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Will You Be the One to Pull the Handle?

Will You Be the One to Pull the Handle?
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The presidential campaign in America is starting to heat up with duplicity, anger, confrontational dialogue and name calling - and that’s just candidates speaking with the press corp! Anti-Trump protestors beat people up while Clinton’s email scandal refuses to go away.

The crowd gathered in the tens of thousands, with more and more people showing up all the time. Yelling and screaming things like “America was never great”, while burning American flags and waving Mexican flags. The mostly young people became even more agitated as they egged each other on, growing more defiant by the minute. Suddenly, someone shouted there they are! The crowd ran over to two men, just trying to make their way to the convention hall. Suddenly, one person from the crowd approached the guys in their 20s and punched one in the face. As if it was silently understood, the crowd converged, punching and kicking them. And this wasn’t the only case. Numerous incidents, best described as targeted mass beatings and harassment was rife at the event. Welcome to the Trump convention in San Jose and the American presidential elections in 2016. A quick glance on YouTube and Twitter shows you all you need to know about the state of America. Civility gone. Debate gone. Lawlessness running rampant, and the police? Those meant to protect the public from the would-be or actual thugs on the streets? Powerless. In an ironic twist, the crowds were shouting –“No hate in this state”, but did they stop to think about what their actions were saying?

This was a massive week for those interested in news, with huge stories coming out every day. It kicked off with a contentious debate where Donald Trump confronted a reporter who was less than honest in a story he wrote. Mainstream media, taken aback that someone wouldn’t treat them like the special little snowflakes that they think they are, ran headlines like – “Trump throws tantrum after reporters do their job” or “Donald Trump Is a 2-Year-Old. It’s Time for the Press to Treat Him Like One.” That’s right. Instead of seriously examining the story or even asking if Trump had a point, the press, like spoiled teenagers, began to call him names. But don’t take my word for it, read what Politico wrote – “….the Republican presidential nominee experienced a towering meltdown. Reporters asked Donald Trump to account for the millions he claimed to have raised for veterans several months ago. Waving his hands in fury and just a few blinks away from tears, Trump angrily called ABC News reporter Tom Llamas “a sleaze” and other members of the press corps “losers” and “unbelievably dishonest.” And while those statements seem harsh, let’s take a look at them.

When Trump called the press corp “losers” and “unbelievably dishonest”, what could he have meant? Was he really calling them names, or was he on to something? For instance, while most of the major TV talking heads discussed Trump and his response to being questioned about his work with private charity groups, how many pundits discussed the newly released report with Cheryl Mills’ interview regarding Hillary Clinton and her emails? A quick search on Google News reveals that the number of headlines that have Trump in them are in the millions, while Cheryl Mills and Clinton + email are just slightly more than a hundred thousand. That’s right. Media ran with the story about how Trump was angry and confrontational, because hey, that’s news, right? Let’s forget for a moment that Trump privately and quietly raised millions of dollars for veterans, whereas Clinton, or even Bernie Sanders have not.

Reason.com described why the story about Clinton was important – “….the inspector general of the State Department completed a year-long investigation into the use by Hillary Clinton of a private email server for all of her official government email as secretary of state. The investigation was launched when … Secretary of State John Kerry learned that Clinton paid an aide to migrate her public and secret State Department email streams away from their secured government venues and onto her own, non-secure server, which was stored in her home.” Ok, we all knew that already, but here is the kicker – “The migration of the secret email stream most likely constituted the crime of espionage”. So, there you go. A possible massive crime against the state. But nary a word about this, because to Clinton supporters, she can do no wrong.

And what about Trump’s other accusation? That the media was being dishonest? Well, could it be because they don’t know exactly what they are doing? That they are just doing what they are asked by their higher-ups? It should be noted here that former President Bill Clinton pushed hard for the “Telecommunications Act of 1996” that basically deregulated TV station ownership and other kinds of media. Since then, as Business Insider has pointed out – “90% of American media is owned by 6 mega-corporations”, down from 50 companies in 1983.” That’s right. If you don’t do what is asked of you, then hey – there is the door, or hey- here is the invisible ceiling. C.S. Lewis described the more subtle nuances of this process in – “The Inner Ring”. In that short essay, he discusses what it takes to be accepted into a clique and how you might end up doing things you might not otherwise, because, essentially, the fear of being left out coupled with the congratulatory nod of acceptance that only “insiders” get is what motivates us.

Or could it because the political insiders in general have an agenda to push? Let’s not forget the recent article in the NYT with Ben Rhoads, the White House Spokesman/Insider who recently said – “The average reporter (the White House) talks to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. They literally know nothing.” Later on, Rhodes went on to …“acknowledge that the (Obama) administration was deceptive about the (Iranian) talks, creating a "narrative" that they did not take place.” So, there you have it. Duplicity at the very top. But this hasn’t been the only recent example.

CNN noted that – “This past week saw part of a video of a State Department press briefing addressing secret talks between the U.S. and Iran was deliberately deleted before it was posted online.” Later, Fox News reported that – “…current State Department spokesman Kirby said someone had censored the video intentionally. He said he couldn't find out who was responsible, but described such action as unacceptable.” So, there you have it. It is like that old axiom – “Everything is permissible, until you are caught”.

As the fabric of American society begins to tear itself apart during this election cycle, one thing is becoming clear. The hypocrisy from the press, the exposure of Beltway insiders lying, the use of rent-a-mobs to push an agenda, the use of fear to manipulate voters and the fact that the American style of democracy is a hollowed-out semblance of what it once was. Next week will be huge, as California decides – Hillary or Bernie? And while we don’t know yet who will win (probably Hillary due to trickery and backroom deals), we do know this – no one really cares how a toilet works, until it becomes too clogged to function. Then it becomes a big, big problem. This election cycle is flushing out the toilet that politics in America has become.

So, what do you think dear listeners, “Will you be the one to pull the handle?”

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