There's the other "lie" from Katie Britt - one that has been repeatedly pointed out. Her implication that she was somehow "just a regular" family is as out of touch as her statement "what real families are facing around kitchen tables just like this". She is married to an NFL player. She sits in a kitchen in front of a $10,000 refrigerator. Her net worth is somewhere in the $2-4 million range.
And then there's her claim that "It feels like the next generation will have fewer opportunities — and less freedom — than we did." is true - with the repeal of Roe, her daughter has fewer rights BECAUSE of her mother, Katie Britt. I am so sick of the GOP's doublespeak and false claims about how they're the party of the "every man" when they aren't. UGH. So tired of all this!
Besides that, her RNC Libertarian party intends to destroy this democracy, rob the people like they did in Chile after they literally tutored Pinochet on how to rape and plunder a nation with unbridled greed and power. Sen. Britt is a willing puppet of fascists—a whore for power and money; she is ruthless, unprincipled and that’s what she demonstrated under the auspices of “evangelical motherhood.” A WHORE who exploits sexually victimized women for her own purposes.
I noticed the kitchen right away, because our whole apartment could fit inside that kitchen. I don’t think the majority of Americans have that fancy of a kitchen-I know we don’t. I was very put off by her dramatics. Was she auditioning for Real Housewives of Congress to replace Boebert and Greene?
Maybe the GOP Senate with folks like Ron Johnson, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt will eventually match the stellar group in the GOP House, with MTG, Boebert, Gosar, Comer,Jordan and Nehls. All of these people are Hall of Fame idiots!
I’m concerned that they are NOT idiots and sapskulls (unlike Tuberbrain and 3 Toes et alia). Johnson is totally warped in terms of truth and morals yes, McConnell may have had principles at one time but shook them off in favor of power and money, Gaetz may be an unprincipled kid raper, yes. But all were law school grads, and none of the schools were “diploma mills”. FWIW, Johnson, Paul M. Herbert
Dems should immediately propose a bill named after Romero that loosens asylum requirements for sex trafficking victims and invite Britt to cosponsor it.
Love this. Because we all know she won't. Point out her hypocrisy in real time. And honestly if she fooled us all and did cosponsor it that would just be a bonus for these victims, there would be no downside to her actually doing it. I would love to see her put actions to her whiny words of horror
That's a legit great idea. Although it may trigger a sudden influx of Russian women who had the misfortune of meeting the Predator in Chief when he was in Russia.
The point I turned it off was when she talked about the empty chairs at the kitchen tables where the victims of “border crimes” - migrant crime, fentanyl - would have sat. I guess the empty chairs at tables because of gun violence is just the price of freedom.
This is also when I turned it off. There seems to be no concern for gun violence — there are a lot of empty chairs around the table because they refuse to see the real issues.
The empty chair at the table ploy, straight out of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol when the Ghost of Christmas Present replies ''I see a vacant seat” in response to Tiny Tim’s future. Somehow, I doubt Charles Dickens would have been a big follower of the Republican Party if he was alive today.
All this talk of empty chairs reminds me of Clint Eastwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention in 2012 as well as the emptiness between the ears and in the souls of TFG supporters and MAGA house members.
Flat out lying is now standard operating procedure for the GOP. Not "spin". Simply making up "facts." Trump taught them it works. Their base has no interest in any follow up fact checking. They love being told what they want to hear.
Maga has no concept of why truth is important because they live in a make believe world with an invisible magic sky fairy dashing about the universe and dabbling in human affairs — all just for them.
At this point Trump's base is irrelevant, no reason whatsoever to reason with them. It's the aloof, self-absorbed left of center that needs to be jolted and "reminded".
I disagree. It's the center, the independents who need to be reminded how far to the right the GOP has swung. Starting with Senator Barry Goldwater and the John Birch Society, the fringe right wingers of the 1960s, continuing with Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, Newt Gingrich, the Tea Party Republicans, and culminating with Trump, the Presidential candidate who is literally pulling quotes from Hitler and Mussolini to promote neo-fascism in America. The Christian Nationalist right wing in America is a minority wielding outsized power due to gerrymandering and overrepresentation in the House, Senate, and Electoral College. Trumpist fascism can only be stopped by appealing to the decency and sense of the American center.
🙂 I didn't realize that there might be an actual center, it was just a line for me.
While I agree with everything you said, and indeed it was the same point I was trying to make, I would nevertheless point out that many self-appointed liberals have huge reservations about Biden Admin, his personal performance, based on FB memes and not his actual speeches, state of the "economy" with it's real alarming price increases but completely misplaced reasoning...
Jay, A well put together and sober account. I only wish your post could be pushed out to much larger numbers of people because it is compelling and moving. You do good work. Have a wonderful trip! -Ron
It’s utterly gut- twisting that this level of journalistic reporting is not elevated.
That we are now in a time where we can not count on the NYT or other major outlets to report with as much excellence or report AT ALL!
Another tenet of fascism—
A non- existent or unreliable press.
Propaganda versus real news… for instance endless op eds and shit pieces on the President’s age or how he can not win the next election .
This is all coming from major media legacy outlets who in the past have been beacons of democracy and purveyors of some of the world’s best journalism.
But they do not report on the current administration accurately. And they do not frame the GOP as what it is: a crime spree, a fascist movement, a smoldering coup. A danger to democracy worldwide.
They do not give us rigorous authentic journalism as we find here.
She gave the whole country a masterclass in how Republicans lie by insinuation coupled with taking things entirely out of context. Will "suburban women" fall for the histrionics, or feel rather pissed at being bamboozled?
Well, I'm a "suburban woman" and I immediately saw through her. My first thought was that the "cartels" don't operate in the US, so that must have happened in Mexico, and the last time I looked, Biden is not President of Mexico. I did not know that those horrific crimes happened so long ago, however. The empty chair gambit also immediately reminded me of the many lost to gun violence. And at the end of her piece I immediately thought of the loss of rights women have endured thanks to the Supreme Court and their evil Dobbs decision. She may have fooled some, but I bet most "suburban women" saw her for what she is - a right wing shill.
I’m another suburban woman, and my thought patterns were similar to yours. All of the ‘empty chairs’ are a product of GOP ‘leadership’. Both guns and Covid caused them.
They did. Think, how much Russian press analyses do you consume, or say North Korean? In the same vein, fox is just as irrelevant. We are split, and the "war" theater is center left. We need to stay united, and active. Our work is not to drop a ballot belatedly on nov 5. We must demand that nyt and wapo stop their "equal attention coverage" and sensationalism. They have to, the must be forced to defend the foundations of our Republic because that's where you and I live, so they must, or should be punished.
Write and cancel
Send card to Biden
Send $1/mo to Bisen and convince all your friends to do the same
Huh? I disagree with a lot of what the NYT and WaPo do, particularly the former. But when they do something right, I will give them credit. What do Russian or North Korean analyses have to do with anything? Fox News viewers will stay in their bubble. Those not enamored already will be able to draw their own conclusions from simply WATCHING, and will also find out from those papers that there were lies as well as dramatics.
Say we all "punish" the mainstream media by cancelling each time one of them shows bias. (it's the sort of thing you can do once) As revenues go down, they very may well cut the amount of good investigative reporting they support. Pretty sure that is more costly than the salaries of headline writers.
Or we can keep writing to them AS subscribers, bitching. (it's the sort of thing you can do daily). THAT might get the headline writers sent packing, because THAT is primarily who is being bitched about and encouraging a bad rep for the paper as a whole.
I have noticed, btw, that it is often the headlines that are biased, not the stories themselves--they even will contradict the stories. One can also bitch to the story writers themselves.
You won't get an email back saying "Oh, we're sorry, thanks for pointing out the error of our ways. " But headlines HAVE been changing, often within hours or less of the original. SOMETHING is making them do that.
Ezra Klein is an opinion writer. We aren't supposed to "believe" those, we are supposed to consider and evaluate them. A lot of people went berserk over his "replace biden" bit. I just thought it was stupid and moved on.
Anyone using that NYT/Sienna poll to try to prove a point is stupid, too. It has been discredited six ways from Sunday. I haven't paid much attention to Ezra Klein and I will pay less, now.
If you can't understand how fox is just as relevant as russian, or chinese, or space alien media, or how detrimental those nyt and wapo are, I don't know where you've been.
If all you are saying is that Fox is a malign influence, we are in full accord. That was my POINT--that Fox ignores the obvious because its bubbled audience only wants to hear the Good News it craves. It is pretty clearly our home-grown propaganda machine. The bit about "Democrats loved her" is as far as I can tell a flat out lie. "
The NYT/WaPo are mixed. A LOT of bias showing, particularly in the headlines. A lot of good stories, particularly the investigative ones, too.
I'd rather they correct the bias and keep up the good investigations.
Condemning a whole entity as evil because we think SOME of what they do is wrong is reasoning from overgeneralization. When MOST of what they do is bad, it gets truer. I don't think the NYT or WaPo have gotten to MOST yet. Other MSM are noticing the bias and calling it out. We as individuals can call it out, too. With persistence, we may be able to get to LESS than some.
As a 46 year old native Alabamian, Katie Britt’s rebuttal of Biden’s SOTU speech didn’t surprise me. This is how Republicans operate in this state. You should see the local campaign commercials they made for Super Tuesday. I’ll save you the time though and tell you they were all based on lies and propaganda. Trump has ripped my family apart and I am one of the lone outliers. I have been on a mission to figure out what makes Trump supporters tick. I have come across several studies that compare the MRIs of conservatives and liberals brains while they are shown various images. So far, these studies have found that conservatives have less gray matter and their amygdala’s (the fear center) are larger. Conservatives operate out of fear and do not like scenarios that are not black and white. I guess my next question is - how do I use this information? Or, does it tell me that these people, many of them my family and friends, cannot help themselves? This is the conundrum I am left with…
As a former conservative I concur with the size of the amygdala. Pushback is what helped me but I was questioning things anyway and not just accepting what people told me.
Education is a weapon and it helped me see other sides. And therapy.
I honestly don't understand the fear angle. If they're so afraid, didn't The Orange Puffaroon live up to their worst fears by killing more than one million of us during the pandemic?
Also, maybe people should stop worrying so much about HOW they're gonna die. We all die eventually. If we're all nice to each other, at least the lives we live until we die will be more pleasant.
You really have to look at the white Christian Nationalists to explain the fear part. Alabama is part of the Bible Belt, so there are churches everywhere. There are three in the block next to me. Many Alabamians are poor and uneducated. They rely on the church to educate them, not schools. As I was raised Southern Baptist, I have lived this experience. I was lucky to get out of such an insular life and go to college and travel. The ministers stump for Trump in their sermons every Sunday, even if they do not say his name. They stoke the fears in these people who do not understand that the US is not a Christian nation and immigrants are not evil. Alabama is a theocracy and they do not see this as a problem. They believe everyone should be like them or strive to be like them. Or, their poor souls are doomed to hell. They are on a righteous mission and it absolutely terrifies me. Evangelical leaders think they are using Trump as a tool to get their Christian beliefs enshrined into the constitution. What they completely fail to see is that Trump has wielded them as a weapon to attain power and money. He does not care about these people, but he knows how to appeal to their very real fears that they have been taught to have by their religion. He is their almighty savior, not a sad man who needs to be liked so much that he will destroy our nation. I know this sounds dramatic, but I live this everyday with my family in Alabama.
Well said on both of your comments. Although not in the Bible belt I live in Idaho where a more secular but same mission all the same is at hand. Worsened by the dredges from California & Michigan being called to this area because of it. I too lost my mother to Christian Nationalism and I too looked for answers as I had difficulty grasping how a once an intelligent and compassionate woman could be led so astray. You said it well. It's fear. I saw that study on the larger amygdalas and have read others about the cultish type takeover of people's minds through talk radio and Fox, etc that creates a mix of fear and rage. They feel their actions are God given and blessed, worth any cost.
I do not think people can understand this unless they have lived it. My heart is broken over my family. I sometimes wonder if these are the same people I have known all my life. There are and they are not. These are not evil people. I love them all still. Unfortunately, I have lost a large part of them to a power that I have no control over. After writing this, I realize, I just described the very definition of a cult. I have such a hard time saying this word. I do not want it to be true, because then I have no hope left. So, I sit silently, while I listen to them extol the many virtues that is Donald J. Trump, and I wonder if I am in an alternate reality.
I have seen it as a cult that I've lost family & friends too for quite a long time. Watching the movie, The Brainwashing of My Dad, clinched it for me & very much explained my mother's demise. Who I no longer speak with.
But will he accept defeat? That is my fear. Trump has been building the election lie up even before the election was called in 2020. And all of these people believe it still. Facts do not matter. They are oblivious now. I know, because I have long given up trying to state facts. He will follow wherever they lead and I bet these people have way more guns and weapons in these deeply red states that can be imagined. I’ve seen this with my own eyes. It sounds so dramatic and unbelievable when I’m writing this, but I hope other people are paying attention too.
Claire Conner wrote a book in 2013 on her similar life story. Wrapped in a Flag. She used to maintain her own website but I don’t see it now. She was constantly bullied and attacked for speaking up.
❤️🩹 most of humanity seems to struggle with the idea that so many people have lived very different lives from theirs.
Absolutely correct. TN here. Grew up SBC. I absolutely have not lost my faith but I absolutely get nauseous even thinking about a Baptist church. And yes, they believe tfg is their King Cyrus but what they don't realize is that they are dispensable tools that will be discarded and trashed if the orange a-hole cheats his way back into the presidency. And yes, families and friends have been torn apart. And I'm convinced that's very calculated.
Wow, great explanation. I've read a lot of explainers on this but this one is one of the absolute best I've ever seen. Thanks.
I live in Georgia, but my experience is not the same. I'm a Yankee living behind the front lines, so to speak. I live in Atlanta. I know nothing, really, about this experience you describe, because I don't live in the kind of place in the South where I'd notice it. All I have to do is move to a smaller town here in Georgia and I, too, could get up close and personal with it. I think I'll skip that part. Although it does make me want to visit a rural church and raise some hell, lol.
Before I lived in Atlanta, I lived in Austin, another blue island in a red sea. And before that, California, where red isn't really a factor, and before that, Chicago, where the Dems have had their own corrupt practices and where a progressive young mayor is running head first into an entrenched corruption machine.
I've been well aware of the Christo-Nationalist influence, of course, but you describe their influence at a more visceral level than I'm used to, with individual churches used as bully pulpits.
The constant refrain of American Taliban really seems apt here. Instead of a heaven filled with virgins, these people seem to think that we're on the verge of the rapture, and in a worse case scenario, maybe some of them even think Agent Orange is the anti-Christ (if they have anything bad to say about him at all), and we should be cheering on the coming apocalypse.
Yikes. The sooner this man is removed from public life, the better.
Thank you so much. You have no idea how much your last paragraph is my true reality. I do not think anyone who has not lived this type of life could begin to comprehend what these people believe. I see many on the news who say it would never come to a civil war. I disagree. I see the fear and hatred on a personal level. I have seen people that I have know for most of my life change before my eyes. It’s Alabama. These people have weapons of all kinds, not just guns. And Texas, Florida (where I lived for 8 years), and other deeply red states included. They are prepared.
I have also spent a lot of the time in the North. I almost went to the University of Chicago, because I had family there. Isn’t it funny how you can pick up on a places politics fairly quickly - without thinking about it? I believe I did this as a kid, because it was so different than the Sipsey Wilderness that I had come from. My parents were mostly from the North though and they were progressive compared to my Alabama family. This may have saved me honestly. My twin brother is a different story. He did not get out. You can tell.
Maybe I should retitle my handle to Crazy in Alabama?
I feel there is no help for these people. It's like they are hypnotized and even if they did realize they've been taken for a ride, their egos stop them from admitting the truth.
Imagine being surrounded by these people on a regular basis. That is my life. I stay silent. I am outnumbered. It is so disheartening. It has become an unspoken tension that is always in the air.
On his last day in office Trump blocked the deportation of migrants from Venezuela. Seems like the Dems and Biden’s team need to remind folks of this one especially since Trump is using Riley’s death as a talking point.
Katie Britt invites us to vote for the rapist (trump) who was friends with the convicted sex trafficker (Jeffrey Epstein) so that the victims of sex trafficking (Karla Jancito Romero) can be refused asylum in the US
Britt may or may not believe what she said, but she was willing to perform (embarrassingly) a Handmaid’s Tale version of the truth—from her kitchen—where she belongs because she’s basically “just a housewife” to the men who probably wrote her speech. Did she even know she was being used?
I bet she wrote that speech herself. She was the previous Senator’s chief of staff. She’s a shrewd politician. Which only makes it worse, in my opinion.
I'm no fan of Katie Britt or any other MAGA Republican - but why is this woman being held to FAR, FAR higher standard than the lying men in the party... or wait, never mind. I just answered my own question. Journalists need to do better with holding everybody accountable, not just women who lie #Himpathy #Patriarchy #Misogyny
Because she 1) is using the trappings of femininity to manipulate for political power 2) is a woman using sexual violence against women to try to sell us on electing a rapist 3) is a woman using violence against women in Latin America to manipulate people into voting for a party that would send them back into that violence. I hate men who lie for power. But frankly, I expect them to use women for political gain. But there is a special place in Hell for women who use other women’s trauma to further their own agenda, especially when that agenda directly harms the women they are exploiting. Britt is the anti-suffragist of today.
It's time for all of us to stop expecting men to use women for their own gain. Imagine how different our nation would be if the headlines read, "Republican party sacrifices another woman politician to distract from the party's human rights abuses." Journalists need to hold everybody accountable. Everybody.
Sure, but she is the one doing the response to the SOTU. When Republican men are chosen to do the response to a speech and lie, they are called on it. I’ve seen it. She was chosen, the location was chosen, the words were chosen, specifically to steal other women’s trauma and use it against them. She is a collaborator. She doesn’t get a pass just because her male colleagues are equally despicable.
Remember, the Republicans picked her to try to take advantage of her femininity. But yes ,I would love it if every mainstream media story about Trump began with his record as lying-est liar President in history, and reminded people he was found to have committed sexual assault, bragged about sexual assault, cheated on all his wives, paid a porn star to keep quiet about his affair with her in the 2016, his proven financial fraud and tax cheating, misappropriating charitable contributions, bankrupted his casinos, airline, and other businesses, etc. Then after that introduction they could report whatever outrageous, debatable, new thing he claimed.
She is an elected official and as such, fair game. I do agree with you that she is being held to a higher standard, but this was her individual national roll-out. She needs to be held accountable because she is unqualified for her job as a representative of the people in Alabama and is being used like a hand puppet by people like Turtle-face Mitch. The so-called "men" in her party have used her up! She will be held to a much higher standard and she let them do it. She is unfit to represent her constituents, IMO.
First, have a fantastic trip to South Africa. Be safe and enjoy. Second, I (and the rest of us) appreciate the great piece today. I continue to be mystified as to how deceitful this "Republican" party is. They lie with such reckless abandon! I believe in freedom... and if there are women out there who want to have a subservient relationship with their husband, fine. (I dont know any!) But dont you dare shove your belief system on others. The GOP keeps shooting itself in the "foot". So much lying.
Thank you for your continued work in exposing GOP blatant lies and manipulations as they scramble for political leverage.
Mimi is absolutely correct, your trip to Africa is well deserved and I’m glad to hear that you’re paying attention to her advice. When you take your baby daughter home in August, you’ll appreciate having gone and midnight baby feedings will be filled with memories of that trip while you bond 👼
There's the other "lie" from Katie Britt - one that has been repeatedly pointed out. Her implication that she was somehow "just a regular" family is as out of touch as her statement "what real families are facing around kitchen tables just like this". She is married to an NFL player. She sits in a kitchen in front of a $10,000 refrigerator. Her net worth is somewhere in the $2-4 million range.
And then there's her claim that "It feels like the next generation will have fewer opportunities — and less freedom — than we did." is true - with the repeal of Roe, her daughter has fewer rights BECAUSE of her mother, Katie Britt. I am so sick of the GOP's doublespeak and false claims about how they're the party of the "every man" when they aren't. UGH. So tired of all this!
Besides that, her RNC Libertarian party intends to destroy this democracy, rob the people like they did in Chile after they literally tutored Pinochet on how to rape and plunder a nation with unbridled greed and power. Sen. Britt is a willing puppet of fascists—a whore for power and money; she is ruthless, unprincipled and that’s what she demonstrated under the auspices of “evangelical motherhood.” A WHORE who exploits sexually victimized women for her own purposes.
TBF we did have an actual whore as 'First Lady' during the tRump Squat.
I noticed the kitchen right away, because our whole apartment could fit inside that kitchen. I don’t think the majority of Americans have that fancy of a kitchen-I know we don’t. I was very put off by her dramatics. Was she auditioning for Real Housewives of Congress to replace Boebert and Greene?
LOL! 🤣
Maybe the GOP Senate with folks like Ron Johnson, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt will eventually match the stellar group in the GOP House, with MTG, Boebert, Gosar, Comer,Jordan and Nehls. All of these people are Hall of Fame idiots!
I’m concerned that they are NOT idiots and sapskulls (unlike Tuberbrain and 3 Toes et alia). Johnson is totally warped in terms of truth and morals yes, McConnell may have had principles at one time but shook them off in favor of power and money, Gaetz may be an unprincipled kid raper, yes. But all were law school grads, and none of the schools were “diploma mills”. FWIW, Johnson, Paul M. Herbert
Sooz; Remember though. Trump has a Wharton degree. Go figure.
Thank you! Your second paragraph tells it!
They are “ the elites”.
Dems should immediately propose a bill named after Romero that loosens asylum requirements for sex trafficking victims and invite Britt to cosponsor it.
Love this. Because we all know she won't. Point out her hypocrisy in real time. And honestly if she fooled us all and did cosponsor it that would just be a bonus for these victims, there would be no downside to her actually doing it. I would love to see her put actions to her whiny words of horror
That's a legit great idea. Although it may trigger a sudden influx of Russian women who had the misfortune of meeting the Predator in Chief when he was in Russia.
Great idea!
Oh, I wish they did!!!!!!!
Excellent idea!
Eso es genial! ✨👍🏽
Ha! I also wish Romero would make a complaint to the Senate, or file a lawsuit against Britt. What Britt did was inexcusable.
The point I turned it off was when she talked about the empty chairs at the kitchen tables where the victims of “border crimes” - migrant crime, fentanyl - would have sat. I guess the empty chairs at tables because of gun violence is just the price of freedom.
This is also when I turned it off. There seems to be no concern for gun violence — there are a lot of empty chairs around the table because they refuse to see the real issues.
The empty chair at the table ploy, straight out of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol when the Ghost of Christmas Present replies ''I see a vacant seat” in response to Tiny Tim’s future. Somehow, I doubt Charles Dickens would have been a big follower of the Republican Party if he was alive today.
Reminded me of song lyrics from Les Mis: “…empty chairs and empty tables where my friends would be…”
All this talk of empty chairs reminds me of Clint Eastwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention in 2012 as well as the emptiness between the ears and in the souls of TFG supporters and MAGA house members.
They actually manage to convince a lot of educated people to vote for them. Racism / misogyny is a hell of a drug
Especially once Putin gets them hooked on it with his propaganda
Same
Flat out lying is now standard operating procedure for the GOP. Not "spin". Simply making up "facts." Trump taught them it works. Their base has no interest in any follow up fact checking. They love being told what they want to hear.
Maga has no concept of why truth is important because they live in a make believe world with an invisible magic sky fairy dashing about the universe and dabbling in human affairs — all just for them.
This right here.
It’s also one of the main characteristics of fascism and authoritarianism.
The truth simply does not matter.
The truth is what they say it is.
“ Alternative facts”.
Trump's crew deserve the Goebbels Prize for Unbridled Propaganda.
At this point Trump's base is irrelevant, no reason whatsoever to reason with them. It's the aloof, self-absorbed left of center that needs to be jolted and "reminded".
I disagree. It's the center, the independents who need to be reminded how far to the right the GOP has swung. Starting with Senator Barry Goldwater and the John Birch Society, the fringe right wingers of the 1960s, continuing with Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, Newt Gingrich, the Tea Party Republicans, and culminating with Trump, the Presidential candidate who is literally pulling quotes from Hitler and Mussolini to promote neo-fascism in America. The Christian Nationalist right wing in America is a minority wielding outsized power due to gerrymandering and overrepresentation in the House, Senate, and Electoral College. Trumpist fascism can only be stopped by appealing to the decency and sense of the American center.
Repost it everywhere you are online! I’m doing that now.
I live in Alabama. It’s the “center”.
🙂 I didn't realize that there might be an actual center, it was just a line for me.
While I agree with everything you said, and indeed it was the same point I was trying to make, I would nevertheless point out that many self-appointed liberals have huge reservations about Biden Admin, his personal performance, based on FB memes and not his actual speeches, state of the "economy" with it's real alarming price increases but completely misplaced reasoning...
Jay, A well put together and sober account. I only wish your post could be pushed out to much larger numbers of people because it is compelling and moving. You do good work. Have a wonderful trip! -Ron
It’s utterly gut- twisting that this level of journalistic reporting is not elevated.
That we are now in a time where we can not count on the NYT or other major outlets to report with as much excellence or report AT ALL!
Another tenet of fascism—
A non- existent or unreliable press.
Propaganda versus real news… for instance endless op eds and shit pieces on the President’s age or how he can not win the next election .
This is all coming from major media legacy outlets who in the past have been beacons of democracy and purveyors of some of the world’s best journalism.
But they do not report on the current administration accurately. And they do not frame the GOP as what it is: a crime spree, a fascist movement, a smoldering coup. A danger to democracy worldwide.
They do not give us rigorous authentic journalism as we find here.
Thanks Kuo. 💙
She gave the whole country a masterclass in how Republicans lie by insinuation coupled with taking things entirely out of context. Will "suburban women" fall for the histrionics, or feel rather pissed at being bamboozled?
The SNL bit was PRIMO.
Well, I'm a "suburban woman" and I immediately saw through her. My first thought was that the "cartels" don't operate in the US, so that must have happened in Mexico, and the last time I looked, Biden is not President of Mexico. I did not know that those horrific crimes happened so long ago, however. The empty chair gambit also immediately reminded me of the many lost to gun violence. And at the end of her piece I immediately thought of the loss of rights women have endured thanks to the Supreme Court and their evil Dobbs decision. She may have fooled some, but I bet most "suburban women" saw her for what she is - a right wing shill.
I’m another suburban woman, and my thought patterns were similar to yours. All of the ‘empty chairs’ are a product of GOP ‘leadership’. Both guns and Covid caused them.
Will not feel bamboozled unless they also see the critique, which MSM will conveniently hide, diminish, or quickly move off of.
NYT and WaPo have had big articles on it. Fox News, on the other hand, told its adherents that even Democrats thought Katie had "shredded" Biden.
Lies of omission just keep coming.
They did. Think, how much Russian press analyses do you consume, or say North Korean? In the same vein, fox is just as irrelevant. We are split, and the "war" theater is center left. We need to stay united, and active. Our work is not to drop a ballot belatedly on nov 5. We must demand that nyt and wapo stop their "equal attention coverage" and sensationalism. They have to, the must be forced to defend the foundations of our Republic because that's where you and I live, so they must, or should be punished.
Write and cancel
Send card to Biden
Send $1/mo to Bisen and convince all your friends to do the same
Come up with something else 🙂
Huh? I disagree with a lot of what the NYT and WaPo do, particularly the former. But when they do something right, I will give them credit. What do Russian or North Korean analyses have to do with anything? Fox News viewers will stay in their bubble. Those not enamored already will be able to draw their own conclusions from simply WATCHING, and will also find out from those papers that there were lies as well as dramatics.
Say we all "punish" the mainstream media by cancelling each time one of them shows bias. (it's the sort of thing you can do once) As revenues go down, they very may well cut the amount of good investigative reporting they support. Pretty sure that is more costly than the salaries of headline writers.
Or we can keep writing to them AS subscribers, bitching. (it's the sort of thing you can do daily). THAT might get the headline writers sent packing, because THAT is primarily who is being bitched about and encouraging a bad rep for the paper as a whole.
I have noticed, btw, that it is often the headlines that are biased, not the stories themselves--they even will contradict the stories. One can also bitch to the story writers themselves.
You won't get an email back saying "Oh, we're sorry, thanks for pointing out the error of our ways. " But headlines HAVE been changing, often within hours or less of the original. SOMETHING is making them do that.
https://open.substack.com/pub/sweatyspice/p/fuck-ezra-klein-and-fuck-the-ny-times?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=k9lb9
Ezra Klein is an opinion writer. We aren't supposed to "believe" those, we are supposed to consider and evaluate them. A lot of people went berserk over his "replace biden" bit. I just thought it was stupid and moved on.
Anyone using that NYT/Sienna poll to try to prove a point is stupid, too. It has been discredited six ways from Sunday. I haven't paid much attention to Ezra Klein and I will pay less, now.
If you can't understand how fox is just as relevant as russian, or chinese, or space alien media, or how detrimental those nyt and wapo are, I don't know where you've been.
At least you are reading status kuo.
If all you are saying is that Fox is a malign influence, we are in full accord. That was my POINT--that Fox ignores the obvious because its bubbled audience only wants to hear the Good News it craves. It is pretty clearly our home-grown propaganda machine. The bit about "Democrats loved her" is as far as I can tell a flat out lie. "
The NYT/WaPo are mixed. A LOT of bias showing, particularly in the headlines. A lot of good stories, particularly the investigative ones, too.
I'd rather they correct the bias and keep up the good investigations.
Condemning a whole entity as evil because we think SOME of what they do is wrong is reasoning from overgeneralization. When MOST of what they do is bad, it gets truer. I don't think the NYT or WaPo have gotten to MOST yet. Other MSM are noticing the bias and calling it out. We as individuals can call it out, too. With persistence, we may be able to get to LESS than some.
As a 46 year old native Alabamian, Katie Britt’s rebuttal of Biden’s SOTU speech didn’t surprise me. This is how Republicans operate in this state. You should see the local campaign commercials they made for Super Tuesday. I’ll save you the time though and tell you they were all based on lies and propaganda. Trump has ripped my family apart and I am one of the lone outliers. I have been on a mission to figure out what makes Trump supporters tick. I have come across several studies that compare the MRIs of conservatives and liberals brains while they are shown various images. So far, these studies have found that conservatives have less gray matter and their amygdala’s (the fear center) are larger. Conservatives operate out of fear and do not like scenarios that are not black and white. I guess my next question is - how do I use this information? Or, does it tell me that these people, many of them my family and friends, cannot help themselves? This is the conundrum I am left with…
Enjoy your trip of a lifetime in South Africa!
As a former conservative I concur with the size of the amygdala. Pushback is what helped me but I was questioning things anyway and not just accepting what people told me.
Education is a weapon and it helped me see other sides. And therapy.
I honestly don't understand the fear angle. If they're so afraid, didn't The Orange Puffaroon live up to their worst fears by killing more than one million of us during the pandemic?
Also, maybe people should stop worrying so much about HOW they're gonna die. We all die eventually. If we're all nice to each other, at least the lives we live until we die will be more pleasant.
You really have to look at the white Christian Nationalists to explain the fear part. Alabama is part of the Bible Belt, so there are churches everywhere. There are three in the block next to me. Many Alabamians are poor and uneducated. They rely on the church to educate them, not schools. As I was raised Southern Baptist, I have lived this experience. I was lucky to get out of such an insular life and go to college and travel. The ministers stump for Trump in their sermons every Sunday, even if they do not say his name. They stoke the fears in these people who do not understand that the US is not a Christian nation and immigrants are not evil. Alabama is a theocracy and they do not see this as a problem. They believe everyone should be like them or strive to be like them. Or, their poor souls are doomed to hell. They are on a righteous mission and it absolutely terrifies me. Evangelical leaders think they are using Trump as a tool to get their Christian beliefs enshrined into the constitution. What they completely fail to see is that Trump has wielded them as a weapon to attain power and money. He does not care about these people, but he knows how to appeal to their very real fears that they have been taught to have by their religion. He is their almighty savior, not a sad man who needs to be liked so much that he will destroy our nation. I know this sounds dramatic, but I live this everyday with my family in Alabama.
Well said on both of your comments. Although not in the Bible belt I live in Idaho where a more secular but same mission all the same is at hand. Worsened by the dredges from California & Michigan being called to this area because of it. I too lost my mother to Christian Nationalism and I too looked for answers as I had difficulty grasping how a once an intelligent and compassionate woman could be led so astray. You said it well. It's fear. I saw that study on the larger amygdalas and have read others about the cultish type takeover of people's minds through talk radio and Fox, etc that creates a mix of fear and rage. They feel their actions are God given and blessed, worth any cost.
I do not think people can understand this unless they have lived it. My heart is broken over my family. I sometimes wonder if these are the same people I have known all my life. There are and they are not. These are not evil people. I love them all still. Unfortunately, I have lost a large part of them to a power that I have no control over. After writing this, I realize, I just described the very definition of a cult. I have such a hard time saying this word. I do not want it to be true, because then I have no hope left. So, I sit silently, while I listen to them extol the many virtues that is Donald J. Trump, and I wonder if I am in an alternate reality.
I have seen it as a cult that I've lost family & friends too for quite a long time. Watching the movie, The Brainwashing of My Dad, clinched it for me & very much explained my mother's demise. Who I no longer speak with.
I am so sorry to hear that. Sadly, this is a common story in Alabama.
That is so sad Lesly. I lost my oldest friend, since 5th grade, because of this.
What will happen to these folks after he loses and he dies in prison? Will he become a martyr? Or will they find someone else to carry the banner?
But will he accept defeat? That is my fear. Trump has been building the election lie up even before the election was called in 2020. And all of these people believe it still. Facts do not matter. They are oblivious now. I know, because I have long given up trying to state facts. He will follow wherever they lead and I bet these people have way more guns and weapons in these deeply red states that can be imagined. I’ve seen this with my own eyes. It sounds so dramatic and unbelievable when I’m writing this, but I hope other people are paying attention too.
Claire Conner wrote a book in 2013 on her similar life story. Wrapped in a Flag. She used to maintain her own website but I don’t see it now. She was constantly bullied and attacked for speaking up.
❤️🩹 most of humanity seems to struggle with the idea that so many people have lived very different lives from theirs.
Thank you. I will look this book up.
Absolutely correct. TN here. Grew up SBC. I absolutely have not lost my faith but I absolutely get nauseous even thinking about a Baptist church. And yes, they believe tfg is their King Cyrus but what they don't realize is that they are dispensable tools that will be discarded and trashed if the orange a-hole cheats his way back into the presidency. And yes, families and friends have been torn apart. And I'm convinced that's very calculated.
Wow, great explanation. I've read a lot of explainers on this but this one is one of the absolute best I've ever seen. Thanks.
I live in Georgia, but my experience is not the same. I'm a Yankee living behind the front lines, so to speak. I live in Atlanta. I know nothing, really, about this experience you describe, because I don't live in the kind of place in the South where I'd notice it. All I have to do is move to a smaller town here in Georgia and I, too, could get up close and personal with it. I think I'll skip that part. Although it does make me want to visit a rural church and raise some hell, lol.
Before I lived in Atlanta, I lived in Austin, another blue island in a red sea. And before that, California, where red isn't really a factor, and before that, Chicago, where the Dems have had their own corrupt practices and where a progressive young mayor is running head first into an entrenched corruption machine.
I've been well aware of the Christo-Nationalist influence, of course, but you describe their influence at a more visceral level than I'm used to, with individual churches used as bully pulpits.
The constant refrain of American Taliban really seems apt here. Instead of a heaven filled with virgins, these people seem to think that we're on the verge of the rapture, and in a worse case scenario, maybe some of them even think Agent Orange is the anti-Christ (if they have anything bad to say about him at all), and we should be cheering on the coming apocalypse.
Yikes. The sooner this man is removed from public life, the better.
Thank you so much. You have no idea how much your last paragraph is my true reality. I do not think anyone who has not lived this type of life could begin to comprehend what these people believe. I see many on the news who say it would never come to a civil war. I disagree. I see the fear and hatred on a personal level. I have seen people that I have know for most of my life change before my eyes. It’s Alabama. These people have weapons of all kinds, not just guns. And Texas, Florida (where I lived for 8 years), and other deeply red states included. They are prepared.
I have also spent a lot of the time in the North. I almost went to the University of Chicago, because I had family there. Isn’t it funny how you can pick up on a places politics fairly quickly - without thinking about it? I believe I did this as a kid, because it was so different than the Sipsey Wilderness that I had come from. My parents were mostly from the North though and they were progressive compared to my Alabama family. This may have saved me honestly. My twin brother is a different story. He did not get out. You can tell.
Maybe I should retitle my handle to Crazy in Alabama?
Wow… so much I better not say… 😂
Very interesting. Good luck in your quest!
I feel there is no help for these people. It's like they are hypnotized and even if they did realize they've been taken for a ride, their egos stop them from admitting the truth.
Imagine being surrounded by these people on a regular basis. That is my life. I stay silent. I am outnumbered. It is so disheartening. It has become an unspoken tension that is always in the air.
On his last day in office Trump blocked the deportation of migrants from Venezuela. Seems like the Dems and Biden’s team need to remind folks of this one especially since Trump is using Riley’s death as a talking point.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/politics/president-trump/trump-in-final-parting-shot-hits-venezuela-with-sanctions/2283368/
How very interesting!
fascinating. Did Biden reverse that?
Katie Britt invites us to vote for the rapist (trump) who was friends with the convicted sex trafficker (Jeffrey Epstein) so that the victims of sex trafficking (Karla Jancito Romero) can be refused asylum in the US
Republican math.
Best brief analysis I’ve heard yet. 👏
Britt may or may not believe what she said, but she was willing to perform (embarrassingly) a Handmaid’s Tale version of the truth—from her kitchen—where she belongs because she’s basically “just a housewife” to the men who probably wrote her speech. Did she even know she was being used?
check out jesspiper.substack.com The Fundie Baby Voice!
Thanks, Kathleen! I loved it and subscribed to Jess’s Substack. 👍
I bet she wrote that speech herself. She was the previous Senator’s chief of staff. She’s a shrewd politician. Which only makes it worse, in my opinion.
I'm no fan of Katie Britt or any other MAGA Republican - but why is this woman being held to FAR, FAR higher standard than the lying men in the party... or wait, never mind. I just answered my own question. Journalists need to do better with holding everybody accountable, not just women who lie #Himpathy #Patriarchy #Misogyny
Because she 1) is using the trappings of femininity to manipulate for political power 2) is a woman using sexual violence against women to try to sell us on electing a rapist 3) is a woman using violence against women in Latin America to manipulate people into voting for a party that would send them back into that violence. I hate men who lie for power. But frankly, I expect them to use women for political gain. But there is a special place in Hell for women who use other women’s trauma to further their own agenda, especially when that agenda directly harms the women they are exploiting. Britt is the anti-suffragist of today.
Bravo!
Also, firstly because it was a high profile occasion.
Women-on-women exploitation.
It's time for all of us to stop expecting men to use women for their own gain. Imagine how different our nation would be if the headlines read, "Republican party sacrifices another woman politician to distract from the party's human rights abuses." Journalists need to hold everybody accountable. Everybody.
Sure, but she is the one doing the response to the SOTU. When Republican men are chosen to do the response to a speech and lie, they are called on it. I’ve seen it. She was chosen, the location was chosen, the words were chosen, specifically to steal other women’s trauma and use it against them. She is a collaborator. She doesn’t get a pass just because her male colleagues are equally despicable.
Remember, the Republicans picked her to try to take advantage of her femininity. But yes ,I would love it if every mainstream media story about Trump began with his record as lying-est liar President in history, and reminded people he was found to have committed sexual assault, bragged about sexual assault, cheated on all his wives, paid a porn star to keep quiet about his affair with her in the 2016, his proven financial fraud and tax cheating, misappropriating charitable contributions, bankrupted his casinos, airline, and other businesses, etc. Then after that introduction they could report whatever outrageous, debatable, new thing he claimed.
She is an elected official and as such, fair game. I do agree with you that she is being held to a higher standard, but this was her individual national roll-out. She needs to be held accountable because she is unqualified for her job as a representative of the people in Alabama and is being used like a hand puppet by people like Turtle-face Mitch. The so-called "men" in her party have used her up! She will be held to a much higher standard and she let them do it. She is unfit to represent her constituents, IMO.
First, have a fantastic trip to South Africa. Be safe and enjoy. Second, I (and the rest of us) appreciate the great piece today. I continue to be mystified as to how deceitful this "Republican" party is. They lie with such reckless abandon! I believe in freedom... and if there are women out there who want to have a subservient relationship with their husband, fine. (I dont know any!) But dont you dare shove your belief system on others. The GOP keeps shooting itself in the "foot". So much lying.
Any truth to the rumor that Katie Britt and George Santos have the same speech writers!
Ha!
Any truth to the rumor that “Katie Britt” is George Santos best drag performance ever?
Santos is like a bad sparkly penny, ain't he?
Why isn't he in prison?
Good question.
I love that Santos is going to primary LaLota in NY1.
And she’s the “smart” Senator from Alabama.. 🤦🏻♀️
Thank you for your continued work in exposing GOP blatant lies and manipulations as they scramble for political leverage.
Mimi is absolutely correct, your trip to Africa is well deserved and I’m glad to hear that you’re paying attention to her advice. When you take your baby daughter home in August, you’ll appreciate having gone and midnight baby feedings will be filled with memories of that trip while you bond 👼
BREAKING NEWS: Republican head of wardrobe fired for misplacing Katie Britt's baby doll PJ's.
It was SNL Cold Opening the second after it aired!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/10/entertainment/scarlett-johansson-katie-britt-saturday-night-live/index.html
😂🤣