Friends, as you may be aware, Donald J. Trump emerged triumphant in the 2024 presidential election, narrowly saving America and Western Civilization from imminent collapse. How did he pull it off? Well, almost every single demographic, except old ladies, moved to the right, compared to the results in 2020, but some groups moved a lot more than others, including people of color. Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians all showed markedly more inclination to vote for Trump, and that made the difference. You'll find this deep dive into the data very interesting...and very heartening!
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-final-comprehensive-look-at-how
Relations between DJT and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell are not exactly what you would call warm and snuggly. Trump appointed Powell, lest we forget, but he has come to despise Powell's caution. There is a strong argument to be made that interest rates are indeed too high. After all, inflation seems well in check. Hopefully, whether Powell stays on or not, those rates will begin to fall soon.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4geyrdprwjo
Finally, we're one step closer to a "rescissions" package that would strip funding from USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If you ask me, this is the absolute least that Congress can do to support President Trump and the ongoing work of DOGE. Will Congress eventually find the courage to axe the Department of Education? That's a bigger hurdle, but I hope so.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Looks like Powell is on the snide with the President. DJT was getting on the job training in his first term and maybe that appointment was one of his growing pains. He has publicly expressed annoyance about the politically correct opulence shown in the plans for redoing that Federal Reserve building and Powell's perhaps misleading defense of it. Good for DJT; that stance works for much of his base.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I do lodge some reserved trust in RINOS like Murkowski and Collins that they would not allow their maverick convictions to actually defeat bills like GB3 or this recission bill. Their support for a Corporation for "public" Broadcasting and PBS which have long since since worn out their welcome with taxpayers is annoying but perhaps did no harm. Can't wait for the House vote. BTW, undoubtedly those far left dominated agencies may persist through private support but probably not. With all the variety cable and online afford, their dishwater contingent doesn't have much going for it. But as long as America doesn't have to pay for their agitprop, who cares?
ReplyDeleteContent, not contingent . Jack
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Jack, but defunding such agencies isn't quite the same thing as formally disbanding them. THAT would be nice to see!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: But it would be amusing to see them wither on the vine from their own mediocrity. They who have for so long protested their absolute vitality to the nation! Let them "feel" the nation's ennui with their virtue signaling and their presumption that their values are superior to those of the "broad masses" who are as gauche as to prefer The Young and the Restless .
ReplyDeleteThose people of good will who find some value in their product; I honestly regret their disappointment but these institutions were disingenuously founded as "enlightened " alternatives to the "crass profiteering" of commercial stations, nevertheless paid for by mandatory taxation of all the "people". Their demise is well taken.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: In about a half hour, unless President Trump repents himself of his heresy, so called "public" broadcasting will have most of its tax payer funding denied it over the next two years. I imagine there were probably contractual obligations which had to be met so we'll still be kicking in something to this blatantly partisan imposition on our assets and our tolerance, for the near future. But it appears to have been gutted.
ReplyDelete"But oh", bleat the patronizing leftist caretakers of us rustics in rural America, "this will do incalculable damage to flyover country (ooops!) , "no, our great hinterland, which We loveth full well". Actually the majority of common sense , very hard working country people despise the presumptuous judges of our well being and that of many other sectors of our population, who think they know best how to spend our earned incomes.
In my opinion, the prolonged controversy over "public"broadcasting" has never been about the amount given to these arrogant bigots to provide us with redeeming entertainment of their choosing. Its not much compared to some greater misappropriations like a palatial Federal Reserve Office building. Its the corrupt and increasingly discredited principle that such political bias is of right imposed on the taxpayer. by his or her elite betters. And this particular example has become a very well publicized and bitterly resented manifestation of that injustice. Its apparent demise bodes further deracination of such multitudinous ,presumptuous and superfluous "do gooder" humbug, at least at the Federal level. That's worth a good cigar today!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: When I was a librarian I attended a seminar on an Adult LiteracyProgram in rural Vermont conducted by an NYC group. The readings they provided their charges consisted mainly of pedantic left wing political expression. The very obvious purpose of this patronizing bunch was indoctrination of the benighted rustics in the correct way to think and only incidentally to improve their reading skills.
ReplyDeleteAn attitude analogous to that of these disingenuous proselytizers is very evident in those who bleat that the demise of tax payer supported broadcasting will work great injustice particularly in rural areas. "After all, those so isolated from civilization are in dire need of its enlightenment! I mean look at their atavistic political convictions." Oh well, under this Administration persons possessed of that presumptuous frame of mind had better start updating their resumes.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: But alas!. How are we philistine kadidillhoppers here in the sticks to go on now?! Enmired in perpetual stygian cultural darkness far deeper than "the Egyptians in their fog" and now cruelly deprived of our guiding light - the Corporation for "public Broadcasting - we are bereft of hope! Cursed be those who have now made our already trying, hardscrabble fight for life infinitely more trying!
ReplyDeleteYes, most of us have libraries, cable and online access and the rather extensive variety it affords but due to its commercial nature it lacks the cachet of "compassion" for our pinched little lives here in the wilds that was so generously manifested by our , our , well, benefactors in the CPB. Why I live in a vasty township of perhaps 500 souls but we have here the means to access either the latest LMN semi pornographic suburban scandal films or Monteverdi's Orfeo at our pedestrian choice. But how far more creditable and redeeming were the performances selected for us (and paid for by us) by those of far greater intellectual sophistication serving us in our very Federal government. I mean, them British soap operas were real educational; better than anything we got in our one room schoolhouses.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Oh do spare us your tiresome empirical "backing" for your effete convictions about Trump's counterintuitive win in the last election and his consequent enacted injustices.
ReplyDeleteIn doing so you, no doubt deliberately, ignore the dominant role of emotion in plumbing the depths of Trump's behavior. Well, we on the "far left" don't!
Our "sensitivity" to the true motivation and intent of all those who heretically oppose us is long since proven. We "feel" it and therefore it is so. Why Trump seeks only personal gratification, free from any consideration of consequences to anyone, for his tyrannical impositions on our "enlightened" and sincerely felt principles and the unimpeachable measures they motivate when we are in power. He is especially driven by a beastly desire for revenge upon us for our just and selflessefforts to bring him to the justice that all Americans endorse for all Americans , during his interregnum. He expects us to believe that all Americans ( well, naturally those of "proscribed classes and groups")are liable to be objects of our quest for subjective justice.
The above is my recollection of an onerous journey into the mind of the "American" radical.
Jack, the defunding of NPR and PBS is indeed a moment and an achievement worth cherishing. It's way overdue, if you ask me. How it took Republicans so long to bestir themselves to end the massive subsidies channeled to their ideological enemies is beyond me. Anyway, Trump got it done, and I would hope that reinstating federal support for these elite institutions would be politically anathema. Having said all that, I doubt that NPR and PBS's operations will be much affected. Those federal dollars can easily be replaced by generous pledges from devoted liberal viewers. Truth be told, these "public" broadcasters already have corporate sponsors, and I'll bet they could get more. Oh well. Round One goes to the good guys. That's something.
ReplyDeleteHa! Fear not, Jack -- there's no danger that the Left will learn anything from its humiliating defeat in 2024, and no danger that it will ever feel anything resembling regret or shame. You're right: leftists attribute their political defeats to STUPIDITY and EVIL, in no particular order. Every election cycle, we Republicans and conservatives must endeavor to remind the voters how contemptible they are in the eyes of the Left. A dose of realism along these lines will work wonders.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Now that PBS/NPRare no longer arrogantly "entitled" to tax payer funding, I think their smorgasbord of offerings may not.afford them enough viewer support to survive. For awhile, left leaning people of means may back them simply out of rage at the injustice done them by this neanderthal President.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they can prosper though by going fullout, unapologetic radical, like MSNBC, rather than disingenuously presenting "cultural" and "artistic" works and defending them as such and denying the pedantic far liberal intent they manifest. Might be some "market" for that though these exiles would be loath to admit any regard for that despised term.
I've always boycotted NPR and PBS but now I may even sample some of their offerings, now that they have been put in their place, unless they go radical bananas. I enjoyed some of Ken Burns' documentaries before I started boycotting. But I certainly won't give those stations a dime.
You and me both! Not a dime. I dunno, though. My impression is that federal funding is a fairly small percentage of their overall "take". I think they could pull through. And you're right: there are advantages in being liberated of federal "support". Time will tell.
ReplyDelete