Greetings again everyone. Well, we're about a week into 2022 now, and quite frankly it sort of feels a lot like last year. But even though this year may be off to a slow start, we're all hoping things will turn around by next month (if we ever get a grasp on this pandemic), and things will be kinda like late last summer. Right now, I'm just somewhat hopeful that I am able to get a newer laptop sometime this spring. Why, you ask? Well, the keyboard on my Acer Aspire took a dirt nap, and as of right now, I'm using the on-screen keyboard for it. But I have a Chromebook, so everything's hunky-dory, right? Not quite. It doesn't run on Windows, and with version 11 out, I'd like to upgrade to a newer laptop since my current Acer is eight(!) years old. My birthday is nearly a month away (February 8), so maybe there's some hope. In the meantime, I'll try to get used to typing on my Chromebook.
I was going to do my usual #tbt segment here, but for most of the day today I wasn't in the best of moods. Reason? Today was the one-year anniversary of Dumb Donald's attempt at an insurrection and try (unsuccessfully) to overturn what was a fair election. I'd rather not talk about what that dimwit did that day. His braindead followers storming the Capitol. The chants of "Hang Mike Pence" ringing aloud. Kimberly Goofoil (sic) performing a sorry $5 table dance (like a cheap stripper along US19) while watching the video monitors of the "Save America" rally as her (alleged) cokehead fiancee, Donald Jr. looked on. The whole sorry scene should have been enough to make any rational human being sick to their stomach. But alas, some people wanted the Capitol to burn to the ground. That kind of thinking caused me to delete my first Facebook page as well as excommunicate the folks I grew up in Robeson County, NC (by the way, if you ever travel through North Carolina on I-95, make sure you're north of I-40). The whole thing seemed like it was a very poorly written finale of a TV show...
Which leads me to the next part of my rant, the media. The whole prior administration reeked of a goddamn lame ass sitcom, produced by Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and the dolts at Fox News. And if you see any of the programming on that cable outlet, you'd think that America is failing because of the other party, when in fact, the party that they kiss ass to was ultimately responsible nominating the POS and ultimately stealing winning the Presidency in 2016. Ever play around on the radio? Ever notice that almost EVERY newstalk station (at least here in Tampa, more on that in a bit) leans decidedly Republican? In fact, Mark Levin, who's show once aired in the nightime on WFLA-AM (I haven't listened to that station since 2016, aside from Lightning hockey) would hang up on any listener who dared disagreed with him (even so much as to call them morons). And of course their usual suspects of right-leaning goofballs, Rush (may he rot in pieces), liar extraordinaire Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. Beck especially because he launched to national prominence because of a fluke impassioned speech after 9/11. And guess which station he was on at the time? WFLA-AM. Now he runs the Blaze, which is you guessed it, a right-wing media group. If not for that fluke speech, he'd be another failed FM DJ hosting an afternoon drive show in a mid-major market. One other talking head that I think is still on that station, Todd Schnitt, better known as MJ Kelli who gave up his morning gig at WFLZ-FM to work on his afternoon gig. I know he used to have an hour of his show on NewsMax (which is worse than Fox if we're being honest), but it's no longer there. I do remember he was a fervent supporter of T**** during his campaign for President, I don't know if that is the case now (I would hope not), but he's back doing mornings on a different station, on a different broadcaster.
Reason I bring all this up was that some twenty years ago, WFLA (as well as many other stations that were owned by what is now iHeart media) switched their news affiliation from ABC to FOX. In the days and weeks after 9/11, they seemed to be a lap dog for them President Bush. It was so nauseating that at one point, on a message board (remember those things?), I had critical of WFLA and their decidedly Pro-America agenda (war with terrorists, Patriot Act, etc., think of the theme song from "Team America: World Police), so much so that I even accused them of soliciting propaganda. I was practically laughed off the message board then, but some twenty years later, to quote Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," I hate it when I'm right.
This is just my opinion, but in retrospect it seemed that the 2016 election and ensuing administration was a planned takeover of America by the media that has been in place for a long time, at least twenty-six years (if not longer). Roger Stone in part created Fox News because of Richard Nixon's resignation, and this was his way I imagine of creating a news outlet based on conservatism, which is not all that great quite frankly. So far, his plan has somewhat come to fruition, to the overall detriment to the country. As a kid, I was a fan of Reagan, mainly in part because my stepmother was raised in the same general vicinity (NW Illinois). I didn't know much about politics as a kid, and I still don't now, but I realize as a middle-age man that his legacy of what makes America wasn't exactly what our Founding Fathers had in mind. I thought the goal was to create a more perfect Union; you can't really have that without diversity and inclusivity.
I'm not letting CNN or MSNBC or Vice News off the hook lightly by the way. Some of their programming is nothing more than performance activism used to advance an agenda. Instead of reporting the news, they're somewhat trying to create it. What happened to "just the facts, ma'am/man?" I mean, why does one of America's more divisive civil rights leaders have his own show on the weekends? I guess I long for the days when CNN actually reported news, not just here in the USA, but around the world as well. IN any event, I wish the media would get its shit together, or we'll wind up with another January 6 on our hands.
My TBT segment will come later on Friday.
Until next time.
CT
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