Crap is King***

If you’ve followed me for a while you might remember back during the Presidential election that I predicted that our Glorious Fourth Estate, the Mainstream Media (MSM for short) would “lay down like a worn out hooker” when it came to holding our politicians feet to the fire and doing their damn job.  Well, the MSM has gone far beyond that.  They’re actually now participating in the screwing and what’s worse, they seem to be enjoying it.

I’m talking about how they handled the effects of Sequestration–you the know the across the board cut in Federal spending to the tune of $85 billion that occurred because Congressional Republicans refused to have any constructive dialogue with the President about what should be cut.  They had a lot of political motivation to avoid the conversation about spending cuts.  First, they didn’t want to be seen a compromising with President Obama in any way (it’s been that way since before he even took office actually) in order to keep their base happy.  Second, they could continue to point to the deficit and debt (two different things BTW) blaming the Democrats and supposed uncontrolled spending while doing absolutely nothing to solve said problem.  Third, they could go home and honestly tell their constituents that they personally did not vote to take away the funding for their food stamps, HUD loans, etc, etc because those things went away precisely because no vote was taken.  Fourth, they could further gin up the base by focusing on “nontroversies”* with issues like Benghazi, the President’s nominees, sovereignty issues with VAWA, Obamacare birth control mandate, suspension of White House tours, First Family spending taxpayer money on dog walker, etc, etc, etc.

It all usually starts with one crazy ass quote from a Republican in Congress about a nontroversy (see “dog walker” quote above).  It’s like blood in the water.  The MSM zooms right in and it becomes a feeding frenzy.  So while the GOP and the MSM are engorging themselves on such easy pickings, the real world keeps on turning, real problems are happening, and the only people who know about it are the ones who are suffering from those problems (and some few of us who actually pay attention).  With the sequestration for instance there are a lot of things that will affect the daily lives of Americans.  Low income families will receive less child care subsidies.  This will mean that struggling parents will have to choose between working less or leaving their child at home alone.  Fewer seniors will have access to “Meals on Wheels” and more of them are likely to suffer from hunger as a result putting a greater strain on private charities who are already overwhelmed.  Federal workers will have smaller paychecks and they will spend less.  Less consumption means a slower growing economy.  Industries that depend on government contracts, like aerospace and ship builders, will let people go increasing unemployment rates and ensuring that some families will be plunged back into financial insecurity and all that entails.  States like Virginia and Maryland who depend on those industries will be hit much harder in comparison to other states.

Those don’t apply to you?  What about the waiting we tolerate in airports?  Nobody likes it but you’d better get used to it because there will be fewer air traffic controllers.  There will also be fewer flights which means the prices on the flights that remain will go up.  This means that the cost of doing business (much less personal travel) will go up.  Do you see what I’m saying?  Americans are just now starting to see the impact of the Sequestration.  Americans SHOULD have known ahead of time. Then they would have been able to put pressure on Congress to behave responsibly and make the right choices. But they didn’t because the MSM was too busy in the mutual masturbatory experiment that politics and journalism has become in this country to pay attention to the “real news”.  Don’t believe me? Look at the chart at the bottom of this post (via JM Ashby from http://thinkprogress.org/)

Now, add to that fact that Wall Street isn’t overly concerned with the effects of Sequestration.  And Wall Street includes the very powerful and few wealthy individuals and companies that own all of the media in the U.S. and are trying every day to acquire more of it.  Here’s one example:  The incredibly wealthy, very conservative plutocratic Koch brothers, of Tea Party fame, have been actively looking to purchase several major newspapers in the wake of Romney’s loss in the 2012 Presidential election.  The theory among conservatives is that their messaging and how they distributed that messaging didn’t work so if they can control the media, they’re more likely to get their message out to more people.  They can’t and won’t accept the fact that it wasn’t their messaging, it was their policies.  They think if they can somehow polish their turd policies enough, they can put them out there, all shiny and new seeming without any interference from, you know, the truth.  Even though the MSM is very little concerned with the truth as I’ve show time and time again.  No need to purchase them outright.  Just let them continue doing the increasingly shitty job they’ve been doing for years.

So here’s how it breaks down.  There is the “let them eat cake” attitude of the wealthy, particularly the ones who own the MSM.  There is the greed of the MSM who will do anything to get higher ratings than their competitors.  And there is the hunger for power of the GOP.  What it all adds up to is a big collective, “meh” about issues that REALLY matter to the American people.  If the monied classes had really been worried about Sequestration the MSM would surely have been trumpeting their fears so loudly the Krenim** out near the Andromeda nebula would have heard them and the DOW would have declined significantly.    There are theories as to why Wall Street is okay with Sequestration centering around the fact that economists don’t believe that it will derail our economic recovery.  And I agree, it won’t.  Because ultimately the U.S. economy is big enough and diverse enough to make it through this round of idiotic austerity.  Ultimately, it doesn’t matter to the rich either way.  They get richer no matter what happens to the rest of us.  This last Recession is the final proof of that.  But the economy WILL slow down.

However, “derailing” isn’t the same as “slowing down” to everyone.  The wealthy are up in the first class cars where they have plenty of room and can move from the passenger car to a dining car complete with a restaurant and bar.  They have comfy seats with plenty of food and drink, and several clean male and female lavatories with an attendant to provide a freshly laundered towel or breath mint or whateverthefuckelse they might have a fancy for.  If the train slows down they might be late to have supper at an exclusive restaurant, miss a meeting to buy yet another company, or give up their seats to the opening night of a musical.  The poor are crammed into uncomfortable, hot, smelly cars like cattle and aren’t allowed to move from car to car.  They only have what food and water they brought with them and barely enough of that for the normal length of the journey.  They have to share small cramped dirty  unisex bathrooms and there’s nobody to help them with anything but there is a conductor who comes by periodically to ensure that everyone has a ticket otherwise it’s “out you go”!   The slow down will cause the poor to miss that very important job interview, the doctor appointment at the free clinic, the next train that gets them home in time to pick up their kid from daycare before a $5 a minute late fee is imposed that they can’t pay for the daycare they can no longer afford because of reduced subsidies, etc, etc.    If the train slows down, the wealthy get to have another martini and are inconvenienced.  The poor go hungry,  their discomfort and stress increases, and it significantly impacts their lives.

It’s the MSM’s job to inform “the rest of us” about these kind of things.  They’ve stopped doing their job and are now participating in their own victimization, which in the end makes the American people the real victims.  Congratulations American MSM!  You’ve gone from being a tired hooker to become one of the perps in a “gangbang”.  You must feel so proud.   But hey, viewership is up, so huzzah!

MSM Coverage of Sequestration Effects v White House Tours

NOTES: 

*A controversy that does not exist until created for political gain. A contraction of non and controversy

**Obscure Star Trek Voyager reference, sorry couldn’t resist

***A kudos to anyone who can figure out the title reference