…because I’m feeling run down…
Fake news from a fake journalist, courtesy of the Facebook Borg: A Facebook friend who is a professor circulated this social media post from Dan Rather:
“Reporting that President Trump lied about phone calls with Chinese in order to boost markets shows dangerous behavior, the kind of manipulation that has sent people to prison. It also shows the Chinese his weakness and insecurity, which they are undoubtedly eager to exploit.”
I checked, since Rather has no more credibility as a reporter than James Comey has as a “patriot.” There is no way of knowing whether the President “lied” about receiving phone calls from Chinese government reps that might lead to a break-through in the current trade war. The Chinese denied such calls–so what? The news media routinely assumes Russian statements are lies; I suppose the rule is that when a dictatorship contradicts our President, it must be believed. Then there were unidentified “aides” who “admitted” that the President “conflated comments from China’s vice premier with direct communication from the Chinese.” This report comes from CNN. I count four reasons to regard the report as rumor rather than fact, at best….three, if you’re Dan Rather.
Yet when I pointed out that Rather had forfeited the privilege of ever being believed about anything, especially anything relating to GOP Presidents, my professor friend cited with favor a comment from another member of the Borg Collective arguing that a single misstep shouldn’t wipe out Rather’s decades of reporting excellence. Imagine, these are smart people making these desperate and absurd arguments…almost every day.
First, the fact that Rather was knowingly using counterfeit evidence to smear President Bush in the National Guard non-story when Rather and his producer were exposed raises the question of how many times in those decades he engaged in similar breaches of ethics. Second, he has never expressed remorse or contrition for his betrayal of public trust. Third, Rather’s post is false on its face. No elected official has ever been “sent to prison” for a dubious statement that triggered the stock market.
2. Hurricane Dorian ethics:
- The Perfect Storm of stupid returned predictably, when Twitterers began cheering for Dorian to flatten Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida “to teach the climate change denier-in-chief” a lesson. These tweets, ironically, teach a better lesson: most climate change activists have no idea what they are talking about.
Last month the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks and studies all storms in the US, published a review of the evidence bearing on the question of climate change making hurricanes worse. Its conclusion was that ‘it is premature to conclude with high confidence that human activity – and particularly greenhouse warming – has already caused a detectable change in Atlantic hurricane activity.” [Pointer: The Spectator]
- Publix grocery stores in Florida are selling Hurricane Dorian cakes topped with icing resembling a radar map showing the hurricane threatening the state. This, of course, has triggered outrage, because everything triggers outrage. It’s “insensitive,” you see. No, insensitive would be selling cakes showing the Twin Towers coming down. These cakes are, I assume, a community attempt to keep the habitually hysterical from freaking out. I would have bought one.
This is not to say that the decision to market such cakes is a smart business decision. However, anyone who is overcome with fear and anxiety based on a cake decoration has bigger problems than hurricanes.
3. Let’s introduce this school bus driver to that 911 operator: In Greensboro, North Carolina, the 6-year-old daughter of Brittany Copeland and Arnold Johnson was kicked off her school bus by the driver, even though little Layla pleaded that she didn’t know where she was. His theory: she was the only passenger, and it was time to go.
By sheer moral luck, a security guard getting off work saw the crying child, and got her home to safety. Then the Guilford County Schools issued a wholly unsatisfactory statement:
“Guilford County Schools would like to apologize for any concern this situation caused our student and the family. Appropriate district protocols were not followed, and the driver has been removed from the bus pending further investigation.”
Apologize for the “concern”? How about apologizing for the irresponsible and callous behavior of the county bus driver, which could easily have gotten a little girl killed?
4. Longing for that good old Hollywood blacklist..There will be a Beverly Hills fundraising event on September17 event is being hosted by top Republican National Committee leadership, with tickets selling for as much as $100,000. So “Will and Grace” stars Eric McCormack (Will) and Debra Messing (Grace) teamed up to call for a virtual blacklisting of anyone from the entertainment industry who attended.
Tweeted Fox News wit Greg Guttfield: “You wanna know why anyone in Hollywood who thinks for themselves has to keep their mouths shut and their heads down? Like Joe McCarthy, Eric sees ruining a career as a viable method to encourage lockstep. Be like me, or you’re finished.”
It isn’t just Eric, and it isn’t just Eric and Debra Messing, unfortunately. The theme of intimidation and enforced ideological conformity is now a theme of the progressive movement.
m
Ethics Alarms 
Debra Messing’s career is pretty much over, anyway. Almost as many face-lifts as Nancy Pelosi. I wonder what color her hair REALLY is?
2. The former Prime Minister of Canada led the way on these Mar-a-Lago tweets. These people don’t know much about hurricanes, eh? They think they can strike just a single building? Or are the residents of Palm Beach County, or all of Florida, just collateral damage in the War against Trump? I guess so. These are not ordinary times, are they.
Do Democrats REALLY want DONALD TRUMP to receive FEMA relief funds.
Idiots. Idiots all around….
I almost forgot that Jennifer Lawrence said that hurricanes were clear signs of “Mother Nature’s wrath” over the election of Trump. That’s different from when someone says that a disaster is God’s wrath against X and then they’re shamed into oblivion forever because…
Just read a story about a Seinfeld actor talking about that last one. Seems his conservative mind can get along well and have conversations with liberal actors, while maintaining a professional working attitude. I’d like to know what it is about some of these leftist actors that cause them to instinctively hate anyone who doesn’t completely align with all their views.
McDonald and Messing cannot get traction for tweets related to the show – which is an abysmal commercial failure- so they try to obtain some relevance in their relatively miserable lives by trying to harm other human being who do not share their fascist beliefs.
Does the media understand that they serve the interests of China, Russia and a host of other adversaries when they claim Trump has committed some sin in their eyes?
I have no problem with them reporting that Trump said “X” and the adversary states something different but reporters cannot arbitrate who is telling the more accurate story.
Our adversaries are strengthened by our squabbling which is egged on by the media. I have no idea if this abject bias is symptomatic of our current society or has this bias been part and parcel of all journalists which would include Murrow , Cronkite, Severied and even Ernie Pyle. Our current crop can severely tarnish their own reputations if they want but they are now casting doubt on all those that went before them.
There’s a lot at stake in this China trade war. Everyone, including past presidents, has complained for years about the State-sponsored advantage China has in shipping and manufacturing, including theft of intellectual property, which allows them to flood the market with cheap knockoffs that would be illegal if made here.
Trump is the first person to do something about it, and it was the right time. Never mind how we feel about tariffs as a bargaining tool; if this succeeds, or even mostly succeeds, the dividends will be gigantic, and last long, long after the tariffs are gone. The Chinese government and media (same thing) are openly campaigning for Trump to lose in 2020 and be replaced by a business-as-usual Democrat. They are taking massive hits economically, but assuring one another that they can ride out Trump and eventually win. A big part of their propaganda to their own people is that Trump is unpopular and not respected in the U.S., and sure to lose…therefore have faith in your government. The over-the-top anti-Trump pieces in the mainstream news here fuel their resolve to dig in their heels. Both “enemies of the people” and “traitors,” while not accurate legally, are apt descriptors of our corporate media right now. They want us all to lose so Trump can lose.
2: considering that chicken Little predictions older than Jurassic Park haven’t come to pass, I think that fable died a premature death. Moving the date and doubling on the panic will desensitize people to any practical concern. But panic gives ratings and the media is addicted to inducing panic.
I’m tired of Chicken Little and just wish they’d spend half the energy on sone useful charity like: raise funds for a hospice, volunteer help for the aged or ill, plant a victory over the man garden.
Those cakes are clever, don’t they understand the benefit of graveyard humor?
Can not they see the evil and cruelty of flattening Mar-a-Lago? Other people live and work in the area too, probably women, blacks, and Hispanics. I’m sure they will remember people who rooted for them to lose everything. (Trump is insured, he won’t be hurt as much by Dorian, you dummies)
4: I had liked McCormack on a more recent show, Perception. But evidently he did not learn anything from doing that show, that bias and hatred change the interpretation of events and people.
His overplayed ads for the lobbyist group for animals that isn’t really in the trenches took almost all my respect. The conspiracy to be petty and 1984 took more than that little respect.
The voting booth is among the few safe places to speak about these attempts at mind control.
McCormack, Messing, Rather need an IQ upgrade. As do all of their idiot sycophantic followers. C’mon comet!
The Babylon Bee is on #2:
https://babylonbee.com/news/leftists-stand-in-midst-of-storm-signalling-hurricane-to-go-kill-their-political-foes
Again, the left is so nuts that the Bee doesn’t have to move the needle very far from reality to be satire.