The rhetoric is building. There is much crying and virtual signaling coming from the left right now, because this is "Trump's Katrina!" Trump isn't doing enough for Puerto Rico. People are dying! And it is all Trump's fault! Oh my God! 

Give me a break. There are numerous issues here right now, all of which are being completely ignored by the media, because of course they are. First and foremost, the governor of Puerto Rico doesn't seem to understand why everyone is so upset.  

And yet we're hearing the ever present cries of racist and Trump doesn't care about the poor and every other BS lie the left can toss out there in an attempt to make him look like a horrible, divisive person. 

​In the meantime, we're sending supplies, ships, and manpower down there in droves. 

Bottom line? The mayor doesn't want more supplies and manpower. She wants more money. She wants Trump to send pallets of money, not pallets of supplies. 

​Speaking of the mayor:

Puerto Rico has no power, food, water, etc. They are dying and in need of desperate help. And the mayor is spending her time in front of TV cameras... with custom made clothes! 

Where did she get the shirt and hat?! No, really. Where? Those are screen printed items, and it requires money and electricity to do that... neither of which can be found in Puerto Rico. When did she get the time and resources to design and order these clothing items? And where did they come from? Who got them for her or sent them to her? She's so concerned about her people and what Trump is or isn't doing, yet she's using precious time and resources to have these items made and sent to her so she can cry and scream for every single media outlet that arrives on the island? Or are they props? You guys know how much I love and trust our media. Were these supplied by one of our finest journalists for propaganda use? I mean, after all... none of them are asking her about it. None of them seem to notice this or are curious about it.

​Now, I don't want to come off as sounding too cold hearted here, but we are still trying to deal with the hurricane effects in the US Virgin Islands, Texas, and Florida. We can't afford to dump all of our money and resources into Puerto Rico. Yes, we can help out and do some. But we can't do everything. 

I also have a question. Where was all this virtual signaling for Princeville? What is Princeville, you ask? Well, according to MapQuest: 

Princeville was decimated in Hurricane Matthew. These folks are still trying to rebuild their homes, government buildings, etc. At one point, FEMA was trying to make a deal with them to sell out, pretty much ending the town. It would stop all repairs, forcing those who sold out to go elsewhere and leaving those who didn't in a bit of a bind. It's a town of historical significance, but it also the home of many people, where they grew up, where their parents grew up, homes that have been there through generations. And there are a lot of older and poor folks living there. 

Being a town full of mostly, if not completely, poor blacks, where are the leftists? Why aren't they crying for Princeville? These are the people they claim to care about so much. These folks are in the news here in NC rather often, mostly because it is local interest and the people in the state are concerned with how the repairs and rebuilding are going. But they have fallen out of the public eye. No one is tweeting about them or asking Obama why more aid wasn't sent their way. The government officials aren't - and never were - on TV screaming about how they are dying and being forsaken by the government. These folks picked themselves up and, with the help of volunteers who are still there, began to rebuild and did their best to not give up on their town or their history. And while FEMA gave some aid, they were mostly interested in closing the town down. Some folks there considered it. But still, Princeville fights on. 

I'm not saying the people in Puerto Rico aren't important and don't deserve our help, because they are and they do. But we can't give them the world. We can't completely rebuild Puerto Rico, especially in a short time. And, bottom line... the media is lying to you. To hear this mayor with magical t-shirt powers and the media, you'd think Trump hasn't done a single thing for them. That just isn't true, and it takes very little work to find out what has actually been done. Even the governor is satisfied with the aid received to date! But they aren't alone. Texas. Florida. The US Virgin Islands. Princeville. They all need help right now to recover. And the recovery is going to be for a long time. Heck, 95% of Barbuda was wiped off the map during Irma! This is nothing more than virtue signaling, propaganda, and lies. Same old, same old. But people are still falling for it. 

Apparently, the reboot of Will & Grace aired for the first time, and I will admit, I didn't watch it. Mostly because I didn't realize it was coming on, to be truthful. I just don't do a very good job with keeping up with pop culture. To give me credit, I did know it was coming back eventually, I just didn't know when. 

From the reviews I have heard, the show's premiere was nothing but politics. This has been a huge trend lately. From politics infiltrating sports like football and basketball and... well, every sport, to music (to be fair, it's always been there), awards shows, movies, and TV shows, we're seeing an endless onslaught of the political beliefs of the actors, musicians, channels, etc. 

But these folks are missing something huge. Regardless of your political leanings, you are, most likely, tired. You've worked all day, you've dealt with screaming kids and school drama. And you just got out of what felt like the longest and stupidest election cycle on Earth. Now, your entire life is swallowed up in the political drama of a president who loves to troll everyone on Twitter and a group of people who still can't accept defeat and are using their temper tantrums to force all kinds of unneeded drama on our lives. Your social media is full of it. The nightly news is full of it. Your friends and family discuss it endlessly. You're hearing about it from co-workers. At this point, you probably feel like you are being beat over the head with it constantly, and you just want to spend 30 minutes laughing instead of being called a racist because you exist. Or maybe you want to toss some burgers on the grill and have some friends over to scream at the TV over beers while you battle over your teams and talk stats. 

You are now being told you can't have that. It's being taken away from you, because either you are sitting there watching your favorite team take a knee and having no idea what it is they are protesting since it changes depending on who you ask, or the entire pre-game show has nothing to do with sports and is just a bunch of over the hill former sportsball players preaching to you about whatever the liberal free crap that is a human right all of a sudden flavor of the week is, or your sitcom, late night show, or award show is nothing more than people acting out the ill informed conspiracy theories of the left... or you have turned off the TV or radio because you are so sick of hearing it you could scream. 

I want to laugh. Or cheer. I want to escape the political rabbit hole. I am a news junkie, to put it mildly. All this crap is flowing into my line of sight on an almost constant basis, and I actually enjoy it. But, I, too, want to sit down and watch TV sometimes and not deal with politics. Sometimes I just need a break. I can only imagine how it is for people who don't enjoy this crap as much as I do. You want to be informed and know what is going on around you, but you don't want a constant flow of it coming at you all the time. You especially don't want a constant flow only coming from one side of the isle. 

So what are you to do? How do you escape? I've noticed an up-tick in the amount of people reading. I've always been an avid reader myself, but again, sometimes I just want to let my brain rest. I watch Netflix and Hulu, and I choose older showers. Right now, I am working my way through "Numb3rs." My garden is sick of looking at me, but it's never been trimmed and pruned better. My mom's patiently waiting for me to finish building her a new kitchen table. 

But Hollywood and these sports leagues are missing the point. We watch your games or your shows or the endless amount of awards shows because we want an escape from all of this constant garbage. Heck, I didn't even watch "Last Man Standing," and that was a conservative show... because I didn't want to watch more political drama. It's 30 minutes or so where you get to kick back and forget about your daily stresses and stop being beat over the head with politics and how awful you are for not conforming. I kind of wanted to see Will & Grace again, because I actually liked the original show. But the writers and actors of that show - as well as many others - are so out of touch that they really think about five people support Trump and they don't have electricity, so they aren't watching anyway. Or they have convinced themselves that Trump voters hate everything that isn't white, straight, and male, so they won't be watching. You're wrong. We are watching. Or... we were. You don't realize it, but you have alienated a large portion of your actual viewer base, because you are too small minded to figure out who we actually are. Your own bigotry is going to cut your ratings in half. You have stereotyped a portion of your audience to fit into a view you have convinced yourself - with zero evidence - is true, because you believe "if one, than all." You even managed to alienate a large portion of the gay population, because you have decided all gay people must vote liberal. Not all of them do. Actually, more than you realize don't. 

So I'll be sticking to reruns of the Golden Girls, M*A*S*H, Murder She Wrote, and others. There are a number of shows I'd like to catch, but I don't hold much hope of them not deciding I'm a bigot for existing and using most of my precious time to tell me what I believe - that I actually don't - and attacking me based on their ill informed opinions. So I most likely won't survive the first episode because I want that entertainment escape, not that boring bigotry. 

OK. I want to preface this by saying I do not enjoy football. I never have. Never watched the sport other than bits and pieces here and there. Never been to a game. I don't follow it at all. I have "a team" that I "support" basically for small talk reasons when someone is being awkward around me and trying to come up with something to say. "My team," in case you are wondering, is the NY Giants, only because I grew up in NJ and could spit on the stadium from my house. And I do understand the rivalry between the Giants and the Jets. I do not, however, have any idea how well they have done in any season ever, and I couldn't name a single player, because I really don't care. 

But apparently we're back to the kneeling thing, and the sitting in the locker room thing, again. And apparently Trump is tweeting about it for some who knows reason. So let's discuss. 

My opinion? Oh, there are many parts to my opinion on this. First off... they have every right to kneel, sit, or stay in the locker room for the national anthem. The people they are disrespecting fought for their right to do it. And because I don't like ordering people about, I will openly say that I don't care what they do during the national anthem as long as they don't disrupt the national anthem for everyone else. I will, however, stand for the national anthem with my hand over my heart, because it is the right thing to do for me. 

If you haven't clicked out of the article because that last paragraph infuriated you, hear me out. 

While they have the right to do this, you do, of course, have the right to react (non-violently) as you so please to their actions. That's the beauty of free speech... it works both ways when enacted properly. You can choose to turn off the TV, stop buying their merchandise, stop going to the games, and contact their sponsors. You can mouth off about them on social media - and yes, that means Trump has the right to mouth off to them, too. The team owners or whoever it is that makes the decision, has the right to bench those players or fire those players if they want a particular image of their team put forth to the public. They also have the right to put those players on a pedestal for the same reason. 

Basically, they have the right to do it, but you have the right to not tolerate it if you so choose. 

They have a right to disagree with the president and to do it publicly. You don't have to tolerate it. Football is a sport. It is full of elitist rich brats who think they are owed the respect of the leader of the free world. They have the right to feel that over inflated about themselves. There is no shortage of people on Earth who think they are more important than they actually are. But at the end of the day they are not owed a damned thing, especially anyone's respect. They are playing a game for a living. Good for them! You are getting paid an over exorbitant amount of money to play a game. I don't begrudge you that... that's living the dream, right there! And most people will never get that chance. You can be grateful or somehow make yourself a victim. That's up to you. But it doesn't make you important, and it never will. It doesn't demand respect. No one on this planet is owed respect from everyone, least of all you. But you can throw whatever temper tantrum you like. Just know, we've got the right to sit this one out, and a lot of folks will. Not enough, but a lot.

Second. Colin Kaepernick. The man who started it all. And folks... the man is a damn genius. Again, hear me out. 

From what I understand, he's not the best player in the universe and he was about to get cut and lose a ton of money. Suddenly, he stood for minorities all over the country. He was a victim of the USA because of his race. He was being held down by "the man." So in "protest," he took a knee for the anthem, because it represented a country that was oppressing him and other minorities. He disregarded the fact that he and others like him were doing something 99% of the country would never get to do - get filthy rich for tossing a ball around a few months a year. He was being oppressed. He was a victim. 

And because he was flaunting his victimhood and was "making a public stand" on behalf of minorities who didn't have access to the platform his oppressed self had, if the team cut him... they were racist. Suddenly, if the team cut him it wasn't about his playing ability or value to the team. No! Now it was because he was a rebel for the cause! It would make the team - maybe the entire NFL - look like the bad guy! No way they could cut him now! And if they did, the people would stand in an uproar of  social justice and demand someone hire him immediately!

All of which happened. Because people actually fell for it!

It's not hard to believe. We're a nation full of people who vote the party line because we know these people care about us deeply and are going to do everything they can to save us from ourselves and each other. We look at our politicians and say, "This guy really cares about me! He's going to save us all! If I vote for him, because he's part of this party, everything is going to be wonderful!" We believe the democrats really want to help the poor and minorities, even though they never have. We believe the republicans are going to fight for smaller government, even though they never have. Everything they do benefits themselves almost exclusively, but they make you think it was for you or a group of people. So why would we assume this football player didn't have us all figured out? Why did we think he couldn't get away with it?

The man is a raging genius and knows exactly how to play the system. 

Before you click away from this article in a rage and swear to send me off into the cornfield for eternity, let me say one final thing. If this article has enraged you, good. You're being played. Yes, by the NFL and the players taking a knee, especially this Kaepernick guy. But by the government, too, and that part of it means a lot more than any football game, team, or player. We need to look at ourselves. I think we're getting there. This recent election was a solid sign that people realize something needs to change, and really needs to change. But we've got a lot of work to do. They haven't stopped playing us, and they won't, for as long as they think they can. So turn off your TV if the antics of football players are against your beliefs. You don't have to watch. It's your time and your money, you don't have to give any of it to the NFL. But you have to make that decision for yourself and then stick to it. The same goes for your government. You don't have to settle. It's your country. You can fight for it. Don't go party line. Don't vote based on social norms or expectations of your gender, race, sexual orientation, place of birth, tradition, or anything. Start thinking for yourself, and vote based on your true beliefs. Get out of the hive mind. Your government is more important than your football team, and I want people to get as passionate about their government as they do about their football team. Stop falling for it. 

A lot - and I mean, a lot - of folks, especially in the YouTube community have been venting their anger and frustration about the YouTube demonitizing that has been going on for some time now, and shows no signs of stopping - actually, it appears to be expanding. You can hardly visit a channel or blog these days that doesn't have some kind of reference to this issue right now. And I want to address it myself.

As some of you may be aware, I post videos online myself. Haven't been doing it long, but I started doing so and use several platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Vid.me, Minds, Gab, Daily Motion, and BitChute. The YouTube channel grew a lot faster than I was figuring on when one day I posted a reaction video that ended up with a current total views in the area 180k. Suddenly, I was able to enable all the features YouTube has to offer, including a custom URL and monetizing. Now, for those who don't use YouTube and don't know how it works, you have to have a total of 10,000 channel views before you can monetize your videos. Once you hit that threshold, you can apply to have your channel reviewed for monetizing. I did this, with little hope of my channel actually being approved. So it was a shock to me a week later when I realized my videos had suddenly been monetized. 

What does it actually mean to have your videos monetized? For the casual viewer, you assume it means ads can be run on your videos, earning the creator money. And you would be right. But there's another side of it. Because your videos can now run ads, and YouTube depends on ads to survive, your videos are now being promoted by YouTube a lot more than they were when they weren't bringing YouTube any money. That means your videos have a greater chance of showing up in the sidebar on other videos, or at the end of other videos on channels you don't run. So if someone is, say, watching a video from Good Mythical Morning, when the video is over there may be recommendations based on the topic of that video. So if the guys in Good Mythical Morning just did an episode about eating spicy food, when the video is over you may get a bunch of video suggestions from other channels you've never heard of before that are also discussing spicy food. 

A ridiculous amount of my views came from those suggestions either at the end of videos or on the sidebar during the videos. And because I hit a topic that was being widely discussed, a lot of people clicked over to see what I had to say about it, too. Boom, 180k views in five days. 

Now, a few days ago I decided to go into my channel page and take a look at the progress of that video and newer ones. I was disappointed to see... the green monetizing icon was gone and was replaced with a yellow one. On about 90% of my videos, including my 9/11 video that was discussing unity, nothing graphic. Speaking with other YouTubers, their 9/11 videos got demonetized, too. This made me think back to the first video that had been demonetized almost immediately after being monetized, and that was my video about Google's AI. If you didn't see that, the example I was playing with came from the article I was discussing, which used Google's AI software page to test the "toxicity" of what I was saying. The phrase "ISIS is a terrorist organization" was listed as being completely toxic. Now, Google - who owns YouTube - didn't like that I was pointing out how ridiculous this software was and how it was changing the Internet for the worse, so it was immediately demonetized and was not promoted at all. Because they are apparently ashamed of their actions, I guess. If they think it's good, you'd think they'd stand behind it. Apparently not. 

Anyway, I assume the 9/11 videos were demonetized for being "toxic," since it was a terrorist act. 

​But why is all of this such a big deal? Well, for some folks it might be the money. But not to all of us. I am a small YouTuber. I'm not making life changing money from my videos. I'm not even making enough to pay a single bill. Right now, I might be able to take my mom out for dinner... if she's alright with eating at Wendy's. Actually, I am nowhere near the threshold for them to actually pay out anything, so it is only an estimated income. Basically, I'm not making squat. And most YouTubers aren't, contrary to popular opinion. Some are, don't take that wrong. Some YouTubers are making big money on the platform. And this hurts them a lot because it means their quality drops when they have to let people go because they can't pay them anymore. The effort remains, but the editing may not.

What people like myself and a lot of others are concerned with is that promoting. The videos that were demonetized  are not being promoted. Which means what I have to say isn't being heard. You are more likely to find gaming channels and people pulling horrific pranks on people then you are to find discussion of current events if you aren't specifically seeking them out. And even then, you have little chance of discovering new minds. You also are less likely to be exposed to differing view points. (And if you do find a channel and you watch a video or two, you'll notice a large portion of your front page suggestions are from that one channel)

A lot of people are screaming that conservative channels are being targeted. I don't know for sure that that is true. I can tell you from my own list... my more controversial videos are being hit. 

​Let's take a look at my video dashboard, shall we?

The blacked out videos are either private or unlisted, so they aren't relevant. 

Now, as you can see... videos that weren't controversial, didn't contain "wrong think," or would require someone to actually watch the video were not tapped. I did try something in one video... "The Eclipse, Too?" was given a new title and thumbnail and was submitted for review. I did that about a week ago. The Google AI video has been under review for weeks, so I don't think anything is coming of it. The eclipse video was originally called "Now the Eclipse is Racist, Too" and the thumbnail said the same thing. Since I changed the title and thumbnail, the views have dropped drastically. But it's now "advertiser friendly" in appearance. It discusses people deciding the eclipse was racist, so it probably still won't pass muster. You can also see the video that got 180k+ views. That was demonetized and the views immediately stopped. Some folks have still been finding it, but considering it reached 180k views in the first week, you can see how much it has dropped off. 

The only exception to this rule is that last video there... the flag peeing video. The title mentions peeing and the graphic shows it, yet the video is still monetized. However, discussing racism... not advertiser friendly. Calling out the wrongs of both Antifa and the white nationalists? Not OK. I can, however, give a positive reaction to a gay cartoon and keep it monetized. The top video is still monetized, too, but that requires someone to watch it to take offense. The 9/11 video where I discussed wanting the unity back that we had in the weeks following the attacks? Not OK, either! I mentioned terrorism... but you'd have to watch it to know that, which the YouTube algorithm doesn't do. The title doesn't allude to a 9/11 video, either. And the thumbnail... that could have been a sad romance short. How do they know? Tags, that's how. 

YouTube uses an algorithm that analyzes tags, thumbnails, titles, descriptions, etc. YouTube has graciously allowed us to submit videos for rereview so an actual human has to review it instead of allowing a bot to decide and have the final word. That was a recent change. But that algorithm is based on words, much like Google's AI. Words trigger it. 

It gives the appearance of conservatives being targeted, but that isn't really the entire case. These words that trigger demonetizing may be used by conservatives more often. But left wing videos have been targeted, too, as well as more centered views and videos that had nothing to do with politics. However, the left wingers are talking about topics deemed nontoxic, so they get hit less often. So you can discuss how great it is to be a five year old transgender, but you can't discuss how racist BLM's list of demands for white people are. Google isn't exactly a constitution loving group. And diversity of ideas isn't something they are known for. 

But the problem with all of this is that differing view points are being hidden away from both sides. If you are interested in a certain topic, you'll find videos on it on your own, but you won't get suggestions from someone who disagrees with you. Your mind is not going to be expanded. You will keep finding what you want to hear and nothing else. That isn't good for free thought, and it doesn't help people learn to think for themselves. Videos coming out of war torn countries and countries who are being restricted by their governments are being removed, locking away a look inside and not helping those who are trying to make a difference by getting the truth out to the world in a desperate reach for help. Some of those videos - evidence of real atrocities - are gone forever. 

Small YouTubers with a different opinion are being shut down, too. You'll always find the videos from big named people who have been around a while, but you may never find my videos. I'm fairly centrist, in all honesty. Wouldn't it be nice to have more centrist opinions in between the extremes? And it is frustrating. A lot of brilliant people with something to say are going to stop because no one is listening. You are having your voice taken away, but you are also having your ability to expand and learn taken away.

The money isn't important. Making sure people have access to views other than extreme left is. If your pro-Antifa video is OK but your anti-Antifa video isn't, and only the pro-Antifa video is reaching the masses, then people are misinformed and underinformed. That shouldn't be. The internet shouldn't be available to only one point of view and prank videos. This isn't a free flow of information. It's just another propaganda machine. 

On another note, the creators - the people making videos for people to watch that YouTube runs their ads on - aren't allowed to choose advertisers. So YouTube can bow and scrape to whatever they claim their advertisers want, but the people making that advertising reach people don't get to say, hey, I don't want the ad of the unicorn pooping into an ice cream cone on my videos. Or, hey, I don't want political advertisements before my videos. Or, hey, I really find that 2 minute ad full of poop puns really stomach turning and don't want it on my videos. Believe it or not, viewers take it out on the creators when they don't like the ads, even if they understand the creator has no say. If not for the creators, there is no place to put those ads. And if not for the viewers, no one gets advertised to. 

So the big news today is Trump's tweet from this morning, which is an apparent slap in the face to his base and will, of course, cause him to lose the election in 2020. 

Media sources of all types are completely losing their minds over this tweet, especially the right leaning pages and people like Ann Coulter. Here is the complete tweet storm:

I have a question. Are you actually surprised by this? Are you surprised he wants a legal alternative to DACA? Are you surprised it is going to come before the wall? If you are, you haven't been paying attention.

I'm not trying to be condescending, and I'm certainly not 100% anti-Trump (I've always been sort of hanging off the side of the Trump train, I never got in and took a seat, let's face it). But when I first saw the tweet everyone is freaking out over, I sort of shrugged and moved on until I realized everyone was freaking out. I can't possibly be the only person who saw this coming, can I? 

Folks, the whole reason he did away with DACA was because it was an unconstitutional executive order. He made it perfectly clear he wasn't going to deport "DREAMers," and he made it perfectly clear that he was giving Congress 6 months to come up with a legal version of DACA. This really isn't news. 

The MSM turned this into a storm of epic proportions and had people believing they needed to pack their stuff because they were going to be deported almost immediately. Nothing in the take down of DACA made it confusing or was worded to lead anyone to actually believe this was going to happen, and Trump made the comments clearly that they did not have plans to deport DREAMers. Because of the media, everyone thought this was something it wasn't. The left was screaming from the rooftops that Trump was deporting anyone with a foreign accent, and the right was screaming for the DREAMers to start packing. Neither was true. Not even remotely. 

And it didn't take much research to find that out. I wanted screen captures of those tweets for this article, and I found all of them in under a minute. 

Now, everyone lost their minds when Trump sat down with the loonies, but let's face it. It was tactically sound. The democrats have been doing nothing but screaming about impeachment since November. This was a great way of telling them it might be time to sit down and get some actual work done. Aside from that... of course he's going to make some deals with the democrats. Reagan did it, too. You don't have much of a choice. It doesn't mean he should completely sell out to them and give them everything they want. If he does, I'll be right there next to Ann Coulter cursing his name. But to think he isn't going to meet with them, and to think he isn't going to reach across the isle from time to time and throw them a bone here and there is just delusional. 

Look, I know a lot of folks want the wall before anything else. I understand. I want the wall, too. The wall is a great start, and I believe it is necessary. But it is imperative to get rid of anything that isn't constitutional. DACA also has a sunset, so whether Trump tossed it out or not, it was going away. It isn't blanket amnesty, which I have a serious issue with. Amnesty, for me, is a deal breaker. But with DACA being both unconstitutional and having a sunset, it makes sense to address it now. The wall... I have to admit, I don't have much faith in the wall happening. I hope it does. But I don't see Congress helping out there. There are a lot of hurdles to jump before the wall goes up, and even if it does go up, it is going to take longer than Trump is in office - even if he wins a second term - to complete. I don't take issue with addressing DACA before the wall is built (although they say they are funding it; let's see how long before construction starts). Address it. Get it fixed, get it legal, or do away with it completely, but addressing it was mandatory. 

Bottom line, this tweet was non-news. We knew this was happening weeks ago. Calm down and think it through. He never planned to deport DREAMers, and didn't hide that fact. And getting the wall built is not an over night project. He is treading a fine line, though. If he starts going liberal or establishment, I'm out, and I suspect a lot of folks will be as well.

I've seen a lot of people making jokes about this, but I want to take a different path.

Why the hell not?!

Ya know, Dennis Rodman does have an unusual relationship with the little North Korean fatty, so why not? I mean, it really couldn't hurt, right? Sure, Rodman's a weirdo, but apparently Kim likes him. So honestly... I'd let him give it a shot. It beats the hell out of nuclear war.

The only real issue I'd have is for Rodman's safety. While they do have an unusual relationship, Kim isn't exactly the most stable person on Earth. This is a man who has killed his own family members in brutal ways. I don't see it as far fetched that Rodman could get hurt here. 

But if he's willing to give it a go and he's got Kim's ear, I'd let him. I'm a big fan of trying to de-escalate wars and what not. It would be great if we could get Kim to calm the heck down over there. Truth be told, Kim wants the world's eye on him. He wants to be the news, he wants to be historic. He wants to go down in history for something. And I think a good deal of what is going on over there has to do with that. He wants his people to believe he has the world cowering at his feet. And he wants to be infamous in the history books for generations after he's died. 

And most of the answers so far have involved more of our young men and women being shipped into a war zone, issues with China (and Lord help us if they get pissed and call in their debts), etc. I've suggested using special operations people to go in there and take Kim and his higher ups out and then sending in troops to establish new leadership and a new government. 

And then here comes Dennis Rodman. Yeah... it couldn't hurt. I think he needs some training before he goes over there. I think he needs to be aware that Kim is unstable and it could mean his own doom if he goes there, regardless of the relationship they've had. 

Do I think Rodman is going to prevent a war? No. Not really. But he may be able to delay things over there for a little while. Maybe a few missile tests would be held off. And it could buy us some time to work things out with China so we can bring North Korea to a screeching halt with little to no lose of life in American - or any other - troops. 

Give it a shot. Train him up a little, give him a psych evaluation, and if he still wants to give it a shot, go for it. 

A recent Gallop poll found:

Apparently, college educated and democrats are most likely to find the news media to be credible. Now, I'm no democrat, but I am college educated. And I don't always find the news media credible.

​It has been a long while - with the exception of this past week because of the hurricane - since I watched World News Tonight - I am tired of the constant onslaught of how horrible Trump is, and the lib slant to make him worse than he is. The last time I watched a cable news network was on election night, and that evening I had CNN on in one room and Fox on in the other room, and that was mostly because I was eager to watch them have a melt down (just be glad you weren't in that hotel room, because I was like a hamster on speed running back and forth for hours). 

I personally believe the news media is biased, and I find it hard to understand how people can argue that point when many in the MSM themselves have openly admitted it. At one point they tried to hide it, but in recent years they have been pretty open about it. They are liberally biased. 

That bias does lead to an issue with credibility. More attention is given to points that fit their narrative. Aspects that disprove their narrative tend to be left out. Support is given to groups and candidates that fit their narrative. You have a case of an election year where most of the coverage of Trump was negative even when he did something right, while most of the coverage of Clinton made her look like a divine angel that descended directly from heaven to lead our country. You have a media glorifying a violent leftist hate group like Antifa and painting them as heroes who are justified in their violence, even while videoing them committing crimes that could have killed someone (when they pulled that statue down in Durham, that thing could have killed someone, and no one cares). And a media more concerned with making Trump - and his wife - look bad that they spend more time discussing hats and shoes than the heroes in Houston and credible charities to give to other than the Red Cross. You've had fabricated stories, set ups, faked protests, staged interviews, candidates receiving debate questions... yeah. All you need is a simple Google search and most of that information can still be found somewhere within the first ten pages of that Google search. 

I do not, however, think the media out and out lies as often as many like to claim (they do occasionally). Look, I'm no fan of the MSM. You all know that by now. But I believe they have a tendency towards omitting information for a narrative, painting those they don't like negatively, etc., but they are reporting the news. Sometimes, folks see what they want to, though.

Here's an example. This video came out this week, and I have heard the howling of how staged this was. Look for yourself, and then let's discuss. 

Whole articles have been written on how this was staged, and why they believe so. Basically, the reporter runs off to rescue a guy trapped in a truck. Everyone noticed that the reporter was wearing shorts, but during the clip of the rescue, he'd apparently changed into pants. Now do me a favor. Go back to the video, find that spot, and watch it very closely. Watch it with your ears, too. 

You hear the reporter asking for rope, then you see him run towards the truck. At this point, the camera gets blocked by a sign, and you can see the red jacket and gray shorts. When the camera comes back on, the reporter - wearing a red jacket and black pants - is seen pulling the guy from his truck. This is where they lost a lot of people. What happened to his shorts?

They were never there. When the camera gets blocked by the sign, you see the guy in the red jacket and gray shorts standing still and then begin to walk. During that entire time, you can hear the reporter running, his pants rubbing together. The sound follows the reporter and does not match the guy in the shorts. Watch it again, you'll notice it. Be willing to see and hear it.

The guy in the shorts isn't the reporter. I've heard he was the producer, I heard he was someone else. Whatever, I don't know who he is, but I do know he isn't the reporter. 

Was this staged? Maybe. But you haven't presented me with compelling evidence. All you gave me was disproved pretty easily by paying attention. 

It's been argued that a non-biased news source would never survive. People prefer to have their beliefs backed up. The media is, very obviously, biased, which would explain the gap in people who believe it is credible vs. those who don't. Democrats are more likely to find the MSM credible because their beliefs are being backed up, while Republicans believe it isn't credible because their beliefs aren't being backed up. Now, as I said, of course the MSM is biased and have admitted so openly. They have a narrative to push, and they do so by shining light on those people and ideas they like and casting shadow on those people and ideas they don't. They openly admitted to doing everything they could to support Hillary in the election. But the bottom line is that they are biased and tend to omit, but may not be outright lying as often as people claim. 

As I have always said, never depend on one media source alone. Never take the media at face value. Read both right and left leaning sources. And always do your own research. Some of the story is always getting left out, whether the source leans left or right. If you want the entire story, and the truth, you have to be open to working for it. The media is a business. They believe they exist not to inform but to instruct. Don't take their instruction. It's hard work, and it sometimes forces you to admit something you believe is wrong. But it's how you get the entire story and the truth. 

Yes, I understand most of you aren't news junkies like I am. I literally read news all day long. It would make some people crazy and it boggles the people around me. Any downtime, I'm reading news. I get you don't do that. My suggestion... find a story every day you really care about, and find the entire truth. If you can do that, do one a week. Force yourself to admit when things don't sound right or a story seems to be missing something. Then look the story up elsewhere. Only one source is talking about it and can't find it anywhere else at all? The story is crap. Only left leaning sites talk about it? Or only right leaning sites talk about it? The story is probably mostly crap with some truth sprinkled in. Find the truth. You found it on sites from the left and right but the story is different? There's where you need to work. Both stories have an element of truth. Piece it together.