What Do We Don Now?

Commentary

By Perry Busby

We are a month into the primary season and, so far, we’ve witnessed an impeachment trial charade, an emboldened president exact revenge against civil servants who testified against him, an election debacle in Iowa, and the media attempting to crown Bernie Sanders the Democratic presidential candidate after the first state primary.

And, that’s the short list.

New Information about the administration’s interaction with Ukraine continues to come out, as does new allegations that Attorney General William Barr has been using the power of the Justice Department to appease Trump, by going after his enemies and intervening in court decisions involving close associates.

Last, but definitely not least, are the news stories and accusations swirling around social media, of billionaire candidates from both parties flipping Big Face Benny’s around the ‘hood like Big Ballers making it rain in the strip club.

As for the candidates, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders currently holds a slim lead; former New York Mayor Bloomberg is gaining momentum even though his name has yet to appear on a ballot; and former Vice President Joe Biden is dropping precipitously as he hangs on to the hope that southern states will give him the boost he needs to stay viable. Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabet Warren are all holding steady but finding it hard to break through the media coverage given to Trump and the three candidates at the top of the ticket.

Political pundits say this year’s election is shaping up to be a carbon copy of 2016. I could not agree more. Not only is it reminiscent of 2016, from a data analytics perspective, the speed and volume of information we are presented with daily, will make 2016 look like child’s play. Social media disinformation campaigns have been perfected and are operating at hyper speed. In addition to disseminating articles from fabricated news sources, internet troll farms have also added morphed videos to their arsenal. The precision and skill used in these videos make it close to impossible for the viewer to question authenticity.

With all that is going on around us, the question I and many others are asking is, what do we do now?