Kevin Koster commented on Fox News Figures Pretend Julian Assange Completely Denied Russian Involvement In 2016 Campaign Wikileaks
2017-01-03 11:56:14 -0500
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Let me see if I understand this correctly. Sean Hannity went all the way to London so he could interview Julian Assange in person. He went to the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange has been holed up for years to avoid his rape charges from Sweden, and had a cozy chat like this one? This pushes the concept of taking a victory lap into the stratosphere.
I really wonder how Hannity will react when Assange turns on Trump in the next year or so and releases something juicy about Pence’s White House follies. Keep in mind that Assange’s track record shows it’s only a matter of time before he does this. He’s not in the business of supporting any authority. He tends to hate all of them, and he takes pride in finding new and inventive ways to embarrass them. Something tells me Hannity won’t want anyone to remember this tape exists at that time.
I really wonder how Hannity will react when Assange turns on Trump in the next year or so and releases something juicy about Pence’s White House follies. Keep in mind that Assange’s track record shows it’s only a matter of time before he does this. He’s not in the business of supporting any authority. He tends to hate all of them, and he takes pride in finding new and inventive ways to embarrass them. Something tells me Hannity won’t want anyone to remember this tape exists at that time.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Host Reveals The One Thing Obama Can Do Right (Hint: It’s Not Sanctioning Russia)
2017-01-02 13:31:55 -0500
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And the Year of the Bully gets underway! (Granted this was Bolling’s parting shot for 2016, but it still applies.)
Bolling’s position is consistent with the Fox News viewer base, and with the attitude of the Right in this country. What do they want Obama and the Dems to do? That’s easy: Shut Up. Go Away. Deal With Being A Failure. Watch As We Destroy Everything You Built. Keep Your Head Down And Do As You Are Told Or We’ll Break Your Other Arm.
And yes, the only sane response to this behavior is to stand up to bullies and tell them NO.
Bolling’s position is consistent with the Fox News viewer base, and with the attitude of the Right in this country. What do they want Obama and the Dems to do? That’s easy: Shut Up. Go Away. Deal With Being A Failure. Watch As We Destroy Everything You Built. Keep Your Head Down And Do As You Are Told Or We’ll Break Your Other Arm.
And yes, the only sane response to this behavior is to stand up to bullies and tell them NO.
Kevin Koster commented on It's 2017: May We All Stay Strong!
2017-01-01 23:15:20 -0500
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I’m willing to wait and see if the Pence White House can actually make government more efficient and stimulate the economy and get more people back to work, particularly in the Rust Belt. If Pence can accomplish that, then he’ll have done a service for everyone. And perhaps it’s healthy in the long run to have something completely shake up the government as we know it, as a way of getting rid of deadwood and getting people to pay attention rather than living on autopilot. So I stand apart from the way the Right Wing behaved in 2009 with the impending Obama inauguration – what with Rush Limbaugh and others screaming “I HOPE HE FAILS!” and then trying to retroactively declare that failure to be the case. I don’t hope for these guys to fail – I hope for them to do right by the country, including the majority of the population that did not vote for them but is now stuck with them for the next four years. It doesn’t mean that I trust them by any means, but I’m willing to see if they can actually get something productive accomplished, and if it’s a good thing, why would anyone object to that?
That being said, we’re hearing more and more about what the true objectives are of this bunch. Just this morning, I read an article confirming exactly what I’ve understood to be the focus of January 20th past the inauguration – the signing by Trump of a series of Executive Orders to effectively erase the Obama presidency in every way possible. There’s also a strong push to have the ACA Repeal on Trump’s desk for signing on the 20th as well, although the GOP is now facing some pressure to think about what it will mean to throw away the insurance policies for 20 million people. (Of course, that assumes that the Far Right really cares about those insurance policies. As Rush Limbaugh has demonstrated – they don’t. For example, Congressman Bill Huizenga of Michigan made a point of forcing his son to wait overnight in a splint before going to seek medical attention for an injured arm, a wild choice that could have cost his son’s life.)
We do have some cause for hope, however. There are plenty of people with their eyes and ears open who can see what the Pence White House is planning, and if it creates major problems around the country, all the Fox News spin in the world won’t be able to make people in the real world forget what is actually happening to them. The Obama Presidency may have ended without a legacy, and we will almost certainly be subject to 2-4 years worth of gloating and bullying about that, but history doesn’t end when these things happen. If anything, the vicious behavior of the Right has a good chance to inspire more Dems and liberals to show up to vote next time.
That being said, we’re hearing more and more about what the true objectives are of this bunch. Just this morning, I read an article confirming exactly what I’ve understood to be the focus of January 20th past the inauguration – the signing by Trump of a series of Executive Orders to effectively erase the Obama presidency in every way possible. There’s also a strong push to have the ACA Repeal on Trump’s desk for signing on the 20th as well, although the GOP is now facing some pressure to think about what it will mean to throw away the insurance policies for 20 million people. (Of course, that assumes that the Far Right really cares about those insurance policies. As Rush Limbaugh has demonstrated – they don’t. For example, Congressman Bill Huizenga of Michigan made a point of forcing his son to wait overnight in a splint before going to seek medical attention for an injured arm, a wild choice that could have cost his son’s life.)
We do have some cause for hope, however. There are plenty of people with their eyes and ears open who can see what the Pence White House is planning, and if it creates major problems around the country, all the Fox News spin in the world won’t be able to make people in the real world forget what is actually happening to them. The Obama Presidency may have ended without a legacy, and we will almost certainly be subject to 2-4 years worth of gloating and bullying about that, but history doesn’t end when these things happen. If anything, the vicious behavior of the Right has a good chance to inspire more Dems and liberals to show up to vote next time.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Doctor Who Thinks Too Many People Have Health Insurance Helps Promote Tom Price For HHS
2016-12-31 01:37:25 -0500
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Fox News is well aware of what the playbook is for Price and the new HHS, Pence-style. Just ask Amy Sandler how helpful Pence was in Indiana for same-sex couples when the hospitals wanted to discriminate against them. Or to be more precise, how helpful Pence was for the hospitals in aiding their discriminatory efforts.
The battle plan for the GOP has already been set – they will be repeating their budget reconciliation move from last summer so they can effectively repeal as much of the ACA as possible without needing a single Dem vote. This bill will be rushed through the new Congress so Trump can happily sign it on the 20th after he gets done with the stack of EO’s that erase all of Obama’s EO’s. There will still be some rudimentary framework of the ACA left in, including the language about telling insurers they can’t bar people for pre-existing conditions. But there will no longer be any funding for the program – particularly after Tom Price and Jeff Sessions publicly drop the appeal that Lynch’s Justice Department has been pursuing about the insurance reimbursements. With that appeal gone, the federal government will no longer be able to provide funds to make any of this work for the insurers, who will quickly exit stage right. I’m sure there will be discussion about how the ACA hasn’t completely been repealed yet and that the GOP is working on various plan ideas – but I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that new plan. These guys had nearly TWENTY YEARS to show a plan after they killed the Hillarycare idea in the early 90s. They’re nowhere closer to coming up with one now – simply because most of them don’t want one anyway.
We need to be prepared for the health care environment to revert back to what it was in early January 2009 – because that is the true goal here. The aim of the Pence group has nothing to do with the patients or even, frankly, the doctors. It has everything to do with smacking Obama and his supporters down as brutally as possible – to punish him for having the temerity to get this through Congress in the first place and to punish the supporters for having the temerity to vote for him twice.
It’s good to hear that Obama and the Dems are looking at how they can try to salvage the ACA and somehow block the behavior of the GOP in the full-on wrecking crew scenario we’re about to see. But the reality is that, as we noted, the GOP doesn’t need a single Dem vote to do any of this. The Dems can jump up and down all they want – it will accomplish nothing. What they frankly do need to do is to remind those millions of people why their health coverage is being taken away. The Dems will need to repeatedly be clear about how the GOP has just dumped all these patients back in the emergency room, and they’re going to need to campaign hard on it in 2018 and 2020.
Knowing Pence and his friends, and knowing Trump’s own personality, the GOP is going to wildly overreach in the frenzy of trying to undo all things Obama and somehow institute a Far Right government against the wishes of most Americans. The Dems need to be able to constantly speak up about these actions, and they will need to speak loudly enough to counter the spin we’ll be getting about it every hour from outlets like Fox News.
The battle plan for the GOP has already been set – they will be repeating their budget reconciliation move from last summer so they can effectively repeal as much of the ACA as possible without needing a single Dem vote. This bill will be rushed through the new Congress so Trump can happily sign it on the 20th after he gets done with the stack of EO’s that erase all of Obama’s EO’s. There will still be some rudimentary framework of the ACA left in, including the language about telling insurers they can’t bar people for pre-existing conditions. But there will no longer be any funding for the program – particularly after Tom Price and Jeff Sessions publicly drop the appeal that Lynch’s Justice Department has been pursuing about the insurance reimbursements. With that appeal gone, the federal government will no longer be able to provide funds to make any of this work for the insurers, who will quickly exit stage right. I’m sure there will be discussion about how the ACA hasn’t completely been repealed yet and that the GOP is working on various plan ideas – but I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that new plan. These guys had nearly TWENTY YEARS to show a plan after they killed the Hillarycare idea in the early 90s. They’re nowhere closer to coming up with one now – simply because most of them don’t want one anyway.
We need to be prepared for the health care environment to revert back to what it was in early January 2009 – because that is the true goal here. The aim of the Pence group has nothing to do with the patients or even, frankly, the doctors. It has everything to do with smacking Obama and his supporters down as brutally as possible – to punish him for having the temerity to get this through Congress in the first place and to punish the supporters for having the temerity to vote for him twice.
It’s good to hear that Obama and the Dems are looking at how they can try to salvage the ACA and somehow block the behavior of the GOP in the full-on wrecking crew scenario we’re about to see. But the reality is that, as we noted, the GOP doesn’t need a single Dem vote to do any of this. The Dems can jump up and down all they want – it will accomplish nothing. What they frankly do need to do is to remind those millions of people why their health coverage is being taken away. The Dems will need to repeatedly be clear about how the GOP has just dumped all these patients back in the emergency room, and they’re going to need to campaign hard on it in 2018 and 2020.
Knowing Pence and his friends, and knowing Trump’s own personality, the GOP is going to wildly overreach in the frenzy of trying to undo all things Obama and somehow institute a Far Right government against the wishes of most Americans. The Dems need to be able to constantly speak up about these actions, and they will need to speak loudly enough to counter the spin we’ll be getting about it every hour from outlets like Fox News.
Kevin Koster commented on GOP Joe Walsh Claims 'Many' Fox People Think Obama's A Muslim
2017-01-02 16:03:26 -0500
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Bemused is correct!
According to the Right Wing Daily Signal, there have been resolutions like this that have gone through a US abstention, during pretty much every presidency since the 60s. LBJ allowed 7 such resolutions through. There were at least 15 resolutions brought during Nixon’s terms, but I’m not sure how many we abstained on or even voted for. Under Reagan, there were actually 21 resolutions. These included one we voted for in 1981 after Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear plant. And another in 1987 where the Reagan Admin abstained on a resolution condemning Israel for killing Palestinian students and including Jerusalem as part of the occupied territories. But you won’t hear Rush Limbaugh screaming about Reagan doing something awful there, will you?
As it turns out, President Obama has actually been the ONLY president not to let such a resolution go through the Security Council – up to last week, where he let the very first one for his watch. Interesting that the moment he does it, he’s condemned.
According to the Right Wing Daily Signal, there have been resolutions like this that have gone through a US abstention, during pretty much every presidency since the 60s. LBJ allowed 7 such resolutions through. There were at least 15 resolutions brought during Nixon’s terms, but I’m not sure how many we abstained on or even voted for. Under Reagan, there were actually 21 resolutions. These included one we voted for in 1981 after Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear plant. And another in 1987 where the Reagan Admin abstained on a resolution condemning Israel for killing Palestinian students and including Jerusalem as part of the occupied territories. But you won’t hear Rush Limbaugh screaming about Reagan doing something awful there, will you?
As it turns out, President Obama has actually been the ONLY president not to let such a resolution go through the Security Council – up to last week, where he let the very first one for his watch. Interesting that the moment he does it, he’s condemned.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Complains In Advance That The Obamas Will Not Be Classy Enough To Donald Trump
2016-12-28 13:21:26 -0500
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Kennedy is absolutely not a reliable source by any means. I must remind everyone that the peak of her career was her disastrous interview with Martin Landau at the opening of the Mission Impossible movie – the interview where Landau quickly realized that she had never watched the original series and had no idea what she was talking about.
That said, the playbook being used here is consistent with the warmup to The Year of the Bully. The Right Wing viciousness towards President Obama has been turned all the way up – if they could actually physically throw the Obamas out of the White House, they would do so. And yes, they will lie about the state of the White House when the Pence people move in to occupy it.
I find it interesting that the new normal on Fox News is to demand that President Obama and his people literally “SHUT UP!” while Pence gets ready to inflict his damage onto the country. Last night, Marc Thiessen literally said that while denigrating John Kerry’s still upcoming remarks about Israel and the UN. He opined happily that the Obama people should just be quiet and leave and that “nobody cares” what the current administration thinks. This is consistent with the vicious tone taken a month ago by John Sununu, when he happily dismissed the entire Obama presidency as a failure, and one that nobody cares about.
What Fox News and the Right are happily awaiting on January 21 is the opportunity to begin trumpeting this spin. They just need to wait for Trump to be inaugurated and sign all the Executive Orders on the 20th along with the reconciliation bill that destroys the ACA. (Between that and the immediate dropping of the appeal of the nonsensical right wing lawsuit over the insurance reimbursements, the ACA will be effectively obliterated by sundown on the 20th.) On January 21, the Right Wing gets to start a yearlong victory lap wherein they will refer to Barack Obama as the worst president of the modern era, and potentially in the entire history of the country.
Get ready for a pile of wildly jingoistic coverage where you will be told to get behind the Pence Administration or be considered a traitor or supporter of “radical Islamic terrorism”. Get ready for a series of dramatic and vicious cuts in the areas of government that actually help people (Education, Energy, EPA, Interior, Justice) and a series of dramatic and vicious actions designed more for theater than for actual effective governance (massive deportations and ICE raids around the country, blocking of federal money from “sanctuary cities” and the states that contain them, extremely aggressive “stop and frisk” expansions in minority communities by the Sessions Justice Dept, open persecution of Planned Parenthood and targeting of abortion providers in general, cancellation of both the Iran treaty and the Cuban diplomatic approach, deliberate opening of oil drilling in ANWAR and expansion of offshore rigs, radical expansion of the Dept of Defense, and of course the political theater of the upcoming prosecution of Bill and Hillary Clinton on anything Sessions can imply about them and their charity.
Eyes is correct that the tone of the Right in this country has morphed into something truly disturbing and dangerous. A friend of mine in Los Angeles is openly Right Wing and normally disdainful of government, even of Trump. But with the result of the election, he has now become increasingly unhinged and angry about anything that Obama or the California government does. His anger is not that he doesn’t like Trump. It’s that he wants Trump to succeed in everything he’s threatened and thinks Trump will just get bogged down and not do anything but appoint Supreme Court justices. He openly wants Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg as soon as possible and says that’s going to make for a wonderful period of the Supreme Court as they completely undo all of the decisions he hates from the past 50 years, including Roe v Wade and every other decision with which he disagrees. Attempting to have a discussion with him has become impossible, as he suddenly lurches into red-faced spitting rage, to the point that I have become concerned he could actually have a coronary while expounding about this stuff. He truly hates anything that isn’t Hard Right and will now begin screaming almost incoherently at anything Obama does. The whole thing with Israel last Friday sent him into an even wilder rage than I have seen previously. The irony is that he keeps repeating how petty, little and angry he thinks Obama is – I don’t think he can actually see what he’s doing or saying in any objective sense.
As we get into The Year of the Bully, this kind of behavior is going to spread. My father already told me about going to a Thanksgiving dinner where he was physically stopped at the door by a guest who wanted to make sure there were “no damn liberals” coming into the house. There will be more of this – much more.
That said, the playbook being used here is consistent with the warmup to The Year of the Bully. The Right Wing viciousness towards President Obama has been turned all the way up – if they could actually physically throw the Obamas out of the White House, they would do so. And yes, they will lie about the state of the White House when the Pence people move in to occupy it.
I find it interesting that the new normal on Fox News is to demand that President Obama and his people literally “SHUT UP!” while Pence gets ready to inflict his damage onto the country. Last night, Marc Thiessen literally said that while denigrating John Kerry’s still upcoming remarks about Israel and the UN. He opined happily that the Obama people should just be quiet and leave and that “nobody cares” what the current administration thinks. This is consistent with the vicious tone taken a month ago by John Sununu, when he happily dismissed the entire Obama presidency as a failure, and one that nobody cares about.
What Fox News and the Right are happily awaiting on January 21 is the opportunity to begin trumpeting this spin. They just need to wait for Trump to be inaugurated and sign all the Executive Orders on the 20th along with the reconciliation bill that destroys the ACA. (Between that and the immediate dropping of the appeal of the nonsensical right wing lawsuit over the insurance reimbursements, the ACA will be effectively obliterated by sundown on the 20th.) On January 21, the Right Wing gets to start a yearlong victory lap wherein they will refer to Barack Obama as the worst president of the modern era, and potentially in the entire history of the country.
Get ready for a pile of wildly jingoistic coverage where you will be told to get behind the Pence Administration or be considered a traitor or supporter of “radical Islamic terrorism”. Get ready for a series of dramatic and vicious cuts in the areas of government that actually help people (Education, Energy, EPA, Interior, Justice) and a series of dramatic and vicious actions designed more for theater than for actual effective governance (massive deportations and ICE raids around the country, blocking of federal money from “sanctuary cities” and the states that contain them, extremely aggressive “stop and frisk” expansions in minority communities by the Sessions Justice Dept, open persecution of Planned Parenthood and targeting of abortion providers in general, cancellation of both the Iran treaty and the Cuban diplomatic approach, deliberate opening of oil drilling in ANWAR and expansion of offshore rigs, radical expansion of the Dept of Defense, and of course the political theater of the upcoming prosecution of Bill and Hillary Clinton on anything Sessions can imply about them and their charity.
Eyes is correct that the tone of the Right in this country has morphed into something truly disturbing and dangerous. A friend of mine in Los Angeles is openly Right Wing and normally disdainful of government, even of Trump. But with the result of the election, he has now become increasingly unhinged and angry about anything that Obama or the California government does. His anger is not that he doesn’t like Trump. It’s that he wants Trump to succeed in everything he’s threatened and thinks Trump will just get bogged down and not do anything but appoint Supreme Court justices. He openly wants Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg as soon as possible and says that’s going to make for a wonderful period of the Supreme Court as they completely undo all of the decisions he hates from the past 50 years, including Roe v Wade and every other decision with which he disagrees. Attempting to have a discussion with him has become impossible, as he suddenly lurches into red-faced spitting rage, to the point that I have become concerned he could actually have a coronary while expounding about this stuff. He truly hates anything that isn’t Hard Right and will now begin screaming almost incoherently at anything Obama does. The whole thing with Israel last Friday sent him into an even wilder rage than I have seen previously. The irony is that he keeps repeating how petty, little and angry he thinks Obama is – I don’t think he can actually see what he’s doing or saying in any objective sense.
As we get into The Year of the Bully, this kind of behavior is going to spread. My father already told me about going to a Thanksgiving dinner where he was physically stopped at the door by a guest who wanted to make sure there were “no damn liberals” coming into the house. There will be more of this – much more.
Kevin Koster commented on Teen Vogue Writer Lauren Duca Vs. Tucker Carlson
2016-12-27 13:27:40 -0500
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I commend Duca for standing up for herself and for not letting Carlson get away with the viciousness he openly displayed here. In the end, the only way Carlson was able to get his way was by cutting off Duca’s microphone.
But this wasn’t “incredibly unprofessional” behavior by Carlson. It was par for the course of how Fox News is going to operate for the next four years. The Year of the Bully is upon us – expect a wave of this viciousness to blanket the media. Any non-Right person daring to go on Fox News’ airwaves better be prepared for something as nasty as this or worse. And be prepared for it in your hometown as well – I’m already seeing Right Wing friends who are emboldened enough by this election that they’re really letting their Bully Flag fly.
The only way to deal with bullies like this is to stand up to them, and Duca handled herself quite well here.
But this wasn’t “incredibly unprofessional” behavior by Carlson. It was par for the course of how Fox News is going to operate for the next four years. The Year of the Bully is upon us – expect a wave of this viciousness to blanket the media. Any non-Right person daring to go on Fox News’ airwaves better be prepared for something as nasty as this or worse. And be prepared for it in your hometown as well – I’m already seeing Right Wing friends who are emboldened enough by this election that they’re really letting their Bully Flag fly.
The only way to deal with bullies like this is to stand up to them, and Duca handled herself quite well here.
Kevin Koster commented on Frank Luntz Pretends Donald Trump Is Popular
2016-12-24 14:40:05 -0500
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It’s interesting to me that Fox News and the Right want everyone to fall for the lie that somehow Trump has won some massive landslide and is massively popular – it’s obvious they are doing this to try to sell the notion that he has a “sweeping mandate” to do as much damage as Pence will attempt starting next month. The reality doesn’t seem to bother these guys.
I think my favorite Fox News lie of the week was Corey Lewandowski peddling the nonsense that “Donald Trump just won the biggest electoral victory since Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984!” I really have to wonder if these guys are aware that these lies are easily disproven with a five second check. For goodness sake, if Trump has the biggest victory since Reagan’s 1984 landslide (which is what they’re trying to call back to, of course), then what does that say about the victories of Obama in 2008 and 2012, and the re-election romp of Bill Clinton in 1996? Does Fox News really think people are so stupid as to not remember what happened only four years ago?
I think my favorite Fox News lie of the week was Corey Lewandowski peddling the nonsense that “Donald Trump just won the biggest electoral victory since Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984!” I really have to wonder if these guys are aware that these lies are easily disproven with a five second check. For goodness sake, if Trump has the biggest victory since Reagan’s 1984 landslide (which is what they’re trying to call back to, of course), then what does that say about the victories of Obama in 2008 and 2012, and the re-election romp of Bill Clinton in 1996? Does Fox News really think people are so stupid as to not remember what happened only four years ago?
Kevin Koster commented on Megyn Kelly Shirks Responsibility For Promoting The Bogus New Black Panther Voter Intimidation Story
2016-12-22 12:16:36 -0500
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I frankly don’t see any evidence that Megyn Kelly has changed all that much from her angry old days on the daytime show. She’s still the same person who shouted Kirsten Powers off the air, and who regularly presents loud challenges to any principled non-Right guest while patiently listening to most Fox-friendly guests. She’s an intelligent person and she knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s catering to the Fox News viewership, and it’s paying off handsomely for her. (It looks like they’re about to give her a 20 million plus contract and put her in line to be O’Reilly’s successor after he retires from the full time gig in another year.)
She does not get to pretend to be an “impartial journalist” when her record shows her clearly for what she is – an angry Hard Right partisan who reinforces the stereotypes Fox News followers already have before they turn on the TV. She does not get to pretend to be an advocate for women’s rights when the only times she has espoused anything there has been for herself and not others. She does not get to play a victim card regarding Trump when she has worked overtime to effectively support his campaign and to support the mayhem he has brought us with the incoming Pence Administration.
I recognize that she will wind up as the new O’Reilly, and that she may well wind up as the highest paid anchor on cable television within the next couple of years. I recognize that this will cause many people (not necessarily here but definitely where I live and work) to try to normalize her behavior and to think she should be given some respect for being able to pull this off (ie make a lot of money while catering to the Hard Right). My response is the same one that Larry Bensky gave to an NPR interviewer 30 years ago when he was asked what he thought of people showing some respect to Oliver North for his years of service, etc: “So? I don’t.”
She does not get to pretend to be an “impartial journalist” when her record shows her clearly for what she is – an angry Hard Right partisan who reinforces the stereotypes Fox News followers already have before they turn on the TV. She does not get to pretend to be an advocate for women’s rights when the only times she has espoused anything there has been for herself and not others. She does not get to play a victim card regarding Trump when she has worked overtime to effectively support his campaign and to support the mayhem he has brought us with the incoming Pence Administration.
I recognize that she will wind up as the new O’Reilly, and that she may well wind up as the highest paid anchor on cable television within the next couple of years. I recognize that this will cause many people (not necessarily here but definitely where I live and work) to try to normalize her behavior and to think she should be given some respect for being able to pull this off (ie make a lot of money while catering to the Hard Right). My response is the same one that Larry Bensky gave to an NPR interviewer 30 years ago when he was asked what he thought of people showing some respect to Oliver North for his years of service, etc: “So? I don’t.”
Kevin Koster commented on Bill O'Reilly Joins Dangerous Witch Hunt Against Professor Already In Hiding
2016-12-22 12:00:23 -0500
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Sadly not surprising, and it’s only the beginning of what will be happening during the Pence presidency for the next four years. We already know that Trump encourages bullying, and that his supporters now feel emboldened to really push it as far as they can.
So, sadly, yes there will be violence. I feel sympathy for this professor but they’re clearly going to make an example of her. The best we can do is to keep our eyes open and note what these people are doing as they do it. Keep in mind that Fox News will work overtime to deny anything untoward is happening, even while encouraging it to go on. They are now running stories saying that the massive number of hate crimes committed after Trump’s squeaker in November are “fraudulent claims”, when all they’ve been able to come up with is a handful of those. (I frankly wouldn’t be surprised to see anywhere from 30-50 bogus claims in a large number like that, which is what Fox News is trying to hide behind, but that deliberately forgets the other 950 that are factually documented…)
This is going to be a fairly grim time. We need to document it and to stick together in opposing the viciousness and the bullying every time we see it happening. Do not be the last person to speak up lest you wind up like Martin Niemoller.
So, sadly, yes there will be violence. I feel sympathy for this professor but they’re clearly going to make an example of her. The best we can do is to keep our eyes open and note what these people are doing as they do it. Keep in mind that Fox News will work overtime to deny anything untoward is happening, even while encouraging it to go on. They are now running stories saying that the massive number of hate crimes committed after Trump’s squeaker in November are “fraudulent claims”, when all they’ve been able to come up with is a handful of those. (I frankly wouldn’t be surprised to see anywhere from 30-50 bogus claims in a large number like that, which is what Fox News is trying to hide behind, but that deliberately forgets the other 950 that are factually documented…)
This is going to be a fairly grim time. We need to document it and to stick together in opposing the viciousness and the bullying every time we see it happening. Do not be the last person to speak up lest you wind up like Martin Niemoller.
Kevin Koster commented on Bill O’Reilly: Democrats Want To Abolish The Electoral College To Make Black Votes Count More Than Whites
2016-12-21 11:35:17 -0500
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Steve, I would argue that the demographics of this country are rapidly changing to something that will not favor the gaming strategy Trump’s handlers adopted this year. He was able to narrowly get through this round, but only due to the failure of about a million Hillary voters to show up at the polls in the swing states. Had those voters not been discouraged from appearing, we would be having a very different discussion right now.
In 1980 and 1984, Ronald Reagan could easily sail into office and re-election just on the strength of white male voters. That constituency easily overwhelmed everyone else, and Reagan never needed to campaign to anyone outside of it. Blacks, Chicanos, etc were considered Minority voters because they were in the minority by a solid margin.
In recent years, we’ve been seeing that a greater and greater percentage of the voting public is not white or male. Which means that the Reagan strategy can no longer work on its own. If all the other voters show up, the white male vote (which is not unified) cannot prevail any longer.
In 2012, the GOP tried a strategy in pushing Mitt Romney and fighting Barack Obama – they went extremely negative – in the hope that enough Obama voters would be discouraged and they could squeak their guy through. This famously backfired on the Right when Obama’s voters came out in force and firmly repudiated the game-playing. At the time, the GOP was told to take a real look at what happened and think about whether or not alienating entire sections of the population, like the Chicano population, was such a good idea. There was a real discussion that the GOP and the Right could well be out of the White House for the foreseeable future. But again, this assumed that all the other voters would show up.
In 2016, the Right took a fairly risky step in doubling down on their prior negative campaign. Rather than learn from the defeat they suffered, they decided to try it one more time and see if they could win with it against Hillary Clinton. Their thinking was that they’d already thrown so much negative smoke around her over the prior 25 years that they might well be able to squeak a candidate through, particularly in an angry political time in this country. I note that the Right has fomented that anger in a big way ever since Obama was elected in 2008, and that the GOP has compounded the anger by deliberately obstructing any efforts to help the economy or any of the working class voters who were badly hurt by the W Bush policies and the resulting Great Recession. It’s not an accident that GOP congressmen deliberately blocked Unemployment extensions for these people – the intent was to make the suffering as severe as possible and then to campaign that the Dems were not doing anything about it. And since the Dems failed to campaign in those same areas to refute the Right Wing lies, it’s not a surprise that enough people in those areas fell for the Trump promises to put him over the top in key counties.
We can argue about WHY the Hillary Clinton voters didn’t show up in sufficient numbers. Was it because a bunch of them thought she had it walking away and they didn’t think it was all that crucial for them to vote? I would say that this is partly true, but not in enough numbers to swing the election. Was it because a bunch of Dems fell for the Right Wing propaganda about the Clintons and assumed that there must be some criminality to justify all these endless allegations and fake news stories, like the myth that Clinton was fired from the Watergate commission, etc? I would again say that this is partly true, particularly when the FBI pulled out the old email skeleton within two weeks of the election – that certainly left many voters with a bad taste. But again, this by itself wouldn’t have resulted in the result we saw. Was it because Bernie Sanders voters refused to vote for Clinton? That one is easily refuted because we know that most of them DID vote for her, albeit reluctantly, after Sanders repeatedly exhorted his people to do so. Was it because of voter suppression in states like North Carolina, where the Right has repeatedly erected obstacles to non-white voters? I would say it contributed, but not enough by itself to turn the election. Was it because WikiLeaks, aided by Russian hackers, kept pouring anti-Clinton material into our media all the way up to the election to try to bury Clinton and generate chaos by getting Trump elected? Again, I’d say it contributed, particularly to the general nastiness of the campaign. But we have to be fair and acknowledge there was plenty of negative press about Trump as well, most of it generated by Trump himself and not by the multiple leaks.
So what was the X factor that actually combines the whole mess and mathematically allowed the Right to game this election? It’s simply that the Right and the GOP went as negative as they did, as early as they did. It’s a tried and true strategy, particularly for midterm elections, to depress turnout by Dems and liberals in general. It’s a proven statistic that Right Wing voters are more reliable in showing up at the voting both, and that any depression in the vote is likely to aid the Right Wing candidate. The Right usually benefits from this statistic during midterms – with notable exceptions like the beating they took in 2006 when enough of the American public was sufficiently angry with the W Bush antics to show up and actually cast ballots. Since 2006, what have we seen in the turnout? In 2008 and 2012, there was a larger turnout, due to the excitement over the Barack Obama candidacy and presidency. In 2010 and 2014, many Obama voters didn’t show up, since their candidate was not on the ballot those years. And in 2016, the Right gambled that those voters would stay home and not invest in Hillary Clinton. Had they lost that bet, Clinton would have easily swept Trump and cemented Obama’s legacy. And in fact, Clinton SHOULD have easily swept Trump. But the relentless negativity does take a toll, and if a candidate has not motivated enough people to find it urgent to show up, the other guy wins, even if it’s by a hair.
So now we get the reverse result of what most everyone expected, and the angry reactions we’ve been seeing are clearly a natural progression from people’s shock and dismay. It shouldn’t be a surprise that people have protested in the streets, or that there has been the usual call to get rid of the Electoral College.
But the lesson here should be clear to everyone. People absolutely MUST show up for these elections, or this is the result we can expect – the bullies win. Because the Clinton voters didn’t show up, we will now see the complete erasure of the Obama presidency, and potentially some extremely dangerous activity both domestically and militarily as the Right tries to flex its muscles while it can. We will now see the complete unravelling of both the immigration work Obama was doing, and of course his attempt to create a health care option that would cover as many people as possible, and also his attempt to protect the environment from craven exploitation. All of that is gone now, and some of the damage there may be irreparable – particularly the environmental issues, where Mike Pence will no doubt encourage drilling to begin wherever possible, and where the various agencies that were meant to check this activity will simply be dismantled while we watch.
There are still two positives we can pull from this scenario. One, as noted before, the demographics are not on the Right Wing’s side here. They have done NOTHING to reach out to non-white constituencies with anything other than condescension at best and outright meanness and bullying at most common. By 2020, the demographics will be even less friendly to the angry white male voter than they were in 2016, and it will simply be a matter of truly campaigning around the country to remind people that they need to show up and cast a ballot. Two, the damage that Mike Pence’s presidency generates will by itself provide significant motivation for people to show up and vote these people out of office – hopefully with a good showing in 2018 to make a statement first and then in 2020 to sweep these people out. Assuming that the Dems can field an interesting candidate (it won’t be anyone we’ve been seeing lately – it will be a fresh face, as Obama was) and can actually go to these various swing states and even Red states and point out the damage that the Right Wing has done (including blocking every effort the Dems have made to work for them), the Dems do have a chance to correct what has happened here.
It’s just that in the meantime, we will live through an Era of Meanness and The Year of the Bully. For myself, I hold out some hope for continued gridlock, as this will be the only way to stop at least the legislative damage these guys intend to do. I have no illusions about the Depts of Education, Energy, Interior or the EPA. Those are lost causes now. I have no illusions about the ACA and the fate of the people who signed up for it. They are unfortunately casualties of politics. I have no illusions about the fate of the undocumented immigrants in this country. We will see a large number of deportations and raids, on a scale we haven’t seen in over 30 years. We will see the DACA idea thrown out and those people encouraged to leave the country, and many frankly will. I have no illusions about the Dems suddenly growing a spine and actively working to protect any of these areas – we’ve learned from experience that they will regularly cave when it matters most. I have no illusions about what Mike Pence could do to the Supreme Court. I just hope that his damage is limited to the one appointment – the one that should have been filled by Merrick Garland. If Pence is allowed to appoint a successor to Ginsburg or Breyer and the Dems let it through, we’ll be looking at a very different country in short order. Once the numbers get to 6-3 in favor of the Far Right, the alarm bells that have always been rung about the Supreme Court will finally have a reason to toll.
In 1980 and 1984, Ronald Reagan could easily sail into office and re-election just on the strength of white male voters. That constituency easily overwhelmed everyone else, and Reagan never needed to campaign to anyone outside of it. Blacks, Chicanos, etc were considered Minority voters because they were in the minority by a solid margin.
In recent years, we’ve been seeing that a greater and greater percentage of the voting public is not white or male. Which means that the Reagan strategy can no longer work on its own. If all the other voters show up, the white male vote (which is not unified) cannot prevail any longer.
In 2012, the GOP tried a strategy in pushing Mitt Romney and fighting Barack Obama – they went extremely negative – in the hope that enough Obama voters would be discouraged and they could squeak their guy through. This famously backfired on the Right when Obama’s voters came out in force and firmly repudiated the game-playing. At the time, the GOP was told to take a real look at what happened and think about whether or not alienating entire sections of the population, like the Chicano population, was such a good idea. There was a real discussion that the GOP and the Right could well be out of the White House for the foreseeable future. But again, this assumed that all the other voters would show up.
In 2016, the Right took a fairly risky step in doubling down on their prior negative campaign. Rather than learn from the defeat they suffered, they decided to try it one more time and see if they could win with it against Hillary Clinton. Their thinking was that they’d already thrown so much negative smoke around her over the prior 25 years that they might well be able to squeak a candidate through, particularly in an angry political time in this country. I note that the Right has fomented that anger in a big way ever since Obama was elected in 2008, and that the GOP has compounded the anger by deliberately obstructing any efforts to help the economy or any of the working class voters who were badly hurt by the W Bush policies and the resulting Great Recession. It’s not an accident that GOP congressmen deliberately blocked Unemployment extensions for these people – the intent was to make the suffering as severe as possible and then to campaign that the Dems were not doing anything about it. And since the Dems failed to campaign in those same areas to refute the Right Wing lies, it’s not a surprise that enough people in those areas fell for the Trump promises to put him over the top in key counties.
We can argue about WHY the Hillary Clinton voters didn’t show up in sufficient numbers. Was it because a bunch of them thought she had it walking away and they didn’t think it was all that crucial for them to vote? I would say that this is partly true, but not in enough numbers to swing the election. Was it because a bunch of Dems fell for the Right Wing propaganda about the Clintons and assumed that there must be some criminality to justify all these endless allegations and fake news stories, like the myth that Clinton was fired from the Watergate commission, etc? I would again say that this is partly true, particularly when the FBI pulled out the old email skeleton within two weeks of the election – that certainly left many voters with a bad taste. But again, this by itself wouldn’t have resulted in the result we saw. Was it because Bernie Sanders voters refused to vote for Clinton? That one is easily refuted because we know that most of them DID vote for her, albeit reluctantly, after Sanders repeatedly exhorted his people to do so. Was it because of voter suppression in states like North Carolina, where the Right has repeatedly erected obstacles to non-white voters? I would say it contributed, but not enough by itself to turn the election. Was it because WikiLeaks, aided by Russian hackers, kept pouring anti-Clinton material into our media all the way up to the election to try to bury Clinton and generate chaos by getting Trump elected? Again, I’d say it contributed, particularly to the general nastiness of the campaign. But we have to be fair and acknowledge there was plenty of negative press about Trump as well, most of it generated by Trump himself and not by the multiple leaks.
So what was the X factor that actually combines the whole mess and mathematically allowed the Right to game this election? It’s simply that the Right and the GOP went as negative as they did, as early as they did. It’s a tried and true strategy, particularly for midterm elections, to depress turnout by Dems and liberals in general. It’s a proven statistic that Right Wing voters are more reliable in showing up at the voting both, and that any depression in the vote is likely to aid the Right Wing candidate. The Right usually benefits from this statistic during midterms – with notable exceptions like the beating they took in 2006 when enough of the American public was sufficiently angry with the W Bush antics to show up and actually cast ballots. Since 2006, what have we seen in the turnout? In 2008 and 2012, there was a larger turnout, due to the excitement over the Barack Obama candidacy and presidency. In 2010 and 2014, many Obama voters didn’t show up, since their candidate was not on the ballot those years. And in 2016, the Right gambled that those voters would stay home and not invest in Hillary Clinton. Had they lost that bet, Clinton would have easily swept Trump and cemented Obama’s legacy. And in fact, Clinton SHOULD have easily swept Trump. But the relentless negativity does take a toll, and if a candidate has not motivated enough people to find it urgent to show up, the other guy wins, even if it’s by a hair.
So now we get the reverse result of what most everyone expected, and the angry reactions we’ve been seeing are clearly a natural progression from people’s shock and dismay. It shouldn’t be a surprise that people have protested in the streets, or that there has been the usual call to get rid of the Electoral College.
But the lesson here should be clear to everyone. People absolutely MUST show up for these elections, or this is the result we can expect – the bullies win. Because the Clinton voters didn’t show up, we will now see the complete erasure of the Obama presidency, and potentially some extremely dangerous activity both domestically and militarily as the Right tries to flex its muscles while it can. We will now see the complete unravelling of both the immigration work Obama was doing, and of course his attempt to create a health care option that would cover as many people as possible, and also his attempt to protect the environment from craven exploitation. All of that is gone now, and some of the damage there may be irreparable – particularly the environmental issues, where Mike Pence will no doubt encourage drilling to begin wherever possible, and where the various agencies that were meant to check this activity will simply be dismantled while we watch.
There are still two positives we can pull from this scenario. One, as noted before, the demographics are not on the Right Wing’s side here. They have done NOTHING to reach out to non-white constituencies with anything other than condescension at best and outright meanness and bullying at most common. By 2020, the demographics will be even less friendly to the angry white male voter than they were in 2016, and it will simply be a matter of truly campaigning around the country to remind people that they need to show up and cast a ballot. Two, the damage that Mike Pence’s presidency generates will by itself provide significant motivation for people to show up and vote these people out of office – hopefully with a good showing in 2018 to make a statement first and then in 2020 to sweep these people out. Assuming that the Dems can field an interesting candidate (it won’t be anyone we’ve been seeing lately – it will be a fresh face, as Obama was) and can actually go to these various swing states and even Red states and point out the damage that the Right Wing has done (including blocking every effort the Dems have made to work for them), the Dems do have a chance to correct what has happened here.
It’s just that in the meantime, we will live through an Era of Meanness and The Year of the Bully. For myself, I hold out some hope for continued gridlock, as this will be the only way to stop at least the legislative damage these guys intend to do. I have no illusions about the Depts of Education, Energy, Interior or the EPA. Those are lost causes now. I have no illusions about the ACA and the fate of the people who signed up for it. They are unfortunately casualties of politics. I have no illusions about the fate of the undocumented immigrants in this country. We will see a large number of deportations and raids, on a scale we haven’t seen in over 30 years. We will see the DACA idea thrown out and those people encouraged to leave the country, and many frankly will. I have no illusions about the Dems suddenly growing a spine and actively working to protect any of these areas – we’ve learned from experience that they will regularly cave when it matters most. I have no illusions about what Mike Pence could do to the Supreme Court. I just hope that his damage is limited to the one appointment – the one that should have been filled by Merrick Garland. If Pence is allowed to appoint a successor to Ginsburg or Breyer and the Dems let it through, we’ll be looking at a very different country in short order. Once the numbers get to 6-3 in favor of the Far Right, the alarm bells that have always been rung about the Supreme Court will finally have a reason to toll.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox News Pundits Rave About Trump’s Radical Cabinet Picks - With Almost No Democratic Challenge
2016-12-20 15:43:18 -0500
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Sadly, the Dems are unlikely to show any backbone here. Pence’s cabinet will almost certainly sail through their confirmations, particularly given that the GOP does not need a single Dem vote to support them. (It’s possible that Rand Paul may raise a little hay here or there, but he is more likely to be careful to do so when it won’t affect the outcome.)
This is going to be a fairly vicious exercise in the notion of “elections have consequences.” In this case, even with the squeaker Trump enjoyed, the Pence people will absolutely be ramming through a Far, Far Right Wing agenda whether the rest of the country wants it or not. These guys know they only have a limited time to do this work, so they’re going to maximize the opportunity.
The Dept of Education is almost certain to be eliminated within the next 2-3 years, as that has been a goal of the Right ever since it was created. Their hope has always been to kill it, and if they can do so while Jimmy Carter is still alive to see it destroyed, that just adds that extra bit of meanness and bullying we’ll be getting to enjoy for the next few years.
The Dept of Energy and the EPA are certain to be scaled back to something much smaller, and then likely folded into other departments. Commerce may also be folded down. Labor is likely to be scaled way back – essentially to be more of a call-in center if even that. Interior is likely to similarly be scaled back – essentially an approval stamp for drilling and pollutants.
And the Dept of Health & Human Services will really just be recommending people set themselves up with Health Savings Accounts so they can pay the much higher deductibles that will be entailed with whatever plans the insurers offer after the ACA is ripped up next month.
There is a positive side to this, however. The amount of damage Pence’s group is going to do is tremendous and there will be a massive amount of suffering as a result. But these guys will not be able to avoid the consequences. In the same way that W Bush was not able to dodge the responsibility for the massive recession his mismanagement generated, Mike Pence’s presidency will not be able to dodge the responsibility for the mayhem we see over the next few years. If we are fortunate, the voters will be angry enough at these guys in 2018 that they’ll choose to limit their ability to do any further damage. I believe this is part of the reason why they are moving so aggressively in all these areas at once.
This is going to be a fairly vicious exercise in the notion of “elections have consequences.” In this case, even with the squeaker Trump enjoyed, the Pence people will absolutely be ramming through a Far, Far Right Wing agenda whether the rest of the country wants it or not. These guys know they only have a limited time to do this work, so they’re going to maximize the opportunity.
The Dept of Education is almost certain to be eliminated within the next 2-3 years, as that has been a goal of the Right ever since it was created. Their hope has always been to kill it, and if they can do so while Jimmy Carter is still alive to see it destroyed, that just adds that extra bit of meanness and bullying we’ll be getting to enjoy for the next few years.
The Dept of Energy and the EPA are certain to be scaled back to something much smaller, and then likely folded into other departments. Commerce may also be folded down. Labor is likely to be scaled way back – essentially to be more of a call-in center if even that. Interior is likely to similarly be scaled back – essentially an approval stamp for drilling and pollutants.
And the Dept of Health & Human Services will really just be recommending people set themselves up with Health Savings Accounts so they can pay the much higher deductibles that will be entailed with whatever plans the insurers offer after the ACA is ripped up next month.
There is a positive side to this, however. The amount of damage Pence’s group is going to do is tremendous and there will be a massive amount of suffering as a result. But these guys will not be able to avoid the consequences. In the same way that W Bush was not able to dodge the responsibility for the massive recession his mismanagement generated, Mike Pence’s presidency will not be able to dodge the responsibility for the mayhem we see over the next few years. If we are fortunate, the voters will be angry enough at these guys in 2018 that they’ll choose to limit their ability to do any further damage. I believe this is part of the reason why they are moving so aggressively in all these areas at once.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Hosts Gush Over Trump Tribute Celebrating ‘Most Wonderful Time In Eight Years’
2016-12-19 20:35:54 -0500
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Ahhhh, the sound of angry gloating again! Yes, that sour scent of meanness and bullying again! Yes, that’s Christmas!
Kevin Koster commented on Reince Priebus Pretends Donald Trump Is Popular And Truthful
2016-12-19 13:22:51 -0500
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It’s fairly obvious to anyone watching what is happening here.
Fox News is happily playing the role of obedient lapdog to the incoming Pence Administration and Chris Wallace is demonstrating how this will work. It is completely consistent with how Fox News and the Right have dealt now with four successive presidents. When Bill Clinton was president, that meant that everything around the White House was suspect and needed to be challenged. When W got away with the Florida mess in 2000 and was selected by the Supreme Court, this meant that honor was restored and that anyone criticizing the White House was now a traitor. When Obama was elected in 2009, everything was once again suspect, since everybody knows Obama wasn’t even an American citizen or a Christian. When Trump squeaked in, this once again meant that day is night and night is day again. So it follows logically that whatever Donald Trump says is the truth and everyone in America agrees with him. At least everyone that the Right Wing thinks counts.
Three million more people voted for Clinton? Not to worry, those are just people who live in California or New York and their votes don’t count. Besides, millions of them are obviously undocumented aliens who are fraudulently voting, didn’t you know?
Pence doesn’t have a mandate? For shame, of course he does, thanks to that record-setting Electoral College landslide. It wasn’t a landslide? But Trump won so many counties, right? He only won most of them by a razor thin margin? For shame, don’t bother us with facts – we’re talking about the mandate Pence now has.
I really wouldn’t expect the Dems to mount anything other than a token opposition. They didn’t get their reputation for caving by accident. We can expect them to make a few peeps as the Pence cabinet is swept into place, and maybe a peep or two more about the Supreme Court, but they won’t actually stop anything. As we were told by the Dems when W was installing a bad cabinet in 2001: “The President has the right to appoint the Cabinet he wants”. Even if that Cabinet includes David Duke, apparently.
As The Year of the Bully begins in earnest, we can look forward to plenty of coverage just like this, while Pence happily goes to work dismantling everything he can of our social and governmental infrastructure. And Fox News and the Right will be standing shoulder to shoulder with Pence, approvingly cheering the carnage.
The last time I saw reporting this supine, it was in a George Orwell book. Because we are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia. We are allies with Eurasia. We have always been allies with Eurasia. All the books say so. Because we burned all the books that didn’t.
Fox News is happily playing the role of obedient lapdog to the incoming Pence Administration and Chris Wallace is demonstrating how this will work. It is completely consistent with how Fox News and the Right have dealt now with four successive presidents. When Bill Clinton was president, that meant that everything around the White House was suspect and needed to be challenged. When W got away with the Florida mess in 2000 and was selected by the Supreme Court, this meant that honor was restored and that anyone criticizing the White House was now a traitor. When Obama was elected in 2009, everything was once again suspect, since everybody knows Obama wasn’t even an American citizen or a Christian. When Trump squeaked in, this once again meant that day is night and night is day again. So it follows logically that whatever Donald Trump says is the truth and everyone in America agrees with him. At least everyone that the Right Wing thinks counts.
Three million more people voted for Clinton? Not to worry, those are just people who live in California or New York and their votes don’t count. Besides, millions of them are obviously undocumented aliens who are fraudulently voting, didn’t you know?
Pence doesn’t have a mandate? For shame, of course he does, thanks to that record-setting Electoral College landslide. It wasn’t a landslide? But Trump won so many counties, right? He only won most of them by a razor thin margin? For shame, don’t bother us with facts – we’re talking about the mandate Pence now has.
I really wouldn’t expect the Dems to mount anything other than a token opposition. They didn’t get their reputation for caving by accident. We can expect them to make a few peeps as the Pence cabinet is swept into place, and maybe a peep or two more about the Supreme Court, but they won’t actually stop anything. As we were told by the Dems when W was installing a bad cabinet in 2001: “The President has the right to appoint the Cabinet he wants”. Even if that Cabinet includes David Duke, apparently.
As The Year of the Bully begins in earnest, we can look forward to plenty of coverage just like this, while Pence happily goes to work dismantling everything he can of our social and governmental infrastructure. And Fox News and the Right will be standing shoulder to shoulder with Pence, approvingly cheering the carnage.
The last time I saw reporting this supine, it was in a George Orwell book. Because we are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia. We are allies with Eurasia. We have always been allies with Eurasia. All the books say so. Because we burned all the books that didn’t.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Guest Wants A National ‘Merry Christmas’ Law
2016-12-18 15:30:01 -0500
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There was a time when some people had what I felt was an actually principled debate about the transformation of Christmas from a religious observance to a massive overcommercialized shopping extravaganza. At that time, the Christian activists were trying to get people to remember whose birth they were celebrating, as opposed to just having people spending themselves into the poorhouse. I think the increasing mayhem of Black Friday fed into this, and I honestly didn’t have a problem with the discussion. There is something to be said about having a simple holiday with one’s family and not having it totally overrun by the constant commercialism.
But somewhere along the way, the Right decided that they wanted to REALLY push the religious aspects – with the goal of grabbing the holiday for their own use and using it as a bludgeon to attack everyone else. I know plenty of non-Christians who celebrate Christmas with their family at the end of the year – the Right’s work here was to ostracize those people. They’re essentially saying “This is OUR holiday and you must observe OUR rules about it!” It’s frankly the same kind of instinct that pushed angry whites to vote for Trump this year – an attempt to look backward and grab onto whatever one can before giving in to the forward momentum of history.
So it makes sense that the Right would enjoy seeing a “Merry Christmas” law to codify their anger and resentment toward everyone else in the country.
But somewhere along the way, the Right decided that they wanted to REALLY push the religious aspects – with the goal of grabbing the holiday for their own use and using it as a bludgeon to attack everyone else. I know plenty of non-Christians who celebrate Christmas with their family at the end of the year – the Right’s work here was to ostracize those people. They’re essentially saying “This is OUR holiday and you must observe OUR rules about it!” It’s frankly the same kind of instinct that pushed angry whites to vote for Trump this year – an attempt to look backward and grab onto whatever one can before giving in to the forward momentum of history.
So it makes sense that the Right would enjoy seeing a “Merry Christmas” law to codify their anger and resentment toward everyone else in the country.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox News Tries To Blame Obamacare For A Drop In Life Expectancy
2016-12-18 13:50:42 -0500
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Eyes, I agree completely with your assessment, but I think it’s clear that these people simply don’t care. Limbaugh’s opinions are mirrored by Pence, and Trump has turned the policy decisions over to him. And Trump tends to rely on the advice of Limbaugh and Fox News pundits over actual information.
It’s this line of thinking that explains why the GOP will be unable to come up with any real replacement plan for the ACA. It’s why they never had a plan in the first place after they happily killed the Hillary Clinton idea in the early 90s. Most of them, particularly the “Tea Party” members of the House, have no interest whatsoever in a government health plan beyond the one they get as part of their Congress work. And enough of them follow the Libertarian mode Limbaugh is stating here: “IGMFU”.
I’m sure that insurers will now provide policies for people with pre-existing conditions (against Limbaugh’s better judgment of course), but those will come at a much higher price, which means those patients won’t be able to afford them. And you have to admire the ethic Limbaugh embodies on the notion of a chronic medical condition – insurers shouldn’t be told to cover you because it’s your fault that your sick. That’s a YP not an OP.
We can also look at the Tom Price version of things that will be offered – personal health savings accounts. Meaning that you put away money for a rainy healthcare day and then you use your money for your healthcare as bills come up. I love it. Hope it takes care of things like an unexpected complication that generates a few thousand dollars of tests and prescriptions…
As a side note, I’m really puzzled by this notion that’s now running around that “Trump’s really a Democrat and he’s really not going to do all that stuff because he hasn’t been a Republican that long and he does things differently anyway.” That’s flat-out nonsense. Trump is setting himself up as a FAR FAR Right Wing President and Pence is establishing the cabinet infrastructure and policy to make the Bush/Cheney White House look like pattycakes. Anyone counting on Trump to suddenly veer to the center is setting themselves up for an even rougher few years than we’re already getting. It’s one thing to know that these guys are going to do a lot of damage – and another to keep hoping for them not to do the damage and then be bitterly disappointed when they do it.
It’s this line of thinking that explains why the GOP will be unable to come up with any real replacement plan for the ACA. It’s why they never had a plan in the first place after they happily killed the Hillary Clinton idea in the early 90s. Most of them, particularly the “Tea Party” members of the House, have no interest whatsoever in a government health plan beyond the one they get as part of their Congress work. And enough of them follow the Libertarian mode Limbaugh is stating here: “IGMFU”.
I’m sure that insurers will now provide policies for people with pre-existing conditions (against Limbaugh’s better judgment of course), but those will come at a much higher price, which means those patients won’t be able to afford them. And you have to admire the ethic Limbaugh embodies on the notion of a chronic medical condition – insurers shouldn’t be told to cover you because it’s your fault that your sick. That’s a YP not an OP.
We can also look at the Tom Price version of things that will be offered – personal health savings accounts. Meaning that you put away money for a rainy healthcare day and then you use your money for your healthcare as bills come up. I love it. Hope it takes care of things like an unexpected complication that generates a few thousand dollars of tests and prescriptions…
As a side note, I’m really puzzled by this notion that’s now running around that “Trump’s really a Democrat and he’s really not going to do all that stuff because he hasn’t been a Republican that long and he does things differently anyway.” That’s flat-out nonsense. Trump is setting himself up as a FAR FAR Right Wing President and Pence is establishing the cabinet infrastructure and policy to make the Bush/Cheney White House look like pattycakes. Anyone counting on Trump to suddenly veer to the center is setting themselves up for an even rougher few years than we’re already getting. It’s one thing to know that these guys are going to do a lot of damage – and another to keep hoping for them not to do the damage and then be bitterly disappointed when they do it.
Kevin Koster commented on Bill O'Reilly Keeps Telling Christmas Lie: Stores Banned "Merry Christmas"
2016-12-17 13:14:25 -0500
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The hypocrisy here is staggering. O’Reilly is taking a time of the year when people regularly turn to thoughts of giving and family and generosity, and he’s using it for bullying, gloating and general schoolyard viciousness. Is that what the Right believes embodies the Spirit of Christmas?
Kevin Koster commented on Putin-Loving Kimberly Guilfoyle Reportedly Under Consideration As Trump’s Press Secretary
2016-12-17 13:09:19 -0500
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It’s interesting to see the common thread running between the various people being presented as possible press secretaries, such as Guilfoyle here and Laura Ingraham a few weeks ago. They are openly Right Wing ideologues and angry ones at that. They are also regular personalities from Fox News, which is clearly a huge influence on Pence and Trump. We are also being told that the Right intends to rework how the press corps get to interact with the new group occupying the White House. And we’ve regularly been hearing increasingly nasty rhetoric coming from Fox News about how Trump should ban news organizations like CNN and the New York Times from the White House because of their supposed “collusion” with the Clinton campaign.
Put that together and you have a recipe for the Pence Administration to have the most restricted press exposure in recent memory, with only the right wing voices being given leave to speak, and with the Fox News line of the day becoming the White House line of the day. This was already an unsupportable situation under W Bush, and it looks like they’ve put it on steroids now. Kind of like the other extreme positions it looks like the Pence Administration will be taking on every issue that matters.
Put that together and you have a recipe for the Pence Administration to have the most restricted press exposure in recent memory, with only the right wing voices being given leave to speak, and with the Fox News line of the day becoming the White House line of the day. This was already an unsupportable situation under W Bush, and it looks like they’ve put it on steroids now. Kind of like the other extreme positions it looks like the Pence Administration will be taking on every issue that matters.
Kevin Koster commented on Kurt Eichenwald’s Bizarre Confrontation With Tucker Carlson Over Trump’s Possible Nervous Breakdown – And The Tragic Aftermath
2016-12-17 00:00:51 -0500
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Am I the only one confused by Bruce Mayford’s comment? I’m assuming he’s referring to the people who happily tweeted angry comments in support of sending a strobe to an epileptic person. But it’s an odd way to phrase it. I’m sure he’s not in support of trying to generate a seizure.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Host Pirro Throws A Tantrum Over Russia: At Least Putin’s A Christian!
2016-12-13 06:34:53 -0500
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Janet, you are correct to be concerned.
Mike Pence has in fact more power than any other VP in history, including Cheney. That was the deal in his accepting this position. Look at the Cabinet and at how many of them are his friends and cronies (not to mention Trump’s). Trump will make broad proclamations on Twitter and go to the rallies, but it’s Pence who will determine the policy on everything.
Buckle your seatbelt. This is going to be an extremely rough set of years coming up.
Mike Pence has in fact more power than any other VP in history, including Cheney. That was the deal in his accepting this position. Look at the Cabinet and at how many of them are his friends and cronies (not to mention Trump’s). Trump will make broad proclamations on Twitter and go to the rallies, but it’s Pence who will determine the policy on everything.
Buckle your seatbelt. This is going to be an extremely rough set of years coming up.