The Martyrdom of Bill O'Reilly

When will Bill join the ranks of the other saints?

Around my fourteenth birthday I purchased a book, I think it was called "Everything Women Know". The book cost $4.95 plus tax and it was filled with empty pages. My fourteen year old self, and my group of friends that was a typical boys only crew, had quite the laugh. My mother was not quite as amused as I was with the great joke book. She was first disappointed that I spent money on an idiotic thing with no lasting value, and she also did not want her fourteen year old to think sexism and misogyny were a good thing. I told her it was only a joke, there was no harm intended. She still took the book away, and to this day I have no idea when or where she disposed of my prized joke book.

Bill O'Reilly's career was a lot like the empty "Everything Women Know". He built a career on appealing to the lowest impulses in the white male mind. His ideas were empty, his contribution to America was non-existent, and his career will be remembered as a waste of time and money. He was  popular, to an extant, because of the backwards thinking he popularized. The only thing that motivated O'Reilly was money and a false sense of popularity. His absence from the airwaves will not cause any major changes. Years from now we will not even remember when or how Bill O'Reilly left the public conscious. His lack of substance makes his disposal not worth noting.

The end of Bill O"Reilly's career will be part of the ash heap of history, but his actual career paved the way for white christian male victimhood. People like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, the resurgent Tucker Carlson, whoever the half wits on Fox Friends are, and the current occupant of the White House owe Bill O'Reilly a debt for the fact that he made white christian male victimhood acceptable in our culture. The fact that in 2017 we still have a discussion on racism towards whites only exists because of Bill O'Reilly. Rush Limbaugh became a force because he turned politics into an us versus them struggle. Bill O'Reilly made the us white christian men, and the them were everyone else. The them wanted to make scary changes that would cause white men to lose power, O'Reilly was the self annointed "culture warrior" who would stand against those scary changes. The modern day men's rights movement, the social ideas of the GOP, and the acceptance of bullying minorities found it's genesis with Bill O'Reilly and his Fox News show. 

Bill O'Reilly spent over two decades at Fox News. His time at Rupert Murdoch's Republican State media channel mirrors the rise of the 21st Century GOP. Everything bad against the Republicans was made into a struggle that Bill O'Reilly would bravely fight. The idea of not allowing your opponent a voice was perfected by O'Reilly. When Al Franken correctly called out Bill O'Reilly on lying about a journalistic award, O'Reilly's response was to yell "shut up". By the way, Al Franken is an influential United States Senator and Bill O'Reilly is now unemployed. There was the time O'Reilly told the son of a 9-11 victim to "shut up", then cut his mic. There were the many times that O'Reilly cowardly sent out his producer to stalk and harass journalist that O'Reilly did not agree with. O'Reilly never apologized for falsely accusing the Americans for slaughtering surrendering German troops during World War II (it was the other way around, but O'Reilly was trying to justify the US for slaughtering innocents in Iraq). There are many other instances, but my favorite is the time he tried to prove the existence of God by claiming the ocean tides were some magical unexplained phenomena. His defense against the "pinheads" that corrected him is the best example of white christian victimhood ever. 

The last clip is everything that Bill O'Reilly represents distilled down to one and a half minutes. O'Reilly is never wrong, and when he is wrong it is some grand conspiracy against him and all white male christians. Bill O'Reilly does not just claim to be the victim, he urges all like minded people to ignore facts, and fight against the progress of society. His antics on Fox News led to the demise of intelligent debate in our government and society at large. 

The saddest part of all of this is that Bill O'Reilly got rich off of this garbage. Fox News saw the dollar signs that a useful idiot like O'Reilly could bring in, and they ignored everything bad about their main talent. No matter what O'Reilly did, be it sexual harassment or any other despicable act, Fox News did not care and neither did Bill O'Reilly. The only thing that mattered was money. Fox News and Bill O'Reilly sold out American credibility for a few extra dollars. America be damned.

The ironic part of this whole saga is that money was the thing that finally got Bill O'Reilly fired. The loss of valuable advertiser revenue made the lords of Fox News come to the easy decision to let their main guy go. Note to people like Glenn Beck, that is what we call the free market at work. The hate, the bad old school ideals, the lack of journalistic integrity, the lying, the bullying, none of that ended Bill O'Reilly's career. Good old capitalism succeeded where common human decency failed.

The end of Bill O'Reilly does not end the disgusting views he popularized. Tucker Carlson is the current placeholder for O'Reilly on Fox News, and Carlson has had a career resurgence by embracing the white christian male victimhood line popularized by his predecessor. Sean Hannity has skyrocketed to the top of the cable news ratings by blindly toeing the line of white men good, everyone else is bad. Glenn Beck has spent the last few days diminishing the sexual harassment claims that brought Bill O'Reilly down, and whining about the loss of an old school voice. Bill O'Reilly will not be on the airwaves for the foreseeable future, but his poisoned doctrine will live on in the GOP thought leaders who still infect our television and radio programs. Bill O'Reilly's sins will live on with the help of the zealots he created. 

No matter how happy liberals may be today, the firing of Bill O'Reilly will change nothing. The people who continue in his misguided path will be more emboldened by O'Reilly's dismissal. They will see this as another unfair ill brought down on the white christian male. His accusers will be labeled as the real monsters. O'Reilly will live on as a martyr of the white male power movement. He will continue his lies, his bullying, and his destruction of valuable discourse. He will fail again, and he will claim victimhood again. Then one day Bill O'Reilly will disappear, and we will all wonder why they hell we wasted our time and energy on such an empty mind. Like how we question our youthful purchase of a dumb book.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His favorite jam comes from an epic O'Reilly meltdown (NSFW). Can you do it live?  Come tell us. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Press has Broken Our Presidential Elections

2016 Republican Presidential Primary Ballot

The United States Presidential Campaign is starting to ramp up. Republican Donald Trump is running his first ads of the election season, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has been amassing a huge campaign money chest. We wanted to reprint this article that sums up how Americans got stuck with two unlikable candidates in the race for the Presidency. The piece was originally posted on September 18th, 2015.  

Well the idiots in the national media have gone and broken our presidential elections. Should we be surprised? They have had the duty to report on the news of presidential politics for over 200 years. They have rarely been competent, and lately they have become down right destructive. The national press just kept trying and trying to break our presidential elections, and 2016 looks to be the year that the morons will finally be successful.

Donald Trump will not be the next President of the United States. You would not know that by watching and listening to the half brained celebrity sycophants on the national news. Trump is hateful, opportunistic, and not very intelligent. He has locked into a loud base of the republican party who lives under the delusion of white male christian victim hood. The scholars on talk radio, and at Fox News, have been feeding the dangerous lie of white male christian victim hood for a very long time.

The people who subscribe to the idea of white male christian victim hood have usually been swept away from polite society. They are now taking hold because the never ending news cycles need a "balanced debate", but what these organizations really want is clicks and ratings. The news producers know that the idiots who subscribe to anti-science and racist ideas will watch, and read, the news that provides there own wrong confirmation bias. Since the media decided to act as an anti-intellectual institution, we now have to have discussions on women's health, global warming, and being human to the less fortunate. People, and our planet, are needlessly suffering because non-intelligent hatemongers are allowed equal footing on  the news.

The CNN epic Republican Debate was a showcase for the destruction the media is bringing onto society. Donald Trump irresponsibly linked autism to vaccinations. This line of thinking has caused a lot of damage, and real deaths. Nearly all thinking people hear about the vaccination / autism link and immediately tune the conversation out.  The moderators for CNN said nothing, because they know that the discussion of wrong science will bring the morons into CNN's viewership. The need to be on the absolute wrong side of the vaccination discussion has even captured supposed "smart" doctors like Rand Paul and Ben Carson. The media's never ending praise for Ben Carson's intellect looks incredible wrong now that the good doctor questioned the methodology, and effectiveness, of vaccines.

The anti-science of the Republican debate continued with failed CEO, and newest media obsession, Carly Fiorina outright lying about Planned Parenthood. In order to get in good with the people who can not think, Fiorina pandered by discussing a video that showed Planned Parenthood doing something incredibly unethical and illegal. This video does not exist. The moment she described never happened. CNN was once again silent. Allowing their newest superstar to lie, and hurt a lot of people with her lie, the media has decided that money is better than being responsible journalists.

The media's destructive wake does not end with the anti-intellectuals. CNN allowed a discussion to go on about how white Christians are more persecuted than an arrested Muslim teenager whose crime is being good at engineering. Leading this defense of poor white people is dog but not man lover Rick Santorum (sorry for cursing), inept Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and soulless Mike Huckabee. All three of these defenders of the white race were crawling over each other to embrace racial profiling and make sure religious hate is well defended. The constitution means nothing to these opportunists , but thankfully none of them have a shot at being President. We still have to hear their ignorance and divisive rhetoric because CNN cannot spell journalistic integrity.

I hope you are happy media. You wanted a great story, and you gave us the Trump Presidential Campaign. You wanted attention, and you have helped accelerate global climate change. You wanted wealth, and you have allowed us to not care for the neediest in our society. We gave you the privileged to report on our presidential politics, and you broke it into a million pieces because you have no idea how to care for the privilege.

Go to your room the media. Your mess needs to be cleaned up. We can do this with out you.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He encourages you to not watch any of the media (even PBS), they will only act out again if we give them attention. Let your ideas be heard, write for us.

How Fear Rules your Street and Hope Inspires a Nation

Republicans should really get to know the hope of the Constitution

The one thing that clearly emerged from the latest Republican Presidential debate is that we can start the plans for the Hillary Clinton 2017 Inaugural ball. I know not everyone believes Hillary will be the Democratic Party nominee, but we need to accept the fact she will be the nominee, and the 44th President of the United States. This is not a personal political statement, it is fact backed up by real numbers and math. When President Clinton, the second, takes office she will have a congress fully loaded with far right wing tea partiers who will do everything in their power to make sure our government will not function. So how is it possible that the people who vote for the misogynistic, racist, and generally hateful tea party will end up with the first female President in US history?

The original concept of democracy is dependent on a plurality of the masses to elect the candidate that best represents their views. In simple terms, if we have 3 different groups of people with their own ideas, if one of those groups has over 33.33 (and 3 to infinity)% of the entire population they will rule the seats of power. One does not need a majority, 50.1% to rule, you only need to control the largest minority group. This is how the modern Republican party, and its afterbirth of the tea party, have been able to take control of the congress, and most of the state governments. Redistricting and her ugly stepbrother gerrymandering have created voting areas that reward the most hateful groups. Districts have been created in order to reward the largest voting population, not the most populous areas. In many rural areas the most racist and hateful people will vote in overwhelming majorities. Take the southern border as an example. States like Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico demonize the immigrant culture. Voting laws are structured to make it difficult for everyone to vote, everyone except white men. If you can increase the voting group the tea party cares about, while shrinking the ones who may vote for the Democratic candidate, mission accomplished is the term the republicans like to use. 

It needs to be understood that the people who subscribe to the idea of white male christian victimhood vote in every election. The percentage of these voters will reach well over 90% of the eligible population. If the white male christian victims make up 50% of the population and the opposition groups make up the other 50% we should have a stalemate. When the other population only has 25% (or less) participate in the elections, and the white male christian victims vote in over 90%, well we have a district that will send the most racist, misogynist, and generally unpleasant person to make our laws. That is the math behind the unpleasantness in Washington D.C..

The national Republican Party has no hopefully vision for America. Their Presidential candidates all talk about how the country is going to fail. Many times it sounds like the hope for the country to fail. They love guns, gold, and powdered food. The Republican Party is heavily invested in the economics of sociological failure. These people are not patriots. The pre-primary season has awarded racism, misogyny, class warfare, and dangerous hate. These candidates are either dumb, or think that the voters are extremely unintelligent. The pathetic national media covering this clown show said the most celebrated moment of the debate was when failed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said they were going to kick President Obama'a butt out of the White House. Thankfully incompetent blowhards like Christie will not have to do anything to remove Obama. The US Constitution has it all covered to make President Obama leave. These Republicans should really read the Constitution some time. It is a fascinating document.

The Democratic Party, and next President Hillary Clinton, need to only offer Americans hope for their country and they will win every Presidential election. Sometimes that hope is quite simply a belief in the exceptionalism of America. We take in the hungry, the poor, and huddled masses, and give them a chance to be something. Most of America feels good about this image of America.  When we allow the entire country to vote, with very little regional sectarianism, hate and fear gets put to the side. The election for President has mainly been a moment of national hope and patriotism. The constant drumbeat of American failure from the Republican Party cannot gerrymander their way into the White House. 

The Republican Party has been masterful in creating a Congress who represent less than half of white men. The lack of investment in local politics by the Democratic Party (represented by The Ohio Problem) has given voice to the most backward thinking, unpatriotic people in all of America. When it comes to the Presidential election the Republicans have ceded half of the white vote, most of the women voters, and nearly all of the minority vote. Those groups represent a supermajority.  This massive number will make the 2016 election a blowout. The math adds up, hope is much greater than fear.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head editor for SeedSing. Many of his friends cannot imagine a Presidential election without Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. They are wrong. Come state your case for your candidate by writing for SeedSing.

How Kentucky's Low Voter Turnout will Become a National Headache

I will need a lot of Kentucky's best product to get through these election results

Yesterday the Commonwealth of Kentucky elected only the second Republican Governor in 40 years. Business man Matt Bevin crushed Democratic nominee Jack Conway with a margin of victory over 8 percentage points. Democrat Conway had never trailed in the polling leading up to election day, yet he could not even muster over 45% of Kentucky's participating voters. In August the Bevin campaign was cut off from national money because the Republican Governor's Association thought his defeat was inevitable. Within two hours of the polls closing, the AP declared Bevin the winner. Kentucky will have a governor the nation did not expect, and the nation will have a large headache because of this.

How did Matt Bevin win by such a large margin when the polls, and money, were constantly against him? The candidate himself was very problematic. Matt Bevin made his money on Wall Street, missed paying his taxes (a few times), refused to release his tax returns, defended cockfighting (then lied about it), and has been fighting with his own party for years. Most candidates with this kind of baggage could not win a primary much less the Governor's Mansion. How is it that another false Constitutional Christian Conservative can beat the polls. There have been many excuses, and the professional media has tried to protect their interests with these excuses. The Democratic party uses the excuse of an outsider wave created by Donald Trump and Ben Carson. The correct answer tends to be the most obvious one, low voter turnout.

Kentucky's voter participation for their statewide races will come in just over 30%. Less than one third people eligible to vote did end up voting for their state elected offices.  Low voter turnout always benefits the Republican Party. People who subscribe to white Christian male victimhood will always vote for their Republican savior. Rich, mostly white, business men will always make time to vote for the Republican who will cut the taxes of the wealthy. The people who rely on state aid tend to vote in very small numbers. People who work multiple jobs have trouble getting out to vote. Many millennials do not think voting in non-presidential elections is that important. These groups tend to make up a majority of the Democratic base. Thirty percent of the eligible voters came out and strongly supported Matt Bevin, and the rest of the country will now have to pay for that apathy.

The broken political media has already used Bevin's election to create a narrative of tea party reemergence. These media personalities are invested in creating a political horse race culture. The truth of Kentucky being a small state, with historically low voter turnout, does not work with the media's horse race narrative. Bobby Jindal has been a disaster as Governor of Louisiana, and he is treated as a credible presidential candidate. Carly Fiorina was an awful CEO and comically bad senate candidate, yet she is treated by the media as someone who could be a successful President. The entire Republican Presidential field is littered with incompetence, and Matt Bevin as President will become their newest cause celebre. The press will use the charismatic Bevin as a placeholder for tea party competence. His star will keep rising until he inevitable feels the "calling" to run for president. Once that day happens, 2020 I predict" Governor Bevin's record in Kentucky will be conveniently forgotten about.

 How do we know that Matt Bevin's policies will be failures? Governor elect Bevin's ideas are on par with those of Jindal and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. Destroy the state health system tied to the Affordable Care Act, privatize all public education, alienate minorities and the LGBT community, and cut taxes for the wealthiest of residents. In Louisiana, Kansas, and many other red states these policies have amounted to record deficits, horrible schools, and national ridicule. Matt Bevin has defended and promoted those ideas as good for Kentucky. He defended Kim Davis, a person who is anti-constitutional. He wants to destroy a successful system that insures nearly half a million Kentucky residents. He wants to starve the public schools and enlarge the religious ones with state money. Every single one of Matt Bevin's campaign promises has ruined other states economies.

Thirty percent of Kentucky's eligible voters felt the need to come out and elect a governor. The voters who participated got the governor they wanted. The voters who stayed home will see their beloved commonwealth race to the bottom and join states like Kansas and Louisiana as cautionary tales. When Bevin runs for reelection, if he runs, the nation will already be familiar with the "outsider" Governor from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The press will have begun the hagiography of Republican savior Matt Bevin. 

It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks polling may be a good career, because success seems to not be a requisite skill. Come join the conversation by writing for SeedSing.

The Constitutional Conservatives Have No Clothes

I am not interested in looking at naked republicans

Let me be the one millionth and first person to call out the hypocrisy of the "constitutional conservative" crowd. The ones who wrap their rhetoric around the infallibility of the US Constitution are some of the most unpatriotic Americans in our country's two hundred plus year history. They are afraid to call them selves republicans because the constitutional conservatives have built an unmovable, pure, ideology. There is no room for compromise in their feeble minds.

The latest news surrounding a bigot who refuses to grant any marriage licenses because of her hateful views on gay marriage has once again exposed the constitutional conservative charlatans. Kim Davis took an oath as an elected official to follow the law of the land, not the law of a god. She may now be a "born again" christian in fidelity to her fourth husband. In her brain, a god's law may be bigger than the US Constitution. That is ok by me, but it is not ok with the constitutional duties of her elected position. Kim Davis should not be in jail, she should be removed from her job. The details may not yet exist to remover her, yet I believe the means to remove her do exist. She took an oath to follow the law, she has broken this oath. She is unfit to execute the duties as clerk. There I just let Kim Davis be hateful and out of jail, and I used the US Constitution.

So Sean Hannity, Rick Santorum (sorry for the crude language), Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and any other self professed constitutional conservative, what is your solution to solve the Kentucky clerk problem? I understand you use the term constitutional conservative as  code for your white christian male victimhood. I understand you only care about the constitution when it can justify your misogyny, racism, and greed. I know you want to make sure that power can be consolidated into the hands of a small group of white men who can rule over like monarchs. Just please stop dragging the poor US Constitution in the mud with your ignorance and hate. If you want to live by the word of the King James Bible (a book manipulated by a rich white king), then I suggest you start forming your own theocracy. America does not need your hate and ignorance.

Over one million and one people know these constitutional conservatives are frauds. Unfortunately the national media will still treat their ideas as part of a credible debate. The media is broken, but the constitution is not. Kim Davis is constitutional unfit, and her conservative supports are equally unfit. There is no debate. Look away from the constitutional conservative crowd. They are marching through the streets naked in their white male christian victimhood.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He keeps his pocket US Constitution handy so he can remember how many amendments exist. Have thoughts on society today? Write for SeedSing.