TGIF Blogcast: Mark Greaney; Gabe Kaminsky; Steve Shippy

Just One Thing: Who does he think he's fooling?

Yesterday in a short speech explaining very very little about events surrounding the Chinese "spy balloon", Joe Biden said "I make no apologies for taking down that balloon." What an absolute red herring. I don't know who, other than perhaps Xi Jinping, was asking for an apology. But you know, when he says something that obviously intended to be a distraction, what he's really afraid of. The point had been made in a similarly unintentional way by the incompetent diversity-hire Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre who, previewing Biden's remarks, said the president would elaborate on his "decisive response to China’s high-altitude surveillance balloon." Wait, you mean the one that was known to the president when it was over Alaska but not shot down until it was over the ocean off the coast of South Carolina? THAT decisive action? Yep, we know EXACTLY what the administration is afraid of.

Where Did the Phrase 'Red Herring' Come From? | Mental Floss

Today's Guests

Mark Greaney may well be the single best thriller author working today, and I say that as someone who's a huge fan of other authors like Jack Carr and Brad Thor and Brad Taylor. I simply LOVE the "Gray Man" series. Mark's out with the latest in the series, entitled "Burner". I've finished it...very hard to put down. Looking forward to the conversation with one of the best ever.

Home - Mark Greaney (markgreaneybooks.com)

Amazon link for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Burner-Gray-Man-Mark-Greaney/dp/0593548108

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It's ridiculous that Gabe Kaminsky has never been on the show before, right? Gabe is an investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner who recently uncovered a reprehensible effort by a non-profit to prevent advertisers from doing business with conservative media outlets including the American Spectator where I am an occasional contributor. That story would be only modestly interesting and, frankly, not surprising but for this twist: The non-profit in question is getting some of its funding for this project from the State Department.

Gabe Kaminsky | Washington Examiner

Disinformation Inc: Meet the groups hauling in cash to secretly blacklist conservative news (washingtonexaminer.com)

Disinformation Inc: Government-backed organization sent $315,000 to group blacklisting conservative news (washingtonexaminer.com)

LISTEN: Gabe Kaminsky talks State Department bankrolled conservative media 'blacklist' (msn.com)

Here's a piece in the American Spectator about this story: Joe Biden’s Secret Hobbies: Shooting Down Chinese Balloons and Conservative Newspapers - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

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Steve Shippy comes back to the show to talk about his latest paranormal TV special, "Michigan Hell House." It's a two-hour special that premieres this SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19th at 7p MT on the TRAVEL CHANNEL. It will be available for streaming on DISCOVERY+ that day as well.

I really don't believe in any of this stuff and yet I always enjoy the conversations. I can't tell if Steve is a true believer or is just great at staying in character, but either way we have fun talk about these things.

'Michigan Hell House' & 'The Devil's Academy' Join "Shock Docs Sundays" on Travel Channel & Discovery+ | Watched

Spirits Awaken in a Shock Docs: Michigan Hell House Clip (Exclusive) (comicbook.com)

Here's a trailer, just for fun:

Other Stuff

Denver metro real estate is weaker than before but that doesn't mean it's actually weak: Metro Denver median home prices are lower than a year ago (coloradosun.com)

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Of the nine major cities in America that experienced a record number of murders in 2022, only one state had two of them. Want to take a guess which one? Nine cities reached record homicides in 2022 as staffing shortages plagued police departments | Fox News

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Ugly for the biggest stars at Fox: Behind scenes, Fox News stars derided Trump camp's claims of election fraud : NPR

Tucker Carlson Calls Trump ‘Demonic Force’ In New Filing – Rolling Stone

Fox News stars and executives privately trashed Trump's election fraud claims, court document reveals | CNN Business

Fox Knew It Was Airing Bogus Vote-Fraud Claim, Dominion Says (yahoo.com)

I have to say that even though I didn't have these details, I could tell what Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham were doing and while I never liked Laura's show, I basically stopped watching all of them after they started running with "stolen election" nonsense even though there were actually plenty of folks in conservative media who were worse than those three.

I think the story is more damning of management than of the on-air folks, not that it's a good look for them either.

One example from the Dominion v Fox civil lawsuit regarding just how far the network's primetime hosts went to publicly maintain Trump's lies simply in order to not have the most gullible followers of Trump start watching a different network:

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AI in Microsoft's Bing search engine:

Gotta start somewhere:

Microsoft Bing AI made several errors in launch demo last week (cnbc.com)

But maybe not here:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/16/microsofts-bing-ai-is-leading-to-creepy-experiences-for-users.html

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How to maximize your calorie burn...during sex: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11736203/Sex-positions-burn-calories-REVEALED-one-surprise-you.html

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I think this is scary for the nation's economy: Household debt hit record $16.9 trillion last quarter, as consumers loaded up their credit cards - ABC7 Los Angeles

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I'm all for concealed carry, but not like this: Freak Accident Kills Man After MRI Machine Triggers Loaded Handgun : ScienceAlert

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There will not, and should not, be peace between Israel and the Palestinians until this stops: West Bank Kindergarten Students Simulate Clashes with IDF | MEMRI

By the way, I looked at that kindergarten's TikTok page and it's full of lovely videos of little kids being little kids, playing, coloring, goofing around, etc. Just let kids be kids. Don't turn them into terrorists or supporters of terrorists. The world will be a better place. Kids aren't naturally terrorists just because they're born in a place; they must be turned into monsters by evil people with ulterior motives and no care about death and murder.

Also, it looks like the school may have deleted this video from its TikTok feed.

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Today's Video

Arguably the greatest "technology" video of all time