Bottom line: why would ANYONE in their right mind think that 2 billionaires such as Trump and Musk, together with their shameful minions, would have ANY idea what NPR would provide to small communities that do not have consistent, good, or any wi-fi service? These are very monied and self-aggrandizing people who live in their own bubble of existence; no idea of how the rest of the world and its people live, work, raise their children, save and spend their money, etc etc etc. And they never have had any idea. They have lived extraordinarily privileged lives, so of course, wifi is instant, groceries are bought for you, clothes are ironed for you, toilets are cleaned for you, again, etc etc etc. The people currently in the WH do not have any remote relationship or knowledge of the common American, except to fire them, arrest and deport them, and further their general hardship in life, as long as THEY continue to make their grifting billions.
And yet, somehow Trump was able to convince his constituents that he understood them at their core. Perhaps what they have in common is feeling cheated. But Trump’s angst is pathological. His base really were left behind. But that started with Reagan, not the “liberal elites.” Combine that with the racism of the white poor, which LBJ lamented about, and we have a mess.
I’m thinking of the steel mills and such closing down and the trickle down that didn’t. But I’m also thinking of my dad’s family from S TX, poor white sharecroppers. Somehow his parents managed to put all 6 kids through college (state schools, mainly), but the hate runs deep in their genes.
Hate of who exactly? My story is one of European immigrants, coming here and struggling to survive, make a living, being accepted. They were working class, through and through, had strong accents, but learned English, worked hard, got blackballed because of their strong support for unions for the working class, so they could earn a livable wage. I had an uncle who worked in the steel mills in Gary, grandfather who was killed in the iron mines of upper MI, a father who worked 2-3 jobs to put us through schools. What are in my thoughts is that Trump and Elon do not share those stories; have no idea whatsoever what those lives were like,and still are like, in many ways. Those two were given everything, had everything, never wanted for everything, but still hate so much. I ask myself why?
I saw a clip of Joy Reid, formerly of MSNBC, who asked the same thing recently. What are they so angry about? They've got the WH, Congress, and most of SCOTUS in their pockets. DEI is being rolled back to ridiculous lengths. (I still want see Gov. Abbott of Texas agree to have all of the wheelchair ramps removed.) They're re-renaming monuments and other crap after Confederate generals. Can't begin to list all of the ANTI-life s*** that they're doing. DJ is sticking it to everyone he promised he would--but not doing one *constructive* thing that he promised, and he's still getting them all riled up.
I just logged back on to apologize for waxing and to say that I am essentially in agreement with you. I don’t know why. I don’t think they were given everything, though. Perhaps materially they were given everything, but they seem to be trying to fill an infinitesimal hole that material wealth, power, status and sex can’t fill. It’s an inside job for every one of us. Some, though, appear to lack the foundation or scaffolding needed to make any progress on that front.
Hate of who? LBJ made an observation that people need to feel above someone. Paraphrasing. I’ll have to look it up again. He was speaking about the poor white southerners at the time of signing the civil rights act.
Oh. I also logged back on to say that maybe what Trump managed to do was actually give them someone to hate, as in, identify the enemy. He tweaks it, but he does keep telling his base who the enemy is.
One other thing, and then I’ll return to the view of the Super Moon over Lake Superior. (I shouldn’t be on Substack while camping, right?!)
It sounds like your family has had far more hardships and mishaps than most. I’m sorry to hear that. I think that’s part of your point, though. How is it that y’all aren’t caught up in the MAGA movement or more aptly, why on earth are others?! Boy, I’ve wondered that all of my life. My family is Texan, I was raised by Texans in Pittsburgh, PA. Visiting cousins in Texas over the summer, I was dumbfounded by their prejudice. I’ve never understood it except for how LBJ expressed it.
I’m going to stop waxing on Substack and start super moon gazing. 🤣
What you’re trying to understand is important to me as well. Take care.
An "old friend" willing to close down a local radio station that the community relies on and is managed by someone he knows. Where's the loyalty to community? Where's the common sense?
This is the stupidest damn shitshow our government could have ever done. In many rural communities there are tons of dead zones for internet or wifi access even if those locations are thickly populated. At the very least these areas should have access to quality radio stations even if it includes NPR.
It is time we stop being amazed the policies of this administration hurt the people who voted trump into power. He does not care - unless he believes it could hurt him, hence the current talk about bailing out farmers (again) who are circling the drain for a second time due to their hero's policies.
Trump is after three things - unfettered power for as long as he can hang on to it, the ability to grift off of the office to add to the billions he has already made off the office (makes Hunter Biden look quaint, right?) and lastly, retribution against any real and imagine slight he has ever received from anyone.
He has long felt the sting of not being accepted, and for being ridiculed for not being terribly bright. His own incuriousness does him in every time. For this reason, he is against NPR and the CPB - he believes they represent people who look down on him. He's probably right about that.
Wiping out their funding is a happy dance for him - and he does not care if his voters no longer get tornado warnings, crop reports, community obituaries or anything else. So let's stop being amazed about that. It's a feature for him, not a bug.
Absolutely. Rural red and dependent on flu updates, is COVID here yet? Storm warnings. And the truth of what is really going on in this country. Lifeline.
"The policy isn’t a political victory. It simply created an information vacuum in Trump country, with Trump voters."
An information vacuum is music to Cheeto/Cheato Benito's ears. He and his lackeys *hate* information. They want everyone to be as clueless as possible. Why? Inter alia, (1) Fascists, Dick-taters, and Autocrats want everyone dumb, ignorant, and gullible; and (2) If no information reaches the rubes, then no truth about C. Benito's abuses of power and "policy" failures reaches them.
We in Sane America can only hope that the MAGA masses are really hurt - and care about it - by this action. (Sounds harsh... but I mean it in the sense that only when they realize he is hurting *them* will they wake up and abandon the cult.)
Maybe the Trump Administration does not care because it does not want its supporting voters to know what is happening in this country so they will remain loyal to Trump.
In wide swathes of the west this will leave at best nationally broadcast right-wing talk and “Christian” programming.
These communities have already been “taught” that NPR is leftist coastal elitism.
The loss of local programming and balanced national and world news reporting will be a win for Project 2025. There is nothing “inexplicable” about this action.
This article is yet another example of Trump and Project 2025 writers showing their absolute lack of care for most or many of us. From a Corpus Christi, TX resident.
If Trump succeeds in destroying those blue cities and states, rural areas will miss a lot more than their radio stations. They bite the proverbial hand that feeds them. Either they don’t know or don’t care.
Bottom line: why would ANYONE in their right mind think that 2 billionaires such as Trump and Musk, together with their shameful minions, would have ANY idea what NPR would provide to small communities that do not have consistent, good, or any wi-fi service? These are very monied and self-aggrandizing people who live in their own bubble of existence; no idea of how the rest of the world and its people live, work, raise their children, save and spend their money, etc etc etc. And they never have had any idea. They have lived extraordinarily privileged lives, so of course, wifi is instant, groceries are bought for you, clothes are ironed for you, toilets are cleaned for you, again, etc etc etc. The people currently in the WH do not have any remote relationship or knowledge of the common American, except to fire them, arrest and deport them, and further their general hardship in life, as long as THEY continue to make their grifting billions.
And yet, somehow Trump was able to convince his constituents that he understood them at their core. Perhaps what they have in common is feeling cheated. But Trump’s angst is pathological. His base really were left behind. But that started with Reagan, not the “liberal elites.” Combine that with the racism of the white poor, which LBJ lamented about, and we have a mess.
I’m thinking of the steel mills and such closing down and the trickle down that didn’t. But I’m also thinking of my dad’s family from S TX, poor white sharecroppers. Somehow his parents managed to put all 6 kids through college (state schools, mainly), but the hate runs deep in their genes.
Hate of who exactly? My story is one of European immigrants, coming here and struggling to survive, make a living, being accepted. They were working class, through and through, had strong accents, but learned English, worked hard, got blackballed because of their strong support for unions for the working class, so they could earn a livable wage. I had an uncle who worked in the steel mills in Gary, grandfather who was killed in the iron mines of upper MI, a father who worked 2-3 jobs to put us through schools. What are in my thoughts is that Trump and Elon do not share those stories; have no idea whatsoever what those lives were like,and still are like, in many ways. Those two were given everything, had everything, never wanted for everything, but still hate so much. I ask myself why?
I saw a clip of Joy Reid, formerly of MSNBC, who asked the same thing recently. What are they so angry about? They've got the WH, Congress, and most of SCOTUS in their pockets. DEI is being rolled back to ridiculous lengths. (I still want see Gov. Abbott of Texas agree to have all of the wheelchair ramps removed.) They're re-renaming monuments and other crap after Confederate generals. Can't begin to list all of the ANTI-life s*** that they're doing. DJ is sticking it to everyone he promised he would--but not doing one *constructive* thing that he promised, and he's still getting them all riled up.
I just logged back on to apologize for waxing and to say that I am essentially in agreement with you. I don’t know why. I don’t think they were given everything, though. Perhaps materially they were given everything, but they seem to be trying to fill an infinitesimal hole that material wealth, power, status and sex can’t fill. It’s an inside job for every one of us. Some, though, appear to lack the foundation or scaffolding needed to make any progress on that front.
Hate of who? LBJ made an observation that people need to feel above someone. Paraphrasing. I’ll have to look it up again. He was speaking about the poor white southerners at the time of signing the civil rights act.
Oh. I also logged back on to say that maybe what Trump managed to do was actually give them someone to hate, as in, identify the enemy. He tweaks it, but he does keep telling his base who the enemy is.
One other thing, and then I’ll return to the view of the Super Moon over Lake Superior. (I shouldn’t be on Substack while camping, right?!)
It sounds like your family has had far more hardships and mishaps than most. I’m sorry to hear that. I think that’s part of your point, though. How is it that y’all aren’t caught up in the MAGA movement or more aptly, why on earth are others?! Boy, I’ve wondered that all of my life. My family is Texan, I was raised by Texans in Pittsburgh, PA. Visiting cousins in Texas over the summer, I was dumbfounded by their prejudice. I’ve never understood it except for how LBJ expressed it.
I’m going to stop waxing on Substack and start super moon gazing. 🤣
What you’re trying to understand is important to me as well. Take care.
An "old friend" willing to close down a local radio station that the community relies on and is managed by someone he knows. Where's the loyalty to community? Where's the common sense?
Great reporting, thanks.
I’ve read elsewhere that the Trump propaganda has really changed (warped) the minds of the rural community about NPR.
This is the stupidest damn shitshow our government could have ever done. In many rural communities there are tons of dead zones for internet or wifi access even if those locations are thickly populated. At the very least these areas should have access to quality radio stations even if it includes NPR.
It is time we stop being amazed the policies of this administration hurt the people who voted trump into power. He does not care - unless he believes it could hurt him, hence the current talk about bailing out farmers (again) who are circling the drain for a second time due to their hero's policies.
Trump is after three things - unfettered power for as long as he can hang on to it, the ability to grift off of the office to add to the billions he has already made off the office (makes Hunter Biden look quaint, right?) and lastly, retribution against any real and imagine slight he has ever received from anyone.
He has long felt the sting of not being accepted, and for being ridiculed for not being terribly bright. His own incuriousness does him in every time. For this reason, he is against NPR and the CPB - he believes they represent people who look down on him. He's probably right about that.
Wiping out their funding is a happy dance for him - and he does not care if his voters no longer get tornado warnings, crop reports, community obituaries or anything else. So let's stop being amazed about that. It's a feature for him, not a bug.
How many people in these communities know, even now, that Trump is responsible for deliberately killing NPR?
Absolutely. Rural red and dependent on flu updates, is COVID here yet? Storm warnings. And the truth of what is really going on in this country. Lifeline.
It is still hurricane season and radios are often the only standing communication systems during and after one hits an area. Lifeline indeed.
Closing NPR fits the project 2025 plans perfectly.
The masses need to be kept uneducated and uninformed.
"The policy isn’t a political victory. It simply created an information vacuum in Trump country, with Trump voters."
An information vacuum is music to Cheeto/Cheato Benito's ears. He and his lackeys *hate* information. They want everyone to be as clueless as possible. Why? Inter alia, (1) Fascists, Dick-taters, and Autocrats want everyone dumb, ignorant, and gullible; and (2) If no information reaches the rubes, then no truth about C. Benito's abuses of power and "policy" failures reaches them.
We in Sane America can only hope that the MAGA masses are really hurt - and care about it - by this action. (Sounds harsh... but I mean it in the sense that only when they realize he is hurting *them* will they wake up and abandon the cult.)
Maybe the Trump Administration does not care because it does not want its supporting voters to know what is happening in this country so they will remain loyal to Trump.
An interesting take that is, sadly, likely to have merit.
In wide swathes of the west this will leave at best nationally broadcast right-wing talk and “Christian” programming.
These communities have already been “taught” that NPR is leftist coastal elitism.
The loss of local programming and balanced national and world news reporting will be a win for Project 2025. There is nothing “inexplicable” about this action.
Sometimes people really get what they voted for. Hey, it was only going to harm someone else somewhere else.
This article is yet another example of Trump and Project 2025 writers showing their absolute lack of care for most or many of us. From a Corpus Christi, TX resident.
I guess the upside may be that these pro GOP communities may have to rethink who their pals are.
If Trump succeeds in destroying those blue cities and states, rural areas will miss a lot more than their radio stations. They bite the proverbial hand that feeds them. Either they don’t know or don’t care.
Getting rid of NPR allows Musk to promote his Starlink program to the White House. My prediction for the aftereffects of the budget cuts.