Recent evidence that trump was getting red flag intelligence warnings back in January prompts me to republish an April 6 diary, with a few alterations, suggesting Trump delay of COVID response was by design.
Media is doing backflips to find ways to avoid suggesting that possibility, even after everything Trump has gotten away with and all the evidence that he is stupid and crazy enough to do it. Media and Democratic leaders need to follow clues going back to the ebola scare in 2014. The evidence of coordination between Limbaugh and the Trump administration is abundant and some good investigative reporting might convince a lot more Americans that Trump’s COVID delay wasn’t just incompetence and stupidity.
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.
Media and Democrats must assume that Republicans learned that lesson and at some level they were getting ready to use the 2019 ebola outbreak for the 2020 elections and may have improvised.
There is a perfect storm lining up force the advertising industry to break up the talk radio monopoly AND get Trump out even before the elections. Exposing a purposeful Trump administration COVID delay and coordination with Republican talk radio can start that ball rolling. When it starts happening it will force GOP senators to abandon Trump.
For years Trump has coordinated closely with his friend, neighbor, golf partner, and co-Putin tool, Rush Limbaugh. 2014 was the year Trump’s assistant Sam Nunberg says “I listened to thousands of hours of talk radio, and he was getting reports from me,”. That’s the same year a Russian troll said they “got a list of topics to write about.” Limbaugh’s transcripts are available for journalists and investigators.
Did Limbaugh and Trump talk about using ebola and then COVID instead, after the ebola danger started to fade in the Congo?
Two things will force the advertising industry to break up the Republican talk radio monopoly eventually but it can happen sooner and before the elections, accelerated by exposing talk radio and Limbaugh as part of Trump’s delay:
- Artificial intelligence-enhanced transcription, digitization, and analysis/monitoring of Republican talk radio makes stoprush x 100 inevitable. Americans just need to let the ad industry know it's coming. they want the millions of ears those stations reach and will want to protect their clients from being associated with the hate, lies, and COVID denial.
- GOP moral and intellectual leader and key Trump ally Limbaugh may be gone from lung cancer by election time, or be taking more time off, which is why Trump may have wondered aloud if he ought to get his own radio show going. The talk radio monopoly was built around Limbaugh. They know they can't replace Limbaugh anchoring 600 radio stations. The ad industry has to already be thinking about adjustments.
Since Jan/Feb Limbaugh and the other few hundred national and local RW talk show hosts on 1500 radio stations were yelling HOAX in a COVID theater, like they have global warming, instead of informing and warning their vast audience of 50 mil a week. Most of them are stupid enough that they couldn’t imagine the scenario we have have now. Because of those Limbaugh wannabes and those radio stations, tens of thousands more people will die, and many more people will lose their jobs, businesses, and savings. Now they are rationalizing and downplaying their part and have shifted to blaming to Democrats, like they always do, like after Katrina. And they are following the Limbaugh line that death rates are overblown with elderly deaths from ‘preexisting conditions’ and we need to get back to work and force a ‘herd mentality’ solution until those who can’t handle COVID die off.
There is evidence out there for media and investigators to find if they look. Maybe start by asking Mueller Report target and possible Russian tool Jerome Corsi why he spent so much time in October before the 2014 election writing about ebola and suddenly stopped after the election.
Limbaugh keeps the whole RW talk radio monopoly well-coordinated in support of Trump and most or all of Limbaugh’s shows are available as transcripts. Many RW radio hosts make show podcasts available and artificial intelligence makes shows easy fast and cheap to transcribe and search.
I wrote a diary 6/1/2019 — Are Trump allies setting us up for a national ebola scare, like in 2014, but worse? — to suggest the possibility of Trump and Putin using ebola in 2020. There were reports that efforts to stop the more recent ebola outbreak in the Congo were being disrupted by a social media campaign used to incite attacks on ebola clinics and staff. And during the 2019 outbreak Limbaugh and others were suggesting that Congolese immigrants were joining the immigrant caravans ‘assaulting’ our southern border. At the same time Trump’s detention camps were being criticized for overcrowded unsanitary conditions.
Ian’s research makes clear how Limbaugh led an Oct 2014 RW media attack on Obama by weaponizing and exaggerating the ebola threat and using it to push for closing the borders.
Media and Democratic leaders need to put 2 and 2 together.
Ebola is horrible but is easier to contain and manage than COVID-19. A few ebola cases at the detention camps at our southern border, for instance, would be perfect for the howlers on RW radio to help Trump close the borders, build that wall, blame brown immigrants, and maybe even disrupt our elections — without destroying the economy. Ebola would also serve Putin in Europe, scaring a lot of racist, nationalist Europeans, as they are closer to Africa might have a similar problem.
Did Trump decide to delay action on the coronavirus because he was too stupid to understand the difference between containment of this coronavirus and ebola and thought it would serve a similar media purpose? Did he talk to Limbaugh about it?
During the October 2014 ebola RW media hype Jerome Corsi wrote almost daily ebola scare articles for the RW web rag World Net Daily, ending abruptly about election time. RW rags like WND and Breitbart, etc. have relatively small audiences and a lot of what they feed that audience is not credible enough even for Fox. Their most important function is to feed and reinforce talk radio hosts like Limbaugh and provide internet reference for the massive talk radio audience of 50 million a week with Fox doing the horrible ebola visuals. Who is feeding Limbaugh and the talk radio sources?
Ian’s diary on politicizing ebola was based on research gathered for his book, “The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh's Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump”.
From Ian’s diary, on Limbaugh/Republicans weaponizing ebola in 2014 to win seats in the elections, and Obama guy David Axelrod recognizing it — too late, because Democratic strategists don’t listen to talk radio:
After having spent several shows in July and August 2014 using the outbreak of the Ebola virus—which, counting only documented cases, killed over 11,000 Africans and one American—as a reason to “close the border,” on Sept. 8, the host pondered whether the enterovirus D68 outbreak that ultimately infected people in all but one state, and which may have killed fourteen (they tested positive but their deaths could not be definitively linked to EV-D68) was connected to the unaccompanied minors from Central America, and noted that “some people” believe it could be. Limbaugh also wondered whether the White House was covering up such a connection. Talk about weaponizing illness.
In October, the Ebola story began to dominate the media. Republicans, including Limbaugh, hyped fears about the virus and used it to depict Obama as incompetent leading up to the midterm elections. More specifically, the host linked Ebola and immigration and/or border security on nine out of his first thirteen October broadcasts, and on two other occasions later in the month. In addition, Limbaugh talked up the Ebola scare on six other occasions in October as well. On Oct. 16, Limbaugh revisited EV-D68 and the unaccompanied minors.
After Election Day, Ebola suddenly dropped off the radar screen for Limbaugh and the right in general, making clear the political nature of their previous focus on the issue. Journalist Elise Viebeck called it the “2014 October surprise.” Talking about Ebola and, in particular, connecting it to border security, had served its purpose, however, as Democrats lost 13 House seats and, more importantly, nine Senate seats—which ended their eight-year run as the majority party in that chamber. David Axelrod rightly termed what Limbaugh and Co. did “panic peddling.”
Limbaugh’s recent transcripts from the last 2 months at least are full of examples of Limbaugh using public airwaves and 600 radio stations, licensed to operate in the public interest, to do a reverse Paul Revere. The media organization Free Press filed a petition March 26 to get the FCC to investigate Republican disinformation on COVID and included numerous examples from recent Limbaugh shows. FCC commissioner Brendan Carr responded like a true dittohead, saying “This is a sweeping and dangerous attempt by the far left to weaponize the FCC against conservative media outlets and elected officials.”
All of the advertisers as well as the universities and professional teams that broadcast sports on those stations must be forced to recognize their support in enabling this disaster and decide if they want to continue that support. One way to do that is for media to connect some dots and investigate the possibility that at least part of the Trump administration delay was by design.
When Republican senators see talk radio exposed and abandoned by advertisers and university and pro sports and that it won’t be there for them in the elections because the advertising industry will have to force the breakup of the talk radio monopoly, there’s a good chance some GOP politicians will have to stop covering for Trump.
Just a few Republican senators will make the difference if the Democratic House wants to make another move. Exposing Trump/Limbaugh coordination in delaying action on COVID would be a good start for destroying this version of the GOP and getting a democracy back
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