Thursday, January 16, 2025

Whoever controls and owns the media separates democracy from dictatorship by oligopoly


For those concerned with oligopoly control of media, there are some very pertinent recent articles and opinion pieces. The dire warning: he who owns and controls the message controls minds and public opinion.  My own views of oligopoly, and another large body of references, go to the updated version, 1/16/2025,MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: New resistance opportunity arises: Rule by oligarchs and class warfare updated 1 14 and 16 2025  the day after Biden's farewell address warning us of oligopolies destroying democracy.  The free press is key to America becoming aware of the danger and the fallout that will also harm the very lives of American citizens.  Without a free press, voters will not even know that they have been hurt, much less mount a resistance to such control.   Here are some references to this issue. 

Update version 1/16/2025: MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: New resistance opportunity arises: Rule by oligarchs and class warfare updated 1 14 and 16 2025

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Social media fans Zucked again? Update 1 14 2025

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/a-30-million-campaign-to-free-social-media-from-billionaire-control-is-now-underway/

Donald Trump has threatened to shut down broadcasters, but can he?

How Hungary's Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark | The Associated Press



Monday, January 13, 2025

If we have already lost our democracy, can we get it back?

If we have lost our democracy,  can we get it back? Preserving and restoration of democracy is not an effective pitch to motivate voters. We just got a lesson in that. In fact, at the risk of stating the obvious, what works is understanding and illustrating what voters feel in their lives and directing messaging to their real-life concerns. If democracy is mentioned, it should be that democracy will and can be the best vehicle to reflect and fix the problems important to "ordinary people" rather than an out-of-control kleptocracy and corruption of a Trump autocracy.

The problem is that in 2024, the fear of the loss of democracy was not taken seriously, not understood, nor urgent, and not relevant to everyday life, in spite of the Democrats making Trump's threat to democracy a major campaign issue. Experience is the best teacher if the connection between who and what is at fault can be made and voters are made aware of how they have been hurt. If and when Trump fails to deliver on such promises as rolling back grocery prices, keeping gas at the pump affordable, stopping inflation, and making health care and general living more affordable, will those swing voters, the non-racist motivated ones, be receptive to the message and will the pendulum swing the other way. The trust in Trump, that whatever he does that is good for him is good for you and me too, is a bond that needs to be broken. Trump will continue to win the race-sensitive part of the MAGA block with his anti-DEI, Project 2025 White nationalist agenda, and cruel immigration policies.

That strategy should not be that difficult to do because Trump has already reneged on many of those promises. Blame can also be pinned on Trump's makeup of his administration. How is peppering leadership in his administration with "billionaire bros" whose goals are feathering their own nests and millionaires who have never had to live on a budget and believe in the fantasy of trickle-down wealth to sell, promise, and placate the middle and lower rungs on the economic laddder? The Democrats have been lousy at messaging this, and now, not only does their leadership have to improve, but getting the message will be even harder as the media delivering is also cowed by fear and threats of revenge and retribution and willing to give a public platform for lies, propaganda, and disinformation.

Update: 1 14 2025 In reaction to rumors that Musk is considering buying TikTok and Zuckerberg caved into Trump and stopped fact-checking on Facebook, this is very important; non-profit media is launching an effort to keep social media out of the hands of billionaires. In the meantime, like never before, social media should be treated as people's opinions but not as a source of credible facts and data. My policy is to list the sources of my facts and data cite and what is influencing my opinions on my blog or on social media postings. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/a-30-million-campaign-to-free-social-media-from-billionaire-control-is-now-underway/

The first crack will be the midterms to take advantage of Trump's failures to keep campaign promises before he can consolidate autocratic control and to take aim at the billionaire bros. The Senate and House must become blue to restore the check on an administration ruling by edict and executive orders, thumbing their noses at the rule of law.

That Trump is now immune from abiding by the rules of law while engaged in his official acts, courtesy of his supreme court. That could be fixed by amending the constitution. However, the barriers to amending the constitution are long-term and long-lasting and would not affect Trump's power in this second term. Reminder: n amendment has to be proposed, and it would take super majorities in the House and Senate, or 34 state legislatures would have to call for a convention to propose and then 38 state legislatures or special conventions to approve. Most amendments took decades of effort to succeed. The harm done by the Supreme Court's immunity gift to Trump is profound and nearly impossible to reverse.

 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: New resistance opportunity arises: Rule by oligarchs and class warfare updated 1 17 2025

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/trumps-achilles-heels-unintended.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/major-trump-campaign-points-evaporate.html

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Have we already lost our democracy?

 I picked up a disturbing line in last Monday's Rachel Maddow show: " We have already lost our democracy. ". My follow-up question is: Can we get it back, and how can we? My own thoughts are that on November 5, 2024, 49.9 of voters handed over governance in this country to an autocracy, fed and influenced by oligarchs, and enabled by his Supreme Court to give Trump immunity from prosecution for criminal acts while performing his official duties. Trump is freed from winning the next presidential election because he is a lame-duck. January 21, 2025, Trump will finalize the takeover by signing 100 executive orders, mostly concerning the implementation of Project 2025, including "Schedule F", an attempt to place all power in the hands of the executive branch and reduce the influence of the two other branches by appointees and threats, including violence. The business community is already falling all over themselves, bending their knees, ending DEI, and ending fact-checking, mostly out of fear of the abuse of Trump's power over the DOJ and regulatory agencies.

The 100 orders Trump plans to sign, says John Barrasso, will be "shock and awe" and enable him to bypass Congress.'There is going to be shock and awe with executive orders' - POLITICO  My observation:  Trump plans to emasculate the role of Congress to represent the public will in shaping laws in our democracy, as he has virtually done with the Supreme Court.

Key to the implementation of Project 2025 is Schedule F, which would replace civil service employees with Trump loyalists and Project 2025 devotees...lists of replacements having been prepared and interviews made over the past 6 months by Project 2025. This executive order will be in the stack Trump said he plans to sign on day one.https://apnews.com/article/trump-day-one-border-executive-actions-30f78c3c983ae74555f281446fe22710

Replacing civil servants pledged to support the Constitution with political appointees pledging allegiance to the Project 2025 agenda will have severe consequences, impacting judgment calls on regulatory and administrative actions with what the boss wants instead of what the intent of the law requires. The fallout: 1. The intent of the laws can be subverted and twisted to suit the ideology and support the boss. 2.It is the most corrupt system of government ever devised as bribery and fear of retaliation will keep the political appointees in line. Their jobs depend on keeping the boss happy, not the voters nor the courts.. 3. It is a restoration of the spoils system, overturning years of good government reforms that had been enacted to counter 1 and 2.

So can we get it back? It is going to be hard, especially if Trump controls media through the FCC, and there will be no fact-checking by independent experts on social media. It will be even harder if the DOJ is weaponized to subvert the election process and suppress those who they deem enemies of Trump, minorities and young people.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/if-we-have-already-lost-our-democracy.html can we get it back?


https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/how-project-2025-could-turn-us-into.html

Saturday, January 11, 2025

In 2024, character was on the ballot, yet a profound loss to voters and democracy

 Trump's win in November 2024 was both a popular vote win (by one and a half percent) and the electoral college vote, which was counted this January 6, 2025.  Character was on the ballot in 2024 and character lost. What makes this such a danger to the future of democracy as never before is that, unlike the past 250 years of our history, presidents with bad character, scofflaws, and mob-like criminal behavior, are now immune from being held accountable by law once in office. Both moral and institutional guardrails against abuse of power have been seriously damaged. Subversion of policy arrived through democratic institutions is enabled as never before and in instances of official duties the president, now or future, no longer needs to abide by or be held accountable to the rule of law. Additionally dangerous is Trump's lame-duck status. Trump is freed from voter backlash and buyers' remorse.  Integrity and self-restraint of good character will not be a factor in curbing Trump's self-serving worse instincts yet character is more vital than ever if democracy is to survive. 

 Thanks to Trump's loyalists on the Supreme Court, he is no longer subject to the rule of law while administering his official acts. There will be no accountability to anyone and his power will be limited by whatever is left that is unsubverted and uncorrupted by checks of the justice system and Congress. For the first time in our lives, there is one person above the rule of law and it is the person who will be president in 2025 and beyond. Without a person of strong character with a moral compass, the character of the individual sitting there should count more than ever. Self-constraint to do "what is right", what is humane, and what is honest, means character should count more in the leadership of our country than before, but voters by a slim majority did not care. Instead, they put their trust in Trump to fix whatever ailed them. The bond of trust of Trump in so many matters placed in him by those who voted for him is also his greatest vulnerability if he fails to deliver. The chances of corruption, abuse of power, and use of outright lies will be the result, particularly with someone like Trump and any president in the future bent on self-political preservation and a lust for more power and wealth without self-control or self-imposed moral and  "good "character.  

Character must be on the ballot in the future and taken seriously as never before. With no guardrails, Trump unchained from law or character, is free to shape institutions and public opinion to improve his chances, or chances of one like him, to win in 2028, and to continue the attempt to replace democracy with autocracy in the future, even Trump does not run again. From voter rights suppression to control over the voting processes are at stake and with social media freed from fact-checking, the challenge of Ben Frankin, "you have a republic if you can keep it", makes our form of democracy now even tougher to keep.

 Trump is admittedly transactional, getting the best deal for himself,  the opposite of having a moral compass taken into account in governance, and without any conscience for violating actions and thoughts of what most of us would consider moral.   The other 48% percent of us voters and political leaders have as a defense is taking solace and reminding voters of  Trump's failures to make good on his campaign promises spoken and unspoken. This means a strategy to stoke the flames of a political backfire in the midterms in 2026 and in the next presidential elections in 2028.  The trap for the never-Trumpers, the resistance, is that it will be easy to forget to provide a case for being the better alternative. That, too, must be always part of the Democrat's strategy if democracy is to survive a sense of despair and loss of faith in democracy as the better alternative to a king, a dictator, or an oligopoly of billionaires.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/social-media-fans-zucked-again.html

The following is from my posing in 2022, some thoughts on moral character vs transactional personalities.  personalities: https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2022/06/character-counts-january-6-select.html

 It was not that we were warned about Trump being a "transactional " personality, or what got his priority was the best deal he could get. After all, he was the art in "The Art of the Deal". We took it to mean that he was a hard-nosed businessman so he could get the best deal for America in trade with China. Being transactional, a tough negotiator was seen as an asset.   What is emerging is that morals, honesty, good data, religious belief, and reason were secondary or not important to winning the "deal" in politics, as well. What has become obvious from the June 21 January 6 hearing, is that "transactional" regarding Trump meant he was devoid of adhering to any moral or ethical standard or what we call " character'.  The "art of the deal" meant to him he could and did use every tool, even threats to a person's future or personal safety,  without conscience because by being transactional, he had no conscience or moral concerns or behavior constraints or a higher belief system to which he had to bow.. The means justified the end, and the methods he used were anything he could get away with. These means, including threats to a life or jail time or a threat of supporting primary opponents or terrorizing and harassment,  lies, or willful ignorance of facts, were just tools in the toolbox to get the deal that benefitted his own status, position, and power.  Oaths mean nothing. He just ignored the reasons those who refused to go along with his scheme on the basis they had taken an oath to support the Constitution or their state laws or their belief in God.. when they were sworn into office.   They were just words to be glossed over. : Laws and the Constitution were only a challenge to get around or ignore. Loyalty to him the person was absolute; including demanding that those who feared him or wanted his support for their own purposes be willing to break the law or even go to jail. (He did and said publicly he would reward those who stayed loyal through such a consequence of breaking the law with a presidential pardon..as he did with Paul Manafort, and did not do with Michael Cohen)  Using violence and terror tactics have always been considered legitimate tools in his history in politics. In addition to his role and actions revealed in the hearing, it should have been of no surprise, given his political history.,   What is also clear from the actions of Trump and his most loyal co-conspirators and " yes" person allies that a great deal was extended to them regardless of the personal suffering or diminution of power he inflicted on them. The personal pain his actions caused was of no concern.  Failures were losers. Losers were of no use to him. and were left to save themselves in spite of a record of past absolute loyalty to him. Trump's own words are sparking speculation that John  Eastman, the architect of the fake elector plot legal theory, will become the Trump scapegoat. The plot failed. What is also clear is that the winners of his deal were not always the same as the majority viewpoint of those he governed.  . The deal winner was him and those who also benefitted so long as those who benefitted from his policies, forgave his behavior because they liked his policies more,  and voted for him in large enough numbers that were sufficient to keep him in power.