How We Got Here

by Nomad

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When MSNBC or Fox News Airs in Public Places, How Do People React?

by Frank Waddell, University of Florida

The Seth Rich Case: A Conspiracy Theory Inside a Conspiracy Theory

by Nomad

Most of us have at least heard of the Seth Rich story even if we are not too familiar with the details. I never really looked into it too much.
There were too many other stories that served as examples about just how low Trump and the right-wing news outlets were prepared to go to slander Hillary Clinton.
Yet, in the wake of what we have learned in the last year, it is worth a second look.

Murder on the Street 

On Sunday, July 10, 2016, at 4:20 a.m., a young man named Seth Rich was shot in the back by two assailants. As he made his way back home from having a night out, Seth Conrad Rich was chatting with his girlfriend. He was nearly home when gunshots rang out.
He was found lying on the ground only a block from his apartment.

A Look Back at the Time Fox and Friends Called Mr. Rogers an "Evil, Evil Man"

by Nomad

Fox & Friends, the folks who the Washington Post described as "very much governing the thoughts and impulses of President Trump" has had a long history of spreading hate. But who remembers the time when they attacked one of America's most beloved icons, Fred Rogers. 

The Evil Genius

Back in May 2008, the producers of Fox & Friends turned the blowtorch of hate to one of America's best-loved and iconic figures, Mr. Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers, children's television personality, musician, puppeteer, had died five years before and was unable to defend himself.
For this reason, Fox News must have considered him "fair game."

Why It's Time for the Rabble-Rousing Right-Wing Media and Politicians to Pay the Piper

by Nomad

Denying, Thrashing and Flailing

The phrase "to pay the piper" is described as having "to bear the consequences of an action or activity that one has enjoyed." That perfectly describes what's been going on in the right wing media ever since this last weekend.

Those who have sat back and supported Trump- and continue to support him- despite all of the warning signs during his hate-filled rallies- are now attempting in vain to find solid ground again after the events in Virginia.

It's tough going. They are in a bit of an uncertain quandary, searching for some way to distance themselves from the worst images of the "Unite the Right" rally, to clear the president's name (and their own ) while also attempting not to contradict their own past statements. 
It's a wonder to behold.

After Destroying the GOP in November, Will Donald Trump Go After Fox News Next?

by Nomad

Here's probably the best explanation for Donald Trump's strange presidential run. As crazy as it seems, in a Trumpish way, it makes perfect sense.  

Like Poe's purloined letter, sometimes the obvious explanation is hidden right under your nose.

Nothing has been quite as inexplicable as this election cycle. It's hard to get a grip on the insanity of it. Most of it is coming from the Right and Donald Trump. Without resorting to a psychological ailment, coming up with an explanation for Trump's decisions and behavior isn't easy.

The Hiring of Ailes and Bannon 

The June's issue of Vanity Fair, however, offers one theory that makes pretty good sense. The writer postulated that Trump's run for president was nothing less than an ingenious form of self-promotion. Not an earthshaking observation, I understand. 

According to insiders, Trump was never interested in being president. And, no, he hasn't even been making a big fat joke (my pet theory)
Nope.
Actually, his entire campaign has been a promotion of his next business project, the creation of his media empire, a la NewsCorp's Rupert Murdoch. 

Fox News but without the decency and intelligence.

Good and Better: Why Roger Ailes' Fall from Grace Couldn't Happen at a More Appropriate Moment

by Nomad

Rarely has there been much good news to report of late. Here's one item I've found.

According to reports, CEO of FOX News, Roger Ailes, will soon be forced to resign after allegations of workplace sexual harassment. 

The former anchor Gretchen Carlson alleged that Ailes made it crystal clear that if she had sexual relations with him her problems (which included among other things "ostracizing, marginalizing and shunning") would magically disappear.  

Office hanky-panky was the suggested cure-all for what ailed Roger Ailes. 

In the court records, Carlson claimed that Ailes told her :

I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better.

That's about as logical as anything else presented on Fox News, I guess. Good and better was not a standard that Roger Ailes generally aimed for.
Bad and worse was closer to the truth. 

A World on the Brink? Some Essential Questions for Serious People in Very Serious Times

by Nomad

With the US elections months away, and problems around the world causing many to wonder and worry, it's time we asked a few crucial questions about where we are headed.

The other day, the UK Guardian had a not-so-cheerful op-ed piece that is worth noting. 

In the piece, entitled Is The World Drifting Towards Disaster? Maybe, writer Michael White expresses a gloomy fear that things seem to be headed towards something as dark as anything we have yet seen

A lot of bad things are coalescing all over the place and no one seems to be in charge. A combination of opportunist ambition, of myriad weaknesses, systemic and personal, and of profound global power shifts put us all in danger.

We have been here before.

You must have read with alarm, or watched flickering black and white newsreels, how imperial Europe, rich and complacent, drifted towards fatal civil war in 1914. Schoolchildren are taught how 25 years later it all happened again, this time after self-deluding efforts to duck unpleasant realities ended in Hitler’s war.

“How could they be so blind?” we wonder as we read the latest history book or watch those TV documentaries.

Yet look at us.

A perfunctory tour of our troubled world backs up White's observation. 

Hammers and Guns: How Fox News Has Poisoned the Mind of the American Public

by Nomad

Reforming gun laws would seem to be a rather straight-forward proposition. People around the world scratch their heads and wonder why a superpower like the US would not be able to work out a solution. They are unaware of the awesome and sinister power of the propaganda machine in the US.

The Mystery 

To rest of the world, right-wing American voters seem frightening but also something of a mystery.

How can such a powerful and modern nation, indeed a superpower which still claims to be a leader of the free world, harbor such an ignorant and so easily manipulated electorate? 

And it's a good question. 

Gun control is a prime example.

When faced with the slaughter of innocent children, why on earth wouldn't there be an overwhelming demand for gun control? Shouldn't the American public be angry enough by now to ensure that laws be reformed? Isn't the problem clear enough? 

If nothing else, isn't it possible simply to clarify the meaning of the constitutional right to bear arms to exclude weapons of war? 

Apparently it is not possible. The recent tears of an American president, moved by the deaths of children to gun violence, were actually mocked. Fox News' host Andrea Tantaros went so far as to suggest checking the president's lectern for raw onion.

Closing Mosques: Trump Exposes The Right Wing's Hypocrisy on Religious Liberty

by Nomad

Well, I suppose we ought to be thankful to Donald Trump. Whether it's intentional or not, nobody has done more to expose the abject hypocrisy of so many of the position of the Republican Party than The Donald. 
The tragi-comedic aspect of it all is how so few conservatives actually notice it when the hypocrisy is on full display.

As we all witnessed with the Paris attacks, there is no tragedy too horrific that Republican wouldn't dare to make political use of. While this habit might offend and shock our allies around the world, Americans have become unshockable and somewhat desensitized to it. The rest of the world might call it "shameless" but jaded Americans now just say, "what else is new?"

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, an opportunist to the core, is certainly no exception. Take the outrageous remark he made  the other day about closing mosques. In order to stop radical Islam, the US government may be forced to close mosques.

He wasn't specific whether he meant particular mosques or all mosques. (A statement like that really demands clarification too.)

In an interview on Fox News  Trump was asked about his earlier statement, Trump refused to back down an inch: 

"Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it. A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice."

It was, he implied, the only effective way to protect America from attacks like the one we saw on Friday which left 130 Parisians dead. 

Hannity did not seem to think there was anything extraordinary in the suggestion.

The Iraq War and The Fine Art of Republican Revisionism

by Nomad

No matter how intense the barrage of propaganda and how constant the lies, Americans owe it to the 4,486 U.S. soldiers that died in Iraq to remember. Remembering the lessons of the war might just prevent the nation from making the same disastrous mistakes.

Margaret Meiers, in an op-ed piece for the Pittsburgh Post-gazette, asks how Americans can possible be so forgetful of recent events. 

Responding to an earlier newspaper opinion post, she states:

While Fox News and Bush administration officials try to rewrite history, it is known that faulty intelligence was drummed up and cherry-picked to be used to convince the people of the United States, Congress and the United Nations into supporting war.

Intelligence and Something Else

In case,  you need some reminders, Meiers provides us with a short list.

Remember Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame? Judith Miller’s reporting in The New York Times about aluminum tubes? Colin Powell’s address to the United Nations based on lies? The Downing Street memo? Remember “mushroom clouds,” duct tape and Curveball? And let’s not forget the Project for a New American Century, which openly pushed for war against Iraq before 9/​11 (the architects of whom are now Jeb Bush’s election campaign committee to keep him informed on foreign policy). Great.

Ignorance of events that happened, say in your grandfather's time may be forgiven but these things happened in 2003. We have a duty to those who died not to allow lies to mask the truth. We owe them that much at least.

Confidence Trick: What Flim-Flamming Con Artists and Fox News Have in Common

by Nomad

Con artists target the elderly as "marks" for a number of reasons. While the motives differ slightly, Fox News targets the same demographic for exactly the same reasons.

According to Webster's Dictionary:

PROPAGANDA:

..." the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person; also - ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause"...

Over the years many critics of Fox News have called it a conservative propaganda machine, whose goal seems to be to divide the nation. But maybe that's missing the point.

The Fox News- Con Artist Connections

The average Fox News viewer, studies have found, is over 65 (and keep in mind that's the average). It's no coincidence that the number one target of confidence tricksters just also happens to be the elderly. Instead making off with their life savings, the Fox News con artists have been used to foment division and affect elections through near constant disinformation. (Indirectly, savings are being drained from senior bank accounts in support for groups like the Tea Party.)

Nothing is accidental when it comes to Roger Ailes, president of Fox News. A wit could say Ailes put the "con" in conservative politics. As a diligent flim-flammer, he has chosen his victims well and has learned how to exploit characteristics of the human psyche such as prejudice, loneliness, naivety, and ignorance.

Outback Outrage: How Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Helped Destroy Australian Budget

by Nomad

Through a special tax arrangement with the Australian government,  Rupert Murdoch's New Corporation- parent company of Fox News- became  the largest single factor in the shortfalls in the Australian budget.

The Australian Financial Review is reporting a story which will probably never appear on Fox News.

The single largest factor in the underlying deterioration of the federal budget announced by Treasurer Joe Hockey in December was a cash payout of almost $900 million to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Despite Fox News and News Corp newspaper's near-constant drumbeat against government spending, it came right down to it, News Corp was just another corporation expecting special treatment. Documents last week revealed the company claimed a massive tax deduction- one of the largest cash payments- from the Australian Tax Office. 

When the Australian budget went south, it was not due to wild spending on foolish projects or due to the military appropriations but, if these reports are true, one main factor was a record-breaking tax deduction that the Tax Office allowed the media giant. 

The Guardian fills us in with other particulars:

The payment by a “foreign tax authority” was revealed in accounts published by News Corporation in the US earlier this month and related to a $2bn claim by News Corp for historic losses on currency transactions by its Australian subsidiaries.

The payment was estimated to be worth $600m to News Corp but the final figure grew to $882m after interest charges.

Fox News Outrage About Shoddy Reporting: Ray Nagin was a Democrat

by Nomad

Whenever you have Fox News condemning other news channels for inaccurate reporting, it's worth a little attention. Coverage of former mayor Ray Nagin, they say, was grossly inaccurate because they failed to point out he was a Democrat. But how could so many upstanding journalists have simply forgotten Nagin's party affiliation? Here's why.

As you might have heard, former New Orleans mayor during the Katrina fiasco Ray Nagin has run into a bit of trouble with a capital "T" He has been found guilty guilty of 20 of the 21 counts of federal corruption charges after a two-week trial. Nagin, according to the verdict, took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and other favors from businessmen looking for a break from his administration.

And this wasn't small potatoes.

A January 2013 indictment detailed more than $200,000 in bribes to the mayor, and his family members allegedly received a vacation in Hawaii; first-class airfare to Jamaica; private jet travel and a limousine for New York City; and cellular phone service. In exchange, businesses that coughed up for Nagin and his family won more than $5 million in city contracts, according to the .. indictment.

That wasn't the story that outraged Fox Nation. It was the reporting of the story. 

CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and ABC World News broadcasts gave brief mention to the conviction of former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin Wednesday on 20 federal counts, including bribery and conspiracy, but all three omitted the fact that he was a Democrat.

In fact, journalists repeatedly called Nagin a "Republican." Fox News points out:

The mainstream-media has made a point of pointing out a 'Republican' party affiliation in various past scandals...

Let us skip over the rather hard to ignore fact that on any given day, Fox News does exactly what they are now castigating other news channels. Even given the shoddy state of journalism today, how could this mistake had been made? 

The Truth Behind Palin's Soon-to-Be Released Book on Christmas

by Nomad

Decries the commercialization of Christmas
by peddling her book just in time for the holidays 

Rumor has it that Sarah Palin has another book in the works. Hurrah! According to USAToday, the book is "focused on putting faith and values back into Christmas."

The book, reportedly entitled "A Happy Holiday IS a Merry Christmas", is supposed to come out in November, right in time for the holidays. All carefully calculated to be a "hot" seller during the holiday season. (And who wouldn't want the a Sarah Palin book as a Christmas gift?)

No doubt Sarah hopes the book will be a money-maker for her. The timing of the release is wonderfully ironic. According to the publisher the book, a well-beaten dead horse if ever there was one, will deal with the commercialization of Christmas. Ho-humbug.

We can be assured it will take to task all those baddies who don't share her view that America is a Christian nation. No doubt the book will list every perceived offense, such as endangered nativity scenes on public property, etc. etc..  Anybody of you who dare to use the term "happy holidays" had better run for cover. Having failed in taking back America, Palin is now apparently planning to take back Christmas. 

In typical Palin-speak, Palin issued this statement through her publisher, HarperCollins.

"Amidst the fragility of this politically correct era, it is imperative that we stand up for our beliefs before the element of faith in a glorious and traditional holiday like Christmas is marginalized and ignored."

Fragility? How is a politically-correct era fragile? Could she have meant frigidity?  

She said the book will be "fun, festive" and "thought provoking." It will "encourage all to see what is possible when we unite in defense of our faith and ignore the politically correct Scrooges who would rather take Christ out of Christmas."

It's hard to imagine what she means by a politically-correct Scrooge. (Scrooge always sounded like a conservative to me.) But then it's generally hard to imagine what she means whenever she speaks. We will deal with the last part of her statement (Christ out of Christmas) in a moment.

The Debauchery of the Public Mind and Conscience: Teddy Roosevelt vs. Fox News

by Nomad

A quote from Theodore Roosevelt seems just as apt as it did when he said it over a hundred years ago. Calling out the news media and the their culpability in creating hatred and playing upon the naivety of the public wasn't something Roosevelt was afraid to do.  Isn't it time to call out Fox News in the same way?

It is a strange paradox that often looking back into the “dead” past can inspire us with a fresh view of the present. Take this example of Teddy Roosevelt. 

In his Sorbonne Address in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910, he took on, with his characteristic tenacity, the yellow journalism of his day.

All journalists, all writers, for the very reason that they appreciate the vast possibilities of their profession, should bear testimony against those who deeply discredit it.

Offenses against taste and morals, which are bad enough in a private citizen, are infinitely worse if made into instruments for debauching the community through a newspaper. Mendacity, slander, sensationalism, inanity, vapid triviality, all are potent factors for the debauchery of the public mind and conscience.

He also said that "the excuse" that the public demands this kind of journalism. (in the case of Fox News this excuse is re-packaged as a High Ratings = Popular success = Truth.) That rationalization is, he said, hardly any more valid than food producer peddling poison. 

Roosevelt might well have added another analogy of drug dealers and pimps. Like Fox, your average drug dealer and brothel manager also has his loyal supporters. Fast food, cigarettes, crack cocaine. or sugary children’s breakfast cereals. All of these products might be considered popular. Unquestionably, all of them fill a niche in the marketplace, but what about the harmful effects to society?

Yellow Journalism vs.Yellow Snow

The 7 Lessons the GOP has Failed to Learn from the Sarah Palin Blunder

Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy was controversial from the moment it was announced. For an assortment of reasons, many thought she was totally unqualified to be second in command. After a disastrous campaign, in which the McCain and his running-mate seemed to be conducting separate campaigns, many lessons should have been learned. Apparently nobody has learned anything at all.

The way the GOP has handled the Sarah Palin problem - from start to finish- says so much about what is wrong with the party. 

Even now, as the presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, heads toward the convention to be crowned (despite some serious concerns about his suitability) the Republican leadership seems to have learned nothing.

Aurora Reflections: Why Nothing will Change

by Nomad

In the aftermath of the Aurora shooting, it's time to be perfectly frank here.

In a country that worships violence, that literally trains its children to hunt down and kill humans in computer games, that, allows a purposefully-misinterpreted constitutional right to make dangerous weapons easy to obtain, it seems pretty hypocritical to pretend to be surprised when these acts of mass murder occur. We all shudder because that's what we are expected to do.

It's All an Act

Let's face it, for the most part, it's all an act anyway because Americans are not going to do anything about any of the underlying causes for this murderous madness.

• Americans are not going demand decisive action from their leaders. 

• Americans are not going to change any laws about gun ownership. 

• There is not going to be any renewed attention at establishing some workable system of identifying and treating the deranged and the dangerous. 

In fact, instead of searching for solutions to the murder-rampage problem, quite the opposite will continue to happen.

After a couple of days the shock of it will wear off and a couple of months later, the whole scenario will replay itself somewhere else. If not in Colorado, then Nevada or Florida or Georgia. A swimming pool, an opera house, a concert, any place where people come together.

Until each and every one of us loses a friend, a co-worker or a loved one in a senseless mass murder like this, it will go on.

The same breaking news reports, the grisly details, the interviews with shaken survivors and the sad tales of victims whose lives were cut short for no reason at all. There will be the same sad speeches by politicians, the flowers on sidewalks under young girls' photographs.
But in the end, nothing will change.

Why not, you ask? Just look at the immediate response to the latest event.

Senseless Crazy

Instead of seeking and demanding real solutions to this problem, we have people like Republican congressmen from Texas Louie "terror babies" Gohmert who- even before investigations began, was on a radio show, issuing his own idiotic remarks about the mass murder.

"You know what really gets me, a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place...Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue of freedom, that was important...People say...where was God in all of this? We've threatened high school graduation participations if they use God's name, they're going to be jailed... I mean that kind of stuff. Where was God? What have we done with God? We don't want him around."

Thirteen people are murdered in cold blood, more than 35 people are injured and, according to Gohmert, the cause is not enough faith in God? 

If you were one of those that believes that God takes a special interest in our individual lives, then it would be just as easy to blame God for allowing this thing to happen in the first place. If God really wanted converts, He could have easily divinely jammed the guns. Melted them.
In fact, according to the Christian Post, Holmes was "was heavily involved in his local Presbyterian church." So much for that theory. That kind of logic is, of course, wasted on people like Gohmert. Instead of playing the preacher, Gohmert should be concentrating on his well-paying job as a legislator.

Although it is unclear whether or not Holmes received psychiatric treatment or received a diagnosis of a mental health problem, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder

of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va. told ABC News that

he believes that the increasing numbers of shooting rampages – Jared Loughner's 2011 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the shooting at Fort Hood in 2009, the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007 – are largely the result of decreasing resources and funding for the mentally ill in state budgets throughout the U.S.

Like many states, when faced with an eye-watering shortfall, state legislatures have been forced to cut already-strapped health services to local communities.
For example, last year, the state of Texas, which ranks 50th in the nation in spending on mental health care, proposed $134 million in budget cuts for mental health services. This, according to experts, put in jeopardy many of the estimated 1.5 million people with severe mental disorders.

Mind you, this is the same state whose governor has openly rejected the Affordable Care Act, which would expand government-funded health care.
Besides putting the entire community at risk, according to one study, these budget cuts are not illusionary. The need remains and the costs are simply shifted to another area of need. According to one independent analysis of Texas' 2011 budget:

The proposed reductions to mental health services will undermine the foundation of the public mental health system. The belief that cuts to community mental health services equate to “savings” is deceptive, as the costs of serving people with serious mental illnesses is merely shifted to local communities and to other sectors of the state budget. Already, local communities are struggling to fill the gaps in the public mental health system.

Even before any budget cuts take place, community needs that should be met by the public community‐based mental health system are overflowing to State Hospitals, emergency rooms, and jails. Across the state, police officers are reporting longer waits in emergency rooms for individuals that they have brought in for care, sheriffs and county officials are raising concerns about pressures on jail as they have to absorb more inmates with mental illnesses, and emergency room staff are warning of longer waits for all patients as individuals with mental illness consume more of the emergency room’s resources while waiting for an inpatient bed to become available.

Further cuts will make a difficult situation untenable.

Could increased funding of mental health services have actually prevented the Aurora tragedy? So far that's unproven. However, cutting mental health services and putting dangerous people on the street to fend for themselves is certainly not a solution.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, because of state budget cuts, more and more dangerous people are falling through the cracks:

In March, 2011, NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, released State Mental Health Cuts: A National Crisis, a report documenting deep cuts to state spending on services for children and adults living with serious mental illness. These cuts, which occurred between 2009 and 2011, led to significant reductions in both hospital and community services for vulnerable individuals with serious mental illness.

Today, with demand for public mental health services extremely high, especially at a time of severe economic distress, the crisis in mental health care continues. The impacts are felt throughout society as people go without the treatment they need.

Increasingly, emergency rooms, homeless shelters and jails are struggling with the effects of people falling through the cracks due to lack of needed mental health services and supports.

Some states, such as California, Illinois, Nevada and South Carolina, which made devastating cuts to mental health services previously, have made further cuts for fiscal year (FY) 2012, putting tens of thousands of citizens at great risk. States have cut more than $1.6 billion in general funds from their state mental health agency budgets for mental health services since FY2009, a period during which demand for such services increased significantly.

Dr. John Grohol, CEO and founder of Internet's largest and oldest independent mental health and psychology network, Psych Central, also notes that outsourcing to a private sector solution has its own set of problems:

Because of budget cuts and the focus on de-institutionalization — moving even people with severe mental illness out of state hospitals into group homes and other care settings — the state is outsourcing a great deal of their services to private providers. These private companies and organizations set their own rules for safety and care, often with very little external or government oversight;

What, you may ask, is Gohmert's solution? He went on to say:

"It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?"

Because as everybody knows, more weapons in public places is the right answer. A crowded cinema with people firing in every direction? Hmm..

As Rachel Maddow writes:

If decency had any place in American politics, this would be an immediate career-ender for the ridiculous congressman from Texas. Some political missteps are simply unforgivable.

More Men Without Mirrors

Another shameless exploiter of this tragedy, Joel B. Pollak, a blogger for the Brietbart.com, wrote that the shooter, identified as James Holmes, "could be" a registered Democrat. He could have been a lot of things, a juggler of bowling pins, a fan of Glee or a professional wrestling enthusiast. Holmes could be a lot of things.
Or maybe not.

Few were surprised by Pollack's excuse for news reporting. Breitbart is known for carrying on the outrageously low journalistic standards of its founder.

Another of his writers, John Nolte, had the nerve to lash out at Piers Morgan for "exploiting the massacre" by questioning gun control laws.

If there's an American tragedy, within hours you can always expect our corrupt media to feast on the corpses of the victims in order to push their left-wing political agenda.

The irony of the statement is probably wasted on fans of that site. They've appeared to have lost all capacity for self-reflection or analysis.

Paul Joseph Watson, a writer for Alex Jones' InfoWars, jumps onto the bandwagon with an article that begins:

Within hours of the tragic ‘Batman’ shooting in Aurora, Colorado, political opportunists have seized upon the incident to push for gun control, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg demanding that both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama “stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about” mass shootings.
Exactly as we predicted in our earlier article, leftists have wasted no time in exploiting the actions of a lone lunatic for political grist, with Bloomberg calling on the two presidential candidates to crack down on gun rights.

We knew ghouls like Bloomberg would rush to exploit this tragedy to try and crush the right to self-defense.
And the amazing part is that none of these writers appear to see themselves as exploiters of the massacre.

Rush Limbaugh, always ready to make a public ass of himself during a national tragedy, played a unique role in this Aurora shooting. Days before the event he revealed his own silly conspiracy theory about the Batman film.

RUSH: Have you heard this new movie, the Batman movie, what is it, The Dark Knight Lights Up or whatever the name is. That’s right, Dark Knight Rises. Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie?

Bane. The villain in The Dark Knight Rises is named Bane, B-a-n-e. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bane?

Did his radio diatribe play any part in the event? As much as I would like to pin this tail on that donkey, it certainly doesn't sound much like incitement to me. It just sounds like more of Limbaugh's usual rantings. (There have been much more clear cut examples of incitement to violence by others in the media.Think: Julian Assange during the Wikileaks hoopla.)

As ignorant as his statements were, Rush's culpability seems nonexistent. In any case, making allegations against Rush is probably unhelpful. The Right Wing has already seized upon those unsupported claims and made the most of them. Of course, as more news leaks out, a fuller picture will emerge of the shooter's motives, and his inspirations (other than extreme self-promotion and making a lot of people terrified for their lives).

In the end, the National Rifle Association (NRA) will continue to talk about defending freedom. Congressmen will talk about Christians under attack. The Right will blame the Left for it and the Left will guiltily defend itself.

Once again, Republican candidate Mitt Romney will have to face his arch enemy, Romney of 1994 who in Massachusetts once proudly defended his support of an Assault Weapons Ban and the Brady gun control law. Blessed silence should be the only response but in the campaign season, that's unlikely.

Ultimately, it will be left to Fox News to clean up the Right Wing version- something along the lines of "a lone gunman, that's all, we'll have to live with it."

Hannity will add a few so-called experts (Sarah Palin is always available) to assure us that nothing can be done, that budget cuts have nothing to do with it, that Obama is the person to blame for this, and that guns are good for us. Greta Van Susteren or blond bombshill Megyn Kelly will be on duty to make the nonsense sound perfectly reasonable (if you don't think too deeply about it). Next week, Fox and Friends will interview a survivor who will have their very own 5 minutes of stardom.
Case closed.

Then something else will happen.

______________

Related articles

• A mass murderer played World of Warcraft and you should all feel bad (wow.joystiq.com)
• Rachel Maddow (wnyc.org)
• Rep. Louis Gohmert still trying super hard for Stupidest Member of Congress Award (dailykos.com)
• Gohmert: ENDA Is Part Of Obama's 'War On Religion' (thinkprogress.org)
• Louie Gohmert: We Need Photo IDs to Prove There's Rampant Voter Fraud in Texas (crooksandliars.com)

Mainstream Media Misreports Supreme Court ACA Decision

by Nomad

Finally, Americans got some good news today. (At least, Obama did.)

Against expectations, the Supreme Court ruled that the individual mandate- a key component of the Affordable Care Act- is after all constitutional. It was really a 50-50 call because with the recent decisions by the court, even the most preposterous result was quite possible.

Of course if you were a devoted viewer of CNN and Fox News, you might have never known what the Supreme Court ruled. Here are screen shots (courtesy of ThinkProgress) of what those so-called news organization reported.