Kevin Koster commented on Sean Spicer Defends Trump’s Attack On Civil Rights Icon: John Lewis Started It!
2017-01-15 16:59:16 -0500
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Spicer really needs to start thinking about whether or not his aggressive, bullying posture is going to help him much in the long run. He also really needs to think about how much of the next four years he’s ready to spend defending every gaffe Trump makes, because there will be plenty.
Kevin Koster commented on Report: Megyn Kelly Was Despised At Fox News
2017-01-14 19:43:46 -0500
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I really have no sympathy for Megyn Kelly. She gamed the system at Fox News and it worked out for her financially. Now she’s made a strategic move to NBC, presumably thinking she can get herself some mainstream news credibility.
I don’t doubt that she was despised at Fox – this usually happens when someone is that openly ambitious and is willing to say whatever the boss wants to hear in order to get the promotion. I also don’t doubt that she will not likely be popular at NBC – there are already rumblings about that.
Her conduct on the air was generally despicable in and of itself – occasionally she would say something halfway reasonable, but her usual approach was to demean non-conservative guests and to encourage Right Wing views.
I applaud her achievement in advancing her career, and I applaud her effort to move out of Fox News, but that does not change who she is or how she has conducted herself. Like Van Susteren at MSNBC, Kelly is setting herself up to be the “house Right Winger” so that NBC can assert that they’ve been fair to the GOP for the next four years. Her credibility is way too damaged for anyone to take her seriously as an objective reporter – I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see her return to Fox News in a few years, given the issues that Fox News tends to cause for its former employees seeking credible work elsewhere.
I don’t doubt that she was despised at Fox – this usually happens when someone is that openly ambitious and is willing to say whatever the boss wants to hear in order to get the promotion. I also don’t doubt that she will not likely be popular at NBC – there are already rumblings about that.
Her conduct on the air was generally despicable in and of itself – occasionally she would say something halfway reasonable, but her usual approach was to demean non-conservative guests and to encourage Right Wing views.
I applaud her achievement in advancing her career, and I applaud her effort to move out of Fox News, but that does not change who she is or how she has conducted herself. Like Van Susteren at MSNBC, Kelly is setting herself up to be the “house Right Winger” so that NBC can assert that they’ve been fair to the GOP for the next four years. Her credibility is way too damaged for anyone to take her seriously as an objective reporter – I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see her return to Fox News in a few years, given the issues that Fox News tends to cause for its former employees seeking credible work elsewhere.
Kevin Koster commented on Rep. Gohmert: Mexico Will Want To Pay Us For The Wall
2017-01-15 15:31:33 -0500
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Eyes, you are exactly right.
And check out what Rand Paul proudly announced today – his new version of Health Care (one of the various options the GOP will spend the next two years arguing about). Heavy on the HSA idea. Heavy on the idea of small businesses all trying to band together and somehow form a group plan together – which is great if you believe all these guys are going to work together on their own to do this. Bearish on the idea of expanded Medicaid – Paul knows this was a popular part of the ACA, so his idea is to defund it and demand the states raise taxes to pay for it themselves. (He helpfully leaves out the fact that GOP legislators all sign this Grover Norquist pledge to never raise taxes, so in fact that’s not an option)
And Paul is trying to present this as a humane and workable alternative to the ACA. It is anything but. It’s basically a “You’re on your own, pal” plan. Essentially the same thing as where we were before the ACA, only with an option for these fictional group plans. I predict it’s dead on arrival, and Paul knows that. He just wants to be able to say that he had a plan he was proposing that “could have taken care of everyone” when all of this gets mired in the internal debates the GOP is going to have for some time to come.
In the meantime, the ACA will be gone, and its participants should be thinking about what actions they will take for their health care for the next four years. There is no way this train is stopping at this point. They all have spent the past 6 years campaigning on getting rid of it – they HAVE to do that. So they will. The “Repealing is Replacing” argument will work for some of them when they’re challenged about what they’ve done. For the rest, they’ll just blame the Dems for not helping them. I’m really hoping the people who had ACA coverage will remember how angry they are when the next round of elections happen in 2018.
The speed with which the GOP is moving tells me that undocumented immigrants should be watching their rear ends – they’re next in the crosshairs.
And I heard a law professor point out this morning that Jeff Sessions’ dodging answer that he would “follow the law” when dealing with the instructions from the Pence White House is actually a meaningless statement. If “the law” was crystal clear on everything, we would not need courts to decide anything. The key to the Justice Dept and to the Judiciary is the INTERPRETATION of the law. That’s why it’s crucial to get judges who aren’t so wildly biased in fringe ideas like “originalism” and why it makes a difference if the Attorney General is someone like Loretta Lynch or someone like Jeff Sessions.
And check out what Rand Paul proudly announced today – his new version of Health Care (one of the various options the GOP will spend the next two years arguing about). Heavy on the HSA idea. Heavy on the idea of small businesses all trying to band together and somehow form a group plan together – which is great if you believe all these guys are going to work together on their own to do this. Bearish on the idea of expanded Medicaid – Paul knows this was a popular part of the ACA, so his idea is to defund it and demand the states raise taxes to pay for it themselves. (He helpfully leaves out the fact that GOP legislators all sign this Grover Norquist pledge to never raise taxes, so in fact that’s not an option)
And Paul is trying to present this as a humane and workable alternative to the ACA. It is anything but. It’s basically a “You’re on your own, pal” plan. Essentially the same thing as where we were before the ACA, only with an option for these fictional group plans. I predict it’s dead on arrival, and Paul knows that. He just wants to be able to say that he had a plan he was proposing that “could have taken care of everyone” when all of this gets mired in the internal debates the GOP is going to have for some time to come.
In the meantime, the ACA will be gone, and its participants should be thinking about what actions they will take for their health care for the next four years. There is no way this train is stopping at this point. They all have spent the past 6 years campaigning on getting rid of it – they HAVE to do that. So they will. The “Repealing is Replacing” argument will work for some of them when they’re challenged about what they’ve done. For the rest, they’ll just blame the Dems for not helping them. I’m really hoping the people who had ACA coverage will remember how angry they are when the next round of elections happen in 2018.
The speed with which the GOP is moving tells me that undocumented immigrants should be watching their rear ends – they’re next in the crosshairs.
And I heard a law professor point out this morning that Jeff Sessions’ dodging answer that he would “follow the law” when dealing with the instructions from the Pence White House is actually a meaningless statement. If “the law” was crystal clear on everything, we would not need courts to decide anything. The key to the Justice Dept and to the Judiciary is the INTERPRETATION of the law. That’s why it’s crucial to get judges who aren’t so wildly biased in fringe ideas like “originalism” and why it makes a difference if the Attorney General is someone like Loretta Lynch or someone like Jeff Sessions.
Kevin Koster commented on Tucker Carlson Helps Trump Press Sec Pretend CNN’s Acosta Was Unprofessional To Trump
2017-01-13 14:37:38 -0500
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I noted in the Trump Press Conference thread that Spicer’s sneering comments here would be spit-take funny if the situation were not as chilling as it is.
Spicer and the Right Wing have a lot of nerve trying to claim any moral high ground in any situation of a reporter asking questions of a President. When President Obama was repeatedly heckled or booed at any event, Fox News and the Right Wing happily supported it. Ellen correctly notes just one situation with Neil Munro. That wasn’t the only time. There were plenty of others. How about, in a similar vein, Joe Wilson crying out “You Lie!” during a State of the Union Address – something that Rush Limbaugh vigorously defended him for doing? How about the numerous times that Fox News reporters would ask obvious leading questions of Obama and/or his Press Secretary, designed to play the Fox line of the day? How about the numerous intemperate attack questions inflicted by Ed Henry? How about the repeated attempts by Ed Henry to belittle Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail? And yes, how about all the support the Right Wing and Fox News gave to the Birther movement?
How about all the constant drumbeats of viciousness from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity throughout the Obama Presidency, always looking for an angle, some scandal that would be the magic bullet to bring him down? How about the repeated statements by the likes of Sean Hannity repeating Far Right ideas about Obama’s grade transcripts being suspicious? I presume that Sean Spicer is saying that all of this is just fine, but if a CNN reporter attempts to ask a question and is viciously rebuffed by a childish politician, that this must be the CNN reporter’s fault?
Spicer’s unbelievable hypocrisy and shamelessness is jaw dropping. How DARE he try to get away with this?
Spicer and the Right Wing have a lot of nerve trying to claim any moral high ground in any situation of a reporter asking questions of a President. When President Obama was repeatedly heckled or booed at any event, Fox News and the Right Wing happily supported it. Ellen correctly notes just one situation with Neil Munro. That wasn’t the only time. There were plenty of others. How about, in a similar vein, Joe Wilson crying out “You Lie!” during a State of the Union Address – something that Rush Limbaugh vigorously defended him for doing? How about the numerous times that Fox News reporters would ask obvious leading questions of Obama and/or his Press Secretary, designed to play the Fox line of the day? How about the numerous intemperate attack questions inflicted by Ed Henry? How about the repeated attempts by Ed Henry to belittle Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail? And yes, how about all the support the Right Wing and Fox News gave to the Birther movement?
How about all the constant drumbeats of viciousness from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity throughout the Obama Presidency, always looking for an angle, some scandal that would be the magic bullet to bring him down? How about the repeated statements by the likes of Sean Hannity repeating Far Right ideas about Obama’s grade transcripts being suspicious? I presume that Sean Spicer is saying that all of this is just fine, but if a CNN reporter attempts to ask a question and is viciously rebuffed by a childish politician, that this must be the CNN reporter’s fault?
Spicer’s unbelievable hypocrisy and shamelessness is jaw dropping. How DARE he try to get away with this?
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity Celebrates Trump’s ‘Greatest Beatdown’ Of The Press ‘In The History Of The Country’
2017-01-13 14:26:48 -0500
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Hannity’s vicious hatred of Barack Obama has really found a new intensity over the past two months, and as we approach January 20th, Hannity is visibly salivating over being able to firmly declare Obama a failure and a has-been. He’s delighted at the turn of events, particularly since he’d been setting himself up to be a lone voice in the wilderness to protest the horrors of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Instead, he’s getting pretty much everything he wanted for Christmas.
I remember in 2004, when the GOP gamed that election to play on many people’s ginned-up fears about Iraq and everything else, there was a condescending statement running around the Right of “Don’t gloat!” Although W couldn’t resist and began to talk openly about the “political capital” he now intended to spend on erasing various programs like Social Security. This time around, the Right Wing is taking its cue from Donald Trump – so they’re bullying and gloating like it’s going out of style.
I just wonder if Hannity remembers the way all bullies wind up ending. I wonder if he remembers how things worked out for Scut Farkus and Buddy Hinton. He might want to think about that one for a minute or two.
I remember in 2004, when the GOP gamed that election to play on many people’s ginned-up fears about Iraq and everything else, there was a condescending statement running around the Right of “Don’t gloat!” Although W couldn’t resist and began to talk openly about the “political capital” he now intended to spend on erasing various programs like Social Security. This time around, the Right Wing is taking its cue from Donald Trump – so they’re bullying and gloating like it’s going out of style.
I just wonder if Hannity remembers the way all bullies wind up ending. I wonder if he remembers how things worked out for Scut Farkus and Buddy Hinton. He might want to think about that one for a minute or two.
Kevin Koster commented on Did Bill O’Reilly Really Mean To Compare Donald Trump To Nixon?
2017-01-13 14:18:37 -0500
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I need to point out that O’Reilly is actually making that statement in SUPPORT of Nixon, not as a Freudian slip about upcoming problems.
O’Reilly is actually spinning the notion, popular among the Right Wing, that Richard Nixon was a better politician and president than people remember and perceive, and that his bad reputation was really due to the press being aligned against him from the beginning. And the Right usually brings up the notion that the press antipathy was based on Nixon’s anti-communist activities, including his attack on Alger Hiss and the nasty smear campaign he ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas to try to paint her red.
I frankly wouldn’t be surprised if O’Reilly has Martin Dugard working on a “Killing Nixon” book so he can posthumously rehabilitate the man.
O’Reilly is actually spinning the notion, popular among the Right Wing, that Richard Nixon was a better politician and president than people remember and perceive, and that his bad reputation was really due to the press being aligned against him from the beginning. And the Right usually brings up the notion that the press antipathy was based on Nixon’s anti-communist activities, including his attack on Alger Hiss and the nasty smear campaign he ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas to try to paint her red.
I frankly wouldn’t be surprised if O’Reilly has Martin Dugard working on a “Killing Nixon” book so he can posthumously rehabilitate the man.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Greg Gutfeld On Millions Losing Obamacare Health Insurance: ‘So What?’
2017-01-14 19:47:15 -0500
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Jim Jordan said it best last night on Hannity – Repealing the ACA is itself the replacement. These guys are not thinking so much about creating a whole new healthcare program. They’re thinking in terms of just getting rid of the old law (and Jordan was saying ALL of it – every single requirement, mandate, etc) and letting the market take care of everything after that. Just like it did for the decades before the ACA.
The new meme for the Right is ‘Why do we have to replace it?" You’ll hear that one getting more amplified on Fox News over the next few weeks, until Tom Price presents everyone with the Health Savings Account solution.
The new meme for the Right is ‘Why do we have to replace it?" You’ll hear that one getting more amplified on Fox News over the next few weeks, until Tom Price presents everyone with the Health Savings Account solution.
Kevin Koster commented on Watch Donald Trump's News Conference Here
2017-01-12 10:23:51 -0500
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This was a hideous display by Donald Trump of exactly the childish behavior his team has repeatedly said he would stop. It’s right in line with the mean tweets and the insults and all the other schoolyard playground antics he’s been using throughout his public life. It’s frankly sad to see a 70 year old man who cannot express himself in any more complicated way than “I know you are, but what am I?”
And this was an equally hideous display by the Right in their attempts to normalize Trump’s viciousness. The entire prime time lineup for Fox News found a way to somehow explain why it was okay for Trump to attack a CNN reporter – Fox News even tried to give Trump the moral high ground! Sean Spicer’s attempt to puff himself up into a morally affronted tone was ludicrous enough to be spit-take funny. I find it pitiable that Fox News is now attempting to forget their own history of repeatedly attacking President Obama at every possible turn at press events and their celebration of both politicians and press who found opportunities to scream at him and get it on video. I find it pitiable that Fox News, which repeatedly drummed through any story of innuendo about the Clintons and any story they could spin as a “scandal” for President Obama, is now somehow ashen-faced that anyone would ever discuss an intelligence dossier about Donald Trump’s documented nasty behavior. If it weren’t so obvious and desperate, and if it weren’t a story that was about the Pence Administration’s new spokesman being potentially compromised on many levels, it would be comic. But it’s not – this is dangerous material. It’s not just that the material shows Trump’s open hatred of the Obamas in a graphic manner – it’s that one can see the reasons why Trump did not want this material to get out into the public eye.
We have repeatedly been told that Trump was going to recognize the solemnity of the office he has gamed himself into taking, that he would “act Presidential”. I’m still waiting to see that happen. What I saw yesterday was the behavior of a five year old bully throwing a tantrum. And it’s not just that we will now have a President who openly throws tantrums at anyone he thinks has slighted him. It’s that there is a serious aftereffect when he does this as President. The President is a role model – someone that adults look up to as the leader of the country and kids normally look to as a model of behavior. The President represents the US to the world. And we’re about to endure four years of this office being defiled by a person who acts like a five-year old. That’s not just embarrassing – it’s frightening, and it should be. Because when Trump acts like this in public and the Right tries to normalize it, the spectacle emboldens all the angry local Right Wingers to act like this as well. This is why there have been so many hate crimes documented as committed by Right Wingers since the election – Trump’s actions are empowering these people to openly attack those with whom they disagree. We can sadly expect more schoolroom assaults, more swastikas on cars and homes, more vicious graffiti, more hate speech all the way around.
I have stated that I am willing to give our incoming acting President Mike Pence a chance to do some good things for the country – to see if Pence can come up with creative ways to streamline bureaucracy, to create more jobs, etc. But that assumes that Trump and Pence have any intention of actually doing that. If their only intent is to throw the entire Obama presidency in the trash and then sneer at the country, then we’re not dealing with adults. If these guys are going to act like children, then they should be treated as such. Respect is given to those who earn it. If Donald Trump cannot act like an adult, then perhaps he should not be giving press conferences and he should leave that work to those people who can actually do it.
I also note that Trump’s presser, when you remove the tantrum and the hyperbole, really didn’t add anything new to his policy discussion. If anything, he made clear that we can expect a fast series of vicious actions starting next Friday. It’s nice that he thinks that the ACA is somehow going to be replaced with a “beautiful” program. Right. The ACA is going to be scrapped, as fast as the Senate can get the reconciliation bill back to the House. I add that the GOP is preventing the Dems from even protecting the elements of the ACA that Trump said they would maintain, such as allowing people with existing conditions to get insurance and allowing parents to keep their kids on their policies up to age 26. The obvious intent of the GOP in Congress is to just trash the ACA as quickly as it can, to be followed by the Sessions Justice Dept dropping the Obama appeals about the funding mechanism. The 22 million who signed up for the ACA should be preparing to lose those policies in short order. The Right Wing solution to this is Health Savings Accounts – which means you pay for everything unless it’s a truly catastrophic situation, and for THAT you could get a small policy with a gigantic deductible. This falls right in line with the libertarian idea of IGMFU. Because that’s what the Right stands by. If these guys had wanted to generate a comprehensive health coverage plan, they would have done it in the nearly 20 years they had between the time they papered Hillary Clinton’s idea to death and the time that Obama finally got something through both houses. The GOP does not get to rewrite this history, and they do not get to rewrite the history of their viciousness and obstruction when it came to the writing of the ACA and their many, many attempts to repeal it. When this boom drops and that 22 million lose their coverage, it will be completely on the shoulders of the GOP and the Right. Make no mistake – this will cause misery for a lot of people, who will be sent back to the notion of either not going to the doctor, or just going to the ER if something really serious happens. If there is any silver lining in this cloud, it is that the ensuing pain may finally push this country to go with a Medicare for All solution in a few years, after Trump and Pence are out of office. But it will be at least another 4 years before that happens.
The vicious tone of this presser, and the corresponding vicious tone from the Right after it was inflicted, is a strong warning sign to anyone with decency that the USA is not likely to be a tolerable environment for several years. There’s a good reason that many people were looking up the notion of moving to Canada or another country until this mess is over. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to have to deal with childish tantrums from the White House every week, or with local blowhards who feel empowered by the Bully-in-Chief. It does get tiring with these people. I expect we’ll see a flow of decent people finding work and home in other parts over the next four years, and I don’t think those people are wrong to do so.
And this was an equally hideous display by the Right in their attempts to normalize Trump’s viciousness. The entire prime time lineup for Fox News found a way to somehow explain why it was okay for Trump to attack a CNN reporter – Fox News even tried to give Trump the moral high ground! Sean Spicer’s attempt to puff himself up into a morally affronted tone was ludicrous enough to be spit-take funny. I find it pitiable that Fox News is now attempting to forget their own history of repeatedly attacking President Obama at every possible turn at press events and their celebration of both politicians and press who found opportunities to scream at him and get it on video. I find it pitiable that Fox News, which repeatedly drummed through any story of innuendo about the Clintons and any story they could spin as a “scandal” for President Obama, is now somehow ashen-faced that anyone would ever discuss an intelligence dossier about Donald Trump’s documented nasty behavior. If it weren’t so obvious and desperate, and if it weren’t a story that was about the Pence Administration’s new spokesman being potentially compromised on many levels, it would be comic. But it’s not – this is dangerous material. It’s not just that the material shows Trump’s open hatred of the Obamas in a graphic manner – it’s that one can see the reasons why Trump did not want this material to get out into the public eye.
We have repeatedly been told that Trump was going to recognize the solemnity of the office he has gamed himself into taking, that he would “act Presidential”. I’m still waiting to see that happen. What I saw yesterday was the behavior of a five year old bully throwing a tantrum. And it’s not just that we will now have a President who openly throws tantrums at anyone he thinks has slighted him. It’s that there is a serious aftereffect when he does this as President. The President is a role model – someone that adults look up to as the leader of the country and kids normally look to as a model of behavior. The President represents the US to the world. And we’re about to endure four years of this office being defiled by a person who acts like a five-year old. That’s not just embarrassing – it’s frightening, and it should be. Because when Trump acts like this in public and the Right tries to normalize it, the spectacle emboldens all the angry local Right Wingers to act like this as well. This is why there have been so many hate crimes documented as committed by Right Wingers since the election – Trump’s actions are empowering these people to openly attack those with whom they disagree. We can sadly expect more schoolroom assaults, more swastikas on cars and homes, more vicious graffiti, more hate speech all the way around.
I have stated that I am willing to give our incoming acting President Mike Pence a chance to do some good things for the country – to see if Pence can come up with creative ways to streamline bureaucracy, to create more jobs, etc. But that assumes that Trump and Pence have any intention of actually doing that. If their only intent is to throw the entire Obama presidency in the trash and then sneer at the country, then we’re not dealing with adults. If these guys are going to act like children, then they should be treated as such. Respect is given to those who earn it. If Donald Trump cannot act like an adult, then perhaps he should not be giving press conferences and he should leave that work to those people who can actually do it.
I also note that Trump’s presser, when you remove the tantrum and the hyperbole, really didn’t add anything new to his policy discussion. If anything, he made clear that we can expect a fast series of vicious actions starting next Friday. It’s nice that he thinks that the ACA is somehow going to be replaced with a “beautiful” program. Right. The ACA is going to be scrapped, as fast as the Senate can get the reconciliation bill back to the House. I add that the GOP is preventing the Dems from even protecting the elements of the ACA that Trump said they would maintain, such as allowing people with existing conditions to get insurance and allowing parents to keep their kids on their policies up to age 26. The obvious intent of the GOP in Congress is to just trash the ACA as quickly as it can, to be followed by the Sessions Justice Dept dropping the Obama appeals about the funding mechanism. The 22 million who signed up for the ACA should be preparing to lose those policies in short order. The Right Wing solution to this is Health Savings Accounts – which means you pay for everything unless it’s a truly catastrophic situation, and for THAT you could get a small policy with a gigantic deductible. This falls right in line with the libertarian idea of IGMFU. Because that’s what the Right stands by. If these guys had wanted to generate a comprehensive health coverage plan, they would have done it in the nearly 20 years they had between the time they papered Hillary Clinton’s idea to death and the time that Obama finally got something through both houses. The GOP does not get to rewrite this history, and they do not get to rewrite the history of their viciousness and obstruction when it came to the writing of the ACA and their many, many attempts to repeal it. When this boom drops and that 22 million lose their coverage, it will be completely on the shoulders of the GOP and the Right. Make no mistake – this will cause misery for a lot of people, who will be sent back to the notion of either not going to the doctor, or just going to the ER if something really serious happens. If there is any silver lining in this cloud, it is that the ensuing pain may finally push this country to go with a Medicare for All solution in a few years, after Trump and Pence are out of office. But it will be at least another 4 years before that happens.
The vicious tone of this presser, and the corresponding vicious tone from the Right after it was inflicted, is a strong warning sign to anyone with decency that the USA is not likely to be a tolerable environment for several years. There’s a good reason that many people were looking up the notion of moving to Canada or another country until this mess is over. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to have to deal with childish tantrums from the White House every week, or with local blowhards who feel empowered by the Bully-in-Chief. It does get tiring with these people. I expect we’ll see a flow of decent people finding work and home in other parts over the next four years, and I don’t think those people are wrong to do so.
Kevin Koster commented on Shepard Smith Calls Out Trump For ‘Belittling’ CNN Reporter At Press Conference
2017-01-12 08:23:45 -0500
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David is most likely correct. Shepard Smith is now glaringly alone among the Fox News personalities. Every single prime time anchor happily went along with the Trump bullying line – finding some way to twist themselves into a pretzel to justify Trump’s horrifying behavior. Smith was the only one to take a principled stand – and it doesn’t bode well for his future at the network. I would not be surprised to see him part ways with Fox News within the year.
Kevin Koster commented on Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearing - Open Thread
2017-01-11 09:52:04 -0500
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Based on Sessions’ chilling testimony, we should expect an indictment of the Clintons and their Foundation sometime within the first year of the new presidency. Sessions was careful not to say that this wasn’t coming – he said that he would recuse himself from it. This is intended to try to insulate himself and Trump from the obvious criticism when they start engaging in this political theater. They will need this as a distraction when the Pence White House’s policies don’t completely fly with Congress. (For example, when they try to blame Congress for repealing the ACA with no alternative and throwing millions off the insurance rolls, or when they try to blame Congress for not going with their huge infrastructure idea, etc.)
Make no mistake – the Justice Dept under Jeff Sessions is going to create a fairly unhappy and hostile time for many Americans. The Dems cannot stop any of these appointments, so it’s just a matter of time now before these problems start.
Make no mistake – the Justice Dept under Jeff Sessions is going to create a fairly unhappy and hostile time for many Americans. The Dems cannot stop any of these appointments, so it’s just a matter of time now before these problems start.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity’s Classless Response To Obama’s Farewell Address
2017-01-11 09:46:11 -0500
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This vicious and bullying response is exactly what we should be expecting from the Right Wing and from Fox News over the next month as President Obama leaves office. Hannity in particular is a reliable barometer of the hatred the Right has fostered toward the Obamas. Note that Hannity made sure to repeatedly include President Obama’s middle name while he castigated what he falsely presented as Obama’s record.
Only Austan Goolsbee was able to point out, very late in the show, that Hannity’s numbers depend on him including the drag from 2009, when the economy was still tanking from the incompetence of the W Bush presidency. Meaning that Hannity’s repeated attacks on the Obama presidency have always been rooted in trying to saddle Obama with the responsibility for the mess he was trying to clean up when he got into office. It’s similar to Hannity’s little trick in 2011 and 2012 of trying to make it look like Obama had caused gas prices to surge – done by cherry picking the start of his graph to happen in January 2009 and ignoring that gas prices had suddenly plummeted in the final quarter of 2008 after skyrocketing throughout the W Bush presidency.
But this dismissive and mean-spirited response to President Obama is what will be coming from the Right as the Pence White House sets to work. Two weeks from now, it is expected that very little will remain of the Obama presidency short of the presence of Sotomayor and Kagan on the Supreme Court. Hannity was practically salivating over the upcoming destruction of the ACA – and he was blatantly lying about the prospects of actually creating legislation that would provide health coverage for the millions using it. As we’ve repeatedly discussed here, the GOP has no plan to actually replace the ACA that they can agree on – they only agree that they want it gone immediately so they can announce its demise and thus retroactively spin the Obama presidency as a total failure.
It will be extremely important for websites like this to continue to point out the truth of what these people are doing, and how they are flat out lying about even our recent history. There won’t be anything concrete we will have left of the work Obama attempted to accomplish, but we will need to remember the effort – something that the Right will desperately try to pretend never happened. For people like Hannity, they’re going to party like it’s 2001 all over again, where the rules change once the GOP gets back into the White House. As of January 20th, anyone criticizing the Pence Administration will be accused of treason or worse, because as we all know, it’s unpatriotic to not embrace someone like Trump as the official spokesman for the United States…
Only Austan Goolsbee was able to point out, very late in the show, that Hannity’s numbers depend on him including the drag from 2009, when the economy was still tanking from the incompetence of the W Bush presidency. Meaning that Hannity’s repeated attacks on the Obama presidency have always been rooted in trying to saddle Obama with the responsibility for the mess he was trying to clean up when he got into office. It’s similar to Hannity’s little trick in 2011 and 2012 of trying to make it look like Obama had caused gas prices to surge – done by cherry picking the start of his graph to happen in January 2009 and ignoring that gas prices had suddenly plummeted in the final quarter of 2008 after skyrocketing throughout the W Bush presidency.
But this dismissive and mean-spirited response to President Obama is what will be coming from the Right as the Pence White House sets to work. Two weeks from now, it is expected that very little will remain of the Obama presidency short of the presence of Sotomayor and Kagan on the Supreme Court. Hannity was practically salivating over the upcoming destruction of the ACA – and he was blatantly lying about the prospects of actually creating legislation that would provide health coverage for the millions using it. As we’ve repeatedly discussed here, the GOP has no plan to actually replace the ACA that they can agree on – they only agree that they want it gone immediately so they can announce its demise and thus retroactively spin the Obama presidency as a total failure.
It will be extremely important for websites like this to continue to point out the truth of what these people are doing, and how they are flat out lying about even our recent history. There won’t be anything concrete we will have left of the work Obama attempted to accomplish, but we will need to remember the effort – something that the Right will desperately try to pretend never happened. For people like Hannity, they’re going to party like it’s 2001 all over again, where the rules change once the GOP gets back into the White House. As of January 20th, anyone criticizing the Pence Administration will be accused of treason or worse, because as we all know, it’s unpatriotic to not embrace someone like Trump as the official spokesman for the United States…
Kevin Koster commented on Fox News Tries To Discredit Meryl Streep By Pretending Trump Didn’t Mock Disabled Reporter
2017-01-10 08:11:54 -0500
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Mr. Smith should find somewhere else to try his bullying tactics. They will not find purchase here.
There are a lot more important things going on this week than Meryl Streep making a dignified statement about values and conduct and how far away from the norms the new Pence White House truly is. It’s unfortunate that the Trump response was to attempt to bully her, and that Fox News and the Right Wing media attempted to back up Trump in that effort. And shame on Fox News for that.
And for the record, yes, Donald Trump was mocking that reporter. Not the first time he’s done that kind of thing, and certainly won’t be the last. Just as Rush Limbaugh was properly criticized for mimicking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s symptoms ten years ago (and for which Limbaugh has yet to apologize).
We may be in the Year of the Bully, but it doesn’t mean that we have to accept it as a good thing. Bullying doesn’t always work out so well for the bully – just ask Scut Farkus.
There are a lot more important things going on this week than Meryl Streep making a dignified statement about values and conduct and how far away from the norms the new Pence White House truly is. It’s unfortunate that the Trump response was to attempt to bully her, and that Fox News and the Right Wing media attempted to back up Trump in that effort. And shame on Fox News for that.
And for the record, yes, Donald Trump was mocking that reporter. Not the first time he’s done that kind of thing, and certainly won’t be the last. Just as Rush Limbaugh was properly criticized for mimicking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s symptoms ten years ago (and for which Limbaugh has yet to apologize).
We may be in the Year of the Bully, but it doesn’t mean that we have to accept it as a good thing. Bullying doesn’t always work out so well for the bully – just ask Scut Farkus.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox News Is Now Trump TV
2017-01-10 08:19:37 -0500
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Ellen, I have a strong feeling that Hannity’s new idea of his “Opening Monologue” is based on his belief that Trump is watching the first few minutes of his show. It is more than likely that all of these shows are being geared for Trump to watch the opening ten minutes each time around – for O’Reilly’s Talking Points, Hannity’s monologue, etc. Idea being that they put their big push of the day into the first position so that Trump and Pence see that right away and can either opine about it themselves or take action.
It is not an accident that O’Reilly put a victory lap about “Kate’s Law” on the front burner. He wants to be able to take credit for this one as one of his crowning achievements. (I note that O’Reilly has no credibility on these kinds of issues – last week, he was hosting and supporting a notorious Right Wing California State Senator who has been spreading vicious lies about California legalizing teen prostitution when that was blatantly false.)
I also note that O’Reilly is planning to give his “response” to President Obama’s farewell address this evening. Given how O’Reilly has already consigned Obama to the trash heap and has dismissed his entire presidency, we can expect some further viciousness and bullying tonight. I’d give a 90 percent chance that O’Reilly grudgingly acknowledges that Obama and his family are decent people before going into a litany of Right Wing attack points designed to portray the last 8 years as a mire of failure and scandal – exactly the way Fox News has been priming its viewers to feel.
It is not an accident that O’Reilly put a victory lap about “Kate’s Law” on the front burner. He wants to be able to take credit for this one as one of his crowning achievements. (I note that O’Reilly has no credibility on these kinds of issues – last week, he was hosting and supporting a notorious Right Wing California State Senator who has been spreading vicious lies about California legalizing teen prostitution when that was blatantly false.)
I also note that O’Reilly is planning to give his “response” to President Obama’s farewell address this evening. Given how O’Reilly has already consigned Obama to the trash heap and has dismissed his entire presidency, we can expect some further viciousness and bullying tonight. I’d give a 90 percent chance that O’Reilly grudgingly acknowledges that Obama and his family are decent people before going into a litany of Right Wing attack points designed to portray the last 8 years as a mire of failure and scandal – exactly the way Fox News has been priming its viewers to feel.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Jesse Watters Plays The Role Of Donald Trump’s Goon
2017-01-09 00:38:49 -0500
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Interesting to hear Fox News folk refer to someone ELSE as a bully.
The reality here is that Watters has made bullying his stock in trade for several years now. He’s frankly really taking chances these days when he continues to push it with people, particularly when he is on someone else’s private property. He’s risking arrest at the very least in many cases.
But clearly Watters thinks he can get away with it because, hey, he works for Bill O’Reilly and Fox News and he can do whatever he wants, right? Because this is The Year of the Bully!
The reality here is that Watters has made bullying his stock in trade for several years now. He’s frankly really taking chances these days when he continues to push it with people, particularly when he is on someone else’s private property. He’s risking arrest at the very least in many cases.
But clearly Watters thinks he can get away with it because, hey, he works for Bill O’Reilly and Fox News and he can do whatever he wants, right? Because this is The Year of the Bully!
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Guest: ‘I’m So Tired Of This ‘Save The Planet’ Garbage’
2017-01-08 01:00:28 -0500
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Again, note the tone.
Fox News knows that the Pence Administration is taking its cues from them, so the network is feeling extra strident these days. They know that Trump doesn’t understand these issues and that the Pence group is hostile to most scientific research in the first place. Which means they’re free to try to bully anyone who doesn’t toe the line for them.
In the case of the actual EPA and the Energy Dept under Pence, we can expect to see the accumulated research tossed in the trash within the next month – which is why actual climate researchers have been frantically archiving everything they can of the materials from the past 8+ years. It’s a good thing they did this, as without their efforts, the Pence people would succeed in destroying a decade of knowledge. As it is, the Pence group will in fact succeed in essentially shutting down the EPA and the Dept of Energy in short order, not to mention multiple other Depts that actually used to provide services to everyday people.
This will be a truly unfortunate time for the people who live in places like Flint, Michigan. One can only hope they can hang on for another 2 to 4 years until saner people can get back to work in DC. And we have to hope that the maximum damage that Pence does to the Supreme Court will be limited to replacing Scalia with another young Far Right voice.
If our hopes are not met here, you could easily see a scenario where companies rampantly pollute without restraint (and without an EPA or Energy Dept or Interior Dept to handle them), where the workers of those companies are shamelessly exploited (and without a Dept of Labor that cares to hear what is happening), and where any lawsuits to challenge those companies are batted away by Right Wing judges and a Far Right Supreme Court that doesn’t want to know about it.
Fox News knows that the Pence Administration is taking its cues from them, so the network is feeling extra strident these days. They know that Trump doesn’t understand these issues and that the Pence group is hostile to most scientific research in the first place. Which means they’re free to try to bully anyone who doesn’t toe the line for them.
In the case of the actual EPA and the Energy Dept under Pence, we can expect to see the accumulated research tossed in the trash within the next month – which is why actual climate researchers have been frantically archiving everything they can of the materials from the past 8+ years. It’s a good thing they did this, as without their efforts, the Pence people would succeed in destroying a decade of knowledge. As it is, the Pence group will in fact succeed in essentially shutting down the EPA and the Dept of Energy in short order, not to mention multiple other Depts that actually used to provide services to everyday people.
This will be a truly unfortunate time for the people who live in places like Flint, Michigan. One can only hope they can hang on for another 2 to 4 years until saner people can get back to work in DC. And we have to hope that the maximum damage that Pence does to the Supreme Court will be limited to replacing Scalia with another young Far Right voice.
If our hopes are not met here, you could easily see a scenario where companies rampantly pollute without restraint (and without an EPA or Energy Dept or Interior Dept to handle them), where the workers of those companies are shamelessly exploited (and without a Dept of Labor that cares to hear what is happening), and where any lawsuits to challenge those companies are batted away by Right Wing judges and a Far Right Supreme Court that doesn’t want to know about it.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity Goes On A Trump-Like Twitter Tirade Against Joe Scarborough Over Assange
2017-01-07 03:12:08 -0500
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The only surprise here is that Hannity didn’t get in the academic phrase “Baby Talk, Baby Talk, It’s a Wonder You can Walk!”
Welcome to the Year of the Bully!
Welcome to the Year of the Bully!
Kevin Koster commented on It’s Official: Greta Van Susteren To Get Her Own MSNBC Show
2017-01-06 19:12:25 -0500
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MSNBC has a long, long history of lurching to the right when it serves their purposes. The textbook example of this came when they cancelled Phil Donahue’s show in the advent of the W Bush attack and invasion of Iraq in 2003. The internal memo about how they were uncomfortable with Donahue being on the air while all the other networks were waving the flag was famously made public by Amy Goodman at the time.
I’m sure Greta will simply resume the kind of show she was doing on Fox News, albeit at a lower pay scale than she enjoyed at the fully Right Wing network. When she was at Fox News, the idea was that she lended a touch of class and an aura of scholastic knowledge, although she could also specialize in crime blotter sensationalism that Fox News always enjoyed broadcasting. So she was fairly valuable to Fox News as a theoretically more moderate face, particularly when contrasted with something like Hannity.
At MSNBC, she will be a token conservative voice, essentially running the same kind of show but under the umbrella of a more liberal outfit. I agree that the real value of her presence is that she may be able to lure Trump out to make an appearance on their network, and they may be able to get some access. But that depends on Trump and his whims. He’ll certainly have time to talk to her, given that Pence will be handling all the real work at the White House. But will he be interested in talking to Greta on a network he’s repeatedly condemned? Or will he talk to her and while doing so completely insult her new employers? I have a feeling he’ll take the latter path, saying “I do love talking to you, Greta, but it’s such a shame you have to work for these people.”
Both Van Susteren and Kelly have sadly put themselves in a position where they no longer have any credibility with most viewers. Kelly is popular as a Fox News voice, and to those less familiar with her, she would appear to be an independent voice. But the odor of bias and viciousness from Fox News never helps one of its anchors get a real job anywhere else. They’re usually better advised to write books, go on the speaking circuit and show up as an elder statesman on Fox. c.f. Brit Hume.
I’m sure Greta will simply resume the kind of show she was doing on Fox News, albeit at a lower pay scale than she enjoyed at the fully Right Wing network. When she was at Fox News, the idea was that she lended a touch of class and an aura of scholastic knowledge, although she could also specialize in crime blotter sensationalism that Fox News always enjoyed broadcasting. So she was fairly valuable to Fox News as a theoretically more moderate face, particularly when contrasted with something like Hannity.
At MSNBC, she will be a token conservative voice, essentially running the same kind of show but under the umbrella of a more liberal outfit. I agree that the real value of her presence is that she may be able to lure Trump out to make an appearance on their network, and they may be able to get some access. But that depends on Trump and his whims. He’ll certainly have time to talk to her, given that Pence will be handling all the real work at the White House. But will he be interested in talking to Greta on a network he’s repeatedly condemned? Or will he talk to her and while doing so completely insult her new employers? I have a feeling he’ll take the latter path, saying “I do love talking to you, Greta, but it’s such a shame you have to work for these people.”
Both Van Susteren and Kelly have sadly put themselves in a position where they no longer have any credibility with most viewers. Kelly is popular as a Fox News voice, and to those less familiar with her, she would appear to be an independent voice. But the odor of bias and viciousness from Fox News never helps one of its anchors get a real job anywhere else. They’re usually better advised to write books, go on the speaking circuit and show up as an elder statesman on Fox. c.f. Brit Hume.
Kevin Koster commented on Hatriot Michelle Malkin Blames Obama And Liberals For Chicago Torture Video
2017-01-06 18:58:18 -0500
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Let me see if I understand this correctly. A few thugs who don’t like Trump pull a few horrible acts of violence, for which they should be prosecuted and punished. And at the same time, over A THOUSAND vicious acts are perpetrated by Trump supporters against other people, particularly people of color and of either Chicano or Muslim lineage. Documented acts, including the desecration of churches and people’s private property with swastikas and graffiti saying nice things like “BLACK LIVES DON’T MATTER AND NEITHER DID YOUR VOTE!” And somehow Michelle Malkin says that the problem lies with the communities that are the victims of these hate crimes? Seriously, how dare she?
Kevin Koster commented on Watch Democrat John Garamendi school Neil Cavuto on Obamacare
2017-01-06 13:58:57 -0500
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Listen to Cavuto’s tone. He’s trying to both be condescending and bullying at the same time. He clearly doesn’t care what Garamendi has to say – he came to the discussion with a preset group of attack points, and each time Garamendi responds, he essentially moves on to the next arrow. He also repeatedly interrupts and talks over Garamendi to try to bully him off of his opinions. Garamendi was thankfully well prepared to discuss this, but sadly waited way too long to bring up one of the key points he had.
Garamendi could and should have opened with the statement that the ACA was designed to work with everyone participating – but the GOP flat-out refused to participate. Garamendi also let Cavuto get away with inserting a blatant lie about the GOP’s “alternatives” being ignored when the ACA was written. The GOP’s “alternative idea” was to refer the whole thing back to committee and try to paperwork the whole thing to death, just as they had with Hillarycare back in the 90s. They had no intention of coming up with a new plan, and they frankly have no intention of coming up with anything now.
The sad reality of what is about to happen is that these guys never cared about whether or not people had health coverage. The Right Wing idea is for people to just save up and put money in health savings accounts and perhaps have a “catastrophic” plan for absolute emergencies. Meaning that the whole burden pretty much falls on the individual and you’re on your own. Or in simpler GOP terms, IGMFU. The notion of a group plan that everyone participates in is completely foreign to these people.
And they were never going to go along with anything that came from Barack Obama in the first place. The saddest part of this is that he really did compromise the bill to try to bring them on board – and in his worst move there, he pulled out the public option, which would have actually brought millions more Americans on board.
Instead, we’ll have to look back on this experience as an example of what happens when centrist liberals attempt to appease the Far Right. The answer is that the Right Wing always folds its arms and says NOPE. And now we will have the result of watching these guys completely dismantle the whole ACA.
Within two weeks, it will be as if President Obama never happened. We will remember it, and we should, but the reality is that we’re essentially starting over from scratch, if not actually moving a few steps backward from 2008.
Garamendi could and should have opened with the statement that the ACA was designed to work with everyone participating – but the GOP flat-out refused to participate. Garamendi also let Cavuto get away with inserting a blatant lie about the GOP’s “alternatives” being ignored when the ACA was written. The GOP’s “alternative idea” was to refer the whole thing back to committee and try to paperwork the whole thing to death, just as they had with Hillarycare back in the 90s. They had no intention of coming up with a new plan, and they frankly have no intention of coming up with anything now.
The sad reality of what is about to happen is that these guys never cared about whether or not people had health coverage. The Right Wing idea is for people to just save up and put money in health savings accounts and perhaps have a “catastrophic” plan for absolute emergencies. Meaning that the whole burden pretty much falls on the individual and you’re on your own. Or in simpler GOP terms, IGMFU. The notion of a group plan that everyone participates in is completely foreign to these people.
And they were never going to go along with anything that came from Barack Obama in the first place. The saddest part of this is that he really did compromise the bill to try to bring them on board – and in his worst move there, he pulled out the public option, which would have actually brought millions more Americans on board.
Instead, we’ll have to look back on this experience as an example of what happens when centrist liberals attempt to appease the Far Right. The answer is that the Right Wing always folds its arms and says NOPE. And now we will have the result of watching these guys completely dismantle the whole ACA.
Within two weeks, it will be as if President Obama never happened. We will remember it, and we should, but the reality is that we’re essentially starting over from scratch, if not actually moving a few steps backward from 2008.
Kevin Koster commented on Megyn Kelly Leaving Fox News For NBC News
2017-01-03 23:40:46 -0500
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I’m frankly shocked that NBC was willing to put her on the payroll. Even more so than I was shocked that MSNBC was willing to pay Greta Van Susteren to do a conservative POV show for them. But I do remember saying about a year ago that the only show that Megyn Kelly could get at a legitimate network would be as the “conservative anchor” – meaning the person who comes on the air and spouts right wing talking points just like they do at that genuinely, full-on right wing organization, Fox News.
Given Kelly’s conduct at Fox News over the years, I have every confidence that she will simply continue the same kind of combative right wing coverage she’s been doing at Fox News, only on a presumably impartial network. I’m sure she’ll be more openly critical of Trump once she’s out from under the Fox News umbrella. Critical, that is, from the right.
The motive by NBC for both of these hires is that they want to move more conservative, given that we are now living in a world where Mike Pence is running the country and Donald Trump is working to bully as many people here and abroad as he can. It makes sense that NBC would want to cultivate their own right wing voices – MSNBC has an infamous history of this. You may recall the embarrassing internal memo revealed by Amy Goodman regarding the firing of Phil Donahue during the Iraq War under W Bush. For Kelly, I’m sure she thinks is her shot at respectability. I’m also sure that NBC is not paying her anywhere near what Fox News did – she’s being brought in to do something similar to what she did at Fox News ten years ago.
On a professional level, I admire her ambition and her willingness to do a lot of hard work to succeed in a difficult business. But on a moral and ethical level, she simply has no credibility whatsoever. And it’s truly disheartening to see once-admired news outlets cozying up to media personalities who have greatly profited from the viciousness and vacancy of the Fox News empire.
Given Kelly’s conduct at Fox News over the years, I have every confidence that she will simply continue the same kind of combative right wing coverage she’s been doing at Fox News, only on a presumably impartial network. I’m sure she’ll be more openly critical of Trump once she’s out from under the Fox News umbrella. Critical, that is, from the right.
The motive by NBC for both of these hires is that they want to move more conservative, given that we are now living in a world where Mike Pence is running the country and Donald Trump is working to bully as many people here and abroad as he can. It makes sense that NBC would want to cultivate their own right wing voices – MSNBC has an infamous history of this. You may recall the embarrassing internal memo revealed by Amy Goodman regarding the firing of Phil Donahue during the Iraq War under W Bush. For Kelly, I’m sure she thinks is her shot at respectability. I’m also sure that NBC is not paying her anywhere near what Fox News did – she’s being brought in to do something similar to what she did at Fox News ten years ago.
On a professional level, I admire her ambition and her willingness to do a lot of hard work to succeed in a difficult business. But on a moral and ethical level, she simply has no credibility whatsoever. And it’s truly disheartening to see once-admired news outlets cozying up to media personalities who have greatly profited from the viciousness and vacancy of the Fox News empire.