The lies, if permitted to continue, will destroy America.

[kentuck]

They will destroy America for Republicans. They will destroy America for Democrats. There is no way to survive in a dual reality, especially when one is so blatantly untrue.

For personal political reasons, or whatever, there are those that choose to continue the "Big Lie" that the last election was stolen. Each and every day that it is pushed and promoted, it becomes more and more believable to those that wish for it to be true.

The bottom line is that the insurrection continues.

The sedition continues.

The attempted coup continues.

It would be foolish to ignore it.

[abqtommy]

1. History shows us that Fascism must be destroyed at the earliest opportunity because

after that it becomes very difficult and costly in many ways to do the job. It's already
late in the difficult stage so let's get to it!

[Funtatlaguy]

2. We won't do what is necessary to stop the lies.

We must change the current perceived definition of freedom of speech and media freedoms to lie with no consequences.
Americans don’t know how to do that without changing the Constitution and that will never happen.
The only hope is to kill the filibuster and push thru reforms like adding 4 new Senate seats with DC and PR becoming states and to add 3 more SCOTUS seats.
Otherwise, we will be doomed to GOP rule due to voter suppression.

[diverdownjt]

8. start by re-instating the fairness doctrine for broadcasters....

Unlawful to directly lie on any broadcast...punishable by real time for the CEO.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

10. THIS!

[RainCaster]

15. Punishment should include time off the air

Eventually losing your fcc license.

[mac2766]

18. I'd vote "yes" to that

[SheltieLover]

19. This!👆

[bdamomma]

29. I say

Yes to this. Fox noise is a main contributor, along with the other right wing outlets. They push the lies.

[live love laugh]

39. Fairness doctrine didn't make lying unlawful on any broadcast.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/10/4-reasons-corporate-media-refuses-talk-about-things-matter%3famp

The Fairness Doctrine required radio and TV stations... to “pay” for their use of the public airwaves (the property of We the People) with actual news. It was called “broadcasting in the public interest.”

... networks actually lost money on their news divisions, and those divisions operated entirely separately from the entertainment programming divisions of the networks.
CBS, ABC, and NBC had bureaus all around the world and employed an army of reporters. At the little radio station where I worked in Lansing, Michigan, in the 1970s (WITL), we had, as I recall, five people staffing the newsroom, and it was a firing offense if we were caught hanging out with the sales staff. While stations lost money on news, the payoff was the much larger sums they could earn with entertainment during the rest of the hour or day.

The Fairness Doctrine also encouraged a discussion of the issues of the day with the “balanced commentary” (probably not the official name; it’s what we called it in the ’70s) requirement. This did not say that if a station carried an hour of Limbaugh, they’d have to balance it with an hour of Hartmann. “Entertainment” programming (see Joe Pyne, William F. Buckley, etc., etc.) could have any tilt it wanted.

But when a station ran an editorial on the air that conveyed the opinion of the station’s owners, they then had to allow a member of the community to come on the air and present a balancing and different perspective. If this provision was still in the regulations, every time Sinclair Broadcast Group requires their local stations to air their “must-carry” right-wing editorials, they’d have to follow them with a left-wing perspective rebutting their points

[jaxexpat]

50. It was Joe Pyne and Bill Buckley which brought us "Crossfire" which begot Limbaugh

One of Limbaugh's attractions was that there was no crosstalk. Every single bigoted word was crystal clear, daring anyone to disagree. Crossfire, where both sides were supposedly given equal opportunity, invented the art of crosstalk wherein the arguments became meaningless as the words were lost.

And then FOX News brought all these dark little things, among others, together. It could never have happened if the Fairness Doctrine, in its infinite vagueness, had remained the rule of thumb on newscasting, not been abandoned in a flurry of righteous certainty that all we as a nation had to fear were those who doubted or questioned the current order.

[live love laugh]

51. Isn't the reason Fox is labeled as "entertainment" so that they circumvent the fairness requirement?

I think many RW media also do the same.

If the doctrine were reintroduced they might not have to adhere to it based on that designation.

[jaxexpat]

53. There is the Fox Network and then there is FOX News. Difference? I can't tell, I don't watch either.

[misanthrope]

63. Well said and thank you

The move of news from a loss leader to a profit-conscious arm was one of the most detrimental developments of the 20th century.

[DENVERPOPS]

55. We have "truth in lending" laws

We desparately need "Truth In Reporting" laws...............

Reagan obliterated the Fairness Doctrine and the right wing has been capitalizing on it ever since.

He also did away with the laws concerning limiting ownership of TV and Radio stations, and you see where that has gotten us.

Actually, the Reagan "Administration" is a falsehood. It was, in fact, the HWBush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/ administration. Exact same ones in the so called "WBush" administration..................of the last 40 years, those three individuals dominated and controlled the Federal Government.

Daddy Bush was THE COMMON THREAD thru the Republican administrations for the last 50 years. No one usually acknowledges that.......

He and his bestest of buddies Cheney/Rumsfeld/ et al.................

[LiberalLovinLug]

62. And you can't name your network a "news" network if you are 90% "opinion"

[Kid Berwyn]

3. If they're not prosecuted, they'll try again and again.

And when they succeed, they won’t give Democracy the same courtesy.

[kentuck]

40. If nothing else, it might divert their attention for awhile...

It is not enough to just arrest all those that stormed the Capitol on January 6th. They need to prosecute just a little higher up the chain.

[Kid Berwyn]

44. Agree totally. It would change the balance of power, however.

So many pukes in the House and enough in the Senate are guilty of insurrection that their removal would give Democrats super majorities. Liberal, progressive, positive legislation to make this a better nation would get passed. And we’d get rid of the NAZIs, klansmen and puppets of Putin.

For some reason, that bothers some people to the point of murder.

[Celerity]

4. +10000000000000000

[Harker]

5. The catalyst is one flawed man's lack of introspection

and unwillingness to admit failure.

Sad.

[onetexan]

7. That man has no moral compass nor a conscience

And its devastatingly unfortunate he is still able to manipulate & usurp simple minded ppl.

Big lies are nothing new. Remember mccarthyism in the 50s where many members of congress and influential people were hurt by it.

[Harker]

11. McCarthy and the Salem witch trials.

Sometimes it seems the big lies overwhelms the great truths, but they don't, really.

Just temporarily. We're in what I hope will be a brief spell of mass delusion holding sway.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. They are disruptors and should be shunned, fired, ostracized. Insanity is disconnection from reality

We must help them reach their destination - the Asylum.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. You're worried about lying? We live in the Age of QAnon, Trump, QE1-2-3-4, and bitcoin.

They are all connected. "Everything I want is happening, and everything is FREE!"

In my mind the only question is "How crazy will they go when the Depression happens?"

[Hortensis]

12. Well, our part is to tend our own minds, keep them rational, informed, decent.

Those at least nominally on our side are a substantial majority, after all. If we're strong and guard the gates to our own weaknesses, there can't be another 2016.

[gab13by13]

13. Kentuck is spot on,

Trump isn't the problem now. Trump lit the fuse. Trump got fascists, got racists, got Nazis elected, put them in the courts, they are in the military, in law enforcement, in the MSM.

Look at what states are doing. States are rigging elections. States are all but banning the right to protest. It is not certain that the Supreme Court will overturn these Constitutional abuses.

Drastic measures are needed. Democrats need to push for 4 more SC justices.

You are spot on Kentuck, the coup continues, but the end goal is the elimination of our democracy, the elimination of our Constitutional Republic.

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

[kentuck]

16. It is no time to be timid.

For sure.

[area51]

20. +1 n/t

[Ford_Prefect]

14. It is the literal extension of Trump's stochastic terrorism. It is part of a much larger plan.

We need to stop them. We also need to expose the people like Koch, Mercer and those still hidden in the shadows for the conniving thieves they are. They are the ones who have built and direct the machinery of the GOP leaders who now attack our Republic.

We need to take them down. We need to show how people like the late Sheldon Adelson have paid and directed others to tell and repeat the big lies. We need to expose the workings of the machine they built to do this with. We need to make clear the coordination and financial links between the Oath Keepers and other RW violent groups, and The Council For National Policy (CNP) along with Charles Koch and his late brother David. And let us not forget the illegal actions taken by the Republican Attorneys General Association to foment the Jan 6th uprising, and everything they have done since to dismantle Truth, Justice, and the American way of life.

[ewagner]

17. I agree for the most part....

What I am conflict upon is how pervasive "the lie" really is...

I think the number is actually small but the ability of believers in "the lie" to broadcast the lie so broadly is at the root of the problem. Even if they are a distinct minority, their willingness to .use....shall we say...."extrajudicial" means...like storming any capitol building, inflicting violence to achieve their goals, etc make them extremely dangerous.

The key is how the lie can be refuted and by whom...who on the right has enough credibility to stop the spread of the lie or kill it altogether.

You also cannot discount that there is a good chance that foreign actors are involved in spreading the lie and have to be exposed and stopped.

[kentuck]

21. I think all of your points are valid.

Somebody needs to buy the propaganda outlets, like FOX and OAN, or infiltrate them with people that can challenge the propaganda of those tools like Laura Ingraham or Tucker Carlson. I tend to think the lies must be challenged from "within".

Is Rupert Murdoch considered a foreign actor? Why cannot the government remove his citizenship and take away his license if he continues his dangerous propaganda? Is he covered by "freedom of speech"?

[Oneironaut]

22. Half the country would rather have Fascism than allow minorities to be equal.

Trump is a symptom of a larger issue. Segregation still exists, and it’s an unspoken rule that black people don’t belong in white neighborhoods. This unspoken rule is still enforced by the police.

More unspoken rules are that minorities don’t deserve money, political power, the same jobs, and the same education. White people try to guard “what’s ours” from minorities, and it’s enforced at a systemic level.

The ability white people have to enforce these rules is faltering. That’s why we’re freaking out. White people are turning to Fascism because we want to get that power back. We’re scared that our caste (which allows us to feel superior to the lower castes) is combining with the castes we perceive as inferior: (Racial minorities, LGBT, etc.). It might not be you in particular that feels this way, but too many white people do, at least at some level. From the moment we’re born, white people are taught that they are superior to others just because they were born white, even if subtly through cultural messaging.

I’m not sure what the answer is. I think the only thing we can do is keep pushing against Fascism, and integrate everyone as quickly as possible to get the growing pains over with. The chickens from our history of slavery and segregation are coming home to roost, and we have to deal with this now whether we like it or not.

[kentuck]

24. I agree.

[fwvinson]

23. There needs to be a way to bankrupt Fox News, and all the right wing bs channels.

Eliminate the Murdock family from this earth would be a good start.

[Funtatlaguy]

47. This.

[Kaleva]

25. If there is sedition and a coup going on, people here are pretty blah about it.

[kentuck]

26. People are sick of Trump.

It's a natural revulsion.

But, unfortunately, he remains a threat to our democracy.

[Kaleva]

41. I'd agree with you there.

Being out of office and banned from twitter, Trump is losing support as his followers move on.

But he can still cause problems.

[Chautauquas]

27. Explain to me please

how we stop people from telling lies?

[kentuck]

28. It's not just any "people"...

People have always lied.

But the people in power, elected by the masses, cannot be permitted to lie for political gain.

And neither can the propagandists that are licensed by our FCC.

The masses follow their lies.

[bdamomma]

37. well they

are getting money from telling the lies, and the ignorant masses are contributing to them.

[uponit7771]

61. We don't stop everybody just the major government asshole

[Pepsidog]

30. Fox must first be controlled-somehow-someway.

[kentuck]

33. They should not be treated as a legitmate news network.

Brianna Keillor is very good at calling them out. More networks should do it. "Freedom of Speech" does not include the right of foreign propagandists to knowingly lie to the American people. No network is perfect but most of them attempt to stay on the road while driving.

[Johnny2X2X]

31. It's getting worse with them,not better

The GOP is all in on the big lies and they're starting to implement laws in the states according to the big lies.

It's scary.

[kentuck]

34. I think you are right. It is getting worse.

They seem to be putting in place the laws that will permit them to steal future elections, thru their state legislatures.

And they are serious about it.

It was noted yesterday morning that the #1 issue in the polls for Republicans, in general, was "voter integrity" and to be able to "Stop the Steal". They have not slowed down. They have accelerated their efforts.

[Mysterian]

32. That's the $64,000 question

How far down the fascist rabbithole will the USA go?

Republicans want to throw away every liberty fought for by generations of Americans and create a dictatorship in the USA.

[gab13by13]

36. Yes.

The answer is yes.

When Barack Obama was elected president, Republican leaders met and formed a pact vowing to obstruct everything that Democrats propose. At the time I felt that strategy can't work because that strategy will hurt working class Republicans. I was wrong. I didn't account for the massive propaganda that ensued which demonized Democrats. Yes they used the tried and proven narrative of baby killers and "gonna take your guns." Republicans were successful in convincing their working class base that everything that Democrats did was wrong, was evil, was "Socialist," was communist. The propaganda worked. Republicans abandoned their agenda, their only agenda was holding on to power at whatever means possible. I know the propaganda worked, I live among the Trumpers in central Pa. and they have become irrational. I found that it is impossible for a rational person to have a debate with an irrational person. Trumpers will never change, not ever. When they proudly wear Tee shirts that say, "I'd rather be Russian than a Democrat that says it all.

The GQP base is a cult.

[bdamomma]

38. And the

Russians are protesting to end the rule of Putin, and irrational Americans want a dictatorship WTF.

[gab13by13]

42. Yes, the irony is deep.

A lot of the anti-Democratic propaganda is coming from Russia. Poor Hillary Clinton got run over by an avalanche of lies.

You aren't rational when you believe that Podesta and Hillary ran a pedophile ring from the basement of a pizza joint that doesn't have a basement.

The "Bido" propaganda is Russian.

[GoodRaisin]

68. As far as the Fox News sponsorship and viewership are willing to take it.

Fox News exists because there is a market for the lies.

[ecstatic]

43. Exactly. The seditionists need to be expelled. There's no way around it

It's like a cancer, a poison. You can't ignore that shit. It's going to end really badly if we do.

There have been points in history where Congress had to be really aggressive so that this country could move forward in a sensible manner. That time has returned. We cannot pretend that this is business as usual.

In the entire history of the United States Congress, 20 Members have been expelled: 15 from the Senate and five from the House of Representatives. Of those, 17 of these 20 were expelled for supporting the Confederate rebellion in 1861 and 1862.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_from_the_United_States_Congress

In early 1866, Congressional Republicans, appalled by mass killing of ex-slaves and adoption of restrictive black codes, seized control of Reconstruction from President Johnson. Congress denied representatives from the former Confederate states their Congressional seats, passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and wrote the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, extending citizenship rights to African Americans and guaranteeing them equal protection of the laws. The 14th Amendment also reduced representation in Congress of any southern state that deprived African Americans of the vote. In 1870, the country went even further by ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave voting rights to black men. The most radical proposals advanced during Reconstruction--to confiscate plantations and redistribute portions to the freemen--were defeated.

https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook_print.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3103

[Jay25]

45. Lawmakers that spread the lie need to show evidence, when they can't, charge them with

slander and any other charges that fit, show they are unworthy of office and have them removed. It’s time to hold them accountable, and stop waiting for things to die down or get better, because they aren’t.

[former9thward]

65. Well that would be a violation of Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution.

Are there any other sections of the Constitution you would like to eliminate?

[LanternWaste]

74. About as accurate as when you stated...

that the coronavirus "has been over-hyped by the media" (Thu Feb 6, 2020, 10:35 PM)

Your inerrant absolutism seems a hobgoblin of peculiar minds.

[Jay25]

75. I will let you know, but for now, this one will do!

They are lying about an election being stolen, because they feel the Constitution allows them to lie without consequences.

[former9thward]

76. That particular section of the Constitution allows just that.

It says Congresspeople can say whatever they want and they will not be held accountable for it in any other place.

[Arthur_Frain]

46. If these f&@$ers ever get the presidency again......

they will not let it go.

That’s what we should be shouting from the rooftops, and that’s what they want us to forget. They showed us on 1/6/21 exactly what their intentions are.

Kill those they disagree with. Install their tyrant. Fascism forever.

That’s what they want. Change my mind.

I watched what took place at the capitol with my own eyes. I was glued to the television until it was all over. I. SAW. THIS. HAPPEN. I’m not particularly confrontational nor violent for any reason. But I wouldn’t want to be the first guy in my face to actually try and tell me that none of this really took place, or “it wasn’t what the left is telling you what it was”.

[Funtatlaguy]

48. The current fight against voter suppression is of PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE.

[BobTheSubgenius]

49. Persistence and encroaching fatigue - battle fatigue? - seem to work a treat for them.

It it's heard often enough, it becomes truthiness.

[raptor_rider]

52. If there is nothing to hide

And the election was fair and square, and why is there such a high fight on audits?? Confuses my liberal mind.. with the way this admin has been portraying themselves, I’m thinking we fucked up, royally.. They have two big countries pissed at us.

[augyboston]

54. It is time to say goodbye and good riddance!

We cannot rehabilitate millions of people so filled with disdain for truth and hatred for anyone who disagrees with them.

There is only one solution and that is to divide this country. Don't tell me that's not possible or that we already fought a war to keep this country united because this country isn't united and it has never been united. We've been living under the yoke of one form of white supremacy or another since this country's inception.

In much of the south they still call the Civil War the war of Yankee aggression. They've never accepted their defeat to the Union and since that war many who identify with the principles (or lack thereof) of the Confederacy have done every thing possible to undermine and divide this country. They have succeeded in making this country far less than it could or should be. Today's GOP is the embodiment of their creed and they will stop at nothing to put us under their boot.

I; for one, am tired of trying to reason with these dark forces. Lincoln himself tried to be magnanimous to them despite their racist war of insurrection and they killed him anyway.

The best thing for one and all is for those of us who want a true democracy that is responsive to the needs of all it's citizens to go our way and to let those who embraced a strongman and pine for an autocracy go theirs

The Big Lie is just a symptom of their bigoted hate fueled world view. We cannot reason with that, we cannot rehabilitate that, we cannot coexist with that - it is time to say goodbye and good riddance!

[kentuck]

58. It would be nice if we could just snap our fingers and half of Georgia would move to another state.

Unfortunately, that might be a little difficult to do?

We just have to keep preaching the truth as we know it. We will continue to believe facts over delusions. The truth over the lies.

Patience is a certainly a virtue in these times.

[soldierant]

56. Just...

[spanone]

57. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼K&R👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

The bottom line is that

The insurrection continues.

The sedition continues.

The attempted coup continues......

YES IT DOES!

[ThatJustHappened]

59. No it won't destroy America

I appreciate the sentiment

and you are correct about most of it

but the title and your first paragraph are all wrong


The same denial of reality of which you accurately speak has existed for thousands of years -- from Religitards -- and especially ever since the Reformation


But It won't destroy America

It will destroy the Republican party though

And it will help to destroy religion

And that's nice

But it won't destroy America.

[kentuck]

60. I would disagree...

I think religion will become more rabid and passionate as the divisions grow.

Everybody wants Jesus on their side.

[colsohlibgal]

66. Wish I Believed That

What’s going on in Arizona is just another clue that yes it can happen here.

We are as close to a fascist takeover as ever.

Again, Sinclair Lewis wrote a renowned book titled “It Can’t Happen Here” where it does happen here.

The first step was Reagan doing away with the long standing Fairness Doctrine which led to Fox News and there even more seditious clones.

Never ever thought I’d see a mob attack our Capital o a State make it Legal to mow down protesters with a car.

Do what you have to do to vote in 2022, right down to Judges.

[inwiththenew]

64. People think the Fairness Doctorine is some kind of silver bullet that will fix everything, it won't

What are you going to have Alex Jones on Rachel's show to debate whether Joe Biden is part of a pedophile cabal that runs Washington? You'll just be giving more airtime to insane ideas. We are talking about people who literally want fascism. Do you think they are going to be won over by fact checking? They already believe that the media lies through their teeth.

[c-rational]

67. Well said. Completely agree.

[samplegirl]

69. This is spot on

K&R

[peggysue2]

70. The lies, if permitted to continue, will destroy America.

That, I suspect, is the point.

The Republicans and their high-rollers have given up on the quaint idea of democracy. It's ever more satisfying and profitable to have the country and her resources under the thumb of the 'right people'.

Think of the advantages of Putin and his oligarchs, all the profit to be made and stashed, all that power without the antiquated restrictions of a Constitution or the rule of law. The Neo-fasists can always make new rules to fit the occasion. No more badgering judicial types breathing down their necks, no more free press to criticize, investigate or reveal. No more protestors making unreasonable demands. And if they do? Send out the goon squads, frog march their dissenting asses to the nearest prison.

Because money. Because power. Because control.

Yeah, the rubes might hate it at the beginning. But it's for their own good. Paternalism never dies the death it deserves.

Never forget, never forgive.

The coup continues.

[COL Mustard]

71. Unfortunately They Think We're The Liars

Their side is right; any other side is wrong.

We’re in deep shit right now.

[kentuck]

73. Unfortunately, you are correct.

Who are they going to believe, Donald Trump or the "fake news"? Right!

Who are they going to believe, FOX News or some "libtards"?

Their side is always right and your side is always wrongs. There is no room for compromise.

It is a struggle between good and evil, and liberals are evil, in their eyes.

Facts are not really "facts". They are manipulated by the "liberals".

How do you debate, or discuss, anything, under those guiderules?

[Hortensis]

72. Voting shows more people are learning; however, 80 MILLION people

did not vote in 2020.

How can that be?

Whatever's wrong with those people is also a huge problem that's also dragging us down. When our nation was in huge trouble 90 years ago, a significant majority, not a dangerously slim one, voted to throw conservative scoundrels and incompetents of the Republican Party out and kept them out of power for 12 years.

A significant bloc of nonvoters is from younger generations.

Only a fraction of the moderately intellectually and morally competent people among them is needed to change everything for the good, but we do need them.