The Corporate Media Can't Ignore Us Forever.
By Thom Hartmann A...
Once again, the corporate media virtually ignored a massive protest over the weekend. On Saturday, more than 80,000 people from 32 states marched against extreme right-wing policies in North Carolina. Protestors came from all over our nation to push back against what they call the “immoral and unconstitutional policies” of Governor Pat McCrory and his Republican legislature. The “Moral March on Raleigh” grew out of the weekly “Moral Monday” protests that are now spreading to other states, and it was organized by the Historic Thousands on Jones Street group.
Over the past few years, Republican lawmakers in that state have enacted voter suppression laws, cut unemployment benefits, raised taxes on the poor, and refused to expand Medicaid, and people are speaking out against these extreme policies. This weekend, doctors, students, teachers, low-wage workers, voting rights advocates, and women's rights groups all marched together from Shaw University to the state capitol, carrying signs about everything from minimum wage to reproductive rights.
This march was a perfect snapshot of what millions of Americans are fighting in Red states, yet the so-called “mainstream media” ignored the massive protest. People all around our country are finding their voice, and standing together to fight extreme policies, but you would never know that by following the corporate news. The issues that Americans care about are being ignored, but these protests are growing, and soon even the corporate media is going to have to start paying attention.
Comments
#2
Has the fuse been lit? Will the republican agenda* finally blow-up in their faces?
Let us hope and pray that finally comes to pass.
*The Republican Agenda (Classified document from the NRC)
1: Lie to the American public.
2: Allow only true republicans to vote.
3. Screw the American worker out of their Constitutional rights, wages, jobs, and homes.
4: Destroy the middle class.
5: Put women back in the kitchen, take away their shoes, and impregnate them (the women, not the shoes).
6: Throw all immigrants and/or minorities out of the country or in to jail.
7: Jail and/or execute all gays.
8: Declare America to be a christian theocracy.
#3
This A.M. I heard a "mainstream" reporter repeat the usual and inaccurate talking point that in U.S. politics the Republicans had moved further right and the Democrats had moved further left. This comment passed for a balanced view without examination. Does anyone think the Dems haven't moved massively to the right over the last thirty years?
#4
My pet issue, thanks Thom! For any interested, FCC public meeting next Thurs. 2/20 https://www.fcc.gov/open-meetings 30 rOccupy the FCC!
#5
Stecoop,
Wow...What is the journalistic source of that Doc? I bet, it will also read; jail or execute and or poison all poor.
#6
That's what W meant when he said that either we're with the establishment or we're with the terrorists. They try to keep the enemy, you, in the dark. To keep the enemy, you, off balance. Their greatest enemy is the truth.
Gotta run...
#7
We are living in the new chapters of "A People's History". (Who will write them??) Sure main stream media will ignore us. They must because they've been bought by dark money. I was in the thousands marching on Feb. 8 in Raleigh.
#8
Yvette,
My sister was there...she is unemployed after 30 years as a psyco-therapist. Keep marching, I'll see you!
#9
Good news! Filmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park are documenting what's happening there in their Story of America series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEfRiJoLWfM&list=UUFPJI_tQ37yfocaG6kV6CMA&feature=share
#10
i think most savvy people get their news on the internet, so we're ignoring them already. but i suppose there may still be a majority who read the papers and watch TV for their news.
i scoured the internet to find any coverage in the NYT of the events in NC. cdn't find a thing. bright side is that owners of the NYT -- the gov't and mega corporations -- are very scared of us. that's what the blackout means ;o)))
#11
And as they give us slop to watch and read..they are also giving us slop to eat!
Would you intentionally eat Azodicarbonamide? It's used in manufacturing yoga mats and shoe rubber and has been banned in food in most other countries; yet, in the US some companies choose to keep it in the sandwich bread they sell.
And the real kicker is that, last week, Michelle Obama endorsed this fast food company as being healthy..the "highest nutritional standards"
"When a truck carrying azodicarbonamide overturned on a Chicago highway in 2001, it prompted city officials to issue the highest hazardous materials alert and evacuate people within a half mile radius! Many of the people on the scene complained of burning eyes and skin irritation as a result. (Source: Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner) "
"The United States is one of the only countries in the world that still allows this ingredient in our food supply. It is banned as a food additive in the U.K., Europe, and Australia, and if you get caught using it in Singapore you can get up to 15 years in prison and be fined $450,000. I’d like to see the head of the FDA put in jail for allowing it, wouldn’t you?"
And I thought I was being health-wise by eating cracked or whole wheat breads....damn!!!
http://foodbabe.com/2013/09/23/are-you-eating-this-ingredient-banned-all...
http://foodbabe.com/2014/02/04/launching-petition-subway-will-finally-he...
I just checked some Sara Lee blueberry mini bagels I've had sitting in the fridge for probably a couple of months and have been wondering why they haven't developed mold by now. I don't know if ADA (Azodicarbonamide) is meant to prevent mold..don't know what it's there for...but I checked on the ingredients and sure enough...it has ADA in them. I checked some pumpernickel rolls that I've had for some time in the fridge and it also says it has ADA in them. Tossed them!
#12
Part of an MSDS sheet information on Azodicarbonamide:
Section 11: Toxicological Information
Routes of Entry:
Inhalation. Ingestion.
Toxicity to Animals:
Acute oral toxicity (LD50): >6400 mg/kg [Rat]. Acute dermal toxicity (LD50): >500 mg/kg [Rat].
Chronic Effects on Humans:
MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Mutagenic for bacteria and/or yeast. May cause damage to the following organs:
kidneys.
Other Toxic Effects on Humans:
Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation (lung sensitizer).
Special Remarks on Toxicity to Animals:
Not available.
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9922989
Special Remarks on Chronic Effects on Humans:
May affect genetic material (mutagenic)
Special Remarks on other Toxic Effects on Humans:
Acute
Potential Health Effects:
Skin: May cause skin irritation. It may be absorbed by the skin.
Eyes: May cause mechanical eye irritation.
Inhalation: May cause respiratory tract irritation.
Ingestion: May cause gastrointestinal tract irritation with hypermotility and diarrhea. May affect respiration (respiratory stimulation, asthma Chronic Potential Health Effects:
Skin: Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause skin sensitization (dermatitis)
Inhalation: Prolonged or repeated inhalation may affect the liver, metabolism, blood.
Ingestion: Prolonged or repeated ingestion may affect the kidneys, and endocrine system
(thyroid hypofunction)
#13
Palindrom...
My advice, don't eat anything except for organics....but I'm sure you knew that already..and with the gutting of FDA, who will know for sure...unless we grow it ourselves
#14
sandlewould: That sounds like pretty good advice...except that organics costs more...and one can never really be sure that it really is organically grown. Even if you shop at those high priced "green" grocery stores or farmer's markets (which I do)...you can never really be sure it is organically grown. The only way to be sure is to grow it yourself. And you are right about the FDA and many of the other regulatory agencies we are suppose to trust...you just can't trust them anymore.
I mean with Michelle Obama telling us that a sandwich chain is nutritionally sound when they actually put this crap in the bread it just reinforces the notion that all those people at the top are corrupt as hell. Maybe she didn't know about that chemical in the food? I doubt that because there has been a grass roots effort for some time petitioning the White House to ban this chemical from our food. But hey, now that we all have Obamacare, we've got nothing to worry about, right? Once we all get stomach cancer...Obamacare will pay for some of that Chemotherapy.
Of course, the doctors and hospitals will all raise their rates so that even if we had to pay a certain percentage...it will still end up costing us big bucks as if we really had no insurance anyway. The insurance companies will do an under the table agreement with the hospitals to pretend the insurance companies paid their share while sticking us with the lion's share of the changes.
#15
4 days ago..
"Subway to remove the chemical azodicarbonamide from bread.
NEW YORK - Subway says it's in the process of removing a chemical from its bread as part of an ongoing effort to improve its recipes.
The announcement comes after a food blogger launched a petition this week asking the sandwich chain to stop using the ingredient. A representative for Subway says the change was underway before the petition was launched."
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/money/consumer/subway-to-remove-the-che...
But, I understand that Subway won't have this fixed until June. I guess they will keep selling those chemical sandwiches until they deplete their inventory? Until then, I'm staying away from Subway or any other Fast Food place...something I usually do anyway.
Now, will all the other companies follow Subway and remove that chemical?
#16
Here's a list of foods that contain azodicarbonimide (there's quite a few):
http://www.goodguide.com/ingredients/37393-azodicarbonamide?category_id=...
#17
They'll remove it from the ingredients lists and subvert the FDA into lying.
Money doesn't talk, it swears. (Dylan)
#18
Aliceinwonderland, Today's Fascist controlled media will broadcast images only when a movement looks like it's getting too big and too populist in nature and needs defamation to thwart it.....you know, like the dirty unemployed hippy spin put on the Occupy success. During Occupy the media picked and planted folks to interview who they knew would give the slant they wanted on interviews. Remember...none of us supossedly knew why we were protesting and crap like that.
But Thom is correct, if the protests continue to grow it will force the media to give attention one way or the other. In my opinion, political and media scoundrels will try to quell the movement with negative spin again. At that point it would be up to we the people to expose the truth with our actions, communication, and widespread civil disobedience this time around. Hell, announce you're the Tea Party just to get the coverage...mess with them...... It can be done. We have no choice, the big money Fascists have overthrown our Democratic State. As John Locke warned us, good government is a human creation and the rulers authority comes from the people....if that agreement is violated we have a right to resist.
#19
Quote sandlewould:Wow...What is the journalistic source of that Doc?
I'm afraid I can't reveal my sources, sandlewould; they're so deeply undercover, even they don't know they're my sources. 8-)
#20
I don't understand. Why wouldn't the corporate media ignore you? You keep endorsing and voting for their biggest supporters -- and, like too many progressives, you don't stand up to liberals who are, after all, not very different from conservatives. Neither the corporate media nor the liberals who support them have anything to fear from you. You'll always vote for them.
#21
The corporate media decided who we can vote for and who we can hear even before Citizens United sowed that up. They decided who can attend the debates, whose campaign gets any coverage and how everything will be spun during the campaign.
Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich couldn't participate in the presidential debates which were put on and hosted by media groups, for example; when Ralph Nader would call press conferences commonly no one would show up; Al Gore was branded a chronic, pathological liar in the 2000 campaign ostensibly because he told a story of how, when visiting a disaster site, he spoke to the director of FEMA when in truth it turned out to be a deputy director but George Bush's many lies - a more egregious example, during a nationally televised debate he fairly boasted about how he "worked so hard to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights in Texas" as a piece of healthcare reform when actually he vetoed that bill and it only became law when his veto was overridden - were not even called on (and, of course,there was his military record and everything else which, if something of one small fraction of that seriousness had lurked in Al Gore's past you know it would've hit the fan as a scandal to end his public life).
#22
We've got to discredit the for profit, consolidated media and promote independent media.
Kend, I've got an answer to your post of yesterday on yesterday's blog. I'm afraid you won't like it. Had to cuff you one again. You're just a bad boy. Behave Kend!
I'd like to encourage everybody to read my post #55 on yesterday's blog. I'd hate for this site to be a forum for anti immigrant sentiment. Our economy, whether we like it or not, is global (as the Central American farmer/laborer was so rudely made aware of by NAFTA) and if capital is global and can move freely across borders labor is going to have to be able to as well. It's the crimminalization of this that causes many of the problems creating a class of under-the-radar workers unreachable by labor law that can be used against local workers driving down everybody's wages and working conditions. The labor movement is going to have to get global, as well, so we shouldn't throw our immigrant fellow workers under the bus.
Any law that criminalizes people's basic survival and their attempts to live a life of basic decency is illegitimate. I'd like to assert - and tell me if I'm wrong - if there were no jobs here in the U.S. - and no social safety net, nothing - but grinding poverty up to and including the real possibility of destitution and starvation - but there were jobs waiting for us in Canada, you and I would go to Canada - and we wouldn't care if that was legal or not.
#23
EveningStar, how about some specific examples? "You keep endorsing and voting for [the corp. media's] biggest supporters" - that's just too broad a sweep.
I like the dictionary's definition of a liberal: "open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values"; "favorable to or respectful of individual rights & freedoms"; "(in a political context) favoring maximum individual liberty in political & social reform..."; "regarding many traditional beliefs as dispensible, invalidated by modern thought, or liable to change..." Frankly, I can't imagine anything more contrary to the corporate fascist values espoused by corporate media.
Over the past decade or two, I've noticed how conservative pundits and stink tanks have perverted the word "liberal" so that it's come to mean something quite different to many of us. So now we call ourselves "progressives"! What shall we do when those petty tyrants find a way to ruin the word "progresssive" for us? How long will we continue allowing corporate fascist bullies to call the shots on our use of language, and whatever labels we choose to distinguish our side of the ideological fence?
No liberals - or progressives - worth their salt would support the corporate media, or their agenda or candidates. That accusation is beyond vague; it makes no sense to me at all. - Aliceinwonderland
#24
Aliceinwonderland, you asked for a specific example. I'm surprised. Anyone who has listened to Thom Hartmann knows that, in the last campaign, he eagerly endorsed the establishment Democratic ticket, who STRONGLY support the media industry in government, and he was less than accomodating to progressives who did not want to vote to continue our government's slide to the right. (Yes, yes, I know, "a vote for the Greens is a vote for Republicans" and all that crap... I've heard it all before. But the results speak for themselves. It was, after all, Barack Obama who resurrected the Republican Party from the dead in 2009 when he eschewed progressives and supported Republican efforts to kill the public option.)
Oh, and by the way, with Fox News' ratings slipping, what did Barack Obama do? He went on their network. He gave them an interview. He brought their viewers back. But if you don't think that liberals strongly support the media establishment, there's not much point in continuing this conversation.
#25
I have listened to Thom a lot, ES. I'm familiar with what you've cited as an example to support your premise. Fair enough. But it seems to me that the fascists have created a no-win situation for voters. Choose your favorite third-party candidate instead of the "lesser evil" on the Democratic ticket and you get the "lesser evil" anyway, if you're "lucky". I'll admit, I was rather shocked to hear Thom say he'd vote "enthusiastically" for Hillary Clinton, who've I've described as a warmonger with lipstick. (I'd sooner withhold my vote than vote for her.) However I also heard him say that if given a choice between Hillary and Elizabeth Warren, he'd choose Ms. Warren. I think Thom is only trying to be realistic about the options available to us at this point in time and what is realistically achievable.
Far as Barak Obama is concerned, our president is no "liberal". I've written him off as just another corporatist who got himself elected under false pretense. His appearance on FOX, which I didn't watch but only heard about, had me shaking my head with disgust.
But to generalize that liberals "strongly support" the media establishment is quite a stretch, in my view. I don't support it at all; don't watch it, read it or listen to it. Haven't had TV for years and don't miss it! I've more than a hunch lots of people with similar views have been inclined to dismiss that fascist drivel from their realm of reality, as I have. - Aliceinwonderland
#26
Aliceinwonderland, yes, we're taught to believe that if we vote for what we want then we can never have it. That's how lesser-evil voting works. You vote for the lesser evil because you're afraid, not because you think you're going to get what you want. And you don't get it. Ever.
We've been voting for the lesser evil for so long that it's going to take a while to turn the ship around. But we've got to start sometime, don't we? Unless we're resigned to dooming our children to a hopeless future? If we ever hope to get what we want, then we have to start voting for it rather than against it.
Remember, a vote for an establishment liberal Democrat is a vote against reform, against change, and against everything that we need.
#27
It is hugely encouraging that so many people showed up but disappointing that, as usual, they were against, not for. It is physically impossible to react to every single issue your opponent throws at you. To succeed, you must set the agenda and let your opponents expend their energy and resources on trying to defeat you rather than push toward their own goals. If 80,000 people came out for a Citizen’s Dividend, I bet they’d win. Why? Because they’d move the debate from the old frame of people having no value outside of jobs and “might makes right” to a totally different and more humane frame of abundance and decency toward one another. People want to do the right thing. They just have to know it’s right. And geoism is right. Share society’s surplus. Don’t tax our efforts, don’t subsidize our insiders. Just share Earth’s worth. More at progress.org.
#28
Hi Evening star...
We ARE standing up to corporate wolves(Republicans) and wolves in sheep's clothing(Dems), but you don't know it, 'cause you don't SEE it or HEAR it 'cause the ubiquitous, in-your-face corp media doesn't cover it! Thom treads a fine line to keep his show. True, I disagree with the 'We gotta vote Dem or we'll get Repub." meme. I am to the point where, no matter what, since I see the Dem as corrupt as the Repugs, just quietly so, I will never vote for any candidate unless I can truly get behind them again. With the Media in lockstep with this horrifying org; http://www.debates.org/ . 3rd partiers get drowned out by a tidal wave of $$$$$$$$. Someone I knew years ago was a friend of one of SHillary's drivers when she came to NYC as a congresswoman. It's only hearsay, but the evil stories I have heard, and based on her reaction to a vet that silently stood in protest of her foreign policy re. drones in the very back of an auditoreum where she spoke (he was assaulted by her security detail while she looked on unflinchingly w/out skipping a beat) I knew then and there- she will take us down a path to a corporate crackdown and genocide...and she WILL get elected, no matter what in 2016...mark my words. You want to see the the illegalization of the Constitution and Bill of Rights on steroids? Elect SHillary...Hey, I changed my registration from Ind. to Dem so I could vote 4 her in the primary in '08, but now...as W would say 'fool me once, shame on you...fool , me twice...you can't get fooled again'...well, I won't get fooled again.
#29
Alice... LOL and HAA 'STINK Tanks' ...you're always good for a laugh...even if the subject , well, stinks! : )
#30
I aim to please, Sandlewould. If we weren't laughing we'd probably be crying, and laughing's more fun.
By the way EveningStar, I love your avatar name & image. Clicks with the artist in me... - AIW
#31
Mark, you'll not hear any anti-immigrant sentiment from me... ever. Immigrant-bashing turns me off; big-time. Especially when it's aimed at Mexicans, who were hugely victimized by NAFTA and are only trying to survive the consequences. You made one statement that really lit me up: "Any law that criminalizes people's basic survival and their attempts to live a life of basic decency is illegitimate." Absolutely.
I wish these immigrant-bashers would quit scapegoating Mexicans and direct their anger where it belongs: at these damn lawmakers who keep passing toxic, divisive policies that pit us against each other so relentlessly. And I've got news for you immigrant haters out there: unless you're Native American, you're the product of colonialism, which makes you a hypocrite as well as a racist. - Aliceinwonderland
#32
Alice and Mark,
Speaking of making it ilegal to try to survive: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/florida-ordinance-makes-illegal-homel...
#33
Sandlewould, I clicked on that link. And I am, once again, horrified, outraged and sickened. So now it's a criminal act for a homeless person to protect him/herself from cold weather with a blanket! Wow. What'll these ugly fascists outlaw next; umbrellas? Coats and rain jackets?! I wish tens of thousands of sympathizers would show their support some cold night by filling the parks there, all wrapped in blankets.
In the blog immediately following that article, one of the participants claims to have a long list of cities around the U.S. with similar laws. Unbelievable.
I strongly encourage everyone to click on that link Sandlewould includes here, in post #33.
#34
Hey Alice,
Going out on a limb here, but I sense that most peops here are pretty open minded...my 'gut feeling' (as in, sometimes I "see" things) is that Global Elites want to use global deprivation of resources, the delibrate agravation of climate change and polution of air food and water as indirect means of population control...those along with arming as many as possible so that we kill each other off when we get desparate enough so they don't have to. The goal of the elites? Enslavement of able-bodied poor and genocide of all non-useful poor, yes...sounds extreme, I have no proof. My family used to think I was nuts when I awoke screaming in the night in childhood from 'dreams' that later came true and as a young woman w/ visions of people desparate for water drinking chemical slurry straight from poisoned rivers & wells just to stay alive...and the horrible consequences that ensued. They no longer do. Being in nature used to nurture my soul, now, although it still does, it's hard to cope w/ the cries of agony I 'hear' from our Mother. If I told you what I see when I'm in the twilight between the dream time and the physical world...I just keep imagining green energy and clear blue skies...I will believe we can get there no matter what!! Fortunately, thanks to a near drowning as a child, I know we never end and, no matter what, there will always be love, hope & beauty if we look for it.
#35
Speaking of "seeing" things (above post) and in ref. to Thom's headlines of today's Big Picture re. Obama, drones, targeting US citizen's abroad etc; The ENTIRE 'war' on "terror" (more like war of terror) is currently being waged against the poorest, most helpless populations in the world for 1 reason and 1 reason only...why? Target practice. Once this technology is refined and precise, (as in they can target with near 100% accuracy), This assassination technique will be used by the Corp elites (government, same diff.) to assassinate Americans and anyone who tries to speak out or dissent. Clean and remote, this technology will be used to make Orwell's 1984 look like a Child's sandbox in comparison. Every micro-move we make will be monitored...by the corporations who are now IN CONTROL of our Government's agencies and security apparatus. What Obama proposed, allowing a 3rd party to keep the meta data as a solution to Gov. over-reach is exactly what is already going on...and how do you hold a private corp. like Booz-Allen Hamilton accountable...we can't vote them out!!
#36
sandles -- I think you give the "Global Elites" too much respect. I think their short term greed explains everything they do.
#37
Chuckle8...
Ya think? This has been in the making Since right after the new deal. Ever read Naomi Kline 'Shock Doctrine and the Rise of Disaster Capitalism' ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWI4p8KuJfs
#38
sandles -- I read the first 50 pages or so of Shock Doctrine and I couldn't handle any more.
#39
They certainly don't care what happens to us, don't mind if a few of us die off. Would loosen up the labor market. They obviously aren't interested in recovery of our economy with their austerity, as long as their economy on Wall Street is okay. They just kill us slowly, starve us, or, "starve the beast", i.e., the government - of the people. Keep the privatized government of and for the elites.
When you privatize and reduce government big business becomes the government, a neofeudalism.
.
#40
Florida, California and Hawaii are the roughest states to be homeless as far as the laws and authorites are concerned, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Orlando tried to ban public food sharing, some activists for feeding the homeless went to jail there.
In San Francisco, which is the most gentrified city in the United States, there is a virulent hatred and animosity for the homeless on the part of the better off and mayors of the city have been elected on anti-homless platforms, most notably Frank Jordan who conducted a scorched earth policy against the homeless in SF. He got his police helicopters outfitted with heat seeking military aircraft technology so he could find where the homeless were sleeping in Golden Gate Park. By account of someone I knew who'd been there, he put the homeless in a "concentration camp" for a while.
That may've been an exageration but whatever he did, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch got involved in denouncing and opposing his policies as well as the Catholic Church and many local labor unions who opposed them more actively. Many Catholic clergy and union members went to jail before he finally gave them up.
In Los Angeles, where arguably much of our society's consumerism and superficial values originate, the city tried to put all the homeless on an island for a while according to my friend who transplanted from there and who is a social worker by profession.
The homeless are a somewhat distinct socioeconomic and somewhat subcultural group and they are often singled out for bigotry and animosity that in many ways resembles racial or ethnic animosity or that against other groups and categories of people.
Sorry, had to spout off again. I guess I can't but. You all already know this is a subject dear to my heart.
#41
Mark S -- Would not dieing workers tighten the labor market? Thom often points out the black plague brought about the renaissance.
#42
Whoopie.
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