Calibrating for fake v real news
by Tom H. Hastings
519 words
I teach between 300-400 students every year and one of the most frequent concerns expressed by them is source reliability.
Welcome to the era of mass gaslighting. Infowars. Trump. Putin. Bin Salman. Fox News.
My advice to those inquisitive students is to consider following or subscribing to at least three sources and making them ideologically different from each other and note the difference in coverage, the contrasting frames and facts. Then, for particularly close questioning of gnarly issues, check with factchecking sites like Snopes or the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s factchecking site. By the time the curious citizen has read from liberal, conservative, and mainstream sites, and gone to reputable factchecking sites, that citizen is operating with a fairly high degree of reliability, and when you cantilever that over years of experience, validity threats are minimized.
So, for instance, when I read extreme lefty distress over the link between the Trilateral Commission and “chemtrails,” I can (eye)roll my way past that fairly quickly. Reading rightwing hysteria over George Soros paying protesters may take an extra few minutes, but I can now confidently say that the gasp-reflex rightwing rage on this is needlessly combustible, as many social movements routinely cover activists’ traveling expenses and, for potential resisters, even bail money, as we learned in the Civil Rights era. Of course, all the gains from the Civil Rights era are pretty much what many of the Soros traducers seek to roll back.
This is not to claim that no nefarious schemes, even conspiracies, exist, but it is to note that they should be thoroughly investigated before declaring them convincing. That investigation may come from independent journalists, independent government investigators, or even from opinionated but sincere sources. The key is to document and cite actual evidence, not to cite Alex Jones or Snoop Dog or anyone at all from the Trump organization, Mohammed bin Salman, Kim Jong-un, or Vladimir Putin. Sorry, no cred for you.
After some years of engaging in information verification at a sincere and non-ideological level, after applying the principles of critical thinking and common sense to the admittedly massive raw data stream coming at us 24-7, a person can develop a decent sense for authenticity, but I still caution that the need to (in the words of Dear Leader Ronald Reagan) trust but verify never evaporates. I like Rachel Maddow but on some issues I follow up to check. I like Anderson Cooper—same thing. Jake Tapper—him too. National Public Radio is my go-to daily news but I factcheck them before I make a claim based on their analysis and I often listen with chagrin as they miss seriously important strands of argument and analysis.
In short, yes, I hope we can at least avoid the spectacle of a bitter partisan debate over whether the sun rises in the east, but let’s at least allow for some context and nuance when judging our opponents’ views. I believe Trump is a peerless disgrace, but I get his survival techniques and can let them just roll into the dustbin of lies without letting them catch my hair on fire.
—30—
Dr. Tom H. Hastings is PeaceVoice Director and on occasion an expert witness for the defense in court.
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Deal me out: Trump’s ego vs Earth
by Tom H. Hastings
573 words
We used to disparage someone by noting that their “ego is the size of Texas.” Does anyone say that about Trump? Yeah, no, Texas is tiny by comparison.
I can think of no one with a more vast lacuna between his abilities and accomplishments on the one side and his ego on the other.
A worldwide herculean effort finally produced the Paris Agreement as a moderate but highly necessary response to our fossil fuel profligacy and the climate chaos that has begun. Trump idiotically pulled out and the world is far worse off as an unhappy result. His deal? Pollute more, a lot more. We see more forest fires, more floods, more hurricanes and more intense hurricanes, rising seas, and more health issues from bad air. Thanks, Artful Dealer.
More seriously tough negotiations produced the Iran deal, which has stopped Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. So what does DT do? Pulls out of that deal. The rest of the world is trying, as with the Paris Agreement, to salvage what is left after the Trumpexit.
Now comes a murderous Saudi hit on a journalist that the world can clearly see originated from the very top, from bin Salman, but Trump publicly exculpates him even as he claims that, essentially, whatever these thugs do is irrelevant, since Saudi Arabia buys war stuff from US corporations. Seriously? That thinking never stopped Trump from yanking us out of the Iran deal, a side benefit of which, for Trump’s buddy Putin, is that Russia is now moving into Iran to sell them the lethal tools that Boeing used to. Which logic is it, Donald? None? Yeah, we’re getting that.
Trump undoes everyone else’s great work and then takes credit for the no-deal with North Korea. Huh? Every president before him got the same empty promises from three generations of North Korean leaders, but no other US president has vaulted any of the Dear Leaders to a position of global prominence and legitimacy. These terrorists could only find a friend in Trump, who, so far, has totally failed to ink an actual deal with the current N. Korea dictator.
Again, after years and years of global struggle to begin nuclear disarmament with only poor agreements to show for it, at long last Gorbachev convinced Ronald Reagan to sensibly sign the very first actual nuclear disarmament treaty in December 1987, easily the most important achievement of the otherwise mediocre-to-poor Reagan terms. So what does Trump do? Naturally. He announces he’s going to vacate the best nuclear deal any US president has ever made, the start to what others then worked on since and have actually reduced the global total of nuclear warheads from more than 30,000 in the mid-1980s to approximately 7,000 today. Slow but necessary progress if humans have brains. At all.
The Art of the Deal? Feh. The US, the people of planet Earth, and future generations have never had such a poor negotiator who puts his ego ahead of everything. Our grandchildren have never been so threatened as the Trump-Putin-corporado coalition we see in play right now.
If we show some sense on November 6 we can slowly begin to reverse the damage. If not, he’s left to wreck more and more, everything he touches. He’s like King Midas in reverse, more like the Ebola of the Deal. He thinks his touch is gold when it’s toxic, fatal. The American voter is the only possible antidote.
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Dr. Tom H. Hastings isPeaceVoiceDirector and on occasion an expert witness for the defense in court.
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WE THE KINGS
Announces Christmas Album,
Season's Greetings From The Sandbar
Out November 16th, 2018
Latest Album Six
Available for Purchase Here
Recently Featured on Billboard, Alternative Press,
Newsday & More
Bradenton, FL - October 22, 2018 - Fresh off the highly successful release of their latest album, Six, rock band We The Kings is thrilled to announce their forthcoming Christmas record, Season's Greetings From The Sandbar. Out on November 16th, 2018, the album features two original tracks as well as eight Christmas classics including "Baby It's Cold Outside," "Chestnuts Roasting," "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas," and more. For additional information or to pre-order Season's Greetings From The Sandbar, please visit: www.wethekingsmusic.com.
"It's about that time of year again, and I refuse to have to listen to the same 15 holiday songs over and over and over again in every store, restaurant, radio station, etc. So I decided to do something about it and create an album for everyone who spends the holidays outside of the winter wonderland," explains lead singer Travis Clark.
He continues: "For this album, I reached deep into my Florida and island roots and put together 10 songs, both covers and originals, that I'm proud to offer to anyone who feels the same as I do."
We The Kings released their sixth studio album, Six, earlier this year via S-Curve Records/BMG. It secured the #18 spot on the Current Pop Albums Chart, as well as #13 Digital Albums, #21 Current Digital Albums, and #23 Digital Albums, among others in its first week. The album has been heralded by Billboard, Alternative Press, Newsday, Rock Sound, Setlist.fm, and more, and can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music, or purchased online here.
When naming their latest album Six, We The Kings set out to check a few boxes. Not only does Six represent the Florida-based band's sixth full-length album (all of which, from their 2007 Self-Titled through 2015's Strange Love, begin with the letter S), but it also pays tribute to the quintet's honorary sixth member: their fans.
"There's a pride that fans have about their favorite bands that I think is so special," frontman Clark says. "These fans have been supporting us for more than a decade. When we're writing songs, we don't want to let anyone down."
We The Kings' storied career has been marked by a deep reciprocity between the band and their fans. When the group-Clark, Hunter Thomsen (guitar), Danny Duncan (drums), Charles Trippy (bass) and Coley O'Toole (keyboard, guitar)-broke out of Bradenton, Florida in 2007 with "Check Yes Juliet," one of the most iconic songs of the late '00s pop-punk movement, millions of listeners around the world instantly fell in love with their buoyant spirit and emotionally poignant songwriting.
Follow-up singles like "Heaven Can Wait," "We'll Be A Dream," "Say You Like Me" and "Sad Song" kept We The Kings squarely in the mainstream, but as they readied Six, the band dug deep into the past to find inspiration from their earliest days. Their 10-year anniversary tour for Self-Titled sold out venues around the world in 2017, and it gave We The Kings a renewed sense of energy as they prepped new music.
At its core, Six's true triumph is its emotional heft. So much has changed for We The Kings since Strange Love-marriage, childbirth, death-and the album's 11 songs are a tribute to life's moments, both big and small, and how you never know which is which until much later down the line.
Six is the 6th studio album from We The Kings and is available now at smarturl.it/WeTheKingsSIX. To pre-order the band's forthcoming Christmas album, Season's Greetings From The Sandbar - out on November 16th, 2018 - please visit: www.wethekingsmusic.com.
(Photo Credit: Lee Cherry)
For more information, please visit:
Website: www.wethekingsmusic.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wethekings
Twitter: www.twitter.com/wethekings
Instagram: www.instagram.com/wethekings
Season's Greetings From The Sandbar Tracklisting:
1. Silent Night (feat. Anna Maria Island)
2. Baby It's Cold Outside (feat. Elena Coats)
3. One People
4. Jingle Bells (feat. Frankie)
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Fire)
6. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
7. O Holy Night
8. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
9. Little Drummer Boy
10. There Is A Light
