Twilight in Northwest Georgia: April 2023

Monday, April 24, 2023

Christmas comes early!!

My wish in my previous post has come true. Tucker Carlson is gone! One of THE WORST causes of divisiveness in this country will not be spewing his misinformation and outright lies in the evening on the FOX network. One can only hope that he will not resurface on another media platform.

And Santa has given us a bonus. Don Lemon...Tucker's spin doctor left wing counterpart on CNN was also canned. It seems almost too good to be true. Could these moves away from extremists on both sides be a prelude toward a centrist movement, where truth, reason and civility reside?

What will the MAGA crowd do now without Tucker? Who will tell them what to think? Sure, I know that there are plenty of right-wing extremists, each churning out their pet conspiracy theories and character assassinations but Tucker is the king, and the king has fallen. The Emperor has no clothes!

Now, if only Chris Christy would step up to the plate.....

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Way to go Dominion!!

There hasn't been a lot to feel good about lately. Broadcast news is a parade of depressing reports...senseless shootings, countless numbers of illegal border crossings, the political arena is still a game of party over priorities, nurse shortages, drug use skyrocketing, teacher strikes, confidential secrets being leaked (defended by Marjorie Green as a patriotic act), the war in Ukraine, and Biden and the Dems going mostly in the wrong direction.

There is one small ray of hope. There is the possibility that Chris Christy might run for president in 2024. He is a rare politician; a person who looks at issues from an objective perspective and applies reason versus party position to form his opinions. He would be a candidate that, for the first time in many years I could vote for and feel good about it. The problem is that I don't think that he's electable. He doesn't fit the mold that we've come to expect from candidates. He's not a speech maker nor a slogan machine. He's the 'guy next door' who speaks his mind without fanfare and fluff. And in my opinion what he says makes sense. For those reasons and others the Republican Party heads would not rally behind him. Trump would insult and denigrate him which would cost Christy the votes of those who still cling to the notion that the election was stolen and that Trump is the greatest president this country has ever had.

Speaking of the stolen election, it was with a glad heart that I learned that FOX had thrown in the towel in the Dominion defamation law suit. I don't think that $787.5 million will have much of an effect on Fox, but any reasonable person is going to know that the settlement is an admission of guilt. I would have liked to see the settlement include an apology from FOX stating that the network knowingly perpetuated false information, but the Smartmatic defamation suit against FOX is still out there so maybe an apology will result from that.

Also in the settlement I would like to have seen a stipulation that Tucker Carlson had been removed from his television show and had been appointed head of janitorial services at the network headquarters. That would be a good fit, because there is a certain similarity between the content of his show and the content of toilets.

What this blog is about

Hi. My name is Tom. I am a long-time blogger, having started in my native Wisconsin some fifteen years ago and continuing during my ten years living in Peru. I all but stopped posting to my blog when my wife and I returned to the United States and moved to Rossville, Georgia in July of 2017. We don’t actually live in Rossville. We live in one of those census-designated places, a term I really don’t understand and am not interested enough to learn about. The only practical difference I can see is that the city does not pick up our trash.

I’m starting a new blog because my old one was Peru specific, and that was yesterday. I chose the title ‘Twilight in Northwest Georgia’ for two reasons: twilight because I am old and for me age is playing an ever-increasing role in how I view myself and the world around me. And Northwest Georgia for obvious reasons. It’s not a great title but it identifies and introduces what it needs to. Good enough.

This blog is not going to have a central theme…it’s not going to be about anything specifically. I like to write and will post about anything and everything that may interest me at the moment. I do know that my wife Maribel will be mentioned frequently because she is everything to me.

A comment here about my writing style and philosophy might be in order. We live in an era of political correctness…a time when the broadcast and print media, politicians, and petty people in general are lined up like vultures, eagerly waiting to pounce on anyone for the slightest faux pas, no matter how innocent and unintended. The media do it to sell their services. Politicians do it to advance their careers by degrading others. Petty people do it because…well…because they’re petty people. It is never my intent to be politically correct, politically incorrect, obnoxious or offensive. I can be critical and sometimes very critical but try my best to be objective. I do like to praise when praise is warranted. I do have pet peeves, am very opinionated and can be very vocal about them, which in the past has drawn the ire of some readers on my old blog. But that’s life. We all have different likes, dislikes, values and beliefs. The key is how we handle those differences.

The purpose of this blog is to provide a platform for me to write. I am opening it up to the public simply because someone may find something of interest in my ramblings. Any reader comments or criticisms, provided they are civil, are welcome.