Opuscula Et tu, Dilbert?

I FOLLOW SCOTT ADAM’S DILBERT as closely as a leftist follows Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury. I don’t always agree with Adams, but more often than not.

But this morning I noticed that Dilbert’s creator has fallen into the journalistic muck of “embellishing” the news.

Yesterday (2-27-2017), Adams had one person complaining to the Pointy Headed Boss — PHB — that she couldn’t work with the Wally character because “his political views are abhorrent.”

Today (2-18-2017) Adams has the PHB tell Wally that “your political opinions are making your co-workers uncomfortable.”

Excuse me.

Yesterday, ONE person complained, saying Wally’s political views are “abhorrent.” To my Edward Bear mind, “abhorrent” is somewhat more forceful than “uncomfortable.”

But what caught my attention first was the PHB telling Wally that his political opinions are making Wally’s co-workers — note the plural — uncomfortable.

When did ONE complainant morph into many? Are they amoeba that replicate themselves? Or has Adams been caught up in “media speak,” where accuracy is irrelevant.

ON THE TOPIC OF MEDIA, Matt Lauer interviewed Speaker of the House Paul Ryan today. Aside from often interrupting Ryan in mid-sentence — Ryan mostly ignored the disruptive tactic — the tv “personality” jumped on a quote by President Trump who, Lauer said, opined that the health care issue was extremely complicated.

Duh.

Lauer’s point was that Trump is not a health care expert and therefore should not have promised to – leftists, pay attention — REPLACE Obamacare with something “better.”

Ryan calmly pointed out that Trump is the nation’s Chief Executive Officer, CEO, and as most successful CEOs do, he is surrounding himself with people who ARE experts in their fields. Ryan cited several Trump appointees as examples of good CEOmanship. The interviewer had no on-air response.

Presidents should not be expected to experts in all things. Only a fool would try to be all things to all people, and only a fool would expect a president to rule sans advisors.

Harry S was correct — as he often was —“the buck stops” at the president’s desk, but the presidential decision has to be made on the basis of “expert” opinions. People may — and often do — disagree on a person’s expertise, but other than a tv “personality,” most don’t expect the president to be an expert at all things.

I’ll settle for a president who — like Harry S — will own up to his actions.

Medical care IS a complicated issue. So is government in general.

Does Lauer think that the president should be an expert in air traffic control? Trump does, after all, own a plane. Should he be an expert in banking? Trump has been working with banks to finance his developments for decades. Should Trump be an expert in media? He’s doing pretty good (“C+”) with getting his points to the people — albeit sometimes seemingly in “knee-jerk reaction mode.” Big business is similar to big government; business managers who think they know it all and try to micro-manage the organization soon will find that their “big business” isn’t so big anymore. Smart managers, such as Trump, surround themselves with the best people for the jobs at hand.

Too bad it took Ryan to point this out — on air — to the tv “personality.” But then, the “news according to Matt Lauer” always is an exercise in interviewee restraint.

Can we hope that Trump’s Obamacare REPLACEMENT will be transparent; that Congress will have time to review and critique the REPLACEMENT plan, unlike when Trump’s predecessor rammed his 2,700 page “plan” through Congress too fast for review.