#thepete #podcast 7/5/16: the #newsmedia + #DonaldTrump = #nightmare

This week on #thepetepodcast: I talk about how this is all the #mainstreammedia's fault and how #Trump has always been a #jerkweed.

Here is a direct download of the 10 minute mp3 of this week's #thepete #podcast, or you can subscribe to #thepete #podcast! ;)

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Let me know what you think of this podcast! Leave a comment here or on Twitter or where ever you found my podcast. THANKS!

You can always find the latest episode of #thepete #podcast at podcast.thepete.com!

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#thepete #podcast for 2/9/16: When lies attack! Trump, Rubio and Jeb! OH MY! (And Hillary, too!)

This week I delve into more things that are just blatantly wrong about the world around us--specifically, things Trump, Jeb!, and Rubio said in the debate last weekend. LISTEN and be as annoyed as I am!

 I recorded this podcast yesterday but only posted it today, so it's technically for yesterday. Ahhhh, I'll get this date-thing worked out--just subscribe, dang it!

Here's a direct download of the mp3, or you can subscribe to this hear podcast! ;) Got iTunes? Sure, we're all forced to! Subscribe to #thepete #podcast on iTunes!

When's the last time you were offended?

thereisnogod:

“You have adults going, “I was offended! I was offended!” Well, so what? Be offended! Nothing happens! You’re an adult, grow up, deal with it. “But I was offended!” I don’t care! Nothing happens when you’re offended. It’s not like, “I went to a comedy show, and the comedian said something about the Lord, and I was offended, and when I woke up in the morning, I had leprosy!” Nothing happens. “I want to live in a democracy, but I never want to be offended again!” Well, you’re an idiot.”

—

Steve Hughes (via cocknbull)

I get around this by understanding people are allowed their own views and so long as said views don’t effect me, I don’t care.  So if I see a show or a comic that offends me, I walk out.  That’s it.  If they’re preaching hate or violence, I might send them a nasty email or post something nasty about them on my blog.  But that’s it.  I’ve got better things to do than waste time being offended.

Which reminds me, I’ve got better things to do that belaboring this point. :)

666cast episode 44 from website666.com: This week hear how America is falling behind in the “setting a good example game”! Protests for democracy erupt all over the world and America has shit to do with it!

666cast episode 44 from website666.com: This week hear how America is falling behind in the “setting a good example game”! Protests for democracy erupt all over the world and America has shit to do with it!

Election Fun In Iran: Unrest of Citizens, Arrest of Loser & Oppression of Media

Fwd: Election Fun In Iran: Unrest of Citizens, Arrest of Loser & Oppression of Media, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

I reeeally wish I had more time to cover this. Basically, Iran had a huge election and the main challenger, a dude called Mousavi lost. Protests have erupted as claims of election fraud have, as well. ABCNews has said that their footage of the scene of protests in Tehran has been confiscated and that the pictures/video coming out of the capital city of Iran were shot with cell phones (ironically, I watched this report on my iPhone).  Meanwhile, rumors are swirling that Mousavi has been arrested and, according to @SashaKane in a Twitter post he may have also been charged with: "...high crimes
and treason against then Country of Iran???"

The reason this is all worth following is because Iran is already on our "Would Like to Invade" list--I think it's in the number one spot, if I'm not mistaken--Ahmadinejad claiming a victory when there are reports that almost no Ahmadinejad voters could be found in Tehran, followed by
oppression of the media, protests and rumors of his competitor's arrest don't exactly make Iran a less irresistible target for invasion by the USG.

In fact, as we all know, weaker justifications for invasion have been used in the past.  Iran becoming unstable might almost be seen as a good reason to invade.

Either way, stuff to be concerned with for sure...

Screencap source: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/mor...

ACORN "Epidemic" Overblown: Relax Republicans!

So, we've all heard how the ACORN voter registration "scandal" is a practical epidemic according to Republicans, including Senator John McCain who said it could represent a threat to the "very fabric of our democracy."

The catch?

It isn't.

At all.

Period.

Full stop.

The end.

ACORN allowed their employees to fake registrations for thousands of voter registration forms. The concern, according to Republicans is that people will show up and vote more than once, using these fake names.

Forget that some of the names were as ridiculous as Mickey Mouse--forget that other names were the team members of the Dallas Cowboys--the thing that is important to pay attention to is that people showing up to vote with another name NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENS. The number of cases in the last four years voter fraud has actually been prosecuted is 120.

On October 17, 2008, Michael Crispin Miller, author of LOSER TAKE ALL: ELECTION FRAUD AND THE SUBVERSION OF DEMOCRACY 2000-2008, gave an interview to PBS' Bill Moyers (transcript here: http://www.pbs.org/…ript4.html ). Here's an excerpt from the interview:

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: It never happens. Let's just talk statistically about this, okay? As of 2007 the Department of Justice had prosecuted - are you ready for this? This number? 120 cases of voter fraud.

BILL MOYERS: Over what period?

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Over, well, this is, like four years. Okay? 120 cases. And there were 82 convictions. Now, I think the republic will probably withstand that attack, right? We're talking about voter fraud that's being perpetrated in the tens. And I can tell you, moreover, that not one of those cases of fraud actually involved a person showing up to vote improperly. They were other kinds of fraud. You know, election judges breaking the law and so on.

So, any time someone brings up ACORN or even voter fraud, ask them for names and dates. If they talk about voter suppression, election fraud or voter caging, then we're talking. There is a lot of evidence of that, according to Miller and, well, me. I've been researching election irregularities since 2002 (2000, really). But I'm not credentialed--I'm just a guy with an Internet connection and a blog.

For more from NYU professor Michael Crispin Miller, check out that "Bill Moyers Journal" transcript or check out the interview he gave Amy Goodman on Democracy Now on October 22, 2008--you can watch or listen to the show or read the transcript here: http://www.democracynow.org/…0/22/votes

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"Why We Fight" Docu-Maker: Voting Is Not Enough

A couple years back Eugene Jarecki made a well-received documentary about why America fights its wars today (which happened to feature a clip of John McCain saying bad things about the military industrial complex). Jarecki was on Democracy Now this morning and he wrote a piece at HuffPo, as well, both hyping his new book "The American Way of War" and hyping what he thinks every American should do about our government.

Seems he thinks voting is great, but it's not enough.

Tell me about it! :P

I'm not very trusting of our election system or our balloting system to expect voting to be enough--but even if the way we elect our leaders was flawless, it still wouldn't be enough. In his interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman this morning (transcript here: http://www.democracynow.org/…erican_way ), goes into more detail:

But I dare say, no matter how busy people are, we all have two things that we can do that are very crucial. One is to figure out, honestly, candidly, that we all have a bunch of time we waste in life watching American Idol, surfing the internet, whatever we do that’s our version of wasting time. And we all have something, no matter how busy we are. It’s sort of human nature. You’ve got to take some of that time and figure out how to direct it toward social change, because if all you do is vote at election time and sort of wake up and go, “Oh, my god, something’s happening; I’ll throw my vote in,” it services your conscience, it services your feel—your desire to feel like you’re doing something, but the actual practical implications of that are that a single candidate, up against the incredibly tangled corruption of this system, is hopeless. And they’re made more hopeless by the fact that we are disengaged, because without a public mandate, somebody like Barack Obama will enter the White House, and, as you see, it’s already happened in the evolution of his policy paradigms, he’ll enter the White House without a mandate. And if he doesn’t have a mandate, those enormous forces of power will give him a mandate. They’ll give him a very clear mandate.

And which source of support will he support then?

What Jarecki is ultimately saying is that we've all got to do more than just "pay the minimum." You know how you've got that credit card bill and you just pay the minimum due every month yet the amount you owe never goes down? It's like that. You can't vote and expect change.

Voting, alone, pretty much guarantees that the system will NEVER change--it, in fact, promises that the system will stay exactly the same, it'll just be run by your guy. So, if you think there's something wrong with the way things are run, you have to do more than just vote.

I do more every day--I blog. I'm broke because I don't make any real amount of money off of this stuff. I do it because I am trying to change things. Part self-expression/part-picking up the mainstream media's slack, I'm trying to help make the world a better place by pointing out things you might have missed.

It's not leading a revolution or championing a law, but it's SOMEthing to help.

So, on November 4, 2008, when you go to vote, don't just pay the minimum. Take it further--start a blog, join a cause, do something to help the world be a better place.

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SPLIT: A DIVIDED AMERICA (2008)

Here's my "pocket review" for the documentary "SPLIT: A DIVIDED AMERICA". Watch my blog for more on this movie.

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely! Any documentary that gets you talking so much that you want to pause the film and talk in the middle of it is a documentary that is doing its job.


Technically any good? I think the film does a really good job of engaging viewers. Minutes in I was hooked and found myself getting mad at the conservatives talking, hence proving the film's point. We're all getting played and that we're ultimately more similar than we are different. I definitely think this film is a great primer for people interested in breaking out of our system of "divide and conquer" politics and media. Anyone sick of the "black & white" of American thinking should see this movie.


How did it leave me feeling? Fired up! It was great to see a film point out that there just might be something wrong with the underlying system--the system that suggests everything can be boiled down to a binary argument. Black or white, on or off, with us or against us, red or blue, Republican or Democrat, our system short changes us by over simplifying our interests and our needs. While I think the film does lean a little toward the liberal side, I do think SPLIT: A DIVIDED AMERICA does a great job of establishing that this is a bipartisan crime--everyone embraces the binary argument in a world of vast variables.


Final Rating? GSN - GO SEE NOW!! FOUR STARS! **** <-- see? There they are! Now go find a copy of this movie, watch it and become more aware of how we're all being played.

Here's the trailer:



Check out official SPLIT website here: http://splitdoc.com/

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STEALING AMERICA ON DVD just $5!!

Stealing America: Vote by Vote, a documentary I helped with is now on DVD!!

The best bit is that you can buy a copy for just five bucks!! That's an even better deal now that the dollar is so weak!!

Please buy your copy here: http://stealingamericathemovie.org/order_dvd.html

Or check out the movie poster and the trailer:



Please pick up a copy of this movie and help spread the word about how flawed our election system is!! Show this movie (or ANY movie about our flawed election system) to your friends and family.

We can't be sure our votes will be counted if things don't change and what good is a democracy if all the votes aren't counted?

Utterz Topic of the Day: USA a Real Democracy?

I'm not so sure we have a real democracy and I'm not sure we ever did. Things are, however, not all bad, but it looks like it's possible that my vote won't get counted.

Read more about this here:

http://www.democracynow.org/…/headlines

And:

http://www.bradblog.com/

Turns out that independent voters (like me) had to check an extra box on the ballot--nice of them to point this out when we voted. Seems like who ever designed this plan was trying to make it just a little harder for us indies to vote. Something little like this can be overlooked pretty easily. Yay.
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