Castle Magus

Full headline: "Trump FCC Eyes Illegal Plan To Censor Real Journalism, Reward Local Broadcasters Like Sinclair For Airing Right Wing Propaganda"

Oh, and this completely unsurprising utter fucking horseshit factors into all of that, too. This is yet another example that proves that Donald Trump is the anti-Mister Rogers.

In other words, Trump is apparently trying to do the exact, polar opposite of that thing I think needs to be done. Because of fucking course he is. *eye roll + weary goddamned motherfucking sigh + smgdmfh* I mean, why wouldn't he do that? He is, after all, a demonstrably vile piece of shit. He always has been, and he always will be. *shrug*

Anyway, in conclusion, to hell with Donald Trump forever, as usual. The sooner this man-shaped puddle of diarrhea no longer exists as a living being on the face of planet Earth, the better off planet Earth as a whole will be.

For reference: [Glass Him]

Despite that and what is implied by the title of the above embedded video, it seems like Woolie and Pat here are generally supportive of Bill Willingham's attempt to make Fables public domain. If anyone deserves to be "glassed" here, it would be Detective Comics Comics.

Given that pretty much every character in Fables was already public domain to start with, though... *shrug*

Anyway, this is like if, say, Walt Disney, before he died, had had a falling out with the company he created that went on to become... you know... Disney, and then said "Fuck it, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Goofy and the rest are public domain now." (Or, perhaps more accurately and precisely, "Fuck it, Snow White and Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and all those other public domain stories that we turned into huge, proprietary 'Disney' franchises are public domain now.")

(EDIT)

On the other hand, as I just learned today, Bill Willingham is, apparently, a huge climate change-denying, anti-trans, anti-abortion, probably anti-a-whole-lot-of-other-stuff-too, former Breitbart writer and just an overall RWNJ shithead. So, tangentially speaking, while I do agree with him that copyright laws are broken and that DC Comics is pretty shit in many ways, he definitely deserves to be "glassed" (figuratively speaking, if not literally) for the RWNJ bullshit, at the very least.

*weary sigh*

On the bright side, though, now that he's made Fables public domain (assuming he is successful in his endeavor to do so and DC doesn't kibosh the whole thing somehow), that means that anyone can now write a climate change-supporting, pro-trans, pro-abortion, anti-RWNJ-bullshit Fables story, and there ain't a damn thing he can do about it. So, that's nice, I suppose.

(/EDIT)

(It's basically this post again, except rewritten/transcribed so as to not be a series of now dead tweets.)

In the end, I honestly think it's going to take a complete dismantling of the GQP propaganda machine (i.e. RWNJ "news" "sources" that do nothing but constantly spew blatant lies) before anything will begin to change for the better, re: the absurdity that is American politics. On the one hand, you could blame the stupid, ignorant, gullible, hateful GQP voter base for the problem. Or, on the other hand, you could blame the cynical, disingenuous, vile, hateful ones in power (in govt or elsewhere) who so deftly manipulate the former. Both are bad. However, while both of those two things are bad, it is only through the RWNJ "news" "sources" acting as the middleman that the latter are so consistently successful at conning the former with their brazen bullshit. This has been going on for several decades by this point in time.

How we, as a society, could begin to effect this restorative process, though, I have absolutely no idea, because BOTH the stupid, ignorant, gullible, hateful ones AND the cynical, disingenuous, vile, hateful ones will fight tooth and nail to prevent such a thing from happening. Freeze peach issues be damned; the constant, deliberate, belligerent, incessant, blatant disinformation flow is going to have to be stopped, somehow, one way or another, and that, in my opinion, is the one, single, biggest issue in this country that needs fixing above all others. Very little else of any significant, lasting value is going to be accomplished (and, in fact, will be, is being, and has been actively suppressed and demolished) while this, the largest, most glaring problem, continues to exist, in my opinion. Just wish I knew what could be done.

And, for that matter, though there are far fewer such things, any similar bullshit sources coming from the left need to be shut down as well. The years of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow are long behind us, but we kind of need to get that back if we're ever going to recover. Basically, what I'm saying is that the separation between "news" and "entertainment" once again needs to be made clear and distinct, and there needs to be much, MUCH harsher penalties (i.e. more than none at all whatsoever) levied against "news" sources that spread flagrant lies. Having a more robust and trustworthy news media would also make us, as a whole, far less vulnerable to foreign shenanigans (*cough*Russia*cough*) as well, as American "news" "sources" taking foreign propaganda and treating it as "news" is a big facet of this shit-encrusted gem.

Another related facet is the entirety of social media, in general, and certain social media platforms, in particular. But that's a whole other gargantuan problem that I also don't have the slightest clue how to begin to go about tackling.

Anyway, yeah, news media is busted. Broken. Fucked up almost beyond all recognition of what used to be thought of as "news." And until that entire problem is rectified, the country as a whole is going to continue to remain fucked, too, no matter what else may happen. Shit sucks.

---

Many times in the past, I've made statements along the lines of "I don't know which is worse, the ones in power who are doing the conning or the ones underneath who are being conned." Now, I think I've finally settled on it being the middlemen, the ones that are facilitating the conmen and the dupes alike, that is the real problem that needs to be fixed. Somehow.

In the end, I honestly think it's going to take a complete dismantling of the GQP propaganda machine (i.e. RWNJ "news" "sources" that do nothing but constantly spew blatant lies) before anything will begin to change for the better, re: the absurdity that is American politics.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

On the one hand, you *could* blame the stupid, ignorant, gullible, hateful GQP voter base for the problem. Or, on the other hand, you *could* blame the cynical, disingenuous, vile, hateful ones in power (in govt or elsewhere) who so deftly manipulate the former. Both are bad.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

However, while both of those two things are bad, it is only through the RWNJ "news" "sources" acting as the middleman that the latter are so consistently successful at conning the former with their brazen bullshit. This has been going on for several decades by this point in time.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

How we, as a society, could begin to effect this restorative process, though, I have absolutely no idea, because BOTH the stupid, ignorant, gullible, hateful ones AND the cynical, disingenuous, vile, hateful ones will fight tooth and nail to prevent such a thing from happening.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

Freeze peach issues be damned; the constant, deliberate, belligerent, incessant, blatant disinformation flow is going to have to be stopped, somehow, one way or another, and that, in my opinion, is the one, single, biggest issue in this country that needs fixing above all others.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

Very little else of any significant, lasting value is going to be accomplished (and, in fact, will be, is being, and has been actively suppressed and demolished) while this, the largest, most glaring problem, continues to exist, in my opinion. Just wish I knew what could be done.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

And, for that matter, though there are far fewer such things, any similar bullshit sources coming from the left need to be shut down as well. The years of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow are long behind us, but we kind of need to get that back if we're ever going to recover.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

Basically, what I'm saying is that the separation between "news" and "entertainment" once again needs to be made clear and distinct, and there needs to be much, MUCH harsher penalties (i.e. more than none at all whatsoever) levied against "news" sources that spread flagrant lies.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

Having a more robust and trustworthy news media would also make us, as a whole, far less vulnerable to foreign shenanigans (*cough*Russia*cough*) as well, as American "news" "sources" taking foreign propaganda and treating it as "news" is a big facet of this shit-encrusted gem.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

Another related facet is the entirety of social media, in general, and certain social media platforms, in particular (this very one included). But that's a whole other gargantuan problem that I also don't have the slightest clue how to begin to go about tackling.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

Anyway, yeah, news media is busted. Broken. Fucked up almost beyond all recognition of what used to be thought of as "news." And until that entire problem is rectified, the country as a whole is going to continue to remain fucked, too, no matter what else may happen. Shit sucks.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) July 22, 2021

---

Many times in the past, I've made statements along the lines of "I don't know which is worse, the ones in power who are doing the conning or the ones underneath who are being conned." Now, I think I've finally settled on it being the middlemen, the ones that are facilitating the conmen and the dupes alike, that is the real problem that needs to be fixed. Somehow.

And, yes, I started a Twitter thread with "In the end." ¬_¬

This is an article about The Righting, self-described as "Alerting Liberal Audiences To Today's Headlines From The Right."

It's sort of like a portal to Bizarro World. (Not to insult Bizarro or his planet by unfairly comparing them to RWNJs, mind you. It's difficult to make comparisons between these kooks and other things that aren't actually more insulting toward the things you're comparing them to than to the kooks themselves.)

I don't know that I'll start following this myself, because lately I'm finding it difficult enough to stomach normal, sane news, but it's a resource that is there for those that want it.

To hell with these Republicans.

Here's a Seth Abramson thread on the topic.

Here's a sardonic post on the Some More News FB page on the topic.

My own copy/pasted FB post, motivated by the topic at hand, but speaking more generally:

The sooner the Republican Party, at least in its current form, dies fully and forever, the better off the United States will be. I include in that every facet of it, from Future Prison Inmate Trump and his circle of criminal accomplices, to the Republican reprobates in Congress doing anything and everything they can to keep Trump in office, no matter how reprehensible (many of whom very likely overlap with the "criminal accomplices" of the first group), to the lying asshats on RWNJ "news" sources like Faux Noise and Bratbarf/Reichfart and such, all the way down to the clueless, gullible, hateful morons in the Republican base who swallow everything told to them by the prior groups as if it were gospel truth. Whether the death of the Republican Party occurs as a result of all involved either finally coming to their senses and abandoning the party, winding up in prison for the rest of their lives, or literally dying, at this point I don't much care anymore (except that I still don't want the third thing to happen to Trump until after the second thing happens to Trump).

Copy/paste from FB:

Just got a robocall on the house phone. I'm too incensed to recall the exact wording, but it was something along the lines of "Democrats have successfully tainted our election process." And "They spent millions of dollars investigating Donald Trump, but no collusion was found. They still won't give up, though." And "They're trying the same tactics again." And "We need you to..." and that was around the point when I activated the phone receiver just long enough to then immediately hang up on the stupid, lying shitstain, and then deleted the message. They never identified themselves prior to launching into their asinine, disinformational spiel (though, to be fair, I didn't allow them to finish their horseshit to see if they'd identify themselves at the end).

This shit, right here, in my opinion, is way worse than Faux Noise and Bratbarf and DisinfoWars and such shit. For those useless pieces of shit, at the very least, you have to actively seek them out in order to be polluted by them (with the possible exception, perhaps, of being bombarded by them via dumbfucks on your social media f-lists who may be posting them ad nauseam). But this here? This you have to listen to whether you want to our not, unless you just disable your answering machines/voicemail entirely. To hell forever with these deceitful, encroaching motherfuckers.

I swear, if I had the unique superpower to anonymously murder people and destroy computer equipment via telephone signals, there'd be a whole lot more dead asshats and smoking electronics in this world these days. It'd be sort of like a telephonic Death Note or something. ­¬_¬

(EDIT) I was sorely tempted to make a "right-wing asshattery" tag and then go and back-tag all relevant posts... but then, I realized that such a tag would match almost exactly with the already existing politics tag, so... meh. (/EDIT)

This post here is essentially a sequel to an earlier post I made back in March. I'm just going to copy/paste some rantage I did over on Facebook into this post.

( Rant behind cut )

We all know Hanlon's razor, right?

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

In many cases, that's a good philosophy to live by. However, when it comes to Donald Trump and his administration (as well as those currently leading Congress who back him), I believe that the inverse can and perhaps should be applied.

"Never dismiss as mere stupidity that which is indeed actively malicious."

For example, take the recent brouhaha over crowd sizes at the inauguration. Yes, it might seem incredibly stupid for Sean Spicer to hold a press conference in which he blatantly, clearly lied. Yes, it might seem absolutely asinine that Kellyanne Conway then doubled down on it with that "alternative facts" bullshit. "Alternative facts," otherwise known by sane people as blatant, clear lies.

But here's the thing. I don't think the above things were just stupid. Don't get me wrong, they are stupid, but I don't think they're only stupid. I think that these people, more than simply being stupid, are being indeed actively malicious. For a long while now, Trump has been very critical of the press (except, of course, for a few outliers that Trump treats, for the most part, as golden children, such as Faux Noise and Bratbarf Noise [after all, fucking Steve Bannon, former head of Bratbarf, is Trump's Chief Strategist now, heaven help us all]). Lately, Trump's go-to ploy when a piece of news comes out that is critical of him is to simply label said piece of news as "fake news" and dismiss it out of hand.[1] Trumpster fires and sockpuppets on social media then repeat Trump's bawling and amplify it by several orders of magnitude.

Yes, they could have ignored the whole inauguration crowd size thing. That, one would think, would have been the smart thing to do. Had they done so, most people would have simply chuckled over it for a day or two, and then it would have been completely forgotten within a week. But now, thanks to the Streisand effect, because they have focused in on this relatively trivial issue, it has been in the forefront of news for days now, and likely will remain so, especially if they continue to harp on it. (EDIT) Which they are. (/EDIT)

The purpose for this is two-fold. For one thing, it serves quite well as yet another petty distraction from all of the terrible shit that Trump has done in just his first few days in office. Diversion from the real issues with infantile bullshit like this is yet another of Trump's unfortunately successful tactics. In other words, they have weaponized the Streisand effect. So there is that.

However, more importantly, this fracas over crowd sizes is, again, yet another small cog in the ongoing machinery employed by the Trump administration, the sole purpose of which is to discredit the press. And, as I've said before and as I'm sure I'll say again, this machinery has been running far too smoothly. Far, far, FAR too many gullible morons take Trump's claims at face value. They treat his words as unvarnished, gospel truth. They believe him when he says that the press is lying, and that the press is only out to "get him." And, of course, they also believe all the other blatant, clear lies that Trump and his administration (and before that his transition team, and before that his campaign, and before that just Trump, the man) have been incessantly telling.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
"Never dismiss as mere stupidity that which is indeed actively malicious."

One of these statements applies to the Trump administration. I believe it to be the latter, but I also believe that it ultimately will have to be left up to posterity to determine which was the more applicable of the two. Are Trump and his flunkies and his Trumpanzees merely stupid? Or are they actively malevolent? Or, perhaps, are they some degrees of both of those things? Because, indeed, stupidity and malice are not mutually exclusive states of being and have never been. Even if it's hampered by stupidity, ham-handed malice is still malice. Anyway, time will tell. But the one thing I can absolutely assure you of is that it is at least one of those two. (EDIT) And as the entirely of Trump's abhorrent time in office, including the very ass end of it, ultimately showed us, it was absolutely the latter. (/EDIT)

[1] - And, no, it obviously doesn't help at all when overzealous reporters jump the gun and report on something that didn't happen, instead of pausing and making sure they had their goddamn ducks in a row first. It doesn't even matter that this "story" was merely a few tweets by one guy, and that the guy has already apologized and retracted his erroneous statements. The damage has already been done, and now Trump has more ammunition for his otherwise ludicrous "fake news" hysterics.

Link to previous, which has links to all the others before that. A few of these are less Trump-specific and more just generally politics-related.

( Tweets behind cut, as usual. )