Washington Post reporter Annie Linskey got herself into some hot water this weekend with one of those jokes that went over like a pregnant pole vaulter. For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, she essentially poked fun at Joe Biden’s trip through the cemetery to visit the graves of his family. Instead, she claimed he was visiting his domestic agenda.

According to Linskey, she did not know he was actually visiting his son’s grave. In the process, she learned two key things as it pertains to social media. First, once you hit send on a tweet it’s going to be out there. Sure, you can go back and delete the tweet, but someone has made a copy and will produce it on the ready.

Secondly, the urge to be first is strong, but an enterprising journalist has to remember it is more important to be right. Being first with a joke is even more pathetic. Exactly how many points does that get you? If she had taken the extra few minutes to figure out why he was there this could have been avoided. If she had taken the extra few minutes to realize she is a Washington Post reporter and not a comic at the local improv this could have been avoided.

As you might suspect, the outrage machine started up in full force. If Twitter is good for anything it is good for a nice ratio. The ratio is where numerous commenters and strangers get to pile on after an ill-advised tweet. So, hundreds of people commented with some saying they were canceling their subscription to the Washington Post. As of now she is still employed with the Post, but it doesn’t take a huge effort to see that changing before this story cycle ends.

As for Biden, he hardly reacted at all. If we can count on Biden for anything it is that he will always maintain his dignity. He will occasionally fumble through words or offer the occasional gaffe as any president would. Some of that is the stuttering. Some of that is a lifetime of not necessarily being a great orator. Heck, maybe some of it is age. What we do know is that he won’t do or say anything excessively mean. The last guy would have jumped at that opportunity.

We should keep that as our guide on what to do about Linskey. While it can seem fun to put someone through the ringer for a horrible mistake, we do have to remember she is human. We have to remember we all make mistakes. We have to remember that she has likely done 100 good things for every one bad thing she has done. While we can say that none of us has ever done THAT, we all can say we have done something awful that would have been ridiculed in public if any of us had a higher social media profile.

So, here’s hoping that Linskey learns something valuable from this experience and that she has the opportunity to demonstrate to us that she is a better person for it. Destroying a reporter for a bad joke doesn’t seem appropriate. At least it doesn’t seem any more appropriate than the bad joke she attempted to take back.

Facebook is broken.  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.

Ya gotta wonder if they tried unplugging it and then plugging it back in.

And then Twitter owned them —

And there’s this handy suggestion from Deb T. —

And then my eight year old Keurig coffee pot died today. Damn, that sucker made good coffee. Which brings me to — do you know of any terrifically good coffee I need to try?

Okay, there’s more than one way to have a captive audience.

https://twitter.com/LUCHA_AZ/status/1444729925408153601

I’m gonna go in every bathroom in Arizona and write, “I’m going to come from Texas and campaign against Sinema,” on every roll of toilet paper.

A real leader would have talked to those kids.  They have something to say and it’s important, not only to them personally but to the country.  The least – and I mean the very least – she could have done is listen to them.

She’s a creepy crawly thing, ain’t she?

Pat Robertson ended his run as the head of the 700 club after 55 long years. For those that don’t want to go through the pay wall you can also view the news here. I couldn’t imagine lasting 55 years doing anything and there are moments where I’m not sure if I will last 55 years period.

There are some religious scholars that classify heresy as the worst of the sins. Others would simply say that everyone is allowed to believe what they want. While that is true, there can be nothing worse than wrapping up your heresy and selling it as religious doctrine. So, those religious scholars are really talking about blasphemy. It’s hard to disrespect a God one does not believe exists. It’s only those that know and then choose to pervert it anyway that get into the real trouble.

It’s often been said that no one leaves Washington poorer than they came. The same could be said of televangelists. Some reports have Robertson privately worth between 200 million and a billion dollars. I’ll settle for 100 million. Of course, people will often argue as to whether the money was a byproduct of the hate being spewed or if it was the end game. It could just as easily be said that no one got poorer preaching hate.

I could go through a litany of things Robertson has said over the course of 50 plus years and I’ll attach a few here for those that want to go down the rabbit hole. That article obviously doesn’t exhaust them all. Volumes of books would be necessary to tackle his sordid legacy on this front.

Goodness knows that none of us will get it right 100 percent of the time. We are human. Goodness also knows that most of us will get nowhere near that kind of platform. It takes a certain kind of cowardice to know the truth and speak the opposite. It takes a scoundrel to pick the message that will get them the most money and not the message that will make people better than they were before. Robertson is obviously both.

Robertson reduced faith and Christian belief down to a math equation. If you get only ten percent of the population on your side you are still talking about 35 million Americans. If each gives just ten dollars to the cause you are now worth 350 million dollars. Obviously, they have more than ten percent to bank on and their followers certainly donated more than ten dollars a piece to the cause over the years.

And what exactly is that cause? Like Jerry Falwell and others, he somehow married Christianity to the Republican party. He simultaneously managed to soil both at the same time. A small government and low taxes party has somehow melded into one focused on petty slights, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, and racism. Sadly, we’ve watched countless friends become radicalized one by one over the intervening decades.

The pews are also more sparse these days. Sure, a lot of it is pandemic oriented, but even that is a loaded statement. It’s hard to square a benevolent God, peace loving Christ, and what we see people of faith do and say on a regular basis. So, millions still believe but don’t participate. Others simply don’t believe anymore. This kind of erosion took decades to manifest itself and those are decades we can never get back. Robertson is at the life stage where he can exist on the fruits of his labor. He doesn’t have to worry about lack of faith or lack of attendance.

Like Limbaugh and others, Robertson has definitely left his mark. I guess that’s something by itself. Most of us could never dream of having such an impact on people. Most of us are glad about that. When my work here is done I can only hope that people think I made a positive difference. I’m sure Robertson tells himself that. It’s the last lie told by a blasphemer and opportunist.

Well, there’s an update on the Alex Jones case our Mark filed against Alex Jones on behalf of some of the Sandy Hook parents.

About three weeks ago, there was a hearing in Austin over the fact that Alex Jones has screwed around on this case and has refused to comply with court orders or produce items required under the rules of discovery.  Jones is on his seventh lawyer. He waits until the night before hearings, replaces his lawyer, and then wants to reset the clock.  He’s been repeatedly fined and chastised by the court.

Nothing seems to work. The first judge on the case retired and a newly elected district court judge, The Honorable Maya Guerra Gamble, put the hammer down.  It’s called “the death penalty” in civil cases and is extremely rare.

Oddly enough, Jones’ lawyer promised in the hearing that he would file answers to the pending discovery issues in two weeks.  He didn’t do it.

In the filings, Gamble eviscerated Jones and reasoned that default judgments should be ordered because “an escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse,” caused by Jones’ unwillingness to turn over documents related to the cases, the Texas judge ruled.

One of Mark’s partners, Bill Ogden, is handling press inquiries because Mark is in North Carolina taping a pilot for A&E.  Bill is a young lawyer, smart as the dickens, and, the ladies might want to know, he’s also mighty easy on the eyes.

Next, they will seat a jury and let them decide a proper punishment for Jones.

Here’s a story about the original hearing.

Here is a PDF of the judge’s order.

Also, she ordered Jones to pay Mark’s legal fees.

I’m wondering …

Why do we call it an audit?  Holy cow, how hard is it to use accurate language when describing a coup attempt?

 I’ve also decided — The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?  Pestilence, Famine, War, and Republican Governors.