Don't Panic, It's Not Quite The News. [a random post]

Don't Panic, It's Not Quite The News.

Minor outbreaks of new viruses have been common in recent years. Almost all have been off the mainstream news, almost utterly unworthy of note. Recent new viruses in places like China, or new outbreaks of old viruses, seem to be nothing of a vast amount of note. The Coronavirus issue is the only important outbreak at this time. The news are covering minor numbers of 17 new COVID cases, a small number of plague cases, a pig virus, etc. In China. Largely, this isn't very newsworthy. Just as a few other minor virus news stories in America have been filler and fear that sells. Note that the areas involved are often vast and the human cost is minor and because viruses are viral(trending) news every news website tries to capitalise on a new angle or the latest scoop.

The Coronavirus is obviously the news worth subject. That said, young Jewish baby boys injured from traditional circumcision method related infections, herpes causing brain injury for example, in cities like New York, is a continuous cost in human suffering. Yet, that isn't a COVID related subject matter. Honour killing in Pakistan kill thousands of young women and girls every year, but that isn't worth stating right now?? Equally, concentration camps in China aren't as important as a few more coronavirus cases in the same nation?? Methinks that many of our great news providers are busy being whores for attention, which at least makes the BBC cover a story just because everyone else has published an article on the subject. Such as Trump-related news, it is often a matter of a slight blunder, a dumb point or question, then the reaction causes the news to linger and even flourish. Thus, the news story derived from the old causes the need for the mainstream to march over old ground.

News is news-worthy because news sources have stated a thing as the news, the New Story. A great amount of the olds seems to be sold as news, or a new angle on an old story. Meanwhile, we see next to nothing on many other stories. And those stories rarely trend on twitter or are seen on the news search headlines on google or bing. I do sometimes feel that the art of news reporting is past its prime and the common news method is steeped in mediocracy and repetition between news services. Leaving often very little room for intellectualism, as something very close to copy-and-paste in lieu of journalist ability. Yet, at least regarding the present crisis of Corona, we can understand com0pletely why we might see a great amount of repetition.

Fake News... How "Ben.S." does it.

While looking at the twitter of Ben, a conservative American of some note as a character, as a polemic.  I noticed a common enough trick or theme.  One need not rebuke the facts but claim them in principle.  In principle, we need not fear the facts even as we avoid then in practice.  Ben on his twitter and through other mediums selects easy targets, insists they're the mainstream, even if they're fringe or not linked to political influence and power and grumbles upon the nature of the liberalist insanity that hath unfurled before us.  And when insisting upon the falsity of the news reports in the main of the press, Ben insists that use of a stock image or video, or the same borrowed from elsewhere, is a primary piece of evidence that the mainstream news media are the producers of propaganda.  What Ben.S might call "Fake News."  And from this suggestion of fake news and the previously noted insanity of the fringe of the left, he paints a picture of a surreal world.  A world believed to be real by many, even if it is a manifestation of deception through the eyes of a very limited social media perspective.  Ben is a propagandist who picks targets and re-enforces conservative values in a way that leaves little room for introspection.  Which is, after all, the whole point.  

Fake News, with broad strokes.

I should like to note the dangers of false news, many crow on social-media about a statist that turns-out to be inaccurate, a quote that has lost some context, or a picture or video clip that is used in a report that seems to be misplaced.  The social media reactionaries think this makes a news report fake, yet they use the idea of fake news to insert totally incorrect claims.  News reporting errors in action and judgement occur, largely this is benign, and one should not dismiss the artist for one misplaced stroke of the brush upon the canvas. 

The World Is Watching... Bernie Sanders BACKS Joe Biden. Simple??

You may have seen that Bernard Sanders has endorsed Joe Biden as the candidate to stand up against Donald Trump in the 2020 election if things are back on track by then. 
The Coronavirus, COVID-19, has made the game of politics harder and the death toll and how it is handled will be key to the election in the United States.  Which may lead to a delay in the American Republic's process of representation, as voters may have a delay if Corona ends up as a great evil upon the world than we have yet considered.  Yet, in this time of political confusion and wide support amongst the public for Donald Trump, a great unity behind Joe Biden is consolidating. 

Just recently, Bernard Sanders, a left-leaning independent who aligns with the Democrats on most issues, dropped out of the candidacy race for the Democrats.  And with Joe Biden doing so very well from the get-go, it was a clear fact that it was right to see Sanders step back and endorse Biden.  In a news interview, of the two gentlemen, Sanders and Biden, Mr Bernard "Bernie" Sanders endorsed very clearly Mr Biden's campaign to enter the Whitehouse.  What more need be said, other than the differences between such politicians are mild compared to the vast differences between democrats and the Trumpublicans who have taken the worst aspects of Republicanism to the mainstream of American Politics. 

The only cure to Trumpublicianism is a correction of the values expressed by The Office of the President of the United States, as a democratic and representative political view that accommodates progress.  Progress in how high the bar should be for the world's greatest economic, political, military and cultural power.  A mega power that for a long time has been ruined by republican economics and balanced by democratic values.  Until out of this back-and-forth the vile game-changer has risen to the top of the corrupted Republican party. 


Now, I would ask you one thing, what might ensure a return to dignified political discussion, a sound political process and real progression in the United States of America in a way that will benefit the many and not just a small few.  Is it this new age of Trumpublicanism, a disorganised mess that cannot handle the power it abuses, or might it not be a return to sanity with a new vitality that will lift millions out of poverty and secure the future at home and abroad for the American people?

I only wish my American friends the best in this endeavour, and remind them that the world is watching and hoping for strong and stable friendship with a more wisely lead United States. 

"Trump And Biden Are Both Suffering From Dementia"?

"Trump And Biden Are Both Suffering From Dementia"??? Does Trump have dementia? Does Joe Biden? Odds are they don't, odds are they're both medicated. Joe likely suffers from a few health issues and gets some help with that, after a long day he isn't on form in an interview. Trump is likely on lots of meds, above and under the table, lower his stress and blood pressure but boost him to stay active enough, a built-in ego problem on a scale that makes Hillary Clinton, Obama and Biden[etc.] look meek. I don't think Biden is really suffering from dementia, we'd need Evidence of that before we even suggest it, and a few video clips don't cut it. Trump's many blunders suggest his narcissism and instability, odds are he is, like many wealthy older gents, on a number of medical drugs to stay on form. I think this explains much about him. I doubt either of them is truly suffering from dementia, but evidence may go the other way in the future. And one could argue that one or both of them show the signs, but you're buying that bullshit from biased sources. So in practice, you're shared faux news based on who you like, which set of politics you respect. And, because this is primarily a matter of social media speculation, I believe that points at the obvious way that social media is a failed social experiment. As many other efforts on social media that are meant to express the will of the people, or the news as it is, or whatever the case may be, tends to be inaccurate at the very least.

COVID-19 [Note #1]

I'm not likely to create a series of thoughts on this matter.  I am however likely to note a thing or two in the future, directly or not, regarding this matter. 

I am worried about the future.  Not because I think things will get that bad due to coronavirus disease, but rather, I suspect a general period of stagnation.  Fear on one hand and disruption on the other as thousands die.  Our ill-prepared system is shown to be as it is.  Our experts and government officials over-estimating risks to ensure they limit those risk factors.  People then rejecting the inflated risks and so creating the risk factors that can lead to worsening problems.  Many try to lower risk as much as possible, others ignore advice, jobs at risk, future hopes placed on hold, but for a cause that is not unfair.  A likelihood is normality returns within months, or months longer if handled poorly.  Yet, with much debate on the matter of how to handle the situation, the question of how the cope is much contested.  A pondered question by some is would the cost of mass illness even be as bad as the concerns, or should those with health issues be isolated while the rest keep calm and carry on.  But how can you Isolate such people when society mingles.  And many don't know what they do or do not have.  Health concerns and unseen problems conspiring to up the toll.  Equally, if on matters of carers, if they are expected to be the plague doctors of the modern-day, then how can they limit risk unless we all limit together??  No easy answers, no simple tricks, but in a year's time some will laugh about this.  And, indeed, Some are laughing now.  Is this wisdom or folly, no person may say until the passage is scribbled into the history books.  I suspect that it would not be as bad as some suggest, yet a trivial matter it is not. 

An undercurrent of racism? [ramble]

[Just a few thoughts I noted on Facebook, I wanted to preserve them here.]

An undercurrent of racism?

Race or ethnicity is the least interesting thing to me. some people get annoyed or offended if I say it of my background, but to me it wouldn't matter where I or you are from. And if you base your life and sense of belonging on race, then I think you're missing something important.
I get this from nationalists who say they "aren't racist, but..." But they worry about the death of the white race, they don't see Islam as a race but they assume Indian(south Asian, in general) and middle eastern people are Muslims. And yes, they're the same people who worry about extremist Islam but mock Muslims who don't stick to a hardline view of the faith, thus condemning moderation within the faith to a degree. Islam isn't a race, but a lot of critics of Islam, mostly older men, see a brown person from north Africa, middle east or Indian or maybe Indonesia, and they assume they're Muslim and they might be the enemy to some degree. Basically, suggest; "If they aren't here to attack us they're here to outbreed us." So I'm not a fan of the not-racist-racists, or closeted racists, or those who otherwise don't see that they're the kind of commenting fools who gives, anyone who wants it, an example of ignorance and casual racism.