Fear of Consequences Used to Exist

 Somewhere around age eight to twelve....the threat of consequence came into my view as a kid.  You'd watch x-number of people screw up....along would come this set group of consequences, and people would lose a point or two on their reputation.  Around age fifteen to eighteen, you'd then see the next group....who were people who were looking at legal troubles, sheriff deputies being involved, and possibly some judge.

Then I went off to the Air Force and for twenty-two years....saw a whole new group of threats on consequences start to emerge.  One example: a 22 year-old guy thinking he was dating a 18 year-old gal....only to be visited by the police and discover she was 14 years old.  Another example: a airman who co-signed on a car loan for a cousin he hadn't seen in two years....then getting a call six months later that the cousin had been arrested for selling cocaine, and the car was to be confiscated by the police....leaving him on the hook for the remaining loan.

This past week, I've been standing around and reviewing all the voting problems and suggested fraud situations.  Forty years ago....a very marginal group of people would have been involved in this and felt the worry of the threat of consequences to be worth the effort.  

Now?  It would appear that thousands of people have no worry over the threat of consequences.  They feel sure that bail will be arranged, that lawyers will be hired to defend them, and the right judges will ensure no jail-time comes out of this.

No fear of consequences?  You'd basically be saying that from this day forward....it doesn't matter how you run elections....these people intend to participate with their gimmicks, and stage fake elections.  

Maybe if we were just talking about Georgia by itself, and that 3,000 folks around the state were into the act of rigging the election to come to one particular outcome....no one would care.  But if you had fifty states participating in this game, and maybe fifty-thousand individuals who are reshaping the outcome....how would the public view the mess?

The more bothersome of this issue?  They have no fear of consequences.  Just saying that you might do a year in state prison? It apparently doesn't worry them.  You could go into a room of a hundred people, and typically 99-percent would tell you that fear of criminal charges or prison-time....would bother them greatly.  These people?  They have no fear of this.

So I end this bit of pondering with this.  Things have dramatically changed....life isn't what existed forty years ago...and if you can't trust the voting system to function, why bother voting or allowing some idiots to exist in some fantasy political scheme?  

Talking Cable

 Up until 2013....while still working in the US, I was hooked up to cable TV.  I had what you'd consider the basic package, with one extra (HBO).  This deal....basically 99 channels plus one....ran over $110 a month.  I considered it ridiculous.  Toward the end, I added what I typically watched in a single month, and it amounted to the local five TV stations, C*PAN, Fox, TBS, HBO, the History Channel, and two channels which featured older movies.  That was it.  The other 85 channels?  Worthless.

If you look around over the past month....there's a lot of chatter over TV news via the cable folks, and if this trend develops (as I expect)....the cable empires will have to rig up some deal where you get the basic cable package without CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc.  Once they reach this level, which I expect by the end of 2021....the news networks will go into some collapse mode.  Downsizing will occur, and big-names will quietly be dismissed.

CNN being rejuvenated by Bezos?  What you'd end up with is some weird combo of WaPo and CNN....probably renamed in some way, and forum-type shows being hitting the air for six-plus hours a day.  I'm not sure if people really desire that type of 'news', but that'll be the solution to spoon-feed the general public.  

As for the other two....Fox and MSNBC?  I see both downsizing the big names by the end of 2021, and some attempt to reconnect to the public.  

Finally, the question ought to come up....can cable TV survive as it is today?  If people just want a basic 15 to 20 channel offering....for less than $30 a month?  There's no real profit at that point, and a bunch of channels would drop out entirely.  I think data-streaming, with fresh new shows via Netflix and Amazon....will be the path to the future.  For networks like CBS, NBC or ABC....it's a dismal future for their brand.  

Joe's Words

 A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed. The United States of America.

-- Joe Biden

To be honest, I don't think Joe writes any of his Twitter comments....there's a team for that type of 'work'.

So I gazed over the comment made.  70-plus million people didn't vote for Joe, or his agenda.  To suggest that there is some united business that occurs out of this....no, there probably isn't.

We simply move to the next level of conflict, and frustration.  

Maybe if Joe was some type of Truman-character and more of a caretaker-President....people might be somewhat united and there would be less theatrical business going on in DC.  But with the current game being played out....you can't have a caretaker-President.