Posts Tagged ‘fear-mongering’

The Feds Are Coming For Your Gas Stove!

January 18, 2023

The Feds Are Coming For Your Gas Stove!

Panic raced thorough Fox News like a white-hot flame: Big Government is coming for your gas stove! The simmering discontent on the MAGA menu boiled over after U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) member Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg the agency was conducting a review of gas stove safety after studies indicated their use constributes to indoor air pollution, and disease, including childhood asthma.

So the CSPS is studying the matter. Nobody is talking about a gas stove ban, and safety measures are as simple as turning on the exhaust fan when you cook, but that didn’t stop Fox fearmongers and their outraged audience. Gas-happy MAGAheads will continue to stoke stove-ban outrage until they cook up their next spurious rage-and-resentment recipe.

More:

“Republicans turn up the heat on a new culture war target: gas stoves,” Alaina Demopoulos, The Guardian

“How the humble gas stove became the latest flash point in the culture wars,” Maxine Joselow, Washington Post

“Republicans Mocked Over Outraged Claims Government ‘Coming for’ Gas Stoves,”Aila Slisco, Newsweek

“5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash,” Rebecca Leber, Vox

Related:

“How the Fossil Fuel Industry Convinced Americans to Love Gas Stoves,” Rebecca Leber, Mother Jones

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Photo (Toy stove with pots and pans, left on the sidewalk for young aspiring chefs) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht,NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Oval Office, Networks, and Truth Abused by the Politics of Fear

January 9, 2019

Oval Office, Networks, and Truth Abused by the Politics of Fear

President-for-now Donald Trump put in a prime-time Oval Office appearance on Tuesday in a futile effort to explain away his federal government shutdown, which locked-out 800,000 federal employees and denied services to millions of U.S. taxpayers. Stephen Miller’s sulfurous script was dark with fear-mongering, untruths, and racism, but the delivery by Mr. Trump, a former Reality TV personality, was unconvincing, even though the tale followed many of his long-time personal falsehoods. In a jaw-dropping display of audacity, Mr. Trump claimed he wanted to stop a humanitarian crisis on the Mexican border, a crisis he exacerbated by refusing entrance to asylum seekers and separating children from their families.

Fact-checkers and bookmakers are still busy counting up the president’s counterfactual assertions.

More:

“Trump tried to play a normal president on television. The result was very strange.” Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post

“Trump Gets Instant Fact-Check From Fox News’ Shepard Smith After Oval Office Speech,” Matt Wilstein, Daily Beast

“The cascade of false claims as Trump makes his case for a crisis on the US-Mexico border,” Marshall Cohen, Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands, David Shortell and Jeremy Diamond, CNN

“Trump Appeals for Wall, Citing Misleading Statistics of Crisis and Crime Along Border,” Peter Baker, New York Times

“The U.S. Doesn’t Have a Border Crisis. Trump’s Campaign Does.” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“The real crisis is that Trump has no idea what he’s doing,” Matthew Yglesias, Vox

“Gamblers Made $270,000 Betting That Trump Would Lie a Bunch in His Address,” River Donaghey, Vice

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Image (“Trump TV, after Dalton Avalos Ramirez”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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A steel barrier is America’s greatest defense.

January 8, 2019

A steel barrier is America's greatest defense.

President-for-now Donald Trump says the U.S. needs a steel barrier to protect it from a national crisis:

Mr. Trump wants $5.7 billion in tax dollars to build a 234-mile steel wall of unknown design, a sort of pig-iron-in-a-poke situation. A project like that could require as much 3 million tons of steel, according to industry sources. That must please all the former steel company execs and lobbyists in the Trump administration.

“I intend the call the heads of United States Steel and a couple of other of our great steel companies” said the president. “I will have them come up with a template or design of a beautiful steel product, which we now may use and use that as our barrier.”

Actually, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has some very effective steel barriers, and they’re quite compact. Mr. Trump should try one out, for size. Oh wait, that might be awkward. Federal prison guards aren’t being paid due to the president’s shutdown.

More:

“Trump Offers a ‘Steel Barrier,’ but Democrats Are Unmoved,” Michael Tackett and Catie Edmondson, New York Times

“Trump Sees Border Wall As Another Boost For U.S. Steel Industry,” Jim Zarroli, NPR News

“Most illegal immigration doesn’t come through the Mexican border where Trump wants to build his wall,”Carmin Chappell, CNBC

Related:

“Trump Was Never a Great Dealmaker. The Shutdown Proves It.” Timothy L. O’Brien, Bloomberg

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Image (“Beautiful American Steel”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Fraud Squad!

October 27, 2016

Fraud Squad! Starring Anders Holm, Minka Kelly, and Luis Guzman. Directed by Joss Whedon. Inspired by D.J. Trump. There’s no crime show like it.

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Un-American. Unconstitutional. Unacceptable.

December 9, 2015

Un-American. Unconstitutional. Unacceptable.
Making people from a minority group wear identity badges, registering them in a database and tracking themDenying sanctuary to refugees due to their faith traditions and returning them to deadly war zones. Closing houses of worship. Barring valid travelers from entering this country due solely to their religion.

That’s not America.

A man who grew up across the street from his German-American immigrant grandmother should know better. Even one who is an egocentric, bigoted, billionaire bully.

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Image (after a Leytonstone Tube Station passenger) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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In the USA, the Real Plague Is Fear-Mongering.

October 22, 2014

In the USA, the Real Plague Is Fear-Mongering.

The Ebola virus is deadly for those who catch it; i.e., most of them die. But it’s transmitted by contact with bodily fluids, so it’s not very contagious and spreads slowly. You’re very much more likely to catch and die from the Flu. Unlike the Flu, Ebola isn’t transmitted through the air, but that doesn’t stop American fear-mongers from poisoning the political and media atmosphere with Ebola panic:

“‘Fear-bola’ hits epidemic proportions,” Mel Robbins, CNN

‘Ebola Is Bringing Out The Worst In Cable News,” Joaquim Moreira Salles, Think Progress

“PBS science reporter: Fox’s Ebola coverage is ‘a level of ignorance we should not allow,'” David Edwards, Raw Story

“CBS Medical Correspondent Shuts Down Fear-Mongering On The Transmission Of Ebola,” Media Matters

“You’re more likely to die of a shark attack or bee sting than contract Ebola in the US,” German Lopez, Vox

“Some Fear Ebola Outbreak Could Make Nation Turn to Science,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

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EPA Drones Spy on American Farmers! Not.

June 18, 2012

EPA Drones Spy on American Farmers! Not.

The Environmental Protection Agency is using killer drone aircraft to spy on innocent farmers in America’s Heartland, according to the Daily Caller, Fox News, and Tea Party congressmen. “Send In The Drones: Obama Spies On America” screamed an Investor’s Business Daily editorial.

Just one thing. It isn’t true.

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Tea Party Vacation Bible School

July 12, 2011

Tea Party Vacation Bible School

Summer’s here, time for Vacation Bible School. This year, Evangelist and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R, MN- 6) will lead the classes (the Lord told her to, no doubt). Courses include:

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How Jan Brewer Won

November 3, 2010

How Jan Brewer Won

How Jan Brewer won

Four words: Sun City  sympathy vote.

  

 

Related:

“The GOP’s Senior Moment,” Andrew Romano, Newsweek.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Mice With Human Brains!

October 27, 2010

 Mice With Human Brains!

Christine O’Donnell, Delaware Republican Senate candidate, meat-eater, and recovering witch, is also a scientific expert. In 2007 she reported on genetic engineering on Fox News:

“American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.”

Where the heck did that come from? Michael Fumento presents this hypothesis:

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