2.15.18
A while back I was surfing the web and read across an article by Kristin M. Fox, Editor-in-chief of the Marijuana Industry News. In this article Ms. Fox states –
“Your job is to walk down the middle of the road and throw rocks at both sides.” This is how one of the smartest editors I ever knew described good journalism…” and she goes on to talk about how good investors should do the same.
She is right on both counts, for both journalists and investors. However, what really struck me was how this statement is a perfect example of what journalism and our mainstream media should be. Yet our modern large media outlets are the exact opposite. Journalists and television hosts today do not walk down middle-of-the-road throwing rocks both sides. Instead they stand on one side of the road and throw rocks at the other side, never moving forward and never caring about who they are really hurting. The road of public information is so assaulted by the rocks of bias and bigotry from our media and our politicians Americans find it almost impossible to get a truthful report on most events. The ones that get hurt are the American public trying to use that road to go forward and make decisions that make their lives better.
Our media should be helping Americans by reporting on all sides of any issue and telling the whole, unaltered truth. They should be walking down the middle of the road throwing rocks of truth at the extremists on both sides. Instead they specialize in dividing this country, demonizing anyone that disagrees with them or threatens their position of power and provoking as much hate as they possibly can. By doing this they patronize the extremists on their side of the road and continue to throw rocks of bigotry onto the road of progress.
None of the major media networks are capable of impartial reporting of the news. They are completely unwilling to separate opinion and fact. They should be required to accurately report all the facts of a situation regardless of how they affect their own bigoted point of view, but instead they omit any facts that do not support their own bigotry. It is not uncommon for many media outlets to completely ignore a news story or event because it is detrimental to their point of view. They often continually repeat the same half-truths and lies over and over, hour after hour, day after day in their Hitler/Stalin type fashion knowing that if they tell the same lie often enough a certain number of people will believe it. They kowtow to extremist politicians and to their extremist base regardless of the truth. Of course the politicians that encourage this behavior and actually use the media to advance their own bias agendas and enhance their own power base are actually far more guilty of ripping this country apart than the media personalities that exercise it. Yet politicians could not get away with this ongoing barrage on the American people if the major media outlets did not re-enforce the politicians rhetoric through their actions.
So what made me reflect back on all this? Well like most Americans I’m getting sick and tired of hearing Donald Trump call the press and the media an enemy of the people. Then this previously mentioned quote about throwing rocks at both sides came to mind. It made me realize that an honest, forthright, impartial media is not only a friend to the American people but it is a necessary part of a functional democracy and a free nation. However a media that is bias, bigoted and willing to lie or omit the truth to advance the political agenda of politicians that favor them is actually an enemy of the people. Now I’m sure that Donald Trump thinks that CNN is an enemy of the people and propagates nothing but fake news. I am equally sure he thinks Fox news is is a completely unbiased and honest professional news network. In my opinion they look very much the same, much like mirror images of each other. Perhaps Trump is actually right if his statement about the media is applied equally across the commercial news spectrum regardless of political affiliation. The mainstream media as it exists today is not only doing a disservice to the American people it is having an overall negative affect on the lives of all Americans.
1.31.18
On January 29th the Humane Society put this article online Breaking news: President Trump confirms he’ll ban elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia
The first 2 paragraphs state –
”In an interview with British journalist and animal advocate Piers Morgan, President Trump has confirmed that he has directed his administration to ban the import of hunting trophies from African elephants and other rare wildlife from Zimbabwe and Zambia.
This is the best single action the President has taken on animal welfare in his office, and contradicts the maneuver from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resume imports of hunting trophies and give the green light to American hunters to target these animals. The president called the decision by the individual who authorized the overturn of the ban “terrible.”
Conservation International published the following information in an article on Trump’s action –
”… The past few years have seen seismic shifts against the ivory trade and the poaching that fuels it. In recent months, China and the United Kingdom — two of the world’s largest ivory importers — have announced plans to close their markets. Meanwhile, countries across Africa — from Gabon to Botswana — have committed to closing their own ivory markets and have taken steps to reduce or eliminate their ivory stockpiles.
Yet the trade endures, and in places that some might not expect: According to a report released earlier this year, none other than Washington, D.C., was judged to be the seat of the ivory trade in the United States. Recent crackdowns on markets in California and New York, the report found, simply pushed it elsewhere.
Meanwhile, an African elephant is killed for its tusks every 15 minutes.
The rule change applies to elephants shot in Zimbabwe starting in January 2016, and to those legally permitted to be hunted before the end of next year, the Post reported, and a similar rule has been put into place for Zambia….”
The Defenders of Wildlife published these figures recently –
”At the turn of the 20th century, there were a few million African elephants and about 100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are an estimated 450,000 – 700,000 African elephants and between 35,000 – 40,000 wild Asian elephants.”
So there is 1 elephant killed every 15 minutes. That’s about 100 elephants a day killed. There are less than 800,000 on the planet. At first it seems that the elephants are a long way from becoming extinct, but in 1930 there was an estimated 3-5 million elephants. The huge majority of these killings are not “legal” killings, when a hunter spends thousands of dollars on a license that helps support the wildlife sanctuary for the elephants. Almost all elephant killings are done by poachers. If we take away the market for their ill gotten gains maybe it will take away the incentive the poachers have to kill endangered wildlife. The slaughter has slowed in recent years but if it is not brought to a halt humans could eventually kill every last elephant (and any other endangered species) on the planet.
I am glad Trump is doing this. There is no good reason we need to import trophies of endangered species into this country or any country. I am glad other countries like China and Great Britain are taking similar action, it’s a shame all developed countries won’t do the same thing.
1.26.18
Several days ago President Trump made the announcement tariffs to Chinese solar panels as a first step in attempting to bring our $568 billion trade deficit into reality. There has been so much banter about this that it has dominated the news. Every talking head on tv and the internet and everywhere else has an opinion on this. They are so varied that no one knows who or what to believe. So it seems that if you hate Trump this is terrible, and if you love him this is wonderful. Pretty much like everything else. Nothing is judged on its own merit by the media anymore, it all depends on what politician did whatever.
Here’s what I think will happen. Trump will impose higher tariffs on more imports (which he has already talked about). Then China, and possibly other countries that we impose tariffs on will raise tariffs on the U.S. goods coming into those countries. Fairly soon they will realize that they need to sell us stuff more than we need to sell them stuff so they will come back to Trump to strike some kind of deal to level the playing field on tariffs and the trade balance. With any luck all countries will significantly reduce or eliminate tariffs and truly free and fair trade will exist between nations. Maybe we can get China to respect intellectual property rights as well. We have a lot more to gain than we do to lose on this deal. We are already so far in the hole with foreign trade that we have nowhere to go but up. Most other countries on the planet have been giving us the shaft when it comes to fair trade for decades, many of them are our “allies”. They all need access to our markets worse than we need them economically. I have to give Trump kudos for this if he follows through with this exercise. I hope he can make it work. It seems like it will be a real disruptor, which is what this situation needs.
I realize that a tariff is a built in tax and a form of inflation, and I realize that tariffs can cause financial hardships to the consumer. However this is a battle we need to fight, and it should have been done long ago. Whatever we pay out to other countries we will get back in tariffs we charge them, and I believe that when tariffs cause prices to rise here it won’t be for long and and we will come out ahead in the log run with lower tariffs on stuff that we export to other countries, higher wages, lower unemployment and a stronger economy as demand for U.S. products increases world wide. Either way America does better. In the short term this is a win for the government when it comes to generating revenue, in the long term it is sorely needed considering we need to reduce our near $600 billion a year trade deficit. One bad possibility is that the government gets used to the tariffs as a source of revenue and finds it advantageous to keep the tariffs rather than negotiate with other countries to get rid of them on both sides. Politicians see money as a way to control power, and tariffs are a revenue stream for the government. Hopefully Trump is using this as a negotiating tool to get other countries to lower their tariffs, not an additional way to tax the consumer. Overall, when it all shakes out I think this country and the average American will be better off. We have been giving away this countries economic resources for decades when it comes to “free” trade, and it needs to stop. As one of the talking heads on tv said “Free trade also needs to be FAIR trade”. This is a true statement. It’s about time the American worker and American ingenuity got a fair shake in the world marketplace.