It's a mad, mad world we live in. I may have confirmation bias from the media coverage, but to me it's tragically ironic that people still don't understand "The American Dream" is very much over for the vast majority of people going to America, as even most of those born in America are very much struggling compared to those in the G7 countries. American may be richer dollar-for-dollar, but standard of living and quality of life? Not so much.

That said though, it's still a huge financial, political and security improvement for most coming from the South. But the reality they faced vs the idealistic "American Dream" is very different.

If the US had used directed weather as a weapon in Iraq, or breached levies to flood cities it would have been proper to laugh at the ironic disaster in New Orleans. Remember, the support for attacking the wrong country to retaliate for 9/11 was incredibly high (yes, thinly predicated on what are now known to be blatant lies…we didn’t care), we were not a nation of innocents…(I personally supported attacking Saidi Arabia and doing limited but overwhelming “police actions” in Afghanistan to completely destroy the actual perpetrators, then rebuild any collateral damage better and make friends, and never bought the rationale for invading Iraq beyond “they tried to kill my daddy”- GB…but who listens to me?)

I felt it was karma specifically balancing the universe for the Ukrainian dam they blew up in a terrorist action just over 2 months ago, not the continuing invasion of Ukraine that’s been ongoing and expanding continuously since 2014 when Ukrainian Crimea was invaded and “annexed” by Russia, a move seemingly universally applauded in Russia.

I think there’s delicious schadenfreude in the very religious country that continues to support repeated violent genocidal expansionism against peaceful neighbors thinly predicated on blatant lies (but that support is waning slightly as the war and truth comes home), the aggressor nation that among numerous war crimes intentionally destroyed a major dam to sew chaos destruction and death as they retreated from portions of Ukraine and set forest fires for the same reason having to deal with forest fires and dam failures as “acts of god”, not even from military retaliation.

I do feel a bit bad for the individuals and families if reports of 12 dead are true (it’s Russian news, so likely untrue), but that number is dwarfed by those intentionally killed in their names by the dam destruction in Ukraine.

Agreed on the narration…it was the only coverage I found at the time….well, there was this but even I found it in bad taste…

I think you're missing my point.

My point is, I just hopped over to MSNBC, and reading from the top of the page, 18 of the 21 top headlines were about either Trump, Guiliani or Hunter Biden. They are obsessing and distracting their 'blue' base with all the same garbage as Fox, but they are better because they are pointing out the wrongs.

Maybe a better analogy, MSNBC is like Dr. Phil bringing on the worst examples of humanity and letting the audience rage bait and feel superior to the horrible humans on display. Trump has been the perfect recurring guest for a never ending MSNBC parade of horrible behaviour.

I'm not against calling out that behaviour, I'm in favour of it. I'm just calling it rather dishonest to have 99% of your airtime and coverage all focused on nothing else, and then spend the last 1% complaining about the other side obsessing...

Yes, because the news is constantly showing the president having his unqualified child inside the White House to... hang out? Help him? Get his advice on things? Yup, it's on the news all the damned time. So long as we're discussing news coverage from early 2017 - early 2021, that is.

I don’t understate or underestimate the impact or cost of obesity, I only point out that no one else has to directly pay for your care because you got fat by your own choice, but others might and often do foot the bill for the irresponsibility of not wearing a seat belt.
Discounting is a partial fix….by how much? How do they decide how much worse your injuries are because you didn’t wear a belt…and who decides…and what’s the cost of doing that math? I’m perfectly fine with people not being safe as long as they accept 100% of the risk….it should be wear no belt, get no injury recovery (or insurance coverage) period. Anything less makes the case for seatbelt requirements imo.

Kind of odd how, the day after the election, Righty media suddenly stopped their “crime coverage”, don’t you think?

I mean the nonstop crime coverage where for over a year they lied and claimed some huge increase in crime under Biden, ignoring that most of the rise in murder rates happened before 2020, with murder increasing 30% 2019-2020 (and 4.3% under Biden, still bad) but all other violent crime is actually falling slightly.

Almost like they thought their audience was ignorant and gullible rubes they could gaslight, then use the outrage to scapegoat their enemies.

ironically, the term "not a cult" comes to mind.

Colbert did a segment...
https://youtu.be/HMH8K_Kj6oE?t=160
...that was pretty good coverage on the event (loved the 'snow storm' comment).

BTW: you can add Bud May to your list of GOP violent and/or sexual perverts...
https://www.kotatv.com/2022/11/15/it-was-simply-hug-says-defeated-sd-house-candidate-accused-rape/
...any odds on him being a maga-mutt?

I think there should be free Community College for anyone that wants to go, but I also think college isn't for everyone, and Trade schools should also be free (I've seen plenty of plumbers that charge hourly rates more than lawyers).

As far as other colleges, there should be merit scholarships for anyone who does well at Community College can transfer to those for years 3 & 4.

I had a merit-based scholarship for my undergrad, but it was conditioned on maintaining a 3.0 GPA (B average or higher). If it went under 3.0 for two semesters, scholarship gone. Also required finishing in 4 years, so I had to take 15-18 credits every semester. I also worked part-time during semester and full-time in summers to pay down the loans (that the grants & scholarship didn't cover), so graduated debt free. I also can see I'm an exception rather than the norm.

I wouldn't begrudge anyone getting higher education. I also think some people who drop out when they are 18-22 years old, could go instead when they are older and more mature and totally succeed, so don't force it immediately after high school. Part of that is pressure from being allowed on your parents health insurance if you're in school up to a certain age... universal health care coverage (public option) would fix that and should be a higher priority than universal college. I voted for Bernie.

I had this wrong. In my defense, there had been excessively little coverage of this plan on American TV or media.

Astonishingly, this was the UN, through Turkey as an intermediary, negotiating between Russia and Ukraine to allow safe passage of Ukrainian grain ships out of Ukrainian ports for sale on the world market, and more astonishingly, it’s been successful. Russia has agreed to allow and guarantee safe passage to, and Ukraine guarantees safe passage through minefields for cargo ships going in and out of these ports held by Ukraine.

What a Degenerate son.

Kick out of the military due to drugs. What a Looser .

Heaven forbid if this was Trumps Son. 24/7 coverage .


Crickets from Fake news.

Are you going to delete this from the sift?

Does not fit you moral standards?

@newtboy,

1. Given how few people are affected, I'd love to see way less coverage of trans-sports as a wedge issue to rally political bases

2. Failing that, isn't it clearly 100% common sense that the Men's and Women's sports divisions are NOT divisions applied based upon gender but instead upon biological sex, and as such should always have been a non-issue.

3. I really can't see the issue, if it must be raised, as anything other than a request for special exemptions to be made. Existing competitive sports are divided based on biological sex and most have requirements around usage of drugs, hormones and other performance enhancing substances. We have existing and established testing for both the biological sex and PED requirements. Applying those equally to everyone IS equality.

/s There, now the debates all settled /s

@newtboy,

I agree with more of what you say than you make out. You need to appreciate how different Canada is from the US, particularly in power balance within government and corresponding police action and media coverage.

Long delays in stopping illegal blockade and protest activity is the norm.
-Fairy Creek blockades persisted almost 12 months before police took action
-Blockade of Coastal Link pipepline went on for months before police intervened to allow work to continue.
-Mohawk solidarity blockade of railways in Ontario persisted multiple weeks

The difference to the protests today, the Liberal government was tripping over themselves to reach out to those protest groups, while immediately spitting in the faces of this one.

I've always been of the opinion illegally blocking a roadway, border or business should lead to arrests within the time it takes to notify and send police.

The problem here from a Canadian eye, is that the only time current government is interested in bringing a hammer down is based not upon the actions of protestors, but instead based upon their professed cause.

I refuse to accept tying the right to protest to what cause is being rallied to.

Bob, it’s on video. Unedited video (unlike the kind your sources produce to create faux outrage), so not the kind you would believe. Facts aren’t for the right anyway, no wonder you can never identify them.

The defense attorney (not the prosecutor) argued in court on video that allowing another calm, silent, black pastor to sit with the family was equivalent to having the courtroom packed with white Colonel Sanders masked men.


Here’s news coverage..Starts around :24

Again, you dismiss fact because it’s not far right propaganda, but you believe Italian space lasers can change paper ballots through multiple layers of buildings and containers, that vaccines have mind control nanobots that are going to make you vote Democrat, but still want to congratulate Trump for getting them produced (even though he had nothing to do with producing them), you believe covid was an attack by China (that Trump failed to respond to even though it’s killed 3/4 of a million Americans), you probably believe eating babies grants eternal youth, I know for certain you don’t contradict those who do, you even believe Trump won an election!

Again, as usual, you just deny the truth any time it’s unpleasant for you. So sad, little man.

OMFG!
I found out where you are getting the “empty shelves” nonsense. Bob, Fox had to do a retraction because the pictures they showed you of empty shelves turned out to be from last summer! Trump DID cause it. Aaaaaaahahahaha! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaaaa!

Better, during their retraction they tried to say “but it is really a problem, we just used the wrong photos” (exactly like their fake coverage of Portland last summer when they used footage from numerous other cities and times to pretend Portland was on fire) then showed new photos that actually were mostly from early this spring when they said the shelves were empty because of a labor shortage, and a few more from last year….the few that were actually current, real pictures of grocery store shelves showed 1 or 2 items out of stock on otherwise full shelves, not empty by any measure. Duh.

Watching nothing but fake news has made you a laughing stock, regurgitating their brain numbingly stupid nonsense without even caring if any of it is true. It’s not a good look.