QOTD -- The Source Of America's Rage

 

"The answer to the increasing amount of hate in our politics, then—the only answer that fits the data—is almost certainly Fox News, along with the increasing despair and commitment of conservative evangelicals. We saw it in the Fox-led tea party eruption of 2009. It’s evident in the fact that white evangelicals are the most faithful viewers of Fox News. It was behind the monthslong Fox coverage of “fraud” following the 2020 election. And we’re seeing it right now in the endless Fox coverage of critical race theory and supposed anti-white bias in general."  [snip]

"For the past 20 years the fight between liberals and conservatives has been razor close, with neither side making more than minor and temporary progress in what’s been essentially trench warfare. We can only break free of this by staying clear-eyed about what really sustains this war. It is Fox News that has torched the American political system over the past two decades, and it is Fox News that we have to continue to fight." -- Kevin Drum, with a detailed essay in Mother Jones about "The Real Source of America's Rising Rage" and how Rupert Murdoch's Fox "News" has set America ablaze.  With the many founts of  Big Lie right- wing propaganda, it's important to remind ourselves what is the number 1 purveyor of vicious lies and hate to Americans on a daily basis for over the past 20 long years.

QOTD: "A Stain We'll Never Live Down"

Kevin Drum,  in Mother Jones writing about the rape accusation of journalist E. Jean Carroll against sociopath and sexual assaulter Donald "Grab 'Em" Trump:

"This episode hasn’t gotten an awful lot of attention. This is the first I’ve written about it, for example. Why? I don’t think it has anything to do with media outlets not taking rape allegations seriously. The real answer is almost worse: (a) everybody just assumes the story is true and (b) everybody knows that it will have no effect on either Trump’s fans or his Republican Party colleagues. Trump will issue a pro forma denial; nobody will take it seriously; and that will be that. Just like the other 15 times.

Even after more than two years, I wake up every morning and I can’t believe that Donald Trump is the president of the United States. It’s a stain we’ll never live down."

Our brave Beltway media chose not to discuss it on the weekend talk shows. Same with our major newspapers. They may take rape allegations seriously, but in the case of Trump, they've given up. The stain is on them, too.

BONUS:  Ryan Cooper discusses the "big-shot media's" deference to Trump, on this and other stories.