Russian (Times) Collusion [Moviegique]

One of my main gripes about the state of news is that corporate media still dominates the topics of conversation. Even (especially?) those who fight the old propaganda mills of the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, et al, end up spending all their time on the topics those organs are lying about at any given moment.

Since I don't usually do news here I thought it'd be fun to look at a different source of propaganda, RT.COM. (I think that's short for "Russia Today".) Not surprisingly the focus is somewhat different, though not as much as I would have liked. Here are the headlines on the main page:

Chinese magic mushrooms had 'no impact' on me
US Treasury chief Janet Yellen ate the hallucinogenic fungi in Beijing, but insists she kept her composure

If she be trippin', how would we know?

The US is caught in a dilemma with Niger OP-ED
Washington can't sever relations with the post-coup government lest it lose the basis for its military presence in the African country

I've heard this is our next war after the Ukraine peters out.

China and India playing into West's hands - BRICS originator
Divisions between Beijing and New Delhi are hindering the development of a common currency to rival the dollar, Jim O'Neill has said

Well, here's something I've heard about in the news followed by exactly what I predicted would happen.

US hints at Assange plea deal
The WikiLeaks founder continues to fight extradition to the United States to face espionage charges

They'll just hold him in Epstein's cell while they work out the details.

US state to force parents to pay child 'influencers'
Guardians who post so-called 'kidfluencing' content online will now be required to pay their children

Can you imagine a US news source covering laws being passed in Mordovia. Did you even know Mordovia is a Russian state? (I didn't!) Anyway, the US state in question here is Illinois, so you know this law is crap.

US war hawk blames Biden for Kiev's 'stalling' counteroffensive
Ukraine's lackluster battlefield performance is the natural result of Washington's hesitancy, John Bolton has claimed

John Bolton. He's the guy I think of most when I recall the shame of being duped by Fox News narratives. He was the President of "Red Eye".

And, lastly, a feature to take a different look at the end of the Cold War:

Back in 1991, the US tried to prevent the USSR from collapsing - why did Washington want its Cold War rival to survive?

I don't say that I agree with this take. (My own would be that the Cold War was orchestrated at Malta at the end of WWII, and without US support, the USSR would have collapsed shortly after it began.) But I found it at least refreshing to see a different spin on things.

MOVIE QUICKIES

I don't broadly recommend movies because people have different interests and movies themselves are increasingly niche. Last weekend, a little film called Jules came out, starring Ben Kingsley as an older man just starting to show signs of dementia, when an alien spaceship crashes in his backyard.

No one believes him, of course, but he enlists fellow oldsters Jane Curtin and Harriet Harris to help him figure out what the alien needs to get home. Reminiscent of Robot & Frank or last year's Brian and Charles, it's charming, short, tight, great acting of course, and worth checking out if it sounds like your kind of thing.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:03 PM

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