Lack of Trust

I was sitting and reading over a graphic chart today....a statistical collection over 'trust in the media' between people who are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

If you look at the chart....there's some point around 1998 where the bulk (at least 50-percent) of the nation was trusting the media.

Along about 2004, that shift occurs. Republicans go south (30-percent still trust the media).  Independents go south (45-percent still trust the media). 

By 2012, it's gotten pretty bad.  Less than a third of Republicans still trust the media.  Even from the Democrats, they've dropped down to around 58-percent. 

By 2016, the election year....Republicans reached the depth of 14-percent, and barely one-third of Independents can still find trust.  Even half of the Democrats lack trust.

For two-hundred years.....some form of the media....newspapers, radio, television, magazines, or the internet....was able to convey a brand-name message and convince people that they could trust their message.  That doesn't exist anymore.

I went looking for comparable numbers in Europe.  The latest trend? Radio is about the only media left where 59-percent of the public has a trust in the message.  The written-media?  They dip down to 46-percent. 

What happens in 2020 and the next election?  If this trends holds on, then the brand-name news and slant that would usually affect an election....will be in serious trouble.  Added to this 'misery'....the fake shock that the news media has to project when their message isn't bought by the public. 

All of this would bring me to question how things will work in 2024 (likely the end of the Trump era), and how both political parties can survive in this new era. 

Wolf

After looking at about three minutes of the White House Press Association from the weekend, and the insult-comedy laid out by Michelle Wolf....I'd generally say that it was gutter-humor where 50-percent of an audience would typically walk out.

The problem is that a fair number of people from beyond the urbanized areas of the nation....will sit and watch the piece, then start shaking their heads.  It's mostly insults.  In terms of humor....it's lacking.

An affect on the 2019 association dinner?  I'll go and take a humble guess that they have some problems in selling tickets next year, and roughly 25-percent of those who showed up this year.....won't be there next year. 

Journalists who go and defend Wolf?  Well...it's another reason why people don't watch your brand of news anymore. 

Psychological Counseling Trend?

Over the weekend, this Marvel movie.....the Infinity War....was released, and in the middle of it....Peter Parker (aka....Spiderman) dies.  It's a nobel moment.

Across the nation, because of the blunt way that the movie ends...unfinished, with a dozen-odd character gone or dead, I suspect this week that a number of snowflake folks will be calling up their psychological counselor and asking for a 45-minute session.

You can imagine this scene....you asked for a special meeting over a grief situation.  The doc is sitting there...you got a tissue or two....a tear forming up.  The doctor asks you about which friend or relative who died, and you start jabbering away about Peter Parker or Spiderman.  He lets you talk for maybe three minutes, then he leans forward and says...."You know that Spiderman is not real....right?"

Then you go on about Nick Fury being gone, and Doctor Strange.  Around the 40th minute of this session, the doc suggests that maybe you ought to take a vacation, and just get away for a while.  But you say it's so hard, and you just can't accept Spiderman dying like this.  It's so unfair.

Normally, if you grew up in Alabama, you'd be fairly grief-stricken over a relative or neighbor passing.  You'd probably shed even a tear over a former governor passing away.  You'd be upset over most of co-workers who passed on.  In fact, you'd be grief-stricken over your dog passing, or even some of your more friendly cows who might have gotten struck by lightning.  Most Alabama folks however....just don't get very grief-stricken over imaginary people having passed on.

My brother in this case....if some snowflake had hyped up this whole chatter and their great grief.....would suggest to the guy that he's bailing hay this Saturday, and a whole eight hours of hauling hay would help to get the grief out of your system.  I'd tend to agree.  And at least with hay-hauling, you wouldn't have to pay some psychological counselor ninety dollars.

The Scooter Story

Lately, I've been following various stories out of San Francisco, and this odd story popped up over the weekend.

Folks there have decided that things with the electric scooter trend have reached a stage where 'control' needs to be established by the city.

Last week, I was reading 'rants' by locals, and one guy got onto this topic.....describing city as now having a Ho Chi Minh City appearance with all the motor scooters that rumble across the city day and night.

So the Municipal Transportation Agency says they want to fix this electric scooter issue....with a two-year permit test program that would limit the city to five e-scooter permits, and no more than 500 scooters for each permit.

There would be an absolute max of 2,500 scooters in San Francisco.  If the company could not manage their program.....the license would be yanked.

Adding to the rules....scooters would only be allowed into certain areas of the city.

Then the fee would fall into place (a company paying $5k per year to the city.  Later, they suggest it'd go to $25,000).

A maintenance fee?  Well, that got thrown into the mess as well....the rental company would have to pay $10k a year into some public fund.

Then the cherry on this whole idea would be that the five companies would have to come up with a plan on their own to help the 'poor' (low-income folks) pay for their scooter.

I sat there looking at the fees involved, the necessity of funding low income users of scooters, and profit-margin for each of the five companies.  It'd mean that you as a 'renter' would have to pay in the range of $100 to $150 a month once they got to the higher $25k a year fee for the companies involved. 

The odds that people would cooperate?  That's the thing about this.  I can't see how a user would sign up for some lease program....they'd just bypass this, and buy the scooter on their own. 

The city?  It's mostly creating a law and pretending that the public will obey it when it's built as a 'joke'. 

It's simply another small reason to leave California. 

My 4-H Story

As a kid in rural Alabama, you kinda got pushed to being in 4-H.  For me, it meant three years with some hand-fed calf, training 'Bob-1', 'Bob-2' and 'Bob-3' (I don't remember their names) to just walk with a halter, and not freak out dragging me down through some pasture.  Naturally, the key point in the fall of each year at the school....was the first meeting of 4-H with the county-guy. 

Oddly, this meant having to elect a president, VP, and notes-person.  To be honest, there had been this trend going on for several years where kids were tired of the fake-nature of 4-H, and this election business.  The president always went to some 9th-grade kid (it was an elementary school so that's as far as you could go), and the smart kid in the group ended up as the note-person.

So the morning came around the ninth grade year for me...where they were going to have the first meeting of the year.  There was a kid in our group who was fairly clever, and tired of the whole 4-H thing and discussed with me the idea of getting biggest dimwit of the 35-odd boys in this group....elected as President, and the less-than-talented kid in the group as the notes-guy. I agreed in full measure.  We discussed the two guys who need the votes, and left to meet up with approximately twenty of our associates.

As the hour came for the 4-H guy to come in and give us his thrilling hype for the year.....then the nominations came up and my associate made sure candidate 1 for President was nominated.  In 60 seconds, we had the necessary twenty-odd votes and the kid won.  I don't remember the kid's name....nor does it matter.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed and it was the greatest moment of his life.

The 4-H guy sensed what we'd done.  I don't think he'd ever seen this tactic before.  We repeated this with the notes-guy, and just picked average kid for the VP slot.

There was this brief private conversation at the end of the episode between the class-teacher (an asshole), and the 4-H guy.  I think there was some frustration put on the table.  It didn't go far.

At that point, I came to think about the idea of slanting an election.  You could do the same thing for governors, Senators, and even a President. At the youthful age of fourteen, it was one of those moments that you advanced in life.  My associate who came up with the idea?  He would be dead within five years.  The kid who advanced to President that year with the 4-H?  I've kinda wondered if this didn't jump-start his advancement in life....maybe taking him to a higher calling.

When you think about it.....we didn't need to get a true majority...thirty-five to forty-five percent of the vote was enough.  The rest would be accidental gains where some buddy went with the plan. 

That was the last real year for me with 4-H. 

The True Effect of the NRA

Here's the thing.....on the payroll and as actual members....there are around 5-million Americans listed, and suspicions are that around another 15-million non-members exist. 

When the NRA lobbyist goes and visits Senator so-and-so, or House Member so-and-so....ensuring they don't go and vote in some wild regulation or gun-control.....the NRA lobbyist can state in a blunt way....we have x-number of members listed for your state (in a state like Missouri....probably over 250,000) that we can send an email to, and have them deny you their vote in this next election.

Even in California, I would take a guess that well over 350,000 NRA members or non-member supporters exist.  That swing-vote is a very intimidating factor.  For most folks running for Senator....they can't afford to lose a quarter-million votes. 

So, that's the real collective power of the NRA.....just one simple membership listing.  Even in a state like Vermont, they can probably suggest 100,000 members/supporters exist. 

The Scent of Taxation

I sat and looked over the Democratic commentary today of things they intend to offer in 2020, to get the massive vote.

The Bernie Sanders chat?   He says there has to be a mandatory $15-an-hour job setting, with complete health-care benefits to every single to every single American who needs it.  Then in a curious way, he hinted that no one has done a real cost estimate on this idea.

The Senator Gillibrand idea?  She wants jobs guarantees for people.  You'd get something, even if no real job existed.  Again, I noted.....no real cost estimate on this.

The Senator Cory Booker idea?  A Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act.....where fifteen areas (he didn't say it but I would assume they'd have to be large urbanized areas).....where you would be guaranteed a job.

The Andrew Yang (entrepreneur and a Democratic presidential hopeful) plan?  He wants a $1,000 a month for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 as part of a universal basic income program.  Naturally, he had no cost estimate over this.

The amusing thing is if you added all of these up and passed them.....it would likely get into the fifty to one-hundred billion level, and require most everyone to pay at least $5,000 more a year on taxes (at least those making $75k or more a year).

Selling all of this to blue-state middle-class Democrats?  I would suggest that they will sit there amused, and laughing over the various offers of money. 

My thoughts would be that you really need to have the Democratic Party sit down in some meeting and write up two or three great ideas with minimal cost, and hype those for the 2018 election and later for the 2020 Presidential election.  The taxation required here?  Just way out beyond reality.