via Politico

-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia coming down in favor of transparency in terms of disclosing political donations rather than claiming First Amendment protections. This opinion also comes in stark contrast to the one offered by John Yoo, a former Justice Department official who was a chief proponent of the unitary executive theory under George W. Bush, who believes the President does not have the right to force government contractors to disclose their political donations.

Do you think Donald Trump is going to run for President? Do you think he can beat Barack Obama? I really didn’t want to give one more ounce of attention to the media storm surrounding this guy, but his recent appearances where he’s embracing “birtherism” (the conspiracy theory that says Obama was born in Kenya and is therefore ineligible to be President) leaves me with no choice. There are too many people being taken in by this side-show to ignore it any longer, even though by commenting on it, I only add to it, but it’s time to put the following groups on notice.

The media. Have you watched MSNBC’s “Hardball” recently? The host, Chris Matthews cannot get enough of this guy. Day after day, week after week, he goes after Trump for being a phony, a charlatan, a man who will say anything to get attention. He originally derided Trump for what Matthews felt was Trump’s fake campaign. But then he didn’t let it go. He’s been talking about him ever since. And he isn’t the only one. Fox News’s Sean Hannity loves the guy. In fact, Fox announced just a few weeks ago that he’s getting a weekly segment on “Fox and Friends” called “Monday’s with Trump”. The New York Times is covering him more than some of the people who are practically in the race for real. And what is the net effect of all this lavish attention? He’s now leading the polling race against all suspected candidates, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released last month. It’s been long known that the mainstream corporate-owned media love to obsess over a story that doesn’t always have a lot of relevance (CNN and missing white women, MSNBC and prisons, Fox News and batshit-crazy thing their hosts spout at any given time of day), but this is something a tad different. This is several news networks pimping a guy who is wealthy enough to legitimately run a national campaign.

The GOP field of candidates. Because of Trump’s presence, the other “serious” candidates are now having to respond to him, whether they want to or not. The birther issue is just the latest round of things that have pushed them off message. Tim Pawlenty, a man so boring he likely had to wear a “Hi, My Name is…” paper badge on his suit the entire time he was Governor of Minnesota, won’t take a stand one way or the other. Former Arkansas Governor Mike “You Gonna Eat That?” Huckabee has become a master at alluding to a belief in it when talking to conservatives and Mitt “Your ad here” Romney has strenuously avoided a firm answer for fear of angering that block of voters. Surprisingly, it has been Michele “I never met a conspiracy theory I didn’t like” Bachmann who has taken the firmest stance; by rejecting it completely.  Sure, she didn’t always feel this way. In fact, she was one of the first to promote the theory. However, during an interview with George Stephanopoulos just days ago, she claimed that the matter was settled. But it’s still a setback for them all because they are being pushed to address it.

Us. Yes, we are all Trump’s chumps. Why? Because in this culture, we worship two things: people who become insanely rich and insane people who get their own reality shows. We’ve worshipped “The Donald” since the 1980’s because we saw him as the billionaire we could all be one day if we worked hard enough. And if you’re famous enough, you get to do and say crazy things. Look at the public’s two-year fascination with Sarah “Bible Spice” Palin, a woman who preaches family values yet quit her job in public service to become a professional attention magnet and raised one of the most publically dysfunctional families in modern politics, all without shame or consequence.

Sure, we can blame the media for all of the attention Trump is getting, but we’re in the same boat with them. Media outlets are driven by a profit motive. If we don’t want to watch something, ratings will tell them not to show it anymore. Buy every time we see Donald saying something dumb on the air, we watch. By watching or visiting certain websites, we tell the TV, radio and Internet outlets that we want more, so they deliver. In the end it’s up to us to end the cycle of crazy. If you want the world to look like an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show”, then you know what you need to do. If you want change, then start showing them you’d rather watch and listen to the smart people in the room. You’ll be surprised how readily they will comply.