Jim Nolte was one of Breitbart's first hires, and made his bones writing anti-media screeds defending Trump’s most indefensible comments. He has credibility with and insight into the right. So it's interesting how he's trying to get his readers vaccinated. mediamatters.org/coronavirus-co…
What Nolte is telling his readers is that the "organized left," including Biden, is using "reverse psychology," pushing Trumpists to get vaccinated knowing that that will make them refuse to do it.
Their aim is for more Trumpists to die so it's easier for Dems to win elections.
This is wrong, and crazy. But it's based on what I think is a pretty good read on the Trump base -- they're so brain-poisoned by reflexive partisanship and conspiracy theories that they'll refuse lifesaving meds if they think that will allow them to own the libs.
Nolte concocted his new pro-vax conspiracy theory within those parameters. He says the left has deceived the right into thinking they can own libs by not taking the vaccine, when REALLY they can own the libs by taking it.
Nolte's been part of the right-wing media for about as long as I've written about it. And we seem to have the same read on the right as consumed by conspiratorial thinking and pathological hatred of the left.
Where we differ is he normally thinks that's a good thing.
I’d argue instead that these are the tragic but foreseeable fruits of Nolte and a generation of others in right-wing media relentlessly stoking rage and paranoia on the right.
But frankly, while Nolte's argument is toxic and conspiracy minded, he is at least trying. We've largely seen center-right commentators who lack credibility with Trumpists promoting vaccines, while whose with more sway over that audience undermine those efforts.
Nolte’s argument is wrong, but at least he’s trying. And because it is wrong, I hope his effort succeeds.
1. A Fox host told Trump over lunch two weeks ago that Iran was days from a nuke, which he apparently believed over the denials of the former Fox contributor he made director of national intelligence.
2. Then Trump woke up on Friday and saw wall-to-wall positive coverage of Israeli strikes on Iran, and decided he wanted some credit.
3. Now the former Fox host Trump named Secretary of Defense has the U.S. military marshaling forces in the region while a different former Fox host has been in a scorched-earth fight with the first Fox host to capture Trump's attention and stop it.
1. I'm going to thread out the very odd sequence of events that led Fox News anchor John Robert, theoretically a "straight news" guy, to pretend the early hours of June 7 actually happened a day ago in order to avoid pointing out that Donald Trump was wrong about something.
2. A few hours ago at the White House, Trump was asked when he last spoke to CA Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump replied that they had spoked "a day ago."
Pirro stands out, even among the long list of shills and propagandists Fox employs, as a diehard Trump sycophant. In 2018, my late colleague Simon Maloy wrote that her "advocacy for the president is so aggressive that it often borders on insane -- some of her commentary would be at home in an authoritarian state media apparatus." mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/…
Here's a thread of notes on Pete Hegseth, the Fox & Friends weekend co-host that Donald Trump is trying to make Defense Secretary, overseeing the U.S. military, massive Pentagon budget and bureaucracy, and sixth in line to the presidency.
Hegseth is an extreme hawk who has backed attacks on Iranian infrastructure and cultural sites and even floated a “preemptive strike” against North Korea. mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/t…
Hegseth has complained that military rules of engagement in combat zones are “a huge problem” and were “written for us to lose.” He's backed that up by successfully lobbying Trump to give clemency to alleged and convicted U.S. war criminals. mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/t…
Takeaway from the truck stunt is Trump won’t say anything bad about the supporter who spoke at his rally and called PR garbage, and indeed doesn’t seem able to even denounce the comment.
He’s just giving those influential Puerto Ricans who have been expressing outrage about the comments all week new material to post about, insane self-own.
Trumpy billionaires are hoping to ride a wave of grievance into power, then use it to cut their own taxes and demolish their competitors.
In exchange for his support, Trump is offering Elon Musk the power to, in Musk's own telling, destroy Tesla's domestic competitors.
The result would reverse the domestic manufacturing renaissance spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act, eliminating good jobs in Republican parts of the country.