Here is a perfect reason why I do not vote Democrat anymore

Michael Gerson, who was speechwriter for President George W. Bush, during the time of 9/11, died today of Cancer.

The Story via Washington Post, where he was also a columnist:

Michael Gerson, a speechwriter for President George W. Bush who helped craft messages of grief and resolve after 9/11, then explored conservative politics and faith as a Washington Post columnist writing on issues as diverse as President Donald Trump’s disruptive grip on the GOP and his own struggles with depression, died Nov. 17 at a hospital in Washington. He was 58.

The cause of death was complications of cancer, said Peter Wehner, a longtime friend and former colleague.

You can read the rest at the link above. It is sad news, right? You would think that the Progressive left would at least show a little respect for the family of man who had just died, right? Well, think again. Check out what some idiot, named Eric Loomis at a blog called “Guns, Lawyers and Money” writes:

I was hoping it was autoerotic asphyxiation, but alas, it was cancer.

Now, to be honest, when I was still voting for Democrats, I actually read this blog. Thank God that I figured out what that party was really about and changed my political views. The sick part is that the people of that party, especially the bloggers, have gotten much more nastier than they were, when I was still reading their blogs and had my own blog back in 2006.

But, more to the point, what kind of sick, evil, twisted person would even write something like this, about someone, who has just died of cancer and not have a single shred of decency to possibly be that nasty and not have any regard of his family, especially his wife and kids? This sort of thought comes from a dark heart of pure evil. Sorry to say it. But, this man has serious issues.

Yes, I know, 9/11 was terrible. The Iraq War sucked, and was based upon what we now know to be false intelligence.  But that comment above about this man, goes way beyond just a political disagreement and being opposed to a war. This is a personal comment meant to hurt his family. This comment is just as immoral as the Iraq War was, in my opinion.

Even the Washington Post was at least respectful of the man, even if they did go out of their way to point out some of the doings of the Bush Administration. Heck, even Karen Tumulty was at least respectful of the man and she is a progressive herself.

I know that the Republican Party is not perfect and some conservatives make me cringe. (See Fox News Channel) But, at least they are respectful of others. As a said in the title, this is why I no longer vote Democrat. It is just is not my party anymore.

 

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.

Ed Morrissey says that he is done with the GOP

This is big news, because Ed Morrissey has been a Conservative Republican for years.

Here is Ed writing at HotAir.com:

In the wake of the trauma of the last two months, two inescapable questions emerge. First, what does it mean to be republican? And second, does the Republican Party represent those values at all any more?

The answers to both have led me to disaffiliate myself from the GOP after the disgrace that took place in Congress last week, with not just tacit but explicit cooperation from party leadership. Granted, in Minnesota, it’s easy to disaffiliate as the state does not have any affiliation attached to its voter registration process, so the only action necessary is to just tell people you’re no longer a member of the party. Still, at this point it’s impossible to act as though Republicans are republican, especially while its leadership makes clear that it doesn’t care one whit about the party’s own foundational principles.

[….]

What we have seen from Republicans over the last two months — but especially on Wednesday — has violated every single one of these principles of republicanism and federalism. In our federalist system and as established in the Constitution, the states have full jurisdiction in elections, even those for federal office. Their certifications have always been accepted as proper unless challengers produce explicit evidence of specific fraud in a large enough number of ballots to where it calls the results into question. The burden of proof to overcome state certification rests with challengers to prove the fraud, not on the states to prove a negative, as is proper in American jurisprudence more broadly. And even then, the forum for those challenges are in state courts, not Congress, if one abides by republican and federalist principles.

Instead, what we saw on Wednesday were Republicans, including their House leadership, pandering to a mob by pretending that Congress had any authority at all over the certified results of elections in the states. They did so on behalf of a president who appears incapable of relinquishing power in an orderly and lawful manner, as though power was his birthright and any election results to the contrary were ipso facto invalid. Republicans in both chambers justified these actions not from any principle, but by explicitly citing the mobs of people that prefer to believe in conspiracy theories stoked by this president and his advisers. Rather than standing on republican and federalist principles, they lied to these supporters and led them to believe that Congress could actually change the results of these elections — and stoked the fury of the mobs when it didn’t happen.

[……]

Before this, questions had already arisen as to how republicanism could coexist with populism. This goes waaay beyond that question. The disgrace in Congress, even apart from the mobs, severed the connection between Republicans and republicanism in any meaningful American sense. They aren’t republicans now, but instead a radical form of small-D democrats whose only aim is gin up outrage in sufficient quantities to “own the libs.” That’s not just on Donald Trump; it’s now on the entire party and its leadership.

That’s their choice; my choice is very clear. I don’t choose to participate in such a nihilistic political party. I’ll stand on my own as an independent, ready to vote for responsible conservatives but under no obligation to vote for or support anyone else. Until the GOP comes to its senses and returns to true republican and federal principles, I will not be back.

I have to say that I agree with the assessment. I too, watched in disbelief, as the Capital Building was sacked by a bunch of pissed off Trump supporters, which was, as we know know, was aided by law enforcement and workers in the building itself.

I must say, that the GOP that I remember, that my Mom voted for in the 1980’s, when President Ronald Reagan ran for President; simply no longer exists. It was replaced, first of all, by Neoconservatives, like George H.W. Bush and then his son, George W. Bush.  Then because the candidate that ran after Bush, was basically a joke and President Obama was elected and the so-called “Tea Party” movement happened; which was really a sideshow that ended up being co-oped by the Republican Party —- We ended with a hyper-populist; who was, in reality, a egotistical jerk, who was a borderline fascist.

As with Ed, I too, live in a State where one does not have to declare one’s political party and I have in the past and did this past election, vote Libertarian.  I know they never win anything, at least nationally. But, I will be darned, if I will for someone, that I dislike.

So, to end this, I will simply say, Welcome to club, Ed. It’s nicer over here. I wish Ed luck, because if the comment section at HotAir.com is any indication; Ed’s going to have a long row of corn to hoe. (So to speak.)

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. 😔

Owner of blog “Advance Indiana” found DEAD of so-called “suicide”

From what you can see in the video below, which comes via infowars.com, this blogger was an exposor of corruption and he was found dead of a suicide in a stairwell where he lived at.

I don’t know about you guys. but, this doesn’t pass the smell test. I’m thinking this guy got too close to something and they took him out. check out the video below:

https://youtu.be/5hTc5p3UMw8

Something stinks here and I mean bad.

A very good point on conservative blogs

I saw this and I have to say, I agree with it.

Doomberg over at HotGas.net writes:

March 11 was a really bad day, for a lot of rea­sons, but the main one was hav­ing to watch the GOP cheer and gloat as their own frontrunner’s rally was attacked by a vio­lent, dan­ger­ous mob, and then watch as many peo­ple such as Ted Cruz, and blogs we once liked and trusted —  I don’t think I need to name names, here — encour­age or make disin­gen­u­ous excuses for this vio­lence. The prox­i­mate excuse we’re hear­ing from GOP hacks and shills is that a Bre­it­bart reporter was “vio­lently assaulted” at a Trump rally (despite the story now qui­etly chang­ing to “may have had her arm grabbed”) and that since this is clear evi­dence of “fas­cism,” that vio­lence against Trump sup­port­ers is now accept­able and even moral. The argu­ment we’re hear­ing from the MSM is that all this seething “fas­cism” from Trump erupted into sort of a spon­ta­neous mob event.

Continue reading “A very good point on conservative blogs”

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.
—————–
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

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.

****

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.