Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Tucker’s Jan. 6 Bombshell? Josh Hawley Wasn’t the Only Senator Running
What to know about the Tucker Carlson January 6 footage
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/06/politics/tucker-carlson-january-6-footage/index.html
The new Sicknick footage does not disprove the medical examiner’s conclusion that January 6 influenced Sicknick’s death, and it doesn’t erase the fact that Trump supporters assaulted Sicknick that day.
Fox News stands in legal peril. It says defamation loss would harm all media
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161221798/if-fox-news-loses-defamation-dominion-media
In its legal briefs, Fox leans heavily on the idea that news organizations must be allowed to convey allegations by major public figures to their audiences — even wild allegations. Rutgers' Chen says that doesn't hold up if Fox was motivated by profit instead of the newsworthiness of the claims being presented in its programs.
"The fact that there was arguably a motive by Fox to publish these accusations against Dominion based on its own economic interests in retaining Trump viewers would, if believed by the jury, probably destroy that argument," Chen says.
Tucker Carlson, with video provided by Speaker McCarthy, falsely depicts Jan. 6 riot as a peaceful gathering
Video that Carlson didn’t air shows police and rioters engaged in hours of violent combat that resulted in injuries to hundreds of police officers. Two pipe bombs were also planted nearby but were not detonated.
Tucker Carlson releases exclusive Jan. 6 footage, says politicians, media lied about Sicknick, 'QAnon Shaman'
New York Post columnist Miranda Devine called the charges against Chansley "very sad," saying that the footage proves that he was "harmless."
"You can see the way those people were walking through the Capitol… they are walking meekly, politely queuing, very peaceable. They don't mean any harm. They are treating the Capitol with reverence," Devine told Carlson. "That doesn't excuse the others, the minority of the protesters who did break windows and fight police and injure police and cause mayhem. But the people who are now being picked up and some of them have been jailed without trial for months, even years on end, did not commit violence. They walked through open doors, they were escorted by police, they felt that this was okay. And I think Jacob Chansley is a classic example of that."
Tucker Carlson shows the first of his Jan. 6 footage, calls it ‘mostly peaceful chaos’
As he opened his show Monday, Carlson described the anger among supporters of then-President Trump in the weeks leading to the Capitol riot, noting “they believed the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted.”
“They were right. In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy, given the facts that have since emerged about that election,” he said. “No honest person can deny it. Yet the beneficiaries of that election continue to lie about what is now obvious.”
Tucker Carlson Describes Jan. 6 Rioters as 'Sightseers' in Footage Reveal
https://www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-describes-jan-6-rioters-sightseers-footage-reveal-1785905
Fox News host Tucker Carlson says that video footage taken from inside the U.S. Capitol shows that the January 6 rioters were mere "sightseers."
The conservative pundit said during a Tucker Carlson Tonight broadcast on Monday that the small portion of the footage, some of more than 40,000 hours of tape provided to him by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, did not show an "insurrection or a riot in progress."
Carlson claimed, without evidence, that the Democratic Party and the media had conspired to suppress the footage because it "demolishes" the narrative of a riot taking place, while conceding that some of those who breached the Capitol were "hooligans."
Monday, March 6, 2023
Schumer: Settlements not an obstacle to peace
https://www.timesofisrael.com/schumer-settlements-not-an-obstacle-to-peace/
“The world draws a false moral equivalence between Israel’s actions to defend herself and the actions of terrorists who use children as human shields in their evil campaign to push Israel into the sea.”
False Equivalence: The Problem with Unreasonable Comparisons
https://effectiviology.com/false-equivalence/
False equivalence is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone incorrectly asserts that two or more things are equivalent, simply because they share some characteristics, despite the fact that there are also notable differences between them. For example, a false equivalence is saying that cats and dogs are the same animal, since they’re both mammals and have a tail.
Saying a bracha on Torah learning
Nedarim (81a) And why is it not usual for scholars to give birth to sons who are scholars? — Said R. Joseph, That it might not be maintained, The Torah is their legacy. R. Shisha, the son of R. Idi, said: That they should not be arrogant towards the community. Mar Zutra said: Because they act high-handedly against the community. R. Ashi said: Because they call people asses. Rabina said: Because they do not first utter a blessing over the Torah. For Rab Judah said in Rab's name: What is meant by, Who is the wise man, that he may understand this. . . for what is the land destroyed etc.? Now, this question was put to the Sages, Prophets, and Ministering Angels, but they could not answer it, until the Almighty Himself did so, as it is written, And the Lord said, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein: but is not ‘have not obeyed my voice’ identical with, ‘neither walked therein’? — Rab Judah said in Rab's name: It means that they did not first recite a benediction over the Torah.
Telling lies has become the norm for today’s Republicans
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/01/politics/republican-party-kevin-mccarthy/index.html
To assume lies would sink House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is to misunderstand the nature of today’s Republican Party: They actually demonstrate his credentials to lead it.
That’s not merely because Donald Trump remains the dominant GOP figure. The former President lies incessantly, and his aberrant behavior compels fellow Republicans to lie about him.
The problem runs deeper than one man. For a minority party joining blue-collar voters driven by cultural resentment with affluent donors fixed on the bottom line, gaining and wielding power requires dissembling beyond the conventional equivocation that politicians in all parties have always used to amass popular support.
One of the GOP’s most successful political consultants of recent decades issued that judgment in a confessional 2020 memoir. Stuart Stevens titled his book: “It Was All a Lie.”
Fact check: Republicans at CPAC make false claims about Biden, Zelensky, the FBI and children
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/04/politics/fact-check-cpac-2023/index.html
The Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in Maryland. And the members of Congress, former government officials and conservative personalities who spoke at the conference on Thursday and Friday made false claims about a variety of topics.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio uttered two false claims about President Joe Biden. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated a debunked claim about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used two inaccurate statistics as he lamented the state of the country. Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon repeated his regular lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from Trump, this time baselesly blaming Fox for Trump’s defeat.
Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/05/politics/fact-check-trump-cpac/index.html
As president, Donald Trump made some of his most thoroughly dishonest speeches at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
As he embarks on another campaign for the presidency, Trump delivered another CPAC doozy Saturday night.
Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.
Here is a fact check of 23 of the false claims Trump made. (And that’s far from the total.)