A Sense of Doubt blog post #2356 - FOX talking heads redefine vile, inhuman, compassionless as "humans" - TIME TO CANCEL THEM FOR GOOD

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2356 - FOX talking heads redefine vile, inhuman, compassionless as "humans" - TIME TO CANCEL THEM FOR GOOD

I just don't understand.

There's a guy in my neighborhood with his "Trump 2020 - Make Liberals Cry Again" flag still flying.

I want to stop and ask him: "why does your political slogan depend on causing other people pain? I hope you are not Christian because that's antithetical to what Christ taught."

One day he was out washing his big old motor home or RV or whatever it is, and I was walking the dogs, so I have some instant affability (people love the dogs), and I thought of pausing my audio book and asking him.

But then, why bother?

I am unlikely to like the answer, and then I could be a target for his ire every time I walk by, which I do nearly every day, much like the dog-hating asshole who called animal control on us and reported us to the HOA because he was convinced my dogs pooped and peed on his lawn all the time (never, not even once). He even was taking video of us one time when we walked by. Thankfully, he moved. I don't need that negative energy in my universe.

And so, to the subject at hand.

I just don't understand.

I thought Trump was vile (and also pathetic) because he's a sociopath with narcissistic personality disorder and someone completely lacking in empathy.

Naively, I believed that when he left office (in a kicking and screaming tantrum of lies about election fraud) that things in the country would return more to a pre-Trump era normal. There would be the usual partisan bickering, but things like Fox "News" (not NEWS) would tone down its hateful rhetoric and other outlets, like CNN and MSNBC, would not have to play defense.

But, no.

People (and I use the term people lightly as it may not apply) like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson keep redefining this new brand of asshole, this schadenfreude, mocking pain and real heroism because apparently their viewers LOVE IT.

And so it happened that after an emotional first day of hearings for the  United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, these vile, inhuman, disgusting shells of seeming humanity MOCKED the pain, trauma, injuries, deaths, and experiences describes as "Hell" rather than showing any empathy, compassion, or even some fucking respect.

As I wrote about here: 

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2355 - FIND THE PERSON WHO HIRED THE HIT MAN: January Sixth Insurrection Commission - Historical, Powerful, and FINDING THE TRUTH

These capitol police officers went through Hell to protect our democracy from Trump loyalist domestic terrorist who were intent on stopping the certification of the 2020 presidential election and intent to EXECUTE members of the House, the Senate, and even VP Mike Pence. 

THEY SET UP A GALLOWS!

This attack was horrible: one officer was crushed in a doorway; many were beaten with all manner of weapons including flag poles bearing American flags, Trump flags, or even "Back the Blue" flags; others were abused with racial epithets; insurrectionists attempted to take and kill others with their own guns; they were called traitors; and more and more and more.

Listening to them describe their experiences brought many at the hearing, including people serving on the Committee to tears because of EMPATHY AND COMPASSION that normal, good humans feel for the pain of others especially those protecting our FUCKING DEMOCRACY at the risk of their own lives.

In follow up interviews, others were choked up or cried as well, including those of us like me, who were watching the highlights and follow up interviews.

One officer killed himself in the days following the insurrection, presumably because of the trauma he endured.

Why is this so hard to understand?

Why is it so hard to feel EMPATHY AND COMPASSION for these men, let alone GRATITUDE for what they did for the country, and the RESTRAINT they showed in fending off the attacks without opening fire and slaughtering dozens of these unhinged, lunatic jingoistic terrorists! Only one insurrectionist was shot and killed.

ONE.

And yet, what did Laura Ingraham do to cover the hearings??

She staged a mock awards show and made fake trophies to denigrate and vilify the testimony of these brave men and "acting," as "putting on a show," to serve partisan ends rather than simply telling the truth of what they endured and asking the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FUCKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Like not just arrest and convict the "hit men," but also arrest and convict the person or people who "hired the hit men."



I just don't get it.

I do not understand how someone so vile and repugnant can go on NATIONAL TELEVISION and mock the pain and suffering of these heroes.

Throughout the Trump "presidency," I continued to be appalled in new ways nearly on a daily basis. And just when I thought there was nothing worse he could say or do, he did something worse.

But this...

This is popular?

If you watch this disgusting, slimy, inhuman freak show of the grotesque and evil, and you LIKE IT, then does that not make you just as vile, abhorrent, and devilish?

You like to laugh at other people's pain?

You laugh when people who can feel empathy and compassion for the pain of others are emotionally moved by that expression of their pain and experiences?

That's funny to you???

I feel sorry for you if that's true.

You're pathetic if that is who you are.

And then there's TUCKER CARLSON, whose own network's lawyers have claimed IN COURT that no one takes what he says seriously, and yet people do, because they cannot distinguish between the "news" presented during the day by people that sometimes actually resemble real journalists with a modicum of integrity and the insane freak show of hate and viciousness that characterizes the nightly lineup.

Carlson not only mocked the pain officers like Fanone described but then continued the denial and the rewriting of history by showing a video of a calm moment in the capitol that day in which people do look like tourists at a national government landmark despite all the OTHER VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE VIOLENCE by people who are CLEARLY Trump supporters because after all they all showed up at the behest of the twice-impeached loser for his "rally" that whipped them into a frenzy and directed them to go "fight like Hell" for their country (IE. for him).

Not only do I find it hard to understand how people can behave this way on national television, but I find it very difficult to believe that viewers lap it up like a cat at a dish of cocaine-laced milk rather than turning off the TV in disgust.

I railed against the party of HATE a lot here:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2354 - Favorite bits TALKING BACK against the GOPQ

Refuting every claim of their supposed principles: 

The party of personal responsibility: nope.

The party of Lincoln: nope.

The party of family values: nope.

The party of "pro-life": nope!

The party of law and order: oh wow, that's really funny... NOPE!

Some of this content is also here:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1957 - Wanna be Loved? - Hodge Podge 2006.27

But the really good stuff that defines this new version of the republican party as the party of assholes is here:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2187 - More thoughts on INSURRECTION and the new American Civil War

And the great thing written by one of my favorite authors, John Scalzi, explaining how the GOP has become the party of "what if we didn't?"

And now all those things they used to do in good faith, like at least try to tell the truth or call it racism for what it is, have now added basic decency to the list of "what if we didn't?"

What if we were not basically decent or cared about other humans? Would we still be in power? Would we still have high ratings?

Yes, apparently so.

Because it is a true thing that though not ALL current republicans are racist assholes, ALL THE RACIST ASSHOLES are currently identifying as republican.

I do not know how we heal from this...

I do not know how we come back from this...

But something needs to be done.

One good thing would be to just STOP WATCHING FOX "NEWS" when they do offensive shit like this.

But then, I am sure many of you are thinking: "but what if we didn't?"

https://www.wonkette.com/laura-ingraham-takes-gold-in-sh-t-on-capitol-cops-contest-in-stunning-upset-over-favorite-tucker-carlson

Laura Ingraham Takes Gold In 'Sh*t On Capitol Cops' Contest In Stunning Upset Over Favorite Tucker Carlson

Evan Hurst

July 28, 2021 10:03 AM

 

We predicted it, and sure enough, it came to pass.

After yesterday's brutal and honest congressional testimony from DC and Capitol cops about the January 6 attack on the Capitol by radicalized domestic terrorists, Fox News's primetime hosts made fun of those cops. We guess for Fox's evening hosts, cops are only heroic if they're abusing Black people.

You'd think Tucker Carlson's White Power Hour would win the gold, but we're going to have to award him the silver this time, as he was edged at the last minute by Laura Ingraham, who was in much finer form last night. Maybe Tucker is still recovering from having his dick publicly broken in Montana this past weekend.

Regardless, here's Ingraham, who gave out awards to the cops for their theatrical performances. Of course, she started by lying about what happened January 6:

LAURA INGRAHAM: There was certainly a lot of violence that day but it was not a terrorist attack. It wasn't 9/11. It wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to America. It wasn't an insurrection.

It indeed wasn't 9/11, and it wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to America — there are so many sordid acts in our history committed by white supremacists, so that's a high bar! — but it was most definitely an insurrection to overturn democracy committed by terrorists who shouldn't be allowed to walk free. DC police officer Daniel Hodges even read the definition of domestic terrorism, according to US law, during his testimony yesterday, for racist, propaganda-spewing hacks like Ingraham.

Ingraham, rolling her eyes and scoffing like she does, gave out acting awards to the officers, mocking their testimonies along the way. First, though, she awarded "Best use of tears and pauses in a leading role" jointly to Reps. Adam Schiff and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom teared up and cried during the hearing. "God save us from these third-rate theatrics," said Ingraham, who we guess prefers her men tougher, like Dinesh D'Souza, a person we always must remind you Ingraham had sex with on purpose.

She then gave "Best use of an exaggeration in a supporting role" to Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonell, who, she said, "thinks the pen is literally mightier than the sword." She was literally mocking his testimony that the weapons used against them that day were weapons. Haw haw! He said weapons were weapons even if they were just pens! (And also stun guns and tasers and crowbars and flagpoles and knives and baseball bats and fire extinguishers and bear spray.)

For "Blatant use of partisan politics when facts fail," she gave her prize to Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn. We had a feeling when he admitted he voted for Joe Biden, the Fox News hosts would react in the same spirit as the terrorists that day. As Dunn testified, they surrounded him screaming, "You hear that, guys? This [n-word] voted for Joe Biden." (He did not say "n-word.") They screamed "BOO! Fucking [n-word]" at him. Ingraham just removed the overt racial slur for deniability purposes. She also bellyached that Dunn compared Donald Trump to a hitman.

Finally, for "Best performance in an action role," she made fun of DC officer Michael Fanone, who testified in great detail about terrorists giving him a heart attack and a concussion that day, and called the actions of Republican congressmen showing absolute indifference to him and his colleagues "disgraceful." Then she hosted seditionist Rep. Jim Banks, whom Nancy Pelosi rejected for the committee, who said the officers' statements were "carefully scripted" and said they "stumbled over words they weren't familiar with." Guess he just thinks cops are too stupid to know big words.

Speaking of "carefully scripted," you'll note that Ingraham didn't actually play much of those guys' testimonies. Just the parts she cherry-picked so she could roll her eyes and scoff at them.

Meanwhile, Tucker.

Want to watch Tucker Carlson laugh like a big tough guy at Officer Fanone for saying he's suffered from PTSD since the attacks where he was literally beaten within a half inch of his life? You can see it here, but like we said, Tucker really didn't bring his A-game last night, so it doesn't deserve an instant replay here.

Tucker was also apparently offended that Fanone didn't have any PTSD from last summer's mostly peaceful protests in DC:

"What is interesting is Michael Fanone didn't mention experiencing any trauma during the time he spent last year on the DC police force. It was just last summer that rioters in Washington torched the oldest Episcopal church in the city just steps from the White House. Dozens of police officers were injured that day."

If Fanone said he had PTSD from seeing a Black person protest for their rights, Tucker would try to be his best friend or maybe date him. The Capitol terrorists were white though, so Tucker just doesn't get it.

Tucker made fun of Officer Gonell, who before his current job served in Iraq, and who testified that "on January 6th for the first time, I was more afraid to work at the Capitol than my entire deployment to Iraq." Haw haw, that was very funny to Tucker, the frozen dinner heir who definitely knows what war is like.

"Actually what happened on January 6, according to the video we do have, does not look a lot like Iraq. It's not Fallujah." He played footage of a relatively quiet segment of the Capitol invasion, with protesters milling peacefully about the rotunda.

Of course he did. Of course, he could have played some of Fanone's bodycam footage, because they played that in Congress yesterday. But Tucker was busy lying.

We'll finish this post with this partial transcript of a voicemail Officer Fanone received while he was testifying, from somebody he did not know:

"You're so full of s—t, you little f---ot f—ker. You're a little p---y… You're a lying f—k… How about all the scummy Black f—king scum destroying our cities and burning them… I wish they would have killed all you scumbags, 'cause you people are scum. They stole the election from Trump… Too bad they didn't beat the s—t out of you more."

No, the message wasn't left on Fanone's phone by Tucker or Laura, but nobody would be shocked if it had been. Especially because if you hear the full voicemail, the caller asked Fanone if he wanted an Emmy or an Oscar.

These minds think alike.

[Media Matters / Insider / Daily Beast / ibid.]

#FoxNews #TheFive

Greg Gutfeld can't 'stomach the crying' from Jan. 6 commission members

Jul 27, 2021

Fox News

'The Five' debates whether Speaker Pelosi's commission is fair after refusing two GOP congressmen. #FoxNews #TheFive

Fox News Could Be Sued For Lying About COVID Vaccine

Jul 31, 2021

The Ring of Fire

There could be a simple reason why so many Fox hosts are softening their language about the COVID vaccines: They don't want to get sued. Yes, the law absolutely would allow for a media outlet to be sued for intentionally spreading misinformation about a public health crisis that led to personal injury, but the amount of hoops that a plaintiff would have to jump through in order to make that happen is mind blowing. But that doesn't mean it is impossible, and Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what a lawsuit might look like against Fox or other media outlets lying about vaccines. 

Link - https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/fox-news-tucker-carlson-vaccine-lawsuit.html

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2107.31 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2220 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.