the title of this post has been on the masthead of every new york times front page since who knows when and it could just as easily read " all the news that fits we print"...i am critical of the times a lot...mostly because it is "the paper of record" that has a lot of influence in "the media"...it is not alone in its foibles...no medium that provides "news" is unbiased or objective despite some of their claims ( one presumes fox does not claim objectivity...too laughable...probably even tot those who share their world view )...they are corporate entities seeking profit...of and for the status quo...they may disagree with specific policies editorially but they are not remotely in favor of any substantive revision of hierarchies...the n y times does indeed loathe don trump ( funny but when i type the name that way auto correct does not cue me to capitalize it ) but only because they see his actions as detrimental to their own economic interests ( and, one presumes, those of their advertisers...i don't see bloomingdale's or citibank or tiffany or ford or amazon yanking ads over the times editorializing about "riling up the crazies" or the gop's attempts to "block the ballot box" )...but they are not editorializing about "the system"...only about an administration that is so upfront and arrogantly blatant about what "the system" is, which is oligarchical and extractive ( what, exactly, do you do that caries no cost to you? dwell on that for a time )...and the disconnect between the lite and the rest of us that the trumpists are highlighting continues to grow as mcconnell says it isn't tax cuts for wealth that are the problem but rather "entitlements" like medicare and social security...well...they are not "entitlements"...programs like social security are ones i have paid into all my working life...what trump and his cronies are doing is spotlighting the extortionist proclivities of hegemonic culture and it is making the times nervous..."the crazies", if pushed far enough economically, might come tot he realization that migrant caravans are not the issue, "the system" is...this worries the times because actual substantive change could curtail their prerogatives and put a crimp in the n y time's store sales...so all media are mouthpieces for for various competing factions of the hegemonic culture and a conciliatory voice offering no real alternative, just a plea to "fix" the system of which they are an integral part...( elites do not have to be cabalistic to be more united than the divided mass of the citizenry with its petty and violent squabbles which distract their attention from the actual perpetrators of their disaffections...all they have to do is act in their own self-interest and they are advancing class interest, however, since their class interest is based on taking everything they possibly can, they are also in competition and they will, occasionally, cut one another's throats...still...greed unites...abortion and gun control divide )...all of this promotes a political system ( logically enough ) that systematically redistribute wealth upward and mythologizes they system's unbiased fairness for public consumption ( we all have an equal chance to be as greedy as congress )..so the disconnect between the governed and the government is more clearly visible than it has been in say fifty years...so...what do we do? all the alternatives seem to entail some continuation of elitism under new management..."business as usual"with a different ceo and a shuffling of congressional membership...don't count on a "blue wave" and if it should materialize don't count on a change in much of anything beyond the tone of rhetoric...two points...1) they are politicians and so liars and, 2) representatives from other districts and states don't give a rat's ass what i think..incumbents generally win...the system isn't exactly set in stone...but the inertia of the institutions is skewed heavily towards the status quo...the framers wanted it that way.
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