Newsmax Tries To Get On 'Censorship' Bandwagon With Morris Book
Topic: Newsmax

Dick Morris has been all over Newsmax promoting his (Newsmax-published) pro-Trump book, so it was time to follow that up with an endorsement from the man himself in order to goose sales, and an Aug. 30 article by Nick Koutsobinas did the trick:

Former President Donald Trump is urging Americans to read the new bestselling book by Dick Morris.

It's called "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback" and predicts Trump is not only running for president again, but that he will overcome big odds to win again.

Writing on his Truth Social platform this weekend, Trump posted: "'The Return' is a fantastic political analysis of what very well may be taking place in the not too distant future. Dick Morris is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, who is also a true political pro. Great book, get it now!!"

"The Return" has been an Amazon #1 bestseller as well as a top 10 Publisher's Weekly bestseller.

An anonymously written Sept. 6 article touted the results of the plug:

Dick Morris' new book, "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback," continues to soar on the bestselling lists after former President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Last week Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social and made a post about the book.

"'The Return' is a fantastic political analysis of what very well may be taking place in the not too distant future," Trump wrote, seemingly confirming Morris' contention that the former president is, indeed, running again.

Trump continued: "Dick Morris is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, who is also a true political pro. Great book, get it now!!"

The social media push appeared to propel book sales.

"The Return" began the week as high as No. 4 on Amazon's overall bestsellers list. It tops the No. 1 spot on Amazon's lists in several key categories, including Elections, Political Parties and Political Advocacy. It also was No. 8 on the Publishers' Weekly list of bestsellers.

The article didn't mention that Morris has been an adviser to Trump, so it's hardly surprising Trump would endorse it, nor did it mention that the book was published by Newsmax book division Humanix.

Then it was time to play the old right-wing game of bashing the New York Times because Morris' book isn't on its bestseller list. The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy did the deed for his boss in a Sept. 13 article:

The New York Times' bestsellers list appears to be censoring Newsmax host Dick Morris and his new bestseller, "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback."

"The Return" is topping several bestseller lists, including Amazon, Publisher's Weekly, and others, but is nowhere to be found on the Times' nonfiction list.

Based on retail sales compiled by Bookscan for the week of Aug. 28, "The Return" should be No. 4 on the Times' list.

But Morris' book is nowhere to be found with more than 4,000 book sales for the week. But a book co-authored by Oprah Winfrey had less than 3,000 book sales and made the list at No. 9.

[...]

"The New York Times would not be caught dead promoting a book praising Donald Trump and calling for his reelection on its bestseller list, but any book criticizing Trump is guaranteed top billing," Morris told Newsmax Tuesday.

McCarthy did not cite any evidence that the Bookscan list is what the Times bases its bestseller lists on. Instead, he complained that "Conservatives have long criticized the Times bestseller list as having a liberal bias and de-ranking right-leaning titles," which ignores that conservative publishers routinely game the Times lists by selling books in bulk to activists; the Times also notes that bulk sales drove a book's positioning on the list, which also irks conservatives. McCarthy also didn't disclose that Newsmax published Morris' book. This suggests that Newsmax is either not buying Morris' books in bulk or is doing it so blatantly that the NYT is on to the game.

McCarthy returned for a Sept. 19 article in an attempt to push the same line again:

Newsmax host Dick Morris’ "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback" continues to make a big impression on national bestseller lists — hitting the top 10 of the respected Wall Street Journal’s nonfiction bestseller lists.

But The New York Times continues its censorship of "The Return" despite it outselling almost all the books on its top 15 list.

"The Return" soared six spots to place No. 7 on Publisher’s Weekly hardcover nonfiction list as of Monday morning in its 13th week among the top 25.

Morris’ book also hit The Wall Street Journal’s list for hardcover nonfiction at No. 8 for the week ending Sept. 10.

Again, McCarthy failed to explain why the Times is obligated to mirror other lists, and he again failed to disclose that his employer published the book he's plugging. He also didn't mention that the Wall Street Journal has a right-wing bias, which arguably makes Morris' appearance on the list suspect.

Why is Newsmax making a big deal out of this? Because appearanes on bestseller lists creates a virtuous cycle of boosting book sales, and because the Times list is the most prestigious, an appearance there increases sales the most. In other words: Newsmax is crying "censorship" solely to increase book sales. That's all.

WND's Latest Conspiracy Theory: Biden Blew Up The Nord Stream Pipeline!
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Conspiracy theories are the lifeblood of WorldNetDaily -- no rational person considers it a "news" operation, after all -- so when the Nord Stream pipeline out of Russia was damaged, WND snapped into conspiracy mode. A Sept. 28 article by Bob Unruh set the stage:

This week the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, which had been shut down by Russia amid its war on Ukraine after they were built to supply energy to Germany and other points, were found to have massive leaks, leaving gas bubbling to the surface.

And sabotage is suspected.

Now multiple reports confirm that the CIA had warned Germany weeks ago that there could be war-like attacks on the supply lines.

[...]

The apparent destruction brought immediately to mind a promise from Joe Biden, just about a year ago, that if Russia invaded Ukraine, there soon would no longer be a Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Later in the day, Unruh cranked out another "news" article embracing Tucker Carlson's conspiracy theory under the headline "Did Joe Biden blow up Nord Stream pipeline?"

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in a commentary about the apparent vandalism of the Nord Stream undersea natural gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, says it's hard to comprehend, but the facts are that the "people who very may well be responsible for letting methane into the Baltic Sea and into the atmosphere at a scale that most people can't imagine" could be officials in the U.S. government.

"The people lecturing you about your SUV may have blown up a natural gas pipeline and created one of the great catastrophes of our time in its effect on the environment," he explained.

[...]

He pointed out Vladimir Putin may be "evil," "but is he stupid? Probably isn't stupid and yet and, here's the strange part, if you were Vladimir Putin, you would have to be a suicidal moron to blow up your own energy pipeline. That's the one thing you would never do. "

He said those pipelines are Putin's "main source" of power and wealth and most critically, leverage over other countries.

The funny thing is, WND used to bash Biden for allegedly allowing the Nord Stream 2 pipleline to be finished in the first place. In a June 2021 article, for instance, Unruh uncritically touted Trump lackey Richard Grenell huffing that after a White House meeting between Biden and Putin, "the Russian leader has plenty to boast about, since the Biden administration essentially made him a gift of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline." When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Unruh's boss, Joseph Farah, blamed the war on Biden because "he gave Germany the green light to sign a deal with Russia for the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline. Vladimir Putin saw all this and decided it was just the right moment to fulfill his dream of putting the Soviet Union back together." WND columnist David Harsanyi asserted that "Biden also strengthened Putin's hand by waiving Trump-era sanctions on a company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany."

But being WND, there was a pipeline conspiracy breing even back then; a column by pro-Putin homophobe Scott Lively claimed that "Some even suggest that stopping this pipeline is the real goal of the Biden administration because U.S. influence in Europe would diminish as Russia's grew."

But not an official WND conspiracy theory unless Joseph Farah buys in, and he did exactly that in his Sept. 29 column:

The EU has said leaks in two major gas pipelines from Russia to Europe were caused by sabotage.

But who ordered it? Was it Russia? Or someone else?

Joe Biden said some pretty amazing things in an open press conference on Feb 7 of this year: If Russia invades Ukraine, he said, "then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2 [pipeline]. We will bring an end to it. I promise you, we will be able to do that."

After regurgitating much of Unruh's article quoting Carlson, Farah ranted:

Despite the "coincidence" of Biden making the startling statement in February, no one in the press takes him at his word.

So I wonder who called this potentially disastrous and dangerous shot?

If not Biden, was it his keeper?

Maybe the Republicans can figure it out in January.

Farah didn't mention that he criticized Biden some months earlier for giving Germany the OK to complete the pipeline.

Meanwhile, neither Unruh nor Farah mentioned that Carlson's case of blaming Biden for the Nord Stream attack is weak at best and that it got heavy airplay on Putin-controlled Russian TV, meaning that the conspiracy theory plays into Putin's hands. Instead, Unruh parroted more Carlson conspiracy-mongering in an Oct. 4 article:

Now Carlson is charging that the Biden administration has confessed to doing the damage.

In a new video commentary he noted who did it is "not really much of a question any more."

That's because Tony Blinken, Biden's secretary of state, "admitted we did it."

There's "no mistaking what he meant," Carlson said.

Blinken, in fact, said, "It's a tremendous opportunity once and for all to remove the dependence on Russian energy, and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs."

Blinken said, "That's very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunities for the years to come."

Carlson said, "That's the clearest admission we're ever going to get. … No one could miss it, least of all the Russians. … The Biden administration is responsible either directly or through proxies for the destruction of the … pipeline."

In fact, Blinken made no such admission. Unruh also failed to mention how Carlson's conspiracy theory is getting lots of play on Russian TV.

Meanwhile, James Zumwalt bought into the conspiracy in his Oct. 5 column:

Clearly, the explosions were the work of saboteurs – but the question is who would have done it and why? While the blame game – Russia accusing the European Union and the U.S. with both the latter accusing Russia – has started, there is an effective way to determine who is responsible.

However, let us first examine the arguments concerning who had the most to gain from such an act of sabotage.

Why would Russia sabotage its own pipelines that provide an economic lifeline for the country's biggest exports – oil and gas?

[...]

But we have a tremendous asset to provide us with a quick answer to "whodunit." We need only to seek out its wise counsel.

That asset is a group of 51 intelligence experts who proved their bona fides to us when the issue of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop computer first came to light. The laptop held damning evidence about Hunter's criminal actions as well as the involvement of his father in receiving compensation for his son's business deals with China. The FBI had this "laptop from hell" in its possession for many months beforehand but failed to act on its contents. We now know that was due to the political actions of a pro-Biden FBI cabal, free-wheeling within the agency. And, as the timing of the laptop's revelation was just before the 2020 presidential election, this group of 51 intelligence experts assured us it did not belong to Hunter but, rather, was the product of a Russian counter-intelligence effort to undermine Joe Biden's election.

We need to solicit the opinion of these 51 experts again as to whose fingerprints they believe to be on the Nord Stream leak. Based on what they say, we will then know the answer is the opposite of what they tell us.

Unruh was still at it in an Oct. 10 article, ostensibly highlighting how satellites are capturing the greenhouse gas emissions from the leak but then rehashing Carlson's unproven, conspiratorial claims.

 

NEW ARTICLE: The MRC Takes It Out On Liz Cheney
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center denied it was news that the Republican congresswoman was ousted from GOP leadership for not loving Trump enough, then bashed her for serving on the Capitol riot committee and cheered that she lost her Republican primary. Read more >>

MRC Stays On Team Musk During His Latest Twitter Flip-Flop
Topic: Media Research Center

As Elon Musk's attempted purchase of  Twitter took even more turns, the Media Research Center continued in Musk her-worship mode. A Sept. 20 post by Autumn Johnson noted that "Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly gave a deposition Tuesday for the ongoing lawsuits between the company and Elon Musk," and a Sept. 30 post by Johnson repeated Musk's usual complaints about the number of bot accounts on Twitter.

When Musk suddenly flip-flopped and declared he would buy Twitter after all following months of trying to get out of the $44 billion purchase deal he agreed to earlier this year, the MRC stayed on Team Elon. Joseph Vazuez wrote in an Oct. 4 post:

The world’s richest man just shattered the internet again by reportedly agreeing to proceed with his $44 billion acquisition deal for Twitter.

Bloomberg News reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now “proposing to buy Twitter Inc. for the original offer price of $54.20 a share.”

The outlet continued: “Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to the people who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.” Twitter shares reportedly “climbed as much as 18% on the news, after trading was briefly halted.”

MRC President Brent Bozell responded to the news on Twitter: “I can see why Elon Musk would turn his back on the lying leftists at Twitter, but for the sake of free speech I hope this deal still happens.”

This new development in the Musk-Twitter saga follows a protracted back-and-forth legal battle between the leftist Big Tech platform and Musk over Twitter’s transparency on the amount of bot accounts active on its platform. The whole ordeal caused Musk to initially move to nix the acquisition.

Johnson spouted a few hours later:

Liberals are having an epic meltdown on Twitter after the platform reportedly reached an agreement with Tesla CEO Elon Musk for Musk to finally acquire the platform.

[...]

After the news went public, several prominent liberals expressed apparent outrage over the deal’s pending success.

Adam Parkhomenko, a self-described strategist for the Democratic Party, tweeted that Musk would shut liberal accounts down to silence them.

“Elon Musk didn’t like that we were all laughing at him for being a gutless chickenshit so he’s going to buy twitter and shut us all up,” he tweeted.

Neither Vazquez nor Johnson admitted that Parkhomenko was hinting at the truth: As the Washington Post reported, Musk's complaints about too many bot accounts was negated by the fact that he waived due diligence before signing the purchase deal and, as another observer noted, Musk knew all about the bot-account issue before signing the deal and the only real legal options he had was to pay Twitter billions to back out of the deal or to just buy the company at the price to which he agreed.

The MRC reprised its usual agenda items:

• An Oct. 5 post by Clay Waters complained that a New York Times reporter "who shares a censorious streak with many of his tech colleagues, reacted with dismay on the news that space entrepreneur Elon Musk’s on-again, off-again courtship of social media platform Twitter is back on again."
• Johnson huffed in an Oct. 6 post that "Twitter has reportedly declined Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s renewed offer to purchase the platform for $44 billion in an effort to keep the trial going," ignoring the fact that Musk's dishonest, erratic behavior doesn't exactly engender trust.
• P.J. Gladnick wrote in an Oct. 7 post that a Politico article was "freaking out" over a "fear that Musk will ditch censorship at Twitter." Of course, what Gladnick calls "censorship" most normal people call "content moderation" done to curtail extremism and improve the user experience -- which Twitter, as a private company, has every right to do (though Gladnick didn't concede that inconvenient fact).

While it was in Musk hero-worship mode, the MRC stayed silent on new Musk controversies, like his apparent communication with Vladimir Putin that  resulted in him tweeting a "peace plan" between Russia and Ukraine that would call for Russia to give up Crimea and other land in its country, womething that didn't go over well with most freedom-loving people, including one particular Ukranian diplomat. Musk also advised that China aborb Taiwan into a "special administrative zone" like Hong Kong -- after which China awarded tax breaks to Tesla cars being sold in the country. The MRC also stayed silent about Musk taking a shot at Donald Trump's Truth Social operation -- bad news about which the MRC is also censoring -- as a biased right-wing "echo chamber."

Johnson found a new Musk thing to gush over in an Oct. 20 post:

Elon Musk will reportedly eliminate around 5,500 Twitter employees when his acquisition of the company is complete.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Musk’s purchase is a “golden ticket for the struggling company” that will “potentially help[] its leadership avoid painful announcements that would have demoralized the staff and possibly crippled the service’s ability to combat misinformation, hate speech and spam.”

The report said the layoffs could save Twitter hundreds of millions of dollars, and added that Musk has told insiders that he is paying too much for Twitter.

“'Although, obviously, myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now, the long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,'” he reportedly said.

Johnson didn't mention that Musk was the one who agreed to overpay for Twitter, so he really has nothing to complain about, especially since he's more than rich enough that he can easily afford to do so.

Another WND Columnist Falsely Fearmongers About (Nonexistent) Digital 'Biden Bucks'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Joseph Farah isn't the only WorldNetDaily columnist who's falsely fearmongering about a Biden administration executive order exploring digital currency. Patrice Lewis served up her take in her Sept. 30 column:

Of the many horrors introduced by the Biden administration – open borders inviting millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, including human traffickers, criminals, and terrorists; untold quantities of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs flooding the nation; shutting down pipelines and otherwise making our nation energy-vulnerable; inflation due to rampant money printing – one of the most horrifying is coming down the pipeline. I refer to digital currency.

In Biden's vision, digital currency will "advance democracies to lift people up, not to hold them down." Naturally, digital currency is being offered as a "solution" to problems we never realized we had. It's touted as far more efficient, easy, environmentally beneficial and even more sanitary than paper currency. With digital currency, gone are the troublesome days when cash must be printed or minted. Now the government can flood the system with untold trillions of digital dollars at the push of a button. Now that's efficiency!

But despite whatever pretty words they use, there is no question digital currency is a horror show waiting to happen.

[...]

When traditional currency is phased out, everyone will suffer. You can no longer tip your hairdresser or drop a few bucks into a homeless person's cup. You can no longer sell unneeded items at a yard sale or send your grandkid a $10 bill in a birthday card.

Bitcoin expert Anthony Pompliano calls digital currency "one of the greatest violations of human rights in history." He writes, "Once a central bank digital currency is in the hands of a population, the central bank has solidified complete control. They will no longer have to go to the court system or invoke emergency powers to tell you who you can transact with. This can all be implemented through remote, digital technologies. These central bankers will be able to see what is in your bank account, who you transact with, what you purchase, and anything else they are curious about in your financial life. That full transparency with the state removes all elements of privacy, while also giving the institutions the ability to censor any and all transactions, regardless of whether they have a legitimate reason or not."

No wonder the current administration is slavering to introduce the so-called "Biden Bucks."

Actually, nobody is "slavering" to do anything. As we pointed out when Farah served up similar fearmongering, the only thing the Biden executive order does is explore whether the Federal Reserve should even get involved in issuing digital currency and the legislative hurdles involved in doing so.But because facts don't matter to Lewis, the fearmongering continued:

The fact is, digital currency is being introduced for one reason, and one reason only: so it can be weaponized against political enemies. And as Biden himself has made abundantly clear in the last few weeks, his political enemies include anyone and everyone who doesn't wholeheartedly support his growing reign of terror.

Digital currency will allow the government to seize assets at will. Forget those middle-of-the-night FBI raids; just click a button, and the victim has nothing. The mere threat of this possibility will be enough to bring all but the most die-hard rebels into line with the régime.

[...]

If you think the term "digital concentration camp" sounds extreme and over-the-top, think again. If the government decides to punish you, you're toast. You can't pay your power bill, so your electricity is shut off. You can't pay your water bill, so your water is shut off. You can't buy gas, so you can't drive. You can't pay your rent or mortgage, so you're evicted. You can't pay your property taxes, so your (paid-for) home is seized. You can't buy food. Forget medical care; that's out of the question.

This cascading series of events can happen literally at the push of a button. You won't be jailed, but you won't have to be. Your life will become a living hell.

[...]

You might claim this is mere conspiracy theory, but imagine this: Had digital currency been around two years ago, would it have been tied to mandatory COVID vaccines? Short answer: Yes. No vaccine, no access to your money. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Lewis cited no authoritative source to back up her claim that this will all be happening imminently -- just her fellow conspiracy theorists.

Newsmax Censors Trump's Humiliation Of Vance In Ohio Rally Coverage
Topic: Newsmax

Like the pro-Trump sycophants they are, Newsmax is continuing to air Donald Trump's weekend rallies -- but has a habit of declining to report on happenings at those rallies in which he undermines himself or the candidate he's ostenibly rallying for. Luca Cacciatore teased one rally in a Sept. 16 article:

Former President Donald Trump is flying to Ohio this weekend in support of his endorsed Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race, J.D. Vance, The Hill reported.

Vance, a venture capitalist and the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," is currently leading Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan in a RealClearPolitics average of the polls conducted thus far by a margin of 2.7 points.

Cacciatore surprisingly didn't plug his employer and tell readers that Newsmax was airing the rally.

After the rally -- which, yes, aired on Newsmax -- the website was hit with the usual post-rally Trump stenography, all by Sandy Fitzgerald:

• Trump Slams Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan as 'Militant Left-Winger,' Liar
• Trump: Dems' 'Wild Socialist Spree' to Blame for Economy
• Trump: 'FBI Colluded With Russia'
• Trump: 'Thugs, Tyrants' Awakened a 'Sleeping Giant'
• Trump: Dems 'Been Trying for 6 Years' to Get Me

Now how few of those articles are focused on what the rally is supposed the about and are instead focused on Trump's personal grievances. And Fitzgerald, loyal pro-Trump stenographer that she is, is certainly not going to write anything bad -- even though there were bad things that happened.

First, the rally was scheduled against a Ohio State football game, a no-no in a state like Ohio where college football is religion. Second, Trump ended up embarassing Vance by bragging that Vance "is kissing my ass, he wants my support” -- not exactly a ringing endorsement of Vance as a strong candidate, unless what you want is a Trump sycophant.

That, of course, came back to haunt Vance in an Oct. 10 debate, where Ryan roasted Vance over Trump's boast and declared that "Ohio needs an ass-kicker, not an ass-kisser." Newsmax didn't report that either, of course; instead, days later, it gave Vance a TV slot to rage about purported "racial" attacks on his biracial family.

CNS Hides Scammy History Of Eric Trump's Charity
Topic: CNSNews.com

Craig Bannister studiously repeated a Trump in-law's Fox News rant in a Sept. 22 CNSNews.com article:

New York Attorney General Letitia James doesn’t care about the safety of the people of her state, but only about her vendetta against anyone with the last name Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law said Thursday.

Appearing on Fox & Friends to react to AG James’ announcement Wednesday that she had filed a lawsuit seeking $250 million in damages from Donald Trump and members of his family, including her husband, Lara Lea Trump noted that James ran for office by promising, not to make New York safer, but to prosecute Donald Trump.

[...]

AG James even went after her husband when he was 22 years old and started a charity that raised $30 million for the kids at Saint Jude Children’s Hospital, Mrs. Trump explained:

“My husband started a charity to raise money for kids at Saint Jude Children's Hospital when he was 22 years old. He raised $30 million for the kids at Saint Jude - and Letitia James has such vitriol and hatred for anyone with the last name Trump that she decided to investigate my husband's charity, despite the fact that it had one of the lowest expense ratios of any private charity in America.

“And, unfortunately, guess who was hurt by that? It wasn’t my husband. It was the kids of Saint Jude’s.

“Who knows how many kids have died unnecessarily thanks to her investigation and just vitriol and hatred of anyone with the last name Trump?”

Because Bannister is a stenographer, not a reporter, he's not about to remind his readers that Eric Yrump's charity was a scam. As Wonkette explained:

The scammy nature of the Trump charities is well-known, so much so that NY AG James did in fact shut down the Trump Foundation slush fund for criming and other slushes too. Then there was the Eric Trump Foundation, which seemed to be the only one of them that actually tried to do any good, but as time went on it also became apparent that young Eric's foundation was getting really good at funneling money toward Daddy's businesses. Lara Trump talks about how Eric's charity had such a low expense ratio, but if you read the big Forbes expose from 2017, you'll see how that low expense ratio was kind of fake. Donors were told their money was all going to kids with cancer, and that Daddy Trump was donating his golf courses and other things free of charge. But it turned out the Trump Organization was in actuality charging the Eric Trump Foundation a premium for its services. And why? Because Donald Trump lost his shit when he found out kids with cancer might be getting some of the money he felt entitled to.

Yay! Laundering charitable donations between family members is fun and easy! Anyway, Tish James didn't even shut down Eric Trump's foundation, she just started asking questions and he stopped the whole thing.

And as ProPublica has reported, St. Jude's has billions of dollars in reserves, so whatever money Eric Trump's little foundation was actually getting to the hospital isn't exactly being missed, and absolutely no kids died because of that.

Bannister, meanwhile, doesn't think you should know anything about that.

MRC Writer Still In Love With Kanye West -- Even After His Anti-Semitic Rant
Topic: Media Research Center

We've documented how the Media Research Center flip-flopped on its hatred of foul-mouthed rapper Kanye West to portray him as a champion of conservative values after he started palling around with Donald Trump. So when Ye (as he has changed his name to) surfaced for a little more of the kind of right-wing provocation the MRC loves, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg lovingly wrote about it in an Oct. 4 post:

Kanye may not have won the 2020 election but he did just win the hearts of those who agree that the Black Lives Matter movement is built on a lie. 

Kanye West debuted controversial “White Lives Matter” attire during Paris Fashion Week in France. Numerous celebrities pitched a fit but West doubled down on his views insisting that “Black Lives Matter was a scam.”

His shirts were long-sleeved and featured the late Pope John Paul II on the front and the words “White Lives Matter” printed on the back. 

West wore the T-shirt while giving a speech before the show that triggered grouches in the audience and online.

[...]

BET News host Marc Lamont Hill called West’s shirts “disgusting” and “dangerous.” Hill posted a photo where West stood alongside none other than Candice Owens who smiled in support of the message. 

Mandelburg didn't mention that the effort to field West as a presidential candidate was actually fueled by Republican operatives in a failed attempt to split black Democrats from Joe Biden.

Mandelburg went on to gush about how West posted asince-deleted post on his Instagram feed screeching, “EVERYONE KNOWS THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER WAS A SCAM NOW IT’S OVER YOU’RE WELCOME,” declaring him "actually correct" and reciting her own well-rehearsed right-wing talking points: "The Black Lives Matter movement, in and of itself, is a corrupt, self-proclaimed Marxist money making ploy. There’s been numerous reports of million dollar mansions bought as well as various money funneling allegations by the founders of the movement." Mandelburg didn't explain how something could be both "Marxist" and a "money making ploy" given how Marxists are not known for their love of capital.

A few days later, West appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, and Mandelburg was in right-wing heaven again:

BRB, adding Kanye West’s music to my daily mix.

Ye has been trending as of late but not just for his music. The 45-year-old rapper sat down with Fox News on the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show on Thursday, where he professed his pro-life, pro-God, pro-Trump views and more. 

The interview comes just days after "Ye" received massive blowback over his controversial “White Lives Matter” shirt design that he presented at Paris Fashion Week, and in a photo with Conservative Candice Owens. Tucker asked the rapper about the pushback during their interview.

“As an artist, you don’t have to give an explanation but as a leader you do,” Ye said, after quoting his own father’s reaction to the shirt which was “Just a black man stating the obvious."

[...]

Again, Ye is unphased and to put it simply, just wants to honor God. 

“God builts warriors in a different way … He made me for such a time like this.” Then Ye brought up the story of David and Golioth likening himself to David as they both “have God on our side.”

“Even if you don’t believe in God, God believes in you," he said.

Unfortunately for Mandelburg's narrative of West as a God-loving right-winger, West went full anti-Semitic a couple days later, declaring in a tweet he was "going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE" and bizarrely caiming that "The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew."

What was really bizarre, though: In an Oct. 11 post -- two days after West's anti-Semitic tweet -- Mandelburg was still crushing on Ye and his right-wing values, with the help of Candace Owens. She actually started her post by declaring, "Ye and Candice Owens are freakin’ savage." Well, yes, anti-Semitism is quite savage. But Mandelburg was in full gush mode:

Tucker Carlson’s part one interview with Ye went viral last week when Ye explained he was pro-life, pro-God and liked Trump. In part two of the interview, Ye dove further into his salvation and walk with Jesus and Carlson invited Daily Wire’s Candace Owens to speak on her and Ye’s matching “White Lives Matter” shirts. 

On Monday night’s segment, Carlson asked West about his choice to wear the “White Lives Matter” shirt and about his photo with Owens in her matching tee.

The more and more I lean into God and work for God, the more wins God is gonna bestow on our team, on Jesus gang. And for me to just go out and just state an obvious and empathetic statement in the middle of the most liberal century, that was like Tiananmen Square. With Candace Owens. And we both wore the shirt at the same time. You know, we've got some Jesus soldiers out here. People say they're willing to die for it but we live for it. We are living for the battle and what's the battle for? Life itself. Our children. 

Legendary move on Ye and Owen’s part. The mere irony of two black people wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts to show that the BLM movement is in fact a scam, is awesome. 

Power moves only.

Does Mandelburg think Ye's anti-Semitism is a "power move" that is "legendary"? She doesn't say, though it is in a certain kind of way. The gushing continued:

Owens said that the second worst thing someone could be in America is a “white, straight male.” Noting that it’s “too normal” so progressives attack it! “People are dying to say that they are anything but being white.”

Owens finally noted the impact that the “White Lives Matter” shirts had mentioning that white people at farmers markets were thanking her for “allowing us to have our voices back.”

“There’s a vicious narrative around that somehow black Americans are suffering from policing and therefore white lives can’t matter. They do, it’s obvious, Kanye was correct,” Owens concluded.

Mic freakin’ drop. 

If we only have one takeaway from the controversy surrounding Ye and Owen’s “White Lives Matter” t-shirts it's that our society is comprised of so many pansy’s who make a mountain out of a molehill when something doesn’t fit the leftist narrative.

It's not until the final paragraph in her gushy post that she gets around to briefing mentioning the elephant in the room: "Now, Ye, about those anti-Semitic tweets ..." And that's all she had to say about it -- she couldn't even be borthered to actually criticize him. And no word on whether Mandelburg is still "adding Kanye West’s music to my daily mix."

The next day, in a post complaining that "former Disney Channel star Vanessa Hudgens announced a new documentary to talk about her connection to the spiritual realm of witchcraft," Mandelburg referenced West as a cancel-culture victim: "Most recently, the left lambasted Kanye West after going on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show and talking about his pro-life and pro-God stance and how he 'liked Trump' during the 2016 election." She didn't reference West's anti-Semitic attack at all.

Apparently, being a sufficiently right-wing shill gets you a free pass from the MRC -- even if you're an odioius anti-Semite.

WND Still Clinging To Ray Epps Conspiracy Theory
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has been obsessed for quite some time with Ray Epps, a participant in the Capitol riot, looking to frame him as an agent provocateur who was somehow responsible for other people breaking the law. Nearly two years on, WND is still clinging to conspiracy theories about Epps; a July 14 article by Art Moore complained that the New York Times did what WND would and actually looked into Epps's story and cleared him of being some kind of secret government agent, calling in a fellow conspiracy theorist for backup:

Why did the New York Times run a story in defense of the one man who has been captured on video urging people to storm the Capitol on the day before the Jan. 6 riot and then directing the breach of the guarded perimeter while Donald Trump was still speaking one mile away?

That's what Revolver News reporter Darren Beattie wants to know. It was Beattie who brought attention to the mysterious Ray Epps last fall, presenting video and other evidence to support the theory that the Arizona man was among many federal government operatives acting as provocateurs on Jan. 6.

In an article Thursday for Revolver News, Beattie breaks down the Times "puff piece," which opens by describing Epps as "a man whose life has been ruined by a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory."

The Times says Epps "has suffered enormously in the past 10 months as right-wing media figures and Republican politicians have baselessly described him as a covert government agent who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol last year."

But Beattie digs out the buried lede of the story by the "paper of record," which is titled "It's just been hell: Life as the victim of a Jan 6 conspiracy theory."

The Times refers to a text message Epps sent to his nephew describing how he "orchestrated movements of people" to the Capitol after Trump's speech.

Beattie, providing a video compilation (embedded below) of Epps "orchestrating movements," wonders what Epps said in that text and whether it at least hinted as his motive for driving all the way to Washington to direct people into the Capitol.

The Times apparently never asked Epps that foundational question.

And it apparently never occurred to Beattie or Moore that there is no there there, that the reference meant nothing sinister. Moore also didn't explain why anyone should believe  eattie a conspiracy theorist who was told to resign from a federal commission after spouting bogus Capitol riot conspiracy theories.

Instead of fact-checking anything Beattie  said about Epps, Moore quoted him uncritically claiming that the Times is "kicking off a massive damage control campaign to make any unsanctioned ideas about Epps too toxic and dangerous to print."

Moore found another less-than-trustworthy source to attack Epps for an Aug. 4 article:

A Jan. 6 defendant who faces decades in prison on charges related to the Capitol riot wants to know why the Arizona man he claims tried to recruit him to go inside the Capitol – and is seen in numerous videos doing the same – is not "on the stand to answer the tough questions."

"Why is Ray Epps not in jail for inciting the crowd or obstruction of Congress or seditious conspiracy?" writes Sean Michael McHugh, a California business owner and father of four, in a letter published by the Gateway Pundit.

"Where is equal application of the law?" McHugh asks. "Who was he there with? What were his motives and who does he work for? Why did he keep repeating that we need to go inside not only a day before January 6th but even after being met with police force outside the Capitol?"

McHugh faces decades in prison on federal charges, including assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon, obstruction of justice and physical violence on Capitol grounds. Officials with the U.S. Attorney's office released photos they said show McHugh shouting into a bullhorn during the riot. Court documents say he was caught on police body camera spraying officers with an unknown yellow chemical and that he pushed a metal sign into a line of officers while shouting at them.

He has been imprisoned for more than a year in what he describes as "very inhuman conditions" he believes are designed to "make me plead guilty under duress."

Yes, Moore thinks a violent thug like McHugh is a credible source -- and even then, he undersold McHugh's rap sheet (he also spent time in jail on a statutory rape conviction) nor did he explain how McHugh's violence is connected to Epps. Indeed, Moore seemed to walk that back a bit by admitting that McHugh said he only had "coincidental contact" with Epps and "people who appeared to be working in concert" with him. Again, it still doesn't make this criminal trustworthy.

Moore grumbled some more that folks weren't buying into the Epps conspiracy theory in a Sept. 25 article:

Reacting to a Republican resolution demanding the Justice Department turn over documents related to suspected federal informant Ray Epps, a member of the Jan. 6 committee insisted during a House hearing there was nothing to see.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was being pressed by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who noted that Epps was interviewed by the Jan. 6 committee and a transcript had been promised.

Raskin argued "none of the transcripts have been released,

"You guys are trying to make this poor schmuck who showed up to this protest into something a lot bigger than he is. OK?" Raskin said. "He's just trying to survive, and he's on your side. You don't have many voters left, and you might want to try to hang on to them without demonizing and vilifying your own people. That’'s the Donald Trump way – sell everybody else down the road – unless you can get a pardon."

Raskin concluded: "Now you guys are doing it to this poor Ray Epps. Leave that guy alone! Whoever he is."

Epps is the one man who has been captured on video urging people to storm the Capitol on the day before the Jan. 6 riot and then directing the breach of the guarded perimeter while Donald Trump was still speaking one mile away.

He was one of three men whose name mysteriously disappeared from the FBI's Capitol Violence Most Wanted list.

Moore then rehashed the claims from Beattie and McHugh without, again, bothering to explain why anyone should consider them to be trustworthy.

MRC Complains New Obi-Wan Kenobi Isn't Manly Enough
Topic: Media Research Center

Marvel and DC aren't the only fantastical universes the Media Research Center has been bashing for failing to conform to right-wing orthodoxy. Summer intern Michael Ippolito -- who has a thing about masculinity -- devoted a June 3 post to complaining that a new iteration of Obi-Wan Kenobi was insufficiently manly, and he has apparently decided that not manly enough for the MRC's purposes is exactly the same thing as "grooming":

The attack on male characters never stops coming from the groomer kingdom Disney. The House of Mouse wants to ensure that every male character is emasculated to make way for their new diverse and PC characters. The days of strong and silent male characters are long gone, and here come the weak beta males. 

Disney’s most lucrative property, Star Wars, has released a new television series for its streaming service Disney + titled “Kenobi.” The series focuses on the iconic science fiction hero Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor, during his time on Tatooine. Three episodes have been released so far, revealing Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s goal to make every male hero a bumbling fool of himself. Not surprising, based on her previous comments that“The Force is Female.” 

The degradation of male heroes is evident in this new series. Obi-Wan Kenobi was portrayed as a stoic hero who was not afraid of putting himself in harm's way. He was dedicated, competent, and brave. However, after a few doses of Disney’s woke brand, the character has become a shell of his former self. This new woke Obi-Wan is bitter, cowardly, and chooses to run away from his responsibility. As described by YouTuber Overlord DVD, Obi-Woke Kenobi is now an old hermit in despair: “He hasn’t been practicing his Force skills so they’re pretty much of little use to him in an emergency and, worse, Kenobi no longer even believes in the mission” 

Soy Kenobi “No longer believes in the Jedi. As badly as Kenobi has neglected his mission and failed in every regard, that way, he is shown to be even more cowardly than Luke.”

Characters that once inspired audiences are now vessels for a woke agenda. We see Kenobi overshadowed by female characters who either boss him around or constantly save him from danger throughout the show. This is no shocker given that all-new Star Wars media has brought back classic male heroes to make them weaker and overshadowed by their female counterparts.

Ippolito didn't explain why some random guy who makes YouTube videos is any sort of authority on anything beyond his spouting of accepted right-wing narratives.

Ippolito also whined that a "Kenobi" co-star pushed back at racist comments from fans (like Ippolito?) and that she had support from the franchise in doing so:

What’s worse is the off-screen propaganda Disney is promoting. When fans were criticizing actress Moses Ingram, who stars alongside Ewan, about her character, she immediately played the race card. Star Wars went to her defense online, and even McGregor stepped in on Twitter to say, “You’re no Star Wars fan in my Mind” if you don’t accept this new woke character. If Ingram is dealing with racist comments, she should handle it professionally, not send the woke mob after her audience.

Ippolito offered no evidence to support his claim that Ingram's caracter is "woke," or did he offer any proof that there weren't racist attacks on her -- or why she, but not the racists, was the one "playing the race card." And isn't sending mobs after people and businesses it doesn't like what the MRC does for a living, making it a profession and, thus, no different from what Ingram did (which was merely posting images of the racism on her Instagram account)? White didn't detail what his version of "professionally" responding to racism looks like.

Ippolito concluded with yet another rant: "This is not a shock coming from Disney. The openly progressive company has turned every beloved character into crusaders for their woke cause. Children, who used to grow up watching positive figures on television, will now have leftist propaganda shoved in their faces. If they speak, they better be ready to be branded a racist." Again, Ippolito failed to show that any of the racist attacks faced by Ingram somehow weren't actually racist.

Ippolito returned for a July 6 post complaining that our favorite Luke Skywalker made a joke about abortion on the internet and, of coruse, turned into a personal attack:

Another woke Hollywood lefty is on the loose with more terrible takes on abortion. So get your lightsaber, because Star Wars actor Mark Hamill just gave one that’ll make you wish you were getting force-choked.

Following a common theme on left-wing Twitter, Hamill demonized couples willing to adopt babies from unplanned pregnancies as malicious, discrediting the 36 couples that wait for every one baby that is adopted. Instead of allowing the baby to grow up in a household, Hamill would rather see the baby murdered. 

Sick stuff.

But is it that surprising coming from this lefty loony? Does Mark Hamill forget his most famous role involves a character that is adopted into a family to give him a better life? What Hamill doesn’t want known is that he reportedly pressured his son’s former girlfriend into almost having an abortion. When Los Angeles model Maegan Chen was pregnant with Hamill’s grandchild, he advocated for getting rid of the baby.

Actually, Hamill was just playing into a meme that started with a photo of a creepy-looking couple holding a "We Will Adopt Your Baby" sign. We're sorry that Ippolito 1) is not current on internet traditions, and 2) has no apparent sense of humor.

NEW ARTICLE: The Big Biden Speech Meltdown
Topic: The ConWeb
The ConWeb simultaneously -- and unsurprisingly -- had fits over President Biden's speech calling out the extremism of MAGA Republicans. Read more >>

MRC Moves From Defense Mode To Attack Mode Over Walker Abortion Scandal
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center quickly moved into defense mode over the credible allegation that Republican candidate Herschel Walker paid for an abortion for a girlfriend. The next step, of course, was attack mode. An Oct 7 post by Kevin Tober ranted that the story was a "smear" -- despite it being factually accurate, Tober's protestation that it is"ucorroborated" notwithstanding -- and lashed out at anyone who dared to criticize Walker's dubious sense of judgment:

The leftist media’s smears against Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker continued this week as MSNBC’s All In host Chris Hayes, and Bulwark editor Tim Miller decided Thursday to accuse him of being mentally unfit for office. While much of the media this week spent considerable airtime accusing Walker of being a hypocrite for opposing abortion while allegedly paying for a woman’s abortion over a decade ago, Hayes and Miller took the nasty partisan attacks a step forward.  

Hayes kicked it off during the segment discussing the uncorroborated Daily Beast story which claimed Walker paid for a woman’s abortion. “The whole thing, when you step back, is so ludicrous,” Hayes claimed.

Letting his elitism show, he lectured Georgians about Walker’s candidacy: “there's just no reason for him to be a U.S. Senator,” Hayes preached. Since when is Hayes in charge of deciding who should and should not be in the United States Senate?

Hayes then argued that there are “thousands of people in the state of Georgia across the ideological spectrum, across lines of race and class, whatever, who you could pull out of a hat to be the Senate nominee that aren't Herschel Walker.”

One would also argue that if Republicans dropped support for Walker tomorrow and somehow picked another candidate, Hayes would find something about the new candidate to cry about.

Tober deflected from the elephant in the room -- that the MRC and right-wingers, know for their anti-abortion extremism, are giving a pass to a candidate who paid for an abortion -- by cynically declaring that "Sometimes elections are a choice between the lesser of two evils."

Alex Christy similarly hated it when critics pointed out Repubilcans' hypocrisy, offering only whataboutism in response:

MSNBC’s Katie Phang used her Saturday show to allege that the Republican response to the Herschel Walker-abortion allegations prove that they aren’t really pro-life because “it was always about being pro-power.” Co-host of the Democracy-ish podcast, Danielle Moodie agreed, claiming Republicans use that power to be the party of “cruelty and oppression” for “millions of people with uteruses.”

Phang saw a connection between conservative reactions to Trump and Walker, “they did it before. Now, there’s a certain group of GOP voters that looked at Donald Trump and said, ‘he’s going to give me a conservative SCOTUS and I'm going to see the end of Roe v. Wade’ and that’s exactly what Mitch McConnell delivered courtesy of Donald Trump, right?”

Moving on to Walker, Phang continued, “So, in some way these voters, again, a certain group of them, they don’t have a problem owning this, they don’t have a problem standing next to someone like Herschel Walker, but listen, you said it and it’s true, this was never about being pro-life it was always about being pro-power.”

It may be shocking for Phang to understand, but the power to enact laws only comes with winning elections. It is why Democrats stood behind everyone from Bill Clinton to Ted Kennedy.

Christy also nonsensically argued that  electing right-=wing hypocrites would somehow end the hypocrisy: "Neither Phang nor Moodie realized that if Republicans are successful in passing pro-life laws they will make it illegal, or at least much more difficult, for them to be hypocritical on the issue."

Scott Whitlock served up his own whine in an Oct. 8 post:

The networks found their 2022 October Surprise, a Republican candidate to pounce on and work to destroy the GOP’s chances in the midterms. In less than a week, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted over 27 minutes to the Herschel Walker story and whether the Georgia Republican senatorial candidate paid for an abortion in 2009. 

At the same time, they have ignored gaffes and the radically extreme policies of Democratic senatorial candidates. All of this is a familiar pattern: Every election cycle, ABC, CBS and NBC look for one (or more ) Republican candidates to try and trash the entire field. Strangely, this obsession never seems to happen to Democrats.

Instead of explaining why it's not wildly hypocritical for anti-abortion Republicans to stick with a candidate who paid for an abortion, Whitlock then rehashed old complaints -- going way to to 2012 -- that the media covered Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin's remark that women who suffer "legitimate rape" don't get pregnant.

Christy complained in an Oct. 11 post about the over the two strains of Christianity displayed by Walker and his Democratic opponent, paster Raphael Warnock:

On her Tuesday show on MSNBC, Chris Jansing portrayed the Georgia Senate race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock as a contest between two different versions of Christianity. Naturally, Walker was said to represent the bad “right-wing” version, while Warnock represents the good “Southern tradition of faith-based civil rights” version.

[...]

>Smikle replied by affirming Jansing’s partisan descriptions of the two beliefs, “Well, faith is always an important component because as many theologians and even-- especially black theologians will tell you that the Old Testament is replete with social justice and the prophets are social justice advocates.”

The prophets were not left-wing political activists and preaching at Martin Luther King’s church, does not make Warnock the heir to MLK’s legacy that all people who support civil rights must support. Nevertheless, Smikle hyped that, “in that tradition is Reverend Warnock, who is arguing in support of all Georgians and for Americans, you know, who are at every different sort of aspect of life whether you're rural, suburban, wealthy, or poor.”

[...]

There is nothing more antithetical to the idea that Wanock “is arguing in support of all Georgians” the idea that he uses his pastoral career to justify violence against the most vulnerable among us in the name of choice.

Whitlock returned to whine that the non-right-wing media was still covering Walker while ignoring right-wing attack narratives against Warnock:

All three networks last week eagerly covered the allegation that Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker paid for an abortion in 2009. But this week, with the claim that Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock — a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Georgia — is part of evicting the disadvantaged, the poor, and veterans from a church-owned apartment complex, they’ve shown no such zeal. 

[...]

If the hypocrisy story of pro-life Walker allegedly paying for an abortion is news then so is Warnock, a senator who has decried unfair evictions of “families at risk.” Journalists should ask Warnock about his church and that large $7,400 monthly housing allowance. 

Funny, we remember when the MRC justified evicting people to keep landlords from going bankrupt due to having to house tenants who lost their jobs during the pandemic and have nowhere else to go. Whitlock also ignored evidence that none of the people who received eviction notices at the apartment building have actually been evicted.

CNS Joins MRC Parent In Cheering DeSantis Migrant Stunt
Topic: CNSNews.com

Like its Media Research Center parent, CNSNews.com loved Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' own-the-libs stunt of flying migrants to Martha's Vineyard.

Melanie Arter kicked off CNS' coverage with a surprisingly balanced article that also noted DeSantis' Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, accurately calling it "just another political stunt that hurts our state." Arter also wrote an article noting that Prseident Biden "accused Republicans of using migrants as 'props'" after this and other similar incidents.

Then it was bias time. Highly biased reporter Susan Jones, writing about the same Biden speech that Arter covered, huffed: "On Thursday night, President Joe Biden indignantly slammed Republicans for interfering with the administration's efforts to make sure the border 'process' is 'safe and orderly and humane,'" and gave space to a Republican senator, Tom Cotton, attacking him. Arter also devoted an article to Cotton's attacks.

Then it was time for some snarkiness from the highly partisan Craig Bannister, who wrote:

When about fifty illegal aliens were flown into Martha’s Vineyard from Florida this week, claims of a erupted in the largely-liberal vacation spot for the wealthy, prompting the suggestion that some of the empty rooms at the island’s guest lodges be put to use.

Democrats have condemned governors, like Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, for not welcoming illegal aliens into their states, so DeSantis relocated fifty migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, to give the liberal bastion a small taste of the severity of the problems faced by his state.

[...]

So, why doesn’t affluent Martha’s Vineyard follow their lead when it comes to migrants, a piece in The Federalist Friday suggested, providing a list of 12 luxury rental establishments that, together, could house more than twice the population of the fifty migrants from Florida.

Bannister followed that with a complaint that The migrants flown into Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday were relocated to a military base in Cape Cod Friday, ending the affluent vacation spot’s two-day 'humanitarian crisis.'" Bannister also fawningly transcribed a rant by CNS' favorite right-wing radio host, Mark Levin:

Biden, his party, and the corrupt media are sickening,” conservative commentator Mark Levin said Friday, upon learning that Martha’s Vineyard’s limousine liberals had already shipped off the fifty illegal immigrants flown in on Wednesday by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis flew the fifty illegal immigrants to the iconic vacation spot to give the wealthy, largely-liberal community a tiny taste of what his state is suffering as a result of the Biden Administration’s open-borders policy.

[...]

“Turns out Martha’s Vineyard is the trigger for the Democrats when it comes to Illegal aliens! 50 aliens!  Home of the Obamas, Kennedys, and so many other leftwing Democrat millionaire hypocrites,” Levin wrote in a Twitter thread, warning that the liberal elites couldn’t care less about the harm inflicted on average Americans by unbridled illegal immigration:

Arter returned to complain that "White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Republicans of sowing chaos and division by sending migrants to Democratic-led cities, even comparing them to human smugglers."

As reports surfaced that the migrants DeSantis shipped to Martha's Vineyard were deceived by their handlers, who claimed jobs and housing would be waiting for them, Jones tried to do damage control by citing a completely different effort by the city of El Paso, Texas, which has a policy of busing migrants elsewhere. She quote the El Paso mayor (who she made sure to point out was a Democrat) saying that "we don't send anyone where they don't want to go" and "we always continue to treat people like human beings."

Jones followed that with a Sept. 20 article that uncritically quoted DeSantis  spinning away allegations of deception and cheering his own-the-libs stunt:

The 50 Venezuelans shipped to Martha's Vineyard "all signed consent forms" before departing Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News's Sean Hannity Monday night.

DeSantis said the illegal border-crossers, most of them adults, were also provided with maps and phone numbers for various social and immigration services available on Martha's Vineyard and in the rest of Massachusetts.

[...]

DeSantis noted that Democrats have accused the governors of Arizona, Texas and Florida of "political stunts," but he said the biggest stunt was Joe Biden reversing President Trump's immigration policies, Biden knowing full well what would happen.

DeSantis said immigration is now a "front-burner issue," and one where Republicans have the advantage. "So run on it, and then if we do get majorities in the Congress, do something with that power," he said.

Jones did not allow anyone to respond to DeSantis' spin. Meanwihle, Bannister returned with another bit of stenography for Levin, touting his promotion of" the parody song, 'The Martha’s Vineyard Invasion,' which mocks how the liberal community quickly ousted the fifty illegal aliens sent to the supposed sanctuary by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis."

MRC Peddles Falsehood That Newspaper Chain Canceled 'Dilbert' Over Politics
Topic: Media Research Center

Count the falsehoods in the opening of this Sept. 22 post by the Media Research Center's John Simmons:

Progressives really have no sense of humor.

The famous comic strip “Dilbert,” a fictional story about a character with the comic’s name that serves as a satirical commentary on office politics and workplace culture, has been removed from over 80 newspaper publications. Lee Enterprises, the company that distributes the comic, has not commented on why it was discontinued.

However, Scott Adams, the creator of the comic, believed it was cut from publications because of his tendency to poke fun at woke agendas that have found a home in the American corporate world.

The first falsehood is that Lee Enterprises is not a distributor of comics -- it's a company that owns newspapers. The second, and more important, falsehood is that Simmons and Adams are lying about the strip's purported targeting of progressives being the reason the comic was dropped from these Lee newspapers.

As a reliable media outlet reported, Lee is moving to a smaller comics package, using the same set of comics across all its newspapers instead of each paper choosing their own, as a money-saving move. Many other comics were canceled by Lee papers as a part of this move. But Simmons would rather  lie to readers in order to falsely portray Adams as a victim because it fits right-wing narratives.

It's not until the final paragraph that Simmons sort of admits he's not telling the truth, but he portrays what is actually happening as "framing":

Of course, Lee Enterprises is not framing it that way, since other comics were discontinued as well. But with how sensitive and anti-humor the left can be, it wouldn’t be surprising if it were erased largely because of its content.

Again: Simmons has no proof whatsoever that "Dilbert" was canceled by Lee papers beause of its or Adams' politics. But who needs facts when you have a narrative to push?

WND's Mercer Hated Biden's Speech, Complains GOP Isn't Helping White People
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Ilana Mercer began her Sept. 22 WorldNetDaily column by whining about President Biden's speech calling out the extremism of MAGA Repubicans (just like the rest of WND):

Against a sinister, hellfire-and-brimstone background, outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, flagged by Damien's own foot soldiers – President Joe Biden convened to convulse against MAGA America in the tradition of Linda Blair of "The Exorcist" fame.

An inartful mouthful, perhaps, but so was Biden's address.

The president of these disunited states has accused my fellow MAGA brothers and sister of constituting "a threat to [your] personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country. … Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic," barked Biden.

"MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they're working right now as I speak … to undermine democracy itself," the addled-brained demon of a man added.

The only fitting verbal response to such unmitigated hate speech are the fighting words of the late Andrew Breitbart: "F–- you, war."

Were I a politician serving my MAGA constituents, I'd right away launch a complaint with the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. My brief would accuse Biden, a man with considerable sway, of inciting hatred against millions of his countrymen.

The correlation between being a MAGA normie and losing your job, your banking and free-speech privileges, and being kicked out of the offices of medical malpractitioners is likely statistically significant.

Mercer's rant then evolved into compaining that her fellow right-wingers were not pushing back hard enough against Biden -- and more importantly, as befits someone with a soft spot for apartheid, not doing more to help white people:

Low-grade civil war is underway, certainly by emboldened blacks against learned-helpless whites. But in my state of Washington, the lukewarm ads Republicans are running revolve around comfortable kitchen-table issues: inflation, taxation, state spending and cost of living. The end.

To that end, run-of-the-mill Republican Mike Huckabee seconded the "gasoline, groceries and God" campaign message as exhaustive.

That's the GOP. Running on safe economic issues, looking-away from matters of life-and-death.

These are:

• Black-on-white hate crimes sanctioned.
• Institutionalized anti-white indoctrination.
• Learned helplessness inculcated in whites through hostile institutions, abetted by parents, pedagogues and politicians. (Ongoing, see "Sacrificing Kids To PC Pietism," written in 2011.)
• Violating the law of the land by inverting morality – rewarding evil, punishing good – in violation also of natural and constitutional rights.
• Continued COVID tyranny as a means of ferreting out and isolating the populist Right.
• The systemic silencing, deplatforming and depersoning of MAGA America, via loss of work, speech rights and banking privileges, courtesy of Deep Tech, in collusion with the state.
• No right or democratic opportunity to defend against these depredations.

On these defining issues the GOP is relatively silent.

Mercer's lengthy screed then moved on to cheering that GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is "the only elected official smart and dedicated enough to grasp and govern in accordance with first principles" by spending state money to send migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, then whining (italics in original):

The migrants of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, now have civil rights attorneys, arrayed against Gov. DeSantis. The protesters of January 6 don't so much as have decent attorneys. That's all you need to know about the Republicans' fealty to their own.

Rest assured that migrant legal representation is likely backed by Democrats.

The "protesters of January 6" put their crimes on video and uploaded them to social media, making them that much easier to document and convict. Even a decent attorney has trouble trying to argue that away. The old adage applies: If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.