Will It Be A Disaster?

I actually had to look this one up. I could not believe the fact that a CNN poll said that two-thirds of all Americans said it would be at the very least would be a setback, and at worst, would be a disaster if Joe Biden got reelected. That was on CNN, and Jake Tapper, in unveiling the poll, not once but twice used the word “horrible” to describe the situation the current president is in.

It’s taken me a few days to actually wrap my head around this one. We all know that Biden’s numbers are in the toilet as far as approval ratings go. Currently, a whopping 18 months before the election, Donald Trump beats Biden by 3 or 4 points depending on the poll, while Ron DeSantis is faring slightly worse and would be in a toss-up. That’s without the aid of much if any campaigning on DeSantis’ part.

When you think of a sitting president, who has announced intentions to run for a second term, and has an approval rating of only 36% you have to wonder what is going thru his head. When two-thirds of the nation says that this could be a disaster? You have to wonder why he would even consider staying in the race.

I’m not so sure he’s going to

My hunch is, Biden is going to pull an LBJ somewhere between now and the end of the year. He’s going to realize that this isn’t going to end well for him, and rather that go out with his tail between his legs and get whitewashed, he will most-likely pull out of the campaign. That would leave Democrats who already have a very short bench looking at someone, anyone really, to step in and try and compete with a Republican field that is much deeper, much more qualified, and is battle tested.

Let’s face it. No president has ever gone up for reelection with numbers as bad as Biden’s. Of course, no president up for reelection had the highest marks ever (90%) that George HW Bush had, and then lose the reelection to a virtual unknown like Bill Clinton back in 1992. But a lot can happen in a relatively short period of time in this race.

You have Donald Trump facing charges in New York over paying off Stormy Daniels for their sex romp. You have him facing three more investigations, any number of which could end up being indicted on charges, some of them felonious in nature. And you’ve got Biden looking frail, and hasn’t begun to campaign yet outside the Rose Garden. And that’s all before the Hunter Biden fallout takes hold. Most people feel that Biden is crooked, and is lying to the American people regarding how he got all of his money, and that he had never discussed Hunter’s business practices with his son. Something just isn’t adding up there.

But let’s say something happens to Trump and it’s more than a slap on the wrist. There is still a whole slew of candidates that could step up and take the lead in the GOP primary. I don’t know if you could say that with the Democrats.

The mere fact that a whopping two-thirds of the people CNN questioned mentioned that it would be a disaster to have Biden win reelection tells me that he has a very long way to go to even have a chance. Of course, I didn’t think that Biden had much of a chance of winning in 2020. Only time will tell!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Piling On DeSantis?

The Hill wrote an interesting piece the other day on why the Republican front-runners (or at least those that have already declared their desire to be President), have been piling on Ron DeSantis rather than Donald Trump. They were rather illogical in their conclusions as to why, but I had some thoughts on this.

In fact, I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now.

DeSantis is getting burned by Democrats, burned by the media, burned by people like Nikki Haley, burned by Donald Trump who has been relentless over him for the past several months, calling him “Ron Desanctimonious”. It’s not a very good attempt, but you get the idea.

Here’s what’s really happening.

I think there are a couple of reasons the lower tiered candidates are jumping on the “Crush DeSantis” bandwagon. The first is that if they bring him down to their level, they have a better chance of hanging around longer. I don’t think any of them, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswammy or even Asa Hutchinson are able to win the nomination. It’s a two horse race right now. By eliminating one of them, it becomes clear, and these folks can then start vying for their post-election jobs in a Trump administration.

Yeah, that’s right. It’s not about those also rans winning the nomination. It’s about them getting a slot in a new Trump administration should be beat Joe Biden. Recent polling, which as I’ve said before, doesn’t mean anything this far out, shows Trump ahead and DeSantis tied with Biden. No one else was even talked about. So, they need to see if they can become Trump’s VP, or grab a cabinet position somewhere.

The media isn’t on DeSantis side, and that should tell you something. They aren’t afraid of Trump. They are afraid of DeSantis. Trump has a slew of problems coming up. He’s already been indicted by Alvin Bragg for those phony charges in paying off Stormy Daniels after a sexcapade. And, seeing how it’s going to be a New York City jury, where 85% of the participants are most likely liberal and Democrat, do you think he has a chance in hell of escaping with a Not Guilty verdict? He’s also been hit with a $5 million suit from E. Jean Carroll. She’s actually filed a second suit against him after he trashed her in his CNN Town Hall. And then there are the other investigations going on like the one in Georgia, where Trump allegedly tried to “find votes” to win the state. That one seems to be heading toward another indictment.

So, the media isn’t really scared of Trump at this point. Democrats feel that Biden beat Trump once, he could certainly do it again, especially with all of the legal troubles The Donald is facing.

And Trump himself is hitting DeSantis hard because that’s what was in his 2016 playbook. He totally dismantled every single one of the 17 people that were running for the nomination by singling them out, and riding them until the weren’t a factor any longer. That’s what he’s doing with DeSantis. The others are like gnats at a picnic. He’s not the least bit concerned about them. And, as I mentioned, they don’t want to attack Trump because it could cost them a job in his administration.

If DeSantis can slide through the next few months unscathed, and actually cut into Trump’s sizable lead in the polls, he has a better than even chance to win the nomination. If not, he’s going to be down at the bottom with the rest of the wannabees.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

CNN Head Defends Trump Town Hall

Oh, there weren’t many employees of CNN that were very happy about Chris Licht’s decision to move forward with a town hall broadcast featuring the GOP leading candidate at this point, Donald Trump. Many of the employees thought that Licht was on some very powerful drugs. Some like Oliver Darcy, the CNN media reporter, got hauled into Licht’s office for a bitch session. He was berated for the way he covered the event, and tried to push back, but Licht failed to back down. People that watched Darcy come out of Licht’s office described him as “visibly shaken”.

Of course, the leftist socialists that comprise CNN’s audience couldn’t believe one of the left’s strongest allies was going to give a Republican time to spout whatever they wanted to on the channel. All sorts of leftist whack jobs came forth to complain. But it didn’t do any good. Chris Licht is trying very hard to make CNN a news channel to rival Fox News, not come in third behind MSNBC on a daily basis. So far, he’s met with a lot of resistance, and has had to fire a lot of personnel.

One that may end up being on the chopping block because of this is Kaitlan Collins, the 31 year-old that tried to fact check Trump in real time with terrible results. It got so bad that at the end of the broadcast, Trump called her “a nasty person”, and commented that she was a very bad host. It was very obvious to anyone that watched, and even those that only saw the highlights, Collins was way out of her league. The fact-checking didn’t go very well. She tried in real time to fact-check the former president, and failed miserably at it. Her style was anything less than professional, often arguing with Trump. That’s not a town hall, Kaitlin. That’s a debate, and you’re not running for anything (other than a job).

I do have to give Chris Licht some credit. He said when he came on board a year ago that he was going to make CNN more mainstream and less of a party platform for the Democrats and the Socialists out there. He has largely succeeded in that. When you look at the people that have left CNN in the past year, either of their own accord or by the boot, it’s pretty astonishing. Brian Stelter, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo (though he left before Licht got there), and the entire CNN+ group except for Chris Wallace, who really isn’t really doing much of anything there are all gone or heading out the door. Now you can soon add Oliver Darcy and possibly Kaitlin Collins to the mix.

It’s all done by design. Chris Licht was hired for one very simple reason. Advertisers weren’t flocking to the news channel because viewers were leaving it in droves. Oh, it happens to every news channel after a major election, and 2020 was no different. But where the audience usually comes back after a couple of months (it took six months in Fox News case), they were flipped to MSNBC when it came to CNN. And the one-time king of cable news not only was dethroned, but was relegated to a daily third place finish. Licht’s job was to correct that. And he’s making strides.

CNN is no longer a bash-Trump, bash-Republicans channel. Oh, they still have their slant, and it’s decidedly liberal. But in the end, it’s a lot better than it had been. I still hate watching the channel because it is still a liberal bastion, just not a socialist liberal bastion.

The key for Licht’s success will be in the numbers. If the audience comes back, the advertisers will come back. And if that happens you can kiss any chance of CNN returning to it’s liberal ways anytime soon. And who know? They may just end up giving Fox News a run for their money!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Eating Their Own

I always knew the time would come when liberals would eat liberals. It was just as natural as the sun rising in the east. And the reason is simple. There are so many differing factions to the Democrats and the liberals out there that they are bound to run into each other on occasion. But this one may have taken the cake.

Now, they are upset at CNN!

Oh, it’s happened in the past. In fact, it happened on Joe Biden’s first day as president. Remember he decided his first act in the White House was to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline project? Up to 11,000 people, all union members (read that as liberal…though the members usually aren’t) lost their jobs when Biden cancelled the project. But it happened again after CNN ran a town hall gathering with Donald Trump.

CNN had a town hall meeting with Donald Trump?

Yup. It was hosted by Kaitlan Collins, and had a bunch of Republicans and right-leaning independents in the audience. Trump was Trump, eschewing the fact that he had the 2020 election stolen from him. And he went on to say time and time again that Joe Biden isn’t fit to be the president in the first place.

And oh, did the libs every attack CNN for even considering to hold the town hall. Here’s the tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”

And it went on like that as the normally socialist network was lambasted by it’s audience. How dare they give a speck of time to a Republican, especially someone like Donald Trump?! They should be ashamed!!!

And that in a nutshell is the difference between the leftist socialist news channels, and what you see on the more conservative side, like Fox News, and Newsmax. At least Fox and to a lesser extent Newsmax are attempting to bring in the liberal view from time to time. Fox does a much better job of it, but they still manage to mostly either get rather moderate Democrats like Harold Ford Jr. or Geraldo Rivera to expound the liberal philosophy, or they end up with die-hard socialists that really make fools of themselves. Marie Harf, Leslie Marshall, and Jessica Tarlov come to mind of folks that fit into that vein.

You never really see a network like CNN or MSNBC catering to the other side. And when you do, it’s usually because they are bashing something a Republican somewhere has done. Here’s an example. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee held a press conference on Wednesday to show the world banking records his committee has uncovered regarding the Bidens. He outlined how there were fifteen different shell companies set up, mostly by Hunter Biden, and a few by Hunter’s buddies, that ended up funneling the money to nine different Bidens. You didn’t even hear word one of that on CNN or MSNBC. I don’t think any of the traditional networks broadcast that either. What they were busy talking about was the indictment of George Santos, the Republican Representative from New York that lied throughout his campaign. No mention of the Biden scandal, but they spent oodles of time covering this numbnutz.

And there in a nutshell is the difference between liberal and conservative. You can’t do anything right if you even mention the other side if you’re a liberal. And if you DON’T cover both sides as a conservative you’re hammered, not just by your own side, but by the left as well. And that’s how the left is able to sweep a lot of their more damning scandals under the rug. The question is, are they really going to be able to do it with Joe and Hunter Biden? And if that day comes, do you think places like CNN and MSNBC and the three broadcast networks will actually mention it? Back in the days of Watergate, all of the broadcast networks suspended their regular programming to cover the investigations on Capitol Hill about Richard Nixon. The phrase, “What did he know and when did he know it” became a part of our lexicon that is still used today. I doubt seriously you’ll see any of the broadcast networks cut into their soap operas and game shows to cover Joe Biden’s trial.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Dems Taking Issue With Abortion Pill Ruling

You have to say this about Democrats…if they don’t get their way one way, they’ll use whatever work around they have until they find one that works. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and her socialist liberal pals have once again proven that to be the case.

Democrats of all stripes are telling the Biden administration to ignore a court order that told the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop producing and making the abortion pill mifepristone available.

Now, you have to understand, this was a federal court judge that issued the ruling. He heard the case from both sides, and decided, based on what the Supreme Court said when they dismantled Roe v. Wade, that the FDA could no longer make this pill available on a nation-wide basis. It’s a states’ issue, and the states each have to decide whether or not they are going to allow this pill to be produced.

AOC’s comment occurred on CNN, “I believe that the Biden administration should ignore this ruling because deeply partisan judges have engaged in unprecedented and dramatic erosion of the legitimacy of the courts, calling the ruling unfounded.” 

Now, that would raise a lot of eyebrows in most circles. It actually did raise Anderson Cooper’s eyebrows. He asked AOC whether we should live in a country that just ignored what the courts deemed as legal or illegal. AOC’s response? The judge was using a “power grab”.

OK, so I’m starting to understand the picture a little better now. If a judge rules against what the Democrats want, they just want to ignore the ruling and do what they want to do. If the Democrats win something, and the GOP wants to call it a power grab, then the Democrats want to trash the GOP for trying to undermine the “rule of law in this country”. So, as has been said numerous times in numerous places, there seems to be two systems of justice. There is the Democrat system which is, we get to do what we want, and whatever the courts or the Constitution says be damned. Then you’ve got the Republican system which is they have to follow the law to the letter or get blasted by Democrats for trying to use a power grab, and usurp the rule of law.

Am I the only one that sees this as a tad bit hypocritical? And it’s not just this particular case that is upsetting to me. It’s a lot of cases. Take Joe Biden’s total disregard for the law when it comes to the southern border. Take Alvin Bragg’s total disregard for the law when he says he won’t prosecute certain crimes because they are committed more often than not by persons of color. It doesn’t matter what the rule of law says to these folks. It has to do with the fact that it isn’t what the Democrats want. So, like with election laws, if you don’t get your way, change the rules so they fit your narrative.

That is no way to run a country, folks. We either live in a nation where we ALL abide by ALL the laws, or we don’t. And if the Democrats are able to choose the laws they want to follow, so can you and I. That means that if you don’t want to pay income taxes, you should be able to use AOC’s words in court when the IRS comes knocking at your door, and tell them that you’re going to ignore tax law.

Likewise, if you live in Chicago, which has the nation’s toughest anti-gun laws, you can certainly carry a gun openly on the South Side of the Windy City by declaring that you don’t agree with the law so you are going to simply ignore it. It doesn’t matter what the left decides the laws are in their town. You have the ability, apparently to decide for yourself whether or not you want to follow it.

In a word, what I’ve just described is “anarchy”. It works far less often than socialism, which never works anywhere in the world.

I’m hoping that AOC finds out rather quickly that if she chooses to break a law, there will be someone there to prosecute her for it and send her rear end to jail. You don’t get to choose what laws you follow and what laws you don’t. And that doesn’t matter if you’re the president of the United States, a dumber than a box of rocks Congressman from New York, or you or me. It’s just the way our country works.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Tired Of The Lies!

Our country is in a quandary. We have “advanced” to the point where we are so far beyond where the Founding Fathers ever thought we’d end up, that we are off any page of any book by now. And there is one problem that is exacerbating the whole situation more than any other.

Lies.

When you look at it, the government has been lying to the American people for a very long period of time. I’m not talking just Democrats here, I’m talking the whole government. And the issues that we’ve been lied to about, are numerous. It’s not just one thing. There are a myriad of topics that government “spins” to give us their best view.

When you look at polls, I was amazed to believe that 61% of all Americans believe that government agents helped provoke the January 6th riots at the Capitol. And what that means is basically that most Americans feel that there were elements of the government that were undercover agents that spawned the riot at the Capitol building. The question is why? Were they Trump supporters that were upset over the election results? Were they leftists trying to get something to pin on Trump as he was ready to leave office? No one knows at this point.

Look at the lies Joe Biden has told us. My Lord, if you just take the lies that the guy has told over the last three years since he was running for president, about his own personal life, it’s staggering. Look at the lies that came out of Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee as they discussed behind closed doors impeaching Donald Trump a second time because of the Capitol riots. And what about the former Obama administration officials that lied to the American people saying they had proof that Donald Trump was a “Russian agent”, when they totally changed their tune in testifying before Congress on the subject.

Look at the lies we hear about in the media. How many stories has the three major cable news networks fabricated to get their ideology across, just in the last 10 years? You know, when our country was founded, the media was supposed to be the check on government. They were to be the spotlight that showed where the roaches were, so we could fumigate the place. That’s tough to do when they are lying to you and making up news stories that just aren’t true. Think about the journalists at the New York Times, and Washington Post, as well as CNN and MSNBC that have been fired for lying. I can count ten very easily, and they span Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The names are as household as IBM, Microsoft, and McDonalds. And these are the spotlights of truth?

You know, my mother always told me that she could tell when I was lying as a child because I had a white ring around my mouth. I don’t know where she came up with that, but it worked. I realized at a very young age that lying was difficult. It fought the truth, which always seemed to come out. You ended up not just lying once, but you ended up spinning a whole web of deceit to cover the one lie you told. I’ve seen it happen thousands of times. And it’s usually not the first lie that catches the liar, it’s the subsequent mis-truths.

I’ve often said that the breakdown of the family, and the loss of religion in our society has been the root cause of the decline of America, and I still believe that. But one of the large by-products of that are the lies being told. How many times did Nancy Pelosi tell lies about bills that were being debated and passed in the House of Representatives? How many times did she lie about what happened to her husband, Paul, when he got beat up in his own home? Or how many lies were told about his car crash and subsequent DUI? The truth always comes out, and when it does, it’s always worse than if someone had told the truth.

I’m just tired of the lies we are hearing from a government that is supposed to serve and protect us. I can’t count on anyone in government to give me the truth. Hell, they can’t give each other the truth. Did COVID come from a lab in Wuhan or a wet market because of bats? They say they don’t have consensus because they don’t want the truth to be known. The question you have to ask is, why are you covering this up? What is it that you really don’t want us to know? And what will be our reaction up the road when we find out the truth to all of this? Will we accept it because they’re all just politicians? Or will we hold them accountable for their lies. It’s sickening.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

How Did We Get Here?

There was an interesting thread between one of our beloved and intelligent readers, who’s blog I most certainly recommend to all of you. He goes by Mustang, and writes “Fix Bayonets”. Highly recommend it. The man knows what he talks about! Anyway, he posted on Saturday about how in the world did we get here, and it got me to thinking… how DID we get here?

Think of this for a minute. I don’t care what party you are from or where on the left/right pendulum you are situated, do you think that Dwight D. Eisenhower, or Harry S. Truman would take a look at the stuff going on in our country right now and think all is OK? Would Truman actually say that the buck is stopping with Biden? Or would he say, as Bill Clinton liked to say, “The buck never got here!”

I look at the way our government treats itself, treats the citizens, and treats our non-citizens, and wonder where we took that decided whacked turn off of the golden path of democracy? Would past presidents have gone along with an open border on the south? Would they have welcomed millions of illegals into the country without so much as batting an eyelash? And when they are called on it, they answer that the southern border is “secure”? Who does that?

And I look at the crime. How did we get to a place where five black police officers beat up a guy that ends up dying (he’s also black), and it’s blamed on racism (Thanks, CNN!)? Can someone please tell me what is racist about this incident? Everyone involved was of the same race…I mean, EVERYONE! And how do we get to the point where it’s also blamed on “white supremacy” when no one that was a part of it was white. In fact, the only white people that were involved were the people that actually charged the cops with second degree murder?

How do we get to a point where more emphasis and dollars are given to some crock about climate change, and let the people living on the streets of our cities go hungry, unhoused, uncared for? When did Greta Thunberg become so important that she trumps those millions of people living on our streets? Back in the day, those folks weren’t allowed to live on the streets. They were basically kept in asylums. At least they were until the leftists deemed it “cruel and unusual punishment” that they be kept there against their will. So, they were released, with no where to go, and no one to look out after them. The result is what you see today.

And how do we get to the point where presidents, former presidents, and vice presidents are allowed to take classified and top secret documents with them after they leave office? And the folks in Congress are shaking their heads wondering how it is that the current president was able, as a Senator, to go into a skiff, which is supposed to be secured, and heist a top secret document. Not just one mind you, but several…over a long period of time. What ever happened to that place being secure?

I have often looked around at our mess of a country and realized that we are indeed living in the decline of what can be called the greatest country in the world. No longer are we the best educated. No longer are we the richest. No longer are we the breadbasket of the world. Instead, we’re becoming (if we haven’t already become) second rate. Our students get out of high school with no idea how many states there are. They can’t read at a 12th grade level, and math? Forget about it. If they didn’t have a calculator with them, they couldn’t do simple addition and subtraction. How did they ever get passed from one grade to another? And when did critical race theory replace the three R’s when it comes to education? Who in the world is to blame for that one?

In case you missed it, the answer to that last question is the same for each of the instances above. The left is responsible. And actually, the right is responsible for allowing it to happen because they were afraid of being cancelled, or not being in the “in crowd” or some stupid thing like that. And both sides are guilty as sin. Both needs to be charged with ruining what was the greatest country in the history of the world.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Will CNN Make It Through 2023?

If you look at the history of mass media, there is a birth, a life, a death, and a rebirth of pretty much everything that is included in media. Take newspapers. After Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press back in 1440. Newspapers flourished. It was that way until 1920 when radio burst on the scene. At that point, you didn’t need newspapers to give you the news. Radio was quicker, easier, and cheaper. But newspapers could do what radio couldn’t. It could go much farther in depth. And so, when it died, newspapers found a different way to operate. They gave in-depth analysis into “why” something was happening, not just that it was happening.

And it’s happened that way with radio, and television, and cable television, and satellite television, All have been born, led a life, and for the most part have or are dying. Some have been reborn, like AM talk radio. You don’t hear too many AM stations playing music anymore. FM does a much better job. The question is, can one of the giants in cable news make it to the end of this year?

That giant is CNN.

Cable News Network, which started as a brain child of Ted Turner back in the 1980’s has been around for a couple of generations. It found it’s stride with blow-by-blow coverage of the first Gulf War back in 1990. It made household names out of it’s reporters who were on the ground covering the war. But somewhere in the past 20 years or so, CNN decidedly turned liberal. They let reporters give opinions on stories. They spun stories to allow the liberal viewpoint to take front and center. And they introduced news that wasn’t really news, but liberal talking points. Jeff Zucker headed up CNN for much of that time, and took the credit for it being the liberal bastion that it was.

But then CNN was sold to Discovery. Zucker found himself out of a job, replaced by a more moderate Chris Licht, who decided that he was missing half his audience solely because of the bias CNN was projecting. He vowed to make changes to the cable news network, who had slipped in popularity and was coming in third behind Fox News and even MSNBC.

Back in the spring of 2022, Licht started firing people. A lot of the reporters left the company either by choice, or they were shown the door. The list of names that once graced CNN was long and rather star-studded. Scandals also didn’t help as people like Chris Cuomo were fired over his protecting his brother Andrew during the former New York Governor’s sex scandals. Another round of layoffs cut further into the staff last month.

So, the question is, can CNN find it’s very own “rebirth”? Or is it doomed, along with other cable news outlets who are struggling to make a profit? All of these cable news monoliths are having problems selling ads as millions of people are turning off cable altogether and heading where you are right now…the internet. The result is now you can find about 1.4 million people tuning into Fox News on a daily basis. There are about 750,000 folks watching MSNBC, and less than a half million people are being loyal to CNN. That doesn’t bode well. There are local radio stations in this country that can boast more listeners than CNN has viewers. And when you don’t have viewers, you don’t have advertisers.

Can Chris Licht turn it around and make CNN respectable again? Can he get back some of the more mainstream and conservative viewers that were lambasted and made fun of by CNN’s previous hosts? And can he do it in time to turn some sort of profit in 2023, or will Discovery be forced to do to CNN, what Licht did to CNN+ a month after it’s launch…and that’s put it out of it’s misery altogether? That’s what lies ahead for the grandfather of cable news networks!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

EXTRA! Dems’ Lose Another Member

All this while I thought it would be Joe Manchin that would be leaving the Democrat Party and joining the GOP. I was dead wrong on that one! In case you missed it, there has been yet another defection from the ranks of the Democrats in Washington. This time it’s a sitting Senator.

It’s Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema!

Sinema wrote a huge OpEd in the Arizona Republic to let the folks she represents in Arizona know why she was leaving the Democrats to become independent. And to be honest, it’s actually one of the things I admire about Sinema. I did not vote for her back in 2018 when she ran against Martha McSally for the seat. She’s up for reelection in 2024.

The decision also hit the airwaves on CNN when Sinema told Jake Tapper, “I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” she added. “Removing myself from the partisan structure – not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.”

So, before you get all excited in thinking the Senate is now going to be 50-50, hang on a bit. Sinema may be going independent, but at this point she has not decided whether or not she’s going to follow the lead of two other independents in the nation’s upper chamber, Angus King of Maine, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Both of those guys caucus with the Democrats. Sinema hasn’t made that decision yet. But she has said that she has no plans in losing her committee assignments, something Chuck Schumer as Majority Leader assigns. That would tell me she may not caucus with the Dems, but she’s certainly not going to be a Republican. She’s just doing what a lot of people on both sides of the aisle are now starting to do, remain independent totally from either political party.

I think this is a move that needs to be applauded. I’m sure the majority of folks in politics aren’t going to become independent just because the Senior Senator from AZ decided to do it. After all, the other two independents in the Senate may just as well be Democrats by the way they vote. Sinema at least, has been rather independent and undependable when it comes to backing the Democrat line in votes this past year. She and Joe Manchin have gone their own way numerous times.

This is what needs to happen to change DC. It needs to continue as more and more people get fed up with both parties and their partisan politics. Sinema basically said that the State of Arizona is made up of a lot of independents. There are, as of January 1st of this year, 1.5 million Republicans, 1.3 million Democrats and 36,000 Libertarians. The other 1.45 million voters are registered as Independent.

Sinema always hit me as being very liberal, but she’s proven me wrong in that thinking. She’s been conservative on lots of issues, like the border security and immigration, and is currently working across the aisle with Republican Thom Tillis (R-NC). She also is someone that doesn’t believe that the tax and spend politics of the left is anything she can back as has been evidenced with her backing Joe Manchin (D-WV) in voting down key spending bills. She has, by virtue of her independence, become one of the most powerful Senators in Washington.

So, the question is how many other Senators (and I’m looking at YOU, Joe Manchin) want to join her and become independent as well? Getting rid of partisan politics starts with getting rid of the two party system that has birthed it. It’s going to take a lot more than just Sinema and Manchin to get things rolling, but it’s a start!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Axe Falls Again At CNN!

Just when the staff at CNN thought it was safe to go out Christmas shopping, they learned of yet another round of cuts. This time, they’re deep and cross over to include the CNN sister network, Headline News.

Gone are at least five on-air correspondents including Alex Field, Mary Ann Fox, Martin Savidge, Chris Cillizza, and Allison Kosik. And there are probably several more pink slips floating around HLN as CEO Chris Licht has decided that it’s just too damned expensive for HLN to be doing live newscasts. He’s canning all of the live HLN broadcasts.

Just wondering what’s going to happen to some of the more highly paid “stars” of the CNN family. People like Jim Acosta, Wolf Blitzer (who’s gotta be ready for retirement soon!), and former Fox deserter, Chris Wallace have got to be on pins and needles. I can understand Wallace. He turned down a chance to stay at Fox because he thought CNN’s new online service was going to be the future of news. And as has been the case with Wallace throughout most of his career, he was wrong. The online service died shortly after he arrived, causing him to jump ship to whatever the mothership would offer him. Wallace is 74 years old, as is Blitzer. I can see both deciding it’s time to find the rocking chair on the front porch.

This has to be a huge blow to liberals everywhere who are watching “their” online social media platform, Twitter, go more mainstream now that Elon Musk has taken over and moved it into the privately owned business realm. Libs are still screaming how unfair it is. What’s hugely amusing is that the left is usually the part of our culture that is concerned with free speech and making sure that they have a platform that’s not going to be interrupted while they spew. That’s precisely what Musk is giving the world in the “new and improved” Twitter. However, that doesn’t fly because no longer are conservative voices being silenced as “hate speech” and “disinformation”.

Now, you’ve got Chris Licht following directives cast upon him by the folks at the Discovery Network who never thought CNN should be so biased in it’s reporting and commentary. And that’s hurting people on the staff because it’s what they’ve become known for. And if the knife cuts deep at Wallace, Blitzer, and Acosta, the screaming will be incredibly loud and obnoxious. Hell, you might even get Senate hearings on the matter.

I look at this simply as the pendulum swinging back toward the center, both in the case of Twitter, and in the case of CNN. Yes, both companies have lost advertisers because of their move, but as anyone familiar with media will tell you, any time you change up your format, you’re going to blow out your old audience in hopes of generating a larger and more diverse group of viewers, or tweeters. And it’s not that CNN has become a Fox News Jr. cable channel either. They’re still pretty liberal when it comes right down to it. They just are flaming to the point that Bernie Sanders thinks they’re too liberal for him. As for Twitter, I find it funny that the Biden administration wants to make sure they “keep an eye” on the company.

The only reason they want to do that is because they are losing out on their “direct to liberal” platform. And if you think Musk is going to go all Donald Trump on the liberal world, think again. He just suspended Kanye West’s account for his antisemitic statements that he made. The only difference between Musk and Jack Dorsey is that Dorsey had a penchant for banning people forever and for the wrong reasons. Musk is going to give folks a little more latitude when it comes to free speech, but not everything goes. Nor should it.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!