deanna lorraine

just talking shit-posting riffing?

apparently not, xian wacko -->2nd on big lie antifa

trifecta 1 24

MERRI OK

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mma 1 24

Right-wing media figures are systematically attacking a variety of initiatives intended to increase racial equity and inclusion in America’s education system. Since 2021, they have attacked or rebranded certain related concepts in order to vilify them: critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and affirmative action.

Schools in Oklahoma and Florida are even starting to partner with right-wing media’s PragerU and “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty, which spread conservative propaganda in public schools. These ongoing strategic assaults from right-wing figures and outlets are poised to make education a culture war issue for the 2024 election.

• ## Right-wing media have spent recent years making CRT and DEI in schools into culture war issues

• • Media Matters noted in 2021 that the conservative movement’s strategy took “alleged left-wing excesses in discussions of race” in the classroom and sensationalized these stories for political gain. Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote, “This movement’s strategy is to identify, exaggerate, or fabricate discrete local instances of alleged left-wing excesses in discussions of race; dishonestly brand them all as ‘critical race theory’; nationalize coverage of those stories as part of the broader culture war; and polarize the debate for political gain, at times using the issue as justification for changing laws or policies.” Media Matters, [8/3/21]

• • The conservative movement uses a feedback loop between think tanks, advocacy groups, right-wing media, and GOP politicians to fuel its anti-CRT strategy. Right-wing media generated enough noise around the issue to gain further national media coverage, using that attention to create incentives for Republican politicians to change education policy. Media Matters, [6/3/21]

• • :{:{Opposition to critical race theory “might not be the defining strand of this new neo-confederate resistance,” but “no anti-civil rights campaign has ever spread this fast, this effectively}:,” Media Matters observed in 2021. Panic over critical race theory “has become a new battle flag, a very effective catalyst of multiple lost causes driven by veteran right-wing operatives and funded by far-right dark money. It might not be the defining strand of this new neo-confederate resistance -- storming the U.S. Capitol in support of white nationalism is tough to top -- but no anti-civil rights campaign has ever spread this fast, this effectively.” Media Matters, [6/17/21]

}:

• • Fox News fearmongered about CRT, then promoted it as a hot-button issue in the 2021 midterm elections.Fox News whipped up a frenzy over CRT through relentless coverage, inflating its importance as a voting issue. Fox reporter Carley Shimkus even admitted that no one was talking about CRT until the network manufactured the issue. Media Matters, [5/26/21]

• • Chris Rufo, a leading figure behind the CRT scare campaign, has admitted that the “goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’” The frequent right-wing media guest also acknowledged that he doesn’t care about understanding the theory, an academic legal framework examining the impacts of systemic racism. Media Matters, [6/23/21]

• • No Left Turn in Education, a leading anti-critical race theory group, has compared efforts of educators to those of Pol Pot, Vladimir Lenin, and Adolf Hitler. Founder Elana Yaron Fishbein has claimed that “black bigotry towards whites”' is a “very real problem.” The group has also complained that an educational video about George Floyd's death does not cover violence by Black people and promoted anti-LGBTQ rhetoric telling transgender people to go “back to Trans-sylvania.” Media Matters, [6/22/21]

• • :{:{Conservatives succeeded in abolishing DEI programs at public universities in Florida, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas by collaborating with high-level lawmakers. Bills banning DEI-related programs in these states prohibit “using federal or state funding to support DEI offices or staff at public colleges, mandating diversity training, using diversity statements in hiring and promotion, or using identity-based preferences in hiring and admissions.” Documents obtained by The New York Times “cast light on the playbook and the thinking underpinning one nexus of the anti-D.E.I. movement — the activists and intellectuals who helped shape Texas’ new law, along with measures in at least three other states.” U.S. News & World Report, [8/18/23; The New York Times, 1/20/24]}:
  • }:
• ## Fox News and others in right-wing media have obsessed over CRT since 2021

• • Right-wing media spent 2021 attacking CRT to sow panic among their audience and energize the Republican voting base.Conservatives spun “critical race theory” into a key phrase in the national political landscape, marking a new battle in the unceasing culture wars. Right-wing media and hundreds of right-wing Facebook groups helped, using empty but dangerous and often racist rhetoric to depict CRT as a threat and energize the Republican base. Media Matters, [12/8/21]

• • A Media Matters report found that Fox ran nearly 80 segments on “critical race theory” in a single Virginia school district.The network spent 4 and 1/2 hours of airtime decrying Loudoun County schools for teaching children about critical race theory. School board meetings in Loudoun County, a “bedroom community for GOP activists, analysts, and operatives,” became the targets for mob scenes and racist threats. Media Matters, [7/21/21]

• • Fox News mentioned “critical race theory” over 1,900 times in 3.5 months in 2021, a sharp increase over the preceding months.Media Matters, [6/15/21]

• • Right-wing media and Republican lawmakers overwhelmingly drove talk about critical race theory on Facebook. Media coverage of critical race theory has influenced discussion on right-leaning Facebook news pages as well, with nearly 90% of posts mentioning CRT — and 97% of the interactions the posts earned — coming from right-leaning pages. Media Matters, [5/20/21]

• ## Conservative media fearmongered about CRT as a supposed tool for liberal indoctrination and anti-white racism, often calling to defund colleges and universities where it is taught

• • Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested critical race theory is responsible for deaths of high school students, said “the Trojan horse” in the U.S. education system “is a Black history AP high school class,” and blamed “critical race theory consultants” for school shootings. He asked, “Is it a coincidence that when they start teaching CRT, two kids kill each other in public schools?” In another episode, he suggested CRT distracts from concerns about school safety and “the mental health crisis,” saying, “We’re spending all this money on hiring critical race theory consultants. How about hiring some school therapists instead?” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [11/28/23, 1/24/23, 5/25/22]

• • On his radio show, Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk attempted to mobilize his audience to defund colleges teaching CRT. Kirk urged, “If you are in a red state, you should defund every single one of your colleges and universities if they are teaching DEI, CRT.” Salem, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [9/20/23]

• • Conservative radio host Mark Levin: CRT is “anti-white racism,” and “Hitler himself would agree with that kind of thinking process.” Levin stated, “If you're promoting critical race theory, which is, at bottom, the promotion of anti-white racism — even if you're not white and you actually love America, you're obviously an anti-white racist between your ears, if not by skin color — but it is a horrific racist ideology.” Westwood One, T*he Mark Levin Show*, [1/23/23]

• • Fox News twisted the truth about funding from Biden’s American Rescue Plan to fearmonger about critical race theory. Fox accused over a dozen blue states including California, Illinois, and New York of using COVID-19 relief funds to promote CRT in schools, using shoddy research from a conservative dark money group to back up its claims. Media Matters, [5/2/22]

• • Citing The Daily Caller, Fox & Friends promoted a false claim that parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, are forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement to learn what their children are being taught in school, suggesting it was tied to CRT. In fact, the county partnered with Second Step, a company that provides materials for social-emotional learning to teach children about conflict resolution and understanding other people. The company’s materials are not a secret, as sample lesson plans and supporting materials are posted on both the school district and the vendor’s websites. Media Matters, [10/26/21]

• • :{Right-wing local news conglomerate Sinclair has relentlessly platformed anti-CRT activists and pushed right-wing misrepresentations about critical race theory. Sinclair began circulating conservatives’ distorted views on the topic in the summer of 2021, giving a microphone to right-wing activists Christopher Rufo and Ian Prior in an August town hall debate over CRT. Sinclair’s morning show The National Desk has also repeatedly aired unchecked GOP falsehoods about critical race theory. Media Matters, [8/30/21]

*}:

• • Telling parents to pull their kids out of schools, The Daily Wire's Candace Owens said students today are worse than the “Hitler Youth” because they are being taught to hate their country. Owens: “In fact, somebody said to me, via comment, that it feels like today it's Hitler Youth or Stalin Youth. And, actually, I said back to them no, you're wrong, because Hitler and Stalin Youth were taught to love their country. … What are the children actually learning in school today? Well, first and foremost, they are learning that America is a fundamentally backwards and racist country. They are learning that it is a good attribute, it is a virtue to hate your country.” The Daily Wire, *Candace*, [8/24/21]

*

• • Right-wing commentator Michael Savage called critical race theory “the road to the death camps.” Savage argued that “attacks on white people is exactly what was done to the Jews in Germany in the ‘30s. Don't fall for this garbage. This is the road to the death camps. Stand up to these bastards and sue them.” Newsmax, *Cortes and Pellegrino*, [6/21/21]

• • In 2021, Fox News promoted an attack on CRT that echoed the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. The network hosted former Trump official Russ Vought and posted his pamphlet on its website accusing the left of trying to “replace you” and proposing to forbid teachers from acknowledging systemic racism. Media Matters, [6/10/21]

• • Appearing on Fox, Heritage Foundation visiting scholar Allen Guelzo claimed the Confederacy was “built on a similar kind of critical race theory and equity.” Guelzo: “The American Confederacy, for instance, the Southern Confederacy, was built on a similar kind of critical race theory and equity — but then it was about giving equity to white Southern slaveholders, who rejected the Declaration and the Constitution, and who sneered at reason and law.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [5/14/21]

• • On Fox, network contributor and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine proclaimed critical race theory a “Marxist concept” that will “warp the minds of American children.” She also argued that teaching kids not to be racist “is a recipe for social upheaval and mental illness, frankly.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [4/22/21]

• • Then-Fox host Tucker Carlson complained that “race hate” was being taught in schools and claimed that “teachers are given ‘white allies’ agenda items.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [2/19/21]

• ## Right-wing media’s anti-CRT campaign directly targeted schools, teachers, and other staff for harassment, and encouraged viewers to do the same

• • Right-wing media figures harangued Black Republican elected officials who criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new history curriculum on slavery. The new Black history standards, approved by the Florida State Board of Education on July 19, 2023, include instruction claiming that during the centuries of slavery in America, enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” After several Black GOP lawmakers including Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Rep. John James (R-MI) criticized DeSantis for the new standards, right-wing media attacked them, with TheBlaze’s Steve Deace accusing Donalds of “trying to race bait Ron DeSantis.” Media Matters, [7/31/23]

• • Fox's Rachel Campos-Duffy stated that Howard University students are “some pretty dumb college kids” if they believe the country “is full of white supremacists.” Co-host Pete Hegseth suggested that “most college kids across America” have never seen “real racism.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [5/14/23]

• • Fox News reporter Hannah Grossman published nearly 100 articles between May 2022 and May 2023 targeting specific educators over their discussion of systemic racism, gender, and sexuality in the classroom. Multiple teachers, administrators, board members, or other staff named in her reporting have been doxxed, harassed, fired, sued, or forced to resign. Media Matters, [5/9/23]

• • Right-wing media twisted comments made by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to falsely paint her and the teachers union as hysterical and anti-parent. In an interview regarding the conservative movement’s efforts to limit discussions of race in schools, Weingarten suggested that propaganda and misinformation are often a prelude to hatred and war. Right-wing media twisted her words to make it seem as though she said parental rights bills are “the way in which wars start.” Media Matters, [4/26/22]

• • Rufo urged viewers to continue protesting local school boards: “Do not stop, double down.” While arguing that “it's not really critical race theory or not critical race theory, masks or no masks,” Rufo asked, “Who is the ultimate authority of our public institutions? Is it the actual public, the parents and the voters, or is it the unelected bureaucrats and the unelected teachers unions that want to jam down this curriculum in all 14,000 local school districts.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [10/6/21]

• ## Conservatives smeared DEI programs in higher education and other institutions and called for their abolition

• • Right-wing media celebrated the ouster of Harvard President Claudine Gay as a victory in their prolonged assault on DEI initiatives. Gay’s resignation was the result of a right-wing pressure campaign over accusations of antisemitisim and plagiarism, amid a clearly stated strategy to target higher education and root out supposedly “woke” ideology, including a prolonged assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Media Matters, [1/5/24]

• • Conservative media figures cited pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict to call for defunding education and diversity initiatives and deporting students studying here on visas. They also claimed the protests were evidence of “indoctrination and identity politics” on college campuses. Media Matters, [12/15/23]

• • On YouTube, Chris Rufo asserted that “the next conservative administration must work to radically reshape the federal bureaucracy, defund left-wing ideological programs, abolish DEI departments and build a patronage system capable of cultivating a new establishment.” YouTube, [8/14/23]

• • The New York Times elevated Rufo by publishing his op-ed attacking DEI, amplifying the right-wing offensive against education. Other articles published by The New York Times downplayed the right’s attack on DEI in education, most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to ban teaching the actual history of racism in schools. Media Matters, [7/27/23]

• • The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh called diversity “an anti-white conspiracy.”Walsh: “All diversity initiatives are anti-white initiatives. Anytime you hear about any kind of diversity initiative anywhere, whether it's in government, in corporations, in any institution at all, it is an anti-white initiative. Diversity is an anti-white conspiracy.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [5/23/23]

• • Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer accused a day care chain of teaching “woke issues” and “indoctrinating little children.” Hemmer mischaracterized KinderCare's “diversity, equity, and inclusion” plan, which includes reading multicultural books, as teaching kids as young as six weeks that “they're an oppressor.” Fox News, *America's Newsroom*, [11/5/21]

• ## Right-wing media attacked affirmative action, celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to bar it in higher education, and smeared Black people in positions of power as diversity hires

• • Right-wing and fringe media celebrated the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision ending affirmative action, calling the policy “unconstitutional,” “racist,” and “discriminatory.” The court ruled that the race-conscious admission policies of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, effectively dismantling affirmative action in higher education. Media Matters, [6/29/23]

• • Conservative “parents' rights” activists led the charge for gutting the 14th Amendment and laid the groundwork for the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action. By demonizing long-standing efforts to redress systemic racism in education and beyond, the coalition of anti-civil rights activists and right-wing media helped to lay the groundwork for the Supreme Court to strike down affirmative action in higher education in the name of so-called colorblindness. Media Matters, [6/28/23]

• • Following the Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action, right-wing media responded by pushing for privatization and school choice. The policies referred to by the right as “school choice” promote defunding government education and instead investing in private school vouchers as part of the crusade against “woke” curricula. So-called school choice not only fails to improve educational outcomes — as writer Wajahat Ali explains, it is “all about entrenching right-wing power, control, and Christian nationalism.” Media Matters, [7/5/23]

• • Right-wing opponents of affirmative action falsely claimed it created racial “quotas” in college admissions. Media Matters, [7/6/23]

• • Conservatives responded with racist smears and vitriol following Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in the affirmative action decision. Attacks labeling Jackson as “racist” and belittling her as a “diversity hire” joined a long-running right-wing smear campaign against the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Media Matters, [6/30/23]

• • Then-Fox host Tucker Carlson said that affirmative action is “what the Nazis did.” Fellow right-wing personality Charlie Kirk also claimed that affirmative action policy is “evil” and “immoral,” adding that it does not address the “real problem” of “Black crime” and Black fathers abandoning their children. Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [11/1/22; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 7/6/23]

• • Newsmax host Marc Lotter said ending affirmative action “fulfills Dr. King's dream.” Lotter: “You know, one of the things that many people, especially on the right, have taken away is that this, basically, fulfills Dr. King's dream of saying that you would be judged by the content of your character, not by the color of your skin.” Newsmax, *The Right Squad*, [6/29/23]

• • Fox News host Jesse Watters lectured Black Americans on affirmative action: “A white person who’s more qualified was discriminated against.” Watters: “Many Black Americans acknowledge that they never would have achieved a certain level of success if it hadn't been for affirmative action. They own the fact that they were admitted because they were Black and maybe they didn't have the perfect application and I'm sympathetic to that. I get it. But a white person who's more qualified was discriminated against and didn't get in. And when you discriminate on race, some people win and some people lose.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/29/23]

• • :{:{While celebrating the end of affirmative action, right-wing personality Benny Johnson called the policy “Nazi-level thinking.}:” Johnson argued that “these leftists, these libs, they really do have, like, Nazi-level thinking here. The racial quotas, … it's like eugenics-thinking. It's so backwards.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [6/29/23]

}:

• • Fox News contributor Leo Terrell claimed that the affirmative action decision will result in “minimizing wokeness throughout this country.” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [6/29/23]

• ## Right-wing media spread conservative propaganda through PragerU partnerships and Moms for Liberty activism, and encouraged the latter group’s efforts at taking over school boards

• • PragerU created partnerships with Republican-controlled states such as Oklahoma and Florida to put its PragerU Kids videos in schools. PragerU billed these videos — which are widely criticized for including right-wing propaganda, such as distorted histories about slavery — as a counter to “the woke and anti-American leftist narrative taught in most schools.” Oklahoma’s Department of Education, led by top education official Ryan Walters, joined Florida in treating PragerU Kids’ propagandistic work as legitimate educational content. Media Matters, [9/7/23, 10/6/23]

• • Moms for Liberty introduced right-wing propaganda into public school libraries. Moms for Liberty, a self-described “parental rights” organization advocating for the banning of books across the country and strategically harassing school officials, partnered with three conservative publishing companies and figures, including Ben Carson’s American Cornerstone Institute, to introduce right-wing propaganda into public school libraries. Media Matters, [4/22/22]

• • Moms for Liberty has also previously banned books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and recommended a history book written by a far-right conspiracy theorist. Beyond opposing education about the history of racism in America, the organization also recommends reading an American history book by a far-right conspiracy theorist that is sympathetic to slave owners, calling them “the worst victims” and writing that “in some ways, the economic system of slavery chained the slave owners almost as much as the slaves.” The group’s co-founder Tiffany Justice also actively opposed desegregation efforts while formerly serving on her school board. Media Matters, [11/15/21]

• • As a guest on conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine’s show, Walters promised to “put folks that share our conservative values” into the state’s education agency. Walters appeared on Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine and promised to continue “running the left wing out” and to “put folks that share our conservative values” in the state's education agency. Media Matters, [1/2/24]

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Top Oklahoma education official Ryan Walters cheers conspiracy theorist while appearing on her show | Media Matters for America

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters praised conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine during a nearly 25-minute interview on the December 19, 2023, edition of her show. Walters and Lorraine also spread a conspiracy theory about supposed Marxist infiltration in Oklahoma public schools, and Walters touted his efforts “to ensure that we're running the left wing out” in order “to put folks that share our conservative values in this agency.”

Lorraine is a former Infowars host and failed congressional candidate with a long record of spreading outlandish conspiracy theories, including Pizzagate and the QAnon conspiracy theory. (In recent posts, Lorraine said that “Q is the greatest Psyop ever told” and “we’ve been played.”) She also attended the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and has proposed that we “arm our children” to stop school shootings. Her streaming show, Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine, is part of the media network of white nationalist Stew Peters, who has spread extreme and violent rhetoric including calling for the deaths of LGBTQ people, journalists, Democratic politicians, and Catholic charity workers.

As Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Walters has pushed right-wing propaganda into public school curriculum and used far-right media programs to attack the state’s education system and teachers. Walters appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press days before his interview with Lorraine, arguing that he is responding to a “higher education push to drive left-wing, Marxist propaganda into classrooms.” Walters previously suggested that he has taken education policy advice from right-wing media personalities, including the anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of TikTok and a BlazeTV pundit who disparages public schools as “Satan’s youth ministry.”

In the December 19 Shots Fired interview, Walters claimed that Oklahoma’s “education system has been run by Marxists for far too long” and the host agreed, suggesting there has been a communist plot since the 1950s to take over public education. Lorraine also compared the left to “cockroaches” after Walters claimed that “liberals embed themselves” in government agencies. He referred to the state superintendent’s office under his Democratic predecessor as “a captured entity,” and bragged to Lorraine: “I fired over 100 people from our agency in the first six months, and we are continuing to ensure that we're running the left wing out, and we're going to put folks that share our conservative values in this agency.”

Walters also claimed that George Soros — a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories — has “financed” school boards and “government bureaucratic apparatuses.”

:{Video

CitationFrom the December 19, 2023, edition of Stew Peters Network's Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine

DEANNA LORRAINE (HOST): Ryan Walters, I'm excited to talk about you and all of these great wins under your belt. You are just slaying the Marxist left back and forth. Welcome to Shots Fired, how are you?

RYAN WALTERS: (OKLAHOMA STATE SUPERINTENDENT): Look, I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate the work you're doing. And, you know, I mean, that's the thing in education — to get the education system back on track when it's been pulled so far to the left, we have got to operate with a sense of urgency. And so we're playing offense here in Oklahoma. We're going to be aggressive and we're just getting started. But I'm telling you, this education system has been run by Marxists for far too long. Parents know it, our taxpayers know it, and it's time to get going.

LORRAINE: Oh 100%. And some people somehow still believe that this is sort of some big conspiracy theory that the education systems have been hijacked by the Marxist left and, you know, this all sort of happened organically. No, it's not. It's literally in the communist goals. The 45 communist goals for America way back in the 1950s. They state that they want to hide, they're going to hijack the education systems and schools and transform them into Marxist, communist curriculum. So it's not a conspiracy and it's actually happened, and they've been very successful at it.

…

WALTERS: I think that's so important for your viewers to hear is that we are in a very red state, very red state. Every single one of our counties voted for Donald Trump twice, so we are a very red state. But let me tell you, we also have a teachers union who is very well-financed and continue to block legislation and push legislation at the state capital. They have captured a lot of Republican legislators who listen to them alone. And so we've had to fight back against some of them, some folks in our own party who have fought school choice, fought parents rights. We had a legislator that’s Republican that fought to keep pornography in the classroom. And so we have these pockets of influence the teachers union has. But I'm going to tell you, the other thing that's so important is now that I run the education agency is liberals embed themselves in these agencies. So you've seen this with the way —

LORRAINE: Like cockroaches.

WALTERS: George Soros has financed these district attorneys. They've done the same thing with school boards, and they've done the same thing with the government bureaucratic apparatuses. So when I got here, you know, we would pass laws and it wouldn't be enforced because again, my predecessor, a Democrat, loaded this agency up with a bunch of liberals that were never going to hold districts accountable. They were never going to push back on the teachers union. And frankly, this was a captured entity. I mean, the left had captured the state superintendent. So you can pass whatever laws you wanted, they were never going to be enforced on the schools. So it has been a dramatic shift. I fired over 100 people from our agency in the first six months, and we are continuing to ensure that we're running the left wing out, and we're going to put folks that share our conservative values in this agency. And we're going to continue to fight for parents, and we're going to continue to fight — it’s frankly common sense. We're going to keep fighting for common sense to come back to the classroom.

Lorraine and Walters ended the interview praising each other, with the host telling Walters, “You are on fire. I love what you’re up to. I love what you’re doing. Keep going at it because we need strong fighters like you to fight for our schools and our children.”

Walters replied with effusive praise, telling Lorraine, “I love your show, love what you’re doing,” and “I appreciate you fighting for conservative principles and values and your fight for our kids. So really appreciate the time on the show and thank you for the work you’re doing.”

:{Video

CitationFrom the December 19, 2023, edition of Stew Peters Network's Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine

LORRAINE: Ryan Walters, you are on fire. I love what you're up to. I love what you're doing. Keep going at it because we need strong fighters like you to fight for our schools and our children. Tell everybody again where they can find you and follow your awesome work and achievements.

WALTERS: Well, I appreciate that. I love your show, love what you're doing.

...

WALTERS: But look I appreciate the time. I appreciate you fighting for conservative principles and values and your fight for our kids. So really appreciate the time on the show and thank you for the work you're doing.

LORRAINE: Thank you so much, Ryan.

Walters promoted the interview on X (formerly Twitter) by reposting a link from Lorraine to the interview with the caption “OK Superintendent of Education is on FIRE slaying the Marxists!”

//

1. ### Oklahoma's top education official has a cozy relationship with BlazeTV host Steve Deace, who likens public schools to “Satan’s youth ministry”

10/06/23 12:18 PM EDT

2. ### Remarks from Oklahoma public schools superintendent mirror far-right extremist talking points on the Tulsa Race Massacre

07/12/23 12:06 PM EDT

3. ### Public schools are the latest target of the right’s con culture

09/07/23

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/bless-your-heart-klansplaining-crt blackburn

 [[ https://www.mediamatters.org/white-nationalism/remarks-oklahoma-public-schools-superintendent-mirror-far-right-extremist-talking

https://www.alternet.org/oklahoma-judge-rulsa-race-massacre/ judge toss case 100 yo 3x

https://boingboing.net/2023/07/07/oklahoma-schools-superintendent-says-tulsa-race-massacre-wasnt-um-about-race.html ]]

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https://www.alternet.org/the-right-wing/unconstitutional-oklahoma-superintendent-calls-for-framed-copy-of-10-commandments-in-every-class/

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an 4 23  // alt rt macho shitposting?

https://www.alternet.org/appalled-and-disheartened-oklahoma-governor-demands-resignation-of-officials-who-condoned-and-lynching/

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recall trump hdhs ice head was tracking menstrual cycles

They're whining that "globalists" are trying to control everyone. Meanwhile, the Republicans in Oklahoma are pushing a bill that would create a database for pregnant women so they can track if they get abortions.

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9 22

• scott Lively declares that “WE Christian Constitutionalists are the true progressives whose proactive evangelical persuasion of the world to live biblically is the solution to every problem the Marxists have caused.”
• MAGA pastor/self-proclaimed “prophet” Hank Kunneman really, really loves the American flag.
• QAnon conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine was very alarmed by President Joe Biden’s speech on the danger that MAGA activists represent to democracy: “He has literally become Hitler, singling out the Jews and telling everyone to hate and kill them. We are the new Jews. He’s giving us our yellow stars. They’re about to send out the Gestapos on us.”
• Dave Kubal was likewise outraged by Biden’s speech: “Citizens who stand for biblical values and for constitutional principles were the focus of the bulk of the President’s speech — an angry speech devoted to deriding and threatening half the nation.”
• Finally, where did President Biden get the idea that MAGA Republicans represent a threat to Democracy? Probably from MAGA Republicans themselves.

Tags: Dave Kubal DeAnna Lorraine Hank Kunneman Scott LivelyLeftovers

==

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/maga-or-antifa-the-right-wing-war-for-control-of-the-insurrection-narrative/

no lnx many vids

MAGA or Antifa? The Right-Wing War for Control of the Insurrection Narrative

Kyle MantylaBy Kyle Mantyla | January 4, 2022

In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a battle broke out for control of the narrative regarding the events of that day. The battle was not between the left and the right, but rather between varying factions of the right-wing movement, as a variety of MAGA activists sought to shape the narrative about what had unfolded at the Capitol. Would they take pride in the Trump loyalists storming the Capitol, or would they baselessly blame the insurrection on left-wing insurgents?

To objective outside observers, it was clear that supporters of former President Donald Trump had violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to intimidate members of Congress into refusing to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Threats of violence had filled social media and calls for war and revolution were ubiquitous at right-wing rallies in the days and weeks leading up to Jan. 6. As such, it was no surprise when MAGA activists immediately began praising the “patriots” who stormed the Capitol in the days after Jan. 6.

For example, just two days after the insurrection, radical right-wing anti-Islam activist John Guandolo praised the insurrectionists for showing remarkable “restraint” by not summarily executing the “traitors” in Congress.

A few days later, Guandolo asserted that those who condemned the insurrection were “enemies of the republic” and should be “swinging from a rope because these are traitors to the country.”

QAnon conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine was equally proud of the “patriots” who ransacked the Capitol. Lorraine, who had been covering the Jan. 6 events for radical conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars network, filed a report on her way back to Texas in which she gushed that she had “never felt more pride in my heart and soul than yesterday.”

Lorraine lashed out at those in the MAGA movement who were already trying to distance themselves from the insurrection by falsely blaming the attack on the Capitol on left-wing activists. “No one should be blaming antifa for what happened,” Lorraine said. “American patriots did this. And it’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing.”

Likewise, Brandon Straka, a speaker at the Jan. 5 so-called Stop the Steal rally who has since pleaded guilty to joining the mob storming the Capitol, took to Twitter on Jan. 6 to shame conservatives who weren’t supporting “freedom loving Patriots” storming the Capitol.

“Be embarrassed & hide if you need to- but I was there. It was not Antifa at the Capitol. It was freedom loving Patriots who were DESPERATE to fight for the final hope of our Republic because literally nobody cares about them. Everyone else can denounce them. I will not,” Straka wrote on Twitter, according to a criminal complaint.

Not everyone agreed with Lorraine and Straka’s assessment. Even as Trump loyalists fought Capitol police, right-wing conspiracy theorists like Lin Wood and Mark Burns took to various social media platforms to claim that “antifa”—conservatives’ shorthand for anti-fascist activists—was behind the attack. Fox News personality Laura Ingraham—whom the House select committee revealed to have pleaded with Trump’s chief of staff to get Trump to tell his supporters to go home on Jan. 6—went on her show in the hours following the attack to claim “antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.” Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson echoed similar messages.

Perhaps nobody better illustrates the “blame antifa” camp than former Rep. Michele Bachmann. Just hours after the insurrection, Bachmann was baselessly declaring those who breached security and ran loose through the Capitol were actually left-wing “rabble-rousers paid to put together a coup.”

In the following weeks, Bachmann repeatedly insisted that the attack on the Capitol was actually carried out by “the progressive left.”

“It is my opinion that this was a theatrical event that the progressive left put on,” Bachmann said. “The individuals who were the instigators, who brought this about, these were agitators brought in to create this problem. I believe it was specifically done to rebrand Donald Trump as being an insurrectionist and a leader of a terrorist movement. I also believe that this was done to rebrand the Make America Great agenda—because remember, that was considered extremely popular by about 80 million Americans—so they wanted to rebrand Make America Great as an evil thing and those of us who supported Donald Trump and that agenda as evil and terrorists.”

By July, Bachmann was claiming that MAGA activists had nothing to do with the events of Jan. 6 and that left-wing activists dressed in black clothing had been bused in to attack the Capitol.

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“There were some bad actors who had climbed up … and they actually were pounding on the glass,” Bachmann claimed. “Now, a normal person doesn’t do that. A normal person would never think to pound on the glass. I’ve seen the videotape of the first 14 people who went into the building. They were all dressed in black. They look like they’d been trained as warriors, the people who went in. This was clearly a planned event; that was not the Trump supporters who were around the building. What my conclusion was on-site is that this was nothing short of a coup.”

Despite the initial elation experienced by many MAGA activists in the wake of the insurrection and the endless praise for the “patriots” who had carried it out, the right-wing narrative about the events of Jan. 6 eventually solidified once the reality of the situation began to set in. As hundreds of Trump-loving activists began to face arrest and conviction stemming from their actions on that day and the disgrace the insurrection began to stain the MAGA movement, parts of Trump’s base and the former president himself collectively embraced the baseless belief that the entire thing had been a “false flag” orchestrated by left-wing groups.

So complete has the collective brainwashing been that even those who had initially celebrated the attack on the Capitol reversed course.

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John Guandolo, who initially praised the insurrectionists for showing remarkable “restraint” by not summarily executing the “traitors” in Congress, now claims that he was outside the Capitol during the events on Jan. 6 and saw “several busloads” of “antifa people and non-patriot hostiles” mixing with the crowd and entering the Capitol.

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“It makes you wonder what is actually going on,” Guandolo said. “We know what’s going on. What happened on Jan. 6 was the surrender of the republic and the takeover of the republic.”

John Guandolo | ReAwaken America Tour Dallas

Likewise, DeAnna Lorraine, who was on the ground at the Capitol during the insurrection and initially declared that she could not have been prouder about what happened, completely changed her tune and began insisting that the insurrection was a “false flag” operation set up to “trap” Trump supporters and provide justification for their persecution.

Lorraine eventually so thoroughly repudiated her initial support for the “patriots” who carried out insurrection that she ultimately began spreading a conspiracy theory that police officers who had been in the Capitol that day—several of whom have since died from suicide—were being murdered by the “deep state” to cover up the truth about the events of Jan. 6.

A new NPR/Ipsos poll released Monday shows how deeply this narrative has burrowed its way into the public’s beliefs.. According to the poll, nearly one-third of Republicans falsely say the attack on the Capitol was carried out by “opponents of Donald Trump, including antifa and government agents.”

Of course, this entire narrative shift regarding the events of Jan. 6 raises the question of why MAGA and the GOP have been intractably opposed to the efforts by the House select committee to investigate the attack. After all, if Jan. 6 was nothing but a “false flag” operation carried out by left-wing operatives for the purpose of discrediting Trump and his supporters, wouldn’t Trump and his supporters want that truth to be exposed?

Tags: Brandon StrakaDeAnna LorraineJohn GuandoloMichele BachmannCapitol Insurrection

former GOP congressional candidate says vaccinating people is the 'modern day Holocaust'

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

DeAnna Lorraine, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, right wing religious extremist, and former Republican candidate who tried to win Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat last year, says working to get people vaccinated and to trust science is the work of "Satan."

Lorraine, who used her run for Congress to further her brand ...

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/deanna-lorraine-will-not-take-the-covid-19-vaccine-even-if-jesus-takes-it/

rww 1020

Creating the Justification for Right-Wing Violence

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After Trump’s Proud Boy comments at the presidential debate, the hate group took to the social media platform Telegram where they took the president’s words:{as a command:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. “Standing by sir,” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio wrote.

Two days later, Tarrio:{told:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: conspiracy theorist and failed congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine—who in June had urged conservatives to form militias:{while awaiting the “green light”:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to take back the streets—that his group had gained 2,000 to 3,000 new followers.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/infowars-deanna-lorraine-claims-the-left-may-have-given-trump-covid-19-through-his-debate-mic/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-rally-rocked-by-sex-cocaine-allegations

no lnx

Proud Boys Rally Rocked by Sex, Cocaine Allegations

WANKERS

Top speakers are fleeing and one-time allies are feuding as the gathering of MAGA faithful teeters.

Will Sommer

Updated Jul. 05, 2019 6:05PM ET / Published Jul. 05, 2019 5:16PM ET

A far-right rally scheduled for downtown Washington on Saturday has been thrown into disarray by dramatic allegations centering on cocaine, a love triangle, and the far-right Proud Boys men’s group.

“The Proud Boys? More like the Joke Boys,” Republican congressional candidate Omar Navarro, a key player in the bizarre feud, told The Daily Beast.

The drama has torn apart one-time allies prominent on the pro-Trump internet and cost the so-called “Demand Free Speech” rally at least one speaker, after other prominent right-wing celebrities already cited other reasons for not appearing. While the rally was meant to protest the banning of conservative figures from social media, the surrounding drama has cast a shadow over the event.

On one side of the fight: Navarro, a perennial challenger to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) whose losing campaigns against the liberal stalwart have become a cause celebre on the right.

On the other: the Proud Boys, the all-male group of self-described “Western chauvinists,” and DeAnna Lorraine,a self-styled MAGA relationship expert and Navarro’s ex-girlfriend. 

The clash became public late on Wednesday night, when Navarro tweeted that Lorraine had been using cocaine and “sleeping with the proud boys.” Navarro declared that he would no longer speak at Saturday’s rally, which was organized in part by top Proud Boy leaders.

“I found this girl I dated is doing cocaine and sleeping with the proud boys I cannot agree with the drug lifestyle they follow,” Navarro tweeted.

Navarro’s withdrawal from Saturday’s rally comes after the event has already lost other speakers. Former Pizzagate conspiracy theory promoter Mike Cernovich had also been on the event’s bill, but said earlier this week that he wouldn’t attend. Fellow former Pizzagate advocate Jack Posobiec has also suggested he may not attend, despite being listed as a speaker on the rally’s website.

In his tweets, Navarro made a series of allegations, claiming that Lorraine had, through the Proud Boys, threatened him “because I said I would expose the cocaine use including hers.” (Lorraine has denied using cocaine, while the Proud Boys describe themselves as “pro-drug.”)

“I denounce the proud boys as of today,” Navarro wrote.“@DeAnnaTLorraine used the proud boys to threaten my life with eminent danger [sic] because I said I would expose the cocaine use including hers. I don’t mind getting kicked out of free speech rally to stand for truth”

Complicating matters further, Navarro is still married to another woman, who he describes in a tweet as “my soon to be ex-wife.” In one tweet, Navarro chastised Lorraine, who says she dated Navarro for a few months earlier this year, for having a relationship with him while he was married.

“@DeAnnaTLorraine didn’t have a problem having an affair with me, so you shouldn’t be dating married men,” Navarro wrote.

Navarro’s tweets followed a tense confrontation that night at Harry’s Restaurant, a divey downtown Washington restaurant popular with that set of pro-Trump personalities.

Lorraine and other conservative figures associated with the rally had gathered at Harry’s the night before the Trump-centric 4th of July celebration in Washington. They were joined by the Proud Boys, a far-right club designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Proud Boys have been charged with violent attacks against their political opponents and must adhere to a series of rules, including restrictions on how much they can masturbate.

Just a few months earlier, Navarro and Lorraine had organized a “Tribute to Men” at the same restaurant. But when Navarro arrived there on Wednesday night, he wasn’t in a celebratory mood.

Accounts differ on what happened at the restaurant. Navarro claims that he was upset about organizational details of Saturday’s rally, and was confronted by a Proud Boy behaving “like an animal.”

Lorraine and other witnesses, meanwhile, claim that Navarro was acting aggressively towards Lorraine and had to be separated from her by a Proud Boy.

“He started intimidating and threatening me and another woman,” Lorraine said.

Rally organizer Adrienna Dicioccio told The Daily Beast that Navarro “tried to start a situation” at the restaurant.

“He got really disgusting that night,” said Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio.

As Navarro left the restaurant, the Proud Boys yelled that they were banning him from their men’s club, according to Lorraine.

“They said ‘we’re disavowing you, you are no longer one of us, you can’t claim to be one of us,’” she said.

In response, Lorraine said, Navarro vowed to blast the Proud Boys on social media.

“He said at the bar, ‘I’m going to go off on you guys on Twitter,’” Lorraine said, adding that Navarro had regularly threatened in the past to ruin her career as a conservative personality with allegations on Twitter.

Navarro denies any wrongdoing at the restaurant.

“The Proud Boys are just as bad as antifa is,” Navarro said. “The Proud Boys are a bunch of drunk guys who are accusing me of being drunk.”

Navarro sent his tweets shortly after leaving the restaurant. But the feud didn’t end there.

The Proud Boys responded to Navarro on Wednesday with a late-night Periscope livestream shot in a backyard somewhere in the Washington area, starring right-wing personality and former InfoWars staffer Joe Biggs.

“A punk-ass bitch named Omar Navarro is running his fucking mouth, and he’s about to get the smackdown, know what I’m saying,” Biggs said, adding that Navarro was attacking the Proud Boys because “he can’t satisfy his motherfucking woman.”

Tarrio chimed in, claiming that Navarro runs his quixotic campaigns against Waters in an attempt to make money from gullible conservative donors. Navarro lost his last two races against Waters by more than 50 percentage points.

“He admitted to me that he stands no chance against Maxine Waters, and he admitted to me that he’s doing it just to get donations from you guys,” Tarrio said in the video.

Ethan Nordean, who has become something of a celebrity Proud Boy in the group because of a viral clip of him punching a left-wing antifascist in a fight, fumed in the background.

As the video ends, Biggs declares that Navarro has been “fucking banished” from the Proud Boys.

“The helicopter blades are spinning,” a person off-camera warns as the clip ends, a reference to the Proud Boys’ fondness for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose regime executed its opponents by throwing them from helicopters.

Navarro said the Proud Boys in the video were clearly on drugs.

“They’re disgusting, they’re reprehensible, they are a joke of an organization,” Navarro said. “They should be the Proud Jokes, not the Proud Boys.”

The feud has also drawn in other right-wing personalities. On Telegram, anti-Muslim British activist and Saturday rally speaker Milo Yiannopoulos called Navarro “a piece of work.”

Now that he’s on the outs with his one-time allies, Navarro is happy to detail more allegations against them. He urged The Daily Beast to find evidence of Lorraine using cocaine at Harry’s, and asked The Daily Beast to send a reporter to the Proud Boys annual Las Vegas convention, where he promised there would be “some pretty compromising stuff.”

“These guys are completely disgusting—they sleep with women that are married,” Navarro said.

Lorraine denied using cocaine, and said she has never had a relationship with a Proud Boy.

“I’ve never even kissed a Proud Boy,” Lorraine, the author of pro-Trump relationship guide Making Love Great Again, said.

The Proud Boys, on the other hand, aren’t as reluctant to discuss drug use. In a post to Telegram, which Proud Boys and many of their allies have been forced to use after being kicked off Twitter and Facebook, the Proud Boys mocked Navarro for his prudish attitude towards cocaine.

“I’m sure people are shocked to hear there was cocaine at a party in DC too!” the group wrote. “Shocking development asshole.”

Tarrio said he wasn’t sure what cocaine use Navarro was referring to, but wasn’t concerned about the allegation.

“Regardless, we’re pro-drugs,” Tarrio said.

As for Navarro, he’s running against Waters in 2020—this time without even the right-wing allies who helped him in the past. While he had been planning to protest social media bans at the rally on Saturday, he now says Twitter was right to ban some of the people coming to the event.

“Most of them are blocked on Twitter for the right reasons,” he said.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/new-infowars-host-deanna-lorraine-defends-alex-jones-on-sandy-hook/

[mcclosky r shirt get out?]

no vid

new Infowars Host DeAnna Lorraine Defends Alex Jones on Sandy Hook

By Kyle Mantyla | September 2, 2020 11:20 am

Trump cultist, QAnon conspiracy theorist, and failed congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine the Bobby Pickles Podcast yesterday, where she announced that she is moving to Texas to become a host on extremist conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars network. During the program, Lorraine and host Robert Piccirillopraised Jones and defended his coverage of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, for which Jones is currently facing multiple lawsuits.

Lorraine said that she originally went to Austin to host a few special programs for Infowars during the Republican National Convention, but so impressed Jones that he decided to give her a nightly program.

“Three days turned into seven days, and then that turned into, ‘Let’s do a show.’ Let’s do my own nighttime show over there and go through the election and then afterwards,” Lorraine. “So now I’m really excited. I got a show on Infowars.”

Later in the podcast, Lorraine said that she was excited to work with Jones because even though people call him a crazy conspiracy theorist, he’s right “95 percent” of the time. Piccirillo, who was wearing a Proud Boys hat and a shirt supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, agreed, noting that the only “blemish” on Jones’ record was his coverage of Sandy Hook, which prompted Lorraine to come to Jones’ defense.

“I also don’t blame him,” Lorraine said. “If you look at all the coverage and the footage of what happened there, if you look at all the facts surrounding the issue, the event, everything, and the witnesses, and the stories, it’s understandable why he would say that and why he would be led to that conclusion.”

“They will do anything to smear and censor and stifle anyone that actually tells the truth,” she continued. “I would say at least 95 percent of the time, the things that he’s done, the predictions he’s made—especially now with masks and vaccines and what the real agenda is behind this coronavirus and everything. I mean, it’s all coming to light right now. So I want to work for someone and I want to be having a platform where I can be fully uncensored, fully tell the truth, and report the news without being worried about getting banned or getting censored and everything.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/the-right-has-seized-on-a-misunderstood-cdc-statement-as-proof-that-isnt-that/

salon matt r

conservative social media networks and right-wing personalities, including Fox Nation host Tammy Bruce, have seized on a misunderstood COVID-19 mortality statistic from the CDC as “evidence” that pandemic public health fears are overblown. The viral spread of the “6%” meme seems to speak to both a larger scientific illiteracy and the rapidity with which the conspiratorial right jumps on misinformation that appears convenient to their political narrative. Salon spoke with scientific experts to understand the origin of this meme, and how it has been misinterpreted.

In a report published earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wrote that “for 6% of the deaths” reported involving the novel coronavirus, the data indicates that “COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.” This means that there were co-morbid conditions — meaning multiple health conditions that compounded the coronavirus’ effects — associated with the COVID-19 death on 94% of the other occasions. The CDC added that, “for deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”

Many on Twitter seized upon the “6%” data point to argue that the United States has been overreacting to the pandemic.

“All of this for SIX PERCENT!” tweeted conservative writer and former congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine. Another former congressional candidate, this one a veteran and self-described “Torah Observant Christian” named Nick Moutos, tweeted “#Fact Only 6% of reported #COVID19 deaths were “from” the virus. The other 94% were from other comorbidities. Death toll actually near 10K, or roughly .003% of the US population. #SixPercent"

fox News contributor and Fox Nation host Tammy Brucetweeted about the meme, too, making her point through understatement: “6% Six. Percent.” Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of right-wing campus group Turning Point USA, echoed Bruce, tweeting simply: “6%.”

A self-described pro-Trump political candidate in Virginia, Jason Alexander Roberge, tweeted that “I was called a conspiracy theorist in March for calling out the FAKE covid numbers: 6% Six Percent.”

Perhaps most shockingly, a Twitter account called The Cain Gang — which describes itself as “formerly run by Herman Cain, now supervised by his team and family” — tweeted that “it looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be.” That tweet was later deleted. Cain died of COVID-19 on July 30.

These tweets all reflect a profound misunderstanding of what “comorbidity” means, Dr. Alfred Sommer, an epidemiologist and dean emeritus at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Salon by email.

“People with co-morbidities die at higher rates, as do older people (some without serious co-morbidities but with aging, less responsive immune systems),” he wrote. “None of which makes any difference —if these people had not contracted COVID they would not have died at this time! So they are ALL COVID-caused deaths.”

Sommer believes the number of deaths attributed to the pandemic has actually been underestimated, as many who were ill — either with COVID-19 or something else — were unable to seek care because of the public health situation.

“Nobody counts the increase in the number of deaths caused by the pandemic — but not directly by infection: people who had heart attacks and related who couldn’t get care, or were afraid to seek care, because of COVID,” Sommer added. “The rate of these deaths has been running substantially higher this year than in past years.”

Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, called the “6%” meme “a ludicrous misunderstanding and misinformation.” “Basically, [they are] arguing that if you die with COVID and have any risk factors, then it somehow doesn’t count as COVID,” he told Salon. Feigl-Ding compared the situation to that of cancer patients, who frequently have compounding conditions that increase their risk of dying of cancer.

“Most cancer patients have many other risk factors, which by their logic means a person didn’t die of cancer if someone has anything else,” he said.

Dr. Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, also told Salon that the six percent figure needs to be viewed in an appropriate context.

“The ‘six percent’ figure represents those people with only COVID-19 on their death certificate. This will be very unusual,” Lessler explained by email. “First, COVID-19 causes many of the co-morbidities mentioned, which are respiratory conditions. So, having, for example, respiratory failure on your death certificate in addition to COVID-19 is not really having another cause of death, as your coronavirus infection almost certainly caused the respiratory failure. Second, many of the other co-morbidities, such as heart disease, are common in the US and increase your chances of dying from COVID-19, so may be contributing factors to death but not necessarily the root cause.”

He concluded, “The most important thing to remember, is that no matter what the co-morbidities listed are, pretty much all of these people would have lived longer, probably a lot longer, if they had not been infected with the virus.”

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and former secretary of health in Maryland, confirmed to Salon by email that the six percent figure is being characterized “incorrectly.””The 6% figure was the percent that did not have any other diseases listed on the death certificate as a contributing factor for their death. That does not tell us what the risk to the U.S. population is,” Benjamin explained by email. “Approximately 40% of the U.S. population have at least one chronic disease (₁₃₀ million people [out of] 330 million). That means 40% (130 million) of the country is at risk of getting severe disease if they get infected with SARS-CoV2 the virus that causes COVID-19. That is a significant risk to the overall population. COVID-19 was a contributing cause for the death and may have been the precipitating cause of death.”He added, “The way they are interpreting the 6% figure implies that the individual would have died from their underlying disease regardless of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, which you cannot say.”

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-and-deanna-lorraine-say-michelle-obama-is-a-man-and-bill-gates-is-an-alien/

trump cultist, QAnon conspiracy theorist, and failed congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine served as an in-studio guest host on Infowars last night, where she and extremist right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones alleged that former First Lady Michelle Obama is a man and that Bill Gates is an alien.

Lorraine and Jones repeatedly referred to Michelle Obama as “Big Mike” as they suggested that she is really a man or possibly pretending to be a man as part of a “psy op.”

“Do I think she has a swinging you know what?” Lorraine. “Maybe. I think she might. I think she might, but it does look suspicious.”

“There’s videos of her where she looks like she’s got a flaccid eight-inch rubber snake in her pants,” Jones replied. “We’re talking like a foot-and-a-half long thing. She’s adjusting it. It’s flopping around. It’s halfway to the knee. And the word is, you know, she’s pitching, he’s catching.”

“She might have put a rubber snake on her pants and all these things to mess with us because they run psy ops,” Jones declared, and Lorraine agreed.

“Wouldn’t that be the biggest psy op ever perpetuated to have a woman as the first lady but who is actually a man who is a transgender?” she said. “Wouldn’t that be the biggest psy op and everyone just believes it? Because they do stuff like that all the time, so I wouldn’t put it past them.”

Later in the program, Lorraine insisted that “elites” like Bill Gates “seem like they have very manly looking wives,” which prompted Jones to asset that Gates may be a woman, or possibly an alien.

“These aliens, and I think that’s what they are—I don’t get into like flying saucers. As a human, my first thing is that’s not a human,” Jones said. “There’s something wrong with these people.”

“There’s something very, very wrong with these people,” Lorraine responded. “It’s from the inside out. I think when they trade, they make a deal with Satan that we’re going to do some satanic work here on Earth—they’re exchanging their soul for it.”

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/deanna-lorraine-dropped-from-alex-jones-show-technical-issue-or-conspiracy/

trump cultist, QAnon conspiracy theorist, and failed congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine has been tirelessly spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 virus and pandemic on Twitter and on her YouTube programs for months. In July, Lorraine was invited to appear on Australia’s “Today” program to share her views, but shortly after began, her internet connection dropped out and the anchors ended the segment after they seemed to realize that giving Lorraine a platform from which to spread conspiracy theories might not have been a very good idea.

Lorraine has refused to accept that the technical glitch that ended her interview was legitimate and insists that it was a deliberate effort on the part of the program to cut her off so that she couldn’t share the “real facts about COVID.”

Yesterday, Lorraine “The Alex Jones Show” to discuss her appearance on Australian television, and while she recounted how she was dropped from the program supposedly due to a poor internet connection, her internet connection cut out and she was dropped from Jones’ program.

[pix w/ mic and her bk talking back]

after Lorraine’s connection was dropped, Jones played the clip of her interview on “Today” and wondered, “was that her Skype breaking up like it just did, or were they cutting her off?”

“I know that the United Nations censors people,” he. “I know the head of YouTube says, ‘If something disagrees with the United Nations, we shut it down.'”

Last week, Lorraine told her followers to stop listening to media outlets like CNN and to instead get their information from Jones and Infowars because it is “one of the only places where you can get actual news.” On the show yesterday, Jones returned the favor and announced that he was inviting Lorraine to appear in studio with him next week so that his audience “can hear what she has to say, because she’s smart as a whip.”

Tags: Alex Jones DeAnna LorraineCoronavirus

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