Online Public Relations Thoughts

The White House has decided that the noise level of Republicans is so high it must fight back by responding to their charges. This is a turnabout for the President who carefully stayed away from party politics earlier in the year.  Now the administration is responding with facts to contradict Republican charges, and that further muddies the discourse coming from Washington.  Voters are left with the decision of who to believe.  Right-wingers will not change their opinions.  Left-wingers will readily accept what the White House says.  The vast middle is the target for independents will decide who will be the next President.  If Biden is too scathing in attacking Republicans, he risks losing the middle, so he needs to be careful.  It is a delicate position to be in.  

Prosecutors in the Trump secret documents case are piling on charges as they crawl to trial.  It is as if they are worried that the indictments already levelled against him are not enough.  From a Trump supporter's perspective, it is excess and unfair. From an anti-Trump citizen, it is not nearly enough.  There is no right answer to what the prosecutor is doing, but it is his charge to see that justice is done.  There is momentum to pile charges and evidence so a jury can do nothing other than convict. It is a communication to the public that Trump is guilty of something.  The question remains whether a jury will believe it.  

 It's time to let the keyboard rest and to take time off from blogging.  I'll be back in 10 days or so.  

Hollywood writers and actors are on strike while major studios are laying off thousands.  Each side is pleading difficulties in making a living.  Who is right?  Probably they both are.  It is a difficult time for the TV, movie, streaming and digital media business.  The industry is changing along with its economics and it is not clear what the successful business models will be. The strikes are likely to last a long time shutting down much of the business of Southern California and costing the state millions of dollars a day.  The only way the two views will be reconciled is in a contract in which the fine print details who has won the day.  It won't be negotiated in public, but it must be completed if the industry is to continue.

Local and state governments in the Southwest have a marketing challenge -- how to get people to come and live in an area of extreme heat.  The states were fast-growing with millions moving in but that was before weeks of triple-digit temperatures.  With thermometers at 110 degrees and more, few want to be out in the sun and people are dying.  The question now is who would want to live there.  It might be with climate change that the Southwest is becoming an American Sahara unfit for habitation.  If so, the states could shrink in population, their political and marketing power diminished.  It's too early to know if that will happen but it is time to worry.

The Supreme Court is under fire for failing to have ethics standards as other government arms do.   The perception is that judges are taking favors and boodling from wealthy parties and in danger of not being objective in their opinions.  Public trust in the court has declined particularly in light of recent decisions.  The judges of all people should understand appearances and work to avoid putting themselves in compromising positions.  But, it appears they don't.  They are using their roles for self aggrandizement and that should stop.  It is up to the Chief Justice to install and ethics code but he doesn't appear to be interested.  Meanwhile, the court is suffering from a decline in prestige.  

This would have been unlikely had the homeowners known the history of unstable soil on the Palos Verde Peninsula.  Yet, developers were allowed to build with the knowledge that the land is subject to slides.  What is the responsibility of communicating risk to the unwary?  Palos Verde is beautiful but dangerous and home buyers should have known that before they took mortgages.  At very least they should have signed a paper acknowledging the soil conditions and the propensity for it to end in the ocean.  Then if they were foolhardy enough to buy, they would have had no one to blame but themselves.  As it is, the developers walk away and leave the homeowners to their fate.  It's a sad situation.

Persuasion is impossible when people live in their own bubbles away from those who would disagree with them. What is needed in the US is community conversation in which different views are aired and a common ground discovered.  But, that isn't happening because increasingly people are moving to states that support their views.  It's a worrisome if somewhat overstated trend. On the other hand, it is a constitutional one in which states are largely free to go their own ways.  There is no need for uniformity but stark division from one border to another is an unfortunate trend.  One hopes that over time that differences will lessen and although states disagree, they are not militant about it.  

It is not often one sees an arrogant man destroy a business because of his whims.  That's what is happening to Twitter where Elon Musk is systematically dismantling the service and leaving millions of users frustrated and looking for alternatives.  One wonders if there is anyone left who can reason with him.  The destruction is unusual in that it is highly public.  There is no attempt to hide the changes that he is making. He overpaid for Twitter by tens of billions of dollars and it seems he is using that as an excuse to do what he wants.  It's sad to see the service wither but there is no guarantee of success in business, especially when a CEO makes bad decisions.  

The world's record temperature was set on Tuesday.  Global warming is here and in force for decades to come.  Where are the climate deniers who say everything is alright?  They have been muted in recent days.  Nature may be persuading them where science could not.  Even so, there are politicians who don't take global warming seriously and still advocate for coal and gas-fired power plants.  Why is persuasion so difficult?  Scientists warned for decades about this time, and they were ignored.  it seems that the truth was too difficult for the lifestyle of millions.  It struck too close to home. The question now is whether a sense of urgency has set in.  It's too early to tell. 

Communications by force never resolves anything.  Resentment lingers and sooner or later erupts, which necessitates more force to shut it down. Dictators rule by violence, but they too have their limits.  Putin won't live forever nor Kim Jong Un.  Both depend on massive security operations to keep their people under control.  The only enduring communications is persuasion in which minds are changed and agreement reached.  Yet, dictatorships won't go away.  The temptation to seize and hold power is too strong: Democracies are always in danger.  Free speech and persuasion take too long and are too messy for dictators to abide, so communications by force will remain a human condition. 

A succession of Biden administration officials have or are traveling to Beijing.  First it was Blinken.  Now it is Yellen.  It is personal diplomacy after a prolonged stand-off between the two countries and a strong way to build relations.  It is harder to condemn someone you have met and conversed with, especially if that person is trying to get along.  The message is to cool the rhetoric and to try and get along even though competition won't stop.  It is a delicate position that can slip to the negative instantly, particularly if China invades Taiwan. But, as long as a tentative peace is holding, that's the best the two countries can expect.