FORA-TV: Tom Friedman Interviewing Gary E. Knell- ‘A Leftist Bias? NPR Seeks Truth Not Balance’

Source:FORA-TV- Gary E. Knell is the head of National Public Radio.

Source:The Daily Journal

“Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of NPR, acknowledges that the station has a certain perspective, but declares that the news coverage is driven by truth rather than strict balance.”

From FORA-TV 

First of all, I’m not a fan of NPR National Public Radio, because their reporting does look somewhat slanted to me. Their reporters and anchors sound like a combination of both reporters and analysts and that’s not the job of reporters.

The job of reporters is report on what they cover and report the facts that come up. Not make an assumption of what’s going on and report the facts that back up their case, but to actually report on what’s going on. Which is also different from not knowing anything about what you are covering, but to understand the issues you cover and report the facts that come up.

The job of analysts is to analyze what these facts mean and how they’ll effect whatever the issue is. For example a reporter would report let’s say 120K jobs were created last month and then the analyst, hopefully an economist or someone with a background in economics or business, will analyze what the jobs report means. Whether it’s a good sign for the economy or not or somewhere in between. What you get with NPR are reporters that have an ideological slant. People with leftist leanings who cover stories and report the facts that back up what they think about the story.

I’m not saying the NPR is the Fox News of the left, because with NPR you do get a lot of factually based info. You just don’t get most or all the info many times and you get the info that backs up how left-wingers feel about these issues. Where except for a few exceptions with Fox News, you get the right-wing slant and a lot of right-wing commentary.

The closest thing to Fox News from the left, would be MSNBC, but their audience is not nearly as big and they do have real reporters and anchors. Whereas Fox News except for Shep Smith and Chris Wallace, you have right-wing commentators playing the role of anchors and reporters.

Fox News has essentially become the official mouthpiece of the Republican Party and right-wingers in America. But the difference being that Fox News is a private organization funded through advertising and the private sector. Whereas NPR is funded through tax revenue.

If NPR wants to be a left-wing mouthpiece when it comes to politics and current affairs and other issues they see as important, then they should be allowed to do that, but they should have to fund their own operations and business. Instead of taxpayers being forced to subsidize their left-wing voice. And then we’ll truly see how much support there is out there for this type of media coverage.

FORA-TV: 'Political Satirist Will Durst- Takes on Mitt Romney'

Source:FORA-TV- Will Durst doing his Ben Carson impersonation: I mean he’s talking about Mitt Romney in 2012. LOL

Source:The Daily Journal 

“Comedian Will Durst talks presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, and satirizes the candidate’s “out of touch” election persona.” 

From FORA-TV

The best way to describe Mitt Romney the politician is to use his own gaffes, I mean words his own thoughts. He said he’s not a politician, which might be technically true in the sense that he currently doesn’t hold public office. But why is that, because he has a very hard time getting elected to anything, except in 2002 when he was elected Governor of Massachusetts.

But that’s not the whole story, because Mitt ran for President in 2007-08 in wide-open GOP field and finished third. Despite having the best resources and perhaps organization. And loses a Senate election to a vulnerable Ted Kennedy in 1994.

Mitt, decides not to run for Senate against John Kerry in 1996, against another vulnerable Senator in John Kerry and decides to take a few years off from politics instead . But the man has been thinking about running for public office at least since 1992. He just hasn’t found a way to get elected except for 2002 as Governor of Massachusetts.

The reason why Mitt is not a career politician, is because he keeps losing or can’t find an election he can win. Not because he’s only interested in being a successful businessman. He’s been thinking about being President of the United States since 2004 and started running in 2006. It's taken him six years just to win he Republican nomination.

It’s not just Mitt Romney’s gaffe that he’s not a career politician. That takes up a whole paragraph. Then there’s the one where he says he doesn’t care about the poor. Well, pardon the expression: no shit, Sherlock! Also in he news fire can burn human flesh and people can drown underwater. And concrete is hard, etc, no real news made here.

Here’s a good one: Mitt is unemployed, actually he gets paid to run for president with all he money he raised running for President. He was fired from that back in 2008 when the GOP decided not to hire him to be their presidential nominee. He did managed to get another job running for president in 2009-10, in about three months, he’ll probably be fired again.

And then of course there all the flip-flops, like not being in favor of his own healthcare law that he singed into law in Massachusetts. He figured out that’s not going to fly and has decided he’s now in favor of Romney/ObamaCare.

The best way to describe Mitt Romney without using his own words, imagine a slick used car salesmen, who has the attitude: “I need to tell my customers what they need to hear for them to buy a car from me and where I’m wrong, I’ll try to fix this in the future.” Like saying a car that’s supposed to have four doors, but it only has three which will keep you warm in the winter in Wisconsin with only three doors. Thats sums up Mitt’s flip-flops. “What do I have to say to this crowd to get their support and how do I change that around to get the support of the next crowd that I’m speaking to.”

Mitt is a slick used car salesmen which unfortunately is a great way to describe a lot of American politicians.

National Academy of Social Insurance: 'Social Security: Just the Facts'

Source:NASI- with a vide about Social Security.

"You may have heard we can't afford Social Security. But the facts may surprise you. This video from the National Academy of Social Insurance (www.nasi.org) explains the basics about Social Security, its purpose, who pays for it, who gets it, and what it means to seniors, working families, and children now and in the future. To learn more,  visit the "Learn" section of NASI's website at:NASI 

COMMENT POLICY: Comments reflecting the spectrum of opinion are welcomed. However, we ask that they be constructive and respectful in tone and content. Comments containing profanity, abusive or inflammatory language, misinformation or that are otherwise inappropriate will be removed. Comments appearing on this site are not endorsed by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) nor should they be taken to reflect NASI's point of view." 

From NASI 

I mostly agree with this video. What I want to do here is to explain what Social Security is and what it isn't and then lay out what needs to be done so it's still around after the Baby Boom Generation retires in 10-15 years. (Depending on how you define that generation) 

Social Security, is not a national pension system. It's not the sole provider of pensions in America. Most Americans either have a private pension plan, or have their own personal retirement plan that they personally set up and perhaps with contributions from their employers. A lot of Americans if they have a career in government service, like the military Foreign Service, law enforcement, or have worked in state or local government, have government pension plan, that they've worked for and have even paid into, that's separate from Social Security. 

What Social Security is, is a single-payer, pension insurance plan, to guarantee that every American has at least that income to rely on, when they're too old and not healthy enough to work full-time. As well as a disability program for adults who simply don't have the mental or physical capabilities, to get a job that allows for them to be economically independent, so they're not on Welfare their entire adults lives, but instead can work up to their capabilities and have enough money to live on. 

By the 2030s, if nothing is doing to reform Social Security, we'll see shortfalls in that Federal program. Just because someone acknowledge the obvious shortcomings and shortfalls of any social program, doesn't mean you are against that program. It could simply believe that program needs to be fixed in order to save it. Which is what I'm doing here. 

By simply taxing the benefits of the wealthy on Social Security, even ay 2-5%, that alone would save that program. Along with raising the eligibility age for people who can afford to work and are mentally and physically capable of working pass 65-57 years old and even want to continue to work. People who work well-paid, white-collar jobs, is a perfect example.

AFP News Agency: 'In America's Two-Party System, It's Not Easy Being Green'

Source:AFP News Agency- 2012 Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein.

"It's not easy being Green in America's bipartisan system, but the left-wing party is trying to build a nationwide campaign ahead of November's vote by championing an array of progressive causes." 

From AFP News Agency

"L'Agence France-Presse (AFP) est une agence de presse généraliste française chargée de collecter, vérifier, recouper et diffuser l'information, sous une forme neutre, factuelle et utilisable directement par tous types de médias (radio, télévision, presse écrite, sites internet) ainsi qu'auprès des grandes entreprises et administrations. Réalisant la moitié de son chiffre d'affaires commercial hors de France, l'AFP est implantée dans environ 151 pays avec 201 bureaux. Fondée en août 1944 pour prendre la suite d'Havas, elle assure une couverture complète de l'actualité mondiale, dans tous les domaines et sous toutes ses formes : photographie, infographie, vidéo et texte dans six langues.

L'AFP est, avec l'Associated Press et Reuters, une des trois agences de presse qui se partagent un quasi-monopole de l'information dans le monde. Elles ont en commun, à la différence de son prédécesseur Havas, de ne pas avoir d'actionnaire mais un conseil d'administration composé majoritairement d'éditeurs de presse. Pour garantir son indépendance, la loi exige qu'elle équilibre son budget, après amortissement comptable des investissements, l'AFP ayant de plus accès aux marchés financiers pour emprunter. Les deux tiers de son chiffre d'affaires proviennent de ses revenus commerciaux, le tiers restant venant d'une compensation par l'Etat français de sa mission d'intérêt général à hauteur de 113,3 millions d'euros en 20221." 

From Wikipedia

For the record and before I sound less sympathetic to the cause of the Green Party and other 3rd parties in America to get on every ballot in the country where they have candidates in the race: I believe in universal ballot access as a democrat who believes in democracy. 

But having said all of that, ballot access is generally decided by the states, unless you are talking about local elections for city or county council, mayor or executive, etc. And these jurisdictions are already controlled by either Democrats or Republicans, especially Democrats when you are talking about big, urban, cities and counties, who are already getting political competition from their far-left flank in their party, people who would be a lot more ideologically compatible in the Green Party.

But the other reason why left-wing 3rd parties have a hard time even getting on the ballots in elections across the country, has to do with the lack of political support that they have. America simply isn't a social democracy and we don't have a unitarian, parliamentarian, form of government, which is what you would need, for the Green Party to ever be able to govern anywhere in America, including at the Federal level, assuming that they ever came to power in America. 

The Real News: Paul Jay & Gerald Friedman: 'How To Pay For Single Payer Health Insurance'

Source:The Real News- talking about a proposed government-run health insurance plan in Maryland.

"Gerald Friedman Pt 3 of "What a Single Payer Health Insurance Plan Looks Like" 

From The Real News

If there is anything that I like and respect about Gerald Friedman's health care plan for Maryland, is that he's honest about it. He's not one of these partisan leftists whose saying that we need free health care now and that government should give it to us, without having any idea how to pay for it. Friedman acknowledges publicly, that of course government-run health insurance wouldn't be free. It would have to paid for, probably through payroll taxes. 

I think I've been clear that I'm not in favor of a government-run health insurance plan, at least as the only option to pay for health care in this country. If states want to do that, they can do that, if they can get a plan passed and into law and find a way to pay for it themselves. 

I'm not in favor of government only health insurance plans for multiple reasons:

all the examples of government-run only health insurance plans, comes from countries that are very small and simply don't have the diversity and economy that we do. America is not the only even large country in the world with private health care systems. Just look at Germany, look at France, look at Japan, just a few examples. 

Not every person, let alone every country is the same. The larger the country, the more the people, the more options and choice that individuals have to have, in order to have the most efficient health care system. You put everyone on the same plan in a large country, now government is the only option not just for insurance, but now health care, because only the national government would get to decide what health care people can have, because only they get to decide what would be paid for. 

The other part of the Friedman plan that has a big hole in it, is one way that it would be paid for. It would not just eliminate a major personal responsibility component out of the existing health care system in Maryland (a state where I grew up and still live) by charging people for their health care based on their income, instead of the health care that they receive. Which means we would be incentivizing low-income people to live unhealthy, because they would always be taken care of by taxpayers with means. They wouldn't have to cover the costs of their own poor decisions. 

The Friedman plan would also be de-incentivizing people to earn a good living in a state where the cost of living is already pretty high, because of the high quality of life in Maryland and all the wealthy and well-educated people in this state, because you would be telling them even if they're very healthy, that they would now have to pay more for their health care, simply because they have means. 

So, no, I couldn't support this plan. But more importantly it will never pass in a state like Maryland, even with a Democratic Governor in Martin O'Malley, with a Assembly that has a House and Senate, that both have larger than 2/3 majorities, because most Maryland Democrats even, aren't left-wing Democrats and they would know the problems with the Friedman plan as well.

RT America: Alex Wahl & Alex Chance: 'Porn Stars Choose The Next U.S. President'

Source:RT America- Alex Chance talking to President Vladimir Putin's Russia Today.

Source:The Daily Journal

“As the November elections on the doorstep more and more porn stars are having their say on who they want to be the US next president. President Obama has a whole support team made up of porn actors while Mitt Romney has at least one supporter as well. With porn having a dramatic impact on the US economy it’s no wonder so many folks whithin the adult film community have opinions on how it’s regulated. Alex Chance, a xxx-rate movie performer joins RT’s Liz Wahl from Los Angeles for more.”

From RT America 

RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya) (Russian: Россия Сегодня)[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international news television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content.[72]

In 2012, RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was "waging an information war, and with the entire Western world".[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union as well as Canada announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81][82] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT's website and restricting access to RT's content.[83][84] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[85][86] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia." 

From Wikipedia 

As the so-called Family Values Party heads to the adult entertainment capital of America, (which is Tampa, Florida) where the Grand Old Party meaning the Republican Party will hold their convention, (you can have all sorts of fun with this) I thought it would be fun to look at how the so-called porn industry could affect Mitt Romney and his potential Republican vice presidential candidates.

I guess we can drop Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachmann, from the list since they all support a constitutional amendment to outlaw pornography. And since the GOP is the Family Values Party, they’re not going to nominate someone for vice president who would outlaw porn. And risk getting kicked out of Tampa. And being forced to hold their convention in West Virginia, or somewhere else in the Bible Belt where they would all have to rent helicopters to get to the convention because there aren’t enough roads.

One of my favorite jokes is that you would have better luck finding a prostitute, or some other adult entertainer at a Southern Baptist Convention, then you would see the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, or Detroit Lions winning the Super Bowl. But the problem with that joke is the Republican Party is in Tampa this year and there might be all sorts of adult entertainers at their convention looking for potential clients and showing them a whole new way of living.

In Tampa, the Christian-Right could see what it’s like checking out women other than your wife, (in public) or what its like to have sex, (with someone other than your wife) that not all women wear long dresses everywhere they go and aren’t afraid to show their legs and even butts in public. Tampa, is about as Bible Belt and Christian-Right of a city, as Seattle is in the Southeast. Seattle is a  very friendly, individualistic of a city, where people are free to be themselves.

It’s funny enough that today’s modern Republican Party is in Tampa in the first place. I guess they’ll be in Sin City Las Vegas in 2016, where you’ll have thousands of Republicans who perhaps have never seen a casino on TV before, let alone actually been to one.

If an adult entertainer endorses Mitt Romney for president in Tampa, it could cost Mitt twenty points in the GOP, even if his approval rating goes up with the rest of the country. And you may see Mitt trying to convince people that he was never endorsed by an adult entertainer, or the person had him confused with another Mitt Romney. Like the Mitt Romney from 2002, or 1994.

I mean a party where you got a certain percentage of its members, maybe 1/3 who believe pornography should be illegal everywhere in the country, having their convention in the porn capital of the country, there’s a lot that’s ironic about this picture.

Republican Party 2012 Strip Convention

Source:Russia Today- 100 Monopoly bucks to the 1st person who can name this beautiful, baby face, working in President Vladimir Putin's Russia Today studio.

"GOP ready for National Strip Conference" 

From Russia Today 

"RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya) (Russian: Россия Сегодня)[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international news television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content.[72]

In 2012, RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was "waging an information war, and with the entire Western world".[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union as well as Canada announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81][82] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT's website and restricting access to RT's content.[83][84] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[85][86] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia." 

From Wikipedia 

"What happened to hallowed ground? A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows that Republicans would prefer that a strip club be built near ground zero rather than a mosque. Twenty-one percent of Republicans said they’d be OK with a strip club near the site of the 9/11 attacks, but only 4 percent would accept a mosque. Preferences were flipped on the other side of the aisle, with 49 percent of Democrats supporting a mosque and 33 percent for the strip club. “This shows the extent and impact of the recent rise in anti-Islam rhetoric,” said Ibrahim Hopper, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations." 

From The Daily Beast 

Whatever happened to the Party of Family Values? It's almost like it's invisible today and damn near to have never have even existed. 20 years ago, then Vice President Dan Quayle publicly attacked Candice Bergen's character on the hit sitcom Murphy Brown, because Murphy was going to have a baby by herself. Meaning she wasn't married, didn't have a boyfriend, and the father of her baby wasn't going to be involved in her child's development once the baby was born.

Go up 20 years today and the Republican Party is now holding their national convention in America's capital of strip clubs and porn, also known as Tampa, Florida (at least to outsiders) and are going to nominate a Mormon, who comes from a religion that says bigamy is not just OK, but it should be encouraged, who really doesn't have any real issues with same-sex-marriage, Massachusetts legalized it when he was Governor, and who was pro-choice on abortion, until he decided that he wanted to run for President at some point, when he was running for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. 

What's the Republican Party's campaign theme going to be in Tampa: we get off on Mitt Romney? No one would believe that because they don't even like the man. We're talking about the father of ObamaCare, for crying out loud. 

Maybe the Tampa Republican theme will be: we strip for Mitt Romney. But again that's not believable. I mean the only Republicans who do any stripping whatsoever are their Baptist ministers and they just do that in front of boys. 

You have to say (or at least I do) that the Republican Party holding their national party convention, in the strip/porn capital of America, gives new meaning to the word irony. Sort of like Gamblers Anonymous holding their national convention in Las Vegas. It presents a challenge to just be taken seriously.