Author: Mark NC

Trump Flunky Propagandist’s Attempt to Take Down CNN is a Flaming Pile of Failure

Posted by on October 14, 2019 at 1:22 pm. 16 Comments :

We haven’t heard from ultra right-wing video mangler and truth distorter, James O’Keefe, for quite a while. There’s a good reason for that. He has been busy slapping together bullshit “exposés” that no one with a functioning brain has had any interest in watching. This ethically-challenged slime merchant has done a pretty darn good job of making himself a laughing stock and an irrelevant never-was.

Fox News, James O'Keefe

That said, O’Keefe just released his latest effort at maligning the media. But all he’s accomplished is to prove just how persistently stupid he is. In this episode O’Keefe purports to have planted a mole inside CNN with the intention of collecting damning video with which to slander the network. Unfortunately for the would-be news stalkers, all they collected was stale opinions of a few malcontents and some fairly routine remarks by Jeff Zucker, Chairman of CNN parent WarnerMedia News and Sports.

In a short clip that was posted on Twitter, O’Keefe discovered the shocking revelation that Zucker wanted his newsroom to “stay very focused on impeachment.” OMG! So Zucker was instructing his team to pay close attention to the biggest political story in years. And O’Keefe thinks that’s scandalous.

O’Keefe also showed video of a couple of low-level CNN employees privately expressing personal anti-Trump views. Which means that they’re aligned with the majority of the American people. They were not giving these views on the air and they had no authority whatsoever to direct news reporting. But O’Keefe wants people to believe that they represent CNN and that there aren’t any pro-Trump staffers at the network. Of course, that’s absurd. O’Keefe just edits out anyone who doesn’t advance his phony narrative.

As evidence of that, a sliver of reality managed to stick to O’Keefe’s video, contradicting his whole premise. He recorded Zucker saying that he knows that the network employs “a lot of people that are friendly with Lindsey Graham.” Exactly! They are some of the pro-Trump staffers that O’Keefe is exicising from his propaganda piece. And all Zucker said about that was that CNN reporters shouldn’t be “friendly” with Graham. Which, of course, is the ethical position for journalists to take with their subjects. So O’Keefe is actually accusing Zucker of being ethical.

The jewel of this clip appears to be a segment wherein O’Keefe’s mole clandestinely recorded Zucker making statements that O’Keefe seems think are controversial. Well, we report, you decide (video below):

Zucker: I think what’s going on in America right now is really fundamentally the result of years of fake news, conspiracy nonsense from Fox News. … The fake conspiracy nonsense that Fox has spread for years is now deeply embedded in American society. And frankly, that is beyond destructive for America, and I do not think we should be scared to say so.

The HORROR! Zucker articulated out loud a truth that every rational, objective American already knows. Fox News is a deceitful, dishonest, biased, purveyor of manufactured propaganda on behalf of Trump and the Republican Nationalist Party. And the lies that Fox disseminates promote ignorance and division. This is what O’Keefe believes constitutes hard-hitting investigative journalism.

O’Keefe pretends to be a “guerilla” journalist who is only interested in media fairness and transparency. However, his own exploits have been heavily weighted to conservative politics and conspiracy theories. He was arrested and convicted of unlawful entry into a U.S. senator’s office. He was also caught trying and failing to “seduce” a CNN reporter. He also lost a $100,000 lawsuit for libel. This is the character of the guy assaulting CNN’s reputation.

And THIS JUST IN: Trump tweeted about O’Keefe’s bogus Veritas project. Because it’s also the character of our Dumbass-in-Chief.

Naturally Trump heard about it from Tucker Carlson of Fox News who cast CNN as “State Media.” Which is weird since they’re asserting that CNN is against the current State of Trump. What’s more, Carlson made the hilariously incredulous comment that “As of Monday night, we have not independently verified the [O’Keefe] tape … But we have no reason to believe any of this is fake.” Really? No reason other than O’Keefe’s many years of being caught lying? Also, Trump’s speculation about suing (for what, exercising First Amendment rights?) follows on his asinine talk of suing Nancy Pelosi for doing her job as House Speaker.

It’s funny though, while O’Keefe, sees himself as a media crusader, he never goes after Fox News where their “reporters” feign objectivity while blatantly sucking up to Trump. Why hasn’t O’Keefe done anything about Trump’s Attorney Genuflector, William Barr, meeting privately with Fox boss Rupert Murdoch? Why hasn’t he reported that Trump himself called Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to bitch about their coverage of him? Maybe because O’Keefe is a fraud and a failure who is destined to be ridiculed for exposing nothing but his own impotent hackery.

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

The full 19 minute video is available for anyone with the stomach to sit through it.

Ignoramus-in-Chief: Trump Thinks He Can Sue and/or Impeach Nancy Pelosi

Posted by on October 13, 2019 at 10:58 am. 4 Comments :

The march toward total and utter mental infirmity continues apace as Donald Trump nears his inevitable impeachment. The symptoms of Cornered Rat Syndrome are becoming more obvious and more severe. The deranged ranting at his cult rallies is simultaneously laughable and frightening. And all the while his sycophants in politics and the press deepen their adoration of Dear Leader as they would a king or a god.

Donald Trump

On Saturday at the so-called “Values” Voters Summit – a right-wing propaganda festival masquerading as a Christian revival meeting – Trump showed up to slather some embarrassingly overt pandering around. During the course of his tiresome and repetitive oratory, he threw in a variety of absurdities that illustrate his growing fear and desperation. For instance, he yammered something about “They are using the IRS against me.” Nevermind that his appointees are running the agency, or that he didn’t bother to explain who “they” are. He also babbled on that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “hates our country” because she’s engaging in the constitutional process of investigating his flagrantly impeachable crimes.

However, with a doubt Trump’s hysteria reached fever pitch when he unleashed a load of throbbing gibberish aimed at members of Congress who are doing their jobs (video below). And it’s important to note that they are acting on behalf of the American people who broadly favor Trump’s impeachment and removal from office according every recent poll, including one by Fox News. Trump’s tantrum was the perfect example of just how ignorant and incoherent he is in these late stages of his psychoses. Referring to his perceived enemies on the Hill, Trump impotently bellowed that…

“We’re going to take a look at it. We’re going after these people. These are bad, bad people. I actually told my lawyers, I said sue them anyway. He’s got immunity. But they can’t sue them for that. I said sue them anyway. Even if we lose, the American public will understand. And sue Nancy Pelosi. Or maybe we should just impeach them. Because they’re lying and what they’re doing is a terrible thing for our country.”

If lying is the criteria that Trump wants to use, than there are more than 12,000 articles of impeachment waiting for Trump. More worrisome for Trump though, is that the lawyers he said he spoke with are goofballs like Rudy Giuliani and William Barr. So maybe they failed to grasp the fact that members of Congress cannot be sued for their official duties or remarks made in congressional proceedings. That’s actually spelled out in the Constitution’s “speech and debate clause” (Article I, Section 6). Furthermore, Trump’s threat to “sue them anyway” could make him subject to charges of judicial harassment, the willful exploitation of the legal system with malicious intent.

Additionally, Trump’s interest in impeaching Pelosi and Schiff is just more fantastical ramblings from an ill-informed whiner with delusions of tyrannical powers. There is no facility in the Constitution for impeaching members of Congress. This is just another example of Trump’s mush-headed hostility carrying him off into a bizarro world where he is blissfully omnipotent. And apparently, his goofballs (aka lawyers) don’t have either the intellect or the courage to tell him he’s nuts.

This combination of abject stupidity and absence of rational advice is going to insure that things will continue to devolve as Trump’s fortunes, and mental capacity, whither into ash. So the question facing America now is whether to buy more popcorn or Prozac. Or both to be on the safe side.

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

Attorney Genuflect Barr Inadvertently Tags Trump World as ‘Organized Destruction’

Posted by on October 12, 2019 at 1:42 pm. 4 Comments :

The administration of Donald Trump has suffered unprecedented chaos and personnel turnover. Trump is on his third Chief of Staff. He is about to name his fourth Homeland Security Secretary. His current Communications Director is the fifth person to hold that jobs. He’s had at least 55 high-profile departures, and that isn’t counting dozens more at mid-levels.

William Barr, Donald Trump

However, his second Attorney General, William Barr, appears to be fulfilling the criteria that Trump values most in his underlings: 100% pure, unadulterated, and blind loyalty. Barr has been acting as Trump’s de facto personal lawyer, despite that being wholly improper and unethical for the nation’s top law enforcement official. He routinely takes Trump’;s side on controversial legal issues without regard for legal precedent or even reasoning. He has even inserted himself into the congressional impeachment inquiry in ways that make him subject to potential impeachment himself.

On Friday Barr gave a speech at Notre Dame University where he took some positions that are far afield from his duties as Attorney General (video below). In fact, he sounded more like one of Trump’s evangelical political boosters than a lawyer representing the American people. His remarks condemned the “ascendancy” of “secularism” as the cause of every social problem from mental illness, to violence, to drug abuse. And his sermonizing went even further to blast through the wall separating church and state. For instance, he said that…

“Among the militant secularists are many so-called progressives. But where is the progress? We are told we’re living in a post-Christian era. But what has replaced the Judeo-Christian moral system? What is it that fills the spiritual void in the heart of the individual person? And what is the system of values that can sustain human social life? The fact is that no secular creed has emerged capable of performing the role of religion.

Thank you Pastor Barr. In that one brief paragraph Barr has maligned progressives as anti-religion militants who advocate for the abandonment of social values. His remedy, of course, is more religion, rather than respect for the Constitution and the law. But he wasn’t finished. He further stated that…

“This is not decay. This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.”

Whoever Barr is calling “Secularists”, he is claiming that they have taken total control over all of the media and educational institutions in the country. Of course, if that were true there would never have been a Trump presidency. What Barr is really saying, without any awareness of it, is actually a condemnation of his boss. No one has been more assaultive of religion and traditional values than Trump. He’s a thrice-married, adulterous, prideful, profane, greedy, liar.

Donald Trump spent much of his life consumed by popular culture. He worked in mass communications and entertainment for fourteen years as the host of a reality TV game show. He also had a regular slot on Fox News for a segment of Fox and Friends called Mornings with Trump. And he even operated his own Trump University, although that ended when he was found to have committed fraud and ordered to pay $25 million in restitution and penalties to his students/victims.

So Barr is inadvertently telling the truth about the immorality of Trump. Everything in his speech applies more to the President than the progressive patriots he’s attacking, including the violence, drug abuse, militance, and spiritual vacancy. But more importantly, Barr’s transformation into Trump’s preacher is just another frightening diversion from the legitimate role of government by the Trump administration. It’s further evidence that Trump is steering the nation toward a fascist-style theocracy that would crush our constitutional democracy. And it makes impeaching Trump a ever more urgent imperative for the American people.

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

Shepard Smith Suddenly Signs Off at Fox News the Day After Bill Barr met with Rupert Murdoch

Posted by on October 11, 2019 at 3:55 pm. 8 Comments :

The most jarring news in the media world today is that Shepard Smith of Fox News announced on the air that he was anchoring his last broadcast at the network. No one had anticipated his departure and there had been no speculation about it. His colleagues were dumbstruck and issued their own emotional reactions.

Fox News, Shepard Smith, Donald Trump

Smith was out of place at Fox News. He was frequently reporting the actual facts of a story even while his primetime colleagues (Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson) were deliberately lying and even maligning his work and his honor. Carlson engaged in an on-air feud with Smith just last month after his guest, Trump flunky Joe diGenova, called Smith a fool for daring to report honestly. However, despite the open hostility, Smith bravely endured in a losing war to inform Fox’s viewers. One of his recent valiant efforts involved setting the record straight on the Russia probe and the Mueller report. And on another occasion Smith brutally, yet subtly, roasted Fox News while accepting a First Amendment Award.

It cannot be ignored that Smith announced his departure (video below) the day after Donald Trump’s shill Attorney General, William Barr, had a private meeting with the overlord of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch. That confab was originally suspicious because it occurred the day after Fox News released a poll showing that a majority of voters favored Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. Trump, who has long despised Smith, naturally expressed his disappointment with Fox tweeting falsely that “I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll. Whoever their Pollster is, they suck. […] @FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” And then Barr traveled to Murdoch’s lair to kiss his ring.

However, this new development makes it all even more suspicious. There is no way of knowing at this time if that meeting had anything to do with Smith leaving Fox News. His on-air farewell was nothing but grateful and gracious. But it is extraordinarily rare for a figure so closely tied with a broadcaster (Smith was at Fox from day one) to leave without any notice. Normally one would announce they are going off to pursue other opportunities, and that their last day would be a week or a month away. But Smith is already gone. And in his goodbye he noted that there is an agreement with Fox that he will not work as a journalist anywhere else for some unspecified period of time.

There is already speculation that Smith was forced out. And of course, there is already speculation that that speculation is false. But get real. If Smith wasn’t forced out overtly by his bosses who were through tolerating his independence, then he was forced out covertly by the way he was treated. In the matter of his feud with Carlson, it was Smith who management reprimanded.

No doubt Smith’s departure will bring great joy to Trump. And he will surely tweet something nasty about it before long. But Fox News has lost one of its only connections to ethical journalism. And it could not have come at a worse time. Trump is suffering a hysterical meltdown as Congress gets closer to his inevitable impeachment, but which he insanely has taken to calling a “coup.”. Just last night he delivered what may be the most disgusting performance of his short residency in Washington.

What’s left at Fox News will be an increasingly sycophantic cadre of true believers who literally describe their Dear Leader in terms generally reserved for kings or gods. As Trump’s megalomaniania, paranoia, and malignant narcissism become more severe, his martinets at Fox News will become more unbearably worshipful. So as we heartily wish good luck to Shep, we nervously wish it also for ourselves.

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

Is This the Most Disgusting, Embarrassing, Dishonest Trump Performance EVER?

Posted by on October 11, 2019 at 11:00 am. 6 Comments :

Okay, okay. Trying to single out the most disgusting performance by Donald Trump is a job too big for any mortal. There’s just too much material that covers too much nauseating ground. It ranges from serious matters like the caging (and deaths) of children, to his loathsome mockery of the disabled, to embarrassing scenes of ignorance like his belief that stealth fighters are actually invisible.

Donald Trump Zombie

That said, Trump held another of his Cult Revival Meetings on Thursday in Minneapolis where he ventured into territory that no sane person would dare to go. He attacked with lies the children of his political foes. He gushed over his Trump-fluffing Fox News sycophants. He devolved into infantile profanity saying that Joe Biden was only a good Vice-President because he “kissed Obama’s ass.” And the rest of the hour-plus public tantrum was replete with lies and hate. But nothing could have been as vomit-inducing as Trump acting out an entirely fake orgasm scene between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page:

It’s still not remotely comprehensible that this deviant creature is currently the “president” of our great nation. He is constantly demeaning the office of the presidency with displays of immaturity, ignorance, and conceit. And that’s the good news. Because he is simultaneously creating conditions for a more hostile, dangerous, bankrupt, and unlivably filthy world.

One of the more repulsive side issues stemming from the video above is that Trump is doing something that he has been whining about for weeks. During a House Intelligence Committee hearing, Chairman Adam Schiff delivered an opening statement that included a brief paraphrasing of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ever since, Trump has berated Schiff with completely false allegations that he invented that dialog and presented it as if Trump had said it himself. That’s an outright lie. Schiff prefaced those remarks by saying clearly that Trump’s phone call “reads like a classic organized crime shakedown. Shorn of its rambling character, and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the President communicates.”

Nevertheless, Trump’s hysteria reached fever pitch as he repeatedly demanded that Schiff resign or be impeached (which isn’t a thing in Congress) for the imaginary offense that exists only in Trump’s diseased brain. But in the video above Trump was actually doing what he falsely charged Schiff with. He invented a dialog between Strzok and Page and presented it to his glassy-eyed disciples as if it were real. And what makes this dishonesty and hypocrisy even worse is that in the same speech he repeated his false charge against Schiff, saying that “He had to make up a fake conversation and deliver it to the United States Congress and the American people. It was a total fraud.”

The closer Congress gets to impeaching Trump, the more severe his symptoms of Hysterical Impeachment Syndrome are getting. His lies are further stretching the boundaries of reality. He’s lashing out at Fox News (aka State TV). And his cult worshiping followers are bowing down to him as if to a king or a god. And the frightening part is that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

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

Trumpocalypse Now: Trump Whines that ‘Fox News Doesn’t Deliver for Us Anymore’

Posted by on October 10, 2019 at 12:57 pm. 7 Comments :

The walls are closing in around Donald Trump and as they do his paranoia and desperation threaten to overwhelm his pitifully impotent capacity to cope with difficulty. He is becoming ever more sensitive to anything he regards as negative, even if come from a source that is reliably and nauseatingly adoring. Like Fox News.

Donald Trump Apocalypse

On Wednesday Fox News released the results of a survey that found a majority of 51 percent of voters favoring Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. That’s a devastating development for Trump who depends on Fox News to lie, distort, or otherwise misinform their viewers that he is infallibly proceeding with his mission to MAGA. It was so disturbing to Trump that he manned his Twitter machine and lashed out to condemn his State TV Network:

Trump’s petulant whining that he “NEVER had a good Fox News Poll” is predictably false. He’s had many, and he has tweeted those results with pride. The last time Trump went ape over what he considered Fox’s betrayal, News Corpse noted that it was…

“an unabashed confession that he regards them as being the propaganda battalion of his political army. And their betrayal is an unforgivable sin that cannot be ignored. [and that] all it takes is one less than flattering remark for Trump to explode with outrage and accuse you of treason.”

That’s true now as well as Trump complains that “Fox News doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Clearly he believes that the their purpose is to “deliver” for him. A few weeks ago Trump said much the same thing in a tweet asserting that “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!” Even Fox’s ultra-conservative Senior Political Analyst, Brit Hume, scolded Trump for that one saying that “Fox News isn’t supposed to work for you.” Of course, that’s exactly what they are supposed to do, but they don’t want to admit it or tolerate Trump doing so.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has had a public meltdown due to his butthurt about Fox News. Some recent outbursts include grumbling that he’s “not happy with Fox“ and he threatened them saying that “I’m the one who calls the shots.” In July he attacked Fox saying that they were “worse than watching low ratings Fake News @CNN,” and that “they forgot the people who got them there!” Trump even threatened to conduct an official investigation into why Fox had stopped airing all of his cult rallies live.

Fox’s offense in this case was publishing their poll that had a fairly realistic assessment of Trump’s unprecedented unpopularity. In addition to bad news about impeachment, Trump is underwater on job performance, corruption, the Ukraine debacle, and he lags other national political figures in popular opinion. But despite Trump’s ire, Fox’s numbers are in line with other polling, particularly on the subject of his impeachment. However, that didn’t stop Trump from blowing up and tweeting bizarre falsehoods about imaginary polls:

At this point Trump is running out of options. He later tweeted his thanks to an aspiring, but lame, Fox News wannabe, One America News Network (OANN). And he has recently taken to posting the results of ridiculous online polls at Breitbart. The depth of the desperation he must be suffering is almost painful to imagine. But it explains his sign off in the tweet above where he woefully salves his wounded ego with the consolation that “Oh well, I’m President!” That’s miserably sad on so many levels.

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

Republicans See Trump as a King (or God) While He Behaves Like a Sniveling Coward

Posted by on October 9, 2019 at 1:05 pm. 6 Comments :

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to understand why those who support Donald Trump continue to do so, despite the mountains of evidence against him. The Mueller report documented that Trump had welcomed and encouraged assistance from Russia, and then sought to obstruct justice by covering it up. And the Ukraine affair, wherein he tried to extort a foreign government for his political benefit, is proof that he has no qualms about doing it again.

Donald Trump Messiah

More facts are being revealed every day, and the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry is proceeding surprisingly rapidly. This has resulted in Trump secluding himself in his bunker and refusing to cooperate in any way with the inquiry. For someone who fiercely insists that he has done nothing wrong, Trump is trying awfully hard to prevent the evidence he asserts would exonerate him from ever coming out.

In the meantime, the StormTrumpers in Congress and the press are digging in deeper than ever. They are no longer simply offering words of support, they are canonizing Trump as some sort of superhuman sent from above to save mankind. It’s a bizarre twist in what would ordinarily be a political debate, but is turning into a test of devotion to the Almighty.

On Tuesday a Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett. argued that Trump was innocent of any wrongdoing because “abuse of power” wasn’t prohibited by the Constitution. Not only is that false, it’s a remarkably stupid argument in favor of tyranny. On Wednesday a couple of Trump’s evangelical leaders weighed in with equally grotesque positions on Trump’s behalf. The Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed said that American evangelicals “have a moral obligation to enthusiastically back” the president. Really? A moral obligation to back a thrice-married, profane, lying, adulterer, who conspires with America’s enemies? Then Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White said that “To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.” So Trump, her eyes, is on a par with the King of Kings?

And speaking of Kings, Joseph DiGenova, a lawyer and supporter of Trump, told Laura Ingraham of Fox News that the efforts to impeach Trump were “regicide” (killing a king). So now they are admitting that they regard Trump as a king rather than a president who is subject to the tenets of democracy and to the law.

These aberrant views are disturbing, to say the very least. And it isn’t coincidental that they are becoming more extreme as Trump’s situation becomes more dire. He is sinking like a stone into into an abyss of legal trauma that is likely to portend the end of his presidency and perhaps his freedom. And what is becoming abundantly clear is that – he knows it.

On Wednesday morning Trump unloaded a tweetstorm of thirty-three (so far) tweets or retweets. And nearly half of them were were about his precarious position with regard to impeachment. He went after his favorite new nemesis, Rep. Adam Schiff. He repeatedly blasted the whistleblower for having alleged ties to Democrats. Although why that is relevant is puzzling since the “transcript” of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky – and Trump himself – corroborated the assertions in the whistleblower’s complaint.

Trump also ranted about impeaching Schiff (which can’t be done), having a rematch with Hillary Clinton (which won’t be done), and making excuses for having betrayed our Kurdish allies in Syria (which is being done). But his most ridiculous tweet was one that made this flagrantly untrue claim:

There isn’t a single poll that shows Trump with only 25 percent favoring impeachment. In fact, every recent poll has that number between 49 and 58 percent, with support for impeachment having huge gains in the past couple of weeks. The only possible explanation for Trump’s wildly unreal number is that a Washington Post poll had 25 percent of just Republicans favoring impeachment, and Trump is trying to spin that as the entire electorate. It’s not. But it’s a damn high number for just Trump’s own party. By the way, this would not be the first time that Trump tried to pass off a GOP-only number as more broadly representing all voters. But is he lying or is he just incapable of comprehending simple data?

The frantic pace of Trump’s tweeting tells the story of his declining mental state. He is plainly freaking out over what he must know is his doomed fate. And it is this cowardly, terror-stricken, impotent, weakling that Republicans and evangelicals are bowing down to as their savior. So Trump has managed to not only ruin the Republican Party, he is even turning the religious right into a pathetic, idol worshiping, cadre of glassy-eyed disciples who can’t even pretend to adhere to the principles of their alleged faith.

The problem with this is that Trump likely believes his own hype. and there is a risk that he will seek to lead a perverse revolt with his deranged followers of 2nd Amendment wackos, conservative conspiracy theorists, and holy warriors. Of course, they won’t get far, but the damage they are capable of would still be unfortunate, even though minor. Let’s hope they’re not stupid enough to try it.

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

Holy Kowtow: Trump-Fluffers on Fox News Come Out in Favor of ‘Abuse of Power’

Posted by on October 8, 2019 at 12:26 pm. 8 Comments :

As more evidence of Donald Trump’s betrayal of American principles and laws is revealed, he is sinking further into an abyss of fear, paranoia, and desperation. His language is becoming more maniacal and his attacks are losing any semblance of sanity. It’s a painful spectacle to watch for patriotic citizens.

Fox News, Donald Trump

Likewise, Trump’s defenders at State TV (aka Fox News) are similarly abandoning logic and reason, and are foregoing any effort to employ facts in their pursuit of excusing Trump’s rancid dishonesty and criminality. Their arguments have devolved into denying objective reality – including Trump’s own statements – or insisting that his public pronouncements were merely jokes (which would be appalling by itself). They swing wildly from “Trump didn’t do that” to “Okay, he did it, but everybody does it” to “So what, it isn’t illegal” to frantic howls of “Witch Hunt!”

Now the Fox News defensive line has taken up a brand new and wholly repulsive approach to Trump’s misdeeds. Fox and Friends legal and political analyst, Gregg Jarrett, offered his predictably sycophantic exaltation of Trump. The segment sought to ignore Trump’s blatantly unlawful attempts to extort Ukraine’s President Zelensky into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. And Jarrett’s glassy-eyed apologia was ludicrous on its face (video below).

“The fact of the matter is the President’s conversation was not a crime, it’s not an impeachable offense. In the beginning Democrats and the media said ‘Oh, the conversation is a crime.’ Until the Department of Justice Criminal Division said ‘We looked at the transcript. It’s not a crime. It’s not a campaign violation.'”

Of course it is a crime to seek anything of value from a foreign government to benefit a U.S. political campaign. And it’s even worse when the pressure applied is the withholding of military aid that was allocated by Congress. What’s more, Jarrett’s suggestion that the decision of Trump’s lackey, Attorney General William Barr, has any legal merit is preposterous. But he wasn’t finished:

“So now Democrats have embraced this amorphous concept known as ‘abuse of power’ which is nowhere in the Constitution. And the trouble with that is that it’s this sort of shifting sands of subjective interpretation that can be abused for political reasons. Exactly what the framers did not want.”

Jarrett is actually arguing that abuse of power is not prohibited by the Constitution and that the Founders never intended for it be grounds for impeachment. That goes against every principle that America was founded upon. The impeachment language in the Constitution was specifically included as a remedy for abuse of power. Alexander Hamilton explicitly regarded it as a guard against “the abuse or violation of some public trust.” It is exactly what the Framers DID want.

The fact that the phrase “abuse of power” isn’t in the Constitution is irrelevant and, really, silly. A lot of things are not in the Constitution, including abortion, separation of church and state, executive orders, right to privacy, homosexuality, freedom of expression, and lots more. But there is abundant case law that defines constitutional rights that weren’t in the original document. That is, in fact, what the Founders intended. It’s why the Constitution was so short and had provisions for amendments.

For Jarrett to bemoan the “shifting sands of subjective interpretation” is ironic since that’s precisely what he’s engaging in. Except his interpretation is at odds with the Framers – and reality. He’s literally arguing that abuse of power – which was the impetus for the revolution against the British monarchy – should be permitted. It’s an advocacy of tyranny. And he wants to bestow that limitless authority unto his Dear Leader Trump. Which is especially troubling since Trump is a wannabe dictator who is already acting as if he has it.

Addendum: On Tuesday, Trump shill Joe DiGenova appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show and called the whistleblower a “suicide bomber.” He also referred to the impeachment as “regicide” (killing a king). Which, of course, means he thinks that Trump is a king. Which, of course, means that he is an un-American idiot.

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

UNBELIEVABLE: Is Trump Kidding About Syria Like He Was About China and Biden?

Posted by on October 7, 2019 at 1:52 pm. 4 Comments :

If there is one thing that Donald Trump has demonstrated that he excels at, it’s betraying his friends, associates, and even his family, when it suits his purpose. Anyone doing business with him, personal or otherwise, knows that he is likely to turn on them with bitter aggression should they fail to show sufficient adoration and unqualified loyalty. In short, he simply cannot be trusted.

Donald Trump

On Monday Trump provided a horrifying example of his shameless disloyalty. He announced that he will be abandoning America’s Kurdish allies in Syria after they bravely sacrificed their lives on our behalf in the war against ISIS. It’s a decision so impulsive and reckless that it immediately drew rebukes from some of Trump’s staunchest supporters, including Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Mike Huckabee, Liz Cheney, even Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. Even Fox News was torn apart (video below) as Brian Kilmeade argued with his Fox and Friends co-hosts about Trump’s abhorrent betrayal.

Trump’s stated reasoning for throwing our friends under the tank mainly rests on wanting to end a protracted fight on foreign land and handing off that responsibility to Turkey and Europe. It’s a shockingly shallow analysis that completely ignores the security and national interests of the United States. But Trump still foolishly regards himself as a “stable genius” and only heeds his own “great and unmatched wisdom.”

However, Trump’s actual reasons are more likely to involve issues he hasn’t mentioned. For one, there is his personal financial affairs in Turkey. And then there is his affection for and allegiance to authoritarian dictators like Erdogan. And of course he may just be attempting to divert attention from the breaking news related to his impending impeachment. That includes the revelation that there are now multiple new whistleblowers lining up to tell the truth about him. And there was a court ruling that requires him to produce eight years of his tax returns.

Another major problem with Trump’s announcement on abandoning the Kurds is that there is very little reason to believe him. He is a notoriously pathological liar (more than 12,000 lies documented) who often contradicts himself in the space of a single sentence. What’s more, even his supporters are lately excusing his most ridiculous comments as “jokes.” That was the case when he appeared before a media scrum and asked Ukraine and China to investigate Joe Biden. That is literally the crime that is fueling Congress’ impeachment inquiry.

So it didn’t take long for suck-ups like Rubio, Rep. Jim jordan, Sen. Ron Johnson, and a frantic flurry of Fox Newsers to insist that it was just a joke. But if that was just a joke, despite being said without a hint of a smile and reiterating similar prior statements, then which of Trump’s comments are we supposed to take seriously? It seems that every time he says something that is offensive, dangerous, contrary to U.S. policy, or just objectively stupid, he or his defenders say he was only kidding. Here are a few examples:

Consequently, the American people have no reason to believe Trump when he says he will withdraw from Syria. But even worse, Syria, Turkey, the Kurds, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Europe likewise have no reason to believe him. After all, he may just be kidding. His word is about as trustworthy as a snake oil salesman or a Trump press secretary (but I repeat myself). And while it is troubling that Trump makes absurd and dangerous decisions like this one about Syria, it is equally troubling that he can’t be believed about this or anything else.

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

And You Thought Trump Was Nuts? Wait Til You See Giuliani on Fox News!

Posted by on October 6, 2019 at 2:23 pm. 1 Comments :

Watching Donald Trump descend into a steaming abyss of madness is horrifying for Americans who love their country. Although most can’t deny feeling at least a smidgen of satisfaction and relief that a dangerous sociopath is suffering the well deserved consequences of his betrayal. Trump is lost in a toxic fog of rancid anger and fear that threatens to turn every artery in his jellified skull into tiny anueristic IED’s

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

Lately Trump’s desperation and paranoia has driven him to furious and false attacks on his perceived enemies including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee chairman, Adam Schiff. He has made incoherent defenses of his obviously illegal entreaties to Ukraine and China. And his own behavior and words are turning out to be the best justifications for his impeachment.

However, as stunningly bizarre as all of his antics have been for the past few weeks, he has some stiff competition in the race for Psycho of the Year. His own personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is challenging the Lunatic-in-Chief with some memorable routines in the Fox News Cirque du So Lame. On Friday Giuliani told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that his mission is “to disrupt the world.” And on Sunday Giuliani was interviewed by Fox’s MediaBuzz host, Howard Kurtz. To say it was a hot mess would be far too mild. Giuliani was a virtual advertisement for cocaine-infused Red Bull. See for yourself:

WTF is he talking about? After telling Kurtz, a Trump-friendly Foxie, that he should be ashamed of himself, Giuliani took out what he said was “thirty years of articles,” which far pre-date Joe Biden’s term as Vice-President. What this has to do with the four year old Ukraine affair is anyone’s guess. But Giuliani was so hyped up that Kurtz couldn’t stop him to go to commercial.

A second clip in that thread shows Giuliani shushing Kurtz and calling him “pathetic” as the host tries to ask him about the “transcript” of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky and Trump’s own confession to extortion on national TV. Naturally, those questions weren’t answered. And while Giuliani was whining about being interrupted (which he wasn’t), the chyron below him read “Ukrainian says no evidence of Biden Wrongdoing.” That’s a Fox chyron!

A third video clip shows Giuliani responding to Biden’s suggestion that news programs stop booking him due to his constant and flagrant lying. So in the midst of his continued whining about imaginary interruptions, Giuliani raises a brand new issue saying that “We haven’t moved to Romania yet. Wait til we get to Romania.” We’re waiting, Rudy. Then he asserts that “they” are laughing at us. If by “us” he means himself, I’ll have to agree. And once again, Kurtz can’t get him to shut up long enough to end the segment.

With impeachment becoming an inevitability, Trump couldn’t be in more trouble. Well, unless he were saddled with a nutcase like Giuliani as his attorney. Giuliani has been reduced to spewing third-rate conspiracy theories and wailing like a insolent child who was denied a fourth cupcake. He makes no sense whatsoever as he connects dots that only he can see. And this is the legal counsel that Trump is relying on to get him through this debacle. No wonder he’s flipping out.

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