On his HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher," Maher created one of his new rules for Glenn Beck. Beck recently gave a riveting speech at the Christians United for Israel Summit. In the preview clip below, Maher takes issue with Beck for proclaiming during that speech, "Count me a Jew and come for me first." Actually, there are many Jews who have taken issue with Beck's anti-Semitic rants on his Fox show, and two of them were republished on the Reviewhere and here.
Beck seems to have a fixation with becoming a martyr. He has talked about shooting him in the head, and now he's telling anyone, who wants to kill Jews, to come after him first. Hopefully Beck will not get his wish and, instead, fade away into the darkness of time as a commentator too controversial, even for a channel dedicated to right wing propaganda.
has death wish?
"Real Time" airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO.
This week, former Republican candidate for President Senator McCain stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and railed against the Tea Party extremists deceiving the American people. His speech is shown below and Beck's radio, morning zoo commentary follows. This all begs the question: just what will the Glenn Beck inspired and promoted Tea Party extremists do to destroy the President and satisfy their moral leaders, the self-proclaimed rodeo clown, Glenn Beck, reactionary radio propagandist, Rush Limbuagh and Tea Party commentator on Fox, Sean Hannity? MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell will explain.
First, via "Patriots"Network on YouTube is this, entitled "McCain mocks conservative mentality." Since the text of his speech is repeated both in the clip of Beck's radio program and the O'Donnell clip, skipping this video will not matter to the comprehension of this post.
First, McCain is not mocking conservative mentality. The Tea Party, like Glenn Beck, is not a conservative movement. These people are reactionaries; they want to take the country back to the era in the American polity before progressives got legislation passed that served to protect the public interest from private, corporate greed. They may deceive themselves to that effect, but the media should start taking notice and calling them what they are as depicted below.
taxonomy of political values
These people are deluded to think of themselves as "conservative." Wikipedia has a wide-ranging definition that includes the extremists:
Conservatism (Latin: conservare, "to preserve")[1] is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to the way things were.
The "others" that "seek a return to the way things were" are not conserving or protecting the status quo. The Glenn Beck inspired, far-right Tea Party is undertaking to dismantle the modern welfare state, as if the American economy were so awful in the 1990's under President Clinton. (It wasn't.) The prosperity under the taxes of that era were undermined by the tax cuts enacted under President George Bush, but this steers us off the track. When people on the right claim that there is a "spending problem" in Washington, they are seeking to the welfare state and make the rich more wealthy.
On his radio show Glenn Beck and the other two stooges of the reactionary, billionaire Koch brothers discussed McCain's speech. Via Mediaite:
Because McCain actually stood up to the extremists of the Tea Party, Beck not only compared him to Gollum, but from Beck's extremist, reactionary perspective, actually compared the centrist conservative Senator to progressive, liberal Congressman Kuchinch. For far-right extremists like Beck, the status quo has become an unacceptable hell that must be destroyed; so the Republic can return to the era of total corporate control of government. If the extremist, Tea Party congress people are going to stop any and all efforts to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the economy from turning down into another recession, they will do unforeseeable damage to the nation's economy and ultimately the nation's security. They want to destroy the modern welfare state, and that "principle" drives them no matter what the consequences.
Is it just Beck and Limbaugh helping drive the Tea Party agenda to the far right? McCain appeared on reactionary Sean Hannity's show on Fox, and Lawrence O'Donnell covered that exchange. Via MSNBC:
The pressure from "hard-right" reactionaries to support the extremist agenda of the Beck inspired Tea Party forced war hero John McCain to walk back from his criticism of them. This is where the Republican Party is heading, what it is becoming. Not even Senator McCain has the spine and stature to stand up to the reactionary extremists backed by reactionary propagandists Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. McCain isn't Gollum as Beck suggests; he's one of the elderly elves that abandoned Middle Earth as cowards. On Hannity, McCain became Galadriel, and House Speaker Boehner's extremist elements are leading the nation toward economic chaos. This is probably not what their wealthy supporters sent them to Washington to do, but this is the direction Glenn Beck wants to go, i.e., backward into the pre-progressive era and into the 19th Century. What we may end up with, if the reactionaries have their way, is a 19th Century Gross National Product; and that, Stu Berguiere (Beck's producer), would really "suck."
Glenn Beck has a long history of making ignorant and controversial comments. This time he is exploiting the tragedy in Norway to garner attention. As reported on the StopBeck.com website:
On July 22, Anders Behring Breivik went on a shooting rampage on Norway’s Utoya Island. At the time of this blog post, the most current reported number of casualties is 68.
Strangely, on his July 25 radio program, Glenn Beck smeared the victims of this tragedy by comparing them to Hitler youth, saying:
As the thing started to unfold and there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. Who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.
Needless to say, Beck’s smear was wildly off base. A former press secretary of Norway’s prime minister explained toThe Daily Telegraph:
Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about. Glenn Beck’s comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful.
Here's audio of Beck's comments:
As disgraceful as this comparison was, Beck refused to walk back from his comments. On today's radio show, he rationalized that if he cannot use comparisons to Hitler in "logical conversation” then “we are going to be a society of gas chambers.” Here's the audio:
Beck's history shows a long record of controversial remarks, even claiming that "reform Judaism" was akin to "radical Islam!" There is a reason that Beck's biographer, Alex Zaitchik, subtitled his book Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. Beck says things that are profoundly ignorant, which begs the question: why?
Beck obviously knew very little about that youth camp where Anders Behring Breivik killed so many young people, so why would he compare it to a Nazi youth camp? Why? Beck's road to success has been controversy. Controversy leads to publicity and that has lead to more listeners and higher ratings. One answer is that Beck is exploiting this tragedy to reasons of personal gain, another opportunity to get people's attention.
It is only a "secret" to his gullible and believing followers that Glenn Beck is a propagandist. Beck may have exploited this tragedy to score propaganda points against the Norwegian Labor Party, but why would Beck care about what happens in Europe? Profoundly nationalistic, even to the point of "hating" soccer, Beck would not use this terrible event unless he wanted to spark controversy. Beck may, nonetheless, have exploited the murder of children for the purpose of political propaganda.
self-promoting propagandist, mentally defective or both?
One more possibility is that Beck has a mental defect. Most people think thoughts and ideas that we hold back and not articulate in order to not make an ass of ourselves. We refrain from saying whatever crosses our minds in order to not make enemies of friends, family and associates, in order to keep our jobs or peace on the home front. Beck's filter may be defective. It seems that he has a reactionary version of Tourette Syndrome. He doesn't spit profanities, but he says whatever crosses his mind. That could explain his initial comment, but he then rationalized his disgraceful, horrific, ignorant and news-making comments today.
This begs another question: how horrific, sleazy and disgraceful does Beck have to get for his loyal and loving (cult) followers realize that he's not far enough along as a "recovering dirt bag," his appropriate phrase, to take him seriously as anything more than an arrogant, ignorant, disgraceful and shallow entertainer and deceitful propagandist? Based upon the comments on his website, that threshold will probably not be met. Part of Beck's genius is earning the seemingly unconditional love of his followers. Glenn Beck, the cult of personality, can do no wrong in the eyes of his adoring fans. They seem to have no idea the extent to which Beck manipulates them. "Disturbing" indeed!
If you find Beck's exploitation of this horrible tragedy unacceptable and intolerable, then sign the petition to have the radio stations that host his reactionary propaganda hold him accountable for his ignorant and irresponsible commentary.
Update, 7/29/2011: According to a post on a NewYorker blog entitled "Glenn Beck and the Seven Norwegians," "Beck himself...has helped out a Tea Party camp." Author Amy Davidson noted the hypocrisy, and that makes for 26 examples of demonstrated hypocrisy on the part of Glenn Beck, a propagandist either deceitful or self-deluded enough to call himself a "principles and values guy."
Update, 8/02/11: If there is still a question regarding Beck's hypocrisy on this matter, it was obvious to his critic, Keith Olbermann to warrant being the worst person in the world on August 1st. Via Current TV:
To all but Beck's adoring fans, who turn blinded eyes and deaf ears toward Beck's most pronounced character flaw, his knack for demonstrating blatant hypocrisy alone would be more than a sufficient reason to ignore Glenn Beck and his reactionary movement. Unfortunately, millions in Beck's cult of personality see no hypocrisy, hear no hypocrisy and speak of no hypocrisy. That just happens to be their character flaw, one that needs to be stressed when interacting with someone spouting some version of Beck's ideas, false claims, conspiracy theories or ideals.
Previously on this Review, Beck was shown to be connected with the reactionary Koch brothers, reactionary, billionaire proponents of corporate control of the government. Additionally, Joe O'Shaughnessy made that case that Beck undermines the interests of the people who watch and support him here. Last week Beck used his marginalized position in the realm of talk radio to smear protesters at a Wal*mart and proved his anti-middle class and entrepreneurial bias by claiming that Walmart is good for America. This piece will demonstrate that opponents of corporate control and the Koch brothers agenda are progressive liberals, not "Marxists" as Beck falsely claims.
reactionary propagandist smears liberals and activists
On his website in a piece entitled "Protesters idiotically target Walmart," Beck embedded the following video showing a musical protest inside a Wal*mart.
Beck smears these protesters and insults them to further the corporate agenda, and to that end he calls these people "Marxists," just as he did with Joel Rogers, Shirley Sherrod and others. Beck's take on this protest was:
They changed the lyrics to their demand that Wal-Mart give up a group of rowdy in a public place where business is minding their own business. People buying socks, people there buying Triscuits. Wal-Mart employees making a living by working are shouted out and taunted about the importance of respect. It sounds respectful, and reasonable, doesn’t it? Marxists are so stupid.
"Marxists?" The organization behind this is obviously RespectDC.org and according to their website, which Beck could have examined if he had any interest in the facts about these people, they are:
“Living Wages, Healthy Communities” is a coalition of grassroots-based organizations, pastors, workers, environmentalists, parents, students and community members concerned about the quality of life in DC’s communities and committed to securing decent, living wage jobs.
It's important to understand that Beck wants what his corporate mentors, David and Charles Koch, want and furthermore that people in opposition to the corporate control of America (plutocracy) and not necessarily "Marxists" as liberals and progressive.
reactionaries Charles and David Koch
To that end, The Nation, a magazine with a liberal perspective, not a "Marxist" one as Beck tries to paint (smear) people who challenge unbridled corporate power, is working to expose a Koch funded effort to weaken voter turnout in elections and help keep the party of corporate control (Republicans) in power and return them to power in the White House. In a piece on their website entitled "ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection" liberal author Lisa Graves points out:
ALEC’s model legislation reflects parts of the Kochs’ agenda that have little to do with oil profits. Long before ALEC started pushing taxpayer-subsidized school vouchers, for example, the Koch fortune was already underwriting attacks on public education. David Koch helped inject the idea of privatizing public schools into the national debate as a candidate for vice president in 1980. A cornerstone of the Libertarian Party platform, which he bankrolled, was the call for “educational tax credits to encourage alternatives to public education,” a plan to the right of Ronald Reagan. Several pieces of ALEC’s model legislation echo this plan.
The ALEC agenda is further elaborated by John Nichols from The Nation during an interview on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Via CurrentTV:
Aside from Beck's tendency to smear progressive liberals, it's clear that this deceitful propaganda has a reactionary, corporate agenda. Wal*mart is infamous for putting small entrepreneurial shops out of business, but that is just fine with Glenn Beck. One of the other three stooges of Beck's morning zoo radio program, Stu noted, “Wal-Mart sales, domestic sales are responsible for about 2.2% of our nation’s GDP.” For Beck and his fellow stooges, the corporate interest trumps the public interest every time. Stu didn't mention how many entrepreneurs that Wal*Mart has put out of business or how far below a living wage the pay their employees. That information doesn't belong in corporate propaganda.
Previously on this Review, it was argued that Glenn Beck has become a cult of personality. This follow-up piece will demonstrate the extent a handful of his devoted and passionate reactionary followers will go to in order to smear this blogger and critic of Mr. Beck. Facts do not matter to these people, only what they believe seems to matter to them. Thus, they use the activity history in the Disqus comment dashboard to follow and attack this reviewer anywhere they can find comments posted about Beck. Several examples below show the childish, sleazy and deceitful qualities of these fanatical followers of the proven liar and hypocrite, Glenn Beck.
has a cult following of attack dogs
On a story about Beck moving the location of his Restoring "Courage" rally in Israel on Mediaite, comments were posted by this blogger as "Veritas Praetoriani," the guardian of the truth. It did not take long for the character assassins in Beck's troop of fanatical followers to begin their assault. Especially deceitful, sleazy and mentally disturbed (based upon the creepiness of her nasty, cruel and hypocritical rhetoric) is a so-called "momwith5kids." She wrote several base comments of attack as follows:
To the smear artists that are Glenn Beck's ardent followers, calling a man Vicky is a winning strategy. The hypocrisy of her sleazy, deceitful attacks can be found by observing her comment history. She believes herself to by a "Christian." It's unclear where in the Bible Jesus told his followers to smear others and behave like a mentally disturbed fanatic toward His critics. A couple more examples will amply demonstrate the disturbing nature of this woman's personal attacks:
Momwith5kids projects her own need and worst qualities onto this critic, blind to the creepy quality of her own mental condition. In that sense, she is replicating Beck's behavior.
This woman comes across on some sites as a sweet, innocent lady, but that facade gets undermined by the rage and hatred she has of someone pointing out that her hero and leader is a liar and a hypocrite, as follows:
Her rage at this blogger is not particularly special. Of course, she, if the person really is a woman, is hardly the only so-called Beckerhead engaged in this kind of fanatical character assassination. This is a conspiracy, so another "person" is the anonymous coward and racist (claimed President Obama is "your boy") "Benny_Hill." He is the childish minion that initiated the elementary school, playground bully tactic of calling Victor "Vicky." The number he puts after the name signifies, he claims, this blogger's IQ. Apparently, someone running a blog and researching and writing to show how Beck deceives his audience and repeatedly demonstrates hypocrisy does not -- according to this racist follower of Beck -- have the mental ability to wipe himself up after defecation. This has been pointed out to this sleazy character assassin; but he doesn't change his tactics, ever. This comment from him was repeated over and over at least seven times, no matter what the content of the comment he was reacting to:
Again, there seems to be more than a little projection going on when his comment conveys a lack of "cogent argument" or much in the way of critical intelligence.
Finally, the woman, who attempted blatant intimidation of this blogger on Beck's website by posting the home address and phone number there and writing to ask if anyone had noticed the "car parked down the street" as if she or someone were stalking me, also writes personal attacks that aim to smear the character of this blogger.
These people all seem to share with Glenn Beck a deep seated hatred for the President. One more comment from this attack dog:
And of course, the obnoxious master of the ad hominem attack, Todd Scheller followed that comment with some sleaze of his own:
Todd's favorite tactic is to accuse The Glenn Beck Review of "lying." He "proves" this, for example, by making a theory a "lie." One another Mediaite story where this same line of attack continues, Todd posted:
The link that Todd is pointing to is a post where a theory, stated as a theory, was offered as to why Beck was not allowed to finish his contract. That Fox CEO, Roger Ailes, has stated that Beck was pushed out because he "need[s] people focused on a daily television show" does not register with Todd. He believes what Glenn Beck claims, which suggests that Todd believes what he wants to as previously documented here. In order to smear the blogger and put the credibility into question, Todd, who once wrote that he doesn't "give a shit" that Beck lied about having written his slogan about truth, asserts that a theory is a "lie." He has made the same deceitful claim about insults (of momwith5kids), bad jokes and a mistake which was acknowledged and corrected. For character assassin Todd, these are all "lies."
On the same story where that quote from Todd was posted, another, formerly documented and devoted, reactionary Beckerhead "doodaddio" continues the smearing of this blogger:
Apparently, the lack of maturity on his part does not register. Of course, if someone is anonymous and has one purpose, to personally attack someone who criticizes his hero/cult figure/leader/messiah (take your pick), then the ends justifies the means. Ethics or factual accuracy matter not a bit.
It doesn't matter to these people that their assaults demonstrate to any objective observer that Glenn Beck has become a cult of personality, that their attacks reflect poorly on Mr. Beck, that they are acting like elementary school bullies or that they are posting bald-faced lies in order to smear this blogger. Like bullies at any age, the enjoyment is in piling on, kicking the target and feeling like they belong (to a cyber gang of bullies united in their support for Mr. Beck). Oh, what "fun" it is to take on the 21st Century's Joseph Goebbels, Glenn Beck.
Update, 8/09/11: Todd continues using the history aspect of the "activities" feature to track where I comment about anything and wage his sleazy flame war of character assassination against this blogger. In order to use this to counter Todd's assertions and not need to retype the same defense against Todd's sleazy attacks over and over, the following is what Todd is referring to when he typed, for example recently on a Mediaite story board regarding a Fox Red Eye discussion about V.P. Gore's call for an American spring, "Nice job on the personal attacks against me and every one else that refutes your lies." Following are the "lies" that Todd is referring to, but first, Todd wants to have a lawyer sue me for libeling him, so it is important to understand that the following list was not copied with Cnt-C, which would allow for modification after pasting into this post. It was "photo" copied using the Jing application. No changes of content are possible using Jing. Also, there was no personal attack on Todd. It was a warning that is needed at the end of every comment written using Disqus warning other readers what is coming from Beck's ad-hoc army of character assassins that read in part:
Glenn Beck loves to hate-monger about Al Gore, so expect his minions here, Benny Hill, Sandie, Todd Scheller, So There, doodaddio and Morgan La Fe to continue their flame war against me. It's sad and pathetic that I have to issue this warning. They are engaged in a campaign of smear against me because I posted comments on his site to make the case that Beck is a liar, hypocrite, fraud and ignorant genius of reactionary propaganda. They not only do not agree, they are committed to undermining my credibility with smear and character assassination everywhere I comment on the Disqus system. Their assaults have lead to another description of Mr. Beck: he's become a cult of personality.
If there is a distortion there, it may be the idea that Beck "loves" to hate-monger. Perhaps he merely enjoys it. At any rate, this list of "lies" as accused by Todd is countered point by point below. 1) Writing Seals instead of the accurate SEALS is an honest and trivial mistake.
2) momwith5kid's attacks were so pernicious and threatening that she was banned from Mediaite. She once wrote that she wanted me to fall into my pond and drown and once asked if my wife knew that I'm on the "down-low," i.e., secretly bisexual. Todd doesn't know that an insult is not a lie, and he never took issue with any of her lies about me. Todd exhibits double standards a lot, especially since he doesn't "give a shit" that Beck lied and he rationalizes many of Beck's lies. (See comments by Todd after post reviewing one segment of Beck's show on Fox for an example. "...Oh Victor, but it did contradict Obama's foreign policy.")
3) What Todd is referring to was a joke and it was identified as a joke. For all anyone knows, Jesus did have sex with a sheep. Todd doesn't "know" otherwise; Todd cannot distinguish between beliefs and facts. The joke was written to shock the Beckerheads and demonstrate that many of Beck's "jokes" are not funny to some people, such as when he "joked" about assassinating the Speaker of the House, Micheal Moore and Congressman Rangel. Needless to write, they missed that point.
4) What Todd is calling "spam" are links to this Review that reinforce my comments there. I did make the correction on Beck's website that spam can also be religious or political. In general spam is defined, according to Wikipedia as "Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of newsgroups or users." Backing up the claim, "Glenn Beck is a hypocrite" with a link to supporting evidence is hardly commercial, political, religious, irrelevant or inappropriate.
5) This is subjective and largely a matter of opinion. The President claims that his favorite president is Lincoln, and most progressives no longer see Obama as progressive. The fact is, Lincoln was instrumental in freeing the blacks from slavery, and that was radical, political progress in how it changed property rights for slave owners.
6) I did once claim that I coined the phrase yellow propaganda, but I also acknowledged the mistake and stood corrected many times before Todd added this to his list. It was a mistake, and it was pointed out to Todd that if he could not distinguish between a mistake and a lie, then he is "too stupid for words." That did not stop Todd from making his deceitful assertion on Beck's website. Todd never addresses the fact that Beck is a yellow propagandist.
7) Todd is expressing his ignorance as a fact. Some of the story boards on Beck's website limited the number of comments that I could make; some did not. One thing that is certain, only I could know this in my case. Todd is asserting his ignorance on the matter as knowledge of facts that I have wrong.
8) See 7. I know that many of my comments on Beck's website would not be there after reloading the page. Todd cannot possibly know whether that is the case or not. Todd's ignorance does not make for my lie.
9) Todd is making an opinion I offered, an opinion that he oversimplified and distorted, into a "lie." Todd does not know the difference between an opinion and a purposeful deceptive statement. Todd also does not seem to care that Beck offers a lot of absurd opinions. Again, Todd routinely practices double standards with Beck's critic.
11) Both Sandie and momwith5kids have published my home address and phone number on Beck's website which many consider cyber stalking. Sandie also once asked if I had noticed "the car parked up the street" from my house in an attempt to intimidate me.
12) Todd lies when he claims that I lie. It is an effort to smear this critic of his cult leader, or whatever Beck is to Todd. If I screw up the facts, and who has never done that, I will and have admitted it.
Why is Todd so eager to smear this blogger and undermine my credibility? Because Todd is a devoted toady of Mr. Beck. He is emotionally attached to Beck in a manner that serves to reinforce my claim, again, that Glenn Beck has become a cult of personality. He cannot stand, cannot bear to face the truth about Beck. Todd's efforts to smear this blogger is one way that he avoids the cognitive dissonance that would accompany realizing that Beck is a liar and a hypocrite.
Update, 6/30/2012: A fairly new rabid follower of Glenn Beck is now engaged in malicious defamation of character. It's not surprising given her Disqus name:
"It's not libel when it's true." Then she calls me a child molester, i.e., "Sandusky man." This woman is one of the most malicious and vicious character assassins I've encountered so far. I suspect that she's momwith5kids, but Internet anonymity makes it impossible to tell. At any rate, it's time to exploit the anonymity of Disqus and "disappear."
