12/08/2019

Thoughts On A Sunday

Deep winter cold hit New Hampshire, with some towns in the southwestern part of the state seeing temperatures below zero. It was sunny yesterday which helped melt away the snow we got throughout the day Friday. There is still some snow that needs to be removed from the roof of The Gulch in preparation of heavy rains heading this way starting some time Monday and lasting through the day Tuesday. Looks like the snow rake will be coming out of the garage for the first time this winter.

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How much time does CNN have left?

Seeing that its already dismal ratings fell even lower during the ongoing impeachment circus, I doubt anyone can say I am being pessimistic about its chances of survival being as close to zero as it can get without actually being zero. A once great news organization that paved the way for the 24/7 news cycle that others followed has decayed, turning so far left that it has driven away most of its audience.

These days its heaviest viewership seems to come from a captive audience at airports around the world, abd even then no one is really watching. (This is an observation made during four trips down to Washington, DC over the past 6 months. I spent more than a few hours at Dulles Airport waiting for my return flight and noticed CNN was on just about every TV screen throughout the airport...and no one was paying any attention to it. It is anecdotal evidence, but I think it is indicative of how far the pioneering cable news channel has fallen.)

I think it is more a question of when, not if CNN will go dark, closing a chapter in the increasingly tawdry MSM story.

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I am almost expecting House Republicans to show up at the impeachment in House carrying striped bags of Big Top popcorn and sticks bearing cotton candy to watch the circus that is the Democrats impeachment efforts.

Considering that work on impeachment started 5 seconds after Trump was elected based on the fact that the Democrats just didn’t like Donald Trump and the only thing they’ve been able to come up with little more than “I-heard-it-from-my-brother’s-barber’s-second-cousin’s-girlfriend-that-Trump-did-something” types of evidence of wrongdoing, one has to wonder if Congressional Democrats are hoping for some kind of ‘miracle’ to give them what they want. Maybe they believe their efforts to redefine “bribery” to mean something that is otherwise legal for everyone else but will be redefined just for President Trump will come to fruition.

I am beginning to think the Democrats won’t have the votes they need in the House to impeach Trump and that their efforts will come to nothing but the loss of House seats to the GOP next November, and possibly loss of seats in the Senate as well. When more disaffected Democrat voters see their elected representatives wasting their time on a something that is nothing more than a vendetta because Felonia Milhouse van Pantsuit was elected, the less inclined they will be to vote for their do-nothing House Representatives and Senators.

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"Actors are pretty stupid."

So says iconic actor Anthony Hopkins when he explained why he seldom -- actually: never -- talks about politics.

"People ask me questions about present situations in life, and I say, ‘I don’t know, I’m just an actor. I don’t have any opinions. Actors are pretty stupid. My opinion is not worth anything. There’s no controversy for me, so don’t engage me in it, because I’m not going to participate."

--snip--

It is extremely refreshing to see an actor take this position. Sadly, the new generation of Hollywood stars has a different opinion. Take Mark Ruffalo, the millionaire actor who recently endorsed Bernie Sanders. This multi-millionaire (who's reportedly worth $30 million) wrote on Twitter that "it’s time for an economic revolution. Capitalism today is failing us, killing us, and robbing from our children’s future."

The general reaction to Ruffalo's tweet was one of amusement: the only person who didn't understand that it was slightly ironic that he was blasting the very system that made him rich and famous was Ruffalo himself. Everybody else was laughing at him.

Actors are people who pretend to be other people. They don’t say a word or take any actions that aren’t scripted by someone else. It’s rare that they can actually think for themselves, particularly when it comes to politics and those rare ones generally don’t speak about politics.

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You know the climate change faithful have gone off the deep end when one of its congregates decides to ban the sending of Christmas cards by his students in order to combat climate change.

A primary school headteacher has been branded a “grinch” after banning pupils from sending Christmas cards.

Jonathan Mason, head of Belton Lane Primary School in Grantham, Lincolnshire, said the tradition was bad for the environment.

However, parents said the move is not in the Christmas spirit and accused Mr. Mason of “rank hypocrisy” after he reportedly announced the ban in a letter to all parents.

It sounds like he’s trying to use the Precautionary Principle to undermine yet another tradition. But then, to the faithful everything contributes to climate change, so everything should be banned.

Yeah, that will work out for them.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is going to swing from sub-zero to the 50’s over a couple of days, the lake is still not frozen over, and where preparations for Christmas continue.