President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison Thursday, after balking at certain conditions of the home confinement he was granted because of the coronavirus pandemic.If you're in the joint and the Man tells you that you can get out early if you agree to X, Y and Z, that's not generally up for negotiation. You can agree or sit your ass in stir.
On to the next one:
The Democratic senator and Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, who was awarded the Purple Heart medal after losing her legs during combat operations in 2004 as a helicopter pilot, has been targeted in an apparent smear campaign from leading Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who labelled her a “coward” during a segment on his show on Tuesday evening.Carlson was 31 years old when the Twin Towers fell. Nothing stopped him from dragging his pasty ass down to the recruiting office and signing up to do his part in the War on terror. Carlson, a prep-school brat, has been just another right-wing troll, cheering on as other people do the fighting, the bleeding and the dying. His only combat has been as one of the Fighting Keyboardists of the 101st Chickenhawks.
Tammy Duckworth, who is a year older than Carlson, was flying a UH-60 when a RPG hit the helo, blowing off both of her legs. She came close to losing her right arm, as well. Her patriotism has been documented in the blood that she shed for his country, in the body parts that she left in the wreckage of her helicopter.
Chickenhawks like Carlson have no right, morally or otherwise, to question anyone else's patriotism, most certainly if the person they're slamming has a DD-214. That most emphatically applies to Carlson and his master, the Donald.
Senator Duckworth had a great reply to the worthless MotherTucker Carlson.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase:
'Walk a mile in my legs.'
I have no use for anyone who would disrespect anyone, male or female, for their military service, whether they saw combat, or sat in an office their entire hitch. Everyone who volunteers for the military signs a blank check to the nation, up to and including their lives.
ReplyDeleteI continue to be impressed with the number of women who serve in some of the most dangerous and demanding roles of our modern military, yet they are not called combat soldiers. Tulsi Gabbard is another one,who served overseas, in a medical unit, and as a trainer for I believe Kuwait military medical units, as well.
At times, not only can women do the same job as men, but they can do it better. I have no doubt that when it comes to infantry jobs, such as deployments into the field, carrying 100 pound backpacks, and personal weapons systems, not many women are physically capable, and in fact, may be a danger to the mission. But in static deployments, there is no reason that women cannot be used in combat positions. Men and women have lived together in proximity for all of eternity, and can learn to conduct themselves with proper military decorum. The biggest problem from what I have learned from reading about training,is that men will screw up missions trying to protect women,while women have no such weaknesses. So perhaps the larger amount of training needs to be directed towards the men,and not the women.
As for Tucker Carlson,I at one time,used to listen to him on occasion,as he seemed to have good instincts for breaking news. Now, there is no news organization that I trust to tell the straight truth, without opinion always being involved with it. Which on a show like Carlson's,Hannity,Don Lemon, Rachael Maddow,etc. you expect that, since they are opinion and entertainment shows, and not news shows. But it seems that straight news is either missing or leaning, in the case of Fox, to the right and in the case of CNN,MSNBC,and many others, to the left. So I try to find sources that are closer to the event. And I have learned to never listen to a spokesperson, like the presidents spokesperson. They might be the nicest person,but they have an agenda, and they will not deviate from that agenda.
I must add, while I dislike Carlson, I despise Hannity. His head is buried up Trumps backside, so far I am surprised that anyone can hear him speak. It is so bad, it is almost funny. But it's not funny. Whatever happened to professional journalists?
pigpen51
The first woman in history just earned her green beret. Yeah, I know another woman once passed the training, but they never actually gave her the hat, as she put it at the time.
ReplyDeleteWhat they're doing to Duckworth reminds me a little of what they did to Max Cleland.
As for Michael Cohen, word is that he was making noises about making a statement about the upcoming supreme court decisions, so that may have made them a little more interested in his movements, of which there were supposed to be none.
One would figure that if anyone knew the likely consequences of getting on the bad side of Fergus' gang, it would be him, but who really knows?
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Pigpen51, I find that CNN (mildly left, reasonable compromise), BBC and Al Jazeera is a solid combination for reporting. With CNN, they tend to do well labeling their “Opinion” pieces (unlike MSNBC and Fox), BBC is pretty agnostic, and adding Al Jazeera allows you to see a total different viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteThe chickenhawk Republicans know no shame. Well before trump, John Kerry was vilified by the GOP slimers despite his brave and heroic Vietnam service. Same for John McCain. Same for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, driven from the service by the GOP. Being a decorated and wounded hero means nothing to Republicans despite their constant claims to being the party that owns patriotism. They will try to destroy any military service person no matter their suffering and courage if told to by their death cult leader. Too late for the GOP. It needs to go the way if the Whig party and the Know Nothing Party. Extinction.
ReplyDeleteCenterpuke,
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with your comments about CNN. There is more than a slight liberal slant to their media coverage. The thing is, bias can be very subtle. It doesn't have to be openly spoken about, but rather, it can be shown in the kinds of stories that they chose to cover and the stories they ignore.
The BBC, certainly they have a much different slant on the news, but they also suffer from a slant to coverage geared to a European centric side.
As for Al Jazeera, I must admit that I have only seen bits and pieces of their coverage, and what little bits I actually have seen, I think that they actually may have better journalists there than the major news corporations here in the states.
I need to actively search them out and give them a fair shot. Because they have been fairly open handed as far as the few pieces of them that I have seen.
I don't expect a news organization to be perfect. I just expect them to make an attempt to be fair, and to not favor one side over another. If you want to blame anyone for the election of Donald Trump for president in 2016, blame the media. They gave him an almost unlimited amount of free coverage, while the other candidates had to pay for any air time out of their own campaign chest. Trump could get caught talking about grabbing some woman by her private parts, what some call locker room talk, since it used to be pretty common among men, and he would have his name on every television station, radio station, the front page of every major newspaper in the country, all at no charge to him. And just as an aside, I never talked about women, or when I was younger, high school girls, as sex objects. I have always respected females, and was always trusted by them.
I read that Hugh Downs passed away this week. While not perhaps mentioned with the same reverence as Walter Cronkite, I think that Hugh Downs was much more even handed with his news coverage than Cronkite was. Walter Cronkite almost single handedly changed the course of an entire war.
I know that some people go into journalism with the intention of making a difference, and bringing people the truth, no matter how awful, or how good. I suspect that unless they toe the corporate line, they soon find themselves without a job. That is a sad thing, because there should be room for anyone who wants to report the news,and they should be able to overcome their own bias to just report what is happening, and if they add their opinion, then they should say so.
I will check out Al Jazeera though. I know that they are much different than what they were in years past.
As for Fox not labeling opinion as opinion, I think that their network is pretty much all opinion, all the time. I occasionally watch part of their show, the five. And I see 4 panelists attacking Juan Williams, one of the most respected journalists that I know. Dana Perino is perhaps the least offensive, as she seems reluctant to attack anyone, at least personally. But the rest have no problem with name calling and such, when Juan Williams is on. And while I often disagree with Mr.Williams, I would never be as crass as to call him names, or to bully him. He is one of the people in the news industry that I do trust to keep the right wing news media honest. And as a black man, I listen to his comments on the BLM and other black issues very closely, since he is coming from a unique perspective that some other black liberal news people do not, in that he has credibility with me, due to his having had such a long and distinguished career.
I see that our Empress here in Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, has issued an executive order that says we must wear a mask in any building, or outside when in a crowd, or pay a 500$ fine. I thought that the legislature had to make the laws, but I guess that I was wrong.
Pigpen51