Tagged: Gerald Molen

Posted: January 1, 2013 at 8:46 am

Cowgirl Blog’s Best and Worst of 2012

Happy New Year Cowgirl readers! Here are some of the highlights and lowlights that made 2012 so memorable–and these Cowgirl posts the year’s most read.

Best book by a GOP candidate:

When Republican gubernatorial hopeful Neil Livingstone admitted to the Associated Press this year that he was once “a guest on a yacht full of hookers in Monte Carlo,” few people realized that Livingstone is actually a leading authority on such matters.

Indeed, it turns out that Livingstone actually published a detailed instructional manual in 1997, which provides candid advice for world business travelers on how to solicit a high-quality prostitute.

This is not a joke. This valuable handbook appears as a chapter within a greater literary work by Livingstone, a book entitled “Protect Yourself in an Uncertain World” (Amazon, $3.39 used). You can read the Cowgirl Blog’s review of Livinstone’s masterpiece here.

Worst TEA Party call to action:

As a child I learned that empty vessels make the most noise. That rings especially true this year after a Montana TEA Party leader called for a boycott of all news. The TEA Party leader said the boycott was needed because news agencies in Billings and elsewhere “are complicit in the destruction of America.”

Most hypocritical speech of 2012:

The award for this year’s Most Hypocritical Speech goes to Congressman Steve Daines. The congressman’s speech at the RNC lionized his ancestor as not being “Saved by Government” when that ancestor received a huge government handout in the form of a homestead under a federal program called the Homestead Act.

Best way to dispose of a TEA Party imbecile, for good:

Part of what has made Governor Brian Schweitzer one of the most popular governors in America is his ability to stand up to the TEA Party. This made How to Dispose of a Tea Party Imbecile, For Good one of 2012′s most popular posts.

Montana’s stalest political cliches:

Two hackneyed phrases sucked the last shred meaning out of Montana political pablum this year more than any others.

The phrase “double down” became so overused in Montana politics that anyone who hears or reads it now doubles over. Enough already.

And any time you hear a politician propose, “a uniquely Montana solution,” notice that the cliche is never followed by an actual example of what that solution might be. Everyone knows that the people spewing this nonsense are doing so to disguise the fact they they have no actual solutions to offer. Offenders, you know who you are.

Best example of ridiculous Fox News lies:

Fox News this week called the Westboro Baptist Church a “left-wing cult” in their story about the group’s protests of the Newtown shooting victims’ funerals. As the Atlantic Wire asks, “if these people are “left-wing,” just how far “right” is Fox News?

Most outlandish conspiracy theories:

A Montana legislator is behind both of 2012′s dumbest conspiracy theories. Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Krayton Kerns (R-Laurel) this year authored the conspiratorial screed on how birth control is the “death nail in the coffin of our Republic”. He also made national headlines after the Cowgirl blog uncovered his belief that the relocation of 60 bison — which he blamed on Walt Disney’s movie “Bambi” — could lead to $25 a gallon gas prices as part of a liberal government plot.

Worst movie of the year:

Kalispell movie producer Gerald Molen can’t figure out why the Academy overlooked this high quality of this piece of fine art. Perhaps because is is actually one of the single most oppressively embarrassing movies ever made, reaching levels of galling unwatchability. Meanwhile, the director and writer of the movie, and the author of the book on which it is based, has been caught with his pants down.

Posted: December 9, 2012 at 9:39 am

For Your Consideration…Montana, the Oscars, and a Mistress

Today we have two hilarious and related items:

First, we go to Tinseltown.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Montana’s own Gerald Molen, the producer of the right-wing documentary “Obama: 2016,” is complaining that his film has been snubbed by the Academy of Motion Pictures. The film, alas, was not nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary, as Molen thought it should be.

I can’t imagine why. Surely the Academy overlooked the high quality of this piece of fine art. This film, to refresh your memory, claims that Obama is a kind of Manchurian candidate, a militant African who has worked his life to achieve power in America so that he can now punish white people for the evils that white colonialist visited upon his African ancestors. Now that he is in his second term, the film posits, he will put in place the final solution, taking things from white people and giving them to dark people. If you are interested in getting a flavor for the movie, just watch this trailer, and get the basic idea as you watch shot after shot of hordes of impoverished dark-skinned people, taking to the streets, marching and rioting.

How could such a film not be nominated for an Oscar? It’s hard to believe.

The film got lots of ink during the 2012 presidential campaign. Molen thought that his film would help win the election for Romney, and timed the release of the film accordingly. But like Karl Rove, whose racist theories of how to win an election expired some time around 2004, Molen’s film probably backfired if anything. Inciting racist anger is no longer a viable strategy to win a national election. America has wised up, and the electorate also is a little less white than it used to be.

For being snubbed, Molen, who lives up in Kalispell, is accusing the Oscar committee of “liberal bias.” He says that his movie should have received a nomination simply because it grossed more money than any of the other documentaries that were nominated.

Meanwhile, the director and writer of the movie, and the author of the book on which it is based, has been caught with his pants down.

“Obama:2016″ was written and directed by Dinesh D’Souza, who based the film on based on his book entitled “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.” D’Souza is (or was) also the President of King’s College in New York, an evangelical university.

But now, the University has fired him. It turns out that D’Souza, who is 51 and married, made the mistake of bringing his mistress–a 29-year-old bleach-blond–on the road with him to an evangelical conference in South Carolina, where D’Souza gave the keynote speech. But unlike in Las Vegas, what happens at the evangelical conference does not stay at the evangelical conference. And so the University fired him for violating its mission statement, which is a “commitment to the truths of Christianity and a biblical worldview.”

As the New York Times recounts the incident at the evangelical conference, D’Souza got busted when a reporter for a Christian news service, who was covering the conference and the speech, saw D’Souza checking into his hotel with the young blonde. The reporter called D’Souza to inquire who the woman was.

Later that day, when he realized that the story was about to be published, D’Souza hastily filed to divorce his wife. He then tried to argue, in the press, that he did not violate Christian principles and thus should not have had to leave his job.

Posted: August 10, 2012 at 10:45 pm

Top Ten Possible Reasons Karl Rove was in the Flathead This Week

10. He was pitching Gerald Molen, producer of the box office flop “Obama 2016, ” on a sequel to “Birth of a Nation.”

9. He wanted to go drinking and boating.

8. He was asking Chuck Baldwin to be Mitt Romney’s running mate.

7. He was thanking Baucus for the Bush tax cuts.

6. He wanted to show his support for the Whitefish Legacy Project.

5. He came to tell Ryan Zinke the ABC’s of swift-boating.

4. He wanted to connect with whoever made that incredible Derek Skees ad.

3. He was making a pilgrimage to Big Mountain Jesus.

2. He wanted to vacation in a place where they serve big portions of food.

1. He was doing opposition research on Schweitzer

Posted: July 30, 2012 at 7:23 am

Anti-Obama Movie, Produced by Kalispell Republican, Flops at the Box Office

There’s no business like show business, like no business I know

The opening when your heart beats like a drum

The closing when the customers don’t come

It was one of the most anticipated movies of the year–for angry right-wing moviegoers. But “2016: Obama’s America,” which I recently reviewed here, has flopped badly at the box office.

This film was based on a book called “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” and was produced by a Montana resident, Gerald Molen, who once had a strong career in Hollywood including involvement in the movie Schindler’s List. But Molen now makes right-wing propaganda films. The apparent premise of this new film, if one views the trailer for it, is that America is about to fall to the masses of people of color, because Obama harbors a secret desire to avenge the transgressions visited upon his ancestral homeland of Kenya by white colonialists. The trailer for the film features mobs of dark-skinned people in poor countries, rioting, marching, protesting, appearing to overrun civilized society.

Fine cinema no doubt, which is why I am shocked that this film–which cost an estimated $4 million to produce and market–had grossed only $89,000 at the box office. Also, it has played so far in only four Texas movie theaters.

This is a major disappointment for Molen. Molen, sitting in his house in Kalispell and reading the wonderful coverage of his movie in such important newspapers as The Daily Inter Lake and Whitefish Pilot (both run by birthers), was probably growing a wild fantasy in his head that this racist film could create some buzz, and that he, in turn, would become part of the election narrative, his movie debated and discussed on cable news shows and the like.

But that’s doubtful now the the movie has bombed. And none of this is really a surprise. For Molen, perhaps unwittingly, has become a Montana GOP operative. Statistically, therefore, his scheme had a high likelihood of failure.

Posted: July 5, 2012 at 6:52 am

Obama’s Rage, Coming to a Theater Near You (if you are redneck)

Did you know that Obama has rage, and that this rage has identifiable roots?

I was unaware of Obama’s rage, so I hadn’t felt the need to investigate the roots of it. But thankfully, a right-wing Republican who was once a movie producer in Hollywood and now lives in Kalispell is producing a movie that will answer these important questions.

The movie is called “Obama 2016” and is based on a book, released last year, entitled “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.” The producer’s name is Gerald Molen. Recently Molen spoke to the GOP in the Flathead Valley where he lives. As the Button Valley Bugle reports, Molen described what he said is Obama’s “doomsday vision of the United States’ future” which includes “socialism” and “the end of America.”

This will be fine cinema no doubt, especially if the trailer for the movie (now on Youtube) is any indication. The trailer, from start to finish, is mostly a bunch of incendiary images of black people, shouting, jumping around, rioting and marching. Of particular interest to me is a clip of a bunch of young dark-skinned children, fighting over money and property on a monopoly board. The message, apparently, is that our great wealth is on the verge of falling to the masses of people of color. Obama’s rage could be to blame.

But fear not. This film is well sourced. Molen told a local newspaper that the film is “careful to avoid conspiracy theories.”

Obama’s “rage,” the trailer says, is rooted in his desire to “right the wrongs of white colonialism” that were visited upon African nations.

This blockbuster movie, according to the Flathead Beacon, will open in Houston July 13th and then “to a wider audience” on July 29th. Alas, the audience consisting of trashy white people with no teeth is pretty limited, so let’s wish Molen luck.

A few points of interest regarding Molen. First, his bio prominently states that he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, meaning that he is likely coming out big for Romney and might have a religious basis for his advocacy.

Second, Molen was one of the producers of Schindler’s List, and won an academy award for his work on that film.

Molen may have done good work on the business end of Schindler’s List, but it’s clear that he was totally oblivious to what the story was about. The holocaust was a lesson in what happens when hate-mongers work tirelessly to persuade society that certain groups of people–ethnic, religious or other–are to blame for all of society’s problems. Molen might want to read a little history, as in, a history of Germany during the thirty years leading up to World War II. The people that did, in pre-war Germany, the kind of thing that Molen is doing now (inciting hatred via grand conspiracies) were called Nazis.

There’s one thing that is stated in Molen’s Wikipedia bio cannot possibly be true. The bio says he “works closely with Steven Spielberg.” He may have done so in the past, but not any more. Spielberg doesn’t hang around with the likes of Molen.