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Friday, May 19, 2017

The Choir Infernal

stilton’s place, stilton, political, humor, conservative, cartoons, jokes, hope n’ change, trump, investigation, special counsel, russia, consensus journalism

Although it's a bit early in our day (barely) for mixed drinks, we can't help but indulge in mixed metaphors when trying to comprehend what's going on in the news. Per the cartoon, we can't quite decide whether the news broadcasts relating to the specious Trump/Russia investigation are coming from another planet, or whether the alleged journalists in the mainstream media have finally gone native, adorned themselves in grass skirts and war paint and, high on adrenalin and their own screaming chants, are now throwing spears at anything that moves.

Not since Michael Jackson set his noggin ablaze while shooting a Pepsi commercial have we seen so much "hair on fire" news. And we don't get it.

Did the Russians hack our election? No. Did they "influence" the result of our election? There's been no evidence of it. Did Trump conspire with Russia to make these non-events happen? Again, there's not a scintilla of evidence.  But you'd never know it from the rabid stories being reported virtually everywhere.

In some ways, we liken this phenomenon to the whole global warming sham - only now, instead of seeing "consensus science" we're seeing "consensus journalism" in which a story without substance or evidence is declared to be incontrovertibly true simply because so many nitwits have agreed to report it.

It's insanity, of course - and all the more frightening for that. We may be witnessing an attempted coup d'etat driven almost entirely by an overtly lying leftist media. And it's additionally worrisome to think about how the ever-volatile President Trump might react; after all, he's brought much of this situation upon himself (and us) with his Tourette's-like need to tweet every half-baked thought which ricochets through the caverns of his mind.

We'd say more, only we've managed to stall long enough that it IS time for a nice mixed drink. We're thinking cheap scotch mixed with an extra shot of our usual bile.

AND BECAUSE IT'S FRIDAY...

...we deserve a laugh, so here's another old cartoon by Stilton's father!

It's not parking as long as you keep the motor running. So to speak.

26 comments:

Bobo the Hobo said...

I wish someone would take DJT's phone away so he cannot tweet anymore as he's giving away his position, making himself an easy target. He knows the media does not like him yet he keeps sending out stupid tweets.

My biggest fear is that the media's never-ending drum beat will drown out Trump's accomplishments (which are impressive.) During his short in office we have seen the return of jobs, the DOW average shoot through the roof, reduction of regulations that had a strangle-hold on business, the reduction of illegals crossing our southern border, a projected GDP growth of 4% ... not to mention the installation of a (finally) Conservative Supreme Court justice, yet these could all magically disappear if the media jackals get their way.

I really hope this administration will settle in and get past all of this distraction because that is what it truly is, a distraction. Aw, what the heck ... my liver can stand a few more weeks of this madness.

Joe Jetson said...

Nail Head, meet Hammer. (Excellent commentary today, SJ.)

Emmentaler Limburger said...

Now hold yer horses, thar, Pardner! The Tweeter In Chief may seem to be a few cans shy of a six-pack in some tweets, but the content has INVARIABLY proven to be veracious in the final analysis. PLUS, it is a most direct venue to the "ear" of the people - no opportunity for the MSM's customary filtering, twisting, or convoluting. Personally, I think he's on to something. And, as an added bonus, the MSM absolutely HATES that he is communicating outside their venue. Probably a "YUUUUUUUGE" contributor to the violence and tenacity with which they continue their attacks - I mean: besides their abject hatred for anyone other than the Clintons, Ă˜bamas, Schumers, Pelosis, Waters, et al.

I say, let Trump tweet his little tweeter as much as he feels necessary - however, he really should do something about that communications team. They really don't seem to have control over the messaging - too many issues are being responded to by Trump, rather than "the administration", and he seems to come off as a victim in his speeches, which is never good.

Geoff King said...

Perhaps Trump should just start suing each and every member of the MSM that spreads a fake news story about him for libel, and then maybe even the average 4th grade mentality leftest would come to realize that they are being lied to.

Fred Ciampi said...

And, I'm still wondering if President Trump (God, I love that title) is making plans for his version of "Night of the Long Knives"?

Judi King said...

I like Geoff's idea. The Republicans are still afraid to stand up for truth and we all know the the truth isn't coming from the MSM. And, the people who only get their news from MSM don't have a clue what truth is.

CA said...

"Not since Michael Jackson set his noggin ablaze while shooting a Pepsi commercial have we seen so much "hair on fire" news."

That was one of the the most hilarious events ever memorialized!

The left hasn't caught on that Trump's playing chess while they're playing checkers. He's at least two steps ahead of the lamestream media, keeping them in spin mode, frothing at the mouth, demonstrating hourly how biased they are. A Night of the Long Knives is way overdue. Lie detector tests should be administered to everyone with access to the information that's being leaked. Leakers should be prosecuted.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Bobo the Hobo- There are two very different approaches to the problem, and it's a big problem, with Trump's tweeting. In the Wall Street Journal, Dan Henninger suggested that Trump dispense with the intermediary spokespeople between himself and the press; let him tweet all he wants and then explain directly to the press what he meant - to eliminate the confusion with staffers trying to clean up or spin his messages. Peggy Noonan, also of the WSJ, suggests that Trump be told firmly to stop the damn tweets already, and get serious about the gravity of his job. Either approach would be an improvement over the current chaos.

Trump has racked up some decent accomplishments, but he's also functioning as his own saboteur (as if the opposition from the Left wasn't bad enough). I hope things will get better...but "hope" didn't work out that well for the previous 8 years.

@joe jetson- Thanks!

@Emmentaler Limburger- I think it's a stretch to say that Trump's tweets always prove to be correct, or factual, or even coherent. In general, I like the idea of the President being able to communicate directly with the people and bypass the media. But that's only good when he's saying things of importance and substance, and not railing about the ratings failure of "Celebrity Apprentice" or opening a fresh can of worms by tweeting that he's been recording conversations.

@Geoff King- That's the slipperiest of slopes, although I wouldn't mind seeing a few lawsuits related to stories that are 100% factually bogus (and there are some). But the precedent would be scary; think of all the lawsuits Barry and Eric Holder would have filed to harass the press.

@Fred Ciampi- I wouldn't be at all surprised.

@Judi King- I just don't see how such lawsuits could be filed without seriously disrupting 1st Amendment protections. Sadly, the weight of the law frequently aligns with those who are the best at weasel wording. And Lefties and media types are really good at weasel wording.

@CA- I hope Trump is playing chess, although sometimes it looks more like blindfolded darts. And I agree that leakers should be prosecuted, though it won't be easy to ferret them out. Lie detectors are notoriously unreliable, and I can only imagine that Trump would have a hard time keeping his administration staffed up if everyone had a weekly appointment with an inquisitor.

zregime said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rod said...

Collusion been in the news for such a long time; shouldn't we by now have analysis on whether Barry's "Tell Vlad" comment about having more flexibility after the election qualifies; and on at least a dozen of Shrillary's most well-known (& illegal) deceptions? WTF would be collusion vs. standard Washington DC operating procedure? Lets see some close-call examples of each. Let's get some actions by Senators and Representatives into the research as well.

Since they can't find any on Trump yet, just describe a few bona-fide examples of each so we all know what they're looking for vs. behavior which does not qualify.
Oh yeah, we saw a bit of that with Comey's "but there was no "intent". Of course that SOB needed to be fired. Go back a few years on this analysis so we can judge media consistency for ourselves.

Sometimes I think Trump is baiting them out for better kill-shots later. Playing with them like Putin played with Barry and his Secretaries of State.

udaman said...

"Consensus journalism". Good one!

james daily said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
james daily said...

I kind of like President Trump Tweeting. He is driving the MSM farther and farther into fake news just to get a reaction from them. I still believe all this fake news is so he has to deny it, taking away time from his day job. Leaks? Somehow that doesn't ring true to me. We have never before had such leaks from the WH so why did it start with this administration? I believe most of these anonymous sources are fake, made from whole cloth. However, the intelligence services (what a f***ing misnomer) are leaking to beat the band. I believe that has the blessing of the upper echelon or it would not happen with sever penalties to the leakers simply because of the forms of confidentiality they signed when they signed on to these departments. Heil, I signed one when I was in the service in the sixties and it is still in effect. I, too, handled classified info. No way I wanted to go to Leavenworth or worse. That would have cut into my beer drinking and women chasing time.
Last point: Do you really believe the FBI, CIA, etc, could not ferret out the leakers in their own departments if they wanted to? That would be incompetence beyond belief.

Sam L. said...

Consensus journalism: Journolistism.

Pete (Detroit) said...

"consensus journalism" - phrase of the week, for me.
Agreed, the twit tweets need to stop, and he needs tighter messaging w/ the press team. I also think he needs to re-vamp his advisors - Preibus has GOT to go, and his daughter is clearly far too emotion driven to be involved w/ policy. Not at all sure why he's backing off on Israel either.
Seriously, this guy needs to get his poop in a group for the budget battle in Sept.
Wonder if he'll try a line item veto..

WindRider said...

Look at it this way: As the Russian and Comey stories steadily unravel with no substance behind them, the Left is effectively inoculating President Trump against future specious attacks. They've neglected their education, specifically the fairy tale about The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Hopefully, they've shot their wad.

Colby Muenster said...

I fully understand how Pres. Trump feels about the media. If your "friends" continually bash you and beat you down, they really are not your friends, so why play their game? As far as the media and left is concerned, Trump knows he is screwed no matter what he does, so why not stir the pot with Tweets? If he suddenly quit Tweeting, they would STILL bash him on an hourly basis and threaten impeachment.

And he has actually been successful a couple of times making them look like complete fools. Like when he got blasted for tweeting about the situation in Sweden, for example. Or when he said he was being wiretapped....

Yes, it makes me uncomfortable and I don't much like the continual media/moonbat meltdown because it all distracts from our country's real problems, but for some reason, I think he knows EXACTLY what he is doing.

Colby Muenster said...

@WindRider,

Exactly! How many times will the media and progressives be made fools of before they finally slink back under their rocks?

John the Econ said...

Here's what's going on in the news: The mainstream media is going all-out to destroy Trump.

It really shouldn't be a surprise, since for the most part they shred what was left of their supposed "objectivity" 9 months ago, when Trump accidentally went from being their foil to split and destroy what was left of the GOP to actually becoming the President.

The comparison to "climate science" is apt, and I'm stealing the term "consensus journalism". It really is.

For example: During much of the work day I listen to Bloomberg TV, partially as background noise and because I liked tracking the business news throughout the day. Starting a few weeks ago, I realized that that there was less and less hard business news, and more heads chattering about Trump, much of it bordering on the unhinged sort that is now non-stop on CNN and the others. For the last week or so, it's been almost 100% Trump. And very little of it is actual "news", but the chattering head stuff. Because the fact is that there is very little actual "news" here.

Is this a coincidence? I think not. (Since retiring as mayor of NYC, Micheal Bloomberg has been far more "hands on" with his businesses)

I now find myself tuning out of Bloomberg an hour or so after getting in the office after they've exhausted what little real news they've got to report on. Fortunately, my Pandora subscription is paid up.

There's little doubt that there's a war on to chase Trump out, or at best render him unable to do anything. It's being conducted on every front; The media, academia, the ironically-named "Antifa" street fascists, and the government bureaucracy itself, which will drag it's feet against any attempt at change and will leak or invent anything they think will gum up the works.

Will it work? Who knows? It's certainly not going to change the minds of the people who enthusiastically voted for Trump, and who see the attacks against him by the aforementioned groups as personal attacks against them as well, and only serve to justify and solidify their positions. I also don't think that any of this circus is going to convince anybody who was on the fence about either candidate to concluded "Gee, I wish I had voted for Hillary".

The real question is can the left keep this level of hyperbole up for another 18 months leading into the 2018 mid-terms, when the Democrats fantasize about turning the House, and then starting impeachment proceedings.

Velveeta Processed Cheese Food said...

I got nothing to say. I just wanted to try out my new screen name.

Fred Ciampi said...

That sounds pretty cheesy........... Hahahahahahahahahahafartbarf.................. Ooooo, where did I put my 'shine?

John the Econ said...

A pretty good take on the current phenomenon of "fake news":

THE ANONYMOUS SOURCES OF WASHINGTON POST AND CNN FAKE NEWS -
How fake news gets made


"Its latest hit piece runs a quote from, “a former senior U.S. official who is close to current administration officials.” That’s an anonymous source quoting hearsay from other anonymous sources.

This isn’t journalism. It’s a joke.

The Comey memo story is based on, according to the New York Times, “two people who read the memo.” And then "one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of it to a Times reporter."

The supposed memo contradicts Comey’s own testimony to Congress under oath.

The Times hasn’t seen the memo. No one has seen the memo except the anonymous sources that may or may not exist. The media’s fake news infrastructure relies heavily on anonymous sources. And anonymous sources are the media’s way of saying, “Just trust us.”

The question is why would anyone trust the media?"


So where is all of this going? The media may or may not be successful in taking out Trump. But one thing is for certain; They've destroyed what was left of their credibility.

"The age of fake news had arrived. We no longer have a free press. All we have is a fake press."

Rod said...

Among other methods such as renewal proceedings for licenses, Justice department, Private civil / criminal actions, ridicule, self-defense preparedness, etc it seems it's time for the majority of Americans, the likes of whom elected Trump etal to start taking note of broadcasts, publications, persons & SPONSORS of the same BS. And start letting them know we're not buying fake news NOR WILL WE BE BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS. I hope this will become easier to accomplish with the help of righteous & patriotic websites. We have an internal cold war going on.

MAX Redline said...

The question is why would anyone trust the media?

Yes, most sane people gave up on them years ago.

Unknown said...

Yes, most sane people gave up on them years ago.

It's not the sane (apparently almost a minority) that we need be concerned with.

Ted Henkle said...

Until there's evidence to the contrary, we're watching The Big Lie about Trump's Russian Connection unfold. (Attributed to Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Goebbels: Tell a lie convincing enough and long enough, people will believe it).