I arrived early for a business meeting and am at a holiday inn express in delmont, Pa

[slingsam]

This is just outside the liberal bastion that is, Pittsburgh, PA. But out of my window, I can see a giant LED billboard advertising Laura ingraham's upcoming speech in the city. Direct TV connection in the hotel has all kinds of right wing stations.....including Newsmax Television and some station called OAN....One America News and it only reads part of the news that make Drumpf look like a religious, patriotic leader who knows exactly what he is doing in rescuing America from radical Muslim terrorists.

Ohmigod....I just looked the other direction out of my window. Another one of those LED billboards broadcasting Right Wing Propaganda.....all the usual bile. In bright lights. How do I let our investigative reporters know?

I'm tired....but I'm only posting this to remind me to take photos in the morning. I will post.

[Cosmocat]

1. Very Trumpian area

About 25 minutes away, near Latrobe is the Trump house that made national news a few years ago.

[manor321]

2. Yep, I've seen those same right wing LED billboards near Pittsburgh, in Republican leaning suburbs

[spinbaby]

3. Rural western PA is very red.

I grew up near Delmont. It was out in the sticks then and it’s still out in the sticks, except with McMansions.

[slingsam]

4. Somebody's paying a lot of money to tell people what to think in this town

[DFW]

5. Ah, yes, I was in that area once. Latrobe, Ligonier

My first girlfriend ended up living there. She ended up going to Yale and dumping me (I was all of 20 and she was 18, so we are talking pleistocene era here). I have no idea where her politics ended up, but she DID end up marrying a German investment banker who had a pivotal role in nearly wrecking the German economy (Lehman Bros. connections) in 2008 and escaped with a €150 million golden parachute (he must have have known where a LOT of skeletons were buried!). So, he would have fit right in with the Mellon Bank crowd.

Nice countryside, but I didn't exactly fit in with the unfriendly natives.

I hold no grudges--if she hadn't sent me away, I never would have met my present wife, and THAT would have been a tragedy, because it would have meant some guy OTHER than myself would have married her!

[erronis]

7. Your story sounds a lot like mine. Without these forks in the roads, we wouldn't be us

and we wouldn't have met or married the exceptional people we did. The forks can be painful but they are usually good for us.

[DFW]

8. How true, how true

My fork was my ticket to a better, wider world. The Pamela Brown song in real life.

[democratisphere]

6. The area must be filled with idiots and crooks!

No one will ever change either, so it is a lost cause.

[blueinredohio]

9. Next time someone tries to sell me on direct tv

I'll tell them no because you have too many right wing channels. Maybe when you change your line up I'll think about it But I won't because I've heard too many things about them.

[appalachiablue]

10. Someone say again that nothing needs to be done about FOX, RW Media

[left-of-center2012]

11. "the liberal bastion that is, Pittsburgh, PA."

Much of PA is Trump country.

[allgood33]

12. Let us know if you see a sign for the Department of the Poorly Educated.

[dhol82]

13. Is there any way we can get the Fairness Doctrine back?

[appalachiablue]

20. The Fairness Doctrine was applied to the airwaves meaning

broadcast radio & TV. Enacted 1949 after WWII and dangerous propaganda speech by Goebbels, Nazi PR Minister et al.

When Reagan began ignoring the doctrine (FCC regulated) in the mid-1980s, hate radio flourished with Limbaugh, more.

Since Fox is on cable (and $Free, unlike MSNBC) the doctrine doesn't apply, I think.

There needs to be another news media outlet providing balanced, fair and left viewpoints in an *accessible way, to counter extreme and steady RW media on TV, radio, cable, internet, etc.

More balanced programming is offered on MSNBC, PBS/NPR, Indy Radio, Internet, but it's scattered, and not regular 24/7 (or Free) like Fox.

Fox TV and Hate Radio are everywhere, free, and heavily supported. Roger Ailes knew what he was doing when he first approached Nixon about a 'GOP TV' in the mid 1970s.

A new media outlet would likely take a loss initially, as Fox did, and it would need a Tom Steyer to fund it.

The subject is brought up here often. Many don't see a need for any alternatives, say we can't 'compete with Fox, ' etc.

The impact of hard- right wing messaging is massive and costing us Americans, elections, democracy, minds, and more.

[Demobrat]

14. Today I sat in a San Francisco coffee shop

And listened to a white, middle-aged male rant nonstop to his companion about how wealthy liberal elites want to enslave us all by making us join unions

His white, middle-aged female companion, who was wearing a cast on her leg and a plastic bracelet that read, in large black letters, “High-Risk”, didn’t say a word the whole time except to ask him to order her some toast

The whole time I kept thinking to myself “right-wing radio”.

The reach is wide.

[bluecollar2]

15. Were you in the Sunset district?...n/t

[Demobrat]

16. No

North Beach.

[bluecollar2]

17. I'll be damned...

Back when I lived in the City North Beach was fairly progressive. West of the peaks was the more conservative side of the City.

[Demobrat]

19. I've lived here 30 years.

It’s changed a lot. Or maybe it hasn’t. I hear a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment from, of all people, the old Italians. Maybe they’ve just been emboldened like Trumpsters everywhere.

[bluecollar2]

21. Went to HS and college in the City.

Finally left in 87. I hear it has changed a lot in that time.

Lived in Noe Valley, Forest Hill, the Sunset, the Marina, Pacific Heights and the Richmond

Really liked Clement/6th the best...but all the neighborhoods were fun.

The seventies were a different time.

[Demobrat]

22. The tech boom has changed everything

The city was never inexpensive, but now it’s ALL about greed. Landlords desperate to evict long-term tenants under rent control so they can find some young techie willing to pay $4500 for a one bedroom. Longtime businesses being forced out. Rampant homelessness.

And it’s all the fault of those nasty liberals who think the people who make and serve their $5 cups of coffee shouldn’t have to live in their cars.

I’m approaching retirement age and seriously considering whether I want to grow old here. This city is not kind to seniors. Or anybody who doesn’t work for Facebook, Google, or Twitter.

The attitude is - if you don’t have the skills to pay the bills get out. I might just take them up on it b

[slingsam]

24. I couldn't help hearing ominous music in the background while reading your post and thinking

THE INVASION IS COMPLETE!!!!

of the body snatchers!

(Yeah, I forgot my meds this morning)

[maryellen99]

18. OAN makes Fox look liberal nt

[slingsam]

23. I did not stick around to take pictures

I did watch OAN last night for a bit....and did not believe what I was hearing and seeing....but....I think they were borderline treasonous. I just think there should be a law to prohibit that kind of bile and propaganda and misinformation.