C-Span hosted a call-in discussion today asking the US taxpayer whether their taxes justified the services received.  Most people expressed the FACT that low-income earners carried the bulk of the burden while politicians use funding to buoy the fortunes of American and foreign oligarchs (my interpretation).  This is surely an outcome of the illegitimate Supreme Court decision called Citizens United that legalized corruption in our electoral process that has enriched so-called lawmakers, (most unduly and corruptly influenced by foreign–money and big-money interest lobbyists and PAC’s to pass oligarch-friendly laws), while practicing dereliction of duty toward We The People (my interpretation).

The next segment was an eye-popping discussion about big-money enforced addiction toward We The People, that has made We The People dull, unable to connect whole sentences and frightened of using “big words”, and proud of self-displayed stupid (my interpretation).

Following this was a discussion about the diminishing of local news reports that should keep honest, local politicians.  In The Southern Tier of NYS, some people notice an ‘ole-boy network gathering into what could become a thug-ery of “strong men” that is harmful quite openly to democratic action and free thinking (my interpretation).

Meanwhile the local news reporters mispronounce the names of region locally and the captions are misspelled that to some people feel like nails on a blackboard or spying a spider on one’s bed covers; while cute reporters denigrate anyone daring to use what they call a “big word” (my interpretation.

Washington Journal: Tim Franklin Discusses State of the U.S. News Industry

These interpretations may feel like nit-picking, but working backward as one is wont to do (WONT meaning: 1. in the way that someone usually does –Cambridge English dictionary), may explain the large number of Americans dying from addiction and poverty, while we support the fortunes of international oligarchs, as we watch Israel do to Palestine.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?533113-5/tim-franklin-state-us-news-industry  —

FEBRUARY 2, 2024 | PART OF WASHINGTON JOURNAL 02/02/2024

Washington Journal

Tim Franklin on the State of the U.S. News Industry

Tim Franklin, director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, talked about the decline of local news and the impact it has on community—end of c-span info–

https://www.c-span.org/video/?533113-3/sam-quinones-fentanyl-crisis-opioid-addiction-us  –

FEBRUARY 2, 2024 | PART OF WASHINGTON JOURNAL 02/02/2024 —–

  —         Washington Journal

Sam Quinones on the Fentanyl Crisis and Opioid Addiction in the U.S

Journalist and author Sam Quinones talked about the fentanyl crisis and opioid addiction in the U.S. and efforts to address them.

To ignore the glaring problems too often never reported on MSM is a good reason to tune into C-Span.  Information and perspective are crucial for liberty, justice, and democracy.  The US Constitutional Republic functions, so far, as a democracy as surely as the Chinese People’s Republic functions as communist.  The opposite link of communism isn’t democracy, it is capitalism.  Capitalism and communism are opposite sides of the same coin of control.