What TFG has done is terrifying and appears to have cost US intelligence operatives their lives (among all else) but what’s more frightening is the response of large news organizations that seem to be very much in the pockets of GOP operatives. Terrifying. How do we escape the bonds of efforts to turn our government into a totalitarian regime if the press plays along?
Remember that Jeff Zuckerthefucker when he was running CNN justified the network broadcasting Trump rallies uncut and commercial free in 2016 because "He brings us great ratings." There's a reason why CNN hasn't been watched at Le Chateau du Chat for the past 10 years. I had dealt with him here where all he was fucking up was TV shows before he went to CNN.
I am with the courtesy police. It has been brought to my attention by others, you have been engaging in profanities about Jeff Z. We must ask you to cease and desist. As a punishment, you must down 2 ounces of Blantons Bourbon to sterilize your mouth, to take the edge off the evening, and also calm your approach. Consider this a warning and keep the bottle handy in case of another slip.
If I was there, I would sip one with you (thats some good stuff). I understand the frustration. Been battling on many different things, frustrating things which portrayed ignorance is displayed to stymie it.
LOL. You guys are a hoot....it sure helps to see this on a Saturday morning when we are so upset over needing to save our Democracy! I am working another damn fish fry instead of having a fun evening at the age of 79....just doing nothing or maybe watch a movie before bed! Who ever thought running for the Treasurer of your county in a Republican county would be so difficult and to boot expensive. I was told by the radio station that I needed to hit the air waves.... and need to invest at least another $3,000 for a position that I will maybe add around $40,000 a year to my coffer or if I lose....zilch! I was told I need to ask my friends for money! I have never ask anyone in my life for money! How in the world do you do that? Maybe I could sell my blood?
Sharon What a gutsy lady campaigning at the age of 79–are you related to President Biden?
I found it was much easier being a Foreign Service Political Officer (Congo/Chile) than being a local township council candidate. I knocked on over 1,000 doors, losing nearly 10 pounds in this political PT.
Asking for money wasn’t my forte. In the men’s room of a political event I was handed $75 cash—I hoped the donor had washed his hands.
My biggest hit was a realtor who had been ‘betrayed’ by a candidate in the previous year’s election and against whom I was running. He asked me how much to defeat this bastard. We’ll, I said, you gave him $6,000 last year. He started to writer a check for $6,000. But, I added, there are two of us running for two seats on township council. His check for $12,000 covered more than our total campaign costs.
County, treasurer, election, invest, $3,000 . . . a deadly combination.
I was an appointed official by Republicans and voted in as the Vice Chair of the Planning Commission. Politics never came into the equation of doing the job which paid $80 per meeting whether it took 1 hour or six hours. Didn't count the times I went and walked a tract of land or talked to residents. Some of whom cussed me out. Notably women.
Keep your integrity, Know when to say no in votes and meetings. Be honest in your opinions.
One should not gulp a very drinkable Bourbon such as Blantons.
If you wish to gulp, I would suggest "Bookers" to quench your thirst and speed you to a soon to be had nap. A glass of "Bookers" lasted a good while for me.
Other than Trump's disgraceful mocking of Serge Kovaleski, the most shameful thing that happened during the 2016 campaign was MSNBC airing a table full of Trump merchandise for 45 minutes without a commercial break. In shock, I kept watching to see when they were going to go back to the studio. They didn't until after Trump did an infomercial for several minutes then gave his speech (the only one I ever watched in full). In that speech he taunted Katy Tur, who was in the back. From that day forward I limited the amount of time I spent viewing MSNBC. I never watched CNN for more than a couple of minutes here and there; now I'll never watch CNN again.
I learned everything about Covid- most importantly about brain fog - from MSNBC. Did not know about their original DT sins until now. Always found their “experts” brighter than CNN, so have stayed with them. At medical appointments yesterday got a “taste” of ABC. Needed lots of good bourbon. Luckily had a good novel in hand.
Katy Bear Tur is now the star of MSNBC's daytime news programming. If this is in any way the result of TFG hassling her endless at his phony rallies, I am fine with that. My wife agrees so it can't just be because she is very easy on the eyes!
Susan I’ve only watched cable news most occasionally since September 15, 2021 [instead, watch DVDs and VHSs doing my evening PT.] Most relaxing to avoid the staccato drum beat. Unfortunately Stephen Colbert is a delight which is too late for me, except for later YouTube. Ari I still watch a few times a month.
Sad about CNN (understatement) Chris Licht was Colbert's producer/director for several years - thought he was an intelligent guy - but to go from Colbert to "whataboutism"? Wonder how long this new theme will last.
Sorry - completely disagree about Colbert. Licht seemed to have done ok for him while he worked for him and they got along well. Whoever's bidding hes doing at CNN - thats on him.
I think your anger is misplaced. Colbert is hardly a narcissistic air head and his credentials as a liberal Democrat have been fully vetted. Colbert's show was suffering in its first few months as Stephen tried to do it all. IIRC it was Licht who helped tweak the show and it finally took off. And, of course, Stephen has zero input into what Chris does not that he's no longer with TLS.
YES, Mim. Be selective about news intake. We can all access the positive sources of real news that do exist. Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! Is one I listen to daily.
Not on any f**king day of my long life will I subject even one brain cell to Rupert Murdoch’s vile destructive verbiage. Had enough of that slander in the late 90’s when friends became brain dead. Piss on you and the horse you rode in on.
Murdoch once bought Esquire Magazine and turned it into a 'fortnightly', stripping all journalistic presence and writing ability from it. I will never forgive him for that sin. Luckily, he sold it when it stopped making money, and the new owners restored it to its former status.
There is no "both sides have value" when one side simply follows mindlessly a morally bankrupt narcissistic sociopath. The latest revelations that he's severely compromised national security in yet to be seen damages only underscores his utter lack of care for our country and its democracy. Soulless indeed.
Or turn the TV off altogether and read. There is nothing on Fox that will tell us anything we don't know already. I know what the "others are thinking about" and it is the destruction of democracy. It is a network dedicated to hate. It is a channel that is feeding raw meat to the big lie. It feels like it is wired to Putin's brain. Fox is the antipathy of journalism. It is a propaganda tool that makes a ton of money by stirring the pot of BS.
That being said, MSNBC feels like someone is drilling into my brain. I'll stick to reading and a little PBS Newshour.
Bill, I'm with you. Except I don't watch ANY TV news--even PBS. And I read carefully--often on the NPR website rather than listening to it, because my dog gets anxious if I yell at the radio too early in the morning. He knows that will make for his mom having a more volatile day. If you want a listen that is interesting and presents other perspectives, BBC Radio 4 and RTE (the Irish radio system) are both worth a listen, especially Radio 4's The World at One and RTE's morning and evening news. You can get some of that from the World Service news hours that many NPR stations run, but WAO is more concentrated.
NPR is the worst. They always manage to gloss over every issue and with a heavy right lean. I can't subject myself to it. However, I agree BBC is better.
Allow me to recommend Weekend Edition Saturday, with Scott Simon. Probably the best news program on NPR. He does the finest radio interviews I've heard since Bob Edwards talked weekly with Red Barber (today's was with Holocaust survivor, Tova Friedman; if you listen have tissues at hand) and has introduced me to many musicians I probably would never have heard. He does not gloss over any issue. Ever. NPR is a national treasure that we need to continue to support.
Agreed. I canceled tv several years ago and only read, usually sources Dr. Richardson provides. She has told us the better reporters, to watch out for the information some are attempting to plant in your brain.
yes on all counts...we find we are more accessible, energetic and available to assist what is going on around us when we turn it off. Love "stick to reading and a little PBS Newshour". Thank you.
Respectfully...I do not watch any TV news. It is just set up to sell the commercial time. Remember shock and awe? I believe CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc are harmful to critical thinking. I am careful when I read the NYT as well. I rarely read the NYT opinion pieces. All of mainstream media use dog-whistle tactics. All of the talking heads are sticking to a prescribed lane (for an entertainers pay grade which is no small change). I subscribe to other independent sources like HCR, Chris Hedges, Timothy Snyder, Alec Karakatsanis and others. I watch for long form pieces in the New Yorker and Atlantic. I listen to podcasts. I try to form my own viewpoint that way. Flipping channels from one media empire to another one...I don’t recommend it. Too easy to be swept away. I don’t trust network and cable news. They do not help me with my objective to be an informed voter--that’s for sure.
I’m with you. When I want to know what’s happening in politics I listen to committee meetings and floor speeches on YouTube. Watching how they act, and how much Republicans lie, tells me everything I know. Their sole purpose is to deceive and they refuse to legislate seriously. Do they even know how to be honest?
You launched a very interesting Exchange of comments. I just want to mention that this morning I read a piece about the difference between being a reader and just following broadcast media. It is written by Henry Reese, who was about to introduce Salman Rushdie when Rushdie was attacked. Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/opinion/salman-rushdie-free-speech-writers.html?smid=url-share
The road you follow is a more difficult one, but in the long run, probably the correct way to go, avoiding sources whose commercial or a political agendas make objectivity almost impossible.
I used to watch CBS evening news, but since Heather Cox Richardson told us they hired Mick Mulvaney, I've refused to watch all of them (online) from local to national. I read the Washington Post, but keep wrestling with that since Jeff Besos owns the paper.
My serious hat on this morning and sobering not from drinking but from the events we witness on a daily basis. My coffee brewed from coffee beans grd. in Murphys California by Gold Country Roasters. A small shop I visit when I go to my brother's place.
If you do not view or listen, how do you know? In order to truly understand a situation, we need to observe what is happening at the site where work actually takes place. "Gemba" in Japanese and a way to understand manufacturing. What are they telling people? Listen to them.
My $.02 and not wanting to dwell. I think you know what I mean.
I used to tell my friends I watched Fox in order to keep in touch with a pov I disagreed with. But the lies and distortions became so horrific I couldn’t keep it up. It was like the medieval torture of having molten metal poured in my ears.
There is debate that is healthy - opinion supported by facts. When "alternative facts" are manufactured over and over again by a political party, that party is no longer a legitimate participant in democracy.
Yes Virginia! That is exactly the problem. Talking heads trying to make news rather than report it. The way Biden's speech was treated as "political " and picked apart while everything tfLIARg says is reported as fact tells me we are in big trouble for the midterms. The fact that the primary elections thus far have been so close is insane. We are never told the turnout--what % of registered voters came out to vote in these all important primaries? Real news reporters would not ignore these facts. Luckily, most secretary of state's websites tell the story. Voting is your right and responsibility.
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Linda M has mentioned a couple of his helpers who deliver but he himself resides within you and me. We used to refer to to it as common sense and truth. We must continue delivering those gifts in all seasons whenever and whevever we can.
I also listen to all sides of a debate before deciding. If it's a debate.
The first decision is whether a) both sides are playing with a full deck, and b) both sides are engaging honestly. There is nothing -- fucking NOTHING -- coming out of the current right wing that is both full deck and honest. So there is no debate, and I feel no need to "listen" the the demented liars who are selling delusions.
And that is exactly the point. I used to enjoy "give and take" chats with Republicans. We could debate the virtues of higher taxes or universal education or infrastructure programs. Meat and potatoes stuff. How to improve the world - how much should be private investment vs government involvement, etc. It was healthy.
Now, the MAGA Republicans have decided that ANYTHING a Democrat proposes must be defeated because a Democratic success might help us in the next election. Party over the people. Power rather than the public good. MCConnell personifies this. Fox preaches this.
The Republican Party is now illegitimate as a participant in American Democracy and Fox News is a chapter from an Orwell novel.
The only way out of this is if the MAGAs get drubbed out of office. Otherwise, we are doomed.
To make sure your partisan, happiness-inducing bubble isn't just an illusion, (1) remember that some familiarity with those with whom you disagree, including FoxNews, is necessary for you to know your opponents or enemies, (2) avoid any exclusivity in your sources of information, all of which have either business or political agendas, and (3) only listen to both sides of a debate if they are playing by the same rules, which should never permit the use of unsubstantiated facts.
Thank you for calling it aluminum foil and not tin foil. I worked in the aluminum industry for 32 years, 3 of which were as division engineer at Alcoa's Davenport IA foil mill.
Chaplain Terry, unless you are much older than your picture there wasn't much real tin foil around even when you were a kid. Tin foil was in use before about 1926 when Alusuisse came up with an effective process for rolling aluminum foil or as they would say aluminium foil. Soon aluminum foil the American spelling was being made in the US and Canada too. Both company had their roots in the invention of the smelting process for aluminum. In 1886 Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult and Charles Martin Hall independently found out how to smelt aluminum using electrical current to sperate the oxygen in aluminum oxide to get pure aluminum. Hall's invention lead to the Aluminum Company of America and Heroult's to Alusuisse.
In 1991 ALCOA and Alusuisse came very close to a major joint venture for the production of aerospace product. I was part of the technical team putting this together as I was the rolling mill person for ALCOA. The deal fell apart when Alusuisse's parent company would not assume the environmental costs of buried smelting pot lining in Switzerland. Wisely Paul O'Neal then CEO of ALCOA killed the deal as we had enough of our own environmental past sins to deal with in the USA.
As a young engineering supervisor, then 32, I love working in the world of foil from 1976 to late 1979. We were the leading US producer of foil with a whopping 22 percent market share. 22 percent does not give you control of the market so you must compete on quality, delivery and service. To this day I think this is how companies should have to compete and not as the big dog on the block.
When I want to get mad and upset I turn on our local Fox talk radio while driving. Maybe I can handle 5 minutes. (We never got TV when we moved to the mountains 20 years ago so no Fox to watch.) Sometimes I listen to the long stretch of ads to know who NOT to buy from around here.
There was a time when I looked at Fox periodically for exactly that reason. Then they switched from 'radical right with insults' to 'extremist propaganda laced with hate' and I stopped.
I go to faux a couple of times a week to post Truth and Facts to the sheep there. I think we need to leave our bubble occasionally and venture into the alt reality. Just have to know how long you can stay there without getting sick to your stomach. Need a vaccine for faux poison.
I agree that Sinclair is a problem. But they are everywhere and folks may not know that their local stations are owned by Sinclair.
"The Company owns and/or operates 21 RSN brands; owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets; is a leading local news provider in the country; owns multiple national networks; and has TV stations affiliated with all the major broadcast networks."
It's interesting to note that CNN International is quite different from the US version. It is mostly serious reporting and regular shows from Amanpour, Zakarias and Tapper.
When I was able to catch Biden's speech on Thursday night I check CBS and it was not on that station so I turned to MSNBC and there he was! Why???? I thought this was an announced Presidential speech during prime time and Young Sheldon took priority that night on CBS! So, just how many people got to be informed by his speech that night?
Combined, MSNBC and CNN had 3.91 million viewers of the speech. Add to these whatever PBS had and let's call it about 4 million. Meanwhile, Fox carried the speech but with the President's voice muted, substituted by a running commentary by semi-fascist Tucker Carlson, drawing 2.89 million viewers, more than either MSNBC and CNN individually drew. He wins the Josef Goebbels Award for excellence in propaganda for this charade. The regular broadcast networks which drew much more, didn't carry it, which acknowledges that they are in business to make money and don't give a damn about the public service aspect their access to the airwaves is supposed to include.
The President attached 'semi" to his comments the other day about the ideology of the present GOP, and I just followed suit. Nothing 'semi' about Carlson. He's the real thing.
I had turned CBS on for local news and then got busy with a phone conversation and didn't get back with the tv and Sheldon was on....I switched to MSNBC and saw the last 15 minutes. I was shocked that it wasn't on CBS!
Follow the money. That's where TV gets the money to pay its bills including the salaries of those you see on TV. Nothing sinister about that. That's just the way Capitalism works, not biting the hand of those who fuel its enterprises.
I agree with you- we have a Sinclair station that throws the most horrible Murdock type tabloid muck and casts it under the channel logo on line, as “local” news. It relentlessly features BIPOC as murderous, child abusing, masses; while white equivalents are featured as unusual outliers.
The entire Chicago School of Economics should be strung up by their thumbs with ol' Milty Friedman right at the forefront.
Their so-called "theory of economics" has done as much to destroy this country as the entire phalanx of corporations buying the politicians who take their money and do their bidding.
But that’s Milton Friedman, who needs to be forgotten as soon as corporations become non-people again. How often do we hear of Lewis Powell who started business at SCOTUS?
So, I guess eventually the nutty billionaires who imagine that if they can take over the government so they can print money for themselves at the Fed that will be the end of the rainbow......will soon control all "news" outlets. I guess they don't understand that the reason the dollar is not worthless is because they don't control the Fed (although Jerome Powell is pretty close to them).
But, I am hoping Dr. Richardson, when she is finally approached by one of these guys, sends them packing on their merry way!
There's a stark reality about money. There's a point far short of the first billion where collecting more does nothing to improve the quality of your life, exactly the opposite, in fact. I take considerable comfort in that fact. Past the point of probable security in one's dotage, all the improvements are in intangibles like friendship, loved-ones, charity, the arts, nature, etc. Money erects barriers between one's soul and all those good things.
Neither Trump nor his hangers-on have souls to be barred by money...their souls have long since withered and died.
They wouldn't even understand how to enjoy the company of friends and loved-ones. Charity, the arts and nature are for losers, according to those for whom money is all & everything. A person without a soul is a pitiable thing.
My father, who retired after his second million, gardened (as he had when the vegetables he grew fed us all year ‘round), fished (same), and hunted (same after huge freezer came into our garage), having given more than he received. The only change after the two million was the cases of his favorite scotch.
Sounds like a man with a soul who felt contented with his success and then just enjoyed life. Unfortunately, others become addicted and love feeling a power than be become ruthless-- you know, "power for power's sake."
Mike, thanks for this link. It looks like what Malone wants to do is keep establishment conservatives in the fold by providing “unbiased” reporting through CNN. Essentially, he wants to blur the distinction between Fox and the liberal media, which is to say propaganda and legitimate fact finding, so conservatives squeamish about radical conservatives can pretend there is a real middle ground between Republicans and Democrats. I found this sentence illuminating: “ While Malone has previously talked about his affection for Fox News — the US “needs Fox News or something like it. Because otherwise, everything’s leftist,” he told FT — it’s rare for him to opine about programming choices in his own portfolio of properties.” So he’s hired a couple of capos away from liberal media to present the illusion of dispassionate fairness Fox tried to claim for itself and blithely tossed away.
Pamela, you are right. If the “Fourth Estate” gives in to the lies and deceptions, we are doomed. I don’t think we are, however, because of citizens like Heather, who keep at it daily to serve up the Truth about our history and the current terrifying mess we are in because of 45. I can’t even type his name….
I wish I could agree. We have Dan Froomkin and we have Soledad O’Brien and we used to have Dan Boehlert 😢 but their audience is primarily people like us. My point is that every time a journalist speaks up, they get canned, and that’s the problem.
I am grateful to everyone who calls out the press - I truly am. I’m just afraid it’s no match for the US oligarchy.
Well, yes and no. “They” are trying to charge money to use the internet. And the real violent bastards are using the net to foment death and shootings of people “they” don’t like. I never saw the world in an “us” “them” mode, but now I do feel I have enemies. I didn’t growing up. Except the usual enemies….
vote the bastards out and stop stooping to even acknowledge that the poison press has anything to say at all. They can have their echo chambers as long as they don't reach past governments' front doors.
When I first noticed this, way before chump, was when Rupert’s “entertainment opinion news shows” became the “most watched” cable shows. They wanted a piece of Rupert’s honey pot. All three networks, PBS, as well as cable were on the take, making news a money maker that it had never been before. Then chump just made them richer as he maligned their very existence. We all watched it happen, if we weren’t in a chump coma with the rest of the greedy bastards.
What can we do? Work to get out the vote. Write letters to the editor. Call the network and express your disagreements. Call the advertisers and let them know you will no longer buy their products. Become an election judge. Do anything but wring your hands about the media.
I don’t watch, period. I read. CNN has turned to the dark side because of money. Fox is supported mostly by Comcast-I dumped my subscription to cable TV. Easy. Take the gloves off, as Biden is doing, and play a little hardball. Democracy is at stake and Democrats are “outperforming” expectations at this point. We have the momentum but need all hands on deck. Find some way to be an active part of the solution. The media does not run our country. We do. If we act like it and are active, we can take back the narrative. Vote blue in ‘22!!
I'm the same - Have not had cable in forever. I read the news. I'm working at my polling place next election, I write letters. But we are a relatively small community. Yes, we must do these things but millions of people are persuaded by 'respected' news outlets every day and the fact that they are being bought and driven by oligarchs is a serious problem.
Let's not forget Valerie Plame. I don't recall the press pursuing the fact that some loser (A.K.A., Scooter Libby) was the only one who did time, for that, and, not much of it, after Dubya pardoned him. My belief is that that Bush Whitehouse, pretty much all of them, should be in prison - for many, many crimes, for many, many more years. Perhaps, then, we could've avoided all this Trump ridiculousness.
Clearly, we need to free the press. The question is how to wrest the press from the rich Republicans who own it? A larger project would be to educate Americans to the point where they can sus a thing out for themselves and not just believe whatever they are told. Why are so many of us just led around by the nose?
Our lives are stuffed with sensory input to process, minute by minute. There’s hardly time to reflect and weigh the relative merits of it all. Sometimes we’re plain lazy. Once the press was a filter. More and more it’s just a megaphone. It gets tiring, as rapid fire successive scandals begin to devalue one another in their ability to outrage our sensibility.
MSNBC and ABC are doing pretty well, but we have vibrant independent young journalists on social media. Meidastouch is a very good one, so is The Lincoln Project. Most of what you see on MSM is reported by independents first. CNN, CBS, and FOX are all less trustworthy than the Enquirer.
I'm a new subscriber and love what you're doing. Please don't stop. What's also scary is the fact that so many networks did not broadcast Biden's important speech. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/09/02/biden-speech-network-coverage-independence-hall/. It is killing me (and the U.S.) that so many fail to see that it's not politics as usual any more but instead one party trying to govern versus the other party dead set against democratic governance. Without sufficient press coverage of this it will be even harder to keep our democracy.
Welcome Bjorkqvist, to the absolute best colloquy on truth, history, and current events on Substack or anywhere. Our humbly brilliant professor makes sense of it all, and we chime in from time to time. If this is your first post, you belong right here—and I look forward to your future comments and replies! And thanks for your perspective on journalism and democracy.
Did the two Marines in Dress Blues intimidate you? They asked me if I would do it except my top was to tight and the buttons popped. Fifty years would have passed if I had one to wear.
There was a lot said about them being there. I saw nothing wrong, the imagery of them goes a long way of projecting what we were good at doing. Defending a nation under attack. Biden is taking the steps to do such.
On Twitter there were many photos of Bush the Younger in front of a ship of marines and Obama with two. Trump also. So tired of these under educated, lazy smarps.
Gailee, I am , too! Some may not be technically “under” educated but they are willfully ignorant of the facts and they under value our democracy. Surprised we didn’t hear Fox criticizing Biden’s choice of ties for the speech.
They were the perfect backdrop, were they not? Nothing looks as good in uniform as a Marine in dress blues. And I wish I could fit in mine but, like you, fifty years on...
I think they served a purpose which was made even more apparent by Biden's words. Not meant to intimidate. I never had Blues. Just something else to carry around as I moved from base to base.
Fifty years later and I am reinventing myself for the umpteenth time.
Thank you Bjorkqvist for sharing the WAPO link. An interesting read, though I think the networks decisions to not carry Biden’s address did our nation no favors.
Not me. It IS appalling. But the "networks" are no longer legit news gathering organizations. That ended when it was determined that the news divisions should make money. They had been supported by the entertainment department. The day that line was crossed, journalism blurred into profit land and was forever compromised. And since then, I don't trust anything other than PBS.
Keep in mind that classic TV viewing is not a part of the next generations lifestyle. They knew exactly what Joe said via the internet seconds into his speech. Lot's of applause and support for him now. Biden's rocket is launched and he will have a good time on the trip.
Welcome! This forum is my morning reality check in! Yes, I was astounded when I turned on Biden’s powerful speech and saw a rerun of Law and Order! I only get 5 channels as I use an antenna. ( my way of protesting cable and satellite networks that make a person pay anything to FOX) All 3 major networks refused to air his speech yet they gave trump billions of free air time when he was running in 2016. The media handed him the election with a little push from Jim Comey at the end. I’m not sure what he was thinking at that moment. So once again, welcome Bjorkqvist!
Yes! To think this idiot could be the downfall of our Nation is mind blowing. Calling him a “fucking moron” was putting it lightly! That so few insiders kept quiet about what a danger he was to our country and our allies, that the cabinet never seriously worked to remove him from office, that after 2 impeachments the GOP stood by and shored him up and STILL kneel at his disgusting feet is all so unconscionable. And the mainstream media refuses to tell the truth to the American people...and when their journalists do, it’s only because it’s their last broadcast! I pray the American people are smarter than the GOP believes they are and their votes come November will turn the tide. Our intelligence community has taken a brutal beating and who knows if it will ever be what it once was.
(Sorry, I took myself down that dark rabbit hole.)
Well, let’s add their deaths to the growing list of criminal events 45 has caused. He should actually be hanged, not imprisoned. He has committed treason over and over and over and over and……
As Frank Sinatra commented to Ava Gardner at the funeral for Columbia's Harry cohn, the most hated man in Hollywood, when she commented on the size the crowd in attendance - "Give the people what they want..."
Or put in a maximum security prison in Australia (nothing would get him out) in solitary for the (short) rest of his life. Exile is important, as his lawless followers would attack a US prison.
There is SO much blood on tRump’s hands. Hundreds of thousands of people due to the COVID response and now loss of agents likely due to tRump’s treasonous actions. He should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
before things reached this level, after Jan.6 and the disgraceful refusal to peacefully transfer power on Jan.20, I thought it might be worth confiscating his passport(s) for I could easily see him absconding to Russia. Now that he has laid siege and demanded he be declared President (in his mind, for LIFE) I am fearfully horrified that not only may he have passed our national secrets to Putin, but what do we do if/when he is convicted, for he is completely likely to spill more harm to the country - he was unworthy of the office, and now he has knowledge that is unfathomable.
I think (speculate) that his passport was taken when the FBI was there. There has been information that his passport and classified documents were in his desk drawer.
The speech was historic. It sits with the Gettysburg Address and FDR’s 2nd Inaugural Address in importance. President Biden may have a speech problem but his words are true and powerful. He is leading in a time of great peril rivaling 1860 or the 1930s. We have been waiting for a leader to call Trump and the MAGAs what they are.
What they are NOT is half the country. What they are NOT are honorable Americans.
The president told the truth and has called upon every citizen to heed our better angels.
The media, or most of it, continues to lie, or at least equivocate to the point of blather.
And the fact that a veteran journalist left CNN hours after actually saying something real should concern us all. Did he leave CNN of his own accord?
Thank you, Annabel, for your meaningful and accurate words! Nancy McLean (author of Democracy in Chains) was interviewed about Biden's historic speech last night, in an extended segment on Democracy Now! today. She was more serious and urgent than usual in this exchange with Amy Goodman. She mentioned the role of the media and also of the donors (like Charles Koch) who contribute mightily to our current dangerous situation. Really good interview. Highly recommended.
As a reader of “Democracy in Chains,” I must find “Democracy Now!” to hear Nancy McClean. I had been alerted to the Koch brothers earlier, but learned the whole horror from Rachel Maddow (online) and Professor McClean. Recommending the film about their influence in public universities: “Starving the Beast.”
Lots of James Carville (LSU) and very important for me because the oldest public university in the country is one of the Koch victims. Glad you found the film.
For a project publishing real data on who the MAGA followers are, gender, age, rural vs urban vs clusters & more, see FERN McBride's posting on LFAA yesterday, Sept 1. "Panel Study of the Maga Movement, PSMM.
Thanks, Bryan. For some reason, Fern and I aren't on the same time line anymore, so I've been missing most of her posts. Will check back as you suggest.
FERN's cited research work on the MAGA cult is to "PSMM", Panel Study of the Maga Movement. Per Karen N confirmation below for PSMM see https://sites.uw.edu/megastudy/
Last sentence of today's Letter! Heather didn't name the source either. "A source told Dan Froomkin of Press Watch that Harwood had been told last month he was being let go, despite his long-term contract, and that he used his last broadcast to send a message."
Oh, my goodness, Anne-Louise. I read so many different posts, one after the other, sure that I'll remember all the details. Nope, not happening in my overloaded brain anymore. Thanks for your gentle reminder!
In the end Harwood spoke the truth. The new leaders of CNN do not see truth as a business they are involved in. They want to be fair and balanced which to them means a person who makes statements that can be proven true by observation of objective reality matched on air with a person who makes statements that cannot be proven true by such observation. Basically, they want to put a person who claims the temperature outside is 80 degrees and brings a thermometer to the discussion with a person who claims the temperature outside is 1000 degrees because Trump said so. The movie "Idiocracy" should be required viewing of all citizens,
"Fair" doesn't mean everyone gets the same, it means everyone gets their needs met. Since only Trump has been getting his needs met, I don't think things have been fair. Perhaps fairness will occur, but look at who owns various pieces of the US press, and who allows them to own it. We need to have more independent press. Oligarchic press ownership has not been a good thing for us. That is again why we need to have many sources of information and why Dr. Richardson's letters are so important.
I can recall when there were (gasp) regulations that limited concentration of media ownership; before we decided that it's better to let plutocrats run everything.
Another gift from Saint Ronnie was killing the Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987 by vetoing the bill when he got to his desk. There are so many reasons to hate Reagan. His portraits and statues and cocktail napkins should be destroyed along with those of Robert E. Lee.
Is it true the main stream TV networks did not air Biden's speech last night. If not that is technically treason due to democracy and our government being on the line.
I stopped watching commercial TV news in during the big pep rally for war in Iraq. I noticed the Guardian scooped US press and broadcasters with relevant info that the latter got around to much later, if at all, which turned out to be true. I wound up subscribing.
"Fair and balanced" to Uber-Trump donor Comcast CEO John Malone - who is manipulating Zaslav's puppet strings - is to make CNN "Republican friendly." He's Zaslav's biggest investor and Zaslav has a lot of debt he has to deal with from his botched takeover of Warner Brothers.
CNN is now just another rich billionaire's mouthpiece.
It is one of the fundamental limitations of our "Democracy" that our laws are so weak that they support the accrual of true power by the 0.1% of the people who have beneffitted from 40 years of Republican Policy.
OMG .... we just watched it... world of MAGAts .... OMG... and that was 2006??? OMG... we are both in shock... wow... you're not kidding... whoa... okay...
It seemed really silly when it was made in 2006 though if you now focus on the paintings Bush the Lesser does you realize it was a warning. Now with people like Hawley and Rudy and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lin Wood defining reality for maybe a third of our voters maybe Brawndo Has What Plants Crave ?
That’s why I gave up on NPR, though I continue to support them on the grounds that we may lose any truth at all in ‘24 and NPR just might have to become “honest” underground. It’s far-fetched, but grasping at straws these days.
You’re Boston. I am Midwest where this native Virginian feels very much uprooted after living in the South and in France. The equal time situation here may have been corrected,, but meanwhile on MSNBC I have Dr Fauci, Chuck Rosenberg, Eugene Robinson, occasional Bill McKibben, NYT reporters, and a host of fascinating people, so with the pandemic, the war, and the political situation I have been seduced by a steady stream of the latest news.
Your NPR stations are the envy of much of the country. WBUR and WGBH are quoted everywhere.
The scariest thing to me is the number of empty folders marked "Classified." Were the documents that were supposed to be in them just not properly put back? Or was something else done with them? Also, how many of the documents were copied? And if any were copied, who got the copies?
National archives would have records of what was handed to Trump and what was returned. So the empty folders should be a solvable issue as to content. Regardless Trump needs a court order to discontinue inflaming rebellion and sedition.
Fronkom you are on to it! Everyone is yelling indict him, but it is way to early. FBI, DOJ, NSA, CIA etc. are now correlating everything: fingerprints, folders, missing documents, access authorizations, in-and-out of storage room via video at Bada-Bing lounge...errr...I mean Mar-a-Lago, blown-dead agents, unusual events in clandestine world, financial transactions, intercepted communications by adversaries who might have an interest in the intelligence that was in those folders, etc. and THEN a more complete picture will emerge. Yes, at a minimum we have the Orange Clown guilty on crimes mentioned in Search Warrant but is that the worst of it and empty folders were props to impress losers at Bada-Bing, or can treason be found when ALL the pieces to the puzzle are put together? Garland will not do anything until he and all agencies have fully squeezed these lemons.
Good point Karen, and, 42 empty folders marked "Return to ..." [document controller specified] meaning apparently never properly returned. Where are the contents of these folders?
As Chuck Rosenberg pointed out today, the DOJ has already served a subpoena on tfg for ALL the stolen documents "wherever they are", Bedminster? Trump Tower? At the "45 Bar" in Trump Tower ( at least one empty classified folder is publicly displayed a wall in the "45 Bar". ) So 48 + 42 + 1 = 91 empty folders so far.
Certainly, Mike but, I am concerned about extortion, perveived levearge & the full spectrum of the malignant narcissist's modus operandi per his criminal profile.
I agree. Where are these documents. What might death star already have done. We watch very little news, but I did wonder why Biden's speech was not broadcast. And then we went next door and had boysenberry pie and ice cream. And the conversation was of course about politics.
Karen, I was gobsmacked and speechless when I heard about the empties today! Overcome with horror. The empty folders marked “return to military aide” brought the sick feeling of What Was In Them and WHO HAS THEM NOW?
It was not easy to read through the Letter today and keep in mind that it was non-fiction. Heather Cox Richardson manages to keep her composure as she runs through the accumulation of 11,000 documents or photographs that DjT continued to withhold; 'unprecedented'; 'TOP SECRET'; 'destruction of our national security'; 'the very foundations of our republic' …you know the drill you've read the Letter. Did you want to throw-up, maybe you did.
This guy was president. To the endless list of his sins -- should we add the hoarding classified government documents? The Republicans, what species are they? This whole picture, including MAGA, militias, religious fundamentalism, growing gun violence, shorter life-span of Americans, the fossil fuel sector's strangulation of life on earth ___ How can I now say 'Happy Labor Day Weekend'?
Selling classified documents? Money. His god. Despicable. Oh Fern, what a hill to die upon, this sick djt, a pox upon him and his ilk. The struggle to keep democracy, however flawed, alive, will outlive him. There is a rally tomorrow in my sweet little town, Port Townsend, WA.
He was president? He was never president. He faked his way into an office he should never have been allowed near, and opened a breach of national security....the likes of which, etc.
Okay Fern, I am not a Polyanna by any stretch, but here's my attempt at reviving your Labor Day weekend. 1. We actually still have a day honoring labor. 2. After two impeachments with failure to convict, the 1/6 committee was born, grew, and is methodically dismanteling the Big Lie. 3. Joe Biden gave an unflinching speech directly calling out the MAGA (he prounounced it "magna" several times - I hope it catches on!) crowd for what they really are. This would not have been possible even 2 weeks ago. 3a. None of the major networks (except PBS) aired the speech, claiming it was too 'political' - there is going to be severe pushback against this, when has fending off an existential threat to democracy ever been not political? 4. The DOJ has proven much more adept at managing public opinion than the MAGAs - and at actually investigating real crimes like document theft. 5. Despite tremendous opposition from big oil, and dwindeling support from federal, state, and municipal govenrments, the alternative energy sector is growing by leaps and bounds - and is actually cheaper than fossel fuels if the subsidies still given to the oil companies are taken out of the equasion. 6. The first gun control legislation in decades was passed and signed into law. 7. I saw a bumper sticker (in my Red town) that said "Roe, Roe, Roe your vote..." yesterday.
Along with all that, I had the best season for garlic and tomatoes EVER! 58# of garlic from a 30' row. Two chefs in town said it is the best they've ever cooked with.
Really Fern, there is always more right than wrong going on at any given time. The trick is to regularly recognize both. Happy Labor Day!
Steve, You convinced me that if you and your wife come to NYC for the weekend I'd put you up and we'd have a jolly good time celebrating the rebirth of the labor movement. You made me laugh, too. How many bottles of 'MAGNA' should I buy?
Cheers, to my good Friend Steve. If this giddy mood, induced by you, passes, I'll just drink the 'MAGNA' by myself.
Hey Fern! Glad I could help. As far as how many bottles of 'magna' to buy, get as many as you like - the sky's the limit! As for those pesky MAGNA Republicans, just forget about them for a few days and have a great weekend!
Steve, thanks for reminding us of all the good that abounds on this holiday weekend. And....it seems you have enough garlic for all of NH! Send some my way, will ya?
Yes, Fern. How can this be? I fear for my grandchildren. We’re beyond a two party system, when one is protecting a wannabe dictator and the other protecting Democracy.
Irenie, Our hands are touching. In addition to doing what you need to do, do the things you love to do -- for me it is swimming, being with dear friends, listening to music, taking walks in the park ...watching the tennis matches. We have got to live and to laugh...🌿
We took a carnival barker ant put him on the world's biggest stage, with the key to all the backstage storage units and little supervision. God help us all...
Fern, I believe the proper term for the T**** administration is 'kakistocracy' -"government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power" (was a word in the Boston Adult Literacy Fund Spelling Bee some years ago - my team got it right, but I'll have to search my records to find if that was one of the years we won).
remember the bit about the musicians who went down with the Titanic, continuing their work to help calm the doomed passengers? A frightful analogy, unless we ALL start paddling a good bit harder.
Protests at the NEH Estate of Leonard Leo and The Leonard Leo Graffiti Project
Protests outside the NorthEast Harbor estate of right wing religious extremist Republican power broker Leonard Leo continue. The leadership of the police are protecting our civil rights and seem to be reining in rogue cops. Our local newspaper, The Mount Desert Islander, published an extraordinary frank and formidable editorial 'Freedom for All'. Unlike the hand crafted Leo Supreme Court, our home town independent paper defends equality before the law.
The graffiti project continues. An admirer of Leo tried to hit me with her car, backed up, and tried again. A woman who identified herself as a friend of Leo's wrested my phone out of my hand as I was videoing her husband threatening me, legally an assault. Local activists will take turns escorting me.
The real story is the Bar Harbor Town Manager. It seems that when Leo could not get the police to arrest me, he started calling the Town Manager - with whom it seems he's had more success. Not content with directing Highway Division crews to remove the chalkings each morning. He's had a crew follow me around with buckets of water. He's written me a threatening letter and accosted me on the street and threatened me.
The Town Code does not mention graffiti but The Town Manager is broadcasting that I am violating local laws and costing the town $100 a day. He is quoted in the paper that " I’m not in a position to want to arrest her for this, but she needs to be held accountable for what she’s doing, which is a violation of our local laws."
What do you think he is suggesting when he says that 'although he is not in a position to want me arrested that I need to be held accountable.' As there are no pertinent local laws, is it a rhetorical device? Having little to do with reporting existing facts but presented to direct future events.
'Violation of our local laws. She needs to be held accountable.' Establishing an us and them. Next steps? Held accountable - how and by whom?
Leo also seems to be crafting a narrative where I am a criminal victimizing the town by damaging public property and wasting town resources. Of course, that takes the spotlight off his misdeeds - for some.
In a situation of escalating threats and actual violence, it seems irresponsible.
The good news is that on the street, the response of people ,who glance at or stop and read the message and ask questions, is overwhelmingly positive!
I don't like using 'evil' but Leo is one of the few exceptions. It may be his religious hypocrisy added to his being sort of a houseboy to big money - servicing them in the dark.
I am just in a position to do this. An island little world. Where Leo is trying to whitewash himself through donations to our independent hospital and his utterly complicit RC church (the pastor instigated the woman to try to hit me with her car - because they were angry at the police for not arresting me and impatient of my getting what I deserve on Judgement Day. When she rolled at me she said "God helps them who help themselves.").
The press and the police aren't being intimidated. Much community support and visibility to a large tourist population.
Lin, you are my heroine, but I want you safe and sound! That woman should be arrested and charged with intimidation and quite frankly, she committed an act of violence to either kill or maim you. Remember Charlottesville?? I am very glad the local press, the citizens, and the police have your back. I am sending you my very best wishes. 💓
In general, in my own walk here in America I have been quite a bit more careful where treading on real power is relevant than you are with this guy Leo (I have a minority last name that many think is not "American" especially after Trump's speech declaring us all as rapists and murderers).
Rich, white Americans have had and do have real power to hurt you and you should recognize that real power and be careful.
Once they toss you in jail, you will never get out. Never. And, you will be treated in ways you could never imagine.
I am 73. I would be more cautious if had more at stake.
Never White enough for many, always too White for some. I have been socially discriminated against but not systemically discriminated against by the government. I must put my White privilege to use. It is not only reproductive health care, but the Republican racist religious extremist Supreme Court scorched earth policy on all federal civil rights protections. Leo helped do that, while helping redistribute the wealth upward - and also into his untaxed pockets. He is a smarmy sanctimonious vengeful vicious horrible little man. Meet him for 2 seconds and you want a shower.
I thought I could just do my little chalk graffiti, they'd wear away and I'd do some more. I CONSULTED WITH THE POLICE FIRST, EVERY PROTESTOR SHOULD CONSIDER THAT. I have the top brass protecting my rights. That is extraordinarily important.
You are one courageous sister! I am so inspired by your knowledge, clarity and a “freedom fighter’s” will to keep doing what will bring the Truth to light. Leo is a direct threat to our society and way of life. One person can and does make a difference, as you are showing, to keep power with the People, not the crooks!
❤️❤️❤️. You’re an inspiration! So if destroying your graffiti is costing $100 a day, why not leave it? Better yet, if it offends moneybags let him get a bucket.
Why is tfg still walking around free and now taking up all the oxygen out of our country again?
Timing will be crucial now. If there is to be an indictment it has to happen before mid-term elections to stop him. Also to stop the constant fundraising he is doing off of this situation -- which he created and of which he now presents himself as victim.
Agree. His arrest is imperative. Why at this point would anyone assume he still isn't peddling the nation's secrets. At the risk of sounding paranoid, I easily envision Putin making his puppet to keep paying his master.
I doubt that the public will ever know what belonged in those empty folders or what steps that the intelligence community is now taking to protect their possibly compromised human sources. The CIA has already noticed that too many foreign sources are being lost recently. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.amp.html
Harwood is just the latest person to be fired by CNN since they were bought by Warner Brothers Discovery, which has John Malone on its board. Yes, the same John Malone who said:
“ I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” he said. Then he suggested a model: “Fox News, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have ‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.”
He’s ignoring that Fox News has lost its two chief respected journalists (Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith) because they refused to tell untruths and called out others for presenting “alternative facts”.
Thank you Mary, I was searching for the Julian E. Barnes piece circa October 2021, danka! I believe Julian published another article back in May 2021. Damage analyses are being prepared for Congressional intelligence committees stat. Multiple investigations afoot.
Linda Bailey. So in support your opinion I looked at polls this afternoon and was dismayed to find the House of Representatives is still in question. Thinking there should be no votes for republicans based on what they have and have not done how is this possible? What more could Republicans do to offend, insult or steal from the country? Still the midterms are in question.
They would be hard pressed to show a higher level of disgrace for this Country and Democracy in general. The midterms absolutely keep me up at night. I feel we will have no control of the outcome
My heart is with the officers and civilians who may have suffered deep losses and even the loss of life in this horribly callous action by the most grotesque president there ever was. His pathology is nothing short of evil. It is a visceral experience to read tonight's LFAA. Nevertheless, the support he receives from his party and his minions goes on. It is almost as if their minds have been snatched. The scenario is as chilling as any that movie fiction could have portrayed.
It gives me great pleasure to hear that Bill Barr talked about the use of the word “unprecedented. “I kept reading that what the justice department did, what the judge did, what the house committee did, etc. etc. etc. , was unprecedented. My ordinary little citizen brain kept thinking “Yeah, but what Trump did was unprecedented.” To my mind Trump set a precedent. Not a legal one, perhaps, but enough of a behavioral one to demand an unprecedented response. Not sure I am saying this very clearly but I hope you get my drift.
Clearly, Barr is making yet another attempt to salvage the tattered remains of his reputation. Sorry, big boy, it's too late. Your reputation was flushed on the day that you decided to shill for the miscreant. Anyone who claims to have a brain knew what he was before he ever ran for office.
Yes, Sara T, the Big Turkey needs to be taken off the street ASAP. When the DOJ has an open and shut case of document theft and obstruction of justice (felonies), and there is serious risk of further destruction of evidence and ongoing witness tampering, the principal suspect needs to be arrested and interrogated before further harm is done. The criminalty has to cease now to avoid irreparable harm to the nation. This is not complicated, but it is extremely urgent.
Every time I think that the information relevant to 45’s push to retain power and control couldn’t possibly be worse, it becomes worse. The potential harm to our national security and to our standing among other has be terribly compromised. After listening to the Red Wine and Blue broadcast last night, I feel more hopeful about the outcome in November. Thank you Heather for backing this program and for keeping us continually up to date on the important events occurring around us.
The Cretin News Network is now under the control of a Wall Street "genius in his own mind" named David Zaslav, who now runs Warner Brothers Discovery - he brought the Discovery to the wedding. His "accomplishment" was turning the Discovery networks into "reality" TV trash for the morons. He is already demonstrating he knows zip zero nada about the Warner Brothers side. As far as CNN is concerned, he is listening to Uber-Trumper Comcast CEO Nazi John Malone to make the network more "Republican friendly" and "centrist." Zaslav will likely take about two years for his incompetence and ignorance to destroy WBD, which also harms CNN at a time when even the idiot network is needed.
The creative class in Hollywood are stepping waaaaaay back. As I told my new literary agent this week, "No publishing houses associated with WBD" when she takes the new book proposal out for a walk.
What TFG has done is terrifying and appears to have cost US intelligence operatives their lives (among all else) but what’s more frightening is the response of large news organizations that seem to be very much in the pockets of GOP operatives. Terrifying. How do we escape the bonds of efforts to turn our government into a totalitarian regime if the press plays along?
Stop watching CNN, Faux News and Sinclair stations, and do not buy the advertisers’ products.
Remember that Jeff Zuckerthefucker when he was running CNN justified the network broadcasting Trump rallies uncut and commercial free in 2016 because "He brings us great ratings." There's a reason why CNN hasn't been watched at Le Chateau du Chat for the past 10 years. I had dealt with him here where all he was fucking up was TV shows before he went to CNN.
Mr. TCinLA:
I am with the courtesy police. It has been brought to my attention by others, you have been engaging in profanities about Jeff Z. We must ask you to cease and desist. As a punishment, you must down 2 ounces of Blantons Bourbon to sterilize your mouth, to take the edge off the evening, and also calm your approach. Consider this a warning and keep the bottle handy in case of another slip.
Way to go dude . . .
I actually Laughed Out Loud! Thanks.
TCinLA:
If I was there, I would sip one with you (thats some good stuff). I understand the frustration. Been battling on many different things, frustrating things which portrayed ignorance is displayed to stymie it.
I had to look it up, but you are right about that being quality hooch.
3 hearts (one for each of the preceding)
Me too!!!
Thinking about asking hospice to prescribe your punishment for my hubby who always appreciated a little snort before bedtime…
Having recently shepherded a beloved brother through hospice, my heart is with you, Jeri. A little nip of Blanton's may serve you as well.
Jeri:
Sorry to read this. Doing so might warm his inners and bring back a memory of better times. Best . . .
Jeri:
Ask him what he wants . . . If I can be of some help, let me know.
Well played, sir!
You know, there was a Private Joker . . . Even in the most dire of situations, some of us had a brain.
This is one of those "Damn, I wish I'd said that" comments....
Bill Should Tom drink straight from the bottle or use a f++king straw?
LOL. You guys are a hoot....it sure helps to see this on a Saturday morning when we are so upset over needing to save our Democracy! I am working another damn fish fry instead of having a fun evening at the age of 79....just doing nothing or maybe watch a movie before bed! Who ever thought running for the Treasurer of your county in a Republican county would be so difficult and to boot expensive. I was told by the radio station that I needed to hit the air waves.... and need to invest at least another $3,000 for a position that I will maybe add around $40,000 a year to my coffer or if I lose....zilch! I was told I need to ask my friends for money! I have never ask anyone in my life for money! How in the world do you do that? Maybe I could sell my blood?
Sharon What a gutsy lady campaigning at the age of 79–are you related to President Biden?
I found it was much easier being a Foreign Service Political Officer (Congo/Chile) than being a local township council candidate. I knocked on over 1,000 doors, losing nearly 10 pounds in this political PT.
Asking for money wasn’t my forte. In the men’s room of a political event I was handed $75 cash—I hoped the donor had washed his hands.
My biggest hit was a realtor who had been ‘betrayed’ by a candidate in the previous year’s election and against whom I was running. He asked me how much to defeat this bastard. We’ll, I said, you gave him $6,000 last year. He started to writer a check for $6,000. But, I added, there are two of us running for two seats on township council. His check for $12,000 covered more than our total campaign costs.
P. S. I won.
Hmmm
County, treasurer, election, invest, $3,000 . . . a deadly combination.
I was an appointed official by Republicans and voted in as the Vice Chair of the Planning Commission. Politics never came into the equation of doing the job which paid $80 per meeting whether it took 1 hour or six hours. Didn't count the times I went and walked a tract of land or talked to residents. Some of whom cussed me out. Notably women.
Keep your integrity, Know when to say no in votes and meetings. Be honest in your opinions.
Good luck. I am sure you will do fine.
Way to go!
One should not gulp a very drinkable Bourbon such as Blantons.
If you wish to gulp, I would suggest "Bookers" to quench your thirst and speed you to a soon to be had nap. A glass of "Bookers" lasted a good while for me.
That's really funny. I actually get a warning notice from Instagram over the use of the word disgusting in several posts. OMG.
Other than Trump's disgraceful mocking of Serge Kovaleski, the most shameful thing that happened during the 2016 campaign was MSNBC airing a table full of Trump merchandise for 45 minutes without a commercial break. In shock, I kept watching to see when they were going to go back to the studio. They didn't until after Trump did an infomercial for several minutes then gave his speech (the only one I ever watched in full). In that speech he taunted Katy Tur, who was in the back. From that day forward I limited the amount of time I spent viewing MSNBC. I never watched CNN for more than a couple of minutes here and there; now I'll never watch CNN again.
My tolerance for chump anything was a couple of nanoseconds. It’s been like watching The Decline and Fall of the American Experiment” in real time.
MSNBC learned their lesson and Trump taunting Katy Tur made her reputation, broke her out of the pack.
I thought so too until Trump's daily COVID mis/disinformation marathons. They should have stopped the moment he said he wouldn't wear a mask.
Could not watch, the horror was worse than I could have imagined, and I imagined the worst nightmare.
Followed closely by the Cuomo Bros cringy banter on CNN. Good riddance.
I learned everything about Covid- most importantly about brain fog - from MSNBC. Did not know about their original DT sins until now. Always found their “experts” brighter than CNN, so have stayed with them. At medical appointments yesterday got a “taste” of ABC. Needed lots of good bourbon. Luckily had a good novel in hand.
Overall I think MSNBC does an outstanding job of rounding up experts and pundits on most subjects.
Well, at least some good came of that. There is no "other side" in this situation. We are in danger.
I like Katy!
I do too.
Katy Bear Tur is now the star of MSNBC's daytime news programming. If this is in any way the result of TFG hassling her endless at his phony rallies, I am fine with that. My wife agrees so it can't just be because she is very easy on the eyes!
I haven't watched any of the television news for years. It's boring and full of commercials that trivialize the seriousness of what is being reported.
Susan I’ve only watched cable news most occasionally since September 15, 2021 [instead, watch DVDs and VHSs doing my evening PT.] Most relaxing to avoid the staccato drum beat. Unfortunately Stephen Colbert is a delight which is too late for me, except for later YouTube. Ari I still watch a few times a month.
Glad I missed that happening!
And now, Chris Licht is at the helm of CNN. Licht MET with Republicans to discern how CNN might become more Republican friendly. CNN now is FOX lite.
It is very VERY unfortunate that CNN will be an extension of FOX “news”! I say that Ted Turner should come back and run things.
And I understand his replacement at CNN has decided the network has been too kind to democrats and wants that to change … wtaf?
CNN has drunk the Kool Aid
Money, money, and again, money. We are in the fight of our lives and we are fighting for our freedoms.
Media god complex
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02TmyXQ8xb6zh39LhEcEuPxepJBuB91c2P4xR92vgnDuDWgk1zo619m5254wYRDAFql&id=100044651985602&sfnsn=mo
Bad news. That link doesn't work.
You have to be on facebook in order to open fb links. This link works fine.
OK. Thanks
Sorry. Try this one...
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid035Htwrrmc1X4o9ziWZPPrHauDMJsgJMsoXjNpBSiFCHzL53Ak6A1gfk68NM6exD54l&id=100064567426626
It opened for me, and I shared to my own account. Placement follows the Sue Gordon interview post.
Opened for me.
Sad about CNN (understatement) Chris Licht was Colbert's producer/director for several years - thought he was an intelligent guy - but to go from Colbert to "whataboutism"? Wonder how long this new theme will last.
Licht proves he is a conscienceless corporate whore.
Well, we will see - just how "non-partisan" CNN gets - which is really really doubtful.
Sorry - completely disagree about Colbert. Licht seemed to have done ok for him while he worked for him and they got along well. Whoever's bidding hes doing at CNN - thats on him.
I think your anger is misplaced. Colbert is hardly a narcissistic air head and his credentials as a liberal Democrat have been fully vetted. Colbert's show was suffering in its first few months as Stephen tried to do it all. IIRC it was Licht who helped tweak the show and it finally took off. And, of course, Stephen has zero input into what Chris does not that he's no longer with TLS.
I tried to delete my comment. You are correct. Having admitted that, Colbert still was way over the top with his praise of Licht.
You said it so much better than I did! I agree.
YES, Mim. Be selective about news intake. We can all access the positive sources of real news that do exist. Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! Is one I listen to daily.
Thanks for that.
Thanks, I'll add it to my reading list!
Never stray very far from your partisan bubble and you will be much happier.
Ignore people with points-of-view you don’t agree with.
Stick exclusively with MSNBC/The White House Press Office.
Or expand your horizon and jump over to Fox now and then to see what others are thinking about.
I prefer to listen to all sides of the debate before deciding.
Not on any f**king day of my long life will I subject even one brain cell to Rupert Murdoch’s vile destructive verbiage. Had enough of that slander in the late 90’s when friends became brain dead. Piss on you and the horse you rode in on.
Murdoch once bought Esquire Magazine and turned it into a 'fortnightly', stripping all journalistic presence and writing ability from it. I will never forgive him for that sin. Luckily, he sold it when it stopped making money, and the new owners restored it to its former status.
There is no "both sides have value" when one side simply follows mindlessly a morally bankrupt narcissistic sociopath. The latest revelations that he's severely compromised national security in yet to be seen damages only underscores his utter lack of care for our country and its democracy. Soulless indeed.
Amen! Thanks Jeri.....love this post!
Or turn the TV off altogether and read. There is nothing on Fox that will tell us anything we don't know already. I know what the "others are thinking about" and it is the destruction of democracy. It is a network dedicated to hate. It is a channel that is feeding raw meat to the big lie. It feels like it is wired to Putin's brain. Fox is the antipathy of journalism. It is a propaganda tool that makes a ton of money by stirring the pot of BS.
That being said, MSNBC feels like someone is drilling into my brain. I'll stick to reading and a little PBS Newshour.
Bill, I'm with you. Except I don't watch ANY TV news--even PBS. And I read carefully--often on the NPR website rather than listening to it, because my dog gets anxious if I yell at the radio too early in the morning. He knows that will make for his mom having a more volatile day. If you want a listen that is interesting and presents other perspectives, BBC Radio 4 and RTE (the Irish radio system) are both worth a listen, especially Radio 4's The World at One and RTE's morning and evening news. You can get some of that from the World Service news hours that many NPR stations run, but WAO is more concentrated.
NPR is the worst. They always manage to gloss over every issue and with a heavy right lean. I can't subject myself to it. However, I agree BBC is better.
Allow me to recommend Weekend Edition Saturday, with Scott Simon. Probably the best news program on NPR. He does the finest radio interviews I've heard since Bob Edwards talked weekly with Red Barber (today's was with Holocaust survivor, Tova Friedman; if you listen have tissues at hand) and has introduced me to many musicians I probably would never have heard. He does not gloss over any issue. Ever. NPR is a national treasure that we need to continue to support.
PBS News Hour got castrated by Newt Gingrich back in 1995. With the cooperation of Bill "the era of big government is over" Clinton.
PBS News Hour got castrated by Newt Gingrich back in 1995. With the cooperation of Bill "the era of big government is over" Clinton.
Agreed. I canceled tv several years ago and only read, usually sources Dr. Richardson provides. She has told us the better reporters, to watch out for the information some are attempting to plant in your brain.
I'm done with all news, until Trump goes to prison. As luck would have it, the NFL season is about to start. So, I think I'll be okay.
yes on all counts...we find we are more accessible, energetic and available to assist what is going on around us when we turn it off. Love "stick to reading and a little PBS Newshour". Thank you.
Respectfully...I do not watch any TV news. It is just set up to sell the commercial time. Remember shock and awe? I believe CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc are harmful to critical thinking. I am careful when I read the NYT as well. I rarely read the NYT opinion pieces. All of mainstream media use dog-whistle tactics. All of the talking heads are sticking to a prescribed lane (for an entertainers pay grade which is no small change). I subscribe to other independent sources like HCR, Chris Hedges, Timothy Snyder, Alec Karakatsanis and others. I watch for long form pieces in the New Yorker and Atlantic. I listen to podcasts. I try to form my own viewpoint that way. Flipping channels from one media empire to another one...I don’t recommend it. Too easy to be swept away. I don’t trust network and cable news. They do not help me with my objective to be an informed voter--that’s for sure.
I’m with you. When I want to know what’s happening in politics I listen to committee meetings and floor speeches on YouTube. Watching how they act, and how much Republicans lie, tells me everything I know. Their sole purpose is to deceive and they refuse to legislate seriously. Do they even know how to be honest?
You launched a very interesting Exchange of comments. I just want to mention that this morning I read a piece about the difference between being a reader and just following broadcast media. It is written by Henry Reese, who was about to introduce Salman Rushdie when Rushdie was attacked. Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/opinion/salman-rushdie-free-speech-writers.html?smid=url-share
Thank you for the link!
The road you follow is a more difficult one, but in the long run, probably the correct way to go, avoiding sources whose commercial or a political agendas make objectivity almost impossible.
One of my axioms:
If it's the right direction, swim upstream.
I used to watch CBS evening news, but since Heather Cox Richardson told us they hired Mick Mulvaney, I've refused to watch all of them (online) from local to national. I read the Washington Post, but keep wrestling with that since Jeff Besos owns the paper.
Never watch "news." I read.
Though that becomes less rewarding every day.
Good morning Mary:
My serious hat on this morning and sobering not from drinking but from the events we witness on a daily basis. My coffee brewed from coffee beans grd. in Murphys California by Gold Country Roasters. A small shop I visit when I go to my brother's place.
If you do not view or listen, how do you know? In order to truly understand a situation, we need to observe what is happening at the site where work actually takes place. "Gemba" in Japanese and a way to understand manufacturing. What are they telling people? Listen to them.
My $.02 and not wanting to dwell. I think you know what I mean.
You should check out Means Morning News with Sam Saks.
I will. Thanks!
I'm with the readers here. Don't have a TV.
I used to tell my friends I watched Fox in order to keep in touch with a pov I disagreed with. But the lies and distortions became so horrific I couldn’t keep it up. It was like the medieval torture of having molten metal poured in my ears.
good for you for noticing...people become addicted to the adrenaline, the fear mongering
There is debate that is healthy - opinion supported by facts. When "alternative facts" are manufactured over and over again by a political party, that party is no longer a legitimate participant in democracy.
Robert Reich explains it very well:
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-must-we-expect-of-journalism
Bill
Thanks for the link. Reich is--as usual--factual, succinct, and impassioned all at once.
Bill A. Thanks for the link. I'm going to share it to my FB groups.
But MSNBC gives all the Fox I can stomach. If only we had “news” instead of “shows.”
Yes Virginia! That is exactly the problem. Talking heads trying to make news rather than report it. The way Biden's speech was treated as "political " and picked apart while everything tfLIARg says is reported as fact tells me we are in big trouble for the midterms. The fact that the primary elections thus far have been so close is insane. We are never told the turnout--what % of registered voters came out to vote in these all important primaries? Real news reporters would not ignore these facts. Luckily, most secretary of state's websites tell the story. Voting is your right and responsibility.
Not unless the Democrats fix the voting rights act. Which so far seems not a concern?
Thank goodness for Heather's letters!
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Linda M has mentioned a couple of his helpers who deliver but he himself resides within you and me. We used to refer to to it as common sense and truth. We must continue delivering those gifts in all seasons whenever and whevever we can.
I also listen to all sides of a debate before deciding. If it's a debate.
The first decision is whether a) both sides are playing with a full deck, and b) both sides are engaging honestly. There is nothing -- fucking NOTHING -- coming out of the current right wing that is both full deck and honest. So there is no debate, and I feel no need to "listen" the the demented liars who are selling delusions.
And that is exactly the point. I used to enjoy "give and take" chats with Republicans. We could debate the virtues of higher taxes or universal education or infrastructure programs. Meat and potatoes stuff. How to improve the world - how much should be private investment vs government involvement, etc. It was healthy.
Now, the MAGA Republicans have decided that ANYTHING a Democrat proposes must be defeated because a Democratic success might help us in the next election. Party over the people. Power rather than the public good. MCConnell personifies this. Fox preaches this.
The Republican Party is now illegitimate as a participant in American Democracy and Fox News is a chapter from an Orwell novel.
The only way out of this is if the MAGAs get drubbed out of office. Otherwise, we are doomed.
Exactly right.
Precisely.
To make sure your partisan, happiness-inducing bubble isn't just an illusion, (1) remember that some familiarity with those with whom you disagree, including FoxNews, is necessary for you to know your opponents or enemies, (2) avoid any exclusivity in your sources of information, all of which have either business or political agendas, and (3) only listen to both sides of a debate if they are playing by the same rules, which should never permit the use of unsubstantiated facts.
I’m perfectly willing to listen to what others are thinking. Trouble is, they’re all wearing aluminum foil hats and shouting lies.
Thank you for calling it aluminum foil and not tin foil. I worked in the aluminum industry for 32 years, 3 of which were as division engineer at Alcoa's Davenport IA foil mill.
I'm old enough that we called it tin foil when I was a kid!
Chaplain Terry, unless you are much older than your picture there wasn't much real tin foil around even when you were a kid. Tin foil was in use before about 1926 when Alusuisse came up with an effective process for rolling aluminum foil or as they would say aluminium foil. Soon aluminum foil the American spelling was being made in the US and Canada too. Both company had their roots in the invention of the smelting process for aluminum. In 1886 Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult and Charles Martin Hall independently found out how to smelt aluminum using electrical current to sperate the oxygen in aluminum oxide to get pure aluminum. Hall's invention lead to the Aluminum Company of America and Heroult's to Alusuisse.
In 1991 ALCOA and Alusuisse came very close to a major joint venture for the production of aerospace product. I was part of the technical team putting this together as I was the rolling mill person for ALCOA. The deal fell apart when Alusuisse's parent company would not assume the environmental costs of buried smelting pot lining in Switzerland. Wisely Paul O'Neal then CEO of ALCOA killed the deal as we had enough of our own environmental past sins to deal with in the USA.
As a young engineering supervisor, then 32, I love working in the world of foil from 1976 to late 1979. We were the leading US producer of foil with a whopping 22 percent market share. 22 percent does not give you control of the market so you must compete on quality, delivery and service. To this day I think this is how companies should have to compete and not as the big dog on the block.
When I want to get mad and upset I turn on our local Fox talk radio while driving. Maybe I can handle 5 minutes. (We never got TV when we moved to the mountains 20 years ago so no Fox to watch.) Sometimes I listen to the long stretch of ads to know who NOT to buy from around here.
We did the same. No tv. Solves a lot of problems. Get the news from WTFJHT and the context from HCR
There's no "thinking" going on at Faux Snooze. Anyone caught thinking there is fired on the spot.
There was a time when I looked at Fox periodically for exactly that reason. Then they switched from 'radical right with insults' to 'extremist propaganda laced with hate' and I stopped.
I go to faux a couple of times a week to post Truth and Facts to the sheep there. I think we need to leave our bubble occasionally and venture into the alt reality. Just have to know how long you can stay there without getting sick to your stomach. Need a vaccine for faux poison.
More productively:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2399046-all-i-really-need-to-know-i-learned-in-kindergarten
That covers pretty much everything and you wont find that on Faux!
I agree that Sinclair is a problem. But they are everywhere and folks may not know that their local stations are owned by Sinclair.
"The Company owns and/or operates 21 RSN brands; owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets; is a leading local news provider in the country; owns multiple national networks; and has TV stations affiliated with all the major broadcast networks."
A one time in this country, such a horizontal monopoly was illegal! Thanks to Saint Ronnie regulations became a ‘four letter’ word!
2 of my 3 local stations are Sinclair.
It's interesting to note that CNN International is quite different from the US version. It is mostly serious reporting and regular shows from Amanpour, Zakarias and Tapper.
and Chris Wallace, my favorite....
We are beyond the point where such boycotts will work.
And boycott ABC, NBC, and CBS.
When I was able to catch Biden's speech on Thursday night I check CBS and it was not on that station so I turned to MSNBC and there he was! Why???? I thought this was an announced Presidential speech during prime time and Young Sheldon took priority that night on CBS! So, just how many people got to be informed by his speech that night?
Combined, MSNBC and CNN had 3.91 million viewers of the speech. Add to these whatever PBS had and let's call it about 4 million. Meanwhile, Fox carried the speech but with the President's voice muted, substituted by a running commentary by semi-fascist Tucker Carlson, drawing 2.89 million viewers, more than either MSNBC and CNN individually drew. He wins the Josef Goebbels Award for excellence in propaganda for this charade. The regular broadcast networks which drew much more, didn't carry it, which acknowledges that they are in business to make money and don't give a damn about the public service aspect their access to the airwaves is supposed to include.
Spot on, Jack... but let's dispense with the 'semi'. I didn't watch on Faux, but I can imagine Tucker's commentary was mostly an attempt at rebuttal.
The President attached 'semi" to his comments the other day about the ideology of the present GOP, and I just followed suit. Nothing 'semi' about Carlson. He's the real thing.
I had turned CBS on for local news and then got busy with a phone conversation and didn't get back with the tv and Sheldon was on....I switched to MSNBC and saw the last 15 minutes. I was shocked that it wasn't on CBS!
Striking proof that mainstream media has been co-opted by right-wing corporate owners.
Follow the money. That's where TV gets the money to pay its bills including the salaries of those you see on TV. Nothing sinister about that. That's just the way Capitalism works, not biting the hand of those who fuel its enterprises.
Exactly.
I agree with you- we have a Sinclair station that throws the most horrible Murdock type tabloid muck and casts it under the channel logo on line, as “local” news. It relentlessly features BIPOC as murderous, child abusing, masses; while white equivalents are featured as unusual outliers.
I do not disagree but CNN carried Biden’s full speech in real time. I saw it there.
I try, but the evil oozes all over…
Make sure to let the advertisers know you are boycotting their company.
That is so important. If everyone actually did, they would change horses immediately. Hit them where it hurts.
Yes boycotting CNN will miss Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper but have been enjoying MSNBC.
I think their foreign correspondents are the best. But I too have switched to MSNBC. They also have more Black and POC representation .
I'm addicted to MSNBC and some CNN. I watch it until I overdose and then read the Post and the Times...what do I do?
Pass an Amendment declaring corporations are not people
And force Fox News to take "News" out of their name.
Fraudulent mislabeling.
Or just change it to what it is Nazi News.
“Ignorance influencers”
If they are, they are sociopaths:
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
- Milton Friedman
Sociopathic in any case.
The entire Chicago School of Economics should be strung up by their thumbs with ol' Milty Friedman right at the forefront.
Their so-called "theory of economics" has done as much to destroy this country as the entire phalanx of corporations buying the politicians who take their money and do their bidding.
But that’s Milton Friedman, who needs to be forgotten as soon as corporations become non-people again. How often do we hear of Lewis Powell who started business at SCOTUS?
Meanwhile it is people who are non-people in America.
Politics is supposed to be the business of the polis, i.e. citizens.
No longer.
Polis, people, institutions of the State, the President... bypassed, ignored... CENSORED.
This State appears to have been sold -- citizens, Congress, judiciary, the President himself -- all pigs in a poke.
Well, THAT is what we are given to understand when media organizations predetermine what citizens may see and hear.
Meaning: citizenship itself becomes an empty, meaningless concept in a State governed exclusively by and for money and moneyed interests.
The stink of it circles the globe.
True. Yes, let's include him as well, as one who needs to be hung by his thumbs.
...and let's not forget to add Leonard Leo to the thumb hanging gang.
I would settle for sending them all to Gitmo.
From your lips to god’s ears.
"news organizations that seem to be very much in the pockets of GOP operatives".
Yes, CNN is now in the pocket of Fox sympathizing billionaire.
https://www.vox.com/2022/8/26/23322761/cnn-john-malone-david-zaslav-chris-licht-brian-stelter-fox-peter-kafka-column
So, I guess eventually the nutty billionaires who imagine that if they can take over the government so they can print money for themselves at the Fed that will be the end of the rainbow......will soon control all "news" outlets. I guess they don't understand that the reason the dollar is not worthless is because they don't control the Fed (although Jerome Powell is pretty close to them).
But, I am hoping Dr. Richardson, when she is finally approached by one of these guys, sends them packing on their merry way!
There's a stark reality about money. There's a point far short of the first billion where collecting more does nothing to improve the quality of your life, exactly the opposite, in fact. I take considerable comfort in that fact. Past the point of probable security in one's dotage, all the improvements are in intangibles like friendship, loved-ones, charity, the arts, nature, etc. Money erects barriers between one's soul and all those good things.
Neither Trump nor his hangers-on have souls to be barred by money...their souls have long since withered and died.
They wouldn't even understand how to enjoy the company of friends and loved-ones. Charity, the arts and nature are for losers, according to those for whom money is all & everything. A person without a soul is a pitiable thing.
My father, who retired after his second million, gardened (as he had when the vegetables he grew fed us all year ‘round), fished (same), and hunted (same after huge freezer came into our garage), having given more than he received. The only change after the two million was the cases of his favorite scotch.
Sounds like a man with a soul who felt contented with his success and then just enjoyed life. Unfortunately, others become addicted and love feeling a power than be become ruthless-- you know, "power for power's sake."
That has yet to be discovered by chump and the hangers on, especially our news outlets. Therein lies our dilemma…
That is probably the same line that crossed you believe you should run the world
You are psychically elevated to Mt. Olympus, where the god’s play there vile games and we suffer the fallout.
Mike, thanks for this link. It looks like what Malone wants to do is keep establishment conservatives in the fold by providing “unbiased” reporting through CNN. Essentially, he wants to blur the distinction between Fox and the liberal media, which is to say propaganda and legitimate fact finding, so conservatives squeamish about radical conservatives can pretend there is a real middle ground between Republicans and Democrats. I found this sentence illuminating: “ While Malone has previously talked about his affection for Fox News — the US “needs Fox News or something like it. Because otherwise, everything’s leftist,” he told FT — it’s rare for him to opine about programming choices in his own portfolio of properties.” So he’s hired a couple of capos away from liberal media to present the illusion of dispassionate fairness Fox tried to claim for itself and blithely tossed away.
Pamela, you are right. If the “Fourth Estate” gives in to the lies and deceptions, we are doomed. I don’t think we are, however, because of citizens like Heather, who keep at it daily to serve up the Truth about our history and the current terrifying mess we are in because of 45. I can’t even type his name….
I wonder when one of these guys will contact Dr. Richardson? It is bound to happen.
I hope she sends them packing with a bit of New England chill to take with them!!
I wish I could agree. We have Dan Froomkin and we have Soledad O’Brien and we used to have Dan Boehlert 😢 but their audience is primarily people like us. My point is that every time a journalist speaks up, they get canned, and that’s the problem.
I am grateful to everyone who calls out the press - I truly am. I’m just afraid it’s no match for the US oligarchy.
Like Scott Pelley.
If? The MSM already has.
Agreed, Ann. It is a bad state of affairs.
Thank God for the subversive and (as yet) still relatively free Internet, not completely owned and controlled by an oligarchy of media titans.
Well, yes and no. “They” are trying to charge money to use the internet. And the real violent bastards are using the net to foment death and shootings of people “they” don’t like. I never saw the world in an “us” “them” mode, but now I do feel I have enemies. I didn’t growing up. Except the usual enemies….
referring back to the classic Pogo line about the enemy...
Indeed, check the mirror
But the reach is a drop in the bucket. Sad to say.
vote the bastards out and stop stooping to even acknowledge that the poison press has anything to say at all. They can have their echo chambers as long as they don't reach past governments' front doors.
When I first noticed this, way before chump, was when Rupert’s “entertainment opinion news shows” became the “most watched” cable shows. They wanted a piece of Rupert’s honey pot. All three networks, PBS, as well as cable were on the take, making news a money maker that it had never been before. Then chump just made them richer as he maligned their very existence. We all watched it happen, if we weren’t in a chump coma with the rest of the greedy bastards.
What can we do? Work to get out the vote. Write letters to the editor. Call the network and express your disagreements. Call the advertisers and let them know you will no longer buy their products. Become an election judge. Do anything but wring your hands about the media.
I don’t watch, period. I read. CNN has turned to the dark side because of money. Fox is supported mostly by Comcast-I dumped my subscription to cable TV. Easy. Take the gloves off, as Biden is doing, and play a little hardball. Democracy is at stake and Democrats are “outperforming” expectations at this point. We have the momentum but need all hands on deck. Find some way to be an active part of the solution. The media does not run our country. We do. If we act like it and are active, we can take back the narrative. Vote blue in ‘22!!
I'm the same - Have not had cable in forever. I read the news. I'm working at my polling place next election, I write letters. But we are a relatively small community. Yes, we must do these things but millions of people are persuaded by 'respected' news outlets every day and the fact that they are being bought and driven by oligarchs is a serious problem.
Let's not forget Valerie Plame. I don't recall the press pursuing the fact that some loser (A.K.A., Scooter Libby) was the only one who did time, for that, and, not much of it, after Dubya pardoned him. My belief is that that Bush Whitehouse, pretty much all of them, should be in prison - for many, many crimes, for many, many more years. Perhaps, then, we could've avoided all this Trump ridiculousness.
Based on the majority of comments here, it seems that the White House Press Office is the only safe space for “news” about the administration.
Clearly, we need to free the press. The question is how to wrest the press from the rich Republicans who own it? A larger project would be to educate Americans to the point where they can sus a thing out for themselves and not just believe whatever they are told. Why are so many of us just led around by the nose?
Our lives are stuffed with sensory input to process, minute by minute. There’s hardly time to reflect and weigh the relative merits of it all. Sometimes we’re plain lazy. Once the press was a filter. More and more it’s just a megaphone. It gets tiring, as rapid fire successive scandals begin to devalue one another in their ability to outrage our sensibility.
MSNBC and ABC are doing pretty well, but we have vibrant independent young journalists on social media. Meidastouch is a very good one, so is The Lincoln Project. Most of what you see on MSM is reported by independents first. CNN, CBS, and FOX are all less trustworthy than the Enquirer.
I'm a new subscriber and love what you're doing. Please don't stop. What's also scary is the fact that so many networks did not broadcast Biden's important speech. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/09/02/biden-speech-network-coverage-independence-hall/. It is killing me (and the U.S.) that so many fail to see that it's not politics as usual any more but instead one party trying to govern versus the other party dead set against democratic governance. Without sufficient press coverage of this it will be even harder to keep our democracy.
Welcome Bjorkqvist, to the absolute best colloquy on truth, history, and current events on Substack or anywhere. Our humbly brilliant professor makes sense of it all, and we chime in from time to time. If this is your first post, you belong right here—and I look forward to your future comments and replies! And thanks for your perspective on journalism and democracy.
Thank you!
Bjork:
Did the two Marines in Dress Blues intimidate you? They asked me if I would do it except my top was to tight and the buttons popped. Fifty years would have passed if I had one to wear.
There was a lot said about them being there. I saw nothing wrong, the imagery of them goes a long way of projecting what we were good at doing. Defending a nation under attack. Biden is taking the steps to do such.
On Twitter there were many photos of Bush the Younger in front of a ship of marines and Obama with two. Trump also. So tired of these under educated, lazy smarps.
Gailee, I am , too! Some may not be technically “under” educated but they are willfully ignorant of the facts and they under value our democracy. Surprised we didn’t hear Fox criticizing Biden’s choice of ties for the speech.
i thought the whole setting was perfect. loved the Marines.
They were the perfect backdrop, were they not? Nothing looks as good in uniform as a Marine in dress blues. And I wish I could fit in mine but, like you, fifty years on...
James:
I think they served a purpose which was made even more apparent by Biden's words. Not meant to intimidate. I never had Blues. Just something else to carry around as I moved from base to base.
Fifty years later and I am reinventing myself for the umpteenth time.
I agree. There's nothing wrong with Marines defending the rule of law.
Thank you Bjorkqvist for sharing the WAPO link. An interesting read, though I think the networks decisions to not carry Biden’s address did our nation no favors.
Welcome, Bjorkqvist. Thank you for participating on the Forum. Salud!
Thank you!
I, too, was aghast that the networks did not broadcast the speech in real time. So much for the bully pulpit, if the networks ignore it.
Not me. It IS appalling. But the "networks" are no longer legit news gathering organizations. That ended when it was determined that the news divisions should make money. They had been supported by the entertainment department. The day that line was crossed, journalism blurred into profit land and was forever compromised. And since then, I don't trust anything other than PBS.
Keep in mind that classic TV viewing is not a part of the next generations lifestyle. They knew exactly what Joe said via the internet seconds into his speech. Lot's of applause and support for him now. Biden's rocket is launched and he will have a good time on the trip.
"The truth is out there." :)
Biden's live events are always featured on Whitehouse.gov, and there are no commentators telling you what you just heard.
I didn’t surf the channels during the speech. So none of the majors carried it live??
Nope they did not. They showed just a teeny bit of it live and then switched it off. Only CNN and MSNBC (my “go-to” channel) carried it. Shameful!
Welcome! This forum is my morning reality check in! Yes, I was astounded when I turned on Biden’s powerful speech and saw a rerun of Law and Order! I only get 5 channels as I use an antenna. ( my way of protesting cable and satellite networks that make a person pay anything to FOX) All 3 major networks refused to air his speech yet they gave trump billions of free air time when he was running in 2016. The media handed him the election with a little push from Jim Comey at the end. I’m not sure what he was thinking at that moment. So once again, welcome Bjorkqvist!
Thank you!
Welcome! Here’s a link to the complete text to President Biden’s speech from the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/01/remarks-by-president-bidenon-the-continued-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-nation/
Came from Robert Hubbell, another terrific news letter read recommended to me by lots of smart folks here. https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-soul-of-our-nation?r=9piyc&utm_medium=ios
Thank you.
Thank you!
Welcome Bjorkqvist. You'll find this community smart, engaged and witty. But also, committed to HCR and getting the truth out there.
Thank you!
👍🏼
Welcome!
Thank you!
The number of Russian “accident” and “suicides” recently makes me wonder if Trump has already exposed HUMINT to his pal, Putin.
Forget that, there are the reports the CIA has put out in the past 18 months about the losses of agents - likely due to Trump's treason.
Sue Gordon makes this terribly clear over the course of this interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6OEjL24Rw0
And I imagined the apocalypse on Nov 9, 2016
Yes! To think this idiot could be the downfall of our Nation is mind blowing. Calling him a “fucking moron” was putting it lightly! That so few insiders kept quiet about what a danger he was to our country and our allies, that the cabinet never seriously worked to remove him from office, that after 2 impeachments the GOP stood by and shored him up and STILL kneel at his disgusting feet is all so unconscionable. And the mainstream media refuses to tell the truth to the American people...and when their journalists do, it’s only because it’s their last broadcast! I pray the American people are smarter than the GOP believes they are and their votes come November will turn the tide. Our intelligence community has taken a brutal beating and who knows if it will ever be what it once was.
(Sorry, I took myself down that dark rabbit hole.)
That’s okay, Sharon, we are all in the dark well, but someone tossed in a ladder that we are slowly using to get out.
Well, let’s add their deaths to the growing list of criminal events 45 has caused. He should actually be hanged, not imprisoned. He has committed treason over and over and over and over and……
Elisabeth,
You are correct. Trump should be hanged, and in the public square on Sunday.
Rebuild the gallows they set up for Pence!!!
Why give him an audience?
You mistake the point of the show.
As Frank Sinatra commented to Ava Gardner at the funeral for Columbia's Harry cohn, the most hated man in Hollywood, when she commented on the size the crowd in attendance - "Give the people what they want..."
A firing squad at dawn was, I thought the sentence for treason.
Hanged,. drawn and quartered is the traditional punishment.
It probably will be once again if you’re a Democrat and the GOP regains control.
Or put in a maximum security prison in Australia (nothing would get him out) in solitary for the (short) rest of his life. Exile is important, as his lawless followers would attack a US prison.
His ill-gotten gains should be confiscated.
Don’t you like Australia? 😉
Oh, my… :’-(
TC, The New York Times reported on this: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.amp.html
There is SO much blood on tRump’s hands. Hundreds of thousands of people due to the COVID response and now loss of agents likely due to tRump’s treasonous actions. He should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Article in Politico regarding the number of deaths of Russian oil execs, et alia. Who knew that we would return so quickly to the Borgias.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/26/dan-rapoport-putin-critic-was-it-suicide-00053836 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/26/dan-rapoport-putin-critic-was-it-suicide-00053836
Great article, Pam, and also very worrisome.
There is a very high probability Trump has already sold much of what he filched.
Wow ! I hate to even think that but ...
Absolutely my sense—his bro Putin who holds the power to allow him to build a Trump tower in Moscow.
before things reached this level, after Jan.6 and the disgraceful refusal to peacefully transfer power on Jan.20, I thought it might be worth confiscating his passport(s) for I could easily see him absconding to Russia. Now that he has laid siege and demanded he be declared President (in his mind, for LIFE) I am fearfully horrified that not only may he have passed our national secrets to Putin, but what do we do if/when he is convicted, for he is completely likely to spill more harm to the country - he was unworthy of the office, and now he has knowledge that is unfathomable.
I think (speculate) that his passport was taken when the FBI was there. There has been information that his passport and classified documents were in his desk drawer.
Yes I totally agree— he’s a monster like Putin— they both want to keep enjoying life though— that’s for sure— as selfish and cold as the day is long.
The speech was historic. It sits with the Gettysburg Address and FDR’s 2nd Inaugural Address in importance. President Biden may have a speech problem but his words are true and powerful. He is leading in a time of great peril rivaling 1860 or the 1930s. We have been waiting for a leader to call Trump and the MAGAs what they are.
What they are NOT is half the country. What they are NOT are honorable Americans.
The president told the truth and has called upon every citizen to heed our better angels.
The media, or most of it, continues to lie, or at least equivocate to the point of blather.
And the fact that a veteran journalist left CNN hours after actually saying something real should concern us all. Did he leave CNN of his own accord?
Thank you, Annabel, for your meaningful and accurate words! Nancy McLean (author of Democracy in Chains) was interviewed about Biden's historic speech last night, in an extended segment on Democracy Now! today. She was more serious and urgent than usual in this exchange with Amy Goodman. She mentioned the role of the media and also of the donors (like Charles Koch) who contribute mightily to our current dangerous situation. Really good interview. Highly recommended.
As a reader of “Democracy in Chains,” I must find “Democracy Now!” to hear Nancy McClean. I had been alerted to the Koch brothers earlier, but learned the whole horror from Rachel Maddow (online) and Professor McClean. Recommending the film about their influence in public universities: “Starving the Beast.”
Lots of James Carville (LSU) and very important for me because the oldest public university in the country is one of the Koch victims. Glad you found the film.
Thanks, Annabel. And to me it's sinister that the speech wasn't shown on the mainstream.
For a project publishing real data on who the MAGA followers are, gender, age, rural vs urban vs clusters & more, see FERN McBride's posting on LFAA yesterday, Sept 1. "Panel Study of the Maga Movement, PSMM.
Thanks, Bryan. For some reason, Fern and I aren't on the same time line anymore, so I've been missing most of her posts. Will check back as you suggest.
FERN's cited research work on the MAGA cult is to "PSMM", Panel Study of the Maga Movement. Per Karen N confirmation below for PSMM see https://sites.uw.edu/megastudy/
This is the link - https://sites.uw.edu/magastudy/
I finally found it.
Eureka, danka.
Thank you, both!
really worth taking time to read and look at graphics... to think about ... wow
thank you, Fern and Karen!
they really view the same events and country we do thru a completely different lens. it's why there's mostly no point trying to 'reason' with them.
Yes, that is a very interesting and much needed study on the movement.
I read somewhere (can't cite where) that the CNN journalist was told he was going to be let go. So he used his last appearance to say what he said.
Last sentence of today's Letter! Heather didn't name the source either. "A source told Dan Froomkin of Press Watch that Harwood had been told last month he was being let go, despite his long-term contract, and that he used his last broadcast to send a message."
Oh, my goodness, Anne-Louise. I read so many different posts, one after the other, sure that I'll remember all the details. Nope, not happening in my overloaded brain anymore. Thanks for your gentle reminder!
In the end Harwood spoke the truth. The new leaders of CNN do not see truth as a business they are involved in. They want to be fair and balanced which to them means a person who makes statements that can be proven true by observation of objective reality matched on air with a person who makes statements that cannot be proven true by such observation. Basically, they want to put a person who claims the temperature outside is 80 degrees and brings a thermometer to the discussion with a person who claims the temperature outside is 1000 degrees because Trump said so. The movie "Idiocracy" should be required viewing of all citizens,
"Fair" doesn't mean everyone gets the same, it means everyone gets their needs met. Since only Trump has been getting his needs met, I don't think things have been fair. Perhaps fairness will occur, but look at who owns various pieces of the US press, and who allows them to own it. We need to have more independent press. Oligarchic press ownership has not been a good thing for us. That is again why we need to have many sources of information and why Dr. Richardson's letters are so important.
I can recall when there were (gasp) regulations that limited concentration of media ownership; before we decided that it's better to let plutocrats run everything.
Another gift from Saint Ronnie was killing the Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987 by vetoing the bill when he got to his desk. There are so many reasons to hate Reagan. His portraits and statues and cocktail napkins should be destroyed along with those of Robert E. Lee.
No kidding!! He destroyed everything!
Bill Moyers went ballistic over this. He was right, always
Is it true the main stream TV networks did not air Biden's speech last night. If not that is technically treason due to democracy and our government being on the line.
It is true. Here is information.
https://deadline.com/2022/09/joe-biden-speech-primetime-broadcast-networks-1235105916/
Definitely it is true.
Oh it’s true! 😡
I like the Guardian for that very reason...
I stopped watching commercial TV news in during the big pep rally for war in Iraq. I noticed the Guardian scooped US press and broadcasters with relevant info that the latter got around to much later, if at all, which turned out to be true. I wound up subscribing.
As did I. But so many won’t
Me too!
"Fair and balanced" to Uber-Trump donor Comcast CEO John Malone - who is manipulating Zaslav's puppet strings - is to make CNN "Republican friendly." He's Zaslav's biggest investor and Zaslav has a lot of debt he has to deal with from his botched takeover of Warner Brothers.
Bye bye to my occasional pass by CNN
CNN is now just another rich billionaire's mouthpiece.
It is one of the fundamental limitations of our "Democracy" that our laws are so weak that they support the accrual of true power by the 0.1% of the people who have beneffitted from 40 years of Republican Policy.
"Idiocracy". You nailed it. Soon we'll be watering the fields with Gatorade.
I ain't never seen no plant growin out of no toilet!
never heard of that film... thought you were joking! found it... thanks!
Get ready. It is awful. But so prescient.
OMG .... we just watched it... world of MAGAts .... OMG... and that was 2006??? OMG... we are both in shock... wow... you're not kidding... whoa... okay...
Two most average dull humans seem brilliant 100 years later. And the "president" has an automatic weapon. I know, I know. And Gatorade...oy.
It seemed really silly when it was made in 2006 though if you now focus on the paintings Bush the Lesser does you realize it was a warning. Now with people like Hawley and Rudy and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lin Wood defining reality for maybe a third of our voters maybe Brawndo Has What Plants Crave ?
That’s why I gave up on NPR, though I continue to support them on the grounds that we may lose any truth at all in ‘24 and NPR just might have to become “honest” underground. It’s far-fetched, but grasping at straws these days.
Not sure where your NPR station is located. But ours (two in Boston) seem to provide straight up reporting. What happened in your area?
You’re Boston. I am Midwest where this native Virginian feels very much uprooted after living in the South and in France. The equal time situation here may have been corrected,, but meanwhile on MSNBC I have Dr Fauci, Chuck Rosenberg, Eugene Robinson, occasional Bill McKibben, NYT reporters, and a host of fascinating people, so with the pandemic, the war, and the political situation I have been seduced by a steady stream of the latest news.
Your NPR stations are the envy of much of the country. WBUR and WGBH are quoted everywhere.
The scariest thing to me is the number of empty folders marked "Classified." Were the documents that were supposed to be in them just not properly put back? Or was something else done with them? Also, how many of the documents were copied? And if any were copied, who got the copies?
National archives would have records of what was handed to Trump and what was returned. So the empty folders should be a solvable issue as to content. Regardless Trump needs a court order to discontinue inflaming rebellion and sedition.
Fronkom you are on to it! Everyone is yelling indict him, but it is way to early. FBI, DOJ, NSA, CIA etc. are now correlating everything: fingerprints, folders, missing documents, access authorizations, in-and-out of storage room via video at Bada-Bing lounge...errr...I mean Mar-a-Lago, blown-dead agents, unusual events in clandestine world, financial transactions, intercepted communications by adversaries who might have an interest in the intelligence that was in those folders, etc. and THEN a more complete picture will emerge. Yes, at a minimum we have the Orange Clown guilty on crimes mentioned in Search Warrant but is that the worst of it and empty folders were props to impress losers at Bada-Bing, or can treason be found when ALL the pieces to the puzzle are put together? Garland will not do anything until he and all agencies have fully squeezed these lemons.
Bada-Bing and Lemons...two crucial ingredients. Thanks, 100P!
Thank you, Franktom, for the National Archives information. I thought that must be the case, but haven't heard it addressed anywhere.
He should be muzzled and straitjacketed in the most literal sense!
Good point Karen, and, 42 empty folders marked "Return to ..." [document controller specified] meaning apparently never properly returned. Where are the contents of these folders?
As Chuck Rosenberg pointed out today, the DOJ has already served a subpoena on tfg for ALL the stolen documents "wherever they are", Bedminster? Trump Tower? At the "45 Bar" in Trump Tower ( at least one empty classified folder is publicly displayed a wall in the "45 Bar". ) So 48 + 42 + 1 = 91 empty folders so far.
Are some buried in the casket along with his ex-wife? Not kidding.
Understand, probably have to check the reading materials near the Omelette Line at MAL as well. :)
Thanks for the reminder of accessing my sense of humour more often...This is really very funny and would make a great editorial cartoon...
Danka again; alas, I cannot draw but, I used to draw pictures verbally in Court. Humour is a form of Truth Telling.
😁
been thinking that for sure. she was cremated... why the big, heavy casket... and why the burial on his property???? highly suspicious
The most probable reason for the absence of known to exist classified documents is prior sale to (unknown entitities) by Trump for money.
Certainly, Mike but, I am concerned about extortion, perveived levearge & the full spectrum of the malignant narcissist's modus operandi per his criminal profile.
I'm thinking about the "guest" quarters at MAL where FBI feared to tread.
I agree. Where are these documents. What might death star already have done. We watch very little news, but I did wonder why Biden's speech was not broadcast. And then we went next door and had boysenberry pie and ice cream. And the conversation was of course about politics.
Karen, I was gobsmacked and speechless when I heard about the empties today! Overcome with horror. The empty folders marked “return to military aide” brought the sick feeling of What Was In Them and WHO HAS THEM NOW?
Gus,
The most probable reason for the absence of documents in empty folders is: Prior sale to a foreign entity by Trump for money.
Trump's entire live is defined by transactions for money for him.
Why would he keep the empty folders (other than stupidity and incompetence)? Wouldn't those folders have gone to...who knows?...with their contents?
Yeah, I think he is a slob. Keep reading he had piles of papers everywhere. He didn’t necessarily read them though.
Trump is unable to concentrate long enough to tidy up after a sale of documents.
The folders were not of interest to those buying the papers in the folders.
Trump just never cleaned up after himself. Lazy and convinced he is above the law.
Ann, maybe the recipients of the documents thought there might be a marker or chip in the folder?
Something that would trigger a scanner at an airport--or like the anti theft device glued to every product in Walmart.
Karen,
Trump, very likely, already sold those documents to the highest bidder.
The most probable reason he took them was because of their monetary value.
The most probable reason for their absence is having been sold already.
Or, possibly the folders contained info that put him in a bad light. They may be moldering in the DC sewer.
! ! !
It was not easy to read through the Letter today and keep in mind that it was non-fiction. Heather Cox Richardson manages to keep her composure as she runs through the accumulation of 11,000 documents or photographs that DjT continued to withhold; 'unprecedented'; 'TOP SECRET'; 'destruction of our national security'; 'the very foundations of our republic' …you know the drill you've read the Letter. Did you want to throw-up, maybe you did.
This guy was president. To the endless list of his sins -- should we add the hoarding classified government documents? The Republicans, what species are they? This whole picture, including MAGA, militias, religious fundamentalism, growing gun violence, shorter life-span of Americans, the fossil fuel sector's strangulation of life on earth ___ How can I now say 'Happy Labor Day Weekend'?
Selling classified documents? Money. His god. Despicable. Oh Fern, what a hill to die upon, this sick djt, a pox upon him and his ilk. The struggle to keep democracy, however flawed, alive, will outlive him. There is a rally tomorrow in my sweet little town, Port Townsend, WA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF6yW6rZl2g
Blessings upon us all.
I like Port Townsend and am glad there’s to be a rally. 🤙🏻
Who ARE those people?
He was president? He was never president. He faked his way into an office he should never have been allowed near, and opened a breach of national security....the likes of which, etc.
But he had the keys to the kingdom…
Okay Fern, I am not a Polyanna by any stretch, but here's my attempt at reviving your Labor Day weekend. 1. We actually still have a day honoring labor. 2. After two impeachments with failure to convict, the 1/6 committee was born, grew, and is methodically dismanteling the Big Lie. 3. Joe Biden gave an unflinching speech directly calling out the MAGA (he prounounced it "magna" several times - I hope it catches on!) crowd for what they really are. This would not have been possible even 2 weeks ago. 3a. None of the major networks (except PBS) aired the speech, claiming it was too 'political' - there is going to be severe pushback against this, when has fending off an existential threat to democracy ever been not political? 4. The DOJ has proven much more adept at managing public opinion than the MAGAs - and at actually investigating real crimes like document theft. 5. Despite tremendous opposition from big oil, and dwindeling support from federal, state, and municipal govenrments, the alternative energy sector is growing by leaps and bounds - and is actually cheaper than fossel fuels if the subsidies still given to the oil companies are taken out of the equasion. 6. The first gun control legislation in decades was passed and signed into law. 7. I saw a bumper sticker (in my Red town) that said "Roe, Roe, Roe your vote..." yesterday.
Along with all that, I had the best season for garlic and tomatoes EVER! 58# of garlic from a 30' row. Two chefs in town said it is the best they've ever cooked with.
Really Fern, there is always more right than wrong going on at any given time. The trick is to regularly recognize both. Happy Labor Day!
Steve, You convinced me that if you and your wife come to NYC for the weekend I'd put you up and we'd have a jolly good time celebrating the rebirth of the labor movement. You made me laugh, too. How many bottles of 'MAGNA' should I buy?
Cheers, to my good Friend Steve. If this giddy mood, induced by you, passes, I'll just drink the 'MAGNA' by myself.
Happy Labor Day! (I'm still smiling)
PS Please send me that prescription.
Hey Fern! Glad I could help. As far as how many bottles of 'magna' to buy, get as many as you like - the sky's the limit! As for those pesky MAGNA Republicans, just forget about them for a few days and have a great weekend!
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
🍾This one is for you! Cheers!
wait... you're in cow hampshire??
a-yup.
cahn't get theah from here, y'all...
nope.
Steve, thanks for reminding us of all the good that abounds on this holiday weekend. And....it seems you have enough garlic for all of NH! Send some my way, will ya?
Yes, Fern. How can this be? I fear for my grandchildren. We’re beyond a two party system, when one is protecting a wannabe dictator and the other protecting Democracy.
Irenie, Our hands are touching. In addition to doing what you need to do, do the things you love to do -- for me it is swimming, being with dear friends, listening to music, taking walks in the park ...watching the tennis matches. We have got to live and to laugh...🌿
Yes, Fern, I like your sage advice. It’s easy to be consumed by the negatives. I’m happy to be reminded that we have choices.
If we don’t find humor and laugh, we have nothing. I surround myself with people who love to laugh. We create our own oxygen to keep on living.
We took a carnival barker ant put him on the world's biggest stage, with the key to all the backstage storage units and little supervision. God help us all...
WE didn't... some people did...
Nathan, correction: the carnival-barker ant had NO SUPERVISION. What form of government do we have?
Withal, Happy Labor Day weekend to you. Cheers!
Fern, I believe the proper term for the T**** administration is 'kakistocracy' -"government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power" (was a word in the Boston Adult Literacy Fund Spelling Bee some years ago - my team got it right, but I'll have to search my records to find if that was one of the years we won).
James, I appreciate your attention to my question and for teaching me a new word.
'History and Etymology for kakistocracy
Greek kakistos (superlative of kakos bad) + English -cracy'
Is 'bad' bad enough as a description of the man and his administration? At least, in its favor the word 'kakistocracy' looks and sounds putrid.
Thank you, James.
Only with great irony.
...or sarcasm.
Biden was trying to spread optimism......walking a fine line.
He had an extremely difficult balancing act to maintain in front of a very dark background.
remember the bit about the musicians who went down with the Titanic, continuing their work to help calm the doomed passengers? A frightful analogy, unless we ALL start paddling a good bit harder.
I agree, 'frightful analogy'. It's Labor Day Weekend, Nathan, please come up with something more suitable, PLEASE!
Cheers!
As a musician, I certainly do.
I share the same dumbfounded view, Fern. How many more WTF moments lie in store?
Forgive me for ignoring your question for now, Gail.
Here's to labor and Florida without DeSantis!
Cheers!
Enjoy, Fern!
“What are they” is a really good question.
Off Topic:
Protests at the NEH Estate of Leonard Leo and The Leonard Leo Graffiti Project
Protests outside the NorthEast Harbor estate of right wing religious extremist Republican power broker Leonard Leo continue. The leadership of the police are protecting our civil rights and seem to be reining in rogue cops. Our local newspaper, The Mount Desert Islander, published an extraordinary frank and formidable editorial 'Freedom for All'. Unlike the hand crafted Leo Supreme Court, our home town independent paper defends equality before the law.
The graffiti project continues. An admirer of Leo tried to hit me with her car, backed up, and tried again. A woman who identified herself as a friend of Leo's wrested my phone out of my hand as I was videoing her husband threatening me, legally an assault. Local activists will take turns escorting me.
The real story is the Bar Harbor Town Manager. It seems that when Leo could not get the police to arrest me, he started calling the Town Manager - with whom it seems he's had more success. Not content with directing Highway Division crews to remove the chalkings each morning. He's had a crew follow me around with buckets of water. He's written me a threatening letter and accosted me on the street and threatened me.
The Town Code does not mention graffiti but The Town Manager is broadcasting that I am violating local laws and costing the town $100 a day. He is quoted in the paper that " I’m not in a position to want to arrest her for this, but she needs to be held accountable for what she’s doing, which is a violation of our local laws."
What do you think he is suggesting when he says that 'although he is not in a position to want me arrested that I need to be held accountable.' As there are no pertinent local laws, is it a rhetorical device? Having little to do with reporting existing facts but presented to direct future events.
'Violation of our local laws. She needs to be held accountable.' Establishing an us and them. Next steps? Held accountable - how and by whom?
Leo also seems to be crafting a narrative where I am a criminal victimizing the town by damaging public property and wasting town resources. Of course, that takes the spotlight off his misdeeds - for some.
In a situation of escalating threats and actual violence, it seems irresponsible.
The good news is that on the street, the response of people ,who glance at or stop and read the message and ask questions, is overwhelmingly positive!
Gratitude for your activism in the face of Leo.
He is an evil one.
ThankYou.
I don't like using 'evil' but Leo is one of the few exceptions. It may be his religious hypocrisy added to his being sort of a houseboy to big money - servicing them in the dark.
Thank you lin. Be very careful.
ThankYou all for your support.
I am just in a position to do this. An island little world. Where Leo is trying to whitewash himself through donations to our independent hospital and his utterly complicit RC church (the pastor instigated the woman to try to hit me with her car - because they were angry at the police for not arresting me and impatient of my getting what I deserve on Judgement Day. When she rolled at me she said "God helps them who help themselves.").
The press and the police aren't being intimidated. Much community support and visibility to a large tourist population.
Signing off. Big day.
Lin, you are my heroine, but I want you safe and sound! That woman should be arrested and charged with intimidation and quite frankly, she committed an act of violence to either kill or maim you. Remember Charlottesville?? I am very glad the local press, the citizens, and the police have your back. I am sending you my very best wishes. 💓
The priest who is working with Leo needs to be outed, and maybe reported to his bishop. Not for any good it will do but for the record.
Yes it's come to this.
And wasn't it a long way down.
Wasn't it a strange way down?
Leonard Cohen
lin,
In general, in my own walk here in America I have been quite a bit more careful where treading on real power is relevant than you are with this guy Leo (I have a minority last name that many think is not "American" especially after Trump's speech declaring us all as rapists and murderers).
Rich, white Americans have had and do have real power to hurt you and you should recognize that real power and be careful.
Once they toss you in jail, you will never get out. Never. And, you will be treated in ways you could never imagine.
So, make your choices carefully.
I am 73. I would be more cautious if had more at stake.
Never White enough for many, always too White for some. I have been socially discriminated against but not systemically discriminated against by the government. I must put my White privilege to use. It is not only reproductive health care, but the Republican racist religious extremist Supreme Court scorched earth policy on all federal civil rights protections. Leo helped do that, while helping redistribute the wealth upward - and also into his untaxed pockets. He is a smarmy sanctimonious vengeful vicious horrible little man. Meet him for 2 seconds and you want a shower.
I thought I could just do my little chalk graffiti, they'd wear away and I'd do some more. I CONSULTED WITH THE POLICE FIRST, EVERY PROTESTOR SHOULD CONSIDER THAT. I have the top brass protecting my rights. That is extraordinarily important.
Thanks All
Like x 100
wise advice, Mike
You are one courageous sister! I am so inspired by your knowledge, clarity and a “freedom fighter’s” will to keep doing what will bring the Truth to light. Leo is a direct threat to our society and way of life. One person can and does make a difference, as you are showing, to keep power with the People, not the crooks!
I have the MDI activist community to Thank for initiating their protests and having my lone gadfly back.
❤️❤️❤️. You’re an inspiration! So if destroying your graffiti is costing $100 a day, why not leave it? Better yet, if it offends moneybags let him get a bucket.
Stay safe, Lin…..and you go,girl !!
Well done, lin. Thanks for the update!
Why is tfg still walking around free and now taking up all the oxygen out of our country again?
Timing will be crucial now. If there is to be an indictment it has to happen before mid-term elections to stop him. Also to stop the constant fundraising he is doing off of this situation -- which he created and of which he now presents himself as victim.
Agree. His arrest is imperative. Why at this point would anyone assume he still isn't peddling the nation's secrets. At the risk of sounding paranoid, I easily envision Putin making his puppet to keep paying his master.
Wonder where he is right now...
Talia, he was in PA yesterday stumping for Dr Oz (the quack) https://apnews.com/article/abortion-2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-presidential-pennsylvania-a4ff7b3916db0f2babf439f5c9e8184b
Please see my response above to Frankom.
I doubt that the public will ever know what belonged in those empty folders or what steps that the intelligence community is now taking to protect their possibly compromised human sources. The CIA has already noticed that too many foreign sources are being lost recently. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.amp.html
Harwood is just the latest person to be fired by CNN since they were bought by Warner Brothers Discovery, which has John Malone on its board. Yes, the same John Malone who said:
“ I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” he said. Then he suggested a model: “Fox News, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have ‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.”
He’s ignoring that Fox News has lost its two chief respected journalists (Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith) because they refused to tell untruths and called out others for presenting “alternative facts”.
https://www.vox.com/2022/8/26/23322761/cnn-john-malone-david-zaslav-chris-licht-brian-stelter-fox-peter-kafka-column
Excellent post capturing the entirety of the change at CNN. Very disturbing.
Thank you.
Thank you Mary, I was searching for the Julian E. Barnes piece circa October 2021, danka! I believe Julian published another article back in May 2021. Damage analyses are being prepared for Congressional intelligence committees stat. Multiple investigations afoot.
Bye bye CNN
Yes Jeri, but trust me John Harwood will be on a new platform soon. John is deeply respected in the media world for lifelong, calm, diligent work.
Thank you Heather.
I feel we have entered the territory where this Country is in far more trouble than we could have possibly imagined a year ago.
A year ago I thought things couldn't possibly get worse. Yet here we are in full force.
The implications of the missing documents are endless. None of the answers to this question could possibly be plausible.
We are in for a very rough ride. Hold on to your hat, folks.
Be safe. Be well.
Linda Bailey. So in support your opinion I looked at polls this afternoon and was dismayed to find the House of Representatives is still in question. Thinking there should be no votes for republicans based on what they have and have not done how is this possible? What more could Republicans do to offend, insult or steal from the country? Still the midterms are in question.
They would be hard pressed to show a higher level of disgrace for this Country and Democracy in general. The midterms absolutely keep me up at night. I feel we will have no control of the outcome
The “gawds” at Faux are giving him a pass, so it follows that their minions do the same.
My heart is with the officers and civilians who may have suffered deep losses and even the loss of life in this horribly callous action by the most grotesque president there ever was. His pathology is nothing short of evil. It is a visceral experience to read tonight's LFAA. Nevertheless, the support he receives from his party and his minions goes on. It is almost as if their minds have been snatched. The scenario is as chilling as any that movie fiction could have portrayed.
Cults snatch minds, it’s what they do
It gives me great pleasure to hear that Bill Barr talked about the use of the word “unprecedented. “I kept reading that what the justice department did, what the judge did, what the house committee did, etc. etc. etc. , was unprecedented. My ordinary little citizen brain kept thinking “Yeah, but what Trump did was unprecedented.” To my mind Trump set a precedent. Not a legal one, perhaps, but enough of a behavioral one to demand an unprecedented response. Not sure I am saying this very clearly but I hope you get my drift.
Shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU...that Fox Noise put Barr on 2 different shows.
Clearly, Barr is making yet another attempt to salvage the tattered remains of his reputation. Sorry, big boy, it's too late. Your reputation was flushed on the day that you decided to shill for the miscreant. Anyone who claims to have a brain knew what he was before he ever ran for office.
Like
My new favorite label for Fox: "Fox Noise!"
That is a fabulous term!!
Yes, Sara T, the Big Turkey needs to be taken off the street ASAP. When the DOJ has an open and shut case of document theft and obstruction of justice (felonies), and there is serious risk of further destruction of evidence and ongoing witness tampering, the principal suspect needs to be arrested and interrogated before further harm is done. The criminalty has to cease now to avoid irreparable harm to the nation. This is not complicated, but it is extremely urgent.
On the other hand, perhaps he needs yet more rope with which to hang himself.
At this point there appears to be enough to stretch from here to the moon. If we don't hang Trump we will all hang separately.
And the Яepublican Party enabled him every step of the way.
Every time I think that the information relevant to 45’s push to retain power and control couldn’t possibly be worse, it becomes worse. The potential harm to our national security and to our standing among other has be terribly compromised. After listening to the Red Wine and Blue broadcast last night, I feel more hopeful about the outcome in November. Thank you Heather for backing this program and for keeping us continually up to date on the important events occurring around us.
The Cretin News Network is now under the control of a Wall Street "genius in his own mind" named David Zaslav, who now runs Warner Brothers Discovery - he brought the Discovery to the wedding. His "accomplishment" was turning the Discovery networks into "reality" TV trash for the morons. He is already demonstrating he knows zip zero nada about the Warner Brothers side. As far as CNN is concerned, he is listening to Uber-Trumper Comcast CEO Nazi John Malone to make the network more "Republican friendly" and "centrist." Zaslav will likely take about two years for his incompetence and ignorance to destroy WBD, which also harms CNN at a time when even the idiot network is needed.
The creative class in Hollywood are stepping waaaaaay back. As I told my new literary agent this week, "No publishing houses associated with WBD" when she takes the new book proposal out for a walk.
So that's what happened to Discovery. I fail to grasp the "reality" draw for television.
Is CNN trying to become Fox News Light? Good luck to it if that’s the case, because consumers will always go for the original, not a cheap knock-off.
Well, I for one won't be watching CNN any more.