JUST THE FACTS, PLEASE

AND JUST WHAT ARE THE FACTS?   There is much in the daily news about a lot of things. There is much in the daily news that is mis leading.  rarely are all the facts reported.  Case in point. the recent news article I posted about when a woman from out of state drove away from police, twice.  All the news reported was a 45 second clip showing the cops breaking out her van windows and shooting at her tires.  But this post is not about that. So what is it about?  Well, I'll tell you.  Almost.  Why almost?  Cause I. like the news people, just don't have all the facts.
Take the current ongoing case of Rancher Bundy in Nevada.  On the surface, it seems the government is trying to take over his land.  And I side with Mr. Bundy.  One thing that is in the news on this is that Mr. Bundy owes one million dollars in back grazing fees.  Probably he does. But, several years ago Mr. Bundy made a decision to quit paying the BLM because he said they weren't using the money he paid for the purpose they were supposed to use it for. He offered to pay the County, but they refused to accept his money.  They were probably right. So who is right and who is wrong.  My uneducated opinion.  Both of them.  The BLM as a government agency probably wasn't using the money as they should. Mr. Bundy is right in that he feels the BLM wasn't doing their job.  And about the recent armed conflict. Who won.  My opinion. No one won. While the citizens claim victory because the federal officers "backed down", I feel the officers chose the better path. to allow the situation to escalate to the point of blood shed would solve nothing, so retreat at that time was probably the better part of valor.  You can rest assured that this situation is not over.  How will it end?  We will see, but I fear for Mr. Bundy, and ultimately the rest of us as citizens, especially in the west.
Did you see in the news that Mrs. Obama wants to speak at the commencement exercise of 5 Topeka Kansas High Schools.  All five schools will come together in one place to listen to her speak. There is now a petition started by one of the students protesting this.  Why? Well, according to the news article, the statement is that graduation from High School is something for the kids to celebrate as a school, not with 4 other schools who have no relation to each other. And one parent is quoted as saying Mrs. Obama doesn't know our kids. This is about her, not our children.  On the surface, I agree with the students and their parents that are objecting to this. I wouldn't want to listen to Mrs. Obama in any case.  But the facts. What are they. Whose idea was this? Where did this idea originate?  With the schools or with the White House. And if the White House, why did the schools go along with it?  Once again, the news article left a lot of facts out.  Stay tuned.
And the last issue, at least for this post. Unemployment.  According to the news, unemployment is down. Jobs are up. But, the facts don't really support that. So what are the facts? Well, as far as I know them, at the end of last year, congress cut off unemployment for the long term unemployed. So, they are no longer on the unemployment rolls. They don't have jobs, they are just not listed. Jobs are up? Not really. There are areas of rising employment, but for the most part, there are still a lot of unemployed people.  But it looks good in the news to say that unemployment is down. Again, stay tuned.  Congress brings up the issue of restoring this long term unemployee benefit from time to time, but right now, they are mostly looking on what to do to be reelected this fall. After that, who knows.  In any case, I am sure that many facts will be left out and we will be left to guess what really happened.
AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK