Headlines

Unemployment claims fell slightly to 1 million last wee

Powell announces Fed’s new approach to inflation that could keep rates lower for longer

Hack PBS reporter: Standing for National Anthem is racist

PBS WH reporter sees dog whistle in paralyzed GOP candidate standing up

European Union too slow to help Belarus, Lithuania says

July pending home sales jump over 15% annually in July, as properties go under contract in record time

North Korea releases proof-of-life photos of Kim Jong-un

Boston protest urges vote for Joe Biden because he is ‘pro-life‘

‘It’s playing into Trump’s hands’: Dems fear swing-state damage from Kenosha unrest

Coronavirus live updates: WHO warns Europe faces ‘tricky moment’ as summer turns to fall

BLM riots break out again in Minneapolis after murder suspect commits suicide

Anderson Cooper peddles disproven claim Trump wanted to inject people with bleach

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Networks

Ever wonder what the letters in the alphabet networks stand for? Well, you’re in luck. I recently found an old dog-eared copy of TV Guide and, on page 52: found the following revelations to help us decode these network abbreviations:


CNN — Colluders’ News Network

MSNBC — Maligners Shoveling Noxious Bull Crap

CBS — Crazy Before Sanity

CNBC — Can Not Be Candid

ABC —  Actively Berating Conservatives

PBS — Pretty Banal Simpletons

NBC — Nasty, Bilious Cowards

 NPR — Neo-Progressive Radicals


I was not surprised at these translations ... are you?

Backlash

Aggressive behavior, even if seemingly justified, from one faction almost always spawns backlash from its opponents ... which, of course, ups the ante even further in the first group. This circular antagonism continues until either full hostilities erupt  (like now) ... or PBS does a “balanced” documentary (almost always) slyly shaming the conservative side.

Filters

“And that’s the way it is”  Walter Cronkite

Traditional news outlets, radio, TV and newspapers have acted as our information filters to the world. Their value-added has been the collection, collating and prioritizing of supposed facts about what was happening around us  ... for which they were paid, often handsomely. Basically, we consumers of news relied on these filters to present us a consistent and reliable view of things so that we might take action. And, in exchange, we bought and perused their ink or listened to their advertisers. There was a certain comfort in knowing what slant a particular outlet would bring to their reporting ... and this slant or filter often became more important than the facts themselves.

No matter how much such media claim to be fair and balanced, they always slip back into a point of view. And the only way that consumers can get a rounded view of things is to partake of multiple news outlets ... a time taxing task ... one that too few choose.  So we live and have lived on a politically polarized nation. And even more so now that many additional internet news channels, Twitter, Google, Facebook, blogs, etc. have appeared. This seems a good development, not a bad one. Variety is the spice of life. The shortest route to national consensus would be a state-sponsored  media (like PBS or NPR) as the only news filter ... a bad thing.

Our founding fathers designed our government to be inefficient and contain opposing forces. And so constant conflict within our media is also a good thing. The danger posed is that one news filter (like Facebook) becomes so dominant as to overwhelm all others. This  should worry us all.

Fond Memories

Those were the the days when:

- Commercial breaks were 60- second spots for a single company or product

- Movies caused you to suspend disbelief

- Democrats didn't disparage their country

- Higher education didn't require you to mortgage your future

- There was a "free speech" movement

- Food stamps were actual stamps

- Our immigration system was working

- PBS didn't have "promotional" interruptions

- It was impolite to be on your phone in a social setting

- News stories gave you who, what, when and where

- Schools were safe spaces in and of themselves

- Voters did not outnumber those registered

- Gee, that old LaSalle ran great

Freedom of the Press

Our Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. This means that our media is free to report the news with whatever slant they wish. They are free  to emphasize certain facts and events and omit others. They are even free to lie and act like churlish children. Our courts have even ruled that our media can disclose government secrets if it is "in the national interest."

However, the media's freedom, like any freedom, is not absolute. This freedom does not stand ahead of freedom of speech or freedom of assembly ...  also in the First Amendment to the Constitution. If the media tries to suppress other constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, then they have stepped over the line and need to be reminded of their transgressions. I suppose that they can't be rightfully stopped ... but they can be reminded by others with communication outlets to the people (Trump) of their failings. It will then he up to the people to decide. If the people give a media outlet the thumbs down, then that  outlet can either self-correct or go out of business. This is the ultimate democracy ... people using their free market decisions if any media outlet has moved onto the dark side.

It would only be an unconstitutional infringement if our government tried to influence this process with funds or favors. If our government were to fund its own radio (NPR) or television (PBS) stations, then this would certainly be unconstitutional. No?

Headlines

Republicans strike deal on sweeping tax overhaul

Dodd-Frank [law] tipped the scale in the wrong direction

WSJ: More troubling evidence of election meddling at FBI ...

Sanders: Trump 'should resign' -- he has 'very serious emotional problems'

Gowdy shoots down House Democrats' request to probe Trump's sexual assault allegations

Senators spike two of Trump's judicial nominees

McCain hospitalized for side effects of cancer treatment ...

Hungary rejects Europe's 'limitless and permanent migrant quota'

'Travus Smiley' show suspended by PBS amid sexual misconduct probe

Deputy AG won't say whether the FBI paid for dossier

Russia sharply increasing nuke arsenal, underground facilities ...

Just 12% of Brits would abandon Brexit

A Rose By Any Other Name

Charlie Rose of CBS's Sixty Minutes and CBS This Morning (now suspended from both) and PBS's Charlie Rose Show has joined the perv prarade ... accused by eight women of lewd calls, nudity and sexual groping ... see: WaPo Story.

One wonders who and what are the limits of all this her-ass-ment?

Nam

After watching three out of four episodes of Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War" on PBS I am chagrined to confess that there was much about this war that I didn't know. But I have still drawn a few conclusions from what I have seen so far. I know not whether these conclusions are what Ken Burns had in mind for his audience, but I do feel that his treatment of this very contraversial subject seems, so far, to be even-handed. (But I haven't seen Jane Fonda on  the anti-aircraft gun yet.)

First, I must start by stating I was never in the armed forces nor, obviously, in Vietnam although I was of an eligible age. I have two metal rods holding my spine in shape as testament to why this is so. I had actually been called for my pre-induction physical in 1963 but was, to my lasting gratitude, rejected. So I spent those war years working on Wall Street, getting remarried and having another family. And, to my shame, I was barely aware of what was happening in Southeast Asia or why there was unrest at home. All this gnashing of teeth was like chirping  crickets to my busy life.

Anyway, to my few thoughts inspired by  this TV documentary special:

- Much of the angst coming out of this conflict was due, IMHO, to the gradualism exhibited by both JFK and then mostly Lyndon Johnson. I now strongly feel that getting into this quagmire was a mistake, but, once committed. I think someone very wise said, "if you go to war, go to war." Don't pussyfoot around like we have done so many times since WWII. Our painfully slow escalation of this conflict allowed the Viet Cong and North Viernam time to react to each incremental increase of commitment ... and America's youth to organize an effective domestic resistance ... the legacy of which we are experiencing even unto today.

- "A resolute army will almost always defeat a reluctant army." This is just another way of saying that, unless there is a real threat to one's homeland, your soldiers are not quite as motivated as the enemy. However bravely Americans fought in Nam, we were really not being pulled by patriotism, but rather pushed by fear and platitudes. ("Hell no, I won't go!) LBJ never really made the case that the "domino theory" was a big enough threat to Peoria. And history has shown that it wasn't. Matter of fact, I am astounded at the friendly reception American tourists recieve when they visit Vietnam (even the North) today ... given what this program showed us doing over there in the 1960s.

- And lastly, resistance to the war taught a generation of America's youth that it was OK to love one another but hate your country. This "hippie" culture was the genesis of much of our national divide today. It is a price that we will be paying for many years to come.

Nothingburger

The Trump-Russia balloon keeps inflating daily with lots of hot air and unsourced rumors. There is some modest pushback which I have collected below. Not that you will see or hear these quotes on network news, CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, WaPo, PBS or NPR. Anyway, perhaps this innuendo balloon will someday burst and the whispering roaches will go scurrying into the woodwork ... not to emerge again until the 2020 election.

"I have not seen any evidence of such collusion ..."

"There is no there there ..."

"Bad news for the Trump-Russia tinfoil-hat brigade"

"Where's the beef?"

"Media using leaks as ammo in Trump's media assasination"

"Utter nonsense ..."

"No evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and the
Russians"

"It's a nothing burger ..."

"A path that leads nowhere"

"Nobody can locate the crime, but Trump acts as if there is one"

"There was no collusion, when does it end?"

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

MacDonald's Big Mac attack on Trump ...

Hawaii judge halts Trump's second attempt at travel ban

... Judges inventing new reasons to obstruct Trump ...

Trump: Travel ban 'makes us look weak'

McCain: Rand Paul 'is working for Vladamir Putin'

Trump budget cuts all funds for PBS, NPR, National Endowment for Arts

Trump's budget ripped from Bannon's nationalistic playbook

NY bill would supress non-gov't-approved speech ..

Trump's budget eliminates global-warming payments to UN

... EPA cut could save business, consumers hundreds of bio ions ...

Trump approval surges to 52% ... Politico hurries news at bottom of article

Rand Paul: McCain makes a really really strong case for term limits

Crazy Toxic Stuff

From his bully pulpit, President Obummer is once again attacking the right-wing media for poisoning the minds of Americans by "pumping out crazy toxic stuff." Apparently it is not enough for the libs in this country to have most of the mainstream media in their corner ... CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, NPR, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, Time magazine, the Atlantic Constitution, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times and (increasingly) Fox News, etc., etc.

What is the toxic right-wing media? Some talk radio such as Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Howie Carr, etc. and a few Internet blogs/news sites, such as the Drudge Report, Powerline, Breitbart, Michelle Malkin, Fletcher's Castoria, etc. And even these new media outlets are being manipulated and surpressed by virtually all the social media sites ... which are now clearly lining up on the left.

Are we Americans still allowed to pick and choose how we get our news and opinion? It would seem that, if Obummer has his way, the answer is "no". Those perceptive writers of our Constitution anticipated demagogues such as our current president and gave us the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press ... now expanded to all our media outlets. But this freedom seems too much for our current political leadership. And, if you peruse the many comments on this blog, this poison supposedly is corrupting my thought processes to the point where I am requested to use only thought-police-approved sources.

I don't recall ever castigating any commentaters on this blog for how they get their news or opinion ... so why should I be so conscripted? All too often the arguments I make here are refuted by Trump-style pejorative comments, not reasoned logic ... something one should not expect from ACLU card carriers. So I would dearly appreciate it if our president and his acolytes stop calling me and mine names or asking us to limit our reading only to lefty-endorsed outlets. Refute us with your burning reasoning ... not that of Obummer-approved spin-meisters. This is dangerous rhetoric coming from our POTUS.

Beggin'

The PBS (Public Broadcasting System) stations in Boston are beggin' again ... all four of them at the same time. It seems that at least once a month we have to suffer through a week of self-help lectures by some nutritionists or financial gurus telling a mesmerized audience how to improve their lives. (Where do they get these people? They remind me of the bots in Apple's 1984 commercial.) It's either that or a Big Band or Sock Hop music CD offerings that ring the cash register for these "free" television stations.

These PBS stations also now run commercials just like the other greedy-capitalist ones. They also get close to a half a billion dollars of taxpayer monies and foundation sponsorships that must also run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, And those annual auctions! Yet still they prey on the naivete of the American public by asking for even more money. Like most everything else in our society, they have an angle and and angel in big government.

This wouldn't bug me so much if they were operating lean and mean. But this is clearly not the case. Bill Moyers was pulling down $6 million a year for his propaganda-rich shows ... see: More for Moyers. And the president of PBS received an annual salary of over $600,000 back in 2011 (see: Newsbusters Story). I'm sure it is considerably higher now. And there are many other executives at PBS and NPR (National Public Radio) earning  six and seven figure salaries. Even Big Bird makes well over $300,000 per year ... see: International Business Times Story.

So we see, its is not just corporate America that has a lock on greed ...

Sarah Silverman

along with Jane Fonda and Lena Dunham, have just been honored by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) as “Women Who Make America” … see: Haaretz Story. Now Ms. Silverman is a bit of an iconoclast and femi-nazi (a Rush Limbaugh term) so it is not surprising that she is being so honored.  But if you want to sample Ms. Silverman’s schtick take a gander at the following video clip (excuse the ad): Breitbart Video.  If you don’t find this just the tiniest bit offensive, then you have been watching too much Bill Maher.

Now, aren’t we all so proud and excited that politically-neutral PBS gets substantial taxpayer funding?

Hanging Threads

I believe that the national media (including Fox) is too often derelict in their duties when it comes to following-up on significant news stories. Too too often the American public is left hanging to discover the real story behind the story … or what occurred as a consequence of what was once front-page headlines. Let me offer a few glaring examples:

- What has happened to the implementation details of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill? This law was passed over two years ago to remedy the excesses that caused the financial meltdown of 2008 … and left many important details to be determined by this Administration. Most of these details are still hanging … why?.

- Exactly who made the decision that there would be no rescue mission sent to Benghazi during the six-hour siege of our Consulate there … where four Americans were killed including our Ambassador to Libya. It is crystal clear that our administration at all levels was aware (in real time, including pictures) of what was occurring there, but no rescue reaction was tripped. In addition to the who, why was such malfeasance displayed in this matter?

- What rationale did President Obama have in totally ignoring the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Commission to reduce our annual federal deficits?

- Who was responsible for leaking the details of the Osama ben Laden raid in Pakistan and his killing? The President has “launched an internal investigation” into this matter … exactly who is leading this probe and what progress has been made to date?

- Shortly after Obama was inaugurated, he formed the Middle-Class Task Force with VP Joe Biden as its Chairman. This task force was purposed with the duty of “raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America.” How many times did this commission meet and what were its recommendations … and have any of these recommendations been implemented?

- What were the exact terms of the Chicago teachers’s strike settlement? Did Chicago or the teachers’s union benefit most?

- Why was Anthony Wiener never charged with any crime as a result of his exhibitionist peccadilloes?

- How many entities (businesses, unions, etc.) are still receiving wavers to the implementation requirements of Obamacare?

- What are the minute details behind what the Public Broadcasting System receives and spends every year? It is a public entity after all and, one would think, that these financial details (including Big Bird's take-home) would be readily available and aired by the media on a regular basis.  Afterward: I just discovered that Big Bird makes over $341,000 per year (see: IB Times Story ).  Yipes!!

- Exactly how much voter fraud is known to take place? (This is a tricky one since it is so bound up in the agendas of each political party.)

- How many times have President Obama and Bibi Netanyahu actually talk in the last six months?

There are tons more of these media lapses, but I think this is enough for now … and easily makes my point.

TKO

Pat Buchanan said late last night that Mitt Romney won the first Presidential debate in a walk, “If it were a 16 round boxing match, Romney won 13 rounds.” I agree and I would even expand on his metaphor … it was at least a Technical Knock Out (TKO) for Mitt. In particular Romney said three things that caught my attention … and often went against his own self-interests:

1) Reluctant as he was to provide details about his proposals to broaden the income tax base, Romney did suggest one possibility … cap total itemized deductions at something like $25,000 or $50,000. This is a brilliant solution that primarily would impact the very wealthy and does not target any specific itemized deductions (which would create a political firestorm). For instance, Romney’s million$ of charitable deductions would no longer help reduce his income tax burden as in times past. To me this shows the level of true statesmanship from Romney … showing his rabid commitment toward reducing our nation’s deficits (and mimics my previous tax proposals ... see: Taxing Ideas).

2) When discussing what was wrong with the Dodd/Frank bill, Romney said that it did not get rid of “too big to fail.” This he said was a gigantic “kiss” to the five biggest Wall-Street banks (see: Huffington Post). What?!? Romney is conspiring against the gang that couldn’t shoot straight and that did a lot to cause the financial meltdown in 2008. He, of course, was right and I think it showed great courage to dis what is some of his financial support.

3) Even though Romney said he loved Big Bird and Jim Lehrer, he said he would nevertheless stop federal funding of PBS in order to help reduce government spending. I concur. Our government now gives this network close to a half billion dollars a year and this is supplemented by private donations; annual week-long auctions of donated goods; foundation and corporate largess; and now even actual ads of increasing length. Basically PBS is now a fully commercial network and Romney (and I) think that it is now time for our government to back away. Perhaps this would mean that some of the producers and personalities on this network would take a hit to their high six-figure take-homes (see: Big Bird Dollars), but I believe that they will easily survive.

I now look forward to the remainder of these debates with greater optimism.