BORN EVERY MINUTE

A student presented me with this bottle on the last day of class.

It is Rush Limbaugh-branded tea bearing the hilariously witty name "Two if by Tea". Get it? Because Rush Limbaugh is the equal of our founding fathers.

Apparently it has been on sale for a while but I managed to avoid it by maintaining a policy of paying no attention ever to the fact that Limbaugh exists.

rush

Apparently it's just tea. No traces of Viagra or bootleg Dominican oxycontin, which is surprising.

The student informed me that he swiped this from his grandfather, who purchased five hundred bottles of this by mail. Five hundred. And after our recent discussion of how right wing radio and TV are essentially the elderly white person version of meth and heroin I can't help but wonder how many of these people are out there. How much of the Fox News audience literally starts writing a check as soon as these carny/con artist/demagogue types tell them to buy something or make a donation to their "charities"? Years of alarmist investigative news reports have given me the impression that old people are susceptible to being scammed. But I didn't know they were this susceptible.

39 thoughts on “BORN EVERY MINUTE”

  • Rush is more like the right wing equivalent of PBS faves like John Sebastian and other old folkies.

  • Years of alarmist investigative news reports have given me the impression that old people are susceptible to being scammed. But I didn't know they were this susceptible.

    Well now, the majority of anti-vaxxers are young people. Susceptibility to stupid delusions can go in several directions.

  • It should be no surprise that Rush, teabaggers, etc… are so effective. They've taken the framework and target audience televangelists have been bilking for decades and badge-engineering it for politics.

  • c u n d gulag says:

    Modern Conservatism is the 2nd greatest grift every created!!!
    Religion will always be # 1!!!!!

    The grifters stir up some bullshit to rile-up the Conservative rubes, suckers, marks, bobo's, nit/half/dim/fuck-wits, and Christianista freaks and geeks, and then get them to "donate" to the cause.

  • "Apparently it's just tea. No traces of Viagra or bootleg Dominican oxycontin, which is surprising."

    Given the typical RW grift, I'm shocked there's *tea* in there and not just tea-colored water. Active ingredients are for CLOSERS, not the rubes…

  • Phoenician in a time of Romans says:

    500 of them at 2 bucks a bottle. It's like a tax on being an old racist idiot.

    At the same time they're screaming to cut welfare on everyone but them.

  • Sorry to admit this, but I listen to Rush just about every day. I happen to know it's wife number 6 or whatever, who's taken on this tea gig as her pet project. I'm not a horrible person or anything, just a glutton for punishment.

  • Anonymouse says:

    Gulag is right; the right-wing machine has turned into a very effective machine for turning out Pavlovian responses from their rubes. "Don't trust anyone but us! Here, buy this overpriced scam!" and the trained audience slavers and obeys instantly, without thought.

  • Ouija Meter says:

    I wanted to order some of that tea, but I had
    to use my social security check to pay the nice
    fellow who is going to resurface my driveway.

  • I understand your passion and positions, but I don't understand your fixed gaze on people like Fox and Rush.

    Fox's best show draws about 2 million.

    Rush draws about 20 million per week and the way the noses are counted there is a repeat factor at least two and maybe much higher. So, just using two we have about 10 million in a 5 day week or about 2 million per day (about the same as Fox's best program)

    We have 300 million people in the USA and probably at least 100 million adults. I'm certain that the Fox and Rush audiences are cross elastic.

    To sum up, we are looking at and obsessing over the tastes and habits of way less than 5% of the adult population of (by your words) old and out of touch delusionoids.

    Why?

    //bb

  • To sum up, we are looking at and obsessing over the tastes and habits of way less than 5% of the adult population of (by your words) old and out of touch delusionoids.

    Well gee howdy, bb, maybe it has something to do with the way they're promoting political candidates who are gumming up the process, approving court judges and justices who hand down decisions like Citizens United to give corporate welfare while shredding the safety net, passing racist and misogynist legislation, hollowing out the middle class and increasing the poverty rate while giving 80% of this country's wealth to 1% of its citizenry, and making six figures while putting in 112 days of work for the year while refusing to pass a jobs bill or increase the minimum wage.

    Nah. It must be because we've got nothing better to do.

  • " How much of the Fox News audience literally starts writing a check as soon as these carny/con artist/demagogue types tell them to buy something or make a donation to their "charities"? Years of alarmist investigative news reports have given me the impression that old people are susceptible to being scammed. But I didn't know they were this susceptible. "

    They are. I watched my father, and he wrote vast numbers of checks to whatever cause mailed him.

  • Limbaugh also wrote a children's book, "Rush Revere and the First Patriots: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans." One Amazon reviewer gushed about how her kids loved learning history with Rush Revere. Apparently we are lucky to have someone set the historical record right.

  • Sarah:

    You can't have it both ways. Old Delusionoids…or Demon Masters of the Universe.?

    Bush 43 used to be caught in the same dichotomy, only his was Dufus in Chief (too stupid to manage Daylight Savings Time) or DM of the U.

    These old people you are complaining about do not have that much money power and political cohesion to accomplish all the evil on your laundry list.

    //bb

  • There is something strangely cult-like about some Fox viewers. I had a guy in my "crash pad" who would turn it on from the time he got up and sit there in front of the TV most of the day. It was invariably tuned to Fox unless maybe there was a sporting event on that he was interested in.

    Then I'd have to hear about it every time the latest "Liberals are destroying America!" story came on. Fun times.

    I don't understand it. I'm as liberal as they get but I don't sit around watching MSNBC all day. In fact I almost never watch it.

    That's the MSNBC that runs 3 hours of Joe Scarborough every morning so that's not even a fair comparison.

  • Bitter Scribe says:

    Years of alarmist investigative news reports have given me the impression that old people are susceptible to being scammed. But I didn't know they were this susceptible.

    Oh God yes. My father was a liberal all his life, but his political ideas were as goofy and paranoid as those of any Fox News junkie. (For example, he thought Busch Beer was a plot to back the Bush family.) As he aged, he kept giving money to every Democratic politician who sent him a form letter, and that drew more letters, which drew more contributions, which drew etc. After he passed, my mother remarked how all of a sudden it was easier to pay the bills.

    (My poor mother suffered her own bout of susceptibility before she died. With her it took the form of Publishers Clearing House and similar "sweepstakes." It got so my sister, who was caring for her, had to turn off the phone most of the day and evening.)

  • Benny Lava says:

    Sorry 160 cal per bottle. Not yet caffeinated this morning, where is my two if by tea?

  • Surly Duff says:

    Raspberries in tea? How is that not worse than putting dijon mustard on a hamburger?

  • I stared at that picture in slackjawed confusion for at least a minute and a half before remembering that iced tea exists. It's possibly time to start throwing in the work towel and pour a glass of wine.

  • rush/beck, michael savage, the infowars cult and associates… all modern day carnies, raking in millions selling snake oil in the form of gold, water filters, food storage, and colloidial silver…

    what was that cliche about one being born every minute?

  • bb in GA Says:

    "To sum up, we are looking at and obsessing over the tastes and habits of way less than 5% of the adult population of (by your words) old and out of touch delusionoids."

    this -/+5% you speak of are the ones who always turn out in droves, like worker bees.. meanwhile, repubicans shift voting district lines and supress the ability of poor people to vote via local legislature. that 5% makes or breaks elections.

  • Ya, well… Not quite.

    That IS the side they want to win. And they're supporting it.

    And they are winning. You know that, right?

    Peace… sad

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