“There are two things I know to be true: There’s no difference between good flan and bad flan, and there is no war.”
– C.I.A. Agent Mr. Young, “Wag The Dog”
(image courtesy New Line Cinemas)
So if you haven’t seen the movie “Wag The Dog”, watch the movie. And I’m not just telling you that in order to dodge a “Take It Down” notice; frankly, I doubt any studio would waste the effort on the likes of me. Rather, it will inform you about what’s not going on in Ukraine right now.
(more…)It’s highly unusual for a new president to address Congress within his first year, much less his first hundred days. With a near-deserted hall (thanks to COVID) in a fortified building surrounded by heavily armed riot police and not a few National Guardsmen, tonight’s address made history in several ways.
What wasn’t unusual was the content. Although it was delivered in an almost informal, folksy style, we heard exactly what we expected to. The tone was optimistic, and the message was clear: Biden laid out his agenda for the coming months, and he expects to make it happen. How, exactly, is another question entirely.
(more…)
It happened in 2016, and we were shocked at how easily we got played. Now it’s happening again, and we’re playing along — again. In case anyone asks: This is why we can’t have nice things.
For those of you with short memories (more…)
First, the Post reveals that Russia is helping both Sanders and Trump this time around (conveniently just in time for the Nevada Caucuses). Then CNN tells us the threat is greatly exaggerated. Now we’re being told by Fox News that DoD says there’s actually no Russian activity at all, and it’s all a big hoax.
A reasonably intelligent person might well (more…)
And, because we’ve already “broken the seal”, as Brittany might say, here’s The Not Fake News Update for 12 January 2020 — a Sunday, no less.
All the things you haven’t heard about:
– Protests in Haiti are starting up again after the holidays. You might not have heard about them before the holidays; that’s because they’ve been going on for years. I blame the United States, and specifically Bill Clinton. (more…)
The United States has the most powerful conventional military in the world by a factor of three; measured in terms of effectiveness, five. We have state-of-the-art aircraft carriers, missile platforms, AEGIS anti-missile systems, and the M1 Abrams main line battle tank. We’ve got stealth fighters, Hellfire-equipped drones, and some of the best-trained and best-equipped ground troops in the business.
So why exactly would we be worried about taking on Iran, a nation whose navy consists of speedboats with machine guns, whose air force dates from the 1970s, and whose top-performing battle tank is a slightly up-armored Russian T-72? Their infrastructure is sub-par; their command-and-control systems have little to no redundancy, and their government is wildly unpopular (more…)
It’s all over the news, and every American politician (and French) seeking re-election is repeating it: Trump has betrayed the Kurds to Turkey, set ISIS fighters free, and is actively running the U.S. military in a way that benefits only Russia.
The danger with facts everyone knows is that there’s no easy way to convince people they’re wrong. Usually the problem boils down to oversimplification; it’s easy to be wrong when you don’t know anything. In this case, it’s that — plus, everyone’s got a massive axe to grind and Trump’s a great target to score points off.
But some of it’s definitely true, so we’ll start there and move on. (more…)
It’s been quite a year, after quite a year.
The funny thing about 2017 was, we were still recovering from 2016. We still haven’t recovered from 2016 today. Here’s an example:
If you observe casually that the 2016 presidential race pitted two (more…)
It’s getting so I hate to turn on the news. I physically cringe. Bear with me here.
Here’s a quick recap: There was a shooting yesterday, a man I think can best be described as a domestic terrorist plinking away at a Congressional charity baseball team at practice. There was a horrific fire at a London apartment highrise where, apparently, the sprinklers malfunctioned and dozens of people were killed. (It’s been called “corporate manslaughter”.) Congress approved a multibillion dollar arms sale to Qatar, a nation presently (more…)
The Not Fake News 