Stunning...

[MrScorpio]

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. A great definition of IRONY.....

Boggles the mind how dumb Republicans are.

[Wednesdays]

7. Not dumb at all...

It's playing out exactly how they want. And the M$M is perfectly willing to go along with their narrative.

[unitedwethrive]

17. As usual. They as so good at hand wringing and worried press conferences that

wherever they push the media, the media follows. Historically, look at "death panels" and "Benghazi" and "Hillary's emails" -- all things that were easily disproven, yet covered for months (and years) by the media.

[Hortensis]

35. They're heavily infiltrated, but I read that the advent

of the 24/7 news cycle was a significant factor in corrupting the media also. Political media had to have dramatic "news" to fill the time and keep people tuning in, and right wing political operations quickly realized they were naturals for filling the need for entertainment news.

Judicial Watch alone would design a "scandal" and as part of executing it write up many FIOA requests and string out their submission over the life of the scandal. Each submission was a guilty-to-never-be-proven-innocent charge (breaking news!), promptly claim the requests were being blocked (news update!), speculate about why and what was being hidden (in-depth report on the scandal!) and so on for each.

The need to have something to talk about was a hook that quickly got the reporters emotionally invested in believing what they had become part of was true, or at least morally justified. Another group who like their jobs way too much for the nation's good.

Btw, for anyone who leaps to wonder why the Democrats didn't do this, today as always, if it bleeds it leads. But we just don't do bloody swiftboating operations; that's a fundamental difference between us and them. And media and audiences trained to need strife and drama just aren't interested in things those in government are supposed to be doing.

[certainot]

39. talk radio leads the news cycle and the democrats and left let it. that's the only reason judicial

watch, for instance, has been so successful pushing their cases. or most any of this crap the last 30 years. now we're letting them beat the crap out of AOC and schiff and every other dem who sticks their neck out.

if the gop/trump/putin would pay $1000/hr for radio infomercials x 15 hrs/day x 1200 stations it's worth about $5 BIL/yr. it's beene invisible to liberals for 30 years but now artificial intelligence makes it possible to digitize it and finally put it into the free speech spectrum.

limbaugh is pt man and has been leading the lying on the 'deep state' since inauguration setting this up, and democrats are going to go into another election cycle letting a few hundred ignorant liars decide who is and isn't too far left to be a dem party candidate.

most of this shit has resulted from the left ignoring 1500 coordinated radio station blasting the country all day long with corporate think tank-scripted bullshit, short circuiting democratic feedback and making national fact based discussion impossible.

democrats need offense. just a few hundred rw radio blowhards and the fox blockheads can sit back and attack all day for trump and generate hate calls and mail and threats, hiding behind producers and call screeners. they're taking free potshots at our favorite politicians all day and screaming about 'liberal media'

and then we blame our own for being ineffective.

all those rw radio stations and the pro teams and 88+ universities that broadcast sports on them can be protested and all those advertisers boycotted.

but artificial intelligence-enhanced transcription in the last couple of years changed everything. it makes it possible to digitize, read, and monitor talk radio finally, with little listening required. it means advertisers can be listed and associated directly with the hate and lies. it will be stoprush x 100and the ad industry will do the work - it just has to get started

it wouldn't take much activism before the ad industry started having to ask advertisers if they actually support trump and global warming denial to avoid a lot of their clients potentially getting negative publicity. the monopoly would fall apart as stations began dropping rw talk for music and sports talk to keep advertisers. some stations might try to offer balance.

without their talk radio advantage, the only real advantage they have, they're screwed.

by ignoring rw radio the cons have taken the country 20 points right and we end up blaming symptoms - like corporate media OTHER than invisible unreadable rw radio, money in politics and media monopolies that resulted from deregulation sold largely by rw radio, fox -which depends on rw radio to do the unchallenged repetition, and so on.

talk radio is the only real advantage the cons have and they would fall apart without it

[Hortensis]

40. No, all the bad things they do are NOT our fault for letting them.

We didn't ignore the market for RW radio. WE DON'T DO VICIOUS DISHONEST, CONSPIRACY THEORIST RW RADIO. Get it?

Hatemongering and the vicious lies sell big time on the right. But we have neither the vicious product nor the market for it.

The right owns all their evil deeds. Not us. They are half of America and we can't control them.

As for LW radio, talkers about exciting new road projects with new, longer-lived asphalts, or even people dying in Puerto Rico for lack of medical care, just can't entertain the way RW fearmongering and malice do. Even people in neglected, poor counties who want new roads that would make good jobs accessible just want to drive on them, not listen to talk from politicians, even excited, enthusiastic ones, about what they're planning.

Imo, people who blame us for everything they can, and do false equalizations for everything they can't blame us for, are a huge, huge part of what's wrong with America and the LW problem.

You can go to RW radio, and radical-left programs, Chuck Todd etc in the MSM, and find all the agreement you could ever want -- you'll feel reassuringly wise, reinforced and justified in spouting these anti-Democrat Kool-Aid beliefs. But you won't get it here from me.

[certainot]

42. your sister's a whore, your brother's a thief and your ideas are treasonous - is the mantra, and

they've been yelling it from every corner and stump in the country for 30 years about everything democratic/liberal. liberals stick their earbuds in and walk on by.

it's not about competing with hate and lies and bullshit and a protected 20-1 monopoly is not a representation of american market demand for that. and those few hundred think tank scripted liars are not 'political entertainers' enjoying free speech.

there's no more effective offense that democrats could do to the GOP and trump than start giving talk radio the attention it deserves

it's really easy for the city-living leaders of the dem party and progressive orgs who waste our donations and effort by ignoring that messaging domination kicking our ass every day. then they blame symptoms of all that coordinated repetition, like money, corruption, immigration, hacking, social media, voter suppression, etc

ignoring talk radio it makes it easy to sell the bothsiderism because it's constantly legitimizing the lying fake bullshit side with pure unchallenged repetition and high volume buzz, enabling lazy talking heads and politicians that need a made-to-order constituency to point to to legitimize their pro corporate corruption money game.

we let limbaugh call christine "ballsey" ford a liar and paid dem operative for 3 weeks straight and the result was the same as when we let him do similar to anita hill. and we're still blaming biden for thinking the callers on the phones screaming at his staff about high tech lynchings and paid democrat operatives were a legitimate part of his constituency, just like claire mccaskill thought invading aliens was actually an issue instead of used as a tool the last 2 decades to sell voter suppression legislation

trump, like bush, would never have gotten close to the white house without their unchallenged talk radio repetition.

ignoring talk radio continues to be the biggest political mistake in history

[Hortensis]

43. No, 'cause can't force people to listen. It's the INTERNET

above all, even above cable TV. And please note the kind of political mesages that most people, who are free to read anything, are choosing.

We thought the internet was going to be a great force for freedom and democracy. The 1990s saw the birth of many. It still can be. But the new internet was turned into a weapon to destroy democracies and establish control of vast populations.

Fascism is back. Blame the Internet.
It’s polarizing our politics, making us ignore inconvenient facts and impeding real activism.

According to Freedom House, every year since 2005 has seen a retreat in democracy and an advance of authoritarianism. The year 2017, when the Internet reached more than half the world’s population, was marked by Freedom House as particularly disastrous. Young people who came of age with the Internet care less about democracy and are more sympathetic to authoritarianism than any other generation.

It’s also telling that the Internet has become a weapon of choice for those who wish to spread authoritarianism. Russia’s president and its leading propagandist both cite a fascist philosopher who believed that factuality was meaningless. ...

We think of computers as “ours” and imagine that we are the rational ones, using computers as tools. For many of us, much of the time, this may be a disastrously self-flattering perspective. When we run a search or read a feed, we are encountering instead an entity that has run algorithms about our preferences and which presents a version of reality that suits us. ...

To be sure, Fascism 2.0 differs from the original. Traditional fascists wanted to conquer both territories and selves; the Internet will settle for your soul. The racist oligarchies that are emerging behind the Internet today want you on the couch, outraged or elated, it doesn’t matter which, so long as you are dissipated at the end of the day. They want society to be polarized, believing in virtual enemies that are inside the gate, rather than actually marching or acting in the physical world. Polarization directs Americans at other Americans, or rather at the Internet caricatures of other Americans, rather than at fundamental problems such as wealth inequality or foreign interference in democratic elections. The Internet creates a sense of “us and them” inside a country, and an experience that feels like politics but involves no actual policy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/21/fascism-is-back-blame-the-internet/?utm_term=.8dc82d791485

And with this in mind, consider how innocent Certainot turned a discussion about mass deception about Trump-Russia by the right wing into an indictment of Democrats. The right is flooding the nation with twists on every subject to indict Democrats, and algorithms make sure not just Certainot but all of us are served. But those proven more vulnerable draw, even create, special service designed to turn them into Paulas. No one can claim she isn't aware, civically involved and aware, reading and educating herself, paying attention.

[certainot]

44. we're talking about the USA, where internet is the most democratic form of media-when you can get it

i'll continue to collectively blame the democratic party, media, and dem friendly organizations for this disaster because they have the resources and organization to do something- they've been wasting our time and donations getting their asses kicked by a few hundred think tank scripted assholes on the radio and analyzing politics cause and affect as if studying fish without water - they still don't even poll trump supporters for talk radio! then they blame the symptoms.

artificial intelligence NOW makes it possible for our organizations to force the democratization of political talk radio within months - if they tried. they need to stop blaming symptoms and destroy the cause.

you may have a point about internet in other countries but years ago i heard limbaugh bragging how other countries were using the US/limbaugh template with talk radio - remember rwanda?

in serious emergencies the internet goes down but the radio keeps going strong - and most of the loudest radio stations in the US are rw talk radio

thanks to the left's ignorance of talk radio net neutrality's been taking the same beating that was used to push media consolidation in the 90s. that was basically before internet and fox, when 1500 coordinated radio stations following limbaugh's lead repeated for years that corporations are people, money is free speech, and govt regulation would increase prices and shut down rw media. the early 90s was also when the cons won the house for the first time in 40 years, still worsening record partisanship started, and ALEC, after years of trying finally started winning. years BEFORE fox and the modern internet. the cons even gave limbaugh an honorary seat in the house to thank him.

in 40 states with 80 senators there are still no free easy alternatives for politics when driving working and doing chores. that's something a lot of city dwellers don't understand, but most liberals everywhere believe the free speech market demand so ignore it bullshit.

most of the successful memes sold through social media to help trump piggybacked years of talk radio repetition. and that's probably why sam nunberg "listened to 1000 of hours of talk radio" in 2014 for trump - "operation trump" NYMagazine 4/3/16 by gabriel sherman. a russian troll told wash post that they got "a list of topics to write about" - they'd be stupid not to piggyback years of radio repetition, and coordinate it directly with the trump team.


from republiconradio.org which you might want to read:

Here’s what the US Army Psyops Manual says about using radio for propaganda (Psychological Operations Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures 12/2003 - available online):

Repetition is necessary for oral learning; therefore, key themes, phrases, or slogans should be repeated to ensure the TA (target audience) gets the desired message.

Talk radio is much better than TV, print, and internet for doing just that.

According to the PSYOPS manual, advantages of radio include:

Emotional Power: A skilled radio announcer can exert tremendous influence on the listener simply with pitch, resonance, inflection, or timing. and The emotional tone conveyed by the voice may influence the listener more than the logic of arguments.

Or, as Limbaugh would call it, "talent on loan from god".

Wide coverage: Radio programs can reach members of large and varied audiences simultaneously. and Since radio can reach mass TAs quickly, radio is useful for all types of PSYOPs.

Speed: Radio programs can be quickly prepared for broadcast. Speed is important when attempting to capitalize on targets of opportunity.

Perfect for spinning and distorting breaking news.

Ease of perception: Radio requires little or no effort to visualize the radio message. Illiteracy does not prevent the listener from forming his individual image as he listens

the kremlin's probably been using talk radio for at least a decade.

Does Putin have kompromat on Limbaugh, a friend and neighbor of Trump's?

Is there any payola with Russian laundered money going on? Didn’t Hannity’s relationship with Cohen involve real estate?

Breitbart got started in about 2007, about the time Limbaugh started breaking with the ‘establishment’ GOP. Did the Kremlin take over the Breitbart blog as it started competing with MIC- friendly Drudge as a conduit to talk radio?

From NYMagazine 4/3/16 by Gabriel Sherman:

Throughout 2014, the three (Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, and Sam Nunberg) fed Trump strategy memos and political intelligence.

“I listened to thousands of hours of talk radio, and he was getting reports from me,” Nunberg recalled.
What those reports said was that the GOP base was frothing over a handful of issues including immigration, Obamacare, and Common Core. While Jeb Bush talked about crossing the border as an “act of love,” Trump was thinking about how high to build his wall. “We either have borders or we don’t,” Trump told the faithful who flocked to the annual CPAC conference in 2014.

2008 Palin

Manafort was McCain campaign cochair. McCain was thinking about Pawlenty and even Lieberman. Limbaugh wouldn’t support McCain, a looming disaster for the GOP convention. Minutes before the start of the Limbaugh show on the Friday before the GOP convention McCain publicly chose Palin and Limbaugh used the announcement to finally support McCain. Did he have prior knowledge of it? At that time Alaska Gov Palin was being courted by Russians re oil and gas.

Tea Party

The Koch brothers gave them bus passes but talk radio and Fox played a big part giving them talking points, publicizing them, and coordinating them. Did the Kremlin use talk radio to help coordinate Tea Party and Republican obstruction and attacks during the Obama administration?

2009 Climategate from Russian-hacked emails

In 2009 Limbaugh started the “Climategate” hoax based on Russian-hacked emails, a development timed to sabotage Obama at the Copenhagen climate talks. Every year we delay on global warming is worth billions to Putin, not just the Kochs.

2011 Defaulting on the Debt

In 2011 Limbaugh spent 2 months trying to get Republicans to force the US to default, something Putin would enjoy more that any US billionaire.

2012 Benghazi

Many of the Trump/Russian-related material used in trolling re Hillary Clinton came out of the 2012 Benghazi ‘embassy’ attack. Talk radio did the heavy lifting repetition re emails, etc. that ties into all this crap we’re dealing with now.

One of the lies talk radio spread required head of PR for the US marines to make a public rebuttal. It was all over national and local talk radio — that Obama and Clinton had prohibited US marines guarding US embassies from carrying live ammo. They were basically encouraging attacks on US embassies. Did that come from the Drudge report, Breitbart, or the Russians?

The entire Hillary email issue related to her using a private server — she knew republicans would try to get her private emails and leak selected items to 1500 radio stations.

Kremlin callers?

Calls to national talkers can reach millions.

Since Republican radio has been shown to use paid callers, why not Kremlin callers instead of Heritage Foundation callers? Automated call screening software might be programmed to advance calls from GOP think tanks. That might be easy to hack but it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that a Russian company makes good call screening software at a great price…..

Callers play an important part in keeping local talk radio hosts in line with Limbaugh, prompting topics, and suggesting lies, scandals, and violence.

Kremlin emailers?

When the shutdown started I heard the local blowhard read an email from a ‘listener’ who cheered the shutdown, saying government workers were lazy scammers.

How many other local blowhards in states all over the country read the same email, and did it come from the White House, a GOP think tank, or maybe even the Kremlin?

That is the problem of ignoring RW radio.

NOW

The groundwork attack on the “deep state” has already been laid down in the base and started right after inauguration. The base has been inoculated and supplied with ammunition for denial, and the jury pools are being polluted. Teabag Republicans like Rep Jim Jordan continue to repeat the same talking points. The response to the lies should be “Well, that’s what Limbaugh has been saying for 2 years, but….”

The best way to erode Trump’s ability to intimidate GOP senators is to stop ignoring his most important weapon.

[Hortensis]

41. Btw, hatemongering emails are another big opportunity

Democrats "missed." No need to set up a radio station, just set up a circle of friends and start spewing out emails they'll open eagerly and pass on to all their friends. Get them viciously exciting or salacious enough, and one person's email can spread across the nation within a day.

But don't bother trying this with an "exciting" announcement from the Democrats about the contents of their bill to reform democracy and get money out of politics. Not unless you include an allegation that Pelosi rubbed her boobs on an aide's shoulder as she gave instructions. And you have to keep it up to become a node for the giant secret private networking phenomena that the media never mention but are hugely effective in spreading lies. Truth, not so much.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. Winston Churchill

1930s? Hell, today, if it's a really good one, it may have reached hundreds of millions around the planet in the first day. And if it's not smashed into oblivion by the truth within the first 20 minutes or so, it's accepted and posted to memory by most.

Get it?

[wiggs]

32. Not dumb. This is literally their definition of winning. nt

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[spanone]

3. No Shit. K&R...

[democratisphere]

4. There no fixing stupid.

[JHB]

5. Welcome to Iran-Contra, Mr. Tiedrich

This crap has been going on for a long time.

[DeminPennswoods]

10. He knows

Tiedrich is the founder of Smirkingchimp, famous for its montage of GW Bush and matching expressions of chimps.

[JHB]

24. 's cool

Sardonic facetiousness all around.

[flying_wahini]

38. I thought it was really Eric Clapton, for some reason.

Maybe the picture?

[DontBooVote]

6. This is what had me so worked up yesterday evening! It ALWAYS unfolds like this and we lose

every time and some (even here on DU) will not have it when someone expresses anger that our side is weak and allows this same process with every single thing.

Thank Merrick Garland as just one example.

[treestar]

11. What is your definition of "strong?"

How could Merrick Garland have been handled "strongly?"

[allgood33]

14. Obama could have said he rejects the advice and consent of the Senate and appointed him anyway.

That's what Trump would have done. He has just about done that with everything. Sometimes we need to take chance.

[LiberalLovinLug]

26. Yup. Appoint him and dare the GOP to remove him.

But at the same time, use the fricken bully pulpit you were given to use. With the oratory genius gifted to you. To defend yourself and make your case. Obama had an incredible power of persuasion, but he did not use it often enough. The line he drew on the 'public option' comes to mind. I would have liked him to at least make a sustained loud bold defense and reasoning for the public option, before it was quietly dropped. Take Joe Lieberman to task in public. I don't know, something more.

My gawd, though if that judicial blockage had happened the other way around? What was it, 9 or 10 months before Obama's term was up? They'd be screaming about it every single day relentlessly. Even if they would have removed him, it would have chipped away at their credibility. Republican strategists are masters of the cut of a thousand knives. And in the end, the Garland fiasco was framed as much a weakness by Democrats, as it was framed a bad thing to do by Republicans, however much deserved.

[MadDAsHell]

36. public option was a huge letdown and frankly damaged his legacy.

One of the few "this is more about re-election than doing the right thing" moments.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. Mother of all K&R's!!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[ecstatic]

9. I've cut back on watching MSM political news, and I feel

so much better--emotionally and physically.

[UTUSN]

12. This is ONE facet of SHITLER & his *MAFIA MOB* waging a war on this country.

[Hekate]

13. KnR

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Yup, people forget Comey and Mueller are RepubliCONS and like cons everywhere they will do what

The GOP wants in the end.

[yonder]

16. K&R

[Hortensis]

18. Well stated, but we know the MSM are infiltrated and compromised.

Reality is not what they report now any more than it was in 2016 when large numbers worked to defeat Democrats and elect republicans.

This is far from over, though, and we're far from helpless.

[BlueJac]

19. K&R

[nolabear]

20. Big K&R

[SWBTATTReg]

21. I love this!! Right to the point, a very good one too. NT

[G_j]

22. I'd love to see

Each of these points accompanied by a link to a source to really drive it home.

[Turbineguy]

23. That way they can get back to "her emails".

[pdsimdars]

25. Brilliant observation!

[OhNo-Really]

27. Articulation genius!

[FailureToCommunicate]

28. He IS really spot on so often!

[Evolve Dammit]

29. Excellent point; all true. And biased MSM just never calls it for what it is.

[Beartracks]

30. Yep. Why hasn't the MSM learned that when Republicans blow smoke...

... it doesn't mean there's a fire?

==============

[Cetacea]

31. K&R

[YOHABLO]

33. The Republican Party is a vile as it gets.

[Uncle Joe]

34. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread MrScorpio.

[Sherman A1]

37. When in doubt

Run in Circles, Scream & Shout.....

It's The GOP Mantra ...... Every Day!