Caught My Eye…

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Congrats on making it to Friday! Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:

  • Rally for Election Integrity
  • Trust in the Media
  • The Biden Speech
  • The Spin
  • One More Thing

RALLY FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY:

The Western Word was notified of a “Rally for Election Integrity” that will be held Monday, October 23, from 12:30-1:00 p.m. in front of the courthouse annex in Great Falls.

From the press release:

Cascade County voters deserve accurate and transparent elections. Sandra Merchant is unable to perform her election administration duties. Merchant’s incompetence comes at the cost of taxpayers. Merchant is being sued for her mistakes in administering previous elections and OUR money is paying for HER lawyers.
Rally in support of REMOVING ELECTION DUTIES FROM SANDRA MERCHANT. Protect the integrity of Cascade County’s elections.
Bring your signs and join us in front of the courthouse annex at 325 2nd Avenue North (building with teal-colored panels between the courthouse and the library) at 12:30pm on Monday, October 23, 2023, to demand the County Commission protect the integrity of our elections and remove election duties from Sandra Merchant.

The link to the Facebook Event can be found HERE.

TRUST IN THE MEDIA:

I’ve been around long enough to remember Walter Cronkite closing his evening news with, “and that’s the way it is” and I believed that Walter (yes, I felt I was on a first-name basis with Cronkite) had told me and the rest of the world the truth in the last half hour. Cronkite signed off in March of 1981.

That’s not the way it is these days.

Gallup released their trust in the media poll and found that the 32% of Americans who say they trust the mass media “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to report the news in a full, fair and accurate way ties Gallup’s lowest historical reading, previously recorded in 2016. Although trust in media currently matches the historical low, it was statistically similar in 2021 (36%) and 2022 (34%).

Gallup also says that another 29% of U.S. adults have “not very much” trust, while a record-high 39% register “none at all.” This nearly four in 10 Americans who completely lack confidence in the media is the highest on record by one percentage point.

I have a feeling, but I don’t have the stats to back it up, when Fox News launched in 1996, I think in the years since then we have seen a decline in the trust. Now we can get the news from the right side or the left side and never have to see the other side.

As the “Rich Men North of Richmond” guy sings, “It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to…”

Check out the Gallup report HERE.

THE BIDEN SPEECH:

I almost did not watch the President’s speech last night because the Diamondbacks and the Phillies were tied 1-1 in the ninth inning. The Diamondbacks won the game a few minutes before the President started speaking. Plus, he interrupted Jeopardy which does not score him any points with me. There was also a Thursday Night Football game that was calling me…

With all that, I was able to catch his speech live. It was OK. The purpose of the speech was to get Congress to approve around $105 billion (yes, BILLION) to help Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian efforts, and the southern border.

There’s something for everyone to like in the request. Some don’t like the aid package to be together and would rather vote on the aid in separate bills. We’ll see how it pans out.

The $105 billion request is remarkable. I do understand the need to help our friends and secure our borders, but we seem to be able to pull money out of our butts for emergencies, but we have children who are going hungry, and we have homeless veterans living under bridges.

You can read the remarks from the President HERE. The Associated Press covered the story HERE. Reuters covered the story HERE.

THE SPIN:

I saw some of the MAGA folks trying to rewrite recent history saying that 208 Democrats and 8 Republicans caused Kevin McCarthy to lose the Speakership and is the reason why the U.S. House can’t get anything done. (Source)

It’s important to remember that the Republicans are in the majority in the U.S. House. Rep. Matt Gaetz started the process to remove McCarthy. Over the years, the party in the minority has voted for their person to be speaker although they did not have enough votes. It was nothing different with the Democrats this time around.

This whole circus has shown that Republicans in the House are not ready to lead. It’s all on them.

ONE MORE THING:

Reuters has a pretty good article called “What’s the Israel-Palestinian conflict about and how did it start?” that is worth the read and that you can use to impress your friends with your knowledge of the Middle East.

Check it out HERE.

## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##

4 thoughts on “Caught My Eye…”

  1. The Republican tall tale that it was Dems responsible for McCarthy’s downfall would be a lot more believable if any Repub, even once ever, had voted for Nancy Pelosi. But they didn’t. And it was unnecessary in any case, because she was a far better and more effective politician and Speaker than anything the Repubs have to offer.

    Looks like the squalling brats have flunked Jordan for a 3rd time. They are only up to the G’s and already at least 5 Repubs have voted for someone else.

    Bring back Nancy and let’s get some of the people’s work done in the House.

    On a different note, if you’re looking for something to watch on TV this weekend there’s an excellent show streaming at PBS called “Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom”. It’s a noir art film of him and a band syncing the songs of his latest album which are old songs reimagined. Some pretty interesting arrangements. Just 50 some minutes.

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