Why We Should Not Go By Appearances ~ The Father of Fake News

The Fairness Doctrine made the important distinction between broadcast and cable news. Now the FCC says it is OK for the media to lie to us and pretend they are telling the truth. How do you like being duped?

Appearances and momentum capture the attention so easily that we sometimes confuse what we see, hear and think to be the truth of what we are seeing, hearing and thinking. Magicians know this and use this when they trick their audiences about what they are seeing and hearing, ultimately affecting their thinking.

No, this is not a comical bit from a Friends TV episode. The reality is, sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking that what we are seeing and hearing is real because we literally saw someone doing something, and heard them say it. No one would ever lie to us, right?

We need to be smarter humans. Whether the subject is religion, finance, or politics, it is never advisable to listen to only one side before we make important decisions. Look past the drama, the popular mantra of the group, the wishful thinking and look clearly at the facts, the real and accurate facts.

Many of us have allowed others to confuse our thinking. At these times, we are choosing to step out of our own personal power by listening to others because they seem to be louder, more sure of themselves, or seem to be in the know. If they are pontificating erroneous fictions as if they were facts, how is anyone to know without personal investigation?

Television, radio and social media does not serve the public like it used to do before the days of President Reagan when he vetoed the regulation that the news media had to profess the truth in what they reported. How many of us know that the television news media and some of its counterparts are more interested in the advertising dollars they attain over telling the actual truth which they have consciously decided not to tell?

Keep in mind that it is the conservative entities (not liberals), usually Republicans (not Democrats) who own most of the media who are pushing hardline, rightwing spin to appease the huge corporations and conglomerates who pay for the advertising that makes the TV, radio and print media possible. No one ought to lose their jobs for telling the truth.

We do not help ourselves nor our country when we focus on the fictional reality, such as Fox News with its many hosts, and quote the deception they promote as if that was real. Anyone with a grammar school education, who can read, is able to get to the bottom of the truth of the matter. We do not need to take someone else’s view point, then say, “There are so many confusing viewpoints out there. I do not know what to believe.”

Stop watching fictional news. Go to reputable sources. How do you know the difference?

Go to mainstream news outlets: Reuters, AP, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Bloomberg News, The Atlantic, and Politico. All these news outlets tell the truth based on facts of actual events and history without spin of a particular political party.

Don’t choose ignorance and confusion over accurate facts. We know fact and fiction are different things, but when people in high profile places tell us something, and we have something to gain by listening to them, we can easily fool ourselves into believing what we want to believe over what is true and factual.

It is better for us all, and for our country, to base all our decisions on real and true facts. Facts do not have opinions, they just are what they are.

It is time to move past choosing sides, as if we are ordering our favorite Kentucky Fried Chicken meal, or picking our favorite sports team. Facts are not interchangeable with fiction.

This is a critical moment in our history, between the Presidential Election of 2020 and the Inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, who won in a free and fair election. No one stole the election. Voters in every state as well as the electoral college have certified on this President-elect. These are provable facts.

On January 5, Democratic Senator Candidate Jon Ossoff is challenging incumbent Senator David Perdue earlier in the day in the first runoff election, followed by a second runoff election between Democratic Senator Candidate Raphael Warnock and incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler.

Georgia voters will be the ones to decide which political party controls the U.S. Senate, since the protracted vote count in the previous election did not result in winners in either race.

Democrats need to flip both Senate seats to have unified control of the White House and Congress. Again, every vote in these elections matters.

Stagnation and the inability or unwillingness to work together works against the democracy this country has long fought for. Perhaps it is time to step out of the molasses and take a new breath sweeping through our land at this time.

Since we are a country of law and order, now is time for us to be lawful and orderly and do what all government officials and everyone in the military have sworn their oath to do, which is to serve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America, not any particular person.

Remember, the Constitution of the United States of America was written because of the abuses of King George III of Great Britain usurping the rights of the people of the 13 colonies. Our Forefathers, representing all citizens then and now, shunned an autocratic king ruling over the USA.

Recognize that this past Presidential Election was run as all previous elections have run, with in-person, and absentee ballots. Absentee ballots include provisional and mail-in as our military have always used and been counted after the election, since they voted on Election Day, often out-of-state or out of the country and required being mailed in to be counted after that day. This is nothing new.

Absolutely no one stole the 2020 Presidential Election. It’s called counting all the ballots because every vote counts. As mentioned above, there were no illegal votes/ballots. This has also been documented by Republican appointees of Homeland Security.

When it comes to counting ballots, ballots that have been cast for one side or the other are not illegal ballots, nor are absentee ballots illegal. This is perhaps the biggest lie being touted today, as if only Republican or in-person votes are legal. That assumption is false no matter who says it. Facts are facts, and history is history.

However, if we do not align ourselves with democracy we will be aligning ourselves with non-democracy, with a ruler who is an autocrat, a tyrant, a dictator, a king and the like.

Saying the economy is great because the stock market is doing well, while ignoring the rest of the 90 percent of the citizens who are lining up in countless food lines, losing their jobs, their homes, their very lives, is not the real test of how “great” the economy is.

Now is the time to stand on accurate facts while we can. It is possible to lose democracy. I believe most of us do not want to do that.

God Bless Everyone Everywhere

Whose Ethics? Now Is The Time ~ What Do You Stand For?

When I was co-chairperson of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, I suggested introducing an ethics class to go along with the newly accepted sex-education course that was being taught to that year’s sixth graders. The answer I got back was, “Whose ethics?”

That answer, as if it were a viable one, is what stood between teaching with and without ethics.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as: “the discipline with what is good and bad, and with moral duty and obligation.”

The other answer I got at that same meeting was, “If we teach morality, whose morality should we teach?”

We see this today on the world stage, as if different sides can interpret ethics and morality differently.

We see this in the movie and television world, where each year, we reach certain tolerance levels addressing crime, violence and bloodshed. Once those limits are set, it seems more detailed crime, violence, and bloodshed is required to maintain the status quo of an increasingly bloodthirsty audience.

We see this in the ever-infringement on innocent youth for the invading and decending language, as well as inappropriate dress, as if it is normal to send prepubescent students to school in the same clothing as ladies of the night.

The government of the United States of America is also not unaffected by sweeping away ethics and morality, claiming immorality as morality, unethical behaviors as ethical behaviors, lies as truth, and always claiming that it is “the other guy” who is lying, even when videos and facts prove otherwise.

Remember, even Pilate asked the famous question, “What is truth?” We all ask this same question when we do not like what we are hearing, and have our own agenda.

What do you stand for?

Do you close your eyes to dishonest practices because they serve you in some way?

Do you sell out your integrity for the bottom line?

Is your political career more important than the lives you hold in your hand with the swipe of your pen?

Do you have any part of playing God by separating children and babies from their parents, putting all of them in cages, those who are seeking refuge at our borders?

Do you make yourself complicit in human trafficking by selling stolen children from their parents and selling them through adoption agencies?

Do you mandate SARS CoV2 (COVID-19) numbers be sent to the US Health and Human Services, which are said to be manipulated into more palateable numbers for public consumption, rather than mandating they be sent to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for accurate expert, medical opinion and dissemination?

Do you close your eyes to global warming and climate change because you receive some benefit of money or endorsements?

Do you listen to medical doctors or pharmacological companies in your decision making process?

Do you trample upon the Constitution of the United States, and what the Statue of Liberty stands for as imprinted on her base, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Do you stack the Supreme Court with judges who truly serve justice blindly, remembering Lady Justice wears a blindfold signifying that justice is truly blind when it comes to race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?

Do you stand for equal pay for equal work, regardless of people of different race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?

Do you value people over things?

Where do you spend your money?

Where do you spend your time?

What do you think about?

Where you spend your thoughts, time and money; there is where your heart is.

Each of us, whether we are in public office and have a direct ability to make just laws for all citizens, or whether we are citizens making a living at our life’s work, or even currently without work or home, we can all take in the news of the day and create more just and civil societies right where we are.

The recipe for our life may need to change depending upon the variables at hand. We can always use our free will to uplift rather than put down, heal rather than inflict pain, listen rather than ignore pleas for help, listen without an answer running (which is not listening), and feed the poor rather than close our eyes to the plight of hungry humans.

Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes it seems easier to give than receive. But receiving is necessary for balance of greed running rampant. It is odd that those who truly are in need of receiving have a harder time receiving what they need, as opposed to the wealthiest among us, not in need, who seek to usurp receiving to fill their gluttonous desires.

Bloom where you are planted, even if you are the only one blooming.

Namaste