I sometimes feel the same way about listening to right-wing talk radio the way I do about watching a Kardashian show: Sooner or later the mindlessness might be contagious.
Perhaps my ears might start to bleed. Or my brains begin to liquefy. Or maybe I’ll believe everything Alex Jones says.
That occurred to me as I listened to 45 minutes worthof Kevin Wall’s KXNT program on Tuesday as he talked to some crazy people and two candidates – they were often difficult to tell apart.
To distill: Harry Reid is evil, Cliven Bundy is a hero and you can pretty much say whatever you want, whether you are a pandering congressional candidate (Niger Innis), a buffoonish assemblywoman (Michele Fiore) or just a caller.
Innis said Reid was issuing a “veiled threat” when he said the BLM was not done with Bundyand claimed BLM agents were ready to unholster their weapons when he approached them in Bundyville. Fiore, always ready with an inane quip, said she wants to know which lawmakers sold the land to the feds and for how much (keen sense of history that) and pledged to stop every BLM roundup in the country.
Your ears hemorrhaging yet?
How appropriate that Wall’s show was celebrating the opening of a new Americans for Prosperity headquarters and broadcasting from there – the Kochs would be so proud. Or appalled, perhaps.
Wall seemed equally thrilled to be celebrating AFP (“We’ve got pizza!”) as he was being scornful of the Senate majority leader. “There is going to be a reckoning for Harry Reid,” he blustered at one point in response to an uninformed caller who said Reid is worth “over $50 million. Not quite. Oh, and he's "one of the biggest criminals around,” the caller averred. (Ironically, both the caller and Wall mentioned the $16,000 he gave to his granddaughterwhen it actually was twice that much.)
Innis, who broke bread with the Bundys, said he “loves how the liberals try to portray them as anarchists with a militia orientation.” And then he added, “I hope that Harry Reid is not going to follow through on that veiled threat he just made.”
When Wall then asked if he would vote to defund the BLM, Innis said, “Yes.”
Feel your brain turning to mush yet?
Before Fiore came on, a caller named Will told Wall that he wanted the National Education Association audited, that he would “never again” pay for public employee benefits and that he believed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) were unenforceable. “This is my country,” he declared.
Wall: “Will, why don’t you run for office?”
Will: “It’s so broken, men like me would probably be shot.”
Nah, we’d wait for the death panels, Will.
Then came the main attraction, the inimitable Assemblywoman Fiore, who has spoken of bringing guns to picket lines, of picketers getting bullets to the head and more statesmanlike acts. She has been up in Bundyville, saving cows’ lives and stirring up the armed faithful.
She also has no idea what she is talking about, which suits Wall just fine.
“I personally helped save a cow,” said the woman who personally didn’t seem to mind inciting violence among, you know, humans.
Fiore also told Wall that she is “calling her legal staff” because of how the BLM treated the animals: “My first order of business is to stop the BLM from any more roundups anywhere in the United States.”
Good luck with that.
After a nonsensical exchange with Wall about PETA (please don’t ask, lest your ears bleed more), the host wondered about who really owns Nevada land. That’s where Fiore really shone:
“My question is when did we sell it and for how much and which legislation and which session it was in and what legislators approve the sale of land? And which legislative session approved the sale of land?”
Great questions, assemblywoman, if you happen to be completely ignorant of history, as most reflexive Bundy supporters are without realizing he is an outlaw who thinks the federal government shouldn’t exist.
Lesson No. 1: There was no sale or session. It happened when Nevada became a state, a so-called Enabling Act. Yes, some people here don’t like that the feds own 85 percent or so of the land, and a task force is examining any options. (Nevada also lost the Sagebrush Rebellion in 1979.) That’s how it happened, assemblywoman. Try reading a history book instead of firing up the Oath Keepers.
Lesson No. 2: If you read the Nevada Constitution – try it, assemblywoman, since you swore an oath to defend it – perhaps this part might interest you:
Article 1, Sec. 2: Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States.All political power is inherent in the people[.] Government is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair[,] subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full power on the Federal Government to maintain and Perpetuate its existance [existence], and whensoever any portion of the States, or people thereof attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the Execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its Authority.
Not to worry, assemblywoman, Mr. Bundy apparently hasn’t read it either. Nor have the right-wing megaphonists like Wall, Sean Hannity and others. But those facts could get in the way of a good armed insurrection against the federal government, no?
My goodness. Give me Kim Kardashian any day of the week over this.
Perhaps my ears might start to bleed. Or my brains begin to liquefy. Or maybe I’ll believe everything Alex Jones says.
That occurred to me as I listened to 45 minutes worth of Kevin Wall’s KXNT program on Tuesday as he talked to some crazy people and two candidates – they were often difficult to tell apart.
To distill: Harry Reid is evil, Cliven Bundy is a hero and you can pretty much say whatever you want, whether you are a pandering congressional candidate (Niger Innis), a buffoonish assemblywoman (Michele Fiore) or just a caller.
Innis said Reid was issuing a “veiled threat” when he said the BLM was not done with Bundy and claimed BLM agents were ready to unholster their weapons when he approached them in Bundyville. Fiore, always ready with an inane quip, said she wants to know which lawmakers sold the land to the feds and for how much (keen sense of history that) and pledged to stop every BLM roundup in the country.
Your ears hemorrhaging yet?
How appropriate that Wall’s show was celebrating the opening of a new Americans for Prosperity headquarters and broadcasting from there – the Kochs would be so proud. Or appalled, perhaps.
Wall seemed equally thrilled to be celebrating AFP (“We’ve got pizza!”) as he was being scornful of the Senate majority leader. “There is going to be a reckoning for Harry Reid,” he blustered at one point in response to an uninformed caller who said Reid is worth “over $50 million. Not quite. Oh, and he's "one of the biggest criminals around,” the caller averred. (Ironically, both the caller and Wall mentioned the $16,000 he gave to his granddaughter when it actually was twice that much.)
Innis, who broke bread with the Bundys, said he “loves how the liberals try to portray them as anarchists with a militia orientation.” And then he added, “I hope that Harry Reid is not going to follow through on that veiled threat he just made.”
When Wall then asked if he would vote to defund the BLM, Innis said, “Yes.”
Feel your brain turning to mush yet?
Before Fiore came on, a caller named Will told Wall that he wanted the National Education Association audited, that he would “never again” pay for public employee benefits and that he believed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) were unenforceable. “This is my country,” he declared.
Wall: “Will, why don’t you run for office?”
Will: “It’s so broken, men like me would probably be shot.”
Nah, we’d wait for the death panels, Will.
Then came the main attraction, the inimitable Assemblywoman Fiore, who has spoken of bringing guns to picket lines, of picketers getting bullets to the head and more statesmanlike acts. She has been up in Bundyville, saving cows’ lives and stirring up the armed faithful.
She also has no idea what she is talking about, which suits Wall just fine.
“I personally helped save a cow,” said the woman who personally didn’t seem to mind inciting violence among, you know, humans.
Fiore also told Wall that she is “calling her legal staff” because of how the BLM treated the animals: “My first order of business is to stop the BLM from any more roundups anywhere in the United States.”
Good luck with that.
After a nonsensical exchange with Wall about PETA (please don’t ask, lest your ears bleed more), the host wondered about who really owns Nevada land. That’s where Fiore really shone:
“My question is when did we sell it and for how much and which legislation and which session it was in and what legislators approve the sale of land? And which legislative session approved the sale of land?”
Great questions, assemblywoman, if you happen to be completely ignorant of history, as most reflexive Bundy supporters are without realizing he is an outlaw who thinks the federal government shouldn’t exist.
Lesson No. 1: There was no sale or session. It happened when Nevada became a state, a so-called Enabling Act. Yes, some people here don’t like that the feds own 85 percent or so of the land, and a task force is examining any options. (Nevada also lost the Sagebrush Rebellion in 1979.) That’s how it happened, assemblywoman. Try reading a history book instead of firing up the Oath Keepers.
Lesson No. 2: If you read the Nevada Constitution – try it, assemblywoman, since you swore an oath to defend it – perhaps this part might interest you:
Article 1, Sec. 2: Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States. All political power is inherent in the people[.] Government is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair[,] subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full power on the Federal Government to maintain and Perpetuate its existance [existence], and whensoever any portion of the States, or people thereof attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the Execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its Authority.
Not to worry, assemblywoman, Mr. Bundy apparently hasn’t read it either. Nor have the right-wing megaphonists like Wall, Sean Hannity and others. But those facts could get in the way of a good armed insurrection against the federal government, no?
My goodness. Give me Kim Kardashian any day of the week over this.
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