We used to have nightly news, and daily newspapers, that sought to inform America with accurate facts about real events.
Then networks decided to make "news" into a profit center rather than a public service. To do that, it had to be entertaining, not necessarily accurate.
1/6
Rupert Murdock decided to create a propaganda station on cable, that pretended to be a news network. He had to go to court to defend telling outright lies. His defense was that Fox isn't "news", it's "entertainment," so no one should take it seriously. That defense worked.
2/6
Fox--and the other "news" channels--are now, legally and officially, not news at all.
To compete, broadcast networks took the same stance. Let's shovel shit, and call it news, and get people riled up. Who cares? No one is supposed to believe any of it anyway.
I want to remind you of something Trump did in his first term.
When running for president in 2016, Trump declared he was smarter than all the Generals, and he had a secret plan to end the war in Afghanistan, much better than plan the Generals could come up with.
1/7
After being elected, Trump revealed his secret plan to end the war in Afghanistan.
His plan was:
He ordered the Generals to come up with a plan to end the war in Afghanistan, and have it on his desk in ninety days.
I'm serious. That was his secret plan.
2/7
Of course, we heard nothing else about any plan to end the war in Afghanistan. But Trump invited the leaders of the Taliban to Camp David, and released 5000(!) Afghani terrorist prisoners, one of whom went on to become the leader of the Taliban.
3/7
I'm suspect Trump is creating the Epstein Files controversy on purpose. It's a distraction from his rapid mental decline, and the incompetence of entire administration, and the horrors of ICE, and the stupid tariffs, and the wars he hasn't ended, and his constant criming.
1/6
He pushed the Epstein thing for years as a campaign issue, as a club to beat up Democrats, and just as a conspiracy theory to rile his base.
Remember, Epstein died in 2019, while Trump was still president, and Bill Barr was Attorney General.
2/6
If there were things embarrassing to Democrats in Epstein's files or in anything held by the FBI, Trump could have released it then--and didn't.
Is there Bad Stuff about Trump in those files? Maybe. If so, Trump is really stoopid for having made a big deal out of it...
3/6
Germans voted in 1933. Hitler was named Chancellor that January. He quickly consolidated power, and became a dictator. Germans did not have free elections until 1949, after Hitler and about 80 million other people had died.
1/4
Oh, there were parliamentary elections in Germany in the 1930s. They were shams, and there was no chance Hitler would be removed as Chancellor.
And remember, Hitler became Chancellor only after leading an insurrection and being convicted of felonies.
Sound familiar?
2/4
One more morsel. Everything Hitler did was legal. The repression, the concentration camps, shutting down the press, gas chambers, all of it. Because he had the laws changed to make it legal.
The crisis of global climate change isn’t the first man-made climate disaster we’ve faced in recent history. In the twentieth century, America dealt with and solved a regional crisis of our own making. It almost happened again soon after.
1/12
We prevented a second disaster the same way we had resolved the first one. It was solved by federal intervention.
In the early 1930s, the American Southwest was engulfed by a serious drought, which was exacerbated by then-current farming and grazing techniques.
2/12
This area used to be the breadbasket of the nation. Taking advantage of the rise in grain prices from the First World War, farmers in the southwest overplanted, removing most of the indigenous grasses and other flora with long roots that used to hold the soil in place.
Imagine a room. Maybe it's an attic. It holds everything you ever valued. Your money, yes. Also hundred-year old pictures of your great-grandmother. You dad's wedding ring. That novel you read. The proof your children are yours.
1/5
It's got your retirement investments. The medicines you need to survive. Your memories of that special teacher.
All of it is in that room in the attic.
Imagine one day a bunch of chimpanzees get in there. Some of them have Tiki torches.
2/5
You can hear them shouting at each other. Breaking the crystal ware. Setting fire to the file cabinets. Shredding the Batman sheets you slept in as a child.
They're throwing their crap at each other. They're eating your ancient vinyl records.
2/5