Welcome to 2021. The Real One!

Roger LeBlanc and Mark Cramer (author of Old Man on a Green Bike: Chronicles of a Self-Serving Environmentalist)

During 2020 Welcome To Fakeville! sifted fact from fiction and, at times, crafted fiction resembling fact. We lobbied for change, lampooned the corrupt old guard and never told a lie.

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.” Frederic Bastiat

In addition to self-publishing at Medium.com and Patreon.com, we share our articles with other progressive sites. Our stories have been published at Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine and in the Steady State Herald: Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Mark and I are proud to carve out a critical and independent orbit within the expanding universe of new leftist media. Decentralized. Impassioned. Determined to dig beneath the state-sanitized details and corporate PR that passes for news in the mainstream media.

We also believe a chorus is a better option than an NBC/CNBC/MSNBC cartel or a Michael Bloomberg caliphate or a Fox News frat house. Here are some of the voices we’ve enjoyed listening to in the rising leftist choir:

• Christopher Hedges, Pulitzer in hand, fled the New York Times to write freely for former Los Angeles Times editor Robert Scheer at Scheerpost.com.
• Krystal Ball left MSNBC to co-anchor “Rising” for The Hill TV.
• From Australia, the eloquent and insightful Caitlin Johnstone casts a discerning eye on the machinations of empire in the U.S.
• Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept, publishes non-mainstream coverage of world events that expands upon or diverges from cookie-cutter news outlets.
• Cornel West continues his decades-long excellence in interpreting U.S. politics and offering innovative solutions to the deficiencies of government.
• Matt Taibbi, who gained fame reporting on banker malfeasance that led to the 2008 financial crisis, continues to share brilliant insights into U.S. politics. With Katie Halper, he cohosts “The Useful Idiots” podcast.
• And proving that you can’t keep a good man down, Ralph Nader continues to inspire with his broadcasts of “The Ralph Nader Radio Hour.”

Claiming authority on all matters human and divine is a sure-fire marketing gimmick. That approach has a shelf life 100 times longer than more populist approaches. Just ask leaders of the Catholic Church, who’ve been cashing in on the Supreme Authority scheme since before the world was round. Or check the ledgers of the New York Times, into their second century of turning pomp and circus pants journalism into healthy profits. But that approach also is the leading cause of tunnel vision, for the Supreme Authority and all its acolytes.

“All the news that’s fit to print,” claims the New York Times. How pompous is that? “The paper of record,” counters the Washington Post. Given the complexity of the human experience, that self-declared omnipotence sounds either slyly ironic or totally moronic.

Of course, to join a chorus of truth-seekers, you must demonstrate an ability to get things right. In 2020 Welcome To Fakeville! savaged monstrous and preposterous mainstream reporting on important issues, and we nailed down the truth of various matters:

• “Last Stand in Zombieland,” one of the first WTF! articles (March 2020), detailed how zombies (politicians from both parties who never go away despite their costly failures) dominate U.S. politics. It ends with a list of characteristics of these zombies, which includes “They claim a thing is theirs and then seize it. Like Donald Trump seizing a Syrian oilfield.” The piece ends with a warning to voters to be watchful for “greater thefts to come.”
• “If You Oppose Evo Morales, You Are One of the ‘Bad Guys’ ” (August 2020) argued that the removal of Evo Morales as Bolivia’s president was not a CIA-engineered operation. Through diligent sleuthing Mark arrived at the truth: Morales was defeated by his Trumpian urges and by abandoning his progressive base. Most journalists on the left (in the U.S. and abroad) predicted a CIA-backed military takeover of Bolivia. Mark disagreed and predicted progressive voters would form a strong coalition to win the forthcoming election. Mark’s take on the situation proved correct.
• “Covid-19 Calculations: Innumeracy Revisited” (July 2020) correctly calculated that total U.S. deaths from Covid-19 would be between 250,000 and 500,000 in 2020. The lower number was based on a morbidity rate twice as bad as the flu but a controlled spread. The higher number was based on the Covid deniers’ assertions that the morbidity rate was not much higher than the flu. The only way the Covid nonbelievers could be proven correct according to stats available in July was if the spread was much wider than the flu. By insisting on a low morbidity rate, the Covid deniers were unknowingly (because of their innumeracy) predicting a worse outcome than most health experts.
• “Edward Snowden and the Long Odds of a Trump Pardon” (September 2020) got a few things right. First it predicted Trump wouldn’t pardon Snowden because the threat of Deep State retaliation was too great. More significantly, the piece described the underlying cowardice that prevents Trump from sticking to positions that require him to face great personal or political risk. No Syrian troop withdrawal. No “all or nothing” trade deal with China. And as 2021 arrived, Trump first caved in on vetoing the new Covid Relief Bill if Congress failed to authorize $2,000 stimulus payments. Then, after encouraging his followers to invade the Capitol, he realized his vulnerability to being charged with serious crimes and quickly told them to go home. The next day he denounced his faithful followers and promised Biden would take office with no further incidents.
• “Knee on Neck: From Israel to Minneapolis” (June 2020) highlighted the military training Israel provides to police forces across the U.S. In another unique investigative effort by Mark, we learn that the police force responsible for killing George Floyd received such training and that the knee-to-the-neck assault is a signature move of that training.

In addition to getting somber and tragic details correct, WTF! published articles detailing innovative ways to build better communities, reduce global warming and increase enjoyment of life. In this respect we differ from many other sites even on the left, which usually ignore the toxic effects of GDP growth and buy into the corporate view of a “strong” economy.

In 2021 we’ll strive to broaden our coverage and remain a vibrant voice among the socially responsible new media. We thank you for your support and look forward to sharing our thoughts and insights with you in the new year.