Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Podcast Checkmate 8.7 Million Views Worth (Really 11 Million)

Posted: October 26, 2024 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, media, podcast, politics
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Control: This is an emergency. Control must be believed and obeyed! No one on the Colony believes in Macra! There is no such thing as Macra! Macra do not exist! THERE ARE NO MACRA!

Doctor Who, The Macra Terror 1967

As of this writing (7:45 AM) the Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Donald Trump which dropped late last night has 8.7 million views.

This is extraordinary when you consider the following:

  1. The podcast runs almost 3 hours (2:58:50)
  2. Trump has been around for a very long time
  3. It’s been less than a half a day and overnight for a lot of those in the east

What are people who are watching the podcast seeing? A conversation lasting three hours. A rational conversation on all kinds of topics, from the great flip flops of the celebs who embraced Trump for decades up until the point where he was considerer a threat to the power of the left to boxing and MMF. The type of conversation that regular people might have. The type of conversation that gives you a pretty good picture of who a person actually is.

In other words the type of conversation that the media:

  1. Doesn’t dare have about Donald Trump because it would destroy their false negative narrative
  2. Doesn’t dare have with Kamala Harris because it would destroy their false positive narrative

Ironically after three hours with Rogan Trump went off to a rally that night, so much for the “tired” and “ducking” business.

Here is the whole thing:

There was some talk on COVID and the vaccines which is actually a weakness for Trump (but not in contrast to Harris/Biden) and the conversation on some Trump supporters being nervous about RFK’s role in the administration was interesting and groundbreaking. There was some real news broken there which is why it’s worth your time.

There was an early report that youtube was censoring the link but Rogan himself noted that there had been a tech issue that was resolved by delisting and then relisting the podcast. Frankly as a person who is still banned by Youtube it’s nice to see them not censoring this.

Rogan expressed an interest in having Harris on but apparently the sticking point was Harris teams’ insistence on making some topics off limits while Trump agreed to no limits on topics.

Of course if the crash and burn continues the campaign may change it’s mind figuring like a Hockey team pulling their goalie when down 5 with 2 minutes to go. What have you got to lose?

But Trump wasn’t the only one who was on a major podcast. JD Vance appeared on the Theo Von podcast for two hours

What is really interesting has been the feedback from so many of the over 2 million who watched the podcast who have been told by the media that Vance was “odd” or “weird” or “strange” and after seeing him for two hours found him the most normal guy in the room.

Read the comments to the podcast it’s shattering to the narrative that people have put out there on Vance and an excellent reminder that the BS the media sold during the time they hid Joe Biden cognitive decline is not the only lie that they have been pushing.

This is the type of thing people watch on their own, the media can’t hide or counter it and it’s the type of things that changes votes.

These two podcasts are the ultimate expression of bypassing the narrative and going directly to the people letting voters who wish to see people as they actually are. This is the ultimate expression of the 1st amendment.

The media will try to avoid these podcasts. I can hear them now:

This is an emergency. Media must be believed and obeyed! No one on the country believes in Trump/Vance Podcasts! There is no such thing as Trump/Vance Podcasts! Trump/Vance Podcast do not exist! THERE ARE NO PODCASTS!

If you want to know why the left demands censorship these two podcasts are it.

Checkmate.

If Trump wins the Popular Vote Watch the Left Suddenly Sour on the National Popular Vote Compact

Posted: October 25, 2024 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, election 2024, elections, politics
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I have been arguing for an awful lot of years that the National Popular Vote Compact is an attempt to disenfranchises votes of individual states so that elections can be fixed on a national level.

The left has pooh poohed this and deep blue states like California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, New York, Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut and yes disgracefully my state of Massachusetts went along and signed this idiocy sure and secure in the knowledge that no Republican would every be popular enough and no Democrat so unpalatable enough that it would bite them in the ass.

And then came this from CNN

Now the catch is that supposedly this agreement kicks into gear when 270 EV’s worth of states sign it, but as the electoral college doesn’t vote on election day (They vote on December 17th) Red states could have legislatures ready to adopt this rule after election day so it will be in effect the day the electors vote. In fact it would be state law. And the best part is once those votes are cast those same red states can repeal said laws boom.

If this actually happens it won’t matter how long it takes Mariposa country in Arizona to count their votes, suddenly by their own rules California, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Vermont and yes my own Massachusetts will go into the Trump column.

Now I still maintain that this disenfranchises individual states but I have a feeling if the Kamala collapse continues I will suddenly find a lot of leftists from an awful lot of blue states and a ton of media will suddenly have my back and rush to the Supreme Court to have all of these laws stuck down. The irony of course is that I expect all three liberal judges will be with me on this one at the very least.

Now with Kamala collapsing so badly that the Washington Post and LA Times won’t endorse her it might be moot so I don’t know if this will be the result but if it is, it will be glorious!

Chicago Public Schools took COVID money and splurged, now that source of funds has dried up

Posted: October 23, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

William J. Bennett, when he was Education Secretary under Ronald Reagan, declared the Chicago Public Schools system was the worst in the nation.

Decades later, CPS still might be at the bottom, despite a recent influx of federal COVID-19 relief cash.

According to Illinois State Board of Education test results, nearly three-quarters of CPS students can’t read at grade level and over eighty-percent of them aren’t proficient in math.

Not shockingly, many Chicago parents are finding alternatives their children’s education, such charter and private schools, or moving out of Chicago altogether. 

The sad irony is that many CPS schools call themselves things like “school of excellence,” or “STEM academy,” or “college prep high school.” 

One-third of Chicago’s traditional public schools, Wirepoints reports, are under half of enrollment capacity. One high school, the somewhat modestly named Manley Career Academy, which was built for 1,000 pupils, has just 100 students enrolled there. “Journey to world class” is the school’s motto.

There’s state-enforced moratorium preventing school closings, but that expires next year. But the Chicago Teachers Union, the straw that stirs the drink in city politics, is vehemently opposed to that.

Fewer schools means fewer union jobs. 

The CTU and its allies say that Chicago schools are underfunded. However, they never say what the proper amount is. Just more, more, and more.

CPS-per-student funding has increased by 40-percent since 2019, when scores were higher, the district now spends nearly $30,000 student, while the statewide average is just $24,000.

As I reported here earlier this month, Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who prior to his election last year was a CTU organizer, saw his school board resign because, according to media reports, “Branjo” was pressuring them to fire the CEO of CPS. 

Johnson appointed that entire board.

CTU was the primary funder of Johnson’s campaign. That union is fond of Alinskyite tactics, particularly creating and demonizing an enemy. Usually that’s the mayor, but Johnson is on the CTU team.

Johnson and CTU–assuming there is a difference between the two–are pushing for high-interest loans to increase spending for schools on things like salaries and pension obligations, rather than for capital projects, which is what fiscally responsible school districts use loans for.

CPS has a junk credit rating. 

Johnson’s new appointees will be out of office soon. A new 21-member board–10 elected and 11 appointed by the mayor, will take over shortly after Election Day next month. Many of the electoral candidates for the new school board are endorsed by the CTU.

Things have gotten so bad that even the Washington Post has taken notice.

Chicago and CPS appear to be in a death spiral. How both got there goes back decades. As for the misdeeds of the last few years, the Chicago Teachers Union deserves much of the blame.

Getting out of this mess won’t be easy. While Governor J.B. Pritzker is also a Democrat, he and Branjo aren’t close. Pritzker is a liberal, but Johnson is a quasi-socialist. But a state takeover of CPS isn’t likely. Pritzker wants to run for president one day and if the state is in charge of Chicago’s schools, then CPS becomes his problem.

Even if Kamala Harris wins the presidency next month, a federal bailout of CPS is very unlikely, especially because the district squandered COVID funds.

And Chicagoans are stuck with Johnson until at least 2027.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Two Weeks of 4th and 20 Plays from the Harris Campaign

Posted: October 17, 2024 by datechguy in election 2024, politics
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One of the things you will see in football particularly when a team is down by 3 scores or more are teams going for it on long 4th downs.

This is not an odd choice. The idea is that you have no chance of changing the path of the game going south without taking long chances, even chances that are unlikely to work out. So you find yourself going for it on 4th and long in the 3rd or early 4th quarter in such games.

If you manage to convert you maintain the chance to come back and win the game. If you fail, well you were going to lose anyways so you might as well take the shot.

Of course if you fail and the lead becomes four or five scores, that when you take out your starter and play your subs to keep key players from getting hurt.

And that brings us to Kamala on Fox.

For weeks Kamala ducked everybody and everything white Donald Trump chris-crossed the nation and took on all comers.

The seeing that this was not having intended effect she started doing interview with friendly location who where willing to ask seemingly softball questions (the view), edit the interviews to omit problems (CBS) or rig that question and audiences to her favor (univision),

Not only has this failed but he viability level has reached such a low point that SNL feels free to make fun of her on the theory that it doesn’t matter.

And thus the 4th and 20 hail mary passes go up, Interview on Fox, possible appearance on Joe Rogan, going to venues that she has dodged because unless something changes the margin will be as Trump puts it “Too Big To Rig”.

Alas the Fox interview appears to be yet another disaster the only question is does she:

  1. Continue to do these 4th & 20th interviews in the hopes that she hits gold?
  2. Pull back and become invisible again so that she doesn’t hurt down ticket Democrats any more than she already is?

I’m betting #2 by the end of next week but the smart thing to do is to fight like the Hail Mary passes were complete

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