Jun 9, 2018
Motivation
We've known about "conservatives" and people who would eventually become Cult45 devotees for a very long time.
The Magic Christian - 1969:
The Magic Christian - 1969:
And yes - Cult45 can be understood in some relatively very simple terms.
It ain't rocket surgery.
Today's Tweet
Damn genius is all that is.
Trump’s take on an American classic:— Robert Reich (@RBReich) June 9, 2018
God bless America,
Land that I rule.
Stand beside me,
Don’t indict me
With fake news saying
I’m a Russian tool.
From the witch hunts
To the trade wars
To the athletes on a knee,
God bless America.
It’s all about me.
ProLeft
Holy crap - how did the GOP get so full of Republicans all of a sudden!?!
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| The merch will set you free |
And would it kill ya to throw a few bucks at 'em once in a while? No - no it wouldn't. In fact, it might help keep us all alive for a bit longer.
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| The Professional Left |
Jun 7, 2018
In The Marketplace Of Ideas
We now have further confirmation that Fox News’ role as a mouthpiece for Donald Trump is affecting the network’s bottom line.
According to a report by Gabriel Sherman in Vanity Fair, the network is struggling to sell ad space on their 9 and 10 PM respective programs.
While Fox News dominated the ratings in May—a fact Trump bragged about on Saturday—the network is having new difficulties monetizing its most pro-Trump programming. According to three sources briefed on the numbers, advertising revenues for Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are down in recent months. “The pro-Trump thing isn’t working. We can’t monetize DACA and the wall and that right-wing shit,” one staffer said. “Despite all the hype on Hannity, they can’t sell it,” another insider told me. (Tucker Carlson’s show is faring better, sources said).But until some management imposes real standards and consequences at Fox News, it’s up to activists and advertisers to shoulder the burden. As Media Matters president Angelo Carusone wrote in October:
Mostly driven by concerns around digital advertising, companies are becoming increasingly mindful about brand safety and intentionality in that advertising. And that mindfulness is starting to influence other advertising decisions as well, like television sponsorships.
Companies do not want their advertising to be associated with rank partisanship, bigotry, or deceit. They recognize that it’s bad for business. But Fox News continues to offer all three in spades, and as a result, I suspect it is beginning to have a downward effect on the network’s commercial viability as a whole.
Bottom line is this: Fox News’ ad revenue plummeted. It’s likely largely attributable to Hannity’s growing advertiser losses. And it also appears to reflect a deeper vulnerability in Fox News’ business model of bigotry, deceit, and partisanship.
Jun 6, 2018
Why, WaPo?
I think I'll label this one "Glibertarian Bullshit".
David Von Drahle:
I’ve tried everything to avoid thinking about the next election — family travel, yard work, crossword puzzles. But now it’s only five months away, barely longer than the gestation period of a North American beaver, or the Stanley Cup playoffs. November can’t be avoided any longer.
In this climate of political frenzy, anyone who tries to predict the outcome must be either deluded or clairvoyant. Yet we’re close enough, perhaps, to see some key features of the battlefield.
For instance: There will be no Trump collapse.
From the moment late in 2016 when Hillary Clinton’s formless, themeless, listless campaign handed the White House to Donald Trump (assisted by Comrade Putin), Democrats have been counting on the reckless, heedless, careless novice to return the favor. Rather than melt down, though, President Trump is gaining strength.
After a rocky start, the president has cut himself loose from the highly unpopular Congress to create a clear account of his unusual reign, which he repeats with unflagging discipline. He’s a rulebreaker who gets results, and the enemies of change are conspiring to stop him. This is a polarizing message, indeed. But Trump appears to understand that popularity and unpopularity aren’t necessarily opposites. They can be partners: Emotion runs both ways.
Coupla things:
1) I'm really not in the mood for any more of this kinda derpy crap - where it's just a game, and guys like Von Drehle pretend they're above it all, and gee golly it's fun to watch these Republican jerks as they take away people's healthcare; their rights as both workers and American citizens; as they deliver more power to themselves and their wealthy patrons. Yeah, boy, that's entertainment alright.
2) Saying "the Democrats don't have a message" is old and trite, deliberately ignorant of the current state of politics, and totally disrespectful of the majority of Americans who aren't dumb enough to believe that the real answers to real policy questions can be boiled down to fit on some stoopid bumper sticker. You might as well go on trying to convince us that the GOP is the party of Family Values and the Rule of Law when it's obviously made up of crooks and thieves being mindlessly supported by rubes and bigots.
Please - try just a bit harder to get your crown chakra out of your root chakra.
2) Saying "the Democrats don't have a message" is old and trite, deliberately ignorant of the current state of politics, and totally disrespectful of the majority of Americans who aren't dumb enough to believe that the real answers to real policy questions can be boiled down to fit on some stoopid bumper sticker. You might as well go on trying to convince us that the GOP is the party of Family Values and the Rule of Law when it's obviously made up of crooks and thieves being mindlessly supported by rubes and bigots.
Please - try just a bit harder to get your crown chakra out of your root chakra.
Jun 5, 2018
Some Homework For Ya
From The Atlantic via Soundcloud:
Don't be surprised by anything that happens to (or because of) Paul Manafort.
The List
Amy Siskind has put the list in podcast form for us.
Week 81:
Some highlights:
5. Advocates also note that in the era of Trump, ICE makes arrests of parents picking up children at school, and in some cases, school disciplinarianshave helped to build ICE cases against students.
6. Houston Chronicle reported on a leaked photo image which shows dozens of immigrants in orange jumpsuits with their hands and feet shackled, undergoing a “mass trial” in Pecos, Texas.
7. The mass trial comes as the Trump regime implements its zero-tolerance policy announced by Jeff Sessions which orders prosecutors to criminally charge 100 percent of immigrants entering the country illegally.
8. VICE reported, as the Trump regime ramps up separating parents from children, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has quietly informed organizations it is cutting a federal program in place for decades that helps at least 1,000 immigrant minors each year.
9. ORR will no longer fund organizations representing unaccompanied minors in immigration court. In the past two weeks alone, 658 kids were divided from their mothers and fathers as they crossed the border.
15. The New England Journal of Medicine published a Harvard study on mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, estimating 4,645 may have died, many from delayed medical care. The official death count is 64.
17. Researchers from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other institutions who conducted the study for a cost of about $50,000 said the territory’s government refused to provide data to them.
18. The Harvard numbers make Hurricane Maria the single most deadly natural disaster in modern America. NPR noted the federal government had three times as many people on the ground in Texas (Harvey), and twice as many in Florida (Irma).
19. National Nurse United, the largest union for registered nurses, said the study confirmed what nurses who went to the island witnessed: residents “left to die” by a federal response that “failed its own American citizens.”
20. NBC News reported the mountain areas of Puerto Rico are still living in desperation, one sign reads, “We need light!” Puerto Ricans told NBC, “we are suffering here,” and “we feel like we’ve been forgotten.”
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