15 Thoughts on 15 Years of Blogging Under the Fedora. Thoughts 11 to 15 Back to Blogging… The Truth, WQPH, Trump and my boys, The Fall and One More Year

Posted: December 3, 2023 by datechguy in blogs, catholic, catholic devotions, dablog, under the fedora
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I talked about Stacy McCain being most influential on me and he mentioned something in a post yesterday that really hit the lesson he taught me:

 I was talking to a nice Republican lady who, remarking on what I’d said about liberal bias in the media, asked, “What makes you different?” That is to say, why am I not part of the liberal hivemind? On the spot, the best answer I could come up with was, “Well, I was a reporter before I got into politics.” I didn’t get into journalism because I wanted to change the world. I got into journalism because I needed a job. I started out on the bottom rung of the newspaper business, as a staff writer for a local weekly, and worked my way up, spending five years as a sports editor before landing a gig as an assistant special projects editor at the daily Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune. It wasn’t until I’d been in the business about seven years that I became interested in politics, during the first term of the Clinton presidency, when I had my own road-to-Damascus epiphany and abandoned the Democratic Party, of which I had hitherto been a staunch supporter.

The point of that digression is that I cut my teeth as a reporter covering local stories that had nothing to do with politics, and thereby developed the belief that the three most important things in journalism are accuracy, accuracy and accuracy

Having a Computer Science degree back from 1985 the idea of the importance of facts was already imbedded. The biggest lesson I learned from being credentialed press and sharing rooms with them as they wrote and talked is that this is not the norm for journalists. It was all about producing spin and a particular result. That (along with a natural degree of sloth) is why you never see my videos edited. Like the images from the Ghost of Christmas Past they are what they are.

That reputation for accuracy and the reputation as “The hardest working blogger at CPAC” are still a source of pride to me.

The biggest thing to come from the blog and the Radio show that came from it has been my association with WQPH 89.3 FM Catholic Radio which began around 2012 when I was approached by Mary Ann Harold the head of the station. I had at first thought it would be a full time job but instead it’s was more of a Special project for the blog that continues to this day.

In 2017 My Catholic Radio Show “Your Prayer Intentions” now in its 6th year, premiered on WQPH every Saturday at noon. 2017 also saw the publication of my book “Hail Mary the perfect Protestant (and Catholic) Prayer adapted from a blog post which you can still buy at Amazon or from me directly if you want it autographed. The most significant thing from WQPH came in 2014 a few months after the Harvard Satanic Mass scandal & the MIT procession on a trip to Alabama, but if that story is ever posted it will be after I’m gone.

What I thought would be the biggest moment of my blogging career was when I was called on twice during the 2016 presidential campaign by Donald Trump during press conferences. The first in Derry NH which I had to cover after the contract job

The second when I covered his rally in Worcester before going to work at what was then a temp warehouse job on the 10:30 to 7 am shift. He recognized me and gave me the complement that remains on the top of the blog to this day.

Covering Trump fairly didn’t endear me to the GOP in MA and neither did my endorsement of Trump when he won the primaries or my famous post defending Trump after the Billy Bush bit came out which called out the left for trying to use our own morality against us while repeating these words which turned out to be a prophetic after the 2020 steal:

…I know that there will be times that Donald Trump will disappointment me just as I expected Mitt Romney to disappoint me on social issues and John McCain to disappoint me on immigration and George W Bush who disappointed me on spending and the bank bailouts.

But while Trump will occasionally disappoint me (when he does I’ll call him on it) I am convinced he will neither persecute me nor strip me of my rights for holding my Conservative Catholic beliefs and acting on them.

I am very sorry to say I can not make that same statement about Hillary Clinton, and I’m even sorrier to see the day when I would say this about a presidential candidate.

but this led to the real high point of blogging for me was CPAC 2018 where my two sons came with me as credentialed press. It made for a better CPAC:

In other words, he make sure that I was OUTSIDE the activist/msm/news/blogger bubble for at least a few hours. This not only decreased my tension level immensely but it provided me the chance to speak to actual Marylanders and Virginians who were not there specifically to serve me as a CPAC convention goer and thus more free to be themselves and give their own opinions in conversation.

No blogging moment will beat that EVAH!

Despite the two highs of 2016 & 2018 the blog’s decline in traffic seemed to start in 2014 after my Jeffrey Epstein post to the point where contract work was necessary.

In 2016 the decline in traffic and rank (this blog was once in the top 100,000 in the world) meant I took a 3rd shift temp job. The job became permanent in 2017 and any lingering dreams of the blog becoming more than a part time job at best were gone and my ability to go to cover any event had to be sub servant to the steady income to pay bills that came from attendance at work.

Problems at GoDaddy led me to finally leave them by 2019. After election 2020 like many others I found myself suspected from Twitter multiple times while the election was in dispute over false charges that led to a pattern of suspension, appeal, apology and reinstatement then suspension again until the courts ruled against Trump. This was shortly followed by my banning by Youtube erasing more than a decade of work. Meanwhile the new owner of my hosting company became invisible I was not only forced back to my old wordpress blog, but had lost my domain, more than 75% of my daily traffic, all of my ad and guest post revenue and a decline in DaTipJar revenue and subscribers to the point where the blog has become an expense rather than an asset.

The fall was slow, then gradual then like the fall of communism all at once. Right now after paying my writers I barely bring in enough to pay the annual fees to wordpress let alone the costs of covering Pintastic NE or any other event that I can manage on days off or using vacation time.

So here we are 15 years later like Sam Rothstein in Casino back where we started at our original site.

I’m drawing about a 1/3 of the traffic that I did back in the Scott Brown days but not worrying about trying to regain lost glory. Still giving our opinion and occasionally covering something from the Catholic Men’s Conference to Pintastic NE and writing about the news of the day and my online baseball leagues.

Barring a sudden change in fortune allowing the blog covering its costs as it once did I figure I can afford to hang around one more year for the election before the blog becomes too much of an expense to carry.

So you can expect me and my magnificent seven writers to be here for the election and to at least finish year 16. After that, who know but for all those who have stopped by over the last 15 years and especially to those who have contributed over the years and those few remaining stalwarts who still do, let me say this.

Thanks so much, it’s been an incredible 15 year ride. We’ve done and learned a lot together. I’ve seen a lot of the country and those who run it. I’ve seen many incredible things and I’ve met many incredible people along the way including quite a few of you dear readers. None of it would have been remotely possible without you. Me and mine are better for having been on this ride. I hope that you feel the same.

Grooming standards and military recruitment

Posted: December 2, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in culture, News/opinion
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I’ve written a lot about the military’s recruiting crisis, and the overall military retention issues. Most of the retention problems are brought on by the military’s own stupid policies (such as cutting training pipelines, treating people like garbage, and focusing on killing babies instead of foreign terrorists) and others are assisted by members of Congress, most notably John McCain pushing for the changes to the military retirement system.

In an odd twist of fate, the Navy gave me a set of temporary orders to help assist in recruitment efforts in the town I grew up in. Over the past week, I interacted with both high school and college students, and the results were a bit surprising.

I accompanied two other Sailors for a few hours recruiting at a high school not far away from me. We sat at a table outside the lunchroom, handed out the main recruiter’s business card and some other Navy paraphernalia, and answered questions.

Image generated by Bing…I don’t look this good in uniform :)

The first thing I noticed is that despite it being winter and cold (it was 25F when I walked in the school), many of the students were in basketball shorts and even the occasional booty skirt, which I define as a skirt that barely covers your rear end. I had long pants, long sleeves and was wearing a jacket and I was still a bit cold since we were next to a window that leaked a lot of heat. I don’t even want to comment on the grooming standards, because there really were none.

That being said, the more surprising thing was the aimlessness of most of the students I interacted with. Our conversations would go something like this:

Kid: “I’m interested in joining the Navy.”
Me: “Great! Did you have a specific rate or job you’re interested in.”
Kid: “Not really, what’s available?”
Me: (Remembering there are 89 ratings in the Navy) “There’s lots of jobs! What sort of things do you like to do?”
Kid: “Meh, I don’t really know.”

This wasn’t just one conversation…it was the overwhelming majority of conversations. I mean, who the heck can’t tell me what they like to do??? Even if it was “play computer games,” I can turn that into “Would you like to fly drones?” The body language was also telling. Almost nobody looked me in the eye when we talked. Fidgeting, nervous, and just anxious in general. Since I was speaking to mostly juniors and seniors, the effects of being the high schoolers that grew up in COVID lockdowns were quite noticeable.

I spoke with the guidance counselor as well for some insight. She is assigned by the state, which specifically puts guidance counselors at schools to assist in career development. That’s a good thing, considering my guidance counselors were worthless when I was in high school. The one at this high school did everything from arrange ASVAB testing to factory tours and industry placement, on top of assisting in college applications and FAFSA forms.

It sounds like a much-needed change. The guidance counselor had similar experiences to mine with kids not having any clues about their direction in life. Most of them had to be pushed to do something, anything, to at least get somewhere. It wasn’t that they were opposed to one thing or another, it was that they didn’t have the desire for…anything, even stuff you would think is fun. We’ve already heard the rates of sexual intercourse and alcohol use are down among high school students. These are good things, but what we’re not catching is that teens are choosing to do…nothing. It’s similar to the “lying flat” movement in China. Teens today aren’t having sex, partying, going to the movies, working jobs, or…much of anything else.

Given that, it’s not surprising the grooming standards dropped. If you don’t have to impress the other sex, why bother dressing nice? Or combing your hair? Or picking out half-way fashionable clothes? Or taking a shower (yup, saw that too…). If you don’t care about much of anything, then much of anything goes. While plenty of people focus on the physical standards and obesity as issues, what I saw on the front line was a lot of aimlessness, of kids drifting through life without a clue, simply unsure of themselves.

I wasn’t that way growing up. As a junior, I knew I wanted to do engineering of some kind. Most of my peers were the same, having at least an idea of what they wanted to do for the next few years. My senior year I settled on electrical engineering, and I stayed that course in college. I currently have one kid in high school focused on the medical field, and whether she becomes a nurse, doctor, or some other job, she at least has direction and purpose.

More than anything else, our high schoolers need right now is a bit of direction and purpose. That might fix the recruiting crisis and a whole lot of other problems at the same time.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

This Explains a lot on Fauci

Posted: December 2, 2023 by datechguy in catholic
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Saw this quote via Instapundit today that explains an awful lot about why a Doctor who was old enough to take the actual Hippocratic oath did what he did over the last four years:

Next up, they walk past the church at Georgetown where Fauci got married. We then find out that the good doctor no longer practices religion, as he is guided by a higher moral authority: “my own personal ethics.”

As a rule it’s usually doesn’t end one when you decide to remake God in your own image particularly when you’re a Catholic as you should know better.

Fauci lives a comfortable life at 82 (83 on Christmas Eve) but as he is 83 I would remind him of this quote:

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?

Matt 16:26

Fortunately the last rights (now called the sacrament of the sick) carries with it the same absolution of sins that confession does.

Pray for Fauci & his family and if you’re reading this and are part of those who have or are threating him or his family may I suggest this two step plan:

  1. Cut it out at once
  2. Go to confession

It may or may not end well for him but trust me Hell will be no more bearable and Heaven no less glorious if you turn and see Fauci next to you there.

15 Thoughts on 15 Years of Blogging Under the Fedora. Thoughts 6 to 10 …The Glory Days…

Posted: December 1, 2023 by datechguy in blogs, dablog
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Part one of this post: In the Beginning is here.

I mentioned how Robert Stacy McCain made a huge difference in my life. That came from this post titled “Send DaTechGuy to CPAC” :

Before I left Massachusetts a week ago, I told him that if he’d create a PayPal account, I’d make sure the tip-jar hitters sent him to CPAC. He said, “I need $800 a week, plus expenses.” And today, I noticed he’d created the “Do It Myself Fund.”

To the shock of everyone including me the money came in and I attended what would be the 1st of many CPACS during the 2010’s

At CPAC 2010 I created a Youtube account for the videos I shot. It began with this interview of Steve Eggleston of No Runny Eggs.

This would eventually become DaTechGuy’s Field Guide to Bloggers. Some like Nice Deb who have gone on to bigger things, Some like the Lonely Conservative who would put me up when covering events in NY. And some who have become huge names like Dana Loesch, Kurt Schlichter and Professor William Jacobson.

All this became ten years of videos and interviews from covering events that were a big deal on youtube until a year ago but that’s a story for part 3.

The Trip to CPAC was the catalyst but the thing that pushed me over the line was April 14th in Boston MA when the Tea Party Express came to town for a rally. I decided to go and cover it getting video like this of Sarah Palin taking the stage

and plenty of great photos But the real shock was that I found myself I was invited onto the bus heading for the DC rally and decided to accept with only the clothes on my back, a laptop in need of a charge, no place to stay in DC just the credit cards in my wallet. It was a leap of faith and what a leap it was.

It was during the course of this bus trip that I bought my first flip phone (Standing behind Victoria Jackson in line at the Radio Shack) which was used to call DaWife and tell her where I was and what I was doing. She was not pleased.

This Trip however was the trip that made me as a blogger. I interviewed Byron York who was the 1st member of the MSM I ever encountered who had heard of me.

I interviewed Tucker Carlson, I interviewed Andrew Breitbart for the 1st time and most importantly interviewed Clara Csiong who having fled the communists in China & Cubs saw what was coming today more clearly than anyone else

When Glenn Reynolds instalanched my tipjar shake to cover the expenses of this unscheduled trip I decided to see if I could make a living blogging.

It would all become a whirl. It led to a radio gig, DaTechGuy on DaRadio on WCRN Worcester and then syndicated on stations in the Money Matters Radio network. I would write for the examiner and pick up other writing gigs making a few bucks here and there.

But the real deal came as I earned my catchphrase: “Have fedora will travel” by the grace of my readers. I who had not even been on a commercial flight since my honeymoon would thanks to the generosity of my readers travel across the country. I would fly to Arizona, Colorado and Georgia to cover campaigns. I would drive with Stacy McCain through 7 states covering the big red wave of 2010. CPAC 2010 became CPAC 2011 and more. The tip jar hits and the interviews with people like Steve Bannon before the Trump years when he was a CPAC outcast , Pam Geller and Robert Spencer who were warning the world of the things we are now seeing kept coming. And during Weinergate I would have one of my blog posts appear as a column in the New York Post and lead to an appearance on the local Fox Station in Boston.

I would cover the 2012 and 2016 election campaigns being credentialed press at the Mitt Romney Victory Party. The blog would expand to it’s own domain and I would hire my magnificent seven writers, who even now still produce content on the blog (although of the original team only John Ruberry still remains) and it seemed for a while that I might be able to make it in this business.

But as I was to discover notoriety is not the same as income.

To be concluded on Sunday…

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