Dirty Moderate with Adam Epstein

This episode we are going to talk about the total fuckery of FOX News. I'll share some of my front line observations from my time as a regular in 2019 on Trish Regan's now defunct FOX News show. It wasn't all pretty, folks, but this Dominion lawsuit? WOW...

In March 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News Network for the false claims the network pushed after the election. Those false claims were extensive: In the two-week period after Fox News declared Joe Biden the president-elect, the network questioned the results of the election or pushed conspiracy theories about it almost 800 times, including the seemingly fact-free theory that Dominion voting machines were "hacked" despite having no evidence of the alleged hacking. 

They. Knew. It. Was. A. LIE.

Here is a taste of the absolute carnival of bullshit that came out of the filing. These are actual FACTS, not some garbage theory:

• Fox star Tucker Carlson to his producer Alex Pfeiffer about Sidney Powell, one of Trump's campaign lawyers: “Powell is lying.” [11/16/20]
• Carlson to Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham replied: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.” Carlson replied: “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.” [11/19/20]
• Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch after watching Giuliani and Powell on November 19, 2020: “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear.” 
• Fox reporter Lucas Tomlinson to anchor Bret Baier: “It’s dangerously insane these conspiracy theories.” [12/1/2020]

And the list goes on and on and on.

Roughly one in five Fox News viewers trust the network less after the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems revealed text messages and emails from top figures at the network expressing doubt about former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election, according to a new poll conducted by Maru Group for Variety Intelligence Platform.  Let's see where this goes. 

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It was announced earlier this week that the Roald Dahl Story Company, which controls the rights to the late author’s books, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and The BFG in conjunction with Puffin, the books’ publisher, and a collective who campaign to make children’s literature more inclusive, intended to change the wording in these and other classics in “small and carefully considered” ways to t to ensure Dahl’s books “continue to be enjoyed by all children today.” These have apparently included changes to language regarding things like weight, mental health, gender, violent behavior, and race, and whole extra sentences added about topics such as why it’s OK for women to wear wigs, in The Witches.
Exhale... This is the fast track to Totalitarianism, folks.

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So many on the MAGA right  are less than enthused about Nikki Haley’s run for president. But the great irony here is that if she were the nominee ( and she won’t be,) she’d be the strongest GOP candidate to win back independents and moderates in the suburbs that Trump drove away.

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When well-designed institutions function properly, people thrive. Few institutions have been more ingeniously designed than the U.S. federal government via the Constitution in 1787. This auspicious beginning more than two centuries ago helps explain why the U.S. remains a magnet for opportunity seekers, students, entrepreneurs, dissidents, and persecuted believers.

Yet for decades now, America’s federal government has been underperforming. Social Security and Medicare face looming insolvency. The federal government’s “war on poverty” has failed to end poverty and arguably, has made it worse. In 2012, the United States Postal Service lost more money than the nation spent on the State Department, and Amtrak has lost money every year since being created in 1971. How can an enduring institution, so thoughtfully crafted, now produce such poor results?

John Nantz, Author of Rediscovering Republicanism: Renewing America with Our Founding Vision and Value sits down with Adam to explore if stripping things down to rediscovering and re-applying the OG American Republicanism and tapping into that 1787 Founding Fathers energy represents the best path forward for the United States. Don’t miss this one!

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Today’s poisonous partisan divide is perilous in at least two key ways. First, it divides a country with 330 million into categories in which a majority of them don’t fit. But second, and perhaps more importantly, the Republican/Democrat cleavage consigns issues which are full of implications, moral, political or otherwise, into reductive boxes entirely hostage to groupthink.

The 2024 Presidential Election campaigns have already begun. (that wasn't a rebuttal, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that was a stump speech.) so don’t forget your civic duty, Dirty Moderates! Vote.org, Vote.org, Vote.org!

Get registered to vote if you are not already registered and help register everyone you know! Find out where the nearest voting location is and when early voting starts in your area.  Show up and make a difference, whatever you believe. That's the beauty of a democracy!

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The people who did not certify the 2020 election  are now in the levers of power, and make no mistake, that power will be weaponized. We are only 2 years out from the presidential election. Stay awake, folks. 

Democracy requires your tirelessness. Autocrats count on your apathy. 

And don’t forget: Vote.org, Vote.org, Vote.org! Get registered to vote if you’re not already and register everyone you know. You can even help them figure out where their nearest voting location is and when early voting starts…the 2024 Presidential Election campaigns have already begun.

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#dirtymoderate #savedemocracy #insurrection #politicalpod #democracy #politics #politicallyhomeless #vote 

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"Nothing Can Be Changed if it Is Not Faced."- James Baldwin

America has done some very unsavory shit. We built this country and much of its industry in part on the backs of human beings that were kidnaped and forced to endure unforgivable and horrifying lives. Sorry folks, just the facts. If we can’t acknowledge that, we can never grow or change. Putting our hands over our eyes and pretending it didn’t happen (I’m looking at you, Gov. DeSantis) doesn’t make it go away. It’s insulting. And frankly, awful. 

As a Miami Beach born and raised Dirty Moderate, watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) face yet more criticism after his administration rejected an AP African Studies course being taught in Florida’s schools in the latest curriculum-related authoritarian action is sickening.

In a letter to the College Board Florida Partnership his administration stated:

“the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” 

Wow. Just wow.

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Sometimes a document is just a document.

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The once great party of Lincoln is now a cesspool of buffoonery, lies, and incompetence, and on the eve of the anniversary of the insurrection, with our government in shambles, America weeps.

Every one of these ass clowns who are holding the people’s House hostage to their rabid extremism should have their salaries docked until they promise to do what they were elected to do: serve the people. No play? Then no pay.

Exhale…

Does anyone remember what they are there to do?

Get your shit together, Congress. The people deserve better.

~Adam

Don’t forget Vote.org, Vote.org, Vote.org! Get registered to vote if you’re not already and register everyone you know. You can even help them figure out where their nearest voting location is and when early voting starts…the 2024 Presidential Election campaigns have already begun.

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Politics is always downwind of culture. And for 2022's final installment of Stay Dirty, Stay Moderate, Adam weaves the parallels between Henry James's "The Portrait of a Lady" and the HBO critically-acclaimed series "The White Lotus" with the delusion of American culture.

We'll be back after the holidays but until then, don’t forget: Vote.org, Vote.org, Vote.org! Get registered to vote if you’re not already and register everyone you know. You can even help them figure out where their nearest voting location is and when early voting starts…the 2024 Presidential Election campaigns have already begun.

Thanks for listening, Dirty Moderate Nation! Subscribe to Substack for first dibs at podcast episodes, behind the scenes video clips, and access to the heady and fabulous Dirty Moderate Nation newsletter with in-depth coverage of the political landscape, actionable ways to make a difference, random dad jokes, endless reminders to vote, and all things “fight like hell to save democracy” related. Thank you for helping us save democracy one episode at a time.

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