We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Donald Trump vs. the Mainstream Media

Click here to access article by William Blum from Foreign Policy Journal.

The main way that capitalists have always formed the dominant class in the US is with the power that their money gives them. With their huge concentrations of money they control how elections are conducted: how candidates are selected and backed with money, how political parties are funded, how mainstream media shapes the information about these candidates, and how other people are shut out of the political process. 

But this election season offered a rare new candidate, Donald Trump, who was not under the control of the current directors of the ruling capitalist class. This candidate had accumulated his own pile of money while playing in the game of capitalism. And, what he says is not carefully scripted by these directors, and mainstream media which is owned and controlled by the capitalist directorate doesn't like his maverick ways, and especially does not like the way Trump often challenges their lies. Watch the 12:40m video in the article to see an illustration of this.
Vulgar, crude, racist and ultra-sexist though he is, Donald Trump can still see how awful the American mainstream media is.