Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.

[Loren Pechtel]

Alternet doesn't vet its "reporters", credibility is quite variable.

I do NOT understand your "hard-on" against Alternet. Is it just another symptom of your derangement syndrome that anyone unhappy that Gaza's children are denied food and medicine must be an anti-Semitic sympathizer of Jihadism? Does their editorial bias favor The Left Wing™? Obviously. Do their stories contain hyperbolic adjectives? You betcha! Welcome to post-rational American discourse.

My problem with Alternet is that there's no quality measure.

And you are framing it wrong--I am very unhappy with what's happening to Gaza's children--but I recognize the deception going on. It's Hamas doing it.

Do they represent actual lies as Truth? I dunno -- You've made that charge repeatedly, but never backed it up with an actual example.

Are they a good source for "objective" news -- whatever that means? It's hard to find objective news in the U.S. With Reuters now paywalled I find Aljazeera to be among the best options. Yes, I know metaphorical spittle will cascade out of Mr. Pechtel's mouth when he reads that claim!

They say what you want to hear. Doesn't make them not a terrorist mouthpiece.

I clicked to Alternet.org just now and saw 74 different headlines. Seventy-four! If nothing else, the Alternet home page presents a concise overview of recent events in the on-going GOP-Trump corruption and misgovernance. I didn't even read all the headlines, but skimmed enough to know they mostly linked to anti-Trump pieces. I suppose you could find fault with some. One prominent headline was "'Gasps across court room' as judge grills Trump’s DOJ." Perhaps the "gasps" were more like "muttering." Did an "unvetted" reporter exaggerate "mutters" to be "gasps"? If so, I suppose that anti-Trump exaggeration should dwarf news about the on-going destruction of SNAP, ACA, the White House, etc.

I didn't click any of the Alternet stories -- watching the Maddow show fulfilled my quota of recreational outrage for the day -- but maybe YOU should @Loren Pechtel . Let me politely suggest that you do so, and present a list of the "errors" you find ... or just ... stifle.

74 different headlines doesn't prove anything. I would presume most of them are reasonably accurate. But the quality control doesn't really exist, you can't trust it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would assume this stems from the issue of China not selling rare earth elements. The best magnets use rare earth elements.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

And once again: the kids shriek "Genocide!" without knowing the meaning of the word and then don't show up to vote. Thus, the world isn't theirs. Not only that, they're the biggest contributors to losing "their world" because they don't f'ing show up.

Virtue signaling.

Shrieking "Genocide" is simple and public.

Paying enough attention to actually make reasonable decisions in bad situations is decidedly not simple, nor does it provide any virtue signaling.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I wonder, when does "connecting the dots" become conspiracy theory or is it just in who is saying it?
She does spin a compelling yarn but they were too few and infrequent for me to give her my time on a regular basis. But I do wonder if I was more amenable because of the source.
Are her connections as tenuous as those from the Fox News box of animal crackers?

Yeah, you have to be very careful with connect-the-dots. It's very easy to deceive with selective reporting of the dots.

 

[Elixir]

The whole thing has a lot of noise to it but does a pretty good job of modeling how well people handle debt--you always pay your bills, in time you'll get above the 740 that's the highest meaningful score.

? Really?
Seems like that is near the default score for someone with no credit at all. They could be rich or poor, but they don’t borrow? Pretty sure that gets you 700-plus.

 

[Elixir]

74 different headlines doesn't prove anything. I would presume most of them are reasonably accurate. But the quality control doesn't really exist, you can't trust it.

The same pressure comes to bear on Aljazeera as on FOX or MSNow; when their audience experiences a disconnect between their perception and what is being pushed upon them, they lose audience.
NONE of them wants to lose audience, and that is the ONLY constraint that binds ANY of them. Including the Jerusalem Post.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Carl Sagan would definitely completely ignore this and believe it's a non-issue!

Trump Administration Removes Report on Missing and Murdered Native Americans, Calling It DEI Content - Oklahoma Watch

The Trump administration removed a congressionally mandated report on missing and murdered Native Americans from the DOJ website, citing compliance with an executive order against DEI. Senators who championed the 2020 law are outraged, arguing the administration misclassifies tribal nations as a...

oklahomawatch.org

They were using AI to hunt anything which could possibly have been DEI. Of course it produced a gazillion false positives.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Carl Sagan would definitely completely ignore this and believe it's a non-issue!

Trump Administration Removes Report on Missing and Murdered Native Americans, Calling It DEI Content - Oklahoma Watch

The Trump administration removed a congressionally mandated report on missing and murdered Native Americans from the DOJ website, citing compliance with an executive order against DEI. Senators who championed the 2020 law are outraged, arguing the administration misclassifies tribal nations as a...

oklahomawatch.org

They were using AI to hunt anything which could possibly have been DEI. Of course it produced a gazillion false positives.

Um not sure if that kind of AI was in use in 2020...

 

[Swammerdami]

Alternet doesn't vet its "reporters", credibility is quite variable.

I do NOT understand your "hard-on" against Alternet. Is it just another symptom of your derangement syndrome that anyone unhappy that Gaza's children are denied food and medicine must be an anti-Semitic sympathizer of Jihadism? Does their editorial bias favor The Left Wing™? Obviously. Do their stories contain hyperbolic adjectives? You betcha! Welcome to post-rational American discourse.

My problem with Alternet is that there's no quality measure.

Do they represent actual lies as Truth? I dunno -- You've made that charge repeatedly, but never backed it up with an actual example.

Are they a good source for "objective" news -- whatever that means? It's hard to find objective news in the U.S. With Reuters now paywalled I find Aljazeera to be among the best options. Yes, I know metaphorical spittle will cascade out of Mr. Pechtel's mouth when he reads that claim!

They say what you want to hear. Doesn't make them not a terrorist mouthpiece.

Are you REALLY saying that Alternet is a "terrorist mouthpiece"? Wow!
Are you gonna back that claim up with something intelligent, or have you just degenerated into a Derec imitation.
(Rereading, I guess that you couldn't "keep your eye on the ball" and confusingly injected a useless response to my parenthetical mention of Aljazeera. We needn't litigate your hatred of Aljazeera in this thread. Just find an Alternet exaggeration as severe as your suggesting Aljazeera is a terrorist mouthpiece. To get you started, NPR gets much financing from USG. Is it a "Putinist mouthpiece"?)

I clicked to Alternet.org just now and saw 74 different headlines. Seventy-four! If nothing else, the Alternet home page presents a concise overview of recent events in the on-going GOP-Trump corruption and misgovernance. I didn't even read all the headlines, but skimmed enough to know they mostly linked to anti-Trump pieces. I suppose you could find fault with some. One prominent headline was "'Gasps across court room' as judge grills Trump’s DOJ." Perhaps the "gasps" were more like "muttering." Did an "unvetted" reporter exaggerate "mutters" to be "gasps"? If so, I suppose that anti-Trump exaggeration should dwarf news about the on-going destruction of SNAP, ACA, the White House, etc.

I didn't click any of the Alternet stories -- watching the Maddow show fulfilled my quota of recreational outrage for the day -- but maybe YOU should @Loren Pechtel . Let me politely suggest that you do so, and present a list of the "errors" you find ... or just ... stifle.

74 different headlines doesn't prove anything.

??? Have I mentioned how annoying your constant barrage of non sequiturs is? The "74" was written to suggest that if you're interested in what the anti-Trump "terrorists" are thinking and/or writing and/or lying about, you can get a detailed list quickly right there on the Alternet home page. 74 DOES prove something! It is more than 73!

BTW, useless or inaccurate news is the norm. The New York Times makes egregious errors. I'll give examples if you "need" them.

CNN shows news that's usually completely useless and irrelevant. Not only don't they connect dots, they don't even report most of the important dots.

CBS produces a useful 60 Minutes segment and its overlords permit the segment to air only outside the U.S.A.

News sources -- like Alternet -- which dare to espouse clear and thorough anti-fascist messages are breaths of fresh air.

I would presume most of them are reasonably accurate.

How would you so presume? When's the last time you actually clicked on an Alternet story?
Anyway, your concession voids any opportunity for me to disprove your prejudice. I could report in detail on why 60 of the 74 articles are reasonably accurate and you'd counter with "What about the other 14?" If you continue this rant, please display a true major flaw on Alternet or stifle.

But the quality control doesn't really exist, you can't trust it.

They link to videos of Washington officials speaking to reporters. Do you think those video are AI-generated fakes? They quote Robert Reich frequently. Do they quote him accurately? Or is quoting him accurately irrelevant since you think Reich is a "terrorist' liar?

Blah blah blah.

Try this one:

'Pathetic loser': Trump spends his Christmas posting over 100 times to social media

On Christmas Eve 2025, President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform and posted: "Merry Christmas to all, including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country, but are failing badly. We no longer have Open Borders, Men in Women's Sports, Transgender...

www.alternet.org

Lies?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Trump just becomes more and more a disgusting individual.

No. It is just how disgusting an individual he is is becoming more obvious.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[ZiprHead]

Donald J. Trump
@realDonald Trump
Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein, gave him bundles of money, went to his Island, attended his parties, and thought he was the greatest guy on earth, only to "drop him like a dog" when things got too HOT, falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him, didn't know him, said he was a disgusting person, and then blame, of course, President Donald J. Trump, who was actually the only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so. When their names get brought out in the ongoing Radical Left Witch Hunt (plus one lowlife "Republican," Massie!), and it is revealed that they are Democrats all, there will be a lot of explaining to do, much like there was when it was made public that the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax was a fictitious story - a total Scam -and had nothing to do with "TRUMP." The Failing New York Times, among many others, was forced to apologize for their bad and faulty Election "Reporting," even to the point of losing many subscribers due to their highly inaccurate (FAKE!) coverage. Now the same losers are at it again, only this time so many of their friends, mostly innocent, will be badly hurt and reputationally tarnished.

But sadly, that's the way it is in the World of Corrupt Democrat Politics!!! Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas! President Donald J. Trump

Someone obviously got a visit from The Ghost of Christmas Crazy.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

ALTERNET is a good starting point to learn some of what's really going on. If nothing else, its home page is full of 80+ interesting links. Below I've appended the links they show right now.

Sorry if I accidentally mangled any of the links. Tell me which article you want read and I'll give a link, even working around a paywall for you. You're welcome.

A whole bunch of links does absolutely nothing to establish trustworthiness.

 

[TV and credit cards]

ALTERNET is a good starting point to learn some of what's really going on. If nothing else, its home page is full of 80+ interesting links. Below I've appended the links they show right now.

Sorry if I accidentally mangled any of the links. Tell me which article you want read and I'll give a link, even working around a paywall for you. You're welcome.

A whole bunch of links does absolutely nothing to establish trustworthiness.

It's a good jumping off point. I mean, you've got to start somewhere. From there the veracity of the information must be judged, not on long held beliefs but by trying to verify the information provided, the reputation of the reporting agency and it's reporter, possible monied interest behind any one dot. It can be a lot of legwork.
My problem is when there are many dots connected as Maddow is wont to do, some of those connections are likely to be tenuous. For me, the more dots there are, the more likely my confidence in the conclusion is going to move toward zero.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

On the one hand I find it hard to make a satisfactory response for Trump's personal flaws. But then on the other hand you have this:

It's not even his personal flaws. It's what he's doing to the nation.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2025/12/04/united-states-steel-to-resume-steelmaking-granite.html?csrc=6398&link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=693258dc3020990001193aed&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawOixRhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFlaTJ1eURVMkhpZmZVTHVNc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHvyfoUfZNzL2EBAkRJoPJdzvkosyCz1uaJxaeZ3lxNZ2NmLeL5whsFpLcpTG_aem_QoRxqwNTLT0fMrMgCknCYw

Should we as American's care more about Trump's personal flaws or should we care about his public policy favoring common sense and middle class prosperity? What really matters to an American....Trump stroking his ego or does it matter how he runs our country? It should be noted Granite City is opening an additional blast furnace hiring on 400 additional jobs which will easily support a family of 4 with a single income. 400 represents only the beginning of the jobs because there are downhill jobs of the US Steel jobs supporting those in the local community. It should also be noted that this plant produces steel which for the most part is exported to other parts of the US and world. That means these workers are producing GNP that helps reduce the US trade deficit.

First you need to provide some evidence of his favoring common sense. Especially be aware of the fact that in the political context "common sense" generally means not paying attention to the details. I have seen no sense from him, common or otherwise. He just breaks things.

And second, you need to provide some evidence of his favoring middle class prosperity. His tariffs hurt everybody. From what I can see of the article it's saying at least some workers will make $150k/yr. 400 workers. At most that's $60m/yr being added--but we are going to spend an awful lot more than $60m/yr in increased steel prices.

And lets look at why that furnace keeps opening and closing: Pollution.

Pollution from metro-east plant may cause 6 to 11 premature deaths per year, report finds

Besides worker sick days and students taking off school, the total health care costs may be between $87 to $161 million annually, the nonprofit report says.

www.aol.com

That $60m is less than the medical costs it's inflicting on the community. And over a career somebody's dying for each of those jobs.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

On the one hand I find it hard to make a satisfactory response for Trump's personal flaws. But then on the other hand you have this:
... utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawOixRhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFlaTJ1eURVMkhpZmZVTHVNc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHvyfoUfZNzL2EBAkRJoPJdzvkosyCz1uaJxaeZ3lxNZ2NmLeL5whsFpLcpTG_aem_QoRxqwNTLT0fMrMgCknCYw

Nobody clicked your peculiar link. Is the rest of your post a quote or a summary?

I clicked it--that's just some parameters base64 encoded. Paywalled, but I got enough to find out about it elsewhere.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The whole point you missed completely. People care about their own prosperity and welfare first. Yes it is self interest but it is how people act. It is also how capitalism survives but also how the middle class grew in the first place. When a manufacturing plant is hiring for real high value jobs for real people, local people see this and take critical notice. At least the liberals can agree more manufacturing is good, that is something you couldn't even get them to agree with 10 years ago. More high value manufacturing means more good local jobs, less trade deficit, and hopefully less government borrowing (since there are more people employed making good money).

Yeah, people care about their own prosperity. Never mind that somebody dies for every one of those jobs you are crowing about.

All the other juicy stuff flying around you think is true could just be the media lying. Like they regularly do to get readership. Their past performance is what guarantees even the slowest voter not to take immediate notice. These semi fiction headlines are not noticed compared to starting a prosperous life and a successful future legacy with your own family.

And all the "good" stuff about Quiet Piggy could just be the right wing noise machine. I am not impressed by the mainstream media--but they are vastly better than the right wing "news". Faux is more than half lies, the rest of the noise machine is even worse.

The link I posted you say you ignored was the best local source I could provide with regards to only reporting just the facts with no editorial comment. I know this was true reporting because I can personally verify what they said and I live in the same location and work at the same plant. (Of course for all you know I could also be a bot or a Russian/Chinese spy myself. But not likely though considering the length of time and post count I have established here.) I might be the stupidest person you have ever met but my reputation here at least establishes I am a real person.

If it's local to you you should know about the cancer coming from those plants.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Ya. No videos even though they used them in court and the court ordered them to use body cameras.

Evil lying sacks of shit.

Shared story

ICE Tells Watchdog It Has No Videos to Release of Chicago Operations

The response to an information request contradicted the administration’s public testimony and raised concerns that it may be trying to evade oversight.

www.nytimes.com

This is how we descend into fascism--not via laws, but by ignoring laws.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The whole thing has a lot of noise to it but does a pretty good job of modeling how well people handle debt--you always pay your bills, in time you'll get above the 740 that's the highest meaningful score.

? Really?
Seems like that is near the default score for someone with no credit at all. They could be rich or poor, but they don’t borrow? Pretty sure that gets you 700-plus.

No, with no credit you don't get a 740. That takes some years of credit history.

And note that credit score does not measure income or wealth, it measures your ability to stay within your limits.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

74 different headlines doesn't prove anything. I would presume most of them are reasonably accurate. But the quality control doesn't really exist, you can't trust it.

The same pressure comes to bear on Aljazeera as on FOX or MSNow; when their audience experiences a disconnect between their perception and what is being pushed upon them, they lose audience.
NONE of them wants to lose audience, and that is the ONLY constraint that binds ANY of them. Including the Jerusalem Post.

There is some demand for accuracy. But it mostly is as you say: about eyeballs. They report what the audience wants to hear. "Honest" journalism stays within the truth, just cherry-picking. Dishonest journalism makes things up.

This also means that in most cases "news" may be pressured into knowingly reporting outright fiction because that's better than not having access to get visuals to report.