M. Taylor Columns

With Celebration Of Former MI Gov. And ‘Mass Poisoner’ Rick Snyder’s Endorsement, Biden Solidly Aligns Himself With Evil

Biden is perfectly comfortable with the moral universe of Rick Snyder, where the mass poisoning of children is perfectly acceptable. As a neoliberal democrat, that is his universe. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (9/7/20) It has been clear that the Biden campaign has no use for wooing progressives, believing, as Bill Maher has dismissively said: “Where else are they gonna go?” As a result, the Democratic National Convention featured a tacky chorus line of anti-labor, anti-choice, born-again, has-been Republicans supporting Biden’s campaign while progressive heroes like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez got a scant 60 seconds for a pre-recorded…

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Kenosha Militia Violence Is A Dire Development Not To Be Ignored

Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch, Illinois on the streets of Kenosha (Twitter). The trend of police and right wing fascist cooperation is as troubling as it is obvious and does nothing — absolutely nothing — to enhance the limping legitimacy of law enforcement. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/27/20) (Note: This column was updated 3:10 p.m., 8/27/20.) Memorial Day saw the video documented murder of Black citizen George Floyd in Minneapolis by white police officer Derek Chauvin, which initiated protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement around the globe. Just shy of…


At A Time Of Historic Crisis Both Political Parties Have Abandoned All But The Wealthy

By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/6/20) In the midst of a deadly pandemic all the false illusions, flaws and deadly foibles of the American medical industry have been stripped bare. Before the pandemic some 30 million limped along without health insurance and many millions more had over-priced, high-deductable plans that were essentially useless, leaving many families essentially uninsured. Now, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, we have millions losing their jobs, and with that … health insurance for their families. In one of the most callously cruel acts of political malpractice ever, neither party is addressing the…


Get Ready For The Wisconsin Road Trip To Hell This Autumn

  Mask or ventilator? Really, which is more uncomfortable? By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/3/20) Recently, I was up in Door County for a couple days. Mileage from there to here, 255 miles … a 5-plus hour drive. I left for home late Saturday afternoon, about 4 p.m. On the way through Sturgeon Bay I stopped for gas. I was the only one wearing a mask. Neither of the two employees nor any of the four other customers who gassed up while I was there were masked. The town was filled with tourists and the gas station was…


Unscrewing America: Mike McCabe’s Guide To Much-Needed Hope & Pathways To National Renewal

“We don’t need to worry about greatness. We do need to concentrate on goodness, now more than ever.” By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (7/27/20) After reading a firsthand account of a university professor shot in the head and a Vietnam veteran sprayed in the face with some kind of debilitating spray by government storm troopers in Portland in the past day or two,  it is a bit of a task to find something positive; something hopeful. Fortunately, Mike McCabe’s latest book “Unscrewing America: Hints And Hopes From The Heartland” is filled with examples of practical hope. McCabe, who…


The Truth About The Confederacy & Slavery In The United States: ‘Our history has been stolen from us.’

Monumental Obscenity Hiding In Plain Sight: This is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery to traitorous Confederate troops who killed American soldiers. This would be like having a Nazi memorial in Arlington. (National Park Service photo.) It is time to remove the monuments honoring murderous traitors, terrorists, rapists, torturers and war criminals. By Mark L. Taylor Commoner Call (6/29/20) My first fascination with history came in third grade when I first learned about the Civil War. I had Civil War blue and gray toy soldiers. My mother got me a book on the Civil War that I would get lost…


Professor Richard Wolff: Neither Dems Or GOP Will Do Anything To Ease The Coming Economic Crash

It Will Be Like NOTHING In Our History. And What Could Be Done To Protect Families By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (6/29/20) Socialist economist Richard Wolff talks about what both Trump and Biden and the Republicans and Democrats don’t get — and won’t do — to ease the pain of pandemic economic dislocation of families. Other western nations have both taken care of workers and reduced Covid-19 infection rates. Meanwhile in the United States, callous and completely clueless bipartisan inaction leaves families suffering and the pandemic raging on. Neither Trump nor Biden will do what needs to be…


Out Of Bizness: American Freedom Succumbs To Corporate Takeover

  Any smug assumptions that we are somehow immune to the cult of authoritarian manipulation and triumph has disappeared in a fog of pepper spray. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (6/8/20) For Americans who like to assure themselves that somehow we are exceptional; that our supposedly democratic institutions and principles are a vaccine against the virus of authoritarianism, this past week has revealed we are as vulnerable to tyranny as any poverty-crippled third world nation. Our dank, corrupted institutions have proven to be beyond brittle. Any smug assumptions that we are somehow immune to the cult of authoritarian…


Our National Portrait

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, casually kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, resulting in Floyd’s death, Memorial Day, 2020. (Screenshot) The collapse of empire is a guarantee that official violence will spread outward to batter all groups — except the coddled wealthy few. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (5/28/20) The above screen shot image is from the now famous Memorial Day video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, literally kneeing the life out of George Floyd, 46, after being taken into custody for possible use of a fake $20 bill. This image summarizes so much about the…


House Dems’ Covid-19 Zero ‘Heroes Act’ A Recruiting Gift To Fascist Movement

Twisted by loyalty to corporate whim, corporate democrats are blind to the seeds of destruction they are sowing. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (5/14/20) Once again House democrats under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) left average working people — those losing their jobs, health care and homes in the midst of a deadly pandemic — out in the cold. In the democrats’  recently proposed “Heroes Act” corporate interests — and even corporate lobbyists for Godsake — got a full menu of bailouts, tax breaks, kickbacks and tax shelters. Meanwhile, the people at risk — those working…


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WORKER STRIKES! The Only Tool Left To Resist Corporate Terrorism On American Families

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (5/11/20) One of the best new sources on the failing of the liberal elite and even many elected progressives will not be found on MSNBC or any of the big players in other perches in the mainstream corporate media. no, some of the best news and commentary is to be found on the Jimmy Dore Show, a daily independent, viewer-supported YouTube broadcast. A self-described “Jagoff Comedian”, Dore has a brash — and at times, yes, profane — ‘take-no-prisoners’ approach to the news honed by 30 years of being a night club entertainer…


The One Simple Question Joe Biden’s ‘Sunshine Progressive’ Supporters Simply Can’t Answer

Hell, even Bernie can’t answer the question. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (4/30/20) No doubt, Facebook is one of the oddest gathering spots to be found in modern American culture. While some of the postings popping into your day can be entertaining, amusingly distracting, sometimes informative and frequently obtuse, the political flow of Facebook postings rises and falls with the tides and gurglings of the political moment with varying degrees of sanity and inanity. Occasionally, there can be informative and even constructive political dialog on the various ‘progressive’ Facebook pages I follow on a regular basis. Too often,…


The Brutal Bipartisan Betrayal — If You Are Not In The 1% Or A Major Corporation Do Not Expect Any Meaningful Help From Congress

No meaningful care will come from congress or the White House. [Editor’s Note: The following is commentary I made in the April 24 broadcast of the ‘Month In Review’ on the community-supported radio station WDRT. In the face of a frightening public health emergency, both Republicans and Democrats have — for all practical purposes — abandoned the people. — Mark L. Taylor] By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (4/27/20) One positive thing the pandemic has done is it has stripped bare the inequity and corruption of  both political parties and made clear the job of the government is not…


‘RUMBLE With MICHAEL MOORE’ Podcast Ep. 54: Don’t Panic. PANIC

“You need to be in serious smart panic mode.” — Rumble (3/21/20) By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (3/23/20) Medical sources are telling Michael Moore that the situation in New York City is far worse than and spinning out of control. In the complete absence of any kind of national leadership such basics as protective gloves, gowns, masks, tests, ventilators or mobilization of the military into setting up field hospitals remain scarce. Moore notes his front line sources report patients will have to be turned away from city hospitals this week. The death rate is about to escalate. In…


Bernie Needs New Strategy & ‘Frame’ For His “Good Friend” Biden

“Right now you are losing to Joe Biden. Think about that.” — Jimmy Dore By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (3/9/20) Last Thursday I watched a livestream of a Bernie Sanders rally in Arizona. There was a great band, lots of sign waving and roars of “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie!” When he stepped to the podium the place went wild and the senator from Vermont waved to everybody, made a few introductory remarks, thanked everybody for coming and then did the oddest thing. He went into a spiel about what a “great guy” Joe Biden is and how he is…


If You Understand How Trump Defeated Clinton Four Years Ago, Do You Really Vote ‘Establishment Joe Biden’?

By Robert Reich robertreich.org (3/4/20) As the Democratic Party’s “moderate” (or shall we say “establishment”) wing coalesces around Joe Biden to stop Bernie, the primary contest is starting to look a lot like 2016, when the same wing rallied around Hillary Clinton. Today, Mike Bloomberg quit the race and endorsed Biden—as has Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. As the New York Times’ David Leonhardt put it, “if you’re a Democrat who doesn’t want Bernie Sanders to be the party’s nominee, your choice is now clear: you should vote for Joe Biden.” But suppose you’re a Democrat who doesn’t want Donald Trump to…


In It’s Blatant Actions Against Sanders, The Corporate Democratic Establishment Revealed Their Weakness & Desperation

“We’re taking on not only the corporate establishment, we are taking on the political establishment.” — Bernie Sanders By Mark L. Taylor Commoner Call (3/5/20) Climate activist Greta Thunberg was recently the target of a crude, sexually abusive graphic sticker put out by X-Site Energy Services, an Alberta, Canada oil field company. The sexual abuse launched at the 17 year-old has prompted an online petition (which you should definitely sign, here) and a call for the company’s bullying board to resign. Displaying poise and wisdom far beyond the oil company management team, Thunberg had the perfect response to such abusive behavior,…


Worshiping Bloomberg: The False Savior Of Wall Street & The Corporate Dems

As was true in FDR’s first campaign back in 1933, this is not the time for fear and half-measures. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (2/24/20) Weird times bring forth weird players. For example, there is the failed, bankruptcy-bouncing, scamming real estate hustler and off-and-on Democrat who jumps from reality television to become the Republican president of the United States. Now, in the midst of the Democratic primary scrum for the 2020 presidential election a long-time, hardcore Wall Street Republican renounces all but his name to campaign for the party’s nomination. And nobody can deny that Facebook is one…


Properly Addressing The Australian Bushfire Tragedy Begins With Your Dictionary

  ***** “Recognizing a problem doesn’t always bring a solution, but until we recognize that problem, there can be no solution.” — James Baldwin By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/20/20) The weeks long tragedy of uncontrollable wild bushfires racing across Australia leaving thousands of burned out homes and an estimated one billion dead animals in their fiery wake has given what many call a frightening glimpse into our future. While pretty much anyone outside the coal industry and the Republican party recognizes the obvious link between the fires and climate there is a very real problem in the way we refer to the human impact…


The Dangerous Mental State & Shared Psychosis Of The ‘King Of Everything’

By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/13/20) There has been a growing concern among the nation’s mental health professionals about the psychological state and fitness of Donald Trump in his role as president. His endless tweeting, lying, name calling, impulsivity, inconsistent policy statements and, most recently the assassination of an Iranian military leader, which has put the Middle East on edge and set the stage for serious military and diplomatic repercussions all underline the danger Trump’s mental state brings to the world. In the January 4 episode of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Nader does a two-part interview with…


NPR Drops Obediently Into Place With Pro-War Interview

By Mark L. Taylor Commoner Call (1/6/20) On Friday morning (2/3) in a segment provocatively entitled Expert Warns Iran Likely Will Retaliate For U.S. Killing Of Top General, National Public Radio’s ‘Morning Edition’ host Steve Innskeep interviewed retired general Jack Keane, who the network website described as “a retired Army general who regularly talks to President Trump, about the U.S. strategy on Iran…”. But there is much, much more to the general than that bland, anodyne descriptor. A quick search found some very important information about Keane. Media Matters notes: “Jack Keane is a retired U.S. Army general and a longtime Fox News military…


Trump’s Past Tweets Accusing Obama Of Pending Attacks On Iran Expose His Own Personal Weaknesses

By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/6/20) Psychological projection is an unconscious defensive behavior in which those with troubled and weak personalities angrily and snidely accuse others of the very weaknesses they can’t face in themselves. Donald Trump is a naked poster boy of the phenomenon. This past week Trump’s psychological projections were broadcast worldwide with his ordered assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leading to well-founded fears of renewed war in the Middle East. Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency Trump launched tweets accusing Obama of what he himself is now doing. In the process, he projected his own personal…


Bernie’s Decorah Rally Last Friday Revealed A Secret Corporate Media & The DNC Don’t Want You To Know

“A campaign by the working class, of the working class and for the working class.” — Bernie Sanders, Decorah, Iowa (3/2/20) By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/6/20) Last Friday my pal Tom Crofton and I headed off to Decorah, Iowa to help with the Bernie Sanders rally that evening. The event was at the Winneshiek County Fairgrounds in a large, cavernous room decorated with 4-H quilts from area clubs. One proudly proclaimed: “We Pledge our … Hearts, Hands and Health.” Looked like just the right spot for a Bernie campaign rally. I will confess that when I walked…


Arundhati Roy: It’s Hard To Communicate The Scale & Shape Of Narendra Modhi’s Take Over Of India

Democracy Now! (11/28/19) Human rights groups are condemning the Indian government for carrying out widespread torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and other crimes in Kashmir after the region’s special status was revoked in August. We speak to the acclaimed Indian author Arundhati Roy about the crackdown in Kashmir, rising authoritarianism in India and other issues. Link To Transcrpt And 40-Minute Video ***** Tulsi Gabbard Gives Glowing Welcome To India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi To Trump Event    By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/2/19) On September 16th of this year, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HA) went out…


Cashing In On Murder, Mayhem & Profit Making: Women CEO’s Of Top Weapons Manufactures Cash In On International Murder & Mayhem

“This is the diversity of the ruling class. This is what the ruling class does to let us think there has been progress.” By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (11/21/19) Jimmy Dore (10/23) and his panel of comedians take on a recent Fortune magazine feature celebrating the rise of women executives to lead American war profiteering corporations, beginning with Lockheed Martin’s CEO Maryliyn Hewson, who began her work life as an ambitious teen dishing up ice cream at her hometown Dairy Queen and now markets weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction used to maul, main and murder families around the…


Umbrellas Up! Hong Kong Youth Can Teach A Thing Or Two To Timid, Passive America About How To Confront Corrupted Power

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (10/ 24/19) The National Public Radio show This American Life recently traveled to Hong Kong to join protesters on the streets and in their living rooms to learn about what it is like to participate in risky mass protests against corrupted power. The massive weekend protests began several months ago over a now withdrawn extradition law that could have made Hong Kong residents subject to disappearance in mainland Chinese prison camps. Hong Kong police have grown increasingly aggressive with one protester recently being shot. In response some demonstrators have become increasingly aggressive…


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Who Really Owns & Runs The Country: Documentary On The Plot To Overthrow FDR Documentary Is A Warning For Today

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (10/3/19) Commoner Call reader Gary Ebben forwarded this History Channel documentary on the 1933 fascist ‘Wall Street Putsch’ to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt to stymie his attempts at the reform necessary to rescue the nation from the Great Depression and to weave a few strands of decency into the national government and economy. To channel the anger of the veterans Bonus Marchers and to have some popular credibility, a cadre of fascsit-loving mega-wealthy Wall Street plotters approached retired Major General Smedley Butler — of “War Is A Racket” fame — to…


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“Official Secrets” — The Best Movie Yet Made About The Truth Behind The Travesty Of The Iraq War

“Official Secrets” helps illustrate the ideological malfeasance by the American press, which eagerly jumped on this grenade to save its foxhole buddies in the Bush administration. By Jon Schwarz The Intercept (8/31/19) “Official Secrets,” which opened Friday in New York and Los Angeles, is the best movie ever made about how the Iraq War happened. It’s startlingly accurate, and because of that, it’s equally inspiring, demoralizing, hopeful, and enraging. Please go see it. It’s been forgotten now, but the Iraq War and its abominable consequences — the hundreds of thousands of deaths [Estimates by various human rights groups put the total well…


What A Recent Birth Cost For An American Parent In South Korea

“That’s my kind of ‘pro-life’ policy.” By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/26/19) The inefficiently expensive, unjust and profit-driven model of the American corporate industrialized medical profit system leaves most citizens with a very limited vision of what could be the humane and cost-effective norm for health care under a universal, Medicare For All kind of model of universal health care. Recently, a family member and his wife gave birth to a baby and he sent me a rundown of the support they received in the South Korean model of health care. From conception until the baby’s second birthday…


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Bearing Witness. Telling Truth In A Time Of Lies: Why It Is Important To Call Them What They Are — Concentration Camps

“Terrible things are happening outside… poor, helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared. “ — Anne Frank ***** By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/12/19) On Saturday I got into a fiery Facebook squabble with a frequent corporate dem critic objecting to something I posted about the growing network of concentration camps popping up along the southern border. I was accused of “extreme exaggeration” because the situation now is nothing like the death camps in Nazi…


Refusing To Report On Church Rock: “The worst incident of radiation contamination in the history of the United States”

Now 40 years on, I know that the corporate media is still not to be trusted when it comes to covering the nuclear, or any other area of the energy industry.   Editor’s note: In New Mexico, the Church Rock Spill of July 16, 1979 has been called “the worst incident of radiation contamination in the history of the United States.” Catherine Caufield in “Multiple Exposures,” and Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon in “Killing Our Own,” reported that when the earthen dam holding radioactive uranium mine tailings burst, it released 93 million gallons of liquid wastes and more than 1,100…


Bill Clinton Is Lying About Scandal … Again. But This Time Things Could Be Far More Serious

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” — President Bill Clinton (1/26/98) By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (7/11/19) While George W. Bush got tangled in its subtle logical intricacies, there is a folksy bit of advice citizens need to keep handy when dealing with politicians of all skunky stripes and varieties: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.” Present White House occupier aside, there is no politician where this is more true than Bill Clinton. Anyone conscious at the time can recall Clinton’s brash, self-righteous presentation when he sternly declared to…


Corporate America’s Fascist Hustle: Marketing Hitler’s Mien Kampf With Clever Nazi Coding

Normalizing the abnormal By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (7/4/19) In the early years leading to Adolph Hitler’s rise to power 1930’s corporate Germany looked upon the odd, babbling little man from Austria with dismissive shrugs or disdainful amusement. Surely, no one would ever take the man seriously. But as Hitler’s following of street thugs, unemployed, racists and social misfits grew and torch lit marauding street marches turned into more regimented affairs the German capitalists began to think perhaps Hitler could be massaged and manipulated to their ends. Corporate support, loans, gifts and larger and larger donations turned from…


Chickens! New York Times Cartoon Black Out

“By choosing not to print editorial cartoons in the future, the Times can be sure that their editors will never again make a poor cartoon choice. Editors at the Times have also made poor choices of words in the past. I would suggest that the Times should also choose not to print words in the future – just to be on the safe side.” – Editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle, NY Times Trashes Cartoonists ***** New York Times Cartoon Ban Leads To A World Where We Say Nothing At All In a world where political cartoonists are routinely jailed, the paper…


The Price Of Money: Political & Moral Defeat

“The Democrats have no power to change the system. Yet. So if they want to stay in the game and be competitive they’re going to have to match the Republican’s fundraising juggernaut, otherwise Trump will out-organize, out-advertise and flat out bury us in 2020.” — Facebook post (6/6/19) By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (6/13/19) So let’s take a look at that siren call of money… Two figures to consider from the 2016 presidential race: $1.2 billion and $217.5 million. The first is the amount of money raised by Hillary Clinton. The second is the amount of money raised…


Matt Taibbi “Insane Clown President”

“The arc of the sort of failure of our business has really steepened in the last year or so. As news consumers people should pay more and more attention to independent media and alternative media, and worry more and more about the commercial media going forward.” By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (5/30/19) Now well into Year III of the deadly serious non-stop, mind and soul-numbing Donald Trump National Freakshow it is hard to recall just how stunning his 2016 victory was. Right up to election eve every one was sure Hillary Clinton would wipe Trump off the map….


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Joe Rogan Interview With Rep. Tulsi Gabbard On War, Power & The Future Of The Nation

By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (3/11/19) Here is a great Joe Rogan interview with democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. The opening conversation on the never-ending war state is very thoughtful. Gabbard did two tours of duty in Iraq and has seen up close the human cost of our immoral bipartisan-supported wars for both our troops and the innocents we choose to maim, kill and torture. Her insights on the stain of bipartisan self-indulgent corruption and cynicism in congress is straight up and no-holds barred. No wonder she is sidelined by Republicans and corporate dems alike. We need to…


Trump’s Presidency: The View From Canada Reveals Two Possible Ways Trump Stays In Office & Even Wins A Second Term

How the 25th Amendment and the democrats could grease the way to a second Trump term. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/28/19) A recent broadcast of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) news show Fifth Estate with host Bob McKeown gives a view of the American political crisis much like someone witnessing a domestic squabble in the next-door neighbor’s kitchen. It is a good summary of the past two years but the last three minutes should give us all pause. McKeown explores the issue of the 25th Amendment by which members of the cabinet can remove a president if…


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Surveilance Capitalism: How Tracking & Selling Your Personal Data Became A Business Model

On Point / WBUR (1/15/19) There are new calls for tech companies to stop selling your location to third parties. We’ll look at the economics and perils of “surveillance capitalism.” Guest — Shoshana Zuboff, professor emerita at Harvard Business School and former faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” among other titles. Excerpt from “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” by Shoshana Zuboff The Unprecedented One explanation for surveillance capitalism’s many triumphs floats above them all: it…


History Shows The Descent To Authoritarianism Happens Slowly … Then Very Quickly

An out-of-focus, rain and sleet-soaked, twisted half-mast flag tightly wrapped around a Walmart flag pole in the middle of a dark winter night is emblematic of the New Year in Trump’s America. ***** The extent of the brutality exceeds the imagination of people until it is too late. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/3/18) On a recent broadcast of Grit TV’s Laura Flanders Show (12/18) Pulitzer Prize-winning author Chris Hedges spoke about his recent book “America: The Farewell Tour”. Drawing from over 20 years of foreign reporting for the New York Times in places as diverse as Central…