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
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