Greenwald debunks the narrative of Trump as an authoritarian threat, but cautions that risk is real… from the incoming administration.
As I told the online program Rising this week when asked what the worst media failings of 2020 are, I continue to view the brute censorship by Facebook of incriminating reporting about Joe Biden in the weeks before the election as one of the most significant, and menacing, political events of the last several years. That this censorship was announced by a Facebook corporate spokesman who had spent his career previously as a Democratic Party apparatchik provided the perfect symbolic expression of this evolving danger…
The dominant strain of U.S. neoliberalism — the ruling coalition that has now consolidated power again — is authoritarianism. They view those who oppose them and reject their pieties not as adversaries to be engaged but as enemies, domestic terrorists, bigots, extremists and violence-inciters to be fired, censored, and silenced. And they have on their side — beyond the bulk of the corporate media, and the intelligence community, and Wall Street — an unprecedentedly powerful consortium of tech monopolies willing and able to exert greater control over a population that has rarely, if ever, been so divided, drained, deprived and anemic.
All of these authoritarian powers will, ironically, be invoked and justified in the name of stopping authoritarianism — not from those who wield power but from the movement that was just removed from power. Those who spent four years shrieking to great profit about the dangers of lurking “fascism” will — without realizing the irony — now use this merger of state and corporate power to consolidate their own authority, control the contours of permissible debate, and silence those who challenge them even further. Those most vocally screaming about growing authoritarianism in the U.S. over the last four years were very right in their core warning, but very wrong about the real source of that danger.
You sound so sure, when it clearly says unconfirmed. Just like the earlier situation.
This is new unconfirmed intel, of course it couldn’t have been investigated before it existed…
Both will be investigated (both China and Russia are foreign adversaries) after the Russian puppet stops running interference for our foreign adversaries. But Trump will probably pardon Xi, Putin, MBS, and Ghislaine on Jan 19. Preemptive pardons work for all crimes right, so he can pardon foreign terrorists too?
Trump is attacking the Georgia GOP Secretary of State over a brother who doesn’t exist. The real Raffensperger and his family have received violence and death threats. Trump says nothing about this. He has completely abdicated his responsibility for law and order and threatens people with death.
Oh, yes, in case you’re unsure, this is Trump lying, as usual. Not a rumor, or idle criticism, an actual fact that Trump is lying.
Sorry to be bringing a money conversation here, but this is also about politics and political stuff, so:
As a person who has been retired now for over thirty-five years, I’ve not been keen on the stock market. It’s because when you own stock you never know how much money you actually have, something as a retiree I view as important to know.
Despite that, I happen to own this stock in a bank (don’t ask). All during the Obama-Biden years the stock was worth roughly thirty bucks per share. Once Trump became POTUS the stock pretty much doubled. Right now it’s at (roughly) sixty-five bucks, which is a lot better than thirty bucks.
But in all likelihood Trump is finished and Biden soon will be in the driver’s seat. I’m worried the stock will go back to thirty bucks and I want out. Biden has different priorities than Trump did. Those other priorities do not do anything to enhance the value of my stock.
I’ve already managed to unload a hundred shares at a price north of $66, which was sweet. Now the price is down from that as, more and more, we draw closer to a Biden takeover of government. Today is the last day I can sell in 2020. What a dilemma. Dear Lord I wish Biden had lost!!
The Trump corporate tax cut was very good for bank stocks, since banks are typically profitable and, unlike tech companies with their offshore IP tax dodges (making me hungry for a Dutch sandwich), the banks tend to pay the full corporate tax rate. By cutting the tax rates to be more inline with global ones, their after tax earnings were significantly increased and consequently the P/E for their new higher earnings meant the prices saw big moves.
There has also been a big trend towards consolidation and smaller banks getting bought up at a premium by larger ones, in part driven by increasingly onerous compliance costs for AML and KYC regulations, plus Sarbanes Oxley as well from a while back.
If you want to PM me the ticker, I might be able to give you a better read, but in short, I think things are probably still bullish on the banking sector and Biden may or may not hit the corporate tax rate and they haven’t stolen GA yet…
Thanks, xerty. While I have the distinct feeling the stock price of this bank is headed south because of Biden, it is difficult for me to know exactly how quickly Biden’s policies will inflict the damage. The stock market generally, after all, operates on anticipation. Players there are gonna wake up, but when? I will give it another week or two.
Of course if we can salvage at least one of the Georgia Senate seats I will have a much more hopeful view of my prospects. If the Democrats take them both I expect the stock market to react in a seriously negative manner. Trouble is, we will be fortunate to know even a week hence who actually won.
It all comes down to: exactly how much damage to our country will Biden be able to do. If he wins both seats in Georgia, the damage could be rather overwhelming. And he already took the state through cheating, with the able support of a judge who is Stacey Abrams’ sister!!
Biden will obstruct the damage as much as he’ll cause it. He is not an extremist, and he wont just bow down to them.
The big thing is that Biden is a professional, career politician - so most of the time when he shoots down a radical proposal, we will never hear about. Which will lead a lot of people to just assume it doesnt happen.
I dunno. Still have not forgotten how things went forward with the same sex marriage issue during the Obama-Biden years. President Obama, to his credit, was personally hesitant to diverge from 5000 years of human history.
It was Vice President Biden who championed same sex marriages, lobbied his boss, and finally brought President Obama along albeit he still harbored some hesitation. This even though Biden is supposedly respectful of his Catholic upbringing while President Obama claims no such strong ties to any traditional religion. And there is more:
Biden is easily enough of a politician to realize his left wing would much prefer having Harris in the big chair instead of him. He will do what is necessary, I suspect, to hang onto that chair which he sought for so long. After all:
It has taken Biden since 1988 finally to luck into an American electorate stupid enough to make him POTUS. Earlier American voters, over all those years, had the smarts to realize instinctively that Biden is not hewn from Presidential timber. Biden was patient and he waited for a sufficiency of smart voters to assume room temperature, then he tried one last time and was able to cheat his way to victory among the present crop of far less discerning voters. Having managed to hoodwink today’s electorate in such manner, Biden will surely be willing to do anything whatsoever necessary to cling to power.
Well yeah. Equal treatment is Christian. Read the New Testament. Substitute LGBT for all of the prostitute references, since it’s a similar ostracization in modern times.
“Marriage licenses” from the State are not the same as the Sacrament of “Marriage” in Christianity, they were never one and the same. By definition, they’re civil unions (in any church or religion’s view… unless it’s one of the Islamic countries where the church IS the State.).
I’d rather the government get out of the marriage business altogether. But if you’re going to regulate it, drawing arbitrary lines that basically mandates who you’re allowed to like doesnt seem kosher.
Yeah. Whatever. When it comes to Popes, John Paul II is worth 1000 times as much as Francis, who is a liberal goofball. You see, I was alive during the entirety of John Paul II’s Papacy. The guy was a star who helped lead millions out from beneath the communist boot heel. By comparison, Francis is a nothing burger.
Poland > Argentina . . . . . and it’s not even close!
I don’t think that word means what you think it means. Legally, gouging is excessively raising prices during a disaster on basic necessities like food, water, or gas.
Sure, I’ll concede the election was a disaster, but a high end DC hotel is hardly a necessity. Everyone from hotels (high vacation season) to airlines (popular holidays) to Uber practice their own version of surge pricing where high demand times command higher prices.
I think it’s great for Trump to fleece Democrats. After all, their’s is the party of rich, effete, elite, snobbish, ivory tower know-it-alls. They deserve to pay extra, big time!
Yeah, there’s less issues for dates where he’s out of office. Still falls into emoluments (he’s still in office right now) but not as directly as the tens of millions he’s gotten away with stealing.
He also won’t be in direct violation of the rental agreement for the hotel anymore after Jan 20.
