One of the strange things about political campaigns is that irrelevant issues often dominate the discussion. Meanwhile, issues that can have a real impact on people's lives are frequently ignored.
Republicans have made it beyond clear that SS and Medicare are on the chopping block in 2023 and beyond if they hold any power at all. They have also made it clear that they intend to use the debt limit, up to and including default, to extract concessions from Biden and the Democrats that they can never get legislatively. And in spite of it, the traditional media is 100% focused on "Biden's inflation", rising gas prices (that are actually not), and rampant crime in the streets (while ignoring the fact that crime is much worse in Republican controlled states and cities than in Democratic controlled ones). And the race tightens, and Republicans are likely to win. Why does the corporate media hate America and the American people?
One answer to your question is that the corporate media is run by Republicans who like Republican policies because those policies benefit them along every dimension. If a fraction of the money spent by Democrats to support Democratic candidates were instead spent on non-profit local media outlets with journalistic integrity and support for public media (the U.S. spends 4% of the average per capita investment by developed democracies in public media), corporate media would likely be more anchored in reality.
Oh I think the corporate media is owned mostly by Republicans. Bezos is a Republican, and Zuckerberg is, too. Heck, my local paper is owned by a Republican. Who owns WSJ and Fox News and who does he align with? NYT aligns left of center.
Bezos, Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Gates, Cook... the list goes on. They are ALL either Democrats or registered Independent that vote for Democrats.
Only Musk is swimming against the Democrat tide, but he was a registered Democrat and is states clearly that he is not a Republican.
Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street are the three largest shareholder of all the large corporate media and big tech companies... including Fox News (Murdoch owns the most - 39% - in the case of Fox News, but add up the Wall Street ownership and is is over 30%). These Wall Street firms manage the assets of the billionaires. The billionaires are, by far, more in the Democrat camp these days.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter: they are all oligarchs and want their Robber Baron days to blossom and grow. The oligarchs use us to divide and disrupt. This business of Democrats vs Republicans is ridiculous. To the very wealthy we are just bugs anyway and they don’t bother themselves with our complaints or our views. They just want to control things like the Robber Barons that they are. So you are doing the work for them so they can continue turning everything to their advantage. Enjoy being their cog.
The Democrats support the WEF globalist Great Reset project that the Oligarchs want. The climate change hoax is a part of that. Woke ideology with ESG and DEI is a part of that. The defund cops movement is a part of that.
I do not disagree that the oligarchs care not for policies but for the continued consolidation of their holding and the growth of their wealth, but either the Democrats are willfully enabling it or else they are useful fools supporting it.
It is a partisan issues only because the Democrat party, in their political platform and agenda, are lock-stock-and-barrel in sync with the same interests. Some establishment Republicans are too, but not the Trump Republicans that have taken over that party.
Hey everyone, look! It's the execrable Frank Lee who is like a pigeon, defecating and leaving filthy spoor everywhere he goes. Always with the insults too. What did Julie ever do to you?
Adam son, you are hypersensitive and you should seek some therapy to help make you be better. Your bar for "insult" is so low you keep tripping over it.
Hey Frank. We all know that you don't really believe the garbage that you spout, nor do you have any real defense for doing so. Just another day at the troll farm right Frank Lee, you old fraud? Or should I say Фрэнк Ли? (for those who don't know, that is the execrable fraud, Frank Lee's name in the language of his Russian employer).
"To extract concessions?" A polite way of describing extortion brought to you by republican thugs and gangsters. If only we could get REAL patriots into office eh?
Like the way they use the corrupted Supreme Court, Republicans know that their unpopular policies can never be extracted legislatively, therefore they use gangster tactics to impose them on the rest of us.
It’s in their plan. I know some of us who are knocking doors for candidates are mentioning it to Seniors. FYI, Rick Scott who is one of the primary people pushing it was worth approximately $260,000,000 in 2018.
This is so important to so many of us, why are democratic ads and the media ignoring it? Thank you Judd for highlighting what could be a catastrophic policy. As you point out, more needs to be said.
Fear-mongering and lies are the Repug Dish-of-the-Day. They buy and sell voters for votes . . . With one aim: to retain POWER. Not to serve; not to promote the greater good; only to build power, just to turn around and abuse it. They are fascists. Tyrants. And their priorities are corrupt.
Great summary - any insight on why Dems not advertising nor using SS /Medicare as key talking point everywhere along w choice?
I just don't understand - why has / is GOP so much more effective with PR and getting lies in headlines while Dems seem silent on important matters that could actually sway voters? Super frustrating....is it simply a marketing issue? Bringing this to the forefront may even get some companies to withhold dark money if seniors became enraged or fearful and vocal...
Hundreds of millions of dollars keeps the public square flooded with lies. The Dem messages get drowned out, and the gullible will believe the lies if they are repeated enough times.
Michael Moore made a similar point in his email newsletter this morning. Why isn't main stream media covering the important points leading up to the election? It's disheartening and totally not surprising and it always leads back to the money.
I'm baffled about republican strategy for the mid-terms. The vast majority of voters support Medicare and social security, so why risk losing that support by proposing cuts to these programmes? It doesn't make sense. Don't the people who claim SS benefits and access Medicare know that these programmes are under threat and aren't they going to vote overwhelmingly against the republican agenda as a result. Please explain the GOP thought process to me.
Alan, like you I've often wondered how people can vote against their own self-interest, how they can vote for a party that proposes to cut SS and Medicare funding. But I believe the real appeal of neo-fascism is not about "economic self-interest"; I think it goes far beyond economic issues.
On a much deeper level of self-interest, neo-fascism appeals to people's "identity" and "status" as the true original Americans. For those who feel they’ve lost their rightful place of prominence in America, who feel threatened by the forces of demographic change, whose identity and status have been thrown into doubt, for these people politics has become an arena, not of economic issues, but of anger, resentment, prejudice and hate.
That tiki-torch-carrying 2017 mob chanting "Jews will not replace us" and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists are extreme examples, but even for the so-called silent majority of Americans who support the GOP, by literally wrapping themselves in the flag, by wearing clothes festooned with American symbols and by holding rallies resplendent with flags and banners - these aggrieved Americans are loudly and visibly proclaiming one simple but potent message: “we are the true Americans!”
So I think in answer to your question about how voters can risk losing their benefits, this Politics of Resentment goes way beyond economic self-interest. Hyper-nationalism transforms their personal grievances into a kind of fervent patriotic duty to save the country, and to save themselves, from these scary "others" who are out to replace them. That's the power of "take back our country."
You're so right about these Democrats and their love of cops and prisons, even though I wish you weren't. On the topic of raising the age to receive social security, that's a double fucking as life expectancy declines because this society is run by criminals who don't give a good goddamn about our collective well being.
The Democrats have a significant political crime problem in that they both explicitly and implicitly… and collectively supported the BLM protests and violence and then scapegoated law enforcement for crime and incarceration in the black community. They have used their media connections to denigrate, humiliate and harass police.. to negative brand the profession as all racists and being responsible for low socioeconomic outcomes in the black community. It has all been for politics. And now that the political payment is coming due here comes the deflective spin. And then to make the case that the senate is not responsible because policing is local, but that Democrats are helping by spending boatloads of other peoples money to hire more police… well, get the cognitive dissonance?
And with respect to Medicare and Social Security cuts… it is just a lie that Republicans have the collective interest for that. They certainly want to cut spending that the Democrats have jacked through the roof of fiscal sanity. The Department of Education and EPA for example… buh bye. 87,000 IRS agents… buh bye.
Please pull up interview Fox News Anchor John Roberts did with Rick Scott & learn about his plan to cut SS & Medicare. This is the problem with citizens such as yourself - the lack of critical thinking skills and fact checking and proud to be ignorant of facts listening only to those like yourself.
Check out violent crime statistics - they are down. Non violent is up. I hope you have as much passion for law & order for the insurrectionists & former disgraced Pres as BLM. If you really care about crime and lives, care about the Uvaldes babies, etc. Doesn't all lives matter?!?
You're worried about protecting rich folks from paying taxes yet are they using their brain cells for your interests - again zero critical thinking skills.
There is no plan to cut. There is talk about raising the age limits because people are living a lot longer than when the old age limits were set. Rational policy.
You are just completely wrong that crime is down. Crime has exploded in all the big cities that Democrats run. It has exploded in the border towns that have been impacted by the Biden open borders project.
I have no interest to protect rich folk from paying taxes because rich folk already pay 80% of the taxes.
Spewing hate and division... that is what you President and Party does, not me. I don't hate in politics. And I don't want division, I want to defeat those that are causing such massive social and economic destruction and replace them with leaders that will Make American Great Again.
I assume you're unable to read as Rick Scott's plan is a cut and potential elimination in 5 years from passage. Read it then respond.
The GOP trick on taxes is to focus on 'income tax'; but there's FICA taxes which only those with income under ~$147,000 in wages pay, sales and State taxes are generally flat and thus more of burden to low/middle income folks. So using your critical thinking skills that translates into top 1% making 21% of income and paying 24% of 'taxes' etc. The avg wealthy person pays an 8% fed tax rate! I'm adding math assignment to your reading assignment before you respond.
Regarding the border- are you Native American? If not, when did your folks 'cross the border'? Get over it! We need the labor resource anyway.
Those of us who wait longer than normal for refunds would probably agree that the IRS needs more employees and newer systems.
Quite frankly, I agree that the IRS shouldn't need this influx of capital and personnel. Most people don't really need to file as the IRS already receives the needed details from employers.
With the accounting, tax preparing and refund loan industries massively successful lobbying, that the industry is a major employer and that the industry has entrepreneurial opportunities, don't expect any legal changes that would lessen the IRS responsibilities.
@Frank Lee, given this reality, what would be your solution to fix the IRS' issues?
There is no reason that we need more IRS agents as they have all the data from Tax returns and they can use AI to give them a list of problems they can audit.
What we need instead is a completely redone and simplified tax code. The complexity of the tax code is a cat and mouse game where they mouse is always at advantage. Tax CPAs working for large corporations always know WAY more about the tax code than does the average IRS agent. Adding more does not help.
Democrats shouldn’t miss the opportunity to discuss and debate crime on the political stage. I found this report from Thom Hartmann an eye opener as to the cause of crime. So if we can address the cause, we can effect a solution.
According to "fact checker" Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, Democrats saying the GOP wants to cut those programs merits four Pinocchios. He's a laughable right wing hack masquerading as a fact checker.
I have no quarrel with this, but a bit of a quibble. I believe the statistics support a very noticeable rise in crime around the country. I live in Milwaukee, and I first thought it was a local rise, but it really does seem to be nationwide problem. Of course the republicans, based on past behavior, will do nothing about it and in fact likely exacerbate it by cutting the Biden program. But that is why I think we are hearing so much about crime.
Republicans have made it beyond clear that SS and Medicare are on the chopping block in 2023 and beyond if they hold any power at all. They have also made it clear that they intend to use the debt limit, up to and including default, to extract concessions from Biden and the Democrats that they can never get legislatively. And in spite of it, the traditional media is 100% focused on "Biden's inflation", rising gas prices (that are actually not), and rampant crime in the streets (while ignoring the fact that crime is much worse in Republican controlled states and cities than in Democratic controlled ones). And the race tightens, and Republicans are likely to win. Why does the corporate media hate America and the American people?
One answer to your question is that the corporate media is run by Republicans who like Republican policies because those policies benefit them along every dimension. If a fraction of the money spent by Democrats to support Democratic candidates were instead spent on non-profit local media outlets with journalistic integrity and support for public media (the U.S. spends 4% of the average per capita investment by developed democracies in public media), corporate media would likely be more anchored in reality.
The corporate media in a nutshell. Thank you Julie.
The corporate media is owned by the billionaires through their Wall Street holdings and they align with Democrats. Catch up.
Oh I think the corporate media is owned mostly by Republicans. Bezos is a Republican, and Zuckerberg is, too. Heck, my local paper is owned by a Republican. Who owns WSJ and Fox News and who does he align with? NYT aligns left of center.
HAHAHAHAHA!
Bezos, Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Gates, Cook... the list goes on. They are ALL either Democrats or registered Independent that vote for Democrats.
Only Musk is swimming against the Democrat tide, but he was a registered Democrat and is states clearly that he is not a Republican.
Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street are the three largest shareholder of all the large corporate media and big tech companies... including Fox News (Murdoch owns the most - 39% - in the case of Fox News, but add up the Wall Street ownership and is is over 30%). These Wall Street firms manage the assets of the billionaires. The billionaires are, by far, more in the Democrat camp these days.
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/futureofmedia/index-us-mainstream-media-ownership
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter: they are all oligarchs and want their Robber Baron days to blossom and grow. The oligarchs use us to divide and disrupt. This business of Democrats vs Republicans is ridiculous. To the very wealthy we are just bugs anyway and they don’t bother themselves with our complaints or our views. They just want to control things like the Robber Barons that they are. So you are doing the work for them so they can continue turning everything to their advantage. Enjoy being their cog.
The Democrats support the WEF globalist Great Reset project that the Oligarchs want. The climate change hoax is a part of that. Woke ideology with ESG and DEI is a part of that. The defund cops movement is a part of that.
I do not disagree that the oligarchs care not for policies but for the continued consolidation of their holding and the growth of their wealth, but either the Democrats are willfully enabling it or else they are useful fools supporting it.
It is a partisan issues only because the Democrat party, in their political platform and agenda, are lock-stock-and-barrel in sync with the same interests. Some establishment Republicans are too, but not the Trump Republicans that have taken over that party.
Hey everyone, look! It's the execrable Frank Lee who is like a pigeon, defecating and leaving filthy spoor everywhere he goes. Always with the insults too. What did Julie ever do to you?
Adam son, you are hypersensitive and you should seek some therapy to help make you be better. Your bar for "insult" is so low you keep tripping over it.
Hey Frank. We all know that you don't really believe the garbage that you spout, nor do you have any real defense for doing so. Just another day at the troll farm right Frank Lee, you old fraud? Or should I say Фрэнк Ли? (for those who don't know, that is the execrable fraud, Frank Lee's name in the language of his Russian employer).
The corporate media, as well as most corporations, only care about money... that is the only thing they care about.
"To extract concessions?" A polite way of describing extortion brought to you by republican thugs and gangsters. If only we could get REAL patriots into office eh?
Like the way they use the corrupted Supreme Court, Republicans know that their unpopular policies can never be extracted legislatively, therefore they use gangster tactics to impose them on the rest of us.
Indeed Peter. Agreed.
Corporate media is the right wing. They just regurgitate right wing talking points
Here’s something from Nancy Pelosi (9/19/22)detailing the Republican call to cut Social Security and Medicare.
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/91922-1
It’s in their plan. I know some of us who are knocking doors for candidates are mentioning it to Seniors. FYI, Rick Scott who is one of the primary people pushing it was worth approximately $260,000,000 in 2018.
This is so important to so many of us, why are democratic ads and the media ignoring it? Thank you Judd for highlighting what could be a catastrophic policy. As you point out, more needs to be said.
Fear-mongering and lies are the Repug Dish-of-the-Day. They buy and sell voters for votes . . . With one aim: to retain POWER. Not to serve; not to promote the greater good; only to build power, just to turn around and abuse it. They are fascists. Tyrants. And their priorities are corrupt.
Great summary - any insight on why Dems not advertising nor using SS /Medicare as key talking point everywhere along w choice?
I just don't understand - why has / is GOP so much more effective with PR and getting lies in headlines while Dems seem silent on important matters that could actually sway voters? Super frustrating....is it simply a marketing issue? Bringing this to the forefront may even get some companies to withhold dark money if seniors became enraged or fearful and vocal...
Hundreds of millions of dollars keeps the public square flooded with lies. The Dem messages get drowned out, and the gullible will believe the lies if they are repeated enough times.
Michael Moore made a similar point in his email newsletter this morning. Why isn't main stream media covering the important points leading up to the election? It's disheartening and totally not surprising and it always leads back to the money.
I'm baffled about republican strategy for the mid-terms. The vast majority of voters support Medicare and social security, so why risk losing that support by proposing cuts to these programmes? It doesn't make sense. Don't the people who claim SS benefits and access Medicare know that these programmes are under threat and aren't they going to vote overwhelmingly against the republican agenda as a result. Please explain the GOP thought process to me.
Alan, like you I've often wondered how people can vote against their own self-interest, how they can vote for a party that proposes to cut SS and Medicare funding. But I believe the real appeal of neo-fascism is not about "economic self-interest"; I think it goes far beyond economic issues.
On a much deeper level of self-interest, neo-fascism appeals to people's "identity" and "status" as the true original Americans. For those who feel they’ve lost their rightful place of prominence in America, who feel threatened by the forces of demographic change, whose identity and status have been thrown into doubt, for these people politics has become an arena, not of economic issues, but of anger, resentment, prejudice and hate.
That tiki-torch-carrying 2017 mob chanting "Jews will not replace us" and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists are extreme examples, but even for the so-called silent majority of Americans who support the GOP, by literally wrapping themselves in the flag, by wearing clothes festooned with American symbols and by holding rallies resplendent with flags and banners - these aggrieved Americans are loudly and visibly proclaiming one simple but potent message: “we are the true Americans!”
So I think in answer to your question about how voters can risk losing their benefits, this Politics of Resentment goes way beyond economic self-interest. Hyper-nationalism transforms their personal grievances into a kind of fervent patriotic duty to save the country, and to save themselves, from these scary "others" who are out to replace them. That's the power of "take back our country."
https://neofascism.substack.com/
You're so right about these Democrats and their love of cops and prisons, even though I wish you weren't. On the topic of raising the age to receive social security, that's a double fucking as life expectancy declines because this society is run by criminals who don't give a good goddamn about our collective well being.
I think Speaker Pelosi and/or her staff read PI. She’s giving a live interview right now and has mentioned SS and Medicare at least twice.
The media is failing to inform the public of the dangers our Democracy is facing.
There is a lot of political spin here.
The Democrats have a significant political crime problem in that they both explicitly and implicitly… and collectively supported the BLM protests and violence and then scapegoated law enforcement for crime and incarceration in the black community. They have used their media connections to denigrate, humiliate and harass police.. to negative brand the profession as all racists and being responsible for low socioeconomic outcomes in the black community. It has all been for politics. And now that the political payment is coming due here comes the deflective spin. And then to make the case that the senate is not responsible because policing is local, but that Democrats are helping by spending boatloads of other peoples money to hire more police… well, get the cognitive dissonance?
And with respect to Medicare and Social Security cuts… it is just a lie that Republicans have the collective interest for that. They certainly want to cut spending that the Democrats have jacked through the roof of fiscal sanity. The Department of Education and EPA for example… buh bye. 87,000 IRS agents… buh bye.
Frank
Please pull up interview Fox News Anchor John Roberts did with Rick Scott & learn about his plan to cut SS & Medicare. This is the problem with citizens such as yourself - the lack of critical thinking skills and fact checking and proud to be ignorant of facts listening only to those like yourself.
Check out violent crime statistics - they are down. Non violent is up. I hope you have as much passion for law & order for the insurrectionists & former disgraced Pres as BLM. If you really care about crime and lives, care about the Uvaldes babies, etc. Doesn't all lives matter?!?
You're worried about protecting rich folks from paying taxes yet are they using their brain cells for your interests - again zero critical thinking skills.
There is no plan to cut. There is talk about raising the age limits because people are living a lot longer than when the old age limits were set. Rational policy.
You are just completely wrong that crime is down. Crime has exploded in all the big cities that Democrats run. It has exploded in the border towns that have been impacted by the Biden open borders project.
I have no interest to protect rich folk from paying taxes because rich folk already pay 80% of the taxes.
Spewing hate and division... that is what you President and Party does, not me. I don't hate in politics. And I don't want division, I want to defeat those that are causing such massive social and economic destruction and replace them with leaders that will Make American Great Again.
I assume you're unable to read as Rick Scott's plan is a cut and potential elimination in 5 years from passage. Read it then respond.
The GOP trick on taxes is to focus on 'income tax'; but there's FICA taxes which only those with income under ~$147,000 in wages pay, sales and State taxes are generally flat and thus more of burden to low/middle income folks. So using your critical thinking skills that translates into top 1% making 21% of income and paying 24% of 'taxes' etc. The avg wealthy person pays an 8% fed tax rate! I'm adding math assignment to your reading assignment before you respond.
Regarding the border- are you Native American? If not, when did your folks 'cross the border'? Get over it! We need the labor resource anyway.
That's the definitely of a cut, just like all those Republican tax cuts that screw our budget, but you have no problem with that.
When Social Security was enacted the retirement age was set at 65... the same as male life expectancy.
No, not a cut.
But oil drilling permits were certainly cut.
Fox News reporting strikes again!
Can we look at that 87K number logically please?!
Those of us who wait longer than normal for refunds would probably agree that the IRS needs more employees and newer systems.
Quite frankly, I agree that the IRS shouldn't need this influx of capital and personnel. Most people don't really need to file as the IRS already receives the needed details from employers.
With the accounting, tax preparing and refund loan industries massively successful lobbying, that the industry is a major employer and that the industry has entrepreneurial opportunities, don't expect any legal changes that would lessen the IRS responsibilities.
@Frank Lee, given this reality, what would be your solution to fix the IRS' issues?
There is no reason that we need more IRS agents as they have all the data from Tax returns and they can use AI to give them a list of problems they can audit.
What we need instead is a completely redone and simplified tax code. The complexity of the tax code is a cat and mouse game where they mouse is always at advantage. Tax CPAs working for large corporations always know WAY more about the tax code than does the average IRS agent. Adding more does not help.
I do not identify with most Republican positions, but I do agree with raising the age for both Medicare and Social Security. It is common sense.
Better to remove the income cap on payroll deductions.
Why? Honestly curious.
Democrats shouldn’t miss the opportunity to discuss and debate crime on the political stage. I found this report from Thom Hartmann an eye opener as to the cause of crime. So if we can address the cause, we can effect a solution.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartmann/p/america-doesnt-understand-that-inequality?r=1zns0&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
According to "fact checker" Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, Democrats saying the GOP wants to cut those programs merits four Pinocchios. He's a laughable right wing hack masquerading as a fact checker.
Agreed. He's not "checking facts". In fact, he's holding their (RW) beer.
The next raising of the national debt vote may will be the constitutional crisis that breaks the Republic.
I have no quarrel with this, but a bit of a quibble. I believe the statistics support a very noticeable rise in crime around the country. I live in Milwaukee, and I first thought it was a local rise, but it really does seem to be nationwide problem. Of course the republicans, based on past behavior, will do nothing about it and in fact likely exacerbate it by cutting the Biden program. But that is why I think we are hearing so much about crime.