The hypocritical party

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On August 4, Fox News contributor and Fox News Primetime guest host Ben Domemech accused the left of hating families and childbearing, and in the next segment, he attacked the child tax credit passed by Democrats in March 2021.

A Fox host claimed that leftists hate babies, and then in the next segment bemoaned the child tax credit, championed and passed by Democrats | Media Matters for America

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Fox News host Sean Hannity sparked a Twitter firestorm when he attempted to blame President Joe Biden for the latest public health crisis due to the rapidly spreading Delta variant of COVID. During his segment on Friday, August 6, Hannity appeared to flip the script about all that transpired last year. With a screen prompt that read, "Biden squanders Trump's COVID-19 progress," Hannity accused Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of pushing anti-vaccination conspiracy theories for political gain..

'So, now it's serious?': Twitter users give Hannity a history lesson after he attempts to blame Biden for COVID surge - Alternet.org

• Amazing on so many levels, after ignoring it for so long under Trump, only now it's a problem?
  
• Then the anti-vax nonsense comes from the right including many on Fox, certainly not Biden.
  
• And the regress is because of a new variant and people who refuse vaccination, which are disproportionally right-wingers.
  

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ® is calling on hospitals in Texas to postpone elective procedures just months after he issued an executive order banning mask mandates across the state.

Gov. Abbott pleads with doctors to postpone elective surgeries after banning mask mandates in Texas - Alternet.org

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been vehemently critical of the bipartisan infrastructure bill proposed in the U.S. Senate, slamming it as "reckless." But according to Houston Chronicle reporter J.R. Jordan, that didn't stop the far-right GOP senator from trying to include his own highway project in it..

Ted Cruz slammed infrastructure plan as 'reckless' — after trying to include his own highway project in it - Alternet.org

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The American Orbánistas are likewise revealing themselves. Though they are familiar with the folly of political tourism, they are lining up now to laud a leader who no longer even pretends to be democratic. The nations best prepared for the future, he declared in a 2018 address, were “not liberal, not liberal democracies, maybe not even democracies.” The new state Hungary is building, Orbán said “is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state.” Freedom House agrees. It no longer lists Hungary among the world’s democracies.

Orban used his supermajority in parliament to increase the size of the constitutional court from 11 to 15 (appointing four new members of the Fidesz party), and then lowered the mandatory retirement age for judges and prosecutors, freeing up slots for party members. Fidesz has used its control of the judiciary to hound competing political parties with fines and investigations. Orbán has also taken control of 80 percent of Hungary’s news media, and these crony-controlled outlets now constitute an enormous propaganda machine. Voting, which never had a long history in Hungary, was hamstrung by gerrymandering to give Fidesz a huge advantage. As the Economist noted, “In the general election last year, Fidesz won 67% of the parliamentary seats—maintaining its supermajority—while taking just less than half of the popular vote.” At the start of the COVID pandemic, Orbán was granted sweeping powers to rule by decree. The newly empowered state immediately made spreading “misinformation” a crime.

Orban’s nationalism is appealing to American conservatives. You can sense their excitement when he says things like “We do not want to be diverse. We do not want our own color, traditions, and national culture to be mixed with those of others.” The trouble for the American Orbánistas is that Hungary, a central European nation of 10 million, is not diverse. The United States is and—this cannot be stressed too often—always has been. The “conservatives” who thrill to talk of a monoculture are not preserving an American tradition, they are seeking to import something else..

What Orbán’s Apologists Reveal About Themselves - The Bulwark

• Parts of the left used to tout the SU, then China, Cuba, or Nigaragua. That didn't end well and they were rightly criticized for doing so.
  
• But some of those same people criticizing the left for touting these nasty regimes are now fanning over... Hungary
  

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Despite Fox News spending the better part of a year injecting anti-vaxx hysteria into America, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Wednesday tried to blame President Joe Biden for the "vaccine hesitancy" that exists almost exclusively among Republicans. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was not having any of it, and was forced to remind Doocy and America of the time Trump suggested injecting "disinfectant" into the veins of human beings to cure COVID-19: "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out, in a minute," Trump said in April of 2020. "Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection, inside, or almost a cleaning, 'cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. You're going to have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me."

Psaki claps back at Doocy over Biden's COVID response: Trump was 'suggesting people inject poison into their veins' - Alternet.org

• Another hypocrite
  

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Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts ® for opposing a mandate for the Covid-19 vaccine but not for other diseases. During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace asked Ricketts why he is fighting President Joe Biden's call for companies with 100 or more employees to require worker vaccinations for Covid-19. "I've talked to a number of people," Rickets said. "They've told me, if they make me take the vaccine, I'm just going to be fired." "You say it's a personal choice," Wallace pointed out. "In fact, to attend school in your state of Nebraska, children must be vaccinated against a number of diseases." The Fox News host then listed off the diseases which include tetanus, polio, measles, and chicken pox. "Why are those mandates that parents and your state must comply with and do comply with routinely, why is it that they're not so objectionable and such a violation of personal freedom but Biden's vaccine mandates are?"

Chris Wallace busts GOP governor for opposing vaccine mandates for Covid but not for chicken pox - Alternet.org

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Fox News’ hypocrisy is on full display in its outraged coverage of President Joe Biden’s announcement yesterday that large businesses would now be required to have their workers either be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing for COVID-19 — something that Fox News has already been doing for months.
Previously, the network had attacked Biden for instituting a similar policy for the federal workforce. But it was also first reported two months ago that Fox News has used an internal program called the “Fox Clear Pass,” in which employees who provide their proof of vaccination could bypass daily health screenings — a policy that stands in stark contrast to the network’s relentless fearmongering about vaccine passports. And three weeks ago, Fox employees were further required to all upload their vaccination status into a human resources database. Meanwhile, the network’s content has relentlessly undermined vaccination efforts, celebrated people who refuse to take the vaccines, and even encouraged the use of counterfeit vaccination cards — all acts that Fox’s own human resources department would likely frown upon.

Fox News tells viewers to “fight back” against the equivalent of Fox News’ own COVID-19 vaccination and testing practices | Media Matters for America

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US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been on paternity leave since mid-August with newborn twins, called right-wing attacks on his paternity leave “strange” and from “a side of the aisle that used to claim the mantle of being pro-family”.

The comments came after an attack by Carlson on his show. “Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child,” Tucker Carlson told his Fox News audience on Thursday. “Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed – no word on how that went.” In fact, Fox News provides paternity leave, and Carlson’s colleagues have previously praised the company’s six weeks of paid leave on-air. “They give us six weeks as dads for paternity and I’m taking that six weeks,” Fox & Friends co-host Todd Piro told his viewers in March, according to the left-leaning research center Media Matters for America. “I can’t wait to bond with my little one.” Similarly, Fox host Jesse Watters said he was “pro-paternity” after taking six weeks following the birth of his third child.

Pete Buttigieg hits back at Fox News host’s criticism of his paternity leave | Pete Buttigieg | The Guardian

• So Fox has both a vaccination mandate as well as paternity leave, but their line-up attacking Dems on both
  
• Who actually is the pro-family party?
  

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ® issued an executive order Monday banning vaccine mandates in his state, including by private entities. Abbott’s action cut across the wishes of numerous corporations in his state who had issued, or were planning, such mandates.  Some major corporations with Texas headquarters, including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, are pressing ahead with their mandate plans, putting themselves on collision course with the governor. But the bigger point is Abbott’s break with the traditional conservative belief that government should have a very limited role in regulating business.  Some corporations want a mandate; he is using the power of government to tell them they can’t have one.

The Memo: Conservatives change their tune on big government | TheHill

• They are for small government and deregulation until it becomes politically convenient to change stance..
  

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After Democrats passed their COVID-19 relief legislation earlier this year, Republicans took credit for provisions in the popular bill even though they voted against it. Now, Republican lawmakers are starting to do so again with the infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law this week. In a press release issued by his office on Monday, Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer touted funding in the bill aimed at connecting communities in the Appalachian region of the country to national interstate highways, something that will benefit his district, which encompasses the city of Birmingham.

Palmer is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. According to CNN, some members of the group are seeking to punish their 13 Republican colleagues who joined Democrats in voting for the infrastructure bill. One option under consideration is potentially moving to strip them of their committee assignments, the latest purity test in the GOP in the age of Donald Trump.

House GOP Lawmaker Takes Credit For Infrastructure Funding He Voted Against | HuffPost Latest News