What is your idea of what we're being distracted from?

We’re being distracted from dealing with climate change, with the dismantling of the social contract, with the acceptance and promotion of bigotry and military expansion. Also,the deportation and persecution of Hispanics as well as the Russian investigation although I think when Mueller is ready, there will be some bomb shells.

^^Ditto. And poor healthcare, militarized police, increasing drug abuse and a growing mental health problem, decreasing incomes and a shrinking middle class—and a thousand other large elephants in the room.

Meanwhile, the dismantling of the public education system in favor of for-profit education; the resurgence in privatization of the prison industry; the militarization of the police; dismantling of Environmental Protections. And I could go on, but those are all below the radar while people are focused on the political statements of athletes.

You missed the BIGLY one, he is lining his pockets with insider trading and Fed renting rooms at his hotels. He must be making millions from the office of El Hefe.

Would you, all, like to expound on your assertions? I would love to hear what you have to say in more detail.

I think most of the current events as reported by corporate media and highlighted by corporate politicians, is largely done as a distraction away from steady systematic power & control grabs by the larger, diversified block(s) of power and wealth that keep on concentrating power & control, which I think is about culture, systems of ideas, laws, and property/wealth/patents/industries.

There are various layers of scope that can be looked at. The Trump layer could be it’s own subject, and is a great example of spamming distraction attacks as quickly as possible in order to distract, deplete, disorganize, and confuse opposition, and to get people to step back and change the baseline from which to organize resistance. He’s also clearly a sacrificial agent, and a narrative of Trump as a unique loose cannon can be trotted out when he finally gets gotten rid of.

There’s a bit of agenda in most/all of the spam threads, and some of them have major potential pay-offs for corporations and the very rich, and major negative consequences for others, but it’s clearly a barrage strategy. The corporations clearly don’t give a flying flaming poopwad who bends the knee for the flag, or most social issues, but they do stand to gain a lot from fracking, oil pipelines and drilling, ending pollution regulations and other environmental protections (I think/hope the park thing is one of those tactics to distract by threatening things we care about and make consider we’ve “won” something after expending energy to get them to back off, but of course there are cash grabs for them there too), trade agreements that give corporations more power over nations, corporate Internet domination, information warfare & public surveillance, etc.

The bigotry/hate issues of course have a lot of potential for awful results for people & society. I think for the string-pullers, it’s valued as a way to keep people distracted and divided and not noticing that all the money and power and legal authority and government officials are being consolidated under the domain of the string-pullers.

We’re being distracted from the very idea of what a president should be. We had Abraham Lincoln, we had John F Kennedy and now we’ve got this. He waves the American flag about as though it were his personal pocket handkerchief while all the important issues are beyond his grasp. From North Korea to Puerto Rico to the festering divisions within his own country this is a president without a clue.

I think there is a lot of distraction from the push for communism and socialism in this country.

It is unfortunate that our President has the attention span of a dime store goldfish. But it is a mistake to credit him with being clever enough to deliberately distract us from his failings on more critical matters. For it is HE himself that is distracted by anything shiny that will relieve him from the “strenuous” duties around conducting what should be the nation’s business. The key thing to appreciate is that the man lacks the wit to understand which matters are so petty as to be unworthy of public comment from a President. He has absolutely no sense of gravitas.

They tried to tear down our healthcare again this week. Luckily it failed again. For awhile I really thought it was going to happen quietly while everyone screamed about football players.

^^Man, that was close. If it wasn’t for a few people who actually closely read the damn thing and got to the media, Graham-Cassidy probably would have passed. Notably, on page one, it demands that states come up with plans that do not discriminate against pre-existing conditions. But on page 2 it gives them a fucking loophole that they can float an aircraft carrier through.

God Damn it! I HATE the Republican Party.

@seawulf575 I don’t think President is “pushing communism and socialism” as a distraction, just the opposite with swastikas.

I know. I was so damn stressed. Bless Collins and McCain.

The basic Republican plan to dismantle government and rescind any laws that might effect corporate profits in some manner.

@Tropical_Willie I didn’t see that the question was “what is the president trying to distract us from?” I read it as “What are we being distracted from?”

I think we’re being distracted from a massive market / wealth takeover. The middle class will be crushed when the market drops suddenly and the short sellers grab the wealth.
A few of the top dogs have the power to trigger the selloff and will position themselves to benefit.

I just came across this article in Mother Jones magazine. I had no idea we were that close to genetic engineering. Add in the advances in machine learning and we have some serious social issues that need to be addressed, the sooner the better.

I do think the athlete thing is a distraction. I also think that maybe more than a distraction it’s a “simple” way to rally the troops. It’s similar to “lock her up” and “build the wall.”

A good portion of republicans are obsessed with our military. Any inkling that you may not support our soldiers then you are the worst person who walked the earth. These people wrap their identity in being part of the military or supporting it. If you dishonor the flag, don’t stand for the anthem, they equate it to spitting on soldiers and it might as well be treason. If you don’t stand for the anthem or you don’t hold your heart, you are now against the country.

No better way to form a united force/support then to tell people they are under attack. Religious leaders do it (I don’t mean ALL religious leaders) and politicians do it.

I am annoyed and shocked that the liberal news outlets spend so much time talking about the athlete/anthem thing. Waste of time. So many more important things going on. Let the right freak out about it, but the truth is we should be more focused on PR, USVI, the environment, and healthcare. I would be really disgusted if this impacts the Russian investigation. I hope the people in charge of that aren’t influenced by such things.

Trump is brilliant in how he works his crowd and how he manipulates the media. I have to give him credit.

We are not so much being distracted but divided.

^^How freakin’ true that is.

Gosh, @ARE_you_kidding_me summed it up in one sentence. Good show.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Which amounts to the same thing in the end. Division is the ultimate distraction. As long as we keep fighting amongst each other, we won’t come together and face the bigger issues (that can only be conquered if we’re not so divided). Divide and distract seems to be the MO of bugbears.

@Hawaii_Jake I think we are being distracted by many things such as protests, snowflakes, name calling and on and on. It serves to distract us from the fact that our culture is dwindling down to a base level where any and all can do whatever they want to. Wrong is still wrong even if everybody is doing it. And right is still right even if nobody is doing it. (try to keep your hate comments to yourselves)

@si3tech Oh, the irony of your post. I’ll let you see if you can spot it. :)

When Trump was elected, I wondered how the “Illuminati” could allow this to happen. My husband suggested that is exactly what they wanted, because he would provide enough distraction for them to continue their work without obstruction.

I thought about this more, and I think Trump is trying to distract us from everything. Lol. I think he would love to be left alone to do whatever the hell he wants. His downfall might be his need for attention and fame. When I say downfall, I don’t mean he’ll be kicked out (I know a lot of liberals had predicted he will disappear within a month, three months, and so on…) I just mean he trips himself up sometimes by keeping the attention on him.

The russian oligarchs are seemingly the the wealthiest people in the world. I think they are trying to take over America and the world. trump is their puppet. Power corrupts. Hopefully our constitution will prevent this. Could this be what he is distracting us from?