Donald Trump's normalisation by the media transcends the election

Trump is going to win. It is nauseating to state this and there will be no comfort in being correct. Win or lose, hard-headedness now helps prepare for what is to come after the media's fetishisation of this box-office charlatan.

The are signs that this won't be a walk in the park for Hilary Clinton. Firstly, the polls and betting all predicted a loss for Brexit and look what happened. The parallels with June's EU referendum are evident with the so-called establishment status quo against the perceived outsider. Of course most people know a born-into-privilege son of millionaires is hardly an outsider. 

Michael Moore also puts forward a strong case for a Trump victory. Saying things that desperate people want to hear is a tactic especially as in their euphoria they probably never even consider it could be deception.

Moore mentions the role of the media who pandered to his chest-beating audience for ratings, clicks & profile. Trump, the extreme narcissist was an advertisers dream. An election in which not much over half the electorate vote has become a TV execs dream. Pandora's Box was torn open by gleeful corporate media and to hell with the long term as long as everyone got their payday. A mentality replicated in the 2008 banking crash that helped sow the seeds for

The fact is from the very beginning it was obvious he represented millions of racists, from the dangerously bigoted to far right psychopaths. His poll numbers jumped every time he vilified another group — never his own clique of course. The default male  dominated media failed to frame his extremism in a responsible manner. Yet we get coverage as cartoonish as its subject.

There was little scratching below the surface towards the causes that propels him. We shouldn’t be relying on a random brave Muslim woman  to part-expose this sad American reality. Serious news organisations with their massive reach and resources should be aching to provide further context into a massively popular global story. And so it has rarely been more apparent that the gaze of scrutiny belongs overwhelmingly to those unable to grasp the threat he represents, some of whom will probably be spluttering into their privilege right now.

Corbyn's Labour supporters can win the debate - here's how

The anti-Corbyns would do well to remember the Remainers who descend into hysterics after Brexit. Campaign lies or not, they were only ever going to entrench the Leavers more. Stomping of feet is undignified and divisive after what was a far more honest campaign.

Ok, trying to draw a line under this pointless and distracting waste of time. Labour can finally focus on the issues and make their case - here's how:

Issues

The consensus over Corbyn's speech was generally positive - even from critics. It contained the radical idea of actually investing in infrastructure, a real living wage, rent controls and ending arms sales to medieval human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia:

Many anti-Corbyns can usually be neutralised by asking 'what policy idea of his do you actually disagree with?' It is transparent how Corbyn's opponents prefer  the navel-gazing of Labour's internal soap opera fuelled by media narratives - don't get dragged in. After all even tories acknowledge these - in public at least: 

• More houses need to be built.
• The NHS should not have top-down privatisation.
• Grammar schools are a dunce's idea to improve social mobility
• Tax avoidance needs to be curbed - if you want a reduced deficit and ignore this issue you're avoiding maths. The numbers prove this would go further than looking at benefit fraud
• Austerity has failed - tories finally coming around to what credible economists have been saying repeatedly what seems like forever. Remainers should take comfort that Brexit might finally end the dumb punitive era of elite prescribed economic dogma.

Other right-wing commentators complimentary to Corbyn include

Peter Oborne:

Twitter

A lot of the ammunition used by anti-Corbyns comes from twitter. It appears they spend time waiting for anyone with a Corbyn profile ribbon to swear and they are suddenly branding all of his followers as thugs. This is the same logic as branding 1.6 Billion muslims as terrorists for the actions of a minority. This analogy extends because many terrorists are not true followers of Islam, they are using the religion as a means to an ends. The fake Momentum twitter accounts show how murky the waters of abuse are.

If we're talking about anti-semitism and prejudice it seems few of the standards that Corbyn is held to is levelled at other parties. I've written about tory government sanctioned racism - which needs to be highlighted at every turn. Furthermore a lot of the abuse judged to be Corbyn's fault has actually come from the hard right or been fabricated

Pro-austerity elitists, some who've never worried about Jewish people, are suddenly find they might be useful to push their failed agenda. Jews are calling this out

Blairites again using Jewish people as a political football to smear those who oppose Austerity like Corbyn, NO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/ef93QJfmjH

— Jewish Voice (@J_VoiceUK) June 30, 2016

these are anti-Labour activists. @jessphillips knows. she's using anti-semitism for point scoring. I'm Jewish. stop. https://t.co/HsJnQGo4GC

— Michael Segalov (@MikeSegalov) September 17, 2016

Polls

Wonder if the right are going to mention them anymore?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-poll-puts-labour-ahead-of-tories-for-first-time-since-jeremy-corbyn-became-leader-a6937926.html

LBC is another case of corporate UK media culture and its sinister agenda

Successful radio giant LBC has a tried and tested media business model. Pick sensational topics while pandering to bigoted simpletons to manufacture outrage then reap the benefits as the hysteria goes viral. In this way LBC mimic hard-right US shock-jocks like redneck Rush Limbaugh and the bombastic conservative agendas of Fox News. It may not seem quite as vitriolic with its 'British' accent but underneath the methodology is the same. Also bear in mind that many politicians make this outlet their home.




Owners

They are owned by Global Radio who are every bit as corporate as they sound. They own multiple UK stations including Galaxy, Smooth, Capital, Heart and Xfm

Firstly in May 2015 they were found to have engaged in an Orwellian act of self-censorship by protecting scandal-hit HSBC - a bank which seems to go from scandal to scandal  Very worrying then a director of the bank sits on the board of the BBC

Members of the public were so concerned that a complaint was made to regulatory body Ofcom. This was not only rejected but requests for transparency in the decision-making process were denied by the government body.

Later the same year they were finally held accountable by Ofcom for running ads resembling news stories


LBC tax avoidance

In 2013 a story broke that LBC's top parent company Global Worldwide is registered via complex arrangements in the British Virgin Islands, a tax-haven featured heavily in the Panama Papers.

Ed Miliband even appointed GW chairman Sir Charles Allen to review Labour's governance and finances. A former chief executive of ITV and chairman of EMI, Allen has since become chairman of Labour's Executive Board.

This also explains their reluctance to publish negative stories about HSBC being enablers of tax avoidance.


LBC 'personalities'

Katie Hopkins

Can you imagine what your employer would do if you used her rhetoric in a place of work. If any extremist muslim or someone without her privilege had her platform their treatment would be quite different and expose the double standards of a corrupt media.

Nick Ferrari

• "Racist shock-jock"
• friend of disgraced hard-right  Sun hack Kelvin McKenzie
• Almost tory candidate for mayor of London 

Iain Dale

• Ex-tory candidate
• like Hopkins and Ferrari supported Brexit
• Attacked a protester because they were upsetting his right-wing PR stunt

Other regular right-wingers include:

• Daily Mail's Andrew Pierce
• ex-Sun now Times Stig Abell

LBC follow the Fox News formula with a token 'lefty' regular, James O'Brien. Their roster is heavily biased towards middle-aged pale males with only 3 regular female presenters and have only just recently added 1 single non-white presenter who has made a good career pandering to the right-wing

Labour leadership election: debunking Corbyn media narratives

It seems strange that Labour are in the same position they were a year ago - with a leadership election involving Corbyn. If that's what it takes to prove he is representing those desperate for a real alternative to a broken and failed system then so be it. What the sneering media and other elites fail to comprehend is that their groupthink has made them blind to how decades of neoliberalism have marginalised millions - a clue should have been Brexit winning or UKIP coming 3rd in the popular vote in 2015. Corbyn resonates with many of these people.




Time to scrutinise the myths surrounding a social phenomenon that won't go away even if Corbyn does:

Abuse & violence is somehow his fault

A brick was thrown through the window of Angela Eagle's offices after announcing her leadership. Clearly this is a horrible thing to experience and it is right that serious concerns were raised over her safety with speculation of political motivations. Except the speculation didn't remain speculation. Soon the media was sometimes subtly, sometimes not, framing this as the thuggery of Corbyn supporters. Almost implying that he himself had sanctioned this. Even his supporters have been swept along by this.

Another important point of forensics is that this act affected the building her offices were in, not her actual offices. A stairwell was the target - hardly the heart of Eagle's operation. This video highlights this but obviously cannot say categorically that it was simply mindless vandalism just as Eagle herself cannot say it was linked to Corbyn despite her interview clearly giving that impression



Also an alleged act of intimidation would do its job wherever aimed. The issue is not how the facts are interpreted but how they are reported. Of course it is very easy to imply that this was the work of Corbyn supporters or the man himself just by simply omitting these facts or placing his name in the same headline:

Of course all abuse and violence is wrong but the media have a responsibility to differentiate the right wing abuse Labour MPs get all the time from internal incidents be it Corbyn supporters or not. Except it's clear few have any interest in this - see articles here:

• Why should we believe these claims about Corbyn supporters being “brutal” at meetings?
• Why are the Labour coup plotters fabricating evidence of abuse?

Corbin couldn't convince Labour supporters to vote Remain and didn't try hard enough

He is unelectable

Under Corbyn's leadership in the recent 2016 elections, Labour performed better than expected and bettered the tories who are apparently a united family of competence despite Brexit splits, a disastrous economy, election fraud and a new Prime Minster who failed as home secretary

Corbyn supporters are all metropolitan liberal elites

Last time I checked voters in Northern seats could hardly be considered as part of this group.
In the picture above you can see Labour holding councils in Bradford, Bolton, Barnsley, Blackburn even Birmingham is hardly elite country. Furthermore working class constituencies are nominating Corbyn for leader.

Tory election fraud: Another nail in the coffin?

Never mind the EU referendum, tory election fraud could explode their right to rule. It seems very likely that they have been declaring local campaigning as national spending which has no limit, unlike the former. A telling sign is using local place names in letters sent using their national spending. If urging constituency voters to 'vote Conservative here in Torbay' qualifies as non-local campaigning then the local spending limit is redundant if it's so easy to circumnavigate.

Meanwhile the tories have underestimated Corbyn's Labour based on his first real test. Losing no councils in the May elections is a decent return for someone who gets so much negative media. There were even gains in the South where many predicted Labour would suffer, these are areas where he is suppose to be rejected by swing tory voters.

Right-wing racists and the rank hypocrisy of the complicit establishment

The mainstream media are pursuing a narrative of anti-semitism within the Labour party. While there are isolated incidents and Naz Shah rightly paid for one, there is no evidence to support this is systemic within the Labour party. Anti-semitism is an issue for the whole of society and should be dealt with but right-wing mud-singling exceeds the reality of the issue. This is the 'dead cat' strategy of Lynton Crosby to distract from an endemic racism of the right, as the following shows.

The same right-wing that say nothing on the rise of Islamophobia. On any given day you can see keyboard bigots throwing racial insult after insult at any minority. The double standards and rank hypocrisy of the establishment has never been more obvious. It is not even confined to the aforementioned lunatics but brazenly flaunted in national debates without recourse.

The government ruling what many consider to be the most racially harmonious nations in the world has descended into Islamophobia, race-baiting & 'dog-whistle' racism, pandering to those bigots at the margins of society, who will do anything to target an immigrant.

This was evident in a Theresa May immigration speech that had echoes of Donald Trump, so much so that even the right-wing tax-avoiding Torygraph condemned it.

The Zac Goldsmith London mayoral campaign has demonstrated how the tories are not past neo-colonial divide & conquer to try and win an election. They'd probably run-over their own grannies too. Again many of their own have called out this desperate racism.

Just got this email from a member of #Conservative party I have never met. Says it all. #zacgoldsmith #SadiqKhan #UK pic.twitter.com/T8ELUK9K7P

— Shazia (@ShaziaAwan) April 25, 2016

David Cameron even joined in. There have been constant insinuations that because Sadiq Khan is muslim he is not concerned about a terrorist attack in his own city. This is some of the worst gutter politics ever. The whole sorry scandal is neatly taken apart here:

So nasty are Goldsmith's methods, even a few on the right have called it out. This article summarises the poisonous campaign well, from ex-Telegraph writer and lifelong tory supporter, Peter Oborne:

Meanwhile the recent Obama visit and intervention in the EU debate caused outrage among paunching racists like Boris Johnson. The privileged clown has background of racial slurs and it is a sign of our corrupt system that any he is considered him fit for any public office let alone PM.

King's College university have reacted with ethics foreign to the tory party who are perpetually smearing Labour with anti-semitism. 

Far right elitist blowhard Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) is a self-confessed Zionist, essentially backing Israel's Netanyahu apartheid regime who attack Gaza disproportionately killing children, are silent when IDF soldiers execute defenceless Palestinians and systematically erasing their land.

Ignoring right-wing anti-semitism undermines their faux-crusade against racism. They are only interested in this issue as a political football to smear opponents and move closer to a one-party state based on flimsy lies.

'The Race Card'

Any attempt to oppose or highlight the racism of privilege is met with the audacious accusations of 'playing the race card'. This mantra of neo-colonial self-entitled white men just compounds the racism as they attempt to dictate to minorities how to feel and think when the evidence is so clear. They must be wishing for a return of the Empire.

Your insights on racism are really appreciated, media pundits:

Exposing Lynton Crosby's 'dead cat' distractions that maintain the tory illusion

Lynton Crosby is the tory's Minister of Propaganda 

His tools of manipulation are political game-playing and media complicity.

What is a 'dead cat' distraction?

The use of shock tactics to move national debates away from a awkward subject. The playground equivalent to shouting "Look over there!" to a teacher then running away. Here are well-documented examples of his strategy:

The 2012 London mayoral election

Ken Livingstone was proposing cheap fares, a popular policy until the tories, with the help of their media cronies, raised the subject of his taxes which shifted the debate into pure speculation. The election was narrowly won by Boris Johnson, who has left no legacy for the capital.

The 2015 general election

Ed Miliband's cost-of-living issues were gaining traction until efforts were made to position the alleged Falkirk Labour "vote-rigging" scandal as the main national debate.

Michael Fallon's 'Miliband has knifed his brother in the back'
Instead of discussing Trident before the last election the then Labour was smeared by the tory Defence minster. Many who knew Fallon said it was out of character, suggesting Crosby was involved. Again it was effective at taking a thorny issue for the conservatives off the table.


More recently

Early 2016

Allegations of left wing anti-semitism.
There has been a strong media narrative about the left's 'anti-Semitism problem' with even the allegedly left-leaning media are taking part. This has clearly been orchestrated from the right. Although a serious issue, we hear little actual evidence. No doubt there is an insidious move to conflate left wing voices against Israel's apartheid with racism.

Meanwhile there is little coverage about the rise of the far right across the west with grassroots extremists followers of Trump, Britain First, Pediga (Germany) & Front National in France or the growth in Islamophobia.

Jan 2016

David Cameron's 'bunch of migrants' language:
The debate about Google's tax evasion was stymied by some strategic racism and predictable fall-out.

March 2016

Supposedly genial and moderate London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith's campaign is straight out of the Crosby dirty tricks playbook with racial profiling - stereotyping Hindu Indians with info on passing down family jewellery and alluding to his opponent's identity as a Muslim, classic dirty divide and conquer tricks. As if these the days of Indian/Pakistan partition.

March 2016

The Labour list story emerged from the tory activists at The Times conveniently in time for David Cameron to use at Prime Minsters Questions. This, after the devastating Osborne's omni-shambles budget part 2 and the subsequent resignation (self-promotion) of IDS.

More to come ...

All clear evidence of where tory priorities lie. They are more bothered about winning than the lives of citizens, especially those who don't vote for them.


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The EU referendum debate reveals a more sinister democratic deficit

Brexit campaigners have a point, the EU referendum debate reveals a democratic deficit - our collective ignorance and illiteracy.

On the 23rd June the nation will be asked to vote on an issue whose outcomes reach further than any general election while masses of voters are struggling to comprehend the issue. Our establishment resembles a totalitarian state in matters of public information. So much for a progressive enlightened western democracy? Also the same vested interests have prevented 16/17 year olds voting despite the enormity of the decision. Wouldn't want too many people getting involved in democracy would we?

We don't need conspiracy theories when at every turn we are kept ignorant of our governing system and it is no accident or oversight. Our political illiteracy is not confined to the wilfully ignorant or the uneducated. One can simply ask intelligent, knowledgeable people about the core EU institutions, what are they? how are they elected? how do they affect our lives? what is the troika?

Beyond the simplistic soundbites of our anti-intellectual debate, the European Parliament legislates on a number of issues like regulating banks and setting a bonus cap. It can maintain online privacy and uphold human rights, but it could also mean permanently privatised railways, austerity and the spectre of the profit-over-people TTIP trade deal. And so the EU economic war on the vulnerable continues as the gap widens between rich and poor.

The Brexiters offer nothing against neoliberal global institutions which wield more combined power than their continental nemesis. The undemocratic governance of the EU is replicated internationally. Anyone remember having a say in the G20? The G7? Or deciding the IMF board? Meanwhile the World Trade Organisation (WTO) oversees secretive trade talks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal involving the collective economic might of East Asia, Australia and the US. This pact is very similar to aforementioned TTIP in that it favours big business over citizens. Brexits want Commonwealth trade to replace EU trade, yet fail to challenge the anti-consumer TTIP terms. With the lack of profile given to this massive issue why should the public feel confident them as an alternative?

The simple framing of Remain or Brexit excludes a third possibility of a democratic EU with bottom-up sustainable economics, fairer competition, absolutely no TTIP and strengthened worker rights. This referendum issue is a complicated mix of national, regional and global debates. But you can't study their underlying neoliberal orthodoxy on any national curriculum, or understand it by watching the news. That is perhaps the greatest democratic threat of all.

Instead we are distracted by the opium of personalities like Boris & Farage because the mainstream media gets revenue from the sensational over facts & insights. The day they and Brexiters highlight the importance of information about power structures is the day I'll believe they want ordinary citizens to reclaim democracy.

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The financial crisis awakens while too many are blaming the powerless

The tories have exposed the UK to global instability

In the last few months there have been no shortage of signs that another financial crisis is coming. Osborne and the tories will probably blame it on Labour while they are responsible for steering the nation through it:



Yet this government are happy to prostitute our resources, markets and workforce to any country as long as the right people are reaping the benefits:

• Our railways are actually two-thirds nationalised but not domestically - the German, French & Belgian states run large swathes of it. So the supposedly patriotic, Queen & country flag-waving tories are essentially saying "any state can run our railways as long as it isn't the British state."
• Immigrants that our elites seem to like, Russian oligarchs and the new super-rich Chinese, are welcomed to inflate property prices for locals & citizens who've paid a lifetime of tax only to be priced-out.
• As we know from 2008 our financial services industry is more open than ever under Osborne's light touch.

Our hyper-globalised economy can be a good thing, but not when run so unfairly for minority vested interests. While true that everyone is dependent on faltering China, the source of the turmoil but the tories seems to enjoy our status as one of the most globally exposed economies. If we had more control over our markets we could make decisions of economic sovereignity.

Anti-EU types seem to pick and choose when they speak about this lack of sovereignty, the much nastier global institutions of the G7 / G20 / IMF / WTO / TTIP are hidden from the spotlight - as is predatory global finance in general.

Stuttering growth is toxic for an unbalanced economy about to take a global hit. The graph below should have the tories apologising and using evidence-based economic solution instead of the austerity delusion. Yet they indulge in the rhetoric of empty triumphalism.





Domestic retail slowdown:

Weak figures over the 2015 Christmas shopping period do not present a optimistic future. The tories even had the gaul to blame it on mild weather. Seem to remember they used cold weather for a similarly disappointing yuletide results.

Meanwhile the supposedly anti-tax tories persevere with their ridiculous burden-on-the-poor VAT rate of 20% having raised it from 17.5% in 2011. Under the Labour it was 15% at one point encouraging consumer spending and liquidity after the 2008 crash.

UK productivity is one of the lowest in the G7 This particularly telling because it shows the lack of attention the tories pay to bottom-up long-term solutions. If there was a plan to incentivise small marginal gains for low-waged workers than the benefits would ripple-up. Instead trickle-down carrots do not permeate further than a small group, which as we know from wider economics.


Tories act as if certain groups are not essential parts of the economy:

While UK steelworkers suffer under market volatility the government does nothing. It appears they are completely at ease with skilled manual labourers losing employment through globalisation and ending up in the local Aldi for pitiful wages. While tax-take goes down it is also a complete waste of experience and expertise which tends to impact already-marginalised communities.

They sit on their hands apologising for dodgy Chinese market practices and provide no answers. No real surprise from the party who callously smashed the miners contributing to the regional issues in the first-place.

Meanwhile the Northern powerhouse has been moved from Sheffield to London. There are no words.

And the corporate media are up to their usual smoke & mirrors by again by failing to scrutinise the institutions which govern our lives. 

When the financial crisis strikes again we will finally realise the extent of media distraction #marr #bbctbq #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/hyTzbvZGG9

— JeSuisFedUp (@JeSuisFedUp) January 31, 2016

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