Mercenaryism . . .

By
eric
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84
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Thomas Paine didn’t include ads in Common Sense.

He actually gave away what became the best-selling or most widely distributed pamphlet published during the effort of the American colonies to separate themselves from the union with Great Britain.

I think of Paine a lot when I’m listening to talk radio – and also when I am trying to read articles online, sometimes. Italicized to reflect my annoyance with these articles serving as vehicles for endless product pitches. On radio, it’s often worse. The commentator will segue seamlessly from commenting to selling.

It’s really off-putting. At least, it is to me.

Maybe because when I began to write for a living, there was a clear line between commenting and selling. You would never have encountered – in the Olde Print News Days – a news article or an editorial/commentary piece that tried to sell you something.

At least not overtly.

There were absolutely op-eds and editorials written by paid shills for something or other. Or – often – ghost-written for pay by someone on behalf of some industry or agenda, with the byline of someone regarded as an “expert” or who was “known” on top of the thing. With the paying/ghostwriting not being disclosed. I witnessed this stuff happen, so I can vouch for it having happened.

But at least an article or op-ed about, say, inflation, did not oilily segue into a sales pitch for Buy Gold Now. There may have been an ad for gold coins on the same page. But it was not actually in the article. As in part of the text, itself.

Talk radio today is the worst, though.

Especially “conservative” talk radio. Beck and Hannity’s shows, for instance, are hours’ long infomercials that occasionally have something non-mercenary to say. They are like those Free Vacation Weekend offers that promise a no-cost stay at a nice resort, provided you agree to spend three-quarters of your time enduring sales pitches to buy a condo there.

Nothing wrong with making money, of course. But if the “message” is so important then why spend so much time not delivering it?

The late comedian Bill Hicks had a brilliant routine about this in which he concluded that “everything you say is suspect” when you mouthpiece for some product or service you’re obviously being paid beaucoup bucks to promote.

And why do multi-millionaire radio commentators like Beck and Hannity shill so relentlessly when – clearly – they do not have to?

Multimillionaires not having to do much of anything.

They will say – I’ve heard them say it – that all that shilling is necessary to keep their programs on-air. Nonsense. Anyone can be on-air (and online) nowadays and it requires nothing approaching even tens of thousands of dollars. There are multiple ways to get the message out – to reach a large audience – especially if one already has the audience. Is it improbable that Beck’s or Hannity’s audience would not follow them via Podcast or substack or WordPress or some other media format that anyone who isn’t actually homeless can easily afford and use to reach just as many or even more people?

Of course, the dollars (that is to say, the corporate contracts) might not follow them and – aye – there’s the rub.

It’s not about making a living. It’s about making a killing. TeeVee evangelist style.

And it’s a shame – precisely because these guys (and there are others) do have an audience and might reach more people more effectively if it wasn’t always – or so it feels – about the money.

Paine was more interested in the cause. In getting the word out. And because he didn’t try to make a buck off everything, at every turn, his words carried more weight. Interestingly, so do the words of guys like Joe Rogan – who makes plenty of bucks without shilling because he has a huge audience that trusts him, because they regard him as . . . not a shill.

Of course he has advertisers. But he’s not constantly trying to sell you something.

I think more of us in the business of getting the word out could benefit from Paine’s and Rogan’s example, assuming we really do care about the ideas getting out more than making another buck.

. . .

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Related posts:
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  2. We Did OK
  3. The Electric Greaseman
  4. Paine, Jefferson and the Fear Mask
  5. What Made The Light Go On?

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84 COMMENTS

    • Hi John,

      I’m not surprised. People – who aren’t stupid people – get suspicious when they are offered “incentives” to take drugs. No one has to “incentivize” me to take a shot of good whiskey.

      • Eric,

        At first, when all these incentives were being offered for people to take the experimental pharma products called “COVID vaccines”, I was suspicious myself, as I’ve NEVER before seen the federal government AND large corporations offering people incentives to take an experimental drug. Over time though, I’ve come to agree with a conclusion made by someone else that governments and large corporations that were offering such incentives viewed the masses as STUPID.

    • Every country in the world signed off on following WHO directives, they are in total control, your government and politicians have zero control, (but were very well paid for going along)…….WHO runs the pandemic response in your country, masking, lockdowns, lethal injections, etc., So who is the WHO and who runs it?

      tedros another satanist
      With United Nations World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia serving as a mouthpiece for the Communist Party of China on the global stage, questions and concerns about his shadowy communist past are growing louder. Considering his scandal-plagued background,

      critics have gone so far as to say that “Marxist revolutionary” Tedros should be on trial for crimes against humanity — not sitting atop the WHO barking orders at national governments and peddling Beijing’s propaganda to humanity.

      Tedros, who has no medical degree but got the top UN job with fervent backing from Communist China, is an actual communist with a long pedigree in the movement. Before taking up his perch at the WHO, Tedros was most prominent for his government posts in a tyrannical regime, and for his key role in leading the murderous communist organization known as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

      The U.S. government previously designated the Marxist group as a terrorist organization for its murders, kidnappings, terror attacks, and more. Citing at least a dozen terror attacks on private citizens, religious figures, private property, non-governmental organizations, journalists, and other targets spanning more than three decades, the Global Terror Database continues to list it as such.

      As “Minister of Health,” Tedros reportedly played a key role in covering up epidemics. Perhaps the most significant example was his concealing of multiple cholera outbreaks, falsely labeling them water-borne diarrhea and downplaying the crises. He also bullied bureaucrats into silence about these problems, news reports and critics say.

      Later, as “Minister of Foreign Affairs,” Tedros helped the regime hunt down journalists and dissidents, including those who fled abroad. Human Rights Watch and other groups drew global attention to the regime’s kidnapping and rendition of Andy Tsege, a British father of three who was tortured and tormented for years over his criticism of the dictatorship ruling Ethiopia.

      The ethnic group that has been most ruthlessly targeted by Tedros’ TPLF is known as the Amhara.
      the APU said about Tedros’ anti-Amhara campaign while serving the regime and his “fascist” political party. “Of particular importance is the unexplained 2.5 million decrease in the Amhara population under his healthcare leadership.

      The regime that Tedros helped lead also persecuted people in the Oromia region of Ethiopia as it sought to forcibly relocate some 15,000 people to make way for “investment” opportunities. Following the use of tear gas, mass killings ensued as police fired military weapons at disarmed victims outraged about the governmental abuse.

      Since taking over the WHO with Beijing’s support, Tedros has continued to promote Marxist policies and individuals. Shortly after landing the job, for instance, he named mass-murdering Marxist dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as a “Goodwill Ambassador” for the WHO.

      Mugabe, of course, was responsible for genocide against a rival ethnic group, slaughtering tens of thousands of people in an attempt to exterminate them

      Some critics say Tedros should be put on trial for crimes against humanity. “If there was ever an example of the failure of globalized institutions, the WHO is it,” said analyst John Martin in a piece published by Rough Estimate headlined “The Crimes of Tedros Adhanom,” calling for the global outfit to be radically reformed or simply disbanded.

      “In a sane world, instead of leading a global organization, Tedros and his cronies would be put on trial at the International Criminal Court, tried for his crimes, and if found guilty, should spend the rest of his life in prison.”

      Other critics have also blasted Tedros for his past. wrote Gellaw, referring to the now-WHO boss and his “ethnofascist” group as a “gang” that was “responsible for all the corruption, killings, torture, mass detention, land grab and displacement” afflicting their homeland.

      There is also the fact that Tedros is a boot-licking puppet for the Communist Chinese Party, which has murdered more people than any government in human history.
      Before Tedros, the WHO was run by Communist Chinese agent Margaret Chan.

      the entire UN system is using the Communist Chinese virus as a pretext to advance globalism and Big Government the geat reset by the nwo/who/ccp/.0001%

      note: This all started with the defective chinese research.

      zhang yongzhen was the chinese scientist that released the genome data for the so called sa…rs co…v 2 vir….us, this data was used all over the world to put in place masking, lockdowns, destruction of small business and now forced extermination injections and to make the (extermination injections).
      This faked data was fed into another software program that produced the m..rna vac..ci,,ne in one weekend. Made in one weekend and you are get that poison injected in you? Normal vac…..cines take 10 years to get produce.

      ATTENTION: The problem was he used fabricated manipulated data, scientific fraud to fabricate the sars co…v 2 vir…us genome, he used their megahit software program. no controlled experiments were ever done.
      Around the world virologists used 49 different software programs and could never duplicate his results. nobody seems to care………..

  5. GNN is my station and Ron Burgundy is my man. He shoots it straight.
    Seriously, I cant listen to any of them, Dave Krieger might be the newest, and worst. Vince Finelli’s broadcast on GCN is generally pretty good and he doesnt hock any wares. I listen to the Jeff Rense network on the weekends when his rebroadcast doesnt do commercials. Look people gotta pay the bills, “Shammity” and “Scleck” are insufferable, and I will leave the name calling at that. I do purchase and use some products that get promoted snd some have been beneficial. Yes most is controlled opposition, even “alt-news”. They debate the official story with alt- theories, yet the real story is the one they never get to and maybe, eventually, we get bits and pieces of.

    • One America News (OANN) is a good alternative to the major news outlets. Despite having decent ratings they were deplatformed from Verizon and DirecTV at the behest of the federal government.
      Although I do not agree with their slavish stance on israel or the “thin blue line”, they DO offer a real alternative to CNN, PMSNBC and other mainstream media outlets.
      Their stance on the (forced) jabs is quite revealing. They do not pull punches when they report on the poison “jabs”. They have interviewed doctors and other medical professionals who warned about adverse effects…those who have been banned from getting the message out.
      In addition, they will spend a whole half-hour or hour on one subject, thoroughly analyzing all aspects of a particular topic.
      OANN can be streamed on the internet. The yearly subscription cost is quite reasonable and is well worth it.
      Give them a try. You may like what you see…

  6. Hi Eric, et al,

    What I listen to these days are specifically libertarian podcasts, some of which are very worthwhile. These are people like Tom Woods, Dave Smith, Scott Horton and so forth. They do use ads to finance their operations, and frankly that’s a very libertarian way of getting one’s message out there. These people are entrepreneurs with a great system of values. If these people want to have reach in exposing the bullshit, they have to cover overhead and whoever they employ. What could be more free market? The thing about the people I mentioned above, that they have in common, is that all of these people are consistently libertarian in outlook. And, by the way, thanks for getting on substack…..most of the blogs I read are on substack….in any case coming here on a regular basis still happens on a daily basis….

  7. Having worked in News/Talk radio for 20 years, host/producer/news anchor, I agree with your point about The Pitchers. Hannity, Levin, Beck, Limbaugh were pushing the products. Yes, it’s something that must be done but, it can’t be done at the expense of a philosophy or you become a whore. [I’m looking at you, Sean] You can spot these shills by their, “I’m an R and D’s are scum” rhetoric. It’s all about what letter is on the jersey…period.

    I had the pleasure of working on a show that the host had the unique ability to poke in the eye both R’s & D’s. He actually lost a sponsor due to his even-handed prickishness. He didn’t care. That’s rare in the biz. Suffice it to say, he got fired after 15 years, partly, I think, because he’d pissed off just about every local and regional politician regardless of party. Nobody wanted to come on the show because they knew he would deftly rip them a new one.

    And, he got the rest of the Lone Ranger Story from Jay Thomas, simply amazing.

    I’ll close with LAMA! (for those who know, no explanation is needed, for those who don’t, none will suffice.

    • Hi Mark,

      If there’s one thing we’ve seen in the past few years, it’s that not all Rs are principled conservatives and not all Ds are scum. There are lifelong Ds such as Naomi Wolf, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and Jonathan Turley who have become sick with the direction the D party has gone. Why, even Arizona U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema and fmr Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard have left the D Party.

      As a lifelong R myself, I’ve also become disgusted with the R Party and with some R politicians who I once voted for or thought at least had some conservative principles, such as George W Bush & Mitch McConnell.

      As for Sean Hannity, I haven’t heard or watched him in years, so I don’t know if he criticizes Rs when they deserve it, or if he’s just a lickspittle for the R Party.

  8. I’ve never had much use for the Fox News crowd. The channel was started after the 1992 cable act made it impossible for cable companies to raise rates unless they added a channel to the lineup. That caused an explosion in cheap programming like home shopping, 24X7 infomercial channels and… Fox News. In the early days they paid cable companies, supplied all the equipment (including setting up C-band dishes if you weren’t looking at the bird), and demanded premium channel position (usually next to CNN). They ran more ads than anyone at the time. I think the Fox News alumni follow the same pattern, more interested in advertiser friendly content than actual information.

    But it runs across most of the podcasting/YouTube universe. The people who came “down” from broadcast have some serious backing, serious production and serious expenses. They have to run a ton of ads because their productions are so fat. When YouTube was paying, when there were only 20 good podcasts, and when it was new and novel, there was easy money to be had. Now that there are millions of everything, it gets harder to keep an audience. And advertisers want minute-by-minute breakdowns of eyeball time. Beck and Infowars took a different tack and built their empire on warehouse space, and that’s one way to do it, but reality is that’s even more bloat to have to deal with, more salarymen, more overhead. All that “below the line” expense that doesn’t change just because the news cycle isn’t exciting.

    And the people who started out with “two turntables and microphone” are feeling the pinch too. Now that they’re one of the many they are under a lot of pressure to produce, and now are up against the old guard that left (or got removed from) the mainstream. Some will continue to do OK but again with the advertisers demanding conversions it gets harder. That said there is plenty of content I find valuable enough to pay for, and if there’s a reasonable option I do so. I think that will be the way forward, along with the end of prima donna hosts sitting in front of a camera giving their opinions. The real tragedy of it all is there’s very little original source reporting going on these days, just a whole bunch of commentary.

    I think the next big thing in informational programming is going to be the livestream from events. Something like Twitch but with coordinated cell phone streams. People who contribute to the stream will announce themselves at a location and be available as an input. Others will technical direct, some will provide commentary, and most will watch. No idea how it will work from a technology or legal standpoint, but someone will make it happen. If people can watch live commentary from hosts as people play videogames why not news events? And of course other people will edit the streams into their own news shows too.

  9. The thing that drives me absolutely nuts about “conservative” media types, ESPECIALLY Hannity and Levin, is that they are relentless shills for a) the cops b) Israel and c) foreign wars.

    The cops are not “heroes,” they are government goons who violate your freedoms on a daily basis.

    And Israel is not “our greatest ally,” it is an exclusionary ethno-religious state that refuses to allow the “diversity” that we are constantly told is “our greatest strength.” Israel tightly controls its own borders while we are supposed to let millions come swarming across OUR undefended border to take our jobs and our welfare. And they leech off the U.S. taxpayer to do it.

    Conservative media types are all-in on how “we” need to defend Ukraine’s borders or Kuwait’s borders or Iraq’s borders but only pay lip service to our borders. They are all for YOUR kids joining the Marines and getting their legs blown off in some foreign shithole, but I am not aware of any of their own kids doing the same.

    They’re also shills for corporate greed, Martin Luther King, gay rights, feminism, etc. It’s sickening to hear Hannity go off on how evil the Taliban is because of how they treat “gays and women.” I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck. Afghanistan is their country, not mine.

    “Conservative” media is really just controlled opposition. It’s intended to give you the false illusion that you have a choice or an alternative that you don’t really have. If they truly offered a conservative alternative, like interpreting the Bill of Rights literally, reining in the cops, truly reducing FedGov to its limited constitutional powers, and reinstating the Monroe Doctrine, they’d be banned from the airwaves.

  11. Beck lost me in one day, when he spent an entire hour singing the praises of Abraham Lincoln. The by far worst president this now sorry assed nation ever had. Sorry assed largely because of him.

  12. ‘Is it improbable that Beck’s or Hannity’s audience would not follow them via Podcast or substack or WordPress or some other media format …’ — eric

    NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) advocates say that people come in three flavors — visual, verbal, tactile.

    Substack and WordPress are text, the cat’s meow for visual folks. Whereas radio and podcasts are dialogue, for the linear verbal thinkers.

    Two different worlds. I’ve never actually heard Sean Hannity at all, as I find talk radio unbearable. But Hannity wrote this in a recent book:

    “As shown by his victory over ISIS and his strike on Iranian archterrorist Qasem Soleimani, Trump doesn’t hesitate to use military force when it directly strengthens our national security.” — Sean Hannity, Live Free Or Die

    Our national security? That lawless assassination of Soleimani was just the Orange Fail fellating Israel. Trump and Hannity are pandering prostitutes, the both of them. And both are narcissistically enamored of their own voices.

    All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter ’bout
    Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue

    My friends they come around they
    Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
    Pile it up, pile it up, pile high on the platter

    — Rolling Stones, Shattered

  13. Sean Vannity recently got divorced, so he HAS to keep the $$$ flowing! I don’t reckon he has much of a choice.

    As for the amount of commercials, you’re not imagining anything, Eric. I used to listen to Mark Levin; he came on as I was leaving work, so he was good drive time entertainment. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I’d have to listen to his archived show online. Do you know that, out of a three hour show, less than two hours is actual programming? It’s true! If you go to his site and click the audio rewind for a day’s show, the actual content is 1:53; that’s right, there’s only one hour and 53 minutes of actual programming content.

    What does this look like mathematically? Subtract 113 minutes (1:53) from 180 minutes; that looks like: 180-113=67. To get the percentage of news, commercials, and PSAs, divide 67 by 180; that looks like: 67/180=0.372222. To get the percentage, simply multiply that last answer by 100, which yields: 0.37222*100=37.2%. That’s right; over ONE THIRD of the program is devoted mostly to commercials! That’s followed by PSAs and news. It’s an eye opener, isn’t it?

    • Eric,

      When David Knight was at Infowars, the math was similar. He had a three hour show there; when he put it up for streaming afterward, there was like 1:54 left. Alex Jones does shilling too, mostly for his own products to fund the shows on Infowars.

      • Hi Mark,

        I can’t listen to Alex – because I won’t listen to a product pitch in order to listen to him – and it is common for him to peddle at you before he talks to you. It’s insufferable. How many millions does he need? I am a weirdo, I suppose, in that if I had even half a million in liquid cash I would purchase my FREEDOM with that. I consider myself lucky in that I earn enough to pay my bills and to be able to write what I think without worrying about what others think. Still, having enough money to never have to worry about paying the bills I have again would be so… freeing. Not new bills for new stuff. Just my property tax bill, utility bill, food bill and fuel bill. And half a million would more than cover it for the remainder of my days.

        Yet these guys make millions each year – and it’s apparently never enough.

        • Eric,

          I don’t get it, either. I’m not rich, but hey, you can’t bring it with you anyway; I’ve yet to see a hearse towing a U-Haul behind it. That said, I have enough to pay my bills, care for my cats, and not work again. I can work when I feel like it, which is good. With what Beck and Vannity make in a year, I could live VERY well for the rest of my life!

    • Hi Mark,

      Interesting re Vannity (hilarious!) and his divorce. I did not know about that. And – you’re right – it probably cost him plenty. This is the dark curse of having a lot. If your marriage falls apart, no only do you lose a lot – you “owe” a lot.

      • I borrowed the Vannity sobriquet from David Knight’s Rokfin chat. But yeah, he got divorced a year or so ago, so I imagine that he has no choice but to keep shilling for $$$…

        • Hi Mark,

          It is also rumored he is dating Ainsley Earhardt. I have a feeling he probably isn’t getting away with taking Ainsley through the Wendy’s drive thru for date night.

          What is more expensive than one woman? Two, of course. 😉

          • RG,

            I just Googled her. She’s a decent looking woman for her age, but she has three kids. If a woman has kids, that’s a no-go for me. I mean, relationships are hard enough by themselves. Why bring the extra complications of kids into the picture? Surely, someone with Sean Vannity’s fame and fortune could do better than that. I mean, Leonardo DeCaprio trades in his GFs once they reach 25! But yeah, I think you’re right; Vannity isn’t taking Ainsley through anyone’s drive thru…

            • Hi Mark,

              Your mileage nay vary, but: I think the most important thing – assuming you’re looking for more than a bang – is that the woman is a good one. Intelligent, feminine, brave, dependable; above all that you click with her. If not, it gets old, fast.

              • Eric,

                I agree with all the above. That said, kids bring numerous complications in to the equation. If they’re older and out of the house, that’s one thing; if they’re still with mom, that’s another. The logistics of seeing a single mom are only the beginning of sorrows (e.g. going out on the spur of the moment). Baby Daddy will always be in the picture, which means he’ll be there for any special functions of the kids; any school functions, graduations, etc. and Baby Daddy will be there. That would be MASSIVELY awkward! Then, there’s the matter that, with a single mom, you’ll always be in last place when it comes to her time, effort, and energy; you’ll come behind the kids, family pets, etc.

                Anyway, I understand where you’re coming from, and I agree with it. That said, given Sean Vannity’s fame and fortune, he still could’ve done better; at the very least, he could’ve found someone without kids. Again, why bring certain extra heartache and drama into your life if you don’t have to?

                • Hi Mark,

                  I understand – and don’t disagree, in terms of generalities. That said, good people come in all forms and all of us have our baggage, too. My girlfriend abides mine. And her kids don’t cause me to think less of her or her of me. I think the take-home point is to be open to the best person you can find that fits you. The form that takes may surprise you!

                • Marky. This “with a single mom, you’ll always be in last place when it comes to her time, effort, and energy; you’ll come behind the kids, family pets, etc.” is true with happily married couples with children as well. You will always be last. Enjoy.

                  • Ugg, and there’s the biggest mistake that most marriages make, IMO. “the kids are always first”.
                    IMO, they should not be. The ‘marriage should come first’.
                    I witnessed way too many wives’ dismiss their husbands after the kids came. To me, it was a cop-out, and lazy.
                    Before the kids came I debated with my wife my conditions of having kids. They will not come first, we will. She agreed. When the kids came, our friends and peers berated us for having date nights every week, going on short vacations without the kids, and getting baby sitters a lot. The gossip was off the charts.
                    27 years later, we are still happily married, the kids are leaving the nest, and most of our peers and friends are divorced.
                    The other biggy to me that she championed was your spouse will not demand you not do your passion. Seen it way to many times. My passion, dirtbike riding/racing. ALL her peers, even her and my parents! said ‘you need to stop this madness of him racing’. her: no I won’t, it is part of what makes him who he is. And this was not soon after I almost died on one. I do the same for her, and support her passions.

                    • Hear, hear, Chris.

                      My husband and I were together 12 years before we had children. I don’t if that helped us by enforcing the fact that we were each’s partner and we had an obligation to each other first or not, but we made it a point to have quiet time, date night, and the occasional weekend away.

                      The hardest time in most marriages is when the kids are small. The sleepless nights and constant demands of a baby will take its toll on any relationship, but you put the other above yourself and yes, even the little rugrats. You are both exhausted from work and rearing kids, but you do it for each other because these are the times that save your partnership. As the kids grow older it becomes easier and you are able to look back on the time and appreciate that although the partnership has changed (because people change) you still recognize each other and respect and love each other for the life that you created together.

                    • “Why do you think I’m NOT married?”

                      Because you have not met all 2.644 billion women in the world between the ages of 30 to 60? They aren’t all bad. 🙂

                • ‘Baby Daddy will always be in the picture.’ – MarkyMark

                  On a dinner date, I asked a long-legged, attractive blonde, eight years my junior, a question more important to me: what was your daddy like, when you were a girl?

                  I watched her face change: eyes cast down, mouth twisting into a grimace. After a pause, she murmured, ‘He was a drinker …’

                  Then it all came out: the broken relationships with her dad, baby daddy, ex-husband, son; the ‘trust issues’ [a blazing neon red flag].

                  My heart went out to her. But in my experience, a woman who had a severely damaged relationship with her father will rarely succeed in establishing a stable romantic relationship. The insidious, unconscious childhood programming which tells her that a man will always let her down is just too elusive to defeat.

                  • Hi Jim,

                    For a while I spent time with a woman that I’ve grown to have a romantic interest in, but when I told her I wanted her to be my girlfriend, she quit talking to me. It turns out that in her childhood, she wasn’t treated the best by other kids, and over time she developed a wall of isolation that prevented her from even taking a chance of getting into a romantic relationship with men. Some people think that that wall she’s developed is unbreakable. A few years later, I’m not sure whether to try again with her and go slow, or if she will even want to spend time with me again.

                    • Let her go, John. If she can’t see the value of wanting to be with you then she doesn’t deserve you. Even if she is willing you will spend most of the relationship soothing her ego and her feelings of self doubt. A good relationship isn’t supposed to feel like work. Nothing pisses off a woman more than some guy who have moved on from her. Just saying. 🙂

                  • I adore you, Jim, but that missus fed you a line of utter hogwash. People come and go out of our life all the time and not everyone treats us well that includes friends, partners, parents, etc. That woman can continue to wallow in her life choices or take responsibility and change the man that she is attracted to. If a woman (or a man) keeps attracting the same sort (the disappointing kind) then the only similarity is the individual making the choice. We show people how we want to be treated and that is how they will treat us. It is a lesson that many women (and some men) never learn. Trust should never come from someone else, but by alluding our own confidence and feelings of self worth. Insecurity will kill any relationship (not only romantic ones).

                    • Good point RG: “We show people how we want to be treated and that is how they will treat us.”
                      My wife would get mad at me about something I didn’t do that she expected me too.
                      I said, ‘just say it’, ‘tell me what you expect’ or ‘just darn hint it, so I get a clue’
                      Things got way better or should I say just rarely mad at me.

                    • Hi Chris,

                      I won’t lie, I have been guilty of what your missus has done, too. Sometimes, we forget the people around us are not mind readers. Hubby and I don’t argue too much these days. I think after almost three decades together we have just run out of stuff to fight about. One of us will start on a tangent and the other will remind them that we already fought about this issue back in 2006 and it has already been solved.

    • Mark, there’s a split of time between a network show and the local affiliates. Typical hour is :59 past the hour through the top of the hour until :06 after belongs to the radio station for national/local news/weather, local commercials. Show start at :06 then another break around :18 after with a minute or two for the host and network, then 2-3 minutes for the affiliate. Bottom of the hour is usually 4 or 5 minutes for the local affiliates news/traffic, commercials. a 4-5 minute local/national split at :48. Local affiliate gives that time up in exchange for not having to pay the network or host. There are a few exceptions. We used to have to pay Limbaugh $3,000 a month for the privilege of airing his show AND play his commercials. Everyone “gots to gets paid”. 🙂

      • RE: “We used to have to pay Limbaugh $3,000 a month for the privilege of airing his show AND play his commercials.”

        Wow.

        …And, I was Just thinking about his show, & how I used to listen to his callers to get a feel for how the rest of the country was thinkin’ about things, much like Eric seems to do by listening to the A.M. dial today.

        …Course, for me, this was back in the 90’s, pre-Internet days.
        I was kinda an ‘Ignorant Slut’ back then. Back then, the A.M. dial Was the Internet. I half-way fell for his whole bit about, The Constitution meaning what it said, smaller goobermint, etc… & how The Contract-on-America was … [cursor blinks].

        Looking back on it, on the surface, the stuff Rush said, was Libertarian. ,,,The reality, though…

        I was gonna end by posting to a more recent song, ‘Money, money, money… money’ but I came across this which I’d never seen before, seemed more appropriate:

        ‘Abba – Money, Money, Money (Official Music Video)’

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0

        • Yes, and we’re a small market station. Large markets paid MUCH more. I don’t know if the 3,000 per month went to Rush, or to Premiere Networks (the syndication network for Rush) or if there was a revenue split of some sort. There were times that Rush stepped in it, but it hurt US instead. You may recall the Sandra Fluke contraceptives “thing” from 2012. Rush used to brag that HIS advertising remained strong as ever. Unfortunately the fallout was on his affiliates, many who were told by other national or local advertisers that their ads weren’t permitted on during El Rushbo’s time slot. Weird to pay huge money to have a show and then have that 3 hour time slot off limits to certain advertisers.

      • We used to have to pay Limbaugh $3,000 a month for the privilege of airing his show AND play his commercials.

        So THAT’S how he made his money, eh?

  14. I’m one of the hosts proud to have Eric on every week, and do my best to make sure my folks learn things from my show that they won’t hear from the biggies. One of the best aspects of being in a smaller market is not having to be a neocon whore. Uh-oh, said the quiet part out loud. Even then, nothing happens until something gets sold, yes…even on Ep Autos. Commercial endorsements are part of the industry, and I have a number of local businesses that trust me to help their business. It’s really a trust game. The challenge of the biggies is they do SO much of it now that they can come off as insincere. Most of my live commercial reads are for businesses I actually use and trust…although I’m sure Sebastian Gorka really DOES use Relief Factor so that “he’s able to kneel in church on Sunday.”

    • Bill,
      There’s nothing wrong with advertising, unless it becomes a feature, tied into the message. Like Hannity and Beck and their Gold ads.

    • — “It’s really a trust game.” —

      I’m just sittin’ here, looking at that quote.
      Thinkin’ about the truth behind it.
      And, a buncha other stuff.

  16. Here are 2 online broadcasts I’ve grown to like the past few years……”Stand and Deliver”, which is from a group called “Citzens for Free Speech” and hosted by Patrick Wood & Bob Frantz. They air a weekly podcast every Friday and deal with the latest news and issues involving free speech. As everyone here may know, free speech has been under attack from our own government.

    Their website is http://www.cffspodcast.com, though they recently started broadcasting their video feed exclusively on their Rumble page, while their main website has an audio version. The group website is http://www.citizensforfreespeech.org.

    Another online broadcast I like is The Highwire. It’s hosted by Del Bigtree, and he has a live online program every Thursday at 2 pm Eastern time. His program has been one of the few media outlets doing ACTUAL reporting on COVID and the “vaccines”, though he, along with his assistant, Jefferey Jaxen, have also reported on other health/ medical issues and the various agendas from the World Economic Forum & World Health Organization, and Bigtree also interviews people that few other media outlets will interview. The website for that program is http://www.thehighwire.com.

  17. Give Owen Benjamin a try. Very funny. No hawking products — never has never will. Champions the “good, true, and beautiful”.
    He’s a banished/canceled L.A. comedian who moved to North Idaho. Now is raising 4 young sons on 10 acres with chickens, goats, milk cows, and alpacas.
    Does live streams almost every day. And the key word is “live” — not edited and scripted like Rogan, Crowder, Shapiru, Hannity, Beck, Tucker, etc.
    He updates where you can find him here: https://libertylinks.io/owenbenjamin , since he gets banned so often from everywhere.

    And yes, he’s a comedian. He makes fun of everyone. Everyone. And says words that you and I wouldn’t say out loud in public. But that’s the court jester’s privilege, no?
    Cheers!

  19. I parted company with Hannity first, soon after Colmes parted ways with him. Without Colmes as a foil, it quickly became obvious what Hannity’s plan was. I parted ways with Beck not long after he left fox, when his plan looked a lot like Hannity’s. I have no objection to anyone trying to make money, but I am a customer, and if I don’t like what your selling, I’m not going to pay any attention to your ads. And I don’t.

  20. I’ve never heard Sebastian Gorka comment on any issue in my life.

    If I ever get to hear him speak to an issue, I won’t be able to pay him any serious attention because my brain will be replaying “Sebastian Gorka here for releef factuh. I take releef factuh for the everyday aaaaaaches and paaaaains of aging”.

    • I’ve seen and heard Gorka on Conservative, Inc. programs. I don’t know if he has his own show. As for Relief Factor, it works! It helps me with my arthritic knees.

  22. Joe Rogan appears to have gotten the attention of Big Media and the corrupt public health bureaucrats when he had COVID and took the “Horse dewormer,” Ivermectin, as a treatment for it. For quite a while the media and the FDA smeared Ivermectin as a “Horse dewormer” that only gap-toothed hillbillies and antivaxxers took. They REALLY didn’t like it though when IVERMECTIN helped Rogan recover from COVID and CNN even tried to have their medical “expert”, Sanjay Gupta, go on Rogan’s podcast to savage Rogan. From the clips I’ve seen, that didn’t go well. The media also didn’t like it when Rogan had Peter McCullough and Robert Malone (inventor of mRNA vaccine technology) on his podcast, and the interviews subsequently got MILLIONS of views.

    • The point of Rogan vis-a-vis the anti parasitical was to keep folks believing in the underlying premise of the “one virus.” Doesn’t matter why or how you believe, horse paste cure or lab leak origin, just keep believing in the primary underlying premise. It, the virus, is “real.” There is the most danger when shills don’t seem like shills or you don’t really understand what they’re shilling for.

      • Hear hear!

        Amazing the people that claim the virus is real cuz “I had it” I ask, How do you know? They reply, “cuz the doctor says so and the test was positive” Oh and don’t forget the loss of taste and smell thing,,, that’s important! I purchased a test kit and tested a frog…. positive! Boy have these online sellers made a fortune selling those ‘test kits’. And amazingly enough, most of these people consider themselves ‘awake and aware’.

        So long as this fake virus is considered ‘real’ they will continue to terrorize us. The big die off has begun and people are now buying in to their Happiness, Sad, Etc, Heart Attacks. Heart attacks caused by Global warming, Cold weather, Too much sun, Not enough sun and other Silly crap.

        I now trust witch doctors far more than medical doctors.

      • The field of virology is about the same scientific level as the tooth fairy, the easter bunny, global warming, running your ice car on tap water, making gold from lead, pigs flying…100% fake science

        you think fauci doesn’t know this?….very very unlikely, more like impossible….he doesn’t give a shit, he is evil and making huge piles of money……the same with gates probably….he said his investments related to this have been his biggest winners…..now you know why these two evil bastards smirk after making lying statements related to this fake narrative….they are laughing in your face……

    • A lot of interesting things about Rogan in the comments to Eric’s piece from 10/21. Worth a revisit. As commenter Zane has said so well before, Pepperidge Farms remembers.

  23. Just too much criminal critical thunking going on here and the website needs to fade to black.

    Definitely the time to drink is now.

    Please, you useless ingnorant serfs, bow and kowtow to the shitheads who think they are in charge and think they know better, then kill them… with kindness.

    Whatever works.

    Nobody wants to see dead bodies hanging from lamp posts.

    Bad enough in Ukraine.

  24. Reminds me of ‘Two guys garage’ that started 20+ years? ago. I really enjoyed it as a car/mechanic guy. Today, can’t watch it with it’s endless peddling.

  25. Was it really necessary to post the disgusting bill hicks video? My god, don’t we see enough of this kind of garbage floating around the internet these days? For me Eric’s site has always been the oasis in the desert to escape from that kind mind sewage. Cmon Eric, let’s clean things up a bit, how bout it?

  26. Talk radio has become nearly un-listenable now. Hugh Hewitt in the morning on our local AM station is now totally lame. A series of actual commercials interrupted by him talking but then he’s always shilling for gold, his favorite charity, some herbs for pain, on and on. Near zero useful content, plus he’s a boot licker for Israel, Ukraine, McCarthy, McConnell, and Mittens niece Ronna McDaniel.

    • Not only talk radio, but even YouTube and other places where you just want a quick “how to”. I love watching prepper videos (or I did) before every bit of commentary became a sales campaign. I am just curious how many suckers are born a minute and sign up or actually buy what these media outlets are selling. I realize everybody has to pay the bills, but honestly, if I am that interested in what someone has to say I am happy to sign up for a subscription vs the constant repetition of advertisements.

      Anyone else notice that since hawking has become more prevalent that the quality of content is dismal?

      • Hannity and Beck are ridiculous clowns. I can remember a decade or more ago when this wasn’t so, at least not to the extent of today. Selling out can be profitable. I’d bet those two have 100s of millions of dollars. Like you said Eric, nothing wrong with that. At some point a reflective individual would ask how much is enough, then maybe show they love liberty more than money

        One of the best things about Erics site is that the pop ups are for articles you may have missed. No non stop click bait here.

    • I love how these guys are always shilling for gold. Let me see now…. according to them, paper dollars are worthless, fiat money. The dollar is going to collapse, and gold is the only real money. Therefore, give us your fake paper money, and we’ll give you our gold! What am I missing?

  27. But, but, but being a wealthy “influencer” is the dream of everybody right now.

    When it’s apparent to the reader, viewer or listener that advertising is occurring, I don’t have a problem with it. Advertising can be useful for both the seller and the buyer. It’s a means of providing information to buyers out there who might benefit from and be interested in a product or service.

    The problem I have is the dishonesty of embedding it in the content. A great example of this is Jeopardy, which appears to have whole categories of questions that appear to be bought and paid for by an advertiser. The question is stated by the host, Ken Jennings, as if those facts were put forth by God himself and then the contestant (in order to increase his winnings) has to provide the desired answer. In recent memory, there was a “health” category where certain diseases were identified and the answer as to how to control them was “vaccination.” 2 minutes later, Pfizer had a “Covid 19 Vaxx” commercial.

    Another example is the recent 60 Minutes piece where Leslie Stahl was shilling an “ant-obesity” drug, Wegovy. She did it in a very deceptive way by “talking past the sale,” where neither the safety nor effectiveness of taking such a drug was discussed, but instead she gave the appearance that she was acting as a consumer advocate in twisting the arm of “health” insurers to pay $1,300 per month for what is portrayed as a magical elixir.

    • Hi Liberty,

      Jeopardy also had a special tournament last year that was sponsored by………MODERNA, one of the manufacturers of COVID jabs. What was particularly egregious was when the announcer would announce PSAs for “vaccination” or “boosters” disguised as clues.

      It was also egregious when Price is Right host Drew Carey urged viewers to “Wear a mask” or “Get vaccinated” at the end of seemingly every episode at the height of COVID insanity. Thankfully he quit doing that in 2021; the network and the producers must have gotten a lot of negative feedback from viewers for Carey’s urgings, as some episodes at the time appear to have had his admonishments edited out of broadcast. Now he simply admonishes viewers to “Stay healthy”, which is something he should have done the whole freaking time instead of urging them to do something that quite likely DAMAGES their health.

      And then of course, we had large corporations and governments treating the masses like they were STUPID by offering incentives to get jabbed, such as free donuts, a free burger and fries, free marijuana, or a chance to win a jackpot in a state “Vaccine Lottery”.

      And lastly, we had shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which had the equally disgusting “The Vax Scene” skits.

  29. Hannity doesn’t do it for me anymore. When he had Colmes on his show, the alter-ego liberal forced Hannity to be likable and to when the debate which he did often. He now pontificates and bullies his virtues every night including berating a conservative congresswoman, who probably did more for this country by holding off the coronation of McCarthy for a few days to get something that *might* separate the uni-party into something meaningful. We’ll see. Anyway, back to Sean…and he loves his brothers in blue. Yea Sean, you can lick their boots as they search your car and take your gun away.

    • It gets worse with Hannity…
      Hannity is an hasbara shill whose U. S. citizenship should be revoked and should be deported to israel.
      While I was listening to his radio show on the way home from work, a caller asked him about the deliberate attack on the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) by israel on June 8, 1967.
      Hannity stammered a bit and declared: “israel is our friend and would never have done such a thing” (his exact words). I damn near ran off the road when I heard THAT.
      For Hannity to declare that a well-documented historical event “did not happen” is merely more PROOF that he is owned “lock stock and barrel” by israel.
      When it comes to expending American troops for israel’s interests, Hannity never found a “war” that he did not like.
      In fact, israel’s favorite military song is “Onward Christian Soldiers”.
      I have absolutely no respect for Hannity or other of his ilk.

      • In all fairness to Hannity, you’d be surprised how many people know NOTHING about the Liberty incident. Talking about it is “bad for business” according to the controlling powers? /sarc

        • Hi Bill,

          Hannity seems to be reading a script even when he’s not reading commercials! When someone calls and starts talking about the “vaccines,” or critiques Trump for pushing them, he gets very defensive. Maybe he genuinely believes in what he says but (to me) he comes across much the same as any other Infomercial host, like those “reporters” who “interview” supplement hawkers on off-peak/weekend radio!

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