Breaking Fake News Update (v27)

 Fake News Broke on 11/22/25!

Yep - you read that right: the way to make airline travel is to have people dress up before being crammed into their seats. At least, that's the word from former reality TV star Sean Duffy, our always impeccably-dressed-in-suits-worth-several-months-of-SNAP-benefits Transportation Secretary.

In a video released earlier this week, we see what travel was like in the olden days, compared to what it's like now. And don't get me wrong, the video shows some really heinous behavior by some real jerks. Everyone knows there's more of that kind of behavior now than there was in the distant past Duffy's pining for, and significantly more today than there was before COVID, even if the numbers have dropped. Social media definitely contributes to this - because someone's *always* filming, right? - as does the rude and bullying behavior of others, including politicians like Duffy's boss. After all, if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for the average Joe, right?

Duffy suggests that we're entering a new Golden Age of Travel, which, according to social media responses to his video from folks who fly regularly, is something only a person who rarely flies commercial could say. Is the age of expensive and often cancelled or delayed flights, cramped seats with zero legroom, extra charges for pretty much everything, and yes, airlines defending their practice of up-selling 'window seats' that don't have windows truly 'golden'? 

Duffy apparently thinks it could be, if only people started dressing better and acting better. 

Manners don’t stop at the gate... Let’s bring civility and manners back.

And do that, he suggests, by asking yourself five questions:

1. Are you helping a pregnant woman placing her bags in the overhead bin?
2. Are you dressing with respect?
3. Are you keeping control of your children?
4. Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants?
5. Are you saying please and thank you in general?

And after you do those things and get settled into your flight, don't pay attention to your paralyzed legs, cramped buttocks, sore back, expensive peanuts and beverages, and all the rest. 

Instead, manifest "the things that make travel fun," according to the DOT, which one of our anonymous sources mentions at the end of the BNFU shared above - "the excitement, the relaxation, the cordial conversation..."  

And when you find yourself waiting for your bags, or for your connecting flight, or waiting to rebook your cancelled flight, remember this, also from the DOT: 

Americans already feel divided and stressed. We can all do our part to bring back civility, manners, and common sense. When we can unite around shared values, we can feel more connected as a country. 

That's true, even if that shared value is "I hate airlines!"  Happy traveling!

And as always, when fake news breaks, we'll be here for it!

Wondering on Wednesday 12/23/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

There's so much wondering in my head today. For example:

Who will be in the next round of pardons, clemencies and commutations? 

Why is the United States considering offering immunity to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi royal who's such a good What's App friend of Jared Kushner, for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?

Who will be the next target that the president will attack, now that he's gone after the #2 Republican in the Senate? Any guesses?

Why are people all of the sudden worried about foreign policy? Why haven't they been complaining all along? And why are reporters and politicians lying about it?

Why did the president decide, suddenly, to be interested in the pandemic spending bill once it had been approved, after not paying attention - for months?

If you don't put out cookies for Santa Claus, does he get free returns on your stuff? And does he keep all those receipts? 

How many Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons do you think they get at the North Pole, anyway? And, of course, while I'm typing this, a BB&B coupon landed in my inbox... 

We've been listening to our collection of Christmas CDs (we're old - we don't stream) and my husband said that the "Mayhem Steamroller" tunes would be coming up soon... and can't you just picture THAT Allstate commercial? 

How do we get out of the mess, all of this stuff I posted yesterday?

Why are people STILL so concerned about the House Speaker's ice cream habit? And why do people think that she could fund the stimulus with it? And am I a bad person for buying craft ice cream myself?

How many people will follow the applicable COVID restrictions where they live? How many of the three million+ people who've moved through TSA airport screening checkpoints around the country are going to quarantine when they get off the plane? 

How much does Dr. Deborah Birx regret travelling with multiple generations of her family?

News is breaking that the president has vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, the $740B military spending plan, mostly (he's said in the past) because it allows for renaming military bases, and because it doesn't remove protections for Twitter and Facebook, which have aggressively labelled his posts as fake news - and, really on both, what do they have to do with the military? 

How long will it take for his veto to be over-ridden? Probably not long.  And does Trump know he's the first to not sign the bill in nearly sixty years? And does he consider being the first another notch in his #winning  hair spray bottle? 

Should pandemic-denying Republican members of the House and Senate be getting the vaccine ahead of front line health care providers, the elderly, essential workers, and folks of all ages with pre-existing conditions? Are they really that much more valuable or that much more worthy of the protections than, say, my 90-year-old-with-a-heart-condition Mom?

What are you wondering about?

The Speed of Safety

Beginning in late September 1982, the Chicago area, and in fact the entire country, was on edge as seven people died after taking Tylenol laced with cyanide.  Tens of millions of packages were recalled; people were afraid to take any medicine for a while, fearing they could suffer the same fate.

Less than a full year later, the NY Times published an article about industry-wide efforts to develop truly tamper-proof packaging.

Companies that make over-the-counter drugs and other consumer products are still struggling to cope with the packaging worries that began with the contamination of Tylenol capsules last year, resulting in the death of seven people.

Since then, over-the-counter drug makers have spent $173 million to meet the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration for tamper-resistant packaging, according to the Proprietary Association, a trade group of non-prescription drug makers. 

The article noted some of the challenges in coming up with something that was truly tamper resistant, and also the challenges faced by consumers trying to get into the new packages to use the products. This is still an issue today, I can attest, as I'm currently battling the flu with both prescription and non-prescription medicine, and it takes several minutes of meditation, a pair of scissors, and often a knife to get the meds out of their protective covers. I surely would have a drink to help steady my nerves before attempting to get the pills, if alcohol weren't contraindicated.

We also learned from the Times article that the original deadline for the entire non-prescription drug industry to be 100% compliant with  the tamper-resistant packaging rules was February 6, 1984 - a mere 495 days from the first Tylenol death.

On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid tried - and failed - to light a fuse in his sneaker, hoping to take down a plane flying from Paris to Miami.  On July 10, 2003 - only 565 days later - the TSA issued a press release attempting to clarify what they had been doing with shoe screening for months.

TSA's increased focus on screening shoes in recent months reflects a necessary reaction to information gathered by federal intelligence agencies. But just as TSA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, achieved consistency last fall by clarifying procedures for the screening of drinks carried through security checkpoints, the agency is moving now to make sure its shoe policy is implemented consistently from coast to coast. 

"Our screeners have always worked hard to make sure a 'shoe bomb' does not get on an aircraft," Admiral Loy said. "Now we must make sure our security process is consistent so air travelers know what to expect at every airport in the country." 

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurred on December 14, 2012. The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School occurred 1,888 days later.

Still too soon?

What Scares You More?

The bombs that went off near the finish line at the Boston marathon, or the people who believe that the government did it?  For me, it's the latter - definitely.

I've written before about rabid Palinites who believe that President Obama killed a Navy Seal. But I've never invested a whole lot of energy into conspiracy theories.  I try not to quickly judge people, and admit that I could be better at that than I am today. But in all honesty,  I don't have any use for people who actually believe, or pretend to believe, that our government is running around willy-nilly killing Americans in order to push an agenda.

Particularly when the person who's considered the "killer in chief "is the only one of our elected federal officials who has a term limit and who must get his agenda past Congress.  The idea of him being the one to put this kind of action into motion is beyond absurd.  But he must be the one, because it's all over the Internet, right?

Here's a sampling from comments on various articles at infowars.com, one of the strangest web sites I've ever visited.

I believe this is a “false flag” The end goal to me would be the need for Martial Law. It is tragic that we have such a low stooping government. But ‘rightwing” as Obama and his cronies like to say have more patriotic sense in one little toe, than Obama does in his entire body. This also giving an opportunity to cast doubt or blacken the name of republican conservatives.

If it were Tea Partiers, they would not attack innocents, they would go after politicians and they won’t miss and won’t cause that kind of collateral damage. The fact that it was at an event like this eliminates them as a possibility and certainly implicates the government. Qui Bono? How would this benefit any right wing group or Tea Party? It does benefit the police state. Don’t be fooled folks. 

A supernatural prophetic warning appeared in the BOSTON GLOBE in 2001, a pix of Tom Ridge & George W Bush in front of a flag and what appeared was not an American flag but a swastika - a warning about the fascist spirit behind DHS (that's the Department of Homeland Security) and also that 911 was a FALSE FLAG. Both 911 and this bombing were psy ops to traumatize the public to bring in martial law...BUT I predict there will be a new revolution against this martial law starting in Boston. This happened on TAX DAY - and the Boston Tea Party started the American Revolution against an unfair British Tax, in Boston with Paul Revere's Ride...Also the Illuminati social engineers who want martial law are trying to label patriots as terrorists - they have been doing it -- this bombing happened on PATRIOTS DAY - so it is a psy op to conflate in the public's mind the word PATRIOT with Terrorist - to mind control them to support this slander.  

And there's this, from NaturalNews.com, a site I've never visited before:

The bottom line in all this is that the mainstream media has already decided who's guilty for everything bad that happens in America. It's right-wingers...gun owners...white people...patriots...veterans...conservatives. Sure, there's no logic to it, but the leftist media doesn't operate from logic. It simply picks a group to vilify and goes on the attack. Somehow, they will find a way to blame patriots for the bombings, even it means fabricating evidence and ignoring reality. If for some reason they can't blame patriots because overwhelming evidence points to a foreign terror cell, they will still exploit the tragedy to call for DHS agents on the streets of America, with police state security at every sporting even from here forward. When it comes to the rise of tyranny, the left is blind. They literally can't see it unfolding right before their eyes. In their minds, there's never enough "security" and there's always too many "rights" in America. Their utopia is an Orwellian 1984 military police state where everyone is kept safe because the entire country is transformed into a "Constitution-free zone" where TSA agents reach down your pants and no citizens are allowed to own weapons of any kind. 

And that's from the article, not the comments. Here are some of those:

...actually I refuse to live in fear. Fear is a tactic used by governmental terrorist control freaks to break the American spirit and force us to cry TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS, PLEASE MR. PRESIDENT! If you think Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Aurora, Sandy Hook and now Boston happened without prior knowledge of or direct involvement with the US government, you need to turn Off fox and CNN and stop drinking fluoridated water. Wake up fellow American, Obama is NOT your daddy.

Someone that is not in tune to certain manipulative tactics would just think it is a coincidence. I have also observed that multiple times (coincidence or not) when some false flag attacks happen there seems to be a drill of the same scenario going on in the vicinity that the false flag occurs. 9/11(NORAD Drill) and Sandy Hook(safety drill) to name a few. I see people focusing on the fact, that bomb squads and bomb sniffing dogs are always used at the Boston Marathon(since 9/11). That may be a fact, on the other hand "Drills" being performed on the same day of the event seems to be an ongoing "coincidence". Drills should be performed to their fullest extent prior to and leading up to the specific events so that at the time of the event the parties involved(law enforcement, military etc.) can be on alert and ready to go.  What happened yesterday was a tragedy. Unfortunately these events will continue because they are needed to push a certain agenda. One of them being "National Security", which has become a multi billion-dollar industry. That comment will not sit right with a lot of people but it is a seed that needs to planted. 

And then there's this: all the news you can imagine about how the Sandy Hook killings were orchestrated by the government and the media, or didn't exist or whatever...

Sadly, these people are not alone. In a recent press release, Public Policy Polling offered these delightful statistics:

• 29% believe aliens exist; 
• 28% believe in a secret power elite looking to create a new world order;
• 20% of Republicans, 13% of Independents and 6% of Democrats think Obama is the Anti-Christ;
• 7% think the moon landing was a fake;
• 6% of voters think Osama bin Laden is alive;
• 5% think that Paul McCartney died back in 1966;
• 4% think shape-shifting reptilians in human form control our world.

No, these folks will never be alone.  And if I can possibly help it, I'll never be alone with any of them.

Lovin', Touchin’, Squeezin’*

I have no plans to protest the new TSA “you make me weep, and wanna die” pat-downs or their “you’re tearing me apart” then reassembling me scanners tomorrow. (There’s some detailed coverage of the protest here). The only flying I plan on doing is around the kitchen getting things ready for Thursday, or around my keyboard on a pre-Black Friday shopping mission.  But I don’t believe the protests are a good thing, for a couple of reasons. 

The first reason is that it'll only make it harder for other people (many of whom don’t share the same view as the protesters) to get home to their families, which I think is a pretty rotten way to make a point.  It’s the American way, I suppose — some of our best points have been made on the backs of others.  But when we should be focused on counting our blessings and being generous to those less fortunate than us, making it harder for folks to do that seems pretty petty. 

I also think the protests are wrong.  Initially, when I first saw the scanner image of that mysterious naked man, I was appalled – no way was I going to put up with that!  And I’m not saying I’d like it if I were selected for the pat-down, and I feel sorry for the person who’s in the room when my back-scatter photo comes across the screen.  But the bottom line (pun intended) is I’ve come to accept that we have to do something, and this is what we have, so this is what we have to deal with.

Now, don’t get me wrong: most the actions we’ve taken regarding airplane security since 9/11 have been reactive, not proactive. 

• Some jerk sneaks something explosive on a plane in a couple of plastic bottles; we limit the size and content of the bottles people can bring on board. 
• Some idiot tries to set his shoes on fire; we take off our shoes at security.  
• Some moron sticks a bomb in his Fruit of the Looms; we have our naked, wrinkled, inglorious images displayed somewhere in a dark room, hopefully filled with barf bags.
• The next ‘bomb scare’ will bring about the next ‘security intrusion’ as sure as Thursday is Thanksgiving.

And these steps do feel like intrusions to the American flying public, that’s true.  But isn’t the biggest intrusion of all the slime balls trying to take down the planes?  I expected our government to intrude to protect me from them and frankly if the government did nothing, I’d be up in arms, as would just about everyone else.  

Should the TSA discipline folks who are a little aggressive (or suggestive) in their approach? Yes.  Should they make sure employees are fully trained on all of the options available to passengers? Of course. Should passengers fully understand their rights regarding the new procedures?  Yep. And, importantly, should smart folks be constantly thinking of ways to get ahead of the nuts out there, so we’re not always playing catch-up?  Absolutely! But should senior citizens, nuns, children and others be given an automatic pass? Absolutely not.

If for some reason you prefer not to participate in the new procedures, "it won't be long, yes, till you're alone"...and rather than messing up other people's plans, you could always drive. 
Na na na na na na, Na na na na na, Na na na na na na, Na na na na na
*Journey’s Loving Touching Squeezing lyrics are the property of the authors.