Bias news

Last June a lone gunman, Omar Mateen, attacked a gay nightclub in Florida and killed 49 people and wounded 58 others. Because it was a gay club the press immediately assumed it was a hate crime directed at gay people. The fact that his family immigrated from Afghanistan and he was a Muslim did not enter into their calculation. They had set a predetermined course to reach a predetermined conclusion and they arrived on time. It was only months later when after his wife's trial that all the facts came out. He randomly chose the night by searching the phone book and there was no evidence that he was a closet gay as was reported. As far as investigators could tell, Mateen had never been to Pulse before, whether as a patron or to case the nightclub. Even prosecutors acknowledged in their closing statement that Pulse was not his original target; it was the Disney Springs shopping and entertainment complex. They presented evidence demonstrating that Mateen chose Pulse randomly less than an hour before the attack. It is not clear he even knew it was a gay bar. A security guard recalled Mateen asking where all the women were, apparently in earnest, in the minutes before he began his slaughter. As the trial proceeded more evidence made it clear that he was a Islamic terrorist. There was compelling evidence of other motivations. Mateen had pledged allegiance to the self-described Islamic State during the shooting, and explicitly said that he was acting to avenge air strikes in the Middle East. “You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people,” he told a crisis negotiator over the phone while at Pulse. “What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there. You get what I’m saying?” As the press approval ratings fall to 30% the public realizes that politics has distorted the news to the point where people must look to several different sources in an attempt to find out what really happened and even then they are not comfortable with the story.

Trade war

Many experts who follow US/Russian relations feel that when Reagan fired the traffic controllers it got Gorbachev's attention in a way that words could not. His action added to his credibility on other issues showing that he was not afraid to take a stand on principle. In a similar vein when Trump puts an import tax on China in an election year people like Kim in North Korea pay attention. With most American presidents foreign leaders know how to push their buttons to get them to back away from controversy. For the same reasons that the news people are frustrated with Trumps unorthodox behavior foreign leaders find him difficult to read but they know he is not afraid to go against the status quo. In the vernacular of the day he is not presidential and that concerns China and North Korea.

Justice for all

Yesterday Scott Pruitt head of the EPA was asked about questionable salary arrangements with two of his employees and he responded that he didn't know about it. “You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did this?” Henry asked. “I found out about this yesterday, and I corrected the action,” Pruitt said. This is mindful of the several occasions when President Obama said in answer to questions that he just found out about the situation when he read about it in the paper. We can now add, I just found out to I didn't know, I can't recall and I don't remember. These along with I didn't intend to do it (intent) can be a get out of jail card for some but not for you. Justice is sometimes tainted. Recall when Ted Kennedy was driving drunk, left the scene of an accident and his lady friend died. Aside from some bad PR nothing much happened.

Votes

The constitution demands that every ten years the national census is undertaken. This count then determines the number of representatives apportioned to each state and these are the numbers used in the electoral college. This means that illegal aliens are used in the decision to choose the president. In 1950 California had 30 congressmen and today they have 53 congressmen. It is estimated that there are 2.6 million illegals living in California and this equals about 4 votes whereas there are 7 states that have only one representative. The estimated 12 million illegals in the US are equal to 16 electoral votes which is equal to all the representatives in Alaska,Delaware,Montana,North Dakota,South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. That is a significant voting block even though they are not allowed to vote directly their votes count indirectly in the electoral college.

Retirement

I was reading about a state trooper who is retiring after 37 years of service and he was asked what he is going to do and he answered that he will spend more time with his wife and grandchildren and do some traveling. I spent many years talking to people about retirement planning and his was a typical response. In today's world many people don't think about the fact that you may have 20 or 30 good years after you retire and it requires some planning. As a general rule you will not do after retirement what you did not do before retirement. When I retired I took a trip down memory lane and visited the many places I had lived before and it was fun but after 5 weeks away from my bed I was ready to come home and stay home. After that I went back to work which is what I did for most of my life. Often times retired people say they are busier than ever but that may not be the case. There is a business principle called Parkinson's Law and it says, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Many retirees work on various projects and they say that keeps them busy but many of those same people worked on similar projects while they were full time workers. People who are self employed like writers and artist continue right on working at their craft and so there is not much adjustment required but for those who work for an employer it helps to have a plan.

Patriot

There are many articles on the Internet challenging the effectiveness of the Patriot anti missile systems that the US has sold to various countries around the globe. They point out that only a few of the missiles actually hit the target. They are making the same mistake that those who criticized Reagan when he moved forward with the Patriot. They forget that once the science is set that engineering follows and in time these systems will improve and become a serious deterrent. Recall the first Vanguard rockets the US tried to orbit. It is not wise to say that something technical will never work which is what many said about Reagan's plan which they ridiculed as Star Wars.

Voters

In a sequel to the Rosanne Show a person asks how anyone could ever vote for Trump after all his lies and affairs. It was 50 years ago when Ted Kennedy ran for president but was not nominated. If he had been the nominee would democrats have voted for him or would they have voted for the republican Bush? John Edwards was the leading candidate in 2007 when it was revealed that he had fathered a child by his mistress and he was forced out of the race. If he had been the candidate would the democrats have voted for McCain? Bill Clinton was elected to a second term even though his first term was filled with scandals. Even after his affair with Lewinsky was uncovered he still maintained high approval ratings. Would democrats have voted for Dole if they had known about Monica? Many people vote the party candidate because they agree with what the party stands for and if their candidate is less than desirable they can overlook the blemishes. Others vote for the candidate and they can switch parties based on what the candidate stands for. Trump attracted voters who liked his policies and many who liked his flamboyance and of course many who just wanted change. Trump is sometimes liberal and sometimes conservative and this throws regular party people into a tizzy.