Truest statement of the week

Before Trump became president bad behavior at the top was usually sanitized with public relations. The corporate media and others among the ruling elites hid atrocities in plain sight with appealing narratives and good photo opportunities. They excused politicians who routinely benefited the 1% and disadvantaged everyone else. The end result is an ugly system that is made to look pretty with the right amount of marketing.
This phenomenon was especially true during the Barack Obama administration. He had the all-important buy-in from corporate media. They turned the Obamas into an American version of a royal family and then used his personal popularity to make the case for war crimes and bank bailouts. They worked hand in hand to make dirty deeds look clean.
Obama and his predecessors undermined climate change agreements and made them toothless. Trump did one better by opting out but tremendous damage was done by a president who was called an environmentalist. Obama was called the peace candidate when he expanded wars. He fought hard to ratify the undemocratic, job killing TPP trade deal which was stopped only by Trump’s white nationalist ideology.


-- Margaret Kimberley, "Freedom Rider: America’s Embarrassment" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).