It was 10:30 am Sunday morning and Hurricane IDA was bearing down on Louisiana so I turned on the TV so I could watch the news on its progress. I turned on CNN and all the news was Afghanistan. I turned on MSNBC and all the news was on Afghanistan. I turned on ABC news and all the news was on Afghanistan. I never watch Fox News but I thought I would just check out that too. You guessed it, Afghanistan. I finally turned on CBS News and they were actually covering IDA. Here we have a hurricane that is bearing down on the mainland of the United States most of the news outlets were covering Afghanistan. You would think that a storm that will affect the lives of millions of American people would be more important than interviewing the talking head that just want to embarrass our President.

I have always been a news freak. Why? Because I like following history and reading the news is how I can follow history. I just love the internet because I can follow the news without having to watch someone else tell me what is important. I am in control of what I want to read and what I feel is important to the country. News of a devastating hurricane making landfall in Louisiana should be the most important news of the day. Monday morning I turn on my IPad and still almost all the news was Afghanistan. The entire city of New Orleans in out of power and they want to write about what is going on thousands of miles away. There lies the problem with the news. They go for the sensational than what is really affecting the country.

Afghanistan is old news. Trump surrendered to the Taliban. Most of the withdraw of troops was done before Biden took office. If we were going to get equipment out it should have started long before Biden took office. The Trump administration was under orders not to participate in the transfer of power. Now you act surprised that there is a mess. I am not saying that we shouldn’t be helping but the help should have started during Trump and that plan should have been shared with Biden and the country. The real mess is the way the news has reported this one. I love the freedom of the press but I love the truth the most.

We have some real issues that the news should be out in front more than they are. One is the voter suppression or as I like to put is America’s version of Apartheid. Yes, minority rule by the white race. Do you think I am exaggerating? I really do not think I am. Look at history. Voter suppression and racism have always gone hand in hand. This is not a problem that will go away easily. We thought that the problem was solved in the 60s but the white dominated Supreme Court has slowly stripped away the very protections that I would think that they would want to preserve. People’s right to vote. They would not even address gerrymandering which is a way of diminishing a person’s vote. The very branch of the government that is put in place to protect the Constitution will be the very tool that will bring about the downfall of the Constitution. With White Supremacy will come Fascism! You already see the thugs intimidating people on the street just like they did in Germany. These problems are real and the worse it gets the weaker we as a nation will get.

One problem that the press should always stay focused on is the Jan.6^th insurrection. Our democracy was attacked with the intent of overthrowing a branch of our government so they could put a man who was not elected into the White House. That is was, and is, a real threat on our democracy. We have seen the Republican Party put up smoke screen after smoke screen to try a draw the attention of the American people and the American press away from the problem. Our Democracy was attacked and we cannot just forget about it and move on. It was attacked from within. It was attacked by members of the Republican Party and supported by members of Republican Party. Not all of the membership but way too many. The Republicans have actually talked about punishment for those party members that want to investigate the insurrection. They want to punish those members that feel the Constitution of the United States is more important than Trump and the Republican Party. We have a Supreme Court Justice’s wife who may have helped in the planning.  I have seen not real accountability just a lot of accusations and talk of investigations. We need accountability or this Democracy may just fall the next time and there will be a next time.

The American Journalist is and has been the watchdog of our Democracy. In some respect I feel that they are failing at that job too often now. The lying and misinformation from news organizations like Fox News only weakens our democracy. If your democracy is going to fail let if fail because of the truth not because of the lies.