The Skeptic Conservative

Howdy folks,

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

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

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

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

I’m getting close to that point, finally.

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

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

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

Cheers, Doug

Howdy folks!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Doug

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

Topic Ideas

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

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

• The Eternal Campaign of the presidency

• The Know-Nothing President and Blame Shifting

Boring but Important

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relevant Links (Main Topic)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The stories teased at the start of the show:

Obama won’t discuss terror threat

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

Winner of the best name for what’s been happening the past month in my humble opinion.

Please read. All of it.

Not much more to add, other than it should be pretty clear to everybody why the past month has been such a rollercoaster to those paying attention!

Also: Martin Bashir once -again- pulls the race card, because clearly questioning the administration’s integrity right now is racist. Roger Simon dubs it projection and I happen to agree.