The end of an era: AllahPundit leaves HotAir.com

Some very sad news, after 16 years, AllahPundit is leaving HotAir.com.

He is leaving the site for the same reasons, that I really have not been writing very much on this blog.

Quote:

Partisan media serves two masters, the truth and the cause. When they align, all is well. When they conflict, you choose. If you prioritize the truth, you’re a traitor; if you prioritize the cause, you’re a propagandist. One recent example of the latter is the left mocking Republicans who accepted PPP loans during the pandemic for opposing Biden’s student debt bailout. The differences between those two programs would be evident to a reasonably intelligent fourth-grader but the imperative to serve the cause by rationalizing Biden’s giveaway forced liberals to treat it as a smart own. I think some even talked themselves into believing it. Propagandists lie to others, then lie to themselves to justify propagating the original lie. Propaganda rots the brain, then the soul.

That’s one reason why, when I’ve been forced to choose, I preferred to be a traitor than a propagandist. Here’s another: What is the right’s “cause” at this point? What cause does the Republican Party presently serve? It has no meaningful policy agenda. It literally has no platform. The closest thing it has to a cause is justifying abuses of state power to own the libs and defending whatever Trump’s latest boorish or corrupt thought-fart happens to be. Imagine being a propagandist for a cause as impoverished as that. Many don’t need to imagine.

The GOP does have a cause. The cause is consolidating power. Overturn the rigged elections, purge the disloyal bureaucrats, smash the corrupt institutions that stand in the way. Give the leader a free hand. It’s plain as day to those who are willing to see where this is going, what the highest ambitions of this personality cult are. Those who support it without insisting on reform should at least stop pretending that they’re voting for anything else.

I agree with others who say that, fundamentally, the last six years have been a character test. Some conservatives became earnest converts to Trumpism, whatever that is. But too many who ditched their civic convictions did so for the most banal reasons, because there was something in it for them — profit, influence, proximity to power, the brainless tribalism required by audience capture. “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket,” Eric Hoffer wrote. We’ve all gotten to see who the racketeers are.

I would rather fail as a writer than succeed if success means being some demagogue’s footstool. To the extent my work at Hot Air has made that clear, I’m happy with it.

Never forget, it’s not the 30 percent of Trump worshipers within the party who brought the GOP to what it is. It’s the next 50 percent, the look-what-the-libs-made-me-do zombie partisans, who could have said no but didn’t. I said no. Put it on my tombstone.

As much as I hate to admit it; he is absolutely correct. The Republican Party has become a shadow and bad parody of itself.

Gone are the days of the statesmen, like Ronald Reagan. Gone are the intellectual Conservatives, like William F. Buckley. Gone are the moderates like Jack Kemp. Gone are the real Conservatives like Patrick J. Buchanan, who actually loves America, and wants to keep American jobs. Unlike the two-bit phony like trump, who only cares about his supposed “Brand.”

On another aspect, it is truly the end of a blogging era. AllahPundit was a pen name, that was created in response to the 9/11 attacks in NYC. It was basically a parody of Islamic Fascism. Starting with “Allah’s in the House” blog and continuing with his writing over at HotAir.com.

It also represents a change in the landscape of the blogosphere.  Where people like Michelle Malkin were the superstars of the Conservative Blogging world and the movement itself.’ Malkin has been relegated to the corner of the extremists. with her friendship with the “proud boys.” Strange case, that one was.

This is what happened after President Bush’s term ended, the right united against Obama. Then Trump ran and won. The cult of personality around trump was divided into two camps, Pro Trump and Anti-Trump. Alliances were destroyed, friendships ruined and the Conservative movement fractured badly. Now, the conservatives are slinging it out between anti and pro Trump camps and slinging mud at President Biden; who is by the way, the worst President since Jimmy Carter. In fact, Biden is much, much, worse.

Even I have changed in my political beliefs since starting blogging in 2006. I, in fact, started out as a Populist, but nothing like the Conservative Populism that Trump represents. More of this kind here. However, in the years since then, mainly because I have gotten older, (I turned 50 this year.) I have honestly come to realize that left wing politics is a dead end. Leftism is nothing more a religion of hate; black against white, Jews verses Gentiles, Poor against Rich, Haves against Have-nots.

It is all rather exhausting honestly and I got quite tired of being on the side of hate. Equally tiring is the battle of conservatives against each other. For goodness sake, are not we supposed to be fighting against the far left and their lunacy? Instead we are fighting against each other, over a man, who could give a wit about the Republican Party, Conservatism, and America in General. He has his money, and he really does not care about anyone or anything else. The White House was an ego thing for him, and that was it.

We should be fighting against the loony far left. We should be fighting back against Joe Biden and his idiotic policies, we should be fighting against assault against our freedoms, by the left. Instead conservatives are fighting each other, and media is obsessed, left and right; about a President that lost an election 2 years ago! Enough! The media, the conservative movement, and everyone else needs to move the hell on!

That is my opinion and I would like to know yours.

 

 

Hotair.com makes comments for members only

Well it appears that hotair.com has made It’s commenting feature on its website or blog. if you will, for members only.

You have probably noticed the recent changes today to our commenting system as reading, posting, and replying to comments are now exclusively for our VIP members.

I can totally understand why they did this. Because I used to comment over there on hotair.com, before they made this change and there was a lot of people coming to that site, who weren’t necessarily the type of people who would normally comment there; like people on the left and they could just be downright nasty, so that is why I believe they made this decision and believe it or not I think it was a good one.

Unfortunately, they want a great deal of money to join their VIP service. so I won’t be joining it I will continue to read the blog and maybe do a posting here and link into it now and again.

I just happen to think it’s pretty sad, when people on the left have to stoop to such nastiness, that necessitates Salem communications having to make that sort of a decision.

Just my two cents.

Is HotAir.com in it’s death spiral?

It appears that way.

I happened to go over to that site and noticed that Ed has announced that HotAir.com is going to a “VIP Program“, meaning, you need a membership to read some of the stories. This is, basically, what the New York Times has, a partial paywall.

This is a horrible, terrible, decision on the part of Salem Media. Here is why: The New York Times is a well-funded Newspaper, with a huge readership, while HotAir.com is nothing more than an partisan blog that is center-right and I tend to believe that HotAir.com gets nowhere near the viewership of the NYT.

Furthermore, No one is going to start paying for, what they have read for free, for all of these years, since the site’s existence. I believe that Salem is most likely betting on a huge readership spike during the 2020 elections. But, judging from the comments, we will be hear that this site went dark, after Salem got tired of supporting a money losing blog.

A sad ending to blog, which I read, even when I was still voting for and blogging for the left, because it seemed a bit more reasonable than some of the right, at the time.

Things have changed since the days of Clinton/Bush and blogging’s early days. 😔

Congrats to Mustang Bobby for 13 years at Bark Bark Woof Woof

I believe some congrats are in order here:

So here we are, thirteen years, three residences, two Mustangs, two presidents, four presidential campaigns, and over 25,000 posts later, and I’m still getting up every morning and writing every post. In fact, in all these years, only two posts were written by people other than me and they did it because I was incommunicado because of hurricanes (thank you, CLW and Brian).

But not a day has gone by that I haven’t come up with something to post. Sometimes it’s passionate, sometimes it’s silly or snarky or just for the fun of it. I’ve shared good times — having a play go to New York — and I’ve shared some tough times. There have been very few things I haven’t covered in the last thirteen years, and the only test I have for choosing what to write about is will it be worth sharing with the people who read this.

I’ve made a lot of friends, forged new pathways of self-discovery, learned so much, and been touched by people I only know through nicknames and pixels. There are so many people I want to thank for being here and being there for me. As I said at the outset, I couldn’t do this without you, dear reader, and I hope that in these years I’ve enlightened you, provoked you, maybe even pissed you off on occasion. The one thing I hope I haven’t done is bore you.

So with that said, I’ll ask what I always ask: What’s next? – Source: Thirteen Years Of Bark Bark Woof Woof | Bark Bark Woof Woof

Bark Bark Woof Woof was one of the blogs that I used to read quite a bit, when I was rooting for the Democrats. He is a bit of a moderate, and that is a good thing. I always liked Bobby’s stuff and he is a hard working school teacher, which is an honorable job and a tough one at that.

I hope he doesn’t mind hearing it from me. But, Congrats Bobby!

On a totally sort-kinda related note: When writing this, I kept wanting to type Booby, instead of Bobby. I hate that! Congrats Booby! 😆

Stir crap, Draw flies

Updated to Add:

I’m seeing a lot around here on Twitter and on other blogs, that conservatives are the only ones who have had their account suspended by Twitter. Let me say emphatically that this is not the case at all.

I happen to know about a user who is a Hillary Clinton supporter who had his account suspended in 2008, during the Clinton/Obama primary, because he dared to say critical things about Barack Obama. His twitter username is @shoq and I sure he can tell you all about Twitter’s repression the freedom of speech towards liberals.
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Original posting:

This is exactly how I feel about this little story here. This is why I have, for the longest time now, avoided blog wars and twitter fights and for very good reasons; and when they started trolling me, that being liberals and yes, some so-called “conservatives” too; I just blocked them. Because I do not wish to get into it with the other side, at all.

Datechguy writes about it:

Before there was Milo Yiannopoulos there was Robert Stacy McCain. A chain smoking, beer drinking, coffee guzzling hard nosed reporter who rather than simply going with the flow and repeating the conventional wisdom dared to go out into the field and actually see and report for himself.

And when he didn’t have a spot in the MSM to do it anymore on a regular basis he began his web site The Other McCain (named to differentiate himself from his distant cousin John in the Senate) and with funding provided by his readers (and sometimes without it going places on a wing and a prayer) he would travel the country from Alaska to New Hampshire from Nevada to New Orleans to cover stories that the MSM would not.

And when Bill Sparkman’s death became a national story and there were cries of “Send the Body to Glenn Beck” it was Stacy McCain who was the boots on the ground who actually went to Kentucky and investigated the story finding no evidence of murder and was vindicated when his death was revealed to be a suicide staged to appear like a murder.

He has managed to do all of this while raising a family of six which now includes two grandchildren who are his joy (although they have considerably slowed down his travels, after all family comes first).

Bottom line though not a rich man Robert Stacy McCain is an American Success story he has built a nationwide, dare I say worldwide following presenting his viewpoint and highlighting the public viewpoints of others who would rather keep their actual words and opinions under the radar because Robert Stacy McCain is loyal to his family, his God, his friends and the Truth.

I know this because I’m proud to say he is my friend. I’ve learned an awful lot from him the most important thing being there is no substitute for actually being there, gathering factual evidence, seeing for yourself and reporting the truth.

Look, I am just going to be blunt, okay? Because that is how I just do it. I do not make my opinions based upon my political stance. Some do in the blogosphere and I think it is cheap, dirty and downright stupid. The truth is that I have observed Robert Stacy McCain engage in behavior on twitter that some, not all, would consider to be harassment. So, there, that is my feelings on it. Anyone that does not like that, can kiss my all-American white behind.

My point is this right here:  If you do not want to attract the wrong kind of attention on twitter or anywhere else for that matter; then do not do stuff that will attract the wrong kind of attention. You would not smoke a joint while driving a car. (Well, most of us anyhow!) You would not walk around in public with your penis hanging out of your pants. So, why do idiotic stuff like what McCain was doing on twitter?

The reason McCain was doing what he was doing is this: McCain is a downright publicity whore, just like Gene Simmons. McCain was doing it, to promote his blog and, by proxy, himself. McCain was also doing it to win favor with the Conservative crowd. He would routinely get on twitter, hassle these women and then print their reactions on twitter and on his blog. Well, I guess twitter got tired of it and suspended his account and they will most likely suspend the other one too, should he start using that other account for the same purposes.

I will admit, I have had issues with Mr. McCain in the past; but that is not why I am saying this at all. I am saying this, because it is just the truth. Now, as for Mr. McCain, he is taking it in stride, as you can see at this link here. I believe mainly because he knows that he is guilty of the charge!

To be clear, I have no side in this issue at all. I also know that twitter does have a right to regulate their usage of their servers and service itself. I also see some conservative saying that the investors, mostly stocks, should divest themselves of twitter stocks. My question is this: Is that not the tactic of the left? Did not liberals do that to Firefox, when the President of Mozilla come out against gay marriage, which resulted in his resigning from that company? Why is it that conservatives always copy the tactics of the left, when they are feeling somehow persecuted?

My point is this, when it comes to the progressive left, I follow the words of advice from the Holy Bible:

“But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” – 1 Corinthians 14:38 King James Version

This advice quoted above has served me well, as a believer in Christ for the last 35 years, which is how long I have been a born-again believer in Christ. I have not always followed that advice, much to my detriment at times! But, I digress. The point is folks, progressives are usually progressive for a reason. Same goes with feminists — and all the poking, harassing and other such activities, will only serve to reinforce that worldview. So, it is best to let them be content in their own ignorance and move on.

I hope this is received in the spirit of which is intended to those who wish to receive it. 🙂

Related:

Other Blogs: protein wisdom and TheRalphRetort.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Vox Popoli

Why I have ads on my site and why I ask for donations

This is a continuation of my previous posting.

Nobody likes Ads, especially the annoying popup ones. Least of all me!

Well, I put them on here for one simple reason….

*Cut the sob story music*

I have not worked a “normal job” since 2006. There is a huge story behind it that dates back to 2003. It is long, rambling and if not told the right way, makes me sound like I am whining; which I am not at all.

Short and sweet version: I attempted a career change back in 2003, that ended up blowing up in my face. I was able, with the state’s help in getting my class A CDL license. (That’s a license to drive a semi truck, for those who don’t know.) Well, after I got it, I made some mistakes along the way, that effectively rendered me out of the driver’s seat. Drinking was not involved at all. What happened was, instead of being smart and getting a job with a big trucking company. I decided that I wanted to stay near home; mainly, because I am an only child and my parents needed the help. Which is more so now, than it was back then.

Well, I ended up going with a small trucking company and ended up making a rookie mistake and ended up with 2 points on my license in 2004. Basically, me and a city light pole got into a fight and the pole; and by proxy, me — lost. 🙁 Thankfully, nobody was hurt and there was no damage was done to the trailer or truck. The light pole? Not so much. Snapped that puppy off at the ground.

Well, basically it meant this: 2 points on license = being labeled high risk by other trucking companies = not being to find a job in the field I trained for.

At the point, I got pissed and said, “screw it!” and I wanted to find something, but because Michigan’s economy was in the pooper; there was nothing around here, at least nothing I was qualified for. 🙁  Honestly, if it were not for my parents, I would be living under a viaduct somewhere.

Speed ahead to 2006…..

I had just left a Church that I attended for a while, a independent Baptist Church no less. I had been royally stabbed in the back by a so-called “Pastor” there. (and believe me, I use that term about him very, very, very loosely. He was no “Pastor”, he was a hireling hack, who had zero business being in the pulpit.)

I had seen stuff about blogs, but I blew it off as kiddie stuff, like MySpace and that sort of a thing. This was until I discovered political blogs. My eyes lit up and my wheels started turning in my head. Now, keep in mind, at that time; I was still on, what I like to call, “the skeptical left”. I was not a Bush fan at all; I still am not. By 2006, I was convinced that the Iraq war, which I initially supported, was a huge judgement error on the President’s part, at the time. I also was not a fan of the Republicans either, I admired Reagan very much. But, I thought Bush was an idiot.

You have to understand me. I grew up in Southwest Detroit, my Father is a retired General Motors worker. Yes, that means that the UAW is a big part of my family. Having said that, there is another side to me. As it is spelled out elsewhere on my blog here, I am a Christian, I have been for 35 years now. (Which makes me feel so old! 😥 ) Needless to say, Church was a big part of my life, when I was younger. I went to Christian Schools all my life. The “God & Country” movement was something that I was a big part of in the 1980’s.

To put a label on it, I was what you would call a conservative Democrat or a “blue dog” Democrat. I was not too big on the Republicans and because of my working class upbringing, I felt a connection with the Democratic Party. I didn’t agree with them on Abortion or the guy stuff. But, I felt that Democrats were more in tune with the concerns of my family and more notably — Me. My parents or myself, we never donated any that party. We just voted that way.

Now back to 2006, I was becoming more and more angry at Bush, the Iraq War deaths were piling up like cord wood and I decided to do something I had not done since I was like in the 7’th or 8’th grade —- I decided to start writing again. I had not done it in years, I just never felt the need to. But, I felt it was time again.

And so, in 2006, I went to blogspot.com and registered a blog. It was called The Populist. The blog was hacked by either Chinese hackers or by some neoconservatives who didn’t like me and my political stance. I have an idea, who was behind it. But, I cannot prove it. So, the point is moot.

…and that was 10 years ago. Needless to say, my political stance has changed…. quite a bit. In 2007, My blog was hacked, by that time — my opinion of the Democrats had dropped to a all-time low. The democrats never stopped the Iraq War. They talked a mean game, but they did nothing to stop it. They were using it as a wedge issue against Bush. I felt that to be hypocritical. I also felt that Hillary was being ridiculous, when it came to the primaries. I already had a good deal of disdain for her husband; considering what happened in Waco in the mid-90’s. This is why I never was on board with the Democrats. I remember when the Clinton-Monica scandal was happening, I remember thinking, “Why doesn’t he just resign?” Bill Clinton had besmirched the White House and America.

This was when I started Political Byline. I ran it for 9 years. First as a Centrist, and ever so slowly, I began to lean to the right. Somewhere in there, I discovered Pat Buchanan. I had found my political ally. I still read his columns faithfully. He is as close to Reagan as we’ll ever get today. In 2011, after Obama ordered the draw down of troops in Iraq. I decided to put that blog in inactive status and shut down for a while. It lasted about 5 weeks.

I went back to blogspot and created another blog —  and started over. Thoughts and Rantings and the domain I chose, was something I pulled outta my… behind?

Later, I was able to pony some money together and bought a domain and was able to secure some cheap hosting. I later moved to a better host that let me pay yearly.

…and here I am, 10 years later. Still writing about the left, that I was once a part of. Pointing out the obvious and offering a different idea. I’m not rich doing it. But, I am having a good time. 🙂

Your comments are welcomed. 🙂

 

 

HotAir.com takes the first step to closing its comment section

Update: Blogger roundup: Editorial Times, Legal Insurrection

Post links in the comment section and I will add them here.

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Original Post:

This, I think, is going to prove to be a very bad move for this blog:

For almost ten years, Hot Air has utilized a proprietary, members-only comment system. In 2006, this kind of system made much sense, but Internet standards and technology have moved beyond this kind of system. Beginning tomorrow, Hot Air will move from its present proprietary closed-comment system to Facebook comments. At that time, native commenting functions will cease, and all comments will come through the Facebook interface. — Via: Hot Air to move to Facebook comment system « Hot Air

Let’s just be real folks; HotAir.com is huge and I mean really huge. I have been to sites that use a strictly Facebook commenting system and I do not believe that I would be exaggerating one bit, if I said that those places are nothing more than pure troll dens. This is usually the first step; first they will use the Facebook commenting system and then, things will get too bad and then they will close the comments sections for good.

I feel that once a site kills the comments section, it becomes nothing more than just another website. I for one, will never go to an external comment system, ever. I tried Disqus and it frankly sucked major donkey doo doo. They should call it disgust, because that’s how you will feel after trying to set it up — Disgusted!

As for HotAir.com, I think they are simply trying to be more inclusive and not have to work their tails off, in the upcoming election. While that might be a good idea for them, it might prove to be quite destructive for the site. Because the trolls will run the regulars off and the site will get a reputation among its core audience. Another thing that I feel will run people off is that Facebook’s founder is a known flaming liberal and there are many conservatives who will not use Facebook because of this fact. So, they will lose those people.

For the record here, I will never, ever, go to a closed commenting system, nor Disqus or Facebook; or any other commenting platform. The only system I will ever use is WordPress Native system which allows you to comment using your Facebook or other identities you choose to use.

I wish HotAir.com the best, because, Lord knows, they are going to need it.