No. of Recommendations: 6
The printing press has,FAIAP, been replaced by streaming. It's journalism by and for the masses. There's no more newspaper delivery in my California city.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Trump forced China to sell off that sword AND convinced moneybags Larry Ellison to place his youngest son, Baron von Trump, on the TikTok board. The 19 year old is being given his oligarch training wheels!
Baron controls the pen, DJT controls the worlds's biggest sword.
TikTok becomes a penknife that may, in cahootz with Trump Media & Technology Group, give the Trump's control of a pen/sword system that brings Musk&X to heel.
DJT's other conflicts of interest -breaches of ethics and emoluments- have made his other sons and daughters wealthy beyond most peoples wildest dreams. His sons get development deals all over the world, his felon father in law, Charles Kushner (convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering) got Ambassador to France and Monaco...etc etc etc.
It's a legacy rolling forward with a speed that puts the evolution of the Russian oligarchy to shame. You can read about it in the NPR archives, a source of journalism that appears doomed by our authoritarian POTUS, and the files are deleted like oligarchs, like Baron von Trump, who control the sword.
"....Putin offered the oligarchs a deal: bend to my authority, stay out of my way, and you can keep your mansions, superyachts, private jets, and multibillion-dollar corporations (corporations that, just a few years before, had been owned by the Russian government). In the coming years, the oligarchs who reneged on this deal and undermined Putin would be thrown into a Siberian prison or be forced into exile or die in suspicious circumstances. The loyalists who remained — and the new ones who got filthy rich during Putin's long reign — became like ATM machines for the president and his allies...Part 1:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/03/22/1087...Part 2:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/03/29/1088... 