Politics

Jon Stewart Laments that There is Too Much Focus on Donald Trump

Posted by on October 17, 2021 at 12:40 pm. 0 Comments :

It has been six years since Jon Stewart left his post at the Daily Show, disappointing millions of Americans who got humor, insight, and solace from his take on the media and its impact on society. He left a vacuum that still hasn’t been filled by his successors in the comedy world during times when political satire was needed more than ever.

Donald Trump, Jon Stewart

Now Stewart has returned to television with a show on AppleTV+ that looks to be a bit more serious. And to promote his new venture, he is making the rounds on the PR circuit, including an appearance on Sunday’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on CNN.

Tapper did an extended interview (video below) of Stewart that touched on many subjects and provided him with a platform to express his ideas about contemporary media and politics. There was much to admire in his commentary. But there was a brief moment where Stewart may have drifted slightly off the mark:

“I think the media does a terrible job at de-escalation. And de-escalation is the antidote to all this nonsense. And I don’t mean civility, and I don’t mean non-partisanship. I mean focusing on things that are more urgent and elemental in people’s lives and really hammering away at those things.”

Stewart is making a good point about the need to “hammer away” at the issues that really impact people’s lives. There is a bizarre tendency at some media outlets – particularly Fox News – to feature pseudo-culture jamming trivialities like gay Legos, or Chick-fil-A Sauce Shortages, or the infamous Dandelion-Gate.

However, to say that “media does a terrible job at de-escalation” is to suggest that the media regards its job as de-escalating and is failing at it. To the contrary, right-wing media actually considers it their mission to escalate controversy, and they are really quite good at it. They are profoundly successful at stirring up hostility and division which, in turn, acts as a magnet that compels viewers to be viscerally afraid and to stay perpetually tuned in so that they can satiate the addiction that the media itself created. A bigger misstep by Stewart, though, was his assertion that…

“I think we make a mistake focusing this all on Donald Trump […] He has just been an effective vessel.”

If Trump is a “vessel,” then he is a super-tanker loaded to the brim with a toxic cargo that he’s intent on polluting the entire planet with. While it would be a great relief to never again have to be assaulted by Trump’s visage or voice, as long as he is being dredged up by his cult followers and the wingnut press, we need to be vigilant and cognizant of the massive harm that he is capable of inflicting.

While Stewart’s point that Trump is not the originator of the noxious ideas he espouses is correct, he is far and away the most prominent dispenser of them. No one else in Republican politics commands the blind loyalty and propensity for violence that Trump does. And if anyone has the potential to lead an anti-democratic revolt, manned by armed, dangerous, fanatical zealots, it’s Trump.

Consequently, Trump must remain squarely in our focus. That doesn’t mean having the media donate unlimited hours of uninterrupted coverage for his hate-filled cult rallies, like they did in 2016. It doesn’t mean offering his tainted and ignorant perspective of every issue. And it doesn’t mean focusing solely on Trump. What it means is exposing his lies, nefarious intentions, and unsavory relationships, at every opportunity.

Along with an aggressive progressive agenda that benefits all Americans, there must be a focus on stopping Trump and Trumpism. His rancid rhetoric must be neutralized and his authoritarian aspirations quashed. Failure to do so will allow his neo-fascism to spread and fatally infect the nation. Jon Stewart is one of the best voices to achieve a positive end. Let’s hope he stays in that fight.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Tucker Carlson Attacks White House Parental Leave Policy, Which Fox News Also Offers

Posted by on October 15, 2021 at 12:34 pm. 3 Comments :

Leave it to the Fox News Senior Hate Monger, Tucker Carlson, to find a way to malign fatherhood, while viciously insulting LGBTQ people, and simultaneously displaying rank hypocrisy, all with the smirk of an elitist, trust fund baby, shielded from consequences by his right-wing employer.

Tucker Carlson Fox News

On Thursday evening Carlson was compelled to assault the institution of the family, an ironic position for the network that pretends to be the defenders of family values. Carlson’s tirade was triggered by the audacity of Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, availing himself of the parental leave provided to all federal employees. But Carlson is apparently ignorant of the family leave policies of his own employer. This was revealed in a video contrasting Carlson’s homophobic mockery of Buttigieg, with a clip of Fox and Friends co-host Todd Piro:

Carlson: Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it. Trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went.
Piro: Fox is amazing. It’s a great organization. Really a family friendly organization. They give us six weeks as dads for paternity. I’m taking that six weeks. I can’t wait to bond with my little one.

Carlson’s crack about “breastfeeding” demeans all fathers who love their newborns enough to take some time off of work to care for them and their wives. That includes his colleague Piro, as well as Jesse Watters who, after the birth of his child with his second wife (a Fox News producer with whom he was cheating on his first wife), said that “Now I am pro-paternity [leave]. I used to mock people for taking paternity.” That’s the same brand of family “values” practiced by Donald Trump.

So Carlson deliberately neglects to mention that Fox News has a family leave policy that gives fathers six weeks off after the birth of a child. Even worse he criticizes Buttigieg for taking leave in the most insulting and infantile manner possible.

This, however, isn’t the first time that Carlson as lambasted a Biden administration policy that mirrors those of Fox News. Carlson also attacked Biden’s vaccine mandate policy. He characterized Biden’s efforts to get more people vaccinated, thus saving lives, as tyrannical and as waging a war on the American people. Never mind that Fox News has a similar policy that is even stricter than Biden’s, and which Carlson is abiding by.

How many other Fox News directives does Carlson oppose, but is too dishonest and cowardly to say so? Who knows? What we do know is that Carlson is a weaselly hypocrite who will suck up to whoever he needs to in order to benefit himself. After all, before he was rescued by Fox News, Carlson was fired from PBS, CNN, and MSNBC. He also had a run in with Fox before they hired him that resulted in him calling them “a mean, sick group of people.”

Now Carlson happily toils in Fox’s lie-mining caves like a good supplicant. He furthers their ultra-rightist agenda by embracing and dispensing their hate, lies, and conspiracy theories. All while maintaining his hallmark smirk and confused (constipated?) expression.

UPDATE: Mayor Pete responds saying that Carlson “doesn’t understand the concept of bottle feeding, let alone the concept of paternity leave. […and that…] This attack is coming from a guy who has yet to explain his apparent approval for the assassination of Harvey Milk.”

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

WHUT? Tucker Carlson of Fox News Boldly Refuses to Verify that His Disinformation is Reliable

Posted by on October 14, 2021 at 12:24 pm. 2 Comments :

The Olympic grade hypocrisy at Fox News continues to shine through everything they do. And nowhere is that more evident than with matters related to the coronavirus and the tragedies it has wrought on America, largely attributable to the lies and disinformation disseminated by Fox and Donald Trump. Studies show that the nation is currently suffering through what can accurately be described as The Fox News Pandemic.

Fox News. Tucker Carlson

Leading the way down to the depths of viral hell is Fox’s Senior Deceiver, Tucker Carlson. He has already peddled dangerous and flagrant falsehoods such as his promotion of quack cures, his paranoid conspiracy theories that the vaccines don’t work, his support for the unlawful use of fake vaccination cards, and his urging of viewers to make false police reports of child abuse against parents whose children wear face masks.

Despite that record of deliberate and deadly deception, Carlson is now complaining about social media sites trying to encourage the accurate and honest sharing of information upon which lives may depend. Because who would want that? On Wednesday night’s episode he delivered a diatribe against Instagram for what he falsely said was censorship. He was triggered by a message he received when he tried to post a video that was lousy with lies:

“When we put that video on Instagram the following message appeared: “Make sure the information is reliable before sharing!” And then it attempts to redirect you to a site, “Get Vaccine Info.” From some approved site. I guess info about policies at a company they don’t work at? So if you’re not allowed to explain information that you have first hand, credible knowledge of, like your own employer’s own policies, then what rights do you have?”

So Carlson is outraged that Instagram politely asked that he be certain of the reliability of what he was about to post. How dare they care about the accuracy of critical health data? Especially when they are asking someone who is so renowned for spreading lies that his employer, Fox News, argued in court that he couldn’t be guilty of defamation because “no reasonable person” would believe him.

Carlson falsely characterized Instagram’s message as censorship, claiming that he was not allowed to post his dishonest video. He also put his complaint in a chyron that read “Big Tech Tries to Censor this Show Once Again.” However, there was no censorship because Instagram allowed him to click through the message and post his video, which he did.

Another chyron in this segment told another lie regarding the video that he did, in fact, post on Instagram. This one read “There is no Vaccine Mandate at Fox News.” The truth is that Fox News has a policy that does mandate that their employees get vaccinated. It’s a conditional mandate that requires them to be tested daily if they are not vaccinated. That’s almost exactly the same as the policy that President Biden recently announced, except that Biden’s policy is actually less strict. requiring only weekly tests for the unvaccinated.

Apparently Carlson doesn’t know the Fox News position on vaccinations, despite having “first hand” knowledge of his “own employer’s own policies.” And in his ignorance he has slandered Biden as a tyrant for “forcing” people to get vaccinated. But if Biden is “waging war” on the American people, than Fox News has escalated it. Yet, as was scathingly pointed out by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Carlson is too cowardly to call out his bosses, or demonstrate an iota of integrity by quitting. And that goes for the rest of the Fox News roster of hypocrites who are nearly as bad as Carlson.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Jen Psaki Bats Down Fox News Reporter and ‘World Renowned Expert’ Ted Cruz in One Swing

Posted by on October 12, 2021 at 4:59 pm. 4 Comments :

Last month President Biden announced an initiative to get more Americans vaccinated, the surest method of controlling the COVID pandemic and returning to some semblance of normalcy. The core of the plan would require vaccinations or weekly testing for federal employees, school staff, and private businesses with 100 or more employees.

Jen Psaki

The Biden plan was overwhelmingly popular according to a Fox News poll. So naturally, Fox News immediately came out against the proposal. Never mind the fact that their own corporate policy is even more strict than Biden’s, requiring daily testing for the unvaccinated. The narrative at Fox news was that the Biden “mandates” would be a drag on business and employment. And to support that baseless notion, Fox ran stories about flight cancelations at Southwest Airlines being caused by the mandates. Which, by the way, have not been implemented by the federal government, but have been by private businesses.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, the subject was raised by Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. Perhaps Peter Doocy was staging a sickout. Heinrich asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki a “people say” question (without mentioning that it was only people at Fox News and partisan Republicans saying anything) about the effect of mandates on the nation’s workforce. Psaki’s reply managed to silence Heinrich, as well as one of the previously unnamed people making the false claims:

Heinrich: What’s the White House response to people who say that vaccine mandates have reduced the workforce and contributed to this problem?
Psaki: Well, I know world renowned business travel and health expert, Senator Ted Cruz, has made that point, but I wouldn’t say that that is widely acknowledged or echoed by business leaders who have implemented these mandates, by health experts who have conveyed that the way to get out of the pandemic is to ensure that we are doing exactly the steps the President has announced and we are working to implement. It doesn’t mean that this isn’t hard and challenging. Of course it is. We are in the middle of a global pandemic. But ultimately, the job of the President is to lead.

OUCH! In one powerhouse swing, Psaki put to rest the falsehoods about what right-wingers have dubbed the “Freedom Flu” (which presumably is treated with Freedom Fries). She went on to note that the false reporting about flight cancelations at Southwest Airlines were not caused by any reaction to policies by the Biden administration or Southwest’s own efforts to protect the health of their employees and customers. “We now know,” she said, “that some of those claims were absolutely false and actually the issues were completely unrelated to vaccine mandates.” Then she reiterated that “this is the way to save lives, create more certainty, it’s good for the economy, and it’s something we’re looking forward to implementing.”

Predictably, Fox’s Tucker Carlson was also lying about the Southwest situation. But for the record, the president of the Southwest Pilots Union was actually on Fox News and told them that “It’s absolutely false that our pilots are engaged in any sort of job action.”

The jab at Ted Cruz for promoting the falsehoods about vaccine-triggered sickouts at Southwest, and his callous betrayal of his constituents in Texas during a deadly winter freeze, were just icing on the cake. Ms. Psaki has a way of gently dispensing some devastating snark just when it’s needed most.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Trump Makes Hysterical Claim of Voter Fraud that Actually Proves His ‘Big Lie’ is Bogus

Posted by on October 12, 2021 at 11:22 am. 1 Comments :

Nearly a year after the 2020 presidential election, the twice-impeached, former reality TV game show host and fake billionaire, Donald Trump, is still running his mouth about election fraud. Never mind that in all that time – and after more than sixty failed court challenges – he and his cohorts in politics and the press have been unable to uncover even a shred of evidence to support his manic ranting that has incited deadly violence.

Donald Trump

Even the GOP-run “fraudit” in Arizona concluded that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner. But that didn’t stop Trump from proclaiming just the opposite. Just as he has done repeatedly before. Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, even admitted that “We realized from the beginning it was just bull—.” Which triggered another Trump tantrum.

Well, all of that may have just come to an inglorious end with posts by Trump’s spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban). Harrington’s tweets linked to an article that she rapturously reported were proof of voter fraud (and not for the first time). But like everything else in Trump World, the reality was far less scandalous than the lies they gushed (Here’s the tweet if you’d like to report it (and her) to Twitter).

There is a lot to unpack in this purposefully deceptive set of tweets. Let’s begin with the fact that it only alleges to have found a total of 28 votes that it implies were irregular. That’s out of nearly three million cast in a state where Biden won by more than 154,000. What’s more, it doesn’t reveal whether the allegedly fraudulent votes were for Biden or Trump. They could be proof that it was the Trump side that was cheating.

Even more notable is that it doesn’t even prove that there was any fraudulent intent whatsoever. In every case it might easily be explained as naïve persons making minor mistakes that unknowingly violated the law. One case snared a grandmother who was trying to help out her grandson. The article described this super villain saying that…

“The investigation found that the grandmother of Clark returned his absentee ballot by mail despite him deciding to vote in person. Clark admitted to signing her grandson’s absentee ballot because she was concerned he wouldn’t have time to vote on Election Day.”

Oh my! Lock her up! It is also notable that these trivial cases of impropriety were discovered and reported by the Michigan Attorney General and the Michigan Secretary of State, both of whom are Democrats. So any assertion of Democratic foul play is preposterous.

In fact, this report is proof that the system works. The cases outlined in the article were all found through the routine process of signature matching. This is precisely how the system was developed with safeguards to prevent or catch any irregularities. The state officials released this statement:

“These cases highlight the scrutiny applications and ballots undergo throughout the election process, as well as the thorough investigative process that ensues when instances of attempted fraud are suspected,” AG Dana Nessel said in a release. […] Our election system is secure, and today’s charges demonstrate that in the rare circumstances when fraud occurs we catch it and hold the perpetrators accountable,” [Secretary of State] Jocelyn Benson added.

Clearly, there was no “fraud” that even came close to impacting the election outcome. And it surely does not require any of the extreme measures that Republicans are implementing to suppress voting, such as photo IDs, curtailing of voting hours and locations, eliminating mail-in ballots, or denying voters food and water as they wait for hours, mostly in Democratic districts by design of the GOP legislators.

Nevertheless, the Trump camp is using this utterly inconsequential story to buttress the “Big Lie” that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. It fails on every level to do that. And this sort of deliberate deception has the great likelihood of leading to more violence. But that doesn’t matter to the Trump cult who will believe whatever interpretation of reality that they are told to believe. The predictable peril that this represents to American democracy and civil society is the purpose of this charade. They won’t be happy until they foment a full scale civil war.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Righteous CNN Media Analyst Scolds Fox News Anti-Vaxers for ‘Helping to Kill People!’

Posted by on October 11, 2021 at 12:23 pm. 1 Comments :

It has been well documented that Fox News is the most prominent promoter of pro-COVID propaganda in America today. They have adopted an across the board editorial mission to belittle the deadly consequences of the coronavirus, while simultaneously dismissing the benefits of the vaccine. Along with Donald Trump, Fox News is convincing untold thousands of dimwitted cult followers to unnecessarily put their lives at risk.

Fox News, Vaccine

Most of the commentaries on Fox News adhere strictly to the network’s politically driven anti-vax agenda. However, by far the most offensive vaccine opponent is Tucker Carlson. He has repeatedly advocated the use of quack cures, spread paranoid conspiracy theories that vaccines don’t work, praised people who unlawfully used fake vaccination cards, and even urged his viewers to file false police reports of child abuse against parents who choose to have their children wear face masks.

Carlson, sadly, isn’t alone. His confederates Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the rest of the Fox roster are equally as liable for the serious harm the network causes. And on Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s Reliable Sources they addressed this subject with a panel that included David Zurawik, a professor of communications and media studies at Goucher College, and former TV critic for the Baltimore Sun. Host Brian Stelter began the discussion by accurately noting that the anti-vaxers at Fox News are “essentially are prolonging the pandemic.” This led into Zurawik’s impassioned response:

“It’s like it’s not real to them. It’s like it’s a game. They’re playing for viewership. They’ve got a core that will listen to this and wants to hear this, apparently, and that they’re reinforcing.

“But how do you live with yourself when you know what you’re doing in the media can cause deaths for people? How do you live with yourself? I don’t understand that. There’s a lot of sins we have, and I’ll confess to some of them as a journalist. But I don’t know how people in right-wing media – with the science that we have out there and with all the videos and all the personal tragedies we’ve witnessed of people dying – you go and do anti-vax stuff on television.

“It’s not a game! You walk out on the street, you’re part of the community, you’re part of this country, you’re part of the global community. And you’re contributing to killing people. That’s unconscionable. There is no forgiveness. There is no forgiveness for these people. Go ahead, cash your checks now. You’re helping to kill people. Think of that tomorrow when you go in before the cameras.”

This righteous rant would surely resonate with millions of Americans who also don’t understand how Fox News cretins can live with themselves after disseminating so much demonstrably dangerous advice. They are indeed “helping to kill people” by the thousands. And they couldn’t care less.

It is, for them, about viewership, about a paycheck, and about politically embracing the Trump Doctrine of division and knee-jerk opposition to the common sense solutions offered by his perceived enemies. That group includes Democrats, scientists, academics, and citizens who yearn for a return to some form of normalcy. In short, it is success that Fox News opposes. But only because President Biden might get some of the credit for it. And to Fox News and Trump, avoiding that is worth thousands of Americans dying.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Crybaby Trump Throws Hysterical Twitter Tantrum After Biden Nixed His Fake Executive Privilege

Posted by on October 9, 2021 at 12:12 pm. 3 Comments :

The bipartisan House Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection recently issued subpoenas for several associates of Donald Trump who aided and abetted the deadly invasion of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. They include Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, White House aides Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel, and his former campaign chairman Steve Bannon. All of them have thus far indicated that they will ignore the subpoenas on orders from Trump.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

The fact that Trump is still exerting control over his political lackeys only strengthens the legal case against him. He is exhibiting a consciousness of guilt and engaging in obstruction of justice. He falsely believes that he can invoke “executive privilege,” a power that only a president can exercise and, despite his delusional obsession, he isn’t one. But even a president can’t use that privilege to cover up a crime.

The actual president, Joe Biden, has announced that he will not be invoking executive privilege on Trump’s behalf. Consequently, documents and other evidentiary material in the possession of the White House will be handed over to the congressional committee.

This has triggered a typical Trump temper tantrum that he unleashed on Twitter with the help of his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban). Trump is clearly scared and is trying to twist his fear into some form of defense. But all he can muster is incoherence and desperation:

Trump’s tweet-whining is so jam-packed with preposterous notions that it requires a deeper dive to dissect its puerile perversity. Let’s begin where he began…

“Biden has rejected our request to withhold White House information from the House Unselect Committee investigating the January 6th protest, but has not taken a stance on the insurrection that took place on November 3rd, often referred to as the Crime of the Century.”

Notice first his infantile nicknaming of the Committee as “Unselect.” Ooh, that’ll get ’em. More disturbing is his characterization of the riots that resulted in at least five deaths, and more than 140 law enforcement officers seriously injured, as merely a “protest.” They were just protesting that Nancy Pelosi hadn’t been shot and that Mike Pence hadn’t been hung. Then he says that it was the democratic election that was an insurrection. Never mind that after nearly a year of baseless allegations, and legal challenges, and Republican-run audits, Trump has failed to turn up any evidence of the election fraud he rants about so maniacally. And the only one who has “often referred” to the election as the “Crime of the Century” is Trump himself. But he was just getting started…

This will put the current White House in a terrible position when the inevitable request for information comes concerning the massive corruption by Hunter Biden and the already well-documented crimes committed by the Biden family, the least of which are Hunter’s paintings selling for as much as $500,000 a piece.”

Here Trump is making a threat to seek vengeance, if given the opportunity. However, his threat reeks of the impotence of a loser who has run out of ideas. Despite the efforts of Trump and his Fox News confederates, there has been no evidence of corruption by Hunter Biden, massive or otherwise, who, by the way, isn’t the president or the holder of any other political office. Trump’s attempts at deflection are so pitiful that they rival the idiocy of those attempted by Rudy Giuliani. And the only “well-documented crimes” are those that were committed by the Trump family. Then Trump closed his tirade by saying that…

“With our Country collapsing, with our Military disgraced, with our Borders nonexistent, when will the American people have had enough?”

The American people have already had enough – of Trump. A significant majority (60%) of Americans polled said that a Trump 2024 bid would be bad for the country. Even a minority (44%) of Republicans want him to run again. So no matter how many lies he tells about the country collapsing, he clearly isn’t making any headway after a presidency during which he was impeached twice and never reached 50% approval. And after a year of civilian life, he’s still a liar, he’s still a whiner, and he’s still a loser.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Rick Wilson is LIVID! And Every American Who Wants Justice for January 6th Should Be Too

Posted by on October 8, 2021 at 1:13 pm. 5 Comments :

The House Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection is just getting off the ground. As part of their investigative process they have begun to issue subpoenas to associates of Donald Trump who aided and abetted the deadly riots that took place in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump, Fox News, QAnon

The first wave of subpoenas were doled out to Trump insiders including his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, White House aides Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel, and whatever the hell Steve Bannon is (Bannon just joined the crusade of crackpots who think that Trump will be reinstated in “2022 or maybe before”). To date they have all refused to comply with the subpoenas on orders from Trump.

Not only is that indicative of a consciousness of guilt, it constitutes obstruction of justice on Trump’s part. He is invoking “executive privilege” as his justification, despite the fact that he isn’t an “executive” and doesn’t have any such power. What’s more, even the President can’t invoke executive privilege to cover up the commission of crime.

In response to the unlawful evasion of the subpoenas, the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson posted a video to express his concern as to whether the Congress will hold the Trump insurrectionists accountable. And he wasn’t shy about his feelings on the subject (warning: video NSFW):

“I am hearing from multiple people now that the subpoenas are not going to be enforced. That the Commission is basically going to slow roll the entire thing. And that they are not going to take it seriously. If you don’t enforce the subpoenas, hang it up now. Just declare Trump president again and tell Steve Bannon he can be the emperor of the f**king right-wing universe and let it all go.”

Wilson dropped a number of other rousing rhetorical bombs in the video. such as…

“These are criminals who tried to overthrow the United States government.”

“These people came to murder you. They would have dragged you out into the street and stomped you to death. And if you don’t punish them and investigate them and bring them to justice, they’ll do it again. A coup attempt that is not punished is a training exercise.”

[And…]

“Do not treat this like something that’s just a delay so you can go back to talking about the infrastructure bill and healthcare. Are you insane?”

Since Wilson didn’t say from whom he was hearing this talk of not enforcing the subpoenas, it’s hard to gauge just how seriously to take his warnings. But if nothing else, it is something that Congress – and especially the members of the Committee – need to hear. And it is something that the American people need to take to heart. They are the best potential influencers of indolent legislators.

On the plus side, the Committee is saying the right things. Friday morning it was reported that the “panel will consider criminal contempt of Congress referral over Trump aides subpoena defiance: ‘We will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena.'” Last month President Biden said through his Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, that he would not abide Trump and the GOP as they “fomented an insurrection.” And the White House has formally blocked Trump’s bogus attempt to claim executive privilege.

We’ll soon see just how committed they are to that course of action. But if they fail to follow through, it will rest with patriotic citizens to make it clear that we will not be satisfied with anything less than the unreserved pursuit of justice and the enactment of punishment where appropriate.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Newsmax Trump-Fluffer Actually Believes the Loser of Mar-a-Lago Can Invoke Executive Privilege

Posted by on October 7, 2021 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

The House Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection recently issued subpoenas to several former staffers and associates of the former reality TV game show host, Donald Trump. Shortly thereafter, Trump did what all innocent parties to congressional investigations do. He demanded that the recipients of the subpoenas refuse to comply, making them liable for charges of contempt of Congress.

Donald Trump

Trump’s demands would not only put his criminal accomplices in legal jeopardy, but they expose him to charges as well. He could face prosecution for obstruction of justice and for suborning unlawful acts by others.

Trump justifies the orders to his minions by claiming “executive privilege.” The only problem with that is that he isn’t an “executive.” Only the President of the United States can invoke executive privilege. And Trump, despite his continuing refusal to acknowledge reality, is still not the President. What’s more, even the President can’t invoke executive privilege to cover up the commission of crime.

Trump’s stubborn insistence that he has powers that exist only in his befuddled brain is also evident on the fringe, wingnut media outlets that have sworn their blind allegiance to the cult of Trump. Prominent among them is Newsmax, a network so devoted to ultra-partisan bullpucky that they contrived the infamous “Dandelion-Gate“ conspiracy theory. And now Newsmax’s Grant Stinchfield returns with a harangue about Trump’s non-existent executive privilege authority:

“The January 6th Commission is going after anybody who worked around president Trump. Well, we are now learning that if they try to subpoena these people that are associated with president Trump, president Trump is going to be fighting back, He is going to invoke executive privilege. And that means that people like chief of staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, a top advisor, and Kash Patel, another top advisor, will not be able to comply with these subpoenas coming from the January 6th Commission.

“This is what you get with president Trump. You get a man who fights back. You understand me? The president fights back. That’s what we love about president Trump. And he’s sticking it to these people trying to go after him.”

Stinchfield is shocked(!) that the Committee impaneled to investigate the incident incited by Trump is “going after” the people that aided and abetted the deadly riots in Washington, D.C.. And he admires Trump’s fierce objections to efforts by Congress to uncover the truth.

Unfortunately, Stinchfield is caught up Trump’s ignorant belief that he can invoke the powers of the presidency that he lost nearly a year ago. And that means that people like Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel, will have to comply with these subpoenas or face the legal consequences. Scavino, it should be noted, has “innocently” disappeared and was not able to be served his subpoena. Also, Stinchfield left out Trump’s former campaign chairman, Steve Bannon, who was not a White House staffer and, therefore, wouldn’t be covered by executive privilege even if Trump could wield it.

Stinchfield closed his tirade with an especially cringeworthy and drooling adoration of Trump. He explained that “what we[?] love about” him is the fact that he is either an idiot, a liar, or delusional. Although Stinchfield was correct in asserting that “This is what you get with” Trump. Indeed, he is a man who fights back – against windmills that cause cancer, and other flagrant figments of his diseased imagination. And the only people that Trump is “sticking it” to are slobbering sycophants like Stinchfield and his dimwitted cult followers.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Trump Spokeswoman Posts Racist Attack on Chair of the January 6th Insurrection Committee

Posted by on October 5, 2021 at 5:23 pm. 4 Comments :

It’s been nine months since Donald Trump’s insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutional duty to certifying the presidential election. Their violent and deadly assault failed to achieve their goal of subverting democracy, but it sparked a treasonous revolt that continues to this day.

Donald Trump Insurrection

Trump has still never conceded his loss to President Biden. And his cult followers still harbor delusions that he will be reinstated to his throne, despite having no evidence of any electoral irregularities and no legal pathway to that end. It’s a dangerous fantasy that led directly to the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C. And Trump is continuing to fuel the seditionist fires.

On Tuesday morning, Trump’s spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban), posted a tweet with a link to an article (in fact, she posted it three times) whose headline read “Jan. 6 commission chairman once sympathized with black secessionist group that killed cops.” Both the headline and the article itself where dishonest, racist, and intended to malign Rep. Bennie Thompson who is the chairman of both the Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. The article by John Solomon began by stating that…

“Fifty years ago as a Mississippi alderman, Bennie Thompson defended the Republic of New Africa and participated in a news conference blaming cops for the group’s violence even as FBI saw group as waging ‘guerrilla warfare.'”

Fifty years ago? That’s how far back Solomon had to dig to find something that he could warp into a pseudo-scandal. Solomon implies that Thompson was somehow affiliated with the Republic of New Africa (RNA), a separatist organization founded in 1968. But Thompson was neither a member, nor a legal representative. He was simply a local elected official who made a rather uncontroversial statement with regard to a police incident. Thompson said that…

“My utmost concern in this matter is to see that people who reside or pass through the town of Bolton,[MS] are treated fairly and given every opportunity afforded them by law. […] My position is that people are entitled to live as they choose, so long as they are law abiding and peaceful.”

Thompson’s explicit reference to being “law abiding and peaceful” didn’t stop Solomon from associating him with every allegation of criminal activity by the RNA. That’s how Solomon works. He is a disgraced propagandist who was even too disreputable for Fox News, who ditched him last year. The network warned their “news” staff that Solomon lacked credibility and engaged in disinformation campaigns. Solomon was also sent packing by The Hill, who said that he had published misleading columns. In some of those columns he was found to have been clandestinely collaborating with a notoriously untrustworthy source, Rudy Giuliani.

Solomon’s article had a single purpose: to personally vilify the Chairman of the Select Committee so that he could later dismiss the Committee’s work. And he chose to pursue that goal by slandering a well respected Black legislative leader with allusions to past crimes that he had nothing to do with.

Then, along comes Trump and his PR flack to hype the fake scandal. Because the last thing that any of these cretins want is for the truth to come out about what happened on January 6th and who was responsible. But with tactics like this they are only revealing how scared they are of the justice that awaits them.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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