Reading Mikhail Gorbachev's history and memoir, "On My Country and the World." (1998).
"The Untold History of the United States" mentions it and it is well worth a read.
What becomes immediately apparent is while we had a profoundly demented leader in Ronald Reagan, the Russians sent us a gift we refused. Had Obama been President when Gorbachev was changing his Russia, we would likely have few or no nuclear weapons, no more endless war and a better economy.
Oliver Stone, Mad Dog knows, is a writer of screed, a conspiracy aficionado, but, as the saying goes, just because you're paranoid doesn't meant there isn't someone out there who wants to kill you, and his "Untold History" is fascinating, troubling, motivating and wonderfully entertaining. It also points you toward a variety of revelatory sources, like "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler.
This past primary season is still washing over Mad Dog's canine brain, but one thing which is abundantly clear is very few people were actually listening, and of those who did, most remained silent, simply listening and not responding to candidates, not challenging their ideas and forcing them to rethink their positions, at least on the Democratic side.
This is, in fact, one thing the other side does exceedingly well, with Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and all those other airwave pontificators. They also invest in The Federalist Society and all sort of avowedly right wing think tanks, which the left does not. The left is always trying to be open minded and even handed, i.e., academic, thoughtful and respectful.
Mad Dog thinks what this country needs is not a good 5 cent cigar, but a good left wing radio show, e.g. "Radio Free New Hampshire."
He is well aware Al Franken tried this and it went down in flames. But, truth be told, fine as Franken was, in many ways, he was too often unfunny.
This show needs to be entertaining, with musical interludes, seductive, alluring, attractive in ways liberals neglect.
And Mad Dog would like to point out, liberal neglect is a major failing. Much as he loved Obama, who was by far the best President to hold office during Mad Dog's long and doggy life, Mr. Obama had some failings:
1/ He failed to extract us from Afghanistan. He should have emphatically stated this war had a purpose: to get Osama Bin Laden, but the idea of rooting out or denying "sanctuaries" for terrorists was always absurd--the 9/11 terrorists trained in Florida and Berlin. The day after Bin Laden's body was dumped into the sea, every last American man and woman should have been on an airplane home from Afghanistan.
And he should have closed Gitmo and called into his office every Democrat who opposed it and raked him over the coals until they agreed to do it.
2/ He did not pursue criminal charges against anyone involved in the financial meltdown of 2008-2009. The country needed some revenge. Anger required it. Obama neglected it. Millions lost homes, life savings and Obama was like, "Oh, never mind."
3/ He did not get out often enough to rally the troops, or if he did, he allowed the press to ignore him.
4/ He was, in general, too afraid of appearing to be an angry Black man, for fear of frightening those white suburban ladies in Peoria, when, in fact, there was anger building in the country and he thought the soothing word and turning the other cheek was a proper response.
And what can you say about the Trumpling?
1/ Well, you have to admit, whereas Obama docilely handed over his cell phone, his computer because he was told to do this, Trump said, "Screw you," and took to cyberspace and his daily tweets, as inane and somethings frankly insane as they are, they are the 21st century version of the fireside chat. He is saying to the American voting public, I am engaged with you. I am talking to you.
2/ His Presidency is one long campaign rally: He spends incalculable energy on stoking up the troops, and he is devoted to marketing above governing. Like Hitler, he knows the value of bread and circus, the good show. Hitler designed the Nazi flag himself, after many tries.
He personally designed his huge rallies. When he wasn't poring over maps for the next country to invade, he was designing parades, night rallies, pageants and Olympic shows. (And never forget, the modern Olympic movement was his creation.)
3/ Hitler was a Keynesian economist: Mad Dog doesn't know where he got the money, but he poured tons of it into building the first major highway system, building the VW beetle, the "People's Car" literally--Volkswagen. And he poured money into the armaments industry, all of which meant jobs from infrastructure. He also helped the farmers. So whether or not people thought much about the Jews, whether they hated Jews before Hitler or simply never thought much about them, they shrugged off whatever hate swirled about them as long as they had bread, jobs and really fun rallies. Trump understands all this.
4/ Trump also gets Hitler's formula: Keep it really simple and keep repeating it. It doesn't matter if a wall is an idiotic idea. It's a good symbol and you can pour money down a mine shaft and create jobs for those who will dig for it. Immigrants crossing the Southern border are not the problem, in reality, of course. Most illegal immigrants arrive by airplane and overstay their visas. Most legal immigrants are well educated Asian--now those guys will take somebody's jobs--but you can vilify the brown skinned, tattooed rapist MS-13 and protect everyone from a trivial boogeyman and you'll have them screaming at your rallies.
All this and more could be discussed on Radio Free New Hampshire.
You could have thoughtful liberals like Terence O'Rourke expounding on why packing the Supreme Court would be a good idea to wrest the nation from the "rule of the dead." You could examine the Trump base. You could dissect out the reasons underlying his appeal. You could evaluate the great white knights the Democrats may or may not have.
And you can explore ideas like, "I'm not looking for a knight; I'm looking for a sword."
All this and more, if only some money man of a liberal persuasion would sponsor it.
Dream on, Mad Dog.
"The Untold History of the United States" mentions it and it is well worth a read.
What becomes immediately apparent is while we had a profoundly demented leader in Ronald Reagan, the Russians sent us a gift we refused. Had Obama been President when Gorbachev was changing his Russia, we would likely have few or no nuclear weapons, no more endless war and a better economy.
Oliver Stone, Mad Dog knows, is a writer of screed, a conspiracy aficionado, but, as the saying goes, just because you're paranoid doesn't meant there isn't someone out there who wants to kill you, and his "Untold History" is fascinating, troubling, motivating and wonderfully entertaining. It also points you toward a variety of revelatory sources, like "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler.
This past primary season is still washing over Mad Dog's canine brain, but one thing which is abundantly clear is very few people were actually listening, and of those who did, most remained silent, simply listening and not responding to candidates, not challenging their ideas and forcing them to rethink their positions, at least on the Democratic side.
This is, in fact, one thing the other side does exceedingly well, with Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and all those other airwave pontificators. They also invest in The Federalist Society and all sort of avowedly right wing think tanks, which the left does not. The left is always trying to be open minded and even handed, i.e., academic, thoughtful and respectful.
Mad Dog thinks what this country needs is not a good 5 cent cigar, but a good left wing radio show, e.g. "Radio Free New Hampshire."
He is well aware Al Franken tried this and it went down in flames. But, truth be told, fine as Franken was, in many ways, he was too often unfunny.
This show needs to be entertaining, with musical interludes, seductive, alluring, attractive in ways liberals neglect.
And Mad Dog would like to point out, liberal neglect is a major failing. Much as he loved Obama, who was by far the best President to hold office during Mad Dog's long and doggy life, Mr. Obama had some failings:
1/ He failed to extract us from Afghanistan. He should have emphatically stated this war had a purpose: to get Osama Bin Laden, but the idea of rooting out or denying "sanctuaries" for terrorists was always absurd--the 9/11 terrorists trained in Florida and Berlin. The day after Bin Laden's body was dumped into the sea, every last American man and woman should have been on an airplane home from Afghanistan.
And he should have closed Gitmo and called into his office every Democrat who opposed it and raked him over the coals until they agreed to do it.
2/ He did not pursue criminal charges against anyone involved in the financial meltdown of 2008-2009. The country needed some revenge. Anger required it. Obama neglected it. Millions lost homes, life savings and Obama was like, "Oh, never mind."
3/ He did not get out often enough to rally the troops, or if he did, he allowed the press to ignore him.
4/ He was, in general, too afraid of appearing to be an angry Black man, for fear of frightening those white suburban ladies in Peoria, when, in fact, there was anger building in the country and he thought the soothing word and turning the other cheek was a proper response.
And what can you say about the Trumpling?
1/ Well, you have to admit, whereas Obama docilely handed over his cell phone, his computer because he was told to do this, Trump said, "Screw you," and took to cyberspace and his daily tweets, as inane and somethings frankly insane as they are, they are the 21st century version of the fireside chat. He is saying to the American voting public, I am engaged with you. I am talking to you.
2/ His Presidency is one long campaign rally: He spends incalculable energy on stoking up the troops, and he is devoted to marketing above governing. Like Hitler, he knows the value of bread and circus, the good show. Hitler designed the Nazi flag himself, after many tries.
He personally designed his huge rallies. When he wasn't poring over maps for the next country to invade, he was designing parades, night rallies, pageants and Olympic shows. (And never forget, the modern Olympic movement was his creation.)
3/ Hitler was a Keynesian economist: Mad Dog doesn't know where he got the money, but he poured tons of it into building the first major highway system, building the VW beetle, the "People's Car" literally--Volkswagen. And he poured money into the armaments industry, all of which meant jobs from infrastructure. He also helped the farmers. So whether or not people thought much about the Jews, whether they hated Jews before Hitler or simply never thought much about them, they shrugged off whatever hate swirled about them as long as they had bread, jobs and really fun rallies. Trump understands all this.
4/ Trump also gets Hitler's formula: Keep it really simple and keep repeating it. It doesn't matter if a wall is an idiotic idea. It's a good symbol and you can pour money down a mine shaft and create jobs for those who will dig for it. Immigrants crossing the Southern border are not the problem, in reality, of course. Most illegal immigrants arrive by airplane and overstay their visas. Most legal immigrants are well educated Asian--now those guys will take somebody's jobs--but you can vilify the brown skinned, tattooed rapist MS-13 and protect everyone from a trivial boogeyman and you'll have them screaming at your rallies.
All this and more could be discussed on Radio Free New Hampshire.
You could have thoughtful liberals like Terence O'Rourke expounding on why packing the Supreme Court would be a good idea to wrest the nation from the "rule of the dead." You could examine the Trump base. You could dissect out the reasons underlying his appeal. You could evaluate the great white knights the Democrats may or may not have.
And you can explore ideas like, "I'm not looking for a knight; I'm looking for a sword."
All this and more, if only some money man of a liberal persuasion would sponsor it.
Dream on, Mad Dog.
Why do you think the Late Night hosts (Steven Colbert, Trevor Noha, etc) who are currently doing what you suggest, are not as effective as Hannity and Carlson (who clearly are far less bright)? The answer might help inform the design of your new show.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteThey are night time, TV and not daily.
Limbaugh is daily for hours and the country needs an alternative running every minute he is on the air.
Wonderful as Noah and Colbert are, they are simply "quantity insufficient" and reach too few people and not the right demographics. We need to corral the baby boomers.
Mad Dog
Time to bring back John Stewart in a longer format! Or, perhaps, another opportunity for you in retirement??
ReplyDelete