A Fun Weekend Watch

May 11, 2019 By: El Jefe Category: Alt-Right Racists, Alternative Facts

Ben Shapiro, right wing talker and all round smartass, got owned yesterday by BBC host Andrew Neil, who dared to ask Shapiro about his hypocrisy.  The interview was supposed to be an opportunity for Shapiro to plug his new volume of manure titled The Right Side of History, and ironically subtitled How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great.  His entire premise is hilarious, because exactly zero of his assertions are neither reasoned of moral.

At 16 minutes it’s a long watch, but very entertaining.  If you want to get to the really good stuff, fast forward to about minute 11.  After Shapiro abruptly ended the interview, Neil got in one last shot saying, “…and thank you for showing that anger is not a part of American political discourse.”  LOL.

The Assault on Ocasio-Cortez

January 11, 2019 By: El Jefe Category: Alternative Facts, Flamethrower

Mouthbreathers who can type have been going nuts that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was actually elected to Congress that they’ve frantically been trying to denigrate and discredit her in a dishonest mis-information campaign.  First it was being outraged that she wore a designer outfit for a fashion magazine shoot.  Then they mocked her clothing after she was elected.  Then it was the innocent dance video shot of her and friends back when she was an undergrad at Boston college.  Now it’s this:

This photo, not of Ocasio-Cortez’s feet, was posted by Tucker Carlson’s manure merchant, Daily Caller, with the headline, “Here’s the Photo Some People Described as a Nude Selfie of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”  That’s right, Tucker Carlson’s propaganda machine actually posted a photo of some woman’s feet in a bathtub, with the “some people” claim for the single goal of smearing a member of Congress because they don’t like her politics.

What’s disgusting is that these smears speed around the internet without the slightest concern for accuracy or common decency.  What’s really offensive?  The above photo or a college video is “shocking” and “inappropriate”, but the photo below is Okey-Dokey.

The noise machine has zero interest in accuracy, honesty, or common decency.  It’s all about winning, facts be damned.  At the same time the blindness with which these same people treat the Trumps is jaw dropping.

Selling Manure as Filet Mignon

November 23, 2018 By: El Jefe Category: Alternative Facts, Dark Money, Emoluments Clause, Trump

Sometimes, the New York Times gets it wrong.  Take their unabashed support of GWB’s invasion of Iraq based on the blatant lie about Saddam’s possession of non-existent WMD.  In that case, the error was caused by poor or even dishonest reporting by individuals; in other cases it’s the Times’ effort to show “both sides” of an argument, even when there is actually only one side that is true.  Their problem, though, is that (especially with the current occupant of the White House) when there is no factual “other side” of an argument, they turn to opinion pieces manufactured by paid “analysts” at think tanks to present an alternative opinion, even when that opinion is either a blatant lie or twisted up exaggerations.  Such was the case this week when the Times published a remarkable piece of fiction written by a pair of fine fellows employed by the Hudson Institute, and The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Both of these think tanks claim to be non-partisan, but, just like the Heritage Foundation, nothing could be further from the truth.  Both organizations are part of the billionaire-funded cabal of right wing messaging shops peddling bullshit as scholarship.  The Hudson Institute casts itself as mainstream thought on domestic policy, but is funded by the Kochs and other right wingers; the FDD is a pro-Israel think tank started originally in the ’60s, but transformed after 9/11 into a hawkishly anti-Saudi Arabia/Iran mouthpiece.

The Times piece, published Wednesday, came to the remarkable conclusion that Trump (even though crude) is right on Saudi Arabia, over looking the butchering of Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoggi because Saudi Arabia is the only thing standing between Iran and WWIII.  The piece is full of nothing but manure and whataboutism, even calling Trump’s defense of Saudi Arabia “clear-eyed and right”.  This piece actually tries to frame Trump’s wild thrashing about as actual foreign policy and strategy.  They go after the Obama administration’s Middle East policy in Iran and Syria and raise the ugly head of an unbridled Iran torching the region while pursuing nuclear weapons (which Trump just unleashed by backing out of the international Iranian nuclear pact).  They try to equate Trump’s political weaving like a drunkard to Obama’s clear policies.  You may disagree with those policies, but they were clearly actual policies based on academic and diplomatic work, not random tweeting while sitting on the toilet.

The most remarkable argument they make is that Trump’s tweet storms and ranting on television are somehow some thoughtful set of principles and policies.  That notion is simply laughable; Trump’s Train Wreck is as random as the weather, with the only common thread being his hyper focus on his own ego and financial gain.  NOTHING else matters, not Saudi Arabia, troops deployed around the world, healthcare, human rights, constitutional rights, or security.  NOTHING.  Trump’s support of MBS and Saudi Arabia has nothing to do with Iran or Middle East tensions any more than it has to do with the price of bagels in Brooklyn or wildfires in California.  Trump’s “policies”, if you want to call them that, are all about filling his ego and wallet and shoring up his base so he can keep filling his ego and wallet.

Along that vein, the authors of the Times piece fail to even mention Trump’s financial ties to the Saudi royal family, including it buying millions of dollars of apartments from the Trump Organization, pouring millions into Trump hotels, or even prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bailing Trump out in the mid-90s by buying a 51% interest in the Plaza Hotel making a debt restructuring possible, saving Trump’s financial ass.

Think tanks like the Hudson Institute and the FDD are nothing but propaganda outlets using the likes of Newt Gingrich and other right wing talking heads to peddle manure as filet mignon.  The Times does no good by giving such manure a megaphone just to project “balance” where no true balance actually exists.  The Times should be ashamed of itself.

 

This Will Hurt Your Neck

June 17, 2017 By: El Jefe Category: Sumbitches, Trump

File under Sumbitches:

Yesterday, Newt Gingrich, career philanderer and prolific liar, made the head-snapping pronouncement that a US president “cannot obstruct justice“, and can fire anyone he wants to fire, regardless of legality.  His comments were made at the National Press Club where he was peddling his new collection of fairytales, Understanding Trump, which is his usual pile of manure delivered with the gravity of a college professor.  Apparently to Gingrich, there is a completely different set of rules for a Democrat in the WH than for a Republican.

Never burdened by the truth or a sense common decency, Gingrich is famous for delivering these kinds of proclamations that swing from one wild lie to another, changing his “sincere” belief to match whatever argument he’s positing at the time.  This proclamation, though, is especially egregious; when he was speaker of the house, he lead the impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying about having a sexual affair and obstruction of justice.   To make matters worse, at the time of the impeachment, he was having an affair himself with his current wife, Calista, while going after Clinton for his affair.  He was forced out of the Speaker job in 1999 under a storm cloud of ethics violations and election losses.

Gingrich is a shameless liar and his books are useful as two things: Kindling and toilet paper.