The One Trick To Keep Your Phone Company From Spying On You

Posted by on August 23, 2015 at 2:23 pm. 4 Comments :

Last week an investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times was published that exposed the collaboration between the National Security Agency and America’s providers of cell phone and Internet services. The report was based in part on documents released by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. What it revealed was a tight-knit relationship between a government spy operation and the corporate telecommunications industry.

AT&T NSA Spying

The report identified AT&T as the company most closely aligned with the NSA’s operations. While Verizon and other companies were also involved, AT&T was shown to have devoted far more energy and resources to the relationship. The report says that…

“While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed NSA documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as ‘highly collaborative,’ while another lauded the company’s ‘extreme willingness to help.”

There is much more detail about the NSA/telecom complex in the report, including the hundreds of millions of dollars spent and the over 1.1 billion domestic cellphone calling records a day handed over to the government. It is an astonishing and frightening series of disclosures about just how intrusive the company you’re paying every month to provide phone and/or Internet service is.

And therein lies an important way for you to fight back. There isn’t much you you can do to prevent these corporate behemoths from screwing you. Sure, you can participate in protests and write letters to your congressional representatives, and you should. But that will take time and furious organizing. The one trick you can use now to keep your phone company from spying on you is to ditch the companies that are doing it and get one that doesn’t.

Those of you who use AT&T or Verizon (and that’s most of you) have another option. CREDO Mobile is a progressive company that is committed to privacy and doesn’t favor wealthy conglomerates who can afford to pay for special treatment and to suppress competition. As an added bonus they also fight for the environment, social justice, net neutrality, and a political landscape free of Tea Party idiocy.

It’s so easy to make the switch you’ll wonder why you never did it before. You’ll get great service and a selection of the best phones. You can keep your current phone number. And they will pay up to $350.00 for any early termination fees your current provider charges. You can even try it for thirty days with no obligation. You really need to check this out because there is no reason for your hard-earned dollars to be working against you by violating your constitutional liberties and literally funding the Tea Party, the KeystoneXL pipeline, the Koch brothers, and the Greedy One Percent (aka GOP). And if you use this link, you’ll even be helping News Corpse, who will receive a modest commission for the referral.

So please take this simple step to change the world and free yourself from the shackles of corporations who are working against you and your principles. You’ll feel great for having done so. And send this link along to your friends and family as well. We can have a huge effect if we join together for something positive, rather than submitting to the corporate masters.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

And just for fun, here is John Oliver taking on “Cable Company F*ckery” in case you needed another reason to switch.

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Did James O’Keefe Send His Goons To Smear The Hillary Clinton Campaign?

Posted by on August 22, 2015 at 11:00 pm. 5 Comments :

Conservative muckrakers have been very busy lately producing deceptive videos that deliberately slander Democrats and progressive organizations. It has become their favorite method of spreading malicious lies via dishonest editing and unsupported allegations. Most notably of late are the videos that falsely portray Planned Parenthood as engaging in various unlawful practices.

Fox News James O'Keefe

The technique was famously employed by serial liar James O’Keefe when he produced videos wherein he pretended to be a pimp in order to damage the reputation of ACORN, a philanthropic organization that helps the poor obtain housing and register to vote. Although the videos were proven to be political disinformation, they resulted in ACORN losing funding and eventually shutting down. Later O’Keefe was sued by a former ACORN staffer and was ordered to pay $100,000 judgment for his libel. On subsequent projects O’Keefe was caught trying to seduce a CNN reporter, cast illegal votes, and tamper with the phones of a United States senator. For that offense O’Keefe was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty after his felonies were bargained down to misdemeanors.

So it was just a matter of time before this craven tactic was aimed at the campaign of a prominent Democrat running for high office. Time is reporting that…

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign offices around the country have been put on alert after at least two women approached Iowa staff under the guise of being supporters in an apparent effort to catch the campaign engaging in improper or illegal activity, a Clinton campaign official said.”

As described by Time, the modus operandi is typical of methods used by O’Keefe and company. There are even photos of some of the con artists sent to scam the Clinton campaign. One woman in the photos is a known operative who has worked with O’Keefe in the past. Time further reported the account of the attempted scam given by Clinton’s spokesperson:

“A Clinton campaign official alleges that the women engaged in several efforts to entrap supporters. In one scheme, described by Clinton staff, a woman attempted to pass a cash donation to Clinton volunteers and interns. In another, a woman approached the campaign on Aug. 19 and said both her parents had donated to Clinton the legal maximum of $2700 each and wanted to funnel an additional donation through their daughter, a violation of federal law. On Aug. 13, a woman claiming to be Canadian approached another Clinton fellow to ask how to falsify an address for a campaign donation.”

At this time it appears that the political dirty trickery failed. But just the fact that these cretins are out there trying to pull off their hoaxes is troubling. The possibility of a naive campaign volunteer getting fooled or being subjected to a video manipulation that casts them in a negative light is always a risk. Not that it proves any wrongdoing by the campaign, but it takes time and effort to debunk the lies and some people (e.g. Fox News viewers) will believe them no matter how ridiculous.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

And that’s pretty much the point. They know that they can have a deleterious effect even if exposed as crooks. Let’s hope the Clinton campaign, and every other potential target of these charlatans, remains vigilant and wards off their attempted scams.


Hillary Clinton’s Fox News Problem

Posted by on August 21, 2015 at 11:13 pm. 5 Comments :

This evening on Fox News Shannon Bream, filling in for Megyn Kelly, did a segment about how dismal Hillary Clinton’s future is now that her poll numbers have descended to unfathomable depths, particularly with regard to favorability.

Hillary Clinton Favorability

Like much of the rest of Fox’s recent coverage of Clinton, the impression made is that Clinton has about three weeks before she will drop out of the race and report to prison. To open the segment Bream gleefully reported that…

“A new poll now showing Clinton may be more disliked than she has been in decades. As a brand new survey from CNN shows her unfavorability rating is now at a whopping 53%. A number that Clinton has seen just one other time in twenty-three years of polling.”

What the “fair and balanced” propagandists at Fox are leaving out is that Clinton’s favorable rating in the CNN poll that they referenced is better than all of the Republicans that were polled. Clinton scored 44% favorable. That compares to Donald Trump at 36% and Jeb Bush at 34%. What’s more, Clinton’s unfavorable rating is lower than her most likely opponents. She pulled 53% while Trump and Bush were higher at 59% and 56% respectively.

Clinton has had the honor of being ranked as the most admired woman in the world nineteen times in Gallup’s annual survey. She received that honor the last thirteen years in a row. It is not particularly surprising that in an election year where seventeen Republican candidates are bashing her relentlessly her public image might suffer. Add to that the effect of the smear job that Fox engages in every day and it would be a miracle if her numbers didn’t decline a bit.

Notwithstanding those assaults, Clinton is still faring better than her GOP rivals who have had very little mud thrown at them. She is still beating them in head-to-head match-ups. And her support in the Democratic Party is unwavering.

What Fox News is trying to do is project their open disgust for her in the hopes that it will harm her electoral prospects next year. That’s also why they keep promoting Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. They obviously hate them just as much as they hate her, but for the time being they are happy to use them as wedges to create chaos for the Democrats.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

If Clinton’s 53% unfavorable rating can be characterized as “whopping” by Fox News, then what would they call Trump’s 59% or Bush’s 56%? Of course the answer is that they wouldn’t call it anything at all because they wouldn’t devote a segment of a primetime program to their “favorability problems.” In the Fox world everyone loves Republicans and they always will win every election. At least that’s how they present it to their dimwitted audience who are later shocked when they lose.


Trump Says His Supporters Who Beat Homeless Latino Man ‘Love This Country’

Posted by on August 20, 2015 at 3:48 pm. 5 Comments :

There is an unshakably nauseating streak of hatred that permeates Donald Trump and the Republican Party. It seems that every day more proof of it is provided without hesitation or shame. The latest examples were included in Trump’s remarks yesterday in New Hampshire and began with his insistence on using a term that is widely known to be an offensive epithet.

Tom Llamas of ABC News asked Trump about his use of the term “anchor babies.” The term refers to the alleged practice of immigrants entering the U.S. illegally in order to give birth to children who could then sponsor the parents for legal residency and citizenship. However, it is an entirely bogus notion because a citizen has to be twenty-one before they can sponsor a family member. So for this scheme to work the parents would have to wait twenty-one years for the child to grow up and then another ten years as punishment for having entered the country illegally to have the baby. That means it would take thirty-one years for the parents to be eligible for residency and another five years after that before they could apply for citizenship.

Nevertheless, Trump not only used the term, but stood by it defiantly when told of its derogatory meaning.

Llamas: Are you aware that the term ‘anchor baby,’ that’s an offensive term?
Trump: Excuse me! I’ll use the word anchor baby!

This isn’t any different than being told that the phrase “tar baby” or the “N” word is derogatory but ignoring the warning and using it anyway. The larger point that Trump was making was to affirm his opposition to birthright citizenship, a 150 year old provision of the Constitution (14th Amendment) that Trump thinks won’t hold up in court. And following his ignorant and racist comments, at least four of his GOP colleagues (Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, and Ted Cruz) joined in the immigrant bashing fully agreeing with Trump’s position.

Making matters worse, a couple of brothers in Boston were arrested for assaulting a homeless Latino man. When questioned by the police about their motives they said that “Trump inspired them.”

Donald Trump

This is a predictable result of the kind of hostile rhetoric that Trump and other right-wing haters use. Under ordinary circumstances it might not be fair to hold Trump accountable for this violence, even though it is something he could have anticipated because it has happened before. What makes Trump liable in this case is his reaction upon learning of the incident. As reported by the Associated Press (and posted on Fox News Latino, but not Fox News), Trump said that it would be a shame and added…

“I will say that people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country, and they want this country to be great again.”

WTF? So Trump regards the thugs who viciously assaulted an innocent Latino man as passionate patriots who love their country. And for all he knows the victim was actually a citizen, In Trump’s view they were just trying to “make America great again.” And he must know that giving that kind of praise and public tribute to violent racists can only encourage more of the same.

This is worse than any of the idiotic statements Trump has made yet. It is deliberately inciting bigots to engage in violence. And it tells us exactly what Trump means by “great” when regurgitating his campaign slogan. Furthermore, it tells us what his party and his GOP rivals think when they fail to repudiate these remarks. And mostly it tells us what Fox News and Republican voters believe, because they are the ones propping up the Trump candidacy and its open embrace of savagery and prejudice. That’s something they have to own even after Trump’s campaign inevitably crashes and burns.


Watergate Envy: Fox News Desperately Lusts For A Clinton Scandal They Can’t Have

Posted by on August 19, 2015 at 8:02 pm. 7 Comments :

The ferocity with which Fox News is chasing the story about Hillary Clinton’s email is becoming a pathetic tale of desperation and jealousy. It’s not enough that they report wild speculation as fact, they are determined to shape their coverage into what they regard as the Valhalla of scandals: Watergate.

Hillary Clinton Watergate Envy

For the record, the Watergate affair involved blatantly criminal activity like burglary, political corruption, bribery, obstruction of justice, and presidential abuse of power. It began as a plot by the Nixon White House to steal private documents from the Democratic Party in order to secure his reelection by fraud. Then it evolved into a cover-up that included threats, deception, and million dollar payoffs.

The attempt to analogize Watergate to Clinton’s use of personal email accounts on a private computer server stretch the boundaries of absurdity. Even if the allegations that there were classified documents involved were true (and there is no evidence of that at this time), there is absolutely no suggestion, by even her harshest critics, that she was motivated by any larcenous effort to advance her own interests financially or politically. In other words, there was no intent to commit a crime.

However, to hear Fox News tell it, Clinton’s email controversy is identical to the felonies committed by Nixon’s thugs, many of whom went to prison for their crimes. Today Fox News contributor Meghan McCain (John’s daughter) wondered if “this could be this generation’s Watergate.” Yesterday Fox’s Special Report aired an entire segment devoted to baseless conjecture about Watergate. Also yesterday, Fox’s judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano tried to compare Clinton’s use of personal emails to Nixon’s habit of secretly recording everything that took place in the Oval Office. He never really got around to explaining what was similar about it. It was enough, for Fox’s purposes, just to plant the slanderous suggestion. Fox contributor John Bolton also weighed in to imply some conspiratorial connection between Clinton’s current email flak and her service on the Democratic Senate staff that investigated Nixon.

There was much more of this Watergating going on at Fox on other programs as they went all out to align Clinton with what is perhaps the worst political scandal in American history. But Watergate belongs to the Republicans no matter how much they whine about it. And whine they do. Before the Clinton campaign launched it was a regular obsession with Fox to compare anything associated with President Obama to Watergate. From Benghazi, to the IRS, to Libya, to Fast and Furious, and even to UFOs, Fox saw everything through their Watergate filter. [See News Corpse’s Illustrated Guide To The Fox News Obsession With Watergate]

Now they want to transfer their shame to Democrats so badly that they have lost all rational comprehension of what Watergate even entailed. Their accusations just seem anguished and impotent. But don’t let that make you think they will abandon their fetish for projecting Watergate’s stigma on Clinton or other Democrats. They are fully committed to their rewriting of history and they know that their dimwitted audience will eat it up.


Fox News Takes Donald Trump’s Stupid Immigration Policy And Makes It Even Worse

Posted by on August 18, 2015 at 8:39 pm. 2 Comments :

This year’s Sarah Palin is really stirring up the LIV (Low Information Voter) constituency. With an astonishing flair for melodrama, Donald Trump’s candidacy has assumed Palin’s role as both village idiot and court jester. And his rhetoric is certainly living up to his campaign slogan.

Donald Trump Hell Hole

This weekend Trump solidified his position by releasing an utterly absurd immigration policy that not only fails to solve any problems, but actually exacerbates them in most cases. Among the more ludicrous proposals are:

Mass deportation of an estimated eleven million undocumented residents.
This would cost billions of dollars, take decades, ruin businesses, and rip apart families. Trump was asked by Chuck Todd about the family matter and he responded that he would keep them together by deporting all of them, including the ones who are U.S. citizens.

Ending birthright citizenship.
To accomplish this Trump would have to get a constitutional amendment passed to repeal the 14th Amendment, which takes years and the cooperation of a huge majority of Congress and state legislatures. Clearly Trump knows nothing about the subject because he later told Bill O’Reilly that the 150 year old constitutional law had not been tested and would not hold up in court.

Triple the number of Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement officers.
Small government conservatives will probably be thrilled with the thought of hiring 10,000 more federal employees, plus the staff to support them and affiliated hiring at other agencies to handle the legal and administrative duties that would be required. And all to reduce illegal immigration which is already on the decline.

Defund sanctuary cities.
By this Trump means cutting off federal grants to any city which refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement. So he thinks that giving the feds more power over the states will excite his right-wing base.

Requirement to hire American workers first (before granting visas for foreign workers).
Somebody should tell Trump that this is already required by current law. Although he probably knows because he is a notorious abuser of these regulations. Reuters has reported that Trump’s businesses “have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.”

With all of the ridiculousness in this alleged immigration policy, it is interesting to note that it wasn’t yet ridiculous enough for Fox News. In an interview today (video below), Fox anchor Bill Hemmer asked his Fox Business Network colleague Lou Dobbs about Trump’s immigration plan. Dobb’s was wholly supportive and praised Trump for being “the only candidate who’s had the guts to say we’re going to deport them all.” However, Dobbs, like Trump, could not explain how it would be possible to do that. He was then asked about Trump’s ludicrous assertion that birthright citizenship, and not jobs, “remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration.” Dobb’s agreed and elaborated saying…

“I think he’s partly right. I would argue that also our welfare system that is sitting here being handed out without hesitation. ObamaCare is being provided without even a question about legal status. People are being allowed to vote by the millions in this country who are illegal because we’re not checking citizenship and we’ve got a government actively fighting voter identification which assures the integrity of our electoral system.”

Dobbs’ attempt to enhance Trump’s already faulty set of proposals only makes it much worse. Either Dobbs is frightfully ignorant or he is deliberately lying. First of all, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most types of welfare, including food stamps and housing assistance. What’s more, they actually pay far more into the federal treasury than they will ever see come back from any source. They pay about ten billion dollars annually in state and local taxes. And over a decade they have contributed over 100 billion dollars to Social Security, which they are not eligible to receive.

Secondly, Dobbs assertion that undocumented residents are getting ObamaCare is simply false. The Affordable Care Act explicitly prohibits undocumented immigrants from purchasing health insurance from the marketplace or from receiving any premium credits or other benefits.

Finally, Dobbs’ completely unsupported allegation that “millions” of undocumented immigrants are being allowed to vote is just plain nuts. Not only are there not millions, the evidence of more than a handful is hard to come by. The American Immigration Council compiled research that shows that “repeated investigations over the years have found no indication that systematic vote fraud by non-citizens is anything other than the product of overactive imaginations.”

Lou Dobbs offered up three theories that he felt compelled to add to Trump’s already bogus claim that birthright citizenship was the “biggest magnet for illegal immigration.” And on all three counts he was wrong. Nevertheless, his disinformation was broadcast to Fox’s gullible audience without comment or correction or rebuttal. Anchor Hemmer simply smiled and nodded in agreement and plugged Dobbs’ show on FBN. And that’s another reason why Fox News viewers have been found to be more ignorant than viewers of any other news network.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

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Fox News Is So Terrified Of Hillary Clinton That They Invent Fake Email Scandal

Posted by on August 17, 2015 at 9:46 pm. 20 Comments :

For months there has been a concerted effort by Fox News to torpedo the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. They have done it by relentlessly airing stories about alleged scandals that they have trumpeted with glee would end her White House aspirations. Those stories include everything from Benghazi to the Clinton Foundation, to her aide Huma Abedin’s alleged ties to Muslim extremists, to her private computer server. Never mind that there has never been a smidgen of actual evidence showing that she had engaged in anything unlawful or unethical. Just the wild accusations repeated ad nauseum on Fox News is enough to plant the notion in the mind of the public and drive down her poll numbers for trustworthiness.

Benghazi

The mission of Fox News is obviously to sabotage the campaign of the strongest Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidential election. They know that Clinton, even after the smear crusade, still manages to out poll every Republican challenger. Consequently, they need to persist in the propaganda blitz until they succeed in bringing her down.

While previous attempts focused heavily on Benghazi, the inability to make their false charges stick has driven Fox to elevate a different scandalette to the forefront. So now Benghazi has been at least temporarily sidelined in favor of the dreaded lost emails. What Fox is trying to turn into a political frenzy is the allegation that Clinton had sent or received classified email communications using a private computer server rather than one hosted by the feds at the Department of State. This, they imply, may have exposed sensitive information to unfriendly nations.

The first point that needs to be made is that recent reports have revealed that hackers have already trespassed into the official government servers that store data for millions of federal employees. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that Clinton’s server security was ever breached by anyone. So Clinton may have actually protected the information she was handling by segregating it on her server while the feds were being hacked. The second pertinent fact is that there is no evidence that any classified emails were sent or received through Clinton’s server.

However, what really makes this media farce so dishonest is that the so-called journalists at Fox News are fabricating a controversy that doesn’t exist in reality. They spend endless hour of valuable airtime yammering about missing emails and mysterious servers. Even though Clinton, in an unprecedented display of transparency, turned over 55,000 pages of emails. This was never done by other Secretaries of State who also used private servers. Nor was it done by her GOP opponents who as governors did the same thing.

To make matters worse, Fox News completely ignores previous incidents when emails went missing. For instance, when the Bush administration was under investigation for various improprieties, they suddenly announced that, not thousands, but millions of emails had mysteriously vanished. This scandal even included allegations that then-White House operative Karl Rove had been communicating with a private server located at the Republican National Committee.

At the time, Bush’s Press Secretary Dana Perino (now a host on Fox News), insisted it was an unfortunate but innocent computer glitch. This is the same Perino who now calls Clinton’s email situation a criminal offense. And at a congressional investigation of the Bush matter, the GOP’s Clinton inquisitionist, Darrell Issa, also tried to dismiss the Bush debacle as a glitch. Furthermore, then-CNN reporter Ed Henry (now also on Fox News) speculated that the Bush affair might be a violation of the Federal Presidential Records Act.

As if that weren’t enough, the Fox News family has another email scandal in its past. When Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers were caught hacking into the phone and email accounts of private citizens, celebrities, politicians, and royals, they tried to cover it up by making millions of emails disappear. This destruction of evidence was not merely alluded to, but was proven with internal, News Corp. memos describing their policy of destroying emails “that could be unhelpful in the context of future litigation”.

So you have to wonder what moral authority anyone at Fox News has to complain about Clinton’s emails, which have never been proven to contain anything untoward. Clearly Fox isn’t interested in compliance with the law or good government. They are deploying a well-coordinated attack on a political rival whom they desperately fear. And they wonder why no one regards them as a reputable news network.


Sunday Funnies: Recently Uncovered Video Of Donald Trump’s Childhood

Posted by on August 16, 2015 at 2:16 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump, the media-designated front-runner for the Republican nomination for president, is said to have attained this status due to his straight talk and authentic style of connecting with GOP voters. Of course, Trump’s alleged lead is a myth that is exacerbated by shallow punditry and the media hunger for ratings.

Donald Trump

Trump has never led more than a small flock of GOP loonies, with 75-80% of poll respondents choosing other candidates. And he has consistently had the highest unfavorables of any candidate, Republican or Democratic. The only reason that Trump is ahead of his rivals now is that there are so many of them. When the roster is whittled down the remaining candidates will all be beating Trump.

As for his so-called plain speaking appeal, Jack Shafer at Politico put Trump’s rhetoric through the Flesch-Kincaid test where Trump scored at the third grade level. That’s probably still somewhat higher than most of his Tea-vangelical supporters. And despite his compulsion to repeatedly remind everyone how smart he is (something actual smart people never need to do), his public utterances invariably contradict him. This morning, for example, Chuck Todd asked Trump from whom he would get advice on the military were he president. Trump said that “I watch the shows,” referring to the Sunday morning news programs in the same way that fans of soap operas refer to their “stories.” He’s still in Reality TV mode.

Nevertheless, with so much of the media spotlight being cast on Trump, it is important to put his life in context. Particularly with regard to his early childhood development that reveals with stark clarity how he came to be the person he is today. As the son of privilege, little Donny was pampered and fawned over by his wealthy parents who set him up in business and eventually bequeathed him a couple hundred million dollars (which his poor business skills squandered). And to further flesh out Trump’s formative years, News Corpse acquired this exclusive video of a young Don expressing himself in much the same way that he does today.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The resemblance is obvious. And it doesn’t take much effort to chart the path from Trump’s greedy Narcissism as a juvenile to the political hogwash he espouses now. What’s more, those positions – from immigration, to taxes, to Iraq/Iran, to reproductive rights, to marriage equality, to Climate Change, to guns, to health care – are completely in line with with the Republican Party that he represents. So even when he is ultimately laughed off the stage, the GOP regulars will soldier on with the same agenda, albeit somewhat less foolishly articulated (not much, but somewhat).


Donald Trump: Fox News CEO Roger Ailes Is My Bitch

Posted by on August 15, 2015 at 5:09 pm. 4 Comments :

Ever since the Fox News Republican primary debate there has been an openly acrimonious brawl between Donald Trump and Fox News. The notoriously thinned-skinned whiny-baby Trump was offended that debate co-moderator Megyn Kelly had the audacity to ask him about some things he actually said that were denigrating to women. Subsequently he publicly attacked Kelly saying that she was “overrated” and a “lightweight.” These juvenile insults were later escalated with Trump alluding to Kelly’s menstrual cycle saying that “there was blood coming out of her eyes, or blood coming out of her wherever.”

Donald Trump Roger Ailes

Trump’s assault on Kelly was actually proof that the criticisms of him as a misogynist were accurate. After all, during the debate Bret Baier asked the candidates whether they would support the eventual GOP nominee and pledge not to run as an independent, a question obviously aimed at Trump. Baier also asked Trump to account for his support of universal health care and other liberal initiatives and candidates, including Hillary Clinton. Chris Wallace questioned him about his evidence-less charge that Mexico was sending their criminals to the U.S. Wallace also challenged him on his four bankruptcies. All of those were uncharacteristically tough questions from Fox, but neither of the male moderators became repeated and enduring targets of Trump’s wrath.

This spectacle played out in the media, and especially on Fox News, as Fox CEO Roger Ailes came to the defense of his primetime anchor. It built to a head last week when it was reported that Trump and Ailes had spoken by phone and negotiated a truce. Trump said that Ailes was “a great guy” and had promised to be fair. Although isn’t that what Fox has been promising with it’s “fair and balanced” slogan since they launched?

Well, that fragile truce has apparently already crumbled. Trump was interviewed yesterday by wingnut radio talker Steve Malzberg. During the discussion Trump responded to the fracas with Fox and lavished praise on Ailes. However, he also latched on to an ego-driven conspiracy theory that the announcement that Kelly is taking a summer vacation is actually some sort of punishment for her alleged mistreatment of him. Fox News, of course, immediately repudiated Trump’s assertion as “wildly irresponsible” and “downright bizarre.”

The bickering continued this morning as Trump alighted in Iowa in his Trumpocopter. While taking questions from reporters on the still smoldering conflict, the Immaculate Trump insisted that he has made no mistakes and his popularity in the polls (which is a media delusion) is proof of his righteousness. When asked to comment directly he said that “I love Roger, but all you have to do is ask him who won.” That’s a direct shot at Ailes’ formidable gut. Trump is essentially bringing Ailes to heel by forcing him to admit that he is Trump’s bitch. That’s not the sort of thing that Ailes takes in stride.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

With the truce broken, who knows where this will end. But there is a bigger problem here than the inflated egos of Trump and Ailes. A so-called “news” network should not be engaged in an open feud with a subject of their political coverage, even if that subject is a babbling crackpot. And a candidate for the GOP nomination for president should not be alienating the PR division of the Republican Party (aka Fox News). So this affair threatens to be detrimental to everyone involved. It’s as bad for journalism as it is for democracy. And it is a wholly Republican phenomenon.


Jeb Bush Thinks Taking Out Saddam Hussein Was ‘A Pretty Good Deal’

Posted by on August 14, 2015 at 4:06 pm. 3 Comments :

One of the biggest drawbacks of having a world-class ignoramus like Donald Trump in the running for the Republican nomination for president is that he consumes the media’s capacity for stupid pronouncements. After all, there are sixteen other candidates working hard to say idiotic things every day and they don’t get nearly as much attention as Trump. For instance, Jeb Bush appeared today at a campaign event in Iowa and told the few people listening that…

“I’ll tell you, taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.”

Jeb Bush - Saddam

Really? A good deal for whom? Certainly it was a good deal for the defense contractors who sponsored the ill-advised invasion (and the event at which Bush was speaking). And it was a good deal for the neo-cons who soaked the feds for cushy government jobs and sold books to readers of WorldNetDaily. But most of all it was a good deal for Al Qaeda and ISIS and Iran, who are the biggest beneficiaries of a destabilized Iraq and the general chaos throughout the region.

However, it was not such a good deal for the 4,000 plus American soldiers who died fighting a war of aggression whose justification was built on lies. It was not such a good deal for the 32,000 plus Americans wounded and who are now suffering with physical disabilities, brain damage, and PTSD. The estimated 150,000 plus Iraqi civilians who died for no reason probably don’t think it was such a good deal either.

For Jeb! to suggest that there was anything positive about an unlawful war that brought so much misery tells us just how unfit he is to lead this nation. But for him to pick out the deposing of Saddam as his choice for what made the war “a good deal” is simply deranged. If that was their goal it could have easily been accomplished for much less money and loss of life. Does Jeb! really think that spending two trillion dollars to knock off Saddam was a display of fiscal responsibility? If that’s his idea of a good deal, someone should ask him what WE got out of it.

This latest Bushism (yes, it runs in the family) follows closely remarks he made this week blaming Hillary Clinton for the mess in the Middle East. His perverse logic relies on absolving his brother George of any responsibility for the utter disaster he created. And it was an entirely predictable disaster. But Jeb! contends that President Obama and Clinton are to blame for adhering to the Status of Forces Agreement that was negotiated and signed by George W. Plus, this is the fourth or fifth position Jeb! has taken on whether the Iraq war was justified. After first saying that he would have approved the invasion, even knowing what we know today, he later recanted saying that he had misheard the question and insisted that with hindsight he would not have ordered the invasion. And yet, this boondoggle that he would not have ordered is still a good deal?

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Jeb!’s solution this go-round appears to be to continue a full military deployment in Iraq indefinitely, incurring and suffering more fatalities with no end in sight. Presumably, that would make it an even better deal in his eyes. The obvious absurdity of this position could have a crippling effect on his campaign. Fortunately for him, few people will ever know that he said this bit of lunacy (It has yet to be reported on Fox News). That’s the benefit of having Trump around to act as a human gaffe shield, protecting the other candidates from their own crackpottery.