News of the World: 26 October 2024

Last Saturday, Donald Trump ended his week ogling Arnold Palmer’s junk, an election stunt that would be a big disqualifier if Trump hadn’t started that seven-day run with a 39-minute “dance recital” at what was supposed to be a Q&A session. Though, really, Trump’s antics last week are part of the insane “weave” he’s been delivering for the past nine years. Remember, this is the “Grab them by the pussy” guy, the same idiot who stared at the sun to check out an eclipse. He should have been 5150’d years ago, yet the media has normalized his insanity.

As much of a cliché as it is, “What if Harris/Biden/Clinton/Obama acted like Trump?” is an appropriate question to direct to the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, all the networks, and every other news organization that looks at Trump’s derangement and says, “Nothing to see here!”

I’m not going to spelunk for more craziness to try to top yesterweek’s shit-melt. I’ve got a better pair of bookends for this week, news that reveals Trump’s true nature, the danger that hides behind the crazy or zany, as the mainstream media would have it.

This week, we learned from CNN via Esquire that the Trump campaign has been swindling seniors by continuously scaring them into giving them money while signing them up for recurring contributions. CNN writes:

Donors identified by CNN were often in their 80s and 90s. They included retired public workers, house cleaners and veterans, widows living alone, nursing home residents and people who donated more money than they paid for their homes, according to records and interviews.

The money they gave came from pensions, Social Security payments and retirement savings accounts meant to last decades. Donors took out new credit cards and mortgages to pay for the contributions. In some cases, they gave away most of their life savings. Their cell phones and email inboxes were so full of pleas for money that they missed photos of their grandkids and other important messages. At least one person continued to be charged for contributions after his death.

The biggest beneficiary of the small-dollar donations from unwitting donors identified by CNN was Donald Trump.        

CNN gives one of the scam victims a name and tells their story:

Richard Benjamin, an 81-year-old from Arizona, believed he had been in personal communication with former president Trump through all the messages he was receiving. At one point, he told his children the former president invited him to a luxurious reception at Mar-a-Lago. He had grown up on a farm and worried he would feel out of his element at such a fancy venue. But when he received what he described to his children as an invitation to be a VIP at a rally in Arizona, he was thrilled he would finally meet the former president himself. He started making travel plans and asking his sister-in-law if she would like to accompany him, since his wife had passed away in 2018.

Later, he told his son how angry he was that Donald Trump Jr. wouldn’t call him back even though the former president’s son had sent Benjamin so many nice messages.

 “He was old, lonely and isolated,” his son, Jason Benjamin, told CNN, saying the pandemic only compounded that isolation. “‘Save America, help save America,’ that was the constant message. He would get thanked for helping to save America.”

Richard Benjamin, who now lives in a memory care unit at an assisted living facility, would look forward to the emails and texts, and especially to the ones thanking him for being a true American and patriot when he donated his money. This eventually led him to give about $80,000, leaving him tens of thousands of dollars in debt and his children angry at the campaigns who they say tricked their dad and took advantage of his compromised state of mind. “He really, in his heart, believed that Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and other politicians were personally reaching out to him,” Jason Benjamin said.

I agree with Charles Pierce, who wrote, “There’s a special place in hell for people who would do this.” Not news, but Trump’s hell should be a prison cell, not another stint in the White House.

Trump’s week came to a close with the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets finally hinting that Trump is a fascist, something that, ahem, some of us have been pointing out for nearly a decade. What prompted the Times and others to take this bold stand is an article in The Atlantic quoting Trump’s former chief-of-staff John Kelly as saying Trump is a fascist.

Kelly also revealed that Trump admires Nazi generals, not that Trump’s Nazi-hugging is a secret. Remember that back in 1990, Vanity Fair reported,

Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, "My New Order," which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.

Donald Trump acknowledged that he does own books by Hitler. He also has denied reading them. He also talks about Hitler and the Third Reich an awful lot and in suspiciously neutral terms. He also has praised the Nazi’s “orderliness” and sense of style. He also uses a lot of language that mirrors, if not repeats phrases from, Hitler. He also has policy proposals and/or concepts of a plan – especially with immigration and punishing “the enemy within” that stink of Nazism.

And, yet, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times refuse to endorse anyone in this election. For the NY Times, no endorsement is standard practice. But for the Post and the LA Times, its something new. The Post has been endorsing candidates since 1976, a year its publisher said was crucial to speak out. Seriously? Jerry Ford vs. Jimmy Carter was not only a gimme (no one doubted that Ford would lose), it wasn’t a contest between Fascism and Democracy.

The Post leans heavy into its non-endorsing past, but doesn’t explain why at this moment, a few weeks before a very consequential election, that it goes numb. Fine, its Bezos’ paper, he gets to do what he wants, but this decision should have been made in primary season or before. As far as, the LA Times, that decision also came from its owner, a biotech billionaire. Why? More mealy mouth and blah blah blah.

Here’s the thing: While what your local paper says about a candidate for mayor or tax accessor has an impact, media endorsements, especially from national organs like the NY Times and the Post don’t mean much. They are nice for a candidate to have but not essential, especially when so many people don’t trust mainstream media. Joe Rogan interviewing Donald Trump maters. Beyonce and Taylor Swift rallying for Kamala Harris maters. Those endorsements tap into occasional and non-voters, while juicing turnout for the candidates. And you getting up from behind the screen to volunteer to call and text potential voters, etc. maters.

Though the Trump campaign is framing the Post non-endorsement as a strike against Harris (bro, they aren’t endorsing you either!), what it’s likely to do is help Harris by putting a bit more fear into her supporters. “Oh shit! The Post isn’t endorsing! We must work harder!” Good. No one should take anything for granted.

A lot of music legends have been taking the long walk. One great who passed this week, someone who never hit the mainstream but is cherished by those in the know and who was hugely influential, is Barbara Dane. A Bay Area resident, Dane was a singer, archivist, label-runner, and activist who could take on blues, jazz, and folk music. Active in the early Greenwich Village folk scene, she promoted and mentored many younger musicians – Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Bonnie Raitt being three. Later Dane founded Paredon Records, a label that specialized in political music and spoken word from all over the world.

Some obituaries have stated that Dane could have been a popular artist had she not “sabotaged her career.” That sabotage? Refusing to ditch her politics for popularity. A deep loathing for the music industry and how it exploits artists and fans. Doing what she loved and believed in. What Barbara Dane did wasn’t sabotage but figure out a way to work in a world that is corrupt and controlling…and she did just that. Thank you Barbara!