Breaking: Dinesh D'Souza's Book Hillary's America published by Pro-Confederate & Pro-slavery Publisher Regnery!

Troy Davis writes:

In my review of Dinesh D'Souza's film Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, I mentioned that a graphic in the film of notorious Confederate war criminal and KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest looked a lot like the graphic of him on the cover of H.W. Crocker's recent book The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War.  I noted the irony of this because in the film, Forrest's image was used to represent what the Democratic Party stands for. I mentioned that Crocker's book, which is Lost Cause propaganda that reveres Forrest, was published by the leading conservative/Republican publishing house Regnery Publishing and that the book was used as a free gift to new subscribers to Human Events (which was one of Ronald Reagan's favorite newspapers).

Imagine my surprise to find out that the book form of Hillary's America is published by Regnery. Not only does Regnery publish pro-Confederate bitter-ender material like Crocker's book, it published other pro-Confederate bilge such as Clint Johnson's The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South which claims that tariff policy, not slavery, was the main reason for the Civil War.

Movie Review: Dinesh D’Souza’s Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016)

Troy Davis writes:

UPDATE: D'Souza's book Hillary's America is put out by Pro-Confederate publisher Regnery! 
UPDATE 2: Review of D'Souza's book The Big Lie is here.

Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party is one of the recent slew of films that preaches to the conservative choir. Unlike other such films, such as the God’s Not Dead films and Persecuted, one can’t enjoy this film with a camp appreciation or with a so-bad-it’s-good sensibility; the film’s pervasive appeal to the amygdala makes it difficult to enjoy. There’s nothing new in this film; it’s largely boilerplate material common in the right’s media bubble (Note 1). However, it is important not only to address D’Souza’s ham-handed propaganda but the sophistry D’Souza employs to support his propaganda. It is also helpful to point out D’Souza’s Rovian tactic of aggressively attacking political opponents for possessing the same character flaws that he possesses, e.g., D’Souza accuses Hillary and other progressives of being con artists and hustlers when D’Souza himself has become wealthy as a decades-long recipient of wingnut welfare.

D’Souza Needs Some Cheese to go with His Whine

The film starts out by portraying the self-pitying D’Souza as a victim of political persecution by President Obama (allegedly because of his 2012 anti-Obama film 2016: Obama’s America (Note 2), even though it failed in its mission to make Obama a one-term president). The reason for his indictment and conviction, D’Souza as narrator explains, was that the Obama administration was trying “to shut me up.” D’Souza and his apologists are attempting to portray the prosecution as a way to unduly punish D’Souza for a minor oversight regarding the amount of money he was allowed to contribute to a friend running for office (e.g., Rush Limbaugh recently made the fatuous claim that Obama administration officials searched long and hard and discovered “an obscure law” in order to prosecute/persecute D’Souza). 

In fact, D’Souza deliberately and flagrantly violated the law by channeling money to a series of straw donors in order to attempt to circumvent campaign contribution limits.  He would have gotten away with it had it not been for the fact that one of the straw donors was D'Souza's mistress; the woman's cuckolded husband turned D'Souza in.  The husband also "made audio recordings in October, 2012 of his wife discussing D’Souza’s plans should he get caught making the illegal donations."  Instead of having moviegoers pay to see him whine, D’Souza should be thanking his lucky stars that he and his accomplices aren’t serving hard time for conspiracy, money laundering, and wire fraud. So much for the conservative tenet of taking responsibility for one’s actions.  

The Party of Lincoln
 

One of the main premises of the film is that the Democratic Party’s alleged secret history of being against civil rights is reflected in its current incarnation and that the real party of civil rights is the contemporary Republican Party that Ronald Reagan helped create.  Secret history of the Democratic Party?  Anyone who takes a college survey course in American history will find that the college textbooks emphasize the concept of the “Solid South,” the tendency for the states of the old confederacy of voting overwhelmingly Democratic from the end of Reconstruction until the 1960’s when Republicans began pandering to white Southern racists (a fact that D’Souza attempts to obscure).

A theme that D’Souza pushes is that The Democratic Party of 1850 = The Democratic Party of 2016 and that the current Republican Party is “the party of Lincoln and Reagan” –the real party of civil rights. One image near the beginning of the film that is particularly revealing is a collage of images that allegedly represent the nature of the current Democratic Party. One of the images is a graphic of Confederate traitor and sadistic war criminal Nathan Bedford Forrest. This image is either the same image or very similar to the image of Forrest that appears on the cover of the book The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Civil War, an apologia for the Confederate succession, Forrest’s ghastly war crimes, and slavery. This revisionist history was written by Lost Cause bitter ender H.W. Crocker III and published by Regnery Publishing, the preeminent American conservative/Republican publisher (Note 3). UPDATE: When I originally wrote the review, I didn't know that the book version of Hillary's America was published by Regnery.  It’s worth noting that one of Ronald Reagan’s favorite newspapers, Human Events, used Crocker’s wretched book as a free gift to subscribers (Reagan’s other beloved newspaper, the Washington Times, has a long line of editors with neo-Confederate and white supremacist views—Note 4).

In the “Big Switch” portion of the film, D’Souza attempts to whitewash how the Republican Party since the 1960’s has pandered to racists and neo-Confederates.  D’Souza attempts to obscure the fact that from the 1960’s through the 1980’s, prominent and virulent anti-civil rights Democrats became Republicans. He does this with slick graphics that dilute the significance of the switch by including a list of anti-civil rights Democrats from 1860 to 2000 and pointing out that relatively few of them switched to the GOP.  This is sophistry.  Of course, no slavocrats or Redeemers from the Democratic Party in the nineteenth century switched to the GOP  (which was then controlled by the Radical Republicans who wanted to treat the defeated states of the Confederacy as conquered provinces). It was only from the 1964 Goldwater campaign through the Reagan years that significant numbers of anti-civil rights Southern Democrats switched to the GOP.  After the Reagan years, anti-civil rights Southerners began bypassing the Democratic Party entirely and began registering as Republicans when they reached adulthood such as Representative Steve Scalise who bragged about being "David Duke without the baggage" and who is now is part of the GOP House leadership.

Apologists for Republican racism like D'Souza are quick to note that more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, they never note post-switch Congressional votes. Most notably, in 1983, when Congress voted on the proposed Martin Luther King holiday, over 80 percent of the no votes in both the House and Senate were cast by Republicans. Most notably, Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina redbaited King and personally denigrated him. In 2006, Congress voted to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Senate voted unanimously to extend the act; in the House, all 33 no votes were cast by Republicans.

D’Souza fails to note the number of recent and prominent anti-civil rights Republican who started out as Democrats. Many of these Democrats-turned-Republicans quickly ascended to leadership positions in the GOP and to positions of prominence within the conservative movement during and after the Reagan Revolution. These are just some who quickly ascended to leadership positions in the GOP and/or the conservative movement:

• The Reverend Jerry Falwell. His first foray into politics in the 1950’s as a Democrat was to redbait the civil rights movement and proclaim that Jim Crow was God-ordained because blacks were stricken with the “Curse of Ham” and were meant to be servile to other tribes. In response to civil rights legislation, Falwell created a segregation academy in 1967; it is airbrushed out of the contemporary histories of the Religious Right that a key issue with Southern fundamentalists who became politically active and supported the Reagan Republicans was the concern about federal intervention against their whites-only schools. Hillary Clinton’s work against the segregation academies was possibly one of the reasons that Falwell engaged in his scam of selling $40 VHS tapes to his flock claiming that the Clintons had murdered Vince Foster and others (Falwell’s tapes included interviews from Clinton enemy Democrat-turned-Republican Arkansas politician "Justice" Jim Johnson, a virulent racist and unrepentant Klan supporter). (Note 5)
• Falwell’s close friend, Senator Jesse Helms started his political career as a dirty tricks operative for Dixiecrat Senator Willis Smith (D-NC); Helms wrote a flyer for Smith titled, “White People—Wake Up.”  Helms ran for office as a Democrat in 1958 but switched to the GOP when he ran for the U.S. Senate and his bigotry in the Senate (such as redbaiting Martin Luther King when the proposed national holiday was being debated) proved to be an embarrassment to many Republicans (Note 6).
• Strom Thurmond was an anti-civil rights Democrat who bolted from the party temporarily in 1948 in response to modest civil rights reforms by the Truman administration; Thurmond ran for president as the Dixiecrat candidate, whose party platform specifically called for segregation and opposition to anti-lynching laws. Thurmond made a permanent switch to the GOP in 1964 as a response to the national Democratic Party’s advancement of civil rights. Thurmond worked close with Richard Nixon on his Southern Strategy of appealing to the racism of the white Southern working class (Note 7).
• Trent Lott started out as a Democrat and switched to the GOP. He was a fervent supporter of federal funding for Bob Jones University (which had a policy banning interracial dating) and maintained close ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a latter-day incarnation of the old White Citizens’ Councils. Lott was a staunch defender of segregation academies. Lott remarked that "the spirit of Jefferson Davis" resided in the GOP platform of 1984. Despite this positions, Lott was on the fast track to the leadership of the GOP, becoming Senate Majority leader (though he was ousted in 2002 after publicly displaying fondness for Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat candidacy).
• Haley Barbour, former Mississippi governor and head of the Republican National Committee, began adult life as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party. Mississippi is one of the few states in which politicians—all Republican—publicly boast of their ties to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens; Barbour was part of this group. Barbour’s presidential hopes were derailed in 2010 when he made incredibly godawful statements lauding the old White Citizens’ Councils (known as the "Uptown Klan").
• Richard Shelby. One important measure of how the major parties switched on civil rights is how members of Congress voted on the proposed Martin Luther King holiday in 1983. By the early 1980's, the switch was almost complete. Over 80 percent of the no votes in the House and Senate were Republicans. One of the few Democratic no votes in the House was by Richard Shelby who later was elected to the Senate. Shelby took a little longer to switch when he became a Republican in 1994.
• Roy Moore started his career as a Democrat but became a Republican in the early 1990's. As a Republican, Moore gave speeches to The Council of Conservative Citizens, the modern version of the old White Citizens' Councils. Moore also propagated the racist birther conspiracy. Moore also was a key opponent of a bipartisan move to eliminate sections of the Alabama state constitution mandating school segregation and poll taxes. Moore said that getting rid of Constitutional amendments after the 10th would "eliminate many problems." Moore told a black man that America was great during slavery. A comprehensive article on Moore's racist/neo-Confederate ties is here.
• "Justice" James D. Johnson. Unrepentant racist and segregationist Justice Jim Johnson ran for Arkansas governor in 1966. Mainstream Arkansas Democrats like Bill Clinton voted for his opponent. Johnson never repudiated his virulent racism and switched to the GOP and became an enemy of Bill Clinton. After Clinton became president, Johnson appeared in at least two of Jerry Falwell's smear videos that Falwell sold to his flock accusing Clinton of murder. 
• State Representative Tommy Woods (R-MS). Woods began his political career as a Democrat but switched to the GOP. He is notable for being one of the few 21st century elected officials who was a proud member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Woods, against all evidence, disputed the group's hate-group label.
• Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi grew up as a Democrat but became a Republican with the disintegration of the New Deal Coalition in the 1960's. Cochran said he was "proud" to be using Confederate president Jefferson Davis' old desk in the U.S. Senate and didn't add his name to a resolution apologizing for the Senate not enacting anti-lynching legislation.

Reagan The Redeemer

D’Souza attempts to portray the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan as a force for civil rights. This is laughably absurd.  Reagan was initially a Democrat but, unlike the aforementioned party switchers, Reagan had been part of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He grew up in Illinois, lived most of his adult life in Los Angeles, and served as president of the Screen Actors Guild.

However, once he became a Republican, Reagan shamelessly pandered to white Southern racists (this was in large part an extension of Nixon’s Southern Strategy). He opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In campaign stops in the South, Reagan railed against the “strapping young buck” who used his food stamps to buy T-bone steaks. As the head of the party of Lincoln, Reagan proclaimed Lincoln’s sworn enemy, slavocrat and head the Confederacy Jefferson Davis as one of his heroes (this is a sharp contrast to Lincoln who had nothing but seething contempt for Davis).  Many of his appointments and nominations were unreconstructed white supremacists (my favorite is the Reagan appointee who edited a book that bemoaned African-Americans and their “jungle freedoms”).  Reagan also complained that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had been “humiliating to the South.”

Reagan’s real legacy is that whenever there is a gaffe involving sympathy or nostalgia for the Klan or the old Confederacy, it‘s almost always a Republican behind the asinine comment. A recent example: on the floor of the House, then-Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) referred to the Civil War as “the Great War of Yankee Aggression.” Also, right as Hillary’s America was released in theaters, a court of appeals struck down a Republican-sponsored North Carolina Voter ID law. The blistering ruling pointed out how Republican legislators requested data regarding how African-Americans were likely to vote (e.g., early voting) and then “with surgical precision” created a law that curtailed those types of voting (as well as the limiting identification to those that African-Americans were less likely to possess). That is Reagan’s racial legacy.

The Paranoid Style

How does D’Souza reconcile the fact that most of that the current Democratic Party has very few with white supremacist or neo-Confederate sympathies?  D’Souza advances the canard popular with conservative race hustlers such as Jesse Lee Peterson that contemporary safety net and social insurance programs are ways that contemporary progressives enslave African-Americans. The film employs slick computer-generated imagery to quickly transition from an image of slaves on a plantation to inner-city residents who presumably are on the “liberal plantation.”  This view presumes that the over 90 percent of African-Americans who vote Democratic are dupes who are too stupid to know their best interests.

One of the people D’Souza interviews to support this view is Jonah Goldberg, editor of the conservative National Review, one of Reagan’s favorite magazines. Goldberg is the author of the book Liberal Fascism, a book that, against all evidence, claims that Nazism and Italian fascism were left-wing and progressive movements (Note 8). In the film, Goldberg posits that modern progressive policies are methods of social control akin to fascism.

Goldberg’s attacks represent a common thread found in the film: the Rovian tactic of accusing one’s enemies of possessing one’s own weakness or flaw.  In fact, it is Goldberg’s magazine National Review that has a long history of support for fascist dictators like Franco and Mussolini.  Longtime National Review editor Jeffrey Hart once wrote an utterly bizarre paean to Mussolini, lauding Il Duce for his political accomplishments and sexual prowess. Hart founded the conservative campus newspaper, The Dartmouth Review in 1980; the paper hired D’Souza, a Dartmouth student, as editor in the early 80’s and it was the vehicle D’Souza first used to make his mark in conservative circles.

The Dartmouth Review under D’Souza represented Hart’s ideals and the worst of the 80’s Reagan zeitgeist. D’Souza and other operatives at The Review responded to the real obnoxiousness and sanctimony of much of the campus left by becoming ten times as snotty and insufferable as those they opposed. The Review epitomized the 80’s backlash against marginalized groups that made gains in 60’s and 70’s. These conservative “journalists” (who defended legacy admissions) published an editorial opposing admissions policies that addressed prior discrimination written in pseudo-black dialect (“Dis Sho’ Ain’t No Jive.”).  D’Souza used the paper to out several closeted members of the university’s gay community to their families. The paper slurred Native Americans and other minority groups. The Review joked that Jesse Jackson's grandmother posed nude for National Geographic.  The sense of entitlement, unprovoked meanness, and bigotry found at D’Souza’s Dartmouth Review perfectly embody Reaganism, but without the former actor’s affable aw-shucks façade (note 9).

Sexual Predation and Divine Providence

A portion of the film dredges up claims that Bill Clinton is a sexual predator and that Hillary is his “fixer.” The film shows clips of one of Bill Clinton’s alleged victims. What D’Souza fails to note is that the alleged victim had signed two sworn statements that no sexual abuse by Clinton took place.  Sure, Bill Clinton has fooled around but, unlike certain prominent Republicans, he didn’t trade in Hillary for a new model once she hit 40.

This allegation is part of the campaign by Republican operative Roger Stone to take down the Clintons.  Stone’s recent book The Clintons’ War on Women not only is the basis for D’Souza’s claims about Bill Clinton being a predator and Hillary being his enabler but Stone also uses the book to revive the conspiracy theory that the Clintons bumped off Vince Foster and others.  If you aren’t familiar with Stone’s book, it’s because the only national television outlet that has given credence to Stone’s claims is Fox News; Stone has appeared on several Fox News shows in which his weak claims and conspiracy theories were given credence by the network’s conservative hosts/operatives.

As luck would have it, right at the time that Hillary’s America was released, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes was forced to step down after it came out that he’s a serial sexual abuser who had sexually harassed employees and other women for the past half century! One article that was published right at the time of the release of D’Souza’s film was about a longtime Fox News employee who, in order to keep her job, not only had to service Ailes but she had to procure other Fox News female employees for him. “It was psychological torture,” the woman told writer Gabriel Sherman.

Let’s look at what just happened here. Fox’s Roger Ailes used his network to attempt to legitimize the work of a notorious dirty tricks operative accusing a former president of rape and murder. Immediately thereafter, Ailes is exposed as a habitual sexual predator right as his network’s claims are being recycled in D’Souza’s cinematic hatchet job. The timing has to be divine providence. God’s not dead! 

  
Conclusion
 

This review is almost 3000 words and I haven’t even gotten to D’Souza’s distortions about Planned Parenthood or misinformation by interviewee Peter Schweizer (author of Clinton Cash). That job is for someone else. This film isn’t a documentary. It’s crude propaganda.

Notes:

Note 1: Postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard’s concept of the simulacrum is a useful model to describe the right’s ontological support structures, e.g., talk radio, fair and balanced pseudo-journalistic entities, and alleged think tanks that don’t do any impartial research but that fund operatives like D’Souza who pose as intellectuals.  

Note 2: The premise of 2016: Obama’s America is that Obama inherited his Kenyan father’s anti-colonial rage and that he would use a second term to exact revenge against the United States.

Note 3: It’s also worth noting that Regnery Publishing publishes other Lost Cause revisionist histories that celebrate and whitewash the treasonous Confederate slavocracy such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South by (and Why It Will Rise Again) by Clint Johnson. Also, in an attempt to buoy the candidacy of George W. Bush (who supported the Vietnam War but who joined a champagne unit), in 2004, Regnery published a book by the head of the Swift Boaters that denigrated the war record of John Kerry who actually risked his life in Vietnam. The book was coauthored by Jerome Corsi who later became a leader birther whose book Where’s the Birth Certificate? hit bookstores days after the state of Hawaii released Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

D'Souza's first book, Falwell: Before the Millennium, was published by Regnery (then Regnery Gateway).

Note 4: For more on the Washington Times’ love affair with racists and neo-Confederates, Read Max Blumenthal’s article about the paper:

Note 5: D’Souza’s first book, Falwell: Before the Millennium, was a hagiography of the bigoted preacher/con artist. Also, CultJam Productions is working on a comic book about Falwell titled “Falwell in Hell.”

Note 6: Helms was also notorious for his taunting of the first African-American female U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun by singing “Dixie” in an elevator he shared with her.

Note 7: Both Helms and Thurmond make cameo appearances in CultJam Productions’ comic book “Ivy League Exorcist.”

Note 8: The History Channel had a panel of historians who wrote exhaustive studies how Goldberg’s book was a fatally flawed piece of hackwork.

Note 9: The 80’s Dartmouth Review set were not only nasty, entitled bigots but they were incorrigibly pompous and lame young fogies. Former conservative Michael Lind writes in Up from Conservatism: “Tory affectations were taken a step further in the 1980s, when young conservatives like the group around the Dartmouth Review made a cult of the Masterpiece Theater dramatization of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. They were triply pathetic, emulating not only a nation but a class and generation not their own.” Also, Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post wrote about a counterdemonstration to an anti-nuclear session consisting of Review operatives "draping an American flag from a third floor window, drinking brandy, and listening to John Philip Sousa records. 'Put out more flags!' yells one of them, a student with a weakness for Evelyn Waugh who totes around a foam-rubber shark named Chesterton."

CultJam's Hipsterman Featured in Guff.com Article on SD Comic-Con

Troy writes: A pic of me as Hipsterman promoting CultJam Productions'comic book "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist" is featured in a Alan Denton's article in Guff.com titled "The Things Nobody Tells You about Going to Comic-Con."

Hipsterman Pic at Comic-Con with "Trump Is The Antichrist" Sign

This is from Jessica Roy @jessica_roy   It's a really good pic.

Also,more pics here

Troy of CultJam Productions Nominated by Syfy Channel (with Trolli) for "Most Weirdly Awesome" Costume at 2016 San Diego Comic-Con

Troy Davis writes: My Hipsterman costume got me nominated by the Syfy channel for "Most Weirdly Awesome" Costume at 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. Vote for me here: http://www.syfy.com/patrolli

Being a postmodern superhero has its benefits!

AT San Diego Comic-Con as Hipsterman promoting "Trump Is The Antichrist"

Troy Davis writes: I'm at SD Comic-Con dressed as Hipsterman, the Postmodern Superhero. Have a HUGE double-sided sign promoting  Trump comic book and our film Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story.  I stood next to Sharknado promoters. Literally hundreds of people took a photo. Entertainment Tonight was reporting nearby. I heckled them as "sellouts to the Hollywood machine."

Latest Rob Portman Pro-NRA Mailer

I mentioned on Wednesday about the pro-NRA mailer I received from Rob Portman (this was 4 days after the Orlando massacre). I just received another one in the mail today.

Today's Mailer from Ohio Senator Rob Portman--2nd Amendment

Troy writes

This creeped me out today when I got the mail. This would be in bad taste even if it weren't a few days after the Orlando mass shooting. Portman lets us know that he's "unwavering in defending our 2nd Amendment rights." No comment.

This isn't surprising considered the nuisance calls I've received from the NRA. I twice was the victim of  the infamous Wayne LaPierre robocall with the bizarre accusation that Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton "teamed up" with North Korea and Iran to deny Americans their gun rights. 

UPDATE: Since I posted this yesterday, I've gotten a lot of hit from the Washington, DC area, including multiple views from person(s) from Politico. Watch our film about Bobby Jindal and read our Donald Trump comic book. List of links here.

Donald Trump Chick Tract Parody Changed

Troy David writes:

I made some changes to the popular Chick tract parody "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist." On one of the panels, I added a reference to 2016 candidate Ted Cruz who enlisted the aid of notorious Colorado legislator Gordon Kingenschmitt, an avowed exorcist. That panel alone illustrates the insanity of the 2016 campaign; the idea that two major party presidential candidates could have such close ties to exorcists and one actually performed one!

I also changed the panel in which Trump tries to discourage people from watching Ivy League Exorcist.

One more thing, members of CultJam Productions have been handing out print versions of the tract and we've received rave reviews. Thanks for the support.

Enjoy!

Pop Culture Acquisition: Spire Christian Comics Spinner Rack

Troy writes:

I found an old Spires Christian Comics spinner rack from the 1970's for sale in the back of a Christian book store for $5. The price was right.

CultJam Productions has a table at the Small Press Expo Columbus Ohio April 2016

We have a table at The Small Press Expo in Columbus. We're promoting our Chick tract parodies and Tijuana bibles as well as our online film Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story

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Donald Trump Is The Antichrist: Revised Chick Tract Parody Comic Book

2019 UPDATE: An updated version is available here.

Troy writes:

The previous Chick tract parody "Trump Is The Antichrist" is dated because Marco Rubio dropped out of the race.  I made a new tract to reflect this change. I also changed the title and the cover drawing to accentuate Trump's tanning bed goggle effect. We hope comic book fans and Jack Chick fans enjoy it! Also, Spanish language version "Donald Trump Es El Anticristo! Ay Caramba!" is here.

Notes: This comic book is part of a rich tradition of Chick tract parodies . . . On the cover, the font of "Antichrist" is based on a font by Charles Burns . . . On page one, the title, "Unquestioned Lord and Master of the World" is from the episode of The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror V" (the segment about Homer time-travelling and discovers a horrible alternate present in which Flanders controls everone . . . The second panel on page one is based on a very bizarre fundamentalist pamphlet I got in the New York subway (part of it is below) . . . The man with "Trump 666" stamped on his forehead is an homage to an illustration by Daniel Clowes in "The Apocalypse" in BLAB! #4 . .  . Page two: here's a good article about the scary Christ Fellowship  that Marco Rubio attends . . . Page four: Here is the link to the Scores stripper club in the Trump Taj Mahal; the web page reads that it is "Unexpected," "Uninhibited," and "Unparalleled" see below . . . Page four: Regarding Trump's daughter Ivanka; here's an article about the creepy things Trump said about her. , , Kudos to Pocho for linking to this comic.

Part of a pamphlet I got in NYC subway Nov 2012

Trump's Titty Bar

Jerry Falwell in Hell: Forthcoming Comix from CultJam Productions

Troy writes:

I'm working on a new Chick tract parody "Falwell in Hell." I couldn't decide which of the following covers to use so I decided to use both of them once I complete the book.

UPDATE: Although this post has only been up for a few hours, someone from Falwell's diploma mill Liberty University has checked out the post. Here's a part of a screenshot of our Statcounter account:

Trump's MLM Partner Robert Kiyosaki

Troy Davis writes:

 In today's New York Times, Michael Barbaro and Steve Eder have an eye-opening report on the questionable methods Trump University instructors used to receive the 98 percent level of satisfaction that The Donald crows about in his new website.

The article mentions that the plaintiffs in the case might be using author and businessman John T. Reed as an expert witness. Reed thoroughly and devastatingly debunked the career and claims of Trump's former co-author Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame (Trump and Kiyosaki co-wrote the bestselling book Why We Want You to be Rich: Two Men One Message). Trump and Kiyosaki recommend multi-level marketing--in fact, Kiyosaki first achieved success by marketing his Rich Dad Poor Dad book to top Amway distributors.  Reed's website reviews self-proclaimed real estate gurus (remember the late 20th century late night infomercials by Tom Vu, Carleton Sheets, and Dave Del Dotto?). Reed takes apart Kiyosaki's claims brilliantly here and here.

Nancy Reagan: The First Lady Who Empowered The War on Some People Who Use Some Drugs is Dead

RIP

Rubio Robot Meme Hitting Critical Stage.

I just did a google search of "marco rubio" Check out our comic book that deals with Rubio's exorcist pastor.

"Trump Is The Antichrist": New Jack Chick Parody Tract Spoofing Donald Trump and Marco Rubio

UPDATE: There's an updated tract: "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist: Prepare for The Rapture!" and a Spanish language version "Donald Trump Es El Anticristo! Ay Caramba!" is here.

Troy of CultJam writes

A few days ago, I did a post that was a hoax: it claimed that Jack Chick has a new anti-Trump tract. Actually, it's a CultJam Productions tract to promote our online short film Ivy League Exorcist:The Bobby Jindal Story. Our Chick tract parody "Ivy League Exorcist" is dated because Bobby dropped out of the 2016 presidential race.

The tract notes the remarkable fact that two Republican presidential candidates have such close ties to exorcisms, a phenomenon that most rational people view as an archaic practice. Bobby Jindal is an actual exorcist while Marco Rubio makes sure to attend services at the Christ Fellowship megachurch if senior pastor Rick Blackwood, an exorcist, is preaching; in An American Son: A Memoir, Rubio writes: "On most Saturday nights, we still attend services at Christ Fellowship, especially if Pastor Rick [Blackwood] is preaching the sermon."

I have important notes, references, and links after the tract.  Also, check out our other mini-comic "CockTale: A Modern Tijuana Bible," a satire that roasts Tom Cruise and Scientology.

Notes: This comic book is part of a rich tradition of Chick tract parodies . . . On the cover, the font of "Antichrist" is based on a font by Charles Burns . . . On page one, the title, "Unquestioned Lord and Master of the World" is from the episode of The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror V" (the segment about Homer time-travelling and discovers a horrible alternate present in which Flanders controls everone . . . The second panel on page one is based on a very bizarre fundamentalist pamphlet I got in the New York subway (part of it is below) . . . The man with "Trump 666" stamped on his forehead is an homage to an illustration by Daniel Clowes in "The Apocalypse" in BLAB! #4 . .  . Page two: here's a good article about the scary Christ Fellowship  that Marco Rubio attends . . . Page four: Here is the link to the Scores stripper club in the Trump Taj Mahal; the web page reads that it is "Unexpected," "Uninhibited," and "Unparalleled" see below . . . Page four: Regarding Trump's daughter Ivanka; here's an article about the creepy things Trump said about her. , , Kudos to Pocho for linking to this comic.

Part of a pamphlet I got in NYC subway Nov 2012

Trump's Titty Bar

New Jack Chick Tract: "Trump Is The Antichrist"

Jack T. Chick Hates Trump 

Frank Cromer (who did the animated sequence parodying the Screen Gems' logo at the beginning of the film Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story) was walking through the artsy area of Tucson the other day and there were a couple fundies with a stacks of Chick tracts on a makeshift table consisting of two plastic storage containers. He took some pics of the tracts (he respected the fundies' request not to photograph them). When he got home to look at the photos he took on his afternoon excursion, he noticed a Chick tract titled, "Trump Is The Antichrist." This is hilarious. My sources say it's one of those preview tracts that large buyers get before Chick Publications releases it to the general public. I can't wait until it's released. Frank is keeping an eye out for the fundies so that he can get the tract and we can take pics of the inside of the tract so that people can have a sneak at the content of the tract before it's released to the general public.

Update:  This post has attracted a lot of attention on various social media sites. Check out our online film Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story.  Also, check out our Tijuana bible poking fun at Tom Cruise and Scientology. Our main site is here.

UPDATE 2: Here's the tract and the story behind it.

Presidents of Diploma Mills: It Takes One to Endorse One: Jerry Falwell, Jr. and Donald Trump

Liberty University is the place where Jesus rides a dinosaur and the skating rink is named after Tim LaHaye without a hint of detached irony.  Their president Jerry Falwell, Jr. just endorsed the former head of another diploma mill: Donald Trump, the founder and chancellor of Trump University.

Dead Day Revolution: "Vampire Blues" Music Video

Troy of CultJam Productions writes:

My friend and colleague Dean Gold directed an awesome music video for the hard rock group Dead Day Revolution's song "Vampire Blues." Check it out:
Dead Day Revolution: Vampire Blues Music Video (Full Version) Directed by Dean Gold from Dean Gold on Vimeo.

According to the Signs, What is the True Religion?

Troy Davis writes:

Today I was home and the phone (landline) rang. I answered it and it was a phony tech support guy trying to access my computer. Whenever a scammer calls me, I try to keep him/her on the line as long as possible to waste his/her time and demoralize the scammer (my all-time record: I kept "Rachel from Cardholder Services" on the line for 23 minutes before telling her that I work for the Federal Trade Commission).

Anyhow, I acted like a live one and kept the guy (probably from India or Pakistan) on the line for a while. He asked me for some information from my computer and I responded "choli ke peeche" (rough translation: "what's behind my blouse?"). I also told him that I was Aamir Khan. After a while of this, the really really dull scammer got the picture that I knew it was a scam.

Anyway, I began scolding him for trying to swindle people. He told me I was going to hell and told me to google "According to the signs, what is the true religion?"  When I did this later did this, I found a bunch of links for Islam. It's too bad I didn't do this when I had him on the line; I wanted to ask him what the deal was with Aisha and I also wanted to know if he celebrated Festivus.

Bobby Jindal is No Longer a 2016 Presidential Candidate

Troy Davis writes:

Bobby dropped out! What a bummer. We at CultJam Productions were hoping that Bobby would get the nomination; that would have meant a lot more views for our film Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story; watch the entire film here.

Another bummer: our Jack Chick tract parody used to promote the film is now out-of-date.

At least he stayed in the race for over four-and-a-half months; that's two-and-a-half months more than The Onion predicted. That should count for something.

Update: Stephen Colbert has some comic insights on Governor Jindal's departure.

Belgium Might Expel Church of Scientology!

Bon chance, Belgique! Voici une bande dessinée sur la scientologie en français.

I Almost Got the Chance to Ask Bobby Jindal about What He Thought about the Film Ivy League Exorcist

Troy Davis writes:

Yesterday, Bobby Jindal had a telephone town hall meeting (sponsored by The Washington Examiner). I was on the call and past the call screener (I told the screener I wanted to ask Bobby what he thought about the student loan debt crisis) and was prepared to ask Bobby if he enjoyed our film Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story. Unfortunately, the town hall meeting ended before they got to my question.

If you'd like to see what happens when I get a chance to ask a question on live radio, check out what happened when I appeared on Bryan Fischer's radio show.

The Brown University Guerilla Media Campaign/Limited Edition Comic Book Giveaway to Brown University Students/Staff

CultJam Productions will soon announce a Brown University guerrilla media campaign to spread the word about the short online film Ivy League Exorcist; The Bobby Jindal Story 

which is about a hilariously bizarre chapter in Brown University history.  We're trying to reach the entire Brown University community including all students, faculty, administration, staff, and alumni.  This will involve distributing print copies of the mini-comic book tract  "Ivy League Exorcist in and around the Brown University campus.

As a way to express our goodwill to people in the Brown University community, we are offering a limited edition version of the tract to anyone with a Brown University email address (brown.edu). This limited edition tract is numbered and signed by the artist Troy Davis. Email us at cultjampro@gmail.com

Anti-Apple Parody Laptop Sticker

Troy Davis writes: In my spare time, I made a sticker for my laptop made by American workers in a factory without suicide nets. This image is copyleft so feel free to use; a plug would be appreciated.

Rolling Coal Diesel Truck--Spotted in Eastern Ohio

Troy Davis writes:

In eastern Ohio near Wheeling, West Virginia, the heart of coal country, I spotted this diesel pick-up with after-market smokestacks installed to "roll coal," the obnoxious practice by hilljacks of blowing diesel soot on hybrid cars (this guy named his stacks "Prius repellent"). More on this practice here.

It's kind of fitting that I'm writing this on Labor Day.  People involved in coal who are hurting are being told by the coal barons to blame everyone but the people who deserve the blame, namely the coal barons who have looted Appalachia for the past 150 years.

CultJam Productions Promotes Spoof Exorcism Film on Bryan Fischer's Focal Point Radio Show Today!

Troy Davis writes:

I was checking out the response to last night GOP presidential debate on right-wing talk radio today and was tuned into Bryan Fischer's Focal Point radio show. Focal Point is part of The American Family Association, an American fundamentalist political organization. Fischer is a poster boy for why separation of church and state is a great idea.  Anyhow, he told his listeners to call and let him know which candidate was the most impressive. I dialed the call-in number and acted like a live one to the screener.  Since I had a friend's phone with a 740 area code, I told her I was "Randall from Bridgeport, Ohio."  When Fischer got to me on the show, here's how the call went:

FISCHER: Let's grab a call from Randall in Bridgeport, Ohio. Randall, welcome. What's on your mind?

TROY (AS RANDALL):  Oh, hello, Bryan. Yeah, I really loved both debates and I was especially impressed by the performance by Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and his strong stand against Planned Parenthood. I think one thing that really sets Governor Jindal apart is that he's no Johnny-come-lately when it comes to the fight for Christian values. In fact, there's a film that's a testament to his fight against spiritual darkness. It's called Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story and you can watch it online and it's just really inspirational.  

FISCHER:  Well, you know Bobby Jindal, I mean, there isn't any question, Randall, that Bobby Jindal is one of us: when it comes to his evangelical faith, when it comes to his values, when it comes his recognition of the authority of scripture, when it comes to his being completely unapologetic about publicly praying and engaging in public prayer. You're talking about an exorcism that he witnessed or was a part of when he was in college, [and he] writes unapologetically about that and, you know, he was one of the first governors--I think he was the first governor, maybe, to suspend funding for Planned Parenthood through Medicaid or Medicare--I think it was Medicaid--through Medicaid in Louisiana. He was the first state to do that. Other states have since followed suit, Alabama today. Governor Jindal, you're exactly right, was out there in front. Governor Jindal believes in the power of prayer. He convened, about eight months ago, a prayer rally at Louisiana State, Baton Rouge. [He] got a lot of criticism for that. I got relentlessly hammered over that because AFA was connected to that prayer event so the left just went after me hammer and tongs. Bobby Jindal was undeterred because this was about prayer; it's not about anything else. We're going ahead and we're going to have this prayer event. Alright, Randall, good call. I appreciate that. 

ADDENDUM: Check out my Chick tract parody promoting the film and my Tijuana bible poking fun at Scientology.

New Press Release for the Online Short Film Ivy League Exorcist; The Bobby Jindal Story

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Film Bobby Jindal’s Spokesman Denounced as “Insane”

On June 24, 2015, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal announced that he would be a 2016 presidential candidate. The members of the film collective CultJam Productions had released the short film about Jindal’s college years, Ivy League Exorcist: The Bobby Jindal Story, on its website (www.cultjampro.com) to rave reviews.  Richard von Busack, the film reviewer for Metro Silicon Valley, called the film “a sharp shocker .  .  . worthy of John Waters.” http://www.metroactive.com/movies/ivy-league-exorcist.html  Peter Jacobs of the Ivy Gate Blog (now at Business Insider) wrote that Ivy League Exorcist is “probably the best 11-minute film you will watch all day. Trust us.” http://www.ivygateblog.com/2012/07/what-were-watching-and-you-should-be-too-ivy-league-exorcist-the-bobby-jindal-story/  The film also was covered by The London Daily Telegraph, Wonkette, and The Huffington Post.

Governor Jindal’s people were less impressed.  Governor Jindal’s spokesman, Kyle Plotkin, said of the film, “That movie is insane. It’s just plain absurd.” http://ivyleagueexorcist.blogspot.com/2014/04/lost-article-about-ivy-league-exorcist.html

The film is a deadpan comedy film, a postmodern mumblecore-style examination of a disturbing event. The film is a tongue-in-cheek dramatization of the bizarre events that took place in a Brown University classroom in 1990.  Jindal and members of a student Christian group were holding a prayer vigil for a fellow member who had been diagnosed with skin cancer when the afflicted woman suddenly collapsed on the floor, convulsed, and showed sudden and drastic personality changes that Jindal and the other students interpreted as demonic possession.  The group performed a do-it-yourself exorcism on the woman. 

Jindal wrote about the incident in a conservative Catholic journal The New Oxford Review in 1994; the title of the article was “Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare.”  Davis got the idea of doing a short film about the incident after he read the New Oxford Review piece in the summer of 2011: “After I finished reading the article,” recounted Davis, “my first thought was, ‘Wow, this is totally surreal!’ My second thought was that of a filmmaker, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do a reenactment of the exorcism in the form of a mumblecore-style film?’” The film is intended to have a deconditioning effect, that is, it is intended to jolt people out of ordinary modes of thinking.  This film is very postmodern in that it employs pastiche, intertextuality, and blends highbrow and lowbrow elements.  

Eventually Davis saw the subversive media potential of the film: “On the one hand,” Davis quipped, “using a cinema vérité or mumblecore cinematography style, the film would have a documentary feel to it. I was convinced that some people viewing the film would be convinced that it was a documentary of the actual events—I’m reminded of a recent survey indicating that many people didn’t realize that Stephen Colbert’s TV show persona is satirical in nature.  We decided to introduce some over-the-top elements into the film, not just for shock value or cheap laughs, but to test the naïveté of the audience—were they in on the gag?”

Davis noted that the members of CultJam Productions, a film collective, were uniquely suited for the odd nature of the film: “In the nineties, I discovered postmodernism, media hacking, and cyberpunk culture; these aren’t just theories, they were and continue to be a way of life.”  Mario Glaviano, the director, and Francesca Stonum, the co-DP and editor, are graduates of the film program at San Diego State University when they were protégés of postmodernist and cyberpunk theorist Larry McCaffery. The assistant director, Mark Schwab, is a veteran of the mumblecore film movement and whose experiments in improvisation and the do-it-yourself ethic have been landing him accolades in underground film festivals. 

CultJam Productions did a guerilla-style promotion of the film at Comic-Con in San Diego in 2012.  Davis noted, “We created a mini-comic book promoting the film that mimicked the style of the inflammatory fundamentalist Jack Chick comic book tracts; it can be seen here: http://cultjamproductions.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-ivy-league-exorcist-promotional.html  Davis quipped, “We handed them out to the conventioneers and most thought we were crazy religionists but some of the more discerning people appreciated the irony and the fact that they were in on the joke.” 

Members of CultJam Productions are concerned that people will think the film is an attempt to influence politics.  “People who think this is a hit job on Jindal don’t get the point,” Davis said, “The college years are a time for people to do stupid things. If anything, I think that with Jindal, unlike Barack Obama who was doing coke in college, at least his heart was in the right place. He meant well. I think there are some deeper issues, nonpolitical ones that the film addresses. 

CONTACT:  Troy Davis, co-producer of CultJam Productions  cultjampro@gmail.com  

Ivy League Exorcist site: www.cultjampro.com

Ivy League Exorcist blog: http://ivyleagueexorcist.blogspot.com/

CultJam Productions blog: http://cultjamproductions.blogspot.com/

Ivy League Exorcist IMDb page:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2330536/

Promotional Ivy League Exorcist Chick Tract Parody: http://cultjamproductions.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-ivy-league-exorcist-promotional.html