Tuesday 8 November 2016

HOW TRUMP SWIFT-BOATED AMERICA: MY NEWSTALK ESSAY

I've done another election essay for Newstalk Ireland, about the way Donald Trump in essence 'swift-boated' America while playing the system and the electorate for suckers. You can link to it here. There is another one to be written on his conning Americans who still believe in the American Dream, but that's been going on at least since Ronald Reagan. Newstalk was very generous to give me extra space as it was, and I'm sure  mainstream media will start to catch up on the con of Trump's campaign once the election is done. They're good at that.

Similarly, I resisted the impulse to go further into the minutiae of Trump's background: the ties to the mob, the scams, the sources of investment, some of which is still paying off earlier loans, the contradictions in his tax statements and the way he can be proven to have lied in numerous depositions under oath. But there just isn't the space. Writers have covered these things, not least Wayne Barrett, David Cay Johnston, and Tim O'Brien, whose books were there for nightly news anchors, reporters, and debate moderators to study and use as a basis for their questioning. But they do not appear to have bothered. It's as if they were afraid of his suing, or something.

Happy Election Day!

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