"What the nightmare is, which many of my republican colleagues appear to want, is to not have learned the lesson of Iraq. To get young men and women involved in perpetual warfare in the quagmire of Syria and the Middle East would be an unmitigated disaster that as President I will do everything in my power to avoid." -Bernie Sanders, Jan 17, 2016
Category: Touchy Subjects
The things that should never be discussed much less published by non-professionals.
Why are we in this media mess?
Dear People, the popularization of the words “fake news” should be incredibly disturbing as discrediting the media is how dictators are born but that is an entirely different discussion.
I want to help everyone realize that the state of the media we are in dates back to 1928 but has its key moment in 1987 under Ronald Reagan.
Have you heard of the Fairness Doctrine? It is why those of my generation remember the news of our childhood so differently.
Let me allow Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to explain:
“The devolution of the American press began in 1986 when Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine.
We had a law in this country that we passed in 1928 that said that the air waves belong to the public. The broadcasters can be licensed to use them, but only if they use them to promote the public interest, to inform the public and advance democracy. That’s why we have the 6 o’clock news. They didn’t want it. The broadcasters didn’t want that because the news departments were chronic money losers.
But they were forced to put on the news at 6:00 and even today you hear news on the music radio stations and that’s an artifact of the Fairness Doctrine. They said, if you’re using the broadcast air waves, you have to do that…
They no longer have an obligation to serve the public interest. Their only obligation is to their shareholders. They serve that obligation not by informing us, telling us the things we need to understand to make rational decisions in a democracy, but rather by entertaining us…
We know we’re the best entertained, the least informed, people on the face of the world. They got rid of their investigative reporters. 85 percent of them lost their jobs in the last 15 years.
They got rid of their foreign news bureaus so the Bush and Cheney administration can say to the American people, ‘Oh, we’re gonna go into this 800-year-old fist fight in Mesopotamia and they’re gonna meet us with rose petals in the streets’ and the Americans believe them.
The Canadians didn’t believe them because the Canadians still have a Fairness Doctrine…
England has the same kind of rules and in Europe, but in our country, we lost those rules and, as a result, we know a lot about Britney Spears’ gradual emotional decline and we know a lot about Charlie Sheen, but we don’t know much about global warming or the fact that the Appalachian Mountains essentially no longer exist.”
The elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 set the stage for today’s fake news dilemma and is attributed with contributing to the polarized politic party situation we have with Congress and the American people.
“The Fairness Doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The demise of this FCC rule has been considered by some to be a contributing factor for the rising level of party polarization in the United States.”
We are in this mess as a failing of the media because President Reagan removed the obligation of the press to serve the American people to focus on serving their corporations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine
Daylin Leach – Respect!
"fascist, loofa-faced, sh*t-gibbon"
That needs to be on a tee shirt!
When a Republican calls me a libtard
Whenever I get into a political debate and a Republican calls me a libtard, I retort, "Well, I find you repugnant." Then they just stare at me blankly because I used a big word.
I guess it finally happened
The corruption of the next four years is already beginning
The Billionaire’s Boy’s Club is already trying to ease the path for their corruption.
During a Monday appearance on NPR, Trump adviser Newt Gingrich argued that Congress should consider changing ethics laws so President-elect Donald Trump could freely mix his administration and his business interests.
–Source: ThinkProgress.org, "Gingrich says Trump can’t be expected to follow ethics laws, so Congress should change them for him"
Don’t Be a Sucker, a Documentary by the U.S. War Department (Full Documentary)
2016 – the year the United States elected a lunatic
Would you elect Howard Hughes to the presidency? Every Howard Hughes film today focuses on his mental illnesses.
History will record 2016 as the year the United States elected a mentally unstable man to the office of the presidency. If we still have our freedom of press years from now, we will see movies, documentaries, and history books depicting the mental illnesses of Donald Trump in the same way movies, documentaries, and books today depict Howard Hughes.
Yes, I used a spreadsheet
After 16 years, I have finally figured out when I can and cannot ask my wife for a special dates. Data is beautiful!
Sliced cheese, hidden employees, and cops
Yikes! Two black men want sliced cheese. Hit the safe room! Call the cops! #thankstrump
Take away the power of a mass shooting by never naming the shooter
This video must be reposted whenever a mass shooting occurs until the media outlets learn to give the shooter little to no coverage and to make the story about the victims and the heroes.
Take away the power of a mass shooting by not making the shooter into a star.
Fear not! Love everyone!
Giving into fear and hate is how you allow yourselves to be controlled. Take the power away from the politicians and the press. Do not be afraid. Love one another!
We are being shepherded into a divided country of us and them. Let’s return to being we. "United we stand; divided we fall."
Formula to create a fascist state
It occurred to me last night that my entire adult life has been an experiment to convert America to a fascist state. How do you that?
- Change the economic system such that the bulk of the populace has to work two or more jobs to make ends meet. This takes away their time for family, self-improvement, self-satisfaction, self-education, personal satisfaction, personal growth, and health. If all the adults in the household are too busy to interact with their children, they cannot further their children’s education and their children grow up disconnected and lacking human empathy.
- Dumb down the public education system by placing an emphasis on testing instead of knowledge.
- Pit the common people against each other. This is easy since they have been dumbed down and lack empathy.
- Create more laws to reinforce 1, 2, and 3. This becomes easy since the public is not educated enough to understand what is happening and they have become divided upon their differences in race, religion, and philosophy.
This is the experiment we living in America.
29 days in February! Let the mass unfollowings end.
2016 is a Leap Year meaning there are 29 days in February and mass unfollowing of friends occur as United States politics flood the social media networks.
As a reminder, citizenship is not passive. We have a civic duty to participate in politics to shape our nations. That includes voicing dissenting opinions among our peers. An informed citizenry can better shape its respective nation. When the citizenry, particularly the proletariat, can be convinced to not be bothered, corporations and politicians can more easily control the people.
If we decry political discussions on Facebook or other social media as a reason to block people or unfriend others, we are doing nothing less than putting our fingers in our ears and chanting nah nah nah nah nah.
We make progress by listening to ideas foreign to our own. A business meeting where everyone walks into a room and nods heads in agreement and pats each other on the back is a waste of meeting space and salaries. An echo chamber where everyone else says the same thing we already think does not further a cause. Both cases are nothing more than pep rallies and bandwagons.
A diverse population will never be in complete agreement. John Lydgate said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” If the Left implemented all of their philosophies with blatant disregard for the Right, you would have a significant portion of the population displeased and vice versa. Politics is about finding a happy medium where the Right and the Left find a middle ground which somewhat pleases both extremes. Our politician’s job is to seek this middle ground!
An elected official is supposed to represent the people; not just the people who agree with that politician’s ideals. A Congressman is a professional and should be willing to approach a vote with a Yea to represent its constituents’ wishes even when that Congressman’s personal beliefs say Nay. Consider your representatives’ histories as you go into the voting booths.
Regarding the political arena and social media, I implore you to resist the urge to take a dislike to someone you follow or even go so far as to block or unfollow them over their political posts. Instead, engage them. I did not say “insult them” or “fight with them” or “troll them.” Engage them. Be inquisitive. Try to understand their position even if they are unwilling to give you the same courtesy. Let’s make politics civil again.
And thus the water wars began…
NASA scientist declares .
“And thus, the water wars. By 2017 mankind had scurried to build pipelines in an attempt to move water from one side of the country to another. Environmentalists stayed silent as bulldozers and eminent domain tore through protected lands and national parks in a attempt to settle the anarchy which had befallen California. By 2018, millions of Californians had died and the first water trickled through the continental pipeline. Between 2015 and 2018, naturally scientists and companies looked to the Pacific Ocean for desalinization but our technology just wasn’t ready. By 2019, the national stabilized. California’s water rationing was released and the remaining residents filled their pools, and greened their lawns. By 2020, the areas of the United States feeding the great water pipeline began to feel the pain as water rationing was introduced in their counties. Domestic terrorists began strategic attacks upon the pipeline. Countries around the world began experiencing similar problems as the United States. Desalinization attempts were begun again. In 2022, only the superrich remained alive in California as they could truck water in. One entrepreneur recognizing the hopeless demise of the polar ice caps had begun a glacier harvesting operation to haul polar water to the United States. Other countries followed suit and by 2030, what remained of the polar ice caps was a polluted, pillaged, undrinkable mess riddled with blood and oil stains and slightly irradiated from the ice harvesting tools and skirmishes. In 2035, a lone man sat in a desert, protected only by shade he created with the remains of a raggedy Coleman tent. A single jet flew low overhead. Little did he know it was the last plane to ever flew. It had been on a scouting mission for drinkable water and the pilot, devoid of hope, crashed it into the ocean. The desert man hummed a mantra, withdrew a stick from his backpack, and proceeded to use his divining rod where he sat under his shade. The stick pulled to the ground. 10 minutes later, with minor effort of digging, the desert man quenched his thirst. …”
