The Hip Hop Anthropologist

Let me apologize beforehand. Oh Lord, I’m sorry. I promised not to write another article critical of anyone. But like my arch-nemesis, Donald “The Don” John Trump, I cannot help myself. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is an irresponsible bumbler; a kinder, gentler Trump in his utter lack of curiosity about geopolitical affairs. The affairs, matters of war and peace, that an American president can expect to confront immediately after being elected and sworn into office. For the second time Johnson’s showed himself not to be a viable and, more troublingly, serious third-party candidate. Syndicated columnist David Shields said Johnson “set back the cause to legalize marijuana” in a tongue-in-cheek crack aired on the “Analysis of Mark Shields and David Brooks” segment of PBS’s “Newhour” this evening. MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle asked Johnson how he would handle Aleppo, Syria as president in an interview that aired on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Sep 8, 2016. Johnso...

  The problem with any claim that a Russian intelligence service operation gave the hitherto moribund Trump campaign a needed boost over the finish line is that without hard facts – e.g., empirical data, primary source material, or other evidence - the Far Right abetted by a complicit media, already hard at work normalizing an abnormal candidacy, will be able to dismiss the claim as sour grapes; unsubstantiated conspiracy theories; the rantings of the lunatic fringe, or unfairly cast Clinton as a sore loser.     In all likelihood, the evidence would be dismissed as unpersuasive by an indolent media that gave us Trump on a silver platter. Look how easily Trump was able to adroitly manipulate his "poorly educated" supporters by characterizing the fourth estate as "corrupt," "liars" ex cetera. Now Trump backers are subliminally programmed to disbelieve anything the mainstream media publishes with good reason. It was a masterful disinformation campaign b...