Comedian Donald Trump on business (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali-G Show); Warren Olney, Producers Katie Cooper, Jenny Hamel, Gideon Brower ("To the Point"/KCRW FM)

I want them out -- Mexicans, Muslims, non-whites, women, feminists, disgusting! (AP)

 

We'll follow our white leader.

Who is Donald Trump, and how did he get to be on verge of becoming the GOP presidential nominee? That is tough to say. It may have something to do with America's implicit bias and racism boiling just under the surface. KCRW explains below.
 

I love my (white) fans.

But perhaps we can begin to understand by asking, Who is Ali-G, and how did he get on British TV? Ali-G explains:

"Me woz born in da heart off da Staines ghetto...Me woz failed by da skool system and hated every minute me spent in da classroom.

Young activists say #DumpTrump.

"In fact added together, dat time woz probly da most borin 3 hours of me life -- altho me do still go to a skool re-union every second Monday at Staines Job Centre...

"As well as bein unemployed -- i iz also got a lot off well important careers. As head of Da West Staines Massive, me control da most peace lovin and violent gang in da hole of Barkshire.

I'm the best. That's it. I'll make us #1. (AP)

"Afta happearin on some crap programme dat woz on at 11 a clock or somefin, it werent long before me ad me own show....I iz now easily da most respekted face on Brittish telly and it iz probably only a matter off time before me get offered me own slot on Channel Michelinazo - or hopefully even cable..."

• White supremacist groups and the Trump bump

Donald Trump inspires Christian terrorism and xenophobia (jensorensen.com)

Who is Donald Trump?

I don't know nuthin' except I want this! (AP)

Donal Trumf was born with a spoon in his mouth. He pulled himself by his own bootstraps -- with the help of a "small" loan from his father of a million dollars to get started. he is ridiculous, but beloved by a public so weary of sweet, patriotic lies and corporate/government deceptions for everything going on around us.

I don't inspire Christian terrorists!

Obama is a terrific liar. Clinton 2 is a less convincing liar. Bush 1 is a liar. Bush 2 is a liar. Does anyone really want to go for Bush 3, the corporate candidate the military-industrial complex prefers?

How does fay-but-rabid Ted Cruz strike you? How about Rubio or Rand? Is the devil you know better than the devil you don't?

Trump-inspired Christian terrorism?

Host Warren Olney, Producers Katie Cooper, Jenny Hamel, Gideon Brower ("To the Point," KCRW.org, Dec. 14, 2015)

Donald Trump is drawing crowds and getting cheers for [erratic, sexist, racist, xenophobic] comments that have ended political candidacies in the past. At the same time, white supremacist websites [like the biggest one, Stormfront, which is seeing a bump in views due to Trump] are energized, and new [Christian terrorist] attacks on mosques are being reported. What's the connection to demographic change and economic inequality?

• PLAY (SHARE) 

Donald Trump, American Values, and Angry White Males

Why Boys Fail (R. Whitmire)

When "The Donald" sneers at Mexicans, blacks, and women or talks about banning Muslims, the mainstream media call him "unacceptable." Trump responds that he won't be "politically correct," and crowds roar with approval. He's saying what many angry Americans want to hear. The fear of terrorism is ripe for his exploitation and, beyond that, the fear of being left behind by cultural diversity and a changing economy. With white supremacy and hate crimes on the rise, "To the Point" looks at the risks of making the "unacceptable" sound respectable after all. GUEST: author Richard Whitmire.

• LISTEN (33:55 mins)

• Whitmire on Trump channeling white male anger
• Giridharadas on how Trump has upended the story line
• Giridharadas on "Trumpism" after Trump 

Obama at National Security Council meeting on ISIS

Why talk about Black Prez? Talk about me!

In a rare move today, Pres. Obama opened a meeting of his National Security Council (NSC) called to discuss strategy against the [CIA-created] "Islamic State." Then the Nobel Peace Laureate spoke with reporters, telling them, "We are hitting ISIL harder than ever. Coalition aircraft, our fighters, bombers, and drones have been increasing the pace of airstrikes -- nearly 9,000 as of today. Last month in November, we dropped more bombs on ISIL targets than in any other month since this campaign started." Josh Lederman, White House reporter for the Associated Press, has more on this story. Guest: Josh Lederman, Associated Press (@joshledermanAP).

• Obama's weekly address on standing strong in the face of terrorism [scare that serves as a pretext for endless war]

How to be a Republican "Feminist" (jensorensen.com)

 

Grad Night and Intolerance (video)

Pat Macpherson, Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Matt Bai (news.yahoo)

"Die-in" San Francisco protest (IM)

America's college students are back and resting at home this week, which is a good thing, because during the long months away they seem to have gone completely out of their minds.

 

Last weekend, The New York Times' Jennifer Medina reported on the latest bizarre demand on campus: "trigger warnings" to let students know if the text [book] they're about to study will expose them to some version of misogyny or homophobia, so they aren't unexpectedly [re-]traumatized by visions of things that can never be unseen -- like, say, every novel written by a white man before 1960 [Hey, by the way, I'm a privileged white male, but never mind that].

The Harvard Commencement Speech

PC on overdrive: Ali G. (Sacha Baron Cohen aka Borat) gives commencement speech at America's most prestigious university in 2004.

That followed the public [sham]ings of several commencement speakers whose invitations had to be rescinded, including such evildoers as [Bush Era war criminal] former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the International Monetary Fund's [bankster] Christine Lagarde, and [insider] Robert Birgeneau, the former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

All of this has provoked a torrent of eloquent condemnation from pundits and academics, who worry that our elite universities, in the words of an editorial published in Monday’s Washington Post, are being "impoverished by intolerance."

One of Obama's alleged alma maters, Oxy

[This] is a reasonable concern, except that it misses the point. It's not the students' fault that they expect to laze around in a world of ideological comfort. It's totally ours.

 

There's nothing new about the basic tension between speech and sensitivity on campus. When I was at Tufts in the late '80s, at the height of what we called political correctness [PC], we argued fiercely about whether the military belonged on campus [ROTC] or whether certain faculty members were denied tenure because of their politics. But, by and large, we were primed to have the debate, not chill it. More

How we rule the world: Confessions of an Economic Hitman (John Perkins, Y Audiobooks)

Bruno: Gay vs. "Gay" (comedy)

(WQ) Coinciding with the annual Outfest is the Los Angeles premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno." Outfest is an authentically gay cinematic celebration of all things homosexual, whereas Cohen brings the second of his triumvirate Borat/Bruno/Ali G personality to the screen.

• "Bruno" tops weekend box office with $30 mil opening
• GLAAD: "Bruno" reinforces negative gay stereotypes

A few years after racist America got its pride handed to it on an Eastern European platter, here comes British comedian Cohen to peel back the veneer on American attitudes towards homosexuality. Gays are unhappy. Unfortunately, the movie falls flat. More gay pornography than storyline or skillfully discomfitting humor based on authentic interviews with unwitting subject, it is clear that Cohen is straining to recapture the genius of "Borat."

Funny at times and shocking throughout, as a whole the film is a great disappointment. It cannot compare to the British TV show it is based on. It seems one would have to be gay to enjoy it. But if one were gay, one would certainly be offended.

"Bruno" pushes gay satire (comedy)

Comedy: Religion, Human Rights

Most young people today reject the label "religion" (just like the labels "liberal" and "feminist" are rejected). Instead, we are "spiritual." We are progressive and egalitarian. What went wrong with these words? People were too stuffy, too full of themselves, too angry. "We all want a revolution," the Beatles will tell you. We just don't want to be inconvenienced.

"Give me convenience or give me death" Jello Biafra is famous for singing. Bob Marley and other icons knew better and therefore couldn't be tolerated by the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex. It's all about awakening consciousness.

Just about everything the government, consumer-capitalists, and drug-makers do is aimed at putting people to sleep. Sometimes comedy -- Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Sarah Silverman, Bill Maher -- can help wake us up.

Feminism: Who's Afraid of Naomi Wolf?

LINK

Feminism is the radical notion that men and women are equal. It should not be assumed that any religion has always taught this. Modern interpretations may. But all major traditions were corrupted at some point. Something went astray in the world: a movement violently usurped men's and women's "feminine" sensibilities (such as emotional intelligence).

Instead, the movement has led us toward words over pictures, rigid logic over fluid intuition, and we are left to idealize objectivity over immediacy. A hardness, rigidity, fearfulness, and smallness has been left in place of wholeness and integration. But there is still time and a way to wholeness if we but recognize the problem. Humor (like that of Ali G) helps. Who's afraid of Naomi Wolf (author, advocate, feminist) is a play on the famous theatrical work "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

• Myth? Women are equals in Islam
• Equal? Christian view of Women from the Bible
• Pagan Power of Women: Equality destroyed?

Harem (thereligionofpeace.com)

Ali G interviews Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky (who's Jewish) is one of the foremost authorities and scholar willing to speak truth to the powers that be. Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen, who's also Jewish) is also daring in confronting racism and all manner of hypocrisy.

• Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" dodges NC-17 rating

Sarah Silverman (also Jewish), like most comedians, has the ability to point the finger in the right direction and mock what many quietly realize but are not allowed to voice.

The "Right Wing Media"

The right wing media is 99% of the media we have, fails us. It is tightly controlled by many mechanisms. Programming and content is dictated from power centers. And if that means installing an Israeli as Homeland Security chief in America -- what (military-industrial) corporate power wants, it gets. And Americans largely remain asleep.

WARNING: Offensive lyrics