Touring the Valley

Just the Facts, Ma'am

[Note: This was originally posted several weeks ago, but has been updated since then to include more news sources.]

It often seems that traditional news networks and papers, sometimes referred to as "legacy media," have lost their reliability. Many have been compromised by political considerations. They may be owned by people or corporations with financial or ideological ties to special interests or a particular political party and its enablers, or they may simply have decided to "obey in advance." We are increasingly frustrated by their (apparently intentional) failure to report certain events and facts, while focusing obsessively on others.

Sometimes the best reporting on events within the U.S. comes from observers outside the U.S. It is also worth considering the growing body of "independent" journalists, some of whom have walked away from legacy media, others who have emerged from the world of podcasts and social media.

The Guardian covers American and international news for an online, global audience.
Al Jazeera was the first independent news channel in the Arab world
Irish Star aspires to bridge the gap between Ireland and America
BBC News, a public service broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter, and principally funded through the licence fee paid by UK households.
University of Michigan Library Research Guides lets you search hundreds of international news sources simultaeously.
The Contrarian is self-described as "unflinching journalism in support of democracy."
Pro Publica offers investigative journalism in the public interest.
Associated Press is widely considered unbiased in its reporting.
NPR is an independent, nonprofit media organization.
Military.com, daily news along with in-depth investigations on issues that impact the military community
Stars and Stripes provides independent news and information to the U.S. military community from around the world.
Media Matters is a web-based, not-for-profit,progressive research and information center dedicated to monitoring, analyzing, and correcting misinformation in the U.S. media.
Democracy Docket is a digital news platform dedicated to information, analysis and opinion about voting rights and elections in the courts.
C-Span shows U.S. government hearings and other events without adding opinions or interpretations.
Allsides displays top news stories from Left, Center, and Right perspectives, and provides media bias ratings for over 1400 outlets and writers
1440 is a news digest attempting to focus on fact-based stories.
The Tennesse Holler, a reader-supported digital site with the slogan "Always yell the truth."
Le Monde is France's leading newspaper. It makes its website available in English
Corriere della sera is a leading Italian newspaper.
The Independent is a UK-based newspaper with a U.S. edition

Also, take a look at your town's local newspapers (if they still exist). Local papers often have an obvious political leaning, but can still be good sources for stories that are not well-reported elsewhere.

Losing the Benefits They Paid For

If you think cutting off Social Security and Medicare is not a problem, think some more. If you're under 65, do you want your elderly parents or grandparents to move in with you? It might not be as much fun as you think.

Look up the retail prices of the medications they take. Ask the doctor's office how much an uninsured patient pays for a visit.

Do your parents want to move in with you, or would they rather stay independent as long as possible? Do you have a spare room, or will someone have to sleep on the couch? How will the folks feel about giving up their furniture and accumulated possessions? Do you have closet space for them? How many bathrooms do you have? How much money can they contribute toward groceries, utilities and other household expenses? Are you all able to make major financial and lifestyle decisions together? Do they approve of the way you clean house, or the way you cook? Do they approve of the way you are raising your children? Do you enjoy their helpful suggestions and comments?

How much help with housework will your aging parents be able to provide? Do they have problems like incontinence, short-term memory loss, hearing impairment, failing eyesight, difficulty walking? Will you be able to leave them alone when you go on vacation? Or will you take them with you, and will they (or you) enjoy it? If the day comes when they need full-time care, will you or your spouse be able to provide it? Or can you afford health care workers (strangers in your home all day)?

If your parents are no longer living, will these issues apply to aunts and uncles, aging cousins, or even your older siblings? If you still have teenagers or 20-somethings living with you, can you afford to keep them plus the older relative who needs expensive pills?

Random Thoughts

"The Deadly Sins Dominated by Death" (1904), James Ensor

I don't want it to make me stronger.
I don't want it to make me a better person.
I just want it to leave me alone.

What if we could actually love each other as well as we promised we would?

Nothing ruins a lovely Saturday afternoon like realizing it's Thursday.

When your only tool is a sledgehammer, everything looks like a demolition project.

I still think love is better than hate, even though hate is more profitable.

Thousands of businesses perform internal audits on a regular basis. They do NOT shut down the business while the audit is happening.

Follow the Money

A company where I once worked decided to do an internal audit. They didn't have to fire anybody or shut down operations before they could do it. They just went through the records of all their accounts with their clients and tracked what money was received, what was paid out, etc.

In the course of the audit, they found a few cases where money should have been reimbursed to clients but was not. What did they do about this? Did they shut down the company? No. Did they fire half the employees? No. They realized these were just oversights that occurred when things were busy and complicated.

They wrote explanatory letters to the clients in question and sent them checks for the amounts owed. Nobody got upset.

It's Coming From Inside the House

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799), Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

I was about three years old when this happened. I woke up during the night, and I could hear some kind of wild animal snarling, growling, and snuffling in the darkness. Frightened, I called out for my mother. She sat on the edge of the bed and asked me what was wrong.

"There's a bear in the house!" I told her. "I can hear it."

"That's not a bear," she said. "It's just your father, snoring."

I learned to sleep with the bedroom door closed.

It has always mystified me that people are usually not awakened by their own snoring. All that noise is right there, inside their heads, and they sleep right through it. In Dad's case, it seemed particularly ironic, in that he was very bothered by noise of any kind. Loud conversations, popular music, distant train whistles -- any sound the world produced set his nerves on edge, especially at night. In his youth, the sound of crickets chirping became so maddening that one night he went outside with a hammer in his hand, determined to smash them, one by one. It was a hopeless quest.

To preserve his sanity and get some rest, Dad wore earplugs to bed. Decades later, Mom, airing yet another grievance, said that she thought he did it on purpose so that he wouldn't have to get up and take care of a crying baby (or, perhaps, a toddler who heard bears).

I once asked Mom how she could possibly sleep next to someone who made that much noise. "It's easy," she told me. "I just fall asleep before he does." Mom was a deep sleeper.

Captain Vancouver

George Vancouver was a British naval officer who spent many years exploring and surveying the northwestern Pacific coast of North America, as well as the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia. He had trained under the premier English navigator of the time, James Cook. In 1795, he completed a circumnavigation of South America. His name was given to two cities, one in British Columbia, Canada, and one in the U.S state of Washington. Additionally, two mountains, one in North America and one in New Zealand, were named after him, as were Vancouver Island and the Vancouver River, both in British Columbia.

Vancouver did his share of naming things, replacing the names used by local people for various landmarks, often with the names of his friends, colleagues, and his ship. These include Mount Hood, Puget Sound, Mount St. Helen's, Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Port Gardner, Port Susan, Whidbey Island, Discovery Passage, Discovery Island, Discovery Bay, Port Discovery and Discovery Park, Orford Reef, and several others.

Vancouver got along well with the indigenous people in the areas he visited, and also had cordial relations with the Spanish explorers of the time. He seems to have bypassed the Columbia and Fraser rivers, but his charts and maps were generally excellent, although his longitudinal readings were often wrong.

After his return to England, Vancouver faced controversies and public humiliation. Prominent people who had disputes with him harassed him and attacked him in the press. One disagreement led to a street fight.

In poor health after his years at sea, Vancouver apparently could not withstand the stress of his damaged reputation and seemingly endless controversies. He died at age 40.

Random Thoughts

Charles Babbage's Brain (1909), V. Horsley

Law enforcement should not be afraid to pursue a case against criminals, out of fear that political hacks who don't like the outcome will punish them for enforcing the law.

Sometimes I feel an urge to water the artificial plants. I resist it.

Whether a person is making sandwiches, putting electrical wiring in your home, or investigating crime, it's better to have someone who knows what to do and does it well, without worrying about being fired for political reasons.

I'm baffled and annoyed by the vast numbers of people who write "pun intended" or "no pun intended" when there truly is no pun (or joke of any kind).

If you have to use lies to promote your cause, your cause isn't worth promoting.

It is painful to admit that you were deceived and betrayed, that your loyalty was misplaced. A common reaction is denial - you just don't want to believe it. You look for other explanations for the things that have happened. You feel anxious, wary, confused. When you finally have to face the truth, you may feel incapacitated by depression. You may react with rage. You feel that you can't trust anyone at all, ever again.

Would You Let This Guy Hold Your Lunch Money?

In 2022, Elon Musk paid 44 billion dollars for the social media platform Twitter. Under Musk's management (or, some would say, mismanagement), the company, inexplicably renamed "X", lost nearly 80% of its value within two years.

At the start of 2024, Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle business, was valued at $58.3 billion. By the end of the year, its value was estimated at $43 billion, a drop of nearly 26%. Although Tesla's decline may have been partly fueled by Musk's reputation as a bullying goon involved in right-wing extremist politics, the ugliness of the Cybertruck, along with a series of vehicles fires and explosions, didn't help.

Musk also owns the Boring Company, a tunnel construction service notable for impractical proposals and failed or abandoned projects.

SpaceX is another Musk business, a space exploration technology company. Although the company's failed launches and rocket explosions have attracted attention, it has also succeeded in many of its ventures, which include cargo delivery to the International Space Station. SpaceX's rapid success was built on financial support from the U.S. government, in the form of lucrative federal contracts and grants.

Another Musk venture is Starlink, an Internet satellite service, hated by many astronomers for blocking our view of the stars. Starlink has had many satellite malfunctions and failures. As an Internet service, it is expensive, and has a reputation for poor customer support. Musk has also been accused of using Starlink in attempts to manipulate global politics by making it either available or unavailable in different areas. As a proponent of vicious and disproportionate revenge, Musk used his influence with America's Republican administration to terminate funding for USAID, an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, thus cutting off food, medicine, and shelter for millions of needy people, apparently as punishment for the agency's questioning its relationship with Starlink.

Neuralink is a company attempting to build implantable brain-computer interface systems. The company has been criticized for the deaths of primates used in its experiments. Following false statements about the deaths, a national physicians group asked the SEC to investigate Musk for possible securities fraud.

Musk formed a supposedly temporary organization known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which masquerades as a U.S. government department. The formation of new departments requires the approval of Congress, which DOGE did not receive. Although its stated purpose is to find and eliminate government waste, DOGE's most visible activity has been the infiltration of government agencies and departments for the purpose of gaining access to computer systems and allegedly harvesting cititzens' financial and medical data. Despite consensus that DOGE's activities have been illegal, there has been no intervention by law enforcement. Musk has been accused of staging a coup and attempting to completely destroy the U.S. government.

Elon Musk was born to a wealthy family in South Africa in 1971. In 1989, he emigrated to Canada, where he became a citizen. In 1995, he and his brother Kimball moved to California. Kimball has publically admitted that they were illegal immigrants. Somehow, Elon acquired U.S. citizenship in 2002.

NASDAQ on X/Twitter’s Valuation Decline
Tesla Fire lists 232 incidents.
A Forbes contributor compares the Cybertruck to broccoli
Can we please let the Boring Company die already?
How Federal Grants and Contracts Helped Elon Musk Reach New Heights
Alleged USAID Probe Into Starlink Raises Elon Musk Conflict Concerns
Neuralink faces federal inquiry after killing 1,500 animals
Physicians Group Asks SEC to Investigate Elon Musk for Securities Frau
What will it take to stop Elon Musk and DOGE?
Wikipedia article on Elon Musk