I adopted a wait and see attitude. Like Bill Maher I wasn't going to freak out about Trump's presidency. But then seemingly every corporation kowtowed to the man as if he was a dictator.
This is the America we live in, where the corporations rule and the people are just pawns.
Mark Zuckerberg used to give the middle finger to the government. Jeff Bezos acted as if Amazon was the government. As for Elon Musk...he ignored the government and now he IS the government.
If you want to be horrified, read this article from yesterday's "New York Times."
"Los Angeles Times Owner Wades Deeper Into Opinion Section - Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's public comments and actions, including recently blocking an editorial weighing in on President-elect Trump's cabinet picks, have concerned many staff members."
Free link: t.ly/41amG
There was all this horsesh*t from Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos that they didn't endorse a presidential candidate in the election because...
We knew they were afraid of retribution if Trump won, but in the case of Soon-Shiong, now we know, now it's like we live in Hungary, or maybe even Russia.
"One writer prepared an editorial arguing that the Senate should follow its traditional process for confirming nominees, particularly given the board's concerns about some of his picks, and ignore Mr. Trump's call for so-called recess appointments.
"The paper's owner, the billionaire medical entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, had other ideas.
"Hours before the editorial was set to be sent to the printer for the next day's newspaper, Dr. Soon-Shiong told the opinion department's leaders that the editorial could not be published unless the paper also published an editorial with an opposing view.
"Baffled by his order and with the print deadline approaching, editors removed the editorial, headlined 'Donald Trump's cabinet choices are not normal. The Senate's confirmation process should be.' It never ran."
As for Soon-Shiong himself...read the "New Yorker" exposé, he's a typical billionaire, when you look at the details of how they made that money...
But Soon-Shiong doesn't really care about the paper, he cares about his pocketbook.
Now to be equally horrified, read this article from the "Wall Street Journal," the business paper of record.
"The Week CEOs Bent the Knee to Trump - Companies abandoned him after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Now, they are rushing to curry favor with the president-elect as he prepares to return to the White House."
Free link: t.ly/enDbV
Then there's Peggy Noonan, Reagan's speechwriter and Special Assistant also in yesterday's "Journal."
"Biden Gets Lost in Trump's Shadow - The president-elect acts as if he's already in charge. There's never been a transition like this before."
Free link: t.ly/yz4ta
As for the Democrats, they keep insisting Harris ran a "perfect" campaign and the Trump voters are ignorant people who voted against their own self-interests. There is no introspection. And if you question the orthodoxy, the brass shouts you down. Meanwhile, their greatest fear, that democracy would erode in the wake of a Trump election, is already happening.
The border, inflation, the feebleness of Biden, the inauthenticity of Harris...these are the reasons people voted for Trump, not because they love the man and approve of his plans. They're just sick and tired of being ignored and told that everything is okay and they should just stay the course. Meanwhile, with the Biden fiasco, the Democrats have been seen to be just as bad as the Republicans. What did Michelle Obama say, "When they go low, we go high?" Not anymore!
Everybody's kowtowing to Trump. As if he were a king. Everybody's afraid of retribution.
Remember when the press was an independent force keeping everyone honest?
Those days are through, except at the "New York Times," which has been vilified by both the left and the right to the point where everyone ignores it except those in D.C. and opinion news channels. The Grey Lady has more of a backbone than almost all the news outlets, and I must say even the WSJ questions Trump when it is not hewing to the Republican line.
Meanwhile, everyone with power on the left believes the internet doesn't exist. Trump harnessed its power to victory, the Democrats can't stop pillorying social media and podcasts. It's like an oldster castigating the Beatles back in the sixties. I mean can't you wake up and smell the coffee, see which way the wind blows, obey some other cliché?
Bob Dylan, et al, pointed the way back then. The San Francisco bands plotted their own course, refused to play by the rules of the man.
But today every act wants to be the man. They want some of those corporate dollars. As for the rappers... They break the law and shoot each other and many people like the fact that they're being cut down and others lament the fact that law enforcement can't stop it.
Art is about speaking truth to power. But that train left the station years ago.
But I'm less worried about music than our country at large.
Here is where age is an advantage, it not only delivers wisdom, there's the benefit of hindsight. And let me tell you, there has never ever been a situation like this prior to the election of a president. The media and corporations didn't bend the knee and pledge fealty after the election of Nixon, nor after Reagan or the two Bushes. No, the country admitted who won and the battle continued. Now the corporations and some of the media are capitulating before Trump's term has even started. Talk about a bloodless coup.
As for obeying the law... We watched 1/6 on television and he's going to pardon these people?
And Biden's not much better, pardoning Hunter. If you're not a scion of the rich and famous no one is fighting for you. They make a TV show about the Menendez brothers and there's a chance they'll get out of jail, no one is making a TV show about you.
And if you want to challenge Trump and his policies, there's no movement.
Hell, turns out women weren't that worried about losing the right to an abortion.
And all this resistance nonsense of Trump's first term didn't make a difference whatsoever. And the oldsters behind these efforts don't understand that today battles are fought online, not in the streets. Isn't that how Trump won to begin with?
Sure, maybe 30% of the country are true believers in Trump. But that leaves the rest of the nation, 70%, which are not. But somehow everybody has laid down their sword, shrugged their shoulders and said Trump is the man.
And Trump is just one person. Showing the power of the individual, in a nation that was all about the individual. But now we're sheep, believing our lifestyle is more important than our beliefs.
Let's be clear, the woke left was out of control and needed to be counteracted. And the mainstream Democrats couldn't even delineate the fact that the woke left is a small fraction of their party. The Democrats were so busy playing to a minority that they ceded control of the game. The Big Tent Democrats, where everyone gets a voice and no one has a backbone. Parents discipline children, but in the Democratic party no one can keep outliers in order, no one can speak truth for fear of offending someone. The Democrats play defense and Trump plays offense and you can't win without offense.
Meanwhile, I'm angered and disillusioned. I don't want anything to do with an organization that f*cked this up so badly. Yet I'm anti-Trump. Who is with me?
Certainly not the corporations. We've seen that movie. We can't seem to count on anyone with money. Where are the Harris Silicon Valleyites now? SILENT!
Everybody is afraid.
And ABC settled Trump's defamation suit when if they went to court they probably would have won. Remember when reporters went to jail for refusing to testify? Now ABC gets in bed with Trump for fear of the future. I thought news organizations were supposed to tell the truth and stand up to power.
Not anymore.
This is so far worse than 2016 it's scary. The man hasn't even been inaugurated yet!
Don't tell me to roll over and play dead. When you can't even trust the news media to be independent, who can you trust?
John Lennon said "Yoko and me."
But that was fifty years ago. When John Lennon was fighting deportation by Nixon and his minions.
Meanwhile, the ignoramuses and profiteers in Britain convinced the public that Brexit was good for them and have decimated touring for acts on the continent. And the NHS, that was supposed to flourish, is in the dumper. Everybody wanted to go back to an England that wasn't so great and will never return. In America people want to make an America great that wasn't so great to begin with! And the world never goes backward. For two solid years all we've been hearing about is AI, but somehow we can return to what once was? Hogwash.
Being a citizen means putting it all on the line. Not fighting for your right to party, but truth, justice and the American way.
But they haven't made a Superman movie in years.
Instead we've got the fantasy of the Marvel universe.
And in real life, we are not living in a fantasy, but a disaster.
I'm just warning you.
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