Everything is "The American [blank] Plan"

National Review: "Biden’s Trillion-Dollar Train Wreck."  - "No, really, you can’t keep track of the Biden administration’s trillion-dollar spending bills without a scorecard." 

Never let a crisis go to waste, eh?

The Oscars are done

The next one will be broadcast on Netflix.  Kyle Smith: "Oscar Ratings Crater, Hit Another Record Low" and by "record low" we mean losing half your audience.

Everyone knew this was coming, given how pathetic the ratings were for the Golden Globes and the Grammys, but even so, the viewership numbers are a shocking disaster for the Academy Awards broadcast. After last year’s rock-bottom viewership hit 23.6 million and the top award went to a Korean film, Parasite, the average person hadn’t even heard of, this year’s Oscars went full woke. You never go full woke . . .

Ratings crashed 58 percent off last year’s abysmal viewership, down to 9.85 million Americans. Let that sink in: In a nation of 330 million, not even ten million Americans watched the Oscars. 

The star power is gone. The glamour is gone. The public interest is gone.

Ace makes a similar point here: when you disagree with the direction someone or something is taking, at first you complain and then you forget about it altogether.  The Oscars have crossed that threshold. 

For the record, here's one of my favorite Oscar moments (back when I looked forward to them): Louise Fletcher wins Best Actress for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and thanks her deaf parents.

They were in nursing homes

Hot Air: "New York loses congressional seat in reapportionment -- by a margin of 89 people." - "Which raises an ominous possibility: Did Cuomo’s horrible mismanagement of New York’s initial outbreak last spring cost his state an electoral vote and a House seat? Realistically there’s no way that it didn’t, is there? New York’s lost more than 50,000 people to COVID and was seeing around 800 deaths per day last spring at its peak."  

There won't be a kid in a cage to be found

Christian Toto: "Seven Causes You Won’t Hear Championed During the Oscars" - "They’re inconvenient to the industry. Some reflect poorly on President Joe Biden. Others make Hollywood denizens look like hypocrites of the highest order. The causes reveal the ideological limitations of an industry that purports to be modern-day truth tellers but acts like a Democratic Super PAC."  

Joe Biden is a clown

Seriously, what is this guy's fetish with wearing multiple masks all the time?  Twitchy: "A fully-vaccinated Biden shows up as the ONLY masked world leader during Zoom call and people have thoughts."  Here's one of them:

Biden yesterday: "Science is back."

Biden today: *Wears a mask on a Zoom call* https://t.co/TC1xW0cpNS

— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) April 23, 2021

BLM: not all black lives matter

Spiked: "So now cops are racist even when they save a black person’s life?" - "The fury over the killing of Ma’Khia Bryant has exposed the cynicism and hypocrisy of the woke elites."

The tragic Bryant affair really reveals the moralistic impulse behind contemporary ‘anti-racism’. What we have in wokeness is not a continuation of the historical struggles for greater racial equality and fairer forms of justice, but rather a constant hunt for proof that white supremacy still stalks the US and that we need experts, activists and the occasional riot to keep it in check.

It is this tendency – this need, in fact – to read every situation and encounter through the lens of racism that led so many to assume that Reardon was another racist cop and Bryant was another George Floyd. In the 21st century ‘anti-racism’ has become an industry. It provides many people with moral authority, financial comfort and a sense of virtuous power. They were not about to let another possible white-cop-vs-black-person situation go unexploited. They need this stuff. And the girl who was in danger from Bryant? Meh. Not all black lives matter, it seems.

I once saw a YouTube video from a guy who critiques rhetoric and debating and he said that one of the things that makes Ben Shapiro so dominant in debates is that, occasionally, he'll agree with you.  It's a mark of a rational person that they won't defend irrational thoughts.  This incident in Columbus seems to be one of those situations where the overwhelming evidence indicates the police prevented the death or serious injury of somebody on the receiving end of a roundhouse-punch stabbing.  Seems like a good point to note that, golly, not all cops are bastards.

But no.  They have their narrative, their cash, and their homes in Topanga Canyon.  Nothing's going to stop this gravy train.  

About that systemic racism

Red State: "NY Post Reporter Masterfully Turns 'Systemic Racism' Tables on Jen Psaki During Press Briefing."  Jen doesn't want to talk about "Lock 'em up Joe" anymore.  

Stab it out

National Review: "The Let-Teenagers-Knife-Fight Caucus." - "To be clear, it’s possible more details will emerge that will require us to further reevaluate what transpired in Columbus. But the idea that cops need to take a step back and let teenagers stab it out with each other is completely insane." 

They just made it up

Issues and Insights: "The New York Times Has Just Been Caught In Two Monstrous Lies."  

The Paper of Record Retraction. 

Extra - And then there's Columbus: "About that NYT "police shoot teen-age girl as Chauvin convicted" narrative." - "Instead of telling the truth about this shooting, the New York Times and likely other media outlets want to exploit it for their own political purposes — even when they have seen the evidence and it negates that narrative."  So that's three lies.  

Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts

I've been kinda following this case through the comments of Andrew McCarthy at National Review and the legal experts at Legal Insurrection.  The general perspective was that the defense was lackluster but, from a legal perspective, the second-degree murder charge was way over the top.

In the end, the video of George Floyd begging for his life was always going to override these legal sensibilities. 

Extra - National Review: "The cops had the right and responsibility to use some force to restrain and subdue Floyd, and maybe his death was due in part to other factors besides force. But the extended time involved in this case always made it likely that any reasonable jury would convict Chauvin of some crime bearing responsibility for the death of a man who did not deserve to die."  

That'll teach the po-lice

Blaze: "At least 9 teens shot at 12-year-old's birthday party — and not one of the 60 attendees will make a formal statement."  

Ignore that guy and his "crisis" talk

Twitchy: "Apparently ‘what Joe Biden says does not represent the official position of the Biden administration’."  

Don't worry: the crocodile will eat you last

Twitchy: "Apple Store in Portland that ‘turned itself into a BLM memorial’ was set on fire last night."

They sure have a surplus of material

Real Clear Politics: "Has the Washington Post Fact-Checker Held Biden Accountable?" - "While fact-checkers are sometimes prone to mistakes or biased reporting, as all media outlets are, it’s important to evaluate their work honestly and give credit where credit is due. The Washington Post has been fair in criticizing the president’s misstatements, and we hope to see this continue." 

Now the truth can be told. Once again.

Federalist: "Surprise! The ‘Russian Bounty’ Story Hyped Up By Corrupt Media To Hurt Trump Turned Out To Be Fake News."  

If anybody in the media besides Glenn Greenwald had an ounce of honesty, they'd admit the media response in 2020 was to kneecap Trump and drag that decrepit plagiarist over the finish line.  

Everybody isn't Archie Bunker

Reason: "When Everything Is 'Systemic Racism,' People Will Tune Out the Term" - "Leveling that grave accusation at every aspect of American life will produce disengagement, alienation, and reaction."

I don't think this thing is going anywhere

This is just some red meat for the base.  Daily Wire: "Democrats Introducing Legislation To Pack Supreme Court With 4 New Justices, Report Says."

You can tell this is a stunt from the lineup of supporters including Jerry Nadler, Hank Johnson, and my own nutcase Senator Ed Markey.  I'd like to believe that there are more than a dozen Democrats in the Senate who are privately mortified at such a brazen power grab.  

Update: And I was right!  "Pelosi: No, we're not voting on that court-packing bill."  

Run from the border

Miranda Devine: "Kamala Harris' response to Biden's border crisis is close to absurd"

It’s humiliating for President Joe Biden that in the almost three weeks since he appointed Kamala Harris as his border point woman, she still hasn’t visited the disaster zone, come up with a plan or held a press conference on the migrant crisis.

Instead, she’s visited a water treatment plant in California and a bakery in Chicago, where the press pool reported on her sweet tooth last week.

"Her favorite is German chocolate, and [she] gets that for her birthday each year, and her staff had pre-ordered a slice for her. The bakery’s specialty is caramel cake, and she said she was looking forward to that too."

Isn't that nice?  

That's too much honesty

Federalist: "Twitter Suppresses Tweet About BLM Founder Buying $1.4 Million Home In Mostly White Neighborhood." 

Extra - Twitchy: "Black Lives Matter says the ‘right-wing offensive’ reporting about co-founder’s new $1.4 million house ‘continues a tradition of terror by white supremacists’."

Ah, the old "it's just this damn war and that lying son-of-a-bitch, Johnson!" defense.  

Didn't have to happen

Red State: "Can We Have an Honest Conversation About the Daunte Wright Shooting?"  

This outcome was foreseen ten months ago

NY Post: "Marxist BLM leader buys $1.4 million home in ritzy LA enclave."  

Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the leader of Black Lives Matter and a self-described Marxist, recently purchased a $1.4 million home in an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood where the vast majority of residents are white, according to reports.

The home, which features three bedrooms and three bathrooms, is nestled in Topanga Canyon and has a separate guesthouse on the property, according to a celebrity real estate blog which reported the transaction last week

Ten months ago, Reddit hosted an "Ask me Anything" with the managing director of Black Lives Matter.  This session was unintentionally comical because of how this person absolutely refused to answer a single question about the financial transparency of BLM.  You knew it was only a matter of time before all that fat cash started showing up in fancy homes, cars, and jewelry.

What is Kamala doing at the border?

Fox News: "Kamala Harris has gone 17 days without a news conference since being tapped for border crisis role."

Does anybody have the slightest idea what she's doing to address the border crisis?  Anything at all?

Biden lies and lies and lies

Hot Air: "Biden: Trust me, I'm not violating the Constitution with my gun-control orders".

National Review: "Joe Biden’s Amazing Second Amendment Whopper."

Here's something that Sleepy Joe said in his prepared statement: "You go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want--no background check."

This is a complete lie.  Considering this is a text of a Presidential address, one needs to ask: is there anybody doing any fact-checking?  Or are these Joe's own scribbles of stuff he just made up along the way?  Does he believe his own nonsense or does he just add it for affect, knowing that the mainstream media isn't going to question him?  

Extra - Twitchy: "Jen Psaki clarifies Joe Biden’s lie about ‘no background check’ at gun shows with an impressive tap dancing routine."  

Pallets of cash on the way

National Review: "Iran Has a Reason to Be Happy with Biden."  

The media lives down to expectations

Hot Air: “60 Minutes”: We Stand By Our Atrocious Reporting On Ron DeSantis And Publix."

Then, right on cue, there's "Republicans pounce!"  Charles C.W. Cooke: "The Story Cannot Always Be the Reaction of the Republican Party."

The first step to reform is admitting you have a problem. And the press simply can’t do it. Hell, even rival outlets are unprepared to do it to each other — unless, of course, they’re taking shots at Fox. Every time this happens, the press withers a little more on the vine. It’ll notice eventually — but by then it’ll be too late.

Instapundit: "And talk about burying the lede, CNN discovers that a channel besides Fox News exists:"

There's no way to push Biden off this lie

Legal Insurrection: "Biden’s Lies About Voter Law Cost Georgia The All-Star Game - President Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki continued to make false claims about Georgia’s voting law even after they were debunked. Within 48 hours of Biden’s ESPN interview, MLB announced they were pulling the All-Star game."  

Good news

Daily Caller: "US Added 916,000 Jobs In March As Economy Roars Back To Life."  The unemployment rate dropped to a healthy 6%.  

Defund NPR

Fox News: "NPR issues major correction after falsely claiming Hunter Biden laptop story was 'discredited' by intelligence - ‘U.S. intelligence officials have not made a statement to that effect,’ NPR now admits."

Speaking of glaring bias, NPR was all-too-willing to highlight that the guy who shot some spa workers in Atlanta is white! because they desperately wanted to play into the anti-Asian angle.  But a week later in Boulder, CO, the race of the shooter wasn't newsworthy.  Even less newsworthy was the race of the guy in NY City who put an Asian woman in the hospital.  

Edward Murrow would be proud

Shot: "It’s Important To Be Honest About What Today’s Media Actually Are - They are Democrat propagandists and should be treated as such.

Chaser: "NBC's Lester Holt says we don’t need to hear both sides to define truth: ‘Fairness is overrated’."

This statement is 100% true

Kevin Williamson: "Elizabeth Warren Is a Ridiculous, Power-Hungry Crackpot." - "And tyranny is what Senator Warren plainly desires — if we take her at her own word. Of course, there are lots of reasons not to take her at her own word, beginning with the fact that she is a habitual liar."  

Chauvin case - Day 1

Legal Insurrection: "Chauvin Trial Day 1 Wrap-Up: Opening Arguments & Three State Witnesses" - "State Witnesses: 911 dispatcher, grocery worker witness, martial arts witness."  

Hypocrisy theater: Barack and Joe on the filibuster

Extra - Jonah Goldberg: "Democrats claim filibuster is a racist tool — but only when Republicans use it."

Get back into those metal cans

Pirate's Cove: "NY Times Seems Pretty Upset That Riders Are Abandoning Public Transport, Which Hurts Climate (scam) Fight."

Why can't more people think about Mother Earth than their own personal health and safety? - wonders the NY Times.

Best website since "Is Lost a repeat?"

Is that ship still stuck?  

All political persuasions agree: the media sucks

I didn't see Biden's press conference but everybody from the New York Post, to Byron York, to the New Yorker, to the Columbia Journalism Review thinks the Washington press corps did a horrible job.

Unity at last!

Extra - Joe Concha: "The disgrace that was the Biden press conference."  "President Biden called on 10 reporters to answer 30-some questions during his long-awaited first formal press conference on Thursday. But the hour-plus event was a disgrace for some in the press and a dubious performance by the president."

Let's rewind

Twitchy: "Thread takes a look at some of Vice President Kamala Harris’s statements about kids in cages and more."

I'm curious if Border Czar Kamala Harris will be present for Biden's press conference tomorrow.

The buck stops elsewhere

Fox News: "Biden says migrant surge at southern border started under Trump."

He certain learned this technique at the feet of the master.  

Oh that would be just terrible

Hot Air: "Margaret Sullivan Hopes Reporters Don’t Grandstand At President Biden’s First Press Conference" - "But I think the bigger point here is that we had four years of this nonsense from Jim Acosta, Yamiche Alcindor and others who made careers out of this sort of thing. After all of that, it’s a bit odd to suddenly worry that someone might do the same to the current president." 

Related: Ace: "Biden's Got More Kids in More Cages Than Trump Ever Did, But the Democrat Propaganda Organs Suddenly Don't Find It Worth Condemning."  

Portlandia

Reason: "The Dream of the '90s Died in Portland" - "Once an up-and-coming city, Portland was destroyed from within by radical activism and political ineptitude." 

Open borders

That's what we have now.  Hot Air: "Migrant Tells ABC: I Came To The Border Because Biden Is President Now Instead Of Trump."  Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post:

During the transition period, career officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection tried to issue sober alarms to the Biden team about the likelihood of a crisis at the border that could quickly overwhelm the nation’s capacity. Senior CBP officials delivered Zoom briefings to the Biden transition team that included modeling projections showing a steep increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors if Trump’s policies were suddenly lifted, according to one current and two former Department of Homeland Security officials…

Biden transition officials understood the risks, as well, identifying a surge of unaccompanied minors and a dearth of shelter space exacerbated by the pandemic as the most pressing problems.

Yet Biden immediately embarked on an aggressive strategy to roll back Trump administration policies.

But no mean tweets are awaiting the 15,500 unaccompanied minors at the border.  

On a side note: although I didn't see Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on the Sunday news shows, it sounds like his attempts to blame Trump for the challenges crisis on the border didn't go over too well.  Of course, awful Chuck Todd who is terrible, called it a "political crisis" which is another way of saying "Republicans pounce." 

All race, all the time

Andrew Sullivan: "When The Narrative Replaces The News" - "How the media grotesquely distorted the Atlanta massacres."

But this story has also been deeply instructive about our national discourse and the state of the American mainstream and elite media. This story’s coverage is proof, it seems to me, that American journalists have officially abandoned the habit of attempting any kind of “objectivity” in reporting these stories. We are now in the enlightened social justice world of “moral clarity” and “narrative-shaping.”

....

Well, you know what’s coming. Accompanying one original piece on the known facts, the NYT ran nine — nine! — separate stories about the incident as part of the narrative that this was an anti-Asian hate crime, fueled by white supremacy and/or misogyny. Not to be outdone, the WaPo ran sixteen separate stories on the incident as an anti-Asian white supremacist hate crime. Sixteen! One story for the facts; sixteen stories on how critical race theory would interpret the event regardless of the facts. For good measure, one of their columnists denounced reporting of law enforcement’s version of events in the newspaper, because it distracted attention from the “real” motives. Today, the NYT ran yet another full-on critical theory piece disguised as news on how these murders are proof of structural racism and sexism — because some activists say they are.

I've been listening to NPR in the morning and every story on this shooting is a master class in "begging the question."  The fact don't matter: they just feel that it's a hate crime and so it is.

Related: "The Media Got It Wrong: Police Captain Didn't Say the Atlanta Spa Killer Was Having a 'Bad Day'." 

Bracket buster

NY Post: "Oral Roberts shocks Ohio State in massive March Madness upset."

Only the ninth time that a #15 seed knocked off a #2 seed.

Crisis at the border

How it started: "Smoking Gun: Here's Joe Biden Basically Inviting Illegal Aliens to Surge the Border"

How it's going: "NY Times reports Biden admin quietly reverts to ‘echoing Trump-era policy’ to slow migrants heading to US."  

"There is no crisis!" --sends FEMA

"There is no crisis!" --reopens camps

"There is no crisis!" --converts NASA facilities

"There is no crisis!" --begs Mexico to stop the flow.#BidenBorderCrisis https://t.co/yDffmvDfb3

— Chesty Puller's Ghost 🇺🇲 (@ChestyPullerGst) March 18, 2021

Filibuster follow-up

The Week: "Why the talking filibuster won't work." - "The talking filibuster worked for Jimmy Stewart, but it probably won't work for Democrats."

I forget where I saw it but somebody said that, in addition to dragging out the legislative session, the talking filibuster means that - at any time - a Senator can note a quorum is not present.  So if Ted Cruz is filibustering at two in the morning and asks for a quorum call, either the Democrats need to get 51 Senators on the floor or the Senate adjourns.  

So the filibuster ain't goin' anywhere.

Filibuster

Federalist: "Democrats Plot To Kill Filibuster Because They Only Care About Power."

Friends of the conservative persuasion keep sending me panicked emails and texts about the Democrats eliminating the legislative filibuster in the Senate.

I just don't see it happening.

Getting rid of the filibuster would be a "crossing the Rubicon" moment in American history.  The Democrats already triggered the "nuclear option" on judicial nominees and it blew back on them spectacularly with Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.  At this moment, the Democrats hold a 50-50 "majority" in the Senate with the midterms coming up in 2022, where the President's party typically loses several seats in Congress.  Do the Democrats really want to kneecap minority rights in the Senate right before they lose it?  Who knows, man, those cats are wild.

Aside from Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema, I suspect there are other established Democrats who understand the consequences of eliminating the filibuster and, silence aside, will not vote to cut their own throats.

Florida man

Ace: "Leftwing Media Admits The Man They Defamed for Months as "DeathSantis" Might Have Been Completely Right In His Covid Response."

Twitchy: ‘The media needs an intervention’: CNN is utterly aghast that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has the nerve to ‘[take] credit’ for Florida’s success."

Hard to believe, but sometimes people take credit for their own actions, unlike Joe Biden who spreads the blame around.

Endgame time for Cuomo

ABC News: "Cuomo should resign if allegations confirmed: Biden in exclusive ABC News interview."

Cuomo is now in the position where he's going to have to contend that seven women are making it up.  Unlike the charge against Brett Kavanaugh, there's actual evidence that Cuomo and these women have met.

Let's not forget about all the dead grandparents, too.

Extra - Politico: "Biden: If allegations confirmed, Cuomo should resign and could face prosecution."

Journalism dies in dumbness

Fox News: "Washington Post panned for massive correction to Trump-Georgia election story: 'So, they made up quotes'." 

As Instapundit notes, all the other useless media mouthpieces claimed they independently confirmed this bogus story.  

Packing them into the "soft-sided facilities"

Associated Press: "Children packed into Border Patrol tent for days on end."

Despite concerns about the coronavirus, the children are kept so closely together that they can touch the person next to them, the lawyers said. Some have to wait five days or more to shower, and there isn’t always soap available, just shampoo, according to the lawyers.

Maybe somebody can ask Joe Biden about this at his next press conference.

Extra - Red State: "Report: Biden CBP Facilities Are a Horror Show With Kids Sleeping on the Floor and Going Hungry, and It Gets Worse."  

Glorious leader is beneficent to all!

Today's must-read is from Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi: "The Sovietization of the American Press" - "The transformation from phony "objectivity" to open one-party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement."

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:

— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty

— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor

— Biden's historic victory for America

Of note in this essay is the compare and contrast in the New York Times' coverage of the exact same executive decision on America's posture towards Saudi Arabia after the Jamal Khashoggi murder.  Revulsion turned to statesmanship just. like. that.

We can't say we didn't see this coming.

The North Korean media is cringing at the obsequiousness of this. https://t.co/wyV2eRJj88

— Howard Wall 💰📈📝 (@HJWallEcon) March 12, 2021

The dam is breaking

Earlier today, I had a conversation with an old friend from Long Island who opined that Andrew Cuomo would ride out his sexual harassment/killing Grandma scandal.  I replied that: I dunno but these things tend to take on a momentum of their own.

Tonight: "New York Sens. Schumer, Gillibrand call for Gov. Cuomo's resignation."  So, along with AOC and Gerry "Gerry Gerry Gerry!" Nadler, the most prominent Democrat politicians from New York have all joined together to throw Cuomo overboard.

You and me both, brother

Jim Treacher: "I Am Really Freaking Sick of Anthony Fauci":

This isn’t science. This is religion. Fauci has styled himself as the Pope of COVID, and his enablers in the media have been more than happy to confer him with papal infallibility. He’s established himself as the only true mediator between the unwashed masses and God Science. And whenever he says something that doesn’t make sense or he contradicts himself, well, don’t you fret your little head about it. You just need to have faith. Pope Anthony the First would never lie to you.

This guy was supposed to be the face of Science in this time of uncertainty and he just engendered more uncertainty by contradicting himself at every turn. 

She's very bad at her job

Hot Air: "Psaki Dodges When Asked About Surge Of Migrants At Border: That’s Not Our Program, That’s DHS’s Program."

Jen is going to circle back after she checks to see if DHS is an Executive branch responsibility.  It's probably run by some guy over in that outfit over there.

Extra - From Twitchy.  

Ladies and gentlemen, the New York Times

Federalist: "The New York Times Is Having An Embarrassing Meltdown Over Josh Hawley’s Existence."

As silly as the whole thing is, the Times’ Elaina Plott and Danny Hakim debased themselves further by — and I’m in no way joking here — asking Hawley’s high school prom date for her thoughts. His prom date. HIS PROM DATE.

Twitchy: "Pulitzer watch: NY Times blows lid off what Sen. Josh Hawley’s prom date & middle school principal think of his job performance."  

Jury selection starts (or not) in George Floyd case

This is a really excellent review of the legal challenges in the case against Derek Chauvin from Andrew McCarthy: "The George Floyd Murder Trial: A Charging Nightmare."

In short, McCarthy breaks down the legal distinctions between manslaughter and murder.

Update - Fox News: "Derek Chauvin trial jury selection delayed amid wrangling over 3rd-degree murder charge."  McCarthy explained how third-degree murder is reserved for depraved indifference like shooting into a crowd. 

Blogging is killing the mainstream media? Good.

Here's former conservative Jonah Goldberg mouthing off about blogging (safe link):

Conservatives were complaining about liberal media bias decades before Spiro Agnew was decrying “pusillanimous pussyfooters” and “nattering nabobs of negativism.” But in the blogging age, the complaints metastasized into cancerous obsessions. Yes, part of the story is the way in which the mainstream media often strived to earn much of the contempt conservatives have for it (a development that also has a lot to do with the influence of blogging). But part of it was simply structural. Blogging encouraged writers to focus less on the news than on the way it was presented and those who presented it. Commenting intelligently and quickly on actual news is pretty hard. Finding fault in others is much easier—and more fun.

Goldberg is now a favorite on NPR since every appearance is him bemoaning the state of the Republican party.  But there's two reasons why bashing the media has become so much easier: 1) the bias is real and 2) the Internet allows for quick cross-referencing on how stories are covered.  To take a very recent example, here's "WaPo Puts Out Full-On Biden Propaganda Tweet That Just Might Blow Your Mind."  Compare and contrast how the Washington Post headlined covid relief packages:

the democracy defenders have logged on. pic.twitter.com/wk6xitYio8

— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) March 7, 2021

When Trump was President, the border "crisis" was a 24/7 affair with kids in cages and false claims of migrants drinking water out of toilets.   This past weekend, it was announced that due to a huge influx of new migrants, the Biden administration was suspending their covid protocols and filling up facilities to 100% capacity.  This morning I did a search on CNN and any mention of this story was buried as the last highlighted story in the "Politics" section.

Don't even get me started on the hagiography of Andrew Cuomo, prolific killer of grandmas.

After Trump's surprise election in 2016, there was about a week where the mainstream media was questioning their own bias as they wondered how they could have missed the revolt so badly.  But they soon fell back on their own ways culminating in the full-on coverup of any stories that might reflect badly on Candidate Not Trump.

Media criticism is easy, Jonah?  It sure is...it sure is.  

Nick Sandmann says "hi". 

The details

The Senate just passed the latest covid relief bill and the Associated Press has the rundown.  

"Kids in cages" is hereby banished

Ace: "With Border Crisis Growing, Biden Seeks to Rename Detention Centers as "Reception Centers"."

Watch how the compliant media will pick up on this new terminology.  

Call the social workers!

Hot Air: "San Francisco Reporter Went To Cover Car Break-Ins And Was Robbed At Gunpoint." 

This is totally normal

Breitbart: "Joe Biden has not held a solo press conference in 42 days, setting 100-year record."

Fox News: "Biden won't deliver speech to Congress until after vote on coronavirus bill, Psaki says."

Gateway Pundit: "White House Cuts Feed of Virtual Event After Joe Biden Says, “I’m Happy to Take Questions if That’s What I’m Supposed to Do"  

Who could have seen this excuse coming?

Ace: "The Bulwark's Molly-Jong Fast: I Have an Excuse Why I Gave My Mouth to Andrew Cuomo Last Year.

Trump Made Me Do It." 

This was a tough quiz!

Babylon Bee: "Can You Find All 17 Instances Of Racism On This Page From A Dr. Seuss Book?"

I missed the tiny Hitler in the tuba.

That escalated quickly

Wow, this whole Andrew Cuomo scandal is blowing up and his support is drying up.  Today's news: "NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused by third woman of unwanted sexual advances."

Hot Air: "De Blasio Knifes Cuomo Repeatedly: Sure, I Can Believe That He Sexually Harassed His Staffers, And If He Did He Should Resign."

Reason: "Cuomo Asks America To Hold Off on Believing Women This Time."

Frankly, I thought Cuomo would ride it out but suddenly the long knives are out.

It's best to squash their hopes early

Not the Bee: "Boston Public Schools just canceled advanced classes for high-performing students because too many of the kids who qualified were white."  

Extra - From Legal Insurrection.  

The JSF is a POS

Way back in 2003, PBS had a two-hour Nova documentary called "Battle of the X-Planes" about the competition between Lockheed Martin and Boeing in a bid for the next generation of fighter planes: the Joint Strike Fighter.  From an engineering perspective, it's a fascinating look into the progression of a project from concept to execution, and the documentary holds up well as a fight between two businesses for the largest contract in Department of Defense history.  Lockheed Martin won the bid and their X-35 became the F-35.

Well, here we are 18 years later: "Military admits F-35 is impossible to use, expensive, and an utter failure." 

I've mentioned that for a while I worked on a NASA program and got so disillusioned, so fast.  NASA would send out these newsletters that talked about how they had contractors (i.e. supplying jobs) spread out over a bunch of states.  ("It'd be a shame if you voted against those jobs, Congressperson").  Building the final product seemed to be an afterthought and the scheduled slipped and slipped and slipped.  For the record, this was not the Space Launch System but I mention it because NASAWatch had the same thoughts:

This is my favorite, by far: "The editorial board complains that SLS is "years behind schedule." If it had bothered to look, it would have realized that every major launch vehicle developed by NASA and by private industry ends up running years behind schedule." So in other words, its OK for NASA to propose schedules and then let the companies walk all over them and stick out their hands to say 'more money please' since everyone overruns. Who needs schedules or budgets, right? It is just taxpayer money anyway.

The problem here is that these large government programs morph into job programs and then there's no political will to pull the plug.

She's like a successful Jussie Smollett

Ace: "New York Times Reports on a Black Student Who Lied About Being Racially Targeted at Smith College, Claims A Lie Is Just Someone's "Deeply-Felt Sense of Personal Truth"  

This story broke in the summer of 2018 and it took almost three years for the truth to come out.  Great work, brave media firefighers.  

The government is here to help

Reason: "Democrats' COVID-19 Aid Package Would Quietly Eliminate the Tipped Minimum Wage as Restaurants Struggle To Stay Alive."  

It's funny because of the irony

Twitchy: "Maria Shriver says no president has assumed office with as clear a focus on Alzheimer’s disease as Joe Biden."  

Haha - no kidding!  

Joe Biden's Gulag Archipelago

We all saw this story developing months ago.  Hot Air: "Crisis Looms: Surge In Unaccompanied Minors Heading To The U.S.-Mexico Border."  So, of course, these kids need to be detained while Homeland Security figures out how to process their cases.

How would the media react?  Well, last week we saw that "tent cities" had magically transformed into "soft-sided facilities."  But how could they spin the obvious cage-like properties of shipping containers used to detain these unaccompanied minors?  Could they possibly reveal their complete hypocrisy by giving Sleepy Joe a pass?

Oh, they can, and they will.  Twitchy: "To the rescue! WaPo firefighter rides in to set the record straight once and for all about Joe Biden’s ‘kids in cages’."  Ackshually, they're "migrant facilities" don't ya know.  Ace has a complete rundown of "before and after" posts here: "Gimme Shelter: Biden Now Putting Kids in Cages "Shelters," and the Media Is Gushing About It!"  They're like super-fun clubhouses!

The new Paper of Record weighs in: "Compassionate Biden Moves Migrant Children From Cages Into Humane High-Security Metal Containment Cubes"

With so much room for activities.  Why is media trust in the tank?  Truly, it's a left-wing riddle wrapped up in a New York Times enigma, chased down the street by pitchforks.

Under Trump it was “kids in cages”...under Biden it’s a migrant facility for children 🤗🤗

Can’t imagine why trust in the media is at historic lows.
https://t.co/vW0rAJn7Mu

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) February 23, 2021

Evergreen: The Left hates free speech

Reason: "Lawmakers to Cable Providers: Why Are You Letting News Channels Say These Things?" - "This misguided effort to combat "misinformation" is a brazen assault on free speech."  

Here in Western Massachusetts

PJ Media: "'Critical Race Theory' Costs a Brave Smith College Whistleblower Her Job."  

The ongoing press embargo

New Neo: "Biden and the Big COVID Lie"

The first point – an obvious one – is that there is no serious effort by the press to call Biden on anything he does or says. If Biden knows anything at this point (and he does still know quite a few things) he knows that. Here and there you may see some mild fact-checking, but the administration knows it has a general pass ... to make whatever claim it wants.

To be fair, the Washington Post fact-checker called out Kamala Harris for the exact same lie that Biden keeps repeating.  So that's something. 

Extra - Joe Concha: "We knew media would coddle Biden — here's why it's much worse."  

Move those goalposts

Hot Air: "Media Discovers: Presidenting In A Pandemic Is Unexpectedly Difficult."

Oh, do tell, do tell.  I was assured I only needed to wear a mask for 100 days.

"How does this keep happening?" - rake-stepping media

Axios: "Media trust hits new low."  This story reports that it's not just an American phenomenon: trust in the media is down around the world and "Mistrust of media is now a central part of many Americans' personal identity — an article of faith that they weren't argued into and can't be argued out of."

Haha, cry me a river.

The media is suddenly discovering that this Andrew Cuomo guy is a bad, bad man: 

It might be understandable that politicians who need to work with Cuomo didn’t want to challenge Cuomo’s behavior publicly. But where was the media while this “stuff of legend” played out? Shouldn’t they have been reporting this all along, and not just when Cuomo finally let it rip against a member of his own caucus?

The media had other priorities, obviously. They spent the last year lionizing Cuomo, hailing his leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic as a contrast to You Know Who in the White House. Cuomo spent the year getting feted by the glitterati, winning an Emmy for holding press conferences and going on tour bragging about how he beat the virus while covering up how his policies may have led to thousands of unnecessary deaths in nursing homes.

Yup.  Other priorities: "ABC 'World News Tonight' gives Cruz Cancun fiasco four times more coverage than Cuomo nursing home scandal."  

Extra - Daily Signal: "Cuomo Revelations Should Embarrass Media."  As if they were capable of embarrassment.

Also - Federalist: "Andrew Cuomo Didn’t Create The Myth Of Andrew Cuomo, Corporate Media Did" - "The myth of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Master of Pandemics, Destroyer of Trump, Boyfriend of America didn't create itself: It was the creation of U.S. media."

Good

Prof. Reynolds in the NY Post: "Media’s censorious gatekeepers are mad — because they’re losing power."  

That didn't take long

Ace: "Kamala Harris Is Already Stepping In for the "Lid Called" Biden, Speaking to Foreign Heads of State."

So they know. They've been told, Dementia Joe just isn't up to it. He's an old cottonheaded puppet.

This is unconstitutional. Invoke the 25th Amendment and call a lid on Sundown Joe.

Didn't even make it one month.  

At least there's one news source we can depend on

Babylon Bee: "Democrats Vow To Follow The Science Of Whichever Union Donates The Most Money."

Sleepy time!

Viking Pundit, January 20th: "The media starts their 4-year nap."

The Hill, today: "Biden plays Mario Kart with granddaughter at Camp David."

Newsweek, today: "Joe Biden, Playing as Luigi, Wins in Mario Kart Race Against Granddaughter at Camp David."  

This "mostly false" fact-check aged well

In August 2020, Politifact handed down their verdict on this Michael Caputo tweet:

"Does the #DemConvention know @NYGovCuomo forced nursing homes across NY to take in COVID positive patients and planted the seeds of infection that killed thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers?"

Verdict: "Mostly false."  Probably because it was complicated. 

In light of recent evidence that it was totally true, the Federalist wants to know if Politifact will amend their original judgement: "PolitiFact Stays Silent On ‘Fact-Check’ Defending Cuomo’s Deadly Nursing Home Policy." 

Extra - Fox News: "Cuomo brothers accused of showboating while thousands of seniors died."  

Assemble the social workers!

NY Post: "Soaring crime is killing NYC’s subway system."

Fox News: "Minneapolis push to defund police backfires after residents complain of slow response times, increase in crime."  

Look at this Chicago Tribune headline: "‘Operation Safe Pump’: Chicago aldermen creating safe spaces to pump gas due to carjacking spike."  Carjacking up 135% in 2020 over 2019 numbers.

It's complicated

The media have two hard and fast rules for covering stories.  Rule #1 is that if a story is unflattering to Republicans, that's the story; if it's unflattering to Democrats the story is "Republicans pounce!"

Rule #2 is that when "fact checkers" are called to referee, those damaging stories for Democrats are either "complicated" or "totally false."  

Biden built the cages

Reason: "Biden Is Still Separating Families at the Border. Where Is the Media Outrage?" - "Buried in the news cycle around Biden's gesture, however, is that the updated guidance does not, in fact, stop family separations. It just tells the state to use discretion."

The Democrats and media (I repeat myself), who excoriated Trump for "tent cities," are now using the euphemism "soft-sided facilities".  Isn't that nice?

Improvisational jazz

Washington Examiner: "Biden never really had a plan for the coronavirus, and it's showing."  

This is a long thread of well-aged tweets

Twitchy: "Drew Holden takes a series of hammers to media and blue-checks who enabled Andrew Cuomo’s COVID19 reign of terror."  

Another lesson from Cuomo's book

New York Post exclusive: "Cuomo aide admits they hid nursing home data so feds wouldn’t find out." - "Governor Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing-home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them “we froze” out of fear the true numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors, The Post has learned." 

As noted before, the evidence was all there but the media wasn't interested in investigating Saint Andrew.

NBC News' Chief Washington Correspondent/Anchor

.@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 10, 2021

What an idiot.

The new tolerance

Charles C.W. Cooke: "Our illiberal moment." - "Voltaire's apocryphal maxim “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is in the process of being turned squarely on its head. Today, a more suitable rendering might read: “I disapprove of what you say, you are exiled, goodbye.”  

Cabin fever in the time of covid

I came across a discussion board post that was one of those "sign of the times" moments, and I wanted to share and say "I feel ya buddy."

Let me preface this by saying that I'm one of those Disney people.  I've been to Disney World nearly every other year since my kids were little and, once they got too big for rides, we've done Disney cruises.  Our last one was in November 2019, right before corona, and we had a fantastic time.  Since then, I've taken one week of vacation and that's because my boss said I had to take time or lose it.  I couldn't leave the state so we spent a week in September on Cape Cod.  It was OK, but just OK.

So I had a little chuckle at this poor soul on the Disboards DCL forum who was asked if he/she would put up with a long list of travel restrictions if it meant going on a cruise:

honestly right now, as someone who has worked straight through since March without a break, and leaves the house less than once a month, I would be ok with ALL of this. I haven't been further than 5 km from my house in months, and the only human contact I have is with my mom, who I live with. If this is what it takes to go on a cruise and to be somewhere other than my house, then so be it, when does check in open.

Haha - oh man.  I could totally put up with wearing a mask, socially-distanced activities, and even confinement to quarters at certain times.  But I wouldn't go if certain dining options were closed down such as the buffets or the premiere restaurants.  C'mon, man, you gotta eat.

Technically open

Reason: "Biden Airlifts the Goalposts on School Reopening: 1 Day a Week!" - "Administration wants to spend $200 billion hiring new teachers for closed schools that are bleeding students. What could go wrong?" 

Everybody knows that everything is fixed with more government spending.  

Let's talk about the GOAT

Tom Brady, man, Tom Brady.  He's the first quarterback to win both an NFC and AFC championship, first to win a Superbowl in three different decades, and the owner of this absolutely incredible statistic:

This woman is certifiably insane

Twitchy: "Columnist conflicted after ‘Trumpist next door’ plowed her driveway without being asked (this LA Times op-ed is ‘a thing to behold’)."  

If her house burned down, she would stay in the neighbor's home...but grudgingly and without absolution.

Extra - Rod Dreher: "The Snowplow Test."  "This Heffernan column is so revealing."  It sure is.

That doesn't apply to *me*, peasants

NY Post: "Pelosi docks $5K from pay of GOP Reps. Gohmert, Clyde over metal detectors."

Daily Caller: "House Republicans Say Pelosi Broke Her Own Rules And Bypassed Metal Detectors, Demand She Be Fined."  

San Fran sues itself

Associated Press: "San Francisco sues its own school district to reopen classes."

I'm unclear on how this happens.  Isn't the school district an extension of the city government?  Or is it considered some kind of independent entity?  I don't see why the government can't go all Reagan vs. PATCO on the teachers.

Least-surprising headline

Hot Air: "WaPo On Reconciliation: Let’s Face It, Biden Was Never Serious About Bipartisanship." 

Wasn't even there

This is pretty funny:

"AOC wasn't in the capitol. Wasn't even there. That was an important bit of information. Don'tcha think?"

- Lieutenant J.G. Daniel Kaffe

— Tech Ronin (@tchronin) February 4, 2021

Why is this even up for a vote?

Twitchy: "Senate passes amendment to prohibit stimulus checks from going to illegal aliens."

How would that even work?  You'd mail a check to a residence based on tax returns that were never filed with Social Security numbers that don't exist?

You're the real hero, mayor

FEE: "Local Kroger Stores Close as California ‘Hero Pay’ Ordinance Backfires - This result certainly wasn’t what local lawmakers intended, but it was actually quite predictable."

You'll never guess what happened next!  Oh, wait, yes you will.  

The Minneapolis Effect

The Volokh Conspiracy: "Explaining the Great 2020 Homicide Spike" - "While a new report released today by the Council on Criminal Justice downplays the role anti-police protests played in last year's unprecedented homicide spike, a decline in pro-active policing following the protests remains the most likely cause." 

Now it's safe to tell the truth about Cuomo

Following up on a New York Times article today titled "9 Top N.Y. Health Officials have quit as Cuomo scorns expertise" the Federalist torches the enablers in the media: "As Health Officials Resign, Cuomo Says He Doesn’t Trust The Experts - Nine top health officials in New York have resigned in recent months because Gov. Andrew Cuomo refused to listen to them."

In a strange way, Cuomo himself is a victim of the media here. They don’t care about him; they never actually liked him that much. They just used him to make the other guy look bad. Now, with Cuomo having served his purpose, his sycophants in the press are happily flaming him for clicks or a good headline. I can’t feel sorry for him; his choices were his own, but one can’t help wonder if they might have been a little different had the media been honest with us and with him.

What we are learning as Trump recedes from power and the media resumes some modicum of truth-telling is just how badly they lied to us for over a year now. People have been destroyed because of it. Now as the corporate press happily flicks the halo from atop Saint Andrew’s head with their finger, the truth is coming out. It is far too late. And the people of America, not just New York, have every reason to be very, very angry about it.

And as a cherry on top, here's notable non-partisan Chris Cillizza of objective CNN with a representative headline for Saint Cuomo: "Andrew Cuomo's Covid-19 performance may have been less stellar than it seemed."

Oh.  It's praising with faint criticism.  

Extra - The Corner: "Apparently now that Donald Trump is out of office, it is safe to take a clear-eyed look at the performance of prominent Democratic officeholders and speak honestly about it."  And perhaps correct the record on Republican officeholders.  

When demand outstrips supply

Legal Insurrection: "Less Than One Percent of 1,200 Reported Racial Incidents in Last Five Years at Michigan State Were Valid."