Dancing Around a Poll

This is the most terrifying elections season of my memory - which goes back to Kennedy v. Nixon.  In those days it was the Russians, the Cubans and the Cold War one had to fear.  Today it is a smarmy business man, of questionable competence, backed by some of the most frightening fanatics ever dredged up from the dark underbelly of American politics to stand in the light of a national election.  Donald Trump has bought everyone and everything he has ever desired to own, and now the White House appears to be on his wish list.  I don’t believe for one moment that he will run his government.  He will be window dressing, a clown prince behind which the sinister people who support him will enact their agenda with impunity and in the shadows – Dick Cheney, only much worse.  Now that fucking scares me.

As we proceed through this chamber of horrors that is the 2016 presidential election, one cannot help but recognize the malignant contributions of the mechanics that have build and run this freak show – the mainstream media, with special attention to the cable-24/7 stable of overpaid, over coiffed, mostly unconscious shills. Day after day they add another horrifying attraction/distraction.  Today it is a new NBC/SurveyMonkey poll that shows Trump leading Clinton with military and veteran voters.  When you pull this bit of papier-mache apart you find under all the hot air, bluff and flummery that the poll was an online poll conducted from August 29^th thru September 4, among 32,226 registered voters (1/100% of the population) including 3,358 who currently or previously served in the military (1/1000% of the population).  You can cut off my legs and call me shortie if that ain’t a joke!

This slide of hand is undoubtedly designed to gin up interest, and not a little fear, for tonight’s “Commander and Chief Forum” on MSNBC.  It isn’t the first time they have done it; they have been doing it with medical information for years.  Just last week some talking head with more hair cells than gray cells was cross examining Dr. Fauci of the NIH about a study that linked Zika Virus in people living outside of the womb to Guillain-Barre Syndrome and a neurological disorder that presents with swelling of the brain and spinal cord that can damage the myelin sheath of nerves and is often misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis.  Fauci tried to explain that one little study does not a medical surety make, and it is unwise to report these things as if they are the product of sound medical research grounded in the scientific method producing repeated evidence of a pathological trend.  She smiled, blinked and tried to understand.  She understood none of it, and the media continued to run the story the rest of the day.  One would have thought that the Ebola fiasco would have taught them something; but, apparently they are like baby birds in that every day is a brand new day with nothing coming before or after.

Without question these people have less understanding of the need for veracity then our politicians.  Yellow and tabloid journalism are their stock and trade.  They spew panic and misinformation for profit and ratings without the slightest care for the impact of their "reporting".  More importantly they seem to take no responsibility, and feel that they are never to be held accountable. That should terrify us all.