It's silly season in the media, and I know it's hard to tell because every day seems to be the same, but the last eight weeks of a close election campaign are definitely the silliest period.
Just this week, PolitiFact's chief correspondent “fact-checked” former President Donald Trump's comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still in office.
Now, this is certainly a campaign claim, but it does have some merit: Russia has invaded countries during every 21st century president other than Trump (Georgia under Bush, Ukraine under Obama, and Ukraine again under Biden), plus the 45th president has earned and cultivated a reputation for sudden, unexpected, and brutal retaliation when disobeyed (Soleimani, Syria, MOAB, etc.).
That means it's very hard to “fact-check” what a political claim might have been. It's the kind of thing politicians are perfectly entitled to claim and voters to judge, but it's certainly not the domain of “fact-checkers” to “check.” But thankfully, our chief reporter was there! He called a semi-retired professor at Columbia University and another at something called Muskingum University and checked it anyway. “Experts say it would be hard for the president to stop the war on his own,” our former reporter reported.
Fact checkers have no authority, but that authority sells and, more importantly, is crucial to the Democratic Party, Democratic media, and big tech companies.
But that wasn't the end of it. Trump called Vice President Kamala Harris “Comrade Kamala,” a bit of alliteration (the “ka” sound is doubled) and a political insult to a woman who has put so few economic policies, including floating price controls. “When they call you a 'communist,'” one Washington Post columnist said, “you're a communist.” Suggested“Maybe we shouldn't propose price controls?”
But PolitiFact senior correspondent Amy Sherman was working on the case. She fact-checked Trump's statement as a “total lie” — that is, as false as possible. “Her proposal is vague, but its scope falls well short of a communist policy,” she wrote.
“Her policy proposals are based on mainstream centre-left views and would be uncontroversial even among centre-right parties in Europe,” she continued.
This is a pet issue for Amy, as the day before she fact-checked Trump calling Harris a Marxist and comparing her political rhetoric to that of former Senator Joseph McCarthy (surprise!).
I could not find a single instance of Amy or her employer fact-checking the near-constant claims by Democrats and their media buddies that Trump is a “fascist” or an “enemy of democracy.” They don’t seem to care.
Of course, that's not surprising. Fact checks are a scam to make some special claim to objective authority. Of course, this authority doesn't exist, but it sells and, more importantly, is extremely important to the Democratic Party, Democratic media, and Big Tech, which uses these fact checks to censor everything from patently false memes to legitimate political opposition.
Still, sometimes it's ridiculous and funny. Such a time is now. It's 2024, Donald Trump is running for president again, this time going toe-to-toe with the Democrats (even after swapping candidates). Panicked, the Democrats are rallying together again. Russia is in the news again, which is a dark joke considering PolitiFact is accusing Trump of “McCarthyism.” Heck, they even rehired CNN's Brian Stelter.
With eight weeks until the election, it might be worth trying anything.
Bedford: The corporate takeover of “fact-checking”
Bedford: USA Today uses college students to censor media they don't like
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In other news
The hunter is guilty, Didn't do that; okay, okay, he did.
When we woke up Thursday morning, President Joe Biden's 54-year-old son was preparing to plead innocent of evading $1.4 million in taxes. The feds said he spent all of the money on prostitutes, drugs and worse, and in his defense, he was going to claim he was too drunk to pay the taxes.
It set a great precedent and I looked forward to arguing it myself next year, but unfortunately, our hero faltered once the reality of jury selection set in. So he tried the good ol' Alford plea, which means pleading guilty because you have no real defense, but still retaining the purity of your innocent heart.
Special Counsel David Weiss didn't believe it. He's received a lot of well-deserved criticism from his friends on the right, but I think they misunderstood his motives. He's not advancing the Democratic cause, but rather cleaning up after himself. And Hunter has already caused him enough trouble.
Either way, the judge agreed with Weiss and told the boy to try again. And now he's clearly guilty and facing up to 17 years in prison and a fine of $1.35 million. Don't expect him to accept it. And honestly, be prepared for Joe to pardon him. He promised not to, but the old man doesn't owe anyone anything anymore, so there's no reason not to.
Fires rising: Politico: 'Ticking time bomb': Plummeting office prices put Washington on alert
DC has been out of work since around St. Patrick's Day 2020, and many have never returned. While people are gone, the mayor has decided to outdo Trump by effectively shutting down policing and turning over the now-abandoned downtown to Black Lives Matter activists, criminals, and psychos. Now the city's entire economy is on the verge of collapse. Katie O'Donnell reports.
Four and a half years after the pandemic forced workers to work from home, office real estate payments are finally coming due.
The office building market, already hurt by rising vacancy rates due to the expansion of remote work policies, is being hit further by soaring borrowing costs. The Federal Reserve is finally ready to cut interest rates, but it may be too late. Investors, banks and property owners are beginning to accept that some commercial buildings will never recover their pre-pandemic values. As a result, non-performing loan sales have been steadily increasing.
The market turmoil has caught the attention of Congress, with one New York lawmaker calling it a “ticking time bomb” for banks as nearly $1 trillion in commercial real estate loans come due this year. Faced with vacant office buildings and millions of housing units to meet demand, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to make it easier for developers to convert underused properties into housing..
