JIMMY DORE—Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson recently talked about what he learned during his career in media during an appearance on the “Full Send” podcast, lighting into his corporate media colleagues (and former self) for lying at the behest of the establishment and expressing regret over his past defense of the Iraq War.
AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
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GARLAND NIXON—Every now and then, a con man gets so bold that he flaunts the gullibility of his mark. No one really knows why and, in fact, it’s a very risky move. Teasing the mark is a questionable strategy, if it’s even a strategy at all. I would propose that the con man, a narcissistic machiavellian, does it just to feel the power. What else would explain a person who is on the verge of executing a perfect strategy to fleece a sucker deciding to risk it all with no clear advantage to be had.
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Notes on the Hegemon’s downed drone, the Ukraine war, and the latest round of ridiculous disinformation
27 minutes readANDREI MARTYANOV—I answered this question many years ago and continue to answer it ad nauseam. The answer is that the US military is the one who does the dying for the American political circus populated by ignoramuses, chickenhawks and cowards, who never bear responsibility for their words and actions. This, plus the US military deals with tangibles–personnel, hardware, technology–some of it very advanced–and they have to rely on a more realistic view of the outside world and, especially, key enemies. Such as Russia. Most American politicians, media personalities and “intellectuals” are BSers with zero applicable skills in any meaningful field of human activity. That’s the answer.
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JOHN RACHEL—Let’s be clear. At no time in recent history has the need to replace those in power been so urgent and obvious. Real democracy is dead in the U.S. and the country is ruled by oligarchs. Not very smart oligarchs. Not oligarchs with a shred of decency. But money talks. The ruling elite has the money. Most everyday people are scrambling to survive. There’s no contest.
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BRUCE LERRO—Having a sense of humor means you can step out of situations and see them in perspective. Humor allows for a break in being serious before returning to serious endeavors. Lack of humor (being humorless) means you are serious all the time. Being dead serious can wear a person out. As we will see in the section on dogmatic behavior, dogmatic people have status anxiety, so that humor at another person or at a group’s expense will be seized on. When they laugh at all, the dogmatist laughs at people, not with people.