katja

TL;DR: Capitalism sucks.

So that was a bit of a depressive read. Can't say I'm really surprised as I grew up in the 70's and was around to see how Ruhr in Germany spew out enough sulfur to poison the lakes even in the Nordics.

The ruthless effectiveness of the suppression of any opposition is what gets me about all this and that is the major difference about how the debate was back then. I'm not saying that the perpetrators were any better back then, it's that they get away with methods and arguments that simply wouldn't fly in the 70's. The press would have had a field day taking down someone trying to lie or suppress to the extent they get away with today. More often anyway, not saying it was perfect in any way shape or form, but the press had more freedom and was actually feared because they could make a difference and was much freer to do so. The reliance on ad money instead of subscribers is a large part of what killed the free press. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. Media owners do and did obviously play a large part on what stories and spin they allow, but if the spin was too blatant, competing media would be oh so happy to point that out and shame them for it. This does not happen today because all media that counts is owned by a small click of people with the same interests and goals.

Any left leaning media have had a much tougher time switching to a mainly ad based revenue streams because the ones buying ads have an interest in keeping the status quo and why would they buy ads in media that works against their interests? There are basically no left leaning mainstream media outlets left, even in the paradise on earth that is the EU, and for a smaller outfit it is basically impossible to get a dissenting view heard.

*This comes from a European perspective, where the difference is more pronounced between then and now, but the difference is there for US media too, albeit to a lesser degree. There were still large outlets with a bit of a backbone willing to run a story that was embarrassing to or was contrary to the wishes of powerful people back then. Not so today but for slightly different reasons in the US.

*By left in this post I mean European left, not the hard right Democrats that the US define as left.

Sure they are. It's just that notifications are evil too.

So that's were the inspiration for Ford Prefect came from.

Correct. You'll start breathing after you black out. Also, you'll probably fail to even hold your breath that long. Takes training and a LOT if will power to be able to. You know that very uncomfortable panicky feeling that starts after a while when holding your breath? When that gets going for real, you are not even halfway to blacking out. Our body has strong feelings about breathing and is pretty good at letting you know how it feels about the lack of air. Or technically, the build up of CO~2~. You can somewhat bypass your body's CO~2~ detection by hyperventilation, but the end result is the same, you start breathing after you black out. Source: used to apnea dive, but as with everything I do, I quit before I got good.

Signed a while ago, turns out. If you haven't and you're a EU citizen, go do it now.

Uhm, right. My point still stands, though. You can't lift any story about this because of what that would drag with it. There's always questions, who is to blame, who didn't do their job, what was the motivation of the gunman, lots of little threads to pull on without even trying too hard. If that does become a big story, then the questions are inevitable and no one wants to answer questions about a clusterfuck like that. No one can see a winning angle with any certainty, so they just drop everything about it like the hot potato it is.

Only Trump wants it, and he can't have it, poor guy. Makes my day.

"Forgetting". They do not want to start pulling that thread and I suspect that it is because of instructions from above. No one wants any focus on it. Republicans because of why would a republican wanna kill Trump and general gun control? Not an area where they want speculation to start running. As for the Democrats, investigation into what the fuck the secret service was doing will land on them being the sitting government. So under the carpet it goes. Lone maniac and nothing to see. Move on please.

Let's! I had a beard for neigh on 20 years and can't wait to have a smooth face.

Ironically, out of three brothers, I'm the one who can grow a decent beard. 🙄 Or could, rather.

I did my first lazoring 5 days ago and I can't feel much difference, but some of my darker beard seem to have thinned out a bit. My beard is ginger with some gray, white and blond hair mixed in. They expected to be able to get maybe 70-80 percent with the laser. I just hope I have the same result as you in a week or so. Facial hair is SO last season.

As others has commented as well, this is just ripples. Trump is so thoroughly corrupt and bought this doesn't even register. If you're a strong man dictator, you don't even have to buy him, he's free to play. I think what the money is starting to realize is that he won't reliably stay bought and is unpredictable because of it. Even Putin had to brake the spy manual rules and very visibly have the handlers meet him much more frequently and openly for such a high visibility asset. But as this is Trump, the rules do not apply.

As for the money, they aren't really used to this way of operating and since it is literally impossible to keep Trump on script they get very nervous about what he'll say if they get on his bad side or even by accident through his less than coherent ramblings. It is not easy dealing with a petulant, half senile old crook with the demeanor and attention span of a coked up five year old that always gets his way. Everyone with half a brain that have spent time with him knows this. The look on that reporters' face when he was handed that crayon painting tells the whole story. I guess the people that voted for him get that look all the time and believe it is something positive? They mistake a tired "sure, buddy, whatever you say" as actual agreement?

What is positive is that the money seem to have gotten the message by now and they are slowly edging away from Trump. Without being too obvious, of course, bets needs to be hedged. The number of news pieces without unabashedly obvious Trump/Republican spin has slowly increased lately. This has nothing to do with any reporters suddenly growing a brain of course, it is all mandated from above. The money got the message that Trump is bad for business and they are acting on it.

That's my take and I'm not known for having a positive outlook on current events. Still very much not a fan of what the atrocity helpers of the dems are doing. It is arguably even worse when you consider that they aren't halfwits like Trump and presumably actually know what they are doing and still aid an actual fucking genocide that wouldn't even be possible without US help. Despicable.

If they agree to, sure.