by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Yesterday National Public Radio (NPR) ran two news stories about the Trump administration flexing its power and defining the national narrative by controlling numbers.
One story involved the United States Census which is currently being conducted across the nation. Most households received a census form in the mail which recipients were asked to fill out and return. For those that did, their participation in the 2020 Census is now complete. The Census Bureau has stated that over sixty percent of households have returned their census forms.
The remaining third or so of the population is more problematic. Many of the people who have not returned their forms are members of immigrant groups and other communities who are traditionally undercounted. The way the Census gets their information is through door-to-door canvassing - and many in the immigrant communities are reluctant to engage with census takers. Time and diligence are needed in order to deal with them and get the most accurate count possible.
Yesterday NPR revealed that it has learned from anonymous workers within the Census Bureau that the Trump administration has cut a full month off of the time that the Bureau would have been given to find and interview these reluctant individuals. The official count was to end October 31st, but it will now cease on September 30th.
The Trump administration had gone to court to try and prevent the Census from counting illegal immigrants who are currently residing within the United States, even though the Constitution states clearly that the Census is to count everyone living within the borders of the United States. The administration lost that court battle. Last week the administration changed course a bit and said that it did not want the census data which is used to determine the apportionment of seats in Congress to contain figures that included illegal immigrants. Court action is expected on that decree, and it is widely assumed that Trump will lose there as well.
So now the Trump people are trying to achieve the same result - a lowering of the number of reported illegal immigrants contained in the Census figures - by limiting the amount of time that Census workers can go door-to-door collecting their data. The presumption is that fewer immigrants in the total will give more representation to traditional white areas - areas more likely to send Republicans to Congress.
Three efforts - all with the same end goal. (Love and kisses, Stephen Miller.)
The other "numbers" story that NPR ran yesterday dealt with the Trump administration's recent decision to take reporting of coronavirus numbers away from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and give that responsibility to a new unit within the Department of Homeland Security - a unit with no history of data collection or reporting. The numbers in question would include things like number of tests given, positive test results, deaths, hospitalizations, and available ICU beds.
When Trump took responsibility for collecting and disseminating those numbers away from an agency that knew how to do it, there was much concern that he was abandoning a system that worked for one that was unproven and essentially unnecessary. Many predicted that an information boondoggle would result, and some openly suggested that Trump was trying to come up with a way to control the numbers and keep them as low as possible in order to make him and his administration look as good as possible.
Well, just a few days into the new system and the skeptics have already been proven right. Yesterday NPR reported that the new system is failing at capturing data from many of the nation's hospitals, and it further reported that the new system is apparently not even trying to collect any information from Veterans hospitals and clinics. Something that worked reasonably well has been discarded in favor of a system which seems to be designed for inaccurate reporting.
Donald Trump believes himself to be a creature of ratings, and perhaps he is. One thing is certain, though, he clearly realizes the importance and power of numbers - and he knows that the person who controls the numbers is chief among those who get to tell the tale. Donald Trump does not want a certain class of people counted by the census, and he is now into his third effort in trying to keep those numbers down. And Donald Trump also wants to keep the coronavirus and COVID-19 numbers as low as possible, and he has taken responsibility for keeping that count away from an agency with the ability to do it, and given it to a new group that seems to have been designed to do Trump's bidding rather than provide accurate counts.
In both cases - the Census and the pandemic - it is the numbers that ultimately tell the tale and determine which decisions are made - and Trump and his administration want to have as much influence as possible in deciding which numbers rise to the top and get reported.
Numbers are power, and power fuels politics.
Citizen Journalist
Yesterday National Public Radio (NPR) ran two news stories about the Trump administration flexing its power and defining the national narrative by controlling numbers.
One story involved the United States Census which is currently being conducted across the nation. Most households received a census form in the mail which recipients were asked to fill out and return. For those that did, their participation in the 2020 Census is now complete. The Census Bureau has stated that over sixty percent of households have returned their census forms.
The remaining third or so of the population is more problematic. Many of the people who have not returned their forms are members of immigrant groups and other communities who are traditionally undercounted. The way the Census gets their information is through door-to-door canvassing - and many in the immigrant communities are reluctant to engage with census takers. Time and diligence are needed in order to deal with them and get the most accurate count possible.
Yesterday NPR revealed that it has learned from anonymous workers within the Census Bureau that the Trump administration has cut a full month off of the time that the Bureau would have been given to find and interview these reluctant individuals. The official count was to end October 31st, but it will now cease on September 30th.
The Trump administration had gone to court to try and prevent the Census from counting illegal immigrants who are currently residing within the United States, even though the Constitution states clearly that the Census is to count everyone living within the borders of the United States. The administration lost that court battle. Last week the administration changed course a bit and said that it did not want the census data which is used to determine the apportionment of seats in Congress to contain figures that included illegal immigrants. Court action is expected on that decree, and it is widely assumed that Trump will lose there as well.
So now the Trump people are trying to achieve the same result - a lowering of the number of reported illegal immigrants contained in the Census figures - by limiting the amount of time that Census workers can go door-to-door collecting their data. The presumption is that fewer immigrants in the total will give more representation to traditional white areas - areas more likely to send Republicans to Congress.
Three efforts - all with the same end goal. (Love and kisses, Stephen Miller.)
The other "numbers" story that NPR ran yesterday dealt with the Trump administration's recent decision to take reporting of coronavirus numbers away from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and give that responsibility to a new unit within the Department of Homeland Security - a unit with no history of data collection or reporting. The numbers in question would include things like number of tests given, positive test results, deaths, hospitalizations, and available ICU beds.
When Trump took responsibility for collecting and disseminating those numbers away from an agency that knew how to do it, there was much concern that he was abandoning a system that worked for one that was unproven and essentially unnecessary. Many predicted that an information boondoggle would result, and some openly suggested that Trump was trying to come up with a way to control the numbers and keep them as low as possible in order to make him and his administration look as good as possible.
Well, just a few days into the new system and the skeptics have already been proven right. Yesterday NPR reported that the new system is failing at capturing data from many of the nation's hospitals, and it further reported that the new system is apparently not even trying to collect any information from Veterans hospitals and clinics. Something that worked reasonably well has been discarded in favor of a system which seems to be designed for inaccurate reporting.
Donald Trump believes himself to be a creature of ratings, and perhaps he is. One thing is certain, though, he clearly realizes the importance and power of numbers - and he knows that the person who controls the numbers is chief among those who get to tell the tale. Donald Trump does not want a certain class of people counted by the census, and he is now into his third effort in trying to keep those numbers down. And Donald Trump also wants to keep the coronavirus and COVID-19 numbers as low as possible, and he has taken responsibility for keeping that count away from an agency with the ability to do it, and given it to a new group that seems to have been designed to do Trump's bidding rather than provide accurate counts.
In both cases - the Census and the pandemic - it is the numbers that ultimately tell the tale and determine which decisions are made - and Trump and his administration want to have as much influence as possible in deciding which numbers rise to the top and get reported.
Numbers are power, and power fuels politics.
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