Seriously troubled by the pervasive, adjectively laden, racing sports-like commentary on the American Presidential Election? In the shadow of the recent death of the political novelist, Gore Vidal, you’d think there’d be a slight moratorium on the relentless lazy focus on how best to mold the public’s opinion rather than express one the public can support, or not. Because the redundancy can be heard in the supporters’ chants as both parties already know the country is relatively split down the middle and it’s only by confusing people there’s a difference when there’s not, while any vote can be gained by portraying a difference. No one acts angrier than a politician, or nicer. Why one candidate can run on an objection to liberalism when that very liberalism tolerated accrued wealth in the first place. Smile, that can hide anything.
Reuters comedically headlined today’s political assessment, Union leader strives to ease Obama’s “white guy problem”. Yeah. Yet while white my opinions could be contrived as darker than the President’s and more conservatively intolerant than the challenger’s. More libertarian than the vocal Tea Party and downright worthless as a candidate for being vehemently opposed to caring if anyone agreed with me as long as my opinion could be heard and not disregarded as financial power buys the truth.
Reuters’ Patricia Zengerle, writing from LAS VEGAS, states President Barack Obama made history in his 2008 election victory as the first black U.S. president, but he risks achieving another, less welcome, first if he wins again in November. Obama is on course to become the candidate with the lowest support from white male working class voters to win a U.S. election if he triumphs over Republican Mitt Romney on November 6. As if Sean Hannity himself were describing how it’s not about what people think, it’s how people can be manipulated based on what we can be gotten to believe. So maybe Patricia’s straight reporting is just plain satire, after all.
Polls show college degree-less white male support for Obama at under 30 percent, well below the 39 percent he had when he defeated Republican John McCain four years ago. While support from Hispanics and blacks is overwhelming and he does well among women, so the Democratic president needs to shore up his backing among those men. What? No mention of how many votes are potentially lost by appealing to those white males who probably identify with the opposition candidate’s appealing, successful, white male image anyway?
So the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka, the most powerful U.S. union leader and an important bridge between the White House and blue-collar America, sees two solutions to Obama’s problems as mounting labor’s largest voter outreach effort ever, and keep up the attacks on Romney’s business record. Forget attacking liberalism’s being contrived as a bad word, as that might revive accusations that unionism is downright Communist and we’d hate to revive that albatross when obviously half the country is content that business liberated the working man and all unionism ever did was what? Provide a convenient scapegoat? No. It’s impossible to directly confront issues in this country when it’s easier to manipulate the small print.
Seems as if neither emperor has clothes except for the propped up candidates’ smiles that in the end, after all the posturing, is all the public ever votes on anyway. As if a frown is a sign of weakness and smiles aren’t the reflexive attitudes of gibbering idiots. So one more election cycle will evolve where the country has no clue that raising the minimum wage or raising taxes on the rich in the end only benefits the rich because they’re in a position to profit either way. Minimum wage has never caught up with inflation and never will. But no one can stand before the American people and say lack of economic imagination brought about the economic collapse. Especially when the economy fell apart because ruthlessly manipulative people just exploited the economy too far as the Economics profession has advised all along because inflation can’t be solved when everyone doesn’t want to solve it. Former President Gerald Ford’s Whip Inflation Now (WIN) campaign faded into obscurity. Why, unless exploiters of inflation don’t want it solved? There’s no doubt we have to accept inflation exists, but is the modern human race so stupid it can’t be solved? Everyone turned their back on generations’ use of inflation to increase the financial power of their homes? The financial collapse wasn’t sleight of hand market manipulation. It was a broad conspiracy of intelligent neglect.
So we’re left with the small little world of political battles representing our making an effort to create a better future. Mr. Trumka, a former coal miner who is president of the 12-million-member AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation, told Reuters, “We’re absolutely going to do good work on the ground, mobilizing workers. We will have 400,000 volunteers this cycle.” Okay, fine. At least those who organize the volunteers are most likely paid union employees, just as the various supposedly conservative cause organizers are paid to coordinate volunteers. Mr. Trumka, Reuters inadvertently describes like a general leading troops. Saying, “We’ll be involved in 32 battleground states, up and down the ballot from Barack Obama, the House races, the Senate races, the state house and senate races.” Yeah, that will convince the white guys to ignore liberal labels. Huh?
The union’s main focus will be six states, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida, where polls show the presidential race is close. In the 2008 election, more than 250,000 union volunteers took to the streets. Trumka said constant ads and speeches by Obama’s campaign targeting former executive Romney’s business record and refusal to release more than two years of tax returns should win over more working-class men. Sure, harp on that enough and sounding like prosperity bashers will resonate among those voters who already think unions destroy a business’ power to remain solvent.
Mr. Trumka spoke in an interview during a trip to Las Vegas to speak at union conventions. “A lot of arguments are going to resonate with our members. Outsourcing because they know that he was the leader, his firms were the leader, in outsourcing. That will have a big, big jog.” No, actually Bain Capital copied that activity popularized in the 1980s by the firm, founded in the 1970s, of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts which is documented in many books such as Barbarians At The Gate by investigative journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar and published in 1990. And Mr. Trumka said blue-collar workers, who are fighting for their jobs and benefits in a difficult economy, will be outraged over Romney’s refusal to release more tax returns. Really? I’d prefer more carpenters were hired to build more vacation homes that could be foreclosed on to create more ways in which to capitalize on American struggles. The AFL-CIO does not break down its membership by race, but the majority of its members are white and more men belong to unions than women. Wow! Talk about punchlines. Ouch. But why should the truth hurt, Reuters?
Adds Mr. Trumka, “The fact that he has offshore secret bank accounts will fly with our members, because they’ll assume that he’s taking advantage of those tax loopholes and doing it offshore and that’s why he won’t give the tax returns.” Yeah, well, the District Attorney of Manhattan warned at least seven years ago that offshore accounting was the financial capital, New York City’s biggest problem and people couldn’t fall over themselves fast enough not wanting to solve that so blaming one man running for president is just making a scapegoat of an individual for something Mr. Trumka could have been likely forced to do himself if he had spent his wealth on another business besides union organizing. Not to blame him, I’m just saying as the saying goes. Reuters goes on to print, Unions, already battling Republican state governments trying to curtail their negotiating rights, are throwing everything they can at the 2012 election. Watch out for that proverbial kitchen sink.
Then for good measure Reuters comically adds that now redundant excuse that thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that lifted many campaign restrictions, union organizers this year can spend union funds to try to politically influence the general public. Worker’s Voices, the AFL-CIO’s Super PAC, will take advantage of the ruling to send volunteers to knock on doors, urging votes for Obama. So technically the same old story, same old song and dance, my friends. Make a Contribution. Give Us Your Money. Political war chests may not be as funny as corporate welfare but certainly seem as profitable. No?
So another Trumka quote is, “Will we get every one of them? No. But will we make a difference in our areas? Yes, we will. Voting for their own economic interests generally trumps any kind of clichés, hidden agendas or anything else. They vote in their own economic interest.” If anyone could represent or figure out what everyone’s interest is? A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week showed that constant criticism by the Obama campaign and its allies of Romney’s business tenure and personal finances may be harming the Republican’s ratings. More than one-third of registered voters said what they heard about Romney’s taxes and his time at Bain Capital, which critics say was responsible for sending a number of U.S. jobs overseas, had given them a less favorable impression of him. But the former Massachusetts governor has a huge lead with non-college-educated males in other polls. Meaning among people with little else to do but answer and stay on the phone, no doubt pitying the questioner.
Romney regularly bashes “union bosses” as he campaigns and he also has been hammered by Democrats for opposing Obama’s rescue of the U.S. auto industry. Business as usual, water under the bridge. Still nothing to really laugh at except our, the nation’s, unwillingness to let go of the status quo. “There’s no reason that there should be a white male, or a white, voter gap,” said Trumka, who called the auto rescue “a magnificent thing.” For the chauffeured industry.
A Washington Post survey last month showed Romney ahead by 65-28 percent among male voters who had not attended college, while a Quinnipiac University poll had him leading with 56 percent and the Democrat with 29 percent of that group, down from 32 percent earlier this year. That compares to the 39 percent that Obama won in 2008. So absolutely, certainly the well-connected union members should be paid to organize volunteers to portray fixing this discrepancy just as supposedly conservative business interests pay each other to represent doing the exact some thing. Power to the systematic elimination of real power to the individual.
High unemployment now harms Obama with whites in Rust Belt states, but even in his historic election victory four years ago non-college-educated white men were Obama’s weakest demographic. So yeah right. Absolutely pat the President on the back and demonstrate his interests are your main concern while further alienating those who’ve been induced to feel, without openly admitting, they’d betray their race by supporting the President. As is often joked, nice work if you can get it. Reuters prints, he (President Obama) is not alone among Democrats in struggling with what used to be some of the party’s core voters.
But with white male voters’ share of the electorate dropping, Obama can still win the election if his numbers rise in that group even by a relatively small amount. Okay. If only there were a way to provide free whisky for votes as they used to do in the good old days when people’s votes were worth something. Today it takes real political pull to sophisticatedly pull rewards out of the political system. Boss Tweed even paid for some votes with jobs. Oh, excuse me, never mind. We all know that never changed but no one admits the spoils system benefits them. Herb Asher, a political scientist at Ohio State University, said, “Obama doesn’t need to carry the white working class vote, but he doesn’t want to lose it overwhelmingly. If you have a close election, and it makes a small difference, that’s the difference between defeat and victory.” Give the man a guest spot on television so he can possibly receive a fee too.
Reuters prints Republicans have triumphed among white working class males for more than three decades, partly by making the most of cultural differences with Democrats on issues like abortion rights, gun control and affirmative action. After all, why wouldn’t people vote for their economic interests until paid to think otherwise? But Romney has had his own troubles with working class male voters. He routinely lost them during the primaries, as his fellow Republicans accused him of being a “vulture capitalist.” Yeah, that must have been why. Otherwise the losing opponents would have to be credited with having something to offer. Just as with NBC’s superlatively adjectivized, jingoistic Olympic coverage, losers don’t deserve much credit unless they’re American. And in an election how electable could a loser be?
A Gallup poll this month found that one in five voters, including one in five independents, was less likely to vote for Romney because of his wealth. And the Obama campaign has stressed the Democrat’s bailout of U.S. automobile makers, which they said saved thousands of jobs. Apparently Reuters finds reiterating the automobile bailout extremely funny since they depend on those advertising dollars as much as any other large corporation that owns and controls costly psuedo-free speech.
Doug Ripple, 45, an Insulators’ union member from Dayton, Ohio, said he knew people who had doubts about Obama, after years of struggling in the weak economy. But he said Romney seemed too much in favor of the rich to win his vote. “Obama’s for the working class. We’re not billionaires.” I hear violins. A quarter of AFL-CIO members did not vote for Obama in 2008. “Some of this I think was pure racism,” said Trumka. “Some of them would be gun owners, some of them would be right-wing. Some of them would be dyed-in-the-wool Republicans.” Reuters sure knows comedy when they find it. Going on, printing, Democrats acknowledge that Obama is unlikely to capture the white male vote, but say he can be re-elected if he minimizes the damage because of his huge edge with black and Hispanic voters. After me, clicking your heals. Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity. It’s not what people think or really believe, but what we can get them to accept.
In 2008, whites accounted for about three-quarters of U.S. voters, blacks represented about 12 percent, Hispanics about 7.5 percent and Asians 2.5 percent. The percentage of minority voters is expected to be greater this year. Obama easily won the White House in 2008 despite his relatively weak support from whites. But his campaign is trying to keep him from slipping more with white working class voters by persistently depicting Romney as an out of touch elitist. Who isn’t?"
"Romney a space alien,” said Jeremy Mayer of George Mason University in Virginia, by defining him as a man who outsources jobs to China and hides his money overseas. “If you can make Romney look like the guy who is firing the white working class, then you can stop the bleeding,” he said. No you can’t. After the election the game just changes playing fields and strategies will remain the same, portrayed as protecting the innocent. Fabulous.
8/3/2012
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Political Advice From The Comedy Writers At Reuters
8/3/2012 concluded: Romney a space alien,” said Jeremy Mayer of George Mason University in Virginia, by defining him as a man who outsources jobs to China and hides his money overseas. “If you can make Romney look like the guy who is firing the white working class, then you can stop the bleeding,” he said. No you can’t. After the election the game just changes playing fields and strategies will remain the same, portrayed as protecting the innocent. Fabulous.
August 21 - September 8, 2018
Uh Oh. Another Example Of "The At It Again Media?"
In newspapers' diligence toward rounded out stories, facts are geared toward peeking curiosity's amplification for the most readers possible. Repeating the tawdry, often enough, for historical context. Intending to keep diving into the big picture's firmament, and state of political affairs, The New York Times' August 19th Metropolitan Section's front page featuring bicycle courier food delivery people delved into issues on the, supposedly, lower rung of the economic ladder. The empathetic gist of the piece, by Fabrice Robinet, was a relatively nice contrast to The Times' editorial page comment that reasonably advocated upgraded bicycle lanes. While mistakenly describing a blissful future of 15 mile an hour electric bikes. They go faster and people always, taking the liberty, do. Look at the ever-present rash of Interstate mistakes by cars because people push the limits. That the computers could/will, no doubt, continue as our creation.
The profile, in 'I've Seen Too Many Accidents': The Perils of Delivery People, as papers are wont to do, uses the generalizing reporting method, as, for example, the Times' title appears as "Deliverymen" that's sexist generalization. Bingo.
A major thrust of the article was the ICE enforcement system's attitude of acting out aspects of blind intolerance. There's a ridiculousness about the United States' indifference to its' role in finance's circulation across the tops of societies while not filtering very well through. To make up for the imbalance, people came to our country as the best outlet for remedying that economic oversight. And when it comes to labor, the United States knows a bargain when it sees one. So decades later, when, while shadowing responsibility, this basic class of new American, however authority deprived credentially they may be, is scapegoated and blamed for something that on a grass roots level fed the ability of this country to remain prosperous despite our own mistakes with financial circulation. Not their fault large finance mismanages small finance out of the picture where it can. Daily, a tad bit inadvertently, grinding out the ability for everyone's thriving. Managers ruling isn't exactly the same as working.
Everyone should be more cautious on the road.There can never be too many traffic cops directing traffic that thwarts the blocking of the box that aggressive Manhattan driving creates. Please protect everyone out there and not just yourselves. Please?
Reading the Times' Comments 148, the acceptance of an illegal status is prevalent. Oh those bad people weren't as rigid and uncreative as our led with a golden spoon psyches that can't stand up to defeat when the problem's just making the money we have - work. Blame the restaurants for needing and caring about laborers who bailed them out in their situations of an already slim profit margin. Everyone eats. The so-called illegal Americans are more of a backbone for the American economy than ruthless vultures who exploit the methods of Public Relations to buy reputations they often don't deserve. Why there's the need for scapegoats, to at least fray the public's reactions. Very often mean is immoral, and this is one of those times. There's just too many pathetic excuses for being holier than thou that don't fulfill the act of being responsible.
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This bicycle courier film is from when Keegan Stephan asked me to speak in The Great Hall of Cooper Union. After screening the 1987 documentary, Fifth, Park and Madison, and before the bicycle advocacy panel discussion, there's a picture of Lake County, Florida Sheriff Willis V. McCall with three of the Groveland Four and word "Sheriff." Meaning face history. Through age 15, his house was a block from mine. His dog bit me when I was five-six, and all the older kids laughed hysterically when I cried screaming I'd sue. I was too young to know of track records. Just that he was Sheriff McCall. My mother, uncomfortably, received his next day call inquiring whether I was ok.
The Soapbox View pursues the Twin Legacies
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ARE THE COMEDY WRITERS AT REUTERS ON HOLD?
Is the media holding back? The information's out there for people to complain about, while the dilemmas are supposedly centered on the respective methods of slant and perspective. But if only being sold what sounds good, that's the method for being taken for a ride, then the carnival showcase moves the audience from one fantasy to the next mirage until fabrications are just contrived for what the observers have learned to fathom. Illusion. Every generation's delusion. Never looking beyond what being a mere loyal sycophant means to the team.
