I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I have been super busy (also, dad is doing in house therapy at the hospital for the next two weeks), but this needed to be shared:
On Monday evening, at the nine o’clock hour, Fox News’ Sean Hannity aired an explosive story about the president of the United States. It was so deeply shocking and perverse that many people have said they can’t believe it was allowed by network censors, or that they didn’t insist Hannity at least read a disclaimer beforehand like, “We want to warn our viewers about the content we‘re about to air, which we strongly suggest not be watched in the company of children.” Honestly, it was so disturbing that we’re having difficulty recounting it now. But here goes. On Monday, Fox News revealed that President Joe Biden, as in, the man who has access to the nuclear codes…
…loves his son.
Yes. Not only that, but he appears to be compassionate? Devoted? Understanding of the difficulties people face in life and unwilling to turn his back on his child? Can you see why Fox knew they had a blockbuster story on their hands?
These people are absolute fucking monsters and I don’t know how anyone who votes Republican lives with themselves. Jesus tapdancing Christ if there were more fathers like this out there, we’d have a much lower addiction rate in this company.
The actual audio of this—as someone who has struggled with drugs and mental health issues and received calls like this from my family—just sort of almost made me cry pic.twitter.com/YWkvguViGh
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) October 11, 2022
It’s a non stop race to the bottom for these motherfuckers, and it appears there is no bottom.
War for Ukraine Day 230: The Aerial Bombardment Continues
Elizabelle
Biden just did very well in his CNN interview with Jake Tapper (who is a dick, hands down).
He reiterated how much he loves his son, and is proud of him.
Steeplejack
The Onion: “Sean Hannity plays voicemail from his dad calling him a piece of shit to demonstrate healthy father-son relationship.”
Tony G
Fox News viewers will love this “expose” by Hannity. They will consider this to be deeply damaging to Joe Biden because they despise compassion and they admire cruelty. There are tens of millions of people like that in this country. If there weren’t, then Fox News would have gone out of business 25 years ago, and Donald Trump would be just another failed businessman.
Chief Oshkosh
It would be a very good thing if Sean Hannity stepped on a rake. Tines up, with a rusty nail in the handle.
Beyond dat, I got nuttin’.
SiubhanDuinne
First of all, John, thanks for the update on your dad. I hope he continues to improve.
And second, even if we did talk about the Biden voice mail message, it’s such a beautiful and compassionate message that it can stand being talked about again. The love and anguish in his voice is incredibly moving, and makes me choke up just hearing it. At the same time, yes, it’s beyond infuriating that pond scum* like Hannity exploit and politicise a family’s pain to score a cheap point.
*My apologies to pond scum
Raoul Paste
Who does this? Who broadcasts an intensely personal moment of a dire situation? I guess the jaded folks who watch human tragedy and interventions on reality TV are the target audience.
It’s horrible. Karma, where are you?
geg6
I can’t listen to it because it’s too intimate a call and that makes me uncomfortable. Regardless, Joe Biden is such a good man. And as for Beau and his troubles? He lost a sister, a mother and a brother. One is traumatic, let alone three. And with likely genetic addiction issues on top of that. He made a mess of his life and is trying to pick up the pieces. Half of the MAGAts out there should be so lucky with their spawn. And if they think this is damning to Biden, they won’t be because their kids will hate them.
dc
Hunter’s laptop was stolen. This is trafficking in stolen goods. Why are these assholes not being charged?
James E Powell
They’ve convinced themselves that no matter how disgusting & evil their people are, the rest of us are somehow worse. I know some will say that FOX, right-wing radio, etc., has persuaded them, but I see them eagerly embracing whatever hateful bigotry those propaganda factories put out.
robmassing
There are probably some MAGAs who heard this and were moved by Biden’s compassion, especially if they have addiction issues in their families. But after a few seconds, they determined that they would never admit they were moved, and would join the rest of the MAGAs mocking Brandon.
bbleh
Classic bullying behavior. Find a vulnerability and tear at it.
FWIW I think the demographic attracted to this sort of thing is not as large as some people fear, but it IS the demographic that Fox cultivates and that makes them money.
Biden’s empathy has long been one of his strongest suits. It’s not at all clear to me this will hurt him much if at all.
Kevin
Trump and Herschel Walker are their ideal men/father figures apparently so yeah any compassion and actual fathering are seen as weak. Truly the worst.
I saw the clip on Twitter this morning and was so confused when it had the Fox logo under the Biden quote.
Being shitty fathers to own the libs!
Al Rennick
@Elizabelle:
What’s your problem with Jake Tapper? In what way was he unfair to Biden? He wasn’t snarky and did not ask any questions that were out of bounds.
bbleh
@robmassing: And there might also be some — MAGAts themselves or their family members — who are so disgusted with Hannity that they tear a strip off anyone who agrees with him.
Not yet clear to me that this will be a net negative for Biden.
Leto
Rachel Maddow released a new podcast about the ultra-right, and how they 1) tried to take over the country in the early 40s and 2) how it parallels what we’re experiencing now. Two episodes are out so far (new ones release on Monday). For those who don’t like her meandering style, she sticks to tightly to the script on this. They’re just a tad over 30 mins each (including two commercials), so easy to digest.
Rachel Maddow presents Ultra
Edit: I’ll say this is right up there, if not surpassing, the Business Plot. Also like the BP, not as well known.
Betsy
The power of love is as strong as we make it. The values that humanity embraces are the values that count. Whether it is a cruel thirst for absolute power or a choice to give love, we make the values that matter in the world we live in.
Suzanne
What just eats me up about this phone message is that it comes right at the same time that the right wants to force women to bear children they don’t want or cannot bear, and they’re freaking out that (white) people aren’t having enough kids. Here is a good man who deeply lives his son, and they just mock the fuck out of it, all while trying to force others into parenthood. GOD THEY’RE TERRIBLE.
Betsy
@Suzanne: You said it, sister.
hilts
@Leto:
Kudos to Rachel. She performed a valuable public service with this podcast.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: I think it’s different.
It’s tribalism. It’s a cult.
Going after Biden for this is exactly what I would expect. It’s a perfect way for them to test people’s loyalty to MAGA. “This shows Biden loves his son? No, it doesn’t. It shows that Biden’s weak. You agree, right??”
It goes along with them trying to break science, break logic, break evidence, break tradition, break compassion, break patriotism, break doubt, and all the rest. “You are with us, you are MAGA. We know what’s really true – those other guys are lying to you. You’re smarter than that, you can see their lies. We’re the real patriots. You’re just like us, aren’t you??”
Orwell was right.
We need to be clear-eyed about their tactics, and how we respond. Taking the best of people who have figured out how to help others get out of cults may be instructive.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
I’m trying, apparently because I hate myself, to imagine Donald Trump showing even one millionth as much compassion for one of his kids as Joe Biden does in this short message. And I just can’t see it.
Closest he comes is …passion for his daughter and no that doesn’t help.
cain
@robmassing: when you are in a cult, you’re forced to be part of the group and the group think even if you privately feel different.
zhena gogolia
@dmsilev: He punched his son for not wearing a suit to a baseball game.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@zhena gogolia: He didn’t punch him, he only slapped him to the ground.
Sasha
I swear, it’s like MAGA sucks up to Trump because he’s the archetypal abusive, emotionally distant father whose attention and approval they desperately crave. And Biden is the father they wish they had had and resent they didn’t.
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: +1
Fortune (from April 2016)
Yeah, that builds loving relationships.
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
UncleEbeneezer
@Tony G: They would reject any candidate that even just appears remotely decent at this point. They only want monsters. It’s really disgusting and terrifying.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
What Biden does when no one is watching:
Elizabelle
@Al Rennick: WRT Tapper: It was the constant hyperbolizing; the sensationalizing an already precarious situation. How many times did he say “Armageddon?” He really wanted to scare his audience. He kept trying to put words in Biden’s mouth, re Putin, but Biden handled that well.
Excitable boy. Fer sure.
Brachiator
@bbleh:
Excellent point. This is much ado about nothing. Normal people, including Republicans, will note Biden’s compassion and move on.
The crazies are stuck on the dumbass idea that the laptop contains more damaging information than Clinton’s emails and also proof that the deep state is trying to bring down the real victim, Donald Trump.
Murdoch and the vile right wing just like to keep shit stirred up. It doesn’t matter whether it makes sense. It just has to keep the crazies agitated.
Mai Naem mobile
I’ve heard this call a while back. I honestly do not understand what is the problem with the call. I don’t understand why Sean Hannity is bringing it up again. I would be willing to bet that pretty much everybody knows somebody in a similar situation. One of my old neighbor’s wife was hooked on opiods and went through several substance abuse programs. I have a friend whose father got hooked on going to the casino. Joe Biden is not the only father in this country with a family member with addiction issues.
Steve in the ATL
@Leto: a spook told me that just about every aircraft crash is enemy action. It’s one of the most common methods of assassination.
Elizabelle
They’re going after Hunter Biden because they’re losing. It’s this election season’s ebola and caravans and all the other crap they throw at the wall, every single election.
The Hunter Biden legal jeopardy irritates me no end, because of the outright profiteering and corruption of the family preceding the Bidens. Hunter’s persecution, and it is that, is all out of proportion.
Leto
@Steve in the ATL: I’ll say, from the first two episodes, it doesn’t sound like it was mechanical failure. I don’t want to spoil it for people, but yeah.
Elizabelle
@Leto: Thank you. And episode 2 is about Father Charles Coughlin. Good times.
There’s a transcript, for those who prefer reading to listening. Episode 1 on Senator Lundeen (whom I had never heard of. Never.).
Mike in NC
@Another Scott: To be fair, TFG does change his own diapers.
Leto
I hope this plays to their base, because for everyone else it just looks fucking despicable.
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne:
Every word you say is truth.
Quiltingfool
This is very off topic, but I am getting a cat tomorrow! I was approved for cat adoption yesterday; today I bought some stuff for Kitty (a catnip stuffed fish toy, scratching post, good quality dry food).
I hope she will be happy in my home. I’m looking forward to a new quilt supervisor!
Elizabelle
@Leto: Reading episode 1 now.
It … makes me hope I am never on an airplane with Tucker Carlson.
Although I already hope that.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
I don’t think the anti Biden forces are smart enough to be focused or calculated.
They DO love ignorance. This seems to be true of a certain type of conservative in the US, the UK and elsewhere. They want religion or ideology or brute nativism to be the rule.
Elizabelle
@Quiltingfool: That quilt supervising cat hit the lottery.
What happy news. I’m sure we’ll see an image of the kitteh before too long. Photo or fabric.
SiubhanDuinne
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
I’ve read or heard that story probably a couple of dozen times since the 2016 campaign, and it still makes me scratch my head in perplexity.
Wrong on so, so many levels. What kind of parent slaps their adult kid? So hard they knock him to the ground? In public? For wearing a fucking BASEBALL JERSEY to a fucking BASEBALL GAME??
Ohio Mom
Isn’t it always some combination of projection and a diversionary tactic with the RWNJs?
Trump Jr is always taping videos in a weird, extremely agitated, most likely drug-induced state, Jared and Ivanka one big crooked international business deal after another. So of course Fox et al are fixated on Hunter’s addiction struggles and his stints on boards in China and Ukraine.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quiltingfool:
Oh, how wonderful!! That’s news I’ve been hoping for.
Glad to see you in the thread, as I received my quilt squares a few days ago and wanted to let you know I adore them! Beautiful, charming designs and incredible workmanship. I can’t tell you how pleased I am!
stinger
@geg6: With respect, I’m not sure Hunter’s addiction issues are genetic. He suffered “a fractured skull and severe traumatic brain injuries” [Wikipedia] when he was two years old, and probably was given painkiller meds for quite some time afterward. It seems possible that his addiction tendencies date back to that horrific period of his life.
Gravenstone
@Chief Oshkosh: I’d actually suggest sharpening the tines so they simply penetrate his foot. Over, and over…
Leto
@Elizabelle: It’s wild to think that this aircraft crash was the single worst crash in aviation history to that point. 25 people.
Gravenstone
@dmsilev: I’ve seen people suggest that his sons may secretly crave that sort of attention and compassion from him. I think they probably would view it as a weakness just because his multiple pathologies have in turn broken them to the point that they now cannot recognize inherent goodness and decency without trying to envision some means of profiting from it (eg. Eric the Dull and his childhood cancer fundraising scam).
Al Rennick
@Elizabelle:
I’ve seen far worse broadcast interviews than what Tapper aired tonight.
At any rate, I appreciate your Warren Zevon reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZokPAuhD6k
Another Scott
@Brachiator:
They’re working on it. They know how to rile up the rubes, and that’s dangerous enough.
I just did some looking around to see who replaced Lee Atwater. No infamous names immediately jumped out at me, but you know there are people like him out there – people who know how to tell a story that disaffected people are eager to hear. Maybe it’s more diffuse now than when Atwater was working his evil schemes. Maybe they’re more interested in scams than trying to direct a party in a particular direction.
There must be dozens of outfits like the America First Policy Institute with semi-famous people on the mast-head, all interconnected to other “Institutes” and “Universities” and “Churches” and similar organizations.
They’re out there and should not be dismissed as lacking smarts.
We need to know our enemies and their tactics to know how to counter them.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony G
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Generations of abuse in that family. The “kids” must all be waiting for the day when Donald Senior kicks the bucket.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Leto:
IMHO, Rachel Maddow is not nearly as meandering as she used to be.
Steeplejack
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Rachel used to “meander” on slow news days when she was covering “evergreen” stories (not ripped from the headlines). When there is heavy shit going down (almost a daily occurrence since the Trump regime) she is concise and on point.
Citizen Alan
@James E Powell: Thank you! Yes! It cannot be said enough! Donald Trump is not a master hypnotist. Fox News does not send mind control out through the TVs. The MAGA trash believe their lives because they want to. Because they seek out liars who will tell lies that comport with their twisted view of how the world is. Already we see a move away from Fox towards even more disgusting outlets like OAN and Newsmax, even as the MAGA trash look for people like Desantis and Abbott who are even more vile than Shitgibbon himself.
Mai Naem mobile
@Quiltingfool: mare sure you get the feature toy. I’ve never seen a cat not like the feather toys. Also, cardboard boxes to play in/with.
ian
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: It almost makes me feel bad for Jr. Then I remember that Uday Trump is a piece of shit in his own right. It certainly explains why the guy looks like he is constantly out of his mind. Every video I see of Jr (and the dumbshit posts these of his own volition) looks like he just was doing rails with Guilfoyle.
Winston
Why is it always the radical right trying to overthrow our democracy?
Quiltingfool
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m so glad you like them! I’ve been working on the remaining #25 (Sunflower Kitty Love) blocks. Lots of cutting! Lots of fusing! It’s rather soothing, really.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I cannot fathom how that clip was meant to somehow make President Biden look bad.
Quiltingfool
@Mai Naem mobile: I have other cat toys – soft sparkle balls, tiny mice and fish. The one toy both my cats loved was a small stuffed moose. They would wrap their front legs around it and kick it with their back legs! I would put the moose on a shelf above the sofa (it was my stuffed toy!) and they would get on the back of the sofa, stretch out and grab the moose and then wrestle with it! I gave up and just let them keep it!
Another Scott
@Another Scott: For instance…
(via jonrog1)
Grr…,
Scott.
ian
@Winston: Because the radical right don’t believe in democracy.
The radical left doesn’t always do a great job of believing it either, but they are so few, disorganized, and frankly scatterbrained that they are in no shape to overthrow a twitter thread, much less government.
Another Scott
@Quiltingfool: Our first dog loved little stuffed animals, especially groundhogs.
One winter she saw us decorating the tree and one of the ornaments was a little stuffed penguin. She wanted that thing so bad! She would sit down in front of the tree, all proud and attentive, being very good, just waiting for someone to take what she knew to be her toy off the tree and give it to her!
:-)
Best of luck with your new quilting helper!
Cheers,
Scott.
Feathers
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the transcript link, I do so much better with reading.
I was asking Betty Cracker about the “meandering” on Twitter today. It’s more the construction she uses of painting a picture with details before telling you what she’s talking about. As part of my ADHD diagnosis, I had a neuropsych evaluation. I have a crap working memory and my auditory working memory is the worst of it. Having to hold all those facts in your head without something to hang them on is a cognitively difficult task. It’s an effective way to build suspense, but let it run too long and it can be literally headache inducing for some.
Mel
@Quiltingfool: Congratulations on your new quilting assistant!! My Janie kitty was an excellent quilting snoopervisor, and the best buddy ever.
Would love to see pictures of your kitty after she gets settled!
Elizabelle
@Feathers: Good to hear! I was glad they put up a transcript, too.
Greatly prefer reading and being able to skim. Having to listen to someone who might be meandering/wandering … suddenly realize I’ve tuned right out.
Salty Sam
IIRC, Karl Rove was an Atwater disciple.
lowtechcyclist
@Mike in NC:
That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that bolded “TFG doesn’t change diapers.” I thought this was about his own diapers, until I started actually reading the paragraph underneath it.
Yucch.
lowtechcyclist
@Citizen Alan:
Fred “Slacktivist” Clark has been writing about this for years. (And he acknowledges that he’s just running with something C.S. Lewis wrote long ago.)
His basic question is: you hear some horrible story about someone you dislike or regard as an adversary. How do you feel when it’s debunked, and it turns out this person isn’t raping children or whatever?
That’s a litmus test of sorts. Are you mostly relieved that this person isn’t that horrible, even if perhaps a bit disappointed? You’ve passed the test. Does your disappointment rather turn to anger at and refusal to listen to the debunker? You’ve flunked.
The latter group seems rather heavily represented among MAGAts.
davecb
If you’re a less-than-loved group, and you’re competing against someone, it’s important that you attack every good thing they do. What you’re trying to do is portray your opponent as consistently evil, with no redeeming characteristics. Therefore, it’s important that they be seen as only ever doing evil things, never good ones.
Matt McIrvin
@ian: The most damage our radical left ever does is when it allies itself with the radical right. We have a problem with crypto-fascists who get youth cred by pretending to be Communists. Fortunately they are a fringe of a fringe.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: I worry a lot about the same thing operating on our side–that I want them to be as bad as possible, because by exposing myself to all these stories about the monstrousness of Republicans, I am propagandizing myself into wanting to do something monstrous to them.
There is, I think, a very dark part of my mind that does want an excuse to advocate crimes against humanity and be morally justified. You sometimes see the tendency bubbling up in comments by some of the more excitable commenters on liberal political blogs–the mods here will tell people to cool it and use the banhammer if necessary, but that’s not the case everywhere.
On the other side it just runs free. But I don’t actually want to be the perpetrator of this stuff any more than I want to be the target.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike in NC: You don’t know that. He might have people for that.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott:
A troll farm in Chelyabinsk.
jimmiraybob
@Leto: Yes, I just listened to Maddow’s Ultra – the first two episodes. It’s fascinating and does indeed parallel where we are today to a large degree.
I would also highly recommend Ken Burns’ most recent documentary, “The US and the Holocaust” to get a wider glimpse of what was going on back then.
LiminalOwl
@lowtechcyclist: YES. This is very good, thank you.
@John Cole, I think you mean “country” rather than “company” in your last sentence?
Separately, I want to recommend Amsterdam (in context here, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers). Not perfect, but weird and interesting; The Thin Black Duke and I just saw the film and enjoyed it more than expected. I was hoping he’d write about it here first.
Percysowner
@ian: I do feel sorry for the young Donald who was abused by his father. I know it shaped who he is today. However, having been a victim of abuse doesn’t mean you can’t turn into an abuser. Sadly, that happens more than we like and did happen here. Donald just took his abusive nature across the country. So, I can hate the man that young Donald turned into, while knowing that the kid deserved a loving home.
MisterDancer
@LiminalOwl: I love the idea/casting of Amsterdam! Yet the Director has a list of allegations — including copping to copping a feel off his Trans teen niece! — so long that Vulture basically did a rap sheet article about them.
I really hesitate to put any money in his pockets, frankly.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: Sound analysis, Scott. Grrrr on what they are doing & what awful scumbags they are.
Paul in KY
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I bet those who knew TFG Jr and saw that felt happy.
Paul in KY
@Quiltingfool: Yay on you getting a kitty!
Paul in KY
@Tony G: God knows I am!!!
Matt McIrvin
@Percysowner: Donald Trump’s own father was a terrible, terrible person who was undoubtedly abusive to him, and it helped shape Donald’s personality, and make him an abuser in turn. This doesn’t take Donald Trump off the hook.
LiminalOwl
@MisterDancer: Yes, the Duke told me the director is hugely problematic (but didn’t provide specifics; thanks for the update). I understand your reluctance, and support it… but gee, the movie is good. And very timely, if watched by the people who need to; sadly, I don’t expect that to happen.
eddie blake
@MisterDancer: david o. russell is a very talented director. three kings, i heart huckabees and silver linings playbook are pretty good flicks. amsterdam is a fantastic movie, kind of precisely the kind of film that is needed in this country today; unashamedly, unabashedly anti-fascist.
dude has SERIOUS issues though.
JCNZ
@Raoul Paste: Going round and coming round…
TheronWare
Joe Biden is very much a human being while Sean Hannity is not.
Ruckus
John, rethuglicans can only see backwards. So they only know one way to do anything, backwards. Or as I like to call it backasswards. They do not want to move forward. It’s why their politics are so fucked up, they think they can set time, law, religion, life back a few dozen decades so that the world will be simpler, easier, the government will be smaller and less likely to catch on to their bullshit and theft of the money, government and production or help in any way for the people that need it the most. And yet if one looks at conservative finance, they can never seem to even get what they want, other than to fuck up most of the people. They weren’t as obvious long ago and in very conservative areas they still aren’t.
J R in WV
@dmsilev:
The closest time Trump came to showing emotion with one of his kids was when he visited one of his sons at school to go to a baseball game, and when the son opened his dorm room door, dressed as a college student would dress to go to a ball game with dad, Trump sucker punched the son, told him to put on a suit and meet him at the game.
What a guy!!! What a contrast!!!