You can find the strangest things along side the road.
Politics
Ain’t Breaking MyHeart
(Salon) According to Reuters, iHeartMedia is trying to kick the debt can further down the road by trying to pay off its maturing bonds by purchasing other ones while undergoing yet another corporate overhaul.
But this time, the company’s bondholders aren’t playing along. Per Reuters, a group that claims to represent more than half of the company’s lenders are refusing to cooperate with the restructuring plan, meaning that there is a very real possibility that iHeartMedia may have to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to evade its creditors.
Should such a restructuring happen, there’s a very real chance that it could allow iHeartMedia to force Limbaugh, Hannity and its other top talents to renegotiate their contracts for a lower payment amount. Of course, that’s assuming that there would be any takers on what are likely to be bonds that would be sold at fire-sale prices.
I’m trying to find some tears of sympathy, but to no avail. Ain’t no empathy being evoked either.
The era of conservative radio dominance is slowly coming to a close. With Fox News and its continued sexual harassment problems, iHeartMedia’s financial woes, and their audience dying off, I don’t see them being players in the 2020 election. I don’t think they will even have that much of an influence in the 2018 election.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
Ewwwwww……..
Posted without any more comment than the title………
Ah, No
(ShareBlue) The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media, and the whole world will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial, and will not be questioned.
The Founding Fathers’ declaring independence was an act of challenging King George’s authority. Our nation is founded on the principle of questioning and defying authority. You don’t get to proclaim you are above reproach, Donald Trump. You are but a 3rd of the government. You share power with the Legislature and the Judiciary. You are not a dictator. You are an elected servant of the people. We have every right to challenge and question your performance while you hold the Office of President.
So suck it up Buttercup. The Government is not a business.
What Now?
Is the Reality Based Community up to the challenge? Is it up to holding the line against a presidency so blatantly, brazenly adept at lying without shame, without conscious? Is there enough left of this old community of bloggers to challenge the gas lighting that will spew doubt and deception as if it were Monopoly Money impersonating real tender? I don’t know. Many of the founders of the old blogs have moved on to higher more respectable platforms, blogging being a thing of the past for them. Other blogs have evolved beyond into social sites no longer capable of much more than being a part of the noise they once railed against so proudly.
I think the past is not the answer for the progressives of the internet. For one thing, there were still eight years of George W. Bush. Granted, there was the proud moment of not only electing but re-electing the first African-American President, Barack Obama. However, after eight years we find ourselves facing a Presidency worse than anything good ole’ George was ever capable of creating. And with an even more cravenly self-centered Republican party ensconced in Congress devoid of compassion and empathy.
And while we may look upon Barack as a source of pride, we are faced with Congress lost to us for quite some time. Gerrymandering, cronyism, and out and out corruption has kept the progressive from gaining any significant presence in the House of Representatives. And as for the Senate? We managed to increase our representation by what? One?
It is time to let go of the ideas of the past, be they noble or not. The fact is we managed only to elect a President for two terms. Otherwise, we’ve not managed to prevent the conservatives from holding an unequal share of power. Though I use the term conservatives with a bit of reserve, as the conservatives of old have been subjugated to the midden pile. But that is for another day.
For now, the progressives need to assess their goals, their tactics, and the outcome of the last 16 years and recognize that they have not been successful. We have railed against those who would proclaim the President a king, yet have we not treated it as just that? Have we not so totally focused on winning the Presidency that we failed to recognize the United States of America is not a dictatorship and the Presidency not the sole seat of power?
I’ve no doubt the incoming man who will hold the Office has not an inkling of what the Constitution even says. However, I believe that those of us on our side fail to recognize what the Constitution means, even if we know the words.
I do not have the answers to our dilemma. I don’t even have questions to help reach the answers needed to direct our future actions.
However, I do have hope. Change does not happen overnight. Indeed, it does not happen in years. It happens over decades, with losses, and failures at every turn. That is what we are in the midst of right now. Instead of pointing our fingers blaming each other for our current failure, let’s look at ourselves first. See how we failed to work with others, and forgot what it is we all have in common. Then and only then can we forge questions that will teach us answers, allowing us to emerge stronger, with more discipline and determination.
How It’s Supposed To Work
Good news this morning for those who depend on EpiPens. Well, not good news good news, but better news than yesterday anyway. Mylan, the pharmaceutical company which manufactures the EpiPen epinephrine autoinjector, announced today that they are lowering the prices of the medical device. Mylan is also expanding its voucher program for low income/uninsured…
via The Latter Days of a Better Nation, Part IV — Stonekettle Station
Damn good read. Do yourself a favor and click on the link above.
Tribalism 101
(538) As I have argued elsewhere, we should be concerned about politics being treated this way. I can hate the Yankees, feel wronged that Tom Brady is benched for a few games, and make the absurd claim that I would be very upset if my sons married Yankees fans. In sports, irrational partisan feelings are permissible because the stakes are so low. Irrational partisan emotions clearly exist in politics, too, but in politics we should be ashamed of them.
It’s an interesting read.
Yup. SNL Went There
Turkey A Supporter of ISIS?
When it comes to the mess that is Mesopotamia and Persia, I am pretty much uninformed. However, I still attempt to read up on what is happening. Since the Legacy Media is still ignoring the facts in almost all of their created content (yeah, not news, but created content for ratings and revenue), I look for people with foreign news connections. Over at The Agonist I find some gems with decent links and sources that give me a better understanding of what’s happening outside of our boarders.
And, I’m sure you’re wondering, where is all this going?
(The Agonist) Since the start of the attack on Syria in 2011, Turkey has been a key transit point for foreign jihadists, supplies, and weapons headed for rebels fighting to bring down the Syrian government. Jihadists enter Turkey and get bussed to the Syrian border. Along the way, many are trained at facilities like that in Adana, Turkey. The Turkish military has done nothing to stop this.
Dude, Where Are My Voters?
Way to have the pulse of the electorate.
(Bloomberg Politics) “If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it,” Christie, a Republican campaigning for the 2016 presidential nomination, said Tuesday during a town-hall meeting at the Salt Hill Pub in Newport, New Hampshire. “As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.”
The nation has moved on. The war on drugs is a war on American Citizens. How, exactly, does he plan on winning an election by declaring he would resume the war on the vary voters he hopes will vote for him?