Archive for the ‘media’ Category

Son of real-life Fredo may sue Cuomo (Parody)

Posted: August 19, 2019 by datechguy in fun, media
Tags: ,

The son of the man whose father was the basis for Mario Puzo’s Fredo Corleone in The Godfather is threatening to sue CNN anchor Chris Cuomo for defamation of character.
“My father was a good man, an honorable man,” said Salvatore Goomba, 69, of Jersey City, N.J. “That means he was nothing like Cuomo, who has appropriated his name.”

Alfredo “Fredo No Brains” Goomba grew up with Puzo in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, and the two were classmates until high school.  Salvatore said his father ran with a street gang until 1942, when he was recruited as a soldier by the Luciano crime family “because all the good soldiers were in the Army.”

“He had a pretty rough time breaking into organized crime,” the son admitted. “He misunderstood it when his capo told him to take out a rival. Dad ended up spending the day at Coney Island with the guy.”  On another occasion, when the elder Goomba was told to fit Mangano family gunman Vincenzo Dupatti with “a pair of cement overshoes,” he visited nearly every shoe store in the city before finding out he wasn’t supposed to be looking for footwear, Salvatore said.

Salvatore Goomba said his father remained close to Puzo throughout the 1950s and ’60s and provided the author with much of the background on the Mafia for The Godfather. The pair, however, had a falling out after the best-selling novel was published because Alfredo felt betrayed his character was portrayed as a weak, cowardly dolt.  The rift was partially repaired when the movie debuted. “Dad said he was honored that an actor as handsome and charming as John Cazale played him on screen,” he said.
“Maybe my father wasn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he made Andrew Cuomo look like a birthday candle next to a spotlight,” the son said. “He was a loving and truthful man, except maybe when he was talking to cops, judges, probation officers and grand juries. And sometimes, maybe, my mom.  “It’s infuriating and embarrassing that someone as low, obnoxious and repulsive as Andrew Cuomo is trying to raise himself through my father’s good name. I guess I can’t blame him for trying to escape from the reputation he’s made for himself, but he could’ve picked another name. I’m pretty sure Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy wouldn’t have minded.”
The elder Goomba was found dead in Mama Patrizia’s Pizza Palazzo in Brooklyn. death was attributed to extreme lead poisoning.

NOTE (DTG) Yes this is a parody piece from Michigan Mick just in case Snoopes can’t figure it out and we’re delighted to have him back even if only occasionally.

Another reason the MSM is playing down Philly

Posted: August 17, 2019 by datechguy in media, opinion/news, Uncategorized
Tags: ,

Apparently the shooter belongs to more than just one protected group:

Maurice Hill, the criminal who wounded six police officers in a shootout in Philadelphia and was arrested after a seven-hour standoff, attended a radical mosque.
The mosque, called Masjid Ahlil Hadith Wal Athar, is known for preaching the Islamist ideology promoted by Saudi Arabia referred to as “Wahhabism.”
Clarion Intelligence Network has been aware through its sources that the area where the shootings took place is known for trafficking in guns, drugs and counterfeit items. This criminal market has a strong Islamist element that includes extremist gangs.

No wonder the MSM is running away from this.

I’d be Lying If I told you this wasn’t a kick in the balls

Posted: August 13, 2019 by datechguy in dablog, media, politics

With my current job and shift my ability to cover campaigns isn’t what it used to be when, thanks to the Obama economy, I was not employed and found myself writing instead.

But with POTUS on his way to NH and only an hour’s drive away and having a few spare vacation days I figured I could take a day and go cover his Manchester Rally, so I put in my request for a vacation day and went to the donaldtrump.com website to request press credentials keeping an eye on the page to see when or if they would be granted.

I figured I shouldn’t have too much trouble, after all.  I’ve coveredcampaigns congressional, senatorial and presidential.  I was been credentialed for both the 2010 Scott Brown victory party and the less pleasant Mitt Romney one.  I’ve been in the spin room after a GOP debate questioning Herman Cain and covered Rick Santorumin 2012.  Ben Carson and Ted Cruz have sat or stood for interviews with me.  I’ve been credentialed at CPAC for years, covered political events in NH for years and even covered the Trump Campaign the last time around questioning him twice at press conferences and both times getting a positive reaction from him for my questions, both in NH

and in Worcester MA when he spoke the quote that is the banner on my blog and on my business card

In both cases I was one of the very few people in the room not out to destroy him. So I was feeling pretty good about things.

So I got myself ready. My Vacation day was approved yesterday, rather lucky on short notice, started getting my equipment ready, identified what I considered the most significant story in relation to the trip (see my lead post tomorrow for that) and started going over what I might as the President if I got the chance to pose a question once again, finally deciding that the question would be dependent on the answers his supporters gave me in interviews on and off camera before the event.

Then this afternoon around 4 PM I checked my status and saw this.

It would have been a great honor to be credentialed press at a Presidential event outside of CPAC, it would have been an even greater honor as a blogger to pose a question to a sitting president.

Apparently Team Trump has decided I’m not worthy of that honor.

The Irony of course is that there will likely be no shortage media members who hate the president, hate his voters and dream of the chance to derail his campaign that will be in that building spinning away to achieve that goal I would have thought it would have been good to have at least one ally in that crowd and one person who might ask a neutral rather than a loaded question. But it’s not my decision to make.

There’s always the chance they’ll change their mind so I’ll keep my eye on that link to see if they change their mind. Thursday is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary so I’ll be off to morning mass that day. If I get home and the status is changed, then I’ll pack up and head north to do a long days work.

But if the worst that happens to me on Thursday is that things remain as they are then I’ll have had a pretty good day. My primary regret will be that I burned a vacation time on a day that my wife works when I didn’t have to.

But as the title of the post suggests I’d be a damn liar If I told you I wasn’t feeling a bit down.

Math and MSM / Washington post Gun Control Memes.

Posted: August 13, 2019 by datechguy in media, opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

One of the disadvantages of having a worldview that relies on passion vs things like objective truth and data or having a staff that isn’t fluent in math is that every now and again such a position bites you.

the Washington Post managed to do this with this publication of the following list:

 

Now I don’t have the time on my hands or the resources of the Washington Post so rather than questioning methodology or asking how they define mass shootings let’s take their data as given and assume that there have been since 1966 166 mass shootings resulting in 1196 deaths.

Now lets take this these figures and do a little math.

2019-1965 = 54 meaning that we are taking about a span of 54 years.

1196 number of deaths / 54 years = 22.1 deaths per year by mass shootings in the United states per year

According to the CDC here are the number of deaths in the US by various causes in 2017

Heart disease: 647,457
Cancer: 599,108
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
Diabetes: 83,564
Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

Now let’s take a specific cause, how about that most eco-friendly of devices the bicycle: what are the numbers there? Well according this site the number of folks killed on bicycles due to collisions iwth cars in 2017 was 783. a number over 35 times that of the number of people killed in mass shootings according to the Post’s own figures, and remember that’s just deaths on bikes from collisions with cars not deaths from falls or other accidents.

Now let’s look at it another way.

Based on the Washington Post’s own numbers we have averaged 22.1 deaths per year in the US since 1965

22.1 deaths per year by mass shootings / 50 states = .4402 deaths per state per year.

In other words we are averaging less that a single death per state every two years by mass shootings based on the Post’s own stats.

OK now let’s look at this the way the government usually looks at fatalities, deaths per 100,000 citizens

We only have a census every ten years but for the sake of argument this site   estimates the US population in 2017 at 325,980,000 people. So to figure out the death rate of a particular cause it is necessary to divide the total number of deaths by 3259.8 ( 325,980,000/ 3259.8 = 100,000 )

Therefore based on the Washington Post’s own numbers the death rate for the United States by mass shootings based on the average number of mass shooting deaths since 1965 is 22.1 / 3259.8

or

.006779 deaths per 100,000

So according to the Washington Post own stats, the stats that they want to use to get you to pass new restrictions on the 2nd amendment rights, An american is more than five times more likely to die from contracting flesh eating bacteria than to be killed in a mass shooting.

Now I will readily concede that for the family of someone who dies in a mass shooting or from contracting flesh eating bacteria for that matter,  the statistical rarities of these event bring little comfort when mourning a loved ones loss.

But I submit and suggest that the sorrow of those directly affected not withstanding only  an idiot or an opportunist pushes to restrict constitutional rights that Americans have fought and died for from a cause that produces the death rates that the Washington Post own figures support.

Closing thought.  I wonder why they used 1965 as a cutoff?  I’d be interested in seeing the figures from say 1945-1965 and seeing if the rate is much lower from that period compared to the period the post used.

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