ObamaCare Liars On Fox News Get Bitchslapped – On Fox News

There has been an aura of the absurd permeating this election season for many months. And it isn’t all connected to Donald Trump (although that’s a huuuuge part of it). The circus atmosphere of the Republican contest has exceeded all bounds of reason. They are calling each other liars, flip-floppers, and worst of all, Republicans. Who would have thought a year ago the the foulest insult that could be aimed at a Republican would be the accusation of being an “establishment” member of your own party?

ObamaCare

Amidst the turmoil and tantrums, Fox News, the staunchest evangelist of right-wing gospel, has itself come under pressure from within their own congregation. Most notably Donald Trump has pounded the network as unfair, unbalanced, and rife with dummies, losers, and bimbos. And he’s not the only wingnut taking swings at the conservatives favorite network. Everyone from Rush Limbaugh, to Glenn Beck to Ann Coulter has hurled broadsides at Fox. Well, those critics are not going to be happy about what happened the past couple days on the channel that had made destroying ObamaCare its prime directive.

Like most Republicans, Ted Cruz (R-TX) has feverishly attacked ObamaCare and promised its repeal if he were to be elected. This week he reiterated the demonstrably false GOP dogma that Obamacare was “the biggest job-killer in the country.” And when the subject came up on Bill O’Reilly’s show it did not receive the typical mindless thrashing that is the hallmark of Fox’s coverage.

O’Reilly noted that the Associated Press fact-checked Cruz and found that, not only was his statement false, the opposite was true. More jobs were created (over 13 million) simultaneous with an increase of nearly 17 million people getting health insurance who were not able to get it before ObamaCare. However, O’Reilly went on to cite dubious statistics that muted the beneficial aftermath of ObamaCare.

In response, his guest/victim, Kirsten Powers, disputed O’Reilly’s numbers, but also argued that even he were right “you have to make the connection that it was caused by Obamacare, and I don’t think that Cruz has made that connection.” Unfazed by facts, O’Reilly continued to muddy the debate by baselessly asserting that both sides have valid arguments. To which Powers replied with specific examples of conservative studies that affirm the positive impact of ObamaCare on employment. Characteristically, O’Reilly refused to budge, even while failing to offer a substantive rebuttal. He closed with a weak concession that Cruz ought to have sourced his data which, of course, O’Reilly himself didn’t do.

Today on Fox News Sunday the same issue was discussed. Ted Cruz was interviewed and given an opportunity to defend his own false allegations. He faced Fox’s Chris Wallace who surprisingly confronted him with the facts. Cruz typically dodged the question with a knee-jerk slam on the “liberal” media.

Wallace: The fact checkers say you’re wrong. Since that law went into effect, the unemployment rate fell from 9.9% to 5% as 13 million new jobs were created, and 16.3 million people who were previously uninsured now have coverage.
Cruz: Fact checkers are not fair and impartial. They are liberal editorial journalists. And they have made it their mission to defend Obamacare.

Of course. Everyone knows that fact-checkers have always been biased proponents of recklessly doling out healthcare to any slob that was dumb enough to get sick. Cruz’s notion that fact-checkers are not actually checking facts is a lunacy that is reminiscent of the Romney campaign in 2012 when his pollster declared that “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers [who have] jumped the shark.” Republicans keep admitting that the truth is of no use to them. And in that spirit the answer Cruz gave ignored the facts entirely, offered no alternative data to confirm his view, and then veered wildly off topic. Then he became obstinate and angry when Wallace pressed him to address the subject at hand.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Veteran Fox-watcher Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine has reported that personality issues and infighting have left Fox News grasping to shape an image during this campaign. But that is only part of the explanation for their spongy positions on matters that were once hard-coded. The viciousness exhibited by the Republican candidates toward one another presents an inherent conflict for a network that is so accustomed to agreeing with whatever the guy on the right said. Now they’re struck with the dilemma of who to suck up to if the choices are all right-wingers? And that predicament has left them confused and unprepared when a marginally progressive argument is dropped in their lap. They are simply so befuddled that they can’t keep their stories straight. Let’s hope this lasts until November.

Crybaby Donald Trump’s Tele-Tantrum Failed vs. The GOP Debate On Fox News

THE NUMBERS ARE IN: The Republican debate on Thursday went off without a hitch despite the loss of its biggest tabloid star, Donald “The Situation” Trump. Despite Trump’s trash talking the match-up between the debate and his phony veterans charade, he not only failed to outperform the debate, he didn’t even draw a quarter of the viewers that watched the debate.

Fox News Donald Trump

The audience for the debate was about 12.5 million. So it outdrew the last GOP debate which pulled in 11 million on the Fox Business Channel. The audience for the GOP debates has been understandably declining with each event. They began with a bang last August registering 24 million, then dropped to 22, 14, 13, spiked to 18 on CNN, then settled back to 11 million. So it is to be expected that the audience would continue to shrink, especially without The Donald. The novelty wears off as the election season progresses. However, surprisingly, it went up a bit.

That by itself would be enough evidence that Trump’s tantrum was a failure. But it gets worse. The audience for his cynical and insulting exploitation of veterans as political props was markedly lower. CNN drew only 1.7 million viewers, and MSNBC had just over one million. So the debate’s audience was four times greater than the combined audience on the other news networks. What’s more, the other networks only aired a small portion of Trump’s event (about fifteen minutes at the beginning and sporadic cut-ins later), so his propaganda didn’t get nearly the coverage that he hoped.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Undoubtedly, Trump will declare victory because reality isn’t relevant in his world, or that of his glassy-eyed disciples. But the truth is that he failed to make an impact by ditching the GOP affair. He proved that the networks don’t need to pander to him and that they won’t be hurt if he gets huffy and bails. That’s probably something that he wishes he didn’t make known. And the image of him as whining wimp who is afraid to face a few journalists along with his party peers will endure.

With The Antichrist Coming To America, Glenn Beck Is Fleeing To Israel

Now that most of the leaders of the Bundy Klan who were occupying the wildlife refuge in Oregon are in jail, more sober analyses of the crackpot adventure can be made. And while it’s clear that the inspiration for these perverse patriots was firmly rooted in sovereign citizen lunacy, signs of another source of inspiration are now revealing themselves.

Glenn Beck Messiah

Buried deep in an article in the Washington Post was a quote from a Bundy supporter whose devoted loyalty perfectly encapsulates the thinking that drives their movement. She said…

“I live my life by God and creed, and the federal government has taken that away from us. If you want to know what’s going on, talk to [conservative talk show host] Glenn Beck.”

Glenn Beck is literally the last person you want to talk to if you want to know what’s going on. His fantastical delusions are in no way connected to reality. Among his paranoid notions is his announcement yesterday that he’s plotting an escape route to Jerusalem “where they won’t shut this down and we can be able to broadcast into the United States.”

Beck’s worries, though, may not all be in his head. Lloyd Grove at the Daily Beast has discovered that all is not well in Beckland. Several of his senior executives are bailing on him amid dissension in the ranks. Grove leads off by revealing that Kraig Kitchin, the CEO of Beck’s web site TheBlaze, has quit. He had only been on the job about six months and was the third CEO to leave in the past year. Following him out the door are the website’s director of sales, director of marketing, and two senior producers. Grove also cites sources who “predicted a ‘mass exodus’ from the New York studios,” and attributed the departures to “frustration after continual friction with top Beck executive Jonathan Schreiber,” the president of Beck’s production company, Mercury Radio Arts.

An interesting side note here is that Schreiber was previously a techy entrepreneur from Israel. Now that he is being blamed for other executive departures, he is replacing them with his own hand-picked lieutenants. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Beck is suddenly drawing up plans to flee to Jerusalem to avoid getting crushed in the fall of America.

Also playing a part in this melodrama is the fact that Beck’s empire is suffering a collapse of its own. His website traffic for TheBlaze has reportedly dropped from 29 million unique visitors per month to about 16.4 million. And his eponymous web page has also shrunk from around 4.4 million unique visitors per month to only 1.4 million.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

No wonder Beck wants to get out of town. He’ll probably stick around through the 2016 election since he’s gone to the trouble of endorsing Evanga-publican Ted Cruz. The prospects for a Cruz victory, however, are remote. So Beck will surely use that as further evidence that God has cursed America. Then he’ll hasten his migration to the Holy Land where they have universal health care and they lost the War on Christmas (it is not a state holiday). Plus he’ll be surrounded by the Muslims he loves so much. I’m sure he’ll be very happy. Those of us left behind will be all too happy to see him go.

The Twitter Feed Of Donald Trump Reeks Of Racism And Misogyny

Tonight Donald Trump is holding a cynical counter-event to the Fox News Republican primary debate where he is insulting America’s veterans by using them as political props. He even admitted that he doesn’t really care about veterans when he walked out onto the stage and the first thing he said was “I didn’t want to be here.” Gee, thanks, Donnie. [And for the record, of the alleged six million dollars raised, four million came from one million dollar donations from four of Trump’s wealthy pals. That’s two-thirds of the total that Trump raised with four phone calls that he could have made at any time, but never bothered. So he didn’t need to stage this phony event at all]

That’s typical of his ego-soaked personality that is only concerned with what advances his interests. And it is expressed frequently in his Twitter feed. Just today there were a couple of tweets that deserve some special recognition due to their grotesque nature. These tweets are emblematic of Trump’s racism and misogyny. And they both attack Fox’s Megyn Kelly, proving that his claim that she had nothing to do with why he skipped the debate was an outright lie.

First there was this tweet that shows Megyn Kelly with Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. It’s purpose is to create a negative association between Kelly and Fox News with Arab royalty, and a Muslim, as if that by itself were some mortal sin. Alwaleed is minority shareholder of 21st Century Fox, the parent corporation of Fox News.


Donald Trump Tweet

There are, however, a couple of problems with that tweet. First of all, it is a fake. Kelly was photoshopped, badly, into the picture. Another problem with it is that @BradCross4, who originally posted the picture, is a raging and unabashed racist whose twitter account is full of repulsive bigotry. Apparently that didn’t bother Trump as he retweeted it. That is something he does frequently. He recently retweeted another racist meme that made ludicrous assertions about African-American crime statistics. Then there was his retweet of an image by someone called @WhiteGenocideTM. It’s hard to pretend he didn’t know what that was about.

Finally, Trump’s complaint about Fox News having a business relationship with Alwaleed is hypocritical in the extreme. Trump has many such relationships with Muslims, which he often brags about. As one example Trump, bought the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in 1988. After suffering serious financial difficulties he was forced to sell it just seven years later at a loss of nearly 40% to – yep – Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. So in addition to being a huuuge hypocrite, this also reveals another example of his poor business skills.

[Update: Alwaleed replied to Trump’s tweet with one of his own saying “Trump:You base your statements on photoshopped pics?I bailed you out twice;a 3rd time,maybe?” Alwaleed noted the Plaza Hotel deal where he paid off Trump’s debt. He also revealed that he bought Trump’s yacht after it had been turned over to creditors]

The other tweet that Trump promoted today was this one that featured Megyn Kelly from an article in GQ. News Corpse reported on these photos at the time and how inappropriate they were for someone purporting to be a news professional. It not only diminished her as a journalist, but it demonstrated how Fox exploits the women they put on air as sexual objects.

Donald Trump Tweet

The problem with Trump weighing in on this is that it is blatantly hypocritical. The tweet refers to Kelly as a “bimbo” and, therefore, unfit to moderate a debate. However, Trump doesn’t seem to have the same opinion of his wife and daughter, whom he says are both businesswomen deserving of respect. Even though they both have their own photo spreads.

Donald Trump Wife Daughter

These tweets are just further evidence that Donald Trump is a boorish, hypocritical, bigoted cretin whose wealth has never enabled him buy an ounce of integrity or class. The fact that there are people who seriously regard this neanderthal as presidential material is a sad commentary on that small and repugnant sector of America. And don’t forget, Donald Trump wants to bang his daughter, as the video below makes clear.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Donald Trump Proves He’s Lying About The Fox News Debate Boycott

Ever since Donald Trump announced that he was too scared of Megyn Kelly to participate in the Fox News debate, he has been attempting to tweak his story to make himself look less like a weasel. That effort has been a hysterical series of blatant lies and distortions. In the process he provided the best evidence that the image he is trying to present is utterly false.

Donald Trump Megyn Kelly

The basis for this feud lies entirely on Trump’s whining about having been asked a question by Kelly about his past derogatory remarks about women. It’s a question that would have come up in the campaign at some point whether by Kelly or a Democratic opponent later on. So Kelly actually gave Trump an opportunity to respond in a friendly environment. However, his gargantuan ego prevented him from seeing the reality of the situation and he has been lashing out at Kelly, with varying levels of profanity, ever since. This culminated with his demand that Fox remove her as a moderator of the upcoming debate.

Fox had no intention of sidelining their anchor and that led Trump, who isn’t accustomed to being told “no,” to throw his hissy fit and bow out of the debate. Today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Trump‘s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was asked to be specific about why Megyn Kelly “rattles Donald Trump’s cage unlike anybody else?” He said that…

“This has nothing to do with Megyn Kelly. What this is about is Fox News, which is making tens of millions of dollars off the debate. It’s Roger Ailes, it’s Fox News, they think they can mess with Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump doesn’t play games.”

Then Trump himself said the same thing in a tweet:

“It was the childishly written & taunting PR statement by Fox that made me not do the debate, more so than lightweight reporter, @megynkelly.”

Nothing to do with Megyn Kelly? That’s a stretch for most people, but Trump is a world-class liar. Trump’s camp is attempting to shift this from the original source of the dispute to a broader field of enemies in order to keep from looking like a big weenie who is afraid to answer questions from a mere woman. It’s going to be difficult for him to escape the truth considering how well documented the record is.

It’s also going to be difficult when he is contradicting himself within a few hours of his claim that it’s Fox, not Kelly, that he is boycotting. That contradiction came today with the notice that he will be a guest on Bill O’Reilly’s program tonight. If his problem is with Fox News, then why he is gracing the O’Reilly Factor, Fox’s top-rated program, with his presence, but he’s still skipping the debate? If he’s upset with the network, shouldn’t he stay off of it? Obviously his anger is not directed at Roger Ailes or the network, it’s directed squarely at Megyn Kelly, the debate moderator.

What’s more, the reason for his original outrage was Kelly’s question that called on him to answer for his fits of misogyny. Well today he added to that record by calling Kelly a “bimbo,” albeit in a classically passive-aggressive manner. Trump tweeted

“I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!”

Of course, in that comment he is indirectly calling Kelly a “bimbo” as well as undoing his carefully crafted image as an opponent of political correctness. Notice that he is not refusing to use the term because it’s wrong, but only because it would not be politically correct. So he obviously believes that shes a bimbo, but is too wimpy to say so. Will his followers stand for that? [Note: His followers will stand for anything, including seeing him commit murder. That’s how stupid he thinks they are, and they even stand for that]

Another example of hypocrisy occurred when Trump said that you can’t mess with him, that he doesn’t play games, and that Fox’s PR statement was “childish” and “taunting.” Then he posts his own childish and taunting tweet in a response to Ted Cruz’s offer to debate one-on-one. Trump said “Ted Cruz wants to debate me again. Can we do it in Canada?” That’s so mature.

So where will Trump be during the debate? He is saying that he might hold a fundraiser for veterans at the same time. As much as some veterans are in need of assistance, it is just disgusting that Trump would use that as a political retaliation. If he sincerely cared about the welfare of veterans why didn’t he schedule a fundraiser last week or last month or at any other time unrelated to this dispute with Fox? Why doesn’t he give some of his billions to them without making it part of his tantrum? The vets should be insulted that he is using them as political props.

Trump is also whining about how the ratings for the debate will suffer without him. That’s probably true, but it demonstrates that all he is interested in is the commercial viability of the event. He doesn’t care about the democratic process, the free press, or accountability to voters. It’s all about money and ego to Trump.

And then there’s this: Trump was interviewed by Megyn Kelly about a debate that he was trying (and failed) to put together with Newsmax in 2011. At that time he could not have been more effusively complimentary to Kelly.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Here’s Your Chance To Vote Donald Trump Off Of The Fox News Debate [UPDATE: He’s Out]

[UPDATE: Trump and his campaign are now saying that he will definitely skip the debate. Of course, that may change, but for now he is out. Further updates included below]

ORIGINAL POST: Donald Trump has been been whining about Thursday’s GOP debate on Fox News because he’s afraid to face Megyn Kelly. For the past couple of days he has been hinting that he might boycott the debate unless Kelly is dropped. And today on Twitter he is asking people to vote on whether or not he should show up. This is where you come in.


Fox News Donald Trump

Well now Trump and his campaign are saying that he is definitely out and that it is not negotiable. Assuming that he sticks to this (which is not a particularly solid assumption) Fox News will probably suffer a dip in the ratings for the program. However, they will also have a better chance to produce a more substantive, informative debate (although not much more).

Upon hearing this news Ted Cruz also chided Trump for being afraid of Kelly. Then he challenged Trump to a one-on-one debate with different mocerators. He suggested Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and/or Glenn Beck. Now that would be a real hoot.

There’s just one little problem. The RNC has stated that the candidates may not participate in any debates other than those that they have sanctioned. The consequences if they do include being prohibited from any other sanctioned debate. So we’ll see where that goes.

The Back Story: Recently Trump tweeted this about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly: “Based on @MegynKelly’s conflict of interest and bias she should not be allowed to be a moderator of the next debate.” He seems not to know what a conflict of interest is, but as for bias, he is simply referring to his objection to an entirely appropriate question she asked him in the first GOP debate. She asked him to explain his many derogatory references to women. He dodged the question and complained about political correctness, and after the debate he accused Kelly having been hormonal. That led to a prolonged series of attacks on her.

Trump is saying he might hold his own televised townhall to compete with the debate. Fox is, so far, refusing to capitulate saying “Sooner or later Donald Trump even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick the journalists. We’re very surprised he’s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly.” Fox deserves credit for standing firm, and it’s pretty cagey of them to accuse Trump of cowardice. Fox is also responding to Trump’s Twitter poll with this:

“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”

Trump’s response to this:

“I didn’t like the fact that they sent out press releases toying, talking about Putin, and playing games. I don’t know what games Roger Ailes is playing, but what’s wrong over there. Something’s wrong. But when they sent out that press release, … I said, ‘Who are these people playing games?’”

Really? Donald Trump, who has been the biggest clown in the GOP’s circus suddenly doesn’t like playing games? This just keeps getting funnier and funnier. The falling out between Trump and Fox News can only be positive. Let’s hope they keep this feud going.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Trump is saying that he might hold a fundraiser for veterans during the debate. As much as some veterans are in need of assistance, it is just disgusting that Trump would use that as a political retaliation. If he sincerely cared about the welfare of veterans why didn’t he schedule a fundraiser last week or last month or at any other time unrelated to this dispute with Fox? Why doesn’t he give some of his billions to them without making it part of his tantrum?

Trump is also whining about how the ratings for the debate will decline without him. That’s probably true, but it demonstrates that all he is interested in is the commercial viability of the event. He doesn’t care about the democratic process or accountability to voters. It’s all about money and ego to Trump.

And then there’s this: Trump was interviewed by Megyn Kelly about a debate that he was trying (and failed) to put together with Newsmax in 2011.

Legal Jiu-Jitsu: Grand Jury Probing Planned Parenthood Indicts Video Hucksters Instead

The Texas legal system delivered a sort of poetic justice yesterday when a grand jury handed down an indictment of David Daleiden, the founder of the anti-choice Center for Medical Progress (CMP), and his associate Sandra Merritt. The charges included “tampering with a governmental record” and “illegally offer[ing] to purchase human organs.” At the same time the grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing.

Fox News

What’s surprising about this is that the grand jury was impaneled by a Republican District Attorney, who was appointed by a Republican governor, with the express purpose of going after Planned Parenthood for offences that were alleged in the deceptively edited CMP videos. From the very beginning Planned Parenthood and independent media demonstrated that the videos were flagrantly fraudulent in their depiction of the women’s health organization. And the members of the grand jury obviously agreed.

Since this news broke, conservative media has reacted with indignant fury declaring that justice was subverted by some undisclosed evil force. Never mind that the anti-choice activists were the ones who pushed for the probe and got everything they asked for in terms of its implementation. Now they are complaining that the charges against CMP are “a political hit job.” Those are exactly the words of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and their resident legal spinner Judge Andrew Napolitano:

Kelly: Now Judge, what does this mean?
Napolitano: This means that a political prosecutor has injected herself in a very serious issue about whether or not Planned Parenthood was profiting from the abortion of babies by selling body parts. […]
Kelly: So does this sound like a political hit job? Or what is this?
Napolitano: Absolutely. This is a political hit job.

They would actually be right if they were talking about why the grand jury was impaneled in the first place. But they have no rational argument for that accusation about the conclusion. It was their case, with their people, but unfortunately for them, the facts weren’t on their side.

What’s more, every federal, congressional, and state investigation into this matter has cleared Planned Parenthood. That includes many agencies in conservative states with Republican governors. Media Matters has been tracking these legal outcomes from the following authorities (so far): U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services, Massachusetts Attorney General, Indiana Department of Health, South Dakota Attorney General, Georgia Department of Public Health, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, Missouri Attorney General, Washington State Attorney General, and Kansas State Board of Healing Arts.

The spectacle of having a Republican generated grand jury return indictments against the parties who sought the investigation isn’t really that surprising considering the sordid history of these particular scoundrels. CMP cut their pseudo-journalistic teeth with the notoriously dishonest video hack, James O’Keefe. The legal misadventures of O’Keefe include his having been arrested and convicted for nefarious activities in the office of a U.S. senator. He was also forced to pay a $100,000 judgement to an ACORN employee that he defamed. When a right-wing group tried to get Texas to investigate allegations of voter registration fraud the prosecutors examined O’Keefe’s video “evidence” and concluded that it “was little more than a canard and political disinformation.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

This is the predictable result of biased activists masquerading as reporters in order to produce the propaganda necessary to advance their dishonest agenda. They have no respect for journalism or ethical reporting. They are tightly focused on defaming their targets to achieve their purely political goals. And now it is clear that they are so determined to push their campaign of lies that they will violate the law to do so. Fortunately, at least this time, they got caught and are going to suffer the consequences.

Donald Trump: If I Told My Followers To Drink Poisoned Kool-Aid They Would Do It

In the course of his seven month campaign for the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump has insulted all of his rivals, most of the media, and a fairly comprehensive assortment of religious and ethnic minorities. The only significant group that has escaped his bug-eyed rage has been his own constituents. Until now.

Donald Trump Kool-Aid

This weekend, in an attempt to brag about how loyal his followers are, he maintained that even if he were to commit a cold-blooded murder, his supporters would continue their worshipful admiration. What he said exactly was…

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters. OK? It’s like, incredible.”

There is so much wrong with this statement that it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, it is a nauseatingly egotistical remark that affirms that he is suffering from an acute case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Secondly, he chose to use decidedly violent imagery to illustrate how much he thinks he is loved. But most importantly, this comment is a scathing insult to his supporters. He is asserting that they are such blindly indiscriminate meatheads that it wouldn’t matter to them if the object of their adoration were a homicidal maniac.

Sadly, Trump may be right about his glassy-eyed followers. They have already dismissed so much about his onerous character that would have driven a normal, decent human being away in disgust. They don’t care that he is a flagrant racist who has demonstrated his prejudice against African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, and women. They aren’t put off by his promises to commit war crimes against women and children in Syria and Iraq. They let slide that he isn’t bothered by being compared to Hitler. And no matter how much he lies they just brush it off and keep applauding like slap-happy seals (See the Trump Bullshitopedia)

However, despite the evidence that Trump’s Troopers are imbeciles, they probably don’t regard themselves in that light. So why aren’t they offended when Trump characterizes them that way? This isn’t the first time either. Trump’s whole campaign insults the intelligence of anyone listening by refusing to tell them anything of substance. Instead he focuses on making nasty comments about others and boasting about his showing in the polls. It’s apparent that he doesn’t believe that his minions need to know, nor would they understand, any of those complicated details of governing. And they apparently agree.

This is the making of a potential disaster. Trump’s followers are so zealous and undiscerning that he could tell them to burn down a church and they would comply. He could tell them to block access to polling places. He could tell them to steal the coats of protesters and throw them out into the cold. Oh wait, he actually did do that. And just maybe, he could tell them to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and they would raises their glasses to toast him before chugging down the poisonous cocktail.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

You really have to wonder if there is something that Trump could do that would go too far for his cultish disciples. It wasn’t advocating databases to track all the Muslims in the country, who he would also require to wear ID badges. It wasn’t praising foreign dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un. It wasn’t re-tweeting white supremacists. It wasn’t lying about his faith, mangling the Bible, and declaring that he has never had to ask God for forgiveness. So far, there has been nothing that Trump’s followers find revolting enough to cause them to step back. That, all by itself, considering how grotesque Trump has already been, is a pretty scary thought.

Feel The Bern: Wall Street Exec Blames Bernie Sanders For The Stock Market Decline

If you’re looking for signs that establishment players are getting nervous about the possibility that the privileged classes may soon have to share the wealth and be held accountable for their crimes, then watch for them to develop a paranoia about the fall of Western civilization and blame it people who advocate for fairness and equal opportunity.

sanders-fear-the-bern

This week Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone Group, a global private equity and financial advisory firm, was interviewed in Davos at the annual World Economic Forum. When the subject came of the recently volatile stock market, Schwarzman offered his opinion that it was caused by three factors. The first was his assessment that the U.S. economy is slowing a little and concerns about China, which he said were overdone. The second were destabilizing world events including international hostilities and terrorism. And then there was . . .

“The third reason that we have unsettled markets is the fact that Bernie Sanders has become a viable candidate, at least in Iowa and New Hampshire. And the reason why that’s troubling is that he’s really on the far left, and we have a Republicans, on the other hand, who don’t inspire enormous confidence in terms of their ability, perhaps, to handle that job. So all of a sudden – and it really keys on this market collapse with Bernie rising as a viable candidate – that the rest of the world looks at America not the way America looks at America. For us it’s a local election. For the rest of the world it’s a global election. They depend on America to do the right thing.”

So it’s Sen. Sanders who is exerting his omnipotent control over the world economy? This feat of dominance is occurring even though not a single vote has been cast in the Democratic primary. That is a truly impressive demonstration of power. Who knew that an obscure senator from Vermont could wield such commanding control over the captains of industry and finance?

Apparently all it takes to roil the markets, according to Schwarzman, is a champion of average Americans becoming a “viable” candidate for president. Why that is perceived as such a destructive force wasn’t clearly explained. It seems to me that a world that depends on America doing the right thing would appreciate someone who wants to expand prosperity to as many people as possible. Although Schwarzman may have a point about Republicans that aren’t able to handle the job.

Sanders was asked about this revelation of his heretofore unknown dominion over the financial universe by Martha Radditz of ABC News. He literally laughed at the question and said…

“The reason that I am laughing is I fully admit to having a big ego, like many other politicians. But the idea that Bernie Sanders’s candidacy, because it has growing support all over this country, is unsettling world markets is absolutely absurd.”

Indeed it is. There are many reasons that the stock market has been antsy in the first weeks of this new year. What most credible economists cite is the dropping price of oil, a commodity whose value is determined by worldwide supply and demand. In that regard, what I have heard nobody mention, is what a great decision it was to decline to approve the KeystoneXL pipeline. The project’s advocates claimed that it would have substantially boosted the production of oil. That, we know now, would have exacerbated the current situation wherein there is a glut of oil that has caused the price to tank. So Keystone would have made things even worse.

What’s more, those who are panicking about what they regard as a stock market collapse are failing to put it into perspective. Even after the declines (of about 8%) in the past couple of weeks, the markets are still twice what they were when President Obama took office. That’s typically referred to as “correction” territory and not a crisis. Unless there is a Democratic president and Fox News is reporting on it, in which case it is a full-blown catastrophe.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The Wall Streeters may actually have something to worry about if Bernie Sanders is the next President of the United States. For that matter, they should worry about Hillary Clinton too. But their worries should have nothing to do with whether the world economy is going to crash. The truth is, as Clinton said recently, “The economy does better when we have a Democrat in the White House. That’s just a fact.” And therein lies the problem. Republicans are, by nature, averse to facts. They are far more likely to explain things by ascribing supernatural powers to their villains as well as their heroes. Maybe they should start a draft Voldemort campaign. Or maybe not. They already have Donald Trump.

The Republican Party Is SCARED WITLESS Of The Donald Trump-enstein They Created

From the earliest planning stages of the 2016 Republican primary, the party has demonstrated a foreboding fear of the public finding out anything useful about their candidates. To the contrary, they are more worried that what voters might learn will only make them nauseous. So the party honchos severely shortened the debate schedule and limited media access to friendly venues, particularly Fox News which was given more of the debates (five in all) than any other network. Additionally, the other networks were required by the Republican National Committee to include conservative co-sponsors and moderators, a requirement to which Fox was not held. This is the unmistakable behavior of a party that’s afraid of American voters.

Donald Trump GOP

Over the course of the campaign the RNC has repeatedly made decisions that affirm their state of fear. RNC chairman Reince Priebus admitted that the party was set on transforming what is supposed to be an open dialog that provides voters with an informative look at the candidates, into a PR vehicle that functions more like propaganda. If Republicans want a fully scripted television farce, they should be forced to buy the time like any other telemarketer. But Priebus was focused on producing GOP infomercials saying that…

“The thing that is ridiculous is allowing moderators, who are not serving the best interests of the candidate and the party, to actually be the people to be deposing our people. And I think that’s totally wrong.”

In his view the debates were there to serve the interests of the party, not the voters. Any attempt to draw out anything substantive from the candidates was frowned upon. That’s why after a contentious debate hosted by CNBC, the RNC revoked the only remaining debate scheduled for NBC. The party was punishing the network for doing its job.

This week National Review published a special issue entitled “Against Trump” that contained a series of short essays making the conservative case for ditching Donald Trump. The issue featured your favorite wingnut authors who were generally opposed to Trump’s lack of conservative credentials, principles, or any platform details. The issue opened saying that…

“Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”

It’s somewhat disarming (and a little heartwarming) to see a right-wing publication describe their party’s front-runner as a strong-man akin to Stalin or Mussolini. But coming from a source with diverse conservative voices like Glenn Beck, Bill Krystal, Erick Erickseon, and John Podhoretz, didn’t stop the RNC from striking back and “disinviting” the magazine from co-sponsoring an upcoming debate with CNN. Since when does a party committee get to decide for a news organization who they partner with? This is an unprecedented intrusion into the jurisdiction of journalism, and CNN is just as complicit for capitulating. It makes you wonder if the RNC is also dictating who the moderators are and what the questions will be.

While the RNC was quick to dump the National Review, their inherent prejudice was illustrated by exempting their friends at Fox News from any retaliation. After all, four of the National Review essays came from Fox News regulars Katie Pavlich, Cal Thomas, Dana Loesch, and Brent Bozell. So if you speak out against Trump you can say goodbye to any debate participation – unless you’re Fox News.

The media is shamefully abdicating their role in these debates while the RNC is bending over backwards to placate one candidate to the detriment of all the others. National Review was jettisoned solely because of the perceived slight of Donald Trump. Trump was also a prominent objector to NBC hosting a debate. He was also the reason that the New Hampshire Union Leader was removed as a co-host for an ABC debate. Perhaps the RNC should change their name to the Trump National Committee. Or maybe the Republican National Wusses.

But that wasn’t the end of it. A few weeks ago Trump tried to get the RNC to cancel a GOP primary debate on Univision, which was a bold move considering that Univision was never scheduled to host one. Trump had already banned all Univision employees from his golf resorts, an optically disturbing action that prohibited minorities from his country clubs. What’s more, Trump has also threatened that if Telemundo was involved with a debate he would walk. It remains to be seen if he will follow through on that threat since Telemundo is currently listed as a co-host for CNN’s debate. If Trump succeeds in getting Telemundo axed there will be no GOP debates at all that included any minority news organization.

Most recently Trump tweeted this about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly: “Based on @MegynKelly’s conflict of interest and bias she should not be allowed to be a moderator of the next debate.” He seems not to know what a conflict of interest is, but as for bias, he is simply referring to his objection to an entirely appropriate question she asked him in the first GOP debate. She asked him to explain his many derogatory references to women. He dodged the question and complained about political correctness, and after the debate he accused Kelly of having been hormonal. That led to a prolonged series of attacks on her. If Kelly worked for some other network it would probably have already been removed as a debate host. However, as established above, Fox News will not likely suffer any consequences.

[Update: Trump is hinting that he might boycott the upcoming GOP debate on Fox News unless they drop Kelly as a moderator. He’s saying he might hold his own televised townhall to compete with it. Fox is, so far, refusing to capitulate saying “Sooner or later Donald Trump even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick the journalists. We’re very surprised he’s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly.” Fox deserves credit for standing firm, and it’s pretty cagey of them to accuse Trump of cowardice, but don’t bet on Trump sitting this out. However, the RNC, which demanded the exclusion of the Union Leader in New Hampshire, has said they are keeping out of this dispute because – well, it’s Fox News]

What this tells us is that Reince Priebus is the weakest Republican Party chairman in decades. He is letting Trump dictate the terms of the campaign. And the other candidates are keeping their mouths shut. They are all too afraid to demand that their primary be conducted with neutrality and integrity. It is a pathetic display of cowardice by a party so feeble it’s at risk of blowing away. And the thought of facing aggressive questions, even from other conservatives, makes them scurry into the crevices in the floorboards like cockroaches surprised by the light.

Good luck to them when they eventually face actual opponents in the general election. They will be utterly unprepared for battle having sheltered themselves in a cocoon of limp rhetoric that all stems from the same cultish mindset. That may be sufficient to draw support from Republican dimwits who thrive in those pools of ignorance, but it is a recipe for crushing defeat when the broader electorate votes in November.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.