You don’t need to go to Pyongyang to see state television. No, sir, just turn on OAN and you’ll see the talking heads there outdo the best of the pink kimono lady. She could learn a thing or two from them.
This marvel is offered up because poor Donald Trump, our much maligned Mar-a-Lago marooned mango monarch in exile is getting so beat up these days by those nasty House impeachment managers who have the hubris to introduce own words into evidence at his impeachment trial. Can you imagine? So the sympathetic and big hearted folks at OAN decided to cheer him up.
One America News aired this "tribute" to Donald Trump, featuring solemn piano music and a poem by Rudyard Kipling. This is not from an opinion show; it's from a news hour. pic.twitter.com/YmCKGHmnVq
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) February 11, 2021
Now this doesn’t have the distinction of being original material, even. No, it’s borrowed from InfoWars. Media Matters:
On February 11, One America News, an unflappable ally to former President Donald Trump, aired a “tribute to his accomplishments” set to somber piano music and the poem If— by Rudyard Kipling. The video was credited to Harrison Hill Smith, an Infowars contributor who cheered on the “patriots” storming the Capitol on January 6th.
OAN anchor Lilia Fifield dutifully announced that “despite endless lies and attacks from Democrats and the media, President Trump and the administration fought for the country over the past four years,” leading into the video using a poem about stoicism to honor the emotionally unstable ex-president. The top right of the video has a credit for the Infowars contributor, who also previously promoted his video on Infowars.
Smith’s Twitter account is full of the anti-Semitism, homophobia, and other bigotries one would expect of an Infowars figure, according to The Austin Chronicle. Smith also pinned a November 2020 upload of the video to his account, and used OAN’s airing of the video this morning to promote the Infowars store.
On the day of the insurrection, Infowars founder Alex Jones was in Washington, D.C., but Smith hosted part of the regular Infowars broadcast from a studio. He excitedly said, “This is not a drill. … This is incredible. … Attempts to prevent the onrush of patriots [have] failed.” Smith praised the insurrection with revolutionary fervor, declaring, “The American people have shrugged and taken the blows on the back without so much of a whimper in protest. But finally, they have pushed too far, after stealing our last resort. … Now the rage of the American people overflows as patriots storm into the United States Capitol.”
Here’s a transcript of the broadcast Smith did when the Capitol was being breached. Listen to him enthuse in raptured delight as he describes “actively destroying and occupying the Capitol.” And this is who OAN wants to get in bed with?
HARISON SMITH (GUEST HOST): This is not a drill. “Trump supporters breaching all security barriers are now actively destroying and occupying the Capitol Building.” This is incredible. Two buildings of the U.S. Capitol complex evacuated as Trump supporters clash with the police. Flashbangs being fired over the front lines into the crowd of Trump supporters. But it seems like those attempts to prevent the onrush of patriots has failed.
…
Alex Jones is right now at the scene. They are sort of on the edge. We are receiving intermittent streams from them as the cell phone networks are overloaded and information becomes harder to come by. What we know is that Alex Jones and [Infowars host] Owen Shroyer are not at the head of this. They are not the ones breaking into the capitol. But they are there on the periphery watching this, receiving this information in real time.
…
This is what happens when Americans rise up. This is what happens when patriots do what the communists have been trying to do for so long. Again, this is not an impotent pointless nonsense protest based off misinformation like the death of George Floyd, who killed himself with fentanyl, or Jacob Blake, who just yesterday was proven he was armed and dangerous when police rightfully took him down, or the lies of Brett Kavanaugh.
For four years, we’ve seen the outrageous and yet impotent lashing out of leftists throughout America. And for the first time, it seems, after having shown patience, that of angels, the Americans, the Trump supporters who have seen their lives destroyed, they’ve seen their businesses shut down, they’ve seen the lockdown perpetuated all across America, destroying our economy, surrendering to China over and over and over again, stories that expose the corruption and the underselling of America to communist China and other foreign powers have gone ignored, have been suppressed, have been shut down, time and time again. And the American people have shrugged and taken the blows on the back without so much of a whimper in protest. But finally, they have pushed too far, after stealing our last resort.
We always knew in the back of our minds, in the back of our heads, we had the numbers, we had the will. We could through the electoral process maintain some semblance of control over what is supposed to be our representative democracy, our republic. Well, they stole that from us. They took away the final lifeline. They destroyed the final pressure valve, and now the rage of the American people overflows as patriots storm into the United States Capitol, waving Trump flags, waving American flags, waving the Gadsen flag, taking over the steps, pushing through the doors and forcing an evacuation of our representatives as they halt the vote counting process.
People are dead, people are recovering from injury, people have psychological trauma that they will likely carry the rest of their days — yet this loser celebrates?
It’s no longer metaphor to say there are two Americas now. There are. And the complicit GOP senators who refused to even show up to hear testimony today at the impeachment trial represent the cult of Trump. They’ve made their choice and guess what? Democracy and the rule of law ain’t it.
In a way it’s fitting. ‘If’ was written as an elegy to L.S. Jameson – google ‘Jameson Raid’ and it was downright naked aggression by an unauthorised militia.
People should check what they use because, in a faid number of cases, it tendsto shoot down whatever it is they are puching.
Anyway, Kipling was an out and out Imperialist – his poem ‘The White Man’s Burden’ was an exhortation to the U.S. to become a major colonial power and control the ‘lesser breeds without the law’
Upvoted for reference to Kipling and “If”. Thank you, Daithi.
Ummmmm……so now they are saying the terrorists really were MAGAts and not antifa dressed up like refugees from a Louisiana trailer park……
OOFS!!!
Should have drank my coffee earlier. Thought I read “…Karen State TV”.
Not a good sign when N Korean news might be more “sane” than…
I’ll try to summon the stomach to watch it later, or perhaps tomorrow. What jumped out at me was your mention of them using a poem by Kipling. Like I suspect many a male high school graduate of my age (or older) on graduation day (in my case just before I headed off to Riverside Park and the football field where the ceremony was held) I got a fancy card that contained Kipling’s poem If. I can’t remember it all now, but various sentences keep popping into my head and I rewrite them to describe Trump. For example the last stanza (if memory serves starts with “If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue.” In Trump’s case it would be more like: If when you talk to crowds, you DRAIN them of their virtue.
That kind of thing.
Or the subsequent line about “If you can walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch.” In Trump’s case it would be: If you live as a Mad King – yet sucker others to believe you possess the common touch.
I was online too much earlier and I think I overdid it r.e. my eyesight so I took a break. I’m not going to be on the computer much tonight either. Vision is better, and quite a bit but there is some inflamation and I don’t want to overdo things. Maybe tomorrow I’ll look up the poem and do a complete Trumpian version. If someone else wants to do it go on ahead.
Rachel is also saying tonight that NYT is now reporting (unconfirmed by other pspers) that Trump was way sicker with COVID than was ever admitted. I’m thinking he’s really digging for sympathy.
It’s almost like the “director” of the video WISHES he were Alex Jones, mimicking his vitriol and impotent vigor. How loony.
“If” is one of the worst poems of all times, and Rudyard Kipling was one of the most racist poets, with a colonialist sense of ersatz patriotism and a dated, toxic idea of masculinity. So, very appropriate!
I made myself watch the video & now will try to soothe my nausea. The far right in America is even sicker than I imagined, if this is the kind of raw propaganda they consume & distribute.