07.07.23
DNC PR Firm – MOTHER JONES
- It feels like this awesome graphic was supposed to be a hit job, right?
Taking a page (a cover?) from Time Magazine recently, we get Mother Jones coming up with what they feel is a scathing graphic of Ron DeSantis on their August issue. The governor is depicted underwater, with notable upward-jutting teeth akin to an alligator, meaning to portray him as a dangerous creature.
Instead, as a metaphor, they missed that making DeSantis out to be the apex predator in a swamp is, in fact, just the thing people want from someone going into Washington, D.C.
JFC pic.twitter.com/N9OXBcOCgr
— LB (@beyondreasdoubt) July 6, 2023
Anti-Social Media – MSNBC
Recommended
- It almost seems she suggests that people not dealing with her is a bad thing?
MSNBC's resident race hustler turned a tad hysterical recently. She was laying into her second favorite topic – Ron DeSantis – and turned the subject next to guns, and managed, unsurprisingly, to turn the attention onto herself.
Joy explained that on July 4, she remained ensconced in her dwelling because she was so fearful of going out in crowds and becoming the victim of a mass shooting:
I have to say, I did not go out on July 4th and would not. The idea of going to a mass gathering, a parade, or a big fireworks thing outside seems insane to me, to be blunt, in America, because America is awash with guns, and now people don’t just have them, they seem to want to shoot people with them and use them for whatever, you know?
Look, if Joy wants to remain nestled under an afghan behind a series of deadbolts, that's her choice. But to blame her fear on guns alone is amusing, considering all the liberal DAs who are releasing violent criminals with no bail and other such anti-crime-fighting measures.
MSNBC’s @JoyAnnReid: “ I did not go out on July 4th & would not. The idea of going to a mass gathering, a parade, or a big fireworks thing outside seems insane to me, to be blunt, in America, because America is awash with guns & people … seem to want to shoot people.” pic.twitter.com/MGWo8ebkTj
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 6, 2023
News Avoidance Syndrome – SEMAFOR
- Hey, as long as you do not have to talk about the current occupants…
The ongoing clown show that is the White House dealing with the issue of cocaine being found inside the world's allegedly most secure residence continues, as does the press looking for ways to not discuss the topic 24/7. (Imagine the Trump administration being ignored while having an internal drug scandal.)
Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates took things to a ridiculous level by invoking the Hatch Act as an excuse not to answer questions about the cocaine issue. And the press seems somewhat mollified by the non-denials they receive from the administration. Yet, here we have Dave Weigel of Semafor bringing up quotes from Mike Pence, who has nothing at all to do with the cocaine story – which is exactly why Dave does so.
The muddled answers on where the bag was found really made a mess of this story. Yesterday Pence was talking about how it was found “in the residence itself” — apparently not true but there was no clear answer! https://t.co/fAjrFhlPIW pic.twitter.com/wmmOQlAb1q
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) July 6, 2023
Race to the Bottom – POLITICO
There really is no better way to show that the press' accusations of the GOP being racist are a sham than instances when Republicans behave in a fashion that they are accused of not enacting and still getting accused. Just look at the career of Tim Scott. After the Republicans were said to never support minorities, he became a senator. Then the response was he had been appointed, not elected. Then when he won reelection, he was said to only be a token. Meanwhile, the Democrats had no black senators all the while.
Now for the second time in three general elections, the GOP puts up a collection of very diverse candidates – and they are still accused of racism. Politico looks over the field and concludes that the Republican Party must be racist because they are not obsessing over the races of the candidates – like Politico is obsessing:
The GOP has its most diverse presidential field in modern history. The Republican Party is now up to a half dozen candidates of color seeking the GOP nomination, surpassing the previous record of four set during the 2016 cycle. But the party isn’t keen to trumpet it — if they address it at all. Few of the candidates speak directly to it. And definitely not the Republican National Committee, which declined to have any official speak on the record with POLITICO.
GOP has its most diverse presidential field ever https://t.co/TN1i2bN55J
— POLITICO (@politico) July 4, 2023
Democratic Custodial Services – HUFFINGTON POST
Maybe when you are trying to defend the fractured facts offered by the woman who could not declare what a woman is, you are fighting a losing battle.
In her dissent opinion last week on the Affirmative Action case before SCOTUS, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson cited a debunked claim that black doctors are needed to double the survival rates of black newborns. This has been shredded by facts and common sense, namely that the infant mortality rate for blacks is less than 1%, and the data showing any improvement under black doctors was statistically negligible. (A portion of the same study showed that black doctors had a higher overall death rate with newborns.)
In looking at this widely mocked opinion from KBJ, Jonathan Cohn decided to ride in and defend the honor of the newest justice:
Along the way, she dramatically overstated one statistical finding, drawing snarky rejoinders in right-wing outlets. From the looks of things, the justice and her clerks were simply citing a friend-of-the-court brief that contained the same error.
That doesn’t excuse the mistake. It also doesn’t mean her broader point is wrong. There’s a lot of research about race and its role in health disparities, and the overwhelming consensus is that race absolutely matters, for precisely the reasons Jackson suggests.
Yes, the tired, “inaccurate, but true” defense is trotted out in white-knight fashion. Of course, the underlying question becomes, if there is this mountain of research at their disposal, how is it they managed to provide only one example, and that just happened to be a piece of long-debunked research?
Lots of right wing chortling over a statistic Ketanji Brown Jackson got wrong in her opinion
— Jonathan Cohn (@CitizenCohn) July 6, 2023
But when it comes to her broader point, about what research says on race and health care, she got it right — and Clarence Thomas didn’t https://t.co/DT8aT55vGm
Blue-Anon – THE GUARDIAN
On the 4th of July, Angel Studios Inc., a conservative-run movie production company, released “Sound of Freedom” starring Jim Caviezel in a based-on-the-true story of a man helping to rescue children from the sex trafficking trade. The movie was a big enough hit that it unseated the new “Indiana Jones” film as the #1-grossing film on Tuesday.
At The Guardian, they reviewed the film, seen in an enthusiastic packed theater in New York no less, and the result of the screening was not rapturous:
It would seem that the folks at the two-year-old Angel Studios have tapped into a substantial and eagerly marshaled viewership. Following that money leads back to a more unsavory network of astroturfed boosterism among the far-right fringe, a constellation of paranoids now attempting to spin a cause célèbre out of a movie with vaguely simpatico leanings.
The uninitiated may not pick up on the red-yarn-and-corkboard subtext. Those tuned in to the eardrum-perforating frequency of QAnon, however, have heeded a clarion call that leads right to the multiplex.
Is there a term to describe someone weaving a conspiracy theory in order to accuse others of being conspiracy nutters?
Sound of Freedom: the QAnon-adjacent thriller seducing America https://t.co/tbDjYCxU3C
— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) July 6, 2023
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