Tag Archives: Rush Limbaugh

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Daddy Dittohead is still dead

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CAIRO, Ill. – I am staying in the neighborhood of one of this country’s most despicable political commentators. Fortunately, he no longer is poisoning our airwaves with his venomous rhetoric.

The reference is to the late Rush Limbaugh, who I presume is buried in Cape Girardeau, Mo. He died some years back of cancer. The disease silenced his foul mouth but sadly his notions remain in the hearts and minds of the Limbaugh Dittoheads who used to hang on this individual’s words.

I had heard that Limbaugh could be a marvelous dinner companion. The critique of the archconservative talker’s social graces came from some of his liberal friends in the media. They liked the guy … even as they were able to criticize his rants regularly.

My latest post-Kathy Anne’s passing journey now has me en route home to North Texas. It has been a marvelous two weeks on the road. Toby the Puppy and I were able to see a beloved family member near Fort Bragg, N.C., and dear friends in Roanoke, Va., and Charleston, W. Va. We visited some fabulous exhibits and cast our gaze on magnificent countryside.

I found a hotel in Cairo, thinking it offered me a good break from the road. And it did.

Then I spotted its location on a map and learned that it is right next to Cape Girardeau. I shall stipulate that I don’t hold the nice folks in this region accountable for the trash that came from Daddy Dittohead.

However, full disclosure requires me to admit that I considered finding Limbaugh’s grave and then desecrating it in some fashion. I did not and I will do no such thing.

I am content just to trash his memory on this blog.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news, national news

Here’s a harsh view for you to consider

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I posted an item just a little while ago about the late Rush Limbaugh — and yes, it feels strange to describe him as such.

I didn’t want to fire off an epithet-filled response to his death from cancer. Instead, I will share the following piece from Rolling Stone magazine. It says what I feel and I’ll just leave it for someone else to say. Then I’ll just get the heck out of the way.

Rush Limbaugh Did His Best to Ruin America – Rolling Stone

Take it away, Bob Moser.

media news

Goodbye, Rush

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com 

My smart phone news feed chirped at me this morning as I was returning home from a newspaper assignment in Farmersville. I took just a moment to see what was there: Rush Limbaugh has died of cancer at age 70.

I’ve been thinking ever since about what I ought to say about that. I will spare the invective I have used to comment previously about Limbaugh to offer only this.

Donald Trump called him a “legend.” Well … he isn’t.

Limbaugh earned his chops as a right-wing radio commentator/talk show host. He had the dubious distinction of telling falsehoods over the air, such as fomenting the lie about former President Obama’s place of birth and questioning whether he was constitutionally qualified to run for president of the United States.

He told enough lies, then, to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump. By then, though, he was stricken with the cancer that would kill and, so, Trump rewarded him for saying nice things about the president.

Limbaugh’s impact on the American body politic is unmistakable. He did not advance the cause of civil discourse or understanding of complicated issues of the day.

I won’t miss him.

There. It took quite a bit for me to mostly forgo the epithets I used to toss at him, which is far better than he ever gave to those with whom he disagreed.

So long, Daddy Dittohead.

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How does he MAGA?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

How in the world does Donald J. Trump “make America great again” when he spends two hours on a radio talk show?

Yep, the commander in chief went on the air today with Rush “Daddy Dittohhead” Limbaugh. During his time on the radio, Trump managed to tell one of the biggest and most dangerous whoppers of all.

He said we have a “cure” for the COVID-19 virus that felled him and the first lady. Yes, he said that. The drug cocktail he took made him well enough to go back to the White House after spending only 70 hours at Walter Reed Medical Center. It not only did that, he said, but it cured him of the disease.

Cured him?

Medical experts were quick today to declare that there is no “cure” for the coronavirus that has killed 214,000 Americans. However, members of the Trumpkin Corps will accept their guy’s declaration as gospel.

However, I cannot help but wonder yet again: If Donald Trump is going to make America great again, how is he able to spend so much time on the air swapping lies with Rush Limbaugh?

medical news, Uncategorized

Ain’t no ‘panic’ being conconcted here, Mr. POTUS

Donald Trump continues to make me sick to my stomach.

He has joined a leading right-wing radio blowhard, Rush Limbaugh, in suggesting that national Democratic Party leaders are seeking to create panic among Americans over the coronavirus outbreak.

I just want to remind the president that the coronavirus is a deadly strain of infection that has spread around the world. It has now touched every continent on Earth … except Antarctica.

I am also one who doesn’t want to see the markets reacting as they are reacting. My retirement fund is disappearing before my eyes. I don’t know if it’s coming back. I hope it does, but — as Trump himself is fond of saying — you never know.

Instead of blaming the other party, Mr. President, I prefer to hear you say with some detail what you’re intending to do to help stem the infectious tide that is threatening to overtake us.

No more giving short shrift to the medical experts who say we’re heading for a potentially serious pandemic. No more platitudes — and that’s all they are — about our “very smart” medical minds. No more handing off the leadership of this fight to a known science denier, none other than Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “incompetent” and said she is whipping up the frenzy to stir opposition to his administration. Good grief, man! Get over the impeachment thing!

Concentrate on the crisis of the moment and turn the medical geniuses loose to find some answers to how we cope with this frightening medical emergency.

medical news, national news

Now it’s ‘Doctor Dittohead’?

Rush Limbaugh isn’t a doctor but he seems to be portraying one on the radio air.

The gasbag/radio talker/political bloviator now compares the coronavirus to “the common cold” and says the virus is being “weaponized” to make Donald John Trump look bad.

Listen up, Daddy Dittohead: The common cold ain’t killing anyone. The coronavirus death toll is climbing steadily. The Tokyo Olympics might have to move to another continent, given the virus has taken root in China.

Limbaugh, someone I usually don’t take seriously enough to offer a response, needs to stick to his usual stash of topics on which to offer his ignorant and imbecilic rants.

 

national news

I should have known better

I have been advised that an item I posted on this blog is the product of a “fake” social media meme.

It involved Rush Limbaugh and a racist quote that had been attributed to him. I took the blog item down.

I let my outrage at Limbaugh getting a Presidential Medal of Freedom interfere with my better judgment. I sincerely regret my error.

Now … on to the next thing. I’ll take greater care.

national news

Does Rush Limbaugh deserve this exalted honor?

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Rush Limbaugh is arguably perhaps the most divisive and polarizing media figure in the United States.

Does he really and truly deserve to be honored with the nation’s highest civilian honor? Has this fellow really contributed to the cultural well-being of this country, has he really made a positive contribution to the furtherance of this country’s great ideals?

I’ll set aside the bizarre manner in which Donald John Trump bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh, having the first lady hang the medal around Limbaugh’s neck during the State of the Union speech.

I want to examine the actual impact that Limbaugh has had on political discourse. He has helped coarsen it. He has cheapened it beyond what I long have recognized.

Yes, the man is suffering from lung cancer. The nature of his public announcement earlier this week suggests he well might not have much time left. I don’t like watching anyone suffer from painful disease.

However, the stunt that Trump pulled off by honoring Limbaugh with the Medal of Freedom just cannot go unchallenged.

Limbaugh has been a spokesman for the “birther” movement that also included Donald Trump; you know, the movement that challenge whether Barack Obama was constitutionally qualified to run for president. Limbaugh has hurled countless racist taunts at critics. He has mocked the teenage daughter of a president. Limbaugh has trashed in the most personal terms public officials who adhere to policies that do not comport with his own.

Limbaugh’s public career has been built on division, rancor and anger.

This is worth saluting with an honor that has gone to likes of, oh, Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks?

I think not.

However, the deed is done. He won’t give it back. Donald Trump won’t demand he surrender this high honor.

I just fear terribly that for as long as he is president, Donald Trump is going to hand out this exalted tribute to other political hacks.

national news

SOTU shows the nation’s stark and deep divide

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Well now … just how divided is the United States of America?

It’s pretty damn divided, based on the performance that took place in the House of Representatives chamber full of lawmakers, about half of whom want the nation’s current president removed from office.

There he was, Donald John Trump during his State of the Union speech, awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a highly controversial radio talker, Rush Limbaugh — who I have acknowledged is battling an advanced form of lung cancer. I stand by my good wishes in his fight against the disease. However, watching the first lady hang the medal around Limbaugh’s neck made me cringe.

He has spewed hate speech for as long as I can remember. He has done not a single thing to earn the nation’s highest civilian honor. There he was, though, soaking up the love from the side of the House chamber that endorses his fiery rhetoric.

And then there was Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House impeachment movement against Trump, tearing up the text of Trump’s speech in a dramatic show of petulance at the end of POTUS’s remarks.

Mme. Speaker, you did not need to do that in such a dramatic display. Yes, we all get that she is angry at Trump, but these public demonstrations lend nothing to the effort we all should seek to heal this country’s deep — and I hope not mortal — political wounds.

Trump fed his political base a healthy dose of the red meat it craves. He blasted the criminals who enter the country illegally without ever mentioning all the undocumented immigrants who have contributed to our nation while living in fear of deportation. He stood strong for the Second Amendment. He blasted socialism as a failed ideology.

And, of course, he took the expected digs at the “previous administration,” continuing his ongoing campaign to denigrate the work of President Obama and his team, who rescued the nation from its economic free-fall when they took office in 2009.

Donald John Trump has shown us once again that he intends to keep seeking to divide us. I wasn’t proud of what I witnessed.

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Time to put politics aside to wish this man well

I have stated my share — maybe more than my share — of disagreements with Rush Limbaugh over the years.

I won’t go there today.

Limbaugh is arguably the most well-known radio political talk show host in the United States. He announced today he has “advanced lung cancer.” He is taking some time off the air but vows to return soon to continue his ultra right-wing commentary on the issues of the day.

It would be my hope that all of us, even those of us who do not listen to Limbaugh, could set aside our political differences. I want to wish this fellow well as he fights this hideous disease.

Many of speak of a return to political civility. Limbaugh isn’t one of them. He rants, rails, vents and bloviates at everything and everyone with whom he disagrees. Were he to read my blogs, he would level his invective at me as well.

This isn’t the time to rant. It is a time to understand that the United States of America is a beacon for those who seek to speak their mind. They are unafraid of those who oppose them, just as they welcome those who favor them.

I want to salute Rush Limbaugh for his fearlessness. It’s an American tradition.

I wish Rush well. I want him back in the game. I want him to continue offering his world view just so I can continue to disagree with him … respectfully, of course.