New year alert
Friends, I hope that you had the opportunity to spend time with those you love over the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays recently.
I'm working a short week this week, as my current company affords its employees with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as well as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as company holidays. And given where the days fell this year, I was off last Friday and will be again tomorrow. Plus I'm taking Tuesday off, so that will be essentially a five day weekend.
Good thing, too, as I'm just about over the nasty respiratory disorder that has had a grip on me for over two weeks. As reported here previously, my wife has had something similar, was diagnosed with Type A flu and is about a week behind me in terms of the progression of her discomfort. So the light schedule and extra time off has been very helpful.
The time has also allowed some introspection, as 2017 is almost over. I made no resolutions, usually don't, but experienced some good changes personally and, of course, were fortunate to welcome another healthy member of our family just recently.
As a society, though, I worry about where we've been, where we are, and most of all, where we appear to be going. Through whatever means, we elected as President someone who embodies most of the worst personal qualities and yet who also doesn't appear to take seriously the responsibilities of his office. Along with that, based on the extensive investigative reporting that has come out about the 2016 campaign and events since that time, he and his team appear to have been willing to do about anything in order to gain and retain power, and that's an equally dangerous proposition.
No matter your politics, no matter your personal preferences, this should concern you. Under this President, the Justice Department is cracking down on all sorts of personal freedoms and activities. The State Department is led by someone who appears more interested in "efficiency" and offers little in the way of explanation or even negotiation to the rest of the world. Actions taken by previous administrations are being rolled back or done away with in rapid succession, mostly based on whose name is associated with these actions.
I have a friend who attributes our current politics to a contentious Supreme Court nomination from some years ago, the first such nomination that forced an across-the-board division along party lines. He makes a good point.
Whether that was already happening or not, I don't have a lot of doubt that our current polarized climate and the candidates produced by it are the result of two major factors: politically centered cable "news" and social media.
If you don't watch cable news, good for you. Most folks do, and find some comfort in the reinforcement of their beliefs that they receive from the channel of their choice.
Social media, however, is a lot different animal than we first thought, with "bots" spewing propaganda with astounding speed and frequency. Last night I read something that I found interesting about the recent special Senate election in Alabama, which, you'll recall, was won by Democrat Doug Jones. According to a consultant employed by the Jones campaign, 10,000 of these "bots," which are essentially fake accounts manipulated by a common operator, were generating 65,000 anti-Jones tweets PER HOUR.
Do we know that this is true? No. But if there's even a shred of evidence, it's one more thing to worry about. We've also been told by some news outlets that anti-Hillary Clinton tweets and Facebook posts appeared in much the same way and in similar numbers near the end of the 2016 Presidential campaign. And what's more, they appeared in the most contentious states in the campaign, the industrial Midwest states that were ultimately won by Clinton's opponent.
Politics has always been the art of persuasion, so this is an inevitable extension of that description. But in my mind it's an unwelcome one, as we have entire generations of people who rely on Facebook, for example, as their source of news reporting.
No quick or easy answers to any of this. But let's at least hope that the American people get a fair shake all around in 2018, whether in their daily lives, at the polls or wherever there's a question of fairness. We owe it to each other and our children and grandchildren to make sure this happens.
I'm working a short week this week, as my current company affords its employees with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as well as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as company holidays. And given where the days fell this year, I was off last Friday and will be again tomorrow. Plus I'm taking Tuesday off, so that will be essentially a five day weekend.
Good thing, too, as I'm just about over the nasty respiratory disorder that has had a grip on me for over two weeks. As reported here previously, my wife has had something similar, was diagnosed with Type A flu and is about a week behind me in terms of the progression of her discomfort. So the light schedule and extra time off has been very helpful.
The time has also allowed some introspection, as 2017 is almost over. I made no resolutions, usually don't, but experienced some good changes personally and, of course, were fortunate to welcome another healthy member of our family just recently.
As a society, though, I worry about where we've been, where we are, and most of all, where we appear to be going. Through whatever means, we elected as President someone who embodies most of the worst personal qualities and yet who also doesn't appear to take seriously the responsibilities of his office. Along with that, based on the extensive investigative reporting that has come out about the 2016 campaign and events since that time, he and his team appear to have been willing to do about anything in order to gain and retain power, and that's an equally dangerous proposition.
No matter your politics, no matter your personal preferences, this should concern you. Under this President, the Justice Department is cracking down on all sorts of personal freedoms and activities. The State Department is led by someone who appears more interested in "efficiency" and offers little in the way of explanation or even negotiation to the rest of the world. Actions taken by previous administrations are being rolled back or done away with in rapid succession, mostly based on whose name is associated with these actions.
I have a friend who attributes our current politics to a contentious Supreme Court nomination from some years ago, the first such nomination that forced an across-the-board division along party lines. He makes a good point.
Whether that was already happening or not, I don't have a lot of doubt that our current polarized climate and the candidates produced by it are the result of two major factors: politically centered cable "news" and social media.
If you don't watch cable news, good for you. Most folks do, and find some comfort in the reinforcement of their beliefs that they receive from the channel of their choice.
Social media, however, is a lot different animal than we first thought, with "bots" spewing propaganda with astounding speed and frequency. Last night I read something that I found interesting about the recent special Senate election in Alabama, which, you'll recall, was won by Democrat Doug Jones. According to a consultant employed by the Jones campaign, 10,000 of these "bots," which are essentially fake accounts manipulated by a common operator, were generating 65,000 anti-Jones tweets PER HOUR.
Do we know that this is true? No. But if there's even a shred of evidence, it's one more thing to worry about. We've also been told by some news outlets that anti-Hillary Clinton tweets and Facebook posts appeared in much the same way and in similar numbers near the end of the 2016 Presidential campaign. And what's more, they appeared in the most contentious states in the campaign, the industrial Midwest states that were ultimately won by Clinton's opponent.
Politics has always been the art of persuasion, so this is an inevitable extension of that description. But in my mind it's an unwelcome one, as we have entire generations of people who rely on Facebook, for example, as their source of news reporting.
No quick or easy answers to any of this. But let's at least hope that the American people get a fair shake all around in 2018, whether in their daily lives, at the polls or wherever there's a question of fairness. We owe it to each other and our children and grandchildren to make sure this happens.
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