The right and the left both have their roles to play, like the "good" and "bad" wrestlers of the WWF or whatever the fuck they call themselves now. There's no partisan angle that is completely defensible in this context, and the corridors of power will not likely see the light of day anytime soon- probably not in this century. If we as a nation had heeded the warnings of past executives (Eisenhower, Carter et al.), we MIGHT have something approaching transparency in our modern political climate, but that's not our reality. Our reality is that the self-sustaining oligarchy will continue to throw the most flammable and attention-grabbing persona in front of us for as long as we continue to swallow it down. Obama, Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Dwayne "The Talc-Chunk" Johnson, etc.

While the population (and more importantly, the severely reduced and limited political class of citizens- read: those with money) enjoys feeling validated by the completely intangible "struggle" of domestic politics, the Machine continues to chip away at China, test new weapons in Syria and Afghanistan, and the Project for the New American Century continues unabated. Neither party or its puppets has any legitimate control over international policy. The current P.R. Resident (see that?) has to show up to the "Ops Room" (Photo-Ops, that is) in a presidential jacket and look appropriately tousled/concerned/saddened/resolute to give the population at large a starting marker for how to feel about murdering many thousands of probably brown people.

The New York Times does not "fix things immediately" any more than Fox News does. The Times has a foul and miserable history of following its slogan: "All the news that's fit to print" and cutting out significant parts of stories, adding fluff, and generally serving as a liberal-side boundary marker for debate. I don't need to go into Fox News, but don't rest your hopes on the Times, or the Post, or any other news source that has a Gannett/Hearst/etc. thumb so far up its ass it could cough to hitch-hike.

I think some of you here understand this, but it's an ugly realization and a difficult truth to face. Do you know what your evil overlords are doing? I do, and fucking trust me when I say you don't want to.

Love to all.