Category: Politics

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

In the spirit of how to debunk misinformation and disinformation, I encourage you to examine The Financial Services Forum, The American Accountability Foundation, The Epoch Times, Fox News, and One America Network(OAN), among others, using the media literacy skills taught by the News Literacy Project from #1 above under "How to Debunk."  Click on the News Literacy Project link to start your work.

Please read South Dakota Senator John Thune’s reply to President Joseph R. Biden’s State of the Union Address on Thursday, March 6, 2024. His short statement is, at best one lie or partial truth after another. I guess that it is the best that the modern MAGA-led Republican Party can come up with at this point.

In an interview that Thune did with the PBS News Hour before Biden addressed the nation, he said that the United States under President Biden was “going in the wrong direction.” Thune is one of the front runners to take over the broken Republican Senate Minority. How appropriate that he uses gaslighting, a popular tool among propagandists to convince people that something that they see happening with their own eyes isn’t really happening.

In case you missed the above link, here is the text of Thune’s comments:

“President Biden’s tenure will be defined by rampant inflation, lawlessness at the southern border, and a weakening of America’s standing on the world stage.

“No amount of words from the president tonight could have erased the actions he’s taken to undermine America’s economic security, energy security, and national security.

“The consequences of these actions are felt at home and abroad, in the grocery store and at the southern border, and these consequences will linger far beyond President Biden’s term in office.

“We must reverse course – and Republicans are eager to lead the way. We have Republican solutions to unleash American energy, strengthen our military to prepare for the rising threats in today’s world, and finally secure the southern border. Unfortunately, for the past three years, we haven’t had a willing partner in the White House to help us achieve these goals.

“Though the president and I have sharp differences in opinion when it comes to policy, one thing we can agree on is that we are fortunate to live in the greatest country in the world. The blessings that we have as Americans are made possible by the brave men and women in uniform who defend our interests around the globe – and tonight, and every night, I thank them and their families for their service and sacrifice."

Legal scholar and political analyst Barbara McQuade takes a hard look at how tactics like those that Thune is exhibiting in this piece are the foundational tactics used by totalitarian rulers and their propagandists to undermine and attempt to discredit their democratic opponents.

In her book, “Attack From Within” McQuade presents who, why and how strongman ruler wannabees attract and keep their followers and the threat that they present to free societies everywhere.

Sen. Thune’s comments exhibit a destruction of the truth, repeat a series of un- and, at best, half-truths to distract the American people from the “Big Lie” by guarding it with a very large collection of smaller lies that are repeated and repeated and repeated.

He keeps the message simple: we good, they bad. He avoids insult, because insult is not a tool that you want to use in plain sight and earshot of those who haven’t bought into the MAGA hellscape. Republicans can only tell the lies to their devoted followers in order to exploit divisions, undermine critics, appeal to emotion over reason, stoke violence, seek to dismantle public institutions (like the Supreme Court) and, as McQuade puts it, “create an image of the Great Leader as both an Everyman and a strongman.” This is reserved for private White Nationalist self flagellation parties.

So, I have a few clarifying questions for Sen. Thune (you can answer them too). Start each one with “If we are headed in the wrong direction then…

1. is forgiving student debt heading in the wrong direction?
2. is the fact that unemployment is steadily dropping heading in the wrong direction?
3. is increasing domestic production of oil is at an all time high for any nation in the world? (One can argue this quite vehemently, but I mention it here because this doesn’t fit with the great leader’s message about the future of energy.)
4. is raising taxes on the wealthiest of America’s One Percenters a bad thing for anyone but the One Percenters?
5. is steadily lowering inflation a bad thing?
6. are “making smart investments in America, empowering workers, and promoting competition to lower costs and help small businesses” a bad thing? Source: The three pillars of Biden’s plan to restore the American economy and build it for the future.
7. Is providing health care for millions of Americans who otherwise couldn’t afford it a bad thing?
8. is strengthening voting rights a bad thing?
9. is preparing for a clean energy future a bad thing?
10. why does over 40% of the world’s population remain optomistic about the future of the planet?
11. what is your direction?
12. does a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body not matter to you?
13. does a Supreme Court that makes up it’s own version of the Constitution work for you?
14. why is the Financial Services Forum pissed off with President Biden? (watch for the ads that say the economy is struggling)
15. will Vladimir Putin be our next president?
16. does that mean that the three R’s are “Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmatic” and not “Resentment, Revenge and Retribution”
17. where will the Republican Party lead us under Donald Trump?
18. what is the right direction?

A few questions to ponder.

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

In the spirit of how to debunk misinformation and disinformation, I encourage you to examine The Financial Services Forum, The American Accountability Foundation, The Epoch Times, Fox News, and One America Network(OAN), among others, using the media literacy skills taught by the News Literacy Project from #1 above under "How to Debunk."  Click on the News Literacy Project link to start your work.

Black history is American history (A satirical clip from Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” 2002 summarizes American history in 3:42).

Any honest depiction of a comprehensive history of the United States must include Black history. More broadly speaking , Black history aside from being a story of the African diaspora in America for the past 500 years, is the story that serves as a spotlight on what it means to not have white skin in America. That is a story for another month, but one that is inextricably joined at the hip with Black History.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that American history is merely a part of the larger story of America’s Black history. Black history is a comprehensive look at the whole of history not just cherry picked parts of it. The study of Black history is the study of long suffering as laid out in the Bible. Black history is the study of politics and the patience and perseverance required to pass the Civil Rights Act and to add the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution after the Civil War. Black history is the history of the struggle of women to be treated as equals to men. Black history is enduring unspeakable physical and emotional abuse and teaching what forgiveness looks like. Black history is enduring the ravages of time knowing that a greater kingdom awaits. Black History is raw and honest unlike White History.

Studying and at least partially understanding Black history opens up the window to the soul of America. It also opens up the window to truth, reconciliation and healing that will help mend our torn nation.

Black history is more important than white history. It is the real deal. It is the flesh and blood reality of the idealism set forth in the Constitution. All of the happy and all of the sad. It is the real deal. Nothing sugar-coated about it. It’s the real thing.

Black history is the thing that white America doesn’t want to hear, but must hear. As this Black History Month draws to a close, don’t let your interest in it fade away just because it is no longer February. Read, watch, talk and listen to America through the lens of Black History. We continue to ignore it at our peril.

Here’s some material to help in our continuing study of Black history.

Peace be with you.

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

In the spirit of how to debunk misinformation and disinformation, I encourage you to examine The Financial Services Forum, The American Accountability Foundation, The Epoch Times, Fox News, and One America Network(OAN), among others, using the media literacy skills taught by the News Literacy Project from #1 above under "How to Debunk."  Click on the News Literacy Project link to start your work.

I’m done spending any time on Trump. He’s a two-bit puppet-man grifter working for President Putin of Russia and President Xi of China. Putin pulls Trump’s strings and Xi operates behind the scenes to support Russia and protect it from Western sanctions against Russian oil proceeds as Putin continues on his mission to undermine Western democracy.

Authoritarians stick together. Putin and Xi have lots of experience in this area. Xi is careful not to dirty his own hands, but is more than willing to have Putin dirty his in the quest for global domination.

My personal attention now is on how can Putin and Xi be diminished to the point where they no longer have the power to maintain control over one of America’s two main political parties? The Republican Party is getting it’s marching orders from Moscow. Of that, there is very little to no question. The chaotic and disjointed behavior of GOP legislators at the state and federal levels in recent years is the smoke. Putin and Xi lit the fires. Cut at least one of the heads off this two headed snake and the Republican Party will mercifully die and provide room for a new party committed to the American Constitution to take it’s place. One that is free and clear of the outsider interest that brought us Trump in the first place.

This won’t happen over night, but with help from the American voter in 2024, the process can be nudged along in that direction.

No longer will the United States be openly and brazenly hacked by foreign powers. No longer will gun violence be allowed to run unabated; No longer will common criminal behavior be allowed in positions of great political power and influence; No longer will Americans be subject to the obscene levels of mis- and disinformation that come with direct outside involvement in our domestic politics; No longer will Americans die or suffer unnecessarily because rationality and science are ignored; No longer must we accept that we are Red and Blue; No longer will “alternative facts” interrupt our decision making processes; No longer will immigrants be demonized;

Trump is a waste of your time. We need to throw water on Putin and Xi and see what emerges from the smoke!

God bless us all.

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

In the spirit of how to debunk misinformation and disinformation, I encourage you to examine The Financial Services Forum, The American Accountability Foundation, The Epoch Times, Fox News, and One America Network(OAN), among others, using the media literacy skills taught by the News Literacy Project from #1 above under "How to Debunk."  Click on the News Literacy Project link to start your work.

Like I said in a previous post, I’m a big picture thinker. I’ll also confess to being a political conspiracy theorist. The difference between most Right Wing conspiracy theories revolving around the 2020 Election is that there is no evidence to back up any of the claims. It is based on virtually nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch factual information.

On the other hand, my Conspiracy theory is that Russian President-for-Life Vladimir Putin successfully tampered with the 2016 election in order to get Donald Trump elected president. He has his claws sunk deeply into Donald Trump. Donald Trump has his claws sunk deeply into the MAGA controlled Republican Party. The MAGA controlled Republican Congress is holding up aid to Israel and Ukraine despite massive concessions in a Bi-partisan bill that offers Mexican border security provisions that past iterations of the Republican Party would have tripped over themselves to pass.

There is at least some smoke coming from my conspiracy theory campfire. The 2020 Election denial theories are, well, simply based on pure fiction. And the fiction is about as good as fiction can get.

Why is the MAGA controlled Republican Congress refusing to address the Bi-partisan bill? Speaker Mike Johnson in the House of Representatives is calling the Senate-produced bill “dead-on-arrival.” He will not even allow the bill to reach the House floor for debate. Does Trump’s relationship with Putin have anything to do with this decision by Mike Johnson?

I have more questions than answers, but, be honest, who doesn’t like a GOOD Conspiracy theory? Stay tuned, the fun is only beginning.

Instead of trying to offer an inadequate summary of the evidence in the Putin-Trump connection, read it here for yourself. Pick and choose which evidence you want to read, there’s 448 pages of it.

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

In the spirit of how to debunk misinformation and disinformation, I encourage you to examine The Financial Services Forum, The American Accountability Foundation, The Epoch Times, Fox News, and One America Network(OAN), among others, using the media literacy skills taught by the News Literacy Project from #1 above under "How to Debunk."  Click on the News Literacy Project link to start your work.

The “Battle of the Bulge” is widely called the greatest battle in U.S. Military history. World War 2 was nearing it’s end and it was just before Christmas (December 16, 1944), when an unexpected German counter offensive in the Ardennes forest of Belgium caught Allied forces off guard. The offensive resulted in a giant bulge in the 85 mile long Allied front line in the densely forested area.

German tanks and infantry actually breached the line on Day 1 of the military action. Reinforcements were called in to support the battle weary troops in the bitterly cold, wet and foggy and snowy conditions of the Ardennes over the next several days. One of the units called in to reinforce the beleaguered American soldiers was the 101st Airborne Division, a battle hardened group that was asked to to hold the vital transportation hub of Bastogne. Things remained bleak for Allied forces and Bastogne was surrounded by German forces.

On December 22, the German Commander sent a message to the Commanding General of the 101st. Upon receipt of the message, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe was said to have replied with the one word answer, “Nuts!”

Three days later on Christmas Day, the weather broke allowing allied aircraft to take control of the skies over the Ardennes. The 101st held on until Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army arrived to liberate Bastogne and drive German forces back across the Rhine into Germany. Within five months, the war in Europe would be over thanks to the heroic actions of American soldiers throughout the Ardennes.

So what does this have to do with anything? It was a battle fought early eighty years ago far away in Europe. Who cares?

Well, I bring it back into the light because to me it seems analogous to the political battle being waged against democracy in the United States. In America, we thought that the war was won (The Revolutionary War) and that we would be able to occupy our place of power in the world using a Capitalist economic system covered by a thin veneer of Democracy.

That thin veneer of democracy is bulging now and the opposition forces have breached the lines and have surrounded the people and institutions trying to hold on against the counter offensive of those that want democracy to fail.

A Legislative body that is hell bent to do nothing in defense of Democracy, a Judicial branch that has been turned into a partisan shit show and the very real possibility that the Executive Branch will be controlled by a petulant, vindictive, delusional and well protected former president that has no future outside of prison unless he becomes president again.

So, in the words of the commanding general at Bastogne, I say “NUTS!” to the surrounding forces asking us defenders of democracy to surrender. The fight is just beginning, the clouds are starting to part and reinforcements are on the way.

God bless you all regardless of where you stand (or sit) on the political spectrum. It’s going to be an interesting 2024 and I plan on not being a spectator.

Bruce

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

The Roberts Court mission is to undermine the rule of law. Precedent means nothing to the Elitist Six. What is the law without precedent? To take it further…

What is Science without evidence? What is a s’more without a marshmallow? What is a swimming pool without water?

Recent decisions indicate a radical sharp turn to the right. Citizens United (corporations are individuals), Dobbs (overturning of Roe v. Wade), the Harvard case on Affirmative Action.

And what’s with the SCOTUS ruling in favor of a web designer who didn’t want to do websites for gay weddings? One thing that is strange about this ruling is that it was based on an event that hasn’t yet happened. This ruling was based on a hypothetical action. Nothing had occurred in real life for which the plaintiff could have been so damaged as to have legal standing to sue in the first place. With this court, precedent means nothing. If the law doesn’t support what you want to accomplish, just change the law. Or better yet, make up the law and invent your own non-existent precedent.

The jury is still out on how big an impact the Harvard ruling will have on how the playing field of higher education can be leveled for people of color. Saying that race shouldn’t enter into societal efforts to counter the effects of past racial practices in the United States is simply failing to address our national problem with white supremacy culture. We as a people will find a way to do the right thing regardless of right wing elitist efforts to codify this white supremacy culture.

Failure to enact and enforce self imposed ethics standards to avoid justices from being bought off by wealthy political players.

Blocking President Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program. How cynical and protective of elite right wing wealth. What are they thinking? If they are so bent on saving money for current and future billionaires maybe the six right leaning justices should go to Russia where the government is organized to make the rich richer. I guess maybe that’s what we’ve had in America all along… The real revolt is coming from the left to re-order the corporate gravy train and tip some of the wealth down to the 99%. Don’t be fooled by the right. Keep your eyes on the prize and what’s really at stake in the good old U.S. of A.

The highest court in the United States is making a mockery of the law. It seems consistent that the highest court is turning itself into a sham body not deserving of respect. I think the Federalist Society and the radical right are intentionally trying to foment public distrust in the judiciary just as other extremists are attempting to do with the Executive Branch and the Legislative branch.

What else is going on?

The American Economy is doing quite well, thank you very much.  If it really is "It's the economy stupid" as Bill Clinton famously called the most important issue in presidential elections, then all of the right wing smoke and mirrors is for naught for 2024.

Is anyone tired of Donald Trump yet?  I believe that I can answer and unwavering "Yes" from the Left. Reasonable Republicans, what think you?

Ted Lasso for President.  I know he is a made up television character, but if he were real I'd knock on doors for him.

What do Wisconsin Republican legislators have against the University of Wisconsin?

4.  "I believe that there is good and evil and I choose the side of good.  I acknowledge that there is evil in me, but it is my work to feed the side of goodness."  I'm on hold with writing about belief number four as I continue my reading on the topic of good and evil.

The ultra Conservative elites took an ideological symbolic blow with the Wagner Mercenary march on Moscow.  Their hero and role model Vlad Putin lost a chunk of his swagger.  What does he do in response?  Kill innocent Ukrainians at a pizza parlor.  The S.O.B. is self destructing.

Hope and optimism win over fear and disinformation.  The elaborate right wing effort to preserve rich white oilagarch privilege will collapse under the weight of it's own false premise.  The house of cards is starting to fail.

Away with the cynical , negative and racist . Awaken your hearts once again to goodness, righteousness and justice. Turn from the politics of fear and distrust.

The world is a beautiful place.  Remember that "Love Wins."

Anyone who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

Voltaire

No matter how many Russians and Ukrainians die in Putin's attempt to destroy Ukraine and its Democracy, after one week he has already failed in his dual goals:

1.  To demonstrate his power and might
2.  Prove that Democracy doesn't work.

Vladimir Putin instead has proven that he is a gutless, feckless, cowardly international bully. He is incompetent at fulfilling his duties as the Russian commander in chief.

Despite massive disinformation campaigns in Russia and outside of Russia, he has been unable to bring his country to consensus about the invasion let alone holding together his loose cabal of authoritarian wanna bees. Viktor Orban in Hungary and Recep Erdogan in Turkey have seized the moment to dive back under the NATO tent, perhaps fearing that their hero might come after them next.

Speaking on MSNBC’s “The Beat” yesterday, Chai Komanduri outlined the reasons for the political right in the United States flocking to the model of Russia under Vladimir Putin:

• An economy based on fossil fuels (aka climate change denial)
• Far right religious leaders driving social policy (nearly 80% of Russians are Christians)
• Strongman ruler
• White Ethno Nationalism

Komanduri equated Russia to “a gas station masquerading as a country.” I had to stop and think about that for awhile before it made sense. Russia’s reason for being is to find, refine and sell petroleum products to fund the Oligarchs that keep Putin propped up and out of risk of losing his political job. Without fossil fuels, petro chemicals, “black gold” this current iteration of Russia would cease to exist. You don’t have to look too far away from Putin’s Russia to see where climate change denial came from in the first place.

Recognition of diversity in ethnicity, sexuality and multiculturalism simply is not tolerated in Russia. Russia’s majority Christian population is guided by conservative political beliefs which I urge you to read more about in the linked article.

Authoritarians seem to be the “in thing” for the party without a policy henceforth to be referred to as the RePutlican Party. Find a figure-head puppet strongman put them under the thumb of the ruling economic elite class and you have a group of rich and powerful Billionaires protecting their wealth and power for generations to come. Sort of sounds like Donald Trump doesn’t it? Find someone who is split hair away from being a convicted felon and put them into the world’s most powerful position.

Make no mistake that Russia under Putin is a white nationalist state. The same kind of a place that Tucker Carlson and Lauren Boebert would like to turn the United States into is in full and open view to the world as I write this piece. Putin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Trump’s United States. One in the same, synonymous and equally pathetic and despicable. A world rooted in white nationalism, hatred, intolerance and greed.

The strength, resolve and unity of democratic forces around the world have shown the clear and irrefutable response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is proof positive that democracy works. Ukrainians are fighting and dying for Democracy. My guess is that people like Mr. Carlson and Ms. Boebert have never had to fight for the freedom which gives them the right to speak their poison no matter how frighteningly ignorant and misguided that it is in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Mr. Putin has already is a fraud. Americans, when given the facts, can spot a fraud a mile away. Denounce Putin, denounce Putin followers and stand up for democracy.

As long as I live and breath (and beyond) I fill do my part to carry out the mission that the “Greatest Generation” set out for us. “Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

Voltaire

I didn’t know much about the frenchman Votaire until Congressman Jeremy Raskin invoked the above quote at the second Trump impeachment trial. But, how painfully meaningful it is now as we watch Vladimir Putin, the embodiment of evil in the world, wreak destruction on the little country of Ukraine simply because it shares a border with Russia. Maybe the fact that it is a democracy also has a little to do with it .

It’s also not surprising that China has jumped in to help Russia by buying the oil that the West will no longer buy from the Russian oligarchs. Oligarchs and Communists don’t like Democrats. They just can’t be bothered by the opinions, wishes and needs of their citizens.

Blaming the Russian people for their ignorance is naive. They are subjected to disinformation and often times no information from the Kremlin elite. The old saying “Garbage in, Garbage out” applies. Putin lies and Kiev burns.

Ukrainian bravery and the willingness to fight tooth and nail for Democracy is a an example that those of us in the West, particularly the United States, should take to heart. Their democracy is hard earned and recent. Our democracy has gotten stale. Perhaps because we haven’t had to fight for it lately. It’s time to fight for it now.

Russia and China have found that time is ripe to try and end representative democracy as a political system. COVID disinformation, climate change denial, the injection of Putin’s poison directly into the veins of American democracy through social media disinformation campaigns during our 2016 and 2020 election cycles and the spreading of propaganda and flat out lies from Fox News and other wealthy, white, right wing Communist sympathizers acting as Putin’s assets within our own borders.

Don’t forget Putin’s campaign to arm Americans with automatic weapons and foment racial discord. Remember Maria Butina, the Russian agent that infiltrated the NRA? She’s now busying herself by saying that Ukrainian children should not be given guns because they don’t know how to use them.

Then there was the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016. Where did Donald Trump come from? Putin had his asset in Trump. Trump loves money. Putin knew Trump wanted a Trump Tower in Moscow. Putin say a way to inject his poison using Trump’s greed and thusTrump became the needle.

Voting rights. What happened to voting rights? A cornerstone of the American Constitution. The latest effort to strengthen voting rights was unilaterally denied, maybe sabotaged is a better word, by the American Republican Party en masse. Why? Did Putin have anything to do with it? You can likely guess how I would answer that question. That’s when my conspiracy theory goes to another level, but that will have to wait for another day.

One more thing and then my rant is done. Why didn’t Putin invade Ukraine while Trump was in office? Why didn’t they finish what they started in 2014 in the Crimea? After all, Trump had already made clear that he didn’t want the US to honor its NATO commitments and his propensity to mysteriously take the side of the Oligarch supported Authoritarian thinly-veiled Communist Putin over his own government seemed a golden opportunity for Putin to do exactly what Hitler had tried to do in the 1930s and 40s. Continue his march beyond Ukraine and on into the rest of Europe.

Well, maybe one more thing. Where does the wealthy, white, elite right Billionaire class fit into this scenario? People like Paypals Peter Thiel or The Koch Brothers (now brother)? What do they have to gain from the fall of democracy? More absurdities and atrocities await exposure to the light of day. More on those later.

In the meantime, let me leave you on a positive note just to remind you that I express my support for democracy through other platforms as well. Check out this song composed by John M. Ector and performed by the Alegria Singers of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose. It is titled “Love is.” I think you will recognize some familiar musical themes in it. Enjoy.

Remember to read the underlined text.  I have linked the text to additional information.

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

So reads the headline on the back page of the San Jose Mercury News Business section of. Ferbruary 8, 2022. So, who is Peter Thiel and why does he have the distinction of making it into my self-esteemed blog?

You can read more about Thiel in the link attached to his name in the first paragraph, but briefly, Thiel is a German American Billionaire who was the founder of a little company that you might know, Paypal.

I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around all of the craziness going on in the world in general and in the United States in particular over the last two decades.

Disinformation, Voter suppression, COVID deaths in the U.S. that are unexplainable in a country of our status in the area of medical science, the election of a red headed puppet, allowing climate change to go on unabated despite even the most skeptical of climate scientists agreeing that it is real, conspiracy theories that boggle the mind, a Supreme Court that has forgotten that it’s job is to rule on laws based on the Constitution and not on partisan politics.

You can go from section to section in the newspaper or from tweet to tweet, text to text, blog to blog, podcast to podcast and Facebook post to Facebook post in search of an answer that will help make sense of this craziness.

Well, this news that the 54 year old Billionaire Thiel is leaving his seat on the Board of Mark Zuckerburg’s Meta/Facebook adds a little more credence to my (it’s probably not just my) theory that all of this mess that we are in right now is the result of people like Trump and Thiel who stand to lose a great deal in the new world of multiculturalism and Democracy where the wealthy will have to, don’t cry please, pay their share of the bill in making the United States of America the place where there is “liberty and justice for all.”

This article came from the New York Times article by Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac. A statement in the article attributed to a person “with knowledge of Thiel’s thinking” who declined to be identified, said that “Thiel sees the midterms as crucial to changing the direction of the country,” this person said, and he is backing candidates who support the agenda of former president Donald Trump. Candidates like Senate candidates Blake Masters in Arizona and J.D. Vance in Ohio who each received $10 Million donations to their campaigns last year.

Could it be that Thiel does not like that his adopted country is moving in the direction of multiculturalism, justice and equality? Could it be that he doesn’t want to part with a bit more of his fortune to help bring about that equality? Could it be that having more people of color voting for future American leaders that stand for a more diverse American representation in the institutions of government just doesn’t fit Thiel’s world view? Could it be that Thiel is throwing good money in the wrong direction? The answers to all of those questions in “Yes.”

I think Thiel’s story is a microcosm of the story of America’s wealthy white elites and their role in this unnatural mess. Make no mistake that it is their money that is supporting the demons of disinformation, the darlings of doubt and. the harbingers of hatred coming from the far Right of the. Republican Party . The disinformation, doubt and hatred that is the mess created for the self serving purpose of maintaining wealth and power.

It will be hard to beat these people back and truly change the direction of the country away from Thiel’s vision and towards the vision that most of us have in our hearts and souls. A vision of a country where there truly is liberty and justice for all.

See through the Peter Thiels’ and the Donald Trumps’. They represent the direction that the rich and powerful have always led us. Now is the time to go in the other direction.