Supplemental: Dumbing the liberal world way down!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Salon crawls to AlterNet:
For many years, conservative entities took the lead in dumbing the public down.

At some point in the past ten years, pseudo-liberals decided to follow suit. As a recent example, consider this pitiful piece at the new Salon, by way of AlterNet.

Sadly, Janet Allon isn’t some wide-eyed kid of the type the new Salon likes to employ. She’s been a political writer for decades. This seems to be her idea of the “worst right-wing moment” of the past week:
ALLON (11/17/14): Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and Charles Krauthammer beat the impeachment drum—by likening undocumented immigrants to murderers.

[...]

So, two Fox “smarties,” Megyn Kelly and Charles Krauthammer, were discussing their favorite topic this week, which is how the hell can we get rid of this black president, and when can we start the impeachment proceedings?

This week’s “impeachable offense” that has so addled their uni-brain is the imminent prospect of Obama taking executive action to shield five million undocumented immigrants from being deported. It’s been done before, by both Reagan and Bush, but somehow, when Obama does it, it’s completely different.

“There’s no doubt that what he is doing now is a flagrant assault on the Constitutional system,” Krauthammer said, doing his best imitation of a person who actually knows something. “I’m sure Obama will be able to find a bunch of lawyers who say it is okay. This is clearly illegal. “

We’re sure he will. Those lawyers will say anything. Especially when there are plenty of precedents.

But wait, Megyn Kelly has some law background, and it was her turn to try to sound smart. “There’s no doubt that the president has prosecutorial discretion. But it’s a sliding scale. Just as a prosecutor has discretion. He might decide not to prosecute one murderer. But if he said he is not going to prosecute any of the murderers, that would be unacceptable.”

So, yeah, she’s comparing undocumented immigrants to murderers. And no, that is not a mistake. It is unacceptable and disgusting. Quite apart from the whole impeachment discussion, which is merely ridiculous.
According to Allon, that was the craziest thing the right wing did all last week.

In that passage, Allon says that Kelly and Krauthammer were “beating the impeachment drum.” You’re even told why they did that—because they want to “get rid of this black president.”

You’re told that Kelly, who “has some law background,” was comparing immigrants to murderers for the obvious heinous reason.

Allon was referring to the opening segment of Kelly’s show last Thursday night. To watch the bulk of that segment, click this.

During that segment, Kelly and Krauthammer did discuss Obama’s apparent plans with regard to immigration. Here’s what Allon omitted:

Instantly, Krauthammer explicitly said that he opposes the idea of a government shutdown in response to action by Obama. (“I do think it's important, though, for Republicans to vigorously oppose this but not lose their heads. Do not shut down the government over this...It is always a losing proposition.”)

As soon as the taped interview ended, Kelly stressed the fact that Krauthammer is also opposed to impeachment. (She described impeachment as “a path with huge political risks that conservatives like Krauthammer find too dangerous.”)

Neither Kelly nor Krauthammer ever proposed impeachment. Kelly did play tape of Obama in 2011 seeming to say that he lacks the constitutional authority to do what he now plans to do.

(Obama in 2011: “The notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case. Because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those Congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”)

Kelly and Krauthammer made interesting claims about the proposed action. It would have been interesting to see Allon speak to their actual statements.

Instead, Allon took out her toy balloons and gave us the sound-bites that make us happy. This used to be the way Hannity played. Now, it’s our tribe’s preferred course of action too.

The new Salon is a true disgrace. Allon makes things even worse.

Kelly’s summation: Kelly’s “background in law” lies in the fact that she went to law school, then worked ten years as a lawyer. Here’s how she summarized the state of play after her interview ended:
KELLY: Legally, the Republicans do have options to thwart President Obama’s executive actions, although their choices are limited. Here are a few:

Number one, they can file a lawsuit to stop it. They already have one. It's pending now that claims lawlessness by the president. But many lawyer say this is a loser. Andy McCarthy calls it feckless.

Number two, they can impeach the president. A remedy the founders consider indispensable to preventing abuses of executive power but a path with huge political risks that conservatives like Krauthammer find too dangerous.

Number three, they can cut off the funds needed to carry out the executive order. Senator Jeff Sessions who's about to take over as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee in January says, this is where the GOP will fight back the hardest.

And number four, they can punish the President another way, by holding up his judicial and other appointments which require Senate approval until he reverses course. This and the budget measures are the ones advocated by Krauthammer.

All have political risks, which President Obama clearly believes favor his party. But with even liberal legal scholars like Jonathan Turley arguing this president is pushing us toward a constitutional crisis, the public may have the stomach for some pushback. Only time will tell.
Giving us the thrills we deserve and enjoy, Allon described this as “beating the impeachment drum.”

Long ago, only Hannity treated the public this way. Now, we in our own pathetic sad tribe have our own losers too.

30 comments:

  1. I see. Janet Allon = Sean Hannity.

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    Replies
    1. Well our tribe IS sad. Pathetic too. But why do our losers all have to be girls?

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    2. A in reading comprehension. Allon is dumbing down her reporting for liberals just like Sean Hannity does routinely for conservative audiences.

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    3. @2:51 -- why do you only focus on Somerby's criticisms of "girls" (by which I assume you mean women)? He criticizes plenty of people of both sexes but somehow you only seem to notice when the person involved is female.

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    4. Somerby's criticisms are overwhelmingly of women. And the younger and more elitely educated they are, the more bitter his criticisms. Do not pretend otherwise.

      And do not pretend that by writing on Alternet and picked up by Salon, she is anywhere near the mass media equivalent of Hannity. That game is so transparent that only Bob's sheep fail to see through it.

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    5. 2:40 - Exactly! She is like Hannity by twisting the facts to serve an agenda and excite a partisan audience.

      5:51 - She is = to Hannity in that they are both lying but not = to him in that he is more successful and skillful at it and does it on a bigger stage. In that case, you are totally correct.

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    6. One of these people influences millions of people. One does not. One of these people regularly expresses opinions that are supposed to be noxious to Bob (we now have our doubts that they are, indeed, noxious to Bob). One does not. One of these people regularly says and/or implies things that are, objectively, insane. One does not. In Bobville, however, they are equivalent -- exactly the same from different perspectives.

      Of course, "increasingly" they are the same. According to Bob, at some unspecified time in the future they will be virtually identical in influence, dishonesty, position advocacy, and sanity quotients. So we might as well say they are the same now.

      Needless to say, those of us who point out that this rhetorical dynamic is crazy are "trolls."

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  2. It may be that Obama doesn't intend to go all the way with this either. He may be trying to show what happens when he tries to do something active, to those Democrats who have been critical of him for doing so little to advance progressive goals. Immigration once again is being used as a political football.

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  3. Poor James Murdoch and Roger Ailes.

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  4. Poor POTUS Obama. Back in 2006, he sounded like Rep. Luis Gutierrez's (D-Illinois) worst nightmare.

    “When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment. When I’m forced to use a translator to communicate with the guy fixing my car, I feel a certain frustration.”

    "The number of immigrants added to the labor force every year is of a magnitude not seen in this country for over a century. If this huge influx of mostly low-skill workers provides some benefits to the economy as a whole—especially by keeping our workforce young, in contrast to an increasingly geriatric Europe and Japan—it also threatens to depress further the wages of blue-collar Americans and put strains on an already overburdened safety net.”

    Barack Obama "Audacity of Hope"

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    Replies
    1. Poor cicero. No room on the Breitbart cruise this year.

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  5. Let's not overlook Allon's dishonest statement, "It’s been done before, by both Reagan and Bush, but somehow, when Obama does it, it’s completely different." If "it" referred to allowing millions of illegal immigrants to remain here, then "it" has indeed been done before. But, as we all know, the discussion concerned allowing millions of immigrants remain by executive fiat, without Congressional approval. This "it" has never been done before.

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    1. BZZZZ! Wrong answer, David. Go check out what your handlers are telling you before you repeat their nonsense again.

      Congress passed its last sweeping reform of immigration in 1986, granting amnesty to millions of workers without documentation.

      In 1987, Reagan ordered -- by executive order and INS policy, not by congressional action -- that the law extend also to the spouses and children who were not born in the U.S., of those workers. This was about 1.5 million of them.

      Bush extended the same policy when he took office in 1989, and Congress later turned those executive decisions into permanent law.

      Honest to God, David. Do you swallow every single bit of right-wing propaganda thrown your way?


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    2. Congress passed its last sweeping reform of immigration in 1986, granting amnesty to millions of workers without documentation.

      My point exactly..

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    3. I am afraid you mistake a very hard, round object for a point.

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    4. D in C - your being dishonest or dense, probably both.Congress passed it, then Reagan extended it by executive order to cover spouses and children.

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    5. AC/MA -- I admit I had been unaware that a part of Reagan's amnesty was via executive action. Do you think Reagan's action was equivalent to Obama's contemplated action? There's a point of similarity, yes. Both extended amnesty unilaterally.

      However, Reagan was acting to preserve families in a situation where the major part of the amnesty had already been passed by Congress. Obama has no Congressional authorization at all.

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  6. I just watched the video. Kelly (not Krauthammer) either wants Obama's head on a stick, or she finds the argument very persuasive.

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  7. More horrible, awful, very bad stuff in the "New Salon," which is just like Sean Hannity, but on the left!

    http://www.salon.com/2014/11/16/thomas_frank_on_ronald_reagans_secret_tragedy_how_70s_and_80s_cynicism_poisoned_democrats_and_america/

    Once again, Bob hasn't done anything this thoughtful in years. Nothing Bob has ever done champions what he claims to believe in -- economic liberalism -- like this article. Read through the horrible, awful terrible Salon, which is JUST LIKE HANNITY, BUT FORM THE LEFT, and you'll find all sorts of stuff like it, in addition to yes, fluff (which you can skip if you choose). But the good stuff disappears, so Bob can pretend that Salon is JUST LIKE HANNITY.

    Not for the first time, we wonder how anyone can seriously think Bob cares about anything except complaining.

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    Replies
    1. All meaningful change starts with complaining and the left is about change.

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    2. According to Professor Jonathan Gruber, all meaningful change starts with subterfuge and the left is complaining they never heard of him.

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    3. I remember Jonathan Gruber. He is the third evil sibling in the Bruce Willis film franchise.

      Han Gruber freed Asian Dawn in "Die Hard."

      Simon Gruber liberated us from the Fed in "Die Hard With a Vengance."

      Jonathan Gruber freed us from suffering in "Die Hard With the Death Panel."

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    4. It's just so frustrating. And on top of everything else, they call us trolls when we point out these obvious facts.

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    5. Jonathan Gruber now starring in "Obama Looses His Die Hard On For Economics Professor"

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    6. Poor cicero. His potential future in comedy is below that of Somerby's.

      And that poor Obama. His record against GOP nominees is now 2 Wins and 0 Looses.

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    7. Obama's record in the SCOTUS since 2012.
      0 Wins & 12 Losses

      How's that for comedic relief?

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    8. I'd be tempted to call it "legislating from the bench" or "judicial activism by unelected lifetime appointees" but those are phrases preempted by jokers of your ilk when decisions were not to your liking.

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    9. You eschewed temptation for total capitulation.

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