Where billionaires replace barons and run their kingdoms as they see fit

I wish I didn’t need to write about the nasty guy. Well, yeah, I could just ignore him. So I wish he wasn’t doing stuff that prompts me to write about him. I would appreciate if he just ... disappeared. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos wrote the nasty guy has, in some ways, been acting like he’s still in the Oval Office. He effectively vetoed the border security bill. He held a pseudo state dinner with Hungarian despot Viktor Orbán. And he has his own diplomat in Richard Grenell. On behalf of the nasty guy Grenell meddled in Gruatemala, trying to get an election overturned. In Kosovo and Serbia he worked to undermine the official US diplomacy and damage a peace deal. He was part of why Turkey took so long to approve Sweden for membership in NATO. It got to the point where there were questions whether Grenell violated the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens from undermining US diplomatic efforts. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos wrote that investors in the nasty guy projects or companies usually get burned. Many of his companies have gone bankrupt. He has a strong tendency not to pay people. And people can run afoul of the law because of some of the illegal things he’s done (contesting the 2020 election has ruined many careers, such as that of My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell). So when the nasty guy’s Truth Social went public earlier this week why did so many people think it would be different this time? I’m pleased to see that, as Sumner reported, many actual Christians (people who actually do what Jesus says to do) are aghast and appalled over the nasty guy hawking a Bible. They call it a desecration, blasphemy, and offensive. I heard in all the conservative blaming over the collapse of the Baltimore bridge there were voices saying there must be – somewhere – a diversity, equity, and inclusion program that caused this mess. Maybe it was the ship’s crew, or the port crew that loaded the vessel, or maybe a DEI program somewhere else. In a large cartoon for Kos Ruben Bolling, as part of his Tom the Dancing Bug series, he says that DEI really means, “Demographically Entitled Idiots.” They ruin cultural institutions with unearned privilege and incompetence. They glide into important positions and fail upwards.

Who hasn’t boarded a plane, seen a straight white male pilot, and thought, “Oh, no! I bet he coasted into this job without any true talent or expertise!” We must get rid of D.E.I. principles, and let people whose merits and mettle were put to the test, overcoming poverty, discrimination, and/or systemic barriers, rise through true achievement!

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted an article on Axios that discussed the religious undertones of the nasty guy rallies have grown more apocalyptic and messianic. The bottom line is that...

64% of Republicans view Trump as "a man of faith," according to a November poll by Deseret News — more than his former vice president and vocal evangelical Mike Pence.

In the comments are a few good memes. One posted by Captain Frogbert shows on one side check marks beside “Greed, Lust, Wrath, Vanity, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth.” The other side shows these words crossed out, “Charity, Faithfulness, Mercy, Humility, Kindness, Self Control, and Diligence.” Across the bottom is “All sin, no virtue.” Below that Frogbert wrote:

Let’s face it. Trump exhibits NONE of the behavior expected of good or decent men. That so called “christians” could literally WORSHIP him is a testament to how corrupted and false their faith has become. They have been twisted and perverted by false prophets and grifters masquerading as “pastors” of their megachurches and television evangelism shows.

One posted by exlrrp: “A true Billionaire Christian would be donating Bibles, not selling them.” To that one I reply a true Christian wouldn’t exploit his employees and suppliers to become a billionaire. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary:

"Look, of course America's infrastructure is in need of updating. But I don’t think this is the proof. Falling down is kinda what you expect a bridge to do when a giant cargo ship slams into it. If your grandma gets body-slammed by The Rock, you're not gonna blame her broken bones on a calcium deficiency." —The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper, on right-wing fearmongers blaming the bridge collapse on "whatever is most convenient to them." "Trump selling the Bible? That's like if Mike Pence was selling copies of Fifty Shades of Grey." —Jimmy Fallon Happy Holy Week, Donald. Instead of selling Bibles, you should probably buy one. And read it, including Exodus 20:14. —Liz Cheney

I looked up Exodus 20:14 – “You shall not commit adultery.” Ronna McDaniel, fresh from being booted from the chair of the Republican National Committee was offered a job as an NBC News Contributor. She made it on air once. Then the pushback from the rest of the newsroom prompted NBC News to fire her. Sumner reported that NBC journalists knew that a paid pundit who supported overthrowing the government and ending democracy was a red line.

It wasn’t just the long and excellent tirade from skilled commentator Rachel Maddow (though Maddow’s willingness to absolutely go there certainly made any thought of McDaniel making another on-air appearance seem ludicrous).

It was also Chuck Todd of Meet the Press.

Taking their grievance over McDaniel’s hiring and making public, on-air statements that were 180 degrees opposed to their management was an act of journalistic bravery by Todd, Maddow, and others. That brave act was also largely enabled by the name recognition and status that both Todd and Maddow enjoy. Had either of them sat quietly, it’s not clear how many others would have been able to stand up.

In an article posted at the end of January Sumner discussed the state of news. He titled it No news is terrible news. A lot of media companies are cutting staff or going out of business.

The biggest reason is simple: Ad revenue is no longer adequate to support news organizations. But the deeper reason behind that decline is elusive and while everyone scrambles to find some alternative, lights are shutting off in newsrooms across the nation. If “Democracy dies in darkness,” as The Washington Post’s motto insists, it’s starting to look pretty dim out there. And nightfall may not be far away.

It isn’t that people aren’t buying the physical paper and switching to reading online. Those readers have gone away. There are two exceptions: local broadcast stations whose revenues have been flat, and Fox News, which isn’t trusted as a news source except by its base. Because so many large media companies have folded luring investors is difficult. Unless one is Musk, Murdoch, or Bezos, who can buy a media company without worrying about profit. That also means their news is suspect.

If you want a glimpse of the feudal society ahead, where billionaires replace barons and run their kingdoms as they see fit, news outlets provide a pretty good sneak peek. At a time when the United States is facing an enormous crisis in just trying to hold on to representative democracy and there may be more news than ever that absolutely demands to be reported, the resources to do that reporting are disappearing. ... The online space was supposed to democratize news. But actual news—collected, analyzed, and written by human beings—requires resources. The precipitous drop in ad revenues has made those resources thin on the ground. How this crisis will be solved remains unclear and it’s far from certain that it will be solved.