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Mark Caserta: Reckless reporting isn’t healthy for country
7 Jul
Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
Liberals seem willing to compromise just about anything to see President Trump fail.
It appears to me they’ve displayed a willingness to sacrifice our economy, our healthcare system and even our national security to propagate their progressive agenda. And now, they seem willing to destroy the president of the United States under the guise of exercising their First Amendment rights.
Now, I believe “religious liberty” could be our most important freedom, not only because it’s listed first in the Bill of Rights, but because without it, all other freedoms are devoid of purpose.
But what’s interesting to me is that through the eyes of our immensely wise founding fathers, free speech and freedom of the press held enough influence in their vision for our Republic, they included these freedoms in the First Amendment alongside our religious freedom!
What an incredible responsibility our founders placed upon the press regarding publishing the truth and adhering to the strictest interpretation of accuracy! Anything less would certainly dishonor our founder’s constitutional intent.
But, in my view, some members of the mainstream media have, indeed, dishonored our founders in reporting on President Trump and should be held accountable.
A landmark 1964 Supreme Court case, New York Times Co. versus Sullivan, held that “journalists and newspapers can’t be sued for libel or defamation unless they act recklessly by publishing something they know is false” per an April column by David Martosko for Daily Mail.com.
The definition of “defamation,” according to Law.com, is “the act of making untrue statements about another which damages his/her reputation. If the defamatory statement is printed or broadcast over the media, it is libel, and if only oral, it is slander.”
So, with major news outlets like CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times constantly reporting stories about Trump’s collusion with Russia, with no supportive evidence, at what point does it become “defamation, libel and/or slander”?
I was stuck by the disingenuous nature of the liberal defense of CNN last week for just one of its “errors” in reporting.
It’s true CNN did retract a poorly reported story on a Trump associate’s suggested affiliation with a Russian investment fund. They even “urged” three “journalists” responsible for the retracted story to resign.
But per a June 27 column in The New York Post, by Emily Smith, they reportedly did so for fear of a potential $100 million libel suit! What about the other multiple unfounded stories printed regarding the Trump/Russian collusion?
Sadly, I’m convinced liberals will continue down this path of prevarication throughout the Trump presidency. Perhaps it’s time for the president to respond differently.
Per the 1964 Supreme Court decision, for President Trump to sue the media for defamation, he would need to prove false statements were “knowingly published, with malice, or with a reckless disregard for their accuracy.”
I believe a formidable case could be made on Trump’s behalf and eventually dissuade the liberal media from reckless reporting. It simply isn’t healthy for our country.
And the Supreme Court just might see things a bit differently this time.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Doug Smith: Retrospection provides purpose in affirming the presidency.
6 Jul
Doug Smith: Free State Patriot history and social editor
7.6.2017
Donald J Trump is the President of the United States.
I am not a big Trump fan. My first article about him concluded he is something of an ass. I have altered that opinion only in this: he is a complex ass. Anecdotal evidence shows impulses of compassion and generosity I had not witnessed. Of course, impulse is the key word with President Trump.
So, I wish 2016 had turned out differently. I wish Ted Cruz had run stronger. I wish Marco Rubio had not forever sullied himself to conservatives by his sell out to the Washington insider crowd in the Gang of Eight on Immigration. I wish that the GOP leadership had not been breaking promises for 2 decades to the point that their own base rebelled and created 1st the Tea Party, then the year of the Insurgent. I wish that we had not had 17 GOP egos so inflated they could all convince themselves they had a shot at the White House. I wish the Democrat Party of JFK and Scoop Jackson had not declined to the point that it elected a radical, considered a Socialist, and given its soul to Clinton Inc.
But if wishes were horses, beggars should ride.
The Dems have done what they have done. The GOP, having made meaningless gestures while having no stomach for a real fight for the base, and having run the entire New England Patriots as their 2016 primary field, found the air was let out of the campaign, and ripe for the taking for a media savvy guy. (Yes, I know, that is a real groaner!)
It is what it is.
Donald J Trump is the President of the United States.
I’ll pause here while progressives reading this tape their skulls back together.
So, not my first choice, but most adamantly my choice over HRC, President Trump is the guy in charge.
But not, it seems for the Democrats. I had thought that the Bush Gore debacle of 2000 was a fluke. I had hoped that after enough years to realize that, yes, Bush Did win the Presidency, thin but fair and square, and after all the recounts and court cases and even recounts by the NY Times, turned out to be the legitimate winner, they would quietly slink off and think about how to win elections.
That turned out not to be the case.
Bush derangement syndrome continues unabated. Hillary Inc operates on the Vito Corleone principle “Ask your friends, they’ll tell you I know how to repay a favor. “Hillary just needs a little favor. The Presidency. Bernie’s folks were shocked that the rules were ignored to get him out of the picture in favor of Dona Hillary. They should not have been. They should have asked Susan McDougal just how much one is supposed to give so that the Clintons can get that to which they feel entitled.
Sadly and dangerously, BDS has not healed, but metastasized. We briefly went through the Get Bernie phase, and right on into Trump Removal Disorder. TRD began about 9 pm on November 8, 2016.
The transformation has been disturbing. They have become Gollum. ( We hates it forever, Precious. Thief! Baggins!)
Oh! Give that to us, Deagle, my love.
Why?
Because we wants it. (That did not end well, for Deagle: he was murdered for the Precious.
The point is, we may draw one simple analogy from the tales of Middle Earth to the present day Left: intense desire for power, coupled with a maddening hatred of any who would take it from you, in any way, or in any degree, leads to madness.
To this day, there are those on the Left who will maintain that Gore was robbed by SCOTUS in 2000: and Bush was never a “legitimate” POTUS. (This despite vast evidence showing this was most emphatically not the case.) This delusion, or madness, permitted them to manufacture and believe any sort of slander or falsehood about GWB: The Air National Guard falsehood, blood for oil, Bush Lied People Died, Valerie Plame, 9/11 was a Bush family inside job. All demonstrably false, all believed to this day by portions of the deranged, maddened Left. In their madness, their hatred of Bush permitted them to justify undercutting the country for the “greater good” of putting power back in their hands.
There were, and are, legitimate criticisms of Bush. He was a big government, big spending, progressive Republican. For those like me, on the conservative Right, these were a corruption of what the party of Reagan was supposed to be about.
So, kudos on the war, criticism on the spending.
My other, remaining criticism of Bush was his decision to remain above the fray, and not hit back at his detractors, even the ones who were blatantly lying. That permitted Bush Derangement Syndrome to continue, and grow, from an aberrant emotional disorder, easily treatable, into the full scale, widespread, psychosis that it is today.
Which brings me, as inevitably as tofu curdling on a liberal’s countertop, back to Trump. If Bush chose to suffer in silence at the criticisms, deserved or not, of his detractors, Trump has found the polar opposite position. On the one hand, bravo! Don’t let liars and slanderers get away with it any more. Hit back, hard and often.
On the other hand, please get a handler to put a filter on your mouth and tweets. Make sure you are correct before you speak. Don’t give them ammunition to use.
However, Donald J Trump is the President of the United States. I have little doubt that Progressives who read this will need some Alka Seltzer. But it is a fact. Hillary did what she does: she lost. Dramatically. Repeatedly. It might be time to reexamine some operating principles, if you want to win again.
But…
Donald J Trump is the President of the United States. And to make it worse for the Left, you do not get to impeach him because you don’t like him. You don’t get to invoke the 25th Amendment because he lacks manners. The easy rejoinder to that attempt must be that one of your own, in fact the father of your movement, Woodrow Wilson, was not removed after a severe, debilitating stroke, with left Edith Wilson as de facto President, so a little case of Twitter Tourette’s will not suffice.
The comparisons to Andrew Jackson abound. The crude, uncouth outsider, with flashy, notable success, who is willing to call the Right Honorable Gentleman a Dirty Scoundrel has a certain appeal at any time.
After many years of elitist condescending to the plebes, broken promises, and an increased misery index, a Jackson or a Trump are perhaps inevitable.
They make for good copy, but not, perhaps, for good governance. Still, there is something to be said for the high fever, causing the folks to lance the boil that has made them sick. So, running the risk once more of analogy, Progressivism, Big Government, all the Leftist bent toward controlling the power and the wealth of a nation: they are the ever-growing boil in the flesh of the Republic.
Trump, or perhaps not simply Trump, but the 2016 “Year of the Insurgents”, these are the high fever.
The inflamed rhetoric, and the violence of the Leftist groups in the streets, well these are the red and painful boil that is increasingly hard to ignore.
But the cure is, as it has always been, to lance the boil and drain the pus.
Needling them with Twitter does not seem to be the way. When a deranged man attempted to shoot Andrew Jackson, the President beat him with his cane until the attacker was subdued by Davy Crockett.
Perhaps a cane and a coonskin cap would be more effective than a cell phone?
Doug Smith: Remember Gettysburg, our Republic, on our Independence Day
4 Jul
Doug Smith: Free State Patriot History and Social editor
7.4.2017
What began as skirmishers in the pre-dawn from Buford s Federal Cavalry and Heth’s Confederate Infantry has grown into a meeting engagement involving 3 Union Corps. General John Reynolds of I Corps has been killed. 2 Union Corps have retreated through the town of Gettysburg to the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill, with orders to fortify.
Confederate General Jubal Early arrives on the field and is ordered by Lee to attack the Union flank ” if practicable”. He declines.
Both decisions were to prove seminal for a battle in which Union forces retreated, but held the all-important high ground.
Midnight
It is quiet now at Gettysburg. The cries of the wounded cut across the heavy air, hot from the July sun, coppery smelling from the blood.
Exhausted men chew hardtack and curl up to sleep, or peer over their breastworks for movement in the night. The heat and the flies do their grisly work on the dead, men and horses alike. Tens of thousands move up in the night to join the battle with the coming of the dawn.
As they smell the odor of battle, gunpowder, decay, blood, intestines, fear sweat, and hear the crackle of fires, and the occasional scream from the relentless work of the surgeon’s saw, they wonder if they turned off the road and marched into hell in the darkness.
Tens of thousands settled for an uneasy night, grimly resolved not to flinch away from the horrors that would come with the sun of July 2, 1863.
Meade arrives to take command. He determines to stay and fight from the high ground held by his Army.
So, the first day of battle ended, but the worst lay ahead.
It was night at Gettysburg.
Day 2.
4 pm. After a long day of march and delay, Longstreet attacks the Union flanks.
Col Strong Vincent of NY places Col Joshua Chamberlain ‘s 20th Maine at the far left of the Union line with orders to ” hold at all costs.” Both men knew if the 20th retreated, Longstreet’s Alabamans would roll up into the rear of the Union lines. It could sway the entire battle. It could sway the entire war.
The 386 men of the 20th began a desperate 3-hour battle that would test their resolve to its limit, and burn Little Round Top into the consciousness of the nation forever. Of the 386, 38 died, 91 were wounded, 5 missing, and every shot was fired from their muskets.
Still unwilling to yield, Chamberlain orders the regiment to fix bayonets and charge downhill into the attackers.
The 20th held.
The 20th prevailed.
And as the 20th, thus the Republic.
Day 3
Pickett s command of some 15,000 men were ordered by Lee to assault the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. For the 3rd time now, Alabama on the Left, Texas on the Right, and now Virginia up the center, Lee orders his men to assault fortified high ground.
About 3 pm, Longstreet, who had argued unsuccessfully against the attack, reluctantly gave the go ahead to Pickett to send in his men at Lee ‘s insistence. They would go in across nearly a mile of open field, against entrenched infantry and artillery.
Union artillery fired directly into their ranks. Infantry flanked and fired from multiple directions. Only a few hundred, out of 12,000 reached the Union barricades. They were all promptly killed or taken prisoner. Over 7,000 men were killed or wounded, effectively destroying Pickett ‘s Virginia Regiment.
Demoralized and badly beaten, the Army of Northern Virginia retreated to lick their wounds.
The Battle of Gettysburg was over. Lee had been beaten decisively. Unknown to him, or to Meade, Vicksburg had fallen, and Grant had taken control of the Mississippi, and cut the Confederacy in half.
Meade had won, but in caution or timidity, did not send his exhausted Army of the Potomac to pursue and finish Lee. He would not recover from that decision, and would soon find himself subordinate the Lt Gen U.S Grant.
On Independence Day, 1863, the Civil War still raged. But the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Only the butcher s bill.
Mark Caserta: It’s time to hold fake news media accountable
30 Jun
Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
6.30.17
The success of the Trump presidency appears to be making liberals uncomfortable beyond “truthful” words.
“Trump haters,” unable to leverage facts in decrying the leadership of Donald J. Trump, have been reduced to propagating “fake news” in an effort to bring him down.
In my lifetime, I’ve never seen such disregard for the fundamental principles of journalism as Americans are seeing from major news networks, like CNN, where it appears “truth, accuracy and impartiality” are no longer prerequisite to reporting.
Last week, CNN was forced to retract an editorial column on Friday that connected Anthony Scaramucci, an associate of Donald Trump, to a Russian investment fund managed by a Kremlin-controlled bank, per a column in The Hill by Julie Manchester the following day.
“On June 22, 2017, CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund,” the news organization said in a statement. “That story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. Scarmucci.”
Per Ms. Manchester’s piece, “the retracted story had claimed that Senate investigators were looking at the activities of the $10 billion Russian investment fund in connection to Scaramucci,” who served on President Trump’s transition team.
Now, President Trump has been quick to identify CNN as fake news, even downgrading their status to “very fake news” during an exchange with CNN’s White House reporter Jim Acosta in February. And frankly, it doesn’t get much “faker” than this story, which was totally fabricated, designed to further the false liberal narrative of Trump’s collusion with the Russians.
And it appears, Acosta and the “Clinton News Network,” as it’s been called, still harbor a grudge against the president.
Following the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and two Capitol Police officers by a leftist gunman during a GOP baseball practice, Scalise was taken to a Washington hospital where he was visited that evening by President Trump and first lady Melania. The president tweeted after the visit: “Just left hospital. Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape – but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!”
But apparently, without taking the time to verify his sources, CNN’s Acosta jumped on a “big scoop” that the president really did not visit Scalise and tweeted: “WH official on hospital visit: ‘President Trump did not meet with Scalise and did not go into the room where Scalise is being treated.'”
Acosta was forced to delete his tweet and report the exact opposite “but not before it was captured by several Twitter users; many accusing the CNN reporter of spreading fake news,” according to a column in Breitbart, by Jerome Hudson.
Truth is a defining attribute of any individual or organization, but certainly a news provider. When a news organization can no longer be trusted to deliver the truth, they become ineffectual.
CNN has chosen to place itself in that category.
It’s time for Americans to hold fake news organizations accountable by withholding viewership and support.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Mark Caserta: Dark politics flourish in nation of political unrest
24 Jun
Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
- Jun 23, 2017
The sting of hatred is far more injurious than the force of might. Its venom will immobilize a society.
Such appears to be the flourishing state of dark politics in our country, as it appears we’ve been infected by political domestic terrorists so distressed over the election of Donald J. Trump they’re willing to take the lives of innocent people simply because of political party.
“Republiphobia” you ask? Well, I’ve seen greater accusations on far less facts.
Prior to last week, I had only known Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., as the home of T.C. Williams High School. You may recall the 2000 movie, “Remember the Titans,” starring Denzel Washington, depicting the true story of a newly appointed African-American coach and his high school team facing down the odds of racial discord to win a state championship and the unity of a community.
How ironic this same community, once used to portray a story of healing and unanimity, would be the stage for a horrific display of hatred and intolerance.
Last week, a gunman believed to be a supporter of former Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders used a high-powered rifle to attack innocent people at a GOP baseball practice, critically wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and injuring four others before being shot by U.S. Capital Police. Scalise, who suffered severe internal damage, has been upgraded to fair condition per last report.
Others injured, Zack Barth, a congressional aide to Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, Tyson Foods director of government relations, Matt Mika, and Special Agents David Baily and Crystal Griner were “treated and released” per the New York Times.
This incident resonates additionally for me since my eldest son, his beautiful wife and my two precious grandbabies have a home just a couple of miles away.
Amid our nation’s political unrest, I can’t help but wonder what change liberals are proposing and just how far they’re willing to go to achieve it.
We’ve endured singer Madonna saying she’s “even thought about blowing up the White House.”
We’ve viewed comedian Kathy Griffin posing with a bloody, decapitated head in the likeness of Donald Trump.
We’ve watched while a New York-based arts organization staged a production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” starring a Trump look-alike who is violently stabbed and murdered.
And incredibly, even President Trump’s 10-year-old son, Barron, isn’t safe from cowardly “Trump Derangement Syndrome” attackers.
In a January column by World Net Daily’s Chelsea Schilling, she reports that on inauguration weekend, leftist comedians and writers took to Twitter calling Barron a “rapist” and a “homeschool shooter,” even suggesting the innocent boy “is an arsonist.”
In what world are these behaviors acceptable? Yet, acceptance does indeed appear to be the pervasive attitude among liberals.
George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying, “Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.”
What do liberals hope to accomplish with this paralyzing animus?
And what else will they be willing to accept to see President Trump fail?
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Russia to treat US jets in Syria as ‘targets’ after America guns down first regime warplane | The Independent
19 JunRussia has said it will treat US warplanes operating in parts of Syria where its air forces are present as “targets” amid a diplomatic row caused by the downing of a Syrian jet. The country’s defence ministry said the change in position would apply to all aircraft, including those operating as part of the US-backed coalition.
Mark Caserta: It’s time for liberals to put America first
16 Jun
Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
Jun 16, 2017
Liberal Democrats are allowing the sheer hatred of President Trump and his supporters to render them senseless to the needs of our country.
Let’s be clear. It’s not the Russians destroying our Democratic electoral process; it’s liberals.
And this isn’t a war on President Trump; it’s a war on you!
Americans decided overwhelmingly, in the manner governed by our Republic, to elect someone who was the antithesis of his predecessor. Anyone willing to be intellectually honest would admit our nation was in a death spiral both economically and on stage in the global theater. Americans knew we needed a true leader, one who would never place political correctness over the needs of our country.
America needed Donald J. Trump.
Liberals realized immediately after Trump won his party’s nomination that something was wrong. How could this outsider possibly have come this far in the race? Surely, this was a fluke. But nevertheless, something had to be done. So, they began the process of delegitamizing Donald Trump, the man.
Every step Trump took, it would be his last. Every time he tweeted, he’s surely crossed the line. Every time he said something politically incorrect, it was the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.
But it never happened. The more he resisted pressure to align with the Washington norm, the more popular he became.
But the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election set the stage for the ultimate shocker for liberals. Not a single progressive talking head could find a path to victory for Donald Trump.
Democrats and the mainstream media were certain Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide. Her pompous arrogance and assurance of victory prompted a feckless campaign which failed to propose any significant strategy beyond perpetuating the failed policies of Barack Obama.
Even when Hillary’s success within her own party became shaded after the Democrat National Committee website experienced a cyber-attack exposing Democrats attempting to undermine the presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary’s faithful stood by her.
But in the wee hours of the morning, on Nov. 9, 2016, the walls of the DNC started to crumble. As final election returns were confirmed and reported by the news outlets, it appeared Donald Trump was winning. And not just barely winning. He was winning “big time.”
Liberal Democrats were livid, but not finished. After coming to terms with the results of the election, they had to do something to regain power, despite the unintended consequences. So, the current strategy to undermine the presidency of the United States and our electoral system began.
Even as jobs are returning and the world leaders are once again recognizing the leadership of the United States as legitimate, progressive anger flourishes. We see liberals acting erratically, using foul language and despicable displays of hatred against the president.
Is this the future you want for our country? Hate has never succeeded, and love never fails. It’s time for liberals to put America first.
It’s time to love our country more than you hate the president.
Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
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