Maybe it's just me, but it just seems like that in a 30-minute period while watching CNN....you typically get at least three journalists or 'guests' who seem to be shocked or outraged.
I admit, I try to limit myself to no more than 60 minutes a week of CNN. Part of the problem is that they are mostly a Trump-network now....owned by the President and the bulk of the news delivered has to be Trump in some fashion. Another problem is that they bring on so many guests to be 'experts', and they are trying to drag you along to some conclusion....rather than just laying out the facts. Finally, I'll admit that CNN of today....is not the CNN of 2001. I'm one of those people who think their better work....was over a decade ago.
So onto the the topic of shock or outrage.
When I typically worked (yes, before retirement)....about once a month, you would walk into some situation where you were a bit shocked or outraged. It typically would involve some soap-opera event where Lieutenant Joe was arrested for indecent drunken behavior or Airman Snuffy had accidentally destroyed a $3,000 piece of equipment. You'd typically stand there with the associate, contemplating how this incident occurred, and the consequences that would follow. Maybe you'd have a follow-up discussion the next day over the event, and then it'd all be forgotten.
So over my thirty-six year career of work....I probably saw around 500 moments of shock or outrage.
The problem with the CNN usage of shock or outrage....if you were watching eight hours a day of their news....you'd reach the 500 number in approximately two weeks.
That would be like comparing a guy who drinks a Pepsi a day for thirty years, making for 10,950 events with the soda.....to a guy who drank the 10,950 sodas in six weeks (meaning that he had 260 Pepsis per day).
The long-term consequence? Well....once you get on the CNN program, it'd only take a couple of months to 'train' you on shocks or outrages being less of a big deal. Maybe in a year....nothing much would really shock you or outrage you anymore (even if your wife threw out all the beef in the freezer and put you on a vegan-diet).
So you start to look at 2020 (18 months away) and wonder....if all your shock and outrage is maxed out, what exactly can CNN market or sell if Trump goes for another four years? Yeah, that's a long pause for folks to ponder upon that little issue.
Then you start to look at regular people, who live in quiet spheres of life. You go to some Iowa farmer and his biggest shock or outrage is when the bull finally found the weak point in the fencing and escaped.
Or you have some housewife who woke up to realize the neighbor is doing a $2,000 landscaping job with four hefty and chunky Mexican guys who all go shirtless in the summer heat.
Or like my brother....waking up to realize the fifty-year old freezer in the back of the house finally 'died', and spending an hour of time sipping coffee and expressing 'shock' that it didn't last another ten more years.
At some point, CNN will have to reset the shock/outrage factor, and cut about 80-percent of the 'RPM'. Some doctor will come on....like a Doctor Phil-character, and chat for sixteen minutes on how to survive without all the shock or outrage.
Then we will realize.....there just wasn't that much to be shocked or outraged over.
Thursday, 12 July 2018
The Fragile Nature of Democracy
About five years ago....the Pew Research Center did a survey, and found that fifty-seven percent of adults in the youth range (18 to 29).....had no real memory of Roe versus Wade (the Supreme Court case on abortion), which dated back to 1973. The general belief was that even though they had a total lack of understanding over the historical event.....they just felt it was "right" to stage a position.
This would be kinda like having a national discussion over making all cars stick-shift, or automatic....but having a majority admit that they'd never driven a stick-shift in their life, but they wanted to participate in this national cause because they felt it was "right".
I sat in a class recently with a fair number of Syrians and Iraqis, and the topic of Elvis came up. In German society, 99-percent of Germans will say they know of Elvis (even though he's been dead for 40 years). With the Syrians and Iraqis? Maybe two out of the dozen had heard of Elvis. The rest? Elvis was a total mystery.
You could go out today and ask a hundred adult Americans how the depression of 1929 started up, and if you were lucky....you might have five people who have a basic grasp of the historical event to give at least a marginal answer. The same would be true if you asked the same group about the 2008 financial crisis, and if they could give a simple three-line explanation as to what happened.
I won't say that people are idiots....it's just that they have a random memory scheme, and if something doesn't seem important.....then it's erased from their memory in a matter of seven days. Go ask a hundred people to describe the basic script to Star Wars I (the original), and the vast majority will rattle off a 10-line description....even though they haven't watched the movie in thirty-plus years. It was important in their mind to remember the Skywalker kid, the lusty princess, the Chewy-guy, and the Obi-dude with mystical powers.
Most people by age thirty will readily admit that they've forgotten more than half of what they learned in high school. I think if you tested fifty-year old college graduates....more than half of their knowledge base....which they paid $90,000 for....has evaporated.
But in the midst of all of this....a political dynamic is at play. The two parties and their 'gate-keepers' are busy trying to hype you up....over something that may not really be significant in your mind.
For example....you get forty people to show up for a pro-Mexican migration rally, against the evil Trump. You might discover if you talked to the forty folks.....that more than half of them have never met a Mexican in their life, except at Starbucks, or Burger King. You might even discover that only three of the forty have some type of friendship with a Mexican, on a first-name basis.
Another example....you get a hundred people to get hyped up over the Supreme Court nominee. So you ask the hundred to name the nine current members of the court....to find that only six can name all nine members. Then you find that forty could name five members. On Roe V. Wade? Well, you might find that five of the folks think Roe V. Wade is a rapper out of Detroit, and Roe is short for something but they can't remember what.
In the end, our fragile democracy is dependent....on a bunch of forgetful folks.....not remembering much, but being all fired-up over something (they just don't know what).
This would be kinda like having a national discussion over making all cars stick-shift, or automatic....but having a majority admit that they'd never driven a stick-shift in their life, but they wanted to participate in this national cause because they felt it was "right".
I sat in a class recently with a fair number of Syrians and Iraqis, and the topic of Elvis came up. In German society, 99-percent of Germans will say they know of Elvis (even though he's been dead for 40 years). With the Syrians and Iraqis? Maybe two out of the dozen had heard of Elvis. The rest? Elvis was a total mystery.
You could go out today and ask a hundred adult Americans how the depression of 1929 started up, and if you were lucky....you might have five people who have a basic grasp of the historical event to give at least a marginal answer. The same would be true if you asked the same group about the 2008 financial crisis, and if they could give a simple three-line explanation as to what happened.
I won't say that people are idiots....it's just that they have a random memory scheme, and if something doesn't seem important.....then it's erased from their memory in a matter of seven days. Go ask a hundred people to describe the basic script to Star Wars I (the original), and the vast majority will rattle off a 10-line description....even though they haven't watched the movie in thirty-plus years. It was important in their mind to remember the Skywalker kid, the lusty princess, the Chewy-guy, and the Obi-dude with mystical powers.
Most people by age thirty will readily admit that they've forgotten more than half of what they learned in high school. I think if you tested fifty-year old college graduates....more than half of their knowledge base....which they paid $90,000 for....has evaporated.
But in the midst of all of this....a political dynamic is at play. The two parties and their 'gate-keepers' are busy trying to hype you up....over something that may not really be significant in your mind.
For example....you get forty people to show up for a pro-Mexican migration rally, against the evil Trump. You might discover if you talked to the forty folks.....that more than half of them have never met a Mexican in their life, except at Starbucks, or Burger King. You might even discover that only three of the forty have some type of friendship with a Mexican, on a first-name basis.
Another example....you get a hundred people to get hyped up over the Supreme Court nominee. So you ask the hundred to name the nine current members of the court....to find that only six can name all nine members. Then you find that forty could name five members. On Roe V. Wade? Well, you might find that five of the folks think Roe V. Wade is a rapper out of Detroit, and Roe is short for something but they can't remember what.
In the end, our fragile democracy is dependent....on a bunch of forgetful folks.....not remembering much, but being all fired-up over something (they just don't know what).
Wednesday, 11 July 2018
Beware of the Evil Russians
There is a piece off Yahoo News (I usually discount them entirely for value)....but the topic is mid-term elections, and the suggestion by an 'expert' (Barbara Simons) that Putin has the opportunity to launch an assault on the election, and create a massive mess.
How? The basic idea is that so many states (five) have switched to an entirely paperless voting procedure....that you'd just hack in and flip the votes.
Course, in this article, they mentioned that the Russians have probed the registration listings in various states, and know who is, or is not registered.
I see several problems here.
First, the Russians might be brilliant enough to have an actual voter's listing, and have a couple of agents in the US who go and find people registered in two states or people who are illegally in the US and registered to vote. They could go and blackmail the people into voting for Trump-candidates. Blackmail, as we know....is a serious deal and these folks would open themselves up to Russian agents. (I know it's a joke, but play along).
Second, the Russians might have the right people to stand in and manipulate the voting numbers, and ensure a Trump win for various candidates. (I know it's a joke, but play along).
So, what we need to do...is fix the system.
First, a national ID card and a mandatory national database....so folks wouldn't accidentally register in two states and get Russian blackmail situations.
Second, establish a national minimum security situation.
Third, dump the registration rolls, and start fresh.
The sad thing here is that the Democrats will have to fall on the ground and agree to these procedures, or the evil Russians will take over the country, as Republicans. (I know it's silly, but play along).
Yes, all this fake stuff....to fix what they could have fixed a decade ago.
How? The basic idea is that so many states (five) have switched to an entirely paperless voting procedure....that you'd just hack in and flip the votes.
Course, in this article, they mentioned that the Russians have probed the registration listings in various states, and know who is, or is not registered.
I see several problems here.
First, the Russians might be brilliant enough to have an actual voter's listing, and have a couple of agents in the US who go and find people registered in two states or people who are illegally in the US and registered to vote. They could go and blackmail the people into voting for Trump-candidates. Blackmail, as we know....is a serious deal and these folks would open themselves up to Russian agents. (I know it's a joke, but play along).
Second, the Russians might have the right people to stand in and manipulate the voting numbers, and ensure a Trump win for various candidates. (I know it's a joke, but play along).
So, what we need to do...is fix the system.
First, a national ID card and a mandatory national database....so folks wouldn't accidentally register in two states and get Russian blackmail situations.
Second, establish a national minimum security situation.
Third, dump the registration rolls, and start fresh.
The sad thing here is that the Democrats will have to fall on the ground and agree to these procedures, or the evil Russians will take over the country, as Republicans. (I know it's silly, but play along).
Yes, all this fake stuff....to fix what they could have fixed a decade ago.
A Supreme Court Story
There are dozens of bits of history sprinkled over the 1929 to 1942 period of American history, which rarely get any mention today. So this is a short essay piece over this unique episode that occurred with FDR and his 'pack-the-court' strategy.
Shortly after his 2nd win, going into early 1937....FDR was a bit peeved over the challenges to his solutions via the court system. The Supreme Court was actually hindering and preventing various things from occurring. One could suggest that the court was heavily slanted by that point by GOP-appointed Justices of the 1920s, which would be true.
So what FDR decided to do....was to produce the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937. He intended to pack the court himself. How?
Well....he'd just add more justices.
The draft bill would grant the President the power to appoint one additional Justice (for a max of six), for each member of the court over the age of 70.5 years old. As far as I know....no one has ever explained where the 70.5 number came from, and I suspect that he just looked over the court and figured this was the appropriate number.
So instead of nine Justices....you could have had a total of 15 (if this all played out).
The odd thing here....at least told by some historians....is that not only was the GOP against the bill, but various Democrats found the bill to destructive. My guess is that some sat there and asked if this was logical....why couldn't some GOP President come up in ten years and mandate another six extra Justices, and put 21 potentially on the court.
What happened? Well....one of the Justices reviewed the mess and privately on his own....just started leaning to support any measure that FDR had come up. This support, along with the effort by Senate Judiciary Committee by Democratic committee chair Henry F. Ashurst to stall the draft law....basically ended the threat to the Supreme Court.
A lot of this was not exactly front-page news, and probably understood by the bulk of American society. In the decades after the event, historians got around to telling the story, and suggesting how close the Court to being heavily manipulated by FDR.
Shortly after his 2nd win, going into early 1937....FDR was a bit peeved over the challenges to his solutions via the court system. The Supreme Court was actually hindering and preventing various things from occurring. One could suggest that the court was heavily slanted by that point by GOP-appointed Justices of the 1920s, which would be true.
So what FDR decided to do....was to produce the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937. He intended to pack the court himself. How?
Well....he'd just add more justices.
The draft bill would grant the President the power to appoint one additional Justice (for a max of six), for each member of the court over the age of 70.5 years old. As far as I know....no one has ever explained where the 70.5 number came from, and I suspect that he just looked over the court and figured this was the appropriate number.
So instead of nine Justices....you could have had a total of 15 (if this all played out).
The odd thing here....at least told by some historians....is that not only was the GOP against the bill, but various Democrats found the bill to destructive. My guess is that some sat there and asked if this was logical....why couldn't some GOP President come up in ten years and mandate another six extra Justices, and put 21 potentially on the court.
What happened? Well....one of the Justices reviewed the mess and privately on his own....just started leaning to support any measure that FDR had come up. This support, along with the effort by Senate Judiciary Committee by Democratic committee chair Henry F. Ashurst to stall the draft law....basically ended the threat to the Supreme Court.
A lot of this was not exactly front-page news, and probably understood by the bulk of American society. In the decades after the event, historians got around to telling the story, and suggesting how close the Court to being heavily manipulated by FDR.
The 'Jesus' Factor on Supreme Court Justices
I sat and paused over the pick of Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court Justice seat, and the amount of air-time that the news geeks gave the topic.
Here's the thing....for 99-percent of us, in general, the pick really won't matter much. Most of the cases you see in a normal year before the court, have little to zero influence on our lives. If you watch CNN, you'd think that you were appointing some dictator over your neighborhood. But no, this pick or the past forty-odd picks....generally don't matter.
Historically speaking, about every decade, there's one single case with some historical impact. Since 1900 (120 years).....if you went reading, I'd say there are probably twelve to fifteen four-star cases, and the rest were cases which just didn't matter that much to the general public.
So what's going on? Well....the 'Jesus' factor. Everyone in the news media figures that you need one good 'Jesus' to fix law in America. And that's mostly fake reality.
Here's the thing....for 99-percent of us, in general, the pick really won't matter much. Most of the cases you see in a normal year before the court, have little to zero influence on our lives. If you watch CNN, you'd think that you were appointing some dictator over your neighborhood. But no, this pick or the past forty-odd picks....generally don't matter.
Historically speaking, about every decade, there's one single case with some historical impact. Since 1900 (120 years).....if you went reading, I'd say there are probably twelve to fifteen four-star cases, and the rest were cases which just didn't matter that much to the general public.
So what's going on? Well....the 'Jesus' factor. Everyone in the news media figures that you need one good 'Jesus' to fix law in America. And that's mostly fake reality.
Monday, 9 July 2018
Lost History
In the past week.....note that I don't watch it much anymore.....Jeopardy came up with this question:
Alex Trebek: In 2017, this ex-National Security Adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Suzanne: Who is Kelly?
Trebek: No.
Steve: Who is Gorka?
Trebek: No.
There it ended. The answer was Michael Flynn.
But this episodes demonstrates that no one has much attention to this whole Russiagate business, and that the amount of strategy and weight put by various elements.....has failed.
I suspect that you could go into a bar with 300 people sitting around and less than ten of the 300 would have answered this correctly. In fact, the further you get from the beltway.....the less likely that people remember this.
Alex Trebek: In 2017, this ex-National Security Adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Suzanne: Who is Kelly?
Trebek: No.
Steve: Who is Gorka?
Trebek: No.
There it ended. The answer was Michael Flynn.
But this episodes demonstrates that no one has much attention to this whole Russiagate business, and that the amount of strategy and weight put by various elements.....has failed.
I suspect that you could go into a bar with 300 people sitting around and less than ten of the 300 would have answered this correctly. In fact, the further you get from the beltway.....the less likely that people remember this.
How Hillary Should Run the 2020 Election
This is my list of things that ought to be lined up:
1. Bring Bill into Iowa in the summer of 2019, along with Chelsea. Unlike 2008 and 2016....don't lose the Iowa caucus.
2. Dump the Clinton Foundation as soon as possible. Don't let it become an issue.
3. Pressure the DNC not to allow any primary candidate into the system who are a full-up socialist.
4. Find a creative way to repair the health care system....that lessens the cost.
5. Find some likeable southern governor as the VP. It ought to be someone who can talk for hours, and people find agreeable.
6. Don't get into any public event where you might get frustrated and faint.
7. Take the positive spin of the economy and then talk about the bad tariffs.
8. Go spin a lot of time in Penn, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. You really need to win those four states badly.
9. Send Chelsea to college campuses, and hype the program there.
10. Use social media more so, than the newspapers or CNN.
1. Bring Bill into Iowa in the summer of 2019, along with Chelsea. Unlike 2008 and 2016....don't lose the Iowa caucus.
2. Dump the Clinton Foundation as soon as possible. Don't let it become an issue.
3. Pressure the DNC not to allow any primary candidate into the system who are a full-up socialist.
4. Find a creative way to repair the health care system....that lessens the cost.
5. Find some likeable southern governor as the VP. It ought to be someone who can talk for hours, and people find agreeable.
6. Don't get into any public event where you might get frustrated and faint.
7. Take the positive spin of the economy and then talk about the bad tariffs.
8. Go spin a lot of time in Penn, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. You really need to win those four states badly.
9. Send Chelsea to college campuses, and hype the program there.
10. Use social media more so, than the newspapers or CNN.
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