GOP Attacked by Extreme Conservative Websites & Tax Struggles
Evil-Echo Empire Update
The irony should not be lost on any of us, although echo-heads are incapable of seeing it. And they happen to be the same ones who really need to see it. That crowd doesn’t trust the media since they believe they tell lies, when the preponderance of lies are in their own minds since they’re lost in that world enveloped by the extreme conservative websites and the far-right media complex, which in my messages I always call the echo. So to echo-fanatics, what is true is false & false is true, trusting implicitly in the echo. And among the evil talking heads who lead this deceptively toxic entertainment machine, of which there are many, they include the more famous ones whom I sarcastically refer to as Rush Dimbulb, Insanity Hannity & Loose-cannon Bannon. The poison they spew out on the airwaves aredisguised as conservatism, but in reality are an extremism that has latched onto the GOP like a parasite & sucking out its lifeblood. In their relentless crusade to radicalize conservatism & destroy the GOP, they could make rightwing politics so over-the-top unpopular that it could soon put liberal Dems into power for a generation. As a center-right conservative I don’t see that as a wish or hope of mine, but rather I’m issuing a warning the GOP needs to get their act together. It’s past time to finally adopt a pragmatic conservatism, not the nutso brand spewed by the echo.
It’s bizarre how the echo & Trump remain so Hillary-obsessed. The anti-Hillary rhetoric that carried Trump to victory a year ago, doesn’t it seem baffling he keeps playing that same card a year after its usefulness would/should have expired? The President & his state-run echo just can’t give it up, since the demonization of Hillary goes back 25 years, so it still plays to their audiences. This has nothing, zero, nada to do with leadership or governing or policies or journalistic reporting, it’s actually all a plot to the story that resorts to the tried & true villain in this ongoing entertainment venue which captivates their followers & boosts the ratings. It also has to do with a major scandal that could take down their top figurehead, so as a diversion & distraction they dredge up these old Hillary stories which are seen as scandals only inside echo-world, so if their leader does fall they’ll continue having their bastion of loyal doting fans who’d still march to their every word. We always joked back in the 90’s that CNN was the Clinton News Network for their unfailing support of Bill, but now Fox is the new Clinton News Network as their favorite punching bag that revs up their viewers. Hillary is now irrelevant, but in rightwing psycho-world which caters to the lowest common denominator, she’s still the magic elixir that keeps them tuning in & hooked.
Jerry Falwell Jr. hits the newsfeeds again over the VA election in the group of links towards the bottom. In my Christian upbringing, I recall being taught that Satan may go harder after influential faith leaders since they serve as role models for their flock, so defiling their faith & teachings could lead the whole flock astray. It’s not really for me to judge, but based on the articles about Falwell, it seems to me he might be among the evangelical leaders recently who’ve been given over to a satanic spirit. Really! All I know is it’s definitely not the kind of faith teachings I’d care to follow. Faith leaders should emphasize serving the one omnipotent God, not some demagogue political god. Falwell, Robertson, Jeffress, Perkins, Reed & others have so sacrificed their higher calling/moral principles, those of us of faith should repudiate them as faith leaders.
Much like the GOP brand is being torn asunder through a foolish & intransigent far-right political fanaticism, the same source of deceptive destruction is tearing at the fabric of the church. These so-called religious leaders are driving the reputation of our faith into the gutter. And no Christian student should even consider Liberty U. until Falwell is removed, so the college can return to its Christian roots & not be a bastion for unprincipled nihilistic politics. Similarly, should Roy Moore’s allegations against him hold up & evangelicals in Bama still support him, the hypocrisy is further magnified, especially coming on the heels of the Trump vote last year. A district in Montana embarrassed themselves recently by electing a House rep after he assaulted a reporter, but can the bar be lowered so low for a potential pedophile to win a Senate seat? Or can morality finally overcome tribal loyalties?
So let’s review what the newsfeeds have brought us the past few days. Feast on these perceptive opinion pieces below exposing the evil echo, starting with Rubin of whom I always use many of her articles for my messages. Inside the first link where she begs for someone to buy Fox, she offers these gems here in the next four paragraphs:
Let’s face it: No single entity has done as much damage to political discourse or spread the style of paranoid, xenophobic populism as has Fox. It incessantly pushed birtherism, kept up a drumbeat of negative propaganda about immigrants, followed nutty conspiracy theories (e.g. Seth Rich’s death) and most of all set out to destroy media outlets that were legitimately trying to cover reality and the Trump presidency.
Fox News has become a no-hard-questions zone for President Trump. Bound and determined to create a parallel reality, it covers ludicrous, trumped-up (pun intended) “scandals” involving Hillary Clinton instead of the real ones involving Trump. It has ceased to act in the public interest, preferring to act in the White House’s interest. Fox News has become so divorced from reality that it largely ignored the GOP’s Virginia debacle, the biggest political news story of 2017 (aside from the Russia scandal).
Imagine a Fox News that had a robust news operation that stopped looking to indict Clinton and, instead, covered major developments even if they didn’t help Trump. Imagine if the panels on news shows contained intellectually honest conservatives (e.g. George Will, Bill Kristol), not cartoonish propagandists (Laura Ingraham). Imagine if every show, opinion or news, had to stick to the facts and abide by the same journalistic standards other news outlets adhere to.
There might be an appetite for straight news and conservative but intelligent commentary. There might even be viewers who have not yet reached retirement age who’d like to see smart banter. So, please — we’re begging someone out there with an eye for content and a patriotic heart — buy Fox News. And then change it. America will be forever grateful.
This is the Trump supporter in a nutshell: When confronted with facts, the topic changed. The sources they use to get their information on a daily basis are suspect: Friends, family and Fox News. The latter is, well, Fox News, but the former are the people who were absolutely certain that Obama was the antichrist. In short, the Trump die-hards are not sound on policy or history — recent or otherwise. It wouldn’t be fair to say that they’re unfairly ridiculed, because they constantly wave their ignorance around like it’s a flag.
Catch the articles where Trump is squashing the AT&T-Time Warner merger unless they first agree to unload their subsidiary CNN, following his pattern of vindictiveness & strong-arming media sources he doesn’t like. We then feature the most recent articles from the usual suspects, offering links to the hijinks of Insanity Hannity, Loose-cannon Bannon, Alex Jones, Fox & Friendless, Breitbart, Sinclair, Robert Mercer the loony autocratic financier & others. The news stories provide continuing evidence how these deceptive knuckleheads in the echo if given their druthers could virtually destroy America. Bannon is trying to save face by saying Gillespie in VA wasn’t all in on the Trump agenda, hoping to persuade that somehow the Trumpian message is still a winner, which might be true if 1/3 formed a majority. He’s also giving cover to Moore by comparing today’s stunning allegations to Trump’s vulgar language on the bus video.
As for Insanity, the only time he’s telling the truth is only to set up his next lie. It does take a special kind of buffoonery for people to want to, as an example, listen to Dimbulb on the radio during the day, then take in Fox News at night which includes Insanity. But for those same people to actually believe whatever they hear at face value, that is truly scary (no wonder the GOP is in trouble). See the first article under Fox where even the head of Newsmax says it’s truly bizarre Fox is so closely aligned with Trump, & how in doing so they lose their credibility as a news organization. It’s almost impossible to think Fox fake-news could actually get worse, but they managed to pull it off by adding the creepy Gorka. There’s seemingly no end to the foolishness the echo’s extreme conservative websites unleashes on millions in their crowd on a daily basis. And is there anyone on the face of the Earth more hideously deranged than Insanity?
Economy Section
Trump has made America grate again, & no, I didn’t misspell grate. If you’re a conservative who believes in free-market principles, it’s time to wake up! The Trump/echo brand of grievance politics isn’t working & would never work, since at some point leadership must propose real remedies on a bipartisan basis which can work in the real world! Rather than the far-right’s version of hands-off/no governing, we must embrace new ideas designed to fix the economic system so economic growth doesn’t just benefit the very top of the income/wealth chain, but also allows the middle class/working class to obtain a secure financial future. We shouldn’t fall for the Dems wanting to throw more money at our problems, since that doesn’t tackle the core of the problems & isn’t a permanent fix. We saw with Bernie-mania in the Dem primary campaign, if we don’t figure out a way to unrig the system so workers can get a fair shake, it’s very possible with the enthusiasm from that base we’re heading for the downward spiral of socialism, which that transition may happen soon if circumstances don’t improve. Don’t buy into the rosy misdirection from low unemployment rates as seen in the jobs report, since wages haven’t risen in a generation & for far too many it’s virtually impossible to find a good stable job.
See the stunning poll in the Hill article, “Americans think the economy not improving for them,” where we find only 9% say their incomes are staying ahead of the cost of living. That leaves 40% saying they’re holding about even and 49% say they’re falling further behind! Just because the unemployment rates have fallen to such low levels, can we still claim we have a healthy economy? Meanwhile, the richest 1% controls over half the world’s wealth, which they hide away in offshore investment tax havens as is revealed in the Paradise Papers. The longer our capitalist structure evolves unfettered without an intervention to adjust the disparities, the more the top 1% will be given license to run roughshod over the rest of us, especially the bottom 50%. We’re already seeing how much big corporate interests have leverage & control over governments. Without fundamental changes, we’re trending towards a repressive society where the bottom 50% endure a slave-like existence subsisting off the scraps their rich masters offer to throw their way. As the massive amount of financial records in those Paradise Papers expose, the huge distortions in the economic system & sophisticated tax shelters cause the spoils to mostly not filter down. So the folly of trickle-down embedded within the tax codes in this new global economy would not benefit the working middle class in any substantive way, as the end result would only perpetuate the rigged system where huge fortunes are hoarded or circulated among other wealthy elite shareholders.
Speaking of trickle down, White House economic advisers Gary Cohn & Steve Mnuchin just fessed up the new tax plan is based on trickle down. No kidding! No wonder it’s so flawed, unpopular & will be extremely difficult to pass. Sure, we must infuse the economy with broad economic growth which can finally spark wage growth, but resorting back to supply-side trickle down ain’t it, being as obsolete for the modern world as typewriters & 8-track tapes. Once again we see loads of links below to the GOP tax plan which point out the obvious flaws, with the party pushing it now being even more desperate to pass something after seeing the results of Tuesday’s election. But can their proposal, whatever ultimately comes out of the House & Senate in its final form, really improve the GOP’s stature in the eyes of the public? If the GOP is all about cutting taxes for the rich while overlooking how it’s certain to spike deficits, then seriously, what good are they? Their whole premise is flawed, since big tax cuts grow deficits far beyond real economic growth. The hard truth is this plan is mainly a giveaway for their donors.
I’m all for tax reform, but it needs to be more a bottoms-up approach rather than the other way around. It’s a blind spot within the GOP, & the more this tax bill is critiqued, the more unpopular it is sure to become. It sounds like the corporate tax reform will be delayed in the new Senate version, but that’s the part we probably need the most. And it also looks like the party has virtually given up on appealing to California & the northeastern states, taking away high-end deductions on state/local taxes & mortgage interest. Those numerous articles below are indicating in many ways the tax bill is not all it’s cracked up to be. Expect it to suffer the same fate as Trumpcare. Especially with the currently accepted DC culture of bipartisanship automatically discarded for political purposes, the Dems being the opposition party wouldn’t dare lift a finger to help, much like the GOP held firm in their opposition to Obama. So obstruction & gridlock have become the new norm, & the GOP is so divided it’s hard to imagine them passing much of anything on their own. The hopelessly entrenched polarization & strategically warring sides prevent them from even so much as talking to each other, grinding governing leadership to a halt, which isn’t helping any of us. Even the most obvious & urgent problems begging for common sense solutions aren’t being addressed.
So the featured articles below start off with our economic troubles, including lack of wage growth, capitalism in crisis, the retail apocalypse & death of family farms. Then there’s a good Post story from a conservative followed by the battle of old & new industries. There are Trump articles one year since being elected which shows a dismal year, where he hasn’t learned anything & is really the divisive culture war president. And see the article where there is a GOP governing caucus (Rep. Rodney Davis)! From there we see lots & lots of links to the problems/challenges of the tax plan. Under that are a group of articles which in a nutshell describe what’s wrong with our political system of crony capitalism. A House rep basically says his donors have threatened him, that he either votes for this tax bill or never call them again. Big money pressures our leaders more than ever before, which with the tax bill no doubt being influenced with reps having to kowtow to their donors over their constituents. Even our local Cleveland mayoral race, the incumbent beat the challenger, so when asked what he could have done differently, the challenger said they ran a good campaign but just needed to raise more money. Dirty money makes for dirty politics & causes a dirty democracy. Is it any wonder why the working middle class never seems to have a voice or much clout? The final links discuss guns, mass shootings, the NRA & Second Amendment.
If Roy Moore is shown to be guilty
With once again one of these sex scandals has multiple accusers, making the accusations credible. Judge Moore should have been listening often to these hits that hit the charts long before when those allegations occurred, so the instructive message could have been firmly ingrained in his subconscious.
(Click on image for full video)
(Click on image for full video)
Recent Comments