Hiatus

Well, traffic is off since the election - sounds like a good time for a vacation!  See you next weekend.

Meanwhile, here's K-pop sensation (G)I-DLE:

The beatings will continue until trust is restored

Hot Air: "How Low Can You Go: New Gallup Poll On the Trust-in-Media Limbo."

I've said this several times before but it bears repeating: the current legacy media must be burned to the ground.  Jeff Bezos should just fire everyone at the Washington Post and start anew. 

I'm feeling sad for Jeff Bezos. He sent out a blast yesterday, hoping for change. The paper today absolutely sucks. It is biased, stupid, partisan, packed with pathetic tropes, pounding the same worn bongos every single day. It's awful. He might just have to fire everyone.

— Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreyatucker) February 27, 2025

Even more winning

PJ Media: "Jeff Bezos Orders WaPo Opinion Section to Concentrate on 'Personal Liberties and Free Markets'." 

This is great news

Fox News: "Trump admin guts White House Correspondents Association in bid to end 'monopoly' of 'DC journalists' - The WHCA has determined access to the White House for decades." 

I forget where I saw it but the judge in the Associated Press lawsuit asked why the White House Correspondents Association had any standing in the case given they had no legal standard.  It's just a collection of (mostly) like-minded notebook-scratchers. 

Flashback

Just a little reminder on the occasion of Lester Holt leaving NBC Nightly News: "NBC's Lester Holt says we don’t need to hear both sides to define truth: ‘Fairness is overrated’." 

Temporary stays are not legal decisions

Jonathan Turley: "“We’re Winning Across the Board”: Raskin Takes a Premature Victory Lap Just Before a Slew of Court Losses." 

Twitchy: "Legal Analyst Leaves MSNBC Panel SPEECHLESS Pointing Out Trump Isn't Losing Legal Battles and LOL"

Tough times at MSNBC!

The winning continues

NY Post: "MSNBC cancels Joy Reid’s lefty show as network makes major shakeup." 

It only took Reid and MSNBC losing half their viewers since Trump's election.

Extra - Red State: "Schadenfreude Overload At MSNBC: Race-Obsessed Joy Reid and Others Finally Get the Kibosh." 

"Uber Eats driver" - that's the description they chose

Recent news from here in Western Massachusetts.  See if you can guess the inconvenient fact about this Uber Eats driver the Boston Globe omitted from the headline: "Uber Eats driver charged with raping customer in her Wilbraham apartment."

An Uber Eats driver is facing a rape charge for allegedly using a “ruse” to enter a female customer’s Wilbraham home and rape her during a delivery, legal filings show.

Roiber Andres Rodriguez Melendez, 21, pleaded not guilty on Feb. 14 to a rape count in Palmer District Court, records show. He was ordered held without bail after a dangerousness hearing.

His lawyer said Friday that he denies the allegations.

Rodriguez Melendez, who also has a pending case out of South Hadley for alleged motor vehicle violations, is a Colombian national who is “not here legally,” court papers said.

So an illegal alien raped a woman in Wilbraham.  To add insult to injury, he had an active warrant which means he's exactly the kind of person who would have been detained under the Laken Riley Act.

Every single Massachusetts politician except for Stephen Lynch (MA-8) voted against the Laken Riley Act.

The inevitable AP lawsuit

Twitchy: "The Associated Press Throws an Epic Toddler Tantrum, Sues Trump for Not Inviting Them to the Party."

An utterly ridiculous tantrum.  There is no free speech argument here: the AP can write whatever they want.  Also: the White House can grant or restrict access to any media outfit.

Have you considered calling Trump a "fascist" but harder?

Daily Caller: "‘Never Seen Anything Like This’: Fmr Clinton Pollster Says Dems’ Support ‘Is Falling Off A Cliff’." 

Robert Reich is an asshole

Loser’s mindset https://t.co/9WnJeHgT9A

— Chris Camillo (@ChrisCamillo) February 21, 2025

Robert Reich has been playing the same schtick for 30 years now and he still gets paid from stupid articles in the Guardian and some YouTube videos.  Like most charlatans humping the class warfare grift (e.g. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders), they will never debate and they can't stand the slightest bit of pushback.

Watch how easy it is to refute his premise: Jobs & Wozniak.  J.K. Rowling.  Hewlett & Packard.  That's just off the top of my head.

Yet another media outlet settles a lawsuit

Hot Air: "MSNBC Settles 'Uterus Collector' Lawsuit."

As predicted here, MSNBC's parent company has settled a defamation lawsuit filed against the network brought by a doctor who was dubbed the "uterus collector." The trial in this case was set to begin in April and MSNBC has wisely decided there was no upside to taking this to court.

There's a joke about Rachel Maddow that she's "always wrong, never in doubt."  I wonder how much of this settlement came out of her salary.

Another all-time low

Keep it up, Democrats.  Your'e doing great.

The Jasmine Crockett / Chuck Schumer / AOC axis of public relations is working out great. lmao look at these Dem numbers https://t.co/yGgW9my2AF

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) February 19, 2025

Hamas killed a baby

Then held on to the corpse for 16 months: "We Must Prepare Ourselves for the Pain of February 20."

Thursday, February 20, will always be remembered in Israeli history as a day of unimaginable emotional pain. It is a pain that should be felt by every civilized human being on this planet.

Hamas is releasing the bodies of four kidnapped victims. Let's be clear: these are not hostages. A hostage is someone who has been kidnapped and is alive. These are murder victims. They include the corpses of a mother, her toddler, and a nine-month-old infant who were kidnapped on Oct. 7 — 16 months ago — are being returned to Israel in coffins or body bags. In exchange for these bodies, hundreds of convicted mass murderers and terrorists will be released on Saturday. 

Pure evil.  I can't even with Gaza anymore.  I read stories like this and think: "Maybe we should ship the Palestinians to Jordan and turn Gaza into a parking lot."

Haha - what?

This is a bold strategy.  Let's see if it pays off, Cotton: "LA Mayor: I'm Investigating Why I Was 'Allowed' to Go AWOL." 

Stunning and brave

Legal Insurrection: "‘Wicked’ Star Cynthia Erivo Cast as Jesus in Hollywood Bowl’s ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’."

Never change, Hollywood.

Wipe it out

Issues and Insights: "Isn’t 46 Years Of Failure Enough? Time To Kill The Education Dept." 

Margaret Brennan again

Power Line: "Why no one respects the legacy Media."

To which I would add that Amy Klobuchar recently appeared on CNN spreading outright lies about Trump's budget cuts, receiving absolutely no pushback from Dana Bash.

Extra - Red State: "'60 Minutes' Airs an All-Timer, and the Depths They Sink to Will Blow Your Mind."  What's in the water over at CBS News?

More - PJ Media: "What the Hell Is Wrong With CBS News?"  Good question!

It's complicated

Nice review here by Eugene Volokh as to whether the Associated Press can be excluded from the White House press briefings: "May Officials Exclude Journalists from Press Events Based on Disapproval of Journalists' Speech?"

The short answer appears to be: "yes, but it's a bad idea." 

The Left hates free speech

If it's Sunday, it's time for Margaret Brennan to make an ass of herself again: "Marco Rubio Leaves CBS News' Margaret Brennan Speechless After She Claimed Nazis 'Weaponized' Free Speech." 

That was an exciting 12 laps

Rain stopped the NASCAR season after a dozen laps.  Oh well, there's this: "NASCAR fans cheer as Trump arrives for Daytona 500 in Air Force One."

SNL is a crashing bore

Hollywood in Toto: "How ‘Saturday Night Live’ Betrayed Its Legacy (and Us) - Once-mighty show's political bias only half of its existential crisis." 

Here's my take: I used to watch SNL fairly regularly, at least catching the opening sketch and monologue for a laugh.  But then there was a stretch where Alec Baldwin as Trump opened the show every single week.  It was a predictable and total bore with the same anti-Trump jokes recycled over and over.  For the past four years, I've been waiting for the Joe Biden sketches but they never materialized until after the debate and he was essentially a zombie candidate.

So maybe the show is funny again, maybe not.  But I'm not watching so I wouldn't know.

The Paper of record

Babylon Bee: "Democrats Demand Transparency From Man Who Posts Literally Everything He Does On The Internet." 

This was written by a grown man

I had to check but apparently Dan Froomkin is not a sophomore at Oberlin College.  He's a man (allegedly) who wrote this childish temper tantrum over the Trump White House banning the Associated Press: "How the White House press corps should respond to the banning of the Associated Press."

Spoiler alert: it involves a lot of ineffectual foot-stamping and moral solipsism.  Legal action?  OMG, don't threaten me with a good time, Dan. 

"It's just so obvious. They're so bad at it."

Twitchy: "Trump and Musk Amused at Dems and Legacy Media’s Lame Attempts at Driving Wedge Between Them." 

Fauxcahontas on the war path

Reason: "Elizabeth Warren's Hubris Allowed Trump To Defund the CFPB - Instead of isolating the CFPB from Congress' budget-making authority, Warren and former President Barack Obama made it easier for a president to effectively shut it down."

Here's where the hubris enters the story. When Warren and Obama created the CFPB, they designed that unorthodox funding structure specifically to prevent a future Republican-led Congress from trying to defund the bureau. Remember, this was in the age when Republicans were running around the country telling voters they intended to repeal Obamacare too. By isolating the CFPB from Congress' budgetary powers, Warren was trying to make it invulnerable to attack.

Instead, she simply gave it a fatal flaw.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration submitted its CFPB funding request to the Federal Reserve. It asked for…$0.

If Warren didn't get cutesy and instead just submitted CFPB to the normal budget process, it may have survived.  But instead she and Obama created a federal fiefdom that fell under executive purview alone and now that's Trump. 

This is the way

Here's Trump answering questions from the Oval Office today:

Trump schools CNN reporter on Russia/Ukraine war: "This should have been done by Biden years ago. This should never have been allowed to happen. I know he's a friend of yours. He's a friend of CNN. That's why nobody watches CNN anymore because they have no credibility."

BOOM! pic.twitter.com/vGuPPsRU7h

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 13, 2025

Haha - holy cow.  This is the only way for Republicans to address the mainstream media: always assume they're the enemy.  It's a well-earned reputation. 

Corruption in Illinois? No!

Just the News: "Ex-Illinois House Speaker convicted on 10 corruption charges at trial that exposed Democrat greed." - "Michael Madigan, the long-serving Illinois House Speaker who in his hey-day rubbed elbows with elites like Barack Obama, was convicted Wednesday on 10 federal charges after a long-running influence peddling trial that exposed corruption and greed inside the state's Democrat establishment." 

FEMA FAFO

NY Post: "FEMA employees fired over ‘egregious’ $59M payment for NYC migrants." 

This is just career suicide. 

They can't help themselves

Here's liberal pollster Ruy Teixeira stating what is completely obvious to non-Democrats: "Defending USAID Is Political Suicide for Democrats."

Okay, let’s recap the situation:

1. Democrats are unconditionally defending an obscure government institution at a time when even well-known and previously trusted institutions are regarded with intense suspicion. A key finding from New York Times polling in the 2024 election cycle was that voters overwhelmingly believe the political and economic system in America needs either major changes, or to be completely rebuilt.

2. This particular obscure institution does one of American voters’ least favorite things: provide foreign aid.

3. Finally, not only are Democrats blanket defending an obscure institution that does something American voters don’t particularly want to, they are defending it without explaining their own priorities. What aid would they preserve and what would they get rid of? It is a legitimate issue, in light of concerns about USAID, which is not a “criminal organization,” as Musk called it, but does have long-standing issues with efficiency and focus.

A political faction not consumed with sheer hatred would accept the current zeitgeist and pick their battles more carefully.  But that's not the TDS-obsessed Democrats today.  

They're in a spiral.

The Left is utterly lost

The grasping madness: "Liberal Magazine: Hitler Knew How to Fund Science, Unlike Trump." 

CFPB powers down

Red State: "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Website Goes Dark and the Woodchipper Warms Up."

I'm not necessarily opposed to the role of the CFPB as a kind of overseer of the financial sector.  What I do not like is the quasi-legal structure of the bureau which is semi-isolated from the control of the executive branch.  Until now, maybe.

Update - CNBC: "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff told to work remotely as headquarters is shuttered." 

Trump pulls Dementia Joe's security clearance

Twitchy: "Who's Gonna Tell Him He Had One? President Trump Revokes Sleepy Joe Biden's Security Clearance."

My gosh, look at the difference in Biden's cognition from four years ago.  He's actually lucid here:

Hey Joe,

Thanks for setting this precedent. pic.twitter.com/75S0LKqQlp

— MAZE (@mazemoore) February 7, 2025

Doubling up to $20 billion

Deadline: "Donald Trump Amends CBS Lawsuit To Claim That The ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris Interview Unfairly Diverted Viewers From His Truth Social Platform."

I'm quite certain that Trump doesn't care at all about the money.  It's all about getting CBS to admit fault.  He'll settle for $20 and an apology.

More winning

Mediate: "Pentagon Ejects WaPo and CNN From Offices in Favor of The Daily Caller, The Free Press, and Others." 

All of 2024 revised downward

PJ Media: "Joe Biden’s Fake Job Numbers Scandal Just Got Worse."

It was just four years of gaslighting and Americans got wise. 

Damn, J.D.

Red State: "'You Disgust Me': JD Vance Rips Into Ro Khanna Over Victimhood Politics, Parenting in Wild X Exchange." 

Do the slightest bit of research first, dude

Red State: "Community Notes Demolishes Dem Congressman for Wild Take on Trump at National Prayer Breakfast."

60 Minutes only airs 20 minutes

Reason: "Transcript Proves the 60 Minutes Scandal Was Always Fake - Donald Trump's complaints were always meritless, but CBS' capitulation sets a dangerous precedent for the future of the news media."

Yeah, I wasn't exactly blown away by the "evidence" of a cover-up considering that all television shows have to do a certain amount of editing.  But why was "60 Minutes" so bound to showing only 20 minutes when they clearly had time to show much more of the interview with a Presidential candidate?  I, for one, would have liked to have seen the "why do you want to be President" question that (predictably) ran into a ditch with Kamala's standard word salad of citing "ambitions, dreams and aspirations."  

That verbal tic trio appeared so often in Kamala's speeches and interviews that you can visualize the focus group memo upon which it was borne.

No more Romneys

Behind the Black: "Trump has finally taught Republicans how to fight."

One of the biggest complaints conservatives have had about the Republican Party for decades is that its politicians just would not fight. At the slightest hint that a Democrat was offended or disagreed, they’d fold like a house of cards. And their fear of the propaganda press made them so timid that Democrats could literally do anything and get away with it (as we are now finding out in the USAID scandal, which became a money laundering operation funneling taxpayer funds to partisan leftist organizations and media outlets).

Well, no more. Donald Trump got elected the first time and the second time because the one thing that stood out about him was his unwillingness to back down, and to “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

I tend to think that some of this pushback is overreach by the Democrats.  There was immigration, for sure, but in my mind the breaking point for a lot of Americans was biological men competing in women's sports.  This was the point where a lot of people didn't GAF if you called them "racist" or "transphobic" or "fascist."  That wasn't going to land anymore which is why Trump's "she's for they/them, he's for you" campaign ad was so effective.

Americans are laughing and ignoring the unhinged outrage from the Democrats now.  It's glorious.

Fact check: FALSE!

Twitchy: "Fact-Check: Transgender Opera in Colombia Didn’t Receive a Dime From USAID."

Funding didn't come from USAID.  It came directly from the U.S. Department of State.

It's like peeling back an onion

PJ Media: "The USAID Scandal Is Getting Worse by the Minute."

Extra - "Quiz: Can You Guess Which Of These Things USAID Actually Funded And Which Ones We Made Up?" 

What? No.

CNN: "Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip."

Was Trump just riffing during his presser with Netanyahu?  This is a bad idea.  Let's get back to the good ideas like taking over Greenland. 

The media is nothing if not self-righteous

Fox News: "'60 Minutes' producer defiant as CBS parent company mulls settling Trump lawsuit: 'I will not apologize' - CBS News was ordered to send the raw transcript of the Kamala Harris interview to the FCC."

The Trump Presidential Library is going to covered with solid gold by the time he's done.

Popcorn popped

NY Post: "GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls on NPR, PBS to appear for hearing on media bias." 

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."