There were too many sad surfer cartoons to choose from as I perused and collated this week. A dejected elephant on a stranded surfboard was the trite theme. Schadenfreude remains a hot topic though, and one I certainly relish.
There appears to have been a changing of the guard among the Big Media and their sycophantic influence in the past week or so. Fox is railing against Trump; MSDNC's ratings topped theirs -- though all viewing of election coverage was droopy -- and CNN's state of flux has them in limbo. And as we know, both Twitter and Facebook are imploding in real time. There's never been a better atmosphere for independent media to assert itself since 2004 and the explosion of online news consumption (namely blogs).
Before Joe Biden and the Donks finish their victory lap, they'd be wise to consider the Americans who are not participating in the great economic surge.
And here's to the pollsters, who once again demonstrated that theirs is one of the biggest scams in American politics.
At least at first, America’s founders famously disliked political parties, and so failed to provide for them in the Constitution. Like them or not, however, the
two-party system has prevailed for 95% of our history. Given that third
parties face high barriers to obtain ballot access, are shut out of televised debates and routinely denied media exposure, the duopoly is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future.
A corollary to Toqueville’s observation that a well-informed
electorate is essential to democracy is that fuzziness and confusion at
the ballot box means that voters cannot make an informed decision, will
feel cheated and fooled, and will eventually lose faith in electoral
politics altogether.
Alas, our two-party system is being corrupted by forces and reforms that trick and manipulate voters.
And the Battle for The Soul of America opens a new front ... in your mailbox.
The Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade seemed to be helping Democrats' polls as we move into the 2022 midterm elections. But Democrats don’t appear as interested in legalizing abortion on the federal level as they do in campaigning (and specifically, raising money) on the issue. It makes you wonder: do they want Republicans to mess everything up so that they get elected?
Here's a problem I wish Texas could export: Christian fascists.
“A worst case scenario is: you unleash hell on your kids and in your home,” said Jamie Gooch. “(Hocus Pocus 2) is based on witches harvesting children for blood sacrifices ... “Do not watch this film,” she warned. “Everybody thinks it’s fake and innocent, but they could be casting any type of spell that they want to, anything could be coming through that TV screen into your home.”
Sure hope her neighbors have a raucous Halloween party on tap.
Julian Assange’s case is not just about (him). It is also about news outlets like The New York Times and The Guardian, which published scores of stories based on information they were given by WikiLeaks. It was clearly a collaboration, yet only one guy is sitting in a British jail and facing a life sentence in the United States.
We might not always like or agree with people who become symbols of press freedom, but that freedom is essential to who we are as a nation.