Checking in – August 2017

Howdy folks,

Until I make a proper video, I felt it was about time I offer a little update as to how things are going on my end. I know it’s been a long hiatus, and, unfortunately, this will happen now and then. I’ve been fortunate enough to have help in the past, and perhaps I will again, but the fact remains this all is not my full time job, and life is what it is. One prioritizes.

I’ve been fully employed for the past while. I’m working a desk job for a little over two years, and it’s been going great. The job’s obviously not ideal, but it fits my skill set well and I can’t complain about the work environment too much. I’m doing okay – but yes, it’s been a little frustrating that I haven’t been able to push my online content along much at all.

I’ll be frank with you all – The last election cycle was among the toughest I’ve lived through. Full disclosure, I was a supporter of Ted Cruz, I was pretty surprised to see Trump just start building momentum like an unstoppable boulder rolling downhill, but the result is something I am not surprised to see happen. I accept it – the election was won fair and square, we avoided Hillary Clinton, and I came out of November feeling that very thankful that we have some release of the political tension that’s been mounting in this country.

It’s a hard thing to discuss. Passions are obviously heated on all sides, and the stakes are higher then they used to be. Gamergate made it pretty clear that the radical activists online (mainly progressives, but you see dribs and drabs from other quarters) are out to make politics very personal, and to make it punishing to engage in if one draws too much attention. It’s an uncomfortable dynamic, and one I’m not very happy to engage in solo without making sure things in my personal life are squared away.

I’m getting close to that point, finally.

So, audience, old timers and those who were around for ‘Invisible Voice’, and my short stint with Right Side, I’d like to know your thoughts. I’ve not been engaging at all in online debate – but I’ve been watching things closely and paying a lot of attention to the day to day events. Watching Youtube spiral has been.. disappointing, and blog talk radio doesn’t seem like it’s really grown at all. I know I ought to be doing something but it’s hard to know what that something is. I’m in that uncomfortable spot where I enjoy gaming content and politics, but it seems a few people on youtube have made that work.

What sort of content are you looking for? I’m thinking a good start would be weekly half hour wrap ups, keep things simple and direct. There’s a lot of ground to cover in terms of what the hell happened to get us here, but current events keep on moving very fast. After watching the adpocalypse take course, while I have an adsense account I’m not very keen on monetizing content on youtube right now, so I’m going into this with very little expectation of getting much for it, and that’s fine. It’s one reason why I took so much time to focus on work – I’m still wary of the crowdfunding model, and what one gets through ads is an abysmal pittance.

The dream remains to someday go professional doing this sort of thing, and until then, we’re stuck in this lightweight model. Leave a comment here or on youtube if you have the time, I’d appreciate it. I’ll figure something out on my own eventually, but feedback’s always welcome.

Cheers, Doug

Skeptic Conservative Podcast for this Saturday

Hey, look at that!

Half hour show for Saturday July 11th, 11:00 AM Pacific Time

So this is going to be a very tight show. Yes, it’s been forever, I know. That’s what this post is for, but before I get into that, here’s the related reading for the show, both from Ace of Spades HQ:

You’re Not Going to Believe This, But the Easy-Bake Media Is Once Again Focusing on a Trivial Issue Which Is So Easily Understood That You Need to Have Exactly Zero Outside Reading to Opinionate Passionately About It

Fed Up Conservatives Plot Measures Against Boehner

I’ll remind everybody that website is written with a great deal of fire, but on these issues I sympathize strongly with the blunt takes.

Now, as I mentioned in my last post, rebooting the show is a priority of mine. I can’t say to what extent I can guarantee content release, but I’m going to see how well I can do with Saturday morning quick-takes, the goal being to get something out there while I pursue deeper options.

My intention is to have the podcast be a more rapid-fire affair OR focused on one or two issues/angles. I need to get back into my groove, and while I am very interested in engaging with you, the audience, at this time it’s in my best interests to have those discussions take place here on the blog. Fortunately for you, this means the shows will have either no breaks or only one break in the middle!

At any given time, my priority is to focus on the audience that I have at any given moment. I know for a fact there’s a fair number of you who keep tabs on this site as well as Blog Talk Radio for any blips, and these coming shows will be focused on you.

Please comment and ask questions. I’m considering how to approach what’s been happening lately, and we have a delightful mix of long range things to discuss mixed in with the short-term. Expect to see more writing posts similar to last week’s, at the very least.

Cheers,

Doug

A Reminder to Be Skeptical

Credit goes to The Blaze for bringing this story from the New York Times to my attention.

Now, I know what long time followers will say: Doug! You’re linking the New York Times, bastion of progressive hedonism! What happened?

For once, the New York Times committed actual journalism. I won’t focus too much on the article itself, The Blaze has already done a fine job summarizing the article which is very much worth the read. In brief, an agency from Russia committed an elaborate hoax of a chemical plant explosion in a small american city. Said hoax included staged video of supposed ISIS terrorists claiming responsibility for the attack, hundreds of twitter accounts posting faked photos and video, and duplicate versions of authentic websites meant to trick the unwary.

The main reason I bring this is up is to share my experience as an old hand at consuming news, and in our era of always evolving news reporting there has been a universal constant:

First reports are always wrong.

That doesn’t mean you disregard breaking news. It means you view it with a critical eye. Always, no matter the source. Even when youtube came out, even during the aftermath of the Boston Bombing in which Twitter was the most reliable information source and absolutely creamed the mainstream media in reporting, any self respecting news analyst, amateur or otherwise, took to heart deep down that you always double check, you always triple check, and you verify your information through third parties.

And no, citing twitter and then citing a news story citing twitter doesn’t quite count, that’s ontological sourcing. What first reports are useful for are leads. The broad gist, the smoke in the room that one might chase down in order to find a possible fire. Or, in this case, a foreign country sponsoring a group of professional trolls blowing a tremendous amount of smoke.

I have always encouraged my listeners and readers to do their own homework, and, by and large, the list of websites and broadcasters I draw the majority of my information from encourage their audiences to do the same thing. In the example of the Columbia Chemical hoax, those initially caught up in the thrill of the moment would have verified the non-event by checking CNN, the local radio affiliates, drudge, ABC, state authorities.. the list goes on and on.

Yes, the problem of a legitimate website being ‘duped’ with a fake exists, and took place in that example. But for an event as serious as the one the hoax was trying to push – a major chemical plant explosion on September 11th – you treat those cases with extra scrutiny and make sure they look really good before firing the broadsides of everybody panic!

There are people out there who want to cause mischief. There are cases where they are willing to go to tremendous lengths to do so. Sometimes, those actors are countries, or sponsored by countries. Whatever major conflict happens next to humanity will almost certainly involve informational warfare, and, arguably, one could call this incident a major test-case. It’s in no way my intention to scare or fear monger or anything of the sort.

Merely, this is just a gentle reminder: When you see that sweet juicy story full of blood and guts splattering the windows, make sure the big and little dogs out in the wild actually have something in their jaws. Which you should have already known to do, anyway.

I’ve said in the past that twitter is a decent means of getting a feel for the ‘pulse’ of a current event. By and large, it still is. But now more then ever, if a current event is highly controversial while its unfolding, you’re going to want to take extra time to ensure the tweets you’re following come from verified, trustworthy people. And even then…

Cheers,

TheDougem

Minor housekeeping note:

I am currently exploring options for rebooting the podcast, favoring blogtalkradio but willing to consider other venues. While I would like to reach out to other conservative folks out there I kind of need to earn my street cred back, and what I really need to do is actually start commenting on news articles again, in addition to writing posts about them, on the sites I frequently mention here. (Like Legal Insurrection, Instapundit, and Ace of Spades). 

I’m torn between whether I want to focus on California politics, or my usual schtick of a focus on national issues with whining about California sprinkled in between. Realistically, my entry back will be the short, frantic half hour weekly shows where I don’t have to pay for a BTR subscription, but we’ll see. I am guilty of sometimes overthinking this stuff.

As always thoughts and comments are appreciated.

State of TheDougem for 2015

Howdy folks!

As anyone reading this likely knows, content droughts are a thing that happens from time to time with my efforts. Be it because of school or job demands being overwhelming, I’ve had to step back from occasion to make sure life is clicking just fine, and this past year-long plus hiatus has been no exception.

My run with Right Side Media Network ended somewhat abruptly due to disagreements on direction. I wish them the best of luck going ahead.

It’s become clear to me that I need to assemble a small team once again to run and produce the podcast and the gaming streams I have really, really missed doing. There’s many ways of going about doing this, and I wanted to run a few by those of you who follow this blog.

A lot of things have changed since I first began publishing grainy youtube videos on total war many years ago. Crowdfunding has dramatically changed the way amateur online production works. It’s always been a door I’ve been cautious to touch, but sites such as patreon are appealing because they remove a lot of the administrative hurdles involved with managing, for example, paypal donations, and helps promote transparency and honesty between content producers and their audience.

I’m still very serious about bringing the Skeptic Conservative back, and renewing my game commentary in some fashion. I’m working with several people to develop a business plan of sorts and a structure to slowly ease back into production. While I’ve regretted the past year of silence, the biggest reason I did it was because I was concerned the quality of my production wasn’t going to be to par. And honestly, I did need to recharge from some blows life and politics dealt. Current events is a very stressful field to follow, as important as it is!

Sometime in the next few weeks I’ll present a rough outline for the several paths I have ahead. I want to be honest and straightforward with you, the audience, and if I go the crowdfunding route it’s going to be very small scale and modest to start. It’s more important content is put out, and thankfully the initial bar to publishing is a very small hurdle. But the hurdle is there. It’s not feasible to devote the hours and money without some source of funding beyond a certain point, and I would much rather be accountable to my audience then a generous sponsor.

Please let me know what you think if you have a moment.

Stay tuned, God bless, and in the meanwhile, keep a finger on the pulse of things with a good website or two.

-Doug

Skeptic Conservative for November 5th

Welcome to the show prep topic! I’ll update this later on in the day to reflect the post show Follow-up.

Listen live Today at Patriots Freedom Network 2pm to 4pm Eastern Time! 

Topic for Today: Scattershot Skeptic! May not hit all points, but I have a great number lined up:

• Abridged Boring but Important
• The Border is still a thing
• Republican Civil War: The Narrative of the VA and NJ Elections and the Coming Battle with the GOP
• The Know Nothing President
• Obamism in the Middle East — Arm’s Length Foreign Policy
• Yes, the Media knew about health care insurance sticker shock

Goal for today is to make sure I do my back-up recording and to follow up with back-end production reposting of the show. Stay tuned for details regarding exactly how that will happen, I still have some technical snafus to clean up.

Questions? Comments? Topic Suggestions? Fire away!

Show Prep for October 28th

A little treat for the fine folks who lurk in my chatbox before the show.

Topic Ideas

• The Spying Scandal and why it should be a nothing-burger but isn’t

• The continuing Obamacare Avalanche — reminder of the Tragedy of the Commons

• The Eternal Campaign of the presidency

• The Know-Nothing President and Blame Shifting

Boring but Important

• http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/10/28/turkey-mulls-buying-missiles-from-china-snubbing-nato/   —Turkey becoming increasingly hostile

• http://thefederalist.com/2013/10/29/dont-like-data-just-call-anecdotal-ignore/ — Left trying to downplay changes to insurance plans

• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/28/never-shut-up-mike-rowe-explains-why-he-penned-a-viral-open-letter-to-beck-critic/ — Mike Rowe appearance on Beck’s program draws vitriol from left

• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/29/obama-group-using-survey-to-raise-money-off-obamacare-mess/ — Healthcare.gov may be broken but that won’t stop Organizing for America from celebrating it!

• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/29/msnbcs-blistering-montage-of-the-president-denying-knowledge-of-recent-scandals/ —- MSNBC has a moment of sanity

• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/29/these-are-some-of-the-gruesome-crimes-perpetrated-by-the-palestinian-prisoners-who-are-about-to-be-freed/ —- A review of the rap sheets of life-sentence palestinian criminals Israel is about to release

• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/27/60-minutes-benghazi-report-blames-white-house-was-planned-sophisticated-attack-on-barely-protected-american-compound/# — Over a year later, 60 minutes realizes Benghazi was a thing

• http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/canada-reveals-it-has-death-panels-slate-says-its-a-good-thing-to-play-god-50115/ — Slate praises ‘death panels’ in canada

• http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/178323/#respond — Yes, the border is still a thing

Relevant Links (Main Topic)

• Insurers Tell Congress: Beware Of Rate Shock If Enrollment Is Extended

• http://www.pocketfullofliberty.com/obama-knew-millions-would-lose-coverage-media-did-nothing/ — Media complicit with president

• http://nationalreview.com/article/362426/single-payer-fantasy-charles-c-w-cooke — Why Single Payer will not work

• http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/cover-story-how-nsa-spied-on-merkel-cell-phone-from-berlin-embassy-a-930205.html — The ridiculous fuss over the spying scandal

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/178322/#respond — The unknowing President; commentary and discussion

I know it’s rough! The polish comes when I have more time!

Post-Show for October 22nd Broadcast

Because of Reasons it seems like a good time to welcome a fresh wave of new listeners and readers.

Welcome to my page! It’s very dusty and needs cleaning, but this is the home for my political commentary and current events talk, and is the sister page for the program that airs live every Tuesday on Right Side Media Network.

This program is meant to be accessible and I love feedback and questions, so leave your comments on this post and I’ll address them here and maybe on air for the next program.

The cause of liberty has a great deal of steam behind it, we just got to do something with it. Here’s to a Fall of the Finest in Broadcasting Excellence.

Skeptic Conservative for 9/4/13

Today’s show will be a two hour, barring surprises. Which have a remarkable tendency to keep happening. 😡 Tentative topics:

• Weekly Filner Update becomes Weekly California Update. Quick review of Mayor’s race and overall nature of California politics
• The problems with the Snowdens of the world and government secrecy
• Syria Continued. Obama’s lack of leadership and obsession with the political short game
• Obama Care’s predictable toll on insurance premiums.

If you have any suggestions or angles to cover, now’s the time to say them!

Show will go live (hopefully) at 11am Pacific over on the Right Side. If I’m not live five minutes in, check in at noon.

Show Notes for August 6th

The stories teased at the start of the show:

Obama won’t discuss terror threat

Federal Employees to get Unconstitutional Obamacare Waiver

Top Ten Things the Media Found More Important than Al Qaeda

Fort Hood Shooting still a “Workplace Incident”

Media Wishes Boston Bomber was a Tea Partier

Surgically Implanted IEDs Current Top Terror Threat

RNC to drop Debates on NBC, CNN b/c of Hillary Miniseries

Egyptian Belly Dancer offers Compelling Case against Obama

Brown Bagging is now Officially Racist

Laws are for the Little People: California Edition

Didn’t hit on all of them, but this should be good reading!

Move over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database

Sure, we can trust the government with our private health and financial information! What could go wrong?