Talk Radio

The Survival And Independence Of News Media Under Threat In Age Of Donald Trump

America is in a crisis, with the attack on the news media by Donald Trump.

Unfortunately one third to 45 percent of the American people believe that the news media are promoting “fake news’.

They would rather believe Donald Trump, or Fox News Channel, or Talk Radio, and many of these people see the rest of the media to be the enemy, rather than their role of exposing evil.

Without a thriving media, corruption and scandal would run totally rampant.

America is blessed with journalists who often are threatened by mob mentality at Trump rallies.

These journalists are committed to pursuit of the truth, and many news media sources are failing to make a profit, and are closing up, causing the mass loss of brilliant young journalists.

The fact that the media industry is a business which needs to make a profit does not take away from their sacrifices in trying to learn the truth.

Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal would never have been exposed if not for two young cub reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post from 1972 through 1974.

Today, in the time of danger that Donald Trump represents, it is the Washington Post again, along with the New York Times, which is promoting the survival of constitutional government.

The Extreme Right, Fox News Channel, And Evangelicals Care Only About Fetuses, But Not Those Born: A Mockery To Say They Are Pro Life!

In the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the extreme Right conservatives, including on Talk Radio, Fox News Channel, and supposedly devout Evangelicals, rushed to the defense of the National Rifle Association, and had the gall to claim that the articulate students who are promoting national and state action are “out of line” and in many cases are “actors”!

This is the same argument used against parents at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, after 20 young children and six teachers were massacred in December 2012, that they were “actors”, and that those victims are imaginary.

Face the facts: the extreme Right including so called “religious people” care only about money and profits and not about life, with so many schools being victimized by mass shootings.

They claim to be “Pro Life”, while the only lives they are concerned about are fetuses not yet born, and once they are born, and often in families with poverty and mental health issues, then they are on their own, as government sets out to cut any support for such children.

They are massive hypocrites of the tallest order, and it is time to declare war on these people who have no concern, unless and until their own children were to be, unfortunately, victims.

There is no excuse for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and innumerable other Republicans and conservatives, to show lack of concern or commitment to change the laws in the midst of this constant crisis of violence on campuses.

And it is not just schools, but movie theaters, shopping malls, outdoor concerts, churches and all other public places that have seen mass bloodshed, more than any nation in the world, with the difference being that other nations–Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Japan–had experienced such bloodshed and passed strict laws after, and the violence has abated to very few such incidents of tragedy.

So the Right Wing must be combated with all the massive activism of students, parents, and all decent people across America, who value life over guns!

Right Wing Hysteria Over Obama, Proved Wrong Again And Again!

When Barack Obama was reelected President in 2012, the right wing went nuts, claiming all kinds of disasters for the nation, and they continued to state that in 2014, as well as 2013.

Gasoline was supposed to rise to over $5 a gallon, but instead it is half of that or less.

Unemployment was supposed to stay at 8 percent, but instead it is under 6 percent.

The stock market was going to crash, but instead it is at an all time high.

The American economy was going to go belly up, and instead, we have the strongest growth in many years, and a 5 percent growth rate in the third quarter of 2014.

Nearly eleven million jobs have been created, the most since Bill Clinton was President.

Ebola was supposed to decimate America, and it has, instead, turned out to be a major scare based on hysteria and panic, encouraged by the right wing.

California was going to go bankrupt, and instead has a four billion dollar surplus, a tremendous revival, despite projections that this “blue” state was going down the wrong path, and instead it is Kansas, a “red” state, that is in dire condition because, unlike California, which raised taxes, Kansas cut them dramatically.

Barack Obama was accused of undermining Israel, but it was our Iron Dome system which saved Israel in the recent Mideast conflict, and despite petty differences between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama remains a strong supporter of the Jewish state, without necessarily having to agree on every detail and request of the Israeli government.

Obama was accused of having one scandal after another, but every so called scandal has collapsed on its own weight of no substance, including the attack on Benghazi, Libya, that led to the death of four diplomats and support staff, including the US Ambassador to Libya.

It was said that Barack Obama was going to declare martial law, and that he was lawless and dictatorial, while also being accused of being weak and unwilling to use American military power, but both accusations have been proved ridiculous, and Obama is doing an excellent job of dealing with terrorism in the Middle East and Africa, without putting boots on the ground.

The right wing, whether Fox News Channel, Talk Radio, the Republicans in Congress, or the conservative think tanks, have been proved wrong and hysterical so often, one wonders how any intelligent person could take anything that they claim to be legitimate!

Jeb Bush Faces Fierce Opposition As He Plans Presidential Run For 2016!

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has become the first Republican to indicate his intention to seek the Republican Presidential nomination in 2016, but he faces fierce opposition from the right wing of his party–the Tea Party, many Congressional conservatives, talk radio, and Fox News Channel.

The feeling of many is that Jeb is too centrist, too much “Establishment” Republican for much of the party that has become extreme right wing.

Jeb is seen as unwilling to cater to the Right; that he wants to run as a moderate Republican; and he continues to back national educational standards, known as Common Core; supports immigration reform, as his brother did in office; and the thought of a third Bush Presidency is not very appealing to many in his party.

Jeb is seen as arrogant, cocky, and condescending to many who do not agree with him, and his family’s close association with Bill and Hillary Clinton, ironic if Bush runs against Hillary, also alienates many in his party.

Jeb has also said it is time for the GOP to stop trying to repeal ObamaCare, and also refuses to say that he will never raise taxes if elected President.

So while he is now seen as the frontrunner for the nomination, the likelihood of his being the candidate in 2016 is seen as highly unlikely, as the party continues its move out of the mainstream!

Alternate Universe Of The Right Wing On Barack Obama And The Economy

The Right Wing on talk radio and Fox News Channel, and the Republican Party nationally and locally, demonize Barack Obama on every subject imaginable, including the economy.

At the same time, the following is reality:

The stock market is at its all time high, about 150 percent above what it was when Barack Obama became President six years ago.

The unemployment rate is the lowest since the beginning of the Great Recession under George W. Bush in 2008, and millions of jobs have been created, with the number of jobs lost all regained, and new additional jobs created, and starting to be better paid jobs.

The increase in the deficit on the annual budget is the lowest it has been since the Bill Clinton Administration.

Ten million more people have health care now, due to the expansion of Medicaid and the adoption of ObamaCare, and health care costs have decreased for many.

The price of gasoline is the lowest in five years.

We have seen record corporate earnings in the pasty year.

Economic Growth, at five percent in the third quarter, is the highest since 2003.

The Obama public opinion rating shot up four points last month, the highest in nearly two years.

America has a positive view of the economy for the first time since 2007, when the economic decline began, and accelerated rapidly.

Considering that the Republican Party controlled the House of Representatives for 16 of the past 20 years, and the Senate for 13 of the previous 20 years, it is clear that Barack Obama has presided over a growing economic boom, as occurred under Bill Clinton, but did not under George W. Bush!

Right Wing Hate For Barack Obama Far Surpasses Any Criticism Of Any Earlier President!

The right wing hate, led by the Tea Party Movement, for President Barack Obama, has reached the point of no return, and has FAR surpassed any criticism of any earlier President!

Whether it is talk radio, with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage and others of their ilk; or Fox News Channel spewing poison and lies consistently; or the right wing think tanks, headed by the Heritage Foundation and others who distort facts and have an agenda to promote an oligarchy; or the super wealthy, such as the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and others who are trying to destroy the middle class and promote their own profits at the expense of the entire nation; or the conservative journals of opinion, such as the Weekly Standard and the National Review, which promote their extremist agenda; or the lunatic House members, such as Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Steve King and others; or the right wing extremist Senators, including Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, newly elected Thom Tillis and Joni Ernst and others; as well as the leadership of many corporations and other special interests—there is a concerted campaign to destroy Barack Obama, with many wishing for his demise, meaning his death by whatever means possible.

Obama is more threatened now than any President since Abraham Lincoln, and in many respects, more than Lincoln, since the population is ten times what it was during the Civil War 150 years ago!

The venom, disrespect, racism, hatred, and accusations against Barack Obama have not had any limits. He has been accused of being a Muslim, a Kenyan, an Indonesian, anti Semitic, a racist against whites, a person who is bisexual, a gay man, an illegal drug abuser, having a mother who was a whore, having a different father who was a black nationalist, and much more.

Obama has been called an Emperor, a King, an abuser of Presidential power, but at the same time, he is weak and wimpy.

Sensible people see Obama as a moderate Republican of twenty to thirty years ago, not at all extreme, as Bruce Bartlett who worked for Ronald Reagan has said, who also says in many ways Obama is a traditional conservative, who has not done what liberals and progressives have wanted him to do.

On issues of human rights, Obama has been more aggressive, such as labor rights, civil rights, and gay and lesbian rights. On issues of importance to the future beyond our own time, he has supported the need for an aggressive policy on environmental protection.

But Obama has pushed a health care plan that the Heritage Foundation and Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole backed twenty years ago, giving health care companies control over health care, not exactly radical in nature, although depicted as such.

Obama has been attacked and criticized for every sin and fault imaginable, including wearing a tan suit; going on vacation (actually less than any recent President); using a veto power that he has only used twice; using executive orders less than any recent President; being unwilling to engage us in more wars and interventions, etc.

Through all the personal and policy attacks, Obama has always acted with dignity and calm, annoying the hell out of his critics, who want him to be the “angry black man”, and the leaders of the Republican Party, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, give him no respect at all.

And now, the idea is being suggested by the despicable editor Richard Lowry of the National Review, that John Boehner decide not to invite the President to give his State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress!

Go ahead, right wingers, do exactly that, and the President will speak instead from the Oval Office, and will win public opinion, and show once and for all what the right wing nuts represent! If he chooses to denounce, finally, his right wing critics, who have gone beyond the pale in so many ways, it will boost his public opinion rating, just as Bill Clinton’s ratings went up after the impeachment effort against him in 1998-1999!

Expect that Obama will face impeachment by this right wing crowd, but he will come out shining as a result, and will not be removed from office. All it will do is show the Republican Party and the right wing for what they are–despicable hate mongers who will stop at nothing to destroy the 44th President of the United States!

The greatest fear is not impeachment, or not being invited to speak before a joint session of Congress, but the dangers against his life that Barack Obama faces every day, encouraged on in spirit, if not in direct statements publicly, by the opposition, which, again, is more hateful and vehement than any time since at least the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln!

What The Midterm Elections Will Tell Us About America And Its Future!

We are now three days away from the Midterm Elections of 2014, and any political junkie is, by this time, worn out, and sick and disgusted at the constantly changing public opinion polls and the projections on Governorship and Senate races.

America has a choice to make, whether to move forward, and have a compassion and concern about those less fortunate, those who have been subjected to discrimination, those who simply want acceptance and respect, those who want a piece of the “American Dream”, and those who want to restore the middle class, which reached its peak in 1973, and has been in rapid decline since then.

If the Democrats lose the Senate and fail to throw out most of the seven Tea Party Governors who have been a nightmare to their states, then we have become, without any doubt, a nation moving toward the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, an American where racial minorities and immigrants were mistreated in horrible ways, women were second class citizens, and there was a monopoly of wealth and power by the elite wealthy over society, including exploitation of working people not treated with respect, and promotion of lower pay for women, exploitation of child labor, and the wholesale perpetrating of long lasting degradation of the environment.

It will also demonstrate that lack of knowledge, lack of education, lack of common sense, lack of caring about anyone other than oneself and close family and friends, leads to a reactionary society where there are no values other than greed and selfishness, and yet the victims in the long run are not just “others”, but these ignorant people who vote against their own advancement and welfare!

It is normal for a midterm election to promote some losses for the party in the White House, but to give the Republican Party massive rewards for obstruction, narrow mindedness, refusal to do what is good for the nation, and the promotion of pure hate, would be a sign of the failure of American democracy.

It would tell us that the goal is to confuse and divide the nation, while a small elite enriches itself and promotes wholesale destruction of the 20th century–including the New Deal and Great Society!

It would tell us that having provided millions with health care who never had it; has lowered the unemployment rate to the lowest since the Great Recession; has seen the stock market more than double; has eliminated Osama Bin Laden from the earth; has seen gasoline prices lower than in the past four years; has seen the deficit lowered by two thirds; has provided a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and has done so much to make lives better in many other ways, has failed to convince Democratic and Independent voters that it is worthwhile to fight for what they believe in, rather than just sit home and let the enemy of all this take over, all based on lies and talk radio and Fox News propaganda!

If the Democrats lose, a lot of the blame will be on Democratic office holders unwilling to defend the record they have achieved and to defend Barack Obama, and instead to allow fear and panic and anarchy and hate and prejudice take over the American psyche, and allow a party with no ideas and no ethics or morality to govern us, and take us down hill as they have done so often in the past!

Stephen Colbert Great Addition To Late Night Television!

Comedy Channel’s Stephen Colbert has been chosen to replace David Letterman, when he leaves CBS sometime in 2015.

This is a great selection to replace Letterman, as Colbert is a comedic genius, although he will drop his persona as a conservative Republican, when he takes over the late night show from Letterman.

Predictably, the right wing conservatives and Republicans are condemning the selection of Colbert, as Rush Limbaugh stated that the nation beyond the coastlines, what Limbaugh calls the “heartland”, is being ignored, and that CBS has declared war on this vast part of the nation, and that Colbert is overly “partisan.”

This is such a laughable idea, as what exactly is Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, and all of the rest of the large crowd of right wing talk show hosts on radio and television (Fox News Channel), except totally “partisan”, and also, mostly laughable in their hypocrisy?

Kudos to CBS for defying the right wing, and giving us one of the two most entertaining and creative comedians in cable, with the other being Jon Stewart!

Both know how to “sock it to them” to the right wing, which already has far too much control over media as it is!

Five Years Of President Barack Obama, And Three Years To Go!

Today is Inauguration Day, if an inauguration was to take place, as it did in 2009 and 2013, for President Barack Obama. It is also, this year, the commemoration of the birth of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was actually born on January 15, but whose birthday is celebrated on the third Monday of January every year since 1986.

If Martin Luther King, Jr. were here today at age 85, he would be very proud of the performance of a man who has seen as much racial hatred and venom, if not more totally, than King faced in his short 39 years of life.

Obama has suffered an average of 30 death threats per day, over 10,000 a year, and 50,000 in five years, more than any President in American history, even likely Abraham Lincoln, who suffered the most vicious hate of any other American President.

Obama has been called a Socialist, a Communist, a radical, all terms used against King five decades ago. It was also used against Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. He has been accused of being “unAmerican”, because he has a mission to provide equal access and opportunity, and the protection of human rights of all minority groups, women, immigrants, labor, as well as protect the environment and promote economic and social justice for the vast middle class and the poor.

If Obama were white, he would be attacked by the right wing, but not with the viciousness that he faces because he has an African American appearance, due to the genetics that made him look more black like his Kenyan father, than white, despite his white mother and the greater impact of her and her parents on his upbringing.

Barack Obama has proved to be a man of calmness, coolness, strength, confidence, class, dignity, and he has accomplished a lot more than his critics are willing to give him credit for, since they consider the fact that he breathes to be a fault in itself.

History will look kind on Barack Obama, while acknowledging his mistakes and shortcomings. which every President and every human being possesses.

Obama’s critics will look terrible, horrible, short sighted, hateful, and wrong in the long run of history, and future Americans will be appalled at the racism, nastiness, viciousness, and wishes to harm him, so common among the right wing talk shows on radio, Fox News Channel, conservative organizations, and the Republican Party of the second decade of the 21st century, an embarrassment to the long and proud history of Republicans in the past, who often were correct and contributory to the nation’s history.

Obama will outdo his critics, and go down as an above average President, maybe even near great, who was a path breaking President who made a dramatic difference in American history for the better!

John Boehner And Paul Ryan Vs. The Tea Party Radicals!

The Speaker of the House and the Budget Committee Chairman have thrown down the gauntlet to the right wing Tea Party Movement members of its Republican caucus, and to the pressure groups and talk radio and Fox News Channel critics.

And the good news that 169 members of the GOP caucus backed John Boehner and Paul Ryan, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a bit of a surprise since Cantor tends to hobnob with the radicals a good deal of the time, is welcome!

While this means the budget bill will stabilize the economy, and allow some progress next year on some items on the agenda, it is almost certain that IF the Tea Party challenge succeeds in 2014 House and Senate races, challenging incumbents, then Boehner will no longer be Speaker of the House, and Ryan may be ousted as Budget Committee chairman.

One would think that Boehner and Ryan are moderates. which is extremely far from the truth, but they are at least responsible legislators, who realize that with divided government, some negotiation and compromise is essential, in order to get anything done.

The hope is that the tumult in the GOP will enhance chances of the Democrats winning back control of the House, and with a Senate where the filibuster is rarely used due to the new 51 vote majority requirement, hopefully the next Congress in 2015 will make us forget what a disaster the 113th Congress has been, the worst in modern American history!