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(50:13) Cyclosporiasis and Taylor Farms, with Kathy Byrnes – LISTEN
I listen to right-wing radio so you don’t have to. My “favorites” are Clay Travis and Buck Sexton — the two MAGA bros that took Rush Limbaugh’s place five years ago. They’re on 550 iHeart Media stations and boast an audience of 6.7 million per month!
I tune in several times a week, and rarely do I like what I hear. So, I was shocked last week when Buck Sexton said this about Trump’s July 16 claim that China paid US journalists to write negative things about him (at the 4:05 mark of this clip):
“Ok. Who? I want to know who. If you’re telling me there are journalists who received money in order to write negative stories … if you have this information, let’s know this information.”
Sexton is asking a question no one in Trump’s inner circle wants anyone to ask — especially a prominent ally of the administration.
Because it’s a lie. Trump didn’t name a single US journalist paid by China. Why? Because there are none. Zero.
Sure, China spends all kinds of money on disinformation campaigns trying to manipulate US public opinion. So does Russia. So do we. According to an online search, so do about 80 countries!
But China buying off an American journalist? I fact-checked that claim, and it is demonstrably false. Independent investigations, media reports, and US election security agencies are unable to name a single American reporter paid by the Chinese government.
Back to Sexton. Trump claimed in his speech that 278,000 non-citizens are on US voter roles. Here’s Sexton challenging Trump to provide specific numbers on illegal votes being cast (at 8:51 of this clip):
“On the issue of the people who are illegals who are registered to vote, or foreigners basically who are registered to vote: Are they voting? If they are voting, tell us about the voting. If they are voting, why can’t we catch them voting? So this is the thing. He’s laid out this information, and a lot of it is oh my gosh, there are vulnerabilities. Ok. Are the vulnerabilities being exploited though is the next step. And I need to know if they have that information or not, because that’s obviously the most critical thing is whether they’re actually acting on this, right. It’s one thing to say a lot of people could be voting illegally. Are they voting illegally?
Wow. That’s from a talking head heard by millions of listeners each month on 550 stations. How many influencers in the MAGA universe are now asking the same question?
And for the record, the answer is “no.” Non-citizens aren’t voting — certainly not at a level to have any impact on elections, For example, to the specific issue of mail-in voting (which Trump also lies about in his July 16 speech), The Brookings Institute found an “average total mail voting fraud percentage across the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 general elections of only 0.000043%, or about four cases of mail voting fraud out of every 10 million mail votes.”
So, good for Sexton for asking the right questions. Let’s see if he gets fired by iHeart Media (the largest commercial radio broadcaster in the US) for daring to challenge The Leader.
We need to be clear-eyed about what’s going on here. Trump’s July 16 speech wasn’t about the 2020 election. It was another step in laying the groundwork to cast doubt on the outcome of the November general election.
Ty Cobb — an attorney who served as the special counsel during the first Trump administration — spoke candidly, and chillingly, about what the speech was really about (at 1:15 of this clip):
“Well I think tonight’s speech is intended to add the predicate he needs to declare an emergency at or about the time of the election. As you know, Steve Bannon and Todd Blanche have suggested that there will be ICE agents at the polls. I think that’s a virtual certainty. Whether that will include the national guard or not, we don’t know. But anything to intimidate minority voters, particularly immigrant voters. And also I think anything that allows them to try to seize voting machines as Trump wanted to do in 2020.”
Our response should be to each of us committing to mobilize ten eligible voters who didn’t vote in 2024. Reminder: nearly 90 million Americans who were eligible didn’t vote two years ago!
If you need one more speech to motivate you to take action, here’s Stephen Miller last week (at 17:35 of this clip):
We need “…all of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to work together to disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest, and prosecute these political terrorists that are operating in our country. It’s very important to understand that left-wing political terrorism seeks as its ultimate end the overthrow of our system and form of government. … When you look at these violent Antifa demonstrations, when you see any photograph of those assembled, to be blunt, not one of the people demonstrating looks like a normal person. Not one looks normal. They’re all deformed in some way in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism.”
Sound familiar? Adolf Hitler referred to those opposed to him as vermin, scum, parasites. Similarly, Miller dehumanizes people he regards as opponents.
It is clear where this is going. Here’s a reminder of what Pastor Martin Niemöller said AFTER the defeat of Nazism in 1945:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
For us, it’s not too late. Speak up. Get involved in the November election. If we don’t learn from history, we will be condemned to repeat it.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action. And if you’re a central Iowa resident, remember to support the local businesses and nonprofits that help underwrite this platform.
Ed Fallon
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