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.