A few people in media and recently Senator Chris Murphy have finally suggested Trump wants the pandemic to get worse to help his reelection chances.
Media is not doing its job.
Trump’s intentions, plans, and actions were always very easy to track merely by monitoring Rush Limbaugh. And unless Putin expert and intelligence expert Dr Fiona Hill is an idiot, the Kremlin has been using Limbaugh and American talk radio for years. She essentially accused Republicans on the intelligence committee investigating Russian interference of being Putin’s tools but what they were repeating in defense of Trump had already been pounded into the earholes of 50 million Americans every week for months. There is evidence that the Kremlin has been using talk radio since at least 2008.
Why hasn’t frequent MSNBC guest Sam Nunberg been asked why Trump paid him to listen to “1000s of hours of talk radio” in 2014? What stations in what states and for what was he listening? That was the same year Russian operatives charged in the Mueller Report were touring selected states and unlike Fox TV, talk radio stations are ideal for coordinating local attacks on selected Democrats. It has been established Republican interests use paid callers — why not the Russians too?
The collusion continues right under our nose and the biggest common denominator is talk radio, Limbaugh in particular.
On February 24, 2020, a few days before Trump called COVID a hoax on Feb 28, Limbaugh said that COVID 19 was
“weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump”
xxx
“The coronavirus is the common cold folks”
Feb 25
“It gets into your respiratory system and it causes symptoms like the common cold -- or, at worst, the flu -- and depending on your age, just like the flu, it can be fatal.”
xxx
“The fatality rate of this virus is less than the flu, far less than the flu.”
xxx
“Why couldn't the coronavirus get Donald Trump reelected?”
Someone convinced simple-brained Trump that COVID could be used like ebola in 2014, and he is stupid enough to think he might be able to control the new virus.
Consider:
1 — To facilitate Trump’s delay and lack of response, Limbaugh/Republican talk radio called COVID a hoax for weeks in the beginning and then pivoted to downplaying the danger, politicizing mask-wearing, shouting for reopening, and pushing for ‘herd immunity’.
2 — Limbaugh has been coordinating with Trump since the primaries and would not have called COVID a hoax if Trump had any serious intention of stopping or slowing COVID.
3 — Ian Reifowitz posted a diary Feb 29 — Weaponizing an epidemic for political purposes is exactly what Limbaugh did to Obama (excerpts below) — detailing how Limbaugh and the Republicans used ebola to help them regain the house and senate in 2014. Democrats lost 13 House seats and nine Senate seats. They used fear of ebola in October to win in November and then forgot about ebola after their election successes. It was a manufactured crisis, it worked, and why wouldn’t they use it again?
In a diary 06/01/2019 (Are Trump allies setting us up for a national ebola scare, like in 2014, but worse?) I suggested Limbaugh’s hyping of the 2019 ebola outbreak was a hint Trump wanted to use it for reelection purposes in 2020, like it was used in 2014. That included telling 20 mil a day that Congolese immigrants were joining the ‘caravans’ ‘invading’ the southern border. But the 2019 outbreak was controlled despite a social media campaign (Russian?) to stimulate attacks on Congo clinics. Then along came COVID, and in two diaries 04/07/2020, 04/28/2020 I suggest Trump wanted to use the pandemic for reelection.
4 — Consider what would have happened if Trump used those 1500 radio stations, licensed to operate in the public interest and reaching 50 million every week, to control COVID instead of calling it a hoax and screaming for reopening.
The New Orleans Katrina disaster was another example of Republican using a disaster for election gains. Rove and company could coordinate talk radio station messaging on a local level and successfully blamed local Democratic politicians. Federal aid for Katrina victims was delayed as Rove and company waited for black on white violence that never came. Limbaugh would have turned it into election gold. Bush’s incompetent FEMA director was rewarded with a talk radio job in the Denver area.
Talk radio played a critical role in turning the 911 attack into election gains for Republicans. They also lied us into Iraq.
Republican talk radio is the only unique and unchallenged advantage Trump has. Those stations are being used to excuse him and blame Democrats.
At $1000/hr, 1200 radio stations x 15 hrs/day = $90 MILLION/WEEK FREE for the Republicans and Putin.
We can’t depend on the social media companies to stop social media interference and we can’t do much to stop Republican election fraud and interference but there is a perfect storm heading for Republican talk radio and it just needs a little help.
