Streaming, Broadcaster, and the future

Just finished reading an article in the NY Times about the 20th Century and Disney merger. One of the big points that came out is that everybody is betting on streaming. With viewers of broadcast and cable down, there is a business case for this view.

But here is what struck me. As more broadcasters start to fail/go out of business (see the more rural areas of the country), an interesting thing will develop. As with radio stations having the same problem, what happens to the bandwidth on the radio spectrum.

Now for those you that don't what this means, please allow me to explain some (but not all) points. In the United States, the radio band is leased to radio stations, television stations, and cell phone providers. Government/military get certain spots that the rest of are not allowed to touch. There is more about this, but you get the general idea.

When a station goes belly up, ownership of the bandwidth is up for grabs. Recently, cell phone companies have been snatching these up. At some point, they will reach a point that won't need anymore. Hence ownership will become too expensive, they will either let them lapse or try to sell them. (If no one buys them, they will lapse)

So what then. Will nobody use it? Or will we see a return to pirate stations? Radio broadcasting is fairly easy and cheap. I was the voice over person for a pirate station in the 1980s. Technology has gotten cheaper, smaller, and more powerful.

If everything goes on-line (entertainment and news), will the government even care about the pirates like they did in the 1980s and 1990s? There is plenty of dystopian fiction concerning this future. But we are on the edge of this now. Time to re-start your thinking.

Judiciary Committee and the FBI

In 1991, Anita Hill came forward with allegations concerning Clarence Thomas. The reason that I have brought this up concerns the use of the FBI.

In 1991, the White House order an investigation of Judge Thomas. In was completed and delivered to the Judiciary Committee in three days. Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) stated how grateful he was that this was completed and delivered to the committee.

Fast forward to the last few days. Senator Hatch is stating that the FBI can not and should not investigate Judge Kavanagh. Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) has stated that there not enough time to complete an investigation.

So, what is the problem here? Think about this. The last time something happened, it took 3 days. What are the Republicans afraid of? Is the White House afraid of what they will find? Are they hiding something? With only 4% of Kavanagh's papers released to the Committee and the public, you have to wonder.

To the White House and the Republican Committee members, do the investigation. If there is nothing, then you win. But, you won't you do it. You are trying to ram this through before the midterms.

With the President calling the FBI a cancer on society, he has boxed himself in. How will he be able to politically get an investigation? If he does, there goes his fight against Sessions and Mueller.

The optics are going to be perfect for the Democrats. From a purely political viewpoint, how is it going to look when 11 old, white men harass and berate a woman who came forward as a survivor of sexual assault?

So, what is going to happen? The hearing on Monday, may or may not happen. But it will go to the floor of the Senate. He will become the next SCOTUS justice. All of the Republicans will vote for him. I expect that at least two Dems will vote for him too.

I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

Justice and Trump

Dear Mr. President,

Just read some of your Tweets concerning the prosecution of two Republican Congressmen (Collins & Hunter) and the FISA processes. Time for another round of education. Class is now in session.

First concerning the indictments. The Attorney General and the Department of Justice are not at your beck and call. They enforce the law. They are a non-political part of the government. Justice for all.

The indictment of Representative Collins stems from events that occurred in 2017. In fact, by cross referencing video and text messaging, they caught him performing the insider trading while on White House grounds, during one of your events. Right under your nose! The people that are prosecuting him are those that you and your administration appointed. How is this an Obama era investigation?

Now Congressman Hunter's problems did indeed take place when Obama was president. However, a campaign finance violation does not really come to light until after the election and usually after the swearing in of the Congress. And to add some more to this, the people that investigated and indicated Mr. Hunter were again, appointed by you. Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Let's add a little fun factoid. The Congressman claimed that it was his wife's fault. That she was unaware of campaign finance laws. However, I don't think that she was going to pay off 4 of the Congressman's mistresses. Unless of course, he learned it from you.

You are also complaining about the FISA warrant against Carter Page. Listening to Judicial Watch shows your lack of understanding of the legal system. First, warrants never require a hearing. The prosecutor has to show probable cause that a crime has been committed. In most courts this is done in person or over the phone. In a FISA court, an extensive amount of paperwork is required. But never a hearing.

Now let's add another point here. All four times that the warrant has been approved and extended, the judges were Republican appointees. In fact, they still are. This not a Democratic plot, no matter how much you claim it was.

Finally, the great "Deep State" conspiracy. In another of your Tweets, you proved it was baloney. How? You commented that the FBI tried to get Putin loyalists to flip as far back as 2014. This is before you announced that you were running for office. This is part of their job as created by Congress in 1908. Hence, the "Deep State" does not exist. So stop saying it is conspiring against you.

If anything, the "Deep State" are members of your own cabinet and administration. The infamous New York Times Op-Ed is proving this. How do we know? Look at the denials. While they all denied have written the piece, nobody denies what was in the editorial. Other reporting (even from FOX News) has confirmed this.

The Steele Dossier (which you are always complaining about) was started by one of your opponents. Yes, Hillary's campaign did in fact complete it. However it was not used to get the FISA warrant. Congressman Nunes' memo proved that.

Mr. President, let the justice department do their job. They are not there to prosecute your political enemies. They are not there to protect you either. You have a personal lawyer and a White House Counsel for that job.

You have already gutted the State Department. Do you want to kill Justice too? You are acting like a guilty MOB boss. In the end, all of them get caught and are punished. Just ask Whitey Bulger.

You claim that you are a big supporter of law enforcement. I have yet to see it. A majority of the Sheriffs that you have surrounded yourself with (and pardoned) when you first started talking about the Op-Ed, have all had problems with the press and the law. Time to find new friends.

The wheels of justice are consistently turning. They may turn slowly, but they are turning. Let the system work, Mr. President. Or find yourself under those wheels for obstruction of justice. Your choice.

Signed,
An Informed Citizen.

Keeping up

Today. First, Trump creates a security crisis for the country. He does not back the country's 17 intelligence agencies. Instead he backs Putin in the election meddling. If you don't think that is bad, leave the country. Even the folks at FOX news were horrified.

Next, Maria Butina was arrested. She had strong ties to the NRA. She worked with John Bolton. You know him, he is the President's National Security Advisor. Why was she arrested? Turns out she’s a foreign agent for the Russian Federation. In other word, she is a spy for Putin. She will be in court on Wednesday. Lots will be shown.

Also happening today, Manafort's first hearing was delayed for week. This court is known to move trials along. After the fiasco of Trump's press conference, the general thought is Manafort is looking to make a deal. Not sure I buy that, but with the craziness of today, who knows.

Finally, a number of the Republicans appeared to have found their backbones. Will this lead to something? I doubt it. They are still afraid of Trump and his base.

Social media has, of course, gone crazy. Those on the left are calling for impeachment, while the right are screaming Trump's line about servers. Just a note to the Trump supporters: the DNC completely cooperated with the FBI. Also, Podesta was Hillary's campaign manager, not in charge of the DNC. Every conceivable theory is currently fly around. My personal favorite is the Moon landing is somehow involved in all of this.

So, will there be an impeachment? Nope. There is still too many people that believe in Trump. Will there be any repercussions to the President? More than likely not. Ryan and McConnell are still running the House and Senate. But more things are coming out faster than we thought. But I'm not waiting. I'm getting deeper involved and you should too.

With everything moving so fast, I'm finding that it is getting too hard to keep up. What about you?

FEMA and presidental messages

On Thursday, every person with a cell phone in the United States will be getting a text from the President. This is a test of a new FEMA communications process. THERE IS NO OPT OUT.

Think about the possibilities here. Yes, the positives are obvious. The need to communicate to the citizenry quickly during a national emergency and disasters is the intended outcome here. When with more people cutting the cord on phones and power outages, something had to be thought of.

Now the negative. OK, I really don't have to. But let's talk about a few of them anyway.

What are the rules for this usage? Now as many of you that have read my posts and blog, know that I am not a big fan of this administration. But I hoping some solid rules are in place.

Imagine a president suddenly sending out a message declaring an emergency and asking Americans to take action. And that is the problem. What action? Some messages will be considered benign, but intrusive. Now visualize the president calling for Americans to take up arms against not only their fellow citizens but parts of the government. Too extreme? Then imagine him sending political posts. The president endorsing candidates or instead of tweeting, you're now getting those post to your phone.

This is a dangerous proposition. In 1948, a little book was written about the intrusiveness of the government in our lives. I think you've heard of it, it was called 1984.

Now at this point some of my critics will start laughing and pointing fingers at me because of my previous liberal stances. Well they really don't understand me very well then. And I will explain this in a later post. But even the most die-hard bleeding heart liberal can see where the danger of this process is. And conservatives should be standing right next to the Liberals on this one.

Will this be a good and wonderful thing for emergency preparedness and Communications? Or will this be a propaganda tool? Time will tell. But we, the citizens, will need to be ever vigilant. That is the responsibility of Liberty.

Note: due to Hurricane Florence, the test has been pushed to Oct 3.

Loyalty Oaths, Lie Detector Tests, and Trump

Senior Rand Paul suggested that cabinet members and senior members of the Trump administration take a polygraph test. I find this especially amusing. Why? Rand Paul has a medical degree (optometrist), so he would know that polygraphs don't work. If you are nervous or a medical condition, it can look like you are lying.

The White House is also looking at having people sign swore affidavits that they did not write the op-ed piece. Sound familiar? It should. This is very similar to the Loyalty Oaths that people had to take during the height of the Cold War. Know what that led to? Paging Senator McCarthy.

Is this what we have come to? Back to the bad days of the country? Will posts like this and others that I made get me Blackballed for security clearances? Will we see hearings where the question will be "are you now or have you ever been a liberal?" Who knows.

There is an old Chinese curse. "May you live in interesting times." We are indeed cursed.

Some Responses:

Karl: Anyone with a shred of actual leadership capacity looks at a disloyal staff and starts by identifying what practice of their own is doing the damage.
Only someone utterly ignorant of every last principle of leadership thinks that loyalty pledges will address the problem.

Daniel: When this evil era is over there will be a lot of people trying to distance themselves from it. When we note who the collaborators were, let's not forget that Rand Paul was one of the worst.

Ken: Deep Throat.............................Mark Felt denied he was Deep Throat. Years later we found he was. What makes Trump think this will be different?

OP-Ed and Control

We have a president not in control of the White House. The Military and Secretary of Defense are not obeying orders. Members of the administration conspiring to prevent the president from signing executive orders. Papers being stolen from his desk.

Welcome to a Constitutional Crisis. At this point, we as a nation have to determine what we are going to next. Do we care about democracy and the rule of law? Do we care for Madisonian democracy (The Constitution)?

This is the time for Congress to prove they are a true co-equal branch of the government. The Democrats have started how they feel. Will the Republicans stand for the country? Or are they so enthralled with power that they will let a President stay in office who cannot control his staff? Are they the party of Lincoln or spineless dupes willing to be led around enjoying the trappings of power?

It is at this time that 2 things can and should happen. First, if the person who wrote the Times Op-Ed is indeed a senior official, then they need to start involving the 25th amendment. If however, this was a kitchen coup d’état, then Congress needs to start real investigations and steps towards impeachment.

What the Times Op-Ed has shown is that unelected individuals are running the country. We do not know what their agenda is or who among them is in charge. Who is the first among equals in this group? This is how juntas start.

Are you, the citizens, willing to stand for the country? Time for you to get educated and make a stand. Time to put aside your cynicism of the country, the press, and fellow citizens. Time to ask what you believe and what will you leave your children. History and posterity will judge you.