There has always been misinformation. Older, less-educated men have always been grumpy as their privileged lives eroded. #curmudgeons
The internet gives voice to their wrongheadedness. Businesses like FOX News found a way to make money off them. The Republican Party and others around the world found ways to motivate them to vote.
Media … Ban your reporters from doing anything on social media — especially Twitter — beyond sharing stories. Snark, jokes and blatant opinion makes people skeptical of your factual stories.
Social Media companies … Radically self-regulate, or allow government regulation to stanch, the flow of disinformation …
One thing is for sure: The current self-policing isn’t cutting it.
YOU … Quit sharing stories without even reading them. Quit tweeting your every outrage. Quit clicking on garbage. Spend a few minutes to verify the trustworthiness of what you read.
AND I’m pleased some world leaders stood up to the irrational egomaniac. You have to call out this kind of stupidity. Even if you suffer consequences. Trump won’t be around forever.
Stop worrying about Russia. It’s the richest of the rich deciding American politics.
Charles and David Koch started as Libertarians. In fact, David ran in 1980 as candidate for Vice President for the Libertarian Party. In recent decades everything the Kochs do is to enrich themselves. #FollowTheMoney
The Kochs will cheat, lie, steal, intimidate to enrich themselves. The GOP are merely a means to an end.
The Kochs are good businessmen, employing many. For all the hundreds of millions they’ve spent, mostly on Republicans, they’ve made more back on legislation enriching the richest of the rich.
The 2010 Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision made the situation much worse.
Because their business is mostly Petrotoxins, the Kochs are keenest on preventing action on climate change.
Currently Americans for Prosperity is the main Koch lobbyist.
The E.P.A. identified Koch Industries in 2012 as the single biggest producer of toxic waste in the United States.
The U.S. political system is a fail, I’d say.
40% think Trump is doing a good job. A majority of those, I’m guessing, believe what they hear on FOX News and right wing radio.
Americans so easily misled deserve worse education, worse health care, medical bankruptcy, etc. … There’s no helping people like that.
I keep thinking American voters will figure out the richest of the rich are taking too much money. They don’t
In 2016, Doubleday published Mayer’s fourth book, Dark Money, which became an instant national best-seller, and the New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year. …
Mayer revealed that approximately six investigators, led by former New York Police Chief Howard Safir, had been hired by the industrialist Koch brothers in an effort to try to dig up dirt in order to smear her reputation, and that accusations of plagiarism had been leveled at her. She responded by publicly airing those tactics of intimidation, effectively debunking the smear campaign.
We have some decades left using Petrotoxins. If you use them, you need to weigh all the alternatives for transport. Is this pipeline actually more dangerous than the alternatives?
I don’t think so.
Opponents, especially First Nations, were not sufficiently consulted. Perhaps not sufficiently compensated.
I’m hoping — in the end — some compromise can be decided. Otherwise we’ll be stuck with worse options.
Rick McCharles 