Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean and the deepest location on Earth. It is 11,034 meters (36,201 feet) deep. National Geographic, Education, Classroom resources.
“You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” President Barak Obama quoting former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
When I first heard Obama’s quote, I thought Yes, exactly, you Republicans should quit making stuff up, but the more I look at the acrimony between Americans on the Left and Americans on the Right, the less I think that disagreeing about the facts is the issue. Except, of course, for the extremes, like the far-left wackos who believe that contrails are actually a conspiracy to spray chemicals over the landscape or the far-right wackos who believe Hillary ran a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor basement. Both the Fox News and the New York Times acknowledge that there has been looting at some BLM demonstrations and some police violence but they don’t agree on the importance of either one. Fox News tended to highlight the looting and the New York Times tended to play it down. Both sides agree that protesters have torn down statues on public property but New York Times articles usually have language like controversial statues while Fox News uses language like American monuments, memorials, and statues.
The amount of space and location of specific news on the Fox website is different than on the New York Times website but the facts are pretty much the same. Neither the New York Times nor Fox News is lying as much as curating their version of the news. Everybody knows that Donald Trump cheated with Stormy Daniels while his third wife was pregnant, what value you put on that as to Trump’s ability to run the government or his morality depends on where you are on the right-left scale and that assigned value is often flexible. For example, I think it is pretty easy to make the case that President Bill Clinton having oral sex with an infatuated young woman in the White House is more of a moral transgression than civilian Donald Trump having sex with a Porn Star while in Los Angeles, but I can’t think of anybody on the left who thinks Trump is more moral than Bill Clinton.
But, the Russian Bounty for dead Americans is different in two ways. It is not a morally relative position, politically, at least. It can only be defended against by saying it didn’t happen. Both sides do agree that there are reports of Russians paying bounties to kill Americans but they disagree as to the veracity of those reports. The main headline in the New York Times a couple of days ago was Suspicions of Russian Bounties Were Bolstered by Data on Financial Transfers while a corresponding headline at Fox News was News that Moscow allegedly offered bounties to Afghan militants who killed U.S. soldiers was first reported over the weekend in the New York Times. However, Fox News did sort of hide the report, I had to click on two links to get to it, buried in the story about the Biden news conference. It was also referenced negatively by Rep. Jim Banks in a clearly marked editorial: Russian bounties to Taliban story may be putting US lives at risk — here’s how. BTW, that editorial was below the fold – so to speak – and below DISTURBING VIDEO: NYC thief chokes, robs woman in broad daylight and American gymnast reveals struggle with body image after 2008 Olympics. Fox News clearly did not want to talk about Russians paying boundaries for killing American troops. As an aside for anybody who is wondering, The New York Times did not have either the disturbing video or the story of the Olympian’s body image. End aside.
To back up for a second, several months ago I got in a conversation with a couple of friends – I don’t remember who – about what would happen if President Trump lost the election and refused to leave office. Maybe President Trump would say that there was massive voter cheating to justify it or something else, but either way, he wouldn’t leave. One of us said something like, “It depends on which side the Army is on” (using Army generically I think). I got a chill just thinking about it, that feeling that we really have become a Banana Republic. But I think it is true if Trump loses and decides to stay what happens depends on who controls the Military. I want to quickly say that President Trump has not lost the election and he has not said he is going to stay and I have no reason to think otherwise.
Back on who controls the Military, I have read several times that the Officers don’t like Trump and the Enlisted ranks do and it sort of makes sense. Two high ranking officers, one a former Marine and the other a serving Army General have already publicly disagreed with the President. Believe me, in the Military, publicly disagreeing with somebody higher in the chain of command is a big deal, especially if it is the Commander and Chief. I can’t think of another time that has happened so I’m going to assume that the Officer Corps will follow the votes.
The Enlisted ranks, however just seem like Trump’s base. But I would be surprised if they would be OK with Trump letting – to frame it in the worst possible way – the Russians pay people to kill American soldiers, or marines or sailors. It is not a question of values, there is no place in our culture, right or left, to say that It is OK to kill Americans and still be considered our friend. The only place that Donald Trump can go is to deny that the Russians paid the Taliban. The default can not be Is it OK under some circumstances? but it has to be Did it actually happen? Donald Trump says “No” and the New York Times says Yes and both want to convince the American people of the truth of their narrative, but, who they really have to convince is the American Military and I think the New York Times version is winning.
Sort of on the same subject, depending on your point of view, the following brutal ad is either gratuitous and in bad taste or a tasteful , thoughtful, ad.
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Fox/NY Times. Facts are facts. How they become polarized is thru our personal lens of reality.
BenedictDonald. That’s my view of current reality.
I think Trump is imploding.