Monday, August 27, 2018

Thoughts on coverage of McCain's passing

Most times, when "great leaders" pass, their obits include both pluses and minuses. I see few, if any, minuses mentioned in McCain's passing.

Media telling of the McCain passing seems more in line with what we might have seen of an icon in an authoritarian state, as opposed to the traditional balance of American journalism. The man's portrayed as darn near being a god.

But then, the rules of corporate journalism have changed. So maybe this will be the new norm, as media seeks to pick winners and losers even in death.

What we're seeing in the passing of McCain is also indicative of the more incestuous relationship between media and government.

"Hooray for our side" journalism, if you will.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

What are the Russians up to?

Possibility has been raised that Russians may be pre-positioning weapons in space to disrupt US communication or early warning satellites.

Imagine the advantage if an adversary could knock out communications or blind early warning systems prior to attack.

Imagine the confusion on the ground if the inflicted space-based "blindness" happened in concert with cyber-attacks impacting other infrastructure on the ground.

Time to dust off some of those old Civil Defense pamphlets?


Update on a pro-gun-control Democratic Party former congressional candidate

Pro-gun control Democrat now faces murder charge.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

What a difference a year makes

Trump was mocked last year for saying Sweden had a problem with immigrant related terrorism.

Impossible to deny it now.

BTW, there's something else immigrants have brought to Sweden.

Child marriage.


Thursday, August 9, 2018

Deterrent

Might cause a would-be school shooter to think twice.

Not nearly as inviting as a "gun free zone" sign.


Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Coming out of her shell

Candidates endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez hit the skids in several Democratic primaries Tuesday.

Maybe America's not ready for the leap into openly socialist candidates after all.

Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez is expanding her socialist rhetoric.

She says the upper middle class no longer exists. 

She says middle class soccer moms driving middle class don't represent America anymore. 

Ocasio-Cortez strikes me as an Obama without the decades of grooming, without the restraint to cloak ideology, or express it in ways that seem mainstream. She opens her mouth, and radical socialism gushes out.

It's not just the rich that these Democratic Socialists want to subjugate, it's also the bourgeoisie, as in middle class folk with conventional values.

That's how Lenin rolled too when he led Communist revolutionaries in taking over Russia.

Middle class folk best realize this new socialism is the same as old socialism.

Marxism isn't a friend of the middle class.


Giving Vice News an A for effort

Vice News had what I thought was a good telling of last weekend's Patriot Prayer vs. Antifa clash in Portland, Oregon.

This far-right group is trying to drag leftists into an unwinnable PR war

While not perfect, I think the Vice crew attempted to accurately portray both sides of the story, and unlike most cable news outfits, actually sought to talk to participants on both sides, and let them speak for themselves. No "gotcha game" journalism was attempted.

I didn't watch any cable news coverage of the weekend's events, but if it followed examples I've seen in the past over similar events, there was likely just enough video or live presence to attempt to create an appearance of journalistic legitimacy, but most the content was steered by in-studio commentators who were neither a part of the demonstration or counter-demonstration, and who perhaps had never even been to such an event.

I give Vice an A for effort. Again, not saying it's perfect. But what Vice delivered looked a lot like the kind of journalism we used to practice back in the day, not the club-you-over-the-head-with-bias stuff that permeates so much of what passes for journalism today.


Friday, August 3, 2018