Five Things You Can Do to Take America Back from Tea Party Teahadis

It is fashionable to say that you’re so frustrated with the way things are going.  So quit complaining and DO SOMETHING.   Teahadis rail about their Constitutional Rights, but what about the rights of the other 93% of us? You have rights too.

Only you can stop your country from being handed over to a small group of wealthy elites tossing around a few billion of post-Citizens United money to depress, scare, and stampede uninformed Americans as if they were their cattle.

Don’t get mad, herd. Say: F**k Moo!

It’s time to stop looking the other way instead of speaking out against what is unjust. Teahadis are vocal. If you want this country to roll progressively, you have to be just as vocal. Unions are going away, but they can’t extinguish the voices of liberal patriots talking to business owners, neighbors and friends, even though their rich backers try to bury our voices in billions of smear and scare ads and webs of shill propaganda groups.

America needs a citizenship card they hand out in grade school. Our democracy asks very little of you: You pay your taxes, fees and parking meters and you vote. Only the taxes are really required. This may be the one country on Earth where you get so much for so little.  Yeah yeah yeah, you have a job(s), kids, and you like to get a round of golf in, or take your bike out or go out partying. Bravo! America is all about doing your thing.

Try these five things you can incorporate into your already busy day:

1. Don’t Super-Size the Propaganda with my Fries!

McDonalds’ franchisees put televisions into stores to bring in more patrons. Many of these franchisees are, not surprisingly, Right-wing Teahadi supporters who use the opportunity to glue eyeballs to the mash of car chases and bimbos male and female peddling propaganda.

When you see Fox News, walk out, but make sure that the manager knows why you walked out. (Best to do without the kids.).

Imagine the shocked look on a manager’s face when I told his employees, who couldn’t find him, that I was leaving the store because I don’t like propaganda with my meals and that I wouldn’t patronize the place with Fox News on every wall.

I walked out and went straight next door to Taco Bell where I had equally adequate fast fare.  I then filed a complaint with McDonald’s corporate online. They put me in touch with one of the owners by email the next day.

I went out there a few days later when I went to the market behind it as part of my usual routine. I spoke with the manager. That unit sits in a neighborhood that is pretty solidly Democratic and also has a growing population of immigrants from Brazil.

He told me that the prior owner of the franchises was ex-CIA, and very conservative. They had enough on their plate when they took over the restaurants, and the five old guys in the corner in the morning liked Fox News.

I asked him if he was in business to sell burgers or Fox’s propaganda to a handful of patrons. I told him as a journalist that Fox engages, during its news programming, in repeated violations of basic tenants of journalistic ethics, where the locals and CNN do not.

The big score: I pointed out that McDonalds is big on catering to its local neighborhood. How smart is it, after all, to put Fox, which bashes liberals and immigrants for sport, in an area full of Democrats and Brazilian immigrants?

The manager took down Fox on all but one screen as I was leaving the restaurant, which put it in balance with the rest of the programming on the dozen-plus screens.

Engage positively. Point out self-interest. Report the problem to corporate. McDonald’s corporate sells burgers, not Fox News. Franchise ownerships are always under review.

Mc Donald’s and other fast-food joints with TVs are the perfect place for the Fox political zombie machine to work.  They’re frequent repeat, pro-brand kind of customers who can be swayed to a point of view through hours of dining and digesting propaganda while they sit there.

Become a McSpotter at your local Golden Arches, and join the Facebook Page 40,709 Against McDonalds Prop of Fox News-Propaganda to tell us how you’ve done!

2. Be an Advocate for truthiness!

A Teahadi killer: Challenge them.

Most of these people regurgitate what they hear from the Right’s pablum propaganda stream at Fox, from Limbaugh, Drudge, Coulter and other voices of the moron mill.

They can repeat, but they rarely know the substance of any of it because they absorb and don’t think it through.  If you’re here, you read, you learn.  Heck, we have a whole college education on the Far Right right here at t2P!

Don’t sit passively on Twitter, at church, or the beauty shop, or your barber, or the market and let people spout off.   Be politely corrective.

I go to the #GOP stream of Twitter. A man was spouting off about how our government was denying freedom of speech and increasing his taxes.

I ask: How is the government oppressing your freedom of speech?  Everyone has had a tax decrease for the last four years with the payroll tax holiday, and the rich still have their Bush breaks.  So how have your taxes increased?

He had no answers to this.  As a matter of fact, the gentlemen in question, according to his Twitter profile lives in the Netherlands. Yes, Republicans, it seems, may be actually off-shoring Teahadis.  Other people on Twitter read my challenge, and thanked me for taking on the lies in the #GOP stream.

Truthiness is something you can also do on Facebook.  If you have friends who “like” hard Right causes and they’re popping up on your page, challenge them nicely.

A freind says on Facebook:  I don’t want Hollywood Liberals like George Clooney telling me what to do.

You turn the tables: So having rich old white guys like the Koch Brothers, the Coors and the DeVos family manipulate you into keeping themselves rich and you buying from them is that much better?  Do the Hollywood liberals plan on taking away your freedom, because it’s pretty clear that the Kochs want your unions gone, James Dobson wants the government in your uterus, the DeVos want your kids to be without a public education, and the Coors family has a history of dabbling in the eugenics which made the Nazis so popular.  You want to sterilize poor women like they did pre-Herbert Hoover?

You can also challenge the loudmouths at coffee shops, bars, delis, the bowling alley, etc.

Someone says: Obama wasted millions with Solyndra, aping the current ad line of the Super PACs.

You say: I thought Republicans like Mr. Romney and you understand venture capital. They pumped money into dozens of solar companies to keep the Chinese from owning the market. One failed. Big deal.  As your man Mitt says, it happens.  You want the Chinese to dominate solar and take away American jobs? Hmmm… that doesn’t sound very conservative or pro growth…

It won’t sway the ignorant doing the spouting.  You can lead a horse to water. A stupid horse won’t know it’s water. An ignorant horse won’t care.

You’re not worried about them, though. You’re worried about the other three or four people listening, even overhearing, or in the case of Twitter, the hundreds of people passively reading the #GOP stream, or other streams, who may be on the fence.

Be a shining beacon of good information, and change the dynamic in the voting base by speaking truth and countering ignorance one friend and neighbor at a time.

3. Turn off TV stations that air SuperPAC Propaganda.

Everyone in this country watches thousands of hours of television.  The biggest marketplace for Right Wing propaganda is the Almighty Flat Screen.

During this election year four big propaganda Super PACs that we featured last week, the very Right U.S. Chamber of Commerce, three unions and the National Association of Realtors will contribute 90% of the money to drive 100% of the political dialog.  In places like Wisconsin, the Far Right is out-spending liberal interests 25-to-1.  Billions of dollars will flow to TV networks and to local stations to influence you.

Yet you have two of the most powerful weapons against Right Wing extremism: Email and your remote control.

Email: Email the station and tell them that, even though Program X is your favorite, you will watch other programming on cable or HBO that doesn’t run Right wing Super PAC propaganda from astroturf grass roots groups.  If they want to sell you soap, Viagra and frozen pizzas the other 3-1/2 years between election cycles, they need to resist the Super PAC money and keep your viewership.  For every letter sent in, the station projects how many thousands of other people they are pissing off who aren’t as vocal. The more letters, the more impact.

Your Remote Control:  (This is the hard part.)  When ads pop up that you object to, change stations, or turn off the TV for a while.  Many of the cable and satellite providers have their own ratings/metering systems in place, or provide data to some of the bigger services. When you back up your email by really turning off the program when negative ads pop up, it gives station managers fits.

Sure local stations and networks love Super PAC money, but it comes and goes. They want you to stay and keep their ratings up. If you find a competing program that you like better,  and switch viewing preferences, you may dump their channel altogether. Short term gains may not look so appealing. When you email them, make it about dollars and eyeballs.

Can you put Dancing with the Stars aside for a week or two to save your country?

To paraphrase JFK: Ask not what you can watch for yourself, ask what you can watch for your country.

It’s a small sacrifice isn’t it?

4. Support Anti-Teahadi Candidates.

Grover Norquist and the Dead Billionaires Club (DBC) pays for organizations like Americans for Prosperity to throw a monkey wrench into Congress. Our credit rating was damaged last August not because of our “staggering debt” which, by the way, the Republicans generated more than 80% of over the last 35 years, but because rating agencies lost all confidence in our Congress because of the mass of morons that had been installed in the 2010 edition of “Vote the Bums In.”

Help break down the Teahadi command-and-control by donating to Democrats by targeting Teahadi leaders like South Carolina’s Jim Demint, Kentucky senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and others. Democrats should do everything that they can to elect their own in places where Teahadis are in office or running for an empty GOP seat.

Supporting thinking moderate Republicans who can compromise is particularly necessary for those of you who are Republicans.  Libertarians hijacked your party, funded by the Kochs and the DBC and their junior league, the Club for Growth.  They’ve been RINO (Republican in Name Only) hunting moderates like Indiana’s Dick Lugar out of the party in the primaries. If a Teahadi ends up winning, support the Democratic candidate.

Support candidates who oppose the Teahadis when you vote in any way that you can.

5. Identify Products for Your Friends and Neighbors to Boycott, & Boycott Them!

People get a bit upset when they hear that money from the gasoline that they’re buying goes to countries that have funded terrorism against the United States.  Shouldn’t you be equally upset that your money is being used to fund domestic terrorism and the undermining of our judiciary?  The Libertarians like the Kochs of the DBC own a couple of Supreme Court justices, Scalia and Thomas, and have spent decades building up Libertarian extremists in the U.S. Congress and the State Houses of every state in the nation to throw the monkey wrench into government and bring it down.  Do you love this country and your democracy enough to switch from Coors to another beer? Wipe either end with products that don’t send proceeds to the Tea Party? Switch your brand preference from these products (Tell us about a product(s) that you’ve dropped by posting it on the t2P Facebook page!):

News Corp.:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is the propaganda lynchpin for the Libertarian Far Right. It carries the Teahadi message 24/7 on its Fox News network on television and radio, and owns newspapers which carry the Gospel according to the crazies.

Switch off: 

• Fox News
• Fox Business Network;
• Fox-branded local television stations
• 20th Century Fox Television programs on other networks (24, Married with Children, etc.)
• Big Ten Network (49%)
• Fox College Sports
• Fox Movie Channel
• Fox News Channel
• Fox Soccer Channel
• Fox Sports Enterprises
• Fox Sports en Español
• Foxtel (25%)
• Fox Sports Net
• FUEL TV
• FX Networks
• Fox Reality Channel
• National Geographic Channel (US) (67%)
• National Geographic Channel (International) (50%)
• Speed Channel
• SportSouth

• 20th Century Fox movies;
• Fox Searchlight Pictures;
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
• Blue Sky Studios pictures;
• 20th Century Fox Español
• 20th Century Fox International

On the web, avioid:

• Fox Interactive Media
• AmericanIdol.com
• AskMen.com
• Fox.com
• Foxsports.com
• GameSpy
• Hulu.com
• IGN
• MyNetworktv.com
• Scout.com
• TheSimpsons.com
• TheXFactorUSA.com
• WhatIfSports
• News Digital Media
• Authonomy via HarperCollins
• MySpace (5%)

Do not buy/subscribe to magazine/print publications or read books from:

• The Wall Street Journal
• New York Post
• Barron’s – weekly financial markets magazine.
• Harper Collins
• Zondervan Publishing
• Marketwatch – Financial news and information website.
• Far Eastern Economic Review
• Financial News
• Alpha
• Big League
• Chopper
• Country Style
• Lifestyle Pools + outdoor design
• Live to Ride
• MasterChef Magazine
• Modern Boating
• Modern Fishing
• Overlander 4WD
• SmartSource Magazine
• Super Food Ideas
• Tattoo
• Truck & Trailer Australia
• Truckin’ Life
• Two Wheels
• Two Wheels Scooter
• Vogue Entertaining + Travel

The Coors Family 

The Coors family, No. 6 on our Far Right’s Most Wanted, makes a tough product to get fans to switch off of: Beer.  Molson-Coors produces some of the top selling beers in the world, and, unfortunately, with every bottle a little money seeps into the sewers of Castle Rock Foundation, their cash-cow for a host of Far-Right groups, think tanks, and candidates.

It’s time to man-up, beer fans.  Pass the crying towel around for this list, suck it up, and BOYCOTT THEM until they defund Castle Rock.

Molson/Coors Products:

• Coors
• Coors Light
• Killian’s Irish Red.
• Extra Gold
• Blue Moon (Witbier) (made under Blue Moon Brewing Company label)
• Keystone
• Keystone Light
• Keystone Ice
• Zima XXX
• Pale Moon (made under Blue Moon Brewing Company label)
• Rising Moon (seasonal – spring) (made under Blue Moon Brewing Company label)
• Honey Moon (seasonal – summer) (made under Blue Moon Brewing Company label)
• Harvest Moon (seasonal – fall) (made under Blue Moon Brewing Company label)
• Full Moon (seasonal – winter) (made under Blue Moon Brewing Company label)
• Winterfest (seasonal – winter)
• Wildwood Westlake lager
• Coors NA (Coors Non-Alcoholic)
• Allbright
• Arc
• Breaker
• Caffrey’s Irish Ale
• Carling
• Carling Black Label
• Grolsch
• Hancock’s
• Lamot
• Mitchells & Butlers
• Stones Bitter
• Toby
• Worthington
• Worthington Bitter
• Worthington White Shield (Brewed in the White shield brewery in burton on trent)
• Worthington Red Shield (Brewed in the White shield brewery in burton on trent)
• Reef
• Molson
• Molson Golden
• Molson Ice
• Sapporo (Brewed by Molson for U.S. Distribution of Sapporo)

The Koch Brothers:

The Kochs are No. 3 on our Far Right 10 Most Wanted.  Their reach is broad. Their company is one of the largest privately-held firms in the world. When you hit the paper products aisle of your market or warehouse store, avoid these brands:

• Brawny brand paper towels and other products;
• Zee brand paper goods;
• Sparkle brand paper goods;
• Mardi Gras brand paper goods;
• Northern brand toilet paper;
• Soft-n-Gentle® brand toilet paper;
• Vanity Fair brand paper napkins;
• Sparkle brand paper napkins;
• Georgia-Pacific lumber and paper products;
• Dixie® Brand cups plates, and other products;
• Stainmaster® carpet and fabric care products;
• Chemical products including:
  • Sure Sol ® products
• Man-made fabrics and fibers including:
  • LYCRA ®
  • DACRON ®
  • CoolMax ®
  • SolarMax ®
  • Polarguard ®
  • Thermolite ®
  • Antron ®
    Comforel® fiberfill
  • DBE ® dibasic esters
    Tactel®
    Tactesse ® Carpet Fibers
  • Terathane
  • ADI-Pure ®
  • Polyshield ®
  • Polyclear ®
  • Oxyclear ™
  • Performa ®
  • Cordura ® fabric
  • Supplex ® Fabric
  • Somerelle ® Bedding
• Koch Fertilizers
• Koch Agricultural – Operates cattle ranches
• Matador Ranch – Hunting ranch.
• European brands:
  • Colhogar ®
  • Delica ®
  • Demak’Up ®
  • Inversoft ®
  • Kitten Soft ®
  • Lotus ®
  • Moltonel ®
  • Nouvelle ®
  • Okay
  • Tenderly ®
  • Tutto ®

The DeVOS Family:

No. 5 of our Ten Most Wanted.  The DeVOS Family, who like privatizing schools and are big on giving to ultra-Right think tanks and astroturf groups live off of:

• AMWAYproducts (much of which are made in China) including:
  • Nutrilite ®
  • Artistry make-up and skin care products
  • Miss America make-up and skin care products
  • The Creme LuXury Collection make-up and skin care products
  • Trend Collection make-up and skin care products
  • Satinique bath products;
  • Body Series personal products;
  • Glister oral care products;
  • XS energy drinks
  • Nutriplant agricultural products;
  • Perfect Empowered drinking water
  • eSpring laundry and cleaning products;
  • Fulton Street Market products;
  • Personal Accents ® scents;
  • Legacy of Clean;
  • iCook
  • Hi-Gear automotive products
  • XLP automotive products
  • NUTRIPET ® products
• The NBA ® Orlando Magic
• DITTO Delivery

A notch down in the union-busting, RINO hunting Club for Growth junior league of future despots comes the team of Roney and Lund, partners in NuSkin products.  Don’t use them.

About Brian Ross

Brian Ross is a writer, screenwriter, political satirist, documentarian, filmmaker and chef. Ad hoc, ad loc, quid pro quo... so little time. So much to know!

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