Sykes Stab At Shifting His Stripes Doesn't Work

By Jeff Simpson

“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

In a recent puff piece by Politico, Charlie Sykes has been given the chance to rewrite history in his career of dog whistling and flat out racism.  

Sykes’ many arguments with listeners over Donald Trump’s serial outrages have exposed in much of his audience a vein of thinking—racist, anti-constitutional, maybe even fascistic—that has shaken Sykes. It has left him questioning whether he and his colleagues in the conservative media played a role in paving the way for Trump’s surprising and unprecedented rise.

 Wonder whether Charlie and his colleagues have had anything to do with racism? Wonder no further, the answer is a resounding YES.   

The preeminent political pundit of our time Charley Pierce hits the nail on the head:

Just. Please. Shut. The. Hell. Up.Just asking that question marks Sykes as either a charlatan or a fool, and my money's on the former. Sykes knew damn well who his "allies" were when he was calling the First Lady "Mooch," or when he was calling a black man who'd died in police custody "a piece of garbage," and when he referred to "the pigs of mothers who are too lazy to put their children in a crib and roll over the top of them while sleeping on a futon on the floor."Sykes knew who his "allies" were when, as Milwaukee's Shepherd Express reported, he aired a blackface rap parody.It features a young, black woman calling herself Chapter Jackson, who acts out every racist stereotype of poor, black, single mothers that bigoted audiences find hilarious. Ms. Jackson is knee-deep in black babies in a house full of women slutted up like prostitutes while she writhes and raps that her life is a constant party paid for by taxpayers. She repeats the obscene refrain: "All you have to do is f— and nine months later you get in the big bucks."Yeah, he's known all along who his "allies" are. Once again, Trump is merely the modern Republican party without its interior monologue.

Charley P was not alone though, No More Mister Nice Blog joined the party.   NMMNB mined Sykes twitter feed where he came up with some gems like this one, where he points out that Sykes and Trump are simpatico.

Megyn Kelly: Why hasn’t Obama commented on the killing of Kate Steinle by an illegal? - Hot Air http://t.co/P3xjT2DoCr

— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) July 13, 2015

But wait there is more.  Who(besides the author of the Politico puff piece) could forget this piece from the New Republic in 2014.

Sykes is credited with, among other accomplishments, having blocked public funding for needle-exchange programs and having helped drive into bankruptcy an urban mall after harping on security issues there. In April 2013, he played a clip of “It’s Free (Swipe Yo EBT),” a viral video produced by a right-wing activist in which an African American woman raps about liquor stores where one can allegedly use a food-stamp card. Returning to the same theme later in the year, Sykes declared, “The number of Americans who receive means-tested government benefits— welfare—now outnumbers those who are year-round full-time workers.” No other midsize city has this kind of sustained and energized conservative forum for discussion of local politics. 

The New Republic warned us on a National scale what was coming thanks to the Sykes of the world and yet Sykes was able to dismiss this report in his New Republic piece while being "surprised" that his listeners have actually been listening to his hate speech.  

Here at CogDis, we have been documenting Chuck's racism for quite some time now, here, here, here, here and here amongst many others.  

But Wait!!! There is more....all of the scrutinizing of Sykes PR piece this line was overlooked.  

“The elected officials in Wisconsin are all pretty much anti-Trump,” Sykes says. Nevertheless, nearly all of them endorsed Trump once he became the presumptive nominee. Sykes thinks none of them have their heart in it.

Before we rate that line, lets let the Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald Train pass.....

What they came up with was less a slogan and more of a chant, based on the “Trump Train” concept. Fitzgerald vocalized it as a steam engine, with “Trump, Trump, Trump,” representing the driving wheels, followed by “Pence, Pence” as the steam whistle. Fitzgerald, who along with Governor Scott Walker and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, was among the GOP politicians warming up the crowd for Pence, even led them in it, call-and-response style  Audio here

We rate that statement Pants on Fire!


But Wait there is even more!!

“Talk radio made itself relevant by beating up on other Republicans, vilifying other Republicans,” he says. “It fed this faux outrage machine that raised expectations unrealistically”—for instance, asking why Congress didn’t repeal Obamacare, though Obama’s veto pen made it mathematically impossible. Later, he would tell Business Insider’s Oliver Darcy that talk radio’s attack on mainstream-media bias has backfired, because its listeners now dismiss legitimate media fact-checking as untrustworthy.

 It is funny listening to Charlie discuss "Faux Outrage", when on his website Right Wisconsin, he has a "loser of the day" section.

Hypocrite much?

Charlie Sykes has a new book coming out, so he is trying to rebrand himself as a voice of reason on the right so people will buy his book.

Charlie is hoping to avoid scenes like this, which is a picture of a speech he gave on his last book.

One last point on the Sykes re-branding effort.  He and others in the party are trying to label Trump as alt-right to allow them to wash their hands of the racist, sexist, misogynist, election debacle that is coming.  Do not believe him.   The alt-right is non existent, it is absolutely representative of the current state of the Republican party.  As the great John Nichols explains:

1.  Charles P. Pierce Retweeted

   John Nichols ‏@NicholsUprising  5h5 hours ago

   "Alt-right"? No. It's the old wrong of a Republican Party that for too long has invited vile extremists to camp under it's "big tent."

   72 retweets125 likes

   
   

   
   

   
   
2. John Nichols ‏@NicholsUprising  Aug 25

   "Alt-right?" Funny, Trump's backers look an awfully lot like the people who backed Romney, McCain and Bush.

   

   185 retweets242 likes

   
   

   
   

   
   
3.  LudwigVaughanMises and 2 others Retweeted

   John Nichols ‏@NicholsUprising  Aug 24

   Anyone who thinks there is an "alt-right" has not paid attention to politics for the past 6 years. The GOP went alt-right long before Trump.

Finally, because this is too rich not to share on a Friday, it is (as the old Daily Show used to share), your Moment of Zen(straight from Judith Miller):

@SykesCharlie, a true conservative, asks the right question about how we got @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/X1ueCMWIZA

— Judith Miller (@JMfreespeech) August 24, 2016

Esenberg Knows Better

By Jeff Simpson 

As we have documented numerous times, JSonline keeps allowing the Bradley funded mouthpieces to push propaganda.  From Christian Schneider never making a salient point to Rick Esenberg trying to.  
The latest assault on the truth comes from Mr. Esenberg.  In a piece entitled "Free Speech for Me But Not For Thee". he attempts to make a correlation between campaigns being allowed to coordinate secretely with dark money donors and the press being allowed to keep theur sources secret.

But why should the media - corporations who already have a great big soap box - have greater rights than those who must rent that soap box? Again, it is necessary to balance the risk of corruption against the rights of persons to freely associate and speak. The strong presumption should be in favor of free expression, but, however that cashes out, it is not clear why some people called the "media" should have greater freedom than others who are not.
But even if you dispute my view of the matter, a sixty second "phony issue" ad pointing out another view would seem as relevant to the public's right to know and as much a contribution to our public discourse as anything in the pages of the Washington Post or seen during the nightly news.
Nor can we assume that the media is not a "special interest." Just about anyone - including people with a variety of interests - can own a media company. In any event, what the New York Times wants is not intrinsically of greater value than what George Soros or David Koch want. It should have no greater First Amendment rights.

 Because there is no one left (except for Rowan) on the left side of the aisle in the JSonline to dispute this ridiculousness, lets take a minute to do so.

Does anyone really think the New York Times, the supposed paper of record, has the same interests in getting a story out as Soros or Koch?  

The media's value is in their ability to give us the "news".   In order to have real value, we have to trust that what the media is giving us is true and timely(Fox News being the obvious exception).  Not only do these news organizations have to be true and timely, their reporters, have to give us true and timely news as part of their brand also.

A 60 second phony issue ad, usually has one goal in mind, to smear an opponent of the person they want to get elected.   Truth actually works against the idea of a dark money ad.   The fact that the issues are at best skewed and more likely flat out lies is why the people who fund the dark money ads do not want to be ackowledged.   It is much easier to lie and smear when no one knows who is behind it.  

Let's look at a couple examples.

In the lead up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration realized how important the NY Times was as a paper of record.  They then found a reporter, Judy Miller, who they would feed false stories too, and she would print without verification because she trusted her sources.   These stories of doom and gloom and WMD's in Iraq were blatantly false, but helped sell the public on starting the war of choice.  
We know now, that he stories were false, her informants were lying and she is now a disgraced reporter who will never write for a news organization again and the New York Times credibility took a huge hit.

Now let's compare that to a phone issue ad.

While we know WMC paid for the ad, we do not know everyone involved or who is spending the most money there.  We also know that the "information" inside this ad is as phony as any story that Judith Miller wrote.  

Yet while Judy Miller was disgraced for life, ads like this help get Scott Walker elected.  

To compare the media with WI Club for Growth, or  Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce is not only laughable, Mr. Esenberg knows better.  

Now for solutions.  While I do not think we should stop people from spending money on ads, as human beings, I do believe when we have a forum, we should at least make an attempt at the truth.

Simply by signing names and disclosing donors to these issue ads would make sure that happens.   When you have to sign your name to something then you need to take responsibility for the contents.  

The irony is not lost on me that the self proclaimed "party of personal responsibility" never wants to actually take any.  

The retaliation argument also falls on deaf ears, after the current Republican party has spent six years trying to punish anyone who signed the recall petition against Governor Walker.  

YOWZA!!!

By Jeff Simpson


You seriously could not make this up if you tried.


 Breidbardt's little Gilligan, James O' Keefe(Eric O'Keefe's friend - no relation) is "interviewing" Judith Miller, the former New York Times Reporter who helped Bush/Cheney lie us into the Iraq war, on of all things (sit down for this) Journalistic Integrity.

Honestly! The only one missing in this discussion is Christian Schneider.  

If you watched that whole fiasco, now in order to cleanse yourself, you must watch All The President's Men and the following Jon Stewart Video and the pain will slowly go away.