Hollywood Shouldn't Preach

Hollywood.  The Oscars.  You've got to love it.  They made a mess of it.  Jimmy Kimmel made fun of names.  They mistakenly announced the wrong film for best picture.  They honored in the memoriam a costume designer who is very much alive.

If this is what happens at their annual self-congratulation fest, when they've had an entire year to put it together, maybe they shouldn't be so quick to bombast the Trump administration.  After all they've been in power only a little over a month.

I hope their political posturing falls on fairly deaf ears.  You can't help but hear them because they hate the new administration and are very vocal about it.  Therefore the media gives them voice. However we can allow it to go in one ear and out the other.

For that matter a lot of what Trump says deserves the same because he changes his mind as soon as someone with a stronger voice gets his ear.  Fortunately that seems to be happening with some frequency for he has put some good strong people in positions of power.

The Oscars?  Eh.  They aren't what they used to be.  Glamor and great films no longer reign.  It has become politicized and angry.  Where's the fun in that?

As for the opinions of the stars?  They're mostly interchangeable and far to the left.  I've often wondered how many of them have set up foundations to help those less fortunate.  I'm sure some have but you don't hear about them.  Perhaps I'd have a more positive opinion of that community if I did.

Until that time I'm enjoying that for the moment they have to stop and clean up the egg on their collective faces.  They look no better than the President.

Maybe It Isn't The "Reporters" Faking The News

So Mika Brzezinski thinks it's her job and those like her to control 'exactly what people think'.  Wow! What arrogance!

I have been listening the media cry out about how a free press is necessary.  That's true but they also have an obligation to be unbiased in their reporting.  Many claim to be.  And many are.

I think what has happened with 24 hour news sources is that actual reporting has gotten its lines blurred with commentators.  Brzezinski is a commentator, not a reporter.  What she has to say is opinion and not necessarily fact. Actually most news anchors are no longer reporters.  Or sure, they go off on special assignments but most of the time they are news readers and as such so insinuate their own slant.  It's not just one source, it's all of them.

I think the real reporters, the investigative reporters are too busy trying to do their job to be household names.  It's the commentators/talking heads who we have in our living rooms in the evening and if a cable channel all day too.

They all try to shape our thinking to mesh with their own.  They often shade the truth, or worse, to succeed.  Therefore, depending on who we listen to we need to dig deeper.  That's no easy task these days.  I actually get a more accurate take on what's going on here from the Financial Times of London even with it's liberal slant.  It's a British newspaper and they hate Trump but that's coming from their columnists.  Their news is straightforward.

It has now been said.  Loud and clear.  By an MSNBC personality.   That is telling unto itself.  The goal is to tell us what we should think.  If you think Trump is the stuff dictators are made from ~ think again.

Who IS Your President?

I'm so weary of demonstrations.  I know we have the legal right to protest but I can't help but wonder if the people really know just what it is they're protesting.  Of course they are not the majority but they sure as heck are the squeaky wheel!

I also wonder how many of them actually voted and if they can indeed name the policies of the Trump administration they are so against.  They have demonstrated quite clearly they don't understand, or don't want to understand, the immigration deal.

I don't care for Trump either.   And yes, I did vote.  But neither for Hillary nor Trump.  But now we have Trump and that a segment of the population is against him has been made abundantly clear.  I'm tired of hearing it.  There is no  much noise it's hard to hear what's going on that's really important.

There are signs that Trump isn't all bad.  He has put in place a very strong national security team.  That's an admission on his part that he has no experience in that area.  He has brought in other extremely strong people for his cabinet and the games being played in Congress to drag out confirmation only hurts the country.  These people need to get to work.

People like George Soros and rumored "shadow administrations" fostering unrest, leaking confidential information and funding demonstrations in order to derail the new administration are doing nothing but hurting the country.  There is business to be attended to and delaying it by purposeful disruption is detrimental.

Trump won.  Whether or not you like the way he won doesn't change the fact.  Isn't it time to give him a chance to get his administration together, cement policy and move forward? Quit responding to sound bites, tainted truths and ill will.

Trump is the President.  I am an American.  And trite as it may sound, he therefore is my President.  Period.  He is also the President of all the protesters whether or not they like it.  Period. Get real, settle down and if you're lucky enough to have a job, get back to work. Period.  

Immigrants ARE Welcome Here

The idea that immigrants are unwelcome in this country is absurd.  That's why I have little patience with this Day Without Immigrants exercise.

If it's still being taught in schools, everyone knows that this country was built by immigrants from day one.  That being said, it is no crime, or shouldn't be, in this time of turmoil, to be sure that the immigrants who do come here have no criminal nor terrorist intent.

The people coming across the Mexican border illegally are committing a criminal act.  That they are searching for a better life should fall upon their country of origin.  It is their responsibility to make conditions in their countries acceptable for their citizens.  It is not our responsibility to serve as an opportune refuge.

You look at the strife under which the refugees from terrorists like ISIS live and you cannot help but feel compassion for them.  We should and do provide refuge for great numbers of these people.  The problem is when they refuse to adapt to our ways and that is the case with many. They are the ones that are noticed because they live in their own enclaves and do not assimilate.  Due to the world climate, right or wrong, that makes them suspect.

The President wanting to stop immigration from certain heavily Muslim countries until we have a mechanism in place to properly vet them is not banning all Muslims by a long shot.  It is a prudent thing to do considering the influence jihadists have over people who come from the same regions where they hold sway.

As for the millions of others, they are subject to the same procedures as any other immigrant wanting to come here.  No more.  No less.

Of course a lot of resentment could be alleviated if the tech firms and others like them would hire Americans for the jobs for which they recruit immigrants.  Why?  For the cost benefit of lower salaries?  Or are they really that much smarter.  If so that presents a whole different problem to address.

Having gotten that off my chest I'm going to head down to a little place I know and chow down on the best Mex in the area.  Owned and operated by Mexicans.  Legal Mexicans.  Living their version  of the American dream.  All good and proper.  What could be better than that?

Social Media Isn't Very Social

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who is a few years my senior, but not so much that we aren't peers.  Our conversation turned to politics and we both wondered when and why we as a people have become so mean and nasty.

I pop over to Twitter every once in awhile and look up what a favorite columnist or talking head might be saying.  They are identified as who they actually are.  Not so those who respond. Hiding behind their made up names they become unbelievably foul.  Unfortunately many of those being accosted do the same in return.

Why do they behave this way?  My friend contends it's because they can.  Pure and simple.  Is that really all there is to it?  That they can it's permissible to be not only foul but cruel as well?  I don't get it.

This is nothing new.  It has been creeping into social media from roots in blogging.  Like this one.  For quite some time after I began this blog I was know as Dogwalk or DWM.  I have always, though, tried to be civil even when in disagreement with a commenter or being attacked by one.  I could see no point in being otherwise.

But now. Whew. It has overflowed into every aspect of society.  The media, the celebrity world, politicians including the President,  everyday ordinary people amassing protests, many times over no more than a buzz word.

My friend stated quite emphatically that this isn't her America.  It's not mine either, at least not the one in which I grew up. I shouldn't have to brush it off as a generational thing.  That times are different now so get over it.

No.  I won't get over it because it's unacceptable.  I hope Twitter's problems generating revenue bring about its demise.  I hope people leave Facebook because there are more ads than comments from friends.  How many do you have to scroll through to find a friend's comment? Too many.  I have no problem with going back to e-mail or even good old fashioned snail mail with a real handwritten letter.  I know that won't happen in this era of instant communication, but it would cause people to take a time out and maybe consider what they are about to say.  Even e-mail can do that much.

The pendulum tends to swing both directions.  I hope it has nearly reached the far side of incivility and is ready to swing back.  Before the country finds itself in such a state that the pendulum is stuck.  Broken.  As will be the country.  And probably beyond repair.