Kevin Koster commented on Laura Ingraham Pretends Not To Know Trump’s Social Media Lawsuit Dead On Arrival
2021-07-09 03:39:12 -0400
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This nuisance is suit will likely be tossed out of court in short order, for multiple reasons including that the attempted Florida law DeSantis signed was itself tossed for being illegal in itself.
The cupcake interview Ingraham gave here was paralleled by the cupcake interview disgraced Fox personality O’Reilly gave to the childish former spokesman for the Pence White White House. Neither was particularly substantive and both spoke more about the interviewers’ biases than about any useful information.
The cupcake interview Ingraham gave here was paralleled by the cupcake interview disgraced Fox personality O’Reilly gave to the childish former spokesman for the Pence White White House. Neither was particularly substantive and both spoke more about the interviewers’ biases than about any useful information.
Kevin Koster commented on CNN Doctor: Is The Coronavirus One Of Tucker Carlson’s Sponsors?
2021-07-08 12:52:34 -0400
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Carlson’s latest gambit has been to insist that he’s somehow being “targeted” by the NSA. He threw a complete tantrum about this last week, apparently. The NSA then made an official statement that Carlson is again saying falsehoods – that he is not a “target” and they are not trying to supposedly “destroy” him. Carlson and other angry Right Wingers are continuing the ruse. They’re now using a new Axios story on the situation, and hoping that people won’t actually READ the story to learn the truth.
Per the Axios story, what happened here is Carlson tried to get himself a scoop interview with Vladimir Putin, and contacted people who are likely under NSA surveillance as targets themselves. Carlson’s communications with them thus got collected, but were not the focus of the actual investigations. It sounds like someone at NSA became curious about who was engaging in the contact activity and learned it was Carlson, and that’s as far as it goes. Nothing untoward, and certainly not an “operation” to attack him.
Carlson continues to play his game on this, acting as if he were somehow being mistreated and of course trying to repeat the lie that the Trump Campaign was “spied on” back in 2016. (The 2016 investigation was of course targeted at unsavory characters that the Trump people were contacting, and at Trump associates who acted in an openly shady fashion. Trump was never “spied on”.)
Per the Axios story, what happened here is Carlson tried to get himself a scoop interview with Vladimir Putin, and contacted people who are likely under NSA surveillance as targets themselves. Carlson’s communications with them thus got collected, but were not the focus of the actual investigations. It sounds like someone at NSA became curious about who was engaging in the contact activity and learned it was Carlson, and that’s as far as it goes. Nothing untoward, and certainly not an “operation” to attack him.
Carlson continues to play his game on this, acting as if he were somehow being mistreated and of course trying to repeat the lie that the Trump Campaign was “spied on” back in 2016. (The 2016 investigation was of course targeted at unsavory characters that the Trump people were contacting, and at Trump associates who acted in an openly shady fashion. Trump was never “spied on”.)
Kevin Koster commented on A Trump Lawyer For His BS Suits Against Big Tech Is Greta Van Susteren’s Husband
2021-07-08 12:43:09 -0400
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The nuisance suits by the childish former spokesman for Mike Pence are almost certain to be thrown out of court very quickly.
Bill O’Reilly and Hannity are jumping up and down saying these will be “major” suits and that somehow they have standing because Ron DeSantis angrily passed an anti-social media law in Florida. Except that the Florida law was itself tossed out by a Florida judge for its own problems.
This appears to be yet another tantrum from the childish former spokesman, as he rages in his impotence. One year ago, I might have expected him to rage tweet about it, but he’s lost that privilege.
Bill O’Reilly and Hannity are jumping up and down saying these will be “major” suits and that somehow they have standing because Ron DeSantis angrily passed an anti-social media law in Florida. Except that the Florida law was itself tossed out by a Florida judge for its own problems.
This appears to be yet another tantrum from the childish former spokesman, as he rages in his impotence. One year ago, I might have expected him to rage tweet about it, but he’s lost that privilege.
Kevin Koster commented on Like The GOP, Fox Tries To Sweep Jan. 6 Investigation Under The Rug
2021-07-03 15:54:19 -0400
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It’s amazing to see the same people who jumped up and down yelling “Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!” and “Emails! Emails! Emails!” for years to smear Clinton are the ones trying to ignore the angry RW insurrection attempt of January 6.
Of course, the same people have also tried to gaslight the whole thing, alternately telling us:
-There was no insurrection, it was just peaceful citizens visiting the Capitol and taking selfies;
-Okay, there was some rioting, but it was actually a bunch of BLM and “antifa” people disguised as Trumpers doing the rioting;
-Okay, there were SOME Trumpers who got a little rowdy, but nobody died except for one poor innocent Trumper who got shot while she was politely climbing through the Speaker’s Gallery door as part of her peaceful visit;
-Okay, there was “bad behavior”, but hey, the FBI and Justice are already investigating and prosecuting people so why does Congress need to do anything?
-And then back to the first position – “There was no insurrection, it was just peaceful citizens visiting the Capitol and taking selfies.”
Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary.
Of course, the same people have also tried to gaslight the whole thing, alternately telling us:
-There was no insurrection, it was just peaceful citizens visiting the Capitol and taking selfies;
-Okay, there was some rioting, but it was actually a bunch of BLM and “antifa” people disguised as Trumpers doing the rioting;
-Okay, there were SOME Trumpers who got a little rowdy, but nobody died except for one poor innocent Trumper who got shot while she was politely climbing through the Speaker’s Gallery door as part of her peaceful visit;
-Okay, there was “bad behavior”, but hey, the FBI and Justice are already investigating and prosecuting people so why does Congress need to do anything?
-And then back to the first position – “There was no insurrection, it was just peaceful citizens visiting the Capitol and taking selfies.”
Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary.
Kevin Koster commented on Lara Trump Pretends Trump Org $1.7M Tax Fraud Charge About A Free Corporate Car
2021-07-03 15:48:15 -0400
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The indictments filed this week with Weisselberg’s perp walk are only the beginning. Based on what they’re discussing, it looks like there will be more coming. Not sure that Pence’s childish spokesman himself will be directly indicted, but a lot of people around him look primed to fall.
In the case of the Trump Organization, there have been real felonies committed, and quite serious ones. Angry Right Wingers’ attempts to gaslight with discussion of Hunter Biden misses the part where Hunter Biden did not commit any crimes. And angry Right Wingers in the same breath will condemn Hunter Biden for taking this or that Board position while sticking up for the Trump kids with no sense of irony.
Regarding vaccinations, I’m waiting to hear the CDC change their classification of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from “Emergency Authorization” to “General Use”. When we get to a GU designation, employers, public facilities and private businesses should be able to mandate that employees, customers and visitors get their vaccinations. Also, there is a pod of reluctant people who are just waiting for the GU designation to get them off the fence. Once that happens, we should see a fresh wave of people getting the shots and that should get us to Herd Immunity. (I also expect the fall flu shots to include a booster for COVID variants, although Pfizer and Moderna appear to be effective against them already). Once we get to that point, the only people left unvaccinated will be a number of Pence White House supporters, who will be effectively voting themselves off the island without significantly impacting anyone else.
In the case of the Trump Organization, there have been real felonies committed, and quite serious ones. Angry Right Wingers’ attempts to gaslight with discussion of Hunter Biden misses the part where Hunter Biden did not commit any crimes. And angry Right Wingers in the same breath will condemn Hunter Biden for taking this or that Board position while sticking up for the Trump kids with no sense of irony.
Regarding vaccinations, I’m waiting to hear the CDC change their classification of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from “Emergency Authorization” to “General Use”. When we get to a GU designation, employers, public facilities and private businesses should be able to mandate that employees, customers and visitors get their vaccinations. Also, there is a pod of reluctant people who are just waiting for the GU designation to get them off the fence. Once that happens, we should see a fresh wave of people getting the shots and that should get us to Herd Immunity. (I also expect the fall flu shots to include a booster for COVID variants, although Pfizer and Moderna appear to be effective against them already). Once we get to that point, the only people left unvaccinated will be a number of Pence White House supporters, who will be effectively voting themselves off the island without significantly impacting anyone else.
Kevin Koster commented on Eric Bolling To Become Newsmax Host
2021-06-29 22:11:58 -0400
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Bolling has been auditioning at Newsmax for a couple of months, usually filling in for their usual hosts on holiday weekends.
I do wish someone would ask him how he’s doing with that 50 million dollar lawsuit he said he was filing against Yashar Ali. As we should all keep in mind, Ali had the temerity to report on Bolling’s downfall at Fox News, with an article that included comments from multiple women who’d been harassed by Bolling. Some of the women were angry enough that they agreed to have their names cited by Ali. Bolling’s response was to threaten his 50 million dollar suit. Ali responded with a promised countersuit, and Ali’s attorney pointedly reminded Bolling that he better be ready to turn over his cellphone and all data for the extensive discovery that would be coming shortly. All of this happened in August/September 2017. For some reason, we haven’t heard anything since about the matter.
Of course, there’s also the note that Bolling’s son died shortly thereafter, which led to Bolling trying to get everyone’s perpetual sympathy as a grieving parent. And while nobody wants to see any parent go through that, it’s a head-scratcher how his son’s death suddenly obviates years of Bolling’s terrible behavior both before and since that event.
I note that Newsmax is happily gobbling up whatever former Fox News faces it can to attract former Fox News viewers into its clutch. But even Newsmax didn’t want Matt Gaetz, who’s now frantically seeking a new position for when the boom comes down on his legal predicament in another month or so…
I do wish someone would ask him how he’s doing with that 50 million dollar lawsuit he said he was filing against Yashar Ali. As we should all keep in mind, Ali had the temerity to report on Bolling’s downfall at Fox News, with an article that included comments from multiple women who’d been harassed by Bolling. Some of the women were angry enough that they agreed to have their names cited by Ali. Bolling’s response was to threaten his 50 million dollar suit. Ali responded with a promised countersuit, and Ali’s attorney pointedly reminded Bolling that he better be ready to turn over his cellphone and all data for the extensive discovery that would be coming shortly. All of this happened in August/September 2017. For some reason, we haven’t heard anything since about the matter.
Of course, there’s also the note that Bolling’s son died shortly thereafter, which led to Bolling trying to get everyone’s perpetual sympathy as a grieving parent. And while nobody wants to see any parent go through that, it’s a head-scratcher how his son’s death suddenly obviates years of Bolling’s terrible behavior both before and since that event.
I note that Newsmax is happily gobbling up whatever former Fox News faces it can to attract former Fox News viewers into its clutch. But even Newsmax didn’t want Matt Gaetz, who’s now frantically seeking a new position for when the boom comes down on his legal predicament in another month or so…
Kevin Koster commented on Tucker Carlson Endorses Anti-Critical Race Theory PAC Fighting Anti-Racist 'Poison'
2021-06-18 22:06:35 -0400
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It’s bizarre to watch angry Right Wingers trying to turn Critical Race Theory into some gigantic boogeyman. It’s along the lines of when Michael Dukakis was demonized in 1988 for being a “card-carrying member of the ACLU”. (Which was an obvious dog-whistle attempt to imply that Dukakis was a communist…)
The reality of CRT is that it’s about perspective. It’s about people learning to look at history from more than one vantage point, and learning that what may have been good for one group of people may not have been good for another. We could just point to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States as the best example of this – and it would be a constructive idea to include that book right next to the standard textbook when evaluating various eras. Zinn’s book isn’t anti-American, but it is a corrective for people who assume that American history is one of saints just trying to make the world nicer.
The Right Wing resents this curriculum because it impinges on the narrative they’d prefer to hear – one where women and non-whites knew their place and kept their mouths shut if they knew what was good for them. In other words, a time when America was presumably “great”. But multiple scholars have had the temerity to stand up for themselves and resist the attempts by the Right to bully them.
Every time this happens, we see the Right Wing try to paint the group as a boogeyman. When angry Right Wing goons repeatedly attack various towns and communities and some unorganized Lefties stand up to them as “antifa”, the Right Wing suddenly decides that “antifa” is a “terrorist group”. When black men and women are repeatedly and unjustifiably killed by police and community groups form “Black Lives Matter” to speak out about it, the Right Wing condemns the group and demonizes its members. And now we have this nonsense about CRT.
This all boils down to angry Right Wingers not liking it when the people they’ve bullied actually stand up to them. And the responses we’re seeing, not only from Carlson but from pretty much every Right Wing pundit out there, are essentially just more bullying. Given that the first attempt at bullying failed, I’m thinking this one will not be successful either. But angry Right Wingers are apparently too dug in to process that – the same way that they keep insisting that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 Election.
The reality of CRT is that it’s about perspective. It’s about people learning to look at history from more than one vantage point, and learning that what may have been good for one group of people may not have been good for another. We could just point to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States as the best example of this – and it would be a constructive idea to include that book right next to the standard textbook when evaluating various eras. Zinn’s book isn’t anti-American, but it is a corrective for people who assume that American history is one of saints just trying to make the world nicer.
The Right Wing resents this curriculum because it impinges on the narrative they’d prefer to hear – one where women and non-whites knew their place and kept their mouths shut if they knew what was good for them. In other words, a time when America was presumably “great”. But multiple scholars have had the temerity to stand up for themselves and resist the attempts by the Right to bully them.
Every time this happens, we see the Right Wing try to paint the group as a boogeyman. When angry Right Wing goons repeatedly attack various towns and communities and some unorganized Lefties stand up to them as “antifa”, the Right Wing suddenly decides that “antifa” is a “terrorist group”. When black men and women are repeatedly and unjustifiably killed by police and community groups form “Black Lives Matter” to speak out about it, the Right Wing condemns the group and demonizes its members. And now we have this nonsense about CRT.
This all boils down to angry Right Wingers not liking it when the people they’ve bullied actually stand up to them. And the responses we’re seeing, not only from Carlson but from pretty much every Right Wing pundit out there, are essentially just more bullying. Given that the first attempt at bullying failed, I’m thinking this one will not be successful either. But angry Right Wingers are apparently too dug in to process that – the same way that they keep insisting that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 Election.
Kevin Koster commented on Tucker Carlson Blaming FBI For Jan 6 The Latest Salvo In His War On America
2021-06-18 17:36:27 -0400
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Nonsense like this is why I do not waste time watching Carlson fomenting it. He’s clearly panicked that much of the Fox News viewer base has been straying to even more extreme propaganda platforms like Newsmax and OAN, so he’s just tossing allegations like this around. The sad part of it for him is that he will not be able to walk any of this back in the future. It’s all preserved for the historical record, which won’t be kind to him.
The basis for this entire false narrative about the January 6 attack is the fact that angry Right Wingers still cannot accept the fact that the Pence White House lost the 2020 election. They can’t admit to anyone, much less themselves. They spent two months from November to January repeatedly refusing to acknowledge that Joe Biden was the President-Elect and making wilder and wilder claims about what would happen on January 6. When that day came, and Pence’s childish spokesman incited the crowd to go commit mayhem, they descended on the Capitol Building. (The spokesman’s intentions become clear once you look at how he responded to a frantic Kevin McCarthy while the building was under seige – first trying his cover story that somehow the attackers were all disguised “antifa” and then admitting it was in fact his supporters and saying “I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” Pence’s childish spokesman was clearly hoping the crowd would intimidate the Congress into doing what he wanted – just declaring him re-elected even though he’d lost.)
The idea that somehow the angry Right Wingers who rioted inside the Capitol Building were led by FBI Agents is a bizarre transmutation of events. It sounds like angry Right Wingers are trying to push a COINTELPRO narrative, as this was how the FBI dealt with anti-war protestors and the Black Panthers in the late 60s and early 70s. But COINTELPRO was about small-time protests and petty crimes. The idea that the FBI would lead an open assault on the Congress itself is one that could only be proposed by a particularly desperate pundit who’s already lost the argument. On the other hand, we continue to have angry Right Wingers who think that Mike Lindell and Sydney Powell are somehow the oracles of truth, no matter the extent of the lunacy in their arguments.
The basis for this entire false narrative about the January 6 attack is the fact that angry Right Wingers still cannot accept the fact that the Pence White House lost the 2020 election. They can’t admit to anyone, much less themselves. They spent two months from November to January repeatedly refusing to acknowledge that Joe Biden was the President-Elect and making wilder and wilder claims about what would happen on January 6. When that day came, and Pence’s childish spokesman incited the crowd to go commit mayhem, they descended on the Capitol Building. (The spokesman’s intentions become clear once you look at how he responded to a frantic Kevin McCarthy while the building was under seige – first trying his cover story that somehow the attackers were all disguised “antifa” and then admitting it was in fact his supporters and saying “I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” Pence’s childish spokesman was clearly hoping the crowd would intimidate the Congress into doing what he wanted – just declaring him re-elected even though he’d lost.)
The idea that somehow the angry Right Wingers who rioted inside the Capitol Building were led by FBI Agents is a bizarre transmutation of events. It sounds like angry Right Wingers are trying to push a COINTELPRO narrative, as this was how the FBI dealt with anti-war protestors and the Black Panthers in the late 60s and early 70s. But COINTELPRO was about small-time protests and petty crimes. The idea that the FBI would lead an open assault on the Congress itself is one that could only be proposed by a particularly desperate pundit who’s already lost the argument. On the other hand, we continue to have angry Right Wingers who think that Mike Lindell and Sydney Powell are somehow the oracles of truth, no matter the extent of the lunacy in their arguments.
Kevin Koster commented on Trump: ‘Nobody Did As Good A Job With The Pandemic As We Did’
2021-06-18 16:39:11 -0400
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The idea that Pence’s childish spokesman thinks he can get away with rewriting the history on COVID is beyond laughable. Given that the Pence White House so badly bungled the pandemic that over 600,000 Americans and millions of people around the world died, it’s actually obscene.
Had Mike Pence not gutted multiple cabinet departments and agencies, the pandemic could have been greatly limited. I note that it wasn’t just the CDC that Pence deliberately starved – he was doing this all over the Executive Branch, especially in the State Department, where longtime staffers were hounded out of their jobs and not replaced. With the CDC, Pence took the typical angry Right Wing approach that they were overstaffed with too many people being paid too much. They eliminated multiple positions, including the people who were on the ground in China who could have alerted everyone to the situation months before the situation had spread into an out-of-control worldwide pandemic. The angry Right Wing thinking was that they could bring in “the best people” if anything ever happened. But with potential pandemics, that doesn’t work. The whole point is to have people on the ground BEFORE a pandemic happens, so that it doesn’t mutate into what we just spent the past year enduring.
The Pence White House responded to the pandemic by initially denying it existed, and then taking only rudimentary and inadequate steps here and there, while repeatedly trying to convince the American public that it would all just go away. In nearly every aspect of this, Pence’s childish spokesman either proposed idiotic quack “cures” like Hydroxichloroquine and ingested Lysol, or just dumped the problem on the individual states. There is a strong argument that there are times when the US is 50 individual states and other times when we act as one nation. The angry Right Wing approach has been to deny the latter idea, and the disastrous failure with COVID only illustrates the depth of that fallacy.
When Pence’s childish spokesman realized he was likely to lose the election over how badly they’d bungled COVID, he resorted to flashy statements like “Operation Warp Speed”, which was not a program so much as a desperate hope that someone, anyone, would come up with a vaccine before Election Day and instantly solve the problem. Even when private companies developed their vaccines, the Pence White House proved unable to manage distribution, as they once again dumped the situation on the individual states to somehow manage themselves. The result was a chaotic mess that didn’t get resolved until the Pence White House was evicted in January of this year, and some actual leadership began to be shown by Biden and Harris.
The historical record of Pence’s childish spokesman will be fairly harsh, regardless of angry Right Wingers’ frantic attempts to rewrite the history themselves. The Pence White House will be remembered for:
-its massive incompetence
-its hostility to much of the world and to much of the American populace
-its hatred of the prior White House which it tried to erase
-its hatred for the judiciary
-its emboldening of hate crimes and bullying
-its refusal to even try to perform the basic functions of government
-its refusal to acknowledge that President Biden clearly won the 2020 Election, and its subsequent attempts to incite its supporters into an armed attack on the US Capitol in January
_and of course its spectacular mismanagement of the COVID pandemic, leading to over 600,000 Americans dying and to millions dying around the world.
If Pence’s childish spokesman is looking for one major achievement for the history books, it will be that he goes down as the only named US President to get himself impeached multiple times. I don’t know that any sane person would want that on their epitaph.
Had Mike Pence not gutted multiple cabinet departments and agencies, the pandemic could have been greatly limited. I note that it wasn’t just the CDC that Pence deliberately starved – he was doing this all over the Executive Branch, especially in the State Department, where longtime staffers were hounded out of their jobs and not replaced. With the CDC, Pence took the typical angry Right Wing approach that they were overstaffed with too many people being paid too much. They eliminated multiple positions, including the people who were on the ground in China who could have alerted everyone to the situation months before the situation had spread into an out-of-control worldwide pandemic. The angry Right Wing thinking was that they could bring in “the best people” if anything ever happened. But with potential pandemics, that doesn’t work. The whole point is to have people on the ground BEFORE a pandemic happens, so that it doesn’t mutate into what we just spent the past year enduring.
The Pence White House responded to the pandemic by initially denying it existed, and then taking only rudimentary and inadequate steps here and there, while repeatedly trying to convince the American public that it would all just go away. In nearly every aspect of this, Pence’s childish spokesman either proposed idiotic quack “cures” like Hydroxichloroquine and ingested Lysol, or just dumped the problem on the individual states. There is a strong argument that there are times when the US is 50 individual states and other times when we act as one nation. The angry Right Wing approach has been to deny the latter idea, and the disastrous failure with COVID only illustrates the depth of that fallacy.
When Pence’s childish spokesman realized he was likely to lose the election over how badly they’d bungled COVID, he resorted to flashy statements like “Operation Warp Speed”, which was not a program so much as a desperate hope that someone, anyone, would come up with a vaccine before Election Day and instantly solve the problem. Even when private companies developed their vaccines, the Pence White House proved unable to manage distribution, as they once again dumped the situation on the individual states to somehow manage themselves. The result was a chaotic mess that didn’t get resolved until the Pence White House was evicted in January of this year, and some actual leadership began to be shown by Biden and Harris.
The historical record of Pence’s childish spokesman will be fairly harsh, regardless of angry Right Wingers’ frantic attempts to rewrite the history themselves. The Pence White House will be remembered for:
-its massive incompetence
-its hostility to much of the world and to much of the American populace
-its hatred of the prior White House which it tried to erase
-its hatred for the judiciary
-its emboldening of hate crimes and bullying
-its refusal to even try to perform the basic functions of government
-its refusal to acknowledge that President Biden clearly won the 2020 Election, and its subsequent attempts to incite its supporters into an armed attack on the US Capitol in January
_and of course its spectacular mismanagement of the COVID pandemic, leading to over 600,000 Americans dying and to millions dying around the world.
If Pence’s childish spokesman is looking for one major achievement for the history books, it will be that he goes down as the only named US President to get himself impeached multiple times. I don’t know that any sane person would want that on their epitaph.
Kevin Koster commented on Trump: We Could Have Had A ‘Fanatastic’ Relationship With Russia
2021-06-18 16:20:48 -0400
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Pence’s childish spokesman has no ground on which to stand here. The last thing he should be doing is opining on television about his hatred for President Biden. I would think it would make more sense for him to prepare for criminal charges coming towards his family and himself from the Southern District of New York and possibly from Georgia as well.
The record of the Pence White House in international affairs was a disaster, and that’s even before they bungled the COVID pandemic and allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans (not to mention millions of people around the world) to die when that situation was completely avoidable. The Pence White House would like to point to their supposed “Abraham Accords” in the Middle East, but they never discuss that those discussions weren’t about peace. Pompeo’s attempts to maneuver in the Middle East were entirely about weapons sales – the “Abraham Accords” were about a $23 billion sale of F-35s to the UAE, dressed up with empty platitudes about peace.
Pence’s childish spokesman was laughed off the stage at the UN, and wound up essentially ignored by actual world leaders, who turned to Angela Merkel for guidance since the Pence White House was unreliable. Perhaps the best example of the failures of the Pence White House (aside from the vicious Montenegro Shove of 2017) would be Ivanka Trump’s embarrassing attempt to interject herself into a discussion of issues at the G20 meeting in 2019, a moment that saw the leaders glance at her in mild annoyance and then completely ignore her. The bizarre irony of the Pence White House’s complete fumbling of international relations is the desperate wish of Pence’s childish spokesman to be given a Nobel Prize. As angry Right Wingers showed back in 2005, ANYONE can be nominated for such a Prize, but it doesn’t mean anything unless the Nobel Committee chooses to give the award. In the case of President Obama, they had good reason and did bestow that award. In the case of Pence’s childish spokesman, it’s clear that they laughed it out of the room as vigorously as the UN representatives had laughed him off their stage.
The record of the Pence White House in international affairs was a disaster, and that’s even before they bungled the COVID pandemic and allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans (not to mention millions of people around the world) to die when that situation was completely avoidable. The Pence White House would like to point to their supposed “Abraham Accords” in the Middle East, but they never discuss that those discussions weren’t about peace. Pompeo’s attempts to maneuver in the Middle East were entirely about weapons sales – the “Abraham Accords” were about a $23 billion sale of F-35s to the UAE, dressed up with empty platitudes about peace.
Pence’s childish spokesman was laughed off the stage at the UN, and wound up essentially ignored by actual world leaders, who turned to Angela Merkel for guidance since the Pence White House was unreliable. Perhaps the best example of the failures of the Pence White House (aside from the vicious Montenegro Shove of 2017) would be Ivanka Trump’s embarrassing attempt to interject herself into a discussion of issues at the G20 meeting in 2019, a moment that saw the leaders glance at her in mild annoyance and then completely ignore her. The bizarre irony of the Pence White House’s complete fumbling of international relations is the desperate wish of Pence’s childish spokesman to be given a Nobel Prize. As angry Right Wingers showed back in 2005, ANYONE can be nominated for such a Prize, but it doesn’t mean anything unless the Nobel Committee chooses to give the award. In the case of President Obama, they had good reason and did bestow that award. In the case of Pence’s childish spokesman, it’s clear that they laughed it out of the room as vigorously as the UN representatives had laughed him off their stage.
Kevin Koster commented on Jim Jordan: Trump Tough On Putin - ‘Said America First All The Time’
2021-06-18 16:10:12 -0400
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Meadows and another angry Right Wing pundit on a Fox competitor got a lot more specific about what they mean by America First. In that appearance, the pundit had a lot of fun playing and replaying the Montenegro Shove from 2017 as many times as they could, and enjoying the look of smug satisfaction on the face of Pence’s childish spokesman as he grabbed Milo Dukanovic and roughly shoved him out of his position in a photo op. These people clearly think that the ghastly conduct of Pence’s childish spokesman in the international community was somehow “feared and admired”. In reality, Pence’s spokesman and his entourage were the laughingstock of the world, and his constant tantrums at various allies, coupled with his unreliability at working with anyone to accomplish even a single thing of note, led to the international community essentially turning their back on him. Their relief at seeing President Biden over the past couple of weeks was palpable – because they can actually talk to the man and hear a response that makes sense.
I note that Mark Meadows never accomplished a single thing of note in the Congress, and he apparently intended to never accomplish anything. His entire purpose was to obstruct the Dems from doing anything. When he weaseled his way into the Pence White House, he simply continued that effort, culminating with his shocking displays at Nancy Pelosi last summer, where he refused to work on a stimulus extension in the peak of the pandemic and instead threw tantrums, pounded his fists on the table and stomped out of the room.
Regarding Jim Jordan, we must not forget that Pence’s childish spokesman besmirched the valuable Presidential Medal of Freedom by throwing it away on various despicable men, such as Jim Jordan, Devin Nunez, Ed Meese and Rush Limbaugh. The Medal of Freedom was meant to commemorate people who have made notable and meritorious contributions to the US and the world – and it normally goes to poets, inventors, innovators, artists and others who have worked to make the world a better place. It was never intended to be given to a vicious opportunist like Jim Jordan or to hatemongers like Limbaugh. It was intended for people like Mother Teresa.
At this point, I’m not certain that the Medal of Freedom can be continued, given how badly it has been tarnished by the Pence White House’s actions. The next Maya Angelou will not accept that award if it means that they must effectively share the stage with the likes of Limbaugh and Jordan. I fervently hope that the Biden/Harris White House will take the appropriate steps and redesignate the award with a new name – say, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Decency. They could then grandfather in all prior recipients of the award, aside from Paul Harvey, Limbaugh, Meese, Nunez and Jordan. That way, we could continue to have this award mean something, and unhelpful individuals like Jordan could keep their now-worthless badge.
I note that Mark Meadows never accomplished a single thing of note in the Congress, and he apparently intended to never accomplish anything. His entire purpose was to obstruct the Dems from doing anything. When he weaseled his way into the Pence White House, he simply continued that effort, culminating with his shocking displays at Nancy Pelosi last summer, where he refused to work on a stimulus extension in the peak of the pandemic and instead threw tantrums, pounded his fists on the table and stomped out of the room.
Regarding Jim Jordan, we must not forget that Pence’s childish spokesman besmirched the valuable Presidential Medal of Freedom by throwing it away on various despicable men, such as Jim Jordan, Devin Nunez, Ed Meese and Rush Limbaugh. The Medal of Freedom was meant to commemorate people who have made notable and meritorious contributions to the US and the world – and it normally goes to poets, inventors, innovators, artists and others who have worked to make the world a better place. It was never intended to be given to a vicious opportunist like Jim Jordan or to hatemongers like Limbaugh. It was intended for people like Mother Teresa.
At this point, I’m not certain that the Medal of Freedom can be continued, given how badly it has been tarnished by the Pence White House’s actions. The next Maya Angelou will not accept that award if it means that they must effectively share the stage with the likes of Limbaugh and Jordan. I fervently hope that the Biden/Harris White House will take the appropriate steps and redesignate the award with a new name – say, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Decency. They could then grandfather in all prior recipients of the award, aside from Paul Harvey, Limbaugh, Meese, Nunez and Jordan. That way, we could continue to have this award mean something, and unhelpful individuals like Jordan could keep their now-worthless badge.
Kevin Koster commented on Kayleigh McEnany Again Pretends She Never Lied To Press
2021-06-16 19:11:43 -0400
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McEnany may be trying to demonstrate an age-old paradox. The old saw used to be the eternal liar who tells you “I am lying”. It appears McEnany has figured out to do that without the paradox. She simply lies with her statement that she has “never lied”, when in fact she’s been repeatedly shown to have deliberately misled from the lectern more times than anyone can count.
Kevin Koster commented on Sen. Daines Wants Biden’s Putin Summit Held At Our Southern Border
2021-06-16 19:09:06 -0400
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Daines should listen to his own comment about bullies and how to deal with them. Anyone needing to talk to Daines should stand up to him and remind him that his attempt to gaslight the current Biden/Putin summit with falsehoods about the US/Mexico border is childish and unworthy of any real journalist’s attention.
Kevin Koster commented on ‘Muzzled’ Fox Reporter Fired After Announcing Secret Recordings On The Air
2021-06-16 19:07:19 -0400
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No need to spend even 30 seconds watching anything inflicted by James O’Keefe and his website “Project Veritas”. He’s not a journalist and he’s just engaging in his usual schtick of trying to smear someone.
In this case, he’s decided to smear Fox, apparently for not letting Hecker do more to promote the Pence White House’s spin on things like their quack “cures” for COVID, and for not letting her spin a tale about bitcoin on the air. Hecker, for her part, doesn’t come off particularly well in this discussion. She’s just unhappy that she didn’t get to do more to push the Pence line, when she figured Fox was all in for four more years.
O’Keefe’s motivation here for attacking Fox appears to be his rage over the reporting of the 2020 Election. Given that Fox News alienated much of its Far Far Right Wing base, which then turned to harsher propaganda outlets like Newsmax and OANN, it’s not a surprise that O’Keefe has joined the pile-on.
If anything, O’Keefe’s meltdown here against Fox is just one more example of the deep fissures that have developed within Right Wing circles over the past year.
In this case, he’s decided to smear Fox, apparently for not letting Hecker do more to promote the Pence White House’s spin on things like their quack “cures” for COVID, and for not letting her spin a tale about bitcoin on the air. Hecker, for her part, doesn’t come off particularly well in this discussion. She’s just unhappy that she didn’t get to do more to push the Pence line, when she figured Fox was all in for four more years.
O’Keefe’s motivation here for attacking Fox appears to be his rage over the reporting of the 2020 Election. Given that Fox News alienated much of its Far Far Right Wing base, which then turned to harsher propaganda outlets like Newsmax and OANN, it’s not a surprise that O’Keefe has joined the pile-on.
If anything, O’Keefe’s meltdown here against Fox is just one more example of the deep fissures that have developed within Right Wing circles over the past year.
Kevin Koster commented on Sen. Ron Johnson: ‘Vast Majority’ Of Jan. 6 Insurrectionists ‘Were In A Jovial Mood’
2021-06-14 21:00:41 -0400
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In the middle of Levin’s desperate puffery, he stated multiple baldfaced lies. Possibly the biggest one in a large crowd was his insistence that Ashli Babbit was somehow an innocent victim of Capitol Police run amok. He described her as “a veteran who wasn’t armed who was just walking around” inside the Capitol Building. In reality, Babbit was at the front of an angry mob rushing the locked doors to the Speaker’s Gallery. Babbit helped smash in the window panes on the door and was trying to launch herself through the opening to unlock the doors and allow the mob to overrun the security men. While she was perched in the broken window and reaching to open the doors, she was shot in the chest and fell backward into the crowd, which then backed off.
The notion that she was just having a tourist visit of the building is nonsense. And the other notion – that the crowd was unarmed – is blatantly false. Many of them were carrying implements of various types – including the rope they intended to hang various politicians with. And for the people who weren’t carrying actual weapons, their sheer force of numbers would easily have allowed them to overwhelm the armed security and take their weapons from them.
Johnson and Levin’s conduct here is simply despicable, and they should be called out for it.
The notion that she was just having a tourist visit of the building is nonsense. And the other notion – that the crowd was unarmed – is blatantly false. Many of them were carrying implements of various types – including the rope they intended to hang various politicians with. And for the people who weren’t carrying actual weapons, their sheer force of numbers would easily have allowed them to overwhelm the armed security and take their weapons from them.
Johnson and Levin’s conduct here is simply despicable, and they should be called out for it.
Kevin Koster commented on Mike Pompeo: No Administration Was Tougher On Russia Than Trump’s
2021-06-13 22:36:50 -0400
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This is the sort of interview that causes sane people to burst into uncontrollable laughter.
Pompeo has no credibility. The Pence White House was the laughingstock of the world, as seen more times than anyone could count over the infamy of its four years. In addition to the US being seen as an unreliable former partner by our allies (Angela Merkel and other Europeans took the lead), Pence White House denizens were notable for having retreated in every major area, and for making openly racist comments about the people emigrating to our shores.
The purported “Abraham Accords” that Pompeo hoped would get accolades for Pence’s childish spokesman turns out to have been a major weapons sale deal, including 23 billion dollars worth of F-35s.
Pompeo himself will go down in history as a despicable extremist in Congress and a grifter as a member of Pence’s unfortunate cabinet. (There are over 100 instances of Pompeo demanding that State Dept employees perform personal errands for himself or his wife. And that’s the employees that he and Tillerson and Pence hadn’t driven from government service.)
Let’s not forget that Pompeo is the one who smugly proclaimed that there would be “a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration” after it was already clear that President Biden had been elected and that the Pence White House had been fired.
Pompeo has no credibility. The Pence White House was the laughingstock of the world, as seen more times than anyone could count over the infamy of its four years. In addition to the US being seen as an unreliable former partner by our allies (Angela Merkel and other Europeans took the lead), Pence White House denizens were notable for having retreated in every major area, and for making openly racist comments about the people emigrating to our shores.
The purported “Abraham Accords” that Pompeo hoped would get accolades for Pence’s childish spokesman turns out to have been a major weapons sale deal, including 23 billion dollars worth of F-35s.
Pompeo himself will go down in history as a despicable extremist in Congress and a grifter as a member of Pence’s unfortunate cabinet. (There are over 100 instances of Pompeo demanding that State Dept employees perform personal errands for himself or his wife. And that’s the employees that he and Tillerson and Pence hadn’t driven from government service.)
Let’s not forget that Pompeo is the one who smugly proclaimed that there would be “a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration” after it was already clear that President Biden had been elected and that the Pence White House had been fired.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Pavlich: VP Harris Chosen Only Based On ‘Gender And Skin Color’
2021-06-10 18:26:54 -0400
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Pavlich’s open viciousness toward anyone with whom she disagrees has long been documented. This exchange only illustrates the usual pattern of The Five – have the angry Right Wing personalities say the vilest things they can about Democratic politicians, and then watch the weak sputtering token liberal try to respond while being shouted down. This has nothing to do with what happens in reality, but one supposes that it makes angry Right Wingers feel good about themselves.
Kevin Koster commented on Rep. Brady Calls G-7 Minimum Tax A Biden ‘Surrender’
2021-06-09 13:39:17 -0400
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Brady has no ground on which to stand here. This is a man who gleefully skyrocketed taxes on Middle Class employees, particularly the ones in Blue States, and then gloated after doing so. He doesn’t get to suddenly champion the notion of lower taxes, unless he intends to undo the GOP Tax Transfer he worked to inflict in late 2017.
I again note that the Tax Transfer provided barely crumbs to Americans earning under 75K, massively increased the actual tax burden for Americans earning 75K to 415K and then significantly lowered the tax burden for Americans making more than 415K. A working class American earning 30K per year saw perhaps 5-10 dollars more per week before their health costs went up to eat that. Millionaire Americans saw massive gains – especially the ones enjoying the Estate Tax reduction so that they could pass along over 22 million dollars without any tax obligation.
His actual problem with the global minimum tax is that it would compel his wealthiest corporate donors to actually pay SOMETHING in taxes rather than flee to havens where they can get away with reclassifying their income into non-existence.
I again note that the Tax Transfer provided barely crumbs to Americans earning under 75K, massively increased the actual tax burden for Americans earning 75K to 415K and then significantly lowered the tax burden for Americans making more than 415K. A working class American earning 30K per year saw perhaps 5-10 dollars more per week before their health costs went up to eat that. Millionaire Americans saw massive gains – especially the ones enjoying the Estate Tax reduction so that they could pass along over 22 million dollars without any tax obligation.
His actual problem with the global minimum tax is that it would compel his wealthiest corporate donors to actually pay SOMETHING in taxes rather than flee to havens where they can get away with reclassifying their income into non-existence.
Kevin Koster commented on Trump And Bill O’Reilly To Tour Together
2021-06-10 18:23:39 -0400
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It is quickly becoming clear that O’Reilly is hoping to use this event as a chance for him to rehabilitate Pence’s childish spokesman for the public eye. He intends to set up questions that will present the Pence White House as somehow being the heroes of the pandemic, the border and the economy. Expect a series of cupcake questions about how tough it was to lead the nation through such a difficult time, and about how terrible the border situation supposedly is today.
O’Reilly clearly thinks he can present himself along the lines of David Frost with Richard Nixon. Except that O’Reilly has nothing near the pedigree of Frost, and Pence’s childish spokesman hasn’t even a tenth of the animal instincts we always saw from Nixon.
O’Reilly clearly thinks he can present himself along the lines of David Frost with Richard Nixon. Except that O’Reilly has nothing near the pedigree of Frost, and Pence’s childish spokesman hasn’t even a tenth of the animal instincts we always saw from Nixon.
Kevin Koster commented on Harris Faulkner Suddenly Disapproves Of Media ‘Fawning’ Over A President
2021-06-07 23:03:55 -0400
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And this is typical for angry Right Wing coverage of the Presidency. We saw this before multiple times.
When Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush were in office, angry Right Wingers like Wally George and his radio copycat Rush Limbaugh told everyone to show respect for “The President” and told everyone that Reagan was the greatest president anyone ever had, that it was “Morning in America!”. When anyone pointed out all the very real scandals of those years, they were told to shut up.
When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, angry Right Wingers went on a massive tantrum, throwing any mud they could, impugning every single step he took and attempting to gin up any “scandal” they could as a way of getting revenge for all the bad publicity of the Reagan years. Fox News came about as part of the machine effort to attack and destroy Bill Clinton. They simply weren’t in place early enough with enough people paying attention to them to have much effect yet.
When W was selected in 2000 by the Republicans on the Supreme Court, we were then told it was “Morning in America again” even when the W/Cheney White House mismanaged the economy into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
When President Obama took office in 2009, the same angry Right Wingers and all their acolytes immediately declared that America was doomed so long as the Obama White House existed. And once again they tried to create any “scandal” they could, only to repeatedly roll snake eyes.
When the Trump campaign squeaked through in 2016, we were then told with a sneer that these people were going to “Make America Great Again”, and that we should enjoy how much damage they were doing.
Now that Joe Biden is in the White House (something most angry Right Wingers refuse to even acknowledge), we are now told that everything is somehow doomed again.
It’s as though these people have gotten a heck of a lot of practice at this game…
When Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush were in office, angry Right Wingers like Wally George and his radio copycat Rush Limbaugh told everyone to show respect for “The President” and told everyone that Reagan was the greatest president anyone ever had, that it was “Morning in America!”. When anyone pointed out all the very real scandals of those years, they were told to shut up.
When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, angry Right Wingers went on a massive tantrum, throwing any mud they could, impugning every single step he took and attempting to gin up any “scandal” they could as a way of getting revenge for all the bad publicity of the Reagan years. Fox News came about as part of the machine effort to attack and destroy Bill Clinton. They simply weren’t in place early enough with enough people paying attention to them to have much effect yet.
When W was selected in 2000 by the Republicans on the Supreme Court, we were then told it was “Morning in America again” even when the W/Cheney White House mismanaged the economy into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
When President Obama took office in 2009, the same angry Right Wingers and all their acolytes immediately declared that America was doomed so long as the Obama White House existed. And once again they tried to create any “scandal” they could, only to repeatedly roll snake eyes.
When the Trump campaign squeaked through in 2016, we were then told with a sneer that these people were going to “Make America Great Again”, and that we should enjoy how much damage they were doing.
Now that Joe Biden is in the White House (something most angry Right Wingers refuse to even acknowledge), we are now told that everything is somehow doomed again.
It’s as though these people have gotten a heck of a lot of practice at this game…