It was March 31, 1873, at the Monday Evening Club in Hartford, Connecticut where a speaker named Mark Twain was there to deliver a speech on the recipients of the First Amendment, in this case the American Press.
The press has scoffed at religion till it has made scoffing popular. It has defended official criminals, on party pretexts, until it has created a United States Senate whose members are incapable of determining what crime against law and the dignity of their own body is, they are so morally blind.
The press has made light of dishonesty till we have as a result a Congress which contracts to work for a certain sum and then deliberately steals additional wages out of the public pocket and is pained and surprised that anybody should worry about a little thing like that.
A free press is more than free when it is licensed to say any infamous thing it chooses about a private or a public man, or advocate any outrageous doctrine it pleases. The public opinion which should hold it in bounds has itself degraded to its own level.
There are laws to protect the freedom of the press’s speech, but none to protect the people from the press.
and this truism,
Among us, the newspaper is a tremendous power. It can make or mar any man’s reputation.
It has perfect freedom to call the best man in the land a fraud and a thief, and he is destroyed beyond help. Whether [Insert Name] is a liar or not can never be ascertained now but he will rank as one till the day of his death for the newspapers have so doomed him.
In the newspapers of the West you can use the editorial voice in the editorial columns to defend any wretched and injurious dogma you please by paying a dollar a line for it.
That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, selfcomplacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.
RTWDT.
Nota Bene: The use of the word media by Mark Twain in the headline quote is correct. Its usage goes back into the mid-19th century at least.
Oh and I’m not tired of winning yet. 😉
Busy, busy, busy, I mentioned getting the Christmas tree the other day and yes we’re way behind in getting the Christmas decorations up but we got the tree decked out yesterday and the lights on the front of this house. Today I put the wreaths on both gates and strung lights on the fence at the side gate by the west 40. Sister showed up unexpectedly about 4 PM and since Monday is Burn’t Dawgs Day, she had one for good measure. But I didn’t think she’d ever leave. 😀 Jus’ kidding but that is what my wife said. Oh… Read more »
Hey, Squawk, have you been banned from BlueSky yet ? I was thinking about going over there and setting a timer to see how long I would last.
Where is
Markous Hamouson says:
Ummm, the opening of the Comments features a what?
Six seconds to realize this is not your father’s military.
Pete Hegseth has a big job ahead of him.
You truly should watch this James O’Keefe undercover video clip with an advisor to the National Security Council who works in the White House.
WAIT ! Stop ! Didn’t this guy just pardon his son for federal gun law violations ?
I saw it mentioned regarding those warning tags on programs like violence, nudity, SMOKING…. I would like a tag telling me this show has graphic gay sex.
There are few things more encouraging and amusing than the news the soyboy version of Greta Thunberg is vying to run the Democratic Party. If only I could vote for him. Does the DNC have unguarded drop boxes and mail-in ballots ? With their bench being anything but deep and having lost several key constituencies in the 2024 presidential election, Democrats may be on the verge of gaining one more player for their bench, one who could be able to bring at least one of those constituencies back into the fold. On Monday, gun control advocate David Hogg announced he intends… Read more »
It is a very sad day when Hamous is not here to witness the retirement (metaphorical defenestration) of Paulie Krugman and the impending resignation of Justin Castreaux.
Y’all gonna force me to post kittens?
DOA?
The prognosticators at Decision Desk – looking ahead at the 2026 U.S. Senate elections – at this point find it unlikely that the Dems can flip the Senate.
The only two Republican incumbent vulnerables are Collins (Maine) and Tillis (NC).
Vulnerable incumbent Democrats include only Peters (Michigan) and Ossof (Georgia).
I read this ozempic article last week.
also heard there was a recall on metformin in 2022-23 for finding cancer causing chemicals in it above allowed levels
maybe if we didn’t have 90% of our pharmaceuticals manufactured in communist China, because the blood money suckling Vampyres in congress wanted more cash in their pockets, then things would change.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/new-study-links-ozempic-vision-loss-confirms-harvard-research
Here is the hilarious 1:43 TikTok clip of Van Jones and Chris Cillizza talking Donald Trump.
OOOOOOFFF that is gonna leave a mark as Blinken gets his *&& handed to him.
Pro-Israel Congressman MERCILESSLY GRILL Blinken for Funding Iran
Now that was fun to watch.
And completing a (rather spicy) discussion about Trump and his international diplomacy skills (as opposed to Biden/Obama/Deep State variety): But Joe Biden has always considered diplomacy to be old-fashioned. Biden’s neocons prefer cowardly, passive-aggressive hijinx instead of talking. Passive-aggressive hijinx like cutting our enemies’ undersea cables, running color revolutions on their smaller allies, or throwing their international yard signs away when they’re not looking.But now that Trump has been elected, international relations are returning to a diplomatic status quo ante, where we can once again talk about our problems with our adversaries like adults. Diplomacy is much less likely to result in conflict resolution… Read more »
Childers has more discussion about the growing snobby attitude of the Dems and the predictable pushback. Following that: Van Jones’s estimation of Trump was right. Trump is unique, a force unlike anything living progressives have ever faced before. He is not just advancing conservative values. Trump is smashing apart the progressive brand, even its self-identity as a political group.And it’s happening at a terrible time. Even worse for progressives, the Democrats have no clear leader, no anti-Trump to help craft a counter-narrative. Let’s say voters accepted progressive’s deranged claims that Trump is a fill-in-the-blank, whatever, but it’s definitely bad and definitely… Read more »
Continuing from C&C: The New Yorker article prominently featured progressive sociologist professor and intellectual author Musa Al-Garbi (a name he adopted after converting to Islam). To Al-Garbi, the problem is simple. “Democrats,” he explained, “have become the party of élites.” He coined the term “symbolic capitalists” to describe modern progressives: academics and professionals who feel intellectually superior to other classes.Al-Garbi described the progressive identity as being founded in knowledge (i.e., “symbolic”) capital rather than founded in anything tangible like real-world achievements. He said, “We are valued—overvalued, I would say—for what we know, not for what we make or do in the physical world.” See my… Read more »
First up at C&C: the awakening of the left regarding their popularity status change: I’ll bet you never saw this coming. This weekend, the New Yorker ran a demoralized but very important political analytic headlined, “Have the Democrats Become the Party of the Élites?” We’ll start with a hilarious podcast clip making the rounds yesterday. In the short clip, Communist Obamaite Van Jones unironically and emphatically scolded a progressive ally, insisting that “Donald Trump is smarter than all of us.” The clip is amusing enough, but it represents something much bigger, a trend the New Yorker was getting at. Van Jones’ wry,… Read more »
Finally waddled on over to the C&C:
Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed a festive weekend. The extended Childers clan baked cookies yesterday, leading to an unavoidable sugar hangover this morning. Our quick roundup today begins with a remarkable Van Jones clip and considers what it represents in the bigger picutre, and ends with the incredibly encouraging return of diplomacy, ushered in by an incoming Trump Administration that is negotiating at a handicap with one hand behind its back—but which is still outperforming Biden’s neocons.
Sound like fun again today…
GJT’s earlier comment about CNN reminded me of something. It wasn’t until a few years that I discovered CNN paid big money to airports, train and bus stations to be the exclusive channel in these places. They did the same in millions of doctor’s office waiting rooms, even creating a specially edited health news feed. It never was because the public demanded it.
The BOEM is part of the US Department of Interior. This is a genuinely shocking turn of events. A government regulator recognizing offshore wind’s destructive environmental effects is as rare as a North Atlantic right whale. But a recent, 600-plus page report from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) admits that the offshore wind development planned for the New York Bight—the triangular area bordered by the New Jersey and Long Island coastlines—may irreversibly harm whales, commercial and recreational fisheries, and seabirds. The BOEM report is the agency’s first to evaluate the cumulative impacts of offshore wind development. Its authors cite a wide… Read more »
Had to go hang for a bit, because sitting long enough to pray and bead put me into spasms again. /sigh/ Just offering it up…
Anyway, before I go peruse the offerings of the day, one of my sisters texted over the weekend that the murdered CEO was supposed to testify against Pelosi regarding insider trading. Has anyone else heard of this?
You gotta push back hard, really hard. The Daily Wire’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Texas. The State Department tried to have it moved to a Washington, D.C., jury, but the judge denied the motion.A State Department apparatus that was created to counter violent terrorists abroad, but instead allegedly worked to suppress Americans’ speech, is “substantially likely” to disband on December 23, the department said in a court filing.In February, The Daily Wire sued the State Department along with The Federalist and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the Global Engagement Center’s relationship with anti-“misinformation” outfits like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation… Read more »
ProudArmyBrat on X posted this on Saturday:
Presidents, and the number of individuals that they have of pardoned, commuted, or rescinded:
– John F Kennedy: 575
– Lyndon B Johnson: 1,187
– Richard Nixon: 926
– Gerald Ford: 409
– Jimmy Carter: 566 people + 200K Vietnam War draft evaders
– Ronald Reagan: 406
– George H. W. Bush: 77
– Bill Clinton: 459
– George W Bush: 200
– Barack Obama: 1,927
– Donald Trump: 237
– Joe Biden: 8,062
……and he still has 36 days left!
And just like that all the drones are gone.
they’re yesterday’s psyop.
on to the next one.
maybe hundreds of Bigfoots will be sighted all over the country riding the drones.
Saturday, high is 32 and the low is 13.
Sunday, the high will be 24 and the low will be 14.
Monday, the high is 26 and the low 15.
Heat wave on Christmas Day at 41 and 31.
I must be getting faster. By the time I finished my prayers, if made 3 full and one single rosary this morning.
When George Washington became president in 1789 he was undoubtedly the most famous and popular man in the young nation of America. But, you know, it’s politics and the smiles and laughter never last very long. Two hundred thirty years ago, William Findley, a Revolutionary War hero, farmer and statesman, drew the wrath of Alexander Hamilton over the severe measures the Treasury Department placed on Pennsylvania farmers who opposed the newly enacted federal whiskey excise tax.Findley, who lived in Latrobe, petitioned the new government to repeal the 1791 whiskey tax, hoping to avoid violence against those charged with collecting it… Read more »
Ship ahoy.
Michael Berry confirms Edd Hendee
Hah. 09:42 FIRST
OK this is too funny. December 1977 TV Guide Review of The Love Boat by Robert MacKenzie.
HA! I posted the Mark Twain piece over yonder and got an immediate response from the FB
“Fact Checkers”Liars that said:Half True! No, Mark Twain never said to fear the media, but he wasn’t a fan of the press.
And yes there was this;
About the O.C. Piece, RTWDT!!! I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.
Warming up nicely here on the Farm and we’ll be in the mid 70’s by noon.
Mornin’ Gang
Americans spent a trillion dollars pretending these people could be transformed into a modern, civilized society. How delusional. The neocons kept telling us it would happen any moment now. In Iraq, the government’s lawmakers are considering legislation to lower the acceptable marriage age for girls into single digits. Yes, that’s correct; they are proposing to allow nine-year-old girls, who should be playing with dolls and having tea parties, to be married, with all that entails. “Batta” (not her real name) is one that this happened to, at age 11, and her account is horrifying.She was just 11 when she was sold into… Read more »
Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more bad things resulting from Covid “vaccines”. A STUDY of millions of citizens shows that covid vaccination ‘significantly increased’ the risks for depression, anxiety, various stress disorders and sleep problems. The same study showed the vaccinations ‘significantly decreased’ the risk for developing bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Two South Korean universities randomly selected more than two million (2,154,189) Seoul citizens aged 20 and older who had received two doses of covid vaccines, and 350,983 unvaccinated subjects. Researchers excluded any with a history of schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, dissociative, stress related, somatoform (SSD) or… Read more »
Good morning.
Ooops….