Category: Bloggers

Old School Blogger Kevin Drum has died

One of the old school bloggers, from back in the day, has passed away.

Kevin Drum, a left of center blogger, which is, what I was prior to the buildup and election of Obama.

From NYT:

Kevin Drum, who gave up his day job in software marketing to write online about politics, policy and his cats, quickly becoming a key figure in the vanguard of center-left bloggers during the genre’s heyday in the early 2000s, died on March 7. He was 66.

His wife, Marian Drum, announced the death on his website but did not say where he died or cite a cause.

Mr. Drum, who lived in Irvine, Calif., had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2014 and had recently developed pneumonia. He blogged about those personal challenges openly and with the same insight that he brought to issues like health care policy and urban planning.

He spent most of his life in Orange County, Calif., which distinguished him from the majority of early big-name bloggers, many of whom hailed from the Washington-Boston corridor or from academic enclaves.

Mr. Drum began blogging in 2002 and quickly developed a large nationwide following. He helped shape what became known as the liberal blogosphere, populated by a broad amalgam of left-of-center thinkers who emphasized policy debates over political horse races.

His curiosity was broad, and he wrote on a variety of subjects from a variety of perspectives — sometimes casually observational, sometimes rigorously analytical — in a way that set him apart from the assorted camps that defined the blogosphere, including academics, politicos and ideologues.

Brian Delong quoting Ben Dreyfuss:

By 2020, I was the editorial director of Mother Jones and no longer did much of anything directly except oversee the newsletters AND occasionally act as Kevin’s protector. Because the whole liberal journalism universe had gone crazy at this point. We had spent years hiring all these young kids who hated Kevin. They hated anyone with his politics or his tone. He was a normie white lib in Orange County, you know?

He was regularly the main character on Twitter, which wasn’t fair, and internally that spilled over to the point where the Mother Jones union was constantly complaining about him. All these staffers that didn’t know him would go on Twitter and get into a lather about how he was the devil and complain.

The greatest example of this is the movie Parasite. Kevin wrote a blog post about how he doesn’t like subtitles in the specific context of Parasite. I read it and saw nothing wrong with it. The CEO read it and saw nothing wrong with it. Twitter read it and lost its shit. This spilled over into Slack and people were acting like he was in the KKK. I had to email him and say “Hey, please do me a favor and elaborate on your point about subtitles in a new post because all these idiots are misconstruing you and it’s causing problems for me.” He then did do exactly that.

This sounds insane. Who cares if he likes subtitles or not? I hate subtitles. I actually refuse to watch most foreign films because I hate subtitles and dubbing. But this shit was just par for the course at this time.

So, in a sense, Kevin was forced out of Mother Jones, because he was an older white guy, who was not in tune with the radical Neo-Left. Sounds about right to me.  I too, basically, left my Left of Center position, because it seemed to me, that white people like me; were not longer welcomed in that party and political spectrum anymore.

Rest in peace, Kevin. Your moderate liberal voice will be missed.

Others: New Republic

 

 

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. 😔

Great new blog! The Paleo-Populist

I was over looking at The Conservative Heritage Times, which hasn’t been updated in a while and I happened to notice a link to a new Blog.

I have the great pleasure of introducing The Paleo-Populist blog!

From their About Us Page:

Paleo-Populist.com is a group website that is intended to serve as an internet hub for a paleoconservative and populist alternative to mainstream conservatism. Initially the site will be primarily for long form essays from a paleoconservative, populist or otherwise outside the mainstream conservative perspective. With time and traffic we hope to add a blog, podcasts, YouTube videos and a publishing house.

I look forward to reading this site, alot. I believe that we Conservative populists are unrepresented in the Blogosphere and we need more voices. This, is an excellent start!

Heck, I might even submit a piece there myself! 😀

 

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! 😆