Predatory Press People

The most effective predators can hide in open sight, their kill methodology undetected, so they can successfully hunt again & again.

Such are the top American news people. Over the past five years Matt Lauer reportedly earned over US$100 million. Lauer's on-air persona is "just a friendly bloke" (his recent scoop eviscerating bad-boy swimmer Ryan Lochte was depicted in a sitting room, Lauer without socks). But Matt's $28m annual salary surely shows he's not your simple 'Bro ...

Anderson Cooper is a pretty face earning over $10 million every year from his reporting. Disarming and debonair, Anderson is steely strong & deceptive -- or he wouldn't be where he is.

News is deliberately entwined with entertainment. We're deceived by daily reporting and duped into overseas wars. Breathless intrigue drives our democracies, cynically steered by the powers of media. We've already endured a professional actor as U.S. President -- Worse is on the way...

Of course, behind the scenes are the real media barons: Rupert Murdoch has huge powers -- and a fortune of over US$10,000,000,000. ($10 billion)

If you're fortunate enough ever to have a microphone thrust to your face, remember behind the interviewer are businessmen who profit from scandal.
Best Shut Up.

My Experience of Counterfeit Capitalism

For most of my life, I've felt dog-eat-dog capitalism was unreasonable. Many people are born to difficulty, or temporarily weak. Others have huge advantages.

I've felt our communities should assist neighbors in need.

America's system of so-called free enterprise & market capitalism nonetheless provided some foundations for my life. Agree or disagree, it was a mechanism allowing calculated prediction and an underpinning for action. Somewhat understanding risks, everyday I made speculative choices based on a somewhat stable world view.

The bailout of 2008 changed my view of the world. Simply, the leadership elite bailed-out their friends, giving huge public funds to glaring, unmistakable losers (who were personally already wealthy), and absolutely undermined our system.

Bad managers should have lost their jobs: they were retained -- and rewarded.

Failed firms should have fertilized those enterprises more cautious & agile. Instead, the defeated status-quo were pushed forward, assisted by public money. It was a major & fundamental breach of global trade rules: American politicos gave state subsidies to prop-up chosen private enterprises. The dimension of accountability was shredded, torn-down, and subsequently ignored.
We had been forced to buy into the game of the Capitalist Pigs (where most of us are born disadvantaged); then, they suspended rules for their players, and assisted the recovery of our masters and overseers.

The toxic 1% helps itself.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Corporate Stooge

Needing to resign in disgrace just before the 2016 Democratic Party Convention could not further dull Debbie Wasserman Schultz. An establishment insider from south Florida, the former DemParty Chair was immediately named (an) Honorary Chairperson of the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign.

Is this person a public servant?   ... a corporatist hack for our 1%?
Is the U.S. Congresswoman innocent & pure? Just slightly nasty?
Or a parasitic octopus sucking life & wealth to benefit her masters?

Was Mrs. Clinton forced to sacrifice her loyal lackey as coverup? ... Was Dirty Debbie ousted as Party Chair simply for doing as ordered -- to bring Clinton to the White House? Do I sniff a SCAPEGOAT?

Debbie's sure to return (link)... like Clinton, she's a zombie rogue

Note: Just after this posting, mindwatch.com suddenly received many thousands of new hits from Israel -- Debbie fans or extended family? ...her south Florida constituency took no notice of this blog.

My Vietnam War Lesson

US war in Vietnam and surrounding nations ended over 40 years ago. It was a hugely costly struggle: terrible injuries, tragic loss of life, cruel social upheaval, threat of death for people throughout Indochina (and young male Americans via forced conscription), excessive 'defense' spending, destruction of environment, betrayal of trust.

It's the last which continues to haunt many people. We are told the war is over, with no reckoning. The many errors and crimes were poorly counted, unanswered and seemingly forgotten. The U.S. leadership & ruling class dodged any Truth & Reconciliation Commission... Should wholesale destruction on such scale be tolerated with no analysis? Should trans-global butchery be excused without judging responsibility? America has ignored all consequences.

Architects of the war have escaped justice. Military planners moved to different projects. It's insufficient to simply mutter "Ooops!" Corporate profiteers & warmongers in the military along with Democrat & Republican war criminals evaded responsibility. America's genocidal leadership putrefied later decades.

We survivors of all types continue suffering post-traumatic stress:
that Vietnam War was too fucked-up to forget...