I Thought Birtherism Was Stillborn -- But It's Alive! Part Three

On December 19th, in part one of this series about the life, near death and resurrection of Birtherism, I pointed out that, despite the firestorm created by the Birthers over the alleged foreign birthplace of the country's first black President, there was almost no talk at all about the fact that Ted Cruz, the junior Senator from Texas, was
born in a foreign country.

Then, about two or three weeks after that post, all of a sudden, everyone was talking about it.
In part two of the series, I pointed out the hypocrisy of the conservative media complex -- which talked ceaselessly, nonstop and around the clock about Obama being born in Kenya -- but was stunningly silent about Cruz.
And all this despite the fact that the mountain of evidence showing Obama's birthplace as Hawaii rose much higher than the point of reasonable doubt, while the birthplace of Cruz shows, with no doubt whatsoever, that he was born in Canada,
a foreign country.

What I didn't do, in part two, was brag about how I predicted that the birther issue was about to explode, as evidenced by the title of my post:
I Thought Birtherism Was Stillborn -- But It's Alive!

How did I know this was going to happen?
Because, ever since he announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination, I've been paying very close attention to Trump and the things he says. I noticed that, every once in a while, he would be asked about Ted Cruz's citizen status. I've been particularly interested in how he would answer this question, for obvious reasons. Early on in his run, he would say "well, maybe it might be an issue, I don't know." Then, at one point, weeks later, I heard him say "this has been looked into, it checks out, he's OK." But then when Cruz started to close in on him in the polls, he started saying "it might be a problem for him, someone might contest it." Now he's flat out saying "he was born in Canada. The Constitution says you have to be born in the United States."

At about the midway point in his transition from "everything checks out, he's OK" and "He's got a problem," I thought I figured out why and how he was finessing this question.

The Donald pays very close attention to the right-wing media. I know this because I pay very close attention to said media. If you listen to Trump, you would recognize all the favorite phrases, talking points and propaganda that you hear from the right-wing media.

During his 2011 run for the nomination he was in daily contact with Joseph Farah the editor of WorldNetDaily, the right-wing conspiracy web site that was the biggest promoter of the "Obama born in Kenya" allegations. This is where he got the other ridiculous rumors (all of which were thoroughly debunked by the fact checking organizations) that he repeated as if they were certain facts.
The Donald was named 'Man Of The Year' last month by these nuts. Read about it here:
www.rightwingwatch.org/content/worldnetdaily-names-trump-man-year-compares-him-founding-fathers

The people on this web site are fucking crazy, completely out of their minds.
This is from drudge.com (not to be confused with Matt Drudge):

But Farah's and WND's conspiracy theories do not end with the president's birthplace. In a 2011 column, he accused Muslims of promoting a "homosexual agenda" to help destroy America. That same year, he called a minor earthquake in Washington, D.C. a punishment from God for "disobedience and indifference to our Creator," while warning that the city "deserves" worse.

In 2012, he claimed that Obama's re-election would mean that he and other conservatives would be "hunted down like dogs." And earlier this month, Farah wrote on the site that the Obama administration is "facilitating, enabling, and empowering" terrorist attacks "by jihadis."

According to Right Wing Watch, Trump is scheduled to speak at a March conference for Farah's Western Center for Journalism, at which Farah will be honored by his own group as a "Hero of Freedom."

Yes, these are the people Trump get's his information from. Great judgement, huh? He might be the next President of the United States.

Anyway, ever since 2011, he's also been a regular guest on Fox News. And because he regularly bashes Obama and repeats all the stuff they say, he has been well liked by all the right-wing radio talkers.

Speaking of the radio talkers, Trump understands the power they have over the people whose votes he is courting. They are the ones who can get inside the heads of those voters and tell them what to think. These radio hosts each have three hours a day where they can, unchallenged, manipulate their audience's emotions and make them hate Obama, Democrats and liberals. If you've ever met a ditto head or a Mark Levin or Michael Savage fan, you'd know what I mean.

Trump knows that he can even diss Fox News and Megyn Kelly as long as he stays on the good side of the radio talkers.
As much as Trump comes across as his own man, un beholden to anyone, who says what he thinks, in actuality, he will dance to the tune of the radio talkers because he knows they can destroy him if he steps out of line.

Allow me to elucidate. We all know Trump has held liberal positions on some issues. In the first Republican debate, even though he attacks Obamacare like it was spawned from the mind of Satan (even though it came from the minds over at The Heritage Foundation -- hmmm, same thing?) it was pointed out that he used to be for single payer healthcare. Instead of saying "oh, that was in the past, I've changed my mind. I now see that that's socialism, which is evil," like any other Republican would say in that position, he said "I held that position because it works very well in..." and he named a couple of countries, then continued "...but you couldn't do it in this country." (because he knows the right-wing talkers control the minds of their audience)

That was Trump being his own man and saying what he thinks. Then there was the time he was on Sean Hannity's Fox TV show. Sean was really excited about Trump's hard line positions on Mexicans and Muslims and the crude and insulting way he was expressing them. So he asks "and what about taxes? You're going to cut the top tax rates a lot, right? Do you want a flat tax?" Trump says "I think the rich should pay more, I think there should be a graduation of some kind." He then goes on to say that the tax code is a mess and "we're" going to be looking into it so it can be straightened out.

But holy shit! He actually said that on Fox News! On Hannity's show! Right to his face!
Alas, that was way back last summer. The right-wing talkers have since straitened him out on these and other heresies.
He no longer talks anything like that. He is fully on board with everything the ruling right-wing ideological elite (the radio talkers) demand that he say.
Ironically, even though he brags about being politically incorrect and not being in the pocket of political interests, he has sold out his own positions in order to become politically correct in the eyes of the right-wing talk show hosts.

Check out these articles about how the radio-talkers will criticize and warn Trump whenever he says anything that sounds like it would come from a liberal. They get especially upset when he criticizes Cruz with something that a lib would say:

www.oximity.com/article/Conservative-Radio-Hosts-Criticizing-T-1

hotair.com/archives/2015/12/14/rush-limbaugh-trumps-un-conservative-attack-on-ted-cruz-raised-a-red-flag-for-me

My point is, he knew to be very careful about bringing up that thing about Cruz being born in a foreign country because the talkers have always liked Cruz very much because he is the most ideologically pure conservative and the most (obnoxiously) outspoken Republican in Congress.
Not to mention that, doing to Cruz what he did to Obama would have been a very unpleasant thing for the talkers and their audiences to have to deal with because, among other things, it would expose their sanctimony -- meaning, it wasn't their reverence for the Constitution that motivated their accusations that the country's first black president forged his Birth Certificate.
It was just their deranged hatred of Obama.

So he knew he had to be very shrewd about how he used the birther card.
Because he so famously made such a big deal about the "Natural Born Citizen" issue the last election cycle, it was inevitable that he would be asked about Cruz. He didn't even have to bring it up himself. And we can see how, at first, he said as little as possible about it and only when asked. Then, he gradually began to elaborate. This allowed him to gauge the reaction so, if he had to, he could pull back and limit any damage. It also, eventually, became a topic for the press. Now that the cat's out of the bag, he's able to say "I didn't bring it up, I was asked by the press." And, of course, it's true. And by him saying "the Democrats will sue," it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.
Brilliant!

Stay tuned, more to come.

I Thought Birtherism Was Stillborn -- But It's Alive! Part Two

Have you heard the talk about Ted Cruz's citizenship status? If you've been watching/reading/listening to the news the past week, I'm sure you have. Interesting, huh? -- or, as they say in Canada, eh?

In my last post, from December 19, I wondered why there was hardly any talk at all -- from Trump and the press -- about Cruz's eligibility to serve as president of these United States. And up until about a week ago, there wasn't. As a matter of fact, ever since Cruz began showing signs that he coveted the office of Commander-In Chief (in early 2013) the ultra-conservative Senator from Texas seemed to be benefiting from a baffling lack of concern from, well, anyone, about the fact that he was born in a foreign country.

I mean, we had just gone through five years of angry declarations about the importance of the Constitutional requirement that (as the birthers and seemingly everyone else interpreted it) anyone seeking election to the office of President must be born on United States soil!
And despite all of the very recent and self-righteous histrionics about "the supreme authority of the Constitution," all of a sudden there was nothing but silence from the conservative media complex.

This hypocrisy was predictable, coming from the right, but what about the press? Back then, I didn't see/read/hear anything more than a few mere mentions that Cruz was born in Canada -- without any commentary as to the implications of this fact. And nothing from the libs or Dems.
But when Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014, I thought for sure there would be something said about this in relation to the firestorm we had just gone through with Obama.
However, the only thing I heard was the mere mention that he was doing it to be eligible for the Presidency -- again without anything said or explained about how this "renouncing" changed the fact that he was still born in Canada -- a foreign country.

Now, I must say that in doing research for this topic, I did come across some contemporaneous articles that talked a little about his eligibility. But I had to dig deep for them -- they weren't front page news. And almost all of the articles casually stated that, even though he was born in Canada, a foreign country, he was still a "Natural Born Citizen" because his mother was a US citizen.
Apparently, because this eligibility issue had come up before with Mitt Romney's father and a few others, a consensus of legal scholars had determined -- in their opinion -- that this was the case.

Now, my question is, why the fuck didn't anyone mention this during the attacks on Obama?
Everyone knew his mother was a US citizen. Which would have made the whole Birth Certificate question, at the most, secondary. At least to those who are now saying it's already settled law.
I didn't hear a single person mention it during that whole damn time. Did you?

Now we have every right-wing talk show blowhard who hates Obama, from Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham to Mark Levin, declaring -- loudly and with angry indignation -- that there is no question that Cruz is a Natural Born Citizen because his mother was a citizen!
They are all saying, now, that it's a stupid waste of time and we should be talking about the real important issues -- like how come Obama had his college transcripts sealed? And how come no one ever saw or knew him when he was an alleged student at Columbia University? And how did he get into Harvard?
Affirmative Action!! That's how!!

OK, I'm kidding about that last part. They didn't mention that stuff just now. But they talked the hell out of it for the whole time they were giving Birthers a platform to report on this and other critically important information. And this stuff went on for years. And it still gets mentioned, even to this day.

I have a confession to make. When I first heard that Cruz -- arguably the most repugnant politician in the entire country -- was imagining a place for himself in the Oval Office... and that he was actually born in
a foreign country... I was filled with glee!
The whole irony of the situation was so beautiful.
Here was the perfect conservative Republican that the people (who hate Obama the most) would love.
As a matter of fact, there is a precise linear correlation between these two emotions.
Here, I plotted it on a graph so you can see:

Not only is the irony and correlation perfect but so is the justice.
This was Karma.
We all know Shakespeare's line -- "hoisted by one's own petard"
Here's what that means, in English:
To be hurt or destroyed by one's own plot or device intended for another.

Unfortunately, so far, things haven't been going exactly as it should, if this were a just world.
I will elaborate further in part three of "I Thought Birtherism Was Stillborn."