The Cult of Fools (Apr 30, 2023) – “Tucker is Fired”

cult of fools
By bdk, CC BY-SA 3.0

So yes, it really happened, you were not dreaming. It was a surprise to almost everybody, including the racist white supremacist himself, and happened with immediate effect. He apparently found out only about ten minutes before the rest of us did. This firing now makes him a triple crown media holder:

Some might ask, “But he was the top show on Fox, the most popular one, why oh why would Fox let him go?

Oh come now, you and I can think of roughly 787 million reasons. Fox was never about politics, just money. Apparently the decision to pull the plug on him was personally made by Murdoch himself. What we also know is that Carlson’s executive producer, Justin Wells, along with several others are all reportedly out as well. It was all very sudden and immediate. Fox were still promoting his evening show right up to his ejection.

What most probably did him in and tipped it over the edge was his very abusive criticism of Fox executives within text messages. Vox and others report that there was far worse stuff redacted that we have not seen and did not come out as part of the Dominion revelation, but the Fox Executives would have seen it. There is a hint that keeping all that out of public eye played a role in the Fox decision to settle.

I shall look forward to seeing it all as part of the upcoming Smartmatic vs Fox discovery.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Fox is also currently being sued by one of Carlson’s former producers, Abby Grossman. She is accusing them of open sexism and has said that Carlson’s staff in particular denigrated women and Jewish people.

If you are celebrating then you are not alone. Apparently many Fox News staffers are reportedly also celebrating.

So there you have it then, finally fired for being too toxic for Fox News.

So where next … Newsmax perhaps?

Meanwhile, here are some brief reminders of the stuff that did not get him fired…

My favourite comment on it all just has to be this one …

Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s dive in.

Enjoy.

Christian Nationalism

Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Mark Robinson Launches Bid for Governor

  • Despite previously claiming that he does not want to be governor, here he is. If indeed he really does not want the job, then there is an easily accessible solution.
  • This Good “Christian” Second Amendment guy, is also proclaiming that guns are a gift from God. I guess that enables him to offer up dead children as a sacrifice to appease his gun loving god.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that right-wing conspiracy theorist Kandiss “Jesus, Guns, Babies” Taylor has been elected “to chair a key GOP district” for the Georgia Republican Party.

Standing in front of the Texas capitol, Sean Feucht doubled down on his Christian nationalism: “We want believers in this building writing the laws of this land. … This is a biblical belief that every Christian should believe.

David Barton’s son Tim Barton is every bit the Christian nationalist his father is, declaring recently that there should be no secular institutions in the United States: “God never intended for education to be secular, for government to be secular, for business to be secular.

  • Again that quote … “My kingdom is not of this world“, but I guess they simply dismiss that guy as an undesirable brown-skinned immigrant from the middle-east, so what he said can be ignored by them.
  • Tim and his Dad are rather fond of claiming the US was founded as a “Christian Nation”, but the US Constitution clearly says “Nope”.

“Pro-Life” in action

What “pro-life” laws look like on the ground: … “go wait in your car in the parking lot until you start to bleed out and then come back to us”.

  • This is exactly what lawmakers were told would happen. They knew, they didn’t care. They passed these laws anyway. And continue to do nothing to fix these “unintended” consequences

Meanwhile …

The Cult of Trump

Rochelle Richardson (aka “Silk” of Diamond & Silk) says that former President Donald Trump “is a great human being.” What makes him so great? “He didn’t even play golf on the day” of her sister’s funeral, she says.

  • Well … we all know Trump and what he is like, so clearly those that support him very obviously have a low bar. This however is a revelation, because I had no idea that the bar his supporters used was this low.
  • Meanwhile, when at the funeral, he complained about it being too long (more than 10-15 mins), and bizarrely said during his eulogy that he had no idea who Silk was, and also promoted his stolen 2020 election claim … in the eulogy. Really.
  • Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes: “Just beyond bizarre, beyond rude, beyond anything that anyone would see in normal, polite, let me say decent society, and this is a guy that a lot of people want to be the next president of the United States again, and so on brand for him, too,” he said on MSNBC. “Look, this is what happens when you have a narcissistic sociopath give a homily at a funeral. It won’t go well.

Political Shenanigans

Nick Fuentes is deeply pessimistic about 2024: “I feel like we are headed toward defeat. … There’s no momentum. There’s no enthusiasm. There’s no excitement. Everybody is absolutely demoralized. It feels like the left is unstoppable.

  • Well gosh, it’s almost as if most don’t actually like the bigotry, the anti-science, the racism, the fascism, the intolerance, coming from those that express a deep love for Hitler. I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.

Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt

@NebraskaMegan) says she’s under official investigation for a conflict of interest.” The reason? She has a trans child and voted against anti-trans legislation.

  • I look forward to every gun owner in the legislature who voted in favor of LB77 also being investigated for a conflict of interest … they will do that won’t they, we are not dealing with two-faced hypocrites are we?
  • Also via this “logic”, I guess anyone with a uterus has a conflict of interest re: legislation concerning abortion and should be “investigated” if they voted on it?

Florida No longer welcomes you

Policing a Prom Dress Codes

A student stood outside the Nashville Christian School’s prom with a sign reading, “They wouldn’t let me in because I’m in a suit.” Yet the dress code doesn’t explicitly forbid that. Hemant’s story has the details: https://friendlyatheist.substack.com/p/christian-school-bans-student-from

  • We all know what is really going on here … its not the suit she was wearing. As always, there really is no hate as deep and bigoted as Christian “love” is.
  • An article on it all can also be found in The Daily Beast (see here). The school issued a statement claiming the suit breaches their dress code, but Hemant checked that dress code. Yep, they lied. There is nothing within their dress code that says a girl can’t wear a suit to a prom.

Books in Texas

Texas Tribune: Texas has banned more books at the local level than any other state in the last year, mostly targeting titles centering on race, racism, abortion and LGBTQ topics.

  • After 19 kids were killed by books in Uvalde, it’s a perfectly reasonable response.

Fake History

David Barton continues to claim that “in 1816, in New Jersey public schools, every public school kid by the 2nd grade had memorized the Gospel of John,

  • You can most probably guess this, but his claim is not only religious propaganda, it is also a demonstrable and blatant lie. Either Barton is very stupid, or instead thinks his audience is, and does this to con them – neither is a good look.

King Alto

Guns

Deeply Bizarre

Josiah David Moody predicts that he and his wife Isabella Riley Moody will “probably end up picking up our things and moving to Russia” to escape “the gay agenda”: “Eventually they’re going to start raping your children. … So, buy a gun.

  • The Real Gay Agenda … go to work, then go to store to shop, them home for dinner. – Basically people living their lives without harassment from obnoxious religious nutters.
  • If they make the move to Russia then absolutely nobody will miss them. Meanwhile if Josiah and Isabella would like a ride to the airport, I’ll happily give them a lift. Once in Russia Josiah will no doubt be thrilled when he receives his draft papers.

Scott Lively claims that the term “woke” is “the Satanic equivalent of ‘Born Again,’ and ‘wokeness’ is the demonic equivalent of evangelical fervor.

  • “Woke” simply means you give a shit about others. Being opposed to woke means that you literally don’t give a shit about others.

Stew Peters featured far-right activist Jon Miller on his program last night, proving once again that there is seemingly no extremist whom Peters will not platform.

  • For Stew it has never been about the message, but instead is the promotion of any weird crank he can get to tickle the brains of his viewers and keep them donating and coming back for more.
  • If you are wondering who Jon Miller is, he is the guy that was claiming that: “Beating women is about as American as apple pie.

Lauren Witzke declares that “this government would love to just completely criminalize being white. Don’t be surprised if they do one day.

  • The thing she really needs to be worried about is if “crass stupidity” is criminalised. If that happens then she will be front of the queue.

Mike Todd’s co-pastor compares Jesus to a prostitute “Stripped” and “Butt Naked” on the cross who he pimps out for “Bread in My Pocket

  • Quote: “The only stripper I’m in love with is Jesus.

Jason Rapert declares that “the Democrat Party has been enlisted to further the Antichrist cult in our country.

  • Yet it was the Evangelical right-wing who, when the AntiChrist showed up, voted him into office in 2016

The False Profit$

Right-wing pastor Kent Christmas rants that “the reason the United States of America is in the mess that it’s in is because we went back and amended the Constitution!

  • Since he dislikes all those amendments, I guess that means that he wants to bring back slavery and also ban women from voting
  • If he really dislikes amendments to the constitution, can we please get the full support of both him and his entire following to push really hard against the current bizarre interpretation of the second amendment.
  • Also, do you think it might be worth pointing out to him that the freedom he enjoys to make a video criticising constitutional amendments came about via a constitutional amendment, and he now wants to see that repealed because?

Sel-Appointed “Prophet” Dave Hayes says that Michael Flynn is only pretending to denounce QAnon because he wants to be FBI director if Trump is reelected: “Whatever Flynn is saying publicly, you should just ignore it because it’s part of a psychological operation.

  • So …. we’re all in agreement then. Michael Flynn is a liar that we should all ignore, Noted.
  • I must admit, ignoring Flynn is actually rather good advice.

There have been a lot of theories floated about what prompted Fox News to abruptly fire Tucker Carlson this week, but MAGA pastor Shane Vaughn thinks he knows what really happened: “We know that Tucker Carlson was a victim of demonic power.

  • “Demons” – Well of course, we all wondered when that claim would crop up. This now ticks that box.
  • Shane Quote: “…there is something working for the destruction of America …” … er … yes Shane, that would be you.
  • Then again, if these guys are all going to promote the idea that Rupert Murdoch is evil, well yes, I think we could work with that.

Interesting Statistic of the week

Most biased Statistic of the week

The results of an informal survey of supporters of D. James Kennedy Ministries, “a mere 1% trust President Biden” and “99% reject sex education that features transgender exploration and surgery.

  • Well gosh, a poll of supporters of an extreme religious-right Christian nationalist organization came up with those numbers … honestly, any variation of those totally “unbiased” conclusions would have been a shock.

Reality Check: GOP Now Holding Federal Gov Hostage

The following thread by journalist Josh Marshall is well worth reading. A key quote comes via his second and third tweets in the thread …

  • …They have issued a series of demands and said that if their demands are not met they will force the US government into bankruptcy for the first time in almost 250 years. Here’s how they plan to do it. Congress already passed a law requiring Joe Biden to spend money to run the federal government. The GOP House now proposes to make it illegal for President Biden to get the money he needs to buy the things Congress passed a law forcing him to buy. This isn’t budget making. It’s just more parliamentary terrorism. It will crater the US crater, the global economy, violate the US constitution…

When a Democracy stops being a Democracy

MT-GOP might wish to take note of what happened when TN-GOP tried this.

The TX 10 Commandments bill

Success In Nebraska

It was the WH Correspondents Dinner Last Night

Interesting Articles

Meanwhile …

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