Month: November 2018

 
From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

It’s always been just a little bit obvious that Fox News was more of a political advocacy outlet than a straight news organization, but if there was any doubt, popular Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro joined Rush Limbaugh in standing up for Trump and his party’s candidates this evening (right before the midterm elections). They could maybe pretend they were just there to report from a very special vantage, but let’s be really honest, that vantage was earned by being propagandists and useful to the party. This is what a wholly partisan effort would look like. They also derided other news outlets, laughably, as being “fake” while making this particular obvious show.

I think people who really pay attention have some idea who the fakes are here. Pirro, Limbaugh, and Hannity might be popular, but they surely aren’t honest, and what they do has never been about straight news. Limbaugh doesn’t pretend to be an honest purveyor of the tea–he stresses from time to time that he is an entertainment figure (probably not to land his ass in trouble). But Hannity and Pirro?

While they are joke figures outside of the Fox milieu, among Fox news fans, the possibility that Hannity delivers real news is apparently some kind of open question, left open, deliberately, but Fox itself. (I think the same nebulous area exists for Pirro, to the extent that she is treated as being sober as a judge when both the “sober” and “judge” portions of that assessment appear to be way off.)

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From Frances Langum:

Hogan Gidley, spokesman for the Trump White House, doesn’t want a debate about who can throw out the nastiest rhetoric?

Hogan appeared on Al Roker’s “BOLD” streaming news service to talk about how the “Democrat Party” wants open borders because they hate Trump in a personal way. No, really, you can watch the full interview here.

So when Trump floats the racist idea of ending birthright citizenship, we are not supposed to say racist, just politely disagree with him and let the immorally-stacked-and-stolen-by-the-Right Supreme Court make the final decision!

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From The Journal of Improbable Research:

Herpes gladiatorum is caused by a highly infectious version of the human herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and is associated with high physical-impact sports – it frequently plagues rugby players (who know it as ‘Scrumpox’), along with Judo participants and Sumo Wrestlers.

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

We’re all worried about Tuesday, America.

It is the place our minds and hearts are solely fixed on.

Right now our energies are understandably marshaled and our hopes pinned to this singular day ahead, as if at the end of it we will have some resolution, some sense of closure—as if healing and rest will finally come.

But what if things don’t go that way? What if the news is bad?

At a recent tour stop, a visibly exasperated woman asked me, through a breaking voice, “What if everything goes wrong on Tuesday? What do we do then? If we lose, where will the hope be?”

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From Tommy Christopher:

Before the ACA passed, nothing prevented insurance companies from charging absurdly high rates — or even denying coverage altogether — to people who have had health conditions like cancer, diabetes, or even pregnancy.

Repealing the ACA, as McSally enthusiastically voted to do, would eliminate those protections.

McSally voted in favor of the failed Trumpcare bill, which would have allowed insurers to jack up premiums for people with pre-existing conditions, pricing them out of the market.

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From St. Louis KMOV4:

A large electronic billboard featuring President Donald Trump with the bible verse, “The word became flesh”, could be seen along the southbound lanes of the highway.

The billboard left residents like Sherri Chisholim searching for the meaning behind the ad.

“I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t know what message it was trying to send but I felt like it was somewhat offensive, I didn’t know if they were trying to equate Donald Trump to Jesus,” said Chisholim.

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From The Moderate Voice:

When George’s father asked young George if he had chopped down his favorite tree, legend (again) has it that the future first president of our country bravely admitted, “I can’t tell a lie, Pa; you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.”

Compare the legend to the harsh, ugly reality 280 years later when the 45th president of the United States tells ABC News: “I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful.”

Apparently, 5,000-plus times during the past 20 months this president wanted to tell the truth, but just could not bring himself to do it.

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From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

The increasing embrace of socialism by the Democratic Party is a sea change away from the “liberal” welfare state Democrats, so it’s important to get this understanding right. Welfare statism is different in crucial respects from socialism, democratic or otherwise. The limited socialism of the welfare state, while rights-violating, is supposedly intended only as a “safety net” for capitalism, not a replacement. Under the modern welfare state, individual rights and free enterprise are still fundamental.

Unlike welfare statism, socialism leaves no room for freedom.

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From Jaime Lees at the St. Louis River Front Times:

Listen up, hippies: November 6 is not the primary. This is a real-ass election day. You can whine about how you’d like more choices or a viable third party or whatever, but if you are any type of lefty and you aren’t voting for Claire McCaskill, you are also a raging moron.

Your vote here matters. It carries real, heavy, possibly irreversible consequences. But yeah, you like to vote with your little bleeding heart, don’t you? Well, don’t worry, wimp! The good news is that you should totally be “voting your conscience” this time because your stupid conscience should be saying this to you: “Good gravy, Josh Hawley must not win! Anyone but Josh Hawley!”

And that means that your only real option is Claire McCaskill.

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