“There has to be as many traitors executed as he has days in office,” urged another Gab post. “Build the gallows, restore the REPUBLIC.” “Many many many executions are warranted,” someone wrote on Truth Social. One viral meme that was shared widely across platforms on Wednesday had the caption “RELEASE THE PROJECT 2025 HANDMAIDS TALE RAPE SQUADS.”
Read the full article. Other posts and memes call for executing Nancy Pelosi, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Kamala Harris. A Proud Boys account depicts Harris as “Whore Of The Year.” Hit the link for more.
In a follow-up post, Davis said the following: “Here’s my current mood: I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall. (Legally, politically, and financially, of course.)”
In August 2024, Davis appeared here when he threatened to sue any publication or social media user who referred to Trump as a “convicted felon.”
In April 2024, he appeared here when he vowed to imprison Trump’s critics and prosecute Barack Obama for murder.
In February 2024, we heard from him when he declared, “What’s so bad about Christian nationalism?”
His first appearance here came last year when he threatened to “arrest and deport” journalist Mehdi Hasan and throw gay reporter Tim Miller in a women’s prison.
And he could be the nation’s next Attorney General.
These took several days to wade through. I admit I do it not only for the news but for the memes in the comment sections which are pure gold. But just reading the headlines and blurbs can give you a great idea of how really dangerous and disastrous the right / republicans are. Fox is a totally unhinged media arm of cult tRump. The rest of the right wing media is desperate for their cult ideas of ruling people and having control of their private lives, sexual expressions, and how people simply exist. Please look these over and read the ones that interest you. This shit is serious and real and we have few days left before a direction is chosen for this country. Also notice that why the right claims that crime is up and people are terrified to step outside their homes, crime is way down. Hugs
Harris appeared here in June 2021 when he attempted to bring a loaded and concealed handgun onto the House floor. He then denounced calls for his resignation as “cancel culture.”
In October 2021 he had to be physically separated from Democratic Rep. Collin Allred after an argument over the certification of the 2020 election, which Harris had voted against.
Residents pleaded with the council, arguing that such proposals were divisive, stoked fear among the community, and would further stretch city services. “It is not only unnecessary but also a complete waste of the city’s time, money and resources,” Alexander Ermels, president of PFLAG’s Odessa chapter and a transgender man, said. Mayor Javier Joven [photo], who is up for reelection in November, has said his mission has been to help the city “repent.”
Penalties include a $500 fine and trespassing charges. Odessa, located in west Texas, has a population of 120,000.
For the past 13 months, when a 17-year-old applied for a driver’s license or state ID and marked that they would like to register, the DMV’s system did not transmit their voter registration application to the SEC. As a result, approximately 17,000 young voters were not registered to vote despite indicating a desire to do so. These voters were also not notified that their registrations had been rejected.
Trump has a long history of endorsing police violence, having said that police reaction to the racial unrest in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 “was a beautiful thing to watch.”
The Purge is a revenge horror franchise.
The only thing Trump’s speech has in common with it is he’s talking about a temporary spasm of widespread violence.
That is NOT what this is. This is STATE-sponsored terrorism against a targeted group. This is 1938 in Nazi Germany. https://t.co/49S7Hkwe8A
— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) September 29, 2024
The former president, who risks jail time and more criminal trials if he loses, has expanded his range of baseless attacks on U.S. voting procedures in recent weeks and months. Trump falsely claimed Monday that Democrats are exploiting an overseas ballot program for expats and military members in order to circumvent “any citizenship check or verification of identity.”
Look at the projection in the next story. Look the only end might be the clawing back some of the taxes owned to the public treasury from the wealthy people who constantly want more and more public funds only for themselves. The only loss will be a white majority nation, and Elon Musk is a full out South African racist bigot. Full out racist bigot. He is not worried about voting, he is a white man. He is worried brown / black people will get to vote. He and tRump talk bad about Haitians and immigrants while hiring them on the cheap. Hugs. Scottie
Trump: Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There’s something wrong and I don’t know what it is but there is something missing pic.twitter.com/RP5TaHMVhQ
These maga gang thugs think they can get away with anything and that they don’t have to obey any laws or rules. Hate rules their lives. It may have been this guy who said he wrote the bill because he couldn’t stand that kids were coming out at school and being accepted by other students instead of targeted for abuse. He wants LGBTQ+ kids to be scared to be themselves and to stay in the closet hiding from them straight cis bullies. Hugs. Scottie
Fine was in court due to a lawsuit involving a Brevard County election official. As I’ve said here before, he is probably the most obnoxious of all Florida lawmakers, which is really saying something.
He last appeared here when DeSantis vetoed funding for a “woke zoo” because it wouldn’t host a fundraiser for Fine.
Fine also appeared on JMG in May 2022 when he tweeted what many interpreted as a threat to assassinate President Biden. That tweet remains online.
Before that, Fine appeared on JMG when he called for felony charges after Florida Democrats staged a sit-in over the racist US House map submitted by DeSantis.
And before that, he appeared here when he threatened to defund a Florida Special Olympics event and called a local school board member a “whore” because she’d been invited its fundraiser gala and he was not.
Fine was a sponsor of the bill that stripped Disney’s self-governing status. His family owns annual passes to the “woke” theme park giant.
In 2022, he arranged for a Florida town to honor a war criminal who was convicted of executing four Iraqi prisoners. In April 2023 he declared, “Damn right, we ought to erase” LGBTQs.
Fine is also a sponsor of Florida’s bill criminalizing drag shows in view of minors. Of note, his wife runs a self-described “sultry” burlesque show that would violate her husband’s law.
ALEC member and Israel proxy Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) was "caught on camera appearing to give the middle finger and making other gestures during an Aug. 19 virtual court hearing." Fine and his attorney will attend a contempt of court hearing today.https://t.co/6CSOoF56Fm
A Michigan man, 61, was arrested after assaulting a postal carrier who delivered a flyer featuring Kamala Harris. He told the postal carrier that he didn’t want that "Black b****" in his mailbox and then threatened her with violence. https://t.co/DIlREaWx3b
The Straight Pride Flag looks like it’s the cover of MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS if it was written by the Hamburglar. pic.twitter.com/k69ANfFc1y
Hit the link for other already known examples of Trump withholding federal relief from blue states. Earlier this week Trump posted that Biden was withholding relief from “Republican areas” in North Carolina.
You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you.
It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it. https://t.co/FuPHwtlZuu
Upon the advice of right-wing Christian Independence Law Center, South Western's far-right school board is cutting windows so passersby can look into the so-called “gender-identity” student bathrooms. "A new Level of Weird," writes @YorkDispatch. READ: https://t.co/KxuSQAaZojpic.twitter.com/usSfxhl451
Braddock had fled to the Philippines where he was eventually deported last year as an illegal alien and arrested in Los Angeles.
During a call that was recorded before he became a candidate, William Braddock repeatedly warned an activist to not support GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Florida congressional seat because he had access to assassins https://t.co/OQFEYln82dpic.twitter.com/08OLNgwWQy
“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris.
Trump, as always, is lying. Financial disclosure records show that Paul Pelosi sold 2000 shares of Visa nearly three months ago. The DOJ filed its antitrust suit against Visa on Wednesday.
Trump calls for a Republican AG in "a Republican territory" to investigate Nancy Pelosi pic.twitter.com/oqbQTkptD8
Yesterday the Hollywood Reporter interviewed luxury watch experts who declared that the “Swiss” watches are likely cheap crap made in China. A disclaimer on Trump’s website says that the watches sold may not look like the “representations” seen on the site. The disclaimer also pointedly make no promises about delivery.
“And yet she’s taken in the worst of those people. The killers, the jailbirds, all of the worst of the people. She’s taking them in. And then I have to sit there and listen to her bullshit last night.
Trump on Kamala Harris speech: I have to sit there and listen to her bullshit and who puts it on Fox News? And they shouldn't be allowed to put it on.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a Saturday email: “The data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration. It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”
As Dale goes on to note, Trump’s lies have been widely spread by right wing media and GOP lawmakers, such as the Hitler-quoting GOP rep seen below.
He feels entitled to take anything he wants without paying for it. He also believes it is better to just due and ignore anyone else’s rights. He is the great cult leader. Hugs. Scottie
Walters has ordered daily bible lessons for Oklahoma’s public school students in all grades. Several dozen school districts are currently defying that edict.
Earlier this month, local outlets exposed Walters for spending state money to fund a national tour of far-right events to “promote himself on the national stage.”
Walters is widely expected to run for governor. Current governor and fellow Christian nationalist Kevin Stitt is term-limited.
Last month around two dozen GOP state lawmakers signed a letter calling for an impeachment probe into Walters for refusing to disclose his spending.
Walters has hired a raft of far-right figures, including Chaya Rachik and Dennis Prager, to help him “turn students to Jesus.” Raichik is reportedly helping overhaul public school libraries.
Imagine all the good that those millions of dollars could be used for. It could be used to pay Oklahoma’s hardworking teachers or provide additional supplies and resources for its struggling schools.
Instead, it’s being used to promote Walters’ Christian nationalist agenda. https://t.co/DE20Pw1846
Please remember the people who first led Israel in the beginning were also terrorist. Many in the Israeli government in the early decades of Israel’s existence were also labeled terrorist. One person’s terrorist is another person’s avowed wonderful member of government. It has been leaked that members of Israel’s government wants to annex another sovereign country’s land and make it Israel’s property. Just like they have in the West bank, and Gaza. In fact some have talked about trying to take part of Egypt. This is because religious fanatics are running the country now and they claim their god gave them the entire area so they simply have the right to take it. And no one can stop them as long as Biden stays in the mind set of the 1950 / 60s/ 70s, because Biden won’t let anyone else strike Israel back to show them their god did not give them permission to take others lands. Bibi has given the middle finger to every US president and he is desperate to get tRump to win by dragging the US into a war in the Middle East. That is his plan to help tRump and hurt Harris. And they bombed an entire area of occupied apartments in Beirut, which is another war crime they committed. Hugs. Scottie
A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand, said, “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price. Those blue screws on the tourbillon cage are a dead giveaway that it was partly made in China. You won’t find blue screws on a tourbillon made in Switzerland. And you can pick up a Chinese tourbillon for $100.”
Trump's "Vastly Overpriced" $100,000 "Swiss Watch" Is Probably Made in China, Experts Say https://t.co/neyxxt5J0U
Milei has cut support for welfare programs, soup kitchens, and other efforts to aid the needy.
Milei’s biggest cheerleader is Elon Musk, who has vowed to bring similar policies as the leader of Trump’s supposed “Department Of Government Efficiency.”
Of note, the planned department’s acronym just happens to be the same as a cryptocurrency often promoted by Musk.
Earlier this year Musk posted the below porn-adjacent image in celebration of Milei.
Not only did Hawley vote against the project, the report below notes that in 2019 Trump defunded all such military projects to divert the money to his border wall.
“We can VERIFY: No, Hawley did not secure $100 million for Fort Leonard Wood's military housing.”
Lying about supporting military families? While even voting AGAINST supporting them? That amounts to nothing more than stolen valor.https://t.co/jWt78m2qd4
The party who has people arrested, charged, and found guilty of voter fraud is the Republican Party. Every accusation from them is a confession of their own actions. They are setting it up to challenge the voters will and overturn the vote in that state. Hugs. Scottie
Hancock said that he learned during the trial that Rittenhouse had allegedly used racial slurs in messages sent to his friends and appeared to be looking for an opportunity to use a weapon. “There was a history of things he was doing prior to Kenosha, specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a gunfight,” Hancock claimed.
‘Patrolling the streets for months’: Kyle Rittenhouse confidants reveal new details the jury never knew https://t.co/zDg2esDw0t
The party maybe have evolved into the kind of anti-migrant, anti-Islam populist force that has taken hold across much of Europe, but it began as a political refuge for former Nazis. Not only has the FPÖ not disavowed that past, it embraces it — at least in private — with the leading party figures regularly getting to trouble for paying quiet tribute to their Nazi forebears.
Abrasive and provocative, far-right leader Herbert Kickl has one of the lowest approval ratings among Austria's top politicians, yet he is the frontrunner in Sunday’s parliamentary election, which has at times felt like a referendum on him https://t.co/NAPLJKizYypic.twitter.com/IUoS0CaQoV
As I often remind the haters, almost all of the children in the foster care and adoption system are there due to abuse and abandonment by the heterosexual parents.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the federal government over its requirement that states provide LGBTQ+ affirming placement for foster care youth. https://t.co/Al87Q9y6L7
“He said he went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down.
“I’m sure he probably regrets the language he used. But you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here.” – House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Remember when we had presidents that did not constantly try to sell crap and make a constant stream of profit off their name or from their followers. Remember we have had only one full time con man running scams to make a buck using the office of president to do it. Is this really what we want from our president? It seems unseemly for a presidential candidate to be doing shit like this. Hugs. Scottie
Unlike the other major corporations that have caved to Starbuck, Toyota – so far at least – has not committed to any changes regarding LGBTQ policies.
Toyota distanced itself from some of its LGBTQ initiatives and said it doesn’t have a quota system to boost supplier diversity, after a social media attack from an anti-DEI activist https://t.co/n00mgSkow3
Kemp is running against Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whom he lost to by 1.6 points in 2022.
He last appeared here when he declared that he would be keeping a $8600 donation from a Capitol rioter facing felony assault charges.
We first heard from Kent in 2022 when he gave an interview to a white nationalist Nazi podcaster.
The clip below is cued up.
I am posting the next one because it is something Musk needs to be called out for. All these corporate media free press published all the info they got from Russia hacking about Hillary Clinton, and Musk pushed the “Twitter Files” fake scandal claiming that liberals suppress speech they do not like. The fact is the right are the ones doing it. Hugs. Scottie
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. What self-described free speech absolutist and purveyor of far-right disinformation, Elon Musk, is telling the world with his suspension of reporter Ken Klippenstein is this: Klippenstein's posting of the "JD Vance Dossier" is a more egregious offense than a…
This is totally illegal. It is voting interference that tRump keep claiming the democrats are doing. Yet we see which party is purging voter rolls, doing over the top gerrymandering to make sure only they can win, restricting early voting, restricting mail in ballots, making voting in person harder with aggressive poll watchers challenging any person of color who goes to vote. This man doesn’t like drop boxes and even though the supreme court of the state made it legal he just decided to steal the box before it could be locked down. Even though the elections supervisor’s office is the one with the authority to approve their use and had done so. Another republican who thinks the laws and rules do not apply to them. This is such preformative for the camera / clicks action. Notice how he dressed up for it. Also note he is holding the box hostage in his office. Plus no one had put ballots in it because it was closed and locked and due to be locked down that very morning. Hugs. Scottie
A years-long fight over voting rules in the swing state of Wisconsin sparked a criminal investigation this week after a mayor — wearing a hard hat and Department of Public Works jacket — carted off a ballot drop box the city clerk was about to make available to voters.
The mayor, who was elected in the spring with the help of the Republican Party, said he moved the drop box to his office Sunday because he believed the city council should decide whether the city should use it.
The Wausau drop box was placed outside of city hall late last week, and the clerk planned to have it secured to the ground so that it could be used starting Monday, according to city officials. It was locked, and voters could not place ballots inside while it was awaiting installation, City Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde said.
City Council President Lisa Rasmussen had sharp words for the mayor and is now asking for a public apology. She also suggested Diny could face significant consequences for his actions and said she is not aware of “issues” that would explain the removal.
“I have huge concerns about this behavior, as there is no place for elected officials to manage, alter or tamper with drop boxes, whether they agree with their use or not,” Rasmussen told Wausau Pilot.
“I have voiced my concerns to the mayor about his conduct, and requested he return the box and issue a public apology to the clerk and the community, as his actions violate the public trust and likely also the law.”
We’re going to see a lot more of this.
This is wild. In Wausau, the clerk decided to use drop boxes. Then the mayor, sporting a Department of Public Works vest, got caught on video carting the drop box inside to his office, *after the city attorney said he didn’t have the right to move it*https://t.co/ys5oTEhHCF
They don’t even hide the hatred of fellow citizens and the blatant voter suppression anymore, they make a public spectacle out of it. Makes me really hate people.My sister is one of those people and we haven’t spoken since she first cast her vote for Trump and then in the same breath told me she voted for gay marriage in our state (MN) as if it was a get out jail free card and that I should be appeased since she gave me a crumb.
I have never understood the concern about drop boxes at all. If voters don’t use a ballot drop box, they will just use a postal mail box which is no more or less secure. Why do they think (without evidence) that you can “stuff” a drop box but couldn’t also “stuff” a mail box? They are crazy. I think they just hope that with a mail box, Louis DeJoy can fck up the delivery and make them late
In the flurry of post-debate spin and endorsements you may have missed what is, to my eye, one of the most disgusting things a man has ever said to a woman.
Despite a dominant performance by Vice President Harris followed by the ringing endorsement of Taylor Swift to her 283 million Instagram followers, we were quickly reminded that misogyny will always try to win the day. Elon Musk, a scumbag who needs no introduction, took to his cesspool of a platform in the moments following Swift’s post in an attempt to put her in her place.
(The tweet embed code doesn’t work here; I’m not on Twitter, so I can’t do much. You can see it on Marisa’s page, linked below, or I transcribed it; it is from Mr. Musk, who says, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life” )
Understanding these 17 words requires a bit of context which I’m loath to repeat but feel duty-bound to explain. (Swift has not made any public comment regarding the tweet so far.)
First, let’s look at Swift’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz campaign. After explaining her process of researching and watching the presidential debate, she wrote:
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.
She then reminded people to register to vote and to vote early if possible, providing links to resources in her Instagram story. And she signed it “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.” This was, of course, a reference to Trump’s veep candidate JD Vance saying the Democratic party is run by these sorts of women—meaning they couldn’t possibly care about the future of [white] children in this country.
Swift’s endorsement was a seminal moment in the too-close-for-comfort-and-sanity race between Harris and Trump, and one many have been breathlessly waiting for. While a Swift endorsement doesn’t mean everything, it certainly means something to a lot of people: In the 24 hours following her post, 406,000 people had visited Vote.gov via Swift’s custom link.
Now let’s break down Musk’s disgusting tweet piece by piece:
“Fine Taylor”
Right off the bat, I’m pissed. The Taylor in question is obviously Swift, arguably the most famous celebrity in the world. She’s an artist, a brand and an economy all at once. I may not be a Swiftie but I’ll be damned if the most divorced man of all time doesn’t show her a little respect. You’re not on a first name basis with her, you creep. She does not know you. But we’ll get back to that later.
“you win”
Winning implies that Swift willingly entered into some sort of bet or game with Musk, one in which he’s been forced to concede. As far as we know, Swift and Musk have never communicated in any capacity. In fact, as one Twitter user pointed out, Musk has replied to her a number of times over the years to no avail. Nevertheless, he persisted.
“I will give you a child”
This is where things get really dark. As established in the first two points, these two people do not know each other. Yet Musk is offering to impregnate Swift which, again, is not something she has ever expressed wanting. In fact, impregnating someone against their will is a heinous crime.
Musk has long shown that the rules don’t apply to him, and so far he’s right. From tanking the value of every company he’s touched to saying heinous things about immigrants, he remains a free man and a billionaire with no consequences to speak of. He’s the father of at least 12 children with at least three women, one of whom is an executive at Neuralink, his company that creates chips to be implanted in the brains of humans.
(There is a tweet here on the page; the embed code doesn’t work. See below, or here it is transcribed. “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” )
He quite literally thinks spreading his seed will save humanity, and Musk thinks he’d be doing Swift a favor—saving her life and giving it meaning, even!—by getting her pregnant. For any man to presume such a thing is vile; for a deadbeat dad with a white supremacy problem, it’s unconscionable.
“and guard your cats with my life”
As if being a predatory misogynist wasn’t enough, Musk decided to throw in some casual racism which also served as a callback to one of Trump’s most unhinged moments in the debate. Trump, echoing claims first trumpeted by Vance, furthered the total and complete lie that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating white people’s pets. It started with an accident last year wherein a Haitian migrant drove into a school bus and killed an 11-year-old white boy, sparking a racist backlash against the migrant community that has rapidly grown in Springfield since 2020. The boy’s parents have told Trump and Vance to stop using their son to spread “incessant hate.”
In Musk’s telling, not only does Swift need to be impregnated to fight against a non-existent population crisis, but her beloved pet cats need protection from the non-existent cat-hungry migrants.
Dave Rubin, a far-right media personality who works for Tenet Media (the company that it was revealed unwittingly worked for the Russian government) managed to somehow take Musk’s threat a step further.
(The tweet embed code doesn’t work. It’s awful, but transcribed, it says, “Dave Rubin asks Taylor Swift to reconsider her endorsement: ‘Taylor Swift, you are a young pretty girl, do you know what the gang members from Venezuela do to young pretty girls? It ain’t pretty!'”. Or, go to Marisa’s page to read; it’s all there.)
The mention of Venezuela was a reference to another anti-immigrant remark Trump made during the debate. Here Rubin deftly combines racism with a rape fantasy, though a different one than Musk had in mind. These are the minds of deeply troubled men.
Following Musk’s post, his estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson bravely posted on Threads about it.
Wilson has recently started speaking out against her father who claimed his child was, in his view, “dead, killed by the woke mind virus,” because she’s transgender. In her first-ever public interview, Wilson told NBC News of Musk in late July, “He was cold. He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”
That narcissism reared its ugly head this week, making even his most fervent supporters uneasy.
While far right zealots have the luxury of laughing off Trump, Vance and Musk’s cruelty, the migrant community in Springfield remains at active risk. On Thursday multiple city buildings and schools were forced to shut down after receiving a bomb threat. The Haitian Times reports that some families have been afraid to send their kids to school since they became caught in the racist crosshairs, with cars being vandalized and Haitian residents considering moving elsewhere. This is all despite the fact that, as a PBS Newshour report demonstrated, Springfield’s businesses are thriving thanks to the town’s newest residents.
Meanwhile, the childless cat (and dog) ladies are assembling: From Swift to Stevie Nicks, Linda Rondsadt and Aubrey Plaza, famous women are using their platforms to tell the wannabe dictators of the Republican ticket that they have no control over us or our bodies. Not now, not ever.
And in the coming days as conservatives continue to direct hate at immigrants in Springfield and beyond, it’s incumbent upon those with large followings to stand in solidarity with them—because we’re all fighting the same monsters.
As a reminder, Trump has publicly floated Loomer to be his next White House press secretary and he has reposted hundreds of her tweets on Truth Social.
Molson Coors joins Ford, Harley Davidson, Lowes, Tractor Supply, John Deere, and the maker of Jack Daniel’s in retreating from diversity and pro-LGBTQ programs.
Coors beer, once the subject of a nationwide boycott by gay bars over its founder’s anti-LGBTQ stance, has been prominent at Pride events in recent years. Last year, for example, Coors Light was the main sponsor of Denver Pride despite attacks by the cult.
In 2015, when the company was called MillerCoors, its chairman and then-US Senate candidate Pete Coors, dropped out of a speaking gig at the convention of Legatus, the ex-gay and pro-ex-gay torture Catholic group, after widespread criticism.
The company’s current brands include Coors, Coors Light, Blue Moon, Icehouse, Miller, Miller Light, Keystone, Molson, and dozens of others.
Let’s hope 2024 will be the year that “both sides” fact-checking as a journalistic genre grows up.
The comically bad “fact-checking” that came out of the Democratic National Convention should be a wake-up call for anyone who cares about the truth.
Example: Kamala Harris received a “Mostly False” when she said that, through Project 2025, Donald Trump “plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.” Politifact explained that “Project 2025 doesn’t mention a ‘national anti-abortion coordinator.’ The document calls for a ‘pro-life politically appointed Senior Coordinator of the Office of Women, Children, and Families.’”
That’s like saying it’s untrue to suggest a diner serves ketchup when it merely offers catsup.
Trump’s Firehose of Falsehoods
These attempts to parse “tomato” from “tomah-to” might make some sense in a reality that didn’t include Donald Trump, whose complete rejection of the truth thrives when the press falls into the trap of suggesting “both sides” as equally flawed. The perennial GOP nominee lies about everything from hurricane warnings to his historically bad jobs record.
Even the idea that Trump can be fact-checked helps Trump. It falsely suggests there are times when he might be constrained by the truth when he, like all authoritarians, is “cognitively irresponsible,” says rhetoric scholar Jennifer Mercieca. He uses his words almost solely to reject the idea that he’s accountable to anyone or democracy itself.
The combination of Trump’s firehose of falsehoods and the media’s agenda to appear even-handed has always yielded toxic slop. But “fact checkers’” do accidentally reveal two truths:
As Dr. George Lakoff has explained for years, accepting someone else’s framing spreads that framing, even if you’re debunking it.
The whole fact-check genre could be called “Don’t Think of this Thing I Think is Wrong.” Whether it’s Richard Nixon saying, “I am not a crook,” or the AP telling us that JD Vance didn’t technically mate with furniture, the idea you’re trying to dispel is spread far more than it can ever be debunked. A fact check tends to be the opposite of a truth sandwich, which Dr. Lakoff proposed to minimize the spread of blatant lies.
The press still has no idea how to treat Trump, one of the worst liars in American history.
Many of the worst fact checks – like the suggestion Trump doesn’t want to repeal Obamacare – rely on Trump’s constant contradictions of himself, often in the same sentence. This loads in the presumption that Trump uses language the way typical politicians do instead of as a super salesman/demagogue.
Lakoff categorized Trump’s tweets to make it easier to analyze Trump’s linguistic vandalism:
Trump is also an expert in paralipsis, which Mercieca describes as his way of asserting something without taking responsibility for saying it himself. It’s his game of “I’m not saying/I’m just saying.” He does this by retweeting particular noxious notions or images he’s trying to spread or framing his assertions with “many people are saying.” It’s a repulsive hack that renders fact-checks useless.
Fact checks in the Trump era have begun to operate a bit like the “Community Notes” scam on Elon Musk’s version of Twitter. Sure, you occasionally get a gem that exposes an obvious scam – like a faked Trump rally photo or a Republican bragging about an infrastructure program he opposed. But think about where those notes don’t appear. They’re never on Elon’s tweets, which are saturated with right-wing propaganda, AI-generated disinformation, and neo-Nazi conspiracy theorizing. So, in essence, they’re vouching for every lie he spreads.
Can Fact Checks be fixed?
Donald Trump depends on journalism’s failed conventions to continue to normalize his unprecedented attack on American freedoms. That’s why editors must pursue multiple strategies to ensure they don’t mislead anyone into thinking Trump’s dishonesty is comparable to his opponent’s or any relevant American political figure.
We need information to debunk lies, yet there should be a greater sense of responsibility when dealing with blatant untruths. That starts with recognizing that lies change brains, even when debunked. They are like toxic spilloff or nuclear waste that must be tracked, contained and cleaned up as much as possible. The best way to do that is to lead with the truth whenever possible, the exact thing Trump is trying to bury with his lies.
Readers also need a sense of Trump’s lies’ unprecedented scope, recurrence and purpose. One strategy is to annotate a typical rally speech with facts and reality checks. Then, compare it to a typical Harris speech. Another is to track his most-repeated lies. And, as Dr. Lakoff has suggested for decades, journalists should also analyze the rhetoric’s frames to give voters a sense of the information war being waged for their brains.
The problem with all of these strategies is that the press would be required to do something that they seem to do their best to avoid: Call out Trump’s lies directly. The best we can hope for is a “falsely claims” in a headline or two, which is better than nothing.
Fact checkers should stop pretending they are the be-all and end-all of determining a fact’s value. Since their jobs do not seem to depend on their reputations or track records, they should bring in experts whose careers depend on accuracy to take on Trump’s most repeated lies.
Publications that care about the truth need to show they understand the seriousness of this moment. Democracy and journalism face an unprecedented attack from Trump and MAGA that threatens the future of these two pillars of a free society.
Cowering to Trump will, at best, buy you more opportunities to cower to Trump, who will never be satisfied – not until he can imprison anyone who displeases him by suggesting he alone isn’t in charge of deciding what is true.
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