Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Monday, December 30, 2024

"THe Top 10 Legacy Media Hoaxes this election year"

 


I shamelessly clipped this off "Bongino Reports".  I have repeatedly been told and honestly believe that the legacy media signed their death warrant this past election cycle, when they were soo in the tank for the present administration and the shamelessly mouthpieces reading scripts straight from the DNC printing presses, it kinda burned a lot of people.


CNN reporting on a baseless story about Trump.
Image CreditCNN/YouTube

In no particular order, here are the biggest hoaxes and misinformation campaigns run by corporate media hacktivists this year.

Americans who have lived through Donald Trump’s political career are no strangers to legacy media disinformation. From the Russia collusion hoax to the “very fine people” Charlottesville lie, the litany of dishonest info ops from left-wing activists masquerading as journalists is too long to count.

And despite Americans’ waning trust in their ability to report news accurately and fairly, these Democrat Party yes-men show no signs of stopping.

Like years before it, 2024 saw no shortage of media hijinks. Whether it was their coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign or participation in Democrats’ war on the Supreme Court, America’s propaganda press maintained its ethically bankrupt reputation.

So, in no particular order, here are the biggest hoaxes and misinformation campaigns run by legacy media hacktivists this year.

1. Bloodbath

Taking Trump’s remarks out of context is one of legacy media’s favorite pastimes — and March’s “bloodbath” nontroversy was no exception.

Speaking to rallygoers in Ohio, the former and soon-to-be president warned that the U.S. automobile industry would face an economic “bloodbath” if Democrats won the White House in 2024. Media acolytes quickly jumped on the former president’s comments, which they distorted to make it appear as if Trump was threatening a literal bloodbath if he lost his reelection bid.

Left-wing outlets such as NBC News, CBS News, The New York Times, and others ran headlines using this dishonest framing.

“Trump says country faces ‘bloodbath’ if Biden wins in November,” a March 16 Politico headline reads.

2. War on SCOTUS

While Democrat mouthpiece ProPublica kickstarted a media war on the Supreme Court last year with smear attacks on Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, The New York Times took its hysteria to a whole new level.

In May, the outlet fabricated a controversy about an upside-down American flag flown at the Virginia residence of Alito and his wife, which the outlet claimed was a symbol adopted by “some” “Stop the Steal” protestors on Jan. 6, 2021. Justice Alito told the paper that he “had no involvement whatsoever” in flying the flag, but that it was placed there by his wife to protest a neighbor’s profane yard signs.

Despite claims of ethics violations from so-called “experts,” The Federalist’s Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland — who researched judicial ethics rules as a law clerk for years — noted that the Gray Lady’s “effort to smear Justice Alito as unethical based on the flag incident cannot withstand scrutiny” and “[t]he calls for Alito to recuse from [Jan. 6-related] cases have no basis in sanity.”

America’s “newspaper of record” wasn’t done attempting to tarnish Alito, however. A few days later, the Times ran another hit piece against the justice over an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flown at one of his homes. While well-known and originating from the Revolutionary War, the Times attempted to gin up controversy over the flag by claiming it represents “a push to remake American government in Christian terms.”

3. Hiding Biden’s Cognitive Decline

If you’re looking for an example of how the media interfere in our elections, look no further than their concentrated effort to hide Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.

When videos showcasing Biden’s senility went viral on social media over the summer, media hacktivists adopted the White House’s baseless claim the clips were “cheap fakes.” Only after the president’s disastrous, lie-filled debate performance against Trump did the media realize they could no longer hide this massive scandal from the public.

Of course, their subsequent acknowledgment of Biden’s faltering health clearly had nothing to do with the republic’s well-being and everything to do with their concerns it could harm Democrats’ prospects of holding the White House in November.

4. Project 2025

It didn’t take long for the media to make The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” their go-to bogeyman during the 2024 campaign.

Developed to provide a conservative roadmap for the incoming Trump administration, the plan became the subject of hyperbolic articles and Democrat speeches designed to brainwash voters into believing it would destroy the country as we know it if Trump were to get elected. In actuality, Trump has repeatedly said he was not affiliated with Project 2025, and the proposal recommends policies conservatives have supported for decades.

5. What’s a Border Czar?

After Democrat oligarchs orchestrated a silent coup to replace Biden with Kamala Harris on the 2024 ticket, the media jumped into action to cover up the vice president’s myriad failures — including her role as “border czar.”

To hide Harris’ incompetence from voters, left-wing journos pretended Biden never tapped her to oversee the invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border. Left-wing rags like Axios went as far as to claim Harris “never actually had” the “border czar” moniker — despite the outlet repeatedly referring to her as such in previous articles.

6. Trump’s Arlington Cemetery Visit

Obviously seeking to tarnish Trump ahead of the November election, anti-truth NPR ran an anonymously sourced hit piece attacking the former president for — wait for it — visiting Arlington National Cemetery at the request of Gold Star families.

The smear campaign was aimed at fomenting a controversy about Trump’s team taking photos and videos of the former president’s visit alongside the loved ones of those killed during Biden’s disastrous 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. The media hoax didn’t sit well with the Gold Star families, who blasted Kamala Harris, Democrats, and, by extension, their corporate press allies for attempting to politicize the event.

7. Show Me the Garbage!

Legacy media propagandists had their hands full in the closing days of the 2024 election after Biden referred to the tens of millions of Americans who support Trump as “garbage.”

Amid fears that the president’s remarks could hurt Harris’ electoral prospects, the “democracy dies in darkness” crowd rushed to cover up the scandal. While Politico’s Johnathan Lemire employed the media’s classic “Republicans pounce!” framing, NPR’s David Folkenflik decided to play doctor and mind reader for a day, telling his X followers he “listened to [Biden’s comments] several times” and came away with the conclusion that the president’s supposed “stutter” problem is to blame.

8. Trump’s Liz Cheney Comments

One of the biggest media-driven hoaxes concocted this year was the manipulation of Trump’s remarks about Liz Cheney.

While speaking at an event days before the Nov. 5 election, Trump critiqued Cheney’s obsession with overseas military adventurism. The former president referred to Cheney as a “radical war hawk” and defended the troops forced to fight in the never-ending conflicts neocons like Cheney would never personally partake in.

“Let’s put her with a rifle, standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it … when the guns are trained on her face. You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,’” Trump said.

In the wake of Biden’s “garbage” smear, the media rushed to distort Trump’s comments to make it appear as if he was calling for Cheney to be executed via firing squad. The disinformation operation represented a clear attempt to smear Trump ahead of the election and boost Harris’ prospects.

9. What Assassination Attempts?

If you watched and read nothing but legacy media, there’s a good chance you’d know little to nothing about the two assassination attempts against Trump this year.

After a longtime Democrat donor allegedly tried to kill the incoming president on his Palm Beach golf course in September, left-wing propagandists at NBC News and The Washington Post downplayed the attempted murder as nothing more than an “incident.” Outlets like Time magazine whitewashed the suspect’s history of donating to Democrats, characterizing him in a tweet as a “58-year-old with unclear political ideology.”

[RELATED: Corrupt Media Obsess Over Luigi Mangione After Memory Holing Trump’s Would-Be Assassins]

Such dishonest propaganda isn’t surprising, however. It’s the same playbook these media hacks — who spent years leading an “assassination prep” campaign with horrific smears and lies directed at Trump — deployed when initially “covering” the first assassination attempt against Trump in July.

10. The Atlantic’s Hitler Hysteria

In a last-ditch attempt to salvage Kamala Harris’ flailing presidential bid, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg — who ran the debunked 2020 “suckers” and losers” smear — published an anonymously sourced October hit piece with claims that Trump said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had.” It also contained accusations that Trump expressed anger about paying for the funeral services of a murdered Army soldier.

[RELATED: Debunked Atlantic Hit Piece Gives Kamala Pretext To Justify Political Violence Against Enemies]

To the media, it didn’t matter that the soldier’s sister blasted Goldberg for his anti-Trump fabrications, or that numerous former Trump administration officials debunked the bogus claims. What mattered was regurgitating The Atlantic’s slanderous hatchet job, which they did with no questions asked.

 


Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Some facts of Christmas

 I published this back in 2014, and I figured it was worth "dusting off". I am on my work 'puter :)

Merry Christmas to all my Readers and my Friends.

Little Known facts about Christmas



    Here are some facts I picked up here and there, information you can use to impress or annoy your friends, family, guest, coworkers, ete,ete...the list is endless....Just call it a Public Service announcement from my little corner of the internet.




-Each year there are approximately 20,000 "rent-a-Santa's" across the United States. These Santa's usually undergo seasonal training on how to maintain a jolly attitude under pressure from the public. They also receive practical advice, such as not accepting money from parents while children are looking and avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.

-Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph's red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.

-Silent Night was first sung as part of a church service in Austria. A guitar was used because the church organ was so badly rusted it couldn't be played.

-Before Christians decided on December 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus, several dates were proposed: January 2, March 21, March 25, April 18, April 19, May 20, May 28, and November 20.

-Japanese people traditionally eat at KFC for Christmas dinner, thanks to a successful marketing campaign 40 years ago. KFC is so popular that customers must place their Christmas orders 2 months in advance.

-The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers.

-In Germany and some other western European countries, St. Nicholas, or Nikolaus comes on the night from the 5th to the 6th of December, where children have their boots all shined and clean in front of a door or window. He will leave toys, nuts oranges, apples and chocolate for the good children. The bad child gets a branch to be used by the parents to beat the offending child.

-Santa Claus has different names in different countries: Sheng Dan Lao Ren in China, Father Christmas in England, Papa Noel in Brazil and Peru and Pere Noel in France.


-An artificial Christmas tree would have to be reused for more than 20 years to be "greener" than buying a fresh-cut tree annually.

-Each year more than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent in the U.S. alone.

-The "true love" mentioned in the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" does not refer to a romantic couple, but the Catholic Church's code for God. The person who receives the gifts represents someone who has accepted that code. For example, the "partridge in a pear tree" represents Christ. The "two turtledoves" represent the Old and New Testaments.

-Guatemalan adults do not exchange Christmas gifts until New Year's Day. Children get theirs on Christmas morning.

-The two biggest selling Christmas songs are "White Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

-The Nazi party tried to turn Christmas into a nonreligious holiday celebrating the coming of Hitler, with Saint Nicholas replaced by Odin the "Solstice Man" and swastikas on top of Christmas trees.

-The US playing card company 'Bicycle' had manufactured a playing card in WW2. That, when the card was soaked, it would reveal an escape route for POWs. These cards were Christmas presents for all POWs in Germany. The Nazis were none the wiser!

-Most of Santa's reindeer have male-sounding names, such as Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh are likely not male, but female or castrati.


-In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts use shoes.

-The smallest Christmas card was made by scientists at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom in 2010. At only 200 x 290 micrometres in size, 8,276 of these cards would fit in one postage stamp.

-The people of Oslo, Norway donate the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree every year in gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during WWII.

-According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle.

-The traditional three colours of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolises the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.

-When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway.

-The most expensively dressed Christmas tree was valued at $11,026,900 and was displayed by the Emirates Palace in the UAE.

-During the Christmas of 2010, the Colombian government covered jungle trees with lights. When FARC guerrillas (terrorists) walked by, the trees lit up and banners asking them to lay down their arms became visible. 331 guerrillas re-entered society and the campaign won an award for strategic marketing excellence.


-According to data analysed from Facebook posts, two weeks before Christmas is one of the two most popular times for couples to break up. Christmas Day is the least favourite day for breakups.

-When distributing gifts in Holland, St. Nicholas is accompanied his servant, Black, who is responsible for actually dropping the presents down their recipients' chimneys. He also punishes bad children by putting them in a bag and carrying them away to Spain.

-The largest artificial Christmas tree measures 170.6 feet and can be found in Brazil.

-Nearly all of the most popular Christmas songs including 'Winter Wonderland', 'Chestnuts roasting', and 'I'm Dreaming of a white Christmas' were written by Jews.

-Contrary to popular belief, suicide rates during the Christmas holiday are low. The highest rates are during spring.

-In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by one of the Wise Men's camels. The gift-giving camel is said to have been the smallest one in the Wise Men's caravan.


-The largest Christmas star ornament measures 103 feet and eight inches tall and can be found in India.

-All letters addressed to Santa in the United States go to Santa Claus, Indiana.

-The world's largest Christmas stocking measured 106 feet and 9 inches (32.56 m) long and 49 feet and 1 inch (14.97 m) wide. It weighed as much as five reindeer and held almost 1,000 presents. It was made by the Children's Society in London on December 14, 2007.

-One town in Indiana is called Santa Claus. There is also a Santa, Idaho.

-The most lights lit on simultaneously on a Christmas tree is 194,672 and was achieved in Belgium last year.


-During the Christmas of 1914 (WWI), a truce was held between Germany and the UK. They decorated their shelters, exchanged gifts across no man's land and played a game of football between themselves.

-Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.

-The popular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One Horse Open Sleigh".

-Although now mostly vegetarian, in Victorian times, mince pies were made with beef and spices.

-In 1867, a Boston industrialist heard Charles Dickens read A Christmas Carol and was so moved he closed his factory on Christmas Day and gave every one of his employees a turkey.


-In Poland, spiders or spider webs are common Christmas trees decorations because according to legend, a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus. In fact, Polish people consider spiders to be symbols of goodness and prosperity at Christmas.

-Despite the tale of three wise men paying homage to baby Jesus, the Bible never gives a number. It refers to merely "wise men".

-There are 364 gifts mentioned in "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

-Ancient peoples, such as the Druids, considered mistletoe sacred because it remains green and bears fruit during the winter when all other plants appear to die. Druids would cut the plant with golden sickles and never let it touch the ground. They thought it had the power to cure infertility and nervous diseases and to ward off evil.


-Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.

-The Boxing Day holiday was originally celebrated in England for the servants to the rich people. After Christmas the servants "boxed up" all the left-overs from the rich people and took them home.

-The Beatles hold the record for most Xmas number 1 singles, topping the charts in 1963, 65 and 67.

      I will post another batch of Christmas trivia on Tuesday......You know that Monday is my "Monday Music"...Can't break tradition..  And I will find some cool Christmas Video, Last Year I believe I used "Little Drummer Boy from Bing Crosby and David Bowie...So I gotta find another one....and one more thing.....

Thursday, December 19, 2024

"Delay Inauguration? No need and no thank you."

 I am using my kinda smart phone to post this.

I shamelessly snagged it from "Front Page

 Mag"   I am away from home but will return shortly.

I agree with the author, I flat out don't trust the government to pull some shady crap to delay the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States. 



From where have the drones come? What is their purpose? Is it possible the U.S. Government would lie to the American people? The answer to the first two questions is that we in the public cannot be sure, nor can Congress. The answer to the third is an unqualified “Yes!”


Whether they come from another country like Iran, Russia, China, North Korea or somewhere else is a possibility. Much more likely, though, they are U.S. government drones searching desperately for something. There has been vast speculation on what that might be. We are told that there is radioactive material missing but the Biden administration does not indicate that the two occurrences are linked.


Now citizens are asking whether the Biden administration would be willing to use a national emergency, whether contrived or authentic, arising out of these or other circumstances, to declare martial law and refuse to swear in the new President on January 20 as constitutionally required.


We have seen during the last sixteen years that Democrat leaders have quite often accused Republicans of engaging in exactly the sort of questionable or illegal conduct that the Democrats were in fact guilty of themselves. The whole Trump-Russia hoax, we eventually learned, was fabricated by a British former spy in collusion with, among others, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. Ultimately, Christopher Steele admitted that the people who provided the fabricated story for the dossier may well have been working for Putin.


President Trump was even charged by the Democrats through impeachment with using his official position to demand a quid pro quo from Ukraine. As it turns out, President Trump did not commit this offense, but Vice President Biden is on video bragging about his doing that very thing.


True to form, Democrats are now accusing President-elect Trump of intending to weaponize the federal government because that is what they did. They have accused him of intending to weaponize the IRS and our Intelligence agencies because they have already misused federal resources in this way. The psychological term is “projecting.”


In 2020, Democrats accused President Trump of intending to declare martial law in an attempt to keep himself in office beyond January 20. He did not so intend. He wanted to have a fair counting of the votes and electors. Yet, he was charged with felonies for wanting to obtain a fair and open counting. President Trump’s supporters followed the process that Senator John F. Kennedy did in 1960 in pursuing an alternate set of electors from Hawaii who would vote for him. However, in that case, Nixon conceded and it was not necessary to fight over the Hawaiian electors.


In 2000, Senator Al Gore was in the process of pursuing an alternative set of electors when the Supreme Court decision came down and it became a moot point. In neither 1960 nor 2000, did Republicans dream of charging Senator Kennedy or Senator Gore with any type of felony. But Democrats certainly did when it came to President Trump in 2021.


Since it is quite clear that some Democrat officeholders are willing to do exactly what they falsely claim Republicans have done or do, we need to take seriously their prior allegations of Republicans’ willingness to delay inaugurating a newly-elected President. If these accusations turn out to be another instance of Democrats projecting their own malicious intentions, we must nip it in the bud before it happens.


Here is yet another instance in which history may be instructive.


On December 6, 1876, electors cast their ballots, but neither Presidential candidate received the required number to win. “Conflicting sets of electoral votes were returned from Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina…[On 01/29/1877] An Act, signed by President Grant, creates a Commission to resolve the contested electoral votes. The commission consists of five members from each house plus five Supreme Court justices. The commission would decide contested electoral votes by a majority vote of the Commission. [On 03/02/1877] Congressional Commission awards disputed electoral votes to Hayes…”[1]


The result was that Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President. There were significant concerns that there might be riots or threats that would prevent Hayes from being inaugurated. The appointed day for the inauguration was to be on Monday, March 5, 1877, but to be certain that the newly elected President would take office timely in case violence prevented the public inauguration, President Hayes was secretly sworn in on Saturday, March 3rd, in the White House, by the Supreme Court Chief Justice. It turned out that the fears were unfounded and the public Inauguration went as planned.


Even though the dates have been changed by the 20th Amendment to the Constitution in 1933 and the outgoing President’s term expires at noon on January 20, there is absolutely nothing that prevents the newly elected President from being sworn in privately by the Supreme Court Chief Justice. As President John Adams established in 1801 when he left town before Thomas Jefferson was sworn in, the outgoing President need not even be present for the transition of power. President Trump knew that when he left before Biden’s inauguration in 2021.


As President Biden established when he finished taking the oath of office at 11:48am on January 20th, 2021, subsequent to the 20th Amendment, it is still permissible to be sworn in earlier than noon on January 20th. If that is done, the new President simply takes over officially at noon.


Most Americans are well aware that the world has become a powder keg, and the United States is much worse off than it was four years ago. The last thing we need is for the Biden administration to hang around beyond noon on January 20th. Even if the D.C. leadership and the Biden administration have provoked the city and nation into turmoil, all we need is for President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance to quietly meet the Chief Justice in an undisclosed location and be sworn in. President Trump will then have full authority to do what is necessary to bring about law, order, and a little peace beginning at noon on January 20th

Monday, December 16, 2024

Flight Humor on an Incident Report.

 

I get reports from aviation incidents in in the commercial world and this one crossed my email and I got a chuckle out of it so I shamelessly "ripped it off".





Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 13, 2024

Classification
Incident

Airline
KLM

Flight number
KL-685

Aircraft Registration
PH-BHA

ICAO Type Designator
B789

A KLM Boeing 787-9, registration PH-BHA performing flight KL-685 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Mexico City (Mexico) with 259 people and about 100 pigs in the cargo hold, was enroute at FL350 over the Atlantic Ocean about 70nm north of Bermuda (Bermuda) when the crew decided to divert to Bermuda reporting "obnoxious smell from cargo coming from pigs probably, which may have something to do with the oxygen environment in the cockpit" which was why they were diverting, it was not a Mayday, not even a PAN and no emergency services were needed on landing. However, the pigs most likely needed to be unloaded. The aircraft landed safely on Bermuda's runway 12 about 45 minutes later.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Bermuda for about 30.5 hours before continuing the flight to Mexico City.

Bermuda's government stated that they are committed to care for all visitors, whether they walk on two legs or trot on four. While the passengers and crew were taken to hotels, the pigs were taken to a secure location at the island during their impromptu holiday stayover.