The Easy Path

 The fact that so many people seem to live in an alternate reality and think the world conspired against them seems like a new phenomenon.  Maybe it's not that new, maybe it has just become more visible.  Like when you turn a rock over and disrupt the crawly things underneath.

much of this free with the advent of the internet.  We all tend to think of ourselves as special but generally face a hard reality where we have to accept our normalcy.  The fact that our specialness isn't recognised is problematic.  In the web of you search for an answer you will find one.

In too many cases the issue is explained to you as an elite group denying you the recognition you deserve.  These elites control everything and you need to fight back.  

it is obvious that it's a manipulation to most but it feeds their egos because it can't be that they weren't talented enough or didn't work hard enough to succeed.  The odds were stacked against them.

Easier then actually trying.

Life Is Good, Enjoy It

 A lot of my fellow Americans seem to believe things are actually much worse than what they see and only want confirmation of how bad it is.

We do have people who are homeless and we just had a Pandemic which isn't quite over yet, but for various reasons it just isn't that bad.

Take crime increase.  It has increased from very low numbers that might have had something to do with the nations demographics.  The increase sounds dramatic in percentages but is really not that bad when you look at the actual numbers and the types.  Murders in New York increased nearly 25% from 2019 to 2020 but that represented about 100 murders in a city of over 8 million.  The nature of those murders hasn't changed much, there are not roving bands of murderers killing strangers, most murders are by people who know the victim.  We have seen two areas to be somewhat worried about, mass shootings and certain gang activity.

Property damage was higher somewhat related to the protests last year.  

Overall crime actually decreased a bit year over year which is why we see the rabble rousing media focus on murders.  

The economy is also doing fairly well buoyed somewhat by the stock market and federal money.  Will this come back to bite us eventually?  Maybe but not in the immediate future.

We are dealing with issues related to climate change more and more but the answer to that is to address the problem.

The world is a dangerous place but I don't think we see that impacting our day to day lives.  Some attribute the Pandemic to Chinese actions but that is generally illogical, even if it escaped from their lab.  

We even have a wide selection of paper products now.

A Good Start!

 Its still quite early in the Biden Administration and despite how pessimistic many observers were it is off to a good start.  The covid stimulus bill was enacted and is helping the economy.  Was the bill perfect but if you wait for perfect you ass nothing.  

We seem to be close to the end of the virus, at least in this county, although, to quote Mr T, I pity the fools who didn't get the vaccine.  They most likely will get the virus since the new variant is more infectious and some of them will die, but at least they avoided some minor side effects.  Its not too late to just get the vaccine.

We seem to be on the path to passing a bipartisan physical infrastructure plan while the soft infrastructure plan is not bipartisan but still on track.  

Some problem areas exist but that will always be the case.  Murders and serious crime went up during the pandemic and is still higher than it was.  Whether this has to do with the new administration or some other cause is unclear.  I'm not sure we ever will know for sure.  We have seen decreasing crime for quite a while now and never were sure why.  I would like to point out that it started from a very low level and is a bit worrisome but hardly a crisis for most of us.

There are more migrants applying for entrance at the Southern Border but condition there have improved for most.  It is an ongoing issue but it really seems to have been highlighted by some of our conservative media into something it never was.  However it does provide good video.

There are societal issues, some real, some manipulated that get a lot of media time.  This is basically campaigning.

We are not quite 6 months into this administration and the country is bouncing back.  

I call it a good start!

Lies Are Everywhere

 There are far too many people in this country who now believe things that are just not supported by factual data, or at least not real factual data.

It seems like when the Internet first took off, everybody was told that just because you see something there doesn't make it true.

Of course some things there are true and being able to tell the difference is hard.

When you have a President of the United State telling lies, no matter how moronic, it doesn't help.

The internet more than most relies on grabbing your attention and clicking on an item.  The amount of traffic they get lets them sell ad space and also helps them in search algorithms.

So the crazier the better!  This famously was a feature of the old Hearst newspapers the led t the term Yellow Journalism.  

It has stayed with us since it started but much of it was relegated to papers not considered a part of mainstream media.  Well thy now attack maindtream media and its often hard to tell where a headline originates before you click on it.  Since that's all they need they won.  Further, they don't even need you to read the article, just click on an ad.

What happens to almost all of us is the appearance of those headlines become our source for news and since the ones that spread are not reliable we have significant misinformation.

Border Situation

 When I think about what's going on at the Southern Border I just don't see what the big deal is.  People who flee their home countries to find a better future is how America was built.  We also don't let the majority of them into the country.  

It seems that the number of people fleeing their home countries and trying to enter has increased.  I wonder if people turned back at the border actually return home or if they come back time after time?

Still while some media outlets are making this into what they hope will be a major issue, I just don't see much difference from previous administrations.  Some of the policies are a bit more humane and I think some immigrants are allowed to apply for entry while staying in this country but I don't know all the details primarily because I don't care.

I haven't seen them doing anything different than previous immigrant populations.  They come here take menial jobs and give their family a better life.  Do they drain our resources?  I think most studies show they contribute more than they take, especially after the initial year or so.

Unemployment is this country is low and likely to go lower as we power up infrastructure repair.  

We need to consider our immigration rules and continue to be the shining light on the hill that attracts the oppressed people of the world.  

It is who we are.

Moderate America

 Being a reporter must be very frustrating at times, especially in these times.  Our media like to paint in big broad strokes indicating we have mostly crazed people who believe in crazy conservative or progressive ideas.  

For example, everyone on the left is a big supporter of AOC because she is popular on social media.  Well its simply not true and in all honestly while I do think she is herself more moderate than portrayed, she has enough support to win primaries which are a broken system.  

Similarly the reason we see so much support for the last president is his followers are also willing to come out and vote in primaries.

The first thing the media needs to realize is that most Americans are not spending their days arguing over the intricacies of Government or politics.  It shouldn't be hard to figure this out.  Generally they like the Government as things seem to work and dislike it when they don't.

Many people, probably too many, will vote for their parties nominee.  So winning the primary is close to a guarantee of election in much of the country.  The people then expect results so while opinion polls show certain trends, much of that is deceptive.

If asked to pick between two things, it is likely they will pick something even if they really hardly care.

They may oppose anything called illegal, like some immigration, but how much they care about it on a daily basis is questionable.  Is just not a big part of their real lives.

As we may be starting to see Americans all basically want a Government that works and addresses issues that matter to them.  

Not a story the media can sell.

Filibuster?

Almost all democratic countries rely on simple majorities to pass legislation and if the legislation is unpopular it gets reversed.  It doesn't generally cause much of an issue since that threat manages to require compromise.

Requiring the Senate to get 60 votes to pass anything allows a minority to control the agenda.  We have also eliminated any onerous requirements, such as actually filibustering since that is a lot of work and holds up all Senate business.  So we made it easier because we certainly wouldn't want the obstructionists to be inconvenienced.

We have checks and balances built in to the constitution and they should be sufficient.  If a majority in both houses and the President all agree, we still have the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbitrator.

We honor the things the founders put in the Constitution even if they lived in a different age than we do.  Guns were so different in the 18th century for example.  We should also honor the things they left out.  The evidence we have in the Federalist papers is that they believed a simple majority was enough.

So should we.