For as long as I can remember, there have been many people who would talk of
"beating the system" whether it was cheating on taxes, or claiming
government benefits that they were not entitled to. Some would openly brag
about it, and others would envy them.
People like this would see people like Trump as a hero. The guy who beat
the system.
Many of these people are poor themselves, but rather than despising people
like Trump, they idolize him.
This is not isolated behavior. Many people look up to people who achieved
something that they could not achieve themselves.
During the depression, there was a black preacher who called himself Daddy
Grace. He traveled throughout the country convincing people to give him
money. They believed that if they gave him money, they would somehow
prosper. This is called the Prosperity Gospel, and still exists today.
Anyway, Daddy Grace accumulated a lot of money. He would drive around in a
limousine and lived in a luxurious mansion. it was felt that these poor
blacks who gave him the last money that they had, somehow took some
vicarious enjoyment in witnessing his lifestyle.
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2020 3:41 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't
Defeat Trump
Of course they do. He was a TV star for years. He has a loyal following
and there is nothing that can be told to his followers that will change
their minds. Just before the 2016 election when that Hollywood Access tape
was made public on which he was talking about how he can assault women
successfully, it didn't hurt him.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Andy Baracco
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2020 6:24 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't
Defeat Trump
Believe it or not, people admire him, and even look to him as some kind of
hero.
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Jarvis" <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2020 3:09 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't
Defeat Trump
Take a good look at Donald Trump. He is exactly the man we've been
building toward. The "successful" corporate man. The false smirk,
the swagger, the "anything goes" sort of a fellow, taking what he
wants and grabbing the pretty girl s butts and treating them like
private possessions. This man who has paid almost nothing in taxes,
but believes the nation owes him its support. The almost Mafia
behavior, cheating in order to win, and winning because he plays by
his own rules and screw your rules. This is the man we chose to lead
our nation. A man who cheats his hired help out of their due, while
calling them a bunch of losers. A man who sells his services to
anyone with enough money to buy him. And we behave as if this man is
our president? At best he's a con artist.
At worst he is a traitor.
But what is really sad is that people defend him and plan to vote for
him, even as he puts it to them.
If Trump loses it will be tough sledding for Joe Biden, but if Trump
wins it will mean the final nail in democracy's coffin.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/29/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't Defeat Trump By Norman
Solomon, Reader Supported News
29 September 20
The big banner headline across the top of the New York Times home
page as Tuesday got underway - "TRUMP'S TAXES SHOW CHRONIC LOSSES AND
YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE" - might give the impression that Donald Trump
is finally on the verge of political downfall. Don't believe it for a
moment.
The same kind of mistaken belief has led many to put undeserved trust
in a corporate-media system. But The New York Times isn't going to
save us.
Neither is The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN or any of the other
mass-media outlets, "liberal" or otherwise.
To a large extent, the corporate media - especially the TV networks
that gave Trump billions of dollars' worth of free airtime while
raking in enormous ad revenues - made him president. The
advertising-and-ratings-bedazzled head of the CBS network, Leslie
Moonves, uttered an infamously emblematic comment eight months before
the 2016 election, in the midst of a campaign that Trump dominated
with TV
coverage:
"It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."
Less well-known are other statements that Moonves also made while
speaking to a Morgan Stanley conference in February 2016. "Man, who
would have expected the ride we're all having right now?" And: "The
money's rolling in and this is fun." And: "I've never seen anything
like this, and this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry.
It's a terrible thing to say.
But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going." And: "Donald's place in this
election is a good thing."
At the same time, CNN president Jeff Zucker - who presided over the
network's "all-Trump-all-the-time" policy during the 2016 primaries -
was privately offering guidance to candidate Trump. Zucker had helped
build the Trump myth years earlier when he was at NBC presiding over
Trump's "Apprentice" show, which turned out to be financially and
politically crucial for his path to the White House.
Under the ongoing reign of the casino economy, the corporate house is
set up to always win.
Now, after doing so much to help create a political Frankenstein,
most of the big media organizations are largely disapproving. While
the right-wing zealots at places like Fox News and aligned talk-radio
and online entities are determined to re-elect Trump, the majority of
mainstream media outlets are down on him. Yet the tenor of their
coverage, including news of the latest polls, should not lull anyone
into a false sense of security about Trump's impending demise - a
demise they've predicted before.
Trump won in 2016 while the bubble inhabited by elite media was
rarified and cut off from the everyday experiences, frustrations and
anger of everyday people. As a consummate demagogue, he knew how to
stoke and pander to resentments against elites - resentments that
mainstream media seemed clueless about.
The corporate media are part of a system that thrives on rampant
income inequality, giving more and more power to the rich while doing
more and more harm to people the less money they have. Media elites
are apt to do fine whether Trump wins or loses the election.
Four years ago, Trump played off the elitism of the establishment to
ply his toxic political product laced with racism, xenophobia and
misogyny. He has governed the same way he ran in 2016, and he hopes
to govern for the next four years the way he's running in 2020 -
using the broadly and vaguely defined establishment as a foil for his
poisonous, pseudo-populist messaging.
Amid the bombshell coverage of Trump's tax records, it might be
tempting to believe the tide has turned and will drown his election
hopes. But that's wishful thinking.
It would take more than two hands to count the times during the last
several years when Trump's preposterous and vile statements - or the
emergence of incontrovertibly damning facts - provided ample reasons
for his political fortunes to turn into toast. Instead, he has
continued to conduct a national master class in demagogy.
Trump would like nothing more than to play his victim card yet again
while media give the impression that he's headed for defeat - a
combination that worked like a charm for him in 2016. It could easily
happen again. With voting now underway, healthy skepticism toward
media spin is badly needed.
Four years ago, corporate media overwhelmingly insisted that the
likelihood of a Trump presidency was remote. On Election Day, The New
York Times categorically pegged the chances of a Trump win at less
than 10 percent.
Now, those who want to prevent another Trump victory should go
all-out to show they won't be fooled again.
