Comic Dave Smith Comments on CNN’s Unwillingness to Look Into the Mirror

CNN has intentionally and repeatedly pushed propaganda, including war propaganda. But they seem perfectly OK with that, as Dave Smith points out.

And now, because CNN's audience continues to shrink, and perhaps out of jealousy that so many people trust Joe Rogan, CNN has gone after Rogan.

Amazingly, CNN still has some dedicated followers: people who uncritically glue themselves to the tube and nod affirmatively. They are doing what many college students have done as they buy term papers from 3rd party providers. They are unwilling to do the hard work of sense-making, relying on a known corporate liar, one that brings lots of war hawks onto their shows to promote military involvement in the Ukraine, the latest alleged reason to spill American blood. This is pure insanity.

BTW, here is that video of Russell Brand imitating CNN's Brian Stelter. While CNN raises a piss-storm about the "problem" with Joe Rogan, it simultaneously parades out warmongers to promote warmongering without disclosing their histories or conflicts of interest.

Continue ReadingComic Dave Smith Comments on CNN’s Unwillingness to Look Into the Mirror

Eric Weinstein’s Long Thread of Suggestions

Many excellent demands in Eric Weinstein's Twitter list. It's a long excellent thread. We wouldn't be in this state of desperation if we had a strong and independent news media, one that constantly fails to demand answers to obvious questions. A "news" media that considers that it main job is to do PR for one (or the other) of our two dominant corrupt political parties.

Continue ReadingEric Weinstein’s Long Thread of Suggestions

Democrats and their Media Tribe Beat the Drums toward Armed Conflict in Ukraine

Where are the anti-war voices at the NYT, WP and the Democratic Party? The NYT (Judith Miller and Thomas Friedman) stupidly urged us to go to war in Iraq and they haven't learned a damned thing. Watch Joe Scarborough's hawkish rant at 30 sec mark of this video. It's surreal. What real national interest does the US have in the Ukraine that we are willing to risk military action against a country with well-stocked nuclear arsenal? And where do we hear anti-war voices on the mainstream media? FOX. This is insane. Here is Glenn Greenwald's comment on this bizarre situation:

Recent headline in the NYT:

Recent item in the Washington Post:

Continue ReadingDemocrats and their Media Tribe Beat the Drums toward Armed Conflict in Ukraine

NYT Offers a Real Conversation about Transgender Medical Treatments

Andrew Sullivan points out that the NYT has finally decided to have a mature reasoned discussion about transgender medical treatments. Hopefully, reasoned discussion involving pro's and con's and real evidence will be the new narrative on this topic, now that Abigail Shrier has been treated like a piñata for two years for the crime of doing what the NYT is finally now doing.

An excerpt from this NYT article:

The new standards state that clinicians should facilitate an “open exploration” of gender with adolescents and their families, without pushing them in one direction or another. But the guidelines recommend restricting the use of medications and surgeries, partly because of their medical risks.

Puberty blockers, for example, can impede bone development, though evidence so far suggests it resumes once puberty is initiated. And if taken in the early phase of puberty, blockers and hormones lead to fertility loss. Patients and their families should be counseled about these risks, the standards say, and if preserving fertility is a priority, drugs should be delayed until a more advanced stage of puberty.

[Added Jan 14]

Andrew Sullivan:

"Here’s the truth that the NYT was finally forced to acknowledge: “Clinicians are divided” over the role of mental health counseling before making irreversible changes to a child’s body. Among those who are urging more counseling and caution for kids are ground-breaking transgender surgeons. This very public divide was first aired by Abigail Shrier a few months ago on Bari’s Substack, of course, where a trans pioneer in sex-change surgery opined: “It is my considered opinion that due to some of the … I’ll call it just ‘sloppy,’ sloppy healthcare work, that we’re going to have more young adults who will regret having gone through this process.” Oof.

The NYT piece also concedes another key fact: that puberty blockers are neither harmless nor totally reversible . . .

I would think that, just as a general rule, minors making permanent, life-changing decisions should receive more psychological treatment than adults. How on earth is this not the default? In what other field of medicine do patients diagnose themselves, and that alone is justification for dramatic, irreversible medication?"

Continue ReadingNYT Offers a Real Conversation about Transgender Medical Treatments

Happy Update on COVID Risk and Left-Wing Media Suppression of the Good News

Today's comments by the CDC's Director Rochelle Walensky suggest that there is very little risk vaccinated people, and that there is not a good reason to keep worrying about serious illness or death from COVID if one is vaccinated. You can watch her make these comments at this video. Here is an excerpt:

ABC "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" HOST: I want to ask you about the encouraging headlines we're talking about this morning, a new studying talking about just how well vaccines are working to prevent severe illness. Given that, is it time to rethink how we're living with this virus if it is potentially here to stay?

CDC DIRECTOR ROCHELLE WALENSKY: A really important study if I may summarize it, a study of 1.2 million people who are vaccinated between December and October demonstrated that severe disease occurred 0.015% of the people who receive their primary series. And death in 0.003% of those people.

The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities.

So really these are people who were unwell to begin with.

To put these number in perspective, here are these two risk numbers converted to x out of 100,000:

10/100,000 vaccinated people will experience "severe disease" as a result of COVID.

3/100,000 vaccinated people will die of COVID. This website lists 50 maladies more likely to kill a vaccinated person than COVID.

Did major media outlets report this good news?  I suspected that left-wing media would suppress these statistics and I was correct.

The New York Times has not mentioned Walensky's comments. Instead, here's today's NYT headline: "Covid Live Updates: U.S. Hospitalizations Break Record as Omicron Surges U.S. insurers must cover eight at-home tests each month, the Biden administration says. Chicago’s public schools canceled Monday’s classes."

NPR also fails to mention Walensky's comments. Instead, today's headline are: "How to get insurance to pay for at-home COVID tests, according to the White House."

The Washington Post has not mentioned Walensky's comments either, except in a story that buries the lede, titled: "Rochelle Walensky is not good at this." Today's other WP headline: "U.S. poised to break record 142,000 covid-19 hospitalizations: But it may get much worse. Already struggling hospitals could house about 300,000 covid patients later this month if models are correct."

MSNBC did not report on Walensky's comments either. Instead, here is the MSNBC COVID headline: "Supreme Court killing Covid vaccine mandates leaves Biden with (some) options."

Walensky's comments have been widely published in other publications, none of them known as left-wing sources. For now, I will spare you my highly cynical thoughts about why this good COVID news is not being reported by left-wing media, but it didn't surprise me in the least.

Continue ReadingHappy Update on COVID Risk and Left-Wing Media Suppression of the Good News