needs to rethink very soon their opinion, memory, and vote.

 

Musk said he plans to use his newly granted power to bring drastic shocks, “hardship” for many Americans to bring long-term prosperity. But to whom? Only his fellow billionaires? He says if he doesn’t do this, the nation will go bankrupt. MSNBC’s Joy Reid responded: There’s no evidence of a looming bankruptcy. And if there was, Musk or DT would be the last people to trust to save it. DT’s tax cuts for the rich, for example, “caused the national deficit to soar.” And his proposed new tax cuts will do the same….

 

*To read the whole post, please go to The Good Men Project.

A Crazy Dream: When We Teeter on the Edge Between Depression and Hopefulness

I am dreaming that what seemed impossible yesterday will be possible tomorrow. Or as Anne Applebaum put it in her recent article in the Atlantic, the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible. People are waking up to the fact that war can still happen, yet we can and we must not only save Ukraine but save and expand democracy.

 

On February 28, Ali Velshi, substituting for Joy Reid on the MSNBC program the ReidOut, discussed results unexpected by Putin, and maybe by many of us. He didn’t expect President Zelensky of Ukraine to be such a determined, inspiring leader. He didn’t expect so many Ukrainian civilians to take up arms. Didn’t expect university students, bartenders, common citizens to make Molotov cocktails in their classrooms, bars and homes. He didn’t expect ordinary Ukrainians to sit down in front of tanks. He didn’t expect thousands to protest in Russian cities, and cities throughout the world. He didn’t expect former Soviet satellite states like Belarus, or Hungary, to refuse to send troops or support him, but instead to speak out against him. To help isolate him.

 

He didn’t expect Russian troops to surrender their arms and admit to reporters they were told they were being sent on maneuvers or a peacekeeping mission, not being asked to kill fellow Balkans. He didn’t see NATO coming together after his protégé, DJT, did all he could to undermine or destroy US alliances with other democracies.

 

All through the world, as well as here in the U. S., people who want to live in a democracy, who were shocked by DJT, GOP attacks on voting rights, white nationalist violence, COVID, global warming, economic insecurity into being afraid or hopeless saw what we dreaded most played out. Putin made them see, made us see, what we could lose. Made us see what might happen if we did not act. If we got so caught up in ourselves that we forgot that we share this world, this suffering, this love of life with others, billions of others. We realized if we hadn’t already done so⎼ we cannot allow the forces of autocracy to be emboldened any further.

 

In-between the perception that something is wrong, and the action taken to stop it is a gigantic space, and an opportunity we all have, to find our communion with others. To find our power. To find the way that we, the unique people that we are, to act, to help, to speak. Seeing what the Ukrainians are facing and doing can inspire us to act. But will we act?

 

Yet, as Dana Milbank put it in a Washington Post article, Republicans are so eager to see Biden fail, so eager to undermine democracy, they act in ways that help Putin succeed. Act in ways that threaten not only Ukrainians, and other Europeans, but us. Here, in the U. S. They are supporting an autocratic ruler who is causing an unknown number of deaths and, so far, almost one million refugees with the goal of destroying a nation’s freedom and way of life.

 

There is the popular expression about using a carrot or a stick to get people to learn, or to act ⎼ using praise or blame, prizes or threats, inspiration or fear. Due to the awful conditions we face right now and might face later, from COVID, climate change, white nationalists, and Putin⎼ this is the stick. We can see what we fear happening here or everywhere. But there’s also the carrot, the opportunity, the prize. But this prize is not something someone else gives us but one we give ourselves. We get stronger. We get closer to others. More compassionate. We build a better society.

 

Because of Putin we might be shocked into action. Because of the Ukrainian people, we might be inspired.

 

As Heather Cox Richardson put it, “…Ukrainian resistance to Russian president Vladimir Putin, supported by the cooperation of the U.S. and European allies and partners in strangling Russia’s economic system, was forging a global alliance against the authoritarianism that has been growing in power around the world.” It’s time to join that resistance. To speak out in support of, to send aid, money, supplies to Ukraine.

 

As I fear what the Ukrainian people are facing, and teeter on an edge between depression and hopefulness, it is beginning to seem more possible that we can build a resistance and maybe create a better world for us to live in. We can build or actualize a love for this world. I hope I’m not just dreaming.

 

 

**Many people and organizations are working to aid the people of Ukraine and stop not only Putin but international and American forces of autocracy. One list of organizations to support is provided by Timothy Snyder, historian, and author of On Tyranny. You can also read his newsletter on Ukraine. Charity Navigator is another resource.

 

***This article was syndicated by The Good Men Project. Please go to this link.