Month: June 2020

The Not Fake News Update: 29 June 2020

During these fraught times (n. freight; cargo {archaic}) it’s easy to lose track of major happenings in our country and the world around us.  Plus, sometimes it’s nice to just leave the television turned off and ignore the news.  It can get overwhelming.

So whether you just want to catch up on anything you might have missed or have instead gone out of your way to miss everything you could, here’s today’s update of the actual news (not fake!) with special focus on what’s getting missed by major media.

So.  Are you sitting comfortably?  …Good.  Let’s begin. (more…)

FAKE NEWS: Tracking Apps On Your Phone?

The answer to this one’s a little complicated. The TL;DR version is, no, the U.S. government hasn’t downloaded a secret COVID-19 app to your phone in order to track you. Some governments are doing this, but the U.S. and Canada are not among them.

This doesn’t mean your movements aren’t being tracked. It just means you probably (more…)

The Not Fake News Update: 24 June 2020

During these fraught times (and when were times last not fraught?!) it’s easy to lose track of major happenings in our country and the world around us.  Plus, sometimes it’s nice to just leave the television turned off and ignore the news.  It can get overwhelming.

So whether you just want to catch up on anything you might have missed or have instead gone out of your way to miss everything you could, here’s today’s update of the actual news (not fake!) with special focus on what’s getting missed by major media.

So.  Are you sitting comfortably? (more…)

FAKE NEWS: Lynchings In 2020

I almost didn’t write this one.

It’s not fear of all the hate this’ll drag down on The Not Fake News.  Truth is never popular, less so when it’s truth to power and least of all when that power is the mob, the nameless faceless mass of public opinion.  Telling unpopular truths is what we do here, and it’ll never pay and it’ll never make us beloved.

What almost stopped me is that there are three families out there (more…)

FAKE NEWS: Voter Suppression In Kentucky?

There have been several versions of this going around.  Trouble is, it’s completely absurd, a patently evident attempt to propagandize.

This is important for two reasons:  One, it’s apt to backfire because it’s so transparently wrong.  Two, everyone, even (more…)

Fear & Loathing 2020: Four Months Out

(NOTE:  Image is from the delightful widget out at 270towin.com — You should go out there and play around with it.  I find it soothing.  -Editor)

Yes, there’s still an election coming.  Yes, I know you’re tired of hearing about it.  How do I know?  Funny you should ask… (more…)

Dog Bites Man

There’s an old tale of a newsroom editor educating a copy boy thus:  “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.”  Another, pithier version runs as follows:  “You never read about a plane that didn’t crash.”

The average reader of modern news would be stunned to realize just how rare it is that planes actually do crash, or that the world is about to end, or  even that people get killed by rogue policemen.  That last is actually quite a remarkable statistic:  The odds of someone’s (more…)

The Not Fake News Update, 16 June 2020

During these fraught times (and when exactly are times not fraught?) it’s easy to lose track of major happenings in our country and the world around us.  Plus, sometimes it’s nice to just leave the television turned off and ignore the news.  It can get overwhelming.

So whether you just want to catch up on anything you might have missed or have instead gone out of your way to miss everything you could, here’s today’s update of the actual news — nothing fake — with special focus on what’s not being talked about by major media.  It’s only been a couple of days since our last update, but they’ve been busy ones. (more…)

Predictions, June 2020

Monday the 15th is the 20th anniversary of the North–South Joint Declaration in Korea.  Reunification hasn’t been accomplished, and many outside observers believe that the government in the North is about to do something fairly radical and possibly even rash.  They’ve been ramping up their public pugnacity for the past few weeks, so it’s not an unreasonable supposition.

But presuming they don’t and nothing else horrific happens over the next week, I have a prediction to make — something that will be of great interest (more…)