Conservatism News and Discussions

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caltrek
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USA today is left wing and fox is right of center.
I looked at a recent edition of USA Today and was kind of surprised at how liberal the theme of the paper seemed to be. So you might be right there. As for Fox, I think the only way they can be categorized as anything but extremist is to ignore their more extreme guests and hosts and focus just on those who are merely conservative or often say merely conservative things. Case in point:

Don’t be Fooled by That Viral Hannity Clip. Fox News’s Covid-19 Coverage is a Mess.
by Aaron Rupar
July 20, 2021

https://www.vox.com/22585354/hannity-fo ... 9-coverage

Introduction:
(Vox) Fox News host Sean Hannity received a round of applause on Tuesday for comments he made Monday night urging his viewers to “please take Covid seriously” and telling them, “I believe in the science of vaccination” — remarks seemingly standing in contrast to the kind of vaccine skepticism Fox has been trafficking in for months now.

A clip of Hannity’s comments has been viewed more than 5.4 million times on Twitter as this is written, and was described as the “monologue of the night” by Politico.

Some observers interpreted that clip and others from Monday of Fox News personalities endorsing Covid-19 vaccines as evidence a change of tone is afoot at America’s most-watched cable news network. But don’t be fooled — Fox’s Covid-19 coverage is still a mess.

Consider, for instance, that the viral clip of Hannity talking about vaccines came immediately before he pivoted to a story about a college athlete who was temporarily paralyzed after she took a different sort of vaccine in 2019 — the subtext being that inoculations are more dangerous than the experts would have you believe and that mandates are ill-advised. (Hannity has previously tried to discredit Covid-19 vaccines by saying stuff like, “the great Dr. Fauci has been wrong so often” and proclaiming he was “beginning to have doubts” about getting the shot.)

Or consider, as Matt Gertz detailed for Media Matters, that Hannity’s comments were sandwiched between shows anchored by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham that both pushed vaccine misinformation:
  • On Monday, Carlson revived his lie about a government database purportedly showing thousands of deaths from the vaccines and urged viewers to ignore journalists who are encouraging vaccination because they want to “make you comply,” over on-screen graphics reading “MANY VACCINATED PEOPLE ARE HOSPITALIZED” and “OUR LEADERS WANT US TO SHUT UP & NOT ASK QUESTIONS.” Ingraham’s broadcast likewise stressed reasons to question “the efficacy of the vaccine itself among adults.”
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Liz Cheney Slams Kevin McCarthy for his 'Disgraceful' Efforts to Sabotage the Jan. 6 Probe
by Alex Henderson
July 21, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/cheney-january-6/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Earlier this week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy picked five Republicans for Speaker Nancy Pelosi's select committee on the January 6 insurrection — and Pelosi has rejected two of them: Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, both of whom voted against certifying President Biden's Electoral College victory on January 6. McCarthy, furious with Pelosi, is threatening to pull all of his candidates for the committee in response.

When Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming spoke to reporters on Wednesday, she didn't hesitate to call McCarthy out for his antics.

Outside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., the arch-conservative Wyoming congresswoman told reporters, "I want to talk about the appointments to the January 6 select committee. The rhetoric that we have heard from the minority leader is disingenuous. The attack on this building on January 6 was the worst attack on this Capitol since 1814. It was an attack on our constitution."

Although Cheney is a right-wing Republican, she voted in favor of former President Donald Trump's second impeachment. She is among Pelosi's picks for her select committee, which is an alternative to the January 6 commission that was originally proposed in the House but was rejected by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies.

Cheney told reporters, "We supported what would have been the very best option, which was a bipartisan independent commission. The minority leader opposed that. He lobbied against it in the Senate, and the Senate blocked it. The American people deserve to know what happened; people who did this must be held accountable. There must be an investigation that is nonpartisan, that is sober, that is serious, that gets to the facts wherever they may lead. And at every opportunity, the (House) minority leader has attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened."
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The article below shows how some leftists view conservatives in this country. Hopefully, it will help conservatives outside of the United States understand what true looney bins some so-called conservatives in this country can be.

Ben Shapiro’s Authoritarian Moment
by John K. Wilson
July 27, 2021

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/27 ... an-moment/

Introduction:
(Counterpunch) Ben Shapiro is having a moment. Unfortunately, it’s the authoritarian moment. That’s the title of Shapiro’s soon-to-be bestseller being published on July 27, with the subtitle, “How the Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” Shapiro’s belief that the Left controls everything in America justifies, in his mind, the use of authoritarian power against them.

Shapiro chose an inconvenient year to publish this book, and his introduction tries to claim that the president who tried to stage a coup and led an insurrection on January 6 was, in fact, completely powerless compared to the leftist “authoritarians” who control America by expressing their ideas on campuses and in the media.

Shapiro admits that “Trump had certainly engaged in authoritarian rhetoric” but claims, “nothing happened.”(p. 11) Well, except for the insurrection. And the entire Trump Administration. But other than that, nothing.

Shapiro asserts, “Trump might have authoritarian tendencies, but he did not wield authoritarian power.”(p. 10) While it’s possible to argue that Donald Trump did not have authoritarian power despite his authoritarian desires, it’s not reasonable to simultaneously claim, as Shapiro does, that Nikole Hannah-Jones (whom he smears as a “professional racist”) and others on the left have authoritarian power over America. It’s a deranged vision of the world, and all the more frightening when you consider that Shapiro is often regarded as a kinder, gentler, smarter conservative compared to the extremes of Trumpist devotees. But while Shapiro walks an ideological tightrope by sometimes criticizing Trump, he is always devoted to the larger project of denouncing the left and asserting the victimhood of conservatives.

Shapiro identifies a long list of allegedly “authoritarian leftist” institutions, from academia to the media to science to Hollywood to business, but he barely even pretends to offer evidence for his broad and almost comical assertions. Who needs to provide proof when your audience already is convinced of your prejudices? Who needs facts when you have a (highly profitable) feeling to express?
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Bar Rescue Host and Laura Ingraham Discuss Cutting Unemployment Aid to Make Workers “Hungry” Like an “Obedient Dog”
by Ari Breland
August 14, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... dient-dog/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Jon Taffer, the host of the reality show Bar Rescue, has got a plan to stop the ongoing crisis of people not wanting to work crap jobs for low pay in the restaurant and service industry—turn workers into “hungry dog[s].

Speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Taffer—a Nightclub Hall of Fame inductee!—jumped off the idea of slashing unemployment benefits (part of a package of aid in response to COVID-19 that brought about a record drop in poverty) as an incentive to, as Ingraham noted, make people “hungry.”

Ingraham backtracked and said not “physical hunger,” without clarifying what else she could mean.

But then Taffer forged ahead with this:
  • I have a friend in the military who trains military dogs, Laura. And they only feed a military dog at night. Because a hungry dog is an obedient dog. Well, if we’re not causing people to be hungry to work then we’re providing them with all the meals they need sitting at home. I’m completely with you Laura. These benefits make absolutely no sense to us.
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Trump Loses Case Against Omarosa

by David Badash
September 28, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/trump-omarosa/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Donald Trump has lost his case against Omarosa Manigault Newman, his former White House aide and a former reality TV star on several "Apprentice" seasons

The case was decided in arbitration, with the arbitrator declaring that it was "certainly unreasonable" for Omarosa "to never say anything remotely critical of Mr. Trump, his family or his or his family members' businesses for the rest of her life," The New York Times reports.

"Donald has used this type of vexatious litigation to intimidate, harass and bully for years," Manigault Newman said in a statement. "Finally the bully has met his match!"

In 2018 Trump had sued Manigault Newman, who frequently uses the mononymous "Omarosa," for what he claimed were violations of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) she had signed after the publication of her book, "Unhinged" about President Trump. That NDA was signed in 2016 while she was with his presidential campaign.

The Times adds that Omarosa's book "paints a picture of an out-of-control president who is in a state of mental decline and is prone to racist and misogynistic behavior. Ms. Manigault Newman's book also casts the former president's daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in a negative light. When Trump advisers tried to cast doubt on Ms. Manigault Newman's accounts, she released audio recordings that backed up several of her claims."
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Casper Star-Tribune: Wyoming GOP Votes to No Longer Recognize Liz Cheney as a Party Member
by Paul LeBlanc
November 16, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/15/politics ... index.html

Introduction:
Washington (CNN)The Wyoming Republican Party voted over the weekend to no longer recognize Rep. Liz Cheney as a member of the party, the Casper Star-Tribune reported, a new instance of GOP blowback as Cheney continues to speak out against former President Donald Trump.

The resolution, which does not strip Cheney of any power, cleared the Wyoming GOP Central Committee on Saturday by a vote of 31-29, the report said.

Cheney serves as vice chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol -- on which she is one of just two Republicans -- and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection" following the attack. While Cheney voted with Trump more than 90% of the time, her vocal opposition following the insurrection has prompted sharp backlash within the GOP.

In February, the Wyoming Republican Party voted to formally censure Cheney, and in May she was removed from her post as GOP conference chair in a move that was supported by Trump.
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House Republican Comes Out and Says It: Forcing Tax Cheats to Pay Up Would 'Cost' Them Billions
November 30, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/nancy-mace-irs/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, inflicted on us by the state of South Carolina, has been running a bold new online ad condemning Democratic plans to boost funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Why, you might ask?

"Biden's policy will double the size of the IRS at the cost of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes. We should stabilize our nation's economy first."
  • When you accidentally say the quiet part out loud\n\nFunding the IRS will cost tax cheatspic.twitter.com/HVL51xABJx
    — z3dster (@z3dster) 1638124786
While @z3dster has done us the solid of parsing out what the hell Mace's word shrapnel was meant to actually mean, it's still worth stewing on that odd language. "At the cost of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes?" At the ... cost? But going after tax cheats is widely recognized as being a net federal win, because just a little money allocated to investigating the most prolific tax-dodgers results in much larger revenues when the dodged taxes actually get paid, so—ooh. Ooooooh.

Right.

...but don't worry Nancy, that lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing her best to actually make you look like the sane adult in the room by way of contrast to her own irrationality:

Republican Infighting Spills Into Public and Devolves Into High School Bickering
by Rebekah Sager
December 1, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/republ ... nfighting/

Introduction:
(Alternet) When you find yourself siding with one GOP deplorable over another, catch yourself. Because, as captivating as it is to watch a rodent eat its own, reading how Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attacks South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace over racist and Islamophobic comments from the truly detestable Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, you have to wonder how low these disgusting folks can go.

In a now-deleted tweet, Greene launched the first shot to Mace for condemning Boebert, following a now-viral video of Boebert “joking” that Omar was a terrorist and member of the “jihad squad.”

“I looked to my left, and there she is, Ilhan Omar. And I said, ‘Well, she does not have a backpack—we should be OK.’” The audience laughed raucously. Omar has denied the incident Boebert described ever took place.

“I have time after time condemned my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for racist tropes and remarks that I find disgusting, and this is no different than any others,” Mace said during an interview on CNN.

“As a member of Congress, and seeing such division in our country, we all have a responsibility, both elected members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and the American people in our communities and at work in our communities [...] have a responsibility to lower the temperature, and this does not do that,” Mace added.
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Populist Leaders Meet in Warsaw to Discuss European Union
December 4, 2021

https://www.voanews.com/a/populist-lead ... 39402.html

Introduction:
(AP via VOA) WARSAW, POLAND — The leaders of right-wing populist parties gathered Saturday in Warsaw to discuss how they can work together to bring change to the European Union, which they accuse of acting like a super-state that is eroding the traditions and powers of the EU's 27 member nations.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's nationalist ruling party, opened the meeting, which also was attended by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and the leader of Spain's Vox party, Santiago Abascal.

The event, described as a summit, follows a visit by Le Pen to Budapest in October that was part of an effort by her and Orban to consolidate the European right. Kaczynski said Saturday's meeting was intended to find common ground and to increase cooperation at the EU level, though he acknowledged it would not be easy.

As the meeting opened in a hotel, a small group of protesters outside blew whistles and yelled accusations that the leaders were extremists serving the interests of the Kremlin. The demonstrators held signs saying "Russian pact," and chanted, "Warsaw free from fascism!"

Both the Polish and Hungarian governments remain locked in a bitter standoff with the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, which is withholding funds to both countries over democratic backsliding. Warsaw and Budapest argue that the Commission is taking a step that has never been laid out in the EU treaties, and which, therefore, defies EU law.
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