Tag Archives: propaganda

Trump TV and the spawn of Satan devise an October Surprise: double-down on racism and anti-immigrant hysteria.

Posted on October 20, 2018 by AZ BlueMeanie | Leave a comment

Trump’s party of white identity and white grievances has decided to go to the well one more time with a naked appeal to o Fox News aka Trump TV wanted to exploit a caravan of migrants as a midterm election issue, so that’s what Trump is doing:

President Donald Trump responded on Thursday morning to reports of a caravan of migrants moving through Central America toward the U.S. border by blaming Democrats for their purported “assault on our country.” The president was mimicking the commentators he was likely watching on Fox News, who urged Republicans to weaponize the caravan as an election issue ahead of next month’s midterms.

A caravan of as many as 4,000 Honduran migrants has entered Guatemala, leading Fox hosts to spend much of the week trying to stoke fears that the migrants are “heading this way” with plans “to storm our border.” None of this makes much sense — the caravan would still need to make it through all of Guatemala and Mexico, and the Mexican government is currently deploying its own resources to stop the migrants. But because Trump’s worldview is shaped by the hours of Fox he consumes each day, that coverage is having an impact on U.S. policy — and now, the topics of discussion in the midterm elections.

Trump entered the fray on Tuesday morning, warning that the U.S. would cut off aid to Honduras if the caravan isn’t turned back:

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The corrupting influence of dark money in the Arizona Governor race

Posted on October 11, 2018 by AZ BlueMeanie | 4 comments

Governor Doug Ducey, the ice cream man hired by Koch Industries to run their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona, is repeating the corrupting influence of dark money that he used to get elected in 2014 in his reelection bid in 2018.

This after Governor Ducey and his lickspittle lackeys in the GOP controlled Arizona legislature spent the last four years removing any remaining restrictions on “dark money” and blocking every citizen effort to force transparency and disclosure in campaign finances. The final insult to democracy was Ducey’s court packing scheme of the Arizona Supreme Court, which paid off with the court blocking the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative from this fall’s ballot for specious reasons enacted into law by his lickspittle lackeys in the GOP controlled Arizona legislature, the will of the voters be damned.

This is what GOP authoritarianism and its culture of corruption in Arizona looks like. It is grounds enough for you to vote them all out of office.

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Posted in AZBlueMeanie, Ballot Referendas and Initiatives, Campaigns, Corruption, Courts, Election Integrity, Elections, Ethics, GOP War On..., Governor, Immigration, International, Law Enforcement, Mexico Border, Party Politics, Propositions, Scandals

Tagged Authoritarianism, culture of corruption, dark money, propaganda

Free speech is not absolute, it comes with consequences and accountability

Posted on August 12, 2018 by AZ BlueMeanie | Comments Off

Social media platforms such as Apple, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and other companies removed or banned the truly vile Alex Jones and his conspiracy theory mongering Infowars from their platforms over the past week or so.

In recent years, Conservatives Have Weaponized the First Amendment:

A new analysis prepared for The New York Times found that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been far more likely to embrace free-speech arguments concerning conservative speech than liberal speech. That is a sharp break from earlier eras.

As a result, liberals who once championed expansive First Amendment rights are now uneasy about them.

“The left was once not just on board but leading in supporting the broadest First Amendment protections,” said Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment lawyer and a supporter of broad free-speech rights. “Now the progressive community is at least skeptical and sometimes distraught at the level of First Amendment protection which is being afforded in cases brought by litigants on the right.”

Many on the left have traded an absolutist commitment to free speech for one sensitive to the harms it can inflict.

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Posted in AZBlueMeanie, Conspiracy Theory, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Media, Party Politics, Polling, President, Racism, Scandals

Tagged Alex Jones, First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, hate speech, incitement, Infowars, libel, propaganda, slander, social media, Twitter

Dear Nancy Pelosi: take away the GOP’s favorite toy to win in November

Posted on August 10, 2018 by AZ BlueMeanie | 14 comments

The top three Democratic leaders in the House are in their late 70s. Minority leader Nancy Pelosi is 77 years old, Democratic whip Steny Hoyer is 78 and assistant minority leader Jim Clyburn is 77 years old. The Democratic Party has an age problem. On the Senate side, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 66.

The current Democratic top contenders for 2020 are Vice President Joe Biden, 75, Bernie Sanders, 76, and Elizabeth Warren, 69.

Miles Mogulescu snarkily, but accurately noted at the Huffington Post, Democratic Leadership Looks Like Old Soviet Politburo:

What does a professional sports team do after 6 straight losing seasons? Among other things, it usually fires the coach and looks for new blood, new leadership, and new strategies.

But not if you’re the minority House and Senate democratic leadership… Or the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party shortly before the collapse of communism.

Instead, the failed, and increasingly geriatric leadership holds onto its fading power with increasing tenacity.

I’m sorry, but NO. It’s time to thank them for their years of dedicated service to their country and give them their gold watch and retirement party. To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, it is “time to pass the torch to a new generation” of Democratic leadership in the Congress.

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Posted in AZBlueMeanie, Campaigns, Congress, Corruption, Elections, GOP War On..., Media, Party Politics, President, Racism, Scandals

Tagged misogyny, propaganda, sexism

Debate: Should the media cover Trump rallies or not?

Posted on August 6, 2018 by AZ BlueMeanie | 7 comments

There is an interesting debate developing about how the media should cover demagogue Donald Trump’s “hillbilly Nuremberg rallies” (h/t Bill Maher) in which he encourages his lunatic Qanon supporters to attack the media covering his events in Stalinist terms, as “the enemy of the people.” Trump’s rally rhetoric is going to get somebody killed.

As frequently as Trump attacks the media as “fake news,” he needs the media in the room to use them as a foil for his incitements to hatred among his sycophant supporters. His supporters, in turn, are seeking their 15 minutes of fame by participating in attacks on the media, as they did last week with CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Trump is a master of manipulating the media. The media cover his rallies like people watch NASCAR racing for the crashes — they are there for the sickening event to see what crazy shit might happen. The media has allowed Trump to create a reality TV show presidency.

I caught a segment of The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell last week in which Republican strategist Mike Murphy suggested that the media stop providing coverage of these Trump rallies to deprive him of the oxygen he needs. Send just one AP pool reporter and a photographer to cover his rallies so that Trump is denied the bank of cameras and the pen of reporters that he can use as a foil, and potentially put their safety genuinely at risk.

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Posted in AZBlueMeanie, Campaigns, Congress, Corruption, Elections, Ethics, GOP War On..., Media, Party Politics, President, Scandals

Tagged Authoritarianism, Fascism, propaganda

Can we officially call it a constitutional crisis now? (Updated)

Posted on August 1, 2018 by AZ BlueMeanie | 1 comment

Donald Trump “went there” this morning on the Special Counsel’s Russia probe.

Trump is, once again, setting up Confederate Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to be the fall guy by signaling he is now ready to pull a Nixonian “Saturday night massacre” if the Attorney General does not do as he is directed by the president, a clear violation of the independence of the Department of Justice from undue influence over criminal investigations by the chief executive. With Robert Mueller closing in, Trump is in a panic and is abusing the powers of the presidency to obstruct justice in order to protect himself.

Chris Cillizza at CNN reports, Donald Trump just tweeted something new about the Russia investigation — and it’s huge:

President Donald Trump has made his displeasure with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, special counsel Robert Mueller and the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election he is leading crystal clear over the past year. But he took that critique to new heights on Wednesday morning, suggesting that Sessions needed to step in and end the investigation.