Category Archives: Media

UPDATE II: Cleveland Debate Stars: The Moderators And Question-Writers (Sisters For Donald)

Elections, Journalism, Media, Politics, Republicans

Joy! Text is back. TIME has the full transcript of the first primetime Republican debate, in Cleveland, Ohio.

My general impressions after last night:

Compared to previous debates overrun by Democrat journos, the quality of the journalism, courtesy of Fox News, was outstanding. I’d venture that the true stars of the debate were the ruthless, impartial, analytical Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace. Perhaps the indubitably lousy, future Democratic-debate moderators of CNN will rise to the standard set by the Fox News three? Perhaps the left’s Idiocracy will omit, from future debates, bogus questions about bogus constructs that rape reality (such as structural racism)???!!!

The opening question was a brilliant example of strategic showmanship:

Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person.
Again, we’re looking for you to raise your hand now — raise your hand now if you won’t make that pledge tonight.

And Trump was magnificent in his response. Honest, too. From there on, it was downhill for Mr. Trump. He delivered the same slogans. He failed to flesh out positions and show understanding. The man is quick and engaging; but he came unprepared.

Rand Paul fell flat in his refusal to tackle the probe about his aversion to neocons. He’s a mean little man, too, although I loved his retort to Gov. Chris Christie on the latter’s eagerness to flout the Fourth Amendment and the governor’s bear hugs for Barack during the Romney campaign. Rand’s emphasis on negotiations in diplomacy was good, too.

Marco Rubio is a slick, smart, personable neocon. But if you want truly nice, then Dr. Ben Carson is lovely. A good man. Naturally, I disagree with him on almost every matter of policy. I just love the self-made, talented, clean-living, non-politician. Dr. Carson is also a beautiful-looking man.

Item: The audience was most certainly not comprised of The Republican Base. It was more establishmentarian.

Item: That buzzer noise must go. Use the opening bars to Beethoven’s Fifth, or something like it, instead.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Don’t ask me why, but I tune them out. It’s an automatic response. They are not that intelligent. My mind drifts when they talk. Ditto Jeb Bush. I did love his, “They called me Veto Corleone. Because I vetoed 2,500 separate line-items in the budget.”

Ted Cruz’s performance disappointed greatly—and not because he is not quick on his feet. Cruz is most certainly brilliant. His liberal professor, Alan Dershowitz, said as much. But he angered me when he did not turn the matter of providing jobs for ISIS into a principled point illustrating the role of limited, American government, which is not to lift the world out of poverty:

When I asked General Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs, what would be required militarily to destroy ISIS, he said there is no military solution. We need to change the conditions on the ground so that young men are not in poverty and susceptible to radicalization. That, with all due respect, is nonsense.
It’s the same answer the State Department gave that we need to give them jobs. What we need is a commander in chief that makes — clear, if you join ISIS, if you wage jihad on America, then you are signing your death warrant.

The bankruptcy questions to Trump were excellent; his replies were good, too. He’s the consummate businessman. We knew that.

One expects Huckaubee, who made thoughtful points on Social Security, to deliver a good turn pf phrase:

Ronald Reagan said “trust, but verify.” President Obama is “trust, but vilify.” He trusts our enemies and vilifies everyone who disagrees with him.

As for a Bush talking about the value of life. That would be funny, if it were not so sad. Allow me to quote from “It’s About Federalism, Stupid! (2006)”: “Would that Republicans fussed as much over the many fully formed human-beings dying daily in Iraq [and wherever else they choose to war], as they do over fetuses.”

The best closing lines in the evening Act were these:

HUCKABEE: “It seems like this election has been a whole lot about a person who’s very high in the polls, that doesn’t have a clue about how to govern. A person who has been filled with scandals, and who could not lead, and, of course, I’m talking about Hillary Clinton.”

CARSON: Well, I haven’t said anything about me being the only one to do anything, so let me try that. I’m the only one to separate siamese twins … The the only one to operate on babies while they were still in mother’s womb, the only one to take out half of a brain, although you would think, if you go to Washington, that someone had beat me to it.

THE END.

UPDATE I: COME AGAIN, T. CRUZ.

CRUZ: President Obama has talked about fundamentally transforming this country. There’s 7 billion people across the face of the globe, many of whom want to come to this country. If they come legally, great. But if they come illegally and they get amnesty, that is how we fundamentally change this country, and it really is striking.
A majority of the candidates on this stage have supported amnesty. I have never supported amnesty, and I led the fight against Chuck Schumer’s gang of eight amnesty legislation in the Senate.

Did Cruz really mean to imply that if Hillary ascends to the throne, and a good portion of 7 billion people are granted permission to come to the US legally, that would be OK? That’s the inference from what he said. Crazy.

UPDATE II (8/10): All your fav Republican females with short skirts are feminists. What did you expect from Megyn Kelly? A good wake up for her fans. Still, it’s better that Kelly ask crappy fem-oriented questions of The Donald than the Dem moderators. It neutralizes the latter.

Here are the two fabulous Sisters for Donald Trump. Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson unleash on Megyn Kelly or “Kelly Megyn, whatever you’re name is”: “Go back to reporting news for Sesame Street,” they recommend.

UPDATE II: Things To Watch Out For In The Staged, Republican Match (The Matinée)

Elections, Media, Republicans

Come the big kiddie debate tonight—if one can call these ridiculously timed performances debates—there are a number of things to watch out for in the Orwellian newspeak deployed by our media strumpets, when putting forth the pontifications, predictions and pronouncements that never pan out:

When these strumpets use the refrain, “Donald Trump will have to do x and y in order to convince people he is a serious candidate,” what they mean is to lay down the conditions he must fulfill for them—media—to take him a wee bit seriously.

The GOP base already takes Trump seriously.

The other thing: Watch out for my new related essay on WND.

Right now the “GOP underdogs [have] hit [the] stage looking for big breakout in first debate.”

UPDATE I: The Matinée.

Unremarkable. My impressions:

Carly Fiorina: I’ve already commented on her high intelligence and wonderful facility with words. She’s very bright (and I say this without agreeing with a single words she says. Wow: I can chew gun and walk, too*).

Lindsey Graham: All roads lead to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and WAR. Who knew that the senator was 60 and unmarried? Hmm. A little journalistic shoe-leather here could prove delicious.

* To those robotic libertarains who will accuse me of daring to address the politics I reject and despise: I’m not lazy like you. I deal. With reality, that is.

UPDATE II: “How About Some LiveBlog?–Kid’s Table Edition.” Tom Knapp does a good job in providing much-needed text.

To Make Cops Love Communities They Police, Communities Ought To Be Lovely.

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Race, Racism

“To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”—Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

A variation on Burke’s theme is what I get from the words of former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson: To make cops love the communities they police, the communities they police ought to be lovely. And indeed, Wilson seems to have found aspects of the rough community he policed lovely. But that’s not enough for his inquisitors.

CNN transcripts:

JOHN BERMAN: New this morning, former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson breaks his silence in a revealing new interview. The 29-year- old who shot and killed unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, tells “The New Yorker” he wanted to get back on the streets of Ferguson but was told he would be a liability. He says he can’t get another police job anywhere despite being cleared of any wrongdoing in Brown’s death.

KATE BOLDUAN: He also tells “The New Yorker” that he ended up working in Ferguson because policing black neighborhoods would be a good way to advance his career. He says this as well, “If you go there and do three to five years, get your experience, you can kind of write your own ticket.” And Wilson says he enjoyed his time on the force. He also is saying this, “I didn’t want to work in a white area. I like the black community. I had fun there. There’s people who will just crack you up.”

CNN’s Boris Sanchez is joining us, and Boris is taking a look at much more of this.

It’s a long and revealing interview.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. He says quite a bit in there. One of the things you find out is he says he doesn’t think about Michael Brown. He hasn’t even read the Department of Justice report about the systemic racism in Ferguson. It’s really interesting because he kind of — the piece is meant to humanize him but, in a lot of ways, some of what he says brings up questions about his perspectives and his relations with the African-American community. At one point, he asks a fellow officer who helped train him for help in relating to some of the people in the community because he said he felt culture shock.

We’ll take a look at what he said. He asked Mike McCarthy, “Mike, I don’t know what I’m doing. This is a culture shock. Would you help me because you obviously have that connection, and you can relate to them? You may be white, but they respect you, so why can they respect you and not me?”

[11:15:26] Another thing Wilson says, as you mentioned, Kate, that he enjoyed policing in the African-American community because people there cracked him up. So he tries to paint this picture that he’s not a racist. At the same time, he goes on to say other things that many, including Michael Brown’s family, say kind of show that he has some prejudice. We’ll go to the other full screen now. He’s describing a blind mom in Ferguson apparently whose kids were running amok. He says they were causing trouble in the neighborhood. He said, “They ran all over the mom. They didn’t respect her, so why would they respect me?” He then goes on to say, “They’re so wrapped up in a different culture than — what I’m trying to say is the right culture, the better one to pick from.”

Now, the reporter wanted to find out if this was coded language, if this was somehow referring to race in kind of a subtle way. So the reporter pressed him. He said that Wilson struggled with an answer, going on to say, “Pre-gang culture where you’re just running in the streets, not worried about working in the morning, just worried about your immediate gratification.” And then he goes on to say, “It is the same younger culture that’s everywhere in the inner cities.”

Obviously, these quotes, the article, meant to humanize him, kind of bringing up more questions about his perspectives.

[SNIP]

The presstitute are still gunning for Darren Wilson.

UPDATED: Wonkette, AKA Ana Marie Cox, Waffles; IS Media Strumpet Apologizing?

Democrats, Journalism, Media, Morality

It’s not quite an apology for being part of the “the circle jerk of power brokers that is American journalism,” but it’s as close to expiation as one can expect from a professional ditz like Ana Marie Cox, aka “Wonkette Emerita”:

… The richness of our language about Trump as a man exposes the poverty of our analysis of him as a phenomenon. His refusal to go away exposes the superfluousness of our predictions. The churn of “Trump takes” is a real-time erosion of confidence in our ability to provide the only real service punditry provides: to make sense of what’s happening. His survival has shown how ephemeral narratives can be, and how permanent biases are. Our failure to adequately explain Trump, to tame him, reveals machinations and mistakes that usually go unnoticed. The Trump candidacy is the media’s ongoing hot mic moment. What we talk about when we talk about Trump is ourselves.

More verbal diarrhea (I think I’ve captured the gist of the litany).

IS this media strumpet apologizing to Trump supporters?