Friday, November 11, 2016

ADVERTISING

The polls got it wrong.

I'm writing about something that is not in my store of knowledge (huge storehouse of non-knowledge!!), but I'm just wondering how much else is misjudged by the experts and the elite.

For instance, the NFL. Advertisers spend a pretty huge chunk of change to support things like the $61 million guarantee for a certain part-time quarterback in San Francisco. Wonder if they are upset with the fact that the NFL ratings are in the tank? Like down 15% in some numbers I saw a while ago?

If political polls were inaccurate where I would think the candidates expect accuracy, not pandering, how about the "analysis" that is worth zillions of dollars, like the analysis of TV audiences?

Jon Stewart and his descendants have turned the late night landscape into unabashed liberal advocacy with the exception of Jimmy Fallon. Fallon, of course, was subjected to his own ridicule by the other late night hosts when he had Trump on and treated him like a human. I think the "flyover" states and the people who go to work every day are a bit tired of being bullied and treated as imbeciles, told what to think and how to act by the Stewarts, the Kardashians and the elites in general.

The elites in Hollywood and TV have tried desperately to sway opinion, and have made a huge impact. Do you wonder what Whoopi's agenda might be? She is all in favor of considering her viewers as "deplorables," but what if you are an advertiser on that show. You would be subject to the usual racist, misogynist, etc., labels if you were to pull your advertising, but when it comes down to dollars, can you afford to advertise when nobody watches? Or if the analysis of the audiences is flawed the way the political polls were flawed? That is what happens when your base of citizens who are polled don't match the ones who will actually vote. Or, in the case of the NFL, watch and buy the products.

I have yet to see any knowledgeable discourse on this. Jon Stewart nearly single handedly caused the show "Crossfire"--where thoughtful guests with differing opinions were able to debate-- to be run off the air. http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/12/opinion/begala-stewart-blew-up-crossfire/

Then he created the "comedy" of hate, scorn, mockery, one-sided bullying, ridicule and cruel cheap shots. He got away with calling it "comedy"! Now, remember, only what he considered to be conservatives and Republicans were accorded this treatment. If you can scare up an episode where Obama, the Clintons or any of his minions were attacked, I'd like to see it. Wonder if anybody is thinking "This isn't resonating the way we thought it used to."

Will keep researching this, but I think you may see the people with money begin to think a bit harder about where they put their money.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

LAST WORDS

Aren't we all overjoyed to contemplate the election madness in the rear view mirror? As most of you know, I worked as an election official again, one of 1,450 manning 98 polling stations in Virginia Beach. Lots of hours (5:00 AM to 8:30 PM plus training, set up), but great to be part of the process.

The mandate from the city election commission was to make sure that we did all we could to allow every voter who showed up the ability to cast a ballot, and there was only one failure for our polling location--a young woman who showed up registered properly in the city in which she lived, but unable to go there yesterday because of work. She should have voted absentee, but there was nothing we could do. The records are excellent, our crew was pretty experienced and skilled, so we were able to handle address changes, name changes and everything thrown at us.

I had two people ask me how to mark their ballot for Hillary, both appeared to be illiterate. When Linda and I were in Sweden, we went out to get a bottle of vodka (rhymes with Friday, right Kevin?) and a snack as it was late and we didn't want to do the restaurant thing. We ended up in a grocery where no one spoke English, a rarity in Sweden, and we tried to figure out what were crackers and what were cookies, what was cheese and what was some sort of spread, etc. We found airline bottles that said "vodka" and thought we had what we needed.

Got back to the hotel, sliced the apple, elated to find that we indeed bought crackers and popped the vodka. Turned out to be lemon extract. Yuck! But gives you a bit of empathy with the lives of people who can't read.

Oh, and yes I gave them the correct info on how to mark for Hillary although I'm not sure that I was supposed to as an election official!!

Our precinct results for President mirrored the national with Trump a bit farther ahead. Northern Virginia around Washington D.C. swung the state so that Clinton carried the electoral votes. Our area has endured the effects of a weakened military and northern Virginia is the beneficiary of the expanding bureaucracy.

Linda and I did better on local election knowledge, and had studied the candidates for Mayor, City Council, School Board, Constitutional Amendments so that we had our "informed" opinions. Not easy to find good information on those. Local newspapers are strapped for money and the internet doesn't care. The presidential campaign may have made us wonder where the honest and capable people might be, but letting local government proceed without much in the way of oversight is a recipe for disaster.

One of the Constitutional Amendments involved making the current law providing Virginia as a "right to work" state into a provision of the Constitution. Apparently, so that it would be more difficult to change. I had, perhaps, a dozen inquiries/complaints about the wording and people just didn't understand. Seemed to revolve around the use of the word "prohibit" in the long, run on sentence. My guess is that the attorney who drafted the language was completely unaware of the regular voter's vocabulary and difficulty with sentences that ran to multiple clauses, numbered sections and phrases that are not part of our every day speech. It was a close result.

An impassioned plea from Hollywood actor George Takei was posted on Facebook this morning lamenting how the "weak" were going to be harmed. Like so many, I agree that we need to respect and defend the rights of the members of our society, but I don't think we should do that by punishing useful members of that society. Difficult to discuss these things with many liberals today because when you do, they shout epithets at you and key your car.

BTW, George--the word is "charted." As in "we are going into uncharted waters." Not "unchartered." His command of the language is apparently as flawed as his logic.

Back to newspapers, media, social media, etc. How did all the "experts" get it wrong? I have never experienced anything as blatantly one-sided as the coverage of Clinton and the condemnation of Trump. Sort of plays into my recurrent theme of the media feeding me information and when I know about something, my reaction is usually "No, that's wrong!" What about the huge number of topics where I have no personal knowledge? Should I believe that they get that stuff right? That on those topics, they are competent and it is only the areas where I actually know something where they get it wrong?

My guess is that pollsters/MSNBC/Yahoo/CBS have become accustomed to ignoring the middle of the country, the men and women who go to work every day in a factory, in the diner or restaurant, in hospitals and farms or running a small business (we don't have the time, usually, to riot in the streets). No need to include in the polls or even consider them, they don't matter.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Trump was so feared and demonized by all the elite. I get why the Clinton and Bush royal families might stick together, but are things that bad that they cannot withstand the light of day?

Let's spend the next eight years uniting the country, tightening our borders as Bill Clinton declared we should in his 1995 state of the union message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3yesvvYEvs that talks about a fence which is evidently fundamentally different than a wall. Making sure that this country upholds its traditional role as a haven for the oppressed, but with some caution so we don't make the same mistake as Germany. Let's spend the next eight years mending the horribly disruptive policies of Obama that has created a racially divided atmosphere as bad or worse than what I remember of the 1960's. Support law enforcement. Let's find a way to employ the 10 million idle men of working age who are NOT INCLUDED in the official unemployment statistics http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/the-missing-men/488858/ .

There is something fundamentally wrong with our economy evidenced by interest rates at near zero. In the last eight years, our military has been gutted, the Middle East has gotten worse, not better. Petty tyrants in the Philippines and North Korea can rattle their swords and intimidate the US without fear of consequences. These grown up two-year olds and all of these problems are like the elephant in the living room--we know it's there, we just don't mention it.

Hopefully, we can move forward.




Tuesday, November 1, 2016

IRONY?

We all know that as we mature, we quit growing. Except I have read that your nose and your ears continue to grow, even into old age.

Ironic, then, that my sense of smell and my hearing are getting worse.

Thought you might need some truly frivolous info during the closing days before the election.