CSPAN3 is the Best

[MyTeamIsOnTheFloor]

They've been running some great history reels on weekends.

Just now, they ran the 5/12/70 “show” by 5 Senators, including McGovern (who would soon landslide-lose to Nixon in the Watergate election) promoting the “Amendment to End the Vietnam War”

It was a week after the Kent State shooting. There was no such thing as “equal time” then - the President had a true bully pulpit. So they bought TV time to try and talk their constituents into, in effect, raising enough pressure on the Senate to pass the amendment reversing the damage done by LBJ and the Tonkin Resolution - and returning to Congress the sole power to declare war and send troops. (Only guy touting such a policy these days is Rand Paul, but discussing the Constitution in the Senate these days just gets you pilloried on CNN.)

The bill failed 55-39, in part because even some Democrats (on the heels of JFK and LBJ) thought a President should be given some leeway to implement the policies that elected them. But the fuse had been lit. “Vietnamization” was on its way to the ash heap. “Equal time” was coming. And seeing the proposal voiced to “get out and limit our support to financial” (which was a lie - we pulled the financial rug out too - the “bug out” was complete and shifted the Cold War back to Europe and the nuke sites) was a reminder that politicians only lie when they speak.

And watching Senators beg for support (“sign our petition” - “send money”) on a paid ad (which ran opposite Walter Cronkite CBS News, irony) was interesting. No talking heads faking news - casting thier politics as facts. Just bald raw footage of a scripted conversation between Senators.not even a moderator.

I miss the days when a Senator understood they worked for the people, and what the people felt and believed mattered, and was not just a political inconvenience to be overcome.

Anyway, watch some C-3. Facts on TV unadulterated by talking heads are a welcome memory during a pandemic isolation.

 

[Univee2]

They've been running some great history reels on weekends.

Just now, they ran the 5/12/70 “show” by 5 Senators, including McGovern (who would soon landslide-lose to Nixon in the Watergate election) promoting the “Amendment to End the Vietnam War”

It was a week after the Kent State shooting. There was no such thing as “equal time” then - the President had a true bully pulpit. So they bought TV time to try and talk their constituents into, in effect, raising enough pressure on the Senate to pass the amendment reversing the damage done by LBJ and the Tonkin Resolution - and returning to Congress the sole power to declare war and send troops. (Only guy touting such a policy these days is Rand Paul, but discussing the Constitution in the Senate these days just gets you pilloried on CNN.)

The bill failed 55-39, in part because even some Democrats (on the heels of JFK and LBJ) thought a President should be given some leeway to implement the policies that elected them. But the fuse had been lit. “Vietnamization” was on its way to the ash heap. “Equal time” was coming. And seeing the proposal voiced to “get out and limit our support to financial” (which was a lie - we pulled the financial rug out too - the “bug out” was complete and shifted the Cold War back to Europe and the nuke sites) was a reminder that politicians only lie when they speak.

And watching Senators beg for support (“sign our petition” - “send money”) on a paid ad (which ran opposite Walter Cronkite CBS News, irony) was interesting. No talking heads faking news - casting thier politics as facts. Just bald raw footage of a scripted conversation between Senators.not even a moderator.

I miss the days when a Senator understood they worked for the people, and what the people felt and believed mattered, and was not just a political inconvenience to be overcome.

Anyway, watch some C-3. Facts on TV unadulterated by talking heads are a welcome memory during a pandemic isolation.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Don't be a stranger and hurry up with this week's newsletter.

 

[i'vegotwinners]

They've been running some great history reels on weekends.

Just now, they ran the 5/12/70 “show” by 5 Senators, including McGovern (who would soon landslide-lose to Nixon in the Watergate election) promoting the “Amendment to End the Vietnam War”

It was a week after the Kent State shooting. There was no such thing as “equal time” then - the President had a true bully pulpit. So they bought TV time to try and talk their constituents into, in effect, raising enough pressure on the Senate to pass the amendment reversing the damage done by LBJ and the Tonkin Resolution - and returning to Congress the sole power to declare war and send troops. (Only guy touting such a policy these days is Rand Paul, but discussing the Constitution in the Senate these days just gets you pilloried on CNN.)

The bill failed 55-39, in part because even some Democrats (on the heels of JFK and LBJ) thought a President should be given some leeway to implement the policies that elected them. But the fuse had been lit. “Vietnamization” was on its way to the ash heap. “Equal time” was coming. And seeing the proposal voiced to “get out and limit our support to financial” (which was a lie - we pulled the financial rug out too - the “bug out” was complete and shifted the Cold War back to Europe and the nuke sites) was a reminder that politicians only lie when they speak.

And watching Senators beg for support (“sign our petition” - “send money”) on a paid ad (which ran opposite Walter Cronkite CBS News, irony) was interesting. No talking heads faking news - casting thier politics as facts. Just bald raw footage of a scripted conversation between Senators.not even a moderator.

nd believed mattered, and was not just a political inconvenience to be overcome.

Anyway, watch some C-3. Facts on TV unadulterated by talking heads are a welcome memory during a pandemic isolation.

I miss the days when a Senator understood they worked for the people,
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what days were those??

on a related note, this wasn't a volunteer army.

what the non old people don't remember, is that America's young males were literally kidnapped from their lives with a gun to their head by the US govt, had an M16 stuck in their hands, and were sent to the other side of the planet to do somebody else's killing for them, to carry out some politicians' and corporations' political agenda, not protect the US.

and the voters at the time who had fought in or lived through WWI & II, and Korea, had no problem what so ever voting them there, election after election.

while the blame for that falls on very irresponsible voters who got sucked in by flag waving politicians who didn't want branded as Commie sympathizers, a very complicit US media was also very much to blame.

the US govt, as today, as with Iraq, as always during my lifetime, lied their asses off to keep it going, even after they knew it was unwinnable, as revealed in the Pentagon papers story that was told in the MUST SEE movie "The Post", starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

and not only was the lying exposed, but the vindictive onslaught, including threats of financial ruin to the WaPo and possible prison time for their owner and editor, and the whistle blower, by said US govt, to censor at all costs the lies and sacrificing of lives for political cover, being exposed.

something we see playing out today with the govt's refusal to release records the citizenry should see, and with the vindictive persecution and prosecution of Snowden, Assange, and Manning, to send a clear message to any potential whistleblower thinking about exposing govt wrongdoing or secrets that if they do so, the govt will f them and never stop f'ing them, so don't even think about it.

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on a side note, i miss having CSpan 3. (still have 1 & 2).

that said, while not nearly as party centric as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, CSpan isn't as pure as we'd like to think.

they are mostly funded by AT&T and Comcast, and what funding doesn't come from them comes from the rest of the big telecom companies, as are all of CSpans' distribution.

the noticeable bias isn't so much Pub or Dem, as it is very pro corporate/Wall St/investor class, govt.

 

[UncleMark]

They've been running some great history reels on weekends.

CSPAN -- all three of them -- have been among my favs on the weekends for years. The interviews, the book presentations, the history lectures, all of that is great. With Congress being out of session they're doing a lot of that during the week as well.

 

[HillzHoozier]

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Don't be a stranger and hurry up with this week's newsletter.

If I had a brain, I would want it to look like MTIOTF's.