"Yes, Professor Krugman, It Is Too Late." Is it?

A Lie Too Far?
 

Paul Krugman's article in the New York Times yesterday (Saturday, September 17, 2016), entitled "A Lie Too Far", is about all of the free press that Donald Trump has received, including his scam last Friday, September 16.  He thinks we may be seeing the end of it; some of his readers aren't as optimistic.

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For those who were vacationing in outer space on Friday, Trump got millions worth of free publicity from the media, both for his new hotel (the one loaded with furnishings and other supplies made in China) and for his campaign, as he had a parade of retired generals, some of repute, some who retired under a cloud, lauding him. 

More Crap From Donald

After a half hour of free coverage by the media, Trump made a 30 second statement lying that "Hillary Clinton started the birther conspiracy" but, that he, Donald Trump, ended it. It was crap as is most of the stuff that Trump comes up with.

Is Trump's manipulation of the media coming to an end?

However, Krugman optimistically thinks that Trump's manipulation of the media may be coming to an end.  We should be so lucky.   

Here's the essence of Krugman's article:

But the print media appear to have finally found their voice ...  The Times and the AP, in particular, have put out hard-hitting stories that present the essence in the lede, not in paragraph 25. 

What’s so good about these stories? The fact that they are simple straightforward reporting. 

First, confronted with obvious lies, they don’t pretend that the candidate said something less blatant,... they simply say that what Trump said is untrue, and that his repetition of these falsehoods makes it clear that he was deliberately lying. 

Second, the stories for today’s paper are notable for the absence of what I call second-order political reporting: they’re about what Trump said and did, not speculations about how it will play with voters.

Some think it is too late.

I hope Krugman is right, of course, but what caught my eye was a reply on the Times from someone with the username of "tyrdofwaitin".  Tyrdofwaitin is pretty cynical about the future of this country, due to Trump, but his/her comment is worth a read.. Unfortunately, the people who should read it are Donald Trump supporters.  Fat chance that will happen. 

Yes, professor Krugman, it is too late. Like the Weimar Republic in 1933 Germany, Americans have been duped into thinking that "blowing up" a dysfunctional government is preferable to "fixing it". There is much to be done to perfect this democracy, but that is not what the Republicans hope to achieve. They want to hobble the Federal government, privatize everything and perfect a techno-oligarchy.  

The great irony of course is that rank-and-file Trump supporters will not benefit from this new techno-oligarchy; that is a privilege that will be bestowed on the very few. What will come to pass, however, is that a Trump administration will continue to play poor whites, poor blacks and other people of color off and against each other. Trump will gin-up the white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-con-federates, misogynists, xenophobes, homophobes, anti-Semites and fascists from all sectors of our society. There will be a constitutional crisis. 

The best case scenario is a Clinton landslide, but that will not happen. The well against Clinton has been poisoned ---both because she's a woman (that has become painfully clear to me, now) and because of her close association with our first black president. Even if she wins the presidency, the right-wing will be relentless in its efforts to undermine her administration. 

And so, in their zeal to be "objective", ---and garner profits--- the Mainstream Media has nurtured and unleashed the very worst that America has to offer.

I personally happen to be an optimist.  I hope "tyrdofwaitin" is wrong and Krugman is right.