(image: Public Citizen)
This week on CounterSpin: Media critic Margaret Sullivan made a plea to journalists to turn off their fascination with Donald Trump when he leaves office. Acknowledging (as few do) that elite media profited off a monster they helped create, Sullivan asked outlets to just say no to setting up a Mar-a-Lago bureau, or entire beats dedicated to what Trump and his family members are up to. “And for God’s sake, stop writing about his unhinged tweets.” While we await the day that particular face and voice are no longer at the top of every newscast, it ain’t over til it’s over. And harms Trump does as a lame duck are harms nonetheless. Public Citizen is keeping an eye on these last minute maneuvers. We’ll hear from the group’s executive vice president, Lisa Gilbert.
David Stockman (photo: Atlantic)
Transcript: ‘He Is the King of Dirty Deals’
Also on the show: Hang on to your hats: Research says cutting super rich people’s taxes doesn’t really help middle or lower-income people, but does make rich people richer! If your hat’s unmoved, it might be because you remember the architect of so-called “trickle-down” theory, Reagan budget director David Stockman, admitting as much to journalist Bill Grieder, rather famously one would’ve thought, 40 years ago. Dean Baker from the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins us to explain why some ghosts of economic theories past don’t seem to go away.
Transcript: ‘We Structure the Market to Create Inequality’
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at false balance, stimulus advice and Time‘s person of the year.
President Trump could probably best be described as not only a “lame duck, ” but sadly, his brain seems to operate Iike a dead duck.”
WHEN Will THIS NIGHTMARE END?
Note to copy editor(s) if they exist:
As of 2140 UTC 26 Dec 2020, page above (2nd segment) has ‘journalist Bill Grieder’. That should be should be “journalist Bill Greider” (note ‘e’ before ‘i’); see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Greider
The inane idea that “trickle-down” wealth is a reality is the idea that assuages what little guilt the super-wealthy experience in relation to their exasperating theft of wages from those who produce their wealth. Trickle-down is nothing but a lie perpetrated by the 1% to keep the rest of us from lining up the tumbrels.
I guess it’s been a nostrum for so long Dean Baker has gotten habituated to assuming the investor class has increased profitability as its primary goal. Even though true, in the face of global warming and climate change, and the soon to be 9 billion people on Earth making demands of its resources, I think we need to change that conversation. To start averring a less growth and profit oriented economics toward one of more equality-based consumption and survivability. I know Mr. Baker’s politics are geared toward the common person. It’s still a bit disconcerting to hear him use this rhetoric in passing without qualification as received wisdom.