"TV Wasteland" is Fox News and Tucker Carlson?

 

The tvtech site reports, "On May 9, 1961, then newly appointed FCC Chairman Newton Minow called television a 'vast wasteland,' criticizing the medium for its violence, inanity and impact on children." I was working in television in those days and considered it an extremely creative and glamorous business. I still do, except for at least two exceptions, Fox News and Tucker Carlson. Is it possible that Minow could see in the future with the latter in mind when making that statement?

Why do I bring this up? Because of the absurdities Carlson claims on his show; plus the fact, this moron actually admits he lies when cornered. In late January...

Tucker Carlson claimed that the political violence the United States has been suffering is coming from the left, not the right — insisting that the right, unlike the left, has remained “peaceful.”

This is beyond unbelievable since we recently went through four years of the ex-White House maniac, Donald Trump, in his quest to stir up violence almost on a    daily basis. The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the U.S, Capitol is an excellent example of GOP led violence. Carlson, of course, is a lunatic, but it is his statements and and a trove if misinformation that is so indicative of Minow's "wasteland." 

It has been 60 years since Newton Minow's "Vast Wasteland" remark, and I do think television has made some very positive strides. As an example, in my day, TV news and weather was something offered by local stations as sort of a public service, much of it unsponsored. Today, news departments have huge budgets and most strive to provide comprehensive, in-depth news. Admittedly, there are some that slant the news, and, of course, those who completely misrepresent it.

MUST SEE: Still a ‘Vast Wasteland’? Newton Minow on the State of TV...

I have heard the opinion, 'Really...nobody could be that stupid,' referring to Tucker Carlson. Well, he certainly looks the part, but if any of you readers have any insight into this please email me. I have given considerable attention to Fox News in this blog over time because the network stands for everything class journalism isn't, and they are so easy to make fun of and criticize with the largest number of buffoons to ever hit the American airwaves.

The AlterNet's Alex Henderson leads us through a number of radical right wing violence incidents that have happened in recent years completely ignored by Carlson...

"from the January 6, 2021 insurrection to an alleged plot to kidnap and possibly murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to White nationalist terrorist massacres in El Paso and Pittsburgh in 2019. Pro-Trump groups like QAnon and the Proud Boys openly advocate violence, and the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, is facing seditious conspiracy charges for his alleged role in the Capitol insurrection."

Back to Newton Minow's observations testifying to Congress...

“When television is good, nothing—not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers—nothing is better,” he told Congress. “But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.”

But this was 60 years ago when Congress was populated with at least a modicum

of statesmen as compared to today's gang of inept politicians whose only goals are to amass power, line their pockets and get reelected, no matter what it takes. Minow recently updated his views of television while adding social media and “fake news.” Here's what he said...

“I think the issues for the next generation are the government’s role in social media,” Minow said, adding that he was proud of the strides television has made in educational TV but that local stations needed to remain diligent in ensuring unbiased coverage to their viewers. He also supports reinstating the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine,” which was repealed in the 1980’s.

"Unbiased coverage," two words neither Fox News nor Tucker Carlson are familiar with. 

Are Red States Pursuing Apocalypse?

 

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin explores this concept in an opinion column that should rattle the cages of all Democrats, Independents and Republicans. The title of her piece is, "Republicans are trying to turn red America into a dystopia," and is, as all honest journalism is today, frightening in its prediction of the destruction of American democracy. I must say, for a conservative, Rubin takes the GOP to task with unusual insight and objectivity.

She wades right into Florida with one of the state's most dictatorial moves yet in a bill, fully supported by the demented Gov. Ron DeSantis, explained by Robert P. Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute ...

The most pernicious part of the bill is its bizarre definition of “individual freedom,” consisting of eight principles plainly written to protect white people. The final one is the most sweeping: “An individual should not be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race.” The bill then proceeds to define “discrimination” under Florida state law as a violation of “individual freedom.”

This provision effectively gives any single white person veto power over the content of history curriculum in schools or trainings in the workplace. White discomfort governs historical truth.

DeSantis has commented he wants to put the people in power, which the above

certainly does, but it is still this maniac who calls all the shots. I wonder about those poor souls in Florida who are Democrats, or lean to the left, and disagree with DeSantis. The breakdown is 5,080,697 registered Democrats, 5,123,799 registered Republicans and 4,083,215 voters without a party affiliation or registered to one of the more than two dozen “minor” parties in Florida.

Rubin cautions...

"Keep in mind that Florida Republicans have no problem making gay children uncomfortable. They have also introduced legislation that would hobble education about gender identity and sexual orientation. The Tampa Bay Times reports, “Critics, who call the measures Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ bills, argue the measures are an attempt to weaponize the idea of parental rights to marginalize LGBTQ people.”

And here's the rub, "The legislation would encourage parents to sue if they find school curriculum, even at the high school level, is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate." The LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida's Nadine Smith, is in opposition to the bill, reports the Tampa Bay Times. The TBT says further, we're dealing with a "Non-existent problem...

"There is no developmentally inappropriate curriculum about sexual orientation or gender identity being taught to young kids, she contended.”

The Dictator DeSantis in Action...

 The South and Southwest are leading the fight in the removal of famous names and books from school curriculums with Texas eliminating Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Ku Klux Klan from teachings. Tennessee recently banned the book, Maus, because it was "inappropriate for 13-year-olds based in part on its inclusion of swear words and drawings of nude figures." I grew in in Tennessee in the 1940s and in either of these cases most of us wouldn't even blush.

Rubin agrees that, as in other cases of misdirected advocacy, the ones who win are the lawyers...

"The bills also encourage frivolous litigation that would make trial lawyers blush. Incentives to harass teachers and tie up schools in endless litigation suggests that Republicans would rather spend time and money fighting these legal battles than on education. It’s a peculiar position for a party that used to look askance at tort litigation."

The Republican Party has no direction, no agenda; their only mission being the destruction of anything proposed by Democrats, and the complete annihilation of democracy. And the tragedy in all this...the American public is supporting it.

 

Joe Biden is a Victim of Reckless Republican Propaganda...Here's the Real Story

 

OK, let's accept the fact that no matter what President Biden does, the GOP erects an immediate wall to oppose it. Whatever - you name it. Minority Senate leader and power grabbing Moscow Mitch McConnell is the head wall builder, followed by Kevin McCarthy, House minority leader mixed with a plethora of Republican misfits. It is clear that the above has replaced an agenda for the right as they roll on with their plans to eliminate American democracy.

Overshadowed within all this is the agenda of Joe Biden which he describes as the perfect storm, consisting of four crises that must be addressed. They are, "fighting the coronavirus, restoring the economy, combating climate change and making the country more equal." Here's the scenario from The Washington Post...

Those four issues remain central to Biden’s presidency. “I think if you take a look at what we’ve been able to do, you’d have to acknowledge we made enormous progress,” President Biden said Wednesday [Jan. 20] of his first year in office.

From WaPo's Post Pundit Power Rankers in the beginning of the Prez's administration he was given a B+ on his first 100 days in office. Fast-forward through the crises to today and...

"Now, we’re back to assess a full year’s worth of White House decision-making. Like last time, our rankers have assigned Biden a grade A+ to F, taking into account such issues as the pandemic, the economy, foreign policy, voting and human rights, and presidential leadership. Also as last time, our readers — more than 4,400 of you! — got in on the grading. Your scores factor into the final average just like our pundits’."

 Biden highlights wins, struggles and top priorities after 1 year in office...

In the final score Biden had an average pundit grade of C+, average reader grade B, overall grade B-. There is a raft of scores on specific issues in this article like the economy, voting and human rights, foreign policy, etc. I urge you to read them all.

But, Matt Robison from AlterNet exclaims, "The reality is that Biden has done a great job — but the pundits can't admit it." He gives President Biden an A+ commenting, "Anything else is insane."

Robison points us back to a glut of Donald Trump stupidities...

water cannon of lies
a cabinet of grifters and thieves
disastrous and deadly Covid denial
child separation
the Helsinki Putin bootlicking affair

This is only five. There are fifteen more. This is how he visions another four

years under Trump...

"Faster global warming. Endless vendettas. Jailing dissidents. Clawing back LGBT rights. MAGA budgets and widespread hunger. Endless trade wars and rising nuclear standoffs. An impenetrable wall of judges. A chokehold on immigration. The end of democracy."

Then, Jennifer Rubin comes along with her opinion, "Biden is on a roll as commander in chief." A great read! That's good enough for me.

        

ARIZONA: Home of Insurrectionists

 

Here we go again. The January 6, 2021, insurrectionist rioting proved that a substantial portion of Americans--and I use the term "Americans" loosely--do not respect the U.S. Constitution. Leading Phoenix columnist E.J. Montini says it all in his headline, "Arizona's Jan. 6 insurrectionists should be barred from holding office." We have a gang of Republican lawmakers in this state that have taken it upon themselves to rewrite the laws of the state and the country.

They are U.S representatives Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar along with former state Rep. Mark Finchem, now running for Arizona secretary of state, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern, now running for the state Senate. Montini reports...

"Finchem and Kern were at the Capitol that day.

"Biggs and Gosar gave more aid and comfort to those attempting to overturn the election and stage a coup than just about anyone in the country."

There is also the case of the moron from North Carolina running for reelection to the U.S. House, Madison Cawthorne, who has been challenged by the state's Board of Electors saying he "fails to comply with an amendment." Here is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment...

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Naturally, Republicans are ignoring this, focusing rather on the justification of the insurrectionists reported in this New York Times piece, "G.O.P. Declares Jan. 6 Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse.’" There is no explanation for this kind of attitude other than the intention to abolish American democracy. The GOP wants an autocratic government with a despot to be named from its ranks since Donald Trump has fallen from favor.

Montini isn't finished with the Arizona radical right...

"And then there is every member of the fake slate of Republican electors who filed paperwork to try to overturn the will of the people. None of them should be permitted to hold office. Ever."

CNN confronts Karen Fann, the woman behind bogus Arizona election audit...

Don't forget, it was Arizona's premiere Republican idiot, State Sen. President, Karen Fann who led the fight for the infamous audit on 2020 election results that cost the state millions with the results that Joe Biden did, in fact, win the election. Then Montini concludes...

"If we believed in oaths – believed that those who swear to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” must be held to that promise – then none of the insurrectionists from Jan. 6, and none of those who gave them aid or comfort, would be permitted to hold elected office."

I'm sorry but I believe that Republicans worship only one thing...POWER. Moscow Mitch McConnell has paved the way for the thirst for political influence. Now look at Kevin McCarthy, who would likely take over as Speaker if the GOP wins back the house. It is frightening for those of us who believe in democracy, and the thought of living under another Republican rule in the future is not only disheartening but very, very daunting. 

News You Won't Believe

 

Czech singer Hanka Horká dies after intentionally getting infected by the coronavirus...Here's why...

"in an apparent move to skirt restrictions limiting access to some venues to people who have been immunized or recently recovered from infection, her family said."

 Add the fact that she was not vaccinated and exclaimed she had beaten the virus two days before she died. Go figure...

Why aren’t Americans more alarmed by white-supremacist violence?...

The feds have done their part in arresting, charging and taking to trial these insurrectionists who charged the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. More than 150 have pleaded guilty of this action. Here are the results of the study...

"Both Democratic and Republican participants were least concerned about random violence with no motive; respondents from both parties picked it less than 40 percent of the time. Democrats and Republicans were both most concerned about attacks motivated by the Islamic State, selecting these as more worrisome more than 60 percent of the time.

"But when it came to antifa and white supremacy, the two groups diverged. Democrats selected violence by antifa as more concerning 45 percent of the time, while Republicans selected it 55 percent of the time. Conversely, Democrats selected white-supremacist violence as more concerning 60 percent of the time, while Republicans selected it 50 percent of the time.

"In other words, Republicans found violence by antifa more troubling than white-supremacist violence."

Go figure... 

Utah Senate president appeared for a session unmasked after testing positive for COVID...How dumb can you get, or does this moron just not care how many people he gives coronavirus to? Here's the scenario...

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Senate Chief of Staff Mark Thomas offered an update about the series of COVID tests Utah Senate President Stuart Adams (R) took in the days leading up to the session on Tuesday, January 18. Thomas indicated that Adams "tested negative on Monday, then tested positive Tuesday morning."

The later test was iffy but wouldn't a thoughtful person quarantine in the best interest of his colleagues? Oh, that's right, he is a Republican. Go figure...

Stressed hospitals are asking workers with covid to return — even if they may

be infectious...Okay, this happened in the state of Florida, and with a surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, appointed by the demented Gov. Ron DeSantis, you would probably expect it. The Washington Post reports...

Candice Cordero still had a fever and a cough late last month when, she says, her hospital told her it was time to come back to work.

The Bradenton, Fla. nurse was stunned — and worried she could still be contagious seven days into her breakthrough covid-19 infection. When an employee health representative said she could come back anyway, citing updated federal health guidance, Cordero said she refused. She viewed it as too risky.

Well, the CDC hasn't been too clear recently with their guidelines and here is what a hospital spokesperson said...

[What had happened] "was inconsistent with hospital guidelines, including that health care workers should stay home if they have a fever. 'People want to go into the hospital and know that they’re going to be safe — not get infected by a virus they could get sick and die from.'”

My thoughts are that anyone would agree with that except a dull-witted anti-science person. Go Figure... 

Debunking a wild Covid-19 conspiracy theory pushed by a GOP House candidate...To start, he is from Arizona so one might expect the dumbest possible idea from one of our stupid Republicans. And you would be right. Here's what Jeff Zink said from the New York Times...

"Mr. Zink, a onetime church deacon, referenced the biblical Book of Proverbs as he outlined why he believed Covid-19 was a bioweapon meant to convert the United States to socialism, and lamented that the United States 'was no longer a Christian nation.'"

Folks, this is what we must deal with in the state of Arizona, and it exists from the governor's office down to the legislature. And the voters love it. CNN's Chris Cillizza checked out the biblical connection. There is a book by Dr. Richard M. Fleming called "Is COVID-19 a Bioweapon?: A Scientific and Forensic investigation." There's more...

The book's blurb reads this way: "Clearly, the US government isn't decided on what really happened at the start of the pandemic. Was it truly a (sic) animal to human transmission to be blamed on a bat in a Wuhan, China wet market? Or was a much more sinister plan at work?"

Cillizza says the book is a waste of time. Will this madness ever end? Go figure... 

The Insane Republicans of Arizona

 

Remember the Florida recount of 2000, the hanging chads thing? It was Democrat Al Gore against Geo. W. Bush with the latter's lead so small Gore took it all the way to the Supreme Court which ruled the recount was over. Katherine Harris, then Florida's Republican Sec. of State ruled the election in favor of Bush. Harris was assailed by the left for her decision, but, evidently it was legal. Neither Gore nor a host of Democrats believed they had lost but had the brains to realize defeat.

If you are interested in that outcome, here is the 2018 article, "The Florida Recount Of 2000: A Nightmare That Goes On Haunting."

Fast-forward twenty years to the 2020 presidential election between Democrat Joe Biden and something or another Donald Trump. It was a reelection for the ex-White House maniac at a time when much of the public still didn't know how he won in 2016. And being the idiot Trump proved himself to be in his four years in office, he refused to believe he lost. He immediately started denying the results of state elections, enlisting governors and legislators to support him.

And that's when the mentally challenged gang of Arizona Republicans took up his mantle and ran with it, and I do mean ran. Head moron and Senate President, Karen Fann, brought in a mutually incompetent gang from Florida known as the Cyber Ninjas who cost the taxpayers of Arizona millions and came up with the fact that

Joe Biden did in fact win the 2020 election. Even then Fann and others from the GOP wouldn't give it up, likely because Trump wouldn't concede, still hasn't.

Here's how local Columnist Laurie Roberts puts it...

"You thought the audit of the 2020 election was over, that it ended in September when the Senate’s own Trump supporting auditors could find no evidence of widespread fraud.

"O ye, of far too much faith that, at some point, sanity will sink in.

"That the state Senate’s Trump contingent will accept the fact that their guy lost, freeing us poor taxpayers from having to continue shelling out money to chase a conspiracy that doesn’t – and didn’t – exist.

"They won’t and so we will. Open our wallets wide once again, that is."

This time the less than adequate Republicans think we had a hacker from either "China (or maybe Venezuelan?)" that compromised the voting machines and, "as the conspiracy theory goes, switched thousands of Donald Trump votes to Joe Biden?" Meanwhile the county has confirmed there was no hacking. Two sets of election experts confirmed this. What the hell do we need? And then they wanted computer routers from the county which was refused. 

So, here's where that led...

"Former Rep. John Shadegg, a former Republican congressman who is serving as a $500-an-hour special master, contracted by the county to answer the senators’ detailed questions about the routers."

There's more...

"To do that, Shadegg on Friday hired three IT experts, each of whom will travel to Arizona to examine the county’s routers and the Splunk logs that are used to analyze computerized data."

Shadegg has already billed the state $16,800 and no one knows yet how much the three experts will charge. Laurie Roberts goes on to question the reasoning of all this, what she calls, "a colossal waste of our money." The Republican legislature apparently doesn't care and the voters out there who put them in office don't have the brains to know what's going on. I recommend that you check this commentary out for a hilarious look into Arizona politics.

More on the Destroying of American Democracy

 

Tucker Carlson, who admits to being a liar on the air, appears to have taken up the mantle of Donald Trump whose social media accounts have been canceled. Without a mouth, the number two misinformation mouth has taken over. Here's the scenario...

"The power balance was on vivid display just last week on the night of Jan. 6, when Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who finished second to Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, essentially apologized to Carlson as he tried to explain why he had described the attack on the Capitol a year earlier as “terrorism,” a description Carlson and his audience didn’t like."

READ MORE... 

And here is an issue we all would like some conclusion for. When is Donald

Trump going to be indicted? Charlie Sykes, conservative Bulwark founder, has concluded...

"there is more than enough proof that Donald Trump and his inner circle made a provable attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election through fraud."

And folks, this is an ultra-conservative. But there's more...

"Sykes pointed to a CNN report that stated, "...then-President Donald Trump's allies sent fake certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won seven states that he actually lost," which have also been labeled forgeries."

READ EVEN MORE... 

Carl Bernstein says we were losing our democracy before Trump went to the White House. I would say its exodus started around the period when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House (1995-1999) and when Karl Rove was Geo. W. Bush's top adviser (2001-2009). The damage incurred during these years was enough to rattle the foundations of democracy, leading to open warfare on American justice. Bernstein says...

"the United States had not been functioning smoothly for several decades. He said it would take an extraordinary event in the coming years to unify the country."

The author also says...

"Our democracy, before Trump, had ceased to be working well and for 25, 30, 35 years we were in what I've called 'a cold civil war' in this country," he told the news outlet. "Trump ignited it and we're not going to go back from this place unless there's some great event that somehow unites this country."

READ MORE... 

One of the leading threats to our nation today is the anti-science gang; against

social distancing, wearing masks, and the most dangerous, against vaccines. They walk around spewing garbage about their freedom while at the same time infecting friends and family with the coronavirus. They call the pandemic a hoax, something created by the left that is a falsehood. False to the fact we have 75,715,662 cases of the virus in the United States, 907,956 deaths.

These non-believers in true science have put rogue governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis and Texas' Greg Abbott in motion to deny federal laws and regulations, acting as dictators on a state level. Other Republican state heads have followed their lead nationwide. We are at the mercy of a conservative gang of despots who are urged on by a constituency of double-digits who voted them into office. The latter is very scary when you consider we are coming up on a midterm election.

The following is frightening...

"Lee Haywood got the COVID-19 vaccine. He’s seen friends lose their lives to the virus, and watched others struggle to recover. A smoker for 37 years, he believes the medical evidence showing that the vaccine sharply reduces his chances of a severe infection.

"Yet on the frigid afternoon of Jan. 23, Haywood, a 61-year-old Republican running for a North Carolina congressional seat, was near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, standing among signs that read “Vaccines kill” and “Stop the Vaccine Holocaust.” He had helped organize a bus carrying 35 people from Greensboro to the capital."

This is what Haywood said...

“I’m against the forced vaccinations or forced wearing of these masks by these bureaucrats deep in the bowels of the government,” Haywood says. “This country was founded on liberty, and these mandates just slap everybody in the face.”

READ MORE... 

But what I am most afraid of are morons in the Republican state legislatures across the country with bills like this one from Arizona state Rep. John Fillmore (R), which would allow the state legislature to overturn results of a primary or general election they (Republicans) don't like. The bill...

"would substantially change the way Arizonans vote by eliminating most early and absentee voting and requiring people to vote in their home precincts, rather than at vote centers set up around the state.

Most dramatically, Fillmore’s bill would require the legislature to hold a special session after an election to review election processes and results, and to “accept or reject the election results.”

This idiot, Filmore, is effectively taking away the vote for anyone unable to leave their home, and the dufus still doesn't believe the results of the 2020 election. And, unfortunately this is the kind of imbeciles we have running the state of Arizona. 

 READ MORE IF YOUR STOMACH CAN STAND IT...

Earlier Post: "America is Destroying its Democracy -The Experts Agree"