Jimmy

 

 

A few days before Christmas, I picked up “The Outlier "at the library. It is a biography of Jimmy Carter by Pulitzer Prize winning author Kai Bird.

I hesitated to bring it home because it is a LENGHTY book. Not counting the 8 pages of acknowledgements, the 18 pages of bibliography, and the 26 pages of notes, it is 628 pages long. Due to the amount of detail it covered, it was NOT a quick read, but I finished it today – one day before his funeral.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter was a breath of fresh air after the Nixon presidency, but he happened to come into office at a time when events made his job a lot harder.

Inflation was still a persistent problem, the environment was in need of some scrubbing, and the country suffered from the first of two oil embargos, which sent prices soaring and led to long gas lines. On top of that, the U.S. embassy in Tehran was invaded by Iranian dissidents, who held some of the employees hostage for a total of 444 days.

His administration was also hampered by infighting by his staff members, and his re-election campaign was dealt some tough challenges due to Ted Kennedy and the Iranian hostage situation.

Included in the cast of characters who foiled his chances were Bill Casey, John Anderson, Roger Stone, and Roy Cohn, as well as a few people in Reagan’s sphere of influence. Bill Casey worked for the Reagan campaign. He personally delivered a large amount of money to two Iranian representatives so that the hostages would not be released until the day of Reagan’s inauguration .

Although his historical rating is more in the middle of the pack, he actually did accomplish a lot during his time of office, including more protection for the environment and  enhancement of civil rights,

His crowing achievement was the negotiation of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, which consumed the better part of two weeks. Then (as now) the Israeli government was the main impediment to solving the problem, and he probably felt like strangling Israeli prime minster Begin more than once. He became close friends with Anwar Sadat, but Sadat paid a terrible price less than 3 years later when he was assassinated.

In addition to the peace treaty, he also was successful in getting the Salt II arms agreement signed by Russia.

Unlike some of the administrations that followed, his always obeyed the law, told the truth, and kept its promises. In addition, none of the people in the military were forced into combat roles during his time in office.

Life got better for Mr. Carter in his post-presidency years.

After selling the peanut farm to Archer-Daniels-Midland for $1.5 million, he embarked on a new career as a writer. His first book, “Keeping Faith”, kept him afloat since he received a $900,000 advance. 29 other books followed that one, and eventually allowed him to open the Carter Center. In 1990, its operating budget was $17.5 million, but it is $100 million a year today.   He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Years late, when asked what his proudest moment was, he did not say that it was the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said it was the day that Roslyn said that she would marry him – and they were married for 77 years.

When I walked into school today, the flag was flying at half-mast, and will continue to do so for 30 days. Much to my delight, it will still be flying at half-mast on January 20, a fitting metaphor since our democracy effectively died on November 4, and will soon be replaced by an oligarchy/dictatorship, which we will have to live with for 4 years.

Jimmy Carter is a decent human being who contributed to society long after his term in office ended, largely due to his involvement with Habitat for Humanity.

A billboard in Atlanta is a perfect description of the man:

Goodbye for now, Jimmy. It was a pleasure knowing you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

good old American iron

 

 

Fifteen years ago, I published the article below – and somebody read it yesterday.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/10/baseball-hotdogs-applie-pie-and.html

Just for fun, I decided to update the list in the link above to see what had changed since that time.

 Two facts jumped out at me:

1)    5 of the 10 most popular vehicles on the 2010 list were still in the top selling 25 vehicles in the country in 2024

https://www.kbb.com/best-cars/top-10-25-best-selling-cars-trucks-suvs/

2)There is no such thing as an “American car” - if you define that as meaning a vehicle that is 100% American in both parts and labor.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/15-cars-with-the-most-north-american-made-parts/

 

There are 15 vehicles that are at least 65% North American in both parts and labor – and 4 of those are made in Canada. To confuse things a little more, the Honda Civic is made in both Canada and America.

You will also notice that regardless of where the vehicles are assembled, some vehicle have transmission, engines (or both) from other counties. Those other locations could be Mexico, Spain, Germany or France.

On top of that, the same model from the same manufacturer could have different compositions of their origin. An example of that is the Hyundai Sonata.

My son’s 2016 Sonata hybrid was built in Korea, but my 2017 non-hybrid Sonata was built in Alabama.

 A few years back, the Toyota Camry was the vehicle that had the highest percentage of American parts and labor. That is still true today, but the Camry is now tied with the Cadillac CTS and the Corvette All three of them have 75% American parts and labor.

In addition to the Camry, there are other Japanese nameplates that are 65% or higher in terms of content. They are the Honda Accord, the Toyota Avalon, the Acura TLX, and the Honda Civic.

The global economy has produced a few other oddities.

For example, Buick sells far more cars in China that it does in America.

In addition, 2 of the three SUVs that Buick sells in America are made in other counties. One of them is made in South Korea, and one (the Envision) is made in China. The largest of the three is made in America.

There are no Chinese nameplates sold in America yet, but Volvo, Polestar, and Lincoln all sell Chinese made vehicles in America.

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/automotive-industry/chinese-made-cars-in-us-market-a3786571662/

One of the most popular sports cars in the 1960’s was the MG. It is still manufactured today, but it is now built in China, although it is not currently sold in the American market.

There are two ways to determine how “domestic” a vehicle is.

One is the Monroney sticker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroney_sticker

The Monroney sticker or window sticker is a label required in the United States to be displayed in all new automobiles. It includes the listing of certain official information about the car. The window sticker was named after Almer Stillwell "Mike" Monroney, a United States Senator from Oklahoma who sponsored the bill that resulted in the mandate of the label.

In 1955, Senator Mike Monroney chaired a subcommittee of the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee that investigated complaints from car dealerships in the United States about abusive treatment by manufacturers.

The subcommittee continued working and investigated deceptive practices by car dealerships. Since there was no price disclosed on each car, dealers could inflate the manufacturer's suggested retail price to give the impression that buyers received a significant discount allowance or higher value for the used car they traded There were also hidden fees and nonessential costs that were added by some dealers and consumers lacked price information, listing of options, and destination charges as they were shopping for new cars.

Monroney sponsored the Automobile Information Disclosure Act of 1958, which mandated the disclosure of information about the car, its equipment, and pricing for all new automobiles sold in the United States. The act does not apply to vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of more than 8,500 lb (3,856 kg).

Since the mid-1970s, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has provided fuel economy metrics in the label to help consumers choose more fuel-efficient vehicles.

New requirements for the Monroney label were issued, starting with 2008 model-year cars and light-duty trucks sold in the US. This was included in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) that mandated the inclusion of additional information about fuel efficiency as well as ratings on each vehicle's greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants.

A more comprehensive fuel economy and environment label was mandatory beginning in model year 2013, though some carmakers voluntarily adopted it in 2012. The new window sticker includes specific labels for alternative fuel and alternative propulsion vehicles available in the US market, such as plug-in hybrids, electric vehicles, flexible-fuel vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and natural gas vehicles.

The new label allows consumers to compare alternative fuel and advanced technology-powered vehicles with conventional internal combustion engine vehicles using miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent (MPGe) as a metric. Other information includes greenhouse gas and smog emissions ratings, fuel cost estimates over the next five years, and a QR Code that a smartphone can scan for users to access additional online information.

In addition to the Monroney stickers, information can be found in the VIN numbers of the vehicles. For example, if the first numeral on the VIN is a 1,4, or 5, it is made in America. If it is a “2”, it is made in Canada, and a “3” would indicate that the vehicle was made in Mexico. The balance of the 17 digits describes the year of manufacture, the model, the assembly plant, and some equipment.

The 10th numeral of the 17 digits determines the year of manufacture.

https://www.autozone.com/vin-decoder

Country of origin information can be found at the link below:

https://detailedvehiclehistory.com/blog/vin-country-codes

Keep in mind that this is not a complete list, since it does not list Germany or South Korea.

At one point in the 1950’s, America sold more cars than any other country in the world.

At one point GM had become the largest corporation registered in the United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP. In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation "because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Later this statement was often misquoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country."

At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world—only Soviet state industries employed more people. In 1955, General Motors became the first American corporation to pay taxes of over $1 billion.

GM operated six divisions at this time, one of which (GMC) only sold trucks. The other five settled into a hierarchy, which consisted, from most- to least-prestigious, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Chevrolet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_General_Motors

Today, America how longer produces more vehicles than anyone else.

We are still #2, with over 10,000,000 vehicles produced, but that is a lot less than the 30,000,000 produced by China.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/584968/leading-car-manufacturing-countries-worldwide/

I’m not opposed to foreign cars, since our family has owned a few cars that were not made in America, but I will have to admit that the cars that bring a smile to my face are cars that are “good old American iron”, like the car pictured below.

 

 

 

 

 

news you can trust

 

 

I published the story below in 2013, and someone read it yesterday:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-most-trusted-man-in-america-part-2_18.html

One of the opening paragraphs is this one:

“As a society, we’ve become increasingly cynical over time. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, our “believability ratings” of 13 news organizations (national newspapers, cable news outlets, broadcast TV networks, and NPR) has declined dramatically in the last 10 years. Significantly, there’s a marked difference by politically party affiliation, since Republicans are much more cynical about the news they receive than Democrats. By itself, that may help to explain why Congress currently has the lowest approval rating it has held in the last 40 years.”

(Congressional approval rating in 2024 was 19% - and that is an improvement)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/207579/public-approval-rating-of-the-us-congress/

The link below will take you to the 2012 Pew Research website:

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/08/16/further-decline-in-credibility-ratings-for-most-news-organizations/

When this poll was published in 2012, it showed that believability in news organizations had dropped from 71% in 2002 to 56% in 2012.

The poll also showed that the most reliable source was local TV news, with credibility of 65%. Fox News was on the low end of believability, at 49%.

Today, local TV news is not as reliable as it used to be due to the fact that the Salem Media Group owns a large number of outlets around the country.

Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and what it describes as "family-themed content and conservative values"

Salem Media Group owns 117 radio stations in 38 markets, including 60 stations in the top 25 markets and 29 in the top 10, making it tied with Audacy for the fifth-largest radio broadcaster.

In addition to its radio properties, the company owns:

·         Salem Radio Network, which syndicates talk, news and music programming to approximately 2,400 affiliates.

·         Salem Media Representatives, a radio advertising company.

·         Salem Web Network, an Internet provider of Christian content and online streaming with over 100 Christian content and conservative opinion websites.

·         Salem Publishing, a publisher of Christian themed magazines.

·         Conservative websites Townhall.com, RedState, Hot Air, and PJ Media, as well as Twitter aggregator Twitchy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_Media_Group

The other organization that owns a lot of properties is the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group

 Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, the company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations, after Nexstar Media Group, owning or operating 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets, covering 40% of American households. It is the largest owner of stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW.

A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that "stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market" The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported "fake news" in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC.

Pew Researched conducted another survey in 2024. This time, the main source of political news is FOX – the same organization that was fined $787 million for lying to its audience about the 2020 election.

https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/31/americans-top-sources-of-political-news-ahead-of-the-2024-election/

Since 2012, our news sources have become increasingly fragmented, with a lot more people getting their information from podcasts and Twitter/X.

One of the most prominent podcasters is Joseph James Rogan, whose podcast is one of the most influential and most watched podcasts in the world, with nearly 20,000,000 followers. In early 2022, the video platform Rumble offered Rogan $100 million to switch from Spotify. Variety reported that Rogan had declined the offer.

In December 2024, Spotify confirmed that The Joe Rogan Experience was the top podcast on its platform for a fifth consecutive year.

Rogan has voiced support for same-sex marriage, recreational drug legalization, universal health care, universal basic income, gun rights, and free speech, while opposing cancel culture and military adventurism.

He supported Donald Trump in 2024, having previously endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2020. Rogan has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, COVID-19 misinformation, and for hosting guests who spread misinformation and pseudoscience.

 

Joe Rogan has an estimated net worth of $190,000,000 in 2023, and his net worth is expected to grow at a rate of 28% each year, according to Forbes.

Joe Rogan’s average annual earnings are estimated at $141,000,000 a year—this includes around $60,000,000 from his Spotify deal, $48,000,000 from his podcast sponsors, and about $6,000,000 in YouTube earnings.

Rogan’s assets are valued at about $135,000,000 (his fifteen real estate properties priced at about $150,000,000 and an investment portfolio of $20,000,000).

Alex Jones and Infowars spread a lot of misinformation in the past, but he is now completely out of business.

On July 30, 2022, amidst a $150 million lawsuit brought against Jones and Infowars by Sandy Hook families, Free Speech Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On September 24, 2024, a Houston bankruptcy judge ordered the liquidation of Infowars and Free Speech Systems at two auctions to be held later that year.^[On November 14, it was announced that Global Tetrahedron—publishers of the news satire publication The Onion—had acquired the assets of Infowars, with plans to temporarily shut it down and relaunch it in 2025 as a satirical news website; however, the original website was restored by Jones the next day after his lawyers alleged irregularities in the auction, and the bankruptcy judge put the sale on hold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infowars

The other individual who controls a lot of information is Elon Musk, who is now the richest man in the world.

In 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion.       

Reactions to the buyout were mixed, with praise for Musk's planned reforms and vision for the company, particularly his calls for greater free speech, but criticism over fears of a potential rise in misinformation and disinformation, harassment, and hate speech on the platform. Within the United States, conservatives have largely supported the acquisition, while many liberals and former Twitter employees have voiced concerns about Musk's intentions. Since becoming owner, Musk has faced backlash for his handling of the company and account suspensions, including the December 2022 suspensions of ten journalists.

In July 2023, the Twitter service was rebranded as X.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon_Musk  

If you are wondering how the worst president in our country’s history got re-elected, you can blame Elon Musk, and the details can be found in the article below:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2024/11/how-americas-worst-president-got-re.html

In addition to the $45 million that Musk spent on mid-leading ads, he also contributed more than $250 million to Trump’s campaign. The most recent estimate is that he spent $277 million to elect Trump and other Republican candidates.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-277-million-trump-republican-candidates-donations/

 What can you do to make yourself better informed?

First of all, I would recommend getting your information from a variety of sources, both liberal and conservative. Like most people, I got a lot of news from Facebook, but we DO get political news on television, primarily from MSNBC,

One example of a conservative publication is The Daily Caller, which was founded by Tucker Carlson in 2010.

On the liberal side, I read a LOT of newspapers, most of which have a balanced approach to the news.

I subscribe to 6 newspapers (The Arizona Republic, the Tucson Daily Star, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.) 

That is in addition to my subscriptions to TIME, the Nation, and the Atlantic.

One of the best sources to analyze news sources is mediabias/factcheck

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

It rated the Des Moines Register as one of the least biased newspapers.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-des-moines-register/

You may remember that this was the paper that  Trump sued for publishing ACCURATE poll information.

FOX news is rated as a questionable source.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news-bias/

In addition, I also read a LOT of books, due to the fact that we are three miles to the closest library. In 2024, I read 74 books, and some of those were political in nature.

If there is something strange in your neighborhood, you could always call Ghost Busters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9C8vo0aI_I

However, if you had to get all of your information from just ONE source, I would recommend a blog published be a college professor named Heather Cox Richardson:

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

 

 

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-5-2025

 

THAT is news you can trust.

 

 

I published the story below in 2013, and someone read it yesterday:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-most-trusted-man-in-america-part-2_18.html

One of the opening paragraphs is this one:

“As a society, we’ve become increasingly cynical over time. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, our “believability ratings” of 13 news organizations (national newspapers, cable news outlets, broadcast TV networks, and NPR) has declined dramatically in the last 10 years. Significantly, there’s a marked difference by politically party affiliation, since Republicans are much more cynical about the news they receive than Democrats. By itself, that may help to explain why Congress currently has the lowest approval rating it has held in the last 40 years.”

(Congressional approval rating in 2024 was 19% - and that is an improvement)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/207579/public-approval-rating-of-the-us-congress/

The link below will take you to the 2012 Pew Research website:

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/08/16/further-decline-in-credibility-ratings-for-most-news-organizations/

When this poll was published in 2012, it showed that believability in news organizations had dropped from 71% in 2002 to 56% in 2012.

The poll also showed that the most reliable source was local TV news, with credibility of 65%. Fox News was on the low end of believability, at 49%.

Today, local TV news is not as reliable as it used to be due to the fact that the Salem Media Group owns a large number of outlets around the country.

Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and what it describes as "family-themed content and conservative values"

Salem Media Group owns 117 radio stations in 38 markets, including 60 stations in the top 25 markets and 29 in the top 10, making it tied with Audacy for the fifth-largest radio broadcaster.

In addition to its radio properties, the company owns:

·         Salem Radio Network, which syndicates talk, news and music programming to approximately 2,400 affiliates.

·         Salem Media Representatives, a radio advertising company.

·         Salem Web Network, an Internet provider of Christian content and online streaming with over 100 Christian content and conservative opinion websites.

·         Salem Publishing, a publisher of Christian themed magazines.

·         Conservative websites Townhall.com, RedState, Hot Air, and PJ Media, as well as Twitter aggregator Twitchy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_Media_Group

The other organization that owns a lot of properties is the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group

 Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, the company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations, after Nexstar Media Group, owning or operating 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets, covering 40% of American households. It is the largest owner of stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW.

A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that "stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market" The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported "fake news" in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC.

Pew Researched conducted another survey in 2024. This time, the main source of political news is FOX – the same organization that was fined $787 million for lying to its audience about the 2020 election.

https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/31/americans-top-sources-of-political-news-ahead-of-the-2024-election/

Since 2012, our news sources have become increasingly fragmented, with a lot more people getting their information from podcasts and Twitter/X.

One of the most prominent podcasters is Joseph James Rogan, whose podcast is one of the most influential and most watched podcasts in the world, with nearly 20,000,000 followers. In early 2022, the video platform Rumble offered Rogan $100 million to switch from Spotify. Variety reported that Rogan had declined the offer.

In December 2024, Spotify confirmed that The Joe Rogan Experience was the top podcast on its platform for a fifth consecutive year.

Rogan has voiced support for same-sex marriage, recreational drug legalization, universal health care, universal basic income, gun rights, and free speech, while opposing cancel culture and military adventurism.

He supported Donald Trump in 2024, having previously endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2020. Rogan has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, COVID-19 misinformation, and for hosting guests who spread misinformation and pseudoscience.

 

Joe Rogan has an estimated net worth of $190,000,000 in 2023, and his net worth is expected to grow at a rate of 28% each year, according to Forbes.

Joe Rogan’s average annual earnings are estimated at $141,000,000 a year—this includes around $60,000,000 from his Spotify deal, $48,000,000 from his podcast sponsors, and about $6,000,000 in YouTube earnings.

Rogan’s assets are valued at about $135,000,000 (his fifteen real estate properties priced at about $150,000,000 and an investment portfolio of $20,000,000).

Alex Jones and Infowars spread a lot of misinformation in the past, but he is now completely out of business.

On July 30, 2022, amidst a $150 million lawsuit brought against Jones and Infowars by Sandy Hook families, Free Speech Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On September 24, 2024, a Houston bankruptcy judge ordered the liquidation of Infowars and Free Speech Systems at two auctions to be held later that year.^[On November 14, it was announced that Global Tetrahedron—publishers of the news satire publication The Onion—had acquired the assets of Infowars, with plans to temporarily shut it down and relaunch it in 2025 as a satirical news website; however, the original website was restored by Jones the next day after his lawyers alleged irregularities in the auction, and the bankruptcy judge put the sale on hold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infowars

The other individual who controls a lot of information is Elon Musk, who is now the richest man in the world.

In 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion.       

Reactions to the buyout were mixed, with praise for Musk's planned reforms and vision for the company, particularly his calls for greater free speech, but criticism over fears of a potential rise in misinformation and disinformation, harassment, and hate speech on the platform. Within the United States, conservatives have largely supported the acquisition, while many liberals and former Twitter employees have voiced concerns about Musk's intentions. Since becoming owner, Musk has faced backlash for his handling of the company and account suspensions, including the December 2022 suspensions of ten journalists.

In July 2023, the Twitter service was rebranded as X.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon_Musk  

If you are wondering how the worst president in our country’s history got re-elected, you can blame Elon Musk, and the details can be found in the article below:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2024/11/how-americas-worst-president-got-re.html

In addition to the $45 million that Musk spent on mid-leading ads, he also contributed more than $250 million to Trump’s campaign. The most recent estimate is that he spent $277 million to elect Trump and other Republican candidates.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-277-million-trump-republican-candidates-donations/

 

What can you do to make yourself better informed?

First of all, I would recommend getting your information from a variety of sources, both liberal and conservative. Like most people, I got a lot of news from Facebook, but we DO get political news on television, primarily from MSNBC,

One example of a conservative publication is The Daily Caller, which was founded by Tucker Carlson in 2010.

On the liberal side, I read a LOT of newspapers, most of which have a balanced approach to the news.

I subscribe to 6 newspapers (The Arizona Republic, the Tucson Daily Star, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.)

That is in addition to my subscriptions to TIME, the Nation, and the Atlantic.

In addition, I also read a LOT of books, due to the fact that we are three miles to the closest library. In 2024, I read 74 books, and some of those were political in nature.

If there is something strange in your neighborhood, you could always call Ghost Busters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9C8vo0aI_I

However, if you had to get all of your information from just ONE source, I would recommend a blog published be a college professor named Heather Cox Richardson:

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

 

 

pic

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-5-2025

 

THAT is news you can trust.

 

I