Ladies and gentlemen, you witness the prime example of an excellent reporter (and thinker) who once thrived as a newspaper columnist, but escaped the ship as it slowly sank into a cess pool of slime and corruption. He is Don Surber, our leader, our guiding light who examines the truth, and enlightens us as readers to the way today's media is leading America to the gallows. Hail to Don Surber, champion of honest reporting and analysis.
When I was in early college I worked for a few months on the student newspaper. About the only thing I recall is that I was charged with writing article titles/headlines. It wasn't easy to get an essence down to 6 words. I felt the chance of misreporting--of mis-suggestion. But I especially sensed a power. Even in that silly little job. I quit. So that I look at Fahri of the Wapo and other "journalists" today with a skepticism. Fahri is intellectual weak tea. He started out writing about local scenes...eventually learned how to move up at the Wapo--to be an influencer, to subtly discount the right. Did you say "Pulitzer", Don? Sheesh. I lived in Fahri's neighborhood just outside the beltway.
‘I am so looking forward to Kevin Hart as Hitler in a remake of Downfall.’🤣
I remember reading Drudge the morning he betrayed every Conservative in the Nation. I even remember muttering WTF!
Just how much money is floating around in the Universe to make decent people lose their way and sell out their country, tribe and family.
The destruction of the print and electronic media was the first indication that there is more $ available for bullshit like that than is healthy in a society like ours. Then, came covid, the betrayal of our scientific and medical communities (and political parties).
What’s going to be the 3rd shoe to drop. There are so, so many options and so little time! The riots due this spring and summer might point the way.
Keep your heads up, your firearms in working order and your ammo locker full folks.
Well - being a pastor I would say this - but another "shoe to drop" was the mainline churches. They were once the spiritual backbone of this nation, but liberals discovered they were an easy target full of resources (dollars and people who could be deceived who were willing to give more dollars). Let the bloodsucking begin.
Liberals became the ticks and leeches that lied and slimed their way into church leadership, bring with them a new "spirituality" that has led these church denominations down the same cliff of decline that the media are now seeing.
Many "true believers" have abandoned them for more conservative denominations and independent churches (my church was one of the over 7,000 that disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church last year; they are now having to impose budget cuts of over 40% through their boards, agencies and "ministries". Too bad, so sad.)
I find studying the classic denominational churches in today's climate a fascinating topic.
Like your Methodist church, my Presbyterian church has had several "rebrandings" and splits. It has always appeared to me the splits in our church (and possibly the other mainstream denominational brands of God) mirrored the intensity of the political climate in the country. I shouldn't be surprised by that since in Jesus's day, government was also the church and Jesus's new-found Christianity was a real threat to the religion of the government.
I believe God's word and God's teaching shouldn't be so closely aligned with the social politic. It should define it, not follow it.
The heresy and lack of faith in the church has been growing steadily over many years. It is not "another shoe dropping," it is *the* reason all the rest is happening. God is judging us, not because we sinned, but because we stopped believing in Him and teaching our children to love Him as we said we would. His judgment is why it's raining shoes.
Nevertheless I continue to be shocked at the way they twist and interpret (or ignore) the Bible as an institution that’s supposed to be based on the Bible. The gospels, no less! As a recovering UMC member, still in mourning from losing my church of 28 years, I am distrustful of churches now and can’t find a home. I imagine there are a lot of us.
The UMC turned to the Social Gospel in the late sixty's and have been going further left since then. I grew up in the UMC, my Grandfather was a Methodist Pastor 13 years. I left in 1975 because even then they had abandoned the true gospel. https://albertmohler.com/2021/04/28/briefing-4-28-21/ This will explain what has happened & why. Give the General UMC a chance and I think you will feel back home. 7,000 churches left for sound biblical reasons, they will grow, UMC will keep dying by their poor choices. (no preaching against sin, Homosexuals in pulpit etc.)
Stanley, I stopped looking 15 years ago. I just read my Bible, converse with God & ask him for guidance. Pretty sad how the churches are no different than the world, but that was foretold to us. It’s just that it happened so fast. I felt the USA going after the tech bubble prior to 9/11. If I really want to focus on when I noticed everything changing was when Reagan was POTUS & we were becoming prosperous as a nation again after Jimmah Cahtah. No longer were Levi’s, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, or BVD’s the norm. That was for the underprivileged masses. Now it was designer this, designer that, status symbols and to hell with your neighbor, family or friends. Now it has accelerated at warp speed. Pretty sad. Glad I have some good neighbors in my new home of North Carolina. A far cry from my childhood in Chicago, which is the last time neighbors chatted & helped one another.
This 'evolution' in the mainline churches did not happen by accident. I can't remember the exact year, but it was about 8-10 (maybe 12??) years ago that Nancy Pelosi announced with great enthusiasm that the Democratic party had identified the churches as 'natural partners' for the Democrats, and was beginning a program of outreach to them, to enlist them in the Democratic "cause". This was covered extensively on the news for about 2 days, then crickets.
But they began moving in on the churches. I followed this through a relative's Congregational church. The pastor was politicized, before long the membership was particularly defined by their adoption of "social justice" positions, e.g., "welcoming of gays", etc.
Marxism, being adamantly atheistic, actually has zero tolerance for religion, but Marxists often like to borrow the 'mantle of righteousness' that religions have. Recall Obama learning his oratorical style at the feet of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama has gone a long distance gaining the ear and approval of Americans because he imitates a religious oratorical style.
Marxism also likes to exploit the desire of people, especially religious people, to be righteous. They always drape their socialist policies in language that makes it seem like it's being kind, compassionate, supportive, unprejudiced, tolerant, merciful, etc. etc. Genuine and pure religion is primarily between an individual and God. But in the human structures of religion, people often get diverted from deepening their primary devotion and relationship to God, to instead seeking outward human "badges" for spirituality. Therefore, ministers and congregants of churches can be tempted to be "awarded" with a "badge of righteousness" by proudly adopting "social justice" political positions--as if those give them moral purity and superiority.
The churches who fell for this Marxist seduction were played. They were too soft-minded to probe more deeply into the premises behind these so-called 'social "justice"' political positions. And they were naive and stupid to not question why an atheistic political system would be courting their cooperation. Well, first, they didn't even realize the Left had become Marxist; let alone grasping what the implications of atheistic Marxists taking control of the country would be.
The bottom line is that Marxism has zero tolerance for any competing ideology or affiliation. When Marxists are fully in control, the churches will be banned, the ministers and congregants imprisoned, and if China is in charge--their organs will be involuntarily harvested. The proof is look what happened in Communist Russia-- the churches all had to go underground. And in Communist China, about 5 years ago, the Communists instituted a requirement that each Christian church could continue existing, but they had to teach only the parts of their religion that supported Communist principles, and they were each assigned a Communist overseer who would monitor them. All the pictures of Jesus were taken down in the Christian churches, and replaced with pictures of Chairman Xi. You've seen how China has imprisoned the Muslim Uighurs in concentration camps. You've seen what China has done to the Falun Gong (imprisonment, organ harvesting, etc.).
The Christian churches that fell for this were soft-minded fools, substituting "social approval" by the Democrats for genuine spiritual fidelity to God.
03/15/24: I kid you not, what else do you need to know about the NY Times (Nagourney)?!
NYT Sept. 9, 2007:
"Ondine Karady, an interior designer ..., and James Rutenberg, a correspondent [for] ... The New York Times, were married yesterday ...
"James R. Ketcham, a retired town justice ... officiated at the ceremony, which was led by Adam Nagourney, the national political correspondent for The Times, who became a minister of the First Nation Church for the occasion.
1) NYT prints this as if someone becoming a "minister" for one day (for whatever reason) is a NORMAL event.
Young men looking to escape their deaths in Vietnam would have loved this dodge (standing before the draft board: "Sorry, old boy, I'm a 'rabbi' until 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. Deferment, please.")
2) And you thought that the "diploma mills offering theological college degrees to house pets" stories were off the wall.
Did they ask Nagourney (incidentally, gay) to take off his muzzle during the "I do's"?
they do but he is getting more links to leftist bs all the time. i'm hoping cfp doesn't go drudge on us. cth is great as long as you flip past the religious stuff.
I read drudge multiple times a day from his beginning right up that day when I had the same reaction. It took a few days or weeks to break the addiction but I gradually realized he was gone for good. Too bad. He has a great product. Now Don and a couple others here that I’m willing to pay for.
"To break the addiction." Yes, it used to take a while. After repeated negative experiences that you describe, I can now jettison anyone and anything in the media almost instantly. What a sad thing to have to say, and marvel at. One learns.
I found Citizen Free Press from posted replies on Breitbart via Discus. Took a while to wean off of Drudge but eventually Kane won me and many others over.
Don, it was a quick downfall for Discus. Especially if you commented against a Marxist you would get, “hold on, this comment is waiting for approval” or something like that. Plus I would have to login for each reply & do the picture ID to prove I wasn’t a bot. I was done.
I still get, from time to time, stray and forlorn Discus comment updates. They remind me of the oil and gas bubbles that pop out of shipwrecks and slowly float to the surface of the ocean. A sign of life below? Nope. Just a (pitiful) reminder of what the ship once had been and why it's down there now, disintegrating. Deadspin, Skoal!
"Just how much money is floating around in the Universe to make decent people lose their way and sell out their country, tribe and family."
How much money? A lot of money. And enough apparently to do the job. Look at this new legislation concerning the social media app TikTok. TikTok. TikTok is basically a social media app with malware built in. While it's rotting your brain with targeted psyops designed to demoralize you ( which they don't allow on the version in China btw), it can access your other apps including financial accounts. It can track all your keystrokes and swipes.
Here's some stuff about that from Jeff Brown, a tech investment newsletter writer I follow:
So Rand Paul and Mike Lee, who are "conservatives" have taken millions of dollars from US TikTok investors it was reported today, and oppose making China divest from TikTok or banning the app in the USA. Thomas Massie, another favorite of the right, also opposes this legislation. That's how much money there is.
Be very careful drinking the political Koolaid. Like celebrities and race horses, politicians
regardless of affiliations do not deserve your unquestioning admiration.
Agree. I recall asking wtf was happening with Drudge. I used to visit his site multiple times a day until he turned on Trump and conservatives full bore. Previously he seemed to expose hypocrisy in either party, with some focus on liberal nonsense. But he turned a 180 and since then I’ve only looked at his site twice. Literally. What a waste.
Do these people not have mirrors in their homes? Funny, I had an on-line subscription to WaPo mainly for the comment section. Was great fun. Never threatened anyone with bodily harm but I did make fun of them and point out their hypocrisy. Hard to believe the vileness from these people suffering with TDS. Ultimately I was banned for life! LOL.
Getting banned for life from WaPo should come with a complimentary military campaign medal. And Dipstick BeezBrains is wondering why his toy is losing $100,000,000 a year (hasn't he figured out where all of the "miraculous" new NY Times paywall subscribers in the past decade have come from? Hint: It's a five-sided building with unlimited, unaudited "budgets," a fancy word for political slush funds).
If I recall my school lessons from 65+ years ago newspapers were vital parts of a community.They had reporters using the 5 Ws and how to relate local and world events to the communities being served. We have witnessed a tsunami of change as socialists gained control of higher education and set to work destroying schools and capitalism via the media.Media today has earned more distrust than can be expressed without righteous anger.Great post Poca-Man and keep the fires stoked,freedom is at risk even more so than one can imagine.Poll needed aota.
Excellent piece and very disturbing. I'm reminded of my formative times as a youth when a real teacher told us "Paper will hold still for anything". And of course, English writer, C.S. Lewis's' quote. "One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts." That's precisely why I enjoy reading your column Don Surber.
My once conservative brother-in-law moved from Texas to New York some 30 years ago. Now he is a flaming liberal. He refuses to believe the truth about Trump, the press, etc. When I challenged him about his bias he proudly told me I was wrong because he subscribes to BOTH the New York Times and the Washington Post. Clueless.
At your next Thanksgiving get together you'll have to ask him where he'll get his next brain to think with when both papers go out of business because people aren't interested in their opinions.
Yesterday Camel-uh Harris was whining (screeching?) about the idea that Trump will weaponize the DOJ to go after his enemies. Are these people missing the gene that enables retrospection? The only time I look at anything in the mainstream media any more is if it's linked by Kane over at Citizens Free Press, otherwise they are dead to me. I pay for real journalists like you, Kane and others who actually give a rat's ass about their craft. The rest can go find a $20 per hour (gee...why is there inflation?) fast food job, and probably fail at that too.
They have been told they are the best of the best.... So now they believe they can do no wrong.
There is no retrospection if they believe they are right all the time. I used to think they couldnt really believe the lies and insanity coming out of their mouth but then I realized. To them, it is not lies. And they willfully keep the blinders on because otherwise, their worldview would collapse. These are people that have no coping skills on disappoint, conflict and challenges. They dont know about perseverance and looking at both failures and solutions to find out what stuff went wrong and starting over.
Outstanding piece, Don. I’m grateful for being reminded how powerful the 1st Amendment really is.
I’m not ready to regret widespread distrust. It may just be stage 1 of being liberated from the Idol of Journalism. (Read Idols for Destruction by Herbert Schlossberg)
I think stage 2 is recovered the gift of possessing a fully-functioning bullshit detector. I regard that as of second importance only to knowing God (which would have been impossible had he not revealed Himself).
Bezos’s day are numbered. What he means for evil, God means for good. (Gen 45)
Bezos is too captivated by his surgically enhanced female companion (jokingly referred to as his "fiancee," rather than by her more accurate title of "whore") to care about the Post. He lets the children who have taken it over run it into the ground.
Solomon failed chasing the wrong honey's even though God warned him what would happen. (Worship their false Gods.) God said "Run Forrest, Run! Joseph did, Solomon didn't and worshiped false gods. Sex is a powerful force.
Steve, my wife asked me if I ever saw photos of Bezo’s wife? She couldn’t believe how ghastly she looked. The richer one becomes, the uglier the spouse they choose. Give me a woman that looks great with or without makeup any day.
There was a question posed by Rand Paul on Substack yesterday asking people to comment on the question of whether TikTok should be banned. That action would be a first amendment issue at heart - and he is a committed Libertarian who would defer to individual choice as to whether they use TikTok instead of an outright ban. I took the liberty of providing my opinion, which would have been better explained if I had just linked this column today as my response.
Basically, I said, all media - especially social media - has been weaponized to bludgeon their opponents through lies, censorship, and controlling public thought. All mainstream media, including print-cable-social, are intent on destroying our social structures, institutions, and behavioral connective patterns. As evidence, I simply reminded Dr. Paul of the outright lies we received from all of these sources about COVID, and the threatening responses people got when they questioned the sites publicly. Now, these challengers are heroes and the media looks like murderers. They are complicit in all the murders.
Rand Paul needs to turn the anger we saw him deliver to Anthony Fauci - that we witnessed in the Congressional hearings - to all media in general.
The media is the syringe that delivers the lies and evil control from the addicted leftist lunatics. It is killing our country.
The Bill to ban TikTok is not at all what it appears. It is a back door to giving government - in particular a president, not even a law - the power to unilaterally shut down any site deemed to be of “foreign influence”, the definition of which is left most deliberately vague.
As your first clue to its subversive nature, Nancy Pelosi is utterly euphoric about it!
It is a very dangerous Trojan Horse built and delivered by those who desire the power to shut down all avenues of free speech and dissent.
Thanks for the additional explanation. What you describe sounds like something out of Brave New World.
To clarify the point I tried to make in my reply to Rand Paul, I would support banning any public media source that is an enemy of state (China = TikTok. So is Zoom). I do not support any ability of a government leader to pick and choose what media can be accessed (as long as it is not coming from an enemy). Lastly, media must be held accountable for its accuracy in stating facts and conclusions. If it is opinion, then they must state that.
Our country is on a new playing field with the power of influence social media is accomplishing in society. It needs a thorough vetting against our first amendment.
Whenever you get government involved as the arbiter of anything, you are doomed from the onset.
The only remedy for bad speech is MORE speech. That’s what the government wants to curtail, or stamp out, Freedom of expression, ever blossoming news sites or blogs springing up to counter the fake news of the state sanctioned or malignly influenced organs.
They want to control it all.
But we should be free to choose.
Government needs to mind its own business and telling me what I can read ain’t it’s business.
Suzie, I agree 100% in principle with what you say. The final arbiter in this republic should be individuals with liberty and the freedom to choose.
But, all freedoms have limits.
I also think it is important for you to consider that the presence of foreign-sourced media like TikTok (And I have always had a problem with the popularity of Zoom since it is China-sourced) is they are weapons of war in this new world order that we are almost living in. It is like letting their armies march down our streets freely or follow our school kids around with the frequency they are online using TikTok. They are adversely influencing our kids and our society.
Foreign media is a trojan horse. We can't let them in any more than we would let China's armies into our cities, schools and towns.
PS: I am not saying this applies to Facebook, Instagram, or Whats App despite having extreme disgust with the likes of Zuckerberg, et al. If those sites present problems for us, we deal with them locally. TikTok is different. China is different.
I get where you’re coming from, and our technology makes for new and most challenging threats.
But however we wage our war against them, we must be vigilant not to surrender our liberty for “safety”. We shoulda learned that big time during the Covid Feardemic.
And passing surreptitious Bills from our illustrious Congress are anything but crystal clear on that front.
Leftists and "journalists" (pardon my redundancy) are the epitome of the "crybully," who yells and screams in pain all the while he is beating you. My hatred and disdain for these types knows no bounds. It burns with the proverbial heat of a thousand suns.
Aside from checking who's been hatched, matched, and dispatched, there's no reason to look at the so-called newspapers nowadays. What is left is monkeys flinging their own you-know-what.
I think the move afoot is to make the government the only source for “news”. But only the kind of “news” the so called “elites” deem worthy of the masses knowing.
I find it interesting that the press wonders why they are losing respect. I noted that today in Substack, we expect these citizen journalists to lead with their heart - but we expected more of those for who this was a profession not a hobby. Any media people who said Biden's latest SOTU debacle was fiery, fierce and strong and helped him were just partisan hacks. It was obvious to all - so if you peddle untruths all the time, don't be surprised that people begin to realize you aren't journalists - you are political operatives for the democrat party, and the DC complex. We are done with you - you cannot die soon enough.
Do kakapo learn to talk like other parrots? It would be highly entertaining to teach some to say, "Look, I'm a journalist!" or "Take the vaccine or else!"
Accuracy and clarity are what brings us here. When you read “kakapo” were you reminded of the days we read newspapers and followed Li’l Abner? (Fun Fact: The edition of the Sunday NYT that carried the first report of Sputnik, had 360 pages)
Ladies and gentlemen, you witness the prime example of an excellent reporter (and thinker) who once thrived as a newspaper columnist, but escaped the ship as it slowly sank into a cess pool of slime and corruption. He is Don Surber, our leader, our guiding light who examines the truth, and enlightens us as readers to the way today's media is leading America to the gallows. Hail to Don Surber, champion of honest reporting and analysis.
When I was in early college I worked for a few months on the student newspaper. About the only thing I recall is that I was charged with writing article titles/headlines. It wasn't easy to get an essence down to 6 words. I felt the chance of misreporting--of mis-suggestion. But I especially sensed a power. Even in that silly little job. I quit. So that I look at Fahri of the Wapo and other "journalists" today with a skepticism. Fahri is intellectual weak tea. He started out writing about local scenes...eventually learned how to move up at the Wapo--to be an influencer, to subtly discount the right. Did you say "Pulitzer", Don? Sheesh. I lived in Fahri's neighborhood just outside the beltway.
Intellectual tea? lol Disposable bag as well.
Whoops...it's "Farhi". Seemed like a nice guy when I met him.
Perfection DJ
‘I am so looking forward to Kevin Hart as Hitler in a remake of Downfall.’🤣
I remember reading Drudge the morning he betrayed every Conservative in the Nation. I even remember muttering WTF!
Just how much money is floating around in the Universe to make decent people lose their way and sell out their country, tribe and family.
The destruction of the print and electronic media was the first indication that there is more $ available for bullshit like that than is healthy in a society like ours. Then, came covid, the betrayal of our scientific and medical communities (and political parties).
What’s going to be the 3rd shoe to drop. There are so, so many options and so little time! The riots due this spring and summer might point the way.
Keep your heads up, your firearms in working order and your ammo locker full folks.
Follow the money!
Well - being a pastor I would say this - but another "shoe to drop" was the mainline churches. They were once the spiritual backbone of this nation, but liberals discovered they were an easy target full of resources (dollars and people who could be deceived who were willing to give more dollars). Let the bloodsucking begin.
Liberals became the ticks and leeches that lied and slimed their way into church leadership, bring with them a new "spirituality" that has led these church denominations down the same cliff of decline that the media are now seeing.
Many "true believers" have abandoned them for more conservative denominations and independent churches (my church was one of the over 7,000 that disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church last year; they are now having to impose budget cuts of over 40% through their boards, agencies and "ministries". Too bad, so sad.)
I find studying the classic denominational churches in today's climate a fascinating topic.
Like your Methodist church, my Presbyterian church has had several "rebrandings" and splits. It has always appeared to me the splits in our church (and possibly the other mainstream denominational brands of God) mirrored the intensity of the political climate in the country. I shouldn't be surprised by that since in Jesus's day, government was also the church and Jesus's new-found Christianity was a real threat to the religion of the government.
I believe God's word and God's teaching shouldn't be so closely aligned with the social politic. It should define it, not follow it.
Last sentence Shrugged,Amen.
The heresy and lack of faith in the church has been growing steadily over many years. It is not "another shoe dropping," it is *the* reason all the rest is happening. God is judging us, not because we sinned, but because we stopped believing in Him and teaching our children to love Him as we said we would. His judgment is why it's raining shoes.
No it is because of Sin. Judgement through out Bible was always because of Sin.
Nevertheless I continue to be shocked at the way they twist and interpret (or ignore) the Bible as an institution that’s supposed to be based on the Bible. The gospels, no less! As a recovering UMC member, still in mourning from losing my church of 28 years, I am distrustful of churches now and can’t find a home. I imagine there are a lot of us.
The UMC turned to the Social Gospel in the late sixty's and have been going further left since then. I grew up in the UMC, my Grandfather was a Methodist Pastor 13 years. I left in 1975 because even then they had abandoned the true gospel. https://albertmohler.com/2021/04/28/briefing-4-28-21/ This will explain what has happened & why. Give the General UMC a chance and I think you will feel back home. 7,000 churches left for sound biblical reasons, they will grow, UMC will keep dying by their poor choices. (no preaching against sin, Homosexuals in pulpit etc.)
Stanley, I stopped looking 15 years ago. I just read my Bible, converse with God & ask him for guidance. Pretty sad how the churches are no different than the world, but that was foretold to us. It’s just that it happened so fast. I felt the USA going after the tech bubble prior to 9/11. If I really want to focus on when I noticed everything changing was when Reagan was POTUS & we were becoming prosperous as a nation again after Jimmah Cahtah. No longer were Levi’s, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, or BVD’s the norm. That was for the underprivileged masses. Now it was designer this, designer that, status symbols and to hell with your neighbor, family or friends. Now it has accelerated at warp speed. Pretty sad. Glad I have some good neighbors in my new home of North Carolina. A far cry from my childhood in Chicago, which is the last time neighbors chatted & helped one another.
This 'evolution' in the mainline churches did not happen by accident. I can't remember the exact year, but it was about 8-10 (maybe 12??) years ago that Nancy Pelosi announced with great enthusiasm that the Democratic party had identified the churches as 'natural partners' for the Democrats, and was beginning a program of outreach to them, to enlist them in the Democratic "cause". This was covered extensively on the news for about 2 days, then crickets.
But they began moving in on the churches. I followed this through a relative's Congregational church. The pastor was politicized, before long the membership was particularly defined by their adoption of "social justice" positions, e.g., "welcoming of gays", etc.
Marxism, being adamantly atheistic, actually has zero tolerance for religion, but Marxists often like to borrow the 'mantle of righteousness' that religions have. Recall Obama learning his oratorical style at the feet of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama has gone a long distance gaining the ear and approval of Americans because he imitates a religious oratorical style.
Marxism also likes to exploit the desire of people, especially religious people, to be righteous. They always drape their socialist policies in language that makes it seem like it's being kind, compassionate, supportive, unprejudiced, tolerant, merciful, etc. etc. Genuine and pure religion is primarily between an individual and God. But in the human structures of religion, people often get diverted from deepening their primary devotion and relationship to God, to instead seeking outward human "badges" for spirituality. Therefore, ministers and congregants of churches can be tempted to be "awarded" with a "badge of righteousness" by proudly adopting "social justice" political positions--as if those give them moral purity and superiority.
The churches who fell for this Marxist seduction were played. They were too soft-minded to probe more deeply into the premises behind these so-called 'social "justice"' political positions. And they were naive and stupid to not question why an atheistic political system would be courting their cooperation. Well, first, they didn't even realize the Left had become Marxist; let alone grasping what the implications of atheistic Marxists taking control of the country would be.
The bottom line is that Marxism has zero tolerance for any competing ideology or affiliation. When Marxists are fully in control, the churches will be banned, the ministers and congregants imprisoned, and if China is in charge--their organs will be involuntarily harvested. The proof is look what happened in Communist Russia-- the churches all had to go underground. And in Communist China, about 5 years ago, the Communists instituted a requirement that each Christian church could continue existing, but they had to teach only the parts of their religion that supported Communist principles, and they were each assigned a Communist overseer who would monitor them. All the pictures of Jesus were taken down in the Christian churches, and replaced with pictures of Chairman Xi. You've seen how China has imprisoned the Muslim Uighurs in concentration camps. You've seen what China has done to the Falun Gong (imprisonment, organ harvesting, etc.).
The Christian churches that fell for this were soft-minded fools, substituting "social approval" by the Democrats for genuine spiritual fidelity to God.
Sadly I feel you are right TPG.
There was a Methodist to their madness...
03/15/24: I kid you not, what else do you need to know about the NY Times (Nagourney)?!
NYT Sept. 9, 2007:
"Ondine Karady, an interior designer ..., and James Rutenberg, a correspondent [for] ... The New York Times, were married yesterday ...
"James R. Ketcham, a retired town justice ... officiated at the ceremony, which was led by Adam Nagourney, the national political correspondent for The Times, who became a minister of the First Nation Church for the occasion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/fashion/weddings/09Karady.html
1) NYT prints this as if someone becoming a "minister" for one day (for whatever reason) is a NORMAL event.
Young men looking to escape their deaths in Vietnam would have loved this dodge (standing before the draft board: "Sorry, old boy, I'm a 'rabbi' until 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. Deferment, please.")
2) And you thought that the "diploma mills offering theological college degrees to house pets" stories were off the wall.
Did they ask Nagourney (incidentally, gay) to take off his muzzle during the "I do's"?
Haven't been to the Drudge Report for years...what's good is The Liberty Daily.
Thank You AD. Also Citizen Free Pres and Rantingly!
CFP and Kane do outstanding work. Find myself there constantly updating myself as to real events.
they do but he is getting more links to leftist bs all the time. i'm hoping cfp doesn't go drudge on us. cth is great as long as you flip past the religious stuff.
I noticed that too, Donald, but I interpreted that as letting us know what the enemy is saying and thinking.
lets hope your right
How do you counter your enemy if you don't know their game plan?
GMTA WS
Hadnt heard of Rantingly. Thank you.
i go to liberty daily probably five time a day.
Scary as hell isn't? The Fourth Estate once the bedrock of a fledging republic, now a soggy paper towel. Yes, keep a swivel head as they say.
What's more scary is the amount of people who just don't realize how deep the rot its. THAT is scary.
I read drudge multiple times a day from his beginning right up that day when I had the same reaction. It took a few days or weeks to break the addiction but I gradually realized he was gone for good. Too bad. He has a great product. Now Don and a couple others here that I’m willing to pay for.
"To break the addiction." Yes, it used to take a while. After repeated negative experiences that you describe, I can now jettison anyone and anything in the media almost instantly. What a sad thing to have to say, and marvel at. One learns.
Same here Don.
I found Citizen Free Press from posted replies on Breitbart via Discus. Took a while to wean off of Drudge but eventually Kane won me and many others over.
Funny how (and how fast) Discus became irrelevant. Remember when they tried to Hillary the world? Next thing you know, poof, gone!
Don, it was a quick downfall for Discus. Especially if you commented against a Marxist you would get, “hold on, this comment is waiting for approval” or something like that. Plus I would have to login for each reply & do the picture ID to prove I wasn’t a bot. I was done.
Yes, I recall that "approval" b.s. They're in SFCA. Makes sense. Once Substack started, that was the end of the fascists' control over us.
I still get, from time to time, stray and forlorn Discus comment updates. They remind me of the oil and gas bubbles that pop out of shipwrecks and slowly float to the surface of the ocean. A sign of life below? Nope. Just a (pitiful) reminder of what the ship once had been and why it's down there now, disintegrating. Deadspin, Skoal!
"Just how much money is floating around in the Universe to make decent people lose their way and sell out their country, tribe and family."
How much money? A lot of money. And enough apparently to do the job. Look at this new legislation concerning the social media app TikTok. TikTok. TikTok is basically a social media app with malware built in. While it's rotting your brain with targeted psyops designed to demoralize you ( which they don't allow on the version in China btw), it can access your other apps including financial accounts. It can track all your keystrokes and swipes.
Here's some stuff about that from Jeff Brown, a tech investment newsletter writer I follow:
https://www.brownridge.com/one-of-the-largest-psyops-in-history-tiktok-ban/
So Rand Paul and Mike Lee, who are "conservatives" have taken millions of dollars from US TikTok investors it was reported today, and oppose making China divest from TikTok or banning the app in the USA. Thomas Massie, another favorite of the right, also opposes this legislation. That's how much money there is.
Be very careful drinking the political Koolaid. Like celebrities and race horses, politicians
regardless of affiliations do not deserve your unquestioning admiration.
Well said Tanto & I agree 100%.
Agree. I recall asking wtf was happening with Drudge. I used to visit his site multiple times a day until he turned on Trump and conservatives full bore. Previously he seemed to expose hypocrisy in either party, with some focus on liberal nonsense. But he turned a 180 and since then I’ve only looked at his site twice. Literally. What a waste.
Do these people not have mirrors in their homes? Funny, I had an on-line subscription to WaPo mainly for the comment section. Was great fun. Never threatened anyone with bodily harm but I did make fun of them and point out their hypocrisy. Hard to believe the vileness from these people suffering with TDS. Ultimately I was banned for life! LOL.
Getting banned for life from WaPo should come with a complimentary military campaign medal. And Dipstick BeezBrains is wondering why his toy is losing $100,000,000 a year (hasn't he figured out where all of the "miraculous" new NY Times paywall subscribers in the past decade have come from? Hint: It's a five-sided building with unlimited, unaudited "budgets," a fancy word for political slush funds).
If I recall my school lessons from 65+ years ago newspapers were vital parts of a community.They had reporters using the 5 Ws and how to relate local and world events to the communities being served. We have witnessed a tsunami of change as socialists gained control of higher education and set to work destroying schools and capitalism via the media.Media today has earned more distrust than can be expressed without righteous anger.Great post Poca-Man and keep the fires stoked,freedom is at risk even more so than one can imagine.Poll needed aota.
Excellent piece and very disturbing. I'm reminded of my formative times as a youth when a real teacher told us "Paper will hold still for anything". And of course, English writer, C.S. Lewis's' quote. "One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts." That's precisely why I enjoy reading your column Don Surber.
My once conservative brother-in-law moved from Texas to New York some 30 years ago. Now he is a flaming liberal. He refuses to believe the truth about Trump, the press, etc. When I challenged him about his bias he proudly told me I was wrong because he subscribes to BOTH the New York Times and the Washington Post. Clueless.
At your next Thanksgiving get together you'll have to ask him where he'll get his next brain to think with when both papers go out of business because people aren't interested in their opinions.
Save your breath-He drank the Kool-Aid.
Yesterday Camel-uh Harris was whining (screeching?) about the idea that Trump will weaponize the DOJ to go after his enemies. Are these people missing the gene that enables retrospection? The only time I look at anything in the mainstream media any more is if it's linked by Kane over at Citizens Free Press, otherwise they are dead to me. I pay for real journalists like you, Kane and others who actually give a rat's ass about their craft. The rest can go find a $20 per hour (gee...why is there inflation?) fast food job, and probably fail at that too.
They have been told they are the best of the best.... So now they believe they can do no wrong.
There is no retrospection if they believe they are right all the time. I used to think they couldnt really believe the lies and insanity coming out of their mouth but then I realized. To them, it is not lies. And they willfully keep the blinders on because otherwise, their worldview would collapse. These are people that have no coping skills on disappoint, conflict and challenges. They dont know about perseverance and looking at both failures and solutions to find out what stuff went wrong and starting over.
Actually, I suspect she rally is as dumb as she appears.
Outstanding piece, Don. I’m grateful for being reminded how powerful the 1st Amendment really is.
I’m not ready to regret widespread distrust. It may just be stage 1 of being liberated from the Idol of Journalism. (Read Idols for Destruction by Herbert Schlossberg)
I think stage 2 is recovered the gift of possessing a fully-functioning bullshit detector. I regard that as of second importance only to knowing God (which would have been impossible had he not revealed Himself).
Bezos’s day are numbered. What he means for evil, God means for good. (Gen 45)
Bezos is too captivated by his surgically enhanced female companion (jokingly referred to as his "fiancee," rather than by her more accurate title of "whore") to care about the Post. He lets the children who have taken it over run it into the ground.
Seems like a guy with more money than most would just buy a blow up doll that can’t say “credit card” rather than paying for a zombie airhead.
He needs arm candy to display in DC.
Brain optional?
Where you’re rich they’re no longer whores.
Result is the same.
Solomon failed chasing the wrong honey's even though God warned him what would happen. (Worship their false Gods.) God said "Run Forrest, Run! Joseph did, Solomon didn't and worshiped false gods. Sex is a powerful force.
Steve, my wife asked me if I ever saw photos of Bezo’s wife? She couldn’t believe how ghastly she looked. The richer one becomes, the uglier the spouse they choose. Give me a woman that looks great with or without makeup any day.
https://youtu.be/Y1ZJiBHh-Yw If You Wanna Be Happy.
There was a question posed by Rand Paul on Substack yesterday asking people to comment on the question of whether TikTok should be banned. That action would be a first amendment issue at heart - and he is a committed Libertarian who would defer to individual choice as to whether they use TikTok instead of an outright ban. I took the liberty of providing my opinion, which would have been better explained if I had just linked this column today as my response.
Basically, I said, all media - especially social media - has been weaponized to bludgeon their opponents through lies, censorship, and controlling public thought. All mainstream media, including print-cable-social, are intent on destroying our social structures, institutions, and behavioral connective patterns. As evidence, I simply reminded Dr. Paul of the outright lies we received from all of these sources about COVID, and the threatening responses people got when they questioned the sites publicly. Now, these challengers are heroes and the media looks like murderers. They are complicit in all the murders.
Rand Paul needs to turn the anger we saw him deliver to Anthony Fauci - that we witnessed in the Congressional hearings - to all media in general.
The media is the syringe that delivers the lies and evil control from the addicted leftist lunatics. It is killing our country.
The Bill to ban TikTok is not at all what it appears. It is a back door to giving government - in particular a president, not even a law - the power to unilaterally shut down any site deemed to be of “foreign influence”, the definition of which is left most deliberately vague.
As your first clue to its subversive nature, Nancy Pelosi is utterly euphoric about it!
It is a very dangerous Trojan Horse built and delivered by those who desire the power to shut down all avenues of free speech and dissent.
Thanks for the additional explanation. What you describe sounds like something out of Brave New World.
To clarify the point I tried to make in my reply to Rand Paul, I would support banning any public media source that is an enemy of state (China = TikTok. So is Zoom). I do not support any ability of a government leader to pick and choose what media can be accessed (as long as it is not coming from an enemy). Lastly, media must be held accountable for its accuracy in stating facts and conclusions. If it is opinion, then they must state that.
Our country is on a new playing field with the power of influence social media is accomplishing in society. It needs a thorough vetting against our first amendment.
Whenever you get government involved as the arbiter of anything, you are doomed from the onset.
The only remedy for bad speech is MORE speech. That’s what the government wants to curtail, or stamp out, Freedom of expression, ever blossoming news sites or blogs springing up to counter the fake news of the state sanctioned or malignly influenced organs.
They want to control it all.
But we should be free to choose.
Government needs to mind its own business and telling me what I can read ain’t it’s business.
Suzie, I agree 100% in principle with what you say. The final arbiter in this republic should be individuals with liberty and the freedom to choose.
But, all freedoms have limits.
I also think it is important for you to consider that the presence of foreign-sourced media like TikTok (And I have always had a problem with the popularity of Zoom since it is China-sourced) is they are weapons of war in this new world order that we are almost living in. It is like letting their armies march down our streets freely or follow our school kids around with the frequency they are online using TikTok. They are adversely influencing our kids and our society.
Foreign media is a trojan horse. We can't let them in any more than we would let China's armies into our cities, schools and towns.
PS: I am not saying this applies to Facebook, Instagram, or Whats App despite having extreme disgust with the likes of Zuckerberg, et al. If those sites present problems for us, we deal with them locally. TikTok is different. China is different.
I get where you’re coming from, and our technology makes for new and most challenging threats.
But however we wage our war against them, we must be vigilant not to surrender our liberty for “safety”. We shoulda learned that big time during the Covid Feardemic.
And passing surreptitious Bills from our illustrious Congress are anything but crystal clear on that front.
Amen Suzie.
That would be both parties, Suzie.
Yes indeed!
Well said Shrugged !
To paraphrase a quote from the true Bird “Brain” Foghorn Leghorn: “This country is more mixed up than a feather in a whirlwind”
ah say ah say there boy.......
Leftists and "journalists" (pardon my redundancy) are the epitome of the "crybully," who yells and screams in pain all the while he is beating you. My hatred and disdain for these types knows no bounds. It burns with the proverbial heat of a thousand suns.
Aside from checking who's been hatched, matched, and dispatched, there's no reason to look at the so-called newspapers nowadays. What is left is monkeys flinging their own you-know-what.
The weekly Epoch Times is worthwhile
They’re certainly pushing back for objectivity and against the CCP.
I think the move afoot is to make the government the only source for “news”. But only the kind of “news” the so called “elites” deem worthy of the masses knowing.
One only needs to look at what Zuckerberg did during the 2020 election to sway results. Almost half a billion dollars!!
My only suggestion about your point is it isn't all of government. It is only the CCP communist leftists part of our government.
This is the illness called socialism WC.
Juan Williams for President!!! Great communication skills, vaulted to prominence at NPR……he’s a genius compared to our current Veep!!! Rah Rah!!!
LOL... now THAT'S funny. Not. 😒
He was dumped by NPR. Thinks like our VEEP.
I find it interesting that the press wonders why they are losing respect. I noted that today in Substack, we expect these citizen journalists to lead with their heart - but we expected more of those for who this was a profession not a hobby. Any media people who said Biden's latest SOTU debacle was fiery, fierce and strong and helped him were just partisan hacks. It was obvious to all - so if you peddle untruths all the time, don't be surprised that people begin to realize you aren't journalists - you are political operatives for the democrat party, and the DC complex. We are done with you - you cannot die soon enough.
Do kakapo learn to talk like other parrots? It would be highly entertaining to teach some to say, "Look, I'm a journalist!" or "Take the vaccine or else!"
Accuracy and clarity are what brings us here. When you read “kakapo” were you reminded of the days we read newspapers and followed Li’l Abner? (Fun Fact: The edition of the Sunday NYT that carried the first report of Sputnik, had 360 pages)