THE REAL POLITIK ISSUE: VOLUME 124, ISSUE 153
SUCKER PUNCH
THE DISSAPPEARANCE OF GEORGE W. BUSH
by Malik Isasis
The great Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges discussed the notion of the “Inversion of Time” in his short story (An Examination of The Work of Herbert Quain). The Inversion Time as defined by Borges is, a state in which we remember the future, and know nothing, or barely feel a presentiment, of the past. The Inversion of Time is a fictional concept, but it feels incredibly real in the parallel universe the corporate media has constructed, whereby the legacy of President George W. Bush and his Republican Congress has been disappeared, and all the chaos they left behind—such as the economic collapse, two failed occupations, unemployment rates, and immigration only began on November 2, 2008, with the election of President Barack Obama.
When the corporate media is not carrying the water for the rightwing echo chamber, they relay the narrative that the midterm election will be a massacre for the Democrats by the Republicans, which is typical.
The deregulation of the media has resulted in the same results as the deregulation of energy (think Enron), deregulation of big pharma (think healthcare), the deregulation of banking (think Goldman Sachs), and the deregulation of big oil (think British Petroleum) which is to say, corporate media has become an industry that has laid down every yellow brick along this path of mass delusion and perpetual war that began in earnest with the Reagan Administration, but the collapse of the fourth estate is a symptom of a much greater sickness in American democracy.
The corporate media didn’t challenge President Bush when he was in office, instead they spoke around him as if he had nothing to do with sleeping at the switch when September 11th happened, and sending troops to Iraq without proper intelligence, training, protective equipment, most importantly, a plan for the occupation of two sovereign countries, yet it was the Democratic Party who received the brunt of the criticism for the war President Bush had begotten. Although the corporate media failed— or were they successful? They tried linking the Democrats to the failures in Iraq, whenever they spoke out about the war. If America failed in Iraq, constructed the Republicans and their political operatives in the corporate media posing as anchors, it would be the fault of the Democrats who were unsupportive, therefore un-American, as seen in this clip from “The Most Trusted Name in News” CNN, even with the loss of Republican Congressional power, the media continued to treat the Democratic Party as a nuisance for challenging Bush's destructive foreign policy.
THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MEDIA
In the world of politics, perception is everything and the corporate media is in the business of perception, to move products, and minds. It is why they poll-test everything, all the time—everyday, President Obama’s and his counterparts’ sliding approval ratings are paraded about like fresh kill—not to provide insight mind you, but to build the perception of incompetence.
The Republicans have spent 19 months with their arms crossed, and refusing to participate in the two-party governance. Complete obstruction by the Republican Party has ensured that the stimulus bill, healthcare bill, Wall Street regulation reform wouldn’t be as effective, then during campaigning they point back to say how broken the government is, and how ineffective the Democratic Party was.
In 2005, when Democrats were in the minority, the corporate media went out of its way to portray Democrats as obstructionists. Here is a partial transcript from a Katie Couric interview with Bill Clinton:
COURIC: Let me ask you one political question, if I could, President Clinton. As you know, Howard Dean is now head of the DNC [Democratic National Committee]. Right now it seems the most effective thing that Democrats are doing on Capitol Hill is blocking various nominations, at least from their perspective. Like, you know, John Bolton, or -- U.S. ambassador to the U.N. -- or head of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], or the head of the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. How can the Democratic Party retool itself so they're not simply seen as obstructionist in terms of the president's agenda?
CLINTON: Well, first of all, I don't think that's fair. I don't think Mr. [John] Negroponte [nominee for national intelligence director] will be blocked. I'm not sure Mr. Bolton will be blocked. There are policy reasons on the environment and food safety for debates on the others. And on judges, that's just a hoax. I mean, the Democrats blocked 10 out of over 200 judges. The Republicans wouldn't even give a vote to 40 of my Court of Appeals judges -- four times as many, just on the Court of Appeals, never mind all the others that they wouldn't have voted. So, this image that, I'm sad to say, you know, you just perpetrated it, it's ridiculous. The Democratic Senate has been nowhere near as obstructionist to President Bush on judges as the Republican Senate was to me. Not even close.
Here is the truth on obstruction:
The Bush Administration had based its whole administration on deceiving the public by pretending to be doing something, like fighting the so-called War on Terror, but in reality the wars were diversions, a Ponzi-scheme to money-launder government funds into private accounts with no-bid contracts with companies the Vice President had stocks in, such as Halliburton and all of its subsidiaries. Even the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was used as an opportunity to privatize and line the pockets of the administrations’ friends.
Now that Bush has faded into the background, it’s like his presidency never existed. “Death precedes birth, the scar the wound, and the wound the blow,” Borges wrote in his short story. Bush left the country in a financial mess, only 19 months ago, and yet, amazingly, the corporate media has pinned the tail on the wrong donkey. The media talks about the unemployment rates, Iraq, and the economy without mentioning a word about the Bush legacy.
This constructed disconnect from reality is why President Obama and the Democrats can be blamed for an unemployment rate, fiscal disaster, and an oil pipe leak in the Gulf due to unregulated drilling.
Since President Bush’s legacy has been disappeared by the media, the Democratic Party shoulders all the economic fallout, and corporate malfeasance from Bush’s laissez-faire governance. The corporate media provides political cover for the Republican Party as they discuss politics like a sports event. The Republicans will win because they didn’t participate in governance for 19 months, crippling it, and they increased the atmosphere of hate and intolerance, and we’ve been sucker punched by a corporate media who is out to turn this country into an Oligarchy.
SUCKER PUNCH
THE DISSAPPEARANCE OF GEORGE W. BUSH
by Malik Isasis
The great Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges discussed the notion of the “Inversion of Time” in his short story (An Examination of The Work of Herbert Quain). The Inversion Time as defined by Borges is, a state in which we remember the future, and know nothing, or barely feel a presentiment, of the past. The Inversion of Time is a fictional concept, but it feels incredibly real in the parallel universe the corporate media has constructed, whereby the legacy of President George W. Bush and his Republican Congress has been disappeared, and all the chaos they left behind—such as the economic collapse, two failed occupations, unemployment rates, and immigration only began on November 2, 2008, with the election of President Barack Obama.
When the corporate media is not carrying the water for the rightwing echo chamber, they relay the narrative that the midterm election will be a massacre for the Democrats by the Republicans, which is typical.
The deregulation of the media has resulted in the same results as the deregulation of energy (think Enron), deregulation of big pharma (think healthcare), the deregulation of banking (think Goldman Sachs), and the deregulation of big oil (think British Petroleum) which is to say, corporate media has become an industry that has laid down every yellow brick along this path of mass delusion and perpetual war that began in earnest with the Reagan Administration, but the collapse of the fourth estate is a symptom of a much greater sickness in American democracy.
The corporate media didn’t challenge President Bush when he was in office, instead they spoke around him as if he had nothing to do with sleeping at the switch when September 11th happened, and sending troops to Iraq without proper intelligence, training, protective equipment, most importantly, a plan for the occupation of two sovereign countries, yet it was the Democratic Party who received the brunt of the criticism for the war President Bush had begotten. Although the corporate media failed— or were they successful? They tried linking the Democrats to the failures in Iraq, whenever they spoke out about the war. If America failed in Iraq, constructed the Republicans and their political operatives in the corporate media posing as anchors, it would be the fault of the Democrats who were unsupportive, therefore un-American, as seen in this clip from “The Most Trusted Name in News” CNN, even with the loss of Republican Congressional power, the media continued to treat the Democratic Party as a nuisance for challenging Bush's destructive foreign policy.
THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MEDIA
In the world of politics, perception is everything and the corporate media is in the business of perception, to move products, and minds. It is why they poll-test everything, all the time—everyday, President Obama’s and his counterparts’ sliding approval ratings are paraded about like fresh kill—not to provide insight mind you, but to build the perception of incompetence.
The Republicans have spent 19 months with their arms crossed, and refusing to participate in the two-party governance. Complete obstruction by the Republican Party has ensured that the stimulus bill, healthcare bill, Wall Street regulation reform wouldn’t be as effective, then during campaigning they point back to say how broken the government is, and how ineffective the Democratic Party was.
In 2005, when Democrats were in the minority, the corporate media went out of its way to portray Democrats as obstructionists. Here is a partial transcript from a Katie Couric interview with Bill Clinton:
COURIC: Let me ask you one political question, if I could, President Clinton. As you know, Howard Dean is now head of the DNC [Democratic National Committee]. Right now it seems the most effective thing that Democrats are doing on Capitol Hill is blocking various nominations, at least from their perspective. Like, you know, John Bolton, or -- U.S. ambassador to the U.N. -- or head of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], or the head of the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. How can the Democratic Party retool itself so they're not simply seen as obstructionist in terms of the president's agenda?
CLINTON: Well, first of all, I don't think that's fair. I don't think Mr. [John] Negroponte [nominee for national intelligence director] will be blocked. I'm not sure Mr. Bolton will be blocked. There are policy reasons on the environment and food safety for debates on the others. And on judges, that's just a hoax. I mean, the Democrats blocked 10 out of over 200 judges. The Republicans wouldn't even give a vote to 40 of my Court of Appeals judges -- four times as many, just on the Court of Appeals, never mind all the others that they wouldn't have voted. So, this image that, I'm sad to say, you know, you just perpetrated it, it's ridiculous. The Democratic Senate has been nowhere near as obstructionist to President Bush on judges as the Republican Senate was to me. Not even close.
Here is the truth on obstruction:
The Bush Administration had based its whole administration on deceiving the public by pretending to be doing something, like fighting the so-called War on Terror, but in reality the wars were diversions, a Ponzi-scheme to money-launder government funds into private accounts with no-bid contracts with companies the Vice President had stocks in, such as Halliburton and all of its subsidiaries. Even the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was used as an opportunity to privatize and line the pockets of the administrations’ friends.
Now that Bush has faded into the background, it’s like his presidency never existed. “Death precedes birth, the scar the wound, and the wound the blow,” Borges wrote in his short story. Bush left the country in a financial mess, only 19 months ago, and yet, amazingly, the corporate media has pinned the tail on the wrong donkey. The media talks about the unemployment rates, Iraq, and the economy without mentioning a word about the Bush legacy.
This constructed disconnect from reality is why President Obama and the Democrats can be blamed for an unemployment rate, fiscal disaster, and an oil pipe leak in the Gulf due to unregulated drilling.
Since President Bush’s legacy has been disappeared by the media, the Democratic Party shoulders all the economic fallout, and corporate malfeasance from Bush’s laissez-faire governance. The corporate media provides political cover for the Republican Party as they discuss politics like a sports event. The Republicans will win because they didn’t participate in governance for 19 months, crippling it, and they increased the atmosphere of hate and intolerance, and we’ve been sucker punched by a corporate media who is out to turn this country into an Oligarchy.
posted by Malik Isasis at
11:03 PM
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