Bias in the news

Bias ?

The Feb 28^th issue of the Naples Daily News has two articles lifted directly from USA Today.  Both articles show the political bias of the News.  The first article, above the fold, is about the Cohen testimony.  It is an over half page, 84 sq. inch article, that contains a 28 sq. inch picture of Cohen.  The Cohen front page article contains such words as ‘explosive testimony’ and ‘loaded with lurid details’.  The Cohen article is continued on page 4 and features a half page spread with a 37 sq. inch picture and 12 column inches of print.  The complete article contained not one positive word directed at Trump.  The article made no mention of the racial slur directed at a republican congressman by a democrat colleague.

In contrast the front page article about Trump and the nuclear disarmament talks was 19 sq. inches in size, contained 2 ¼ column inches of print, and a 3 ½ sq. inch picture of Trump and Kim.  The headline contained the word ‘progress’ as a “quote within a quote” which I am sure was meant to be sarcastic.  The remainder of the article on page 5 did devote a half page to the talks.  The article did contain two paragraphs that were slightly complementary to the progress made but both contained the word, “but” which indicated the hoped-for result might not happen.

Another indicator of the importance shown by the Naples Daily News of any progress made on the nuclear summit talks was the fact that there was 8 ½ inches of column space that were allotted on the front page to an article about climate change. This was three times more than allotted to the Korean summit talks.  Your readers deserve better.  Dal Wolf, Naples

Donald Trump - 2019

There seems to be two types of political letters to the editor in the Naples Daily News.  One is full of insulting, abusive or highly critical language aimed towards the President of the United States, Donald Trump.  The other type attempts to point out the positive things that have been accomplished during the two years the president has been in office.  Most of the anti-Trump letters say that “he has had control of both houses of congress”.  I would suggest that those writers review civics 101 and re-learn that it takes 51 votes to pass a bill in the senate but the majority is thin and not all REPUBLICANS follow the party line.  The president lacks those 50 "guaranteed" votes.

Let’s face it, our president is nothing like we have ever seen before.  He is brash, profane, driven, sometimes coarse, and is not afraid to battle sacred cows on both sides of the aisle.  We can certainly stand another two years of his presidency.  The republic can withstand that amount of time to see what develops.

Lastly, I would remind everyone that We, the people elected Donald Trump in 2016.  We can just as easily toss him out in 2020.  That is the American way.  Stay tuned.

The news today

Ever since I was a teenager I have depended on the comic page in the daily newspaper as one source of news.  There are exceptions of course. When I was a sophomore in high school in 1954, Mary Worth had a heart attack but she is still going strong over 60 years later while many of the other characters in the strip have passed on. Isn't modern medicine wonderful??  But I digress.

In todays installment of the comic strip, "Mallard Fillmore", Santa is cradling a college snowflake in his arms.  Santa says, "Im sorry but my only elf that made footie pajamas in your size had to be euthanized".

Sometimes even Santa can't help himself.  Stay tuned.

Voter I.D.

I got my Indiana driver’s license renewed today.  I had to present my Passport, my birth certificate, a current utility bill , my SS card and my voters registration card as well as my expired license in order to satisfy all the identification requirements. There will be an imbedded chip in the license that will allow me entrance to all federal buildings and airports. I asked the clerk if the picture they took would be subject to facial identification .  He indicated the technology to do that would be in place “soon”. That means that all my information (including SSN) would be on file and could be compared at ANY point of need.  If the government is using it now,  that means that the technology will soon be in place for the general public.  There will be no need to carry any personal I.D.  of any kind because everyone will KNOW who you are.  Big brother is among us and live and well.  The good part will be that an illegal would not be able to purchase a can of pop at  a 7-11.  

What is your state doing ??
Addendum:  It is now several days later than my original post.  I noticed that My drivers license clearly states "valid for driving privileges and voter identification ". The license is good for three years which means it is only good for one presidential election.  It addition I learned that Amazon is currently selling facial recognization software to police departments. 

End the war in Europe

The following all took place in the summer of 1944.  The weather was warm, so it must have been shortly after D-Day, June 6, 1944 because I was aware that we were fighting the Germans in Europe.  I was six years old and had not as yet started school, so my vocabulary was limited.  I had never heard of the words, “testicles”, “gonads”, or “scrotum”.  I had not yet started to associate with the older boys, so I was not even familiar with the words “nuts” or “balls”.  I was aware of that useless fold of skin between my legs just below my “wee-wee”.  It was called a “bag”.  Now that we have the groundwork laid out I will proceed.

I was helping my dad build a feeding station in the barnyard.  It was constructed from shiplap and 2 X 4s.  He was using a hand saw to cut the 2 X 4s so there were several short pieces laying around on the ground.

I told my dad that I knew how to end the war.  I said that we could take short pieces of 2 X 4s and nail the Germans soldiers “bag” to the piece of wood.  Dad gave me a long look and did not say anything for a moment.  I think he must have been trying to decide if I was a sadistic little son-of-a-bitch or if I was a deep-thinking moron-genius ahead of my time.  He finally said, “yes son, I would guess that would take the fight out of them”.  I was really proud to have figured out how to end the war.

Perhaps that was just an early sign that I was meant to be an engineer.

Dal and the lizard

I was sitting peacefully on the patio yesterday when a chameleon slithered across the concrete and stopped about six feet in front of me.  He rose up on his front legs and flashed his red “wattle” at me for about 15 seconds and then turned and strutted away.  I don’t know if he was challenging me and thought he had won since I didn’t react OR had put the make on me and decided that I was not a female chameleon worthy of his attention.  I have found there are some questions in life that you just cannot answer.