The war continues with Russian troops hiding among hospital facilities in the south using staff as cover or shields. They exhibit slow progress toward Kiev even as talks continue and the PR offensive remains solid with Zelensky speaking to the Canadian Parliament and the Prime Ministers of Czechia, Poland, and Slovenia....
Propaganda
Republicans have proved to be masters at soundbite manipulation. The GOP has gotten, mainly, poor white people in the Red States to oppose Medicare expansion, happily believing that rich people trickling on them will eventually improve their lot. Truth in schools is being portrayed as a threat to whiteness, and...
Former President Trump ordered the Pentagon to release all of its information on “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) within 18 days in his last coronavirus relief bill in December 2020. More inexplicable sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) will be released for public scrutiny in June — including a UFO that broke...
These are days fraught with political battles over cultural histories abjuring complexity. Today it’s The Wall Street Journal and the reactionary path to critical race theory, the latest bit of Trumpist ignorance now projected into personnel policies and the larger revisionist history project that would deny the historical relevance of slavery...
On Jan. 6, Donald Trump took advantage of a phalanx of weak-minded sheep to do his bidding, sending them into the fray at the Capitol while he cooled his bone-spurred heels in the safety of his KFC-redolent villain’s lair. That’s not my assessment. Except for the KFC part, that’s basically...
It’s clear that Israel had no legitimate reason to target the media in Gaza other than to make their (Israel’s) war crimes harder to report. Like previous guy, Tom Cotton attacks the free press from the floor of the US Senate because they’re not propaganda outlets. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)...
Pure propaganda with more Big Lies for the Big Liar. The Trumpian alternative universe is touted in Elise Stefanik’s opening speech as the new GOP Conference Chair. LOL about “the far left, radical socialist policies of President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” In comparison with Liz Cheney, she’s an...
Shedding Facebook becomes more necessary as awareness of disinformation and propaganda effects forces editorial action by Facebook. The problem is that ad revenue can and has come from malign forces beyond the usual influence operations of capitalism. This comes as its Oversight Board asks more questions about Facebook’s role in...
There is a capitalist propaganda battle at work, with the Wall Street Journal claiming that “ Biden has sent a signal around the world that nobody’s intellectual property is safe in America.”. The National Review now claims that “Profit Margins Save Lives”. “The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service...
Previous guy added a page to his website, one which mimics Twitter and Facebook in its appearance, because the grift needs to be fed. In a related story, Bloomberg reports that demand for butt implants rose during the pandemic. “Knowingly repeating a lie — an act of immorality — is...
The Facebook Oversight Board sustained the ban on Trump — for now. Previous guy added a page to his website, one which mimics Twitter and Facebook in its appearance, because the grift needs to be fed. In a related story, Bloomberg reports that demand for butt implants rose during the pandemic....
Now firstly it is important to define Internationalism since commonly it is divided into three different major categories. 1] Hegemonic Internationalism example: Globalization [Colonization]. Main player: USA. 2] Liberal Internationalism example: United Nations. Main player: Everyone else. 3] Revolutionary Internationalism example: Communism. Main player: China. Now there are many subcategories,...
If the Ministerium für Staatsicherheit (Ministry for State Security) had had a crystal ball 40 years ago they would have promoted capitalism, the sheer amount of information people are willing to give away for free would have made their job so easy. Now in a functioning democracy that would be...
Previous guy always expects the loyalty of mob silence Omertà, even when he throws everyone under the bus, it’s part of his personality disorder. The real goal for his relative silence might be the return to social media when Facebook reconsiders their suspension. He has a Parler account but doesn’t use...
Peak cynicism has arrived. Tucker Carlson pimps a version of the nanny-state with more police confrontations because he thinks cops should stop children from wearing masks by enforcing child abuse laws. Apparently making a child wear a mask is like punching them in the face or the equivalent of exhibitionism....
Jason “Plan B in your Smoothie” Miller tried to pimp Trump’s anticipated social media platform. Unfortunately the major social media platforms are reconsidering their ban of Trump, which would determine whether Trump would try to create his own propaganda platform. “Qwitter or HicTok”? Keep grift alive. Jason Miller, a spokesman...
Lost relevance continues with more of the same Trump delusions up-chucking soon, signaled by the latest Big Lie interview with Fox News, likely leading to more revisionism. Unfortunately Trump’s memoirs would be regurgitating the propaganda with little insight or reflection. His Secret Service detail would be useful witnesses as a 1/6...
North Korea is starting to test its relationship with the Biden administration. One of the few concessions that North Korea got from Trump aside from his foreign policy ignorance was the suspension of Republic of Korea/US joint military exercises. This is the first signal of contact prior to a review of US...
Always ready with useful idiocy, Trump’s inaction on COVID while POTUS* was beyond negligence and continues by keeping his own vaccination secret from his supporters. A consequence comes parallel with Russian disinformation efforts to discredit vaccines specific to the US. The net effect is also to help demand for the...
The GQP senate is an honor-free zone with pro-wrestling byplay, save the magnificent seven dead. Mitch McConnell is doing his best to keep the reality-TV show kayfabe going. Lindsey Graham who proclaimed he’d “had enough” of Trump is now going to Florida on MAGA business. x Graham on Fox says he...
As much as I would like to think that the two-party system is essential to the fabric of America, one party seems intent on ripping it to shreds. One of the weakest denials of what one believes is when one says, ‘this is not who we are’ despite the evidence....
Jim Acosta of CNN reports that a Trump advisor says that “Trump is F’ed if further criminal proceedings happen after this impeachment trial”. Bad lawyering happened and the GOP knew it. Donald Trump's own lawyer just argued that “tired” and “fed up” voters kicked Trump out of office. x Bruce...
'GQP' – Republicans announce themselves as a Trumpist party We cannot ignore the growing threat of right-wing extremism and its enablers any longer. x “McCarthy claims he has received private assurances from Greene that she no longer wishes death on Pelosi.“ -Washington Post — Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) February 5, 2021...
Every time someone objects to the right-wing nonsense, they respond by whining we’re trying to censor them. Marjorie Taylor Greene of QAnon asshole fame even likes to wear a mask that says “CENSORED” on it. (Well, she doesn’t like to wear a mask, so that’s just more of her norrishkeit....
Something strange is going on over undocumented immigrants. President Biden’s acting secretary of Homeland Security, David Pekoske, issued a memo on January 20 halting almost all deportation proceedings for 100 days: Review of and Interim Revision to Civil Immigration Enforcement and Removal Policies and Priorities [PDF] I’ve gone over the...
The alternative reality persists and MSM is only interested in the 2024 race. Holy shit. Rand Paul still won't acknowledge that the election wasn't stolen from Trump. pic.twitter.com/mxSuItPaAD — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2021 Rand kept saying: hear the other side! Rand Paul just gave a master class in...
No doubt there are Trump pardons, but the cluster falls close to the _____. Apparently Trump has been advised that the optics of guilt are greater exposure to his soon to be mounting legal woes. This includes even the Trumpian small insults, a hastily assembled 1776 position paper to prescribe...
The Big Lie must be thoroughly erased. This delusion is unfortunately the trope deployed as a grand commodity for a national grift that could last until 2024. In the more immediate instance, actions still have consequences, even if Trump implies that he will give pardons in the case of the insurrections....
< p class=”is-empty-p” style=”text-align:left”> Randall Lane, the editor of Forbes Magazine, has warned corporations not to hire former Trump officials. If they hire them, said Lane, they will be viewed as a “funnel of disinformation” by the magazine. Business Insider writes a summary of how Trump’s failed coup attempt inspired Forbes...
In 1984, George Orwell used the line “two plus two equals 5 . . . or sometimes 3. . . .” as one of his ways to show the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda and at the same time its disconnect from reality. We are seeing the equivalent of that disconnect...
I recently came across a typical Twitter argument about the CIA promoting modern art as propaganda. The usual distorting tweet-discourse occurred but what remained are somewhat paranoid discussions of whether the CIA supported Modern Art. They really didn’t, as much as they supported US propaganda in general. The argument about CIA and Art evolved...
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that...
I’m convinced Rupert Murdoch secretly launched One America News Network in secret to make Fox News appear sane. Though he probably didn’t expect Donald Trump to fall in love with it quite so easily. (I’m thinking of tweeting that I saw George Soros frantically shoving discarded Trump ballots up bigfoot’s...
Up late, LOTUS is still cranking out the propaganda in his ever spiraling isolation with 62 days left. x this graph is fake! someone pointed out that the tallest blue line isnt aligned with the red and that “blue” is misspelled on the left! 🤦🏼♀️ — S (@sgz1993) November 19,...
We’ve all heard it before, ad nauseam: Donald Trump demands loyalty. That’s not exactly right, of course. Donald Trump demands lickspittle obeisance 24/7, and anything short of that will trigger a poo-flinging the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Exhibit A: x .@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime...
Count every vote. #CountEveryVote x Remember that America is a democracy. Every vote deserves to be counted, no matter what Trump and Republicans say https://t.co/HcHI6D5t0N— Barbara Malmet (@B52Malmet) November 3, 2020 x #BREAK Election eve and Twitter has labeled a Trump tweet as misleading. Removed ability for tweet to be retweeted....
A presidency whose essence is publicity and public relations, because the most important thing before declaring the pandemic over, was to “defeat despair and inspire hope”. The most important thing to Trump is to divert attention from what you aren’t doing, and defeating despair is like a war on terror....
Maybe we can now just wait for every vote to be counted. Fortunately we’re past the fail-safe point of the Comey email fiasco of 2016 and its associated manipulation by the NY Times. We may be out of October Surprises. Even Putin seems to have officially cut Trump loose. Then...
There is a critical reality beyond the waiting for the “next two weeks” in which Trump has promised multiple times over the four years a plan for health care and a plan to combat COVID-19. The pandemic crisis has given us some real relations from which we can gain some insights...
Combative Trump tried to bully Lesley Stahl, good luck with that Donald. The Trump release of the interview proves he just wanted a propaganda piece that repeated his stump speech’s talking points. The same fallacious logic and falsehoods appeared in the CBS interview, as did more Trump interruptions. It was no different...
Yes, Donald Trump is a breathtaking, dumpster fire of a President. And I could spend paragraphs recounting all of the incompetent, unbalanced and embarrassing things that he does. He is a real and present danger to the country, and like one that we have not seen in memory. But ....
Still about reality checks, considering that its still about GOTV and 3 November. Note that RCP is now showing a slight lead for Trump of +0.6% in some swing states, comparing 2020 and 2016. Things are different now especially with the candidates and pandemic constraints, but there are always potential bad signs...