This is a late Weekender, as Friday, Saturday and the first half of today were filled with family errands and activities. I am posting at about 8 p.m. At about 6:45 I encountered bothersome problems I attributed to hacking. Maybe it was hacking, maybe not. But here is this entry before tomorrow. — MCM
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‘Duty to Family is Paramount’: During the walk Bruce and I took across Massachusetts starting from Provincetown in mid-April 2018 bearing four “9/11 TRUTH” signs, his wife, Ellen, kept a log of the towns we stayed in and rough counts of mileage walked day by day. (Bruce would phone her every night, or vice versa.) Early last week she lent me her log and notes for me to copy, and when I returned it on Friday I apologized to Bruce for being out of touch lately, noting all sorts involvement with yard and house upkeep and family. “Duty to family is paramount,” he said.
This is certainly true in his case over the decades. When I reflect on what ELSE was going during the month or so when we did our walk, I think that if family duties came first, we would not have done it. (More on that another time.) But we are who and what we are and, having talked about the walk for a year or so prior, if we had NOT done it, we wouldn’t have been who we were. “To thine own self be true.” Besides, in a sense we were playing hooky from family duties, and it was fun.
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Breakfast Friday (or Thursday): Bruce and I met at the Soda Chef for a late breakfast on that day. He walked the two miles from his house. I drove from mine so I could give him a ride home if he wanted one. He was late. As he put it, it takes longer than it used to to cover a given distance. He’s about 81. (Bruce’s age is sometimes hard to nail down because when asked he gives the age nearer in days to his nearest birthday. That makes sense for a former engineer and math instructor.
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Who Is Lionel? For readers who have not looked him up already, since his contribution last week, HERE, Lionel is a lawyer in New York City who is also a standup performer at this or that venue. The venue Bruce and I encountered him at in person (only time for either of us) was the Justice In Focus conference at Cooper Union in Manhattan. He was on stage during one of the Saturday segments, probably unknown to most attendees. The insights of this bespectacled stranger — irreverent and unexpected — were most welcome and on target in the way, say, those of Lenny Bruce or George Carlin might have been. They were just the thing for a day and a half of presentations and forums otherwise peopled by lawyers, architects, engineers, investigators and others.
Not a mention of the conference, of course, in the mainstream media, which in 2016 were adhering to the official 9/11 narrative even more than they are today.
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Birds Are Real: Here’s a caveat on my pronouncement in the last Weekender, HERE, that birds are real. I had been reacting to a New York Times story and photo on billboards round and about saying something to the effect that some “birds” that humans see are actually small drones designed and manufactured for use as reconnaissance (spying) devices or weaponry. Well, of course, governments and corporations are almost certainly at work trying to perfect such devices — before too long some will be for sale at toy stores.
My feeling on that part of the post was that the Times just wanted to give some attention to a straw-man “conspiracy theory” example for it to swat down, and I still think that was part of it. I’ll try to read the story at the library when I can and see if I still do then.
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NPR Propagandizing: A segment on National Public Radio’s “Sunday Edition” this morning provided two examples of how mainstream media “news” people buttress the dominant narratives they helped shape in the first place. NPR national political correspondent Maura Liasson was chatting with a host.
“Democrats’ hair is on fire and Republicans’ hair is not on fire,” she said in reference to the deliberations on the riotous storming of the U.S. House of Representatives and accompanying vandalism on Jan. 6 by supporters of then-President Trump (were others involved as well?), who had encouraged his die-hard supporters in person at an outdoor gathering that morning to disrupt the Electoral College vote, on the basis that in several states the vote had been “stolen.”
I point out Liasson’s remark because even most voters who are registered with one of the two major parties are probably of the mind that the whole thing is being overblown — pumped up by commentators and reporters who have to uphold the dominant narratives of the day. Most of their sources, after all, are Democratic or Republican elected officials or are Republican or Democratic party operatives, who they want to return their phone calls or emails or grant them interviews.
Not to mention the vast numbers of voters who don’t identify with either major political party, or those Americans, registered or not, who don’t vote. It seems that a purpose of the mainstream media in this country is to keep the duopoly serving serving the interests of the real holders of power.
Another part of the chat concerned alleged “anti-vaxxers” and so-called “conspiracy theorists” (Liasson’s terms) not adhering sufficiently to the U.S. government/media line on masking and getting vaccinated yet again. These two vague and over-broad terms marginalize large groups of people who are trying to figure things out and don’t automatically accept what’s presented on the news.
Has either Liasson or her interlocutor read The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? If so, they don’t show it, because the author, who has been studying the subject for decades, is often labeled an anti-vaxxer but he says he’s not and explains why. Apart from its appearance on best-sellers lists, the book has yet to get any mention, positive or negative, that I know of, in the mainstream media (apart from in RFKJr.’s interview on Fox’s “Tucker Carlson Today”). Question, if Liasson had read the book, would she be allowed to mention it for NPR listeners?
— Mark Channing MIller