24 Hour Bad News

I'd like to think I'm not that old but I remember when the news was only on at either 6 o'clock and 10 o'clock. And that was all. Before the news came on, you watched something else. Anything else.

Then in 1980 CNN went on the air as a 24 hour "News" broadcast cable station and now everywhere you look there's "News".

And it's not good news and these days we don't know which of it actually happened or whether most of it is true. Sure, storms really happen. Planes really crash but the other stuff, the subjective stuff, the things that happen in other places, we don't know the half of it and the only word of it we get is through the 24/7/365, never ending news channels.

And we already know they're all full of SHIT.

The local outlets are the worst at trying to fill up their massively expanded schedules. With their vans driving up and down the highways hoping something bad will happen because we all know this "news" has to be BAD.

Bad news is important to the TV executives and it's important to advertisers. The term "If it bleeds, it leads" is now spread across the entire day. If a plane skids off the runway in Singapore or a car hits a tree in Dallas, it's on our local Boston "news", why?

Probably because they have an "insert car crash here every day in this time slot" mandate and if nobody local crashes, they get footage off the wire to fill the spot. I don't really know but I always wonder why I'm hearing about something that happened in California like a car chase or a house fire when they happen on the East coast too but just not that day. There's a lot of time to fill up now so they have to keep the bad "news" coming.

I remember Fox news used to love to broadcast California car chases. That's "news" as entertainment, watching a car chase. Here in New England, car chases suck because there are too many trees to block the camera crew. Car chases happen in Andover, Massachusetts I'm sure, you'll just never see one on television.

Bad News Over and Over

But with all the satellite feeds, the global networks, the broadcasting vans looking for cats caught in the trees, these stations still run out of bad news to hit us over the head with. So what do they do? They REPEAT it over and over, sometimes for three days.

In the Internet world, three days is an eternity to hear the same thing over again. Bad enough you hear it again in an hour but, just in case you somehow missed it, here it is again today. Damn it makes it hard to turn on the radio, I've long ago stopped watching television.

Casting a Pall

What this does, all this bad 'news", is cast bad feelings among the populace. People actually feel the world is going to Hell. The world is not going to Hell. The world is the same as it's ever been. It's always been turning, always there is turmoil somewhere. Just not the same place all the time if you don't count the Middle East. That's a world constant.

But there's always a bad law about to be passed, always a "crisis" to be averted and always someone trying to convince you that unless you go jump through some HOOP, the worst possible outcome will be made real.

But the 24 hour "news" cycle causes preoccupation with what's going on, or at least, what we THINK is going on. I wonder sometimes how information got around back in colonial times. Information traveled slowly and I'm sure was subject to miscommunication and modification.

So the only thing that's changed is the speed of miscommunication and modification.

Why Television Exists

Is it to inform you? It can do that. Is it to educate you? It can do that too. It certainly can entertain you. But the reason it's here is to sell you things.

Beyond all the advertisements, the people who control the media and it's portals want to show you what they want you to see and only what they want you to see. And it's all pretty dumb and contrived. Most of the time, since television was developed, the government and the media were on the same page as to The Message they wanted to send the public. Right now there is a schism and the two are currently split.

Mostly these days the media is selling fear, angst, worry and remorse. Fear of the outside, angst about your well-being and remorse over parts of our history you or your family was never a part of.

It's about "helping" you form ideas and opinions that are of a certain perspective, their perspective. You're told either the truth when if fits, half-truths when it doesn't and outright lies when it suits them. And you have no idea which one you're getting.

Yet people believe it just the same.

Swallowing the Elephant

I never get people who, even though they know that they've been lied to, believe the next thing that the liar says! If someone lies to me once, I tend to have a doubt about the truthfulness of anything they say after that. But that's just me. It's more about how people are inclined to believe "facts" that fit their own opinion about a subject no matter what the source.

We catch a "news" station deliberately distorting the facts and the next day someone says, "Hey, did you hear what's on _____?" Same station. I mean, they're not going to stop broadcasting just because they were caught in a lie.

I don't know if anyone remembers back to 1993 when NBC News, not having success confirming the rumor that the pickup truck GM was making at the time had a problem catching fire in a roll-over accident, actually put a LIGHTED FLAIR on the gas tank and re-did their roll-over test. That worked! The truck finally caught fire.

Of course, the flair showed up rather prominently when General Motors ran the footage in slow-motion.

Oops!

Politics, Politics, Politics

Politics was never far from "news" since the beginning of time. The way certain information is going to be perceived by the Public is always worrisome to those with something to lose.

All news today is political. Why the car crashed, why the storm tore your roof off your house, why your wife left you and why your young kids come home from school and tell you that the number one priority of their lives will be to save the planet.

And whether you think you're a Progressive or a Conservative, you just have to know you're not getting the whole story. The bubble you've built for yourself by only watching certain stations or reading certain publications that back up your thinking to the point where people who risked their very lives to bring you a different sort of news and put it out of reach of the people who don't want you to see it, are ignored.

If the truth should suddenly hit you in the face, would you even know it?

Believe it, don't believe it, that's not the point. The point is that you should have access to it and know it exists.

Something to believe in. 

Democratic Platform for 2020

"When one observes the nightmare of the desperate efforts made by hundreds of thousands of people struggling to escape the socialized countries of Europe, to escape over barbed wire fences, under machine gun fire - one can no longer believe that Socialism, in any of its forms, is motivated by benevolence and by the desire to achieve men's welfare."

Ayn Rand - The Monument Builders - 1964


Just when you think the Political Left can't get any more radical, they somehow manage to come up with crazier schemes to "help" the American people.

So, with a few additions, the Democratic party has strengthened their resolve to bring the reforms they think we all deserve.

Open Rebellion

Here's an idea that hasn't been tried since the 1860s; open warfare. Brute force disguised as compromise. Compromise usually means that both sides make concessions. One gives a little to get something in return. But there is nothing offered in return. You either go along with the plan or you are an enemy to be crushed.

A Living Wage is a Right

An unearned benefit for the worker and an unchosen obligation for the business owner and increased costs all around for the consumer. Inflation would rise and the "living" wage granted by government would just even out by the increased costs. Government imposing a price rise is not a market force and the market will react quickly and naturally to restore equilibrium. And loads of people and businesses will be hurt in the process.

You don't have a right to an income. The Founding Fathers only state that you have the right to the pursuit of happiness, not happiness itself. You have the right to take the steps you feel necessary to make you happy. This does not mean others must make you happy.

The Green New Deal

One doesn't have far to read into this "Thing" to find that it means Confiscation, Appropriation and Re-Distribution. It's great if you're the one taking, not so great if you're on the other end. And oddly, the "Poor" never seem to see a dime of it. Ask all those dead Bolsheviks who spent 3 lifetimes waiting for the payoff of the Glorious Revolution that never came. Ask all the dead Chinese who were told that abundance was just a little bit further but further than they lived to see. Ask all those stupid-assed Chavanista's who are fending for food in the daytime and trying to hold onto their misled lives at night. All easily pusueded yet stubbornly hard to convince in regards to who led them down the primrose path of good intentions and copious pools brackish water.

Climate Change is REAL! Really! It Really is!

No, it isn't. Never was. The only people who say they believe in it are the ones who foolishly think that they will be among the people who stand at the top of the heap in power. Little do they know that assassination is more likely their fate. The higher they think they'll climb the more hurt they'll feel when they realize they've lost the game. If you really do believe it's true, you basically have a weak mind and can't tell the difference between a truth and a lie.

Just the collusion between NASA and NOA exposed by WikiLeaks should have been enough to show the world how much of a hoax it all was but since Climate Change has become a religion unto itself, there's no talking to these people now. They are just insufferable, intolerant crazed berserkers.

Retroactive Birth Control

That's right folks, a woman can choose to terminate her pregnancy right up until the child is ready to start Junior High School. After that, it would be murder.

Abortion on Demand has morphed to abortion any time regardless of viability. Just kill 'em if they want. We'll make it the law.

The Rights of the State vs Individual Rights

And this is the crux of the whole thing. Does the Individual have rights to do what they desire in life or does the State have the right to tell them what their desires are and that they must sacrifice their dreams for the good of the many. To the Socialists, there is always a payoff just up the road. All your sacrifices will be worth it...later. But it's coming...just a little bit further.

Not to worry, you'll never live to see it.

Conclusion

So the 2020 election objectives are pretty darn clear. Collectivism or Individualism. In the latter, you carry the burden for yourself. In the former, you carry the burden for others.

You can give up the fruits of your labor for the greater good or you can put your sweat and efforts into providing for you and yours and expect your neighbor to do the same for himself.

There is a word for someone who toils but does not reap the benefits of their own labor. We call that person a SLAVE.

So, for whom do you want to bear the burden? Your family or someone else's?

Vote!

Alex Jones is a Crazy Person

If you listen to this guy speak for 5 minutes, you just get the feeling that something is wrong with him. Sure he's "Conservative' I guess. So what? So he's a Conservative Crazy person and a self-promoting Show Boat on top of that. I don't know who he thinks he's speaking for but he's not speaking for me.

Youtube and Facebook can do what they want. If they boot Mr. Jones for content they don't like, they have every right to do so because it's THEIR site. Alex Jones doesn't pay to have his stuff on either site. It's free but it's not free because yes you can post stuff on there but if they don't like it, they can take it down. It's their site.

Alex Jones should just pony up the dough and get his own website. That way he can post all his crazy talk on his own site without further issue. That is the American Way.

I don't listen to Alex Jones because, to me, the content of his broadcasts is the ravings of a madman. He's almost as crazy as that guy Mark Levin. Levin is as Mad as a Hatter.

I can't listen to either of these guys for more than a minute. When they are on I ALMOST want to listen to a sports channel but instead I just turn the radio off.

It's like Mr. Jones and Mr. Levin want to get you into a fight. They want you to go running into the streets in outrage over the latest perceived (by them) slight. THEY are your Arbiters of Outrage. You don't have to think, let THEM tell you what to get your nose bent out of shape for. I don't know about you but I'd find this act exhausting after awhile. If I didn't think is was a put-on in the first place, which I do.

It makes me miss the late great David Brudnoy on Boston Radio station WBZ so very much. He had something neither of these guys have and that's called CLASS. He could so eloquently refer to a certain group as "Barbarians" you would just nod your head and smile because with one word, he had defined them. Friend and foe alike respected his opinion. He had well thought out ideas and logical arguments. When he made a point, you were hard pressed to talk your way out of it.

No bluster, no name calling, no grand standing, no anger and it was not an act.

In other words, everything opposite of what is going on today in the radio wars for the hearts and minds of the the voting citizen (and voting, driver's license holding non-citizen).

Today's Talk Radio

The so called Conservative radio of today is so boring. I can do a talk radio show today easy. Here's my opening line:

"Did you hear what the New York Times said about Donald Trump?"

Every phone line will light up.

"The latest from The Huffington Post will shock you!"

Call the advertisers and tell them we're raising our rates!

Anyone who calls one of these shows has rocks in their heads but apparently people have nothing better to do with their time than to wait on hold in order to be used as fodder for the host. It's their time so what can you do but marvel at the self-importance. I suggest that instead of listening to this poorly thought out ploy, the radio equivalent of click-bait, you either should go to bed with a good book or go to bed with somebody who's read one.

Go and live your life and put the phone down, cancel your Facebook page, you Linkedin page, your Twitter account and stay the hell away from social media and talk radio. You'll have so much more time for yourself and your real, live social circle.

You'll be glad you did.

Confederate Statues Should Come Down

First of all, losers don't get statues in the United States. Nor should they. We've got plenty of winners who haven't ever gotten a statue so why did we put up these Confederate monuments? What did these guys ever win? Certainly not the war they fought in or the cause they fought it for.

There are Confederate monuments in 31 states and Washington DC. There were only 11 Southern states who seceded from the Union and fought in our War Between the States from 1860 to 1865.

What's up with that?

Then there is the timing. Although they were erected over a longer period of time, the majority of these statues went up during what is considered in U.S. history as the nadir of race relations; 1900 to 1920 a heightened period of backlash to Reconstruction in the Southern States.

The presidents at that time were Teddy Roosevelt (New York), William Howard Taft (Ohio) and that racist bastard, Woodrow Wilson (Virginia). It was Wilson who banned black people from working for the federal government, was a big fan of the Ku Klux Klan and set back race relations in this country decades. It was said that Jackie Robinson wasn't the first black man to play professional baseball but the first black man to come BACK to professional baseball. There were previously integrated professional baseball teams prior to the national banishment. Certainly another black eye in American history.

So it is an open secret that these monuments to the "Principles of the South" were only put up to remind newly free Black Americans fighting for equality in this nation that "Whitey still ruled da house!" plane and simple and this should not stand in these United States 153 years after the end of the Civil War.

For example, there is Robert E. Lee. This guy blew the war! Against Mr. Timid, Northern General George B. McClellan, who was reluctant to fight, General Lee built his reputation as a brilliant tactician. But he was wasteful of his limited resources and never tried to conserve them. He wasted his men in battle charges and then his ego finally got the better of him. He lost the war for the South at Gettysburg and drove a nail into its coffin by ordering the legendary Picket's Charge.

For this Robert E. Lee gets a statue? And not just one in his home town, he gets a lot of statues all over the place.

There are a few of these I have seen that literally dwarf the statue of George Washington in Boston's Public Garden which commemorates his Excellency's ride into the city to take command of the revolutionary forces there. And all he ever did was win the Revolutionary War and become the first President of the United States! Washington, in reality, was everything Lee was not. He was a winner.

It's time we stopped treating black people like they don't belong here and can't compete with the rest of the peoples of this nation. They have fought in all our wars and have longer lineage in this country than most of the people living here today. We should not expect less from them than anybody else and we certainly shouldn't be assisting them over others also. What we owe people in this country is a level playing field. The State can't make you equal. It's a mindset.

And as part of this mindset of equality, these Monuments to Racism should be done away with. They are a sham and we know it. The people trying to keep them also know it. That's not the point is it? "No group of Darkies is going to tell US to take these statues down!"

That's the point.

Yes, we still have a long way to go but this is an important step in the right direction. It's just another battle in a long war, like holding onto our founding liberties, they are never decisively won but fought for daily. This is something all people have in common.

But the momentum is growing and the way is clear. It will be hard for the defenders of these 700 insults across the nation to defend them.

Take them all down since after all,

they're Losers.