Every day, the Rightwing Noise Machine seems to outdo itself in Teh Stupid. But, unfortunately, the willing sycophants eat up all that stupid, and believe it, and spread it.
Today on Facebook, a completely false story posted by darling of the right Victoria Jackson showed up on my Facebook ummm, Facepalm feed. The original story, People forget, but Holder was in charge of WACO under Janet Reno, appeared on conspiracy-theory and general idiocy blog "godlikeproductions" on May 14.
People forget, but Holder was in charge of WACO under Janet Reno. They could have simply waited and arrested the leader who went to town all the time. No, Holder wanted to arrest everyone associated with him and that resulted in the death of all those children...
[emphasis mine]
More below the squiggle.
The replies are predictable:
I hate to say it, but I had not woken up yet.... At that time, I was brainwashed by MSM, as were a lot of Americans! Thank you for reminding us what a scumbag he always has been!
your gov.has run amuck for years and its time to take action!
Didn't know that. Thanx.
I know two guys who were AT Waco and they told me ALL the f/ups came from the top down.
Hardly surprising now that I know holder was helping reno.
i had also forgot that holder was around then too , yep them liberals are some loving anti gun warfare people are they not .
Teh Stupid goes on for several dozen comments and hundreds of "likes" and "shares".
The scary part is that these people really believe this bullshit! Oh, and that in spite of that belief, Eric Holder actually had absolutely nothing to do with the 1993 Branch Davidian raid, standoff, and fire.
For those in the "reality-based world", here is a little timeline:
1988: Eric Holder was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as a superior court judge for the District of Columbia.
February 28 - April 19, 1993: First the BATF and later the FBI raided David Koresh's cult headquarters at Waco, Texas. Ultimately, the buildings burst into flames and 76 cult members, including Koresh, died. Eric Holder was still sitting in courtrooms in Washington DC, hearing Superior Court cases and having nothing to do with Janet Reno, the FBI, the Justice Department, or the Branch Davidian standoff.
October 8, 1993: Nearly six months after the Waco standoff ended, Eric Holder was sworn in as US Attorney for the District of Columbia. Yes, Mr. Holder was simply a prosecutor, and still had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with "WACO". In fact, one of Holder's major claims to fame from that time was his prosecution of Democratic Rep. Dan Rostenkowski for corruption. The actual 1994 criminal trial of the Branch Davidians was handled by the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas.
July 1997: Eric Holder was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General 100-0, after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. Still nothing to do with "WACO"!
September 15, 1999: Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder approved a request from Bill Blagg, US Attorney for the Western District of Texas, to recuse his [Blagg's] office from anything to do with the Branch Davidian matter in the face of a new investigation by former Republican Senator John Danforth. Whoa! Eric Holder actually had something to do with a "WACO" investigation...over six years after it happened! He actually allowed potential witnesses to be recused so that (yet another) Republican investigation could proceed without conflicts of interest! The horror!
This is the way of the right wing today. This is why there is such an information deficit among rightwing voters, and why we are currently suffering from a Republican majority in the US House of Representatives. These people are fucking stupid...and they'll believe anything that fucking liars tell them!
How do sane people combat this sort of idiocy? I've reached a point of complete frustration. This little story is but a tiny example of the overall rightwing intellect gap, a gap that is quickly destroying our nation. But there seems to be no way to stop it: stories such as this one start on conspiracy blogs, progress rapidly to Farcebook, and ultimately end up as features on Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, or Beck. Finally, somebody like Ted Cruz or Darryl Issa actually gives the lie congressional credibility.
Are we doomed? Was Idiocracy actually a documentary?