It didn’t have to turn out this way.
Local investors — especially in a prosperous town like Chicago — could have stepped forward to block a hedge fund from gaining control of several of the nation’s top daily newspapers.
But, despite the admirable efforts of Maryland hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr. and a few others, the shareholders of Tribune Publishing Co. voted Friday to accept a $633 million offer from Alden Global Capital. Continue reading.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham is known for looking at the big picture, and he did exactly that on Tuesday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” when he analyzed Arizona Sen. Martha McSally’s recent outburst at CNN reporter Manu Raju.
Last week, Raju asked McSally if she wanted new evidence to be included in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. And the Arizona Republican angrily responded, “You’re a liberal hack. I’m not talking to you. You’re a liberal hack.”
According to Meacham, McSally’s outburst wasn’t an anomaly or an isolated incident but rather, was designed to express her unwavering devotion to Trump. Such behavior on McSally’s part, Meacham told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, is characteristic of a “monarchist party” and a “cult of personality. Continue reading.
Last week’s release of Robert Mueller’s report, even in redacted form, highlights a president and his regime typified by disdain for the rule of law, democratic norms, and any principles of public service or the common good. Mueller’s prose is overflowing with repeated examples of Donald Trump engaging in obstruction of justice, which only add to the public mountain of evidence why he should be impeached, convicted and removed from office. The Mueller Report also shows a president who were open and eager to accept to accept help, both direct and indirect, from the agents of a hostile foreign government to distort and subvert the 2016 presidential election.
Beyond collusion and obstruction of justice, the Mueller report is damning in other ways as well. It shows how Donald Trump rules through fear and intimidation. But Trump’s power is far from absolute: Members of his inner circle routinely ignore him and apparently think that he is an ignorant, dangerous manchild. Many of the people who work for Trump, in other words, neither like nor respect him.
Is Donald Trump a dangerous “high conflict and high emotion” personality? Is he a malignant narcissist? Why do these kinds of leaders pose such a threat, even while they inspire such extreme loyalty from their followers? Why do Trump’s supporters continue to adore him even though he has repeatedly lied to them? Do sick societies produce dangerous leaders like Donald Trump, or is another dynamic at work?
View the complete April 27 article by Chauncey DeVega of Salon on the AlterNet website here.
