The Fox News Cult Of Ignorance: It’s Just As Bad As You Thought

Posted by on September 26, 2015 at 10:34 pm. 2 Comments :

Two years ago News Corpse published a collection of articles that documented the deception, propaganda, and outright lies disseminated by the Fox News community website, Fox Nation. It was dubbed “Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Community’s Assault On Truth.” Every chapter was fully verified by reputable sources and exposed the website for its shameful dishonesty and lack of ethics. It is that sort of concerted effort by wealthy and powerful media fabulists that cripple the intelligence of the willfully dimwitted.

Volume II of the series is also available with more documented examples of Fox’s devotion to disinformation. It is titled “Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.” If you purchased Volume I, you will want to add this to your library. It is a great resource for proving to your Fox-deluded friends and family what a den of deceit it is. And if you didn’t buy Volume I you can get Volume II and leap right into the fantastical world of Fox, then go back and read the first volume for additional chuckling and wincing.

Fox Nation vs. Reality

Get Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

Two years ago the first volume of Fox Nation vs. Reality was published revealing an Internet operation that was dedicated to fiercely partisan, right-wing distortions of the truth. Its mission was, and remains, to construct a safe haven for the broader Fox News community to reinforce their preferred fantasies and unfounded preconceptions. The articles aggregated there were from the fringiest sources (i.e. Daily Caller, Alex Jones’ Infowars, Breitbart News, etc.) and often contained nothing but easily disproven falsehoods and rank defamation of liberals.

Since then Fox Nation has evolved into an even more sheltered environment that has taken on many characteristics of culthood. It is a pattern they adopted from their parent, Fox News, where the slogan “fair and balanced” was an implicit condemnation of all other news sources as being neither. Recognizing that the prime directive of a cult is to convince your followers that your version of reality is the only true version and that all others are agents of deception, Fox segregated their disciples to prevent them from being contaminated by impure thoughts, otherwise known as facts.

Some of the enlightening, infuriating, and entertaining chapters include:

  • Obama’s Imaginary Foreign Fundraising
  • Paranoid Gun Nuts Go Wild
  • Night Of The Living Tea Party
  • The Poor Have It Way Too Good
  • Was Benghazi A Koch Brothers Plot?
  • Zombie Reagan’s Fake Declaration Of War

Check out the reviews on Amazon to get an idea of what previous readers have had to say. On a platform that is notorious for focused criticism it has maintained a 4-star average rating. And for reference, that 4-star average was also maintained for the reviews for Volume I.

Purchasing either or both volumes of Fox Nation vs. Reality is a great way to support this website and the work done here to reveal the malignancy of conservative media. And as always, your continued support and patronage is very much appreciated.

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If You Have A Boehner Lasting Longer Than 23 Years, Seek Immediate Medical Attention

Posted by on September 25, 2015 at 11:32 am. 8 Comments :

In the midst of an uncommonly busy news day that included the Pope speaking at the United Nations and President Obama welcoming Chinese President Xi to the White House, GOP House Speaker John Boehner chose to announce that he is resigning as Speaker and leaving Congress effective October 31, 2015 (Halloween?).

boehner-resigns

Boehner held a press conference to address his reasons for this surprise resignation, but avoided saying outright why the decision came so suddenly. He alluded to the truth when he mentioned that he didn’t want to put Congress through some unspecified turmoil. What he was covertly referencing was the opposition to his leadership by his GOP peers and the prospect of a motion to vacate the post, in effect a vote of no confidence that could have led to a new Speaker’s election. Rather than face that humiliation, Boehner chose to bug out.

That wimpiness is emblematic of Boehner’s legacy as Speaker. Ever since his ascendancy to the post he has wobbled in fear of the Tea Party caucus that demanded a radical and uncompromising agenda. Boehner has presided over an embarrassing reign of failure and capitulation. The tiny Tea Party cell of extremists in the House has utterly dominated him and reduced him to a dysfunctional figurehead who cannot complete even the simplest tasks of governing. He even set failure as a standard when he said that Congress “should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.” [Note: Number of laws Congress repealed while Boehner was Speaker: Zero] As a result, Boehner’s tenure is notable for being the most ineffectual Congress in history. It has managed to produce fewer bills, and work fewer days, than any Congress in modern times.

While achieving that dubious honor, they also held more than fifty votes attempting (unsuccessfully) to repeal or otherwise cripple the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare); filed a futile lawsuit against Obama over immigration; orchestrated a costly and unnecessary shutdown of the government; and formed the Special Committee on Politicizing Benghazi. All the while missing real opportunities by declining to hold votes for bills that would have passed merely because they didn’t have a majority of Republicans. What Boehner seemed to fail to grasp is that he was the Speaker of the whole House, not just the Republican caucus – and certainly not the Tea Party.

His departure will create a vacuum at the top that will not be filled without a bloody battle for control. Boehner’s chief lieutenant, and staunch ally, Kevin McCarthy, will not be welcomed by the GOP’s Wingnut Caucus. There will almost certainly be one or more conservatives entering the contest to be his successor. Maybe even Louie Gohmert (if we’re lucky) who got three whole votes when he ran against Boehner earlier this year (despite having endorsements from Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin). Consequently, Boehner’s alleged hopes of preventing the House from undergoing turmoil is going to have the opposite effect. It is just Boehner who will avoid the turmoil.

It is clear that Boehner’s rush to the exits is due to more than just a desire to spend more time with his family. You don’t ditch a job that puts you second in line for the presidency of the United States without serious concerns. Especially during an election year that is so consequential to his party. However, this opening may present an opportunity for Boehner’s last Republican primary opponent in his Ohio district to run again for the seat. J.D. Winteregg may not have had a realistic chance of unseating Boehner back then, but he did have one of the best campaign videos ever.

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


Bill O’Reilly Opposes Theocracy – Except For America And Christians

Posted by on September 24, 2015 at 7:27 pm. 9 Comments :

The dean of Fox News hypocrites has once again demonstrated why he is so revered for his ability to be oblivious to his own self-contradictions. Bill O’Reilly is notorious for his blustery argumentativeness and shallow grasp of substance. But he truly excels at making ludicrous statements that are often at odds with his previous remarks.

Bill O'Reilly

The latest example of this aberrant behavior occurred during a discussion about religion with Fox’s resident atheist, John Stossel (video below). The topic was spun from Ben Carson’s recent admission that he wouldn’t support a Muslim for president and doesn’t think that Islam is consistent with the Constitution. O’Reilly defended Carson’s bigotry in the following exchange with Stossel.

O’Reilly: If you look at Islam, the politics and the religion are always intertwined. In every single Muslim nation their laws are based on the Koran. You know that. Every one.
Stossel: That’s true, but you all week have been on a million TV programs saying “Judeo-Christian country,” philosophy. What do you mean by that?
O’Reilly: I mean that the founders of the Constitution – the people who forged the country – believed in the 10 Commandments, and that’s what they based the law on. There’s no doubt about that. […] They believed in the 10 Commandments as the litmus test of what is right, what is wrong.

Did you catch it? In one comment O’Reilly condemns nations that inject religion into the legal foundations of the state. And in his very next comment he praises the U.S. for injecting religion into the legal foundations of the state. It would be bad enough if the evident hypocrisy of these diametrically opposed comments occurred on different nights, or even in different segments of the same program. But the fact that they occurred literally one sentence following the other illustrates how religious bigots are blind to their own prejudices. They believe that theocracy is evil elsewhere but mandatory in America so long as it is based on Christianity.

Later, when asked if he would vote for a Muslim president, O’Reilly answered “If the guy was a super problem solver – a secular Muslim – I might consider it. I probably wouldn’t, but I might consider it.” So he probably wouldn’t vote for a Muslim, but if he did it would have to be one that didn’t actually practice his faith. How open-minded of him.

To top off O’Reilly’s twisted view and biased presentation, Stossel actually called him out for distorting a man-on-the-street segment that Stossel did. The video was shown earlier in the segment, but toward the end Stossel interjected to complain saying that…

“I just wanted to add, I asked 25 people [if they would vote for a Muslim president]. I thought most would have an objection. And your editor split it 50/50. But almost everyone just said no, no problem, without hesitation.”

Fox News using deliberately deceptive editing to leave viewers with false impressions is nothing new. However, it may be unprecedented that one of Fox’s hosts openly scolded a fellow host on the air for doing so. And it is just as much a testament to Stossel’s commitment to his principles as it is to O’Reilly’s lack of them.

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


You’re Fired! Donald Trump Dumps Fox News, Who Say They Dumped Him First

Posted by on September 23, 2015 at 3:19 pm. 9 Comments :

Buy stock in Orville Redenbacher today, because the popcorn market is set to explode. Reality TV goofball, and GOP object of perverted lust, Donald Trump, has declared that he will be kissing off his former BFF Fox News. In a tweet explaining the break up Trump said that…

“@FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won’t be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future.”

Fox News Donald Trump

Oh my. How ever will we survive? This isn’t the first time that Trump and Fox have quarreled. Earlier this year they took slaps at one another for what Trump thought were questions that were too hard during the Fox News Republican debate. He shot off insults aimed at the only female moderator, Megyn Kelly, that focused on her menstrual cycle as his reason for her harsh questions.

Eventually Trump and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes patched things up with Trump praising the executive and the network’s fairness. But that quickly deteriorated as he openly taunted Ailes saying “I love Roger, but all you have to do is ask him who won.” That’s akin to saying Ailes is my bitch.

The latest dust up appears to have been triggered by Trump’s butthurt over critical remarks on Bill O’Reilly’s show. Then, in a tantrum that seemed to have come out of the blue, Trump served his divorce papers on Twitter (Twivorce?), alleging abuse and irreconcilable differences. It all began in typical Trump fashion as he tweeted his disapproval complete with ad hominem insults.

Donald Trump Tweets

Ironically, there is no network that has been more friendly to Trump and his campaign. They have featured him far more, and more positively, than any other candidate. In fact, his ubiquitous presence on Fox exceeded the combined total air time for ten other Republican candidates last month. Fox News made Trump and he owes his current front-runner status to their worshipful coverage. For some examples of just how reverential Fox News has been, watch this:

Following Trump’s dismissal of Fox News, the network made a statement that may explain why Trump suddenly cut his ties. According to a spokesperson at Fox it was the network that fired Trump first. They said that in response to his tweets, they canceled his scheduled appearance on O’Reilly for Thursday. Subsequently, Trump decided to hit the press first with news of the separation. The Fox spokesperson went on to say that…

“When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.”

What’s funny about this is that Trump may have managed to accomplish something that News Corpse, and millions of rational, thinking Americans, have been trying to do for years: Mount an effective boycott of Fox News. The response on Trump’s Twitter page is filled with his followers pledging to forever abandon Fox and its “liberally-slanted” news coverage. That could actually have some real advantages for the future of media and America. Even though Trumpsters are among the most delusional of the GOP fringe, there are studies that show that Republicans who watch Fox are even more ill-informed than Republicans who don’t.

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

So the more people on the right who avoid Fox News, the better. And I may be in the uncomfortable position of having to thank Trump for getting people to stop watching Fox. All told, it would be worth it. And now I have to go restock my supply of popcorn. This show is still only in the first act.

[Update:] Crybaby Trump, who routinely calls people ugly and stupid, is now saying that he was offended by someone who does not work for Fox (National Review editor Rich Lowry) saying that Carly Fiorina “cut his balls off” in the CNN debate. So while he relentlessly postures about being a champion in the fight against political correctness, he can’t handle someone using a common idiom to describe what took place. How can this thin-skinned, whiner go up against Iran, who literally call for “death to America,” if he can’t deal with harmless, non-lethal metaphors?

[Update II:] Here we go again. Fox News says they have scheduled a meeting (again) with Trump to settle their differences over his latest tantrum. Planned for next week, this would represent their third “truce” so far. The real question is why is an alleged “news” network negotiating the conditions for coverage of a political candidate at all? That is a flagrantly inappropriate breach of journalistic ethics. If Trump doesn’t like Fox’s treatment he can stay off their air or go on and complain. Secret meetings raise the question of what concessions Fox News will make to accommodate (benefit) Trump at the expense of his rivals. And when was the last time that Fox offered to meet with President Obama or Hillary Clinton to discuss their differences with Fox’s far more blatant unfair coverage? No reputable news organization would even consider altering their coverage to satisfy the demands of a petulant candidate. But then again, we are not dealing with a reputable news organization.


Conspiracy! Wingnuts Think Liberals Planted Questioner At Donald Trump Event

Posted by on September 22, 2015 at 8:30 pm. 2 Comments :

The lunatics on the right have embraced some pretty outlandish conspiracy theories over the years. Not the least of which is that President Obama, who supports Planned Parenthood, gay rights, gun safety regulations, separation of church and state, and equality for women, is a Kenyan-born Muslim. Based on his political platform Obama would be the worst Muslim ever. But conservatives have never let reason interfere with their dementia.

Now the Doofus Brigades in the daffy rightosphere have latched unto a new bit crackpottery with which to tingle their nether regions. Two of these “news” sources were featured on Fox Nation, the community website of Fox News. According to the Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher, there is something fishy about the meathead who asked Donald Trump about the “Muslim problem” in America. Treacher notes that “Some people are speculating that the guy was a plant.” He doesn’t bother to identify any of those speculators, but he is worried that nobody knows the questioner’s name. Nobody ever knows the names of random people asking questions at rallies, but this time it’s cause to freak out.

The intrepid pseudo-journalists over at Breitbart News went even further to declare their “Exclusive” story revealing that “The man, whom some suspect to have been a liberal or Democratic plant in Trump’s audience, was featured in a meme in the spring of 2013 that was credited to aattp.org, the website of the group Americans Against The Tea Party.” Actually, that photo dates back to a Glenn Beck 9/12 Project rally in 2009 where there were lots of guys just like this. Also aattp.org features actual Teabaggers and has no incentive to promote phonies. The real ones are bad enough.

Fox Nation Donald Trump

Before demonstrating the unparalleled idiocy of these cretins, let’s just point out the obvious fact that liberals don’t need to plant a moron among the Trumpsters. Most of them already believe that Obama is a Muslim who is waging a “War on Christianity.” If liberals sent trolls to Trump’s events they would just blend in with the rest of the imbeciles. Even Trump disputes that the questioner was a plant. He told the Curvy Couch Potatoes of Fox & Friends that…

“When he was asking that question, by the way, a lot of the people in the audience were nodding. They were not laughing at him or anything. They were nodding. I don’t think he was a plant.”

Indeed, they were nodding. Because they agree with the asinine premise. As does Trump. In fact, they’re proud of it. So the entire notion that liberals would have gone to the trouble to plant someone to ask a question that most of the people in the crowd would have asked without any prodding is absurd. All they had to do was watch and wait. Trump’s supporters would expose themselves on their own in due time. [Note: Due time in this instance was the very first question]

But none of that would stop Breitbrat Patrick Howley from concocting the most preposterous plot surrounding the alleged liberal plant. Howley, a disreputable hack who has confessed to unethical and unlawful tactics to smear his ideological foes, asserts that the “plant” at the Trump affair was previously spotted at a Tea Party gathering in 2013. He even posts a link to what he says is photographic evidence of the sighting.

There are just two small problems with Howley’s hysterical hypothesis. First of all, he doesn’t provide any proof that the guy in the old Tea Party photo was a plant. If he was a legitimate Teabagger back then, he couldn’t very well be a liberal plant now..

More importantly, the two men do not share even a remote resemblance. The Teabagger is significantly older with a full head of gray hair. It is unlikely that he got younger in the years since the Tea Party rally. Also, he has a narrower face and a more pronounced chin. No one could plausibly say that these two men were the same person unless they were hopelessly predisposed to seeing only what they want to see, or they were determined to deceive others. And in furtherance of that goal, Howley wrote that “We know now that the left-wing media and activists were aware of this man more than two years before last week’s Trump rally.”

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

No, actually, you don’t know anything of the kind. You don’t know who the Teabagger was, you don’t know who the Trump guy was, you can’t honestly pretend that they were the same person, and even if he were a plant his question represents exactly what Trump and his followers believe. So all you’ve got left is to continue to lie and invent ridiculous scenarios for which you haven’t got a scrap of proof. In other words, you can do exactly what you always do and hope your glassy-eyed disciples don’t catch on. The rest of us are familiar with your conspiracy ravings and aren’t impressed by your poor journalistic skills and complete absence of logic. So carry on.


Scott Walker Officially Launches Campaign For Vice-President Of The United States

Posted by on September 21, 2015 at 4:50 pm. 2 Comments :

Today Wisconsin governor Scott Walker began laying plans to snag an appointment to be the Republican nominee for vice-president. He did that by suspending his futile aspirations for the presidency. Now he will be free to brown nose whichever remaining candidates he thinks will be best positioned for the nomination – with the exception of one in particular.

Walker’s concession speech was remarkable for the stance it took with regard to his rivals. He spoke openly about one candidate (without actually saying his name) that he portrayed as negative and harmful to the Republican Party and to America. Walker lamented that Donald Trump’s hostility and proclivity for name-calling made it impossible to mount an optimistic campaign in the mold of Ronald Reagan. He said in part that…

“Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

“I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner. This is fundamentally important to the future of the party and more importantly to the future of our country.”

This is an unprecedented approach to leadership. Walker is appointing himself as the lemming-in-chief for GOP candidates to sacrifice themselves in order to defeat Trump. Were it not for his obvious self-interest in boosting his odds of being picked up as a running mate, it would be somewhat admirable. After all, he is correct in assessing Trump’s front-runner status as being enabled by the size of the field. With fewer candidates distributing the vote, Trump’s lead will disappear. However, the notion that fellow losers like Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, etc., are going to follow Walker over a cliff is unlikely. They will undoubtedly leave the race, but not at Walker’s behest.

Walker must be a terrible disappointment to his billionaire benefactors, the Koch brothers. They invested heavily in him with the expectation that he would would carry their agenda to the White House. Now they’ll have to find another mule to do their dirty work. Lucky for them there are plenty of of others available and willing. As President Obama noted at the last White House Correspondent’s Dinner…

Koch Brothers

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

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Death Of White House Staffer Brings Out The Sick In Fox News Viewers

Posted by on September 21, 2015 at 11:15 am. 20 Comments :

The news this weekend that White House staffer Jake Brewer died in a biking accident has shaken his family, friends, and co-workers in the administration. He was riding in a charity event to raise money to fight cancer when tragedy struck. Brewer is survived by his wife, conservative journalist and Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham, his daughter daughter Georgia, and another child on the way.

Ms. Ham left a moving tribute to her husband on her Instagram page saying that…

“I lost part of my heart and the father of my sweet babies. I don’t have to tell most of you how wonderful he was. It was self-evident. His life was his testimony, and it was powerful and tender and fierce, with an ever-present twinkle in the eye. I will miss him forever, even more than I can know right now.”

And President Obama expressed condolences in a message that said…

“I am heartbroken at the tragic loss of one of my advisors, Jake Brewer. […] Jake was one of the best. Armed with a brilliant mind, a big heart, and an insatiable desire to give back, Jake devoted his life to empowering people and making government work better for them. […] Michelle and I are praying for all of Jake’s family and his many friends, most of all his wife, Mary Katharine Ham, their daughter, Georgia, and their growing family. They’ll always have a family here at the White House.”

But sadly, as is too often the case (see the Collected Hate Speech of the Fox Nation Community), the cretins who watch Fox News considered this a good time to hurl insults at their political foes and wish death on the President. It apparently made no difference that Brewer’s wife was a respected conservative author and journalist (her book “End of Discussion” was released just two months ago). To their credit, there were many commenters who repudiated the hateful remarks (for a change), but that doesn’t entirely relieve the sting. I take no pleasure in posting what these low lifes say, but they need to be shamed and a record of this disgraceful and disrespectful behavior needs to be kept.

Fox News

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


Donald Trump Is Just A Symptom. Republicans Are The Disease

Posted by on September 20, 2015 at 7:52 pm. 23 Comments :

Republican presidential candidate and loony cartoony narcissist Donald Trump has been dominating the media and the polls for the past three months. The degree of obsession exhibited by the press is unprecedented as they rush to cover every scrap of data related to Trump and broadcast all of his public events live as if they were actually newsworthy. The environment surrounding the GOP campaign has devolved into a freak show featuring overt bigotry and stupefying ignorance.

Donald Trump Voter

More often than not the blame for this is laid at the feet of Trump, whose own bigotry and ignorance are displayed prominently every time he opens his mouth. But that is somewhat unfair. While Trump is certainly responsible for some of the most memorably ludicrous moments of the campaign, the fact that his hateful idiocy has caught on with a significant faction of the Republican electorate isn’t his fault. Trump’s support isn’t coming from the back seat of his limo. There are actual voters lining up to align themselves with his noxious brand and without them he would be an asterisk in the polls.

A real world illustration of this occurred this week when Trump failed to rebuke a questioner who maligned Muslims and cast doubt on President Obama’s faith and citizenship. The press properly reported Trump’s response, but then portrayed it as if it were peculiar to him. The fact is that a majority of his supporters believe the very same things. That questioner was not an aberration (or a liberal plant as some wingnuts have been alleging). He is a typical representative of Trump’s base and the GOP’s as well.

Trump is not creating the bigotry that is so evident on the right. He is exploiting it, he is benefiting from it and, in the worst instances, he is fanning it. But it was there long before he began his campaign, and it will persist after he inevitably flames out. Whoever the Republican nominee is, he or she will be leading a party that still harbors the prejudices that we are seeing today. If anything, Trump’s campaign is serving a purpose by bringing these views into the light.

However, these tendencies on the part of conservatives are not reserved for the Trump contingent. A new poll by CNN shows that Carly Fiorina has jumped to second place following the CNN debate. What is significant in that is that her boost was the result of her telling the biggest lie of the whole debate. She said that she had seen video showing Planned Parenthood harvesting body parts from an aborted fetus with a beating heart and kicking legs. However, numerous independent journalists who watched all twelve hours of the videos she referenced reported that no such video exists. Nevertheless, her demonstrable lie has thrust her into the upper tier of Republican candidates. This is more proof that the GOP electorate is not only bigoted and ignorant, but they also have no respect for the truth.

There are plenty of other examples of this behavior. Mike Huckebee falsely asserted that Planned Parenthood was caught selling baby body parts for profit. Scott Walker thinks his confrontation with union members in Wisconsin is equivalent to doing battle with ISIS. Ben Carson just today said that he doesn’t believe that Muslims should ever be considered for president. Jeb Bush actually said that using big words makes the world more dangerous.

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

Ignorance and bigotry? They are the indicators of a Republican Party deeply infected with a disease that is making the nation sick. The Republican candidates are simply the opportunistic symptoms taking advantage of a weakened immune system. So the next time you see Trump, or any other GOP nut case, say something stupid or offensive, remember that they are saying it to fellow Republicans who feel exactly the same way.


On Fox News: Misinformed People Should Not Vote – And Obama Is Just Like Hitler

Posted by on September 19, 2015 at 1:15 pm. 4 Comments :

With the methodical precision of the German train schedule, Fox News has come out with their regular feature arguing that the fewer people who participate in America’s democracy the better. They seem to trot out this theory before every election, along with efforts to slash democrats from the voter rolls, in an obvious attempt to exclude those they regard as unfit to vote. This year’s version features right-wing economist, and frequent Fox News guest, Thomas Sowell.

Thomas Sowell

Appearing on Neil Cavuto’s program on the Fox Business Network (video below), Sowell elaborated on an article he published that made the case for shrinking the electorate so that only the “right” people voted. In response to Cavuto’s brazenly leading question, with the premise that voting “is not necessarily a birthright,” Sowell said that…

“Elections are not held just for social participation. They’re not held just to vet our emotions. They’re held to elect people who will hold our lives and the lives of our loved ones in their hands, as well as the fate of the entire nation. To go out as if we’re voting for homecoming queen is madness. I advise in that column that people who really haven’t had a chance to study these things and know much about it, their most patriotic act would be to stay home on election day, rather than vote on the basis of their whims or their emotions, which is really playing Russian roulette with the history of the country.”

The arrogance of Sowell’s perspective is both wrong and dangerous for two reasons. First, he fails to define what he regards as “whims” and “emotions.” It would be way too easy to label anyone who disagrees with him as emotional and, therefore, unfit to cast a vote. What’s more, emotions have always been a part of the democratic process and should continue to be considered by a compassionate electorate. And secondly, Sowell’s advice that allegedly uninformed or misinformed voters stay home is more of an avoidance of the problem than a solution. How about educating the voters so they can make informed decisions? Apparently Sowell and Cavuto would prefer to just exclude them.

After hearing Sowell’s theory that misinformed citizens should abstain from voting, Cavuto offered a typically snarky response saying that “By that measure I think it’s safe to say that every MSNBC viewer should just stay home.” Very funny, Neil. But actually Cavuto has a point, just the wrong one (as usual). If anyone should refrain from voting based on the cable news network they watch it should be Fox News viewers. Numerous studies have shown that Fox viewers are consistently the most uninformed. Even among Republicans, the ones who watch Fox have the worst grasp of reality.

The political bias in Sowell’s article was starkly evident in his deranged assertion that Obama is the same sort of “glib egomaniac” as Donald Trump. He provided no examples to support that absurd claim. Certainly Obama has never engaged in ludicrous boasts about how he is the greatest, smartest, bestest at anything and everything the way Trump does. But where Sowell goes completely off the rails is when he makes this disgusting comparison between Obama and Hitler:

“No national leader ever aroused more fervent emotions than Adolf Hitler did in the 1930s. Watch some old newsreels of German crowds delirious with joy at the sight of him. The only things at all comparable in more recent times were the ecstatic crowds that greeted Barack Obama when he burst upon the political scene in 2008.”

See? Obama is just like Hitler, according to Sowell. And all because he attracted large crowds. You know who else attracts large crowds? Donald Trump. The difference is that Obama’s crowds represented the diversity of America and never devolved into insults and hostility. Trump’s crowds, on the other hand, are predominantly white and they are openly hostile to Latinos, Muslims, and gays. So which crowd is more like the Nazis? And which party, with it’s demagogic appeals to American Exceptionalism (aka American Supremacy), is more aligned with Hitler’s mission? I’m just sayin’…

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


Birther, Bigot, Donald Trump Wants To Make America Hate Again – Update: Trump Rejects ‘Moral Obligations’

Posted by on September 19, 2015 at 10:14 am. 5 Comments :

At a rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump demonstrated why he is better suited to running a Klan Kouncil than the U.S. He briefly addressed his audience of crackpots and then opened up the event for questions. The very first one tells us everything we need to know about both Trump and his warped disciples. (Video below)

Donald Trump

Question: We’ve got a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American, birth certificate man. But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question. When can we get rid of them?

This would be a perfect opportunity for Trump to exhibit some intelligence or dignity or … what the hell, we’re talking about Donald Trump here. That isn’t going to happen. This was his response:

Trump: We’ll be looking at a lot of different things. And, you know, a lot of people are saying that. A lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re gonna be looking at that, and plenty of other things.

So Trump is gonna be looking at how to get rid of Muslims like President Obama? Despite his recent reluctance to talk about it, he is apparently as committed as ever to his birtherism. It would have been easy to dismiss the question and repudiate the bigoted inferences of the questioner, but Trump’s prejudices are deep seated and he wasn’t about to cut any slack to either the President or the millions of Muslim-American citizens.

Trump’s defenders might complain that he was blindsided by the question and should not be held accountable for not responding appropriately off the cuff. But that wouldn’t explain the statement provided by his campaign hours later after having plenty of time to develop a considered response.

Campaign response: The media wants to make this issue about Obama. The bigger issue is that Obama is waging a war against Christians. Christians need support in this country. Their religious liberty is stake.

Ferchrissakes. They took their time in order to compose the most nauseating, racist, idiotic, official reply they could think of? First of all, the media isn’t making this about Obama. The questioner explicitly made reference to him. The bigger issue is that Trump is now awkwardly attempting to divert attention to his delusional and wholly unsupported claim that “Obama is waging a war against Christians,” whose “religious liberty is stake.”

Where on Earth does he get these lunatic ravings from? Obviously he thinks that by retching up the most grotesque lies imaginable he can distract people from his boorish bigotry. That may work for the putrid collection of imbeciles who support him, but anyone with an IQ higher than Trump’s favorability among Latinos aren’t so easily fooled. And the only question left is how long will Republicans continue to prop up this jerkwad?

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[Update:] Trump Rejects ‘Moral Obligations’ After ducking the issue, Trump is now responding to his flagrant bigotry in a series of tweets that illustrate his complete obliviousness:

Tweet 1: Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don’t think so!
This isn’t about defending the President. It’s about defending the truth and repudiating prejudice. Trump should have excoriating the questioner, not as a favor to Obama, but because what he said was both false and hateful. And yes, that is a moral obligation if you expect to be regarded as a leader. Note: Trump got this line from Fox & Friends who spent much of the morning trying to justify Trump’s assholiness and specifically saying he had no moral obligation to respond.

Tweet 2: This is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something.
This is a vain distraction that ignores the responsibility to speak out against bigotry. Martin Niemöller’s famous poem “First they came for…” is a stark reminder of what happens when you do NOT say something. You have to wonder if Trump would have said something if the questioner had said Jews instead of Muslims. Would he have been morally obligated?

Tweet 3: If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance!
This is projection on Trump’s part. If someone at an Obama rally said Trump was a fascist Christian and asked how to get rid of them, based on his record of tolerance, Obama would almost certainly have slapped him down.

Tweet 4: If I would have challenged the man, the media would have accused me of interfering with that man’s right of free speech. A no win situation!
What utter nonsense. Trump has the example set by John McCain who faced a similar situation and reacted honorably. He was universally praised for his dignified response. And therein lies the problem for Trump: He has no honor or dignity.