Media

The Media is a business and thus relies on ratings to survive. People in the media often complain when office seekers fail to talk about policy and therein lies a conundrum. They understand that the public is more interested in personal easy to comprehend problems than in boring position papers. It is well known that very few people read the home page of presidential candidates where they lay out their positions on various topics. There are many examples to prove this and the most recent was Trump’s speech on Thursday. He spoke for 75 minutes explaining his thoughts on the economy, taxes, immigration, ISIS and veterans affairs. Then he said the following: “Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words, or you say the wrong thing,” Trump said. “I have done that. And believe it or not, I regret it. And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.” This was covered over and over in the press and very little was said about the rest of his speech. When Hillary Clinton testified before congress for many hours the thing that was reported most often was when she said, “what difference does it make”? No one remembers what else she said.

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Hillary Clinton has taken up the Bernie Sanders plea to take income from the rich and spread it around to help the poor. Her plan is not to give the money to the poor but for her, meaning the government, to decide how it is spent. Just how much she will have to spend depends on how high she wants to raise the upper tax rates. A quick review of income from the latest data of 2013 shows the following: In 2013, 138.3 million taxpayers reported earning $9.03 trillion in adjusted gross income and paid $1.23 trillion in income taxes. The top one percent earned 20% of the 9 trillion total or 1.8 trillion. They currently pay 40% of all taxes leaving them with 1.08 trillion. If we take the rest of their money and give it to the 99% each working taxpayer would get $7,000. While most people would be uncomfortable using legal means to take money out of someone’s pocket and putting it in their pocket, they are OK with the government doing this. If the government wants to send me money, I will take it but like most Americans, I would rather earn my own way and thus the emphasis should be on jobs not on income redistribution. The problem is that while government is good at redistribution it is not good at creating jobs.

Oversight

The FBI has turned over notes from the interview with Hillary Clinton to a congressional investigating committee but much of the information is redacted as being too sensitive to release. One of the responsibilities of congress is oversight of the executive branch. Congressional oversight is oversight by the United States Congress over the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight includes the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation A congressional source confirmed to Fox News that the House Government Oversight Committee had received a heavily redacted FBI summary of Hillary Clinton’s session last month with FBI agents who interviewed her about her use of private server for government business. Apparently the government has decided it is the FBI’s responsibility to oversee the executive branch which is like the fox guarding the hen house since the FBI works for the executive branch otherwise known as the White House. While this kind of mischief is common practice in Washington it has been taken to new heights by the Clintons and is one of the reasons why many people believe that Clinton cannot be trusted.

Story telling

Now that Trump is emphasizing the blue collar worker it has brought to my attention the education gap, the fact that 30% are college educated and 70% are not. For those of you who are old enough to remember Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton, think of those two guys as representing the working man. Ralph was a bus driver and Ed worked in the sewer and both struggled every day to make ends meet. They were the kind of guys who paid their bills, paid their taxes and chocked up when the National Anthem was played. The people in the media are in the 30% group and view these regular guys with a ton of misconceptions. They see them as racist homophobes who are not too bright or as they say euphemistically, “low information people”. These regular guys are the people who fight our wars, who follow the rules and strive to provide their kids with a better life and these are the people who have been left behind by leaders who promise every four years to help. The news people have inadvertently confirmed the suspicions of the working class that candidates for president can’t be trusted. The press often says there is a difference between the primaries and general election. The phrase they use is, moving to the center. In plain language this means to say one thing to one group and another thing to another group. It is not unreasonable to consider this lying and many people do. To top it off when they get elected there is a third story.

TPP

The TPP is in the news since Clinton was for it when she was Secretary of State but is now against it. Trump has been opposed to it all along and most people are not happy with it. It is a trade agreement between 12 countries including the United States and most notably absent China. Some sources say that it will eliminate some 18,000 trade barriers which sound good but the problem is how it was negotiated. One huge rap against TPP is that the Obama administration negotiated it in secret, but with input from hundreds of corporations who ultimately would benefit from it. There are so many opinions that it is difficult to decide whether it is good or bad. Most agree it will be good for employers but not for employees and thus unions are strongly opposed to TPP. The same situation arose when NAFTA was signed 23 years ago. One thing for sure is that jobs for working people have not benefited since NAFTA became law.

Clinton charity

When Mitt Romney released his tax returns it showed $14 million in income and $4 of that went to charity. He was not praised for his charitable contribution but criticized because most of it went to the Mormon Church of which he was an elder member. This week Clinton released her tax return showing $10.6 million in income and one million going to charity. The charity is the Clinton Foundation and has been the subject of numerous allegations of unethical business practices. No smoking gun has ever been found but controversy swirls around the whole thing. Not much in the news about this since the Clinton Global Initiative has overshadowed the whole affair and that charity may be under investigation at this time or it may not be depending on which source you quote. The Clintons are interesting people.

Elite

Signs of progress are appearing in the disdain the eastern elites have for the working man. He used to be described as a dumb red neck with a pack of Marlboros in his flannel shirt pocket, a rifle in the back window of his pick-up and a big belt buckle holding in his beer belly. This group is now referred to as the low information voter. Things are definitely looking up!