Update: 17 Apr 2020, the CCP Virus has emerged as the story topic of choice for both politicians and the media. Both have blown the situation to a panic-pandemonium status. A brief look at some of my more recent posts highlights the extent to which CCP Virus compares to other deathly diseases.
After much thought, I have concluded our democracy is being held hostage. You may ask, what do I mean? I believe there are two entities holding our democracy hostage. The first is the Politicians, who are supposed to be the defenders of democracy. The second is the Media who are supposed to help us protect our democracy by providing us with facts we can rely upon to make informed decisions.
Our elected politicians have abandoned their oath, their promises, and their values. Their sole interest in today's political environment is to maintain their power, control and increase their own personal wealth. Just look at the number of individuals in the House and the Senate who have been in Washington for eighteen years or longer. There are seventy-seven Representatives. The most senior achieved seniority in 1973. There are eighteen Senators with more than eighteen years in Washington. Several, in both Houses, were around for the Nixon Impeachment Hearings and many more for the Clinton Impeachment Hearings.
They no longer take an interest in the American People or defending our Constitution. Their interest lies in preserving the power wielded by their Party and in keeping the large party donors happy. Everything they say and do is intended to assist them as individuals and a party to raise more funds from their donors. They are constantly in search of the next sound bite, the next fifteen minutes in front of the press cameras, the next interview on a major network.
Sure they will tell us they are doing the people's work. When all the while they sit around in endless hearings, investigations, and inquiries intended to denigrate the other party and its supporters. This is true as much for Republicans as it is for Democrats. This year we have seen our fill of hearings and inquiries on television and each and everyone is the same, a bunch of kindergartners bickering and fighting over who gets to play the part of Teacher. I for one have seen enough. It is high time they put politics aside and do the will of the American People as intended.
But what are we to do? Changing the channel doesn't help, picking up a different newspaper or magazine doesn't either. All of them are intent on promulgating the current issue at hand. There are no more reporters of the Cronkite, Huntley or Brinkley breed. Reporters who gave us the facts without personal opinion. If they did express an opinion it was not disparaging of an individual but more a question of the legitimacy of certain actions.
Today reporters, journalists, and news anchors are looking to increase their personal wealth so they sensationalize everything. Good news dies fast, while bad news can be milked for days, even weeks. So we see more bad news blown completely out of proportion. When the news is found to be wrong, they do not even bother to issue a retraction. They just move on to the next bad news story.
Today too many of their stories tie directly to the narrative being espoused by Politicians and tend to be one-sided. Just look at what is happening with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) story. Both Politicians and the media outlets are embracing fear-mongering to use the situation to their benefit. Let's just look at some facts. As of this writing, there have been 85,721 reported cases, with 2,933 deaths Worldwide. A mortality rate of 3.4%. Listening to Politicians and the media it would appear we are on the verge of a pandemic. Let's put this in perspective.
In the United States, 10-20% of the population is infected by the flu each year. With 327 million inhabitants this is 32-64 million individuals. Deaths from the flu in the US are estimated to be between 12,000 and 60,000 each year. A mortality rate of .04% to .1%.
While the mortality rate of COVID-19 is significantly higher, the rate of spread would appear to be significantly less and there have been 39,797 patients who have recovered from infection by the virus. Time will tell whether this is truly a pandemic or something similar to the fear Politicians and the media previously attached to SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Bird Flu and so many other emergent diseases.
How can we the American people make wise decisions, appropriate choices for our lives when we have a Democracy hijacked and held hostage by these two entities? When was the last time Congress accomplished anything for the American people? They are intent on keeping us in a state of panic, with our minds frozen by fear because this makes it so much easier for them to control their preferred outcome. To remain in power and continue to rob us of our hard-earned money. Every appropriation they make to fund a false crisis is money taken from us. Make no mistake. When the crisis has subsided, do they refund any of the funds they have taken? No, the funds have disappeared. Gone into the pockets of various organizations who proposed to study the crisis and come up with a solution or businesses who contracted to build a new whatever type of building, which will now sit empty deflating the value of the surrounding neighborhood, or for wages for new federal employees to man a new federal agency that will never be disbanded.
This is how they hold our democracy hostage, insisting we have things we never asked for, don't need and do not want. I don't know the solution to the problem but I suggest we start by voting out of office the cronies and try to eliminate you scratch my back I'll scratch yours mentality so pervasive in Washington. Let's insist on term limits and if Congress will not pass a bill for term limits let's impose them by voting them out of office at the next election.