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Kind of reminds me of Siegfried & Roy. For years the duo exploited wild lions and tigers for the purpose of entertainment and profit. The most popular act in Las Vegas ended one day when a tiger named Montecore turned and attacked Roy Horn. Why? Because Montecore was always a wild animal. Their act ended for good with this inevitable and tragic event. It's quite possible the Republican Party is ending in a similar way. Moderate Republicans who knew better, that know that the Constitution matters, went along with the wild political animal, fearful of losing the Trump voters for their own future elections. That wild animal appears to have turned and attacked. And like Siegfried and Roy, it was only a matter of time.

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the problem is Trump can’t make the election numbers change—he’s been laughed out if every court. he has to blame somebody, so it’s the GOP/Fox

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Awesome analogy.

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Dec 4, 2020Liked by Eric Boehlert

Crabs in a barrel!

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The Fairness Doctrine must be reinstated on Day One when the Biden Administration takes over in January and Democrats have control of the House and Senate, along with other measures to protect Americans from propaganda. This entire Trump sideshow has been about establishing an alternative to Fox “News” that’s even more unhinged right wing conspiracy and propaganda by syphoning off Fox viewers and their online audience. The fact that OAN and Newsmax have risen in prominence in the aftermath of the election is evidence of this. This isn’t about the election or Trump’s ego at all.

I realize 1st Amendment issues have to be considered, but we need The Fairness Doctrine in place to offset the propaganda and lies we know will only get worse. Other countries have done this without adversely affecting civil rights. We can and must do this too. Otherwise, every election is going to be a freak show, and eventually, another wannabe dictator will emerge. And America will be mired in unrelenting chaos and division and bad faith actors trying to steal or hold on to power.

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Trump’s attack on Fox News is kinda great—and it’s working. their ratings are down

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True. Watching Fox get taken down is the gift I never expected, and it’s glorious to watch, but the price we’re paying for it is something much worse. The lying and propaganda has got to stop.

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I seriously doubt that today’s radical “money = speech” Supreme Court would let that law stand.

I want to see people sue Fox and other right wing media outlets for slander. I am sure they could raise more than enough money to cover their costs. They need to allow the suits to go to court instead of settling so that their egregious of the lies can be publicly aired.

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I think some people are suing Fox right now because of the lies they spread about Coronavirus. Maybe it will snowball.

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The Fairness Doctrine wouldn't stop Fox News, OANN, or NewsMax, as they are not broadcast entities. But we still need it because it would stop (or at least slow down) the right-wing noise machine on radio. Rush Limbaugh would likely not have been nearly as successful under the Fairness Doctrine, as it would have required the stations airing his show to give airtime to opposing viewpoints. Lax monopoly enforcement and changes in FCC rules prohibiting ownership of multiple media outlets in the same market are also to blame, as they allowed the consolidation of media ownership in companies like iHeart Media and Sinclair Broadcasting.

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Yep. There has to be a solution.

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Thanks for the Mariah Carey video. That and Darlene Love’s “Baby Please Come Home” are my all time favorites, although Mariah’s version of that song is a close second. The 79 year old Love was in this year’s Macy’s Day Parade and is still going strong. My grandkids were shocked when I told them that Darlene is almost ten years older than I am.

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I miss Darlene’s annual holiday appearance on Letterman!

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People like the Trumpists are always primed to start eating each other. It's inevitable.

That said, I'll reserve judgment on how much weight to put behind this right wing revolt. I don't want to allow my wishful thinking to taint the fact that a lot of work is required from now until January 5th to give both Warnock and Ossoff a chance of winning.

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that’s the $64K question. If Trump fades from a view a bit during Biden admin, right-wing will focus attention on Dems. If Trump super high-profile, right-wing might keep up internal attacks

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Paul, that’s such an important point. Sometimes I get the sense that Republicans get into these public beefs with each other as a way to try and lull their critics to sleep.

Republicans will likely turn out in big numbers on January 5, and Democrats have to do that too.

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Absolutely this.

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For once I agree with the coo coo bird tRump supporters. The two Republican Senators have not earned your votes, Georgia!! Unless you're voting for Warnock or Ossoff, please feel free to stay home!

Might I just add, the whole Mariah Carey Christmas album is part of my holiday tradition with my adult daughter. We love every song, and play it as we cook on Thanksgiving morning every year to kick off the holidays. This year, because of Covid, we weren't cooking together, but we sent each other a text assuring one another hat we had it on while cooking on TG morning!

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"If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by." At the moment, democrats occupy the riverbank.😀

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Love Actually features All I Want For Christmas prominently so two Christmas entertainment juggernauts are combined!

In the Not Spirit of the Christmas Season, All I Want For Christmas is that the Face Eating Party consumes all of the faces that loved it.

Matt Negrin's suggestion is right on. He's much more genteel than I.

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The right wing as an ouroboros is delicious.

Also, I was this many years old when I found out that Mariah Carey co-wrote that song. Her music isn't really my taste, but she is a talented singer and, apparently, song writer.

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Mr. Boehlert, Revolutions eat their children. Fun to watch, eh?

It’ll also be fun to watch how it plays out; in both the short and longer term.

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This has already been playing out in the long term — at least since the 90s. Newt legitimized the use of vicious slanders and crackpot conspiracies to destroy opponents. He allowed that nut job Dan Burton to hold the House “investigation” into the insane charge that Clinton had murdered his friend Vince Foster. Dan Burton produced his own forensic “evidence” that Foster was murdered which Burton obtained by shooting melons in his own back yard. Esquire’s great Charles Pierce puts it best:

“...any Republican operative, whether they have their own cable TV show or not, who expresses surprise and shock that there are so many people who believe the fanciful conspiracy theories of the QAnon crowd should examine their own damn conscience and ask where they were when the Republicans in Congress and high-priced conservative lawyers thought the idea that the president had his White House counsel murdered worthy of not one, but two congressional investigations, and not one, but two special prosecutors. It didn't start with this president*, kids.”

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22638554/brett-kavanaugh-vince-foster-investigation/

That goes for reporters, too.

Republican leaders stupidly didn’t foresee that the kind of insane conspiracies that they were promoting would lead to true believers gaining control of their party. Just his week Newt was freaking out over people believing Trump’s claims about voter fraud in Georgia.

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Drumpf has no deep affiliation with any party, so it stands to reason he wouldn't mind sniping at the one-trick-pony imploding one that's shored him up for the past four+ years. Amen to that!

He's been a Democrat, Republicon, and Reform party candidate and never fit into any of them. Surprise.

Too bad he found a niche in the fantasy "Party of trump, table of 74million (eejits)" and still garners their undying love. Unless he can continue to significantly separate them from their bank accounts, that sad fact should fade as reality is faced. Come January, Drumpf will get busy golfing and fighting off avalanches of law suits and other legal challenges ...not to mention trying to keep Pootin at bay. Heh heh heh.

Having zero loyalty to anyone or anything is the hallmark of his existence. May he fade away, at least for now, until nature...or the courts...do their thing to his already rotting corpus.

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Thanks Eric, for everything--been a long 2020.

Maybe we come out of this period in history with a split: traditional or moderate Republicans and Trumpists, a.k.a. a house divided. I think traditional or moderate Republican numbers are down at the moment due to the unusual number of R "retirements" prior to election cycles in 2018 and 2020, resulting in a tilt towards crazy.

Completely off topic, I was surprised to see McConnell overwhelmed and weeping on the Senate floor while speaking about Lama Alexander's retirement. Strange man.

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You think it's finally time for the Democratic centrist establishment leadership to finally dirty the GOP brand?

They have been so inept for decades. The Democratic party is supposed to be the party of opposition.

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I wonder how much right wing fervor comes from principled stands anymore. The shark model seems to fit better. Feeding, always feeding. Happy they're eating their own chums for now.

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what we’re seeing today is probably a culmination of Tea Party uprising under Obama . And yes, it was inevitable the hate would turn inward at some pt

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when you look at these people that's all they have is hate. Not happy because they don't know how to be happy just hate, it's eating their souls.

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