Posts Tagged ‘damagnificent seven’

A litmus test for Biden

Posted: February 20, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Deep within the bowels of The New York Times website is a blueprint of why Joe Biden is in trouble.

It took me a long time to track the analysis down because it got virtually no play on the Times’ opening web page. Maybe that’s because it shows how badly Biden is doing in the eyes of voters throughout the country.

The Times Opinion focus group included 13 undecided, independent voters. “To a striking degree, most of the participants tilted toward Mr. Trump, even though they disliked his personality,” the analysis offered.

“Almost all the voters (who range in age from 22 to 64) were most worried about the economy and how their groceries and other bills were too costly. Some were also deeply troubled by the crisis at the southern border, and some were concerned about the Israel-Gaza war and disliked U.S. aid to other countries,” the report continued.

When asked to describe Biden, the participants seemed particularly worried about his age and competence, using words like “senile” and “unfit.”

“I keep hearing the government say that things are getting better. I’d like to know who they’re asking, because I don’t see the economy getting better. I see us spending more money in our households, in the government. Here in New Hampshire, it’s never been this bad, ever,” said Robin, a 59-year-old retiree from New Hampshire. “They’re spending billions and billions of dollars on stuff that I don’t understand. Where is that going?”

Natalie, a 22-year-old college student in New Jersey, agreed. “I wanted to get my master’s, but it’s like I’m never going to be able to afford it. Where is the government’s money going? It should be going toward stuff like education. I’m never going to see loan forgiveness. I just see myself in debt forever.”

Twelve of the 13 participants said they viewed the economy as the most important issue in the election, while one chose the crisis in Israel and Gaza.

But the focus group also underlined some fundamental issues that Biden faces, particularly among ethnic groups that traditionally support Democrats.

For example, Yalena, a 22-year-old stay-at-home mom in Alabama, described Biden as “disingenuous.” Yalena, a Latina, added: ”I don’t feel like I’m being told the truth. I don’t feel like I’m being told anything upfront. I was just so disappointed — with the ounce of hope I had left — when we just started pouring money into the Israel conflict.”

Although Henry, a 60-year-old black consultant from Georgia, said he plans to vote for Biden, the president is “not inspiring at all.”

Gary, a 64-year-old driving instructor in Michigan, said he plans to vote for Trump but had some advice for the former president: “Stay off Twitter.”

Although the general election is months off, I hope DaTimes continues taling to this set of people who seem to have a better grasp of the state of the country than all of the pundits and talking heads combined.

Musings from a longtime journalist

Posted: January 22, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

It’s been 50 years since I started my first full-time job as a reporter at the Associated Press in Chicago.

As I’ve written earlier, it’s sad how far the AP has tilted toward the left, erasing its history as a dependable and accurate institution that provides news and information worldwide. See https://wordpress.com/post/datechguyblog.blog/38878

But the underlying problems in journalism go far deeper than the mess at the AP. More than 1,600 journalists responded to the annual survey from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, and the results are damning.

Only 3.4% of those U.S. journalists polled claim to be Republicans, with another 36.4% saying they’re Democrats. That’s more than 10 times more Democrats than Republicans. Or at least the ones who will admit they are on the left. 

More than half (51.7%) call themselves “independents” and another 8.5% “other.” Journalists have been getting these survey questions for over 50 years and have grown savvier. Many carefully list themselves in those “other” categories to avoid being called biased.

At the time I started in journalism, 25% of U.S. journalists said they were Republican. In 50 years, journalism has essentially purged any political opposition in its ranks. Amazingly, only 12.7% think “perceived bias and opinion journalism” is a problem.

I’m pleased to see all the financial and political problems the media are having because it’s possible media operations will realize they must change. I may be too optimistic. 

As the prospects for news publishers waned in the past decade, billionaires swooped in to buy some of the country’s most fabled brands. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post in 2013 for about $250 million. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotechnology and start-up billionaire, purchased The Los Angeles Times in 2018 for $500 million. Marc Benioff, the founder of the software giant Salesforce, and his wife bought Time magazine for $190 million in 2018.

All three publications are losing money at record rates, amassing millions of dollars in debt and facing massive layoffs. 

The media analysts blame the losses on the changing environment for news organizations. But the real reason for the declining readership and revenues is that there’s little worth seeing in these left-leaning outlets. 

I wince when people ask me what work I did because journalists have few friends except the elite class. Almost everyone else hates us!

Rather than ignore the problems, it may be time for those who want to save journalism to dig deeper into the disconnect between news organizations and those they’re supposed to serve. 

Crusading for cursive writing

Posted: January 16, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Pennsylvania—like 28 other states—does not require students to write in cursive lettering.

Fortunately, at least one Pennsylvania politician is mounting a campaign to force students to learn how to write in cursive.

State Rep. Joe Adams, a Republican representing an area near Scranton, thinks it should be mandated and has proposed legislation to do so.

A former school superintendent, Adams said he believes it is important enough to find time to teach it, and he said so do experts in education, neurology, and psychology who offer up brain science and historical reasons to support the idea. He also gave some practical reasons.

“You can’t open a bank account without signing your name. You can’t buy a property or get a credit card without having to be able to sign your name,” Adams said. He added that a person’s signature can be a unique identifier that could be one thing artificial intelligence cannot reproduce.
“All those things pointed me to saying, this makes great sense,” Adams said.

Pennsylvania’s Education Secretary Khalid Mumin doesn’t consider cursive instruction to be vital.

“Secretary Mumin encourages schools to determine the best paths for their students to learn to communicate effectively in writing and achieve success, regardless of the mode of writing used to get there,” Education Department spokesman Taj Magruder Adams told PennLive.com.

Cumberland Valley, located in southern Pennsylvania near the Maryland border, decided to reintroduce cursive writing into the curriculum.

Robyn Euker, Cumberland Valley’s director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, said the district chose to require cursive instruction after noticing an increasing number of students with poor handwriting in the upper grades.

When the district was looking to adopt a new literacy curriculum, she said, it decided to buy the cursive writing supplement to address the handwriting concern.

Two years later, Euker said the feedback she had received was positive.

“I think it’s a little bit of a creative outlet for students,” she said.
Euker also said it seems beneficial for students with reading and writing issues. Writing in cursive has fewer starts and stops than in print. Words appear as one block instead of a series of separate letters, which can help students with dyslexia.

Given the benefits, including allowing students to read handwritten cards from older relatives, Euker said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more states require it.”

After all, it’s not an instruction that needs to be taught repeatedly. Once students learn it, the neuropathways allow them to associate a manuscript letter with how it looks in cursive and understand what is written, said Lynn Baynum, chair of Shippensburg University’s Teacher Education Department.

“When we first began teaching cursive a hundred years ago, we didn’t understand it was a pattern of associations we were doing to create a literate society,” Baynum said. “It’s also why keyboarding is important to teach, too, because we don’t want students slowing down their ability to communicate because they have to find a letter on the keyboard.”

Teaching cursive is a no-brainer to me.

A hero in Hong Kong

Posted: November 7, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

In a world seemingly bereft of heroes, it’s worth remembering that some heroes do exist and need our support.

Lai Chee-ying, better known in the West as Jimmy Lai, is a Hong Kong businessman and politician fighting for democracy for several decades.

Now, he sits in a Chinese prison accused of violating outrageous laws intended solely to suppress the democratic movement and freedom of speech in Hong Kong.

Born in Guangzhou in south China in 1947, Lai escaped at the age of 12 from the mainland to Hong Kong as a stowaway aboard a small ship. There, he spent his early years in a garment factory and rose to the position of factory manager. In 1975, Lai used his year-end bonus on Hong Kong stocks to raise cash and bought a bankrupt garment factory, where he began producing sweaters. He built Giordano into a company with more than 8,000 employees in 2,400 shops in 30 countries. 

After the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, Lai turned his attention to politics, building a publishing empire to combat and criticize the Communist Party and its rulers. Lai created Next Digital, a Hong Kong media company, and the popular newspaper Apple Daily.

In 2006, Next Magazine ranked second in circulation in Hong Kong’s magazine market. Apple Daily became the No. 2 newspaper in Hong Kong. He expanded to Taiwan, and 

in 2020, Lai launched an English version of Apple Daily. All of the publications were banned in mainland China. 

Lai was arrested in 2020 on charges of violating the territory’s new national security law, an action which prompted widespread criticism. However, no trial has been set for these actions, which could end up in a life sentence. In three separate cases, he was sentenced to more than five years for various political offenses, including participation in political protests. 

Lai is a devout Christian and a British citizen who met with top U.S. officials during the Trump administration. Yet the Vatican and the British and American governments have done little to get Lai out of jail. 

A recent documentary, The Hong Konger, is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRkuv-fOV7k

In an interview, Lai says: “The younger generation and the older generation have never been so united…. If we just surrender, we will lose everything.” The documentary is also critical of the relationship between corporate investment and the lure to Western companies of Chinese markets.

Like Martin Luther King Jr., Lai decries violence and has disavowed some of his followers who engage in attacks on police. 

It is both heartening and saddening that people like Jimmy Lai exist. It’s crucial that ordinary people and governments use whatever pressure possible to free him from his Chinese prison. 

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