WND's Brown Continues To Not Support Trump Topic: WorldNetDaily
It took the Capitol riot for WorldNetDaily columnist to finallyabandon his justification for right-wing evangelical loyalty to Donald Trump. It's something he has largely stuck with since. In his June 22 column, Brown stuck with it again, declaring that he would not support Trump as a 2024 presidential candidate:
According to a new poll, a majority of Americans do not want either Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their presidential candidates in 2024. Count me in among that majority.
As for Biden, I cannot imagine him running again at his advanced (and diminished) age. Plus, his presidency thus far has been a disaster, and I strongly oppose many of his core values and goals.
More broadly, unless there is a fundamental revolution in the Democratic Party, I cannot imagine voting Democrat.
As for Trump, simply stated, he has too much baggage.
If Trump is the Republican candidate, that means that we will be replaying the 2020 elections as much as trying to win the 2024 elections. Not only so, but loyalty to Trump will require embracing the stolen-election narrative.
Why add this into an election that could easily be a landslide in 2024? Why alienate other, potential voters? And why make the election more about personal loyalty to the person (meaning, Trump) rather than picking the right person with the right platform?
Having Trump as the candidate also brings the baggage of Jan. 6, 2021, and the many charges leveled against him (whether true or not). Why open that door again? Why give your opponents more leverage? Why start out with all kinds of arrows in your back and roadblocks in your way?
Without a doubt, any Republican candidate will be savaged and demonized by the left-wing media. But handpicking Trump is asking for trouble.
As for January 6, in my view, Trump was not legally responsible for what happened on that fateful day. But he was morally responsible in that his incendiary rhetoric leading up to January 6 caused his followers to believe that their country was being taken from them for good. "We will never have a free and fair election again! It's time to fight!"
In addition, his failure to read the crowd and address the irresponsible rhetoric of other speakers who preceded him is inexcusable for the commander in chief.
Most of all, having Trump as the candidate brings the baggage of the man himself. His divisiveness (still throwing Mike Pence and others under the bus). His nastiness. His fashioning himself to be the savior of religion in America. (In a recent speech, he reiterated his theme that no one did more for religion in America than he did. In reality, he did fight for religious freedoms and causes; he also brought lots of reproach to religion.)
Personally, I would rather have a less abrasive and reckless candidate who might disappoint me on a minor issue here and there (not quite having Trump's backbone) then Trump himself.
Shocker! We assume that didn't go down well at WND HQ. He continued:
Last December, I wrote an article titled, "Trump Knocked the Door Down; Let Someone Else Walk Through It."
In it, I opined that, "Donald Trump's greatest accomplishment as president may not have been the policies he enacted or the justices he appointed. Instead, as important as those accomplishments were and are, it is possible that the most important thing he did as president was to say to the political world, 'I will not play your games. I am the champion of the people, not a member of the good old boys club.'
"But now that he has broken the mold, thrown out the old rule book, and forged a new path of leadership, it will be best in 2024 for another conservative leader with backbone and conviction to take the lead. Trump simply brings too much collateral damage with him (and, I remind you, I voted for him in 2016 and 2020)."
It really is best that we move on.
WND, won't be moving on from Brown and his Trump heresy since Brown remains a reliable LGBTQ-hater.
Newsmax Bashed Hutchinson Over Capitol Riot Committee Testimony, Touted Trump's Attacks On Her Topic: Newsmax
Like a loyal right-wing "news" operation, Newsmax made sure to attack former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony before the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. First up was Eric Mack being a servile stenographer for Donald Trump's smears of Hutchinson:
As a staffer for White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was the surprise witness Tuesday for the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, former President Donald Trump shot back at her, calling her "a total phony and 'leaker'" and disgruntled castoff after Trump left office.
"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and 'leaker'), and when she requested to go with certain others of the team to Florida after my having served a full term in office, I personally turned her request down," Trump wrote on Truth Social as the testimony was being heard.
"Why did she want to go with us if she felt we were so terrible? I understand that she was very upset and angry that I didn't want her to go, or be a member of the team. She is bad news!"
Mack made no apparent effort to fact-check Trump.
Next was an anonyously written article claiming that Secret Service agents "are prepared to go before Congress to flatly contradict the aide's story of an enraged Trump determined to get to the Capitol as a security breach was taking place there" by having "lunged at a driver inside a presidential car and demanded that he be taken to the Capitol." Funny thing, though: More than a month later, the Secret Service agents who declared they would testify to the committee that Hutchinson was lying have yet to do so; instead, they have lawyered up and refused to testify, and they have been identified as Trump loyalists and yes men.
This was followed was a June 29 article by Jay Clemons:
The House select committee overseeing the hearings for the Jan. 6, 2021 unrest at the Capitol has yet to contact the U.S. Secret Service about challenging Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony from Tuesday — even though USSS officials have publicly volunteered to speak with the committee, as a means of presumably rebutting Hutchinson's claims against former President Donald Trump, according to James Rosen, Newsmax's chief White House correspondent.
Citing a sourced report from Rosen, the Secret Service agents who were present with then-President Trump on Jan. 6, 2021 in the presidential motorcade vehicle, dubbed "The Beast," are "ready and "eager" to speak with the House panel.
Again, that has yet to happen, and the agents have lawyered up. There is unlikely to be much more Secret Service cooperation with the committee after it was revealed that the agency deleted texts from the phones of its agents related to the riot that could have shed further light on what happened that day.
An article by Nick Koutsobinas complained that "Cassidy Hutchison's attorneys say their client is sticking with the testimony she gave to the Jan. 6 panel in a public hearing on Tuesday despite pushback from Republican lawmakers and others involved in events that day," adding that "Hutchinson said she learned of the motorcade incident from Tony Ornato, Trump's deputy chief of staff" and that "Several news outlets have reported that Ornato is prepared to testify and dispute Hutchinson's claim." But Ornato has not testified to date, and he has lawyered up; he also has a record of lying about things on Trump's behalf.
Newsmax hurled more attacks at Hutchinson over the following days:
But Newsmax's main focus was on Trump's increasingly unhinged -- and never fact-checked -- rantings on Hutchinson.He appeared on Newsmax to rant about her, as detailed in a June 30 article by Sandy Fitzgerald:
Former President Donald Trump, in an exclusive interview with Newsmax, pushed back hard against claims made by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who had worked for Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, calling her testimony to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, incidents at the U.S. Capitol "absolutely crazy."
[...]
"This lady, yesterday — is there something wrong with her?" Trump said, not repeating Hutchinson's name. "She said I jumped from a car, I started strangling a Secret Service agent? I grabbed the steering wheel of a car? Said I wanted guns at my rally? I didn't want guns. I have to speak, too."
He pointed out that the Secret Service has come out and called Hutchinson's story "totally false."
"The woman is living in fantasy land," said Trump. "She's a social climber, if you call that social. I think it's just a shame that this is happening to this country, and we don't have any Republicans up there to dispute it. We have one who quit [Adam] Kinzinger, we have another one who's down by 35 points in Wyoming [Rep. Liz Cheney]. She's a total disaster, she's a train wreck, but think of it. Nobody to cross-examine."
Later that day, a stenography article by Mack hyped Trump's call for Hutchingon to be investigated for "lying under oath." Mack was Trump's stenographer again for a July 4 article:
After a new report of text messages from the House Jan. 6 Select Committee's "surprise" witness showed Cassidy Hutchinson called the investigation "bs," former President Donald Trump has come out to shed light on the irony.
"Lyin' Cassidy Hutchinson, who the fake news media refuses to properly reveal, recently called the January 6 Unselect Committee 'B.S.' Gee, that wasn't reported by LameStream!" Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
Trump was at it again days later, and Jeffrey Rodack was the stenographer this time in a July 12 article:
Former President Donald Trump ripped into the Jan. 6 select committee on Tuesday, calling it "political hacks and thugs."
He also took special aim at former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who had testified before the panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Trump's comments came in posts on his Truth Social platform as the panel was set to meet for one of its open sessions to hear additional testimony.
Trump wrote: "Can anyone even imagine the Unselect Committee, which was formed solely for the purpose of bringing down my 'numbers,' or worse, relying on the Fake and made up stories, already largely debunked, of a female scam artist, Cassidy Hutchinson, who desperately wanted to go with the Trump Team to Florida long after January 6th, and went 'crazy' when she was told no. They called her a 'leaker' and worse, didn't want her!"
CNS Touted Another False Claim From Anti-Abortion Jewish Group's SCOTUS Brief Topic: CNSNews.com
The Coalition for Jewish Values is not the only right-wing Jewish group CNSNews.com has been promoting of late. It's also fond of the anti-abortion extremism of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation -- which, as it turns out, appears to be pretty much just one woman, Cecily Routman. We've already doucmented how managing editor Michael W. Chapman was forced to expunge a quote by a Jewish rabbi because the Supreme Court brief filed by the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation and other groups falsely framed his words about a "silent Holocaust" as being about abortion when, in fact, they were about Jewish assimilation.And we've discovered another false statement in that brief.
Chapman touted the group's extremist rhetoric in a Jan. 18 article:
In its Jan.14 newsletter, the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation denounced the pro-abortion bill signed into law last week by New Jersey's Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, a Catholic, stating that "Moloch wins in New Jersey, but life will ultimately prevail."
The new law, the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, codifies abortion into state law in New Jersey, allowing abortion under nearly all circumstances, even in late-term pregnancies. "Moloch" is an idol, a false god mentioned in the Old Testament, to whom children were sacrificed, usually by fire.
In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation and several other Jewish pro-life groups stated, "Abortion is antithetical to Torah principles. The act of abortion, and the industry that promotes and benefits financially from it, violates all Jewish ethics and morals."
"The history of Judaism includes many existential threats to Jewish life in the form of state sponsored mass murder," reads the brief. "This makes us especially sensitive to the plight of the child in the womb, whose protection under the law was completely abrogated by Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton and Planned Parenthood v. Casey."
The brief also notes that Margaret Sanger, the founder of the American Birth Control League, which became Planned Parenthood, were the "primary sponsors of eugenics during her lifetime. She associated herself with Adolph Hitler, praising him for his racial politics of eugenics."
That, like the false framing of the rabbi's quote, is also wrong. In fact, Sanger never "associated herself" with Hitler -- not only did she never meet him, she was an early critic of the Nazi movement, and the Nazis burned Sanger's books. While Sanger did support eugenics, she saw it only throught the lens of birth control.
The brief sourced its false claims about Sanger to an unbylined article at a website called the Scholar's Corner, which is run by Jeff Peterson, a onetime minister turned web designer and artist. The article in turn appears to credit the false Sanger-Hitler link to the 1976 book "Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America" by Linda Gordon. But a limited search of the book on Google Books seems to suggest that it does not support the Scholar's Corner claim that Sanger supported Hitler.
Maybe Chapman needs to do a stealth edit of this article as well and remove this false information.
MRC's Maxson Thinks Griner's Guilty Plea Vindicates His (Or Her) Hatred Of Black Lesbian Woman Topic: Media Research Center
Curtis Houck suggesting that WNBA star Brittney Griner's detention in Russia is "unjustified" is an anomoly at the Media Research Center -- his MRC colleagues continue to cheer that she's rotting away in a Russian prison on trumped-up drug charges. The MRC's lead Griner-hater, sports blogger Jay Maxson, devoted a June 23 screed to ranting that the WNBA was still supporting her:
Wonders never cease in the wide woke world of the Women’s National Basketball Association. While doing time in a Russian prison on drug charges, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner just made the WNBA All-Star Game as an honorary starter. Her initials and uniform number are adorning center court in each of the league’s 12 arena, too.
The 2022 WNBA season began May 6, Griner hasn’t played a single game, allegedly broke Russian law and has been in jail there since Feb. 17. Russian officials recently extended her detainment to July 2. No matter, she is being hailed by her woke American comrades as a heroin [sic].
[...]
Once again, merit means nothing to virtue signalers on the far Left. Symbolism trumps substance. A criminal record for a black lesbian athlete is now a badge of honor.
If law breaking is the standard, then it’s not a stretch to assume more honors will be directed Griner’s way. Will woke do-gooders who want to make themselves feel better start piling on the accolades for the 6-foot-9-inch basketball player?
One can’t help but imagine Griner making the woke TV tour: Good Morning America, ESPN, The View and other woke outposts.
Once freed and back in the U.S., will Griner be decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
Will she be selected grand marshal of the Rose Parade?
Which woke corporations will vie for her services as a product spokeswoman?
Why not just name Griner WNBA Player of the Year right now? She’s a perennial all-star, and everyone assumes she’d again be a dominant player in the league again this season. So why not just give her another honor she hasn’t earned by actually playing? Who cares about the grunts actually playing the game right now, spilling their sweat and giving their all? With her arrest record, Griner deserves all the accolades she can read about it in prison.
A July 7 post by Maxson cheered fellow right-wing sports guy Jason Whitlock denigrating Griner as greedy, with a weird detour to the Capitol riot:
Griner is getting what Whitlock describes as a taste of Russian oppression – in “Wokedown Palace.” It’s similar to 19th century America, he said, adding, “We can only hope that when she does return to America, she’ll muster the courage to sing this country’s praises.”
[...]
Whitlock says he has more sympathy for the late Ashli Babbitt and the incarcerated January 6 protesters than he has for Brittney Griner. Making an American citizen a political prisoner is exactly what his schoolteachers told him Russia does.
The Capitol insurrectionists committed crimes, and Babbitt was a domestic terrorist in the midst of commiting a felony inside the Capitol when a law enforcement officer determined she was a clear and present threat and shot her. Maxson seems as eager as Whitlock to justify the criminalityof people who aren't black lesbians.
Maxson also touted Whitlock whining that Griner worked too hard by playiong in Russia: "'She’ll go anywhere and say anything for the paycheck,' Whitlock wrote. 'Dissatisfied with her WNBA salary, Griner traveled to Russia to earn her millions. There’s a cost to the global agenda – a loss of American rights, customs, and freedom.'"Maxson and Whitlock didn't explain why it's a bad thing for Griner to work where she gets paid better, or why she should be forced to settle for an insufficient WNBA paycheck.
Later that day, when Griner pleaded guilty in a Russian courtroom, Maxson rushed to gloat:
The Biden Administration is eating crow after WNBA all-star and vape smuggler Brittney Griner pleaded guilty Thursday in a Russian court. In May, the Biden Administration declared the Phoenix Mercury center and U.S. Olympic basketball champion is being “wrongfully detained.”
The towering, 6-foot-9-inch Griner was arrested in February at a Moscow airport for attempting to board a plane while carrying drugs. "I'd like to plead guilty, your honor,” she said Thursday in court. “But there was no intent. I didn't want to break the law."
The U.S. government might want to walk back its “wrongfully detained” statement issued this spring. With her guilty plea Thursday, Griner certainly didn’t take that approach in her appearance before the judge.
[...]
Griner is due back in court July 14, and if her lawyers are smart, they’ll drop the “wrongfully detained” and “role model” hooey.
Maxson clearly doesn't believe a black non-heterosexual can or should be a "role model." Maxson omitted the part from the Fox News article on the plea to which he linked where a Russia expert called the charges against Griner a "sham."
Maxson continued to be obsessed with Griner's race and sexual orientation in a July 20 post complaining that the Espy Awards gave her attention:
ESPN’s annual ESPY awards show tonight will maintain their woke tradition by honoring admitted law-breaker Brittney Griner, a black, lesbian pro basketball player. In case you haven’t paid attention to the barrage of headlines on this WNBA basketball player, she’s been in a Russian jail since February and recently pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis while attempting to board a plane in Moscow.
Woke media have gone to ridiculous lengths the past few months maintaining that – somehow – the lesbian Griner is a victim of American marginalization of female athletes and LGBT people and was forced to play basketball in Russia to make extra money during the WNBA’s offseason.
[...]
Griner’s behavior was reckless and illegal. Yet she’s become a cause célèbre to the wide woke world of sports. The WNBA features “BG42” decals on all of its team’s courts this season. The woke league also named her an honorary all-star starter for this season. If this all sounds like over-the-top star treatment for a wrongdoer, it is.
The U.S. government is attempting to secure Griner’s release with a potential prisoner swap. Meanwhile, the left-stream media jostle with each other to see who can use her story to score the most pathetic virtue signaling points. ESPN will score hollow points in that regard tonight.
It's as if Maxson is motivated by an irrational hatred of black lesbian women rather than any sense of justice.
CNS Gets 2 'News' Articles Out Of Pelosi Purportedly Elbowing A Child Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com opened up a new front in its multi-prongedwar against Nancy Pelosi: the Elbow War. Craig Bannister hyped in a June 27 article:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) allegedly elbowed the young child of Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) at a photo op at Flores’ swearing-in ceremony last week.
“I love this princess stood her ground, while Nancy showed her true colors,” conservative actor James Woods tweeted Sunday, posting video of the incident.
“I am so proud of my strong, beautiful daughter for not allowing this to faze her,” Rep. Flores tweeted, replying to Woods’ post. “She continued to smile and pose for the picture like a Queen. No child should be pushed to the side for a photo op. PERIOD!!” Flores added.
Flores, who won a special election earlier this month, is the first Mexican-born member of Congress and the first Republican ever to win her district’s House seat.
Bannister waited until the next day before bothering to balance the story by telling the other side of it, which he framed as "damage control":
After video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) elbowing and hip-checking the young daughter of Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) went viral on Monday, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff took to Twitter to do damage control.
Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill claimed that Pelosi was simply trying to make sure Flores’ little girl wasn’t hidden from the cameras during the photo op on June 21, held after the Texas congresswoman was sworn in.
Hammill criticized media that reported the incident for misrepresenting Pelosi’s purported good deed:
“It’s sad to see ‘news outlets’ that know better misrepresent the Speaker’s effort to ensure Rep. Flores’ daughters wouldn’t be hidden behind her in all of the photos of such an important moment for their family.”
However, there seems to have been no reason for Pelosi to take action to ensure Flores’ child “wouldn’t be hidden behind her,” since the viral video appears to show that the little girl wasn’t behind Pelosi, but clearly visible at her side.
Yes, CNS generated two "news" stories out of this minor incident, for the apparent sole purpose of attacking Pelosi. That's because CNS is a Republican Party PR outlet, not a "news" operation.
WND Gloats That Fauci Caught COVID Topic: WorldNetDaily
When Anthony Fauci caught COVID in June, WorldNetDaily -- a sworn enemy of Fauci, particularly columnist JoelHirschhorn -- was quick to gloat. A June 15 article by Art Moore made a point of noting that Fauci had been vaccinated and double-boosted to sugges the purported lack of efficacy of the vaccines, then turned to a right-wing reporter for further attacks:
Investigative reporter Daniel Horowitz noted the news came as an FDA panel recommended the COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 6 months.
"Literally as Fauci gets covid after 4 of these shots," he tweeted. "If we had a sane party representing the Nuremberg Code, red state legislatures would convene in an emergency session and ban the shots."
Tyler Carditis, CEO of Blaze Media, tweeted a one-liner alluding to the the theory that the virus that causes COVID-19 was engineered through the gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology funded by Fauci's NIAID.
"SARS-CoV-2 has finally met its maker," he deadpanned.
Moore concluded his article by reprinting selective hateful -- and anonymous -- "reactions on social media."
When Fauci reported that he tested positive again despite taking a course of the treatment Paxlovid, Moore framed it as him getting "sicker" in a June 29 article:
President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci have touted the Pfizer drug Paxlovid as an effective treatment for COVID-19.
But Fauci, the federal government's top infectious disease official, said Tuesday he experienced a rebound of COVID symptoms after he was treated with the drug, DailyMail.com reported.
In fact, Pfizer's own trial data showed the drug may not be effective for people who have received a COVID vaccine. Fauci has been "double-boosted," meaning he has received four doses of the experimental mRNA vaccine. And in May, the Centers for Disease Control issued a formal warning that a course of Paxlovid could produce a rebound of COVID-19.
Fauci, who tested positive for COVID earlier this month, was speaking remotely at the Foreign Policy Global Health Forum.
As is typical of the omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that are currently prevalent, Fauci had mostly mild symptoms, including fatigue. But he said that when his symptoms became slightly worse, he began a five-day course of Paxlovid.
You know what else kept Fauci's symptoms mild: Being vaccinated and double-boosted. Moore didn't report that, though. He also didn't report that rebound symptoms also happen in those who weren't treated with Paxlovid.Moore then attacked the vaccine as infeffective:
At the launch of the vaccines, Fauci, other health officials, pharmaceutical companies and media declared the coronavirus shots to be virtually 100% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 then gradually lowered their estimations to as low as 20% after only six months.
Fauci is seen in a media interview touting the vaccines as "virtually 100% efficacious" and stating in congressional testimony that the "real world effectiveness is even more impressive than the results of the clinical trial."
Moderna boasted its vaccine was 100% effective in teenagers. Pfizer said its vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID infections. In other statements, the shots were declared to provide 100% protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death.
However, by October 2021, a study of real world data showed Pfizer's COVID vaccine was only 20% effective against infection after six months.
Moore didn't mention that the main reason the vaccine saw decreased protection against infection against infection was because the Delta and Omicron variants are much more contagious and mutated in a way that evade the vaccine's original defenses against infection.
This is just another reminder that Moore is a highlydishonest reporter.
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC Flips Over Elon Musk, Part 2 Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center completed its flip-flop on Musk's coziness toward China as it continued to slobber over his deal to buy Twitter -- and pretty much anything else he says. Read more >>
MRC Sports Blogger Spouts Transphobia All Through Pride Month Topic: Media Research Center
We've noted how Media Research Center sports blogger John Simmons had a meltdown over sports teams and leagues refusing to hate gay people as much ashe does during Pride Month in June. Simmons also brought his transphobia to the month's proceedings as well. In a June 14 post, he hyped a poll claiming that many Americans oppose transgender women in sports:
In the midst of the Pride Month celebration of all things LGBT, it can be easy to think that most Americans are perfectly okay with how this ideology has affected every aspect of American life.
However, a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll showed that a strong majority of Americans still have a strong measure of common sense on the issue of transgendered women playing sports alongside real women. As per the poll that sampled1,503 Americans across the country, 55 percent of respondents said they were opposed to transgendered females playing in the same sport in high school, with that number increasing to 58 percent for college and professional sports.
[...]
We can only hope that more Americans begin to see just how harmful this ideology is and do everything they can to stem the tide of its effects.
Simmons never explains why he calls being transgender an "ideology." Does he think his homophobia and transphobia is an "ideology" too?
Lia Thomas’ dream of swimming in the Olympics was spectacularly dashed after a ruling from the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA, translated “International Swimming Federation”) that became effective today.
The ruling states that anyone who is born male must have their transition completed by the age of 12 to be able to compete in elite swimming competitions. Of the 152 members of FINA, a 71 percent majority passed the new legislation.
[...]
While we will not have to deal with a man swimming and taking away gold medals from females, it does not mean that transgendered females will be completely prevented from the Olympic stage ever again.
As best-selling children’s author Matt Walsh pointed out, it just meant that people will start transitioning their children at a younger age.
Simmons whined ina June 20 post that international women's soccer may consider allowing transgender athletes, while also taking a misogynistic shot (as he's wont to do) at women's soccer: "Not many people watch women’s soccer to begin with, but the few who do might end up seeing men pretending to be women in the sports soon." The next day, he cheered a women's rugby league for banning transgender women; when women's soccer legend Megan Rapinoe criticized the move, Simmons huffed in response:
Sorry Rapinoe, but it’s not disgusting to look at what Lia Thomas is doing in swimming and think that something needs to change. It’s not cruel to see Connecticut high school track star Chelsea Mitchell lose to transgender opponents and want something to be changed. And it certainly isn’t wrong for FINA and IRL decide that the future of women in their respective sports leans heavily on what they do in this pivotal moment.
Women belong competing with women, and men belong battling against men in sports. It’s that simple.
If your desire to ban transgender women is borne of irrational fear and hate, as it appears Simmons' desire is, then it can plausibly be labeled disgusting.
Meanwhile, Simmons found a new transgender athlete to spew hate at in a June 28 post:
Yet another transgendered "female" has seized opportunities for real women to succeed at elite levels within their respective sport.
Richard Batres, who started taking hormone treatments and who is now going by the name Ricci Tres, skated in the Boardr Open competition in New York City on Saturday. Bartes, who is 29 and at least 13 years older than four of the other top-six finishers at the event, won the $500 grand prize at the event.
Because of his delusions, Batres has told his three children from his failed marriage that they are starting to refer to him as “mother,” and he has taken hormone treatments so he can feel like a woman, even though he says he knows he will never be one.
“I’ve decided that I like being pretty and cute,” Batres said. "I know I will never be a woman, because women are miraculous, they have babies and create life and do all that awesome stuff. I’ll never have that ability but I feel like I am a woman. I would have wished to be born one so I’ll try to fill that image as much as I can for myself and that pretty much involves being as cute as can be.”
But trying to “fill that image” is going to have horrendous consequences, for Batres’ family and women’s skateboarding. First, three children will not only have to live without their real mother being a steady, everyday presence in their lives, but now they have to witness their father base his life on the idea that he can change his gender because he wants.
Additionally, Ricci will now likely keep robbing women from earning results that their hard work deserves, just because they have to compete against someone who’s biology gives him an inherent advantage.
Simmons' transphobia extended into the following month as well. In a July 7 post, he falsely portrayed Zambian soccer star Barbra Banda as transgender, misgendered her throught the piece, and whooped that she was banned from a championship tournament for allegedly having too high of a testosterone level:
Yes, you read that right. A woman can’t play women's soccer because she - actually, he - has too many male chemicals in his system.
Banda would have had to take hormone suppressors as prescribed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), in order to be eligible for the roster but refused, rendering him unable to participate in the tournament.
[...]
[Zambia Football Association spokesperson Sydney] Mungala and her colleagues can cry all they want, but there is a much simpler solution for this problem: don’t let men join your soccer teams.
In fact, Banda is a biological woman as far as anyone knows but has naturally high testosterone, and she has had no problem playing in other tournaments.
The theme of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine for July was "Elites finally reveal their #1 enemy: CHRISTIANS" -- which is largely about peddling homophobia and complaining that the hateful Christian nationalism peddled by WND and its right-wing allies was being called out. Managing editor David Kupelian opened his essay for the issue, published July 5 at WND, with a blast of homophobia and transphobia ranting about "sexual-gender anarchy" and the "wild celebration of transgenderism," then followed it with complaining that his homophobia and transphobia is less tolerated in polite society than it should be:
Suddenly, bandying about an arcane academic term virtually no one used until recently – “Christian nationalism” – big media and Democrats are falling over each other to blame all of America’s problems on “Christian nationalists” (or “White Christian nationalists” or “White nationalists” or “Christian fascists” or “Christian fundamentalists” or “the Religious Right”).
[...]
What is new right now, however, is: 1) the extreme and ubiquitous Sodom-and-Gomorrah level of moral depravity in America, 2) the absolutely shocking campaign to recruit the nation’s pre-pubescent children into deviant sexual and gender “identities” and lifestyles, and 3) the fact that all of this is not merely tolerated, but wildly celebrated and glorified, by almost all of America’s most powerful institutions, from its schools to its government to its news and entertainment media.
Parallel to all this is the rapidly increasing demonization of those Americans who hold to the traditional Judeo-Christian values that formed the very foundation of the “American experiment,” the biblical principles of morality and justice woven into the U.S. Constitution and legal system, and which, for over two centuries, have made America the greatest, freest and most prosperous nation in all of human history.
Indeed, biblical Christianity is what gave birth to the whole notion of “individual rights” in the first place, rooted as they are in the conviction that man is created in the image of God. Likewise, the biblical understanding that mankind is fallen and in need of redemption (prompting Lord Acton to famously observe that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”) led to America’s unique and extraordinarily wise constitutional separation of powers. The biblical roots of the American system made this country the unique oasis of liberty and human rights it has long been in an otherwise mostly dark world.
That is why the current power-mad elites hate genuine Christianity, and why the ruling class is at war with, and daily attacking, America’s Christian foundations with increasing ferocity.
As if Kupelian and WND aren't actively demonizing anyone who disagrees with them and points out their hatred and otherizing of anyone who isn't a heterosexual. He's dishonestly playing victim while using his employer's megaphone to do so.He concluded by ranting:
In truth, to the radical left, Christians are not merely racists, misogynists, homophobes and transphobes, but Nazis, fascists, violent extremists and terrorists. But this perfect inversion of reality is because – bottom line – the left has always been in a state of war with Almighty God and His laws and His ways. In other words, at war with Reality. They are in perpetual rebellion against the Creator of the Universe because Marxism, by its very nature, amounts to hatred and rejection of God so that human “saviors” (who are generally sociopaths) can create their make-believe paradise on earth – with them in charge, of course. That, in turn, always ends up as hell on earth, with the 20th century being the bloodiest century in all of human history, thanks to the very types of God-rejecting, power-addicted Marxist utopians who are currently obsessed with ruling America.
Does this sound like a loving Christian to anyone? Only in the hate-filled circles in which Kupelian dwells. He's so intent on demonizing the "other" that he won't recognize the damage he himself is causing. There's a reason WND is having to beg for money from readers, and it's not because there's a "big tech" conspiracy against it -- it's because the website he runs spews hate, lies and misinformation, all while falsely claiming to publish "truth" and delcaring itself a "Christian" organization.
Thge problem is not that "elites" have declared Christians their "enemy" -- it's that far-right Christians like Kupelian have constantly warred against anyone like them and have nothing but hate to offer, and he needs to peddle the victim narrative because he has nothing else.
P.S. Hey, David: You're invited to respond and try to prove us wrong.
Dick Morris' New Dubious Prognostication: Trump vs. Hillary In 2024 Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax pundit Dick Morris has a legacy of failed prognosications, a good portion of which involve Hillary Clinton -- for instance, he predicted she would runfor president in 2020, which didn't exactly work out. But Morris has a new book to promote, this one predicting that Donald Trump will run for president in 2024, which is a less risky prediction, given how aggressively Trump has been hinting at it. But the book is published by Humanix, Newsmax's book division, so it's all over Newsmax, including using it as an enticement to lure readers into subscribing to its magazine. And despite the fact that Morris' prediction is not exactly a stretch, he's been pushing it like it was, giving up his much more noble endeavor of calling out Tucker Carlson's pro-Russia leanings to revert to political hackery. Morris outlined Trump's alleged election strategy in a July 16 article:
Political consultant Dick Morris said President Donald Trump will focus heavily on getting the Hispanic vote in 2024 and work to secure early voting like Democrats did in 2020.
"One of the groups that we're particularly aiming at are Hispanics," Morris, the author of the new book, "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback," said Saturday during an appearance on Newsmax’s "American Agenda."
[...]
Getting voters to back Trump, he added, will be easy because of his experience as president.
"Donald Trump is a hybrid, like a Toyota car," Morris told Newsmax.
"He is half incumbent and half challenger. And in that role as a challenger, he'll go against Biden and the Democrats and explain all their failures.
"But then when they come back at him and say, 'How do we know you'll do any better?' he can come back as the half incumbent and say, ‘I did. I did better on all these things. The border was secure, crime was low, there was no inflation, and the Russians didn't invade Europe. They were intimidated. And that's how it'll be again.’ Trump is the only guy who can say that," he added.
A July 17 article by Eric Mack did much the same thing:
"The phrase is not 'likely,' the phrase is dead pipe certain: He's certain to run, and he is, I believe, certain to get the Republican nomination," Morris told Sunday's "Wake Up America." "I think he'll actually get it by acclamation. I don't think there'll be a primary fight."
All the talk of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis being a viable challenger to Trump in the 2024 GOP primary, is just that, Morris added to host Katrina Szish.
"Well, there's a lot of Republicans who have sort of the 6-year itch," Morris added. "You've heard of the 7-year itch. It's been six years of Trump, but they're flirting with DeSantis and other candidates, but only Trump can win this election."
Morris also does more than a little sucking up to Trump on a personal level:
Morris noted his Trump relationship started when his father was "the best" real estate attorney Trump has ever had, and he spoke with the president every day during the 2020 presidential election.
"And I explain it all in this book, including anecdotes of discussions that we had that there were I think very significant," Morris concluded.
Unsurprisingly, Morris dragged Hillary into it again in his July 19 column:
It will be one of the great political re-matches of all time.
Hillary Clinton will run again for president in 2024 to stop Donald Trump.
[...]
Increasingly, Democrats and big media like The New York Times know that Biden can’t run again in 2024.
I share some of the backstories in my book about what his own supporters say about Biden behind his back. It’s pretty shocking.
These insiders know better than most that Biden’s quickly declining mental abilities, coupled with an economy spiraling out of control, means disaster for the Democrats in ’24.
Morris repeated the same series of events hereferenced in his failed 2020 prediction, which depended on every single potentially viable Democratic candidate flaming out, thus opening the door for Hillary:
It is clear to me that Hillary’s recent spate of media interviews, as well as opinion pieces penned by long-time Clinton cronies touting her as Joe Biden’s successor — are a prelude to her announcement she’s running.
When that happens, we will enter a new phase.
Trump is preparing for Hillary’s run – and knows he needs to create a new majority that will enable him to beat her and win in 2024.
As I explain in “The Return,” it’s Trump’s to lose and he won’t.
He repeated much of this in a Newsmax TV appearance the same day.
Even though the Media Research Center loves to attack the non-right-wing media for each and every mistake it makes, its "news" division, CNSNews.com, tries to bury its mistakes -- to the point that we notice only when we stumble across them in looking for something else. For instance, managing editor Michael W. Chapman wrote in an article from last November:
In a legal brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a Mississippi law case that could upend Roe v. Wade, Jewish pro-life leaders argue that abortion “violates all Jewish ethics and laws,” constitutes “child sacrifice,” and has created a “silent Holocaust.”
The brief calls on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe, and two other pro-abortion decisions, Doe v. Bolton and Planned Parenthood v.Casey.
Quoting Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald in reference to abortion, the brief says, “There is a Holocaust taking place in America right now. We can’t hear it, because there are no barking dogs; we can’t see it, because there are no goose-stepping Nazi soldiers and no concentration camps; we can’t smell it because there are no gas chambers. But the net result is exactly the same. If we fail to act now . . . [t]he ‘silent Holocaust’ will have done its job, Hitler will have emerged victorious.”
[...]
Under the Nazis, who ruled for 12 years (1933-1945), an estimated 6 million Jews were killed. Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, more than 60 million babies have been killed by abortion in the U.S. alone. It is a “silent Holocaust” taking place in America, as Rabbi Buchwald said.
At some point after that -- CNS' search engine suggests that it happened on May 20 -- the Buchwald quote and reference was removed, as was a picture of Buchwald, and an editor's note placed at the top of the current version of the article:
CORRECTION: Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald was misquoted in the original version of this article. His quote has been removed, and CNS News apologizes for the error.
But that's not really accurate either. The brief from which Chapman cribbed the statement did quote him -- and continues to quote him -- saying that exact thing. But the brief lied about the context: Buchwald was talking about the assimilation of Jews into society who then may abandon their religion or simply obsess over the Holocaust, as well as a concern that Holocaust museums emphasize victimhood and not "communicate a joyous and positive message for Jewish life." The place where the ellipsis is in the quote makes that clear (deleted section in italics): "If we fail to act now, if we fail to share with our young Jews the beauty and meaningfulness of Jewish life and Jewish heritage, there will be few Jews left in the next generation who will even know that there ever was a Holocaust of European Jews."
Again: Buchwald wasn't misquoted -- Chapman accurately copied-and-pasted from the brief -- but the brief falsely portrayed the context of his quote and edited it to change its meaning. Weirdly, Chapman did not point out that the error was with the brief and not him, presumably to hide the fact that the brief got something wrong and highlighting it would harm the efficacy of the brief -- as if the brief hyperbolically attacking abortion as "child sacrifice" didn't also diminish the seriousness with which it should have been taken. Of course, as we know, the case in which the brief was filed did, in fact, overturn Roe v. Wade.
And there's something else Chapman was not going to point out: The false framing of Buchwald's quote appears to have originated with the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation, one of the parties behind the brief. A 2019 blog post displays Buchwald's words, dishonest ellipsis and all, under the headline "Why & How Jews Can Help Stop The Abortion Holocaust." The quote is repeated again at the end of the article, where readers are told "Keep in mind the prophetic words of Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald."
Perhaps we should instead keep in mind the dishonesty of this group, which feels that it must lie not only to its supporters but to the Supreme Court to push its agenda. Though Chapman gets a little blame as well for burying his cut-and-paste error.
MRC Slowly Backs Away From Musk After He Backs Out Of Twitter Deal Topic: Media Research Center
When last we checked in on the Media Research Center's hero worship of Elon Musk, it was still cheering his apparent all-but-done deal to buy Twitter and fawning over every pearl of alleged wisdom that tumbled out of his mouth. Cracks were beginning to show over the Twitter deal, though; a June 28 post by Autumn Johnson noted that "Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly told Twitter he needs more raw data from Twitter to determine the number of bot accounts on the platform." On July 6, though, Jeffrey Clark gushed that Musk "mocked Twitter’s out-of-control censorship in an American Revolution-themed post on Independence Day," before going on to complain that right-wing self-help guru Jordan Peterson for a transphobic tweet about actor Elliot Page (though, as per MRC style, he didn't explain why Twitter does not have the right to enforce its terms of service on its users).
When Musk pulled out of the deal to buy Twitter on July 8, Brian Bradley wrote what was effectively a press release for Musk:
Twitter refused to provide information on its fake or spam accounts, so Elon Musk is canceling his plan to buy the platform, according to a letter sent by Musk’s legal team to Twitter.
Musk asked Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to show evidence of Twitter’s claim that less than 5 percent of its accounts are fake or spam accounts before following through with purchasing the platform, according to a May 17 tweet. Musk said he believed that 20 percent of platform accounts were fake or spam.
Information on Twitter’s fake or spam accounts “is fundamental to Twitter’s business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement because it is needed to ensure Twitter’s satisfaction of the conditions to closing, to facilitate Mr. Musk’s financing and financial planning for the transaction, and to engage in transition planning for the business,” the letter from Musk’s legal team says. “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information.”
That's it -- Bradley made no effort to tell Twitter's side of the story and simply assumed that whatever Musk said was correct.
Meanwhile, Musk's life outside Twitter was getting messy: one of his children changed gender identity and sought a name change because “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form" (how terrible of a father do you have to be when you're among the world's richest people and one of your own children wants to sever ties with you?), and he got into a war with the MRC's beloved Donald Trump; Musk said it was time for Trump to “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset" and denied ever voting for him, to which Trump responded by calling him "another bullshit artist" who begged for government subsidies from him while he was president. He also didn't respond to his mother tweeting him happy birthday.
The MRC was silent on those things; when it was revealed that Musk has yet another baby mama -- fathering twins with an executive of one of the companies he owns -- it did grudgingly weigh in on that. Tierin-Rose Mandelburg complained in a July 11 post that "Former View Host Meghan McCain just low key put Elon Musk and Nick Cannon on blast in her op-ed for the Daily Mail, calling their baby making plans 'dystopian.'" (Cannon has eight children by five women.) The MRC used to look down on such immoral behavior; instead, Mandelburg cheered it by insisting that the situation "wasn't as creepy as McCain pointed out" and, hey, at least they didn't cause any abortions (that we know of): "People should get pregnant if and when they’re ready to, but you have to give Musk and Cannon credit too. In a world that has celebrated the slaughter of the unborn so publicly as of late, at least these celebrities support new birth!"
Meanwhile, things were percolating on the Twitter front as well. Twitter quickly assembled a legal team to decide how to respond to Musk's attempt to terminate the deal, and on July 13, the company sued Musk to force him to complete the deal. Oddly, that didn't draw a response from the MRC. It wasn't until Musk made plans to counter-sue -- and after it was reported that Musk had an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin -- that Catherine Salgado devoted a July 19 post to the legal aspect, which heavily relied on the right-wing New York Post for its information.
The MRC didn't address the issue again until a July 27 post by Johnson noting that "Twitter has scheduled a shareholder vote after Musk announced he wanted to pull out of his deal to buy the company," which copied-and-pasted from Bradley's earlier PR piece to fill it out.
It sure seems like Musk's luster has dimmed from the MRC now that he's trying to back out of his Twitter deal and his personal life becomes a mess in ways that the MRC's usual moral scolds can't quite tolerate.
Meanwhile, the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews.com, appears to be keeping up its hero worship for now. A July 27 article by Patrick Goodenough touted how Musk, who also runs SpaceX (where he fired employees who criticized him, casting doubt on his purported support of free speech), "offered a two-word response" -- "bon voyage" -- "to Russia’s reported plans to exit the International Space Station."
WND Still Trying To Falsely Credit MyPillow For Retailer's Woes Topic: WorldNetDaily
Back in January 2021, we busted WorldNetDaily for falsely claiming that a drop in the stock of retailer Bed Bath & Beyond was directly tied to a right-wing boycott of the company after it stopped carrying MyPillow products when that company's leader, Mike Lindell, insisted on spreading lies about election fraud. The writer of that bogus article, Art Moore, is still trying to credit the decision not to stock MyPillow for the retailer's continued woes, writing in a June 29 article:
Bed Bath & Beyond – one of the first companies to stop selling Mike Lindell's MyPillow products because he challenged the result of the 2020 presidential election – now is curbing the air conditioning in its stores to compensate for slumping sales, according to a report from Bank of America.
The nationwide retailer's decision in January 2021 to quit selling Lindell's products was met with a boycott. Later that month, shares of Bed Bath & Beyond plunged 36.4%, the biggest one-day loss since going public in June 1992.
The company began 2022 with a plan to close 37 stores across 19 states.
As before, Moore offered no evidence that any MyPillow-related activity has anything at all to do with issues at Bed Bath & Beyond. Indeed, he went on to note reports that "An easing of COVID restrictions means a lower demand for home goods and supply chain problems have led to a lack of inventory to attract customers."
But then, if Moore didn't insist on lying to his readers, he wouldn't have a story hook.
NEW ARTICLE: Newsmax Snipes At The Competition, Part 2 Topic: Newsmax
In pointing out Tucker Carlson's pro-Putin, anti-American attitudes over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Newsmax found an anti-Fox News narrative with some traction. Read more >>
MRC Fails In Defending YouTuber's Anti-Biden Tweet Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Jeffrey Clark declared in a June 13 post:
A 25-year-old YouTuber and boxer seems to have found a new political punching bag: President Joe Biden.
Jake Paul didn’t pull his punches when he listed five of Biden’s “accomplishments” in a June 11 tweet that went viral with over 130,000 likes and counting:
Highest gas prices
Worst inflation
Plummeting crypto prices
Highest rent prices ever
Created new incomprehensible language.
Paul told his over 4 million Twitter followers: “If you’re reading this and voted for Biden and you still don't regret it then you are the American problem."
A fact-checker might have a difficult time refuting Paul’s post. On an unadjusted basis, gas prices hit $5 on average nationwide for the first time ever on June 11, The Washington Times. Inflation also spiked to 8.6 percent for the steepest increase since December 1981, and average rent prices surged above $2,000 a month for the first time ever, according to NPR.
Actually, Paul's post is easily refuted, since neither he nor Clark provided any evidence that Biden is solely responsible for all of those things and identified no single policy that resulted in them.Paul andClark are merely invoking the correlation-equals-causation fallacy. But when those refuatations specifically targeted Paul blaming Biden for "plummeting crypto prices" -- after all, the main attraction of cryptocurrency for many people is that it's unregulated and largely beyond the reach of any governemnt -- Clark gamely attempted a retort:
Biden issued a March executive order to empower the government to regulate cryptocurrencies. Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have teased legislation for “ taxation of digital assets.” Former Twitter CEO and crypto proponent Jack Dorsey pushed back on the Biden administration’s attempts to control digital currency in a January 2021 letter: “Regulations that unnecessarily restrict the future of cryptocurrency are deeply concerning, specifically in the case of this Proposal which places undue burdens on consumers who seek to use it in their daily life.”
After Biden’s executive order and amid threat of more regulation, values of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have continued to spiral downward in recent weeks, with Ethereum alone “losing almost 20% [of its value] in the last 24 hours alone,” according to a June 13 Forbes article.
First: Dorsey's letter was dated Jan. 4, 2021 -- 16 days before Biden became president -- so he could not possibly have been criticizing "the Biden administration’s attempts to control digital currency." Second: The Forbes article reporting on plummeting crypto prices did not mention Biden's executive order as a factor, though it did point out that one cryptocurrency provider effectively collapsed and halted withdrawals. Indeed, Clark provides no evidence whatsoever that Biden's executive order -- which simply called for the government to look further into crypto's risks and benefits and investigate the possibility of a digital dollar currency -- had any effect on crypto markets.
Clark impressively failed in his task of defending Paul. Not a good image for his employer.
It took the Capitol riot for WorldNetDaily columnist to finally abandon his justification for right-wing evangelical loyalty to Donald Trump. It's something he has largely stuck with since. In his June 22 column, Brown stuck with it again, declaring that he would not support Trump as a 2024 presidential candidate:
Like a loyal right-wing "news" operation, Newsmax made sure to attack former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony before the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. First up was Eric Mack 
The 
Curtis Houck 
CNSNews.com opened up a new front in its 
When Anthony Fauci caught COVID in June, WorldNetDaily -- a sworn enemy of Fauci, particularly columnist 
We've noted
The theme of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine for July was "
Newsmax pundit Dick Morris has a legacy of failed prognosications, a good portion of which involve Hillary Clinton -- for instance, he 
Even though the Media Research Center loves to attack the non-right-wing media for each and every mistake it makes, its "news" division, CNSNews.com, tries to bury its mistakes -- to the point that we notice only when we stumble across them in looking for something else. For instance, managing editor Michael W. Chapman wrote in an 
When 
Back in January 2021, 
The Media Research Center's Jeffrey Clark declared in a June 13 
