On August 7th, NPR published Republicans have long feuded with the mainstream media. Now many are shutting them out

Danielle Kurtzleben from NPR went to Wisconsin to get a story about “abortion rights”. She claims she wanted to do two stories, one on Democrats and one on Republicans. She was very surprised when the Republicans didn’t even bother to reply to her. They just ghosted her.

The problem is that it is easy to read somebody’s bias from questions they ask. Asking to speak to a senator about “the uploading the second amendment” tells the staffer that you are on a different side than somebody calling to talk about “stopping gun violence”. The mere questions you ask will say more about you than you are likely to get from them.

The phenomenon is impossible to quantify, but many Republican candidates are showing that they don’t want – or need – to get their messages out via legacy media outlets. That can reduce the scrutiny they face while running for public office, hampering voters’ ability to make informed choices.

Here is her hubris and bias on display. She considers it her job to scrutinize Republicans running for public offices. “Joe, what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?” vs “Mr Trump, why are you discriminating against muslims? Are you a Islamophobia?”

Of course they never seem to feel that Fox News is “legacy media”. Legacy media only includes their banner carriers, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, NPR, MSNBC. Isn’t it surprising that MSNBC is considered legacy media even though it is younger than Fox? NBC is older than fox, but not MSNBC.

The problem is that we just don’t trust “legacy media”. We have to many examples of the legacy media twisting what we say to get their narrative.

In 2016 Katie Couric created a documentary Under the Gun. In that documentary Katie asks members of a Virginia gun rights organization to answer a question on background checks. The film then showed 9 seconds of silence from the gun owners. As if they couldn’t answer. Fortunately they had their own recording and it showed that when asked they all had answers.

The video of them sitting there silently was from footage show while the sound crew asked them to be quiet so they could get sound levels.

In other words, Katie lied.

How many times did the legacy media misquote Trump or take his words entirely out of context. There is an entire industry of producing pink pussy hats based on the false premise that Trump was grabbing pussy at a beauty contest. The hot mic comment was a statement about power, if you are rich and powerful you can take video of yourself smoking crack, paying for prostitutes, snorting cocaine, selling access to the presidency and nothing will happen to you.

Opps, that isn’t what Trump said, he made a comment about how if you are rich or powerful you could grab a woman by the pussy and she wouldn’t complain.

It is a good thing that more and more Conservatives and Republicans are learning to tell the legacy media to go shove it. I love DeSantis’ ability to flatten reporters with gotcha questions. He really does a great job. I’m coming to respect Kari Lake’s ability to punch back at reporters as well.

Welcome to New York City. pic.twitter.com/qYngTc00Fd

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 4, 2022

Somehow, we are supposed to abandon our way of life and assimilate this advanced culture from the Gun Free Liberal North?

This did not happen in some deep corner of a NYC Ghetto but right smack in the middle of the Upper East Side, a block away from the UN Building and the infamous Non-Violence sculpture

But we are the dangerous ones for Democracy and Country.

This was a comedy sketch from Key & Peele 2015:

Apparently, in 2022 Congress has to prevent that from happening.

How many country artists are prosecuted for their songs? 

How many hip hop artists are prosecuted for their songs?

The bias in our criminal justice system is appalling. 

We need the Rap Act now!

— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@RepBowman) September 2, 2022

The what now?

Democrats Propose ‘RAP Act’ to Ban Lyrics from Being Used as Evidence

Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) on Wednesday introduced the Restoring Artistic Protection (RAP) Act to limit the use of lyrics and “artistic expression” as evidence in criminal cases.

The bill’s introduction follows the arrests and charges against Young Thug and Gunna earlier this year, with prosecutors leaning heavily on the musicians’ lyrics. If passed, the bill would restrict the ability of prosecutors in criminal cases, as well as lawyers in civil cases, to use song lyrics as evidence against musicians. That tactic is disproportionately employed against rappers, and the lawmakers noted the racial justice element of their legislation as they announced the bill.

The statement released by Bowman is preposterous.

“I am proud to introduce the RAP Act alongside Rep. Hank Johnson. Our judicial system disparately criminalizes Black and brown lives, including Black and brown creativity. For example, Tommy Munsdwell Canady is a young 17-year-old kid serving a life sentence whose conviction heavily relied upon lyrics he wrote. I was deeply moved to hear that Mr. Canady continues to pursue his art in the face of our carceral systems that would otherwise stifle Black art. He is not an outlier. Evidence shows when juries believe lyrics to be rap lyrics, there’s a tendency to presume it’s a confession, whereas lyrics for other genres of music are understood to be art, not factual reporting. This act would ensure that our evidentiary standards protect the First Amendment right to freedom of expression. We cannot imprison our talented artists for expressing their experiences nor will we let their creativity be suppressed.”

By Black and brown creativity they mean rapping about crimes they committed for street cred.

Nobody believed that Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno just to watch him die because there was no other evidence of the crime.

In the Canady case, there was additional evidence.

Tommy Canady sat in court on Thursday, August 6th with his head down, as family members of Semar McClain looked on in disbelief.

“Just why? What was your purpose? My brother didn’t do nothing to nobody,” McClain’s sister Semaja McClain said.

McClain was gunned down in an armed robbery incident on July 29th — near Blake Street and Albert Street.

The criminal complaint filed against Canady says police were dispatched to the 1300 block of Blake Avenue in Racine around 5:00 p.m. on July 29th — for a report of a man down.

There, they discovered Semar McClain dead of a single gunshot wound to the head.

The complaint against Canady says an evidence technician with the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office recovered a projectile from McClain’s right temple area.

The complaint says in the early morning hours of July 29th, police responded to a shooting in the area of Quincy Avenue and Olive Street in Racine. There, a 15-year-old boy suffered gunshot wounds to his back and face. A projectile was recovered from a garage in the area of this shooting.

The complaint says an additional shooting was reported on July 29th — in the 1700 block of Green Street in Racine. There, it was learned that a 16-year-old was shot — and a projectile was recovered from a basement.

The complaint against Canday says the projectiles from these three shootings were taken to the Wisconsin Crime Lab — where they were analyzed. There, it was determined that the bullet recovered from McClain, and the bullet recovered from the Quincy Avenue/Olive Street shooting shared similar characteristics, and likely came from the same type of firearm.

The complaint says the third bullet — from the shooting that occurred on Green Street was from a .380 handgun — according to the state’s Crime Lab.

The complaint says investigators spoke with a witness — who reported seeing McClain and Canady together earlier on July 29th. That witness says McClain was holding a .380 handgun, and Canady was holding a .38 caliber revolver. That witness reported the two were discussing trading and/or selling the guns to one another.

A second witness corroborated this story, according to the complaint.

The complaint says investigators were able to determine the firearm was the same .380 handgun recovered from Canady’s residence — and the same firearm that the witnesses told investigators McClain was trying to trade or sell earlier on July 29th.

The complaint says a song called “I’m out here” was posted to the “Sound Cloud” website on July 31st — two days after McClain was killed.

Investigators listened to the lyrics — and in this particular song, the complaint says Canady was heart to rap the following lyrics: “get Semar slipping, walking through the alley, (expletive) tried to run like an athlete, but bullets catch (expletive), bullets run track meets, bullet hit the (expletive) head and he falls to his toes, he thinks he’s (expletive) now he’s getting exposed.”

The complaint says the song went on to say: “I’ll kill (expletive) real quick and snatch his gold. I’ll set you up — don’t get me wrong.”

So there was ballistic evidence, eye witnesses, and the rap lyrics match the forensic evidence and call the victim by name.

That’s a far fry from Bohemian Rhapsody.

Bowman wants you to believe that the police are listening to rap lyrics to find innocent black men to arrest and charge.

Reality is that the police did a criminal investigation and the shooter was dumb enough to detail his crime to a beat in SoundCloud.

That isn’t racism, by the classical understanding, playing a very stupid game and winning a very stupid prize.

Perhaps, the big problem is that that rap culture honors this criminal activity and encourages budding rappers to commit crimes.

I doubt Johnny Cash fans would celebrate if Cash actually had shot a man in Reno.  It certainly wouldn’t buy him credibility.

But that’s racist, according to the new standard.

We live in very stupid times.

Prison inmates received more than $1 billion in COVID-19 stimulus checks, IRS admits https://t.co/ioqwaxEx4O

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 2, 2022

From the article in the Tweet:

“When we discovered that incarcerated individuals previously received stimulus checks, an amendment was introduced to block them in the second round, and Democrats voted against it,” [Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)] added. “It’s disgusting, and Democrats who voted against the amendment should be ashamed.”

The Democrats gave a billion dollars to inmates because criminals are their favorite constituents.

Iranian Navy seized 2 US Navy maritime drones on Thursday

The Iranian Navy seized two US Navy maritime drones in international waters in the Red Sea on Thursday.

The drones were eventually released, but a US defense official says the incident looks like an escalation of Iranian hostile actions against the United States.

The incident began Thursday, the official said, when the Iranian Navy ship was observed taking two US drones out of the water “in an attempt to steal them,” according to the official. The US then quickly moved in with two nearby destroyers, the USS Nitze and USS Delbert D. Black, as well as two helicopters and communicated by radio to demand the drones be returned.

The Iranians agreed but asked to wait until daylight on Friday for safety reasons which the US agreed to, the official said.

Why in the name of Chester W. Nimitz’s massive nautical balls does the modern US Navy let itself get humiliated by Iran.

Remember that when President Biden was VP, his boss and CIC Obama let the Iranian Navy take our sailors hostage.

I have described the Navy as the big swinging dick of foreign policy.  It several million tons of floating American sovereignty that we can deploy almost anywhere on earth in 24 hours.

If we has some self respect and a hard fucking cock we’d introduce the Iranians to our new QUICKSKINK anti-ship missile and snap their fucking destroyers in half.

But no.  The only dick in the region belongs to the Iranian Navy and they are rubbing it on our faces.

Why in the fuck does the Obama/Biden/Obama 2.0 let Iran get away with this?

The next President needs to remind the Iranians no to fuck with our navy by putting theirs on the bottom of the fucking ocean.

This morning I reads AWA’s excellent post The Victors Write History v. The Internet Is Forever.

He is absolutely correct.

I just wanted to add to it.

When the great empires of antiquity would conquere a land, it was normal for them to put the sages of the conquered land to the sword, then burn all the religious texts and writings of the conquered.

There was a reason when the Romans conquered Judea they sacked and burned the temple.

Islamic conquerors did the same.

The goal was to leave no evidence of the vanquished culture behind that could give them a memory of who they were before they were conquered.  Especially something that could take root and revitalize the vanquished culture and/or lead to rebellion.

The history of the story of Hanukkah is that the Jews hid their religion and kept it flourishing secretly under Greek rule, and then successfully fought a rebellion expelling the Greeks.

In modern times, the Soviets and Maoist Chinese had to continuously rewrite history and engage in active oppression to maintain their victor status.

The passage from Orwell’s 1984:

He tried to make her understand. ‘This was an exceptional case. It wasn’t just a question of somebody being killed. Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it’s in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don’t know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories. Just in that one instance, in my whole life, I did possess actual concrete evidence after the event — years after it.’

That was based on what the Soviets actually did.

So now, given what AWA said, where do we from here.

We remember what really happened and it’s documented all over the internet, which can’t be burned or obliterated.

The more they try to actively rewrite history, the more people will call “bullshit!”

So what methods are they going to try and use to do what previous victors have done to obliterate the memory of the before times so the party is always right?

We know they influence Facebook and Twitter.

Could they shut down blogs like ours?

Throttle our bandwidth to nothing.

Criminalize the truth as misinformation?

As Miguel often quoted, they can’t stop the signal, but I bet they damn well will try.

To post publicly is dangerous. Every time we write a blog posting it remains as a stepping stone into our past. The terms we use will be judged in the future. The images we choose to post will be considered, weighed, and likely found wanting.

The internet is forever. J.Kb. has written about the evil that is things like OnlyFans. Places where young girls go and become hollow husks of people, losing an intimate sharing that the could have kept for their partner in the future.

There is a story that a young lady was picked to be the model for Ivory Snow soap. “99 44/100% pure” was the tagline. You can’t have your public face be anything but pure. This young lady decided it would be a good idea to perform in an X rated film. She lost the Ivory Snow gig and never had another non-porn gig there after. The story of Marilyn Chambers is out there if you want to read about her.

She made money but didn’t have a great life. Multiple divorces and a drug habit were some of the issues she faced.

One recent blogger that had an unfiltered style of writing had to stop posting when he was doxed and harrassed. In a society where the government lies to tell the truth is dangerous.

Miguel is the public face of this blog. The other authors have setup a small amount of separation between our public persona and our private lives as our postings could have professional ramifications.

Yet still we post.

This post isn’t about this little blogger or the better blogs out there, this is about how history is rewritten by the victors.

The latest authority figure that is rewriting history is Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. She is out there telling the country that the teachers union wanted the kids in school. It was the politicians that closed the schools, her people are dedicated to the children and wanted to teach.

But the internet remembers. It remembers when it was revealed that teachers unions pushed the CDC to recommend that the schools be closed. Even today schools are full of “must mask” rules. In this part of the country about the only place you are required to wear a mask are the schools and doctors offices.

There are a few at risk people that have businesses open to the public that require masks to enter, but they are very few and there is always an option to go elsewhere.

The teachers unions seem to be one of the most self serving entities in the country. Their hypocrisy knows no real bounds.

Back when Chris Christie was the Governor of NJ he went to battle with the teachers union of NJ. One of the counter attacks was how much Christie was paid. He pointed out that the head of the teachers union in NJ was paid almost three times as much as he was and had significantly less responsibilities.

The country is going through a vast gas lighting. They tell us that a grand mother walking through the capitol taking pictures is a fundamental threat to our country but a mob burning a city is peaceful. They tell us that acting in self defense is murder but that violent criminals should be set free.

We are told that it is a “Gun Safety Bill” when infringements on a fundamental right proposed.

We need to remain vigilant to the rewriting of history as we watch. Keep copies of articles and videos, you might only see them one time.

Back in 1991 during operation Desert Storm, the US military was firing Tomahawk Cruise Missiles into Baghdad. We were watching some of the footage on CNN. The new crew was on the roof of the hotel in Baghdad when they heard something. The cameraman pointed the camera down the street and filmed a Tomahawk missile flying down the center of the street. It got to the end of the street and turned at the intersection and continued onward.

We saw it. We saw it exactly once. I’ve never seen that video again. 30 years later I aks “Did I really see that, or am I misremembering.”

Document it. Remember it. Save copies.

Don’t let them gaslight you.