Claims And Issues

'"SO IT'S ON TO CHICAGO, AND LET'S WIN THERE!"

Senator Robert F. Kennedy said that on June 5, 1968.  Right after he said that, he left the stage in a hotel in Los Angeles and walked through the kitchen.  He was murdered there.

          President Joe Biden is not Senator Robert F. Kennedy.  Judging by the frenzy surrounding Joe Biden's candidacy for re-election, that is his great sin in the eyes of many people, that he is not Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

          Full disclosure:  I am not now and never have been a big fan of Joe Biden as a candidate.  He is not my first choice to run for President.

          But he is an adequate candidate.  And he is a very good President.

          If as appears likely he stays in the race, consider the likely results.

          If he wins and dies in office, Vice President Kamala Harris would replace him automatically.  She is capable and we as a country can certainly make it  through four years with her as President.

          Or President Biden might win and become incapacitated while he is in office over the next four years.  That is why we have a 25th Amendment, and if he were removed because of incapacitation at any point during that time, once again Kamala Harris would become President Harris.

          Or President Biden might win and become too sick to serve for some of the next four years.  Everyone even his current critics concedes that Joe Biden loves this country, so if the 25th Amendment was not invoked then we can expect that he would step aside and once again, we would have President Harris.  (This scenario keeps repeating because that is why the Constitution requires a Vice President, someone to step into the office when the President no longer can.)

          If the other guy wins the Presidential election in 2024 (although if he won the popular vote this would be the first time in his career that he won the popular vote for anything), then the game is over.

          Likely, it will be over for many years if not forever.

          Given the likely outcomes of Joe Biden remaining in the 2024 Presidential election, my choice is Joe Biden.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

RETRIBUTION? IMMUNE, IMMUNE, IMMUNE.

Why does the media write and read more stories about one person than another?  Maybe they are afraid of him.  I do not know.  Maybe they do not want the hassle, which comes to the same thing in the end.  I do not know.

          The CURIOUS GEORGE stories featured their own man with no name.  They called him The Man In The White Hat.  In this age of algorithms and searches, I too will play it safe and call this person The Man In The Red Tie.  (The difference between me and the corporate media is that I am an individual, not a huge corporation, of course.  It is an ancient and honorable tradition to write more or less anonymously whenever a relatively powerless  person takes on the powerful.)

          Taking a leaf from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor writing in the immunity case, here is my list of a few, just a few, of the things that Red Tie and his gang do that do not get near the same treatment as, say, the President:

• Libel, slander, defame?
• Beat, kill cops and FBI?
• Retribution?   Immune, immune, immune.

The end.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

877 FEDERAL JUDGES HONOR THE RULE OF LAW.

There are some 900 federal judges in the Courts of the United States.  Let's call it an even 900.  That means that 877 federal judges honor the rule of law.  877 federal judges hire their law clerks, and presumably federal magistrate judges and other courtroom officers and personnel as well, based on demonstrated capacity for the job.

          Unfortunately, 13 get all the headlines for refusing to even consider hiring certain people.  Each of the 13 was appointed during the American Apocalypse between January 20, 2017 and January 19, 2021.  Reportedly, "2/3" of the 13 are in Texas.

          They have no problem, it seems, with hiring people from the University of Mississippi which is currently under a self-imposed investigation for racism based on developments within the last few days – in 2024, not 1924 or 1964 -- in which a large racist mob surrounded a smaller group of students on campus and threatened their safety. 

          The rest, 877 federal judges, do not get the headlines but they get the best candidates.

          And that's the way it is, May 2024.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THEIR GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO EXPORT LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS.

The State of Louisiana, along with other States where the oil and gas industry holds enormous power, has sued the United States Government which has limited or even refused to issue permits to export Liquefied Natural Gas.

          Louisiana and the other liquefied natural gas-producing States have sued to assert their God-given right to export LNG or liquefied natural gas.  Their lawsuit is Louisiana v. Biden (W.D. La. No. 2:24-cv-00406).  The complaint is too long and not important enough to link here.

          A review of the Public Access to (Federal) Courts Electronic Records or "PACER," reveals what the popular press has not yet reported:  The Judge assigned to the case in the Western District of Louisiana is the Hon. James D. Cain Jr.  He was appointed during the American Holocaust in 2019.  Lawsuits like this one are usually filed in one-judge divisions of federal courts in Texas, but this one has been filed in Louisiana.  You see, when a federal lawsuit is filed in a division with one judge in it, the chances are 100% that you know what judge will be assigned to your case.  They get to pick their own judge.

           The interesting and unanswered, so-far-unasked question is how so many judges appointed during the American Holocaust got assignments to one-judge divisions.  Perhaps journalists and the news media in general can ask that question, and perhaps they can get answers.  I will list some below that can perhaps get answers.

           Oh, and a review of the website of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana reveals that only one of its Divisions, the Lake Charles Division as it happens, has only one judge:  Judge Cain.  All the other Divisions have an active sitting judge and a Senior Judge available, except Lake Charles, which has only Judge Cain.  Truly no coincidence, when you want to file a lawsuit to assert your God-given right to export liquefied natural gas but the United States is standing in the way, for now.

           For more on the American Holocaust and how its effects are still with us every day, see UNELECTED TEXAS JUDGES, THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST, AND MINORITY RULE, published here on March 9, 2024.

          So, no coincidence that Judge James D. Cain Jr. was assigned to this LNG exportation lawsuit.  Moreover, Judge Cain has his own track record of ruling against the United States in similar cases.

I am now going to mention the names of people and outlets who have the capacity to answer these questions if they want to.  If I left a tweet on X-which-used-to-be-Twitter, I guess they might find a tweet but so would the trolls most likely and I do not want that.  I do not know whether these people will pay attention to blogs like this one, but I am going to try.  Maybe they will seek out their names since they are in a business where their name recognition is so important to them.

        I am not completely sure of how to bring this article to their attention, so I am going to mention their names here in the body of this article as well as in the metadata accompanying it.  Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Susanne Craig, David Barstow, Russ Buettner, Rachel Maddow, Andrew Weissmann, Will Bunch, Scott Maxwell, Jackie Calmes, LZ Granderson, Karen Tumulty, Julie K. Brown, David Dayen, New York Times, Washington Post, American Prospect, Guardian, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jamie Raskin, Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Talking Points Memo, ProPublica, Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, and American Prospect.

          Thank you in advance, one and all.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.  

APPEAL BONDS DEPENDING ON WHETHER SOMEONE WILL LEND THE MONEY?

"Breaking news" today is that a defendant finds it "impossible" to post the amount of an appeal bond that ordinary people would have to post, if they want to appeal.  His lawyers say that no-one will loan him the money.  So, his lawyers argue, he should be required to post only a smaller bond, one for which he can presumably find a lender to loan him the money.

          How is this any different from anyone else who has to post a bond and they can't find someone to loan them the money to do so?  The "rule" in this person's case should apply across the board to everyone, don't you agree?

          BTW:  The irony.  This person was held liable for fraud, got hit with big damages and big fines, and now says that he should post a lower bond.  The irony:  Be held liable for fraud and so be allowed to post a lower appeal bond because no-one believes that you will pay them back if they give you the money.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

CONTEXT, POLLS, AND YOU.

Context.  The best reporting presents things in context.  Context is recognized as a necessity for trustworthy journalism.  Always.

         An example was given by polling results that were published by The New York Times in November, 2023 about how people said they would vote come the November, 2024 election.  Many people expressed shock and surprise that the results of those polls had Joe Biden losing.  Before we address the most obvious problems with these polls, many observers have already (correctly) pointed out that the results are unreliable for various reasons, including some that are mentioned below.

         In context, the most obvious thing behind the New York Times' November 2023 poll results is that Joe Biden is not popular to begin with.

         In his past runs for the Presidency, Biden has not done very well.  I believe that he had two runs before 2020 and the longest his candidacy lasted may have been a few months; if he earned a single delegate in those past runs, that would be a surprise.

         In 2020, Joe Biden was almost left for dead, politically,  until the South Carolina primary came along.  He had the good fortune to be the only so-called "centrist" candidate left, meaning that the rich and arrogant people that think they are in charge of the Democratic Party had no-one else to turn to.  Then came South Carolina and Biden's fortunes changed such that he got his party's nomination and ran in the general election against someone else who had run for the Presidency before,  had never won the popular vote, and alienated so much of the electorate that Mr. Biden got 7 Million more votes than his opponent.

         Returning to reasons that polls in November, 2023 are unreliable predictors of results in November, 2024:

• Most obviously: Polls have not been correct for the past 8 years.  There is no reason to expect them to be correct now.

• The next Presidential Election is a year away. A lot can happen in the meantime.  (Look for example at what has happened in just the past year.)

• There is a real difference between what people say, and what voters do. Some people lie to pollsters.  People lie for various reasons.  Some are annoyed with pollsters and their polls.  Others are unhappy with the current state of affairs in the United States (for that matter, who isn't?).  Still others don't like the people they have to choose from in this election.  There are a lot of reasons, but there is a real difference between the answers a person is willing to give to poll questions, and the vote that same person casts at the polls.

         All that said, no objective person can legitimately say that this is good news for Joe Biden.  The shock and surprise at poll results from November of last year, about predicted results to come in November of this year, are that if this were a horse race, Biden should be way ahead, leading by lengths:

• The economy is the best it has been in years, the unemployment rate is microscopic, and inflation has been coming way down.
• Workers are enchanted with new-found security and better wages.
• Biden's opposition comes from sources that are the most anti-American since secessionists started a civil war.

         Putting things in context is, to say again, the mark of the best reporting.   Context is a necessity for trustworthy journalism.

          Always.

This marks a perhaps temporary departure from the past several months' of Go Forward articles.  The focus here is still on what's positive in the country, in the world, and in our lives.  Go Forward.

 

WHEN JOURNALISM BECAME "HE SAID, SHE SAID,"

…  IT COULDN'T REPORT THE TRUTH ANY LONGER.

Some time in the past 30 years or so, journalists changed the way they report.  Perhaps it was because they heard the cries against them, people like the dog handlers in Birmingham or the governor standing in the school-house door,  and so they decided to give the criers equal time.  (The criers were very loud; for that matter, they haven't stopped.)  Whatever the reason, reporters began to equate even-handedness with "he said, she said."

From that point on, Journalism School (or "J School") unceasingly put out the theme that equality of treatment demanded that every side be heard from. 

The end result was that Nazis became "some very fine people."  There are no "fine" Nazis.  They are just plain evil.

There are no "good" racist lynch mobs, no "good" anti-Semites, no "fine" people filled with such hatred that they harm, even kill, other people.

Yet J Schools continue to turn out people who call themselves journalists when they graduate, people who go on to dutifully write that 'good said, evil said,' and they call that even-handed.  Which works for them, obviously, at least so long as they make money for the hedge funds that own their outlets.

These are the people who claim to tell us the truth.  Except they don't, not under their outdated J School model,  "he said, she said."  Not when they write only what makes a profit.  They – and we who depend on them to report what is actually happening – need a different model.  We deserve better.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MEET THE JUDGES WHO SAVED THE REPUBLIC FOR NOW.

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Atlanta, Georgia (Image Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Website)

On September 21, 2022, a federal appellate court ruled that while its appeal is pending, the United States can use the classified materials it confiscated from the beach resort in South Florida under an authorized search warrant, to investigate whatever crimes may have been committed and to review whatever damage was done to national security.  They also ruled that the United States does not have to submit the classified documents to a special master to review in the meantime.

With their unanimous order, they restored the Republic, at least for now.  Meet the Judges.

JUDGE ROBIN S.  ROSENBAUM is the senior judge among the three judges on this panel.  She has been on the Eleventh Circuit since 2014.  Having turned 56 this year, she is also the oldest of the three judges on this panel.  Judge Rosenbaum is familiar with the inner workings of most of the parties in this case, having worked as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of Florida, and as a U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of Florida.

A graduate of the University of Miami Law School, she was nominated by President Obama and she was confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit by a vote of 91 to 0.

JUDGE BRITT GRANT was a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court before she went to the Eleventh Circuit in 2018.  A graduate of Stanford Law School, Judge Grant was confirmed by a vote of 52-46.  She is 44 years old and a Republican by party.

JUDGE ANDREW L. BRASHER rounds out this panel of three Judges.  Judge Brasher turned 41 this year and has been on the Eleventh Circuit since June 2020.  Previously he was appointed a U.S. District Judge in Alabama where he served for about a year before going to the Eleventh Circuit.  A graduate of Harvard Law School, he too is a Republican by party.

Contrary to Mainstream Media and Alternate Media headlines, this decision did not resolve the appeal in favor of the United States, although that is the likely outcome after this ruling.  Also, this panel which decided the motion (called a "motions panel") may not be the same panel of Judges who will decide the entire appeal.  So it's on with the appeal and let's win there!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WHOSE "PRESIDENT"?

Many, many commentators on cable TV shows and in newspapers and other media continue to refer to the former guy as president.

                                     He is the former guy.

                                     He is not the president.

 

          Joe Biden is the President.

          Get real.  Stop the infatuation that got us here, corporate media.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Telling the Story of "Global Repression of COVID-19 reporting."

It may be understandable, even expected, that reporters writing about Wuhan, China and COVID-19 have mysteriously disappeared.

    What is not always as simple to grasp is that reports and reporters writing about COVID-19 have been suppressed in many other places, including Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Hungary, India, Tajikistan, Turkey, Venezuela -- and the United States.

    To see what is happening, check out this link to the greatly respected Columbia Journalism Review including its embedded link to an interactive map showing the countries where reporting about COVID-19 is under attack in various ways.  You are in charge of this reporting.  Paste this into your browser and check it all out:

https://www.cjr.org/widescreen/journalism-and-covid-map-me.php?mc_cid=1db3abbeca&mc_eid=ac7bd6d976

 

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THEY COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT MEDIA: 14% CONTROL GOP, HEADLINES.

 

January 6, 2021:  The United States Capitol, Capitol Police, and Others.  (Manual Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

14% of the people in the United States control the headlines.  The same 14% control the current so-called "Republican" political party.

          On Twitter, Richard Hine broke down the latest Gallup poll, Richard Hine (@RichardHine), TWITTER, May 24, 2021, http://twitter.com/richardhine (last visited Tuesday, May 25, 2021).  53% of respondents identified themselves as Republicans and they told Gallup that they thought Mr. Trump won the election last November.

          Hines put this number in perspective:  26% of the population identify themselves as Republicans.  That means that 14% of the U.S. think that Mr. Trump won the election.  14%.

          Yet it is the 14% that control the GOP.

          The 14% get all the headlines.  They still know how to manipulate the media.  They have the experience.  They have been doing it for over 40 years.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Vampire bats could come to Florida: Headline Tells The Story.

The results of a pandemic release of deadly chemicals into the waterways of Manatee County are showing bad things.  But news of them is not to be found in the local Central Florida newspaper on Monday of this week.  Not headlines, not reporting, nothing in the newspaper.

Instead, the Local & State Section of the Orlando Sentinel on Monday published its top headline:

Vampire bats could come to Florida.

          I don't know what else to say.  I don't think there is anything else to say.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

LETTERS IN A PANDEMIC.

Things come to us in different ways.  This article comes early, on a Saturday morning.

          Vaccines can come in a vial.

(Bryan Anselm / Redux)

          Many things come to our front doors, delivered in boxes which we break down and put at the curb for recycling.

(Dennis Wall)

          Context comes from the newsletters of Heather Cox Richardson.  Many are available for free; she also offers subscriptions through Substack.  The latest figures I know are $5 for one month at a time, or $50 for one year.  Here is a link to her latest newsletter as of this writing which she shares for free:  March 26, 2021 - Letters from an American (substack.com).

          Ms. Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College.  Her writing is deeply researched.  She includes a list of sources at the end of every one of her newsletters that readers can check out for themselves.

          Confirm for yourself.  Check out Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter, Letters from an American.  It fills the gaping hole left when real journalists departed from our newspapers and periodicals.  Put things in context.  Check out Letters from an American.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Thoughts on Meatpacking Plant Executive Order From Morning Twitter Feed.

I checked this morning's
@latimes
,
@newyorktimes
,
@washingtonpost
and
@CNBC
for the actual Executive Order to force meat-packing plants to stay open. Writing on deadline, the reporters could not link to the Order.
9:44 AM · Apr 29, 2020·Twitter Web App

Replying to
@DennisJWall
I searched the internet and I could not find the order.

 

@DennisJWall

Not finding the Order, I searched the websites of the Department of Labor, the CDC, OSHA and other government entities. Here is what I found as of 9:15 AM ET as I am writing this.

@DennisJWall

There is no authority for an Executive Order, under the Defense Production Act or otherwise, to order employees to work in dangerous conditions including meat-packing plants.

@DennisJWall

"Guidelines" are not authority to compel employees to work in unsafe conditions, either. At most, compliance with federal guidelines is evidence in defense when employers are sued for unsafe conditions.

@DennisJWall

Here, where federal guidelines have been made voluntary, there is a real question whether compliance with them is even admissible evidence. The fact that guidelines exist is not immunity from liability, either. The fact they exist is not even evidence in defense of liability.

@DennisJWall

I hope that this is helpful. I hope as well that others weigh in. In the meantime, I am sending this to
@anaswanson
,
@yaffebellany
,
@christiawilkie
,
@Thxamelian
, and
@DevlinBarrett
, who may find it useful as they continue to write on this story.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

REPORTS OF THE RALLY OF A THOUSAND MAY BE PREMATURE.

With apologies to both Mark Twain and Paul McCartney, both of whom said that the report of their death was premature.

A thousand people rallied in Michigan the other day, they say.  Reports in corporate media outlets all over the country repeat that number as the lead to all their stories about the rally in Michigan on the steps of the Michigan Capitol.

    Where did that number come from?  Who said it, and did they see it themselves?  I know I haven't been told.

    At other protest rallies the same day there were reports of "almost 100," "close to 100," and "about 100" people in California, Florida, and Virginia.  It's possible but it doesn't seem plausible that there were 1,000 people in Michigan but less than 100 anywhere else doing the same thing on the same day.

    Although I have not heard where the "1,000" number came from, I did see TV and photos of the rally in Michigan.  What I saw was maybe a couple of dozen people.  I definitely counted literally 12 people in a panaromic photo of the people holding guns on the steps of the Michigan Capitol.

    You would think that being accused constantly of publishing "fake news" that 21st Century Journalism would be careful in their reporting.  Instead they are writing without investigating, more like a stenographer taking down whatever they are told, than reporters.

    I used to think that 21st Century Journalism would get it right, that they would figure out that they need to know what they are talking about before they report it.  Judging from the reporting on the "pandemic protests," I was wrong.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

USING A MAGIC-8 BALL ON THE CORONAVIRUS.

“It feels like somebody is using a Magic 8-Ball to make these decisions. There is no consistency. There doesn’t even seem to be consistency in who’s making these decisions.”
Kelly Hills, quoted in No More Than 10 People in One Place, Trump Said. But Why? NEW YORK TIMES online, Monday, March 16, 2020.

On the Rachel Maddow TV Show on Monday night, March 16, they showed the typed one-page sheet titled "Guidelines" issued by "the White House." The page was a splash of different fonts, mismatching bullet points, and indents all over the place.

Later "the White House" issued a more presentable 100 pages also titled "Guidelines" and posted them online.

Continuing our look at 21st Century Journalism, I took note that all of the articles I read in the New York Times referred to the 10-person social distancing limit as part of "the White House Guidelines," except one. Some even falsely attributed the 10-person limit to the Centers for Disease Control. 

The Centers for Disease Control in truth recommends a social distancing limit of 50 people. This means that the CDC recommends against gatherings larger than groups of 50 people. I read only one article in the New York Times that recognized and published this fact -- and it reported that fact not once but twice. 

It's long past time for government officials to speak the truth. Isn't it about time that people who can ask questions and write truthful answers be the ones we call journalists?

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

JOURNALISTS DON'T PUBLISH WHO APPOINTED THESE PEOPLE. THEY'RE OUR CORONAVIRUS DEFENSE?

Dr. Robert R. Redfield was appointed as the head of the Centers for Disease Control in March 2018.

Dr. Robert Redfield via CDC website.

Dr. Redfield had to be told by a Member of Congress at an open Hearing in the House nearly two years after he was appointed, that the CDC already has the authority to pay for every single person in America to be tested for the coronavirus.

Previously, Dr. Redfield and the CDC refused to adopt the World Health Organization's test for the coronavirus, opting instead for America's own test. They failed then too.

Dr. Steven Hahn is Dr. Redfield's boss.  Dr. Hahn, a radiation oncologist from the University of Texas, was picked to run the Food and Drug Administration in the Federal Government in December 2019.

 

Photograph of Dr. Stephen Hahn via University of Texas.

 

 

Under his leadership, the Food and Drug Administration has required the Centers for Disease Control to re-do tests for the coronavirus Covid-19.  This new procedure reportedly has had the effect of throwing sand in the gears, slowing the CDC's efforts to protect the public with testing.  Fewer people will test positive if fewer people are tested, even now, of course.

Journalists do not seem to have reported when these people were appointed to their current posts, or how they got appointed, or who appointed them.  Given the failures of the FDA and the CDC in the face of the coronavirus, shouldn't we be told?

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

 

 

DEMONSTRATING THE GUTS TO CONFRONT THE CAPTAIN ... NOT this MR. ROBERTS.

In the classic movie Mr. Roberts, the title character had the guts to stand up to the Captain of the ship.

 

Not so much this Mr. Roberts.

Certainly not when women are involved.

Some background is in order before we talk about what he did -- or did not do -- most recently.

At first, the current leader attacked the forewoman of the jury. John Roberts did not protect her. He had nothing to say.

Then the current leader attacked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. John Roberts did not protect her either. Again he had nothing to say.

Then the current leader attacked two of the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. John Roberts did not protect them. By now it seems to be a pattern: Again he had nothing to say in defense of either woman who both serve on the Court that bears his name.

And then a U.S. Senator used the words of another Justice to call out that Justice, Brett Kavanaugh by name, along with Justice Neil Gorsuch. The Senator had the audacity to repeat Kavanaugh's words that opponents of his nomination would cause the U.S. "to reap the whirlwind." The Senator told Kavanaugh that it was Kavanaugh who "released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!" That moved John Roberts to speak. He chastised the U.S. Senator for hurling the words of Kavanaugh against Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.

We do not expect a Chief Justice of the United States to rule in favor of our cherished positions, certainly not every time and perhaps not any time. But we do reasonably expect a Chief Justice of the United States to stand up for judges who may have no-one else to stand with them in the face of such harassment.

When the Chief Justice of the United States does not behave like a Chief Justice of the United States, it is good to recognize the behavior of the person for what it is, rather than continue to hold him in high regard because of his title and in spite of all the evidence.

Including in the press.

 

Image of Henry Fonda and Jimmy Cagney in the movie Mr. Roberts via imdb.com.

Image of Chief Justice Roberts by Erin Schaff / New York Times.

 

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

VINDICTIVENESS IS FOR LOSERS. RESIST THEM. DON'T HATE THEM.

Today is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday.

  February 5, 1865.

 (Alexander Gardner /

National Portrait Gallery,

Washington, D.C.)

The Department of Homeland Security is effectively making New Yorkers stand in line at airports now.  The bar is expected to affect 50,000 people now and another 175,000 people by year's end.

The ban was announced by the current Acting DHS Secretary because, he said, New York State enacted a driver's license law that hinders the Federal Government from accessing the New York State Government's motor vehicle databases without a court order.  New York is one of about a dozen States plus the District of Columbia that require ICE to get a court order before the Feds start rifling through State databases without a warrant.  The whole story is laid out, for example, in the Washington Post here and here, and New York State is filing suit to block the ban.  See Luis Ferre-Sadurni, New York Will File Lawsuit Over Traveler Program Ban, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, February 8, 2020, at A23 (online access controlled by The New York Times).

Net result:  People who can afford not only to pay for airline tickets and baggage fees etc. plus pay the program fees, are now going to have to wait in TSA lines with everyone else.  I too have waited in TSA lines.  It's not so bad.

In a similar way, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman was fired from the National Security Council staff on February 7 after he testified in the House Impeachment Proceeding under subpoena.  He had already given or was in the process of giving notice that he was leaving at the end of February.

                                       (Andrew Harnik / AP)

Net result:  Colonel Vindman will be leaving his position about 3 weeks earlier than he otherwise would have.

Colonel Vindman's brother was a lawyer with an ethics portfolio at the National Security Council.  He did not testify about anything but he too was fired on February 7.  This is all reminiscent of the greater vindictiveness levelled against Andrew McCabe who was terminated a day or so before his Federal pension would have vested.  It is true that the thread that is common to all these incidents is the desire to inflict harm regardless of whether other reasons exist, or not.

However, the incidents highlighted in the media over the uproar in New York and repeated in the media over the departure of Colonel Vindman have not really inflicted all that much harm.  Not really.  They display a disgusting vindictiveness but they do not carry real harm as their consequences.  The people that indulged their vindictiveness in these cases have shown themselves to clearly be losers.

Net result:  They are vindictive and they are losers.  Resist them.  Don't hate them.  If you hate them, you become them.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE STORY ISN'T IN JOB NUMBERS, IT'S IN PEOPLE'S SALARIES.

Stories fill our eyes and ears that we have a rising economy because job numbers are rising.

What the stories don't tell is the always-low wages companies pay people whose work means always-higher company profits.

The story isn't in the number of jobs in the U.S. economy on any given day in February 2020 (or any other month or year). The story is in the low salaries and wages of jobs in the U.S. economy today.

"We can use facts to prove that the stock market is rising, but that does not make it true that everyone in the country is paid a living wage." Sister Joan Chittister, You Shall Know The Truth And The Truth Shall Make You Free. Really? / Democracies Can Die, NCRonline.org, Jan. 15, 2020.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

THE PRACTICE OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY JOURNALISM.

"[S]ometimes," the current regime's "denials or responses to questions can be so blatantly untrue that printing them without comment does a disservice to the truth."
Andrea Bernstein.

SO WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT? THE UNREDACTED EMAILS?

So what were we talking about before the drone exploded?

It is hard to recall, which is a measure of distraction in itself.

As best I recall, we were talking about the unredacted emails. An online blog or zine or whatever called Just Security published some totally redacted emails which the current regime had filed in a court file in response to a court order to release those emails. Just Security says that it "viewed" many of those emails, unredacted, and it published them along with the redacted version.

The emails evidenced communications between political appointees in the current regime, and officers in the Department of Defense and in the Department of State, over the illegality of impounding funds which Congress had already appropriated and ordered spent, and over who ordered this action.

One of the more significant emails, which the regime had blacked out, revealed that the head of our government directed it.

That is what we were talking about before the drone exploded.

Since the drone exploded, it is hard to find any reporting in any medium anywhere about the message in the unredacted emails. Keep your eyes on the ball, media. Keep your focus, publishers and editors and reporters. The people could use your help and we are not getting it.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All Rights Reserved.

NYT, AGAIN: "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES." Rebecca Solnit.

The New York Times has anointed another "devout Catholic."  This time the Times anointed William Barr of all people.  See Jeremy W. Peters and Katie Benner, Right Rejoices as Barr Assails Liberal Culture, NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, December 9, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports; posted online under a different headline).

Previously they declared Kenneth Cuccinelli "a devout Catholic" in The Public Face of Homeland Security Also Ruffles Its Feathers. A Lot, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 6, 2019, p. A12 (to say again, be forewarned: the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports). Mr. Cuccinelli is the latest acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or "USCIS."  I previously pointed out some of the many reasons that Mr. Cuccinelli isn't anyone's "devout Catholic" in an article posted here on September 8, 2019, "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES."  Rebecca Solnit.

This is insulting. As I told the New York Times in September's article, we will have to discuss what being "a devout Catholic" means. That long discussion is coming, sooner than later.  

A devout Catholic does not lie that his Inspector General's report affirming the FBI somehow debases the FBI the way he does.

A devout Catholic does not betray an old friend like Robert Mueller by publicly suggesting that he was incompetent.  Especially when that friend conducted an investigation that resulted in dozens of indictments and a report that runs for hundreds of pages presenting two volumes of evidence for impeachment of a president.

And a devout Catholic does not say that a politician's political campaign was spied on not by Russia, mind you, but by his own Government particularly when the truth is all to the contrary of what he says about it.

It is not my place to judge Bill Barr as a person and I am asking you not to judge him or Ken Cuccinelli either. I am not saying that either Barr or Cuccinelli is a bad person. I am saying that neither one should be called "a devout Catholic." Barr's actions in particular are not devout and they are not Catholic. Many will say "Lord, Lord," but you shall know them by how they act and not by what they say about how devout they are.

To paraphrase the Irish-American poet John Boyle O'Reilly, William Barr may have a right to rule if we let him. But he has no right to call his reign Catholic.  See "THIS IS NOT DECAY.  THIS IS ORGANIZED DESTRUCTION," posted here on October 27, 2019.

Or to call it the United States of America.

 

Download CI 12.11.19.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

TOO CRUEL EVEN FOR THEM?

McKinsey & Company, the international consulting firm for hire, has been hired by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  McKinsey has reportedly received "more than $20 million in consulting work for ICE[.]"  Ian MacDougall, Consulting Giant's Focus Was Making Deportations Faster and Cheaper / Agency Workers Saw Some Ideas As Too Harsh on Immigrants, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., December 4, 2019, at p. A21 (New York Times may charge for online access to this report that it copublished along with ProPublica).  That's $20 Million out of our taxes, of course.

McKinsey focused on "detention savings opportunities" with respect to the apprehension and detention of immigrants by the current regime.  McKinsey proposed cutting spending on food, for example.  McKinsey also proposed cutting medical care.  Tasked with detention savings opportunities, McKinsey did not overlook "cutbacks in guard staffing," which was reportedly the place in the ICE budget where the greatest detention savings opportunities were made.  Ian MacDougall, Consulting Giant's Focus Was Making Deportations Faster and Cheaper / Agency Workers Saw Some Ideas As Too Harsh on Immigrants, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., December 4, 2019, at p. A21 (New York Times may charge for online access to this report that it copublished along with ProPublica).

At least some of these cuts were too much even for people at ICE.  They pointed out that cutting back on food and medicine would affect the health of people held in ICE custody, and of course that is what has happened, according to other reports.

ICE agents also pointed out that many of McKinsey's cuts were illegal under existing regulations.  In response to these points, McKinsey's agents reported these ICE personnel to their ICE managers, saying that they stood in the way of the detention savings opportunities.

As for the regulations, people at McKinsey & Co. reportedly recommended doing away with at least some of the regulations in order to save on the costs of complying with them such as in providing food and medicine.  See Consulting Giant's Focus Was Making Deportations Faster and Cheaper / Agency Workers Saw Some Ideas As Too Harsh on Immigrants, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., December 4, 2019, at p. A21 (New York Times may charge for online access to this report that it copublished along with ProPublica).

Another of McKinsey & Co.'s tasks was to help implement the current regime's task of adding 10,000 more agents.  Yet McKinsey recommended "cutbacks in guard staffing as the source of most cost savings."  Id.  What then were the agents to be used for, if not guarding immigrants in ICE detention?  The newspaper report does not say.

But we know how armed agents have been used that are not used for guarding immigrants in ICE detention.

  (Sandy Huffaker.AFP.Getty Images)

It would be foolish to expect that these agents will not be used that way again, perhaps even more so.  And it would be foolish not to realize that whenever they are used in those ways in the future, large corporations will be there to make a buck off it.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

Download CI 12.04.19.

 

CALIFORNIA, THE E.P.A., AND JOURNALISM IN 2019.

Some people don't understand, or say they don't, why the current Environmental Protection Agency administrator sent a letter to California saying that California was in trouble because a lot of homeless people live in California, and they are dirty, and that is not good for the environment.

As you have probably heard, California has been pushing back hard against the current EPA's attempts to roll back environmental protections previously and perhaps currently required by law.

This is the last paragraph tucked away at the tail end of a lengthy newspaper report:  "Last week more than 600 former E.P.A. officials signed a letter calling for a federal investigation into what they called an 'inappropriate threat of use of E.P.A. authority' against California."  Lisa Friedman, E.P.A. Skirted Protocol to Jab Blue California, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., October 16, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times may charge for online access).

That should have been the lead paragraph.  It explains everything we could ever want to know about this.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA TODAY.

American media outlets, particularly the large corporate media outlets, are microphones for niche sites broadcasting propaganda.  Small-time propaganda sites are enabled to reach a much larger audience than they commanded with their original bit of propaganda, by being re-published or re-broadcast in the mainstream media.

The propaganda sites know this very well, and they care about it very much.  The corporate media knows this very well also, but they don't care about it at all if it sells advertising.

We have the latest tiresome example of propaganda-rebroadcast-by-media in a story about a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president.  That fact alone tells you from the beginning who is responsible for this propaganda.  It's not the Democratic candidate for president, that's the first clue.

The candidate is Senator Elizabeth Warren.  She has told an anecdote on the campaign trail about how she lost a teaching job.  She lost it when she became visibly pregnant and could no longer hide her pregnancy.  When that happened, her principal told her to go.

Recall from the beginning of this story that being fired for being pregnant was and still is a common thing for employed women.

In response, someone wrote a piece on a website claiming to have accessed the school board's records that the school board actually renewed Ms. Warren's teaching contract.

The corporate media ate it up.  Apparently without spending any money on reporters' salaries or on emails or telephone calls to the school board to check it out, the corporate media effectively spread this propaganda "as is," in print and online.  They reprinted and republished this propaganda so much that Warren eventually had no choice but to respond to it.

Here's what happened.  The school board did in fact renew Warren's teaching contract.  That was before the school found out that she was pregnant.  When they found out that she was pregnant, that was when they told her that she had to go, she no longer had a job.  Which is what Warren said in the first place.

Being fired for being pregnant comes as no surprise to employed women in this country.  Remember what I said at the beginning?  The propaganda machine remembers it.  Denying truth is essential to propaganda especially when you don't look too closely at it.

It is not really a wonder that things are as they are.  But things like propaganda-rebroadcast-by-corporate-media are just beginning to change now, and for the better.

It's about time.

For the whole story of the latest smear, see Thomas Kaplan, Warren Details Account of Losing Teaching Job Because of a Pregnancy, NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, October 9, 2019, p. A20 (online here; the New York Times may charge you for online access -- they've got to get their revenue you know, but we won't charge you anything for our own article that you have just read).

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

DEMOCRACY DIED TUESDAY OF A GERRYMANDER.

The pundits are out in force over the results of the special election in a Congressional district in North Carolina. The Republican won by 2 percentage points on Tuesday over a Democrat who, last time he ran, lost by only 0.4 percentage points.

I see that the Congressional district is apparently still gerrymandered. Wait, it is more than apparently still gerrymandered. It is gerrymandered.

I thought I would mention this.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall. All Rights Reserved.

HONG KONG, THE DARKNESS AND THE LIGHT REVEALED.

For very good journalism, accurately reported and written, see Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin, Protestors Focus on Hong Kong's Airport, Snarling Transport Links After Day of Violence, WASHINGTON POST online Sunday, September 1, 2019.  In easily understandable, solid reporting, this article informs about:

• the reasons for the protests,
• the violent reactions of Communist China and their thugs,
• the decline in professionalism among those who now wear the uniforms of the once-respected Hong Kong Police Force, and
• the hardships reluctantly cast upon the tourists using Hong Kong's face upon the world, its airport, such as the words of this man from the Philippines who walked an hour-and-a-half to the airport from the last train station that the government left open, so that he could catch his flight back to Manila:

"I understand what they [the protestors in Hong Kong] are fighting for.

They are young people fighting for their future."

The reporters carefully report the fact that this person made his flight.

Download CI 09.02.19.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

 

"PROTEST LEADER?" REALLY? HE'S BEEN IN JAIL OVER A YEAR.

The 2019 protests in Hong Kong are famous for having no leaders.  Leading protests in Hong Kong can land a person in jail in China.  The people of Hong Kong are acting for themselves.  This drives Communist China up the Great Wall.

Apparently, it drives corporate media up a wall in this country too.  The New York Times has actually published a story pinning the leadership of the 2019 Hong Kong protests on a guy who was put in jail months before the protests started.

The Times is pushing the story that the guy in jail, Edward Leung, is the mastermind of the Hong Kong protests.   The problem with that story is that Mr. Leung was jailed for his role in the 2016 Hong Kong protests.  Months before this year's protests started in June.  Mr. Leung's jailers are not in the habit of allowing prisoners time off for bad behavior.  His contacts with Hong Kong outside his prison walls are not the kind of thing that leads violent protests against China.  

To the contrary, other reports have Edward Leung in 2019 releasing a letter that counsels against violence in the face of contrary provocations including from the government.  See Edward Leung's Letter to Hongkongers, published July 30 and apparently written July 26, 2019. 

But two large organizations want you to believe them and not your lyin' eyes on this.  One of the organizations is the Chinese Communist Party.  The other organization that wants you to swallow this is equally desperate to put a name on the 2019 protests.  That other desperate organization is The New York Times apparently, in a piece published over two weeks after Edward Leung's Letter to Hongkongers.  See Andrew Higgins, 'Che Guevara' of Hong Kong Inflames a Fight Over Identity, New York Times, Thursday, August 15, 2019, p. A1, published online with a very different headline, ‘Retake Hong Kong’: A Movement, a Slogan and an Identity Crisis (New York Times may charge for online access). 

Download CI 08.21.19.

 

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

 

"OH, LOOK, A SQUIRREL!"

Small children are easily distracted. Adults relearn this by hanging around them, such as coaching or umpiring Little League games.

Adults generally grow out of distractions. But not always.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time. And you can fool all of the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” Abraham Lincoln famously said.

This is true even though adults in modern times have something in their lives that comes between them and their squirrels, their distractions. The filter for adults is the corporate media. The corporate media is so loud and so relentless, it never stops and never seems to shut off. They broadcast squirrels shamelessly (so long as they make money from it, at least).

Even so, you can still fool some people all of the time of course, and you can still fool all of the people some of the time, it’s just easier now.

But you still cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Not now. Not ever.

Download CI 07.31.19.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall. All Rights Reserved.