Thursday, January 31, 2019

These People Just Can Not Tell the Truth


CNN misleadingly touted outright lied that its Monday night town hall with Sen. Kamala Harris, who recently announced a 2020 bid, as the “most watched cable news single candidate election town hall evah, in all the history of the World.

According to the Washington Examiner, in a statement put out on Tuesday, CNN claimed it had shattered a cable news network record in the headline and again in the first sentence. The town hall, CNN said, averaged 1.957 million viewers according to Nielsen data. However, just over two years ago, Fox News held a town hall with then-candidate Donald Trump getting 2.7 million viewers.

A number of outlets, including Mediaite, Politico, and also the Washington Examiner, have in the past 24 hours updated their initial stories on the CNN announcement to reflect accurately that CNN’s record was only a record for that network and not all of cable news."



~ Thank You MJA@IOTWReport for the Linkage!  ~

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Chuck and Nancy Pick a Real Winner

Yesterday the Democrats announced that failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams would give the dem's response to the coming Trump State of the Union address. I have to admit that if space aliens were to land and I had to explain the current Democrat party this would be one of my best examples on why I believe they should not be taken seriously by visiting intelligent life.

We all remember the November Georgia Election and the resulting whining about the results (i.e. it's not a free and fair election unless they win). Stacey Abrams’ defeat in Georgia was a roadmap to how the Democrats will treat any and every loss of an important race from here on out, and that should worry everyone. 

Abrams is the perfect embodiment of the modern Democrat party. She was funded by far-left groups out of California, funding which she refused to be transparent about amid accusations that she was using campaign funds to enrich herself (how very Democrat). She was the winner of the identity politics lottery in the ever increasing checklist of minority groups that you must belong to for a Democrat nomination so you have to vote for her our you’re a misogyracist.  Understanding that there is a lot of fear in the Democrat party about what new dumb thing there representatives may say that gives us justified reason to point and laugh, it is fascinating that they would go so far down the list and pick the failed gubernatorial candidate for Georgia who threw a fit and refused to concede the election.

We all know that it wasn’t a poignant or calculated response from Democrats, it’s the new standard of Democrat politics that they put a minority female in front of the camera so they can then call anyone who refutes her statements a misogyracist and then they don’t have to face any actual criticism of their policies. But to be fair to our brothers and sisters in the Democrat party, they are still a little shy over making speeches after President Trump because of what happened the last time.


(Wrong Think Radio)
(Daily Daily)

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

America: The New Socialist Frontier


Anyone who watched the coming out party that CNN was so kind to throw for Kamala Harris last night saw exactly what was to be expected. A nakedly ambitious United States Senator with a dubious public service record repeatedly say "I Love My Country" and then proceed to lay out a blueprint for the destruction of the workings and precious ideals the made America the most prosperous and free country on earth. The high profile Senator has publicly opened up the 2020 election campaign with the rhetoric national democrats have so longed to put forth without fear. Outright Blatant Socialism.

Alexander Markovsky wrote last month at The Hill, that with the 2018 Democratic victory in the midterms, we saw new arrivals to the House of Representatives who are interpreting the elections as an endorsement of their own socialist policies. They dropped all the pretenses, they are proud Marxist-Leninists driven by the ideology and committed to converting this country into the United Socialist States of America. This militant crowd is comprised of uninformed and misinformed people looking at themselves as unfortunate, underpaid, underappreciated victims of capitalism, overwhelmed with jealousy that there are people who are everything they are not. They are the face of new Democratic Party – “We have been naught, we shall be all.”

The Democratic Party explicitly casts itself as an inheritor of Marxism. The Democrats’ demands are an almost total inversion of the Constitutional arrangements and traditional American values. The economic redistribution, open borders, repeal of the Second Amendment, the abolition of the Electoral College, the election of a president by popular vote, voting rights and free health care to illegal aliens are just part of the comprehensive strategy of putting the harness of socialism around the necks of the American people. The driving force of the Democratic Party is economic “inequality”, the argument socialists have never tired of invoking since the dawn of capitalism. The mantra brought into play by the French Revolution - “War to the palace, peace to the cottage” - is alive and well today in the Democratic Party.

The seductive idea of wealth redistribution has proved to be irresistible to the masses discontented by the inequities. The philosophy of envy and siphoning from the rich appeals to a large segment of the population that does not realize that the definition of “rich” is a spiral of devolution that eventually will reach every business and every individual who works for a living. Donald J. Trump is a disrupter of what had been a smooth transition to the bright socialist future. In a concerted effort to denigrate the President and paralyze executive authority, they are branding him a racist and blatantly subvert every program on his agenda. To render him ineffective, they actively support a collective mania for ever more sweeping investigations of dubious claims, rumors, unsubstantiated allegations and innuendos that has descended over the President, his family, his associates, and nominees.

People who cannot even spell “impeachment” demand one without any substantiation. The great historical irony is that unlike the Russian people who understood the perils of socialism and fought the Bolsheviks in a bloody three-year civil war that by some estimates took fifteen million lives, the freedom-loving Americans keep voting themselves into socialism.  

What Do You Get If You Combine The Naked Ambition of A Hillary Clinton With Sanford and Son's Aunt Esther?

The Washington Post recently called Kamala Harris “the next Barack Obama.” The two do have many things in common: they’re about the same age, both trained as lawyers and activists, and exude a certain movie-star charisma *cough*, at least to the 'Identity Politics' liberal supporters. Like Obama,  Kamala's  parents divorced when she was young, and both grew up in all the privileges America offers to all, and in rather comfortable circumstances. Harris’s father was one of the first black economics professors at Stanford. Her younger sister, Maya, the former head of the Northern California chapter of the ACLU, is married to Tony West, who served as one of  the chief lieutenants of Eric Holder’s corrupt Justice Department. Kamala herself lacks Obama’s rhetorical skills, she can actually finish a sentence with saying "uh" ten times, but it's yet to be seen if she can equal his legendary teleprompter skills. But unlike Obama, she has fire in the panties as she showed the nation with her angry black girl act we all remember from the Kavanaugh hearings.


We may be about to witness the most starstruck credulity since Barky emerged on the national scene in 2008 and Chris Matthews admitted that he felt this thrill going up his leg, as the fawning media, daytime female talk-fest, and late night former comedians obsess about her good looks, Chanel handbags, and Manolo Blahnik shoes. And like Obama, her supporters can shield her from severe criticism by invoking skin color, with her plumbing as backup.

Even more than Obama, Harris is a committed leftist. She’s a  supporter of gender and identity politics, supports medicare for all health care (which sounds much cooler than single-payer) free college tuition (and the unmentioned high taxes that follow). And Kamala has in the past publicly  supported the Black Lives Matters movement, but as Obama did when he sought the presidency, generally avoids high-profile controversies. But Harris’s political caution doesn’t always trump her deep-seated progressive instincts. She made a potentially disastrous misstep early in her tenure as San Francisco D.A., when she decided not to seek the death penalty for a cop killer. As Attorney General she also refused to enforce federal immigration laws, vigorously defending San Francisco’s sanctuary-city ordinance and opposing California’s participation in the federal Secure Communities program, which requires local authorities to detain criminal suspects for deportation if they’re illegal aliens.

Beyond law-enforcement issues, Harris has been a reliable advocate for the leftist agenda. She favors gun control and has criticized Congress for failing to pass restrictive legislation following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook.  As district attorney, Harris filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller, arguing that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual’s right to own firearms. She's continued her predecessor Jerry Brown’s refusal to defend on appeal Proposition 8, a voter-approved state constitutional amendment supporting traditional marriage, because of her personal disagreement with it.

Kamala may indeed be the female Obama, one whose poor track record in public office will be swept aside and gain no greater scrutiny then Barack Obamas radical past was.

(CJ Mag)
(That Sleazy Website That Shall Remain Unnamed)
(WSJ)

Monday, January 28, 2019

Monday Shorts


Tom Brokaw Will Be Made to Care. On Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw said hispanic families in the United States need to work hard at assimilating into the country and ensure their children learn English. When my grandfather immigrated to the United States after the turn of the twentieth century, he was told basically the same thing — heavy on the learn English part. It is a bit of common sense.

But the left has decided this bit of common sense is racism and Brokaw is being savaged as a racist for saying it. It’s just truth. The outrage is amped up by a group of partisan progressives who have long decided that assimilation is somehow an embrace of whiteness instead of Americanness, but there is something else here too. The more a hispanic family assimilates into the United States, the more likely they are to identify as conservative. The left can’t have that. So to suggest they work to be part of the fabric of our common society is heresy. Tom Brokaw will have to repent.

Kamala Harris Action Figure – Bed Not Included In the span of a week, Sen. Kamala Harris has transformed into both a 2020 White House contender … and an action figure. The California Democrat is the latest political celebrity to get a mini-me version of herself from the company FCTRY.

Earlier this month, the Brooklyn-based manufacturer announced the release of its special counsel Robert Mueller action figure. It’s also fashioned figurines bearing the likenesses of Harris’s fellow 2020 White House contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former President Obama. The current president has an “Evil Trump” figure — complete with a pointed middle finger — made in his image.


Daddy Starbucks 2020? Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says he’s considering running for president as an independent, telling “60 Minutes” he might jump into the race without party backing. The news that he might run a third-party bid had liberal heads exploding immediately. Frank Luntz was less than subtle in his immediate reaction:
"In all seriousness, Howard Schultz truly could unite the country… By having Democrats join Republicans in boycotting Starbucks."
If Schultz can attract a following among even a small subset of Democrats and a decent number of independents, he could siphon off sufficient votes to flip a bunch of states that Democrats probably have a good shot at carrying into Trump’s column.

Armed FBI Agents Raid Earl of Taint Studio  "The FBI raided my studio this morning and arrested me as if I were some kind of terrorist on charges stating I have repeatedly triggered multiple government officials “and other VIPS” in violation of federal law. I thought it was the pizza delivery guy. They kicked open the door after one knock – then tossed in a stun grenade and it worked. I was stunned."

A Good Monday Morning

Sunday, January 27, 2019

This week, A Long-Predicted Collapse Hit Digital Media


The old arrangement, where if you wanted your ads to reach Rolling Stone‘s prosperous young readers you had no choice but to subsidize Hunter Thompson calling the White House a den of thieves, did not survive the digital revolution...." 

It's Remarkable what happens when you label half the electorate as evil and deplorable. This week, a long-predicted collapse seemed to hit digital media. The journalists’ Twitter timelines filled up with the names of the newly unemployed—wow, they let him go? the whole opinion team?—and the usual ominous comments on the precarity of the industry. “Precarity” might be underselling it at this point: As CNN reported, “the media industry lost about 1,000 jobs nationwide this week.” The national economy, meantime, is operating at close to full employment. 



The hard-news bloodbath was particularly acute at the pack of lying vermin at BuzzFeed, which lost not only its health team and national news desk, but also the diggers behind a lot of the site’s increasingly questionable national security coverage. What became clear this week is that if the digital natives do survive, it might not have much to do with news gathering, which both investors and advertisers have recently discovered an allergy to. News for a time was a respectable, and respected, subsidized by everything else. Now that price is too high. And the news to fake.

(CJR)
H/T Ann Althouse

Saturday, January 26, 2019

The Left's Futile Atempt to Eliminate the Phrase ‘Fake News’


One thing the left has been extremely successful in doing is redefining the language. Academia and the media have given us phases like "Womens Reproductive Rights" to legitimize their evil, and have recently redefined words like "Diversity " to push an agenda and mask their hate. The left originally coined the term "Fake News" to describe right-leaning news sources like Breitbart and RedState. But during the contentious campaign of 2016, the actions of the media, with their unabashed bias, lies and cheer-leading, Donald J. Trump turned the tables. Since then much crying a gnashing of teeth have followed. 

"The term has become entirely applied to the left-leaning media as a derogatory epithet for mainstream news sites whose political coverage found to be flawed or biased,” complains Slate magazine. It is now “a handy cudgel for people who want to criticize the media for a wide range of failings. The speed with which the term became polarized and in fact a rhetorical weapon illustrates how efficient the conservative media machine has become.”

John Lloyd, a senior research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, laments its use. It portrays the mainstream media "as the tool of an arrogant, out-of-touch elite." There is much truth in that statement Mr. Lloyd, as well as it dripping with sweet irony you fail to see from the ivory towers. 

The left sees the damage the phrase is causing. They want people to stop using it. DJT calls The Washington Post fake news more than almost any other news outlet. Fighting back, Margaret Sullivan declared, “It’s Time to Retire the Tainted Term ‘Fake News.'” She complains that people use the phrase to describe left-leaning political views.

Hossein Derakhshan and Claire Wardle want to “Ban the Term ‘Fake News.'” The phrase, they say, has “become weaponized by politicians who use it to undermine independent journalism in an effort to reach the public directly through their own channels.” And that is a bad thing??

Ask someone what ‘fake news’ means today, and depending on their political orientation, they may be more likely to mention CNN or the New York Times, and for good reason.  In an attempt to discredit the phrase, The New York Times published an article listing dictators and other disreputable world leaders who have used the phrase “fake news.” Although there are plenty of democratic world leaders who have used the phrase, The Times focused only on the unpopular leaders.  The left is also frustrated that mere mistakes as they call them when they are caught red-handed, are being labeled fake news along with biased journalism.  Innocent gaffes, you know, like when the Media framed photos of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration in such a way to minimize the size.

There is one way the left could succeed in reducing the conservative use of the phrase. The AP Stylebook will eventually discourage its use. That would be in keeping with its left-leaning rules. The stylebook has often discouraged the use of words and phrases conservatives prefer, such as banning “illegal immigrants” as just one example.

(Poynter) 
(Stream)
(Slate)

Friday, January 25, 2019

Middle Finger Symphony Theater

* No Tuxedos Required *


Brought To You BY BLUESJUNKY: Chair of Music - Middle Finger Symphony Music Director

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Popular Dating Site Says Avoiding Anyone With Different Political Views Is Now More Important Than Not Having Cooties


Never used an online dating site, and never would. From what I know of them, the whole thought to me is scary.  But I found this little story kinda interesting, and a microcosm of our time.
“Great sex” has been the widely favored reply since dating app OkCupid first started asking its users this question in 2003 ― until now. For the first time in the app’s 15-year history, users in major cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles have tipped the scale in favor of compatible politics, OkCupid told HuffPost. 
The overall number of women prioritizing politics over sex doubled from 2016 to 2018, and the percentage increased from 27 percent to 42 percent across the country. Over the same period, the app has seen a 1,000 percent increase in political terms on people’s profiles ― reflecting a major shift in values that its executives have been watching closely since Donald Trump’s election. 
Summers Eve Finkelman - OKCupid User
“It’s truly, truly unprecedented the change in how people are using politics as a signal in dating,” said Melissa Hobley, chief marketing officer of OkCupid and a professional matchmaker. “Without a doubt, the recent presidential election and current administration have driven young women in particular, but millennials of both genders, to say, ‘Swipe left if you support Trump,’ or ‘I don’t even want to see you as a match if you don’t vote.’ 
The sudden rise in dating political divides OkCupid has witnessed, particularly over the past two years, reflects the polarization of politics under Trump and the growing rage of his opponents ― particularly women. OkCupid is in a unique position to track that trend, as it is one of the few dating apps that requires its users to answer at least 15 questions about sex, politics and other values....."
I'm sorry, but I personally can't stop equating online dating sites with sleazy used car lots.

~ Thank You MJA@IOTWReport for the Linkage! ~