The Shooting of Walter Wallace, Jr

 

It's happened again, this time in Philadelphia. By now, we know the script.

Black male, no angel but undeserving of a death sentence, gets shot by police in some conspicuously trigger-happy manner. The video of the Philadelphia shooting can be seen here, unedited (of course). The city understandably goes into an uproar that this nonsense has happened yet again, and protests take place. Looting and destruction takes place thanks to some fringe opportunists, possibly egged on by a couple of well-placed right-wing agitators. The Left-wing assumes everything good and just about the victim. The Right-wing assumes that the police were justified and rallies to its defense. The media turns its cameras and microphones to the family of the victim. The Right-Wing Media Cult then puts every crime the victim ever did on a loop.

We've seen it so often it's passed beyond cliche and gone over into the gloomy realm of monotony. Yet there are a few particulars which make this case extra-noteworthy.

The family seems to have called for an ambulance. Instead they got police. Three calls were made to authorities, and it still isn't clear whether the police were called directly or not, but at least one request for an ambulance was made.

No ambulance arrived until AFTER Walter Wallace was shot.

Once again, we have a situation where police fired WAY too many shots. The camera footage shows that Wallace did not charge at the officers. And he literally brought a knife to a gun-fight. But the officers not only fired at his torso when firing at his legs would have sufficed, they fired no fewer than 11 rounds into the man. One bystander was even heard shouting, "Did you need to fire that many shots?!"

And Wallace apparently was not mentally stable. He was a newlywed, so he was at least sane or crazy enough to say legal vows, but was either off meds that day, or was mentally off for some other reason. Police decided to treat him with a lead injection.

All this is bad enough, but it isn't my main thought regarding this. My main thought is:

YES, there needs to be police accountability for this.

YES, people need to peaceably protest the incident.

NO, PEOPLE SHOULD NOT RIOT! AT LEAST, NOT NOW!

Soooo close to the election's end, the very LAST thing we need is an excuse by some over-zealous chief of police to shut down polling places out of "concern for public safety." And I know, that's paranoia on a House of Cards level, but we're dealing with Donald Trump, not Kevin Spacey, and Trump's followers are capable of anything!

So please, Philly! I'm begging you! STOP RIOTING! The governor of Pennsylvania happens to be a Democrat, Tom Wolfe, but I wouldn't put it past Republicans to see what's happening in Philly and start getting ideas! Imagine if there were suddenly a deliberate police shooting in Atlanta, and polls were closed there in the days leading up to, and beyond, the election! Then suddenly, Georgia does not flip blue, as many people are expecting it might. What about Miami? Or Houston?

So CALM THE FUCK DOWN! Yes, we need to protest, but no window is so important that it can't wait to be broken until after November 4th. Walter Wallace Sr., the father of the victim, is calling for peace. Let's listen to him.

Don't give them ANY excuse!

Eric

*

More Obvious Belling Madness

Just when I think Mark Belling can't get any crazier or more insane, he ups the ante once again. Here's what his broadcast on October 21st had to reveal:

"Obama gets in," says Belling, "the IRS is suddenly corrupt. Again, all of this was before Trump, so it's not like any of us were all that naive when Trump came in that there wasn't going to be a morass that he'd have to wade through. But look what it's been: Every time Trump talked over the last two or three or four years in which he said they're doing this or they're doing that, people would roll their eyes thinking that Trump was paranoid or Trump was lying just to fire up his base, turned out to be true. As it turns out - now think about this - when Trump was being impeached, over asking the Ukranians to re-open an investigation into corruption, the FBI knew that there actually was corruption in Ukraine. In other words, Trump was asking them to re-open an investigation into something which was real! And the FBI knew it was real! Because they had the Hunter Biden laptops at the time! Yet you didn't get a peep out of anybody in the FBI saying, hey, maybe you ought to know this, when Trump asked them to do... there actually is crimes there, we've got the goods on it. They all kept their mouths shut! So tell me the FBI isn't truly rotten! And again, I'm not implicating here a local agent who works in a field office in Burlington, Iowa, or wherever. I'm saying at the headquarters level, at the high level of decision-making. But not just the top one or two. There had to be quite a few people who would have known about that laptop. It's not like something can come in from Wilmington, Delaware, it doesn't go straight to Ray, the head of the FBI."

Incredible! When Belling is confronted with the contradiction that the FBI must have had the alleged Hunter Biden laptops during Trump's impeachment hearing, Belling concludes that the FBI is corrupt rather than think that the laptop story is concocted! Even though the likelihood is clearly the latter rather than the former, objectively! Belling is so desperate for the laptop story to be true, that he regards everything contrary to it as automatically false! And he includes among this, the IRS! (Which is what he was leading up to beforehand. He was referencing the fact that, in the wake of hundreds of new "non-profits" arising out of the Tea Party movement, that the IRS focused its investigations into those new, shady-seeming groups. This, Belling thinks, is Obama-led corruption rather than simple prudence.)

Just imagine! Rather than an obvious bullshit story being false, Belling would rather it be that the entire FBI, and the entire IRS be corrupt! That the whole, goddamned machine would somehow be in the back pocket of Obama and the Bidens!

It must be one hell of a surreal-looking world inside Belling's delusional head.

Just one more example of why Belling needs a padded cell rather than a radio booth, and why WISN is committing elder abuse by allowing this raving lunatic to have a continued platform.

"Now one of the things that I've always said is that truth always comes out, sometimes it just takes a long time. And the truth is coming out about the Ukraine and Hunter Biden. They'll keep the truth from the American public until it serves their purpose to have it come out, but it'll come out. Eventually we learn about all these things, sometimes it's decades later, sometimes it's relatively soon, but the damage is done in the process. I know when the media is going to discover the corruption in the Ukraine and how dirty the Bidens are. If Biden wins it will be about three weeks after the election. OH! Will the thing turn! Will their tone change! When it is in their interest to get rid of Joe Biden so Kamala Harris can be the President, it's going to be remarkable. The media... the media and the Democrats are suddenly gonna stumble on that... 'ol Joe is a) is senile and b) a crook! But one of the points that I make all the time is we conservatives are right we have to do a better job of saying 'I told you so,' while it's not polite to gloat. We have to do this so that we can reinforce here, that when the experts, when the media, when the Left keeps saying these things and say this is it, the... the... the right wingers are lying, they're lying they're lying, in fact... they were the ones that were lying all along. They were the ones that were not to be believed."

You're ON, Belling! Let's see if this actually happens a few weeks after Biden is elected! Hell, let's see if it happens at ALL!

Belling is not exactly one to predict correctly, even in football. But let's see if he's right about THIS one!

I can virtually guarantee you that he's not.

Eric

*

Who Sells More Newspapers?

Quick hit:

One of the most powerful predictors of any presidential election is simply this: which candidate sells more newspapers?

At least, I used to think that was the standard.

The actual standard, I've come to realize, is: which outcome sells more newspapers?

The news media loves a candidate who will make them more money, and so it naturally gravitates towards the candidate who will generate bigger headlines. That means that reporters, consciously or unconsciously (usually the latter), tend to slant their coverage in favor of the candidate who will provide bigger news stories. Even the so-called "liberal" media sided with Donald Trump last time, in large part because it knew, intrinsically, that Trump would make them a lot more money than President Hillary Clinton would have.

But it's not that simple this time around, is it?

I think it is beyond obvious that Donald Trump gets more headlines than Joe Biden - meaning he sells way more newspapers. So from that standpoint, one might think Trump would win the election. But it's not the candidate that's really the issue. It's the outcome. President Biden may be pretty boring, and he'll make a refreshingly dull president, but Donald Trump no longer having the protection of the Presidency? That's a HUGE news generator! Because without the Presidency to protect him, Trump becomes vulnerable to huge lawsuits and possible arrest warrants. That's BIG news! And it's big news that could continue for a long, long time!

Some in the press clearly want to see this. Others, not so much. But everyone intrinsically knows it will be likely to happen. That generates more newsprint than four more years of Trump himself.

And, to be honest, maybe having the first ever female vice president will be a pretty big story, too.

Eric

*

The Fakest Fake News Story

 

The Right-Wing Media Cult, and in particular Fox News, seems to be making itself absolutely breathless about the recent "news story" (perhaps I should say, fairy-tale) regarding Hunter Biden's supposed laptop and the alleged emails found therein. For those unaware, here's a synopsis of the claim:

It all started with an article in the New York Post, which is essentially the Fox News of newspapers in New York City. You can read the original article here. According to that article, Hunter Biden dropped off his personal laptop for repair at a computer repair shop in Delaware in April of 2019. The laptop allegedly had water damage. The shop owner, who is legally blind, could not identify whether the individual who dropped the computer off was Hunter Biden, but said there was a sticker on it from the Beau Biden foundation. When repeated attempts to return the laptop went ignored, the shop owner decided to look through the laptop's hard-drive. Why? No reason is given. Since the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, he might have simply contacted that foundation in a good faith and due diligence effort to return property and receive payment. He did not. Why? Again, we don't know. Instead, this store owner, after violating ethics and looking through the hard-drive, discovered sensitive emails pertaining to Burisma, and private videos showing Hunter engaging in drug use and lewd sex acts. At this point, the Post says, the store owner contacted the FBI, and turned over the laptop. But for some strange reason yet to be explained, he decided to make a copy of the hard-drive first. When it became clear to the shop owner that the FBI was not doing anything with the discovery, he shared the information with Robert Costello, who happened to be Rudy Giuliani's lawyer. Costello, in turn, gave it to Giuliani, who gave it to the New York Post. How did the shop owner, in Delaware, happen to know a lawyer in New York? The Post does not say. Why did the shop owner not contact his own lawyer? Or perhaps turn everything over to a Republican official in the State of Delaware? Again, no explanation.

The laptop's emails allegedly contain a "thank you" letter from Burisma official, Vadym Pozharskyi, saying how much he appreciated the opportunity to meet Hunter's father, Joe. And an earlier email from the same man asks for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf. This seems to contradict Joe Biden's assertion that Hunter didn't provide any contact between himself and Burisma officials. It also implies that Hunter's influence may have contributed to the firing of Alexander Shokin, who was purportedly investigating Burisma at the time.

When the New York Post broke the story, Facebook and Twitter banned it. Not because of the story's actual content, but because of a standing policy that hacked information is not to be transmitted over their social media platforms. Naturally, the Right-Wing Media Machine cried "censorship!" and pushed the story any way they could. President Trump  himself relayed the story, which ended up getting passed along through Babylon Bee - which is the Alt-Right version of The Onion.

So what's wrong with this?

Plenty. And lots of other news outlets are pointing out the flaws. But I don't believe those efforts are being thorough enough. So here's my breakdown on all the problems with this particular story-line:

1) The FBI is investigating this, not as a matter pertaining to Joe Biden exerting undue influence in Ukraine, but as a potential attempt by a foreign government at influencing the election. This from The Daily Beast and other sources. The FBI itself is declining comment, but if there were anything to this, there would be a James Comey type of investigation into Hunter's emails. There is apparently not. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It is Giuliani and his role which are being investigated.

2)  Vadym Pozharskyi seems to have never officially met Joe Biden. Oh, there's a remote possibility that he may have met Joe at a public event and shaken hands with him, but there was never a formal meeting. Biden's foreign policy and energy advisers have no knowledge of the man, and they're the ones who would have vetted and scheduled any such meeting. So, outside of a possible handshake, this Burisma official never met with Biden. That means the email linking Hunter Biden with Vadym Pozharskyi is fake. Furthermore, the email the Post cites does not actually show that Hunter Biden “introduced” Joe Biden to the Burisma executive at all. In the email, Pozharskyi thanks Hunter Biden for “giving an opportunity to meet your father.” That might may just as easily have meant Hunter promised a meeting in the future - a meeting which may never have occurred! The Post does not appear to have produced any other reporting indicating such a meeting took place. And what does Pozharskyi have to say for himself? So far, nothing.

3) The story itself is highly unlikely. Hunter Biden lives in L.A. He would have taken his computer to a Los Angeles computer store. Could he have brought the computer all the way over to Delaware while on a visit to see his father? Probably not, since his father was spending most of his time campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire at the time.

4) The shop owner keeps changing his story. The owner is John Paul MacIsaac of Wilmington. He is an avid Trump supporter. He initially said that he wasn’t able to identify who dropped off the laptop because he is “legally blind.” He only says that the customer had identified himself as Hunter Biden. Convenient. But what about his store's security cameras? Can't they show whether it was Hunter or not? The shop does have two cameras, but MacIsaac claimed the footage from that day was automatically deleted before he realized how important it was. What about the invoice? It's mad out to the name of "Hunter Biden," together with an address and a signature. Doesn't THAT prove it was Hunter? MacIsaac won't say. He’s given conflicting accounts of how he came into contact with the FBI. He says he initially made a copy of the hard drive for personal protection, Hillary Clinton purportedly once killed a DNC staffer for leaking information. MacIsaac has generally been sketchy with reporters regarding his dealings with Giuliani, and hard-drive in question.

5) The story is remarkably un-confirmable. There are photos of an FBI subpoena, but it has been redacted, so it could apply to anyone. There is a separate page showing Hunter Biden's address and what looks like his signature, but it is separate, and could easily be either forged, unrelated, or both. The hard-drive's contents are in the hands of the New York Post. But what's on that hard-drive? We don't know. The Post has only released certain photos which purportedly came from the hard-drive, but no one else has been allowed to examine it, or receive a copy. This means that we have only the Post's word for it, and that's not acceptable. Steve Bannon claims to have the copy of the hard-drive lately, but he, too, has been jealously guarding it.

6) The timing is suspect. If this laptop had been dropped off in April of 2019, then Giuliani probably already had the hard drive in his hands during the time of Trump's impeachment trial. Does anyone truly believe that Giuliani would have held on to this all through that crucial time for Donald Trump? This story should have broken back in January at the very latest. Instead it appears three weeks before the election? Yeah, riiiiiight.

7) The messenger is suspect. Rudy Giuliani has not only lost his marbles as of late, he has been red-flagged for months as a target for foreign influence from Russia. And now that very guy is the guy who gave the story to the New York Post? Couldn't Russia have found someone more credible? Like L. Ron Hubbard?

8) Even the reporters at the New York Post found the article suspect. The person who actually wrote most of the piece refused to sign her name to it out of fear that it wasn't true, according to an article by the New York Times. 

9) For the millionth time, Alexander Shokin was fired for NOT investigating Burisma! That's why Joe Biden was so proud of getting him fired! Shokin was then replaced with Yuriy Lutsenko, who completed the investigation into Burisma. So saying that Hunter influenced his father to pressure the Ukranian government to stop investigating Burisma is ludicrous!

As you can see, the story has as many holes as a sieve, and holds water about as equally well. Meanwhile, the lackeys at Fox News are treating the story as though it were the second coming of Jesus Christ.

I'll wait for the second coming of sanity.

Eric

*

A Day In The Life Of The Right-Wing Media Cult

 

I have said recently that the Right-Wing Media has become a cult, and in case you somehow don't believe me, here's what hit the news just yesterday that totally makes my point regarding this:

Trump begged for women to vote for him at a rally, saying, "So I ask you to do me a favor. Suburban women: will you please like me? Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK? The other thing: I don't have that much time to be that nice. You know, I can do it, but I gotta go quickly."

Sounds a bit like that bad first date who says, "You know, I sprung for a nice dinner for you, and I don't have all night, so can we just get right to it, please?" Yeah, he's that guy.

And there was a time when no politician would say anything that bluntly racist. Really? "I saved your damn neighborhood?" From what, pray tell? Why, from those silly black people who want to move to your upper middle-class neighborhood, that's what! Now, point this out to a Trump supporter, and they will say, "That's not racist!"

Yeah. Cult.

Then there's this one: Olivia Nuzzi reported in the Intelligencer that Rudy Giuliani had this particular meltdown:

“I took one this morning,” Giuliani said of hydroxychloroquine. “I was exposed four days ago. Four negatives. My doctor makes me take hydroxychloroquine because he believes it’s a prophylactic. Not only that — my doctor has treated 2,000 patients. Two people died. One was 87. The other was 79. Both of them had very serious diabetes.” He called the drug “a great pill if you take it at the early stages.”

Later on, after claiming that Democrats used the pandemic to take away gun rights (which did not happen) he mentioned the McCloskeys, the couple who wielded guns on the porch of their St. Louis mansion in front of Black Lives Matter demonstrators who were passing by. Giuliani said (no, I'm not making this up) that the protesters had yelled, “’We want to rape your wife! We want to rape your wife! We want this for reparations! This is number one for reparations! Biggest house here! Reparations!’ Nobody knows this, but at the time, their daughter was upstairs under the bed because she was afraid they’re going to come in and they’re talking about rape and they’re going to rape the wife and they’re going to find the daughter.”

How much of this was true? Exactly zero percent!

Yeah. Cult.

In a normal administration, with a normal electorate, Giulianni would be quietly fired and brought to a psychiatrist. Probably in a strait-jacket. How far we have come from the days when John McCain yanked the microphone away from a crazy woman who insisted that Barack Obama was a Muslim.

Then there's this one:

When Senator Corey Booker asked Amy Comey Barrett if a president should commit himself to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses an election, Barrett said this:

“Well, Senator, that seems to me to be pulling me in a little bit into this question of whether the president has said that he would not peacefully leave office, and so to the extent this is a political controversy right now, as a judge I want to stay out of it.”

No it's not a "political controversy!" It is basic jurisprudence 101! If a president refuses to leave after losing an election, that's called a dictatorship, and it's just not done! But this woman was so over-coached to avoid saying anything controversial that she dodged even that softball question! And in so doing, looked to the whole world as though she were the most incompetent judge on the planet! I doubt she's quite that bad, but if she wouldn't even answer that one, it's close!

Like I said, cult.

Or there was the news story about Trump considering wearing a Superman t-shirt underneath his regular clothes and then ripping off his button-down shirt to reveal it. Because that's a sane president, right? Or the one where Trump re-Tweeted a conspiracy theory that says Obama and Biden may have had Seal Team 6 murdered. In what universe is this not grounds for immediate impeachment?

It won't be considered, and not just because the election is 20 days away. It won't be considered because 52 Senators just won't grow enough of a backbone to restore some small shred of dignity to their party.

'Nuff said.

Eric

*

They Don't Believe The Polls!

 By any measure, Joe Biden has a commanding lead right now.

The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Biden with a 10-point lead. Biden has had a roughly 7-point lead ever since July. And this steadiness is one of the biggest aberrations of any set of polling data we have seen in the modern era. Even Rasmussen, Right-leaning Rasmussen, gave Biden a 12- point lead in its most recent poll. Ordinarily, there are huge swings and much narrower margins. In 2012, Mitt Romney was occasionally seen with a 2-point edge over Obama. In 2016 at this time, Hillary's lead over Trump was only 3 or 4 points. It grew to 6 points after the release of the Access Hollywood Tape, but then crashed down to negative numbers after James Comey announced his re-opening of the email investigation, only 11 days out. States which might never have been dreamed to be in play are potential wins for Biden. Georgia? Iowa? Even Texas is a potential flip for the Democrats now! Biden's lead is so large and so steady, that any sane person on the Republican side should be worried sick.

Instead, what I see is complete denial.

I saw one conservative post an election map which showed his projections for Trump winning big. I shit you not, this clown had Trump Winning not only in various swing states like Arizona, but also solidly blue states like Minnesota and New York! Never mind that polls are showing Biden with a solid lead in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Arizona. Check this stupid shit out:

The post references the "Helmut Norpoth Model." Basically, the Helmut Norpoth Model assumes that if a primary candidate did better in a particular state than the opponent did in his/her primary, that meant the enthusiasm would carry the state for that particular candidate. In other words, better primary numbers mean a better chance at winning. Of course, that's pure horse-shit when one political party already has an incumbent candidate. So projections like the one above, where New York State, of all places, shows red, are completely baseless.

I chimed in, saying that whoever did this particular Electoral College map was smoking crack, and that projections showed both Arizona and my home state of Wisconsin as likely blue.

Believe it or not, I actually got blowback on this! One guy told me that Wisconsin was not even close to being blue because both legislative bodies were Republican. As a lifelong resident of Wisconsin, I told this idiot to not presume what I saw in my own damned back yard, and pointed out that the legislature was still Republican only due to extreme gerrymandering. Another person who was a resident of Arizona was adamant that Arizona would not go blue, and called me an ignorant neanderthal for suggesting otherwise. I hit her with a link to the Real Clear Politics polling average which showed Biden with a clear and steady lead in AZ and nationwide. A bunch more people then jumped on the thread and told me those polls were fake! No joke! They posted links to conservative articles that claimed the polls were being skewed in favor of Democrats in order to discourage people from getting out to vote for Trump. I faithfully read the articles, saw that they had zero evidence to present, and said so! They still refused to accept it.

Okay, I get that the polls shifted so radically in 2016, and so quickly towards the end, that many people believed Hillary had a lead right up to election day. But she did not! Her lead evaporated days before, and polls were showing her behind by 2 or 3 points! James Comey's re-instituion of an investigation into Hillary's emails turned her chances at victory to ash! When James Comey concluded his re-investigation on the Sunday before Election Day and found, yet again, that Hillary was in the clear, I expected a last-minute bounce of 2 or 3 points. But it never came.

Fast forward to today. These people believe that, because they didn't see the actual shift in the polls beforehand last time, that the earlier polls which showed Hillary in the lead must have been fake. They believe this same sort of thing is happening now.

Um, no.

The Helmut Norpoth Model is based on wishful thinking at best. But it's not really about that. The reason so many people are doubting the polls is because the Right-Wing Media Cult is declaring the polls to be fake. This sets the stage for Trump to claim, as we all expect him to, that the election results are invalid, and that he should not leave office. Trump's followers, having been primed to disbelieve the polls for months and months, will buy this garbage and believe Trump won.

Even though every single poll has shown Biden with an incredibly solid lead for almost the entire goddamned year!

A more realistic map emerges when you take the Real Clear Politics average and use that to make a "no toss-up state" election model. This shows Trump losing in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, and even Iowa - all states where Trump is polling behind.

Such an outcome might bitch-slap Trump voters back into reality. But in truth, if reality hasn't bitch-slapped them enough by now, I doubt it will do so again this time.

Which means, after Trump loses, we must vigilantly busy ourselves with making sure he leaves, making sure his supporters do not trash the goddamned place (because they might), and making sure Trump is dragged out by his stupid hair after Biden is sworn in.

Eric

*

The Utter Insanity of Mark Belling

 

 

Mark Belling is utterly insane. I mean, we use hyperbole statements such as, "he's insane," all the time, but in this case, I really mean it. Mark Belling is clinically a basket-case.

Loony tunes! Bat-shit bonkers! Verruckt! Loco en la cabesa!

Thinking that I've been lax in criticizing right-wing radio of late, I actually bothered to listen to Mark Belling's podcast for October 5th. I can't listen to him on the radio, because WISN is so inundated with commercials that I can't sit in my car for 15 minutes listening to it without the entire 15 minutes being used up on commercial time! (No joke, I've timed it on my phone!) So, Mark's podcast is what I turned to. When I did, I got treated to a real dumpster-fire.

In between the ghastly pauses he takes on the air - so long that they make me wonder momentarily if WISN has gone off the air - Belling, on Monday, likened Liberals to people who see a mirror and mistake it for a window. In other words, Liberals, believing they see through a window onto the fascism of Right-wing politics, actually see a reflection of their own Left-wing politics!

"This is going to be good now," he says. "You ready for this? [Another big, ghastly pause.] The Liberals see - conservatives, middle America, Republicans, white people - they look out and they see us as monsters!"

 Poor choice of words, Mark. Four days later Trump would actually call Kamala Harris a monster.

"When Trump was running and when Trump came in they kept saying, 'He's a fascist!' They projected all of these terrible things he was going to do. They still call him a racist, despite no indication of and race-based policies in his administration at all..."

 Really? What part of calling Mexicans "rapists" does he not understand? How is building a wall along our southern border, in the age of the airplane, anything other than a big, fat, obvious anti-Mexican platform? How is equating Charlottesville neo-Nazis with their protesters anything other than obviously, plainly, racist? And was he not paying attention during the Sept. 29 "debate" between Trump and Biden? Did he not plainly see Trump at first saying "sure" when asked if he would condemn white supremacists, and then outright not doing it?

The dog-whistle has been a klaxon for quite some time, now.

Right there it's easy to tell that Belling is too far gone in his own, private fantasy to be bothered with what reality clearly demonstrates before his very eyes. But he's part of the Right-wing Media Cult, which is the cause of this present era, which I call The Great Madness. In this pseudo-reality, Trump is not a racist - because they say so. That's not much of a reason, but that's what they give. And frankly, that delusion is all they've got.

Belling continues, "...So they make all of these comments they perceive, that everyone on the right is a hateful, bigoted, awful human being..."

Exhibit A., Mark, is you.

 "...They believe that politically we are fascists. That we want to trample on the rights of everyone else. They believe that we are greedy, they believe that we don't care about poor people, they believe we don't care about black people - all of that stuff. And that's what they see when they look at us. Here's the thing though: You know who all that's true of? THEM! We have seen over the last four years, a remarkable rise of fascism in the United States. From THEM! What has Trump done to restrict free speech in the United States in his four years as president? Nothing! That's what fascists do!"

Actually, Trump has done quite a LOT to restrict free speech in the United States. He has outright called the media "The enemy of the people." Remember that one? He has outright berated reporters for asking tough, yet fair, questions. In other words, for doing their job. He has given exclusive favoritism towards Fox News and One America News, and this partnership between Trump and Fox News has led directly to many of their reporters being fired for daring to speak the truth about Trump. Shepherd Smith? Drummed out! Megyn Kelly? Forced out! George Will? Contract not renewed. When reporter Jennifer Griffin confirmed that Trump made disparaging remarks about the military, Trump called on Fox News to fire her! How is that freedom of speech? His Press Secretary, Kaylee McEnany, treats press gatherings as debate fronts and propaganda sessions rather than disseminations of information. But most importantly, Trump has urged his supporters, "Don't believe the lying media!" In other words, ignore all the balanced news outlets. Only listen to our side! And while that may be within the bounds of free speech, it is in violation of the spirit of it. No president worth his salt is afraid of an electorate who hears both sides.

Trump, on the other hand, has refused to condemn, and in fact even encouraged, supporters of his who display physical violence to those who protest him at his rallies.

Is Trump an outright fascist? Depends on your definition of fascism. I, personally, define it as support of a non-hereditary monarchy; dictatorship by another name. And it's no secret that Trump wants to be a dictator. He chums up to dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un. He often tries to dictate things by executive order, even when he clearly can't. So by that standard, Trump IS fascist.

So far, we've lucked out in the sense that Trump is too incompetent to know how to seize complete control.

Those on the political Right are the ones who have become fascists. We know this because when they use arguments about the Electoral College, they say that our system was meant to protect us from "the tyranny of the majority!" In other words, fuck the popular vote! But protecting the minorities from the tyranny of the majority was meant as something to protect a minority of Protestants from a majority of Catholics, or a minority of blacks against a majority of whites! It was never meant to thwart a majority of votes for the opposition candidate! In fact, the very definition of a democratic republic says otherwise! Again and again, we see and hear Republicans stating, quite clearly, that the majority opinions regarding gun control, religious freedom, gay marriage, abortion, or any number of other issues, don't matter. They are going to beat the majority liberals back, at all costs! WE will rule, majority be damned!

If that's not fascism, or at least fascistic, then no such thing ever existed!

"On the other hand," Belling goes on, "who has imposed speech codes, used the power of physical violence, passage of laws, passage of rules, to restrict people from expressing the viewpoint of their choice. Them! Every definition of fascism fits what lefties have pushed over the last four years."

What "passage of laws" restricting freedom of speech is Belling referring to? He doesn't say. Because, of course, he can't. I won't deny that the liberal side has had problems with "cancel culture" as of late. But people do have the right to vote with their pocketbook. And I also won't deny that a few University campuses have tried to curtail free expression in ways which are truly deplorable. But in the end, there are really no "thought police." The University campuses cannot enforce such rules after the few times they've tried to impose them, and such rules are usually struck down right away regardless. And the thing which turns people liberal at Universities and other institutions of higher learning isn't indoctrination. It's simply, plainly, weighing the evidence fairly. The free exchange of ideas leads people to liberalism, because it wins on a level playing field. Conservatism usually cannot - something Belling and his ilk simply cannot stand. So they try to gag the Universities by denying them funding - which is yet another fascistic move.

"The next thing," Belling rants on, "'Trump is CRUDE!' 'He lacks decency!' 'Trump Tweets and makes fun of people in speeches.' Compare that to the VILE stuff directed at him! Go back and collect the last four years of social media posts directed at Donald Trump from the entire American Left, including people in their regular lives, and I am telling you, it is 150,000 times worse than anything you get from either Trump, or any conservative! What they have done is, in their own mind, invented this kind of sub-human species, and ascribed its characteristics to all of us on the Right, and then have turned around and behaved exactly the way they say- they claim we are! The fascists and the brown shirts - how is that different from these street riots? How are the thugs that marched through Germany, intimidating people, any different from the way that Antifa acts today? You go all the way through, and all of the things they warned against and said would happen from the right, are things they themselves do!"

Look, if you ASK for it, you're going to GET it! If people say vile things about Trump, it happens because Trump richly earned it! Don't believe me? Roll the tape! Trump was begging for it long before he embarrassed himself over Obama's birth certificate.

What's the difference between the brown shirts and the street-riots? The street riots are disorganized, leaderless, and without a political agenda. Fascists and brown-shirts had a very specific goal - the takeover of Germany, and the conquest of Europe. America's street-riots are made of up grass-roots people who are simply, plainly, fed up with being mistreated and killed! But Belling, up in his downtown loft, can't see that ground-level reality.

"Now! Here's my favorite," says Belling. '"Trump's a liar!' How many times have you heard them say that? All they have done for four years is lie about Trump."

Really? Every politician lies, but Trump is such a proven liar that Politifact has had difficulty keeping up with them. News outlets have cataloged and numbered them. One person even made a YouTube video detailing over 2,000 of them!

"And I don't mean some guy on - pisting [I'm sure he meant texting] on Facebook lying about Trump. The FBI! Lied! The justice department lied to the judges to get a warrant in front of the FISA court about the basis to start the Russian investigation. [1) They didn't. 2) Getting a warrant from the FISA court is a low-bar.] They lied about the origin of the Steele Dossier. [Again, wrong.] They lied about not having the knowledge that, in fact, nothing in the Steele Dossier was true. [Incorrect. Some aspects of the dossier were, in fact, verified.] They knew it not - we now know, they knew it not to be true when they started the investigation! [See above.] But the investigation was never for the purposes of actually finding anything, because they already knew it wasn't true when it started! [Again, wrong.] They fed leak after leak to the media about damning stuff that was going to come out, none of it was ever true, and they knew all along it wasn't true. [Bullshit.] The media members who ran with this stuff either knew that they were lied to and repeated the lie because they, themselves are liars, or they don't mind that they were lied to because they were more than willing to repeat a lie because they thought it would help the team. And these are the people who say 'Trump's a liar!'"

 Because Trump IS a liar! But Belling is so far removed from reality that he can't tell shit from chocolate.

Even when Belling comes dangerously close to convincing himself otherwise, he falls right back into his hole. Check this out:

"I'll admit, Trump can exaggerate... You know, I gotta admit something to you guys. I kinda always thought Trump was a little dirty in terms of some of these hotel deals and the bond deals. I mean I've watched, over the years, the way Trump would get investors involved in these hotel deals. I've asked the question long before Trump ran, 'Why would anybody invest in any bonds and any project issued by Donald Trump?' Given the fact that so many of them went belly up why would you lend money to Trump? It seems like an incredibly risky thing. They're rated as junk bonds every time they come out... Trump believed, Trump ran his business on the premise of OPM [Other People's Money]... Which is always the best way to do something. So, Trump came - I-I kinda thought that probably - he talks fast and loose on some of the fine print on some of these deals and so on, that was just my premise of him... So there was certainly a fear that Trump would cut some ethical corners as President. [Big pause.] I'm telling you this is the cleanest administration in American history! Paul, name one instance of corruption that has occurred in the Donald Trump presidency. NONE! I mean, we don't even have, like, some guy from HUD in the mid-level taking a bribe! To build up - to put up some project in St. Petersburg! Nothing! There's been nothing! I mean, everybody's got something!..."

Putting aside the fact that Belling's call-screener, Paul, needs to finally be given a goddamned microphone, Paul is also clearly an ennabler! I mean, name ONE instance of corruption that has occurred in the Donald Trump presidency?

Oh, just off the top of my head:

Stormy Daniels, numerous rape charges, refusal to sufficiently privatize his business interests, exhorbitant charges for amenities at Trump Tower and Mar-A-Lago, Trump's TAX FRAUD, the obstruction and corruption as clearly outlined in the Mueller Report, the whole thing about building an unnecessary wall was in and of itself a corruption scandal...

Come on, man!

Freedom of speech is an absolute. But Belling has gone beyond the pale. He is literally spewing outright lies, on the air, three hours per day, every single day he is on, which is about 4 days every week. (He takes a day off now and then since he had a minor stroke nearly two years ago.) That's a lot of insanity! And it's clear, Mark actually believes these lies!

That proves he's insane.

It's time to call it like it is: WISN needs to take Mark Belling off the air. He's screaming "Fire!" in a crowded theater every, single day, and it needs to stop! WISN might like the ratings Mark gets, but the ratings are due to utter and complete insanity! WISN is making itself party to the perpetration of public fraud, and that's the exact opposite of the "news and information' standard they wish to set. Mark will undoubtedly call this yet another example of liberals wanting to curtail free speech, but he is perfectly free to spew his bullshit on some other station - one which does not have the word "News" in its name.

Belling needs a padded cell, not a broadcast booth.

Of course, this is the station that broadcasts Limbaugh, so it's not like truth matters much to them.

 

Eric

*

Jay Weber and The Cult of Right-Wing Media

 

Well, holy shit! Trump got Covid!

Okay, by now, the shock has worn off, and most people have gone back to the perspective they had before. In particular, conservative screed-weavers have gone back to their usual sheep-bleating in favor of Trump, in spite of the proven failure on top of proven failure which is his Covid-19 illness.

Just for funzies, I decided to tune in to 1130 WISN radio during my morning commute to listen to Jay Weber and hear what the right-wingers might have to say. I hadn't listened to Jay Weber in years, but this was a special occasion. What would he say about Trump? I was surprised to hear - or rather NOT hear - nothing about it whatsoever! Instead, I got treated to some horrendous, bald-faced lies attempting to spin Kaylee McInerny's press conference on Wednesday into something where Trump decried white supremacists. (More on that, later.)

Really? Fucking really? Maybe I've been negligent in ignoring idiots like Jay Weber.

What I've come to realize lately, and I'm ashamed to admit that it took me this long to fully grok the concept, is that Conservative Media has become an outright cult! I, who have studied religion for decades, should have seen it much, much sooner. But now that I have, I can't UN-see it! Evidence for Conservative Media being a cult is everywhere! And nowhere more so than on the Jay Weber show on the morning of October 2nd.

Here's what I heard on the Jay Weber show last Friday morning. I shit you not, this actually happened, on the air. 

"I'd like to play for you a couple of audio cuts from yesterday's White House briefing that the average working American is never going to hear. These briefings take place, of course, during the day and, they don't get a lot of tune-in from the public, so most Americans never see the brow-beating that President Trump's press secretary takes nearly daily and what a farce these are - daily. Nor do they hear the stellar answers that come from Trump's - people. But most of what occurs in the White House briefing room never reaches the air or gets reported on because 9 times out of 10, the press person, whether it's Sean Spicer or Sarah Sanders or now Kaylee McEneny - who's really good - 9 times out of 10, they slam the question and the answer doesn't fit the reporters preconceived notion of what it would be so the don't print it. If they don't get the answer they want, they won't print it or broadcast it. They're only really going for gotcha moments in these briefings, which is why I, as a former journalist, who will always defend the right of the free and honest press, urge the Trump administration to not even have these daily briefings. I cheered when these ended because they weren't journalists looking for information, they were grand-standers looking for their moment in the sun. I don't know why McEnany went back to them, but they did. It's just left-wing activists looking for camera attention. But, yesterday following Trump's debate performance that these D.C. elites found so distasteful, the press corps was in a sour fighting mood for some reason. They wanted to continue this false narrative that the racist Trump didn't denounce white supremacists during the debate, when he absolutely did! Listen back to it. He absolutely did! Twice! He was asked 'would he do it?' twice by Chris Wallace, and he said, 'sure, sure I do!' Twice!"

Okay, no he did not. He said "sure, I will," and then DIDN'T! Weber's refusal to see the difference between Trump saying he would say it, and actually saying it, is one of the more obvious things Trump opponents have ever had to debunk. And it was SUCH A SOFTBALL QUESTION! All Trump had to do was say, "I denounce white supremacists!" And he would likely have won back some center-right voters, gone up in the polls, and possibly even put himself in a position to win!

But he couldn't do it!

And Weber? Weber's in denial about it. But he knows by voicing his denial over the airwaves he lends legitimacy to the false perception, which, of course, is the whole point.

"But the entire left-wing media complex ignored that, because he had butchered what came afterward with the Proud Boys, you know, he butchered that take with the Proud Boys..."

See? Even Weber can't ignore that part!

"...which, by the way, is not a white supremacist organization. The leader of this organization is black and Cuban. One-fifth of their members are minority. They have said forever they are not a white supremacist organization and they denounce racism, to the point where the leader of this - Proud Boys is suing Joe Biden and his campaign over calling them white supremacists! So, just another instance of which, truth and details don't matter to the Left, they're going to plow ahead with the narrative. And boy do they!"

Okay, technically the Proud Boys aren't white-supremacist. They are neo-fascist, ultra right-wing, and male-only. None of that is particularly much better. Trump could have denounced the Proud Boys right then and there. But he didn't. He didn't say, "I denounce white supremacists," and he didn't say, "I denounce the Proud Boys." Instead he said, "Stand back and stand by."

To fascists. He said that to fascists. Hey, Jay Weber? That's not much of an excuse, you turd.

"In a perfect display of what the Left-wing media do, John Roberts of Fox News decides to be an ass and ask, yet again, for, you know, does Trump denounce white supremacy?"

"[Recording of McEnany's press conference on Thursday, October 1st] {Roberts:} 'As the person who speaks for the President, does the President denounce white supremacism, and groups that espouse it, in all their forms?'

"{McEnany:} 'This has been answered, yesterday by the President himself, the day before by the President himself on the debate stage, the President was asked this, he said "sure" three times. [Oh, now it's three times?] Yesterday, he was point-blank asked, 'Do you denounce white supremacy?' and he said, 'I've always denounced any form of that.' I can go back and read for you on August 2019, 'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.' In August of 2017, 'Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups." I have an entire list of these quotes that I can go through with you. He has condemned white supremacy more than any president in modern history.'"

The president said, "sure" when he said would make the declaration, but fell short of making the declaration itself, then seemed to give a verbal thumbs-up to the Proud Boys. Some conservatives have argued that the "sure" is enough. But it really isn't. Not when Trump has repeatedly laced his denunciations of white-supremacy with ambiguity and a "both sides" mentality. When Trump "denounced" the day before, he simply said, "I've always denounced any form of that." Of that. Meaning, he can't even bring himself to say it outright. He has to play the pronoun game! And that's the sort of thing dog-whistles are meant to do: send these subtle messages in the form of dodging the act of saying the denial directly. McEnany's quote from 2017 is precisely when Trump infamously said that there was bad behavior "on both sides." The part that McEnany leaves out from Trump's quote from 2019 is that he was goaded into finally making that statement by a mass shooting at a Walmart in Texas by a white supremacist who happened to be a big fan of Trump!

So it's quite understandable why any reporter would want a clear, unambiguous, current statement just this once.

"{Roberts:} 'Just to clear it up, this morning, can you, naming it, make a declarative statement that the President denounces it?'

"{McEnany:} 'I just did. The President has denounced this repeatedly.'

At this point, they start talking over one another, and it becomes difficult to follow.

"{Roberts:} 'You give quotes from the past. I'm just...'

"{McEnany:} 'The president was asked this. You're making, you're contriving a story line and a narrative...'

"{Roberts:} 'No, I'm not. I'm just asking you to put this to rest.'

"{McEnany:} 'I just did. I read you all of the quotes, and if you need to see them in writing... '

"{Roberts:} 'You read me past quotes. Can you do it currently?'

"{McEnany:} '...I will put them in an email. Call me.'

"{Roberts:} 'So, Kaylee, how does the - Can you, right now, denounce white supremacy and the groups that espouse it?'

"{McEnany:} 'I just did! The President has denounced...'

"{Roberts:} 'You read a bunch of quotes from the past.'

 "{McEnany:} '...white supremacy, the KKK, and hate groups in all forms. He signed a resolution to that effect. The president just last week, perhaps you all weren't covering it, but just last week, expressed his desire to see the KKK prosecuted as domestic terrorists. This president had advocated for the death penalty for a white supremacist, the first federal execution in 17 years. His record on this is unmistakable, and it's shameful that the media refuses to cover it.'"

The best defense I can come up with for McEnany's behavior here is that she didn't want to be led on. She didn't want the reporter to dictate the terms. In other contexts, that might be fine. But he was asking a legitimate question: 'That was then, this is now, can you give a denouncement NOW?' And, like her boss, Kaylee couldn't do it! The dog-whistle of ambiguity regarding the response got blown, loud and clear to the kennel!

Trump expressed his desire to prosecute the KKK AND ANTIFA as domestic terrorists. Let's be clear, Trump was doing his "both sides" bullshit again! Sure, he signed a resolution, because when a piece of paper, written by someone else, is presented to him, and all he has to do is sign it, that's easy for him. But again, this signed declaration came as a result of the 2017 Charlottesville debacle in which he verbally said something contradictory to the signed paper! And the death penalty is something Trump has long been in favor of. The fact that the first one just happened to be a white supremacist was probably meant more to silence the naysayers than it was to establish Trump as some sort of anti-racist.

Weber, of course, didn't bother to mention any of that, and sided with McEnany. "Isn't that astounding?" he said. "Just to clear it up. Just to clear it up! She just went through it! John Roberts: 'Does the president categorically deny? No hedges?' 'Yes! He's done so repeatedly.' She reads a literal laundry list of times Trump has done it, dating back to the first campaign, by the way, Trump has never expressed any support for these groups and he's denounced them every time he's been asked. McEnany cites a literal laundry-list of denials, Roberts' response is: 'But you haven't answered the question.' What?! See, this is the East-Coast media, my friends. It has been going on forever, but it really got bad under Bush and it's now out of control under President Trump. They refuse to acknowledge the reality of the facts and listen to what's being said to them, so they can preserve the narrative."

Of course, he clearly wasn't listening to the same press conference the rest of us were. Because the reporter wanted, finally, a clear and unambiguous condemnation from the President's own lips, or at the very least, from the lips of the Press Secretary. And she couldn't do it, either! She kept repeating "I just did," when she clearly hadn't! She read past denials, all of which were ambiguous, indirect or had special circumstances surrounding them. When has Trump EVER not had a string attached regarding a condemnation of white supremacists?!

The Press Gaggle knew. That's why John Roberts, of FOX NEWS, no less, pressed the issue! Even some on the Right-wing media are getting it.

Jay Weber claims to be a former journalist. Now we know why. He couldn't cut it as a truth-teller.

"After days of this Proud Boyz nonsense," begins Weber again after commercial break, "Kaylee McEneny had this to say to reporters about how they ignore Antifa:

"[Continuation of McEnany's press conference on Thursday, October 1st] 'They misreport, take out of context, ignore the verbatim words of this president when he denounced white supremacy yesterday, when he denounced it at the debate, when he's denounced it more than any other president in modern history. Um, and in fact, something else lost upon the media is the absolute turning of a blind eye to Antifa. Carrying the water for the Democrats, the media, apparently agrees with Jerry Nadler that Antifa violence is a myth. In August Senate hearings, Democrats refused to condemn Antifa. Again, no journalistic curiosity here, despite the fact that Andy Ngo, who was a victim of Antifa, said Democrats have mastered - Democrats, he should add the media, too - have mastered the art of making its violence appear innocuous. Their violence is not innocuous. Antifa is not an idea. Andy Ngo can tell you that because he was beaten by a group of protesters - Antifa protesters - suffering brain-bleed. Another man can tell you this, who in 2019, the victim, his name was Adam Kelly, suffered from a concussion and got 25 staples in his head, but still silence from Democrats ignoring this group, from Democrats. Um, and in fact, as we saw recently, there was a Trump supporter who was killed by a 100% Antifa man, that is how he described himself, and again, no reporting here, but I guess I did the job of the media by getting this information myself, this man who was 100% Antifa, this man, in fact, had been arrested before, at 2:00 a.m. on July 5th in a public protest, carrying an illegal weapon, he resisted arrest, he was taken to jail where he was merely given a citation, put back on the street, and the very next month, this 100% Antifa man was lying in wait before he killed an innocent Trump supporter. Ideas do not target police officers. Ideas do not burn down buildings. Ideas do not kill innocent Americans. Organizations do, and Democrats should condemn this shameful group in the same manner President Trump continues to condemn white supremacy.'"

Whew! Let's take a breath an dissect this one. There's too much bullshit for me to unpack in this post, or it would turn into a novella. Instead, let me start by picking apart McEnany's assertions that Trump "Denounced white supremacy when he denounced it at the debate." But he didn't. Again, when Trump was asked if he would denounce white supremacists, Trump at first said, "Sure." Now, right there, some Trump-defenders say, "That's enough." They say, "See? He denounced them!" But no, he didn't! He merely said he would, future tense, do so. So did he? NO! He then wavered, asking Wallace "What should I call them?" and Wallace clarified, among others, "Proud Boyz..." at which point Trump famously said, "Stand back and stand by."

No objective analysis of that moment can conclude anything other than that Trump not only didn't condemn white supremacists, he actually seemed to encourage them! But McEnany does not stop there! She goes on to say, "he's denounced it more than any other president in modern history."

This goes way beyond mere hyperbole. The idea, of course, is to over-exaggerate so much that the base feels that the smallest nugget must be true. "Oh, she wouldn't have said something that outrageous if there wasn't a small nugget of truth to it!" OH, YES SHE WOULD! And she did! It was a lie so incredible, so egregious, that the only term that applies is 'Pure, unadulterated horse-shit!' And the fact that a press secretary, speaking on behalf of the President of the United States, would so plainly, obviously LIE, is enough to drive one to despair.

Now, she proceeds to describe the horrible attack on Andy Ngo, and it was indeed horrible what happened to him. But that attack took place way, way back in June of 2019! Really, McEnany? You couldn't find anything more recent than that? Same thing with Adam Kelley. In fact, it was at the exact same protest on June 29 of 2019 that his attack took place as well! And what was going on in Portland back then? Why, some Proud Boyz AND Conservative activist Haley Adams of the "Him Too Movement," were staging a rally there in support of James Fields Jr., who was sentenced to life in prison in Charlottesville, Virginia, for ramming his car into counter-protesters of a “Unite the Right” rally in 2017, killing one and injuring dozens of others!

In other words, "Antifa" wasn't fighting, they were fighting back! 

And this was the most recent set of examples McEnany could come up with?

Lastly, she cites the man who killed a Trump supporter. The man she was referring to is named Michael Roenoehl, who said in an interview with VICE that he felt he had to shoot the man because he believed he and his friend were about to be stabbed!

Roenoehl never got a chance to plead his case. Federal officers shot and killed him when attempting an arrest.

Now, had this man's name been Michael Rittenhouse instead of Michael Roenoehl, the Right-wing media machine would have lionized him. "Self-defense!" they would have said. But the "Liberal Left-wing media" simply ignored him. See the difference? In balanced media, killers are not lionized!

And does any of this prove that Antifa is not "just an idea?" NO! Because these were individual acts, made by individual people! None of this proves the existence of any sort of organization! Antifa, in fact, is deliberately disorganized! It may have people who, on their own, ascribe to it, but it has no leaders, no meetings, no newsletter, no email list. It's just, as Biden said: an idea. Anti-fascism. Simple. 

McEnany says, "Ideas do not kill innocent Americans. Organizations do." Wrong again! People do! Whether they are part of an organization or not!

Now, most media outlets have heard this kind of non-stop bullshit from McEnany before during her press conferences, debunked it repeatedly, and had no interest in debunking it yet again. They know when she says "President Trump continues to denounce white supremacy," they know she's full of shit! So they rightly ignored her this time, because she's been spewing this same nonsense, and apparently the same names, for over a year, now. But Jay Weber completely blows past all that. In pure anti-journalistic fashion, Jay Weber takes McEnany at her actual word, not bothering to outline anything I just detailed above!

"But instead of reporting it," Weber says, "the members of the White House Press Corp ignored that. I swear to you! The left-wing blogs characterize this as a wild rant and a meltdown by McEnany, they use it to trash her, and the, you know, the credible news organizations, the so-called-quote "credible" news organizations that were sitting there, had reporters right there, didn't report on it. As a former journalist, that's what makes my blood boil. With the Antifa thing? It was still ignored by the so-called reporters that are sitting right there listening to it! They still didn't report a thing she said! Not even a story about how, "Well, boy, the White House sure is angry over this Antifa thing!" Total blackout! On that minute or so that you heard, there. And the only reason not to report on it, is because they are what Kaylee says they are. Honestly. For a journalist to sit through this and find none of it newsworthy, just to repor - not - even just to report on how the White House feels it's being treated unfairly, it' s just journalistic malfeasance! I've done this job. For two dozen reporters to sit in that room and watch this, and put a dark blanket over it afterward suggests one thing: They are who we say they are. They are the left-wing activists masquerading as journalists that we have long said they are."

Now, Jay Weber's listeners are likely uninformed as to how McEnany has spewed this crap before and had it totally shot down. Why should they be? If they're people who like shows like his, the odds of them being informed as to McEnany's lies are remote. So Jay Weber knows he can say this and get away with it!

But Jay Weber KNOWS McEnany has said this before, he KNOWS that it's shit, and he covers it this way regardless! And has the NERVE to say that it makes HIS blood boil!

Either that, or he's as insulated as his listeners are, and by no means can I rule that out!

He makes the signature move of any cult. Exclude the opposing opinion! Twist the truth until it's completely unrecognizable. Then ground your audience to accept only your word exclusively.

In case you aren't familiar, the primary elements of a cult are simply these:

1) Lure people into the inner circle.

2) Isolate those people from any outside world influences.

3) Emphasize loyalty only to the inner circle.

4) Excommunicate all those former members who speak out against the inner circle.

We see this constantly. Once people are lured into the Trumpism circle, a.k.a. the Church of Right-Wing Media, they are constantly told to isolate themselves against "liberal media." They are even told, on occasion, that any balanced media sources are "The enemy of the people." Remember that one? Jay Weber executes this perfectly, depicting the balanced media as not only left-leaning, but outright left-wing activists! His listeners will actually believe this! Because they likely hear no opposing opinions. They have been effectively shielded from competing ideas by their own doctrine!

What if there are apostates? What if Jay Weber's primary competition, the man who eclipsed him for decades, the one and only Charlie Sykes, speaks up and says that these people have lost their minds? Well, then they are ostracized! Condemned! The Lincoln Project? It gets declared a RINO outlet. Same thing for The Bulwark. Charlie Sykes, once the most trusted conservative on Milwaukee Radio, doesn't even count anymore. Not to them. He's a "suppressive."

Just out of curiosity, I went back to hear what Jay said earlier in the morning. Just to make sure he said something about Trump having come down with Covid. Sure enough, he said some stuff early on, like at 6:00 in the morning, and then moved on to other things. "I don't want the whole program to be about just that one thing," he said. 'Nothing to see, here!' was basically the message on that. Here are some of the highlights of what he said early on in that broadcast:

Around minute 17, you hear this:

"In fact, former White House doctor, Ronnie Jackson, has already said, 'I'll bet you that he [Trump] does not develop symptoms and he moves on and this does not become a big deal.' Well, that's why the bigger deal is how it affects the campaign. At the very least it makes the Coronavirus the preeminent issue of the campaign again. You know the  left is going to pile on. They're gonna pretend that karma got Trump. They'll claim he's an example of people who don't take it seriously, you know. 'He wasn't careful and he encouraged other people, you know, to be, to be sloppy, and he got sick. He flouted the rules!' You'll hear a torrent of crap about this, and it's going to be insufferable. But the truth is Trump has been careful. He and the people around him have been tested daily, sometimes twice, they've been doing temperature checks on everyone coming into the White House, they were doing temperature checks on everyone going into the rallies. Trump hasn't been saying, 'Don't follow the rules and don't be careful.' He's been saying, 'We can't cower in fear and we have to live our lives.' "Oh, it's just so sloppy and awful and irresponsible..." Oh, you're gonna hear that today. Who cares?! Tune it out over the weekend, by Monday it might have calmed down. But you know they're going to try and flog this all they can on the Left. You know, we can't close down an economy for two years waiting for this to go away. But the Left will twist this all around and it'll be a weekend of high-whining and ninnying and preening over this."

And this was pretty much what everybody was saying that day. "Ignore the obvious implications, don't blame Trump for his own ineptitude, ignore it, and by Monday it will all go away."

And here I thought Trump ignoring things, and his fans ignoring Trump, was the very thing which got us into this mess in the first place.

And there it is again. The primary tenets of the Cult of Conservative Media. 1) Don't trust any balanced media source. Only trust US. The cult doesn't want you to see outside opinions or have a balanced outlook.

There's more. A lot more. And I could go on with this at some considerable length. But you get the idea. And all this crap was from a small sample of the kind of bile this moron spews on the airwaves for three whole hours, every single day, every working day, out of nearly the entire year!

And this is just one out of half a dozen or so conservative pundits who are on the radio for the entire remainder of the day!

And there are dozens more of these nitwits on television!

No wonder people are so confused about someone as obvious at Trump!

It's a cult, people! These radio preachers are its "ministers," (I hate using that term, because they don't "minister" to anybody!), Hannity and Limbaugh are its Cardinals, McEnany is the High Priestess and Trump is the Golden Calf whom they all worship.

Now that we know it's a cult, let's fight it like one!

Eric

*