Too bad so much of our commercially produced news is controlled by psychopathic judicially created “persons” focused exclusively on their sacred bottom line. “Both sides” journalism, in an age when one side is increasingly, openly lawless, and contemptuous of the law, leaves very fine people on both sides screwed.

The reason The Fourth Estate exists in a democracy, and is protected as the first order of business in the Bill of Rights, is to provide information and analysis to the populace so we can make informed, intelligent decisions about how we are governed. Democracy, our framers said, to distinguish this new form of rule from the tyranny of a king, was government by consent of the governed. You can’t give consent if you don’t know what you’re consenting to.

Fascism rises when real information is erased, dismissed as “fake news” and facts are replaced with an endless loop of constantly changing lies. Many of the people inundated with those lies will consent to whatever they are told. Attack judges as partisan lunatics, then accuse your enemies of attacking judges; foment political violence and accuse your enemies of being murderers; try to rig elections and accuse your enemies of doing it when you lose, the list goes on and on. Consent of the governed is replaced by “obey or die,” backed by the full violence of the state. Many are pleased, even proud, to do it, I’m sad to say.

Lawrence O’Donnell, brilliant journalist and great writer, consistently gives an intelligent take on the most important issues of the day. Here’s Lawrence on the moral and intellectual idiocy of our government’s defense of the privacy and reputations of wealthy, powerful pedophiles and sex traffickers. The lifelong trauma of their victims? “I haven’t even thought about that,” said our grifter-in-chief, America’s Greatest Liar:

Here’s Trump, after a still unknown murderer killed a well-funded, highly influential far-right extremist influencer, organizer and MAGA icon, now a martyr.  As is often said, Trump’s every accusation is an admission:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie [1] to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.

My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country.

very fine people, on both sides, on both sides.

[1]

I think it’s worth noting, because you’re seeing some people saying, “Well, you know, I disagree with what he said, but he was a champion of free speech. He died debating.” Look, the fact that he was murdered doesn’t change the fact that he also — he was an opponent of free speech. There’s no other way to cut it, for a man who created something called Professor Watchlist, School Board Watchlist, to name and frighten people from teaching, who advocated restrictions on what school teachers could teach, who called for — and there’s a clip you can see online — who called for the televised public executions, and he had a pretty broad category in mind. But what was really chilling was he wanted this to be required viewing for children. And you can look at this clip, and you can see his colleagues. They’re sort of trolling, but Kirk, again and again, pulls it back to seriousness, and he says, “No, no, no, this isn’t a joke. This has to be a holy experience, a teaching experience for children, watching enemies be killed.” That is not a champion of free speech.

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