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Beware of Propaganda
A warning this week from agriculture watchers in Virginia and elsewhere. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says some residents in the Old Dominion have been getting packets of seeds in the mail that they didn't order. The packets have Chinese writing on them and the seed content is unspecified. They are possibly from an unknown and invasive plant species that might spread agricultural diseases or pests. If they are planted they could destroy local crops.
Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns or operates 193 TV stations in 89 small or mid-size TV markets across the U.S., had been set to air a so-called news program called "America This Week." It was a must-carry for all of their stations, meaning the local stations were ordered by their owner to run it. Included was a segment called "Plandemic," which made outrageous and debunked claims that Covid-19 was man-made. Included was some scurrilous attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci of NIH, who is the long time authority in fighting infectious diseases in the United States. I won't say more about the content because it is fake and probably libelous, but Dr. Fauci has indicated he and members of his family have been getting death threats because of the promoted content of the show.
It's not as vast as the Civilian Conservation Corps projects of the 1930's, which opened up general public access to our nation's vast park system, but it will provide thousands of jobs over the next five years. More than $6.6 billion will be used to improve everything from the 50 year old ranger station at Yellowstone to the decaying Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River that connects Virginia to D.C. near the Lincoln Memorial. The bridge, used by thousands of commuters every day, is technically inside a national park.
It is not the first time the Federal Government has used force to quell protest. The one that stands out the most occurred in 1932 when President Hoover moved U.S. troops into D.C. to destroy the camps set up by the Bonus Army. They were veterans who were protesting for promised bonus pay from World War One that they never received. General Douglas MacArthur, who later gained fame in World War Two, used Calvary and tanks to burn down their camps and chase them out of the city. That has always been considered one of the darkest episodes in our history.
By Hank Silverberg
It's out there, and if you are not careful you will become it's next victim.
There has been a lot of talk about "fake news" in the last three years, but propaganda can have a bigger impact. Political campaigns have used it for years, but this election cycle the propaganda being put out by the right wing, the GOP, the President's re-election campaign and foreign governments is much worse than usual.
propaganda
[ˌpräpəˈɡandə]
NOUN
- information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
They are using terms like "Socialist," "Marxist" and "extremist" to describe a plethora of people who are no such thing. It's meant to confuse you and influence your vote based on disinformation.
So I thought I would give you all a crash course in how to decipher fact from fiction (call it "Political Science 101"). Just what do some of these terms mean? It's the way I was taught while getting my undergraduate degree in Political Science, and despite new delivery systems like the internet, the basics have not changed.
Below you will see a simplified chart of the traditional political spectrum. You will see much more complicated ones but let's keep this clear. Take a traditional ruler or tape measure and draw lines about a quarter of an inch on either side of the hash mark by the word Centre (Center). Most American politics and policy falls between the two lines you have just drawn, or about half an inch of the center of this line in total.
There are exceptions, of course. Mr. Trump would be outside of your mark on the right by about an eighth of an inch, and Bernie Sanders would be about a 16th of an inch past your mark on the left side of the line.
Hitler, the Nazi (Fascist) dictator of the 1930's and 40's, would be on the very far end on the total spectrum on the right side. Stalin, the Communist dictator of the same era, would be at the end of the total spectrum on the far left side. Both of them, of course, were brutal totalitarians, and "right" or "left" meant nothing to the millions of people they both slaughtered.
Most Americans would find their basic beliefs within a quarter inch or so of the center on one side or the other within your hash marks, but distinctively close together compared to the whole spectrum.
Republicans traditionally want to preserve the status quo but that doesn't mean they all want to return to some fictional idealistic past that never existed, as some of the current GOP klan will promote.
Democrats traditionally seek progressive social change but not a total upheaval of capitalism, as some on the left will preach.
Joe Biden is NOT a Socialist. Neither is Nancy Pelosi.
Don't believe me? Here is Webster's definition of socialism:
_________________________________________________
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
No Democrat running for President in the last 100 years has advocated government takeover of GM, IBM, Exxon or any other big company. But Democrats have passed regulations to prevent corporations from exploiting their workers and consumers--in other words, to protect you! Examples: the 40 hour work week, bans on child labor, ingredient labels on food, lemon laws, Social Security and Medicare.
No Republican (yet) has tried to become a dictator. Some talked a lot about law and order, cracked down on dissent and crossed the line on occasion (think Richard Nixon). But the current President has crossed the line a number of times, which is why he is outside the half inch referred to above. (See last week's blog on what's going on in Portland and voter suppression efforts.)
So now, with less than a hundred days until the election, with the political ads hitting the air waves and the internet, don't be fooled by the propaganda.
Simply look at what Mr. Trump has done, or hasn't done, and what Mr. Biden is actually proposing rather than what the propaganda says he is. There is accurate information out there if you care about the future of the country. Then once you have it, cast an educated vote.
If you fall for the propaganda you have failed Political Science 101 and are a victim of mind manipulation. If too many people fall for it, the country is in real trouble.
Seeds of Destruction?
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| (Coutesy of VADACS) |
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/508932-virginia-utah-residents-advised-against-planting-mysterious-seeds-marked
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| (The seeds look like this) |
Similar packets have also shown up in Utah, Washington State, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Some of the packets are labeled "Jewelry," but they are seeds. If you get one of these packets, don't open it. Call your state Agriculture Department.
And then there is this:
Once word got out what the show entailed, there was immediate negative response at some of the local TV newsrooms across the country owned by Sinclair, and from other journalists and scientists nationwide. What Sinclair was going to do was air a conspiracy theory as news. In response to the very loud and sharp criticism, Sinclair announced on Saturday, in a tweet, that they would delay the broadcast and then later said it was at "Full Stop." But that announcement came after at least one station in West Virginia had already aired the program.
What "full stop" means is not clear. But be on the lookout for this fake information to be distributed in some other form on Sinclair TV stations.
Here is a list of Sinclair stations across the country where you can register your complaint about the company's decision to even consider such a broadcast:
This is not the first time Sinclair Broadcasting has been under scrutiny for its news contents. The company, which has a distinctively conservative slant on its editorial content, has routinely slipped in mandatory must-carry stories to its local stations that skew right and has done so without any disclaimer. Those stories, which often have no connection to the community the stations serve, are aired the same way in all of the 89 TV markets, with the viewer having no idea or warning that they are bias in content or broadcast on all 193 local stations.
Sinclair's broadcast reach is nationwide and significant. The company's TV stations reach 4 out of every 10 American households.
Update:
Here's some good news. Last week I wrote about my visit to the Shenandoah National Park and how pleasant it was. This week, Congress has passed a bipartisan bill allocating $900 million a year to fix the roads, buildings and facilities in our national park system, which are in desperate need of maintenance.
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| (Among the projects to be fixed, the sewage system at the bottom of Grand Canyon National Park. NPS Photo) |
"The Great American Outdoors Act" is the largest infusion of cash into the national park system since the 1950's. The work will take place in 400 national parks, monuments, recreation areas and historic sites. The only negative here is that the allocation is only about half of what is needed to clear up a long term backlog of projects.
This bill is the most significant piece of non-Covid related legislation to come out of Congress in two years. President Trump has promised to sign it.
Finally I note:
The President has indicated he is ready to send as many as 50,000 to 75,000 federal agents into American cities to quell unrest, even though the unrest is not as dramatic as he claims it is. He has already sent agents to Portland, which has exacerbated the long running protests there, making them more violent and raising massive constitutional issues. Chicago, Albuquerque, Seattle and other cities are on his list.
But a quick check indicates the Department of Homeland Security may not have that many law enforcement agents.If you add the FBI, ICE, ATF, the DEA and the Federal Protective Service together, the number of sworn law officers combined does not come to 50,000 - at least not on public record. It's closer to 35,000 altogether. That would strip them away from the jobs they are paid to do, like protect embassies, catch bank robbers and cyber criminals, and patrol the borders for drug and arms smugglers and illegal immigrants.
If 50,000 ever showed up, lots of questions would be asked about who these people are and what authority they have. That's what makes this prospect so frightening to American citizens. Reporters need to start asking about this!
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| (Courtesy rarenewspapers.com) |
(Your suggestions and comments are welcome)
(Copies of my book are available for purchase at the on line links below, or you can order a signed copy at a reduced price directly from me with an email to HankSilverberg@gmail.com )
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