Open Thread - Friday, May 15, 2014
Hello everyone. I have mostly checked out of the 24 hour news cycle. That includes expending too much energy slogging through the Internet.
The television side of the business is lacking substance.
How have 24-hour news stations affected society?
In the beginning there was Cronkite. And it was good. The mighty Walter was "the most trusted man in America," and the CBS Evening News is how the nation got its daily dose of current events -- faster than waiting until tomorrow morning for the paper!
And then there was Ted Turner's Cable News Network, CNN, which flicked on its broadcasters in 1980. Suddenly, news producers needed to fill not only one half-hour time slot, but 48 of these time slots, every day. Is there really that much going on in the world?
Is what they do journalism or just sensationalism and spin doctoring?
With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the “reporting” that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. The collapse of journalism means that the quest for information has been superseded by the quest for ammunition. A case-study of our post-journalistic age.
The US populace is captive to lacking media, mesmerized by television, woefully uninformed and easily manipulated.
The Right-Wing Echo Chamber Extends Far Beyond Fox News
Ever wonder why conservatives don’t believe humans are causing global warming, despite widespread agreement among scientists? Or that President Obama was born in America, even though he has produced his birth certificate? One reason could be the right-wing echo chamber—the tendency of conservatives to get the vast majority of their news coverage from Fox News or conservative radio stations, distrust all other news sources, and have mostly like-minded friends.
Kicking the 24 hour news cycle is tough. It was like quitting coffee or something. However, yelling at the radio during Morning Edition or reading the latest dumb ass quote was only making me miserable.
Internet hours were only making my ass flat and wrist sore. I could do 12 oz curls and still get a flat ass and sore wrist. Especially if there were a dart board.
This is in no way an indictment of the good company here @ C99. C99 is a symptom of the greater problem. Another site's "liberals" have rubber stamped HRC, flames any criticism of BHO, tolerates war ethnocentrism and has acquiesced to the status quo. Where can progressives and DFHs go? We can go to the outskirts of town.
I hope everyone has nothing but good news, and a great weekend.
Go ahead and yell at the Internet. It's cathartic.
I got this round.
Comments
Mayor of Bluesville has been recalled
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
&
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
RIP BB
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Huge bummer...
RIP BB, Lucille should be buried with him.
I have room for one more
Hopefully it is auctioned off and the proceeds used to help aging musicians.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Actually...
it should go in the Smithsonian. I think I remember there actually being several Lucilles throughout the course of the years.
My house sounds better
I would give it love.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Lucille
Yes, I saw on tv last night that he has had several guitars and he names them all Lucille. They cut to BB and he said, "This is Lucille number 15."
I guess tv is good for something, NCTim.
I canceled cable awhile back and sometimes miss it, but then I remember that if I had it back I would be flipping through the channels not finding anything I wanted to watch. So, I think I miss it, but don't really.
mornin' tim...
i just popped in to share the news about bb and i see you beat me to it. it's a sad loss, but the guy certainly deserves a rest. he toured and shared the beauty of the blues relentlessly long after most folks would have rested on their laurels.
regarding the "outskirts of town,' perhaps there's some lyrical possibilities there...
i'm movin' to the caucus, gonna paint my mailbox blue...
Sounds like a plan
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Well, we have to do something.
I can't believe there isn't a major organized effort revolving around the next election. I think it's being hampered by
the money forces who coopt a lot of these progressive, liberal, left organizations and steer the activism in a certain direction,
which is into the establishment system. I don't think a third party can do anything either. They're having some success in
Spain and Greece with alternate third parties but the money forces are so strong they can't hold up within the establishment
system. The austerity and New World Order preparations continue anyway.
I think there should be a boycott of the 2016 presidential and congressional election. Not just of the two major parties but
of the entire system. It has to be changed and it can't be done by every two years hoping that we'll elect the right
politicians. It's just getting worse. Some people in this country need to let the world know loud and strong that the United
States of America system of democracy is a fraud and we know it.
I know people on here aren't in favor of it. I've been on plenty of other web sites where the people are more amenable. I think
many here are still too fresh from the Dem party. I've never been a Democratic. I voted a few times in my life specifically for
Democrats, following the sheeple path without really knowing what the fuck I was doing. Now I know the deal, it's like finding
something out and your life can never be the same again.
Something bold has to be done, not the same old thing.
boycott
It would take a lot of people boycotting to make any noise. If we really got that many people to agree and to get together, we might be ready for something even bolder than a boycott. I think it will take that something bolder by us, or another country stepping in to do what we won't.
What is it, half the country already sits out the elections? I saw numbers of 50 to 60% of eligible voters voting in the last few prez elections, with 30 something at the midterm. 50-60% must be eligible as in registered voters. Sounds high for this apathetic country to be all eligible meaning old enough and citizens.
I have a mental picture now, Al, of people boycotting, and to make their reasons known, they are also picketing the polling places. Wonder if they would be arrested for being terrorists, or anti-American sympathizers.
At the end of the day though, after the election, even if only 20% turn out, a winner will still be declared, and we are back in the same sinking boat. You are right though, that at least it would be a statement to the world and TPTB here. It would be a start.
Oh ya, I know. But the alternative is what?
Nothing is a sure thing. Well, the point would be to highlight the fact that we do not live in a democracy and emphasize that to the world.
I think that can be useful. We live in an Empire which is based on the illusion that our form of government is the
greatest thing ever and our status as free democratic people gives our government the moral right to extend the Empire
over the entire planet. It worked for a long time but the last 15 years have seen that illusion wear thin and most of
the world knows it.
We already have around 100 million eligible voters who don't vote. That's a good start. A large percentage of those
are in effect already boycotting but the mass media and ruling class chalks it up to apathy. It's not apathy, it's disgust and
it's time we put that to the forefront, stronger than the Occupy movement did.
And like I said, the alternative is what? To continue to vote in a system that is completely corrupted and will never provide
democracy?
I know most people can't envision such a thing. It's a step none of us could have imagined when were
growing up brainwashed about the Melting Pot of Democracy. But I'm convinced we have to take some chances and all options
should be on the table. Something should be done about this next election. I was reading an article last week and the author
pointed our how Gandhi and others have been successful with boycotts. We need something that resonates with the people and a
boycott against the system that everyone knows does not represent us should at least be tried.
It could take different forms. It could take the form of
writing in a candidate or a phrase. Get 50 million people to write in the same thing, like
FUCK YOU!!
Just Kidding. But something like "We Want Democracy, Not Oligarchy!"
It's like
what if Hillary Clinton is elected and serves for 8 years? Or what if one of the republicans are elected
and serves for 8 years? 8 years is a long time. Look at all the damage under Bush. Look at all the damage under
Obama. And it's progressive all right, getting progressively worse.
How can we elect another President and watch another 8 years go by like that?
New word - omnicide
It's not really new but I just learned it.
Omnicide - "the destruction of all life especially by nuclear war" Omnicide
I saw it on a boycott 2016 election site in a comment. the commenter said, "stop voting for omnicide."
That's one way to put it.
run-up to Iraq War
Maybe this is too much stating the obvious. Ran into it browsing Greenwald's twitter feed this morning.
It is regarding the series of answers Jeb Bush gave on whether he would have authorized the war in Iraq.
Washington Post Plumline blog
Stop sanitizing the history of the run-up to Iraq War
Actually I was reading an article about Jeb, Hillary and
Iraq earlier and was thinking how it skirts the more important issue of U.S. imperialism. They're being asked and the
people are being forced to focus on whether invading Iraq was appropriate or not while no one is talking about the overall
foreign policy for world domination and the right of this country to blackmail, extort, threaten, destroy, and murder in
order to get it's way.
Are they willing to admit it was all a lie from the beginning and a plan by the Zionist neocons to remap the Middle East?
which is why "faulty intelligence" is an evil lie
there wasn't any of that. They all knew that it was phonied up.
Money, cunning. We need to get some in order to change things. But would we then be as bad?
No, never.
We're talking about the evil scum of the earth. We can never match that. But, "in order to create a more
perfect union", we're going to have to stretch our imaginations.