Fact-Free Nation

I found a good article.  The title above is of the article from the current Mother Jones magazine about how lies have become normal in politics assisted by the media.

Here is the link to the full article:    http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/history-political-lying

It points out the evolution of the TV and radio news from the time of Vietnam.  With Vietnam the news casters, like Walter Cronkite who called the stalemate of the war and caused Johnson not to run for President again.  Reporters did their job questioning power. It was a time where a lie was called a lie.

Since the 80's, the news shifted from (1) being a financial lose to the networks, but adding integrity to the station to (2) news becoming fluff entertainment to draw viewers and adding financial support for the station.  It became uncouth or uncivilized to call a lie a lie. It all shifted to "balance," two sides of the story with no questioning for truth. The result from this is "news" with more liars.

In summary the article states: "... the difference between the untruths told by ... Lyndon B. Johnson, and the ones inundating us now: Today, it's not just the most powerful men who can lie and get away with it. It's just about anyone--a congressional back bender, an ideology-driven hack, a guy with a video camera--who can inject deception into the news cycle and the political disclosures on a grand scale.


Sure, there will be liars in positions of influence--that's stipulated, as the lawyers say.  And the media, God knows, have never been ideal watchdogs.... What's new is the way the liars and their enablers now work hand in glove.  That I call a mendocracy, and ti is the regime that governs us now."

I contend that the increase in number of liars and lies told have other origins. These are sample subjects for further discussion.

1. Journalism has been assimilated into Public Relations departments at the universities. An example is the University of Colorado.

2. Right-wing conservative elites and corporations are buying up all of the major media to add further control of the message.

3.  Heads of corporations that used to be experts in subjects related to the work and ethics related to their service, have been replaced with financial experts who have learned to maximize short term profit, game the system and are detached from the ethics of providing good products.

4. Threats by the GOP to take away public of public broadcasting has caused the neutralization of public radio and TV.  Their news shows have also been fuzzied and limited, because NPR and PBS don't want to alienate anyone, particularly the right-wing conservatives who always claim a liberal bias.  I believe removal of all public funding could improve public broadcasting.  However, I, also, believe the GOP would never withdraw all public funding. They have control over public broadcasting by maintaing the fear of funding loss.

This is only a start.

Koch Brothers: In the News Again (added information)

A friend wrote me in response to my blog post of 4-21-11 on Koch Brothers and said that I was lax in not documenting a source for my comment "...at least two current  Supreme Court Justices have attended a meeting..." referring to the secret meetings with the Koch's.  The following link provides further support and names Thomas and Scalia as the Justices.


http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/20/scalia-thomas-koch/


This article questions the ethics of the two.


So, do Koch's own the Supreme Court?  I think they own enough to make a difference for these rich right-wing conservatives.  


The 2010 election was the first election that allowed unlimited secret money to flow, indirectly, into federal candidates campaigns.  The money came from labor unions and corporations. However, since union assets make up a small fraction of what corporations have, I guess that the contributions from labor unions will be a small fraction of the corporate contributions.  Further dangers to democracy from the Citizens United ruling will present themselves over time. The 2012 election will have big time secret money going into it. We will see whether Wisconsin (another story) makes a difference for "the people," not corporate people, but real human beings of this country.

Koch Brothers: In the News Again

Democracy Now (DN) ran a segment this morning about The Nation Magazine article titled Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch. The article is about a packet sent by the Kochs last fall telling their 50,00 employees how to vote in the 2010 elections.  This DN segment is well worth seeing. 

Here is a link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/21/thought_control_right_wing_koch_brothers .  

The article link, which I have not read yet, is: http://www.thenation.com/article/160062/big-brothers-thought-control-koch .

Who are the Koch Brothers?  Check out this article from last August in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer


It appears that the Supreme Court ruling last year on Citizens United (CU), went much further than just allowing corporations (now defined as a person for free speech) to contribute unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns.  From findings reported in the article, CU allows employers to tell their employees to vote their way or else....   Employees that speak up, opposed to their employer, run a risk of being fired.   It was pointed out in the DN segment that 49 of the 50 states in the USA are "fire at will" states, meaning the employer can fire anyone for no reason.  These conditions stifle free speech of employees.

I now have a further question.  Did the Koch brothers buy the Supreme Court? 

Just a little background:  The Koch's host bi-annual meetings to plan out political moves.  Attending the meetings are about 150 common-thinking rich friends, politicians, and other dignitaries.  I hear that at least two current  Supreme Court Justices have attended a meetings in the past.  Have others?  Why would they be there?  Are they not supposed to be neutral to politics?  I don't know, but it seems fishy.

It just feels wrong, like another example of failing democracy in the USA. Certain rich will rule us as a plutocracy.

What do you think? Am I overly concerned?

Welcome and Introduction

Hi,

Welcome to my blog site.

My daughters and wife have been telling me for some time that I need a blog. I have been spouting off to them interesting information (to me) that I think is important for their continued education.  However, I generally do it by interrupting their activities and discussions with what they see as tangents, changing the course of their desires not to hear it, when I want to say it.

So, with this blog they can choose when to pay attention.  Also, it may be more clear after I have tried to clarify for myself what I am ranting about.  I hope they will read it, now and then. I hope they can learn something useful from me expressing my thoughts, frustrations, findings, opinions, ideas, conclusions, questions, observations, corrections and when I correct myself and change my mind.  My expressions may be on anything and everything interesting to my quirky thinking.  I'm curious to see where I go.

Thanks, Annie, for setting this up.

Just to start, I see things happening in this world as just fragments of information that gradually fit into puzzles with multiple pieces, dimensions, layers obscuring layers, and multiple puzzles.  For example, I realize news is just information on what people want us to hear.  Always information is left out that the source doesn't want us to know.  In addition those sources get their information in fragments from other sources with hidden agendas.  My concern is that the US media has become less and less reliable for news.  I find further that it often includes propaganda to mold our beliefs more than I ever realized.

In our busy lives it is not easy to understand "news" when it comes as a sound bite, tainted with opinion and only one liner details included.  I really enjoy looking for more details, different viewpoints, with many opinions and trying to see through propaganda.  I have come to believe much of what happens is not in our interests and is only for the interest of a few others.  My goal is to try to uncover what is kept from us--a complicated challenge, but "Fun."

I, also, have observations and beliefs that I have developed over time that may be fun to write about.

That's enough rambling to start this off?