Part Two – No Quick Fix for Our Current Economic Condition

Evil-Echo Empire Update

They’re evil in large part due to their deception of reporting on the news entirely through the prism of their far-right agenda, which inside the bubble always takes precedence over facts, truth & reality.  They have no shame in pushing all manner of distortions, falsehoods & conspiracies propagating extremist viewpoints, doing untold damage to the basic functioning of the American political system.  The echo even piggybacks on Trump’s numerous lies, or conversely, Trump often echoes the lies originating from the echo.  They’ve basically split the GOP through polluting the mindset of their millions of followers, convincing them of ideologies & policies so fanatical, they are unworkable & unsellable….& crazy!  So the party civil war is in full throttle.  And echo-nonsense is the primary reason we have gridlock in DC where no big productive legislation can get through.  In this intra-party battle between the pragmatic rationals & scorched-earth radicals, I keep calling out the radicals, because for the sake of the GOP & the nation we need the rationals to win.

There was once a time years ago Fox actually seemed to be a constructive conservative voice, the type of messaging we need to see more often in countering the mainstream media which typically tends to lean left.  But that gradually began to change as so many in the conservative base were taking their cues from bombastic talk radio & conspiratorial internet sites, so Fox steadily shifted their narrative farther & farther out on the right to match the rhetoric their audience was largely conditioned to believe.  Then along came the Trump-train, a phenomenon that blew in like a hurricane, from which many echo-sources willingly sacrificed their principles since the lure of the ratings was too tempting.  And I’ve been reticent from directly calling Trump’s base stupid, but we can’t help but wonder, especially the more this whole leadership thing escapes him.  As long as the echo controls the conservative mindset, they’ve turned the GOP into the stupid party as party leaders struggle to mimic the desires of their constituents, from which reasonably-minded center-right conservatives are repulsed by it all.

Our President is constantly bashing the real media, with articles below where he even suggests they be investigated (& did you notice he still avoids calling for an investigation of Russia attacking our election with all their hacking & fake ads?).  Trump wants a media like North Korean TV where their leader is given nothing but glowing praise & it’s illegal to offer even a hint of criticism.  So be leery of this unholy collaboration between Trump & his evil-echo, since that’s how a slide into fascism can become reality as we unwittingly enable a would-be dictator, especially if enough people in the base fall for their deceptions.  This mentally-unstable man-child of a President knows carrying through with his destructive nonsensical agenda requires he rule over the roughly 1/3 of the population still in his base, which actually pulling that off necessitates he keeps convincing them the real media is fake & the echo is true (probably his biggest ongoing lie of the 1000+ demonstrable lies since becoming President).  Protecting our free democracy demands we maintain our free press, which by extension means calling out Trump’s repeated lies against the media.

Our prez is incredibly dangerous in his current position, but other than sparking an all-out war with nukes flying in all directions, the greatest danger resides in his attacking the media attempting to disparage their credibility.  Trump knows for him to ever hope to achieve this authoritarian fantasy, his irrational grievances include trying to undermine the pillars of democracy holding our free society together, such as the courts, intelligence agencies, State Dept. & other civic-minded federal employees.  His devilish intentions all revolve around legitimizing his state-run echo, constantly spreading all that fake news his base is unfathomably falling for.  Thank God we do have real news with real journalists holding Trump accountable in preserving our free society.  Dictators cannot function with an objective media calling them out on their falsehoods & misdeeds, which erodes at their credibility where their power largely rests.  And while Trump is calling for equal time on political views in the late-night comedy shows, that would necessitate equal time on talk radio.

The irony should not be lost on us when Trump calls the media fake, it’s really him that’s lying, so he bashes the media in anger because they’re calling him out.  But we have a preposterous number of low-information conservative supporters out there who’ve become convinced if any news doesn’t come from Trump or the echo, it can’t be true.  That’s the thing which scares me the most is the way millions of voters in the GOP base have become so gullible, they could actually fall for some totalitarian demagogue who’s being propped up by his state-run echo propaganda machine, with such an avalanche of misinformation & deception placing us at risk our democracy could slip away from us before we even knew what happened.  I know I’m rambling here, but we must emphasize the true dangers of attacking the free press as Trump is doing.  A very large percentage of GOP supporters have been badly duped, especially over this past decade, which if their toxic reasoning keeps spreading it could ultimately destroy the GOP, which by extension puts America in peril.  And a free press can provide the last line of defense against fascism.  As I’ve often said, don’t think it couldn’t happen here.  Misinformation can destroy a democracy as much as bombs & bullets.

Check out this first article below that’s a very entertaining read exposing the deep state, brought to us by the usual echo-knuckleheads.  The USA Today article below (3rd link) offers a parody featuring 3 of those same knuckleheads, our modern-day version of the 3 Stooges, which we might as well put Rush Dimbulb, Insanity Hannity & Alex Jones into the same deplorables basket & lock them away inside a rubber room.  Right under that, the New Yorker link provides a Trump diagnosis.  As normal we have several links providing updates on the delusional lunacy that is now Fox fake-news.  I have a couple links proving if we look hard enough, it’s actually possible to find real & sane journalists on Fox (Baier, Kraut & Shep are among those who do manage to rise above the din).  There’s also a Mother Jones article on the Russian state media, who sound just like the American rightwing echo.

We also expose from the news articles the ongoing horror in the person of Bannon, who’s a sworn enemy of the GOP & vows to go after GOP incumbents not named Ted Cruz, which is the exact opposite of what we need to do.  That’s the problem with the echo as a whole, whether they realize it or not their agenda is out to destroy the GOP.  The last links below show whether it’s politicians or the public, not only are there real fractures within each party, but the divides between the two parties are wider than ever as we really don’t communicate with people from the other side.

Economy Section

There’s a prevailing anti-establishment sentiment out there in the country that crosses party lines, and maybe that renegade attitude is perfectly justified.  Those with political power in DC have done very well for themselves financially, while a large percentage of their constituents have struggled or fallen through the cracks, yet political leadership have been completely feckless or seem to ignore these very real problems.  So maybe the stodgy old establishment have brought it upon themselves they’ve worn out their welcome, with voters looking to clean house in the hopes whatever new leadership steps in can genuinely represent the people.  But if we do replace a large chunk of what represents the status quo in DC, we’d better be sure there’s something better ready to step in.  From my perspective, the attacks on the establishment are coming from the extremes on both sides, which if we succumb to their wishes of electing like-minded (extreme) leaders, we may unfortunately discover the grass is not greener.  So yes, I’m all for what is often referred to as throw the bums out, so long as the new leaders we replace them with truly have the best interests of the people at heart along with reasoned, well-thought-out, bipartisan policy ideas.

So yes, things should be shook up in DC.  The establishment in both parties are too beholden to their rich donors, big corporate interests and special interests, no doubt wrought with plenty of corruption.  Please check these first few links below, examples of the much bigger debate we should be having.  Some might view such ideas as anti-capitalist or socialist in nature, but we need to be willing to think big, think outside-the-box and do something dramatic!  This the wealthiest nation in history has half if not most of their citizens struggling to make ends meet, so we either fix our problems now to show capitalist free markets can adapt, survive & thrive to the unique challenges of the new global economy, or else the same angry workforce who opted for Trump last year may be just about ready to try out a socialist vision next time.  I don’t want to see a slide towards socialism, since it would take away who we are & rob people of their initiative, but I see the disaster in Trump & enthusiasm behind the Bernie movement, so we should all be forewarned.  This uneven economy needs a major shakeup!  The people know the current system isn’t working, which has brought on this adamant anti-establishment mood.    

So in the links below, the first few articles are more philosophical rather than reporting on recent news stories, but they could be as important as any articles I’ve ever sent.  It’s time Americans are honest with themselves and admit no matter if we stay with establishment politicians or go with those on either the far-right or far-left, NONE of them have the answers.  Solutions are only going to come about through much bigger thinking, seeking transformative changes to the system itself.  When you read those articles, keep in mind these are real problems which must be resolved to avoid drifting towards a more socialist model, but we’re indeed heading that way if we don’t fix capitalism by doing whatever it takes in a variety of ways to put people into meaningful productive careers.  I don’t know whether the ideas presented in those articles are on the right track, but I do know they’ve correctly pegged the problems.  It’s the underlying cause of the voter frustration very evident in last year’s campaigns.  The working class genuinely feel abandoned by the elites.

The evolution of our free-market economy has seen the enormous leverage large corporate interests have gained over their employees, creating such escalating wage/wealth gaps where workers have basically seen zero real wage growth in the last half-century, as living costs keep outpacing wage gains.  It’s time we realize the proposals & political debates we’re hearing in DC either way aren’t going to do squat in attacking the core of our problems.  It’s awfully hard to find remedies when the rhetoric remains in the realm of the petty, the trivial & the partisan.  Cosmetic changes won’t fix this mess, since restoring the American Dream demands we find fundamental changes to the economic system itself.  And this is not uniquely an American issue, as worldwide with economic growth spurring high-tech innovation & automation, workers are generally being left out & left behind.  Let’s find a way to swing the pendulum back to an equilibrium.

Reviewing the other links, the latest monthly jobs report was miserable but distorted by the hurricanes.  Generally, we shouldn’t overreact to any one jobs report, but Trump does.  He crows like a rooster when it’s a good report, but this one we don’t hear a peep other than excuses.  On healthcare, Trump is on a relentless pursuit to sabotage Obamacare so he can turn it around & say I told you so.  He really seems willing to mess up peoples’ healthcare even worse for the sake of optics, rather than trying to fix the system as it is.  But then he’s also reaching out to Schumer on healthcare, so is it possible in Trump’s overall cluelessness, incompetence, recklessness, bumbling & lack of core beliefs, he somehow stumbles into bringing bipartisanship back to DC?  But he’s also bringing up doing block grants back to the states again, so he really has no idea what he wants to do.  In the next set of links, true to form, you can bet the President is also lying about tax cuts.  If everyone can get massive tax breaks as he says, our deficits would explode.  Small businesses without the wherewithal to take deductions like the big guys are really the ones needing a tax break.  There’s never any rhyme or reason (or thought behind) to any of Trump’s proposals, he just wants to pass anything so he has something to bloviate over.  It’s true shared robust growth is the only way out of this mess with regard to growing wages & reducing deficits, but that’s going to take much more than whatever a new tax plan might deliver.

Other articles touch on what could prove to be a hugely significant case.  The best first step in finally fixing DC, & maybe even a good first step towards uniting as a nation & working together towards common goals, is to eliminate the atrocity that has become gerrymandering which serves to usher in a whole line of extremists into the House of Representatives.  Let’s just hope & pray the High Court makes the right call.  I’ve often complained about the 80% in my evangelical faith who voted for Trump mainly based on a wish for a conservative court, especially with a seat open at the time of the election.  Careful for what we wish for.  While over the years we’ve seen no signs of repealing Roe v Wade, what we did see is how George W. begat a Judge Alito which begat the Citizens United decision.  Could Trump begetting Judge Gorsuch result in a similarly disastrous gerrymandering decision?  Another ironic development is Trump by restricting access to birth control, it will surely cause the number of abortions to go up.

Finally we have Puerto Rico in the links at the bottom.  The relief aid response to the interior of the island has been abysmal.  With so many roads impassable, the emergency supplies needed to come in a lot more by helicopter.  We know the power in most places won’t come back anytime soon, but regrettably many still lack food & water.  The Fed actions have come in way too late & are still woefully inadequate.  Since the leader sets the tone & establishes priorities, Trump really botched this one.  Perplexingly, the only possible reasons any American would still support Trump comes down to this.  Either they don’t want to admit their mistake, aren’t really paying attention, or are so over-the-top hyper-partisan and march to the echo’s deceptive mind-control they’re just not thinking straight.

She looks too cool for school….