Tag: Oleg Deripaska
-
Why Is Boris Epshteyn Still Trump’s Lawyer? Same Reason Melania’s Still Trump’s Wife…
Why is this man standing next to Donald Trump – Boris Epshteyn – still Trump’s lawyer? It’s pretty much the same reason Melania Trump is still Trump’s wife. Epshteyn may do lawyerly things around Trump while Melania does wife-y things but both are actually performing a whole other job: handler. Boris is one of Trump’s…
-
Our News Media Is A False Equivalence Factory
America’s news media is lost. Last night epitomized that fact. Joe Biden delivered a remarkable State Of The Union Address including the part where he swatted down repeated Republican heckling. Fact: both sides don’t do that – heckle a POTUS while they’re delivering the SOTU. Both sides don’t shout out “You lie!” during it. But,…
-
The Media’s “Breaking News” Culture Is Broken
Dear American News Media: Breaking news that broke more than an hour ago, is no longer “breaking”. The fact that you continue breaking it all day regardless? That is broken. The same goes for your whole “breaking news” culture. I write this to you as an avid consumer of your product. By “avid”, I mean…
-
The GOP Hitched Its Wagon To Trump KNOWING His Wagon Was Hitched To Putin
The Republican Party saw Donald Trump coming. While Trump was a registered Democrat longer than he’s been registered as a Republican, that wasn’t because he used to embrace Democratic policies; it was because it made zero sense to be a Republican in NYC where Democrats held the political power and therefore access to the public’s…
-
If Trump “Wins” The White House Again, It Will Mean Our Republic Is Already Dead
Our news media exists in a strange nether world where the Republican corruption from one story – their acceptance of the Big Lie – never laps over into a story about the very same corrupt Republicans running for office or “governing”. The press has a remarkable ability to turn from a story about Republicans visibly…
-
Before We Go Praising Mike Pence For “Saving The Republic”, Let’s Remind Ourselves How Much Of The Peril We’re In Is Mike Pence’s Fault
Hannah Arendt coined the term “the banality of evil” while watching the trial of Nazi SS officer Adolph Eichmann in 1961. Arendt, one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century, saw in Eichmann not an Aryan god who represented a true “master race”, but a mediocre, over-confident petty bureaucrat just doing what…
-
Vladimir Putin Is Waaaaay More Russia’s “Head Gangster” Than Russia’s “Head Of State”
Only in America – in America’s news media – is Vladimir Putin any sort of “legitimate head of state”. But then, for context, America’s news media still thinks of (and treats) the Republican Party as legitimate actors in American politics. Donald Trump has handed our press not merely a smoking gun, but a smoking thermonuclear…
-
Is Vlad Putin Auditioning To Be The Next Bond Villain?
Like it or not, world, we’re gonna have a new – and very different – James Bond. It goes without saying that our new Bond is gonna need new Bond Villains to match his/her/their/its particular newness. Gone are the Bloefelds of yesteryear! Forget about the Dr No’s and the Goldfingers. They’re cute but, in the…