RIGHT WING SPLITS & A NEW HOPE
FOX LOSES FAVOR
When Trump attacked the election results, he expected full support from Fox et al., and was enraged when Rupert Murdoch didn’t come through for him:
…Using all three of his American properties, Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch clearly sent a top-down message that he did not support Trump’s move to denigrate free and fair elections. Without those unified voices on the right cheering his every move, Trump’s road to securing even a rhetorical victory became nearly impossible
Eric Boehlert. Press Run, Nov 25 2020
Predictably, Trump unleashed a Twitter-storm against Fox:
THE NEW SCUM ON THE BLOCK
A big chunk of TV-watching Trump-world is flocking to Newsmax, a low-rent TV “news” station owned by his old buddy, Mar-A-Lago member and former New York Post reporter, Chris Ruddy – a completely amoral piece of work with no principles of any kind.
Based in Boca Raton, Fla., the network features lo-fi production values and off-brand personalities like Sean Spicer and Diamond and Silk. Even finding it can be a chore: It appears on Channel 1115 in some major markets…. Until recently, the network’s top shows attracted a paltry 58,000 viewers. On Thursday night, the network drew its biggest audience ever, notching 1.1 million viewers at 7 p.m.
Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin, New York Times. Nov 22 2020
Also in favor with the White House is One America News Network (OAN or OANN,) a division of Herring Broadcasting in some kind of strategic partnership with The Washington Times, formerly owned by Sun Myung Moon. You remember the Moonies, right? Mass weddings, land-grabs, drugs? Now they want to get in on the MAGA gun-humper action.
Newsmax has increased viewership by a factor of 10 since the election. OANN is probably doing better as well, but they are not Nielsen-rated and they lie a lot, so it’s hard to know. MAGAs are now chanting “FOX SUX” at their rallies:
MEANWHILE, BACK AT RANCHO DELERIUM
Right-wing social media is also in an uproar as FaceBook, Twitter and to a lesser extent, YouTube try to dial back the spewings of the lie-machine. Lies about the election results, and about Covid-19 are being tagged as explicit disinformation and in some cases, blocked. Yes, even Donny BoneSpurs got blocked, at least briefly.
As a result the MAGA trolls and QAnons are moving onto the Parler app, pronounced par-lay, like the French verb “to speak.” They call it parlor. Parler bills itself as a “free speech social network, an unbiased social media focused on real user experiences and engagement.” They say they won’t ban users, remove content or block anyone, no matter what.
Other right-wing social media apps that got a boost after the election are MeWe and Gab. These lesser apps are scrambling to sign up the MAH FREEDUMBS crowd, along with the usual incel-libertarian trolls that infest the backwaters of the ‘net. Since “owning the libs” is the whole point of their miserable lives, they will probably drift back to Twitter and FaceBook. It’s the e-version of shouting in people’s faces without a mask; what’s a bully without a victim?
A NEW HOPE
Speaking of Twitter: have you heard of John Fetterman, the Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania? He is my current Hero de Tweet. You should keep an eye on him too.
Fetterman was born in York, PA, to poor, teenaged parents, who managed to do all right financially. He did jock things in high school because he is 6’8″ and huge, and continued playing football in college. Then one day a friend died in a car accident while on his way to pick up Fetterman at the gym. This was pretty shattering and afterwards Fetterman joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, pairing with an eight-year-old boy in New Haven, CT, whose father had died from AIDS, and whose mother was also infected. He became “preoccupied with the concept of the random lottery of birth.” He joined AmeriCorps and went to Pittsburgh and then on to Harvard Kennedy School, then back to AmeriCorps in Braddock, PA — he says he was attracted by its “malignant beauty;” I know just what he means. In Braddock, Fetterman ran against the incumbent mayor and won by a single vote. Then, as mayor he:
- Created a community center
- Started a two-acre organic urban farm, worked by teenagers of the Braddock Youth Project
- Developed the town’s ruined buildings and poor economy, thusly:
- Bought the scheduled-for-demolition First Presbyterian Church for $50,000 and lived in the basement for several months while renovating
- Purchased an adjacent warehouse for $2,000, placed two shipping containers on the roof for “extra living space” and moved in there
- Bought and renovated many additional houses and offered cheap, or no, rent
- The cheap rents and art exhibitions he opened brought young artists to the town
- People from Chicago, Portland, OR, etc., arrived to share in Braddock’s “renaissance”
- He got tats: on his left arm, Braddock’s zip code, 15104, and on the right, the dates of five murders that occurred in the town during his mayorship
Since becoming Lt Governor, he declined to occupy State House, the official residence for the Lt Gov, and instead lives with his family in a converted car dealership — take a tour with Mrs. F:
Industrial chic, very cool
He campaigns on issues like environmental protection, gay rights, immigration, and marijuana legalization. Also he lost 150lbs in 2018 and I can’t even lose my Covid weight so, RESPECT.
As politicians go, this guy gives me hope — Recommended follow on Twitter, @JohnFetterman, where GQ describes him as “an American taste god”, to which Fetterman says: LOL
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