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Boehlert wrote that there is such a “glaring disconnect between reality and how the press depicts White House accomplishments” that it seems the press is “determined to keep Biden pinned down.”

I am not surprised. Democrats govern better than Republicans (although Trump and his acolytes set new lows.) But people don't vote according to their interests. They vote to support those they identify with. And we Democrats are poor at messaging.

I would love to see more coverage in this blog about the struggles by Democrats to get the message across, especially to the voters who have turned against them.

Currently I'm reading everything I can to understand this better, including, recently, Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, where he shows that Democrats appeal to two fundamental moral foundations, Care/harm and Fairness/cheating, while conservatives appeal to the full complement of six, which adds Loyalty/betrayal, Authority/subversion, Sanctity/degradation and Liberty/oppression. Democratic messaging -- not governance -- doesn't address the last four. What if we forcefully appealed to these also? (He writes this about conservative values, which he differentiates from today's radicalized Republican party.) Haidt lays out the evidence base for these moral foundations being innate as well as for people having a genetic disposition to be liberal or conservative. We need to reach those who don't as easily identify as liberal.

He is one of many who explores the societally disintegrating force of social media since 2011, especially in a new article in The Atlantic, "Why the past ten years of American life have been uniquely stupid: It's not just a phase." In that article he identifies the specter of artificial intelligence programs that can write a story and slant it in any direction so that such disinformation will increasingly flood social media and its unregulated algorithms. Our adversaries make up all sorts of outlandish lies that undermine our shared sense of reality and inoculate authoritarians from being blamed by blaming their opponents first. This firehose of noise takes up all of the oxygen. Of course there's the lock Republicans have on propaganda to radicalize conservatives through talk radio, cable news and other media. The GOP became very disciplined in messaging starting with the Reagan Administration. Propaganda and disinformation practices have long been carried out by Russia and are being exploited by other adversaries.

That is the war we are fighting. Blogs like this ground Democrats' actions in our history and reveal their efforts to do the right thing. But it's only reaching those of us with a liberal orientation.

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Biden's achievements are being ignored, while the Republican buffoonery is splattered across headline news to attract readership. Why can't people be more intelligent, critical seers? What's more important, the facts or trumpesque sensationalism?

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I’ll bring this up because the name comes up in HCR’s Letter today. We all have different insights that, at times, work like radar…alerting a sixth sense to, well, just somethin’ somethin’…good and bad. Mine has always served me well meeting hundreds of kids in a career in public education. I’ve met a few kids that have given me a sense, for instance, that they will achieve fame and destiny and a very select few that give me a sense of having a calculating nature, destructive bent, and will not win the warm fuzzy award. These intuitions have worked well, for me, in finding effective teaching learning styles in the classroom.

I can remember the first time I laid eyes on Jared Kushner. He actually was seated next to then president Trump around a very big table in a big room at what I suppose was an important meeting. I literally jumped up and thought….”that’s one cold fish whispering in the president’s ear. He looks like a rabbit hopping down the socio-path.” No sh*t. It was a bit chilly.

I think of it when JK’s name comes up.

And wonder at the balls of the Repubs to suggest again and again criminality and intrigue regarding Hunter Biden who is not in any government job and you’ve got the “Trump kids” right up the keister of nepotism and personal gain from the Whitewash House.

Sheesh.

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There is so much about TFG's toxic administration, I am unable to understand why the media is so negative about Biden's work. I stopped watching the PBS Newshour because I couldn't stand the whining, ignoring the good news and PBS' "fairness doctrine" about allowing the other side to spout their lies and disinformation... All of us need to call them out and make a noise about it!

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Last week, Biden extended the moratorium on most federal student loan programs through the end of August—sooner than most Democrats wanted

What? They couldn't do it to the end of the year? August? Just in time to piss people off at the election? fookin' mo-rons. This is how/why they get in the hole they're in.

As regards Press The Meat on Sunday (and weekdays at 1pm Eastern), a "chucktodd" is an internationally-recognized unit of measurement of political idiocy.

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We will miss Eric Boehlert’s voice. Condolences to his family and readers. His last piece and yours about him and about the underplaying of Biden’s accomplishments concern me. Thank you for noticing and for setting the record straight!! Each statement counts.

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If trump & family & sycophant's avoid prosecution and accountability, I see little hope for the country. The pols are looting at will now...and big time.

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This is incredibly depressing - we have similar (but less cataclysmic) stuff in Oz. May I bring to your attention a very pertinent paragraph - which really underscores why things are going the way they are. Can we change this trajectory? It is very deeply embedded in our culture.

"This paragraph seems to sum, in addition the dilemma we face as the nature of some of the “beasts”

“That is what companies are for.

They are designed to multiply capital; what they make is irrelevant.

Torpedoes, food, clothes, furniture. It is all the same.

To that end they will do anything to survive and prosper.

Can they make more money employing slave labour?

If so, they must do so.

Can they increase profits by selling things which kill others?

They must do so again.

What if they lay waste the landscape, ruin forests, uproot communities and poison the rivers?

They are obliged to do all these things, if they can increase their profits.”

“A company is a moral imbecile.

It has no sense of right or wrong.

Any restraints have to come from the outside, from laws and customs which forbid it from doing certain things of which we disapprove.

But it is a restraint which reduces profits.

Which is why all companies will strain forever to break the bounds of the law, to act unfettered in their pursuit of advantage.

That is the only way they can survive because the more powerful will devour the weak.

And because it is the nature of capital, which is wild, longs to be free and chafes at each and every restriction imposed on it.”

from Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears

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Thank you Heather.

We cannot deny that regardless of the headway the Biden Administration has made thus far, it is running in sand. Frankly, I don't see a way out as long as the Press is determined to keep Biden a one term President. The fact that misinformation is the standard, or the accepted norm, calling out the lies is futile at this point.

FOX Entertainment is not the only enemy, it's everywhere you look in mainstream media.

Be safe. Be well.

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Shame. Shame.

As though the world could afford a schizoid America at a time like this!

Yes. Seen from outside, America looks mad and wedded to madness, both mad and plain stupid. And your media are feeding the idiocy, the madness.

You have a bunch of criminal lunatics running free and daily proclaiming their wildly abnormal New Normal. If this had been Saudi Arabia, the lot would have been beheaded even before January last year, but no, we sing America the Exceptional and rake in the cash for betraying the country and selling its institutions, while Saudi autocrats reward those who would make Washington another Moscow, another Riyadh.

The only positive construction I can put on the exceeding slowness with which the wheels of justice are grinding is... "Hold your fire until you see the white of their eyes".

As for the bullsh***ing Press Corps mercenaries, what trash! If and when the country comes to its senses there are plenty of bought-and-soldiers who'll be paying for their own criminal irresponsibility. A few bulletproof pillories would come in handy...

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Apr 12, 2022·edited Apr 12, 2022

2016:

Trump has defrauded banks and Investors. Trump is conspiring with the Russians. Trump has surrounded himself with shysters and sycophants. Trump abuses women. Trump is a grifter. Trump is a racist. Trump is utterly unqualified to be president.

Media: But her emails!

2022:

Trump led an insurrection to overthrow our democracy. Trump blackmailed Ukraine. Trump conspired with Putin. Jared was paid off by the Saudis to the tune of $2 billion. Mnuchin was paid off to the tune of $1 billion. The Trump administration was the most corrupt in history. Trump’s inaction and incompetence on Covid led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary American deaths. Trump tried to destroy NATO. Trump put 3 partisan right-wing hacks on the Supreme Court.

Media: But Hunter’s laptop!

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I’ve never understood the news media’s support of extreme right wing; but my suspicion is that very large amounts of money is involved? That either direct payments (making sure it looks legit—lots of ways to accomplish that in the media apparently) or huge amounts are coming into the media in clandestine ways? The NYT still has the appearance of being covering both the positive accomplished by the Biden administration and opposing views, but in reality, if you count the negative reporting daily, the pendulum has been falling to the right more and more. It is beyond disturbing to imagine the democracies crumbling but that’s what we’re watching.

Putin’s obvious plans for a future Russian empire have most of my Danish relatives anxious and countries most at risk for his next Anschluss, Finland and Sweden, are both trying to take preventive actions! This is not how I imagined the world to be during my “golden” years!

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Our “free” and bought press is doing as good a job brain-washing the gullible American public as Goebbels did preparing the German citizenry to see Hitler as a solution rather than the problem. The hiring by CBS of Mick M was the icing on the cake. The greedy bastards are ahead by a lap. Rupert is celebrating 40 years of destroying America’s democracy. Wonder what Reagan would think of this. Somebody ask Peggy Noonan.

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In the conference Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy cosponsored by The Atlantic and The Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, Maria Ressa said that social media is amplifying that which gets people angry. The press has been using this cheap trick to sell "news" for as long as my child has been alive. It is why we were not allowed to have the news on when she was young because she figured out it was just bad. She says we have to fight it with truth, just as you are Eric Boehlert have been doing, and calling them on it. Then we also have to look at who is behind their news. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWFRVPrZApI Thank you for fighting this disinformation war with the truth.

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Thank you, Heather, for expressing what so many are thinking. I don't have cable TV, so, thankfully, don't see much of it. I have noticed this same tendency to minimize Biden's achievements by PBS News Hour and BBC America. The main problem at PBS, in my view, is Judy Woodruff; the actually reporters - Amna Nawaz, Nick Shiffrin, and especially Lisa Desjardin, are excellent at digging out facts and presenting a balanced, informative presentation.

Yesterday, I came across a story about a study that had, I believe, 500 Fox News watchers switch to CNN for one month. The researchers really didn't expect it to change minds, but it did. Not quite half the participants had different views on topics after watching CNN, than they had reported before the experiment. So, yes, Fox IS brainwashing people!

In the rural area where I live, it's a closed loop. The population watches Fox, goes to church on Sunday and hears the same BS from the preacher (most of which are in 'independent churches' where the congregation 'elects' or appoints the minister, none of whom have been anywhere near a seminary or theology school). They all share the same Facebook groups, etc. It's downright incestuous!

The Power Worshippers, by Katherine Stewart, documents not only how long the 'religious right' has been ascendant, but goes deep into their background, connecting them very much with the Movement Conservatives. Many people who have never heard of RJ Rushdoony or David Barton, believe this is all about religion. It is not. As several state openly, "It is about power". And now they have more of it, thanks to Trump's SCOTUS picks, than they've had in decades, if not a century. And it's scary as hell.

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What a list, Professor Richardson. How do you know where to start? News, real news that includes an abbreviated laundry list of real government projects and plans, cleanup from TFG corruption, the work of government agencies, Jan 6 Committee, erosion of voting rights, abortion and choice, education and health care? Student loans, immigration, NATO and a continuing War between Ukraine and aggressor Russia. Supreme Court nomination. The government is working in ways we might like or not, so let’s hope enough people are paying attention. When it comes time to vote, let’s also hope we the people consider the difference between a government that works for the people versus one that promises to destroy choices and equality.

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