The News, the real NEWS and how to get it

It has always been difficult to get "the news."
If we were living a thousand years ago, it would be the same.
Story then, had to travel by man on horseback or camel, if it were from a distance, perhaps pigeon if nearby.

Now, our story comes from ourselves, in real time.

Our modern technocracy affords us the luxuries of quantity and speed, but our ability to determine the substance or worth of any news has not really increased.
This is because a polished turd is still a turd.
Our news, if not genuine, is not news at all.
And our news is not genuine, most of the time.

Avid readers of mine know, as does anyone with an appreciation of the peril and promise of Philosophy, that language itself is a slippery slope. The semantic deception of dialectical theses aside, even when we allow ourselves the common sliding scale of understanding, the News is blatantly subjective. So how are we to acheive any real understanding from any real knowledge in a world awash in opinion? By carefully sampling from as many sources as possible and searching out the golden mean.

Here's how I do it:

On TV, I watch whatever channel I want, knowing that any particular channel could have numerous intentionalities, as could any individual or group holding influence over the channel, plus the personalities of producers, anchors, reporters, etc. I use CBCnews and RT CBC is pretty clean, RT is heavily subjective, but they report on stories that the mainstream doesn't, plus theirs is a heavy "northern European" influence. Obviously, it's worth keeping an open mind. (Decide, if you must.)

So I also watch CNN but usually only when I need a "deeper American" coverage than the CBC provides. I never watch FOX because, although it is sometimes funny, keeping an open mind does not include wasting my time. 

But, with the exception of Canadian news, I don't get my "world news" from the TV. I get it all from the net. Here's how I do it:

Above Top Secret  This is the world's foremost conspiracy discussion forum. It's chock full of nutbars. Seriously, I've been a member for a few years now, I know. However, despite having to wade through a bunch of stories about UFOs and Alien Agendas, ATS consistently breaks 90% of my stories to me. This is because ATS members strive to be "the one who breaks it." At abovetopsecret.com, it is required that the breaking news forum provide sources for their articles. These sources, of course, require another evaluation. They vary from the usual alternative sources: RT, the guardian, sky, wired.com, huffington post, etc. to the mainstream. (Any newspaper you'd care to mention.)

-On the ATS main page there is a button that says RECENT POSTS. These are your headlines. Scan through them, right click any that interest you open in a new tab. Then read your newspaper, or skip it.

If there's a story breaking, twitter usually gets jammed up with humans posting it play by play. (Excluding blackouts, for various reasons.) But people often tweet links that lead you to other things. This can be helpful, as can knowing people in various places in the world.

Who should you listen to? Everyone.
Who should you believe? No one.
Try to determine the intentionality of the parties involved in giving you the message, then do the same for the subject(s) of the message.
How do you do that?
You read my book. It's free.

Ron Paul vs. Barack Obama = Win / Win

“First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win.” -Gandhi.

If Ron Paul wins the republican nomination he will run neck and neck against Obama and numbers as of January 1^st, 2012 indicate this could happen. I believe, as the economy continues to crumble and more Americans demand change, this ticket could even win the Whitehouse. Of course, Paul, should he win, would be shut down in his efforts, one way or another. For the will of the people does not necessarily reflect the might of the system. Yet even if Paul doesn't win, his platform will be so pushed into the forefront of the American psyche that his proposals will be demanded, as a necessary product of our times. That is to say, Ron Paul hasn't moved into the mainstream, the mainstream has come to realize that he was right all along. (America isn't for revolution because Paul exists, but rather because conditions are ripe for revolution.) This change is coming, if not now, soon, because it must. The American dream has been hijacked. The grand conspiracy is real, known and documented, yet somehow continues unabated.

Ron Paul is touring the country talking to one packed stadium after another and he's doing it alone. He hasn't any corporate backers, his pockets are surprisingly shallow. He's achieving his success through 21^st century grassroots movements and without the help of the media. In fact, CNN and FOX news admitted to “accidentally” providing misleading news stories about Paul's lack of success. It has been suggested by some that there is a rampant smear campaign against Dr. Paul. The reasons for this are obvious, if you know anything about Paul's platform, which is a threat to the status-quo; anti-military industrial complex, anti-banker, anti-income tax, anti-big corporation, anti-big gov. Paul himself has said, in a rather telling, all encompassing sentence, “As long as you want to run this world Empire at a trillion dollars a year, believe me, you can't solve this problem.” To be anti-American Empire, it would seem, is to be anti-American. So how is it that Paul has such popular support? Simply put, it means America is waking up to the fact that its morality is flawed, its intentionality is either directed at money or power and is self serving. Much of the rest of the world hates America, not due to envy, but rather due to its inability to mind its own business. Most Americans are people of principal, why shouldn't the “American way” follow suit?

“We have broken from reality. A psychotic national ignorance with a pretense of knowledge, replacing wisdom. An epidemic of cronyism, a central bank that deliberately destroys the value of the currency in secrecy, without restraint, without nary a whimper.” Paul believes we print money to pay for illegal wars which renders Americans poor, or dead. His solutions are extreme, measured against the current norm, but they could be the answers we (the 99%) are looking for. Ron Paul has been nothing if not consistent in his message, for over thirty years. (Something very special in politics.) The drums he has been beating carry the same rhythm: “End the fed. Stop taxing so much. Stop spending so much. End the Empire building. End the wars. Stop intervening. Stop policing the world. Stop lying and stealing. Return liberty. Return to the constitution.” These ideas, while being good, right and true, in my studied opinion, shall most likely not be delivered unto the world by the likes of Ron Paul, not because he can't win, but because the machine won't let him. This change is yours to make or break.

If Ron Paul wins the Presidency, he will be shut down, by any means necessary. The only way America can win back the right to be proud again is if the people move the agenda forward. It only takes a few wrong people in the right places to stop any change and those people are currently entrenched. Paul will not change their minds, they will have to be removed. They will not go lightly, there will be friction. Only the masses behind the movement will have the force required to get the foxes out of the chicken coop. A new Centrist paradigm is needed to succeed. We must all come together to agree that these extremes we swing to are not solutions, but the very causes of the problems we have. Then we must be willing to fight to change them. This is the new Beginning.

If Barack Obama wins the Presidency, he will not be able to hold back this American desire for change. Imagine an “Occupy Wall Street” like movement, with a leader like Ron Paul, funded by other libertarians, possibly the Koch Brothers, organized, earnest, smart and strong. We'll have an American Revolution unlike anything we've seen. It will be unstoppable, (although, they will try, often by removing liberties,) because it must win. It is insane to expect the same causes to return different results and with Obama you will get more of the same. Thus, you can expect more of the same resistance from Americans, only more effectual. This is why an Obama vs. Paul Presidential race would be the best thing for America. Regardless of who wins, the revolution takes place. It's going to hurt, it's going to be ugly, but it's necessary. Without the Revolution, America will fall apart like every Empire before it, which would the latest and greatest betrayal of the latest and greatest dream.