The general media coverage of AOC has been, well, interesting is one word. Whatever the lowliest shitheel on the Right throws out, the media immediately grabs and tries to run with until they realize the absurdity of it. The photo of AOC not wearing rags and a trashbag on her first day in Washington was the start as CNN first gleefully grabbed the meme of "Look! She's not really working class because she owns clothes!," only to belatedly figure out that most people do, indeed, own clothes.
And this extends even to the latest bit. I watch Anderson Cooper tying himself into knots as AOC gently explained to him that, no, a 70% top marginal tax rate would not apply to the average postal worker. Cooper, however, dutifully clung to the "but you're insanely radical!!11!!" script even as AOC undercut the script at every turn.<br>
Much to my dismay, my wife (who gets way too much of her new from NPR), was very upset that AOC wants to raise everyone's taxes to 70%. She knew this because she'd heard it on Morning Edition, where whatever Rightwing trope is making the rounds is duly sanded and polished before being fed to the listeners.<br>
As long as the media is committed to mal-informing America, we're doomed.
Great takedown as usual. So Scandinavia, Germany and democratic Europe are part of some “Anglosphere”? The same Anglosphere the Tories now want to leave? Dan Crenshaw, sporting the pirate look is the usual hate the foreigners, love the racists type, despite the fact that he spent a significant part of his youth growing up in Latin America. He obviously has brains but like virtually all conservatives wallows in the lazy trough of vicious hate spewing. These people are all secretly fearful of AOC and her colleagues because they know that they, the righwing, have no solutions to any of the nation’s problems and don’t even try (we saw that in the last Congress).
Great column, Roy! Hope you don't mind if I go off on a tangent.
What is it about guys with four names? Besides Cooke, the only example I can think of offhand is Samuel Finley Breese Morse, who thought slavery was the will of God. At least Morse, unlike Cooke, created something useful.
Mark Cuban personifies the "both sides do it" argument. If you can't discuss issues as "Us v. Them," "Dem v. Rep," "Lib v. Con," or in AOC's case "Dem v. GOP," you can't discuss them at all except in terms of "we" are all in this together. "We" passed a tax cut for the wealthy." "We" want to cut "entitlements." "We" elected Donald Trump. "We" need to get real about climate change. "We" need to fix immigration. Republicans are to blame for the first three and Republicans are the reason nothing constructive is done about the latter two.
Excellent, again. Some of my favorite bits: "straw Latina", and "jet-set, Canada-Goose-clad, private-yoga-trained, has-Malcolm-Gladwell-favorited-on-iPhone doofuses".
And how the hell can a person go to work in the morning, come home in the evening, make 10 million dollars, and have nothing to pay?
For assholes like Scalise and Norquist the "70% of your income" lie is purely deliberate. They know what marginal tax rates are, they're just counting on their audience being stupid, just like Trump when he boasts how China is paying his 25% tariffs. Goopers have been blatantly lying like this for years knowing that they will get away with it because few media types will ever ask a decent follow-up question, and that the right-wing talk-radio/Fox media will have their backs. I remember when the Bush administration claimed that their tax cut for rich people meant that "92 million taxpayers will receive, on average, a tax cut of $1,093 in 2003." Sean Hannity then began telling his listeners that the Bush plan would "give every American a $1000 tax cut" - even leaving out the Bush weasel-word "average." Is it any wonder that their audience is stupid? (Explains a lot that he's now Trump's nightly phone pal, eh?)
Prediction for tomorrow's statement from the Living Lintbrush: "And this Marine Corps sergeant came up to me after my speech, which was totally well-received and totally on every single channel in America. And this guy was a big guy and he was crying and he says to me, 'Sir, you have to totally open the government, sir." And I've totally won with my very smart plans and achieved all my goals. He's an intelligerent guy and so am I, but I'm even more intelligerent, so we'll open the government again."
YAAAAASSSSS, all this 👍🏽
One little dance and all the sneering white boys are twisting the front of their shorts.
The general media coverage of AOC has been, well, interesting is one word. Whatever the lowliest shitheel on the Right throws out, the media immediately grabs and tries to run with until they realize the absurdity of it. The photo of AOC not wearing rags and a trashbag on her first day in Washington was the start as CNN first gleefully grabbed the meme of "Look! She's not really working class because she owns clothes!," only to belatedly figure out that most people do, indeed, own clothes.
And this extends even to the latest bit. I watch Anderson Cooper tying himself into knots as AOC gently explained to him that, no, a 70% top marginal tax rate would not apply to the average postal worker. Cooper, however, dutifully clung to the "but you're insanely radical!!11!!" script even as AOC undercut the script at every turn.<br>
Much to my dismay, my wife (who gets way too much of her new from NPR), was very upset that AOC wants to raise everyone's taxes to 70%. She knew this because she'd heard it on Morning Edition, where whatever Rightwing trope is making the rounds is duly sanded and polished before being fed to the listeners.<br>
As long as the media is committed to mal-informing America, we're doomed.
Billet-douche. Yes.
If there's one thing a conservative male cannot stand, it's an attractive feminist he can't dismiss as a hag or a lesbian.
Great takedown as usual. So Scandinavia, Germany and democratic Europe are part of some “Anglosphere”? The same Anglosphere the Tories now want to leave? Dan Crenshaw, sporting the pirate look is the usual hate the foreigners, love the racists type, despite the fact that he spent a significant part of his youth growing up in Latin America. He obviously has brains but like virtually all conservatives wallows in the lazy trough of vicious hate spewing. These people are all secretly fearful of AOC and her colleagues because they know that they, the righwing, have no solutions to any of the nation’s problems and don’t even try (we saw that in the last Congress).
Great column, Roy! Hope you don't mind if I go off on a tangent.
What is it about guys with four names? Besides Cooke, the only example I can think of offhand is Samuel Finley Breese Morse, who thought slavery was the will of God. At least Morse, unlike Cooke, created something useful.
Mark Cuban personifies the "both sides do it" argument. If you can't discuss issues as "Us v. Them," "Dem v. Rep," "Lib v. Con," or in AOC's case "Dem v. GOP," you can't discuss them at all except in terms of "we" are all in this together. "We" passed a tax cut for the wealthy." "We" want to cut "entitlements." "We" elected Donald Trump. "We" need to get real about climate change. "We" need to fix immigration. Republicans are to blame for the first three and Republicans are the reason nothing constructive is done about the latter two.
There. I mansplained politics to Mark Cuban.
Excellent, again. Some of my favorite bits: "straw Latina", and "jet-set, Canada-Goose-clad, private-yoga-trained, has-Malcolm-Gladwell-favorited-on-iPhone doofuses".
And how the hell can a person go to work in the morning, come home in the evening, make 10 million dollars, and have nothing to pay?
(Sorry, John Prine, I love that song.)
OT thought: Maybe "Mexico will pay for the wall" was the friends we made along the way?
". . .probably the same people who think AOC’s colleague, new Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, went too far calling Trump a motherfucker"
Like the punchline to the old joke: the question is not who called the president a motherfucker, it's who called that motherfucker a *president*
For assholes like Scalise and Norquist the "70% of your income" lie is purely deliberate. They know what marginal tax rates are, they're just counting on their audience being stupid, just like Trump when he boasts how China is paying his 25% tariffs. Goopers have been blatantly lying like this for years knowing that they will get away with it because few media types will ever ask a decent follow-up question, and that the right-wing talk-radio/Fox media will have their backs. I remember when the Bush administration claimed that their tax cut for rich people meant that "92 million taxpayers will receive, on average, a tax cut of $1,093 in 2003." Sean Hannity then began telling his listeners that the Bush plan would "give every American a $1000 tax cut" - even leaving out the Bush weasel-word "average." Is it any wonder that their audience is stupid? (Explains a lot that he's now Trump's nightly phone pal, eh?)
(Finally, speaking of billet-douches: https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1081479012944396288)
Prediction for tomorrow's statement from the Living Lintbrush: "And this Marine Corps sergeant came up to me after my speech, which was totally well-received and totally on every single channel in America. And this guy was a big guy and he was crying and he says to me, 'Sir, you have to totally open the government, sir." And I've totally won with my very smart plans and achieved all my goals. He's an intelligerent guy and so am I, but I'm even more intelligerent, so we'll open the government again."