Adventures of a Gonzo Journalist
Posted in Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and MintPress News
Donald Trump is going to be president.
That’s fucking ugly, so I want you to just sit with it for a minute.
I know some people are working for a different outcome. I will rarely tell anyone not to act, and this includes my comrades petitioning the electoral college to reject Trump, or supporting efforts to recount the vote.
Still, fundamentally, our democracy isn’t built for this. The electoral college was never meant to serve the people, and it never will.
Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News
Michael Flynn, a military veteran who was once a key player in the U.S. intelligence state, is likely to have an integral part in setting foreign and domestic policy in the administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
If Flynn accepts Trump’s reported offer, the retired lieutenant general’s strong Islamophobic views could be a signal that the incoming president intends to follow through on anti-Muslim policy promises he made on the campaign trail, from increasing surveillance of Muslim communities to forcing Muslims to register in a national database.
Speculation has swirled for months about Flynn’s potential role in Trump’s White House. An advisor to the Trump campaign, he was reportedly considered as a possible candidate for vice president, but the latest rumors coming from inside the Trump transition team suggest he is a likely choice for national security adviser.
Despite Trump’s promises to “drain the swamp” and keep lobbyists out of his administration, Flynn’s consulting firm has been linked to a Turkish corporation with ties to the Erdogan government.
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
The elevation of Stephen Bannon, former boss at the extreme right-wing news outlet Breitbart News, to chief strategist in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump has provoked a firestorm of criticism over his racist views on minorities and his support for anti-Semitism.
However, despite what may seem like a contradiction between the xenophobic views of Bannon and the news outlet he guided, Bannon’s appointment as Trump’s chief strategist could actually be good news for apartheid Israel and its ongoing occupation of the indigenous Palestinian population.
Under Bannon, Breitbart News published articles that were Islamophobic, homophobic, and anti-women. The site fueled racist attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement and journalist Shaun King. The KKK and other white nationalist groups are celebrating his appointment to the post, while human rights groups are condemning it.
Bannon, himself, was accused of making anti-Semitic remarks by his ex-wife, a charge he denies, while Breitbart News has been accused of hosting anti-Semitic content. Bannon also bragged that the site had become the online home of the so-called “alt-right,” a far-right white nationalist movement that is openly anti-Semitic.
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
Election fraud is a dangerously real possibility in the United States, but Donald Trump is wrong about how elections could be rigged under the current system.
The Republican nominee has warned his supporters that the election could be rigged against him, and there have already been reports of Trump supporters with guns at polling places intimidating voters.
However, Mark Crispin Miller, a self-described “election integrity activist,” dismissed Trump’s claims.
“It’s basically impossible to vote ten times or fifteen times,” said the professor of media studies at New York University who has spent more than a decade studying election results.
Posted in Journalism, MintPress News, and Occupy Wall Street
Both the Democrats and Republican party tickets are calling for a no-fly zone in Syria, even though this could provoke a nuclear war with Russia in a worst-case scenario. Meanwhile, the mainstream media, and even many “progressive” news outlets are beating the drums of war. And who is Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA contractor linked in two significant leaks of classified information?
On Wednesday, I made my monthly appearance on Black Tower Radio to touch on overlooked or poorly reported news. Also mentioned in our discussion: Occupy Austin, independent journalist Vanessa Beeley’s reports from Aleppo, and Tim Shorrock’s reporting on the NSA’s “Private Spies.”
Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News
Donald Trump is known for voicing his negative opinions of the media, and the Republican nominee’s supporters are increasingly reflecting those sentiments with bizarre and sometimes threatening behavior toward reporters covering his rallies.
Hillary Clinton also has a history of attacking press freedom, though more through supporting the prosecution of whistleblowers and backing repressive Middle Eastern regimes than through the kind of open contempt expressed by her opponent.
