Scattershots – 27mar22 (updated 1apr22)

George Rebane

Unmitigated media bullshit.  This afternoon watching a news program, I was again reminded that most programming on the air that is advertised as news is nothing but third person rehash.  What fills most of the ‘content time’ on news programs is the anchor or reporters interviewing each other, patronizing politicians, and third party has-beens.  An example called on to give us his reflections on the Ukrainian war was a former CIA station chief from somewhere, who was asked as to his assessment of what was going on in the war.  Now what a former CIA station chief would know that is special is a mystery to me – he neither established such credentials nor did he enlighten the audience with something new we had not heard of or some new insight as to what was happening.  No, the gentleman regurgitated what everyone who tries to keep up has already known for a week or longer.  Unmitigated dated pap was all that came forth.  And when you consider the contribution of other such ‘guests’, they all say essentially the same thing – yesterday’s news or simply sidestepping what would be a telling question.  Literally 80% of content is such a rehash or doing the sidestepping two-step – bottom line, the information rate is dismally low.  And when you consider that the content factor of all news programs is at most about 60%, you get an idea of what a gross waste of time watching a live news program is.  You get a little improvement when you use your DVR, but not much.  A vast wasteland indeed.

Towards scale and controlled networks.  A regular reader/commenter (@ 746am) argues that "it's essentially impossible to avoid economies of scale, which centralizes the beast, plus network effects tend to drive towards gigantism."

Yes, there is always the push toward economies of scale, but that vicious cycle is abetted only by corporatism. A liberal government's role is to maintain minimally regulated markets which allow the entry of more nimble and efficient smaller competitors, thereby creating virtuous (self-correcting) cycles. That is not possible under Democrats and today's limp-wristed Republicans.

Actually, network effects support efficiently operating complex systems (e.g. economies and societies) structured with distributed control and knowledge. For an open network (i.e. a complete graph) to become the handmaiden of autocracy will require massive pruning of links and the elimination of politically incorrect nodes. We witness this today in autocratic countries, and with Dems in charge, will no doubt see the process gain ground in America.

[30mar22 update]  Freedom in the 50 states.  “California is a classic left-wing state on social issues, (and) one of the least free states in the country, largely because of its long-standing poor performance on economic freedom.”  So states the Cato Institute in its latest exhaustively researched annual report (summarized here and pdf download here).  The freedom index is based on the attributes of fiscal, regulatory, and personal freedoms sliced and diced into many different components.  California ranks 48^th overall, miserably surpassed only by Hawaii (49) and New York (50).

[1apr22 update] Another perspective might be helpful.  So, we have this from the comment stream of an FN story about the Smith/Rock slapping imbroglio by someone calling himself ‘fuzzy12’ - "Maybe now would be a good time to give thanks for the great contributions of the Black community to our society. Their peaceful and generous nature make them ideal neighbors, lending testimony to their exceptional family values and parenting skills unrivaled by any other culture. Their commitment to academic excellence enriches our schools and serves as an example to all who hope to achieve prominence as a people. Real estate values are fueled by the mix of African-Americans into an area due to their caring and respectful nature of these communities, an example of all they have achieved through their enthusiasm for self-improvement by hard work and a self-reliant can-do nature. We must not forget their abhorrence for crime and their dedication to observing the law. Without their industrious and creative drive, we would be poorer as a nation." (H/T to correspondent)

Comments

[Paul Emery]

George

Does your critique apply to Fox "newsa' as well?

[George Rebane]

PaulE 741pm - Absolutely. As the best TV news outlet (IMHO), for such practices I hold them in greater ire than I do the lamestream stations.

[Scott O]

Here's one reason I rarely bother to watch TV news:
https://medium.com/@jonathanchoe_58650/i-got-fired-for-live-tweeting-a-proud-boys-rally-d6fe68e0d569
Fired for trying to cover an event. And of course, he is accused of being a 'white supremacist'.

[scenes]

Newsa Director Psul Emery: "Does your critique apply to Fox "newsa' as well? "

Jeesh George, he almost got you on that one. Close call. More insightful questions to come. or 'ingsiteful' or something.
----
I like the story that Scott posted, but can't say I'm at all surprised
----

So far as news (or 'newsa') is concerned, it just seems like a natural extension of a century's worth of honing media to sell products. A newspaper in 1922 and before is an absolute wall of text, I would guess written and produced with fairly small staffs in a lot of cases, and really is a different creature than a 2022 The Union. They tended to have a POV but there were often 2+ newspapers in a town.

The internet, with it's ability to A/B layout, stories, ads, etc. just more quickly produced what the average schlub wants to see. It's a pro-wrestling world presented in the same addictive format as a slot machine. Pretty lights, short attention span stories written by children, heels and faces. Luckily, Donald Trump showed up just in time to make the conversion complete.

It's all aimed at the proclivities of Psul, so understanding his kinks will help you understand the average member of the public. If Psul finds a story fascinating, it's likely just the reels spinning in a more spectacular way than usual.

Luckily the internet also makes it easier to find original documents, raw video, the occasional bona fide domain expert. A good place to start is probably to view anyone presenting current affairs for money with some skepticism, professional no longer implies quality.

[Barry Pruett]

I don’t watch the news anymore. We got rid of cable all together. I read the popular news to find out what our government is saying, I read the Russian Foreign Minister’s telegram to find out what Russia is saying. Truth is likely in the middle. 100 percent not getting truth from our government or the media. Also hitting some other Russian news sources.

[Bill Tozer]

I feel your pain, Dr. Rebane. With the Russian invasion going on for a month now, I decided to watch some clips/episodes of the battles in Ukraine and luckily the internet was full of free shows from Fox News Network. Not the full shows, but lots of 20-30 minute segments from their line-ups. Being a non TV watcher, I was surprised to see so many weekend shows and hosts I never heard of in the Fox line-up. If may not have been live TV via FB feeds, but it was only 24 min to 3 hours delayed.

Anyway, it was like watching 24/7 weeks of coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Nothing new to see after 2 minutes, the rest is what talking heads covering the same bit of news over and over again. It reminded me of not just the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but the 3 week solid coverage of the Oakland Earthquake when finally one rises, turns off the TV, and go outside.
——
The story I watched on FOX was the same on that got Dr. Rebane’s goat. It got my goat as well. There was a missile strike in Lviv, the Western Ukraine city 45 miles from the Polish border. Ok, fine. Lviv has not been hit before and the city has not felt the brunt of the Russian attacks, save for a safe place for evacuees to go in western Ukraine.

Black smoke, no footage from the actual target/depot and back to you in New York. Hour after hour clips played, recycling the same black smoke a mile or two away, the view blocked by the same buildings. I left the feed on all night as it repeated itself with various hosts and same interviews of the former station chief. Finally, after hearing that noise playing over and over and over again, I learned it took firefighters 14 hours to extinguish the flames. 14 friggin hours later! What a waste of time. What kind of idiot could watch that live all day and all night?

I don’t know if live music is best, but I doubt that live TV is better than watching a trail cam for days on end to see a bear walk by.

Yes, the whole thing was like being addicted to a slot machine with the bells and whistles keeping you staring and learning nothing.

Barry and I have more in common than I realized.

[scenes]

While we are virtue signalin', I can't say that I've seen cable news for 25 years aside from the occasional youtube fly-by. Too much real estate lady hair and op-ed disguised as fact dispersal. I expect they constantly stick on the same 'experts' who rent their asses out for a few thousand a minute, no refunds. A full employment plan for the retired Creatures from the 17 Intelligence Agencies Lagoon. Heaven help us.

Finding the good stuff usually means trawling the nether regions of the net, with a healthy dose of skepticism.

It would be interesting to start Fox 2.0 with James Kunstler as anchor. From today's missive:

"The black hole of depravity known as Hunter Biden’s Laptop dilates ever wider as the rickety “Joe Biden” regime chugs towards its event horizon of disgrace and collapse, throwing off the jetsam of our nation’s remnant honor in its toxic vapor trail. The memos and emails on the device could not be clearer: “Joe Biden” and his grifting family sold out their country.

The mentally incompetent husk of a crooked old pol is owned by every foreign interest in his decaying orbit, and owned as well by the foul and perfidious “intel” mafia lodged like a cancerous mass eating away at what used to be known as the American government. Face it: this false “president,” installed by malignant forces allied with his Party of Chaos, is a menace to our nation."

No news and pure editorializing, but I think he's onto something. Maybe we could get him to write a Union 'Other Voices' column after the fuss over the mine or the Invasion of the Election Office by Uzi totin', door crashin' crazies is all over.

[Don Bessee]

Team suppression to protect the big guy and his 10 percent -

ABC, CBS, NBC ignore Hunter Biden scandals, haven’t mentioned his name in 259 days, study says
'Twelve days after the Times confirmed that Hunter Biden’s laptop is real, ABC, CBS and NBC are still silent,' Scott Whitlock wrote

https://www.foxnews.com/media/abc-cbs-nbc-ignore-hunter-biden-scandals-259-days

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Creepy grampa joe has the false story in his go to colostomy bag -

A DHS official who spoke to The Washington Examiner in January shared that assessment, and even questioned whether the administration would ever release the report.

"I doubt that the current administration will release this report on the horse patrol incident because it makes the administration look terrible," the official said. "They essentially convicted the mounted agents based upon a lie, which the investigation after 120 days would surely have revealed."

Judd told Fox that it was down to politics that the agents were still not able to return to the field.

"They did not whip anybody, they didn’t do anything that was wrong, and yet they are still on administrative duties, they have not been released back to the field to perform their patrol duties like the American public expects," he said of the agents

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/probe-into-border-patrol-agents-still-ongoing-6-months-after-false-whipping-claims

;-)

[Don Bessee]

What stage of dementia would this be -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/28/joe-biden-defiant-when-asked-to-clarify-comment-on-chemical-weapons-you-gotta-be-silly/

;-)

[Paul Emery]

Don

What stage of Dementia would you classify someone who would consider the atomic bombing of hurricanes?

[Scott O]

Paul - "...someone who would consider the atomic bombing of hurricanes?"
Actual quote - “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”
He asked, Paul. It never went beyond that. Calm down.
Since you are ignorant on the subject Paul, I'd suggest you educate yourself to all the suggestions back in the forties and fifties to what good things we could do with nukes. Here's one!
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-planned-suez-canal-alternative-israel-blast-with-nuclear-bombs-1960s-2021-3?op=1

[scenes]

Psul Emery: "What stage of Dementia would you classify someone who would consider the atomic bombing of hurricanes?"

Do you mean the head of the US Weather Bureau (Francis W. Riechelderfer) or, I guess, God Emperor Trump?

Since this is in a RR thread on bullshit media claims, I won't even torture you about being off-topic.

So far as I can tell, the whole story comes from here:

https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html%20

By an unnamed 'source'. I haven't found any other reference that doesn't lead there.

So what's the proof? Just some web article? So Joe Biden just spouts off any old thing (in a debate) that some member of his staff reads on the web?

[Scott O]

scenes - "I won't even torture you about being off-topic."
Oh, he's right on topic. Paul happily swallows any BS that conforms to his world view. TV news is designed for idiots like Paul.

[scenes]

re: Scotto@6:29PM

It's just like a giant game of telephone. Somebody quotes a 'source', it gets repeated, becoming truer, and ends up on Newsweek since they don't appear to hire reporters anymore. Weird. By the time Psul hits it, it's a 'fact'.

I agree on the world view, what else would cause someone to show up day after day talking about exactly one (1) thing? I can't say that having the hots for Trump is much of a political philosophy.

It did make me read through this though. I hadn't heard of some of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_nuclear_explosion

[Bill Tozer]

oh fellas. Psul knows this all too well. Last time he brought it up, it was explained too him that the idea of nuking hurricanes before they wrought destruction at landfall was kicked around during the IKE Administration. Before nukes, FDR's people thought bout bombing hurricanes from our Flying Fortresses.

Dementia Joe is out to destroy the planet...I wish it was just severe storms.

https://www.gq.com/story/trump-nuke-the-hurricanes

[Don Bessee]

Actually, the great ponytail of ignorance is absolutely in the proper thread as a glaring example of po' ol' fakenewsman putin party parrot! LOL

;-)

[scenes]

OTOH, there is nothing the God-Emperor cannot do.

"Former President Trump issues statement announcing he made a hole in one."

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1508595205016072201

[Paul Emery]

So RR's you think it's perfectly appropriate for the President of the United States to suggest that nuking a hurricane is an idea worth considering.

[Jose Coyote’s ACME Anvil]

Punchy, Punchy, Punchy, the Ponytail of Soy Boy Ignorance

[Nuke Fish]

Posted by: Pearl Clutch | 28 March 2022 at 07:48 PM

So RR's you think it's perfectly appropriate for the President of the United States to suggest that nuking a hurricane is an idea worth considering.

Yes.....

....and maybe even if there isn't a hurricane.....but just for fun.

[Don Bessee]

Lookin like stage 3 dementia @748! Just loves wallowing in it. LOL

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Media:

Nets Find ‘Controversy’ in Banning Sex Talk With Kindergarteners

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kevin-tober/2022/03/28/nets-find-controversy-banning-sex-talk-kindergarteners
——————————-
Alcindor Mourns False Dem Spin on Inflation, Gas Prices Not Working

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kyle-drennen/2022/03/28/alcindor-mourns-false-dem-spin-inflation-gas-prices-not-working
——————————-
Public:

CNSNews on Poll That Hunter Laptop Is Important News

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kyle-drennen/2022/03/28/editors-pick-cnsnews-poll-hunter-laptop-important-news
——————————
President Biden’s Putin speech in Poland is a catastrophe

https://nypost.com/author/michael-goodwin/
——————————-
Media Collusion to Ignore Hunter's Laptop Was Epitome of Election Tampering

https://townhall.com/columnists/larryoconnor/2022/03/25/media-collusion-to-ignore-hunters-laptop-was-epitome-of-election-tampering-n2605050

[scenes]

The Man, The Legend.

https://imgur.com/a/2HibIyb

[Bill Tozer]

‘None Of The Three Occurred’: Biden Denies Making Foreign Policy Gaffes That White House Walked Back

https://www.dailywire.com/news/none-of-the-three-occurred-biden-denies-making-foreign-policy-gaffes-that-white-house-walked-back
—————————-
BIDEN SAILS DOWN A RIVER IN EGYPT [UPDATED]

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/biden-sails-down-a-river-in-egypt.php

[scenes]

re: "media bullshit"

Now, unless you just flat-out ignore MSM, there is one tricky matter. How do you tell apart their tendency to either:

. Invent stuff or present stuff in such a way to make a better slot machine
. Invent stuff or suppress stuff to put their politics in power, merger between bureaucracy and media

"The Media Campaign to Protect Joe Biden Passes the Point of Absurdity
A development in the infamous laptop story further proves the "Russian Disinformation" tale was itself disinformation, shaming a herd of craven media stenographers "
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/tk-mashup-the-media-campaign-to-protect?s=r

[scenes]

Just to show that the War Party also goes after the bona fide Left.

"Meet the Censored: Chris Hedges
Interview with the award-winning investigative reporter, now at Substack, who had six years of shows removed by YouTube over the weekend"

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/meet-the-censored-chris-hedges?s=r

[Bill Tozer]

Well, that’s what happens when you order a President by mail.

[Don Bessee]

So creepy grampa joe couldn't even lie without cheat sheets another indication that he really does not remember what the hell he said a few days ago! -

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/photos-biden-caught-using-cue-cards-in-trying-to-paper-over-ukraine-gaffe-about-ousting-putin

;-)

[Don Bessee]

So instead of knowing who is flooding across the south from who knows where creepy grampa joe wants to throw billions for illegals nonprof legal scum to fight against citizens OH VEY! -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/28/biden-budget-plan-spends-billions-american-tax-dollars-lawyers-border-crossers-illegal-aliens/

;-)

[fish]

Posted by: Don Bessee | 28 March 2022 at 09:14 PM

Good to know why Psul Clutch is so fond of the slimy grifter.....they both share the attention span of a gerbil.

[fish]

File under Psul Emery ”Man of Integrity” award info.....you know...as part of the permanent record.

“ The President of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., who is 79 years old and suffering from senile dementia at the end of a long life of bullying, lying, boasting, conniving, grifting, grafting, and living off the public tit to an extent indecent even by Washington standards, declared war on Russia on Friday. In the course of a typically blustering, hectoring speech, the senescent Biden went off script and interpolated the following peroration: “My God, this man cannot remain in power.”

To which the only proper response is: “My God, this man cannot remain in the Oval Office.” Joe Biden needs to be removed from the White House as soon as possible, before his failing mind, his erratic behavior, and his proven lack of character get us all killed. The question is, is there enough political will in the capital to do what needs to be done?

Biden’s blunder was immediately walked back by the few adults left in the room, called a “gaffe,” or—worse—actually defended by the neocons and other leftists as truth-telling on a heroic scale, evocative of Ronald Reagan’s 1987 “tear down this wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, which two years later actually did result in the Wall coming down. But his rash words continue to ring, now matter how swiftly his handlers and apologists and even Biden himself try to make us disbelieve our own lying ears[.]”

https://the-pipeline.org/the-column-no-country-for-old-men/

[scenes]

re: fish@10:39PM

The clever bit, which the column mentioned only dances around, is to do the Nixon two-step.

You get rid of the VP (ie. Agnew). There's always enough dirt to depose anyone if the bureaucracy wants it enough, appoint a non-entity to VP (ie. Ford), then dump the king. It worked a charm back then.

As a War Party and Crazytown compromise candidate for the role of Ford, I'd suggest Adam Schiff, although Michelle Obama would do. We could make her VP in a resume building exercise to become The Big Guy next time around.

Of course, what you'd be seeing is a civil war among the people that run the country, not any kind of populist or Trumpist uprising. My own working theory is that until the working class and traditionalists build their own financial and communications/media infrastructure, they'll never really achieve power. Kleptocracies are always run from the cities, and the cities are enamored with men in dresses.

[fish]

Posted by: scenes | 29 March 2022 at 07:03 AM

Psul awarded President "Empty Husk" his Man of Integrity" trophy a while back and I always like to see an opportunity for rebuttal provided.

The acid pen of Kunstler (think you and Toz posted previously) does an even better job!

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/what-is-to-be-done/

PS: $10 gas looking better and better eh? You would think that a certain segment would be crowing about this as an unalloyed good!

[scenes]

moi@7:03AM

"My own working theory is that until the working class and traditionalists build their own financial and communications/media infrastructure, they'll never really achieve power. "

Not that this is necessarily even possible.

I was just reading this:
"How Big Tech Is Strangling Your Freedom
A conversation with entrepreneur and investor David Sacks on protecting civil liberties in the digital public square"
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/how-big-tech-is-strangling-your-freedom?s=r

Wherein the interviewee did the typical handwaving about how things could be changed, and it occurred to me that these large networked systems...media, communications, finance...are never going to be pro-freedom in the long run. Somebody will always own them.

For one thing it's essentially impossible to avoid economies of scale, which centralizes the beast, plus network effects tend to drive towards gigantism.

The great irony of the age. The internet, regardless of early promise, is anti-freedom in the final analysis. No amount of either regulation or natural evolution will result in anything but a boot on the face.

[Bill Tozer]

Scenes @ 7:46 am

The fusion of Big Tech, the billionaires (some we never heard of), Big Government Deep State, Big Corporate…..well, isn’t that just another name for The Oligarchy?

[scenes]

BillT: "well, isn’t that just another name for The Oligarchy"

Au contraire, mon ami. Oligarchs are the people we fight in Eastasia and Eurasia.

[Gregory]

Scenes 913am

Good news about the chocolate rations!

[Bill Tozer]

Fact checkers are a disgrace to humanity.

Analysis: Fact-Checkers Fail to React to New Facts on Hunter Biden Emails

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/joseph-vazquez/2022/03/28/analysis-fact-checkers-fail-react-new-facts-hunter

[scenes]

re: BillT@2:35PM

Our local fact-checker pretty much had it figgered out.

"THE STORY

So, Joe Biden’s crack-pot son, Hunter, he drops off a laptop with all this sensitive stuff in it at a computer repair shop that just happens to be owned by an ardent Trump follower; nay, a patriot.

Well, the owner thinks it must have been Hunter, but he’s visually impaired and can’t really tell. Anyway this laptop has a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on it, which pretty much proves it’s Hunter’s. Are you following me here?

The FBI was coming, but the patriot, like, decides in the meantime he should copy the hard drive — who can trust the FBI, really? — and somewhere in there Steve Bannon gets it and gives it to Rudy Giuliani, or vice versa. Or something.

Anyway, Rudy’s been running around Ukraine for the past couple of years trying to get at the truth, you know, with Russian operatives kindly helping him out. To think it was right there in Delaware! Who’d a thunk? Delaware. Sheesh. What incredible luck. A miracle."

https://www.theunion.com/opinion/columns/don-rogers-never-mind-covid-how-about-hunter/

[Scott O]

scenes 3:04 - Thanks for the link.
Wow.
My opinion of Rogers went from thinking he was just a typical lefty to seeing he is a real dirt bag.
Nothing like leaving out quite a bit of the actual facts, throwing in lots of straw man arguments and of course - a heaping helping of whut-a-bout.
ANYTHING to keep from admitting that the American public got played.

[Don Bessee]

The creepy grampa joe grifter gang would have lost the election if the truth was known. -

A poll conducted shortly after the presidential election showed that 17% of Biden voters would not have voted for him if they had known about the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop when they cast their votes.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/grassley-johnson-allege-100000-payment-chinese-oligarchs-hunter-biden-provide-receipt

;-)

[scenes]

re: Scotto@5:17PM

To be fair, it was some time ago, but it certainly didn't age well (which was my point really).

It doesn't bother me that newspaper editors take sides, it's just that you need more than one newspaper. Modern newspapers are laughable compared to the way they used to be though.

I always thought it would be cool to have a subscription to, let's say, The Union..but they deliver the one from 100 years ago on that day. There'd at least be something to read, plus it's a relatively painless way to pick up some modern history.

[scenes]

also: Scotto@5:17PM

It's fun to read the comments section in something like that story about the laptop.

The normal suspects, sounding even wronger than normal. Pretty funny.

I sure wish I could find a good archive of young Hunter's pics. I've seen some pretty heinous ones but they seem to have disappeared into the ether somewhere, which does make you wonder.

[Bill Tozer]

Senators Release Receipts Showing Direct Payments From Foreign Oligarchs To Hunter Biden

https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/29/senators-release-receipts-showing-direct-payments-from-foreign-oligarchs-to-hunter-biden/

[Bill Tozer]

Don Rogers is not the only one whose opinion and misinformation did not age well. And to think he actually believed the NYT and the Washington Compost and ‘Fact Checkers’.

Joe Scarborough's 2020 Hunter Biden Rant Aged Like a Carton of Milk

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2022/03/29/joe-scarboroughs-2020-hunter-biden-rant-aged-carton-milk

Speaking of aging like a carton of milk, where’s Psul with the daily polls for our viewing pleasure.

[Scott O]

scenes 6:02 - "It doesn't bother me that newspaper editors take sides,..."
Neither do I, but he wasn't even trying to be honest with his argument.
And I won't be holding my breath waiting for his apology to the reading public.

[Bill Tozer]

Biden

https://fb.watch/c47qeddLJF/

[scenes]

I like the story on the oligarch receipts to young Hunter.

If even a yuan of that money made it to the Big Guy, there's a helluva lot more reason to impeach Biden then there was Trump or Clinton, but that'll never happen.

It looks to me like the folks actually in the driver's seat at the DNC have decided to run a different candidate in the next cycle, told their minions at the NYT/WP what to do, and the rank 'n file haven't gotten the word yet. The foot soldiers are still in the 'WELL, THAT'S JUST A CONSPIRACY THEORY' phase. Maybe Psul can expand on the current philosophy held by the base.

The big mystery to me is what is keeping Michelle Obama, who is 16 years younger than Bill Clinton's wife, Baba Yaga, from being pushed forward. It could be that she isn't formed from purest ambition like a lot of those people. If so, I salute her.

Personally, I'm holding out for Sam Brinton as President with some poor incontinent guy in a dog suit as VP. That'll perfectly reflect modern American values and our new mystery VP-in-a-mask can be sent to Russia to negotiate child indoctrination there.

[scenes]

(I'll just go ahead and cut 'n paste the Epoch Times op-ed, getting through their paywall was a pain).

One of the former CIA officers who signed a letter claiming stories about a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden were disinformation says he helped swing the 2020 election away from former President Donald Trump.

“I take special pride in personally swinging the election away from Trump,” John Sipher, who served for decades as a senior operations officer at the CIA, wrote in a recent post on Twitter. “I lost the election for Trump? Well then I [feel] pretty good about my influence.”

Sipher and 50 other former U.S. intelligence officials signed the letter on Oct. 19, 2020, alleging that the effort to distribute its contents “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” despite not knowing whether the laptop was legitimate.

The letter was at the core of a story from Politico that claimed the New York Post story about the laptop was “Russian disinformation.”

The Post was the first to report about emails on the laptop, which was dropped off at a computer repair store and never picked up by then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, according to the store’s owner.

While the FBI picked up the computer and a hard drive from the store’s owner, the bureau’s apparent inaction in probing the matter prompted him to pass on a copy of the hard drive to an attorney representing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who, in turn, passed it to the Post.

The Oct. 14, 2020, story about the emails came as some voters were still deciding whether to vote for Biden or Trump. The story was widely questioned by legacy media outlets, suppressed by social media platforms, and claimed to be part of a Russian effort, despite top officials such as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe saying there was no evidence that was the case.

Sipher is one of the few former officials who signed the letter to respond to fresh questions about the laptop’s contents, after more legacy media outlets, including Politico, said they’ve confirmed that it’s legitimate.

Sipher got into arguments with former acting DNI Richard Grenell and others on Twitter, where he later said his claims of helping Trump lose were sarcasm.

He also wrote that “the letter didn’t say the laptop was disinformation,” but, in May 2021, posted a link to the Politico story that did say that.

Nick Shapiro, once a top aide to former CIA Director John Brennan—both Shapiro and Brennan signed the missive—and who provided it to Politico, hasn’t responded to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

Most of the other signers didn’t respond to requests for comment or declined the requests, the Post reported.

Former DNI James Clapper told the paper that he stands by the statement “made AT THE TIME.”

“I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate,” Clapper said.

“The letter explicitly stated that we didn’t know if the emails were genuine, but that we were concerned about Russian disinformation efforts,” said Russ Travers, former acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center. “I spent 25 years as a Soviet/Russian analyst. Given the context of what the Russians were doing at the time (and continue to do—Ukraine being just the latest example), I considered the cautionary warning to be prudent

-------

Here's the tweet: https://twitter.com/john_sipher/status/1508178274588966913

-------

Of course, the 17 intelligence agencies left in enough denial possibilities while at the same time they implied that the laptop was a Russian plant.

For once, it's nice to see the mask come off just a little. I hope that Psul doesn't find carrying water for the CIA too daunting a task.

[Bill Tozer]

I have dug a little bit into oligarchs and openly confess I have just scratched the surface, but frankly I do not see any difference between Russian oligarchs and Ukrainian oligarchs. Both have been using Russian and Ukrainian financial systems to launder great sums of money from fraud to US aid to the industrial military complexes to energy to state assets to arms traffickers. Anyway……they run in the same circles and are themselves interchangeable, IMHO.

‘The New Authoritarians’
Woke professionals acting as the indentured servants of a fearful oligarchy have become everything we were told to fear from Trumpism

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/new-authoritarians

[scenes]

" I do not see any difference between Russian oligarchs and Ukrainian oligarchs."

I just assume that the two countries are functionally identical, except that Ukraine is *far* poorer (in both average and median income). Perhaps it's the difference that oil/gas income gives you. Neither appears morally superior as a polity, although you'd have to live in both to have an informed opinion.

The war isn't over that anyhow. Is it reasonable for Ukrainian to be a forward base of US intelligence and cultural expansion, and soon to have been a military one? Is it reasonable for Russia to be sufficiently threatened to go blow the place up? Less reasonable things have happened in the history of the world. Maybe a person could extract the truth from the matter in 100 years or so. Hell, it'll probably take another 100 years for WWII to be written about accurately.

In any case, back to 'media bullshit' (not a bad name for a news site).

"The Western intelligence apparatus has been busy in Ukraine. With financing and collaboration through various non-governmental organizations, it won the information war with the help of Ukrainian media before Russia ever fired a shot in February. Even the country’s newest publications, like the Kyiv Independent, have received support and funding from institutions associated with the Central Intelligence Agency. "

https://humanevents.com/2022/03/15/the-fog-of-information-war-in-ukraine/

[scenes]

re: BillT@8:36AM

That's a good op-ed.

Generally, it breaks down along these lines if you're on Team Blue.

. NO, THE WORKING CLASS IS ON OUR SIDE BECAUSE THEY ARE
. WELL, IF THAT'S NOT TRUE IT'S OK BECAUSE WE ARE SMARTER THAN THEM AND SHOULD RUN THINGS

...which is usually followed by some statistic on how poor Red States are and how they are subsidized by the Feds. This always ignores offshoring (run from corporate boardrooms) and the financialization of the US (which moves wealth to cities). It's pretty hard to accumulate wealth when the money is swept into the hands of fund managers and surveillance capitalists. Simply taxing them and returning a little of it (to your friends, naturally) accomplishes nothing.

[scenes]

...a bit more on the 8:36

It's good that the author digs a little into elite competition (and cascading wokeness in this case).

Peter Turchin talks about that a fair amount, that over-production of elite classes (ie. there's too damned many of them with not enough loot to divvy up) is a cyclical thing which causes downfalls of societies. There are other cycles, but that is an important one.

In days of yore, you could send your extra sons off to fight in the Crusades or into the priesthood.

[Don Bessee]

Better late than aw bull shit they lie their asses off to saddle us with creepy grampa joes crazy posse -

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2022/03/30/cnn-admits-hunter-bidens-laptop-is-authentic-532-days-after-initial-reporting/

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Even the lap dogs are shaking in their boots about midterm shellacking -

Discussing the polling question if the country is on the right or wrong track, Todd said, “So where are we right now? Let’s take a look — the current wrong track in our country 71%. What’s really striking is this is third straight poll where the wrong track in our country has been above 70%. Only one other time, we have had that in our poll. It is not a good time if you have 71%. Look, 65% wrong track is a bad number. Seventy-one percent? That’s why it is in the shellacking category.”

Discussing the presidential job approval rating, Todd said, “When you start dipping below forty-five you’ve got a problem, and you’re going to have midterms in the bad-to-shellacking ratio. President Biden is at 40. George W. Bush was at 39 in 2006. We know how that turned out. That’s also in shellacking territory.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/03/30/chuck-todd-biden-dems-in-shellacking-territory-going-into-midterms/

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

HUNTER BIDEN: FIRST THE TIMES, NOW THE POST

“And while there may not be any direct evidence, there is this detail in the Post story:

A few weeks after he went into business with the CEFC executives in the fall of 2017, Hunter Biden requested changes to the fifth-floor office space he was renting at the House of Sweden, an airy building in Georgetown that is home to the Swedish Embassy and other offices.

On Sept. 21, 2017, Hunter Biden wrote to a building manager requesting new office signage to reflect a new family enterprise and a new business relationship: “The Biden Foundation and Hudson West (CEFC- US),” he wrote in emails to the property manager.

He also requested keys for his new office mates: his father, Joe; his mother, Jill; his uncle James; and the Chinese executive, Gongwen Dong.

Question for further investigation: Why was the “Biden Foundation,” a charitable entity (and what has it ever done I wonder) sharing space with a for-profit entity? How were the office expenses divided between the two?

Of course, the difficulty with the “Operation Remove Joe” is that Kamala Harris is in the way. Start your countdown clock for some old story of Kamala Korruption emerging from California. There’s at least one Democrat whose name rhymes with gruesome who would like to see Kamala out of the way.“

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/hunter-biden-first-the-times-now-the-post.php

[Don Bessee]

The last rancid russian dressing belch between the lap dogs suppression of the crack heads computers this million they really did hijack the government. The ponytail of ignorance must be pulling that last hair in his ponytail -

The commission fined the treasurers of the DNC and Clinton campaign for "misreporting the purpose of certain disbursements" related to the infamous Steele dossier, according to a ruling released on Wednesday. The DNC and Clinton campaign paid more than $1 million in 2016 to fund the dossier project, but labeled the payments as legal expenses

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/fec-fines-clinton-dems-for-debunked-dossier/

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Now thats funny! The BIG GUY is in the record -

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., sent a hard drive containing the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., on Wednesday, one day after he requested that it be entered into the Congressional Record.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/gaetz-sends-nadler-hard-drive-215522239.html

;-)

[scenes]

from George's addition:

"Yes, there is always the push toward economies of scale, but that vicious cycle is abetted only by corporatism. A liberal government's role is to maintain minimally regulated markets which allow the entry of more nimble and efficient smaller competitors, thereby creating virtuous (self-correcting) cycles."

" more nimble and efficient smaller competitors"

Generally, I'd say that that only occurs when there is a sea change in technology. As a technology stack becomes mature, it centralizes. Consider car companies (Tesla is essentially a sea change), farming, chip manufacturing, retail, banking, aerospace. That shift from Sears Roebuck to Walmart to Amazon is quite a rare occurrence and only occurred with such a shift in business model that they are essentially different sorts of companies, not merely a 'nimble' competitor.

What should a liberal government do? I'm not sure, aside from actually thinking about antitrust law now and again. The typical state of much of industry is near-total ownership by oligopolies or whatever the word is for a monopsony version of that.

As a quick aside, I'd say that these huge companies do more in some ways to keep competition going than government. They have an interest in multiple sourcing of components/precursors in order to avoid upstream monopoly pricing.

Software is an interesting case due to low variable cost to manufacture. It's a world where networking effects take hold (Microsoft Word for example). Of course, lots of modern software is essentially a software/hardware hybrid since there's racks of equipment behind the curtain.

So, to circle back around, I'd say that the normal tendency for most commerce tends towards a few nodes of power, either government or corporate. Counterexamples exist (drug manufacture and distribution?, home building?), but aren't that common. We don't live on family farms and trade the occasional pig for a blacksmith's work anymore. If that node of power decides that we all must wear Hawaiian shirts on Thursdays, I'd suggest shopping for your favorite pattern.

Here's one basic and rather new problem. Those nodes of power have decided to dabble in culture and politics to a far greater degree than prior.

[Don Bessee]

OH BOY i get 2 pudding cups when i get a shot! I hope you all get pudding cups too. -

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/biden-pleads-for-funds-to-fight-next-covid-surge-before-its-too-late-201127976.html

;-)

[scenes]

One quick thought on the metastasizing of corporations and the birth of the Woke Industrial Complex.

It seems to me that there are two types of Woke influence that can be brought to bear. The first is the most obvious, the direct application of force by choke points on Wrongthinkers. This'll tend to be companies or divisions in the data business, VISA, Paypal, AWS, Youtube, Bank of America. Typically something you can do with a few strokes of a keyboard with cheering corporate employees helping press.

The other sort is simply the financial influence you can bring to bear. It isn't like Coca Cola can refuse to sell it's products to Nazis (although perhaps that is coming), but market dominance implies money implies the ability to feed donations to your special friends in politics or in street armies. Alternately, hiring practices can be modified to set up a 'virtuous' feedback loop of jobs given to Goodthinkers.

The notion of profit-seeking forcing companies to stay neutral in the public square appears to be broken for now.

[George Rebane]

scenes 743am - Yes, and both of these are instantiations of corporatism since neither can be brought to bear on the citizenry without the government gun.

[scenes]

GeorgeR@8:23AM

I'm more making the point (well, two points) that this has grown beyond corporatism.

. Natural and government sanctioned centralization of business is a thing and has grown worse. The movement of antitrust law towards being primarily concerned with consumer pricing rather than market share has partly set the stage. Additionally, the nature of technology causes a kind of corollary to Moore's Law, each generation of tech doubles in design and manufacturing plant cost. Try starting your own nimble flat panel or disk drive company (or car sheet metal plant for that matter).

. This centralized power has been increasingly captured by an ideology. WWII-era Coca Cola was happy to sell to the Nazis until it was made illegal (of course, they simply invented Fanta). The modern day version appears to be 50% driven by political beliefs. The ideology is able to vault itself in importance via control of over-important organizations. It's not a thing that antitrust law really foresaw as a problem.

When the ideology can destroy your business just by cutting off your access to payments, communications, or data storage, I'd say that no government gun is needed. It's a difference that makes no difference.

[scenes]

...in any case, back to my original point that began this

moi: ""My own working theory is that until the working class and traditionalists build their own financial and communications/media infrastructure, they'll never really achieve power. "

Not that this is necessarily even possible."

Given (a)organization capture and (b)the inertia of centralization, I'm primarily saying that an alternative system, either unWoke or neutral, is probably not possible.

One alternative that is still left is to go the way of the prepper/homesteader movement. Most of the Woke can be ignored by simply ignoring it and not using it's services (including schools). This can be pushed quite a distance depending on a person's energy.

Perhaps this is what you meant by the 'gun of the government', that a person can withdraw completely from a given sort of commercial organization without government interference. It's certainly doable, but might require the loss of access to banking, high technology products, even commercially produced foods if you don't like MegaConAgra's donations to the burners of buildings. In short, you can either cut yourself off or you can pay for your enemy's year-end bonuses.

That leaves you dealing with a small group of local Wrongthinkers and family as opposed to a culture. Maybe not such a bad thing as Saint Leibowitz might have shown.

[Bill Tozer]

Hey, look. The Emperor is butt-ass naked.

Apologist press is ‘raving’ mad for Biden — but Americans say otherwise

“CNN, the Washington Post, Newsweek and others published commentary hailing Biden’s cry from the heart, if not the head, as if they were praising a teenager for virtue signaling. It’s not that they necessarily favor regime change, it’s just that his outburst made them feel better.“…..

Approval keeps sinking

“Put it this way: How is it possible there is only the most gentle and occasional criticism of Biden on any subject in the big newspapers, the broadcast media, CNN and MSNBC and on most of social media, while the president’s approval rating among all voters is in the toilet?

The gap is enormous. The most recent Harvard-Harris survey has him with just a 39% approval rating and the Real Clear Politics average of polls in the last two weeks shows him at 41% approval, with 53% disapproval.

On the economy, his average approval is 37.5%, with 58% disapproval. On foreign policy, meaning mostly Ukraine, his approval is 40.7% and disapproval is 54.2%. On immigration, it’s 34.4% approval vs. 57% disapproval.“

https://nypost.com/2022/03/29/apologist-press-is-raving-mad-for-biden-americans-fed-up/

[scenes]

re: media bullshit

I just wanted to park this somewhere.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276

PSUL, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?

[Don Bessee]

The ninth circuit no less -

Court Upholds Bakery’s $32 Million Victory against Oberlin College over False Racism Accusations

https://www.yahoo.com/news/court-upholds-bakery-32-million-141320346.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Creepy grampa joes crew yells from the hilltop that they are doing nothing to impede energy production and blame the bogy man evil energy companies. BULL SHIT! They act as if we do not pay attention to what the cabinet tells the green luddites and all the new tax attacks on energy as well as administrative strangling of the industry and well paying jobs for Americans. They really do hate citizens. -

The Biden administration may soon consider calls for exemptions to a ban on financing of new carbon-intensive fossil fuel projects overseas, a senior U.S. official said, as energy markets tighten on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

President Joe Biden in December ordered U.S. agencies to immediately stop financing coal, gas and other projects and prioritize global collaborations to deploy clean energy technology.

https://news.yahoo.com/u-may-weigh-exemptions-ban-163214281.html

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

cratering territory for the geniuses.

Shapiro covers it all.

https://fb.watch/c7wTC-Qc6Y/

[Don Bessee]

They did it even knowing it would not survive -

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-corporate-diversity-law-ruled-unconstitutional#&_intcmp=hp1r_4,hp1r

;-)