Hungry for Credibility

 

(l-r top) Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley
(l-r bottom) Eric Sevareid, Frank Reynolds, John Chancellor

I felt secure each night when I listened to Walter Cronkite deliver the news. 

Naively, I believed he wouldn’t knowingly feed me a bunch of B.S. political propaganda dressed up in newspeak like I hear each night on FOX or even the “corporate media” today.

There were several other credible journalists back then, too. Among them: Eric Sevareid, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Frank Reynolds, and John Chancellor. They all seemed to ask inciteful questions and diligently dug for truth – the facts – and reported them.

I’m guessing, of course, but I’d bet somebody’s marbles that anyone of those guys would have covered misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, or misconduct by government officials, no matter their party affiliation. And, if a president of the United States ordered his cabinet and other administration officials to circumvent or not enforce the law of the land, they would have been all over the story and you’d certainly know about it.

Alas, our media world is dominated by ”unfair and unbalanced” rather than the attempted “fair and balanced” reporting of yesteryear.

Still, if you’re looking for credibility and “the facts,” there’s a possibility you can ferret out what might be going on for real via these resources:

ProPublica

Accountable.US

American Oversight 

Public Citizen

Campaign for Accountability

Government Information Watch 

Government Accountability Project

Go here for PDF enlargement/description.

Ending Impunity in Office

 

J. Edgar Hoover

The recent disclosure that the late J. Edgar Hoover, former director of the FBI, “…ordered agents to tell witnesses not to reveal that they were informants to the FBI when talking with police and prosecutors…” and to withhold evidence, underscores how some people who attain a position of power and authority abuse the peoples’ trust.

Hoover was well known for using FBI agents to compile “information” and for maintaining vast records on politicians as well as ordinary citizens throughout his 37 years as FBI Director. When it suited his purposes, he used his “information” to blackmail, extort, or intimidate to maintain his position as director or otherwise attain his will. Hoover had no fear that he would be force out because he had files on everyone. 

Hoover clearly acted with impunity. I doubt he gave a thought to serving time in prison for any of his extra-legal deeds.

He was not alone, by the way. 

While Ike's Sec. of State, John Foster Dulles and his brother, Allan Dulles, Director of the CIA, and their compadres were creating our world-wide image as what later became collectively known as, The Ugly American, at home, the CIA, under Mr. Alan Dulles, inaugurated Operation Mockingbird to subvert what little Fourth Estate remained.

In this recent case, “Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation found new evidence that the men were not involved with the killing and determined that authorities withheld some of what they knew.”

Malcolm X was shot to death while giving a speech in 1965. Earlier, before his trip to Mecca, Malcolm X was renown as a member of the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslim organization which Hoover infiltrated. After the Mecca trip, Malcom X began advocating for racial unity and some Black Muslims considered him a traitor.

“Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, one of the lawyers for Aziz and for Islam’s family, said the review also found the FBI and police hid evidence from prosecutors, as what he called part of a plot to disrupt the Black civil rights movement.”

“The FBI and New York Police Department had evidence of Aziz’s and Islam’s innocence within hours but ignored and suppressed it,” said attorney, Deborah Francois.

It’s time to end, “impunity in office” by appointed and elected officials, don’t you agree?

Dad Was Right

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part I, How We Lost Our Naïveté

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part II, A Doppelganger USA is Running Amok Throughout Our World

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part III, The Time of The Great Awakening: How We Can Resurrect Our Democracy

The CIA and the Media, Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct 1977  

10 Reasons Not to Support or Vote for Republicans

 

Inestimably Precious…
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” – Nathan Hale (21)

"Two-thirds of Republicans want Trump to retain major political role; 44% want him to run again in 2024," according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. And, according to a recent Reuters survey, "21 million Americans say Biden is ‘illegitimate’ and Trump should be restored by violence."

Rupert Murdock’s FOX “alternative facts” machine, Fox News, boasts the largest cable news audience in the U.S. More than 3 million avid fans of his chief, hate-mongering misinformation specialist, Tucker Carlson, make his cable show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, the highest-rated show on cable, according to Nielsen.

These are the real “Trump-Republican” facts at this moment in time.

So, what’s the problem?

The problem is that the above “facts” reflect not only a deluded* "Trump-Republican" supporter base but also a delusional** "Trump-Republican” universe rather than the one in which we reside.

Here are ten reasons why.

10. No Republican voted for American Rescue Plan of 2021, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package created to help the people of the United States recover from the devastating economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Republican voted against stimulus checks and unemployment benefits to help everyday Americans get back on their feet.

9. Republicans refuse tax reform to tax the wealth... even to fund the IRS...to audit the wealthy and corporations and collect tax monies owed the United States.

8. Republicans have blocked raising the minimum wage to $15/hr. That single act, passing the $15 minimum wage would drastically change life for the better for about 20% of working Americans.

7. Republicans do not support unions and have for decades actively worked to destroy the union movement which played the leading role in the creation of the American middleclass. Further, Republican support of "right to work" laws in twenty-eight states have enabled corporations to exploit their employees in a host of ways, such as: reducing or eliminating healthcare benefits; refusing cost of living pay increases; ending retirement benefits; shifting good paying jobs to low-cost countries like China, Vietnam, etc.

6. Republicans stood idle and mute when Trump rolled back child labor protections, job safety laws and eliminate overtime pay.

5. Republicans have repeatedly blocked healthcare expansion on both federal and state levels.

4. Republicans have repeatedly tried to abolish Social Security since its creation in the 1935.

3. From his first day in office Donald Trump ordered his cabinet secretaries and administration managers to commit malfeasance in office by actively sabotaging and disrupting the functions of the departments they head. 

2. Every Republican voted for Trump's tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. Some 83% of benefits of that Republican tax cut have gone and will continue to go to the richest 1% over 10 years. Corporations have used their savings to buy back their stock to boost per share prices... some fired sizable portions of their employees... none returned jobs to the U.S. or returned their overseas-hidden corporate profits back to the U.S.

1. In every state of the union and in the Congress of the United States, Republicans have repeatedly and maliciously worked to obstructed and deprived Americans of their right to vote.

Still, the most compelling reason not to support the Republican Party or any Republican running for elected office, is this fact:

Today the Trump-Republican Party is united in support of Donald Trump's 9/11 coup, which he organized and perpetrated in overthrowing the United States Constitution and the government of the United States following his 2020 election defeat. The Republican Party is actively ostracizing, unseating, or otherwise forcing from office all ten congressional republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his treachery.

For you, your children and grandchildren, please, give some thought to the inestimably precious nation you are surrendering by supporting Donald Trump and the Trump-Republicans.

* “Deluded” as in tricked or deceived

** “Delusional” as in believing things in spite of indisputable evidence to the contrary