Since Sunday

Propaganda

A good shot on right-wing propaganda outlets Fox and The Weekly Standard.

".. the magazine was born just one year before Murdoch created Fox News. Both outlets were extremely effective at achieving the same goals via different tactics. Fox was chum for the rubes; the Weekly Standard was chum for Ivy League rubes. Fox pushed mindless belligerence, conspiracism and a deep hatred for reality; the Weekly Standard did the same thing, but with less cleavage and more quotes from Cicero. (In 2009 Murdoch sold it to Philip Anschutz, a fellow billionaire who if anything is more conservative than Murdoch.) 

Put another way, Fox was the conservative movement’s amygdala, while the Weekly Standard was its cerebrum, both driving it forward until Trump’s election proved it no longer needed any higher brain functions." 

Interesting line from How Britain grapples with nationalist dark web

"The loss of media control is having a real effect on the government’s ability to act, officials said."

And I thought the US and Britain always had a free media that was outside of government control? 

Just Wrong

A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath, Now Mandatory in Many States — So She Lost Her Job

".. she can no longer work with the public school district after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. "

This is just wrong. Surely a freedom of speech violation but may be a freedom of religion also. I'm guessing evangelicals drove this law since their bible speaks of Israel. 

Politics

 JOE BIDEN ON DONALD TRUMP: “I THINK ANYBODY CAN BEAT HIM” - Yeah,... try running Hillary again. Biden needs to follow her out the door of the American political scene.


Health Care

What you lose if Obamacare goes away. Really though, I'd like to replace it with a no-insurance-needed, Medicare-for-All.