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Whoa ...hotter 'n hell today ...at last back in my cave!
changeX. Hah! Yeah, the big two-dimentional screen in every living room seems to be their primary tool of indoctrination in their two-dimentional world. And, as stopgap pointed out a few days ago, Fux News is also blaring in almost every store and restaurant across the land from sea to shining sea. That, and the little AM/FM black box installed in every vehicle is disturbing the peace and harmony of the ambient sound environment with the loud and angry ranting and raving of wingnuts who spit out hatred between equally obnoxious, fast-talking, buy-this-buy-that, overly materialistic commercials. OFF BUTTON!
Contemplating sourcing and media: Although the big MSM monopoly conglomerates that filter and slant the news for their narrowly targeted audiences can royally KMA and then go FO, that doesn't mean they don't sometimes employ excellent writers and investigative journalists. I prefer to follow the writers themselves rather than the networks or websites where their work happens to appear.
Salon is one of my internet sources, because they have certain writers who have a knack for diving deeper into current and relevant subject matter than do some of the other quick and dirty, sound-bite reporting, toward which the fast-paced news cycle usually gravitates.
Two such great writers and thoughtful commentators are Andrew O’Hehir and Sophia A. McClennen, who submitted timely articles today on some weighty matters -- not the normal, dime-a-dozen tripe clogging the pipes.
The first one dovetails well with this current blog and comments. The second one is an exposé about how alarmingly influential the alt-right crazies have become recently in our online political discourse. Must reads:
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/08/donald-trump-and-the-decline-of-the-west-ten-thousand-years-of-civilization-and-we-end-up-with-this-guy/
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/08/forget-fake-news-alt-right-memes-could-do-more-damage-to-democracy/
Other questions at hand: Does paint dry? Does water run? Do fish swim? Does rain drop? Does grass grow? Do birds fly? Does ink dry? Do cats meow?
#22
Words of wisdom: "History repeats itself"
Most likely an old adage from the republican playbook. "Thank God for the Boob Tube!"
They have kept the Press 'genie" in the bottle for hundreds of years. Soon they will pull the "evil"; as they will make you believe, socialized internet Press 'genie' back into their little vile to keep order while they continue to pilfer society and prevent a healthy, wealthy, and wise population.
Kend,
Haha ... stall the ball, lad! Methinks you need to increase the strength of your reading glasses to +3.25. Perhaps you misread something I wrote or conflated it with something someone else wrote.
FYI: Once I post a comment, I usually don't bother going back over it, unless (while composing succeeding responses) to reference, to correct a factual error, or to clarify a point someone might have taken out of context. Life is busy and time is short.
Rest assured, however, that I would N-E-V-E-R recommend CNN to anyone, not even for a rake of schnozzlewoppers and a scuttle with a rosspot! Going from Fux News to CNN is like stabbing the ice pick in your left temple after your right temple is drained of blood. Nor would I advise someone to watch any other corporate media bag of stale snot. I swear on me scoop o' Guinness!
Besides, I really don't like giving advice to anyone (not my place) -- hey, just describing what I see and throwing out opinions for what it's worth, like anyone else. As Dirty Harry said, "Opinions are like assholes; everyone's got one."
Still, in all seriousness, my friend, you would be well advised to unplug from that accursed TV and radio programming, swamped with corporate commercials and indoctrination, employ your critical thinking skills, and make the leap to the wide variety of independent outlets that modern information technologies have to offer.
Multiple sourcing -- a lot of it -- is the key to good, objective journalism, while ignoring the flat-out liars and paying attention to the truthtellers. Unfortunately and fortunately, the list is long on both sides of the divide. Personally, I happen to read a lot of books with good old-fashion paper pages. Remember those? Also, the freedom of podcasts (Thom's for instance, plus many more) allows the mobility to be physically active with other endeavors during the day instead of vegetating on the couch passively mesmerized for hours on end staring at the blinkin' telly (or as 2950-10K would say, "Foxmerized").
Then there's the wonders of the raw internet, which can be equated with going to the library -- you have a basic choice between fiction and nonfiction. The good news (that is, until Republicans and their corporate masters screw up "net neutrality") is that the thread of truth will usually survive the test of multiple (and credible) sources, whereas a lie will peter out fairly quickly, exposed for what it is.
Like I said before, the only serious "advice" I would ever dare to offer a fellow news junkie is to jump into a natural mountain lake and feel the sting of reality instead of floating like a boring blob in an artificial pool full of warm piss, e.g., Fux News, CNN, et al.
ps: Leonard Cohen was -- is -- a Canadian national treasure and a gift to the USA. Sometimes the most cutting wisdom comes from those on the outside looking in. His spirit lives on...
Sláinte mhaith!
Kend, You really are a sucker if you think for 1 second that "the Republicans are reaching out to Democrats to try and find a happy medium of healthcare"
Deepspace, interesting that Cohen a Canadian is writing about democracy in the USA.
I took your advise and watched CNN this morning instead of Fox. What a waste of a hour. The whole show was about Trump clouding with Russia and where Ivanka sat down. The left is wasting their time looking for a ghost. They did talk about the Republicans reaching out to the Democrats to try and find a happy medium on healthcare. That to me is way it should be.
Smedly Butler's statement "On War" is different from, and not part of his book "War is a Racket." His statement contains his most famous words:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
http://www.quaker.org/co/Writings/SmedleyButler.htm
Really Thom dredging up the Nazi's again? Desperation, party of one.
Now these guys are a different story.
This is the 1% owned and operated mainstream medias influence on our election. A lot more influence than any Russian hacking and worth billions of dollars.
http://television.gdeltproject.org/cgi-bin/iatv_campaign2016/iatv_campai...
DHBranski: I'm well aware of your hatred for Bill Clinton, and his so called "welfare reform, " which is understandable. However I'm a little puzzled about your laser focus on the Clintons. It's Reagan who fomented the poverty slide with his massive tax breaks for the very rich, and his anti union/ free trade pursuits. Throw in Citizens United and presto, the Teapublicans have now become a purely Fascist Party.
The Dems as a whole do not suscribe to this ideology. Ryan and McConnell are your true enemies, not Hillary and Bill.
Schumer, Pelosi, Sanders, and the entire progressive caucus stand with us in the fight against Fascist created poverty.
It's Trump and his Teapublican's increasing the military spending.....the Dems are not on board with more war.
@26 Deepspace says,
But that is the more powerful weapon! Fundamental revolution in the mind -- the way we think and feel -- is what lasts. A true revolutionary spirit is highly contagious and is what rich and powerful authoritarian rulers down through the ages have always feared the most.
Peaceful yet serious and committed resistance to all forms of mind control, oppression, and injustice -- to all the outward expressions of concentrated power -- is really the only way to bring about lasting change. Whether people work through third parties, within existing parties, or independently, they must in their daily lives find the courage to fight without let up against tyranny and the forces of greed, hate, fear, violence, and propaganda -- all the tools of fascism.
A neurotic can be defined as someone who builds castles in the sky. A psychotic can be defined as Someone who moves into those castles in the sky. You sir, are loading up the moving van.
Well, Thom, that's the problem with political discourses, they can have dual meanings. What you have in this article could be interpreted as favorable for the US but it can also indicate something horrible.
The most interesting part is " Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?". You see, we would have to be able to identify the enemy if we are to be able to do something about them and, right now, people are not sure about who the enemy is.
To me, the worst anti constitutional act that has happened in the US, the act that puts the US in danger and will destroy it, if it hasn't already, was the courts decision to allow powerful industries and the very rich the tools to buy and control our politicians. That is why we have a guy like Trump as president and that is why we can't trust the Democratic Party.
Incorrect??? Jaysus! It's a hoot watching apologists, conspiracists, and muckshits spin their webs of deceit.
What a spy thriller for Hollywood this is, such a strange and convoluted saga, a real cloak-and-dagger spoof! No matter what oddball twists and turns a winger's whopper of a tale takes, the climax is always the same: WICKED HILLARY, EVIL OBAMA, and all those giddy GODDAMN DEMOCRATS are obviously somehow responsible for Trump's Russian troubles, which they obviously pulled out of their manky asses -- punch line: because they're obviously nothing but a bunch of sore losers pouting over an election they say was stolen. (Surely, not in the good ol' USA, USA, USA!) And, boy-oh-boy, how hard "they have worked ever since then to build a case to support that claim."
Oh yeah, don't forget to slip a mushy sentence into the fiery tirade, obliquely mentioning a tad of Republican culpability so as to appear evenhanded and bipartisan -- or, the Fux News' "fair and balanced" hooey. (Suuure ...fools 'em every time!)
Do tell, gobshite. Please connect the dots between "the weight of the facts" -- precisely, in detail, and from reliable sourcing -- to support your unsupported statement that "The anti-Russian propaganda is a (dangerous) fabrication of the Clinton wing." We got our big bags of popcorn and would all love to see exactly how Democrats (those crafty devils), who are no longer in power, managed on the QT to manipulate all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, all the various, REPUBLICAN House and Senate hearings, all the diverse and independent investigative journalists, all the shady dealings of Trump's too-many-to-count campaign stooges, and, most of all, the reams of on-the-record, self-incriminating, fourth-grade-level words straight out of this fake-haired bolo's own lying lips.
Now there, dear reader, is the mother of all conspiracy theories! C'mon, flesh it out, ya neddy. We're waiting with bated breath ...and for a good, long laugh.
What a load of feckin' ballsch! "Well to the left" me achin' arse!
Pretty much. While Republicans have been working hard to build support for war against China, Democrats have been working hard to build support for war against Russia. In other words, the two parties are working together to launch WWlll. This has been serving to bring Russia and China together, resolving their years of conflicts in the face of a common threat -- the US. There is no need for troops to march. This will be a nuclear war, and will mark America's last war.
I'm northern, well to the left. I do, indeed, now have a lot of respect for Putin, based on the tremendous restraint he has shown, even as Trump builds up US troops along Russia's border.
Incorrect. The anti-Russian propaganda is a (dangerous) fabrication of the Clinton wing. Within one week of the election, they jumped from the predictable "Trump stole the election" to the inexplicable "Russia stole the election" -- and they have worked ever since then to build a case to support that claim. Every effort to date has fallen flat under the weight of the facts.
Please think, people. Since Trump took office, there has been a significant build-up of US troops along the Russian border. Russia recognizes this as a US threat of war against Russia, by the Trump administration. Yet Dems sell the notion of some sort of partnership between Putin and Trump?
Very concerned. Very alarming a well is the apparently wide-spread admiration of Putin and Russia among southern red-state people. Who'd have thunk it?
I do not believe that others will take us over. It is the 1% that is taking over this country in a bloodless coup. They basically now have about 99%. They have control with mindless minions supporting them. They have the backing of the 1% owned and operated mainstream media.
I was under the impression I was one of a few that were concerned about the future of our country. The comments here I see I am not alone. My fear is that the general public has no idea of what is going on behind the curtains. They have no concept of who to believe or who to follow. The majority of the installed officials are the inconsiderable enemy. Most people are docile, uncaring sheep. They will stay that way until their love ones start being killed in front of them. I fully expect Russia to march in Thu the North East and China to take the west coast in lest than a 24 hour period.
We should be extremely concerned about Trump whipping up the alt right nut jobs. It's already quite clear this group is very programmable with Foxaganda and Breitbart crap. Speaking of Breitbart, Trump's speech sounds like Bannon influence to me, even though Miller may have penned it.
FKnauss has good reason to be concerned. Trump is considering some "pretty severe things"......that in reaction to North Korea's 4th of July bottle rocket. Another problem is in Eastern Europe. Reports are coming out that Putin needs to be stopped one way or the other before he oversteps with his continued expansion plans.
Putin has plenty of blackmail material on both Crooked Donny and at least a dozen more in his cabinet, enough to put them all in prison. Thus Putin has become emboldened to the extent that he's out of control much like the Kochs. Many around him are aware of this and know he needs to be stopped asap. The CIA has been paralyzed by our current Fascist regime and are completely powerless to fight back.
The cartoon "president" admires an ultimate strongman because in his juvenile mind that's who he aspires to be. It frustrates him to twitter madness that he is hobbled by the vestiges of our dying democracy -- "fake" intelligence, judges, politicians, liberals, reporters, and all that "boring" crap. He only respects wealth and power; the more of it the better. That's why he has insulted and taunted nearly every other leader in the world but fawns over Putin of Russia, Salman of Saudi Arabia, and Xi of China, the three most wealthy and powerful despots of all.
Gotta a problem with opposition? Throw 'em in prison. Better yet, just kill 'em. Notice how Trump and his thugs in Congress want to cut taxes on the rich by cutting everything else -- except military, cops, and jails. Fascism isn't coming to the USA; it's already here.
The wish of Leonard Cohen ...someday:
"It's coming through a hole in the air
From those nights in Tiananmen Square
It's coming from the feel
That this ain't exactly real
Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there
From the wars against disorder
From the sirens night and day
From the fires of the homeless
From the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the USA
It's coming through a crack in the wall
On a visionary flood of alcohol
From the staggering account
Of the Sermon on the Mount
Which I don't pretend to understand at all
It's coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay,
From the brave, the bold, the battered
Heart of Chevrolet
Democracy is coming to the USA
It's coming from the sorrow in the street
The holy places where the races meet
From the homicidal bitchin'
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat
From the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the USA
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on
It's coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It's here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst
It's here the family's broken
And it's here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA
It's coming from the women and the men
O baby, we'll be making love again
We'll be going down so deep
The river's going to weep,
And the mountain's going to shout Amen
It's coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway
Imperial, mysterious
In amorous array
Democracy is coming to the USA
Sail on, sail on
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
That Time cannot decay
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
This little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the USA"
-- Leonard Cohen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y
rest in peace
I wish you all would become more educated and not use the debt that billionaires want you to use. The debt that really effects our economy is the ratio of debt (the billionaire one) to GDP. Since the government is one of the best investors around, 60% return vs. 13% for Warren Buffet, we should want them to increase the deficit to lower that ratio.
Did you know that the US and Barack after the 2008 Bill/Dubya crash had one of the best performances, measured by the debt ratio, in the developed world?
jibaro01 -- I assume I hate the third way as much as you do. Bill, Barack and Hillary were all increasing economic inequality. However, in spite of their ignorance and gullibility to the billionaires they did give us the ACA and consumer protection agency. Both were far from what we want, but they were so much better than what the repugs would have given us (and now are trying to take away). To say that the Democratic Party is as corrupt as the repugs seems to me to be a lack of awareness.
You also need to listen to Bernie more closely. He said something equivalent to Hillary is so ignorant we can convince her to be a progressive.
Any effort to remove Thrump should include removal of Pench and ryan; otherwise we'll just end up with a frying pan-to-fire situation; right now, we're just slightly better off in the frying pan.
Seems fair appraisal..yet little can be done if anything to thwart our move toward more intensive fascist state. As one Admin offical noted last week: we now control all three branches of Government" indicating it was full speed ahead without any impediments to the Republican/Trump shift more toward a fascist sate. Soon, I predict, one voicing extreme oppsotion to Trump and his party publicly will get one detained.. censured. We already see that the press cannot ask tough questions in briefings as they will get banned. Seig heil! Herr Trump Waht annoys me is the national medai such as CBS,NBC, ABC play along as thet do not seem to have teh "balls" to pursue even if his "highness" rejects them..\. mere "mortals" like myself are left to muse: "I did not know Putin was selling franchises"