CNS Helps Its Fellow Right-Wingers Attack Passage of Respect for Marriage Act
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com has been attacking the Respect for Marriage Act all through its journey through Congress. That continued upon its signing. Melanie Arter wrote an article that yet again focused on Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer having a gay daughter:

Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) celebrated the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act on Tuesday, which requires states to accept the same-sex marriages performed in other states, by telling saying that the tie he was wearing was the same one he wore when his daughter married her wife.

During the signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Schumer said that thanks to his Democrat colleagues and millions of others “pushing for change,” his grandchild - his daughter’s first with her wife - “will get to live in a world that respects and honors their mothers’ marriage.”

CNS is weirdly obsessed with Schumer's daughter, and it has published two other Schumer-focused articles in its coverage of the Respect for Marriage Act.

Susan Jones dedicated an article to her fellow right-wingers attacking the new law:

"Today's a good day," President Joe Biden told a cheering crowd at the White House on Tuesday after he signed the so-called "Respect for Marriage Act" into law.

No, it's not, said some conservative groups, who see the law as another opportunity for leftists to force their nontraditional ideology onto people who respect societal and religious norms.

"Today is a dark day for religious freedom," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said in a statement:

Jones went on to bizarrely embrace the Tina Turner theory of marriage:

President Biden stated on Tuesday that "marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love and will you be loyal with that person you love? It's not more complicated than that."

But for centuries, love had nothing to do with marriage:

[...]

As President Reagan's former Education Secretary William Bennett once described it, marriage has three purposes: “protecting women, domesticating men and raising children.”

Marriage has taken different forms in different cultures, but until modern times, homosexuality was never the basis for marriage.

And certainly, in recent years, heterosexuals have marginalized marriage, through divorce or by foregoing it altogether.

Another Jones article served up even more right-wing criticism of the law:

The so-called "Respect for Marriage Act," signed into law by President Joe Biden amid a cheering crowd on Tuesday, codifies federal recognition of legally performed same-sex marriages (and interracial marriages).

But the law does not prohibit the federal government from retaliating against people or groups that hold sincere religious beliefs and moral convictions about marriage.

Conservatives warn the law will be used against them, deliberately, to attack religious freedom.

"I think they're valid concerns," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News's Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.

[...]

In Christian religious tradition, marriages are perform in the presence of God to join "a man and a woman" in a bond established by God, a bond signifying the union between Christ and his Church, "and Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people," as one Book of Common Prayer phrases it.

While heterosexual marriage is an ancient institution, recognized in some form across many cultures, homosexual marriage is not. The first legal same-sex marriages in the United States took place in 2004, 18 years ago.

In neither of these articles does Jones allow any supporter of the law to respond to the criticism. CNS' idea of "balance," apparently, was to complain that Cyndi Lauper appeared at a White House press briefing in an article by Arter:

Singer Cyndi Lauper said Tuesday that LGBTQ families “can rest easy” now that the Respect for Marriage Act is being signed into law “because our families are validated.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre introduced Lauper at Tuesday’s White House press briefing, saying, “I know we have some serious business ahead of us today, but as you know, sometimes a girl just wants to have fun” referencing one of Lauper’s hit songs, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

That was countered with managing editor Michael W. Chapman hyping another right-wing, scare quote-laden attack:

Gay marriage means that "gender doesn't matter" anymore -- you can marry whoever you want -- and this logically damages society across the board, said author and commentator Dennis Prager. 

He added, "The war against gender is a war against civilization."

Prager made his remarks in an interview with Dave Rubin, the host of The Rubin Report. Rubin is gay and "married" to a man; Prager is heterosexual and married. On Tuesday, Dec. 13, President Joe Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, which essentially codifies "gay marriage" into federal law.

CNS' biased coverage was capped off by an angry Dec. 16 commentary by right-wing radio host Paul Milazzo:

When Bill Clinton looks like a devout Sunday School teacher, that’s your first clue that the culture has embraced sexual anarchy!

Back on September 21, 1996, Slick Willy actually signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act. It banned federal recognition of homosexual faux marriage by limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman. It further allowed states the right to refuse to recognize homosexual marriages granted under the laws of other states.

Tragically enough, since then, the Democrat Party’s [sic] platform has become a virtual Manifesto of Evil, championing today’s twin sins of baby-killing by abortion and sexual perversion.  If Joe Biden dared to take a similar stand today, he would be put on the first train back to an assisted living home in his beloved hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

Milazzo screeched that the 12 Republicans who voted for the bill were traitors on the scale of Judas Iscariot:

The 12 traitorous Republican Senators who voted for the “Disrespect of Marriage” Act include: Roy Blunt (Missouri), Richard Burr (North Carolina); Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia); Susan Collins (Maine); Joni Ernst (Iowa); Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming); Lisa Murkowski (Alaska); Rob Portman (Ohio); Mitt Romney (Utah); Dan Sullivan (Alaska); Thom Tillis (N.C.); and Todd Young (Indiana).

[...]

Despite the fact that 412,336 concerned citizens sent emails to their two Senators through the Family Research Council website, the same 12 Republican senators were unmoved by the cry of their constituents. Through a series of votes, they repeatedly embraced the sexually perverse bill with a white-knuckled grip.

Here’s the $64,000 question.

Why did these 12 Republicans betray the conservative Christians who elected them with a Judas-style kiss on the cheek?  Follow the money.

Milazzo concluded by ranting: "Now that these reprobates have championed Leviticus 18:22 , I don’t doubt that they will ultimately advocate every sexual perversion listed in Leviticus 18 as right, good, and even noble." His tone is not that much harsher than that of CNS' "news" coverage.

MRC Attacks Indie Film For Failing To Hate Abortion And The Women Who Have Them
Topic: Media Research Center

Unsurprisingly for a group of anti-abortion extremists, the Media Research Center hates it when media portrayals of abortion doesn't hate it as much as they do. When the movie "Call Jane" -- about a service that provided clandestine abortions before it was legal -- the MRC worked to attack it, and anyone who refused to trash the film based on subject matter alone. In his Oct. 28 column, Tim Graham lashed out at the film's actors for committing the utterly normal "offense" of promoting their film like every other actor does:

In the closing days of the midterm campaign, liberals and Democrats remain convinced that the right to terminate babies is their, um, saving grace. Naturally, among those leading the charge are Hollywood feminists making propagandistic movies about the righteousness of destroying innocent life.

The news program CBS Mornings just performed two supinely promotional interviews with actresses Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Banks and their movie Call Jane, based on an underground Chicago abortion service that killed about 10,000 babies in 1968, before abortion was legal in America.

How dramatically biased was CBS? No one in either of these interviews used the word “baby” at any time. The most dehumanized Americans are the unborn.

[...]

Inside this sugary bubble of our liberal media, these actresses can bounce from studio to studio promoting the wonderful bravery of abortion and absolutely no one utters a discouraging word about killing millions of babies. No one is allowed to offer any rebuttal about the death and disease that came with that glorious “Sexual Revolution.”

Graham followed up with an Oct. 31 post again attacking Banks for engaging in routine promotion of her film:

For your daily laugh that NPR calls their evening newscast All Things Considered, on Saturday night they celebrated the new pro-abortion movie Call Jane with actress Elizabeth Banks. Over eight and a half minutes, NPR host Michel Martin had no difficult or challenging questions, just facilitations.

[...]

Banks added "If you want fewer abortions, you should give us sex education and contraception." As if our public schools don't offer sex education? As if contraception is hard to find?

The actress wanted to underline again that "abortion health care" isn't dangerous, completely overlooking the human that is murdered. Banks thought casual sex can be followed by casual abortion: "it was just making sure that we presented abortion in its reality, which is 10 minutes later, you're, you know, she was eating spaghetti." No guilt, just pasta.

Graham is much more into shaming and denigrating women who have abortions than trying to offer any meaningful help for them.

Tierin-Rose Mandelburg -- who supports the creation of a Orwellian surveillance state to prevent women from crossing state lines to get a legal abortion -- melted down over the idea that the filmmight be shown at abortion clinics, accusing the makers of "propaganda" even as she spread her own anti-abortion propaganda:

Some propaganda with your abortion?

Actor Elizabeth Banks, most commonly known from The Hunger Games, recently starred in a 1960s-set story about a mother who stumbles upon an underground abortion network called “The Janes.” The film is set to partner with local and national abortion providers to play the film inside clinics for “educational” purposes, as The Hollywood Reporter indicated.

[...]

The filmmakers want to push the idea that abortion shouldnt be something that women aren’t afraid of. It aims to “normalize” abortion.

But, the reality is that everyone SHOULD be afraid of abortions. This procedure is far from humane for the mother or the child involved and is a grave evil. Abortions should be feared for their completely vile nature.

This film is just another leftist attempt to paint abortion as gospel and the fact that it's going to premiere inside clinics that provide such vile procedures is horrific.

Right-wing film critic Christian Toto rushed to proclaim the film a failure after a brief limited release in a Nov. 5 post, insisting that it didn't bode well for Democratic prospects in the midterm elections:

Perhaps Roe v. Wade reversal. Instead, the movie arrived as evidence of a red electoral wave is intensifying, and voters are coming to grips with that reality.

Or, the conventional wisdom that abortion would be the Democrats’ best bet to defang GOP arguments never held much sway in the first place.

The film’s commercial failure is another sign Democrats may have plenty to worry about come November 8.

Of course, that "red electoral wave" never materialized, meaning that Toto's attempt to use the first-weekend box office of an indie movie to predict a major election was a major failure.

WND Kept Up Post-Election Biden-Bashing
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Having seen its favored right-wing Republicans lose the midterm elections (and not taking it well), WorldNetDaily's columnists soon returned to their old pastime, bashing President Biden. Here are a few examples of post-election Biden-bashing:

On Nov. 9, while flummoxed Republicans were trying to figure out why their "Red Tsunami" didn't happen in this year's midterm elections, a buoyant Joe Biden held a White House news conference. His goal: change the subject. After meandering about looking forward to working constructively with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Old Joe blamed a grueling international travel itinerary for why he had to leave town on Nov. 10 before all the votes were tallied.

On Nov. 11 (Veterans Day in the U.S., Remembrance Day in many other countries), our geriatric-in-chief was lauded at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt for his oft-repeated pledge: "No more drilling" in the USA. Joe and entourage then boarded his fossil-fueled Air Force One (accompanied by no less than seven other U.S. Air Force aircraft) and headed to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting and East Asia Summit on Nov. 12 and 13.

[...]

Biden appeared to have been much better prepared for this series of international meetings. He certainly had moments of cognitive disarray and physical frailty, but overall, his performance was predictable. When he returns home, honest reporters, columnists and analysts – and there are some – must determine how he will proceed on a host of post-election and post-summit details. A few "now what" examples:

What steps are you going to take to restore America's economy? What will you do to stem the nationwide crime wave threatening the lives, safety and property of every man, woman and child in America? More than 3 million human beings from nearly every country on Earth have invaded our country. What will you do about it?

-- Oliver North and David Goetsch, Nov. 14

Now that the midterm election is over, can we stop pretending Joe Biden is president of the United States?

It is embarrassing.

The entire Biden presidency is media fiction. The world knows this, with the notable exception of the Americans. Another two years of governance from the Marxist men and women behind the curtain and the nation will be too broken and too polarized to make the necessary financial and social repairs to save itself.

-- Mike Pottage, Nov. 15

I don't have any crystal ball, but I submit my appeal for Joe Biden's resignation. His governing grade is "F," and he has no real accomplishments. Things will only get worse (I'm not rooting for this, only expressing the brutal reality).

The midterm election was not a victory for Dems, but sadly, neither was it the hoped-for repudiation. It was a mixed verdict, but going forward Biden will be neutered with Pelosi gone and the power of the purse back under conservative control.

Almost 70% of Americans reject Biden's aviator "Top Gun" image and don't want him to run again. The economy collapsed, there's catastrophic crime, a fentanyl epidemic, chaos at the border, runaway inflation, a deepening recession, skyrocketing interest rates, increasing cultural rot and corruption in government and the media. Top it off with Biden's obvious cognitive decline and it all spells one thing: Whether in weeks or months, Joe's gotta go.

[...]

Biden's recent statements and behavior aren't merely embarrassing, they're frightening. He's had two brain aneurysms; displays regular neurological difficulties; Obama's former White House physician stated he's convinced Joe's cognitive decline is serious; and, while there are levels of dementia, many specialists say he's in a diminished state disqualifying him from continuing.

-- Larry Tomczak, Nov. 15

The MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade Stayed Busy This Year
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center has been one of the right-wing media's biggest defenders of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, even when he does odious things like spending state money to fly migrants who weren't even in Florida to Martha's Vineyard and or making high-profile arrests of people (largely non-white ex-felons) on purported voting fraud charges (who then keep getting acquittedd). But it has defended DeSantis on smaller issues over the past year as well.

Margaret Buckley defended DeSantis in an Aug. 5 post over criticism from the folks on "Morning Joe" for suspending elected state prosecutor Andrew Warren for not kowtowing to DeSantis' anti-LGBTQ agenda:

Since Warren had “vowed” to not follow ethical laws that protect unborn children from being killed and protect confused and impressionable children from groomers, it is safe to say that DeSantis had good reasons for the suspension.

In reaction to separate clips of DeSantis and Warren giving their respective statements, Joe Scarborough exclaimed to his wife Brzezinski, “I mean Mika, Ron DeSantis is such a dope. He didn't even wait for any action to take place.”

Warren was even allegedly letting dangerous people back onto the streets, only God knew what they were capable of doing to innocent people.

Buckley attacked Warren again in an Aug. 9 post when "rogue attorney" Warren appeared on "Morning Joe":

Morning Joe tried to get viewers’ tears flowing for democracy on Tuesday by bringing on Florida state attorney, Democrat, and lefty-caterer Andrew Warren. Warren was recently suspended by Governor Ron DeSantis for refusing “to enforce Florida's 15-week ban on abortion and gender-affirming care.” Warren’s response? Acting like a free-speech martyr and calling DeSantis a “wannabe dictator,” and the MSNBC cast was fine with it.

[...]

So, Warren and the minority of people he is clearly kissing up to do not feel free, all because they cannot kill unborn children, or groom young and impressionable children by encouraging them to (seemingly) change their gender. 

Tim Graham spent an Aug. 11 post complaining about an Associated Press article citing right-wingers in general -- and DeSantis in particular for his "don't say gay" law, a term Graham hates -- for fueling a rise in anti-LGBTQ hate. An Aug. 15 post by Graham whined that DeSantis tweeting out an image of the "Don't Tread on Me" Gadsden flag as a license plate design was (not incorrectly) interpreted as an embrace of "a dangerous far-right extremist ideology" by NPR, serving up lame whataboutism in response:

How do you know the left-wing media is gunning for Ron DeSantis? When taxpayer-funded NPR suddenly finds the "Don't Tread on Me" flag from the Revolutionary War to be a "far-right" emblem of lies and violence.

[...]

This is a little funny, since NPR has an affinity for dangerous far-left extremist ideology. They favorably reviewed the book In Defense of Looting in 2020. Looting is a "powerful tool." NPR gets goosebumps over books about how leftist riots for racial "justice" should be called "rebellions," not riots, and should be considered a respectable form of activism.

Naturally, NPR turned to the left-wing "extremism experts," who claimed "most of the public"....thinks like NPR?

[...]

Biden won, and January 6 was awful, but smearing this Gadsden flag as associated with far-right kookery is nothing new. Liberal media stars also tried this tactic when it was a Tea Party favorite in the Obama years. Chris Matthews called it "McCarthyite," and also turned to the SPLC to decry this symbol. Juan Williams associated it with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Even porny Playboy got into the act as it ripped Glenn Beck.

Alex Christy used an Aug. 19 post to defend from CNN commentator Bakari Sellers a DeSantis-promoted law designed to censor certain discussions of race, particularly if they involve the right-wing buzzword of critical race theory:

Like abortion laws, it is clear media personalities commenting on these laws have not read them. There is nothing in the law that prohibits teachings of “racial discrimination, as well as topics relating to the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting in racial oppression.”

Sellers would argue that black people are treated differently in America, which is an argument that he would be allowed to present under the Florida law. He just couldn’t indoctrinate people by insisting it is true while ignoring Stewart’s point of view.

Actually, black people are treated differently in America.

In a  Sept. 22 post, Kevin Tober complained that "demonic" MSNBC host Joy Reid used the Martha's Vinehard flights "to harken back to when he informed high school students at a public event that they weren't required to wear masks as the same as "whipping up a mob at the University of Mississippi because James Meredith was coming and then cheering it on as four people are killed in that mob."(Needless to say, the MRC defended DeSantis over the mask incident.) Tober huffed in response: "Reid either doesn't know her history, or she's pretending that Republicans were for the evil racist violence that was so common in the old south during the early to mid-1960s. Regardless, any person with a firm grasp on reality knows Ron DeSantis doesn't support violence of any kind and is against racism."

Even book reviews were not exempt. Clay Waters complained in a Sept. 23 post that a review by Stephen King of a book that referenced a library's empty shelves lest people be exposed to "dangerous ideas" and added that "The Florida Parental Rights Bill, signed by Governor DeSantis in March of this year, is basically a free pass to text censorship." Waters huffed in response: "Wrong! It's age-inappropriate obscenity and sexual scenes, not 'dangerous ideas,' being 'censored' (as in, removed from school libraries)."

Jason Cohen spent a Sept. 29 post complaining that knee-jerk right-wing praise of DeSantis was being called as creepy and authoritarian-looking:

This is awfully unfair to the millions of Floridians and Americans who are proponents of DeSantis’s policies, which are less authoritariann than many leftwing governors’. Nobody wants to acknowledge backing a figure whose views are beyond the pale, according to the mainstream media.It naturally has a chilling effect on speech. (It also hands liberals some nasty surprises on election day, since voters won’t admit their preferences to pollsters.)

It also helps heighten the already terrible tension and tribalism setting up a false and divisive good vs. evil dichotomy. The media should be responsible enough to know better than to use such rhetoric. Criticizing politicians should be commonplace, but designating them as demons is disgraceful. “DeSatan” is literally trending on Twitter today.

Waters returned for a Sept. 30 post calling out DeSantis' hypocrisy in demanding federal hurricane relief while flouting federal COVID guidelines: "They decided to drag COVID into the act, foolishly, given DeSantis’s impressive record of reopening his state without the catastrophic consequences predicted by the Times and other liberals." Waters then added a bit of whataboutism: "Still the reporters kept itching for DeSantis to lunge at the Biden administration, while failing to mention the other side: At the height of the damage wrought by Hurricane Ian on Wednesday night, Biden attended a fundraiser to defeat Republican governors…like Ron DeSantis."

Curtis Houck used an Oct. 13 post to attack a CBS segment pointing out the right-wing obsession with labeling any critic as 'woke' and that 'a portion of the segment from socialist co-host Tony Dokoupil took aim at Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for what Dokoupil complained in a tease was 'say[ing] the word' work [sic] 'a lot.'" He added: "Dokoupil then teed off on DeSantis, lamenting that, 'in the battle to define America,' the Sunshine State leader 'has what amounts to his very own fight song,' 'a campaign ad inspired by Top Gun' and the word woke serving as the “one political target he seems to favor above all others.” Houck found none of that creepy and authoritarian, of course -- heck, he couldn't even be bothered to explain why he thinks Dokoupil is "socialist."

CNS' Donohue Can't Stop Whining That People Talk About Catholic Sexual Abuse
Topic: CNSNews.com

Dishonest right-wing Catholic Bill Donohue has spent much of the year whining that people keep reminding us of the massive sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, serving up the usual dubious deflections that they don't reflect the state of the church today, some allegations are too old to be fully substantiated and even if they happened, the priests who committed the offenses were mostly gay (not actually true). Donohue whined again about this -- complete with one of those deflections -- in his Nov. 16 CNSNews.com column:

An editorial in the November 13 edition of the Washington Postclaimed that “high-level sexual misconduct and coverup in France shattered illusions of progress by the church toward establishing a culture of transparency and accountability in its hierarchy.”

The evidence? A retired cardinal and archbishop in France admitted to sexual misconduct with a teenage girl 35 years ago. Oh, yes, it was recently disclosed that allegations of abuse extending back decades were made about another French bishop; he was removed from his post.

There are over 5,000 bishops in the world and the Washington Post found two of them who were involved in sexual misconduct decades ago. The paper argues that this shatters “illusions of progress.”

What it really shattered is the credibility of its editorial board.

As I recounted in The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse, no institution has made greater progress in combating sexual misconduct than the Catholic Church.

Donohue then played whataboutism, complaining about a sexual abuse scandal at CBS that purportedly would have ended sooner if the Post hadn't killed a story about it. He concluded by huffing: "Sexual abuse should always be condemned, but when those doing the condemnation come to the table with dirty hands, they ought to shut their mouth."

But Donohue is usually too busy playing the deny-and-deflect game to actually condemn the sexual abuse that went on in the church for decades.

WND's Root Goes Into Damage Control After Trump Dines With Anti-Semites
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The only person at WorldNetDaily who might be a bigger Trump fanboy than Joseph Farah is Wayne Allyn Root, who des enough sucking up to the guy to get interviews with him. Root's Nov. 25 column served up more of the same in touting "my annual "Root Turkey Awards" – for the biggest winners and losers of 2022," in which he unsurprisingly named Trump his big winner:

So, my pick for biggest winner of the year is Donald J. Trump. Precisely because the whole world is against him. Because the odds are stacked against him. Because every "expert" in the media and political world thinks he's "damaged goods." For three weeks now every article in both liberal and conservative media has worked overtime to convince you Trump is finished.

Yet despite all of the attacks, Trump is still standing. In perfect Trump in-your-face-style, he just announced he's running for president of the United States again. And he's still the prohibitive front-runner. Three recent national polls tell the story. The latest Emerson poll has Trump ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the GOP presidential nomination by 30 points. The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll "only" has Trump up by 18 points. Another poll shows Trump leading Biden for president 44 to 42, while DeSantis is only tied with Biden.

After all the hate, vitriol, slander, blame, unprecedented raids on his home and premature political obituaries by the media, Trump is still the front-runner to become the 47th president of the United States.

That makes him my "Annual Root Turkey Award" winner of the year.

Root also gave an award to right-wing Florida Gov. Rion DeSantis, but he argued that DeSantis set his presidential ambitions aside to be Trump's running mate in 2024:

Here is both a Thanksgiving wish and election strategy that puts the GOP on the road to victory. My two Annual Turkey Day winners need to put their differences and egos aside and join forces to save America. 

Trump/DeSantis 2024.

Trump was the greatest president of my lifetime. DeSantis is the greatest governor of my lifetime. Why should we have to choose?

Trump needs one more term to finish what he started. In case you forget, or you've been brainwashed by the nasty fake news media, I'm here to remind you ...

In the past presidential election, Trump got the most votes of any president in history; the most votes of any Republican in history; and added the most additional votes of any president in history – over 11 million new voters between his first presidential run and his second run.

Trump will be the 2024 GOP nominee.

DeSantis needs to accept that. If they run against each other, they will divide the GOP, and everyone loses. If they run together, their powerful synergy will be impossible to stop. And DeSantis will be the front-runner for president in 2028.

But Trump needs to give a little too. Trump should give DeSantis an unprecedented role. He should agree to put Vice President DeSantis in charge of making the whole nation into Florida. DeSantis should be in charge of election integrity under Trump. And DeSantis should be in charge of medical freedom under Trump – guaranteeing Americans that under Trump/DeSantis there will never again be lockdowns, business closures, mask mandates, vaccine mandates or vaccine passports.

But to make this happen, Trump will need to change his official residence to his Las Vegas hotel to satisfy the rules of the Electoral College (no two candidates on the same ticket can reside in the same state). Choosing Vegas as his residence means Trump pays the same zero state income tax rate as Florida. Everyone wins.

For his Dec. 2 column, however, Root was in damage control mode, defending Trump over his dinner with the very anti-Semitic Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. Which, of course, he starts with self-aggrandizement over his own self-proclaimed Jewish bona fides:

Let me start with a disclaimer: I'm a Jew. Not just any Jew. Ancestery.com tested my DNA and reported I'm of 99.9% Eastern European Jewish ancestry. That's about as Jewish as you can get.

I had two Jewish parents, and four Jewish grandparents. Several of my ancestors were victims of the Holocaust. Others escaped Germany just in the nick of time.

I love the Jewish people. I'm proud of the success of the Jewish people. And I've fought strongly and proudly for Israel my entire adult life.

So, if a president of the United States was associated with radical extremists, Jew haters and Holocaust deniers, I'd be the first one to condemn him.

He then moved to the whataboutism card by talking about Barack Obama's relationship with "racist, hate-filled Jew hater and anti-Semite" Jeremiah Wright, and expanding the whataboutism from there:

How about Obama's actual actions as president? Almost every move made by Obama for eight years was anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian. His Iran treaty was the most devastating anti-Israel contract ever proposed by any U.S. president. Obama gave everything including the kitchen sink to Iran, a nation that supports Islamic extremism and terrorism all around the world.

The entire Democratic Party is filled with Jew haters, anti-Semites and politicians who hate Israel and work against the interests of the Jewish people 24/7/365. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer have spent plenty of time around Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib, among many others. They're not just friends; they're TEAMMATES.

Root didn't explain how any criticism of Israel must be portray as anti-Semitic.That's because he was too busy making excuses for Trump:

Let's compare all of this to Trump. 

While president, Trump did more for the state of Israel and the Jewish people than anyone in history. He risked his career and political standing to always support Israel, through thick and thin. In Israel, Trump is beloved. Israelis have named streets, train stations and soccer teams after Trump.

There will never be a president who does more for Israel, or the Jewish people. Period.

But the liberal media hate Trump. They have tried to slander him, frame him, demonize him, and destroy him thousands of times. They love Obama. The way they treated Obama versus Trump is like night and day.

Last week, Trump had dinner with a celebrity acquaintance (Ye, formerly known as Kanye West) and a stranger (Nick Fuentes). The media, Democrats and the RINO establishment GOP are trying to destroy Trump over a brief dinner – with a stranger.

The story is a scam. It's gaslighting at the highest level. Ye set Trump up. Ye is clearly mentally disturbed. He wanted to create a media firestorm that would fuel his own insane political ambitions. Trump was just eating dinner and expecting to give career advice to a billionaire celebrity acquaintance.

Root conveniently forgot to mention that the dinner was held at Trump's Mar-a-Lago house -- meaning that Trump specifically invited West to be there -- and this was more than a month after West's anti-Semitic outburst. He went on to delcare that "Trump was the best friend the Jewish people ever had. Trying to make Trump into an anti-Semite is the greatest fraud and gaslight of all time"-- which also omits the fact that Trump loves to trade in Jewish stereotypes that border on the anti-Semitic.

Root surprisingly concluded by grudgingly admitting that  Trump screwed up and maybe inviting West and Fuentes to dinner was a bad idea:

And to Trump I give one piece of advice: Hire a gatekeeper. Know the background of who you're dining with. Never let anyone like Ye or Fuentes near your table ever again.

End of story.

Yes, even hanging out with Jew-haters doesn't faze Root's Trump worship because it's somehow somebody else's fault that they were at Trump's house. That's cult-level obsession.

 

NEW ARTICLE: Roe-ing That Narrative Boat
Topic: Media Research Center
As Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Media Research Center fearmongered about violence by pro-choice activists (while ignoring decades of anti-abortion violence), while also insisting we should ignore Clarence Thomas' desire to eliminate other rights. Read more >>

MRC Latino Whines That Spanish-Language Disinfo Is Being Called Out, Soros Money Helping Buy Radio Stations
Topic: Media Research Center

We've noted how the Media Research Center's MRC Latino project joined its parent's war on George Soros by whining about non-right-wing owners with a tangental link to Soros are buying several Spanish-language radio stations in Florida and elsewhere -- many of which are right-wing, pro-Trump peddlers of misinformation. As the deal moved closer to completion, the freakout continued -- coupled with whining about how that misinformation was being called out. Jorge Bonilla huffed in a Nov. 6 post:

You can tell we’re at the tail end of another election cycle where the GOP is doing well with Hispanics, because as a recent report from CBS Mornings shows, the media have gone back to their favorite trope: “Spanish-language disinformation”. 

OK, maybe “interesting” isn’t exactly the right word. “Weird”, perhaps, is a more accurate descriptor for correspondent Enrique Acevedo’s report that aired on CBS Mornings and throughout the rest of CBS’ footprint.

Watch the hosts’ exchange at the end of this strange report on the sale of Radio Mambí and 17 other stations owned by Univision to the Soros-backed Latino Media Network, and feel their sheer panic at the idea that Hispanics would dare obtain information beyond designated approved sources[.]

[...]

As we noted when the “Radio Soros” transaction was first announced, the deal was a panic move aimed at shoring up lost narrative control over Hispanics. We’ve reported on the decreasing trust in Spanish-language media, and on data that shows that corporate Spanish-language media are the biggest disseminators of Spanish-language disinformation.

Actually, Bonilla's freakout over the sale shows he's the one who's panicking, and that "data that shows that corporate Spanish-language media are the biggest disseminators of Spanish-language disinformation" he refernced is actually nothing more than a poll conducted by the right-wing Latino group Bienvenido. He went on to whine:

In its one-sidedness, the report makes no note of the reasons why Hispanics are abandoning their designated media gatekeepers- only that they must be doing so due to "disinformation".

Acevedo positions Radio Mambí as a boogeyman, but fails to mention that the station's top talent left the station rather than work for a Soros-backed outlet, and landed at conservative Americano Media. So Radio Mambí as we knew it is essentially dead.

Given that Radio Mambi was filled with disinformation, that's not the bad thing Bonilla wants you to think it is, and perhaps those hosts quit to avoid being held accountable for their lies. Despite all that, Bonilla thought his post to be so important that it was translated into Spanish.

In a Nov. 13 post (also translated into Spanish), Bonilla complained that it was "obnoxious and bigoted" for former White House press secretary Jen Psaki to point out the "massive disinformation problem in Spanish language media" that fed a narrative of Hispanics shifting rightward that was dispelled by the results of the midterm elections, going on to huff:

This talking point was echoed half an hour later by Latino Media Network (“Radio Soros”) board member, former Univision anchor and current ABC contributor María Elena Salinas, who tried to reassure liberals by saying that the GOP’s Hispanic vote blowout in Florida is “not indicative of the national Latino vote. Florida is a very small fraction of the Latino vote on a national level, so, we have to be careful not to read too much into this. This is just Florida.”

The right-wing narrative is totally real, Bonilla insisted, actual election results notwithstanding:

No one said that the ongoing Hispanic shift to the right would happen in one or two cycles. The shift is rooted in things that have been happening over the course of several decades, separate from the current issue arrays. The effort to conflate the shift to the stillborn red wave is intended to be disinformation and suppressive.

Going forward, expect further attempted tamping down of the Hispanic shift, and expect a renewed interest in “Spanish-language disinformation” as a means to prevent conservatives from entering communications spaces in some of these hotly contested states throughout the Southwest- which is all the proof you need that the very thing the left says isn’t happening is, in fact, very real.

When the radio deal was cleared by federal officials, Bonilla went into another freakout in a Nov. 22 post (again, translated into Spanish):

As expected, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared the way for the Soros-backed Latino Media Network’s (LMN) purchase of 18 Televisa Univision radio stations, among them Miami’s Radio Mambí. 

[...]

There was nominal opposition to the deal, which the FCC promptly shot down. That is, in part, because the best time to kill this deal was in 2017- when the incoming Republican Congress had the power to do so under the Congressional Review Act. Recall that it was under cover of the Obama-Trump transition that the FCC approved a sweeping rule change that enabled Univision to increase its foreign ownership stake from 25 to 49 percent.

The Republican Congress -- caught sleeping -- failed to review and repeal the rule when it had a chance. This, in turn, created the precedent that eventually allowed Univision to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Televisa. The result of Congress' inaction is that a foreign-owned corporation is now in the position, by virtue of this sale of significant assets to a domestic partisan group, of exerting undue influence upon our elections.

You mean all those partisan right-wing disinformers in right-wing Hispanic radio weren't exerting undue influence upon our elections?Only liberals are capable of "exerting undue influence," apparently. Bonilla's whinefest continued:

With the last significant roadblock removed, the Soros-backed Latino Media Network can finalize its purchase of the Univision stations, neuter or kill anti-communist bastion Radio Mambí, and attempt to exert influence upon the 2024 election across the nation’s top Hispanic markets, which include such places as the Rio Grande Valley (McAllen, TX) and Las Vegas.  

The establishment of “Radio Soros” as a trusted purveyor of information is critical to the next stage of The Great Spanish-Language Disinformation War we’ve seen unfold over the past few years. As conservative alternatives finally emerge, it remains to be seen whether *this* venture will be successful.

Bonilla ignores the fact that those right-wing disinfo-pumping stations were found not to be trusted purveyors of information -- portraying Radio Mambi as "anti-communist" doesn't give it exemption from facts.

Bonilla continued whining in a Nov. 26 post (yes, it's also in Spanish) complaining that PolitiFact is hiring a Spanish-language fact-checker:

The hunt for “Spanish-language disinformation” is proving to be America’s fastest-growing grift: so much so that Politifact is now itching to get into the game.

We have a pretty good notion of what a Spanish-language Politifact is going to look like, thanks to a recent MRC study showing that Politifact is 6 times more likely to defend Joe Bidenthan it is to fact-check him.

[...]

A core element of Politifact’s foray into Spanish-language fact-checking is the belief that Hispanics are unable to discern between fact and fiction without proper assistance from institutions designated by the enlightened elite as approved purveyors of information to the heretofore underserved community. 

In reality, these moves are about power and control- and are no different from the reincarnation of the failed Univision America talk radio network as “Radio Soros”. Hispanics continue to move away from the left and its institutions, including Spanish-language news media. The left scrambles to hold a restive cohort in line via the buttressing of failed institutions and the creation of new ones. Thus “Politifact En Español” seeks to join Univision, Telemundo, and every other Tom, Dick, and José in an already-crowded “Spanish-language disinformation” market. 

If calling out Spanish-language disinformation is a "grift," then defending that disinformation as Bonilla does has to be one too. But grifters won't tell you about the grift -- they simply accuse others of what they're doing.

WND, McCullough Mislead About Yet Another COVID Vaccine Study
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily's Art Moore once again called on his favorite COVID misinformer to spread more of the same in an Dec. 5 article:

Dr. Peter McCullough is among prominent cardiologists calling for a halt to the COVID-19 mRNA shots, contending there is a link between the vaccines and the apparent increase in reports of sudden deaths from cardiac arrest.

In a column on his Substack page, he pointed to an unusual study conducted in Germany of autopsies of 35 people who died within 20 days of COVID-19 vaccine injection.

A total of 25, or 71%, had a final diagnoses consistent with a vaccine injury, including myocardial infarction, worsening heart failure, vascular aneurysm, pulmonary embolism, fatal stroke and vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

Significantly, McCullough said, five cases had acute myocarditis as the cause. Biopsies of the heart muscle, he pointed out, showed "patchy inflammation very similar to what was seen in the deltoid muscle were the mRNA vaccine was injected."

"Inflammation in the heart was coincident with the same pattern of inflammation in the arm," McCullough explained. "Thus we can conclude death within a few days of vaccination is most likely due to the genetic product and that inflammation in the arm may be a surrogate for a similar process in the heart."

McCullough noted the public "is becoming increasingly disturbed with reports of death among the vaccinated."

"It is natural to ask 'was the death caused by vaccination?'  The most definitive way of answering that question is with autopsy," he wrote.

But as in so many of the alleged anti-vaccine studies it hypes, this one didn't find what McCullough claimed. As PolitiFact reported:

According to the German study, the researchers identified “acute (epi-)myocarditis without detection of another significant disease or health constellation that may have caused an unexpected death” in four patients. But experts who reviewed the study told us there is not enough evidence to prove that the deaths were caused by the vaccine, nor can the study be used to infer how frequently vaccine-related myocarditis is fatal.

“The temporal association of lymphocytic myocarditis following vaccination suggests but does not prove causality,” Dr. Leslie T. Cooper Jr., a myocarditis expert and chair of the Department of Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, told us in an email.

Cooper added that the background rate of myocarditis is around 1 to 10 in 100,000 people per year. “Because we do not know the denominator of patients vaccinated in their region during this time, we cannot calculate the expected number of cases if there were no vaccinations,” he said.

“I think that it is not possible to prove that vaccination is really the cause of death of these people,” Dr. Karin Klingel, head of cardiopathology at the University Hospital Tübingen in Germany, told us in an email.

Health Feedback similarly reported:

The authors of the paper themselves state that their data is merely descriptive and “does not allow any epidemiological conclusions”. The authors also correctly state that the study does not prove a causal link between the COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.

There are numerous well-performed studies on an epidemiological level that clearly showed the protective effects of vaccines; even the number of COVID-associated myocarditis cases is higher compared to those induced by vaccines.

but Moore has no interest in providing accurate information. Instead, he repeated old misinformation from McCullough: "McCullough, in a video interview with WND, cited peer-reviewed literature indicating the vaccines cause myocarditis, including a U.K. study that found about 100 fatal cases of myocarditis linked to the shots." As we documented, that number was taken from a pool of 43 million people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and that the rate of fatal myocardits is 11 times greater among those who had COVID.

MRC Mad That Netanyahu Was Asked About Trump's Flirting With Anti-Semitism
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's severe reluctance to criticize Donald Trump's dipping his toe into the fetid pool of anti-Semitism extended to criticizing NBC for daring to ask the once and future leader of Israel about it. Kevin Tober whined in a Dec. 4 post:

On Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC, anchor Chuck Todd used his rare interview with incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to harass and bombard him with questions about former President Donald Trump and anti-Semitism. 

Todd started this portion of the interview by noting how Netanyahu has “a unique relationship with former President Trump.” After establishing that fact, Todd pointed out that Trump “has consistently flirted with some really fringe characters that spout this anti-semitic behavior, that preach white supremacy and white nationalism.” 

“Why does he have this difficulty, do you think?” Todd asked Netanyahu as if a foreign leader had been paying attention to this controversy at all or knew what Trump was thinking. 

Netanyahu mostly ignored Todd’s question and listed all the great things former President Trump did for the state of Israel:

Someone who's comfortable with anti-Semitism and Trump's playing footsie with it would see anyone raising questions about it as "harassment."And why wouldn't the head of a country whose defining feature is that it was founded on Jewish culture be concerned that the former leader of a nation that sends it billions of dollars in foreign aid annually have an opinion on that? It would be surprising if Netanyahu didn't, and Tober gave him a pass by touting old pro-Trump talking points. Yet he was mad that Todd continued to question Netanyahu about it and pinpointed Netanyahu's double standard and ends-justifies-the-means attitude:

On the subject of Kanye West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes who Trump had dinner with almost two weeks ago, Netanyahu said “I think it is not merely unacceptable it’s just wrong. And I hope he sees his way to staying out of it and condemning it.” 

Todd seemed miffed that Netanyahu wouldn’t completely renounce Trump and whined to him that it’s an “ends justify the means argument.” 

He made the horrific hypothetical question that if Trump’s behavior creates “death threats to Jews, inspiring people like what happened at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, to shoot and kill Jews, doesn’t that wipe away anything good he did for Israel?” 

Later on in the interview, Todd asked Netanyahu if he’s “concerned though that if your government gets what you want, you overlook whether it’s Vladimir Putin who’s also an anti-semite or Donald Trump? What is the line for you?” 

Clearly offended by what Todd suggested, he responded that “I don't overlook anti-semitism. I have a clear position against it, which I voice and I expect others to voice as well.”

Todd continued with the absurd questioning. Next up, he claimed: “You have been more critical of some congressional Democrats, who are critical of the Israeli government, than you are of a Donald Trump who has been elevating people who praised Hitler.”

“Does that go to this sort of transactional nature? If they are helping Israel and if they are helping Israel that’s what gotta come first?,” Todd asked. 

“Sorry, Chuck. I just nullified that argument. On this very program and on previous programs. When I came out very strongly against that meeting with those anti semitic rantings,” Netanyahu politely responded. 

Todd asked again about former President Trump: “Would you like to see Donald Trump as president again?”

At his wits end, Netanyahu replied “oh God, I have had enough of my politics. I’ve just gone through four of our elections. You want me to get into your elections? Keep me out of it.” 

Though Todd had to work to get it out of him, Netanyahu criticism of Trump's dinner with West and Fuentes  was more forceful than anything that came out of the MRC. And amid all his whining, Tober himself couldn't be bothered to condemn the dinner even as he bashed Todd for asking Netanyahu to do so.  Again, that's evidence of a certain level of comfort with anti-Semitism at the MRC.

CNS Censored Walker Abortion Scandal During Runoff -- While Bashing His Opponent's Abortion Stance
Topic: CNSNews.com

We've documented how CNSNews.com almost completely censored the abortion and domestic violence scandals of Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker. That censorship continued even as it attacked the abortion position of his Democratic opponent, Raphael Warnock.

An anonynously written Nov. 9 article noted that Walker and Warnock would be advancing to a runoff, while a Nov. 14 article by Melanie Arter quoted outgoing Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan saying that Donald Trump announcing his candidacy early for the 2024 presidential campaign could mean that Walker loses. An article the next day by Arter quoted a Republican senator arguing that the GOP should hold off on congressional leadership battles until after the runoff because "we don't want to do anything to hurt Herschel Walker." And a Nov. 19 article by Susan Jones quoted a different Republican senator attacking "the Democrats' soft-on-crime, left-wing ideology," adding, "This is a major issue in the Georgia senate race and this is why Georgians should get out and vote for Herschel Walker." No mention was made of Walker's positions on the issues, let alone his scandals.

Laruen Shank served up more aggressive promotion from the boss of editor Terry Jeffrey's daughter in a Nov. 29 article:

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently repeated Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) question on Fox’s Hannity, “Why do the Democrats hate Herschel [Walker] so much?” His answer settled on, “Because he’s a black man who’s a conservative, who has the courage to speak out.”

Seated next to Walker and Graham at a Nov. 22 campaign rally in Georgia, Cruz said, “I want to say secondly, what Lindsey just said a minute ago is really important. Why do the Democrats hate Herschel so much? Because he's a black man who's a conservative, who has the courage to speak out.”

Again, no mention of Walker's scandals was made.

Then, on Dec. 6, the day of the runoff, Arter attacked Warnock's position on abortion:

Sen. Rafael Warnock (D-Ga.) told MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” on Monday that Jesus supports abortion.

MSNBC host Joy Reid asked Warnock, “Another issue that it really drove a lot of people to the polls was the issue of abortion, and a woman's right to have self-determination over our own bodies. This is a state that’s got one of the strictest abortion laws in the country. It’s one of the hardest states in the United States for a woman to exercise her rights, and this is also a state that's got Tyler Perry, and lots of industry and lots of folks coming from out of state to work here in the industry. 

“Your opponent, Herschel walker was one of the few people that was running in this cycle to stand up and support Lindsey Graham's idea of a national ban on abortion, which is something Republicans would very much like to do. Do you think that that is going to be a fight that you're going to have to have? Are we looking at trying to fight a national abortion ban?” she asked.

Warnock, who is a pastor and is pro-abortion, suggested that Jesus would be okay with abortion.

Bizarrely, Arter made no mention of the fact that Walker has been credibly accused of paying for two abortions.

After Walker lost again to Warnock, Jones served up one last fluff job on Walker by praising his concession speech:

In a concession speech that even some of his critics applauded, U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker thanked his Savior Jesus Christ, his wife Julie, and his supporters, in that order.

Walker, Donald Trump's hand-picked candidate for Georgia's Senate seat, lost to Democrat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, falling short by some 97,597 votes. Walker got 48.6 percent of the vote to Warnock's 51.4 percent.

[...]

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, one of Walker's prominent critics, tweeted on Wednesday: "Given the incoherence of his campaign speeches, I was struck by Hershel’s moving concession speech. It was beautiful in its simplicity. No excuses. Walker showed grace and reaffirmed basic American values our politicians need to show in victory and defeat."

Jones followed this with another article lamenting Walker's loss because Democrats will more easily get their judicial nominees approved. In neither article was mention made of Walker's hypocrisy on abortion being a possible reason for his loss.

This aversion continued in a Dec. 14 syndicated post-mortem column by Star Parker, who complained that Warnock is "a boilerplate Democrat of the left, with an agenda of government spending as the answer to every problem, who is also the address to turn to keep the door open to abortion and the LGBTQ agenda." Like Jones, Parker did not consider Walker's abortion hypocrisy as a factor.

CNS also published a Nov. 21 commentary by Jenny Beth Martin attacking Warnock while praising Walker: "Our Constitution is our guarantee that our government will protect the rights that flow to us from our Creator. Herschel knows that. Warnock, based on his voting record, does not. The choice is clear." For unexplained reasons, CNS deleted her commentary, but as we all know, the Internet is forever.

MRC Keeps Up The Right-Wing Hate of Drag Queens
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center spent the first several months of the year spewing hate at drag queens, and it kept up the hate through the fall. Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, the MRC chief hater of all things LGBTQ, lashed out at "drag brunch" in an Oct. 19 post while parroting Fox News' Tucker Carlson and a far-right website:

Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I stand corrected.

Ebb & Flow restaurant in Plano Texas held a “Garden of Eden Drag Brunch” and featured a drag queen that danced to a song about his — er, her? — pussy. Dollar bills, smiling faces, clapping, and children made an appearance in video footage of the event. 

Blaze TV host, Sara Gonzales, God bless her, attended the drag brunch and witnessed the performance first hand. Thank you for your sacrifice Ms. Gonzales.

The advertisement did indicate that the event “may not be appropriate for all ages” and left it up to the parents prerogative on whether to bring children. 

Even so, as the video shows, children were in attendance. The video featured a child that couldn’t have been much older than five years old staring directly at the drag queen’s performance.

On Tucker Carlson Tonight, Gonzales talked about the event and called it “child abuse” for parents to bring their kids to something of the sort and allow them to sit and watch something so sexual.

She went on to irresponsibly attack people she has never met and falsely and maliciously smear them as criminals (no, really):

Regardless of how the TX restaurant advertised, it had no qualms allowing children in. If you bring your kids to something like this, you are a child abuser and should be treated as one. Our degenerate society is promoting and encouraging things like this and kids are in the direct line of fire.

The Ebb & Flow restaurant received hate mail and death threats after right-wingers like Mandelburg attacked it. We presume Mandelburg is satisfied with this development, since demonization and ostrazation is the goal of the anti-drag queen hate narrative.

An Oct. 19 post by Kevin Tober, hyped how "Fox News’s Jessica Chasmar reported that the Biden State Department had awarded a $20,600 grant to an Ecuador cultural center to host sexually inappropriate “drag theater performances," then grumbled that "All three evening news broadcast networks, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News each ignored the Biden administration sending taxpayer dollars overseas to fund degenerate sexual shows." Mandelburg ranted about the miniscule amount of money going toward this in an Oct. 20 post under the hateful headline "Global Degeneracy":

I love seeing my taxpayer money get put to good use. Here, on the other hand, is the opposite. 

The U.S. Department of State awarded $20,600 to help fund a cultural center in Ecuador, Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN), Fox News reported. The center is most excited to host around 12 drag queen performances with the funding from the United States. 

The spending plan reportedly began on Sep. 30 and is set to end around Aug. 31, 2022. According to usaspending.gov the funds will “promote diversity and inclusion” by hosting “3 workshops, 12 drag performances, and produce a 2 minute documentary.” 

Fox news pointed out that the CEN grant “is part of the State Department’s public diplomacy program, which seeks to "support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world.”

OK so if I read that correctly, the U.S. State Department thinks that sending money to Ecuador for drag shows is going to help enhance “national security” through “strengthening relationships?” Huh? 

All this money is going to do is further normalize this kind of — er, well — strange behavior. 

Last weekend there was a drag brunch at a Texas restaurant and parents literally brought their children because they thought dressing up with plastic boobs, wigs, and 3-inch thick fake eyelashes is “normal” behavior. 

I can assure you, it is not.

[...]

Meanwhile in the U.S. we have gas prices up the wazoo, there’s STILL a formula shortage, the cost of living in general is astronomical and inflation is 8.2 percent, yet we apparently have excess money to send to freaking Ecuador for DRAG QUEENS!?

If this is our taxpayer dollars at work, I would like a refund.

Tim Graham spent a Nov. 1 post personally attacking an Associated Press reporter for calling out right-wing hate of drag queens:

You know the media outlet is liberal when they go rushing to the defense of the "rich history" of drag queens. This Associated Press story was supportively tweeted out by the PBS NewsHour(and ran on its website): 

The headline on PBS is "Analysis: Political rhetoric, false claims obscure the history of drag performance." AP labeled this piece an "Explainer."

AP reporter/editor on the case is Jeff McMillan, whose Twitter bio proclaims he's a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (complete with rainbow flag emoji). McMillan's also part of the AP Stylebook team, insuring all terminology is LGBTQ-approved.

Graham accused McMillan of "editorializing from the start." But the only claims he highlighted in boldface were that "Lately, drag has been dragged through the mud," that "The art form has been cast in a false light in recent months by right-wing activists and politicians," and that "The objections are often religious in nature, with some opponents citing the devil at work" -- all objective facts. Graham went on to whine:

Are there any conservatives or Republicans quoted? No. Surely AP wouldn't "lower itself" to engaging with Christopher Rufo, who recently analyzed the "rich history" of drag and Drag Queen Story Hours at length at City Journal. 

Given that Rufo's attacks on critical race theory have been proven to be dishonest and false, perhaps  he's not the best example Graham could be citing.

Mandelburg's Nov. 9 "Woke of the Weak" podcast raged at a "junior drag queen," sneering, "Someone needs to call CPS on whoever the parents are of that kid, because that is literal child abuse." More false and potentially libelous accusations of a crime. Maybe Mandelburg should be calling her lawyer to see what defense she has against the inevitable libel and defamation lawsuit she'll be facing for spreading lies about people she can't possibly know.

Newsmax's Hirsen Gushed Over Kari Lake -- But Silent On Their Shared Love Of Election Denierism
Topic: Newsmax

Before the midterm elections, Newsmax columnist James Hirsen churned out an embarrassingly gushy Oct. 18 profile of right-wing Arizona Republican Kari Lake. It started out this way:

Kari Lake has been garnering quite a bit of national attention of late.

As Arizona’s GOP gubernatorial nominee in the upcoming 2022 election, she has made a name for herself as a dynamic candidate, expert communicator and truly affable individual.

Illinois was her birthplace and Iowa was the state where she grew up, in a family with eight other siblings.

Fortuitous byproducts of her early life experiences were her solid mid-western roots and down-home values.

After a few more paragraphs of biography and resume recitation, Hirsen transitioned to how Lake won her Republican primary with the help of an endorsement from Donald Trump, then touted her shining prospects in the general election:

Mainstream news outlets recently reported that Democrats are becoming increasingly concerned about Kari. They evidently have good reason to be.

Axios featured a story, "Democrats fear Arizona Republican Kari Lake will be a big star."

The sub-headline of that piece is "Democratic Party Strategists are Watching Arizona's Kari Lake with Growing Alarm."

"Some of Katie Hobbs' supporters are concerned MAGA firebrand Kari Lake is outshining her low-key campaign," one NBC News blared.

[...]

Kari's ability to relate to people and clear delivery of her policy positions are strengths that her opponent seems to lack.

Democratic Party operatives appeared to panic when Kari’s opponent, who is Arizona’s former secretary of state, declined to debate Kari.

Instead her opponent arranged a one-on-one interview with a local PBS affiliate.

Hirsen censored Hobbs' rationale for refusing to debate Lake, that Lake is "much more interested in creating a spectacle and having the spotlight than actually having a substantive discussion about the issues." And, yes, that was a controversial strategy. But Hirsen is here to slobber over Lake, especially when he can inject religion into it:

Arizona’s GOP gubernatorial nominee actually has more going for her than the Democrats realize.

She has re-discovered the faith that makes for strength.

In an interview with The Arizona Sun Times in June 2021, Kari recounted the manner in which her faith was re-ignited, which led to a renewed connection with God.

It was in the summer of 2019 that she was confronted with the sheer anger of the woke mob. "Two years ago, I got canceled — as they say — now I laugh at it.

"It was painful at the time and really frightening. At the time, it was horrible," she said.

"Something had been recorded at work, and somehow [was] put out in the world and became a really big story and I immediately was attacked for it and was canceled for it."

Hirsen won't tell you the details, but this is apparently a reference to an incident in which she slagged a local alternative paper in Phoenix as "a rag for selling marijuana ads" (adding, "fuck them") after her TV station's managment feared the paper writing up Lake tweeting a reference to far-right social media site Parler. The incident got her taken off the air for a week, which apparently counts for being "canceled" in the world of Lake and Hirsen.

And "suffering" too! Her "suffering" as a result of being held accountable for her own behavior is apparently the thing that made her embrace far-right politics:

As is often the case, suffering brought blessing.

"It really brought me to my knees. I was praying to God to just get me through this," Kari revealed.

During the pandemic lockdowns, while working from home she had the opportunity to embrace the Scriptures once again.

"I don’t know how people didn’t return to their faith during COVID," she remarked. “I started reading the Bible. I hadn’t been reading the Bible for decades – since I was a kid!"

After immersing herself in The Word, Kari yearned for regular church attendance. Some friends invited her to come and worship with them.

She went and it changed her life.

"I had the most beautiful church epiphany, and found a church that just stirred my soul. I’ve never missed a week, except when I’m out of town," she said.

"It just brought me so much closer to where I have an intimate, good relationship with Jesus. I feel as if I have a connection with Jesus."

This is the kind of connection that makes for success in any direction the road may lead.

Even a political one.

Since Hirsen's gauzy profile was all about vagueness, he didn't mention that Lake is an election denier who believes Trump actually won in 2020 -- which you'd think he would mention since he too is a Trump election denier (who still won't apologize for the denier lies he spread). And despite her (and Hirsen's) confidence that she would win, Lake lost -- ironically, in part because she became a Trump clone who obsessed about nonexistent voting fraud. And like Trump, she's mentally incapable of handling her loss and has become a denier who files lawsuits that get tossed out of court for lack of credible evidence.

Hirsen hasn't written about Lake since -- perhaps because he doesn't want to deal with the truth about his own election denier activism.

CNS Replaces Attacks on Pelosi With Attacks On Jeffries
Topic: CNSNews.com

As it ramps down petty attacks on Nancy Pelosi as she steps down from Democratic House leadership, CNSNews.com is ramping up petty attacks on her apparent replacement, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

A Nov. 16 article by Susan Jones was a Republican attack on Jeffries for calling out MAGA extremism:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says MAGA Republicans are not the greatest threat facing the nation, as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) opined on Tuesday.

Jeffries, leader of the House Democratic Caucus, said, "The threat right now in this country to the American people are extreme MAGA Republicans. That's the threat. That's the problem. That's the crisis that we confront."

Gingrich scoffed:

"Well, look, I mean, first of all, for any Democrat from the party that represents big cities to talk about threats without talking about the murders, the rapes, the carjackings, the robberies that their big cities actually have encouraged by releasing people back on the street is nonsense.

"Second, I would argue the greatest threat to America's future is the collapse of our public schools under the domination of the teachers’ unions so that we're not going to be able to compete with China or India or anyplace else if we continue to produce children who can't do math, can't read, can't write, and are propagandized into worrying about their gender in the third grade. I think it's really a crisis.

"So I would be glad to talk to him some day about the real threats and crises."

Jones did not give Jeffries an opportunity to reply to Gingrich.

A Nov. 21 article by Jones complained that Jeffries, "next in line to be House Minority Leader," said that Democrats "will fiercely and vigorously oppose any attempts at Republican overreach and any Republican extremism. And I'm hopeful that the Republican leadership will take lessons away from the rejection of extremism by the American people all across the land, and not double and triple down on it in the next Congress." Unlike with the uncritical stenography does of Republican politicians, added comments from Republican Rep. James Comer, "the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee," bragging about all the partisan investigations he has planned.

For a Nov. 28 article, Peyton Holliday followed the RNC script -- literally; most of her Twitter embeds are from the RNC oppo-research account -- and attacked Jeffries for previously criticizing election results:

Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who reportedly is running to lead the House Democrats in the next Congress, was an outspoken "election denier" in 2016, claiming that Donald Trump was "artificially" placed in the presidency by Russia. He also claimed the election was "illegitimate."

In February 2018, Jeffries, who is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, tweeted, “The more we learn about the 2016 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes. America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE President in the Oval Office.”

In May 2019 he said in Congress, “Russia interfered with our election, attacked our democracy for the sole purpose of artificially placing someone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They were successful.”

[...]

Fox News further reported, “Democrats have criticized Trump for nearly two years now for his rejection of the 2020 election results. But when asked this week if Jeffries still believes Russia stole the 2016 election for Trump, Jeffries' office indicated that is still the case and told Fox News Digital his "observations about the twice-impeached Florida man speak for themselves."

Holliday gave Jeffries no opportunity to respond. And even though he has responded to similarright-wing attacks by pointing out that "I supported the certification of Donald Trump’s election. I attended his inauguration ... and found ways to work with the Trump administration," CNS has never published any response by Jeffries to this partisan attack line.

Indeed, CNS continued with those partisan attacks with a Dec. 1 article by Craig Bannister transcribing how Fox News' Sean Hannity "list[ed] some of newly-elected House Democrat Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-N.Y.) most radical comments and policies" and claimed that "Jeffries' record is filled with really extreme forms of far-left lunacy." Again, no balance was offered.

Jones again seemed annoyed that Jeffires pushed back on upcoming partisan Republican House probes in a Dec. 5 article:

"What's your mission in the new Congress?" ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked incoming House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday.

"Well, our mission is to find ways to work with Republicans whenever possible to get things done for the American people -- to work on issues related to the economy and inflation and lowering costs, fighting for better paying jobs and safer communities," Jeffries said.

"And I hope that Republicans will look for common ground with us, but we will also oppose them when we must, particularly as it relates to any effort to go down this rabbit hole of unnecessary, unconscionable, unacceptable investigations of the administration."

House Republicans have promised to launch a number of investigations, including one into Hunter Biden's alleged influence peddling -- getting rich on his family connections. They also want to know how deeply involved former Vice President Joe Biden may have been in his son's business dealings.

CNS' mission statement claims that it "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story." But it rarely offers fairness to people who aren't conservative, and it's failing to do so with Jeffries.

WND's Latest Round Of Obama Derangement Syndrome Set Off Over ... Braids!
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Just as with the Media Research Center, Michelle Obama's revelation in her new book that she chose not to wear braids in the White House because Americans (well, right-wing white Americans) weren't ready for it set off a new round of Obama Derangement Syndrome at WorldNetDaily. Bob Unruh complained in a Nov. 18 article:

There were some serious things that happened in the Obama White House. There was planning for the moves that would have the government essentially take over health care decision making for Americans.

There also apparently was some of the scheming and manipulating that allowed the "Russia collusion" hoax to develop, and to be used against then-candidate Donald Trump.

But now on a tour hawking her new book, which already is being described as "insulting" and "full of clichés," Michelle Obama is recalling how she altered her hair style because she didn't think America was ready for her "braids."

The New York Post noted Obama said Americans still were "getting adjusted" to "having a black first family in the White House."

She said she decided, "Let me keep my hair straight."

"Let’s get health care passed [first]. They tripped out when Barack wore a tan suit," she claimed. "The great indignity, the scandal of the Obama administration. The code of ethics at a workplace, as black women we deal with it, the whole thing about, 'Do you show up with your natural hair?'"

The attacks on on Obama's book come from a single review in the right-wing UK Daily Mail, which would not be considered a representative sample.

Then came a Nov. 21 column by Mychal Massie, who has long had a terminal case of Obama Derangement Syndrome that's so severe and unhinged that he will refer to her only as "the Obama woman" (though it's arguably an upgrade from "Buttzilla"), resulting in a lie-filled rant that's at the far end of unhinged even for him:

It has been said: "When presidents leave office they should also leave the country, less they haunt the new president like a ghost." I submit that goes for their wives as well – especially if they are named Hillary or Obama.

Heaven knows Hillary is bad enough, but the Obama woman is in a league of her own.

The Obama woman is a dimorphic harridan who fancies herself a beauty and a queen. That said, she's a "beauty," as in repulsive not the kind you send flowers.

I am beyond sickened with her kind endlessly complaining how bad America is and how bad it's been for them. We should all have it as bad as that behemoth-butt, bigoted, hate-mongering contumacious shrew and her ilk. Her kind has no clue what it is to have difficult times.

With the money and influence she and her debaucherous husband have and command – if America is so bad, get out! Move to Cuba or Venezuela.

As I have noted before, whenever the Obama woman needs attention she laments how (sniff, sniff) difficult it has been for her as the first crayon color woman to run roughshod over the White House. (She cannot be called a "lady" even in jest.)

One example of such a pathetic exhibition of same was back in 2015 when she shamelessly fabricated a teary perspective of how bad her life was and how unfair the media were to her, going so far as to tell students at Tuskegee University in Alabama, remarks from political pundits kept her up at night. I submit the only thing that keeps that woman up at night are frequent bathroom trips from the amount of vodka she is alleged to consume daily.

Her latest Negress pity-me party comes as she is hawking her 300-page fantasy book of clichés deal, for which she is supposedly splitting $65 million with her husband.

The Obama woman laments how hard it was for her, because she had to show a modicum of propriety in the White House. She hated the fact that she couldn't go full-out ghetto-queen. She and her staff supposedly obsessed over whether or not she should wear pantyhose or get braids for her hair. I guess the debate was whether or not the Whoopi Goldberg look would work for her. One can only imagine how strenuous that skull session was.

You know she is lying through teeth when she is spinning these sob stories, but lying about America and We the People of same is all her kind know to do. It's their chief means of sympathy collecting – and as long as it works, why change the routine?

Somehow racist hebephrenic harridans like the Obama woman, Oprah, Joy Reid, Whoopi Goldberg, Stacey Abrams et al. are never asked what other superpower nation has had a president that's recognized as a crayon color.

The "300-page fantasy book of clichés" claim links back to Unruh's article.

Massie weirdly concludes: "In reality the only problem the Obama woman has is finding a place to shed her skin in the Northeast this time of year."