“Tell It Like It Is”

It feels as though our business, what was once called the “press” but has now morphed into “media” by virtue of the fact that there is so much more out there than just the old printed word, may have peaked with Dan Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, or maybe with Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate period.

It feels to this 76 year old, like we have been sliding away from being the old watchdog press and into something more and more conservative. Like Victorian ladies and gentlemen, afraid of being overly offensive or possibly attracting a lawsuit.

I recall my mentor, Bill Vance, telling me, “Sooner or later you have to learn to take the gloves off.” Wonder how many newsroom bosses we have like Bill Vance, now? Any? And here we all are, after a long slide into fear and disrespect, driven in no small part by companies that cared only for the bottom line and avoiding lawsuits rather than tough, adversarial Journalism. Companies that merged into just a handful, all or most with a similar mindset.

There were of course, mitigating factors. Things like ENG coming along, with the concurrent demand to do everything on the broadcast side “live,” with little or no time for fact checking. And Ronald Reagan, killing the Fairness Doctrine, giving rise to “trash talk” radio, and wingnut 7/24 cable news channels, with little news and mostly opinion. With all of that, we were “slip sliding away,” weren’t we?

I felt that slide happening, did you? Don’t you think that to a degree this current news business atmosphere aided and abetted Donald Trump? I have to wonder if once we get through this current madness, if in fact we are able to get through it, lessons will be learned about getting back to the “telling it like it is” mindset of the 1960’s? A time when some of us were naive enough to think that the truth was an absolute defense. Could be that every so often people need a reminder.

A Bus or a Buzz, But Never A Van!

Photo: Dennis Fong / Wikimedia Commons

Back in the days when Jefferson Airplane was still in the air and Ken Kesey and the “Dead” were driving around San Francisco with Timothy Leary, handing out free hits of acid (google it), there was a relatively new import from Europe, capturing the hearts of America’s youth. It was the Volkswagen “Beetle,” and eventually, the Volkswagen Microbus, or just “VW Bus.”

I learned how to drive, in a VW Beetle. It was basic black. As I recall, those first Beetles were offered in only two or three colors. I think it had a three-speed transmission. On the floor. I remember that much. A stick shift, on the floor. Family friend, Kenny Christensen, bought what had to have been one of the first Beetles to arrive at a dealership in Minnesota, and Kenny, offered to teach me how to drive. Which I did. Right into a cornfield.

As the years went by, Kenny continued buying VW’s, a couple of Beetles and eventually, a Microbus, which he converted into a camper and never let me drive. No fool was he.

Others, were also fond of the new imports from Germany. The VW Bus in fact, became a vehicle of choice for the flower power “Hippie” movement that swept the land as young men of draft age headed for one of two places, either the drug addled fields of the “Summer of Love” or the battlefields of Vietnam. Which by that time, were also addled by drugs.

The flower power Hippie “peacenik” movement was in full bloom. As Hunter Thompson put it, “They were fast strange times and we moved in fast strange ways.” Or something like that. It was a long time ago, and the old VW Bus was central to it all, on its way to becoming iconic.

And now VW has something new. They’re bringing back their old “bus,” in an EV version and calling it the “Buzz.” Clever play on words if you ask me, updating the vehicle’s name without giving up on its considerable youth culture heritage from the 60’s and 70’s. Thing is, younger folks, many of them delivering the news, don’t know any of this and are calling it a Volkswagen “van.”

This became apparent while watching coverage of the Los Angeles fires, when what appeared to be a vintage blue and white VW Bus, somehow survived the Palisades Fire, while everything else around it burned to the ground. The local newscasters were calling it a “van.” “NO!” I shouted at the screen, “It’s a VW Bus! Not a damn van!”

Just one of the older folks splitting historical hairs, I suppose, but in matter of fact, VW always called it a”Microbus,” which the youth culture shortened to VW Bus. And now we have an electric “Buzz” as well. Good for VW, for keeping it going.

None of this matters much, I suppose. For many of us, though, it will always be a VW Bus. Maybe you had to be there to understand. Thought I might pass this along before we’re all gone. Hopefully, I got most of it right. It was a long time ago.

Soon There Will Be Nothing Left

I dropped our subscription to the NYT’s, because I (we) felt they were conducting what amounted to a smear campaign against Joe Biden, which in turn, was helping DJT. Also, my friend and former colleague Dean Baquet, had left the paper, which appeared to coincide with its diminished front page political coverage. And, $500 a year for digital and a hard copy on Sunday, felt a little steep.

Without the NYT’s, we still had the LAT’s and the WaPo to rely on. We went digital on both and have been getting a hard copy of the WaPo on Sunday, replacing the NYT’s. However, now comes the continuing behavior of Bezos and Soon, apparently bending their knees for Trump, resulting in what appears to be an exodus of excellent journalists like Matea Gold, leaving both those papers. My former colleague, Matea, is moving from the WaPo over to the NYT’s.

After Soon did an interview proving he knows nothing about Journalism, we canceled our subscription to the LAT’s. I then renewed our digital subscription with the NYT’s, leaving us with digital subscriptions to the NYT’s and the WaPo and a hard copy of the WaPo on Sundays.

Considering what’s happening at the WaPo, I’m gonna drop them, I think, which will leave me (us) with nothing but the NYT’s digital edition. Which appears to be all we have left. The NYT’s and the AP, Reuters and that’s it?

Print is where our news comes from after all, what we used to call “shoeleather” journalism. AKA, the truth, as opposed to relying on the lies and half-truths of corporate and government handouts. And if the NYT’s goes under – how many of us can afford $500 a yr for the Sunday paper – then what’s left? Local tv news? Most of them don’t even know how to do a follo, much less what a follo is or how to follow up on a question someone from another outlet asked but the guy at the lectern is still refusing to answer.

I swear to God, in my local market, the broadcast outlets just keep reporting out the same old story without advancing it at all. I don’t think they were ever taught that it’s their job to advance a story or at least explain why it can’t be advanced because someone, usually some government wonk, it putting roadblocks in your way. It’s not necessarily their fault, it’s just that the news business has changed, and to a degree, those in it are forced to accommodate the changes or they’ll lose their jobs.

There are still a lot of great people in the news business, trying their best to put out a decent product. But by in large it would appear that for the most part our old credo of “Afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted” appears to be dead and gone. Except maybe, for the NYT’s and a few locals, like the Baltimore Banner online, to which I subscribe.

It’s accepted as fact, that one of the first targets of an invading force is the media. An invading army has to capture the media to control the minds of the populace in order to control and contain the country. Keep people in the dark and you can do almost anything.

And so, welcome to our new America, with billionaire newspaper owners bowing down to he who would be king and firing anybody that won’t do the same – leaving me (us?) with nothing but the digital edition of the NYT’s and maybe a few online outlets like the Baltimore Banner, but it’s difficult to see how they will be economically sustainable with nothing but online revenue.

Once Upon A Time…

Lots of football today (on Netflix?) made me recall one day in the mid-70’s, when the station I was with, KDKA, made a bet with the CBS affiliate in Houston. If the Oilers won, KDKA would send their weatherman, Bob Kudzma, to Houston to do the weather for a night. If the Steelers won, the Houston station would send their weathercaster to do the weather for KDKA.

Well, the Steelers won, and the Houston station sent their weathercaster up to Pittsburgh. She was drop-dead gorgeous and wearing a cowboy hat. Today, the Steelers will be playing the Chiefs. I’ll be watching, and thinking of that day somewhere back in the mid-70’s – thinking of that cowboy hat and poor Bob Kudzma. Not sure he was ever quite the same.

Our Holiday Message

Christmas, is almost here. You can tell, just by watching your local tv news. A government shutdown has once again been narrowly averted, some madman has driven a rented car or truck into a crowd of holiday revelers somewhere in Europe while here in the U.S., some other madman, or school kid, has opened fire on their teachers and classmates in the latest mass shooting. Topping it off, for those planning to travel, the airports are expected to be jammed with record crowds. Oh, and we’re still short on air traffic controllers, a problem the country has had since Reagan walked away from contract talks and locked out their union in 1981, which marked the beginning of the collapse of the union movement in America, and a first major death blow to the American middle class.

Every year, it’s pretty much the same. This year though, there’s icing on the cake with Musk and RFK Jr. making noises about eliminating Daylight Savings Time altogether and cutting back on the use of vaccines, putting us in even more darkness and disease than we’re currently experiencing.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain is the sure fire feeling that what Reagan did to create the air traffic control mess, Trump is gonna do to Ukraine and NATO, and like the air traffic controllers, the upcoming Ukraine tragedy will also last for decades. It’s what the Republicans do. The country, never seems to learn.

And don’t tell me “it could be worse.” Know what? It could be one helluva lot better, too. But we won’t get there by cutting the education budget or banning books or cutting taxes for the uber-wealthy.

Sharing public bathrooms with cross-dressers shrinks into nothingness compared to turning over the reigns of power to greedheads who want to tear away the Social Security program and medical benefits you and your peers have been paying into since you were 15 years old just so they can give even bigger tax breaks to their billionaire friends.

And you wonder why so many journalists end up as alcoholics or drug addicts?

And So It Begins

After being under the radar for a few days, Trump arrived in Paris, without Melania. Greeted by French President Macron on a red carpet, Trump appeared as though he was trying to arm wrestle the French president. Clearly confused, Macron patted Trump’s hand as if to let him know that everything would be okay, that no wrestling would be necessary. Later, DJT was seen in the newly renovated Notre Dame Cathedral, sitting hunched over to one side as though he had an injured butt cheek.

Generally, Macron appeared extremely cordial toward the soon-to-be U.S. President, possibly reflecting back to his earlier congratulatory message to him on social media: “Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine.” (Thank you Jimmy Kimmel).

Here in the U.S., the news was full of speculation about who Joe Biden will pardon next. Specifically, preemptive pardons for possible targets of Trump’s retribution once he’s been sworn in.

The fact that this is even happening in the United States, should give pause to Trump supporters, “should” being the operative word. I no longer hold out much hope for the possibility of conversions although any late awareness of reality will be greatly appreciated.

I was stunned at the outcome of the popular vote. Still am. It just doesn’t seem possible. It feels like some kind of alternate reality kicked in, taking the country by the throat and threatening our American Democracy as Democrats failed to vote. For anybody. But here we now are, stuck with it.


Why More Is Never Enough

Years ago, I had a professor in a humanities course at the University of Minnesota, who taught us an interesting premise. One that’s stuck with me. Maybe because the professor was a body builder who rode a Harley. Very imposing for an academic. Smart guy, too.

“Every man, wants to be a god.” That’s what he told us. I can’t remember who originally came up with it, but it’s pretty good. Especially in light of all that’s happening in our current state of madness.

Think about those in control and those who seek control. And how much of it they actually want.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, contributed more than a quarter-billion dollars to the Trump campaign, or so says the New York Times. But why? Why would anybody give that much money to an egomaniac with the attention span of a flea? Because he wants to be a god, that’s why.

It’s not enough for Musk to be uber-wealthy, so wealthy that his family will enjoy “generational wealth” for centuries to come. No, he wants it all for himself, or as much as possible, and he wants it now. That means obtaining the office of the most powerful person in the world, the President of the United States. But Musk can’t have that because he wasn’t born in the U.S. He’s a South African import, who, according to reports, inherited an emerald mine before getting his company started on U.S. soil illegally, apparently, before obtaining the proper credentials.

So, unable to get himself elected to be the nearest thing we have to an Egyptian Pharaoh, a sun god who walks the earth like a giant while all others cower in fear, he’s trying to buy his way in. With a quarter of a billion dollars. Why? To get next to Donald J. Trump, our soon to be anointed American god, who admires, perhaps idolizes, Vladimir Putin, dictator, absolute ruler and god of Russia, master of all he observes, a man who is trying to rebuild the old Soviet Union. Apparently. And who is helping him get that done, as Ukraine is devastated to satisfy Putin’s god-like desires? Why it’s Kim Jong Un of North Korea, of course. Dragon God of the North.

Putin is running out of soldiers to continue his war of conquest against the unfortunate people of Ukraine, so North Korea’s Kim, not wanting another god-factor dictator to go down in flames because that might reflect badly on him, has sent his troops to Russia, to help conquer Ukraine and perhaps one or two or three other countries that were at one time in the Soviet orbit.

Those who would be gods, need to stick together. Trump has professed his admiration and even “love” for both Putin and Kim. A bromance from hell.

And then there’s Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, who, it seems, has something in common with all the others. All these wealthy, powerful, conceited and probably sociopathic individuals who just can’t get enough. They demand absolute power and if you disagree, they’ll threaten you with a state sanctioned reprisal. They might send in the tanks and blow you away. In Putin’s case, some rare radioactive poison might be preferred.

The common factor is that they all want to be gods. The professor was right. For any one of them, more will never be enough. And they are all here at the same time. What a cruel and unholy turn fate has dealt us.

Republicans Must Choose, Trump Or America?

So Lindsey Graham is saying that it “will be difficult” to get Pete Hegseth, confirmed by the senate? Really? That will make Hegseth the third Trump nominee to be shot down before DJT has been sworn in. Gotta be a record for failure, and an interesting one at that, since Trump’s opposition appears to be not just the democrats, but his own party as well. This could portend a difficult time ahead for Donald, one he did not anticipate. Tough to do, I suppose, if you have the attention span of a flea. (Please read Mary Trump’s book.)

I can’t get used to the idea that a hurricane bombing, dictator loving, bleach injecting, Covid denying, six time bankrupt coup leader is actually going to be sworn in, and not for the first time. Will Democracy hold?

Speaking of Democracy-

Good and bad news from South Korea this morning, that’s the country just south of North Korea, which is ruled by a murderous dictator with whom DJT shares self-admitted love letters. South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared marshal law, and then canceled the declaration after being confronted by a vote in parliament overriding his decision. It was a bad move by the president, who now faces the probability of being impeached, but a good day for Democracy, which held together in spite of the country being thrown into chaos.

I’m reminded of the U.K. keeping relatively calm and carrying on, despite years of madness with Boris Johnson. For some reason, Johnson, reminds me of DJT. Could be the hair I suppose, or possibly their mutual tendency toward inexplicable behavior. Johnson, is now blaming the Church of England, for turning the UK into a bunch of “fatsoes.” Weird? Sure, but it’s not that difficult to believe for those of us who remember the Covid parties at 10 Downing Street. Alas, Johnson is all but gone, leaving the UK to deal with Brexit, much to the delight of Vladimir Putin, who is being assisted by the North Korean military, as he, Putin, continues his war of conquest in Ukraine.

As for Trump, everything he comes into contact with seems to fall into ruin, leading to the obvious question of whether America can survive another four years under his thumb. At least four years, I should say, since he’ll probably refuse to leave again, as he did the first time, if defeated at the polls.

If you want to predict the future, study the past. Everyone should know this by now, but apparently there are a few who do not, so I am repeating it here. Yes, I went to college. Please don’t hate me for it.

We can only hope DJT wasn’t watching tv coverage of what was happening in South Korea. With no patience for reading, that’s reportedly how he gets his news, and is probably why he likes to nominate talking heads from Fox, like Pete Hegseth. Marshal Law in South Korea, might give him ideas about doing the same thing here in the U.S.? Never mind that it didn’t work. Pretty sure DJT wouldn’t let that stand in his way. Or the fact that his ability to be backed by his party regardless of what he does, may be slipping away.

The Republican Party, doing what is right for America, instead of being driven by the imagination of a handful of MAGA loonies? It could happen, I suppose. Washington, did survive the winter in Valley Forge. We may be due for another miracle.

Ratigan, Nailed It Years Ago

DYLAN RATIGAN, HAD IT FIGURED OUT years ago, back when he was still on MSNBC and MSNBC was still worth watching. “It’s all about extracting the wealth” he’d say. But nobody wanted to talk about it. So he’d repeat it, obviously frustrated. He kept repeating it until, eventually, he was fired, along with Ed Schulz, Keith Olbermann, and anybody else who spoke their truth as opposed to playing a role for their corporate bosses.

That’s not to say there aren’t still some good people at MSNBC. There are. But there’s also an elephant in the room. A big fat Republican economic elephant that needs to be recognized for what it is.

Where do you go after agreeing that predatory capitalists are going after all the money, sucking it up to the top and holding it there, turning America into a neo-feudal society? I mean, what’s left to talk about after the truth is set free? Especially when it’s too complicated for most common folk to understand and too terrible to contemplate for those that can understand it. You can’t talk about it anyway, because those same predatory capitalists watching their numbers rise on Wall Street are the same guys that send you a big fat paycheck every couple of weeks.

Ratigan, was right. So was Ralph Nader, when he wrote his book, “Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us.” Only they can impose a balanced economy as opposed to an unacceptably massive gap between the rich and the poor that grows broader day by day.

Wouldn’t it be something, if, in two hundred years or so, historians look back on our era with curiosity, amazed that the country’s last best chance for survival as a Constitutional Republic may have been an elderly senator from Vermont? An old grandpa looking guy with a heart condition, who stuck it out, trying to wrench his party away from elitists and back into the hands of working class centrists – even while PC extremists tore the party to shreds from the inside out? No point in thinking about that now. That one’s already out of the barn and galloping away.

“Its the economy, stupid!” – James Carville, 1992

Under Trump, watch billionaires and millionaires suck more wealth up to the top of the economic food chain than ever before. Watch for them to put the squeeze on the elderly, with higher and higher deductibles, making health insurance less and less affordable. They’ve wanted to kill Medicare and Social Security from their inception, and now the push will continue, but this time it will be done Trumpist style. That is to say, “bigly.” The cost of auto and home insurance will also keep climbing as will inflationary pressures forcing old folks to obtain reverse mortgages, giving their homes back to the banks just so they can afford to keep buying food for themselves and Christmas presents for the grandkids who will no longer be able to afford college.

Ratigan, was right. Wait for it. It’s all about the rich extracting the wealth from the masses. Just wait for it, suckers. Sure, the Democrats blew it, but “sharing the wealth” was just a stupid pipe dream somebody had. Anyway, it sounds kinda Socialist, doesn’t it? And we want nothing to do with that, do we? Even though most of us have no real idea what the hell it even is.

So now you’re gonna get exactly what you voted for, everything this new Republican Party has to offer. A retirement age so high that you’ll be working until you drop, and even then you’ll have nothing left to leave the family. It’ll all go back to a bank, sucked up to the top of the economic food chain as the gap between the rich and everybody else continues to grow. And there’ll be nobody left to care. Just the rich on one side, and suckers and losers on the other.

Welcome To Our New Ongoing Alternate Reality

Putin has been making noises about nuclear war for months. Now Kim Jong Un, is making the same threatening sounds about nuclear conflict on the Korean Peninsula while his troops fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine under a master plan obviously drawn up by the Kremlin. Wonder what China thinks? What’s keeping their Commie big-wigs up at night?

Also have to wonder if Russia, North Korea and China are awaiting the coronation of Prez Elect Trump, before announcing their new hybrid Communist/Autocratic axis while NATO shrinks into near insignificance without the United States? Will it herald the Chinese attacking Taiwan and maybe some of the Japanese islands while the Russians continue pushing into Ukraine and possibly other countries as well, all with the blessings of Donald J. Trump? If that does happen, will even that be adequate to convince Trump’s supporters that they made a massive mistake?

Why didn’t anybody tell us?

By the time the right wing media gets done with what will be a boiling cauldron of misinformation, disinformation, opinion and rumor, the Trumpsters will have no idea what’s really going on or why. But that’s to be expected, the truth being so bothersome to autocracy. Anyway, for them it will be nothing new. It’s what they want to hear. It’s their comfort food. It’s Pavlov, blowing his whistle.

Flash! Dog Catches Car

Well, that’s over. I feel a need to write something about the dog catching the car, but there’s probably nothing I can add to what will be an endless stream of highly critical reviews. Perhaps most biting, is the fact that more than half the country voted their approval of immorality, bullying, and extreme dishonesty.

When the world’s stability is hanging in the balance, there’s no such thing as a “little white lie.” Words, carry weight.

An early thought, which I find most interesting, is how all the Trump voters will feel when they realize they were conned into voting against their own best interests. Again. That they bought into it, big lie after big lie. That they fell for it, hook, line and sinker, or whichever metaphor you prefer. A political cartoonist, might depict it as the dog that caught the car urinating on one of the car’s tires before walking away.

This is the same guy who said he’d build a border wall and get Mexico to pay for it. The same guy who lied to the American people about the threat posed by Covid-19. We didn’t get a wall and more than a million Americans died from Covid.

One of the toughest truths for me to try and get around, is that they bought into the lie that real news was fake and fake news was real. Feels like it came right out of some old KGB playbook in the 60’s, but they bought it, again and again and again, and now we’re all stuck with it. Like a bug on a rug. For at least four years or maybe longer. Who can say just how far the country will slide into monarchy?

Whatever our system might have morphed into, Trump will refuse to leave. By then he’ll be 82. Who knows when his already questionable synaptic relays will simply stop firing? When Mozart was that old, he’d been dead for 47 years.

One imagines Melania, rehearsing for the lead in Evita at the Met, the opera having been federalized for the sake of presidential convenience.

None of it will be our fault, those of us who saw the train wreck coming and tried to warn the country. And now, with the dog having caught the car, and all of us buried under a giant pile of all the best metaphors and analogies we could come up with to try and make things understandable, we can only sit back in shock and amazement that so many of our fellow Americans plunked down their hard earned money on an Edsel when they could have had a shiny new Buick. It’s gonna be a long four years and in the end, we’ll get what we voted for. Or paid for, in the case of Elon Musk, who, according to multiple sources, contributed $130 million to the Trump campaign.

Until then, there’s a monster question the Democrats need to sort out. What was it they did that was so wrong, so abhorrent, that it drove millions of Americans to prefer what was clearly an unacceptable choice? Was there any one thing or was it a national combo plate of sexism, racism and new media driven by a new high-tech that has outpaced our ability to control it? It’s so much easier to bury the truth once it becomes unidentifiable.

Please God, Let It End

Way back in time, approaching the dawn of man (and woman) – in other words nearer the beginning of this election cycle – pundits were in near agreement as I recall, that the election would rise or fall on the votes of white suburban women. Bucks County, PA, was frequently mentioned. So often, that I thought of buying property up there, as it would surely rise in value simply because it was so popular during election years. It felt like the Stepford Wives were taking over, which would be okay with me if they could beat Professor Evil.

But now, and somebody please enlighten me if I’m wrong, those magnificent suburban white women are hardly ever mentioned, although I did hear the other day that they are expected to vote in large numbers for Harris. And that, friends, would seem to portend very well for the Dems? Is that why the pundits aren’t talking about it? Because if it’s true, then this election is not on a razor’s edge. It is in fact a slam-dunk for Harris which would be bad for the ratings.

Please, somebody enlighten me. I admit to having no idea what the hell I’m talking about. I knew George McGovern. I covered George McGovern, and I should be better than this. I should be able to work things out, but apparently political PTSD is setting in and I’m sinking fast, imagining Harris/Walz winning only MN and DC.

My God, I’m now looking at Janelle Monae on MSNBC, stumping for Harris. I love Janelle Monae. Everybody does. She was great, back when Obama used to rock the White House with those wonderful, funky concerts. How can Harris possibly lose? How can the election be so close? Would the pundits be anything less than genuine?

The only thing that seems to help is binge-watching Leave It To Beaver. The non-stop adventures of Ward, June, Wally and the Beaver. And Eddie Haskell, who grew up to become a cop. It’s all so well ordered and easy to understand. Something even I can handle, without any need to self-medicate.


The Monster That Stalks Us


So I’m scrolling down my timeline on Facebook, all the while knowing everything I do is being logged by AI to continue building a profile on me to determine what will be posted on my timeline in the future.

While it is all very interesting, it occurs to me that the very thing that makes people, our human species, so interesting, is our unpredictability, our erratic natures, behavior driven by our creative brains. It occurs to me that asymmetry is more interesting than symmetry, and how the very creativity that makes us interesting is being killed by AI that feeds us only what it thinks we want. What it knows we want. A dull sameness. Symmetry. Staying within the lines. Lines dictated by AI. And I’m thinking, “so what’s the point?”

But if AI is as good as they say it is, then this has been anticipated? Is any one of us smart enough not to be outsmarted and consequently manipulated by AI?

“Soylent Green is people!” Remember that one? It just popped into my head.

Whoo boy, are we headed for trouble. It appears half the electorate is unable to understand even basic critical thinking. With AI, we’ll be lambs to the slaughter. Get ready kids. This is the world you’re about to inherit.

Being Purveyors Of Honest Information Isn’t Taking Sides, It’s Journalism

Some of us, have been covering politics for years. I got started with George McGovern, and I’ve never been so flummoxed by the polls. Never. It just feels as though there’s a blue wave coming that is not reflected by the polling.

There are exceptions, like a poll from Howard University, that shows young black people are supporting Harris by overwhelming numbers. According to the poll, “The results show that 84% of likely Black voters plan to support Harris in November, while 8% back Trump, and another 8% are undecided” in battleground states. Most major polls though, continue to show the race neck and neck, despite what looks like and feels like a groundswell for Harris. A headline in the Washington Examiner claims “Harris Slipping With Young Black Men In Battleground States.”

There is a rumbling, and that’s all it is, a rumbling, that big money interests that support Trump, are pumping out phony polling information. It feels to me, and that’s all it is, just a feeling, that this could very well be happening. In my neighborhood, there is an absence of lawn signs, flags and banners, where lawn signs were planted and banners were flying for Trump in 2016. It feels – and again, it’s only a feeling – like his support has dropped.

I’m convinced. and it has been reported out, that Putin’s people are working behind the scenes to support Trump. They did in 2016, and they’re doing it again. If there are phony polls out there, some could be coming from Russia. This should be more of an issue for the mainstream? Are they afraid of the truth, because it will give the appearance of taking sides?