The news media has become so totally polarized that it sounds more like yelling and shouting than news these days. The only source I trust any more is the Wall Street Journal. Everything else is howling mad.
It's not just the Trump hysteria. (Chaos! It's all chaos!) It's the Trump hysteria after 8 years of licking the sweat off Obama's body. Every time I'm told I need to be buying shotgun shells and bottled water because Trump did something that seems pretty innocuous, I remember, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" and the total lack of hysteria over that.
Trump's tweets don't seem to be costing me much of anything. In fact, my 401K is waxing fat and prosperous. ObamaCare was a real kick in the head as my premiums went through the roof.
So now we have hysteria, but nothing concrete. Then we had bliss and happiness, but big costs.
How is anyone supposed to know what's real and what's not?
I've been sorely tempted to post some of the things Obama did on facebook. For instance, "President unilaterally changes rules of Obamacare". Watch the libs froth and then say, "oh wait, that was Obama". I'd lose some friends, though. It's still tempting. Instead I'm trying to use this hysteria to point out that when you give the government so much power, it's eventually going to be in hands you don't like. Hopefully, more will come out of their lefty lunacy to a sane center (at least).
ReplyDeleteJedi - Sorry to burst your bubble but the lefty lunatics will NOT learn the obvious lesson you point out. They thought (and still think) that everything the previous President did was great. Now that there is new current President with a substantially different world view and agenda, they are convinced the problem is, not their belief in big government, but rather that so many disagree with their point of view.
ReplyDeleteYou see to learn the correct lesson requires introspection and the willingness to recognize that perhaps, just perhaps, they themselves are not perfect. And that is a hard thing to do when you are used to never ever losing and always being told how wonderful you are.
I agree with Ohioan. The best Facebook policy is to avoid politics completely.
ReplyDeleteAmazing. An article on the CBS News site about why it is so hard for people to change their minds on political issues that fits right into this thread...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/mri-brain-study-usc-political-beliefs-challenged/
"How is anyone supposed to know what's real and what's not?"
ReplyDeleteMake your rule of thumb this, and you can't go wrong -- "Everything a leftist/socialist says is a lie."
"The best Facebook policy is to avoid [Facebook] completely."
ReplyDeleteMost of the people who voted Dem are just useful idiots, they don't know they're being manipulated, obama was a puppet, the puppet masters are the so called Deep State, the Globalists who run the UN among other things, the EU and the likes of George Soros. That's why they're so out of their minds over Trump and those who voted for him, he sees through their game, they fear that the gig is up, they've been sussed out. Like all Totalitarians they over reached until eventually the people 'get it', hence Trump, Brexit and the rise of the right in the EU. Four years of Hillary continuing these polices and it might well have been too late, as it is it's going to be a mighty struggle. But it's funny how leaders arise just when they're needed, Churchill, Thatcher, Reagan and now Trump. Pray for him.
ReplyDeleteSee this post from Bookworm Room for a view of just how serious is what is happening.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bookwormroom.com/2017/02/16/administrative-state-fifth-column-trump/
Add this to the mix.
ReplyDelete"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day." —Thomas Jefferson (1807)
"In fact, my 401K is waxing fat and prosperous."
ReplyDeleteI'm actually getting concerned about that. The stock market spike is more abrupt than I like to see, the last few times this happened to this degree was in the lead-up to a market bubble. This seems to me to be a run-up driven by speculation on what Trump might do in the future, rather than on anything that he's actually had time to do. I am getting to expect a crash in the next six months to a year after he actually commits to specific actions that either don't live up to expectations, or make it more clear who the winners and losers are going to be.
Tim, I'm not worried by it at all. My hypothesis is that there is tremendous potential energy built up in the American economy that was held in check by hyper-regulation. I think there's going to be boom times ahead as Trump repeals a lot of this rubbish.
ReplyDeleteAll - I don't exempt Fox News from this. I feel like they've found a ratings sweet spot by being the only conservative news station. I don't trust any of them. Again, I hear the hysteria and then I look at my daily life. My life is getting better after the Trump inauguration. Even if there's chaos in DC, I can't quite figure out how a lot of snarking and backstabbing in meeting rooms 3000 miles away is going to play a significant role in what I experience.
ReplyDeleteThen when you compare that to the foreign policy disasters of the Obama Administration and the outright lies about Obamacare that led to me having less spending money, I'm really confused about what I'm supposed to believe.
Well, I hope you're right about the stock market. I guess we'll find out, probably within the year.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I've gotten to thinking of Trump as being along the lines of something that Heinlein said in one of his books: "Every situation should be turned upside down occasionally. It lets in air and light."
Tim - Itend to see Trump and what is going one more along Thomas Jefferson's "It [elected government] has it’s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. ... Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
DeleteThis information may be important when you read anything based on MRI brain scans:
ReplyDeleteUsing this null data with different experimental designs, we estimate the incidence of significant results. In theory, we should find 5% false positives (for a significance threshold of 5%), but instead we found that the most common software packages for fMRI analysis (SPM, FSL, AFNI) can result in false-positive rates of up to 70%.
http://tofspot.blogspot.com/2016/07/lighting-up-brain.html
I see Trump being a lot like Jesse Ventura as Govenor of Minnesota. Everyone scoffed that he could be elected. He was the only choice in three bad candidates. He made a splash at first, it was easy being Govenor when there was a surplus. He did a couple of popular things like reduce car registrations and getting rid of emissions testing here in the 7 counties of the twin cities area.
ReplyDeleteThen someone said something unflattering about him and he had hissy fit after hissy fit. The surplus disappeared, and he proved he couldn't do the job. Democrats and Republicans came together and actually governed.
I'm not saying Trump will do the same thing. But his priorities are all about fixing the junk the government piles on his business interests. Badly needed, but if/when he accomplishes that, will he still govern?