Like me, you are probably sitting at home trying to navigate another dreary day of confinement. It gives us a chance to obsessively consume media while we try to figure out what happened to our safe, predictable lives. This is a very bad time for businesses, but it’s a great opportunity for a shameless COVID-19 power play from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is probably hedging her bets that she will be the one calling the shots if hapless Joe Biden gets lucky.
Current Events
Not too long ago current events in the news consisted of two words: impeachment and Ukraine.
How quickly things change. Now there are still only two words in the news. They both start with a "c." They refer to a pandemic disease instead of a Washington scandal, but they are still all about politics.
Current events drive politics. The reverse is also true. This is sadly apparent now as tackling a public health crisis takes second place to leveraging political opportunity from Americans deaths and a historic economic upheaval that put the world's greatest economy on hold. This is a textbook case of turning a piece of history into a political saleable commodity.
When we want to know the facts behind current events there is truth to be had. The problem is that the truth is seldom as entertaining, or in this case distressing as the fake news and distorted rhetoric fed to the public by politicians and media outlets with ulterior motives that have nothing to do with providing reliable information.
Whenever possible posts in Civil Candor’s current events category rely on information from reputable government agencies to drill down to the truth behind what we read in the news. Failing that, it’s always good to know what voices in the House and Senate have to say and what they intend to do because that’s where the policies that shape our response to current events comes from. The information to put historical events in perspective is always out there. The hard part is finding it.
Liberals Will Lose if Democrats Remove Trump
Are you tired of hearing over and over that Democrats are out of control? They’ve lost their way? Impeachment is all they care about? The party forgot who and what it stands for? Who cares? All of these things are true, but they miss the most important point.
Guaranteed Income Benefits Furloughed Federal Employees
Through many years of work I’ve suffered layoffs, cutbacks, business closings, and pay reductions. I’ve also learned one very important rule about working: there is no such thing as a guaranteed income. Employment contracts break. Unions only have so much clout.
FBI Hate Crime Report an Opportunity to Lie With Numbers
The 2017 FBI hate crime report is a tremendous opportunity to lie with numbers. The Tree of Life synagogue shootings and Democratic rise to power in the House add unwanted substance to this newly-released data showing hate crimes rose for three years in a row. Politicians, pressure groups, and the media will use the findings for their own purposes, but do the numbers show what they want them to show?
Rocks and Rifles: Border Troops Risk Democrats’ Anger
Trump created a new firestorm over what he did or didn’t say about rocks and rifles and border troops. On one side our commander-in-chief is determined to prevent a flood of Latin American nationals from entering the country on their own terms. On the other we have Democrats who insist that the newest horde consists of people desperate for help who should enter on his party’s very liberal conditions. What happens when people get hurt and this turns ugly?
Best Excuse Ever to Hate Your Country? Migrants.
Democrats got the political crisis they wanted. Except for the president they didn’t have to use a single citizen to get the ball rolling. Instead, they used migrants as the best excuse ever to convince Americans to hate their country and their government. We are getting hit from all sides with disinformation and propaganda about migrants and asylum-seekers. The only thing we can be certain of is that this isn’t about morality. It’s about old fashioned, self-interested politics.
First Amendment Rights Defined by Football, Cake, Hypocrisy
It is ludicrous that First Amendment rights are defined by cake and football. That’s what happened thanks to a Supreme Court case and an overblown White House decision. If we placed our trust in free enterprise none of this would have been necessary, but politicians refused to do that and chose their favorite hot buttons instead.