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NEWS ROUNDUP (AUG 18, 2024)

In a rare moment, Fox News’ Bret Baier just praised President Biden & Vice President Harris for their historic work negotiating cheaper pharmaceutical costs for the American people.

In a stunning admission, one of the most conservative Senators, James Lankford, admits that it was Donald Trump who sabotaged the toughest border security legislation proposed in decades. 

"Lord above. He’s dumb." Claire McCaskill 

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#newsjunkie #news #NewsAlert #NewsRoundup #VoteBlueToSaveDemocracy #VoteBlue2024 

BEWARE OF WHAT LURKS BEHIND DOOR #2

 

Go Mika!!

Click for Go Mika !!

COLOR ME STUPID. THIS IS WHAT I DON'T GET.

President Biden’s debate performance was simply disastrous. But who was watching? ~ 50 million people tuned in. But who were these people?

The Maga crowd couldn’t have cared less. They know, no matter the facts, statistics, realities or scientific evidence, the con artist is their man. He is their Messiah. When he refers to ‘losers and fools’ – comments he directed at our military heroes – the backbone of the Maga crowd doesn’t realize that their Messiah-con-artist-would-be king-thug already thinks of them that way because they really are the suckers and fools. 

The hard core Democrats know who they are going to vote for so what’s a admittedly disastrous debate performance going to do to their support for Biden? The reality is that it hasn't changed much for the simple reason that Biden is a decent man of faith and principle who has been an outstanding president, by any measure, and is the only person who’s beaten Trump. 

Then there’s the third audience; the disillusioned Republicans & Independents who are the swing voters. And what did they think? To illustrate the point I’m trying to make is that there has been only a two point change in the polls.

Not to state the obvious, but a political campaign has at least two viable combatants. Meanwhile, journalists covering the campaign of 2024, are only following the aging Greyhound rabbit around and around the track without covering the other combatant – meaning the convicted felon, Donald Trump & his hallucinations on the stump when he’s not reading from prompter (and sometimes when he is), framed by his pathological behavior melded to his autocratic wet dream, nor is there any evidence that anyone has even considered a Plan ‘B’ to defeat his ambitions and our demise.

If (and I repeat, IF) there is a Plan ‘B’ we need to hear about it now! Otherwise the greatest failure will not be Joe Biden’s disastrous debate and his failure to step aside, but it will be the mainstream media who are empowered to inform and educate us about our options, and failed to do so again. That's the real 'covfefe'.

YIKES!! SHARK WEEK !!

> CONSIDER THIS <

Journalists!! Let's not forget what is lurking behind Door #2

 

#News #journalists #Journalism #voteblue #votebluetosavedemocracy #newsjunkie 

JOURNALISTS! DO YOUR JOBS!

I am really sick & tired of these one way reports about Biden's brain waves. It's a constant drumbeat. There are other sides to this conversation about Biden's abilities that are not being discussed nor reported in context.

Listen to Trump's meaningless confused mental meanderings when he's not on prompter and try to find ANY truth in anything he sez when he IS on prompter. BESIDES he is a fucking felon. I mean, really! Can you say the same for Biden? No!

If I was still working at CBS News or ABC News, I'd be screaming my head off about the lousy, lopsided coverage. There is absolutely NO perspective in most of the reportage. 

The MSM spent the 2016 campaign discussing//opining about tweeted words like "confefe". It took 3yrs before Trump was called out for what he was/is: a sociopathic liar. Jesus Christ! 

Act like real journalists, not wildebeest who follow the leading animal over the cliff because they can't think for themselves. 

Shame on you! "The medium is the message" Of all modern day elections, 2024 is PIVOTAL to our future. Please don't fuck it up.   

A FASCINATING STORY WITH BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS

The fascinating TED Talk about 70 writers who was really one man: Fernando Pessoa & all his heteronyms

2024 or 1984?

It has come to this: Escambia County, Florida, schools have banned the dictionary.

Five dictionaries are on the district’s list of more than 1,600 books banned pending investigation in December 2023, along with eight different encyclopedias, The Guinness Book of World Records, and Ripley’s Believe it or Not – all due to fears they violate the state’s new laws banning materials with “sexual conduct” from schools.

Biographies of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Nicki Minaj, and Thurgood Marshall are on the list, alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Black Panther comics by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Feminism Book was banned along with The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion.

The list obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project also includes Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. The Princess Diaries and 14 other books by Meg Cabot have been taken from libraries, alongside books by David Baldacci, Lee Child, Michael Crichton, Carl Hiaasen, Jonathan Franzen, John Green, John Grisham, Stephen King (23 of them), Dean Koontz, Cormac McCarthy, Celeste Ng, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, and Nicholas Sparks. Conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly’s two books, Killing Jesus and Killing Reagan, were also banned pending investigation.

For a complete list, click here.

THE AR-15

CLICK HERE

HEROINE FOR OUR TIMES

 CLICK HERE

THERE IS NO "FAIRNESS" IN NEWS

 Matthew Dowd

"I have said this many times over the last few years:  the goal of any news organization should not be “balance”.  The goal should be truth.  Balance should not be the pursuit.  Truth must be the North Star."

Yes sir! You  hit the nail on the head. Too much pussyfooting around under the guise of "fairness". There is no "fairness" in news; that's what alternate truth was // is all about. Bullshit. #newsjunkie

WHY?

How many civilians have been killed in Ukraine? How many are displaced // homeless? How many Ukrainian women have been raped? How many children have lost their parents & parents who have lost their children? Has Russian targeting been "surgical"? How many Ukrainian civilians have been living underground, in dark, damp cellars and basements as bombs rained down on their homes, playgrounds, trains, crops, hospitals and infrastructure? How many Ukrainian children have been kidnapped? Where is the outcry, demonstration & demand by young voters about Ukrainian civilians?

It appears to me that there are many similarities between these horrendous events, in Ukraine & Israel, but MSM focus and worldwide condemnation is directed at Israel like it's the most catastrophic of catastrophes?

Why?

THAT'S RIGHT.....WRONG AGAIN !!

HOUSE OF THE BIG LIE

"Fox's Reporting Fail: On one of the busiest travel days of the year, with the country in a heightened security stance as millions hit the road and air ahead of Thanksgiving, Fox News recklessly smashed the panic button and stoked fear from coast-to-coast. In the early afternoon, the right-wing network went live with a dramatic report from correspondent Alexis McAdams. McAdams declared that there had just been an "attempted terrorist attack" at the international bridge connecting the U.S. and Canada in Niagara Falls, breathlessly reporting that a "car full of explosives" had exploded at a border checkpoint. That report was placed atop Fox News' highly trafficked website and sent as a push alert to millions of phones via its app. The network went all in on it, even baselessly speculating on air about Islamic terrorist groups. It was careless — and it was wrong."

PHOTO BY MOHAMMED SALEM / REUTERS

 

HOW TO BRUSH YOUR DOG'S TEETH (IT'S IMPORTANT)

 

CLICK HERE

BULLSHIT, THE BOOK

"Bullshit" is a 2005 book (originally a 1986 essay) by American philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt which presents a theory of bullshit that defines the concept and analyzes the applications of bullshit in the context of communication.

Frankfurt determines that bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth. The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn't care if what they say is true or false.

Frankfurt's philosophical analysis of bullshit has been analyzed, criticized and adopted by academics since its publication.

TRUMP'S LATEST SCAM GETS A REPRIEVE

Merger for Trump’s Truth Social avoids collapse as proposed investment partner, facing liquidation, wins reprieve from shareholders

Shareholders in Digital World Acquisition, the would-be investment partner of former president Donald Trump’s media start-up, voted to approve an extension of the company’s merger deadline and give it more time to complete the deal, Digital World said Tuesday. The extension, granted three days before Digital World would have been required to liquidate, will give the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, another year to finalize its merger with Trump Media & Technology Group.  -- WAPO

Care to guess who the major stockholders are?

ENGLISH SENSIBILITY

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” 

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. 

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. 

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. 

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. 

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

IT'S NO JOKE

HOW TO LOSE A GENERAL ELECTION

“If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” -- Donald Trump, on Truth Social.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced what it would take to win her vote to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. The demands includes passing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, defunding his “weaponization of government,” eliminating funding for Covid-related mandates and cutting off new aid for Ukraine.

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“He’s a very, very, very intelligent person. He’s got good energy, and he could be some form of something. I tell you, I think he’d be very good.” -- Donald Trump, talking to Glenn Beck about possibly picking Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Wants to Run the Government Like Elon Musk

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“I’ve probably been called the N word more times in the last two-and-a-half years than most — a hundred people combined.” — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, quoted by WSB-TV.

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Would you, co-moderator Martha MacCallum asked DeSantis, support sending American Special Forces over the southern border to take out the cartels that produce fentanyl [...]

“Yes,” he replied confidently. “And I will do it on Day One.”

“Would I use force? Would I treat them as foreign terrorist organizations? You’re damn right I would,” he continued.

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Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) “spent the weekend amplifying unfounded allegations by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars that the President Joe Biden administration was preparing to impose new Covid-related lockdowns this fall,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

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Fox News host Laura Ingraham even wondered aloud on Tuesday whether the U.S. could still claim to be better than the Soviet Union, given the indictments against Trump. Yes, really. -- RELIABLE SOURCES

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“Just Say That the Election Was Corrupt, and Leave the Rest to Me” -- Donald Trump

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By many measures, Americans have lost their sense of community and voluntary civic engagement — what Alexis de Tocqueville called the “science of association” that was the source of the country’s strength. The combined effects of social media and the pandemic have left us isolated — and hungering for our lost civic ties. But you can’t rebuild community in a news desert. -- Dana Milbank Aug 11, 2023. WAPO

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This week, Salem Radio host Charlie Kirk called for President Joe Biden to either be "put in prison" or given "the death penalty" for supposed "crimes against America."

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Florida’s Department of Education has approved classroom use of videos that spout climate disinformation and distort climate science, Scientific American reports.

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“Donald Trump is a long, long way from winning the GOP primary, let alone retaking the White House. But he always has revenge on his mind, and his allies are preparing to use a future administration to not only undo all of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s work — but to take vengeance on Smith, and on virtually everyone else, who dared investigate Trump during his time out of power,”  -- Rolling Stone 

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Nearly a year after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, about $9 million in aid raised by Casey DeSantis for her relief campaign still hasn’t been spent, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

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“Trump’s political action committee, which began last year with $105 million, now has less than $4 million left in its account after paying tens of millions of dollars in legal fees for Mr. Trump and his associates.” -- NYT

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Supreme Court Approval at Record Low 

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Justice Samuel Alito told the Wall Street Journal that Congress has no authority to regulate the Supreme Court. 

Said Alito: “I know this is a con­tro­ver­sial view, but I’m will­ing to say it… No pro­vi­sion in the Con­sti­tu­tion gives them the au­thor­ity to reg­u­late the Supreme Court — pe­riod.”

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“There was a time when even a fraction of Donald Trump’s record of lawlessness and depravity would have shattered a person’s political career, rendered his party ashamed of its association with him, and left him humiliated and seeking forgiveness. But that day is long gone, at least if you’re a Republican.” -- Peter Wehner

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Polling released by The New York Times and Siena College on Monday found that only 5% of respondents who get their news from Fox News believe that Trump has "committed serious federal crimes," with an overwhelming 91% saying he has not done so. Meanwhile, 83% of Fox News-watching respondents believe that after the 2020 election, Trump "was just exercising his right to contest the" results. And, perhaps most importantly, 85% of Republican-leaning poll participants who primarily watch Fox News say the GOP needs to "stand behind" Trump.  ....Of course, Fox settle[d] Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million over US election lies 

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The leadership political action committee founded by Donald Trump paid $108,000 to Melania Trump’s stylist in the first six months of 2023 for “strategy consulting,” the Daily Beast reports.

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Mike Pence told Fox News that Donald Trump personally asked him to “literally reject votes” on January 6. Mike Pence told Fox News that Donald Trump personally asked him to “literally reject votes” on January 6. 

Said Pence: “Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes which would have resulted in the issue of being turned over to the house of representatives.”

He added: “They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.”

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“A man is running to run the government he tried to overthrow while he was running it, even as he is running to stay ahead of the law. That sounds loony, except in the topsy-turvy world of Donald Trump, where it has a grotesque logic.” --Maureen Dowd

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A new CNN poll finds that 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaners say Joe Biden’s win in 2020 was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year and through last fall, even as there is no evidence of election fraud that would have altered the outcome of the contest.

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“Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to fiscal concerns, a deterioration in U.S governance, as well as political polarization reflected partly by the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Reuters reports. This will cost taxpayers millions & millions more in interest payments

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“During [ the ] Republican primary debate, Ron DeSantis [ ... ] promised that, under his presidency, Mexican drug cartels would be “shot stone cold dead,” and vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, “we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”

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OPINION: A MODEST PROPOSAL

 As of late it has become obvious, if it wasn't before, that more white nationalists are hunting and murdering black people simply because of their color. Maybe it's time for the Black Panthers, heavily armed, as is their right, to make a reappearance -- as they did in the 60's -- to remind those that hunt them, that retribution is possible and deadly. That might change the current socio/political equation.

For more information on the Black Panther Party, click here or here or here.

POLITICAL ADS DON'T HAVE TO BE BORING

 CLICK HERE FOR A GOOD LAUGH

GIDDIUP JACK & FANI

 

'NUF SAID

 

REFLECTING ON THE SCOTUS OF 2023

Asked for my reaction to the recent decisions made by the SCOTUS, namely:

(1) affirmative actions based on race (2) web designer free speech issue re: LBGTQ & (3) student loans, this is what I think.

 

My current respect for the SCOTUS is low. Their recent decisions reek of partisan politics. Once upon a time I considered it a vaunted institution with gravitas until it entered the political arena, accepted and decided the Bush v Gore election which was strictly a state matter. 

 

IMO, it's now a failing institution, populated by liars, morphed into another grubby political entity, guarantied a lifetime of supreme rights and privilege without ethical standards and no checks and balances. From that position, it cannot rule with credibility. Moreover, fewer and fewer of its decisions appear more and more rooted in closely held personal views, thinly disguised as ponderous legal decisions.

So, you tell me, what opinions could I offer about decisions made under a political cloud? In principal, I think none of them have much merit based on the people passing the judgements. 

OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system: let's take them one at a time.

 

Free Speech: The aggrieved web designer who decided she didn't have to provide her creative services to a same sex couple. This case should have been rejected because it had no standing.

There was no gay couple, there was no request from anyone for a website that included LBGTQ information, the person named in the suit is a heterosexual man with a wife.

In other words, the decision was based on lies; it was a problem made up of whole cloth by a conservative political group using cutouts. That's why I would throw it out. 

But my own opinion is that a business open to the public should serve the public otherwise we will return to a country peppered with signage like "No blacks allowed" or "No Jews here". By its decision the SCOTUS simply created a new exception: “No gays will be served”.

Student Loan Forgiveness. If the executive branch didn't use the proper tool/law/regulation to order the forgiveness as an executive matter, then it should be rejected, as it was. But as an aside, I think it's a travesty for graduating students to begin their adult life behind a financial eight ball.

 

Affirmative Action: Quotas of any kind should go away. There are other means to separate the best cows from the herd without resorting to special treatment. But, as it is, this was a half-assed decision based on personal politics, ignoring legacy students, privileged high school athletes, children of wealth who are regularly admitted based on generous parental contributions to a stadium, building, auditorium or departmental chair.  

 

So these are my thoughts & reactions to the current spate of judgements passed down from a crumbling Mount Olympus. 

RANDY RAINBOW

cLIcK liNk

LAUGH UNTIL YOUR SIDES HURT

SNIPPETS

After looking at American history, it's not unreasonable to wonder whether elite impunity is a national religion. SOURCE: WAPO // Daily 202

"Donald Trump's political operation has spent more money since he left office on lawyers representing the former president and a pair of nonprofits staffed by former Cabinet members than it has on Republican congressional campaigns, the Washington Post reports.

"The Department of Education in Ohio is investigating the openly antisemitic and racist Nazi homeschooling group with thousands of members being operated by a couple from Upper Sandusky, Ohio,” Vice…

Katja Lawrence, 37, also shares examples of how her family embraces Nazi ideology, including baking a Fuhrer cake for Hitler’s birthday and sharing a recording of her children shouting "Sieg heil.”

The fourth resident of The Villages in Florida admitted to voting twice in the 2020 election, WKMG reports.

"Advisors to Newsom and DeSantis, who are coming off landslide reelection victories, expect competition to escalate between the two governors, who could at some point run for president. But their differences are greater than one contest between two men. They also reflect widening national schisms over culture, lifestyle and the definition of freedom — between those who see institutions as forces to lift people up and those who see them bearing down on people.”

Inside Russia's Propaganda Machine: "Be sure to take Tucker." That is what one Russian news producer emailed a colleague, according to leaked documents published Thursday by The NYT's Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, and Aaron Krolik. Relying on the leaked emails, the report provided a "rare glimpse into a propaganda machine that is perhaps Russia's greatest wartime success." And they showed how to spin up a narrative, "producers at the state media company cherry-picked from conservative Western media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Caller, as well as obscure social media accounts on Telegram and YouTube

 A.J. Bauer:  "The good news is 2023 will be the year that journalists finally learn how not to cover right-wing extremism in the United States. The bad news? They’ll learn by unwittingly bolstering its return to power in 2024."

Americans own nearly half the world's civilian-held guns ― but according to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), that's still not enough. "The Second Amendment is absolute, and it'S here to stay,” Boebert said Wednesday during a House floor speech. “A recent report states that Americans own 46% of the world's guns. I think we need to get our numbers up, boys and girls.”

On Doing Nothing | The Zen Teacher

March 9, 2020. One day a wife came in and saw her husband sitting in the La-Z-Boy recliner. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Nothing," he said. "You did that yesterday," she replied. "I know," the husband said. "But I wasn't done.". I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine about the difference between doing ...

The Art of Doing Nothing; Why Italians, not Americans, get this right.

 

HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF

If you are a true patriot, a news junkie, interested in "America First", a student of American History or about 80 years old, you should understand the importance of Rachel Maddow's podcast titled "ULTRA".  Listen to it here. 

WHEN ALL SENSE IS LOST, IT'S TIME TO LAUGH

 

MEET A MASS MURDERER IN TRAINING

AP Top News
U.S. News

California man avoids prison after 2021 attack on tortoise

Michelangelo, the 70-year-old African tortoise and San Jose preschool pet, wanders around at ARCHVET Animal Hospital in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, following surgery the day before after being beaten and stabbed by an assailant. On Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, a judge sentenced the assailant to two years of probation and mandatory mental health and substance abuse treatment, according to The San Jose Mercury News. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group via AP)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California man avoided prison time Friday after he drunkenly trespassed at a preschool last year and attacked a pet tortoise named Michelangelo, The San Jose Mercury News reported.

The 42-year-old man was also linked to other break-ins at the East San Jose school, and stole thousands of dollars of items in the days before and after the attack on Michelangelo, a decades-old African sulcata, in January 2021.

The school's owner discovered Michelangelo bleeding last year after the attack, impaled in the shell with 6-inch (15-centimeter) shards from a wooden garden gate post. The man had also shoved a rake handle between the animal’s head and leg and broke flood lamps and put the shattered glass on the tortoise’s back, The Mercury News reported.

A judge sentenced the man Friday to two years of probation and mandatory mental health and substance abuse treatment. He had pleaded no contest to charges of animal abuse, commercial burglary and vandalism earlier this year, the newspaper reported.

The man is now also banned from having any animals for 10 years. His public defender said his client’s behavior against the tortoise was the result of excessive intoxication, rather than animal cruelty, the newspaper wrote.

The preschool did not return the newspaper's request for comment Friday.

BARBARA WALTERS (SEPT 1929 - DEC 2022)

When I thought about it, I knew in my gut that Barbara Walters was getting on in age but -- like most of you -- I was still both surprised and saddened to read of her passing on Dec 30th at age 93. 

It recalled memories from ~40 yrs ago when I was directing  "20/20" -- before Barbara arrived on the scene to share hosting duties with the gentlemanly Hugh Downs. That was after she was hired away from NBC News at the princely sum of $1,000,000 (unheard of) to anchor the ABC evening news with Harry Reasoner. That didn't go well. So 20/20 inherited Barbara; the Queen Bee arrived and life changed.

 

New office arrangements had to be made, bla, bla, bla and so forth and so on & Hugh had to make a few adjustments.

 

I had the "pleasure" of working with Ms. Walters a few times during my time on "20/20" but the one I remember most was her interview with Richard Nixon. Nixon had agreed to an interview, but only if it was live. He didn't want anyone editing his words. No problem for me as I had come off of Good Morning America and was used to going live but the "20/20" staff was not as sanguine about the idea. Naturally tensions were higher as "20/20" was really a recorded magazine type program.

 

A separate area of our set was arranged for the one-on-one interview, lighting and camera shots were set. We timed moving cameras from the "20/20" positions to the interview area; no need for more cameras (cameras were made to move, after all). And so 20/20 went on the air, live with Hugh at the anchor spot; Barbara & Tricky Dickey nowhere in sight. The change over occurred during a commercial break (usually 60 seconds, maybe 120 seconds; I don't remember) but everything worked smoothly & everyone was in position, lit, miked and ready to go.

 

Now we all know Barbara had this knack of asking pointed questions, sweetly but pointed....like a javelin to the heart. Barbara to Monica Lewinsky: 'What do you think you will tell your children? Lewinsky: That mommie made a big mistake.' You get the idea. So, in the back of my brain, I wondered what Barbara was going to do with Nixon.

 

Demanding that an interview go live is a two edged sword much like a taped interview but different. A taped interview is honed down by a producer, frequently overseen by a lawyer. That could be good or bad. On the other hand, a live event airs.....well.... live with few controls. Remember Geraldo Rivera's prime time hunt for Al Capone's safe?

 

As usual, Barbara had done her meticulous research and the interview started off pleasantly enough. Nixon was stiff..... as usual... and a bit arrogant... as usual.... and Barbara asked some good but relatively innocuous policy questions (for her) to soften him up, to make him feel like he had this but you just knew that Watergate had to come up. But when? 

 

By the first commercial break, the questions became more personal and that trend continued through the 2nd break. By the final segment, Nixon was somewhat uncomfortable, fidgety & a bit  argumentative but Barbara smoothed the waters.

 

But at 58:00 minutes into the 58:30 minute interview, she pounced. Barbara: "Are you sorry you didn't burn the tapes?" … "If  you had it to do all over again, you would have burned them?" Nixon: "Yes". And so the interview and the hour-long program ended. Guess what everyone remembers? Boom! Talk about a mike drop. That was the magic of Barbara Walters.

 

Link to Nixon Interview

TOM CRUISE AT IT AGAIN!

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE

POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS

I once had the temerity to suggest that the best "punishment" for Trump's misdeeds was to put him under house arrest at Mar-A-Lago where he could focus on himself without interruption.  Then I read the following in Vanity Fair:

Inside Trump's sad little Mar-a-Lago life, where his assistants beg people to call him and 'boost his spirits with positive affirmations' and people clap after he cuts his food with a fork and knife.

Here's the full article. I guess I was prescient. 

SIGN OF THE TIMES

First, the background.

.....so the former POTUS, who served the Nation from 2016-2020, had a wonderful Mar-a-Lago lunch with  white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West (aka Ye). 

Part of the conversation centered around Ye's intention to make another run for POTUS in 2024. He asked the former POTUS, who served the Nation from 2016-2020, if he would serve as his VP.  

The former POTUS, who served the Nation from 2016-2020, became irate & according to Ye:

"When Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose — I mean has that ever worked for anyone in history,”West said in the video. I'm like hold on, hold on, hold on, Trump, you're talking to Ye.”

SOURCE: Vanity Fair

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