Generational Dynamics World View News

[Trevor]

I'm still reading about the recent hack of a pipeline that supplies close to half the Eastern Seaboard's gasoline. They're already implementing rationing, with skyrocketing prices and gas lines. Imagine what a full-scale Chinese attack could do, complete with backdoors into all the electronics they've sold us over the years. It would cripple our ability to hit back for months.

Hopefully, we'll learn something from this, but the way things are going right now, I personally doubt it. It'll be forgotten in a couple weeks.

[DaKardii]

I'm still reading about the recent hack of a pipeline that supplies close to half the Eastern Seaboard's gasoline. They're already implementing rationing, with skyrocketing prices and gas lines. Imagine what a full-scale Chinese attack could do, complete with backdoors into all the electronics they've sold us over the years. It would cripple our ability to hit back for months.

Hopefully, we'll learn something from this, but the way things are going right now, I personally doubt it. It'll be forgotten in a couple weeks.

I live in Florida. The governor just declared a state of emergency due to this gas shortage.

Meanwhile, the FBI claims that the perpetrators are a group of cybercriminals from Eastern Europe; there is no evidence that any state actors were involved.

[John]

** 11-May-2021 World View: Russian government

> I live in Florida. The governor just declared a state of emergency
> due to this gas shortage.

> Meanwhile, the FBI claims that the perpetrators are a group of
> cybercriminals from Eastern Europe; there is no evidence that any
> state actors were involved.

A lot of people are blaming the Russian government.

But who knows?

[DaKardii]

A lot of people are blaming the Russian government.

But who knows?

The US government and its media lapdogs have become so dishonest that I personally suspect that at least half of their "official stories" regarding who did what are lies. And it only has itself to blame for pushing me to that point.

[John]

** 11-May-2021 World View:Mimicking

> A lot of people are blaming the Russian government.

> But who knows?

> The US government and its media lapdogs have become so dishonest
> that I personally suspect that at least half of their
> "official stories" regarding who did what are lies. And it only
> has itself to blame for pushing me to that point.

I was mimicking your previous response to Iran's claim that the CIA
was responsible for the mass carnage and slaughter of teenage girls in
Kabul.

[DaKardii]

I was mimicking your previous response to Iran's claim that the CIA was responsible for the mass carnage and slaughter of teenage girls in Kabul.

I know. But when the government and its media lapdogs have become as dishonest as they are now, who's to be believed?

Meanwhile, I'll admit that I may be going overboard with my skepticism. But again. Who knows?

*sigh*

[John]

** 11-May-2021 World View: Media Lapdogs

> I know. But when the government and its media lapdogs have become
> as dishonest as they are now, who's to be believed?

> Meanwhile, I'll admit that I may be going overboard with my
> skepticism. But again. Who knows?

> *sigh*

Oh, I agree.

But after writing thousands of articles over almost 20 years, I've
developed a pretty good intuition about who in the media is telling
the truth and who is bullshitting.

I should probably put together a whole big article on the subject, but
here are some sample conclusions:

CNN, MSNBC, AP, Tehran Times, Russia Today, China Daily are all
similar in that they're "state media," and just parrot the government
line uncritically.

Fox News generally lives up to its "fair and balanced" claim, since
they present both sides of issues pretty fairly.

For international news, the BBC is pretty good, but when it reports on
American news, which it does all the time, it's the same as CNN and
MSNBC. BBC receives a great deal of funding from NPR, and so has to
follow the Democrat party talking points.

Al-Jazeera is also pretty good with international news. But you'll
never see a negative story about Qatar. Also, they hate Israel, and
they hate the Palestinian Authority even more, but they love Hamas.
But for Asian news they're pretty good. Oh, and they hate America,
and they REALLY hate Trump.

AFP is pretty good for Mideast, Asian and African news. VOA and RFERL
are pretty reliable.

Reuters is an interesting case, because I've found them to be almost
always completely fair and balanced. I believe that the reason is
that Thomson Reuters is an Canadian company, so they have a wholly
different view of the world.

When I'm writing an international story, I have to use each news
source in a credible way. For example, I'll consider China Daily or
Global Times to be an accurate statement of China's position, and I
would consider them more credible on this subject than, say, Reuters
or AP or the BBC.

In an international story, like the Israel-Palestine story of today, I
don't want to take sides, so I try to find accounts from each side,
ideally to quote them in parallel. This is not always easy to do.

And of course I'm always guided by previous Generational Dynamics
conclusions. For example, I've known for decades that there will
never be a "two-state solution" in the Mideast, so I know
automatically that any policitian who talks about it is full of crap.

So maybe at some point I'll expand this into a more comprehensive
article.

[John]

** 12-May-2021 World View: Israel faces riots as Gaza approaches 'ful-scale war'

• Apartment building in Gaza knocked down by Israel airstrike

The situation in Gaza is now being described as approaching "full
scale war."

Overnight into Wednesday, the Palestinian militants in Gaza launched
an endless stream of rockets into Israel, targeting Jerusalem, Tel
Aviv, and southern Israel. In the same time period, Israel has
launched an endless stream of air strikes on Gaza targets.

This has escalated in two ways. Palestinians have been targeting
heavily populated Tel Aviv for the first time. And Israel has been
striking large apartment blocks in Gaza.

Israel provides an hour's warning before striking an apartment
building so that the residents can escape. Typically the buildings
also contain Hamas offices and equipment. From the point of view of
international law, Israel can claim that the warnings mean that their
actions are not war crimes, while the arbitrary nature of the Hamas
rockets are war crimes. But it's doubtful that those arguments will
ever reach an actual court.

Also for the first time, Israel has intercepted a drone used by the
Gaza militants.

The Gaza war has led to riots in mixed Jewish-Arab towns in Israel.
Rioting in the central city of Lod has caused Israel's government to
announce a state of emergency.

---- Source:

-- Gaza-Israel conflict heading 'towards a full-scale war' as violence
escalates
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/0 ... dly-riots/
(Telegraph, London, 12-May-2021)

[Guest]

A lot of people are blaming the Russian government.
But who knows?

As someone who you used to live in the former Soviet Union, it strains credulity to believe that a cyber criminal gang on this level operates without state sanction in Russia. Impossible so. Absolutely impossible.

[Guest]

** 11-May-2021 World View: Media Lapdogs

> I know. But when the government and its media lapdogs have become
> as dishonest as they are now, who's to be believed?

> Meanwhile, I'll admit that I may be going overboard with my
> skepticism. But again. Who knows?

> *sigh*

Oh, I agree.

But after writing thousands of articles over almost 20 years, I've
developed a pretty good intuition about who in the media is telling
the truth and who is bullshitting.

I should probably put together a whole big article on the subject, but
here are some sample conclusions:

CNN, MSNBC, AP, Tehran Times, Russia Today, China Daily are all
similar in that they're "state media," and just parrot the government
line uncritically.

Fox News generally lives up to its "fair and balanced" claim, since
they present both sides of issues pretty fairly.

For international news, the BBC is pretty good, but when it reports on
American news, which it does all the time, it's the same as CNN and
MSNBC. BBC receives a great deal of funding from NPR, and so has to
follow the Democrat party talking points.

Al-Jazeera is also pretty good with international news. But you'll
never see a negative story about Qatar. Also, they hate Israel, and
they hate the Palestinian Authority even more, but they love Hamas.
But for Asian news they're pretty good. Oh, and they hate America,
and they REALLY hate Trump.

AFP is pretty good for Mideast, Asian and African news. VOA and RFERL
are pretty reliable.

Reuters is an interesting case, because I've found them to be almost
always completely fair and balanced. I believe that the reason is
that Thomson Reuters is an Canadian company, so they have a wholly
different view of the world.

When I'm writing an international story, I have to use each news
source in a credible way. For example, I'll consider China Daily or
Global Times to be an accurate statement of China's position, and I
would consider them more credible on this subject than, say, Reuters
or AP or the BBC.

In an international story, like the Israel-Palestine story of today, I
don't want to take sides, so I try to find accounts from each side,
ideally to quote them in parallel. This is not always easy to do.

And of course I'm always guided by previous Generational Dynamics
conclusions. For example, I've known for decades that there will
never be a "two-state solution" in the Mideast, so I know
automatically that any policitian who talks about it is full of crap.

So maybe at some point I'll expand this into a more comprehensive
article.

PLEASE do.