Curtis Dahlgren
Now is the time for all good parties to come to the aid of mankind!
By Curtis Dahlgren
"It is never untimely to yank the rope on freedom's bell." – Frank Capra (1897-1991), on "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
AN IMMIGRANT FROM ITALY – a legal one – Capra's long life witnessed a lot of history, history of America (the world's last great hope, like that OR LUMP IT). Capra once said, "Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music." *
Films have gone from one extreme, "My country, right or wrong" to "My country ALWAYS wrong!" And a math class in New Hampshire became "controversial" when a geometry teacher dressed up as Donald Trump and danced to a profane song:
"Since Kara – , of Portsmouth (NH) High School, teaches math, perhaps a suitable opening question would be 'How many iterations of the word f**# does it take to get a teacher suspended?' . . . but apparently the district saw all it needed to arrive at the decision to remove her from her classroom." [from Constitution.com, orig. from Liberty Unyielding]
There are probably dozens of examples of (illegal) partisanship in the classrooms of America for every one that receives public attention. I only saw one example in the 1950s – a grade school teacher warned us that Republicans cause depressions – and we let it go in one ear and out the other. Today, however, it's a whole 'nother game.
Be very surprised if there were no surprises in Tuesday's election.
Donald Trump and the rest of his friends had to run against Academe and the Mainstream Media – including entertainment – as well as their opposition. To the conventional establishment, the surprise is that it was even close! They threw everything at Donald from mushroom clouds and daisies to, well, the accusation that Trump was a fear-monger. They were joined by some pundits on the right who wanted to make up for early predictions that he didn't have a chance in the primary. In the fall, they were afraid he might win and worked to prevent that (but self-fulfilling prophecies don't count). Sour grapes.
You may be reading this after the final election results were reported, but here are some reasons that polls are no guarantee for predictions:
- People lie to pollsters almost often as politicians lie.
- Pollsters can't accurately poll people who have never voted.
- People with cell phones aren't polled proportionately.
- Polls were weighted for 2012's turnout, but 2016 was unique.
- Voter ID laws tightened up some of the vote fraud.
- People were just plain pissed off!
The latter was the biggest shock of all to the Beltway pundits and politicos. They didn't know anyone who wasn't voting against Trump and I didn't know anyone who WAS! Even some of the Never Trumpsters decided to poop or get off the pot. But enough P-words.
MORE TO COME.
The end of political correctness?
* P.S. I think there are four universal languages. Baseball is the other one. Look what it did for Japan. I understand that baseball is even starting to take off in Europe, Israel, and even Iran!
PPS: Cubs win! Dewey beats Truman! World ends! Wait'll next year!
© Curtis Dahlgren
November 7, 2016
"It is never untimely to yank the rope on freedom's bell." – Frank Capra (1897-1991), on "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
AN IMMIGRANT FROM ITALY – a legal one – Capra's long life witnessed a lot of history, history of America (the world's last great hope, like that OR LUMP IT). Capra once said, "Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music." *
Films have gone from one extreme, "My country, right or wrong" to "My country ALWAYS wrong!" And a math class in New Hampshire became "controversial" when a geometry teacher dressed up as Donald Trump and danced to a profane song:
"Since Kara – , of Portsmouth (NH) High School, teaches math, perhaps a suitable opening question would be 'How many iterations of the word f**# does it take to get a teacher suspended?' . . . but apparently the district saw all it needed to arrive at the decision to remove her from her classroom." [from Constitution.com, orig. from Liberty Unyielding]
There are probably dozens of examples of (illegal) partisanship in the classrooms of America for every one that receives public attention. I only saw one example in the 1950s – a grade school teacher warned us that Republicans cause depressions – and we let it go in one ear and out the other. Today, however, it's a whole 'nother game.
Be very surprised if there were no surprises in Tuesday's election.
Donald Trump and the rest of his friends had to run against Academe and the Mainstream Media – including entertainment – as well as their opposition. To the conventional establishment, the surprise is that it was even close! They threw everything at Donald from mushroom clouds and daisies to, well, the accusation that Trump was a fear-monger. They were joined by some pundits on the right who wanted to make up for early predictions that he didn't have a chance in the primary. In the fall, they were afraid he might win and worked to prevent that (but self-fulfilling prophecies don't count). Sour grapes.
You may be reading this after the final election results were reported, but here are some reasons that polls are no guarantee for predictions:
- People lie to pollsters almost often as politicians lie.
- Pollsters can't accurately poll people who have never voted.
- People with cell phones aren't polled proportionately.
- Polls were weighted for 2012's turnout, but 2016 was unique.
- Voter ID laws tightened up some of the vote fraud.
- People were just plain pissed off!
The latter was the biggest shock of all to the Beltway pundits and politicos. They didn't know anyone who wasn't voting against Trump and I didn't know anyone who WAS! Even some of the Never Trumpsters decided to poop or get off the pot. But enough P-words.
MORE TO COME.
The end of political correctness?
* P.S. I think there are four universal languages. Baseball is the other one. Look what it did for Japan. I understand that baseball is even starting to take off in Europe, Israel, and even Iran!
PPS: Cubs win! Dewey beats Truman! World ends! Wait'll next year!
© Curtis Dahlgren
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