Do We Need To Be This Scared?

I was with a friend a few days ago. She is planning a trip from Seattle to Chicago by train in July. She's 'old'; she's 76 or so. The train trip sounds fun to me and to her! Some of her other friends have advised her to get a burner phone (Gjohnsit posted a comment about these a few days ago) and a burner laptop, with nothing on them but maybe games, in case she's stopped by the police or TSA (really, on an in-country train trip?) and she's detained and her phone and laptop are confiscated and searched because she is 'suspicious'. Do they actually do this kind of searching of people on trains as well as airplanes? Any passenger? I've not heard of it happening on trains, I have to admit.

Daffodils in the garden, because, SPRING!!!

Eggs and the Fight

Recently Matt Stoller's newsletter, Big, started a series of articles about the egg 'crisis' here in the USA and the entities behind it. It's a very good couple of articles, written by Basel Musharbash. The first article is entitled 'Hatching a Conspiracy: A BIG Investigation into Egg Prices'. The second article, 'Fowl Play: How Chicken Genetics Barons Created the Egg Crisis' goes into the two, yes only two, companies that control chicken genetics and the production of egg laying hens.

Image from Hatching a Conspiracy: A BIG Investigation into Egg Prices.

Cease Fire? Yea, Right.

So the supposed cease fire in Gaza (yea, right - one of many articles about the multiple failures of the cease fire and how it's really about ethnic cleansing), supposedly orchestrated by Trump, is already going to h*ll in a handbasket, or whatever (yet another example of how it's failing). It's not like we knew this would happen, is it? /* sarcasm */ It's not like it just gave a pause to Israel, so it could ramp up whatever it's going to do now. It's not like Trump is sending Israel stuff (the bulldozers, for example see Caitlin's post linked below) that even Biden didn't send, or maybe Biden's controllers couldn't get that done fast enough.

A week or so ago Chris Hedges wrote a pretty good article about all of this called 'The Western Way of Genocide'. He talks about what Gaza is like now, and it's, frankly, absolutely awful - 9 out of 10 homes destroyed or damaged, hospitals deliberately ruined, the university deliberately bombed into pieces, roads completely destroyed, shops, bakeries, towns obliterated, no food, no clean water, no sanitation, no power, no... nothing. The towns and villages are in rubble; they stink because of all the body parts and corpses underneath the rubble. These are the result of Israel killing at least 14% of Gaza's population, 306,000 people as Donziger writes.

Explore Gaza by Mr. Fish. Image from Hedges' article linked above.

What is This?

The title of this oped, 'The NYT publisher just wrote the most insulting editorial ever printed — inside the pages of the WaPo ', intrigued me, even though it was on Alternet. After reading the opinion piece, I don't really agree with everything the writer, D. Earl Stephens, is saying, even though it's true that the media often ignores Donald Trump's grossness, crimes, and so on. I do agree that the current media world is driven by money and only money: as the Stephens says,

Money is the impetus that drives too much of what we are being forced to consume in today’s polluted media landscape, and the American public is suffering mightily because of that.

But this problem isn't only about Trump or the right wing. Does the media really ignore Donald Trump? I mean, I don't think Donald Trump would be what he is without the non-stop incessant blathering of the media, blathering that has happened for years and years. That blathering may often ignore the failures of Trump, his crimes, his grossness. Although, I dunno, it seems like two out of three articles on, say, Alternet, are about Donald Trump. Isn't that giving him attention and fame even if it's negative? I mean, Trump was a close friend of the Clintons, once, right? Why not pay attention to that? And he was not always Republican https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Donald_Trump right (he's changed his party affliation 5 times)? And he supported abortion once (or twice, or whatever), https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/09/politics/trump-abortion-stances-timeline/... right?

And that's enough about Trump for me! Whatcha think about Stephen's opinion piece? Ohh, and I want to note that the coverage of Harris is just as nonsensical and stupid. This whole election is a farce.

18 July Open Thread - 'Eh'

I didn't and don't have much reaction to the attempted assassination of Trump. Mostly my reaction is, 'eh'. I'm upset about the man who died protecting his family. And the possible screwups, that's bothersome too. What really upsets me is what the shooting revealed, once again, about America. Our country is founded, and built, by violence and the guns that reflect that. RJ Eskow expressed exactly what I've been feeling, but couldn't describe very well, is his article 'One Nation Under Fire: Trump Resurgent'.

Eskow talks about how most Americans are 'under the gun', 'under the gun' of economic hardship as well as random shootings and so on, and about how America was founded in violence and how the wars America has fought in the last 75 years have all been driven by political violence, one way or another. I can't disagree; he's right.

From 2012, but it fits. An editorial cartoon from Cleveland.com.

Sleeping in the Headlines

I came across this headline the other day, ''Such low energy': Trump relentlessly mocked for once again falling asleep during trial'. It made me laugh. I can think of several reasons for him to fall asleep: the trial is boring, he's old, he's on the campaign trail and is tired, he's old, boring, old, tired... Ohh wait, that describes his arch enemy, Biden, as well.

For example, 'Joe Biden Appears To Fall Asleep On The First Day Of COP26' (from 2021). Biden gets excuses from the press, which Trump basically doesn't get, because the press likes Biden; here's an example about the COP26 meeting, a video that the BBC ran with this headline 'COP26: Was US President Biden asleep or just resting his eyes?' To me, it looks like he's falling asleep and an aide woke him. But what do I know? Maybe he was just resting his eyes.

Like this? Image from here on pinterest.es.

Biden's Different, Right?

Would 'you' (meaning a standard liberal, not the people here at C99%) be more upset about the genocide in Palestine, if Trump were president? Are 'you' upset by the administration's doing nearly nothing about the climate crisis? It would be worse if Trump were president, right? And healthcare? Nothing's been done there by Biden, despite the promises, so under Trump it would be worse? And all the money going to the military-industrial complex, Biden's definitely ramped that down compared to Trump, right? Biden's moved us back from the brink of nuclear war! What? He hasn't? Biden's freed Assange, right? /* sarcasm, sarcasm - these questions are all sarcasm */

A cartoon from the last election... fun times! (not). From the IndyStar.

With Friends Like This:

A long time ago, supposedly, Donald Trump and the Clintons were friends. Good friends, especially Donald and Bill. They golfed together, ate together, socialized together. The Clintons went to his wedding!

Pic sez it all, really (image from Politico article linked below)