For those of you who don’t know, I spent a number of years in the broadcast business. Back in the seventies and eighties, when I was cutting a career path here in Rochester Keith Olbermann was doing the same thing in LA and basically trashing his own career.
Yeah, no kidding. He was working the local stations out there as a sportscaster. Let’s just say the reputation he got out there even in nutty California, was not a good one.
About that time, the LA Times, which was still a newspaper back then, had a Sports TV Critic named Larry Stewart. His comments on Olbermann made it clear that he thought Olberman was best described as a pompous jerk. He took pleasure in ripping him a new one at every opportunity.
Of course even then, Olberman would reply with other nonsense a lot of hate, a lot of bile, a lot of spittle and little else.
So now by way of Red State, we see nothing has changed.
A lot of people on the left are melting down over Twitter suspending some members of the liberal media, allegedly for doxxing Elon Musk by passing along a link to someone who was tracking him in real-time. Musk had already announced that doxxing was a suspendable offense after someone he called a “crazy stalker” went after his family. Some decided they wanted to test that anyway. But Musk let them know they weren’t “special” — if they were involved in doxxing, they were going to be treated just like everyone else.
Among the people hit with a suspension was Keith Olbermann. I think he was the one person that folks on both sides of the aisle weren’t particularly disturbed to see get the temporary boot. Although I think my colleague Jim Thompson is missing him because he makes a perfect template for mocking cartoons.
Personally I can’t think of a better candidate for being taken off social media. There was a time when good old Keith was good for a laugh. That, however, ended quite a while ago.
His recent tirades indicate rather clearly that he can’t operate in a fair society. I would be a liar if I didn’t say it’s fun to watch a loathsome creature like that implode. Just keep your hands and feet away from his mouth, kids. The rather foamy mustache is the first clue.
Meantime I wonder if Elon Musk actually understands the service that he has provided the country?
Addendum:
I find it very amusing that the left is now complaining about the suspension of journalists. Does nobody remember one Twitter suspended an entire newspaper for the crime of doing actual journalism?
Print This Post
Understand this if nothing else: it’s not Trump per se that they’re after.
Postulate a Ted Cruz presidency. Do you think for a moment that he wouldn’t be getting the same treatment Donald Trump is? You know better.
And why do you suppose they are filling their diapers now over Elon Musk?
In each case, we’re talking about somebody who’s willing to give freedom a chance.
That’s what they’re trying to shut down.
From Billy Beck over at Facebook. My comments, after him.
Cathaleen —
I had written: “I’ve often said that Americans would bring their native ingenuity to tyranny and write new pages in its annals.”
“To my mind, this Twitter thing is the most menacing development along these lines that I’ve ever seen.”
You asked: “which Twitter thing? There are so many parts… By which I mean please explain it like I’m 5.”
~~~~~
I have only read through one of the drops: Taibbi’s first one. I’ve glanced them after that, along with ancillary commentary here & there. The first thing that I want to say is that this was badly mis-handled by Musk, and I’m sure that I know why: he was playing it for traffic at Twitter.
This was not “Twitter Files”. Hotep Jesus called it “Twitter Screenshots,” and that was right. This should have been a comprehensive, Wikileaks-style *file dump*, for anyone to look through at the raw email and Slack (internal messaging) files.
It’s been argued that “there’s so much that there wasn’t time for that” and I’m not buying it. If that’s true, then the only reason is that Musk was in a hurry to get this out in order to stimulate traffic. The consequence, in any case, is that the data is mediated: we’re only seeing what they’re showing us.
~~~~~
What they’re showing us should be horrifying to every single American.
Federal “law enforcement” and “intelligence” agencies were meeting with high-level executives at Twitter, more than weekly — as if it were a regular, formal liaison — for the purpose of pointing out tweets and whole accounts that they wanted suppressed, and they were almost all conservatives or “right wing”.
That’s the kernel of it. The United States government had found a willing partner in an ostensibly private company, ready to do the dirty-work, leaving these agencies with the plausible denial that it was a “private company” doing it.
I’m just going to point out that to this day, seventy-seven years after The Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany, International Business Machines — the world-famous “IBM” — is righteously condemned for its complicity: they supplied mechanical tabulators and punch-cards to the Nazis for purposes of census, ethnic identification, and concentration camp management.
This is not a comparison between Twitter’s political suppression of unwelcome traffic and mass ethnic murder. The principle here that unifies these two cases is: the voluntary complicity of private companies with governments for explicitly political motives. The *implication* is necessarily logical: if they would do that, then there is no real answer to any question of what they *would not* do:
Where were their moral limits? No one knows, and no one would have ever known if Elon Musk had not turned this rock over for everyone to see the worms.
This is the *essence* of fascism: exactly what those degenerates were saying that they were afraid of in Trump, and “right wing” politics in general, all while they were *doing it*, themselves. They were doing it with a new technology that had gripped the whole world with its promises, and on a scale and with precision and ability never before seen in human history.
Can you understand this?
Billy’s got this exactly right. Read the whole thing.
To his points I will add two things. First, the reason it’s not as shocking as it might be to some is because we’ve always known this was precisely what was happening deep in our heart of hearts. None of us are surprised at just how deep this thing goes.
The other point I’m going to make is I can’t help but make a connection between these events and the bank bailouts and bailouts of automakers and so on. The word fascism applies very directly here because with that action under Obama those Banks and those companies were bought and paid for by the federal government. It didn’t begin during that., But it certainly took a large step in that direction.
From The Federalist:
According to a now-unavailable LinkedIn profile discovered by journalist Andy Ngo, Jeff Carlton, whose prior work included serving as a federal intelligence officer, became the leading member of Twitter’s Strategic Response Team (SRT) last month. As revealed in a batch of “Twitter Files” released by reporter Bari Weiss on Thursday, SRT is one of the main groups at Twitter tasked with shadowbanning conservative accounts and tweets on the platform.
Guys name is Jeff Carlton. And look what I found:
He’s not the only one, as is being pointed out by the discussion Ngo started. The New York Post point up another example the other day:
And as I go to publish this, word is Jim Helminski, ex-Director of the Secret Service says the Secret Service is not being honest regarding January 6.
It’s down to the point now where only the useful idiots can deny the connections. Which of course, they’re now down to doing, since there is no other defense.
Consider, though:
Should all of the news outlets that denied shadow banning was occurring be banned for disinformation? And what is to be done with all of the news outlets that denied shadow banning was occurring? Should they themselves be banned for disinformation? If you can be jailed without due process for simply being in the capitol on J6, shouldn’t there be serious consequences for this kind of election interference?
As for the need for a proven conspiracy?
No, it’s both less and more complex than that. All you really need is a bunch of people,similarly indoctrinated with the misbegotten notion that government is, and should be, the end all and be all. Government run education, for one thing. Their heads have been filled with the toxic notion that government should be all powerful. Law schools, J schools, etc, same problem.
How could the output of such orgs be anything else?
They’ll act on those ideas on their own, since that’s now what they think… That’s who they are….No actual conspiracy required.
After years of conservatives being purged from the military and from the Intel fields, and the ever increasing influence of the federal government in education, is the trend we see here, that so many from those fields are involved in such actions, really such a surprise?
Enough said.
I have been saying for a long time now, that it was no accident that Vladimir Putin waited until such time as Joe Biden was in the oval office before he invaded Ukraine.
But let’s look a little deeper at that. What specific actions of Biden brought about the invasion of the Ukraine?
Two things.
First, Putin understands that unlike Trump, Biden will never responding to direct fashion militarily to Russia’s expansionism.
The other reason is the price of oil.
Do a little research on the time frames when Russia invaded one of its neighbors, the Crimean region for example. If you’re Sharp enough, you may noticethat every time the price of oil went up, Vladimir Putin invaded somebody.
8 years of Obama, oil prices high, (mostly because of the myth of global warming and the government responding to that with after having created that myth.) We all know Vladimir Putin’s actions during those years.
Donald Trump comes along, and opens American production of domestic oil and gas causing not only providing a very strong American economy, but the price of oil worldwide drops precipitously. Vladimir Putin stays home.
( And by the way, even with oil consumption up America’s carbon footprint still went down quite a bit. It’s going back up since the shortsightedness of the Democrats has taken hold of our government.)
Joe Biden who like Obama, worships on the altar of the myth of global warming, that tells us no more oil companies.. no drilling, no fracking, no permits. The government starts pushing at his behest, electric cars. And in his myopic vision everything runs off of electricity.
What happens? Price of oil skyrockets, and along with that happening Vladimir Putin getting militaristic and invading Ukraine.
If I remember correctly it was John McCain who once remarked that Russia was it gas station masquerading as a country. In my view, it’s one of the few things at that idiot ever got correct. That said, Vladimir Putin understood that equation long before John McCain did.
In reality the same thing can be said about Iran, Saudi Arabia and so on. Each has certainly been more active on the world stage with the increased price of oil.
Put another way, with cheap oil to megalomaniacs and the dirt scratchers in those countries are contained. When the price of oil starts going up in response to the shortages created by our government, they’re able to fund their warlike intentions.
My friends, the conclusion is obvious that the world is a much more dangerous place because of the energy policy of the Democrats. It’s really that simple and that’s straightforward.
Add to that the consequences to these United States and the rest of the world economically, and you have ample reason for turning the situation around by turning the valves open on American oil and gas.
The Democrats aren’t going to let that happen while they have the power to stop it.
It certainly pertinent to ask whose side they are on. Certainly, not yours or mine. Certainly, not America. Certainly, not a peaceful world.
An interesting talk, from the always-worthy Victor Davis Hanson.
I don’t think the question in the title was the intended thrust but he does touch indirectly on the question asked.
I have always admired general Patton. I have seen, (and apparently Hanson has as well) a number of personal qualities that the two share.
The talk is approximately 32-35 minutes.
It’s amazing… suddenly the Democrats are concerned about the Constitution. And unsurprisingly, the establishment GOP is going along with them.
The problem is this:
The Constitution was written with the assumption that it would be dealing with Honorable people. People who wouldn’t think about altering vote counts for example. The founders never dreamed of today’s Democrat party in their worst nightmares.
For that matter, who would have dreamed 2 years ago that the Democrat party would become a bunch of raving flag waving constitutionalists? Certainly not anyone who was watching what they were saying… And doing… At the time, and since. Wasn’t it just a week ago that we heard the Democrats telling us that the first amendment is not? absolute? And don’t get me started on is their attitude regarding the second amendment, or the 10th.
Certainly, Donald Trump is treading on dangerous ground when he starts talking about bypassing the constitution.
Actually, you need to read what he actually said, and actually understand it.
However the question becomes, what, then, is the remedy for the level of fraud that we are exposed to? I suggested 2 years ago that we were going to see a constitutional crisis out of this. It just took a little longer than I figured to surface.
I would suggest that we look at the Chad counts in Florida a few years back as an example of situations that neither the federal constitution, and in the case of Florida, the state constitution, never addressed.
It seems to me likely that this is only going to be resolved with USSC rulings.
I find myself increasingly disillusioned with the chances of the GOP getting a working majority going and winning the White House in 2 years time.
40 years ago give or take, I watched as the GOP establishment spent an awful lot of time money and effort to disassociate itself from the legacy of Ronald Reagan and the lessons that he taught. My perception is that that history is repeating itself in this cycle.
The establishment of the party has never quite figured out that there was a serious reason why the GOP voter, the rank and file sat on their hands for Romney and McCain, and why they completely rejected Jeb Bush.
At this point my perception is they’re going to try to set us up with another establishment critter in 2 years which of history is in a judge is a guaranteed loss.
I had occasion to be in a restaurant where “The View” was on the other day and I have a few observations from that disheartening experience.
Joy Behar is evidence that placenta CAN survive outside the womb.
I’m convinced that the only reason that anyone would hang around Whoopi Goldberg anymore is that she’s large enough to have her own gravity field.
It’s totally beyond me how anyone thinks that watching these ponderous poultry flap their lips is of any interest, beyond the laxative effect.
Perhaps with the leadership change at Disney, some changes could be made.
We couldn’t see this one coming.
Yeah, right.
FROM URUMQI in the north-west to Shanghai in the east, demonstrations and protests have rocked China in recent days. They have varied in size, tenor and composition, but all have been united by one theme: demands for an end to the harsh lockdowns and arbitrary controls of the country’s “zero-covid” campaign. Taken together, they represent a broad-based and diverse bellow of frustration of a sort very rarely heard in China. Though not all protests are explicitly political, they are an unmistakable rebuke for President Xi Jinping, hailed by state media as “commander in chief of the people’s war against covid”.
Just how bad is it?
Many people are increasingly fed up with that war. The latest trigger came on November 24th, when a fire at an apartment block in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, killed at least ten people and injured nine others. Local residents claimed that doorways and fire exits in the building were sealed to control covid.
It’s remarkable that the American press hasn’t been covering this nearly as much as the story warrants.
Yes I’m aware there’s animosity at the moment between the two, but I’m going to give you several ideas to think about.
Author Mark Twain once observed that if you take a stray dog in and make him prosperous, he won’t bite you. This, he observed, is the principal difference between men and dogs.
The difference between a starving dog and Governor DeSantis is that DeSantis will bite you after you make him prosperous, as Donald Trump has been recently finding out.
So there is no mistaking my thought here, I will tell you flat out that I think the actions of Governor DeSantis as regards Donald Trump opportunistic and ungrateful, and frankly I have difficulty putting any degree of trust in such an individual. I suspect and will suppose that I am far from alone in this. The governor wouldn’t even be in that position absent Trump’s involvement and backing.
National elections, particularly the contentious ones as 2024 Doubtless will be, are a crucible in which we burn away candidates who are not qualified. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Teamed up, those two could do great things together but to make that happen the governor needs to get over himself and realize that neither he nor Trump can bring about the policies on a national scale that both he and Trump … And the voters…want.
The governor has two years to mend some fences to make this happen, and frankly I wonder if he has the integrity to do it.
If the governor decides that he can’t bring himself to do that, not only will he fail in the 2024 election but so will the GOP. And believe me, the Democrats are salivating with that thought… Because they know there is nobody else that the GOP establishment is going to push through the primary process who will get any better response from the rank and file voters than Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and John McCain got.
The message for the governor and for the GOP establishment is precisely the same message: embrace Trump, or fail. There are no other options.
So in the end, that raid on Trump’s house was nothing more than a political exercise.
As I originally told you.
Nobody should be surprised that the mainstream media sat on the story until after the midterms.
- Despite their claims to the contrary, the people that are pointing fingers at Donald Trump for the less the ideal outcome of election day were never Trumpers to begin with. These are people that have never gotten over Jeb Bush being rejected by the rank and file GOP voter. In other words, this was an attack waiting for an excuse.
- The time has come for the GOP rank and file the seriously asked whether or not Governor DeSantis is merely the latest iteration of the GOP establishment critter.
- The data point constantly mentioned by the poll takers is that 75 some odd percent of the voters believed the country was going in the wrong direction. Trouble is, they apparently never bothered asking what the voters thought was the right direction. Or, if they did, they never bothered telling us the answer.
- The changing state by state population Dynamics play a good deal larger in this election then anybody figured on. To exemplify this, I’ve got a thought for you, and it’s not fully formed yet but you’ll see where I’m going I think.
Florida is taking in on the order of 850 to 900 people a day the last I knew. The statistics that we have available suggest that they are mostly coming from deep blue States like New York Pennsylvania and Michigan.With that in mind let’s look closely at the Lee Zelden campaign. He actually ran quite a good campaign. He hit every county in the state, and did all the hard work that you would expect from a good candidate.
He lost by something like five points. It seems reasonable to suggest the reason for that loss is that the people who would have voted for him moved to Florida.
Now do you understand the comments from the Democrats like Cuomo, saying that if you’re a pro-life conservative you have no place in New York?
