Search Results for: maxim

Howard Stern, the Democrats’ new best friend

Howard Stern, woke this week

Usually, blunt and crude radio personalities like Howard Stern are not great Democratic role models. That’s because they will often make “edgy” remarks about women, minorities or cultural issues to get a laugh, a reaction and/or higher ratings. This week, however, Stern made comments — not once, but twice — that would cause a Democrat to blush with pride.

First, on his SiriusXM satellite radio show this past Monday, Stern went off on Republicans’ pathological use of the term “woke” as a criticism of Democratic values.:

I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m ‘woke.’ … To me, the opposite of ‘woke’ is being asleep…. And if ‘woke’ means I can’t get behind [Donald Trump], which is what I think it means, or that I support people who want to be transgender, or I’m for the vaccine — dude, call me ‘woke’ as you f‑‑‑ing want.

As to the Trump supporters who most often use the “woke” term against Democrats, Stern said:

I want to read legitimate news sources. Here’s how ‘woke’ I am: I believe the election was not rigged.

Continuing on the subject of the latest updated COVID vaccine (which many Republicans criticize as “woke,”), Stern added that he recently received it:

I’m not for stupidity…. F‑‑‑in’ science. This f‑‑‑ing country is so great…. I am ‘woke,’ motherf‑‑‑er. And I love it.

As if this weren’t enough to endear Stern to Democrats and rational Independents, on Monday he also attacked MAGA Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert for her recent tawdry behavior, which included vaping, groping with her date, taking selfies, etc. in a crowded Denver theater, all of which got the pair kicked out. Responding to a caller who brought up the topic, Stern said:

Lauren Boebert is a disgrace to this country! Forget the politics. She’s in a ti–y dress. She’s with some dude. Looks like she’s obviously vaping, but also looks like she might be grabbing his p—s during ‘Beetlejuice.’

Stern also reportedly “ripped [Boebert] for being a liar after she initially denied that she vaped during the musical.” According to Stern:

I don’t know what’s going on in Colorado. What are they — just got dumb people in Colorado. How do you elect someone like her? …. I mean, how did she win an election? How does a woman like that win an election? You know, there’s certain standards. Once you get caught lying like that, goodbye!

While we would likely choose different language, on this occasion at least, Howard Stern demonstrated to Democrats how to go on offense against the Republicans. For this, he deserves our applause and our attention.

Photo by Bill Norton, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/sRfPnu

Is this the best Reddit comment ever?

Fox “News” promoting GOP Culture War

One of the positives about the Reddit social media platform is that there are so many “subreddits,” each covering a specific topic, that anyone can either search or browse and then do a deep dive into a particular subject. For example, in the politics area, there are subreddits for folks of all political stripes, and even particular subreddits regarding certain political media outlets. It was in one such subreddit, r/TheMajorityReport (which covers The Majority Report, a progressive daily political talk radio show featuring host Sam Seder), where recently we found what may be the clearest and best comment describing how Republicans practice their cynical politics.

The particular Reddit background discussion leading to the comment concerned the appearance of Ana Kasparian of another political media outlet, The Young Turks, on Fox “News.” Ana is a former progressive who has moved towards the political right. Fox loves to feature such former lefties and use them as tools to bash the Democrats. Here’s the self-explanatory title of the Reddit discussion in question:

Fox News: Progressive journo Ana Kasparian unleashes on left’s obsession with ‘garbage’ identity politics: ‘I’m done’

After the jump, see the great comment that one Reddit user left:

Is this the greatest political ad ever made?

Several days ago, Progress Action Fund, which “produces & runs ads to defeat Republicans in swing districts,” came out swinging in Ohio with one of the most hard-hitting political ads we’ve ever seen. Here‘s the ad on YouTube (if you can’t view it below, the previous link also goes to to ad), entitled “Ohio Republicans in Your Bedroom”:

This 30-second ad features a scantily-clad couple in bed, kissing and embracing. The woman asks the man if he has a condom. He reaches for one in a drawer, and all of a sudden another hand grabs it away. It’s a scary-looking old man in a suit, who says:

Sorry, you can’t use those…. I’m your Republican Congressman. Now that we’re in charge, we’re banning birth control.

The woman then shouts at the Congressman:

This is our decision, not yours. Get out of our bedroom!

Don’t give up on fighting gun violence

Good Democratic messaging here

The gun violence situation looks very bad in America right now. We’re averaging more than one mass shooting every day. One of the latest such shootings took place in Allen, Texas last Saturday, where a gunman wearing a tactical vest with an “RWDS” (“Right Wing Death Squad”) patch opened fire with an AR-15-style assault weapon at a shopping mall, killing at least eight people, including two young children, and injuring approximately nine others. Meanwhile, Republican-run states are going the wrong way on guns, with Florida passing a law allowing residents to carry concealed guns without a permit, and a 2015 tweet from Texas Governor Greg Abbott resurfacing again this week, in which he complains that Texas lags behind California in gun purchases, and that Texans therefore need to buy more guns. To top it off, Republican Megyn Kelly, who should know better about toxic harmful behavior, tweeted the following last Saturday:

Serious q for gun control advocates: you’ve failed to effect change. Pls face it. You can’t do it, thx to the 2A. We’re all well aware you don’t like that fact, but fact it is. What’s next? Must we just stay here sad, concerned, lamenting? Could we possibly talk OTHER SOLUTIONS?

Then, after being reprimanded for her tweet, she doubled down with the following:

No YOU F off. I am sick and tired of nothing changing after mass shootings bc we get mired EVERY TIME IN THE DAMN GUN DEBATE. You have LOST. It’s DONE. For the love of God what else can be done? You are ruining any chance at change by not admitting that the gun debate is lost.

But giving up on fighting gun violence is the last thing we should do. First of all, let’s take a lesson from the Republicans, as we suggested back in 2011, and go on offense. Specifically, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that the Constitution provides for the right to an abortion, did the anti-choice Republicans give up? Quite the opposite! They embarked on an effort lasting nearly 50 years to fight that ruling, and they made steady progress at the federal level and in various states (waiting periods, parental consent, protests, closing clinics, late-term abortion bans, etc.), until, with the right combination of Republicans in the White House and the U.S. Senate to confirm enough right-wing justices, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling. Along the way, outlawing abortion became one of the Republicans’ chief unifying issues and rallying cries.

The significance of Gigi Sohn’s nomination for FCC Commissioner

FCC nominee Gigi Sohn

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held its third confirmation hearing in 15 months on the nomination of Gigi Sohn for Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The reason why Sohn, who is President Joe Biden‘s choice to fill the fifth FCC Commissioner slot to give the Democrats a 3-2 majority, has not yet been confirmed to her post (or even advanced to a Senate vote) is that apparently all Senate Republicans and a few conservative Senate Democrats oppose her on various grounds:

–First, Senate Republicans would likely oppose any of President Biden’s FCC nominees, in order to maintain this crucial agency at its current gridlocked state of two Democratic and two Republican Commissioners, preventing Biden and the Democrats from doing the business of the American people.

President Joe Biden neutralizes Republicans at State of the Union

President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden once again rose to the occasion and gave an extremely effective State of the Union speech last night. But what was so successful, and perhaps unexpected, is the way Biden took apart the Republicans. The President did this in a deft, almost surgical way, alternating between touting his impressive accomplishments, pushing his Democratic agenda (something we have advocated here since Day One), and co-opting pro-American ideas that the Republicans falsely try to claim that they promote. Essentially, Biden set a trap for the GOP.

Most reviews and many posts and comments about last night’s State of the Union speech seem to focus on the ugly outbursts from a small number of House Republicans in the audience. That’s just what those attention-seekers want. Instead, a good exercise is to avoid the videos of President Biden’s speech (too late if you already watched it last night, of course), and read the transcript in the second link above. What you get is an impressive picture of patriotism, an appeal to unity, and some good sharp contrasts with the Republicans. Here are some memorable lines and passages from the speech, which paint a clear picture of what President Biden accomplished:

Republicans are so rude

Rush Limbaugh, Republican media bully

We all know that many Republicans are fine with a violent, illegal insurrection against our government, as well as lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, graft and corruption by GOP leaders and minions. But what many of us have learned over the past few years is that Republicans can also be so damned rude.

In particular, there is a noticeable trend of Republican strangers who hit us with their political beliefs within minutes of meeting us, as well as acquaintances who do the same thing without knowing or asking about our political beliefs and values.

–It’s the Uber driver who, with a captive audience in his car, starts complaining about “Biden” being responsible for “these gas prices.”

–It’s the neighbor who says the problem is “the New York libs” without knowing or caring that the person they are speaking to may indeed be one.

–It’s the a service person who walks into your house, and within five minutes, starts denouncing our “corrupt government” with its “high taxes” and how it’s “disgusting” that “they’re gonna spend another $1.6 trillion on the pandemic.” Yes, all of these are real examples, and the last one just happened here this week.

Let’s mention the Toxic Bird Guy less

Replacing the bird with the Mastodon

This past month, social media platform users and just about everyone else who follows or uses media have witnessed a flurry of movement away from Twitter. So many people are folding their Twitter tents that the activity has been given various monikers, such as #TwitterMigration and #twexit. Messaging Matters is part of this migration, having moved over to the rapidly-growing Mastadon site @MessagingMatters@mstdn.social. The reason for numerous Twitter refugees, of course, is that upon Elon Musk‘s takeover of Twitter, he has systematically wrecked the place, and turned it into a right wing, conspiracy-embracing, Nazi-enabling propaganda network. Musk’s stated intentions of “free speech” have gone out the window, as folks who still post there (such as @joshuatopolsky@mastodon.online) are even reporting that “Twitter is now automatically marking links to mastodon as ‘sensitive’ (aka dangerous) and forcing users who get them to ‘appeal’ the claim.”

Elitist Dr. Oz is the new Mitt Romney

Latest attack on Dr. Oz

In the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Willard Mitt Romney inadvertently and repeatedly identified himself as Mr. Elitist/Moneybags/1%, and his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, quickly took advantage of the theme. The Obama campaign thus followed our Messaging Maxim #4: Feed the Narrative. Indeed, Romney fed this narrative himself, for example, by talking about his dressage horse Rafalca, revealing that his family travels by car with their dog strapped to the roof, and his infamous “WaWa’s” moment, where, getting the name wrong, Romney claimed to buy “hoagies” at gas station convenience stores. Needless to say, President Obama defeated Romney in a landslide.

Now, 10 years later, TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz is committing many of these same elitist reveals as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Here is a handy chart showing how Dr. Oz is the new Mitt Romney:

Dr. Oz Senate campaign implosion reaches comical levels

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman

The 2022 Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz on the Republican side and Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman is capturing tons of national media attention, but not for the reasons Dr. Oz would prefer. The  Oz campaign has been especially tone-deaf, making one mistake after another, and Fetterman and his campaign have been quick to capitalize on each one.

Essentially, the Oz-Fetterman race has turned into a Culture War, to the great disadvantage of Dr. Oz. Usually, it’s the Republicans who try to run on Culture War issues, whether it’s abortion, attacking LGBTQ people and their rights, book banning, guns, etc., mostly as a distraction, because Republicans are extremely unpopular on economic and other issues of importance to most Americans. In Pennsylvania, however, Fetterman has turned the tables on Republicans regarding cultural issues.