Before I get started this morning, I want to thank everyone for their support of 
In the news this morning, the ABC talking heads were going on and on about how Trump wants to cancel Saturday Night Live over their satirical skits featuring Alec Baldwin as the combover. It seems Trump took to Twitter — I know, big surprise there. I swear that man and his staff live on Twitter — with this comment:
Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!
Now, before I get to what the talking heads were really claiming, let’s look at the tweet itself. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see anything really bad in Trump saying it is “time to retire” the show. Hell, I’ve thought it on more than one occasion over the last 10 or more years. What gets me is that the talking heads have no problem with the show saying what it wants to but heaven forbid Trump — or anyone else who doesn’t fall into lockstep with them — saying anything different.
But the heart of the complaint against Trump in this particular story was his allegation that the media is rigging the election. I swear, if you go back and listen to the talking heads, they condemn him for not offering any proof that the media is doing just that. I’m sorry, but all you have to do is look at what they are reporting and how they report it to know there is a media bias in this election. Now, that’s nothing new. I’ve been voting for more years than I will admit and in each presidential election the media has attempted to sway the outcome.
And it isn’t just with the stories they post or print or televise prior to the election. Those of us old enough to remember can think back to the days when the media would start calling the outcome of presidential election on voting day long before the polls on the west coast had closed. The effect of that was to keep those who might have been considering voting for the “losing” candidate home. After much hue and cry, the networks have adjusted when they start calling the election but not by much.
I’m not sure when the media decided its job was to be the news and to make the news, but what we have now is a far cry from fair and impartial reporting. Yes, the mainstream media is, on the whole, doing its best to rig the election for Clinton. Why else are there no really in-depth and hard-hitting stories about the Clinton Foundation, the emails she erased, lost or whatever or Benghazi? Why aren’t the reporters digging into the Bill Clinton White House years, interviewing staff to find out how Hillary acted back then, how she treated the staff? Why aren’t they pulling up the soundbites of Michelle Obama and her attacks on Hillary because of how Hillary supported Bill instead of his victims? Funny how we’re not seeing any of that.
But that’s not to say there isn’t another sector of the media doing the same regarding Trump. There is.
So what are we, as voters and, hopefully, informed citizens supposed to do? Let’s start by using our brains. I know, all too many would rather let someone else do the thinking for them. Sorry, but I’m not like that. If you tell me how I should think or act or vote, I’m very likely to dig my heels in and tell you to go fuck yourself. I will decide what to do based on what is best for me, my family and those I care about. When it comes to voting, I will do the same thing, adding my city, state and nation in as well.
That means I look at as many different versions of the same story as I can. Each version will have a hint of truth and a lot of misdirection in it. It is up to me to figure out what is truth and what isn’t. Apply a bit of critical thinking helps here — of course, our schools aren’t necessarily teaching our kids how to think critically. So it is up to us to make sure the next generation — well, let’s be honest, it may be our grandchildren’s generation because the schools have done a number on too many of our kids — knows how to think critically, how to ask the hard questions and how not to go away until the answers have been given.
How do we save the country? We get involved. Instead of just beating our chests and crying that the sky is falling, we get up off our asses and we do something. We vote out those who have failed to represent our cities, states, districts, whatever to the best interests of the electorate. We let our voices be heard for once instead of being that silent majority that sits back and lets a handful of loudmouths sway things. We hold our politicians accountable for their actions. That is not only on the federal and state level but locally as well.
What we don’t do is give up. Every time we say the nation is lost and everything would be better if it just burned to the ground, we are playing into the hands of the other side. How? By giving them encouragement to continue doing what they’ve been doing. By telling those who might not be ready to throw in the towel that they will not have anyone watching their backs.
I don’t know about you but I still think this country is worth fighting for. Yes, the major party candidates for president suck big time. But they represent only one of the three prongs of government. Take a close look at who will best represent you, your values, your district and state’s interested and vote for that candidate. They hold the check and balance when it comes to presidential appointments. They hold the power when it comes to the purse strings. They hold the power when it comes to overturning vetoes and countering executive orders. In other words, quit being so fucking hung up on who might be president and worry about the 435 representatives and 100 senators sitting up on Capital Hill.
***
Long before the Others made their existence known to the world, Mossy Creek was their haven. Being from the wrong side of the tracks meant you weren’t what the rest of the world considered “normal”.
Normal was all Quinn O’Donnell wanted from life. Growing up on the “wrong side of the tracks”, she had been the only normal in the family. The moment she was old enough, she left and began life as far from her Texas hometown as possible. Now she has a job she enjoys and a daughter she loves more than life itself. Their life is normal, REALLY normal, until her daughter starts calling forth fire and wind.
Quinn knows they must go back so her mother can help five-year-old Ali learn how to control her new talents. But in Mossy Creek nothing is ever simple. Quinn’s mother has gone missing. Secrets from Quinn’s past start coming back to haunt her.
And the family home is more than a little sentient.
Can Quinn keep everyone — particularly Ali — safe? And will she ever get back her illusion of normalcy?
Witchfire Burning
The News Media apparently thinks that they are “little gods” who should never be criticized. 🙁
Then when they notice that they’re “disliked”, they blame it on the evil Republicans.
Except they don’t think they are “little” anything. They are THE one and only god the rest of us mere mortals should bow down to. I won’t say the rest of what I’m thinking.
Point
The Left and the media (but I repeat myself) want very much to put the genie back in the bottle, and return to the days when there were three networks, and those networks (and most newspapers) judged whether they had done national news right by matching it against the front page of the New York Times (though you could get away with matching the Washington Post if the Times had an excess of local stories that day.) (Mumble) years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth I was taught exactly that in my broadcast journalism class. There were even exercises where we were to take copy from the UPI teletype we had for the college station, and submit a “Rip & Read” five minute newscast. Our story selection was then matched against the actual NY Times for that day.
Indeed, President Obama recently spoke about the days of three channels and your local papers where everybody got the news and the news was pretty much the same because everyone agreed on the facts. His idea for putting the genie back in the bottle was for some central fact checking organization to be formed so everyone could look at a story and say “these are the facts.” (Note that Fox News is not against gatekeepers either, they simply disagree about who the gatekeepers should be.)