Saturday, September 15, 2018

Move over fake news: Stupidity of TV hurricane coverage revealed in ‘fake weather’ live shot

Thomas Lifson  "The latest hilarious reveal of TV news fakery drives home the point that what the public sees on its TV screens is a show – entertainment designed to capture and hold an audience by playing to its fears and passions. President Trump, the master of “reality TV” understands this from the inside, which is why his denunciations of “fake news” have so much credibility with the public while driving crazy the insiders in the medium who recent his betrayal of their trade secrets.


"Fake news has a fraternal twin brother in fake weather. “If it bleeds, it leads,” is the cliché that all-too accurately describes local TV news. The corollary for weather reporting is” “If it blows, it shows.”  Even if the wind doesn’t do the job all on its own, as illustrated in this hilarious video, first picked up by global warming skeptic Anthony Watts’s site Wattsupwiththat:  Video

String of Retreats: Joy Behar, Annnnnd...

How interesting to see standards finally kicking in at the networks, or at least Behar's, which is ABC, and Behar so quick to backtrack. Perhaps the loony talk from Roseanne Barr, who got fired over a bad tweet concentrated Behar's mind about how fast it can all end? Something is sinking in.

Monica Showalter  "What's with all this self-control coming out of the left? We are seeing backtracks, retreats, walk-backs, and denials. Just look at Kirsten GillibrandCory Booker, the New York Times, and well, now to get to the bottom of the pile, talk show host Joy Behar. Obviously, the Trump revolution hasn't been good for them, because it's making them say crazy things like some puppetmaster before they wake up and try to return to normal.
"In Behar's case, it's all about the tired cliche of assassination chic still emanating like blue flames from an uncapped gas well on La Brea Boulevard.  According toFox News:
“The View” star Joy Behar immediately backtracked and appeared to feel bad on Wednesday after saying “God forbid” President Trump lives another 20 years.
The panel was in the midst of a conversation about the president’s recent comments about Hurricane Florence and his response to last year’s tragic storm in Puerto Rico.
“Unfortunately the real power is in the presidency… he’s the one who calls the shots,” the ABC star said. “This man will never apologize, if he lives another 20 years, God forbid, not God forbid.” . . .


But Wait!  American Thinker has more!

String of Retreats: Cory Booker

String of Retreats: NY Times forced to retract fake smear against Nikki Haley

String of Retreats: Kirsten Gillibrand


Everyone Is Smart Except Trump

American Spectator


. . . "The Seedier Media never have negotiated life and death, not corporate life and death, and not human life and death. They think they know how to negotiate, but they do not know how. They go to a college, are told by peers that they are smart, get some good grades, proceed to a graduate degree in journalism, and get hired as analysts. Now they are experts, ready to take on Putin and the Iranian Ayatollahs at age 30.

"That is not the road to expertise in tough dealing. The alternate road is that, along the way, maybe you get forced into some street fights. Sometimes the other guy wins, and sometimes you beat the intestines out of him. Then you deal with grown-ups as you mature, and you learn that people can be nasty, often after they smile and speak softly. You get cheated a few times, played. And you learn. Maybe you become an attorney litigating multi-million-dollar case matters. Say what you will about attorneys, but those years — not the years in law school, not the years drafting legal memoranda, but the years of meeting face-to-face and confronting opposing counsel — those years can teach a great deal. They can teach how to transition from sweet, gentle, diplomatic negotiating to tough negotiating. At some point, with enough tough-nosed experience, you figure out Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” yourself.

"Trump’s voters get him because not only is he we, but we are he. We were not snowflaked-for-life by effete professors who themselves never had negotiated tough life-or-death serious deals. Instead we live in the real world, and we know how that works. Not based on social science theories, not based on “conceptual negotiating models.” But based on the people we have met over life and always will hate. That worst boss we ever had. The coworker who tried to sabotage us. We know the sons of bums whom we survived, the dastardly types who are out there, and we learned from those experiences how to deal with them. We won’t have John Kerry soothe us by having James Taylor sing “You’ve Got a Friend” carols.
"The Bushes got us into all kinds of messes. The first one killed the economic miracle that Reagan had fashioned. The second one screwed up the Middle East, where Iraq and Iran beautifully were engaged in killing each other for years, and he got us mired into the middle of the muddle. Clinton was too busy with Monica Lewinsky to protect us from Osama bin Laden when we had him in our sights. Hillary gave us Benghazi and more. And Obama and Kerry gave us the Iran Deal, ISIS run amok, America in retreat. All to the daily praise of a media who now attack Trump every minute of every day.
"So let us understand a few things:" . . .

Learn California Law

Dark Angel Politics


Dianne Feinstein’s Rank Illiberalism

Conservative Intel

Charles C. W. Cooke  "Perhaps that trendy phrase about democracy dying in darkness should be Senator Feinstein’s campaign slogan? 

'What Senator Feinstein is currently doing to Brett Kavanaugh is evil. Yes, it is evil. It is antediluvian. It is dangerous. It is illiberal. It sits well, well outside of the American tradition, harking back to a time in which the accused were simply carted off — or shunned by polite society — ten minutes after someone prominent offered up a vague claim about them. In America, we require that our accusers make themselves known, that their accusations be offered in detail and in public, and that the accused be apprised of everything that has been leveled against them — and we require this not just within formal legal environments, but in general. Within the American tradition, these requirements are considered a prerequisite to fairness — both inside and outside the courtroom. As has become fashionable lately within her party and her state, Senator Feinstein is stamping all over those traditions, and doing so for political advantage.

"Worse still, Senator Feinstein is engaged a brazen attempt to have it both ways: She wants the consequences of an accusation without any of the attendant process. Or, put more bluntly, Senator Feinstein wants to be imbued with the power to point her finger at other people and to mark them as tainted, as unacceptable, as excommunicated. That will not stand — today, tomorrow, ever."

Now Even Evidence of Brett Kavanaugh’s Good Character Is Used Against Him
. . . "But this response is downright temperate compared to the next wave. Now the fact that Kavanaugh coached girls’ basketball and hired so many female clerks is suspicious. No, really:

And his emphasis on hiring women clerks.https://twitter.com/CahnEmily/status/1040618996171718659 
 So far, however, these claims don’t belong in the same category. So far, we are still watching a terrible and profoundly immoral political dirty trick. It’s yet another sign of our low times that all too many partisans are willing to pile on.

NYT Called Out for Misleading Nikki Haley Story

National Review


"Journalists and lawmakers called out the New York Times Friday after the newspaper published a story that implied Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had lavish spending habits, citing $52,701 curtains installed in her Manhattan residence.

"The State Department bought the expensive decor, “customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley’s official residence,” at the same time the department was suffering from “deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring,” the Times story said.

"A reader might have stopped there, but down in the fourth paragraph the Times added a crucial tidbit.

“ 'A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.”

"A wide array of journalists, lawmakers, and others criticized the story, calling it a political hit job, but not before some, including Democratic representative Ted Lieu, cited it and rebuked Haley." . . .

Friday, September 14, 2018

The rich legacy of Democrats and Republicans since the 1860s

This is the one-page first chapter of the book titled, "Army Memoirs" published in 1894 by Lucius W. Barber, who served with the 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company 'D'. Sergeant Barber served in the Union Army from May 24, 1861, to Sept. 30, 1865.  the Union Army from May 24, 1861, to Sept. 30, 1865.  
 In his preface to the book, Barber refers to the war as the "War for the Preservation of the American Union". He says of the result of the war as "striking the shackles from four millions of human beings, it has purged our land from the foul stain of human slavery" . . .

Note Barber's discussion of Republicans and Democrats:

Not only were the Democrats comfortable with, and enabling of slavery during that time they wanted to pull out of the war that had cost so many lives to fight, leaving the South a separate, slave-holding nation. John Kerry would have been right at home with that anti-war culture.
They would have called Lucius Barber a "war-monger". TD


From the Time-Life Collectors Library of the Civil War ISBN 0-8094-4458-5.
About the 15th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry
15th Illinois regimental history

Chelsea Clinton: 'Unchristian' to End Legal Abortion

Socio-Political Journal

"My question to Sanctimonious Chelsea, What part of being a Christian promotes Killing Unborn Children? Would it be 'Thou Shall Not Kill' commandment? How about 'Suffer the Children Unto Me'... Where in any scripture does it say it's OK to KILL God's Greatest Creation of Human Life? "



"Chelsea Clinton argued Thursday that it would be “unchristian” to roll back abortion rights for women.

"During an interview with SiriusXM’s “Signal Boost,” the former first daughter said it would be “unconscionable” for America to return to the “pre-Roe” v. Wade era, when abortion was illegal.

“ 'When I think about all of the statistics that are painful of what women are confronting today in our country, and what even more women confronted pre-Roe and how many women died and how many more women were maimed because of unsafe abortion practices, we just can’t go back to that,” Ms. Clinton said.

“ 'Like that’s unconscionable to me,” she added. “And also, I’m sure that this will unleash another wave of hate in my direction, but as a deeply religious person, it’s also unchristian to me.”

"Ms. Clinton complained that she’s recently been compared to “slave owners and Nazis” for her comments about abortion. Last month, she made headlines for arguing that the legalization of abortion was a boon to the U.S. economy.


"She doubled down on that claim Thursday, saying, “I’ve had the temerity, as the Supreme Court did in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, to point out that our ability to participate fully in our society, including economically, hinges on our ability to make choices for our bodies and our families.”
"Ms. Clinton said she gets through the criticism by making the “moral choice” every day to be optimistic.
"The former first daughter was a headliner in the “Rise Up for Roe Tour” last month, targeting President Trump’s Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh and the purported threat he poses to Roe v. Wade." . . .

Where is the disgust toward Democrats one would expect?

Clarence Thomas stands up to Biden and the Democrats
"Around 9:30 p.m., after Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment, Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas responded, calling his nomination hearing "a high-tech lynching.' "



At another time, Democrats on this same committee sent Judge Alito's wife out in tears.   . . . "’Are you really a closet bigot?’ Graham asked Alito. The nominee said no, and Graham said, "No sir, you’re not."
"Commenting on the AP story, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary President Kay Daly said: “Mrs. Alito has shown grace under pressure after months of abuse at the hands of well-funded, left-wing organizations and their Democratic minions on the Senate Judiciary Committee. For the Associated Press to misrepresent these events in an attempt to smear Republican Senator Lindsey Graham sets a new low in the already subterranean level of journalistic standards on display in Judge Alito’s confirmation process.' ” . . .
To "bork";  How ‘Robert Bork’s America’ Gave Us Justice Kennedy’s America  
. . . Judge Bork, a brilliant constitutional scholar, had been nominated by President Reagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, was having none of it.
"Just minutes after Bork was nominated in July 1987, Kennedy took to the floor of the Senate to deliver his vitriol:" . . .


On Feinstein-Kavanaugh, there's much to be said - and is.


By the way, as a brief digression, I posted this elsewhere not to compare but to contrast: Two More Massage Therapists Accuse Al Gore of Sexual Assault
Mr. Gore did not, repeat NOT, do this as a high school prank, but in 2010. Had Gore won instead of George Bush I suspect he would have continued the Clinton Tradition in the Oval Office. TD

The Democrats Are Doing a Very Bad Thing to Brett Kavanaugh
. . . This is a dreadful way to handle the situation. Already Twitter is lighting up with speculation about sexual misconduct that could violate federal law. Without knowing any single material fact, hundreds of thousands of Americans are wondering if a Supreme Court nominee is a sex offender. If there is a serious, credible claim against Kavanaugh, let’s hear it. And — let’s be clear — for his high-school conduct to be relevant 35 years later, the misconduct would have to be serious indeed. But if there is no serious claim, then Allahpundit is right — we’re witnessing “one of the dirtiest dirty tricks to damage a nominee in recent history.”

An Affront to Justice
. . . China investments have helped make Feinstein, who lives in a $17 million mansion in San Francisco and keeps a $5 million vacation home in Hawaii, one of the richest members in Congress.
"And yet we’re supposed to give credence to Dianne Feinstein when she circulates last-minute surprise allegations against what is clearly an honorable man.
"What is beneath this Democrat Party? What tactics of personal destruction for petty political ends go beyond a line they will not cross?
"We don’t have an answer. At this point the Democrats have made the abyss their home. It’ll be up to the voters to impose the limits the Democrats so badly require."

With the new Kavanaugh 'letter,' the left gets back to its old dirty tricks
. . . It is despicable how the Democrats seek to destroy anyone who gets in their way and how the media colludes with them to spread gossip and imply it is all factual.
Democrats are the party of purely fake news and personal destruction while they pretend they are trying to bring people together.
Of course this media which is willing to destroy people and run unverified talking points then gets together, 350 of them, to show how honest they are and how bad Trump is.
Democrats should pay Google, Facebook and almost all the media for their in-kind contributions
Hillary Clinton, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Art of Trolling

Collins, Kavanaugh, and the Rewards of ‘Moderation’  . . . Planned Parenthood Action Fund is going up with a six-figure ad buy targeting GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) as the fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh enters a crucial stretch.… Collins is facing an onslaught of pressure to oppose the nomination." . . .
If she wants an excuse to back away from Kavanaugh, the Feinstein letter should give her an excuse that she might hope would look "principled".



Liberals Don't Care about Character Don't they love Harry Reid, Kamala Harris, Hillary -and Bill-Clinton, Al Franken, Maxine Waters, Louis Farrakhan, and the seditious John Kerry, to name just a few?
As Ron Ross at the American Spectator recently pointed out, President Trump's real crime – seemingly now "the most unforgivable hate crime" – is "obstruction of liberalism."  No doubt, liberals fear that Brett Kavanaugh is part of the same "criminal" cabal.
Dianne Feinstein is a Judas goat  . . . "Dianne Feinstein is a Judas goat.  She, like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Richard Blumenthal, to name just a few, are leading the Democratic Party over a cliff to its certain end among all civilized people.  . . ." 
Hopefully, before it's too late for our nation because I fear their voters most. TD

Cross Examination - A.F. Branco political cartoon
Conservative Daily News
Legal Insurrection checks in with this:
. . . "We all know by now that the Democrats have done all they can to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation from the hysterics during the hearing, the laundry list of questions sent to him, and vicious attacks on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

"Now we have a letter seen by two people in Congress with no details about an alleged incident back when Kavanaugh attended high school. It opens the doors for speculation and doubt, especially since “the subject of the letter is now being represented by Debra Katz, a whistleblower attorney who works with #MeToo survivors.”

Update on Feinstein’s mystery letter:  . . . "Need to hear more. I could imagine this feeling threatening if they locked her in the room with them, but if they locked her in the room by herself then it was almost certainly a prank. Either way, who’s going to bork this guy for something that happened in high school when no assault is being alleged?
A source who said they were briefed on the contents of the letter said it described an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman that took place when both were 17 years old and at a party. According to the source, Kavanaugh and a male friend had locked her in a room against her will, making her feel threatened, but she was able to get out of the room. The Guardian has not verified the apparent claims in the letter. It is not yet clear who wrote it.

SERIOUSLY? So THIS is what Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s secret Brett Kavanaugh letter was about?

https://earloftaint.com/
Twitchy  "As Twitchy reported earlier, Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced that she’d turned over to authorities a letter that had some incriminating information about SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a woman, possibly reaching back as far as his high school years.


"Of course, idiots like ThinkProgress’s Ian Millhiser floated the idea that Kavanaugh “may have committed a very serious crime — possibly even a sex crime.* A lot of people starting making #MeToo accusations.
"With that insinuation floating around all day, The Guardian has a source who claims to know the contents of the letter, and … well, it doesn’t even rise to the level of Mitt Romney cutting some kid’s hair."

* (You mean a sex crime maybe like this by Al Gore in 2010? Two More Massage Therapists Accuse Al Gore of Sexual Assault). Oh, wait; that was a long time ago and Mr. Gore was young then. TD
. . . The former VP is already in hot water, fighting abuse claims in Portland, where another masseuse said Gore groped her in '06 and asked her to perform a "chakra release" (massage-speak for "hand job".) He denies everything." . . .
A source from the luxury hotel in Beverly Hills told The Enquirer: "The therapist claimed that when they were alone, Gore shrugged off a towel and stood naked in front of her." He then propositioned her for a sexual act, according to The Enquirer
. . . 
A source who said they were briefed on the contents of the letter said it described an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman that took place when both were 17 years old and at a party. According to the source, Kavanaugh and a male friend had locked her in a room against her will, making her feel threatened, but she was able to get out of the room. The Guardian has not verified the apparent claims in the letter. It is not yet clear who wrote it.
"That’s it? That’s what she forwarded to authorities? And people were expecting the FBI to investigate?"

Dianne Feinstein Prepares a Deathblow for Kavanaugh
. . . Actually, I'm even older than that.  I remember when Feinstein told us Clinton's lying under oath in order to avoid losing a #MeToo lawsuit had nothing to do with his fitness to be president.  She did say Clinton's actions were "immoral, deplorable, and indefensible" and merited "strong condemnation and censure."  Given that she voted to acquit Clinton, it would seem that Feinstein believes that being guilty of immoral, deplorable, and indefensible things has no bearing on a person's suitability to be president. . . .
I was bullied back in high school and grade school; the one who did it and I are friends and if he ran for office today there is no way I would dish up this memory from the past to hurt him.  If I had an extreme dislike for his political benefactors it would be a temptation to hurt them, but not my former classmate. But Democrats will hope to make a righteous cause out of it.   TD

Kimberly Strassel Picks Apart Feinstein’s Kavanaugh Letter: ‘Timing Here Cannot Be Ignored’

Weasel Zippers 

 "Dianne Feinstein makes herself look as bad as Kamala Harris and Cory Booker with their lies.  Via Daily Caller:

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein issued a statement on Thursday alluding to a letter she received that raised concerns about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — but the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel suggested that the whole scenario didn’t exactly add up.
The letter, to which Feinstein referred in a vague statement, is believed to contain an allegation of some instance of sexual misconduct involving Kavanaugh and a woman when they were both in high school.
But in Feinstein’s statement, Strassel saw a few things that were potentially problematic.