Sunsetting

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been collecting more examples of the tricks used by a biased media outlet to taint what should be the “straight news” into partisan messaging. I have a prime example, right in my backyard: the daily newspaper, The Baltimore Sun. Last year, The Sun was purchased by the owner of the conservative media group Sinclair Broadcasting, and ever since, it has been coloring news stories with an anti-Democratic slant.

Granted, they have plenty of opportunities, given that the city and state are run by Democrats, so any and all “bad news” is immediately linked to a Democrat in power, especially Governor Wes Moore.

Rather than publicize a report stating that the Governor had kept many of his campaign promises, The Sun ran a front-page story arguing that he hadn’t kept them properly, claiming they were too vague or that fixes were already in process.

Gee, a candidate makes insufficiently specific promises… welcome to politics. Funny how they never run stories about Republican politicians taking credit for major projects at ribbon-cutting ceremonies, after having voted against Biden’s infrastructure bill that authorized the project. But then, it’s OK if you’re Republican.

But the point here is that they never cover a story that contains good news for Democrats without adding a big BUT. In fact, the “BUT” is usually the story. Like here:

And here:

They have to include reasons why it’s not really such good news, usually from hand-picked analysts, conservative think tanks, or one of the few Republican politicians in the state.

Take this article about a Fourth of July speech the governor made:

What did he say in the speech? No idea; they just question his motives and go on about what was wrong with it, as per their reliably negative “analysts.” They’re trying to torpedo, ahead of time, any chance a handsome, charismatic, young, Black, Democratic governor has to run for president in 2028. If you look at the first page of The Sun regularly, you’d conclude that their reason for existing is to provide a never-ending litany of smears of the Governor.

I understand and support that the media is supposed to maintain an adversarial relationship with the government, but we’ve never seen any such malicious coverage of the last two Republican governors, and that was before Republicans ran the paper. Digging up a black lining for every silver cloud is not balanced journalism; it’s putting your thumb on the scale. And even still, there’s a place for that, which is called the Op-Ed page, not the front page.

You can always count on The Sun to follow the traditional Republican talking points, like with this story:

Yep, whenever their own words are released and make Republicans look bad, they don’t apologize or look inward on what they can do better; they look to expose the leaker and prosecute. So rather than excoriate the Administration for using the “War Room” to devise plans to bury the Epstein Files information, The Sun/Sinclair National Desk attacks the efforts to expose such an atrocity. And if they can identify and punish this “transgressor,” all the better to dissuade future leaks. Yay! Democracy in action!

Note that this “columnist calling for a criminal probe” is one who works for the New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, or in other words, Fox “News.” As per the modern conservative media playbook, they have one of their own people start talking about something, then have their other outlets report that “people are talking about something.”

Here’s another beauty from The Bubble:

What they completely omit from this story is the most obvious explanation: Republican talking points are far, FAR, more likely to be false or at least less true. So any objective reading of a situation will come down to a fair reading of the facts, which usually support the Democratic talking points rather than the Republican. We know it, and they know it… a great many Republican assertions are straight out of Fantasyland. It doesn’t even take AI to see that, just a rational look at the facts and data. So this article isn’t so much a stark, raving falsehood; by ignoring a major factor, it’s more like an aggressive misdirection. It nonetheless leaves the reader with the impression they want from the start, that the media has a liberal bias, all the better to claim victimhood, ignoring the fact that media ownership today is overwhelmingly Republican. And it’s getting worse:

Trump’s FCC just cleared the way for large media conglomerates, who own dozens of TV stations, to get even larger, to further provide a single perspective (a conservative one) for the nation’s viewers. With the Paramount/Warner’s merger about to go into effect, even more media outlets are about to be compacted into even fewer hands, and those hands will be overwhelmingly Republican.

Ultimately, that’s the most efficient way to garner good headlines… make sure your own people are the ones providing them.

Here’s one more story, this one from today’s paper:

It’s another traditional “Democrats in disarray” story, this time, about how the moderates are supposedly worried about the Progressives gaining favor. Why is The Sun writing about it? Because the last thing they want to do is run against progressives. They’ve been beating the Moderates for years. They just label them as extreme and go from there. Progressives promise the same things Republicans do: to make their constituents’ lives better. But Progressives actually plan for and try to do it. And when it works, like it’s doing in New York City, it scares the Republicans shitless, because they have absolutely nothing tangible to offer their voters, other than the millionaires among them, who make out like bandits.

So they call the Progressives “Communists,” which is funny because it’s the Republicans who are actually forcing private companies to go into business with the government.

Personally, whether it’s Socialism, Communism, or Capitalism, I tend to ignore the labels. The Democrats should be one message on blast: that they seek to spend money to make people’s lives better, not to provide more tax breaks and loopholes for those with the most. Costs down, wages up, tax the rich to pay for it.

Make food safe, address climate change, and install an immigration system that actually allows immigration. When in doubt, look to make things better for people as opposed to corporations.

If it wasn’t for the insatiable greed of the 1%, it would already be that way.

A Country Divided

I recently started watching one of those extreme weather shows on the Discovery Channel; the ones that show tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, mostly cell phone video shot by people in the middle of the event. It’s epic, fascinating stuff. (Well, to me, anyway.)

Yesterday I watched the episode about 2024’s Hurricane Helene, which was absolutely devastating to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. What I remembered from the news at the time was how Republicans were asserting that Biden’s FEMA was only helping Democrats, adding to the victims’ sense of helplessness and abandonment. The fact that these statements were patently untrue didn’t seem to matter much, and in the face of constant repetition on Fox “News” and the like, it came to be understood as common knowledge.

I submit that this was one more example of Republican accusations actually being confessions, because we can see from the years hence that this is exactly what the current administration is doing with their own barely-existing FEMA. California was devastated by wildfires but was refused federal help at every request. Even in Red areas, they were still seen as part of the Blue state.

And just last week, it was discovered that an Administration member said in a sworn court affidavit that approved grants for energy projects had been rescinded in states that didn’t vote Republican in the last election.

The current pitting of the two sides of the country against each other to this extent would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago. No one would have believed the depths to which the government, as run by an Adderall-addled fuckwit, would sink. But look at us now.

“We need help.”

“Who did you vote for?”

“Them.”

“Denied. Piss off, vermin.”

***

To add to my general discontent, I’ve just started reading that new book by NY Times writers Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, called “Regime Change.” I’m only about 120 pages in, and already, I’ve learned several appalling things. 

·         Stephen Miller is basically the Anti-Christ. He moves about the White House with impunity and tacit support from the president on everything he proposes. He’s so racist that even TFG noticed it. A quote from the book: “In a 2024 campaign meeting, Trump remarked that if it were left to Miller, there would be only 100 million people in the United States and they would all look like Stephen Miller.” A gruesome thought, to be sure.

·         Miller was enraged when the message emerged from the White House that ICE was only going after violent criminals, murderers, and gang-bangers during their deportation operations. He knew that they were going after everybody, and having that qualifier out there would make them look bad. (They weren’t picking up people at Home Depots and outside schools because they were going rogue; that was their mission in the first place.)

·         There has been very little thought put into who is getting tariffed and for how much. The president was basically determining tariffs the way you’d determine a tip for the gardener. “Let’s give’em 10%. No, make it 20%.” Apparently, no one in the president’s circle, nor any business leaders, thinks tariffs are a good idea, just TFG, who is always 100% sure of his own genius. All evidence to the contrary be damned.

·         They had invited 15 CEOs from the big fossil fuel companies to meet with them. The president asked for a list of ten projects the White House could help fast-track. The CEOs were amazed. Usually any request they made would get reviewed for political analysis, environmental impact, etc., before even being brought to the president. Said one of the CEOs: “He has a better sense of his executive authority than anybody else we’ve ever dealt with. [snip] I would never want a Democrat to have that same sense of executive authority. But this guy fucking does.”

Granted, we’ve known all along that Stephen Miller has been running the White House with racist intent, and the administration is totally in the pocket of big business and the fossil fuel companies, but it’s still jarring to see the details.

A Brand New Crisis from 1868

In catching a rare break from the Supreme Court, we can see the blatant racism that governs the MAGA movement. When SCOTUS found that the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution was constitutional (duh), the speed with which the MAGAts moved to capitalize on the moment was eye-opening.

Almost immediately, the talking points were obvious, with multiple talking heads and inside sources postulating fantastical stories about citizenship mills and birth tourism, all designed to replace white people in this country. They must have had this stuff already locked and loaded before the decision, with versions for either outcome. Steven “the Ghoul” Miller’s fingerprints are all over this.

Late last week, there was a letter to the editor in the formerly reputable Baltimore Sun, in which the letter writer decried this new “can of worms,” just opened to destroy America. In fact, many of the blurbs put out on social media employ this raging fallacy.

What makes it a fallacy is this: If the decision lets the 14^th Amendment stand, which has been in place for over 158 years, how in the bloody hell is this opening a “can of worms” if it's already been open for longer than anyone has been alive? There is exactly nothing new being put forth, just the clearly written law of the land, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Where is the wiggle room? Where is the “interpretation?”

There is no “interpretation” without making up a bunch of far-fetched crappola drawn out of thin air.

They talk about what they think the writers intended. I say if there were any caveats, they would have been written in, but they weren’t. It just says, in plain English, if you’re born here, you’re an American. Case closed.

Remember, these are the people who cling to a literal reading of (part of) the 2^nd Amendment, insisting that the rules made to cover single-shot, hand-loaded rifles were designed to expand to include guns that fire hundreds of rounds per minute, so no further interpretation is permitted. “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed,” that’s what they repeat and contend that it covers everything. (Of course, they always ignore the “well-regulated militia” part.) They are only constitutional “originalists” when it serves their purpose. Otherwise, like when it comes to brown foreigners entering the country, they’ll twist any explicitly written statute until it says the opposite of what was intended at creation.

All of these new doomsday predictions, in the wake of the decision, were just as possible two weeks ago, yet no one was talking about them. Apparently, it just wasn’t that important. But now, when the headlines go against the Administration’s stated goals of whitening America, they want to rally support for new legislation. After picking through the dissent of the three fascist-supporting judges, I’m sure they will find an angle that would be upheld under constitutional scrutiny. That’s what these guys do, even when a Republican measure fails; they leave breadcrumbs for the next time.

And there will be a next time. Republicans don’t have anything to offer in the way of economic or environmental relief, just tax cuts and support for the rich. So they need to produce something to draw votes, and racism, sexism, and homophobia are consistent winners. And best of all, it doesn’t cost rich people anything.

“Wait,” you say, “Won’t it cost business owners by removing all the people who work cheap?”

Yes, it would, except they’re already getting replacements lined up, namely, people like us. Look at the massive cuts to state and federal jobs. Look at AI and robotics taking over jobs done by humans. Look at brick-and-mortar stores that have disappeared in favor of E-tail. Suddenly, there is a glut of people looking for work. Do you think they’re all going to train to be coders? With the prices rising like they are, people who normally wouldn’t lift a shovel will be fighting to work on road crews and farms, just to keep the lights on.

It’s a theory, anyway. And I wouldn’t put it past these bastards to see it through. After all, Project 2025 sounded pretty far-fetched at one time. Now its contents are found in the daily news.

Don't Believe the Hype

I think the state of Maryland is a shining example of how elections should be conducted. They have ample time for early voting, sufficient voting machines, and automatic mail-in ballots to all who request them. They provide ballot tracking back to the voter, to ensure confidence that one’s vote is counted.

That said, they really stepped in it this time around.

When they mailed out the ballots for the upcoming midterm primary elections, they provided the wrong party’s ballot to some voters. That necessitated a complete scrap of the mailed ballots and a remailing to all voters who chose mail-in ballots. They said there was an error on the part of the third-party vendor who physically mailed the ballots.

You can guess how that went over in the media:

Top story, front page.

Right out of the gate, the Republicans are on the warpath, declaring a fraud in process. The local conservative-shilling newspaper was right there to put up front-page headlines. Together, they’re acting like it was the Governor himself, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps, with a nefarious giggle. And they completely ignore what’s being done to correct the error.

They’ve already sent out emails and mailings (both of which I have received) with instructions to disregard the first ballot and only return the second. And if, like me, one has already turned in his ballot, instructions are to vote again with the new ballot because none of the old ones will be counted. (Inevitable Fox “News” headline: “Governor tells Marylanders to vote twice!”) The new ballots will have clear watermarked language on them, saying that these are the only ballots to be counted.

Also, keep in mind that this is a primary, so Democrats aren’t competing with Republicans. If cheating was the goal, why do it now during intra-party elections?

So, all the old ballots they receive will not be counted. If they have any sense, they’ll destroy them all. And it should be evident among the ballots received that they don’t get counted unless they have the watermark. Simple process.

I don’t see what else they can do to rectify the situation. I believe the votes will be counted fairly and accurately. I’m just pissed that they gave Republicans a lever to yank on, to claim foul when Maryland goes even Bluer than usual. And I especially dread when the Feds want the State to turn over all the ballots for review. I’m uneasy with the party known for cheating the system being handed the very material they can most easily use to cheat. The mistake may not be fatal, but it makes the job that much harder. It’s all a giant unforced error.

Or was it? Maybe there’s an operative or two within this vendor that were planted for the purpose of sowing suspicion about election integrity. It wouldn’t be that hard to arrange. There are enough Congressmen being paid off by moneyed interests, why not some putz in a mailroom? If you ask me, they should have picked some other state that doesn’t vote so predictably Blue.

So, when you inevitably see national news of the Maryland primaries being called into question, take it from a Marylander: They’re conning you. The error is being mitigated and will have no impact on the final vote tally. But they don’t want you to think about that, only the hysterical charges and hyperbole with which they describe all their opponents’ actions.

It's More Than a Naked Emperor

There’s a persistent myth being pedaled by Republican outlets that all Democrats have to run on is not being Trump. While “not being Trump” is a tremendous selling point to people whose EEGs show activity, it’s hardly the only nail in the toolbox. Last weekend, this editorial cartoon appeared in recently turned Republican mouthpiece, the Baltimore Sun:

Clearly, they’re seeking to persuade low-information chumps that the Dems have no substance other than hating their leader, which is truly ironic, given the ethos that currently holds Republicans together. Seriously, you’d really have to have your head in the sand to not see the legitimate concerns that Democrats can use to wrest power from the craven minions of the rich. Or watch Fox “News.”

Merely getting rid of the current president does little to fix what his team has done to the country. Republicans need to be voted out en masse. If they weren’t directly in on it, they were still sucking up to the perpetrators and allowing such gross negligence to prosper.

Democrats have an entire playbook to run on, and that’s Project 2025. None of it is contingent solely on the current occupant of the White House. It was written by Republicans and designed to be used by any Republicans in office. Last election, Republicans, to a man, denied having anything to do with this playbook, yet once they swept into power, they began enacting its directives immediately.

If I were a presidential (or congressional) candidate, that would become my Bible. I’d read from it on the campaign trail and highlight the damages done by the current Administration following its instructions. And none of it has to do with Trump. It’s all about consolidating power among rich Republicans and changing enough laws to ensure they stay in power.

It’s all right there…

·         Bouncing immigrants out of the country,

·         Declaring their political opponents to be “terrorists,” to facilitate rounding them up at a later date,

·         Setting up ICE as a personal military organization, loyal only to the Administration, to get around Posse Comitatus as a tool to intimidate and neutralize political opponents,

·         Buying and allowing the consolidation of national media to present a Conservative-friendly viewpoint

·         Altering census methodology to undercount city residents and foreigners,

·         Making it harder for lower and middle class citizens to vote, gerrymandering Red States to make a changing of the guard damn-near impossible,

·         Making women jump through hoops that few men do, eliminating reproductive rights to keep women under the thumb of paternalism,

·         Railing against “DEI” to cover removing people of color from the military and government, and removing initiatives that helped them get there,

·         Packing the courts, Supreme and otherwise, with their own Federalist Society shills by any means necessary,

·         Abandoning renewable energy options and relying solely on the fossil fuel industry for power, which goes hand in hand with general climate-change denial, and much more.

Any of these items could be a marquee part of a political campaign. Yet the Baltimore Sun (and apparently the Chicago Tribune, from whence the cartoon originated) wants everyone to think that all Liberals want to do is persecute some poor half-senile public servant. No such luck. The Dems need to run the races of their lives to overturn this headlong rush into an American Dystopia, where the rich live like kings, and the rest of us rob, cheat, and kill each other just to get by. That will only happen by putting a spotlight on what is happening right now and how it’s affecting average Americans.

Republicans don’t have many legitimate positions that help the working class, so they have to create boogiemen to scare the votes out of them.

All we can do is cling to the truth and call out the BS when we see it. Eventually, more people will realize that the Emperor and his minions have been streaking this whole time.

But note that we can’t count on the national media to help… It’s all they can do to get a paper printed without typos or incorrect grammar-induced misconceptions. Like this headline from this morning:

What they’re telling me is a great relief! Looks like even after I’m dead and gone, it’s not too late to choose what happens to my carcass. I wonder if I still have to fill out forms, or if I just float off to the nearest psychic?

Jokes about the headline aside, the article presents an interesting option that I’d never heard of before.

Talk about "soiling oneself..." I can see the appeal of literally returning to the earth after passing, but then using the soil as fertilizer to grow your own stuff? I don’t know about that.  I’d have to think long and hard about eating the fruits of my labor that had been literally nourished by a departed loved one.

I can just see the eventual harvest…

“Hey, that tomato looks like Grandpa!”

I wouldn’t even want to consider growing an ear of corn…

Paying Them to Mislead Us

I just got my bill for my daily newspaper, and it seems they removed the discount for which I bargained with them last fall. They did say that it was a six-month deal, but I was hoping they’d forget. They charge $215 a month now for home delivery, which I find to be insane. When I started with the paper, it was about $35. I’ve got to call into the circulation department tomorrow and get my “haggle” on.

I swear, if it wasn’t for the comics and puzzles, I’d chuck it all. I get my significant news online, so I don’t really need that. The paper does keep me up on what’s going on locally, though, and lets me keep track on how the rich are attacking city and state government (both of which are run by the Dems). And due to a press time of around 6-7 PM, most important stories are a day late. Forget about sports game coverage, it’s always from two days prior. Their hockey coverage is abysmal. Last week, they used the previous day’s game results grid, so even two days later, there was still no information.

The problems started when the paper, the Baltimore Sun, was bought by the owner of the conservative news outlet, Sinclair Broadcasting. Now, instead of a reliable stable of in-house reporters, most news articles are farmed out to Sinclair national desks, and often run transcripts of what their Fox “News” affiliates ran on-air.

The old paper definitely had a liberal leaning, reflecting the prevailing views of Marylanders, but they kept it to the Op-Ed pages. The current version splashes its bias across every page, and it is especially obvious if you know how to spot it. Here’s one from last Friday:

With all the ways TFG, his family, and minions have been skimming money from the Federal till, they’re still carrying on about Hunter freakin’ Biden. They rarely even mention all the ways the president is raking in illegal dollars from overseas governments and influencers, let alone outright theft from other countries.

Also note that it comes down to “the whistleblowers say they’ve been vindicated.” Right. Trump said he was vindicated by the Mueller Report, too, remember? (Obviously, TFG doesn’t really remember it that way or he’d have provided a more gracious condolence than he did.) Nowhere else in the article does it say that anyone in authority has “vindicated” anyone. This is a nothing-burger article, meant to reflect negative attention onto Democrats at a time when the president is swimming in bad news and controversy.

They’ve been working hard at that, as evidenced by this article:

My take is that they got some bad polling news, showing that people were unhappy with Republicans on the war, the Epstein Files, the price of gas and groceries, the tanking stock market, etc. But the Sinclair National Desk couldn’t just run the story; they had to drag the Dems along, too. So the article is more about the classic “Dems in disarray” story than about how people are souring on Republicans. And notice how at the end, they talk about “threats against lawmakers and their families,” but they don’t mention where 99% of those threats come from.

Here’s another assassination by headline regarding the funding of the DHS:

They make it plain that those Commie Democrats are holding up funding for the DHS, but never mention that they’ve introduced seven (as of now) bills to pay the TSA agents and all department workers except for ICE, which they will pay if they agree to obey the same laws that local police do. Republicans voted no and killed the bill every time. They’d rather continue the illegal war on brown people than pay workers whose job actions are perfectly above board and not in question, essentially holding them hostage until ICE gets to keep free rein to kidnap anyone with an accent and send them off to detention camps unknown. Also note that female minors in custody are coming up pregnant, which they were not before entering custody. Perhaps this is another reason Republicans are fighting birthright citizenship.

None of that is in the article, just the skewed look at Dems holding up the works and Republicans excoriating them for it, taken from interviews that ran on Hannity.

Adding to their penchant for guiding readers to conclusions while omitting essential facts, we have this one from last month:

Yes, those stupid, socialist, Democrat, commie, liberals want ID from people just to shovel snow! Haw haw haw, they’re so dum!

But one simple line nullifies the whole perception.

The snow shoveling was a paying job with the city. Therefore, if people want to be paid, they must provide documentation! Do you remember all the documentation Republicans insist we provide to prospective employers, to show we’re not illegal aliens? That’s what they’re ridiculing. In actuality, the whole snow shoveling thing worked like a charm. The sidewalks and streets were cleared in a day, and people got paid for doing it. Running an article like this goes against every journalistic principle. It does, though, fit right in with being a shill.

And speaking of unforgivable newspaper sins, wouldn’t you think the paper might have kept an editor or two? JFC, how incompetent does one have to be to include a typo in a headline? Doesn’t anyone over there read?

Lastly, and this has nothing to do with the fast-fading newspaper industry, have you seen the design for the new 250-Year Anniversary coin, bearing the stern visage of our malevolent president?

Anyone alive and going to the movies in the early 80s remembers this famous pose. I think somebody owes Steve McCroskey a percentage.

Looks like he picked the wrong week to quit smokin’.

 

Truth is Another Casualty of War

This may be the first war in my lifetime where we can’t find out what’s happening on the evening TV news. This administration has a throttle on war news and will never release information that doesn’t glorify their mission.

Recall in previous wars, bombings, or raids, there was plenty of film being shown on TV: missiles hitting their marks, airfields blown up, mobile anti-missile guns wiped out, etc. We all remember that famous footage from the Iraq War of one of our missiles going through the window of some fortified bunker. It was an impressive display of American war skills. We’re getting a little of that, but not much. And we’re certainly not seeing what Iran is doing in their own defense.

Remember a few months back when the Defense Department made all journalists who covered the “war” beat swear an oath that they’d only report what the Pentagon gave them? Remember how the honest journalists quit and were replaced with friendly flaks who were only too eager to push propaganda? Well, that’s why we’re not going to get an honest take on Iran War activity.

Also note that recent events have created a whole new web of Administration-friendly national news outlets. Besides Fox “News” (and the minor cloned conservative outlets), CBS has succumbed to MAGA fever, and now CNN is heading there as well (after CBS/Paramount’s successful bid to take over the Warner Brothers universe). Add the Sinclair chain of stations, and you have a massive broadcasting voice that is willing to repeat whatever the Administration wants. And they’re certainly not going to air anything that runs counter to the claims of excellence and victory.

I’ve been seeing some alternate viewpoints on Facebook, but I don’t really trust them. There was a time when I could rely almost 100% that the liberal assertions were true, but that’s becoming increasingly unreliable.

This is the most truthful thing I’ve ever seen from a Republican.

I’ve read several outrageous claims I initially believed (because they were completely in character with other known MAGA outrages) that turned out later to be false. Either Liberals are now participating on Conservatives’ reality-distorting playing field, or the Russians/Iranians/Chinese are trying to make it look that way. Then, people don’t know what to believe, which is right where they want us.

One claim was that there was an order that went out from military commanders to all their soldiers that they were to think of the Iran attack as a holy war to bring about Armageddon. That tracks with the new Whisky Pete’s new Christian Nationalist military, but Snopes later debunked it as unproven.

But the main issue here is with the other claim I saw, that Iran has completely blown up at least 30 of our air bases in the Middle East; blown up as in completely wiped out. Billions of dollars blown to dust and operational surveillance up in smoke. Many details added depth and realism to the claim.

My take is that there have been some bombs or drones that have landed (see: our seven known casualties to date), even some key radar installations included, but we’re still operational.

But I totally believe that if such a thing DID happen, we’d have to find out from foreign news sources who are not beholden to the US government. Word would eventually leak out as the bodies came home (or disappeared en masse), but it would take a while. In the meantime, just like these guys want, I’m sitting here not knowing what to believe.

The problem is that in some of these FB newsgroups, anyone can post, which means the quality and veracity of the message varies. Usually, a commenter will call the hinky stuff into question, but, of course, you have to look. I hope these groups will begin to police themselves. I think anyone who posts misinformation should have their posting rights removed or just dropped from the group. The one advantage we’ve enjoyed for so many years is that the points put across by Dems and Liberals have generally been factually correct (compared to those of Republicans and Conservatives, the expert purveyors of logical fallacies, especially in TFG’s era). If we lose that edge, we fall even further behind in the fight for hearts and minds in the coming elections, which will be tough enough to win. And it will be even tougher to have that win count for anything, with a giant orange thumb on the scale. 

The Antagonist General

By now, I presume you’ve already seen all the coverage of Pam Bondi’s Congressional testimony, wherein she provided nothing but insults and presidential glorification while refusing to answer even the most basic questions about the Epstein files.

Obviously, she was performing for an audience of One, seeking His Majesty’s favor by being boorish and acerbic to her questioners, and effusive in praise for her horned-up Master. I’m sure to him, she did exactly what he wanted her to do. Do you think those Burn Books hadn’t been audience-tested yet? He knew the game plan. Of course, if she draws too much heat, it’s not like HE’LL take the fall. He’ll cut her loose for it and assign a new AG who is just as morally pliant as she is.

We ought to note that it’s been another week without a single Justice Department action on the information released in the Epstein files. Zero charges filed, zero investigations announced, zero activity. Oh, and zero fucks given about “accidentally” releasing the names of a handful of Epstein victims. Bondi wouldn’t even acknowledge their presence in the room when called out. Common decency would have at least called for an apology for outing them publicly. But then, that would have flown in conflict with a prime Republican axiom, “Never apologize, never admit you were wrong, always double down.” One can only conclude that those names were released as a warning to other victims and witnesses.

Right now, all we can hope for is that other countries, where they still condemn the raping of children, release the details that Justice is so actively suppressing. At least then the public may act on the information, even if the US legal system refuses to do so. Boycotts and civil suits may be the only alternative until the balance of power is returned to the non-pedophiles.

How the Media Shows Bias, Continued

The newly Conservative-owned Baltimore Sun continues to frame the main news section stories in favor of Republicans, or at a minimum, against Democrats.

This was front-page, upper-right corner material. You can see the focus of the headline is about Maryland’s governor, Wes Moore, criticizing the “Trump Agenda,” despite adopting a couple of items from the Big Ugly Bill. It could have just as easily been characterized to give credit to the governor for using a political enemy’s idea, because it benefits the public. But they’d rather infer some kind of hypocrisy instead, because it goes against common Republican behavior. Because THEY will eschew anything a Democrat says, just because a Democrat says it, they assume that Democrats do the same.

I can say, personally, that I think there are a couple of points where I agree with the otherwise-nutball RFK Jr, like eliminating artificial dyes and sketchy preservatives from our food. I don’t think that makes me a hypocrite, just an informed consumer. It certainly doesn’t mean I buy into his anti-vax lunacy. But a Democratic governor doesn’t get the same courtesy.

Here’s another hatchet job, this one about the governor’s upcoming (at the time of the article) State of the State speech. You can see the fix is in from the first sentence: “Some political analysts have a question ahead of the governor’s State of the State address… will the governor use his speech to take shots at the president…” Who do you think those “political analysts” are? I guarantee they’re from Fox “News” or elsewhere in the Sinclair conservative universe. This isn’t news; it’s a fishing expedition designed to short-circuit any prospective criticism of their own leader. And that’s fine, in the OP-ED section. But not on the front page.

Governor Moore can’t even wind his watch without some hack from Sinclair or The Sun calling his motives into question. They really have it in for the guy. And I have no doubt it comes right from the top. It’s not an accident that Governor Moore was one of only two people who were “uninvited” from the annual Governor’s meeting with the president. Trump doesn’t like this guy, not only because he’s a Dem, but he’s a Black Dem who lives right in DC’s back yard, and he refuses to roll over for him. TFG obviously has no qualms about expressing his thoughts to media outlets about how they cover the news. Every story about the governor gets framed as something negative, regardless of the details. At the absolute best, they filter it through a lens of how it affects Republicans.

Last week, the Super Bowl halftime show got the same treatment:

This is all about the widely-trumpeted FCC investigation into whether there were suggestive lyrics broadcast during Bad Bunny’s halftime show. The tell is that it took them seven paragraphs to let us know that they found nothing objectionable, once the translations were done. They spent the first six paragraphs quoting Republican politicians who were lobbing charges and insults. This could have easily been headlined, “No bad language found in halftime show.” But that’s not what they want us to think about; it’s the possibility that there might have been. Someone who only sees the headline might easily think there was something indecent included, and that’s what The Sun wanted.

After the declaration, they give the remaining four paragraphs to Republicans criticizing the show and the NFL anyway. Also note that the source that they’re quoting, “On the Money,” is a column from the conservative mouthpiece, the New York Post.

It’s typical of the way Republicans operate now. They did the same thing with their investigations of Hillary Clinton. They speechify and ask incendiary questions. And when the answers provide nothing actionable, they talk about the juicy questions and hypotheticals again. Or open another investigation.

Impeachment Now

I’ve seen some stories about how various unnamed Republicans have stated that invading Greenland would be their bridge too far and cause them to support impeachment. That strikes me as closing the door after the horse left the barn. By the time troops are involved, it’ll be too late. We will have damaged our status with Europe, NATO, and the world to a level that may be beyond repair. I hope there are aides or cabinet members on whom Russia does not have Kompromat, so that there may be someone left in the building who can talk him out of such a disastrous move. Every day, the Current Occupant is demonstrating his inability to do the job through nationally destructive, self-promoting, and self-rewarding activities.

Parking Venezuela's oil money in a Qatar account that he alone controls? Charging a billion dollars per nation to join his little self-glorification panel and demanding enrollment? Letting his personal army loose on blue states (this month, Minnesota) to cause chaos and destruction on immigrants and citizens alike? Leaking Ukrainian spy intel directly to Russia? Blowing foreign boats out of the water because they might be up to something, even though they are not equipped to reach US soil? And, of course, demanding the right to buy Greenland or take it by force? It’s all madness.

Congress should be looking at impeachment right now. And by Congress, I mean Republicans. They used to at least have a veneer of respectability while they were fleecing the taxpayers to reward the rich. Today, the grift is right out in the open. He needs to go now because we cannot count on fair elections this fall. His actions are NOT those of a man who expects to have his power diminished in the midterm elections or leave office peacefully in 2028.

We all know that legally, he does not technically have the power to stop elections. But he sure as hell has the power to alter the results to his liking. There are several ways he can accomplish this.

Regarding the midterms, he may try to conjure up an emergency that gives him the cover to declare the elections are postponed (until such a time when the heat dies down and he expects to win fairly, OR just indefinitely!) Yes, it’s illegal, but who is going to enforce that? He still has SCOTUS in his pocket (until they prove otherwise), and it’s not like the Justice Department or military will do anything to defy him. They’re all loyalists now. So just because he gives an illegal order that’s beyond the scope of his power doesn’t mean it won’t happen. All the guardrails are gone.

Update: Apparently, there are still some grown-ups in the room from the US military.

Further, he can influence Red State governors to postpone their states’ elections and use that to claim that it wouldn’t be fair to only allow Blue State electees to the new Congress. Again, it doesn’t make sense, but who’s going to hold him to the law? He's got Fox "News" and the rest of the Right Wing Media bubble to make the case for him.

He can also count on the GOP owners of voting machine companies (like the new owners of Dominion) to convert some blue votes to red. And there’s Elon Musk, who he may convince to repeat whatever he did in 2024 to deliver the presidency (but surprisingly few Senate seats) to the Republicans.

Probably the easiest (and most likely) way to sway the Midterms has already begun. With the new rules regarding the Post Office delaying the date-stamping of mailings, plus banning mail-in voting via executive order (again, beyond the scope of presidential powers), it creates more reliance on in-person voting, which he can then suppress by physical means. Then all he has to do is send his ICEholes to the Bluest precincts’ voting stations, especially in Latin-heavy areas, where their mere presence will suppress turnout. I’m sure they can determine with precision which places will provide the most bang for their buck in sandbagging Democratic candidates. And again, to whom can the Democrats appeal? Trump loyalists are at every enforcement point. Checkmate.

Then, with two MORE years to insulate himself, it won’t be much of a reach to create a way to give himself a third term, despite it being 100% unconstitutional. He’ll find a way, and his flunkies will rubber-stamp it.

That’s why Congress needs to start the impeachment ball rolling now. The GOP needs to grow a pair and a spine to go with them, and call out the Emperor with no Clothes. They can start with a public Congressional investigation of the Epstein files. Screw what Justice is withholding; there are tons of evidence that’s already public, or under someone else’s control. Start taking public testimony from the victims about how, in addition to chasing little girls, they were also buggering little boys and killing people who became inconvenient. Maybe that might jar a couple of Republican consciences enough to seek better leadership.

And they need to go after Vance and the rest of the Cabinet, too, who are likely to continue in the direction TFG is waddling. This administration has turned a great nation into a joke. The whole world is laughing at us, a once-great nation and player on the world stage, reduced to a self-destructive, self-absorbed, and self-fellating bunch of crooks.

Fargin' ICEholes

Well, they did it. No one’s talking about the Epstein files anymore. In addition to the invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, the administration has engineered a civilian killing at the hands of ICE and threatened Greenland with an armed invasion. He is literally producing more criminal outrages than we can deal with at a given time.

The execution of Renee Good was especially chilling. This wasn’t someone who was throwing Molotov cocktails or waving signs; she was dropping off her child at school. The worst you can say about her is that she stopped to give her two cents to the ICE Brigade and momentarily blocked the road. One bull clawed at her door, then told her to move along. Meanwhile, after she offered pleasantries, the other one yelled to stop, put himself in front of her car, then executed her in “self-defense,” once he took a step to the right to get out of her way, like he was doing the Time Warp. You can clearly see the front wheels turning away from him as she tried to leave the scene.

Almost immediately, ICE Barbie Noem declared the victim was a terrorist/paid protester trying to run her guy down, despite video evidence aired almost immediately that offered proof to the contrary. These were charges that would take time to establish, but they levied them before the body even went cold.

That’s how we know the fix was in. They had that story locked and loaded for when this incident occurred. I suspect there may have been a direct order to create such a shooting, all the better to sow fear and demand public compliance. I wonder if anyone is investigating such communications, either directly to the executioner, Jonathan Ross, or to his superiors for relaying down to the boots on the ground. Someone get ahold of that editor for The Atlantic. Knowing these Bozos, he was probably on the thread too.

Here’s another reason this shooting could have been premeditated:

This guy knew he was going to shoot. He put himself in front of the car he knew was fleeing, to secure the “personal danger” excuse, put the phone in his left hand, to grab his gun with his shootin’ hand, and shot an American citizen in the face, while recording the whole scene. I mean, what’s the point of killing some uppity liberal if you can’t show the action to the boys back at the base?

As commanded, Republican Congress people, assorted political hacks, Fox “News,” and MAGA idiots publicly backed the shooting. They’re always fine with shootings, as long as it’s not one of theirs getting shot. They demanded reverence and half-staff flags for Charlie Kirk. They made dyke jokes about Renee Good.

And as is their MO, the Republicans are asking people to believe what they’re telling them, rather than their own eyes. They claim she was trying to kill the ICE men, that she was a terrorist, and that she was a paid protester. None of that was remotely true. But the main point is that even if all of that were true, none of those charges carry the death penalty, let alone the Getting Shot in the Face in Front of Your Neighbors, For Trying to Go Home penalty.

I hope there are repercussions from this, I really do. I doubt it, but I hope it. Already, they’ve announced they’re sending more ICE holes to Minnesota. They want more confrontations, not less. All the better to drive home the point that they’re in charge and resistance is futile.

The only hope for justice for Ms. Good will have to be from state charges. The fix is already in as far as the Justice Department goes. His innocence is already signed, sealed, and delivered at the federal level. That’s where they truly have us in a vise. To whom can we complain to seek justice? All the apparatuses of justice are rigged in their favor, with loyalists at every key position, all the way up to the rigged Supreme Court.

I was going to mention the Greenland fiasco-in-the-making, but I figure it will be the top story next week after the invasion, so I might as well wait until then.

Oil Be There

Some shitstorm they stirred up last weekend, huh? He actually had to go and invade another country, kidnap their president and his wife, and bring them back here for trial. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Maduro, there are so many things that don’t pass the smell test for a nation with integrity. Nothing makes sense in any benign way; only in the most corrupt readings.

AG Bondi says she’s charging them with breaking arms laws. American arms laws. Jesus H Christ, since when do American laws apply to citizens of other countries, who are located in other countries? So can the Philippine government kidnap US citizens and cane them for spitting gum on the sidewalk or spraying graffiti? National laws start and stop at their own borders. WTF is wrong with these idiots?

TFG justifies the invasion by saying, “They took our oil.”  How in the actual fuck is oil buried deep under Venezuela the property of the United States? How totally presumptuous. And I know there were oil deals made and broken, but they’ve already been long resolved:

This thing is 50% about stealing oil for the big fossil fuel industry donors to Republicans, and 50% about distracting from the Epstein file mess, for which the explanation for excessive redactions was due yesterday. We are literally living through the great movie Wag the Dog; war as distraction from problems at home.

TFG says we’re “going to run Venezuela,” and Little Marco had this to say in defense of the indefensible:

The US creates “court orders,” so the US has grounds to topple a foreign government. It’s basically the Fox “News” practice of bringing up various charges lobbed at Democrats and then later broadcasting: “Many people are talking about these charges about Democratic Democrat politicians…” And again, since when does a US court order have any sway in another country?

I wonder why they took the wife, though. As leverage to make him do what they want? Or maybe she has too many Venezuelan parking tickets, or owns an exotic animal that’s illegal in Alabama. Or maybe they just don’t want Maduro to get lonely.

Deep down, there is no rational rationale; there are only piles of shit to throw at the wall to see what sticks. Ultimately, they don’t care if they can’t defend these actions because the system is set up to allow them to do as they please. Thank you, Supreme Court, for creating an 800-pound monster with a Sultan’s desires and a toddler’s impulse control.

The BS about defending the nation against drugs rings hollow when he just pardoned another South American president/drug lord who had been convicted here. It’s key to remember that Republicans don’t have many core beliefs; they believe strongly in whatever they need at that moment, and are ready to do a full 180 should that need disappear. State’s rights, bodily autonomy, it’s all negotiable depending on what they want to do today.

Republicans are lining up to support whatever he does, because I’m sure they realize that if he can disappear a foreign president, he can do the same to a US Congressman. Or worse, he might call them mean names.

When I heard the news on Saturday morning, the first thing I thought was that if this is the new normal, maybe we could work out a little quid pro quo with another country like Canada or Denmark. But by midday, that notion was all over the place. Thus is the drawback of doing a weekly blog.

There’s been more talk that this was prearranged with Russia years ago, where we would allow them to take Ukraine, and they would allow us to take Venezuela. I believe it, because TFG doesn’t do anything on the international stage that doesn’t benefit Putin. I’m sure they’re in lockstep on this.

So, here we are, in another foreign war brought on by oil. Republicans kill any movement on increasing development or renewable energy sources, so the money continues to flow to oil companies/donors. And now, they’re replenishing the fossil fuel troughs with more oil, to keep those big donations coming. Palatial ballrooms don’t build themselves, you know.

There's nothing like starting a new year with a giant kick in the face.

Always Question the Source

As we sit on the precipice of 2026, we need to keep in mind that many of the sources from which we get our news are hand-forming the information to fit the mold they want (or are told) to present. We can see the obvious ones, like the mess that has become CBS, killing a damning report on ICE deportations to torture prisons. But many others are much more subtle and are only revealed through questioning.

Take this article from yesterday’s Baltimore Sun:

Right off the bat, they use a Fox “News” ask/answer setup in the headline. Also note that the byline is from someone at the Sinclair National Desk. The primary owner of the conservative Sinclair media network bought The Sun last year and has given it an obvious Republican bent.

Rather than addressing the legality of these strikes, they’re playing up the recruitment potential. Doesn’t that say a lot about those recruits for whom this is enticing? Yay, they get to make things go “boom,” just like in their video games.

From the article: “Some experts say the missions showcase a clear purpose, limited scope, and decisive action-qualities that they believe resonate with young Americans considering military service.” “Some experts?” Who, I wonder. They answer in the next line:

“According to Dan Green, research fellow at the Heritage Institute…” Say no more. They get a hack from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, backer/creator of Republican policies and talking points, to shill for the Administration.

Later, they refer to unclear stats to bolster the claim. “(all branches) have reported meeting or exceeding their recruiting goals.” What were the goals? Where was the bend in recruiting numbers? And more importantly, might the goals have been lowered? That’s the easiest way to make your numbers in a tough environment… lower the bar. They want you to assume a level playing field, but when has this Administration ever used a deck they hadn‘t stacked? Without the numbers, their claim of bolstered recruitment due to these war games is meaningless.

And if it was effective, look who they’re getting… dudes who want to sit in a basement and blow shit up from afar. I think they’d better lower their physical and mental standards if they want any of these schmucks to make it out of basic training.

The Heritage “expert” goes on to rattle off a list of Republican talking points as reasons prior recruitment was low: mandatory COVID vaccines, DEI initiatives, and the botched (Trump-designed) withdrawal from Afghanistan. All of these “issues” are highly debatable as to being a drag on recruitment, but they’re listed as unchallenged proof in the article.

If this is what mainstream media now offers for basic news coverage, we will need to be especially vigilant in how we interpret what we read.

I’m fortunate that in college, I learned a great deal about the business of media and how to spot the biases within. Future generations may not have that opportunity, and conservatives are working to make it that way, with their ongoing war on education:

The list doesn’t even mention the constant denigration of colleges, students, and professors, and the use of withholding funds as a lever to bend the apparatus of higher learning to their will. All of these factors are undeniably true; they’re part of public Republican statements and actions. And they only make sense when grouped under the banner of lowering the number of people with the tools to call “bullshit” on the verbal tricks and fallacies rife in conservative rhetoric. A less educated populace makes a more pliant pool of workers, and that’s all they really want. They consider us a resource for harvesting, both our labor and our money, rather than the people a government is obligated to serve.

Corporations aren’t bankrolling political campaigns for the public’s benefit, only their own. We need to stay vigilant for this grift and demand government serve its original master: its citizens.

 

Here’s to having a Happy New Year, with hopes for a better 2026. Who knows, maybe You Know Who will choke on a steak and be toes-up in the Capitol atrium by 2027. Although I wouldn’t put it past Vance, Miller, and the rest of the posse of imbeciles to pull a Weekend at Trump’s, using AI to keep up the public illusion that their orange idol still has a pulse. But even that would be an improvement.