Fair and Balanced Media

I was reading Time magazine the other day when something that I had heard for the last several years really hit me.  Someone had written in complaining about Time's coverage of Donald Trump Junior saying that both sides need to be presented.  The presenting of both sides is a recent phenomenon having risen with Fox news who presented a completely different point of view and in many cases completely wrong.  Now we have a President who calls out the fake news, the problem is that the organizations that he is calling out get it right more times than they get it wrong, whereas sources that he holds up as accurate are wrong way more than they are right.  Which brings us to the problem of presenting both side in a story.  What if the other side is completely wrong?  Fox said that they were fair and balanced but they never presented the other side, no balance.  The hated media would be doing a disservice if they presented as fact both sides of an argument particularly if one side is completely wrong.

Wisconsin Road funding

Admittedly our road funding is a mess, and now that we are experiencing unprecedented rainfall the lack of maintenance has really shown up.  There are those who think that the problem stems from not raising the gas tax for many years.  That is certainly one component of the problem.  A bigger source of the problem is when under the Thompson administration we began defunding the schools by allowing vacant land (including farms and forests) to be taxed at a lower rate.  This resulted in a big tax increase to people living in the cities and on rural developed land.  Well those taxes paid for more than schools, they also cover the roads.  Counties and townships now had less money coming in from taxes, less money from federal and state grants so they deferred the maintenance on roads.  The counties and townships could have solved this problem by funding their roads the way cities fund theirs by making each landowner pay half of the cost of the road.  The large landowners didn't think that this was fair and got their way.  Now we have reached the tipping point where the roads are crumbling and the GOP has no idea what to do.  It is clear that a gas tax increase would help but it is not the answer due to more fuel efficient vehicles.  Cutting what people are paid would also help (the GOP likes this idea because they believe that people working for the government shouldn't get paid).  Increasing the cost of car registration and linking it to vehicle weight would also help.  So would a use fee for farmers and loggers who drive heavy unlicensed equipment on the roads.  And I think that we'll need to make all highways toll roads.  That combination is the only way to get the money that we need.

English Baby Denied Care

President Trump and the Pope have weighed in on a medical case in England where the doctors want to pull the plug on a baby that is going to die from an incurable condition.  I get the Pope's position, I do not get our President's position.  He is prepared to sign a bill (assuming that the dysfunctional Republicans can get something to him) that would have already killed this child.  That's right the party of pro-life is only concerned about life until just before birth.  They would make maternity care optional (cost a lot of money).  They would instill lifetime benefit caps (this child is already passed that).  They would reduce assistance.  Wasn't one of the Republican's complaints about Obama that he put the needs of people in foreign countries ahead of US citizens?  Apparently the current President didn't get the  memo.

$12/ year health insurance what a deal

The President proves in an interview that he doesn't know anything about health insurance by saying when you are young and putting $12 a year into insurance that by the time you're 70 you'll have a nice plan.  Sounds great, where do I sign up?  The problem with this idea is that he has confused health insurance with a retirement account and that is not how insurance works.  But the price tag is amazing, even if he meant $12 per month it would be a bargain.  The average American is paying close to 20 times that amount per month plus co-pays for office visits and drugs and these plans are bankrupting America.  I have no idea what the President was thinking on this one, but he is clearly wrong.

Healthcare repeal and replace disaster

While I find it humorous that the Republicans can't come up with a replacement to Obamacare (they had 7 years to come up with a plan).  I find it more amazing that they can't get the votes for repeal either (the House voted 62 times to repeal and the Senate said if they had the majority it would be repealed).  Then the President blames the Democrats.  No Mr. President you are responsible for this, the Democrats are powerless to stop what you want.  You lost the support of Republican who believed you when you said that you would repeal Obamacare and replace it with something that give all Americans affordable access to healthcare.  Sadly the House and Senate bills would not provide affordable access to healthcare for all Americans.  The bills before Congress were going to leave millions without insurance and millions more priced out of the market and still millions who would be denied coverage.  As one analyst said the only people this plan would work for is a 27 year old male, with a good income, and no health problems.  It only works until they sick and dropped from their insurance or go bankrupt because they bought the cheap no coverage plan.

Hostile, intimidating, and bullying workplace

I work for a very hostile and intimidating workplace which as a consequence has a good amount of bullying and mobbing as well.  We are part of a major university, I know that you are thinking a liberal utopia, you would be wrong.  We have some of the poorest managers that I have ever worked for in any field.  Most don't have the skills of a crew chief at McDonald's let alone the ability to manage "professionals".  I use the term "professionals" pretty loosely because in terms of development they are more like a class of middle school students.  I am frequently asked how can it be hostile?  We have managers who act on rumors and innuendo.  We don't deal with personnel conflicts other than "you should work it out", which doesn't work.  We affix blame to targeted individuals for things that are really out their control or where they were actually doing what the supervisor asked for.  We have people who express how we can be open and honest in meetings.  But if you are open and honest in a meeting, by some strange coincidence a day or 2 later you find yourself in a conversation with your supervisor about some baseless charge.  Yep that is how it works.  Those of us on the front lines are constantly told by others that there is no way that happened when we regale others in our misfortune.  Among ourselves the constant refrain is that you can't make this stuff up.

I should take a minute to discuss the lack of trust.  It is not what you would expect between employee and manager.  No we have what we like to call watchers.  They assist in going after the targeted employees.  Some of these people are known, others suspected and still others unknown.  I like to play a little game of whose who by making outlandish statements and seeing if it gets back to my supervisor who will act on hearsay.  Once you become a target you need to be aware of these things otherwise you will be in the meeting with personnel where you get presented with 2 letters one for termination, one for resignation you get to pick.  Which fulfills what manager is fond of saying that we don't fire anyone, which I say no we force them to leave.

I've been told to keep my head down, but literally I can't get low enough.  For example, I have been having few if any problems the last 6 months but it all came crashing down, probably something that I said in a meeting.  Almost immediately the queasiness and desire to self medicate came back.  I know that it will start to build on Sunday night.  As an article in the State Journal said managers need to learn how to turn TGIF into TGIM.  With our leadership there is no way that is going to happen. 

I don't know what the future holds for this particular group but after being targeted off and on for more than 2 years I really don't care.

You might wonder why I am still there?  Well I live in Wisconsin and have worked in a specialized area for a long time (so I'm old).  I know that those of you that listen to Gov. Walker will find this hard to believe, but there are virtually no professional (jobs that you need a degree) jobs open in the State.  Those that are require a boatload of experience in other narrow fields so those companies are hoping to lure someone into the state.  I say good luck.  Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) likes to say that they can't find skilled workers.  That is because salaries in the state are down and people are leaving for states where salaries are higher.

The insurgency

These poor put upon ranchers and other anti-government conservatives who took over a Federal wildlife sanctuary.  Where is the right wing with "America Love it or Leave it" slogans?  This was and still is all the rage when a liberal leaning group protests not to mention if they would take something over.  The right once again shows how they are a bunch of hypocrites.  All you have to do is look at the people hold up in the federal compound.  What I see is a bunch of people who think that they are entitled to more than the rest and who don't want to pay for anything.  Look at the facts.  One of the leaders turned to the Government (which he despises) for a loan after private banks turned him down.  Look at the ranchers who have the privilege of grazing cattle on land that they don't own for $3 per head per month compared to costs of around $20 or more if they actually owned the land.  I agree with the Conservatives who say that this entitlement class needs to end but I think that we start at the top and work our way down to the people who are earning $7.25 per hour and working 2 or more jobs.