Connect with us

Limbaugh: Kids Healthy Eating Project Valid Reason NASCAR Booed First Lady

Published

on

On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh “explained” all the reasons why Michelle Obama was booed at Sunday’s NASCAR race. The First Lady appeared with Dr. Jill Biden, the Vice President’s wife, to deliver in person their support for military families, part of a campaign the two women have been working on all year.

READ: Defending Cain, Limbaugh Says Women Lie About Sexual Harassment, Invokes Tawana Brawley

No one disputes the fact that NASCAR fans booed Michelle Obama, not Rush Limbaugh, not right wing propaganda outlet NewMax, no one.

Here are Rush Limbaugh’s reasons and defense of the booing:

“People don’t like being told they’re lousy parents, and Mrs. Obama has done that. People resent Mrs. Obama’s bizarre need to tell us what to eat and how much to exercise.”

“Mrs. Obama has a husband who runs around and apologizes for this country that he was elected to lead, Australia the latest example.”

“I’m also pretty sure this crowd is not eager to go out and buy a car that you have to plug in in order to drive. This is not a Prius, Leaf, Volt, plug it in and charge it and drive for 40 miles kind of crowd.”

“People who go to NASCAR races are the very people her husband called ‘bitter clingers’ when things aren’t going well. What do they do? Well they cling to their guns and they cling to their religion,” Limbaugh said, mockingly, of President Obama’s comments during the 2008 campaign.

Limbaugh of course also blamed Solyndra, and the President’s so-called “bankrupting of the economy,” as reasons the NASCAR crowd booed Mrs. Obama.

Then there was Limbaugh’s lie about the Affordable Care Act, what he calls “Obamacare,” which he falsely states that “65% to 70% of Americans who want no part of her husband’s healthcare plan.”

For the record, Forbes — hardly a progressive outlet, wrote last week that “a new CNN poll conducted during the period of November 11-13, 52 percent of those surveyed indicated that they now favor the mandate. This is a 6 percent rise in support since the question was last put to the public by a poll in June of this year and the first time those in favor have moved into the majority column.”

Limbaugh, is a fiction writer at best, and a liar at worst.

Jay Busbee, at Yahoo! Sports, today wrote,

NASCAR fans skew conservative. You know that, I know that, politicians know that. An overwhelmingly white fan base, rooted in Southern conservative values (we still have a pre-race prayer, for heaven’s sake) … it’s no surprise that NASCAR generally tilts right.

Which would be just fine, if that tilt didn’t slide into toxicity. But on Sunday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it did.

Moments before one of the greatest races in sports history, certain NASCAR race attendees — I’m not dignifying these cowards with the term “fans” — showed why this sport will always have trouble getting respect from the mainstream of America: they booed the First Lady of the United States.

Inexcusable. Unforgivable. Don’t give me the “free speech” argument. Don’t give me the “Obama sucks” argument. Don’t try anything you can possibly do to rationalize this away. Why? For a very simple reason, one that supersedes both politics and sport:

You don’t boo women.

You don’t. Especially not in NASCAR, which reveres Mother’s Day so much it won’t even schedule races on that day. It’s stunning that we’ve slid this far as a culture that something as simple and profound as respect for wives and mothers is now this cheap.

This is not about politics. This is not about “free speech.” This is about being enough of a man (if you’re a man) and enough of an American, whoever you are, to recognize that we should hold ourselves to some higher standards in our public life. (And this also isn’t about stay-in-the-kitchen sexism. If we can agree to hold open a door for a woman, can’t we agree it’s acceptable not to boo her?)

If it was President Obama up there? Sure, boo your head off. Same thing if it was former President George W. Bush. The president takes the job, he should deal with the fallout and the negative opinion. But to boo the man’s wife? Especially when she’s engaged in that most conservative of pursuits, supporting military veterans and their families?

Come on. You just harmed the image of NASCAR worse than anything that Obama ever could have done.

Look, I get the reasoning, twisted though it may be. Michelle Obama is married to the president, and many in NASCAR nation have profound philosophical differences with the president, to put it politely. Whether NASCAR fans who break from Obama have legitimate political arguments with the way the president runs our country, or whether they’re just ticked that things ain’t as good as they were back when (and nobody ever says that in NASCAR, do they?), they can and should be allowed to express their grievances with him in public. But to do it by attacking his wife?

For the record, as hated as George W. Bush was, no one ever booed First Lady laura Bush, and Rush Limbaugh never once said that Mrs. Bush — a librarian whose pet cause while First Lady was getting kids to read — “People resent Mrs. Bush’s bizarre need to tell our kids what books to read.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qxc37zzp4yE%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘Objectively Amazing’: Economists Cheer ‘Extraordinarily Robust’ and ‘Close to Unprecedented’ Jobs Report

Published

on

Economists are once again cheering the just-released jobs report, calling the results “objectively amazing,” saying the Federal Reserve has nothing to worry about on the jobs front, and slamming “doom and gloom” naysayers who have been talking about recession for well over a year.

The unemployment rate ticked up just a bit to 3.7%, slightly above an expected 3.5%, but, as NBC News reports, “still near the lowest since 1969.”

Average hourly earnings increased to rate of 4.3% on the year.

“Holy moly, jobs growth comes in hot again,” cheered University of Michigan professor of economics Justin Wolfers, who is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Don’t believe the doom-and-gloom talk. This economy is motoring along.”

“It’s hard to emphasize just how much the current rate of job growth is best described as ‘EXTRAORDINARILY ROBUST’,” Wolfers exclaimed. “Job growth at this rate, this far into a recovery, with unemployment this low, is pretty close to unprecedented.”

READ MORE: Former DOJ Official Says Audio of Trump Admitting to Keeping ‘War Plans’ Makes it ‘Inconceivable’ He Will Not Be Charged

Political strategist Simon Rosenberg served up a chart comparing the job growth efforts of presidents from George H. W. Bush to Joe Biden. He says, the data are “very clear about this.” The “GOP has been an economic wrecking ball.”

Rosenberg also says 96% of jobs created since 1989 have been under Democratic presidents.

Meanwhile, Professor Wolfers slammed those who keep talking about a recession, which the U.S. is not in.

“My advice: Take the names of those who told you that we’re in a recession. In the future, weight their views accordingly.”

Pointing to a Washington Post tweet with a headline that reads, “Labor Market is showing no signs of a recession for now,” Democratic strategist Greg Pinelo wrote: “Economists keep being surprised by strong jobs reports. Maybe you’re doing it wrong. The Republican dream of a recession is being dashed on the rocks of Biden’s successes.”

READ MORE: Grassley Admits He Doesn’t Care if GOP’s Accusations Against ‘Vice President Biden’ Are True or Not – He Vows to Pursue Them

Indeed, that Washington Post report claims, “Many economists are predicting a recession later this year, especially if the Federal Reserve keeps hiking interest rates to curb inflation.”

Some say talk of recession, which Americans have been hearing since 2019, could be a self-fulling prophesy.

Nearly one year ago Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: “I wish some of my colleagues would be more about promoting growth policies rather than simply criticizing the administration…I don’t hear them criticizing [Trump’s] economic policies…If you have people banging the drum ‘recession, recession, recession,’ it becomes in many ways a self-fulfilling prophecy, and maybe that’s good for short-term politics for some in this country, but it’s not good for the economic well being of Virginians and Americans.”

One year ago in June, economist David Rothschild wrote, “Get that Republican & Mainstream Media elites think this is all a game: get people to think economy sucks and we can elect more Republicans to give tax & regulation cuts to rich, slash necessary social safety net for working families! Cool! But, recession can be self-fulfilling.”

Journalist Ahmed Baba back in January documented what he sees as the self-fulfilling prophesy of a recession cycle:

Rothschild Friday morning praised the economy: “If economists were told in 2019 that world would be hit by devastating pandemic then Russia would invade Ukraine, their wildest optimistic forecasts would not have come close to how well economy (jobs, wages, market, despite inflation) has done over last 2.5 years.”

And calling the economy “objectively amazing,” Rothschild, like Rosenberg, also offered up a chart comparing the job growth efforts of presidents from George H. W. Bush to Joe Biden.

Biden is winning:

Continue Reading

News

Fox News Is Helping Trump Concoct An ‘Entirely Different World’: Conservative

Published

on

Conservative New York Times columnist David French on Friday asked his more liberal readers to tune into Fox News so they can see how millions of their fellow Americans remember the Trump presidency.

Despite the fact that former President Donald Trump lost the popular vote by more than 7 million votes in 2020, French writes that Trump and Fox News are concocting an “entirely different world” in which the Trump era was an unquestioned Golden Age.

“According to Trump’s narrative, everything he did was good,” writes French. “His first term was a time of economic prosperity, energy independence, fiscal responsibility, a rejuvenated military, a locked-down border and fear and respect from foreign regimes. The only thing that marred his four years was a stolen election and his unjust persecution by the corrupt Democratic Party and its allies in the F.B.I.”

French makes clear that this is not how he sees Trump’s first term, which he argues was marred by “division, corruption and social decay.”

IN OTHER NEWS: ‘Extremism sells’: Georgia Republicans lament Trump has turned GOP into party of ‘performance artists’

However, none of this seems to have penetrated through to Trump’s base, which appears to love him more than ever if the Fox News town hall is any indication.

“The two most telling moments on Thursday came from Trump’s audience,” he argues. “First, they booed Mike Pence at the very mention of his name. Second, they shouted derisively at Hannity at the mere thought that Trump should perhaps tone down his rhetoric. Both moments emphasized the ferocity of their support for Trump.”

 

Continue Reading

CRIME

Former DOJ Official Says Audio of Trump Admitting to Keeping ‘War Plans’ Makes it ‘Inconceivable’ He Will Not Be Charged

Published

on

A former top U.S. Dept. of Justice official says it is “inconceivable” that Donald Trump will not be charged, based on reports Special Counsel Jack Smith has an audio recording of the ex-president admitting he was in possession of a classified Pentagon document detailing a possible attack on Iran.

“I think if this audio tape exists, this is not a question of if there are going to be charges. It’s just a question of when,” announced NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, the well-known former FBI General Counsel who worked at DOJ for two decades.

Importantly, Weissmann, who made his remarks on MSNBC Thursday, notes that the document in question, if it is as described, contains “war plans.”

“And the proof that we have learned just publicly is so strong. And Jack Smith is such a competent and aggressive prosecutor. It is inconceivable to me that this would not be charged, and having a tape recording of the prospective defendant admitting his possession of a classified document that he had no right to have,” Weissmann says.

RELATED: ‘Absolutely Blockbuster Evidence’: Experts Stunned Over Trump ‘Espionage Act’ Bombshell That Pressures ‘DOJ to Indict’

“And not just any classified document. I think it’s really important to remember that what he talks about reportedly, is a classified document involving something that is unbelievably sensitive, which is war plans of the United States against another country.”

Where news broke Wednesday NYU Law professor of law Ryan Goodman, a former U.S. Dept. of Defense Special Counsel, wrote: “War plans are among the most highly classified documents. Puts pressure on DOJ to indict, and a jury to convict.”

Some say, based on the audio, Trump might have been holding the document as he was being recorded at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort, allegedly discussing it.

“Make no mistake. This is squarely an Espionage Act case,” Goodman also said, calling the news a “bombshell.”

Explaining the gravity of the document, Weissmann notes, “this is not just taking love letters of Kim Jong Un or salacious material about the president in France. This is exactly what the Department of Justice and the intelligence community is worried about.”

Continuing to explain just how serious this is, Weissmann served up the ground rules.

“Let’s remember government documents, whether classified or not, belong to the government. They are not to be retained by a private citizen. And the former president is a private citizen. So for instance, when I was in the Department of Justice, the number of documents I could take when I left the Department of Justice would be zero. So you’re not supposed to have that possession of government documents. If they are classified, there can be an additional type of charge, but it’s not required that that material be classified or classified at a particular level.”

READ MORE: Grassley Admits He Doesn’t Care if GOP’s Accusations Against ‘Vice President Biden’ Are True or Not – He Vows to Pursue Them

“What you’re looking at here is whether the person either knowingly took the documents or knowingly retained the documents. Important this tape recording, if it exists, as recorded, is that you’ve got Donald Trump admitting that he has in his possession a classified document – doesn’t matter if it’s Secret, Top Secret, it’s classified, that itself is a crime.”

And then finally, with respect to dissemination, the recording is that there does appear to be at least some dissemination of the information because Donald Trump, although he doesn’t turn the document over or quote from it, he does talk about what is in there. In other words, the reason we’re all talking about the fact that involves war plans involving Iran is because reportedly that is what Donald Trump said was in the document. If that proves out, that is a form of dissemination.”

On social media later Thursday, Weissman tweeted, “Days, not months…” suggesting he believes an indictment of Trump would be coming sooner rather than later.

Watch Weissmann below or at this link.

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.