NEW ARTICLE: Hating Anita Hill Through Brett Kavanaugh
Topic: Media Research Center
Christine Blasey Ford's sexual misconduct accusations against Brett Kavanaugh allows the Media Research Center to revel yet again in how much it hates Anita Hill for raising questions about conservative icon Clarence Thomas. Read more >>

WND Demonized Refugee Agency That Synagogue Shooter Targeted
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Once again, we're seeing that right-wing rhetoric promoted by WorldNetDaily has found an echo in the perpetrator of a mass killing.

Robert Bowers' main target in the Pittsburgh synogogue shooting, in which he killed 11 people, was HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has an affiliate in Pittsburgh. Before the massacre, he tweeted that ""HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."

As it so happens, WND has spent the past few years trying to demonize the agency for bringing in refugees.

In 2014, immigrant-hating, Muslim-hating reporter Leo Hohmann complained that HIAS said it was "unacceptable and un-American" for what he called "unaccompanied alien children" to navigate the U.S. legal system without a court-appointed lawyer, and that it "provide[d] a form letter on its website for supporters to send to members of Congress" that was "continuously pushing for more money to pay for higher levels of resettlement work." Another 2014 article by Hohmann listed HIAS among agencies that "often do the bidding of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees" and "push for more foreign refugees to be resettled in America, which results in more federal grants flowing into their coffers."

A May 2015 article by Hohmann detailed how HIAS issued a "field manual" on overcoming resistance to refugees in some commiunities, which Hohmann later described as "a strategy to deride and intimidate any politician or activist who opposes the refuge industry’s agenda to change the demographics of a town." Hohmann claimed the report was underwritten by "a wealthy New York family foundation," and complained that HIAS "is one of nine government contractors who do the resettlement work in more than 190 cities and towns across the U.S. These contractors subcontract with more than 350 smaller agencies and church groups to get the refugees settled into subsidized housing, get their children enrolled in school and families signed up for Medicaid."

Hohmann wrote that "Hebrew Immigrant Aid cited fear of terrorism as one of the primary concerns that residents have with Muslim refugees settling in their communities" and that "the report blames the backlash not on any failure of the government to properly vet refugees but on “anti-Muslim views” held by native-born Americans," then argued the anti-Muslim fear was wholly justified: "Since the report was written in February 2013, scores more Somali refugees have been arrested for providing material support for overseas Islamic terror groups such as al-Shabab. Still others have left the country to fight for ISIS and al-Shabab."

Hohmann also claimed of the "playbook" that "Among the recommendations given by HIAS was to monitor and research the backgrounds of 'resisters' and turn them in to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left 'watchdog' that has in recent years taken to branding mainline Christian organizations such as the Family Research Council as 'hate groups.'"

In July 2015, Hohmann wrote of an incident in which anti-refugee activists were exposed as intolerant, then quoted anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant activist Ann Corcoran ranting, "This kind of trashing of the First Amendment rights of average American citizens who speak out or even question the refugee program is right out of the playbook of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society’s document."

In September 2015, Hohmann claimed that HIAS "started out as a rescue mission for persecuted Jews but now relocates mostly Muslims to the U.S."

In 2016, Hohmann groused that a flood of Honduran refugees weren't actually fleeing violence, citing HIAS as among "religious groups [who] have also done their part to push the “migrants as refugees” narrative" and "have answered the call of the Obama administration, offering shelter, legal aid, advocacy and lobbying, and other mostly government-funded aid to the migrants."

Hohmann wrote in 2017 that HIAS was among "well-heeled resettlement agencies" who "certainly will file lawsuits against any Trump plan that drastically reduces or eliminates the number of refugees flowing into U.S. cities." Hohmann also accused HIAS of "secretly placing refugees into U.S. cities," later asserting that the group is "57 percent funded by taxpayers." One of Hohmann's final articles for WND was a January 2018 piece listing HIAS among resettlement agencies that allegedly "serve as virtual headhunters for these global conglomerates in search of cheap labor for their hotels and factories.

Hohmann wasn't the only WND writer fearmongering about HIAS. An August 2015 column by anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller ranted that "The Democrats have made refugee resettlement a lucrative business for agencies like" HIAS, adding that it's "ironic how most of these agencies represent religions that are being persecuted and slaughtered by these very Muslim communities.

In its initial report on the Pittsburgh shooting, an anonymous WND writer noted Bowers' tweet attacking HIAS -- but it didn't note the years WND has spent demonizing the group.

Meanwhile, Hohmann -- who's now a freelancer -- hasn't written on his own site in nearly a month, so we don't know how he feels about Bowers' massacre and the role hatred for HIAS played in it.

MRC Takes A Gratuitous Shot At Soros In Its War Against Google
Topic: Media Research Center

A leaked Google report showing its struggles to balance free speech protections and fights against harmful and hateful speech got a lot of play in the usual right-wing circles when Breitbart published the report earlier this month. The Media Rsearch Center's Corrinne Weaver described the report as a justification on how "in order to prevent certain political events, tech companies would have to start censoring web content," and MRC chief Brent Bozell ranted that the report "confirms our worst fear. Contrary to Google's public statements and what they have said to us in private discussions, Google is in the censorship business and apparently the lying business as well. "

The MRC even got to engage in a bit of gratuitous Soros-bashing in relation to the report. An Oct. 12 MRC item by Weaver groused:

Google wants to cite only the best experts in their fields in order to justify its position. Who better than liberal billionaire George Soros?

In the Google presentation, “The Good Censor,” leaked to Breitbart, the search media company cited 27 so-called “experts” for different aspects of digital freedom and online censorship. Among those experts were George Soros, a ProPublica article, New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong, former New Republic editor Franklin Foer, and Slate writer April Glaser. (ProPublica is one of many news entities funded by Soros. His Open Society Foundation gave at least $737,411 to the non-profit journalism group.)

Google quoted Soros in the section about transparency regarding global positions, writing: “US-based IT monopolies are already tempted to compromise themselves in order to gain entrance to these vast and fast growing markets. The dictatorial leaders in these countries may be only too happy to collaborate with them since they want to improve their methods of control over their own populations and expand their power and influence in the United States and the rest of the world.”

Weaver found nothing wrong with Soros' statement -- she's just mad that Soros was quoted, period.

The MRC has been at war with Soros for years, even employing anti-Semitic imagery to promote it.

Masculinity-Obsessed WND Columnist Laments That Schwarzenegger Is Giving Up 'Girly Man' Insults
Topic: WorldNetDaily

One of the leaders in WorldNetDaily's embrace of the type of manliness supposedly embodied by Donald Trump is self-proclaimed "human paleopsychology" specialist Kent Bailey, who loves manliness and in general Trump's manliness in particular (despite not particularly looking like a he-man himself). Bailey mines this particular vein again in his Oct. 15 column, in which he laments that Arnold Schwarzenegger has expressed regret for his history of "girly man" insults, while also imparting his particular view of womanhood in the process:

Arnold’s surrender here is much more than a humorous blip in the war between the sexes; it is a warning signal of the degree to which the feminization of the country has progressed in the last decade. If Schwarzenegger can go down so completely in so short a time, then what about the country as a whole? Will masculinity soon be a thing of the past?

[...]

A girly man is uncertain about and possibly repulsed by his masculinity and its rigorous standards and implicit responsibilities. He does not like conflict, demands to be tough and moral interdictions that interfere with his self-indulgent lifestyle. He is a follower and not a leader, and is a poor candidate for soldier, father, high political office, or patriot of the year. He is the essence of “snowflake,” almost surely a Democrat and, for the most part, harmless.

Ideally, with the aid of church, community and proper education, your surly, party- and peer-obsessed girly girl will begin the perilous trek toward womanhood. Once, fully a woman, she achieves her greatest fulfillment in a loving marriage of adoring and adorable children and a loving, protective and adoring husband. If she is the smart one in the family, the primary wage earner, or a person of great accomplishment, that is the icing but not the cake. Now is the age of the frustrated and perpetually angry woman, which is due – I theorize – not to sexism, patriarchic oppression, or the proverbial glass ceiling but a failed transition from girldom to womanhood.51

Ideally, the female of the species makes the transition first from girl-to-woman, and then to the ultimate stage of lady. In the column Genteel ladies vs. Stone Age venuses,” I argued that the developmental stage of “lady” is achieved by few but desired by many. A lady is a person of distinction who goes beyond simple personal happiness and is a cultural pearl of great price. She is a person of poise, civility, generosity and has a refined sense of social presence. I mentioned the duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, as exemplary, and, certainly, Melania Trump is a stellar example of the refined lady. My latest heroic lady is Nikki Haley who has done a fabulous job as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. – and she can knock heads with the best of them!

Traditionists, conservatives, Christians and Republicans seem to have many ladies among them, but the wild and wooly lefties of the Democratic Party are currently mired in raucous, raging and politically inarticulate girly girls who range from 10 to 90 in chronological age. The perky and socially attractive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents the left’s kinder version of emotion-dominated and simplistic socialism, whereas the raging, screaming and attacking viragos that dominate Democratic “protests” and in-your-face bullying and anarchy define the dark side. It is shameful that the Democrats seduce these young and often maladjusted girly girls to do their dirty work and thereby jeopardize their hopes of womanhood and even ladyhood. Who would want to date, hire, or marry one of these raging, man-hating creatures?

So Arnold, I am really disappointed in you, and your image with real men is shattered forever. Your sudden and full surrender to the girly girl wing of the left reveals that you are one of them! Like a French girl buying lipstick as the Nazis marched into Paris, you are now a collaborateur in the regressive culture wars roiling the nation.

Funny how Bailey's ideal of masculinity and feminity appears to be wholly dependent upon the political philosophy of the person. It's as if there's an element of quackery to his ""human paleopsychology."

CNS Portrays Trump Tax Cuts As Budget-Buster As Partisan Debate Rather Than Actual Fact
Topic: CNSNews.com

Last week, we detailed how CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey fretted about the rising federal budget deficit and debt while failing to mention the fact that a Republican-promoted, Trump-signed tax cut played a big role in increasing the deficit this year.

This was followed by an Oct. 17 article by Susan Jones that was only slightly less dishonest in approaching the subject. Jones uncritically let Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spread the blame for the deficits, even though it's his party that's currently in control of the White House and Congress:

The total national debt increased by more than a trillion dollars in Fiscal 2018, reaching $21.5 trillion at the end of September; and the FY '18 budget deficit was almost $779 billion.

Although the situation is "very disturbing," it cannot be blamed on Republicans alone, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Bloomberg News on Tuesday:

It's driven by the three big entitlement programs that are very popular – Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. That's 70 percent of what we spend every year. The subject we were just discussing, the funding of the government, is about 30 percent of what we spend.

There's been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs. Hopefully, at some point here, we'll get serious about this. We haven't been yet.

McConnell said the opportunity for entitlement reform existed during the Obama years, when for six of those years, Republicans controlled either one or both chambers of Congress.

"I talked to President Obama about it a number of times," McConnell said. "It would have been the perfect time to do it. Think of Reagan and Tip O'Neill coming together in the early 80s to raise the age for Social Security. It took it out of the political arena and made it possible for it to be successful... unfortunately, it was not achieved."

Democrats blame the Republican tax cuts for ballooning the FY 2018 deficit, and they consistently resist any attempt to trim entitlements.

In fact, there are three main drivers of the current deficit: The Trump tax cut, military spending and entitlement spending.

Also, note how Jones framed the idea that the Trump tax cuts blew a hole in the deficit as a partisan debate by complain that it's what Democrats say rather than an undisputed fact. Well played, Susan.

WND's Farah Calls Migrant Caravan 'Storm Troopers'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Over the past few months, WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah's column has consisted almost entirely of either begging for money from readers to keep WND alive (and ranting about the internet "cartel" purportedly conspiring to put him out of business) or promoting his new book about the Bible. He hasn't even written about Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination despite originally opposing it because Kavanaugh was a part of Kenneth Starr's investigation that he deemed insufficiently vengeful against the Clintons.

Farah dipped a toe back into column-length political screeds in his Oct. 25 piece complaining that Democrats are bullying President Trump and playing the "fascism card." And as usual, he's spreading lies. Like this claim:

Already we’ve had real, potentially lethal violent attacks from actual Democratic campaign operatives – one designed to wipe out a group of Republicans believing they could still hold baseball games with their “colleagues.” One, Steve Scalise, the majority whip, was nearly lost. Another senator, Rand Paul, is still dealing with a vicious physical attack.

The man who shot Scalise, James Hodgkinson, was not an "actual Democratic campaign operative" -- actual Democrats where he lived had never heard of him -- nor was Rene Boucher, the man who attacked Paul over a yard-waste dispute, not politics.

Farah concluded his column with this rant:

Americans are being bullied into keeping their mouths shut. Most of us don’t like unpleasantness like this. They avoid cities for lots of reasons – they’re controlled by Dems, which means they are not controlled. We’re all losing our liberty.

Now the Honduran storm troopers are here. What else can we call them?

Meanwhile, we have Dems ready to drop ICE if they are able to take power.

This is insanity.

We’re losing our country.

Wait, what? The migrant caravan arching through Central America attempting to reach the United States to seek asylum are "storm troopers"? Where did that come from?

Farah's intemperate rant looks even worse when you consider that two days later, a man killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in no small part because he was angry that Jews were allegedly aiding immigrant refugees in the caravan, whom he called "invaders."

Maybe Farah should just stick to begging for money and plugging his book.

MRC Writer Criticizes NY Times Obit Of Conservative, Doesn't Disclose Man Gave Money to MRC
Topic: NewsBusters

Clay Waters complains in an Oct. 15 NewsBusters post:

Monday’s New York Times obituary by Robert McFadden for American beer pioneer William Coors (of the brewing company that carries his name) violated the usual tasteful norms for an obit, starting with the headline and the text box: “William Coors, Ultraconservative Leader Of Brewery Based in Colorado, Dies at 102.” The text box: “A chairman’s speeches were often labeled racist, sexist and homophobic.”

Waters also complained that "McFadden stubbornly kept the focus on liberal outrage, not the Ivy League chemical engineer who had an inventive and successful career building the company." Curiously, Waters did not dispute the accuracy of those claims -- perhaps because the obit lays out in detail the evidence to support them.

Waters failed on another count: He didn't disclose that the Media Research Center, which publishes the blog on which his post appeared, has reportedly received funding from the Castle Rock Foundation, which was backed by Coors money.

Seems like an important conflict of interest to report, yet Waters failed to do so.

MRC Latino Keeps Insisting That Anti-Gay Conversion Therapy Works
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center has long defended the discredited, potentially harmful practice of gay conversion therapy -- and lately, it's been the MRC's Latino division pushing it. Let's go back and review an item we overlooked at the time.

An Aug. 14 MRC Latino piece by Morela Scull complained that viewers of a CNN en Espanol segment on conversion therapy "were subjected to only one point of view on the issue" of England banning the practice, asserting that a ban on conversion therapy "limits the freedom of speech and worse yet, the option of offering its citizens a therapy that many believe – and confirm – works." Scull wrote:

According to an expert on the issue of homosexuality, Quentin L. Van Meter, MD, the ban is in fact an assault on freedom of speech and regrettable for homosexuals who can benefit from the therapy, particularly those who voluntarily want to undergo conversion therapy, because their condition will be ignored, and their ailments shifted aside, attributed to “social stigmatization”.

Van Meter is so anti-gay that he canceled his membership in the respected American Academy of Pediatrics because it advocated against stigmatization of LGBT youth. He has since become involved with the decidedly less respected American College of Pediatricians -- a right-wing group of anti-gay physicians -- where he signed a position statement attacking transgenderism as "gender ideology" and "an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body and it should be treated as such."

Nevertheless, Scull goes on to write:

Van Meter contends that the issue has escaped the realm of science and has become a political affair orchestrated by powerful lobby groups to silence doctors and scientists who sustain that voluntary conversion therapy can help address deeper underlying issues (often related to adverse childhood events) such as depression and anxiety that many homosexuals face and which can be worked through by using therapy. Dr. Van Meter pointed out critical studies regarding homosexuality such as those carried out by Dr Lawrence S. Meyer and Dr. Paul R Mc Hugh or Dr. Kenneth J. Zucker, PhD.

We've previously highlighted how McHugh is an anti-gay researcher whose work has been discredited. Scull linked to a paper co-authored by McHugh and Mayer in a Christian-oriented journal, which critics note is highly biased toward confirming their anti-gay beliefs; for instance, they reference only one of six studies in the peer-reviewed literature of the past 16 years that employ proper probability-sampling methods, which happens to be the one with the lowest estimate of genetic influence on sexual orientation. The link Scull supplied for Zucker is about treatment for children with gender identity issues, not homosexualilty; Zucker deviates from the greater psychiatric community in advocating conversion therapy in failing to differentiate between gender identity and sexual orientation.

Scull also complained that the CNN en Espanol commentator "also used the tired scare tactic of claiming that the methodology for receiving conversion therapy includes raping girls so that through sexual intercourse they can be 'corrected', a sensationalist remark that Dr. Van Meter explains may have existed a century ago; today it is based on psychotherapy." In fact, corrective rape occurs throughout the world even today, and she provides no evidence of a scientifically valid, replicable psychotheraputic approach to conversion therapy that does no harm to the client.

Scull concluded by whining that banning conversion therapy is "a ban that, in essence, threatens freedom of speech, a right that all media owe their existence to." That same freedom of speech also exposes how unnecessary, ineffective and potentially harmful such therapy actually is.

WND -- Which Pushed Hillary Impeachment Before She Could Be Elected -- Fears Kavanaugh Impeachment
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An Oct. 7 WorldNetDaily article complained that "Democrats and the Washington Post teamed up" to plot the impeachment of newly installed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, huffing that "The headline on the story in the Jeff Bezos’ paper said it all: 'With Kavanaugh confirmed, impeachment could follow. Here’s how.'" The article added that "Of course, impeachment proceedings would be contingent on Democrats regaining control of the House, where impeachment charges must begin."

Two days later, another WND article tried to shoot down the idea:

Democrats who vowed to impeach Brett Kavanaugh even before he was sworn in as associate justice of the Supreme Court will have to contend with the Constitution, points out Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

Kavanaugh could not be impeached on the grounds of the accusation by Christine Blasey Ford of sexual assault 36 years ago, because it pertains to alleged actions as a private citizen, Dershowitz explained in an interview with Fox News.

Further, he said, the Constitution would not “permit using the laws of perjury, which are very tough.”

Dershowitz also believes Democrats would pay a high political price.

WND has previously expressed similar concerns about impeachment talk against President Trump. But as we've noted, WND was promoting the idea of impeaching Hillary Clinton in May 2015, a year and a half before the 2016 election, and just a couple days before the November 2016 election, WND was touting how "If Hillary Clinton wins the election Tuesday, a prominent Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee says there will be an immediate move to impeach her before she can even be sworn into office Jan. 20."

So, yeah, WND is once again being just a tad hypocritical on impeachment talk.

MRC T-Shirt Proves Misinterpreting Its Trump Coverage 'Study' Is The Goal
Topic: Media Research Center

We've repeatedly highlighted how the Media Research Center's tally of the "liberal media's" purportedly "negative" coverage of President Trump is utterly bogus:

• It focuses only on a tiny sliver of news -- the evening newscasts on the three networks -- and completely ignores the cable news networks including Fox News.
• It pretends there was never any neutral coverage of Trump; in fact, neutral coverage is explicitly rejected even though that's arguable the bulk of news coverage, dishonestly counting "only explicitly evaluative statements."
• It fails to take into account the stories themselves and whether negative coverage is deserved or admit that negative coverage is the most accurate way to cover a given story.
• It never fails to provide the raw data or the actual statements it evaluated so its work could be evaluated by others.

Needless to say, the MRC's latest tally of "negative" coverage is pretty much the same. Rich Noyes writes in an Oct. 9 post:

In four weeks, Americans go to the polls for the midterm elections that the news media are casting as a referendum on the Trump presidency. Over the summer, the broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a President in TV news history — 92 percent negative, vs. just eight percent positive.

And the MRC was tickled to death that Trump retweeted the MRC's results, to the point that MRC "news" division CNSNews.com devoted an article to it.

Also needless to say, Noyes once again can't be bothered to make the full data public, and he clings to his absurdly narrow definition of "coverage" that is almost certainly constructed to make such results preordained and designed to be misinterpreted and extrapolated as an indictment of the entire "liberal media."

That last point is not a bug, it's a feature -- and the MRC is effectively admitting it. In an Oct. 18 email, the MRC's political activity arm, MRC Action, touted how "MRC Grassroots Army" members can by a T-shirt to "make a festive statement during elections week" falsely extrapolating the coverage study results. It states: "Liberal Media Coverage of Trump in 2018: 91% Negative."

If the MRC didn't intend for its studies to be misinterpreted, it wouldn't be selling T-shirts that misinterpret them.

Five Years Later, Kathleen Willey Still Wants You To Buy Her A House
Topic: WorldNetDaily

For years, Kathleen Willey has been trying to cash in on her brief infamy on the fringes of the Clinton years, claiming that Bill Clinton sexually assulted her in the White House. In 2007, WorldNetDaily published her factually flawed memoirs, and WND has dutifully reported all the times Willey has begged Clinton-haters to give her money to pay off her house.

In 2013, Willey claimed she was "fighting through a maze of refinancing pitfalls and money shortfalls to stabilize her life" and peddled the discredited story of "the mysterious jogger sent to threaten her, and his Clinton connection." That crowdfunding campaign raised a mere $4,495 of an $80,000 goal.

Willey gave it another shot in 2016, when WND let Willey use its mailing list to an accountant who claimed that "It’s shameful that Bill and Hillary are worth over $250 million while Kathleen has fallen behind in her mortgage." The goal this time was to raise "$100,000 to bring her mortgage current to at least stop the foreclosure of her home and hope to raise $386,000 to pay it off entirely," ominously adding: "Time is very short. Kathleen will be evicted from the home she loves in nineteen days." The campaign has since been deleted, but last time we checked, $6,344 had been raised.

Willey is still at it, and WND is still acting as her promoter. An Oct. 8 article played up Willey's de rigeur hatred of the Clintons before launching into the hard sell, this time with an assist from another professional Clinton victim, Juanita Broaddrick:

Just a few days ago, supporters started a GoFundMe page for Broaddrick, who promptly asked them to shut it down.

But when she found out Willey needed help, she jumped right in.

“My friend, Kathleen Willey, is about to lose her home. While the Clintons make millions through criminal activities and crooks like Strzok, McCabe, etc. raise hundreds of thousands through gofundme – she is struggling. Please read & contribute if you can,” she wrote.

Willey wrote on Facebook: “Dear FB friends. I believe in the power of prayer and I am in great need of them. My mortgage company has told me that they will be arriving at my home on November 5. With the help of the sheriff, they will remove everything in this house and put it all in my driveway. 21 years of my life. They will put my beloved animals in a shelter. What will my 1 little, blind Liam do without me. What will I do without them? I have nowhere to go. Nowhere. Please, please pray for me. I don’t know what will become of me. I need all of you. I can’t imagine living in a shelter, which can be very dangerous. Thank you for your prayers.”

On GoFundMe, a campaign in her name had raised nearly $20,000 of a $50,000 goal on Monday.

Things have changed a bit since then: At this writing, the campaign's current total is at $36,850, but the goal suddenly jumped to $250,000.

Of course, the article didn't mention the two previous crowdfunding campaigns or what happened to the money that was raised, or how she made it past the 19-day eviction deadline in 2016.

Such is the life of someone still trying to cash in on her 15 minutes of infamy.

CNS Editor Compains About Growing Budget Deficit, Censors Trump Tax Cuts That Caused It
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey makes some not-so-surprising omissions in a couple of recent articles on the federal budget.

An Oct. 1 article complained that "The federal debt increased by $1,271,158,167,126.72 in fiscal 2018." He went on to complain:

The $1,271,158,167,126.72 in debt accumulated in fiscal 2018 made fiscal 2018 the eighth fiscal year in the last eleven in which the debt increased by at least one trillion dollars.

The $1,271,158,167,126.72 increase in the federal debt was also the sixth largest fiscal-year debt increase in the history of the United States.

On Oct. 15, Jeffrey served up even more dire claims about federal spending:

The federal government collected a record $1,683,537,000,000 in individual income taxes in fiscal 2018 (October 2017 through September 2018), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

However, the federal government also ran a deficit of $778,996,000,000 during the fiscal year, according to the statement.

[...]

Despite the record amount collected in individual income taxes in fiscal 2018, overall real federal tax revenues in fiscal 2018 were lower than in any of the previous three years. In fiscal 2018, total tax collections equaled $3,328,745,000,000, according to the Treasury statement. That was less than the $3,446,613,230,000 (in constant September 2018 dollars) that the Treasury collected in fiscal 2015; less than the $3,415,674,450,000 (in constant September 2018 dollars) collected in fiscal 2016; and less than the $3,390,373,210,000 (in constant September 2018 dollars) collected in fiscal 2017.

While the federal government was collecting more income taxes from individuals in fiscal 2018, it was collecting less from corporations. Total corporation income tax collections in fiscal 2018 were $204,733,000,000. In fiscal 2017, they were $303,811,700,000 (in constant September 2018 dollars). In fiscal 2016, they were $313,233,700,000 (in constant September 2018 dollars); and in fiscal 2015, they were $364,738,790,000 (in constant September 2018 dollars).

However, two words are missing from each of those articles: Trump and Republicans. The Republican-controlled Congress passed, and President Trump signed, a tax cut bill earlier this yea, which cut government revenue, presumably cut the amount in taxes the government collected from corporations that Jeffrey laments and, yes, blew up the deficit.

By contrast, just like with unemployment numbers, Jeffrey had no problem calling out by name when writing about federal deficits during his administration. For instance:

• Obama Has Presided Over 5 of 6 Largest Deficits in U.S. History
• Obama Has Collected $19,966,110,000,000 in Taxes; Incurred $8,795,689,333,049 in Debt
• Debt Under Obama Up $9,000,000,000,000
• Obama Leaves U.S.A $9,335,000,000,000 Deeper in Debt

Jeffrey would never write a headline like "Trump Leaves U.S.A. $1,271,158,167,126.72 In Debt" -- he's too much of a Trump sycophant to tell the truth.

NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Playbook On Kavanaugh
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center knew what it had to do as a Trump loyalist: Defend Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination and denigrate the women who accused him of sexual misconduct (and bury the fact that a key witness used to work for the MRC). Read more >>

Obama-Deranged Mychal Massie Blames Obama for Craziness
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily columnist Mychal Massie has been suffering from Obama Derangment Syndrome for years now. It's so bad that less than a year ago he had to make up the fact that Larry Sinclair was dead to resuscitate Sinclair's fraud that he had gay sex with Obama. (Sinclair is very much alive, and also a convicted criminal.)

So it's with no small sense of irony that the Obama-crazed Massie dedicates his Oct. 8 WND column to blaming Obama for the current era of political craziness. He starts off by insisting that Bill Ayers is "Obama's BFF" and ranting about 1960s radicalism. And the craziness begins:

Obama sycophants deny he is a creation of the aforementioned period. I argue this is the reason for his attempted deconstruction of America. It is also “the” reason he refused to make the single greatest unifying difference in American history. Obama used his skin color as currency or a bludgeon depending upon the situation. He could have in one speech ended the skin-color divide in America. Instead he spent eight years in the White House prostituting every opportunity to advance the idea that America is a racist nation. He used his skin color as a political weapon to silence and intimidate his enemies.

He could have single-handedly put an end to militant anarchy witnessed during Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation process. Instead he elected to exacerbate what was already a seething caldron of loutish neo-Leninist Mohocks who are committed to the overthrow of our constitutional government.

As president he manufactured a Cloward-Piven dystopia that was spread like an airborne disease in the classrooms of his neo-Leninist ideological fraternity kinsman who masquerade as college/university professors nationwide. This explains why Obama spent so much of his time giving speeches on college campuses and fundraising in Hollywood.

The students are gullible and already brainwashed by the teachers inculcating them with hatred and anarchism. Hollywood’s contribution has been to give Obama massive amounts of money while simultaneously producing movies and programs that are laced with depictions of overthrowing government.

Thus, in eight years of Obama as president and the two years since he has left office, we’ve seen rage, protest and anarchy on a scale not witnessed since the early 1970s.

When we examine the Christine Blasey Fords, the Julie Swetnicks, those like Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr, and former New York Times reporter Ali Watkins and her lover James A. Wolfe, who corrupted the constitutional process as a Senate Intelligence Committee aide, et al. – it’s easy to understand why Obama is responsible for the “deep state” and why the anarchistic zealots referred to as the mainstream “fake news” media all think alike and accuse alike.

Ergo, the answer to “where do crazies like Christine Ford and Ali Watkins come from” is: They are the progeny and/or creation of the culture Obama represents.

It's doubly ironic for Massie to rant about Obama having allegedly "used his skin color as a political weapon" when Massie himself has for years used his black-conservative privilege to get away with sounding like a white supremacist.

CNS Cheers Indian-Named Teams Losing on Columbus Day
Topic: CNSNews.com

Michael Morris' Oct. 9 CNSNews.com blog post is a needlessly spiteful one, given that it effectively cheers the fact that three Indian-named sports teams lost on Columbus Day:

Three professional sports teams with Native American names, the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Redskins, all lost on Columbus Day 2018, yesterday.

Two of the professional teams receiving losses on Columbus Day were Major League Baseball teams: the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves. Both have been eliminated from the playoffs.

The Cleveland Indians faced off against the Houston Astros in Game three of the ALDS. Prior to the game, Houston led the series 2-0. Houston would go on to take the series, roundly defeating the Indians 11-3.

The Atlanta Braves were defeated in game 4 of the NLDS by the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 6-2. The Dodgers won the series 3-1 over the Braves.

The lone professional football team receiving a loss on Columbus Day was the National Football League’s Washington Redskins.

The Washington Redskins were likewise defeated on Columbus Day. By a score of 43-19 the New Orleans Saints handed the Redskins another loss. The Saints improved to 4-1 on the season, while the Redskins fell to .500 at 2-2 on the season.

Last year, CNS published a column by Bill Donohue mocking the idea of redefining Columbus Day as Indigenous People's Day because "No one really knows who, or what, an 'indigenous' person is" and because "the furor over Columbus ... is as contrived as it is baseless." It published another column, by Grazie Christie, claiming that criticism of Columbus represented "assaults on societal unity," and a third column, by Patrick Korten, declared that "Leftist attacks on the explorer are based on bigotry and lies."

Meanwhile, Morris' co-workers down the hall at the Media Research Center have raged against the idea that the Redskins should change their name because it's a slur against Native Americans.