Ron DeSantis Seeks to Muzzle the Media with Unconstitutional Libel Law Reforms – Just Like Trump

Posted by Mark NC on February 23, 2023 at 11:42 am. 5 Comments :

There is clearly something in the swamp water in Florida that makes its Republican politicians emulate the anti-American derangement of one another. That would account for how Ron DeSantis, while ostensibly preparing to challenge Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination for president is, instead, turning into an even more extreme copy of the twice impeached, former reality TV game show host.

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Politico is reporting that the majority Republican Florida legislature is drafting a bill that would severely threaten the free press were it to be found constitutional – which it surely would not be if the Supreme Court were occupied by fair-minded Justices. To be sure there are some serious problems with the media as witnessed by the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.

However, the reforms sought by DeSantis are dangerously oppressive and intended only to intimidate journalists and silence his critics. According to Politico…

“At the governor’s urging, Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature is pushing to weaken state laws that have long protected journalists against defamation suits and frivolous lawsuits. The proposal is part [of] DeSantis’ ongoing feud with media outlets like The New York Times, Miami Herald, CNN and The Washington Post — media companies he claims are biased against Republicans — as he prepares for a likely 2024 presidential bid.

“Beyond making it easier to sue journalists, the proposal is also being positioned to spark a larger legal battle with the goal of eventually overturning New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits public officials’ ability to sue publishers for defamation.”

The DeSantis proposal would make it easier to sue media for defamation. It would also remove journalists’ protection from having to reveal confidential sources, and mandate by law that such reported comments are presumed false in court proceedings. These reforms are contrary to the Constitution and 250 years of legal precedents. They would have a chilling effect on the press and discourage honest reporting.

That discouragement is, of course, precisely the goal of DeSantis. He has assumed the identical position of Trump – and their authoritarian heroes like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping – with regard to suppressing the media. Politico notes that DeSantis has been “refusing to conduct interviews with platforms except Fox News.” That was the same strategy employed by Trump for most his campaigns and presidency. Although lately Trump has taken to even attacking his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

However, DeSantis is actually taking this unconstitutional obsession even farther than Trump by committing it to law. Trump often threatened to do so, but never followed through. In January of 2018 Trump whined that…

“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we’re gonna take a strong look at that.”

Perhaps the reason that Trump chickened out was because he would have opened a can of worms that would have devoured him. No one has exposed himself to more potential libel allegations than Trump. Every time he calls a reporter a liar, or asserts as fact that unnamed sources don’t exist, or alleges that a story was deliberately made up, or unleashes one of his infantile and insulting nicknames on a reporter, Trump is slandering those reporters and harming their reputations and careers.

Someone may have warned Trump to be careful what he wishes for. After all, there have been literally thousands of comments and tweets by Trump that were demonstrably false, but manifestly injured their targets. For instance, what about the sixteen women who have spoken out about Trump’s sexual abuse? He called every one of them liars? One of them, E. Jean Carroll, is currently suing him for defamation.

If DeSantis were smart (doubtful), he would abandon these ill-considered reforms. They are only likely to backfire on him. There are already plenty of safeguards in current law that protect people from deliberate slander and libel. Even if committed by the media. Just ask Dominion Voting Systems.

That, however, isn’t sufficient for Republican press haters who are more interested in censorship than freedom. Consequently, politicians like Trump and DeSantis, who are afraid of a free press, are seeking to shut it down. Trump has already gone to great lengths to do so, and in the process proved that current laws are more than adequate.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Floats Fascist Proposal for Red States to Prohibit Democrats From Voting

Posted by Mark NC on February 22, 2023 at 12:43 pm. 8 Comments :

The Republican Party, under the new management of House Squeaker and Fox News enabler, Kevin McCarthy, appears to be devoted to remaking itself as a Kremlin-style autocracy. Despite its razor-thin majority, they are governing as if they have popular mandate, which they most decidedly do not.

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Taking the lead in the new McCarthyism is the representative from Swamp Pass, Georgia, who McCarthy pledged he “will never leave,” Marjorie Taylor Greene. Among her recent deplorable initiatives is one that advocates for a virtual civil war, a “national divorce” that separates the red states from the blue states. It’s a plan that would leave the red states destitute, because they rely on federal revenue that is mostly produced in blue states. And it’s on the strength of ideas like this, that violate her pledge of allegiance to one nation indivisible, that McCarthy gave her a coveted seat on the Homeland Security Committee.

On Tuesday Greene introduced another of her brilliant plans to undermine democracy. During an interview with ultra-rightist podcaster and over-age student activist, Charlie Kirk, Greene expressed her outrage that Democrats are actually allowed to vote in America. No, really…

Kirk: I don’t think the left would ever stop. I don’t think they’ll ever stop trying to invade our states or our county. So how do we stop them?
Greene: Well, I think that, you know, red states could choose in how they allow people to vote in their states. For example, over the past couple of years we’ve seen a mass exodus from California and New York where we’ve seen people fleeing those leftist policies and moving to states like Florida, Georgia, and Texas. […]

What I think would be something that some red states could propose is, well, okay, if Democrat voters choose to flee these blue states … and they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support, well, once they move to a red state, guess what? Maybe you don’t get to vote for five years. You can live there, you can work there, but you don’t get to bring your values … so that their red states don’t get changed.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: "If Democrat voters choose to flee these Blue states…Well, once they move to a Red state, guess what? Maybe you don't get to vote for five years" pic.twitter.com/AcAPwmYXcu

— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 21, 2023

First of all, there has been no mass exodus as Greene describes. People are always moving around in the U.S. for many reasons, and many are moving from red states to blue. There’s a reason that blue states are more popular and more populous than red.

More to the point, the only reason that Greene is offering as justification for denying American citizens their right to vote is that she disagrees with their political views. Vladimir Putin will be impressed with how far she has come toward the model of “democracy” that he employs. For that matter, so would Putin’s American media assets, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. As a matter of fact, Hannity has already told Greene that “I actually favor that idea.”

There is also a glaring logical breakdown in Greene’s proposal. She argues that Democrats are fleeing blue states because “they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support.” So if these alleged Democrats now support the policies of red Republican states, why would she want to prohibit them from voting? Is it just punishment for their past voting record?

Greene also said that she is “a big believer in defending our ability to pursue life and liberty and happiness [but that] the left is completely destroying that for those of us on the right.” In other words, democracy, wherein people vote for the principles they favor, is destroying the right’s pursuit of happiness. So her solution is to revoke the voting rights of everyone she disagrees with?

You have to wonder how she would respond to a reciprocal policy to deny Republicans the right to vote for five years after they move to a blue state like New York or California – or her own blue-trending state of Georgia? Of course, no Democrat would ever propose anything so oppressive, so anti-democratic, and so downright stupid. For Greene, on the other hand, it’s painfully typical…

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LOL: Trump Says All Presidential Candidates (Except Himself) Should Take Mental Competency Tests

Posted by Mark NC on February 21, 2023 at 12:16 pm. 6 Comments :

Here we go again. America’s self-anointed “stable genius,” Donald Trump, is once again demonstrating his acute narcissism and hysterical hypocrisy. As he embarks on his pursuit of the 2024 Republican Party nomination for president, Trump is setting the bar for all of the other candidates.

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Recall that this advice being offered on sound psychological status is coming from the guy who believes that stealth fighters are actually invisible, that windmills cause cancer, that hurricanes should be nuked, that George Washington’s Army took over airports, and that injecting bleach will cure COVID. It’s not exactly a record of cognitive fitness.

Undaunted, Trump took to his floundering social media flop, Truth Social, to deliver his opinion on how presidential candidate’s qualifications should be considered…

“ANYBODY running for the Office of President of the United States should agree to take a full & complete Mental Competency Test simultaneously (or before!) with the announcement that he or she is running, & likewise, but to a somewhat lesser extent, agree to a test which would prove that you are physically capable of doing the job. Being an outstanding President requires great mental acuity & physical stamina. If you don’t have these qualities or traits, it is likely you won’t succeed. MAGA!”

Trump is right. Without those qualities you won’t succeed as president. In fact, he’s living proof of it. Now, perhaps the most sanity-challenged political figure of modern times wants his peers to be tested in order to be regarded as fit to serve. It’s likely that he thinks that a test he took previously – that was administered by a “doctor” who was hopelessly infatuated with Trump – sufficed to qualify his own candidacy.

However, that was not a “full & complete Mental Competency Test.” It was a simple test given to people who were being evaluated for early onset symptoms of dementia. It required him to identify an elephant from a picture, and recall five words. And we still don’t know whether he passed that test, other than by his own account, which is hardly believable. Plus, it was five years ago, when he was a sprightly 69 years old.

Trump is also not exactly a specimen of physical prowess. He needs two hands to drink from a glass of water. He can’t walk down a low incline without help. He mocks President Biden for riding bikes, while he won’t play a round of golf without his golf cart. And he refuses to exercise because he believes that it depletes the scarce resources of energy that you are born with.

It’s also notable that in his remarks, Trump narrowly defines those who should take the competency tests. According to Trump they should only be given “simultaneously (or before!) with the announcement that he or she is running.” Which is a sneaky way of excluding himself, since it is already well after he announced.

It’s also interesting that Trump is taking this position just a few days after his first announced opponent for the GOP nomination, Nikki Haley, declared that all politicians over 75 (which includes Trump) should be tested for mental fitness. In fact, her entire impetus for running is that she is younger than Trump. Which Trump, in his psychologically stable state of mind is taking exactly as you might expect…

SEE THIS: Trump ‘Welcomes’ Nikki Haley Into the 2024 GOP Primary with a Furious Flurry of Feces Flinging

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House Squeaker Kevin McCarthy Hands Over 41,000 Hours of January 6th Video to – Tucker Carlson?

Posted by Mark NC on February 20, 2023 at 11:48 am. 6 Comments :

Two years ago on January 6th, a Clown Corps of traitorous StormTrumpers invaded the seat of America’s democracy in a violent and deadly attempt to overthrown a legitimate election and install their Mar-a-Lago Messiah as president-for-life. But despite their pitiful failure they persist in the pursuit of a wingnut theocracy with Donald Trump in their throne.

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In his quest for the the speakership of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy promised that he would release all of the video available of what he still refuses to admit was an insurrection. And consistent with his string of already broken promises, he has chosen to make those videos available only to Tucker Carlson of Fox news.

On Monday morning Axios reported that…

“House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy sources tell me.

“Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.”

Seriously? If McCarthy thinks that giving Putin-loving, propagandist Carlson exclusive access to these videos is the same thing as releasing them to the public, he has succumbed to the same mental deterioration as his QAnon Caucus. Carlson will surely slice and dice what he receives in the most grotesquely biased manner. The public will only get to see what Carlson and Fox News serve up on their partisan platter.

Revelations of Fox’s dishonesty were recently disclosed in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. In a motion for a summary judgment, Dominion published internal communications at Fox News showing that the hosts and executives never believed Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” from him, even as they went on air proclaiming it as fact. And now they will want us to believe their misinterpretation of these videos?

As further proof of how ludicrous this is, Marjorie Taylor Greene was thrilled and tweeted that she was “very happy” with McCarthy for releasing the videos to Carlson because “Americans deserve to see the truth, not a one sided narrative and unfair two tiered justice system.”

Really? Even if McCarthy ends up releasing the videos to the public or other media, he has still benefited the Trumpists and insurrectionists by giving Carlson and Fox News a first look and a head start on injecting an entirely false narrative into the media ecosystem.

It would be bad enough if McCarthy merely released these videos to Fox News. But he could not have picked a worse person to dump them on than Tucker Carlson. Apparently McCarthy has forgiven him for calling him “a puppet of the Democratic Party.” Which is just another indication of McCarthy’s wet noodley weakness.

As for Carlson, he has made it his mission to spread flagrant lies about the January 6th insurrection. He’s celebrated the rioters as “patriots.” He’s maligned the FBI, without evidence, as the perpetrators of the violence. He even produced a lie-riddled crocumentary about the insurrection. And this is the person McCarthy chose to curate the thousands of hours of video to force feed their BS propaganda to the American people?

Nice work Kevin. You’ve selected someone who was deemed by his own attorneys to be so outrageously dishonest that they argued in court (successfully) that, given his reputation, “no reasonable person” would believe his bullpucky. And there’s more where that came from…

UPDATE I: CBS News reports that several media organizations are now demanding that they get access to the videos too.

UPDATE II: Tucker Carlson Spins January 6th Insurrection Videos to Spread Blatant Lies, Trump Praises Him

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In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Posted by Mark NC on February 17, 2023 at 12:52 pm. 2 Comments :

The billion dollar lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems has been proceeding at a fairly rapid pace. And each new development has proven to be devastatingly damaging to Fox News. The evidence is particularly damning since most of it comes from either what Fox News aired or private communications between Fox hosts and executives.

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The latest wrinkle in this affair is a motion of summary judgment filed by Dominion. Included in the motion were numerous examples of Fox News personnel admitting that they knew that their reports of election fraud were lies and that they were lying in order to benefit Donald Trump. The tone and quantity of these admissions is astonishing, but it isn’t new. In December a portion of Sean Hannity’s testimony was revealed wherein he confessed that he never believed the election fraud lies.

SEE THIS: Hannity Admits in Fox News Lawsuit that ‘I Did Not Believe [Trump’s Big Lie] for One Second’

However, in this new motion the case is bolstered with a slew of new revelations that affirm that Fox News was lying all along. A Twitter thread posted by John Whitehouse of Media Matters neatly compiles the evidence against Fox by their own people (More from Media Matters here). And among the flood of affirmations of Fox’s dishonesty was one that is especially incriminating. Not surprisingly, it came from Tucker Carlson’s team who were afraid of angering Trump further after Fox correctly called the state of Arizona for Joe Biden.

“We’re threading a needle that has to be thread because of the dumb f**ks at Fox News on Election Day. We can’t make people think we’ve turned against Trump. Yet also call out the bullshit. You and I see through it. But we have to reassure some in the audience.”

So apparently Fox News was more worried about how Trump would react than they were about reporting the truth. A lot of the well deserved criticism of Fox News as being biased generally toward Republicans and conservatives is only half the story. They have clearly leaned heavily toward Trump specifically. And their leanings were motivated more by fear of Trump and his glassy-eyed cult followers than by any particular ideology. That fear-based favoritism was evident in many other messages revealed in Dominion’s motion. such as…

Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch: Really crazy stuff.
Tucker Carlson: What [Trump is] good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.
More Tucker Carlson: I hate [Trump] passionately [and he is] a demonic force.
Rupert Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott: We don’t want to antagonize Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.
Bret Baier: There is NO evidence of Fraud. None. [and] We have to prevent this stuff…We need to fact check.
Fox News producer Justin Wells (on Jeanine Pirro): They took her off cuz she was being crazy. Optics are bad. But she is crazy.
Carlson (complaining to Hannity about Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich, who was fact checking a tweet by Trump): Please get her fired. Seriously….What the f*ck? I’m actually shocked…It needs to stop immediately, like tonight.
Suzanne Scott: You can’t give the crazies an inch right now […] The audience feels like we crapped on [them] and we have damaged their trust and belief in us … We can fix this but we cannot smirk at our viewers any longer.
Laura Ingraham: Sidney [Powell] is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy {Giuliani].
Sean Hannity: That whole narrative that [Sidney] Powell was pushing, I did not believe it for one second, [and that] she’s a f*cking lunatic.

Fox News responded to the Dominion motion with their predictably dishonest deflecting:

“According to Dominion, FNN had a duty not to truthfully report the President’s allegations but to suppress them or denounce them as false. Dominion is fundamentally mistaken. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be illusory if the prevailing side in a public controversy could sue the press for giving a forum to the losing side.”

The problem with Fox’s argument is that they were not merely “giving a forum to the losing side.” They were overtly taking that side’s position and affirmatively arguing their case. For some proof of that, see this…

Almost all of Sidney Powell’s alleged false claims about Dominion Voting Systems were promoted on Fox News platforms and repeated by its personalities. https://t.co/AYzrN0YmFL pic.twitter.com/Gk3UxCeeMQ

— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 26, 2021

Ironically, after shilling for Trump for years, Fox News now seems to be exhausted by his tedious obsession with nonexistent election fraud. Some at Fox Fox are even starting to tilt toward Ron DeSantis (or “Meatball Ron” as Trump calls him). But they are still taking baby steps because they are still terrified of the Trump cult. Just wait until he gets a whiff of the messaging in this Dominion motion.

UPDATE I: Fox News is so afraid of the Dominion lawsuit that they have barred any mention of it on their network.

UPDATE II: The judge in the Dominion case has sanctioned Fox News for withholding evidence. He also made several other rulings that hamper Fox’s ability to deflect from the issue of defamation.

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Trump ‘Welcomes’ Nikki Haley Into the 2024 GOP Primary with a Furious Flurry of Feces Flinging

Posted by Mark NC on February 16, 2023 at 1:39 pm. 2 Comments :

The first primaries for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 are still a year away. Until this week the only declared candidate was Donald Trump. That changed, however, with the announcement by former South Carolina governor, and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, making her candidacy official.

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Haley is likely to be joined eventually by a multitude of Trumpian toadies, including Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, Greg Abbott, and many others too cowardly to stick their necks out at this early stage of the game. Never mind that Trump has never been weaker and more vulnerable.

Shortly after Haley made her announcement, Trump pretended to be comfortable with the competition and welcomed her into the political fray. He said told Fox News that “I’m glad she’s running. I want her to follow her heart – even though she made a commitment that she would never run against who she called the greatest president of her lifetime.” He followed that up by saying “The more the merrier.”

Even worse, Trump claimed that he helped the people of South Carolina by removing her as governor and making her his ambassador to the U.N. So he’s bragging that he put someone who thinks was a terrible governor into a top diplomatic post.

But don’t let that facade of confidence fool you. The only reason Trump is outwardly supportive of Haley’s entry is that he knows she has no chance of winning and that she will only divide the anti-Trump vote, making it easier for him to prevail by a plurality.

The truth is that Trump is frightened of virtually everything. And he proved it on Thursday morning by unleashing a barrage of 28 posts in half an hour on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, with the largest share – 9 in all – attacking Haley. Trump warned his cult followers that Haley will cut Social Security, that she flip-flopped on running against him, that she is a “born loser,” that she is somehow connected to Hillary Clinton, and that she is pro-war. It would be inaccurate to call Trump’s “welcome” a passive-aggressive attack, because there is nothing about it that is passive.

For her part, Haley took her candidate tour to Fox News on Thursday, where responded to a question about whether Trump was mentally fit to serve. She initially referred to a test that he took four years ago (that he laughably claims to have “aced”) wherein he was asked to identify an elephant and count to ten. But she went on to advocate competency tests for all elected officials, and specifically mentioned President Biden, who she said, without evidence, was asleep at the wheel.

This is such a funny dance between all of them. https://t.co/PaCzuq7LnG

— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) February 16, 2023

The compulsion on the part of Republicans like Haley to malign Biden’s cognitive capacity makes it difficult for them to explain how he keeps beating Republicans electorally and legislatively, and how he has been so remarkably productive the last two years. If he’s such a mental vegetable, what does that make the GOP?

A historic two years of progress for the American people. pic.twitter.com/UpWilCTR3l

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 23, 2023

Republicans in Congress have explicitly committed themselves to asinine projects (like the formation of their “Anti-Woke” Caucus), and bitter partisanship (promising to “Make Life Hell” for Democrats). Meanwhile, Biden keeps producing results for the American people. Which leaves the GOP and Fox News with nothing to do but whine in the most pitiful manner.

SEE THIS: Fox News Hosts GOP Rep and Trump ‘Doctor’ to Complain that President Biden – Looks Too Healthy?

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Trump Issues New Statement on His January 6th Insurrection Lies that Actually Affirms His Guilt

Posted by Mark NC on February 15, 2023 at 1:08 pm. 5 Comments :

More than two years have passed since Donald Trump incited a violent and deadly insurrection against the United States. In the time that has elapsed, abundant evidence of Trump’s complicity has been presented by the press, by law enforcement, and by the House Select Committee investing the January 6th riots, most of whose witnesses were Republicans and former Trump staffers.

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Trump, of course, has spent the past two years whining that he’s innocent and asserting that the whole thing is just another witch hunt and/or hoax. And on Wednesday morning he reanimated his raging with the release of a new ten page statement mostly rehashing the same tired untruths that he’s been peddling all along.

This latest chapter in Trump’s traitorous tale of villainy and victimhood wasn’t much more than a warmed over rerun of his prior prattling. However, he did feature a new wrinkle in the fabric of his fantasy fiction referencing the utterly contrived conclusions of Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files” document dumps. Trump began saying that…

“Recently, it was shockingly revealed that Twitter colluded with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to Rig and Steal the 2020 Presidential Election in favor of Joe Biden, and to deplatform and illegally censor me.”

Contrary to Trump’s hyperbole, there were no revelations, shocking or otherwise, and no evidence of collusion with the FBI to “Rig and Steal the 2020 Presidential Election.” The only thing shocking about any of this is the dishonesty of Trump, Musk, and the hacks who worked for them.

But Trump was just getting started. He continued with his pitiful defense of the charges that he incited the riots in Washington, D.C. on January 6th. He claimed that he was the consummate peacemaker, saying that…

“The two exonerating Tweets, and the Rose Garden Video, which were posted in the early afternoon of January 6, 2021, and attempted to be hidden by the Unselect January 6th Committee, clearly and unquestionably state my desire that all protestors be peaceful and follow the Law.”

That’s a purposefully deceitful summary of the events on January 6th. First of all, he’s leaving out his hostile rhetoric at his speech on the Ellipse, where he told his cult followers that “We fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” As for his Twitter and video responses to the violence, aside from being weak and insincere, they weren’t released until long after the riots began and much damage was already done. According to the timeline…

12:53 p.m.: Rioters overwhelm police along the outer perimeter west of the Capitol building, pushing aside temporary fencing.
1:30 p.m.: Capitol Police are overwhelmed and retreat up the steps of the Capitol.
2:38 p.m.: President Trump tweets: Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!
3:13 p.m.: President Trump tweets: I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!
4:17 p.m.: Trump uploads an unscripted video to his Twitter denouncing the riot but maintaining the false claim that the election was stolen: “I know your pain, I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us … But you have to go home now. We have to have peace … So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”

So at least two and half hours elapsed before Trump posted his tweets, and another two hours until his video appeal that gushed his love for the rioters. What’s more, Trump’s statement lies that the January 6th Committee suppressed his weak messages of peace, and that “Twitter followed the wishes of Joe Biden and the FBI in censoring me, and cancelling my account.”

Every word of that is false. The tweets may not have been available on Trump’s Twitter page because the account was suspended due its potential to incite further violence. But they were well documented and available elsewhere to anyone who was interested. Also, neither Biden nor the FBI had anything to do with Trump’s Twitter account being suspended. And finally, the January 6th Committee not only did not suppress those tweets, they highlighted them in the hearings.

This is all typical of Trump pathological compulsion to lie. However, his own account of events, when the facts are known, supplies actual evidence of his guilt. And in case anyone thought that the harm Trump is capable of is all in the past, note these recent comments that prove that he remains an imminent threat to the nation:

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Ted Cruz, Attacking FCC Nominee, Unwittingly Makes a Damn Good Argument Against Donald Trump

Posted by Mark NC on February 14, 2023 at 2:08 pm. 3 Comments :

The state of Texas has been suffering from extraordinarily poor representation by their junior senator, Ted Cruz, for many years. He has distinguished himself as the most hated man in the Senate, and excelled only at scoring airtime on Fox News and humiliating himself and his state.

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On Tuesday the Senate Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing for Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission. Sohn’s nomination has been held up by Republicans for two years, despite having outstanding credentials and support from a broad and bipartisan array of industry and citizen constituents. So naturally Cruz is expressing his customary knee-jerk opposition to whatever any Democrat proposes or is associated with.

During his time to question Sohn, Cruz unleashed an extended rant slandering her with flagrant falsehoods. He enumerated all of the things about Sohn that he regarded as disqualifying. It was a list of utterly fictional grievances. However, his complaints actually applied more closely to Donald Trump than to Sohn.

Cruz began by objecting to Sohn having been associated with “far left organizations.” They were actually fairly mainstream organizations, but Cruz, and all Republicans, accuse every liberal organization of being far left socialist commies. And of course, Cruz has no problem with all of the radical right organizations that Trump is beholden to. He then elaborated in a stream of petulant whining (video below)…

“[Sohn] retweeted and liked posts by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for defunding the police.”

Cruz didn’t provide any examples of the tweets that offended him. But if liking allegedly offensive tweets is disqualifying, he should address Trump’s embrace of truly heinous postings by QAnon and other fascist, racist, hate mongers.

“And, in July 2020, during riots in Portland, Oregon, she retweeted a post attacking federal law enforcement officers as armed goons in riot gear with tear gas. It’s no surprise that her nomination is opposed by multiple law enforcement groups, including the Fraternal Order of Police and National Sheriffs Association.”

Again, there was no evidence of offending tweets. But attacking law enforcement is one of Trump’s favorite pastimes. Just this morning he referred to the FBI as the “Gesatpo.”

“Ms. Sohn portrays herself as a defender of free speech but has a history of campaigning to censor conservatives.”

Sohn has never campaigned to censor conservatives. But Trump has literally called for the termination of the Constitution and repeatedly maligned the press as “the enemy of the people.”

“[Sohn] calls Fox News ‘dangerous to our democracy’ and has urged the FCC to revoke Sinclair’s broadcast licenses.”

Ok, let’s give him this much. Sohn is correct about Fox News. However, Cruz is lying about her urging revocation of Sinclair’s licenses. Although she did suggest that a hearing should be held to ascertain whether Sinclair should be punished beyond the $48 million fine they received for lying to the FCC. Trump, on the other hand, regards all of the media (except those that worship him) as dangerous and hopes that most of them go out of business.

“At the same time, she has a history of fighting against indecency regulations that protect children from exposure to filth on TV. To Ms. Sohn, it seems conservative speech is worse than obscenity.”

Often what Cruz regards as “filth” is just anything that he disagrees with, including lifestyles of LGBTQ persons or non-Christians. And To Trump liberal speech is an apocalyptic-level abomination.

So every point that Cruz made fit Trump better than it did Sohn. Consequently, if we accept his arguments, then Trump should be disqualified from public service. That, of course, is a given for so many other reasons: inciting an insurrection, undermining democracy, pathological lying, hoarding hundreds of classified documents, promoting racism, embracing dictators. The list goes on and on.

Cruz: She calls Fox News dangerous to our democracy.. pic.twitter.com/TEqe0IePQT

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 14, 2023

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Fox News Unleashes Lie-Riddled Attack on AOC for Criticizing Right-Wing Jesus’ Super Bowl Ad

Posted by Mark NC on February 13, 2023 at 12:16 pm. NO Comments :

The Republican Party’s obsession with whatever the heck they think “wokeness” is has proven that nothing in American society will be exempt from that focus group contrived crackpottery. And just to drive the point home, Super Bowl Sunday was their latest example of the pandemic spread of the woke virus.

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It was impossible to watch ten minutes of any right-wing media without encountering some version of this demented mindset. It infected their perception of the national anthem, that was paired with an honorary performance of what’s known as the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” It also infected reviews of Rihanna’s halftime show that some wingnuts described as “Satanic.” It also infected their analysis of the teams, whose quarterbacks, for some reason, had to be identified as Christians. While it has nothing to do with football, it is integral to the right’s perspective on pretty much everything. So long as it serves their political purpose, until it doesn’t.

On Monday morning the Fox News quarterbacking began when Fox’s media correspondent, Joe Concha, was interviewed by Sandra Smith. The segment was introduced by Smith highlighting a tweet posted by Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

“The progressive lawmaker tweeted ‘Something tells me Jesus would ‘not’ spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.’ Some Twitter users baffled by the comment, one asking ‘Are you serious,’ and another saying ‘It’s a unifying message so I’m not surprised you don’t approve.’ A final thought from you on that, Joe.”

Before we get to Concha’s reply, let’s observe that AOC is actually correct. Jesus was not an advocate of massive PR campaigns to promote his philosophy. To the contrary, he worked with small groups (of 12) and discouraged uprisings on the part of his followers. Furthermore, the “baffled” Twitter user who questioned AOC’s seriousness, Eric Owens, was actually a former writer for Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller. So in response to that introduction, Concha said…

“So the congresswoman who has been in Congress for two terms that has yet to see one piece of sponsored or co-sponsored legislation passed, or even remotely taken seriously, the perpetually outraged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is outraged over this ad? Wow! Shut the front door. Of course she is.

“If she isn’t complaining about something, then it isn’t a day ending in “y.” And for her, again, to invoke fascism, she has no idea what fascism means. And the good news is that the “He Gets Us” campaign was launched in March of last year. It plans to spend $2 billion over the next several years. So get used to seeing these ads. They certainly have the money to get the word out again.”

"The perpetually outraged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is outraged over this ad? Wow! Shut the front door, of course she is!" Fox News contributor Joe Concha says during a segment where he expresses outrage over AOC's latest tweet. pic.twitter.com/oNSSM37NlS

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 13, 2023

For starters, Concha is predictably wrong about AOC’s legislative record. The truth is that she was a co-sponsor of 31 bills that were passed into law. Given his inability to offer accurate analyses, it’s Concha who should never be taken seriously. Nor should his immature insults aimed at AOC’s knowledge of fascism, or anything else, be regarded as reliable commentary.

Concha went on to gush about the “good news” that the Jesus ad campaign is well financed, because we all know how much Jesus loved money (see “root of all evil”) and it’s handlers (aka “changers”. What he failed to mention was the the financiers were notorious proponents of right-wing orthodoxy. They include the ultra-rightist Hobby Lobby CEO, Danny Green, and the virulently anti-LGBTQ, Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group. According to the SPLC the Alliance “claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society.” And that’s the “good news”?

Nevertheless, Fox News can be expected to advance their Christianist bias at every opportunity. Even when it is connected to something as unrelated to religion as the Super Bowl. And if, in the process, they can malign a Democrat who is exercising free speech, all the better.

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New GOP Subcommittee Chair Openly Admits His Only Purpose is to ‘Make Life Hell’ for Democrats

Posted by Mark NC on February 12, 2023 at 12:26 pm. 9 Comments :

The Republican Party’s new majority in the House of Representatives has only been in place for about a month, but already it has distinguished itself as embarrassingly inept and priggishly partisan. It took them fifteen votes to even select Kevin McCarthy as Squeaker of the House, for which Donald Trump took all the credit.

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In the few weeks of GOP rule, the Party of Trump Flunkies has utterly abandoned the divisive wedge issues that they campaigned on (i. e. inflation, abortion, immigration), and instead focused on Hunter Biden’s stolen laptop, mandatory reciting of of the Pledge of Allegiance, and arresting Twitter executives for bias against Republicans that doesn’t even exist.

SEE THIS: Herr Trump Embraces Fascist GOP Threats to Regulate Twitter and Arrest Their Executives

On Sunday morning GOP Rep. Ben Cline visited with traitorous felon Steve Bannon, who Donald Trump pardoned after he was found guilty of defrauding donors to his phony border wall fund. During this segment Cline revealed a heretofore unknown subcommittee created by Jim Jordan, the new chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Cline described the new subcommittee to Bannon as one that would serve to harass President Biden and members of his administration who didn’t kowtow to Jordan and his fascist comrades. Cline told Bannon that…

“[Jordan] needs a bulldog at the subcommittee level to make their lives hell, quite frankly. And so he’s tasked me with that responsibility, for when the Department of Justice, or when our intelligence agencies, don’t respond, that’s when they bring me in.

“I’m the chair of this little rump subcommittee called “Responsiveness and Accountability Oversight.” And so they want me to haul these people up to the Hill, read them the riot act and try and convince them that cooperating with the Judiciary Committee is better than the alternative, which is being held in contempt.”

Ben Cline says if members of DOJ or Intel agencies refuse to comply with Jim Jordan’s subpoenas, he “needs a bulldog..to make their lives hell. He’s tasked me with that responsibility .. to read them the riot act and convince them that cooperating is better than the alternative.” pic.twitter.com/dL7rbiWpZl

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 11, 2023

Really? The irony here is as thick as the bull manure that it is buried in. Bannon, who gushed that Cline’s Committee was “brilliant,” has himself been convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress after failing to comply with subpoenas. And the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection issued a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Jordan for refusing to testify. And even Squeaker McCarthy openly ignored congressional subpoenas.

Consequently, it is profoundly audacious for Jordan to impanel a committee whose purpose is to bully people into doing what he refused to do. What’s more, his committee will be pitifully impotent as a mechanism to coerce compliance, because the Biden Justice Department is unlikely to indict the victims of Jordan’s persecution.

What Jordan’s committee will succeed in doing is to waste a lot of time and taxpayer money on blatantly partisan and meritless inquisitions, while simultaneously discrediting the Republicans in Congress and sending their public approval ratings into the gutter. And for that, perhaps we should thank them.

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The Internet's Chronicle of Media Decay

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