The Assault on our Police
The View from the Middle
Police officers in our country have been under assault rhetorically and literally for the past three months, and most of that criticism has no merit. Abraham Lincoln once said, “if you look for the bad in people, expecting to find it, you surely will” and that mindset is what our law enforcement officers are facing today. They are the target of a relentless attack by the media and by left-leaning politicians that focuses only on negative stories and are often exaggerated or even totally false. As usual, false stories get headlines. Retractions are buried below the obituaries. I’ve never understood the symbolism of that practice until just now.
The Fayetteville City Council, in what can only be described as a politically correct move, voted to kill funding for two additional School Resource Officers and for the 4th District Drug Task Force. They also are working to stop construction of the new Police Headquarters. I can only describe this as short-term, politically correct, reactionary thinking. What the Fayetteville City Council members need is some actual data that tells the real story of what the police really do for the communities they serve.
One piece of data that was shared during their meeting is that young unarmed black men are disproportionately killed by the police. When you stretch that statement to say that they are twice as likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts, that’s when this charge veers into dishonesty. And when they suggest that these kinds of results are “epidemic” they are being hyperbolic.
In 2019, according to the Washington Post database June update, there were 55 shootings of unarmed men in the entire United States that resulted in death. Of that total, 25 were white, 14 were black and 16 were Hispanic or other. So, the truth is that young white men were nearly twice as likely to be shot than blacks. That is just a fact. It is also true, however, that African Americans represent 13% of the country’s population, but in these unarmed shooting deaths they represent 25% of the total. That is nearly twice their “fair share” so to speak. The media also won’t tell you that the trend for these kinds of tragedies have been going down since 2015 when the total tragic, unarmed, shootings of black men was about 40. From 40 to 14 in five years. We would love that to be zero, but you must admit the progress and hope for even more.
Is this an epidemic? People, who want you to think this is a plague, won’t tell you the raw numbers. While 14 young, unarmed black men lost their lives in police shootings, that number pales in comparison to the 8,000 young black men who killed each other in 2019. Now THAT’s an epidemic. And while Blacks represent only 13% of the population, they represent almost half (46%) of all murder victims. And finally, these murders are committed by other African Americans 94% of the time. Of course, this is true for all races. Whites kill whites, Hispanics kill Hispanics and Blacks kill other African Americans.
While there are things that white people can do to help reduce these numbers, even the brilliant economist and philosopher, Thomas Sowell, would suggest there is much that the Black community can and should do to help itself. In his book “Discrimination and Disparities”, Sowell strongly suggests that improved family structure and education are keys to addressing this epidemic. Never in his book did Sowell suggest that a reduction in the size of our police forces was any kind of a solution to this problem.
The other piece that is missing from this discussion is the enormity of the challenge that the police face. The total of 55 unarmed fatal shootings by police has to be put into perspective. Last year, the police had over 50 million interactions with the public and over 10 million arrests. And as you can imagine, the target of these arrests can be belligerent or on drugs or just plain abusive. The reality is, these 55 tragic results represent only .00055% of arrests that end up with this extremely regrettable result.
We need to keep the difficulty of their task in mind. Enforcing the law and having to arrest people who break that law is a difficult job. These are people that we ask to run towards the shooting and violence while the rest of us get to run away. We need to remember that these were the same people who ran towards the Twin Towers where 60 of them lost their lives that day and almost 250 more since from the poisons they inhaled as they did their work. They are the ones that ran towards the Pulse nightclub in Florida when the mass shooter took over 60 lives, and they are the ones that will run towards every school shooting, if our City Council will give them that chance. If the City Council and all of us don’t support our police today, I predict we will regret it in the future.
Are they perfect? No. Are there bad police officers? Sure. But there are bad people in every profession on earth. Are there bad, selfish CEO’s? Sure. Are there bad sales people (that’s what I did)? Yes. Are there bad, narcissistic, dishonest and even evil politicians? Absolutely. In fact, I’m going to suggest that we have a higher percentage of good, solid, admirable police officers than we have politicians of that same character in Washington DC.
Finally, there will be thousands of openings in police departments across this country this year because of the unwarranted abuse that we, the public, have been heaping on them over the last few months. Imagine a “peaceful protester” screaming insults at you just inches from your face. You know what they make. You know how difficult their job is! Are any of you willing to take their place?
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Monday, August 24, 2020
Divided We Fall
Divided We Fall
The View from the Middle
I’m 68 years old, but believe it or not, I still play basketball a couple days a week, or at least I will when we get passed the coronavirus. My skills are a shadow of what they were 45+ years ago but I’ve been playing so long that I usually know what I’m supposed to do or where I’m supposed to be so that I don’t penalize my team too much. I don’t play because of the amazing athletic feats I can perform any more. I play for the exercise for sure, but I also play because I really enjoy the camaraderie. I actually like the guys I play with. I enjoy the teamwork on the court and the conversations between games.
It dawned on me the other day, however, that our politicians really want me to hate at least half of these very men that I enjoy so much. While we all share the love of the game, our political philosophies range from the far right to the far left, and of course I profess to be right in the middle. When we disagree, we debate the subject, but we don’t lose respect for the person. According to our politicians, however, if I disagree with President Obama on anything, I’m a racist. If I disagree with Nancy Pelosi or AOC, I’m a misogynist. These extreme descriptions are designed to divide us by making us question the motives of anyone with whom we disagree.
Is it possible for a person to be in favor of border security and improved legal immigration laws and not be a xenophobe? From the White House to your house we all build walls and fences to keep people from damaging our property or threatening our lives. Do we as a country want “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free”? Absolutely! However, does anyone want criminals and terrorists to come to America? No. Can we work together to accomplish both? Of course!
Is it possible for a person to be pro-life and not be a misogynist? Consider that half of the million babies being aborted every year in the United States are female. Realize also that even a successful abortion surgery has a tremendously negative impact on the mothers of these children. Understand that only 50% of women in America are pro-choice. Are the other 50% of our women misogynists? Is that even possible? Can we protect women and the unborn at the same time? Yes, and I believe that’s what most Americans want.
Is it possible for a person who is in favor of charter schools and a voucher system for education not to be a racist? Did you know that members of Congress are four times more likely to send their children to private schools? Is it wrong to give that same choice to every family in America? My children have been out of college for almost 20 years now. I would recognize no personal gain from vouchers or charter schools. I just want more people to have the same choices I had when I sent my girls to private schools all those years ago.
Is it possible for a person who believes in traditional marriage, not to be a homophobe? Do you remember the mass shooting in 2016 that left 49 dead at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando? Do you remember the lines of people waiting to give blood for the victims of that horrible terrorist attack? You must remember that most of these people were heterosexual, because of the restrictions placed on gays for giving blood. We can debate those restrictions later, but the reality is that many “straight” people were giving blood in an attempt to support the gay victims of that tragedy. Are these the “homophobic” people our politicians are talking about?
It sickens me to watch politicians try to turn Americans against each other for political gain. Do you really think that the majority of Americans are misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic bigots? I don’t. In fact, I believe that most Americans on both sides of the political spectrums are decent, hard-working, caring people who just want to pass a better America on to their children. But that positive image will not drum up the hatred necessary to divide us into the ideological camps that they think is required to win elections. I think that creating unity in America is a far more powerful political force, and I’ll give some evidence of that in my next article.
Unfortunately, I do not see an actual uniting figure on either side of the political spectrum today. So, if we can’t depend on our politicians to unite us, we’re going to have to do it ourselves. Understanding the true, positive character of the vast majority of the American public will bring us together. Then, unity and tolerance will drive the compromise that is necessary to produce the change and progress needed to really make this country great again. When we hear these extreme descriptions, recognize them for what they are, a selfish attempt to deceive and divide us. We need to punish these selfish, narcissistic, egotistical, smug, vain, pompous, prideful frauds (exaggeration intended) by voting them out of office for they do NOT represent America.
The View from the Middle
I’m 68 years old, but believe it or not, I still play basketball a couple days a week, or at least I will when we get passed the coronavirus. My skills are a shadow of what they were 45+ years ago but I’ve been playing so long that I usually know what I’m supposed to do or where I’m supposed to be so that I don’t penalize my team too much. I don’t play because of the amazing athletic feats I can perform any more. I play for the exercise for sure, but I also play because I really enjoy the camaraderie. I actually like the guys I play with. I enjoy the teamwork on the court and the conversations between games.
It dawned on me the other day, however, that our politicians really want me to hate at least half of these very men that I enjoy so much. While we all share the love of the game, our political philosophies range from the far right to the far left, and of course I profess to be right in the middle. When we disagree, we debate the subject, but we don’t lose respect for the person. According to our politicians, however, if I disagree with President Obama on anything, I’m a racist. If I disagree with Nancy Pelosi or AOC, I’m a misogynist. These extreme descriptions are designed to divide us by making us question the motives of anyone with whom we disagree.
Is it possible for a person to be in favor of border security and improved legal immigration laws and not be a xenophobe? From the White House to your house we all build walls and fences to keep people from damaging our property or threatening our lives. Do we as a country want “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free”? Absolutely! However, does anyone want criminals and terrorists to come to America? No. Can we work together to accomplish both? Of course!
Is it possible for a person to be pro-life and not be a misogynist? Consider that half of the million babies being aborted every year in the United States are female. Realize also that even a successful abortion surgery has a tremendously negative impact on the mothers of these children. Understand that only 50% of women in America are pro-choice. Are the other 50% of our women misogynists? Is that even possible? Can we protect women and the unborn at the same time? Yes, and I believe that’s what most Americans want.
Is it possible for a person who is in favor of charter schools and a voucher system for education not to be a racist? Did you know that members of Congress are four times more likely to send their children to private schools? Is it wrong to give that same choice to every family in America? My children have been out of college for almost 20 years now. I would recognize no personal gain from vouchers or charter schools. I just want more people to have the same choices I had when I sent my girls to private schools all those years ago.
Is it possible for a person who believes in traditional marriage, not to be a homophobe? Do you remember the mass shooting in 2016 that left 49 dead at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando? Do you remember the lines of people waiting to give blood for the victims of that horrible terrorist attack? You must remember that most of these people were heterosexual, because of the restrictions placed on gays for giving blood. We can debate those restrictions later, but the reality is that many “straight” people were giving blood in an attempt to support the gay victims of that tragedy. Are these the “homophobic” people our politicians are talking about?
It sickens me to watch politicians try to turn Americans against each other for political gain. Do you really think that the majority of Americans are misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic bigots? I don’t. In fact, I believe that most Americans on both sides of the political spectrums are decent, hard-working, caring people who just want to pass a better America on to their children. But that positive image will not drum up the hatred necessary to divide us into the ideological camps that they think is required to win elections. I think that creating unity in America is a far more powerful political force, and I’ll give some evidence of that in my next article.
Unfortunately, I do not see an actual uniting figure on either side of the political spectrum today. So, if we can’t depend on our politicians to unite us, we’re going to have to do it ourselves. Understanding the true, positive character of the vast majority of the American public will bring us together. Then, unity and tolerance will drive the compromise that is necessary to produce the change and progress needed to really make this country great again. When we hear these extreme descriptions, recognize them for what they are, a selfish attempt to deceive and divide us. We need to punish these selfish, narcissistic, egotistical, smug, vain, pompous, prideful frauds (exaggeration intended) by voting them out of office for they do NOT represent America.
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
9% of America has Already Died from Covid-19?
9% of America Has Already Died of Covid-19?
The View from the Middle
Would it surprise you if I told you that, according to Gallup, the credibility of all media outlets has been plunging since 2016? As Trump Derangement Syndrome poisons the coverage of the Liberal media, the credibility of the once “north star” of print media (the NY Times) has slipped to just 29% amongst Republicans. CNN and MSNBC have fallen even further as only about one in four (27%) Republicans find them believable. Among all adults, trust in the media has fallen about ten percentage points in just three short years. These are disastrous numbers for an industry whose stock-in-trade is trust. There are two storylines that the media have absolutely blown in 2020 that have only exacerbated their fall from grace – the economy and Covid-19.
Back in May, the media projected that America would lose nine million jobs and that our unemployment rate would go up to 19.0%. Instead, our economy created 2.5 million new jobs and the unemployment rate went down to 13.3%. The media, however, hardly covered these spectacular numbers and totally ignored the massive miss that their projections represented. They missed again in June and you would think they would have learned their lesson, but apparently not. Just recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the July results, and wouldn’t you know it, the media underestimated the strength of our economy again. The US created 300,000 more jobs than predicted and our unemployment rate fell to just 10.2%, a full point lower than the June numbers and half a percent point lower than the projections. These consistent misjudgments are the kinds of things that destroy the media’s reliability and any appearance of objectivity.
Who is telling the story about these amazing jobs results, especially compared to expectations and in light of our attempted self-destruction of our economy. The media is certainly not covering it, so you’ll probably only hear this storyline here at the VFM.
However, in my opinion, the media’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has bordered on journalistic malfeasance. While I have already admitted that this virus is a serious matter for America and the world, the media has reported on this disease in a way that has totally misled the American people. In a July 27th publication, the Covid-19 Opinion Tracker reported that the average American believes that nine percent of the US population has already succumbed to this virus. NINE PERCENT!!! That would represent over 30 MILLION deaths in the US when we have actually lost about 150,000. Now, 150,000 is a lot of deaths, but 30 million is 200 times the reality. The fact that the American public is that confused about the mortality rate of this disease is an indictment of the media’s slanted, sloppy and even dishonest coverage.
The media has convinced the American people that getting the coronavirus is a death sentence, when the truth is that somewhere between 99.5 and 99.9% of the people who actually get infected by this disease will survive. If this had been the storyline from the beginning of this pandemic, our country would have responded very differently and our results would also have been different, maybe better.
And, of course, the media is not even considering the long-term implications of the paranoid behavior they are inspiring. Brenda and I just got back from a week in Florida. Yes, Florida, and we’re still alive. We followed the rules and wore masks when appropriate and sometimes just to be polite to more concerned vacationers, but it was a very pleasant stay. On the way there, however, we saw some very disturbing behavior that will affect our young people for years to come.
At the airport in Northwest Arkansas, there are rules in place for adults and children over 10 to wear masks, and as I suggested earlier, Brenda and I complied with that rule. We did see a family, however, with three children, all under 10, who were all wearing masks, AND goggles AND face shields attached to giant hats to accommodate the face shields. What kind of story do you have to tell three children under 10 to get them to dress up in these “near hazmat” outfits. Certainly not the truth, which is that it is very unlikely for them to transmit this disease and, even according to virologists and pediatricians, it is extremely unlikely for them to suffer serious symptoms. Fatalities are almost non-existent. From February 1st through July 8th only 30 children under age 15 have died of Covid-19 in the entire United States. While this group represents almost 20% of the US population, these 30 deaths represent only .02% (that’s two hundreds of one percent) of coronavirus fatalities. Said another way, children under 15 are a thousand times less likely to die from the coronavirus than the general public.
What media outlet is telling the true story about the mortality rate of this disease, especially in children? What investigative reporter is exploring the long-term emotional, educational and even financial damage being done to our society by short-sighted, unscrupulous politicians and a misguided media, hellbent on panicking everyone in this country? Well, you’ve at least heard about these stories here at the VFM.
The View from the Middle
Would it surprise you if I told you that, according to Gallup, the credibility of all media outlets has been plunging since 2016? As Trump Derangement Syndrome poisons the coverage of the Liberal media, the credibility of the once “north star” of print media (the NY Times) has slipped to just 29% amongst Republicans. CNN and MSNBC have fallen even further as only about one in four (27%) Republicans find them believable. Among all adults, trust in the media has fallen about ten percentage points in just three short years. These are disastrous numbers for an industry whose stock-in-trade is trust. There are two storylines that the media have absolutely blown in 2020 that have only exacerbated their fall from grace – the economy and Covid-19.
Back in May, the media projected that America would lose nine million jobs and that our unemployment rate would go up to 19.0%. Instead, our economy created 2.5 million new jobs and the unemployment rate went down to 13.3%. The media, however, hardly covered these spectacular numbers and totally ignored the massive miss that their projections represented. They missed again in June and you would think they would have learned their lesson, but apparently not. Just recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the July results, and wouldn’t you know it, the media underestimated the strength of our economy again. The US created 300,000 more jobs than predicted and our unemployment rate fell to just 10.2%, a full point lower than the June numbers and half a percent point lower than the projections. These consistent misjudgments are the kinds of things that destroy the media’s reliability and any appearance of objectivity.
Who is telling the story about these amazing jobs results, especially compared to expectations and in light of our attempted self-destruction of our economy. The media is certainly not covering it, so you’ll probably only hear this storyline here at the VFM.
However, in my opinion, the media’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has bordered on journalistic malfeasance. While I have already admitted that this virus is a serious matter for America and the world, the media has reported on this disease in a way that has totally misled the American people. In a July 27th publication, the Covid-19 Opinion Tracker reported that the average American believes that nine percent of the US population has already succumbed to this virus. NINE PERCENT!!! That would represent over 30 MILLION deaths in the US when we have actually lost about 150,000. Now, 150,000 is a lot of deaths, but 30 million is 200 times the reality. The fact that the American public is that confused about the mortality rate of this disease is an indictment of the media’s slanted, sloppy and even dishonest coverage.
The media has convinced the American people that getting the coronavirus is a death sentence, when the truth is that somewhere between 99.5 and 99.9% of the people who actually get infected by this disease will survive. If this had been the storyline from the beginning of this pandemic, our country would have responded very differently and our results would also have been different, maybe better.
And, of course, the media is not even considering the long-term implications of the paranoid behavior they are inspiring. Brenda and I just got back from a week in Florida. Yes, Florida, and we’re still alive. We followed the rules and wore masks when appropriate and sometimes just to be polite to more concerned vacationers, but it was a very pleasant stay. On the way there, however, we saw some very disturbing behavior that will affect our young people for years to come.
At the airport in Northwest Arkansas, there are rules in place for adults and children over 10 to wear masks, and as I suggested earlier, Brenda and I complied with that rule. We did see a family, however, with three children, all under 10, who were all wearing masks, AND goggles AND face shields attached to giant hats to accommodate the face shields. What kind of story do you have to tell three children under 10 to get them to dress up in these “near hazmat” outfits. Certainly not the truth, which is that it is very unlikely for them to transmit this disease and, even according to virologists and pediatricians, it is extremely unlikely for them to suffer serious symptoms. Fatalities are almost non-existent. From February 1st through July 8th only 30 children under age 15 have died of Covid-19 in the entire United States. While this group represents almost 20% of the US population, these 30 deaths represent only .02% (that’s two hundreds of one percent) of coronavirus fatalities. Said another way, children under 15 are a thousand times less likely to die from the coronavirus than the general public.
What media outlet is telling the true story about the mortality rate of this disease, especially in children? What investigative reporter is exploring the long-term emotional, educational and even financial damage being done to our society by short-sighted, unscrupulous politicians and a misguided media, hellbent on panicking everyone in this country? Well, you’ve at least heard about these stories here at the VFM.
Thursday, July 30, 2020
God Bless The USA
God Bless The USA
The View from the Middle
Over the past few months we have all been bombarded with claims of how terrible this country is. This country that millions of people risk their lives to get into each year. Some of these claims are absolute lies. Some are exaggerations and some are even true. No person or country is perfect. But what the media and most politicians leave out are the great stories of sacrifice and freedom and accomplishment and acceptance that are an integral part of our history and national legacy. It is what makes this country great and attractive to all of those millions who want to get here.
So, if you only focus on the negative and ignore all the positive you can make even the greatest country in the world sound terrible. Today, however, I received a couple of emails that reminded me of how great we’ve got it in the USA and what a bright future we have. And we have that bright future because of the of the fundamental goodness of our people, the self-correcting system of government our founders put in place and the freedom it guarantees even to those who would protest against it (not those who assault police, destroy property and even murder innocents). Try that in China and see what happens to you!
One email I received was about “The Doolittle Raiders”. This was a group of 80 men who flew 16 planes over Tokyo during WWII. Their original daring plan was to bomb Tokyo and then land in China, because they didn’t have enough fuel to make it back to their aircraft carriers, but that plan was thwarted and they had to take off from even farther out. This made landing in China unlikely, if not impossible. These 80 brave men took off anyway knowing that after their mission was complete they were going to have to fend for themselves in hostile territory. Four planes crash landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three Raiders died. Eight more were captured; and three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia. What an amazing story!! Add to this the thousands of stories and hundreds of books about the bravery and selflessness of Americans on Iwo Jima, at the Battle of the Bulge or on “D-day”. It reminded me of how proud I am of the men and women who fought and died to save Europe and the world from fascism and the brutality of Nazi Germany.
The next email I received was a video of Lee Greenwood and an array of American soldiers. Even with the backdrop of protestors, rioters, looters, arsonists and yes even murderers in the streets of America, it reminded me of how great this country is because it stands for freedom for everyone who lives here. Please read the words to this great song below, and I’ve also supplied a link you can copy and paste into your browser to actually hear Lee and his troupe perform. You will NOT regret listening.
"God Bless The USA"
If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife
I'd thank my lucky stars to be livin' here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away
And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA
From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA
Well, there's pride in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say
That I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA
And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Japc8M8RQw
THIS is what America needs to hear today! God bless you and God Bless the USA.
The View from the Middle
Over the past few months we have all been bombarded with claims of how terrible this country is. This country that millions of people risk their lives to get into each year. Some of these claims are absolute lies. Some are exaggerations and some are even true. No person or country is perfect. But what the media and most politicians leave out are the great stories of sacrifice and freedom and accomplishment and acceptance that are an integral part of our history and national legacy. It is what makes this country great and attractive to all of those millions who want to get here.
So, if you only focus on the negative and ignore all the positive you can make even the greatest country in the world sound terrible. Today, however, I received a couple of emails that reminded me of how great we’ve got it in the USA and what a bright future we have. And we have that bright future because of the of the fundamental goodness of our people, the self-correcting system of government our founders put in place and the freedom it guarantees even to those who would protest against it (not those who assault police, destroy property and even murder innocents). Try that in China and see what happens to you!
One email I received was about “The Doolittle Raiders”. This was a group of 80 men who flew 16 planes over Tokyo during WWII. Their original daring plan was to bomb Tokyo and then land in China, because they didn’t have enough fuel to make it back to their aircraft carriers, but that plan was thwarted and they had to take off from even farther out. This made landing in China unlikely, if not impossible. These 80 brave men took off anyway knowing that after their mission was complete they were going to have to fend for themselves in hostile territory. Four planes crash landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three Raiders died. Eight more were captured; and three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia. What an amazing story!! Add to this the thousands of stories and hundreds of books about the bravery and selflessness of Americans on Iwo Jima, at the Battle of the Bulge or on “D-day”. It reminded me of how proud I am of the men and women who fought and died to save Europe and the world from fascism and the brutality of Nazi Germany.
The next email I received was a video of Lee Greenwood and an array of American soldiers. Even with the backdrop of protestors, rioters, looters, arsonists and yes even murderers in the streets of America, it reminded me of how great this country is because it stands for freedom for everyone who lives here. Please read the words to this great song below, and I’ve also supplied a link you can copy and paste into your browser to actually hear Lee and his troupe perform. You will NOT regret listening.
"God Bless The USA"
If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife
I'd thank my lucky stars to be livin' here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away
And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA
From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA
Well, there's pride in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say
That I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA
And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Japc8M8RQw
THIS is what America needs to hear today! God bless you and God Bless the USA.
Thursday, July 23, 2020
How Can I Lie to Thee, Let Me Count the Ways
How Can I Lie to Thee, Let Me Count the Ways
The View from the Middle
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled “Lies of Omission” where I talked about how the press can mislead us all in more ways than straight out lies. They can just not cover or under report very important stories and I gave examples of where they did just that. One example I gave was the reporting on the May jobs numbers. The “experts” had suggested that we would lose nine million jobs in May and the unemployment rate would go UP to 19.0%. In actuality, we created 2.5 million new jobs and the unemployment rate went DOWN to 13.3%. These results were amazing, but the real story was the gargantuan miss by the so-called experts. CNN literally devoted five seconds to this story and didn’t even mention the vast gap between the projections and the actual results. So, what had to be the biggest story of the day was given five seconds from a network that is devoted to the news 24 hours a day. Really?
Of course, the media can just lie right to our faces also, and they have. Remember the story that President Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King from the Oval office. This, of course, was proof positive that Trump was a racist. When it was discovered that this was a lie, all we got was an “Ooops” from NBC that no one even heard. Then there was the claim that Trump said that, “all Mexicans are rapists”. When that turned out not to be true, the story just faded to black. Everyone heard the claim and no one heard any retraction or correction. Finally, Trump was called a traitor and a Russian asset for years by morally suspect John Brennan and James Clapper, but when the Mueller report came out and debunked that claim, there were no apologies or retractions for that either. Yes, the media has lied right to our faces!!
Then there is the deception of the double standard or what I will call “double vision”. It appears that President Trump can perform the exact same action as other Presidents or even candidates, but the reporting of those actions is twisted into a negative light. That happened most recently when President Trump gave a speech in front of Mount Rushmore. I actually watched that speech and found it to be one of Trump’s better moments as he honored Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt with an accurate historical tribute.
In 2008, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama visited Mount Rushmore and both CBS and CNN not only found the visits appropriate but asked both candidates if they pictured themselves joining the Presidential quartet on the Mount someday. For Obama’s visit, the media described the massive sculpture as “quite a sight” and “majestic”. In 2016 candidate Bernie Sanders visited the Mount and said of it, “This is our country at its very best”. He added that it was, “and incredible achievement” and that, “it really does make one proud to be an American.”
But, of course, all this must be changed by the lame-stream media if President Trump should dare to visit this incredible and legendary site. They must twist and contort this marvel of history and art into something disgusting and even reprehensible. So, as President Trump prepared to give his speech in front of Mount Rushmore, as 16 other Presidents have done, CNN decided that the Mount was no longer majestic or incredible or a source of pride, but now, because Trump was there, it was a, “monument to two slave owners, and on land that was wrestled away from Native Americans.” Wow, it’s amazing how blatant theirs bias has become.
And just so my readers understand, this article is not about President Trump. It is about a media that has abandoned their role as arbiters of truth. They have committed to an agenda and they will twist every story they find by making bold-faced lies, lies of omission and using the deception of their double standard to mislead you at every possible opportunity. And this is just the main-stream media. If you are using Facebook or Twitter as your source of news, the dishonesty is only magnified through the use of selective censorship or robotic manipulation which accounts for over half of their traffic and messaging. You must be diligent in your search for truth. You will have to find new sources of the news because the established media is committing journalistic malfeasance on a daily basis. This, unfortunately is our task, lest we become 2020’s version of George Orwell’s “1984”. And if you haven’t read that great book, you should do so now so you know what’s at stake.
The View from the Middle
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled “Lies of Omission” where I talked about how the press can mislead us all in more ways than straight out lies. They can just not cover or under report very important stories and I gave examples of where they did just that. One example I gave was the reporting on the May jobs numbers. The “experts” had suggested that we would lose nine million jobs in May and the unemployment rate would go UP to 19.0%. In actuality, we created 2.5 million new jobs and the unemployment rate went DOWN to 13.3%. These results were amazing, but the real story was the gargantuan miss by the so-called experts. CNN literally devoted five seconds to this story and didn’t even mention the vast gap between the projections and the actual results. So, what had to be the biggest story of the day was given five seconds from a network that is devoted to the news 24 hours a day. Really?
Of course, the media can just lie right to our faces also, and they have. Remember the story that President Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King from the Oval office. This, of course, was proof positive that Trump was a racist. When it was discovered that this was a lie, all we got was an “Ooops” from NBC that no one even heard. Then there was the claim that Trump said that, “all Mexicans are rapists”. When that turned out not to be true, the story just faded to black. Everyone heard the claim and no one heard any retraction or correction. Finally, Trump was called a traitor and a Russian asset for years by morally suspect John Brennan and James Clapper, but when the Mueller report came out and debunked that claim, there were no apologies or retractions for that either. Yes, the media has lied right to our faces!!
Then there is the deception of the double standard or what I will call “double vision”. It appears that President Trump can perform the exact same action as other Presidents or even candidates, but the reporting of those actions is twisted into a negative light. That happened most recently when President Trump gave a speech in front of Mount Rushmore. I actually watched that speech and found it to be one of Trump’s better moments as he honored Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt with an accurate historical tribute.
In 2008, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama visited Mount Rushmore and both CBS and CNN not only found the visits appropriate but asked both candidates if they pictured themselves joining the Presidential quartet on the Mount someday. For Obama’s visit, the media described the massive sculpture as “quite a sight” and “majestic”. In 2016 candidate Bernie Sanders visited the Mount and said of it, “This is our country at its very best”. He added that it was, “and incredible achievement” and that, “it really does make one proud to be an American.”
But, of course, all this must be changed by the lame-stream media if President Trump should dare to visit this incredible and legendary site. They must twist and contort this marvel of history and art into something disgusting and even reprehensible. So, as President Trump prepared to give his speech in front of Mount Rushmore, as 16 other Presidents have done, CNN decided that the Mount was no longer majestic or incredible or a source of pride, but now, because Trump was there, it was a, “monument to two slave owners, and on land that was wrestled away from Native Americans.” Wow, it’s amazing how blatant theirs bias has become.
And just so my readers understand, this article is not about President Trump. It is about a media that has abandoned their role as arbiters of truth. They have committed to an agenda and they will twist every story they find by making bold-faced lies, lies of omission and using the deception of their double standard to mislead you at every possible opportunity. And this is just the main-stream media. If you are using Facebook or Twitter as your source of news, the dishonesty is only magnified through the use of selective censorship or robotic manipulation which accounts for over half of their traffic and messaging. You must be diligent in your search for truth. You will have to find new sources of the news because the established media is committing journalistic malfeasance on a daily basis. This, unfortunately is our task, lest we become 2020’s version of George Orwell’s “1984”. And if you haven’t read that great book, you should do so now so you know what’s at stake.
Monday, July 13, 2020
Black Lives Matter, The Organization vs the Idea
Black Lives Matter, The Organization vs the Idea
The View from the Middle
Have you ever noticed that organizations and legislators use names to make their groups or legislation sound better? The people who fight to make abortions easier to access, for example, don’t call themselves “Pro-Abortion”. They call themselves “Pro-Choice”. They do that because they know that people understand that abortion is a bloody, destructive and dangerous act and they don’t want people associating their cause with that ugly picture. Would you support them if they were called the “We Rip Babies from Mothers’ Wombs” movement?
The same goes for the “Black Lives Matter” organization. Do Black lives matter? Of course, they do! Who is suggesting otherwise? It is a safe name because virtually everyone in this country agrees with the sentiment expressed in that name. They might as well have called it the “We Love Puppies” organization. Everyone in America supports puppies, but is that what this organization is all about? Is this organization really about saving Black lives?
Many Black leaders have questioned why BLM has not expressed more outrage over the deaths of Black police officers, like David Dorn, or young black children, like Secoriea Turner who were actually shot by Black Lives Matter protestors. Or how about the slaughter of young Black men in Chicago, Baltimore and New York that occurs every week. If Black lives matter, don’t they also matter. The reality is that Black lives are a side issue at best to these violent, terroristic mobs that are mostly made up of pampered, indoctrinated white millennials these days.
There’s an old saying that suggests that when people tell you who they are or what their intent is, you should believe them. So, when the mullahs in Iran shout, “death to America”. I believe that is what they want. When Russia says, “We will bury you”, I believe them and when China says they want to replace America as the one and only superpower in the world, I believe them too. So, when Patrisse Collurs, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, says that she is a trained Marxist, we should believe her also. So, who is Karl Marx and why does Patrisse worship him?
Karl Marx was a German philosopher born more than 200 years ago and is the father of socialism and arguably, Communism. After all, one of his most famous writings was The Communist Manifesto. His utopian ideas of an incorruptible, benevolent, thoroughly efficient government that runs everything may be great fodder for dorm room “dream-speak”, but you can ask the people of Cuba, Venezuela, China and Russia how all of that is working out. What it has proven in the real world is that government is corrupt, inept and deceitful above all things, and the big losers in his experiment are common people.
Black Lives Matter is a great slogan and a true statement, but it’s a poor name for this group. Marxism is what Patrisse and the BLM organization actually believe in. They believe in the destruction of capitalism, which has liberated more people from oppression than any other system in the world, and the elimination of the nuclear family, which is the foundation of every civil society. Many Black leaders and athletes have denounced the organization for those very positions, including journalist Jason Whitlock and retired all-pro defensive end Marcellus Wiley. BLM has openly said that they will burn down this country if they don’t get what they want, which doesn’t sound democratic, or tolerant or even sane to me. So, let’s take a look at what exactly this violent, radical group wants to burn down!
America is arguably the greatest country in the world today and possibly the greatest country this world has ever seen. America’s $20+ trillion economy is the largest in the world. Our economy, in fact, represents 24% of the world’s economy while accounting for only 4% of its population. We have the world’s most powerful military and we have the planet’s most generous people. The people in the US give over $400 billion to charity each year and our government adds another $35 billion in aid to other countries.
The United States regularly ranks in the top 10 countries in the world in terms of standard of living and has also ranked high in terms of the freedom our country offers our citizens. I think, however, that immigration is the most important measure of how great our country is. America allows over a million legal immigrants into our country every year and millions more risk their lives to come here illegally. There are over 50 million immigrants living in our country today which ranks us #1 in that category and that is four times the #2 country’s total. That 50 million represents over 15% of our population, another top number. And do you know what countries don’t even make it into the top 50 in terms of people wanting to immigrate there? China, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela, and why? Because their socialist/communistic systems have led to poverty, violence, misery, massive inequity and, in China’s case, even slavery.
Yet THIS, the greatest country in the world, is what BLM wants to burn down. Is America perfect? No, but neither is any other country on the planet. We do, however, offer one more thing that everyone loves about America. We have a constitution that not only puts human rights above governmental rights but is also self-correcting. It has taken us from zero Black men or women in government in 1789 (Washington’s first year in office) to our first Black President in 2009 and 58 members of Congress today. Will we get even better? Yes, unless we let the Marxist mobs in our midst burn this great country down.
So, don’t let this Marxist group trick you into supporting them. They will say that if you don’t support the Black Lives Matter organization, then you are against the “idea” that Black lives matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I would suggest that if you really believe that Black lives matter, you must denounce the organization that has hijacked such a righteous banner.
The View from the Middle
Have you ever noticed that organizations and legislators use names to make their groups or legislation sound better? The people who fight to make abortions easier to access, for example, don’t call themselves “Pro-Abortion”. They call themselves “Pro-Choice”. They do that because they know that people understand that abortion is a bloody, destructive and dangerous act and they don’t want people associating their cause with that ugly picture. Would you support them if they were called the “We Rip Babies from Mothers’ Wombs” movement?
The same goes for the “Black Lives Matter” organization. Do Black lives matter? Of course, they do! Who is suggesting otherwise? It is a safe name because virtually everyone in this country agrees with the sentiment expressed in that name. They might as well have called it the “We Love Puppies” organization. Everyone in America supports puppies, but is that what this organization is all about? Is this organization really about saving Black lives?
Many Black leaders have questioned why BLM has not expressed more outrage over the deaths of Black police officers, like David Dorn, or young black children, like Secoriea Turner who were actually shot by Black Lives Matter protestors. Or how about the slaughter of young Black men in Chicago, Baltimore and New York that occurs every week. If Black lives matter, don’t they also matter. The reality is that Black lives are a side issue at best to these violent, terroristic mobs that are mostly made up of pampered, indoctrinated white millennials these days.
There’s an old saying that suggests that when people tell you who they are or what their intent is, you should believe them. So, when the mullahs in Iran shout, “death to America”. I believe that is what they want. When Russia says, “We will bury you”, I believe them and when China says they want to replace America as the one and only superpower in the world, I believe them too. So, when Patrisse Collurs, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, says that she is a trained Marxist, we should believe her also. So, who is Karl Marx and why does Patrisse worship him?
Karl Marx was a German philosopher born more than 200 years ago and is the father of socialism and arguably, Communism. After all, one of his most famous writings was The Communist Manifesto. His utopian ideas of an incorruptible, benevolent, thoroughly efficient government that runs everything may be great fodder for dorm room “dream-speak”, but you can ask the people of Cuba, Venezuela, China and Russia how all of that is working out. What it has proven in the real world is that government is corrupt, inept and deceitful above all things, and the big losers in his experiment are common people.
Black Lives Matter is a great slogan and a true statement, but it’s a poor name for this group. Marxism is what Patrisse and the BLM organization actually believe in. They believe in the destruction of capitalism, which has liberated more people from oppression than any other system in the world, and the elimination of the nuclear family, which is the foundation of every civil society. Many Black leaders and athletes have denounced the organization for those very positions, including journalist Jason Whitlock and retired all-pro defensive end Marcellus Wiley. BLM has openly said that they will burn down this country if they don’t get what they want, which doesn’t sound democratic, or tolerant or even sane to me. So, let’s take a look at what exactly this violent, radical group wants to burn down!
America is arguably the greatest country in the world today and possibly the greatest country this world has ever seen. America’s $20+ trillion economy is the largest in the world. Our economy, in fact, represents 24% of the world’s economy while accounting for only 4% of its population. We have the world’s most powerful military and we have the planet’s most generous people. The people in the US give over $400 billion to charity each year and our government adds another $35 billion in aid to other countries.
The United States regularly ranks in the top 10 countries in the world in terms of standard of living and has also ranked high in terms of the freedom our country offers our citizens. I think, however, that immigration is the most important measure of how great our country is. America allows over a million legal immigrants into our country every year and millions more risk their lives to come here illegally. There are over 50 million immigrants living in our country today which ranks us #1 in that category and that is four times the #2 country’s total. That 50 million represents over 15% of our population, another top number. And do you know what countries don’t even make it into the top 50 in terms of people wanting to immigrate there? China, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela, and why? Because their socialist/communistic systems have led to poverty, violence, misery, massive inequity and, in China’s case, even slavery.
Yet THIS, the greatest country in the world, is what BLM wants to burn down. Is America perfect? No, but neither is any other country on the planet. We do, however, offer one more thing that everyone loves about America. We have a constitution that not only puts human rights above governmental rights but is also self-correcting. It has taken us from zero Black men or women in government in 1789 (Washington’s first year in office) to our first Black President in 2009 and 58 members of Congress today. Will we get even better? Yes, unless we let the Marxist mobs in our midst burn this great country down.
So, don’t let this Marxist group trick you into supporting them. They will say that if you don’t support the Black Lives Matter organization, then you are against the “idea” that Black lives matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I would suggest that if you really believe that Black lives matter, you must denounce the organization that has hijacked such a righteous banner.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Lies of Omission
Lies of Omission
The View from the Middle
This morning I was listening to Fox News when they announced the June jobs report, which was full of great news that should inspire and encourage everyone in America. Very shortly after the report was released the President had a press conference where he laid out the results and gave some perspective. While the Street had projected job gains of three million, the country produced almost five million new jobs, and while “the experts” predicted that the unemployment rate would fall to 12.4%, it actually fell to 11.1%
As I was watching the President explain this good news to the country on Fox News, I thought that I would go over and see what CNN was reporting. It seems that they chose not to even cover the President’s press conference and were instead doing a story on Trump’s poll numbers.
This reminded me of when the May job numbers came out. You may not even know this if you only watch the lame-stream media, but the May numbers were even more spectacular. The experts had predicted that we would lose nine million jobs and instead our economy delivered 2.5 million new jobs. “The experts also predicted that the unemployment rate would rise to 19.0%, but it in fact fell to 13.3%. That was a HUGE miss by the so-called experts!!
Those were astonishing numbers, especially considering the predictions, but when I clicked onto CNN they covered these results for five seconds (literally) and then spun off into some negative story about Trump. They didn’t even talk about the massive difference between these results and the projections. They just gave the numbers and moved on to trash the President.
This kind of under-reporting or lack of coverage is just another kind of deception that the media uses to mislead this country. It is sad that there are so many people in the media and in Washington who are actually disappointed with these wonderful results. They would prefer our country to be suffering economically and even physically so as to advance their political agendas. Disgusting!!
They also lie about the Supreme Court. Recently, there have been six rulings from the Court, three in favor of Trump and three cases where they ruled against his position. The depraved media aggressively covered the three cases that the White House lost, but guess how much time they devoted to the three cases where they ruled in his favor. You’re right – ZERO. They can say they didn’t lie, but they can’t say they told the truth, the whole truth, so help them God, and trust me they need God’s help right now to save their industry.
Then, on July the 3rd, Trump addressed the nation from Mount Rushmore. He actually delivered a wonderful history lesson about Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt so that people could understand why we honor these men. Mount Rushmore does not claim that these men (or any man or woman) is perfect, but they did do some amazing things to create, nurture, improve and protect the union. It was a 15-minute performance that every American should have experienced, but when I switched over to CNN, they amazingly had decided not to even cover it. In my opinion, that is not only pathetic, but it violates the very purpose of their role in our society.
For those of you who only watch ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR and CNN, you need to know that you are being lied to on a regular basis as these channels continue to omit stories that don’t fit their agenda. You need to get out of the “echo chamber” of deception through omission. We all need and deserve the whole truth and nothing but the truth so that we can decide for ourselves who and what is working for our country. If you’re not afraid to get the whole story, bounce over to Fox News on occasion. Listen to Rush Limbaugh or Chris Plante on the radio. They are not only very knowledgeable, but Chris Plante is also hilarious. But if you actually don’t want the whole story and don’t mind being misled by the bias, partisan media then stick with the lame-stream. You’ll experience the bliss of ignorance, until they decide to ignore YOUR story, but by then it will be too late.
The View from the Middle
This morning I was listening to Fox News when they announced the June jobs report, which was full of great news that should inspire and encourage everyone in America. Very shortly after the report was released the President had a press conference where he laid out the results and gave some perspective. While the Street had projected job gains of three million, the country produced almost five million new jobs, and while “the experts” predicted that the unemployment rate would fall to 12.4%, it actually fell to 11.1%
As I was watching the President explain this good news to the country on Fox News, I thought that I would go over and see what CNN was reporting. It seems that they chose not to even cover the President’s press conference and were instead doing a story on Trump’s poll numbers.
This reminded me of when the May job numbers came out. You may not even know this if you only watch the lame-stream media, but the May numbers were even more spectacular. The experts had predicted that we would lose nine million jobs and instead our economy delivered 2.5 million new jobs. “The experts also predicted that the unemployment rate would rise to 19.0%, but it in fact fell to 13.3%. That was a HUGE miss by the so-called experts!!
Those were astonishing numbers, especially considering the predictions, but when I clicked onto CNN they covered these results for five seconds (literally) and then spun off into some negative story about Trump. They didn’t even talk about the massive difference between these results and the projections. They just gave the numbers and moved on to trash the President.
This kind of under-reporting or lack of coverage is just another kind of deception that the media uses to mislead this country. It is sad that there are so many people in the media and in Washington who are actually disappointed with these wonderful results. They would prefer our country to be suffering economically and even physically so as to advance their political agendas. Disgusting!!
They also lie about the Supreme Court. Recently, there have been six rulings from the Court, three in favor of Trump and three cases where they ruled against his position. The depraved media aggressively covered the three cases that the White House lost, but guess how much time they devoted to the three cases where they ruled in his favor. You’re right – ZERO. They can say they didn’t lie, but they can’t say they told the truth, the whole truth, so help them God, and trust me they need God’s help right now to save their industry.
Then, on July the 3rd, Trump addressed the nation from Mount Rushmore. He actually delivered a wonderful history lesson about Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt so that people could understand why we honor these men. Mount Rushmore does not claim that these men (or any man or woman) is perfect, but they did do some amazing things to create, nurture, improve and protect the union. It was a 15-minute performance that every American should have experienced, but when I switched over to CNN, they amazingly had decided not to even cover it. In my opinion, that is not only pathetic, but it violates the very purpose of their role in our society.
For those of you who only watch ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR and CNN, you need to know that you are being lied to on a regular basis as these channels continue to omit stories that don’t fit their agenda. You need to get out of the “echo chamber” of deception through omission. We all need and deserve the whole truth and nothing but the truth so that we can decide for ourselves who and what is working for our country. If you’re not afraid to get the whole story, bounce over to Fox News on occasion. Listen to Rush Limbaugh or Chris Plante on the radio. They are not only very knowledgeable, but Chris Plante is also hilarious. But if you actually don’t want the whole story and don’t mind being misled by the bias, partisan media then stick with the lame-stream. You’ll experience the bliss of ignorance, until they decide to ignore YOUR story, but by then it will be too late.
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