The election of Donald Trump as President of the U.S. has presented the nation with a giant morass of corruption and likely treason that may deconstruct it. The impact of this mess has been exacerbated by both the complicity of some institutions like the Republican controlled Congress and the ineptitude of other institutions like the Main Stream Media (MSM) to help in the clean-up. The collaboration of the Republican Party with Trump, which has been moving from the party of white nationalism to full-blown fascism, is expected. But, the ineffectiveness of the MSM to respond to Trump and Friend’s disinformation attack is surprising.
The MSM has been covering Trump and Friends in its usual linear and formulaic way to synthesize events as issues with tug-of-war tactics used by Republicans and Democrats. They are not equipped to handle the entire conglomeration of corruption, dysfunction, and treason that make up the Trump Presidency. As a result, the MSM is reduced to interviewing each other, reporting their opinions and describing events, but seldom disrupting their own conventionality that is based on segmenting events and overlooking interconnections.
Rachel Maddow at MSNBC has been the leader in recognizing that the serial approach employed by most of the MSM is inadequate for understanding what is going on with Trump. She has systematically aggregated stories that focus on the various aspect of the Trump and Friends. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has also avoided the pitfalls of this telescopic approach by focusing on the interconnections between the parts of the Trump morass. His figure (shown above, with our enhancements) highlights the connections between all parts of the mess.
Michael Crowley has also drawn the interconnections between Trump and people involved in corruption and intelligence. There are so many issues, examples and “players” that it is difficult to get a full picture of what is going on unless we concentrate on the whole mess. And, even the use of schematics that focus on the entire picture can be difficult to understand. For example, there are at least five parts of this mess that needs exploration: Russian Interference in U.S. Elections; Hollowing Out of the Federal Government; Ethnic Cleansing and the Fascist Overthrow of the U.S.; Trump Corruption and Conflict of Interest; and the Russian Crime State.
Nonetheless, unless the focus is on this whole ugly mess, we are likely to be misled as we shift from one issue to the other and from one player to another. Some of the MSM are doing exemplary work in tracing one or the other parts. And, some of the more capable analysts are doing a good job in showing how these parts relate to each other.
The MSM has been covering Trump and Friends in its usual linear and formulaic way to synthesize events as issues with tug-of-war tactics used by Republicans and Democrats. They are not equipped to handle the entire conglomeration of corruption, dysfunction, and treason that make up the Trump Presidency. As a result, the MSM is reduced to interviewing each other, reporting their opinions and describing events, but seldom disrupting their own conventionality that is based on segmenting events and overlooking interconnections.
Rachel Maddow at MSNBC has been the leader in recognizing that the serial approach employed by most of the MSM is inadequate for understanding what is going on with Trump. She has systematically aggregated stories that focus on the various aspect of the Trump and Friends. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has also avoided the pitfalls of this telescopic approach by focusing on the interconnections between the parts of the Trump morass. His figure (shown above, with our enhancements) highlights the connections between all parts of the mess.
Michael Crowley has also drawn the interconnections between Trump and people involved in corruption and intelligence. There are so many issues, examples and “players” that it is difficult to get a full picture of what is going on unless we concentrate on the whole mess. And, even the use of schematics that focus on the entire picture can be difficult to understand. For example, there are at least five parts of this mess that needs exploration: Russian Interference in U.S. Elections; Hollowing Out of the Federal Government; Ethnic Cleansing and the Fascist Overthrow of the U.S.; Trump Corruption and Conflict of Interest; and the Russian Crime State.
Nonetheless, unless the focus is on this whole ugly mess, we are likely to be misled as we shift from one issue to the other and from one player to another. Some of the MSM are doing exemplary work in tracing one or the other parts. And, some of the more capable analysts are doing a good job in showing how these parts relate to each other.