Polls and the News Media - the Nastiest Poll of All - SIX Percent

As we sit back and tune in to another polarizing cable news show about the presidential race, we prepare ourselves for a barrage of insults, half-truths, rumors, innuendo, lies, distortions, agitations, and frustrations, and that is just what is coming from the news reporters and commentators, not the candidates.

They say deaths from opiate over-doses in America have tripled in the past four years.  One wonders if the polarizing hatred seen on cable television 24/7 might be a factor.  What bigger source of pain can there be than politicians, especially ones who will say anything to win and make up all kinds of lies about the others.

Right next to the beer and remote control are the bottles.

In the bottles, you will find the legal pain relief opioid drugs including:

• codeine (only available in generic form)
• fentanyl (Actiq, Duragesic, Fentora)
• hydrocodone (Hysingla ER, Zohydro ER) 
• hydrocodone/acetaminophen (Lorcet, Lortab, Norco, Vicodin)
• hydromorphone (Dilaudid, Exalgo)
• meperidine (Demerol)
• methadone (Dolophine, Methadose)
• morphine (Astramorph, Avinza, Kadian, MS Contin, Ora-Morph SR)
• oxycodone (OxyContin, Oxecta, Roxicodone)
• oxycodone and acetaminophen (Percocet, Endocet, Roxicet)
• oxycodone and naloxone (Targiniq ER)

Now you are ready to face the pain of what you are about to hear.

I am pretty certain lying and political campaigns are synonymous, inter-related, Ying and Yang.  Even fact checkers have to be fact checked to see whose side they are protecting.  Instead of saying "Veritas vos liberabit", "The truth is out there," perhaps one should say "Est ex veritate non est," "No truth is out there."

With that in mind we come to a poll that should be the most dreaded news ever reported by the media.  Of course they do not report it.  What they do report is how Trump has the highest unfavorable rating in modern history.

It is the truth they refuse to report that weighs down on them.  Here is the headline they should be reporting.

   

New Polls force Democrats to push Panic Button as Main Street Media attack Trump

Since we know polls in America show journalists covering the presidential campaign are liberal by a 12-1 margin, it should be no surprise that the liberal media is taking up the attack to stop Trump in the general election.

Trump still has not secured the Republican nomination and Clinton continues to battle Bernie Sanders for media coverage, but the media is acting as if Trump is a real threat to beat the media favorite Clinton.

Quite a contrast to earlier in the campaign when the media dismissed Trump yet wanted him to win the GOP nomination since polls showed Hillary winning by a landslide if Trump were the opponent.

A funny thing happened on the way to the conventions and polls confirmed it after Trump's landslide wins in the Northeast and Indiana primaries blew his last two opponents, Cruz and Kasich, out of it.

Trump and Clinton are now in a near dead heat in nationwide polls and the general election has not even begun.  This week when Trump suddenly started winning the support of major GOP party officials and it looks like the Republicans are going to be united more tremors were felt in the Clinton campaign.

The press says very little about the crosstabs in the polls, and for good reason.  You hear Trump has the highest unfavorable score ever recorded at 65%, yet no one says Hillary has the second highest unfavorable ever recorded at 57%.

So the media has mounted a massive campaign to discredit Trump and drag out anything he ever did in his life, say 30 to 50 years ago, as if it will have a direct effect on whether he pushes the nuclear button.  That is about as yellow as journalism can be.

However, I am not defending Trump.  I say, what he says and does today, is far more relevant than what he did three or four decades ago.  I mean people do change over the course of a lifetime. Besides, every time he opens his mouth he is capable of stumbling over his tongue.

To me fair reporting is an issue of credibility.  Now to get to the most dreaded poll results not reported.

The American Press Institute published a survey April 18, 2016, and the real headline was:

"Only 6% of Americans trust the media"

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents.

The bottom line is this.  Why is the media trashing Trump as a strategy to defeat him, pointing to his negative ratings in public polls, when 94% of the same public does not trust the media?

To me the 35% of the public trusting Trump today is six times better than the public trusts the media, 6%.  That is truth in reporting.

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Morning Joe Meltdown - MSNBC Hosts Choke on own Egos

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It has been clear lately that the Morning Joe program is suffering from egotistical constipation as the two hosts, Joe and Mika, fight with each other and then shower each other with incredible foresight and honor for being first on the air to call the 2016 election.  This is when they are not hyping the books they have written, the band Joe plays in, or the books by Mika's family.

Well I have been watching since day one and the only person who stretches the truth more than Donald Trump are the MSNBC egos on air.  Their fortunes are dependent on sucking up to Trump to spike ratings for the show and they have consistently upset the Donald with their gratuitous and unsolicited advice, thus jeopardizing their access to the Donald.

Morning Joe, the token Republican on the show, and token may also be an a exaggeration, has taken to pontificating to Donald the few times Trump has called in, when in fact Joe's only interest is self-promotion. His claim to fame was being a congressman in the late 1990's.

His GOP credentials come from being elected to congress in 1994 and winning four consecutive elections, the last in 2000.  Shortly thereafter he mysteriously resigned from congress in 2001.  This was around the time of rumors of infidelity and his sudden divorce.  Then a married staff member was found dead in his District Office.

Scarborough claims credit for balancing the budget in the late 1990's and of championing New Federalism in congress.  In truth the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton negotiated the budget balancing although the National Deficit continued to increase at the time.

As for the New Federalism claim, I was part of a Presidential New Federalism task force The New York Times called the most extensive reorganization of the federal government since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.  We worked in the Nixon White House between 1972 and 1974 and we did pass a massive number of New Federalism initiatives that stand alone to this day as the greatest decentralization of the federal government in history.

Sorry Joe, your claim was an exaggeration as well.

Well after Joe last lectured Donald, Trump has refused to call in to the show thus undermining the ratings for a show long suffering from tepid ratings.  As MSNBC has continued to reorganize the network to be more fair and balanced, the shows have continued their dismal runs in last place in cable news programs and the strain on the Morning Joe hosts is clear.

This week Mika and Joe have gone off the deep end stating over and over how they and they alone called the election, forecast Trump's success,  and are the greatest political pundits on  earth I guess.  The level of insecurity oozing from them was painful to watch.  Everyone knows they are egomaniacs, they tend to constantly overemphasize their importance, knowledge, and status, and that they are firmly in last place in the cable ratings.

Need I say more?
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What if Trump is a Stalking Horse for the Clintons?

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Since this has become the most bizarre campaign in the history of American politics, we still have not had the party conventions to officially nominate Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,  and we still have five months before the campaign is over, why not inject yet another explanation for what is happening.

Consider this, Trump, by his own claim, was a top student in his Ivy League class at the Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.  If true it is impressive.  For his entire life Trump has been keeping company with the movers and shakers.  His business empire is dedicated to providing the rich with the best toys possible for this elite class.

In the course of this presidential campaign Trump has defied the experts, befuddled the press, and toyed with the politicians time and again while coming out of nowhere and powering himself to the Republican nomination.  In the process he has left everything involved in politics a shambles.

Now that he locked up the nomination, he seems to have gone way off the deep end in the most self-destructive campaign in history in recent weeks.  Everything he has been saying since locking up the nomination contradicts everything he said would happen when he got the nomination.

For a time the Trump antic of misdirecting the media was fun to watch since the general public distrusts the news media more than congress, Trump, or Clinton. But things have changed.  His actions now seem intent on destroying his chances of ever winning the general election, now that he has won the primary season and clinched the nomination.

The daughters are buddies as well.

If I were a good Glenn Beck type of conspirator I would suspect what is happening was planned all along.  Since we know the Clintons and Trumps were a lot closer than either party wants to admit, what if they long ago plotted to help Trump get the Republican nomination and he, in turn, would deliberately sabotage his chances of getting elected to assure Hillary would be the next president.

Remember, it was well known Hillary had some serious problems with emails and trust and the typical Clinton modis operandi.  Her negatives would reach all time highs or lows, however you look at them, before the campaign was over, so how about get Trump to  seize the GOP nomination as an insurance policy.  His actions to undermine his own success seem to indicate he never wanted to be president, just control the presidency.

If so, this is truly the greatest scam in history in which all American voters have been had, taken for a ride, and had their pockets picked.  Hillary will be the next president whether she is indicted or not and Trump will have unlimited access to the White House without having the overbearing *to him" responsibility of being   president.

When Nuns can Change Lives - Pat Rock and Corita Kent - the Girls from Iowa

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Sister Mary Corita

At least two Nuns had a profound effect on me when I was growing up in the 1960's, meaning my years in high school and college.  One taught me English and Creative writing, Sister Louis Marie aka Pat Rock, and the other taught me the meaning of individual freedom, Sister Mary Corita, aka Corita Kent.

Pat Rock

Patricia McGuire, later known as Patricia McGuire Rock, was born in Rock Rapids, Iowa in 1930.  Frances Elizabeth Kent, later known as Corita Kent, was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1918.  Me, I was born in Iowa City, Iowa so we had that much in common at least.

The following is a link to a story I wrote about Pat Rock, http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/2013/11/farewell-to-my-friend-patricia-mcguire.html

and it adequately describes her impact on my life.

Corita Kent, on the other hand, never taught me but Sister Louis Marie brought her radical art style to my attention when she was teaching me in the early 1960's.  If you did not live the 1960's you may never understand the meaning of revolution, change, war, academic freedom, civil rights, environmental concerns, protests, civil disobedience, riots, murder, corruption, and on and on.

I believe it was the greatest decade of upheaval in our nation's history and an unsuspecting Nun who was born in Iowa and teaching in California was a champion of change because of her unique art and powerful messages manifested in signs, slogans, and billboards.

Sister Mary Corita was such a champion that it led to her leaving the convent, just as Sister Louis Marie did a few years later.  Few people knew her back then, and fewer know her now, but it is time we learn about some of the unsung heroes in our nation's history.

Here is her story as told by the Corita Art Center in California.

Corita Kent, Warhol’s Kindred Spirit in the Convent

APRIL 10, 2015

“The only rule is work,” read the seventh point on the Immaculate Heart College art department’s list of rules, devised by Corita Kent, known as Sister Mary Corita, one of the most unlikely Pop Art phenomena of the 1960s and ’70s.

“If you work, it will lead to something,” the edict continued. “It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.”

Warhol and Kent art

Predating even Andy Warhol (who later became an influence on her work), Kent was an early adopter of serigraphy, or silk-screening — considered a sign painter’s lowly tool at the time. She shared Warhol’s interest in the iconography of advertising but used it to very different ends, lifting texts from advertisements and poems and deconstructing and juxtaposing them to form colorful typographic works to help people “use their whole selves better,” as she once said.

This idealism dovetailed with the zeitgeist — her work found its way into civil rights and Vietnam protests — and landed her on the cover of national magazines; a stamp she designed for the United States Postal Service sold more than 700 million copies. But today she’s mostly remembered as a cult icon of sorts, whose life and work suggest a kind of alternate history of Pop Art. The curator Ian Berry, who recently assembled a traveling exhibition of Kent’s work with another curator, Michael Duncan, describes her as “a key figure in the history of American art,” and “a fiercely independent maker with a unique voice and vision.”

Frances Elizabeth Kent was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1918 and grew up in Los Angeles. Her family was Catholic, and after high school, she joined the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, earning an arts degree at the college the order ran. Ten years later, while pursuing her master’s degree, Kent was introduced to print making, the medium that would later bring her to the attention of art world.

By the early 1950s, she was forging her own unique aesthetic, and soon “priests and nuns from orders all over the country were sent to be educated at Immaculate Heart College,” wrote Ray Smith, director of the Corita Art Center in Los Angeles, in an email. For nearly a decade in the late ’50s and early ’60s, Kent toured widely, delivering lectures at institutions — religious and otherwise — across the country about her work.

In the late ’60s, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council — a landmark effort to modernize the church, which many Catholic clergy members took as a blessing for social and political activism — the Immaculate Heart sisters began chafing at the strictures that had traditionally bound the order.

Kent transformed Immaculate Heart College’s annual Mary’s Day procession from an austere march into a community celebration that included theatrical performances, food drives and masses of flower-decked followers holding up signs inspired by her art — part of the sisters’ campaign to bring secular and religious people closer together.

At the same time, Kent’s work was becoming increasingly political, addressing the Vietnam War and humanitarian crises. Tensions between the order and the church leadership in Los Angeles mounted, and Sister Mary Corita left the order in 1968, returning to secular life as Corita Kent. (Most of the other Immaculate Heart sisters followed suit not long after; in 1969, the order separated from the church, continuing its work as a lay organization. The Immaculate Heart College closed in 1980.)

Kent continued printmaking, even through the 12-year battle with the cancer that finally claimed her life in 1986, at age 67. Some of her work achieved prominence in the ’80s, though few people who saw it would have known the name of the artist; she was commissioned for several corporate and public arts projects, including designs for a Boston Gas Company fuel tank and the Postal Service’s “Love” stamp. Still, her work is not in many large museum collections, and until recently was rarely shown outside the Corita Art Center, which was established in her memory shortly after her death.

The Corita Art Center has a vast catalog of unprocessed photographs of Kent and her work. The photographer Suzanna Zak recently went digging through them and turned up a remarkable record of Kent’s life. The selection here includes images of Kent teaching as well as many photographs that Kent herself took.

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Memorial Day - Need we say anymore?

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Double click to enlarge picture