American Politics: Discuss and Debate (Page 35 of 57)

I am still masking.

While I have gone to a few restaurants where I felt the spacing and ventilation were okay, I'm still putting on a mask every time I step out of my apartment to put garbage down the chute and I even wear a mask outside even though that isn't necessary. At the office, I unmask in my space but put it on if I step outside.

My mask of choice right now is the Bio Medical Technology KF94 which I buy at a local Korean grocery store. One of the things that I found bizarre and likely due to low information: a lot of people declared that any non-N95 mask was worthless and couldn't protect. That's like saying that any non-Ford car can't start.

N95 may be the most well-known brand and Ford may have been the most prominent car, but prominence isn't exclusivity. Ford isn't the sole manufacturer of internal combustion engines and the electrostatic filtering is not restricted to N95 masks.

KF94 masks are reviewed and regulated firmly by the Korean government and lab tests have shown that KF94s tend to filter about 98 per cent if incoming particles even though they're only legally required to filter 94. KF94 masks have a negligibly lower level of filtering than N95 and KF94 have a boat-shaped side-flap design meaning it sits firmly on the face without having to be tight and can use earloops instead of a headband without creating gaps in the seal.

In contrast, the KN95 mask has proven highly unreliable: tests have shown that they filter as low as 30 per cent in some cases with poor manufacturing; there is no regulatory body to punish manufacturers for making poor KN95 whereas poor KF94 masks can't make it out of the factory. KF94s aren't as tight as N95s, but where KF94s filter 98 per cent, the N95 is only a bit higher at 99 per cent in lab tests, so unless you're regularly walking into operating rooms and biohazard bays, the comfortable earlooped KF94 is absolutely fine for consumer grade use.

But frustratingly... my mask of choice isn't always what I can use. The thing I like about the BMT KF94: it's thin. It's a three layer mask. Most KF94s are four layer, but the BMT KF94 omits a structural (non-filter) layer that's there to maintain mask shape. While the mask flattens to my face more, it's thinner and easier to breathe through. The perfect mask for hot summers.

Unfortunately, supply of KF94 masks is not super-reliable here in Canada. You can always get *a* KF94 but you can't always get the same brand of KF94. My niece's best-fitting KF94 is the Delcure bifold; there was a good five months last year where none could be found. My mother's best-fitting KF94 is the Kleannara; there was a good eight months where none could be found. I currently have about 40 BMT KF94s... but I'm saving them for the summer and wearing a four layer (sigh) ZeroGuard KF94 instead.

In my mother's case, I've bought about 12 months' worth of Kleannara and once a month, I pass through a Korean grocery store, I spend another $6 USD on another six Kleannara masks for her supply, hoping to stay somewhat ahead of the next shortage.

(Anyone who wants KF94 in America can buy them off Amazon. Good Manner has had good reviews: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HRSSTXR/ref=emc_b_5_t )

So what's the prevailing thought about how the masks with earloops aren't effective?  I think I've heard that you have to have the ones that go around the back of your head to have the right seal.  I don't know if that's true.

I still use the KN94s that ireactions recommended a while back but that thought has nagged me since I read about it.

I think the problem with Biden: he is incapable of retreating and admitting that he made premature judgements or that he needs to change direction. In 2021, Biden declared that anyone with two doses of an mRNA vaccine could go mask free. He didn't update or reverse when Delta and Omicron hit; he's still maintaining that vaccination magically means people won't get sick when the reality: vaccines have lost effectiveness in the face of new variants and rather than prevent infection, they are now serving to help people get better after they get sick.

Do you mind me asking which vaccine you got? I'm not a doctor. I'd be curious if the issue was mRNA vaccines and if you might get better results with a more traditional viral vector vaccine like Johnson and Johnson or Novavax. I'd say that vaccines have proven safe for the general population. But you're not a population, you're a specific person and while a vaccine may be safe overall, there are going to be outliers.

AstraZeneca in Canada had four deaths due to a rare 1 in 200,000 blood clotting disorder; it was removed from use even though most politicians got AstraZeneca for their first two doses at their photo op vaccinations. I have one friend who has such extreme reactions to any and all vaccinations in addition to his underlying health issues that he hasn't gotten any doses. I have another friend whose immunodeficiencies mean her doses have to be spaced out: four months between her first and second dose and getting her third under strict medical supervision while being unsure about a fourth.

I would say nine-point-five out of ten times, vaccines aren't going to cause anyone any issues. Kari Wuhrer once said that that nine-point-five out of ten women never experience breast implant encapsulation and sudden hardening and warping of their implants and that she was unfortunately on the wrong side of that statistic. Outliers exist. I'm sorry you had such a bad reaction.

Let me know if I can send you any KF94s.

New Omicron subvariants are coming. They may be immune to antiviral drugs. Immunity from previous infections may offer no aid at all.

It looks like the bivalent booster will likely prevent hospitalization and death, but not infection, as was the case when the Delta and initial Omicron variants hit just as the original vaccines were rolling out. However, for optimal protection, we may need a second dose of the bivalent booster within a few months of the first bivalent dose.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03157-x

There is a very simple countermeasure against Omicron, against any subvariant, against any future variant. It's cheap. It's effective against all viruses and bacteria. It's an electrostatic mask with a good seal. N95, KF94, ASTM or something comparable. Boat shaped or bifold. Or 2D surgicals with cordlocks.

If mask mandates were reinstated and enforced on public transit, in offices, in shopping centres, in grocery stores, in movie theatres, in performance venues, we wouldn't be seeing all these mutations and variants; the virus would have far fewer roads on which to spread.

It really is that simple.

Thank you for the offer on the KF94s.  I have quite a bunch of 3M 95s.  Your posting on here about Mask Nerd helped.   Heck, you're Sliders upscaling experiments helped quite a bit during rough patches over the last couple of years. 

I have considered getting an FFP3 for medical settings or high risk settings. I should probably do so.  I have not gotten around to it but should.   

With regard to the topic of vaccines, it's too emotionally charged of an issue for me to say all that much, in a way that will be 100 percent productive.

I saw No Way Home and Dr Strange at midday screenings during the work week.  There were some people but with the ability to choose my own seats, I was able to avoid people and enjoy the experience.

Because of busyness in my life, I didn't see Thor in theaters.  I think I might try and see Black Adam in theaters but I don't know.  I would like to see Black Panther in theaters next month.

I've always had a sort of appreciation for the Halloween franchise having seen every one of the Michael Myers movies.  But I don't think it will make my theater-going cut.

********

Is everyone eligible for the new variant-specific booster?  I think because of lack of information, I assumed it was only for high-risk and older people.  Is it available for everyone?

I have just had to settle and compromise when it comes to masks.

My mother's been tough to mask. She has a very flat nose bridge. Most masks don't seal well on her face; they hang half an inch off her face at the top, they leave huge gaps. Only the Kleannara KF94 boat shaped mask (98 percent filtration) and the Delcure KF94 bifold sit well. Delcure's been hard to find lately. Kleannara has been plentiful, but there's another problem: in the summer, she says she can't breathe through a Kleannara due to hot air. This four layer mask (water resistant layer, meltblown electrostatic layer, structural layer, skin friendly layer) is too thick for her, hot air gets hotter passing through this thick layer and she can't breathe enough.

In the past few summers, I've settled for having her wear ASTM Level 1 surgical masks. She found the three layers (fluid resistant/electrostatic/skin friendly) breathable. They left gaps at the nose and on the sides because they're a 2D shape for a 3D face. But with cordlocks to tighten up the earloops... well, the side gaps were gone, but there was still a bit of a gap on the sides of her nose.

I told myself that the gaps were mostly sealed and that she'd be fine with the 95 per cent filtration of ASTM L1... but I suspect that was wishful thinking. Most surgical masks, due to the gaps at the cheeks and around the nose, filter around 60 percent of particles due to the leakage. Likely, the surgical was filtering maybe 70 - 75 per cent with the gaps around the nose. It wasn't ideal, but it was the mask that my mother was able to wear from June to September. But it still worried me.

In 2020, Korea temporarily banned exports of KF94 masks. The company Air Queen started manufacturing a "nano"
a boat-shaped, KF94 style mask for international sale, but they didn't submit it for KF94 approval and didn't use KF94 materials. The Nano doesn't use electrostatic material to catch particles. Instead, the Air Queen Nano uses nanofiber material that is thin but densely interwoven to catch incoming particles; a net as opposed to a magnet.

The Air Queen Nano is thinner than KF94s and even surgicals and the company boasted 97 per cent particle filtration. Actual tests from mask experts, however, revealed that the Air Queen Nano actually filtered 87 - 90 percent, a bit lower than the average 98 percent filtration of KF94s and the 99.9 percent filtration of an N95. In 2020, with N95s expensive and rare and KN95s unreliable and with the most common mask being non-filtering cotton cloth, the Air Queen seemed like a godsend. In 2022, I find it inadequate and ridiculously overpriced ($1.20 - $2.50 USD per mask when you can get a KF94 for 75 cents each).

But, worried about summer in eight months' time, I bought a small quantity of Air Queen Nano masks and... they fit my mother's face really well, just as well as the Kleannara. And they feel as thin as Kleenex. My mother will find it  breathable in the summer. The lack of gap around the nose thanks to the boat shape means it seals better than the surgical ever could. But the Air Queen Nano filters 87 - 90 percent, a drop from the Kleannara KF94 filtering 98 percent.

I've bought my mother enough Air Queen Nanos for the summer. These are her summer masks now. They're not the best and I would never wear one myself or encourage anyone to buy them... but they're the best that my mother can wear.

I got my bivalent booster yesterday and MAN, it knocked me on my butt.  I felt worse than I did with the second original shot or the regular booster.  Chills, fever, fluish symptoms.

But still VERY MUCH worth it and VERY grateful to have received it.

It's funny you say that - my mother said the same thing.  While I had a fever, exhaustion, and a little bit of stomach discomfort (wouldn't characterize it as nausea), my mom said she didn't feel anything.  Her cousin lost his sense of taste temporarily.

So she wondered if she got the wrong shot.  I told her that different people have different reactions and not to worry about it.  I don't know if that was the right answer, but she felt better.

I also feel better.  My arm is still a little sore but I feel like I'm on my way back.

A lot of people will get a COVID vaccination with no perceptible reaction. The vaccine is still working; the immune system of these particular people are is able to incorporate this specific dose of vaccine without raising the 'volume' of the body's defense mechanisms. However, in my case, the pharmacist did warn me that I wouldn't be getting the same protection of a booster as people who waited six months rather than 3.5..

So Trump is running in 2024.  I don't see how this isn't a good thing for Biden (or whoever runs in 2024).  If it's Biden vs Trump, I think people will vote for the same person they voted for in 2020.  I can't imagine anything in the last two years would indicate that people would've changed their votes.

But for Trump's side, he has to beat DeSantis first.  And I think that makes things so much harder.  Trump will either p*ss off a bunch of DeSantis voters (who I assume would stay home rather than vote for Biden) if he wins, or DeSantis beats him.  And if DeSantis beats him, I think there is no chance that all Trump's voters get in line.  I think you'd see record numbers of people write in Trump, or Trump would just keep running.

Because I think there's no chance Trump would accept that he lost a primary.  It'd be like 2020 except he'd just keep running afterwards.  I don't know how that would even work with the Republican Party - they obviously can't have two candidates.  I think the GOP's best bet is to tell DeSantis not to run, but that might make him want to run even more.

Either way, even with Biden being historically unpopular, I don't see how Trump running doesn't significantly help him.

Rewatching Season 4 of SUPERGIRL. It is clearly the best season, viewed as the season where Supergirl fights an analogue of the Trump administration.

But watching it today, it's clearly Supergirl versus Informant. SUPERGIRL even hired one of Informant's favourite actors, Sam Witwer (whom Informant loved from BEING HUMAN), to play the role of Informant as a refugee-despising racist cult leader.

All things being equal, the character of Manchester Black, an enraged refugee turned vengeful terrorist who has given into his hatred and fury, struck me as the equivalent of 2015 - 2020 era ireactions.

In the third season of SUPERGIRL, the introductory voiceover for the show changed. Where Kara once opened her story with being sent to Earth in a pod, Kara now started with, "I'm from Krypton. I'm a refugee on this planet."

I just know that made certain people cry.

But he’s MacGyver!  He can stop a nuclear meltdown with a chocolate bar! 

On a side note: I've stopped wearing masks outdoors. I feel that the risk of outdoor transmission is negligible, so I'm now only putting on a mask before walking into a public indoor space like a grocery store or (on occasion) a movie theatre. I've been going to some restaurants, but I bring with me this USB-powered air purifier that I plug into a mobile powerbank. I also put this gel up my nose that's supposed to catch viruses before they infect the respiratory tract. I'm looking forward to a summer of not wearing masks outdoors and not having to search for a thin, summer-wearable mask.

I recently signed up for this medical trial to get a sixth dose COVID vaccine booster, but I'm not sure if they'll call or if I want to potentially get a placebo dose.

The general CDC guidance is that you need to wait (a) 10 days after the first positive test and (b) for the testing to be negative.

The updated CDC guidance is that you can wait (a) 5 days after the first positive test and (b) for the testing to be negative. This updated guidance struck me as more about fewer sick days being paid out than reducing contagion.

My personal threshold: recently, my niece had COVID-19, but because I had responsibilities to her, I went to see her despite only five days having passed. However, I brought along an air purifier to situate in our space and also used the Vicks nasal gel. I did pre-emptively make some arrangements to self-isolate in case I tested positive, but this proved unnecessary.

My air purifier (not necessarily the one you should get, but I have four of these in my condo)
https://www.amazon.com/Kaz-Honeywell-HP … ref=sr_1_9

Vicks nasal gel
https://vicks.ca/en-ca/shop-products/vi … us-blocker

SLIDERS on SD blu-ray if you need a conversation starter
https://www.amazon.com/Sliders-Die-komp … 01JOCMST0/

I cannot stress enough in the name of Quinn's hair gel, Rembrandt's afro, the Professor's beard and Wade's leather jacket that the pandemic mitigation opinions of ireactions are not the views of the Sliders.TV community.

I'll actually be posting any and all information about the vaccine trial here for us all to contemplate.

I don't see it happening, I doubt I'll actually get into this trial, but it's certainly interesting to look into it.

What I signed up for: it's apparently a Novavax trial. Novavax wasn't designed with any Omicron subvariants available for targeting, but it's prompted strong antibody response against BA.1, BA.4 and BA.5. I'm not sure it would be superior to an actual BA.4 and BA.5 bivalent dose, however.

I'm a little hesitant about KN95 masks. There is no real oversight on KN95 manufacturing. I could sell napkins as KN95 and there would be no consequences (aside from people not buying them). In contrast, KF94 masks are reviewed by the Korean government and have to filter at least 94 percent of incoming particles and withstand stretch tests for the earloops or the manufacturer will be fined. N95 masks are also reviewed by NIOSH.

It's interesting to me: KN95 masks are five layer masks: an outer water-resistant layer, two layers of meltblown polypropylene filtration to electrostatically capture particles, a layer of hot air cotton to catch larger debris, and a skin friendly layer.

KF94 masks tend to be three to four layers: the water-resistant layer, a structural layer for shape, one layer of meltblown polypropylene electrostatic filtering, and the skin friendly layer. Some KF94 masks omit the structural layer. Any KF94 mask on the market has had to pass filtration tests, most tend to filter in the 97 - 99 percent range. This means that you don't actually need two layers of electrostatic filtering or the hot air cotton. So why do KN95 masks have those two extra layers?

The hot air cotton may be helpful as a structural layer, but it seems to me that the cotton and the two layers of electrostatic filtering are probably the manufacturer using poor quality meltblown material, and having to stack two layers of meltblown filtration on top of the hot air cotton in order to keep the customer feeling like the air is being filtered and willing to keep buying the same brand of mask.

KN95 masks have been on a sad trajectory in my experiences with them. I would buy one great brand, but when buying more of the same, the newer masks would have poor stitching and rip apart at the center or at the earloops when I put them on. Newer batches of the same brand would use less material for the mask surface and earloops: the mask wouldn't fit or rip apart when stretching the loops to the ears. This has happened to me with four separate brands of KN95 masks and I just can't afford to keep buying unreliable masks for myself.

However, some of my friends find that KF94 masks don't fit them, and I've occasionally picked up some KN95 masks for them. And if a KN95 mask doesn't fall apart when you put it on, those two layers of meltblown material in the tent shape are probably better than a leaky surgical mask or a useless cloth mask

But the supply is highly unreliable, or at least it's been for me.

In other news, I recently ordered a water mister. I'm going to put artificial sweetener and water in the mister and create cool, sweet mist and see if I can taste the sweetness when wearing one of my masks. If I can't taste it, I'll know the mask is working correctly; if I can taste it, I'll know there are gaps in the seal.

The mister:
https://www.amazon.com/GIVERARE-Recharg … 08LGLZ8PT/

The Costco masks are interesting. They use a boat-shaped style where the mask puts more pressure on the side flaps and the design doesn't have to grip into the face to get a good seal. Masks don't have to be in the traditional KN95 tent shape to be KN95 as it's a self-declared standard. The boat shape suggests that the manufacturer wasn't just meeting the KN95 identifiers (the shape, the label) but actually trying to develop a good product while meeting the (self-declared) standard. And Costco tends to buy quality products for their stores.

I haven't gotten any fogging up ever since switching to KF94 with the nose wire that folds in a rounded shape over the nose. But whenever I get haircuts, I use a bifold KN95 mask (sigh) because that's a mask where I can use double-sided mounting tape on the inside to attach it to my face.

Even when the KN95 earloops come off for my haircut, the mask stays on. Mounting tape on the inside of the mask isn't effective with KF94 masks because the grip is in the flaps and earloops resting on your face instead of gripping the face.

Mask tape might be better and work with my boat shaped KF94s.

Trump was a symptom of the Obama backlash.  Having a black president deeply angered many people and Trump rode that wave better than the competition.

So the indictment on Trump in New York feels like a nothingburger.  Granted, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know any more details than anyone else outside of the Grand Jury.  Maybe there's something in there that will both lead to a conviction and even jail time.  But most legal experts I've read, even left-leaning ones, think that even if he's convicted, he's looking at a fine and no jail time.

This coming from a very liberal city and a DA that ran on a campaign to get Trump.  Yes, it would be embarrassing to lose, but his job literally depends on him giving it a shot.

But does that matter?  Does it matter if the first case that goes to trial against Trump is a dud?  Or did someone need to go first, and this one is as good as any to accomplish that?  I feel like the Georgia case is the one that has the best chance of doing something - it's a recording and clearly shows Trump was trying to influence the election.  That one feels like a slam dunk, even though I also don't know what the penalty would be for that.

Also...does it matter?  Will Republican voters turn away from Trump post-indictment?  Some will.  I don't think everyone would.  And we've become so "anti-them" that I don't know if even matters who people are voting for.  Just who they're voting against.  If this were Hillary Clinton running as a republican against Joe Biden, would 75 million Republicans vote for her?  I think maybe they would.

Trump can run while under indictment.  He can serve as president from jail (although I wonder how that would even work with the secret service having to protect him).  He could also be convicted, go to jail, and constitutionally have to be released so he can be president.

Does any of this matter?  I really don't know.  Trump's campaign isn't really going great, depending on which polls you believe.  He's either crushing DeSantis or he's getting crushed by him.  Doesn't seem like it's one or the other.  And I think DeSantis just needs more name recognition and he'd beat Trump.  And if he does, Trump will do something to sabotage DeSantis' chance. 

I think that's the best way Biden wins.

I don't know where I'm going with this.  I just can't get excited about this indictment.  Having a mugshot of Trump could be funny.  Will he be mad?  Will he do that stupid smile of his?  Will he try to look tough?  That's the only part I care about.

Here's a take from Salon.com.

I'm not qualified to evaluate how accurate it is because I used to take Five Thirty Eight seriously and those predictions of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden having blowout victories and strong congressional majorities were either totally wrong or mostly wrong. Many times stung, forever shaken; I am as unsteady as Wade Welles while infected with the Q.

A wide range of former prosecutors think Alvin Bragg's case is pretty strong, just difficult for the average non-lawyer to understand.
https://www.salon.com/2023/04/10/eviden … st-donald/

Trumpist and former attorney general William Barr thinks Alvin Bragg's case is pretty weak but that there are plenty other cases against Trump that aren't weak at all.
https://www.salon.com/2023/04/10/very-s … ents-case/

**

I feel like our current political discourse has become overcomplicated, concerned with partisan loyalties and various esoteric identifiers and turns of phrase to the point where Tracy Torme saying "SLIDERS will never be woke" could have conceivably killed his revival efforts (damn it).

I would like to offer a simpler framework to evaluate the morality of any viewpoint. Instead of deciding whether or not SUPERNATURAL is sufficiently in-tune with our personal religious beliefs, instead of debating whether or not SLIDERS needs to be "woke" -- why don't we just turn to "Prince of Wails" and say:

Under this framework... there are certain things that I find I would have to let slide despite my finding them distasteful. On masks and vaccines: I suppose, if you are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, you have the liberty to not wear a mask and not get vaccinated in order to pursue your happiness.

However, this framework doesn't give you the liberty to falsely claim that masks cause you to poison yourself with carbon dioxide or that electrostatic material doesn't catch viral particles, nor do you have the liberty to falsely claim vaccines cause heart failure or mount an immune response; such false information is attacking the health and well-being of others and therefore harming their liberty and happiness.

Under this framework, we need to ask ourselves: are we informed by awareness that the achievements and humanity of people of colour have often been appropriated by Caucasian men of privilege and power?

Are we aware that Elvis Presley popularized a musical style created by black musicians like James Brown simply through Presley performing their styles while being white? Are we informed by the awareness that people who are visible minorities or women or gender-nonconforming are stigmatized and dismissed by societal prejudice? Are we acting to either rebalance that injustice or not make it worse in order to uphold their inalienable human rights?

I'm not saying "Prince of Wails" is the pinnacle of political analysis. It suggests that democracy is an American invention, somehow dismissing the French Revolution, Britain's own Bill of Rights and transference of power from monarchy to a parliament. However, it has the benefit of being straightforward and relatively easy to remember.

Do we believe that human beings are created as equals? Do we acknowledge James Brown as the godfather of soul?

I cannot stress enough in the name of Tracy Torme's typewriter, Robert K. Weiss' robots, David Peckinpah's cowboy hats, Marc Scott Zicree's SPACE COMMAND costumes, Keith Damron's lunch receipts and Bill Dial's Solitaire scores that the opinions of ireactions are not the consensus of Sliders.tv.

We go through this nonsense every time the debt ceiling has to be raised.  You might recall a few years ago a senator from Illinois said "Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."  He went on to a job with far more control over spending but did nothing to slow it down.

Well, I think we need to have a conversation in this country about what the debt actually is.  I'm not advocating for unlimited debt or anything, but I think there's a consensus among Americans that the debt is controlled by China or foreign interests.  When that's not the case at all.

I do not understand how Joe Biden sleptwalked into this debt ceiling mess.

Some commentators I like have said that Joe Biden is pretty good at being president.
https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/3/1/2 … ala-harris

I think he's been mostly okay with some moments of incompetence and overestimating what his administration could pull off (Afghanistan). However, he has somehow been asleep at the wheel of a debt ceiling crisis that he has had warning of since 2011. Republicans learned in 2011: they could hold the debt ceiling hostage and exact massive concessions. Which meant that when Biden held both the House and the Senate before midterms, he had to get the debt ceiling raised. This should have been a priority from the moment he stepped into the White House in 2021.

For Reasons, he did not push for it. Those Reasons are mostly politics and optics.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/politics … index.html

Also, at the time they were gearing up to even talk about it, holidays were near.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/2 … n-00097925

I like Biden more than I care to admit, having been horrified by his candidacy at first. I fully confess that I am a sucker for political PR about being nice to people. But campaigning isn't governing. And this? This presidential malpractice. Joe Biden had 12 years to think about this moment and he somehow ended up pretty much where he was last time. A "pretty good" president would have dealt with this before the end of 2022 instead of letting a minor inconvenience become a crisis.

It's in the same spirit that I am currently exploring new options for this community in the event that future PHP updates render the Bboard software unusable.

The Afghanistan assessment being "terrible" is republican propaganda. The debt ceiling "crisis" is entirely manufactured by republicans and is not the fault of Joe Biden and they (republicans) are the ones holding our country hostage. Trump [insert at least five flaming words that would get me banned from this forum] is the one who created the deal that let jailed Taliban leaders out. Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David. Trump is the one who facilitated the entire takeover of Afghanistan after the withdrawal. Biden saved over 100,000 lives with the Afghanistan withdrawal, making it one of the most successful withdrawals in history. Trump couldn't save five lives if he tried. Rethuglicans focus on "oh Biden cost the lives of 13 soldiers" rather than "Biden saved over 100,000 lives in the withdrawal" because of some racist, misguided and outdated America First policy.

I guarantee you that Joe Biden is far better at everything in this presidency than the general right wing propaganda would have everyone believe.

The problem is that now CNN has a right wing bigot at the helm of its news station and that drives the narrative. So we have Twitter with a right wing bigot billionaire who owns and incompetently runs it, CNN with a right winger in charge, leaving only MSNBC and smaller random local affiliate news as the real news station of choice that spread actual fact. So the facts get largely lost in the overall narrative web of lies.

We need another competing media ecosystem that tells the truth, the entire truth, and nothing but the truth, rather than the manufactured spin on it that the rethuglicans push from their hilltops.

To be fair, MSNBC is slanted to the left.  Not as bad as Fox but it also runs news that appeals to those on the left.  There's more complete charts than this, but this is a good one: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

I say this as someone with a journalism degree that watched a lot of this stuff happen in real time.

As the chart shows, it isn't about accuracy.  It's about slant.  Slant can obviously be editorial, but it can also be selection of stories.  If an illegal immigrant were to commit a mass shooting with a gun obtained legally, Fox news and MSNBC would tell the story differently.  Fox News would report that he was an illegal immigrant with a violent past that was allowed into the country.  MSNBC would talk about how stricter gun laws would have prevented the man from getting the gun in the first place.  Both might be accurate, but the choice of which story to tell is the slant.

There are down-the-middle news outlets, but a lot of people (myself included) like reading/watching news that appeals to them.  I find myself reading stories from questionable sources because they imply all the bad things that are about to happen to Trump in his legal troubles.  I usually have to remind myself what source I'm reading.

To me, it's like watching sports.  I don't like listening to national sports media because there isn't enough focus on the teams that I like.  Local sports radio is slanted more towards the teams I watch, but the personalities on those stations are also fans of the team.  So there's a built-in bias both from them and from me.

You can also have an NFL game broadcast where both teams' fans will complain afterward that the announcers were obviously rooting for the other team.  Both sides heard the exact same thing, but they each interpreted it differently because of their inherent biases.  I think this happens with political coverage too - something that might actually be down-the-middle might seem right-wing focused to me because my own biases lean to the left.  Down the middle to me is slightly left. 

Not criticizing.  Just adding to the discourse.