Tweeting...and why you shouldn't.

Have you noticed that the entire journalism landscape here in America has changed dramatically over the past few years?

Time was when journalists were held in high regard.  There were only three TV stations, CBS (2), NBC (4) and ABC (7).  Yes, there were a couple of others, 9 and 11, and maybe 13, but they were predominately local in nature, and thus didn't carry national news.

Each of the above behemoth networks had their own featured news anchor, such as Cronkite, Brokaw and Jennings, who sat in the main chair when 5:00 p.m. came around.  Five O'clock was when the national news out of New York City went on the air.  It lasted one-half hour, and everything of national import was discussed, in depth, during that period.  That was all there was.  Nothing more, nor less.  One-half hour.  

I'm experiencing waves of nostalgia - and regret - wash over me about now...

And now?  There are more than 500 cable channels.  And at least 25 cable news channels which hold themselves out as supplying you, the CUSTOMER, with what they say is the "news."  And you know their names:  In addition to the three listed above, there's Yahoo News, Breitbart, Daily Caller, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, the Weekly Standard, Google, OAN, Hot Air, the Wall Street Journal, MSN, and, of course, the cable news leader, in all respects, Fox News.  And many, many more.

Oh wait, lest I forget, there's MediaMatters.org and MoveOn.org.  Life was breathed into these last two during the Billy Jeff "Blue Dress" Clinton impeachment trials by Uber-Left-Wing billionaire George Soros.  Like Tom Steyer, Bloomberg and Zuckerberg, these lefty deep pockets are all about buying elections for their redistributionist, Progressive  buddies.  We're talking more than $300 million in donations among them during the last General Election. 

But what you may not have noticed, nor thought about during that same period, is that journalism is no longer for journalists.  Now, EVERYBODY is a journalist!  Everybody with a phone or a computer can create a blog and weigh in with their opinion on anything and everything by offering up thoughts on Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, and, of course, Twitter.  On a right-now basis.  And I personally believe they can be a corrosive influence on our relationships, our careers, our reputations and our lives... 

Just think:  Twitter gives you the opportunity to tweet real-time a picture of the burrito you just got at "Jose's."  Or is that "JoseB's?" Anyway, it seems you must believe that your friends, and just about everybody on Earth, for that matter,  cares about what you are having to eat.  But that's not the worst part.  Celebrities, politicians, educators, activists, terrorists and ordinary citizens like you and me are able to let the world know what we are thinking.  As if they care.  But it appears there's some basic, innate need for us to communicate with others, even when there's nothing of import to pass along.  It seems we just HAVE to do it!

And the trouble we get ourselves into by so doing can be monumental!  This past week a gigando female Muslim LGBTQMTBWPTSDZWX activist professor at Fresno State University here in Commiefornia let loose with several choice tweets about our recently passed former First Lady Barbara Bush.  Her tweet accused Mrs. Bush of being an "amazing racist" among other things. She offered up several other insults, none of which were appropriate.  She then opined that, because she was tenured, nobody, NOBODY could do anything about her terribly offensive tweets.  

Looks like the President of her school, who has seen his alum donations dry up, has a different opinion on her job security, as they are looking into separating her from her paycheck ASAP.  

Other celebritards, like Cher (and share alike?), DeNiro, Baldwin, Schumer and dozens of others are famous tweeters.  And they garner their fair share of enemies thereby.  Charise Theron tweeted last week that she might have to leave and go back home to South Africa because America has become so racist.  She seems to not know that South Africa is endeavoring to grab the property from the Whites who own it and redistribute it to Blacks who don't as a form of reparations.  Or something.  And that's not racist?  

She's kind of like the uninvited (but uber-welcome!) visitors from down south who come here, work, and then take their money and go home...

Let's look at our POTUS, one Mr. Donald J. Trump.  I would guess that fully 2 out of 3 tweets he pumps out gets him in some sort of trouble.  Trouble of such consequence that his press secretary and other staff and Cabinet members must spend the entire day cleaning it up.  I would offer that foregoing two out of three of those tweets might improve his favorability polls, deprive his enemies of something to bash him with, and maybe even cause a few on the fence to want to vote for him.  

The good news, however, is that his doing so pisses the LameStreamMedia off amazingly!  He's figured out how to bypass them and their biases, which drives them batty.  But yes, his foregoing some tweets might be the very best thing he could do.  For himself, and for the Country.  

You see, nobody knew what Babbsie Streisand's politics were until she told them.  And when she did, she automatically pissed off half of America.  And that half listens to music and buys records, too.  But no longer do they buy hers.  And when DeNiro shoots off his mouth, telling the world that he'd like to punch Trump in the face, he automatically forgoes the future revenue and fan support of the half of America that thinks his form of politics is abhorrent, ignorant, stupid, foolish and wasteful.   

Ummmm, like me. 

I don't care much for Tom Cruise.  But he's smart enough that, when asked once about his politics, answered:  "I'm an actor.  I don't have an opinion about politics."  Smart guy.  

One great thing about the spontaneous growth and acceptance of Citizen Journalism of late is that the Professional Journalist has been found out.  They in the main DO NOT hide their politics, as we've become so painfully aware over the past couple of years or so.  And they are not always that terribly talented, either.  I can name a dozen or more CJ's who have stepped up out of the shadows to make a name for themselves without the benefit (burden?) of a Journo degree.  Talent, as they say, will out...

So, even though I, The Chuckmeister, have a little unassuming blog, and opine frequently on all matters large and small, and even occasionally on those subjects about which I have some knowledge, I have chosen not to fire up a Twitter account.  Because I know that because of my mercurial nature, fast-draw lip and a tendency to do some of that "ready, fire, aim" stuff, I'm smart enough to limit myself to a more reasoned, thoughtful and comprehensive commentary.  Others should consider doing the same.  

How about this:  You keep your burrito, I'll keep my sanity?

"Two Americas"

Remember when John Edwards, failed POTUS candidate, dishonored and disbarred philandering lawyer and all-around disgusting, smarmy leper of a guy, ran his campaign spouting about "Two Americas?"  

Don't remember John?  Good.  He wasn't called the "Breck Girl" for nothing.  Look it up...

Edwards' Two Americas had to do with income inequality between the "haves" and the "have-nots."  Of course, he was among the "haves," trying his best to appeal to the "have-nots."  While all this was going on he was secretly raiding his campaign coffers to pay for the inflagrante dilecto he enjoyed with his gal pal,  So much so, it seems, that she had his "love child" while his wife was battling breast cancer.  Real cad, that one.  

Did I mention he's a Democrat?  Must have gone to school on Billy Jeff "Blue Dress" Clinton...

Anyway, it turns out that Edwards was correct in his assertion.  There ARE two Americas, but not the ones he meant.  The two Americas now refer to the ones nestling up against either Ocean, and the America between the Sierra Nevada and the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Explanation?  Sure...

If you look at the map of who voted for whom this past General Election, you'll note that New England down to the Middle Atlantic States, plus the strip of States from Oregon down through the south end of California, plus the obvious "deep blue" cities like Chicago and Philly and Baltimore, voted for Hillary Clinton.  The majority of the rest of the Nation, known unaffectionately by the swells as "Flyover Country," consists of those who voted in the main for Donald J. Trump.

These are the folks who get up early and stay up late.  They make the stuff we need to live.  They milk the cows, till the fields, grow our food, make our cars and trucks, turn forests into lumber for our homes, fill our prescriptions and dig in the ground for coal and oil and precious metals.  They are mainly "blue collar" workers who just want to be left alone to earn a living and raise their families.  They have little or no political power.  They own and control almost no media influence and have little political "pull," except for their tidal wave of votes this past election  demanding "change."  Nobody asks their opinion on anything, because those who are responsible for the media reporting don't give a damn about them. 

And "change" is what they got with Trump.  Boy, did they ever get some of that change thing...

But the "Coastal Elites," as they are known, own and control the Mainstream Media, the major corporations, the unions, Silicon Valley, and the halls of academy.  And they are almost entirely located in New York City, Washington, D.C., Lost Angeles, San Frantwisto and Chicago.  Big cities all, and chock full of those who never bent their backs in farming, manufacturing or hard labor of any kind.  

"And therein lay the rub," as Shakespeare used to say.

Having lived in the once-Golden State for nigh on to 42 years, but having been born and raised in the Midwest, I thus have a foot in both camps, so to speak.  And I can therefore comment with some degree of authority on this issue.  Here, they believe that they, the "enlightened ones," are waaaaay too cool for the Federal Government.  Especially now that an orange philandering billionaire is POTUS.  

They are fond of saying that CA is the "sixth (or even fifth) largest economy on Earth!"  Larger even than France," they say. Yes, it's true, it is.  Kind of expected, though, when you consider CA is the USA's largest state, is nearly a thousand miles long and 250 miles wide, is jam packed with some 45 million people, some of them even here legally, and has been steeping in uber-liberal, highly corrosive, redistributionist  left-wing politics for the past thirty years. 

Other lefty states are much the same.  Coastal states lead the nation in high taxes, onerous, often punitive rules and regulations on business, and the rapid elimination of their citizens' individual rights.  

Oh yeah, and a rapid out-migration of their citizenry...

The "Between the mountains" states are much less burdensome to individual freedoms.  Lower, sometimes non-existent income and sales taxes, simple, unobtrusive rules and regulations on bizz, and freedom-friendly governments under which they live.  

The Coastal folks, having usually been born and raised in their little enclaves, tend to believe that the "flyovers" are toothless, inbred, pickup truck-driving, gun owning rubes, who don't count.  For anything.  So why even bother to...bother?  And the flyovers tend to think that the Coastals are stuffy, snooty, and filled to the brim with self-importance.  Undeserved self-importance, by the way.    

So, what's the future hold for America?  It seems to me we're on a collision course, which can only result in a bitter divorce.  I foresee for America what some are trying to do to California; break it up in smaller, more manageable and much fairer pieces.  

There's a signature-gathering effort here to place a referendum on the ballot this November to carve up CA into three: Northern California, Southern California, and just plain California.  In short, the "Coastal Elite" State of California would consist of the 7 counties south from San Fran down to Lost Angeles.  The other two up north and down south would house the regular, hard-working folks who don't want to give citizenship, a nice car, a place to live, and food, shelter and clothing to Every Single Illegal Alien in the Entire World.  With 56 counties in CA, and 7 controlling every facet of our existence, you can understand why such an effort is underway.

If this is good for the once-Golden State, then why not for the U. S. of A?  Yes, why not?  In fact, I suggest that this might be the only realistic solution for keeping America from totally devolving into Venezuela.  Think of it:  We break America into four pieces.  The renewal of the 13 original Colonies into "Socialist America."  The Deep South into "God-Fearing  America."  The "California" State we talked about earlier into the "Peoples' Republic of California,"  and everything else into - screw the mountains - "America."  

And don't try to tell me it wouldn't work.  Think of Europe.  It's about the size of Texas and consists of a dozen separate countries, each with millions of souls.  And, despite dozens of conflicts over the centuries, they still live cheek-by-jowl, and in relative harmony.  We could do that too. 

And should...