Lying And Deception: The Media From Top To Bottom

 There is little to no accountability in the media. Lying, twisting the truth, making up false or self serving narratives are far too common. Whether it is from people plagiarizing photos that are not theirs, and that constitute the heart of their self serving documentary, all the way to major U.S. city newspapers, with international readership.   

A reporter from a major newspaper was given information, at great risk to the careers and future of the people that provided the information, to expose wrongs the informants were led to believe were to be exposed, only to find that they were lied to and that all the reporter and the reporter's newspaper did was publish a sensationalized story that had nothing to do with what the informants risked everything to expose.

A major U.S. newspaper that has a large nationwide and international following ran a story in their Sunday magazine with made up quotes that never were uttered or written. It serves as a permanent record of lying and of fact checkers that allowed the lying. What makes it easy for media people to lie, perhaps arrogance, elitism or some other character flaw, is made easier when they know there was is no accountability for their lies. A secondary media does not exist in any meaningful way to expose the lies of the first.

The pursuit of what is sensational or tantalizing, and the endless pandering to audiences, ensures the media at large remains shallow and dishonest.

Some so called investigative journalists were given detailed information regarding deception and fraud in a well funded, well connected nonprofit organization. In the end, the story did not run, not on television, not in the printed press, because the connections of the nonprofit were able to keep the story away from the public.  Who gets to be investigated or exposed depends on power and connections. 

The hope that social media would pave the way to a new direction of truth, integrity, openness, was crushed by their censorship of that which does not suite their political or religious narratives. They lie about why they censor. They use hate and violence as an excuse to censor content that does not fit their religious or political narratives, even when the content has nothing to do with hate or violence. Theirs too is a realm of no accountability. 

The consequences are dire for any society, democracies included, when the media on all levels lacks integrity, openness, honesty, objectivity and truthfulness. 

Humaneness Or Money, Yulin Dog Eating Festival, Dog Fighting And Animal Cruelty

 I witnessed firsthand the exploitation of animal cruelty and dog fighting by a variety of people and organizations that claim to oppose animal cruelty and dog fighting. 

I saw how they exploit animal suffering in order to benefit themselves or their organizations financially and in other ways. 

There is an enormous amount of animal cruelty in this world. I do not believe the concern regarding the Yulin dog eating festival is about much more for many other than generating publicity for themselves and using the festival as an opportunity to generate more money.

There are other animals and species that no one cares about that are subject to enormous cruelty. No one shines a light or intervenes because the cruelty cannot be used as a way of generating publicity, money and profit.

People are unfortunately very selective regarding which animals they care about and which animals they could care less about, even if the cruelty for all is equal.

People and organizations follow the money trail. Where there is indifference, there is no money to be made.

Not only did I witness first hand the exploitation of animal cruelty and dog fighting, but I also witnessed the lack of efficacy, even harm at times, from a number of people and organizations that claim to speak for animals. 

I wish there was full disclosure as to how much money these organizations raise for themselves by claiming to address animal cruelty and dog fighting, and what is their actual efficacy. 

I am still waiting for the day when there is accountability regarding the efficacy and worthiness of these organizations. 

My offer to debate any of them regarding efficacy still stands.

I hope they are not as ineffective regarding Yulin as I experienced them to be for American based dog fighting and animal cruelty.

Idiocies That Drive War In General And Russia's War Against Ukraine

There is a certain percentage of the human population that wants war, suffering and killing. Some are open about their bloodlust. Others may deny having such desires, even to themselves, often believing that grievances justify killing and war.

Too many people want to hate, want to be aggrieved, and are willing to let their hate and grievances lead to violence, destruction, killing and war. 

Hate, anger and the willingness to be violent pass from generation to generation. There is no forgiveness. There is no compassion. The enemy's children are treated as the enemy itself, and are held responsible for grievances, imaginary or not, for what the enemy or enemy's ancestors may or may not have committed. New generations of children are not given fresh starts. Killing and the desire to avenge grievances, real or not, are given greater consideration than the lives and well being of the children of the enemy and that of the children on all sides. 

And so wars, hate, violence, terror, destruction and misery continues.

Dehumanizing, delegitimizing and demonizing the enemy is the start of the nightmare, and then misery, destruction, killing and war follow.

Scapegoats are used by demented or deficient people to deflect away from their own sins and deficiencies. Targeting a scapegoat enables demented, cruel and corrupt human beings, ideologies and beliefs to hold sway over vast populations of people. Scapegoating delegitimatizes and dehumanizes the targeted enemy, and paves the way for violence, killing, terror and war.

Uncontrolled hate, scapegoating, demonizing, delegitimizing and the quickness to resort to violence ensures there is no peace in the world, no true justice, no true effort to rectify or address environmental degradation, poverty, nuclear proliferation, or any of the other great threats to humanity's survival and future.

The prelude to war starts with delegitimizing, demonizing and dehumanizing entire populations of people or a UN recognized country itself. Delegitimizing and diminishing other human beings lead to violence, war and terror in which there is no regard for the lives of children, the elderly, the handicapped, the defenseless. 

The senselessness of war started by the rich and privileged, supported by brainwashed masses, destroys the lives not only of the invaded, but of the cannon fodder soldiers of the invaders, whose lives are permanently altered for the worst, assuming they survive. War profits a few while ensuring death, maiming and misery for the many.

The largest country in the world has abundant resources and agriculture. It is not overpopulated like many countries. It is rich in oil, timber, fertilizers, natural gas and other resources, yet found it necessary to invade a neighboring country for not a single reason that will ever justify this much pain, death, maiming, misery, destruction and suffering.

Humankind faces unprecedented crisis. It fails once again to mobilize around the real threats to human existence and well being, and instead diverts resources to militaries and to war. Environmental catastrophes facing humankind once again are pushed to the side and not only are ignored, but are made worse. War ensures poverty, hunger, disease, starvation, homelessness, famine, death, mutilation and misery increases in size and severity. 

After Russia's war against Ukraine and all of the other senseless, idiotic active wars end, people will find another. The vicious, insane cycle will continue. Already in other places delegitimizing, dehumanizing and demonizing are well in place, setting the stage for new rounds of hate, violence, war and misery. 

 

Ukraine's' Nightmare. Putin and The War That Never had To Be

Russia is the largest country in the world. It has enormous amounts of oil, gas and other raw materials. Russia is an armed to the teeth nuclear power. No nation will ever invade Russia, unlike what Russia is doing to Ukraine, without risking total annihilation. 

Putin can claim NATO is a threat in order to justify his war, but everyone knows, and surely Putin himself knows, that NATO will never invade or attack Russia. This is not about supporting or opposing NATO. It is simply a recognition of the limits of NATO and the reality of Russia.

There are no existential threats to Russia's existence. Unlike some other nations in the world that face real threats to their existence, Ukraine being one of them, the only wars that Russia fights or will fight in the future are offensive wars of Russia's choosing. 

There is only one reason for Putin's war against Ukraine. And that is Putin. He can brainwash his people into supporting the war based on ridiculous assertions, such as the Jewish president of Ukraine leading a nation of Nazis. But as Putin himself knows, the Nazis were genocidal aggressors following a  demented, power hungry man that were militarily defeated over 70 years ago. Right wing extremists in Ukraine are no percentage higher than that of right wing extremists in Russia or the United States. 

Abusive people, when they are in positions of power and authority, are convinced of their own grandiosity, importance, and infallibility. 

A fatal human flaw is the eagerness to blindly follow, without questioning, people in authority, no matter how sadistic, corrupt or deranged they may be. The willingness to submit without question to authority, be it to a person, religion or ideology, leads humanity often down dark paths. 

Putin plays the same drum that leads endlessly to war. Demonize the enemy. Dehumanize the enemy. Blame the enemy for everything. Take responsibility for nothing. 

For far too long Putin has poisoned, murdered and imprisoned his critics. Far too many on the inside and outside of Russia have willingly accepted and gone along with whatever Putin does. Much of this is the greed and selfishness that comes from pursuing business as usual no matter the cost. Eventually the cost of business as usual, when dealing with abusive people in power, becomes unacceptable, but by then it is too late. 

One day this nightmare will be over for the Ukrainian people, and also for the Russians that see the injustice in the Putin regime and his senseless war against Ukraine and that are being punished for protesting or resisting fighting in the war. Will anything have been learned so that history does not once again repeat itself?

This is not a battle of authoritarianism vs liberalism. This is about unchecked power. This is about no balances to that unchecked power. This is about the systems in place that allow abusive people to stay in power. This is about people that blindly follow without questioning. This is about the willingness of people to demonize and dehumanize the other, to cast away personal responsibility and morality while pursuing the destruction of the demonized other. Today it is the Ukrainians. Tomorrow it will be another group.

Free presses that are not tied to government interests, to parochial corporate interests, consisting of real journalists, a near extinct breed, and also average people that seek the pursuit of truth, not propaganda and the perpetuation of entrenched interests, are vitally important to keep war at bay.  Even this important check on power is eroding. 

Putin's war on Ukraine is a war that never had to be. And now millions suffer because of one man and his circle of cronies.

In Russia, where news of the war is suppressed, the day will come when practically everyone knows the truth. Millions of refugees, millions of Ukrainians that are suffering the bombings, the shootings, the artillery strikes, the abductions, the misconduct by those Russian soldiers committing lootings, murder, rape, beatings and torture are voices that will speak louder than propaganda and the suppression of the truth. The Russian soldiers that have a conscience also are witnesses to the senselessness and cruelty of the war that never had to be.

The Russian soldiers, treated as disposable cannon fodder, including the ones that dug trenches and stayed in the radioactive Chernobyl area, will one day know how little regards their higher ups had for their safety, if they do not already know this.

Abusive people in authority see their subordinates as inferior, dispensable and insignificant human beings. They care nothing about their enemies, and they care nothing about those on their side that serve under them.

This is Putin's war. Somewhere along the line, it should have been prevented. Appeasement was once again chosen, and all it led to is a full scale war. The opposite of appeasement does not mean war mongering. Appeasement can just as easily result in war as does war mongering. Neither is good.

This is the war that never had to be.

War supporting Anti-War Leftists; Russia, Ukraine

 There is an American hypocritical leftist with a large following. On one of her widely followed programs, she interviewed another so called anti-war leftist. They did what many leftists shamefully do - support war and evil from the side they support by deflecting to the sins of the United States and to the countries they despise.

It is not necessary to support the United States in order to oppose what Russia is doing in Ukraine. A true anti-war activist does not justify war as long as it comes from the side they support. A true anti-war activist opposes it all; all war, all senseless killing.

The phony anti-war activists parroted the Putin lines about the Ukrainians being a Nazi regime. A Jew running a Nazi regime?

The beleaguered brave president of the Ukraine is a Jew. He has not done what most leaders of the world would do if their country was attacked by a much stronger country - flee with boatloads of cash and riches. 

Putin and his leftists supporters, and also some of his supporters on the right, use NATO, American war mongering, and false claims about the Zelensky regime, in order to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Russia is an armed to the teeth nuclear power. No nation can attack Russia without being destroyed, and with probably having most, if not all of the world destroyed. Ukraine never was a threat to Russia, no matter the degree to which phony leftists and like minded rightists pretend otherwise.

Nothing justifies the Putin war against Ukraine. Nothing.

Hostage To Bullies, Hostage to Nuclear Weapons

 We are hostages to nuclear weapons and the leaders that hold their finger on their launches. A decade or two, even a century may pass, and yet this threat never goes away. 

All it takes is one person, one person in power, to unleash hell on earth. 

If the great coward Hitler, who sent millions to their deaths, had his grimy little hands on the nuclear weapons launch, he would not have killed himself in the bunker. He would have taken at least half of humanity down with him. 

Hitler was not the first, nor will be the last, bully to ascend to power, with clingy sycophants all around. Fortunately for the world, Germany in the 1940's did not have nuclear weapons. 

Humankind produces weak, sadistic men and women all the time that rise to power. Bullies that make miserable the lives of the targets they choose to torment. Often these weak and evil bullies are in small positions of authority, maybe as a supervisor on a police department, in a factory, in a corporation, in government, in a school, but when one of them rises to a top position of authority, look out world below for a nightmare to follow. 

A bully and a nuclear weapon are the recipe for hell unleashed. 

The War That Never Had To Be. Ukraine

What does Putin hope to gain by invading the Ukraine? What was Russia lacking that made Putin feel compelled to attack Ukraine? Russia is the largest country in the world. It is rich with oil and other resources. It is rich with agricultural lands. It is a vast country lacking nothing. 

It is a nation that can never be attacked again. This is not WW2. Russia is a powerful nation armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons. 

Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons. If he is mad enough to carry out the threat, we are all doomed. 

The Russian soldiers that were marched through Chernobyl on their way to Kiev may one day realize how little regard Putin and oligarchs had for their safety by marching them through contaminated radioactive terrain on their way to wage a war that makes no sense.

No matter what grievances Russia has with NATO, with the west leaning present government of Ukraine, or anything else, nothing justifies this invasion. 

There are those on the left and right that justify Putin's war based on the U.S. setting the precedent for such actions. When did one wrong ever justify another? One wrong never justifies another. 

The George Bush and company regime change folly in Iraq led to great suffering and death. 

Does Putin and company honestly think they can invade Ukraine and not pay a heavy price? 

The longer this war goes on, the more innocent Ukrainian civilians will suffer, the more Ukrainian and Russian soldiers will die needlessly, the more people will become permanently crippled and wounded, the more misery will spread.

There is a way for Russia to save face and for the war to end immediately. 

Negotiate with Zelensky some kind of agreement regarding the neutrality of Ukraine and NATO. Sweden and Finland are not in NATO. 

And then leave the Ukraine.  Stop the fighting while the negotiations take place. Enough people have already died, enough people have already been wounded.