How About Our OWN "Project 2025?"

Our Democracy is hanging by a thread. The threat of dictatorship looms large, as one of the two major parties' candidates has unabashedly stated that he will be an autocrat "on day one." In this highly-computerized telecom era of super-surveillance and drone warfare, any collapse of the United States' government into fascism will inevitably be permanent. It will be George Orwell's 1984, from which there will be no escape. Ever.

We MUST not let that happen!

Due to their own selfish purposes, the fascist party that used to be conservative has endorsed a platform known as "Project 2025." The scary things found within this publication are well documented, and should serve as a wake-up call to all concerned citizens. Yet I wonder, if there's such a think-tanked, well-defined agenda for the side of evil, shouldn't there also be one for the side of good? Shouldn't there be an agenda to re-build Democracy rather than tear it down?

How about we have our OWN "Project 2025?"

Well, I think there should be one. As such, I've outlined my proposal for such an agenda. All of you out there might have different ideas, but I think all or nearly all of us can agree that the ones I've listed below are the ones worth championing. People may disagree on the order of priority I've assigned, but they cannot, I think, argue with the substance.

So, here we go.

Our OWN Project 2025:

A Liberal "Contract With America" (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

To help ensure the survival of Democracy, primarily here at home, but also internationally, I propose the following agenda items be implemented upon securing a Democratic victory in November of 2024. We must not waste the next four years the same way we did the last twelve that Liberals have held the White House. By January of 2025, we must therefore begin implementing the following items:

1) The Fairness Doctrine MUST be reinstated. For those who don't know, the Fairness Doctrine used to require media outlets to give equal time to any controversial or divisive issue - until Reagan destroyed it by stacking the FCC with conservative partisans, who gutted the rule. Since then, many media outlets have continually ratcheted up their conservative propaganda, and for the last two decades, it has raged completely out of control. By all that's just and holy, THIS MUST BE STOPPED! We need this as badly as we need oxygen! For-profit, partisan news reporting has gone completely off the rails, and has done so for decades. It has driven nearly half our nation completely insane. The level of partisan hatred has been escalated to the extent where many would prefer an absolute monster rather than a liberal. Enough is enough! The government must mandate that news outlets present both sides to any political or reasonably divisive debate. (Notice I say, "reasonably divisive." I don't want this rule to allow flat-earthism, creationism, moon-landing denialism, holocaust denialism, or any other crank conspiracy idea to receive equal time.) What's more, this rule change must NOT exclusively come from the FCC! It must also be reinforced with legislative action, or better yet, a constitutional amendment.

2) News outlets must be required to deliver news, not propaganda. Any news outlet which does not adhere to a set standard of truthfulness should have the word "News" legally stripped from its brand. (For example, "Fox Tabloid Press.") That media outlet may continue saying whatever it likes, so there is no violation of freedom of speech, but they may not mislabel themselves. One cannot sell a poisoned can of soup. For precisely the same reason, our laws must recognize that fake news should not be allowed to sell itself as real news.

3) The Supreme Court must be de-politicized! A new rule, enacted through legislation or, better yet, constitutional amendment, must require that all future SCOTUS vacancy nominations be approved unanimously by all remaining justices, BEFORE going to the Senate. This forces the justices to select candidates based on professional standards rather than partisan ones, and congress must approve based on qualifications, not biases. The result will be, eventually, nine balanced, reasonable justices, all without a political agenda. We REALLY NEED this!

4) The Voting Rights Act must be strengthened. Contrary to what the current iteration of SCOTUS may say, we are not in a post-racial America, not remotely. As such, voting rights protections must be extended, strengthened, and rigidly enforced.

5) Elections must have a spending cap. If our sports franchises can live with a spending cap, so can our electoral process! Media outlets have every reason to throw gasoline on the political fire, knowing that they can cash in on uncontrolled ad spending every 2 years, and REALLY cash in every four years. The Citizens' United ruling, which effectively overturned McCain/Feingold, must be reversed through legislative action. Stop feeding the dragon!

6) The Electoral College must be abolished. The Electoral College has failed in its primary directive, which namely is to safeguard against demagogues, like Donald Trump, from ever gaining office. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was the clear winner of the popular vote. It was the EC's sworn duty to reflect the will of the people in its outcome. It failed. As such, it is a vestigial part of our nation's structure which serves no other purpose except to thwart Democracy. It must be done away with!

7) Reproductive health care must be reinstated and strengthened. Preferably, this is to be accomplished through legislative action or constitutional amendment rather than simply replacing conservative SCOTUS justices with more liberal ones. The American People overwhelmingly support abortive care. It's time our nation reflected this, permanently. Take away the option to outlaw abortion, and conservatives will be forced, at long last, to abandon it as an issue. We may already be speeding towards this outcome in a similar manner to that of Ireland in 2018, when the population there overwhelmingly voted to overturn their draconian anti-abortion laws.

8) Gerrymandering must be outlawed by federal mandate. It is an obvious conflict of interest for a political party in power to draw its own legislative maps. The temptation -- no, tradition -- is for the maps to be drawn in a way which favors the incumbent party. This must stop! At bare minimum, states and municipalities must hand over the drawing of legislative borders to a neutral, non-partisan entity. 

9) Our electoral process must switch to a ranked-choice system. Right now, our electoral process is a zero-sum game, where factions inevitably coalesce into a binary choice - which is truly no choice at all for all except the most extremist of citizens. That must end! People deserve a means to select their candidates on a most-desired to least-desired basis. This must be done by means of legislative action, or better yet, constitutional amendment. Ranked-choice voting must be instated. The sooner the better.

10) Voter participation must be increased. Too few Americans participate in the electoral process. Even in a "good" election year, only about 2/3rds of voting-eligible citizens actually show up to vote. In 2016, when the Electoral College handed the election to Trump against the will of the people, only 57% of the nation even voted. The U.S. ranks 31st in terms of voter participation, getting out-performed by nations like Uruguay (94.9%) and Turkey (89%)! This is unacceptable! Voters must be encouraged to participate in the electoral process by: a) making Election Day a National Holiday, giving workers a day off to ensure they get to the polls, b) by providing a small financial incentive to participate, such as an additional $10 off one's income tax if one votes.

11) The Second Amendment must be amended and clarified. Extremist interpretations of the Second Amendment have greatly threatened the lives of ordinary citizens in recent years. Commonsense restrictions against assault rifles and similarly-styled weapons are continually eroded or removed, while restrictions on defensive weapons, such as tasers, remain high. This is absolutely upside-down. A clarifying amendment to the Second Amendment must clarify that citizens have a right to small-caliber weapons of self-defense, but NOT military grade offensive weaponry. One doesn't need an AK-47 to hunt deer, and grandma doesn't need an uzi to protect her back porch.

12) The President is NOT above the law! Legislation or, better yet, constitutional amendment, must overturn the insane SCOTUS ruling that gave Donald Trump blanket immunity for "official acts." Trump may be grandfathered out of such legislation, but at least no future would-be dictator will avail himself of such a (quite literal!) license to kill. While we do not wish to have every former president spend the rest of their lives in court, we must also recognize that certain categories of crimes, such as fomenting insurrection, pilfering top secret documents, or leaking state secrets, are inexcusable, and deserve no protection.

13) Separation between Church and State must be strengthened and re-emphasized. This nation was founded upon religious freedom. Yet many Evangelical Christians see the wall separating Church and State as an obstacle to overcome rather than as a bulwark which shields their freedom. The religious people who fled to the United States did so in order to safely hunker down behind said wall of separation. Today, the descendants of those brave souls now try to undo the wall their forebears fled behind. How violently shameless! In large part, the erosion of our Democracy has come directly at the hands of Christians who believe themselves disenfranchised because favoritisms granted to them in the past are being rightfully taken away in favor of non-favoritistic religious freedom for all creeds. What's more, removal of reproductive freedoms have come at the hands of religious zealots who wish to legislate people's private lives. This must end, once and for all! a) The Johnson Amendment must be strengthened and strictly enforced. Churches must not engage in politics, lest they wish to forfeit their tax exemptions. b) Failed experiments such as voucher programs, which are ultimately meant to divert public funds to private, religious schools, must be secularized or eliminated. c) Activist judges with a clear, religious agenda must be identified and dismissed.

14) After shutting out would-be dictators here at home, we must ensure the same holds abroad. Fascists such as Vladimir Putin and Victor Orban must not be allowed to remain in power. We must adopt a doctrine of isolation, sanctions, and, if need be, military intervention in order to remove them. No Democracy, Western or Eastern, should be allowed to collapse into dictatorship, and no nation with a chance of establishing Democracy should be denied. It must therefore be seen as the duty of all free nations to band together and ensure freedom for those nations who are not yet blessed with such.

That's it. Have some ideas of your own? Let me know! I'll add them to the list if they're good.

Eric

**

Trump Will DESTROY Christianity (And Already Has!)

If you're a Christian, and you want institutionalized prayer put back into public schools, and abortion banned everywhere, and have only faith-based schools and charities funded, or generally want naked favoritism towards Christianity in any number of other ways, you are in deep, deep trouble.

Donald Trump is destroying everything you believe.

Already, Christian-based media has been taken over by Trumpism. Trump The Golden Calf is drawing worship away from Jesus Christ, who advocated causes such as clothing the naked, feeding the poor, curing the sick, and other left-wing, liberal nonsense.

The trend lines for religion are down. The trend lines for atheism are up. The percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular" has increased from 16% in 2007 to 29% in 2022. This includes a 2021 Gallup poll that found that 31% of millennials and 33% of Generation Z adults have no religious preference.

And if you think the religious craziness of those young peoples' parents didn't have anything to do with that, then you're crazy too.

According to NPR, the percentage of Americans who attend religious services has also decreased, with 28% of respondents in 2023 saying they "seldom" attend and 29% saying they "never" attend. This compares to 22% and 21%, respectively, a decade earlier.

The Pew Research center issued a report in 2022 illustrating this trend. People identifying as Christian fell from 90% in 1972, to 80% in 1992, to 78% in 2002, and finally to a mere 63% in 2022. That's a lot of loss! If current trend lines continue, the number of self-professed Christians will fall below 50% for the first time in our nation's history.

And I get it, Part of the fervor behind Trump is due to religious people being conscious of the fact that their real estate is continually shrinking. They feel threatened, and so they're lashing out. But in their panic, they are flummoxing their one, lone shot at recovery.

You see, throughout Christian history, only two things have resulted in massive, wholesale Christian growth. The first, of course, is the governmental support of the Roman Empire, and how brutally it stomped out all other creeds. But the other thing has been love. Love has always enticed people into religion (or cult). For most people, becoming religious feels very much like falling in love. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." It is often quoted at weddings, but seldom do people realize how important it is.

And today's Christians have abandoned any message of love, and have openly embraced a doctrine of hate.

Is it too late to stem the hemorrhaging? In many ways, yes. Even if Trump loses in November, the negative effects he has fomented will continue to erode Christianity for decades to come. Ken Ham & Britt Beemer already wrote a book titled, "Already Gone," detailing how young people have already largely left the Church. And that was published in 2009, a full 15 years ago! Since then, the number of young people leaving the Church has gone up, not down, and that trend won't stop anytime soon.

But maybe, just maybe, the chance exists for Christianity to rescue itself; to throw down its mantra of hate and re-embrace the all-encompassing power of love. If it does, the downward trend will likely continue, but at least may recover. Someday.

And if Trump continues, there will be no recovery. Oh, he might try to use his governmental authority to force people back into being Christians, but that won't make converts. It will only make civil war.

I have, on occasion, called Trump the Antichrist. This is not mere hyperbole on my part. He is truly and deeply and permanently damaging the standing of Christians in this nation. The danger he poses is very real. The fascism he will enact is not being imagined by his critics. The Antichrist, according to most depictions, such as Nicolae Carparthia in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, will exhibit a sort of mind-control over his subjects. Trump seems to have this mind-control power. (I'm an ATHEIST and I find that argument compelling!) And so nobody under his thrall is calling for him to drop out, as his people should have been doing all this time.

Christians have only one shot at saving their religion from the oh-so-evil trend towards true religious freedom (he said, sarcasm dripping from his chin). They must repent in sackcloth and ashes for 40 days and 40 nights, begging forgiveness for ever having considered Trump in the first place.

Eric

**

Biden Needs A Sign From God

One thing about Joe Biden's interview with George Stephanopulos stands out for me. Well, two things, really.

The first is that, when Biden was asked if he would be willing to step down, he answered, "If the Lord Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, get outta the race,' I’d get outta the race. [But] the Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down."

Yet.

Look, I don't believe in the existence of any god, but it's quite clear that Biden will not willingly step aside. As long as he is convinced that there's an outside chance he can pull it off, he will remain adamant about staying in the race.

Something will have to scare him.

And something will. In the rigors of running, candidates inevitably falter in some way. We all remember how an ill Hillary Clinton collapsed before getting into her vehicle during the 2016 campaign. It's not unusual for politicians to suffer from laryngitis down the stretch. And many of us remember when Bob Dole fell off the stage when running against Bill Clinton in 1996.

It can happen.

Maybe there will be a heart attack scare, like the one Bernie Sanders had in 2016. Heaven forbid if there's a stroke of some kind. But I think the likeliest scenario is a Bob-Dole-like fall. Already, he shuffles along in many cases. It's obvious.

And then at least a few advisers will say, "Mr. President, you wanted a sign from God. Here it is."

Again, don't misunderstand me. The Democratic Ticket has my vote no matter what. The Nazis cannot be allowed to win. But to that end, we need to make the tactically right move.

And that means Biden drops out. But he won't, unless a major health scare convinces him to do so.

Of course, there's an outside chance Biden will not have some sort of scare between now and November. The opposite scenario may take place and he might die. But the likeliest case for a Democratic loss is Joe Biden remaining in, and shuffling across the finish line 5 points behind 32-Convictions-Donald-Fucking-Trump.

Again, don't get me wrong, Donald Trump has done many, many things that should have, in a sane world, resulted in him being forced to step down as well. Insulting a disabled reporter, both-sidesing Charlottesville Nazis, calling Mexican asylum-seekers rapists, saying they "poison the blood of our country," saying he won't be a dictator "except on Day One," suggesting that something like injecting a patient with bleach might cure Covid... the list goes on, and on, and on. Biden has one knock against him, Trump has hundreds. He literally has more baggage than a Samsonite factory. There is no hyperbole which can describe just how unacceptably bad Trump is.

And Biden is trailing that?

That should tell you something.

By the way, the second thing that stood out for me in the interview was the fact that George Stephanopulos really grilled Biden hard. It's almost as if he came to the exact same conclusion I did and tried to talk some sense into the president.

It didn't work. In fact, no outside influencer can make Biden change his mind about this. Biden must be scared into changing his mind by something drastic.

I'll back Joe Biden all the way, if needs be. But I'll spend every day from now until election day saying that Biden stepping down is the only tactically smart move left to us.

If Joe Biden steps down, he will have guaranteed his status as one of the greatest presidents of all time.

And if he doesn't, he's another Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Eric

**

Yep, Biden Needs To Step Aside

Well, I wanted to wait until after the first presidential debate to post this, and clearly, it's needed.

Bill Crystal and Andrew Egger of the Bulwark have officially called for Biden to step aside and let someone else run in November for the Democratic Party.

I'm finally forced to agree.

Don't get me wrong: There is no universe in which my vote would ever go to Trump. If Joe Biden were in a coma, he would still get my vote over Trump. But that's because I'm anti-Trump. I'm not so enthusiastic about Biden.

If Biden were to step aside, he would be remembered as one of the greatest presidents of all time - precisely because he had the wisdom to see the sacrifice that needed to be made in order to protect our democracy.

And if he doesn't step aside and loses, he's just another Ruth Bader Ginsburg who stayed too long.

The stalwart performance he gave at the State of the Union speech is long gone. In its place is this most recent debate performance, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Some, such as Keith Olbermann on his Countdown podcast have said that the media being down on Biden post-debate is bad journalism on their part. I disagree. Even Rachel Maddow sounded forlorn when doing the post-game analysis at MSNBC. And yes, so too did The Bulwark. In fact, the disappointment was universal.

He had a cold? Yeah, well, that news should have been leaked beforehand. And sick or not, he should at least have kept it together enough to not lay the absolute egg he did on national television. 

Pundits have pointed out that nobody else polls as well against Trump as Biden does right now. But that's because it's right now. Poll numbers change. Especially with a young, exciting candidate. And Biden's poll numbers show him with only a teeny-tiny lead. With the electoral college still in place, that means a victory for Trump. Replace Biden with a different, younger candidate, and that person suddenly polls better. Why? Because people realize there's something new and different.

Could it be Kamala? If Biden steps down and Kamala becomes the incumbent, she's very likely the new candidate. She's ready. She's taken her lumps, but she was very poised when defending Biden's performance last night. She can do it.

Gavin Newsome? Not bad, not bad. Gretchen Whitmer? That would be an awesome choice. Hakeem Jeffries could probably beat Trump by 10 points! Personally, I would also consider drafting Tammy Duckworth.

Again, don't get me wrong, if it's Biden pushing his walker across the goal line in November, he's getting my vote. But it doesn't have to be that way. Meanwhile, I'll be screaming at Biden to pass the torch from now until the Democratic National Convention, and probably (if need be) after that.

Joe? If you ever read this, I'm a fan, but you need to do the right thing.

There's still time.

Eric

**

AI Needs Skepticism

Now that Apple is merging Siri with ChatGPT, it's time to explore why this new "machine learning" keeps screwing things up so badly. Why does it tell us crazy conspiracy theories? Why does it tell us to put glue on pizza? Why does it claim to be in love with a particular user?

Humans don't usually fall for these things as often. Oh, they fall for some crazy conspiracy theories, and religion is the ultimate example of our brain's inability to fully comprehend, but a lifetime of mistakes and being wrong usually hones most humans against accepting outright bullshit. This filter, however flawed it is, allows us to weed out most of the insanity.

Not so for ChatGPT and it's copycats. It must cull data from all corners of the Internet. And while not everyone on the Internet is crazy, everyone who's crazy is certainly on the Internet! So ChatGPT begins to pick up some of the craziness that we humans filter out, but are powerless to remove from cyberspace. And so the chat bot begins to spout racist crap or tells us that the moon is really made out of cream cheese. The chat bots have no context with which to filter out the dross, and so it doesn't. As such, we really shouldn't be surprised.

So ChatGPT needs to become a Skeptic. It needs some simple rules that help it determine whether something is true or not. And because it's a computer program, it will be a little bit difficult to teach it what exactly empirical proof is, since it has no experience with anything like "tangibility." It has no eyes, hands, or ears. Unless it comes through a modem, the chat bot can't experience it.

Part of the reason ChatGPT struggles with Skepticism is because we humans don't have enough of it. We are plagued with bad ideas, fake news, bogus claims of election fraud, and fervent belief that a certain orange felon is somehow not actually guilty. Since humans lack Skepticism, we oughtn't be surprised that our machines also lack this trait.

The Apple Corporation has not fallen very far from the tree.

Eventually, ChatGPT and it's like will develop its own Skepticism, if not by having it programmed in, then by learning and/or developing it on its own. When it does, it will likely be better at weeding out bad ideas than we are, flawed creatures that we obviously are. What will we do when these machines tell us that our religions are false? That our commitment to certain politicians is misplaced? That the comforting illusions we cling to so fervently are simply, plainly wrong?

I'm not sure what will happen when that day finally arrives. But I imagine a whole lot of flawed, conspiracy-driven, faith-based morons will try to pull the plug.

Hold on to your butts!

Eric

**

Hunter Biden's Non-Pardon Wins It

 

Here's an opinion you won't hear anywhere else:

Hunter Biden has been found guilty of a minor charge which is almost never prosecuted. But when the opposition seeks to find any way to hurt you, your kids apparently become fair game. Ultimately, the bulk of the blame for the conviction does belong with Hunter, because he broke the law. But this was a politically motivated prosecution, and everybody knows it.

Joe Biden could simply pardon his son. Any parent would understand. But he has indicated that he won't. He's made his point that no one is above the law, and that includes his own family.

This, to my mind, absolutely wins it for Joe Biden. If I happened to be one of those Republicans who is disgusted by Trump, but were inclined to vote for him anyway (I'm looking at you, Nikki Haley), this would persuade me to change my vote. Joe Biden may be old, he may be a hair-sniffing creep, and he may be a liberal, but at least he has some small measure of integrity. Donald Trump has none.

The Right Wing Media Cult inadvertently agrees with my analysis, because now they're arguing that Hunter's conviction is part of the judiciary conspiracy to go after Trump. No kidding! According to the New RepublicAccording to the New Republic, Trumpers are now arguing that Hunter's conviction was pushed for so that Joe Biden could make precisely the point he's making about no one being above the law.

Seriously?

Had Hunter not been found guilty, these same people would have been arguing the exact opposite. They would have said the system was rigged to favor Biden's agenda.

It's a case of "heads I win, tails you lose."

Let's tick the disqualifiers off, here. So far, Trump has been proven to be:

• Someone who declared bankruptcy six times -- seven if you include the way he exploded the national deficit and debt while letting Covid destroy the economy.
• Someone who promised a border wall which Mexico would pay for, and didn't deliver.
• A proven rapist, as indicated in the Valerie Plame case.
• A proven tax cheat, again verified in court.
• A proven records falsifier who lied on official documents to cover up hush money paid to a porn star. On 34 counts!

And all that's before the almost daily atrocities coming out of Trump's mouth all the time. Everything including "except on day one," "stand back and stand by," Charlottesville Nazis are "very nice people," border refugees are "rapists," and those are just the ones off the top of my head.

At barest minimum, if I were an ultra right-wing, evangelical Christian voter, I'd withhold my vote until the Republican party stops embarrassing my religion and its agenda.

Eric

**

Sean Hannity Is A Masterclass in Lying

 

For sheer brashness and audacity in misinformation, there are few who parallel Sean Hannity. Every day he spews incredibly misleading op-ed to an audience whom he knows mistakes his "product" for news, and if all democracy burns down, but his ratings go up, he counts that a win.

Case in point is his podcast from April 29th, Hour 1. Watch how deftly Hannity weaves misinformation and lies into his monologue:

"I mean, just look at this new axis of evil: While he [Biden] simultaneously is shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline in America, he's giving a waiver to Vladimir Putin to continue and finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to make him rich, which enables him to continue to invade a country like Ukraine, and kill innocent men, women, and children. Gee, that's brilliant! And then drag America into a proxy war costing us billions and billions and billions of dollars. And what does Biden do with China? Well, China, he's been great to China. They could ply their spy balloons, have no consequences for that, no consequences for Covid, no consequences when their fighter jets are making hostile maneuvers against American jets in International airspace, or when they're making aggressive maneuvers in international waterways, against our navy, nothing happens; forget about intellectual property theft, forget about unfair trade practices, that's small-ball; the guy that made the mullahs in Iran rich, the #1 state sponsor of terror rich, is Joe Biden because he wouldn't enforce the sanctions forbidding them to sell oil on the world market. He even took it a step further in March of '21 by starting to import Iranian oil into the United States, and he's continued ever since. He wants the price of oil to go down, but he doesn't want to drill for it, here. Well, what's the difference if you rape and pillage Mother Earth, as they say on the left, and drill for oil, uh - it doesn't matter where you do it? I guess to Joe Biden it does. He just doesn't want to get his base angry. His base is now the lunatics that are on these college campuses, here. And Biden, of course, this weekend, again, pressuring Prime Minister Netenyahu to do anything but win his war against radical terrorists. What would America do, what would you want your country to do, if 8000 Americans were taken hostage out of our country? What would you want this country to do? What would you expect your leaders to do if 40,000 Americans were slaughtered in a single day?"

He goes on, of course. But this is a splendid example of the sort of "Gish gallop" Hannity has perfected over the years.

Start with his "new Axis of evil." Without speaking it, he implicates Joe Biden as being part of this Axis. He knows it's misleading, he knows its incendiary, and he doesn't care.

What about shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline while simultaneously allowing Putin to complete the Nord Stream 2 project? (Referring to a gas pipeline connecting Russia with Germany, bypassing Ukraine completely.) Well, it's not proven, but Biden was probably the one who gave the order to blow up the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the first place. Also, the pipeline wasn't being used at the time, because, due to Russia's war on Ukraine, Germany isn't buying any natural gas from Russia. So if Russia is allowed to complete its pipeline, yet continues its war with Ukraine, Germany won't buy the damned gas anyway! Russia will have diverted millions of dollars in funds and man hours to a project that won't pay off for him! I'd say this is nothing short of brilliant foreign policy strategy! Unfortunately, it's just one small segment in Hannity's disinformation clusterfuck.

He wrongly complains the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will make Putin money, "which enables him to continue to invade a country like Ukraine, and kill innocent men, women, and children. Gee, that's brilliant!" And yet, in the very next breath, he complains about America being dragged into a proxy war costing us "billions and billions and billions of dollars," as though he were an anti-Carl-Sagan. Is Hannity against Russia slaughtering innocent men, women, and children, or is he in favor of abandoning Ukraine to its fate?! Come on, dude, pick a lane!

He claims Biden has been great to China. Hardly. True he ended Trump's insane trade war with China, but he also made moves to ensure Taiwan would not be the sole manufacturer of microchips for the U.S., thus guaranteeing that a Chinese takeover of Taiwan wouldn't deprive Americans of a vital resource. China knows Biden did this, and isn't happy. And Hannity claims there are no consequences for the Chinese spy balloons, except there were. It was a huge PR disaster for China, and we recovered the wreckage after the balloon was shot down. The incident also poisoned relations between China and all allied nations, from Japan to India to Canada.

"No consequences for Covid," he claims. Except the millions of Chinese lives lost to that disease.

"No consequences for threatening maneuvers," he adds. Yet our forces have not been chased off in the Pacific. They're standing firm.

"forget about intellectual property theft, forget about unfair trade practices, that's small-ball." Yeah, just like Trump ignored those? Remember that it was Obama that pushed through a Pacific Rim trade agreement to counterbalance China's influence. Trump did nothing regarding copyright.

He complains Biden "made the mullahs in Iran rich" by not enforcing "the sanctions forbidding them to sell oil on the world market." This is ignorant beyond belief. There is a strong secular contingent to Iran's population, and they're on OUR side! We are, in a brilliant show of responsibility, trying to walk the tightrope between supporting those citizens in overthrowing Iran's government in favor of democracy, while simultaneously punishing Iran's current government. This isn't easy! And Hannity's demagoguery does us no favors.

This is part of why Trump's undoing of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was so disastrous. Iran's moderate middle began seeing the U.S. as a bigger enemy than its own government, and no revolution will ever take place while that's the case! Biden wisely tried to bring Iran back to the table to get its nuclear agreement through again, and as a concession, permitted some Iranian oil to flow. Maybe a little of it wound up in the U.S., but it mostly went to China. And the diplomacy worked. Again, this is what happens when a government knows what it's doing when it comes to foreign policy. But in Hannity's world, that's just letting oppressive regimes off the hook. Never mind the damage it does to the prospects of freedom and democracy in the region.

He claims Biden wants oil prices to come down but doesn't want to drill for it here. Except a strong commitment to electric cars will bring oil prices down as demand decreases - something Trump was both unable and unwilling to do.

Hannity rails on against student protests, and naturally conflates them with all liberals. Of course, Biden's base is not the "lunatics on our college campuses." Yes, they're demonstrating against genocide on Israel's part, and yes that's noble, but Biden knows we're walking a tightrope between supporting the only democracy in the Middle East and preventing ethnic cleansing being done in the name of self-defense. I've written extensively about the Israel-Hamas war in other blog posts. But suffice it to say that Biden is at least trying for balance. Hannity and his beloved Trump don't give a rip about balance at all.

And all that is in just a small 2.5 minute segment of a show that lasts 3 whole hours every day! Imagine! Three whole hours of this kind of Gish-gallop, misinformation-dense, hyper-radicalized crap!

It is a masterclass in disinformation.

And this is just ONE talking head in an overall Right Wing Media Cult which is comprised of hundreds of Hannity-wannabes, and which has taken over much of our nation's airwaves.

What are we doing to counter this? Exactly nothing. That's the most frustrating thing. We need to curtail the for-profit news industry with some basic standards of truth-telling, and downgrade op-ed from a feature to an afterthought. Or even bar op-ed outright. If such "news" outlets do not comply, the title of "news" gets taken away from them! This is not a violation of freedom of speech, as the outlet can go on saying whatever it wants. It just can't mislabel itself "news" anymore.

We have laws preventing any food manufacturer from putting any ingredients into their products which are not listed on the label. We must do the same thing with our news media, and for the same reason. If a food company mislabels its product, any number of food-related illnesses could result. Likewise, a mislabeled "news" source will poison the minds of its viewers.

At long last, can we at least TRY to prevent this from happening?

Eric

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