Sordid Media Love Affair with Rep. Paul Ryan Continues and Other Short Takes on the News

The Dismal State of America, December 2013

The new year cannot get here fast enough, as 2013 closes out as in a worse than usual day.  Here is just some of the ugliness.

1. The news media has been in love with Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.  Mr. Ryan is a charlatan, his so-called budget proposals are filled with bogus numbers and assumptions and he would destroy Medicare, one of the few highly successful government programs.  Mr. Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray crafted a budget compromise that will remove budget issues from the political table for a while.  Mr. Ryan is getting all the headlines.

Of course, Ms. Murray is both a woman and a Democrat, so one can understand how the press simply ignores her role.  But the fact that they will not cast a critical, objective eye on Mr. Ryan is just another example of how ignorant and lazy reporting has become.

2. With a Faux Fox News Anchor asserting that Santa Claus was and is white Fox News has reclaimed the lead from MSNBC in their race to the bottom.  One shudders to think where that race goes from here.

3. It is time to stop blaming the gun lobby for the lack of firearm regulation in the United States.  The gun lobby is not a determinant of the sorry state of guns run amok, it is a reflection of public attitude.  The American people, for reasons beyond comprehension believe that guns should be allowed without limits in American households, despite the tragedy and horror and criminal acts lax gun attitudes bring.  Until that changes effective gun laws will never be enacted, even if the NRA disappeared tomorrow.

4. John Boehner’s outburst against the ultra radical conservative groups is just another indication he does not plan to be Speaker in 2015.

5. Once the problems with enrolling in the new health care plans are worked out does anyone think the news media will report that with the same intensity they reported the failures?  Yes, the same people on WKRP who believe turkeys can fly.

6. Republicans have given up all pretense that they are using extortion on the debt ceiling as a governing tactic.  Rep. Ryan said they have to get something for agreeing to a rise.  No condemnation of Mr. Ryan holding the economy hostage has appeared in any news media.

7. Democrats are going to accept some level of cuts in food assistance programs in the new farm bill that should pass next year..  Exactly how does that help anyone, how does it make anyone’s life better?  Well the part of the population that feels children should go hungry because they had the temerity to be born into poor families will feel good.

8. The University of Alabama has signed its football coach to a long term contracts with terms so generous that the University is ashamed to release them.

9. The most interesting races in 2014 will not be in the general election, they will be in the Republican primaries. In Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran is probably doomed, in South Carolina Lindsey Graham is in big trouble, in Kentucky Mitch McConnell could lose and there will probably be at least one or two more surprises along the way. 

10. Fortune Magazine has Elon Musk as its person of the year.  Yeah, the symbol of America is a man who is making automobiles that Americans cannot afford.  Yes, the market for luxury goods is what is important.