The Finger

[ArtD]

The comic Henny Youngman used to tell a joke about a man named Sam who went to the doctor. "Doctor, my whole body hurts. I touch my foot, it hurts. I touch my head, it hurts. I touch my stomach, it hurts. What's wrong with me?"

"Your finger is broken," said the doctor.

The joke doesn't end with Sam denying his finger is broken, calling the doctor part of a plot, and leaving the office.

But today the U.S. has a leader, like Sam, who says the FBI is broken, the news media (even Fox, lately) are broken, the courts are broken, the election is broken, the doctor are misreporting death to line their pockets, there's a "deep state" plot against him, the CDC is broken. You'd think it would be obvious to everyone who is really broken. But apparently a lot of people don't see the obvious, especially evangelicals who are raised to believe and not to doubt.

[Harvey]

Indeed  Trump is broken. But, you are naive in believing that Biden will seek to address the rise of China in an effective and aggressive manner as Trump was doing. Nothing else matters in comparison.

[bskeptic]

Imagine someone in Cuba saying, "the Cuban government is broken; the Cuban media is broken, the legal system is broken; police are broken; elections are broken"...

Are they telling the truth?

Certainly I think there is big political bias in American media and (at least) parts of academia. I also think it's a mistake to e.g. be using electronic voting machines and not have strict controls on postal voting. The possibility for real corruption is there.

[bskeptic]

And who could seriously deny that there is political bias in the American court system?

The whole reason the Democrats are talking about maybe packing the Supreme Court, is that they think the bias has *now gone against them* at that level.

But at other levels or times, of course there is a liberal bias in play.

Yes, it's a real and major corruption of the system. This shouldn't even be a question.

Now I think where a conservative bias may exist, it's perhaps less of a problem, less likely to be corrupt, because conservatives tend to believe in strict interpretation of the law.

But still, both sides can see the issue with potential bias.

[Harvey]

The Ninth court has been very liberal overall.