{"id":13838,"date":"2021-01-26T08:40:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T08:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=154556"},"modified":"2021-01-26T08:40:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T08:40:04","slug":"convict-donald-trump-and-the-bipartisan-system-that-put-him-into-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/26\/convict-donald-trump-and-the-bipartisan-system-that-put-him-into-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Convict Donald Trump and the Bipartisan System That Put Him Into Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world noticed when two billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, pushed a button and de-platformed Donald Trump from their social media empires. \u201cAfter close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the content around them,\u201d Twitter wrote, \u201cwe have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.\u201d Eighty-eight million Twitter followers and another 35 million from Facebook will have to look elsewhere<\/em> to follow Trump\u2019s daily rants. But there is no comparable \u201celsewhere\u201d in this largely monopolized private-for-profit \u2013 not free speech \u2013 industry whose unprecedented reach covers the globe. With Twitter\u2019s generous algorithm assistance for sure, Trump\u2019s magnified tweets since he became a member in 2009 boosted Twitter\u2019s corporate profits big time \u2013 capitalism\u2019s bottom line endgame. No doubt, Twitter or Facebook accounts that challenge these prerogatives are accorded the reverse end of the algorithm spectrum, if not banned outright. The latter is the growing experience leftists concerned with social justice, antiwar, anti-racist and Palestinian rights. Many of their websites and\/or posts are increasingly removed outright, with little or no recourse.<\/p>\n

Kevin Roose<\/a>\u2019s Jan. 11, 2021 New York Times Interpreter<\/em> column is explicit in telling us that in the world of privately-owned social media the rich have every right to ban any ideas that counter their interests. Says Roose, \u201cNo serious thinker believes that Twitter and Facebook, as private companies, are obligated to give any user a platform, just as no one doubts that a restaurant owner can boot an unruly diner for causing a scene.\u201d True enough! Under capitalist rule, the billionaire elite\u2019s private media and\/or their government can \u201clegally\u201d boot us out at their discretion. They maintain a substantial ideological monopoly. What was a \u201cfree press\u201d long ago no longer exists. And if today\u2019s monopolies happen to be sued for any users\u2019 posts or tweets or lies, they are home free\/immune under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media companies from legal liability for their users\u2019 posts.<\/p>\n

The same generally holds for the entire spectrum of corporate media, from television to radio and print. Even the time-honored soapboxing where we stand on community street corner addressing an audience of passers bye has been constricted when modern-day mall owners order the arrest of leafleting activists on the grounds that they are encroaching on private property. Need we mention the capitalist monopoly on elections wherein \u201cdemocracy\u201d resides in two multi-billionaire parties and their corporate media dominating the discourse? In the society that we seek to establish, an egalitarian socialist society aimed at the emancipation of humanity from capitalist exploitation and oppression in all its manifestations, the working class through its own democratically-chosen representatives will preside over a nationalized social media system aimed at social enlightenment and the free expression of ideas. The democracy that we fight for consists in the institutionalized rule of the majority, socialism, not the one percent! In the meantime, we fight against all manifestations of corporate and government censorship knowing full well however, that success is direct proportional to our power in the streets as opposed to necessary but subordinate engagement in \u201clegal\u201d battles for free speech. The 20-plus million liberation fighters that mobilized in 2,000 U.S. cities last summer defending the Black Lives Matter movement did more to expose capitalism\u2019s systemic racism and racist history than the handful a lawsuits our movement supported for the right to march down the streets and otherwise disseminate our views.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s worldwide soapbox<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s unimpeded soapbox allowed him to saturate the internet with endless waves of racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQI hatemongering, war threatening mendacious fabrications on the subject of his choice while pillorying his enemies and basking in the adoration of his ever misinformed followers. In June, he retweeted, without penalty, a video that featured a person yelling \u201cwhite power<\/a>.\u201d He had a direct line to every newsroom in the country. \u201cWithout the tweets,\u201d Trump told the Financial Times in 2017, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d Shortly before his inauguration, he\u00a0bragged that his @realdonaldtrump account was so powerful that, \u201cI could go bing bing bing, and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out \u2014 this morning on television, Fox, ‘Donald Trump, we have breaking news.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

No prior Twitter\/Facebook challenge to Trump <\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the Jan. 6 Trump-instigated mob attack on the Capitol no Twitter or Facebook executive seriously challenged his \u201cright\u201d to lie, cheat and steal, to threaten nations with \u201cobliteration,\u201d to openly advocate and initiate military coups, threaten nuclear war, orchestrate regime change wars, officially order assassinations, (Qassem Soleimani in Iraq), impose deadly economic sanctions on 37 nations, order the bombing of Iranian nuclear research facilities and assassinate Iranian scientists. Trump and his sycophants promoted and sought to implement discredited \u201cherd immunity\u201d COVID-19 theories and related anti-scientific notions aimed at discrediting mandated mask wearing. These horrors, to mention just a few, effectively led to mass murder in the U.S. and around the world. None were censored in the corporate media world.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s endless lying hyperbole about stolen elections, while inciting a few hundred fanatics to storm the Capitol, pale before the multiple atrocities he committed over the past four years. In the main, his acts of global terror and $trillion bailouts and tax cuts for the rich have been the bipartisan policies of the U.S. ruling class, whether U.S. capitalism\u2019s titular head was an Obama, or Clinton or Bush, or, today, Joseph Biden.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Twitter\/Facebook ban<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, social justice activists would be making a serious mistake if they applaud Trump\u2019s being banned from Twitter and Facebook. History records without exception<\/em> that such bans are invariably aimed at the left. In the modern era free speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, is protected, restricted or abolished depending on the needs of the one percent, on the one hand, and the power of mass social movements on the other.<\/p>\n

In decades past at the height of the mass in opposition to the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement the previous 1950s McCarthy era limitations on fundamental civil liberties were lifted to some extent and Federal Communications Commission regulations were modified to allow for a moment of \u201cequal time\u201d on television that saw a handful of socialist candidates briefly appear, once or twice, on television during election times. More often however, dissident views were banned in one or another manner with court and government rulings that subordinated First Amendment free speech and association rights to specious \u201cnational security\u201d Patriot Act and mass surveillance legislation.<\/p>\n

The arrest, persecution and prosecution of free speech fighters like Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden stands out as glaring examples of free speech repression not to mention the more insidious daily exclusion of dissenting views from the corporate media.<\/p>\n

2020 election: a $14 billion affair<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most recent Trump-Biden election charade was nothing less than a $14 billion affair endlessly promoted by the corporate media to decide which billionaire-backed candidate would be the titular head of U.S. capitalism. Indeed, it was Trump\u2019s attack on the 2020 election results that brought him down as opposed to his multiple daily atrocities committed against the world\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

Today, free speech applies with full force only<\/em> to the corporate media institutions. They broadcast and write whatever they please, free from government regulation, plus or minus an occasional adjustment. They are the Manufacturing Consent purveyors of the Orwellian, Truman Show\/Potemkin Village world of lies, distortions and half truths. Media magnate multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch (family wealth at $16.9 billion) presides over the News Corp empire that includes The New York Post,\u00a0The Times\u00a0of London, The Wall Street Journal\u00a0and Fox News. Murdoch\u2019s \u201cfree speech\u201d allows him to simultaneously call for Trump\u2019s impeachment via one outlet and to denounce the 2020 election results on the other! His \u201ctruths\u201d are subordinate to profit, wherever he can find it. In sharp contrast we are allowed to utter a few words to the precious few until the thought control czars consider that we present a threat to the status quo. Then the full force state repression is set into motion, limited only by our power to resist with mass forces in motion.<\/p>\n

Exposing corporate media censorship<\/strong><\/p>\n

A glimpse of the operational guidelines of today\u2019s print media was provided by a Jan. 2021 Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) survey of the major media\u2019s reportage on recent events in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Over a\u00a0three-month period analyzing some 78 articles (1\/15\/19\u20134\/15\/19), FAIR found\u00a0that \u201cNot a single commentator in the Washington\u00a0Post, New York Times or on the\u00a0big three Sunday morning talk shows or PBS NewsHour\u2026 challenged the Trump\u00a0administration\u2019s coup and\u00a0sanction actions aimed at forcing Venezuelan President\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Maduro to step down.\u201d Not one dissented from the Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0designation of the crook Juan\u00a0Guaid\u00f3\u00a0as Venezuela\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

\u201cRace-baiting, xenophobic,\u00a0religious bigot\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That Trump,\u00a0the unexpected and accidental 2016 presidential winner, is and has been a\u00a0lying, whacked out, egomaniacal narcissist is\u00a0common knowledge among most\u00a0everyone\u00a0in the Washington, D.C. political\u00a0community. A sampling of assessments from leading\u00a0Republicans\u00a0prior\u00a0to Trump\u2019s emerging as their 2016\u00a0candidate is instructive.<\/p>\n

Florida Senator Ted Cruz\u00a0stated that: Trump is \u201cutterly\u00a0amoral,\u201d a \u201cserial philanderer\u201d and \u201ca narcissist at a level that I don\u2019t think\u00a0this\u00a0country has ever seen.\u201d Cruz again: \u201cThis man is a pathological liar. He\u00a0doesn\u2019t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies\u00a0practically every\u00a0word that comes out of his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Carolina Senator Lindsey\u00a0Graham\u00a0stated: \u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn\u2019t represent my party. He\u00a0doesn\u2019t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are\u00a0fighting for. \u2026 He\u2019s the ISIL [ISIS] man of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And from\u00a0Florida Senator Marco Rubio:\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re on\u00a0the verge of having someone take over the conservative movement who is a con\u00a0artist.\u201d Trump is the most \u201cvulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Pompeo, Trump\u2019s Secretary of\u00a0State,\u00a0warned in\u00a0March 2016 that Trump would become \u201can authoritarian president who ignored our\u00a0Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Trump\u00a0won \u2013 an embarrassment to the ruling rich who they tried to \u201ccivilize\u201d for four\u00a0years with little success. But generally, Trump\u00a0satisfied their overall needs.\u00a0He posed no threat to capitalist\u00a0\u00a0interests.<\/p>\n

Today, and\u00a0immediately following Trump\u2019s 2016 election, most of these same Republican buffoons\u00a0ape Trump\u2019s every word and deed, each\u00a0vying for the loyalty of his \u201cbase,\u201d eyeing\u00a0\u00a0an expected easy future ride to fame and\u00a0fortune, if not the presidency in 2024. They are\u00a0exemplars of the degenerate\u00a0level of U.S. politics practiced on both sides of the aisle but with a bit more\u00a0prettification, tact and finesse on\u00a0the Democratic Party side.<\/p>\n

Trump has\u00a0been impeached by the House of Representatives in a vote where some ten\u00a0Republicans, for the first time, joined in. A Senate\u00a0trial is in preparation\u00a0likely to be scheduled after Trump leaves office. Whether or not Trump is\u00a0convicted will be a measure of whether the\u00a0section of the ruling class that\u00a0found Trump useful, albeit often repulsive, in promoting their interests now\u00a0decides that he is more of a\u00a0liability. To date we are witnessing a divided\u00a0ruling class calculating the merits or demerits of relegating Trump to future\u00a0obscurity. Working\u00a0people have zero interest in these machinations. The\u00a0construction of alternative working class organizations, including a mass\u00a0independent\u00a0fighting labor party based on qualitatively expanded and\u00a0revitalized trade unions in alliance with the oppressed, is the road to the\u00a0future, as\u00a0opposed to another descent to \u201clesser evil\u201d politics. Whether or not\u00a0Trump is convicted and subsequently removed from the political arena\u00a0and\/or\u00a0excluded from the corporate media falls into the purview of ruling class\u00a0politics, not ours. His banishment and conviction and even\u00a0punishment for lying,\u00a0cheating a stealing are the penalties occasionally imposed on a handful of\u00a0figures that break the rules of capitalist\u00a0civility. The disgusting list of\u00a0corrupt and imprisoned millionaires, many elected officials, that Trump pardoned\u00a0\/commuted in his last days\u00a0gave proof of his moral degeneracy. But it also\u00a0revealed that the base corruption that he \u201cliberated\u201d is commonplace in U.S.\u00a0society.<\/p>\n

Convicting\u00a0Trump and the bipartisan capitalist system of mass murder, human degradation and\u00a0environmental destruction is the task of a\u00a0united working class fighting for\u00a0the socialist future, a future aimed the liberation of all humanity from the\u00a0horrors of capitalist barbarism.\u00a0We fight for a future with sweet bread and\u00a0roses for all, for the prioritization of human needs, quality jobs, education, housing,\u00a0culture and\u00a0healthcare \u2013 for the restoration of a clean sustainable\u00a0environment, for a world of peace and solidarity among all peoples.<\/p>\n

The post Convict Donald Trump and the Bipartisan System That Put Him Into Power<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world noticed when two billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, pushed a button and de-platformed Donald Trump from their social media empires. \u201cAfter close review of recent\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13839,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838\/revisions\/13839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}