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According to Who, Based on What…

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There’s a lot going on these days and with more activity, comes more information.

The challenge is this: Are you hearing information or are you experiencing manipulation? I’ve decided that even with Fact Checkers and “Community Guidelines,” there’s a phrase I’m superimposing over every resource and talking head…

According to who and based on what?

It’s getting to a point where you can find a headline to reinforce whatever it is that you want to be true. If you go out to Google and do a search for “states that stopped counting,” you’ll find pages of fact checkers, authorities and experts insisting that no state actually “stopped” – that the whole business of counting having been interrupted is absurd.

According to who and based on what?

If you “want” fraud to be non-existent, you can find plenty of content to justify your belief that the whole thing is nothing more than Trump and his supporters refusing to accept defeat.

On the other hand, if you “want” fraud to be an issue, you can find plenty of commentary and complaints to justify your being skeptical and even indignant. But again…

According to who and based on what?

As the days ahead unfold, don’t just listen TO what’s being said, listen FOR what’s being said.

It’s very difficult to champion your cause when you have to simultaneously defend your character. I’ve discovered this is very important. Reason being is that there’s a tactic out there that is deployed when confronted with a truth that can’t be easily refuted. In that situation, the strategy is to assault the character or the credentials of the person speaking and in that way, undermine the credibility of whatever is it that they’re saying. Now, you’ve contained the problem by forcing your opponent to divert their energies from articulating their platform to defending their integrity.

When you hear this strategy being deployed, though there are exceptions, there’s a good chance that whatever is being said by the person being attacked is probably worth listening to.

According to who, based on what…?

You don’t dismiss a problem by saying it doesn’t exist anymore than you create a problem by speaking it into existence.

Headlines are designed to get your attention as well as shape your perspective so even without reading the article, you’re associating a degree of credibility with whatever’s being implied by the headline itself.

According to who and based on what?

If fraud in this election didn’t occur, you have to PROVE that it didn’t happen. And with that proof, you have to be able to explain the statistical realities that border on the bizarre, in terms of the huge uptick that Trump experienced with different demographics as well as the poor performance Biden turned in with his supposed supporters. You have to refute the findings documented in the report the State of Texas prepared that denounced Dominion Software. And you have to do this in a manner that stands up to the tests invariably applied when your audience asks…

According to who and based on what?

On the other side of the aisle, if fraud did occur, you can’t just submit mathematical anomalies. You have to demonstrate their impossibility, you have to prove through sworn testimonies and signed affidavits that oversight was non existent, that dead people voted and the mail in ballots that Biden depends on to claim a victory are not legitimate. And again, you have to do this in a way where people who are skeptical can nevertheless be confident in what’s being stated because you’re able to answer the question…

According to who and based on what?

Enough of the three piece suits and high dollar production. No more attention grabbing headlines and social media “objectivity.” No more Senators quoting the Constitution when it’s convenient to do so and criticizing it when it doesn’t advance their agenda.

According to who and based on what?

You have the floor…

Watch How the Media Reports on Turkey and Syria

_109132731_mediaitem109132505This morning the Wall Street Journal had this as a headline:

Turkey Agrees to Pause Syria Fight

The next sentence read like this:

Turkey agreed to suspend military operations in northern Syria for five days in return for a U.S. pledge to facilitate a pullout by Syiran Kurdish fighters, a deal President Trump hailed as an “an amazing outcome,” but that some critics said mainly fulfilled Turkish goals.”

Here’s the thing…

Since 2002 Syria has been in the military cross hairs of the United States because of their support of terrorism. There are elements within Syria, however, that are opposed to terrorism and want a democracy that respects human rights and religious freedom. These are the Kurds. They represent between 7% and 10% of the Syrian population and have established a self-governing region in northeastern Syria. They are perpetually compelled to engage in military operations, however, in order to fight the Turks from the north and the militant Muslims to the west.

The Turks rule the Kurds within their borders with an iron fist. They’re so intimidated by their Kurdish population that they’ve decided that their Kurdish neighbors in Syria represent an extension of the threat they feel in their own homeland, especially given the way the Syrian Kurdish Militia (called the People’s Protection Unites [YPG]) has been so successful in defeating the Islamic State (IS) within Syria with the aid of US-led multinational air strikes. They see the YPG as being sympathetic to those they define as Kurdish rebels within their own country.

President Trump worked with Turkey’s President Recap Tayyip Erdogan to create a “safe zone” in north eastern Syria. It would be a 20-30 mile area that would separate the border between north eastern Syria and Turkey. The Kurds complied and dismantled all of their military defenses in that area.

Once the US withdrew its support however, Turkey began carrying out military operations in the agreed upon safe zone. In their defense, there are members of the cancerous Islamic State who have infiltrated the Syrian fighters and it is a mess. But it’s because of America’s withdrawal from the area that Turkey was emboldened to initiate military attacks and it’s for this reason that President Trump has been criticized despite his having promised that he would bring our troops home who have been serving and dying in this area for several years.

Yesterday, President Trump returned from Turkey having met with President Erdogan and gotten him to agree to a five day cease fire. During that cease fire, the Kurds are going to move out of the “safe zone” and Turkey will put a halt to any and all military activity in that area. This was done following Trump’s having threatened Turkey with substantial sanctions that would’ve been difficult to endure.

The resulting cease fire is significant. And what makes it significant is that Trump is keeping his promise to withdraw our troops AND maintain a force for good in the region.

But that’s not how the press is presenting it. Had any other Democratic figure been this successful in negotiating with Turkey and the Kurds in Syria, they would’ve been hailed as a brilliant statesman.

Some want to insist that America should remain in Syria and continue spending money lives in the context of a struggle that is rooted in religious and political unrest that has been in place for centuries. Others recognize the futility represented in involving one’s self in an argument that isn’t solved by the logic of democracy or the force of weaponry. Perhaps Proverbs 26:17 should be considered in the midst of all this…?

What Trump was able to accomplish represents the best approach in that it facilitates peace through the strength of sanctions that can be deployed from a laptop and the power of negotiations that can be delivered from a conference table. Mind you, neither one of those two things are effective unless they’re coming from someone what has the will and wherewith all to fight…

…and that’s why Trump can pull it off and that’s why it will work.

But that’s not how the media will present it and it’s that refusal to give Trump any credit that reveals them as the biased and sinister force that they are.

 

For further reading: The BBC has an excellent article that expounds on the history and the details surrounding the Kurds in Syria, Turkey and US involvement which you can access by clicking here.