". . . “Very impressive, Mike,” Trump said, jovially. “That reporter couldn’t have done too good a job on you yesterday. I think you did a good job on her, actually.” . . . Trump was referencing a confrontation Pompeo had with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly after an interview in which she asked him why he did not do more to defend Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, amid a smear campaign that resulted in her losing her posting. . . Pompeo cut off their interview and then proceeded to curse and yell at Kelly for asking about Ukraine, the reporter later said. She said he used profanity when he asked her angrily, “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” He then asked her to find Ukraine on a blank world map, which she says she did. . .Pompeo did not apologize for his treatment of Kelly, instead issuing a statement in which he continued to attack her credibility, insisting that she had lied to him about the interview being about Iran. He also said their conversation after the interview was off the record, which she says she never agreed to. . ."
(from One Nation After Trump by E.J. Dionne, Jr., Norman J. Ornstein & Thomas E. Mann)
". . . The road to "fake news" was paved by the disdain in a large part of the conservative movement for real news. The trail to "alternative facts" was blazed by a mistrust of those whose jobs and professional ethics required them to report and rely on real facts. . . the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan's coinage: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts". . . "
". . . It’s possible Trump didn’t see the mass of protestors, as he said. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist, or that reports of such crowds are “fake news.”
USA Today reported that “[t]he protest route ran from London’s Trafalgar Square, past No. 10 Downing St. – Prime Minister Theresa May’s official office and residence – and on to Parliament Square, a large open green space across the street from the British Parliament.” . . . But “because of the way British police placed security barriers,” the newspaper explained, “[m]ost of the demonstrators were out of his sight.”. . .
the Guardian, a British news publication, posted a short video of interviews with some of the protestors who gathered in those locations. (It also posted a longer video of people marching and listening to speakers criticize Trump.)
ABC News and CNN also published stories including a video and photos of more than a “very small” number of protestors holding signs with messages denouncing the president. There also was a parade-sized balloon depicting Trump as a baby, and a giant statue of Trump wearing an “impeach me” hat and sitting on a toilet with a phone in his hands.
NBC News reported that “[t]ens of thousands of protesters assembled in the streets of London on Tuesday” in what it said was the “largest of more than two dozen anti-Trump protests planned around the U.K. this week.” One of the groups that organized the demonstration claimed “some 75,000 people” attended the June 4 protest. . . . If so, that wouldn’t even be London’s largest ever gathering of Trump protesters. . . . “While thousands turned out, the protests were significantly smaller than the anti-Trump demonstrations that emerged during the President’s visit to the U.K. last July,” Time reported. The magazine said that time “[a]bout 250,000 people flooded the center of London, and an estimated total of 400,000 people protested across the U.K, resulting in a large-scale police and security operation, in which more than 10,000 police officers were deployed.”
. . . the president has a habit of labeling accurate news stories as “fake news.” This is yet another example. . . "
(from Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood)
". . . But most despairing to Adams were the 'Personal hatreds and Party Animosities' that consumed the capital. . ."
(from Thomas Jefferson; The Art of Power by Jon Meacham)
". . . The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them....Do not be too severe upon [the people's] errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind. . . "
Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-trump-mexico-wall-never-said-20190110-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3njtTsp223Ql-0fIiQEGLRXgJ4gUpJvQBoTqip0UicMbsFb0pBynreORk)
". . . “When during the campaign, I would say 'Mexico is going to pay for it,' obviously, I never said this, and I never meant they're gonna write out a check, I said they're going to pay for it. They are," he said as departed the White House for an afternoon trip to McAllen, Texas for a roundtable on border security. . . "
"A 2018 Gallup survey in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a Miami-based non-profit that supports journalism, reports that 58 percent of respondents say staying well informed is difficult, while only 38 percent say they believe it's easy. . . "We are seeing people pulling back into their own little domains," Busteed says. "Seven out of of 10 Americans share articles only with people that they feel are like-minded. We have all these different sources of information out there but people are retrenching into their own social networks.". . . When it comes to who is responsible for ensuring Americans do get access to an accurate and politically balanced understanding of the news, the public is divided: 48 percent say the news media should be up for this task, while same percentage say the responsibility rests with individuals. . ."
(from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-wants-review-some-materials-seized-cohen-fbi-raid-n866226)
". . . “Why doesn’t @FoxNews have a conflict of interest policy requiring Hannity to disclose his personal interest in the Cohen search when commenting on it?” tweeted Walter Shaub, the former director of the independent Office of Government Ethics. . . A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to questions from NBC News about the relationship between Hannity and Cohen. . ."
Like house and soldiers
Checkers and chess
My heart and soul
Paid dearly their dues
Learning we called it
and learning it was
But I itched to be finished
And to make my own news
Was not really concerned
Of the what and the how
Being preoccupied
With the here and the now
Everyone I encountered
Was informed of my view
No holds barred
I bombarded not few
Now lo many an issue transpired
I have seen countless things
Have lived well was inspired
Maybe you do not know me
From exploits derrynge do
But I've devoted my all
To endeavors unfew
It isn't fatigue or exhaustion I feel
It's just time for the new
(from https://www.nbcnews.com/)
"Sessions orders fresh look at Uranium One deal"
"U.S. life expectancy falls for second straight year — as drug overdoses soar"
"With CHIP funds running out, 'there are no good options,' official says"
"Car that hit crowd in Australia's Melbourne was deliberate act, police say"
"What the tax win means for Trump, now and in 2020"
"South Korea fires warning shots at DMZ after soldier defects from North"
". . . 80% of individuals affected by depression do not receive any treatment. . . statistics show that diagnoses are growing at an alarming rate. In addition, states with higher rates of depression also show high rates of other negative health outcomes, such as obesity, heart disease, and stroke. Individuals suffering from depression are more likely to be unemployed or recently divorced than their non-depressed counterparts, and women experience greater risk of depression than men. Despite all of these statistics on depression, this infographic shows that many people suffer symptoms of depression without seeking care, and that undiagnosed depression costs the U.S. millions of dollars each year. Now a global health issue, depression awareness, diagnosis, and treatment are matters of crucial significance in building a healthier, happier world. . ."
(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/07/11/florida-beachgoers-form-human-chain/467152001/)
". . . Florida beachgoers banded together Saturday to save a family from drowning. Roberta Ursrey and her family were at Panama City Beach when she noticed her sons were too far from shore, The Panama City News Herald reported. The boys were screaming, so Ursrey and her relatives swam to them, but became trapped in a rip current. . .Thankfully beachgoers noticed the family struggling and banded together to form an 80-person human chain, AP reported. . . Starting with the children, the rescuers towed the swimmers along the human chain and pulled them to shore, the newspaper reported. . . “I am so grateful,” Ursrey told The Panama City News Herald. “These people were God’s angels that were in the right place at the right time. I owe my life and my family’s life to them. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”. . ."
(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brood-awakening-17-year-cicadas-emerge-4-years-early/)
". . . Swarms of cicadas are unexpectedly crawling out from under trees from North Carolina to New Jersey. . . they chirp en masse for their mates, producing a relentless, shrill buzz that is recognized as a song of summer. And within a month they are gone. . . Different populations, or broods, of “periodical” cicadas emerge in distinct geographical regions during specific years, after spending a 13- or 17-year span growing underground. . . Scientists were expecting to see Brood VI bugs in South Carolina and Georgia, which happened, but they got a surprise when Brood X cicadas also started appearing in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Ohio and Indiana last week—four years earlier than anticipated. . . Experts suspect a warming climate, with more warm weeks a year during which the underground nymphs can grow, could be triggering some cicadas to emerge ahead of their brood. . . "
