America

“Patriot” Watch, Ctd. 4

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

It is very easy to make the cheap shot argument that right-wing / ultra-libertarian journalists such as Alex Jones from InfoWars make a quick – and often very easy – buck by playing on the fears of their listeners, and stoking the notion that the great unraveling of society is mere days or weeks from taking place, based on whatever bad piece of geopolitical news flits across the newswires on any given day.

Indeed, it is rather self evident that this is the only way that their business model works – it becomes significantly harder to sell water purification systems, survival seed vaults or home security systems to your loyal listeners if the threat to public order is only vague, and several years down the road.

The writers at Salon.com do an excellent if somewhat sensationalist job of breaking down the economics of the conspiracy-theorist right wing media industry, and I can leave that to speak for itself along with my own assessment.

But as much and as often as the people at InfoWars may get things wrong, or exaggerate them out of all realistic proportion, sometimes they do get it right. As with any rigidly-held ideology, on some issues you are almost bound to be right as often as you are wrong.

And so it was with great interest that I listened to this radio interview of neo-con darling Ann Coulter on the Alex Jones radio show, in which he and his (in some cases quite knowledgeable callers) totally and systematically deconstruct Coulter’s defence of then-president George W. Bush and the war on terror:

 

As Coulter’s neo-conservative house of cards totally and utterly falls down on her head, she eventually resorts to exclaiming:

“This is the nuttiest conversation I have ever had! We are at war right now, this is no time to be looking for black helicopters…”

The nuttiest element, however, is almost completely on her side of the argument, as she doggedly continues to insist that the non-existent weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq.

What also makes the interview excellent is the fact that although Jones begins his interview with Coulter in a very polite and courteous manner, going to great lengths to praise her many New York Times bestselling books and many media appearances, he shows no hesitation in calling her out, mocking and even goading her when she insults his listeners and their principled defence of civil liberties.

At one point, when he realises that Coulter is utterly beholden to the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld militaristic view of the world, and will not be persuaded to come around, he goes as far as to taunt her and make fun of her lack of knowledge on the very subject on which she had just completed her newest book:

“I appreciate your ‘courage’ coming on… Ann Coulter, you are a neo-con. You are out there shilling for the trojan horse, George W. Bush is a gun-grabber… We’ve been trying to be nice to you, but you’ve just denied things that are in the mainstream news… Stay on the line Ann Coulter, if you’ve got the nerve to do it…”

Boom. Alex Jones 1 – 0 Ann Coulter.

This edition of Patriot Watch is not in any way an endorsement of Alex Jones, or his overall belief system. But at a time when almost everyone in the mainstream media, and most Democrats as well as Republicans cravenly followed and rubber-stamped every one of the Bush Administration’s capricious excesses in curtailing civil liberties in the name of “freedom” and “security”, he and his followers were pushing back and voicing their opposition.

At the same time, many people who would now mock Alex Jones were nowhere to be found.

On Defeating Terrorism

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This is how to do it:

Image courtesy of Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News
Image courtesy of Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News

Today, the 10th of May 2013, the spire was added to the top of One World Trade Center, bringing the building to a symbolic height of 1,776 feet and making it the tallest structure in the western hemisphere.

The New York Post reports:

The silver spire topping One World Trade Center on Friday was fully installed on the building’s roof, bringing the structure to its full, symbolic height of 1,776 feet.

Loud applause and cries of joy erupted from assembled construction workers as the spire was gently lowered and secured into place.

“It’s a pretty awesome feeling,” said project manager Juan Estevez from a temporary platform on the roof of the tower where he and other workers watched the milestone.

“It’s a culmination of a tremendous amount of team work … rebuilding the New York City skyline once again.”

And this is how not to do it:

 

 

This is Fox News talking head (and supposed token liberal) Bob Beckel cowering like – well, a pathetic coward – and arguing that all foreign student visas for muslim students in the United States should be revoked, and no new visas issued for a period of five years, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.

It’s not clear from Beckel’s “sober and solemn” pronouncement whether he means to target anyone from outside the US who self-identifies as a muslim, or students from predominantly muslim countries (whether they self-identify as muslims or not), or through some other method of profiling. Probably because he hadn’t thought it through before going on live television and acting the part of a terrified little girl in the face of a lone act of terrorism.

So there we go. One case study in how to face up to and defeat terrorism, and another in how to cower in the face of terror.

“Patriot” Watch, Ctd. 3

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

Since the “Patriot” Watch is going to be an ongoing series on this blog, it would be negligent of me not to link to this amazing video of our intrepid hero, Alex Jones from InfoWars, as he totally owns Piers Morgan on his own CNN show, in a debate on gun control legislation.

 

I have very few positive things to say about Piers Morgan, and I am actually quite relieved that he is now polluting the airwaves of the United States rather than residing and editing newspapers in London, close to me.

And so it is with considerable glee that I watched this 14-minute “interview”, in which Piers Morgan manages to utter probably no more than 100 words, and in which Alex Jones answers precisely none of his questions, but delivers a wonderfully spirited argument in favour of his conspiracy theories and warnings about the coming New World Order.

Enjoy.

Sanford Wins

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Well, I was wrong.

Based on pre-election polling data, and an excess of trust in the wisdom of the electorate, I predicted that the Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch would defeat the Republican former governor Mark Sanford in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district election.

Politico reports:

In the end, the nail biter that late polls hinted at never materialized: Sanford crushed Colbert Busch, 54 to 45 percent.

A turning point in the race came two weeks ago, when Sanford held a mock debate with a cardboard cut-out of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, implying that the California Democrat — persona non grata in conservative South Carolina – was a stand-in for his Democratic opponent.

The former governor endured days of derision from the press for the move — Mark Sanford, once regarded as a viable potential presidential candidate, was debating a piece of cardboard.

But behind the scenes, Sanford’s aides grinned: Every time a reporter put “Pelosi” and “Colbert Busch” in the same sentence, the Republican was winning.

From reading this article it is clear that Sanford ran a far superior campaign to Busch. Tightly-controlled campaigns such as Colbert Busch’s, with handlers keeping the candidate away from any potentially awkward encounter with a real person, are almost never the best way to win, let alone the right way to behave, and yet that is precisely the model that Colbert Busch chose to follow.

Sanford, by contrast, ran an old-fashioned retail politician campaign, barnstorming the district, accepting every invitation for interview or appearance, and offering no end of mea culpas whenever he was asked about his chequered past.

The article continues:

This time, Sanford was, in a sense, running from scratch once again. Without the trappings of the governorship, he hop-scotched the Lowcountry in a black van driven by an aide. After spending a year in obscurity, he was reintroducing himself to voters — soothing the concerns of voters who still felt squeamish about what he had done.

In a district rich with evangelical voters, he adopted religious language to describe his personal journey, talking about a “God of second chances.”

“His strength of his campaign style is that he’s out there every day,” said Scott English, who served as Sanford’s gubernatorial chief of staff. “He loves being around people, and that’s the hallmark of his campaign.”

He ran a smart campaign because he knew how to run a smart campaign. Because he has been doing this since the age of 34. Because he is a career politician.

In South Carolina, the better candidate – but the worse representative – prevailed.

“Patriot” Watch, Ctd. 2

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NEWSFLASH FROM INFOWARS – Throngs of black people, filled with anti-white racism by MSNBC, are forming mobs and going around targeting “domesticated, docile” whites and brutally attacking them in broad daylight. You can most likely see it going on outside your window right now, if you take a look. And of course, if you just see a calm street scene, it’s probably a fake, government-projected hologram beamed down from space to fool you into thinking that everything is normal while they ruthlessly take over the world.

From last Thursday’s show:

 

You want the segment from 2 hours 46 minutes onwards, in which our intrepid host Alex Jones, livid at the injustice he sees going on around him, fulminates:

But then there’s epidemics all over the country of black folks who have been so filled with racism by MSNBC that whites are inherently racist and evil, that groups of black people, like what the Klan used to do to blacks, are now beating up whites, who are so domesticated – on record, including newspaper people – they roll over and flop around on the ground, so I guess they deserve it in some way. And this is happening all over the country.

And the media have articles about ‘struggling with reporting it’! Cause maybe it’s… maybe we deserve it! Maybe whites should all walk out, in public, and slit their throats! Find a black person, then grab a big double-edged knife and then just go “cchhhuh-aaaaaah! Whites die! I’m evil! Bluuugh! Gluuurgh!” And then just spray blood everywhere, and go “bleeeeeh” and just bleed out, and then Chris Matthews will dance in the blood, and it’ll be a big celebration…

I mean, because… whites are being murdered, tortured, killed, attacked, all over the country, and there’s never going to be a candle-light vigil, the news won’t even say that it’s blacks doing it. And again, I love black people! But there are racist black people full of this whole thing, and it’s all the media trying to create division in this country.

Alex Jones from InfoWars.com, acting out the dystopian vision of MSNBC
Alex Jones from InfoWars.com, acting out the dystopian vision of MSNBC

The thing is, Alex Jones actually is not a racist. I have now watched many hours of his show, and I do not believe him to be racist at all. In many ways, he’s probably actually quite a good man. He’s just either a) batshit insane, or b) a masterful…entrepreneur (to be charitable) who convinces himself of the worthiness of his own rhetoric enough so that he can sound sufficiently authentic to wring money from the wallets of his gullible subscribers with his rants about the coming New World Order.

But yes. White people sacrificing themselves in front of black people, and Chris Matthews from MSNBC coming to dance in the blood. This is totally about to happen all across the country right now.

Be prepared.

 

UPDATE (16:56, 05/05/2013) – How can you not love this picture of Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton, taken from the LA Times?

( Scott Eells / Bloomberg / April 27, 2013 )
( Scott Eells / Bloomberg / April 27, 2013 )