My editor is at the beach, all errors are the responsibility of yours truly.
Presidential Debate. If my blog distribution goes as usual, this blog will be available Thursday morning. Thursday night is the first 2024 presidential debate. I am not looking forward to the debate, much less the talking heads spewing opposing interpretations of the same events. The nonsense has already begun with claims of bias.
I am already disappointed and discouraged by the choice I have in the 2024 election. I live in the greatest nation on earth. I have freedom, safety and opportunities people in other countries do not even come close to having. I keep asking myself — in the greatest nation on earth are these the best and the brightest candidates we have to offer? I know I am not alone in my concern.
In my opinion, most of the voters who do not have their minds made up by now and who watch the debate will decide by asking — who do I dislike the most? Who do I dislike the least? Very few undecided voters will choose on the basis of policies.
Memories and Flying Experiences. In my professional career, I studied memory. Research shows humans have a tendency to recall negative events over neutral events.
Jeny and I have flown many miles. Flight delays are negative events, with cancellations being the most negative. Being on time is something I take for granted. I think of on-time departures and arrivals as neutral events Whenever I have flown, my very positive memories have been of people and places not about leaving or arriving on time. Thus, I can recall delays much easier than on-time experiences.
That human tendency enables negative ideas about flying to be easily establish because people who fly can easily more recall negative events. I gloss over and do not remember the many flights that went off without a problem. Therefore, in order to have a realistic understanding of the extent of flying problems, I am better served by examining collective data than by recalling my personal experiences or relying on the experiences of another person.
My understanding of negative memories drew my interest to a post by Bill Kristol. Kristol is a longtime, well-established conservative, but a vocal opponent of Donald Trump.
Bill Kristol posted “I know facts do not matter but last year over 16 million flights occurred. Cancellations were below 1.32 %, the lowest in a decade.” He then posted a clip of Trump berating how airports are run: Trump –”You look at our airports where flights are being delayed four days where people are pitching tents in an airport if their flight is so, you know, it’s never going to happen. And we’ve become like you know, we, we are a failing nation where we’ve become a Third World nation in many ways. Our elections are Third World in my opinion, our airports are being run so badly, it’s so badly. It’s not even conceivable. The other night I had someone going to the airport and they called two days later to tell me that they’ve never gotten out. I said, where are you? Still at the airport?”
His interaction with a single person may have been a true incident, but it is misleading to use a personal anonymous report and then make a broad sweeping statements about Third World airports.
I worry that people listening to Trump will accept the idea of Third World without understanding the human tendency to remember negative memories.
If he had addressed a particular airport or airline I would give more credence to his complaint. Shane has been using the same airline and airport for several recent flights and he reports consistent problems.
Trump chose to make a broad indictment. I think it is important to note that the supervisor for the FAA is the Transportation Secretary. Any criticism of airports in such sweeping terms rather than a specific airport or airline is clearly a negative statement aimed at the Secretary of Transportation.
My question is– if having the best performance in 10 years makes us Third World, what were we under previous transportation secretaries?
Now to the Other Side. Yes — I criticized the Right in the previous segment. Now how about the Left.
Many people like to believe the mainstream media only supports the Left and is never critical of Democrats and progressives. I noted two very interesting articles that clearly criticized the Left in mainstream media.
The first topic was in one of the pillars of mainstream media, the New York Times.
Nicholas Kristof, one of their columnists wrote an article titled “What have we Liberals done to the West Coast?” You need a prescription to the Times to read the original article. Since many of you do not subscribe, I am suggesting two sources that wrote about the article. Although the headlines are over the top, I think the following two articles give a fair description of the NYT article.
Leftist NYT Columnist Gives in, Calls to Stop Woke-‘Infected’ Leftism Plaguing West Coast (msn.com)
New York Times columnist turns on progressives – UnHerd
Everyone does not agree with Kristol, but I believe criticism from within appearing in the mainstream media lends strength to the criticisms.
The second topic was reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation. I consider the BBC to be mainstream. The reports concerned the failure of decriminalization of drugs in Canada in the same way that Portland and other progressive cities discovered decriminalization did not work.
British Columbia to back off drug decriminalisation project (bbc.com)
Success or failure? Canada’s drug decriminalisation test faces scrutiny (bbc.com)
This and That
In the last blog I suggested that chaos could be stirred by outside influences. As a follow-up to that suggestion, I encourage you to read this article about outside interference in Canada.
What to know about Canada and China’s foreign interference row (bbc.com)
Some people are Fauci haters. In his biography he could have disparaged Trump and others in defense of himself. He chose not to. I find the high road to be refreshing.
The following review of his biography gives a picture of a long career dedicated to health in America. He faced many problems and was been dedicated to our nation’s health long before COVID. I believe the review gives a fair assessment of his career. I found it to be informative.
Good News
Courage in a youngster
12-Year-Old Boy Becomes A Hero During School Field Trip (sunnyskyz.com)
I appreciate being reminded that good people can be found in any country
Heroes Emerge In Chengdu: Brave Duo Rescues Unconscious Driver From Sinking Car (sunnyskyz.com)
Police kindness
Police Officer Makes Child’s Day With Simple Act Of Kindness (sunnyskyz.com)
Peace
Jerry
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