Are we seriously going to allow our history to be rewritten, real-time information to be suppressed, and the voices of reasons to be silenced? (Spoiler alert: Yes)

AI generated image

A legitimate crisis of nightmarish, dystopian proportions unfolding right now: The 2020s will be remembered - that is, if they are remembered with any degree of accuracy, or if the earth is still standing - as an era of extreme crisis. And the biggest crisis of all is the ‘crisis of trust,’ where everything is becoming a facade and nobody will be allowed to think for themselves anymore. Not that most Americans have bothered to think for a long time now, but we are now moving into something that is beyond Orwellian - or beyond anything Huxley could have envisioned - and it is already too late for any hope of stopping it. All hands are dirty, and I genuinely believe myself cursed to be living in these times. An excerpt from a must-read Ted Gioia piece: ‘Folks have been dumping their crap into our information flows for a long, long time. Big corporations and institutions are the worst offenders—they actually get rich by polluting our data streams. But individuals are adding to the raw sewage too.’ {Ted Gioia - Thirty signs you are living in an information crap-pocalypse 6/30}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Odds and ends: Thoughts on why #Murica is so screwed up in the 21st century, COVID rates multitudes higher than reported, as are Russian death totals in Ukraine, more

New York Post

The 21st century has been awful. Plagued by maladies that in more normal times (the late 20th century) we believed were no longer, or ever, supposed to occur in America - large scale terrorist attacks, pandemics, severe economic turmoil, race riots, disputed elections, the revival of global Fascism, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs winning championships; and I’m only scratching the surface. Today, I find myself wondering if all this chaos, hatred, and degradation is what people want. The only thing that everybody can seem to agree upon is that the country and the world are in a bad place. Logically, it would stand to reason that people would want to each do their part to fix the overall malaise ailing us. Yet, logic typically has so little to do with human thinking and decision making. Certain types of personalities do exist that thrive on chaos. Considering how large of a role entertainment plays in this culture - is there anything Americans demand more than the privilege of being entertained at all times? - perhaps the modern American is subconsciously bored by stability and order? Not an absolute thesis, just brainstorming.

Hollywood nutjobs battle in court - This is the nonsense #Murica has been paying the most attention to over the last few months. Not the plight of the Ukrainian people, or the threat Vladimir Putin and his nuclear arsenal pose to humanity, not COVID, and not the continuing erosion of our constitutional republic. Two Hollywood weirdos airing their dirty laundry to the world. So, if some sleazy actor is legally allowed to extort millions of dollars from a woman, does that mean I get to take my second-to-last girlfriend - a uniquely horrible person, who has offended me worse than any individual I’ve ever known, and that is saying a lot - to court for the hell she put me through? Does this mean I can sue my former high school classmates for emotional damages, because I know I could put a reasonable case together there? I’ve toyed with the idea of seeking legal council against a few individuals from a ‘fellows**t’ I made the mistake of being part of for nearly five years. But, I’m not some privileged a**hole like Johnny Depp, so I’d be laughed out of court, and nobody would be rooting for me as they root for one or the other litigants in this case. For better or worse, being a bitch is not a crime - and that is a resting bitchface if I’ve ever seen one, albeit she is quite gorgeous - and I have a hard time mustering up any sympathy for a sleazy actor who may have missed out on a part or two because of rumor and innuendo spread by the aforementioned woman that I had never ‘heard’ of until very recently.  Rome is burning, and most of us are choosing to be Nero playing our fiddles. (AP 6/01)

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Current COVID-19 infections may be up to thirty times higher than being reported - Quote: ‘It’s almost as though we’ve created a national ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ Covid policy – and that is a perfect way to promise that Covid will spread rapidly.’ (The Guardian 6/02)

Just another weekend in #Murica: Mass shootings in Philadelphia, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and Arizona (New York Times 6/05)

Why are ‘deaths of despair’ increasing in the United States, but not in other industrialized nations? (JAMA Psychiatry 2/02)

Reuters

An estimated 40,000 or more Russian troops have been injured during the ‘special operation’ against Ukraine (Evening Standard 6/01)

Incredible photographs from inside the Azovstal steel plant (The Guardian 5/23)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Not as important as whether Will Smith should have hit Chris Rock at the Oscars to #Murica, but the sane world is seeing seven-and-a-half hours of missing call logs on January 6, and Russia escalating its war of aggression on Ukraine after announcing they were going to start limiting attacks

Do you want to save this constitutional republic, however much of a lost cause it often appears to be, no matter that the majority of Americans are hellbent on destroying it? Work to counter Russian propaganda at all turns. We should have learned this back in 2016, and some of us did. Not enough! And now Ukraine is being raped, and millions of Americans are shrugging their shoulders, with some even praising Putin. The invasion of Ukraine, in part, is happening because ‘Murica wanted Trump and overlooked every breach of decency and honor, enabling Putin to such an extent that he feels invincible even now that we have a real leader - the kind that this rotten country does not deserve - back in the White House for the first time in a long time. As far as I'm concerned, those who have supported Trump all these years may as well rename themselves 'Neville Chamberlain.' 

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine severely endangers global food supplies - Thankfully for Ukraine, they stored more than enough food for themselves for, apparently, a couple of years. Since the annexation of the Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainians knew this invasion was coming and prepared. Which explains why their military is destroying the Russian troops. But, given that Ukraine must take care of itself before supplying other nations with their grain, food shortages are already becoming a reality in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Indonesia that depend heavily upon Ukraine, as well as a Russia crippled by sanctions, for their sustenance. But, silly me, I know none of this is as pressing a matter as whether Will Smith should have hit Chris Rock at the Oscar Awards. (AP 3/29)

Russia bombards Chernihiv hours after pledging to halt shelling - Anybody who believes anything Putin promises is signing their own death warrant. Ukraine must not only repel this invasion, but so soundly defeat Russia that the enemy is set back another two centuries longer than Putin has already set them back. (The Guardian 3/30)

‘Thousands of miles from a home consumed by conflict, a group of Ukrainians in China have found themselves on the frontlines of an information war, battling pro-Russia bias, trolls and censorship.’ (AFP 3/30)

James Bourg/Reuters

A seven-and-a-half hour gap in Trump White House call logs on the morning of January 6, 2021 - I do not even want to spend much time on this clown anymore, I just want him and his lemmings’ garbage out of my life and out of the public sphere (and in prison.) (BBC News 3/29)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Federal judge declares Trump likely committed crimes following the 2020 election, Ukrainian refugees face more danger outside of their country, while America is busy arguing about celebrities

‘A federal judge on Monday ordered Trump attorney John Eastman to turn emails over to the Jan. 6 Committee. The judge also said that the former president likely committed crimes while trying to stay in power.’ Lock them up already. Trump, Eastman, and the entire cabal. Perhaps we send Trump to the island of Saint Helena, and he can die there as Napoleon did two-hundred years ago. I’d like to see that. (Raw Story 3/28)

AP/Michael Probst

Not condemning or judging any single individual, but literally every post on my feeds, FB and Twitter both, right now is about the incident at the Oscars. I wish people got this riled up and angry about what Putin is doing to the Ukrainian people, or the January 6 insurrection, or those spreading disinformation and refusing to follow protocol in the middle of a pandemic. #JustSaying

Ukrainian refugees are prime targets for human traffickers, and there doesn’t appear to be any shortage of these predators. Some of them posing as relief workers at border crossings, others are contacting women online and making grand promises of a new life elsewhere in order to lure them into their trap. Pray for the safety of all Ukrainians in this horrific struggle. (BBC 3/27) 

Ukrainian Holocaust survivors forced to flee to Germany - Unspeakably horrible. Obviously a bit of irony that they’re going to Germany, but how proud I am of my blood brothers and sisters in Deutschland. No nation in history ever took greater responsibility for their sins, no nation has ever redeemed itself as they have, and no nation has ever rebuilt so successfully from the ruins of war than my ancestral homeland. And Ukraine shall rebuild, as well. #NeverAgain means never again, and Putin is the Hitler of our time. (AP 3/28)

An extremely important PSA from Rep. Adam Kinzinger. All Americans should be aware. Most are not, and don't want to be. This deep fake stuff scares the daylights out of me. Anybody can be framed for anything.

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.