So ... do you think the news does a good job of covering important stories? Or at least attempts to?

Want to get outraged over which news the MSM chooses to cover?

Here's some important numbers that might be of interest (sorry I don't have any disaster videos to attach):

So far there have been about 850,000 total deaths world-wide due to the coronavirus.
Just yesterday there were about 4,200 dead world wide.

Awful. Really terrible right? I agree. Governments should be falling from their mismanagement of this crisis.

But now notice this under-reported news:

There are about 9 million deaths a year from hunger and hunger-related diseases.

That's about 25,000 a day.

Every day.

Funny how we don't even really hear about it. Maybe a story once in a great while, but easily forgotten among the 24x7 torrent of useless trivia that is considered news today. Never focused or loud enough for us to comprehend and grasp the magnitude and the sheer horror that is ... not news.

Our so-called civilization leaves a lot to be desired.

Corona Virus Source
Hunger Source

VPN services sound like a great idea. Send all your traffic (encrypted) to a VPN server and they fan out to the internet at large. So someone snooping on your traffic (e.g. your ISP) won't see anything about you but traffic to and from your VPN.

But ... now you must trust your VPN provider, since they will have all your traffic flowing through them.

And a lot of VPN's are not local to the US. Many are hosted in unfriendly waters. They are obviously high value targets for state-sponsored (and random) hacking.

This article showed up today writing about several VPN services in Hong Kong. All of them advertise "no logs kept" ... and all of them are keeping logs. And even keeping them in publicly accessible places.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/17/ufo_vpn_database/

... seven Hong-Kong-based VPN providers – UFO VPN, FAST VPN, Free VPN, Super VPN, Flash VPN, Secure VPN, and Rabbit VPN – all share a common entity, which provides a white-labelled VPN service. And they were all leaking data onto the internet

... records of websites visited, connection logs, people's names, subscribers' email and home addresses, plain-text passwords, Bitcoin and Paypal payment information, messages to support desks, device specifications, and account info.

Security is hard, the fear is strong, and the combination makes VPN services a ripe field for fraud.

So let me get this straight ... on 4/7/2019 Trump famously tweeted: Our Country is FULL!

So ... now that he's killed off well over 120,000 of us by criminally mismanaging the epidemic ... is there room yet?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1115057524770844672

Over 100k dead now in the US from the virus [*]. That's about a 9/11 every day for over a month.

And with all the idiots we have following Trump, I think we'll be lucky to keep it under 200k before this is over.

Are there any lawyers here? I am honestly confused why the owners of almost all businesses are not scared sh*tless over the prospect of wrongful death claims against them if they reopen before the virus is under control.

It looks like reopening too soon will cost an enormous number of lives. Do business owners now have the right to kill their staff and customers to make a profit? Or does the virus count as some kind of "act of god" that gives everyone immunity from being incredibly stupid and reckless with other people's lives?

In a just world, the politicians would be held culpable as well, but I can imagine how they'd have some protection from the consequences of their stupidity. But business owners? I don't get it.

All I can think of is that it's not been a focus of the news, and those few that do consider it assume that the almighty GOP will hold them blameless.

9/11 had 2977 fatalities and over 6000 injured (*)

The US is at 60,757 deaths from Coronavirus now (*). And over a million cases with an unknown percentage of them facing serious long-term health problems.

The death count is over 20 times 9/11. Twenty times. And we're far from being done with the body bags.

We fundamentally changed our society and started two wars because of 9/11.

What will our response to this be?

Rejection of science deniers?
Realization that elections matter?
Admitting that good government matters?

Maybe even thinking that health care, housing and food are basic rights?
Perhaps rejection of greed, alternate facts and Fox News?
Noticing that we really are a society and we are all in this together?

Or will Fox News and the sociopaths in power win the day and the idiots will continue to have us by our throats?

WC Fields famously said "Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump." (*).

Perhaps this is enough for voters to notice we've all been played for chumps and suckers.

Well Trump has done it. We had more new cases of Covid-19 yesterday (13,355) than any other country. Spain was #2 with 7457 new cases, and Italy #3 with #5210.

We're still #3 on total number of cases, but it's really close and another 24 hours and we'll be #1 there too!!

While we're currently only 5th on new deaths per day, I'm sure by this time next week we'll be #1 there too!!

Go USA!! Go USA!! Go USA!!

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus




Is this really needed?

I believe we should all start referring to the GOP Senate by their proper titles: Criminal Co-Conspirators.

They are not just letting Trump off the hook for his criminal acts ... they all expect to benefit from his crime sprees.

Of course, Trump and his sycophants are horrific.

But Trump is a symptom, not the problem.
Remember why they are in power.
Remember who put them there.

Hint: We should not just blame Trump.

Focus on the cause.

There will always be narcissists and demagogues.
There will always be con artists, grifters and crooks.
There will always be truly evil people willing to do anything for power.

But ... who is to blame for Trump?

Blame income inequality that allows dynasties.
Blame the news media for selling us entertainment instead of news.
Blame the "both sides" and "whatabout" reporters that haven't a clue.
Blame our election system that allows billions of dollars worth of free TV exposure.
Blame TV viewers that can't distinguish a con from a scholar.
Blame our education system that fails to teach critical thinking.
Blame politicians that choose power over country.
Blame religion that teaches faith in autocracy.
Blame everyone that accepts dogma over science.

Hold them all accountable. Make them change.

Make us change.

We'll always have Trumps and Putins and Erdoğans. We need not allow them power.

We must learn from our mistakes and change what is wrong.

Quickly. Because we are running out of time.

It's different this time. It's not just our governments at stake. It's the Earth.

Without real change, disaster is unavoidable. We may have already passed the tipping point.

If we fail, our children's grandchildren will broil. Or drown. Or starve.

The clock is ticking.

Make a difference. Pick something that is most important to you.

Review your skills. Grow them. Join with others.

Get angry. Stay angry. Fight.

Fix the system so that it is robust in the face of intolerance, corruption and science denial.

Fight as if you can hear the childrens' screams.

Tell me again that religion isn't evil?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/politics/joe-biden-denied-communion-south-carolina-catholic-church/index.html



If you don't like abortions, don't get one. But don't tell me (or my family) what they can do.