Kevin Koster commented on Fox Guest Calls Amazon Union Defeat ‘A Win For The Worker’
2021-04-13 01:25:00 -0400
· Flag
Just to be accurate, Ellen is correct about the point of the book “Nomadland” as written by Jessica Bruder. It’s not just about Amazon. It’s about middle class people who fell off the grid (and more and more are continuing to join them) and are then left in the gutter. It makes the point that the corporations did just fine – and it also makes the point that the corporations like Amazon then were happy to have these new nomads work for them on an “at will” basis for a month or two a year, with no obligation at all to think about what it means to hire a workforce who parks their vans and mini-RVs in your parking lot for a month and then are booted out. It’s not like the companies don’t know that they’re hiring people on the ragged edge and treating them in an abominable fashion. They absolutely know – and they don’t care. And we let it happen.
I do need to point out that the movie by Chloe Zhao is not a romantic one, and it does not present this life as anything but bleak and depressing. And it presents many of the real nomads interviewed by Jessica Bruder in the film and allows them to tell their own stories. And all of that is a good thing. The problem is that the central narrative of the film is about the depressing life led by Frances McDormand’s character (and it’s bleak beyond bleak) – but that life is shown to be her choice and not a situation she cannot escape. She’s repeatedly shown to have the option to live with family who want to give her a home and a new start. She turns all that down to live in her van. One can argue that she’s fiercely independent or unable to engage with others – and that may be true. But the reality for the very real nomads interviewed by Jessica Bruder is that they don’t have a sister or a son or a daughter who wants to take them in. They don’t have any family. They don’t have anyone from their former lives who would do more than shrug at their situation. So they’re stuck in this existence and there is no escape for them.
I think there’s a larger point that Jessica Bruder was trying to examine – about the fact that we tried to establish a safety net for Americans in programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, etc. We tried to make sure that nobody wound up completely destitute if we as a society could do something about it. Starting with the rise of Ronald Reagan, that safety net was shredded by angry Right Wingers who felt it should never have existed in the first place. So we’ve arrived at a place, about 30 years post Reagan, where multiple Right Wing objectives have been accomplished. The existence of tens of thousands of nomads living in this situation is a sign of the success of the Right Wing.
I do need to point out that the movie by Chloe Zhao is not a romantic one, and it does not present this life as anything but bleak and depressing. And it presents many of the real nomads interviewed by Jessica Bruder in the film and allows them to tell their own stories. And all of that is a good thing. The problem is that the central narrative of the film is about the depressing life led by Frances McDormand’s character (and it’s bleak beyond bleak) – but that life is shown to be her choice and not a situation she cannot escape. She’s repeatedly shown to have the option to live with family who want to give her a home and a new start. She turns all that down to live in her van. One can argue that she’s fiercely independent or unable to engage with others – and that may be true. But the reality for the very real nomads interviewed by Jessica Bruder is that they don’t have a sister or a son or a daughter who wants to take them in. They don’t have any family. They don’t have anyone from their former lives who would do more than shrug at their situation. So they’re stuck in this existence and there is no escape for them.
I think there’s a larger point that Jessica Bruder was trying to examine – about the fact that we tried to establish a safety net for Americans in programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, etc. We tried to make sure that nobody wound up completely destitute if we as a society could do something about it. Starting with the rise of Ronald Reagan, that safety net was shredded by angry Right Wingers who felt it should never have existed in the first place. So we’ve arrived at a place, about 30 years post Reagan, where multiple Right Wing objectives have been accomplished. The existence of tens of thousands of nomads living in this situation is a sign of the success of the Right Wing.
Kevin Koster commented on GA SOS Raffensperger Smears Stacey Abrams As A Race Hustler
2021-04-09 12:11:59 -0400
· Flag
I’ve followed Raffensperger’s instructions and read the entire Georgia law as passed. He’s blatantly lying about it.
Let’s remember that Raffensperger and Kemp were caught red-handed purging tens of thousands of Georgians from the voter rolls in the run-up to the 2020 election. It was only because of the hard work of Stacey Abrams and countless local activists in Georgia that the word got out and most of those voters were able to restore their enfranchisement in time. (And many thousands more were able to register for the first time) Had the activists not exposed what Raffensperger had been doing, the election would likely have gone to Trump and the 2 Senate seats would never have gone to run-offs. And this was considered to be fully legal and ethical by Republicans in Georgia. These guys are not heroes just because they defied the Pence White House. They’re despicable men who chose not to do something even more odious while everyone was looking directly at them.
The new Georgia law is designed to make it extremely difficult for black voters in Georgia to repeat what they did in 2020. It has specific provisions targeting them. The most obvious one is Section 33, which makes it a misdemeanor for anyone to give voters waiting on long lines food or drink. I note that this Section already had language barring anyone soliciting voters waiting on line, so the new language about “money or gifts including but not limited to food and drink” is superfluous in barring that activity. In other words, the existing law ALREADY BARRED GIFTS. So when Angry Right Wingers try the game about “we’re just blocking people from handing out Biden/Harris water bottles!”, the answer is “That was already illegal!” The new language is just meant to try to make it unpleasant for voters waiting for hours on line.
Raffsenperger says that the law bars lines that go on for more than an hour. That’s not what it says. The law says that AFTER THE ELECTION, the election officials can evaluate the precincts and see if any were too crowded, and then set up new ones FOR THE NEXT ELECTION. And that language is frankly an afterthought.
The more crucial language is what allows the new fully Right Wing State Election Board to get rid of up to 4 local superintendents (such as in Fulton County) if they wish, and allows the counties to reset their precincts and change the polling locations – with many voters only finding out when they get to their usual polling place and just see a sign that the polling place has been moved. Those voters then drive around Atlanta to find a new polling place, wait on line for 2 hours and when they finally get inside, the new law includes language where they will be told they may not vote here because they are not in the correct precinct. Those voters then rinse and repeat this maneuver throughout the day until after 5pm, at which point if they get to the front of the line, they are grudgingly allowed to submit a provisional ballot but ONLY if they sign an affidavit and other documentation. The point of all of this is to make the process so unpleasant and so onerous that many of them will throw up their hands and walk away or choose not to vote.
For the ones who do get through all the rigamarole, the new language allows any Georgian elector to challenge the status of an unlimited number of other Georgians, so those votes may get tossed – if the registrations weren’t already tossed in the manner that Kemp and Raffsenperger practiced in 2019 and 2020.
For the absentee voters, the time window for requesting and processing those ballots has been greatly shrunk, and far more onerous conditions have been put on, including telling those voters to write their ID information on the inside AND OUTSIDE of their ballot envelopes, thus exposing those voters to identity theft if they even have the materials. The earlier practice was signature comparison, which would not expose those voters’ drivers’ license numbers or anything else. And of course the rural voters who don’t have that ID will be writing in part of their SSN and hoping that the ballots aren’t challenged.
For early voters, the time window has been shrunk. Raffsenperger is being disingenuous when he says that Sunday voting is now “allowed”. He knows full well that Republican county officials will never allow this. It’s at the discretion of those officials, not at the request of the voters.
And yes, the number of drop boxes is down to one per 100,000 voters, which will make life interesting in heavily populated areas…
The point of all of this is that there are plenty of reasons to condemn the obvious attempt at voter restriction here. Angry Right Wingers like Eric Bolling should stop lying about this law and admit that yes, they are trying to restrict voter access. It’s frankly rich that the legislation starts with the false premise that it’s intended to “restore confidence” in the electoral process after what the legislation asserts were equally motivated allegations of voter suppression and “rampant voter fraud”. In fact, there was ACTUAL voter suppression by Kemp and Raffsenperger, and there were a multitude of lies about “fraud” by angry Right Wingers. If the Georgia General Assembly was truly interested in restoring confidence in their voting procedures, they would stop trying to toss voters off the roles, and they would tell the Right Wing to stop lying about “fraud”. It would save everyone a heck of a lot of time and aggravation in dealing with vicious partisan voting interference like this.
Let’s remember that Raffensperger and Kemp were caught red-handed purging tens of thousands of Georgians from the voter rolls in the run-up to the 2020 election. It was only because of the hard work of Stacey Abrams and countless local activists in Georgia that the word got out and most of those voters were able to restore their enfranchisement in time. (And many thousands more were able to register for the first time) Had the activists not exposed what Raffensperger had been doing, the election would likely have gone to Trump and the 2 Senate seats would never have gone to run-offs. And this was considered to be fully legal and ethical by Republicans in Georgia. These guys are not heroes just because they defied the Pence White House. They’re despicable men who chose not to do something even more odious while everyone was looking directly at them.
The new Georgia law is designed to make it extremely difficult for black voters in Georgia to repeat what they did in 2020. It has specific provisions targeting them. The most obvious one is Section 33, which makes it a misdemeanor for anyone to give voters waiting on long lines food or drink. I note that this Section already had language barring anyone soliciting voters waiting on line, so the new language about “money or gifts including but not limited to food and drink” is superfluous in barring that activity. In other words, the existing law ALREADY BARRED GIFTS. So when Angry Right Wingers try the game about “we’re just blocking people from handing out Biden/Harris water bottles!”, the answer is “That was already illegal!” The new language is just meant to try to make it unpleasant for voters waiting for hours on line.
Raffsenperger says that the law bars lines that go on for more than an hour. That’s not what it says. The law says that AFTER THE ELECTION, the election officials can evaluate the precincts and see if any were too crowded, and then set up new ones FOR THE NEXT ELECTION. And that language is frankly an afterthought.
The more crucial language is what allows the new fully Right Wing State Election Board to get rid of up to 4 local superintendents (such as in Fulton County) if they wish, and allows the counties to reset their precincts and change the polling locations – with many voters only finding out when they get to their usual polling place and just see a sign that the polling place has been moved. Those voters then drive around Atlanta to find a new polling place, wait on line for 2 hours and when they finally get inside, the new law includes language where they will be told they may not vote here because they are not in the correct precinct. Those voters then rinse and repeat this maneuver throughout the day until after 5pm, at which point if they get to the front of the line, they are grudgingly allowed to submit a provisional ballot but ONLY if they sign an affidavit and other documentation. The point of all of this is to make the process so unpleasant and so onerous that many of them will throw up their hands and walk away or choose not to vote.
For the ones who do get through all the rigamarole, the new language allows any Georgian elector to challenge the status of an unlimited number of other Georgians, so those votes may get tossed – if the registrations weren’t already tossed in the manner that Kemp and Raffsenperger practiced in 2019 and 2020.
For the absentee voters, the time window for requesting and processing those ballots has been greatly shrunk, and far more onerous conditions have been put on, including telling those voters to write their ID information on the inside AND OUTSIDE of their ballot envelopes, thus exposing those voters to identity theft if they even have the materials. The earlier practice was signature comparison, which would not expose those voters’ drivers’ license numbers or anything else. And of course the rural voters who don’t have that ID will be writing in part of their SSN and hoping that the ballots aren’t challenged.
For early voters, the time window has been shrunk. Raffsenperger is being disingenuous when he says that Sunday voting is now “allowed”. He knows full well that Republican county officials will never allow this. It’s at the discretion of those officials, not at the request of the voters.
And yes, the number of drop boxes is down to one per 100,000 voters, which will make life interesting in heavily populated areas…
The point of all of this is that there are plenty of reasons to condemn the obvious attempt at voter restriction here. Angry Right Wingers like Eric Bolling should stop lying about this law and admit that yes, they are trying to restrict voter access. It’s frankly rich that the legislation starts with the false premise that it’s intended to “restore confidence” in the electoral process after what the legislation asserts were equally motivated allegations of voter suppression and “rampant voter fraud”. In fact, there was ACTUAL voter suppression by Kemp and Raffsenperger, and there were a multitude of lies about “fraud” by angry Right Wingers. If the Georgia General Assembly was truly interested in restoring confidence in their voting procedures, they would stop trying to toss voters off the roles, and they would tell the Right Wing to stop lying about “fraud”. It would save everyone a heck of a lot of time and aggravation in dealing with vicious partisan voting interference like this.
Kevin Koster commented on MLK Niece Backs GA Voter Suppression Law – Because The Big Lie
2021-04-08 12:59:05 -0400
· Flag
There are multiple aspects of the GA voter restriction law that are quite noxious.
The law presents a false premise and a false equivalency at its very start, where it says that they’re concerned about allegations of voter suppression and of voter fraud. Supposedly, this noxious restriction law is the solution. In reality, the voter suppression was quite real, including Brian Kemp deliberately dumping tens of thousands of Georgians off the voter roles to keep them from voting in 2020. (Stacey Abrams countered this by her efforts to make sure all GA voters checked their statuses and re-registered, plus registering a lot of new voters) The “fraud” allegations were flat-out lies, promoted by the Pence White House and angry Right Wingers who wanted to sow discord.
As Bemused notes, the law hands over control of the process to the Republicans in the state legislature, allowing them to appoint a crony as the Chair of the State Election Board, and allowing their now totally-owned SEB to arbitrarily remove up to 4 county voting superintendents (such as in Fulton County) and replace them with loyal cronies as well. Further, the law makes it more complicated and more difficult for absentee voters and leaves them with significantly less time to apply and to complete their ballots, if they even get them. The law also makes it open season for angry Right Wingers to challenge pretty much every voter they want, so that they could throw out tens of thousands of votes from Atlanta and swing any election to the Republican.
Added grace notes: The law also requires the polling station counters to continue counting without any break to go home and sleep. (This is revenge for the counters having retreated due to the water leak and then to sleep a couple of times) The law blocks the ability of the SEB to impose emergency rules (such as for a pandemic) unless there is an “imminent threat” that goes undefined – idea being that a pandemic would not be considered “imminent” but more of an overall issue. And there’s a really fun section about arbitrarily switching voting precincts and polling locations with the only notice being a small sign at the now dis-used location. So that voters who don’t have this information show up and find out they can’t vote at their normal location and then hunt for a new one, only to be repeatedly told they’re in the wrong place, and then after a few rounds of this, finally being told they can only vote IF they sign more documentation and take even more time. Again – the point being to stop them from wanting to vote in the first place.
The law presents a false premise and a false equivalency at its very start, where it says that they’re concerned about allegations of voter suppression and of voter fraud. Supposedly, this noxious restriction law is the solution. In reality, the voter suppression was quite real, including Brian Kemp deliberately dumping tens of thousands of Georgians off the voter roles to keep them from voting in 2020. (Stacey Abrams countered this by her efforts to make sure all GA voters checked their statuses and re-registered, plus registering a lot of new voters) The “fraud” allegations were flat-out lies, promoted by the Pence White House and angry Right Wingers who wanted to sow discord.
As Bemused notes, the law hands over control of the process to the Republicans in the state legislature, allowing them to appoint a crony as the Chair of the State Election Board, and allowing their now totally-owned SEB to arbitrarily remove up to 4 county voting superintendents (such as in Fulton County) and replace them with loyal cronies as well. Further, the law makes it more complicated and more difficult for absentee voters and leaves them with significantly less time to apply and to complete their ballots, if they even get them. The law also makes it open season for angry Right Wingers to challenge pretty much every voter they want, so that they could throw out tens of thousands of votes from Atlanta and swing any election to the Republican.
Added grace notes: The law also requires the polling station counters to continue counting without any break to go home and sleep. (This is revenge for the counters having retreated due to the water leak and then to sleep a couple of times) The law blocks the ability of the SEB to impose emergency rules (such as for a pandemic) unless there is an “imminent threat” that goes undefined – idea being that a pandemic would not be considered “imminent” but more of an overall issue. And there’s a really fun section about arbitrarily switching voting precincts and polling locations with the only notice being a small sign at the now dis-used location. So that voters who don’t have this information show up and find out they can’t vote at their normal location and then hunt for a new one, only to be repeatedly told they’re in the wrong place, and then after a few rounds of this, finally being told they can only vote IF they sign more documentation and take even more time. Again – the point being to stop them from wanting to vote in the first place.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Fear Mongers About Biden’s Proposed Corporate Tax Hikes
2021-04-07 01:48:56 -0400
· Flag
Both Cavuto and Hodge were playing an insidious game here. They were pretending that somehow we are already overtaxing the wealthy and that somehow corporations are actually paying the book rate they were trying to inflate as much as possible. We should disabuse them of those notions.
To start with, US corporations rarely pay the book rate on their actual income. They use every deduction they can, and every subsidy they can, and every maneuver they can to avoid a substantial amount of their tax burden. My understanding is that many of the larger corps are paying less than 10 percent once all their deductions are added in. (And pundits like Hannity were begging the GOP to lower the corp rate to 15% when they inflicted the Tax Transfer, which would have meant that most corps would actually pay ZERO.) The other countries being mentioned do not have the same deductions the US allows, which means the EFFECTIVE tax rate the corps pay in the US is much, much lower than anywhere else in the world. This is the reason that corps aren’t rushing to flee the continent – not the supposed blindness that Hodge essentially accused them of having.
Next, the tax credits Hodge was scorning are actually lifelines for families with children. And under the prior code that angry Right Wingers destroyed with their Tax Transfer, every family used to receive an Individual Exemption for each person, adult or child, in their household. It was about 4K per person, so if you had a married couple with 2 kids, they’d be looking at a 16K deduction on top of either their Standard Deduction or their itemizations. The Tax Transfer put a single Individual Exemption into the Standard Deduction itself and then added a little cream on the top so they could say they’d doubled the SD. This meant that a married couple that itemized would now lose 16K of deductions in that single area. The tax credit for each child is not the same thing, and it does not make up for that loss.
But let’s get to the actual meat of the discussion. For the 743rd time, the GOP gleefully RAISED taxes on Middle Class employees with their Tax Transfer while they were lowering them for the corps and the wealthy. I’ll say that again – tax rates went UP for Middle Class employees, while the people earning over 415K per year saw a tax cut of nearly 3%. And on top of that, angry Right Wing Republicans also erased nearly all the deductions that Middle Class Employees could have claimed, while retaining them for the corps and for the “independent contractors”. (In simpler language, the GOP was going after the union members and the middle managers while sparing the contractors, since the feeling was that contractors tend to be Republican while employees tend to be Democrats.)
The actual result of the Republican Tax Transfer was that Middle Class employees, particularly those in Blue States, saw their federal tax burden SKYROCKETED. My own tax burden shot up by several thousand dollars per year, as did the burden of nearly every co-worker and acquaintance of mine. So it’s frankly a bit rich to hear Cavuto and Hodge bemoaning the idea that the wealthy might have to pay a little more. I don’t recall hearing Cavuto expressing concern about tens of millions of Middle Class employees. So this concern about the wealthy and the big corps who actually pay under 10 percent per year is not something that rings as genuine.
Angry Right Wingers have no ground upon which to stand here. They need to own the fact that they deliberately raised taxes on the Middle Class while trying to protect their donors. And they need to stop trying to lie about the significantly increased tax bills they inflicted upon so many Americans.
To start with, US corporations rarely pay the book rate on their actual income. They use every deduction they can, and every subsidy they can, and every maneuver they can to avoid a substantial amount of their tax burden. My understanding is that many of the larger corps are paying less than 10 percent once all their deductions are added in. (And pundits like Hannity were begging the GOP to lower the corp rate to 15% when they inflicted the Tax Transfer, which would have meant that most corps would actually pay ZERO.) The other countries being mentioned do not have the same deductions the US allows, which means the EFFECTIVE tax rate the corps pay in the US is much, much lower than anywhere else in the world. This is the reason that corps aren’t rushing to flee the continent – not the supposed blindness that Hodge essentially accused them of having.
Next, the tax credits Hodge was scorning are actually lifelines for families with children. And under the prior code that angry Right Wingers destroyed with their Tax Transfer, every family used to receive an Individual Exemption for each person, adult or child, in their household. It was about 4K per person, so if you had a married couple with 2 kids, they’d be looking at a 16K deduction on top of either their Standard Deduction or their itemizations. The Tax Transfer put a single Individual Exemption into the Standard Deduction itself and then added a little cream on the top so they could say they’d doubled the SD. This meant that a married couple that itemized would now lose 16K of deductions in that single area. The tax credit for each child is not the same thing, and it does not make up for that loss.
But let’s get to the actual meat of the discussion. For the 743rd time, the GOP gleefully RAISED taxes on Middle Class employees with their Tax Transfer while they were lowering them for the corps and the wealthy. I’ll say that again – tax rates went UP for Middle Class employees, while the people earning over 415K per year saw a tax cut of nearly 3%. And on top of that, angry Right Wing Republicans also erased nearly all the deductions that Middle Class Employees could have claimed, while retaining them for the corps and for the “independent contractors”. (In simpler language, the GOP was going after the union members and the middle managers while sparing the contractors, since the feeling was that contractors tend to be Republican while employees tend to be Democrats.)
The actual result of the Republican Tax Transfer was that Middle Class employees, particularly those in Blue States, saw their federal tax burden SKYROCKETED. My own tax burden shot up by several thousand dollars per year, as did the burden of nearly every co-worker and acquaintance of mine. So it’s frankly a bit rich to hear Cavuto and Hodge bemoaning the idea that the wealthy might have to pay a little more. I don’t recall hearing Cavuto expressing concern about tens of millions of Middle Class employees. So this concern about the wealthy and the big corps who actually pay under 10 percent per year is not something that rings as genuine.
Angry Right Wingers have no ground upon which to stand here. They need to own the fact that they deliberately raised taxes on the Middle Class while trying to protect their donors. And they need to stop trying to lie about the significantly increased tax bills they inflicted upon so many Americans.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Doesn’t Want To Talk About Matt Gaetz Scandal
2021-04-04 11:58:40 -0400
· Flag
Ellen, I agree with you that it’s Greenberg who’s rolling over on Gaetz. It is more than likely that Gaetz distanced himself from Greenberg after the bust, and that Greenberg is responding by dragging Gaetz down with him. The usual way that these guys behave is that if one of them gets busted, the other one will play the “I don’t know you now” game – which predictably results in a backfire that the police enjoy.
It’s clear that the guys were doing various drugs, and encouraging the women they were procuring to do them as well. This is consistent with the fraternity party mentality that both men have never dropped from their lives. Gaetz’ wild outbursts on the House floor may well have been fueled by drug use as well, now that we understand the context. (Based on the full picture, it appears that Gaetz has been enjoying this lifestyle for at least a decade, going back even before his jump into Congress)
Truman is correct that angry Right Wingers are working very hard to set themselves up to retake the House and Senate in 2022, and they’re going with any narrative they can to support that attempt. They’ll wave Hunter Biden around, they’ll assert that the Dems are all “socialists”, and they’ll assert there’s a Border “crisis” or “invasion”, among other things. And yes, they’re frantically trying to pass voter suppression laws wherever they can. Those suppression attempts are being met by civil rights litigation – the key will be whether or not the appeals are heard before the midterms next year, and whether or not any of those laws actually go into effect in time to block the Dems. I’ll add that this will require Dem voters to work even harder to make sure that their votes are counted. And it will be necessary to document on video every time angry Right Wing poll workers attempt to disenfranchise people – such as when they close the doors on voters, or when they refuse to help. The Georgian attempt to keep anyone from providing food or water is supposedly based on the idea that the poll workers will do so. So voters will need to show videos of how nobody from the polling stations actually does this and how they’re too busy dealing with the voters inside to run water out to 1000 people standing on line outside.
I’ll also note that the Biden/Harris White House is a lot farther along in combatting the COVID pandemic than anyone thought they would be. We’ve already vaccinated tens of millions more people than we’d thought possible, which should lead us to herd immunity by this fall, if not earlier – which means that we should see an economic recovery in a major way. The GOP will try to talk this down (like they did during the Obama White House years) but voters will know if they have a job, have spending money and are able to go out and do things they couldn’t during the pandemic. This is why angry disgraced former pundits like O’Reilly are desperately trying to predict an economic meltdown before next year – they’re actually hoping for an economic collapse so they can usher more angry Right Wingers into Congress to block and then impeach both Biden and Harris. But an economic recovery would destroy that false narrative and result in something similar to the 1996 election instead. At that point, I’d count on a different meltdown – one happening on the air at Fox News.
It’s clear that the guys were doing various drugs, and encouraging the women they were procuring to do them as well. This is consistent with the fraternity party mentality that both men have never dropped from their lives. Gaetz’ wild outbursts on the House floor may well have been fueled by drug use as well, now that we understand the context. (Based on the full picture, it appears that Gaetz has been enjoying this lifestyle for at least a decade, going back even before his jump into Congress)
Truman is correct that angry Right Wingers are working very hard to set themselves up to retake the House and Senate in 2022, and they’re going with any narrative they can to support that attempt. They’ll wave Hunter Biden around, they’ll assert that the Dems are all “socialists”, and they’ll assert there’s a Border “crisis” or “invasion”, among other things. And yes, they’re frantically trying to pass voter suppression laws wherever they can. Those suppression attempts are being met by civil rights litigation – the key will be whether or not the appeals are heard before the midterms next year, and whether or not any of those laws actually go into effect in time to block the Dems. I’ll add that this will require Dem voters to work even harder to make sure that their votes are counted. And it will be necessary to document on video every time angry Right Wing poll workers attempt to disenfranchise people – such as when they close the doors on voters, or when they refuse to help. The Georgian attempt to keep anyone from providing food or water is supposedly based on the idea that the poll workers will do so. So voters will need to show videos of how nobody from the polling stations actually does this and how they’re too busy dealing with the voters inside to run water out to 1000 people standing on line outside.
I’ll also note that the Biden/Harris White House is a lot farther along in combatting the COVID pandemic than anyone thought they would be. We’ve already vaccinated tens of millions more people than we’d thought possible, which should lead us to herd immunity by this fall, if not earlier – which means that we should see an economic recovery in a major way. The GOP will try to talk this down (like they did during the Obama White House years) but voters will know if they have a job, have spending money and are able to go out and do things they couldn’t during the pandemic. This is why angry disgraced former pundits like O’Reilly are desperately trying to predict an economic meltdown before next year – they’re actually hoping for an economic collapse so they can usher more angry Right Wingers into Congress to block and then impeach both Biden and Harris. But an economic recovery would destroy that false narrative and result in something similar to the 1996 election instead. At that point, I’d count on a different meltdown – one happening on the air at Fox News.
Kevin Koster commented on Matt Gaetz Blows Sex Trafficking Rehab Opportunity From Tucker Carlson
2021-03-31 19:23:44 -0400
· Flag
None of this is looking very good for Gaetz. It’s pretty clear that the actual investigation being discussed here was started last year, and that he must have been aware of it. His attempt to go into attack mode is similar to that of Bill O’Reilly and Eric Bolling when each of them was confronted with disclosure of their despicable and career-ending sexual behavior. His aggressiveness is exactly what we saw from Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 – a snarling refusal to be held accountable for his actions and an attempt to deflect attention on something, anything that would get the heat off of him.
Gaetz has regularly behaved like an angry bully in Congress, and in his appearances on Right Wing propaganda outlets like Fox News. His attitude has been consistent with that of the angry fraternity member who gets rebuffed by a sorority girl at a party and then screams at her “I never liked you anyway!” It’s not a surprise to learn that he has regularly engaged in relationships with young women below the age of 20, even when he was nearly twice their age – and that’s without getting into the details of the current investigation. It sounds like the situation in question was part of a behavioral pattern for him, and a fairly creepy one at that. And he sounds desperate to keep it from getting out. Downright panicked, if we’re really examining it carefully.
Fox News will have a choice to make here. They really like Gaetz, because he says all the things they like and he does it with all the aggression they like. But will they be willing to support him throughout a potential career implosion like this one? Or do they just move along to the next angry Right Wing congressman who isn’t preying on minors?
Gaetz has regularly behaved like an angry bully in Congress, and in his appearances on Right Wing propaganda outlets like Fox News. His attitude has been consistent with that of the angry fraternity member who gets rebuffed by a sorority girl at a party and then screams at her “I never liked you anyway!” It’s not a surprise to learn that he has regularly engaged in relationships with young women below the age of 20, even when he was nearly twice their age – and that’s without getting into the details of the current investigation. It sounds like the situation in question was part of a behavioral pattern for him, and a fairly creepy one at that. And he sounds desperate to keep it from getting out. Downright panicked, if we’re really examining it carefully.
Fox News will have a choice to make here. They really like Gaetz, because he says all the things they like and he does it with all the aggression they like. But will they be willing to support him throughout a potential career implosion like this one? Or do they just move along to the next angry Right Wing congressman who isn’t preying on minors?
Kevin Koster commented on Watch Jen Psaki Shut Down Peter Doocy Whining About Not Getting Called On By Biden
2021-03-30 01:05:18 -0400
· Flag
The Psaki interview by Chris Wallace frankly didn’t go anywhere. He asked her essentially a series of gotcha questions to please his viewers and she avoided falling into the pitfalls. Then he said goodbye to her and had Lindsey Graham go off on a bizarre rant about how he needed an AR15 to defend his house.
None of this would be particularly interesting – except that disgraced former Fox News host Eric Bolling decided to attack Wallace from the Right on Newsmax, repeatedly saying that he thinks Wallace is a liberal and wasn’t throwing hard enough fastballs at Psaki’s head. It’s frankly interesting to see Bolling take this approach (and instructional to see how much a toll the last few years have taken on him – in fairness, his son died right after Bolling was fired in 2017, but his career was spiraling down before that happened. It didn’t help him to have a reputation as a serious sexual harasser in the workplace).
I’ll note that Bolling is now supposedly 4 years into his threatened 50 million dollar lawsuit against Yashar Ali for having the temerity to write a carefully researched and sourced article about Bolling’s bad behavior. It’s odd that we haven’t heard anything about Bolling’s lawsuit since he got a stern letter from Ali’s attorney that pointed out his extreme vulnerability and that they were looking forward to deposing him and getting access to his phone and computer records which they expected him to produce shortly. It’s not odd that Bolling’s show on a Sinclair-owned outlet was cancelled, even after he repeatedly prostrated himself before Pence’s childish spokesman in fawning “interviews” that were unwatchable to anyone other than hardened members of the Pence White House voter base. And it’s not odd that he’s been reduced to co-hosting a podcast.
It’s telling that multiple disgraced former Fox News personalities, including both Bolling and Bill O’Reilly, have taken this tack – of trying to present themselves as expert “elder statesmen” who can expose the “truth” about the Biden/Harris White House or about their feelings about Jen Psaki. In reality, they continue to be what they’ve been for years – disgraced former television personalities who have yet to own up to the despicable behavior that ended their careers.
None of this would be particularly interesting – except that disgraced former Fox News host Eric Bolling decided to attack Wallace from the Right on Newsmax, repeatedly saying that he thinks Wallace is a liberal and wasn’t throwing hard enough fastballs at Psaki’s head. It’s frankly interesting to see Bolling take this approach (and instructional to see how much a toll the last few years have taken on him – in fairness, his son died right after Bolling was fired in 2017, but his career was spiraling down before that happened. It didn’t help him to have a reputation as a serious sexual harasser in the workplace).
I’ll note that Bolling is now supposedly 4 years into his threatened 50 million dollar lawsuit against Yashar Ali for having the temerity to write a carefully researched and sourced article about Bolling’s bad behavior. It’s odd that we haven’t heard anything about Bolling’s lawsuit since he got a stern letter from Ali’s attorney that pointed out his extreme vulnerability and that they were looking forward to deposing him and getting access to his phone and computer records which they expected him to produce shortly. It’s not odd that Bolling’s show on a Sinclair-owned outlet was cancelled, even after he repeatedly prostrated himself before Pence’s childish spokesman in fawning “interviews” that were unwatchable to anyone other than hardened members of the Pence White House voter base. And it’s not odd that he’s been reduced to co-hosting a podcast.
It’s telling that multiple disgraced former Fox News personalities, including both Bolling and Bill O’Reilly, have taken this tack – of trying to present themselves as expert “elder statesmen” who can expose the “truth” about the Biden/Harris White House or about their feelings about Jen Psaki. In reality, they continue to be what they’ve been for years – disgraced former television personalities who have yet to own up to the despicable behavior that ended their careers.
Kevin Koster commented on Gov. Kemp: GA Voter Suppression Bill ‘Most American Thing You Can Do In This Country’
2021-03-29 20:06:18 -0400
· Flag
Fox News has now repeatedly lied about the Georgia voter restriction law, including some truly unfortunate moments where hosts like Steve Hilton tried to explain away the part about how visitors cannot give food or water to people waiting on long lines for hours. (The law has a nonsense provision that the poll workers could come out and provide water from any potential vending machines from inside – except that those poll workers would never have the time to do anything like that in those conditions)
The point of the Georgia law and various other restrictions being inflicted by angry Right Wing state legislatures is to make sure that they can restrict non-white and non-Republican voters from prevailing. The intention is to limit the ability of people to vote, and to force non-white voters into unbelievably long lines and then likely deny them access (as has happened in various states where the polling places slam their doors in the faces of voters because it’s after 6pm even though they’d been standing there for hours)/ In the event of a close election, the Republicans would now be able to completely fog the situation and toss out whatever votes they needed in order to ensure their continued domination.
The truly unhappy postscript to the Georgia law, among the others, is that it is almost certain to be appealed up to the current Extreme Right Wing Supreme Court, where there is a 6-3 majority waiting to make sure that laws like these prevail. (This will be done under the notion that States’ Rights override everything else, given that each state has jurisdiction about how elections are conducted within its borders) Unless something truly odd happens at the Supreme Court, this law will be in full effect by November 2024. Which means that voters will need to be on their guard for every one of these dirty tricks, and they’ll need to be prepared to wait on line all day on Election Day that year, and to have someone recording their situation to make sure it isn’t swept under the rug.
The point of the Georgia law and various other restrictions being inflicted by angry Right Wing state legislatures is to make sure that they can restrict non-white and non-Republican voters from prevailing. The intention is to limit the ability of people to vote, and to force non-white voters into unbelievably long lines and then likely deny them access (as has happened in various states where the polling places slam their doors in the faces of voters because it’s after 6pm even though they’d been standing there for hours)/ In the event of a close election, the Republicans would now be able to completely fog the situation and toss out whatever votes they needed in order to ensure their continued domination.
The truly unhappy postscript to the Georgia law, among the others, is that it is almost certain to be appealed up to the current Extreme Right Wing Supreme Court, where there is a 6-3 majority waiting to make sure that laws like these prevail. (This will be done under the notion that States’ Rights override everything else, given that each state has jurisdiction about how elections are conducted within its borders) Unless something truly odd happens at the Supreme Court, this law will be in full effect by November 2024. Which means that voters will need to be on their guard for every one of these dirty tricks, and they’ll need to be prepared to wait on line all day on Election Day that year, and to have someone recording their situation to make sure it isn’t swept under the rug.
Kevin Koster commented on Tucker Carlson Continues Anti-Transgender Crusade With SC Sponsor Of Anti-Trans Legislation
2021-03-28 16:25:21 -0400
· Flag
It’s frankly been nauseating to watch angry Right Wingers try to hide behind their supposed support of female athletes when in fact their approach is completely about their hatred of everyone outside their tribe. The hatred in this case is directed at trans people, but it’s also applicable to the gay community and the bi community. The point for angry Right Wingers is that their bigoted attacks on these groups help make them feel better about their own inadequacies, and they are a useful distraction from real issues, such as maybe a worldwide pandemic that we are only now beginning to get a handle on.
Kevin Koster commented on Ingraham Cutting Off Trump's Big Lie Looks Different After Dominion Suit
2021-03-28 16:22:00 -0400
· Flag
Thank you John. Your kind words are much appreciated.
Kevin Koster commented on Jeanine Pirro Loses It When Confronted With Immigration Facts Contradicting Her Propaganda
2021-03-24 01:54:41 -0400
· Flag
The angry Right Wing approach at the moment is to try to scream their own headlines to replace what is actually happening in the United States since the Pence White House was driven from power.
In reality, the Biden/Harris White House has already surpassed its goal of actually getting vaccinations to 100 million people in 100 days – and they did it in less than 60 days. At this rate, they’ll have herd immunity in less time than we’d feared, and that’s a very good thing. They’ve also gotten a serious relief bill passed, one that included help for multiple states that the Right Wing wanted to bankrupt and a reimbursement to FEMA for the 50 billion dollars that the Pence White House shamefully stole last fall to prop up unemployment insurance for a few weeks. And they’ve done a lot to ease the pain that the Pence White House and its sycophants deliberately caused to millions of people.
But Fox News and the Right Wing don’t want you to think about that. They want you to think that there’s suddenly a border “crisis” and that somehow Joe Biden is instantly “senile” and that somehow the country has fallen apart. So they keep yelling their own version of the headlines and they hope you won’t notice reality happening around you. They’re thinking this will carry them to a good result in 2022 and 2024. I truly hope that most Americans will notice when we’ve actually gotten past this pandemic and when the economy is actually recovering in a real way. But if recent history teaches us anything, it’s that we will have to work extremely hard to get everyone to the voting booth every time, or we’ll get another 4 years of something even worse than the Pence White House. And the last 4 years left us with a judiciary and a Supreme Court that may do far more damage over the next 20 years than anyone thought possible.
In reality, the Biden/Harris White House has already surpassed its goal of actually getting vaccinations to 100 million people in 100 days – and they did it in less than 60 days. At this rate, they’ll have herd immunity in less time than we’d feared, and that’s a very good thing. They’ve also gotten a serious relief bill passed, one that included help for multiple states that the Right Wing wanted to bankrupt and a reimbursement to FEMA for the 50 billion dollars that the Pence White House shamefully stole last fall to prop up unemployment insurance for a few weeks. And they’ve done a lot to ease the pain that the Pence White House and its sycophants deliberately caused to millions of people.
But Fox News and the Right Wing don’t want you to think about that. They want you to think that there’s suddenly a border “crisis” and that somehow Joe Biden is instantly “senile” and that somehow the country has fallen apart. So they keep yelling their own version of the headlines and they hope you won’t notice reality happening around you. They’re thinking this will carry them to a good result in 2022 and 2024. I truly hope that most Americans will notice when we’ve actually gotten past this pandemic and when the economy is actually recovering in a real way. But if recent history teaches us anything, it’s that we will have to work extremely hard to get everyone to the voting booth every time, or we’ll get another 4 years of something even worse than the Pence White House. And the last 4 years left us with a judiciary and a Supreme Court that may do far more damage over the next 20 years than anyone thought possible.
Kevin Koster commented on Rand Paul Won’t Stop Demanding The Right To Spread COVID
2021-03-24 01:40:37 -0400
· Flag
Rand Paul is attempting to play a game about repeating obvious falsehoods and hoping that his repetition will eventually convince enough people that the falsehoods have somehow become “proven”. He’s basing this on the success that angry Right Wingers have had over the past three decades in constantly repeating their opinions about various things and then coming back years later to say that those opinions had magically become “proven facts”. Case in point: Hillary Clinton’s supposed “record of corruption”. What we actually had was 25 years of Rush Limbaugh and his copycats trying to smear her with anything they could throw at her. But after 25 years, enough voters were confused by this approach that they assumed there must be something to all the accusations rather than just a repetition of the same nonsense.
When it came to COVID last year, the standard angry Right Wing approach to it was to deny that there was any problem. Confronted with the obvious inability of the Pence White House to deal with it, the Right Wing decided to declare that there was no actual pandemic and that the whole thing was just a “hoax” to turn the country against Pence’s childish spokesman. When it became obvious that this approach wasn’t working, they then repeatedly declared the pandemic “over”, trying multiple tacks in an increasingly desperate cry of “All is Well!” to hopefully re-elect Pence despite the mess. Rand Paul himself spent 2020 denying that there was any issue with COVID, despite the fact that he himself contracted it.
Rand Paul’s current behavior is sadly predictable. The appropriate course of action for him would be to admit that he made a mistake and do what he can to try to atone. Instead, he’s doubled down and is now just repeating canards in the hope that nobody will call him on it. His latest exchange with Dr. Fauci was in reality another complete humiliation for him. He was once again schooled by Fauci in even the most basic vocabulary. Fox News of course chose to edit out nearly all of Dr. Fauci’s responses and just included Paul’s statements.
When the long-term eye of history looks upon Rand Paul’s conduct here, it will not be kind. As with his other refusals to work with anyone and his insistence on smugly dismissing all but the most Extreme Far Right perspective, he will be remembered for his singular lack of contribution while in office. Libertarians will see his behavior as proving their point – that government doesn’t get anything done. Everyone with a sane mind will see that having saboteurs like Rand Paul in government is what gums up the works.
When it came to COVID last year, the standard angry Right Wing approach to it was to deny that there was any problem. Confronted with the obvious inability of the Pence White House to deal with it, the Right Wing decided to declare that there was no actual pandemic and that the whole thing was just a “hoax” to turn the country against Pence’s childish spokesman. When it became obvious that this approach wasn’t working, they then repeatedly declared the pandemic “over”, trying multiple tacks in an increasingly desperate cry of “All is Well!” to hopefully re-elect Pence despite the mess. Rand Paul himself spent 2020 denying that there was any issue with COVID, despite the fact that he himself contracted it.
Rand Paul’s current behavior is sadly predictable. The appropriate course of action for him would be to admit that he made a mistake and do what he can to try to atone. Instead, he’s doubled down and is now just repeating canards in the hope that nobody will call him on it. His latest exchange with Dr. Fauci was in reality another complete humiliation for him. He was once again schooled by Fauci in even the most basic vocabulary. Fox News of course chose to edit out nearly all of Dr. Fauci’s responses and just included Paul’s statements.
When the long-term eye of history looks upon Rand Paul’s conduct here, it will not be kind. As with his other refusals to work with anyone and his insistence on smugly dismissing all but the most Extreme Far Right perspective, he will be remembered for his singular lack of contribution while in office. Libertarians will see his behavior as proving their point – that government doesn’t get anything done. Everyone with a sane mind will see that having saboteurs like Rand Paul in government is what gums up the works.
Kevin Koster commented on Kayleigh McEnany Lies: ‘I Kept My Word’ And Never Lied To The Press
2021-03-04 01:02:20 -0500
· Flag
Ted Cruz also went to Harvard. Both Cruz and McEnany are quite intelligent – and they’re also unscrupulous. They use their intelligence for ends the rest of us would shudder about.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity Suggests He Pushed Trump To Award Limbaugh The Medal Of Freedom
2021-02-19 02:52:30 -0500
· Flag
As the Rolling Stone article summarizes (and there are piles of data points the article could not include without being 20 pages longer), Limbaugh was a deeply despicable man who enriched himself by engaging in bigotry and encouraging his listeners to do the same.
Throwing away the Medal of Freedom on an unrepentant bigot like Limbaugh (as well as Nunez and Jordan) was a slap in the face to the nation and a permanent soiling of something that had been a significant honor before the Pence White House chose to trash it. Multiple nominees since then have refused the honor, as they do not wish to share it with a hatemonger like Limbaugh. My thinking for the past year is that the Biden/Harris White House needs to redesignate the Medal of Freedom to a new name – such as the Medal of Freedom and American Spirit, and then grandfather in all prior recipients except Limbaugh, Paul Harvey, Devin Nunez and Jim Jordan. So that future inventors and poets will not need to have their records soiled by being counted with those angry men and can appreciate an honor being bestowed upon them without a bitter taste.
I’ll also note that Pence’s childish former spokesman makes a point of noting that Sean Hannity wasn’t the only angry Right Winger urging him to throw that honor away on Limbaugh. The Pence White House had been flooded with requests by Limbaugh fans, other radio hosts and various angry Right Wingers to do this for Limbaugh as a stunt during the 2020 SOTU. Hannity was just one in a chorus that the Pence White House decided to satisfy by giving a fairly open middle finger to the rest of the country. As partly noted by the article, Limbaugh celebrated by gay-bashing Pete Buttigieg for having the nerve to come out ahead in the first couple of 2020 primaries. The article left out how Limbaugh gloated about getting the Medal and used it to once again promote himself. It’s possible that Hannity was the deciding factor in this hateful act. But it’s also possible that Hannity simply wants his viewers to think he was.
Throwing away the Medal of Freedom on an unrepentant bigot like Limbaugh (as well as Nunez and Jordan) was a slap in the face to the nation and a permanent soiling of something that had been a significant honor before the Pence White House chose to trash it. Multiple nominees since then have refused the honor, as they do not wish to share it with a hatemonger like Limbaugh. My thinking for the past year is that the Biden/Harris White House needs to redesignate the Medal of Freedom to a new name – such as the Medal of Freedom and American Spirit, and then grandfather in all prior recipients except Limbaugh, Paul Harvey, Devin Nunez and Jim Jordan. So that future inventors and poets will not need to have their records soiled by being counted with those angry men and can appreciate an honor being bestowed upon them without a bitter taste.
I’ll also note that Pence’s childish former spokesman makes a point of noting that Sean Hannity wasn’t the only angry Right Winger urging him to throw that honor away on Limbaugh. The Pence White House had been flooded with requests by Limbaugh fans, other radio hosts and various angry Right Wingers to do this for Limbaugh as a stunt during the 2020 SOTU. Hannity was just one in a chorus that the Pence White House decided to satisfy by giving a fairly open middle finger to the rest of the country. As partly noted by the article, Limbaugh celebrated by gay-bashing Pete Buttigieg for having the nerve to come out ahead in the first couple of 2020 primaries. The article left out how Limbaugh gloated about getting the Medal and used it to once again promote himself. It’s possible that Hannity was the deciding factor in this hateful act. But it’s also possible that Hannity simply wants his viewers to think he was.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Showing More Love For Trump Supporters Than Trump
2021-01-15 00:15:42 -0500
· Flag
No surprise that Fox News is trying to thread this needle. They’re figuring, probably correctly, that they can get back the angry Right Wing viewers who’ve jumped over to Newsmax and OAN for a minute, by continuing their usual pattern of hate-mongering and propagandizing. The move to call Arizona was a tactical one – useful in terms of being able to insist that they’re “impartial journalists”. (It’s similar to how many extreme Right Wing partisan judges rammed onto benches by the Pence White House and Repubs over the past 4 years now have a sliver of cover for themselves by denying the nonsense filings of Giuliani and Powell and the others over the election. When anyone points out the extremism of their upcoming rulings effectively banning reproductive choice and voting rights, those judges will of course point to the election cases and say “See? I ruled against Trump.”
Frankly, we cannot “move on” in a civilized society if the people who attacked the rest of us are allowed to get away with the attempt. We’ve had too much of the “let’s just let bygones be bygones”. Too much of the turning of the other cheek and just hoping that angry Right Wingers will somehow learn their lesson by not being called out for their behavior.
What is needed now is a really stern approach. Fox News abetted the Pence White House and in fact helped direct many of its most vicious acts. Fox News pundits sang the praises of Pence’s childish spokesman throughout, after spending 8 years viciously attacking the Obama White House, and after spending 8 years before that abetting the Cheney/W White House and cheering them on. When W was clearly on the downswing after the 2006 midterms, Dems took the “high road” and said that we would avoid impeachment and we’d let all that illegal behavior go. When President Obama took office, Dems took the “high road” and assumed that Repubs would come along and try to help get the country out of the Recession. We saw what the results were. Angry Right Wingers sneered at everyone else and fumed until they were able to squeak Trump through the swing states in 2016. And when Dems complained about the viciousness, how did these reasonable angry Right Wingers respond? They tried to bully everyone else with the screams of “WE WON! YOU LOST LIBTARD!”
The way to move on from the miserable epoch of the Pence White House is twofold. The first is to clean up the mess they made – in terms of the pandemic, in terms of the judiciary, in terms of the Tax Transfer. And the lasting one is to never allow angry Right Wingers to ever try to lecture anyone again. The response when someone pulls this nonsense in the future shouldn’t be any more complicated than “NO. YOU VOTED FOR BIGOTRY. YOU SUPPORTED BIGOTRY AND HATRED. YOU DON’T GET TO LECTURE ANYONE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
Frankly, we cannot “move on” in a civilized society if the people who attacked the rest of us are allowed to get away with the attempt. We’ve had too much of the “let’s just let bygones be bygones”. Too much of the turning of the other cheek and just hoping that angry Right Wingers will somehow learn their lesson by not being called out for their behavior.
What is needed now is a really stern approach. Fox News abetted the Pence White House and in fact helped direct many of its most vicious acts. Fox News pundits sang the praises of Pence’s childish spokesman throughout, after spending 8 years viciously attacking the Obama White House, and after spending 8 years before that abetting the Cheney/W White House and cheering them on. When W was clearly on the downswing after the 2006 midterms, Dems took the “high road” and said that we would avoid impeachment and we’d let all that illegal behavior go. When President Obama took office, Dems took the “high road” and assumed that Repubs would come along and try to help get the country out of the Recession. We saw what the results were. Angry Right Wingers sneered at everyone else and fumed until they were able to squeak Trump through the swing states in 2016. And when Dems complained about the viciousness, how did these reasonable angry Right Wingers respond? They tried to bully everyone else with the screams of “WE WON! YOU LOST LIBTARD!”
The way to move on from the miserable epoch of the Pence White House is twofold. The first is to clean up the mess they made – in terms of the pandemic, in terms of the judiciary, in terms of the Tax Transfer. And the lasting one is to never allow angry Right Wingers to ever try to lecture anyone again. The response when someone pulls this nonsense in the future shouldn’t be any more complicated than “NO. YOU VOTED FOR BIGOTRY. YOU SUPPORTED BIGOTRY AND HATRED. YOU DON’T GET TO LECTURE ANYONE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
Kevin Koster commented on Kilmeade: 'The President’s Behavior Has Been Terrible'
2021-01-07 16:24:49 -0500
· Flag
Kilmeade is simply copying Bill O’Reilly’s approach on his webpage. O’Reilly made several public comments yesterday, including the obligatory swipe at Joe Biden, but then noting that he thought Biden had spoken well yesterday and saying that he agreed with Biden’s comments. As for Pence’s childish spokesman, O’Reilly suddenly and uncharacteristically became not only stern but angry – repeatedly saying “ENOUGH. WE GOT IT.” O’Reilly notably didn’t go for the “it was antifa” blame game either. He instead railed that by rushing the Capitol and trashing the place, the rioters had essentially robbed him of the moral high ground to complain about the election. Glenn Beck took roughly the same stance – likely having copied it from O’Reilly also.
This is not to say that O’Reilly is that influential – but guys like Kilmeade and Beck look to O’Reilly when they’re searching for some way to behave as if they have a moral position on these matters.
This is not to say that O’Reilly is that influential – but guys like Kilmeade and Beck look to O’Reilly when they’re searching for some way to behave as if they have a moral position on these matters.
Kevin Koster commented on Hegseth Defends Insurrectionists: ‘They Were There To … Defend Our Republic’
2021-01-07 16:17:58 -0500
· Flag
As an added note, Rush Limbaugh went on an extensive rant today, celebrating the rioters and declaring them to be wonderful people and patriots. As far as he was concerned they were non-violent and good people, as opposed to the protesters from last summer. I’m sure this will be the tack used by his copycats in AM radio everywhere and by several Fox News hosts tonight.
Kevin Koster commented on Steve Doocy Suggests Trump To Blame For Violent MAGA Insurrection
2021-01-07 15:43:48 -0500
· Flag
If anything, Doocy is taking a very, very mild step towards the inevitable attempt to walk back his open support for the Pence White House (much like Fox News in general and Lindsey Graham) to try to claim that he has some credibility.
In reality, no, he doesn’t have credibility. He bought into the behavior of the Pence White House and its sycophants just like pretty much everyone else at Fox News except perhaps Shepard Smith.
It’s clear that Fox News is trying to pretend that they’re really independent of the Pence White House so they can pretend to be an impartial voice for Right Wingers. (Newsmax and OAN and the various AM radio shouters have not gotten that memo, so they’re still riding the Titanic down to the bottom of the ocean) Fox News did this from time to time during the 2016 campaign and once in a while when Pence’s childish spokesman would say something really outrageous. But as documented here, they spent the last several years essentially directing policy for the Pence White House under the “Broadcast News” model – they’d suggest a new target for Pence’s childish spokesman and he’d echo whatever they said within an hour or two.
Frankly, Fox News should never be regarded as an impartial news source given their record. They should be remembered as a Far Right propaganda outlet – with Newsmax and OAN even farther over to the Right than them. None of them practice legitimate journalism.
In reality, no, he doesn’t have credibility. He bought into the behavior of the Pence White House and its sycophants just like pretty much everyone else at Fox News except perhaps Shepard Smith.
It’s clear that Fox News is trying to pretend that they’re really independent of the Pence White House so they can pretend to be an impartial voice for Right Wingers. (Newsmax and OAN and the various AM radio shouters have not gotten that memo, so they’re still riding the Titanic down to the bottom of the ocean) Fox News did this from time to time during the 2016 campaign and once in a while when Pence’s childish spokesman would say something really outrageous. But as documented here, they spent the last several years essentially directing policy for the Pence White House under the “Broadcast News” model – they’d suggest a new target for Pence’s childish spokesman and he’d echo whatever they said within an hour or two.
Frankly, Fox News should never be regarded as an impartial news source given their record. They should be remembered as a Far Right propaganda outlet – with Newsmax and OAN even farther over to the Right than them. None of them practice legitimate journalism.
Kevin Koster commented on Brit Hume ‘Wonders’ If ‘Leftist Extremists’ Responsible For MAGA Capitol Violence
2021-01-07 03:13:19 -0500
· Flag
This frantic attempt to blame antifa has been making the rounds today on every angry Right Wing website and blog. After they spent the last 3 weeks since the Electoral College constantly tweeting and blogging that they intended to come to DC to commit mayhem, now they want us to believe that actually they were somehow “infiltrated”.
Riiiiiiight.
There’s multiple levels of testimony, including on-camera interviews that aired on network television, of profanity-loaded statements by angry Right Wingers from Qanon, the survivalist fringe, the white supremacists, etc. It wasn’t “antifa” or “BLM” or anyone from the Left Wing that invaded and attacked the Capitol today. This is owned completely by the Right Wing. Just as the 4 deaths that happened in the riots are owned by the Right Wing.
The fact that Brit Hume is trying to gaslight this just points up how nonsensical it is for him to pose as an “elder statesman” when he is the same angry propagandist he’s been for decades, going back to when he tried to snark Bill Clinton at the announcement ceremony for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and got his paw smacked fairly hard in public.
Riiiiiiight.
There’s multiple levels of testimony, including on-camera interviews that aired on network television, of profanity-loaded statements by angry Right Wingers from Qanon, the survivalist fringe, the white supremacists, etc. It wasn’t “antifa” or “BLM” or anyone from the Left Wing that invaded and attacked the Capitol today. This is owned completely by the Right Wing. Just as the 4 deaths that happened in the riots are owned by the Right Wing.
The fact that Brit Hume is trying to gaslight this just points up how nonsensical it is for him to pose as an “elder statesman” when he is the same angry propagandist he’s been for decades, going back to when he tried to snark Bill Clinton at the announcement ceremony for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and got his paw smacked fairly hard in public.
Kevin Koster commented on Martha MacCallum Calls Armed Attack On Capitol ‘Huge Victory For These Protesters’
2021-01-06 18:02:46 -0500
· Flag
Fox News and AM Radio have fed the fire of this kind of activity for decades. It led millions to believe the lies of the Pence White House, which had a mutual feedback loop with angry Right Wing propaganda outlets for the past 4 years. And now we’re at the point of these thugs deciding they’re going to behave like animals. We did get warnings about what these guys were thinking – from their attacks on the Oregon and Michigan state capitols, as well as their vicious plot to kidnap the Michigan governor.