Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Happy New Year, everyone

Thanks for reading my pithy thoughts.

"Inflation is transitory"

Nicole Russell in USA Today: "Democrats lied repeatedly in 2024. Don't let them gaslight us again in 2025. - "From inflation to President Joe Biden's health and Vice President Kamala Harris' competence as a presidential candidate, Democrats tried to lie their way to the White House." 

Monday, December 30, 2024

Another commentary on the media

Reason: "The 2024 Campaign Was an Embarrassment for Elite Media - Journalists increasingly see their job as protecting their preferred candidates, not asking tough questions."

In my opinion, this effort to protect the preferred candidates started in earnest with Obama and only accelerated with Trump.  Even Hillary was complaining about it back in 2008:

The echo chamber collapses

Red State: "This May Be the Best Summation of the Complete Failure of the Anti-Trump 'Resistance'."

Best line: "The smug never inherit the Earth."

I saw a similar post-mortem yesterday from a Democrat Senator and it seems like there has been a breakthrough from the left-wing psychosis:
So, when inflation was pissing people off, you could scarcely find a person in mainstream, left-wing circles, who would even talk about it. Except to explain that the Biden economy was better than other countries. And that the Biden stewardship was better than other industrialized nations. And by the way, I continue to think that’s true and totally irrelevant — If you’re talking about the question of are people pissed about the price of eggs, the answer is flatly yes they are. Not, ‘Don’t you know people are paying more in Paris and shouldn’t you be happy about that.’
Man, I never understood that angle that "inflation is higher in Europe."  Americans don't live in Europe and the price of peas in Paris means less than nothing to them.

A bloodbath of hoaxes

Federalist: "The Top 10 Hoaxes The Propaganda Press Peddled In 2024." 

No kidding

NY Post: "CBS News journalist says most underreported 2024 story was Biden’s ‘obvious cognitive decline’." 

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Football, man

This Bengals-Broncos game went from boring AF in the first half to the best regular season game of the year.  I wish both teams could win!

Update - Bengals win in OT.  Amazing.  Joe Burrow was cool as can be.

Hochul begging for a FAFO moment

In the latest installment of "other people's money": "NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Signs Law Forcing Energy Companies to Fund “Climate Change Superfund”."

I suspect this effort is illegal and just another example of political virtue-signalling and class warfare.  Conservatives are begging the oil companies to cease shipments to New York.

About 3 weeks early, guys

Just in time for Trump's term, the issue of homelessness reappears.  It's magic.


Friday, December 27, 2024

The gaslighting was exposed on June 27th

NY Post: "2024 was a year of gaslighting — here are the worst media lies."
Let’s be blunt: 2024 was the worst year ever for legacy media, and it ain’t even close.

Journalism morphed into blatant activism before our eyes.

We were told things we all witnessed or heard didn’t actually happen.

But Americans knew better, and the gaslighting got increasingly hysterical as the year went on.
Sharp as a tack, man!

Do it. It'll be funny.

The Hill: "Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act now."

Thursday, December 26, 2024

The same old story

Powerline: "Cuba runs out of sugar."

I think it was William F. Buckley who said that if you put Communists in charge of the Sahara desert they'd eventually run out of sand. 

Quiet quitting: White House edition

Twitchy: "'Couldn't Even Wait 26 Days'! Biden Fam Squeezing in 1 Last Tropical Vacay Before Leaving Office."

After this he's taking the family to Italy on the taxpayer dime.  KJP has been asked multiple times if Biden is going to do a traditional end-of-term press conference.  The answer is no.

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Talking with the enemy

Hot Air: "Dems Wonder: Should We Actually Talk to Conservatives?"
This goes beyond engagement, though, a point that Crockett and even Axios miss. It's not just that Democrats won't engage voters other than fellow true believers, limiting themselves to MSNBC, CNN, The View, and other progressive bubbles. (Bluesky would be another great example, where many of them fled to escape Elon Musk and the evenly balanced membership of Twitter/X.) It's that they argue either tacitly or explicitly that opposing viewpoints are entirely illegitimate and even part of foreign intelligence operations, alienating tens of millions of voters by attempting to suppress their points of view.
This is precisely why the mainstream media has failed so spectacularly.  It was warned about its bias and failure to be an honest broker so Republicans went to Fox News and Joe Rogan and America followed.

Monday, December 23, 2024

Why do I bother reading this dreck?

Boston Globe: "Biden’s tarnished legacy and the problem of moral luck."

You'll be unsurprised to learn that - gosh darn it - Biden was forced into all these bad decisions because of Trump.  Trump is the answer to every question and the excuse to every failing. 
A critic might argue that Biden chose to serve as president and that these are the circumstances in which presidents might find themselves. But that is not true. The circumstances created by Trump’s rise are sui generis. One’s successor going after one’s family is not baked into the transfer of power in a democracy.
Orange Man Bad therefore Hunter must go free.  Every time.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Just stop, Boston Globe

Boston Globe: "As Trump causes drama in Congress, Biden stays silent and on the sidelines - Strategic or not, Biden’s public absence from a chaotic spending fight underscored a quiet final chapter of his presidency."

It's not 4-D chess strategy.  C'mon with this already.  

Written one month before the Trump-Biden debate

CNN's Oliver Darcy was very upset with the Wall Street Journal in early June 2024: "The Wall Street Journal’s story about Biden’s mental acuity suffers from glaring problems."

Never forget that the mainstream media actively engaged in this coverup:
“So it is here,” Cooke said. “All of the defenses that we hear from the press about how journalism works are fine on their own. It’s just that it’s not how journalism works when the subject is a Republican, and especially when the subject is Donald Trump.”
Exactly. 

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Now the truth can be told

Wall Street Journal: "All the News That’s Suddenly Fit to Print After the Election - New York Times readers finally learn that Biden policies spurred a wave of illegal immigration." 

Also, ICYMI, sheesh, who ever believed Joe Biden could serve four more years?  Crazy talk, that.

Follow this social experiment

Twitchy: "Wealth Tax: Governor Jay Inslee Just Guaranteed EVERY Rich Washingtonian Will FLEE His Tax-Happy State."

This class warfare was tried in Europe and it was a flop.  So let's very carefully set the rules and track the results of Washington's wealth tax.  Bezos already left but there are plenty of U-Hauls to go around. 

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Our national Ponzi scheme

Reason: "Social Security Is Deeply Unfair. The Social Security Fairness Act Won't Fix That. - What is paid out to Social Security beneficiaries is not a return on workers' investments. It's just a government expenditure, like any other." 

Monday, December 16, 2024

Good. Do this.

New York Times: "Trump and His Picks Threaten More Lawsuits Over Critical Coverage."

Maybe - and I'm just spitballin' here - stop lying and you won't face a lawsuit.  You can start by giving back your Pulitzer for the Russia Russia Russia hoax.  

Sunday, December 15, 2024

"Let me pay your student loans, boss!"

City Journal: "Why the Working Class Rejected Bidenomics - Blue-collar and nonprofessional voters understood that Democratic economics supported college-educated elites." 

Saturday, December 14, 2024

You don't hate the media enough

Twitchy: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Pressuring Biden to Put the Equal Rights Amendment Into Law."

What's worse is that the politics reporter for the New Yorker thinks the President can unilaterally amend the U.S. Constitution.  These people really live in a different world.

ABC News to make $15 million "donation" to Trump Library

Fox News: "George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit" - "As part of the agreement, Stephanopoulos and the network issued statements of 'regret' for comments that prompted the lawsuit."

This is the way.  ABC News will issue a statement of "regret" but what really should happen is an on-air apology from Stephanopoulos.

You're next CNN.  

Galaxy brain thinking

DOGE the USPS

Washington Post: "Trump eyes privatizing U.S. Postal Service, citing financial losses."

Even though it's a "stand-alone" entity, the USPS still siphons off billions of tax dollars every year.  I have no idea why it can't limit deliveries to three times a week.  Personally, I can wait an extra day for the junk mail I receive, almost exclusively. 

Please just go

Try to do minimal damage on the way out: "Sorry, team Biden — Americans don’t trust you on the drones or anything else." 

Friday, December 13, 2024

This wasn't 4-D chess

Daily Caller: "‘Smartest Thing They Ever Did’: Katie Couric, Jessica Tarlov Admit GOP Leaders Sending Migrants North Was Game Changer."
“On the immigration front, there was a tendency amongst Democrats, and especially Democrats who were discussing the issue, so people who do interviews or are part of the media, to minimize it over the first two and a half years when there were a lot of people coming in here,” Tarlov said. “And I thought that it was a stunt when they started busing migrants … to Martha’s Vineyard. It was the smartest thing they ever did.”

“Well, it’s interesting ’cause I have a friend who lives in Florida, and I said, ‘What did you think of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott taking some of these immigrants and moving them to northern states?’ And she said, ‘I thought it was great because nobody really was paying attention before that.’ And I do think that this untold story was the strain on social services and communities, particularly along the border, this huge influx of immigrants was having,” Couric responded. “And I think the mainstream media, however you define that these days, kind of ignored that story to its peril.”
They realize this way too late.  I think a lot of people took notice of Martha's Vineyard's hypocritical reaction to a handful of illegals landing on their hallowed ground.  

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Everybody's the hero in their own narrative

Julie Kelly: "The Wray Slayer - With Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel, the FBI appears to be in panic mode. Chris Wray is the first to fall but not before giving a fantastical account of his seven-year stint as FBI director."  

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Vacant seat for an empty suit

Ace: "White House Officials: Trump Has Cucked Joe Biden So Completely He's Now the Currently Serving President." 

Accurate

Sunday, December 08, 2024

Power vacuum in Syria

Wall Street Journal: "Assad’s Rule Collapses in Syria, Raising Concerns of a Vacuum - Outside powers maneuver for influence as a regime that controlled the divided country for half a century melts away."

I was listening to an interview with a professor knowledgeable with Syria and the interviewer asked about Syria falling "in a couple of days."  The professor corrected him and said "it will be a couple of hours."  Good call!

Syria is at the nexus of the Russian & Iranian influence in the Middle East so who knows what's going to happen.  I'd like to say it's good to reduce Putin's reach but, well, we'll see.

Saturday, December 07, 2024

Jackie Calmes might as well resign right now

Independent: "LA Times staff outraged and columnist quits over owner's plan to add ‘bias meter’ to coverage."

Jackie Calmes is an LA Times columnist who writes exactly one column: Orange Man Bad.  Over and over and over.  You'll be unsurprised to learn in her latest column that Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter is OK because Trump.

Friday, December 06, 2024

She is just the worst

Red State: "Karine Jean-Pierre May Have Just Given the Most Shameless Press Conference Ever."

At one point, KJP said that 64% of Americans supported the Hunter Biden pardon and I thought "that can't possibly be true."

It wasn't.  Just a flat-out lie.

Thursday, December 05, 2024

The unanswerable question

The Corner: "What Is a ‘Fair Share’ in Taxes?" - "In absolute terms, the top 1 percent paid $864 billion in federal individual income taxes in 2022, and the bottom 90 percent paid $599 billion." 

Financing meatballs

Now I've seen it all.  You can have Martha Stewart's meatballs with 5 easy payments:

Wednesday, December 04, 2024

It's obvious

Red State: "Let's Face It, Donald Trump Is Already President."

I've seen the acronym "PINO" being used for Biden: President in name only.

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Keep it up, guys, you're doing great

Shot: "‘Morning Joe’ hosts tear into NYT, other liberal media for caring about Hunter Biden pardon: ‘Hysterically imbalanced’."

Can't have that

Boston Globe editorial: "A father’s love for his son doesn’t require dissing the Justice Department - The accusations in Biden’s presidential pardon play right into Trump’s political narrative."
At a time when President-elect Donald Trump has done everything in his power to undermine the nation’s criminal justice system — to cast it as overly politicized, in large part because he too was the subject of a federal prosecution — did Joe Biden have to second that notion?
Yes, that's the real crime here: Biden playing into the idea the Department of Justice is politicized and engaging in lawfare for political gain.  Or - hear me out here - maybe there's some truth to it as evidenced by a former President having his underwear drawer raided at Mar-a-Lago?

Trust in the FBI is at a century-low level.  Joe Biden's statement didn't do that; his DOJ did.

Monday, December 02, 2024

Biden was always going to pardon Hunter

Charles C.W. Cooke points out this paragraph in the NBC news story about Biden's intention to pardon Hunter: "Biden’s Lying about Pardoning Hunter Was Part of the Plan."
In case you missed the key line, I’ll print it again:

They said it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table.

Astonishing.
There was never a scintilla of doubt that Biden would break his vow not to pardon Hunter once the election was over — as I said back in June when he made the vow. Then, in September, when Hunter suddenly pled guilty to all the charges right as his tax trial was about to start, I explained that this strategy made sense only if he knew he was getting a pardon and therefore had no incentive to negotiate a better plea deal — and I elaborated that the pardon would come after the election but before the sentencing dates so that, as a technical legal matter, Hunter would never be a convicted felon.
Totally spot on and in fact I remember his article about Hunter suddenly pleading guilty so he could get it over while Papa was still in the White House.

All that moral preening over the "rule of law" went down the drain:
Look, we don’t have to be heartless bastards about it. Many among us would opt to save a child from jail, even if it meant backtracking on all our fine moral grandstanding. But the problem is the Dems tied their political rectitude to Biden’s acceptance of the jury’s democratic deliberations. They used the Hunter case to morally distinguish themselves from the allegedly lawless bruisers of the Trump set. They swore, endlessly, that they would abide by the rules and restore normalcy to the Trump-rattled republic. And they didn’t. They ended up exploiting presidential power for personal favour to a degree Trump never did. Their claims to moral distinction lie in tatters. Their delusion of righteousness stands exposed as just that: a delusion. This is why this pardon matters.
As I've noted before, every speech and public utterance by Joe Biden is really just a testament to his superiority.  That's why he sprinkles speeches with lines like "I'm the guy who [fill in the boast.] before waxing on about his father and growing up in Scranton.  But I suspect even Dementia Joe realized the enormity of this move which is why he dumped it on a Sunday night and promptly flew to another continent. 

Saturday, November 30, 2024

The final ignominy for Joe Biden

Washington Examiner: "Biden exits at all-time low, Trump in with highest approval."

There are so many things I dislike about Joe Biden but foremost on this list is his inability to accept even a small amount of blame for anything.  This is why the disastrous withdrawal of Afghanistan was an "extraordinary success."  That's why when inflation spiked to 8.3% it was "basically even."  And then he absolved himself from the wide open border because Donald Trump voiced his disapproval of an immigration bill...in February 2024.

As Americans consistently told this Administration that they were struggling, Biden never wavered from his message that we have the "best economy in the world."  You stupid rubes.

Yesterday, in his latest bid to protect his ego, Biden suggested that the reason he's not getting credit is because the news media is too negative:
I think there’s an explanation for that.  If you think about it, what do you — I’m — it’s not a criticism of the press — and I mean this; you know me too well — (laughs) — is that you turn on the television and you don’t see a lot of good news.  Even the stuff that is good news doesn’t seem to sell very well.  And so, when you turn on the TV, everything looks bad.  Everything looks bad. 
Yeah, Joey, it's because of your terrible Presidency and not because more people are tuning in to Fox News.  I'm old enough to remember Jimmy Carter and, although his Presidency is not viewed favorably, he was largely buffeted by crises out of his control such as the Iranian hostage ordeal and an oil crisis.  Biden opened up the border ("they should surge here!"), triggered inflation with his massive spending bills, drove up the national debt to unseen levels, abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban, and generally made America a weaker nation.

Congrats, Joe: worst President ever.



Everybody's watching Fox

Financial Times: "Fox News reaps benefits of Donald Trump victory - Liberal audiences tune out while Robert Murdoch’s channel attracts record numbers."

This stat is crazy: "During “primetime” evening hours in the weeks since the election, 73 per cent of the total cable news audience was watching Fox, while 16 per cent tuned into MSNBC and 11 per cent to CNN." 

Friday, November 29, 2024

Meathead departs X

Breitbart: "Rob Reiner deletes X/Twitter account following Trump victory, spent years spreading wild accusations."

The Community Notes feature done him in.

This might be my favorite thing from 2024

For years - decades! - I've been popping off about the bias of the mainstream media and its complete lack of objectivity when covering Democrats v. Republicans.  In my opinion, that absolute nadir was the coverage of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  Here was a guy (with young daughters) who was dragged through the mud on literally zero evidence because he was a Conservative.  It was disgusting.  The media followed up with the four year facade that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack! dontchaknow.  Morning Joe burned his credibility in a glorious bonfire with his "cogent" speech.

It looks like the media is finally getting its comeuppance: "MSNBC Viewership Craters 38%, CNN 27%, While Fox News Audience Jumps 41% Post-Election."

Good.  Burn them all to the ground and replace them with Joe Rogan.  Sell MSNBC at a flea market.

The mainstream media did this to themselves and half of America tried to warn them.  But they lived in an echo chamber and huffed on the farts of their own self-importance.  See you on the unemployment line.  Learn to code and all that.

It's glorious.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

And we're all thankful

Hey, we got Washington after all!


Wednesday, November 27, 2024

They regret it didn't work

Jonathan Turley: "“Reimagining” the Resistance: Lawfare Warriors Express Regret But Not Remorse After Election."

I always thought lawfare was a losing proposition along with Colorado's attempt to throw Trump off the ballot in that Americans viewed it as a way to subvert democratic choice. 

Monday, November 25, 2024

Please make this happen

Red State: "Marjorie Taylor Greene to NPR: The DOGE Is Coming for You."

If there's one low-stake outcome I want to see from this election, it's the defunding of NPR.  I saw this story earlier today and then listened to NPR on the way home for the first time in months.  It is still the left-wing echo chamber it's always been with the endless parade of Americans unhinged by the election of Trump.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Our national Ponzi scheme

Jeff Jacoby: "The myths that hide why Social Security is unsustainable - Beginning with FDR, politicians have promoted fables and fibs about the nation’s largest spending program."
To test your understanding of Social Security, here is a short quiz:
1. How much money is in the Social Security trust fund?
2. How much money have you saved in your Social Security retirement account?
3. How much money are you guaranteed to receive in monthly benefits when you retire?
The answer to all three questions is the same: None.
Social Security and its solvency used to be a pet project of mine but no more.  It's obvious that politicians from both sides of the aisle are just going to ignore the problem until it goes belly-up in a couple of years.

Honestly, it has no basis in modern times.  At the time Social Security was created, manual labor was still a thing and it wasn't reasonable to ask Grandpa to dig a ditch every day to stay out of poverty.  As Jacoby notes, seniors are now the wealthiest segment of society, getting regular payments from younger workers who will be royally screwed when it's time for their retirement.  

Preach it, my brother

NY Post: "Joe Rogan explains why liberal media ‘hemorrhaging’ audiences: ‘You’re not accurate, you’re delusional’

It was obvious not even in hindsight

New York Post: "Lawfare and nonstop smears from Democrats only contributed to Trump’s triumph."

As I like to note, Trump's largest single day for campaign donations was the day he was "convicted" in the bogus New York hush-money trial.  (Only a judge can convict with an actual sentence.)  That should have been the tip-off that a large number of Americans were against lawfare.

Saturday, November 23, 2024

What Media bias?

Heartless governor to immigrants: GTFO

Boston Globe: "Healey to seek six-month limit on stays in emergency shelters; officials say current approach ‘not sustainable’."
Governor Maura Healey said Friday she will seek to cap stays in emergency shelters for homeless and migrant families to six months, marking her latest effort to contain spending within a strained shelter system that is projected to cost the state nearly $1.1 billion this fiscal year.
That's right here in Massachusetts.  And right before Christmas!

Friday, November 22, 2024

It's over

Former prosecutor and CNN contributor (don't hold that against him) Elie Honig: "Somebody Needs to Tell the Manhattan DA’s Office That the Trump Case Is Over."
It’s over. Yes, there are legal issues that the parties and the courts can unwind if they care to — Trump’s immunity claim, first and foremost. But this case won’t carry on while he’s president, as the DA’s office has apparently recognized, and maybe not even while he’s president-elect.
The Manhattan DA's office will stretch this out as long as they can until January 20th and then unceremoniously dump the charges on a Friday night to minimize the news coverage.

By the way, Honig agrees with the notion that lawfare backfired and helped Trump:
Beyond that, Bragg’s charge was such an obvious stretch that it played right into Trump’s persecution narrative on the campaign trail. Trump’s serial prosecutions inarguably helped him emerge from the pack and win the Republican primary. There are too many factors to credit or blame any one of them for Trump’s showing in the 2024 general election, his best ever. But it’s clear now that the general populace was entirely unmoved by the hush-money case. Heck, in Manhattan itself — the scene of the crime! — Trump did five points better in 2024 than in 2020, moving from 12 percent to 17 percent of the vote. Trump gained more percentage points in Manhattan than he did across the entire country.

It’s over now; Bragg’s case will never reach a conclusion, and Trump is headed back to the White House. He’s not getting sentenced now or in 2029. The DA has done enough damage. It’s time to let it go.
All that effort to paint Trump as a felon and the Left won't even have that.

Quote of the day

Red State: "MSNBC in Panic, Now Rachel Maddow Takes a Big Hit With Comcast Changes."
"It turned into one giant circle j--k and echo chamber."
Sure did!  Now it's going to be sold for the copper cables in the drywall.

You know what to do, Gov. Abbott

Hot Air: "Mayor Wu Says She's Not Helping ICE Take Illegals Out of Boston."

Don't forget about Denver, also.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

The "rename MSNBC" game is ON

NY Post: "MSNBC staffers ‘in a panic’ as NBC-parent Comcast plans to spin off channel — and possibly change its name."

Sounds like we should call it "Bluesky TV": an echo chamber where opposing viewpoints are ruthlessly suppressed. 

You guys have your own place now

Hot Air: "Things at Bluesky Going as Well as Could Be Expected."

It appears that the X-substitute is broken up between two camps: 1) people who post things "offensive" and 2) the people who try to ban group #1.  There is no middle ground.

Monday, November 18, 2024

The mainstream media commits suicide

Pretty sure I've used that title before but here comes Megan McArdle in the Washington Post: "McArdle: Liberal Media Bias is Hurting Democrats."
Those of us who used our own eyes were right. Those (including the NY Times) who relied on White House talking points about "cheap fakes" were embarrassingly wrong. And that's the ultimate point McArdle is making. You can't lie your way to victory when almost everything is happening on camera. All you can do is ruin your own credibility.
Credibility ruined:


Morning Joe went to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring and save his job.  Because of his principles.

Full stop

Red State: "BREAKING: PA Supreme Court Stops the Steal." 

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Meanwhile, here in the People's Republic of MA

Outkick: "Protesters Rally Outside Dem. Rep. Seth Moulton's Office After He Spoke Out Against Males In Women's Sports."

To his credit, Moulton hasn't backed down with a groveling apology.

Lawfare was a huge mistake

I strongly agree with Sasha Stone here: "Sorry, Democrats. America is Just Not That Into You."
Lawfare was a big mistake, the biggest, because it sent the message to us, the voters, that the Democrats couldn’t earn our votes on their own. They could only win if they put Trump in jail.

Nothing did more to turn the Trump story into the Hero’s Journey than that. By the end of it, a growing number of Americans hated them and couldn’t wait to see them voted out of power, myself included.
The Alvin Bragg conviction was a tremendous joke, particularly the bootstrapping of misdemeanor charges into felonies by legal hand-waving.  Americans saw through it.

Extra - Victory Girls: "Democrats: It’s Not Us, It’s You." 

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Getting tired of winning

NY Post: "‘The View’ star Sunny Hostin deletes X account, goes after Elon Musk amid controversial ‘white women’ comments."
Hostin was trolled on the social media site last week after she blamed “uneducated white women” and Latino men for Trump’s victory.
It's their go-to move.  

So many graphs

Patrick Ruffini: "The realignment is here."

The most striking graph here, as Patrick points out, is how Democrats became the party of educated snobs while the Republican party is now the part of the working people.  

Thursday, November 14, 2024

The kids LOVE J.D. Vance

Red State: "Vibes, Baby: NY Times Interviews Late Deciders Who Broke for Trump, and the Left Simply Can't Deal." 

The X-odus

I'm pretty proud of that title.

Legal Insurrection: "Liberals Run Away From X Because Diverse Opinions Make Them Feel Unsafe - “Every time I opened it up,” one X user said, “it would throw things at me that put me in a bad mood.” Yes, the truth is like that."


As the kids say: this isn't an airport, you don't need to announce your departure. 


Tuesday, November 12, 2024

The wins just keep on coming!

Reuters: "Comcast weighs spin-off of declining cable networks after strong third quarter"
Comcast, opens new tab said it was considering spinning off its cable networks that include CNBC and MSNBC into a separate company, as the media industry grapples with a decline in traditional TV viewership due to cord-cutting by consumers shifting to streaming.

Womp womp.  Learn to code.

Saturday, November 09, 2024

That is good news!

David Harsanyi: "Good news: The public has stopped listening to mass media"
If the 2024 presidential contest proved anything, it’s that the mass media no longer drive the national conversation. They can no longer stoke fear and outrage in average voters. They can no longer prop up terrible candidates. And, like him or not, President-elect Donald Trump’s success with black, Hispanic, and Jewish voters, if exit polls are even close to correct, proves that the entire “fascist” scare was a flop.

Indeed, the establishment press are less trusted than virtually any major institution in American life. It is a well-earned ignominy. It’s also a tragedy for a free nation that we have a barely functioning press. Reporters probably tell themselves they’re disliked because they’re fearless truth-tellers. But, far more likely, it’s a referendum on their deceit.
The Wall Street Journal had a similar article: "Trump’s Win Cemented It: New Media Is Leaving the Old Guard Behind - Podcasts are exploding, TikTok is a news source, and traditional media is shrinking in reach and influence."  Americans no longer trust the mainstream media which is a hive mind of leftist thought and its decline is well-deserved and overdue.

Extra - Kim Strassel: "A Landslide Against the Media - News organizations tried to prop Biden and Harris up. How did that work out?

Friday, November 08, 2024

What a performance

This is a spoof, right?  Right?


What would we do without experts?

CNN: "‘Death by a thousand cuts’: How experts warn Trump could use an authoritarian playbook to go after the media."

That "could" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.  As the Babylon Bee says: Trump was going to be a dictator in his first term but forgot. 

Thursday, November 07, 2024

We won't have KJP to kick around anymore

Honest to God, she's just the dumbest person to ever be a White House press secretary.  Today, a very reasonable question: for years President Biden has been calling Trump a threat to democracy but now Biden says everything is cool.  The subtext is "were you lying then or are you lying now?"

It should be a very expected question but KJP doesn't have the gray matter to answer.

Another Senate seat for GOP

Associated Press: "Republican David McCormick flips pivotal Pennsylvania Senate seat, ousts Bob Casey."

Casey was famously running ads in Pennsylvania talking up his work with Trump.

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

A-Mazing

The mainstream media commits suicide

Long X post from investor Bill Ackman.  Excerpt:
When the story of this election is written, I expect it will be as much about how half of America woke up to the reality that they have been manipulated by the media. This should lead to an abandonment by many of the MSM as their primary source of information. It will push more people to @X, to podcasts and other empirical sources, and it will lead to a more informed public. 
He notes that the MSM perpetuated the illusion that Biden was "fit as a fiddle" because saying otherwise would help Trump.  When they couldn't maintain that story, they needed to create a new illusion about Kamala Harris because Trump.  Eventually, Americans saw through the ruse.

Quid pro quo Joe?

Andrew McCarthy: "Trump victory should be death knell for Democrats' lawfare - Will Democrats learn the lawfare lesson?"

Let's make a deal:
President Biden could provide a powerful example of statesmanship — he could finally, on the cusp of leaving office, act like the unifying president he promised to be at the start — by pardoning his predecessor and successor. It would certainly make it easier for the nation to accept the president’s inevitable pardon of his son, Hunter, who is awaiting sentence on gun and tax charges. It could also provide the political space Gov. Kathy Hochul would need to pardon Trump over the caterwauling of New York progressives — hopefully, Democrats are reading the returns showing inroads Trump made with their traditional constituencies in the Empire State.

Lawfare was terrible for the country. The resounding win Americans have given Trump should be its death knell.
Trump for Hunter?  Joe should take that deal since all of Trump's ridiculous cases are going to be thrown out on appeal.

Nice work if you can get it

By the way, so far this week Joe Biden has completed the following tasks:

1) Made a phone call.

Prediction

Now that I'm done with election predictions, here's a new one: Biden will pardon Hunter.

He might as well just do it today and get it over with.  We know it's going to happen.

Spot on, man, spot on

Adam Coleman: "Trump's Massive Win Is A Referendum On What The Democratic Party Is No Longer - They lost the plot and abandoned liberal values, common sense, and the working class"
Cardi B's public endorsement doesn't impact the decision of someone who has less than $400 in their savings and praying they won't have a financial emergency. No one gives a damn about what millionaires in Hollywood want or who they support when we are trying to survive.
Great essay.  Americans have had enough.

Trump wins - mainstream media hardest hit

Honestly, I was 99% sure that Trump was going to win.  For months I said this would be a "fundamentals" election where Americans were going to vote against the horrible record of the Biden-Harris administration and return to the "mean tweets" era of Trump.  People don't give a damn about that stuff when it costs them 20% more at the supermarket checkout line.

But never in my 50+ years have I seen such an onslaught of negative coverage as the mainstream media over the past year.  My God.  There's a reason (as Jeff Bezos noted) they're considered less trustworthy than used car salesmen.  I'd like to believe the MSM would reflect on their biases but they had a chance in 2016 and blew it. 

One other benefit from Trump's victory: we'll be spared the impassioned essays on the electoral college since it looks like Trump also won the popular vote.

Win-win baby!

God bless America

Tuesday, November 05, 2024

Programming update

We've arrived in the point in the evening where I've switched over from Fox News to MSNBC to laugh at the meltdown.

Prediction: 312-226

I meant to post this earlier but I predicted this about a week ago at least in a text thread with my college roommate.

For the record, I feel pretty sure about Pennsylvania and Wisconsin but I'm on the fence with Michigan which could go either way.  If I'm wrong about Michigan, it's still 297-241 for Trump.

The DJT proxy vote

The Trump Media group stock is soaring in after-hour trading:



Economy is #1 issue and most say it sucks

Twitchy: "CNN's Chris Wallace Says It Would Take a 'Miracle' for Kamala to Win As First Exit Polls Released." 

The Paper of Record

Monday, November 04, 2024

Good encapsulation

Unreported Truths: "Why I'm voting for Donald J. Trump - He is an imperfect vessel - to say the least - but the country needs change." 

Extra - This one is good too from Clay Travis: "Why I'm voting for Donald Trump."  His #2 bullet point is "Democrats broke 250 years of American precedent by trying to put their chief political rival in prison for the rest of his life."  This one has a lot of resonance with me: the lawfare against Trump was just absolutely ridiculous from paying back loans to the mystery "second crime" to advance the hush-money trial to the raid at Mar-a-Lago.

If only Trump had been a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" he could have gotten off scot-free!

Sunday, November 03, 2024

NY Times focus groups say...

New York Times: "Our 61 Focus Groups Make Me Think Trump Has a Good Chance of Winning."
A main takeaway from our groups is that a cross-section of independents, Republicans and Democrats liked how America was under Mr. Trump — they liked the economy, the perception of relative global stability, the restraint of divided government and the image that this outsider businessman was not beholden to Washington insiders, lobbyists and big money (the unholy trio of turpitude for many of our participants). There were plenty of things that they didn’t like about Mr. Trump — his behavior and tweets most of all — but those didn’t matter as much. Then Covid happened and Americans wanted a more stable leader. Listening to all of these voters over the years, I can’t help but feel that Mr. Trump probably would have been re-elected in 2020 if not for Covid. And his refusal to concede the 2020 election and his behavior on Jan. 6 turned our focus group participants against him more than anything else he did. Perhaps that will be enough to defeat him this week.

As for Mr. Biden’s challenges, one of the signal failures of his administration has been telling Americans that the economy was getting better and better. They kept telling us: Not for me. Americans hate inflation, full stop. If there was a common denominator for our groups across 2022, 2023 and 2024, it was experiencing and loathing inflation, such that I see it as the single most important fact of life in Tuesday’s election. That can’t be overstated.
I feel like I've been saying for a year now that this will be a "fundamentals" election where Americans may be put off by Trump's boorish behavior but conclude that peace and prosperity are more important.

Most accurate 2020 pollster says...

NY Post: "Trump leading Harris in every swing state: new poll."

Very close in every state, but you'd prefer to be Trump here.  Go and vote.  

Saturday, November 02, 2024

Back to the basement, Joey

Red State: "Kamala Harris Tells Joe Biden to Take a Hike, Cancels His Campaign Events." 

I wonder if this will get the same attention as that PR joke

NY Post: "Tim Walz refers to Elon Musk as ‘that gay guy’ – his campaign claims he misspoke."

The word "gay" probably has an apostrophe here.

Why Kamala didn't go on Rogan

Because she would have to answer questions.  Wall Street Journal: "Kamala Harris Runs From Economic Reality - Voters are worried about border security and inflation but all she wants to talk about is ‘fascism.’"
Whatever her proposals, Ms. Harris’s overriding problem is that she can’t run away from the Biden administration’s record. Her campaign’s closing message is that Mr. Trump is a fascist threat to the republic, which is something you come up with when you can’t defend what your administration has been doing for the past four years about inflation, the economy, border security and other issues that voters care most about. Ms. Harris has spent a lot of time ducking serious interviews and deflecting tough questions so that she could focus on telling people what they already know about Donald Trump. Will it work? Not if Mr. Trump’s own closing message resonates.
The mainstream media is going to try to drag her husk over the finish line.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Dementia Joe rides again

Fox News: "Biden calls Trump supporters 'garbage' during Harris campaign call as VP calls for unity at Ellipse rally - 'Shades of Hillary’s deplorables… I repeat: Lots of 2016 vibes in this election,' one X commenter said." 

It seems like Biden's mental decline has accelerated over the past couple months.  No wonder Kamala doesn't want him on the campaign trail.  

USA Today + 200

Ace: "Oof: Now USA Today and the 200 Newspapers Owned by Gannett Will Also Withhold Their Presidential Endorsement."

It sure is strange how all these national newspapers have withheld Presidential endorsements out of principle this election season.

Monday, October 28, 2024

This guy gets it

CNBC: "Jeff Bezos defends Washington Post non-endorsement, says Americans ‘don’t trust’ media."

So very true.  Say, has Jennifer Rubin resigned yet?

One-trick pony

They never learn.


Democrats are having a panic attack as Donald Trump pulls ahead in national and battleground polls with a little more than a week to go. Three surveys in the past week show that voters rate him more favorably than Kamala Harris, and Gallup found that his positive rating has hit 50% for the first time in his three campaigns.

All of this comes despite, and perhaps because of, unhinged Democratic attacks on him and a partisan press that doesn’t attempt to disguise its bias. Mr. Trump is suddenly becoming a sympathetic antihero.
Trump bumped up another 0.1% in the RCP popular average today.  Keep it up, Dems.


Where's the joy?

Infantalizing

Women!  You are strong and confident girl bosses!  Watch out world!

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Losers and suckers

This story has the ring of veracity:

Buh-bye, clown show paper

Spectator: "The end of the Washington Post"
The Washington Post is collapsing. Once one of America’s great media institutions, the paper lost $100 million last year and has shed 500,000 subscribers. Recent reports reveal that Post owner Jeff Bezos is going to be more hands-on to try and save the paper.

Yet trying to get employees of the Post to do their jobs is like trying to get dogs to play baseball. Dogs just aren’t interested in baseball, and the breed of journalist now at the Post is just not interested in journalism. Always a liberal paper, the Post is now pure propaganda.
It's not just that they're wrong, it's that they're condescendingly smug about it.

We've disappointed the Obamas again, America

Legal Insurrection: "Michelle Obama Suggests Those Who Don’t Support Harris are Sexist, Racist."

There's really no other explanation.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

The ol' bait and switch

The Harris campaign promised a Beyonce concert but got Kamala instead: "Harris Booed at Rally Because Beyonce Didn’t Perform."

Cleanup on aisle Biden

The White House transcript crew cleans up Biden's latest gaffe:
Thank you to Senator Mark Kelly, a great friend, who also is married to an incredible woman who is my friend. 
Emphasis added.  Biden very clearly said "was" as if Gabbie Giffords is dead. 

Resign

Sixteen Washington Post columnists are very upset that the Washington Post didn't endorse Kamala.  Let's see how many quit out of this terrible transgression. 

Friday, October 25, 2024

Good question

Federalist: "The Pravda Press Still Won’t Ask Harris If She’ll Accept The Results Of The Election If She Loses." 

Learn to code, bro

Breitbart: "Washington Post editor resigns Robert Kagan resigns after newspaper's non-endorsement of Kamala Harris."

Can Jennifer Rubin be far behind?  Stick to your principles, Jen!

Remember when Trump was President and we weren't on the verge of World War 3?

Fox News: "Israel begins retaliatory strikes against Iran following missile barrage targeting Israelis."

The humiliating resignation of the Washington Post

Ace: "Confirmed: Washington Post Will Not Endorse Kamala; Leftwing Activists Pretending to be Journalists Cope and Seethe."

These smug bastards at the Washington Post rolled out their new slogan - "Democracy dies in Darkness" - right after Donald Trump took office.  They have been consistently against him in every way.  So why did they decline to endorse Kamala over Literally Hitler (TM)?

I'll give you my answer: the Washington Post is a dying newspaper and they can't afford to sully their reputation any more than it's already fallen.  This is about saving their phony-baloney jobs.

Suck on it, you self-important prigs.


Thursday, October 24, 2024

Into the belly of the beast

Red State: "Ben Shapiro Took on 25 Kamala Harris Voters in a Debate, and the Results Were Incredible."

I watched much of this video and it was pretty civil (with some exceptions.)  Every time I see these videos, it becomes abundantly clear why the Left tries to shut down free expression while the Right regularly welcomes debate.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Sleepy time!

Hot Air: "For the Second Day in a Row, Harris Not Campaigning."

She's given up.  All she has is her ridiculous "Trump is Hitler!" lies.  Good luck with that, Kammy.

Nate Silver: Trump's gonna win

Hot Air: "Nate Silver: It's a 50-50 Race but My Gut Says Trump."

One reason that Silver gives is "nonresponse bias" in which Trump supporters believe the mainstream media is full of s--t and they are not going to participate in your biased poll.

CNN Town Hall tonight with Kamala

Harris is in a "doom loop" where every interview she gives is a disaster but the only way to reverse her decline is to do interviews.  I don't know if I can watch her give her same canned lines again.

If I could ask a question it would be this: "The Biden administration recently did an executive action to curtail illegal crossings at the border and bragged that it has lowered crossings significantly.  Why couldn't this executive order have been given in 2022 or 2023?  Also: I do NOT want to hear about the amnesty bill you introduced or the legislation that failed in 2024.  I want you to talk about the executive order ONLY.  Don't talk about the legislation.  Understand?  Just the executive order."

That would be my question, not that it would matter.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Wow, NBC News pressed a question

Fox News: "Harris claims she was 'honest with the American people' about Biden's mental acuity: 'Capable in every way' - NBC News' Hallie Jackson pressed the vice president on her 'judgment' during an interview."

Nobody believes this.  If Biden still had his marbles, he'd still be the candidate. 

Monday, October 21, 2024

Town hall? More like Clown Hall, amirite?

Daily Mail: "Kamala Harris town hall host Maria Shriver says crowd can't ask questions because they're 'pre-determined'." 

This poor amnesia victim

Legal Insurrection: "Trump GA Case: Nathan Wade Met With WH Counsel, Fani Willis Started Investigation Before She took Office - Wade also admitted he had to attend “RICO school” because he never handled a RICO case before."

Wade colluded with the Biden White House counsel's office which we know because he billed Georgia for multiple meetings.  He just can't remember anything about them.

Put this in the Louvre

Red State: "The New York Times 'Fact-Checks' Kamala Harris Working at McDonald's, and It's Absolutely Incredible."

"Good enough for us!" - NY Times


Sunday, October 20, 2024

Kamala's mom told somebody she worked at McDonalds

This NY Times article is infuriating for the way so-called journalists accept their preferred narrative and lose all curiosity for contrary facts.
Mr. Trump’s latest allegation also appears to be false.
It does?  What kind of evidence does the NY Times uncover?  A teenage friend of Kamala who says her mother told her she worked at McDonalds:
Answering questions by email, Ms. Kagan said that Ms. Harris’s mother, who died in 2009, had told Ms. Kagan about the summer job years ago.
That's it.  That's all the hearsay evidence we have.  Say, can we ask Kamala's sister?
The campaign did not make any of Ms. Harris’s friends or family members available for interviews about their recollections of her experience there.
No.  How about McDonalds themselves?
McDonald’s corporate representatives have ignored media requests for corroborating information.
Oh.  In fact, the McDonald's job was never mentioned by Kamala until she started to run for President:
Harris’s work at McDonald’s, which allegedly took place at a franchise in the California Bay Area the summer after her freshman year in college, is a recent addition to her carefully curated life story. For decades, Harris never mentioned it, not on the campaign trail nor in two books. It’s absent from a job application and résumé she submitted a year after she graduated from college. Third-party biographers did not write about it. Not until Harris ran for president in 2019 and spoke to a labor rally in Las Vegas did she mention the job, telling the crowd that she "was a student when I was working in a McDonald’s."
This McDonald's story doesn't pass the smell test and an objective press would seek out the truth instead of depending on a single friendly source who didn't even have first-hand knowledge of this alleged job. 

Extra from Clay Travis:
 

They were historical reenactors

Red State: "The Strange Case of the 'Nazis' Noshing at a Massachusetts Restaurant."

I used to work in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, home of Old Sturbridge Village.  Every once in a while you would see somebody at the McDonalds dressed in 18th Century garb.  

Friday, October 18, 2024

Reality vs. fan fiction

I like this commentary from David Strom on the Democrats' singular strategy of demonizing Donald Trump:
The problem they have is that they have been saying this for a decade, and somehow, everybody who opposes him is still alive, still not in jail, and still able to say whatever they want without fear of consequences. In fact, the Democrats keep doing what they accuse Trump of doing. 

So now, when a respected columnist at a respected magazine pulls out the "Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini" card, everybody but the already Trump-deranged shrugs. They have heard it endlessly already. It no longer has the power to shock. It becomes background noise for everybody except the brainwashed.
For all Trump's "lock her up!" bluster of 2016, Hillary was never going to be prosecuted and indeed she wasn't despite her many indisputable crimes.  The same can't be said for the baseless lawfare against Trump.

This, then leads to the Boston Globe editorial endorsing Kamala Harris.  Here are the concluding paragraphs:
Some of Trump’s supporters seem to not take him seriously, as if all the threats, extreme positions, rants, and oddball ravings are just part of an insult comedy routine. But we would urge every Trump supporter to ask themselves this question before casting their ballot: Do you really want to take the chance that it was all just an act?

Consider, instead, the candidate who has pledged to be “a president who leads and listens; who is realistic, practical and has common sense,” as Harris told the nation in August. The candidate who has not sought to bully or demean, but who instead urges the people of America to “show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: Freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities.”
Seriously this is fan fiction.  It's make believe.  What is the evidence for the assertion that 1) Trump is going to turn into a dictator and 2) Kamala is remotely competent to be President?  Where is it?

The only evidence of the former is January 6th where Trump offered security forces which were turned down by the House Sergeant at Arms before Trump urged supporters to march "peacefully."  Otherwise, there are the mean tweets.

As for Kamala, she certain had "pledged" but what she hasn't done is shown any capacity for the job.  This is why supporters run away when you ask them to name a single accomplishment.

It's all wish-casting and story time.  This is all they have.

Joyful warrior

NY Post: "Donald Trump obliterates Kamala Harris, Biden, de Blasio and more Dems in scorching Al Smith dinner roast: ‘Shows there is a God’."

Some good zingers here.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Wasted

Federalist: "That Fox News Interview May Have Done To Kamala What The Debate Did To Biden."

Oh that's not news

Reason: "The Media Shouldn't Overlook Kamala Harris' Plagiarism."

That's (D)ifferent because you know why.

Not a single answer was offered

Byron York: "Finally faced with hard questions on border, Harris has no answers."

I went back and listened to the part where Bret asked about the women killed by illegal immigrants and noted - three times - that it happened way before the February 2024 legislation was a thing.  It didn't matter: Kamala went right back to her standard talking point. 

Good review:

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Well that was another dumpster fire

PJ Media: "Kamala Shouts, Whines, Cannot Answer Basic Questions in Fox Interview."

I look forward to reading the transcript of this interview since I don't think Kamala answered a single question.  Not one.  In fact, the very first question was "how many illegals crossed the border?" and she simply ignored the question to start her standard filibuster on immigration.

When Bret Baier asked why Bad Orange Man was getting support from half the country, Kamala responded with this information: "We're running for the President of the United States of America."

Wisdom received, sister.  That's some deep analysis. 

It was reported that Kamala showed up 15 minutes late to the interview and then her staff cut off questions after a half-hour.  Because of course.

Know why?  Because Kamala Harris is an idiot.
Harris isn’t “vague” or “careful” or disinclined to “delineate her stance.” She’s wildly, catastrophically, incontestably out of her depth. She’s not “light”; she’s dull. She’s not a “dodger”; she’s a fool. She’s not “joyful”; she’s imbecilic. As Gertrude Stein once said of Harris’s hometown, Oakland, there’s no “there there.” She’s a nullity, a vacuum, an actress, an empty canvas that is incapable of absorbing paint. Search through Harris’s historical press clippings and you will be astonished by the vastness of space, for, in more than two decades of analysis and reporting, Harris has not once been credited with a single valuable or original idea. What you see on TV is what you get in private: a broken battery-operated toy that can’t talk, that can’t argue, that can’t laugh in the right places, and that badly malfunctions if expected to transcend the superficial.
I'm going to call it: this interview will be the end of Kamala's campaign.  Her numbers have been steadily declining since she ended the "basement" stage and this train wreck will only accelerate the swoon.  She's on a rocket ship to defeat.

Buh-bye.

Update - It's not too late for another switcheroo!