American deadlock trudges on. Trump promised a wall and he won’t back down. Democrats won’t back down either. Both show solidarity with their respective platforms. The only group that seems to favor backing down is Congressional Republicans, who want Trump to get this over with any way possible. For the compromising Republicans on Capitol Hill, Trump’s refusal to sign a “wallless budget” isn’t a “wall” strategy as much as it is a “shut down” strategy. Trump and Congressional Democrats see it differently.
Keep watch; it just might be Jared Kushner who saves the day.
The term “free speech” has taken a new meaning. While speech has kept less and less freedom from the tech bosses, the monetary cost of speaking out has essentially become free. With speech becoming more and more “financially free”, the media industry can’t find a way to stay solvent.
Newspapers and local news broadcasters seek collective ways to work against the tech giants, but they only rearrange their immediate problems with no long-term solutions in sight. The dwindling news industry is attacking “free” platforms of semi-free speech: social media. That’s the clue of where news & information will head in the future.
Apple sales are up in China, which creates a problem on two fronts. First, the doomsayers were wrong about tariffs crashing economies. If the tariffs aren’t making a difference according to the globalist economists, then why did they object? They’re the “experts”, after all. Shouldn’t they have foreseen that tariffs wouldn’t matter? The second problematic front is that an American company’s success seems to be a problem for the Chinese.
Apple doesn’t filter and censor content from personal users, but Chinese state-media outlets seem to think it should. Even though Apple proved that China is good for business, someone had to find fault. Good news just won’t do these days.
So, now it’s Apple vs China rather than Apple in China. It seems Apple was also duped by the globalist economists into vesting one fifth of its sales in a relationship that wasn’t going to last. Watch. This looks like a preemptive step to take action against Apple, who would do well to start pulling out of China before its assets get appropriated for the benefit of the Chinese people.
The swelling trade war between the US and China isn’t going away. Dating back to the Opium Wars, the West will push and push as long as most of the money flows downhill into China. While China compares tariffs, Trump balances cash flow.
More importantly, China could be entering another “danger zone” of its own. Painting Trump as an enemy in China’s own newspapers could inspire dissidents within China that they have support from the US. The best response for China’s own stability would be to report that Trump’s tariffs were intended to help China’s economy more than the US. That would be more likely to promote unity among the Chinese people. But, the state didn’t think of that before press time and the newspapers can’t be recalled, even when owned by the state.
China is, indeed calm, just as it claims. There should be no question that China believes the flow of money into China is fair. Chinese don’t want to be unfair, after all. China should only have favorable trade because China deserves it. Beigjing isn’t out to hurt anyone, unless they are denied the extra favor that the world owes to China. So, don’t let the Western press convince you that China is more of a monster than it actually is. We can all be monsters at times.
Today is Memorial Day, when Americans remember brave men and women in uniform who do the necessary work and take the necessary risks to preserve freedoms for others—freedoms that can never be attained by entitlement. Freedom is neither free nor guaranteed. It must be earned and preserved. Today we pause to honor those who do that for us.
At the recent NATO conference, Britain’s Prime Minister May confronted President Trump about leaks from within an administration Congressional Democrats have blocked Trump from replacing. There seems to be no word so far on May’s view of Obama hiring people in the leaky administration or the Democrats for not encouraging leakers to be replaced more quickly.
Montana’s Republican Congressman finally did what many people have wanted to do to news reporters. Greg Gianforte reportedly body-slammed a reporter from the UK Guardian and broke his glasses. And, you know what they say about hitting a guy with glasses. Perhaps the reporter lacked the foresight to see it coming. Or, maybe he didn’t understand the very news he was covering, so he made the news instead. Shoving an uninvited microphone into the face of a Montanan is a bad idea—but Gianforte will have to get used it since he plans on going to Washington. This proved that the new Congressman is not part of the establishment.
It wasn’t the first time that a country-bumpkin good ole’ fashion red-blooded American opened a can on the Britts. It’s not the first time and won’t be the last time Americans feel frustration with the news media. Three newspapers pulled their “endorsement”—even though it was probably too late to matter, albeit the news doesn’t endorse candidates, it reports on them, hopefully not provoking assault in the process.
Gianforte apologized after he won the election, both to the reporter and the Fox News team on the scene for the trouble. Waiting was the right thing to do—staying his apology until it wouldn’t get him more votes. He was sincere, his supporters in the room forgave him, and it did seem to be about personal respectability and leading by example. His support will likely increase, both for being able to make such a “real-human” mistake and for being able to apologize for it. These things could make him a much needed and positive influence on Congress.
There is something symbolic to this. With Gianforte’s victory in Montana, a second “butt-kicker” will soon arrive in Washington. The news industry as a whole is taking a tumble, literally and figuratively. The scripted assault plan from the media playbook is now mounting against Hannity and everyone is responding on cue. Information leaks in Washington continue, all in ways that indicate the previous administration. An obviously predictable change is under way on many levels.
But, “obvious” isn’t obvious to everyone. Mark Zuckerberg wants a “universal basic income” and threw GDP under the bus in favor of the ethereal, non-economic feeling to “find a meaningful role”. If a minimum income can be guaranteed then there is no need to study or “try new ideas” for that matter. Zuckerberg wants a “cushion” so we can try new ideas without feeling economic fear, forgetting—or perhaps never learning—that invention’s mother is necessity. If there is no risk then there is no progress. Dostoyevski’s, and many others’, very inspiration came from not having an economic cushion. If Zuckerberg got his way, innovation would diminish, as it has in every economy every time it has ever been tried on Earth, from the Pilgrims to the Russians. But, kids who don’t study their history tend to repeat it.
Steve Jobs didn’t speak at Stanford until he had gray hair and, when he finally did, he simply told stories from his life. By contrast, the young Harvard dropout speaking at the Harvard graduation this past weekend couldn’t talk about his life story because he hadn’t lived long enough to have one. Mark can’t say that he got fired from Facebook, started a new company, found his spouse, then went back to prove that only his brains could run the company he started. He’s still green. Even though he talked about innovative-economic theory, he made his fame is from success in software, not success in macro-economic planning. It was a kid telling kids what the kids wanted to hear.
The entire generation lacks “independent critical thinking”—the ability to scrutinize one’s own ideas and dispassionately present and welcome arguments, both pro and con, to understand life most accurately. Not knowing what to make of current events, that generation is drunk on the fantasy that Trump only won the election because the Russians rigged it—a leaped-to conclusion no prosecutor has even suggested and an indication that the young voters watch James Bond more than they watch the news.
Trump is as green to politics as Zuckerberg is to economics, except Trump has a life story that includes both failure and rebound. He is a business man who reached out to Director Comey, a man he had the power to fire at any time. A good boss does that in the business world, but in politics that pre-firing courtesy easily comes across as scandal—even when it is not—especially in the eyes of those who are already on a witch hunt. If Trump did something truly wrong, it remains yet to be seen.
These supposed “scandals” in the news about Trump, so far anyway, are mere delusion for the disillusioned, begging the question of whether delusion is all there is to these reported scandals. It would be great if a non-delusion-driven investigation would actually get under way so that there would be something real to report and comment on. And, that day may yet come, even though it is not today.
Many voters—mostly the kids—are still disappointed after the first time an election didn’t turn out how they wanted it. They are in the “denial” stage of that process of grief. If they were as right as they think themselves to be then they would have seen it coming. But, they didn’t. Based on evidence, the world today does not need Zuckerberg’s basic universal income guarantee; we need basic critical thinking.
Some people have that basic thinking, the rest wake up every day surprised and disappointed. In such times, everything is seen for what it truly is and, evidently, that trend won’t stop anytime soon.
Of course Snowden objects to his persecutor being fired. James Comey was likely dismissed for incompetence—not only in failing to prosecute “crooked Hillary” after publicly building the case against her at election time, not only because of his “see no evil” attitude toward all Islamic factions, which arguably allowed the shooting in San Bernardino, nor for ignoring Apple’s instructions on how to not lock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone, not only for talking about software security on national TV as if he doesn’t know how to use a mouse, not only for dragging the FBI’s feet while investigating the Orlando night club shooter for 10 months while he killed another 102 people, and not only for working for the previous president under whose “Iraqexit” ISIS became a household name. Trump is also growing tired of leaks to the media—something he won’t tolerate. Counterintelligence and leak-finding are games of trial and permutation, much like Clue—games which Comey is not exempted from. If leaks to the media decrease since his firing, there will be no doubt about Trump’s motives.
But, then there is his career effectiveness. Was Comey a kind of “fifth horseman” working as a media spy in the FBI? Comey, in all of his investigations in Russia, still failed to retrieve Snowden. Yet, were it not for Comey and his valiant-yet-failing efforts, not as many people would read Snowden’s Tweets. Personally sympathetic or otherwise, Snowden can’t not oppose Comey’s firing. But, it’s unclear what Russia thinks about Snowden’s support for the man investigating them.
Remember, Snowden became famous as a 29 year old tech geek for having information that dropped from the bumblings of Baby Boomers who ran the NSA, but apparently learned to use a mouse late in life. Snowden did not become famous for his political commentary.
On the other end of the Peanut Gallery, Julian “Espionage” Assange can’t not comment on who is more effective at finding the truth about a government. Perhaps Comey might have not locked the San Bernardino bomber’s iPhone if he had hired Assange or Snowden. Now, “Espionage” Assange offers “Unemployed” Comey a job while “Wanted” Snowden comes to “Unemployed” Comey’s defense. It’s almost worth a comedy story.
Other opinionated young bloods have their conflicting opinions—mostly Bernie Sanders supporters who didn’t foresee that he had no political chance. They favored Obama having his way with any and every department. They weren’t paying attention during their childhoods in the Bush years. They weren’t alive to see the Clinton years. But, now, all of a sudden, they are conscientious about “abuse of power”. This Hippies’ change of heart is yet another example of how Trump is good for the country.
But, the Hippies still don’t get the picture.
Heads of departments in the Federal Government work at the pleasure of the president. It is customary to dismiss old department heads when new presidents take office. Comey lasted longer than he had any right to expect.
The same would be true if a Democrat had just taken the White House and an FBI director who had served under a Republican were being fired—well, except for the Bush dynasty who wouldn’t oppose a burglar holding a knife to their own family.
The kids complaining about Comey didn’t discover politics until they saw a viral video of street musicians singing about Sanders. Then, they acted like the vicious cycles of history are happening for the first time, even though history isn’t cycling for the first time—not even in their lifetimes. This time, when a new president fired an old department head, they happened to be finally be paying attention. Once today’s Hippies finish growing their chest hair and the now junior high schoolers take up the “Hippie torch” when Trump leaves office, the same “concerns” will recapitulate like a recurring theme in a bad movie score.
The real question is about the gray heads running the news industry: This isn’t the first time a new president fired and old department head. This isn’t the first time political classroom goof-offs acted like “normal” was a surprise. Nothing new or newsworthy happened this week. Headlines should have read, “New President fires Old FBI Chief: Proof the World Still Spins”.
The news industry failed to report what really happened this week: History simply repeated. That’s why news is a dying industry.
But, why feed the Hippies? Why is the news industry quickening its own death on the altar of demagoguery? The best explanation so far is that the news industry is like the Pied Piper—hoping to rally an unwitting populist army of children into a war that they would know they would lose if they were 20 years older. But, the best kept secret about Bernie Sanders, Clinton, Obama, the dying news establishment, and the rest of the political Left is that their goal isn’t to win. Their goal is to lose while making as big of a mess as possible. Once the kids figure that out, it will all backfire and the Left won’t have even one leg to stand on.
Jack Ma says that CEOs could be robots in the future, but they already are. Someone accuses your most-necessary employee of something bad and you instantly fire him. That’s quite robotic and that’s the trend in management, at least in the changing news industry.
Bill O’Reilly is gone, at least from television. Yeah, he should have acted better. But, there are much bigger fish to fry still swimming at large in the vast ocean of harassment and bureaucratic strong-arming. Bill was only a target because powerful people don’t like what he was saying—the very things that made him number one in cable news. And, they were willing to get rid of him, even though it meant losing money.
Money has rarely motivated the news industry. Newspapers are losing profit left and right, but they don’t change. News website advertising doesn’t work—not because readers don’t like ads, but because they don’t want ad services to triple web page load times. And, the slow, snail-mail, old culture leaders in the dying news industry think that web page load times are no problem because it’s faster than waiting for the morning paper. But, it’s not about that; it’s about slowing down your entire computer or not being able to read a story before you get off at your bus stop.
News is led by leadership that is out of touch with its own industry. That’s why Bill O’Reilly, of all people, was let go. And, just as predicted last week, he wasn’t the first. The small-fish friers saw the inch and thought themselves to be rulers. Someone accused Hannity, expecting the precedent to work. But, Hannity stopped that in a hurry. But, believe it, one way or another, Hannity is next.
Once Sean Hannity leaves his normal programming, he’ll have plenty of friends to welcome him—including Milo Yiannopoulos, Bill O’Reilly, and the newest inventor in news and information, Jimmy Wales. Yes, the Wikipedia founder is now starting the Wikitribune. As of press time, wikitribune.com has hired 4 of 10 journalists.
Most of the news about Bill O’Reilly examines the history of advertising, accusations, money, and news ratings. The main topic of headlines from big news outlets are about Fox News—not what Bill O’Reilly’s future is, but what Bill O’Reilly’s future is at Fox, the competitor of reporting news companies.
It was all political. Yes, there are and have been for quite some time bolstered allegations that O’Reilly has too much playtime. The allegations against him pale in comparison to Clinton—either Clinton. But, it only mattered before because Bill was big. It only bit this time because Roger Ailes wasn’t there to circle the wagons and he was targeted by special groups, such as Color of Change, that go after a media personality’s advertisers. That tried and failed against Rush Limbaugh, but not against Glenn Beck, Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes, and now Bill O’Reilly.
Again, Sarah Palin called Republicans a “party of cannibals”. They are. Everyone has problems. Only venues that cater to Republican-voting audiences exploit each other’s problems like chickens in a pecking order. Were O’Reilly’s audience made mostly of Democrats, he might have been praised. Only Roger Ailes would not capitulate over the accusations against O’Reilly over a decade ago, but the Murdoch’s would capitulate over Ailes and they did last year. Now, Fox capitulated again. It won’t stop. Fox News is beginning a trend of giving in to every weak-kneed demand like General Motor’s executives caving-in to most every whim of the unions.
It’s over for Fox. It’s over and dead.
No industry leader allows its most-viewed show’s most-viewed host to leave—and continues to be the industry leader. Right or wrong, dishonest or ethical, when Fox News fired Bill O’Reilly Fox News fired itself. It’s all about money. Under the pioneer of Fox News, Ailes, it was about long-term money. Now, governed by some “great successor”, it’s about short-term money. It’s always been about money. Now that it’s become about the short-term, so short is the term Fox News has left.
Everything will shift to alternative media. O’Reilly is resuming his work at billoreilly.com as of Monday, April 24th. And, Milo Yiannopoulos announced this week that he is returning to the public eye in a “comeback tour”.
Big news venues have attempted to take out Donald Trump, bolster the Democratic candidate in Georgia’s special election—who still didn’t win the necessary 50% of the vote to keep his seat past June. And, Republicans continue to play a losing game—eleven Republican candidates in the same Georgia district!?
“Big News” is a dying industry cannibalizing itself. Were it not for the desperate scramble for what remains of industry-wide dwindling ratings, Bill O’Reilly’s problems, whatever they may be, wouldn’t have mattered.
