Is that hyperbolic? Maybe. But listen (if you can bear it) to this clip from the Blonde with Two Boobs on a Couch* from this morning:
Ainsley Earhardt tells the Fox audience that they’re footing the bill for “one of those illegals” to come here, do drugs, rape you, then murder both you and your children. pic.twitter.com/1SgCuGd9ja
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 9, 2019
Partial transcript:
“A few things really hit home, when you think about how hard YOU work, trying to put food on the table, many folks go to a job they don’t like, and then you look at the numbers, and you’re spending about $80K…over the course of one of those illegal’s lifetime to keep them here in the United States — you’re paying for them, and you’re working hard to pay for them. Then you look at the numbers of people that are doing illegal drugs here. A lot of the drugs are coming from the southern border, and the president highlighted that last night.
And then you hear him talk about, he said, “Imagine if this were your child that was killed by an illegal alien” because we hear Kate Steinle’s parents and the parents of, the fire chief parents, in Knoxville, Tennessee, their young son was killed by a suspected illegal immigrant, and you hear about Officer Singh in California…the president highlighted the Air Force veteran who was raped and murdered and beaten to death by an illegal alien. He talked about the Georgia illegal alien that killed his neighbor and beheaded him and dismembered him, he talked about the MS-13 gang members in Maryland who are unaccompanied minors who were arrested and charged with stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl.
You hear all of that, and you wonder why Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are calling this, are saying it’s immoral to build a wall, they’re saying it’s not a crisis. Look at the video! Listen to the numbers!”
It’s no coincidence that Trump and Fox & Friends name-checked states from coast to interior to coast. They want to incite fear and loathing from sea to shining sea. Fox & Friends is Twitler’s favorite program, and together they form a continuous feedback loop of hate.
Anyhoo, Ainsley Earhardt, ladies and gents — a Leni Riefenstahl minus talent serving a fuhrer without brains. Let us hope their incompetence and stupidity contain the damage.
*H/T: Adam
VeniceRiley
Guh. I wouldn’t shed a tear if they all died tomorrow. They ruined my family.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Because as terrible as those incidents are, they’re only a few isolated crimes that you’re blowing out of proportion. Screw you Ainsley (who names their kid, Ainsley, anyway?) for using the pain and suffering those people have gone through for your political agenda. How fucking dare you.
There will always be people, no matter where they come from, that will do evil things. You can’t prevent that. Nobody can. Trump’s racist wall won’t stop that from happening. The more you try to stop a handful of bad people from entering the US the more harm you’re going to cause to innocents.
waspuppet
Oh look, I can do this too.
WereBear
I am pinning a good percentage of my hopes on that very fact.
different-church-lady
What’s really remarkable is how they belive no white people born in the US have ever committed violent crimes or murders.
sdhays
@different-church-lady: It’s similar to how white men performing terrorist acts are not terrorists but “quiet loners”.
A Ghost To Most
Nazis gotta Nazi.
I’m so old, I remember when Steve Douchy was just the color clown on some WNY TV station. It never occurred to me he would become a nazi spokesturd.
joel hanes
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
who names their kid, Ainsley
It was a blunder.
They intended to name her “Aynsley”, in honor of the veteran drummer Aynsley Dunbar,
and to simultaneously honor an obscure Brit who was an acting Corporal in WW I.
Boussinesque
@different-church-lady: was just about to say that it’s funny how they gloss over the uptick in hate crimes and murders committed against minorities since Treason Tribble’s election. You’re far more likely to die from a gun in the hands of some aggrieved white dude than any illegal immigrant. I hate these people so much, it’s bad for my soul. ><
JPL
What a sick stunt.
Wyatt Derp
I prefer the shorthand “4 Boobs on a Couch”
germy
“Many people go to jobs that they DON’T like” says Ainsley and I wonder if she meant her couch job between the two deplorables. I think she wants to be her own deplorable, without shared billing.
Chris
Have been pretty sure for a while that Fox News probably actually could pull off a Radio Rwanda as long as they and Republican politicians coordinated (and not even very many of them – get Trump and a couple others to back them and the rest will fall in line).
Mandalay
That FoxNews clip said one thing I strongly agree with: calling the (building of the) wall “immoral” is dumb. That is not a persuasive argument, and it’s a lousy talking point.
Talk about about how illegal border crossings are at a 50 year low under Trump.
Talk about how Trump had two years to build the wall with Republicans running both branches of Congress and didn’t bother to do anything.
Talk about how he hasn’t spend the money he got last year for border security.
Talk about how Republicans in Congress don’t want to waste money on the wall.
Talk about how McConnell is scared to put anything up for a vote.
Talk about how Trump demanded $5 billion with no explanation on how the money would be spent.
Talk about Trump manufacturing a crisis because he’s scared of his base.
But drop this “immoral” argument. It’s just preaching to choir, and counterproductive.
germy
@A Ghost To Most:
I’ve seen clips of the young Douchy. He was severely odd, even then. Like he was suffering the DTs while doing his rants; all twitching and hand waving. And the normal anchors would sit very still and listen to him politely, before returning to their regular programming.
sdhays
Ha!:
That is really going to hurt!
schrodingers_cat
I am pretty sure that Fox News and their president could have cared less about officer Singh were he still alive.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@sdhays: Wow. I’m happy but surprised. The public is more tuned in than I thought.
SiubhanDuinne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Republicans.
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: Well, obviously, if you are raped or murdered by a WHITE GUY then that’s completely different than being raped or murdered by a (brown) illegal alien! It’s not really a “crime”, per se, if a white guy does it…he’s just exercising his God-given rights. Mmm-kay?
trollhattan
I’d comment but I have to go “Listen to the numbers.”
sdhays
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I expect to read Trump described as “seething” any time now…
Frankensteinbeck
@sdhays:
Holy shit, yes it is. Trump is so incredibly petty, he goes out of his way to talk about ratings. They’re one of his biggest external validations. I don’t know how long his advisors can keep this information from him, but when he finds out, he’ll have a fit.
trollhattan
Rosenstein out?
JPL
@sdhays: That’s amazing. I wonder if they were watching how to make tapenade with olives and figs on Create TV.
I kid but that’s what I did. I tuned in to watch Chuck and Nancy but they did look like hostages. They need better camera people.
SFAW
Radio Rwanda? I don’t know. To paraphrase an AP tweet: Tutsis put the blame for the genocide on the Hutus. But it takes two to tango.
So clearly, both sides are at fault for the shutdown. Or the wall not being built. Or something.
Gin & Tonic
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I was thinking of the drummer for Mayall, Zappa, etc., but he spells his name Aynsley. Sorry, way before your time.
ETA: Of course I wouldn’t be first…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
This is why you are a cherished gem of a writer here.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
It looks like the IC has told Whitaker who’s boss, so I wouldn’t be surprised. At the same time, this is report #6,723 that Rosenstein is leaving. Until he confirms one, I’m ignoring them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gin & Tonic:
People forget that he was the original drummer for Journey.
Elizabelle
As usual, WaPost ombudsman Margaret Sullivan gets it. On the website’s front page now:
sukabi
@sdhays: frothing…doncha know the immigrants are coming here in faster, stronger more incredible vehicles than ICE has…
Via Atrios
Also he’s tweeting about cutting off FEMA aid to California wildfire victims until the state rakes the forests.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
The “etc.” covers a lot of ground, he drummed for a boatload of groups, at one time or another.
Gremcat
@sdhays: This is probably why the Asshole is Tweeting again. This time about threatening to cut California’s FEMA payments for this summer’s wildfires. I guess he’s hoping that he could use this money to pay for his wall.
ETA. I see you already addressed this.
ruemara
They always were. Much like RT is the same for the left. Man, if we were bold, there’d be a full investigation and punishment of these folks, but they’ll slither away to harm us again.
trollhattan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
True fact: I saw Journey perform before their first album release and yeah, Dunbar was the drums guy. Oddly, they didn’t suck either, but had higher ambitions than banal arena rock at the time.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Sure, but those are the ones I consider important enough to name.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mandalay: Preaching to the choir isn’t always a bad thing and moral arguments can have value.
trollhattan
@sukabi:
Donny’s blissfully unaware [shock!] roughly 60% of California forest land is federal. Related, the Camp Fire is rated the world’s worst disaster in 2018 by a German insurance firm.
Mike in NC
Just finished watching a three-part Australian documentary on Amazon Prime called “Trump & Russia”, which delves into Fat Bastard’s ties to the Kremlin. They interviewed a host of scumbags who worked on his campaign or did business with the corrupt reality TV star. My favorite was Felix Sater, Russian-born career criminal and ex-con who pursued several failed NYC real estate ventures with Trump over the course of about 20 years. Asked if he met with Muller, Sater says ‘no comment’.
Trump, in turn, pushes the preposterous lie that he hardly knew Sater and couldn’t identify him in a room full of people. The truth is so simple: Trump’s insatiable greed means he would meet with anyone at anytime if there was a chance to make a fast buck.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Understood. I really wasn’t trying to bust your chops, sorry if it came across that way. [It was more along the lines of “almost easier to name the groups he hasn’t played with.”]
Betty Cracker
@Mandalay: I agree that addressing the immorality angle is counterproductive, and I was hoping Pelosi and Schumer wouldn’t go there in their rebuttal. I’m pretty sure they didn’t make that argument last night — I was listening for it.
Mnemosyne
Weird how the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting went down the memory hole almost immediately. 58 dead and 851 injured, and Republicans blab about the dangers of “illegals” walking among us.
And if I bring that stuff up, conservatives don’t remember that it happened at all.
trollhattan
Team Trump sure know how to vett people. Consider this awkward detail about their AG nominee.
sukabi
@trollhattan: he doesn’t care enough to be aware…this “I’m cutting fema to Cali” is all about trying to get Pelosi to cave on his stupid wall.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes sighting! Woo hoo. Wishing you all the best. Happy 2019.
Frankensteinbeck
@Gremcat:
I don’t think there could be a more transparent code for “I’m not getting what I WAAAAAANT!”
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
It’s not even that. It’s because the only thing he knows how to do is cut off his kids’ allowances. California made him mad, so he’s going to cut off our allowance. We’d better be careful, or he’ll write us out of his will. ?
Capri
I think there are people behind the scenes at both the white house and Fox that hitched their wagon to the star that is Trump because are trying to orchestrate the end of our current form of government and establish a totalitarian state. They are doing this for the purest of reasons: so that the smart, better people (i.e. them) can make all the decisions resulting in a better country – at least for them, if not for everyone else. So they are following the playbook that brought the Nazis to power as closely as they can. They have made two crucial mistakes, which I hope will save us. 1) Trump is no Hitler. He’s too good at stepping on his own dick and too bad at keeping a coherent train of thought to be useful even as a pawn. 2) Conditions in the country and world are pretty darn good, and have been for decades. The Nazi’s came to power because Germany had just lost a very expensive war, the world was in the middle of a severe depression, and quality of life for the average citizen was terrible and looking worse every day. No amount of ugga bugga about how awful things are now is going to gain traction if most people can afford 3 meals a day and have a roof over their heads.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus:
*waves*
I have missed you, O2!
chopper
@trollhattan:
and the camp fire started in a national forest from what i remember. just to add insult to injury, paradise and the areas around are are pretty republican. oy with this guy.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne:
Are you serious? Like, they really don’t remember?
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: @Miss Bianca: It is this kind of sentimentality that has been keeping me away.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
Interesting. Maybe this is why Rod Rosenstein reckons it’s safe to resign now: an incoming AG who will protect the Special Counsel’s investigation.
Lalophobia
I’ve wondered about this for a long time. I have no idea how comparable the situations are though. I confess there’s very little I know about the genocide in Rwanda. Still, the most charitable view of this is that it’s monstrously irresponsible, and I’m not feeling particularly charitable these days.
banditqueen
From the transcript:
Like the the Blonde with Two Boobs on a Couch have any idea what hard work is. Nor do they know how hard people work just so they can have all the stuff they want when they want it. Stuff that’s built, assembled, or picked, cleaned, packed, shipped, stocked on shelves, streets/floors are cleaned; people are available 24/7/365 for them, doing things that the FauxNews crew know nothing about at all.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Good to see you, I hope you’re well.
chris
In 2016 just over 17,000 Americans were murdered according to the CDC. Leave it to Fox to find the four or five most important ones.
Brachiator
WTF? Trump has lost it again.
sdhays
@trollhattan: Be sure to listen to their earlier albums. The new stuff just isn’t as good.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: “RANK sentimentality,” please, or GTFO. Oh, wait…
J R in WV
@Capri:
But Trump is working hard on that situation with new tariffs and otherwise destroying international trade. So don’t relax about this situation just yet!
Edit to add some clarity, I hope.
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
He’s not getting his way. He knows he’s not getting his way. So he’s picked something utterly stupid that he knows no one agrees with him about, and is threatening that unless he gets his way on that he’ll hurt someone. The intent is to salve his own ego by proving he has the power to push people around and everyone has to cater to him. Standard abuser and narcissist bullshit.
HeleninEire
@Omnes Omnibus: Welcome back Omnes. Hope you are doing and feeling well.
HeleninEire
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh fuck, sorry. I take comment #64 back. Didn’t read the thread. ;)
trollhattan
@chopper:
Yeah, the little berg of Pulga where they believe it started is within the Plumas NF boundary, plus they control a checkerboard scatter between there and Paradise. A look at the sat map shows they’ve logged like crazy north of the river canyon, less to the south.
Brush burns really well in 40 mph wind and there’s no money to be made cutting brush, so I’m not sure what the heck they propose other than turning the state over to goats.
p.a.
Fox audience demographic collapse being severely delayed by SS, Medicare & Medicaid; Democratic programs. A pox on you, Paradox.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Does this mean I should have written “Good to see you, asshole”? Or perhaps “Were you gone? I hadn’t noticed.”
JPL
@Brachiator: He never had it to lose. If the republicans don’t stand up to him, he’ll also withhold funds to all blue states.
Jeffro
@trollhattan: Rosenstein’s going to be there just long enough to approve sending the full Mueller report to the full House (and maybe to the public, too) and then he’s out of there. You watch.
The Moar You Know
So, here’s an obvious and unasked question: who is directing Fox & Friends? Not the photography, but the content. Who’s writing their scripts every day? I want names.
Because whoever that person or persons are, they’re running the policy and direction of the US Government. And I sure didn’t see their names on any ballot.
Jeffro
@Amir Khalid: Not if the incoming AG is the trumpov-nominated Bob Barr. No way no how.
The Moar You Know
@joel hanes: Fired from Journey due to his proclivity for underage girls. Their former manager had some interesting shit to say about the guy. They were afraid he was going to land them all in jail, and this was at a time when this behavior was largely considered no big deal.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: A simple “Fuck you” would have sufficed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Schumer on MSNBC right now: Trump just walked out of the negotiations when Pelosi refused to agree to Wall.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m streaming CNN and Chuck and Nancy are doing a good job.
Gravenstone
@The Moar You Know: Ted Nugent and Steven Tyler kind of set the bar on how far one could go in that regard during the 70s.
germy
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh good, just what we need another temper tantrum. The mind boggles at what the forthcoming tweetstorm will contain. Especially given how unhinged he’s been so far this morning. Perhaps the long anticipated (dreaded) psychotic break is about to unfold?
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, we were saying it silently.
;-)
JPL
The democrats are showing some spine. hmmm
germy
@The Moar You Know:
See Wyman, Bill.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: Did you catch Pelosi correct Hoyer when he referred to Michael McCaul (sp) R-TX as chair of the Homeland security committee? “former”
more importantly, Stoyer was quoting McCaul saying Wall is a waste of money and won’t work.
JPL
CNN is not happy. Pence is now going to speak. click
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Noted
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Now you ruined it. I was just about to type “fuck you” because that was clearly the right response, but now that won’t be as much fun.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Fuck You. What you have been up to? I mean what could be more important than Balloon Juice.
Is that better?
A Ghost To Most
Fuck Pence.
Stand strong, Democrats. It’s best not to negotiate with evil children.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I muted the R response, but one of these shouty reporters is going to ask McCarthy about the time he said trump was on the take from Russia, right?
Right?
Yutsano
@Brachiator: Wait…isn’t FEMA on furlough anyway? So they’re not releasing disaster funds as it is. Or they do until the funding pool drains and then same effect. Not that I know what he’s ranting about here.
SFAW
@chris:
And find the least important ones, too (Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Laquan McDonald, et al.)
Another Scott
Twitler 11 minutes ago – “Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
I hope they stay strong.
Cheers,
Scott.
TS (the original)
@Brachiator:
He never had it to lose – all he likes to do is hurt people.
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
You can blame me for that, probably. If I hadn’t asked …etc.
Haroldo
@Omnes Omnibus:
Or, perhaps, ‘How ’bout dem Packers, eh?’
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Vehicles? What the fucking fuck is he on about now?
Yutsano
@Haroldo: Okay that’s just mean. :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome tantrum?”
Pence is filibustering, which I’ve got muted, but MSNBC apparently finds newsworthy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Haroldo: From you? Sure.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: and Republicans, at least the House, is lashing itself tighter to this ranting madman
A Ghost To Most
Man, all that crowd needs is some armbands and a bonfire.
schrodingers_cat
I saw Schumer and Pelosi response, they were measured and took apart T’s bluster point by point. What did the theater critics disapprove of?
Chris Fisher
Meanwhile, of course, the odds of you being shot by a homegrown American packing freedom boomsticks remains exponentially higher, but suggesting we do something about that is verboten.
Chyron HR
@schrodingers_cat:
The continued existence of the Democratic party.
chopper
@schrodingers_cat:
whaddya got?
Dan B
@chris: I don’t remember the author of this quote but I’ll probably mangle it anyway, “One person is a story. A hundred people us a statistic.” Definitely mangled but Ainsley is doing a classic marketing trick. If you tell an emotional story that is simple and involves an individual or family / friend group we are drawn in. It “sticks”. Otherwise it’s “math” and fades rapidly. Basic cognitive science.
Cognitive science continues to reveal that the rational worldview ain’t. When I started to look at the world from the viewpoint of humans as emotional responses with a veneer of rational justification it opened up a world that explained so many events that seemed mysterious.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hell, I was watching and somehow missed this
schrodingers_cat
@Dan B: Fox viewers were quite unmoved by the personal stories of Sandyhook vicitms or victims of other shooting sprees.
Dan B
@Brachiator: Trump threatens to cut off FEMA funds to Calufornia.
A great comment from Juanita Jean. “I live on that Gulf Coast. Is Trump going to ask us to learn to swim?”
chris
@Dan B: You’re absolutely right. We are motivated by stories but I do like to get some perspective on the stories.
Fair Economist
@trollhattan: Wouldn’t this be the third time media reported Rosenstein was out? At this point I will believe it when it happens.
sdhays
Mueller-mas is coming in February:
FlipYrWhig
@schrodingers_cat: I’m old enough to remember when conservatives would smirk about how liberals had to use feeeeelingz to do politics. Wasn’t it Ann Coulter who derided 9/11 widows for making things too personal?
Stuart Frasier
@Fair Economist:
Apparently, Rosenstein is staying until Mueller submits his report.
The Moar You Know
Republicans – and Trump is a natural fit – have no idea, AT ALL, about the concepts of negotiation and compromise. One of the resident Trumpers came fuming into my office a while ago, asking why Schumer and Pelosi were keeping the government closed. I simply said “what has Trump offered to get them to give him his wall money? The people who voted for Chuck and Nancy will vote them straight out of office if they give him that. So he’s gotta give them something pretty good in trade. What is that going to be?”
She looked like I’d hit her with an axe right in the head. This idea had literally never occurred to her before I said it.
They think of Republican presidents as absolute monarchs. I now think the shutdown is going to go to September when the government REALLY runs out of money, as in “there is no more for anything”, and beyond. The citizenry simply do not understand how democracy works any more.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
The conservative guy I used to work with remembers. The fellow he was standing next to got shot. He knows it might just as easily been him.
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
They instantly went full, “Why are we not arming our schools?” Still their go-to after…how many more school slaughters?
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Being dictated to by a woman is intolerable to him. He’d better get used to it.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Here’s hoping the Pelosiphobic young Dems (et al) are watching the master at work. We’re so very fortunate to have her.
trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
So much winning.
Brachiator
Trump and his minions love petty, spiteful games. Here’s a little item that almost skipped notice … (from CNN and others)
sdhays
@The Moar You Know: An important point that I think gets lost in how important it is for the Democrats not to buckle is that the next time this happens, it could very well be over the debt ceiling, and there’s no fudging around paying people back pay and pretending everything’s back to normal with that. Once the ceiling is hit, the US government would technically be in default and there’s no knowing exactly what far-ranging ramifications would arise from that.
Hostage-taking needs to be stopped, once and for all.
Gin & Tonic
@sdhays: I know everyone here is hoping for the-sooner-the-better, but I selfishly hope he waits till after mid-Feb, as I will be out of the country for some time and don’t want to miss the fun.
sdhays
@Gin & Tonic: That puts it right around the time my son is going to be born, so I expect I’ll miss quite a bit.
FlipYrWhig
@The Moar You Know: You could have also trotted out “leaders lead. Maybe he just needs to be more convincing.” Then shrug.
But, yeah, I feel like Trump truly, at a fundamental level, doesn’t understand that a deal is an exchange. Like I’m not sure that when he uses money to buy things he doesn’t just gloat that he now has the things. For his whole life he’s just taken what he wanted and dared the other guy to do anything about it. That’s what he thinks business is. He doesn’t have any other skills.
A Ghost To Most
@trollhattan:
Indeed. Put down the comic books and cartoon movies. The real superheroes are much more interesting.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
Evidently,illegal immigrant babies, hopped up on bottles filled with steroids and Red Bull, are driving souped up Big Wheels over the border, crushing ICE agents underfoot.
sukabi
@sdhays: if that’s the case, why has his grand jury term been extended another 6 months?
Seems like you wouldn’t be still presenting to a grand jury if you were in the midst of writing a final report.
sdhays
@sukabi: I certainly wasn’t one of the people expecting it so soon, but that’s what NBC is reporting. There was talk last year about Mueller first reporting on obstruction of justice, so maybe that’s what the February report would be?
Frankensteinbeck
@Dan B:
The science is crystal clear, and has been for nearly a century. Humans are not rational animals. We are animals capable of reason. It is surprisingly hard to explain this to people. Things like logical consistency aren’t the default, they’re skills we have to learn that require effort to use. Trump is the default.
@trollhattan:
They don’t care about the truth. The answer they feel is ‘You can’t tell me what to do!’ They have a talking point. All they have to do is keep repeating it to feel like they’ve won the argument. They have no reason to think about the issue further, and every reason not to.
Dan B
@The Moar You Know: It would be great to know the perps at FOX. Murdock started FOX to create a network for conservative views because he felt MSM had a liberal bias. The US repealed the Fairness Doctrine. It required networks to balance news coverage because they used the “public” airwaves and had a responsibility to the public. FOX took advantage of this virgin turf. But, the ratings were in extreme pundits like Limbaugh. Outrage and fear mongering sell. “Rational” does, but not as well. Over time the influence of market driven business, think P.T. Barnum, became the driver.
Why did Rupert not try to rein in the monster? It would have “made sense” to achieve his conservative network vision.
Better to ask what’s the common theme of the Nazis, Rwandan genocide, predatory corporations, and any number of terrible events and the institutions that aided them.
My take is skillful and amoral use of propaganda. It’s alive and thriving and will continue until we hold the internet accountable for allowing propaganda to flourish.
Millard Filmore
“NEW from @PeteWilliamsNBC: Rosenstein will stay on as Deputy A.G. until Mueller submits his report.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/WillieGeist/status/1083101065350914048
The Moar You Know
@Dan B: This should be an easy question to answer. “Who are the writers and directors of Fox and Friends”?
That it isn’t tells me a lot right there.
C Stars
@Another Scott:
Trump: The Fart of the Deal
Seriously, doesn’t the whole “bye-bye” line (and preceding setup) reek of some terrible mid-90’s reality TV show? Like in this context I imagine Trump storming out of the room melodramatically, trying to hold back fake tears, with a bottle-blond perm and an oversize ASU sweatshirt?
I just read the New Yorker profile of Mark Burnett (the guy who made Survivor and The Apprentice), and it sounded as though The Apprentice faltered and got really shitty after the second season (I didn’t watch either show). So…I’m thinking there’s the possibility that Trump’s schtick simply becomes boring to his mouth-breathing fans after two or three years, and they lose interest and tune out…
Is that wishful thinking?
Frankensteinbeck
@C Stars:
Sounds to me like an asshole misogynist trying to walk all over a woman, while becoming increasingly scared because it’s not working.
EDIT – Seriously, I have no idea of your gender, but I bet this gives flashbacks to a whole lot of professional women.
Uncle Cosmo
@A Ghost To Most:
Bangalore! I have never understood why so much of a Jackaltariat otherwise brimming with knowledge, reason, subtlety & wit, seems to be obsessed with stupidheroes.
The Moar You Know
@FlipYrWhig: It’s not just Trump. It’s almost all Republicans. And a not-small percentage of Democrats. If we’re going to get out of this power-slide to banana republic status, we’re going to have to really recommit to democracy. And that’s going to require an electorate that understands that everything is a compromise and that nobody is going to get 100% of what they want.
I don’t know if most voters can or will accept that at this point. Zero-sum thinking has really taken hold everywhere. As a Dem myself, I have a very strong urge to say “fuck compromise, let’s bulldoze the fuckers for a few decades and see how they like it”. And we’d be more than justified in doing so. We’ve been getting run over without mercy since Reagan. And I’m not willing to let that slide anymore, not since Trump, that was the step too far.
Don’t know how this gets fixed, to be honest.
@Dan B: This is an awful thing to say, but I don’t see how we can keep democracy without ending first amendment protections for the media and individuals. With the rise of the internet, we basically gave everyone with a connection a nuke that they can use as often as they like with no blowback or personal consequences. But if you lose the democracy, you lose those protections anyway.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: Measured from a facts and policy / problem solving lens Nancy and Chuck were fine. They were fine for our base.
By contrast Katharine Hayhoe was on Christiane Amanpour last night. She’s one of the authors of the omnibus climate change report, an atmospheric scientist, also has a degree in political science, and is an evangelical Christian. Her communication skills are amazing. She stated that global warming could end civilization but described the dilemma we are in and the choice we have between solutions or rejecting science. Despite this Amanpour was elated at how “hopeful” she felt. I’m gay so not in love with evangelicals and yet Hayhoe gives me hope.
Nancy and Chuck are good but there is a lot of room for improvement, especially in the non verbal communication department. Non verbal is the biggest portion of communication. FOX understands this. Trump understands this. It’s practically all he’s got and he learned it from Roy Cohn. Corporations and business schools understand this. It’s the way to promote things that have little worth and the way to make great things soar.
Do watch Hayhoe if you can. She has a lot in common with A.O,C., Beto, Gillum, and Stacey Abrams. They were propelled far beyond what we would have expected.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@different-church-lady:
That would be the No True Scotsmen in action with these clowns; any white who commits a crime is in their minds, not a true white.
germy
@Frankensteinbeck:
Wait until he gets a load of Letitia “Tish” James.
C Stars
@Frankensteinbeck: I am a woman. I hope my characterization of a mid-90’s reality TV diva wasn’t sexist. I just feel like whenever I tuned into reality TV shows to see what the fuss was about, that’s what was onscreen.
I never actually had a colleague or co-worker storm out of a meeting because he wasn’t getting what he wanted. I worked at a boutique publishing/licensing firm for most of my 30s (the last full-time job I had). There was plenty of sexism and ridiculous behavior, but a full-on, unapologetic temper-tantrum would’ve been considered way out of line.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: FOX viewers have swallowed the propaganda and keep coming back for more. The fear mongering gives them a high. It’s also a key tenet of cognitive science, thanks to MRI advances, that our brain structure us altered by continued visceral (brain stem stimulation). It will take years of propaganda to reverse what FIX has accomplished. It would be as valuable to ask – Did Sandy Hook move many Americans? Who was moved to action? What messages moved them? Asking about FIX viewers is like asking why evangelical Christians believe in End Times, or Trump.
The Moar You Know
@C Stars: I worked for a software development program for the government a decade ago where that sort of tantrum – and always over insanely petty bullshit – was a weekly occurrence. Seriously, every week. It was crazy and WAY out of line and I was the only one who would say so. Didn’t seem to bother my colleagues. I don’t work there anymore.
ETA: all men.
Frankensteinbeck
@C Stars:
Thank you! I never quite know what other men think they can get away with in public or the workplace, but I sure recognize his attempt to shut down a woman he’s afraid will have power over him.
Dan B
@chris: Yes stories! And you’re absolutely right. “Stories” are the hook and the key to enduring memories. They are one step. They pave the way to desiring solutions. They lead us to looking for mire information that will back up or disprove our stories. That leads the way to being drawn to policy.
My concern has been for a couple decades that liberal tendency to jump to data and poo poo the power of stories. I feel it hobbles the cause of liberalism and progressivism. And, boy howdy, do I want all the power we need to build our way out of the hole the right has dug.
WaterGirl
@sukabi: Preet said on Monday that they have already been in session for 18 months, and that 24 months is pretty much the limit. After that you have to start with a new grand jury. So I imagine they asked for the classic 6 months, knowing that no matter what, that would be their end game.
Why would you ask for 2 months or 3 months? Just ask for the full six, use the time you need.
Mnemosyne
@Dan B:
Not really related, but did you see my link the other day to places that are collecting oral histories from LGBTQ people? I’m betting the Chicago Leather Museum would love to have you sit down with their archivists:
http://lgbtqdigitalcollaboratory.org/oral-history-hub/
C Stars
@The Moar You Know: Oh geezus, that sounds miserable. I’m sorry. Interesting how self-control is only a virtue if you’re a woman.
@Frankensteinbeck: I guess my experience was not illustrative. But I 100% agree with you that what went on here was DT’s brain malfunctioning when being confronted by a woman who wouldn’t capitulate to his demands and quite transparently doesn’t give a flying fuck about his little macho demonstrations.
Dan B
@FlipYrWhig: Coulter understands that emotion overrides logic. She’s afraid we’ll put emotional appeals to work for our progressive, welcoming, and diverse community. Counter, Limbaugh, Alex Jones and their I’ll have used the base emotion of fear for far too long.
Felanius Kootea
I’ve thought this before. The Hutu Power Radio folks slowly but surely conditioned the whole country (including some Tutsis) to accept genocide as the way forward by dehumanizing Tutsis, calling them “cockroaches,” etc. The one major difference here is that Fox’s demographic skews old and so they don’t have the comparative reach that Hutu Power Radio did.
Rupert Murdoch is one of the most dangerous immigrants the US ever did admit, but the Trumpers love him.
schrodingers_cat
@Dan B: As an immigrant with a background in science I don’t need spokespeople that give me the feels about either climate science or immigration. When my existence is at stake, cogent clear eyed policy is what moves me thee most. But then I am an unreal American according to the R party and media bots. Since I am not WWC male from the midwest. Nor do I frequent diners which their reporters mount anthropological expeditions to since T was elected.
Brachiator
@C Stars:
Trump is grand standing. This is some “Art of the Deal” bullshit meant to try to shake the Democrats into giving in.
Trump was probably laughing on the way back home, insuring his staff that he had Pelosi’s number. Trump couldn’t be presidential if you paid him. The only tricks he knows is the crap he pulled when he was a faux real estate mogul.
Dan B
@trollhattan: Katharine Hayhoe told Christiane Amanpour that when she asks people why they don’t believe in global warming that they spew out a Koch / FOX talking point – will destroy the economy, etc. – but when she asks more questions the always come down to the belief that the solutions will rob them of the things that have made their lives comfortable: F 150, steaks, cheap gas, big houses, central air and heat, etc. When their talking points are questioned gently they cannot support them and feel unmoored.
Dan B
@Mnemosyne: Thanks. I’ve spoken with a historian who wanted info on some Gay Lib photos. The Chicago Gay history archives don’t quite match my stories so they’re not interested. I’m most interested in how we managed to make such big changes so quickly. Those need to be retold as accurately as possible because it’s essential to the success of today’s causes. The history books seem to skip some essential portions.
Buckeye
Late to the thread, but I’ve calling Fox the US version of Radio-Television Serbia (under Milosevic) since shortly after Fox went on the air. And they’re much much worse now.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: My critique of Democrats’ communication seems to really bother you. First, to your comments, my father was a research chemist, my Uncle Bill was head of Aerospace at Goodrich, Uncle Jack was on the Lunar Explorer and Mars Explorer teams at JPL. I was headed for a career in chemistry or architecture. I got booted out of architecture for the gay thing.
Two great friends of mine are physicians from Delhi. I got interested in how the broader field of communication could show the way for progressive voices to have influence in the US. The religious right was making strides against LGBTQ people, democracy, and science. What could be done? I also had clients who were involved in branding, marketing, and politics. I organized a group that got support from some terrific people, including the head if the Department of Communication at the UW as well as a number if people prominent in communication in the Seattle area. It’s been a wonderful experience learning how humans actually become persuaded and motivated. My friends from Delhi supported our efforts financially even though their prime interest was political. They supported some great progressive candidates who lost their elections. Then my friend Rekha decided to take some classes from the head of the Dept of Communication. She described it as being awestruck.
The communication I’m interested in is far mire than spokespeople and talking points. It’s a whole basket of approaches for creating a strategy that can be utilized 24/7 and 365 days. My Democratic consultant friends inform me that the Dem leadership doesn’t have a strategy and they spell out how the GOP went from being in the wilderness after Watergate into being a vast propaganda apparatus and political ecosystem, despite the “fact” that the majority of Americans support liberal policy. It’s vital that we get this country back on track. One piece is communication and it’s important to understand what is effective and what is not.
In short, I started out in “hard science” and got seduced by cognitive science.
Dan B
@Buckeye: Murdock lost control of FOX. Martina Navratilova recently described it as worse than Soviet propaganda in Czechoslovakia. Apt description.
I hope Justice Lewis Powell is rolling over in his grave at what his infamous Memorandom has morphed into with the assistance of FOX, Sinclair, and Christianist media.
dimmsdale
@The Moar You Know: YES. EXACTLY. There’s a lot we regular joes don’t know about who determines not just the delivery (two boobs and a blonde) but the content of Fox broadcasts; what the underlying strategy is; at WHOSE behest the communications mission is conducted; and whose benefit the entire messaging apparatus serves. I assume the writers work at the behest of producers; the producers work at the behest of…??…someone who actually determines the ideological thrust of the entire operation.
I’ll go a bit further and say that it’s not so much the Fox anodynes, or even Chuckles Todd and/or (I can never remember that other bearded goofball’s name, but you know who I mean)–it’s the producers whispering into their earpieces and deciding beforehand what the ‘real’ news is, who are doing the real damage. Look behind the assholic and fatuous commentary from MagHabs and there’s a layer of content editors and a layer of management over them, which is where I assume the actual ideological stratagery is hatched.
And then there’s this, which I ham-handedly tried to link to last night on a previous thread: a story from a year ago, by a former CIA counterterrorist expert, outlining the possible benefits to placing ‘assets’ among the news operation at e.g. Fox. (the story takes on relevance recently with the clarifications we’ve been reading that our so-called president takes some of his crueler, more looney ‘policy’ ‘decisions’ straight from Fox & Friends.
I’ve said that the adrenaline-raising, addictive qualities of the Fox broadcast day pose a mental health hazard to the entire nation, and I’d love to see a qualified investigation from competent mental health people on that. But I’d also like to see a star chamber of sorts, which hauls the bimbos and bumbos from Fox before a fact-finding committee, at least one purpose of which would be to scrutinize the Fox messaging for, well, for facts!
lemme try that link to the story by the CIA analyst again:
https://wapo.st/2FdTCSH
John Fremont
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: And in the late 60’s , the Jeff Beck Group for a spell.
schrodingers_cat
@Dan B:
I was giving you my opinion as a consumer of news. Your critique does not bother me. I don’t have the luxury of being a theater critic of Pelosi and Schumer. For me the choice is stark and simple. One party has a leader that thinks immigrants are moochers and/or murderers and the other doesn’t.