The US Hamster Wheel

[fin]

While the Donald is a legitimate cause for anything from ridicule to abject terror, IMO he is about 20% of the problem presently.

Our diverse congress has done NOTHING for twenty years they can be proud of. All they can do is spend money they do not (and never will) have and bicker with each other and primp for meaningless sound bytes. And a horrifying number of them seem to have become multi-millionaires while in office, and nobody even shrugs any more.

Our media has become a sick joke...both entertainment (which thinks re-runs and comic books are great entertainment) and the so-called News Media, of which we do not have one single example of factual, unbiased reporting left. IMO Reuters is closest, and I don't think it is US based.

Our government has specialized in lying to the people for decades, but now...now we are heavily into Orwellian Thought Control, and to my horror, some of the big corporations have jumped on the bandwagon and lost any pretense of objectivity.

An infectious, often- fatal global pandemic has devolved into more political name calling and bitter rancor while new cases swell. Nobody knows the numbers because of compulsive liars giving them.

And instead of the best and brightest appearing to help us out of this mess, we get the opposite. Check skin color and crotch and pick someone thusly.

Givem the white male congressman on tape worrying about whether Guam would sink or tip over, I guess Maxine Waters looks ok.

[llondel]

Yes, the whole system is broken. I look at what people in the UK consider to be BBC bias (often from both sides, so they're probably not too bad) and then look at US output where there's no attempt at balance. Fox spouts forth tripe suited to one viewpoint, CNN biases its coverage for another viewpoint, the presenters ask leading questions to get the answer they want to hear. I saw something from Sky News in the UK to its media people about what they could or could not do on social media, and they're doing their best to appear impartial too (no idea how that works in practice, I don't watch it), whereas there's often blatant bias on US "news" channels.We all laughed when Fox tried to claim "Fair and Balanced", but I don't think any of the US news channels are anywhere near that in practice. At least with comic books the bad guys always lose eventually.

The main difference in government lies is that once upon a time it was done carefully and an attempt was made to present it as truth. Now the guy in the top job lies pretty much every time he speaks in public, and the times he doesn't are more than covered by the time where he manages more than one lie. This is shown up by objective fact checking. It may be that previous incumbents would have been caught out a lot more had the internet and social media been around to the same level that it is now, because it was certainly way harder to find things out back then.

[Seenenough]

"This is shown up by objective fact checking."

If you consider Google and CNN to be fair and objective fact checking.

[Seenenough]

The journey of two senior Al Qaeda-aligned commanders in northwestern Syria on Sunday was suddenly cut short by a targeted U.S.-led strike — only it doesn't appear that they were killed by explosives, but a missile packed with knives.

"Video of the aftermath circulating on social media shows that the vehicle of the terrorist leaders – Jordanian Qassam ul-Urdini and Yemeni Bilal al-Sanaani – was mostly untouched, with just one side severed and the roof smashed in, prompting defense analysts to point to the use of a "secret" missile jointly developed by both the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

It is a variation of the Hellfire anti-tank missile, referred to as the R9X, and internally called the "Flying Ginsu" or the "ninja bomb," and it just might drastically shape the way war is waged given its exactitude and subsequent ability to vastly reduce the risk of collateral damage and civilian casualties."

It seems like the US can strike very precisely if they want to.

[llondel]

"This is shown up by objective fact checking."

If you consider Google and CNN to be fair and objective fact checking.

Far more than just Google and CNN. Half the time all you need is a video of what he said last week.

[brickhistory]

Grilling some of Texas' finest beef this evening, enjoying a coconut rum with lime juice, and looking out over my land with the literal as measured on a 1:250,000 twenty mile view.

The entire world including and especially all the craziness may kiss my a$$.


Ahh...

[Seenenough]

"Susan Rice, former Obama administration national security adviser and potential VP pick for Joe Biden, said on Friday that President Trump’s supporters in the Senate belong “to the trash heap of history.”

How unifying a statement.

[Dushan]

Ah, yes another “basket of deplorables” comment. We know where the first one ended.

[Boac]

Trump went so far as to complain in a Wall Street Journal interview this week that some Americans wore facial coverings not as a preventive measure but as a way to signal disapproval of him.

He is truly deranged.

Tulsa is Oklahoma's leading COVID-19 hot spot. The state recorded 352 more cases on Friday, its second highest daily toll during the pandemic.

Give it 14 days, then, and then see if he has 'made Covid Great again'. Of course, he could always ban testing there to sort it out.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Dropped into Tulsa while doing the R66 road trip thing some years back. Typical oil city with some good music venues!

Trump can only despoil the place.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Meanwhile well known chicken hawk and blowhard, John "Walrus Tash" Bolton is about to piss all over Trump's parade...

A federal judge has declined to block the publication of a tell-all book by John Bolton, Donald Trump’s third national security adviser.

As Judge Royce C Lamberth noted, hundreds of thousands of copies of The Room Where It Happened have been shipped for sale and excerpts have been widely published. The book remains due to be released on Tuesday.

But the judge did have harsh words for Bolton, who he said had failed to complete a national security review and “likely published classified materials”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... trump-book

[G-CPTN]

Classified lies, apparently.

[Boac]

TGG - shame on you - no Gene Pitney? "Something happened to me, and I'm not the same any more"

[TheGreenGoblin]

TGG - shame on you - no Gene Pitney? "Something happened to me, and I'm not the same any more"

Good tune..

And this is an interesting article...

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles ... unraveling

[G-CPTN]

Estimated 100,000 punters in Tulsa for 19,000 places in the conference hall.

What could possibly go wrong?

[PHXPhlyer]

Culling the voter base is probably a counterproductive strategy...but I'm not nearly a smart as the candidate.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Let the culling begin!

Six campaign staffers working on Tulsa rally test positive for coronavirus

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/20/politics ... index.html

Six campaign staffers working on Tulsa rally test positive for coronavirus
DJ Judd
By Donald Judd, CNN

Updated 2:59 PM ET, Sat June 20, 2020
Is Trump campaign liable if a rallygoer catches COVID-19?
NOW PLAYING
Is Trump campaign liable if a rallygoer catches COVID-19?
CNN




00:12
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Now PlayingIs Trump campaign...


(CNN)The Trump campaign confirmed six staffers working on the Tulsa rally tested positive for coronavirus.

"Per safety protocols, campaign staff are tested for COVID-19 before events. Six members of the advance team tested positive out of hundreds of tests performed, and quarantine procedures were immediately implemented. No COVID-positive staffers or anyone in immediate contact will be at today's rally or near attendees and elected officials. As previously announced, all rally attendees are given temperature checks before going through security, at which point they are given wristbands, facemasks and hand sanitizer," Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign communications director, said in a statement.
NBC was first to report the positive tests.
The rally is being convened despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Oklahoma recently reported its largest single day increase in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, and the arena where the rally will take place requested a written plan from the campaign "detailing the steps the event will institute for health and safety, including those related to social distancing."
Trump tempts fate with Tulsa rally during a pandemic and a national racial reckoning
Trump tempts fate with Tulsa rally during a pandemic and a national racial reckoning
The Trump campaign has said that it takes "safety seriously," and noted hand sanitizer, temperature checks and masks will be provided to attendees, though actually wearing a mask won't be required. Trump himself doubled down on this position in an interview with Axios that was published late Friday, saying, "I recommend people do what they want."

PP

[Boac]

Six campaign staffers working on Tulsa rally test positive for coronavirus

Remember it is only flu and no-one will have died in vain.

[PHXPhlyer]

They are supposedly testing Trump rally attendees' temperature on entry. It will be interesting to see how many, if any, are turned away for being "too hot".

PP

[Seenenough]

Six campaign staffers working on Tulsa rally test positive for coronavirus

Remember it is only flu and no-one will have died in vain.

Oh dear me Bo the world has come to its end.