Open thread Wednesday.

It's open thread Wednesday field hands, and I need your thoughts on a few things.

Does Sean Hannity and his network now have a serious credibility problem? 

Do you believe president trump when he says that he has been tough on Russia? 

Is Nikki Haley going to run against trump in 2020?  ("I don't get confused") 

Why is the story of white terrorist found guilty of plotting to blow up an apartment complex full of African immigrants getting so little press?

Will trump fire Robert Mueller? The Pittsburgh police department seems to thinks so. 

Should the new climate of little or no regulation in Washington be blamed for that recent Southwest Airlines crash that killed one person? 

Did the New York AG take away trump's pardon power with their latest move?

Finally, will Michael Cohen give up his boy, Donald trump, to the feds?

She's baaack.

I have some history with Angela McGlowan. Back in the day when she was still relevant, she took issue with how I characterized her on my blog. I challenged her to an open debate, but, as wingnuts tend to do, she chickened out.






I think she ran for congress in Mississippi and lost (thank goodness), and I thought she had just gone off into the sunset somewhere to relax in a nice ----republican paid for---- house for the rest of her life.

Boy was I wrong. Angela never went anywhere. Apparently she has been hiding out on conservative radio and bolstering her wingnut cred this whole time.

Now we learn that Angela has teamed up with Sean Hannity of Fox News to declare that somehow Barack Obama is responsible for the tragic circumstances surrounding that missing Malaysian jet. *????*

Now this all sounds so ludicrous and comical that you would think that it's a part of a Daily Show or Saturday Night Live skit. Sadly, though, it is not.

Angela McGlowan actually believes that president Obama's policies led to  terrorists taking over that plane.... but wait; we still don't know what happened to the plane just yet. It turns out that those two Middle Eastern men with stolen passports might not be terrorists after all.

Oh well Angela, back to the drawing board. Back to saying dumb things like "Obama wants to take away our guns which means that we can't defend ourselves from an attacks from Syria, Iran." (Yes, she really said that.)

And to think that this woman almost went to congress.

Finally, one of the many problems with the Koch brothers just blindly pumping money into all of these anti-Obamacare ads is that they probably can't properly vet the actors who appear from time to time.




"Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by the Koch brothers, is running Obamacare attack ads featuring a cancer patient who claimed her treatments were "unaffordable" under the new health care law. On Monday, The Detroit News reported that the patient will actually save more than $1,000 a year.


Julie Boonstra says in the anti-Obamacare ad that she was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago, and her health care plan was canceled when Obamacare went into effect.


"Now, the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable," she said.
Before her plan was canceled, Boonstra was paying a $1,100 monthly premium. That's $13,200 a year without adding out-of-pocket expenses like co-pays and prescription drugs.


But under her new plan, the Blue Cross Premier Gold, Boonstra's premiums are down to $571 a month, and out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,100. That's a maximum annual expense of $11,952 a year.


According to The Detroit News, Boonstra said it “can’t be true” that her new coverage is cheaper than her old.


“I personally do not believe that,” Boonstra said." [Source]




Of course you don't ma'am. You are, after all, a wingnut.

Barneys misses a sale, and "if the hood fits".

Tonight my racism chase takes me to the island of Manhattan.

I don't care if you are the president of these divided states or just a hard working young black man, it's hard out here having to deal with the dreaded extreme color arousal syndrome.

"A 19-year-old college student from Queens says he was handcuffed and locked in a jail cell after buying a $350 designer belt at Barneys on New York's Madison Avenue because he is "a young black man."

Trayon Christian told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday that he saved up from a part-time job for weeks to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo belt at Barneys. 

When he went to the store to buy it in April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police about a block away, and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Officers hauled Christian to the local precinct, where he showed police his identification, as well as his debit card and the receipt for the belt, the lawsuit says.

 Police still believed Christian's identification was fake, and eventually called his bank, which verified it was his, according to the complaint. Christian, who has no prior arrests, was released.

 He told NBC 4 New York that questions were racing through his mind while he went through the painful experience of being handcuffed and taken to a cell.

 "Why me? I guess because I'm a young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably thought that I was one of them," Christian said. "They probably think that black people don't have money like that."

He later returned the belt to Barneys because he says he "didn't want to have nothing to do with it."

He is suing the city and the luxury department store for unspecified damages as a result of "great physical and mental distress and humiliation." [Source]

Young man, I hope you win your lawsuit and get enough money to buy a thousand Ferragamo suits.

Finally, the right is upset with democratic congressman, Alan Grayson, who declared in no uncertain terms that the tea party and the KKK was pretty much the same thing. ("If the hood fits")

Over on Fox they are calling it race baiting. Pot meet kettle. Sean Hannity was beside himself with rage. He brought in one of his house Negro friends, Niger Innis (yes, that's his name) to cheer on his hypocritical rant.

Niger must have forgotten about Sean's friend, Hal Turner. But this is what house Negroes do, they go along to get along.

Anyway, I love this commentary from someone named Michelle (Obama) Gardner.

"I wonder if Hannity will ever invite his new colleague Ben Carson onto his show to discuss his long history of race baiting. So, its all fine and dandy when Carson (and the entire GOP for that matter) refer to Blacks Liberals as "slaves" and the Democratic Party as a "plantation" and Obamacare as the worst thing since slavery. Meanwhile, they're indignant at heated racial rhetoric coming from the left? Isn't referring to African Americans as slaves the height of racial insensitivity given the history????

 

Yet Republicans do it all the time, especially Black Republicans.

 

They lash out all the time at the Black community for rejecting them. So, rather than responding to that rejection like mature adults they whip out the slave references and hide behind their skin color to justify such irresponsible rhetoric. They then go on Conservative media and embarrass themselves further by repeating such nonsense amongst people who frankly already have misconceptions about the Black community. They get patted on the head for being "courageous" , "telling it like it is", "thinking for themselves", "not being PC", but primarily for saying what White conservatives think, but could never ever say.

 

What's more is that this type of thing doesn't happen with other groups. Think about it. Most Jews in this country are Democrats. Yet, Republicans wouldn't dare refer to Liberal Jews as having a "concentration camp" mentality or the Democratic Party as being a "concentration camp". Most importantly you couldn't pay a self-respecting, Conservative minded, Jewish person enough money to stand in front of CPAC, or Values Voters Summit, or a Christian Coalition Conference, or Faux Newz and say some crazy shyt like that!!!!

 

I have to wonder myself why black conservatives are always so angry."

 

I know why, they want a bigger house.  

 

 

 

 

New theories from the right about a trial going on down in Florida.

I promised the readers that I wouldn't do anymore posts with my opinions about the trial of a certain neighborhood vigilante down in Florida.

However, that doesn't mean I can't post interesting articles from other places.


"If last night you failed to watch the Fox News family of cable channels, you missed one hell of a scoop. Sean Hannity informed his audience of a story that was broken hours earlier by the legal watchdogs/gadflies (depending on your politics) at Judicial Watch. “A little-known unit of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Community Relations Service (CRS), was deployed to Sanford, FL, following the Trayvon Martin shooting,” reported Judicial Watch. Its mission: “to help organize and manage rallies and protests against George Zimmerman.”

Hannity was shocked. “We learned today that [President Obama’s] Justice Department got involved in this case through their own Community Relations Service,” he told Pat Buchanan. “What does that say about the administration? Should they have been involved?”
 

“They should not,” pronounced Buchanan.
 

Over on the Fox Business Channel, another sage of interracial politics was fulminating about this “little-known unit” and its meddling.
 

“Instead of following their stated mission of preventing racial and ethnic tensions,” said Lou Dobbs, “they allegedly helped to organize anti-Zimmerman demonstrations. We have talked and reported to you a great deal on this broadcast about the politicization of the Justice Department, but I don't think anyone covering this story anticipated such a thing as what we have just reported to you.”

How did Dobbs know that the Justice Department had betrayed its mission? Well, he didn’t, and so far no one speculating about what the “little-known unit” did seems to possess much expertise about it. That’s almost immaterial. We’re one day out from jury deliberations in George Zimmerman’s case, and there’s considerable, reality-based worry that a “not guilty” verdict would spark violence in Sanford or Miami. That’s inspired conservatives to look back at how this became a national story in the first place—an inquest that leads them to Eric Holder’s doorstep.

Let’s fix the “little-known” problem first. The Community Relations Service was created 49 years ago, by the Civil Rights Act, at a time of steady conflict between the government and local law enforcement and white citizens groups. Its original mission was to swoop in and mediate when communities start roiling over “actions, policies, and practices that are perceived to be based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
 

This has only occasionally been controversial. The CRS’s budget request for 2013 was only $12,036,000, and no politician from either party made hay about cutting it. And that request was made after this “organizing anti-Zimmerman demonstrations” story was broken in conservative media, mostly by Breitbart.com’s Lee Stranahan and TheBlaze.com’s Erica Ritz. On April 17, 2012, Ritz reported that “a little-known” (that phrase again!) Justice Department outlet “has apparently been helping protesters angry over the Trayvon Martin shooting.”
 

Ritz’s revelation came after reading the Orlando Sentinel, which during that churn of daily Martin stories had profiled the “league of secretive peacemakers” working in Sanford and Miami. “In their Navy blue windbreakers, polo shirts and dark sunglasses, they look like federal agents,” reported Arelis Hernandez. The agents, according to local civil rights leaders, “helped set up a meeting between the local NAACP and elected officials that led to the temporary resignation of [Sanford] police Chief Bill Lee.”
 

In the Sentinel, this was a human interest story; online, it looked like a smoking gun. How could one branch of the Justice Department be investigating the case while another branch was shuttling activists to rallies? “Is the DOJ’s presence, seemingly in a supportive role of the protesters, working to undercut the very mission of the organization?” asked Ritz. The question answered itself." [More]

Oh those wingnuts.

 

A face only a mama and wingnuts could love.

I have to give props to the crew over at Color Of Change for taking on Glen Beck, (You know him don't you? He is the former drug addict and certifiable crazy person -his mother killed herself because she suffered from schizophrenia-) and the folks at FOX News. So far they have gotten over thirty advertisers to withdraw their ads from Beck's show. Of course that's kind of easy for these companies to justify doing when the guy is calling the president of these divided states "a racist".

But now, of course, Beck is fighting back. And he is doing it by going after Van Jones, who was with Color Of Change a couple years ago, but now has a prominent position with the Obama administration. Forget the fact that Jones has not been with Color Of Change for a couple of years, and that he currently has absolutely nothing to do with the organization.

This is from the LA Times: "During a six-minute biographical profile, set to ominous music, Beck said Jones was twice arrested for political protests and has described himself as a "rowdy black nationalist." The talk show host cast the piece as part of a broader examination of Obama's "czars," special advisers to the president who "don't answer to anybody.""Why is it that such a committed revolutionary has made it so high into the Obama administration as one of his chief advisers?"

“Glenn Beck is trying to change the subject,” said James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change, who noted that Jones has not been active with the group in almost two years. “The issue is his baseless fear mongering.”

Now I have to give a disclaimer here: I have absolutely no problem with the incivility of political discourse as it now stands here in A-merry-ca. When it comes to politics, I am not a very civil person. But I respect those who are, and who fight their battles by quietly organizing. Which brings me to the Color Of Change people.

I have met Gabriel Goodlatte (A dead ringer for Vince from "Entourage") and James Rucker a couple of times, and they seem to be classy hard working individuals, who have mobilized thousands of people with their hard work and online activism. This latest boycott against the people who advertise with Beck is an example of what can happen when people organize around a common cause and goal. The fact that Beck and his minions are fighting back means that it is having an effect.

Glen Beck is going to get his millions of viewers every night. He will continue to see black helicopters and stoke up fear among the...ahem ahem, less educated citizens among us about the black bogeyman living on Pennsylvania Avenue. But that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't flex our collective muscles as well. As long as there is a cultural and social divide in this country we might as well pick our sides and dig in for a long hard battle. Personally, I welcome it. I love the smell of charred red necks in the morning. I hate Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and the rest of the right wing hate merchants who push inflammatory rhetoric, like I do cancer. Actually, I hate them more. At least, with cancer, damn near everyone can agree that it is a terrible thing to be afflicted with. Sadly, the idiots who embrace these phonies, never realize that they are sick.

Just once.

It turns out that's how many times the O man's right hand man, Rahm Emanuel, chatted it up with Rod Blagojevich. And, it turns out, there was no juicy discussion about a quid pro quo between his O ness and Blago for his Senate seat.

That chill you feel is from the air caused by the wind that just got sucked out of Conservatives. Just last week Sean Hannity and his friends from FOX were speculating that there might have been as much as 25 different taped conversations between Emanuel and Blago. And they were salivating at the possibilities. Oh if only it could have been different, Christmas would have been a year long event for my friends on the right.

"Sources also confirm that Emanuel made the case for picking Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett during at least one of the conversations. In the course of that conversation, Harris asked if in return for picking Jarrett, "all we get is appreciation, right?" "Right," Emanuel responded."

Yep, all you get is "appreciation" that' s kind of how the O man rolls, and rolling like that has served the O man well.

S0 move along folks, there is no scandal to see here. His O ness and his crew might have been a little slow on the uptake with this one, but once again, there is no fire to go with the smoke.

O man, you are one lucky guy.

We decide we report, and you believe.

The people who come to this site on a regular basis are quite familiar with my strong dislike for all things FOX NEWS. My contempt for them has nothing to do with jealousy towards Rupert Murdoch and all his billions (although it would be nice if he throw a dollar or two my way). No, my contempt for them has more to do with my love for the people who make up this republic.

FOX NEWS is dangerous. Very dangerous, and if we can't stop them, we should at least be aware of the damage that they can do.

If you think that the mass media and the press can't be used to do unimaginable things, you better think again. Think of the folks who made up the Hutu majority slaughtering their Tutsi brothers and sisters in Rwanda while RTLM (Radio Rwanda) encouraged people to kill,kill, kill.

Think of Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany and the "Propagnamisterium" (propaganda ministry) he was charged to keep. In order for those sick fucks to be able to carry out their plan, they had to get the message out and have the people believe it.

Now I am not comparing Roger Ailes and the folks over at FOX NEWS to Nazis.....well, maybe I am. But I really do need you to understand just how dangerous these guys are. And when I read essays like the one I lifted below from Buzzflash editor, Mark Karlin, it just reinforces my position.

"The FOX Propaganda Network endangers my life -- and yours.
How else can you explain that a White House administration and Republican Party who have squandered hundreds of billions of dollars, countless lives, and a war longer than WW II -- and we haven't even caught Osama bin Laden?

The FOX Propaganda Network isn't set up to help save America from terrorists; it's the "Tokyo Rose" of television networks, set up to save the Republican plutocrats from the wrath of the voters who might otherwise realize the sheer and utter incompetence of Bush, Cheney and the GOP in dealing with terrorism.

Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin and the entire multi-million dollar compensated on-air talents are traitors because their job is to protect the back and flank of the GOP, not to protect America.

And that is what puts my life at risk -- and yours.
Sean Hannity is no patriot. He is an oleaginous, slicked up car salesman chickenhawk who has sold America and us down the river for his paycheck.
One of the characteristics that we are most proud of about America is our ingenuity, our tenaciousness, our resilience.

Yet, the FOX Propaganda Network has spent the last years supporting moribund, stone headed, unwavering failure.

If you think being a chronic loser is patriotic, then FOX is the station for you, because that's what it backs. That's not patriotic; it's contrary to what made America great.
What made America great is competence and ingenuity, not slavish dedication to the architects of defeat.

FOX is a traitor in our midst. Yes, they have their First Amendment rights, and no one is going to deny Sean Hannity his $40,000 plus speaking fees and private jet transportation.
But they should be shunned for the risk they help to create to all our lives by endlessly championing dolts, proven liars, and leaders who turn gold into cow dung.

All FOX proves in its propaganda angle is that a few thousand hearty potential terrorists, at most, have held the world's strongest power at bay for years, while ruining our economy with onerous and ineffectual war expenses, helping to weaken the dollar, drive up the price of oil, and, in turn, helping to cause a world food crisis and more.

It used to be the American way that if you couldn't do the job, you got out of the way or got fired. But the fat paycheck propagandists at FOX now tell us that mediocrity and failure define the new American patriotism -- that and an American flag lapel pin made in China.
God have mercy on their souls -- and let's hope that we can survive the glorification that FOX gives to losers who imperil our lives.

We need an America that proves itself by getting the job done; not by relying on Roger Ailes GOP propaganda talking points to divert the masses from people who have utterly failed them. "

My sentiments exactly!