RUSSIA?

R(US)SIA is all over US.

Whom can we blame for the Russian hacking? Russians? Do a majority of Russians support the hacking, cheating and disruption of U.S. elections? Do they even think about it? Maybe it’s too broad, like saying that all Americans are in favor of grabbing ‘em by the pussy and telling Whitehouse staff members to lie under oath.

I sometimes wish I were Russian so I wouldn’t hate them so much for the meddling etc. I mean, they are a magnificent people. How can I hate a people who gave us Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky? Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy? How can we hate the country that, according to current historical thinking, had a larger role in overthrowing Hitler’s Germany than the allies did? Russians are a strong and creative people. 

But then there were the genocidal pogroms to rid the country of its Jews in the 19^thcentury and beyond. And Stalin’s murder of millions. And after the USSR fell, the oligarchs who threw their own people under the bus to become hugely rich through inside deals (and worse) in the name of capitalism. 

Can we lay the blame for hacking on the oligarchs and their ilk? If so, it would be perfectly fine to categorically hate those guys. But if so, Americans should be just as hateful of the titans of Wall Street who consistently swindle the American people for their own gain (2008 crash, anyone?). It would be no surprise for a president who cuts taxes for the most obscenely rich Americans to be in cahoots with the Russian hacking scheme that helps him get elected. Bernie Sanders has always warned that oligarchy is the primary threat we all should be worrying about. 

This is so massive in scope, it is hard to imaging reining it in, much less exposing it. We can't even get Donald's tax returns! It’s larger than the JFK assassination coverup that still no one has genuinely and successfully exposed. It is so large it makes cuddling up to Kim Jong-un seem like a mere indiscretion. Perhaps oligarchs in North Korea are not that far fetched. Perhaps Trump Tower in Pyongyang is moving forward?

Aug 16, 2019

https://www.jameschanningshaw.com

MSNBC?--not so much any more

 

I used to crave MSNBC, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow. Smart people, those two. And more or less politically compatible with my liberal thinking, except when it came to them actually promoting the results of the Warren Commission which LBJ commissioned to avoid a real investigation that might have suggested triangulated gunfire including a shot from the front right that took off the back of JFK’s head. How anyone can still buy into Lee Harvey Oswald as JFK's killer amazes me. But that’s getting off point.

Just recently, I decided I can no longer watch Chris or Rachel or anyone else on MSNBC. And it’s not just the incessant Cialis ads and other obnoxious direct-to-consumer advertising by Big Pharma. Chris and Rachel and the gang are so biased in their reporting, so pro-Clinton, and so utterly dismissive of Bernie Sanders and his ideas that it is clear that they or their bosses must be trying to manipulate the election. Did they do this in the Obama/Hillary primaries of ’08? Don’t remember. Must not have had the channel back then.

Sander’s proposals are not  out-of-line with liberal Democratic views. It must be that Sanders-the-man is out-of-line with those who are beholden to Hillary Clinton in some way, or perhaps it is the owners and broadcasters at MSNBC. This generally applies to all the major networks, it’s just more painful at MSNBC. Even PBS, usually so thorough in their coverage of both and all sides of an argument, has been dismissive of Bernie’s message, assuming that Hillary is definitely the nominee, discouraging the all-important battles of ideas.

Come to think of it, maybe it IS Big Pharma. If MSNBC is dependent upon those drug company ads for their profit margin, it would make sense to be against Bernie Sanders because of his strong opposition to the deplorable ways of Big Pharma.

 Whether it is biased individual anchors, the influence of Big Pharma, or indebted management, I’m almost finished with MSNBC. I’ve also given up on the rest of corporate network TV, and I suspect I’m not alone in this thinking. Unbiased, respectful reporting will have to be found elsewhere.

https://www.jameschanningshaw.com