The Triumphant Return of The Whitey Guy

Disgraced wingnut crackpot, Larry "Whitey Tape" Johnson, and I share a tenuous connection.

Back in 2008 when such things as "blogs" existed on the Earth and there were awards for "blogging", he and I were each up for a coveted Weblog award.  (Weblog awards were handed out in January, 2009 and discontinued forever immediately thereafter.)

That year I won, along with Andrew Sullivan (who no longer "blogs" but instead writes rambling indictments of evil Liberalism online for which New York Magazine pays him money), Wonkette and many others.

Larry "Whitey Tape" Johnson was nominated in the Best Political Coverage category but got creamed by FiveThirtyEight.  The reason I know this is because Mr. Johnson's 2008 Weblog nomination figures prominently on his Wikipedia page.

Along with this.

In 2008, Johnson emerged as a strong critic of Barack Obama. His blog, NoQuarterUSA, often criticized Obama's qualifications to be president. On May 16, 2008, Johnson posted an item entitled, "Will Barack Throw Mama From the Train?" which alleged that a tape existed of Michelle Obama "railing against 'whitey' at Jeremiah Wright's church."[25] Johnson claimed that Republicans were in possession of the tape and it "is being held for the fall to drop at the appropriate time." In a subsequent post, Johnson claimed that Obama's appearance had occurred when she was on a panel with Louis Farrakhan. He also explained that he himself had not seen the tape, but had spoken with "five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape."[26] The Obama campaign's "Fight the Smears" website denied the rumor, saying, "No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word."[27]

Mr. Johnson emerged briefly from the wingnut fever swamps once again in 2013 in order to lie about John Kerry:

2013 war crime accusation against John Kerry

In 2013, Johnson falsely accused John Kerry of war crimes in Vietnam, alleging that Kerry had "raped some poor Vietnamese woman."[29] To support his claim, Johnson used a YouTube video[30] that contained audio clips from a 1971 debate on The Dick Cavett Show between John Kerry and John O'Neill. The original interview[31] audio[32] was altered to piece together words that Kerry spoke at different times during the debate, falsely making it sound as if he said, "I personally raped for pleasure." When the falsehood was exposed by a reader of Johnson's blog, Johnson deleted the article without apology.[33]

So why dredge up these dregs of those bygone days now?

Because as Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” Those days are not bygone at all -- they are here and now and destroying our country.

From The New York Times:

Fox’s Andrew Napolitano Stirred the Pot for Trump’s British Tempest 

...

But Mr. Johnson, who was himself once a Fox News contributor, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Napolitano called him on Friday and requested that he speak to The New York Times. Mr. Johnson said he was one of the sources for Mr. Napolitano’s claim about British intelligence.

Mr. Johnson became infamous in political circles after he spread false rumors in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians. In the interview on Friday, Mr. Johnson acknowledged his notoriety, but said that his knowledge of surveillance of Mr. Trump came from sources in the American intelligence community. Mr. Napolitano, he said, heard about his information through an intermediary.

...

Mr. Trump refused to back down from the claims on Friday, and even praised Mr. Napolitano, telling reporters, “All we did was quote a very talented legal mind.”...

Yes, the unhinged conspiratorial sludge that your Crazy Uncle Liberty and the President of the United States and tens of millions of Republican imbeciles gobble up with both hands as "news" is the product of the same Pretty Hate Machine that has powered the GOP for decades.

In fact, this Actual Free Republic headline from June, 2008 perfectly encapsulates what an inbred racist shitpile the Right has always been:

ROGER STONE ON FOX NEWS- "There IS A Tape With Michelle Obama Making Racist References..."

Trump BFF Roger Stone?  Check.

Racist conspiracy mongering?  Check.

Ratified by Fox News?  Check.

Delivered to the Pig People via white supremacist web site?  Check.

For decades the American political media has assiduously pretended that none of this was happening and that none of these "fringe" people mattered. While Liberals out in the real world were sounding the alarm that the cancer of fascism was running wild inside the Republican party, from the safety of their Beltway fastness the mainstream media swapped Burkean spit with fops and frauds like David Brooks and David Frum and lulled themselves into a permanent coma with Both Siderist fairy tales.

And now the monster is in the White House, it turns out that the hobgoblins who keep clogged-toilet-brain of the Leader of the Free World full of bullshit are the very same hobgoblins we were warning you about all those years ago,

Which just goes to show you that old wingnut bloggers never die: the award-winners just move on to "bitching about Liberals" gigs at New York Magazine -- 

Stupid Shit Andrew Sullivan Says Continues

-- while the award-nominees pick up piece work fronting for Mother Russia via Vladmir Putin's very own propaganda department:

‘Unprofessional, borders on incompetence’

Larry Johnson, a retired CIA and State Department official, criticized Kirby’s behavior during the briefing, saying that his treatment of RT’s correspondent was “so unprofessional” that it “borders on incompetence.”

Johnson says that the proper way for Kirby, who “relays the assentation of an unnamed group” to handle the situation, would be to calmly explain that he was not able to name the locations at the moment.

While the accusations thrown at Russia stem from “highly suspect” sources of information, they fit the narrative of Russia’s demonization in the US media, Johnson said.  

“I have never seen this kind of hysteria against Russia in the United States, ever… the extreme statements, the insults directed at President Putin and at Russia in general, the notion that the United States can conduct military operation at the Russian border at will,” Johnson said, adding that it should not come as a surprise that such rhetoric causes serious concerns in Russia...