Status of Journalism

08 Thursday Aug 2024

Posted by in Journalism

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        We subscribe to the Chicago Tribune and the Joliet Herald. We used to subscribe to the local paper until it was bought by the owners of the Joliet Herald and the paper went from reporting a lot of local news and sports to a few pages identical to the Joliet paper. Both the Tribune and the Herald are shadows of their former selves and have many times more advertising than thirty years ago.

            The articles are often less than excellently written by the local reporters. Too often the articles seem like they come off a politicians publicist’s release. Some of those reporters replaced reporters who were downsized and thus losing experience, contacts, and skills. Even the comics have been reduced along with the size of the actual paper.

            On the bright side the Herald replaced news with some good puzzles. The puzzles must cost a fortune because both papers keep raising their prices for less and less news.

            The publishers of newspapers have always made money but today they must make huge amounts. Journalism used to be a respected and honorable profession and feared by those politicians that did wrong. Remember ‘Watergate’ was brought to light because of two hard working professionals.

            Today Americans have become so inured to actual news that the shysters and hucksters are getting away with destroying our Democracy, The lack of any morality is amplified by the lack of professional journalism today. This article was about newspapers but the quality of talking heads on news programs has deteriorated too. How sad!

I am so tired of

27 Saturday Jul 2024

Posted by in Global Warming, States Rights, Women's Rights

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…

            I am so tired of those phone calls by some automated voice that keeps calling several times a day. Even when I finally get a human they cut off and the calls continue. That is a first step in Artificial Intelligence’s intrusion into my life.

            I am so tired of one story about global warming disasters affecting my life and the world followed by a story about the increasing car sales or some other carbon dioxide increasing activity or business. Only a fool can believe we aren’t the cause of our future demise.

            I am so tired of states passing laws denying their residents their personal rights and then complaining the Federal Government shouldn’t be into people’s personal life. These same people interfere with educators telling the truth and not some cockeyed version of history or telling other people what they can read or not in their school or public library.

            I am so tired of telling women what their place in American Society should be. Abortion should be the right of the individual and not a bunch of men. I say men because the Southern Baptist group doesn’t allow women to minister or consul others in their church. As a kid I remember some men still talked about a women’s place is two steps behind and one to the right. Some sects still practice it.

            I am so tired of our elected leaders following a demigod who constantly talks about how great he is and demeaning and threatening anyone he gets upset with. He can destroy anyone’s Republican future by a few rebukes. What happened to civility in our country and not just our politicians but the rest of us?

As Governor I Would…

23 Tuesday Jul 2024

Posted by in Financial Responsibility, State Pensions

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        As Illinois Governor I would work towards making a couple of million people mad at me while making the rest happy with my efforts. Two of the changes I would push involve how the state operates its finances. Elected officials would be the first to protest them.

            First on my agenda would be to find the niche a retiring Supreme Court Judge told me could be used to tax Illinois pensions. If such a niche was found to be unconstitutional I would lead an effort to amend it. Currently over 600,000 people get a monthly pension check. Many are for $100,000 per year with some recipients receiving two or three pension checks. My change would allow only one plan distribution and add any a person cannot receive a pension check while working as a consultant with any state project or department. That is over $2.5 Billion that would be subject to being taxed each month. A large portion of those taxes goes to people living out of Illinois and thus being spent elsewhere. The money would go solely to help pay down the pension deficits.

            Another change would be to eliminate the slush fund each Representative and Senator is given in each session to spend within their district. Imagine each Senator and Representative getting over $100,000 to spend in their district. Some probably goes to a worthy project but we all know what happens when a politician is given a big chunk of money to spend. How much of that $177 million goes to a needed project and how much goes to curry favor from someone or a group.  An ethical politician wouldn’t waste money and return the unspent funds at the end of the term. The idea was the distribution would be the same for each person in either party to spend in their district as they know best. Great idea but reality says it is just a legal tax payer funded slush fund. Local projects should be done with local funds.

            These easy changes would help fix the state’s finances and reduce the state Debt!

Is It Anti-Semitic?

22 Monday Jul 2024

Posted by in Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic

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        A  New York law firm has stated they will not hire anyone who is against Israel meaning Anti-Jewish. The Anti-Defamation League said in response they agree in a lot more words. Funny thing is nobody stood up and said tens of thousands of Israelis in Israel are saying the same things. Is that why the League is being so circumspect in their agreement? Could it also be many of those protesting in this country are also Jewish?

            Just like in this country, we have a far right group who controlled a President with their support and losing that support would be disastrous to his power. In both countries being out of the cover of the office means criminal charges for past offenses. Netanyahu was in the process of being indicted by their Supreme Court which he later tried and failed to reduce their power. Netanyahu did not respond to intelligence about the Hamas plans for the raid that has caused the war and keeps him in office for now. As more groups fall away from his support he has directed the destruction of Gaza and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, overlooked his right wing supporters  killing tens if not hundreds of people on the West Bank, and approved the construction of over three thousand new homes on West Bank land that Israel signed in a United Nations agreement was Palestinian land.

            Israel may be founded of the Jewish religion but the protests are against its leaders and policies against a people they have forced off their land, killed thousands, and done everything possible to eliminate. Looks like another Holocaust, doesn’t it?

See For Yourself

19 Friday Jul 2024

Posted by in Climate Change

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        For those fewer and fewer people, who don’t understand what is happening to our climate, read the following sentences. The Earth has had numerous ice ages over the last million or so years. They lasted about a hundred thousand years. They would lower the sea level two or three hundred feet which is why we find amber and human settlement remains in the Baltic and out to the North Sea. In between those periods of ice is about ten thousand years where trees and grasslands soaked up carbon dioxide which caused another ice age. During the last one our species expanded and populated the world.

            We know all of that from geological and archeological findings. Notice the inter-glacial period is ten thousand years and the last ice age was a little over that average, so why is the Earth warming up and melting the remaining glaciers and ice caps? It’s that contagion that came out of Africa about 50,000 years ago – us. We have cut down the forests that soaked up the carbon dioxide, dug up the remains of those primeval forests and burned them, and pulled the remains of early single cell life in a liquid and gas and burned it. All of that has reversed the natural cycle and filled the air with carbon dioxide and methane causing the re-radiation of the Earth’s heat to be trapped.

            We have known that these gases perform that function for over 250 years. We knew this on the first Earth Day. The alarms started sounding in the 1980s and the fossil fuel companies silenced the scientists in their companies so they could continue to make money at an expense to the future generations. They still fund groups whose only function is to deceive the millions of gullible people through the internet websites and social media. Can’t you see the climate is changing fast? Each summer is hotter with stronger storms and most winter days are jacket weather. Convince those gullible people with facts and save the future.

Sympathy Vote

14 Sunday Jul 2024

Posted by in Voting, Voting-Sympathy

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        I remember a Democrat who was running for Senator in Illinois. I remember the poll numbers showed him to be well behind his primary opponent. After Senator Charles Percy’s daughter was killed is numbers shot up and he won the primary and the general election.

            After Vice President Joe Biden’s son died of cancer many of his advisers told him he could not lose now. They told him people would feel sorry for him and vote for him. Because of being so distraught and not wanting to win that way, he backed out. That shows an immense amount of character.

The United States has a divided population. About a quarter is to the hard left with another ten percent left leaning. About the same percentages apply to the right. Those two total about seventy percent with the remaining people being called independent and voting for either party depending on their feelings that election.

Now we are faced with another incident that will probably cause a great deal of sympathy for former President Donald Trump and perhaps giving him enough votes in the Electoral College to become the next President. Currently all the swing state polls show him ahead but within the range of error.

How much will the sympathy for Trump add to his polling numbers will be impossible to tell since the poll will probably take place after the convention? Traditionally a convention will give a short term bump up before it settles back. Will this incident make a difference to Trump’s poll?  Because the gun was an AR-15 rifle, will Trump keep his support for allowing assault style guns? Good thing the kid didn’t have a bump stock!

The Perfect Trade Arrangement

05 Friday Jul 2024

Posted by in Trade Agreements

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        Few people agree with the trade agreements the Federal Government makes with other countries. America makes agreements with China and manufacturing jobs flow to China putting Americans out of work. It lowers the price of those manufactured goods and thus the inflation rate. Bringing those jobs back raises the inflation rate. The greater the import tariffs the greater the price and inflation.

            If we cannot get governments to work out an official agreement, then how can a perfect agreement be made? The surprising location is across the Southern border. It involves two wars which may never be concluded because both countries cannot afford to lose. The trade agreement is such that few people realize how our side causes both wars.

            The agreement is we manufacture and import the much needed items and export them across the border. Those on the South side export their product to us. All this is done with little if any publicity for our exports but lots for the imports.

            The traded items are the guns we sell to the Mexicans and other cartels to fight each other and the Mexican Police and Army. Their export to us is heroin, cocaine, and other drugs. Hundreds of law enforcement people are killed each year by the guns exported from America. Tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border die from those guns and drugs. Thousands of Mexicans and other Latin countries’ citizens cross our borders each month to get away from the gangs shooting people with the guns we exported illegally. We exported the gangs and the guns, so who is to blame? The cartels would be out of business if we could stop using drugs and exporting the guns.

Criminal Activity

29 Saturday Jun 2024

Posted by in Lies and Graft, Politicians

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        Former President Donald nominated three people to be Supreme Court Justices. They stood before the Senate’s Judiciary Committee and swore to tell the truth. Each one then sat down and proceeded to lie. Each said they would leave Roe Vs Wade along as established precedence. With their first opportunity to overturn the established precedence, they did. That meant they had told Trump and the people vetting them that they would overturn it or they wouldn’t have been nominated.

            Justice Clarence Thomas swore before the Senate’s Judiciary Committee he hadn’t assaulted any women. Anita Hill swore he had and was roasted as a liar. Other women have now come forward to verify Miss Hill’s claim while others say they had the same experience. Thomas has tried to hide that he is in the pocket of a conservative billionaire causing him to follow his pal’s beliefs even when his pal and benefactor have no direct involvement in a case. Oh, Justice Thomas was a Bush II Nominee and the committee was chaired by Joe Biden. Biden had cornered Thomas until Thomas dropped the race bomb on him and Biden was scared off his attack allowing Thomas to get enough votes.

            No wonder Trump thinks the Supreme Court will back him in freeing him from his indictments in New York, Georgia, and Arizona. In Georgia and Arizona he is an un-indicted co-conspirator. Those relate to his attempt to overthrow the government on January 6.

            Neither Party is free from their Senators, Representatives, Governors, being influenced by land deals, cars, gold items, trips, jobs for spouses, and just plain cash.  No wonder we have such a bad opinion for any of the elected people.

Subsidizing Foolish People

20 Thursday Jun 2024

Posted by in Insurance

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        If your neighbors decided they didn’t like to use electric lights so they used torches and used bonfires to cook their food while living in a forest would you contribute to rebuilding their burned out houses? No, you probably would not subsidize their stupidity. If they continued to do it over and over I know you would not be just as stupid. Now, how about you subsidized it because your house and auto insurer raised your rates to keep rebuilding their house? That is exactly what is happening in the Midwest states. We are subsidizing the property of people who live in hurricane prone areas and tornado alleys. As climate changes, those areas plus the southern and southeastern will see more damaging storms and flooding.

            Those states allow people to locate in areas where they are damaged often and sometimes more than twice each year. Sure the insurance companies want a profit so they raise rates to cover losses from those damage-prone areas. That means we who live in sensible areas pay for damage in the areas insurers are often required to cover.

            The government subsidizes homes that are built in flood plains. Most states have laws against building in those areas but somehow – legally or illegally – builders are allowed to build in the dangerous areas. The state of Florida runs an insurance company for people that either cannot get or cannot afford private insurance. Granted I do not subsidize any state’s policies but I do the private ones.

            If you wonder why your home and car insurance suddenly skyrocketed you now know. Finding a less than national company to insure your home may save you hundreds each year. Stop subsidizing fools

Silos Should Be Woven Wire

17 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by in Politics, President Trump, Presidential Elections, silos

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        A former neighbor’s wife said she will vote former President Trump. When we asked why since Trump had called those in the military “losers”, had attempted a coup, lied on his income taxes committing tax fraud, boasted of committing sexual assaults, and lied about having Covid giving it to many of his friends and their families. He has repeatedly said certain parts of the Constitution and Amendments don’t apply to him. If he wanted a Florida resident to be his running mate he could – that is the XII Amendment violation. He has said the XXII Amendment means he can have at least two more terms if he wants.

            She knows nothing about politics except for what her husband, a former Navy chief, tells her. His information comes only from the right wing websites and media channels. He is located in his silo so she is also.

            How many other people are stuck in the same wacky silos, fearing to hear the truth and shake walls they have built around themselves? Many of those people only associate with those people in the same silo, feeding on each other’s more wacky thoughts and misconstrued information. This creates conspiracies and groups of armed radicals like those leading the January 20 riotous insurrections.

            How can a person support someone for any political office that boasts of his criminal acts and insanity? How can groups support him because all the other politicians are crooks and dictators? Trump is the poster boy for everything they hate and fear. Trump says what they want to hear, just as Adolf Hitler told the depressed German people. We know how that turned out for his close friends and supporters. He had them eliminated.

            Silos that have solid walls which don’t allow conflicting information to be considered will lead to Democracy’s demise!