Wayne Besen

December 10, 2019 • The Wayne Besen Show • 126

Will we die in a democracy? The Republican threat is real

I’m scared for my country. I’m alarmed for our future. I say this without hype or hyperbole.

This is a week of political tragedy. It calls into serious question if we are still the United States of America.

This week reveals that we are living in country so fundamentally divided that we are no longer one people. The Republicans have joined a cult and left America.

I watched the impeachment hearing yesterday. Why are Republicans defending the president rather than the Constitution? Where do they pledge allegiance? Why are they choosing party over patriotism?

It’s beyond frightening that roughly half this country thinks the role of Republicans in the impeachment hearing is to blindly defend King Donald rather than the nation.

I was born in a democracy. I assumed I would die in a democracy. I’m not so sure anymore. Are you?

What does the future hold when one of our two political parties no longer believes in the rule of law? When half of Americans appear to support autocracy bordering on fascism?

Daniel Goldman, the chief investigator for the House Intelligence Committee, put it succinctly: “President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security.”

That’s what happened. Those are the facts. The evidence is overwhelming and incontrovertible. And yet, Republicans think shredding the United States Constitution, using foreign help to cheat in elections and then covering it up through obstruction of justice, is okay. Roughly half the population agrees. Let that sink in.

Instead of facing reality, Republicans created an alternate reality. They invented a phony narrative designed to muddy the waters and manipulate America’s most gullible people. The game plan is to sucker the sheep. And once this bogus narrative is invented out of whole cloth, it’s broadcast on FOX News and disseminated on countless right wing websites. The Republicans also have the Russian propaganda machine repeating their lies to an international audience. In turn, the Republicans repeat the Russian government’s lies. They have become Putin’s parrots. Again, let that sink in.

The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee were shameful and unAmerican. They screamed, they interrupted, they bullied and they stonewalled. They perverted their oath of office to defend a man instead of the Constitution. A man, instead of the Constitution they swore to uphold. Their arguments were ludicrous:

1) They said the president did nothing wrong because he got caught while the crime was in progress and was forced to release the hijacked aid to Ukraine.

2) They claimed Trump was exonerated by the Ukraine’s president Zelensky. It’s laughable to expect Zelensy, who’s Trump’s hostage, to betray a petty and vindictive president who still has a loaded gun to his country’s head. How stupid do the Republicans think the American people are? They seem to be right about half of the population.

3) The Republicans argued that Donald Trump was only concerned about corruption. As if his former campaign chairman, national security advisor and personal lawyer weren’t in prison. Or, as if his family and cabinet weren’t the most corrupt in history. Trump being concerned about Ukraine’s corruption is a knee-slapper. A sick joke.

Later, on the same day, the Justice Department’s Inspector General released a report that concluded the FBI did nothing wrong in opening up investigations into Trump’s campaign. You know, the one teeming with shady Russians connected to Putin?

Instead of accepting the IG’s conclusion, the compromised Attorney General William Barr assailed the results to help his political master, Donald Trump. We have to come to grips with the very dangerous fact we don’t have a real Department of Justice. We have a quisling shill that works for Donald Trump, not the America people. Excluding Trump, Barr may be the most dangerous man in America. He’s also a culture warrior and religious extremist with deep animus towards liberals.

There can be no doubt, Donald Trump is trying to destroy the FBI. During his first two years in office, he attacked the F.B.I., Justice Department and intelligence agencies 277 times. Because he didn’t like that the IG report decimated his absurd conspiracy theories regarding the FBI, he is now targeting its director, Christopher Wray, who may soon be fired. Trump tweeted today:

“I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!”

Trump, Barr and much of the GOP are essentially foreign threats who habitually lie and put our national security in imminent danger. It’s difficult to accept, for those who still love America, but we can no longer afford denial.

We were born in a democracy. Will we die in one? That is the question. I don’t know the answer any more. This is the time to wake up and fight like hell to save our nation. Time is of the essence. The future is now, don’t let it slip away.
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November 7, 2019 • The Wayne Besen Show • 197

Donald Trump May Die at the Hands of his Roy Cohn Cronies

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November 7, 2019 • The Wayne Besen Show • 174

Republicans Abandon Own Children with Climate Denial

One of the biggest lies we are fed is that American conservatives care about children. By every conceivable measure, this is a bald faced lie.

Many conservatives, for example, enthusiastically embraced Roy Moore for Alabama Senate, even after there were credible allegations that he cruised the Gadsden, Alabama mall looking for underage girls to date.

Right-wingers love to pretend that they care about the future of children, yet they habitually underfund public schools and chronically underpay teachers. If a young person is lucky enough to get into college, they are often saddled with student debt, while conservatives mock free college, even as they destructively give tax-handouts to billionaires.

However, the most obvious and insidious way that Republicans attack children is by denying them a future planet to live on.

This week, eleven thousand scientists in 153 countries declared a climate emergency. They cautioned that “untold human suffering” is unavoidable unless we change the way we live. The answer from the Trump Administration is to loosen rules that protect our air, water, national parks and our future.

According to the letter published in BioSci “Climate change has arrived and is accelerating faster than many scientists expected. “Global surface temperature, ocean heat content, extreme weather and its costs, sea level, ocean acidity and land area are all rising.”

Having lived in South Florida, I saw evidence of Climate Change when the streets and garages would flood during high tide – even if it wasn’t raining. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is still doing nothing to halt climate change. I suppose, he wants to be the Senator from Atlantis.

The researchers are clear. They say that earth is “unequivocally facing a climate emergency”.

They are telling us that, “Ice is rapidly disappearing as shown by declining trends in minimum summer Arctic sea ice, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and glacier thickness. All of these rapid changes highlight the urgent need for action. Swift action is our best hope to sustain life on planet Earth, our only home.”

My personal opinion is that the Caribbean will be uninhabitable during Hurricane Season and will be evacuated in the next decade or two. The storms are too large, they are too frequent, and rebuilding over and over is too costly. Those who live on these islands will become some of the first obvious climate refugees. It will take something of this scale for conservatives to finally get it. Still, even with such profound evidence, do they care enough about the future of their children and grandchildren to do anything about it? Don’t bet it.
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October 29, 2019 • The Wayne Besen Show • 209

Trump is Egging on Domestic Terrorism

The threats of one right wing Major League Baseball umpire, where he promises to use an assault rifle and join a Civil War if Trump is impeached, shows the real danger of Trump’s divisive rhetoric.
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October 29, 2019 • The Wayne Besen Show • 199

Media Silence on Trump Deficits Shows Double Standard

Today, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had an excellent column that made an important point.

There is a double standard in the media when it comes to the economy. When Democrats propose new programs to help people, the media uses Republican talking points to scream, “How are you going to pay for it?”

When Democrats are in office, the media also uses Republican talking points to howl about the deficits. Every time Democrats marginally increase deficits – even when it’s actually needed to boost the economy – it’s the apocalypse and the collapse of the nation is upon us. We can all remember the wailing by former House Speaker Paul Ryan about runaway spending.

But Republicans are a bunch hypocrites who don’t give a damn about spending on the nation’s credit card – as long as the spending benefits the wealthy and well-connected.

As Krugman pints out: the federal budget deficit just hit $1 trillion . That’s about $300 billion more due to the Trump tax cut. According to Krugman: The budget deficit has now soared back roughly to where it was in 2012, when the unemployment rate was more than twice its current level, and the economy desperately needed deficit spending to sustain demand.

So, where the hell are all the Republicans who were so sanctimonious about deficits during the Obama years?

Furthermore, the when the Democrats spend, it helps all people. When the Republicans spend, rich people – who are far fewer – are primarily the beneficiaries.

It’s time for the media to get its act together and start holding Republicans accountable for their lies and hypocrisy. The Republican Party is a scam where the greedy steal from the needy. It’s a financial redistribution scheme, that funnels money upward from the people to the powerful and from workers to the wealthy.

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