The notion that Rush Limbaugh's brand of vitriol, hate and division didn't end when he did, is appalling in and of itself. But now we learn ('Limbaugh Show Will Continue Using Archives', WSJ, Business Exchange, Feb. 18-20, p, B5) that this bombastic buffoon's execrable, hate-filled drivel will survive him, given that according to Premiere Networks (his distributor) the Rush Limbaugh Show: "Will continue using archived segments and clips until his audience is prepared to say goodbye."
Yeah, but hogs that love rolling in shit never tire of that pastime, so it's doubtful the Dittoheads will be any different and "tire" of recycled Limbaugh talk radio hog shit.
Wasn't it enough that the name of Rush Limbaugh, nee "El Rushbo", a.k.a. the human swine, will live forever in infamy after decades? Does Premiere Networks really need to resurrect Limbaugh's hundred thousand hours worth of daily insults, racist putdowns, attacks on women, the disabled and even children traumatized by school shootings? Who can forget- some 8 years ago - the odious spectacle of this slobbering hog imitating kids crying in fear of another school shooting? El Rushbo sputtered in a mocking, sneering voice, "Awww, they don't wanna die...", this after the Sandy Hook slaughter that saw 20 school kids gunned down in their classrooms. To Rush it was just fodder for his ridicule and the amusement of his deplorable dittoheads.
Then there was the savage attack on Sandra Fluke who - in a March, 2012 appearance before a House Committee - e.g.
And what did the cigar- smoking swine do? He launched a 3-day attack on her character, including barfing slanderous bollocks, e.g.
"It makes her a slut, right? She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex,"
After which his diatribe continued as his gurgling lowbrow apes reveled in the procession of bon mots. Especially after he joked that he'd: "buy these women all the aspirin they want to hold between their legs." Making his audience of misogynistic Mandrills howl with glee. But as I pointed out in a March 3, 2012 post:
"This fat, slobbering pig clearly didn't grasp the biology of women in conjunction with the use of contraceptives. Which had to be taken every day to be effective, unlike the Viagra El Rushbo was on (and busted for carrying undeclared into a Dominican airport some years ago)."
To its credit, Georgetown defended Ms. Fluke, calling the comments of Limbaugh "misogynistic, vitriolic and a misrepresentation of the position of our student."
Following Georgetown's intervention on Sandra's behalf the predatory porker issued a halfhearted apology as advertisers fled his show. In fact, they ought to have fled his 3-hour daily parade of verbal vomit years earlier. This after the swine mocked actor Michael J. Fox - who suffers from Parkinson's disease- for his appearance in a campaign ad. In one instalment, the bloated toad mocked Fox's tremors, croaking:
"He is moving all around and shaking and this is purely an act. I have never seen Michael J. Fox display any of these symptoms of the disease. He can control himself enough to stay in the frame of the picture and he can control himself enough to keep his eyes on the lens, the teleprompter. But his head and shoulders are moving all over the place. This is really shameless, folks. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.”
The crudeness speaks for itself and is redolent of Trump and his own attack on a disabled reporter during his 2016 campaign. As one 'Daily Beast' contributor put it:
"Is it no surprise that, a decade later, a political candidate would mock a journalist’s disability at a rally and the act would help him win the presidency?"
As the DB writer went on to aver: "Accusing the actor of faking his Parkinson’s symptoms, all because he chose to appear in an ad supporting someone on the other side of the political aisle from Limbaugh, isn’t just obviously heinous, its patronizing."
But this is the Limbaugh many had come to know and why he had built up such a reservoir of hate on the left. Including for his incessant downplaying of Covid 19 as "just another kind of flu" -- thereby directly contributing to a significant fraction of the 500 thousand plus Covid deaths thus far. Contrary to Dennis Prager, another Right wing screech monkey ('The Left Hated Rush Limbaugh Because He Had Their Number', Feb. 18, p. A15) that he "wasn't a mean -spirited man". Only "sometimes" getting carried away- as with Ms. Fluke- and then, well he did apologize. The truth? The left had this bellicose Bozo's number from the get go and never let up.
Including his penchant for crass opportunism, who'd stoop to naysaying the virus to grab more listeners - never mind many ending up 6 ft. under from following his advice. Which makes one wonder what alternate universe Prager inhabits, given that Limburger paved the way for the incivility and polarization Trump used to gain ascendancy. And in the process drag the nation through a sewer of degraded politics and debased civic space from which it may take years to recover - if we ever do.
At least WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan ('Rush Limbaugh's Complicated Legacy', Feb. 20-21, p. A13) - though at the outset she lets a dotty sentimentality blind her to many of his character defects - finally admits that appeasement of his "dittoheads" led to political polarization and a measure of dishonesty. She is also smart enough to see that Reagan's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine is basically what turned a humdrum talk show host into a literal Reich wing Kraken - poisoning the U.S. political landscape. And setting the stage for the subsequent propaganda blitz and fake news torrent from FOX News.
Recall that Fairness Doctrine, starting in 1948, mandated that holders of public broadcast licenses give airtime to both sides of important issues. Thus, given public property was being used it established a real public interest obligation from broadcasters. Its repeal let loose the furies of hell and the ensuing downward slide in civility as Noonan admits, e.g. "In 1987 the doctrine was abolished, but I don't know... Has anything in our political culture gotten better since it was removed? Aren't things more polarized, more bitter, less stable? I'm not sure it was good for America."
Well, indeed, it wasn't "good" - meaning advancing the nation's interests- because it allowed distortions, lies and propaganda to be propagated with impunity in the name of perverted free speech. It basically set the stage for the mendacity of Trump and culminating in his seditious efforts to overthrow a duly elected government with an insurrection.
In a real sense, Limbaugh and his multitude of Reich wing clones - like Dennis Prager- are responsible not only for the ongoing degradation in civility but of cratering Americans' critical thinking faculties. Including lowering mean I.Q. The fact millions of dittoheads remain glued to the repetitive grievance machine alone, testifies to the unlikelihood of ever reading a book, or even a newspaper. Hence, of increasing their mental acuity by even one erg of energy.
See Also:
by Amanda Marcotte | February 19, 2021 - 8:04am | permalink
AND:
by Heather Digby Parton | February 21, 2021 - 7:36am | permalink
by Jaime O'Neill | February 20, 2021 - 7:37am | permalink
Excerpt:
As sad as it surely is to those legions of Rush Limbaugh fans across the nation, there is a silver lining to be found in this very dark cloud. It is a maxim long and oft repeated by people who believe in American initiative and enterprise that the way to success is to "find a need and fill it." Well, Rush Limbaugh was paid $85 million a year to satisfy a need lots of Americans had for a steady radio diet of hatred, bigotry, and bad taste.
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