WND's Kupelian Doesn't Flesh Out Election Fraud Conspiracies, Still Obsesses Over Trump-Hitler Comparisons
Topic: WorldNetDaily

David Kupelian's introductory essay from the issue of WND's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine pushing bogus election fraud claims is headlined "How the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump." Because it wasn't, Kupelian can't possibly prove otherwise. First of all, he's obviously so filled with hate and bile for Biden that he can't possibly bne objective. He writes:

The numbing spectacle of America being humiliated and mocked by the rest of the world and ordered around by Afghan terrorists, and of the greatest nation on earth being led by a babbling, obviously senile, unprincipled, corrupt, mindless shell of a man – with a vice president arguably even worse – should compel every American to carefully consider how on earth we got here, and whether the presidential selection process so employed was truly legitimate.

[...]

A shuffling, peevish and often confused Joe Biden attracted no more than 100 to 200 people to his pre-election rallies where he stumbled through short scripted speeches. His vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, selected entirely for being a woman of color (Biden had committed publicly to choosing a woman VP and said he’d prefer one of color), turned out to be so jarringly repellant, even to Democrats, that she dropped out of the presidential race during the primaries, winning zero electoral votes.

Yet Biden and Harris won the 2020 election – supposedly.

Kupelian then ranted:

Most allegations that last November’s election was stolen from Donald Trump center on election fraud and abuse. Indeed, the number of documented “irregularities” is overwhelming: five crucial swing states bizarrely announcing on election eve they were going to stop counting votes for the night when Trump was ahead, only to report the next morning that Joe Biden was in the lead; the clearly unconstitutional last-minute changes in voting regulations in various states, all obviously intended to invite fraud and abuse; Philadelphia election workers refusing to allow Republican observers to witness the vote count and Detroit election personnel likewise plastering cardboard over windows in a vote-counting room to avoid being observed as required by law; the refusal of some states to check voters’ signatures on ballots; the hundreds of affidavits, sworn under penalty of perjury and imprisonment, all testifying to having witnessed overt election fraud; and so on ad infinitum.

We addressed most of these bogus claims here. But Kupelian simply tossed out allegations that he makes no effort to defend (perhaps because he knows they're bogus and discredited). Instead, most of this essay is devoted to re-litigating Trump's presidency, painting him as a wonderful man and his critics as nothing less than evil. He concluded:

From the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, to the two fake impeachments, to false claims Trump praised “very fine” Nazis in Charlottesville, to claims he instituted a “Muslim travel ban,” to claims he “locks children in cages” and “makes women and children drink from toilets,” to the continual comparisons with Hitler, the media and tech monopolies, along with Democrats and the “deep state,” had been interfering with Trump’s re-election bid for more than four years.

One more thing: If a nation’s leader truly is another Hitler, as top Democrats and media personalities insisted continually, not only should that leader obviously be defeated, but there is an absolute moral imperative to cheat in order to defeat him.

Except they never really believed Trump was another Hitler. They were just lying – because they love power more than truth, more than honor, more than what’s right. More than anything.

We would once again remind Kupelian that he and the rest of WND spent years likening President Obama to Hitler and other Nazis. By his own reasoning, if Kupelian believed that Obama was another Hitler, that meant not only that he believed Obama should be defeated but also that there is an absolute moral imperative to lile in order to defeat him. That explains WND's obsession with Obama's birth certificate. Portraying it as fraudulent was a lie and Kupelian likely knew it, but he and Joseph Farah also knew it could build a conspiracy theory around it that perpetuate itself throughout Obama's presidency and possibly beyond.

Kupelian's repeated harping on this particular talking point is not the brilliant argument he seems to think it is -- it's more of a self-own. He's accusing Trump's critics of doing what exactly he and WND did to Obama and are doing to Biden. Talk about an unrepentant hypocrite.

And, of course, Kupelian doesn't have the guts to venture outside of his far-right bubble to push his case -- again, because he likely knows he's lying and would get immediately shredded apart (as we've already done). That's why he's stuck doing things like appearing on the allegedly "popular" podcast of a former WND columnist to promote this bogus venture.

Kupelian's essay was capped off with a plea to buy the magazine, with Kupelian adding: "I urge you to get this issue. It is flying off the shelves, but we printed 10,000 extra copies to meet the demand." Kupelian offered no proof that such "demand" for the magazine exists -- heck, he won't even release Whistleblower's circulation numbers.

MRC Rushes To Defend DeSantis Over COVID -- Again, Part 3
Topic: Media Research Center

Almost as if it was the remote office of Ron DeSantis' press operation, the Media Research Center has been aggressively defending the Florida governor and complaining he gets criticized for his largely hands-off approach to the COVID pandemic, which many blame for the surge in cases in the state. Charlotte Hazard groused that DeSantis got called out again for the path the state is going on Aug. 13:

On Thursday’s Late Show, leftist host Stephen Colbert once again took it upon himself to take shots at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). The so-called comedian gleefully touted President Biden forgetting the Republican's name when a reporter asked Biden to respond to DeSantis saying “I am in the way to block too much interference from the federal government."

This resulted in Colbert making a joke that DeSantis didn’t care if his voters died: “Mr. President, show some respect. He should be addressed by his full title: Governor who...doesn't care if his voters live or die.” The liberal audience then broke into applause.

When Colbert played a clip of DeSantis saying he didn't "want to hear a blip about COVID" from President Biden, Hazard protested it was taken out of context:

Placed in the full context, DeSantis was calling out Biden for being a hypocrite when it comes to COVID, particularly when it came to outbreaks among illegal immigrants entering the U.S.. "Why don’t you do your job?" the Florida Republican said during a press conference on August 4. "Why don't you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you, thank you."

"This is a guy who ran for office saying he’s going to shut down the virus," DeSantis added. "And what has he done? He’s imported more virus from around the world by having a wide open southern border."

Why is DeSantis wasting his time taking shots at Biden over the "souther border" when he has more pressing concerns regarding COVID deaths in his own state? Hazard didn't answer that question.

After that, the defenses got more sporadic -- perhaps indicating even the MRC got tired of defending the guy.

On Auig. 26, Tim Graham huffed that "MSNBC's Joy Reid smeared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as 'Dr. Death,' who is 'pro-COVID' and 'rolling out the red carpet for this ravenous virus.'" Kathleen Krumhansl grumbled on Aug. 27 that Spanish-language media was trying "to criminalize red-state governors that support parental choice instead of blanket mask mandates in schools, i.e. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott."

Clay Waters ranted on Aug. 31 that New York Times columnist Charles Blow was "SICK" for criticizing DeSantis:

Besides being hateful, Blow’s column is incredibly thin on facts to support his case for DeSantis the killer. He can’t fault DeSantis on vaccinations, because Florida is at the national average on that score, and better than most states in the South. Instead, his sole attack line is mask mandates in schools, which could not have affected the number of Covid cases yet anyway.

[...]

Take out the nasty innuendo about DeSantis sacrificing his citizens for political gain, and Blow’s sole factual complaint remains the fact that DeSantis banned Florida school districts from establishing mask mandates for students.

Children in schools are not major Covid spreaders, and there are severe instructional disadvantages to children being masked up all day.

Scott Whitlock played whataboutism in a Sept. 6 roundup item:

For an entire month, the ghouls in the media repeatedly labeled the GOP a “death cult” led by Republican governors like Ron “DeathSantis” of Florida and “Dr. Evil” Greg Abbot of Texas.

MSNBCers Joy Reid and Joe Scarborough viciously attacked the leaders of those states who tried to balance the physical and fiscal health of their citizens. Reid cursed DeSantis for “rolling out the red carpet” for the virus and claimed GOP governors were “in favor of death.” Scarborough, along with his co-host Mika Brezinski, condemned the religious faithful and Republican voters as a “death cult.” 

[...]

But when it came to disgraced former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, CBS correspondent Ed O’Keefe proclaimed “he did a masterful job of keeping the state safe” during the pandemic. 

When CNN highlighted how President Biden called out DeSantis and Abbott for trying to penalize schools for mandating masks against their dictatorial orders, Alex Christy sounded like a bit like an anti-vaxxer as he rushed to the governors' defense in a Sept. 10 post:

When we talk about mask mandates and freedom, it is not at all clear that science mandates kids wear masks nor is it clear that the CDC relied on science when it said otherwise.

[...]

Just because the vaccines are safe and effective does not give the government the power to mandate them, but that didn't stop [hostd John] King from offering up a poor analogy to suggest that it does.

Curtis Houck freaked out on Sept. 15 that Reid criticized DeSantis and other Republicans again, effectively demanding she be censored for doing so: "With a rant like that, NewsBusters readers, take particular note of how Comcast has given its approval to this dangerous and inciting rhetoric as well as the advertisers listed at the bottom of this blog."

Weird how the MRC loves to cry "censorship" whenever a right-winger gets inconvenienced on social media for spreading lies and misinformation, yet it demands a critic who doesn't toe the right-wing ideological line be muzzled -- which is the only reason Houck wants readers to contact advertisers.

Surprise: Newsmax Reports That Radio Hosts Who Died Of COVID Advocated Against Vaccine
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax's reporting on right-wing radio hosts who died of COVID mostly got one thing right: they reported that the hosts were major skeptics of COVID vaccines. Let's look at it did, shall we?

A July 23 article by Charlie McCarthy noting that radio host Phil Valentine was "fighting for his life" against COVID in the hospital quoted a family statement saying, "Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an 'anti-vaxer' he regrets not being more vehemently 'Pro-Vaccine.' ... Please continue to pray for his recovery and PLEASE GO GET VACCINATED!" The next day, an article by Charles Kim noted that Valentine was unvaccinated and that he had "said people that were not at a high risk were “safer” not getting vaccinated for COVID-19." An Aug. 17 article by Brian Freeman, though, tried to play that aspect down a bit, stating that "Although Valentine had publicly voiced concerns over the safety of the vaccines and was opposed to mask mandates, his family said he was never an 'anti-vaxxer.' However, he does regret not being more 'pro-vaccine,' and his family is urging his fans to get vaccinated." And an Aug. 21 article by Solange Reyner on Valentine's death did note that "Valentine previously expressed disagreement with mask mandates and the COVID-19 vaccine, writing in a blog post last December that he wasn't an anti-vaxxer but following logic in not getting vaccinated," and it also stated that Valentine's brother ">said his brother was regretful that he wasn't a more vocal advocate for getting vaccinated."

An Aug. 9 article by Eric Mack reported the death of Florida radio host Dick Farrel. But it was not until after Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said good things about him -- he had served as a fill-in host on Newsmax TV -- that it was mentioned that he was an anti-vaxxer, though Mack framed it by stating "Farrel's skepticism of the COVID-19 vaccines abated when he contracted the virus in his final days."

An  Aug. 30 article by Sandy Fitzgerald on the death of another Florida radio host, Marc Bernier, acknowledged that "in recent months that Bernier had become an outspoken opponent of vaccinations," though it wasn't mention that Bernier had called himself "Mr.  Anti-Vax."

Freeman was up front in a Sept. 14 article on the death of Colorado radio host Bob Enyart, stating in the lead paragraph that he had "urged his listeners to boycott  coronavirus vaccines" and that "Enyart is the fifth anti-vaccine radio personality to die from COVID-19 in recent weeks."

Newsmax even published a Sept. 9 article by Peter Malbin on how Howard Stern "ranted against conservative radio talk show hosts who died from COVID-19 after promoting anti-vaccination views to their listeners," specifically taking Bernier to task for having "likened the vaccination drive to fascism in Nazi Germany."Malbin tried to give the hosts a pass, however, stating that "All four radio talk-show hosts who died this past summer were older than 60 and therefore more vulnerable to COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And all lived and worked in two states, Florida and Tennessee, that have been particularly hard hit by the delta variant."

Newsmax didn't screw up this story, though it very well could have. Credit where credit's due.

WND Lets Ex-Reporter Push Claim That Pandemic Is Just A Big Propaganda Psyop
Topic: WorldNetDaily

In July, WorldNetDaily allowed former reporter Leo Hohmann -- best known around these parts for bhating Muslims and for forcing WND to stealth-edit articles he wrote to remove claims in which he falsely accused yogurt maker Chobani of importing Muslim immigrants to work at a manufacturing plant in Idaho -- to return for the purpose of spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines. WND gave him another shot at misleading its readers in an Aug. 11 article, and he went full conspiracy theory.

Any student of military history will tell you: Wars don’t just happen.

They are always foreshadowed by a propaganda operation intended to soften up the target, wear people down, weaken their resolve to fight.

Like any halfway decent misleader, Hohmann began by pumping up the credentials of the person he was invoking to help him mislead:

The most successful operations come down to this simple strategy: Identify your enemy, segregate, isolate, then annihilate.

Piers Robinson, co-director of the Organization for Propaganda Studies, is an internationally recognized expert on propaganda, but not just any propaganda.

His focus is on conflict and war and the role of propaganda within that framework. He is also an associate researcher with the Working Group on Propaganda and the 9/11 "War on Terror" and has served as an advisor to NATO leaders.

From 2016 to 2019, Professor Robinson chaired the department of politics, society and political journalism at the University of Sheffield.

That led to Robinson'swild claim that the entire  COVID-19 pandemic has been one big propganda psyop:

“COVID-19 is probably one of the biggest propaganda operations we’ve seen in history because of the global nature and the resources put into it,” Robinson said.  “It was pretty clear from the beginning that propaganda was being employed.”

In the U.S., one of the main spigots of propaganda has been Dr. Anthony Fauci and the media’s elevation of him to god-like status, hanging on his every word and never pressing him to provide data to back up his constantly swerving pronouncements. Every Western government has its version of Fauci, spouting ever-changing, confusing information meant to keep the population off balance, afraid and confused.

A fearful, dazed and weary public is less able to resist the dizzying array of draconian policies coming from governments, from facemask rules and incessant testing to quarantines of the healthy and mandatory mass vaccinations.

In his latest effort to prepare Americans for even greater medical tyranny, Fauci went on national TV Aug. 8 and said “a flood” of new COVID vaccine mandates are coming down the pike as soon as the shots get FDA approval, which he expects to happen as soon as next month.

[...]

Fauci has continually frightened the American public for 18 months, wearing everyone down with a steady diet of propaganda.

Which brings the subject back to Robinson, who has decades of studies under his belt in the art of propaganda in war time.

Robinson documents how the British government sought expert advice from behavioral psychologists on how to use the media to manipulate public opinion by ratcheting up the level of fear surrounding the COVID pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, this leads to Hohmann spreading more COVID misinformation:

Blaming the unvaccinated for continued flare ups of the pandemic is everywhere.

“This should ring alarm bells for anyone who has even the most basic grasp of history. You start to talk about segregation, you start to talk about people who are unclean, unhealthy, unvaccinated versus vaccinated,” Robinson said.

None of these policies is based on scientific data.

“All of the level-headed epidemiologists that I listen to are very clear that this idea that the unvaccinated spread the virus is not accurate scientifically, but that is the kind of message which is being communicated by people who have been pushing the agenda from the beginning,” Robinson said. “And that will create divisions, and we’ve been in this kind of place in history and it ends very badly when we start segregating people and we start using that language. But, quite terrifyingly, this is the language which is being used by the people who have been pushing draconian restrictions, vaccines, for the last two years.”

In fact, unvaccinated people not only spread the virus, they make it more likely for more virus mutations and variants to happen -- making the pandemic even harder to control -- and the unvaccinated are more likely to be affected more severely if they catch the virus. Robinson went on to whine: 

“Very credible, eminent scientists, are now being smeared in the media because of their anti-lockdown views or for questioning the Covid vaccines. The casual smearing is certainly a big part of what’s going on. This should be another warning sign to those who think everything is OK and there are no problems out there. People should ask themselves, why are very eminent scientists from the beginning [like Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone] being smeared and being censored and shut down and shut out from debates? That tells you something. That tells you this isn’t a rational response that’s going on. This is a propagandized response. And it’s being carried through by shutting people up, by humiliating them, smearing them and so on.”

In fact, both McCullough and Malone have been caught pushing lies and misinformation about COVID vaccines.

By the end of his article, Hohmann and Robinson were throwing in other conspiratorial tangents into their argument:

“All the alarm bells are ringing with anyone who has a knowledge of history, and a knowledge of propaganda, how governments don’t always operate in the best interests of their populations. All the alarm bells are ringing, and we are in extremely dangerous times, unfortunately, and very worrying for the future.”

So what is the end game?

“There are some great investigative journalists out there, who have reported on the World Economic Forum and the idea that the end game is a restructuring of society which involves more control over individuals and their lives by the state,” Robinson said.

“There are many theories out there. But one thing is clear; this all seems to be driving toward a real end to proper freedom. If you have a vaccination passport which you need to get into your supermarket, you’re not actually free anymore.”

Digital currencies are another thing that seems to be in the offing.

“This gives a tremendous shift in power to governments,” he said. “This is all pretty anti-democratic. If you think democracy and freedom are generally good things, and I’m one of them who does, this is all extremely concerning.

“We are at a pivotal moment…it could go either way. That’s why people must mobilize and realize something is wrong beyond COVID-19.”

As for the QR codes on the vaccine passports, “we should have all learned a lesson after 9/11, with the Patriot Act, surveillance, monitoring everything, and governments, if they can get away with it, will exploit all of this.”

Seeing the writing on the wall, some resisters are already talking about buying swaths of land and forming self-supporting communities that exist off the grid.

“Hopefully,” Robinson mused, “it isn’t coming to that.”

Hohmann didn't mention that Robinson has a record of failure. When the pandemic first started, Robinson falsely insisted that it was a "low fatality virus" no different than the flu. He has also been accused of serving as an apologist for unsavory leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

In other words, exactly the kind of shoddy source you'd expect Hohmann and WND to promote.

CNS Touts Rand Paul's Medical Credentials, Censor His Lack Of Medical Expertise On COVID
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com loves Republican Sen. Rand Paul, and it especially loves to hype his medical credentials whenever he speaks out on coronavirus-related issues or other medical-adjacent issues:

• Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a medical doctor who was infected with COVID, recovered, and is now vaccinated against the virus, advised people to stop listening to "government scolds" about the pandemic, and said once you are vaccinated, to "trash your mask and live free again." -- Michael W. Chapman, March 10
• During the hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a medical doctor, questioned [Rachel] Levine about his [sic] left-wing views on sex-change surgery for minors, an issue that would be protected from discrimination under the Equality Act. -- "A. Kim", March 16
• “Sorry Dr. Fauci and other fearmongers,” physician and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) says, touting newly-released findings of a study on the effectiveness of vaccines and naturally-acquired immunity against COVID-19 variants. -- Craig Bannister, March 22
  
• There are much worse viruses than COVID-19 – and the Chinese scientists Dr. Anthony Fauci says he trusts are working on them using U.S. taxpayer money, medical doctor Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) warns. -- Craig Bannister, June 7
• Paul, a medical doctor, said the risks of contracting COVID are "wildly different" for different people: -- Susan Jones, July 21
• “There’s no science behind” the government forcing people with natural immunity to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Thursday. -- Elizabeth Nieshalla, July 30
• As for new mask mandates, Sen. Paul, a medical doctor, said, “If you look objectively at mask mandates ... there’s no correlation between a mask mandate and a reduction in terms of the disease. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The more mandates we got, the more of the disease we got." -- Michael W. Chapman, Aug. 5
• Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a physician and sitting U.S. senator, is slamming YouTube for removing two videos from his YouTube page, then suspending his ability to upload videos for seven days. -- Susan Jones, Aug. 11

Just one problem: Paul has no training in viruses or epidemiology, He's an opthamologist -- an eye doctor. His experience as a doctor is not directly relevant to anything COVID-related. None of the above articles mention what Paul's medical specialtiy is -- or that it doesn't really bring anything to discussions of COVID or transgender surgery.

That's dishonest reporting -- but hiding the truth about Paul serves CNS' editorial agenda.

MRC's Sports Blogger Goes Anti-Vaxxer, Whines About Vaccine Mandates For Athletes
Topic: Media Research Center

When he (or she) isn't hating on LGBT people or spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud, Media Research Center sports blogger Jay Maxson is going anti-vaxxer, raging at sports teams and leagues for requiring their players to receive the COVID vaccine. Maxson ranted in a June 17 post:

The micro-managing, freedom-stifling NFL control freaks are going way out of bounds in newly announced vaccination requirements. The league on Wednesday released a list of 10 ways it can punish teams without a full roster of vaccinated players. 

SB Nation reports teams without 100 percent of their players vaccinated “will have a much, much more difficult season under new rules.” Along with: “Players can still choose not to get vaccinated, but they’re not free from consequences.” Both are huge under-statements.

The NFL’s new guidelines are so petty that they extend to family interactions and player use of team cafeterias, weight rooms and saunas. Fully vaccinated teams don’t have any restrictions in these regards.

[...]

It’s fair game to say some of these draconian rules challenge individual and civil rights.

Maxson followed that up on June 21 by complaining that anti-vaxxer athletes were getting called out:

Sports media outlets over the weekend unleashed their fury on former and current pro athletes who spoke out against COVID-19 vaccinations. NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton and current Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley are expressing concerns about vaccines.

NBC Sports Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio went ballistic on Beasley, saying he “unfairly assailed the NFL Players Association for agreeing to rules that give vaccinated players far more freedom in 2021 than players who refuse to get vaccinated.”

[...]

Deadspin writer Bryan Fonseca piled on Stockton, too: “The ex-Gonzaga Bulldog even went on to add that he conducted his own research, which he’s holding to a higher regard than the health professionals who are researching all this for a living, a common pivot from people who have yet to be vaccinated, and probably won’t be.” 

Research can apparently only be trusted if it’s in agreement with the beliefs of the left-stream media. Or if it comes from the mouth of LeBron James, who boasts of how well he educates himself on issues (but won't say if he's been vaccinated or not). Then it’s the Gospel truth.

On July 30, Maxson grumbled that one NFL player ultimately did the right thing:

Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was not planning to get the COVID-19 vaccine. However, he has backed down out of fear that the NFL will make his life miserable if he refuses to get the shots, and he’s getting the vaccine.

Many are roasting the NFL for his draconian vaccine-or-else pressure. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins >even suggested he may end his pro football career over being made to get vaccinated.

On the flip side, Vanity Fair thinks the NFL imposing the choice on athletes is peachy-keen. Its headline declares "The NFL Is Setting the Standard for COVID Vaccine Crackdowns."

Maxson then forwarded a typical anti-vaxxer argument, claiming that "Numerous athletes have tested positive for COVID despite having been vaccinated." Maxson didn't mention that the Delta variant is much more transmissible than the original strain of COVID-19 -- even among vaccinated people -- or that vaccinated people who catch COVID are much less likely to be severely ill from it, which is the best argument for getting vaccinated.

Maxson huffed on Aug. 13 that a college football team was making the safety of its spectators a priority:

Vaccine mandates have reached into college football. Tulane University is the first major college football school to require so-called vaccine “passports,” and it now remains to be seen if other universities will follow like lemmings.

To attend a Tulane home game this season, fans will be required to prove they’ve been vaccinated or have tested negatively for COVID-19 within the past 72 hours. On top of these stipulations, all fans must wear masks at the outdoor game site.

[...]

All of this assumes that vaccines still lacking full FDA approval are the be-all, end-all to the spread of coronavirus infections. When in fact, that’s not true. News apparently hasn’t yet reached New Orleans about vaccine failures and complications, or people catching COVID-19 for the second time. Tulane only averages 20,000 fans per home game to begin with, and now the school wants to make it tougher to draw fans? Go figure.

Maxson then sounded like a full anti-vaxxer by pushing horror stories of alleged adverse effects to the vaccine:

A few weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (Rep-Wis.) held a press conference featuring individuals who’ve suffered terrible reactions to vaccines. Among them was the wife of former Green Bay Packer Ken Ruettgers, who received the Moderna vaccine in January. Four days after receiving the first dose, she experienced severe neurological reactions that still inhibit her ability to live a normal life, including muscle pain, numbness, weakness and paresthesia. Others told similar horror stories, including one woman who incurred $250,000 in medical expenses.

Does Tulane University really want to flirt with liability for similar stories resulting from its football games? Do other universities across the nation want to be complicit in health horror stories as well? Football fans can choose to stay home and direct their own health decisions, rather than take unneeded risks forced on them by football teams. This fall, we’ll find out how essential Tulane football really is in the minds of fans.

Maxon is apparently referring to a June 28 press conference that Johnson held. Johnson was later forced to concede that there's no actual evidence any COVID vaccine caused the side effects he was hyping. Maxson didn't mention that more than 600,000 Americans have been killed by COVID, and that many millions of Americans have received the vaccine without incident.

Maxson moved his (or her) ire from football to basketball in an Aug. 30 post:

The National Basketball Association announced over the weekend a new vaccine mandate for its referees, coaches and others who work with players. With few exceptions allowed, these people must get the jab and recommended boosters. However, players and fans are not facing a vaccine ultimatum. How unfair is that for those under the mandate?

Referees – as well as trainers and coaches -- appear to be the NBA’s low-hanging fruit. The league may be too cowardly to try to force LeBron “King” James and other high-profile players to take the jab. The National Basketball Referees Association sold out its constituency on the vaccination mandate. What will happen with referees who suffer adverse reactions to vaccines is anybody’s guess at this point.

Maxson spent an entire Sept. 2 post ranting about "draconian vaccine mandates": "Like the rest of society, the sports realm is spinning out of control over draconian vaccine mandates. Vaccine-related madness is dominating today’s media reports on pro football, basketball and baseball." Like mosdt anti-vaxxers, Maxson never explains why it's so "draconian" to try to save lives and maintain public health so sports can go on.

Maxon went on to rant about his current cause celebre, NFL player Tyrann Mathieu: "He got vaccinated. Then he caught COVID-19. So vaccines do not guarantee insulation from the coronavirus. And besides, the vaccine gestapo are now hyping boosters, which further undermine the efficacy of vaccines." Again: Vaccines don't completely eliminate the threat, but they do keep you from getting severely sick if you catch it again. (Again, Maxson censored the fact that the Delta variant has changed the game.) And the claim that vaccine boosters "undermine the efficacy of vaccines" is nonsensical. The effectiveness of many vaccines wane over time, and at least some of them require booster shots -- there's a reason one gets a flu shot every year.

The MRC has generally not been an anti-vaxxer organization -- it's all about politics, being against whatever liberals are for just to be contrarian -- but it allows Maxson to act like a far-right anti-vaxxer. Not good for the MRC's image.

Newsmax Touts Lindell's Bogus Election Claims ... To Keep His Ads?
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax gave the controversy over MyPillow guy Mike Lindell pulling his ads from Fox News because it refused to run ads for his (bogus) election "cyber symposium" ... perhaps because it wanted to keep Lindell's ads on Newsmax TV.

A July 30 article credited only to "Newsmax Wires" hyped the controversy, then added: "Newsmax is planning to the air the Lindell ad on its network." That included a further statement: "Newsmax, in a statement, noted, 'We do not endorse any political or issue ad that appears on our network. We do believe, however, that all Americans have a First Amendment right to free speech.'"

The next day, an article by Sandy Fitzgerald touted how Newsmax hosts Diamond and Silk "slammed Fox News for refusing to run advertising for My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell's upcoming cyber symposium on election fraud, calling the decision a denial of Lindell's freedom of speech. Fitzgerald went on to note that "Newsmax is airing the Lindell ad," adding a minor dig at Fox by pointed out that "The duo came to Newsmax for their show "Diamond and Silk Crystal Clear" last August after leaving Fox Nation." Fitzgerald didn't mention that Diamond and Silk lost their Fox Nation gig for spreading false coronavirus conspiracy theories.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Newsmax invited Lindell on one of its TV shows to to talk about the Fox News controversy, as summarized in an Aug. 5 article by Bill Hoffmann, who helpfully recited the ad -- but adding a disclaimer to keep it out of further legal trouble:

In the one-minute ad Fox refused to air, Lindell looks into the camera and says: “Hi, I’m Mike Lindell and I'm coming to you with the most important commercial that I've ever done. All of you know what MyPillow and myself have gone through in the last five months in my efforts to bring the truth forward.

“Well it's all come down to this. I'm having a cybersymposium on Aug. 10, 11 and 12. This historical event will be live-streamed 72 hours straight on my new platform, FrankSpeech.com.''

Lindell then makes a pitch for MyPillow products, which he says are available at discount prices through FrankSpeech.com.

Newsmax, along with several other networks, has accepted the ad.

The network said in a statement it does not endorse any advertisements that appear on the network and editorially has accepted the 2020 election results as “legal and final.”

Newsmax also let Lindell hype his symposium, which he claimd "will feature 65 forensic cyber experts who will challenge the official results of the presidential election" and " will include a re-creation of election night vote counting 'in real time' so viewers can better understand what happened." A clip of the ad Fox wouldn't run (but Newsmax will) was embedded in the story.

Speaking of legal trouble, an Aug. 10 article by Marisa Herman on Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Newsmax for spreading false claims about the company  also included a Lindell disclaimer:

The Dominion lawsuit was filed on the opening day of “Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium” in South Dakota, a three-day event in which he and panels of experts, government officials and other political figures were to discuss the MyPillow CEO’s claims of election fraud.

Newsmax — as well as other outlets — aired paid television advertisements for the symposium. Fox News declined to air the advertisement citing pending litigation.

Herman and Logan Ratick gave Lindell's symposium sympathetic treatment in an Aug. 11 article:

Halfway through Mike Lindell's 72-hour cyber symposium concerning claims of 2020 election fraud, roughly 90,000 viewers are tuning online for his revelations.

The MyPillow CEO has promised the "proof" that will show that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, a sentiment that has been echoed by the former president himself.

[...]

Lindell has been promoting the three-day cyber event as the forum that will ultimately demonstrate the 2020 election was hacked.

For months, Lindell has claimed that Chinese government hackers changed votes in every state.

Herman and Ratick did have to conceded a couple nods to reality, admitting that "Election infrastructure and Trump administration cyber security officials all have deemed the 2020 election the 'most secure in American history'" and that "All 50 states have certified the election as legal and final, a conclusion that was sealed by the Electoral College and Congress."

But when the symposium turned out to be a fraudulent bust, Newsmax didn't do a story on that. It did, however, publish an Aug. 12 article by Jeffrey Rodack uncritically repeating Lindell's claim that he had been "attacked" at his hotel after the symposium (Lindell later admitted the alleged assailant was a fan who "aggressively poked" him in trying to get a selfie). Rodack also wrote that Lindell "promised the 'proof' that will show that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, a sentiment that has been echoed by the former president himself" -- but didn't tell readers none of that proof ever surfaced.

Newsmax's kid-gloves handling of Lindell appears to have paid off. Not only are there still MyPillow ads on Newsmax TV, he returned to Newsmax to tout his new social media platform, as summarized in an Aug. 31 article by Jack Gournell:

Fox News might have rejected advertising for Mike Lindell's new social media platform, FrankSpeech.com, but he said several others, including Newsmax and two national broadcast networks, did accept it, which just shows Fox wants to censor his platform, he told Newsmax.

"Where does it end with the censorship?" Lindell said Tuesday on "The Chris Salcedo Show." "We have [Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey and [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg and what those guys have done in Google. ... These guys have exposed themselves."

Gournell didn't mention that Fox News rejected the ad for Lindell's symposium, not his social-media platform. He didn't mention the symposium at all, let alone that it was a major bust that made Lindell look terrible.

Like the rest of Newsmax, Gournell clearly knows on what side is bread is buttered.

NEW ARTICLE: CNS' Hot Pestering Intern Summer
Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com put its summer interns to work by having them ask biased gotcha questions to members of Congress. Not exactly journalism, but they'll get a few nice clips out of it. Read more >>

WND's Farah Plugs His Magazine Filled With Bogus Election Fraud Claims
Topic: WorldNetDaily

He loves the Big Lie, and it may very well hae been his idea (and his directive) to devote an issue of his sparsely read Whistleblower magazine to perpetuating lies about the 2020 presidential election, so it's no surprise that WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah has spent several recent columns promoting that magazine issue. Farah gushed in his Aug. 12 column:

David Kupelian has outdone himself.

The longtime managing editor of WND and the Grand Swami of Whistleblower magazine has made it official – saying the words you are not permitted to say in America. He's not only saying that the 2020 election was stolen, he's put together a historic, unforgettable, special report PROVING it beyond any doubt.

I've never been prouder of my colleague of 35 years – yes, that's how long I've known him and been working with him.

[...]

But the reality that the election was stolen is not what Democratic operatives wanted to hear. It's not what Big Tech wanted to hear. It's not what China wanted to hear. So, the mainstream media caved in to the theory that no one cheated, couldn’t happen here in America. Claims that the election was “rigged” were all just one big racist right-wing Trumpian conspiracy theory!

But it did happen.

And that is the crime, the horrible truth, before us.

Nothing else makes any sense. They STOLE it – right before our eyes.

It was like no election before or since – and it must be like no election in the future. Or else we will continue to live in the kind of tyranny we've experienced since Jan. 6, 2021.

Actually, contrary to Farah's claim that Kupelian's report is "PROVING it beyond any doubt," we were able to easily prove that the issue contains numerous false and misleading claims about the election.

Farah began his Aug. 16 column with a heaping helping of self-aggrandizement:

There was a time when WND had a uniquely broad reach.

The last time we were one of the hottest sites on the internet was in 2016 – late 2016. It was a good run for us. I thought it was the precursor for more really good things.

WND played a distinctive role in the success of Donald J. Trump being elected president – the first time he was elected. Trump was the best president we ever had in the modern era, just the man we needed for the times we were living in.

Because Trump represented such an existential threat to the establishment, the Big Tech monopolies and their approved-media cabal would never forgive us for our full-throated and convincing endorsement of Trump and his pro-America agenda. We started seeing our Google search-engine rankings and Facebook rankings drop precipitously.

WND never had a "uniquely broad reach" -- it was always a right-wing website with a self-limiting readership. And the decline in WND's readership has much more to do with the fact that it publishes misinformation and conspiracy theories than its full-throated (and highly biased) support for Trump. Farah eventually begs his readers to buy as many copies as possible:

Here's one important thing you can do today: We need this issue of Whistleblower to be our biggest ever!

It's well worth it – whether you buy a subscription or a single issue, and whether you go print or digital. We're counting on you like never before.

This is a collector's item. It's also a convincing, stirring and powerfully compelling 48-page issue with lots of terrific contributors. You need this. You need to arm yourself with FACTS, TRUTH and REASON.

Buy as many copies as you can afford to hand out to your friends who are not quite convinced, or as a motivator to action in this critical moment.

We all have a lot of work to do. We've got to ensure that our next election is a fair one. If it's not, it's pretty much the end of the America we have known and loved all our lives.

Farah then tried to push a conspiracy theory in his Sept. 1 column:

Remember what Joe Biden did on his first day in the White House?

Within moments of taking the oath of office, he signed an executive order abolishing the "President's Advisory 1776 Commission."

It was a great idea, by President Donald Trump – and a popular one. The stated purpose was to "enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union."

People need to understand the beauty of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the sacrifice it took to institute them.

Why did Joe kill the commission so quickly? What did it mean? And why were his fellow Democrats so thrilled about its demise?

Farah will never accept the fact that the commission deserved to die because it put out a report rife with factual errors and partisan politics. Instead, he peddled the evidence-free idea that Democrats are subverting elections, culminating in "the Big Steal of 2020. These people were serious about no longer having free elections." The column ended with a plug fo rthe magazine.

Farah spent his Sept. 3 column arguing that the 2018 midterms were stolen by Democrats as well:

Here's the thing: When Republicans vote in America, Republicans actually win. That's not the case among Democrats.

You could get dead people to "vote."

You could get fake voters.

You could get illegal voters.

In fact, it would be wrong to speculate that these things couldn't happen; it's a fact that this kind of activity is part of any Democratic Party game plan.

[...]

When I heard that twice as many Americans likely were voting in November 2018 as voted in the presidential election year in 2016, I got worried.

Donald Trump worked very hard for those votes. That's what I saw over the previous several days. Maybe it was wrong of me to assume Dems wouldn't show up. But, where were they in 2014, 2016? Why did nearly every American – eligible and ineligible to vote – all come out to join the party on the same day?

Farah offers no actual evidence of this, of course -- he's just fearmongering to keep his dwindling readership afraid and engaged. And, of course, there was another plug for the magazine.

Weirdly, throughout all this, WND has made no effort to defend the false claims in the magazine that we've identified. Perhaps Farah and Kupelian know they're lying and running a scam, they can't prove us wrong, and they would prefer to pretend they've been busted.

MRC Cranked Out Numerous Posts Attacking Critical Race Theory
Topic: Media Research Center

We've noted that the Media Research Center has posted more than 132 articles referencing critical race theory, which is typically attacked with hate, invective and extremism. Let's go back and take a look at a few more of those.

A June 11 post by Kayla Sargent declared that Twitter was "seemingly taking its orders from the left" because it had suspended a right-wing think tank's account after it "posted resources combating Critical Race Theory." Her accusation of order-taking came from the suspension happening after  "leftist group" Media Matters "called the toolkit “a conspiracy theory about the overthrow of America’s constitutional system," adding that Media Matters "also somehow drew an arbitrary connection between the toolkit’s language and what the organization called the “infamous white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.'" Actually, it was not arbitrary at all; Media Matters detailed how the group's literature "echoes the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory, which posits that white people are being systematically “replaced” by people of color through mass immigration at the behest of shadowy elites, often referring to Jews."

Abigail Streetman ranted on June 15 in a post complaining that the media wasn't swallowing right-wing narratives about CRT:

Critical Race Theory has been all the rage this year, literally. The media have adopted its language and assumptions, while companies, governments and even the U.S. government have inflicted the ideological poison on their personnel. And yes, it has crept into some schools. the mainstream media can’t stop talking about it. Conservatives have had enough of the left-wing indoctrination and many states have stepped up by creating legislation that prohibits schools from teaching curriculum that paints one race as superior to another. But now the backlash is sparking a backlash of its own, as progressives swear up and down they don't see what the big deal is.

Nicholas Fondacaro went on a massive anti-CRT tirade in a June 23 post, calling the educational concept "poison":

In a disturbing segment of Wednesday’s World News Tonight, ABC came out in support of poisoning the minds of students with Critical Race Theory. And instead of showing the parents of Loudoun County, Virginia rising up against their radical school board who wanted to teach it to their kids, the network promoted Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Mark Milley defending the teaching of the racist theory to West Point cadets.

Foncacaro further screeched that "Milley disgustingly defended Critical Race Theory by suggesting it would help cadets understand why the Capitol Riot happened."

A June 25 post by Joseph Vazquez touted how a new "education organization" has declared its "commitment to fighting against woke school boards indoctrinating students" in the form of a $1 million ad campaign opposing "the despicable movement propagating hate-filled critical race theory in schools." Vazquez didn't ask where this group got its money from.

On June 27, Alex Christy complained that NBC's Seth Meyers called the CRT controversy an "astroturfed moral panic" and insisted that CRT is really about how "the CRT adherent starts with a provocative conclusion and then shoehorns evidence to fit that predetermined conclusion. It's this backwards reasoning that leads to everything from math to pedestrians on sidewalks being cited as examples of systemic racism." Or, you know, how the MRC starts with the conclusion that "the media" has a "liberal bias" and shoehorns evidence to fit that predetermined conclusion.

When Meyers pointed out that anti-CRT laws would prohibit certain teachings of history and that the frist most Americans heard about the Tulsa race massacre was on the TV show "Watchmen," Christy retorted: "Of course, people learn all sorts of history from TV and movies that they didn't learn in school. One could argue the Mountain Meadows Massacre could be taught alongside the Tulsa race massacre, but that is a Mormon bloodbath, and isn't useful for a perpetual-systemic-racism narrative." Given that the Mountain Meadows Massacre was perpetrated in 1857 in Utah territory -- so, technically not part of the U.S. at the time -- by Mormon militia members against a wagon train of settlers seeking to move to the West, it's utterly irrelevant to talk about systemic racism.

On July 12, Streetman sneered that actor John Leguizamo is "another left-wing Hollywood star who thinks being famous makes them an expert" and complained that he "has joined CRT-enthusiasts in the fight to indoctrinate our children." In the great MRC tradition of belittling actors who weigh in on political issues by portraying them as emblematic of a part they once played, Streeman insisted that Leguizamo is "famous mostly for his voice role of Sid the Sloth in Ice Age" and called him "John 'Sid The Sloth' Leguizamo" in the headline, going on to dismiss him as "Sid the socialist sloth" later in her piece.

Kyle Drennen melted down in a July 19 post over a "left-wing Florida teenager" who supports CRT running to join his local school board, whining that NBC gave what "amounted to an in-kind political donation" by doing a story on him (as if teenagers running for political office were not newsworthy). Drennen did not counter any of the statements regard CRT made in the interview; instead, he further, complained: "When can NBC viewers expect the network to offer similar free campaign advertising to one of the numerous conservative candidates running in local school board races across the country?"  As if the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews, were not in the habit of doing exactly what Drennen demands.

Bridget O'Neal complained in an Aug. 3 post:

PoliticsNation, host Al Sharpton warned that conservatives are showing up to school board meetings, and encouraged his left-wing viewers “to rise up together and show up to those same meetings, demanding that our children get a full and accurate history curriculum.”

[...]

What Sharpton doesn’t seem to understand is that parents who are fighting against critical race theory are already paying attention to their child’s education. The reality is, teaching students that America is inherently racist is historically inaccurate, and parents have every right to stand up and voice their concerns. The liberal media are just upset that parents are fighting against the left, not with them. 

O'Neal did a fine job of spouting right-wing talking points. The MRC has indocrinated her well.

CNS-Mark Levin Stenography Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com

Despite a fresh crop of summer interns to perform the work that full-time employees apparently not longer want to do, CNSNews.com remained at a lo level of Mark Levin stenography in July and August. Here's what CNS published for that period:

• Levin Slams 'Diabolical, Anti-Children' Teachers Unions
• Former ICE Director to Biden: 'Let These Men and Women Do Their Job' (Levin guest)
• Levin: Parents Must Boycott, Sue, and FOIA Woke Schools
• Mark Levin: 'The I-Word, Impeachment! Let's Start to Talk About It'
• Gingrich Blasts 'Coalition of the Bigs' Between Biden Admin and Big Business (Levin guest)
• Mark Levin: A Leader Would Tell Taliban ‘You’re Going to Give Us Our People or We’re Going to Crush You’
• Fmr. UK Commander in Afghanistan: Biden 'Should Be Court-Martialed For Betraying' U.S. and U.S. Armed Forces (Levin guest)
• Afghan Vet Lawmaker: Biden ‘Wanted the Optics of Getting Out by 9/11’ (Levin guest)

That's eight articles, making for a total of just 37 Levin stenography articles so far in 2021, well off its usual pace in which Levin would benefit from more than 100 articles annually.

Still, Levin got plenty of exposure at CNS during that time, because it was part of the promotional machine run by its parent, the Media Research Center, hyping Levin's new book, "American Marxism." Like other MRC websites, CNS made an interview Levin did with MRC chief Brent Bozell its lead story for the weekend of July 9-11, and published numerous other items touting Levin's book:

• A July 8 link to an American Spectator review of the book, gushily headlined "Mark Levin’s American Marxism: A Much-Needed Home Run."
• A July 12 article by Ashilanna Kreiner plugged Levin plugging his own book on his Fox News TV show.
• A July 14 article by Craig Bannister gushed that "Former President Donald Trump is praising Constitutional Scholar and Author Mark Levin’s new book, 'American Marxism,' for pulling the veil off the Marxist ideology being deceptively peddled in the U.S. - not just by Democrats and the Biden Administration - but by schools, media, corporations and entertainment." Bannister didn't mention, however, that Trump's plug was largely a copy-and-paste of the publisher's promotional copy as he is wont to do).
• MRC executive Tim Graham's July 16 column whining that CNN's Brian Stelter criticized the book.
• David Limbaugh's July 16 endorsement of the book, under the headline "American Marxism, a Counterrevolution."

CNS also published an Aug. 3 article by Bannister touting that "Mark Levin’s new book, 'American Marxism,' has topped the New York Times bestseller list in each of its first two weeks since publication, giving the conservative commentator and constitutional scholar his seventh #1 bestseller.

MRC: Robin Committing 'Sexual Deviancy' By Not Being Heterosexual
Topic: Media Research Center

WorldNetDaily's Michael Brown isn't the only ConWeb denzien to freak out over the idea that Batman's sidekick Robin might not be heterosexual. Over at the Media Research Center -- which already has a problem with DC Comics characters failing to be heteronormative -- Gabriel Hays whined about in in an Aug. 12 post:

Holy shoehorned sexual deviancy, Batman! The Dark Knight’s greatest sidekick, the Boy Wonder himself, Robin has finally come out of the closet. What, really? Yep, in one of the latest Batman comics from DC, Robin is interested in men. 

Oh, thank goodness for that. 

According to nerd culture outlet Polygon, Tim Drake, AKA Robin, came out in the latest volume of DC’s new anthology series, Batman: Urban Legends. This unique series takes detours from Batman’s main story and focuses each volume on a specific character in the DC Batman universe. This latest volume apparently includes a story beat on the sex life of Bruce Wayne’s most trusted crime-fighting friend.

[...]

Imagine how exciting the next installment concerning Robin’s sex life will be. Does the date go well? Does Robin get cold feet? Is Bernard actually the Joker hiding an evil plot behind an innocuous dinner date? Oh yeah, the suspense is just killing us.

Joking aside. It’s just the latest pop culture staple pandering to the ever-present, ever-complaining LGBTQ crowd. Maybe DC can stay relevant for a few more years, until the woke crowd demands that the Dark Knight himself becomes gay or some other sort of non-hetero sexuality.

p>Though, for real old school Batman fans, there’s no need to get too angry about Robin being gay, bi or pansexual. At least this new queer Robin is not the Robin introduced in the 1940s. That Robin was Dick Grayson. Nor was it the second Robin, Jason Todd. Tim Drake is the third Robin iteration who was introduced in 1989. There’s some consolation ... maybe?

If Hays thinks DC is "pandering" to a certain crowd for this character interpretation, Hays' homophobic meltdown -- decdlalring that if you're not a solid masculine heterosexual, you're committing "deviancy" -- is pandering too. It's also clear that Robin doesn't fit into Hays' imagined effeminite stereotypes of LGBT people. We know who we're rooting for in a fight between Hays and Robin.

WND Columnist Doesn't Want Californians Moving To Her State
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Conservatives love it when California residents move out of the state, since it validates right-wing narratives about how oppressively liberal the state supposedly is. But they're not thrilled at the idea that people might move from California to their state, lest they turn it into another Golden State. A newsmax columnist fretted about this a few months back; now it's WorldNetDaily columnist and Arizona resident Rachel Alexander's turn. She complained in her Aug. 2 column:

The real threat to states like Arizona is not COVID, it's CALVID, Arizona turning into California.

People fleeing the deteriorating state are flocking to Arizona and bringing their failed political views with them. Former Californians now make up about 10% of the population in Arizona. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey titled an op-ed for The Orange County Register in March warning those considering moving to Arizona, "Leaving California? Don't Forget Why." He joked about thanking the California governor during a speech about growing Arizona's economy.

More people are leaving California than moving there. A survey in 2019 found that 53% are considering leaving. Websites have popped up helping people escape. Any growth comes from births, including a large percentage from illegal immigrants. In contrast, Arizona has one of the highest rates of people moving there of any of the states. About 80% of those moving to Arizona choose Phoenix, which explains why its city government is now dominated by Democrats.

[...]

Arizonans should be more afraid of CALVID than COVID. Despite the MSM hype, Arizona is not experiencing a third surge of COVID-19. People blame California for starting to turn Arizona blue. While Maricopa County may have gone blue in some of the 2020 races due to voter fraud, Republicans did lose some of their voting edge, as Democrats gained 51,000 more voters in the state between 2016 and 2019.

But this may be turning around. The latest quarterly registration numbers released from the Arizona secretary of state show that 3,093 registered as Republicans and only 539 registered as Democrats, leaving Republicans with a significant 125,322 advantage statewide, and almost 100,000 more voters in Maricopa County. Additionally, 40% of those considering leaving California are Republicans, whereas only 14% are Democrats. Let's just hope the voter fraud in Arizona stops.

Election fraud in Arizona hasn't been proven -- the "audit" is a joke -- but good try, Rachel.

MRC Psaki-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch, Doocy-Gasm Edition
Topic: Media Research Center

Peter Doocy man-crusher Curtis Houck went a-crushing twice on Aug. 26. First, he gushed that Doocy asked President Biden biased questions:

After hiding for hours since word came in that there had been a string of deadly bombings at the Kabul airport, President Biden addressed the nation early Thursday night and, thankfully, he not only took questions, but he went off-script to call on the perspicacious Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy and Philip Wegmann of Real Clear Politics. 

In Doocy’s case, he found himself in a back-and-forth with Biden that, at one point, left Biden burrowing his head in his hands and leather notebook after he tried to pass the blame of the collapse of Afghanistan to Donald Trump.

[...]

To the likely horror of White House staff, Doocy came next because Biden wanted to take “one more question...from the most interesting guy I know in the press.”

Unsurprisingly, Doocy was ready and made it count as he wanted to know about how much he  “bear[s]...for the way” things transpired:

Later, Houck rolled more right-wing reporters into his crush-fest -- all the better for trashing Jen Psaki -- for the Aug. 26 White House press briefing:

Less than an hour after President Biden addressed the nation early Thursday night on the deadly terror attacks at the Kabul airport, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took to the podium and continued her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad return Thursday’s episode of The Psaki Show featured usual cast members in Fox’s Peter Doocy, the Daily Caller’s Shelby Talcott, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and plenty of liberal media reporters, but it also featured the briefing debut of Fox Business Network correspondent Hillary Vaughn (who also happens to be Doocy’s wife).

Thursday’s episode of The Psaki Show featured usual cast members in Fox’s Peter Doocy, the Daily Caller’s Shelby Talcott, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and plenty of liberal media reporters, but it also featured the briefing debut of Fox Business Network correspondent Hillary Vaughn (who also happens to be Doocy’s wife).

Fresh off his back-and-forth with Biden, Doocy was called on third and wanted to know how it’s possible the U.S. will “still...work with the Taliban...to get American citizens and Afghan allies out” considering one of the suicide bombers had successfully passed through Taliban security without being stopped.

Psaki stuck to the party line, which was that “they’re not a group we trust” but it’s “necessary” to rely on them because they control most of the country.

Note that Houck labeled non-right-wing reporters as "liberal," but he censored the fact that Doocy, Wegmann and Talcott are conservatives. Also note that Houck did not put up with similarly tough (and less biased) questioning when it came from the "liberal" media and was addressed to his beloved Kayleigh McEnany.

Houck again failed to honestly label Doocy and Wegmann in his writeup of the Aug. 27 briefing:

Despite it being a Friday afternoon after a long, difficult week for the country, many in the White House press corps kept up the heat against Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Afghanistan with Fox’s Peter Doocy, the New York Post’s Steven Nelson, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and even some liberals testing Psaki’s patience.

Houck didn't have Doocy to crush on for the Aug. 30 briefing:

Hours before the U.S. military announced the official end of the war in Afghanistan, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took heavy fire on Monday afternoon from a litany of establishment liberal media outlets, Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich, and usual cast member Philip Wegmann over the administration’s handling of the withdrawal, what to say to those being left behind, and whether America is now less safe of a country.

Again, Houck refused to tag Doocy, Heinrich and Wegmann as biased conservatives, even as he insisted every other reporter was "liberal." Houck chortled at the end: "If Monday’s briefing were any indication (and the world didn’t know that the war was about to end), Tuesday’s episode of The Psaki Show will be a must-watch."

Indeed, he touted the Aug. 31 briefing that way:

President Biden stuck to form Tuesday by refusing to take questions after his speech on the end of the war in Afghanistan, so they fell to Press Secretary Jen Psaki and she found a cadre of reporters who were loaded with queries on topics such as Biden’s “angry” tone, Biden checking his watch during Sunday’s dignified transfer or remains, blaming Americans for not getting out in time, and whether Afghanistan will resume being a terrorist safe haven.

And while it continued a petering out from previous briefings of almost universal hardballs, there were still reporters from a diverse range of outlets who came ready.

Houck didn't accuse his beloved McEnany of cutting and running from her job after the Trump-instigated Jan. 6 riot. Indeed, he was completely silent on her refusing to do the job she was paid to do.

LGBT-Hating WND Columnist Doesn't Like That Robin Isn't Heterosexual
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown doesn't like LGBT people (despite his insisting otherwise), so when a comic character was revealed to be bisexual, Brown had to spend his Aug. 13 column complaining about it:

In case you haven't heard the news, Robin of "Batman and Robin" fame has been outed as bisexual. And in case you were unsure if he was simply exploring his sexuality or had determined for sure that he was bi, DC Comics made it official: "Tim Drake [the third Robin in the series] dates boys." Robin now joins more than 65 other LGBTQ+ superheroes and villains – but be assured, no one has any agenda at all. Who would think such a thing?

Ten years ago, I wrote an article titled, "'Mutant' as a Codeword for 'Gay' in the X-Men Movies," claiming that "the movies, along with the comic books, draw many clear parallels between the mutants and the gay and lesbian community."

After the article came out, I was ridiculed on some gay LGBTQ websites for stating the obvious. "Of course 'mutant' stands for 'gay,'" I was told. "You're just discovering this?"

But, of course, no one has an agenda to promote the agenda, and no producers or screenwriters in Hollywood are trying to indoctrinate anyone. Perish the thought.

It's the same with the comic book industry. No one has an agenda, and there's no attempt to indoctrinate or influence the readers. It's just a coincidence that, as of 2017, there were 65 LGBTQ+ superheroes and villains. And it's just happenstance that last year, the first, major transgender superhero was announced on Marvel Comics. No agenda at all!

Does he think his anti-LGBT rantings are part of an agenda? Or that portrayal of a fictional character as heterosexual is part of an agenda? Probably not -- he considers those defaults and ideals that everyone automatically is, and that anyone who doesn't fit that mold are evil deviants who must be forcibly converted.

He concluded his column insisting -- despite all other evidence in his column to the contrary -- that he understands that LGBT people are marginalized, though they really should be compelled somehow to be right-wing Christians like him:

All sarcasm aside, I'm sure that people who are marginalized by the society see themselves in characters who appear in film and in writing, and that gives them a sense of identification. As always, my hope for each of them is that they find God's purpose for their lives and discover full acceptance with Him, regardless of how society treats them.

At the same time, we would have to be utterly naïve to think that many of the comic book writers (along with their counterparts in film) have not had clear and definite agendas. And we shouldn't be surprised when young comic book readers want to be like their favorite superhero, not just in terms of their superpowers but in terms of their sexuality.

He still doesn't get it. And he'll never admit that what he's pushing is an agenda too.