Wingnuts

Is It Posh Assholery Or Projection?

Niall Furguson is perhaps the closest thing the UK has to Ann Coulter. He's not a real economist or historian, despite his teaching privileges at Harvard. He's a right wing television commentator with a particular mean spirited, provocative style. He loves to push the buttons of his political and academic opponents.

On May 2nd, speaking to over 500 financial advisors at the Tenth Annual Altegris Conference in Carlsbad, California, Mr. Furguson once again attacked the greatest, most influential economist of the 20th Century. No transcript is available, but he essentially said that the motivation behind Keynes' famous quote, "In the long run, we are all dead," stems from his being both gay and childless. The argument that Keynes' alleged homosexuality weakens or invalidates his economic theories has been a staple of anti Keynes criticism for seven decades.

This is not Ferguson's first homophobic slur against Lord Keynes. As long ago as 1995, in an article for Spectator, Furguson asserted that Keynes opposed the 1919 Treaty of Versailles (which formally ended WWI) because he was sexually attracted to the German representative at the negotiations. That was to argue that Keynes was literally gay for Germany. Then, famously in a 1999 book, he accused the greatest economist of the twentieth century of picking up young men in London.

What is it with all these personal attacks on a man who can't defend himself? Could it be projection? Isn't it always?

I noticed that the Harvard History Department was unavailable for comment on Ferguson's latest nasty remarks. Apparently his nose is broken because the American public refuses to embrace the imperial project he believes the Unites States must pursue in order to be true to its destiny. Poor Niall.

Fixing A Wingnut's Analogy

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I shouldn't do this. This is such a moot point. But it bothered me the moment Hank Williams, Jr. made his flippant remark while on Fox & Friends over a week ago. He threw in a dead guy to construct an analogy between two pairs of people. As an ameteur editor, I have to say that is not a best practice in analogies.

Williams touched on a couple of Wingnut talking points when he said what he said. First, he reinforced the narrative that Obama is the GOPs worst enemy. But that can't be true. As Ted Rall has said many times (and as I finally agree), most in the GOP and Democratic party engage in political theater, in which they act that they are opposed to each other. Obama is not the GOP's enemy. The GOPs real enemies are the American progressives who might finally be taking to the streets in sigificant numbers after ten years of economic decline.

Second, Williams reinforced the myth that Obams is strongly anti Isreal. This completey ignores two facts that (1) Obama and Clinton's Isreal policy is exactly the same as Bush and Rice's, and (2) Obama made it clear at his annual UN speech that the Palestinians will not be able to solve their crisis through speeches or resolutions at the UN. It was a firm message that the actions of the Palestinian authority two weeks ago at the UN were, in the end, meaningless and not supported by the US. How is that anti-Israel? Oh right, Obama is a radical black man and of course, all radical black men are anti Semites, just like Louis Farrakhan, or Professor Griff.

So what does a seeming hungover Williams say on live TV about President Obama playing golf with Speaker Boehner?

It would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.

Let me fix that for you Hank, as one of the four people in your analogy is dead.

It would be like Hitler Ahmadinejad playing golf with Netanyahu.

There. Fixed. Not that the analogy is correct. Obama is still not the enemy of Israel. But if you are going to claim that he is, at least drop the dead guy out of your analogy. Not that Williams knows who the president of Iran is, or is able to pronounce his name. But you don't really expect wingnuts to be educated, do you?

The Day White America Went Mad (Again)

June 30th, 2009, Georgetown, Delaware, at the CHEER community center.

Take it away, madwoman:

If anyone ever tells you that both the Right and Left have irrational, violent hate speech on the same scale and with the same media exposure, simply use this video as the first example in a long list of evidence against the Right. The most vile, radical media figure on the Left is probably Bill Maher...for making jokes about Dick Chaney's health. The Right has an arena full of crazies. And no, 'crazies' is not hate speech if we have video evidence such as this. 'Teabagger' isn't a hateful word, either. Neither is my favorite, 'wingnut.'

If someone, anyone, knows of a blogger, talk show host, activist, leader, or celebrity on the Left who has been more politically incorrect than Bill Maher, please leave his or her name in the comments. It isn't Cecile Richards. It isn't Glenn Greenwald. It isn't Bill Moyer. It isn't David Corn (for calling Bush 43 a "liar"). And no, it isn't Arianna Huffington, either. Cindy Sheehan? Are you kidding me?

Who are the popular extremists on the Left? David Letterman? Jon Stewart? Sean Penn? George Clooney? Van Jones? Michael Moore? Whoopi Goldberg?

Who on the Left deserves to be compared to the likes of Pamela Geller, Ann Coulter, Dennis Miller (who used to be on the Left, so he would have counted if this was 1996), Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michele Bachmann, Sharron Angle, Ann Althouse, Erick Erickson, Glenn Reynolds, and Jonah Goldberg, and dozens of others?

Who?

Glenda Sure Knows How To Celebrate Christmas!

Food storage. Inflation. Death. Oprah envy. Awkwardness. Bitterness.

Glenn Beck is just full of Christmas cheer! Grab a mug of hot chocolate and gather 'round, children!

It's a far cry from his autobiographical The Christmas Sweater published two years ago. But now, with his ratings down over 30% from last year, Glenda doesn't have much to offer this Christmas.

The clip is courtesy of those evil, career destroying goons at Media Matters for America.

 

For Entertainment Purposes Only

Here is Glenn Beck's epic monologue / meltdown on the Thursday December 9th edition of the Glenn Beck Show (Fox News).

It is highly unlikely any rational person can get through all 19 minutes, but I find minutes 9-12 highly entertaining. Please try to watch it here.

As far as Glenn's meltdowns go, this ranks very high on the list of his all-time insane moments. How does anyone work or live with this boy in the bubble? He doesn't go outside except to run to and from his limo. He doesn't have guests on his show, aside from John Birchers, discredited scholars, and Neo-Nazis. And the only people who watch his TV show at 17:00 Eastern time, are angry old people who either don't know any better or can't find something more interesting to watch on the television.

I know it is terribly unfair and perhaps cruel to give Beck more attention. He needs help. But really, this clip was epic even by Beck's crazy standards. His ratings continue to fall and he is paid millions. And yet he has grand delusions of becoming a billionaire and/or savior of western civilization. In fact, in this clip, his envy of George Soros and Julian Assange is palpable. He really is a 21st century apocalyptic preacher stuck in an old medium, cable television.

PhDs In Climatology

All it takes is a few February snowstorms to send the wingnuts into a frenzy over climate change.

But not only climate change.  They also went into a frenzy about the weather's impact on job data.  Educated people who have been paying attention to business news since 1990 or so realize that stormy weather has been proven to have both micro- and macroeconomic consequences.  Weather effects earnings, consumption, spending, production, and everything connected to them in our economy.

They probably don't remember nor care that Enron, once a poster child for 21st century corporate America, developed one of the world's first electronic weather derivatives markets - in which investors and institutions both speculated on what the weather would bring, and also hedged their weather-related exposure.  And now the wingnuts are in denial that a series of strong snowstorms can slow hiring?  They are hysterical, excitable, violent, dim-witted, anti-intellectual liars.

The Right-Wing Rape Fetish

I learned a few things in college.  One of them was a checklist of identifying characteristics of fascism.  There are certain ingredients in fascism that make it undeniably fascist.  Not all fascist societies had all the ingredients, but they are key to identifying the system in question.  

It's a weird analogy, but think of asian cuisine.  You see stir-fry chicken dishes all over east Asia.  But if the dish has lemongrass in it, you know it is southeast Asian.

It is similar with political systems.  You could examine two similar systems that have a totalitarian, military junta in-charge, a strong propaganda infrastructure, and state-ownership of industry.  You're pretty sure one of them is communist.  But if the other has added flavors such as xenophobia, constant scapegoating of immigrants and ethnic minorities, and an explicit rape/humiliation claim to motivate and anger the people, then that one is fascist.

Case in point:

 

The Chalkboard Conspiracy Instruction Video

In the last 5 days, Glenn Beck has taken his show to a new level of crazy. He asked his viewers to record and share all five shows this week as they would be the most important he's ever done. He then proceeded, day by day, to work on a chalkboard, drawing how Barack Obama is connected to several former and current left-wing radical individuals and groups.

We're seeing a man lose control of himself and his show. We pinheads call this 'decompensation.'

So one of the 'communist' groups is the MDS, the Movement for a Democratic Society. Young people against war and racism, and for the lifting of the Cuba embargo. According to Beck, this group is a direct descendant of the Weather Underground simply because their name is similar to the Weather Underground's parent group, the SDS, Students for a Democratic Society. As The Young Turks have pointed out, under that methodology, you can link a Dungeons and Dragons fan to any organization with the word 'dragon' in it and take the 'six degrees' game from there.

In the clip above, Mr. Beck failed to mention that he is focusing his efforts on Van Jones because Jones' organization was the largest besides Media Matters that protested Beck's remark on Fox News that Obama is a 'racist.' It's just a personal vendetta that has morphed into pure paranoia.

Want more crazy? Here's a truckload of crazy. A record three million viewers and I saw this while flying back to New York and it hit me just how far off the rails Glenn Beck has gone. He's referring to a 2008 speech Obama made, suggesting that the Peace Corps and Americorps be expanded so that young Americans can act as positive ambassadors for their country. Glenn Beck runs with Obama's words to make it appear that Obama was proposing the formation of a domestic fascist police force (like the Brownshirts or the SS).

And:

Followed by:

Even more crazy? Glenn brought it today, August 28th. He is convinced that GE/NBC/MSNBC, plus the Obama administration and liberal bloggers are out to destroy him. Making the technological leap from a chalkboard to a whiteboard, Beck decides to fill his show with a psychiatrist offering him some advice on how to deal with his sane critics.

MSNBC: Combating The Crazy

Lawrence O'Donnell restrains himself from flattening a typical right-wing attendee of a congressional town hall meeting,

Chris Matthews interviews a more informed protester, William Kostric, who might be the first man to protest the president while carrying an exposed weapon in many many decades.

Not Obama's Problems

It's been a month of fake controversies for Barack Obama. Let's try to recap briefly.

The 'vault copy' of Obama's Honolulu birth certificate? Not Obama's problem. He couldn't release a 'vault copy' even if he sent feds or his lawyers to Honolulu to retrieve it. It stays in the vault. And the state employee who saw it and validated the public copies says there's no controversy whatsoever. Oh, and there is Obama's 1961 birth announcement in the newspaper. Conspiracy theory, indeed. The wingnuts say that Barry could kill this controversy by answering questions about the circumstances related to his birth. But do wingnuts deserve a second of our time outside of our wonderful left-wing blogosphere)? No. Besides, do you really think a Barry tell-all would shut them up about this? No. Moving on.

The unknown number of liberals and Hispanics upset with Obama's cabinet and security selections? Please. A new NBC/WSJ poll shows that nearly 70% of Americans approve of Obama's selections. And really, did any rational Liberals think Obama was going to appoint hippies, activists, and community organizers to the most powerful board in the Federal government? We want competence and accountability in the Obama White House. On paper alone, his cabinet beats Bush's previous two.

The arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich? Not Obama's problem. In fact John Dickerson's analysis of Obama's clean denial is utterly ridiculous. Dickerson used to be a rational critic of Bush's press conferences. But to argue that Obama's voluntary answer on the Blagojevich arrest suggests he has something to hide is infuriating. This is the Liberal media at work. And Dickerson was not the only reporter trying hard to bend and twist the story to somehow tie Obama to it. Of course I think Barry was either told to stay away from Blagojevich, or learned first-hand how corrupt he was. His office (David Axelrod or Rahm Emanuel) might have even dropped the dime on the governor. But that's the end of the story. This is not Obama's problem.

Sadly, No!: Andrew Breitbart Proposes Making The GOP More Fabulous!


I couldn't possibly add to what Clif already did so brilliantly over at Sadly, No. So go to his post and see it for yourself.

Andrew Breitbart, a left-coast wingnut, wrote a piece in the Washington Times, suggesting that the GOP display a younger, more energetic image. And the examples he uses? The male models of Abercrombie & Fitch (who he assumes earn $15 per hour), raves (!), karaoke fundraisers, punk rockers, performance artists, and keggers. We think it both revealed Mr. Breitbart's assumptions of what the kids like today, as well as unintentionally revealed his sexual orientation.

The Irrational Right, Or, Suffer The Wingnuts


What's that screaming, complete with a mix of explosive spittle and cheetos crums? Why, it's the Wingnut blogosphere.

Pamela Atlas (Just picture her drunk in her Long Island house, typing away with no use of her shift key in the middle of the night):

it is all pretty simple and straight forward to me.
the man is a political fraud.
he hid who he was.
he hid what he is.
he denied his friends, and he denied their beliefs, and he denied his adherence to them as friends and their shared beliefs.

so, while this son of a bitch paraded himself as an honest, open and fresh breath of air, ... , a rebirth of honest politics, he did so while running a campaign of deceit about who he is, what he believes, and what his convictions are.

i believe that there can only be one reason for this. he is also hiding what he intends to do as president. he says he is a democrat. i think he does so to hide that he is a committed marxist leninist who intends to impose a marxist dictatorhip upon this country, which advancig the interests of islam.
he will attempt to either impose or import sharia, and sharia financing into this country. he will stifle free discussion by the use of the "fairness doctrine," and he will seek the imposition of hate speech law, laws prohibiting discussing islam critically, and will seek added preferential treatment for muslims in our immigration law. and, then there is the matter of the promised "civilian security force" the size, prestige, force and cost of the united states military. [SIC]

And then Pam quotes a wingnut I have not heard before, Sultan Knish:

But we are a long way from surrender. The battle is over, the war begins. The United States government now falls into the hands of the enemies of this country and civilization for a time or forever. And that is part of what the war is about. The country has been in the hands of people we disagreed with, but never in the hands of people whose views are as diametrically opposed to ours as anything in the Third Reich or the Kremlin. In their hands Federal power becomes enemy power. The more ineffective and tied up they are, the less damage they can do.

...

It will not be an easy struggle. The Obama years will make the worst of the Clinton years look mild by comparison. We have seen the thuggish abuses of power that brought Obama into office, but that is only a taste of what an Obama administration in control of the Federal government will be able to do. We have seen only a shadow of the ruthless methods that were used to bring him to power, and even that shadow is mostly dismissed as conspiracy theories. But that is also our best hope. Obama's only real calling card has been an empty promise. Now he will have power and responsibility and we know he will abuse them. Arrogance was and remains his achilles heel and the achilles heel of his backers. And when their revolution runs into the reality of voter expectations, there will be the opening to begin the political downfall of this government.

For my own part I do not recognize Obama as my President, nor will I refer to him as such. He has no legal right to serve in office nor has he won a legal election. Nor do his cronies have any right to serve in any position they are appointed to.

Red State then released this startiling announcement:

RedState is pleased to announce it is engaging in a special project: Operation Leper.

We're tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others. Michelle Malkin has the details.

Oh, good! Glad to see the rational Michelle Malkin working to throw fellow conservatives under the bus for their disloyalty. I hope she stalks and threatens them for the next four years. The Right Wingers just might eat each other. It will be fun to watch.

And then the single most stupid op-ed the WSJ has ever run. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jeffrey Scott Shapiro:

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty — a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.


Bush can eat me. And Mr. Shapiro, you can eat me.

What a complete fascist asshole. And he is one of many. Be prepared for their tears and hysterical rants for the next 4 years.

Late Predictions, Wingnut Edition

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air (indeed): McCain wins in a squeaker (8 electoral votes) by taking Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Nevada. Good math, since he needs every one of those states to win this thing. If he loses one of them, it is over.

Pam Atlas, Atlas Shrugs:

I have enormous faith in the silent majority - good, decent Americans. We are going to take this thing. I saw both men make speeches today. McCain is the optimistic candidate. You feel good, optimistic, proud to be American after listening to McCain. Obama is depressing. Failed this, failed that, hopeless this, hopeless that. Gotta change this, gotta change that. And Obama looks old and tired. Older than McCain. Obama is doom and gloom. McCain is happy and peppy.

K-Lo, America's Shittiest Website:

John Sununu wins. I don’t know if that’s true but it is should be. We’ll need someone smart in Washington who is on our side.

Coleman wins. Al Franken cannot be a senator. This “anyone can be president (etc.)” Was not meant to be made a joke of. I mean, we’re free to make a joke of it all — the Constitution and all, which Joe Biden might be on board for — but … let’s not, Minnesota.

Murtha loses. It’s the right thing. And if anyone can do it, it is the bitter clingers.
I do hold out some hope on the presidential. There is no reason to not keep hope alive. Just vote. Ignore the talking heads prematurely celebrating and ignore the exit polls.

Ace of Spades: Black Panthers intimidating whte Republican voters.

Confederate Yankee:

If John McCain becomes the President after voting is complete on Tuesday, the wasteful, shallow extravagance in median of I-81 may very well be a fitting metaphor for a Obama political campaign ran precisely the same way.

What-ever!