Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   1/03/2017

                     New Year hope, old fake news

In 2017, for our Tehama County community, I hope and pray for a better economy, less crime, less drug abuse and dependency, more family cohesion, continued wise local leadership and the lightest possible burdens imposed on that leadership by politicians and regulators from the Emerald City to the south, Sacramento. It would be pointless to express such sentiments for our once-Golden State, given that, with the exception of a virtual “rump” contingent of Republican legislators (no disrespect intended for our fine and valiant Jim Nielsen and James Gallagher), our state governing apparatus has been entirely taken over by leftist, progressive Democrats.

I can only hope that Governor “Moonbeam” Brown and the radicals in charge are effectively nullified by Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington on immigration “sanctuary” (read anti-constitutional) policies that get citizens killed, and their fanatical pursuit of anti-“global warming” measures. Such inconsequential and futile efforts to reduce carbon emissions in a world of vast natural CO2 sources and unrestrained Chinese coal-fired energy have the singular result and purpose of creating a hamstrung, noncompetitive business environment.

Moving vans to leave California still cost three times what those same vans cost to come here from population and business magnets like Texas. Middle and upper-middle class workers and job creators still flee only to be replaced by impoverished immigrants, legal or not. California’s economy “works” for the rich coastal elites and increasingly—witness the removal of restrictions on increased welfare payments for popping out more babies—those who rely on the free flow of government “benefit” checks, food stamps, Medicaid and housing subsidies.

Commanding the nation’s attention, and the news media’s Trump-deranged agenda, is the supposed Russian hacking of the 2016 election; “supposed” because the very term “election hacking” is a prime example of “fake news” that we’ve been obsessively admonished about. While election machines are subject to nefarious manipulation in rare instances, no one has even made a credible assertion that anyone “hacked” the voting apparatus of any local or state system.

Yet, over half (52%) of Democrats polled believed “Russia tampered with vote tallies to get Trump elected” (Economist/YouGov). For all the wailing and hysteria from the left and news media (two largely overlapping circles) about how “fake news” swayed voters—by which they mean inaccuracies, as they define them, from Donald Trump and myths spread on Facebook—this most-damnable-lie-possible about the election is accepted as true by many of Clinton’s supporters.

They have, for the entirety of Barack Obama’s term and Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. record, witnessed fabrications, misstatements, disingenuousness and bald-faced lies from those two politicians nearly every time their mouths were moving. However, our once-impartial (maybe in the 1950s) practitioners of “the freedom of the press” ceased closely scrutinizing high-level public servants’ statements once Democrats assumed the positions. Their side of the voting citizenry remains oblivious to the veracity-defying patterns of Obama and Clinton.

Iowahawk’s David Burge tweeted a synopsis in “Iowahawk expertly dismantles media’s ‘election hacking’ B.S.” Burge: “It took nationwide humiliation at the polls to spur the president to action, but yesterday, he finally decided it was time to punish Russia for its coordinated cyberattacks against the U.S. But in light of Obama’s recent wake-up call, it’s important to remember that the Russians had help—from unwitting, inept players like John Podesta.”

First came a subtle tweet from @NPR: “President Obama orders sanctions against Russian intelligence services officials in response to election hacking.” Mr. Burge simply tweeted “@NPR what ‘election hacking’ are you referring to?” Someone responded with a slam echoed locally: “pretty sad state of affairs when half of America is siding with the Russians.” D.B.: “it’s a pretty sad state of affairs when half of America is so…stupid they think Russia ‘hacked the election.’”

Iowahawk (D.Burge) wrote this irrefutable chronology in a dozen tweets: “John Podesta, like 100% of everyone who has ever had a email account, received a password phishing email. He fell for it. According to some accounts, the phishing email had Russian fingerprints or characteristics in its metadata. Whatever the case, the password purloiners downloaded his emails, which eventually got into the hands of Wikileaks, who made them public. The emails were mildly embarrassing, revealing frequent circle jerking between the DNC and journalists. Mostly embarrassing to media.

“At the time of their release (Oct), they were hardly covered by any media and largely dismissed as a big fat nothingburger. Not one of the people whose emails were revealed has ever disputed their authenticity or provenance. Fast forward to December. The October nothingburger has now magically transformed into ‘vote hacking’ and ‘election hacking.’ New narrative: treasonous Trump operatives conspired with Putin to hypnotically mesmerize Clinton voters into pulling the wrong lever. This is not Alex Jones or angry conspiracy kook Facebook uncles, it’s the NYTs, the WaPo, our beloved State Radio. How effective has this been? If polls are to be believed, 50%+ of Democrats believe the Russians literally modified vote tallies. None of this is a defense of Trump or…Putin. It’s an indictment of our garbage narrative-driven media. It shouldn’t have to take a drunk internet nobody to point any of this out, but hey, here we are.”

The above is provided for the enjoyment of most, the consternation of a few.