Margaret face-plants again

Never mind my question, I didn’t actually want an answer, she said, once he answered her. https://t.co/qLM1yff76u

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 3, 2025

Climate cult catastrophe

Quillette: "Three Hard Truths About California’s Fire Crisis"

The Democrats’ position presents a striking irony. California’s progressive leadership has positioned itself at the forefront of climate change policy, championing emissions reductions and denouncing climate scepticism. Yet when faced with the practical requirements of climate change preparedness, whether conducting controlled burns, maintaining water infrastructure, or restricting development in fire-prone areas—they have proven to be inept. They appear more comfortable with grand pronouncements about global challenges than with the unglamorous work of preparing their own communities for climate realities they themselves warn about.

The grandstanding and climate moralizing was job #1.  Making sure a 117 million gallon reservoir was available to fight fires was somewhere down the list.

Democrats have a big problem with the male vote

Therefore, the solution is David Hogg: "The Democratic Party Wants to Die."

That pretty much brings us to the current day. As far as I can tell, Hogg has never held a real job, and none of his activism has ever added up to anything but losing elections. His home state of Florida has become solidly red, and we all know how the national elections in 2024 turned out. In other words, Hogg appears to be the least qualified, least accomplished DNC official in history, and yet, Democrats saw his record and thought, "Let's make him one of our leaders."

It's astonishing when you think about it. As I said at the beginning of this piece, this is a party with a death wish. If anyone thought, and some more moderate Democrats presumably did, that there would be a course correction, they were incredibly wrong. Not only has there not been a course correction, but the party's leaders are going further into woke insanity, making it the very core of their messaging and identity. 

Don't change a thing, Dems.  You're doing great.

I think it was Ace when speaking about the Washington Post that it needs to fire half their staff and start from square one.  In a similar vein the Democrats don't need a scalpel, they need a machete.  But they just don't realize it.

Sorry!  I meant "xey" don't realize it.

It's a new day

Based Underground: "Fox News Host Takes Down ‘The View’ for the First Time Ever in Ratings Showdown" - "Fox News host Harris Faulkner’s program, “The Faulkner Focus,” took down ABC’s “The View” in average total ratings for the first time ever in the month of January." 

Come on over, Frenchy!

Yahoo Finance: "French luxury billionaire sparks tax debate with threat to leave." - "Bernard Arnault, the billionaire boss of the world's biggest luxury conglomerate LVMH, has picked a fight with the French government by suggesting that companies could flee France for the United States to escape a planned tax hike." 

This article is laughably bad

Boston Globe: "Democrats need to start winning elections in all 50 states."

Throw it onto the pile: yet another opinion piece where Democrats delude themselves into believing the actual problem is communication and messaging.  I did a word search on "immigration" and it wasn't there.  But, sure, go to rural Iowa and communicate how the federal government can help you out.  Get that message out.

Extra - Byron York: "Choosing new leaders, Democrats are still in denial"

In the big picture, as the DNC, choosing new leadership, surveyed its current position — out of power — leaders told themselves that the causes of the party’s failures are 1). racism and misogyny, and 2). poor communications. That is what losing parties do. Somebody else is to blame. Our only fault is insufficiently communicating to voters how wonderful we are.

Accurate. 

How to get rich through socialism

It's the Bernie Sanders method: "Guy Who Owns Three Houses Brags About Taking Donations From Working Class People, Not 'Greedy' CEOs." 

Defund NPR

This would make me so happy: "NYT: Trump's War on NPR/PBS Is Real, and It's Spectacular."  NPR, in particular, is just the worst as meticulously detailed by Uri Berliner last year: "I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust."

Back in 2011, although NPR’s audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large. Twenty-six percent of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23 percent as middle of the road, and 37 percent as liberal.

By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals. 

Trump broke NPR just like any number of newspapers and magazines.  They burned their credibility on a pyre of TDS.

I totally believe this

Ace: "Megyn Kelly: The Democrats' Brazen Banana-Republic Lawfare Against Trump Was Their Own Undoing."

Ibram Kendi takes his grift to Howard

Boston Globe: "Ibram X. Kendi to leave Boston University for Howard."  Bye!

Yikes

Hot Air: "How Bad Is It Now For Dems? This Bad …"

Trump's new press secretary: "You guys in the legacy Media suck"

Man, what a great opening for Karoline Leavitt.  Before taking questions, she castigated that mainstream media and threw some questions to the "new" media.  Amazingly, I don't think she looked down at her podium a single time while answering questions: "First White House Press Briefing for Karoline Leavitt Has the Press Off Balance Dealing With Competency."

If you want to get a feel for the kind of justified pushback this White House is going to rain down on the legacy Media: "Karoline Leavitt: It's Nice of You to Suddenly Care About the Price of Eggs, But the Increase Happened While the President You Corruptly Covered for Was "Sleeping Upstairs in the Residence". 

Damn, girl.

This is the 1st @AP post with the words "egg prices" since February 2023. Two years. https://t.co/4DzbWF0olv

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 28, 2025

You don't hate the media enough

Outkick: "New York Magazine Appears To Crop Out All Black Attendees Of Trump Inauguration Event."

Despicable.  Gotta maintain that narrative.

Amazing imitation!

 

President Trump goes to Arby's 💀pic.twitter.com/AtvqPIqx31

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) January 27, 2025

He is so very good at this

Blaze Media: "'I don't really care, Margaret': Vance carpet-bombs Margaret Brennan interview with inconvenient facts and common sense."

What a moment.  Shades of his "Do you hear yourself?" interview with Martha Raddatz.  

J.D. Vance and Pierre Pollievre should teach a seminar on how to deal with the hostile media.

Old habits die hard at the LA Times

The LA Times owner may be trying to moderate the paper's message but that doesn't mean it can't still churn out dumb articles like this one: "Trump talks ‘free speech’ while moving to muzzle those he disagrees with."

If you read the article, the so-called censorship is only ensuring that people who report to him in the Executive Branch adhere to his policies.  As the elected President.

Both at home and abroad, the Trump administration has ordered federal employees and diplomats to cease communications on a range of issues, including “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “environmental justice” and “gender ideology.”

Nobody's stopping anybody from engaging in free speech.  Go, Karen, go spread the good word of DEI across the land from your Bluesky account!  You just can't do it from a Trump administration position.

These people are just clowns.

Zeno's paradox in the NFL

The Washington Commanders had so many penalties against the Philadelphia Eagles goal line drive that the ball moved "half the distance to the goal" about four times.

Reminded me of Zeno's dichotomy paradox. The Eagles eventually scored.

Here we go again

Yet another "now the truth can be told" moment a week into Trump's Presidency: "Conspiracy Freaks Batting 1000: CIA Believes Covid-19 Likely Caused by Lab Leak." 

You cannot possibly be this stupid

Let me start by saying that I used to subscribe to The Atlantic magazine before Trump broke it.  It is now a hotbed of complete TDS as evidenced by this latest column: "Turns out signing the Hunter Biden letter was a bad idea - Why so many titans of intelligence were willing to risk their hard-won credibility is deeply mysterious."

In the words of John McEnroe: you cannot be serious.  I can't believe the echo chamber is so echo-y that an intelligent writer can't suss it out.  Instead, I think (in this era of media turbulence) that Graeme Wood knows exactly why these guys whored themselves out to the Biden campaign but wrote a long "Trump bad" article to satisfy his lefty boss Laurene Powell Jobs. 

That's my Occam's Razor take.

Yeah it's a huge mystery why they all did that. Somebody dig up Robert Stack and get him on the case. We may never know the answer to this one. pic.twitter.com/fy3vBWKxPJ

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 24, 2025

This isn't going to work anymore

USA Today: "Elon is Hitler? Liberals regress to cancel culture to compensate for their loss. - Rather than debate Elon Musk and Donald Trump in good faith or engage them in civil discourse, Democrats have resorted to what they do best: name-calling in an attempt to 'cancel' those they dislike." 

Paging Vice President Vance

Looks like Hegseth is going to need a tie-breaking vote with the Senate at 50-50.

Murkowski, Collins, and McConnell (!) are the three GOP defections.

Update - Confirmed. 

The era of the liberal crybullies is OVER

Really great article from Victor Davis Hanson: "The Addicted, Petty, and Hysterical Left."

Donald Trump won the 2024 election in part because the Left's hysterical style of attacking Trump no longer worked.

......

In sum, the Left wants no debate because they know voters have rejected what they saw and suffered during the last four years of the Biden administration.

Forgetting nothing, learning nothing, like zombies, leftists keep screaming banalities. But like addicts and their feel-good fixes, their hysterics only further turn off the public as they destroy themselves.

This "fascist!" fear mongering crap doesn't work anymore: "'Because It Was Bulls**t': Axios Doesn't Understand How Musk, Tesla Remain 'Bulletproof' From Nazi Smear."  That half-wit Connecticut senator Chris Murphy tried to hump this story and nobody was buying it.  Make sure you keep calling all deportation efforts as "racist," too.

Nobody cares.  Just get out of our way now.

Extra - Hot Air: "Trump Approval Rating Net +18%--Highest Ever for Him"

Democrats are flailing, still trying to find the right angle from which to attack the president.

Have they tried the "bloodbath" hoax again?  How about the "very fine people" hoax?  The classics never go out of style.

Final word:

We are currently watching the wokest elements of the left realizing in real time that they are a tiny minority and that most Americans hate them and their ideas.

For a long time they thought they were the dominant force in America, socially and politically.

It is now dawning on…

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) January 23, 2025

What would we do without the disinformation experts?

Reason: "Disinformation Experts Hate Trump's Free Speech Executive Order - As expected."

The grift is over.

Unclear on the concept

San Francisco Standard: "Walgreens closures leave entire SF neighborhoods without a pharmacy."

Joe Moore, 71, criticized Walgreens for the decision to close the Ingleside location, saying the chain is prioritizing profits over the needs of seniors.

“They don’t give a shit about us,” Moore said. “We’re dollar signs to them.” 

It's called a "business," Jim.

Start with Acosta

CNBC: "CNN to lay off hundreds of employees as post-inauguration transformation begins, sources say."

47 minutes yesterday and almost an hour today

Trump answered so many questions yesterday while signing executive actions that they ran out of stuff to ask.  At one point somebody asked if they had re-installed the Diet Coke button on the Resolute Desk.

Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim

The media: We don’t know why we aren’t trusted anymore

Also the media: Come spend the next 27 days with us pretending Elon did a Nazi salute

— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) January 20, 2025

Fun stuff

Powerline: "Inauguration day in pictures." 

Amazing talent

The audio system failed for "America the Beautiful" so Carrie Underwood just sang it a capella.  Wow!

President Trump back in charge

I'm not gonna lie: I saw Butler live and up until the oath I was afraid something terrible was going to happen.

I totally called it, part 2

This news broke in the MIDDLE of the inauguration ceremony:

BREAKING: Biden pardons his family for all crimes since 2014. Last act in office. pic.twitter.com/7DntwEPp0p

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 20, 2025

I totally called it

A week ago I said Dementia Joe would do this: "Breaking: Biden Issues Preemptive Pardons to Mark Miley, Anthony Fauci, January 6 Committee."

And, thus, a brand-new standard has been set for Presidential pardons.

Four more hours to flush down the toilet this corrupt and contemptible Administration. 

Extra - Federalist: "Seven Reasons Biden Was One Of Our Worst Presidents." America largely agrees.

The guy who claimed he would “protect norms” continues to bulldoze them and the Constitution until the bitter end.

Biden truly is one of the worst Presidents in American history and will only be remembered as the guy between Trump’s two terms. https://t.co/tc8fDtqPbK

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) January 20, 2025

Let's see if we can make it through the next 5 hours

Would not be at all surprised if Dementia Joe makes some final outrageous pardon for the last little hit of Presidential power.  Watch for a blanket pardon of his money mule Jim Biden or Liz Cheney.

Good news

Fox News: "Hamas frees 3 Israeli hostages under Gaza cease-fire deal."

Let's get some Americans now.

Just making stuff up

Jonathan Turley: "Biden Again Summons His “Leading Legal Constitutional Scholars” to Support an Absurd Constitutional Claim."

That echo chamber of higher education offers liberal leaders instant support even for the most ridiculous claims like the ratification of the ERA. The problem is that the group-think culture has a greater hold on academics than the public at large. For most people, selling the ERA as alive and well is akin to trying to sell a dead parrot as merely sleeping or stunned.

As the article notes, Harvard professor Laurence Tribe has been Biden's go-to "scholar" for his YOLO anything goes legal opinions only to be overturned by the Courts.

Maybe it isn't funny

Powerline: "It isn't funny." Either way, it will be over soon.  Right after the unprecedented blanket pardons for potential crimes.  

This will never not be funny

Still active on his YouTube account:

"Pennsylvania is on its way to becoming a red state"

Real Clear Pennsylvania: "Pennsylvania’s GOP Sweep Was No Fluke."

Huge, if true.  When I was younger, Missouri used to be the bellwether state where whatever candidate won the Show Me State won the Presidency.  It's looking like Pennsylvania is the "key" (pun intended) to the White House now.

How you know this is all for show

Joe Biden declared there's a 28th Amendment now but the National Archivist is in open revolt against the Executive Branch: "Biden’s Final Constitutional Crisis"

But the National Archivist works within the executive branch, which means that she works under the supervision of . . . Joe Biden. This means that, by telling the truth, the National Archivist is in open rebellion against her boss.

The President can fire and replace anybody ignoring his orders!  So what's gonna happen here?  Nothing.

This problem could be easily resolved by Joe Biden ordering the National Archivist to certify the 28th Amendment, and then either reversing his position or firing her if she refuses. But, because he is a reckless coward, Biden has not issued such an order, and, per his office, he will not issue such an order.

Of course not. 

This is the way

Wall Street Journal: "CBS Owner Discusses Settling Trump Suit, With Merger Review on Tap - Trump seeking $10 billion in suit over ‘60 Minutes’ Harris interview; FCC signals tough review of Paramount merger with Skydance."

The pain of lawsuits is the only way to bring the mainstream media to heel.

With copious help from the compliant media

NY Times: "How Biden’s Inner Circle Protected a Faltering President."

Here's yet another "now it can be told" article.

Extra - Twitchy: "NYT ‘Journalists’ Write Tell-All ‘Exposing’ the Biden White House Cover-Up They Fully Participated In." 

I had no idea you can amend the Constitution with a tweet

Boy, the things you learn in the waning days of the Biden Administration.  "Demented Tyrant Biden Now Presumes to Change the Constitiution By His Kingly Pronouncement, Adding an Amendment to the Constitution Via a Tweet."

Of course he can't but we're going to pretend Grandpa is doing great for three more days.

In a speech today, Dementia Joe claimed he had cleared this declaration with "Constitutional scholars."  The names of these learned men must be revealed.

Actual journalism and truth telling would dictate clearly spelling out that what Joe Biden did was wrong and tyrannical. What happened to “fact checking”? https://t.co/cG2Fonyok7

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 17, 2025

I like this Scott Jennings fellow

Townhall: "Intense Panel Discussion Erupts at CNN After Biden's Farewell Address As Jennings Offers Key Reminders." 

He earned it

Twitchy: "CNN Poll: Biden Leaves Office With His Approval Rating at Its Lowest." 

Please, please do this

PJ Media: "Expect Big Changes in the White House Press Room as Trump Will All But Sideline Legacy Media."

Ordinarily, the front row of seats is reserved for the "major" media outlets, including ABC, CBS, NBC, AP, Reuters, and CNN. That lineup is as constant as spring rains and as holy as seniority in the College of Cardinals. 

But there's a new sheriff in town, and suddenly, we're looking at a dry spring and overturning the sacred college. Trump aides are thinking of mixing things up to give other, less biased media organizations a shot.

The White House Correspondent's Association (WHCA) is responsible for the briefing room seating chart. To take that duty away from the WHCA is akin to a declaration of war on the legacy press. That may be exactly what Trump's media team is looking for.

One of the funniest suggestions I saw was that although the WHCA sets the seating chart, Trump's press secretary can just move the podium to the back of the room.  

Oh no

Hot Air: "Washington Post Employees Are Panicking." 

They were warned, repeatedly. 

Two

Legal Insurrection: "Two House Democrats Join Republicans to Pass Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act - The act strips those who receive federal financial assistance if they allow a “male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.”

Back in November, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton voiced his concern that his daughters might be harmed playing against biological men:

Moulton had previously written an op-ed in The New York Times about the 2024 election in which he said that Vice President Kamala Harris' loss was down to his party "spending way too much time trying not to offend anyone.

"I have two little girls, I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I'm supposed to be afraid to say that."

Moulton learned his lesson and voted accordingly: "Seth Moulton Rips 'Extreme' Trans Sports Bill After Backing Restrictions."  Sorry, kids! 

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, Senator

Hot Air: "Must Watch: Mazie Hirono's Day-Drinking Questioning of Hegseth."  

Extra - Attack of the Karens. 

Wrong at every turn

Wall Street Journal: "How the Left Turned California Into a Paradise Lost - Gavin Newsom promised to ‘Trump-proof’ the Golden State. If only he’d fireproofed it instead." 

Wow, the Boston Globe printed this?

I guess now that the election's over, they're free to criticize a Democrat: "Biden’s disappointing foreign policy legacy - The world is not more stable or peaceful than it was four years ago."

Best foreign policy ever, Jack.

Damn

Ace: "Semafor: The Washington Post Has Lost 90% of Its Daily Online Readers Since 2021 - Update: The Post Lost $100 Million in 2024 Alone -- an Election Year, For Crying Out Loud!!!"

Couldn't happen to a smugger newspaper.

The feckless mainstream media

I didn't mention this the other day because I'm just holding my breath and waiting for Dementia Joe to leave office in another week.  But here's an excerpt from his softball interview with USA Today:

But the fact is that we had a soft landing, no recession, and the interest rate was 9% when we came into office in the beginning. It was down to 2.34% now.

Assuming here that Biden meant "inflation rate" and not "interest rate" which makes no sense.  This isn't the first time Biden has lied about inflation and softball-tosser Susan Page did not stop to offer a correction.  As in "no, Mr. President, inflation was not 9% when you came into office."

Which leads to Adam Schiff on "This Week" this morning with Jonathan Karl: "Adam Schiff-for-Brains Lies About California Reservoirs (and John Karl Doesn't Fact Check Him)."

Another lie that doesn't get corrected on the spot.  Do you know why Democrats feel free to lie with impunity?  It's because they know their buddies in the mainstream media won't call them out.

Extra - To be fair, occasionally a "journalist" will do his/her job: "California Gov. Newsom tries to weasel out of blame with reservoir claim — is immediately called out." 

Why the fires are out of control: too much water

Boston Globe: "The real reasons why LA’s fires are out of control."

The foundation for the current destruction was laid last winter, when California was hit by epic storms. Over the course of two days in early February, downtown LA recorded more than 7 inches of rain. It was the second year in a row California experienced record-breaking levels of winter precipitation, filling reservoirs and oversaturating the land. A lake deep enough to boat on appeared in Death Valley, the driest place in this very dry state.

You can't make this up.  I'm just spitballin' here but maybe you should have saved that water for the fire season that occurs - in your words - "every year." 

Forget it Jake, it's California

Legal Insurrection: "Newsom Cracks Down as Looters Exploit LA Evacuations, ‘It has turned into the wild wild west here’ - “There were like 100 people who came up on scooters and were trying to get into any and all houses on this street.”

January 20th can't come soon enough

Twitchy: "Protection Racket: Biden Says He’ll Base His Last Pardons on Who Trump is Talking About."

My feeling is that Dementia Joe is going to do it: he's going to take the unprecedented step of issuing blanket pardons on his way out the door.  Know why?  Because at this stage, Joey is desperate to reaffirm his own Presidential authority and it's something to do. 

No one is above the law screeches are sure worried about get out of jail free cards now.

— Team Dad (@teamdad2018) January 11, 2025

California incompetence

Reason: "Fires Incinerated the Facade of California Governing Competence - Virtue-signaling is no substitute for disaster preparedness."

Just amazing:

California voters in 2014 passed Proposition 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act, which authorized $7.12 billion in bond issues; it's one of eight water-related bond-issue propositions passed so far in the 21st century. A full $2.7 billion of Prop. 1 was earmarked for "new water storage" projects, to do stuff like capture more snowmelt and rainwater in the state's sporadic heavy-precipitation winters (such as 2022–23 and 2023–24).

So how many of those water storage projects have been built? Zero.

Ten years to build a big swimming pool and they couldn't get it done.

And yet, he'll get what he wanted

Reason: "Alvin Bragg's Misbegotten 'Election Interference' Case Against Trump Ends With a Whimper - Aside from a felony record that may yet be erased on appeal, the president-elect will face no punishment for trying to conceal his hush payment to Stormy Daniels."

Bragg had two goals: 1) brand Trump as a felon and 2) derail his campaign.  Well, the latter didn't work and only the most TDS-affected Americans care about the former.  Still, Trump will be a "felon" until the inevitable and certain legal reversal of this sham trial. 

Tomorrow the worst eulogy in history will be delivered

Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy for Jimmy Carter tomorrow.  It will be a master class in projection and solipsism.  Without doubt, Joey will recount how Carter asked for his valuable endorsement and Joey complied because Carter was a man of decency.  Decency decency decency.  Just like my daddy told me: "everybody deserves a fair shot!"  Also, Beau died and Carter did something.

Prove me wrong, Brandon.

It’s always about him. Biden is a self engrossed man pathologically incapable of empathy and yet we were told his great superpower was … empathy.
And please don’t use his senility to excuse him. He’s always been like this. His real superpower was convincing America his… https://t.co/cq3lRPIg9L

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) January 8, 2025

Biden defeats Nixon!

Breitbart: "Gallup: Americans to remember Joe Biden as the second-worst President in history."

Dementia Joe did earn the highest "poor" rating of any modern President, so that's a "victory" of sorts.

Winning

Red State: "WHOA: Meta Ends Fact-Checking As Zuckerberg Vows to Restore Free Expression on Facebook."

The "professional fact checkers" are quite upset.

Prospective Juror 1 Dislikes the Media

Federalist: "Here Are The Best Moments From The Jury Selection For CNN’s Defamation Trial."

Related - Daily Wire: "CNN Realizes Two Months Too Late That Americans Don’t Care About January 6th Anymore." 

Have you considered updating your slogan for the new Trump term?

You should change it to "Democracy is stone-cold murdered in super-darkness by a fascist!"

NY Post: "Washington Post expected to lay off ‘many dozens’ in coming week after cartoonist quits in protest: report."

Haha, learn to code.  #FAFO.

From impermissible to imperative

This is just a great essay from William Voegeli in the Cleremont Review of Books: "All the President’s Mental Lapses - Democracy dies in deception."

In great detail, Voegeli recounts how the mainstream media covered up for Biden for his entire term until the debate, whereupon it became mission-critical to save what was left of its credibility.

The debate, however, nullified these political calculations. It now seemed highly likely that insisting Biden was still fit for duty would wind up helping rather than hurting Trump. Pre-debate, maintaining that Biden was up to the job had been the best bet for preventing Trump’s return to the White House. Post-debate, Biden’s continuing candidacy, which had appeared to be the Democratic Party’s least bad option, turned into its most bad option. (Following Trump’s victory in November, Jon Favreau, a speechwriter in the Obama White House, said on his “Pod Save America” podcast that internal Biden campaign polling, reflecting the impact of the June debate, showed Trump on track to win 400 electoral votes if Biden remained the Democratic nominee.) With only 53 days between the June 27 debate and the opening of the Democratic convention in Chicago, the mission of driving Biden out of the race in favor of a candidate who could speak audibly and in complete sentences was daunting, but a risk that had to be run. The Post was prepared to do its part by publishing a long, detailed article about Biden’s decline. A story that had been impermissible, in Mark Halperin’s phrase, for more than three years became imperative within just one week.

Like a kicked-over anthill, suddenly the media was churning out (previously verboten) articles about Biden's limitations.  No media source was more obtuse than the Washington Post:

Though The Washington Post is not a lone violator, I’ve chosen to discuss how journalists did, but mostly did not, cover the story of Joe Biden’s decline by concentrating on that paper for a couple of reasons. One is that, to the best of my knowledge, no other media outlet that was AWOL on this story from 2020 through June 2024 has had the lack of self-awareness, or perhaps the surplus of disingenuousness, to scold the Democratic establishment for failing to be forthright with the public. If The Washington Post is not part of the Democratic establishment, then it is certainly the house organ or hometown paper for it, and has been for many years. Given that fact, and given the record of what the Post did and did not say about Biden during his presidency, it takes remarkable chutzpah for the Post to run an editorial three days after the election titled “Trying to Protect Biden, Democrats Sacrificed Their Credibility.” Their credibility?

A month after Trump's first term began, the Washington Post adopted their smarmy, self-regarding slogan of "Democracy dies in Darkness."  Then they spent the last three-and-a-half years contributing to that darkness.

Read the whole thing.

Fun week ahead

The Corner: "Judge Merchan Wants to Sentence Trump Next Friday." 

Buh-bye!

Fox News: "Washington Post cartoonist quits after paper pulls her cartoon depicting Post owner Bezos groveling to Trump."

We have our narrative and we're stickin' to it

Unintentional humor from this Boston Globe editorial: "Confidence in judicial system hits the skids."  They cite a Gallup poll showing a collapse in trust in the judiciary:

A year of widening political divisions ended with the sobering news that confidence in the nation’s judicial system has also taken a hit, dropping to a record low 35 percent, according to the most recent Gallup poll.

Between 2020 and 2024, public confidence in the judicial system plummeted 24 points — from 59 percent to 35 percent — a precipitous decline.

The entirety of the editorial suggests that this drop in trust is because Clarance Thomas took some gifts from a donor who had no business in front of the Supreme Court.

In the original source material, the Gallup report mentions Thomas not once but does take note of one factor that contributes to Americans' distrust in the legal system: lawfare against Trump.

However, the 17-point drop under Biden signals that something profound occurred to atypically shake his opponents’ confidence in the courts -- with the various legal cases against Trump likely factors. Similarly, the 18-point decline in confidence in the judicial system between 2023 and 2024 among those who approve of their country’s leadership may also be related to Trump’s legal cases, reflecting dissatisfaction with several circuit court and Supreme Court decisions that went in Trump’s favor.

Emphasis added.  Lawfare against Trump is not mentioned at all in the Boston Globe editorial.  Gosh, darn, it's gotta be that Dobbs decision and nothing else.

TBH he probably doesn't know he did it

Reason: "Blocking the U.S. Steel Sale Is a Perfectly Disgraceful End to Biden's Political Career - It's a disgraceful decision that serves as a perfect epitaph for Biden's political career."

The decision to block U.S. Steel's acquisition by Nippon Steel is the perfect coda to President Joe Biden's political career.

By intervening in the private business affairs of the two companies, Biden is demonstrating once again his expansive view of executive power, hubristic sense of government's ability to order economic affairs, and willingness to stretch the definition of "national security" to justify his big government agenda even when there is plainly no national security threat.

Those elements have been central to Biden's political persona for decades. Even as his charisma and mental facilities have failed, they remain. From his earlier support for the drug war, the USA PATRIOT Act, and Obamacare to his administration's attempts at broad student loan forgiveness and inflation-inducing Bidenomics, Biden has rarely been deterred by norms or laws that limit federal power or by economic good sense. If there's something Biden wants to do, he'll simply find a way to do it.

To be fair, I believe Trump also supported the merger block.

Believe the science

And the math.  WSJ: "Green Electricity Costs a Bundle - The data make clear: The notion that solar and wind power save money is an environmentalist lie." - "For every 10% increase in solar and wind share, the electricity cost increases by more than 5 cents a kilowatt-hour. This isn’t an outlier; these results are substantially similar to 2019, before the effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine." 

Where's Jackie?

2024: The year of vindication

This post is going to be a little bit of stream of consciousness so bear with me.  I've been doing this blog for twenty-two (22) years now (!) but this past year feels to me like the accumulation of all my predictions come true.  Sure, I thought Romney could win in 2012 but I also thought Trump would lose in 2016 so it all balances out.

Above all, one theme I've come back to is that the mainstream media is irredeemably biased and incapable of objectivity.  And, brother, this year not only proved that theory but showed that the mainstream news is dead.

Dead.  Pining for the fjords dead.  It's an ex-media.

This happened in June 2024:

Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis had a blunt message for his staff during a tense meeting following the sudden ouster of executive editor Sally Buzbee, according to the paper's own reporting. 

"We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around," Lewis told the paper. "We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore."

Man, I still love reading that line: "I can't sugarcoat it anymore."  The great halving of audience has occurred all across the news media landscape. 

It's my opinion that this all started with Obama: 2008 is the year where the mainstream media either let the mask drop or threw aside fairness (take your pick).  But then Trump came along and the media turned that bias up to eleven.  Greg Gutfeld has it exactly right: anti-Trumpism drove every narrative and buried every story remotely critical of the other side.  It all came crashing down on June 27th when it was exposed that the media had conspired - yes, conspired - to cover up Joe Biden's obvious infirmity.

The same media that conspired to bury Hunter's laptop and pushed the Russia Russia Russia hoax.  The same "news" sources that told us that inflation wasn't serious and acksually we're doing so much better than, um, England right now.  Also, that southern invasion is all in your mind.  I could go on and on.

Do you know why there was no blowback at Trump's false insistence that "they're eating the pets" in Springfield, Ohio?  Because trust in the media is so low that a wide majority of Americans just dismissed the media's reporting.  There they go again.

Too late, the media is trying to reverse course.  The LA Times and Washington Post both declined to endorse Kamala for President.  CNN brought in Scott Jennings to inject some sanity to the network.  Joe "Best Biden Evah!" Scarborough made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump's ring.

As Carole King would say: it's too late baby, now it's too late.

Americans have moved on to alternative news sources and podcasts.  One Joe Rogan interview pulls more eyeballs than a month of MSNBC now because nobody is buying what they're selling.

Side note: after the disgraceful ABC News Presidential debate I believe we've seen the last Presidential debate run by a "news" network.

A new Trump presidency has started and we'll see if the media has learned anything but I reckon they will fall back into their echo chamber quickly.  The mainstream media is like Bruce Willis in the Sixth Sense now: they're dead and they don't know it.

Wonderful, delicious vindication. 

the most destructive movement of the last ten years wasn't just wokism. it was the media's lockstep anti-trumpism. think about all the horrible decisions related to the biggest calamities we faced. they were excused or denied by the media, because of their irrational opposition…

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) December 31, 2024