Media Corruption
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The Washington Post took note of the violence and vandalism and somehow concluded that Musk had incited it with his policies. Parnshu Verma posted:
Did you catch that? Incited by Musk's politics? So he's the one ultimately responsible for this hatred and destruction. And it's not "anger" against Musk that's turning violent, it's activists who are turning violent. They think they're doing something heroic after Musk tried to starve children overseas and interfere with LGBTQ outreach in Serbia by making cuts at USAID.
Why are Democrats so violent? Molotov cocktails? Gunfire? We thought they were for electric cars and against gun ownership.
WaPo' post falls under the "but her skirt was too short" umbrella. How about, "Activists, incited by hate, turn violent and target Tesla lots and dealerships"?
Did you catch that? Incited by Musk's politics? So he's the one ultimately responsible for this hatred and destruction. And it's not "anger" against Musk that's turning violent, it's activists who are turning violent. They think they're doing something heroic after Musk tried to starve children overseas and interfere with LGBTQ outreach in Serbia by making cuts at USAID.
Why are Democrats so violent? Molotov cocktails? Gunfire? We thought they were for electric cars and against gun ownership.
WaPo' post falls under the "but her skirt was too short" umbrella. How about, "Activists, incited by hate, turn violent and target Tesla lots and dealerships"?
The Washington Post took note of the violence and vandalism and somehow concluded that Musk had incited it with his policies. Parnshu Verma posted:
Did you catch that? Incited by Musk's politics? So he's the one ultimately responsible for this hatred and destruction. And it's not "anger" against Musk that's turning violent, it's activists who are turning violent. They think they're doing something heroic after Musk tried to starve children overseas and interfere with LGBTQ outreach in Serbia by making cuts at USAID.
Why are Democrats so violent? Molotov cocktails? Gunfire? We thought they were for electric cars and against gun ownership.
WaPo' post falls under the "but her skirt was too short" umbrella. How about, "Activists, incited by hate, turn violent and target Tesla lots and dealerships"?
Musk's stuff is a less riskier target. Now if they go after Trump's stuff the penalties are worse.
Another WaPo Columnist Bites the Dust
Ruth Marcus is leaving the Washington Post.
What a loss. What a loss.
Marcus is one of the many liberal columnists at the Post who are upset at Jeff Bezos' decision to move the paper's Opinion Page in a more liberty-friendly direction, promoting free market ideas and personal liberty rather than the soft-socialism usually found on the pages of the Post.
In one way I applaud Marcus for taking a stand for principle; in another, I am inclined to roll my eyes. As a 66-year-old she is a spring chicken by Washington standards, hardly eligible by age to become a junior Senator. Her mental decline has not begun, and her income potential is likely enhanced by taking a cost-free stand for principle.
Still, her gig as Deputy Editorial Page Editor at one of the most prestigious, if declining, newspapers was a really nice gig that most journalists would happily give a body part for. So minor kudos, I guess.
Marcus is leaving because the Editor spiked a column in which she took on Bezos' diktat that the paper was moving libertyward. It is no surprise that promoting liberty is anathema to her, and that she cannot abide having her words appear next to anybody who doesn't agree with her.
One Fact Missing From Every DOGE Story
The next time you hear someone complaining that DOGE is “slashing” federal spending or “dismantling” the government, pay close attention. There will almost certainly be an important fact left out: The gargantuan federal deficit.
Every day brings a new sob story about how someone is being hurt by Elon Musk’s chainsaw because some federal program is being shut down, or because a precious federal job has been axed.
Never in any of these is any context provided. And in this case, context is everything.
By the time President Donald Trump took office – four months into the new fiscal year (which started last October), the federal government was already $840 billion in the red. That’s a 58% increase from the prior year.
If all goes well, the deficit for this year will total $1.9 trillion, according to the Treasury Department, which would be the third annual increase.
The result is that the national debt is now $37 trillion – more than double what it was a decade ago. Interest on the debt took off like a rocket under Joe Biden.
None of this is sustainable.
And if anyone suggests to you that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are to blame, they aren’t.
This year, revenues will equal 18.7% of the nation’s GDP. That’s well above the postwar average of 17.2% – and it is a level that has been topped only seven times in the past 80 years.
Too much spending, not too little taxation, is the problem.
This year, federal spending is on course to equal 25% of GDP, which is significantly higher than the 20% postwar average, and a level topped only twice since World War II – (both times because of massive COVID spending).
Not all of this is Joe Biden’s fault. The federal government has not run a balanced budget since 2001. Ten of the past 20 years have seen annual deficits above $1 trillion. Runaway entitlements are making it nearly impossible to balance the budget. And Republicans have often proved just as eager as Democrats to spend money we don’t have.
But Biden made everything much, much worse.
Why is this context always missing from all those “slashing” stories?
Because Democrats and the press don’t want the public to know just how dire the nation’s fiscal situation is. The public is already generally supportive of DOGE’s efforts to eliminate waste. But if it knew just how bad things were, support for deep spending cuts would only increase.
The same is true for Medicaid. Democrats are howling about proposals to cut Medicaid spending by $800 billion – over 10 years.
What’s never mentioned is the fact that Medicaid spending shot up 68% over the past decade. If the government simply returned to what Medicaid spent the year Biden took office, it would save almost $700 billion over the next decade.
Trump has promised to drain the swamp. He’s off to a fast start. But it will take much more than a few months of high-profile cancellations of grants and firings to get the budget under control. The Golden Age might be upon us, but it will be smothered in its crib if Democrats, weak-kneed Republicans, and a corrupt media keep playing the same games that got us into this mess in the first place.
In the “fake news detector” department, the New York Times ran a beautiful bit of emotionally manipulative journalistic malfeasance yesterday, headlined, “E.P.A. Plans to Close All Environmental Justice Offices.” Oh no! (Mr. Bill.) The Times resumed its default factory setting: triggered outrage. Let’s learn how to spot them.
The ‘story’ began with words, always a red flag. It’s about a memo. The tearful Times received a leaked memorandum from new EPA Director Lee Zeldin (who is crushing it), that directed reorganizing and eliminating the EPA’s “offices of environmental justice” at all 10 regional headquarters plus Washington. These “environmental justice” sub-departments are exactly what you’d expect — a DEI staffing bonanza — featuring a mission the credulous Times described as “trying to ease the burden of pollution on poor and minority communities.”
Trying.
From the Times’ skeptical perspective, the memo was the worst thing that has ever happened in human history, including the Black Death, the Battle of Aguincourt, or even the final episode of Lost. (“We know exactly where the story is going,” they kept telling us for six mysterious seasons, lying the whole time. We should have known better. It was right in the show’s title, which turned out to be the storyline’s self-description. Duh. Anyway, I’m not bitter.)
Even worse, Zeldin also canceled hundreds of EPA grants this week (it was running a miniature USAID). The Times said many of the grants were “designated for environmental justice.” I call it a good start. But not to the Grey Lady’s editors. Closing these silly, useless offices proved “this administration gives not a single damn for the people of the United States,” said former E.P.A. official Matthew Tejada, who now receives a generous salary from a progressive NGO. Of course.
Yikes! That doesn’t sound like an overreaction at all. They don’t care about us! Not one little bit! And this proves it!
The obvious implication was that Trump and Zeldin are racist and are cutting crucial and effective environmental justice offices, putting poor people in a pickle, or tossing them into radioactive sludge or something.
But if you read critically, you can spot the trick. It’s not hard.
The Times’ article never actually cited a single concrete example of the EPA’s “justice” offices ever accomplishing anything. Instead, it leaned on fuzzy generalizations (“three decades of work”), appeals to authority (quoting former officials and activist groups), and heated emotional rhetoric (suggesting the closures disregard human lives). The only semi-specific claim — a lawsuit against a petrochemical plant located near a black neighborhood, now dismissed — was filed by the Biden administration, not any of the crack team of EPA’s “environmental justice” employees.
So, the first fake news flag was the article’s framing as about Zeldin — but it never explained the Director’s argument, or even quoted him explaining his decision. The reporters described nothing that EPA critics complain about. Even though the lack of any identifiable accomplishments strongly suggested utter uselessness, the Times studiously avoided mentioning it at all.
There was a second giant fake news flag: the article never quoted anyone who supports the decision to close the EPA’s environmental justice offices, even though it quoted multiple critics at length. Many of those were anonymous, like unnamed EPA employees “bracing for firings” and DOJ employees framed as reluctantly complying with Zeldin’s orders to drop the petro-plant lawsuit.
Modern definitions of propaganda include: persuasion through careful curation of true information, selective omissions, hamhanded emotional appeals instead of evidence, ‘framing’ to shape perception, appeals to cherry-picked authorities, and diligent suppression of counter-narratives.
You can every one of those propaganda elements used in this short NYT article that is ostensibly just about a memo.
In a sense, there was a poetic kind of ‘justice.’ Like the wasteful EPA, the Times wasted 1,200 words wailing over offices it couldn’t even claim had ever done anything helpful except for “trying.”
Wait! I have an idea: Maybe they should apply for an EPA grant.
The real outrage wasn’t Zeldin’s memo—it was that the Times thinks we’re dumb enough to keep falling for its manipulative jiggery-pokery. Read critically.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
The ‘story’ began with words, always a red flag. It’s about a memo. The tearful Times received a leaked memorandum from new EPA Director Lee Zeldin (who is crushing it), that directed reorganizing and eliminating the EPA’s “offices of environmental justice” at all 10 regional headquarters plus Washington. These “environmental justice” sub-departments are exactly what you’d expect — a DEI staffing bonanza — featuring a mission the credulous Times described as “trying to ease the burden of pollution on poor and minority communities.”
Trying.
From the Times’ skeptical perspective, the memo was the worst thing that has ever happened in human history, including the Black Death, the Battle of Aguincourt, or even the final episode of Lost. (“We know exactly where the story is going,” they kept telling us for six mysterious seasons, lying the whole time. We should have known better. It was right in the show’s title, which turned out to be the storyline’s self-description. Duh. Anyway, I’m not bitter.)
Even worse, Zeldin also canceled hundreds of EPA grants this week (it was running a miniature USAID). The Times said many of the grants were “designated for environmental justice.” I call it a good start. But not to the Grey Lady’s editors. Closing these silly, useless offices proved “this administration gives not a single damn for the people of the United States,” said former E.P.A. official Matthew Tejada, who now receives a generous salary from a progressive NGO. Of course.
Yikes! That doesn’t sound like an overreaction at all. They don’t care about us! Not one little bit! And this proves it!
The obvious implication was that Trump and Zeldin are racist and are cutting crucial and effective environmental justice offices, putting poor people in a pickle, or tossing them into radioactive sludge or something.
But if you read critically, you can spot the trick. It’s not hard.
The Times’ article never actually cited a single concrete example of the EPA’s “justice” offices ever accomplishing anything. Instead, it leaned on fuzzy generalizations (“three decades of work”), appeals to authority (quoting former officials and activist groups), and heated emotional rhetoric (suggesting the closures disregard human lives). The only semi-specific claim — a lawsuit against a petrochemical plant located near a black neighborhood, now dismissed — was filed by the Biden administration, not any of the crack team of EPA’s “environmental justice” employees.
So, the first fake news flag was the article’s framing as about Zeldin — but it never explained the Director’s argument, or even quoted him explaining his decision. The reporters described nothing that EPA critics complain about. Even though the lack of any identifiable accomplishments strongly suggested utter uselessness, the Times studiously avoided mentioning it at all.
There was a second giant fake news flag: the article never quoted anyone who supports the decision to close the EPA’s environmental justice offices, even though it quoted multiple critics at length. Many of those were anonymous, like unnamed EPA employees “bracing for firings” and DOJ employees framed as reluctantly complying with Zeldin’s orders to drop the petro-plant lawsuit.
Modern definitions of propaganda include: persuasion through careful curation of true information, selective omissions, hamhanded emotional appeals instead of evidence, ‘framing’ to shape perception, appeals to cherry-picked authorities, and diligent suppression of counter-narratives.
You can every one of those propaganda elements used in this short NYT article that is ostensibly just about a memo.
In a sense, there was a poetic kind of ‘justice.’ Like the wasteful EPA, the Times wasted 1,200 words wailing over offices it couldn’t even claim had ever done anything helpful except for “trying.”
Wait! I have an idea: Maybe they should apply for an EPA grant.
The real outrage wasn’t Zeldin’s memo—it was that the Times thinks we’re dumb enough to keep falling for its manipulative jiggery-pokery. Read critically.
☕️ THE NEW ABNORMAL ☙ Wednesday, March 12, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
Terrific EPA news buried in NYT spin; Ukraine’s instant ceasefire deal & its historical echoes; Kursk disaster reshapes the war; inflation wrecks Dem narratives on eggs & gas; and much more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
Yesterday, the LA Times ran an unintentionally terrific story headlined, “Trump guts the Education Department with massive layoffs; shock waves reach California.”
Newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon has leapt into the educational ring holding a folding chair. “The Trump administration,” the Times reported, “has begun dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by laying off about half of the agency’s employees.” In San Francisco, the regional branch of the department’s Office for Civil Rights will be closed.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone. Immediately after her confirmation, McMahon issued a staff memo titled “Our Department’s Final Mission” — which was shutting itself down. But the LA Times’ article was packed with Chicken Little quotes about this being the latest worst thing that has ever happened. “These reckless layoffs will sow chaos and confusion throughout our nation’s public school system,” promised Guillermo Mayer, president of Public Advocates, a California-based law firm and “advocacy group.”
Trump plans to delete the Department of Education and simply send the money straight to the states instead. Every Republican president has promised to cancel the Department of Education since long before I was a fetus and before Linda McMahon grappled with her first costumed wrestler.
Now, for the first time, it is actually happening. Cage match.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
Newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon has leapt into the educational ring holding a folding chair. “The Trump administration,” the Times reported, “has begun dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by laying off about half of the agency’s employees.” In San Francisco, the regional branch of the department’s Office for Civil Rights will be closed.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone. Immediately after her confirmation, McMahon issued a staff memo titled “Our Department’s Final Mission” — which was shutting itself down. But the LA Times’ article was packed with Chicken Little quotes about this being the latest worst thing that has ever happened. “These reckless layoffs will sow chaos and confusion throughout our nation’s public school system,” promised Guillermo Mayer, president of Public Advocates, a California-based law firm and “advocacy group.”
Trump plans to delete the Department of Education and simply send the money straight to the states instead. Every Republican president has promised to cancel the Department of Education since long before I was a fetus and before Linda McMahon grappled with her first costumed wrestler.
Now, for the first time, it is actually happening. Cage match.
☕️ HOT DIGGETY DOG ☙ Thursday, March 13, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
EPA chainsaws climate regs; inflation drops, eggs, & gas prices; DOE downsizes in brutal cage match; Russia levels Kursk, sets terms; Trump speeds peace talks; WSJ exposes science fraud; more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
Joe and Mika LIED About Musk Seeking to 'Eliminate' Social Security, Medicare
The blowhards at MSNBC’s Morning Joe should realize that continuing to shoot lies through their whitened tooth implants on the air about Elon Musk doesn’t make them any more true. What’s worse is that they don’t even attempt to be clever about it.
Both hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were popping their brain corks over Musk’s March 10 interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow. Both just lied about the subject matter.
Mika went first during the March 11 edition of Morning Joe, shamelessly claiming Musk “referred to the federal spending programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, as the areas that need to be eliminated."
Fact check: False. The clip she played from the Kudlow show literally begins with Musk referring to “the waste report in entitlement spending” and noted that most of federal spending is entitlements — $1.56 trillion was paid out just to Medicare and Medicaid and another $1.35 trillion just to Social Security in FY2023 alone, not counting other entitlement programs. So that context alone makes sense when Musk followed by saying, “So that’s the big one to eliminate. That’s a half-trillion — maybe six-$700 billion a year.”
It’s obvious that he’s talking about eliminating waste, not ending the programs entirely.
Yesterday, the LA Times ran an unintentionally terrific story headlined, “Trump guts the Education Department with massive layoffs; shock waves reach California.”
Newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon has leapt into the educational ring holding a folding chair. “The Trump administration,” the Times reported, “has begun dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by laying off about half of the agency’s employees.” In San Francisco, the regional branch of the department’s Office for Civil Rights will be closed.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone. Immediately after her confirmation, McMahon issued a staff memo titled “Our Department’s Final Mission” — which was shutting itself down. But the LA Times’ article was packed with Chicken Little quotes about this being the latest worst thing that has ever happened. “These reckless layoffs will sow chaos and confusion throughout our nation’s public school system,” promised Guillermo Mayer, president of Public Advocates, a California-based law firm and “advocacy group.”
Trump plans to delete the Department of Education and simply send the money straight to the states instead. Every Republican president has promised to cancel the Department of Education since long before I was a fetus and before Linda McMahon grappled with her first costumed wrestler.
Now, for the first time, it is actually happening. Cage match.
☕️ HOT DIGGETY DOG ☙ Thursday, March 13, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
EPA chainsaws climate regs; inflation drops, eggs, & gas prices; DOE downsizes in brutal cage match; Russia levels Kursk, sets terms; Trump speeds peace talks; WSJ exposes science fraud; more.