Believe it or not, NPR (National Public Radio) is reporting that 2/3 of all school shootings reported during the 2015/2016 school year never happened.
This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” The number is far higher than most other estimates.
But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government’s Civil Rights Data Collection.
We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.
In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn’t confirm one. In at least four cases, we found, something did happen, but it didn’t meet the government’s parameters for a shooting. About a quarter of schools didn’t respond to our inquiries.
A separate investigation by the ACLU of Southern California also was able to confirm fewer than a dozen of the incidents in the government’s report, while 59 percent were confirmed errors.
When Liberals are honest enough to admit that “there are lies, damned lies, and statistics” it makes you wonder.
Hopefully this is the last time I will ever have to write about this man. John McCain was the posterchild of what is wrong with members of Congress.
As you know, McCain was another Vietnam era veteran that capitalized on his experience in that conflict and turned it into a lifetime political career. McCain was the son of a high-ranking Navy Admiral. The story goes that daddy pulled some strings and got John into the military as a pilot. McCain flew planes off the carrier USS Forrestal. He was a crew member during the 1967 fire aboard the carrier. The fire left 134 men dead and 161 more injured. It was the worst loss of a life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II.
McCain’s troubles did not end there, later the same year he was shot-down over Vietnam and captured. When he was shot-down, his rank was Lieutenant Commander. He remained a POW until 1973. McCain was always haunted by stories that he collaborated with the North Vietnamese. This in part was due to him being offered an early release from the POW camp and turning it down. He also made a propaganda film for the North. This was a result of torture. McCain retired from the military as a Captain in 1981.
(FYI give the number of years in service (1958 – 1981) and his background, this is not a very high rank.)
US Navy Officer Ranks From 1973 to 1981, McCain advanced only two ranks
The following year, voters in Arizona elected him to the House of Representatives. After two terms he was elected to the Senate, replacing Barry Goldwater.
Sadly, McCain is best known for his grandstanding and obstructionism. He was a frequent foe of conservatives and like Goldwater, had an open hatred for Christians in the public square.
Shortly after his election to the Senate, McCain was part of the Keeting Five scandal that sank three of the five political careers of the participants. As was frequently the case, he was the only Republican involved.
McCain blocked immigration reforms and judicial appointments. At one point, he flirted with switching parties, but the Democrats didn’t make him a good enough offer.
In a year when Republicans offered their worst possible Presidential candidate and Democrats did likewise, McCain lost to Barack Obama in a landslide. It was his second and final time to run for the highest office. Like Bob Dole before him, Republican leadership cleared the decks of opposition because it was “his turn” to run.
McCain is best known for courting the Liberal media and thwarting Republican legislation.
Even after his diagnosis with terminal cancer, he refused to resign. His hatred of Donald Trump was so deep that he wouldn’t step aside. Much of this Russian election tampering attack on Trump over the last year and a half is the direct result of McCain’s hatred of Trump. He chose to team with Hillary Clinton and the Democrat’s proven fake dossier on Trump just, so he could hurt a person that he didn’t like.
But that has always been the case with McCain, he was so thin-skinned that every disagreement with him is personal; never policy. At his core, he was a selfish, petty, and vindictive man. Any time he could take someone or something down a few notches, he felt it elevated him.
He was a deplorable character on the national stage and I for one will not miss him. I hope Arizona can find a statesman to take his place and not another politician.
Loyal followers know that The Chief very seldom holds back when it comes to hot takes, but this story actually had blood gushing out of my eyes. Verizon Wireless serves many purposes, largely they are known as a wireless provider “allegedly” they also are the second largest of wireless provider behind AT&T. Fun fact: Verizon is actually a former “Baby Bell” spun off from the breakup of the old AT&T. As almost anyone with a cell phone knows, every so often you get the dreaded message “You are close to going over your data limit” or “You must upgrade your plan to get faster download speed” knows you generally must relent and agree to the additional charges. As far as I am concerned, I don’t have much of an issue with this practice, since usually a swift change in your lifestyle will yield your old plan working just fine.
Here is my “chief issue” with Verizon, they used a similar practice on firefighters fighting a blaze in Mendocino County. They used a term called throttling which in laymen’s terms means reducing the data speed rates that are used by folks surfing the internet. While I disagree with data throttling and other manipulation, to do it to firefighters, in the midst of fighting a major forest fire, is downright despicable. Verizon Wireless in their infinite wisdom, cranked down the data usage by our firefighters fighting a huge blaze. Yes, you read that correctly, they were in Mendocino fighting the biggest fire in state history—which as of this writing is still only 67 percent contained—one where communication among everyone was key. Just to clarify for all of you from Rio Linda as Rush likes to say, this was not a drill, or a daughter or son texting their boyfriend or girlfriend and causing a data overage, this was a real life or death situation.
Mendocino Complex Fire – currently combined 425,177 acres have burned
In order to get more data for their command center in the midst of fighting this fire, they had to agree to pay double
their current monthly bill even though they supposedly had an unlimited plan.
Verizon says the fire department was subscribed to an “unlimited” data plan that was limited. The company has come under fire for its use of the word “unlimited” while placing limitations on plans. In this case, the plan firefighters were under was “unlimited” until they hit a certain data point, then their data would be throttled to a slower speed.
Look at this quote from Santa Clara Fire Chief Anthony Bowden “This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services. Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fire’s ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services .”
Per KOVR’s report, the fire Chief went on to say:
“Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the Department that handles billing and switched to the plan.”
At this point, Bowden says fire personnel had to rely on their own personal devices rather than the mobile command center. Verizon eventually lifted the throttling, but not until the department signed up for a new plan.
Editor’s Note: In the same testimony the fire chief listed other fires he had fought where Verizon did the same thing to them in the midst of firefighting.
How many additional structures burned as a result of this action Verizon took? Also, one firefighter died; was he trying to get into contact with his colleagues but unable to due to “data overage?” While I am no fan of investigations led by the government this is one that needs to happen. Was Verizon responsible for any structure being destroyed or fire fighter deaths? If so they should be charged criminally, very similar to how PG&E was held liable for some of the fires their wires started. Verizon may actually be the lowest of the low, Warren Buffett may be blushing. Verizon has since come out and apologized, interesting that the apology was issued as Congress announced they would be investigating. Also, this has not been reported but Verizon announced today, they would offer a new program with unlimited “emergency data” to first responders plan for about double the normal price for an unlimited data plan, I guess as Rahm Emanuel said, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Verizon messed up badly, and likely are responsible for additional millions in damage and likely the death of a firefighter due to their “greed.” Exceptions can and should always be made, and during emergencies is one. While most people run from fire, firefighters run towards the fire with every intent to save structures and any people in its path. Verizon halted that, all due to corporate greed. They put additional structures and people in harm’s way all in the name of profit. In all likelihood they will be fined, both federally, the state will also get their pound of flesh, a couple of counties may get a pay off as well, but nothing will change. No lessons will be learned, apologies do not bring back memories or loved ones unnecessarily killed or destroyed. I’m sure Verizon has their legal department on overtime looking for ways that their insurance policy can cover this. Who is more morally bankrupt? Wells Fargo, PG&E or Verizon……I’ll take all of the above.
The lesson here is life goes on, regardless of whether your possessions or loved ones do, corporate profits are far more important, got to hit next quarter’s numbers!
Editor’s Note: Hey Chief, if they do this for a rural fire what do they do when we finally get hit with “the big one” and much of L.A. or San Francisco is in rubble?
The Left is getting all charged up because they think they finally may have the leverage to take-out the President. Sorry but I don’t get it.
Paul Manafort was found guilty of stuff that happened long before he ever went to work for Trump. He was convicted of on 8 of 18 counts. That means the prosecutor threw everything including the kitchen sink at him and less than half stuck. We all know that you only prosecute what you think you can win because almost everything gets plea bargained.
What you have to remember about Trump is that he came into the political world when none of the established campaign consultants were available. His only choices were second and third tier players—bottom feeders if you will. Those with proven track records were already committed to other candidates.
Nobody took him seriously as a candidate. Hiring quality personnel has always been a problem for Trump. Those he knew in the business world were often ill suited for the political world and frankly couldn’t afford the pay-cut even if they could handle it.
Cohen, Manafort, Omarosa, and a host of others have made the Trump campaign and subsequent Administration a revolving door. I knew this would happen and said so many times before he even took the oath of office.
Trump has done nothing criminally wrong. His ethics are not in question either. Trump trusted people to do what they were hired to do but many were deeply morally flawed and gold-diggers. Anything they did illegal is on them. The liberals and many Republicans are hoping for guilt by association that somehow translates into Trump being impeached or resigning.
Drudge Report headline August 22, 2018
Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment; not for committing a crime but for subsequently covering it up to protect his friends and associated. He was guilty of blind loyalty.
Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath and nothing happened to him. He and his surrogates attacked— vilified is more like it—his accusers and destroyed them in the public. He just laughed it off and stayed in office.
Trump has had the full power of one and a half political parties plus much of the Obama era appointees gunning for him for three years now. They have unleashed hell on him. Most of what they have done has been based on demonstrably false and phony information but as the old saying goes, why let the truth ruin a good story.
Don’t forget that the backdrop of this is that the unions and Democrats are fighting for their very existence. November is their last shot to change the direction of the government. The amount of money they have been able to spend in the past will no longer be available after this cycle. The Democrat Party is in turmoil. After this cycle, the unions will diminish and the Silicon Valley billionaires will be in a position to take the reins of power. Their Party will never be the same either way but if the existing leadership wants a hand in how the Democrat Party will be remade then they need to have a good showing in November.
So the real story is not that Trump’s existence is at stake, the Democrats are trying to nationalize their fractured party by uniting against the strawman of Trump that they themselves created. Remember that in the weeks ahead as Mueller does whatever he does. Mueller’s goal is the bleed Trump prior to November not to take him out.
Regulations come in many shapes and sizes and from every state in the Union, red states included; however, today I want to take a closer look at the devastating effects these regulations have on businesses.
Let’s take New York City’s famous, 32 oz. soda ban for example. With the stroke of a pen, if you owned a convenience store, you had to immediately remove any cups over 32 oz. from your store effective immediately. In addition to being a small business owner or franchisee, you are now an officer of the City Council. As such, it is your job (via your employees) to see to it no customer purchases a soda over 32 oz. Failure to adhere to this law will result in severe monetary penalties, potential jail time, and probably could lead to you losing your franchise. Government entities know no bounds these days. Never mind the fact you could still buy multiple quantities of 28 oz. drinks and still be in compliance. So much for banning large quantities of soda for human consumption. Also why just ban soda? Have you seen the ingredients list of a bottle of Sunny Delight? Or even some Iced Tea varieties? Those can have as much or more sugar then soda…..yet because orange juice and ice tea seem to be “healthy” they are spared the hammer from Big Government. This type of lunacy encourages folks to work for the government rather than in the private sector. Image having to run a business with all the heartache that causes, but now you must police your clientele and see to it they aren’t drinking too much soda.
The next example takes us to Soviet California where legislators (notice I didn’t just say Democrats, the GOP is complicit as well) devised a ban on single use plastic bags, like the ones you can get at a grocery store. Never minding the fact the company that produced those bags is located in California, they went ahead and banned anyway. So I guess they want to literally ban entire companies from doing business even in the state they call home. The ban passed at the ballot box with just token opposition. Now as a result we have ugly multiple use bags and paper bags that cost $.10 apiece. No one the Blog Father is aware of (I left California a while ago) actually remembers to bring these bags to the store with them which yields additional “revenue” for the stores.
Editor’s note: Grocery stores agreed to join environmentalists to support the ban as long as they got to keep the ten cents per bag and not give it to the State.
Despite efforts by the plastic bag companies, retailers will keep revenue from sales of alternative bags to cover the costs of complying with the ban, as outlined in Proposition 67.
This ban was deemed necessary due to the quantities of these bags that ended up in your “lakes, rivers, streams, and alongside roadways” I call BS on this as I believe this was done simply to make life more difficult on smaller grocery chains and due to the fact the old bags were not biodegradable. I claim it affects the smaller stores the most due to the fact that they now have to renegotiate a contract with a supplier or terminate the agreement and find a new supplier, this is not easy. While a large chain like Wal-Mart, Safeway etc. would not find this very cumbersome. They are systematically killing business in California and this is just another nail in that coffin. Don’t be misled, this is a direct attack on private workers, the goal of the dictator Gavin Newsom is to eliminate all private sector jobs and replace them with government jobs. (Or at the very least government wants to control the means of production including picking winners and losers in the economy.) Get mad at me and don’t believe me if you will but while you are mad, they are taking away your rights and retirement plans! Yes, they are coming for your 401K’s very soon. The State wants to control every aspect of your life from conception to cremation.
Now let’s take a look at all the states that continuously want to raise the minimum wage for workers. This has led to automation. It’s no small error that in Arizona many McDonald’s fast food restaurants are fully automated now, with only 1 or 2 workers in the store. This has led to a full on automation craze that is killing entry level jobs and summer temporary jobs. The hallmark of a fast food or quick service business is to offer food and beverages as cheaply and quickly as possible. Paying every worker $15 an hour (plus government required benefits) no longer plays to the “cheap” aspect of the business so innovators decided they would create a machine to automatically cook in the kitchen and a kiosk to take your order. Again if you do not believe me that’s ok, but remember the TV commercials advertising a dollar menu? The same commercials I see now feature 5 dollar boxes. This is no coincidence. Can you blame the business owner?
The future of fast food
Strangely I feel this is the end game politicians want. They want people working for the government, and they want you comfortable in poverty, as well as be able to control every facet of your life. For example why must a child ride in a car seat until the age of 8? Do we not trust a parent’s ability to simply fasten a seat belt across said child’s lap? Why can’t a child order a soda if they want? We live in the most innovative country on the planet so why is it that a single use bag could not be replaced with a compostable one? Ditto on the new crazy—not being able to ask for a straw law recently enacted.
In summary the nanny state has failed us in several ways, first by banning certain things from our lives; incandescent light bulbs, plastic bags, straws, and soda being just the latest. In some cases these laws actually contradict each other, for example why not just buy two 20 oz. sodas? They banned the Big Gulp but not the smaller gulp. Didn’t California go through a rough drought a couple years ago, I thought they banned water from restaurants unless it was specifically asked for? Now they only want to offer water and milk to a child when they can just go back home and drink all the soda they want? So it’s okay for a child to order an entrée containing 2,000 calories but a soda is not okay? Don’t really get the logic there. By the way I am a supporter of calorie counts existing on a menu as it gives you the chance to re-think your options, not take it away. Regarding those plastic bags, I have heard it from multiple people that take-out places, Home Depot as well as a few other big box retailers still use the single use bags. I guess the rule applies only to evil grocery stores, not everyone else.
Riddle me this: one California law says no water at restaurants while another says only water can be offered
Finally I want to discuss some aspects of our lives that could use regulation, but never will be. I want to give two very concrete examples; tanning beds and smoking. Let’s start with tanning beds, they offer little benefit in the health benefit category, actually zero, and can result in skin cancer issues later in life. Perhaps there is not enough public ire to make politicians act but for health reasons alone tanning beds should be banned. Cigarettes also have zero health benefit, worse yet it is well known they cause cancer and will kill you eventually. Not to mention the fact they litter our streets far more than single use plastic bags and expose people around you to harmful second hand smoke. The reason for this is obvious…tax revenue. Almost 70% of the cost to purchasing cigarettes goes towards taxes, state, local etc. These are two very easy things that could be regulated, but the power of the almighty dollar wins out. Isn’t the real reason pot is legal is to get more tax revenue?
How about this doppelganger of political schizophrenia; the same state that brought you the plastic bag ban and the outlawing of straws, was considering a bill that would keep bars open and serving alcohol until 4 am, thankfully this bill didn’t pass. It is ironic, they want to keep the streets and lakes free of bags and prohibit children from ordering sodas, because, soda causes diabetes, but simultaneously, they want to allow you to hit the bars until 4. So I guess they are okay with you drenching your sorrows and then risking killing yourself or someone else driving home under the influence; but then again, I get it, once again, it’s about government revenue.
PS If no girl’s ugly after 2 AM, what purpose does 4 AM serve?
Here is the legislative language on fines for daring to offer a children’s meal with anything but milk or water.
114379.50. A violation of this chapter is, notwithstanding Section 114395, an infraction, provided, however, that the first violation shall result in a notice of violation. A second violation within a five-year period from the notice of violation shall be punishable by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250). For a third or subsequent violation within a five-year period, the fine shall be not more than five hundred dollars ($500). A restaurant shall not be found to have committed a violation under this chapter more than once during an inspection visit.
Please note that there is no age limit in this bill.
Thus if a senior citizen wants the kids meal then the restaurant must still offer milk or water. Failure to do so is a violation of the law as written.
Also, a change of restaurant ownership or employees during the five year period does not reset the clock for fines.
Some of you want to homeschool your children, some of you make lunch for them instead of eating the ones prepared by union cafeteria workers at the local government school, and some of you even let your children drink with straws.
We all know that children must be kept in baby seats until age eight while traveling in cars because parents can’t be trusted to make them use a seat belt or drive safely because driver safety classes are optional now.
We all know that children are fat because parents are afraid to let their children play outside because they don’t really know their neighbors and many of them are registered on Megan’s List (or should be); plus, due to lawyers, schools have fences around them to keep children out after hours so they can’t get hurt on the playground.
Now the nanny state has put yet another bill on Governor Brown’s desk for approval; this is a bill that requires restaurants to offer only two drink choices to children.
A new state bill would give kids two options with their meals at restaurants—water or milk.
So, suddenly restaurant workers are becoming the most regulated segment of the economy and most are making minimum wage for the privilege of facing this harassment. Think about it, give a person a straw and a waitress can be fined $1,000 and face six months in jail. Now nanny state idiots are on the verge of passing another law that says she could be in trouble if she offers the wrong beverage to a child. I wonder what the fine will be for that shortcoming. If it’s not in the bill now, it certainly will be added at some point in the future.
No soda or else…
Remember, you are only parents because you engaged in a biological act that had unintended consequences and you chose not to abort the product of conception. Until government can agree on a curriculum to license parents, such patchwork responses to childrearing are necessary in an aspiring totalitarian society.
Chicago has been in the news quite a bit lately, for all the wrong reasons. There has never been a better chance for the Republicans to make a difference and their voice and message heard in the inner cities of this country. By making a difference I don’t mean blow fire breathing right wing rhetoric at them, I want us to lay out how the Democrats have literally enslaved them once again.
First a little background, Chicago has been the homicide capital of the United States for about 5 years running, more disturbing is the lack of arrests for said homicides. This goes hand in hand with the culture of “not snitching” so as a result, murderers and gangs are free to continue roaming the streets. Some neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city could actually be declared war zones since killings and drug abuse so rampant. Keep in mind on the rare chance authorities catch the perp that an illegal weapon is usually found on them such as: a tommy gun, sawed off shotgun, grenade, brass knuckles etc. Keep in mind again, Illinois has some of the toughest gun laws, maybe we should enforce the current laws on the book rather than passing more restrictive ones on its citizens? Frankly if I was in Chicago I would open carry a weapon just to serve as a deterrent.
The heart of the issue:
Many who live in the inner cities of this country feel hopeless, stuck in bad neighborhoods. Most grew up in societies with no father figure in their life. As a direct result they found their father figures by joining a local gang. Schools in the inner city are horrible, this is due to school funding rules; however, there is a lack of a charter school as an option as well, again due to teacher unions. Dropout rates are staggering which shouldn’t be a surprise when you are subjected to teachers “transferred from other schools in the district” with their own issues. This creates a horrible cycle of poverty (due to not being qualified to land a job) anger at police (due to being arrested) and anger toward “the system” (for your current situation). In most cases they are right; they are forgotten and left behind by society, they are stuck with decrepit housing, zero police protection (who wants to go there now, especially with the BLM protests) horrible schools, and no businesses meaning no job opportunities. Their local “elected officials” I say this because they don’t really get a choice, tell them life isn’t bad, and have engrained in their minds government is the solution. Out of work? Get on unemployment. Have a child out of wedlock? Get on WIC or EBT. More kids = more $$$. The reason for you being in your current state is due to GOP policies! Keep voting straight ticket Democrat and your situation will improve.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
The solution:
A few very intriguing things happened over the past month. Chicagoans from the inner city shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway (a huge commuter route) calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm (Rambo, Dead Fish) Emanuel, and police chief Eddie Johnson. Emanuel is Hispanic, Johnson is black by the way. I disagree on Johnson, I think he is more than qualified to turn around the city, Emanuel can pound sand, he is literally the Mariam Webster definition of incompetence! Interestingly enough many protestors interviewed want Donald Trump to come there and step in! Yes, you read that right, they want the federal government to take over. Some even went as far as saying bring in the National Guard, as the situation has spiraled so far out of control. No media group will report the percentage of the black or Hispanic vote Trump won during his election, but I bet it far exceeded any other GOP nominee. Trump gets things done, the folks are noticing this. Chicagoans like many other inner-city dwellers are tired of the gangs, shootings and bad schools, this presents a great opportunity. Rather than the usual GOP hot takes like; MLK was a Republican, or Lincoln freed the slaves, speak directly to them, they are a receptive audience. Harken back to California’s Prop 8 vote in 2008 while Barack Obama won in a landslide Prop 8 passed, mostly due to heavy “yes” voting by both blacks and Hispanics. I would lead with over saturation of police patrols, drive the crime out of the area, and as a direct result people will feel safer, and more hopeful. Address the school choice issue; bring in more charter schools, or allow a voucher program, the real bully in the school choice issue is the teachers union. They protect the incompetent at the expense of the good teachers. While fixing the broken home issue is not easy, neighborhoods being safer and turning around local school choice could play a role.
The people have spoken they want “The Donald” to come to inner city Chicago. Don’t misread this, they don’t want GOP fire breather Donald Trump they want negotiator Donald Trump. Bring in the National Guard, change up the school funding, and get rid of the bad teachers (which is likely all of them) and watch the re-vitalization.
Trump the Negotiator
They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!
The Untouchables (1987)
PS do not be scared, downtown Chicago is beautiful and immaculate as well as free from homeless. The bad areas are on the south side and west side which there is literally no reason to go unless you are flying out of Midway Airport, or wish to be carjacked, or want to see a liquor store held up. Get rid of Emanuel, he is a clueless idiot.
Btw so Great White God Ted Cruz called on Donald Trump to “rescue his re-election” the end of the world is near….or at least maybe the CRA.
Democrats were so certain they would win the special election in Ohio last night they even opted to unfreeze Jimmy Carter to make a couple victory laps on TV earlier in the day. Liberal pundits thought they had this in the bag, similar to a political nemesis of the Clintons. The coverage was strong Tuesday morning, MSLSD’s Joe Scarborough “allegedly” a former GOP congressman claimed victory saying it was the start of a blue wave this election year. His wife and co-host of “Morning Joe” was out of town, and strangely I hadn’t seen Joe this aroused in a long while coincidence? I noticed an abnormal number of commercial breaks and was later able to confirm Joe needed to change his undergarments far more than usual, again the whole aroused thing. Good thing “Morning Joe” has only one viewer, no word on if its Joe’s mommy, but nonetheless “The Chief” doubled this morning’s audience. Anderson Cooper was no better, he actually cracked a smile several times, leading me to believe he may have come back to the straight side last night…likely wishful thinking. Chris Hayes, again of MSLSD, was foaming at the mouth during his show, might have been a health issue, possibly the disease called liberalism. Hayes for those of you who don’t know looks like he physically, mentally, and morally peaked in elementary school, imagine a 5th grader frozen and in an adults body.
Rachael Maddow was a complete and total dumpster fire, literally saying there is no way Rep. Troy Balderson could win. Maybe she had inside information? If so she better find a new bookie because Balderson is going to win, leading by 1% with 100% of the vote counted. The Chief has decided Maddow likely has the IQ of a plastic bottle, because when you throw her around she always gets beaten out of shape. Additionally Rev. Al Sharpton added his commentary saying he “hoped the black man would win this election because blacks need equal representation” there was no black person on the ballot, legally “allegedly.” No word from Paul Begala and James Carville, but word has it they started their own radio show, two ugly white guys, mostly to compete with sitcom/reality TV show Two Broke Girls.
The point of this troll blog is to highlight a couple points. First the Democrats are running on nothing except Trump hate, they have no ideas. They remind me of the Republican leadership under President Obama saying he is no good, vote for us…..why you ask? Well we’re not as bad as him. This isn’t anything to run under, its bad policy. Problem is the Democrats were up to their usual tricks Tuesday, just like any other election, word is the local cemetery had over 100% voter turnout. This was actually a low number usually it’s around 150%. As I tell friends of mine, I lost both grandfathers of mine over the last few years, they voted Republican until they died, now they vote straight ticket Democrat. I’m still mystified, if the democrat O’Connor was up by the same 1% the “associated press”( whatever the heck that means) would have already called the race, went home had a warm bottle of milk and gone to bed already; but nope. The evil, white supremacist, angry white male won so yeah we’re not calling it tonight. “Allegedly” the drill bit used to drill a hole thorough the “O’Conner” spot on the ballot needed to be changed, so those ballots found late tonight will be counted later when said drill bit is working again. (Unless the put the hole in the wrong spot and voted for pat Buchannan.) Additionally, we heard Mr. Balderson is required to answer a 2 AM phone call to test his worthiness for said congressman job (maybe we should change the name congressman seems sexist). The 2 AM phone call is a big thing as you may remember Hillary Clinton answered the call and sent in our military when Benghazi was under attack……or maybe she slept through it, but oh well.
Since its Friday, I wanted to take a timeout from the news of the day. I did read a headline about Rush Limbaugh offering to run Facebook after they lost 119 billion in stock value yesterday. Facebook has no value in any real metric. They do nothing and produce nothing. They have no tangible assets, they are vaporware. Facebook exists only on paper. If you liquidated the company, you could only get a few million for real estate and office equipment.
My purpose today is not to bash Facebook, as fun as that may be, but my mind did wander to Rush. I rarely listen to him anymore. I like him and enjoy his program much of the time but work and listening don’t always go together.
I do marvel at the staying power of Rush. He is an American institution. In my lifetime only Paul Harvey approaches him in the field. But Rush is superior. Why? Because Rush does what he does, three hours a day. Paul Harvey did two short broadcasts of less than seven minutes. However, without Paul Harvey, Rush would not be possible.
Paul Harvey
So what does Rush do? First he is a vociferous reader and he has an eye for reading between the lines. He may not use the word but he understands the worldview of those he disagrees with. This is why he is so often right. He just looks at people and knowing what motivates them he can predict what they will do next. He has both a staff and loyal listeners that funnel information to him to sort thru so he can keep abreast of different events. Importantly, he has a sense of humor and knows how to poke fun at his adversaries. This is all well and good but doesn’t necessarily translate to good radio.
Think about it. What is radio? At its core, radio is a guy sitting in an empty room by himself pretending to be having a conversation with his best friend. This dialogue is broken only by commercials and weather updates. Rush has been doing this three hours a day for about 30 years.
Trust me when I say that normal people can’t do radio. I worked in radio in high school and college. The station where I worked in high school was WDDT—which at the time was running a top-40 rock format. WDDT was a small town dawn to dusk AM station. On Sundays, I had to arrive early in the morning and turn on the transmitter. Then at sunrise I had to change the broadcast power to increase the transmitter footprint for daytime operation. Thus I was running the programming and also the acting broadcast engineer.
The college that I attended for my freshman year owned a 50,000 watt AM station and also an FM one which were both on the west side of campus. The student station was confined to the campus and broadcasted via carrier wave thru the power grid of the school. Yes, reception was thru plugging your radio into the 110 volt wall outlet and then tuning to the correct frequency. (Trivia: You can now use this technique in your house to transmit Internet from one room to another.)
These experiences in radio give me a greater appreciation for how gifted Limbaugh really is. I’ve formally met Rush once. Shortly after he left Sacramento and began his nationwide program, he returned and did a political fundraiser in Sacramento. I paid my $100 and got to meet him at the event. He is not what you would expect. He was shy and uncomfortable in the large group. He impressed me as being an introvert when in the company of strangers. It’s part of the way radio works. You create an on air personality and like an actor playing a part, you cloth yourself with the character and take it off when it’s not needed.
My other claim to fame was that I was officially the only troublemaker to interrupt him during his first Rush to Excellence Tour. If you can find the video tape—I don’t think he ever put these on DVD, Rush is doing a bit on the stage about New York handing out condoms to people to protect them from AIDS. Said Condoms were stapled to an information sheet that was being given to people. Rush was mocking them for putting the staples thru the middle of each and every condom that was being passed out with the promise that their use would result in “safe sex”. During this monologue, I hollered-out the name “Lee Nichols” and Rush lost it and started laughing. After a few seconds he recovered his composure and continued him monologue. As a result of my outburst, I was featured prominently in two subsequent close-ups of the audience.
Rush to Excellence ‘89
While the name Lee Nichols probably means nothing to you now, I will explain who he was. Nichols was a professor at Sac State. He left his wife and children to pursue a relationship with a man. Nichols was out of the closet before it was cool. He was very Liberal. He was part of the Lambda Community Center group in Sacramento.
Due to concerns about the FCC Fairness Doctrine, KFBK felt that they needed an afternoon host to counter the conservatism of having Rush on for three hours in the morning so they gave three hours a day in the afternoon to various Liberals. Of these, Lee Nichols was the best foil that they put up.
The reason my Lee Nichols comment was funny was because everybody in the room was thinking it but I was the only one willing to say it out loud and the timing was spot-on.
I’m glad Rush is still around and going strong. Like Trump, I don’t know if he is a Christian but I do know that God is using the man to teardown strongholds of evil and stupidity. Yeah, I guess that means that Rush (and Trump) are doing the Lord’s work.
