Posts Tagged ‘media template’

My Favorite Screwtape Quote, Journalists and #learntomanufacture

Posted: March 31, 2020 by datechguy in American Success Stories, business, culture, media, News/opinion
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If you have read this blog for any length of time you know that I like to quote the C.S. Lewis Class The Screwtape letters which is a series of letters from a senior tempter in hell, Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood who is assigned to tempt and help damn a particular Englishman during 1939 and 1940.

Of all the quotes I’ve used from the 39 various letters the one I’ve used most often comes from a letter excoriating Screwtape for allowing his “patient” an actual pleasure that resulted in repentance.

The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality. Thus if you had been trying to damn your man by the Romantic method…you would try to protect him at all costs from any real pain; because, of course, five minutes’ genuine toothache would reveal the romantic sorrows for the nonsense they were and unmask your whole stratagem.

C.S. Lewis Screwtape 13

This has been the great reality of that our current situation has brought us. What has become rapidly apparent is that items that were considered critical for anyone of virtue, from discarding plastic bags and plastic straws to using the right pronouns are nothing compared to stocking shelves, and delivering food, to wit:

“We went from being nobodies to essential workers,” said Chad Montgomery, also a driver with Challenger Motor Freight. “I’ve never felt appreciated in my job until now. A lot of people don’t realize it takes a truck to get stuff on shelves. If it wasn’t for a truck driver, you would have nothing.”

via ace who likely already knew this, but a lot of people, particuarly those in elite media, either in news or entertainment do not grasp that while we can live without media reports or new movies, we can’t live without the food and goods the truckers deliver.

Nothing illustrates this better than journalists who when nuts when Mike Lindell of My Pillow took the podium at the president’s latest presser. Our media betters all had shocked reactions, great quips and clever one liners to deploy at his expense.

What could he offer that was more important than that? Only a factory being retooled to create 50,000 N95 masks a day that the country needs desperately right now.

The reality that is this crisis has illustrated what’s real and what isn’t to a culture that had forgotten.

So to our media and entertainment friends who consider themselves so vital I have some suggestions for you via hashtags

  1. #learntotruck
  2. #learntofarm
  3. #learntomanufacture
  4. #learntostock

When you can do those things, then you’ll be as important as a truck driver or a farmer or a grocery store worker or maybe if you’re very lucky someday, the MyPillow guy.

One point missing from Stacy McCain’s ‘Grisly Calculus’ on the Corona/Wuhan Virus

Posted: March 24, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, media, News/opinion, politics
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On Saturday Robert Stacy McCain put up an excellent post concerning the math of the Corona/Wuhan virus:

Notice I’m counting deaths, rather than the reported number of infections. The reason for this is that death is a fixed target, whereas identifying people who are infected is variable. It has been reported that about 80% of people infected with Wuhan coronavirus have only mild symptoms — a few days of sniffling and sneezing, no different than the common cold — and some have no symptoms at all. There has been a shortage of tests for the virus, and many U.S. patients have only been tested in the past few days, so we can expect a significant upswing in the number of known cases over the next week or so, but that does not necessarily mean the actual number of cases is increasing. Therefore, I’m focusing strictly on the number of deaths from the virus.

This is an important point because reducing the number of deaths is the actual goal of all the draconian measures taken to this point.

Stacy Also points out something I’ve mentioned on the Podcast more than once that blue urban areas are the ones most affected.

The key will be to keep track of (a) the total number of U.S. deaths, and (b) the percentage of deaths in the top 10 states in comparison to the rest of the country. As I say, the number of people reported as infected may increase rapidly without telling us very much. You could test positive for Wuhan coronavirus and never get very sick at all. It’s the serious cases requiring hospitalization that will put a strain on our health-care system, and the number of deaths will be a good barometer of how that’s going.

If you don’t have any symptoms, you don’t need to be tested. The media are panicking about the lack of testing because guess what? The media are based in urban centers where the risk of getting this disease is much higher than it is for Americans living out in the boondocks

That’s part of the key as well, if you are in an urban center and/or a place full of people who travel internationally you are much more likely to get the virus than if you are getting a scallop dinner for takeout at Mike’s Clam Shack in Wells Maine as I did with DaWife on Friday. Thus NY, Chicago LA & DC have cause more cause for concern than folks in Fitchburg MA or Wells ME.

But there is one other component of the math that Stacy is Missing concerning the hue and cry over testing. It a point I was making concerning the President’s handling of the case during my tale of Brer Donkey, Brer Rino, Brer Trump and the Coronabriarpatch

Meanwhile Brer Trump took Brer Owl and his team’s advice and coordinated with industry. He realized that while you couldn’t destroy the #coronabriarpatch he started taking the steps needed to keep the #coronabriarpatch under control and did such a good job that even Brer Newsom and Brer Cuomo who worked for Brer Donkey had some nice things to say about him.

Nevertheless Brer Media, Brer Deepstate Brer Rino and Brer Donkey kept insisting that millions of people where going to die and the economy of Brer Eagle’s land was going to tank in the #coronabriarpatch because Brer Trump was doing a bad job. They insisted be thrown in the CornoaBriarPatch and prove there was a safe way out. They were convinced that he wouldn’t be able to get out before election day to stop Brer Old Slow Joe.

Remember for the media and the left the Corona Virus isn’t a dangerous disease that needs to be stopped, to them Donald Trump is the disease and the Corona Virus and panic over it are the tools to use in order to destroy him.

That’s why they are so fixated on the number of infections vs the number of deaths and why they are so anxious to push the idea that not having a test for everyone is proof of failure. This isn’t about informing the public in a crisis situation, it’s about throwing that same “Orange Man Bad” pitch that they’ve been hurling for three years and tying to generate a metric to help that pitch alone.

As I noted on twitter a few days ago:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Anyone who thinks the media has changed its stripes over this crisis is a fool.

CNN Letter to Sean Davis (with apologies to Abe Lincoln & Horace Greeley)

Posted: March 23, 2020 by datechguy in elections, fun, media, News/opinion, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
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There are many who seem confused by the MSM’s behavior toward China, Russia Iran and even towards the efforts to arrest the spread of the Corona / Wuhan Virus in the US. This behavior has drawn harsh responses from conservatives and confusion to those who believe the media operate in the pubic interest. For those who might be confused this letter might explain their actions:

CNN offices,
Atlanta, March 22, 2020.

Sean Davis The Federalist:
Dear Sir.

We have just read your tweet of the 21st. addressed to ourselves through that medium & previous statements through the Federalist. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which we may know to be erroneous, We and other mainstream media do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which we may believe to be falsely drawn, We do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, We waive it in deference to a fellow member of the media although as you are on the right you don’t really deserve such deference.

As to the policy We “seem to be pursuing” as you say, we have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

We would save the Union from Donald Trump. We would save it the shortest way under the Constitution or outside of it. The sooner the national authority of our allies in the Deep state in general and the Democrat party in particular, can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” before those horrible days of the internet, Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge in the days before he decided to join our noble cause.

If there be those who would not save the Union from Donald Trump, unless they could at the same time attack Communist China or Putin Iran and save the nation from the spread of the Corona Virus , We do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy Communist China, Putin or even Iran, We do not agree with them.

Our paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union from Donald Trump, and is not either to save or to destroy Communist China, Putin Iran or even the Corona Virus. If we could save the Union from Donald Trump without helping Communist China, Russia, Iran or even the spread of the Corona virus we would do it, and if we could save the Union from Donald Trump by directly helping Communist China, Russia, Iran and the spread of the Corona Virus we would do it; and if we could save the Union from Donald Trump, by helping Communist China, Russia, Iran and the spread of the corona virus in some cases and hindering Communist China, Russia, Iran and the spread of the Corona Virus in others we would also do that.

What we write, broadcast and report about Communist China, Russia, Iran and the Corona Virus,we do because we believe it helps to save the Union from Donald Trump; and what we forbear, we forbear because we do not believe it would help to save the Union from Donald Trump.

We shall do less to help efforts to fight the Corona Virus in the US whenever we shall believe what we are doing hurts the cause of defeating Donald Trump in November, and we shall do more to help efforts to fight the Corona Virus whenever we shall believe doing more will help the cause of defeating Donald Trump in November. We shall try to correct errors when shown to be also errors in our efforts in obtaining that goal of Trump destruction; and we shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be in aid of that effort to destroy Donald Trump.

We have here stated our purpose, shared by other members of the media on TV, online and in print according to our view of the official duty of the media to destroy conservatism in general and Donald Trump in particular; and we intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free of Donald Trump in particular and conservatism in general.

Yours,
CNN.

If you wish to read a slightly modified version of this letter which was sent by some fellow named Abe Lincoln to a newspaperman by the name of Horace Greeley on August 22nd 1862 in response to critiques of his actions concerning fighting of the American Civil War you can read it here.

Donald Trump & The One Pitch Media

Posted: March 21, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, baseball, media, politics, Sports
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Before the Corona Virus took sports away from America (other than Dynasty baseball which you should sign up for at once use code USA2 for a free month till March 31st and join my leagues) the biggest scandal in sports was the revelation that the Houston Astros were stealing signs illegally during their 2017 World Series Championship season.

The reason why this matters so much in baseball is that a batter has a fraction of a second to decide to swing at a pitch or not. Knowing what is coming increases the odds of a big clutch hit and decreases the odds of a rally killing out.

This is why it’s so important for pitchers to have more than one effective pitch. The more pitches his has the more different deliveries a batter has to be ready for.

And of course the opposite is also true. If a pitcher only has one pitch. unless he’s hall of fame pitcher Walter Johnson (“You knew what was coming but so what?“) that pitcher isn’t going to last long in the majors as the batters will eat him alive.

These days the media is a lot like that pitcher with only one pitch.

For three years the media has thrown the same “orange man bad” pitch every day without ceasing. Practically every single thing the media has said and done from press conferences, to news reports to town halls has been driven by this message.

Now at the start when people were 1st seeing that pitch it could have some effect but after three years we’re reached the point where the administration in general and President Trump in particular see that pitch coming and can hit it every time (in fact President Trump has been hitting that pitch for quite a while). In fact even republicans in the house and senate have reached the point where they are taking the media’s best pitch and driving it up the middle for a hit.

Even worse for the media than President Trump seeing that pitch coming, the American people are seeing it too. Such was the case yesterday during the update on the Corona Virus from the White House.

Yet the media even now has only one pitch in their arsenal the Orange Man Bad pitch. It was growing old in a time of prosperity and full employment, in a time of national and international crisis this pitch, when contrasted to the substance coming from the White House is easy for President Trump to knock over the wall.

The American people because of the crisis have been watching and listening to the daily updates from the President and his team on this subject. The President and his team have been sober and straight on what they’ve said and done and have spent their time talking substance. When people are looking for information and the only thing in the minds of the press is: “How do I nail Trump?” they not only look petty but come off as completely uninterested in informing a public desperate for info.

Even worse at a time when people’s lives are at risk and their lively hoods are at state the whole “woe is me” bit from elite media plays even worse.

This inept and obsessed media is one of the President’s biggest assets and for all his rhetoric I suspect he wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

Never have a seen a man so lucky in his enemies.

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