Rolling in the Deep

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

I wasn’t going to write a post today.  I have a guest post from David Burkhead, and at any rate, Dan and I ran away halfway through the afternoon, to a hotel room, so we could spend the weekend catching up on writing, because between stomach flu and family, November has been a disaster, I have books WAY overdue, and he’s barely started 9th Euclid’s War.

Of course, because someone (likely several someones) has a voodoo doll of me.  So Dan is having a second bout of stomach flu and while I don’t have it, I have the “funny taste in mouth” that means I’m barely fighting it off.  So this might not be the most successful writing weekend ever.  I already slept close to 12 hours.

Anyway, the problem with the undisclosed location (as we know) is that it has a television on CNN all through breakfast.  And that meant I had to write a blog post.

I’ve got a blog post about it somewhere in the archives.  But it’s not quite the same thing.  Now entire industries are doing this, and it’s amazing.  (Not in a good way.)

Years ago, watching science fiction magazines and newspapers of various sorts come and go, I identified a process I called “roll hard left and die.”

When a magazine or a newspaper or any news or entertainment media was in real trouble, they went hard, hard left, then died.

It took me a little while to realize this was a sane strategy.  In a field completely controlled by the left, when you knew that your job was in peril be it through missmanagement or whatever, your last hope was to go incredibly hard left, so you could blame the failure on ideology.  And instead of not being able to find a job, you found yourself lionized by all the “right” (left) “thinking people.”  New jobs were assured.

I watched this happen four times with a particular magazine editor, who killed sf magazines through publishing things that REALLY weren’t science fiction besides being preachy.  But every time the magazine got in trouble it would go hard left, and when it died the editor was offered another, better job.  (No, I’m not going to pick a public fight by identifying it, because this is a writing weekend.)

Then I started noticing it with newspapers and news magazines, both here and abroad.

It got so bad, I could identify when a magazine was in severe trouble, because it would go from “left leaning” to “To the left of Lenin” in nothing flat.

And then we come to where we’re now.

This morning at breakfast I watched CNN extensively interviewing a guy who wrote an article called “The Chaos inside Donald Trump’s transition.”  Mind you ALL of his reporting is based on unattributed leaks inside Obama’s administration AKA the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

I told Dan “Remember all the articles about the rough Obama transition?  Or the ones about Clinton, which, according to bios published way later was indeed rough, and some people never submitted clearance paperwork EVER even in his second term?  No? I wonder why?”

I mean this campaign was amazing by the brazen way they supported Hillary.  Part of the reason I decided Donald Trump was the least of two evils is that the press was covering so hard for Hillary that I couldn’t trust her with power of any kind.  In fact, I voted for Trump because of the press’s performance.  I’m not alone, either.  Pollsters are “blaming” his victory on “suburban females who changed their mind the last week.”  (Thereby causing the democrats to manufacture insufficient votes, one presumes.)

Having managed this amazing feat, what is the news doing? Rolling harder left, chasing dust motes and nonsense, making a case out of the president elect going out alone with his family for a family dinner without informing them, and generally going even more in the tank for the left.

I’ve been watching this with mainstream publishers for three years now, and I still don’t believe it.  I’ve watched publishers who were “lean left” become wholly owned subsidiaries of the leftist project, no dissenters need apply to the point they’re now shedding middle-of-the-road writers.  And I’ve thought “How much trouble are they in?”

And now I’m watching this with the news AS A WHOLE.

The problem is that they’re doing what they’ve watched done/learned by example.  It’s not a rational calculus that goes “If I go hard left, I’ll be lionized and have a new job.”  Or maybe it is, but at least part of it is instinct.  They want to go out “a hero.”

Our tech is changing institutions too fast for the good old monkey brain.  If they looked around they’d see their ENTIRE field is in trouble and no one will be left standing to give them a job when their hard roll left causes the total collapse of their employer.

At this point things are changing so fast, they think they’re rolling over to a new job.  But they’re just rolling in the deep.

In the end, we win, they lose.  And part of it is the roll left before dying.  But, until then they’re going to be very annoying.

Now go work, because I’m going to, also.

 

264 thoughts on “Rolling in the Deep”

  1. And since they see the news sources on the internet as competition, the current push to class them as fake and unreliable will progress (yeah I know) to banning them. If it takes licensing news services or flipping the off switch on the internet – well nothing is too stupid.
    Restricting the internet right now would collapse what is left of the economy. But look at what India is doing right now. Politicians will pick ideology over reality.

    1. From Wall Street Journal today:

      Trump Taps Loyalists for Cabinet Posts
      President-elect Donald Trump said he would appoint Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Rep. Mike Pompeo as director of the CIA, turning to figures considered outside the GOP establishment to begin filling his cabinet.

      The loyalists are usually the easiest (and thus first) picks, because the president sodding knows them and has already relied upon them.

      In Their Coastal Citadels, Democrats Argue Over What Went Wrong
      Republican America is now so vast that a traveler could drive 3,600 miles across the continent, from Key West, Fla., to the Canadian border crossing at Porthill, Idaho, without ever leaving a state under total GOP control.

      After last week’s election, Democrats hold the governor’s office and both legislative chambers in just six states—all of them on the Atlantic or Pacific oceans—compared with 25 for Republicans.

      Just a few weeks ago, when Hillary Clinton was leaping ahead in the polls, it seemed as if it would be the Republicans heading for a reckoning. Instead it’s the Democrats who are plunged into a bout of soul-searching about the party’s diminishing footprint, especially among the white working class.

      After much soul-searching and wringing of hands the Dems will undoubtedly conclude that a) America is just too tainted by the inborn sins of racism, sexism, fillintheblankophobia (i.e., comprised of humans) to accept the enlightened leadership of its anointed ones b) the solution is to put better sheep’s clothing over their wolves and more cowbell.

      N.B., while the Journal editorial page is commitedly conservative, their news pages are meh. Links not provided due to 2-link moderation trigger and the <IJournal paywall. Google caches free versions of the articles; try searching on the first half-dozen or so words.

      1. For the Journal paywalls articles, I have had good luck googling the article headline, though I have hit instances where it apparently was changed forcing a fallback to searching for the first sentence or two as indicated above.

      2. And now Fox News is reporting that Trump is going to announce retired Marine General James Mattis as nominee-to-be for Secretary of Defense.

        Trump wasn’t my choice in the primaries, I didn’t relish voting for him in the general, and I have reservations about both his lack of political experience and some of his announced policies. OTOH, he seems to be doing a good-to-excellent job with his cabinet and staff selections. Unless real evidence suddenly emerges that Steve Bannon is actually the figure the Left paints him to be, I think I find the choices to date as reassuring as they possibly could be – and a darn sight better than what I fear would have emerged under Hillary Clinton.

        1. Stefan Molyneux has a good takedown of the -ist shrieking from the left — turns out it’s based on selective quoting out of context.

          At any rate, I’m not too worried about anyone Trump picks, because he’s already shown a willingness to give them the instant boot out the door if they fail to perform.

    2. This is why the Citizens United decision is so important and why Clinton’s hostility to it was a reason to oppose her. It’s not often remarked, but Kennedy explicit said in the second part of the decision that “freedom of the press” does not apply simply to established news media, and that the United States has no official, licensed “press”: The press is everyone who has the means of creating and disseminating text. That is *really* important; it prevents us from having nothing but a government controlled news channel.

      “A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, Manuel, for the managers; and its greatest strength is a free press, where ‘free’ is defined as ‘responsible’ and the managers decide what is responsible.” (RAH, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)

      1. Amazing how RAH saw the current German press and their “responsible journalism” relationship with the government.

        Yet another instance of despotism always descending on the US but landing on Europe.

  2. And BO declare Fox was ‘fake news’ this morning… Sigh… The advent of the 24 hour news cycle is partly to blame for the hard roll, as if they didn’t have a story, they’d make something into a story, then ride it to the end, even if it was proven to be false…

    2. In fairness, some of the #NeverTrump critiques of Fox and Breitbart. (But Trump won? I understand that the numbers started moving two days before the last Comey matter, which suggests one of the other factors was key. Like perhaps the ones under the control of the Clinton campaign or Russian intelligence, hence presumably outside of media knowledge. Trump’s campaign apparently wasn’t prepared, so I’m skeptical of claims that media foresight during the primaries was sufficient to justify the conclusions they presented.)

      Anyone who consumes only old media is a chump.

      1. A true cynic would say that the numbers started moving when they needed to be within the ballpark to preserve any clout; goosing your numbers to influence things has to be done before then.

        1. Except they pretty much didn’t preserve any real credibility. I think they will have to earn back over again with track record if they are to have much in the future.

          1. I was laughing at Nate Silver justifying his brand saying he blew it by less than anyone else. And the result was in his margin of error. What a maroon.

            1. No, that’s statistics. The polls weren’t flawed, they said – to anyone who was willing to listen – that Hillary would probably win a narrow victory, but there was a small chance that Trump could squeak out a win. The race isn’t always to the swift, the battle isn’t always to the strong, nor is the election always to the poll leader, but those are tye ways to bet.

              1. It doesn’t always go to the supersampled, either. At best supersampling is based on assumption. At worst, there’s the e-mails were the Clinton campaign wanted supersampling.

  3. And yet the (loud annoying) blame will be on the order of “The Blogger Killed the News Anchor” or such[1] rather than “Cause of Death: Suicide.”

    The alleged battle against “fake” news is telling. What, going after The Onion and the like? No, of course not.

    [1] MTV initial video reference very much intended.

    And…
    Do the Huns & Hoydens need to get/make Hoyt ‘voodoo’ dolls to place in dioramas of pleasant solitude or suchlike?

    *Ponders ox voodoo dolls and what people might do with them. Maybe not such a good idea?*

    1. hey ox … if the left are going after Fake news, does this mean they will be going after Daily show and SNL week-end up date.

    3. Do the Huns & Hoydens need to get/make Hoyt ‘voodoo’ dolls to place in dioramas of pleasant solitude or suchlike?

      I imagine little dioramas where new completed books pile up on one side of the room, and piles of royalty checks from publishers on the other would be better. If we’re going to shoot for for sympathetic magic, we should shoot higher than ‘peace and quiet.’

  4. Or, as the great Iowahawk put it:

    “David Burge
    ‏@iowahawkblog
    1. Identify a respected institution.
    2. kill it.
    3. gut it.
    4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.”

  5. Found an interesting article about people still crying “wolf” about Trump from someone who obviously doesn’t like him, but who thinks that the left side has lost their minds. And he’s a mental health professional, so he underscores your message of ” stop scaring your kids!” with actual numbers.

    1. Totally sounds like a stormfronter. Probably caused the suicides themself. Some correctthinker should report them for malpractice. Myanmar Close.

      2. Nah, Scott’s a straight shooter as I’ve been reading Slate Star Codex for years.

        Based on other things he wrote I’d say he’s kind of a left of center version of us. If you want to read sane left of center stuff he’s a good first choice.

          1. I know…I just thought I’d use the excuse to pimp SSC…I think it is a good read especially for those of us in the various things called right of center in the US (or Quadrants II and III on the Pournelle chart if you prefer).

  7. “Part of the reason I decided Donald Trump was the least of two evils is that the press was covering so hard for Hillary that I couldn’t trust her with power of any kind.”

    Among my arguments for voting Trump were the pleasures of knowing the Press would not cover for him* and the pleasures of seeing hatefilled people express their intolerance instead of their smugness.


    (Courtesy Power Line week in pix)

    *Of course, as in the adage about the pitcher and the stone, whether the Press covers nonexistent problems in a Republican administration or makes nonexistent any problems in a Democrat administration, it is bound to be bad for the Public.

        1. I might have, but I can’t recall it just now. Link/pointer?
          I did a Newsweek (originally typoed: Newsewwk, which seems an apt title for them[1]) cover, but that was one they did to themselves.

          [1] Once upon a time I had to have a subscription to that for a class. They had Quotes of the Week page and one was Pres. (H.W.) Bush, on women senate candidates: “I hope they lose.” Even NPR didn’t then go that far in overselectivity and correctly reported the full quotation, “Since they are all Democrats, I hope they lose.” I saw no point to renewing the subscription.

  8. I remember years (decades?) ago someone told me that if you accidentally stepped in quicksand, you should not struggle, but lie flat and roll your way out. It presupposed that the roll would actually be in the direction of safety.
    I still don’t believe that advice.

    1. There’s a grain (sorrynotsorry) of truth in that. You do not want to flail around and or to move quickly. Slow, steady movements, and doing what you can to spread your weight and “float” on the stuff until you get to firmer terrain will work, depending on how deep the stuff is, You might have to “swim” to stay at least partly loose until someone can help or you can grab onto something solid and pull free. At least that’s what the ranchers I’ve talked to recommended.

          1. and for claiming you’re going for a tan.

            Burton Gilliam, who played Lyle in Saddles lives in the DFW area, and does/did commercials for a Ford dealership basically in that guise.
            At an appearance there, a chinese kid got him to sign his photo with “Dock that Chink a day’s pay for sleeping on the job!”
            Tanning.
            I worked in a bicycle shop in New Orleans with a guy (black) who had two different jerseys for riding a bicycle, and it gave him a three tone tan job. His arms were really dark except for his hands where the gloves blocked light, and his arms had a band where the shorter jersey didn’t cover that was a bit lighter but still darker than his torso. He would walk through the shop and people would double take at his “paint job”.
            Wayne and I weighed the same, but I am 5’7″ and he was about 10 inches taller so 170 on him was skinny. Told him he needed to buy dairy farm to get some calves.

      2. Mythbusters did an episode on quicksand and after a lot of testing with different kinds of sand concluded that sinking and dying in quicksand was bs. You possible could die in quicksand but you’d pretty much have to stick your head in it deliberately and drown.

        1. I’m told the classic quicksand death had arms over head. That said, I don’t know anyone who’d been in quicksand.

          I’ve been in mud, and the problem is there’s no air around your feet, so you’re dealing with a suction. A walking stick run beside your leg and next to your foot, moved outward, makes a hole to let air in, making it easier to remove your foot.

          1. My first place in the Mojave Desert… back yard turned to quicksand when it rained. About two feet deep, cuz that’s how deep the dry suspended dust layer was (you couldn’t drive on that stuff, you’d sink and have to be pulled out — it didn’t pack down, it was kinda like flour after sifting). You’d lose boots in it, and there was much flailing and swearing if I had to cross it cuz it was like wading in glue, but that was about it. Didn’t bother the dogs any, probably because their foot shape doesn’t get stuck in it.

            1. My experience with quicksand was much different. Mine was ultra quicksand. I was wading across a shallow creek. One step solid sand and water to my knees. Next step my foot was buried in sand to the thigh and water to chest. The current helped me swim away.

              Nobody at camp believed that I’d stepped in quicksand. They thought I was too embarrassed to admit I had tripped and soaked myself. Proving the quicksand existed was cool. Toss a rock in the creek most places and you had a rock on the stream bed. Toss it in just the right spot and the rock disappeared. Very cool.

              1. Yours, being in a stream, was a lot better suspended and less mudlike. Not too surprising! Ours varied a lot depending on how much sheet-flooding — flatter the area, the more sloppy and deep.

                When our desert quicksand was dry, it was like this bottomless dust (well, down to the calichi, which could be a foot or 10 feet) — drop something on it and it just vanished. Walk on it and you sink to your knees. Drive on it, and hope someone with a long chain is nearby.

        2. It’s an uncommon, but not unknown death in Alaska. Of course, we don’t call it quicksand, we call it “glacial silt mud flats.” The problem being that at low tide, they’re solid to walk on, and there’s always that idiot tourist who ignores the warnings, and decides to set out for a nice hike down by the sea, or out to an island that’s almost-connected at low tide. (Fire Island by Anchorage draws them like moths.)

          But when the tide comes in, it doesn’t just roll on top of the surface; the glacial silt is so fine grained and porous it comes up from underneath, turning the glacial silt into, essentially, slurry and quicksand. The hikers see the tide coming in fast, and start running for the rocky shore. But if they’re too far out as the mud goes to slurry underfoot, they start sinking in knee deep, getting trapped. And then the clock starts ticking: whether anyone will a.) notice them, and b.) be able to organize a rescue before the tide comes in and drowns them. (No, the tide doesn’t have to be over their head. Get battered by the waves and hypothermic, and they’ll knock you down until you’re too weak to keep your head above the water. And that struggling will sink you deeper in the mud.)

          Mythbusters is a fine show, but when they have done things I actually know about, I’ve ended up shaking my head and saying “You’re setting the parameters so they don’t match the actual real-world cases, in favour of hype and drama and explosions.”

            1. I thought Mythbusters was more of an excuse to pack as much explosives into something than a scientific inquiry. NTTAWWT. 😉

            2. I saw an XKCD cartoon that made the point that, while MythBusters experiments can leave much to be desired, they also reinforce the notion that testing an idea (however commonly accepted that idea may be) is a valuable thing.

              And come to think of it, with regards to quicksand, MythBusters was testing the claim that quicksand would kill you; they weren’t testing fynbospress’s observation that the high tide can kill you when you’re stuck in quicksand…

              And now that I think of it, since we have reports of that happening, we don’t actually need to test it. (Much like the guy I read about on Instapundit, who fell into a boiling-hot sulfuric-acid-infused spring in Yellowstone, when he was bending down to check the temperature, because he and his sister wanted to illegally find a “pot” to use as a hot tub. His sister was unable to get him out, and rescuers weren’t able to get to him until the next day, when he was pretty much completely dissolved…)

              Whether these happen by accident, by ignorance, or by downright stupidity, they all ought to be considered “natural experiments”. We ignore them at our peril!

              1. I was going to say that it isn’t science until you publish. But publishing experiments should not be confined to established science journals. So, due to reading published science, I will avoid soaking my tired muscles in natural sulfuric acid tubs.

                I effing love science.

          2. *shudder* Soon as you said “tidal flat” I thought “floats” … desert-dust mud does that too, it just doesn’t move any faster than the rain falls. Unless you get a mudslide. Such a mudslide buried two miles of Hwy 58 a couple years ago. (Protip: don’t build a highway in a dry wash!)

        3. The classic death from quicksand involves panicking and struggling ineffectively. People who are doing experiments aren’t likely to be able to simulate panicking very well, unless the experiment goes tits-up on them.

      3. I have to add here that a meme about quicksand I saw is true. From all the portrayals in movies and comics and whatnot, I really thought quicksand would be a real problem I would end up confronting some day. 61 years down, haven’t seen any yet.

        1. I dunno, I disagreed with some of their testing but in the main I thought they did a good job given the limitations of a TV show. Obviously the biggest flaw in many of their experiments was a limited data set but again is was a TV show with limited resources. In the main they tried to be as rigorous as possible so I give them big points for that.

          1. My two main ‘busted myths’ that i had problems with were :

            Bullets fired into the air coming down hard enough to kill (they said busted, but its only busted if you fire *straight* up…. like the guys down the street from me in unincorporated LA County are going to fire exactly straight into the air… the answer, simple math will tell you, is roughly eleven degrees off vertical for pistols and seventeen degrees for rifles, tho it is possible i have that reversed)

            ‘ninjas’ being able to catch fired arrows (which i have seen with my own eyes repeatedly over the years as a demonstration at martial arts events- the flaw in their testing was they used a modern compound bow, not a shortbow)

            1. I believe the episode about bullets fired into the air DID make the distinction that it had to be at a high enough angle that it didn’t retain a ballistic trajectory.

  9. So many contradictions….

    The liberals wanting to throw Pence out of watching Hamilton, while refusing to remember that Hamilton is an adulatory show about Republican roots and a Democratic Party killer. By a leftie who has trouble remembering it, also.

    Also, a guy, who pretty much disowned his mother on his comment forum for voting Trump, has just written a fanfic about how the way to peace between factions is to understand and harmonize the complementary strengths of different factions. He has more sympathy for the Dark Side than the Republican side.

    Your creative brains, they are trying to tell you something….

    1. Milo said it: Being Republican is the new gay. Just like it used to happen to gays, if you refuse to stay in the closet, your parents will disown you, your friends decide you’re a monster, and you’ll get beat up on the street.

        1. That’s how they want to treat gun owners in the States, but haven’t gaslighted enough of the people to quite manage it yet. But you can see it in their dishonest characterizations, strawman arguments, and virtue signalling.

              1. Well, no matter how many times it fails, they follow a failed political doctrine, so they would naturally use failed tactics over, and over, and over, and o v e r . . . .

      2. Its why I am delighting watching the media freak out about Milo while subtly removing references to the fact that he is gay, fabulously so.

        It makes me wonder what threat that utterly delightful and ‘dangerous’ faggot is to them right now.

        Evil little me thought of him in a strong advisory position as White House Press secretary.

        1. Imagine, if you will, Milo as Trump White House Press Secretary . . . working for Trump White House Communications Director Ann Coulter.

          There isn’t enough popcorn in the world.

          You could pay off a *yuuuuuuge* portion of the national debt, or at least facilitate the rehabilitation and rearmament of the US armed forces, by making White House press conferences pay-per-view . .

          2. Oh, my – think of the mess from the exploding liberal heads, though.
            Milo would be a scream – especially if he is carried in on a sedan chair. I’d pay for the collected highlights DVD!

              1. I recall the comedienne that was pushing Dr. Pepper (Diet Dr. Pepper?) that at one event was carried to center stage in a sedan chair by four guys, the StudPeppers. Not quite the same, but close.

              2. Better make it four. While it’s a more difficult coordination, the process of lowering a single bar from shoulder height is much simpler than two. Unless they’re carrying from waist level, of course.

                1. Good point. Also, though I know his preferences, this way he can indulge the audience by having a blond, a brunette, a black man and a Latino. That way there is something for everyone.

                2. Besides, 4 will give you enough loincloths for all the major networks: NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN logos across the butt.

    2. To be charitable, he knows his mother more than I do.

      To be less charitable, I’m not so impressed with his eye for fine political detail that I’m sure his greater body of information matters.

      1. How great a body of information is less important that the validity of that information. An infinite amount of bad information is still likely to yield bad decisions. An infinite amount of good information is no more necessary than a single valid fact for a fully competent mind to visualize the universe from the instant of its creation to its ultimate end

              1. Please, Bob! I am a wallaby of undetermined gender. This being the internet, nobody can see you pee.

                Besides, some people are so silly as to imagine a fact is verified or disproven based on whether the person submitting that fact has an innie or an outie.

  10. A lot of this comes down to management strategies.

    When a Republican gets put in charge of hiring, they look for people who can do a good job and who will make them money.

    When a Democrat gets put in charge of hiring, they start out looking for people who will do a good job and make them money. Then, over time, they shift to people who will do sort of a good job and get along with the people they’ve already hired. Sooner or later, they add in “and are politically compatible,” and eventually it’s “only hire people who are leftists so the other leftists will stop whining about having to work with all of those right-wingers.”

    At that point, the company’s doomed.

    1. Leftists *everywhere* put political reliability ahead of all other concerns. That’s the reason leftist-dominated organizations – everywhere, of all types, public and private – inevitably fail, and fail spectacularly.

          1. No, no, no, no, no. It is not a matter of political reliability, it is a matter of knowing to signal your virtue. People who won’t flash the gang signs cannot be trusted, that’s all.

      2. Used to, was a time when employers put “family” above all; hire your nephew to do your work. Then we learned to expand that to “tribe” and in some cases even as widely a “church.”

        But those old loyalties are not a permissible basis for granting preferences, so we need new metrics. Sociopolitical adherence covers a great many of the relevant components. Committed Leftists are not driven by greed for money or power and so can be entrusted with the keys to the kingdom.

        Trust them on that; they wouldn’t lie to you.

          1. I can no longer use alcohol-based solvents as even small amounts result in snoring. As a consequence I find I can stick out my tongue via my ear canal.

  11. I hope the Trump press secretary treats bloggers as equals with the so called main stream media. Or answers a NYT question with “Why should I speak to a Democrat propaganda rag?”

    1. I was sort of hoping Uncle Jimbo from BlackFive would get the press secretary (or White House Spokesman) job. The “If Uncle Jimbo ran the press pool” posts he did during the GWB administration were magnificent fun.

      2. I recently had the idea of trying to troll people by claiming that Kratman’s heart had been fixed by an experimental but utterly reliable new procedure and that now he is going to hold x position.

          1. Oh, that’s easy! Just look into his eyes when he talks about his wife.

            Besides, if he were completely heartless, he’d merely be dangerous. If forces were overwhelming against him, he’d withdraw. But as he has something that he loves above all others, and will do anything to protect and defend, that’s what makes him so downright scary to his enemies, as he will never quit, and never stop as long as there’s a threat to her.

    2. The NY Times has promised that they’re sorry about their biased coverage and that they will try extra, extra hard to not be biased against racist, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe, Islamophobe people any more, even when they’re deplorable white trash.

      1. There’s going to start covering the dinky dirty doings in the administration. Hey, they do have journalistic standards. Two sets; one for Republicans, and one for Democrats. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

  12. Actors do this, too. Someone who is slipping as a box office draw will deliberately seek out projects that are “revolutionary” and “controversial” and are destined to bomb because they annoy, outrage, or bore the average moviegoer. That way they get to claim that it was the great unwashed provincialism that killed their career, not their lack of talent.

    1. Likewise, in Hollywood, a massive, by the numbers, big budget bomb is better for the careers of the producers & directors than a modest, outside the box movie that performs okay- Oscar bait, message films, or hip indy films excepted.

      1. That is because any hack can make a tasteless, corny movie pandering to the lowest common denominator of American tastes, but it takes real genius to flip a cinematic bird at the general public.

        1. any hack can make a tasteless, corny movie pandering to the lowest common denominator of American tastes

          Except George Clooney, apparently – see “Tomorrowland,” which was clearly aimed at those simpletons in middle ‘murrica, which barely grossed back it’s production budget (~$210M gross, ~$190m budget).

          Various online reviewers indicate the flick was not nearly as bad as all that, so one wonders how much more it would have grossed had Clooney not been the big name draw on the marquee.

          1. Clooney is not a big draw. Most of his films are flops or underperformers. You will note that Gravity deemphasised the presence of Clooney in its advertising.

            1. My millennial daughter was grossed out by the thought that the hot babe love interest in one of his movies actually found him attractive. Threw her out of the narrative as being totally unrealistic.

            2. The best thing I’ve seen Cloony in was a Nespresso commercial in Austria in Dec ’09. He didn’t speak a word, just looked mildly perplexed and offered St. Peter the Nespresso thing.

            3. Well, to be fair, there’s draw and then there’s draw: The audience might have been drawn to Gravity when they heard he died about a quarter of the way through.

              Gravity has so many “wait, What?” moments that I felt like I had achieved escape velocity from being thrown out of the story so hard so often.

              1. Yeah, this. Some of the physics in Gravity were to my somewhat schooled eye spot on, and some of it had me scratching my head and going WTH?

                1. “The debris cloud is moving at fifty thousand miles per hour!!!!!”

                  and any interest i had turned off.

      2. Correction: a big-budget bomb is better for the money-laundering that is Hollywood’s real purpose, because they DO have to show a major loss once in a while to offset all those record box office receipts. See also why it costs $150M to make a mediocre picture.

    2. And sports stars… let’s just say I’m deeply suspicious that a football player in a state where lawyers advise the currently-employed to claim a harassment charge as soon as they find out they’re going to be fired, because it’ll take at least a month to clear the bogus charge before the firing can proceed….

      ..Should, upon learning he’s about to be fired, suddenly have an overwhelming conviction to make a protest in the name of BLM, and claim harassment. Ahem.

      1. Shortly after that particular sports “star” decided to play that game, I ran across a great parody ad for “Bay Area Socially Aware Athletic Benches.”

        “When your players are making a**** of themselves, our benches will hold up their a****.”

    3. The sad thing is that when they announce they are “edgy,” they aren’t. To be edgy, you must say things that are both controversial and aren’t already being said. It’s no great shakes for Science Fiction and Fantasy to be anti-Christian. That’s such a trope that it blew my mind when I found a Fantasy novel handed out in a Sunday School class literature as a chapter book. That was my introduction to both C.S. Lewis and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Then I realized that, despite what I had read up to that point, Science Fiction and Fantasy didn’t have to make swipes against Christians.

      If an editor wanted to be “edgy,” he’d have to run stories that tout conservative values and treat religion as a positive thing. That’s contrary to the same old, same old and bound to attract attention. If he really wanted to be edgy, he could refute the most revered tenants of the “progressive” faith. But they aren’t about to that. So much for “edgy.”

      1. This. And thank goodness for indie. I wanted an Urban Fantasy where the protagonist actually was not pagan/agnostic/atheistic. Good luck finding that on the shelves….

        Which leads me to believe that Dracula could never get published today. Heh.

        1. Harry Dresden’s not a Christian. But one of his best friends is a devout Catholic who, when introduced at the start of the second book, is quite literally an agent of God. He’s also a good man, and a loving husband and father.

          1. And I like Michael Carpenter very much, yes. 🙂 But he’s not the protagonist. I wanted a believing protagonist who wasn’t “light in the eyes, shining through the hole in the back of their head.”

                    1. Heh. When I first saw that essay, I thought it was written by an SJW who was deeply offended by what Ringo wrote.

                      A little while ago, I was re-introduced to the essay, and as I read it, I realized that (1) the guy was a Ringo fan, and (2) the guy was reading Ghost knowing it was a really bad book. I think it helped to know that it was written in an attempt to cast out demons, and Ringo knew it was bad, but Jim Baen liked it enough that he insisted on publishing it….

            2. Don’t count out Harry just yet; I would not be surprised if the entire saga is simply a tale of a disbeliever’s being dragged, kicking and screaming, to an undeniable conclusion.

              Harry has not only directly experienced the fallen ones, he has witnessed directly the working of divine power through Michael, through the three swords and through the agency of Uriel, who offered Harry the choice to come to work for him. If he can accept Donar Vadderung, the head and CEO of Monoc Securities and the Faery Courts, why would he strain so hard to deny YHWH except to eventually be forced to call out to Him?

              1. Harry’s claimed in the past that his problem hasn’t been so much he doesn’t believe that there’s someone out there. It’s just that he believed that the someone out there wasn’t particularly interested in him (as opposed to, say, Michael). The example that he used one time when talking to Michael was when he barely got saved in a completely nonmiraculous fashion from one of the former Denarii.

                While the conversation hasn’t been revisited, I recently realized that someone else put a slightly different spin on those events in Skin Game…

              2. “As above, so below.”

                If one has undeniable proof that any of it is true, then all of it follows. I’m drawing a blank on who said it, but it’s true: “Christ only allows two outcomes: He’s either exactly what He said He was, or he was simply a raving lunatic.”

                1. I think you’re thinking of C.S. Lewis, who actually posited a three-way choice: Lord, lunatic, or liar. (You omitted “liar” in your vague recollection).

              3. Harry doesn’t deny YHWH’s existence, but I think he has doubts regarding the One True God aspect. After all, he’s personally met with members of two other pantheons, not to mention the Fey and the Outsiders.

                1. Dresden Files, like so many works that get into the metaphysical underpinnings of the fictional world, has problems keeping things coherent.

                  Though personally, I find the most interesting thing that bit about Winter Court and Summer Court — pray tell, what happens in Australia?

                  Let alone off planet, which becomes crucial when you see them as forces protecting the entire universe and yet for some reason turn on Earth’s Northern Hemisphere weather.

                  1. The Faerie Courts originally drew their power from the belief systems of Northern Europeans, as the greatest mass of believers were North of the Equator. Thus they are tied to the symbolism of the Northern climate even thought the underside of the Equator turns in sync with the upperside. The courts use the Winter/Summer designations as convenient shorthand for the nature of their powers, rather than the Chaos/Order dichotomy which might convey dangerous information to the mortals.

                    Or maybe not. I have my doubts Butcher had this completely thought through when he began the series.

                    1. One thing to consider is that “Winter” and “Summer” are symbolic terms not related to “Time Of Year”.

                      Of course, the two Courts appear to be equal in power anytime of the year.

                      IE the Summer Court isn’t more powerful than the Winter Court during June in the Northern Hemisphere.

                      So to them it doesn’t matter that Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is Summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

                    2. Except that we are explicitly told that they exist to protect the universe, and probably had to predate humanity for that purpose.

                      also we are explicitly told that the Summer Court is more powerful in the summer and the Winter Court in the winter.

                    3. Explicitly told? By whom, and on what authority?

                      Just because the Fae cannot lie does not mean their words can be taken on face value.

                      “Winter” and “Summer” mat simply be arbitrary designations, or perhaps we have the entire matter inverted: Summer is a reflection of the power of Summer Court, which preceded the weather, as expressed in those portions of Man’s realm where the Fae are most numerous/influential.

                      Thus, if all Fae suddenly moved to Australia …

                    4. By fae characters in contexts where they would have told the truth because it’s a matter of strategic importance.

                  2. Australia, and presumably other worlds, are the homes of other supernatural beings. Given the amount of European influence in the culture Down Under, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Fey courts didn’t have satellites down there, much like Chicago.

        2. Which leads me to believe that Dracula could never get published today. Heh.

          “Vat do you mean, it won’t sell?”
          “Listen, Count, my old friend -”
          “Ve met a year ago.”
          “- religion doesn’t sell. Nobody believes that stuff anymore.”
          “I suppose the holy water makes itself.”
          “See? There you go. You can’t have a vampire story with religion.”
          “It’s my biography.”
          “Doesn’t matter. I’ve shopped this to every editor I know, and they won’t touch it.”
          “Did you try Baen?”
          “Count, Count: You want to be rich and famous, don’t you?”
          “I have the fame; I need the money.”
          “Well, you have to go traditional here.”
          “I am -”
          “I mean New York traditional. Madison Avenue. Broadway. Hollywood. That’s what sells.”
          “I thought you said there was professional courtesy among bloodsuckers.”
          “There is, but it only goes so far. Look: Take out the religious conservative stuff, and tone down how you kept the Muslims out of Romania.”
          “That vas my life. If I could change it, I vould. I can vrite a book like you vant, but it vill be fiction.”
          “Do it. Make it a novel. Leave your name out of it.”
          “I vill try.”
          “Good. You said you have a new address?”
          “Here it is. And if you call, do it between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm.”
          “I thought that’s when you sleep”
          “It is, but I have a night job now.”

        3. Patricia Brigg’s Mercedes Thompson series. Main character is Christian. Not very religious, but very aware that if there’s evil in the world, so too there must be good. It’s not a major plot point, but it was a nice touch.

        4. My closest approaches to urban fantasy aren’t very close and are still works in progress.

          But I did have three different readers on three different stories tells me that using Christianity in high fantasy was a no-no. One burbled that polytheism offers more possibilities as a “reason.”

          One of them was, IIRC, Madeleine and the Mists

          1. Naturally as soon as I post that I do recollect clearly one of the incidents. Someone told me I should rename the festivities in Dragonfire and Time as Beltane. On one hand, the heroine of it is named Mae, so he might have had some reason to object to May festivities. BUT — it was absolutely essential for the plot that May be celebrated with flowers. And Beltane was a fire festival.

            Not only wanted me to be pagan but knew less about the pagans than I did.

            1. Depends on the world. I’ve read some crazy Dark-age-ish stuff that managed to write as if Christianity and paganism were stuck in stasis, without there being any conversions.

              1. Baen author Lars Walker does some explorations you might find interesting I believe he has commented here a time or three over the years, but not in quite a while. Start with:

                The Year of the Warrior–GOD WILLS IT!
                It all started with a Viking raid: When he is captured and forced into slavery, Aillil the Irishman must pretend to be a priest or die. Better to be a high-value priest than a low-value corpse, he thinks, and so it happens that a failed novitiate (he loved women too well) is taken up by Norway’s first Christian lord, Erling Skjalgsson to bring the Word to his people.

                Ironically, though “Father” Aillil is as phony as a three-dollar psalm, he and he alone must convert a fiercely pagan people to the gentle teachings of Christ – and they don’t want to hear about it. Nor do their “gods,” who are all too real, and all too liable to do something horrible to those disturbing their divine peace.

                It’s going to take a miracle for Aillil to succeed, or even survive, but fortunately God (the one true God, not those pagan demon creatures) is on his side. Read an excerpt

                Publisher’s Note: Part of this novel was previously published as Erling’s Word.
                Order ebook from Baen

                From Author FAQ:

                Q: How come you’re still single?
                A: That question can best be answered by the women who’ve rejected me. Personally I’m not sure I want to know the answer.

                Q: You don’t really believe this Christianity stuff, do you?
                A: Yes I do.

                Q: If God’s a loving God, how come there’s so much suffering in the world?
                A: If the God who made you’s not a loving God, why would you care?

                Q: Can God make a rock so heavy He can’t lift it?
                A: Yes and no. God made M.C. Escher, and Escher could have drawn it.

                Q: If Christianity is true, how come you’re such a jerk?
                A: You should see what I’d have been like without Christianity.

                In the photo, I am playing Viking at the opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling Viking exhibit at the Science Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, in November, 2002. I was there with the Viking Age Club of the Sons of Norway.

                Q: Do cats go to Heaven?
                A: Sure. The dogs have to have something to chase.

                Q: Aren’t your books an obstacle to human progress?
                A: I certainly hope so.

  13. I’m thinking the media strategy is deliberate- keep up a constant barrage of negative stories about the President, and the people will form a negative impression. Every single possible little negative thing will be spun, twisted, exaggerated, played up, and sent out. Positive stories will be sandwiched between generous helpings of negative, or dismissed by an “expert”.
    Even if the narrative is self contradictory (remember the days of Bush the Idiot Eeevil Genius), they’ll keep it up. Hopefully, this time we’ll see the media establishment crash and burn.

      1. I’ve seen ’em all too often spout some misquote and _refuse_ to go to original sources that contradict them, because so-and-so that’s on THEIR side said whatever BS was true. So the original source has to be lying. Yes, I’ve heard it put that bluntly.

        It’s like a retarded person’s logic, that something is the way it is because that’s the first way they heard it, and they’re unable to process anything else. (I say this having had retarded co-workers and having learned to be very careful how I said stuff the _first_ time, cuz there was no changing it.)

        Me, I’m to where if I don’t have an original and complete source, I can’t trust the story at all.

        1. We had a mentally challenged guy working for us at one company. We got a tax break for hiring him. He was devastated when overheard his Bull Dyke supervisor say to our lesbian office manager “All men are SCUM!” Then they looked over at him crying and had to comfort him. They couldn’t understand how he could think they were serious.

          Yeah, typical, tolerant, thoughtless, libtards.

    2. Eeevil genius puppet master is the role they are trying to fill with Darth Bannon, basically from the reflexive question from those reporters old enough of “which one’s Cheney?”

      The problem is, they are not currently casting The Donald as the biddable imbecile, the way they did both W and Reagan. Since their templates don’t currently actually line up and make sense, the best they can do is report that the transition is “chaotic,” plus, of course, “misogynistic,” “racist” and “homophobic.”

      Expect “out of control” and “failing” next week, along with a yet expanding definition of “fake news,” which still somehow does not cover the unsourced and debunked “chaotic” transition stuff from this week, or the “The inevitably victorious Dowager Empress is measuring for curtains in the White House” stories a few weeks back.

      1. At the moment I think they’re in the “Throw s— against the wall and see what sticks” phase. They were caught so wrong-footed by Hillary’s collapse that they haven’t had an opportunity to coordinate their narratives. They tried the “Transition Chaos” meme in spite of Trump being ahead of any first term president of the last fifty years and we see how the air is coming out of that balloon.

        1. I just read something that finally makes sense re all these “transition chaos” stories: They are being fed by sour grapes from Christy’s lobbyists buddies whom Trump kicked out. They now can’t even get into the building lobby, let alone upstairs where the work is happening, so in retaliation they are feeding these false news stories to the NY Times, where the post election ‘failed Presidency’ meme is already decided upon. The “transition chaos” stories only started to hit after Trump demoted Christy to emptying trash cans for the transition team and booted all the lobbyists that he had brought on board, so that lines up.
          Funny how the recent spate of “false news” stories appear side by side with these false news stories about “Trump transition chaos” without a trace of irony.

    3. Those of us of a certain age can recall when the media turned President Ford, a former college football player who was still an active skier, into a clumsy bumbling idiot by endlessly showcasing every minor everyday mishap, every time he stumbled, even each time he fell while skiing. (I don’t ski, but I suspect there is no such thing as a skier who doesn’t fall occasionally.) Comedians made jokes about him playing football with a leather helmet, and the cold open of SNL frequenly featured Chevy Chase as Ford doing over the top pratfalls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF98NkctXDU

      1. Wife read a ex secret serviceman’s book about presidents. Apparently Ford used to taunt everyone who couldn’t keep up with him while skiing. Sure doesn’t fit the narrative.

  14. For a minute there I thought you were reviewing the latest Jefferson Bass Body Farm novel, Without Mercy, ’cause that’s just what the authors did. So now you have a new paradigm for lefty self-immolation, born out by observation of an independent instance. Congratulations, you’re some kind of social science prodigy! However, I would prefer you to give a nod to rabble-rouser Bill Whittle and describe your model as “roll hard right, crash, and burn.”

    Enough chit-chat. I, too, have writing to get done.

        2. Just googled “body farm”. There actually is a series of 12 mystery books by a journalist/forensic scientist of which the latest is Without Mercy. Where bill Whittle comes in crashing and burning comes in? I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about.

      2. A couple of airplanes, including United Airlines Flight 585. Also, we lost one of the Reno Air Racers when the guilty party ignored owner’s instructions to NEVER make a right climbing turnout at full power, and the airplane became a lawn dart. Loss of a fine warbird, and a good pilot who just made one deathly stupid mistake.

        Other than that, most crashes on takeoff, and I’ve seen and dealt with more that made a left crosswind turn too early, or too heavy, or too much ice on the wings, or a left base to final with too little airspeed at too high and angle of attack… given that most traffic patterns are left turns, roll left and crash happens far more often than rolling right and crashing.

        1. Only if the prop turns clockwise, as is typical in most western single engine planes. Russian stuff, for example, generally has the prop turning counterclockwise, so you need left rudder on takeoff to keep from veering off into the weeds. Which is where we are now as to the point of the post.

    2. I KNEW I was work-addled! How about “Roll LEFT, crash, and burn!”

      I will now resume my regulaly scheduled writing assignments. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

  15. I disagree for a simple reason: They don’t realize they’re going hard left. My case in point is ESPN, which shouldn’t be political because it’s sports, but which they’ve made that way because the “get” sports about as well as they do anything else, which is poorly. Everyone who works at ESPN knows they’re going hard left. Everyone except the management, that is. When asked they went “Problem? What problem? We don’t have a problem,” because that’s like pointing out to a wino that he has a drinking issue. And just like a wino, they can’t be helped unless they admit to themselves they have a problem.

    The reason they don’t realize they have a problem is that most of the people they know agree with this. Like the cast of Hamilton, who dissed Pence during the performance and use the word “diversity” to mean everyone who thinks like they do. They must mean it that way, because that’s how they applied it. A quick check shows Manhattan went only 10% for Trump, so they probably think there’s is the “normal” view. That alone says they haven’t been to places like Staten Island, where the majority went for Trump. So they think they’re appealing to most people by going left and acting like jerks, while most people vote with their wallets and move on to something less political and a whole lot more entertaining.

    That’s what I think happens, because those responsible for a hard roll left strike me as having less convictions than a nickle whore. For all their bluster, they haven’t headed to Canada yet, and that says a lot.

    OTOH, I haven’t had the displeasure of meeting, say, the management of places like ESPN, so maybe they are doing a hard roll left to blame their failure on ideology. But they sure make noises that they think they aren’t rolling left. Just like the wino who says “I’m not an drunk,” as his hands shake from DTs.

    1. ESPN demonstrates how the ratchet works. Two guys on the air, one says something politically correct, one says something politically incorrect. The first guy is hailed as open-minded and supporting diversity, the second guy is condemned as violating the atmosphere of inclusiveness and diversity that is ESPN policy, called an idiot, a bigot and a pooh-pooh head. The first guy keeps his job, the second is fired. Everybody else takes note and adjusts accordingly. Some seek employment elsewhere, others are careful to express only proper opinions.

      The core problem is a policy of “diversity” which only acknowledges intolerance of one sort.

        1. Yes indeed it seems like he may be. Here’s hoping he beats Liawatha like a drum, though I think truly his odds are poor as the moonbats are thick on the ground in all our cities.

    2. ESPN at least I tend to believe is not going left because they’re failing but failing because they’re going left. Now more than ever, there’s a demand for some apolitical entertainment of the sort sports can provide, but they either don’t want to provide it or don’t realize that they aren’t. I was just reading an article on how the folks themselves feel about it:

      http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2016/11/17/espns-public-editor-agrees-viewers-network-has-moved-leftward

      The short version seems to be that most of the lesser folks realize that there’s a problem, but that the higher-ups are convinced that they’re just being tolerant and acting the way anyone would. Of course they fired Curt Schilling; everyone knows that believing folks with penises are men is the worst kind of bigotry, akin to using racial slurs in public. And, while the article didn’t mention it, of course everyone is interested in having Obama on and hearing what he has to say about the NCAA tournament; it’s just like having any other celebrity on and certainly not a reason people would switch off Sports Center and see what Fox Sports has to offer.

      1. Sports reporting has for some time suffered Leftward tilt, although reasons for that vary. One credible argument has been that sports reporters journalists feel intimidated by the relative lack of seriousness of their news beat, although I would wager more people know who won the World Series than who won the presidency.

        Thus sports journalists have for some years signaled their virtue and their seriousness by focusing on such stories as the failure of Augusta National to allow women to become members. Sports dans, mostly concerned about who shot the best round, tended to ignore such distractions while SJZs, concerned about signalling their virtue and indifferent to how various athletes performed and why, hailed the editorials posing as sports reporting.

        Similarly, Sports Illustrated made it their mission to purge Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott for holding such objectively true opinions as “Hitler saved the German economy but he went too far.” They apparently found this of much greater interest than the fact she had twice been successful in what were Mens’ Realms: automotive dealerships, inherited after her husband’s sudden demise and where she refused to “take the back seat and let the men drive” that all advised, and Baseball, where her team won a World Series. I cannot remember whether their objection was to the claim Hitler saved the German economy (by adhering to socialist economics) or that he went too far.

        1. Sports announcing can be summed up by an incident a few years ago, when some announcers for an NFL game mentioned a player said he was going to a performance of Yo-Yo Ma, and every one of the announcers, who had apparently never heard of Yo-Yo Ma, thought he was making a joke and kept giggling about it.

          Okay, so that sums up most TV anchors, anyway. Still, games would be more enjoyable if they just shut their trap and let people watch the game. Back in the day, people tuned it for football, not Howard Cosell, and if he wasn’t the main attraction, today’s announcers sure aren’t going to be. If people want to watch a bunch of clowns, they’ll go to a circus.

        2. Back before they put his column behind the paywall, James Taranto would have a section on “Wannabe Pundits,” everyone from sports reporters to gardening columnists who couldn’t help including paragraphs editorializing about how much they hated Republicans.

          In the case of sports reporters, they are amazingly bad at commenting at the game occurring right in front of them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard the announcers say things that were the complete opposite of what was actually happening on the field. Given that they can’t seem to get objective reality in their area of expertise right, I’m not sure why they think they have anything to add in places where there’s legitimate reason for different opinions.

          1. Not all sports broadcasters can be Vin Scully …

            Perez, 25 years old, originally drafted by the Tigers. Lives in Venezuela. Boy, can you imagine, you’re a young kid playing in the United States, you’re from Venezuela, and every time you look at the news it’s a nightmare. A bunt attempt is missed—runners are holding, 0-and-2. Socialism failing to work, as it always does, this time in Venezuela. You talk about giving everybody something free and all of a sudden, there’s no food to eat. And who do you think is the richest person in Venezuela? The daughter of Hugo Chavez. Hello! Anyway, 0-and-2.

            1. My first Dodgers game was at the LA Colosseum. Dodger Stadium was under construction. My friend’s cousin had one of those new transistor radios and was listening to Vin Scully do the play by play. Duke Snider hit a home run over the screen in left field. I’m 63 and Vin has been announcing Dodgers games since before I was born.

              Talk about the end of an era…

              1. I was almost ready for college before I figured out that sports announcers in general weren’t supposed to be on a par Vin Scully.

                We were spoiled.

        3. “Hitler saved the German economy but he went too far.”

          Ehh. Half the reason he went a-conquering was because he needed loot to finance the economy, so the first part ain’t true, although the second is definitely true.

      3. Disney folks are aware of the issues at ESPN – if there’s one thing The Mouse knows, it’s how to read crowds, and I understand Mouse Management have Expressed Their Displeasure At Trends to the ESPN management, who have started to allows things like this article as well as the one Zsuzsa linked above to start appearing on the ESPN web site.

      5. I’m willing to give it a starting year of 2003 when they forced Rush Limbaugh out of the ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown show.

  16. Pence is already being attacked over a racist in the press due to his Reagan-era confirmation hearings, which may very well have been a test run for what eventually happened to Bork.

    Of course, if one looks at Pence’s career, things look a bit different. For instance, he was involved in pushing for the death penalty in a case that resulted in the only 20th Century execution of a KKK member for killing a black. And said case also later resulted in the rather humorous result of a black getting ownership of all of the property of a KKK affiliate in Alabama due to a court judgement.

    1. The trick is not to play as much into changing the hearts and minds of the fly-over deplorables. The media just needs to manipulate enough people inside DC to get their way.

      1. You’re right. Sessions, not Pence. Do a name swap, and everything else stays the same.

        It’s Sessions, not Pence that’s getting attacked, pushed for the execution of Hays, etc…

    3. Sessions, not Pence. He is also being attacked for his middle name, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Because that could only be a homage to the Confederate general.

      The fact that he was named for his father, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Jr., and his grandfather before that is just proof of how deeply ingrained his racism must be.

      If he were sincere about repudiating his ancestral racism he would do like Robert Byrd did and recruit new members for the KKK align himself with the Democrat Party.

  18. Also magazines bleeding subscribers…could it possibly be the biased left political comments slipped in on every page…I’m thinking of fashion magazines in particular that I occasionally used to enjoy and now no longer read because I’m tired of having my intelligence insulted over and over again. Pinpricks count up, but the editors apparently think deplorables don’t notice.

    2. “… editors apparently think deplorables don’t notice.”

      If you were smart enough to notice, well then, you wouldn’t be deplorable, you’d come into the light. The only way they can grasp your not sharing their enlightened, noble, sophisticated, advanced, developed, broad-minded, educated, knowledgeable, wise views is you must be either stupid or evil. That you might start with the same fact situation and apply reason and understanding of human nature to reach a different conclusion is inconceivable.

    3. Also, “women”s health” type magazines. Because clearly, every woman agrees with the notion that femine hygiene supplies should be available free of charge, or that easing gun laws is bad, or that “running while female” is a problem that needs government intervention.

  19. Sarah; some news over here in Australia is doing similar panic over Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party gaining more power in Queensland. A lot of quivering and worrying about its portents to Aussie multicultural fabric.

    In the wake of a terror attack done by a refugee brought in by the Left leaning Gillard Labour gov’t though – the refugee part attempted to be covered up and memory holed by the local press – they really shouldn’t be surprised.

    A few days ago the news was also making much of how children in West Sydney were chanting ‘death to Trump’ and about how the teachers were disturbed by it. Careful no mention of names of people interviewed or ethnicity of said children. Also articles about how it is a horrible thing for Australia that Trump is president elect or that disappointment is ‘Australia wide’.

    It is vastly stupid because Trump isn’t Australia’s incoming leader and cannit directly affect national policy; and reveals quite a bit about the Sydneysider focus on this – and not in a good way.

    The behaviour of the media is like that of a corrupt priesthood upset that a new God-Emperor was chosen not by them. And yes I am aware the alt-right have been using it as a reference for Trump; in a rather tongue in cheek way; recalling how peiple behaved after Obama got elected. The way that people have been behaving has me deeply tempted to use God Emperor to mock what they imagine Trump gets in terms of power as President.

    Frankly considering how the Left was quite happy to let Obama use and abuse executive orders their panic has some justification. I predict that if Trump uses executive orders at all, even if it was the way it was meant to be used, they will panic and scream and the media will spin whole cloth disasters and conspiracy theories much in the same way a family steak dinner is ‘lack of transparency.’ This is serving only to hasten the disregard people have in the news.

    What we should be wondering is: is there something going on right now that they are working hard to distract us from; or that they are deliberately manufacturing headlines in order to not report about something much more important?

    1. What we should be wondering is: is there something going on right now that they are working hard to distract us from; or that they are deliberately manufacturing headlines in order to not report about something much more important?
      —————–

      Given that the focus should logically be on Trump’s incoming appointments, I don’t really think they’d need to try to hide something. All that they’d need to do is report on the appointments, or gossip about the possible appointments, without adding any additional negative stuff. Though amusingly, I’m now seeing people accuse Trump of pulling the lightning rod trick with his “divisive” picks as a way to draw attention away from the Trump University case.

      /rolleyes

      Sure, Trump doesn’t want people talking about the case. But it’s not as if he has to work to get bad press. He gets bad press for having dinner with his family.

      On a somewhat related note, once again I’m forced to give kudos to the LA Times (Twice in one week! *gasp* Maybe I should check the thermostat in the infernal regions?). A writer over at Deadline Hollywood put up an article comparing his time working for the LA Times versus his time working for the New York Times. According to him, the LA Times lets the reporters figure out the story. But the New York Times, unlike those bumpkins on the West Coast, is more sophisticated. The Times has its departments figure out the narrative well in advance – sometimes over a year in advance. And then the stories are “adapted” to fit that narrative. When you add something like Journolist to the mix, that means that the New York Times is creating narratives which are probably being embraced and used by most of the progressive news media.

      1. Credit where due department: The NY Times announces, right there on their masthead, “All The News That Fits Our Narrative.”

        Okay, maybe space doesn’t permit the full phrase, but 5 out of 7, man — that’s pretty good accuracy for a newspaper!

    2. Wait, Trump isn’t going to round up Australians, murder them, and clear the land of range maggots so that environmental remediation can turn it into cattle country? I guess I can pause work on that bid.

    4. After a visit to Oz a few years ago (we were airborne westbound over the Pacific on election day 2000) I’ve occasionally peeked in on the the newspaper web sites there, and I was meaning to ask you how the US election is actually playing in Oz outside of the offices of the SMH.

      Most Australians we met when we were touristing about were very level headed, and skeptical of their own government pronouncements, let alone anything from ours. We gotta fair amount of ribbing when the whole hanging chad thing was going on, but I also noticed that it seemed like West Wing was on every frigging night on TV over there, at least when Cricket was not on, so it was clear they were very interested in the US election results.

      Any other insights from down under?

      1. I was in Oz in August. Most everyone thought Clinton seemed normal and that Trump was an absolute crazy man with no chance. I kept telling everyone that the Clintons were a crime family masquerading as politicians and that Trump, while not my first or second choice was the only alternative. The media there seemed just as biased as ours.

      2. Not much really; I don’t turn on the news often because throwing things at the TV isn’t good for my wallet. The few times I’ve talked about the politics of this election on a local level, the main question’s been “Do we get for the US President the Businessman or the Reality Show guy?”

        One woman thought he was crass because naturally that ‘grab them by the pussy’ comment was the main focus of the whole damn world. I pointed out that there are women who would do exactly that out there, if presented with a horny billionaire, because billionaire’s mistress or dip into the jet set lifestyle. “Yeah, you’ve got a point.” After that it was ‘TV show guy or businessman’ worry.

        Generally the thought of ‘if we get the businessman, the US’ll be okay,’ prevails.

        1. “… because billionaire’s mistress or dip into the jet set lifestyle.”

          “sugar daddy for me” = About 6,130,000 results (0.60 seconds)
          “i want a sugar daddy” = About 7,640,000 results (0.84 seconds)
          “how to get a sugar daddy to give you money” = About 4,000,000 results (0.67 seconds)
          “how to ask your sugar daddy for money or an allowance” = About 1,590,000 results (0.82 seconds)
          “sugar baby allowance guide” = About 368,000 results (0.58 seconds

          Need I continue? All of those were Google prompts when I entered the two words “sugar daddy.”

          Need we discuss the number of times women quip about men coming with a built in handle for ease of manipulation?

          Yeah, yeah – it’s different because Fighting The Patriarchy.

    5. Well, the panelists in this Australian news program didn’t seem particularly bothered by Trump’s win. And they were certainly not impressed with the “bedwetting” and “bullsh*t” certain liberal “wankers” in both Australia and the US are engaging in . . .

      I wonder if Fox would consider broadcasting Paul Murray’s program on this side of the Pacific? 😛

    6. Shadowdancer, I’d say the answer to both is “yes.” Because then you start to wonder why they are working so hard, and why they are so blind to things like, oh, let’s say people wielding knives and attacking folks in a cafe or police station or wine bar or train station or [insert location of the day] while loudly proclaiming that they want to kill you and that [prickly lunar deity] is G-d. And that global cooling is a real possibility, and that tends to be worse for humans in aggregate than warming is.

      Other than that, I’m sure the media have absolutely No valid reason or desire to confuse/cover-up/obfuscate anything. And I have some Bakken Shale leases for sale with a spectacular view of the ocean and that are guaranteed to enjoy a mild, near-tropical climate year round!

  20. It’s like the Left looks at their foot after they’ve shot it and thinks: “Aw, hell, I’ve got another” and shoots that one too.

  21. Of all places, I’m starting to see a bit of a turn away from the hard left in TV entertainment. Oh, sure, they’ve got their stupid lefty sitcoms, but the dramas are starting to lean away from the hard left message.

    I’m sorry I can’t give more details, but my memory is horrible. The most particular one I remember lately is on Code Black, with one of either the doctors or nurses (I don’t actually watch it, I’m just in the same room with my wife while she watches it) went off on an anti-vaxxer mother. I was also impressed on the last season of Scorpion, when the MC was told he had committed a micro-aggression and responded, “If they’re micro, then what’s the problem?”

    There are other indications, but as I said, my memory is horrible and I can’t remember any more right now, but I kind of tally them up as they come along, and my feeling is that they are more numerous now than they have been in over ten years.

  22. Don’t worry the Grifter govt in exile in Canada will plot it’s comeback through nefarious plans.
    The Democrats have to be pushed into implosion so that new parties can emerge. There’should the the Leninist left the Bernie Sanders democratic socialist wing and the rump centrists. That way Americans can then decide who to vote for in the next elections.

    As a foreigner I’m both bemused and appalled by the Democratic party’s slow motion falling apart.

    1. Because if the feedback loop resulting from the MSM and Democrat Party’s incestuous relationship they suffer epistemic closure. They thought it afflicted conservatives, increasing their vulnerability and enclosing them in a black hole of information of such density no fact could intrude without being forced to conform to their beliefs.

      2. If you want to see what’s going on in a Progressive’s mind, look at what they accuse Republicans of thinking.

  23. Sadly, many will fall for this and attempt to put down deposits for their new residences …

    OTOH, many will not realize they already live there.

        1. I was going to suggest pumping in hydrogen sulfide once everyone was in, but i guess your way works.

          1. Nonononono. That would be mass murder, which is wrong.
            Better to just let their little social experiment come apart at the seams, and let them serve as a warning to others.

              1. Yes, but your way also allows them to claim that it was all the fault of the EBUL Reich-wingers, as opposed to them reaping the harvest sown by their own stupidity.

                1. Good heavens, they blame Republicans for the faults of Obamacare as if a single Republican had voted for it.

                  1. That is why they blame Republicans; if any of them had voted for the Act everything would have worked out fine, the exchanges would have run like Swiss watches (or like German armies in France), the public would have eagerly bought coverage and Obama’s intestinal gasses would smell like rose petals.

                    Good grief! Everybody knows Republicans are always at fault, either because they voted for something or because they didn’t.

  24. FYI: In 2018 there are 25 Democrat and 10 Republican Senators up for reelection. Wiki notes:

    Democrats are expected to target the Senate seats in Nevada and Arizona. Republicans are expected to target Democratic-held seats in Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia, all of which voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 election and Donald Trump in the 2016 election, as well as seats in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, all of which voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Republicans could also target seats in Virginia, Maine, and New Jersey. Other races may also become competitive.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2018

    Visit the page for listing of individual seats on the block and keep those in mind as the coming term plays out. There is a chart of the “most vulnerable” seats according to their Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) as calculated following the 2014 elections. Candidate ages and likely challengers are all there.

  25. All this panic and pain is pathetic. I don’t get the emotional hysteria that leads to reporting by the talking heads that has no basis in fact. Even Fox is making predictions with bated breath and semi hysterical “reporting.” Such nonsense.

  27. I am old enough to remember the Clinton transition in 1992. By mid-December, Dave Barry (the humor columnist) was calling it “the failed Clinton Administration” because the transition was such a mess.

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